The True Sweet Point

What is called “faith in the sages” is when I follow everything that is arranged for me from above. In every Partzuf, in every situation that I see before me, I see the Creator.

I see the whole wide world before me and I need to understand that all of these things are pictures that the Creator draws for me. I don’t know what I truly see. However, if I take the entire world as a picture within me from the Creator, then I am moving in the right direction in the right degree of truth and falsehood.

This direction is true, and so I see before me conditions that must exist: Israel (my yearning directly to the Creator – Yashar El), Torah (all of the shattered Kelim with the Light that must bring them to unity), and the Creator. All three of these conditions gradually transform into one, for I try to identify the Creator that acts within the world and presents this world to me in a new form all the time.

I accept this world as a picture of the Creator for He wanted me to feel this, understand this, taste the bitterness and sweetness, the truth and the falsehood, and unite this together with Him in a single point. Ultimately, these three components must reach unity, which is called the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun).

All of our work with truth and falsehood and bitter and sweet are essentially clarifications that we must make. To do this, we need to be in a group to clarify our relationships between us,  to learn to draw the Light that Reforms. As a result, we must connect all of reality, on one hand, attributing it to the Creator and on the other hand, to myself accepting it as a display that the Creator shows me so that I will be able to connect all parts of reality to it.

That is how we reach the common point of everything called the end of correction. In our world now everything is bitter and false, whereas at the end of correction only sweetness and truth are left.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/30/13, Shamati #148 “The Scrutiny of Bitter and Sweet, True and False”

Together It Is Easy To Work, Alone It Is Easy To Kill Time

Question: How do we overcome the desire to postpone everything till tomorrow, till the next lesson, till the next convention? There is a feeling that there is still enough time and that we can wait.

Answer: It is the illusion of the ego that a person cannot overcome by himself. If you are alone at home you will surely deal with different foolish matters and it will lead to nothing. It will just be a waste of time today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and also in a year and two years from now. You will never be able to use the time efficiently as long as you are by yourself. It is “either a group or death.”

Everyone must make a certain commitment that cannot be postponed or that he cannot escape. These commitments should tie you to the friends and you should work on something together.

You have to constantly tie yourself to the need to advance in different ways:

1. work committments
2. friends
3. shame of not finishing, that everyone would know and see what you haven’t completed.

The feeling of shame should be as strong as the fear of death. Being among the friends is the only thing that will push you to make good use of the time. If you are alone and you can use the time as you wish, you can be sure that it will fool you. Time is a shell (Klipa) and a very strong egoistic force. It will draw you to different silly dealings.

But when we work together, we suddenly work easily, gladly, and pleasantly!
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/13, The Zohar

Don’t Postpone Anything

Question: Why do I keep forgetting and lose the line of thought that we have to be as “one man in one heart?”

Answer: It is because you don’t feel it as a critical need; that’s the whole problem. When a person is sick he constantly thinks only about the medicine that can heal him. It is said that the Light is a remedy for all ills, but we don’t feel it.

We don’t regard the wisdom of Kabbalah as a means for personal and general advancement, since we feel good this way. We cannot spur ourselves so that the goalwill attract us so strongly that we will be ready to do whatever is necessary.

So what happens in this situation? It says: “I am placing upon them a king like Haman…” and then having no choice we will have to do what has to be done, which means by the path of suffering. The sufferings are necessary, but we can replace them by inner sufferings, to shake ourselves and to ignite our desire for the goal. If the goal is important and I am far from it, I feel pain. I don’t ignore the pain, but rather, I make an effort to overcome the gap between me and the goal. This means that the pain pushes me forward.

But instead, we relax each time and think that it isn’t so bad and that we can wait. Baal HaSulam, however, warns us in his book The Sages’ Fruit, “Letter 13″: …and the truth will show him the way, and the one who feels sorrow makes his sorrow known and he cannot hide it or restrain himself. Indeed this is how I will feel all of you together when today will become tomorrow and instead of now you will say later. And there is no remedy for that, except to make an effort and to understand this mistake and this distortion that the one who is saved by the Creator is saved if he needs the salvation today, while he who can wait for tomorrow will become wise only when his life is over. You feel this because you have neglected my request to exert yourself in the love of friends, which I have explained to you every way I can that this merit is enough to provide everything that you lack.

