Question: When young people, a man and a woman, are making their plans for the future, they dream about the way they’re going to live. Could spouses discuss the ideal picture of an integral family in an integral education group so that everyone could contribute their own vision to it?

Answer: This is useful even today. When creating an image of an ideal family, we need to understand our egoistic nature and have a completely objective attitude towards it. If I can objectively open up to my group, to “dissect” myself before it, and in addition, the group could also explain to me from its point of view who I am and otherwise, then by understanding the viewpoints, habits, and motivations of one another, all the things given by nature and instilled in us, then we would attempt to rise above that into a completely new system of mutual relationships.

We wouldn’t try to break each other because we are creating something mutual: that which is comfortable and good for us. And all our negative inner egoistic impulses would conversely automatically transform into unification above them.

We begin to see that if this egoism of ours didn’t exist, then we wouldn’t have been able to enter into contact with each other. But thanks to the fact that we build this common superstructure above it, the egoism is actually our partner, friend, and helper, acting seemingly against us while in reality demonstrating that precisely through resistance to it, by turning it inside-out in our mutual relationships, we create a new family, a new anti-egoistic society.

Egoism plays a crucial role in this society because without it, we wouldn’t be able to achieve anything. It is the very fabric of nature intentionally instilled in us. What differentiates a person from an animal? It is precisely the fact that year after year, generation after generation, egoism grows within man. By using egoism, except in the opposite direction, we create mutuality between us: Instead of repelling us, we come closer; instead of rejection and hatred, there is love. Everything is contained in this.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #6, 12/14/11

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Today we need to prepare people for the new world the same way that we prepare kids for our world. We should realize that we have to play against our egoism in the same way a little child plays. We are required to artificially evoke this new world in our imagination.

Obviously, we’re deceiving ourselves in this way. Yes, I lie to myself because my egoistic nature forces me to snatch for myself anything I can lay my hands on. But I must be different because otherwise I will not rise to the next level, the level of an integral human being, Adam. I can only rise to it with the help of my environment, which I myself need to create.

So it follows that ultimately I have to examine: “What exactly is this new type of humanity? What can bring me to it? What sort of environment, influence, can shape me into anything? How can I create this environment for myself so that I will change?”

It turns out that, in a way, I elevate myself. I grow through that. In the process I become aware of all the forces of nature that I need to change and use in order to change myself.

By building this new society, a person reaches the highest level of nature. I begin to attain the entire mechanism of my development and understand the full depth of the engine that works in the evolutionary process. I step onto the level of the creator who alters one’s own self.

Can you only imagine what a superb psychologist a person becomes for himself! This is why I believe that this science is the most necessary one in our current state.

From this it becomes clear that we need to teach people about psychology of an individual human being and of society, about freedom of will, and to tell them about the forces that act on us and through which we can influence ourselves. In other words, we ourselves are building the society that is going to change us.

We should study and examine ourselves very well, our inner qualities, both personal and social, through all kinds of connections based on mentalities, habits, and lifestyles. And accordingly, we have to build an integral external influence on humanity as a whole and on each of its civilizations, nations, cultures, and so on.

This is an enormous undertaking, but it is the work of making a true human out of us, and therefore this is noble work. We will create a human being from an animal.

The task we are facing is enormous. The efforts of a tremendous amount of people are required here, and first and foremost of those who are testing all these processes on themselves, who study them, raise objections, discuss, and simultaneously attempt to do something. All of humanity should participate in this, absolutely everyone, young and old! Every person needs to be engaged in this process for a very long time.

If we desire to rise to the next level of our development, the level of the integral image of “Adam,” we need to give ourselves to this pursuit completely and to tend to our beastly, physical state only to whatever extent is actually necessary so that this animal could exist comfortably and not interfere with our creation of Adam out of ourselves.

This shows us why the current condition of humanity is leading us towards that against our will, as well as the reason for the crisis and the enormous amount of the unemployed.

Before long armies of billions of the unemployed will appear and as a result, only the most necessary enterprises such as manufacturing of foodstuffs, clothes, construction, and so on will remain, and only to the extent and quantity required for a normal existence. Only a certain number of people will work in these enterprises, or perhaps everyone a little bit of time. But all of them, regardless of whether they’re working or free from work, will have to pursue integral education.

