From A Point To The Creator

The Zohar tells us about the ways we connect, which create the vessel of perception. By our connection in different manners, we discover the Creator. The Creator has no form and no image. His form is the extent and the manner of our connection. If we connect, we acquire the attribute of the Creator, His form.

At first the Creator was revealed in the starting point of the creation—Malchut of Ein Sof(Infinity). There was no connection there but just a point, one desire. Then this desire developed under the influence of the Light and received all its attributes. But it was still one, until the oppositeness of the Light in all its opposite attributes appeared in it.

By connecting, we discover the forms of the Light, the forms of the Creator. Therefore, to be connected also means to be adhered to the Creator with the attribute of love and bestowal.

The way we connect is the form of the Creator we discover. The intensity of our connection is the level on which we discover the Creator. The Creator is revealed in the connection among us.

The desire remains the same desire that was created at first, as a specific desire. The Light shattered it into many separated desires. By connecting them we discover the Light 620 times stronger in quality than before: We discover the thought, the mind, the thought of creation.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/12, The Zohar

The Letter And Spirit

Question: Baal HaSulam says in the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 155, that even if we don’t understand Kabbalistic texts, we draw the power of correction, the Surrounding Light, by reading it. So why don’t people who know these texts by heart ever reach attainment?

Answer: They don’t draw the power of correction because the Surrounding Light should turn into the Inner Light when you acquire a Masach (screen), which means the intention to bestow. The question is do you yearn to attain a Masach? Are you drawn to correction? Do you want to reveal the evil inclination? Are you ready to go through this although it is unpleasant? Do you see this as an obligation and a necessity? Do you invest all your energy in the society in order to be under the influence of the friends? Only then will they lift you from your desires and pull you out of this swamp.

When you hate someone you have to make an effort so that you will love him. It is as if he did you wrong and you rise above that although the feeling of hate remains, and you work only for love by wanting to give him more than you give to your own baby.

Do you do that and hold on to this inclination regarding these corrections? If so, you are drawing the Surrounding Light that operates on you and provides you with necessary attribute.

At the same time you are diverted from the path, and you are thwarted by more interruptions, but you still have to advance by subduing yourself before the friends and asking for their help. Thus you evoke the Surrounding Light upon you, yearning for that attribute—for bestowal and love—above hate and rejection. Even if you are absolutely right in all your claims regarding the friends, you still try to advance “above reason.”

As for those you are asking about, they deal with the wisdom and not with the Torah, not with the method of correction in which the Reforming Light is concealed. They read the texts without any connection with the evil inclination that will be revealed or that is already revealed. They don’t come to the lesson in order to correct themselves, and they don’t study the Torah, but wisdom. Therefore it says: “wisdom among the nations, believe.” The “nations” refers to those who don’t want to correct themselves. However, those who want to reach unity are called “Jews,” and this is the whole difference.

Abraham gave “gifts” to the children of the concubines, meaning intermediate methods. They studied for pleasure, received a slight illumination, but didn’t fulfill the correction and didn’t ascend the ladder of the spiritual degrees. Such people study the material by heart, discuss it, argue….

We don’t argue and don’t discuss anything, for us only the Reforming Light is important. It doesn’t matter how much a person knows, what’s important is to keep in contact with the text that brings him the power of correction.

Eventually, however, the correction is everyone’s share, and I don’t underestimate anyone. If a person opens Kabbalah books, even if he walks in the dark, he is still moving forward.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

One Life And Common Prayer For Everyone

The center of the group is the point in which we become free from all the fragments of the breaking and want to concentrate only on our sparks uniting them together. And the more we seek to unite these sparks, the higher we rise on the spiritual ladder.

Due to these efforts, we reveal a new depth of desire in us, and a greater Light is revealed in the unity of sparks. The connection of sparks is the “Reshimo de Hitlabshut,” and the depth of desire, above which we want to connect, is the “Reshimo de Aviut,” and thus we begin to connect in our first common spiritual Partzuf in which we will feel one soul.

