Not A Matter Of Taste

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How does the bitterness and sweetness of perception relate to the scale of truth and falsehood?

Answer: They are absolutely unrelated, but we are inclined to draw parallels according to our nature. It is the same for a child. The sweet is the truth, and the bitter is falsehood. He does not understand otherwise. This is why he will not agree to take bitter medicine. We need to overcome the bitter taste to reveal the truth above it, above the apparent falsehood.

Question: So how can we see the truth behind bitterness?

Answer: For this, we need the influence of the environment. Bitterness and sweetness are bodily sensations, and no one can tell me how I perceive them. I know what is sweet and what is bitter in my perception, but how can I distinguish true and false? Who will set these criteria? Would it be the mass media, teachers, social opinion, or some special group?

When I join a group and adopt its criteria of true and false, it is in a clear, sane, and firm manner. Then, these criteria begin to contradict the bitterness and sweetness of my beastly sensations. I join the group, submit to its importance of the goal, the importance of truth, and it acquires the highest meaning in my eyes. Then I  am ready to work, regardless of the bitterness. This work above bitterness for the sake of the truth means that I am advancing through faith above reason.

It is only possible to nurture the notion of truth in the group. It is because truth is when our interconnection is more important to me than any bitterness of my egoism. Let this value be artificial. In the future, I will leave the animate degree and go to a different state where sensations are not divided into bitter and sweet, but into true or false. Then an even “juicier” bitterness and sweetness will become revealed to me on the new degree, and once again I will rise above them toward truth and falsehood.

Every time truth, that is, faith, the power of bestowal, group unity, mutual guarantee, must surpass the bitterness that accompanies it.

Question: In general, all of my sensations are distributed on the scale of bitter and sweet. How can I distinguish true and false in my desire?

Answer: I perceive the truth and falsehood in another place. This is not where sweetness and bitterness manifest, but above it, on the human degree within me.

I perceive nothing but bitterness and sweetness on the still, vegetative, and animate levels. However, there is also the level of Human, the one who is united with the environment, with the group, who nurtures the part in him that rises above the body, is opposite to the body, outside of it, and comes from the other.

This is the vessel where we perceive true and false instead of bitter and sweet. There, a person perceives unity, mutual guarantee, his attitude toward a fellow human being, and finally, he perceives the Creator. Within this part, he creates his opposite copy. Thus, he creates the Creator. This is because the attitude toward the other and the Creator is the same.

Question: Then why do I need to perceive bitterness and sweetness at all?

Answer: How and where will I build my upper part? Within my desire that only perceives bitterness and sweetness, there is a point that allows me to form an intention over my desire, which is my attitude toward my neighbor or similarity to the upper one. This way, I build the Human within me over the still, vegetative, and animate levels.

[62393]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/2/2011, “The Peace”

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The World Needs Us

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the common desire that encompasses all of humanity, great shifts and unifications occur all the time. This system lives and develops, and everything in it shifts and intermixes all the time like waves in a sea. For this reason, many people enter it, draw closer and then further away from the upper goal.

We need to bring together a mass of people (not quantitative, but qualitative) who truly will wish to acquire the quality of bestowal, the quality of the upper world, the inner force that forms the universe, along with the force of reception, the only force that acts in our world. I believe that we have reached this point, and not because we are so strong and special, but because the world needs this. Baal HaSulam wrote that he achieved what he has because the world needed a revelation of the method of correction, and not because he was special.

The same thing is occurring today. After Baal HaSulam there was Rabash, then me, and then you. This whole chain exists only due to the fact that the world has already “hit rock bottom” and exists in complete crisis.

And the crisis is extremely complex and horrid. We don’t see it; we are poorly informed about it and know almost nothing. If we would listen to what instructors, decision-makers, and different organizations and institutes are saying, we would gasp in horror from the threatening state that we are in.

All this is evidence of the fact that the world truly needs the upper force and its correction; there is no other way. This is becoming revealed more and more every day. Over the next two months we will find ourselves in a great financial crisis and will see Europe’s catastrophe, and over the next two years there will be an enormous ecological catastrophe. The winter that has begun also will bring about plenty “surprises.”

All this will force humanity to ask the question concerning the system of governance, the governing force, and what can be done about one’s own state and the state of the world in such circumstances when nothing helps. And then they will be forced to hear what we are telling them.

Thus the world needs us, and this is why we are given attention from Above. We are formed into the group, force, and system that will be able to tell and set an example for the world of how to correctly bring ourselves into balance with the upper governing force. And then in this harmony we acquire absolute existence.

The world will ask itself this question. In spite of the problems with food, heat, safety, and other things that are necessary for life, the world will ask more and more about the meaning of its existence. After all, when a person feels poorly, he does not ask how he can run away from or compensate for his problems, but searches for the cause of the suffering, their meaning, and why he experiences these problems at all.

We will very quickly be assured that in addition to various revolutions and protests in all the countries today, a new wave is rising in the world concerning the purpose of the existence of the human being who is so small and helpless before nature and what he himself has ruined in the world. We will see that we have a special purpose and a high predestination and for this reason we are being moved forward.

This was always the case. If there was no need to begin the correction in ancient Babylon, Abraham, a Babylonian priest, would not have turned into a spiritual leader. And the whole spiritual stream, all the religions and faiths, derived precisely from his revelation of the upper world.

We still will discover how much the world needs us. We don’t feel it yet, but we still need to prepare ourselves for this. This is why I put so much emphasis on dissemination.

When we talk about the intention for the sake of the friend and the group, we shouldn’t forget about the world because presently we are the carriers of the spiritual knowledge, the spiritual method. Each of us needs to feel obliged to engage in the upbringing of humanity.
[62358]
From Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/27/2011

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Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In order to bring the entire world to the final correction, do we need to completely tear away from it?

Answer: We don’t need to tear away from the world at all in order to correct it. How can we correct something in which we do not take part?

We need to rise in order to acquire the spiritual force: the force of bestowal, love, and connection between us. Then, when we acquire it and can safely hold onto it, we will be able to correct this world and control it.

We will see that essentially, we don’t need to do anything at all. Due to our unification, the upper degree will be revealed in our world to such an extent that it will acquire harmony and balance.

Right now, there is a big problem in the world that is not being advertised too much. It is the problem of cooling. We cannot imagine what could befall us over the next few years. The Gulf Stream could disappear, and North America, England, and Europe could turn into Siberia. This could be accompanied by famine and other huge problems. In addition, the crises in finance, education, upbringing, family life, and so on are obvious.

All this would come suddenly into balance on all levels of human activity and the environment as soon as we restore the balance on the next, higher level because the forces of governance descend to our world from there. However, for the time being, because we do not correspond to the upper level, we experience this lack of correspondence as a universal crisis.

Therefore, restoring the balance on the next level will cause forces of correct interaction with our world to descend from there. Then, both worlds will exist in harmony with each other. We suddenly will find that we are living in a comfortable world. Everything is okay, everyone has everything that they need, and there are no problems.

Thus, we cannot correct our world physically. No matter how much we try to correct and improve it, it just gets worse. Yet, if we reach harmony on the upper degree, we will bring our world into balance, comfort, convenience, and safety. This is what we are engaged in.

One cannot correct himself and his environment on the same level where he is situated. One needs to ascend to the next level for this.
[62361]
From Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/27/2011

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A Chance To Enter The Upper World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How should the group look at a friend who has the opportunity to go to the convention, but let his egoism stop him from going?

Answer: It’s unfortunate that a person would waste such an opportunity. He simply doesn’t understand what he is losing.

We must understand that for each one of us, the Creator provides certain circumstances. Within these circumstances, we must perform to the utmost of our ability.

Of course, one must weigh out the situation and make sure that he’s not going to lose his job, spend all of his savings to buy a ticket, or get into a conflict with his family. However, after sorting things out, if a person sees the opportunity to go to the convention but does not go, he is not applying the necessary effort for entering the upper world.

Such a person shouldn’t complain to us, to the Creator, or to anyone else. Most of the time, people like this leave us. They try to justify themselves by blaming us and our method, and ultimately, they leave.
[62365]
From Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/27/2011

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December 8, 2011, Evening

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It is said: “The end of an action is in its initial thought.” Can you draw us a picture of the end of the last day of the convention, a complete whole picture, with the Machsom (barrier)?

Answer:

December 8, 2011, Evening

I have nothing else to say.

It will be mutual guarantee fully realized between us, when we discover the system of mutual interconnection between the souls. It is already instilled in us, and we only have to discover it at its smallest level. This will be enough in order to enter the first spiritual degree and to start bestowing the Light upon the world. Thanks to this, other people will also begin to discover the wires of mutual connection between them, and so we will heal the whole world. Humanity will stop its hard and steep fall and will immediately see that there is a solution.

This is because the current crisis is actually a great opportunity to rise, and people will feel that immediately. The system of mutual connection will be revealed between them, and they will understand where the solution lies and why all this is happening.

I really hope that this is what will happen. On our part we have to add only the intention: We want to realize all that in order to become equal to the upper force, in order to repay the Host with the same goodness He wants to give us.
[62256]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/1/2011, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Reconstructing The Seal By The Imprint

Dr. Michael LaitmanMany Baal HaSulam articles are dedicated to one topic: man’s attitude towards the world, how we reveal the true reality. This also raises the question of who we are. We are a certain type of energy that assumes a form in our sensations that we are accustomed to, and this form is comprised of hard, live, and warm bodies that assume a place and this is known as space. This is how we perceive ourselves.

