My Spiritual Simulator – 10.12.10

Spiritual Simulator: Questions of the Day

Kabbalah Moments: Everyone Is Included

Where Is Our Freedom?

Dr. Michael LaitmanBefore you enter the group, you have the freedom of choice to enter it. After you enter it, you have just one choice: to strengthen your connection with the group. You must decide for yourself that this is your free choice, and you must always continue doing this. Therein lies your freedom!

Freedom is not when I do something I want, but when I continuously add my efforts to this connection. We don’t have any freedom of will in any other regard; everything else will happen automatically.

This is a very important principle. I don’t have any freedom in my entire life. I am a complete puppet. There is freedom of choice only in one regard: After the Creator brings me to the group and gives me a spark in my heart, I have one single freedom: to include myself in the group, to grab onto it with my hands and teeth as much as possible.

Once you "latch on" to the group correctly, you depend on it, on the influence of the environment, and you don’t have freedom in this regard. So where are you free? You are free inasmuch as you add your own effort to strengthen your connection with the environment in spite of your egoism. You thereby increase your dependence on the environment and its influence on you. There is no other freedom but this!

This is the mutual guarantee and we must always add more and more principles to it including love for friends, love for the neighbor, and your justifying them by faith above reason. Everything is inside this freedom of will, this approach by which I attain the goal.

The rest of my life unfolds according to a specific "script." You can even go to a fortuneteller who will be able to tell your future. You can predict everything in advance besides the one thing that belongs to your freedom of will. Everything else is driven by "blind" faith.

It is forbidden to predict the future because then a person might think that he has freedom of will in his regular life. However, if you know that there are no free actions, then the future becomes revealed to you. Yet, you can never reveal the future that relates to your freedom of choice because it depends on you.
[23360]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/12/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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Introductory Lecture “Preparation For The Congress” – 10.12.10

Kabbalah for the Nation Introductory Lecture Series, “Preparation for the Congress”
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Purifying The Intention

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn our work, every step is measured by our intention. Each new action demands a new, sharper intention. Actions themselves may take various forms, but the key is to know what outcome I wish to receive as a result of my efforts.

Here is where we have to measure ourselves: How much do I care for the reward and what kind of reward is it? We speak not about corporeal rewards, but of more exalted values of a spiritual nature although they may have different vectors: for the sake of reception or for the sake of bestowal.

If a person demands a reward for his work in his Kli, then his intention is aimed at reception. He wants to feel, understand, attain, ascend, and so on. In other words, it doesn’t matter what exactly my desire is. If the goal is related to me and examination is taking place in my desires, then my calculation, despite being spiritual, is still egoistic.

Even if I wish to attain brotherly love, love of others, and love for the Creator, I still need to dig deeper and examine how I define these terms: What is their content, impurity or sanctity? Thus, essentially, a person examines the results of his work: either in his own Kli or in the Creator.

One might think: “Can I really place a reading device in the Creator and verify whether I have pleased Him? And what’s after that? If the result is positive, will I myself feel good and warm in my soul? Or is my intention aimed solely at Him, without any contact with myself?”

All such verifications may be accomplished only if we are doing genuine work, meaning revealing the Creator in the group. The love of friends serves as some type of purifier for intentions and desires, with the help of which I get purified from egoistic calculation and don’t err in my examination of who I am, what the group is, and to what degree I am loyal to it and not to myself.

As a result, I realize that I am incapable of even the tiniest act of bestowal. It is beyond my capacity. So, I turn to the group because the friends gave me a sensation of Arvut (mutual guarantee) and they can provide me with the strength to bestow.

The greatness of the friends and the group supply the fuel to me, which continues up to a certain level, until I build my Kli. Having completed its correction, I wish to use it, and that’s when in the group I discover the Creator, to whom I had initially aspired. Only now, I turn to Him together with the friends, from our common desire, to ask for the force of faith. Thereby, we attain adhesion with Him.
[23192]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/10, “Who Testifies Upon the Person”

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Spiritual Standard

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom the will to receive, which was created as existence from absence, the Creator created the World of Infinity. There, the desire remains in adhesion with the Light in its final form that He had wished for and established. It is His influence that holds this entire perfection together.

After that, the Creator divided this structure into parts, the will to receive and the Light, and handed them to us to use. Now, we have to utilize the desire and the Light so as to reach the goal, meaning to equalize ourselves with the Creator. Everything is in our hands: Having understood what is required of us, we are able to do it.

So go ahead, you start building it. You have all the necessary settings to gradually re-create the state of the World of Infinity. Yet, it takes a while to comprehend and feel this work. What is the Light? What is the will to receive: a thought or an act? What is an act?

A person gets confused and becomes more ignorant than a little child in the beginning stage of his life journey. It takes years to understand even the basics: the essence of the matter which the created being is made of and the essence of the force that is needed to make changes.

Our current state has been given to us for the most intensive and effective advancement. The world that we find ourselves in isn’t comprised of some artificial conditions, but is a natural outcome of all stages of evolution. From it, we may begin constructing ourselves and forming something totally new with the help of the will to receive and the Light.

Existing at the animate level, I have an opportunity to build a created being that is related to the next, human level of existence and has a spiritual rather than corporeal form. I use the two forces, desire and Light, and combine them so as to give birth to some third element.

Specifically in me, just as I am, has been lain a capacity to accomplish this. How? It is possible by way of arranging an environment. “The environment” is my impression of a utopia that I desire to manifest. I need to visualize a corresponding image and desire with all my might for it to become true reality. By chiseling its details, sharpening its image, and discerning connections and contradictions in it, I eventually “reach the standard.” And then, it manifests in reality.

