YESOD: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
Living in a world of intentions
Morning Lesson September 01, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Living in a world of intentions – Selected Excerpts from the Sources
1. Rav’s Introduction: We live, we should live in the world of intentions because where a person’s thoughts are and where a person’s intentions are, that is where he is. That is why all the actions, the world of the actions that we feel that we live in is only that through the various actions between us we will be able to reach the intention, and the main thing is the intention; It changes the essence of the action, it changes all of our lives. To go from one intention to another is possible only through very special actions that direct our thoughts and can be only through the upper force or the group,the environment. That is why the environment here is the main thing that can change a person’s thoughts, intentions, inclinations and his goals in life. Everything is given through the environment. So, let us learn what kabbalists say about our intentions. Also the actions as much as we have actions, they should be aimed only at the correction of the intention. Because specifically, the intention is the one that influences our advancement, our development.
Reading excerpt #1 (02:17) “The purpose of man’s work is to achieve the intention to bestow..” again
2. S. (05:18) In what manner can you incorporate internally and fulfill the Mitzvot in the ten?
R. Because we understand that all the actions we have in externality and internally, everything was given around the point of the will to receive which is us, everyone of us should imagine that he is only point of the will to receive, and around that point he has several means at his disposal with which to correct this point. So, his will to receive, will be able to realize and actualize with the attention to bestow to the Creator; just like the Creator is aimed at bestowing to him, and then through equivalence of form he will get to know the Creator and adhere to Him. So, there is only really one thing: how by being under the influence of the Creator in the Creator’s world, where he does everything he wants with me, whatever he thinks, how can i use all the states I’m going through in such a way that I will have the intention towards the Creator just like He has an intention towards me.
In other words, I hear from the Kabbalists that the Creator is the Good who does good for the good and for the wicked, for each and everyone, to everyone together, and He wants to bring us to the best possible state. So I need to aim myself in all of my reality to a state in which I’m aiming towards the Creator in the best possible way; with an open heart, with all my senses, with all my strength, with everything that can bring Him good, bring Him contentment. And, if I try to do it eventually I will reach the goal, to be in “I for my beloved and my beloved from me” as we call it. That is the purpose of my development.
3. S. (08:18) It is written that “a person is where his heart is” and if a friend says that he cannot develop love but he is with us in the lessons and workshops, what is driving him the correction of himself or the intention to give?
R. The Creator’s giving him such conditions for the time being and the group must help each and every friend to be aimed in the common group and for everyone to be connected together in the center of the ten, and from there they will be aimed and adhere to the Creator.
4. S. (09:24) it is written here that the vessel does not change but we use the same vessel with a different intention. How is that possible? It seems that the spiritual vessel of bestowal in faith above reason is a different vessel?
R. The desire remains the same desire; could be bigger, could be smaller, but the intention could be close to a person in order to receive or close to something foreign, what appears foreign to a person, the Creator. So the intention determines the direction either internally towards himself or externally. That is an Essence our work. If we are aimed at ourselves the intention is egoistic, we cannot detect the spiritual world, the Creator. Other than ourselves, we actually cannot feel anything. If we cross the barrier as we call it, and we begin to aim for in order to bestow, by that we begin to feel what is outside of us, the others; not in our vessels of reception but in our intention to bestow. That means that we feel ‘the upper world’.
S. What is this transition of the Machsom, the barrier in this context?
R. It is something that we give in the beginning to people so they understand that stage we are in, in general. But then we get into the details of our states, so we do not use those definitions, or less and less.
S. So what does it mean with my intention?
R. in order to bestow, for the sake of the other, for the sake of the friends; through that for the sake of the Creator.
S. It sounds that the vessel, the ordinary will to receive is like it lives in parallel to the intention?
R. Yes. There is a desire and there is an intention: If we use it in order to receive we receive as much as possible, but if we use what we have in the direction of bestowal then first I care about the intention so it will be in order to bestow to the other, to the friends, to the Creator. And to the extent that I have the intention then I activate the desire, meaning I place a restriction on the desire, I do not use my desire before I have the intention in order to bestow.
