Good Environment – 06.19.11

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

When The Book Of Zohar Becomes Revealed….

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe goal of creation is to acquire the quality of bestowal, and through it to attain adhesion with the Creator. We exist in the opposite quality, in the intention to receive for our own sake.

In order to correct our intention from reception to bestowal, we have to attract upon us the Light that reforms, that brings us back to the source, the Creator. This Light is on a higher level than we are, and it continually corrects us, raising us to higher levels of bestowal and love.

The Light comes to us during the time when we unite together in our hearts, in our desires, the intentions to become corrected, and when we study the same corrected system that the Kabbalists tell us about. By studying this system and wishing for the description in these texts to happen to us, to become revealed between us, we thereby attract the same Light that is inside of it on the levels of the proper connection between the creatures. Then we correct our connection and enter the same states that the book tells us about. And this means that the book becomes revealed.

The book with the strongest influence on the reader, with the greatest capability to bring him to the corrected state, to bestowal and love, is The Book of Zohar. Therefore, while reading this book, let’s desire to feel all of us together so that inside of the right connection between us we would reveal the general quality of bestowal, the One who is good and does good, the Creator who is revealed to the creatures.
[45800]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/11, The Zohar

Related Material:
Let The Light Teach Us
Where Is The Light Hidden?
Settings For Revelation

Fundamentals Of Kabbalah – 06.19.11

A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Guide Book To Goodness

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe are in an unknown reality, and to this day, while existing in this world we still do not understand exactly where we are, by what program we develop, and what goal we are moving toward. We do not understand anything in our life, and being sheltered by concealment, we consider ourselves smart and intelligent, as if we have knowledge, our own opinion, and freedom of will.

But when blows and suffering catch up to us, we understand that we are incapable of anything, that we don’t understand anything, and don’t have any chance to behave intelligently. Especially now, during a time of crisis, we see that we do not have any chances of relating to reality correctly, that we are facing problems and don’t even have the slightest ability to understand them. Even if we sometimes understand something one millimeter ahead of time, this does not enable us to change our state or to behave differently. Even if we decide that we really do need to change and start behaving differently, we don’t have the forces to change our behavior. So what’s the use of these decisions if we can’t change ourselves, influence one another, and the whole world?

Even when we see that we only inflict harm and misfortunes upon ourselves, that we are, in fact, leading ourselves to death, we are still unable to stop ourselves. What insignificance, what ignominy! We would simply finish our lives inside of our will to enjoy, which completely kills us if we did not receive the Torah, the means to correct the egoistic desire so that starting from the lowest possible point, a moment before death, we could start raising it to the top, to the level of the Creator, the higher, opposite quality—the will to bestow.

This means, called “Torah” is more important than anything. Without it there is no chance to achieve anything. We cannot develop through suffering. The influence of suffering only makes the will to enjoy develop. Blows make it search for all sorts of means to get rid of the troubles, and in the end it leads itself to death in order to avoid suffering. When the desire feels unbearable suffering due to its absolute opposition to the Light, it is willing to nullify itself completely, anything but to suffer.

If so, then the Torah is the only means leading us to life, correction, and existence. That is why there is no path of suffering, no path without Torah. The Torah has to become revealed to humanity so people would be able to use it. And they have to reveal it in the right form—as the Light that reforms. But if they don’t use the Torah correctly, meaning that they don’t realize it, that means they are following the path of suffering. If they use it correctly, then they follow the path of Torah, the path of Light. And if they are in the middle between one and the other, they advance by “the earthly path.”

Therefore, Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Revelation of Godliness (Matan Torah)” is very important since it tells us about how we can receive the Torah. There is a giving of the Torah from above, and there is a reception of the Torah from below. All of the suffering comes to us because we do not use the Torah correctly, the Light that reforms, that brings us back to the source of goodness. Everything depends on our efforts to become good. Therefore, we do not have a lack for anything besides this means. So let’s find out how to receive the Torah and come to goodness!
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/11, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)

Related Material:
From The Giving Of The Torah To The Giver Of The Torah
The Book That Connects The Sky And The Earth
Preparation For Receiving The Torah: The Light Of Correction

Egoism: An Interrupted Flight

Dr. Michael LaitmanFor millennia, we advanced with the slow growth of egoism and developed society, technologies, and various sciences in compliance with it. Then, during the Renaissance, a steeper ascent began that peaked in our century, with a consumer society.

When this egoism reached a certain level, it suddenly stopped, “interrupted its flight,” and its graph now turns into a horizontal line. It will not grow further.

In this state, humanity begins to feel depression as it can’t see how it can satisfy itself. Earlier, being at the intermediate stages of our development, we always aspired to something greater. Every time, it seemed to us that the next state was better than the current one, and we wanted to achieve it. We raised children, hoping that it would be better for them than for us, that their world would be higher, wiser, and so on.

