Good Environment – 11.28.10

My Good Environment – Questions of the Day

By Changing Yourself, You Change Reality

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe point in the heart, which has no form or direction, is similar to my spiritual “stem” cell, from which I can freely build myself up. It is the end of the rope thrown to me from the final state that I must reach. Grounded in it, I can now build everything else around it by exercising my free will.

All reality is divided into me and the external world. And if I know how to use the external reality correctly, I can change myself, thereby realizing my free will. Freedom lies solely in the ability to change oneself and not the world! The world is just the imprint of my properties.

I only need to know how to correct my properties, how to change the combination of these initial, natural qualities in me. To do this, I am given a “Kli” (an instrument), a lever, a “crane” that I can use to turn myself upside down and lift myself up! Then, the entire reality will change. I see that everything is different now, as if I were born into a new world.

So, do I replace my view of reality or the reality itself? I change the reality! After all, reality is what resides within my perceptions.
[27769]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/10, “The Freedom”

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The World Depends On Me

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How many people must hold the intention simultaneously in order for the spiritual connection to get revealed?

Answer: Only I. If I uncover my desire to unify with the others, I discover that they are already united. It seems to me that they are not unified in order for me to work on them and them on me. Yet, all of this is in relation to me.

As long as I am not corrected, I see my corruption in them and work on them so that they influence and strengthen me. Thanks to their support, I correct myself and then see that they are becoming more corrected as well. After all, “every person judges according to their own flaws.”

It turns out that I must worry only about my own correction. What about the others then? If I see that the world is broken, I have to correct it. This means that I correct myself. In this case, if I treat the others with the intention to bestow, I don’t see them in the broken state. Rather, I see the Shechina (divinity) in them, the revelation of the Creator Who fills the entire world.
[27298]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, The Zohar

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Working Inside The Spiritual Network

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What can be done if, during the reading of The Zohar, the intention weakens because the mind keeps trying to understand the content of the text?

Answer: We shouldn’t pay attention to it. Intention must become increasingly stronger during the lesson since the friends should think about it together. And if each of them holds the intention, it cannot be so that someone drops out of it.

Here we truly get connected in the spiritual communication network between us, not in the material one. If I hold the intention to bind myself to “Israel” (those who aim directly to the Creator), the Torah (the Light), and the Creator are one” so that I, the Creator, and the group became as one whole and reveal the Light that fills the entire reality; if all of us strive to experience this condition and, due to reading of The Book of Zohar, the Light has to reveal it to us, then this intention will “burn” in us more intensely. But if I feel that my intention has become weaker, in this, I depend on the all the others 100%.

In this respect, we are truly working inside the spiritual network. Thereby, we enter the spiritual world and act in it to the best of our ability to hold the intention and bind “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator” together.

We already act this way in the spiritual world and only have to uncover it for ourselves. Therefore, we demand the Light to reveal it to us.
[27301]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/10, The Zohar

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Keter – Hochma – Bina – ZA – Malchut

Dr. Michael LaitmanKeter and Bina possess such special properties that they can descend anywhere they wish to and work on the lowest desires. Bina is Hassadim (mercy), and Hassadim can dwell in any place, protected by their intention of bestowal in order to bestow. But how can Keter do the same if, beside Hassadim, it has Hochma (wisdom)?

The key is that Keter fills the desires and relates to everything from below upward. Hence, it is able to descend into any desires living in egoistic intentions, just as Bina, but for a completely different reason.

Keter is the property of the Creator who wishes to fill the entire creation, Malchut, to the fullest. It isn’t the Light of fulfillment, Hochma, but the plan of creation, its initial thought, its program. In a way, it determines what the Creator wishes for us in the very end: to elevate us to His status.

This is why the Sefira of Hochma is marked with the final point of the letter “Yod”: It is the program that begins to get realized, starting with the Sefira of Hochma and below. Hochma is the Light of the purpose of creation, and, below it, Bina is the Light of correction.

Thus, there is GAR, the three upper Sefirot related to the Creator: Keter is the program, Hochma is the purpose of creation, and Bina is the correction of the created being. Further on, the realization of the lower ones takes place. It is Zeir Anpin, the system which determines how the lower one should change and what sequence of acts is necessary for that. As to the lower one, which must change and undergo these modifications, it is Malchut. This is how the created being gets arranged from five parts.

And since Keter is the point of conception, the program of creation, the original idea, it is present in any place! After all, without this idea, nothing would exist, not even the tiniest of desires.

