A Thousand Enter A Room And All Go Out To The Light

Question: It is said a thousand enter a room and only some are honored with the discovery of the Creator. Therefore I am overcome by fear, do I have the potential to discover the Reshimot?

On the one hand, I understand that spiritual work is a great benefit and at the same time I cannot be released from the fear. How must one work with this?

Answer: We know that hundreds of millions of people want to be rich, famous, and in control. How many of them attain that goal?

The spiritual goal is compulsory for all. The expression that a thousand enter a room and only one attains the goal belongs to the Kabbalists from the previous generations. In those times it wasn’t required that everyone attain the spiritual worlds and those individuals who merited this acted according to very complex laws. They had to maintain very rigid and difficult conditions in order to enter the upper world.

In our day, every housewife, every simple guy from South America, from Siberia, from Israel, from the United States, and from other regions can attain this without any preparation; the desire simply ignites within them and this is everything. We are entering a state like this where everyone without exception must advance to the goal.

We even turn to those who don’t have this desire, in order to awaken it in them and prevent forward advancement under the influence of suffering because the world is already in a threatening state; we see where everything is advancing. Therefore the condition in which, “a thousand enter and one goes out” is not relevant for us. Today everyone must go out into the spiritual world even those who have not yet entered, not to mention those who are like us.

Today this condition doesn’t work, forget it. The Kabbalists simply reminded us of that to spur us on a little bit, for in spite of it all, one must relate to this very seriously. This is within our power.

The Kabbalists are apparently telling us, act in those frameworks in which you can and then you will succeed. This is saying that you must dedicate all of your spare time to inner work. At least it’s necessary to try to direct our intention to this all the time.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day One 12/13/13, Lesson 1

Where It Hurts Most

Question: The spiritual path goes only through points of friction where I disagree with the teacher and the group. How can I agree if I see that you are wrong?

Answer: Of course you see that the teacher is wrong. You also think that the Creator is wrong in having arranged this tough life in this world for us. Couldn’t He have made it peaceful, pleasurable, and serene?

This spiritual path is against your ego, which means against your desire and your mind. You must constantly rise above the points of friction, which are against your feelings and your mind, one by one, over and over again. These are the points that the spiritual path is made of that become a “door, an opening, and entrance” to adhesion with the Creator and with His creation: “He is one and His name is One.”

This step is always above your reason, where the next stage is. Everything else with which you agree—the pleasant meals together, the friends, the interesting trips—have nothing to do with spirituality! These are only accompanying factors that are meant to bring out the points of friction which are most important.

On the one hand, there is the ordinary life in this world, and on the other hand, there is the life in the group. All this works out very well on all sides. But you are stuck in the middle and cannot agree on certain points and you think to yourself: “Oh well never mind, this is nonsense, so what I if don’t agree! I agree with everything else.”

In your ordinary life you get married, you build a family, work, and do everything, and you live in the group, work with your friends, pay maaser, and participate in all the events. But in certain states you suddenly get stuck and cannot agree and cannot leap over them. At the same time, however, you take the right side or the left side without any problems. Of course, you don’t have a problem, since your ego agrees with everything that happens there.

You should only identify the place where there can be a door, an opening and an entrance. It is there where it hurts the most! You don’t want to evoke these points since this is where you feel the real friction, like a painful injection.

You are with everyone in your feelings and your mind! You love to study, to discuss spiritual matters, you love to spend time with the friends, you give them presents, you “buy the friends,” you invite them over. But sometimes it seems that when it comes to certain matters the group makes wrong decisions. You don’t object but wait quietly until the friends will finally grow up and understand their mistakes and correct them, which means, that they will agree with you. You understand that there is no alternative and nowhere to go since you admit that it is a wonderful, great, smart group and that nothing compares to it.

It is a very common attitude that is typical of most students, but gradually, after several years of study, you begin to feel and see these points of friction in which you get stuck. It is there, in these points, where the entrance that is about to open is. It isn’t a door but a wall, but by working in faith above reason, you will see a door in this wall that will immediately open up and become an opening and an entrance.

The entrance can only be in these points of friction and they are what you should look for and differentiate from everything else! Everything else is under the control of your ego. Only in these points of friction can there be the opening to another dimension by the power of faith.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Beneficial Acceleration In Advancing Forward

We have to identify every kind of relationship and work in thegroup, which when arranged correctly can help us overcome time and space and different external and internal influences.Thus we can overcome the different influences of the Light that Reforms that alternately put us through different states.

We will be able to overcome all this by the help of the environment when its influence is stronger than the influence of the Surrounding Light. Then it can be said: “My sons have defeated Me!” Thus we will ascend above each and every state.