However, today we don’t want to have children because we don’t see how their life will become better. We feel that egoism cannot grow any further; it has nowhere to grow. We even begin to limit our most ambitious space programs. Everything is declining. Besides that, resources do not allow us to develop freely. We begin to deplete ourselves in terms of energy, resources and in terms of our inner potential. We have nowhere to grow, nothing to strive for. “I don’t want anything.”

Over 50 percent of the people in the world experience some form of depression. We are not talking about drugs, terrorism, divorces, mutual estrangement, or conflicts between parents and children. All these are symptoms, an indication that egoism begins to “run out.” It can’t fulfill itself at the current level, on our small Earth.

Egoistic desires consist of two groups:

  1. Food, sex, and family. These desires are natural; they are present in every human and in animals.
  2. Wealth, power, honor (which are essentially the same thing), and knowledge. These desires are social.

Today, both these groups of desires no longer grow any more. They seem to have reached their peak and remain at the same level.

Soon, they will begin to diminish. A human will not need all that; he will begin to give up his “conquests,” to become empty internally because he will not expect any new desires or any new fulfillment. In our world, these six desires exhaust themselves, and this is also one of the reasons, one of the components, that drives us towards the crossing of the “Machsom,” the barrier between the worlds. They push us from behind by sufferings.
[45549]
From the 1st lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

Related Material:
Living By Different Rules
The Moment Of Truth
What Does Unity Give Us?

Levers For Controlling The Spiritual World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I direct my dissemination actions towards the spiritual root with maximum intensity? How can I imagine the spiritual processes to which my actions correspond? Where is the world I disseminate to, where am I, and where is the men’s group in this picture?

Answer: You are asking questions that already pertain to the next degree. In other words, you want to feel the actuality of your actions: How exactly do they manifest, where are these levers, threads, instruments which I use to control when editing materials, disseminating, doing something? How exactly am I acting, in what direction is this all going?

In general, for now all this work is for general unity, meaning not for the direct attainment of a higher degree, but for unity on our degree. As soon as our unity becomes somewhat similar to the upper Light, this Light begins to influence it and lifts us accordingly to its level.

This means that everything you do only affects unity. And nothing else! But as soon as it reaches a certain strength, a certain threshold, contact between this unity and the Light immediately begins to appear. Light influences this unity; it begins to manifest in it and feel it. Then our attempt to unite becomes real. And those who join this united desire and complete it begin to perceive whatever is manifesting in this common desire to the extent of their participation.

Assume that a thousand people are participating in the creation of the collective desire, trying to rise above their egoism and create a certain generality of desire through all possible actions. They rise slightly over the breaking of this desire and aspire towards unity. This aspiration and effort attracts the manifestation of Light in this desire.

When their efforts reach a certain strength, the Light manifest in its action above the desire and sets it on a certain level within this desire. It then becomes a common desire, and this upper quality manifests in it.

And when you take part in this common desire by giving it, let us say, ten pounds of your efforts, you perceive that what is happening in it to the extent of these ten pounds. Light and the Creator can manifest in it to the extent of a million pounds, but you will only perceive it to the extent of your participation.

Question: Is it enough to imagine unity?

Answer: Of course it is. But again, unity will depend on the collective efforts, and you will perceive it to the extent of your personal efforts. In other words, you depend on both your own and the collective efforts.

You depend on the latter because the Light will not manifest otherwise. But the intensity of the Light, the degree which will be revealed to you, depends upon your personal efforts. In other words, this common desire can reach the degree of fifty miles, but you will only feel the ascent of five inches.

Question: Can I help the collective efforts by imagining within myself the desire this effort realizes? I do not think I should be coming up to every person to tell them: “Let’s do it!”

Answer: Your desire is your actual participation in this collective effort. Others do not even need to know about you. You could be living somewhere in the North Pole. What does it matter? Even if you are not connected to them in any way, your desire is your actual participation. And if we succeed, everyone will succeed, regardless of their location in the world. After all, all our desires are mutually interconnected, and we are the participants of a single field.
[45583]
From the 2nd lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

Related Material:
Towards Perfection In Harmony With Nature
Dissemination Is Like Giving Birth In The Spiritual World
Two People – One Goal

Towards Perfection In Harmony With Nature

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You are saying that a woman does not attract Light. Then how does she correct herself?

Answer: A woman does not attract Light. The men’s group attracts the Light. A woman receives this Light from the male part, and this Light produces the next degree specifically due to the woman.

It’s just like in our world: A man leaves the cave to go hunting and brings back a mammoth, and there is food for everyone. A woman produces children and protects the home. This is the actual form of nature in its proper progression and development. And people need to participate in it together, in the same natural way.

We have become distant from all this and mixed up in our relationships. This is why our society is the way it is. We need to bring it slightly into balance with nature. There are no artificial laws here. Kabbalah speaks only of one thing: Examine nature, be in harmony with it, and in so doing you will gradually attain its highest state: infinity, eternity, perfection.
[45597]
From the 2nd lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

Related Material:
Together Towards The Light
Giving Birth To A Spiritual Degreee
Dissemination Is Like Birth In The Spiritual World

The Women’s Desire As The Engine Of Creation

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to strengthen the collective desire of the women? How can I add my own desire to it?

