Audio Version Of The Blog – 07.10.12

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How The Steel Was Tempered

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom an article by Rabash: “The old’s contradiction—a construction, youth’s construction—a contradiction.” “The old” are those who are used to God’s work, “Youth” are those who are just starting their work. A contradiction is a descent or a fall, which means that first there was an ascent in the work that is considered a construction, which means that they considered the ascents, but the contradiction is when they felt a fall, which comes from the concealment of the Creator, which means that the Creator conceals Himself from them, and this is called a contradiction. The old’s contradiction is when they say that the Creator sent them the concealment, so it turns out that they are already in construction, since they believe that the Creator is taking care of them and from this they receive livelihood.

“The old” are those who are already accustomed to the spiritual work, and so they know how to interpret every state, how to approach it and how to make it beneficial. So even their “contradiction” is construction. This is because they don’t forget and hold on to the intention that everything comes from the Creator, even the descent. So it is during the descents, by remaining loyal, by holding on to their faith, to the intention of in order to bestow even during the descents, that by that they construct the ascents. The descent itself turns into an ascent.

The ascent does not come after the descent, but it is the same decent if a person attributes it to the Creator, to the goal of creation, and understands that he feels it in desires to receive and adds the right intention to it: The descent itself becomes an ascent.

A person immediately rises by the descent that is felt in the egoistic desire, by the revelation of the corrupt vessel. Then he stops moving up and down on a wave of ascents and descents. He is always happy about the descents, because it isn’t after they are over, but while still in them, that he adheres to the Creator. So the contradiction that old men feel goes to their construction, since from it they build an even more intense adhesion with the Creator.

The “youth” are those who have no power yet, not enough support from the environment that could stabilize them that enables the turning of the descent into ascent, into adhesion. So they even begin to use their ascents egoistically and enjoy the good feeling, thus forgetting the intention. Then the ascent turns into a descent, and the construction turns into destruction. The state is determined by a person’s intention.
[82404]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/8/12

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In Light Of The Convention

Dr. Michael LaitmanThis congress was not only uniting, but also dividing those who meet the requirements of the group (systematic studies, dissemination, and Maaser) and those who don’t meet them.

We must come to the state when the center of our group, the steadiest friends, will meet the requirements of the Creator to become similar to Him on the first, 1/125th degree of the ladder of His revelation. In this case, they will be able to become the part of the world group of Bnei Baruch through which the Light passes to the rest (See “The Introduction to The Book of Zohar”).

Then, around this part, other parts will be formed, like spreading waves, according to compliance with the rules of similarity with the Creator, the property of bestowal.

The rules are not invented by me, but set by the Kabbalists; we know them well, but don’t find it compulsory to perform them accurately, thinking that they are not necessary for the revelation of the Creator. Now, we were given this understanding for the first time.

I refer those who are not satisfied with these requirements to the Creator; perhaps, He might change the conditions of the contract for them: “The Law of the equivalence of form” (communicating spiritual vessels/properties).

Those who recognize the need for these conditions can choose where to be, in which circle: the central or external. In the future, we will specify the conditions of each circle.

I love all of you, and everyone is dear to me, and all this is done in order to pull everyone to the goal and eliminate the earthly confusion on the spiritual path.

Hugs,
Rav
[82420]

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Opening The Way To The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: At the convention, you said that our problem is that we cannot tie all our intentions together yet: me, who has to be corrected, the friends, the Creator, and the world. What are the stops on the way to the one unified intention that combines all the elements?

Answer: We have to constantly clarify things internally as to what we have to think about and thus summon the Light that Reforms. It is written: “It is better to sit and do nothing,” since if you don’t know what to do, you can even cause more harm. It is like giving a small child power, or a person who doesn’t know what he is doing; he can only cause harm.

So, on one hand, it is concealed from us so that we don’t harm ourselves and others. On the other hand, how can we come close to the right action? It turns out that we constantly need to think about the right intention and only to that extent will we be able to come closer to the Light. There are Masachim (screens) that conceal the Light from us only because our desires are incorrect. The moment our desire comes close to the right state, these Masachim disappear.

