The Habit Of Giving Goodness

Question: On the whole, our mission is to change our intention from in order to receive to in order to bestow. Can we teach people to do that? Can we turn this into a habit by using pedagogical methods?

Answer: This is actually what integral education is about, about changing our intentions. On the whole, educations should deal only with intentions and should leave the desires untouched. Educating means to teach the art of bestowal, which is the art of placing an intention of bestowal on top of every desire

Question: But don’t we cultivate values in the form of different desires in children?

Answer: Children learn only by examples. They perceive and copy everything, including the way they walk and gesture. So education is about setting examples. The children reflect you, so you must first pay attention to yourself.

What is more, by your external examples, you convey and “transmit” your intentions to them. There is simply no other method to convey intentions. There is a connection that is erroneous since it is a connection in words. But external actions are for the benefit of the other; even if they are false and insincere, they still summon a response and a desire to repay goodness.

It says, “The hearts are attracted by actions,” which means the desires. We can get children to become used to it: At first I didn’t know, I didn’t think, I didn’t want to, but then I was taught and educated and now I cannot be any other way. Our parents taught us different habits in the same way that last for life. The body doesn’t understand and doesn’t accept other methods. “A habit becomes a second nature,” both for children and for grownups.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/13,”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Payment Here And Now

All our work is not to exert ourselves for a payment but to make the work the actual payment. This is our goal, to reach a state in which my exertion, my work, the chance to bestow upon the other and through him upon the Creator, will become the desired payment. In order to reach that I am ready to prepare all the possible means, since my correction depends on that.

Then we will stop feeling the past, the present and the future—time will disappear. It is because time is measured only according to deficiency and fulfillment. But if there is no deficiency and fulfillment, but everything is the same, everything is whole and complete, then I will stop feeling time.

If I don’t feel any difference in fulfillment—not here and not in greater distances, not in other times, and not in the relations between everyone—then, the whole world becomes only one great opportunity for me to exert myself, which is my payment at that point, not before that and not after that, but right now. And then all of reality becomes the simple white Light that fills all of reality.

For me everything is based on my exertion, but in it, I immediately discover bestowal and pleasure as the goal. Thus we rise above time, motion, and space, above the images and manners of this world, and exert ourselves only so that everything in the whole level ofAviut (thickness) is revealed, we will correct ourselves to such a state that we feel no more trouble but only pleasure from what we do.

It is the same in our world; if I enjoy a certain action, I don’t perceive it as painful, as an effort, but simply as a pleasure. Although the body may expend a lot of energy and calories performing this action, I will not feel that I am losing something and that I have to compensate myself for that, but will feel pleasure and fulfillment.

Here everything depends on how well a person understands that he and what is external to him, which means the other, are the same, whether he sees that the whole world belongs to him. Then he will not feel any exertion. It is because all the exertion is only in the relations between me and what is external to me when I have to do something outside myself and give to others in order to receive something from them in return. But if the whole world is one body, then the exertion disappears and so does the passage from me to others and from them to me.

All my fears, anxieties, insecurities, and sufferings disappear because they don’t exist in one body where everything is one. So all our work is to reach this feeling by the environment, by my efforts, by the Light that Reforms, that there is nothing outside myself. In the true perception of the reality there is only one state and one place. This place is called Shechina or Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity) and the one state is called adhesion.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

A Prayer Just For Oneself Harms

Baal HaSulam, “A Sage’s Fruit”: During a common prayer a person is prohibited to separate from the others and to ask for himself, even if he wants to bring pleasure to the Creator, but he is going to do it himself, and not with the others. After all, he who disconnects from society and asks for his own individual soul does not build it, but on the contrary, he damages his soul, by becoming the “proud man, with whom the Creator cannot be together.”

It’s not easy to overcome this difficult psychological problem. Our ego does not allow us to understand, to remember, to learn, and to adopt the rule that only by coming out of the boundaries of our body will we find the vessel of our soul. And everything that I psychologically see now as my “I” exists only in my fantasy so that I must cancel this thinking, annul myself, and see myself outside of it.

