The Day Begins In The Evening

Dr. Michael LaitmanA question I received: How do I know that I am advancing by the path of Light and not the path of suffering?

My Answer: The sign of following the path of Light is joy. It is written that “joy is the outcome of good deeds.” If I am connected with the others, I am always a part of a healthy common body and receive from it strength and inspiration. They are constantly circulating in our collective organism, flowing from one to the other; hence, I never fall or get disappointed. I don’t even feel tired! Granted, I can sometimes feel sore in my corporeal body, but I never feel tired mentally.

I keep receiving new desires and their fulfillment from the others, which flow from them to me and vice versa non-stop. So, in this condition a person ceases to feel ups and downs. For him, everything is one whole.

In fact, the day begins in the evening, but I don’t perceive it as a dark night. I feel that this is my preparation for the next spiritual step. I now need to gain more of an appetite and get hungry in order to become more receptive to perceiving spirituality.

This night is not the darkness we imagine. This is the darkness within egoism. It is the time of the construction of the vessel (Kli). In our earthly life we go to bed at night; however, in the spiritual one, we labor diligently in the night. We are making, creating, and building ourselves. It is as if at night we are assembling our car, and in the morning we drive it. Don’t think that in spirituality “night” is a dream separated from reality. We break off the previous reality in order to attain a new one. And we build it with faith above reason.

At “midnight,” the merging (Zivug) of Abba ve Ima takes place to create new desires (Kelim). I need to work in the dark because darkness conceals the old desires from me (since I don’t need them any more and must ascend to a new spiritual step). It also hides from me the new desires so that I can find them, connect them to myself, and understand where they are and why.

It’s similar as to how we play with our children. We first prepare a game for them, but later, they have to play by themselves. We pick a toy that consists of different parts (for example, cubes), not a toy with a single piece because we want the child to put it together by himself. Our spiritual work at “night” is the same.

Therefore, a person who is closely knitted into the environment doesn’t feel separation from the spiritual path when he falls. On the contrary, he sees that he is given an opportunity to work and experience a new adventure, like a child, whom nature pushes to grow. So, he loves such games of building and putting together.

Additionally, if the environment pushes us to this game, like nature does a child, we will feel as if we are on a wondrous journey. But if the environment doesn’t provide such inspiration, we don’t want to play as if we are a sick child who didn’t receive such a desire from nature and lags behind in his development.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/10, Shamati #50

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Is Concealment Hiding Within Me?

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen the time comes to attain the Creator, He slightly opens Himself to us, showing us His kindness. Later on, He increases our egoism and it makes us feel like He is not good to us. In this way, the Creator invites us to raise above our egoism and acknowledge that “Everything is good; it is me who feels bad inside my egoism. If I manage to rise above it, I will see that everything is good.”

Afterward, the Creator reveals more of His kindness to us, which allows our egoism to grow even more, and then He hides behind it. We feel bad again, but have to rise higher beyond egoism by “faith above reason” and understand that we see evil only through our egoism. Meanwhile, His rule is always benevolent.

In other words, the higher we rise, the greater the concealment, but each time we possess more power to rise above our egoistic desires and realize that concealment exists only in respect to our egoism. When we transition to bestowal, the concealment disappears. To be more precise, the concealment doesn’t really disappear; rather, we rise above it.

All the stages (double concealment, single concealment, and revelation) are created by us against the simple, even Light. If we want to receive the Light, we have to raise above the ego and receive it over the screen, that is, into a desire to bestow. To reveal the desire to bestow within oneself amounts to revealing the Creator.

However, to be in concealment means to lack the revelation of the Creator or the property of bestowal. Do we suffer because we don’t have the property of bestowal? Such suffering indicates the degree of one’s concealment. So the question is does the concealment intensify or diminish as we advance?

We grow and concealment gradually disappears, which results in more revelation and less concealment. Yet in terms of its quality, concealment is stronger and we suffer from it more. I correct part of my desire and, by becoming similar to the Creator, attain revelation. But in other parts of my desire I remain in concealment. That’s where I feel how much I need Him and He hides from me because I am uncorrected.

The higher I rise, the greater the revelation and the more the concealment is diminished. If only 10% of the concealment is left, then I will suffer much more within that 10% than I suffered when I was at the bottom and 99% was concealed from me. With the strength of 90% revelation, my “dirt,” which is almost sterile, looks terrible to me because now I see what I am still lacking. So, the level of concealment decreases, but the sensation of its evil grows until we attain complete revelation.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/9/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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The Wondrous Attraction Of Spirituality

Dr. Michael LaitmanA question I received: Is it possible to ask the Creator to give points in the heart to those in whom they haven’t yet awakened?

My Answer: We need to pray for the whole of humanity to quickly reach a true spiritual need for the goal of creation. However, to pray means for you to aspire for inner unification with such tension and force that it will be felt by everyone else like a fire that is blazing within.

Imagine that humanity today is almost a lifeless body; maybe not completely dead yet, but in a state of unconsciousness. And we are its organs trying to revive ourselves and bring back life to this common organism. Gradually the whole body begins to awaken. This constitutes our work.

The most important work in dissemination is not in external efforts (the amount of books we release or materials on the internet); it is in the unification between us through which we rouse love, connection, and warmth in our whole worldwide unification of people who study Kabbalah. It is precisely this work that influences everyone else, and they suddenly begin to feel that there is something unique in all this! But what it is exactly, they don’t know. Nonetheless, they suddenly find us.

After all, every person’s heart somehow led him to Kabbalah though he himself didn’t understand how. It’s simply that once this need arose in him, he began to search, and suddenly he felt with his heart that his place is here. This is because his desire was already aimed in the same direction.

It was a very small desire for spirituality, a point in the heart was hiding deep within, but we ignited such a powerful fire that people felt it from afar. Therefore, everything depends on our inner unification. This is the most effective dissemination.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/10, Shamati #50

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