A Place That Has Been Blessed By The Creator

Rabash, “What is the Advantage in the Work that is more than the Reward”: And the main preparation that is called exertion, that one has to annul himself, which means his self-ness…which means that he annuls the opinion of the landlords and yearns for the opinion of the Torah…as the sages said “the Torah exists only in those who kill themselves for it,” which means in self annulment, and there is no self domination here but the domination of the Creator. Then the Creator can say “every place that I shall mention.” Why can I mention My name? Since a person has annulled the domination of this place for the Creator, then “I shall come and bless you” can be fulfilled…which is the reception of theShechina.”

We already know this formula. A place is the desire to receive and also the Creator who fills this place, which means who fills the desire. We regard the vessel as a place and also call the Light, which fills it, a place. Everything depends on the phase to which we refer, whether it’s the desire or the one who created it and fills it.

It says, “Every place that I shall mention My name,” where the vessel is arranged according to the Creator’s name, HaVaYaH, with all its discernments, “I shall come and bless you.” The Light will come and correct the vessel, and will clear the right place for the Creator to be dressed.

It’s important to constantly measure to what extent we get closer or draw further away from the Light so that “there shall not be a strange god among you.” To what extent the concept of the Creator, the upper force, all the images that are depicted in our imagination, become the attribute of bestowal that is dressed in me. I can measure my state according to the attribute that is received and according to my attraction to it.

Of course, there are also opposite states like for and against, but it’s between these two directions, from these two inclinations that we advance. We have to check to what extent the concept of the Creator, which means the attribute of bestowal that is dressed in us, is more desirable each time and to what extent we hope for it, expect it, and are attracted to it. Until “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one” in the same place.

Now we perform exercises, trying to annul ourselves and to reach connection only between us, for the time being. As is says “from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator.” But if we also remember that we do it so that we will become one vessel in which we will be able to reveal the Creator one day, the upper Light influences us and connects and organizes us. Thus we will gradually feel the place that we are preparing for the revelation of the Creator, and will check whether it’s ready for the Upper Light, for the attribute of bestowal to be dressed in.

Then we will begin to identify movements in that place, and whether we are receiving the Creator or not, whether He enters us or whether He exits us. We will understand how we can draw Him closer or drive Him away from us if we want to ascend to a higher level in order to be more adapted to Him. After all, we have to draw away from Him between the levels.

When all these actions become familiar and are under our control, we gradually reach a greater equivalence of form with the Creator and He is gradually revealed to us. Thus we establish the place, and the connection between us begins. After the connection, a distance is created, which teaches us to return to connection despite the distance. Thus we learn to control these processes as much as we can and to monitor them.

This is only possible with God’s help, of course, with the help of the upper force. We mustn’t forget that He is the one who organizes and who manages everything, but with our active participation. We decide that we want to reach “make your desire His desire,” and thus establish the place.

We are already in the process of establishing the place, although we don’t really understand how to do it, which phases we go through, and what else we have to do. Actually, nothing is clear. It isn’t a formula with one unknown, but rather a formula with many unknowns that we have to solve. It’s an integral system in which everything is incorporated in everything and depends on everything.

But when this picture clears up, we see that it includes many details that are interconnected into one system, although in the meantime it’s very foggy and unclear. It’s impossible to hold on to this with our coarse, egoistic, primitive hands.

But by working in this world, we gradually begin to raise its components to the spiritual level and to insert into every attribute, every force, every event, into everything that happens, the Creator’s spirit, our spiritual yearning. Then we begin to see another picture behind the picture of this world. Behind this picture we discover a system of forces of the upper world. This is how we establish the place for the revelation of the Creator.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/14

Integral Education Of The Masses

We are chosen in the sense that we have received from Above the desire calling us to learn, yearning for connection with theCreator and the revelation of the Creator, which must occur before all of mankind.

It is already approaching the need for the next state; nature moves all of humanity forward. But people do not have and will not have their own desire. Thousands or a few millions will join us, but it is a tiny fraction of the whole of humanity. There will be no more.

The head is always so: it is small, like the microprocessor in a computer, but it defines and decides everything. The remaining parts realize this micro part.

So, we are this “chip.” We have to connect to the rest of humanity, begin to work with people, understand them, unite with them, find an appropriate vocabulary, create an appropriate dictionary, various images, examples, and develop suitable workshops, etc.

We teach small children all that grownups have, only at a low level in simple examples, simple actions. In order for people to feel their next desirable level in their connection, we have to encourage them, constantly attracting them with something.

We ourselves experience descents and ascents, and in accordance with this, we need to strengthen ourselves.