But in relation to the lower ones, Keter acts from below upward since it is aimed solely at elevating them to correction, even if it has to descend into the lowest Klipot (shells) and commit some transgressions on this journey. But after that, as The Book of Zohar describes, all of these problems and transgressions seem to have been correct actions to us, which we had to undergo because they helped us to see our final corrected state.

All of this is done by the Creator’s hand, and we ourselves haven’t made any mistakes, committed any crimes, or made any corrections. Hence, in all its behavior and treatment of the lower ones, Keter is above all limitations and restrictions. It is the thought contained in every particle of creation and its every action. Hence, it expands everywhere and works from below upward in order to connect all parts of creation and lead them to the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun).

Bina works in a different manner: It is the Light of Hassadim, the correction of the created being. Correction may take place in any condition and any place according to the desire of the lower one to be corrected and to receive the property of Bina, the attribute of bestowal. If you wish for it, you will get it, without a limit!

Therefore, Bina also can expand everywhere since it is Hafetz Hesed (pure bestowal). On the other hand, Hochma is the Light of the purpose of creation that fills the desires after their correction is done by Bina, which had been received beforehand. Zeir Anpin organizes the process that determines how such correction is carried out.

Bina, wishing to be similar to the Creator, gives birth to Zeir Anpin (ZA) and works within it in order to bring it to the level of Keter. But ZA cannot attain the level of Keter as Bina desires it to do since ZA can do so only with the help of Malchut!

It turns out that ZA is the concealed Creator, Keter, the highest quality, Atzmuto, the plan of creation. ZA and Malchut work in a pair because ZA cannot become as Keter unless Malchut joins ZA and passes all her desires to him.

Hence, Malchut can correct itself only by following ZA’s example. Watching Him, she learns what desires and correction she needs in order to merge with Him. Malchut is all the souls, ZA is the Creator, and their coupling is the merging of all the souls with the Creator.

But when they finally merge, they ascend to AB – SAG, Hochma and Bina. And when they merge there, they become part of Keter. That is where the program of creation ends!
[27309]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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Life With Many Unknowns

Dr. Michael LaitmanA person living in this world does not know what will happen to him at the next moment. He does not understand why the things that happened to him yesterday happened and from where his thoughts and desires are now originating. He feels that he is controlled by unpredictable forces, as if he is hung in the air in relation to his past, present, and future. And he tries to find some kind of support, searching for an explanation to the universe with the help of logical reasoning and hypotheses.

His ego grows and asks more and more questions about life, and about what awaits him after death. The more strength we acquire through the development of technology, which opposes nature, the more powerfully nature comes out against us, forcing us to find the answer about how we are governed and what is the meaning of life. As a result, we feel as if we are in empty space.

When man lived in caves and chased mammoths, he thought that he knew everything about his life. He felt and understood the world much more than we do. We, on the other hand, are unsatisfied by any of the existing theories. We need a clear answer because we are unable to properly arrange even our day to day lives. So many questions arise that we are unable to cope with them.

It’s like mathematics: In order to find one unknown, it is sufficient to have one equation. To find out two unknowns, you need two equations. However, in our lives we end up with many unknowns while having less and less data or facts with which to build a formula.

The philosophical and religious explanations of the past no longer work on us; we cannot rely on them. We demand facts and proofs, meaning attainment. If we knew that we do not have any freedom of will, then we would build a completely different society and relationships in it, a different system of punishment and justice. The problem that Kabbalah proposes to solve is not theoretic, but very practical: to determine where and how we can influence and realize this opportunity.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/10, “Body and Soul”

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A Human Is Defined By His Intention

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is my intention and why is it so important if my mind and feelings are not taken into account in spiritual advancement?

Answer: Intention is the human within me; it defines what I want out of everything I have within. Everything I am filled with – perceptions, mind, hopes, fantasies, dreams, the past, present, and future – all of this gets mixed and discerned by me: What do I want out of all of this?

I don’t comprehend this mixture. Everything is tangled: Today it’s one thing, tomorrow another. But what I want is regarded as my intention.

In other words, now I look above my life and everything I have and decide what is the most important to me. It is the point where I can make a decision: I can either submerge myself in the “cocktail” I have mixed and forget about everything, returning to my daily life. Or, I can rise above it and wish to excavate from all this mix only what I can use for my advancement, the future life. This is what I must decide, and this is why intention defines the human being in me.
[27806]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, The Zohar

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Learning To Love Bestowal

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe science that leads us to receiving pleasure and fulfillment and brings us the sensation of comfortable, eternal, and complete life without a slightest recollection of any loss or lack is called the wisdom of Kabblah. It is a science that teaches how to obtain comfort in life by joining the good. After all, this is our true desire and nature.

