In The Wake Of Different Sensations

Question: People who begin to study the integral method not only enter into positive states, but also negative states. Is it compulsory to pass through these states or is it possible to get along without them?

Answer: I think that it is not necessary to evade them, but rather, we should investigate them properly because it is our nature that is discovered in this way in that it shows itself more prominently and so we will see what we must transcend.

In feeling the negative states, the person needs to find pleasure like an athlete who overcomes an obstacle through overcoming pain. Feeling the result of overcoming the obstacle is more important to him than feeling the pain. He goes toward this consciously! In other words, the importance of the goal of personal change rises in value due to those unpleasant sensations that we experience on our way.

Even though we don’t need to talk in advance about sensations like these all the time, we need to try to obscure them all the time (not to annihilate, but to obscure), and immediately let people understand that this is how we learn about ourselves, our essence, and then rapidly put people into a workshop, a discussion.

After that, it is necessary to give them homework to write down all their negative and positive sensations and to bring these with them to the next lesson. Sort through the pages and the most important findings are brought into the workshop because what he feels, all the others partially feel it too. So, they will now discuss these states: “What is it? What is it for? What does this give me in life? Could it be better if I didn’t feel it, or is it preferable to feel it?” After all, when an illness goes away, it is sometimes felt much more strongly than when you are just beginning to get sick and don’t feel anything, until it passes through the latent period.

Therefore, it is necessary that people feel all the problems deeply and from personal experience reach some kind of a solution among them. The guide conducts their conversation, gives the subject for discussion, and during the discussion they need to draw their own conclusions, and then this truly will be their perception, their discovery, and their attainment! It is as if they discover a new law of nature themselves, a new mutual cooperation—what was before, it could be that not one of them saw it—and now they are the first ones in the world to see this together.

These are very serious matters! It is necessary to write them down, to work, to create booklets gathered from the conversations in workshops so that others can arrange the same discussions, to learn from them, and supplement them. So, then gradually, the method of integral education will be made more and more refined and effective.
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From Kab TV’s “Through Time” 9/17/13

In The First Spiritual Degree

Now when we are engaged in special dissemination among the general public in all the countries in the world, I’d like to make a very serious comment.

The fact is that our movement in the wide circles of society must pursue the only goal—the unity between us—so that we feel close inner cohesion, the need for each other.

If this condition is met, then going outside is positive, necessary, and effective. If going outside divides us, cools us down, pulls us apart, then we need to stop it because the most important thing for us is to create such a center of the group where we begin to feel the Creator; otherwise, there is no point in dissemination. Indeed, we can reach the masses only if we organize the spiritual vessel, the spiritual Kli, the place where theCreator is revealed.

For years we have been studying, and as a result of these studies, working between ourselves and dissemination, moreover, quite passively, focused mainly on the dissemination of our material online, we worked within ourselves. Now, we have reached a certain point of saturation and cannot move further. We cannot compress ourselves so that mutual connection is formed within ourselves in which some resemblance to the Creator is manifested, that is, rising above our egoism.

The problem arises: How can we unite? That is why we go out to the masses. After all, our main goal is unity, achieving Arvut (mutual guarantee), such adhesion in the group that will lead us to the minimal similarity to the Creator on the first spiritual level.

We are still on the ground, raising our foot, wanting to go up to the first spiritual degree, but we cannot; we need a push. In order to be pushed from behind, we go out to the wide circles of society, libraries, schools, universities, numerous educational and other institutions and disseminate in breadth. We strive to get from the masses their desires to overcome all sorts of crises that now are so rapidly developing in the world.

So, we should not forget that the most important thing is to create the center of the group in which we expect the manifestation of the Creator. This is the first rung of the ladder; His first manifestation among us, in us.

Whatever we do, in whatever form we are engaged in external dissemination using various opportunities, we always have to sort out every action and analyze it in terms of its usefulness for overall unity. Only then can we make a decision as to whether it is worthwhile to do something or not. The inner unity should determine our going out to the world: its kind, style, opportunities, and the people who will be engaged in this or that activity.
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From a Talk About the Dissemination 10/17/13

How Do You Turn Enemies into Friends

Question: How do we imagine “impure forces” (Klipot)?

Answer: Imagine that there are “good” people who always praise you and give you presents and then there are “bad” people who always punish you and cause you problems.

Now the question is who really does good to you and who harms you? It all depends on the goal you are trying to achieve.

