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Beyond Time

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Who created the Creator?

Answer: We exist in a world that has a beginning, an end, time, limits, and expansion, that is to say, changes. And the spiritual world, even its lowest level, is wholeness. Wholeness cannot be changed; it cannot be that something whole has a beginning and an end. Therefore, the question about what happens in the spiritual world, to say nothing of the Creator, is illogical. For you see, nothing changes there.

Everything changes in our world only, and it is changed only from the first point to the last point, from the infinite state in which we are like an embryo, to that state in the infinite world in which we are completely corrected. In the entire spiritual transformation only the smallest fragment on this way—our world—undergoes changes. And there are no changes in all the rest; there reigns eternity and wholeness, time is absent.

Physicists and psychologists have already spoken about this. Therefore, there is no reason to discuss who created the Creator, was there something before Him or not.

I hope that in the near future we will make the necessary effort and you will feel what “beyond time” is that we learn about in The Book of Zohar in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”. This was described more than two thousand years ago. Already then, the Kabbalists wrote openly that time doesn’t exist, that the spiritual world is found beyond time, and that the current comprehension of our reality is false. Essentially, the world is found within a “matrix,” in a completely different dimension, where there is no time, space and movement.

That which seems to me as outside of me is essentially found within me. We will grow and will see all this.
[103340]
From the Meal before the European Convention in Germany 3/23/13

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In Order To Become A Grownup

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You spoke about our responsibility to the world.

Answer: In order to rise to the next level, we have to connect to pass on this model to the world. We cannot exist only for ourselves. It would mean that we are detached from the other levels. If we act only for ourselves, then we will stay in a state of smallness. There will be nothing more in it except what we understand and feel now.

In Order To Become A Grownup

In order to move on to the next state, we have to become grownups. We can become grownups in spirituality only in order to give birth to another and to fulfill the other. So if we unite in order to fulfill others, in order to pass on something from us to others, then we will receive the upper Light.

It isn’t just our obligation to the world. We need it, so that we will receive the revelation of the Creator, the revelation of the upper force, the system of the upper Providence, the entrance to the next level, to the next dimension. We will not receive and will not reveal anything if we don’t do it for others. We are a transfer system, each of us, the whole group, all of us together.
[103404]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 1

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To Ask Means To Desire

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What do you mean by the word “to ask” when you say that “we need to ask to rise to the next level?” Is it a request that pragmatic requests stem from?

Answer: To ask means to desire.

Of course, we are all pragmatic, and we all want everything only for ourselves. I want to connect with everyone only for myself. I want to connect with Europe, and then with the whole world, only for myself. I want to enter the upper world. Even if the inclination that everyone should feel good awakens in us, it is also egoistic.

When the Light comes, it will correct us and show us in the united desire that we have to be different. It will make us like that, something which we cannot do by ourselves. Unless the Light corrects me, I remain the way I am, and I don’t need to conceal this from myself.
[103397]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 1

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Who Is Destroying The Global Economy?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: 10 -12 years ago, when we started dealing with the wisdom of Kabbalah, there were very few groups, and there were very few problems in the world. Now there are many groups and many more problems. Are they interconnected? Or is it because we are uniting that we destroy the global economy?

Answer: No, we are not destroying the global economy. The point is that the economy is being destroyed specifically because the world doesn’t know how to act, and we see it now.

We see how people who have studied so much, who know so much about our world, about the economy, about finances, who control everything, have simply raised their hands and do nothing. They cannot do anything because the system has changed! The world is moving on to another network of connections and the previous network in which they knew which strings to pull and what to do doesn’t work anymore.

They don’t know what to do next so everything remains the way it is. No one is fighting the crisis! Everything goes on the way it has been. If we need to print money, we print it. We have a debt of 15 billion euro, let it be 30 or 100 billion. So what? There is nowhere to run to. Now the rate of unemployment is 10%, it will be 50%. How will we feed the unemployed? Never mind, we will feed them because it is easy to feed the whole world today. This is how everything is solved.

Why? Because no one has any solution to the problems. The family is falling apart, let it be destroyed, what can we do? The number of senior citizens is growing more rapidly than the number of people who work, so what, never mind. This means that everything is neglected, and no one is fighting anything. The fact that different leaders appear before us is simply a game, a theater. In any case, everyone knows that we don’t know what to do, and so we sit idly, not even intending to do anything! This is the best possible solution.

So we are not destroying the economy. On the contrary, we have to show the world that we have to connect, but not economically. Economically we are also connected in a terrible way. See what is happening is Cyprus now! This is only a small example of how mutually connected we are.