Everything that happens to us is only in order to strengthen love of friends because to the same extent, we draw the Light that Reforms that corrects everything. If we perform a certain action, we have to first check if it leads to a stronger connection or whether it leads to separation. Then we will immediately understand what should be done and what shouldn’t be done, what we should get closer to and what we should run from. It is because we draw the Light by the connection between us. When we connect, we draw another portion of Light, and so on and so on. This is the whole secret, and there is nothing but that.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/13, The Zohar

“Though War Should Rise Up Against Me, Even Then Will I Be Confident”

If people understood that all the misfortunes that befall them—hunger, war, and disease—could easily be eliminated by one appeal to the Creator, that we only need to move toward Him before all these hardships, haunting us for thousands of years, fall upon us; what a light and easy life we would have!

After all, we are all in a common boat in the same current. But how many thousands of years has humanity been under pressure so that we finally realize that there is no alternative, we have to get closer to the Creator. All problems come just for that reason.

How much unhappiness and misery throughout history could we have avoided had we listened to Abraham in ancient Babylon and united as one man with one heart? All our history would have been different. We would easily have achieved a higher dimension and lived as in Paradise, in a harmonious union of the desire to enjoy and the desire to bestow, developing our attainment to perfection.

We should not forget that all the troubles and problems are designed to push us toward the Creator. But as long as a person is developing on the still degree, he advances very slowly, through a lot of suffering. On the vegetative degree, development becomes more intense, and on the animate and human, even faster. We see that the rate of change is increasingly growing, that is why in the course of our life we can accomplish many various actions every hour.

We have an opportunity to check how one affects the other and how our advancement toward the Creator affects the fact that we avoid troubles. It is said, “Thou embrace me from the front and from behind.” “From the front” is the direct control of the Creator if I seek Him and draw the Light that Reforms to myself, according to my efforts.

And “from behind” is His indirect control if I am too lazy to make efforts and to advance myself. Then, the same Light that was supposed to be revealed before me as Surrounding and Reforming Light affects me from the reverse side in order to turn me toward the source by the path of suffering. And this advancement is stretched out for a long time and is accompanied by suffering.

As it is sung in one Sabbath song, “Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear! Though war should rise up against me, even then will I be confident.” “Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear!” is a high state when a person reaches the realization that he is pushed by pressure from behind because that is the form of advancement now. But he relies on the Creator, on the Upper governance, understanding that everything comes from there, and that is why only by striving upward can he save himself from all troubles. And most importantly, he relies on the help of the Creator so that he will be able to seek the Creator not out of fear but to bring Him pleasure.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/13/13

Opening The Way To The Light

We connect in order to be guarantors for each other, but tell me: How much money do you have in your bank account that will make you want to be my guarantor? Do you know what debts I have, what problems? No one knows what can happen to me tomorrow, and you will need to cover it. How many millions do you have in order to give me all that I am lacking?

You are a guarantor only in that you build such a relationship toward me where you are concerned that nothing will be lacking for me, that you open yourself up to me, but not physically.

Physically, not one of us is able to do anything. Even with all the US banks backing you, an army armed to the teeth, and a horde of attorneys at your disposal, you still would not be able to be my guarantor in anything. So, how can we commit to be guarantors for each other?

This is not the guarantee of anything except your opening the way for the Light. You neutralize my ego, and the Light enters and changes my attitude toward life. I am transformed into a new person. You don’t need to show me that you have any knowledge or any ability, any corporeal covering for my problems or shortcomings. You only need to open the door to the Light, and I suddenly stop worrying about myself.

What is needed from you is only trying to relate to me from above your ego, and all the rest the Light will do. The Creator will finish this work for me, but you need to begin it. If you are carrying a heavy bag on your back and the bag is about to fall from your shoulders, then you will get help to carry it. However, if the bag is not heavy and not falling and you just cry that it is difficult for you, then don’t expect help.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/1/13, Shamati #38 “The Fear of God Is His Treasure”

Our Weapon Is In The Creator’s Hands

Question: You said that all we must do is express our willingness for the Upper Light to reform us. There are quite a few groups who are striving to unite for some purpose: the mafia to rule in their area, a Kabbalistic group to achieve some exalted goal. They both say they want to unite; however, in either case, something slows them down, preventing them from reaching unity.