5. S. (13:17) Is it correct to say that the spiritual worlds are like the map of intention?
R. The spiritual actions are based on the intention to give. The important thing is the intention.
6. S. (13:52) So all corrective work in the ten is first of all to correct intention right?
R. Yes. only the intention.
S. How do we use the intention in all of our states, is it just to bring contentment to the Creator or does it change us?
R. Of course in each and every state we need to check the intention and update it and arrange it and only after that we can say that we’ve done anything. It all begins with the intention and should be organized properly and it all ends there. All of our actions are on the level of the intention because in actions we have nothing to do; according to our intention these spiritual actions are being realized.
7. S. (15:40) How should I use the ten to always have the right intention?
R. You need to try to connect to the ten as much as possible to the extent that you connect them and relate to them in your connection and from your connection you try to relate to the Creator and by that you arrange your intention and accordingly, to the extent of the power you have in your intention you are considered bestowing. In the intention we distinguish direction and power and that is how we learn. We will start to work with it and then we will see what we have there. Everything is in our intentions; “The House of the Gate of intention”.
8. S. (16:58) Intention: Is it part of the necessary work, does it aim us internally or is there a part of the preparation to be aware of the vessels that create the right intention, there is an advance work to reach the right intention? Is the intention to bring contentment to the Creator the final goal or is it our way to achieve the right intention?
R. Yes. The Intention to give contentment to the Creator is by adapting ourselves to Him, so we approach Him and adapt ourselves to Him, this is the final main intention: We turn to that structure of Adam HaRishon, the first man, before the shattering, where we all adhere to one another and the Creator is present and He fills us all. All our work is only to arrange ourselves in this way.
9. S. (18:48) Where do I start to build the right intentions within the ten?
R. You start from simply reading what is written about it in our articles by Baal HaSulam and Rabash; you read read read and you participate with us as much as you can in all of our events and activities, connections, in the ten. And, as much as you scrutinize a person’s work in the ten, the more you advance towards the intention of what we should do in order to realize the purpose of creation.
10. S. (19:50) Now that we are in the lesson, how do we build the right intention?
R. This is what we are learning through these versus through these discussions when friends ask and I answer and you hear what they ask and you hear my answers. By that, we arrange ourselves each time more and more. Each time when I hear friends asking from Africa, from Italy, from Latin America, from Kyiv, from all kinds of places; by hearing their questions I am Incorporated more and more in everyone and my intention grows stronger, and it gets updated towards our common center, all of ours, which is the Creator.
S. So it turns out that the only thing to do is just to be included in the lesson?
R. To be incorporated and listen from the bottom of your heart, not with your head and your ears but with your heart to listen, and then you will see how the entire lesson is for you. Don’t wait for me to answer someone and you wait for your question, no. You must be incorporated in each and every question of each and every friend. You have to see this question as my question and see the answer that I give as an answer to me. Then in this way we connect and accordingly our vessel is growing and consequently we see more and more and feel more and more where we are spiritually.
11. S. (22:18) Is the ten the one that gives me the ‘bread of Shame’ and aims me towards the right intention?
R. It comes through the ten but by the upper light that comes from the Creator. When I feel that I’m not connected to them, I’m not participating with them with my heart and soul, then in this way we see where else we need to exert.
12. S. (23:20) Why does the change of our intention give us the opportunity to connect to the upper world, the Creator and the light that reforms?
R. Because we’re changing our intention in order to receive which is a natural intention which is the way we are born with the evil inclination, and we gradually change our intention in order to bestow; through the friends to the Creator. Why through friends? Because if it was directly towards the Creator, I would not be able to distinguish, am I truly truly towards the Creator or am I for myself, that is why we have something by which I can understand, check detect, locate my attention is that correct or not? Is it outside in me or not? Because I think of the Creator I think of myself. I cannot distinguish between me and Him, only through the fact that we have a group between us and then the group a check system.
A system through which I can check how much I’m aimed at myself versus the Creator, where it is my place, what are my intentions? That is why our entire work is in the group, a control group. That is why the main thing for a person is to appreciate the ten. As much as he looks down at the ten, naturally, “when a person’s desire is bigger than his friend, his inclination is bigger than his”; hate and rejection to the friend is natural for people with big desires, but their work is also great accordingly and they have to continue more and more in the direction of correcting their attitude towards the friends and gradually they come to state where they will truly have the grasp of the Creator on a higher level.
