Bina: Entering Adult Life

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Item 53: After he purifies the animate part of his will to receive, and turns it into a will to bestow, “until He who knows all mysteries will testify that he will not turn back to folly”…

What supports a person if not the Light that breathes life into him? Without Light, the opposite form, “existence from absence” could not exist either.

Bina, which is present between all Sefirot, is the turning point, the point of transformation. At the degree of Bina a person purifies himself from the receiving desire and then once again begins using this desire, but already with the intention for the sake of bestowal. If until now, a person constantly fought the receiving desire, now he turns to it for help.

Thus, at the stage of Bina, a person acquires support from the Upper Light, which lets him turn his desire into a partner.

The degree of Bina is a transition from childhood to adulthood. Until now a person was corrected in relation to what is more important for him. He rose above egoism again and again, preferring the Creator over it. But now that he has acquired the degree of Bina, the Light firmly holds him on that degree and a person will no longer return to his folly, will not fall into the bondage of the receiving desire. This “promise” is given to him from above, being the “testimony of He who knows all mysteries.”

That is when a person receives the permission and capabilities of working with his desire in a new way – by receiving for the sake of bestowal. Previously I couldn’t even look at this “bait.” I just turned away, trying to stay as far away from it as possible, until I rose to the level of Bina. Here I receive the Creator’s support and guarantee – He testifies that nothing bad will happen to me. Then I carefully look back on Malchut, looking for a chance to turn her into bestowal, with the help of the Creator, who constantly keeps me from falling.

This transition point from altruistic bestowal to altruistic reception is very important. Here a person needs a covenant with the Creator, firmer support from Him. After all, he will have to work with egoism for the sake of bestowal…
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/1/12, “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”

A Light That Is Brought Closer By The Group’s Telescope

It is important to clarify exactly how we can change our desire to receive under the influence of the Light so that we will not waste our powers in vain. All we can do is to hasten the pace of our development by using the environment as a magnifying glass that brings the influence of the Light closer to us. This is actually the only thing we can do and the only thing we need.

By starting to work in a group, we learn to focus this telescope: We bring together all the rays of the Light that Reforms so that they will go exactly through the center of the group and will be focused exactly on our desire to receive. Then the desire to receive will be changed by the Light that Reforms.

We want to learn how this is done: how this ray of Light that goes through the magnifying glass grows, concentrates and is intensified, and then falls on the desire to receive and puts it through four phases. Then we will see how changes begin to take place in the desire to receive and how it becomes the opposite of what it was initially. A person begins to live not inside himself, but to rise above his desire, above the restriction and the Masach (screen) towards the Returning Light, towards bestowal, instead of receiving, and thus reaches correction.

This work in hastening the development of our desire by the Light that Reforms actually provides us with the power to understand and to attain the whole system. Although it is only the hastening of a process, it is in it that we discover all the means and all the details of creation and the process of its development. It is because in every stage that we go through, we have to orient the group differently.

So the focus through this magnifying glass constantly changes and becomes the opposite of what it was before, depending on the new external and internal conditions. We are constantly changing the influence of the group on us, and we change it with regard to the Light, with regard to the Creator. Eventually we build a new system inside us, above our desire to receive. The group becomes my world. Instead of a tiny point of desire, I receive a whole world, the enormous system of the world of Ein Sof (Infinity).

It is thanks to the desire we have that we begin to attain this system called the “group,” an infinite system in its finite form, and thus receive the means that raises us above ourdesire to receive.

The whole level of bestowal is called “self-sacrifice.” It means that a person has totally detached himself from his desire to receive, which means that he “sacrifices himself.” Of course, the whole correction is done by the Light, and we only have to adjust and to focus its influence on us through the environment, to connect these three components like a gun sight, so that they are all arranged in one straight line.

Then we will have no more doubts that we have to get close to the Light’s nature and so we imagine the society this way and want the Light to influence us through it. Eventually all these components become one whole.