Therein lies the essence of my “game”: I exert effort, greater and greater, until it finally occurs. And thus every time, ascending higher and higher, penetrating deeper and deeper, I understand and feel more and more.
[22631]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/5/10, “What to Look for in the Assembly of Friends”

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A School For The Benefit Of The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanLately, people have been sending in many questions about our education system. We are creating a new educational system, and we must use it for the sake of bestowal, for dissemination purposes. This will pave the path to its successful development, support, and acknowledgement. Our children will become part of the process that is directed toward aiding all the children of the world. We are using that which is the dearest to us, our children, for dissemination purposes, as an example of proper upbringing.

This is the key to success: We are not only concerned with the well-being of our children, but the well-being of the entire world. This means that our primary objective is not in creating our own school, but in organizing virtual, model classes to serve as examples for shaping children into adults.

We will use this foundation to make educational video programs so children around the world could use them to study after school over the internet or through local television. Dynamic programs of different formats tailored to specific age groups will introduce us as a serious educational organization that really cares about education. We will provide the world with a systematic supply of educational programs in different languages. Naturally, we will do it without mentioning the wisdom of Kabbalah, but only using its global, integral approach to the revelation of the world.

This system does not conflict with the scholastic program; on the contrary, it shapes a child into an adult. Gradually, we will also introduce all the school subjects into our programs from the perspective of the global worldview of reality and our world.

We need to teach children to understand that their perception of the world is relative and show them that it is possible to feel and understand the world in a different way without becoming stuck on stubborn preconceived notions. When telling children about nature, we need to teach them about relative perception, arouse questions about themselves, bring them closer to reality, and open up the world before them.

The aforementioned are not groundless fantasies, but actual results that we already clearly observe on hundreds of our children over the past several years.
[22613]
From the Talk on Education 10/1/10

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Find Surprises Only In Spirituality

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In a few weeks, more than 7,000 people from all over the world will gather together at the World Kabbalah Convention 2010. How, during this gathering, do we implement the law of “love thy neighbor” in practice?

Answer: I think that the magnitude of unity that we are about to discover with the help of the Creator will be truly enormous and powerful. We have prepared ourselves and “warmed up” the entire World Kli and all our friends who are going to come to this congress in person or participate in it virtually.

During this last month before the convention, we must thoroughly familiarize ourselves with what will be taking place at the congress as if we are already there. In advance, we must learn all the songs, the program of the convention outlined day by day, the topic of each lecture, the theme of every seminar, meeting, gathering of friends, and cultural program, and get ourselves acquainted with the place where the congress will occur.

We must learn as much as possible in order to free space in ourselves for new impressions. A person should learn in advance as much as he can about everything that is taking place during the congress.

I don’t want any surprises in the corporeal. Rather, let there be spiritual surprises in the connection between us. A person has to be open for them, not looking for what, where, and when everything is taking place. There should be total clarity so that a person won’t need to worry about anything, but rather, be more open to the impact of the environment. Only then does he absorb everyone’s enthusiasm, and that is what inspires him.

Judging from my personal feelings, we are going through great stages of preparation.
[22658]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/5/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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Kabbalists On The Language Of Kabbalah, Part 16

Dr. Michael LaitmanDear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Language of the Kabbalists Is a Language of Branches

All the words and utterances our lips pronounce cannot help us convey even a single word from the spiritual, Godly matters [properties of bestowal and love], above the imaginary time and space. Instead, there is a special language for these matters, being the Language of the Branches, indicating their relation to their Upper Roots.

However, this language, though extremely suitable for its task of delving into the studies of this wisdom, more than other languages, is only so if the listener is wise in his own right, meaning that he knows and understands the way the branches relate to their roots.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah

All those who attained the Light of the Creator through their work wanted all those succeeding them to enjoy what they had already discovered, as well [reached the same level]. Therefore, they named each and every attainment so they [those who follow] would be able to understand their intentions and the attainments that they attained, and thus form a common language with each other.
Writings of Rabash, Volume 2, Letter 19
[22500]

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Spiritual Mathematics

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why are there 12 tribes and only 10 Sefirot?

Answer: Sometimes, when we refer to Sefirot, we count ten of them, at other times, when we refer to the phases of the Light’s expansion from Above downward, we say that there are five of them, and when we speak about Zeir Anpin, we count six Sefirot. In truth, there are nothing but five phases. If we are adding something else, it is because we wish to emphasize that in Zeir Anpin there aren’t more than six Sefirot and, in that case, instead of the five, general Sefirot, we count 10.

Sometimes, we wish to underscore that these 10 Sefirot are aligned with the three lines. In that case, we say that each property, phase, or Sefira also has its own individual relationship with the other Sefirot according to the left, right, and middle lines. Then, instead of 10 Sefirot, we speak of 12: The 4-letter name of the Creator HaVaYaH (Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut) is multiplied by the three lines in each of them, totaling 12. This is merely a method to emphasize a specific characteristic.

Sometimes, we speak of 13, at other times of seven (Zeir Anpin and Malchut), at other times of eight Sefirot (Zeir Anpin with its Malchut and a separate Malchut) and so forth. One should never think that by doing so we may cut off some Sefirot, some part of the Partzuf. We use various calculations solely to express the current state being undergone by our souls: the right line, the left line, the three lines, the small state (Katnut), or the big state (Gadlut).

For instance, we say that in the small state there is only Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE) and no AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh), but it is simply not being used since there is no force of the screen over it. All of the titles or names indicate to us only the force by way of which a 10-Sefirot desire is being engaged.
[22524]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/4/10, The Zohar

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