Audio Version Of The Blog – 01.05.13

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What’s Behind The Curtain

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In the article “Body and Soul” Baal HaSulam says that everything, whether it is concealed or revealed is in a person’s consciousness. What is hidden from me today will be revealed tomorrow. What is “concealed” from us now during the preparation phase?

Answer: First, it doesn’t refer to some abstract concept of the unknown, but a reality that actually exists but which we cannot study for the time being. I know that it exists and I know that it is hidden from me. In other words, it is as if the Creator is behind a “curtain” according to my calculations and all my experience.

It is also a kind of knowledge, but not a clear fact yet, for which I can testify and present to others. I have some elements, some proof, but the essence hasn’t yet been revealed. Baal HaSulam says in this article that the knowledge that is not fully part of our consciousness yet is “concealed.” He speaks about knowledge here and not about philosophy.

Experiments with the collider and particle accelerators, for example, enable physicists to come up with different theories about the structure of the micro cosmos. Its components are still unknown, but the data they have received allows them to come up with hypotheses and discuss these matters, since it is already clear: there is something behind this “curtain.” The facts may be a bit different than the theories and even opposite from the scientific hypotheses, but this approach is perfectly “legitimate.”

In our case, the “point in the heart” says to a person: “There is some force that controls everything, that encompasses everything, and that closes everything in one, and I want to discover it.” This desire already builds some kind of model of what we are looking for—the meaning of life, its source, its reasons, and its plan, “who is turning me around, who is managing me and everything around me?” A person guesses, he “senses” the Creator, and so he reaches the wisdom of Kabbalah, in order to get an answer to the question that has already been evoked in him. On the other hand, those who don’t have this question regard the wisdom of Kabbalah as mere speculation.

Later we will discover that the Creator is the force of connection, and that there is nothing but unity, and that it is through unity that all the other forces that make up our reality are revealed.

As for studying the unknown, we don’t examine the Creator but His actions. The wisdom of Kabbalah puts this principle very clearly: “From Your actions we shall know You.” We never speak about the Creator, since it is already an abstract form, and essence, which means something that it is unattainable. Our research refers to a form that is dressed in matter. This form is actually the Creator (Boreh) for us, literally “Come and see” (Bo – Reh). I am the matter, and the form that dresses in me is Him. I become increasingly more similar to the Creator and He is revealed in me, “dresses” in me.

Question: How do I study His actions?

Answer: On yourself. This is all our work. But first we have to receive His forms, His “fingerprints,” and prepare a place inside for it, correcting everything that needs to be corrected, and then receive the form of bestowal and pass on this attitude to those around you, to the friends. This is the form of the Creator that you study, and by that you study Him, which means that you attain what bestowal is, unity.

Question: But today I cannot attribute the Creator’s actions to Him.

Answer: In research a negative result is also a result. The negation in this case is the preparation for the revelation of the Creator. You reject Him and don’t accept His existence—that’s the way it should be. Everything is attained by its oppositeness.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/13, “Body and Soul”

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The Main Work Is Between Conventions

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What are the criteria for assessing the proper preparation for the convention?

Answer: The main criterion is that I feel the environment, that community that we are gradually creating, so that I feel that I am in it by getting out of myself. The most important thing is that I always try to be in this state.

Personally, I feel it when I am working with groups, giving lessons and workshops, and writing the blog, imagining my readers and trying to be with them. And this gradually creates a feeling when “I” become “We.”

Question: At a convention, such a concentration is felt because the entire world is in one action. How can we create this common field in the regular mode?

Answer: A convention is a convention, but the work itself is carried out not during the event but between conventions when a person can control himself and feel where he is, in what state, with what thought he falls asleep and gets up, etc. When waking up, the first thought is especially important. It says much, practically, what you were thinking about in your sleep, where you were.

We can achieve much by these concrete checks and goals. Moreover, conventions are intended only to fuel us, to make a breakthrough. In fact, the realization takes place between conventions.
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From the Virtual Lesson 12/30/12

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An Example Of Envy

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we give our friends the feeling that we care about them as a mother cares for her child?

Answer: You should show a person that you care and think about him. Send him a text message or e-mail showing interest about how he feels, whether he feels that you are thinking about him, etc. We need to show our concern for others. This example is contagious; then the friend will have to do the same. He will be ashamed that he is behind and is not involved in this.

Question: Wouldn’t this excessive concern stop a person’s development?

Answer: On the contrary, this excites him, annoys, focuses, and directs him to do some work.

When a person sees how his friends take care of him, then it gives him an example and awakens envy: Why isn’t he doing this?

If this happens in a regular, non-Kabbalistic group, then a person, so to speak, “washes his hands” and starts going with the flow. And we have the opposite situation. As it is written in Rabash’s articles, such actions awaken envy and set an example. That is why we have to show this quite clearly and induce a sense of caring in him.
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From the Virtual Lesson 12/30/12

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Women Will Succeed!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Women often find it difficult to act together with each other. How can we force ourselves to support our girlfriends, take care of the women’s group, and participate in the general women’s events when the very thought of connecting with each other is unbearable?

Answer: This is only at the beginning, especially for women because they are not used to connecting with each other. Every woman is on her own; she does not need to connect with others as long as she has a connection with a man.

But spiritual ascent requires a connection between women and their joint effect on the men. That is why the ultimate goal is to have them begin to unite; afterward they will start to feel that it is possible to rise above their animal prejudice and be together. They can do that. It is happening already; I feel it.

Our women’s organization is perhaps the only one in the world that can show realistically how women can unite above their individualistic nature.
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From the Virtual Lesson 12/30/12

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