We have to show the world how to start our mutual cooperation correctly. It is not on the economic level, but only on the level of the integral education and nothing more than that! So let’s get started.
[103394]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 1

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Women’s Desire Leads

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You have often said that a man does what a woman wants, whether he wants to or not. Do men globally influence the desire of women?

Answer: The female desire is the desire to receive, and the male desire is the desire to bestow. The male desire and the female desire exist in each of us, and we also know that according to our chromosomes.

Therefore, it is natural that the men’s groups and the women’s groups are also divided into the male and female parts. In every group the desire to receive and the desire to bestow are revealed in a different manner and we have to use them correctly.

Women are more organized, more dedicated, and committed than men. They constitute the foundation of our world. A man, however, carries out the woman’s desire. If we allow the women in the group to have a greater influence in the group, then I am sure that the groups will be more united, more serious, and more purposeful.
[103391]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 1

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We Overvalue Everything

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from PsyBlog): “No matter what it is—a pair of jeans, a car or even a house—in that moment when an object becomes your property, it undergoes a transformation.

“Because you chose it and you associate it with yourself, its value is immediately increased. If someone offers to buy it from you, the chances are you want to charge much more than they are prepared to pay.

“That is a cognitive bias called ‘the endowment effect.’

“It’s the reason that some people have lofts, garages and storage spaces full of junk with which they cannot bear to be parted. Once you own something, you tend to set its financial value way higher than other people do.

“When tested experimentally the endowment effect can be surprisingly strong. One study found that owners of tickets for a basketball match overvalued them by a factor of 14. In other words people wanted 14 times more than others were prepared to pay. However, this is a particularly high one and the ratio will vary depending on what it is.

“The endowment effect is particularly strong for things that are very personal and easy to associate with the self, like a piece of jewelry from your partner. Similarly we also overvalue things we’ve had for a long time.”

My Comment: Such is the effect of our egoism. Loss is felt more painfully than a lost opportunity of an acquisition of equivalent value because egoism includes a thing in “its” possession, and “one’s own” has more value than “outside of oneself.”
[103186]

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Doomed To Extinction?

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday I comprehend the picture of reality in the will to receive, and as a result of this I feel tired all the time and don’t want to open the windows of my perception wider; and there are those who prefer to close them completely. I limit myself all the time because my desire is very small, very narrow.

We build all kinds of devices that expand our view of the world: telescopes, microscopes, radio receivers, and we discover a reality that is much richer than that reality that we feel on our own. But we try to contract and even limit this segment of reality found within the range of our vision.

In the end, I become tired and closed until I die. I die because I agree with death and want to contract my instruments of perception. The picture becomes repulsive to me and gradually I fade together with the fading of my life. This is what happens with the will to receive.

On the other hand, with the will to bestow, which I build above the will to receive, I open myself and discover a reality that is found outside of me, outside the will to receive. This is an eternal reality, and it begins to supply me with forces of vitality. Now, even though my body will die in a natural manner, I already live in another “region” that is found beyond time and space. And there I receive the Light that streams from everywhere.

In our world we move from place to place where we see a kind of reality in that. But if I were to move close to the speed of light, then as a result of a change in the perception of space, I would see the reality that surrounds me from all sides. And the problem here is not my vision; rather the light itself seemingly reaches me in a form like this. In accordance with this, I emerge from a “linear” comprehension and enter into a “circular” one in the Surrounding Light (OM).

Doomed To Extinction?

We contract time precisely this way. For with this, distance and time are “zeroed,” and I don’t just receive the Light from all sides, rather I begin to perceive all of the reality existing in circles; I rise above time. Now it no longer exists for me; it simply cannot exist. There are no more spaces between “today” and “tomorrow,” no spaces between two moments. I receive everything equally from all directions, everything is balanced, mutually nullified, and I am found everywhere all the time in one integrated whole, in the unified reality of creation.
[103240]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar

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At The Forefront Of The Stage Of History

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If there is no desire for spirituality, how can we awaken it?

Answer: We are in a state that we either awaken ourselves to the spiritual advancement or the advancement awakens us. Throughout history, from the Big Bang that began the universe until today, we have developed by the force of nature that pushed us forward by sufferings. This is called evolution. Every time, having no choice, we left the current state and moved on to the next state that seemed better. We developed in the better state until we began to feel that it wasn’t so good anymore and moved on to the next state that seemed even better.

Unless we feel that our current state is unbearable, we won’t leave it since our ego aspires for rest. Why should I change something if I feel good? If my arm feels comfortable now I will not move it, but if I feel that another position is better and here it is not so comfortable, then these forces move me.

This means that I never move of my own will, and there are always forces that influence and operate me. What are these forces? The arm as part of the animal body feels bad here and that it would feel better if it moves a little and so it moves.

