Q: I still want to better understand the term, “analysis.” You say that scrutiny should be at the beginning of any learning process. Yet, since a true analysis cannot come at the beginning of the learning process, I wonder what efforts we can make in our desires to change ourselves? Can a prayer for this change come by itself?
A: We can never force ourselves to change. We can only change if we are changed from Above. If we are not granted new attributes from Above, nothing will help; not my words and not your will. Therefore, all we need do is make an effort. The change will come from Above, but it may not be as we would want it to be, but quite the contrary. Up Above, they know better…
Therefore, the first stages in the study and the advancement are the regular reading of all the texts. Read the books of Baal HaSulam, Rabbi Baruch Ashlag and mine, especially the parts you are attracted to. There is an Upper Light in the text that works to gradually change you. Just filling yourself with what is written in those books will enable you to analyze your condition from a point of view that is not corporeal or physical.
Then, the texts will begin to act within you, and the Light will gradually penetrate you and begin to change you gradually, though at first you will not be aware of it. As a result, you will acquire an inner knowledge, an ability to sort out which is closer to spirituality and which is farther.