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If the spiritual path were felt as pleasant and beneficial to our nature, our egoism, who would reject it? The entire world would run to us to study and sit at the desk. Everyone would come if he felt joy and sweetness in this.
No one would refuse such a tempting opportunity to reveal the future before him and obtain all the knowledge. Our ego would have pushed us forward, pulled us, not giving us a moment of rest. Envy, lust, and ambition would be burning in a person, promising him all sorts of fulfillment in this world and the upper world, the Garden of Eden. All this would have inspired and attracted him more and more.
Of course, this is not so, and it is difficult for us to understand and impossible to agree that all of reality, except ourselves, is opposite of what we see. It is full of contentment and pleasure, the revelation of the upper force. All this is revealed to the extent a person acquires the property of bestowal.
It is impossible to achieve spiritual fulfillment, the degree of the Creator, in any other way. So, true management is hidden behind its opposite form, and we are not able to appreciate it, to understand and taste what the intention to bestow means. We do not have the tools to enjoy bestowal.
Please give to anyone! However, you will not feel any pleasure from it because your desires are opposite. And only one in whom the spark was lit in the darkness of egoism, forcing him to seek bestowal, and one who cares about that spark, trying to increase it through studies and the environment—advances. Indeed, there are few chosen ones, of all the thousands.
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From the 1st part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/02/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”
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Question: What turns all our prayers into one prayer? How can we ask for the same thing together?
Answer: In order to do that we have to clarify time after time that it is impossible to raise a prayer alone. Such a prayer is not accepted.
Our goal is that the desire to receive will come together into one whole with one intention, like it was before. There was wholeness until the shattering inserted the intention to bestow into every grain of the desire to receive. Now this shattered intention is under the domination of the ego, but by that there is a connection between the two desires—the desire to receive and the desire to bestow, as if they were mixed and they can be together.
But this connection brings up the question: How should we work? How should we clarify things if we take into account that the desires are in you? Since you have to process your “private” part. The correction is not when the desire to bestow controls the desire to receive, but when after the shattering, the desires to receive are connect by the desires to bestow.
We are inclined to work individually: “I am willing to do whatever the Creator requires of me.” If He wants me to bestow, I will bestow; if He wants me to adhere to Him, I will adhere. I am ready for anything in my private vessels, “Just tell me what I have to do.” But to connect with others by the attributes of bestowal that you inherited during the shattering—no way.
In the meantime, the Creator enjoys your action that is aimed at connection. Because then you are using His power, and instead of hating others you love them. By that you develop yourself towards the force of love, by wanting to resemble the Creator, although you seem to have no relations with Him. You intend to bring Him contentment eventually, but the action itself is fulfilled among us; your unity with the friends is a pleasure for the Creator.
We are made of desires to receive that want to be filled, and also of desires to bestow that are looking for a chance to make a profit at the expense of bestowal upon others, to use others in a more cunning way. You have to turn all this around, in order to connect to others, “as one man in one heart.” If you connect with the friends in order to bring the Creator contentment, and if at the same time you become like Him in your desire to receive, then you are bringing Him contentment by that and thus achieve what is desirable.
The child He created and prepared finally wants to resemble Him, to be like his father; he wants to be independent, to resemble Him in his actions. You cannot and you do not need to do anything but bringing Him this pleasure—growing by the connection with others.
[94430]
From the 2nd part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/30/12, The Zohar
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Question: How should I make sure that the study does not become a “potion of death” for me?
Answer: We have to reach the state in which the study becomes a “potion of death.” In order to do that, I have to discover that I am immersed in my ego and that I hate everyone including the Creator. I see that I don’t want to connect with anyone and to bestow upon anyone. But I know that this is the goal of creation and I have to attain it. This means that I already discover two lines that contradict each other.
Along with my inner understanding of the necessity to reach bestowal, I discover that my nature is opposite from it. Then I discover that it is the “potion of death.” I have to find out that receiving for myself and using others are deadly for me.
