Kabbalah_2_class2_basic

The Kabbalah Centre worldwide classroom. The Power of Kabbalah level 2, class 2 with Eitan Yardeni. with Eitan Yardeni. Hello everyone and welcome again to the worldwide classroom, Power of Kabbalah 2, the second session. Last week, we spoke about the concept of tikkun in the deeper level. We have learned that each one of us has klipot, shells within us, negative forces within us. That we carry for many lifetimes already and those klipot and shells that were created this lifetime, those blockages. And in order to truly transform ourselves, it is not just to follow the proactive behavior that is written in the book. We have to truly face those areas of blockages and negativity that exists within each one of us and break through them, which means going through a major discomfort, we have learned. Because those klipot, those shells, those negative blockages existed within us, they are truly ruling the way we feel, the way we think. And if we truly would like to overcome them, we need really to starve them to death. It means not to give them energy, not to listen to them and in spite of the pain that we are going through, to realize, "I am not going through pain, my limited, negative force is going through pain, It is not the real me." And we spoke about two types of pain. Is the pain that comes in our life unexpectedly, that we always need to look at this as a force of cleansing, and instead of running away from it, embracing it, of course we do need to remove the pain. But the first consciousness we need to inject and the immediate reaction should be: after the rejection that our body will have, say "No!" Embrace it, bring it on. I want to bring it on. I want to eliminate this force of shell, I am not going to listen to it, it is Light that is cleansing me. And the other type of pain we spoke about, it is part of the homework that you had, is to choose those areas in my life that it is truly uncomfortable to go to. And I know it is good for me to go to, and I know it is beneficial to choose those areas and to jump into them, heads on, for the purpose of eliminating those negative forces. And the fact that it is difficult for me to open up to other people, and I have decided to do so anyway, to break that klipah, the fact that I will do it one time, two times, does not mean I will break that negativity. It is the beginning that I am drilling through this negativity. And if I truly like to accomplish what Kabbalah is saying, transforming my nature, to become a being of sharing, I need to do it over and over and over again until I will truly free myself from the old, illusionary, limited behavior. In today's session, we will address in a deeper level, the understanding of the ego. Which is the space between us and God, between us and the Light, is the ego. And as we have learned last session, it is all about how much do I truly identify the ego within? In order to be able to learn how to identify the ego within, we need to understand what is that ego and in what different way that ego manifests itself. And we will speak today about the five extensions. How the ego manifests itself which is: anger, judgement, control, pride and hate. And every time I am letting myself go there, it is just an extension of our branch of the ego. So, that is what we are going to learn today. So, first, let us try to define and understand in a very simple way: What is that ego? What ego really is? And what is the problem about ego? You know we have learned general words like desire to receive for one's self alone, So, of course ego does make us into ourselves and self absorbed, no question about it. But, what is the difference between a person with confidence with ego versus a person with confidence without ego? Is every time I have confidence, it means I have ego? Or every time I appear weak and humble, is it really lack of ego and humility? Let us try to understand, really, what ego is about. So, if we go back to the basics, the basics, we have learned that the reality that we see life through, the five senses, my conditionings, my fears, my perception, we called it the 1% reality. Even though we are growing spiritually, still that 1% exists within us. That part that gives us the test in this world. The 99% reality is the big picture. It is where the answers come from, where the Light comes from, where the blessings come from, where the angels come from, where the cure comes from, where the big picture comes from, where the cause and effect comes from. That is the 99% reality. So, the ego is that force that Satan is using in order to cause us to forget about the existence of the 99% reality. The ego is the force that causes me to believe that the only thing that truly exists is my 1%. The limited me is the only thing that exists. That is the purpose of the ego, because at the moment that I am operating only from the 1%, without knowing there is something bigger than that 1%, so, I have no chance to access to the source of all good, the Light force of the Creator. So I will be in my ego all day long, in my 1% all day long. I will build my own towers and imaginations and illusions. But, I will not connect to the true source where blessings are truly coming from. So, the ego is the part within us that causes us to think that the 1% is the only reality. To think, and to believe. There is many people who say, "I believe in God, I believe there is something bigger than my 1%", but the way that we act; it does not demonstrate we truly believe there is something bigger than me. So, the fact that I say I believe does not mean I truly believe. So, a person can have philosophical, amazing belief systems about God and 99% but since the ego is so big, when it comes to moments of confrontation, the only thing that I would see is my