This is actually the main thing we can do and we will learn how to make use of each state in the most beneficial way, which means to “cherish a light Mitzva just like a severe one.” We will always be able to correct ourselves which means to “perform Mitzvot.” We will not be totally dependent on the Light anymore, on its illumination, which brings us different feelings. In fact we are already able to draw the Light that Reforms by our efforts and by the correct connection between us, which means that its influence will help us advance in a more effective way towards the goal.

It doesn’t mean that we want to escape the feeling of the Light and the darkness, the hardening of the heart, no! We understand that it is impossible without it. But if we connect, then we can share all these effects so that we will not feel any obstacles as we advance. All the problems will be solved by the connection between us, since by that we immediately control the Light.

So if our connection is good and correct, we already determine the pace of the ascents and descents that come from the Light; we steadily accelerate our advancement and can determine the pace of the time and the states we go through by ourselves. This will make the ascent permanent and turn it into a day that is totally Light.

The states don’t change and actually remain the same. But when we overcome them we build new levels. Now, too, we are in a state of the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun), and it does not depend on time but on the state, on our feelings. We choose which level of the spiritual ladder to be on. We shouldn’t wait and hope that it will come by itself. Nothing will happen by itself. We have to make it happen. Each of us receives such an invitation to reach the final end of correction from every state we are in.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/13

A Spiritual Baby Needs To Be Fed And Educated

Baal HaSulam, Letter 26: That power, to heed the word of the sages in this reality, in Dalet, is called “faith.”

If you want the upper to take care of your spiritual development, you have to be like a baby and place yourself in the hands of the group and teacher so that they can take care of you.

But if you don’t annul yourself before them, you will not be able to go on to the next level. Only then can they clean you like it says: “the mother shall come and clean her son.” It cannot be any other way. This is exactly what we do in this world when parents take care of a baby and he naturally annuls himself before us. In the spiritual world, however, you have to place yourself by yourself in the hands of the greater so that he can take care of you.

There is no other way. Who else can take care of you? What would happen if a baby was a big strong dimwit and not small and helpless, it would be impossible to take care of him. It would simply be scary to come near such a monster with such a big ego.

A baby has to be fed from a bottle, he has to be cleaned, diapered, and given everything that a baby needs, but in the spiritual sense, of course. He should also be put to bed and then awakened. He should be taught and brought up! After taking care of everything that he needs on the corporeal level, you should begin to teach him; when his body has received everything that it needs, you should gradually give him the inner filling so that he will gradually learn to annul himself.

You don’t start off your spiritual path from the level of a baby and not even from the level of an embryo. You have not clarified and differentiated your drop of spiritual semen yet. You still have to imagine the Reshimot (spiritual genes) that you have to fulfill: to use all your physical powers, your mind, and all the means that you have in this world in order to develop from the present that you were given, from this drop of spiritual semen.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Putting My Life In The Hands Of The Guide

Baal HaSulam is our guide and this means that I must accept everything that is in his books as the absolute truth. If I can understand what it says in my own mind, then I accept it of course, but even if I don’t understand, I should accept it even without understanding. Otherwise I will not reach the desired goal.

A guide means that he is a couple of steps before me telling me: “Follow me, to the right, to the left, straight ahead!” And I follow him. I don’t see the road, but he sees and is walking ahead of me. When I lift my foot in order to take the next step, I don’t know where to put it, and so I ask him: “Should I put it this way?” And he answers: “This way! Now a bit more to the left; not that way, a bit more to the left.” And I follow his instructions. This is following the guide.

It is also the same in our world. If I go mountain climbing or to some other dangerous place where I do not know the road, I put my life in the hands of the guide. It isn’t a tour guide in London; it is called a source, a guide.

The guide of the Bnei Baruch group is Baal HaSulam. If you want to study with us, you should know that we study according to our source. If not, then you should look for somewhere else to study. This is what Rabash told me when I asked him how I could be sure I was in the right place. I was thirty years old, full of energy, I had everything: health, family, money, everything one needs in life. I also asked him the same question: “I am following you and I have to dedicate 20 years before I reach anything, if I find out that this path is wrong, I will discover it when I am 50 and it would already be too late to correct anything in the few years that I would have left. How can I now be sure that I am in the right place?” And he answered: “Go and look for the right place.”

I was disappointed with the answer. I thought that if he were a spiritual guide, he should advise me to make the right choice. But this was his advice: “You should look for yourself, I cannot tell you.” If you choose a certain place, you should accept the teacher and follow him blindly. He becomes your head.

So if anyone doubts me, you should check me with regard to Baal HaSulam. I will be only too happy since I see my mission as presenting him to the public. This is how a person should check if this path is right for him or not; it is a waste of time to study if one doesn’t accept this method.

