What Should I Entice Myself With?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why do we speak only about the feeling of deficiency? Why do we forget what is expected at the end of the process, about the benefits we will reap?

Answer: In other words: “What will I get from all this?”

Actually, this is also true: We have to increase the importance of bestowal in our eyes. It is called “Lo Lishma” (for oneself). Because on one hand, I want to reach the goal, absolute bestowal, in which my “self” will dissolve leaving no traces, and on the other hand, where can I get fuel for that? How can I make even one step towards that which simply annuls me?

Therefore, we should nevertheless imagine something related to receiving. We cannot advance without it. So lie to yourself, but as if to a third party, as if you are lying to someone else. “Yes, I am advancing towards selfless bestowal, I will have nothing, I don’t need anything, I only want to be incorporated in others, to love others without any consideration of myself, without any benefit for myself…. But on the other hand, I will feel wonderful, I will attain the spiritual world, eternity, and perfection.”

Lie to yourself so as not to remain powerless. And it isn’t really a lie because the Creator is good and benevolent and the goal of creation is pleasure. But it is pleasure in such desires that do not seem attractive at all today.

Besides, as Baal HaSulam says, we should keep the balance between the force of reception and the force of bestowal. I should give as much as I receive. By doing so I bring all of nature to balance and this balance is the healthiest state. It is about our health, about the ecology, as well as about human society and family life. Instead of getting divorced, people will live together in peace and raise children. A person will rise above his short life and will see the whole infinite process, the great path, part of which he is travelling now.

When you reach balance with nature, your eyes open and you see everything. So start balancing yourself now, look for the balance between reception and bestowal with yourself, with the friends, with the family, and with the world. This is because you are discovering one of the 125 degrees, the lowest degree, the zero level.

All our history, all our evolution, brings us to the state in which the imbalance is revealed openly. Everything may be expected in the future: plagues, wars, and so on. It is all meant to show you how imbalanced you are. Many scientists are already talking about the need for balance (homeostasis).

So balance yourself in the present state, and you will rise to the next degree. There again you will have to balance things. Eventually you will see that all this is one complex, nature, the Creator, one force. Then it will be easier to reach balance with it. This is all our work.

So whoever wants to be healthy, satisfied, and happy should establish balance.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/2012, “The Peace”

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Harmony With Oneself

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can we discuss everyday life problems in the integral education course, connecting them each time to integrality?

Answer: If we’re saying that the general and the particular are equal, it means that we can tie this to family. Very much so! In other words, you immediately transform from a classroom, a group, into a family and establish integral conditions within in.

At the same time, nobody probes into another’s private world. What we’re doing is creating a family, something common above us where you and me are we. Then we automatically connect children to it and they, too, become part of this integral system. Completely new relationships within a family arise.

The most important thing is not to pressure anyone because normal, correct development requires an inner harmony between a person and their inborn qualities. I shouldn’t conceal, destroy, and diminish them, or anything else of that nature. I need to reach such a state where, conversely, my inborn qualities will blossom in me completely.

We don’t understand why we should preserve all our negative qualities: deception, envy, jealousy, hatred, a hundred types of fears, and so on. But they all have their resolution, their realization precisely in this final state. As a person develops, he gradually sees that these qualities are necessary for him, that he applies them, except in the opposite form, when these fears force him to be integral and bring him “outside of himself,” instead of pushing him inward.
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From a “Talk About Integral Education” #8, 12/14/11

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Escaping From The “Cage” Of Stereotypes

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The majority of people aren’t capable of expressing their thoughts and desires. They simply have a collection of some prescribed clichés. A person doesn’t think about self-expression and instead is concerned with avoiding saying something inappropriate.

In the course of integral education, can we talk about how important one’s inner self-expression is since whatever one feels, thinks, and sees is more critical than the collection of stereotypes and clichés?

Answer: I approach the world seeing that everyone has blinders on: People are unsociable, they don’t want and are afraid to open up because they will immediately receive a negative reaction.

In this regard, we need to leave them alone. Let every person live “inside himself” just the way that they are. We don’t need to break him, don’t need to drag him, kicking and screaming, out of his “cage.” He doesn’t want to come out, yet you open the door, break it down, and drag him out of there, while the miserable fellow digs in his heels and refuses to leave.

This is not good. Through this you invoke resistance, and people stop trusting you. You barge into a person’s private life making it neither lighter nor better, just more difficult. This person spent their entire life hiding, he or she knows that opening up means making oneself vulnerable. And here you are, pressuring them.

What needs to be done? We need to create a common integral level above the person, above us, and then we will be able to peacefully ascend onto it. I remain as myself with my own qualities, but at the same time I connect with the others on this common level. I can talk about general love, general interaction, and universal mutual guarantee because in this case they are not egoistic and personal to me. We are not touching egoism yet.

It is as if you’re taking them on an adventure on a magic helicopter and they participate in this game. They agree to ascend, agree to play, agree to interact. This isn’t forcing them to open up and allowing themselves to be vulnerable; it doesn’t pose a threat to their narrow inner egoism.

Allow them to gradually feel this state through, to exist and linger in it for some time. Let them warm up in it a little, to thaw, “squeeze,” and “probe” each other, to understand that this is possible. Then, from within this state, they will begin to influence themselves on their own and you will see that they’re different.

They will suddenly discover that they don’t need to take care of this “cage” in which they exist and in which they constantly hid from the others; it stopped being important to them. But this is something that they’ll decide on their own.

Question: In that case what should we talk to a person about?

Answer: About the goal, about what’s ahead of us. We need to exalt the goal so that goodness beckons us forward instead of evil pushing us from behind. Precisely this!

A person develops when you feed them, when you take care of them. Then he becomes “plump,” like a child, and grows. He requires the kindest possible impressions.
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From a “Talk About Integral Education” #8, 12/14/11

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A Baby Stroller That Fell From Heaven

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: There was an incident when in a group psychotherapy discussion one woman said that she cannot allow herself to bear a child because she won’t be able to support it, to afford to even buy a baby stroller, to which one man replied: “You give birth to that baby, and you’ll see that someone will bring you the baby stroller, they’ll give it to you and all will be well.”

In an integral society, while a person is pursuing his correction, sooner or later he will arrive at a point where nature will supply him with everything. How can this be explained to a person? Should a woman be thinking about a baby stroller before she bears a child, or should she first give birth and then see what happens?

Answer: The fact of the matter is that we cannot tell a person about the system that exists above him. We strive towards it—it is the system of “Adam.” In many techniques and practices people take advantage of the fact that they aspire towards its level and attempt to draw the forces from the future upon themselves. But to tell a person that they need to act in a certain way, to aspire towards it, and they will see that it works, it is all unsubstantiated at a given moment, and this is why it is difficult for us to work with this.

To the extent that a person includes himself into the integrality of society that creates a field of mutual guarantee around him, to that extent he can act in this manner because he feels himself in the arms of society. But for that he needs to connect to it, to actively participate in it, and to perceive this society as perfect. And then naturally he will evoke the forces of nature and the movements from society, which will indeed bring him a “baby stroller.”

But to talk about the fact that we exist in this single unified field, that we evoke it, and that correspondingly, it reacts to us… Certainly, psychologists and sociologists can talk about this. That really is something that we can understand and sense exists: This is our collective mind, our collective desire, our subconscious influence on each other, the common opinion. But we still need to work carefully with it because we are dealing with people who aren’t capable of immediately perceiving these subtle matters.

Therefore to simply say “Just give birth and you’ll receive a stroller…”  Where from, exactly? What are you basing this on? With this you will simply discredit yourself in the eyes of others as an impractical  person, someone who is detached from reality. I don’t think that this is the right approach.

First and foremost, we need upbringing, and the practical application comes a little later. We need to lead people to the point where they are able to see what your basis is and they can begin to suggest solutions on their own. Don’t impose certain behavior on them. They will see for themselves based on your explanations that here it will probably work out.

And this is what is referred to as “educate your child according to his ways,” that is, make it so that a person will probe and feel out his own path. You educate him or her, and thus they choose their path correctly.
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From a “Talk About Integral Education” #8, 12/14/11

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 02.27.12

Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Rabash “When Is One Called the Work of the Creator in the Work”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter Beresheet (Genesis),” “Moses and Two Messiahs,” Item 247, Lesson 70
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 17, Lesson 30
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Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 101, Lesson 47
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