Audio Version Of The Blog – 07.09.12

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A Deceptive Reality In Waves Of Egoism

Dr. Michael LaitmanEach of us contains 613 different desires, relating to our connection with one another, which we have to correct. First of all, I have to see that they are all egoistic and that I want to use the neighbor and the Creator.

This direction, “Israel, Torah, and the Creator,” meaning from love for the creatures to love for the Creator, first works in the opposite form: for the sake of using the Creator and the creatures for one’s own benefit. First we have to discern precisely this fact, and it becomes revealed on the condition that both the creatures and the Creator are used correctly.

At the first stage, wishing to achieve the general connection with the entire universe, through the creatures to the Creator, we discover our transgressions and mistakes, and that is how we reveal the evil inclination. This does not happen all at once. As one advances, a small part of egoism is continually revealed. We demand its correction, and in the Light of correction we reveal a greater part of egoism, and then again ask for it to be corrected.

Light comes from the Creator through the group, illuminating and correcting the evil that we discover, and as a result we discover new, stronger, harsher waves of egoism within us. That is how we advance from small mistakes to more serious ones, and then from small transgressions to bigger ones, gradually revealing and correcting ourselves.

But we always aspire to love, unification, the unity of Israel, Torah, and the Creator into one whole. We wish for the Creator to become holy, “separate,” special, meaning for the quality of bestowal to always be the greatest value for us. That is how progress occurs.

And the most important aspect of this work is to understand that all corrections are concentrated outside of a person. His spiritual advancement occurs outside of him. And outside of him there is only the Shechina and the Creator that fills it.

A person imagines that there is an entire world around him: still, vegetative, animate, and human, but all of that is just his illusion, his imagination. In reality, none of this exists. When a person begins to reveal the true reality, he discovers that all of it is devoid of the spirit of life, and it is enlivened only by the upper force of the Creator, who is standing behind all of these images and shadows. By themselves they are just garments, wrappers, not having inner fulfillment.

Let us hope that we will reveal this truth quickly and will begin truly working with the Creator through these garments.
[82496]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/12, Writings of Rabash

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I Choose You, Brothers!

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf a person understands the nature of his work, he begins to treat his environment differently because he sees that he has no desire of his own and everything comes from the Creator, and that is why it does not allow him to be considered a creature.

He will be called a creature when he turns to the environment and receives the desire from it. Then these desires will be written on his account.

That is, he needs to bow his head and understand that only the desires that he receives from the environment are called Shechina, the place for the revelation of the Creator, who is called Shochen (Dweller). That is why inclusion in the group is absolutely obligatory for spiritual advancement.

It is said that it is necessary to love friends: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” After all, in this connection between everyone, which is called love, a person reveals the spiritual world, the Creator.

In fact, I don’t choose friends. My choice comes later. In the beginning, the Creator brings me to a group, and I don’t have any freedom here. My choice starts later when I really connect with them and must answer the question: Why do I need it and what I want to receive from them?

Thus, I advance, each time choosing friends because I have to see all of them as great, despite the fact that they appear to me more and more insignificant and empty. This means that I choose them because now I choose precisely these friends whom the Creator gave me for spiritual advancement.

In this way, I move forward and build on my own, a new desire. This very desire that I receive from the environment and in which I want to become similar to the Creator, to reveal the force of bestowal, is called a human being.

Everyone is obliged to show his love for the group because we must support each other, which is called mutual guarantee. Everyone becomes a guarantor for the rest that they all will have enough strength to reveal the force of bestowal and achieve similarity with the Creator. That is why, I am responsible for everyone, I signed their guarantee. Their spirituality is in my hands, as well as my spirituality is in their hands.

And if one of us drills a hole in the common boat, then we will all drown in our egoism, our self-serving intentions, and will not be able to reveal the Creator.

That is why, the further we advance towards revealing the Creator, the more stringent and demanding the conditions will become. We need to understand that we are facing the laws of nature of the Light and desire, and there can be no compromises and concessions. Everything is done according to the laws of the relationship between these two forces.
[82278]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/12, Writings of Rabash

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A Leap Into A New Dimension

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Before going skydiving, say, a person needs to prepare his mind for the jump, and there is an instructor who helps him with that. It is precisely the teachers who often push their students toward a decisive step. As far as I understand, coercion is forbidden in the integral method, and a teacher, a person who already exists within the integral sensation, doesn’t have a right to do such things.

Answer: How can I push a student? He must exert an effort by himself, close his eyes, and jump from the plane.

He needs to make an internal effort, to gather himself in such a way as to recognize the need for uniting with others. And only in this unity, when he jumps out of himself, not out of an airplane, into a commonality and integrality, beyond himself and into others, from reception to bestowal, when he makes this inversion, this leap, but at the same time turns himself inside out, only then can he experience it.