It’s the same with everything in life. It isn’t any different from the way the wind blows: there is pressure in one place and a deficiency in another, a vacuum, and so the air masses move from place to place. There must always be two forces: one that pushes and one that pulls.

This is how it always been in the evolution of human society that has been through many transformations from one state to another: The negative force pushed it from behind and the positive force pulled it from the front, a hope for something good.

Now we are in a very special state. How is it different from all the other states?

It used to be that there was state one (1) and state two (2). In the second state I discovered a plus (+) and in the first state a minus (-). In the first state the rejecting force operated on me and in the second state the pulling force. I moved from one state to the other by these two forces. It’s natural evolution without freewill.

At The Forefront Of The Stage Of History
The state I am in now is different since I have freewill. In the current state I discover a very big minus (-), but I don’t discover the negative force, it hardly pushes me forward. Then a big question arises (?): What is the state of freewill? How can I be guided here, know which way to go, what to do, and what will become of me? It’s only with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

At The Forefront Of The Stage Of History/center>
Otherwise, it’s impossible to understand what we should do, since in all the previous states we went from one human evolutionary level to the next, but now we have to move from a human level to a divine, spiritual level. Therefore, we cannot grasp how to advance and are actually in the dark. This is the whole problem.

At The Forefront Of The Stage Of History
So on the one hand, it is freewill, since it isn’t the animal body that dictates where I should move. I feel helpless and the choice is actually above reason.

So there is nothing we can do without the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah. Here the nation of Israel has to fulfill its mission and this is why we are in such a special dangerous state. Now we come to the forefront of the stage of history and although we were always “watched closely,” now it’s more than ever before.
[103105]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar

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What To Look For In The Assembly Of Friends

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, “What to Look for in the Assembly of Friends”: It is the same with love of friends. It is a great effort when one should judge the friends to a scale of merit, and not everyone is ready for it.

Sometimes, it is even worse. At times, a person sees that his friend is disrespectful toward him. Even worse, he heard a slanderous rumor, meaning he heard from a friend that that friend, who is called so and so, said about him things that are not nice for friends to say about each other. Now he has to subdue himself and judge him to a scale of merit. This, indeed, is a great effort… However, if that person slanders him, where will his friend muster the strength to love him? He knows for certain that he hates him, or he would not be slandering him, so what is the point in subduing himself and judging him to a scale of merit?

The answer is that love of friends that is built on the basis of love of others, by which they can achieve the love of the Creator, is the opposite of what is normally considered love of friends. In other words, love of others does not mean that the friends will love me. Rather, it is I who must love the friends. For this reason, it makes no difference if the friend is slandering him and must certainly hate him. Instead, a person who wishes to acquire love of others, that person needs the correction of loving the other.

Therefore, when a person makes the effort and judges him to a scale of merit, it is a Segula [remedy/power/virtue], whereby the toil that a person makes, which is called “an awakening from below,” he is given strength from above to be able to love all the friends without exception.

This is a difficult question. The attitude of an individual toward society has different aspects. First, I must see the group in a perfect state at the end of correction and understand that “He who faults another does so through his own flaws.” So, I must see the friends as perfect, and, if I notice any flaws, it is a sign of my uncorrected attributes. I must constantly try to judge the friends to the scale of merit, and this shows me how I should correct myself and ask for the force of correction.

On the other hand, I must check what I can add to the society so that it will increase its influence on me—that it will lift my spirit, strengthen me, and make me feel secure. In order to do that, I need a critical perspective of the group so that I can see how it can be improved and where its wholeness is lacking. I constantly aspire to lift it, and, so, I must see it as imperfect at the moment so that I will have something to work on. I invest powers in the group so that it will grow strong and rise.

However, if you don’t refer to the attitude of an individual toward the society, but to the state of the society itself and its influence on all the friends, then the society must be strong enough to make everyone feel secure and keep each member on a certain height, to guide him and keep his spirit high so that he will not be able to fall. This is why we must see the true state of the society since we build it by ourselves, and we cannot settle for the idea that it is already in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) in a perfectly corrected state.

We must see how we can lift the society so that it will lift us. In order to do that, I must exit myself, be incorporated in the society, and make sure that the poison of slander will not poison it, but that only the greatness of the goal and love for all, without exception, will reside in it. Then, this feeling and this support will pass on to each of the friends and obligate them to love each other in the same way.

There are different nuances according to the type of society, and whether it is a society of beginners or of more advanced students, a society of women, of men, or a mixed society. In each case, there are special relationships, but the two basic conditions are a person’s attitude toward a society which is perfect and the attitude toward a society that needs to be lifted in order to radiate this perfection back on us. As always, there are two, opposite poles to everything.
[103100]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/13

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