Answer: In the science of Kabbalah, we study that the entire universe is composed of two parts: the Light and the vessel, desire. The desire is considered feminine, and its means of fulfillment is considered masculine. That is why it is most important to strengthen the women’s desire. Virtually everything develops through it, both the upper one and the lower one.

Even in our world we know that if it weren’t for women and their desires, the world would have ceased to exist a long time ago. A woman compels a man, forces him to work, to obtain, to build a home. She runs the household: She maintains, gives birth, and nurtures.

Thus, according to nature, a man is the supplier of energy, force, and a woman is the force that creates everything, brings up the children, educates, and cares for them. So no matter what a man does, by definition and even without being aware of it, he does it because of women who awaken these desires in him. The minus, the female part, always causes the action of the plus, the male part.

Everything in nature is arranged in this manner: animals, plants, and, naturally, us. Maybe we are unable to feel it because of our egoistic properties; we run away from it, obscure it. However, in reality the female part is always the foundation, the main determinant of our movement forward. The man subconsciously, without knowing this, asks himself whether he will get approval in the woman’s eyes as a result of his actions. It is truly like this; this is nature.

Thus, the women should take upon themselves the responsibility for directing, encouraging, and readjusting the men correctly, as a mother with young children. To the extent to which the women take on this responsibility and support the men, to that extent the men will behave differently, study, communicate with each other, and invest themselves.

We need to radically, categorically break away from what is going on in our world because it is all upside-down. We need to make the women’s part decisive, meaning to feel the women’s need for achieving the goal, while the men’s part has to be responsible for filling this need, this desire for fulfillment.
[45535]
From the 2nd lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

Related Material:
The Key To Success
The Creator Hears A Woman’s Desire
Female Desire And Male Intention

A Baby Wrapped Into The Blanket Of This World

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhat is the difference between the perception of a baby, a teenager, and an adult? They are all living in the same world, just like you and I, and see it in front of them. But the degree to which each of them reveals this world depends on their development, and to the same extent each of them actively participates in his life. And the world also relates to a person according to his development.

Say, until age 10, a child is considered young and the contribution he makes is moderate, commensurate with his sensation and understanding. The entire difference between this childish perception and the adult one is “covered” by the environment in both senses of the word: both by concealing things that the child cannot understand correctly yet, and compensating for what he is unable to do himself. It turns out that a child receives everything from the world that he is yet unable to earn himself.

And exactly the same thing happens to us in the spiritual work. We are standing opposite the Creator, the upper Light that is at absolute rest, and nothing exists besides Him. But for now there is a concealment that hides the Light which we are unable to reveal, and that compensates for the shortcoming of our work.

When is it already possible to say that a person is in the state of Lo Lishma (for his sake), from which he proceeds to Lishma, bestowal? Only when he feels that he is definitely opposite the Creator, but there is a certain picture of reality standing between them. It is depicted by his qualities or sensations. This is an imaginary world that seems to exist to him—the friends, the group, and everything all around him. This is what still separates a person from the simple upper Light, from the quality of bestowal and absolute love.

For now he does not have these qualities. He makes calculations and behaves according to his development. But he already has a sensation and the right understanding that he stands opposite the Creator, separated from Him by the picture of this world, through which he works with the Creator. This picture of reality essentially consists of all of his uncorrected qualities, which conceal and protect (compensate), like “hair.”

After all, if everything was revealed to him, then of course he would not be able to enter the right relationships with the Creator.

That is how we should view our state. Only from this state of Lo Lishma, when we are sure that there is Lishma (bestowal), but we are not in it, can we gradually come to Lishma if we constantly and persistently try to reveal the Creator and view every occurrence as an opportunity given to us from above to correct our state of Lo Lishma and attain Lishma.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/11, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Regaining Consciousness
Above The Matter Of Egoism
A Smart Child Playing Bestowal

Parting In Body, Don’t Part In Your Soul!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You are giving us good advice. Why don’t we hear and follow it? Teach us to do as you say.

Answer: One person can never succeed. Only a group of people who have a mutual agreement can reach the goal.

“We have gathered here to establish a society for all who wish to follow the path and method of Baal HaSulam,” as Rabash writes in his first article on the matter of the group. And we must move forth guided by this method, helping each other to reach the goal. We will certainly come to it, but only to the degree of our mutual assistance, the guarantee. We don’t need anything else.

Question: But what is preventing us from doing so?

Answer: We must begin doing it here and now. And when we part in body, we must not part in soul. I truly hope that we will keep and cultivate ever more the heavy potential we have accumulated at the present convention and before it. This is the essence of our work.
[45616]
From the 7th lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/12/11

Related Material:
I Wish You….
The Simple Law Of Mutual Guarantee
A World War Or A World Guarantee?