An Intensive Inquiry

Question: How do I manage my states? Do they develop automatically or can I evoke them?

Answer: I manage my states when I am with the friends sitting in a circle with them and discussing different problems and options regarding the connections between us: When does the ego help us and when does it distract us? How can we attract the attributes of bestowal and love, connection, mutual guarantee, and so on?

When we discuss these issues, I am involuntarily in different contrasting states, such as “I don’t want to listen to a friend, but I have to listen to him, “he is higher or lower than me,” “I agree with his answer or disagree,” and so on. Why do I agree with him? It may be because I simply like him, but someone else not, so I don’t want to listen to him and I didn’t even hear what he had to say.

So, it isn’t just the process, but the issue itself, the words, and the interactions, everywhere at every level, when I overcome the egoism and the altruism. Eventually there is a revelation, an intensive clarification of these two opposing attributes inside me.

What is more, when I am in a discussion with all the friends, I first intensify my attributes and, second, I expand myself by absorbing them. Thus, a person develops in many aspects by the integration of and communication between the two opposing forces.
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From “A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 9/23/12

How To Work Irrespective Of The Result

Question: During the convention I feel that the group is a small part of something big. How can we keep this fire going in dissemination too? How can we not forget that there is a group and that there is something huge behind it and that it is the unity of the friends that fills our work with meaning?

Answer: During the convention we feel a great force; we look at the screens and see the friends from all over the world. With us there are hundreds of groups and thousands of people sitting alone who we don’t even know. Of course, it enables us to feel something, but we have to try to receive the fuel from something else—from advancing humanity towards the revelation.

You are actually asking how we can receive fuel. Of course, it is the impression from a big group that first fuels us; here everyone knows me and encourages me; everyone sees what I do, and together we want to change the world. In short, it is the power of egoism that is active here.

But later the scale of values changes in us. You exerted yourself, you acted, even egoistically, by wanting to bring your beliefs and outlook to the whole world and suddenly you discover that you have run out of fuel.

This is how the Reshimot (reminiscences) change. It is because there is nothing but that which can change. Our Reshimo is the only changeable parameter, the only factor that changes. And here it changes in order to allow you to work in a non egoistic manner, not wanting to impose your opinion on the world, to prove that you are right, and to take the helm.

The next Reshimo enables you to think more altruistically: “The head of the angle is not we and not me. Let no one know, not even myself, whether I achieve any results.” This approach is already closer to spirituality and that is the way you are advanced forward from Above.

More intensive support from the group is needed here. If you connect more strongly with the friends, you will feel that you have purer powers than before, “I really don’t care whether my work is fruitful. Just like sportsmen, I don’t need to see the result. I want to close my eyes and to act only in one direction, without checking the ‘inbox.’ I don’t care whom I have influenced and to what extent he has changed. I feel that I can bring something to the world, I tighten my connection with the friends and move outward, and there is nothing in response.”

So where can you get the energy from? After all, in a situation like this a person remains like an engine without fuel. He doesn’t have the driving force; he needs some response. Here he begins to demand internally: “I have to see myself in the force of bestowal!” It is like changing a conventional engine with an electric engine, switching from gasoline to electricity, to another form of energy. This is what you demand, “The desire to bestow must be revealed to me! If I cannot work within my desire to receive, I need the desire to bestow!”

Then you will get it.
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From the Convention in Italy, Day Three 9/30/12, Lesson 2

A Valve In The Heart

If we prepared for the descent, we could say now that we have done so much, that we prepared for it. But it turned out that it is stronger than us. We held on as much as we could with the power we built up in advance, and still, for a moment we couldn’t hold on and it happened. But we could already clarify our weak points and understand why it happened.

The Creator ”trips” us somewhere, but why? He may want to show us deficiencies on a different, more advanced level, more deeply in the creation. But we learned nothing and simply fell dead.

There is actually no ascent without a descent, so we have to remain loyal to one another, like cells in one body in which each cell is responsible for all the other cells and if all the other cells are not responsible for it, it will die.

It may be like an oxygen pipe between us. The pipe reaches me after it has passed through a thousand friends before, and what is more no one knows who they are exactly. Everyone can turn off the tap without anyone noticing and the oxygen will not reach me and so I will die.

