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The Nation That Unites Above The Ego

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: Thus, because of the above necessity, the Torah was given specifically to the Israeli nation, solely to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for it was inconceivable that any stranger would take part in it. Because of that, the Israeli nation had been constructed as a sort of gateway by which the sparks of purity would shine upon the whole of the human race the world over.

It isn’t just about one of the nations that was suddenly given the Torah. The “Israeli nation” is a collection of people who left ancient Babylon. They connected under the leadership of Abraham who taught them to connect through ties of love above hatred. Of course, they didn’t want that, just like all the other Babylonians, but they accepted Abraham’s method. Thanks to the “spark” that is concealed in them, they understood that it is actually a method of correction and that the egoistic nature, the hatred, was given so that we will unite above it and build a group in which there will be these two discernments, one opposite the other: hatred below and love above. Thus they arrived at “Mt. Sinai,” at the state in which we reveal the upper force.

When they connected, they began to work through the connection according to Abraham’s method and then Isaac’s, and then Jacob’s, which means in “three lines.” In this process they received a growing “hardening of the heart” and in their work they went through the phases of HBD, HGT, NHY, including the exile in Egypt. This means that they felt the difficult internal states and overcame them by rising above their ego and reaching the necessity for adhesion. The ego separated them extremely, and they still tried to hold on, as much as they could, by at least keeping their inclination for connection.

Eventually, the necessary tension among them was created—on one hand, the ego that erupted in the form of the “ten plagues of Egypt” and the inaccessible “Pharaoh” on the inside, and on the other hand, the recognition of the necessity of the connection, which they built above them. They were even ready to go to the desert without any reward, just to have a chance to serve the Creator. This is what they demanded from Pharaoh when Moses gave him the Creator’s message: “Let my people go, so that they shall serve me.”

Then they reached the state in which they could receive the Torah, which means the Light that Reforms. There was enough tension between the ego that was revealed and the pressure aimed at connection. They were given the condition—to become “one man with one heart,” to “love thy friend as thyself,” and they accepted it by saying: “We shall do and we shall hear.” Then the revelation of Light that Reforms began, which means that they received the Torah.

Thus they became a nation. Now they had a collective infrastructure that united them: the Light united them. Without the Light, there is no connection among them, which means that there is no nation. Therefore, Baal HaSulam says that Israel in exile is not a nation but “a bag of nuts.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Consumers Of The Upper Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: My exertion belongs to corporeal life and not to spiritual life. How can I ask the Light to change that?

Answer: Our desires change if we yearn for connection; we reach bestowal, and through bestowal, we reach the revelation of the Creator in order to bring Him contentment since it is He who wants to be revealed to us and not that we want to reveal Him by ourselves out of curiosity. It’s only possible to change something in us when the Light changes us. All the work is done through the Light; all the changes in us are performed from Above according to our request. But in order to reach the Light, to come in contact with it, to pass on our request and our deficiency to it so that it will be accepted, we have to operate through the group. In order to do that, our deficiency must be dressed in the intention to bestow.

We shouldn’t try to change or limit our desires forcefully; nothing will help except a prayer, a demand for the Light that Reforms. We have to put all our heart into this prayer. You won’t be more spiritual if you stop eating, breathing, or enjoying life; you won’t change your attributes by that.

The point is not to change mechanical actions that are performed by the arms or legs and not to use high language, but to change our inner attributes, which only the Light that created them can do. Therefore, we only have to know how to demand these changes! This is possible only if we get together and build a collective desire in the group through which we can turn to the Light with a demand.

The demand that is formed within this collective desire is the one that will be accepted. After all, the Light is in absolute rest, and to the extent that we reach an equivalence of form with It, we summon its action. It depends on the intensity by which we demand it in the group.

This force is abundant, but everything depends on us, the users. The user must include many foreign and strange desires of the friends in the group, which until now weren’t connected by anything. However, they are ready to connect in order to attain the upper one and so their attempts to connect are perceived as a demand from the upper one to connect them.