S. That is the internal switch that Kabbalah teaches us to be certain of the reality that exists outside of us?
R. Yes, yes.
13. S. (26:38) We need to build an intention on the will to receive but how can our intentions be known to us if the upper light does everything? Is our intention also something we should demand?
R. We must demand the correct intention but the upper light that is passing through our mechanism gives us our state and we need to imagine the corrected mechanism and then between the desire and the present mechanism we see how much more we need to advance and change our intentions accordingly. All of our work is in the changing of intention, what I want to happen, that’s the main question, what I want to happen.
15. S. (28:02) It’s written that the wisdom of Kabbalah is the wisdom of intentions and we don’t have the ability to receive in order to bestow. So the question is if the Creator grants the intention what do we do, do we ask to receive the correct intention?
R. We want the right intention whatever we may do it will be in order to bestow contentment to the Creator that’s it. Only the intention to be changed. We cannot give, we cannot bestow, we cannot extract anything from within ourselves like the sun that’s extracting the light from within, we can’t do it we can only receive, but if we receive only in order to bestow back to the source of light this is considered bestowal for us and they don’t demand more than that from us because that’s how we’re built only to receive, in other words our work is either to receive order to receive naturally egotistically or to create a restriction on ourselves change the intention from in order to receive into in order to bestow and accordingly begin to receive in order to bestow. These are the stages that we have to go through.
16. S. (29:55) In our group there is a clear sensation, a screen, an outcry that we cannot bring contentment to the Creator, it’s like death. How do we ask the Creator to give us the feeling that we’re giving him contentment?
R. You need to speak to your friends and hear what they’re saying and each one should do it and then you’ll see that you have the correct thought and the correct intention, if you decide to be together, if you connect together, if you annul towards the friends and listen to what they say then everything will work out self out.
17. S. (30:50) There are many states where a person is pushed away rejected from the work and there’s not an ounce of effort to work in this, and then other states where you’re full of strength in full annulment before the ten, like we had in the congress. So what is the difference between the two states, what caused it?
R. We can’t say what caused it, it will bring great confusion but rather how do we straighten out states, well that’s only by adhering to the ten as Rabash says try to do what Rabash recommends, one relative to zeros and zeros relative to one and then you’ll see how much you were advancing.
18. S. (32:04) In the past you taught us that each action and that if you work in dissemination then each action is written down, so how would you say the action affects the intention?
R. You have no greater means than to bestow for the sake of dissemination since by that you are pushing the entire broken general vessel towards correction.
19. S. (32:58) It is written that we need to receive on behalf of Mitzvat haShem, commandant of the Creator.
R. We have to come to a state where we receive everything from Him in order to bestow.
S. It’s a commandment?
R. It’s a commandment.
20. S. (33:18) How do I approve in a ten that my intention is correct?
R. Through an example toward the friends.
S. I have to aim it so that the Creator has contentment and asking each other for strength?
R. Yes the creator has to be present in each and every action between you.
21. S. (33:55) The will to receive it shifts my reality?
R. Yes.
S. You said earlier that the will to receive doesn’t change it only grows or gets smaller.
R. That’s the whole thing and the intention is accordingly.
S. What does it mean that it does not change?
R. The will to receive is the will to receive it doesn’t become a will to bestow rather if there’s an intention on it to use in order to bestow then we say about this will to receive that it is a will to bestow. The will to bestow cleanly by itself is the Creator, a person never has a desire to bestow rather in order to use shorthand we say that a person is bestowing because a person is using his will to receive in order to bestow instead of opposite to his original desire, he creates an inversion on how he’s using his will to receive.
S. Can you say that as the desire grows then the intention to bestow is?
R. Of course, of that is says that he who’s greater than his friend his inclination is greater.
S. The question is as the desire is bigger he can reach faster for the intention to bestow?
R. I think you are a bit confused try to speak more clearly.
S. If there’s a bigger desire to receive then you can dress it?
R. There’s no greater desire to bestow, the desire to bestow is the Creator the desire to receive is the created being that it’s no more. Now as much as the intention in order to bestow will dwell over the will to receive of a person then the person will be like the Creator.