Others do not go through this. They constantly have to be attracted, embraced, warmed up, and served. We need to explain the method to them to the extent that they need to understand it in order to be connected to us and to rise with us. We take them as young children on the road, make them sit and drive them. The child is next to you, or even on your lap, or running nearby under your supervision because he does not know the way and does not even have to know it. You should not demand anything from people, except one thing: “If you are with us, everything will be fine.”

This should be our way out to the masses. Without it, we cannot advance upward after the creation of our collective Kli. We will reach the minimal level but no further. Indeed, we have received an awakening in order to “pull” humanity with us. We have to treat it very seriously. We will be able to ascend only depending on our success with a wide audience. If we do not succeed, it will serve as ballast to us, not letting us ascend.
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The Reverse Side Of Unrestricted Competition

Opinion (Jag Bhalla, entrepreneur and writer): “’Competition creates efficiency,’ is preached as if it were a law of nature. But nature itself teaches a different lesson. Biological competition can create foolish costs, and collective doom. ‘Darwin’s Wedge’ shows why and reminds us of the point of being human. Our competitions, and the myopic logic of free markets, needn’t be dumb as trees.

“Robert Frank coined ‘Darwin’s Wedge’ to describe situations where individual incentives diverge from collective goals (sometimes even risking collective doom). Darwin’s Wedge applies to an entire class of problems wherein supposedly locally rational decisions aggregate badly (see the market fallacy of composition). These include the tragedy of the commons, Prisoner’s Dilemma games, and Nash equilibria. In them using myopic self-maximizing logic ends badly for each and all. But tackled as coordinated action problems, with monitoring and enforcement, outcomes can be guided to everybody’s benefit. Free markets aren’t suited to such simultaneous complex cross-agent coordinated change.

“Competition’s benefits arise from the constraints it creates. Intelligent constraints, and creative responses to them, can work better than what emerges from mindless ‘natural’ competition. The human trick isn’t self-organizing, it’s other-organizing. We’ve coordinated team survival for 10,000 generations. Our choices now are either to let the power of markets be dumb as trees, or to guide their competitions for better outcomes.”

My Comment: The world is becoming integrally interconnected. It is impossible to develop a plan according to our discrete abilities. It is impossible to plan all communication services, society, industry, etc., calculating everything, and managing everything as a single organism. This was an unreachable goal for Communists because they related to society as to a single system, they created by their singularly enforced methods.

Now the human community is becoming integral, not through our choice or enforced unification as in a socialist camp, but as a result of our natural development. The solution to the problem of the interconnected society could be only in bringing it to a predetermined integral form.

First, we must realize that we are not free: we are in the system of the upper management of nature. In its development, humanity advances along the path of unconscious development, like a child. This phase ends in our time. The phase of conscious human development ended in our time. Since the end of the 20^th century has come the stage where we have to study the law of nature and follow it. Nature is manifested as a global integral system and requires us, humankind, to match it.

We can fulfill this condition only if we re-educate people, through changing our egoistic relations to altruistic.

Floating Together Above The Water

Integral Education Convention, Workshop 1: What is mutual guarantee? Why is mutual guarantee the means for attaining theCreator, for the revelation of the Creator, for ascending to Him? Why is this the only way on all the 125 levels by which our ego develops? Our ego ascends and we ascend above it by the mutual guarantee between us.

The ego keeps ascending and we ascend even higher above it by the mutual guarantee between us. This means that there is no other means, no other state that we have to attain except for mutual guarantee.

It is the mutual guarantee between us that includes all the conditions according to which we reach an equivalence of form with the Creator. Mutual guarantee leads us to equivalence of form with Him, and then He is revealed.

When we become detached from ourselves and reach the feeling of “us,” of mutual guarantee, we find ourselves in a totally different volume, on a different level, in a different dimension. There is nothing personal anymore, and the feeling of the body and this world disappear. It is as if I move to a new empty space in which there is only my concern for the group, and there I meet the desires and the aspirations of my friends.

Thus we reach true mutual guarantee: a feeling of the common dome above us, the feeling of a new space in which we discover everyone’s aspirations that are focused on the group, on unity, on what is between us. Then, if this mutual guarantee is formed correctly, a need to turn to the upper force, to be in contact with it, awakens in it. It is in the mutual guarantee that we discover the desire to rise to this force and to allow it to delight us and to be in contact with us.

This happens naturally according to the progression downward. Everything is born from the top down, and it is in the same order that the movement from the bottom up is evoked in us. The Reshimot (informational genes) that are on each and every level are gradually revealed and we suddenly feel such a big space that we have to add our aspiration for mutuality with the upper force.

So the right balance, the right relations between us, on the level of mutual guarantee when we ascend above our ego, generate the desire for the upper force in us: to delight it, to allow it to be revealed in us, to be connected to it. When we are connected, the mutual guarantee between us and this force are formed.

