If Only I Didn’t Feel Myself…

Our desire is created by the inverted seal of the Light and that is why if it feels only itself, it is a horrible sensation, a feeling of unfilled void, an abyss. I simply can’t feel only myself for I cannot live without being filled! It is called Nukva, from “Nekev” (a hole), a hollow will to receive, which needs to be filled.

The Creator is perfection and does not require anyone. It is complete rest and idleness. He is absolutely immutable; He doesn’t need to move and act. But the poor created being (will to receive pleasure, desire, need for the Light) feels totally miserable and can’t find rest until it receives the sensation of perfection. It exists in constant fear and awe, and in search for the lacking fulfillment.

After all, the Light (perfection, the Creator) has stamped itself in the matter (desire) in an inverted form, like a seal and its mold, thereby having produced in the will to receive the need for the Light. Our form is opposite to the Creator, so the nature of the created being is so miserable; if only it didn’t have to feel itself and all its desires, aspirations, and thoughts, which are all about fulfillment.

We are always running after the Creator, the Light. But when a desire is revealed in us at its tiniest, lowest level, we, instead of the Light, envision material fulfillment through wealth, power, fame, sex, food, and family. And if a greater desire awakens in us, from a higher level, we aspire to knowledge and evolution. And when a still greater desire gets revealed within, I start feeling that I lack spirituality.

We always act in the will to receive, from desires of our world to the equivalence to the Creator.
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From 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam

A Very Simple Instrument To Measure The Creator

Question: Should we disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah among orthodox people or among those who engage in all sorts of mystical practices?

Answer: Absolutely not! We have to keep away from any religious environment since our opinions are very different. They believe in miracles, in life after death, in mystic revelations, in forces that are external to this world, while we believe in the one force of nature. We are complete materialists. The wisdom of Kabbalah is not a religion but rather a science of attaining the one force of nature.

This force is called the Creator, God, but there is nothing mystical about it. In a much later stage humanity has distorted everything and turned it into religions, since it couldn’t find this attribute anywhere. It is bodiless, it is unidentified and unfelt. This is the force behind all the corporeal objects. But how can we define it? It is impossible!

There is no instrument that can perceive it, since it isn’t magnetism, it isn’t the global field of gravity, it isn’t electrostatics, and it isn’t x-rays. This “nothing,” how can you define it and discover it? Where can you find a detector for the revelation of the force called the Creator?

There is no detector except you. You can perceive it without any external instruments but only inside you. How can you do that? When you become sensitive to the perception of this force, according to your equivalence of form to it, you will begin to perceive it. Just like a moving needle of an instrument, so will the needle on the scale of Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida, move according to the level of your ego, to the extent that it is equal to this force.

If you rise above your ego, you will be able to use it like a spring. The current that goes through the coil turns it into a magnet that pulls the needle, the needle moves to a certain division: Nefesh, Ruach, Haya, Yechida, and we can see the measurements that this instrument indicates.

The spring that brings the needle back to zero is our ego. The force that pulls the needle in the opposite direction from the spring is the Masach (screen), our connection and resemblance to the Creator. Thus we can see the measurements on the scale. It is a very simple instrument.

At the same time our scale is not unchanging. The distance between Nefesh and Ruachis small. The distance between Ruach and Neshama is much greater. It is like the distance between the Earth and the moon, or between the Earth and the sun, between the Earth and the next galaxy. And astronomical progress is created according to our ego, which advances much more, and the Light of the Creator that operates and influences us much more strongly.

This means that we engage in the science of measuring the Creator inside us. I am the instrument, the measuring head. Everything is very simple.

In the free state of egoism, the spring sets the needle on zero. But if there is current going through the coil, the needle moves from zero. We need a source of energy in the network for that, a battery and a switch, a relay. The battery with the switch is the Creator, and the magnetic coil is the center of the group. The center of the group draws the Light into it and this creates in us the conditions for the presence of the Light.

The correcting Light, the Surrounding Light, is concentrated in the center of the group. The needle indicates the Inner Light, according to the level of the ego, the Aviut(thickness).
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From the Talk about Dissemination 10/22/13

Religion Is A System Of Relations With The Creator

What is the essence of religion? Is it given for the benefit of the created beings or for the benefit of the Creator? Where is the reward that it promises, in this world or in the next world?

As Baal HaSulam writes in his article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,” no one knows the right answers to these questions. In their delusions, people do not understand what is called “religion.”

