Stopping Is Falling

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to constantly accelerate in relation to the spiritual goal, and how can we “push on the gas” as much as possible now, before the convention?

Answer: In the spiritual space, acceleration is movement. That’s because if you don’t make a certain action now, then none of your previous merits will count and you will lose all of the speed you have accumulated until now by all the previous actions. The spiritual space is like an empty cosmos where there is no other system from which to start counting, and if you don’t accelerate then you don’t move at all.

A constant state is equivalent to zero. Even if you are flying at the speed of 10 miles a second, this is not considered motion and it’s the same as if you were just hanging in the air. In the spiritual sense acceleration means speed, and in essence it is the action.

Therefore, there are no “gaps” between spiritual actions. Wherever one action ends, that is where the next action immediately begins, just like during the birth of spiritual Partzufim. This indicates that a person’s attitude to the group and the group’s attitude to him must be such that it will constantly awaken him to act and always renew his desire.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/11, Preparation to the WE! Convention

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Spiritual Fine-Tuning

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom “The Principles of Global Education”: The essence of our development lies in the recognition of evil.

We are able to perform act after act only according to our recognition of evil, to the degree of our sensitivity to good and evil. Everything depends on the level to which our properties allow us to measure the difference between them.

My desire is like a measuring instrument. Its pointer moves one measurement if, say, I change the inner tension or weigh something on my inner scale. There are scales with divisions of 100 pounds for cars and precise scales which measure milligrams.

My measurements also depend on sensitivity. As soon as I feel within myself some gap between the two forces, it triggers my action, my response. I feel bad because of this gap; I am unsatisfied and concerned. Then an impulse emerges within me and it pushes me back towards the point of balance where we originate from.

This is why everything depends on the recognition of evil. I have to intensify this feeling again and again by pushing the “button” which is fine-tuned more and more. Just like the initial point of creation felt that it differs from the Light until this dissimilarity turned into the darkness of their complete oppositeness, the same way I raise the sensitivity to the Light within myself in order to ultimately achieve correction.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/37/2011, The Principles of Global Education

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We All Want To Make The Fairy Tale Come True

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The theme of the upcoming convention is, “We make it real.” What do we actually have to do to make it real?

Answer: “We make it real” means that we are revealing the true reality instead of the one we imagine through the prism of egoism, the will to receive.

We include two forces: the will to receive and the will to bestow. If we are under the power of the will to receive, and the will to enjoy only gives us a slight life force, then everything we feel, determined by the role of reception, is called this world. But if we reach the state where everything will be determined by the will to bestow, it will be called the upper, spiritual world.

Thus, there are two forces in the world and you determine what you want to feel, in what world or reality you want to be. If your will to receive rules over the will to bestow, then you feel this world. And since the will to receive is limited by the amount of pleasures it is able to absorb inside, therefore our life is limited.

However, if you want to experience yourself in the will to bestow, then you will feel bestowal, and that is already life and eternal, unlimited development. Our presence in the will to receive is real. It exists and we are in it, but it is far away from life because we only imagine that it really exists. The entire realty of the will to receive, its very matter, comes from the will to bestow that is present inside it. That is why it is unreal, similar to a children’s blow-up toy. We get the impression that it is alive, but the air filling it, its entire life force actually comes from the will to bestow; it is not its own. That is why our world is called an “imaginary world.”
From the lesson on 2/18/11, Writings of Rabash

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The Unity Of People Is The Summit Of Balance

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the connection between the natural balance and the unification of people?

Answer: The unification of people is the highest form of balance in nature. In general, the natural balance is the integration of all of its forces. In the end they all become expressed in man, on the human level.

The true problem is not in the environment around us, not the tsunami, the earthquakes, the volcano eruptions or explosions in the sun, and not the problems in the vegetative and animate levels of nature, and not even the diseases of our bodies. The entire problem lies on the human level – its imbalance or balance covers all the other forces operating below. By balancing ourselves out, we will balance out all the rest of nature from the still to the animate levels.

Man is not supposed to do this instinctively or by force, but consciously, aware, by his own desire, in spite of his own temperament and his own nature, in spite of the extremely powerful forces of hatred, passion, pride, and love of power. That is how he builds himself. It doesn’t happen by balancing the forces of nature around him, but his own inner forces, his essence.

After all, I am the one who hates, I want to lie, steal, kill, and all the rest. In the end, I want to rule over others in various ways. But then I form my new self in balance with this aspiration. I build an inner model of a balanced state of two opposite forces, which is called my “soul.”

Through the prism of this balance I already look at the world differently. I acquire a new perspective. I no longer want to use the world to satisfy my desires, but on the contrary, from my balance I look for balance in it. Then I see that the whole world is balanced. It turns out that the whole world, inside and outside, is a balanced expression of two forces.

That is how I attain peace and conciliation. The state I experience is the soul filled by the clothing of the upper Light. The sensation of balance of two forces gives me a new reality.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/11 on Global Education

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Bestow With A Generous Hand

Dr. Michael LaitmanPrayer for the society is the aspiration to bestow to the other, which gets born in the person. At first, he feels that only his group, its inner desires, is “the other.” But then he realizes that the entire world is unified and filled with the Shechina, the Divine presence. And then the spiritual world, the upper reality becomes revealed to him.

Now he begins to understand why he had to go through hatred. This is how the process of his development was arranged from Above. Instead of fortifying his egoism through the society and using the others for his own profit, he had to come to the group in order to lower himself, to bow before the force hidden in the society, to develop the desire to connect with this force of bestowal, unite with it, and simply drawn in it.

This is the prayer of the many since he asks for peace for this society, meaning that he aspires to reach the property of bestowal, until he establishes such a connection with this society that there remains no difference between them, and they merge into one whole.

When a person acquires the form of the society, completely unites with it, this signifies their unity, “mating while striking” (Zivug de Hakaa) since untimately, this unity works against his egoism. He strikes his ego in order to unite with the others and in that extent builds his spiritual Partzufim, the forms of unification, and acquires the Creator’s properties.

The form he conceived in his head now becomes realized in him; it spreads in his “body,” fills it, and assumes the form of the Upper One. By receiving the intention “for the sake of bestowal” and clothing in the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), the desire to enjoy becomes fit to receive fulfillment, the Light of Hochma (Wisdom): the Creator’s form.

The Light of Hassadim lacks form; it spreads in breadth, as the gifts of a “generous hand”: for all and without any restriction. But when the Light of pleasure, Hochma, starts to clothe the desire, it imparts it with a certain form of bestowal called “the name of the Creator,” the form of the Upper One. Thus, by virtue of Zivug de Hakaa man attains the Creator.
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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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Kabbalah Insights – Babylon

Why Didn’t Anyone Tell Us That We Have To Unite?

Dr. Michael LaitmanOn one hand, nature treats me lovingly. Even if I can’t see this with the naked eye, when penetrating a bit deeper, I can see its true attitude. People who are close to nature feel that it is entirely good.

At the same time, externally it is very harsh, similar to a loving but demanding father who scrupulously takes a child through the phases of development. That is how we must view what is happening. Otherwise we won’t understand good and evil and will only get confused.

If I want to feel nature this way, then I must reject the externality and immerse myself inwards. Precisely from nature’s external attitude, which seems negative to me, I must start to develop based on the realization of evil. In reality nature is showing me a negative of myself. By correcting it, I will enter inside and will feel its love.

All the negative external phenomena are intended to show me what I must correct in order to attain love. It’s exactly how parents raise a child: The father looks at him with a strict gaze and the mother is nervous. It’s very hard to recognize their love. But this is the discernment that I have to be very sensitive to while developing the inner feeling of the realization of evil.

Perhaps I don’t notice the negative. The parents are only giving me hints, but I don’t understand what they want from me or perhaps I don’t feel that they need something from me at all. Instead I continue fooling around. Then they tell it to me directly, but I still don’t listen. At the end, after all the persuasions and warnings, the troubles start, and that is something I understand very well. “Why didn’t you tell me that right away?” I wonder.

This is the problem of all of us and of each of us separately – a lack of sensitivity. If I now felt what I lack in order to discern nature’s love, then I would immediately correct myself. Therefore, we have to take care of just one thing – our receptivity to the realization of evil between us and to the love coming from the Creator.

We don’t lack examples. Open your eyes and you will see them. So what is standing in our way? The problem is that the world does not imbue us with a basic attitude to goodness. I need a society or environment in which I will reveal goodness and compare it to my own evil.

The realization of evil begins the moment a person feels that he is worse than those around him. He sees them all as interconnected and united by love for one another, but he cannot join them and feel that he shares that unity. This gap is the evil that a person has to reveal and correct.

By realizing the evil and by trying to correct it, a person discovers that he does not have the slightest shred to grab hold of or the slightest access. He clearly sees that the friends are united and he is separated from them, and he does not see any opportunity to join them, having no loophole into their unity. For that he needs the Light that reforms. Only the Creator’s help will save him.

That is where we finally come in contact with the unity of Israel, the Torah, and the Creator.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/11 on Global Education

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How Do I Overcome My Nature?

Dr. Michael LaitmanMany people think that spirituality is an ordinary method to fulfill oneself. A person thinks that very soon the Creator will be revealed to him, and then he will be able to get the whole world at his feet. But it is a false idea because in truth, spirituality is bestowal.

In other words, I am fulfilled not by what is being revealed to me, but rather, if I open myself correctly, I get filled with bestowal. After all, the Light never enters a Kli, desire, directly but only when dressed in the Reflected Light. Hence, I must become a giver and enjoy bestowal. But how do I accomplish that?

To achieve this, a person needs the environment that would influence him so that he would think that bestowal is a very profound, exalted property, that it is fulfillment. Everybody must elevate the value of bestowal in the eyes of the friend, passing to him his part of the mutual guarantee thereby. And then, thanks his awareness of the importance of this goal, a person receives illumination that assists him in spiritual advancement.

But on top of that, a person must understand that it is a game since from his present condition, he cannot see the goal. And hence, all of this work is regarded as ascending to the state which for now is unclear, imperceptible to him, opposite to what he is able to comprehend today. In other words, a person should constantly think about the importance of some false goal. But it is false only for him because it opposes his egoistic desire.

Therefore, the environment must educate a person, provide the correct scale of values for him, and be fairly strong in order to override his egoistic nature. As to the person, he must assist his environment, lower himself before it, submit to, and literally dissolve in it. And then he will be able to receive from it the importance of the goal, despite his ego that unfolds in him more and more.

Otherwise, he won’t be able to advance since there are two forces that participate in it: the force that rejects and one that attracts. The force of rejection, resistance, surfaces naturally: It is his ego. And the question lies only in whether he will manage to oppose it with the force greater in value, the force of the environment that will draw him into spirituality.

Therefore, everyone must be preoccupied with how to arrange the right environment for oneself. This is what is implied in what Rabash describes as: “We have gathered here to rise to the degree of man.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Russia: The Path To Prosperity Or Nazism?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is your opinion about the situation in Russia?

Answer: Baal HaSulam writes in The Writings of the Last Generation that in the future, precisely after the failure of socialism in Russia, favorable conditions will emerge for the formation of fascism (Nazism).

It is facilitated by the complicated social situation and strengthened nationalistic tendencies, which can spiral out of control of authorities and lead to Nazism. Other problems like unemployment, drug and alcohol addiction, and layoffs in military and law enforcement do not help in bringing peace to the society. But most of all, the immense and unbeatable corruption causes indignation and hopelessness.

Authorities constantly support and nourish the dreams of people about becoming a great power, but they are unrealizable and therefore dangerous. Becoming a super power through the force of weapons is dangerous, and it leads the country to humanitarian disaster. Millions of additional people are necessary for the development of the country. However, the nationalistic trends prevent accepting these people from outside.

Solution: Only the realization that the method of correction enclosed in nature itself, revealed to us through Kabbalah, can save the country and make it flourish. Besides, it can allow it to be proud of its spiritual mission of bringing the Light to the world. The country will be able to take pride in its spiritual might rather than in its narrow nationalistic power that everybody hates. Will we be able to persuasively explain this solution to the Russian nation?
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How Can An Egoist Pray For Bestowal?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can an egoistic heart ask for bestowal?

Answer: Of course, an egoistic heart is unable to ask for bestowal. It prays for something that it deems better for itself. It doesn’t know how to pray in any other way.

However, the nature in which a person exists is one thing, but how he uses that mechanism is a different matter. Even though he is an egoist and his prayer and attitude to others are egoistic, nevertheless he arranges this entire mechanism in such a way that lets him attract the Light that reforms.

How does the Torah, the Light that reforms act? I am an egoist and I plan on using it egoistically, but through that I activate a mechanism that attracts Light to me that turns me into the opposite of what I am today. This means that this Light returns me back to its source.

If I was already asking for bestowal on my own, then I would not need to be brought back to the source. Everything would already be clear. However, everything is arranged so that even when I shout for bestowal, this is still reception in disguise.

The same thing happens on every level. When I ascend to a certain level and check: What did I pray for? What did I do? What love for the neighbor did I talk about? What I find is that it was all egoistic. What seemed like holiness on the lower level appears as “garbage” when you look at it from above.

But there is a special mechanism of ascent: the connection between AHP of the upper one and Galgalta Eynaim of the lower one. If I face darkness and confusion, and I lower myself before the society that helps me to do so, then I attract the Light that reforms. I mix Malchut with Bina – mercy that reigns in the upper one, with the force of judgment that is in me. That is how I attain my correction.

Therefore, we are not required to be holy from the beginning, but only to organize everything to the extent we are able in order to attract holiness to us. Before that, I am opposite to it! Otherwise, how would it be possible to correct yourself after the breaking?

Every time we receive any new state, all the previous states are erased from our memory so as not to confuse us. The current state is also not very clear to us and from this darkness we have to start arranging everything so as to attract the influence of the upper force to us – the influence of the higher level, the quality of bestowal that we don’t have. We continuously receive a new force and become a new creation.

This is what the common prayer is all about. It is the prayer to acquire the force to be included in society and to feel care for the neighbor.
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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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