It turns out that our only request is in connection, and thanks to the connection all our attributes will be corrected. You can’t decide to be a little more generous or more of a saver. You don’t understand which attributes you need. Ask for one thing only—to connect with the friends into one collective desire so that all your attributes will be corrected in this connection. This is the only thing you can ask for and this is the only request that is answered and for which there is a correction.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/08/12, Writings of Rabash

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Many Reincarnations In One Body

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is a reincarnation?

Answer: I am in the desire to receive and discover the shattered Reshimot (reminiscences), which means I feel that my connection with the environment and the Creator are shattered. So I make efforts to connect with the environment in order to become a suitable vessel for the Creator, for the Light.

Suppose by working above my shattered desire, I asked and attained the influence of the Light that corrected my connection with the shattered vessels that are near me, and we connected and attained a greater compatibility to the Light. Now the vessel that has been corrected by me is filled with the Light of Nefesh. Thus I have fulfilled the shattered desire that was revealed to me. This means that I have lived one lifetime and have performed a correction.

Now the next level is revealed to me. The previous desire dies, I don’t need it anymore. The Light that comes out of the previous spiritual Partzuf and is revealed in the next Reshimo is greater and more advanced. This means that it’s even more shattered! But with the experience I have from the previous life, I already know how to correct it. Therefore, I continue to advance and to correct myself.

I have to connect the shattered vessels that are even more opposite from one another and I have to ask the Light to connect us. Thus one life passes after another until I reach my complete correction. At that time, the shattered Reshimot cease to be evoked and revealed since I have corrected the whole shattering, meaning that I have been through all my lives. These lives have nothing to do with our corporeal body that lives like an animal. It’s only similar to an animal since our life symbolizes the advancement of the desire to receive.

In contrast to inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, we are special animals in which the desire to receive constantly changes and eventually reaches a dead end, which we feel today. We suddenly realize that it isn’t a life and that we don’t understand where we are headed. The sufferings oblige us to start asking about the meaning of life, about its purpose and root. In the desire that develops on the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels, there is already a beginning of a new yearning that obliges us to ask about what there is on the level above me.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/08/12, Writings of Rabash

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Carriers Of The Ideas

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Let’s say I work and make my living as psychotherapist, but in my free time I work in dissemination of the integral method without any pay. The second approach is when I work fulltime in dissemination of the integral upbringing and get paid for doing that. Which way is better for advancement?

Answer: Certainly, your help as a volunteer, as the load you take for the society’s benefit should not be excluded. However, in general we have to create a huge army of educators, teachers, and lecturers who would participate in this. This is what will make the system!

A person who goes through the integral course generally works for this idea since he becomes its carrier. Therefore, we are not talking here about a career even though it exists. We are not talking about special salaries or rewards. For the most part it is an inner reward: fulfillment.
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From a “Talk About Integral Upbringing” 5/20/12

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Massive Attack

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: People are generally not interested in receiving information about forms of interaction, introspection, and development in self-actualization until their life becomes unbearable. Only then do they come to specialists and are willing to engage in internal work.

Does it mean that without the “I can’t live like this” scenario, it’s impossible to convey to people information about the integral method?

Answer: I believe that we must first do massive work with the people through different cinematographic, theatrical, and Internet-based campaigns, which would clearly demonstrate to people those events that, like in the movie, are happening to others, and how they can be solved.

We must show them examples, involve them in this, and through such productions, make them active participants, sympathetic and really involved in these transformations. We need to show them how all of this transpires through the example of the hero of some production, movie, or novel. But they must be serious works, such as Pelevin’s. I think that in this manner, we can create a demand for the integral method. It seems to me that this should precede everything else when it comes to the general population.