S. What turns the will to receive to the will to bestow?
R. The will to receive cannot be inverted to become a will to bestow, rather by knowing this negation that he’s opposite from the Creator he can reach a state where he asks and then he receives the upper force and the upper force performs a restriction over him and then the person stops using his will to receive and later he can ask for it additionally and he gets the force of the upper light that bestows to him and then the will to receive that underwent a restriction he’s now using it in order to bestow. That’s the meaning of receiving in order to bestow.
S. According to the revelation of the evil the intention is built?
R. Of course according to the revelation of evil a person wants to get rid of this evil and he’s asking the Creator for the power to turn this evil into good.
22. S. (37:56) A person in the ten can work in two aspects, on one hand to see the intention of his friends and another to show his intention through his action. What is more important?
R. Through the actions in the ten, the deeds in the ten and through that he turns that the Creator and he asks to have a correct attitude to the friends.
S. We need to try to see the intention of a friend and not another action?
R. No, he should try to have the correct intention himself.
23. S. (38:49) In this article that we read we also learned that the foundation for our work is the desire to receive and then we do restriction, intention and so on. Now I don’t feel that I am in the desire to receive, how do I feel it to begin?
R. To be more connected with the friends and to bring everybody to unity that’s it.
S. For example now in this moment when I’m speaking to you I want to begin to work with my desire to receive how do I choose?
R. Only to bestow to the friends and through the friends to the Creator and you will begin to feel where is your will to receive.
Reading excerpt #2 (40:00) “All the work is only on the aim to come to a person yearning to bestow..” twice
24. S. (41:36) When I make a calculation with myself on my actions I reveal that everything everything everything that I do is only for my own self, in the end is all in order to receive, and the only examples that I can see in the world of something that looks like bestowal is the actions of the friends. Is it correct to look at it like this? Because I’m not able to find anything with him myself which is in order to bestow.
R. Beautiful. From here develop a prayer a request to the Creator so that you too will engage in such actions as you see in the friends. That’s beautiful, your view is good, it’s correct, it’s moving you forward.
25. S. (42:40) How, through what, can the right intentions be passed to the friends?
R. Example nothing besides that. Try without using words to set an example for the friends. This will be the best form of dissemination.
26. S. (43:14) If there is a law in nature like restriction for example, why do I need to yearn for it? Why can’t they just exist in me and that’s it?
R. Nothing will come to you from nature and clothe in you with the exception of the will to receive, everything else that belongs to the correction of a person will come only through your demand.
S. So what’s this law when they say there is such law and this law?
R. That’s how it exists in our nature. We exist inside of us in our bodies and our desires, these are the forms of our will to receive, our complex will to receive is using to exist.
S. Let’s say we attain something out of it and then we fall and then again the law, why is this all happen?
R. In order to keep going, you have to keep going, you can’t jump to the end of correction in one leap you have to go through all the forms of your evolution and these forms are different, sometimes in contradiction to one another, that’s how you advance.
S. A restriction is a person who has achieved in order to bestow. Can you fall back in order to receive?
R. It can happen, on that is says don’t believe in yourself until the day of your death. Until the entire will to receive will be corrected don’t believe that you not coming back to in order to receive.
27. S. (45:12) Here it says that we need to start with actions and in the previous excerpt it says that we have nothing to do until we reach the intention and then do actions.
R. So what’s the question? You have a contradiction think about it, think for a little bit and see if there is a contradiction in it or not.
S. Right now it feels opposite.
R. Let it be opposite, you shouldn’t ask right away, you should think and then you’ll understand the answer.
Excerpt #3 (46:11) “Those who want to enter the path of truth, to achieve ….” Twice
28. S. (48:44) How is it possible that each action, each thought will be the intention to give contentment to the Creator?
