Destined (Doomed) To Be Together

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can the WE! Convention affect and improve the general situation in the world, which is now going through such a difficult time?

Answer: Hard times haven’t begun yet.  We do not yet realize to what extent this connection is suffocating and stripping us even from a smallest free action. It’s horrifying to find oneself in this situation, in the condition where everybody is in the grip of his or her egoism, hatred toward others, and egoistic calculations.

You suddenly feel that you are confined by thousands of chains and are dependent on the faintest breath of the people that you are totally indifferent to. How can one possibly exist in a state like that at all?

We have nowhere to run: We cannot divorce and distance from each other. On the contrary, our connection will become increasingly tight and will turn into a total interdependence literally in everything.

When mass media tells us about the events that take place around the world, we think that we simply observe them as onlookers. But in truth I depend on each gallon of oil produced in Libya, on everything that’s happening in France and Turkey, and so on. In other words, it’s not even my neighbors, but everything that occurs at the other end of the world, and it’s impossible to hide from this connection.

Hence, we need to finally realize that the wisdom of Kabbalah gives the world the method of correction without which humanity will be lost and cease to exist.

Kabbalah teaches us how we can attract the upper force. We ourselves do not have the strength! It explains to us how we can reveal the upper force which will bring order into our relationships. After all, we have no idea how to establish peace and order in the world and are only coming closer to a total war, which is also described in Kabbalah as a possible route of development if we do not attract the force that unites us.

During the forthcoming convention we have a special opportunity to bring into the world the force which will effect it and us in a benevolent way. Without it, we will see how the world is going down at the formidable speed and in a very unpleasant direction.
[37879]
From the Lesson on Inner Preparation for the WE! Convention 3/10/2011

Related Material:
A Convention Is The Holiday Of The Soul
How To Forestall The Blows Of Nature
How A Kabbalah Convention Affects The Correction Of The World

Don’t Be Afraid, We’re With You!

Dr. Michael LaitmanAfter the breaking, the sparks fell into the broken vessels and the Light is inside the desire to receive this Light egoistically. It turns out that I am inside of this egoistic desire in the broken vessel, and that means I want to use society and the Creator to receive spiritual fulfillment, but for my own sake!

I want to advance spiritually by gaining more knowledge, more sensations, and by becoming closer to my friends in order to receive something from them. All of this is aimed in the direction of the spiritual goal, but with an egoistic intention. That is how I activate my spiritual desires or broken vessels. I act from the broken heart and it is precisely inside of it that I will find the Creator among all of my egoistic desires.

I have to work with these desires without being scared or embarrassed! I shouldn’t run away from the horror upon discovering that I am entirely aimed at selfish reception, and I shouldn’t be afraid to get dirty by touching my impure desires. This is, incidentally, Kabbalah’s difference from the religious approach. I have to activate these desires without getting scared or ashamed.

Yes, I am broken! And it is precisely from the depth of this breaking that I reveal the fact that I can attain the goal. This is the place of my contact with the Creator. From there I organize my work in relation to society. And this society also seems egoistic to me since it is my common Kli that is broken in relation to me.

Don’t be afraid of any revelations of evil! The most important thing is that the evil is being revealed for the sake of the goal! In that case, it is the point of truth from which I will already be aimed at the goal.

That is how I accelerate my development and acquire a point of contact with the Creator from within my broken desires, from this entire filthy egoism. That is how I advance. And the more “sinners” that become revealed in me, the better. I am very happy about it because through them I will be able to advance even more!

I only wish to have enough strength to endure in the face of suffering so I won’t run away, or so I won’t sit with my hands folded in my lap and eat myself up. Some people become consumed in eating themselves up and don’t think of using these states for the sake of their advancement when so many negative qualities become revealed to them.

The only thing that can help here is endurance, the speed of the changes, and the force of the group, which must influence a person and always awaken him, not letting him remain depressed and empty. Everything depends on how we prepare ourselves and how we help all the others who are in these broken desires.

After all, we all understand what kind of egoism we are in, and we are not afraid because we support one another and try to pull every person out of the swamp. This enables us to advance.

There is still a lot of work ahead of us in order to reveal our common state and the personal state of every person, and to come out of them. However, it is important to underline that these states become revealed to us when a person aspires toward the goal. That is, the goal is never to reveal the evil! My goal is always to try to reveal goodness, bestowal, love, and unification, but on the way there I reveal opposite qualities. To the degree I try to reveal goodness, on the way I reveal all kinds of “sinners” inside of me.