If we’re talking about specific people, representatives of culture and science, then we need to try to clothe it in the format and knowledge of whatever they are doing. For people like that, we need to disseminate materials about connection, the human influence on the world, and how it is realized linearly and globally, integrally, what the difference between the two is, and so on. We also have a big problem with children. If we show how integral upbringing transforms a child, we, in fact, create a human being of him or her, and then it would be a shining example for the parents.

There’s a very good example of that in our country. Here in Israel, by the way, a principal can do whatever they want within the framework of the school. He or she is given unlimited power, and they can introduce new disciplines. When school principals learn about our methodology, they agree to implement it because they feel and understand that it should give positive results, at the very least with regard to discipline in the classroom, reduction of violence, and various problems among children.

If they agree, then we put forth a condition that first, the teachers need to master the integral method. We come to the school one or two times a week and conduct courses on integral education and upbringing. Thus, before educating the children, the teachers themselves learn this methodology, and on themselves experience this whole transformation.

Gradually, teachers become our associates, colleagues, and partners, although in general, they are always characterized by conservatism and initially don’t understand the essence of integral methodology. But when they gradually become imbued with it, then they feel how much they benefit from the fact that they can enter a classroom without fear, that a friendly atmosphere during the lesson becomes a normal phenomenon, that academic achievement increases, and children listen to and receive from each other since a lesson is carried out as a conversation between them.

When children share their knowledge with each other, they absorb it much better than when receiving information from the teachers. This, essentially, is how old schools were arranged; children simply discussed all the problems amongst themselves and through that revealed and enriched knowledge.

A very interesting thing happens here. Once you attract the teachers to our side and work with them for some time on integral upbringing, like with children in a circle, they begin to feel for themselves how much the teaching staff has changed, how different the atmosphere in the staff room is, as well as their relationship with the management of the school. They begin to feel that there really is something revolutionary here, something completely new. And then we tell them that it isn’t enough to work with children on this methodology only in the school, they need to feel the same environment at home, that is, we need to work with the parents as well.

Then, during meetings with parents, the teachers start to convince parents that the new methodology is needed to ensure that their children, the most precious thing they have, would become real, new people, good and kind, able to understand the world correctly, interactive in the classroom completing school successfully, receiving good grades, and there wouldn’t be violence, drugs, and all else that unfortunately goes on in schools.  Horrible things occur there, and we only know a small part of it. That pressure, that environment to which our kids are subjected, this is the most salient and vivid manifestation of the most negative human traits.

When we tell parents that for this purpose it’s necessary to create a slightly different atmosphere at home, they agree immediately, especially women. This is enough because a woman “presides” over the household, while a man, as we all know, exerts very little influence on everything that happens in a family. In this manner, we begin to attract mothers to the integral methodology, and eventually encompass essentially the whole population.

Through women, through children’s success, this spreads as if in an open field. Everyone else immediately begins to see, hear, and feel. The chain from a school principal to the parents—this already is an enormous amount of people who become included in re-education.

This should definitely be taken into account.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/20/12

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“US Compassion: Lost In Litigation?”

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from RT): “Public outcry is growing in the US at emergency services’ seeming policy of standing by while houses burn down and people drown, if services have not been previously paid for.

“A spate of real-life incidents has sparked concern over what kind of society America is becoming.

“The recent series of shocking accidents forced homeowners in one of the counties to watch as their houses and possessions burned to the ground. And the firefighters were right there watching, as well.

“All because the owners didn’t pay the US$75 ‘fire subscription fee,’ known as the ‘pay for spray’ charge. …

“A similarly shocking incident occurred in California, where police and firemen watched a man drown, saying they didn’t have proper certifications for water rescue, which would leave them open to possible lawsuits if they attempted to save him.

“So as the tragedy unfolded for over an hour, authorities just stood there and did nothing.

Even after the surf brought Raymon Zach’s body closer to the shore, firefighters refused to get in the water and retrieve the corpse, so they waited until a passer-by volunteered to do the job.”