The tap is our lack of attention, lack of desire. It can open the valve more widely or close it; it all depends on the friend’s desire with regard to me: Does he think about me and about the whole system? If he adds such a deficiency, the valve opens, and if he diminishes the deficiency and it disappears, the valve closes, clogs the pipe, and we all die.

Do you understand that everyone dies because of you? It is all because the valve in your heart is closed. Ask the Creator to help you, to become your partner if the friends are dead and cannot help you. Turn to the Creator for help like to another human being. At least He can be like a human being,

Question: Can we turn to the Creator like to a human being?

Answer: You are not afraid to curse Him are you? So why can’t you turn to Him like to another human being so that He will intervene and help you? Do you think it is forbidden?

Turn to Him and say: “I am asking You to help me! Let’s go to the group together and revive the dead so that they will be resurrected!” say it several times in your heart and you will see how helpful it is.

The Creator is ready to work with you and to cooperate with you in everything. There is nothing that prevents this. You can turn to Him at any moment, with any demand.

We know that the request from Him should go through the group since otherwise it will not be heard, but it is when the group is ready to respond to you and work mutually with you. If you have no choice, turn directly to the Creator in order to go with him to Pharaoh. Don’t wait for those who are busy with the pots full of meat and who are full of the onions and the garlic.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/24/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

Two Steps Away From The Gate

Question: This conventions seems to have opened a new door for us and everything that we do seems tasteless from here, as if we have lost all its previous juiciness.

Answer: So why haven’t you asked for it?! You are constantly saying: “We! We!” so why didn’t you all ask together?!

Question: I feel that this is a new state in which I still don’t know how to ask. It is as if we’ve touched something, but we haven’t processed it enough yet so that we can actually fulfill it.

Answer: You are not asked to put your request in nice elaborate words. A father understands a simple cry.

Question: So why haven’t we asked?

Answer: Because you cannot unite and support one another. There are still different calculations that control you: shame, lack of readiness; in short, there is no true decisiveness yet, when you simply break through without any calculations.

Question: Where does the shame that doesn’t let me break through come from? We speak so much about closeness and unity, but I know that there are still locks in my heart, limitations that dictate what is allowed and what is forbidden.

Answer: It is because the Creator is still far from you; at the moment you don’t feel that He is close. You have to try harder to imagine Him in the form of the unity of the group, which is actually what we have started this week. The “Creator” is the essence of the outcome of our unity. This is what we have to pray for and turn to.

In any case, we need an outcry, a prayer, a request. that is free of any calculations. If you cannot reach that it means that you are still far from the Creator or that the Creator is far from you.

But all the complaints are also justified and helpful. The more you complain the better. They will lead to the right and accurate calculation.

I think that this time we’ve taken a big step forward. It isn’t just a step; we’ve actually stepped inside and delved into clarifications, opening our hearts wide, although we haven’t scraped off its peel wiith an “iron brush.” It is indeed a good clarification: we have begun to sense, to feel, where this unity actually is, how we discover the AHP of the upper, a higher level, how we identify it, how do we all adhere to it so that it will raise us, and what is the relationship we have with it.

We’ve been through many things that relate to connection and unity, and although they seem very sublime, distant, and abstract, they will gradually come together in our feeling. Then it will be easier for us to turn to them and to fulfill them.

I think that this convention is very deep and has brought us the deepest most intensive clarification. It is meant for people who are actually only two steps away from entering spirituality. I am very happy that thanks to the feeling in the group here and throughout the world I can speak in a way I never have before.

Question: What should the right request be?

Answer: “Open the gate for us!”

It is at the time you feel that all the roads are blocked, that all the gates are locked, that you cry out. This is the 50^th gate, the desirable state we spoke about and read so much about. Now you are feeling it in practice, and only the collective prayer is missing, the pressure, the persistence. Try, make an effort, it will come…
I am very happy about the states we have been through.
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From the Convention of Unity, Day Two 9/21/12, Lesson 4 

Plead For The Resurrection Of The Dead

A very strong congress has just ended; we feel tired, indifferent, sleepy, as if a heavy cloud embraces us and converts us into pessimistic elderly people.
The Creator took our egoistic desire away, the fuel that pulled us ahead. Before, we were burning with desire; we strived to get spiritual rewards and were ready to fight to attain spirituality. Each one of us considered himself a hero, although we felt like “supermen” only because our egoism was quite “hot” and was pushing us towards new achievements.