But if a person has already decided to study in one of our groups, he cannot accept only part of what we study and reject other parts. It turns out that with this he makes a decision based on his ego, thinking that it is more important than the path that we follow and study. I respect his opinion, but it is impossible to advance if one doesn’t accept this method above reason. Sometimes when you reject it but still accept the mind of the upper, you can advance, but if you don’t agree with the teacher about corporeal actions since you judge by your corporeal mind, on the corporeal level, then it cannot be. It is clear how you should perform them and you need to perform them in faith above reason.

Where faith is involve, the influence of the group is necessary. It is very simple: You either agree and accept things or you don’t belong and don’t advance along our path by even one step. A person has to calculate things, and if he disagrees with the teacher when it comes to corporeal matters, then he will certainly disagree when it comes to spiritual issues. He is only deluding himself that in spirituality everything is fine, but his work will lead to nothing. This is the reason that only very few people reach the goal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

The Group As An Envelope Of The Creator

Question: If the external world is a reflection of my inner world, is this saying that the Kabbalistic group is also a part of the reflection of the soul, of the inner state? If so, why exactly is it important to work in a group? And what is the importance of the external world in all of this?

Answer: The importance of the external world is secondary compared to the group. Because you have a group, your reflections appear, mutual work is done with you. You work with people, you influence them reciprocally, and you feel how the Creator puts them opposite you. It could be that you don’t know exactly why He put you in such an opposite way to them, and they against you. But at least this is the result of your interaction with the Creator.

In what is the uniqueness, the specificity of our world? Let’s depict this in a sketch. There is the Creator; there is this world, within it is a group, and there is me. In principle, I must find the Creator. I must connect with Him; I must be like Him, to be equivalent to Him. Therefore I am called Adam, from the word “Domeh” (similar). I must reach the Creator.

And therefore this world was created such that through an immense amount of people, the group, I can find the Creator. Today I don’t see Him and don’t discover Him because I am opposite to Him: I have “minus” and with Him there is “plus.” We don’t understand and don’t feel each other. He indeed feels and understands me; you see He created all this, whereas I don’t understand and don’t feel Him.

So how can I find Him? In what convoluted way can I pass from “minus” to “plus”?

For this I was given interesting “information” called “this world” and the “group.” If I direct myself in adapting to them, then by going outside of myself to them, with this I direct my desires, oversee them, specifically oversee my intentions regarding them, I approach the Creator in this manner.

I only need to be sure that I am going outside of myself and entering this world, that I devote myself to the friends, am concerned about them.

But how is it possible to attain this? How to oversee my departure from the intention “for my own sake” to the intention “for the sake of the Creator”?

Therefore it is said: Do everything not for the sake of the Creator but for the sake of this world. So specifically to that degree, I approach the Creator. But essentially He is concealed behind the friends, and the moment that I position myself correctly regarding this world, I will immediately discover Him.

My integration into this world in 125 levels is absolutely identical to approaching the Creator with 125 levels. The moment that I rise to the first level of connection with this world, I immediately will begin to discover the Creator. He will be revealed to me in our world! He cannot be revealed in anywhere by itself.

Therefore, it is said: “From the love of the Creations to the love of the Creator.” This is not some kind of charitable condition. This is because the Creator is situated behind this world and is linked with it specifically with a link like this. It follows that through work in a group, I erase the boundaries that existed between the Creator and this world.

Why was this given to me? It is so that I will find Him independently and will advance independently, I will “adhere” to Him. Only for this was I given the external envelope of the Creator, which is called “this world” and the “group.”

From here, the words are understood, that the friend must be as important to me as the Creator. The group must be important in my eyes to the same degree as He is. In other words, everything that is outside of me, I must attribute to the Creator.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day Two 12/14/13, Lesson 2

The Future Of Humanity

Question: How is the desired picture of the future reflected in the textbook of integral education? Where is humanity headed?

Answer: The desired future of humanity is to learn systemic balance from nature.

Taking the entirety of nature as a standard, we need to make human nature integral like this, as it is in the world that surrounds us, for we are the most developed inner part of nature but egoistically developed, and this says that it is very bad. No matter what we do, we only destroy the space surrounding us. Therefore, if we begin to learn the integral laws of nature and want to live in harmony with it, this will be the best solution for our problem.

An integral society must live on two levels because a person consists of two parts: the physical body and the spirit that pulls him forward. This spirit now possesses an egoistic form. How can we balance it?

Our body must get all that it requires from nature in order to function normally, whereas the spirit—that is, our desires and yearnings—must be balanced because now they are egoistic. For this, we must place the good of society above our own good and feel ourselves as an integral component of this entire system.
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From Kab TV’s “An Integral World” 10/24/13

A Science Whose Time Has Come

The wisdom of Kabbalah is separate from all the rest of the sciences and human activities in this world. It is concealed from people. Simply studying the sources will not help us understand it. Kabbalah is not given to be learned alone for it requires personal guidance which will make it possible to truly learn it and attain what is said in the books.

