Question: What sentence can I write in front of me in capital letters so that every time I get distracted and my thoughts wander, I could come back to it and refocus again?

Answer: Imagine a state that is worth constantly aspiring to, and describe it so this sentence would immediately remind you that you perceive reality as divided and broken up into different parts only because you are inside of egoism.

As soon as you discard this view through your ego, everything becomes a single whole. It’s like you are looking at reality through a curtain that has small holes in it and what you see seems to be made up of separate parts. But then you remove this curtain from your eyes and all of reality turns out to be one.
From the 2dn part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/28/11, The Zohar
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Question: Why is it so important that there is no connection between my actions and the reward?

Answer: It’s because otherwise you won’t be able to achieve bestowal and exit your nature! You must demand the reward above your nature, beyond it, and build yourself in bestowal for the sake of bestowal (Hafetz Hessed), without demanding any compensation for your ego.

It is necessary to be in selfless bestowal, in pure Bina, above all the actions, even if within those actions and the matter in which you execute them, you still expect a reward. Indeed, it is completely impossible to carry out certain actions and not expect any reward for them, remaining above the egoistic calculation.

And this is why, due to the environment and by utilizing all the conditions, we reach a state when we demand of the Creator to give us this ability: to not demand the reward for ourselves. I don’t know how He will do it or what it is; I have no idea how I will execute these actions of bestowal, but I want to!

We are always developing this request within: from degree zero to the final, fourth one, at every phase, with every examination. This is how we advance until we reach the true demand which finally reveals this quality within us. And from that moment on we begin to understand what it’s like to be in bestowal—what a true miracle is like….
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/2011, Shamati #50

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Freedom of the Collective and the Freedom of the Individual Are Equal

The collective and the individual are one and the same. And there is nothing negative in the individual’s enslavement to the collective because the freedom of the collective and the freedom of the individual are one and the same. And as they share the good, they also share the freedom.

Thus, good attributes and bad attributes, good deeds and bad deeds are evaluated only according to the benefit of the public.

The above applies to those who receive no more than they deserve. But if a part of the collective does not behave accordingly, it turns out that not only do they harm the collective, but they are also harmed.

The drawback, the place that needs correction, is that each and every individual has to understand that his own benefit and the benefit of the collective are one and the same thing. In that, the world will come to its full correction.
- Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”
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Shamati #218 “The Torah and the Creator Are One″
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The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter “Truma (Donation) 2,” “Man’s Nourishments Are as Hard as the Tearing of the Red,” Lesson 35
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 2, Item 2, Lesson 3
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Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 44, Lesson 28
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag “The Peace,” Lesson 2
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My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice and Principles for the Week

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Question: What do we mean by “unity” when we speak to the world?

Answer: To unite according to the condition of mutual guarantee means to be as one man with one heart. In order to unite hearts into one, to unite all desires into one desire the way it was before the breaking of the vessels, we go through two stages.

In the first stage we neutralize the will to receive for the sake of reception and thereby carry out the condition of Hafetz Hesed, “Do not do to another what is hateful to yourself.” By virtue of this I no longer harm my neighbor. I no longer judge a person by how good or bad he is, how much I can use him, control him, and deceive him.

I no longer look for profit from the world. I simply don’t want anything. Once I attain the entire magnitude and guile of my evil, which pushes me to harm others at every second, I yearn to maximally minimize the use of my desires. I only ask for the things I cannot do without, the bare necessities, hoping that then I will attain the quality of bestowal.

I want to become a point, like Malchut that becomes included in Bina. Just one point. It’s as if I don’t exist. My “I” is included in Bina and devoted to it,like a drop of semen in a womb. For now I am just a drop that does not exist by virtue of itself, but on account of the upper one.

This is the first stage where our hearts are not united yet, but they also aren’t repelled from one another.

At the next stage they start coming closer, as it is written, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” With all of my heart (because I don’t have other instruments), I check the heart of the neighbor and see the extent to which I can fulfill him and receive from him. My heart works entirely to serve and fulfill his heart, and he treats me the same way. This is the unity of hearts that we attain by carrying out the principle of love for the neighbor as for ourselves, thereby becoming as one man with one heart.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/11, “The Peace”

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The world’s correction begins when we unite into a group and reveal the force of bestowal among us. Then this group corrects the whole world, which is already ready to unite with it, to join its message. That is how we move towards the end of correction, to our total realization.

By virtue of what do we begin to feel, understand, and realize that correction is necessary? Based on what do we make this conclusion? According to which science, which experimental data?

Life itself is already illustrating this necessity. It is clearly demonstrating that we are in the integral world, all of whose parts are interconnected. However, we are connected by hatred and an awful state of affairs. These relationships are the crisis that is unraveling between people, with repulsion and egoism reigning among them. All of our connections are enveloped by this crisis and therefore our life is becoming more and more difficult. We suffer more and more due to the lack of purpose.