R. This comes from the law of love, if you love someone and then all your thoughts and your desires, your whole brain and heart, everything works only in order to get closer to them to be together with them. That is why in our world we have the tendency called corporeal love just like a mother who constantly thinks of her baby only him, nothing besides him. The moment it conceives all the months of conception as long as he’s little, she’s constantly thinking of him. That is the law of love where we need to see ourselves, what should we feel, what should we yearn for if we have love for the Creator, which is the end of our development. As much as we all long for Him that is how we live, to try to collect our thoughts and intentions through the ten we will connect the entire ten and we will move it towards the Creator. It is as though we’re bringing him a big gift and so then He is revealed in it and He enjoys himself and this is the only joy we can bring Him.
29. S. (51:18) How to act in such a situation where you come to a meeting with friends and you really want to bring contentment to the Creator through the friends, but when you enter the meeting you find out that no, that you are just thinking about what prize you will receive?
R. Excellent my dear, excellent. The Creator is showing you what more you need to correct in order to truly reach adhesion with the friend’s and by that to adhere to the Creator. It is the Creator arranging it for you it is perfect. Otherwise what if you will finish everything now, I with the friends I with the Creator, everything’s good, how lovely will sit, drink a little bit, raise a L’Chaim. It is better that we feel this way in what am I still missing in order to reach adhesion in the Creator and then He shows me that I’m not connected with the friends sufficiently and then we truly will be able to say L’Chaim meaning to life, to spiritual life. And we connect between us, the source of our lives, the Creator.
S. Here in the excerpt it says that we are not allowed to do that. I understand that I am not allowed to do that, but if it happens what do you do in such a situation where it happened with me and I want spiritual rewards?
R. So what? For the time being I will take it. For the time being you can’t draw me into something if not for some compensation, a little gift, a little candy. My body will not take it even a small step forward unless it receives, let’s say something sweet, that is how it is. Nevertheless we need to see our true nature.
30. S. (54:03) Even though I engage in bestowal, my bestowal never seems to be complete, my bestowal nevers seems to be enough, and I feel that there is always a gap between me and the Creator, always a gap between me and the Creator, my desire in the Creator. It gives me such pain, I feel I am not completed somehow, how to relate to this?
R. What’s so bad about it? I’m on the path, I discovered that I’m on the correct path, although I am still on the path and have not reached my destination and they see how much I have left to go. a lot. But it merely means that I’m on the right path, meaning the right direction. I have friends and the teacher and I have the entire system, the way which I can correct myself day in and day out, what could be better? The Creator is above us and He’s correcting us with each passing day and He is the manager here. As much as possible we reach equivalence with Him, we wish to come in contact with Him, we wish to perform actions as it is written I to Him and Him to me and all of us together. The process is an excellent process, a wonderful process.
S. Yes but I have this concern always, that if I’m giving enough contentment to the Crator in my inner action. I feel that I have a gap and this bothers me?
R. It will always be this way even at the last moment of correction. You have many questions and doubts and don’t think that if you’re advancing in the path that you have an easier life, because the vessel is becoming bigger, more powerful. Meaning it has more opposing states and you are in the middle and you don’t know how to combine the good and the bad, the coursesness that is in the Kli with the screen it, with the light that is ahead of it. There are desires in the entire Kli that you will assemble into the vessel of Adam HaRishon and you assemble them and they are all this great cunning coarseness. They wish to devour one another and exploit one another, they wish to kill one another.
This is called the wars of the Messiah. The more we advance, he who is greater than his friend his inclination is greater. We become very vicious and that’s what we are like now. We can barely stop ourselves from harming one another. Just pray to the Creator to help us to stop us, to fill all the gaps between us, otherwise we will jump on one another. We need to see these difficult, cruel states to truly yearn for Divinity, to dwell among us. Otherwise we will not survive, we will not be able to bring any contentment to the Creator. Later the desire to harm the Creator is revealed as we read about it in the Torah, in the Bible, there are states of such evil forces that wish to blemish the Creator and they work against Him. It is all describing how our own internal forces that make an appearance and we will have to go over them and reach above them the complete correction so that there’s nothing else that is evil in the world, rather everything is working in the direction of the correction.
S. I feel that there’s a snake inside of me that wants to receive light for himself while pretending in order to bestow towards the Creator. It is like I cheat the Creator. In the next state my past bestowal seems like it is not bestowal and the next state it is not bestowal and I cannot get rid of it.