I look at the friends’ faces and understand that I want to use them all: I want to be more clever than all of them, more beautiful, more strong, and more successful.
If my approach to each of them weren’t like that, I wouldn’t feel and see that anyone exists at all. I wouldn’t discern him in my sensory organs, since behind my sight there is my ego, and if I don’t intend to use a person for my benefit, I don’t see him at all. He doesn’t exist for me!
So it is a high level if I discover that I am in a state of Lo Lishma (not for Her name) and that I want to use everyone, but understand that it is the “potion of death,” which means the opposite of what it should be. After all, I want the truth, but I exist within this lie. It is a result of a great Light that comes to a man and illuminates on him showing him the real corrupt state he is in and enables him to understand it.
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From the 1st part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/30/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”
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Question: What do you mean, “Kabbalists passed the Light to people”? After all, they just changed their perception.
Answer: Kabbalists are the people who cross the Machsom, integrate in the upper system of management, and by their desires to become corrected, bring their activity to this system.
We study this in the system of the upper worlds, which is in a passive state and works as though idling; it has only the Light of Hassadim. And when our corrected egoistic properties become integrated into it, then the Light of Hochma appears there and the system begins to work. As if you add gas, and the engine starts working, not idling; it’s the same thing here.
That is why the Kabbalists who have corrected themselves, being parts of the entire system, both ours and the upper one, added their Light to this system. They added the Light of Hochma on their corrected egoistic desires, and thus the entire system already works on different revolutions. That is, it is capable of accepting us, processing us, and including us into itself; this is their accomplishment.
We are acting today in the same way. Correcting ourselves, we in general do the same for the future generations that follow us. Thus gradually, everyone follows one another.
Therefore, the correction of the world occurs from lighter egoistic qualities to the heavier ones. And people who will come to Kabbalah in a few years to correct themselves will be much more egoistic than we are, but we will prepare the ground for them by drawing the Light into the system of the worlds, which without us would have worked only on the Light of Hassadim, that is, it would have been in the small state (in the state of “Katnut”).
[94410]
From a Virtual Lesson 11/18/12
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In the News (from DailyMail): “New research has shown how positive social relationships in childhood and adolescence are key to adult well-being, while academic achievement has little effect.
“Scientists do not know much about how aspects of childhood and adolescent development – such as academic and social-emotional function – affect adult well-being.
“They define well-being as a mixture of sense of coherence, positive coping strategies, social engagement and self-perceived strengths. …
“Results showed there is a strong pathway from child and teen social connectedness to adult well-being – showing the significance of positive social relationships over the lifespan to adulthood.”
My Comment: Happiness is in connection with the environment, in harmony with the world. Who needs research! The world must change, or rather we change it, and we will become happy, we and not those who dictate us today from what we have to be happy…
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Question: In the article “The Peace,” Baal HaSulam brings a quote from Isaiah: “And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them.” When this time comes, who will it be harder for, for the wolf to deal with the lamb or for the lamb to deal with the wolf?
Answer: There is a wolf and a lamb in each of us, a desire to receive and a desire to bestow, the desire to bestow is called “a lamb,” and the desire to receive is called “a wolf.” They cannot live together, for lack of mutual agreement. The wolf knows that it can fill himself only by the lamb, and the lamb is afraid that the wolf might eat him. But, on the other hand, the wolf knows that it cannot live without the lamb, and the lamb knows that without the wolf it will not be able to advance and will always remain a lamb.
So it turns out that they cannot exists without one another, and they can neither live with each other, so how can they find the balance between them. So how can the state of “the wolf shall dwell with the lamb exist? How can two opposite desires, a desire to receive and a desire to bestow, coexist?
This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah explains to us: how the wolf and the lamb accept one another and are incorporated in each other. When a person is neither in the desire to receive or the desire to bestow, he receives these two forces as two “angels” and combines them correctly thus drawing the image of the Creator. This is why the Creator is called Bo-re (“Bo-reh,” “Come and see” in Hebrew). This image is made of the force of receiving and the force of bestowal.
Then, and a little boy shall lead them. Which means that the human in me feels that he is little and at the same time organizes everything by constantly building himself and the world around him by the right combination of the two forces, the wolf and the lamb; the middle line is determined between the two lines, the right and the left, on different levels of thickness, and “a little boy” manages this whole combination.
[94400]
From the 4th part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/30/12, “The Peace”
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If the upper Providence were revealed to us, then all the people in the world would become absolute righteous. They would be forced to obey the law of bestowal, which means that they would be compelled to be righteous and not from their freewill.
This is what would happen if the Creator were revealed to us. We are all waiting for Him to be revealed, but we would immediately lose our freewill. We would be like animals that blindly perform all of nature’s orders, just as we are forced to obey our egoistic nature now. We would carry out the orders of the nature of bestowal in the same way. If there is a law of nature, I obey it like a machine.
So we shouldn’t expect the Creator to be revealed to us before we are independent and have the force of the Masach (screen). Then we will be able to receive His revelation by the Returning Light, by rejecting the pleasure. Until then, the revelation will not be in our favor, of course, since it would force us to be become sacred animals. We have to rise above this level in order to become human beings.
Therefore, the Creator is revealed only to the extent that a person remains independent. Now we are managed by the egoistic intention and obey our ego. Then the point in the heart awakens in us, and we begin to struggle against that dominance, organizing a group that will be on the side of this new force, the point in the heart.
To the extent that I do that, I increase the importance of bestowal in my eyes, and the Light influences me according to my efforts. This exertion operates like my prayer (MAN), and the Light that Reforms comes in response to it and changes me.
To the extent that I have performed such a restriction, the Creator can already be revealed.
[94383]
From the 1st part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”
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As a rule, only people with a high level of egoism study Kabbalah. Other than that, nothing fulfills them. Science, technologies, arts, family relationships, jobs, hobbies of any kind, lots of money…nothing brings them contentment. They are torn apart by one question: What is the meaning of life?
They don’t believe in religion since they have already exceeded this developmental stage and lost the ability to blindly follow any trends. They don’t see any value in this world since they regard everything around them as a regular “animal” existence and nothing more than that.
Naturally, they don’t have a desire to hug everybody, dance, or do any childish things like “sitting in a circle, drinking and eating together, singing songs.” They consider it weird and odd, and they are right.
Their egoism is above average. Thus, they strive to reveal the upper; however, they are forced to behave “immaturely” and childishly. Unfortunately, nothing can be done about it.
They join a group that is already in the process of advancement and has more or less revealed and understood the methodology of growth. They enter a group that feels, recognizes and acknowledges (at least studies) the necessity to bond in order to discover the properties of the upper world through the connection among friends. This is because the qualities of the upper realm can only be revealed in unity.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/6/12, Lesson 4
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Question: Recently you said that when you studied with Rabash you would hear the lesson you recorded three times a day. Do you recommend your students do the same if possible?
Answer: At least once.
Question: Also, for those who participate in the workshops, is it be worthwhile to revisit this group action and listen to the recording from the focus group if time permits?
Answer: No.
Question: “Dear Mr Laitman,
After taking several BB courses and reading your blog for more than two years, I have this question:
Why do you always say: “I do not think so…. I think this will not happen…. I think this is not the right way…. I think that the Creator will not accept this….. Among so many thoughts inside you, is there any room left for knowing?”
Answer: Everything comes from the knowledge of Nature, the Creator; this is true knowledge.
Question: Professor, I have doubts. You are a scientist, right?! You follow an empirical path. Is this particular way of disseminating the science of Kabbalah your scientific inquiry? The question itself is wider, but this is its thesis. I’ll accept an answer-thesis.
Answer: What does not match what is said in our sources?
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