A Down Payment That We Must Justify

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe world is divided into two parts with regard to spiritual ascent. One part is people in whom the point in the heart has already awakened (the yellow part in the drawing), and so they feel a yearning for spiritual ascent.

They are interested in the meaning of life, in the desire to attain their source directly.

A Down Payment We Must Justify
These people come to us. Some remain with us and some leave and return after a while.

Both are constantly shaken since without that, they cannot advance.

Just like a pump that pumps air from one place to another, just like a piston in a car, so do we advance in our movement forward, we are going back and forth, back and forth.

This doesn’t mean that we are going anywhere. We move a bit higher and a bit lower as we rise higher and higher.

Thus, we constantly move forward, we “scoop” up the ego from below, raise it, and correct it; scoop even deeper, raise and correct it. Thus, we advance gradually, as in a spiral, but this spiral gradually widens up and down, up and down.

A person who doesn’t descend has nothing to bring up; as we study in the wisdom of Kabbalah, there has been a shattering of the desire of the created being, and all the desires have dispersed in what are called the worlds of Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya, including our world.

So, all the people who have a point in the heart (Malchut of Atzilut) must descend and raise the vessel, and then descend again and bring up an even bigger vessel once again, and thus repeat this action over and over again.

A Down Payment We Must Justify
All this is all our Kelim (vessels), our desires. So, until the end of correction (complete Gmar Tikkun), there always will be the movement downward that begins and stops alternately and gradually returns to the place where the uncorrected Kelim (vessels) are, which means that there always will be a minus opposite the plus.

Thus, we draw the desires. We raise them up and correct them. We correct most of the desires that are below, without even knowing it.

Different changes occur in every person in the world, and we constantly are busy with correction.

All the changes, everything that takes place in this world and in every person happens only thanks to the descent downward and the ascent upward, a decent and an ascent.

Therefore, all the people in the world unconsciously work for the correction, whether they want to or not.

We are working consciously since we have the point in the heart that already belongs to the upper vessel. When we exit it, we begin our rounds down and up, down and up, constantly, like a spiral.

There is a great difference between the conscious work and the unconscious work. After all, those who work unconsciously experience pain. They are pushed forward by pressure from behind and don’t feel that they are advancing. They simply must move under the influence of different circumstances in life, the pain and the suffering.

We don’t. We try to do this consciously and much more effectively. After all, we try to add the positive force that will push us from the start to this negative vector, beyond the sufferings that push us from below like they push everyone else.

In order to advance with the help of the positive force, we must connect in a group. Besides, we need to study together and create in advance all the conditions in the group that exist in the upper world.

The group regulations, all the group laws, are the laws of the upper world that we are trying to fulfill at least to some extent while still in our egoism. We understand that it is all a game.

We only act as if we love one another and yearn for each other, for unity and connection. We play a game, and there is nothing to be ashamed of. Some people say, “If this isn’t true, I will not do it.” This is wrong. Look at kids. Playing is a very serious thing for them. When I try to form the spiritual world in my contact with others, it is a very serious matter.

To the extent that I yearn for that, I develop a new vector in me (the red arrow on the drawing), and begin to feel the attraction forward, not under the pressure from behind. I don’t wait for different circumstances to push me such as the crisis that pushes the world forward and like different personal problems that push each of us. I am equipped with the group’s power and it draws upon itself a great Light from above.

This great Light actually creates one spiritual structure of us, and, this time, it is real. When we all become one, we become equal to the Light since it is also one.

The Light enters us according to the connection of the attributes, the equivalence of form, and we receive the revelation of the upper world, the next state, the next level, the next dimension. This is the difference between the people who receive the desire to advance by themselves and the rest of humanity.

The first part (the part in yellow in figure 1) is us, the people with the point in the heart, while the other part (the lower) is the rest of the world.

These days, the interdependence of these two parts is revealed since the second part has unconsciously drawn into it and thus, unconsciously corrected many of its desires throughout human history.

People without a “point in the heart” have been through many different states throughout history and thus have reached the point where they connect to us today. We receive a movement upward, a pull upward, and they are very close to us, around us, and we are all in a crisis together. This is exactly the same crisis, the crisis of the absence of the Creator, the absence of the revelation of the Upper Providence. However, for us, this deficiency of the Upper Providence is a serious matter, and we are drawn forward, wanting to discover Him. For them, however, it is a very unpleasant push from behind since we see what condition the world is in today.

This is exactly the unique chance for all the people who feel the attraction toward the goal of creation, to the revelation of the Light in the vessel. Their advantage is that, if they work for the correction of the part of the world that has no connection with the Light, they will get the chance to come closer quickly to the Light since the Light passes through them to others.