From here we can see that we are nearing a certain realization, and apparently, we have to take some measures. After that we will gradually discover that we are powerless in the face of the world. We cannot correct anything in the external society.

We have quarreled with nature to the maximum, destroying it to such an extent that there is a deadly threat hovering above us. In the end, all that remains is for us to correct ourselves. If we become corrected for the sake of unification, then apparently, our life will become better and safer. Thus, science and bitter experience create a foundation for us, allowing us to realize first hand that it’s worthwhile for us to correct ourselves.

To some extent the outside world already agrees with the presence of the global crisis and the need to achieve true unification among us. Suppose people see that we are obligated, compelled to unite. But how?

A question mark arises before them, which is very significant. After all, if the masses become imbued by it, if they see that there is nothing else to do, they will scream for help, for salvation. It is written, “The sons of Israel cried out from the work.” And even though the masses are not “the sons of Israel,” meaning they don’t aspire straight to the Creator, they are nevertheless ready for it. That is how a nation comes out of Egypt. Who can see and understand the general picture, besides several leaders?

Before our very eyes, humanity is gradually tumbling down toward this state. There are enough facts proving this, and they can strengthen us on the path.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/11, “The Peace”

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In the News (From sciencedaily.com): “The baby’s smile that gladdens a mother’s heart also lights up the reward centers of her brain, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers….

“To study the relationship [between mothers and infants], Strathearn and his colleagues asked 28 first-time mothers with infants aged 5 to 10 months to watch photos of their own babies and other infants while they were in a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner. The machine measures blood flow in the brain. In the scans, areas of increased blood flow “light up,” giving researchers a clue as to where brain activity takes place….

“The areas stimulated by the sight of their own babies were those associated with the neurotransmitter dopamine….

“‘These are areas that have been activated in other experiments associated with drug addiction,’ said Strathearn. ‘It may be that seeing your own baby’s smiling face is like a ‘natural ‎high.’…

“’Understanding how a mother responds uniquely to her own infant, when smiling or crying, may be the first step in understanding the neural basis of mother–infant attachment,’ said Strathearn.”

My comment: This is a chemical manifestation of our egoistic nature. Say, a person obtains the property of love of the other. Will the drug of love “dopamine” get secreted in the person if he sees someone else’s child or a stranger? Is this “drug” the anticipated sensation of the Creator, “the Good Who does Good”? Can we really use MRI and blood analysis to determine whether a person has attained love of the other?
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Question: Why does the burning desire that used to be there at the beginning gradually disappear? One continues to experience good or bad feelings, but sometimes one feels indifference and a complete absence of feelings.

Answer: This is also part of the “game” and concealment. Either one hides his desire to enjoy and acts above it, or one is given concealment from Above. Then, this is not concealment on one’s egoism because one has to make it himself. From Above, they hide from him what he should hide from himself!

It turns out that he loses the connection with the upper luminescence, that little illumination that he was given from Above, and he feels himself completely cut off, as if he has nothing. Sometimes, he realizes that he has lost everything, and at times he does not feel even that, and he starts living like a simple animal. Detachment from the upper source means an animal existence.

If there is a feeling that something higher exists, this is an awakening of the human within us. When we begin to search for something higher, a person starts to grow from within, like a plant does. When we start to take proactive steps, to work in the group with the friends, then we can raise ourselves to the animate level of the human degree. When we realize the form of mutual bestowal, this means that we have reached the genuine, human degree.

From a complete detachment caused by the fact that the upper source was concealed from him, a person reaches a point where he himself hides this upper source from the desire to enjoy. Then, he grows up like a human, above this concealment.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/2011, Shamati #39

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Question: How does one test whether his effort is sufficient?

Answer: Efforts are usually made above reason, above knowledge, when it seems to a person that everything is extremely difficult and impossible, and that he has had enough. He no longer believes in the teacher with his “folly” or in the Creator who is concealed, making it impossible to tell what He wants from him. And he has many complaints about the group as a whole, as well about every person individually.

However, at the same time we need to say that this image that I see is only according to my own faults, my egoism! It’s because in reality, I exist in the world of Infinity. And the group is the souls that I am completely connected with. And the teacher is the part above us that leads us to the connection with the already corrected souls so that we together with them can correct the souls that are still uncorrected. And the Creator will become revealed between us; for now He is concealed for our own good.

If a person imagines this state correctly, if he understands that this world is imaginary and he needs to dig deeper through this illusory image, to its inner form so as to reveal the strings that connect us, like on the reverse side of an embroidered image, he then will be able to put everything in place and demand to be changed.

He will reveal perfection through being in harmony with all the desires, in other words, with the group and the Creator, the quality of bestowal. He will feel that he has attained perfection this way and there is nothing greater than this, no need or desire for anything greater because this is the most perfect state for him!
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/24/2011, Shamati #187

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