way. In relationships, in business, in I am right and you are wrong, or I can not stand other people or constantly judging other people. So that is basically what the ego is about? It is creating a fence between my 1% and the 99%. We all have 1%! The question is, are we able to create windows between my 1% and the 99%? To create windows is humility. Humility means: knowing that without the 99% I can do nothing, knowing that there is a bigger picture than what I see every given moment. So, what is the goal? What is saying I would like to reach a level I am more and more ego less, and as a result, closer to the Light? Less and less fences between my 1% limitation and the Light force of God, what does it really mean? It really means: I would like to reach a level that every positive thing that comes through me I know it is from the help of the Light of the Creator, I know I could not do it by myself alone, I know there is no question about it, but at the same time, I have strong confidence that with the help of the Light, I can do it all. And I can do amazing things and I create miracles and wonders, and I can affect change in people's lives and in projects that I am doing, huge certainty, with the help of the Light. The confidence that comes from ego is the confidence that makes me special and higher than other people and better than other people and putting down other people, and not acknowledging that the Light of the Creator is the source of everything, and not acknowledging that in a second, I can lose it all since I am not connecting with the Light. It is I am the smart, I am the bright. I am the power. I am the source, and it is all coming from me, that is what the ego wants us to think. Even though we would say I believe in God and I believe in it, but the way we behave does not show it. One of the main indications, that indicates we do have ego and it is not clean and it is not clean confidence, is: entitlement. Every time I am bothered, "how come people do not treat me the way I deserve? How come I did not get it? How come the universe did not treat me right?" "How come people did not treat me right? I think I deserve this and this and that and I am bothered and I am not in acceptance in the reality that happened." I am not swimming and flowing with it to learn what is my lesson. I am stuck into the entitlement, "I should have got more. I am upset. I am dwelling in it" and we all have ego by the way. It depends on what level of ego. So, every time we have that entitlement, That sense of entitlement that I deserve more than what I get, and it is unfair, it is indication that we are stuck in the realm of ego, in that 1%, we are believing what we hear and what we feel and that is it. That is what the ego is about. It causes me to think that my world is what I see and what I feel. My ego can cause me to walk around people and to cause me to think the only one that is really important that I have emotions, pains, issues, joys is me, even though there is thousands of people around me. And, the ego does not let me sense other people's pain, other people's issues, other people's joy, other people's success. The ego is the one that does not let me be happy for somebody's joy or feel pain for somebody's difficulties. That is the ego. So, the ego is that part in us which is stopping us from feeling anything outside of my limited me, my 1% me. And it is related to last week's lecture, my klipot me, my shells me, my illusionary me. The ego is considered to be, if you read the book of Michael Berg "Becoming Like God", the prison of our life. Major prison. It is a prison. It is like, we will do whatever my ego feels comfortable. Somebody will tell me something I do not like about me. I can stand it, who can stand it? My ego can not stand it. My soul loves to grow, so the ego wants me to stay confined to my comfort. The ego wants me to stay confined to what I like, what I am good at, what my perception will be in the eyes of other people, it is nothing to do with what the Light wants. And it is discussion. Some people will say, "What does the Light want me to do? What is what my soul wants me? ", and some people, all day long, "What is my ego wants me?" How do I want people to like me or not like me? And we all have these two aspects. We have areas that we seek true connection to the Light, and to do what my soul wants which is grow, transformation in spite of the discomfort, but we all have that ego part within us which causes us to think only about temporary fulfillment because that is what the ego is all about. The ego is that illusionary system of fulfillement that comes from temporary fulfillment and illusionary fulfillment and not long term. So, the ego is a force. It is part of the klipot force, part of the satan force that wants us to be fulfilled with temporary pleasure that has to do with me being better than somebody else, with me being special, with me being even below other people and the ego of self pity, but the ego is not about connecting to true and lasting fulfilment. It is getting the fulfillment from my limited prison. That satan force gave a credit line to the ego to give us energy. So, you are getting energy by people saying, "Wow, you are amazing!" And I am filled with energy for two days and it gets me going and I am excited and I feel I am really happy? Are we really happy? It can be happiness that comes totally from the ego and not from the soul. Or the ego can make me happy because somebody that I know failed, and comparing to him, I am better and I am excited and I am not even aware of why I am excited and I am coming back home in a good mood. But, because I am giving power to the ego and I am listening to it, and I am allowing myself to be excited based on separation, and somebody else is down, which