Moreover, there is a force in nature that doesn’t push, but helps us make this change, this phase transition. It works only on the condition that we demand its influence and help. This is the so-called MAN (prayer) that needs to be formed in a person, that is, an urgent need to change oneself from receiving, being egoistic like a cancer cell, to giving, being compassionate, emanating, and filling everyone else.

This force is able to change us and it exists in nature. But it doesn’t exist in each of us separately; it appears only when we gather together and in our circle create commonality between us, our common effort directed at change. And then each of us and all of us together undergo this change: We become one common whole. And then, after pulling away from it, we become egoists once gain.

So, this force builds us into one single whole, changing not each of us separately but precisely that entire group of people who support each other and elevate this goal, creating such a common demand that it truly draws to them the force of nature which changes them. But in order for it to influence us, we need to have accumulated a certain potential for it. And then the force holds us. This is the second, the giving force of nature.

Two forces exist in nature: receiving and bestowing. We’ve never used the force of bestowal. Desiring to fulfill ourselves, we’ve always used only the egoistic force and have dealt only with it. And now, we’re gradually losing the desire to work with it and in this manner we’re coming to the revelation of the next force.

In our method, this is known as the two lines, where the left line is the receiving one and the right, giving. Through the help of these two lines, we begin to work in mutual connection and to rise in the new dimension along the rungs of the ladder of attainment, feeling, and fulfillment.
[82191]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” 5/25/12

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The World Needs An Alternative Model Of Development

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Yuri V. Krupnov, Director of the Institute for Demography, Migration and Regional Development): “We have now entered into the epicenter of the global financial and economic crisis. Who will offer a different socio-economic model? Russia has every opportunity to demonstrate a practical proposal, i.e. to take the Far East and Eastern Siberia and show an alternative model of development in these areas. We are going into a tailspin of crisis. Everything will be greatly degraded and sink. Unless there is a world leader, who will offer a new development agenda, we can slide towards a global war.”

My Comments: Our local groups should monitor prominent scientists politicians, economists, etc., and identify people who are aware of the need to develop new ways of development of the international community (its economy, finance, industry, culture, education, and upbringing) and offer them a description of our vision of the development of the world.
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The Chinese Are Buying Up American Cities

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Economy in Crisis): “It has been said that there are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One way is by using the sword, and the other is by using debt. Fortunately, America is not in danger of being conquered by the sword right now, but America is being conquered by debt. The borrower is the servant of the lender, and today we owe China more than a trillion dollars. By running a gigantic trade deficit with us, China has been able to become incredibly wealthy. We have begged them to lend us back some of the money that we have sent them and this has made them even wealthier. Now China is gobbling up U.S. real estate and U.S. assets at an astounding pace.  In fact, some cities are in danger of becoming completely dominated by Chinese ownership. …

“In addition to real estate, the Chinese are also buying up businesses and natural resources all over the United States.

“On top of all that, the Federal Reserve recently announced that it will now allow Chinese banks to start buying up American banks.

“According to a recent report in the New York Times, investors from China are “snapping up luxury apartments” and are planning to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on commercial and residential projects like Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn. Chinese companies also have signed major leases at the Empire State Building and at 1 World Trade Center, the report said. …

“According to the Economic Policy Institute, since 2001 America has lost approximately 2.8 million jobs due to our trade deficit with China alone. There seems to be absolutely no concern with protecting American jobs these days. …

“The median net worth of families in the United States declined ‘from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010’ according to the Federal Reserve. … A decade ago, the United States was ranked number one in average wealth per adult. By 2010, the United States had fallen to seventh. …

“And when you factor in our debts, we are a complete and total mess. U.S. consumers are more than 11 trillion dollars in debt and the federal government is nearly 16 trillion dollars in debt.”

My Comment: The most powerful nation suddenly turned out to be a colossus with feet of clay, to what it once accused the former USSR. All this is because of the unrestrained greed of a handful of wealthy individuals who seized power and subjugated the whole country, and in the former USSR, it was because of the handful of those who craved power and world domination and subjugated the whole country. Wealth and power have ruined both countries. Egoism has won. But it is doomed to die: People will be forced to change it to a different quality: bestowal and love. No one can do this, but Kabbalah helps discover the “treasure,” to reveal the force of nature that can correct our egoism.
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The Beginning Of The Development Of Man

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In classical education there is a transition from one grade to another, and then there’s a transition from one course to another in higher educational institutions. In other words, a person has a specific, precise structure. Once a person either goes to college or graduates from it, he understands that there are stages, certain steps ahead of him. But once we unite and transition to the level of “Man,” will there also be certain stages and steps, and will human development continue?

Answer: Human development begins there because only there begins the attainment of nature. Today we only think about getting more comfortable: I’ll take whatever there is. The laws that we have attained are very limited laws as the studies of Einstein, Hugh Everett, and other scientists show. They are limited, very small laws of nature that literally leak into our egoism and slightly illuminate in our egoistic consciousness; this is the only thing we feel, the only thing we examine. And the rest of nature is vastly concealed from us.

The worlds, the degrees we ascend after attaining the level of “Man,” are our states, strictly gauged degrees of attainment. Our egoism also operates there, not the animalistic type of egoism, but one directed towards the attainment of the concealed part of nature.
[82240]
From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” #33, 5/25/12

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Shedding The Hated Serpent’s Skin

Dr. Michael LaitmanAfter all the preparation from above, the shattering and the descents, our desire to receive pleasure is divided into three parts: the inner part suitable for correction and the two external parts that can be corrected if we stop using them. These two parts are called the “shell of Noga” and the “serpent’s skin.” But, the inner part is called the “inner body.”

The entire correction a person has to perform takes place in the thought. If one thinks about it, he is outside his body, which means that he aspires to bestow upon others—the friends, the group, and the world, as it is written, “From the love of man to the love of the Creator; from the love of the creatures to the love of the Creator,”—then he doesn’t nourish his ego, and, as a result, his egoistic desire dies. After all, it cannot exist without food, so it disappears!

However, a person must constantly guard himself since the temptations from the “serpent’s skin” and from the “shell of Noga” constantly will draw him, trying to hold onto him, to hold onto thoughts of envy, ambition, and dominance. They do it cunningly, and, thanks to that, each time a person can decide that he doesn’t want these thoughts, but that he wants to work outside his own interests without any self-benefit, but only in order to bestow.

If he clarifies things enough, through a certain number of such actions, he separates the inner body, the soul of holiness, and the external body in which no intention to bestow can be dressed. If he stops thinking about them, then the soul of holiness is dressed in the inner body about which it is written: “From my flesh shall I see God.” This means that a person begins to discover the Light, the Creator, Divinity, and the revelation of the Creator, in his flesh, in his body, in his skin.

It is all thanks to the fact that he managed to keep himself in thoughts and clarifications that were outside his body, which means outside his self-benefit. He tied himself to the Creator so that he could be sure that everything comes from Him and that there is none else besides Him. The Creator arranged all of this so that he will be able to clarify the three bodies after the sin of the Tree of Knowledge.

As a result of the persistent clarifications, a person gradually deprives his two external bodies, the shell of Noga and the serpent’s skin, of their food, and they depart from him and vanish. When the difference between the internal body and the two external bodies becomes evident enough, the Light on the very first level can be dressed in his inner body, which means being born in the spiritual world.

If a person constantly aspires for bestowal upon others—the friends, the group, and the Creator, which means that he wants to be “outside his skin,” outside his desire to enjoy—then it is in this desire that the upper Light is dressed, as it is written, “From my flesh shall I see God.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/29/12, Shamati #36

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The Transition To Integral Thinking

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Should the transition from a linear, egoistic consumer thinking to an integral one occur in a jump, a sharp rejection of the old ways of thinking? Or is it a gradual step-by-step process?

Answer: This is by no means an artificial shift!

We need to involve people in the system of education and upbringing. These are two parallel, brief, short courses; it could be even a month-long course, during which students will begin to feel necessary changes. If these changes occur in their understanding and feelings, the students will see a completely different world, a great prospect that will suddenly attract them.

They will acquire a meaning in life, the force of life, and aspiration. They will suddenly discover the source of contentment and will see that this is the same egoism, but integral, closed egoism, which works according to a different formula, a different rule. It considers not its individual fulfillment, which has brought us today to emptiness, depression, and apathy, but feels integral with the entire nature of humanity, with all its levels: still, vegetative, and animate. And since egoism comes to this consciously, developing itself, it starts feeling inside nature its internal force; it comes to the level of interaction with it, and thus feels that it is eternal and perfect.

Here, we pass through all the transitions of Einstein to the state where a person rises to the level of nature, hidden from us, but certainly existing. This is the information controlling level at which there are all the forces that manage our matter: still, vegetative, and animate. And thus we become a “Human Being.”

A human being is part of the information that exists in nature where there is no past, present, or future. After all, people like Wolf Messing, who feel the past and the future, live next to us. Where do they get this absolutely precise knowledge? They exist in nature. All this exists in nature beyond time. And we are reaching this level.

In principle, this is our state, this component is called a “Human Being.” And everything else that we do besides this is just taking care of our animal level, the physical body.
[82200]
From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/25/12

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 07.09.12

Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam “Article 25” 

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The Book of ZoharSelected Excerpts “Beresheet Bet (Genesis 2),” Lesson 135

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 2, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 87, Lesson 25

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Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 28, Lesson 11

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