We shouldn’t try to conceal or decorate it, or deceive ourselves. On the contrary, we need to discern what is worth desiring and, in accordance with that, clarify what our greatest desire is and what pleasure it can bring. Therefore, the entire wisdom of Kabbalah has been revealed to us so that we aim at the correct goal, the correct desire, and then cultivate it as much as possible.

However, in order to perceive the Creator, we must realize that the sensation of pleasure is only possible if I am equivalent to this pleasure, to the Creator. To receive pleasure from Him means to understand and feel Him. And this means that we have to be like Him, meaning to bestow, to give. But first, I have to comprehend what it means, and then I will be receiving His delights.

To the degree that I adapt to and resemble Him, become similar to Him, to that degree I begin feeling Him and delight in Him. Hence, the essence of our work lies in becoming similar to the Creator. The more I resemble Him, the closer I am to Him, the better I understand and feel Him.

But if I wish to merge with certain pleasures, it means I love them. Wanting to merge with the Creator, we, thereby, bond with the pleasure of bestowal, meaning that we have to love this quality.

How do we achieve it? That is what the wisdom of Kabbalah is all about. As soon as we learn to love the quality of love and bestowal, we will immediately begin to understand, feel, and enjoy the Creator.
[27829]
From the Introductory Lecture “Kenes-Springboard” 11/2/10

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Unity Day – 11.28.10

Unity Day Around the World, Preparation to the Lesson
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Unity Day Around the World, “We Are the United World Group”
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Connecting To Good

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday, we have reached the limit of our egoistic development concluding our thousand year old history, and this is why humankind is experiencing crisis in all areas of life. We do not see where to go further and what else there is to do; hence, the world is falling into depression and drug abuse.

And this is where the wisdom of Kabbalah comes in. It was awaiting to be revealed precisely at the end of the 20th century, as described in The Book of Zohar and other Kabbalistic texts. This is taking place namely today when everybody understands or begins to feel that they have come to a dead end since our egoism has no direction to grow in.

If egoism continued to develop, we would be running after it without a thought as we have done during all of the previous lifetimes, all our history, each new time trying to attain something, win, improve for the sake of home, family, children, career, and so on. Each generation is like a row of soldiers moving from life to life, from incarnation to incarnation.

Over the course of these life cycles, we did not get tired of running after our ego because our desire was pushing us to do so. It doesn’t matter that it was worthless and we had done it all before and many times. We kept running and did what the ego wanted us to do.

But due to the fact that this egoistic desire has reached its final, highest level, we have started to feel that the road has ended. People don’t even want to bear children any more since they are losing hope that the next generation will live better than the present one.

This is where the wisdom of Kabbalah comes in and says: You can join the good! This is the good future for all humanity. But this good is not in our egoistic ideas and the dimension of this world at all. Here, there cannot be anything good any more.

If everybody wants to receive something into their egoism, they will never be filled. The moment a person starts getting filled, his pleasure disappears. Pleasure and fulfillment are opposite to each other, and fulfillment subdues the desire. And if I don’t feel lack any longer, I don’t feel pleasure from receiving and have to look for a new one.

Thus, all my life passes by in pointless search. But for those who feel that they must find something above this material life, Kabbalists tell us how to join the good.

In truth, I already feel that this world has exhausted itself and I need to find something above it in order to understand “what for?” and “why?” Where is the source of life, and what is its purpose? What was before it and what will follow? I want to know what is beyond, outside of these borders that lock me in this world.

I must know the reason of all that is taking place and see around this world: How each thing begins and ends, how everything is interconnected? Without it, I don’t feel well. This is the way our soul, which is beginning to unfold now is built.

And this is the reason why Kabbalah, the method of finding the soul, has arrived. After all, everything we have experienced thus far was being perceived in the animate body with its five sensory organs. We used to fill the body with tastes the body was enjoying or we suffered pain in the same body.

We have finished with this world; we have filled ourselves with it and felt disappointment. Now we have to go on! Ego keeps growing, but in another dimension: above the body. This is called the evolution of the soul, an inner part that will develop in you, and thanks to which you will attain the Upper reality.

And this doesn’t cancel your current world; it will continue to exist. But you will also attain what is above it, meaning all of the forces that descend from Above and govern our world. You will understand everything that takes place here, below, since you will ascend to the higher roots and uncover the relationship between the root and the branches.
[27255]
From Lesson 1, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/9/10

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