The Creator wants to help us; thus, He takes our egoism away so that we replace it by another power. Now, instead of being pushed from behind, we get inspired by the greatness of the goal and are hauled forward by it.

Now, we really have an opportunity to move ahead, but instead we complain that we do not have any energy or desire any more. Do you remember how “hot” and huge your desire was? However, it was not yours; it was given to you from Above. You were simply pushed from Above, and as a result brought to the group of Kabbalists.

At this time, your desire disappeared and you think that it’s better to leave the group and drop Kabbalah since it doesn’t attract you any longer. Do you really think that if it doesn’t appeal to you any more, it means that there is something wrong with Kabbalah? Everybody judges to the extent of their own corruptness. It’s obvious that without motivation one cannot advance. Even machines cannot work without fuel.

One should turn to the group, the books, and the study; he should demand help from them! Plead to the Creator!

If you have no power for such kind of appeal, it means that you experience deficiency of the general force, mutual guarantee. If there are friends of yours who lost their “life-force,” you should at least cry for them; it’s as if you are at their funeral; mourn over the wonderful friends that you lost! Look at the heavy tombstones that lie on their chests, that is, the stony hearts that they cannot rid themselves of.

At some point they were shining with a desire, but now we can only cry for them. Soon, you yourself will descend into the same pit. However, if we are ready to help each other before it happens, we’ll be able to rise from any kind of downfall. Not only will we be able to overcome our indifference, we will cope with genuine hatred should it arise among us.

Only the power of the group can initiate a desire out of “thin air.” At this time, we don’t have this kind of desire, nor can it emerge from anywhere. However, we have to “ignite” it artificially, as if we are starting a new business and advertise our new goods. It should become our common spiritual business; as a result, it will trigger such a strong need in us that we will simply be “burning” with desire. Underneath this desire, there can be nothing at all!

People are waiting all night long at the doorsteps of the stores to buy a 5th generation iPhone. Learn how to advertise your “goods” by escalating artificial needs. After all, the goal that we pursue also seems “artificial” to our egoism.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/24/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

From Egoism To Love Is One Stop Upward

The only means for spiritual advancement is working in the group, thanks to which we clarify whether we want to connect with one another. Eventually we discover that we cannot connect and don’t even want to and totally reject the mutual connection.

Our whole nature rebels against such a connection. We are ready to put up with anything except that. There are relationships that we enjoy and we want them, but a connection with the friends, a mutual connection in which every individual serves the general—our heart will never agree to that.

Only such a mutual relationship is called “connection,” in which everyone is like a component in an electric circuit, or in an engine. So in every whole system, every component is part of the system and has to perform his job and keep his obligations to the other parts.

In order to do that, we need to annul the ego. People whose ego isn’t so developed are ready to be with others and it is easy for them to be close, to feel one another, to be friends. However, the more a person develops, the more his ego grows and the more difficult he finds it to connect with others. He doesn’t feel that he has friends at all.

Once, even several decades ago, people felt close to one another, but today everyone is by himself. We don’t even notice how everyone is closed up in his niche. We hide behind the computer screen and call it a relationship. We feel better this way, more comfortable! All of humanity is like that now.

There are different methods to make people connect, which are mainly based on Nazism, fascism, and fundamentalism. These methods are meant to evoke the feeling of solidarity in the masses. To some extent it stops their psychological development and so it is easier to manage them.

But in spiritual development on the other hand, there are two opposing approaches that are integrated. On the one hand, a person has to be very developed, a great individualist. Everyone must feel that he is totally isolated and that he doesn’t belong to anyone else. It is so prominent that is seems as if he doesn’t belong to this world.

On the other hand, we are required to connect so powerfully that everyone should totally annul himself against his desire to annul others. It is the most unrealistic demand that can possibly be in our world, and it is against the trend of human development. After all, as the ego develops people become increasingly more detached from one another. Everyone draws away from others and hides behind his computer, his cell phone, or at home.

Everyone lives in a niche he has created for himself. Suddenly he is required to do the opposite: to leave his niche and connect in his heart and soul. What is more, we have to do this not by being forced, but to want it ourselves! After all, we discover that this unity is the highest value.