is total ego fulfillment, who is getting really the energy? My klipot, my shells, so sooner or later that excitement which is illusionary would feed my negativity and would cause chaos in my life and more separation between me and the Light. So, it is so essential to identify the ego and to develop dislike towards it, because that is the only way we can remove illusionary fulfillment and begin to have true and lasting fulfillment. The ego will cause me to be devastated when things do not go my way, because I believe only if they will go my way, it is real! And, if not, it is not! So the ego will give us the illusionary ups and the illusionary downs, and sooner or later, chaos. This is the biggest factor that separates us from God, from the Light of the Creator. So, again, to summarize. The ego is the illusionary perception that my way and my emotions and my thoughts is the only reality. And, anything outside of it does not exist. And, for sure the ego does not let me seek help from something bigger than me, a human being or the Light of God, and the ego does not let me become a true channel as a result, and will not let me have true security, because confidence that comes from ego will be followed by insecurity and a sense of emptiness. I know some people that accomplished a lot in their lives, in a monetary level, in a fame level, but when it comes to security, they is still insecurity. And the illusion is, "you know what, if I accomplish more, that will bring true security to me. Not at all." True security comes from how much I am reducing my ego and confidence in the power of the Light and with the help of the Light I am accomplishing good things for the world and for me. That is where security comes from. Not from me accomplishing things with my ego. It is never enough. Because something is lacking, I do not have the Light since I do not believe the source of my blessings in the Light. So, relationship with the Light and trusting the Light and trusting with the help of the Light I can manifest unlimited things, That is what a sense of security truly comes from, not just from accomplishing things with my ego. Actually bigger, the ego, bigger the insecurity, bigger the hole, even though people will appear as very comfortable with themselves and very powerful and very confident. But ego causing that void and emptiness and darkness within. So, how do we deal with it? That is general understanding of what the ego is, it is just believing that the 1% is the only thing that exists and there is nothing beside it. OK, so how do I begin to identify where I have ego? So, we will talk about five extensions of the ego. Five specific ways the ego will manifest itself, and as I am saying it, try to to relate it to you. "Where do I have that issue?" And If I have one of those issues, it means I have ego and I need to work on it, so at the end of the session, we learned what do I need to do to begin to reduce my ego? So, the five extensions as I said before is: anger, number one, number two: judgement, number three: control, number four: pride, number five: hate. So, let us go one by one and try to see the connection between each one of these five extensions and the ego. So, anger, let us start with anger. Why is anger an extension of ego? And why, just by saying, "OK, I will restrict anger! And I am connected with the Light", it is not enough. Maybe for Kabbalah 1 it was, but really for transforming, it is not enough, why is it not enough? Simply because why am I angry? If two partners face difficulty in business, business deal that worked for three months, you know, financing a project for three months, and it fell through just at the last minute. After they expected such an amazing success to come from it, and they put the last penny into that business deal, and they were waiting and expecting, and then one of the partners is devastated and angry at those people that were involved that were supposed to get the loan, very angry and the other person, even though he was upset, for an hour or two, but then he moved on and tried to see what he could have done differently and we can do from now, things, better, in order to manifest even bigger business without falling down. So the other guy is angry for months. He cannot let go: anger, anger, anger. So, both of them experience the same challenge, one is angry and one moved on. What does the anger truly represent? What is anger? Anger is: I am angry that things did not happen my way. That is what the anger really is about. I am angry that the past because that is why I am angry, I am not dealing with the present. I am truly dealing with the past. I am angry that the past did not fulfill what I think should have happened. So, instead of moving on to learn, what can I learn, and what can I do differently? Or maybe I can look at this as an opportunity to move to the next level because kabbalistically, everything in life is potentially supposed to move us to the next level and next level and next level. The fact that I am dwelling in anger, I am ruled by my ego that tells me only MY way is good. If it did not happen my way, it is bad, period. So, the fact, why am I stuck into the anger? Because my belief system about my way and my expectation and the way I wanted it, I am STUCK in that belief system! Anything outside of it means it is not good. We all have expectations, we all would like certain things to go our way. And there is nothing wrong about it. But when it does not happen my way, we need to have the strength to say "One second, the 99% wants to give me something bigger!" I can learn from it, or I can not trust that individual which teaches me a lot about life! But, no matter what, there is a bigger picture here when things do not happen my way. And at times it will happen my