Religion is the human attitude to the upper force that controls all of nature. It would appear that since it controls everything and I am here against my will, that there is nothing we can do about it. However, apparently our relationship with it is such that I can do something myself: to escape the evil or to seek good. In short, if I develop the correct attitude to its influence on me, then I can change something in my life.

So a certain connection extended by the human being to the upper force, and accordingly, by the upper force to the human, is called “religion.” Thus, “religion” is a system of bilateral relations between the Creator and created beings.

The problem is that no one is familiar with this system; everyone is mystified about it. Some take one wrong direction, some take another. Some assert that the Creator is one thing, and some another. Everyone is confused in his own way, and no one knows where the truth lies, where a reward is, and what kind of reward. On the contrary, we do not see in our world that someone has a good life, and in the end, everyone suffers. And the future world is hidden in the fog; this is what they “sell” us…

As a result, we have one big mess with religion. The fact is that this confusion has encompassed all the modern generation. If religion had given us answers to the questions that affects our existence, if it had explained how to live in the world, earning and achieving success in this world and the future world, how to get along with each other, of course we would have observed religious canons. But since religion does not give answers, people leave it. A person becomes weaker and leaves its framework, even if he continues to follow it as a formality.

This is an internal disagreement; a departure from religion is called the “fall of generations” and it is given, and you cannot argue with it. The reason is that we have not received correct answers to the age-old questions from religion and do not know what it represents in reality.

Of course, no one is to blame, and no one can be reproached. This is the process; the program of creation should be realized in us in this way, bringing us to the moment when we finally ask ourselves the three questions listed above. If we answer them correctly, we will know what “religion” is; in other words, how we can build the right relationship with the upper force. And as a result, we may be able to get pleasures in this world and in the future world, for our own benefit and for the benefit of the Creator.

Either way, we should clarify, resolve, this problem. In any case, we are under some higher power, and we need to find out what the proper relationship with it is. This promises benefits, and that is why we need to achieve this in a simple and practical way.

This is the way we offer to a wide audience, “Let’s find out what nature is in this world we live in.” In  Gematria, the meaning of nature (הטבע) is the same as the word “God” (אלה – ים). We all live in this “bubble,” and day by day it threatens us more and more: on the level of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, as well as in human relationships. It is enough that scientists today predict all kinds of natural disasters. Who knows what lies ahead? In general, we see that nature, that is, the Creator, shows us not the friendliest attitude. There is something to improve upon. Let’s see whether we are able to do it. Obviously, it is in our hands.

This check is certainly worthwhile. We need to find out what our attitude toward God, or toward nature,  should be . It will definitely benefit us.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/28/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Watch Your Step Carefully

Question: Why do we have to work on the acceleration of time and advance in the path of the Light if suffering awaits us on it as well?

Answer: I do not feel suffering on the path of the Light, but I see suffering as a means of advancement. I view all the problems as help on the way. Thus, my internal flaws are manifested, although I see them as evils of the external world.

Someone attacks me, and I see this resistance as an opportunity to advance further. If I prepare myself correctly, then I will have no fear only joy. As Baal HaSulam writes, “I rejoice at the revealed flaws” because it means that they can be corrected.

You can always prepare yourself for any challenges. But if you have not prepared yourself by means of the group, your unity, the Surrounding Light that embraces you from all sides, then you will find yourself helpless because you will have neither the Light nor the force of the group. You will just want to run away from troubles because you will lack the means of resisting them.

You will have to restart work to mobilize strengths and fulfill all the conditions in order to overcome these obstacles. Perhaps, this will teach you for the future that you need to prepare in advance.

Question: Thus, on the path of the Light, I get blows, but they are qualitative rather than on the flesh?

Answer: You get not blows, but a good opportunity to advance! If an athlete is going to the Olympic games, he is not going there to relax and spend time idly at the bar, drinking a beer. He goes there to work hard, to exert himself both internally and externally. But, then he receives a medal.

The difference between the path of hastening and natural development is that on the path of the Light we prepare ourselves by all the available means to reach the goal faster. Even if currently I feel no pressure and I could rest, enjoy the peace, and relax a bit, but instead I am still intense. I ask myself, “Am I bringing the Creator pleasure now?” If not, then I suffer because I don’t bring Him joy.

I am like an old man, who walks bent and in advance looks for something he has not yet lost. I am constantly seeking: Where is my group, dissemination, studies, adhesion with the Creator? This is called the path of the Light and hastening, when I am preparing myself all the time. Then, I get small obstacles on the way: a stone lying on the road, a stick thrown, a pile of garbage. But I watch my step carefully and thus see thesedisturbances and step over them. It is not a problem for me. And if I had walked, with my nose up, I would have stumbled and fallen.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/28/13, Shamati #70 “With A Mighty Hand and Fury Poured Out”

A Creative Approach To A Mutual Guarantee

Question: When following the law of mutual guarantee, the reward and the punishment are hidden, and even if you understand it with your mind, something inside you says, “It’s ok, I will still do this for my own sake.” So how can we realize this law?

