Good Environment – 03.27.11

My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice and Principles for the Week

Pharaoh Himself Will Help Us Run Away From Him

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What prevents a person from reaching the prayer of society if he already sees that all his intentions are for his own sake?

Answer: The problem is that a person understands that his intentions are egoistic, but he is willing to tolerate that. That’s because he only sees how ugly these intentions are, but he doesn’t understand what kind of harm they cause him. This is the entire problem!

If I simply accept the fact that I am an egoist, then so what? But I have to feel how this is killing me. Only then will I be able to separate from my egoistic intentions. My own ego will separate me from the thing that causes me harm.

So at first, I separate from my egoistic thoughts by virtue of egoism itself. That means Pharaoh brings the sons of Israel closer to the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/11, Preparation to the WE! Convention

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The Garment That Pacifies Your Ego

Dr. Michael LaitmanEverything depends on the intention with which a person approaches the environment from the very beginning. Does he come to the environment (the teacher, the books, and the group) to profit egoistically and receive knowledge, status, satisfy his pride? Or does he want to receive from the environment the property of bestowal, the shape of the Creator who hides inside the society?

If a person approaches the environment, the society correctly, he finds the Creator’s properties there. This is called: “The Creator dwells among His people.” This is the main test of one’s attitude.

Naturally, when we just start our path, we come with ordinary egoistic desires accepted in this world. And even though we are ready to listen to the nice words about love of others and bestowal, we nevertheless count on gaining something for our egoism.

And only under the condition that a person is in the right environment for a considerable period of time and absorbs its external forms of bestowal, lowering himself or herself before the teacher, the books, and the group, he gradually receives from them a force for comprehending and sensing spirituality, the force of unification. This force helps him realize that unification is not achieved through external actions: screaming, jumping, or rejoicing, but requires constant, hidden inner work invisible to the eye.

This work is performed at what is called “night.” And then a person gradually begins to acquire the property of bestowal. The transition takes place when a person begins to see the environment, its inner potential as the force that can correct him. He understands that without this force, he will be lost. This gives raise to the “prayer of the many.”

When a person realizes that one has to pray for the society, he acquires the intention for the sake of bestowal, the “garment” of the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), the right garment for his desire to receive.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/11, Preparation for the WE! Convention

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Unity Day – 03.27.11

Unity Day Around the World, Preparation to the Lesson
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Unity Day Around the World, “Preparation to the WE Congress in New Jersey”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Spiritual Polarity

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen studying The Book of Zohar, we should approach it with the intention to find the truth. Indeed, we don’t see anything of the spiritual world and are totally blocked from the spiritual property.

The Light must come and illuminate to us, as if with a projector beam, where we actually are even now: the properties, the sensations, and the dimension in which we reside. In truth, we are in the only place that exists, in desire that is simultaneously egoistic and altruistic, all in one, as if layered atop of each other. But we don’t see it because it remains in the spiritual world, not in our properties.

We exist in the same space, but with our properties we perceive only the material part of reality. There must come a ray of Light, under a certain “angle,” similar to polarized light, and then, in its other vector, surface, we will suddenly reveal the entire world that exists here as well.

This is why we need the upper Light so much: It has to illuminate and reveal to us the world in which we reside here and now.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, The Book of Zohar

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The Internet As A Power Network

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe history of humanity is the history of egoism’s development. Today, we witness how egoism cannot bring satisfaction to people any longer. Previously, I yearned toward the future: I wanted to buy a car, a yacht, a plane, and so on. But now, profitable and promising desires do not surge in me anymore. After all, I always seek pleasure in something new, but there is nothing new left.

The sensation of fulfillment, pleasure in my desires, is in fact the sensation of life in me. If I do not feel fulfillment of a desire, there is no life either since the desire is dead. Thus, helpless, I am even willing to die so as to not feel this inner emptiness. This is the centuries-old script that propels us toward the future.

Nowadays, humanity subconsciously creates problems and confusion, and acts foolish solely to not feel the inner void. People are willing to fight, make revolutions, anything, in order to feel at least some fulfillment, no matter how negative. For instance, if I don’t have an appetite, I take something sour so as to feel an urge to eat something and enjoy.

If we don’t choose the correct course, such behavior will lead us to war. And we will succumb so that afterward we would feel somewhat better: Finally, we have something to live for. Indeed, why not to fight to refresh and renew ourselves?

It is a very big problem. Governments and media are very well aware of it. That’s why they keep trying to confuse the public by supplying all kinds of excitement for them that will prompt people to do something and receive satisfaction from it. Otherwise, people will face emptiness and will start throwing their leaders off their thrones, sweep away all borders, and commit suicide out of hopelessness.

It will be impossible to control them. How can one rule over a person who doesn’t care about or enjoy anything? So, one should understand that the public is being manipulated on a massive scale, including via the Internet. It isn’t an accident that it is has got such a boost, and it is hardly surprising that it is so accessible and strives to enter every home. It isn’t for us—it is so they may control us.

This is the only way to control people today, by showing them additional “sources of income,” meaning fulfillment. Otherwise, a person will be willing to do whatever it takes since life without pleasure loses all its value for him.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/2011, The Principles of Global Education

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A Person Sleeps, The Work Continues

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How does Kabbalah view what we experience while we sleep?

Answer: All of the time when a person is not engaged in inner work and does not exert effort to unify with the group in order to discover the Creator is deleted from his or her life.

But the more effectively we use the time to form a correct intention during our waking hours, the more sleeping hours we will be able to add to it as well. Suppose one hour a day, or 10% of all the time that I am awake, I was thinking about intention and making an effort, then the same 10% of the night time is deposited in my “account” as my efforts.

But the dreaming itself is only the consequence of our daily thoughts. During the night time, all of them must be sorted out, “filed,” and “stored” in the archive of our brain. Therefore, the brain works during the night while we sleep as well, but it processes the data it received during the day. As a result, we see various dreams that partially reflect the experiences and events we had incurred while awake, and part of them is totally abstract, being a product of our unrestricted fantasy.

But there is nothing spiritual about our dreams. All animals also see dreams, not just humans.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Evoke The Upper Mercy

The vice of the disciples of Rabbi Akiva was that there was no love of mercy among them. And hence, Rashbi said: “We need to reach a great love between us, meaning the yearning to bestow so we may draw the Light and all good.”
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When a person evokes mercy to the friend with his prayer, his plea rises up and evokes mercy from Above. If, however, a person pursues personal gain, his prayer is far from rising and finding a response.
– The book, The Greatness of Shlomo
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The Most Serious Spoof

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What should I do if am eager to be reformed but am not willing to receive this correction from the Creator?

Answer: These are the states we undergo on the path. When we first come to Kabbalah, we don’t understand where we find ourselves, whatsoever. After all, we are led by the inner developmental gene (Reshimo) that moves about like a charged particle in an electromagnetic field and brings us to a place where we can reach some temporary balance.

Thus we move forth in the force field and end up in the group, the source of the Light. We don’t yet understand to where we came; we simply feel that we found something very interesting to us and that we’d like to hear more about it. But a person doesn’t yet realize what is happening with him or her and what this place is where he finds himself.

All of humanity gradually evolves over the course of its entire earthly history, and from generation to generation, our desire gets upgraded. And now we have reached the last, crucial incarnation. After all, we never previously understood what was happening with us. And only today for the first time, we come close to the realization of our soul.

However, a person gets lost and doesn’t comprehend what is going on with him or her. He doesn’t see that he is in the final stage of a very long and unique process that all of humanity undergoes: There are those who walk in the forefront and those whose time hasn’t yet come but will in its turn. Nonetheless, the real work begins when a person understands that he must work on unifying with the friends.

And this is when he discovers numerous obstacles that he can’t justify. He agrees to surrender to this flow and hatred toward all, while going into endless claims and calculations. And this is the most problematic point which many stumble over and give up—until the next time when they will receive this opportunity once more, perhaps in several years or maybe even in the next lifetime.

Nobody can avoid it since the soul must reach correction, and it has nothing to do with a person’s desire. What he can do is realize what constitutes his free will, meaning to perform this correction now or at some distant time.

Hence, the serious work begins as soon as we feel rejection toward the group. And at this point, a person’s success depends on how well he understands that this is just a game that is played from Above and not a reality.

There is nothing real about our life; even this life itself is a mere game. And the most serious game is when a person gets to feel the rejection and hate from that specific friend with whom he is destined to reach oneness and enter spirituality together!

Those friends who gather with him in the group are the parts of his soul, the closest to him. But he is given a chance to feel hatred toward them exactly so that he demands to be united with them by the Creator. And this is the unity where he will, indeed, find the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, Writings of Rabash

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From Summit To Summit

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I help the friends who leave the group?

Answer: They need help understanding that all of the evil becomes revealed to us on purpose. Yet, we get stuck on the bad feeling and don’t see anything besides it. We need to recognize the source of the evil: Where does it come from and why, and what inside of me is supposed to wake up through it?

However, when the evil is revealed, a person forgets everything. I admit that I feel the same way despite my 30 year experience in Kabbalah. That’s because a new, higher rung is being revealed, which is described by the verse, “There is no righteous man on earth who did good and never sinned.” First you fall into sin, meaning that everything you had achieved is erased inside of you and you are cast into this world as if there isn’t any spiritual world.

It is written about Rabbi Shimon that before he ascended to the end of correction, he fell so low that he felt as a mere Shimon trading at the market, or a person who falls so low, he feels only evil and has to sensation of the Creator or the spiritual world.

Even if you are at the high rungs in the world of Atzilut, when you are in the gap between them you still fall to this world, to the same animate level as all the rest of the people. And this happens so you may start climbing up again. Therefore, a person needs to receive the explanation that all of our feelings are given to us from above for a reason. If evil and hate toward others are revealed inside him, it is that very Mount Sinai (Sinah, hatred) which we has to rise over. Everything becomes revealed for a certain purpose and nothing occurs accidentally.

What is the point of giving us all kinds of feelings for no reason, such as love for someone or hatred? We all undergo only one process, and all the problems and wars that arise in the world are given solely in order for us to find the place of our breaking and to mandate us to have it reformed.
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From the lesson on Writings of Rabash on 3/25/11

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