We are all puppets, deprived of free choice. People circulate in this world, in material, “animal” life.

Meanwhile, their egoistic desire grows until it reaches special states of despair that are directed toward the revelation of the embryo of the soul, the point in the heart.

And perhaps not a point in the heart, simply suffering sends a person into search, and then he joins those in whom the soul has already “broken through.”

Within the common cauldron, desire continues to simmer, and at a certain stage a part of humanity acquires the possibility of free choice. This means that people act, so to speak, independently of the Creator. They are freed from their egoistic desire, and it is entirely and completely in His hands.

I acquire freedom from my egoism and become independent of it, that is, independent of the Creator who governs it. Together with others, we turn into independent acting beings; we want to understand and realize what is happening ourselves and to take part in the process ourselves.

I do not want the Creator to govern me—I want to act exactly as He does, but of my own freewill. Through this, I come to know His work, His actions, His goals. My “profit” lies in the fact that I become similar to Him, become a human (Adam), and perform exactly the same work that He performed over me.

In the end, all the benefit here is that I give pleasure to the Creator. There is nothing else besides this.
But there are also people who do not possess a soul of this type. Their souls can only join the development to one degree or another. As they become what is called “dust under the feet of the righteous,” they receive illumination and spiritualization through this, they understand the importance of the process, and they also acquire their soul.

Likewise, in our world there are leaders, “those who lead,” and “those who are led,” those who simply live their lives without questioning them. They constitute 99.9% of the population who earn their bread and do not feel a lack of anything more. However, in unity with everyone, each will reach his or her root in the common Malchut.

Through interconnection we all feel ourselves living in one world. Of course, great scientists, philosophers, and thinkers understand it far better than a street sweeper or a market trader who knows only how to sell watermelons and watch football on television. There is no need at all to despise him, he is not guilty of anything; it is simply that his desire has such a structure and acts in such a way. Another person, however, needs to attain the world from the height of Malchut of infinity, otherwise he feels unrealized.

All the difference between them lies in the desire that the Creator created and awakens to life. Everything comes from the Creator. And therefore the thinker must understand that in his realization he is in no way higher than the trader. For the circumstances do not depend on him at all. Thus it turns out that in this sense they are completely equal, because all their accounts are signed by the Creator.
[41714]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 4/28/11, Baal HaSulam, “The Acting Mind”

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Our world is a copy of infinity, only at the smallest level of sensation. We perceive and feel reality only to an insignificant degree; we are as far as possible from complete perception.

It is like a person with poor eyesight who sees almost nothing without glasses. He barely distinguishes those around him, even though they stand right next to him.

Drowsy, blurred sensations, a tiny fraction of clear awareness of infinity—this is what our world is. Yet we always reveal a complete picture, just as each fragment of a hologram contains the entire image.

Even at the lowest degree, I observe the full spectrum of reality to the extent that I can see it without “glasses.” The better these glasses are, the clearer the picture becomes.

We exist in an unchanging state; we simply feel it according to the clarity of our perception. The clearest, most unclouded perception is the world of infinity.

To approach it, we must first correct our tools of perception (Kelim), to reveal a bit more light within them. And in order for that to happen, they must become similar to the light.

The advice of Kabbalists helps us in this correction, and when the light is revealed, we discover a “treasure” or rather, a deposit, a new layer of reality that was originally “placed” into our account.
[5120]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 10/2/09, Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book From the Mouth of a Sage“

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I am locked inside my own shell that separates me from the Creator who is outside. I am a slave; I cannot break out on my own. Every moment a force is working on me that automatically returns me to myself, to the egoistic center.

How can I make myself pay attention to what is happening outside so that I understand that this too is me and that there, outside, I exist together with the Creator? That is my true reality, there I am beyond my animal, and there is my soul, outside of that egoistic “me” by which I currently define myself.

These are two forces acting in nature. And I need to arrange things so that the second, centrifugal force acts on me just as naturally, instinctively, and inevitably as the first, the centripetal one.

Let it seize my mind and heart and forcefully pull them outward!

Let it compel me to think about others and care about them! I need this because without it I will not find my soul.

And here the power of the Kabbalistic group helps me. Only it can convince me to step outside my own circle and to pay attention to what is “outside it.”

And when I change my orientation from “intra” to “extra,” I stop worrying about the body and begin to care for the soul. I understand that the external reality that seemed foreign to me and completely indifferent hides within itself the real me!

This outer circle is in fact much more precious to me than the inner one because there lies my soul, which is eternal. And the inner circle is nothing more than the animal that is allotted some 70 years.

But the concealment does not allow me to see all this. And when I begin to understand it, I am astonished at how the Creator pranks me.
[12061]
From Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 4/1/10

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Our world operates according to the desire to receive pleasure; that is, every part of creation instinctively makes an internal calculation about what is most beneficial for it, according to its understanding, inner makeup, inborn qualities, upbringing, and the influence of the environment. We are incapable of acting otherwise.

We are not even aware of how much each of us is locked into such an egoistic calculation every single moment. And even when we perform some merciful act, it is only in order to gain something through it; otherwise, we would have no motivation to act that way. This is how all of nature functions, from the smallest atomic particle to the most educated and developed human being.

But there is another intention: for the sake of bestowal, not for one’s own benefit, but for the benefit of the other. This is the anti-world, anti-matter, the complete opposite of everything that exists in this world.

There cannot be even a thought about oneself there; such a thought has undergone restriction (Tzimtzum) and is cut off. Everything is governed and moved solely by concern for the good of the other.

So how can we approach such a vision and such calculations? Naturally, this is not within our power because no such force exists in our world. We must draw it to ourselves from that other, opposite reality that exists beyond the boundary of the spiritual world called the Machsom.

But how is it possible for that force to reach us at all, if everything operates according to the law of equivalence of form, and like connects with like? Yet there is a special force called “the light that returns to the source,” “the light that reforms,” or “surrounding light,” that can shine on us to the extent of our yearning to be in that opposite world.

It helps us even if our yearning is false, even if we do not understand that world or feel it, as long as we have at least some relation to it, a single point of contact with it, the “point in the heart,” a spark of the spiritual world.

If we work on this spark, then to the extent of our efforts, the spiritual force shines upon us and turns these efforts into “spiritual flesh” around that point, which begins to grow. Until it becomes a complete spiritual vessel through which you break through into that very anti-world, and then you find yourself in the “opposite reality.”

The request for the force that brings changes—for the light that returns to the source, that corrects our intentions from egoistic to bestow upon the other—is called prayer. And to the extent of our yearning, our demand, our persistence, this wondrous force acts upon us and carries out changes within us.
[37159]
From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/11, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that Charity to the Poor Makes the Holy Name, in the Work?”

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