In what way is each of us special? What special thing have we done in life? What special attributes do we have? There is nothing special about us, nor about me. We have received a point in the heart, a desire to reveal the Upper Light, as a precondition, as a down payment. If we work for the rest of humanity, the Upper Light certainly will be revealed to us so it will pass through us to all of humanity.

Thus, we can understand what the conditions are: “Love thy neighbor as thyself” and “as one man in one heart,” reaching the connection between us, and so on. These are the exact conditions for the revelation of the Light, for the correction of the vessels, but it is expressed in a different language.

Kabbalists in previous generations have adapted the wisdom of Kabbalah to their correction and described it in their books in order to prepare it for us so that we will be able to use it widely everywhere. Thus, their writings are all meant for us since in all the previous generations there were only a few Kabbalists, actually only a few dozen. The Ari, for example, a great Kabbalist of the 16th century, had only six or seven students. Later, in Padua, Italy, there was another great Kabbalist, Ramchal, who also had only a few students.

Today, thousands all over the world are interested in the wisdom of Kabbalah and they need it since, without it, their life is merely a corporeal life. In fact, I didn’t think there would be so many people who study Kabbalah, although a small group of ten to twenty people in relation to all of humanity.

Kabbalah is the wisdom of drawing the Light upon ourselves. In order to do that, we must learn the structure of the upper world and how all its parts are arranged, how the egoistic desires rise to the correction of Malchut of Atzilut and how they incorporate and later rise to the Partzufim of YESHSUT, Abba ve Ima, Arich Anpin, Atik, and thus all the way to the world of Ein Sof.

However, it is for us. We need the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to draw the Upper Light, and mutually work with it, turn to it, and receive from it.

The masses don’t need the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to receive the Upper Light since they don’t work mutually with the Light, but they still must unite. They must understand that it is in a state of unity that they will get rid of all their problems that pressure them on all sides. They only need to know one thing: We will get rid of all our problems, of all the negative states (-) if we are united.

The wisdom that is meant for the masses is called integral education. It speaks about the need for unity so that the force that neutralizes all the negative effects will be revealed in it. Therefore, the masses also need a group, but a group of a different status, a different form, a different style, a different yearning—simply, unity of the people.

This will happen when they understand that, if they unite, they will feel better, and all the different negative effects will disappear. This is the difference between the wisdom of Kabbalah and integral education.

On the whole, these are two parts of the same wisdom of unity of all the people on earth; they speak about the same thing. Only the people who can draw the Upper Light and mutually work with it because they have a point in the heart can explain the structure, the mutual work, the upper world, the levels by which their demand for the Light rises and the Light descends. They need this in order to spur the Upper Light upon themselves.

Others don’t need that. They simply need to know that it is only by yearning for unity that they will acquire peace and a good life. This is what they feel in their desires. Eventually, both will reach the same state, as all the desires that are under the Parsa rise, which means that they are incorporated in the Light that is above the Parsa (figure 2).

This is our future existence, our next dimension, the upper world. Humanity thus is divided into two parts, and each part has its own method of connection.

For one part, it is the method of unity that increases the yearning upward in order to draw the Upper Light and clearly discover the Upper Light, the Creator. The other part of humanity that simply yearns for a better life and to escape sufferings should be given a method of unity that it can fulfill so that the two parts will reach one whole.

So, unity, accepting the integral method and fulfilling it, is very important for the world today. We must understand how much humanity needs it and disseminate it, the highlights of the parts of the wisdom of Kabbalah that are suitable for the masses. We must teach them the same way that we teach children. After all, we don’t teach children deep wisdom, but by bringing them examples, we show them what is good for them to the extent that they can understand it and use it.

The method of the unity of creation is meant for the Creator to be revealed in it. He will be revealed in masses through us.

It is through us (red arrows in figure 1) that the Upper Light will be conveyed to them. This is what the “Preface to The Book of Zohar” tells us.

The dissemination of the integral method is also necessary in Europe, in a continent that has been through so much tension since it is more developed than other parts of the world, and the pressure of the multilateral crisis is so seriously felt in it.

If we can correct the crisis here and somehow promote the wisdom of human unity in a way that is suitable for the masses, which means in the form of the integral education and integral cooperation, it, first of all, will help us advance.

Thus, we will bring the Creator great contentment since we correct His shattered vessels, and the One who is the goal of creation can be revealed in these corrected vessels. So, the integral method is very important for everyone. We develop it for children, adults, and the elderly. We give courses and hold workshops and different events for the general public. We think that it is also very important for us since, if we don’t engage in it, we, Bnei Baruch, will not be allowed to advance since we have only received it as a down payment on condition that we think about the rest of the world.
[104591]
From the 2nd Lesson of the European Convention In Germany 3/22/13

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