Those who hurt you reveal the truth to you, showing you that you have properties that they despise. By doing this, they show you the source of evil, the reason for their hatred of you. When you correct this reason, you will suddenly see these hostile forces become your friends!

So do you think they were good or bad initially? They must have been good!

And those people, who only gave you gifts and always praised you, never gave you a chance to correct anything in you. They only satisfied your egoism, so it turns out that they are your enemies. Right?

It is understandable that everyone only wants to be around “good” people who praise us, but these good people are ruining the world! And it is written in The Zohar: “All their mercy is egoistic, for their own sake.”

We need to love the Klipot, value the Pharaoh! All our haters show us our uncorrected parts. And if we see the corrections we can make with their help, we should be grateful to them.

Our entire work in upbringing and  education is to figure out the properties that can be corrected and to grow by doing this.

Hatred of Klipot is childhood, the “small state” (Katnut)! One needs to see their source, after all, the Upper Light goes through them, through our corrupt desires, and shows these defects to us from the side in the form of foreign, impure forces (Klipot). This is called the “visible flaw.”

Essentially, I am looking at myself in the mirror and seeing my face, which I do not like! So who do I blame, the mirror or myself? The Klipa is our mirror. All the faults that it shows us are inside us (just like the rest of the world we see around us).

All the catastrophes and problems that we encounter, from the smallest to the largest, are a projection of our inner properties.

This is why it is impossible to be without the Klipot! Without them we would not be able to attain anything, we would not feel or distinguish anything. Where would we begin the correction if not with the Klipot?

It is impossible to correct a defect without having revealed its cause. And the role of theKlipot is to show us our defects. This is the most necessary thing for us! We know that one can only reach the fruit through the peel.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

Living Mind Or A Computer?

Question: Why did the Creator need such a complicated process of correction of creation so the creation itself acts on its own, unless it was impossible to correct everything at once from the beginning?

Answer: The Creator does not need our actions, He wants you to understand something and advance on your own until you attain thegoal. The Creator made all of that right away; the entire distribution of worlds from above down and then the ascent back up, only you need this! The Creator cannot give you everything that you will receive in the end right away. You need to go through all the stages of development: 0-1-2-3-4, until you begin to perceive, understand, and become like Him.

Attainment means knowing the phenomenon “in its root” and its consequences. You must understand the whole of creation throughout the complex, and this can only be done gradually, learning from opposites every step of the way, initially and constantly revealing the lack and then the fulfillment, understanding and the lack of it, and good and bad sensations. This is the only way the strings of the soul develop in you.

I understand that you want everything right away, but this is impossible. Is it possible to take a child and turn him into a professor in one day? A sage is someone who throughout life has observed its arrangement, as one thing develops from another, as all things are connected with one another. He gradually became smarter until finally becoming wise!

But if he were crammed with all this information at once, he would simply have become a “computer” working according to the program embedded in it. But when this information is gradually and steadily imprinted on matter that can feel good and evil, truth and falsehood, emptiness and fulfillment, we will get a live “mind” instead of a computer.

This is the entire difference! Because he will find out the difference between Light and darkness, he will learn through this, he will acquire a desire; he himself will know what he wants to understand and feel! Every piece of data that you load into the computer must be preceded by your desire that you want to receive it, and you will know which empty fields and lack of understanding you need to fill. The computer itself should respond, and then it will turn into man…
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/5/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

The Secret Of The Integral System

Question: People don’t understand what holds them in integral groups. They ask, “What is the catch?”

Answer: There is no trick, since, after all, we pull them into connection with the universe, with the world, with nature. Nature is united, harmonious, and we show them how to reach this harmony. When they reach harmonious connection between themselves and with the environment, they are included within its sphere, they begin to feel its breath. The whole “trick” is in this, that we suit them to the integrality with nature. And what next?

Next, we continue to develop until reaching the state when we begin to feel how everything around us breathes, how everything is saturated with one thought that is called the “plan of Creation.” This is what we will reach.

Nature is clever! Look at what a harmonious computer we exist in! There is no trap here, only the discovery of the meaning of humanity which is absolutely realistic, built solely so that we become correctly connected with others, which fills them in a mutual manner and supports the only law, “To become one single nature.” It is not an ecological game, of the “greens,” but a rise to the level of Adam (man – human).

In this way we will begin to grow more and more in that we are filled with the feeling of boundless happiness. We will no longer feel that we are bound by the framework of our body.