To accept this fact, this worldview, and to live with it, we need the strong support of the environment and studies and hard work in mutual guarantee. Any action of correction starts from this because every time more egoism is added to us, we have to work with this additional load in order to decide that, in spite of it, our vessel is above it.

These messages: “That which is hateful to you, don’t do to others” and “Love thy neighbor as thyself” seem to us simple rules of courtesy, “cultural” behavior, moral homilies. But no, we talk about an internal orientation that must exist in a person if he wants to find his inner part, his soul, and begin to correct it.

That is why the one who prays for himself not only does not advance in spirituality, but also causes great harm to himself because by this he cuts himself off from the others, worsening the breaking. Although it’s clear that negative actions are also inevitable because a person needs to come to the realization of evil before he understands and feels that this is an incorrect attitude.

But we are about to complete this work, and that is why we must understand and constantly reinforce the general opinion that spiritual existence, advancement, and the result of work are only in “We,” not in “me,” but only between us. This where we need to draw all our forces, trying to accustom ourselves to this view and replace ourselves with “We” in order to live inside the soul.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/13

The Power Of Thought

Question: If we draw a picture of a bright future, we seem to realize it, don’t we? As they say, “You want to be happy, be happy.”

Answer: In general, it is true because thoughts work. If we cultivate positive thoughts, then naturally we will create the positive field in the integral circles and everywhere else and will generate the positive forces of nature.

On the other hand, the field will also educate us. That is why it is desirable to be in a good mood all the time with good support, and then a relatively easy life is guaranteed.

We are in the absolute of nature and all sorts of data flows inside of us, which we perceive as the flow of life. That is why if we perceive the same data flowing through us now differently, life will seem quite different. It turns out that we ourselves regulate the quality of our life: what it is, good or bad, purposeful or meaningless.

You cannot imagine how much we affect each other! Even if a person does not go outside, he still affects others! It is the same unified field!
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From KabTV’s “Professional Secrets” 2/10/13

Attainment Here And Now

The Zohar is a unique quality, the upper Light that comes to correct us if we are ready for the correction and discover the place that needs to be corrected. This place is the connection between us, and since we are a result of the shattering, we have to try to connect in order to find the common attribute of bestowal between our vessels (desires).

When we discover that it doesn’t exist among us, we regret it and want the Light to influence us and turn the hatred and repulsion that occurs between us to the bestowal and mutual love we want to discover. So we will demand that the Light perform this work and turn us from those who are repulsed by one another to those who come closer and connect to one another and are united.

Then, to the extent and the intensity of the connection between us we attain, we will feel the common force of bestowal that is called Light of Hassadim. If we really want to make an effort to bestow upon one another in order to discover the Creator (which is already a different, more sublime kind of work), then in the same Light of Hassadim that is revealed among us, we will see what needs to be done, which special inner efforts, and in them we will discover the actual action of bestowal called “the revelation of the Creator to the created beings.” We will feel how we bestow and bring pleasure to the same force, to the same thought, to the same root. We have to try to attain all that here and now in the connection among us.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/13, The Zohar

Reaching The Other Is Reaching Yourself

Question: We often speak about the other; what is the desire to receive of the other?

Answer: All of reality that you can imagine is all about the other; in other words, it is everything that is outside the “self.” We should understand that the “self” is merely a spark and that’s all. Everything else is restricted and unimportant. You may eat, drink, and enjoy life, but only in order to sustain yourself. Everything is determined by one’s intention.

You must see yourself as a spark. Everything else is the animal level and you should provide what it needs, but all your attention should be aimed outwards, towards what is external to the spark. There, outside yourself, is your desire, your spiritual vessel, everything that you can only imagine: all of the still nature, the vegetative, the animal and the speaking levels.

