Morning Lesson July 8, 2021, Transcription
PART 2
Finding the Good in the Friend - Selected Excerpts from the Sources
22. R. (00:16) Yes, we learn, perhaps attain, that all of our spiritual attainment comes to us to the extent that we can incorporate together since each and every one carries inside of him a broken vessel, a part of the broken vessel of Adam HaRishon. To the extent that we can come close to one another through various actions, by that we begin to feel new states above our ego, in spite of our ego, as much as we can come close to one another, forcibly to be in the connection between us, then to the extent that we are connected, we attain spirituality. Our ego is very big. In each and every one, it stands and it resists our efforts to come close to one another. As much as we can work nevertheless through the connection between us, mutual help, each shall help his friend, as much as we can turn together to the Creator to help us out, and in establishing this web of connections between us that we will have spiritual communications not corporeal, accordingly we can begin to feel what it means. The spiritual world, it is the connection between the egoistic parts above which they rise and build this web, this network and this web that they put together is called a soul. Inside the soul, according to how much resistance they have and together with that, above the resistance, how much force of connection they have, then the gap between resistance and connections and the difference between the two, gives them the ability to feel greater intensity, deeper and clear intensity, the spiritual force.
It always comes, the feeling of spirituality comes from its opposite, meaning we have a great will to receive, a big ego, great rejections, hate, we wish to kill one another, we wish to run away, leave everyone, that's on the one hand. On the other hand, since there's no choice, we nevertheless come and we try to overcome. We support one another so that each one can overcome himself a bit more, a bit more, in the connection with others and in this we assemble the system, just barely. Nevertheless, it is built and therefore we get into states that we attain how much we don't want any connection, how much we are indifferent to one another, maybe even we reject and repel one another and how much we wish to run away from it all. Yet we hold each other and we actually come closer in this concept of the group, the 10. All of it is done by the Creator who takes care of us either in a concealed way, or more openly, and this way we finally come to a state of the first connection, then a falling apart, second connection, then moving apart, a third connection, hate, a fourth connection, and this way more and more and more, the path is entirely accompanied by the growing coarseness and rising above it, the revelation of the coarseness and rising above that. Hence as it is written here, finding the good in the friend, how can you find good in the friend?
If we come to the wisdom of Kabbalah then each and every one of us is an egoist and he doesn't want to connect. It's not the reason he came here for and if he would hear that this is the purpose for which we come to the wisdom of Kabbalah, he would stay away from it. So, we also have to be careful in our dissemination to not speak of connections because who is crazy here to think of connection? If there are people who wish to connect, they go to these special activities, prostitution and drugs, and they call that connection. But to us come people who wish only to know the upper force. That's why we have to be careful and not speak of connection in this way, but only in general to those that don't come to us, to people in general, we can talk about the necessity for connection in order to save ourselves from the pandemic and the other blows that are lining up against humanity. So, let's see what Kabbalists wrote to us in finding the good in the friend in order to connect with him and attain the Creator because the Creator is found only behind the friend.
Excerpt 1 (08:05)
23. R. (09:21) Meaning, on what point I need to correct myself until I stop seeing anything wrong with my friend and it is not because the friend corrected himself but because I corrected myself, harsh words.
24. S. (09:48) You speak about the upper force can't you talk about the upper force which can give that result of connection. People who don't know the wisdom of Kabbalah, what should they think about the upper force?
R. I don't know what kind of question this is? The people who don't know about the upper force, what do they think about the upper force? They think about different things, you know there are 2800, that's as much as they counted, 2800 beliefs, religions, methods that relate to the upper force in humanity and each time more and more is revealed. It's like this upper force, the upper force and there are those who vent such strange new beliefs that it's hard to imagine but the human mind is capable.
25. S. (11:54) In what way should I correct myself with what force if I do not run myself?
R. Only when we want to connect between us, we want to forcefully bring ourselves closer internally and we feel that we cannot do it but in this inner connection week attain the soul. We have no other way then we turn to the Creator and we're asking him to help us to reveal such a connection between us in our internality is called the soul, and it will be revealed there. In this way we come to connection. Clear?
26. S. (13:04) What does it mean that the deficiency is in me, the fault is in me, because we were saying that the fault is in the connection?
R. When I'm not able to connect with the other, it is not in the other, it's not in the air somewhere, it is in me. In me there is resistance and there is the conflict with the idea of connecting with the other, it is a special force. It is like a magnet which repels the other magnet. You can invert it so it connects with the other and then in such a way that repels the others, so in me there is the repelling force.
27. S. (14:02) Why does he say, he says if he has love of friends that love of friends is a very high degree so when can you begin this work about looking at the friend’s fault?
R. According as it does not exist in anyone, it exists in the connection between us, the force of separation, rejection, opposition. As much as above this rejection we build the force of connection. These two bits of information, they make up the coarseness and the refined part of the vessel, according to these two parameters, coarseness and refinement, this is how we measure our vessel. This determines our spiritual degree. It is like in technology, exactly the same in mechanics, engines, electronics, electricity, you need a great deal of resistance and together with that a great force that works on the resistance and then you can measure the power. The same as between people.
28. S. (15:56) What does it mean that he corrects himself? What is this operation and how do you approach it?
R. Correcting oneself means, I try to connect with the other and I discover how I am not capable, there is nothing more repulsive and more disgusting than connecting with others on the one hand. On the other hand, I never stop learning, participating in various actions and then I will see that I have no choice and I can barely make it to the lessons but that I have no choice, I cannot let it go because there is no other way into spirituality, eternity, the Creator. There is not. Then I come to a stage where all though I am not able to connect, that I am not able to bestow, that I have to do this nevertheless and I am in a state of helplessness and everything comes up to a cry, what we call a prayer, that the Creator must help me.
29. S. (17:31) There's a big desire to achieve eternal love that the Creator loves us. Is this the correct deficiency or this is not enough and we also need to ask why?
R. Why do I need it? That is a question. A person has to clarify, and that's the question he had even before coming to the wisdom of Kabbalah; why am I alive, why is it worthwhile to be alive, maybe it's better off to be dead? The Kabbalists wrote about this as well. They wrote about who is happier, who is luckier, the one who was born or the one who was not? hey said, of course the one who was not born and doesn't live in this world is better off, but if you were born and you already exist in this world, then attain what you are capable of attaining because this is the action, this is the state with the best results, the best possible outcome of your existence right now.
30. S. (19:07) It says here, it is not that he should see that his friend should correct his fault, what he sees is that he himself needs correction. It is something intellectual, if I say this to a person, he won't understand what I'm saying, is this in the intellect or above it?
R. Don't explain to others, explain it to yourself and then you will understand how to explain it to others, if it is even possible.
S. Can you explain briefly what it means?
R. If you see certain flaws, all of these flaws exist in you, all of them down to the last one.
S. Is there a rational explanation?
R. Just a simple explanation that you are before the Creator and there is None Else Besides Him and if you see any bad things, this is what you depict with your will to receive.
S. My image?
R. Yes. Now you understand how ugly you are.
S. Yes, you keep telling me if my wife does something to me you say it's not her it's the Creator doing this to you and I say great my wife is an angel, every problem she gives me, it's not her it's the Creator, that’s what I'm talking about.
R. We are not talking about that as these things are above reason.
31. S. (20:47) I feel like the worst person in the world more every day, how should I study to feel only my friends' merits and not their faults?
R. Only according to how much you correct yourself, then you will discover that your friends are all corrected because each one has flaws according to his own flaws so correct yourself and you will see the friends are all good. In order to correct oneself you have to agree with your friend that you will help one another to be corrected.
32. S. (21:59) How can we attract a force of good to help our friend get through the new state?
R. The fact that you all think of everyone because otherwise you can't come to any good result, that is enough for you to help you rise to a higher degree. Try together, together more and more so no one thinks of himself only of everyone else. It is not like I am not in it as I am also in it and part of it, but all of us together and you will see to what extent this inclination connects you more and more to reveal the new reality, the new essence. That you are together and together means already a part of the Creator, that you are capable of it.
33. S. (23:29) Thanks to the criticism we can correct our fault because if we didn't have it, we wouldn't be able to correct ourselves?
R. Correct, a person cannot correct anything unless he feels the flaw, that is why their Creator awakens within as the flaws, the blemishes and in truth they are not ours but this is how we feel them. We advance by reaching a feeling of suffering from them which also comes to us artificially but this is how we advance; we have to be as much as possible in the inclination towards connection and then very quickly we can connect all of the flaws. We are very close to the corrections, it is only a very thin partition that stands between us in spirituality and the corrections, we need to change our direction, our minds and our approach, our attitude and then we will be there.