With that humanity is freeing tremendous egoistic resources that previously were busy manufacturing unnecessary things. They will all be gradually transitioned precisely towards building the next stage: the creation of an integral society.

We won’t be able to avoid it. We need to progressively make our way towards this because only movement in that direction will smooth out our current threatening state, which leads us toward a world war.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #6, 12/14/11

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Not by chance is human society becoming more compressed, closed, and homogeneous. Apparently, this is a natural process programmed in our development. We can observe this from aside, study, and analyze it, but this is a fact. It does not matter whether we like it or not, but there is a certain process of development of our nature that we must undergo, and these forms must be revealed.

Therefore, we have no choice, and obviously, we have to build a more connected, friendly, warm society, based on mutual support and participation. All the ancient sources, religions, and beliefs say that in the end, we have to come to love.

People who live in nature, far away from people, say the same thing. They feel love coming from nature and its concern about everything that is contained in it. And we, relating to each other egoistically, looking through our own egoistic perspective, do not notice this love.

I once talked with Jane Goodall who lived in the jungle for about 17 years among chimpanzees; she received the Nobel Prize for her research. I asked her what the most important thing she learned from the feeling of living among the chimpanzees in the jungle where there were no other humans, and if they were ready to accept her as one of their own. And she replied: “Love, this is what I felt among them. Although they are always trying to sort out problems and seem to shout, but this is only to awaken love. And I began to discover the same thing in the trees, forest, sky, earth ….”

Dr. Jane Goodall and Dr. Michael Laitman, Arosa Forum, Switzwerland

She made such a discovery even though she does not have a sentimental character. A person, who arrived from a U.S. concrete jungle and lived for so many years in the jungle, slowly revealed that the whole nature is filled with love.

And here we really are facing a huge problem. All religions, beliefs, and various spiritual practices speak with one voice that a human being must achieve universal unity, if not love, at least good relations, without which humanity simply cannot continue to exist.

To do that, we go through this process in order to feel the need, to want to come to love, to develop new relationships. It is impossible to force one to love! I can pay money to buy anything except love. It is possible to purchase a polite attitude for money, but love is a very special feeling, separate from all other human emotions!

For example, I feel that you have become important for me because through you I learn, understand, and attain something new in life. You become dear to me as much as the subject that I want to get with your help. Thus, a good relationship is built between us.

We may enter into such relations with each other when we need to establish trust. Because I need you and you need me, there is trust between us, to the extent that I can rely on you. But if suddenly someone comes who will pay more and bring you more content and pleasure, all your trust and loyalty disappear.

That is why, we now find ourselves in an unusual situation. Our development has led us to feel that we depend on each other and are required to establish good relationships with each other, to the extent that we should love one another! Otherwise, we will not have the correct trust that is needed to achieve a good life today.
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From Kab TV’s “A New Life” Episode #6, 1/3/12

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The purpose of creation is to reach adhesion with the Creator. We discover adhesion with the Creator with the help of the attribute of love. This is because the Creator reveals to the created being the attribute and the attitude called love, which are expressed in the form of the good and the benevolent.

It is the same in our world, when we love someone, we want to do good to them. It is an external sign of love. But if a person lacks the desire to do good, it means that he doesn’t love, but rather he calculates what is more advantageous for him: He gives in order to receive.

Love is above all the calculations. First there is love and then, as a result, comes the giving. Love in itself is what obliges a person to give because one is fulfilled from that. When I love and I cannot give, I suffer. This is because love lives by our feeling good when we give to the people we love.

So why is there a Mitzva that we reach the love of the Creator? This is unclear for two reasons. On one hand, how should I want this? On the other hand, why is this an obligation? Can someone be obliged to love? Why does this idea take on the form of a commandment, of the most important Mitzva? Even in our life we see that in this world you can oblige a person to do anything except to love. If I am obliged, it isn’t love anymore.

This brings up many questions, which we shall leave for philosophers and instead will talk about it looking at the system. The system of creation was created by the upper Light, which comes to us from the source of love, from the Creator’s love to the created being. This love is inherently absolute. In order to fulfill it, the upper Light spreads from the source in the form of the good and the benevolent and stabilizes the created being so that all the processes will be able to fully take place in him. This is done only from the love of the Creator to the created being.

First we have to understand that everything that happens to us, the worst and most terrible things, from which humanity has suffered throughout its corporeal history, and also on the levels of the spiritual worlds—all stemmed from the Creator’s absolute love for us. We have to reach the same attitude on our part.