You can manage automatically with the first three levels of your external desires (the still, vegetative, and animate levels) since there is no resistance on their part. But we have trouble with human nature since, in it, you see yourself, your essence, what you are. It’s like the atlas of your inner spiritual anatomy with all its components. Everything is in there, and still, it’s your desire, and so you should work with it.

It doesn’t mean that you have to correct others. Simply by worrying about them, you discover that they belong to you. This is why we disseminate. It’s as if you want to reach the others, to pass on the method of correction to them, but in order to get close to them you have to understand and to feel that it is your own “self.” Then, by really feeling yourself in them, you begin to understand what is written in the books of Kabbalists.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/13,”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Hold On To The Teacher

Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose” Go and ask a botanist how many phases the fruit undergoes from the time it becomes visible until it is completely ripe.

The problem is that I don’t see the purpose on my way to it; I don’t feel what the end of correction will be like. It isn’t by chance that it says, “Why don’t you show a fool a work that is half done?” In the middle of the way I cannot see the end.

It is clear to me that I am a fool since I don’t see the final wholeness, but what can I do about it? What can be demanded of me at this point? My life isn’t going well corporeally or spiritually, everything goes wrong in my life so why should I justify the Creator all of the sudden?

Wise people may know that the apple is destined to ripen, but I don’t see anything; it is bitter and that’s it.

This means that I need “the faith in sages,” the faith in those who have already been through this path; I have to adhere to a wise person, a teacher, to such an extent so that I can use his wholeness, only then will I be able to justify the creation and the Creator. But until then, I don’t hear what they say to me. Without the feeling of wholeness that is acquired from the upper, which means from the group and the teacher, I will always be a chip of wood floating in the sea, being thrown from side to side by the waves.

Question: But still, examples like the apple or the worm in the radish give us some clue?

Answer: They calm you down and help us quiet our conscience: “All this is not in vain; it cannot be that nature will not allow the apple to ripen. It means that all our sufferings will pay off…”

It is true, but this is already religion. People are fed these “conclusions” in order to calm them down: “Wait, soon you will reach Heaven…”

We see it differently: I want to attain wholeness now, and it is possible only by adhesion to the group and the teacher. I need the final result now since otherwise I will not make one step forward.

However, if I cannot use this means, I will not be able to advance. In Shamati, article 25, it says: Instead, there is only one counsel then, to cling to his teacher and to the books. This is called “From the mouth of books and from the mouth of authors.” Only by cleaving to them can he change his mind and will for the better. However, witty arguments will not help him change his mind, but only the remedy of Dvekut(adhesion), for this is a wondrous cure, as the Dvekut reforms him.

In other words, all the concepts upon which he builds his building, saying one must always follow in the path of the Creator, is founded in the Dvekut with his teacher. Thus, if he loses the foundation, then all the concepts are powerless, since they will now be lacking the foundation.

Hence, one must not rely on one’s own mind, but cleave once more to books and authors, for only that can help him, and no wit and intellect, as they are lifeless.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/13,”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

When The Light Meets The Reshimot

Question: Sometimes I am amazed by my own thoughts, where do they come from?

Answer: From the Creator.

Question: But when I think about my thoughts, it also comes from Him. So where am I actually?

Answer: I have to attribute everything to Him, all to one source, to the Light that pours from Above and evokes the Reshimot below. The meeting between the Light and theReshimot is what created the reality I am in. From this develops my sense of reality.

There are five levels of development in me and I want to attain my source, my Creator, which means that I have reached the fifth level. Then I want to attain what I am made of: the “Light” and the Reshimot.

In other words I ask about the meaning of life: Where does life come from? What for and how?

Usually this question comes as a result of unpleasant feelings, when I feel bad. In that case Kabbalists tell us that a person cannot understand and do anything by himself. First I have to gather and to build a system in which I will operate—both from the perspective of the Reshimot and from the perspective of the Light.

In this system, there is me and the other, and this allows me to evoke the Reshimot and the Light in him. Then I begin to resemble the Creator, as it says, “We shall know You from Your actions.”

Such a system is called a “group“.
[101648]From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/13, “The Peace”