There Are No Free Meals

Dr. Michael LaitmanAs our sages said, “…All is in deposit, and a fortress spreads over all of life. The store is open and the shopkeeper sells by deferred payment; the book is open and the hand writes. And all who wish to borrow may come and borrow, and the collectors return regularly, day-by-day, and collect from a person knowingly and unknowingly. And they have what to rely on…”

Question: Who are the “collectors?”

Answer: They are the forces that push me forward, but they still demand my personal exertion since otherwise I will have no desire for it. Everything revolves around the desire: whether it exists or not. Accordingly, I receive powers and a filling. The forces ignite the desire in me and the filling extinguishes it. So the collectors can work in both directions.

Question: Why were these forces given this name? I imagine it as some income tax collector…

Answer: It’s even worse than that. Suppose I enter a store and receive a basket of products that the owner registered on my account. Time passes and I don’t return, I don’t answer the phone, and then the owner sends some people to me to collect the debt.

The collectors actually serve me but on certain conditions. Actually it’s the same landlord who persistently asks me to pay the debt. In other words I have to exert myself and to make an effort for what I have received. After all, I asked to pay by credit for these products: “Give me power, give me health, give me energy, and then I will work and pay for everything. I will take part in the lessons, in the activities in the group, I will connect to the friends, I will do everything, just give me the powers to do so and then I will pay by the intention of in order to bestow.”

Question: So it only seems that the owner is not in the store.

Answer: Of course. There are some “lucky” people who live only on their immediate income and are free from any worries about the corporeal world. Great sums enter their account every month and they don’t do anything. Their life is simple; wealth doesn’t “drive them crazy” and they don’t feel that they need anything. It’s simply “Heaven,” and you can get whatever you want. When I look at such people, I see that they have no idea what a vacation is since their whole life is a vacation and they “float” above the ground.

So it only seems that they take goods from the store without any account. In fact there is a very great debt building up behind them, a debt that I wouldn’t wish myself. Since then the correction of the soul will be very…

Question: Still, on the outside it seems that everything is good for them.

Answer: Imagine that a thief manages to steal several million dollars and he spends it carelessly, but at the same time the police are tightening the rope around him; how will it all end? This is the reason that we bring integral education to the world and we are trying to explain to people that humanity is actually stealing from the earth. We mustn’t just deplete it of all its natural resources and do whatever we feel like. Nature is “round” and inseparable, and we mustn’t penetrate it without knowing its laws. Eventually we will have to pay the account. Today it’s very clear, we see that the time to pay the debt has come and in different areas, on different levels, and the cost will be blood…

In the meantime the threats are rapidly increasing and it’s integral education that will help us prevent disasters. It will explain to people that their debt is growing and they can recuperate like the people of Nineveh when Jonah the prophet was sent to them. He explains to them that the Creator will soon present them with the account and will demand the payment, and then they will reform.

First, having no choice, people understand that they have to change the relations between them and later their forced actions will evoke the Light that Reforms. Then they will feel that it’s worth it even without the Light and without any excuses.

If we succeed in spreading the method of integral correction, of mutual guarantee, the new perception of education, then everything will be different. If we don’t succeed, then it won’t. One way or the other, the whole world will unite into one whole and we will be in its center, or more accurately in the center of the “bomb” that may go off. If we don’t succeed everyone else will unite in order to eliminate us.

Question: So what can we do if we can’t count on a miracle?

Answer: Nothing, except for dissemination and prayer. We evoke people, they join us, and together we all finish the work. If you lack powers, turn to the Creator for help, after all, you are not asking for yourself any more, but for others.

Question: So what does our success depend on?

Answer: Only on the recognition of the importance of the mission that is before us. If according to my nature I cannot be a teacher, I will arrange and prepare the classrooms. If I am not eloquent, I will disseminate material on the street. There is always something one can do and its importance determines everything.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/07/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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