This is possible because the Light that develops us comes from exactly the same source. It descends through the Masachim (screens), the filters, and begins to influence our smallest desire to receive, the tiny grain of egoism, the low, the murky, and the dead. Gradually the Light influences our matter on higher levels of the ladder of development and evokes this grain to start growing. The desire goes through the phases of the inanimate, vegetative, and animate, to the level of speaking in which the same cycle takes place, and so on.

All this comes from love. Then, at the end of the process, whether we like it or not, love will reside among us. But it works in two lines: the deficiency and the filling. This is how we advance.

First the Creator has to gradually create deficiencies in us, desires, from top down, together with the fulfillments on every level and in every state. The difference between these levels is qualitative: We grow wiser, acquire greater understanding and feeling, and turn from single cells in a body into human beings. Then with the point in the heart, we exit into the spiritual levels.

All this stems from the Creator’s love and so there is no doubt that we will return to it. So why are we commanded to do that? Why should there be a demand for a predetermined result? The commandment is that we shouldn’t stop on the way, and should constantly move forward. If we push ourselves forward willingly we will undoubtedly reach love.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/31/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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It is impossible to attain true love without the basis of  hatred. Without hate there is only beastly love, a game of hormones: One shot and you love; another shot and you fall out of love. In our world, love is actually a pursuit of the fulfillment. When you want to eat, you love pie, and when you want to start a family, you love your spouse and children. These are simply different kinds of fillings that can be reconstructed if we implant certain electrodes in a person’s brain.

True love is built only above hate. Otherwise it is impossible to feel it. In our world, there is no love; we are talking about human love, not animal attraction that brings egoistic pleasure.

Question: It reminds me of cartoons where the characters find themselves in the air above an abyss and they still keep running for a while before they look down.

Answer: Exactly, they discover that they are hanging above a chasm, and then they fall. This is exactly what is happening in the world today. This is really a nice description of the crisis. This is why those in power are afraid to look down.

Question: How can we hold on to something in this situation? How can we reach true love?

Answer: Actually, I am a small person and I don’t feel sublime things, but am only confused in my present state. So what should I do?

The answer is simple: You need a group. This is both the diagnosis of the disease and its cure.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/31/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Hate is inseparable from love. This principle should be engrained in me so that it becomes my program in relation to the world, through which I look at everything. In this form, I always will be in the middle line, in the middle third of Tifferet, Klipat Noga, in the point of my free choice.

Otherwise, I cannot orient myself and do not know where I am: in the area of bestowal or reception, or in a complete fog. Until I form two opposite lines, I am not in the world, which can be a reality.

So we go through so many ups and downs until we begin to understand the weakness of being only in the right or only in the left line. To be just in the right or just in the left is an egoistic state, Klipah Ishmael or Esau.

And if I am in the right and in the left line in order to connect them and rise above them so that the right line is always a bit higher than the left one (as there is always an inclination to the right), then I build the middle line.

But they both are present and support each other. Through this system of two lines, it is possible to see the importance of bestowal, in comparison to reception. And if there is no reception, how can we check?

Therefore, hatred and rejection must exist. A person, who is not in close contact with his friends, does not want to connect, and stays on the sidelines, might have excellent relations with others, might be a good friend, quiet, and calm, but not be involved in the work.

On the other hand, someone, who is argumentative and volatile and who cannot get along with anyone, may be able to establish inner contact with friends. Not only do we need to consider this criterion check judged by such outward appearances, but everyone needs to examine oneself inside.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/31/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How can I present a gift to my friends if we are connected virtually?

Answer: Do we give material gifts to friends when we meet them in person? A true gift is in the heart. If we really have gifts for our friends then they will feel it. One who gives a gift is called upper and one who receives it is called lower. And they are called friends when the receiver feels the giver of the gift and accepts it with love and joy because he understands that this is an expression of the friend’s love towards him, and by receiving the gift he reciprocates with love.

A gift is but a ploy, and that’s why it’s unimportant who gives and who receives; both are equals. If we can build this kind of relationship between us then we will feel one another like a mother that feels her child from afar. After all, love is more powerful than distance.
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/29/12, Writings of Rabash
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Question: You said that instead of aspiring for fulfillment, we should aspire to desire, necessity. What does it mean to aspire to a desire? What does it mean to get fulfillment from a desire?