way, which is also great. I am not saying it is bad. But, the key is not to be addicted to my way, because if I am addicted to my way only and anything else no, that is considered to be addiction to my ego, to me, to my limitations, to the way I see things, to the way I, and if I am so addicted to it, anger is an inevitable reaction when things do not happen my way, when the other person does not do what I asked him to do, when they surprised me and upset me that way. Of course we will be initially reactive, but to dwell in anger, it is an indication, it has nothing to do with the other person. It is indication I am addicted to my ego. I am too stuck to how things should be my way. And the Zohar writes that when the anger takes over, it is considered to be idol worshiping and considered to be as if a different spirit entered out essence, our being, that is controlling us, because through the power of anger, a person can be violent, through the power of anger a person can be rude, and then you will say "I am sorry" but it means nothing, he might repeat it again when he will be angry. "I am sorry I said it, I was just angry", what does it mean? It means I allowed the spirit of anger to take over. He did. It says when a person is angry, he can let go and lose so many levels of spirituality that he earned true hard work. But what is causing the anger? The ego. Causing the anger, the belief system that I am right, that I see it, and my way is the right way. And because it is painful to listen that maybe there is a bigger lesson, and bigger blessings for it, I can not stand it. I do not want to go through that pain! It has to be me! But it is the pain of the ego that does not want to be open minded. It is the pain of the ego that does not want to see the unexpected miracle coming from that challenge. The ego wants to be stuck to one-dimensional thinking. I want to see what I see, but we know all the blessings come from the unseen. Because we hardly see anything, so if I want just blessings will come only when I see them and expect them, as smart as I will be. I will never have true, blessed life. True blessed life that I will have surprises, good surprises called miracles. It means I am constantly connecting that part of me. The bigger picture of life, I do not see, and I know the blessings come from that unseen realm, so that is basic level of humility knowing the blessings coming from the unseen. The Light I do not see, that is where everything truly comes from. If everything comes based on my expectation and logic, that is my ego, I am hooked to my ego! That is what the ego is all about and I will never be happy. Because real blessings never come from that same level. So, anger is one of the manifestations of the ego of, "it has to be my way, I am so addicted to my way". We all want my way, the question is how strong is my ego? If I can let go of my way and say,"oh there is something better coming", That is indication that I have less ego. The other extension, and not all of them by the way, some of us will have more control, some of us will have more anger. But, each one of us has one of those is more the dominant expression of the ego. So the second one that I spoke is judgement. So, I am not talking about making decisions; you have to make judgement, you have to say "This is right for me, this is wrong for me, I do not like this, I do not like that." We all have judgments that have to make. I am talking about non-useful judgments that does not help anybody. The chances of coming to the room, and somebody talks right away, I see what is wrong with him. Right away, I see all their tikkuns and all their issues, which is not useful, if you are their instructor, they need your help, you maybe need to see what is wrong with them in order to help them. But, the concept of judgement is being above. Even though you might not think you are above, you might think actually, "I am not so insecure" but the fact that you have judgment, in that moment, it is putting us in a place of above. I can judge them. The purpose of life is to identify what I need to change in me. So the fact that I have to much time to judge others means I am not doing the job, and I am perceiving myself as about them, but I do not! We are. The fact that I am judging, it is indication we are. The fact that I am judging is the indication my ego is taking over. The ego is believing what I see, believing based on the only thing that I am hearing and seeing. So, part of the ego says, since I made a mistake, I can never change it. Since I was born with certain limitations, I am limited, that is it, it is fixed. The un-ego part of us, the soul part of us knows always, in spite of the fact of their mistake in spite of the fact that I have limitations, with the help of the Light of the creator, I can manifest a lot of blessings. So judging myself to death is part of what the ego wants to tell me, "I am fixed, I am done, I am set, I am destroyed", so the ego often will make us feel either amazing and powerful, and above and great, or the extreme of low and down and zero and no hope! That is often what the ego will give us the sense, and sometimes we will have issues with insecurities. Which we all have areas we are insecure. And then we have thoughts of, "I am not good enough, it was not good enough, I am not sure I can fit in, I am a zero, I am not strong." So, my question to you and something that works for me whenever these thoughts come to me, ask yourself a simple question: If I truly believe I am a zero and I am not strong enough, why do I take so seriously these thoughts of "I am a zero", or "I am nobody"? So tell yourself if you are really zero, so I will not take so seriously those thoughts and that is the power of the ego. The ego takes so seriously every thought that comes to me and every emotion that comes to me. Instead of saying, "one second, those thoughts does not mean it comes from the Light. It may be my ego giving me those limited thoughts." Because look how crazy it is: sometimes you feel amazing about projects and then you feel so lousy about it. You feel amazing about what people feel of you and then you feel lousy about it. Again, the insecurity comes. Which is the ego playing games in our heads. At least we are talking about how to identify the ego. We did not learn yet how to break out of that prison. But, we need to see how we have been played by the ego. So, the second thing we spoke about: judgement. By judging other people, it is separating myself from them. Even though I do not feel great about me, the fact that I am judging, I am separating, I am seeing myself above. It is again my way. I see it through my perception. It is my limited observation, I do not see the big picture. And self judgement, when it is too extreme; not for the purpose of growing, it is also destructive and separates me from the hope of connecting with the Light. The Bal Shem Tov a kabbalists that lived two hundred and fifty years ago spoke about judgement; that people are judged, people are judged, only when they are judging others. People are judged by the universe by the negative forces only when they are judging others. It means we might make mistakes in life. We might be reactive in life. We might be selfish here and there. But the thing that will attract judgement upon our negative actions that we have done is not just the negative action we have done on something, It is the one type of negative action which is judging others. Those are becoming the cables which, through them, we will be judged. So, so powerful the concept of judgement which is extension of the ego. The other one is control, the whole concept of control. And again, you know, sometimes we do need to express leadership. We do need to take charge, but I am talking about the lack of ability to work in a team work. The lack of ability to work together. I need to be controlling, it has to be my way. If somebody else came up with a solution or somebody else took charge in that particular project or that particular scenario, when I am involved. I can not stand it. I feel out of control! I feel something was taken away from me. And, of course there is a very thin line between "I want what is better for the project", "better for the other person" versus "my ego is irritated because I am out of control. And, always, when you have a control issue, the excuse will be "because I just want the betterment of the business, the betterment of the family, the betterment of the decision, the betterment of the relationship, the betterment of the health", that is the reason why I am trying to control the situation. But the mere fact mere fact I am irritated by controlling people is indication I have a control issue. And when I have a control issue, it brings a lack of joy in our lives. Being too controlling, again, brings me back to, "only if things happen my way, I will be happy". And when I am letting the control issue control me, my way is becoming narrower and narrower and narrower that is the nature of the ego, gradually the prison becomes smaller and choking us. So, I want things to be my way and I will fight things to be my way, and I will manipulate things to be my way, because part of control leads to manipulation since I want everybody to listen to me, I will manipulate other people to make sure that that guy will listen to me. So, our manipulation and lack of honesty and lack of being direct and lack of being just open and being so complicated comes from the control issue, but sooner or later it lets us have a lack of joy in our life, since my way becomes so small and I am hardly getting my way. So we do not know how to appreciate anything. When I am able to appreciate and to enjoy things that are outside of my control even though it was not me that did it, it was not my way, that is an enormous sense of joy and happiness and appreciation that comes to us. Which comes by reducing the ego. The Control. The fourth one is: pride. What is the whole concept of the negative pride? I am not talking about the positive pride. Positive pride is self respect in a way, "I am sure with the help of God, I can do things." "Does not matter how many mistakes I have done in this world, does not matter how people perceive me or the limitations I grew with, I have the respect like God respects me. I am still alive, I am in this world. With the help of the Creator, I have unique gifts to do amazing positive things into the world. Now I am not going to be, with my ego, that is I am sure I am good in it and it has to be the only way. When I am humble enough, I will be open to realize, "you know what, maybe it is not exactly what I think I am so powerful about." But I am sure I have gifts and I have respect for myself, and that is a big thing to learn: what is healthy respect. Healthy respect is to respect ourselves as channels, and to respect that I can do it, no matter what with the help of the Light. I can do all the positive things that we need to accomplish in this world, and we need to be in this world; I can do it! And I have respect for myself, and healthy respect is when I have an issue, when I am allowing people to treat me badly over and over and over, it is an indication I do not have healthy respect for the Light of God and the soul that God gave me. Because I am allowing it to be because I am too worried what they will think if I will be strong, if I will be firm, if I will not let them take over my life. So, I apparently will attract tikkuns of people treating me horribly. So, there has to be some basic level of respect which God created me and I have a soul and I have the force of God, and there has to be basic human dignity to that soul, in the same way I need to treat other people with human dignity, I need to make sure I am treated with human dignity, because if I am not respecting myself, how can I help other people? And if I am not demanding, not as a victim, as reality, as consciousness, as my attitude that other people treat me with respect I will not respect myself, and I cannot give to others! So, healthy respect is essential. Now, the ego respect, the pride is the need for honor, the need for people to speak highly about me, the need for being treated a certain way. The need to get credit for things that I have done, the need to mention, you know what, "I have done this charity, I did this, I did that. You know what you should look at me, that is who I know. " or "that is how much I am worth." It is the need to hold on to accomplishments in the past. It is not even in the present, It is always in the past. The ego always holds onto a bag from the past. "That is who I am, that is what I have done, that is what I have achieved." Instead of looking, "you know what today is a new day. I am starting from scratch, from zero, let me accomplish, let me do!" When I am holding onto my ego, I have less motivation, less energy, less force, and always have fears because ego attached to fears, pride attached to fears. When I am so holding onto what I have done I am so afraid that people will destroy that image. It is such an addiction; holding on to that pride, that illusionary need for respect for honor, for people to recognize me. It is a major, major, major drug. More than most of the drugs. The need for people to give me energy... I want the Light of the Creator to give me energy, I want the Light that I have done through my positive actions to give me energy. I want my consciousness to access the Light and to give me energy, but the energy I get from somebody thinking good about me for a second and then forget about me or the energy from my name is somewhere... It is energy, but it is temporary energy and in Kabbalah, we are saying we want much more than just ego, temporary energy, I want it all, I want the Light. The energy that I am getting from the ego is 1% energy limited energy which is not enough for us! So, the whole concept of removing the ego is not just "I do not want to be respected", I want much more! I want real respect from the right people when I do not expect it not because I chase it! Chasing respect is ego, addiction to respect. I cannot let go of it. There is a saying that King David said: "when you run away from honor and respect, it will chase you. When you run after it, it will run away from you." So, there was a guy who came to King David and asked him, "you know what, I have learned this sentence, but I am running away from respect, and it does not seem to chase me. What do you think? " "You know what the problem is? " he told him, "It's probably because you are running away and looking if the respect, the honor, is behind you." So, as long as you are chasing and looking and that is in your agenda, we will never get it. Of course we need respect. We all would like to be respected by the right people, but we need to trust the Light will give it to us. The Light will give it to us when it needs to come. And sometimes I need to go through moments of rejection even though I am doing the right thing, I am not getting any respect. It has to be, because that is what destroys our ego and allows us to be true channels. Anybody that does real work in this world, and if you have read the book of the Rav Berg, "Education of a Kabbalist". One of the lessons he learned from his teacher: if you are involve in the work in spreading the Light of Kabbalah, you need to know your ego needs to be bashed and destroyed. And part of it, you will be rejected, people will speak bad about you. "How come? I am doing such an honorable work. How come the Light does not send me respect? " Because we need to understand the ego wants too much respect. One of the ways to reduced ego when I do not get it at all, so when I am not getting it at all and I am OK with it, I can handle respect without getting it to my head. Because it is not bad to get respect, but when respect is controlling me, "wow, he respects me so I will treat him nice. He respects me, so I am in a good mood". I need to reach a gradual level that I am getting to the point that I am not addicted and hooked to respect and honor that come from the outside. I am doing something truly for the sake of sharing. I am getting the blessing, I do not need people to charge me up. So there is two banks of energy, the ego bank of energy and the Light force of the Creator bank of energy. Where do you want the energy from? If you run after, chase after respect, ego, honor, people will mention you, "Did they like me? They did not like me", which we all have it! We are all addicted to it on some level. We are not going to get the big picture, Light. And, of course, it is not black and white. Maybe we have some ego, and we have the power of overcoming the ego. And the fifth type is hate, because hate really demonstrates the ultimate disconnection from the Light of the Creator. Because hate is the ability to dislike somebody the degree, "I see no spark of goodness in somebody!" I am so disconnected, and to be so disconnected from somebody else, It is my ego that is causing me to realize there is not Light outside of me. Because if we truly realize the Light of God, the spark of the force of God, exists in every soul. And in every human being, we would never hate somebody. We might realize, " I do not want to be their friend" "I think our paths should not be together at this time", but to hate somebody in such a deep degree will not get any benefits and is never right. So, what I would like each one of you to do, I would like you to identify at least one or the most dominant expression of the ego anger, judgement, control, pride, or hate, for you. If you have two, it is ok to think about two. And the purpose I am doing it is just: number one: in order to get rid of ego or to reduce ego, we need to acknowledge we have ego. I need to understand: it is not just a spiritual thing that we are doing, it is removing the prison that causes us to have chaos in our life. And not connect to true joy in our life. So, let us just use twenty seconds to acknowledge and identify: "I have ego". What are we going to do? Now that we have all acknowledged that we have ego which causes the anger, which causes the lack of tolerance, which causes the control issues, which causes the judgement, which causes the hate, which is causing us the need for pride. Ok, now what do I do in order to reduce the ego and as a result I will see that I will be less angry and less judgemental and less controlling and less hateful and less needy for pride and for honor. What is some suggestion I would like to give in order to reduce my ego, and of course, going back to the original mystical tools of Kabbalah, the mystical technology. Those of you who have learned about the power of the Zohar, this, I always recommend just by scanning the letters of the Zohar with the intention of enlightening myself and reducing my ego. Just by itself demonstrating connection from a force above my 1% because to the 1% scanning letters, Light, Zohar does not make sense. So, when I am doing it with true passion, I really would like to reduce my ego. That is a tool that helps anyway, but other tools that will help: ask yourself how many times a day you ask the Light to help you. Besides the times of meditation or prayer or the Zohar. Because more times a day we are asking for the Light to help us, when I am driving I would like to be protected by the Light, when I am talking I would like to be guided with the Light, when I am helping I would like to be guided with the Light, when I am dealing with the challenge at work I would like to be guided with the Light, when I am trying to strengthen relationships I would like to be guided with the Light. When I wake up in the morning I would like to be guided with the Light for the whole day to be the right consciousness, the right channel. How many times am I truly asking for help?Because the more times I am asking for help, the more I am demonstrating the fact I am just a channel and the source of our blessing is the Light which is the whole idea of breaking the walls of 1%, remember. Ego is the prison of the 1%, it does not let me feel anything outside of it. At a moment I am asking for help again and again and again from the Light of the Creator. Through the spiritual tools of the Zohar and just simply asking through the course of the day! I am breaking out of the prison. And I am creating that reality there is a bigger picture. As a result, the bigger reality, the Light will help me when I need it. If I do not ask for help all day long, how do I expect that I will be able to see beyond my ego when I am going through challenges or difficulties? Of course I will be angry! But, more I am breaking out to ask help outside of my prison, more when I am going through difficulties I will get support from outside of my prison. That is one suggestion: asking for help. Another thing: appreciation. Any time something good happens to me, right away give credit to the Light of God. People might tell you thank you, of course, do not tell them, "it is OK, it is God". You might need to tell them, "You are welcome and I appreciate it", but deep inside always, right away, attribute the blessings and the miracle of what you have done to the Light of God. And mean it! Another thing, being able to appreciate daily, the regular things you have in your life as if today was the first time you have got it. From health, to what you do, to the beauty, to the blessings, to the family, to the children, to the connection, to the wisdom, to the talent, to anything that you have! Because the rule is very simple: the only thing that belongs truly to us is something that we can keep. And tell me what you can keep for sure as a guarantee. Nothing. Our money, our wisdom, our health, the people that we love, everything. Everything is lent to us and at the moment we do not appreciate it that is part of the ego do not let us appreciate it, see it my way. See things in a very limited illusionary way. At a moment I do not appreciate it, I, God forbid, might lose it. So appreciation is infusing the Light of the Creator into everything that I have. And if I am not infusing it with the Light and I am not appreciating it, only the 1% is temporary cannot last. So, appreciating is essential tool, daily. And knowing I can lose it at any second, that should be important consciousness. I can lose everything that I have at any second. Not to create negative fear, to create appreciation for the blessings that I have. So, the tool of reducing the ego we spoke about: asking for help, using the Zohar, asking for help all day long. Every time I am manifesting something amazing or in a gift through me. attribute it to the Light of the Creator, and appreciating all the blessings that I have in my life. As I am doing it more and more and more, and as I am aware, during the course of the day, that when things do not happen my way, great! My ego did not get what I want! I am excited! As I am doing these two things in the midst of difficulties and the preparation of all of what we said before, I will be able gradually to reduce my ego but I have to tell you without the test of rejection, when things do not happen my way, it is almost impossible to reduce the ego. Without a test of seeing things unfair and being so upset, "how come things are unfair?, I have to go through this!" Because unfair is just the temporary ego that is complaining. Every rejection, every unfair, every not my way gives me a chance not to feed my ego. I need to be able to be joyful with the rejection, that is a tough task, but with the work and the gradual work in creating this strong desire and knowing that my ego is my prison, we all can see gradually the results of removing the ego. Because the ego is the cause of all of our pain. How come it seems to be that as we are doing this work, which we believe in reducing the ego and going the right direction, sometimes more challenges are coming.? So, that is a very, very good question. It does not seem like things are becoming better. There is no question, personally, doing this work for the last twenty six years, for sure things are getting better. But not necessarily on a temporary basis, especially if you are just doing it for a month. But, there is no question that for some people it happens right away, for others people happened later on. In the process of growth and transformation, as I am working toward truly eliminating the forces of ego, of reactivity within. I will be challenged, that is part of the ego. Things do not seem to right away become great. Because that is another layer of satan. To cause doubt in me, "does it really work? I have done my connection, I have done my meditation, I have done my scanning, I have done my helping, I have done my overcoming my reactivity, and I do not see any change! How come?" Because that is another layer of ego. Even though I do not see the immediate response, but it happened and I am not going to let my ego that look for giving me now! Show me the money now! I am not going to let that to ego control me. The fact that I have done the work, I need to inject the certainty. In certainty, it is the opposite of what the ego wants. The ego says, "I will be sure only if I will see it!" So, I can assure you, Brian, just by you pushing and continue especially because it is against your comfort zone. Hold on! Even push harder. Do not allow the exhaustion to control you. I assure you results and then things will be smooth until again they will be difficult and we are all going through those stages. We are pushing forward, we see results, and then it feels like we are stuck. And those are the real tests in life: pushing forward when I do not see the results, and the ego tells me, "It does not seem to work!" But that is an indication that big blessings and miracles are really coming your way if you are truly pushing in the right direction. So, Scott is asking where do you draw the line when judging other people? Sometimes you do need to judge, seem to be at work or discussing with a wife, so the answer is: there is a rule kabbalistically, for the sake of sharing. Of course, if for the purpose of constructive reasons to help a company, an organization, a team, a charity, relationships, you do need to pass judgement sometimes if that is the real intention. So, we are talking about whole intention. Every behavior has two sides: is my intention from ego or is my intention from one's self alone? If the reason I am judging is just make me higher and better, it is negative judgement. If the reason of judging is truly helping some people or helping the group, of course it is the right thing to do. So, what we are learning here is not just the judgement that is a problem. We are learning about to be sensitive to my ego. Am I judging because it makes me now feel elevated? And better, and energized? And I am using the judgement just to be liked by others? So, that is the question. It is not about never judge and being righteous, because that can be the ego of being righteous as well and never judge, do not like to say anything. No, we like in this world and sometimes we do need to pass judgement. And we do need to construct and we do need to confront people. Often, we have to. But the question, where does it come from? Ego is the unseen force, it is not just what I say, is it coming from ego? Me, me, me? Being better? Separated? Manipulative? Or, for the sake, for at least to my idea, to my knowledge, for the sake of benefiting the situation and the scenario? Some people in their acting career would think that they need to use the ego in order to perform and without it they will not have any sense of security. So, as I said before, there is confidence that comes from humility and there is confident that comes from ego. There is nothing wrong about expressing confidence, and by doing so I am truly asking and begging the Light to help me. I am always reminding myself that it does not make me special and better than other people. And I am talented in that area. There is nothing wrong with expressing confidence that way. But when the confidence and the performance make me feel special about myself to a degree it is nothing to do with helping others, and it is nothing to do it came from the Light, From my experience, always it is going to separate me from people, make me entitled, make me feel better than, make me feel aggravated when things do not go my way and becoming high maintenance person in my surrounding. So, we do need confidence, but confidence comes from trust. Trusting that with the help of the Light, I can perform. And of course practice and making a lot of effort. So, confidence does not have to be ego based. So, again, when people call it good ego, maybe in this case, in this lecture I just called the ego as a negative force. The good ego, we will call it in our language: the confidence that comes from trusting the Light force. So, thank you very much everybody.