There is no advantage in it, but this is where the truth lies. So it is very hard to approach the values of bestowal and love, if internally in our feelings we don’t find a justification for it.

But this is the principle according to which the spiritual world works! In order to acquire these values, which are totally opposite from our current values, we have to recruit the help of the upper force so that it will influence us and change us.

We have to ask for that during the study. After all, we study the actions that take place on a higher level—actions of bestowal, love, and connection—working on the systems of the souls. It isn’t a mechanical system that is emotionless, but a live system in which the mind and the feelings operate according to the law of mutual guarantee.

We study about the relations between our desires, which are in mutual bestowal, and we want to resemble them, which means to study them, to connect to them and to enter the same state. Thus, we draw ourselves to this state and spur the influence of the force called the Light that Reforms.

We have to think and study about these upper states, about how our egoistic desires operate loyally in mutual bestowal.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/19/12, The Zohar

A Prayer For The Unattainable

The difference between our actions is only in whether they lead to the Creator or not. We cannot reveal the Creator if everyone is not connected first, a connection without any differences, for the general wellbeing of everyone.

I should feel that I don’t exist anymore as an individual; I only perform these actions and forget about myself. I don’t even see or know what I have done. I don’t need that, since otherwise I can start enjoying my merits and look for ways to justify myself.

This reflects what bestowal is to some extent. Of course, it is impossible to reach such attributes. When we clarify it more to ourselves, we discover that it is unattainable and gradually begin to realize that it has to come to us from somewhere on the outside.

The more we try the more we see that we cannot do that, and so it becomes clearer that only the upper force can help us, something unreal. Then we demand that it will happen. This is already a prayer.
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From a Talk before the Unity Convention 9/20/12

How To Win In The Struggle With Yourself?

A person fights cruel battles on the way to achieving the goal of creation, attacks and struggles with problems. It is so hard to attain this goal and in fact, it is practically impossible since it is against our nature. We cannot transcend nature; we don’t have the powers for that.

A person can only work in the range of the opportunities he was given. The goal we are seeking, trying to discover the spiritual world and reach equivalence of form with the Creator, is above us and is opposite from our attributes, so a person simply cannot do it.

Therefore, Rabash says that a united group of people should get together, in one place, under the leadership of one man, under the influence from Above, from the teacher, the Creator, the group, and all its members. Only then will we be able to take any steps to change our nature.

It isn’t so bad that we cannot change ourselves. The problem is that despite everything, we are constantly trying to reach the goal by ourselves: we get angry, we pressure, and operate as we are used to in this world—attacking again and again, making a collective effort. We think that we will fight and win.

But we cannot succeed and win this way. Eventually we have to reach a state in which we really want the desired goal, but we cannot attain it. This is the recognition we should come to.

We have to fight; we have to try, but the more we tell each other that we need help from Above, the less energy we will waste in vain.

Why should we fight in vain against this monster, which is our egoistic nature? We will not be able to beat the ego by our own powers since they also stem from the same ego. It is impossible to beat the ego with egoistic powers; a person is deceiving himself!

This is why we were given a group. A person begins to understand that as long as he fights alone, he will stay in the same system, in one vessel, in his own cocoon. He will spin around himself like a dog chasing his own tail and will never break out of this closed circle.

If he understands this, he begins to look for a group. It may be that he has been in the group for a long time, but isn’t aware that this is an environment that was given to him to work in. He thought that these are just friends with whom he studies and dines with as is accepted in our world. But eventually he despairs of his own powers and understands that he needs help from Above.

He doesn’t see the Creator and he doesn’t know how to turn to Him. He doesn’t know whether the Creator hears his requests or not, and whether He responds. Perhaps he is just shouting in the desert, wasting his efforts and tormenting his heart. But he doesn’t feel that it leads to any results.

When he understands that he is lost without the friends’ support, he really needs a group.

Otherwise nothing will help him and he will end his life like the animal he was born. From that moment on he begins to look at his environment differently. He understands that it was given to him for a reason, and that the Creator has brought him to his good fate and told him “take it!”
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From the Talk Dedicated to the Memorial Day of Rabash 9/20/12