R. It is always like that, it is the order of the degree. Everything you’ve been through it seems that you’re a hero and you made an action of bestowal and you discover that it was an act of reception. You are not a hero but rather a liar. It is always like that, this is the ladder of degrees, that is how you grow up. So patience, more and more patience, if you wish to work in the form of bestowal you need to say that I don’t care about anything that comes from my actions. Only that I will advance toward the Creator a little more and a little more from each state. Good luck.
31. S. (01:00:52) Is all the evil that is revealed, the lack of patience, and ruthless is revealed not just towards the people that are not on the path, it is towards everyone, how do we balance the correct so that we do not harm dissemination and show good example?
R. It is a complex question, a general question, what we do is simply do all the time but simply in different modes, in different specifics, in special modes so continue you will get them or general answer later.
32. S. (01:01:52) What gives a person strength to work without any reward?
R. We do want reward but the reward should be in order to bestow, we see it, without a goal a person cannot work it is called the crazy person, a madman, he performs an action without the goal or a purpose, he’s not aiming to words it. Rather we want the goal to be before us and it will be an important one. It will be a great gift and it all depends on the environment, how much the environment appreciates the goal and so I can aim myself at it. So even though I never had the importance in any goal, everything was ver concluded even opposite and did not exist but by being an environment that appreciates the goal and through the influence of the environment I too begin to appreciate this goal and that is how we change ourselves from reception to bestowal.
S. It’s after the Congress has felt the real reward is the greatest of the friends, the greatness of the society, the examples they give, after the Congress it diminishes, how did we bring it back? We feel it after every congress and gathering?
R. You need to feel yourselves that in every lesson you are connecting just like in the lesson to Congress when did you reach connection in the congress between the lessons or during the lessons.
S. During the lessons.
R. So go ahead that you are the same thing before you, why are you not connecting in this way, what are you not opening the heart. I don’t know I just feel you that each one is really out of his square. look at you now, I have this picture where many people are in it, that is how I see you. So what is preventing each one of you from coming out of each square and connecting to others you, understand by that each one each and every one acquires the desires and inventions of everyone as much as I come out of these desires II will correct myself. Please everything is before you, don’t hide here in each one of each other square, that is the main thing. For me it is a great pleasure to be with you during the lesson because I see advancement, I connect with more and more all kinds of people who ask and don’t ask, men and women and I see how the heart, the brain opens, the soul grows.
33. S. (01:05:55) Is it possible that my action towards the friends will be received?
R. No, I must change my attitude towards the friends, softly as possible, in a comfortable, convenient way. I do not have to ask as though I like him first and then don’t like him, I have to show him, it doesn’t matter what I feel, closeness, love, connection, attraction.
S. So in the meantime, we are in the beginning stage of the study, we quite don’t understand what it means with love, in the correct way, of course everybody wants to study andt come closer because we are egoists we take the example of the friends in the way that they reject me, they come through my personal space.
R. The Creator arranges for you your individual life and your friends, so accept both as a complete picture. That’s without all those conditions, difficult, personal life, difficult friend, difficult teacher, difficult Creator, difficult study, accept it as one complex that comes to you through creator for you in order to arrange your correction. and give thanks to the Creator, I see you successful and advancing.
S. Thank you. It is all of my ten that advances.
34. S. (01:08:14) Rabash writes the intention to bestow is the goal, the final goal of the work.
R. Just as we learn according to the vessels, the restriction over the will to receive in order to receive then develop the connection between us to some extent which will be connection in order to bestow mutually to one another and then from the connections that we have we aim that connection to the creator that is how we develop
35. S. (01:09:09) You said that the person needs to say to himself that I do not care about my actions to the Creator only if I advance to the Creator but the picture in my head is completely egoistic, how do I know that I came close to the Creator?
R. I want it to be this way you understand how I am by myself is a different question but where I want to advance to? I want to advance towards the state as Rbash writes in the Social Writings through annulment to in this society I wish to come to annulment before the Creator these are the first steps.
