Inner Focus
80) The Torah describes the whole path, what happens with a man, what needs to happen with us. It tells us about the path of intention: how we rise above the material and check our relationship with the Creator, how we relate to Him.
…This is how you check your condition: whether you are in exile or in redemption. All the situations are checked only according to the intention. We need to pass the whole path in our intention, to build it from zero. The more we elevate above the zero level, the deeper we fall – our degree of non-involvement or involvement is revealed to us. We have to pass the whole spiritual path by building the intention towards the Creator. The corporeal path that humanity passes in all of its manifestations and its forms, advancing, going through scientific-technologic progress and so on, is the projection and extension of it. All this is a copy of all the situations that we need to pass in our intentions. All these processes and phenomena have no other justification. When something changes, it changes because the intention is projected into corporeality. If not for this, we would be like animals that do not change. The cow in its nature doesn’t change. The cow from 1000 years ago is no different than the cow today.
The process that humanity has passed through all of history, in its development in various channels, is also a copy of the intention that needs to develop. And if we fail to acquire the right intention to what is happening to us in reality, we deviate even more, and the development of intention falls behind the material development. The resulting difference between them brings us sorrow and suffering.
(Lesson of February 25, 2005, The Steps of the Ladder, Part 1, Article 503)
81) You can build good or bad intentions in relation to Him after you declare His rule over you. Then you become capable of expressing your relation to Him in regards to his rule over you. Is this governance good or bad? Is it beneficial or harmful to you? Is it beneficial or harmful to Him? What does He want by this? Do you get angry with Him for upheavals in your life if He really rules over all of us?
But first, we start with determining that He rules over us. I placed the article "There is None Else Besides Him" as the first one in the book of “Shamati”, because without establishing this principle, all the rest is worthless. All the articles in “Shamati”, meaning all the deeds, actions, thoughts, all that happens to a person – if all this does not come from the Creator, then with what is a person to work ? Your work starts after you know and become a hundred percent sure that that everything comes from Him – even what I am saying about Him now. Either way you turn it, whatever you say for or against, it is also from Him. Where is the ""I"? This point still needs to be found. The "I" of a person is under all acquired understanding, thoughts, actions and occurrences. It is so called crude matter.
All of our studies, realization of the current condition and ways of working with it, defining the choice in aspiring for the goal in relation to myself or Him, - all of this starts after I establish His governance. And I must do this in the state of concealment.
(Lesson of February 25, 2005, The Steps of the Ladder, Part 1, Article 503)
82) Effort can be in quantity or quality.
Amount of effort is when a person works in all areas that, as he has been told, can advance him towards the goal: bestowal to the group, physical work in the group. These efforts are measured if not by desire, then by the action. Here we refer to study, circulation work, all things that belong to the general correction of man and the world.
Quality of effort means only one thing - work in intention. In this too, there are of course many manifestations and types of analysis. Intention determines the main part of the result. We need actions in this world in particular; they belong specifically to this world, and their purpose is to return us to the correct desirable intention. We perform actions with our physical body. What we do in our studies is also called action . In other words, for now, during the time of preparation, all things, other than the inner work in the soul (the work with the screens) are called "the work in action". After we acquire a screen, we will move forward to the work of inner actions, to the inner work. Once we begin to work with the screens, intention and action will become one for us. But before we acquire a screen, all the work that we do, in our physical body, in study, in the brain and mind, - all of it is called "action". "Intention" is our ability to keep focused on the goal during the action or outside of it; when we clarify the goal exactly in accordance with the correct definitions. We always need to check if we can exert more effort in actions, particularly, with our efforts in intention. In essence intention is that which brings the desirable result.
(Daily Article, February 16, 2005)
83) If you, in any possible way, even without a desire (which is even more useful) remember the inner action that you need to accomplish; if to all your work, to each moment of your life you remember to connect to the final goal – reaching adhesion, entering eternity and perfection – it is good.
Although, the moment you realize that you do not want this, that you hate it, and that you are fed up with this – it does not matter. The most important thing is to maintain this connection and it too is called "a connection". However, if you are disconnected from the goal, it is a sign that your group isn’t working well enough in showing you such thoughts every single moment.
Before each action we need to first add the right intention, and later, in the process of executing the action, we need to refresh it each moment, because indeed the intention escapes us all the time. The difference between two seconds is in the change of intention. You will find that the intention changes the action, if you think only about your intention.
We need to revive the intention each time anew, or to be connected to it all the time. Only to this do we need to devote our attention. Then you will discover that you are changing reality in intention and not deeds. You will realize that you are in a world of intentions, that the field that you are in is a field of feelings, of good or bad, delight or suffering; a field of information and all sorts of relationships. You will find that it is a field of intentions, the field of your relationship with the Creator: starting from the opposite state and up to the equivalence of one-hundred percent.
(Daily Article, February 13, 2005)
84) From the moment a person feels the calling from the point in the heart, the essence of his work can be worded simply: his work is to connect all his states to the Creator. In all the corrections, the work, or the method there is nothing else but this connection. The work consists of connecting to the Creator all events and moments. As a result, the state of concealment comes to a person: single and double concealment, reward and punishment, and other instances. In one way or another, man's work and the direction in which he needs to focus all factors, brings him to a condition defined as "Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one". That is all.
Checking the connection with the Creator, we, first of all, are making sure that the Creator does not escape our attention. Afterwards, a deeper evaluation begins: what exactly binds me to Him? Love? Fear? Something else? This is already an internal element. But first we need to ensure that the Creator does not disappear from our view. This is like when in a tank or airplane, the target is identified and we "lock" our sight on it. Then we are able to move around in all directions but the gyrocompass constantly keeps the direction on the target.
Thus, you received the point in the heart, "locked" yourself, and now you need only to maintain the direction. Although the disturbances set up for you "throw" you off, it does not matter - you will connect all of them to the same direction.
(From the lesson of December 14, 2004)
85) All the hardships that we feel each minute in our lives come because we lose the thought that everything that takes place is connected to the Creator. We forget that all that we feel, or exist in, all that happens to us comes from Him. If I get a hold of this rope, this communication line with the Creator, and know that everything comes from Him to get me closer to the right intention, if I do not lose this connection even for a second – after this, nothing can be hard. Then, on the opposite, all that happens with a person becomes like a lever that advances him and strengthens the connection. In our common thought, in our intention, let us reach the condition where none of us lose this connection with the Creator, and always know that what happens to us comes from the Creator. In this way we will pass the obstacles and manage to reach the goal quickly.
(New Month Meal, November, 2004)
86) How can it be possible, that everything depends on our thoughts? A person has to analyze his thoughts and perceptions. This analysis can be conducted only according to the scheme in which a person attributes everything that happens to the Creator. If a person is inclined to attribute to the Creator everything that happens to him, as well as everything he contains and the sum of everything called “his world”; this tendency is called “a person’s work”. I am referring to working with thoughts, as it was said: “Everything will become clarified in the thought”. All of the clarifications are performed only by way of thoughts. After all, what is thought? The material actions of our physiological body do not influence the spiritual. This is clear. The physiological body does not even have a relation to the desires that are present in it. The desires for food, sex, honor, money and power do not belong to the body. Rather, they are merely clothed in it. Even though we perceive them through our bodies, nevertheless these desires are not attributed to the body. When we are talking about the analysis with regard to Divinity, the first phase consists in attributing everything to the Creator. In the second phase, this attribution to the Creator will lead a person to the intention for the sake of bestowal. When this happens, the entire work concludes. There is nothing more.
(Daily Article, January 13, 2005)
87) The thought is a program that regulates my actions with regard to my own desire. What do we need the mind for? The mind exists beside reason, in order to realize the desires in the optimal way with the help of the thought. Then what is the intention? After all of my initial thoughts about how to work with the material, I come to states where I see that I am unable to work with the material according to the natural program that the material originally had. I have some material, and next to it there is a computer that calculates the methods of working with it. Now I see that this does not benefit me. I come to the understanding that the program needs another component that I lack; this is the intention or the connection with the Creator. If I add this component to my program, that is, if I renew the system, then I will work with my material correctly and achieve fulfillment. That is all.
(The lesson of February 25, 2005, The Steps of the Ladder, Part 1, Article 503)
88) A Reshimo becomes revealed, and I want to take pleasure in it. This is wonderful; I finally discover that I can still get pleasure out of life. Pleasures that were not there before are now glimmering before me, and my eyes catch on fire. What should I do now? I have to remain above my desires. In other words, the desires have awakened in me in order for me to rise above them. This is called “going against the desires”, or using the desires according to the scheme that is opposite to their demands, that is, to work in spite of them by rising above the inevitable. This does not mean that I destroy the desires, that I kill them or do not use them. “Going against the desires” means to work on the desires in such a way that will allow me to ultimately use them for the sake of bestowal while remaining above them. As a result, my use of the desires will be opposite to their original demands. The principle is the following: when the desire becomes revealed then I merely change its intention into bestowal, that is, instead of the intention “for myself” I activate the intention “for the Creator”. The only thing that changes is the intention, while the desire remains the same as it was before. After all, if I erase the desire itself, if I destroy it, then I will not have anything with which to work. Therefore, our work does not consist of suppressing the desire, but rather in changing its intention to the opposite one.
(January 14, 2005)
) It is not the actions themselves that change, but rather our attitude or relationship towards them. We are talking only about the level of the intentions on the actions; we are talking only about the intentions. In this case, how do we perceive the governance by way of reward and punishment? – Only relative to the intentions. And how do we perceive the eternal governance? – Also relative to the intentions. There is not even the slightest contact with the desires; they become revealed only to the degree that our ability to correctly work with the intentions increases. In addition, “reward and punishment” also refers to our relation to the intention “for the sake of reception” and to the intention “for the sake of bestowal”. By acquiring the “reward” I understand that previously I have performed a specific action with a false intention, but now I am able to be conscious as I perform the given action and at the same time to see that it wholly comes from the Creator. He gives the orders and I carry them out, since the Creator becomes clothed in me and causes this action in me.
(Daily Article, January 21, 2005)
90) A person begins to pay attention to what is happening inside of him. The Creator is working with him, both inside and outside, and a person begins to differentiate what exactly it is that the Creator wants from him. A person begins to feel the principle according to which the Creator acts. An interest in “working for the Creator” emerges in a person, that is, in the work that the Creator is performing on the person and in the forms of its realization. As a result, a person begins to apprehend himself and his reactions to the changes that the Creator uses to shine on him. The Creator shines on him using various changes, and a person changes in conformity to this. This is why it is said that a person is the Creator’s shadow, which vacillates in the changes of forms of the Creator’s influence on him. Then a person begins to understand that, possibly, he too is able to exert an influence in return and to determine the way the Creator will influence him. The reflected light, desire or prayer emerges, and then the work from the person’s side begins. He understands that the Creator is exerting His influence in order for the person to attain the knowledge of what it means to be kind. As a consequence, a person begins to ascend to the Creator by wanting to become kind, and this is called the “genuine prayer for correction”. If a person is constantly looking for the opportunity to ask for corrections, then he begins to determine the next steps, as if he is walking in front of the Creator and “dictates” to Him what needs to be done to his attitude. He “fixes the schedule”. Everything depends on a person’s inner investigation of himself.
(Daily Article, December 21, 2004)
91) A person is in a state where he has the opportunity to feel pleasure by filling his time and thoughts with something. If he nevertheless chooses efforts and additional work, positively knowing that this will not give him pleasure, and if he obligates himself, then by doing this he expresses his efforts and exerts them above reason. Obviously, this calculation is made within the boundaries of the desire to feel pleasure as well, that is, it also comes from the aspiration to achieve something good. There is no doubt about this. However, right now in this state, this nevertheless signifies a certain effort that is in some sense directed towards bestowal. If a person’s efforts are especially directed at the group and at the intention during study, then every time the person directs himself by concentrating on getting closer to the Creator, his effort becomes attached to the common fund, until he finally receives the intention Lishma as a gift. Then, in the new vessels and in the new nature (and only in it), pleasure as well as connection and unification with the Creator become revealed to the person.
(Daily Article, December 20, 2004)
92) We should not weigh the result inside the desire to feel pleasure, nor inside understanding and reason. We should weigh the result only according to the amount of efforts we have exerted. Even this is problematic, because it is not easy to evaluate the amount of the exerted efforts. It may seem to me that it is possible that I was burning on fire, while in reality there were no efforts. If, however, a person acts with joy together with the others, then each person inside of himself is downright weeping for the connection to the attribute of bestowal (I am not saying: “for the Creator” because it confuses people). If this cry is boiling inside of a person, if he is ready to step on the throat of his own ego for the sake of the most important thing and connect with others, if this is precisely what he is doing right now, then as a result he performs a good action. In addition, afterwards it is not necessary to conduct a subjective calculation about how successful we were.
In the beginning, during the process and at the end of the “thought, speech and action”, we must be disconnected from the desire to feel pleasure. We have to soar over it. This is the only way in which it is possible to do anything, and it is impossible to check it. This is why it is difficult.
(November 29, 2004)
93) A person has to create an atmosphere of a new beginning of renewal for himself, that is, an authentic renewal in his work. In other words, he gives his word that from now on he takes responsibility to advance forward onto the Creator’s territory with all of his desires and passion; he moves forward with direction and aspiration. A person has to join, unify and be there. A person has to escape through a narrow passage of this cramped “womb”, or from this world, and live only in the world that is filled with light. It does not matter how the person imagines it to himself; it is only important that he imagines himself as being under the governance of the Supreme Force, day and night. This is a new beginning.
(New Month Meal, October 14, 2004)
94) A person has to make decisions in such a way that all of the obstacles that he receives will enter him and become perceived by him as pleasures, since he will attribute them to the principle “there is no one besides Him”. There is a desire in which the pleasure becomes perceived, and there is the intention or the thought. I should check to see if I am in the Creator with my intention or thought, and if I'm at the point with my desire. If I identify myself with the Creator then this is called “to go above reason”, and then I am always joyful. Joy is a sign that I am attributing all problems to the Creator. By remaining at the point that makes this decision, I always experience joy. We have to perform this kind of analysis over the course of all the stages of our work. In essence, a person does not have anything else to do, but only to realize the article “There is no one besides Him”. In this article, Baal HaSulam has outlined a specific scheme for us. We have to build ourselves relative to the Creator in correspondence to this scheme by trying, as much as we can, to remain in this perception and direction, despite the obstacles. When the obstacles come, we will know how to relate to them from the inside, based on the aspiration for each of us to become the Shechinah and for the Creator to become clothed in man. That is, for the Inhabitant to enter the Dwelling-Place. A person is the vessel of the Shechinah. The easiest thing is to imagine the state when the Creator clothes in me. What does “in me” mean? It means: in the brain, the heart, the mind and all of the organs. You can even imagine that the Creator possesses people much like a “ghost”. He acts from within me and I just want to know that this is happening. Other than that which He activates within me, I do not have any other desires, thoughts or actions. If a person does not fall into illusions and, little-by-little, tries to work by training himself to search for the singularity of the Creator despite the obstacles, then we can say that this person is following the path that leads to the state “there is no one besides Him”.
(Daily Article, December 15, 2004)
95) “Give me the ability!”, this is a plea that is above reason and above everything. If the lower asks then the Upper gives him a new force, whose essence the lower did not know before. This is called: “He labored and found”. The Upper gives the force of bestowal to the lower. In this case, the AHP of the Upper begins to shine to the corresponding degree, and the lower begins to grow. This way, the first encounter with the Upper takes place when the person feels that he is living in darkness, but nevertheless he understands that this darkness is sent to him from above. This is where the work begins. If a person really aspires for the truth, rather than merely for a pleasant sensation, then he undertakes to work out the correct relationship to the Upper and begins to advance.
Practically, our work always consists in ascending above the darkness if we perceive it. However, the darkness itself can still remain, but you want to be unified with the Upper while you remain in the darkness.
“Give me the strength so that this darkness and this state of bestowal will seem to be the best possible thing to me, despite what sensation I may have in my vessels of reception”. This gradually becomes clear.
(March 2, 2005)
96) It is impossible to explain the difference between the efforts we are making today, which are called “intentions” or “actions” for us, and that which we receive from above as a result of the influence of the light that returns us to the Source. This light creates a supernatural attribute in me, and I begin to passionately aspire towards just one goal, which is the willingness to give to the Creator – to give, and that’s all. It is as if I exit out of myself and I lose all connection with myself, leaving behind any calculations for my own interests. The only thing I want is for Him to receive from me, and I feel good because of this. However, this pleasant sensation is separate from my action. In other words, giving to Him feels good to me, but I do not act for the sake of this pleasure.
This is the new Kli that becomes revealed to me. In the beginning it becomes revealed separately from the person himself and is called “Galgaltave-Einaim”. I simply want to give to Him, in order for Him to feel good. A pleasant sensation does not obligate me to do anything, rather, I only want to exit out of myself and begin to give. It is as if I feel how I exit out of myself and attach myself to the Creator with my heart and mind. The gradual acquisition of these attributes signifies the acquisition of the Galgaltave-Einaim and is divided into many levels. In the beginning we are talking only about the desire to bestow; this is the stage of the “fetus” (Ubar). Then it begins to become revealed over the desires for pleasure, and this is called the “small” and “large” states (Katnut and Gadlut). This is already work in which efforts are exerted. I do not merely disconnect from myself and attach to the Upper. No; now I have to be inside of myself and, together with all of my dirt, nevertheless attach myself to the Upper. This is already an analysis of the Galgaltave-Einaim on the background of the AHP in the process of attaining the “small state”.
(The lesson of February 25, 2005, The Steps of the Ladder, Part 2, Article 586)
97) We cannot make ourselves aspire for a specific intention, we cannot understand it, and we cannot suppose what it will be like and how it will manifest. The intention comes as the Creator’s nature that is clothed in a person. Therefore, we have to only carry out the actions, as it is said: “The concealed is for the Creator, and the revealed is for us and our sons forever, in order to carry out all of the words of this Torah”. This way, we have to carry out all of the actions that have been prepared for us on all of the levels, and, together with this, to receive the correct intentions as a gift from above. About the intention it is said: “He labored and found”. As we study in TES, the effort becomes manifested when I try. During the period of concealment I try to reveal the Creator as the One Who obligates, determines, governs, looks after and controls. The effort consists of the fact that I desire to reveal this Supreme Force and to discover that I am located in its realm. Then, the result of this becomes the “field that is blessed by the Creator” (Torah, Bereshit, 27:27). By doing this I clarify the attributes called Jacob and Yosef, or the right and left lines, as well as the intention, which is the middle line.
(The lesson of February 25, 2005, The Steps of the Ladder, Part 2, Article 586)
98) Generations of Kabbalists are looking at us and observing us from above, and there really exists a huge world-wide hope. The world does not understand and it is waiting for who-knows-what, like a little child who simply wants to feel good, but does not know exactly how this has to manifest. We have undertaken a mission or a weight given from above, and we have no way out; we have to bring salvation to the world. Each person must think and understand that he does not have a way out; the finger that directs from above obligates us to act. Then this will really happen.
(New Month Meal, October 14, 2004)