Kabbalah is not just a science; rather, it is the wisdom of creation. And it is revealed with the help of a unique force that reaches a person, changes him, and fills him with the “Light” of the intellect and emotion, fills the brain and the heart. Only then does a person encounter the wisdom of Kabbalah and become a Kabbalist. And what he receives is called “Torah” or “The Light that Reforms.” This Light corrects him and gives him another nature compatible with discovery of the higher world. Within our present nature we discover only “this world,” the lowest level, which, in fact, doesn’t exist since it is entirely drawn by illusory perception of the desire to receive. When we acquire a desire to bestow, at this level, it will simply disappear.

The wisdom of Kabbalah talks about the entire process that a person must undergo to acquire characteristics that are compatible with a higher level; that is, the desire to bestow through which he will feel reality.

And the path begins from this world, specifically from the lowest level, where the person is completely detached from what he must attain. First of all it is up to him to correct his instruments of perception, and after that begin to investigate what he received and what he discovered. From here the advancement begins until a person reaches the source of all the Kelim, vessels, desires, and all the fulfillments within them, which is the Creator.

In order to bring the person to such a lofty result, the Kabbalists wrote books for us.

There are auxiliary books that talk about psychological discernments, like “Shamati,” “Dargot HaSulam,” “Shlavei HaSulam,” and the articles by Rabash and Baal HaSulam.

Likewise there are purely Kabbalah books like, The Book of Zohar with the Sulam Commentary, The Study of the Ten Sefirot or “The Tree of Life” by the Ari. The Kabbalists wrote them from an attainment of the upper worlds with new properties. They write them about what they feel, what they perceive, and what is not known to us.

But when we read these books, we can adapt ourselves; yearn to reach those emotions, those corrections, within our senses. And then the reading arouses the Light that Reforms on us, which is the Torah, that is, instruction, the method. When it reaches us, it corrects our intentions from “to receive” to “to bestow,” and then we can discover phenomena of a different order of magnitude and discover the “upper world.” Of course, this is not talking about distant galaxies or distant times; rather, it is about the comprehension of a qualitatively new reality.

I don’t know where the Light appears from; I don’t feel it; but I feel the phenomena it arouses. I begin to be changed; I suddenly feel a chain of elevations and descents, different states.

And after I am changed, I discover a higher reality, and then by reading in those books, I truly begin to be aware of what is written in them. Now I can point to those details that they describe.

Suppose that I bought a large and complex machine. Even though I have don’t understand the principles of its operation, but I have a technical approach and am ready to understand the instructions. With the help of the written instructions, I begin to become familiar with the diagrams and to understand the structure of the system until I learn it all.

The same thing happens to us in the second stage where we see the spiritual system and learn to work with it. This is practical, true work already, on the level of the upper world.

And in addition to that, the two main stages (the attraction of the Light that Reforms and the practical knowledge) are divided into a multitude of stages with accompanying conditions. For example, the wisdom of Kabbalah was forbidden for public consumption except for those who were already “ripe” for it.

In general, development must begin from zero, from the “big bang,” from which afterwards the substance of the still, vegetative, and animate were gradually developed  In continuation from the ape, which is the most developed in the world of the animate, emerged the human who ultimately reaches the final level of egoistic development. In other words, we are compelled to renounce, to disqualify ourselves, to recognize our evil, and only then are we ready for and worthy of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

We see from the experience of history that we have always developed according to this scheme. For example, I move to a village, get involved with farming, building a home, a family, giving birth to children, buying cows and sheep, and after ten or fifteen years, or even less, I am fed up with it. Enough, I don’t want to continue anymore; I need something more than this. So I leave the farm and move to a city and start everything anew.

In other words, all development is based upon the nullification of the previous level and a desire to ascend to the next level. We must hate the present state. On the social scale this brings revolution and on the international scale the matter causes wars that sometimes continue for decades. We must always despair of the present state in order to pass to the next state.

So when will humanity despair of its egoistic development based upon reception “in order to receive” and move to altruistic development with an intention, “in order to bestow”?

The Kabbalists determined that this would occur in the twentieth century, after a number of conditions were established including the return of the people of Israel to its land. And then the time would arrive for the revelation of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Baal HaSulam also talked about this. We received permission to return to the land of Israel and also to reveal the wisdom of Kabbalah. But not everyone will receive this permission but only certain people. For there are people who were not given a desire and there are those who have no connection to this. Other people were given a desire but were forbidden to realize it. But there are those who received the knowledge and it is also possible for them to act. More than this, divine providence pushes them in various ways to the discovery of the wisdom of Kabbalah as the generation is already suitable for this.

Therefore, Baal HaSulam writes that all that he attained and discovered wasn’t derived from his personal achievements but because of the generation that was already required for this discovery.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam