Introduction to the Book of Zohar (PDF) - Kabbalah Media Archive

I N T RO D U C T I O N T O T H E B O O K O F Z O H A R
Our will to receive is small. To increase it to such an extent that we
break through the barrier into the spiritual, we need to turn our desire
from being small into being an all-conquering one. One can do this only
under external impact, under the influence of a group, when I have 35
people around me.
If all of us out there are given the opportunity to unite, then each
of us will receive the will that is 200, 300 times greater, according to
the number of people now present at our virtual lesson. It will be quite
enough to cross the barrier and enter the Upper World right now. We
lack only one thing: the union of our aspirations for the spiritual.
Since there is only a small will to receive, it dominates the whole
of the category at once, but its power over the particular items is
indistinguishable.
This refers to the first phase – the still level of the will to receive.
Each subsequent level appears as a superstructure above the preceding
one.
36. The second phase of the will to receive that is called vegetative
is added to the first. Its desire is larger than in the still phase, and
it dominates every item of the category. Similarly, in the vegetative
world we see a germ, a spark of life in every plant.
Each one has its own private movement that spreads up and down
and to the sides, and moves where the sun shines (reaction of each part
to the Upper Light); the manner of nourishment and excreting waste
is also apparent in each item. There is already a recognition of what is
“good” and “evil”; useful things are attracted, harmful are repelled. Already
the vegetative type of will to receive exists in us, but is nonetheless
a very small, general desire.
A group appears and, in general, it aspires to something. You may
say, “Well, isn’t it good that the group aspires to something?” Everyone
in the group must be an individual, but at the same time, all of them
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