The level of love is revealed after the level of self-sacrifice. Then a person understands what the goal of creation called “to do good to His created beings” means.

We gradually rise by keeping a certain condition and thanks to this we discover a little more understanding as to the Creator’s intention regarding the creation. Thus we advance: First there is the correction of the vessels by the Light that Reforms and then we attain the thought of creation.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/26/12, Shamati #219

The Group Is Not A Means, The Group Is The Creator

Question: How can I determine that The Zohar is influencing me?

Answer: The signs appear when I begin to feel how important the group becomes for me, how essential the concern for the friends, for their existence, and the connection with them become for me—just like the goal itself, since it is by this means that we attain the goal.

This means that there is no goal that is revealed within the means as we may think now. After all, the Creator (Boreh) is “Come and See” (Bo – reh). The right order of the connection between the souls, which we discover, is the Creator’s image.

This means that the group is not the means for the revelation of the Creator. The group itself becomes the Creator. It is revealed as “He and His name are one,” in adhesion with one another, where it is impossible distinguish between them.

And there, we have no way to differentiate between “I” and the “group.” It is such unity that you melt into it and you cease to exist there. And the right order of the connection between us connects us to form a network and creates a schema of the upper worlds and turns everything into Malchut of Ein Sof (infinity). Accordingly, we ascend the levels of the revelation of the Light, the force of bestowal that flows within the system as an eternal stream of vitality and energy.

One cannot exist without the other since all the phenomena of the Light are the same vessels that operate this way from the inside. There is no Light that appears as something foreign in the system. On the contrary, the system itself begins to illuminate, as it says: “Darkness shall illuminate as the Light.” This is called Light. Nothing comes from the outside. It is the correct actions of the vessels that illuminate. There is no Light outside the vessel.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/30/12, The Zohar

Ari: The Beginning Of Ascent

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 8: There are not enough words to measure his holy work in our favor. The doors of attainment were locked and bolted, and he came and opened them for us. Thus, all who wish to enter the King’s palace need only purity and sanctity, and to go and bathe and shave their hair and wear clean clothes, to properly stand before the sublime Kingship.

You find a thirty-eight-year-old who subdued with his wisdom all his predecessors through the Genius and through all times. All the elders of the land, the gallant shepherds, friends and disciples of the Godly sage, the RAMAK, stood before him as disciples before the Rav.

All the sages of the generations following them to this day, none missing, have abandoned all the books and compositions that precede him, the Kabbalah of the RAMAK, the Kabbalah of The First and the Kabbalah of The Genius, blessed be the memory of them all. They have attached their spiritual life entirely and solely to his Holy Wisdom.

We should be grateful to the upper force that sent us these teachers. Having perceived, understood, and felt as one with the upper force, they tell us about it and pave the way by which we can also follow their steps at least in some way by implementing their teaching and preparing the way for others.

The Ari symbolizes the moment when humanity began to rise towards correction. That’s why his role is so important. Until then, all the ways were blocked, and the attainment of Kabbalists remained very limited. Sometimes, the feeling of it outweighed the understanding.

We don’t know exactly how it was or understand what exactly the Ari has done. Yes, he left books, he found the language; however, we are not yet aware of the greatness of what was done by him. By his spiritual work, a Kabbalist makes corrections in the whole system, and thus advances us to the stages of the revelation of the Creator to which we aspire. It’s not the books that we can read, but the fact that the Ari had prepared and brought the access to the spiritual world to us, to the Lights that lead us up along the spiritual paths. This is the work of the Kabbalist. The books in which he expressed this access are only a small companion to that which is open to our eyes.

All the subsequent Kabbalists are the students of the Ari. All of them, including us, are based on his legacy. The poem “The Tree of Life” and much more, all this stems from his great revelation. Baal HaSulam writes of his great predecessors Rabbi Akiva, Rashbi, and others who revealed the spiritual world in a secret and limited form.

There was no language as the vessels/desires were not ready. Of course, this depends on the generation in which a Kabbalist acts, and yet the greatness of the Ari is that he began correction and opened the path for us. He is special, and we should be thankful that we have such a mentor. Let’s hope that we will be able to go his way, leaving behind us those paths along which thousands rush forward to give pleasure to the Creator, waiting for all of us in His palace.
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From the Conversation During the Meal Commemorating the Death of the Ari, 7/25/12

Love That Covers All Transgressions

Question: The integral education courses for couples give me hope that by going through this process and building a new man within me, I will correct not only the relationships within my family, but also all the connections in the system and achieve success in every way. After all, the system of family ties will become the school through which I will be developing. Are there any differences in how this process takes place in a man and a woman?

Answer: It turns out that we should keep the family together because through it we can achieve success in life. We not only correct the relations within the family, but also obtain an additional benefit, as if this whole process has a higher purpose.

It’s not the problem of a married couple, but the global problem of corrupted connection between all of us, and we’ll have to solve it in some way. The relationships in the family may become the laboratory within which we can learn how to improve our relations with the world to succeed in everything.

There are some differences between how this process takes place in a man or a woman, but they are so internal that we can’t understand them now, everyone from his or her side, looking at the other. If we begin to delve into the psychology of the other and try to figure out what is going on inside another person, it will only confuse us. We don’t know what is really happening there.

We just need to acquire the correct approach that will allow us to build relationships with each other according to the principle: “Love covers all transgressions.” And this doesn’t mean that we want to hide the wrongdoings committed in relation to each other: our hatred, pride, ambition, carelessness, and disregard. We don’t hide anything.

But if I want to change something and build, I shouldn’t sink into mutual fights and blame of how much each of us is an egoist, meaning how bad he is and doesn’t notice his evil, but sees it in his partner. In fact, he doesn’t see another’s vices, but rather his own egoism, transferring it to his partner and recognizing his reflection in it.

Instead of distinguishing faults in myself, I see them in my spouse as if in a mirror. I don’t notice this in myself. It turns out that we need to develop a good, positive attitude, love, flexibility, attention, and a mature elevated approach in relation to the other. We need to agree in advance that it will be above all that we see with our egoistic eyesight.

“Love will cover all transgressions,” that is, I cover all the evils that I see with it. As a result of mutual exercises and workshops, I start to develop new good qualities in myself that before were dormant within me: sensitivity, agreement, consent, and ability to compromise.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 7/18/12

Connection Is Life

The “matter” of our desire is “dust,” and it doesn’t change. The only thing that changes is the level of connection between the particles of this “dust.” So first of all we have to perceive ourselves not just as the desire to receive. It is because this desire takes on 613 different special forms, and in each of them we want to enjoy only for ourselves.

This is quite clear: Everyone wants to enjoy something and this way separates and breaks apart the grain of their desire into 613 particles of self-enjoyment. Of course, no one can count this number and we use it as a figure of speech.

Then the work on our connection with other people begins. These “crumbs” actually remain lifeless, as it says: “From dust you came and to dust you shall return.” What counts is the special connection among the particles, which gives them life.

Scientists cannot understand them and cannot turn the still nature into life. They try to use electric discharge and other means, but a person cannot do such a thing. It isn’t alchemy; it is much more complex since the upper force has to be revealed in an actual form of life. A person can do it only if he summons the action of the Light that Reforms. In order to turn the still nature into the vegetative level, the vegetative level into the animate level, and so on, there should be a portion of the Light that Reforms each time.

Therefore, by the connection among us our murky particles discover life in this connection. They remain in the desire to receive of the still nature, but the mutual connection they create among them, the mutual guarantee, the mutual bestowal, the network they want to build with the help of the Light, turns into the vegetative level and in it flow the forces of life that stem from the source of life, from the Creator. Then from the vegetative level they change to more complex forms of the animate and the speaking levels of nature.