So every person must constantly check himself, and decide how he should really invest his powers. Life helps us, the general despair, the aimlessness, the confusion, and the state the world is in now all help us. It isn’t that we are not being ridiculed anymore, as they used to do about a decade or two ago, and in every generation in the past ages, we have reached a point now where there is no choice. So we have to show not only to ourselves, but to the world, what we should all yearn for, what we should reach, what intent while reading The Zohar.
[82382]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/8/12, The Zohar

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Equality Doesn’t Mean Sameness!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: As it happened that during the last congress in the North, our group divided into two parts: The first one, 10 people, isolated themselves from the world on the first floor of the center and completely simulated the conditions of the friends at the convention in Israel; the second one, 20-30 people who due to various reasons could attend but only participate part of the time, were in another room.

I was among the isolated 10, and I could not concentrate on anything but one thought: “How could it happen that we divided into two parts?” But I could not pluck up the courage to raise this issue with the other 9 people. This question haunts me; what should I do? Could I raise it for discussion or would it be against the unity of the group, even in this decision to be divided into two parts during the convention? I just think that the spiritual committee should insist that the group stays together no matter under what conditions.

Answer: Contradictions exist until the final correction everywhere and especially in Kabbalah, but in spirituality, opposite things are united in a common intention; they co-exist although they are separated by the law of equivalence of form. So, we need to get used to the fact that we can be different, but together; moreover, we should not strive to put everyone and everything at the same level. Equal does not mean the same, but equal in the intention and at different levels.

We are all different and no one forces us to be the same, but just to aspire for the same goal. Also, everyone strives for the goal in various ways. We are different, like the cells of one body; in our intention to the common Creator, the Creator unites us.

Stay as an example to follow, and those who cannot, due to objective reasons, are not worse than you, but will be in the other sub-group at the congress; similarly, the body has organs that are different in their importance organs, but they belong to one body.

The equality of friends does not mean sameness!

Ask, we will find out.
[82417]

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“Study: Spanking May Lead to Mental Illness”

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from The Slatest): “Being spanked, slapped, pushed, or hit as a child, even when these punishments are not a part of full-scale maltreatment, are linked to an increased risk of mental illness in adulthood in a new study published in Pediatrics. …

“Lead author Tracie Afifi recommends that physical punishment not be used on children of any age, and that positive parenting strategies be employed instead. Spanking, and other forms of physical punishment on children, is illegal in 32 countries, not including the United States. The American Academy of Pediatrics, however, officially discourages it. …

“Close to 80 percent of American preschool children are spanked, according to a 2010 University of North Carolina study.”

My Comment: There is no other method of education, except an example, especially when it comes not from adults, but from peers. The environment is always the only effective and positive means of upbringing. Nothing can replace a good example of friends.
[82411]

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Unbreakable Knot: Wall Street And An African Village

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is it necessary to have intensive studies for a long period of time so that the majority of people could approach the integral level?

Answer: We should not wait until they reach it. We don’t have time.

We see that the so-called “progressive” societies of the world are in a very critical state. Since the world is interconnected, they will naturally influence the entire world with their undesirable extreme fallout; nothing good will come from that.

Here we cannot take a statistically average segment. We should define it according to the most extreme states where the wealth, power, force, and weapons exist because it is the highest level and defines the level of human development.

Today we cannot say, “Humanity has Wall Street and at the same time it has an African village, and their average is modern humanity.” No!

Since Wall Street is working for the entire world, we should take it into account. The African village will feel its influence in any case. If Wall Street disappears, the African village will die from starvation or it will be reduced to ashes if Wall Street wishes so.
[82246]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #33, 5/25/12

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Small Amounts Accumulate To A Great Amount

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe are the result of the breaking. If we want to approach the Light, the spiritual life, to resemble the Creator, then it is only possible through unity. Thus we are taken through many situations through which we need to learn that without the unity, we won’t find the strength, the efforts, the thoughts, or the correct desires.