Answer: A young man is walking down the street and glowing with happiness. Why? He loves a girl.

Tell me, what does he get from this love? Why does this feeling fill him so much? What does he receive? He doesn’t receive, but is ready to bestow. He wants to unite with her, to love. I am not talking about love between adults, about sexual relations, but about a higher feeling, even though it is also based upon reception.

You love a person and want to do something pleasant for him. You want him to be happy and aspire to unite with him.

Besides hormonal attraction, which even animals experience, we received such an exalted feeling so that we would learn something from it. After all, nothing was created in vain. That is why in our biological organism, in this protein body, there is a certain inspiration from this kind of feeling for the neighbor, called love of one person for another.

Why does this fulfill me? Feelings fill us. Love is filled by the fact that I exist in bestowal rather than reception. And if I receive something from someone who loves me, then it’s only to awaken me to respond to the Light. But in essence, if love lives inside of me, then I enjoy by bestowing to the person I love, without receiving from him.

This is a law of nature and nothing can be done about it.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/12, The Book of Zohar

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All our work is climbing up the levels, where every level is totally cut off from the previous one. Such a ladder is created during the cascading from top down, when Malchut of the upper becomes the Keter of the lower. And this is how the transition from one state to another takes place, even if it isn’t an ascent up the spiritual degrees yet.

It is a real transformation, and the change our matter goes through is so thorough and complete that we cease to understand ourselves during the transition from one state to another. This is because all these states are made of the change in the amount of the Light that evokes our desire to receive, and both, the Light and the desire, give birth to a new level, a new state.

When we are on the new level, we have nothing left of the previous state except for the Reshimot (informational genes) that brought about this new state. It is also concealed. This means that there is nothing from the previous state in the new spiritual state.

We feel that it happens this way even before entering the spiritual world; we have to agree with all the states we go through, and learn from them what the spiritual transition really is as we move from one world to another. Every level is actually a world in itself.

The problem is that there are two elements in every level: the desire to receive and the desire to bestow, which are two opposites that contradict one another—the right and left lines, each with its own shell. We have to become the middle line that connects the two in it, that controls them and that is above them.

The cascading from top down takes place in the following way: Hochma (on the right), Bina (on the left), and then Da’at (wisdom) (below, in the middle). And thus a triangle is formed with a vertex facing downwards. During the ascent from the bottom up there is Hochma (on the right) and Bina (on the left) and then Keter (on the top, in the middle), because we only want to rise. Each time it is the result of Hochma and Bina, Hassadim and Gevurot, fear and love, and always above them.

And so there is always a problem of how to combine these two components that contradict one another, until the third arrives and decides. The third component comes from Above in the form of the revelation of the Creator, after a person sees that he absolutely cannot reconcile the two.

Therefore, self-sacrifice is required both in fear and in love. In fear it is harder to attain than in love, because love also absorbs the soul and they both act in the same way. If I love someone, I am totally devoted to him and desire to connect to him. This is how it seems to us in this world, because we love what our desire to receive likes.

But in the spiritual world I love what is hated by my egoism, as it says: “love will cover all the sins.” This means that self-sacrifice is also difficult in love, but in hate it is totally impossible.

To hate and to give my soul is called to use my vessels to receive in order to bestow. So how can I unite my most hated enemies who also hate me, and to bestow upon everyone the good that I can only do to the people I love most and that are closest to me?

This can only be done for some additional goal that justifies everything else. But if the goal is the action itself, it is simply impossible. This means that a very difficult ascent is expected here, above personal accounts.

We approach it gradually, perhaps not by the Light, which is the shortest and nicest path, but on a much longer path that includes sufferings and that is called “Derech Ererz,” (the path of the earth). Eventually, however, we reach the goal, because the upper Light operates on every action that we perform and decides between the two rival sides.

Therefore, although I have to give my soul both in fear and in love, they arrive alternately, until we rise and are able to connect everything. Then you can be in a state of self-sacrifice in fear too, just like in love.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/12, Shamati #219

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Question: If the breaking of the Kelim (vessels, desires) occurred as a chain reaction, then does love have the ability to connect everything back together through a chain reaction?

Answer: There exists a kind of spiritual “virus” that spreads through the group if we are even somehow connected together, even partially. And then this virus “infects” everyone and obliges them to submit to it.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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