Answer: As for the regional mafia, it lies in their hands. As to “spiritual mafia,” they have a problem: They have no weapon. Their weapon lies in the hands of the Creator. The Creator will hand it over on one condition: that you will be worthy of it, meaning, you will know how to use it correctly. The Light is the most powerful weapon; nothing supersedes its might. It contains the most enormous pleasure, infinite fulfillment, limitless possibilities to do anything at all. How can He give such a weapon to you?

Look how we guard our children while they are growing up from everything that might harm them! Can man be given something so dangerous that he could destroy everything? Therefore, the Upper Light comes to us through concealments, the system of worlds, and works by way of advancing us step by step in stages. This is what we currently are experiencing as suffering. All of this is its effect aimed at advancing us so that in the end we would understand what we need to do, like children who misbehave. It can’t be otherwise!

How can this spiritual mafia be granted the Light? They will make such a feast “for themselves” that it will be more horrible than Babylon and Egypt together. In truth, before they are reformed, they are all Amans. Everyone has a Malchut of Infinity, but we don’t get to know it. I reside in the uppermost layer of egoism, this corporeal world, and below me lies the entire dense thickness of infinite ego, the Malchut of Infinity.

When I am illuminated by a small Light that has passed through the filters of all worlds, it illuminates only a tiny layer of egoism for me. If all of it came in and the entire abyss of egoism opened up, I would never be able to climb out of it, and this is the reason why this world is so small.

Look at how much we are helped from above right now, for it already has exhausted itself, and I see its end, the rock bottom of this world. It holds no more pleasure for me. Where do I get more desires? There aren’t any in this world. All the rest is for bestowal, and the desires of this world you received only in order to exist for the time being. From this moment on, you must decide what to do.

All of this is done for our salvation. After all, if the great Light came in, you would sink in such tremendous suffering that you wouldn’t be able to come out of it. You would be buried under desire that you would not be able to fill. It is like the love that is burns you because you can’t have it.

This is how desire will become revealed against the Light illuminating it, and all of your life would be sold out for yet another chase after pleasure that would make you feel even greater emptiness. It is impossible! It can be no more! The plane regarded as “this world” where you can enjoy something for your own sake for some time in order to develop the mind and feelings to perceive spirituality has come to its completion.

From here on, you must find the Light that comes to illuminate the upper layers of desires  for you, the Light that Reforms, the Surrounding Light. This is the not the light of pleasure, but rather the one that discerns and reforms. Then, the light of fulfillment arrives if you align yourself with it by way of the screen and Reflected Light.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/9/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Merge With The Source Of Life

Because of our oppositeness to the Light, we live in the world of suffering and pain, and no matter how we might to escape, we only make it worse for ourselves since we tend to want to withdraw and hide from the truth, so much so that we have no idea about the correct path and corrections that we must perform.

Therefore, only after going through to the end of this painful exile, we finally receive the knowledge, the reminder, that there is a method called the wisdom of Kabbalah, which can connect us with the Light. And then, we will know how, by using it, we can correct our relation with it so that it would give us fulfillment, instead of acting against us and illuminating us from a distance, instilling pain in us!

Beyond this, we don’t have any freewill in this world except to draw the Light that Reforms, which will correct, reform, and unify us with the Light. There isn’t a greater wisdom or science than Kabbalah that helps to realize this action. There is no other means to affect our life and fate. We will not improve our lives with the help of science, culture, or education if we don’t practice them according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, in other words, without connecting ourselves with the source of our lives, the Light.

If you wish for success, it is possible only on one condition: if you draw the Light that will correct you and reform your entire world. And if you attempt to reform the world without the Light, you will only make it worse since you hide from the truth even more, forcing yourself to go through the recognition of evil instead of a good and pleasant path.