The first time we will feel ourselves in the integral reality where we are all connected to each other, and inside it we will feel spiritual life—one for all. As it’s said: “There is none else besides the Creator,” one for everyone: one thought, one light, a unified system. We will feel ourselves living inside one upper force.

And then, we will begin to recognize it more and more, distinguish more features in it, different attitudes towards us relative to the size of Partzuf. But the very first point from which we have to begin is the point of our unity, called the center of the group. It consists of two elements: The first one is overcoming of our egoism, the Reshimo de Aviut, and the second one is our desire to unite through our sparks, which determines the Reshimo de Hitlabshut.

If I install them correctly relative to each other, it’s called faith above reason. It all comes down to one reality, to a single state. Faith is the connecting sparks, and knowledge is the force of the egoistic desire, above which we want to build our connection.

It doesn’t matter if we fail to reach the desired and connect in the center of the group. The main thing is how much effort we have put into it. The extent of efforts determines the successful state.

We will never achieve success directly through our actions, but only will attract the Light to ourselves, so that the Creator finishes this work for us! After all, “a prisoner cannot free himself from the jail;” everything happens due to the help from Above, through the prayer and the answer to it.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/12, “Talk About the Workshop”

Towards The Center Of Life

Question: How can I check that I have returned to the center of the group during the workshop?

Answer: The center of the group is our only upper point, the upper desire, the place, where all our desires unite and wherever we look we see Divinity, the revelation of the Creator.

We will learn to check this in more “professional” ways in the future, according to the three parts of the existence of reality “world-year-soul,” according to the three lines. But as long as we cannot hold on to all these spiritual discernments, I check that I have reached the center of the group when I begin to discover that there is something outside my “I.”

It is as if I am under the influence of the force that is above me, which controls me, but only according to my desire, only if I let it control me! It doesn’t enslave me as often happens in other methods when a person is hypnotized like a “zombie” under their influence and cannot escape.

Here I am constantly conscious and fully understand: I understand that I can disconnect myself from this influence. Yet, I constantly choose to stay under its control. Every time I choose a greater connection, I add finer discernments to this state, both in feeling and in the mind. This means that I am at the most central point.

This central point begins to grow in relation to me and to clarify different discernments that are in it: my attitude to the friends, to myself, to the study, to the teacher, and to the whole world. I feel that all my relationships and my connections with everyone are centered in this one point. This means that I begin to work on it in every situation in my life.

In order not to detach myself from this center, I have to invest emotional and mental efforts in the mind and heart. According to these efforts I will discover what the true mind and heart are, because these are not ordinary corporeal attributes, but rather special spiritual attributes.

All my work is to clarify to what extent I can adhere to the center, to the upper, in every situation. I am like an organ that is returned to its place that feels that it isn’t simply stitched on to the body, but begins to live in it, to use its powers, and to bestow something on my part by taking part in the collective actions. This is already the feeling of life!
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/12, “Talk About the Workshop”

Education: The Main Law Of Modern Times

Question: In what form should the structure of integral upbringing be introduced in a smaller town? Should a prepared team of specialists be invited there?

Answer: It is impossible to provide a town with a population of 50,000 with an army of visiting specialists. It is impossible to fathom the unfathomable.

At the maximum, a team of twenty should be invited, and all the rest would be through the virtual delivery of knowledge. Then, people should be gathered in big groups to lectures and to events such as festivals and public parties under the auspices of integrality.

It is necessary to simultaneously train local specialists. In the same manner as there are municipal workers everywhere, the city also should have specialists on integral upbringing who will be continuing to educate children, elders, and the entire population. It is necessary to provide them with media materials, and overall to lay a foundation for this process to continue infinitely.

Question: When such action takes place, at first, people feel enthusiastic as they join the common action. Then the guests from the capital leave and this wave of enthusiasm recedes. What is to be done next so that it does not dwindle to nothing?