We should understand the basic structure, the essence of this system: The particles remain the same desires that were created as existence from absence, and the connection among them is existence from existence.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/26/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

The Family As The Center Of The Universe

There isn’t a big difference between preparing a person for creating a correct marital relationship and improving relationships with the rest in general. It is only necessary to take into account that the correct system of relationships in the family is a wonderful opportunity to rise to the level of a new corrected world. We all will have to do this to succeed in everything else: in business, finance, respect, power, science, and to be able to see the world and establish connections in it, to succeed in small transactions and international trade.

The family is the smallest and is closest to a person, and it is a permanently functioning lab in which he can work, each time changing himself and observing what kind of world opens to him at that time. After all, by trying to change his relationship with his spouse, he immediately will change the conditions, like in a physical or chemical experiment, and see the results accordingly. Then, he changes the conditions and gets a new result.

This is a scientific experiment, and our relationships with each other are the parameters. The entire world was constructed originally in this form when it comes to evolution, progress, and the final form that we must achieve whether we want it or not.

Nature has a program and a final goal. And apparently, that’s why there is the division of a small family, that is, a married couple and a wider family that includes their fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers from both sides, and all the other relatives. Then, an even wider circle follows, consisting of all our friends, and then the area where we live, the city, country, nation, and then the continent.

The entire world is divided into these concentric circles, like spreading waves, and they all come out and spread from the center, which is a couple. That is why, if we construct marital relationships correctly, we will be able to build all the other kinds of relationships. This will help us greatly in life.

If I know how to change myself and establish various new forms of relationship with my wife, and she reacts accordingly as my immediate environment, then I will learn how to work with the rest of the environment, at work and in all other places, to earn a good reciprocal relationship. This will ensure a person’s success in all the spheres where he functions.

In essence, this is the most important thing in life as it determines whether a person has money, honor, power, and overall success in life and health. It determines everything from the closest to the broadest social relationships in society, as well as in international relations between countries.

If we become new people who know how to control themselves correctly and attract a good attitude from others accordingly, we will not look so foolish, like children fighting in a sandbox. After all, countries and entire continents appear like this today. Then, a completely different picture will be revealed to us.

Thus, in fact, everything depends on how a person can change himself, and the most convenient and favorable change is possible if we take care of the family. If the spouses participating in the course of integral education will begin to work on their relationships and do the exercises, then they will solve any problems.

It is clear that we cannot eliminate all the problems in the world, considering the number of couples with whom we can work, because half the world is divorced or single people. However, married couples make up a sufficiently large number and have a huge impact on everyone else.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 7/18/12

Sacrificing Pride

After such a remarkable achievement when you managed to unite so much during my absence, you need to look at how to use these results, this connection. And here we must make a “sacrifice.”

Indeed, the obstacle may arise from two sides. Either we fall, despair, lose hope for the future, and feel the darkness in our desire to enjoy, or vice versa, we are glad of our strength, success, and attribute everything to ourselves. And this leads to more separation because it captivates us and veils our eyes so that people cannot see anything.

This is worse than despair. But in both situations, we need to learn how to use these extreme, polar states for advancement. A person must use two lines: the left and the right to come to the middle line.

This is a wonderful state, allowing us to feel everything “in the raw.” Self-love and pride live in everyone. And if we feel that we have achieved a new success, we must now attribute all that to the Creator. Not we, but He did this! He gave, and not we have achieved. He brought us to this feeling, and not we ourselves came to it.

The Creator acted in everything, as it is said: “I am the first, and I am the last!” If we analyze the results correctly, then we will come to greater adhesion, not disconnection. In our state today, this clarification is the most important thing.

It is good that we see and can go through this together and get valuable experience. I am glad that there was a situation that I had to leave, and you have succeeded in my absence due to the help from Above. Now, I can help you with advice from the side about how to use your inner state and to learn from it. The Creator’s help and mercy were manifested here. This is a great training and advancement.

However, we all need to beware of pride so that everything begins and ends with the Creator.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/26/12, Shamati #219