My Comment: Our ego is constantly growing, and these examples no longer surprise us. What more might there be if we don’t start correcting it through integral upbringing?
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We Are Living Brains

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from The New York Times): “Researchers have discovered that words describing motion also stimulate regions of the brain distinct from language-processing areas. In a study led by the cognitive scientist Véronique Boulenger, of the Laboratory of Language Dynamics in France, the brains of participants were scanned as they read sentences like ‘John grasped the object’ and ‘Pablo kicked the ball.’ The scans revealed activity in the motor cortex, which coordinates the body’s movements. What’s more, this activity was concentrated in one part of the motor cortex when the movement described was arm-related and in another part when the movement concerned the leg.

“The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated.”

My Comment: We exist as eternal creatures in the eternal space from which we sense fragments in accordance with our development. Kabbalah is designed to develop us to the full revelation of everything that exists. To the extent of development, we are changing the sense of self and the world around us, up to the sensation of everything existing in one whole object: all of infinity. We are currently going through a transition phase of perception of our dimension (three-dimensional, time-movement-place-the source of existence) to ten-dimensional (three lines, Tzimtzum Bet, etc) and then, at the end of correction, to infinity.
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Professional Or Amateur?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Do we need professionals in order to create an integral mechanism for the masses so as to set new examples for people’s mode of thinking, or is it enough to be avid amateurs?

Answer: Many of the people who are studying the integral system should keep their jobs. But they understand this system, they have changed, and they want to advance and to improve. Through the unity that they have acquired by the discussions, round tables, and workshops, they feel the revelation of the new world.

But actually, we need to prepare professionals. What do I mean by to prepare?

Today about 20-30% of the people in every country are unemployed. These are healthy, normal, thinking people that would be happy to participate in something, but they cannot fulfill themselves. After a few years of being unemployed, such a person will not be able to do anything. We should draw these people to perform internal changes and then to make them the educators of the new generation. This should become their job.

In any case we have to sustain them and to do something with them. In Europe they are given some unemployment benefits, free meals, and so on.

Today people find themselves in such situations that a large part of the society lives on a meager, minimum allowance. In Holland for example, an unemployed person receives 180 Euro a month, which isn’t enough to live on. Once a day or once a week he receives food and thanks to that he can somehow manage. And this is Holland, Europe! The same thing happens in other countries where things are even worse.

We are on the verge of such a dramatic critical situation in the world and in society that we simply must do something.

In some countries, especially in the developing countries in South America, no one is thinking about the crisis yet, but it will gradually get there too. After all, we are mutually connected.

On the other hand, in these countries there are many poor people and the gap between the poor and the rich is huge. Therefore, here too, we can approach the leaders of some organizations and start working. But it still seems far away.

If we take North America, Europe, Russia, the whole northern hemisphere, even China and Japan with their problems, then we can see that there is no other choice.

We should put masses of unemployed people not just through the courses of integral self-education, but also through teachers’ training courses and courses that train educators, lecturers, etc. so that they will be able to gradually change humanity into becoming more similar to nature in their own countries and in other places. There is a great opportunity here.

When you tell people living on a meager allowance that the successful completion of the initial integral education courses and training and the following lecturer and educator preparation will provide them with a respectable job and salary, it offers them self-fulfillment, success, and peace.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/20/12

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We Will Know You From Your Actions

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen we aspire directly to the Creator, we study Torah. In other words, we study the actions of the Light, which corrects us.

With regard to that it is said, “From Your actions I will know You.” When we study the Creator’s actions, we begin to understand and attain Him. As a result we come to adhesion with Him.

To study Torah means to study that what the Light is doing within us. Ultimately, when a person reads, he should feel right away as the Light performs changes within him. A transformation comes out from every word, from every letter. After all, these letters, these symbols of spiritual properties, are built by Kabbalists.

When a person reads them, he can see how within they act and correct him from receiving to bestowal. With every word, the person notices changes within himself. This is the way he reveals the actions of the Creator and from these actions the Creator Himself becomes revealed to him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/10, The Zohar

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