Audio Version Of The Blog – 10.04.12

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/audio/eng_o_rav_2012-10-04_declamation_blog-rav_full.mp3 title=’4.10.12′]

The Machsom Is A Psychological Barrier

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Machsom is a psychological point, until which I work only for my own pleasure, after it, for the pleasure of the Creator or neighbor, someone outside of me. This is what I have to achieve.

This boundary, this degree, is called the Machsom. This boundary between our world and spiritual world is simply psychological. If I take care of myself, even if at the same time I am aspiring to the Creator, to spirituality, but still acting for myself, this, my state, is currently below the Machsom and is called “Lo Lishma.” And if I achieve that I think only about the Creator‘s pleasure, so that all pleasure would be not for myself, then I, my desires and intentions, are already beyond the Machsom and this, my state, is called “Lishma.”

The Machsom is a psychological point that I have to cross, and then I will be in spirituality, in the intention to bestow. Afterwards, when I am beyond the Machsom, I have to raise more and more of my desires and intentions over the Machsom.

Or you can also put it this way: Along with the growing ego in me, along with all the growing pleasures, I raise the point of my Machsom higher; while, on the basis of the desire to feel pleasure, it is revealed as the evil inclination, step by step, I raise the point of Machsom up to Ein Sof until all my desires will really be for bestowal.

It is not important how you put it: to raise intentions over the Machsom or to raise the condition of the Machsom until Ein Sof; what matters is that I am working on correcting the intention to use the growing desires, not for myself, but for others/the Creator.
[89453]

Related Material:
The Path To The Light Goes Through Evil
Machsom Is A Psychological Barrier
I Want To Cross The Machsom!

Annulling Yourself Before The Power Of Love

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Writings of Rabash, Volume II, Letter 40: And when one begins to feel the love of his friend, joy and pleasure immediately begin to awaken in him, for the rule is that a novelty entertains. His friend’s love for him is a new thing for him because he always knew that he was the only one who cared for his own wellbeing. But the minute he discovers that his friend cares for him, it evokes within him immeasurable joy, and he can no longer care for himself, since man can toil only where he feels pleasure. And since he is beginning to feel pleasure in caring for his friend, he naturally cannot think of himself.

We see that in nature, there is love until the yearning becomes unbearable…

There are Reshimot (reminiscences) in us, memories from the general vessel of the soul. All the reality that we feel and even the parts that we don’t feel are in us and are part of the vessel, just as it was before the shattering of the vessels. So the moment a person feels the love someone feels towards him, not the egoistic love we know in our world, but a love that comes from the height of the corrected general soul, from the corrected source, the Reshimo of the general vessel, which is perceived as external at the moment, is immediately evoked in him.

Thus a person immediately feels that this force comes from another world, from an upper state, and his self-love is annulled. He cannot remain in the state of self-love and is ready to give his soul to the new inclination, to the connection that is external to him. It takes place this way, because it is the external vessel that is the real, general, upper vessel compared to the individual egoistic self-love that dominates him now.

A person annuls himself before this power. If a person feels that he is loved and that the inclination to spiritually love someone who is external to him is suddenly evoked, then the corporeal animal self-love disappears. It is because a person feels that the large, general vessel is much higher than the small individual vessel, and so he annuls himself before this love.
[89375]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/2/12

Related Material:
Reality Is Indivisible
Love Isn’t What We Thought
Give Love

Life Teaches

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from The Guardian): “Knobbly carrots, wonky spuds, bent courgettes and discoloured cauliflowers will return to supermarket shelves after one of the worst growing seasons farmers have experienced in decades. …

“On Thursday, Sainsbury’s relaxed its rules on the cosmetic appearance of fresh produce and allowed fruit and vegetables that would normally be ploughed back into fields to be sold in its 1,012 stores.

“Research last year by the government’s waste reduction body, Wrap, showed that the recession has encouraged supermarkets and householders to throw out less food. According to Wrap, British families rejected nearly 7.2m tonnes of food a year – a reduction of 13% or 1.1m tonnes since 2007.”
My Comment: Thus, we gradually could come to reasonable consumption!
[89394]

Related Material:
“Americans Toss Out As Much As 40% Of Their Food”
Curb Your Appetite!
There Is Food, But No Desire To Share It

Nullifying Yourself In Order To Be Born

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In March you said that by the end of summer we would definitely make a breakthrough into spirituality. The summer is over. You say that you have a problem with coordinates. What is your next prognosis?

Answer: I think that the point we’ve reached today will give us a strong push toward nullifying ourselves. After all, therein lies the problem. If I am able to do something, then I’m above the Machsom. I think that the sensation we received at the congress gives us that foundation. Now it seems to me that all we have to do is give it a few more pushes. As far as when it will happen, I hope that such states will come at any time, even during the morning lesson. But they must come in a critical form; there must be birthing pains. This is what we’re lacking. The birth is stalling.
[89426]
From “A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah “9/23/12

Related Material:
The Wonderful Attribute Of Balance
To Be Born In Order To Never Return To This World Again
Egoism’s Misfortunes Turn It Into A Vessel

In Spirituality Everyone Is Equal

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When I am sitting in a circle with other women, are they my group? Should I attach my thoughts to the men’s part during a women’s workshop?

Answer: Why do you have to think about the men? It does not matter whether it is a man or woman in front of you. They are the friends with whom you are communicating now.

And if we could cross out the gender and not see this division? In front of me it is just a desire, and this desire transmits its thoughts to me. Then, there would be no problem at all. What kind of women and men are you talking about? It is only the lowest physiology and nothing more.

I do not believe that women can understand spiritual matters less than men can. If they really want to raise themselves, they can do this, but they have another problem: For some reason, they think that they are not capable. This pushes them down.

If it were possible to cancel their appearance so that it does not interfere, I think that there would be many equal partners among women. I know these women.
[89328]
From “A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah “9/23/12

Related Material:
Deleting The Differences In Spiritual Work
Women’s Questions In Preparation For The Convention
We Will Not Succeed Without Women’s Support

Overcoming Self-Deception

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We are talking about a person who is connected with the group. And what is the same person on the street who sees, feels, reacts, and chooses? Is this a superposition of all the desires, the collective result of the whole person, the whole world desire?

Answer: It depends on where the observer is located.

If the observer is me, then I can say that everything that I see around me now is a manifestation of the Creator. It is He who plays with me in this way, on the one hand. On the other hand, all that I feel outside of me is parts of my soul. What I feel in myself is my Galgalta ve Eynaim, and everything that I feel outside of myself is my parts that I cannot connect to myself yet because between me personally, my inner part, and those parts outside of me there is egoism that does not let me perceive them correctly.

That is, my general soul was broken in two parts, and one of the parts I perceive as my own, and the other part I do not. I do not feel that it is mine. On the contrary, I feel it as the opposite of me, I hate it, I do not like it, I do not want to feel it like my own.

This sight was created in me artificially. However, I need to find the way to feel it as my own. It is actually mine, but I perceive it as so foreign that I cause harm to those who are around me, all sorts of still, vegetative, animate, and human objects, and enjoy that I harm them. How can it be? The higher I am, the more I submit and use them (my external part for my inner part), the more comfortable, better, and happier I feel; I enjoy this.

This is a terrible self-deception. Then, a person begins to reveal that by causing everyone harm and thus disturbing the balance in the world, he hurts the elements closest to him, those who are much closer to him more than his children, than he himself. In reality, these are the Kelim (vessels) that are dearest to us. It is a horrible condition called torments of hell. But its redemption then gives a person new opportunities.

So, it all depends on how do I look at what is outside of myself, either according to the principle “There is none else besides Him,” or like parts of my soul, which in principle is the same thing.

When a person connects to the Kabbalistic method, when he comes to the Creator and unites with everyone else, that is, with the entire universe and the Creator, then naturally, everything becomes one: It was the Creator in front of me and He me showed that all were my parts.
[89334]
From “A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 09/23/12

Related Material:
Are Parts Of My Soul Wandering In The Streets?
Reality Is Indivisible
A Multidimensional System

A Spark That Penetrated From The Upper Floor

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur whole path is aimed at exiting our ego, the only collective attribute in which we exist and that locks us within this tiny ball of feeling the reality of this world. In order to start managing ourselves, we need another force in addition to our desire to enjoy: a desire to bestow. With these two forces we can already begin to operate.

This means that we lack the force of bestowal that comes from the general force, from the Creator, from the attribute of bestowal, which is the real nature. This is why the word “Creator” in Gematria is “nature” (in Hebrew). And our desire to enjoy does not exist in nature, but is external to it.

All our work and our goal is to achieve the desire to bestow. Thanks to this we are incorporated in the Creator, acquire freewill between these two forces, and can become similar to Him, which is called the human level: the level of Adam.

We can only reach the power of bestowal by the connection in the group, which is a model of how we should fulfill it. In the group we feel how much we need bestowal, or the opposite, how unnecessary it is to us and how hateful it is, since it is opposite from our nature.