S. I agree with it. I do advance towards the Creator but in a different direction.
R. It doesn’t matter as long as you were aimed to that, inside the society, through the society, inside the sphere or the circle of the society. I wish to advance toward the Creator. He is there as much as I am together with them and this is a question of how much I feel that circle of the group, of the ten. Where I, inside this circle I need to feel a special air, a special matter or substance, that I’m included in this is my feeling towards the Creator from coming closer to all the friends this way to be connected to them, by this I arrange my attitude to the Creator.
S. I understand that in the following stages we will have a tool or a vessel to measure?
R. Correct, but right now from your effort you begin to develop a deficiency first and then the feeling for it and then a measurement for it.
36. S. (01:11:52) If I need to speak in the workshop in the ten and I have no intention and I do not know how to continue the thought of the friend, when is it better to remain silent and when is it better to speak?
R. It is better to be silent but nevertheless try to find certain topics that are important to everyone in which I can say something, have an opinion about.
37. S. (01:12:30) How do I know that I truly aim all of my actions towards the Creator and not just imagine something?
R. A way to measure is by discovering greater closeness to the friends, the heart opens up a little bit more.
38. S. (01:12:57) I noticed that the intention to give is dirty from the ego. I do not want to grab on to anything that is death I want to hold on to the Creator, my desire is to go above that. What do I do with all of this?
R. You continue with it until it gets corrected, until you hate it so much that it will separate from you.
39. S. (01:13:58) If I discover that in the action I do there is ego involved in my action. Reception and bestowal together, is it better to stop this intention if I feel that it is impure or should I ask the Creator to clean it?
R. We are mixed with our intentions, reception and bestowal, love and hate until the end of correction so there is no need to be impressed that we suddenly discover that in place of love and connection we want the opposite, no problem, except we understand that we walk on two legs, both distancing and nearing, distancing and nearing just as we draw the circle. Just like wheels in the car where half of the wheel is going backwards and half the wheel is going forward.
Half is going backwards and half is going forward and that is how we advance, so there is no problem. Just remember that our advancement includes in it also the negative states, it cannot be any other way because we need to reach the end of correction with all of our vessel, accept the intention to bestow as going forward and the will to receive is always going backwards and is growing that is why he who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater, on one hand and on the other hand, he who is greater than his friend, his intention is greater. That is how we advance, we advance through desire and the intention.
S. Do we stop the intention?
R. Don’t stop the intention.
40. S. (01:16:02) Where is the intention within the vessel or outside of the vessel?
R. The intention is above the vessel.
41. S. (01:16:13) For us what is good and bad?
R. When a person decides for himself, for us, what is good and what is bad? Good is connection between us in which we hope to attain connection with the Creator and bad is the opposite.
42. S. (01:16:35) How can the ten save a friend and draw them to the intention order to bestow and an opposite way, how can a friend pull everyone to the intention to bestow?
R. Through example that it’s making of itself.
43. S. (01:17:01) Is it possible to do a good action out of a bad intention?
R. A good deed out of a bad intention? You cannot. If the intention is bad then it ruins everything.
44. S. (01:17:24) I heard that you said not to use the will to receive until they will be the attention to bestow over it. What does it mean to not use the will to receive?
R. Not to use the will to receive means that, the intention to receive, I don’t let it work, I restrict it.
45. S. (01:17:57) It sounds like what’s in our ability to do at the moment is only to do a restriction, meaning, not to receive. Is changing the intention in order to bestow still far from us?
R. We are in a corporeal world and not the spiritual worlds why? Because even in where we exist we can make a connection. We can make actions of bestowal towards each other. That is why our reality is called a corporeal reality, outside the true reality. The spiritual reality is a world of intentions, our world is a world of actions, and so by our corporeal actions we can still connect even though in our intentions we are opposite to each other.
46. S. (01:18:52) How does the bread of shame correct the intention?
R. The shame stops us from being in order to receive and that is how we learn more and more what it means to be in order to bestow. It all depends on how we determine between us this relationship is in the group.
47. S. (01:19:23) How can my intention influence the intention of the friends?
R. Also in a hidden way because we are all still interconnected, and also in a real open way where we talk about it. I have to be in contact with the friends and talk to them openly: what are our intentions, our desires, our connection, what do we long for? That’s how it is.