But right now we have a unique opportunity to reveal the wisdom of Kabbalah and achieve correction. After all, in all of our long history, we still haven’t started to perform the correction and were only getting ready for it. From this very moment on, the reckoning with us takes full force.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/18/10, “The Teaching of Kabbalah and its Essence”

Don’t Be Afraid To Receive Pleasure

Question: In the example with “the Host and the guest,” the Host offers the guest delicious treats and the guest refuses to take them. He makes a restriction on his desire to receive. Later, after the guest experiences the delight, he becomes dependent on it. How can we avoid being dependent on pleasures?

Answer: It’s about getting pleasure in the world of Nekudim, in the world where there was a shattering of the state.

Let’s say you gave me something very tasty and sweet. I know what it is, so I make a restriction on this treat and build an intention on it. It’s as if I “paid you back.” I refused your treat many times and explain to you that I don’t feel comfortable accepting your dishes, that I am not hungry. You begin persuading me even more strongly saying that you baked this cake particularly for me and if I don’t try it, you’ll be upset.

Now you are the one who is asking me to do you a favor. When it comes to doing you a favor instead of receiving pleasure for my own sake, I “give up” and eat a piece of cake. I really think that I do it for you. I demonstrate to you how pleased I am so that you have no doubts that while I am enjoying your cake, I am doing so to please you.

All of a sudden I feel a delight that is a thousand times bigger than I ever expected from this piece of cake, something incredible, beyond my Kelim, vessels, beyond my abilities. I don’t see you behind it any longer. All I feel is overwhelming pleasure.

At this point, it’s not about a simple relationship at the level of “giving and taking” (level 1); rather, it is the relationship between the Creator and a person on the level of intention (level 2).

When I become equal to the Creator in my intentions (equal) and start giving to Him, I begin sensing Him and rise to His level. This state is above all the pleasure or suffering. It’s beyond anything! It is a sensation of the thought of creation before it was created.

It turns out that there is such a great inherent pleasure in this experience that I did not expect and which I simply cannot resist. Now, I will have to pay you somehow for this piece of cake.

This is called my shattering. All my intentions to bestow to you instead of pleasing myself, all my plans to avoid being a guest disappear. I just become a slave to the delight that fills me.

From that point on, a new type of pleasure that we receive from sensing the Creator builds the system of worlds: Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya.

As a result, when we start self-correction within this system of worlds, we become equal to the Creator because our correction includes the delight that comes not from the Light per se, but from our sense of equality with Him on the level of “Adam – Man.”

The fact is that the level at which we used to exist and build our relationships with others with these calculations (“you give me and I’ll give you”), like a polite guest with a host, is simply animate pleasures at the animate level. Rejecting something because we don’t feel that it is right to take it or because we are embarrassed to accept it, as well as the host’s polite insistence, are ordinary human relationships. They are associated with our current level and there is nothing “lofty” about them. There is no bestowal in them whatsoever.

You simply want to please me because you care about me. I want to return my pleasure back to you because I don’t want to feel that I am the receiving party. I have my pride and shame and I cannot afford to accept your treats. I have to reject them.

A host who knows and understands human psychology acts in a way that will not only persuade me to accept his treats but to feel happy that in doing so I do him a favor. But all this is in the framework of regular human interactions. At the second level, we create a new relationship, not between two people but between me and the Creator, when I have to equate yourself with pleasure that I get from Him .

As soon as I merge with the Creator, I receive pleasures that don’t exist in this world, nor are they present in the Light that created us, since these pleasures derive from the level of the Creator and from our understanding that we are similar to Him. So here the shattering occurs, the structure of a new system. Only by ascending from bottom to top can we create desires and intentions that make us really similar to Him. And then, all our embarrassments and shame turn into glory and delight.

Question: Can we become dependent on pleasures at this level?

Answer: It’s impossible. The system is built in a way that while ascending we cannot be destroyed. It is made so that while we are not ready to receive pleasures correctly, it won’t reveal itself to us.

Pleasure comes from a sensation of understanding and realization, from the feeling of eternity and perfection, from everything that you disclose, everything that you already exist in.

You have to be ready for it. The entire ladder from bottom to top is built in accordance with three lines that lead us. That’s why the entire system is made so that it prepares us to attain this state.
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From the Stockholm Convention “Joy In Unity” Day One 8/30/13, Lesson 2