Pride, Forcing You To Bang Your Head Against The Wall

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We see terrible examples of hatred and hostility in history. What kind of hatred do we have to reveal in order to unite above it and rise to the spiritual world?

Answer: We cannot evaluate the past with its dreadful catastrophes and fratricidal wars. Jews fought one another more fiercely than the Romans or Greeks who attacked them. This is how the scrutiny of the shattering takes place. Good and evil blend together, desires intermix with intentions; all the catastrophes and problems happen on earth only to clarify all this.

This is part of the correction! Throughout the history of humankind, we see how much blood has been spilt and how many people have been killed—billions! Wars have been waged constantly; in all places, people have inflicted terrible harm upon one another! To the present day, every day, constant disputes and arguments happen all over the world, and all of that is the clarification of the desire to receive pleasure that has to reveal itself and come to the conclusion that it needs correction.

As a result, it discovers that it needs to correct itself and become one common desire. And when it realizes that it is incapable of doing this with its own power, it starts thinking: What kind of force can help it with this?

At first, a person, by his or her naivety, tries to correct everything with his or her own powers, and it takes a lot of effort and time. And regardless of how much it is explained to one that it is not he who makes corrections, it doesn’t help. One has to get desperate and bang one’s head against the wall a thousand times in order to finally say: “Oh, now I understand that I’m incapable of doing this alone! I need an external force, the Creator, the Light that Reforms!”

Now a person understands and feels from within, in the desire that he has clarified after having banged his head ten times against the wall, that redemption will come only from outside. And then he starts working in this direction and looks for the Light of correction.

But he searches for the Light alone at first, banging his head ten more times, until he suddenly realizes that the Light gets revealed only in a connection with others.

We have to go through all of that. There is nothing we can do about it.
[59743]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/3/2011, The Zohar

Related Material:
Moving Upward With The Speed Of Light
You Broke It, So Now Fix It
Despair, But Don’t Give Up

This Is Not Emptiness, But A New Blank Sheet

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is making an effort to keep the same intention part of our work?

Answer: It is not necessary to really try to “keep” the intention—it can be renewed. New desires and intentions come all the time, and they erase everything before them. And it is a good thing that everything has been erased!

Regardless of anything, it is necessary to come to terms with your descents, confusion, disappointments, and helplessness, with all the states that help erase the previous degree. But the next degree has not yet been attained, and this is why a person finds himself in a state of emptiness.

But we need to understand that this is the way we renew our desires and advance—so that we approach this state constructively.
[59641]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/3/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Intention Is The Complete Action Plan
A New “Computer” On Every Degree
The Birth Of Intention Or Man

Dig Deeper Into Yourself

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why does it say that when man makes an eternal union with the Creator, there is no more work, ascents or descents, for him?

Answer: Why would a person have ascents and descents once he completes his correction? The purpose of descents is to reveal another uncorrected desire to you—to make you dig more deeply into your egoism, to discover there something that needs to be brought to the surface.

It’s similar to the way the ground is plowed before planting seeds. These are all consequences of our spiritual work.

Once a person reveals his entire uncorrected desire and corrects it, there is no reason for descents or ascents. But he will continue to ascend and descend until he reaches the end of correction, Gmar Tikkun.
[59644]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/3/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Our Four Story House
Separation Brings A Descent, Unity An Ascent
From The Light Of Nefesh To Yechida

One Works – All Receive

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do I come to terms with my friend being rewarded for my work?

Answer: If my action is for the sake of bestowal, I work and find pleasure in the actual work. And I want to pass the fulfillment to someone else.

But there is a subtlety because when I feel that I will profit from my work, the reward does not concern me. It is the same as telling a small child: “You will receive ten dollars for assembling all these blocks.” He does not understand what ten dollars is, but he enjoys assembling blocks! For this reason, the ten dollars that you find so valuable are not a reward for him.

It follows that when I draw more pleasure from the work than the payment for it, the actual work becomes my reward, and the previous reward loses its meaning. In other words, I simply replace one payment with another. So is this what we refer to when it comes to spiritual work?

We are referring to a reward that I really want, and my work is not a pleasure for me, but actual hard work. Yet I overcome myself with the help of the force of the Light I have received in order to prefer work regardless of everything and to pass the reward to others. Without overcoming this, I will simply be replacing one egoistic fulfillment with another.

Either I am a messenger running to deliver a letter, or I am a runner who runs for pleasure. Do you feel the difference? The main thing is for the resistance, for the opposing force not to disappear but instead, to increase. We increase the strength of our bestowal and reveal the Light specifically through using it.

NRNHY is the Light of bestowal, which is revealed specifically over the action of overcoming. Otherwise it has nowhere to be revealed. It is like electricity, which manifests through opposition, and then power can be received from it.
[59650]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/3/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Want It!
I, My Environment, And The Light
How To Build A Passageway Into The Upper World

Even The Sky Is Not The Limit

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe economy is the most important area for a person. Indeed, it is an imprint, a reflection of all other areas of life. It is impossible to build a correct economy if we don’t take into account education, family relations, and the mood of a nation. All these areas impact the economy.

It is similar to a spiritual union (Zivug) through which the spiritual Partzuf fills itself. Everything is included in this union: all desires, all thoughts, all properties, and all interactions between everyone. All of it together comes into contact with the Light, with fulfillment. This is what the correct economy means!

In our usual economy, we sever some small part and deal with it—we are simply unable to make a correct global calculation. Although I have heard that already there are attempts to move from simple numbers and formulas to different evaluations that take into account the human factor.

However, the correct economy for me is “coupling while striking” (Zivug de Hakaa) where you manage to receive the optimal fulfillment for your current state, and the way for reaching an even greater and greater fulfillment is open before you. Like during a spiritual elevation, you will never lose or make a mistake, you will never end up in a crisis.

New “empty areas,” the opportunities for fulfillment, will be opening for you. Essentially, this is exactly what humanity is dreaming about. We want each time to have new opportunities for greater fulfillment, to fill ourselves infinitely, without any limits. As they say: “Even the sky is not the limit.”
[59138]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/9/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Foggy Economics Of The Transitional Period
A Ray Of The Future In The Darkness Of The Present
The Economics Of The Soul

Questions About One’s Relationship With The Environment

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Lately I’ve been meeting people that are telling me that I am doing the wrong things. I’m living my life the wrong way, I’ve the wrong wife. The way I think about life and other things are wrong.

In the group my friends tell me “how things are” as if they “knew” the Creator, as if they were on a higher level. I see people talking to me without respect for how I am and what I can contribute. I try to meet people around me with respect and listen to what they have to say, and I don’t tell them that they are living their lives in the wrong way.

But I am really upset about this, and I don’t know how to survive in this cold world any longer. Is this just my ego showing its face to me? If so, what should I do to correct it? (I have put the question out loud to the Creator, but I haven’t received any answer that I’ve understood anyway.)

Answer: This is the Creator protecting you from pride. Agree with everyone.

Question: I am a student of Bnei Baruch, and I think I understand all of the concepts covered in this blog. However, all of my attempts to explain these concepts to people close to me but outside Kabbalah meet various levels of resistance, ranging from “this is a utopia” to very aggressive outbursts of anger and words I don’t want to repeat here.

What would you advise me to do, except improving my own Kabbalah understanding and intention to achieve adhesion with the Creator?

Answer: Quit talking and study yourself.
[59750]

Related Material:
Life Is An Exciting Game With The Creator
Is Pride a Form of Egoism?
You Can’t Correct Anyone But Yourself

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 11.07.11

Writings of Rabash, Dargot HaSulam, “The Need and Importance for the Study of Faith
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Pekudei (Accounts),” “The Palace of Desire, Tifferet,” Item 673, Lesson 26
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 8, Item 25, Lesson 11
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Writings of Baal HaSulam Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Lesson 3
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio