Audio Version Of The Blog – 10.23.12

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The Professor Gives Exams Around The Clock

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Yesterday during the seminar, we really felt that we wanted to achieve the goal very much and were completely unable to do so. But then the aftertaste of despair remained: there are no count to these states.

Answer: True. It was what the sons of Israel felt in Egypt, a threat to remain forever under the rule of Pharaoh.

Question: In real life, if a person wants to achieve something, to learn something, he needs to pass the crucial exam. And he comes to the exam in despair because he cannot know everything.

Answer: Our examination is not based on knowledge. The task is not that you give the correct answers, but the fact of what you ask for.

Imagine that I am an examiner. Do not tell me about your positive and negative potential, accumulated during the training. Do not try to soften me with your confusion. You need to act differently here: If you really see that that there is no alternative, then bring the awareness of your own helplessness and the willingness to be changed. No more, just these two things: “I cannot” and “I have to,” and they both must be of equal strength.

So far, you haven’t obtained from the group either the sufficient demand or sufficient frustration. But they are opposite each other and depend on each other: If you do not crave the goal, you will not discover its unattainability. Both poles lack power so far. Yes, both of them have already emerged due to our workshops; however, the matter is how you fill the time between the workshops.

Question: And yet, in this world, there is a date of the exam, which I know in advance.

Answer: The time of the spiritual examination comes when you are able to pass it. Do you want it today? Please. Once you are ready, there is nothing that can prevent you.
[90918]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/12, Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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One Is Everything

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does the concept “One” mean?

Answer: “One” means that there is one form which governs and connects everyone together, unites and compliments all based on the infinite number of internal properties that are opposite one another in all possible senses.

Such a connection is called “One.” It points at the infinite number of the individual parts included in Him, their form of connection and everyone’s uniqueness in Him. All of these are included in the notion of One.

One includes the entire reality: When He was one whole, but then divided into many parts, and went through all corrections. Everything that has been attained during these corrections, all of these, is called One. This means that He includes absolutely everyone within Himself. He is not simply One, but rather He is One since everything is included within Him.
[90785]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/12, The Zohar

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Everyone Will Have To Go Through The Exile In Egypt

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the state of the exile in Egypt with regard to a person’s work in the group?

Answer: The state of the exile in Egypt doesn’t have to last a long time as it may seem by the way it is described, according to which it lasted 210 years and was supposed to last 400 years. If we advance in a good pace, we can process and clarify it very quickly.

Besides, a person or a group doesn’t have to reveal all the details of the process described in the Torah by getting into all the details of the story. This is impossible since it is a whole sea with different states that will be revealed to the fullest only at the end of correction.

So what we go through is some section of the general state of this exile as it is described with regard to the souls, which is enough for us. We however discover only a certain layer that is suitable for our souls.

So there is no need to panic while reading about the exile in Egypt and to see how every blow described there suits what we go through. Don’t think that all this has to hit one person and that everyone has to go through this on such a scale as our global ego interprets it.

In fact, the exile begins when we really want to connect and feel the interruptions. It is only from that moment that the exile begins. The first “seven years of satiety” end, and the “seven years of hunger” begin. We begin to feel them to some extent. We only have to make some efforts in order to discover the real necessity required in order to receive the Torah.

The evil inclination has to be revealed as an obstacle that stands in our way, as a “help against him,” which we must correct and attach. The necessity to work in the right and the left lines brings us to the revelation of the Creator, to the giving of the Torah, to the middle line.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/12, Writings of Rabash 

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All The Roads Back Are Blocked

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we get over the state of heaviness and fatigue that we find ourselves in lately which makes us fall asleep during the lessons? How can we wake up together and get out f this state as one global group by supporting one another?

Answer: This is the point of the exodus from Egypt, about which we have spoken so much, the point of the receiving of the Torah, the turning point, the birth. We know that a birth is accompanied by labor pains and that it is a dangerous state. At the moment of birth itself we feel the snake’s bite, the discovery of the heart of stone, because there is no other way we can be born.

The exodus from Egypt is called a “spiritual birth.” During that time the evil inclination has to be revealed and these are very dangerous states that keep us under great pressure, since otherwise we will not agree to escape from Egypt.

All these states are not so clear to a person yet. Imagine that it is a good state from which we break through to the spiritual world, to the upper world, that from this state we are born and ascend above the Machsom (barrier), above the border to the upper world. Therefore, it is the most tense state, the most dangerous state that can ever be in a person’s life. This is the state of his birth!

We always see a birth as a miracle, and to the last moment we are not sure whether it will go smoothly, although we have such modern medical equipment and we know about the process. Still, we never know what might happen and it is a very critical point.

The uniqueness of this point is that a person is under terrible pressure, and terrible fear. All his previous life has ended or is about to end. He doesn’t see his future life yet and doesn’t understand it, and it isn’t clear what it symbolizes, since in order to reach it he has to create an opening to the new world.

A person doesn’t understand how he can exist, since he has to “close what is open and open what is blocked,” just as it happens during the corporeal birth.

If we only yearn for the spiritual birth, we have to imagine this state in a very realistic way, as close to our understanding and feeling as possible, to the extent that we are ready to approach this state and to prepare ourselves to it.

The more we prepare ourselves for this state, the more we will advance towards it. This means that we need strong minds, physical strength, and good organization of all activities that enable us to go through the most difficult state that can ever be. All the roads back are blocked and there is nowhere to go ahead! Just like the escape from Egypt, when your path is suddenly blocked by the Red Sea and from behind Pharaoh’s troops are catching up with you and there is nowhere to hide.

There are different allegorical descriptions of the state of the spiritual birth and they all refer to pressure, difficulty, and threat. We have to approach them by ourselves and not to wait for some force to drag us or to push us in this direction. Otherwise we become lax and only look for how to best manage in order to stall. But we have to bring ourselves into these seemingly dangerous states.

If I understand and am conscious of what I do, I understand that it is only dangerous for my ego. It is pressing and unpleasant, but I approach it knowingly and evoke and summon the labor pains, the feeling of suffering, by myself. It turns out that it is another kind of pain, a sweet one.
[90737]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Crisis: The Affluent Have More Confidence In Money Than In People

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from ScienceDaily):Crises are said to bring people closer together. But a new study from UC Berkeley suggests that while the have-nots reach out to one another in times of trouble, the wealthy are more apt to find comfort in material possessions.

“’In times of uncertainty, we see a dramatic polarization, with the rich more focused on holding onto and attaining wealth and the poor spending more time with friends and loved ones,” said Paul Piff, a post-doctoral scholar in psychology at UC Berkeley and lead author of the paper published online in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. …
“’Given the very different forms of coping that we observe among the upper and lower classes, our research suggests that in times of economic uncertainty and social instability, disparities between the haves and the have-nots could grow ever wider,’ Piff said.”

My Comment: The crisis will continue with breaks until it equalize everyone. People will understand, as during disasters, that only kind relationships can save them. And, in addition, the connection between unity and good luck will be manifested more clearly.
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The World Is On The Verge Of Great Upheaval And Change

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Li Shenming, Vice President, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences): “In the coming years, America will become weaker and rely more on Europe, Japan and other countries. The world economy has entered a long period of recession. There are more poor and fewer wealthy people in the world.

“Along with the deepening of the global financial crisis, competition and conflict between the major powers will only increase in such areas as energy, food, finance, internet, and even disputes over land and water areas. The best choice for the Western world, led by the USA, is to find a partner to start a proxy war. We need to vigorously defend our own sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“The USA blind confidence aimed their attack at the two countries – Russia and China. Destroying China and splitting Russia, the West would have achieved his goal – world domination.

“With the deepening of the global financial crisis, there will be an eruption and escalation of conflicts on the ethnic, religious grounds, conflicts over sovereignty and economic interests. The world is on the verge of great upheaval, restructuring and change.”

My Comment: All that is true, except in the plan of Nature in the development of the world, the world is not run by people, though it does seem so to them. Humanity is just trying to avoid all sorts of unforeseen unpleasant events. But with the deepening of integral dependence, humanity will have no means to evade the attacks of nature, its forces directed at the correction of humankind.

There is a future for the one who will understand what is happening according to the plan of nature and will be able to actively participate in it. This will lead to the creation of the supreme governing body of the world whose members will know the laws of the upper management.
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If We Finally Want To Be Born

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere is a clear plan that we have to fulfill step by step. But we don’t actually hurry or do that since it is hard and unpleasant. It is much more pleasant to think that we are seemingly advancing and that everything is fine. We suffer a little since we don’t advance fast enough and that we receive too little fulfillment, but we cannot call this a state of spiritual birth yet.

We must realize that if we want to finally be born, we have to account for the fact that the state of the global group and the state of every individual is very tense, difficult and dangerous.

We can say the same thing about the people of Israel in the land of Israel, as Baal HaSulam warns us. He calls the people to connect in order to avoid suffering, and this really helps going through complicated and difficult situations more easily. It is like a birth taking place in a modern hospital, compared to a birth 100-500 years ago when many births ended with the death of the baby and of the mother too. Then a birth was a very dangerous experience, despite the fact that people were different and much closer to nature and there weren’t as many disruptions as today.

The more we sweeten this transition for people, no matter how much we work with them, they will still have to go through the difficult states in order to approach their spiritual birth. They will have to go through great pressures. With the help of Ahmadinejad, Obama, and other enemies who are generally called “Pharaoh,” we will advance.

But our group has to be like Moses with regard to the people, by explaining to them what is happening and why and what should be done about the situation. We have to explain to people that the blows don’t strike the attribute of Israel in us but the Pharaoh that is concealed in us. The blows hit the Egypt in us, Pharaoh, while Israel in us continues to live comfortably in the land of Goshen, lacking nothing.

The main thing is to understand that we will have to go through a very tight spot, a very dangerous and unpleasant state during our birth. Both the people of Israel and the whole world will have to go through it. Everyone will have to see themselves in a very dangerous situation, practically between life and death. It is impossible to be born without this! Without such pressure a person cannot detach himself from his ego and be born from one world into another.

Everyone will have to go through this critical point now; everyone is approaching it. It is as if we are advancing in a tube that is becoming narrower until it finally becomes a point. You have to go through this point so that your ego will remain here on this side. To the extent that you can connect with others, that you are ready to go in this direction, you penetrate through this tiny hole with your spark into the spiritual world.

We have to relate to this difficult state as to the most beautiful and desirable state. Here the influence of the environment is very important so that it will explain to each of us and to the whole world that “there is none else besides Him” and that all of providence comes from one source. So we have to see how the enemies of Israel like Ahmadinejad and Obama actually help us. It is like the saying that “Pharaoh brought the children of Israel closer to our Father in Heaven.” But this is only if we are the people of Israel and not Egypt. Then we begin to understand the process and to actively participate in it as we see that all the means to work with are before us.
[90731]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Diving Headfirst Toward The Spiritual World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We know that before birth the fetus turns with its head downward. What does this symbolize in the process of the group’s advancement towards the spiritual birth?

Answer: The spiritual embryo really does turn, and instead of having his head upward, he turns his head downward, as it is explained in The Study of the Ten Sefirot. Generally speaking, it is called that he changes his mind. All his values, “below reason” and “above reason,” everything in him turns and he sees what we call “I have seen an upside down world”—opposite values. The desire to bestow becomes more important for him than the desire to receive; this is the transition that takes place in him.

Then after the birth, he turns again with his head upward. It is only during the time of the birth that he is in such a state. He cannot leave this world without leaving all the opinions he has in his head. This is what the state of being with his head downward symbolizes.
[90728]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Future Bnei Baruch

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You speak about a qualitative connection. Can we hold a convention with 10-20 of your best students who will be the core and will serve as a model for everyone? Can we hold such a limited qualitative convention?

Answer: I want this group to be made of all my students, and I don’t want to bring out any one at the moment. We will see what to do in the future.

There may come a time when we will develop a serious management system of Bnei Baruch, and then we will have to divide the group into an internal and an external part, the more supportive administrative part that organizes things. Then we will reorganize.

I hope that towards the end of 2013 we will be so united around the globe that we will understand precisely how to connect internally and how to approach people in the world outside. Then we will already create an accurate structure of the general Bnei Baruch group all over the world: an internal ideological group and an administrative group that organizes things and deals with dissemination, etc. Then we will create the general structure, but not in the meantime.
[90662]
From a Virtual Lesson 10/14/12

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