Is this the proper sensation? And is there an objective criterion? Maybe everything is relative, and everyone sees his own picture, depending on his senses? Rabash gives the following example: Whatever we see as a table is something else in an angel’s eyes. Everyone discovers the world according to his or her instruments of perception.

In general, thanks to Baal HaSulam’s articles, we are approaching a certain objective perception. With this purpose we rise over our desire to receive and acquire the desire to bestow. In other words, we form the desire to bestow out of the desire to receive in us, and then we reveal the reality that created us.

A special force created me in the form of the desire to enjoy. When in return I turn it into the desire to please another, then it’s as if I assumed the form of the One who created me. It’s in this way that a person assumes the form of “Man,” meaning similar to the Creator.

I reveal a greater desire to enjoy in me and can turn myself into my opposite, until I work out everything that exists in me. In this way I will fully reveal my Maker according to the principle of “we will now You by Your actions.” This is because I am His action. And when I turn myself into my opposite, I reveal Him. Moreover, as it is written, I reveal everything within me, as it is said, “come and see” (Bo and Reh). This is the Creator (Boreh).

This is our course, this is how we come to His revelation and the revelation of reality in general. In other words, in reality the entire enormous multitude of its parts is the creature, or I myself. And I must turn myself into the intention for the sake of bestowal.

Some of my parts I perceive as my own body, and other parts I perceive as the others. However, they also are my desires. I perceive that other desires are further from me, and in the end, they form my image of the world. All of this I must turn into bestowal. The final fruit of this work will become my Creator. He created me, and I create, formulate Him, reconstructing the seal by the imprint.

At first it seems to us that a multitude of unconnected forces operate in the world. Then we discover that this is not really the way it is—there nevertheless is a connection. Rain and wind, heat and cold, myself and my family, friends and enemies… There are many forces, and I am indifferent to some of them, while others have a greater or a lesser meaning to me.

Then I divide them into generally good and bad, and then all the good ones I relate to one good force, and all the bad ones, to one bad force. In this way mythology and a host of gods appeared, which with time have been cut down to three, two, or one….

And today the entire world is uniting into one whole before our eyes. An integrated nature, undivided into fragments, similar to sciences, is being revealed to me. Human society, ecology, everything is becoming one. We are changing our perception of reality.
[62399]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/2/2011, “The Peace”

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Escaping True Death

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Today, the New York group will be disseminating on Wall Street. How can we use this action to feel that we are “one?”

Answer: We must help each other and be together with them in our thoughts. I am very glad that there is a very strong core who always work on Wall Street. I hope that the other groups around New York and individual students will soon join this action, and that they will all unite in the end.

I hope that they will get together for the convention and will participate together with us in the same activities, forgetting all differences and personal animosity. Everything needs to be left aside as if it does not exist. However, do not cancel it out. Simply rise above the animosity, separate from it, and make a restriction over it.

During a tsunami, an earthquake, or a big fire, all the animals run together, and none of them would attack another. The main objective is escaping true death. Now, we must act the same way. Forget all the disagreements, get together, and join the convention events.

Participating in dissemination of our materials is the most important thing. We will be elevated from Above only and only by making the world understand that it needs us. If the world does not need us, we will not budge; nothing will happen with us.
[62356]
From Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/27/2011

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The Convention Starts With Our Demand

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We are approaching the final lap before the convention. How do we maintain the intention?

Answer: First of all, we are not parting; we are all together. From today on we should prepare to the maximum for unification; we should give rise to unity and live in it now. Unlike a lesson at school, the convention does not begin at the ring of a bell. It’s already hovering above us, and our friends all over the world are already breathing it. We need to prepare ourselves more and more. We should exert effort toward unity, and each day should be an achievement for us just like in the desert of Arava.

Of course, there will also be descents. Never did we have a successful first day at a convention. Even after the burst of emotions at the cultural program, people didn’t want to come back the next morning. And this is good. It cannot be any other way.

So let’s hope that over the next few days we will undergo the whole necessary preparation, including the mess, rejection, and resentment so that then the three days of the convention will fill us with inspiration and unity. Let’s save time, we have all the necessary means for that. This time we have performed an immense preparation, internal one in particular.

The key is confidence. Let each person hold up his friend—otherwise the common Kli will fall into parts. Grab onto each other and don’t let go.
[62403]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/2/2011, “The Peace”

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 12.11.11

Writings of Rabash Purpose of Society
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “And the Land Was Tohu (Chaos),” Item 17, Lesson 10
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Writings of Rabash, Letter #40
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