Thus we begin to work artificially and cry out like children who demand things they do not deserve. But children use our parental love and we still concede and do what they want although we know it is just childish whining.

It is exactly the same with us. If we also ask for bestowal egoistically, although no one needs it, and “nag” the upper one with our crying: “Give it to us, give us!” like nagging children, we will eventually get it bit by bit and will gradually be impressed by it. In addition to that, we are impressed by our actions and by our acting that we want bestowal, and so eventually we really begin to want it.

Thus we are impressed by one another about the greatness of bestowal and spirituality, although we don’t really see anything good, great and valuable in the desire to bestow, but rather the opposite. This means that we are acting like in a theater, and by this acting we develop; we are in an intentional lie and it is clear to us that all our prayers are false and our attitude isn’t real either.

We are aware of that, we know it and we declare it openly because it is the only opportunity we have to get ourselves out of the state we are in now. By this acting, we build ourselves under the conditions of the current state in order to reach bestowal from the desire to enjoy.

The lever by which we can do that is based on a spiritual spark, the point in the heart, with which we can start acting. It is a tiny point in the heart, which we perceive and start developing. If we perceive it like an end of a rope that was thrown to us, we can raise ourselves above our egoistic desire to the desire to bestow, like rising above the floor and penetrating the second floor through a tiny hole in the ceiling. Then with the help of this rope, we can pull our whole desire to enjoy, which fills all of the lower floor and gradually transfer it to the upper floor—rising from Malchut to Bina.

The spark that was inserted into us is a spark from Bina that fell upon us from the second floor through a hole in the ceiling. Through that hole we can move to the second floor and then pull our whole Malchut from there.

It should be clear to us that we are working with egoistic attributes. We are only playing with bestowal and don’t imagine that we are already righteous. If we still don’t know who we really are, we will undoubtedly know: The main thing is not to fear the truth.
[89372]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/7/12

Related Material:
Wanting Only To Bestow
The Spiritual Ascent Gym
Playing For The New Truth

The Source Of Infinite Resources

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We always talk about nature using terms such as “nature, balanced relationships, harmony with nature” and so on.

But if we look at human progress, it is considered to have resulted from man’s opposition to nature, from man’s trying to resist nature’s forces, from trying to exit nature and thereby develop. Given this, what harmony with nature are we talking about?

Answer: We are not talking about egoistic development but about altruistic development in accordance with the governing force of nature. Here we have no opposition.

First, we begin working not against nature, but “for” it. So here entirely new mechanisms can come about that operate on totally different energy. They don’t require the old energy sources but instead run on what they generate themselves. That is, we can discover such properties and opportunities in nature where everything occurs without a loss because we don’t have to be in constant opposition with something.

After all, our egoistic development occurred against nature and therefore we constantly advanced in opposition. We conquered nature, we forcefully changed it, and considered ourselves to be great and mighty.

And here, on the contrary, we begin to use nature’s integrality, and in accordance with it, in harmony with it, in similarity to it, we feed on this integrality. As a result we receive the natural source of infinite resources from nature and our life completely changes. We won’t be producing everything from the sweat of our brow as in the current processes, they will be entirely different.

People will start to reveal the force of life, filled with energy not through what he consumes, flour, meat, etc., but through a completely different field. A person will begin to reveal within himself opportunities to be fulfilled by life. We will suddenly find fulfillment on the next level, not on the level of the animalistic body, but on the “Human” level.

Because in nature there is the next level which is called “wise person.” And where is this wise person? We, by nature, physiology, and behavior are an extension of the animal world. There is innate, vegetative, and animal nature, but we haven’t reached the “Human” level yet.

The human is one who will be completely adapted to the integral picture of nature, who will exist in a state of unity and harmony with nature because he will possess an understanding, feeling, knowledge, attainment, and control of this connection.
[89141]
From KabTV’s  “Integral World: Formula of an Integral Society” 7/1/12

Related Material:
Softening The Domination Of Nature
The Next Phase Of Human Development
Getting Acquainted With The Universal Mind

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 10.04.12

Preparation to the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Shamati #21 When One Feels Oneself In a State of Ascent

[media 3] [media 4]

The Book of ZoharSelected Excerpt “Aharei-Mot,” Item 211, Lesson 16

[media 5] [media 6]

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 3, Part 8, “Ohr Pnimi,” (Starting with: “Know, that the name MA”), Item 20, Lesson 10 

[media 7] [media 8]

Writings of Baal HaSulamConcealment and Disclosure of the Face of the Creator,” “Depiction of Disclosure of the Face,” Lesson 3

[media 9] [media 10]