Many times in his life, man says that it is enough, and decides that from that day forward he will take himself seriously and devote each moment to spiritual development, to take advantage of all the possible means, to stop wasting his life and degrading the opportunities that we are given from above.

But already the next moment, he forgets these thoughts. He sees, that if obstacles come, he isn’t able to stand against them. This is done on purpose in order to teach him that if he wants to adhere to the path and make the correct decision each time, he must receive the force from the environment.

He can receive this force if he considers the surroundings as greater than himself. If he has one friend that he considers as one level above him, then it’s like one facing zero. This means “10.” If he has several friends, then this number grows accordingly.

As much as he is able to annul himself towards the others, then he will see them as greater than himself, and he can receive from them greater impressions, meaning the force for prayer, unity, and all the spiritual work.

After all, he is already actually annulling himself before them, and thus the spiritual force comes to him. But in the meantime, this spiritual force, the self-annulment and the same field in which he acts, together with the friends, are egoistic, “Lo Lishma” (Not for her Name). In any case, these are correct actions, and that is why they work.

We shouldn’t degrade them, after all, all of these small amounts accumulate into one great light, his efforts accumulate in order to raise his friends higher and higher, and that is the goal of creation that he wants to attain with their help.
[82215]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/4/12, Writings of Rabash

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Detector For The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe are all “floating” in the informational field. It is above time, space, and movement. It is constant. But we are not sensing this field because we have different properties. However, if we unite, we become, to the extent of our degree of interconnection, similar to this field; we become unified as it is and begin to pick up its information.

When everyone exists in the state of separation without uniting with others, then he senses in this informational field only a small informational part that is sensed by everyone as “our world” isolated from this informational field and can be sensed only in this person, in his individual egoistic part.

As soon as we unite, the minimum of many is two (“Miut Ha-Rabim—Shnayim”), then we right away start to correspond to this informational field and begin to sense it at the minimal level called, let’s say, “Nefesh de Nefesh.” And so forth, meaning that according to the law of similarity, we sense this field, the Creator, to the degree of our connection. By this we are making a sense organ out of ourselves.
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In A Trap Of Accumulated Experience

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I’ve been working with psychotherapy and psychology for twenty years and I have a lot of different experiences and so on. In transitioning to the method of integral education, I see all the pluses that you’re talking about. Moreover, we have applied them in practice and they are quite obvious.

But since this is the next qualitatively new degree, then essentially, my entire twenty-year experience is not needed. It turns out that I have to give it up, but I cannot do it, it’s very hard for me to do.

Answer: Why do you think that we don’t need your experience?

After all, it wasn’t in vain that humanity developed for hundreds of millions of years to reach the present state. Obviously, it couldn’t have come to it in one thrust.

I also lived my entire life going through all kinds of states, pursuing disciplines completely remote from this method, searched, suffered, developed, and worked in various fields. I don’t know the full program: Why did I come to it through exactly such a path and didn’t do it 30-40 years ago like my current young students? I don’t envy them, because in everything there is a cause-and-effect basis for each of us. But to talk about the fact that the past could have been different, I think that for a psychologist this is not suitable.

Response: Experience, that’s all great. But it has a reverse side, a trap, in that a person clings on to this experience. It would seem that you’ve already passed these states and the next step is in front of you, and it is beautiful. But you’re standing at the threshold and shuffling your feet, because it’s scary to take this step.

Answer: I agree with you, and I see it in many people.

What can we say then about those who are only now starting out and are pursuing something very distant?! They spent their life on absolutely egoistic, murky, lowly fulfillments… We have to understand that this is how we were created, that only consistent cause-and-effect development is what leads us to realize the need for the next phase of development, and for each it is his or her own.
[82197]
From a “Talk On Integral Upbringing” 5/25/12

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