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Ascending To The Intention

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 42, “What Is that the Acronym Elul in the Work”: For this reason one is given a form of blackness from Above, and then one sees if one’s work is in purity.

In other words, if one can be in gladness in a state of blackness, too, it is a sign that one’s work is in purity, because one must be glad and believe that from Above he was given a chance to be able to work in order to bestow.

If a person feels glad, above all his moods, it is a sign that he is already detached from his desire to receive and that he can advance.

This is always the test: Are we immersed in our desire to receive or can we rise above it to some extent? A person doesn’t ask to be in a good mood in order to continue his work. On the contrary, he is happy about the darkness, about the bad mood and the confusion. Above all this, he is ready to make a slight effort.

It doesn’t matter what mood we are in, we don’t see it as important, but rise above it. If things look bad in the vessel of receiving, I can work above it in bestowal, in unity and in love of friends. It is a sure sign that I am on the right track. All our work is in feeling the darkness in the vessel of receiving and making even the slightest effort above it, yearning for a connection, for bestowal.

This is why we have to perform the right exercises, to play games by which we learn. Of course, it isn’t easy for a new student during the first few years, but then he begins to feel the gap between his feeling and his intention, which means between two different systems.

He may feel good and then he may feel bad, and he understands that it doesn’t matter, that he should work only above these feelings and that time after time they will provide him with different details of the perception of reality that are necessary on the way to learning about the different forms of the Creator’s Providence. A person accepts all the feelings—the good and the bad ones—as a benefit, in order to rise above them and constantly keep the right direction towards the goal.

We have to constantly make these efforts as we try to preserve the energy of the ascent that enables us to use the time and the means we have rationally, so that we can also use it during a descent. True, it is very hard, but at least we have to try. Thus we gradually detach ourselves from the vessel of receiving and move on to another kind of work, already living in the intention and not in the feeling.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/12

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Leave Your Ego On The Other Side Of The Machsom

Dr. Michael LaitmanA person comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah with a very personal question about the meaning of his life. He wants to know about himself and what he lives for, what is going on in the world around him, and what he has to do in order to understand what is going on and to manage his fate by himself. It is very hard for a person to connect the answers to these questions, which are so personal and intimate and which come from his most internal point, with others.

It seems that one thing contradicts the other: On the one hand, there is my internal point in which I want to discover the secret of my life, and on the other hand, there is society and all of humanity.

I could accept the idea that I need to connect with nature, but it is hard to accept the fact that in order to do that I have to connect with some group of people and to be so strongly connected to them, a connection that I cannot bear, to feel that they are the dearest, closest, most beloved people to me.

I have to work on this above my feelings and my mind, above all my previous patterns. Of course, it seems very distant and unclear, but we must understand that it is thanks to this that the entrance to the spiritual world is revealed to me—it is through the love of others that is so distant, hateful, and opposite to everything that I want.

For me there is nothing more unpleasant and repulsive than the need to connect with others above my desire, to serve them, and at the same time, to know that all the reward will go to them and not to me, that they will have everything. I and my heart will also be with them! Here, where I am, there will only be my empty ego.

It is very hard to understand this, but by studying and working on ourselves we gradually begin to perceive this principle. There is an inner logic that is concealed in the one thing that is most hateful, distant, and senseless in our world, and this is what represents the spiritual world for us. Through it, through the opening that suddenly appears in the wall, we can go through the Machsom (barrier) that separates the spiritual world from this world.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/12, Writings of Rabash

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The Point Where The Hearts Connect

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt takes a very long time until, against all the desires and the rejections, a person can convince himself that it is essential to establish a relationship with the friends. It takes a very long time until he clarifies all this and convinces himself, after many ascents and descents.

Gradually by learning from all the states and actions he has been through, by checking himself, he begins to understand what is good and what is bad for him. First he thought that it was good when he had new feelings, understood and felt more, and thought he was respected and powerful. Now he gradually begins to understand that all these pleasant feelings do not indicate his spiritual advancement at all. On the contrary, they indicate that a person is drowning more and more deeply into his ego, into the desire to receive, the matter of creation.

First a person thinks that advancement depends on studying the theory, on knowing the material. He goes through the books wanting to understand them, believing that by that he will be able to approach the goal. Then he rushes to disseminate this knowledge, thus hoping to get a reward for his efforts. He tries to break through in different directions by revolving around one central point: love for the other.

He reaches it only when he has no other choice, and is in total despair of attaining anything by himself. As a result of all these actions the Light illuminates him, and he begins to understand and to feel that the entrance to the spiritual world opens only where his heart connects with the heart of the friend.

Through this point of connection, where the hearts come in contact, I exit my heart and penetrate the heart of the friend, so that in the heart of the friend I will discover my spiritual world. This is what each of us does with relation to the friends.

It takes a long time to do this, since it has to be in the heart and not in the mind. The mind becomes only an external tool. Thus a person advances in the right direction and discovers the most distant and hateful state of all the states in this world.

Previously he couldn’t even imagine that this is the goal of life. But this is what he has to reach, so that the goal of his life will be the connection of the hearts of all the people in this world into one heart.

We have to be patient with ourselves and with the friends that go through different external states. Everyone needs his own time and form of development until he finally discovers that there is no other work but the love of friends.

The more you take your time in this process, the more you succeed. People who think that they can start this work immediately usually burn out quickly. This recognition requires an adaptation period, a time for all the other types of work to “dry up” so that from all his experience and his efforts a person will feel despair. Then, with the help of the Light that Reforms he will understand and feel that nothing will help him except connection. This is when his work begins in the right place.

Since we are connected in one general network with all the people in the world, we pass on this feeling and this understanding to everyone. Thus the world begins to talk about the need for stronger connections among people, which can save humanity. The more we work on ourselves and the greater efforts we make, the more Light we will draw upon ourselves according to the law of equivalence of form that also pours into the external vessels, to all of humanity and so this idea reaches everyone.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/12, Writings of Rabash

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Bestowal Should Become Fashionable

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is clear that we were created so that we are only capable of worrying about our own good and we have no drive to act altruistically. In all the next 125 levels we increasingly discover this truth lurking in our ego, which totally controls us.

The only way to break away from it is with the help of the Light that Reform, that raises us from the egoistic intention to the intention of bestowal. We remain with the same desire to enjoy, but its intention changes.

This is only possible under the influence of the Light. When the Light shines on the desire, it holds on to the intention to bestow. The moment the Light stops influencing the desire the enjoy, it immediately returns to the intention of for its own good. It all depends only on the intensity of the Light that influences the desire.

It turns out that all our life depends on how much the Reforming Light influences us. This is why we have to summon its greatest influence upon us. In order to do that, we need a deficiency, a desire. Where do we find it?

For that there is a mutual inclusion. After all, none of us has a great desire to achieve bestowal: We don’t understand it and don’t see any benefit in it. So I have to incorporate in the group, in the right environment, which impresses me and tells me about the greatness of bestowal.

It doesn’t matter if the others don’t know what they are talking about; I am impressed by them since that’s how I am built. If I place myself under the influence of the environment that acts out bestowal, even artificially, as a game, it impresses me, and I begin to want to bestow! After all, it is the environment that has inserted the idea that it is a great, valuable attribute in me.

It’s like fashion that is advertised on all channels with lots of publicity, colorfully with famous actors taking part in the campaign, who tell me how important it is to have those products. Eventually I want to buy what they want to sell, although none of the actors have even thought of buying these products themselves, and the ones who hired their services simply want to make a profit. They all work only in order to confuse me and eventually they succeed: I go out and buy what they advertise.

We need the same thing, but we should organize this game by ourselves. We have to increase the importance of bestowal and to convince ourselves that it is good to bestow! Everyone must sell this merchandise to others.

We are first incorporated in each other’s desires and everyone acquires a desire to reach bestowal. Second, we work together building our environment so that it will provide each of us with the greatness of bestowal.

Eventually I receive an internal desire to bestow and so does the environment, the group that inserts the importance of this attribute in me. This is why I want it! Everyone acts as if he has ascended and is in bestowal and is attracted to it. I am impressed by that and want to attain the same thing.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/12, Writings of Rabash

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Stability Of The Closed System

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You are saying that the integral community is a closed system. From the courses on Cybernetics and Systems Organization we remember that a closed system is usually very unstable. A system is typically considered stable when it is open and free. Can this analogy be applied towards the integral community?

Answer: In this world, closed systems are unstable since they are under the influence of external factors. They have to be organized in a way that allows them to connect with external influences, neutralize them, maintain reciprocal connections, and interact with them one way or another. In other words, a living system cannot be confined to itself. It continues developing due to the impact of the environment to which it adapts to the best of its ability. That’s its advantage: Its environment expands, etc.

In the system that we are talking about, a person has to be constantly connected with his society; he has to widen his inclusion into his society and vice versa, of his society into him. So, it’s not about a closed system, but rather about a system that is constantly expanding. It’s simply that its growth and gradual development only happen to the degree of its ability to preserve its internal integration.

In all other aspects, all the system ever does is constantly prepare itself to even greater connections with the environment.
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From a TV Program: “Integral World: Formula of an Integral Society” 7/3/12

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