But it is a gradual process. We either attain a certain level of mutual guarantee or not: we may have stalled, we may have left it, perhaps one of us has fallen and we don’t feel it. On the whole, the moment we reach this state, or not, as we stall in fulfilling the mutual guarantee since something interrupts us, a new level of ego, which is lower than the one we are on, immediately rises in us.

But we have to ascend according to the descent. We fall again and rise once more. The level of the ego that is revealed makes us feel the need to tighten the mutual guarantee between us. We have probably not been sensitive enough in fulfilling it, or we may have not fulfilled it completely. Perhaps we have fulfilled it completely, which means that we have to ascend even higher.

The ascent takes place in two ways:

• By the path of suffering when the additional ego is revealed before we have actually fulfilled the mutual guarantee between us because we have stalled, have stopped fulfilling it, or for any other reason.
• By the path of I shall hasten it, when we have fulfilled the mutual guarantee between us and have to ascend to the next level according to our attainment.

But in any case, the new level of ego that is revealed in us, the new egoistic desires, the repulsion, the weakness, and the descents are all it order to spur us and to raise us to a higher level.

How do we operate in a state of descent by using the mutual guarantee between us? How does the state of mutual guarantee help us fulfill the descent correctly?

If we have signed an agreement of mutual guarantee, have risen above the ego, if we have begun to feel even for a short while that we are connected on a higher level, above our world, feeling awe and aspiring forward, and suddenly one of our friends falls, we must understand that it isn’t just he that fell, but we have received a sign that we have to start this new ascent together with him.

In other words, the friend himself isn’t the issue, but the fact is that a new egoistic desire has awoken in the mutual guarantee between us and it helps us rise even higher.

What should we do if one of us falls? We have to descend to him, to his level, speak to him in his language as if we agree with him. We have to keep the level between us and at the same time descend to him and connect to him. After all, when we connect to him, we can raise him.

Then, when we surpass the level we were on, we can continue to ascend. Thanks to our descent to the friend, we can ascend even higher than the state we were on before we descended to him. This means that we have to regard any descent of a friend as an opportunity given to us from Above to a new ascent to mutual guarantee.

When we reach such a state above us, connect to it, ascending and descending together, breathing together, we build a Masach (screen). We are like a piston that ascends and descends as we pump more and more and more desire from our egoistic attributes to our altruistic attributes.

This is how we work. When a friend falls, we ascend and descend with him. The same thing happens when the whole group goes through a similar state. This is our continuous action.

If we manage to hold on to the intention to delight the Creator by our connection, like good children in relation to their mother, a state in which we connect and work together is called a raspberry ball, and perhaps we can also call it a “float.”

We have to constantly be in this state. Constantly! To float forward, backward, no matter where we move; we have to constantly be connected; we have to fall and to rise together. What is more, we must constantly be with the Creator both in our lowest state and in our highest state.

On the whole, this is the method. Everything else are individual cases of this method. The moment we connect and find the connection with the Creator at least to some extent, the moment we ascend and descend together, is the basis for everything.

So what does it mean to float above the water? How can we be on this float no matter which ways we are moving? This float is called Noah’s Ark. It is where the spiritual ascent begins. The moment you create this, the rest will follow.
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day One 2/02/14, Workshop 1

When The Pointer Moves

From the book, Light of the Sun, Hints of Rosh HaShana: It is necessary to adhere and be connected with each other and be closed within one another in the hearts of everyone, so that we will be one union, serving the Creator wholeheartedly.

There is no partial in spirituality, meaning three, seven or nine Sefirot. There must be ten Sefirot because we don’t feel less than ten, we feel only a complete measure. This is like a machine within which data gathers and then suddenly the meter jumps. Like a watch that counts seconds inside, and when a whole minute is gathered, the pointer suddenly jumps to the following division.

That is exactly how our work happens too. This is because until we reach Malchut, we can work and pass through various states unconsciously. A person can go around and begin to do a multitude of things, but he must wait until he “gets it.” This is to say, he must pass through a particular number of actions, until it becomes difficult for him and he doesn’t know what to do with himself, and after this, he suddenly “gets it” and understands what he is doing! This is to say, he must reach saturation, a complete measure.

So when we gather, we must “adhere and be connected with each other and be closed within one another in the hearts of everyone, so that we will be one union, serving theCreator wholeheartedly,” meaning that it is necessary to discover a complete measure of desire. And this is a problem, because we seem to climb a mountain, and every time we fall, again and again. And so it is until a quantity of effort accumulates, a number of experiences are gathered, into a complete amount. As Baal HaSulam writes in Letter 19: “However, ‘time will do what the mind does not do.’ The Creator counts all the stimuli and collects them into the complete measure, which is the measure of hardness for the intended day.”
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From the Preparatory Lesson for the Arava Convention, 1/30/14

The Only Test

Question: This convention is a convention of our connection with theCreator. What does this mean?

Answer: There cannot be connection without feeling the Creator. Otherwise, how do we know that we have reached connection? We test it only by discovering the Creator within the connection. Only in this way can we be sure that we have connected.

Therefore unity between us cannot exist without that one force that is discovered within us as a characteristic that fills and connects us, that stabilizes us. This is what we call having reached connection. Without the Creator, the connection will not happen: He must stabilize our connection and testify that we have attained Him.
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From the Talk at a meal 1/26/14

A Formula With One Unseen Variable

Question: How can we unite if we don’t feel the pain of ourshattering?

Answer: Connection is only possible with a united effort. Alone you can scream for even a thousand years, but this won’t help. Here there must be a group effort where everyone is attracted to each other and ready for mutual guarantee (Arvut). Everyone must be ready to be responsible for the others: one for all and all for one.

These are the necessary conditions; it is impossible to replace them with anything else. And you want to finish the work yourselves, but this is impossible. You forget the formula and don’t take it into account. The formula is that we are making efforts to try to connect among us, to carry out all kinds of activities within the group in order to resemble the Light that Reforms. It must influence us and change us.

We are not changed by our connection. Through our inclination to connect, we awaken the intensity of the Light, the influence of the energy field in which we are found. The more that we try to connect between us in all kinds of forms, with this we awaken the action of bestowal, meaning the Creator who fills the world. And He illuminates us according to our efforts, and it is not important that they might be incorrect and confused. The main thing is the effort that attracts the Light that Reforms. And then this Light changes me.

You ask: What form must we attain? This doesn’t concern me and doesn’t matter to me; I never reach that form myself. It is the Light that influences me and connects me with the friends in this form that is suitable to its revelation. Then instead of Ohr Makif(Surrounding Light) that arranges and corrects our connections, it transforms into Ohr Pnimi (Inner Light).

This is the same Light; no changes are made in the Light itself. But it sometimes appears as Ohr Makif and sometimes as Ohr Pnimi, sometimes as NRNHY and more. There exist a multitude of types of Light: Ohr Yashar, Ohr Hozer. But it is precisely the Light that makes the form for me.

You say: “We want to reach connection!” Where is the Creator within this sentence? And what do we want this connection for? Also for His sake! The Creator realizes this connection and He is also discovered within it. And from our side, we are only attracted to this connection, but certainly we don’t succeed in doing anything if the Light does not connect between us. All that is required of us is to attain the right intention.
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From a Preparation Lesson for the Arava Convention, 1/30/14

The Near And The Far

We need connection, yet not connection between us, rather with the Creator. Therefore in order to reach connection with the Creator, to discover him, it’s up to us to build an appropriate relationship between us according to the principle, “the end of the action is in the preliminary thought.”

The connection between us must pass above the ego and cause mutual bestowal.

This connection must be equal for everyone, both distant and close. It’s up to us to be concerned about all of our friends all over the world since this makes it possible for us to feel if we are in bestowal or not.

This is because I don’t feel any closeness to friends who are far away. We are in an inner connection with people whose faces are familiar, and it’s different with friends who are not included in this circle. They provide me with the right feeling: Am I truly found in bestowal or not?

This is very important: Am I maintaining the right orientation? Am I concerned about all of the friends as they are, like a mother who brings all of her children “under her wing”? This is a sign for me of yearning for bestowal.

That is how each one examines himself, is concerned for others, and strengthens them. And together we aim to keep the connection with the Creator, for the compliance with the similarity of His properties. For this is what is most important, discovering the Creator according to our yearning for Him, for bestowal. And we realize this bestowal among us within the group, and also between all the friends around the world.

This is because there is no far and near in spirituality. Bestowal is bestowal. But the problem is that I don’t comprehend the entire system, only some part of it. But this part is also integral. It cannot be less than this or more than this, for there is no “partial” in spirituality. The system can be revealed to me to this degree or another, but there is no measuring stick for integrality, for it is always revealed one hundred percent in each part.

Therefore it’s up to us to aspire to feel a homogeneous group, complete in everything. There are no great and small, there are no far and near. I relate to all equally. This is a very important test with whose help I correct, “polish,” and “calibrate” the characteristic of bestowal within me so that it will be more and more correct.

And within the characteristic of bestowal, I become closer to feeling the Creator. And in this way I correct my Kli, vessel, desire; it comes closer and closer to discovering the higher power. It’s good and benevolent to the bad and the good, to the near and the far, to all without exception. Therefore I also advance in that way.

In this case, through my efforts, I awaken the Light that Reforms and it brings me into compliance with it. And so the question is, right now, how do we direct ourselves towards the power of bestowal, towards the Creator, with the help of an equal relationship to the near and the far?
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/28/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”