By our beginning to improve the body and even the soul, and by rising even higher, we begin to feel that we acquire completely different possibilities. It is specifically in the mutual connection between us that we discover within us spaces that are filled with the sensation of happiness.
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From Kab TV’s “Through Time” 10/20/13

On the Threshold of a New World

Question: Why does the Creator punish us even before we begin to understand anything? Is this a way to treat an “unwise” child?

Answer: It is impossible to develop otherwise. Why don’t you get angry that a child grows so slowly and gets so many bumps and bruises and causes us so many problems a long the way? This is the only way to analyze your Kelim, desires.

Pain and worries accompany us throughout life, this is the clarification and nothing can be done.

And when we finally reach spiritual development, come to the group and we want to reveal the spiritual world, the Creator, in it, look how much confusion there is in the beginning: We drag with us all the previously acquired religious myths and stereotypes about spirituality and we lack any understanding of what it is.

Why is it made this way? Why are we not just given an exact map with directions so we can move with confidence and peace?

But we do not understand the higher program: Every step where you stumble is a place for analysis. You become confused and you keep turning around the same place, as if returning to the same place every time, but it is not the same thing, the analysis is different every time.

And mankind in general is wandering in the dark, confused by all sorts of beliefs and notions. How much more time will it take to bring them out of this mess? There is nothing that can be done; such is the path of development.

But now, in the next few years, very large and rapid changes will occur. We think that the world will keep developing at the same rate as before, but we are not taking globalization into consideration. We no longer have some individual small laws affecting every one of the “seventy nations,” now we have one common law for everyone. A new system of governance is being revealed.

This is why the world is becoming global. It is uniting through this single law, this force, and it is facing drastic changes. We will be taking very big steps as we advance.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/8/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam

What Does It Mean To Be The Creator?

Question: You are saying that in the end every person must reveal the formula of balance with nature.

Does Kabbalah really want to turn every person into a research scientist, forcing each one to discover nature’s formulas?

Answer: But it is a very simple formula! Each of us is inside nature and strives towards comfort.

Balance is the solution to the equation, the discovery of the formula of ones most comfortable state, the kind of things I need like heat, humidity, food, shelter, family and children, a secure workplace and salary, etc. In our world this is what it is to attain balance with nature and satisfy all the desires.

But nature develops me so I this equilibrium would be constantly disturbed, and I need to keep trying to find it over and over as I advance.

We constantly look for balance. Even when people strive for power or pursue millions of dollars, they do this because they feel this need and they want to fulfill it, bring it to balance in order to calm down.

For this reason, the development that Kabbalah speaks about is the most normal and natural development for any person in this world. The only thing is that every person has a slightly individual formula for attaining this balance. Balance means that I feel so good that there is no way to feel any better!

When all the desires are corrected, in other words, when they are completely filled with whatever it is they want to be filled with, this is called the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun)!

I do not need to look for some far-fetched formula of nature! When I attain an absolutely comfortable state where I would not want to change absolutely anything, it means that I have discovered the common formula of balance with nature!

In other words, I reveal that I can be big and successful, and this form, where I now reveal myself, is called “the Creator” or nature. It is as if I were growing and growing and I finally grew up and became a king, and I see: Here is my castle, here is my army, and here are the people.

When a person feels that he has attained complete fulfillment, it means that he has discovered the formula of what it means to be the Creator.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/8/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam

A Tree That Tastes Like Apples

“Sanctity” (bestowal) hides behind the “impure forces” (Klipot).In order to attain it, one needs to overcome them, and in order to do this, one needs to become smart, understanding, sensitive, and strong.

If you have the instruments (Kelim) to work with whatever is hiding inside the skin (Klipa), then you will be able to reach the fruit through it.

There were no impure forces, “skin” (Klipot), before Adam’s lapse from virtue. It is said that the entire tree tasted like apples! You could bite the trunk, and it was sweet like an apple, tasted just the same… This is a sign that it was impossible to discover a defective place that needs correction!

This is why Adam had to sin, to reveal the sin. After all, the sin already existed; we do not create anything new, but merely discovering the difference between “existence from absence” (Yesh Mi Ayin) and “existence from existence” (Yesh Mi Yesh), the creation and the Creator, to the extent of the full depth of the last, fourth level.

This is the difference between being an animal and being a man! This is the only thing that shows us the Klipot.

This is called “help against you.” Just think, someone is standing right across from you and constantly helps you with absolutely everything!
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot