Part 2:
Morning Lesson September 28, 2021, Transcription
Everything is Obtained by the Power of Prayer - Selected Excerpts from the Sources, #18
Excerpt 18 (00:20) Twice
1.R. (02:48) This is basically our prayer for the Creator to help me, that I have to perform actions of bestowal to the friends and through them to the Creator unconditionally. “To pour out his heart to the Creator to help him so the body will agree to enslave itself to the Creator unconditionally.”
Reader continues: “That one sees that he cannot persuade himself….”
2. S. (03:50) What is the significance of all of myself working entirely in bestowal?
R. Just as now you are working totally in reception, to serve all of your thoughts and desires so they will be filled with abundance with whatever you think is good, likewise you will ask that all of your thoughts and desires will be in bestowal and to satisfy and fill the friends and through them, the Creator however you can. In every way you can. This is the inversion, you invert. Spirituality is Instead of for me, for him; if it is for myself, it is called corporeality. If I feel only myself, this is called feeling this world because basically I feel only myself. We still don't understand why it's like that. If I am directed through the ten to the Creator, then I begin to feel a different reality which is called spirituality, the real reality which is outside of me.
3. S. (05:25) Can we define some part in our path that relates to the part where a person reaches Kabbalah?
R. We are talking about people who have been together with us for several years and have heard what the wisdom of Kabbalah says. Although they cannot do it, they agree to some extent, in all kinds of manners of agreement. They feel there is no choice, that this is the truth; on the other hand, they are also happy that this is the truth because everything that is revealed in the will to receive is just a lie and bad for everyone. We are talking about people who are already advanced or at least agree with what the wisdom of Kabbalah says.
4. S. (06:47) It is possible that we have already transitioned to bestowal with the intention to receive?
R. We still haven't even emerged from receiving in order to receive. Look at yourself and you'll see that this is so. You don’t need to ask me. You can work on the other's desire instead of on your own desire, you can restrict your own desire and take the desire of the other that he is the important one and you are only serving him. Can you do that?
5. S. (07:34) How can we put together our prayers so that it won't look bad to the Creator?
R. Not advice, it will seem like a request. How can I advise Him? What is in me that I can receive to advance to the corrected world, to the spiritual reality which operates opposite from our reality? Our reality happens entirely in the egoistic will to receive, there is nothing else in it besides this. I can’t understand the spiritual reality. You can't even understand what the intention is to bestow from the intention to receive. It is a program, a behavior of vessels in an opposite different way. This is why it is written that ‘I saw an opposite world’ about the spiritual world. It is really so. It is here but we don't feel it. The Creator feels everything. How do you feel it? The spiritual world is here. Do you feel it? No, because you have no vessels to grip it, your senses are only in order to receive and you can't feel it. We are in a reality that is all a lie and is depicted in us in our senses, in our ego. If we could emerge from our ego to see reality, we would see that besides our perception, the rest of reality behaves according to the force of bestowal. This is the real nature, otherwise none of it would exist. The way we see and discover the force of reception, everything would die, it would simply die. It wouldn't be able to develop in any way, not even one bit because everything that was created would absorb everything it could for itself. and by this it would put itself and its environment to death. Nothing would be able to develop. Because there was the shattering there is a force, even in the will to receive, to perform operations as if it is for bestowal, like a cow wants to nurse it’s calf, etc. The same with us, we give to one another so we will be happy. These are corrections that came to us through the shattering otherwise we wouldn't exist. This is why all of the spiritual world is absolute bestowal and this is what we have to progress to. How? By discovering how far we are and asking the Creator to invert it, to give us a new, different nature.
6. S. (11:30) In the article it says that the body should be ready to enslave itself to the Creator unconditionally. How do we annul our desire to receive like this? It seems so brutal.
R. The body shows us that we don't agree to bestow, that we don't agree to love others. Our whole attitude to what is outside of us is to the extent that we can enjoy and use the other. We can see reality but we see only that reality whereby using it we can enjoy. We are in this infinite reality but we see only a tiny section, a fragment, that permeates our egoistic senses and this is called ‘this world.’ Revealing the actual reality is possible only on condition that we begin to relate to reality in a different way. Not in order to enjoy it but in order to delight it, delight this reality. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah prepares us for. We will not discover, we will not see the upper world otherwise.
7. S. (13:46) What do we need beyond a heartfelt prayer that we pray together?
R. We do have to pray all the time but through the ten, not each one for himself. This again is an egoistic form and we don't get a correct response from the Creator. We will bring ourselves to a state where He can fill up the vessels of connection between us and enjoy it and achieve the goal only if we try to connect the way Kabbalists write for us, only when we ask as a result of our efforts to connect. Bringing contentment to the Creator means connecting among us and allowing Him to fill us. We only prolong the way if not in this direction.
8. S. (15:52) Sometimes I don't feel like justifying the Creator. What should I add to my relationship with my friends in this situation?
R. Just keep going as much as you can and don't lie to yourself.
9. S. (16:30) What are the organs Baal HaSulam talks about?
R. Desires.
S. In the ten? My desires?
R. No, your desires are egoistic desires that we discover in our society, in our ten, that we still haven't corrected to work in bestowal. We ask for corrections on them. I feel how I relate to each one in the ten and discover how much I am absorbed in desires to receive for myself. This is where I ask the Creator to help me invert them to bestow upon everyone through those same desires but in the opposite way.
10. S. (17:35) After the Congress I feel increased desires to enjoy food, sex, and family, and I can't directly work against these desires. I’m working with the group but I can't convince the Creator that I want to bestow because this is a lie.
R. We don’t need to put the desires for food, sex, or family to death. We need to prefer spirituality to corporeality. Otherwise, what will it be? If I diminish corporeality then accordingly spirituality will follow it. We don’t force ourselves to be humble. We only want to grow in all of our desires to such an extent that we can enjoy the whole world of the Creator, both incorporeality and in spirituality, in order to bestow contentment upon the Creator. The end of correction is when we use all of our desires and all of our thoughts in order to bestow contentment upon Him. It is possible, but we still don't understand how it's possible, but we will discover that it is possible. Limiting ourselves is a problem. A hermit, one who doesn't want to use these desires at all should bring a sacrifice, a correction for becoming a hermit, for abstaining or avoiding the pleasures. We need to do the opposite, to bring ourselves to a state where the intention to bestow allows us to enjoy everything. You will later understand why there were kings from Israel who had hundreds of women and what kind of feasts they used to have. It was according to their degree.
11. S. (20:30) What is the first reaction we need towards the Creator?
R. That he wants to bestow upon the Creator and that he wants to take it through the friends, through the group.
12. S. (21:15) How can the Creator help me and through me to all the friends in the ten if the body doesn't agree to work with the intention to bestow?
R. Our body, meaning our general will to receive, will never agree to work in bestowal. Never. It is a waste to wait for that to happen. It will never happen. It will only happen by awakening the Creator to correct our nature and invert it in order to bestow. This is why our entire work is in addressing the Creator to compel Him to correct us. There is nothing else remaining for us to do.
13. S. (22:24) Is transforming our nature and connection in the ten the same thing?
R. Yes, that is in the vessel and is a result of the light.
14. S. (22:55) Does justifying the Creator mean I need to be in connection with Him in each and every action? Do all actions in the ten need to be examined to see if it is in bestowal or in reception?
R. All day and all night. A person should not separate from the Creator in any of his actions. This is how it should be without any exception.
15. S. (23:49) We got such a great opportunity to learn to be grateful in the congress. In the optimal state we are always in contact with the Creator.
R. Correct, that's not even a question.
16. S. (24:20) In my ego I feel the good that the creator gives me as bad and I suffer. Do I need to try to justify Him by telling myself that He is good even though I feel it's bad?
R. Yes, at last you said something correct.
S. Can you explain how to do this?
R. No, I can't explain it. You need to try to make it be that way.
17. S. (25:00) Can mechanically turning into the Creator through the ten without emotion for anything ultimately generate emotions toward the Creator?
R. Correct. It is called at first with coercion and then willingly.
S. What extent do you need to work toward the friend other than internal actions?
R. As much as possible and even more.
Excerpt 19 (25:47)
18. R. (28:04) We need to do all kinds of actions and to talk between us as much as we need in order to convince each and every one because all together, we are in the desire to receive. Only through attaining the spiritual force, the spiritual world, will we be able to understand where the truth is, where the forces are, how they manage us, and what we need to do from here on in order to be with the central force of reality and manage our eternal development.
19. S. (28:57) Should I bring my prayer of thanksgiving to the group so we can establish the prayer there or is this my private work?
R. Both, this and that.
S. What is the correct way of transmitting the joy I feel in myself to the friends?
R. I don't know. Show them that you are impressed by our path. Just like we are in one ship everyone needs to try to give everyone security, confidence and direction to the goal.
20. S. (30:17) What is a true correct spiritual action?
R. A true, correct spiritual action is to turn to the Creator to help us be in connection. We should be able to bestow contentment to Him from this connection. There is nothing but that. If we begin to operate in that direction, it is certain that we will feel the Creator managing us and that we are advancing towards correction and towards Him.
S. What is happening in this connection that enables the spiritual action?
R. We have ten Sefirot. We have a vessel from which we can bestow and we bestow by being able to receive from Him in order to bestow. We will start to work like a spiritual Partzuf. What is a Partzuf? It is the same ten that behaves correctly. How did it reach that? Through the request to the Creator to correct them.
21. S. (32:03) It says, ‘’as though his mouth and heart are equal.’’ There are states when they are equal and there are states where there aren’t? And sometimes, I want them to, but they are not? When is it important that the heart and mouth will actually be equal and not as though?
R. Being under the influence of the upper light upon a person, upon the group, that way the light corrects them in a way for their desires to truly be in order to bestow.
S. So, I always have to try that it’s not as if it’s like that, but it’s actually equal? But many times, I am not in that state.
R. Then try to constantly push yourself towards that. If you constantly think about the point, about the goal, and how to reach it, all the time correcting yourself more and more, you’re like on the correct compass which is always aimed towards the correct point. This is how you advance.
22. S. (33:20) You said that my mouth and my heart need to be equal. But when my body feels bad, how will my mouth be equal to my heart?
R. It all depends on the measure of importance. I saw that people in order to save themselves from death, are willing to pay a lot of money to a person that will open up their body and perform all kinds of corrections there, and it costs them a whole lot of money. They work really hard and even walk into some room, and some person puts all kinds of devices and instruments inside their abdomen, let's say, and opens it up there and does something in there, and later they pay a lot of money, which took them maybe years to earn, to that person. Can you explain to me, I don't understand what they're doing. So, we can see that, yes, it all depends on the goal, the importance of the goal. As it’s written, ‘’whatever a person can give for the sake of his soul.’’
23. S. (34:51) What to do in a state, where what Baal HaSulam describes here, that a person is afraid that he will build a true prayer and everything will disappear, all of his ‘I’, everything that he feels is His?
R. A person can ask from the Creator as if he wants the force of bestowal, but because that force of bestowal isn’t quite in him yet, he can't ask for it seriously. Then the Creator in order to bring that person closer to it, gives him all kinds of exercises by which a person comes closer and really wants. It’s called that he is willing to put himself to death. Through these exercises around him that the Creator gives him, he's willing to put himself to death, to say that my death is better than my life. That’s how he can enter a spiritual discernment. This happens every degree along the way, you could say.
S. What to do with that state, really? When I built a prayer, then subconsciously I found this space where?
R. Right, you said it very well and that’s the truth. So, you see who you are and to what place you need to reach. The gap between this and that, you feel, excellent. That way you will advance.
S. For what?
R. Advance, even more and more, from within. Demand even more from the Creator to make changes despite the fact that you don't want.
S. What to do about this fear? To find it and ask the Creator to drive it away?
R. No, for what? This fear is an indication of how much you are still in your ego and not in soul devotion. It’s nice, I am actually seeing in you good advancement.
24. S. (37:35) This habit that we build in prayer and in importance, and high spirits, is that basically our Kli (vessel), is this the common baby?
R. Our Kli (vessel) is the connection between us above all of the disturbances to connect. That’s it.
S. The more we get ourselves accustomed because he writes here that the preparation for the prayer is to be accustomed to the prayer?
R. Yes, and when we see how much we can't connect, we have no choice but we turn to the Creator. When we managed to somewhat connect, we ask from the Creator to help us fill this vessel because we want to be in one reality with Him in order to bring Him contentment just like a spiritual Partzuf, in which whatever it receives it’s all in order to bestow.
25. S. (38:50) It says, first by coercion and then by desire. Most of the time, I force myself to connect but we also know there's no coercion in spirituality. How to reconcile this?
R. Until you reach from the degrees of coercion to the state that you want, where I say I want, you will always be under pressure, and in prayers, and seeking in states of pressure. When you reach the true spiritual state that the Creator arranges for you, then it will be willingly, not coercively but willingly. Everyone goes through that, from coercion to desire, that’s the way.
26. S. (39:58) Is there a limit to annulment or everything that appears?
R. Annulment until you make yourself a true zero, that’s the limit of annulment. Because, in truth, we need to come to a state in which the will to receive as if it doesn't exist, just like it was prior to the beginning of creation that the Creator created.
27. S. (41:14) It says, in the last sentence, ‘’therefore there must be preparation for the prayer to accustom oneself to the prayer as though his mouth and heart are the same.’’ Can you give some advice on how to achieve such a preparation?
R. We try not to lie to oneself, do I really want or not. Toward the friends, am I straight with them or not, and towards the Creator, am I also towards Him straight or not. Can I feel myself being truly like in an x-ray machine, where I can be seen completely, transparently, and I have nothing to hide because what I want is all together to be corrected in all my parts, in my mind and all my heart.
Excerpt 20 (42:20) Twice
28. S. (46:04) You said a moment ago that I have to be like under an x-ray, that the friends see what’s inside of me?
R. Well, what are you ashamed of?
S. My desires are to run away and not to be with them. My thoughts are horrible, why should they know about that?
R. Because then you will have no choice but to correct yourself.
S. Then, I understand. I'm supposed to tell them all of that, all that garbage inside of me? What for?
R. No, you don't need to tell them that. But you have nothing to be ashamed that you have it, but to the extent in which you understand you received it from the Creator in order to correct it, then you’ll have the necessity to turn to the Creator to correct it.
S. This is okay, but in what sense do the friends need to know it? That’s what I did not understand. You said to be transparent towards them, I don’t understand.
R. I felt that way next to Rabash, that he can see me transparent, from my head to my toes, truly like that. At first, it was not immediately that I felt that way, but it was unpleasant. But later, I got accustomed to being that way. Meaning It’s clear that you can see a person that way.
S. Still, I'm not supposed to tell them that, right?
R. No, no. Why do you need to pour on them your garbage, they don't deserve such a bad attitude. For what would you fill them up with that, by you pouring your crap. We need to be aware that we are like that, and that we are going direct to correct ourselves in order to truly be righteous, who justify the Creator who created all of this evil, and we are asking Him to correct it. We need to raise these things in their correct context, in the right place. What is there in a person if it's not from the Creator. To begin with, the Creator says, forgive me, I have created the evil inclination and you will have to discover it, and this bitters your life making you feel sorrowful. If you want to get rid of it, then turn to me and I’ll correct it, not just like that, that I am taking it from you, I’m not taking it from you, the Creator says, I will invert it to good and you will be as God knowing good and evil. The evil that’s in you and even more, you will reveal. You will reveal it in the inversion between it, from that to good so there you will see that the whole world you can see from one end to the other, that’s it. So come on, it’s all ahead of you. The Creator created everything, prepared it, and we just need to ask to correct the evil to good.
S. How should a person be honest with himself, what does it mean?
R. To annul and connect to the Creator in such a way. It’s considered to be honest with the Creator that way.
29. S. (50:15) The more we pray, the more deficiencies appear. Why does it happen and when will it end? Is that our work?
R. You didn't even start to see your deficiencies yet. Kid, you don't know what true deficiencies we have, worlds of Klipot (shells), such horrible states. But it’s revealed only towards a person that is capable of working with them correctly, despite the Klipa (shell), he is willing to ask the Creator to correct. Altogether, what are all the Klipot (shells) for and all the disturbances? So that we will come closer to the Creator, so that we will be able to receive all the good from Him. That’s why He created the evil inclination. Otherwise, we wouldn't need the Creator. As we have the evil inclination, He does bad to us and we have nowhere to run from it, so we have no choice, we turn to the Creator and surrender, even though we don't want, but we surrender and we say to Him, good, correct this for us, please. That’s how it is. It's like a little child who comes and cries that something is not working out for him in his game and then we help him. That’s how the Creator did it on purpose so that we will find our way to Him.
WSQ: How do we concentrate all our efforts in turning to the Creator? What are we asking, how do we ask for Him to do it? We have some confidence that He exists, that we have who to turn to, and that He has a good heart, meaning good relations towards us. Whereas, if we’ll ask, He will do it for him, to do good things. But if we ask for bad things, He won't do, just like a child sometimes wants something that we understand it’s prohibited to give it to him, he will harm him. With all those conditions, we turn to Him and want Him to advance us. What do we think about this advancement? What do we tell the Creator that we want? How do we want to see ourselves in the next stage, a step ahead? Please, let’s talk for a few minutes. How do we see ourselves asking, turning to the Creator, for Him to advance us a step ahead?