Then I rejoice at their revelation inside of me because in the same direction come prayer and correction, and thus I move forward. The first half of the vessel is the revelation of evil, while the second half is its correction to goodness.
[37659]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/11 on Prayer

Related Material:
The Path Through The Broken Heart
He Whose Heart Is Broken
Spiritual Endurance

Awaken The Frozen Earth

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur entire work is in revealing an inner ability to perceive the true reality where we exist. Reality is permanent and eternal, and the only thing we lack are the senses to recognize, feel, imagine, and reveal it.

But to do this, one needs to possess the proper desires, the spiritual vessels (Kelim), he himself has prepared within. And the preparation happens in two stages: The appeal for the correction of desire, the prayer (MAN), comes first, followed by the reception of Light from Above (MAD), the upper force that comes and corrects us.

We need to sense within both the prayer (MAN) and the response to it (MAD) in all their actions because they specifically build the organs of perception within us that will enable us to reveal the Upper Light, the Creator. This is why it is written: “It is impossible to attain anything without the force of a prayer.” This is because we need to consciously go through this process, with our own desire preceding it.

But the question is where do we get the proper desire for the revelation of the Upper Light, the Creator, an opposite quality that we are absolutely not prepared for? How do we ask for and want something like this?

We already seem to want spiritual development and to search for a way to advance, but in most cases, we discover ourselves to be in absolute darkness and fog, as if we have waken early in the morning and were unable to understand what is happening to us: Where do we come from, what is our purpose, and what we are to think and want? I open the book or listen to the lesson, and nothing responds within. How am I to prepare and direct myself in the right way, at what expense? After all, a prayer must be suffered, it must be my true desire, coming from the very depth of my heart.

And here we need to understand that our entire work consists of preparing the conditions for a fast emergence of Reshimot (informational genes). To do this, one needs to try to create proper conditions for him: organize the study, participate in dissemination, have a connection with the group, receive the influence from the environment. This is because only a strong influence of the environment will help accelerate the emergence of Reshimot from concealment, from the breaking.

When we join an environment like this, we attract the general Light through it, and it begins to influence us, like the ground influences the grain in it. And when this grain feels the ground’s influence on it, it begins to awaken to life.

Our grain is already planted in the ground and all the necessary Reshimot, their entire chain, are implanted in us. Our objective is only to awaken this ground around us so it will start influencing us. The only thing expected of us is to properly and intensely operate, taking advantage of all the opportunities.

It turns out that my prayer is not directed straight at the Creator; it is as if there is no one to pray to since I don’t know who He is. A prayer begins with properly placing oneself under the influence of the given conditions. And once I am in this environment, I, together with everyone else and my aspiration for spiritual development (my Reshimo), turn to the force that influences the “grain” from the “ground,” meaning my Reshimo through the environment.

This is the force that I want to awaken, and my proper prayer is directed towards it. And remember that the Upper Light, the environment, and the Creator are in an immutable state and at rest. A person activates all these means and uses his desire to launch this entire system so it will start working with him. Otherwise, it will remain in a frozen state of anticipation.
[37561]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/2011, What is Prayer?

Related Material:
The Birth Of Intention Or Man
Spiritual Development: From Embryo To Person
Do I Exist Or Not?

Upgrading The Internet – Laitman Unplugged

The Origins Of Time

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Where do the measures of time originate from: seconds, minutes, hours, weeks, and months?

Answer: They originate from astronomy, from the movement of the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon with relation to one another. However, the upper roots lie in Zeir Anpin which is divided into six parts. Twelve Partzufim times two correspond to the 24 hour day. The Book of Zohar writes about this.

Humanity has instinctively established a time scale that corresponds to the spiritual root. Baal HaSulam gives a similar example about a peasant in ancient times who saw a mountain and called it the Mount of Olives. This name has a spiritual meaning, but he simply thought that it would be a good place for growing olive trees. This is the way the spiritual root works in a person.

The same applies to the measures of time. Their origins stem from the revolving of Zeir Anpin and Malchut, from 24 Partzufim, from six Sefirot, where each of them is ten, which corresponds to 60 seconds in one minute and 60 minutes in one hour. The upper system is reflected in our world in the form of the interaction between the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth.

This is also the origin of the division of time into months and years as well as the measures that do not have equivalents in astronomy, like a week, the seventh year, the fiftieth year, and so on. Everything comes from the spiritual world.
[37596]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/11 on Time

Related Material:
The Spiritual Calendar
“6,000 Years” Or How To Hasten Time
A Year In A Few Minutes