Answer: It really isn’t easy to execute this law since our whole egoism is directed against it. The law of mutual guarantee is the general and the only law that encompasses the whole system where a person along with the rest of creation exist in adhesion with the common law of nature: the Creator. The system was created by the Creator and He, with the help of the Upper Light, activates it.

The Creator brought restriction and concealment into the system so that we could study the connection between all the parts of this system in order to fail in each of our actions, to discover what is lacking in order for this system to work correctly and efficiently, and to desire for it to begin working. It is like we create this missing part every time, wishing for it to occur, and then, like in a movie, a fairy tale, it suddenly occurs.

It is difficult to express in words how creative a person becomes; one participates in the creation of this system. He attains, understands, constantly adds to and maintains it. All this, of course, is carried out by the upper force, but in adhesion with the Creator since a person sees a purpose and a need in it.

Everything we do should bring us to study the right connection between us and its realization. As we work on creating this system, we learn the entire infinite reality from the broken and distant point of this world to its complete construction.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam

So The Body And Soul Will Be Young

Question: What is the meaning of the “sensation of balance” between a person and society that comes as a result of integral education?

Answer: A person feels kindness, openness, support from everyone, inclusion into others, and feels everyone together rather than himself. He “comes out of himself,” from his problems, from his illnesses, and from his thoughts. This is most important especially in the elderly. He begins to feel like a child who becomes included in the surrounding environment as though he is floating in it. It is very important for him to be with others, to play with them, and to sense them.

If we bring people to such a state, then they will really not feel their age. They will be ready to literally give everything for this. After all, a person feels amazing lightness; he doesn’t feel the weight of his age. This makes him healthier and rejuvenates him.

Rejuvenation takes place when a person rises above his state so much that he becomes included in the collective. He no longer feels himself, but rather the commonality: all as one.
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From Kab TV’s “Medicine of the Future,” Part 4, 4/7/13

Union Of Opposites

Question: What can we say about the role of women in integralworkshops, is it destructive or constructive?

Answer: In nature nothing can be destructive and if such a phenomenon is seen, then it is only in the fact that an object has not been complemented by the opposite property to form a unified, complete whole. In nature there is nothing negative! So it is impossible to say that one thing is worse than another.

If we were to look at everything by way of integral glasses with which nature would appear correctly as a unified system, we would not find anything that would be somewhat worse or better, smaller or greater. For in an integral system everything is equally important and necessary to the same degree.

It is impossible to understand the essence of some object or phenomenon without its opposite. Only when you connect them together do you begin to understand that partnership that grows from them. And specifically from that common source (from the third component, the third line) that you begin to attain, you understand why opposing characteristics such as these, like masculine and feminine, and in what manner they attain their level and the internal program, and that their destiny is specifically attaining wholeness through mutual completion.

We must attain a state like this, where we will be a single complete whole, and through attainment of this unity, from within it, the need for separation, wholeness, and so forth is seen. So, let’s reach the goal and from there everything will be clear to us.

In nature there is nothing evil, there is nothing bad, there is no darkness. Everything in the world that seems bad to us is a result of our incorrect view of the general picture of creation.
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From Kab TV’s “Through Time” 9/21/13

To Sense The Upper Source

Question: When we get into the upbringing of young people we see that there are a multitude of fine details which require systematization. What is the most important thing in the integral education of teenagers?

Answer: The main thing is to give them a clear, inner assurance that all problems in life, in the world, in society, and in individuals can be solved collectively. The correct collective is that source that will always give a person the correct answer. He will always win if he acts in accordance with it.

This firm conviction and the habit to act this way do not cancel a person and do not make him a small screw among the masses. On the contrary, he is above all since he rises because of the collective and because he can work collectively. A person does not disappear in it, but becomes its integral part. As a result, the whole collective in turn becomes his part.

In the end a person rises to such a level when he begins to sense even the hidden forces of human nature, human interaction. It is something that Freud and other psychologists dreamt about. He begins to sense all inclinations and everything that influences our mind, as the upper force, the upper source.

Therefore, our task is to give to a person contact with the upper source so he will know what he should do in life in accordance with this source.
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From the “Talk About Integral Upbringing” 4/4/13