48. S. (01:20:01) The intention and connection, they last for a short period of time, what directs what?
R. Intention is the main thing but for us, having no real intentions, even the mechanical connections between us advances us.
49. S. (01:23:50) The mind and our heart only knows to receive, how do we start to create a new path of bestowal in them? Are there additional vessels, additional tools besides prayer?
R. The truth is besides prayer there is none but before we establish this desire in our heart we call prayer which is the desire that’s already aimed at the Creator, that comes from us and it already has a picture of what we actually exactly want, when we come to that deficiency, man, we could say, then there’s all kinds of actions that we need to do in order to establish that. So to achieve a true prayer takes a long time and most importantly it’s the connection between us. When we connect between us then we don’t know how but each of us, we add to each other, deficiencies and they ultimately establish the right deficiency, why?
Because the Creator who deliberately shapes us in the group and even collects us from all corners of the earth, when he does that he already does that according to how we work in the system of Adam HaRishon, so with the people around me, I have to see how they are ready for connection with me and it’s not that I choose them but rather the Creator chose them and brought them together and so we have to accept that ten, as Baal HaSulam writes in the Arvut article, that we have to see ourselves as organized from above to connect between us.
Even though we think that I came here to this group and they welcomed me or I welcomed them, it doesn’t really work that way, of course we think that way but behind our thoughts and behind the scenes the Creator is orchestrating us to be together that way and what’s most important here is our inner connection. It’s not what we discuss, it’s how much from within our hearts we recognize that the connection between the hearts is that spiritual vessel that we need to establish for the Creator.
50. S. (01:26:54) What is the benefit of the right intention for the friends in the whole vessel?
R. What’s the benefit? From the right intention? The intention is the vessel, the desire is not a vessel, the desire could be a desire more or less but what for? For the sake of what do we use our desire? I can restrict it and not use it, I can use it in order to receive or in order to bestow, in order to receive as for myself from the desire and in order to bestow means using it as a means to bestow to the Creator. It all depends on how you work with the desire and that work is called intention.
S. So what is the benefit of bestowing to the Creator?
R. The benefit of bestowing to the Creator is that I resemble Him and so in that way when I become similar to Him, I get closer to Him, I feel Him and I reveal Him, I give to Him and He gives to me and we become interconnected through the group and so then the group and afterwards, instead of the group, it’s the whole of humanity that comes in contact between us, and then we all feel ourselves as the system of Adam HaRishon and within us lies the Creator that enlivens us and governs us and fulfills us. That’s what we should see and that’s already above our whole corporeal world.
51. S. (01:29:00) Can we say that behind the force of the evil inclination hides a great desire to bestow and all that we need is for each one to burst through the evil inclination that is revealed?
R. Yes, above the will to receive in order to receive there is restriction, that we don’t want to be in order to receive. This feeling comes to us bit-by-bit against our will to receive but it comes to us from our friends who surround us and I begin to see that I do not want to use my will to receive for myself but rather use it in order to bestow and that’s how we come closer to bestowal.
52. S. (01:30:05) How do we, during the day, hold onto the intention together in the ten?
R. We have to agree between us that maybe once in a while, let’s say, at least go back to the same intention. You could set up a reminder in your phone that plays a beep and then I remember and then maybe the habit becomes a second nature and maybe without the phone and without the ring, I’ll think about it. Some people have say, every hour or half an hour in their phones, all kinds of quotes come up and then they read it and in half an hour once again and thus they go through many quotes during the day and it keeps them in the right intention, and then we also have the noon lesson and then maybe another connection with the group and so on and so forth.
53. S. (01:31:25) There was an intention to bestow but we fell from it and we cannot return to the intention.
R. Excellent. It’s a preparation to a much bigger ascent than we had and so we have to be happy about the descents as we are about the ascents and if a person falls to a descent on his own then he barely has any chance to rise from it but if he falls together with the friends and if all of us fall but each one falls in his own aspect. It’s not about a difference in heights but also the character of the descent and therefore they can help each other one shall help his friend and then they rise from it to a higher ascent. When do they connect? specifically in the descent when they help each other and then in that vessel that they established during the descent when they connect and help each other in that vessel, as they rise, they receive a new revelation of the Creator.