Answer: I think that integral upbringing should be accepted as a law without which society can no longer exist. That is, it must be the most important, principal law of the city or society, founded upon compatibility, integrality, and on mutual complements and voluntary participation.

Everything that is done today by various agencies and decided in courts, police and other authorities will be decided on a completely different level. However, a serious education department is needed for this. Thus, it is crucial to create a budget, material incentives, and the content for the entire system that will be engaged in education.

Question: Is the education department a separate agency?

Answer: I think that it should not report to anyone, only to the country’s common upbringing center.

Question: What about economists?

Answer: They cannot do anything because local ideological departments do not report to anyone but the main ideological center. I cannot imagine that it could be any other way.

Economists cannot direct education. They cannot meddle with the process of upbringing and education in schools. If any problems arise, they either should be solved together or at a higher level, but one does not loom over another.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” #23, 3/2/12

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The Secret Of The Upper Light

While reading The Zohar, we mustn’t forget that that it is only speaking about the connection among us in its different forms.The Zohar tells us how we can rise by this connection to higher levels each time, how we can strengthen it through the “three lines,” the newReshimot (informational genes), awakenings, illuminations in the levels of Ibur (conception), Yenika (nurturing) and Mochin (maturity), and so forth.

This is all in order to tighten the connection among us, which means to connect our vessel more and more tightly by correcting the shattering and according to the intensity of the connection to discover the attribute of mutual bestowal that resides among the parts that were separated, and which are now connecting to each other above our ego. This is called the upper Light that is revealed among us.

If the parts annul themselves only in order to connect, it is called the Light of Hassadim, but if they also work with their ego in order to connect, it is called the Light of Hochma. This is connection, and there is nothing but that.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/12, The Zohar

The Virtual Workshop

Question: What is the best way for the virtual student to participate in the workshop?

Answer: You need to organize a virtual workshop with the friends who are closest to you in general mentality, country, and language. You should always start with the easy things, and then move to the more difficult ones: This is the order of correction.
And besides that, everyone has an opportunity to connect to the focus group conducting the discussion on the air, and to be together with them if a student doesn’t have friends with whom he or she can communicate. All the means that contribute to unity are welcome.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, “Talk About Past Conventions”

A Never Ending Game

Question: During the process of upbringing, a person has to learn certain models of behavior. What are these models of behavior?

Answer: These elements of behavior are commutation laws, something similar to the multiplication table. Primarily, it’s individual readiness to enter others, to feel another as your partner in the same tuning process.

When we meet people in our egoistic world, we enter into a certain contact with them. For example, we smile in order to first establish a purely visual connection and later, an emotional one. Only after that we begin to perceive each other more closely. The same happens here.

When I speak about groups and societies, I am referring to a multitude of groups, which will become acquainted with each other, connect, and work together, either by merging or mixing with each other, to the point of creating enormous conventions and festivals, when different groups with identical preparation come together and perform certain actions with each other.

In other words, here we are already dealing with thousands of people in a certain limited space, who have to interact with one another. At the same time, we can involve them in special states and games in order to overcome a variety of problems and processes. Besides, these problems and processes must be natural and not artificial. For example, electricity suddenly disappears, or a certain danger appears, or the other way around, a certain opportunity arises, meaning someone finds treasure somewhere. How do we interact in this situation?

We create different conditions of play and excitement for them, we try to get them out of the altruistic habits they are accustomed to and once again make them dependent on each other as egoistically as possible. At the same time, we observe how they overcome these states, then forget about them, and once again attempt to excite themselves, to remember, and to climb out of their egoism in an attempt to find new strengths within for absolutely unexpected situations.

There are many opportunities for people here. I think that the most important thing is to work through these situations because like a child, when a person plays, he ultimately corrects himself, his nature. We think that it’s just a game, but in reality this is an enormous universal goal to correct human egoism, besides for which nothing else exists. Everything else is the still, instinctive nature.
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