34. S. (25:17) Seeing the Creator behind the friend is this a personal correction?
R. Why does that matter? Partial correction complete correction, we have to work on connection as much as possible.
S. The more we correct ourselves we will see more flaws?
R. Yes, of course the more that we corrected, the more prepared we are for correcting and making even more corrections. This is why even greater flaws will be revealed because we already have corrected and prepared ourselves for those corrections. So don't think about how I thought I corrected something and now I see that I have additional corrections to perform, it is specifically because you have succeeded in your past corrections and you now have the next round of corrections before you. This is why he who is greater than his friend his inclination is greater.
Excerpt 2 (27:15)
35. R. (28:14) I cannot say but if I am looking for flaws in my friend, I've then understood it is my own flaw and I correct myself, that is not the short or correct path. If I look for the good in the friend and then together with that, I discover certain flaws in him then I can come to a state where I correct them by correcting myself.
Excerpt 3 (28:46) Twice
36. S. (31:16) What is the meaning in going in faith above reason with the friend? What does it mean to look at the friend above reason?
R. Out of all the bad things that I see in him I don't want to see them as bad because I see them as my own flaws but rather, I ascribe all of these things to his goodness, that all of the good things in him that I should identify, I invert them to bad things by my own ego. That is why I should correct only myself.
S. What is the above reason here?
R. That I relate to it not according to my own reason but above my reason, I should do it the other way around, to correct myself until I see all of these things in him as good.
S. What about this it's fitting that even though it's in his friends he doesn't see it and love covers all transgressions?
R. Both the good things and the bad things, this is how I should relate to him. I don't see either good or bad, it is only my ego.
37. S. (32:58) It says that in the first excerpt that I don't have a friend for a friend, but I have to go above reason?
R. Yes, until we reach a natural measure of love you have to go above everything.
S. Then I actually come to what it says and number two, that this is a result, so you say when is the first stage where I don't have love and stage two is where I find love?
R. Yes, it is not love but love is the force of connection that we have in the correct system, that is all as it is the correct mutual connection that exists in one system.
38. S. (33:57) On one hand I'm not allowed to pray for myself, only for the friends, but at the same time we need to see the friends as greater than me, come and see their merits not to see their faults. When I discover these deficiencies, I can't ask for them because they're mine and I'm not allowed to ask for myself.
R. No, this is also considered that you are praying for the friends, when you are asking to see the friend’s merit rather than their faults this means that you are praying for them, you are correct and it is a very good question.
39. S. (35:25) We need to always just look at the good side and to find merit in the friends. Does this mean we are corrected or that we simply cover things and don't enable the correction to come?
R. We are not enabling the correction to come, if you are going to the lesson and you feel that you don't have a good mood, that you are not awakened, that you are not so much going above your usual state, that you don't feel the usual air. You should demand is from the lesson, during the lesson or at least towards the end of the lesson you should feel that you have gotten spiritual air which has filled you and that you are ready to fly, otherwise it is not considered that you have been to the lesson. Each and every one of you should overcome his indifference and to try to think about himself and the others how you were helping each other two rises from your egoistic desire that always puts pressure on you and always puts you down like gravity. That it always brings you down to the ground, not letting you stand, I'm not talking about flying as that is something we can't yet, so we have to demand this during the lesson from each other and to help each other so that during the lesson we begin to feel that we are rising above the ground. We have been with you more than an hour and a half now, almost sixty or seventy percent of the lesson is gone and I don't yet see you rising, that you are concerned about how much each one can help the others and that everyone has the same opportunity. Where is this that each one helped his friend, I don't see it is happening. Rather each one is in his own low state and that is not good. This is something that we mustn't leave ourselves in such a state.
40. S. (38:56) Is it better to see the friends greater within reason or above reason?
R. It is better to see them within reason that he is greater but at least above reason that he is greater than him.
41. S. (39:33) Can you say please if we see a certain flaw in the friend and it is not just one but that several friends see the blemish, how do we work with this? If this repeats itself from time to time, we need to swallow this matter and agree with it and work with it inside, to raise the friend or to do some physical actions?
R. You should relate to your friend that this is what the Creator is doing in him, the upper force and this is why you need to help the friend and basically it is you are the ones who are helping yourselves to come out of it so that he will rise above it, this is one thing. It is not that you don't see that, you do see it, you should respond to that. You are not letting go and saying that whatever I see in him that it is my own bad, what is going to come out of that? You have to correct, you see in him, inside himself, it doesn't matter as it is correctable.