Audio Version Of The Blog – 05.14.13

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What Is Happiness?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We are born to be happy; we strive for that. However, the system in which we live is egoistic. The “American dream” was overblown in our society. Essentially, it is unattainable since, in order to reach it, we must earn money. In order to earn money, we have to work and, at its root, work is slavery. In other words, we were turned into slaves to become “happy.” However, we are not happy.

Can humanity remove this build-up and be happy without it? How would you describe the state of happiness?

Answer: I think that happiness is feasible only when we reach balance. When people build correct mutual fusion with each other, when they feel they are in the right social environment, all problems will vanish. After our society establishes and promotes homeostasis, people will feel that they as if flow, are in a state of internal and external peace. This condition will instigate a state of bliss in them.

In other words, a sensation of happiness emerges not because we fulfill ourselves egoistically, without thinking about what’s next since besides each of us there are many other egoists who want to be happy at the expense of others.

The sensation of happiness emerges as a result of unity. It stems out of a sense of equilibrium, similar to a healthy organism that is alive when its organs function in balance. By the same token, human society must follow examples of nature and aspire to reach the same state. Then, we’ll realize what the goal of our life is. The sensation that we have while being in this state is happiness.
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From the TV Program “Medicine of the Future,” 4/7/2013

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A Rise In The Balloon Of Mutual Connection

A Rise In The Balloon Of Mutual ConnectionQuestion: How is it possible to explain to a person, who all his life has been centered on only himself, why he should be concerned for others? What kind of pleasure will he have when he worries about someone else, and will he be healthier as a result of that?

Answer: You answered your own question: It will make him healthier. He won’t buy health in any other way. He should try!

Why shouldn’t he try to practice? Does he have anything to lose? He will only gain by his acting in as if  he has concern for others. It doesn’t matter that he doesn’t believe in it. Let him play! Let’s agree to become children for a month.

Question: How is it possible to rise above the ego with the help of playing?

Answer: Under the influence of the environment. The environment needs to play, needs to show people how much it influences them. A person needs to subdue himself for the environment, to feel it as something higher than himself. He needs to constantly hear that the connection between him and his friends in his small society is the most important thing he has in his life. Together with that, they all cling to this connection as if to a balloon, which lifts them above and gives them the feeling of the upper life.
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From KabTV’s “The Medicine of the Future” 4/7/13

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Weekly Torah Portion – 05.14.13

The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion, Selected Excerpts

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A Glimmer Of Hope In The Prison Cell

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur ego has grown for many years until a spark suddenly awakened in it, a glimmer, a starting point of the perception of the upper world. When such a spark is ignited in a person, he begins to feel discomfort and worry. He feels that this world is not enough for him and that he needs something else: There is something else in this life above the corporeal existence, a more sublime goal.

He cannot go on living like everyone else anymore, and he yearns to understand the meaning of life, its essence, its basis. What is the inner force that manages him and what is the purpose of his life?

This spark undoubtedly exists in each of those who have gathered here in this convention since otherwise you wouldn’t yearn to come here. Yet, there are many people who come to study and check themselves when the spark in them is ignited. We have to make great efforts in order to fulfill it, and this is something for which they are not ready yet. In the meantime, the gap between the force of the ego that pulls a person into his own body and the force of the spark that pulls him out of his body, calling him to transcend, is very big.

A person’s ego is very heavy and it keeps the spark inside it as if in a prison cell. Therefore, such people surrender to their ego and agree to remain in this prison. They find different excuses, according to which they eventually leave the spiritual path since they must justify themselves. And thus, they leave.

Rabash says that there are sparks of the love of others in each of the friends; that is, there are anti-egoistic forces. The ego hates the others, and the force that is opposite the ego is called love of others. But one spark cannot ignite the Light of love, meaning to make me feel someone else’s desire as mine and fill it, just as I fill myself. In other words, I cannot exit myself and be incorporated in the other, which is called “love of others.”

Therefore, we gather in a group and agree to work and empower one another in order to collect all our sparks and, in the connection between them, discover the upper world.
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From a Talk on The Importance of Gathering 5/10/2013

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Succeed For The Common Good And Not At The Expense Of Others

Dr. Michael LaitmanA person can reach the general love for all of humanity, all of nature, and all of reality from the love of friends. Then, he sees that our world also takes on a form in which there are only attributes, where there is no matter, but only a force. This force is the only thing that operates in the world in its different variations.

There is no separate corporeal and spiritual world, but only one world. If a person looks at himself and at the entire world correctly, he understands that there is nothing that was created against him, that everything was created only for the benefit of the connection between us and the ascent to mutual bestowal, connection.

So from the love of friends we reach the love of the Creator, that is, the love of all of reality—the desire to bring the Creator contentment. To bestow upon the Creator means to bestow upon everyone. The term “together” stands for the Creator. A person serves all the created beings and the inner force that created them and enlivens them, and through them he bestows upon their Maker who exists in them.

Therefore, we see that the wisdom of Kabbalah is a very practical method. We can study it as a theory for many years and not advance at all. The main thing is the actual implementation, and it can be implemented only in the connection between us.

So, when we gather in these conventions, it allows us to connect and absorb the general spirit. The amount of people coming together helps us to reach a great intensity. They don’t necessarily have to be old students with great experience. The main thing is the general force when each one wants to exit himself and enter the other, to “pour” himself outward, and burst into their arms. Thus, he opens his perception to the world and begins to discover nature, regardless of his five physical senses.

There is a special quality in the connection between the friends: Since their thoughts and opinions are conveyed from one another thanks to their adhesion, everyone is incorporated in the forces of the other, in his attributes and his perspective. Thanks to the general incorporation, each one receives the power of the whole group.

Every individual is small and weak with limited powers. But everything is arranged so that if he is incorporated in the group, which wasn’t given to him by chance, he completes himself through it. This is enough in order to fully feel the whole spiritual world. None of us can feel spirituality, but through the connection, everyone can acquire it.

Of course, a person has a chance to acquire a great spiritual desire in a big group. It is easier to do so because it is easier to annul oneself before a big society when many people influence a person. We must pressure only a little, and it can happen. We will be able to transcend ourselves and attain the upper reality in the incorporation between us. I do hope that we will fulfill that and together discover the true reality in which we are living.

It isn’t mysticism but a science, a higher psychology. By revealing the upper world, we will discover the upper laws of nature that modern physics only now is getting close to. Modern physics is on the borderline of matter, where the corporeal laws disappear, and this is why physicists cannot discover what is above time, motion, and place. We, however, will reveal all of this since our senses will be ready for that. Then, we will discover how we should behave correctly in our world and how to control our fate. We will have the key to success, not at the expense of others, but for the benefit of everyone!
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From a Talk on The Importance of Gathering 5/10/2013

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 05.14.13

Preparation to the Lesson

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Shamati #161 “The Matter of the Giving of the Torah”

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The Book of Zohar – Introduction

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Writings of Rabash Igrot,” Letter 41

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