Audio Version Of The Blog – 02.11.14

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Integral Education Of The Masses

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe are chosen in the sense that we have received from Above the desire calling us to learn, yearning for connection with the Creator and the revelation of the Creator, which must occur before all of mankind.

It is already approaching the need for the next state; nature moves all of humanity forward. But people do not have and will not have their own desire. Thousands or a few millions will join us, but it is a tiny fraction of the whole of humanity. There will be no more.

The head is always so: it is small, like the microprocessor in a computer, but it defines and decides everything. The remaining parts realize this micro part.

So, we are this “chip.” We have to connect to the rest of humanity, begin to work with people, understand them, unite with them, find an appropriate vocabulary, create an appropriate dictionary, various images, examples, and develop suitable workshops, etc.

We teach small children all that grownups have, only at a low level in simple examples, simple actions. In order for people to feel their next desirable level in their connection, we have to encourage them, constantly attracting them with something.

We ourselves experience descents and ascents, and in accordance with this, we need to strengthen ourselves.

Others do not go through this. They constantly have to be attracted, embraced, warmed up, and served. We need to explain the method to them to the extent that they need to understand it in order to be connected to us and to rise with us. We take them as young children on the road, make them sit and drive them. The child is next to you, or even on your lap, or running nearby under your supervision because he does not know the way and does not even have to know it. You should not demand anything from people, except one thing: “If you are with us, everything will be fine.”

This should be our way out to the masses. Without it, we cannot advance upward after the creation of our collective Kli. We will reach the minimal level but no further. Indeed, we have received an awakening in order to “pull” humanity with us. We have to treat it very seriously. We will be able to ascend only depending on our success with a wide audience. If we do not succeed, it will serve as ballast to us, not letting us ascend.
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Modern Love Of Castes: How Marriages Reinforce Inequality

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Slate): “It’s not that rare these days for people to marry outside their ethnic or religious group or to live in a different region of the country from where they grew up. Among college-educated people, in particular, the tendency is not so much to marry within your community as to marry within your educational cohort. Every once in a while you do see a college graduate married to a high school dropout (my parents, for example), but it’s quite rare. Since incomes are normally measured on the household level for statistical purposes, it matters quite a bit to big-picture national trends. In particular, “assortative mating” of this kind is a major driver of household-level income inequality.

“How big? Jeremy Greenwood, Nezih Guner, Georgi Kocharkov, and Cezar Santosreport in a new paper that if in 2005 the matching of husbands and wives had been random, the Gini coefficient—the most common summary measure of income inequality—would have been 0.34 rather than its real-world 0.43, a difference of almost 25 percent.

Of course, saying that inequality would be lower if marriages were randomized isn’t telling us much. It’s long been the case that a college-educated woman’s husband is much more likely to have a college degree than would be suggested by pure chance. But a number of closely related demographic factors have shifted dramatically over the past generation or two in a way that’s made assortative mating a much more potent economic force. And the nexus between marriage patterns and those other trends is an important motor of inequality.”

My Comment: Egoism rules the world, not romance. Only requiring the equal distribution of income for everyone and the education of all, as if we all belong to the same family, will bring the world to calm. In the meantime, we still need to become convinced that our nature drives us to the manifestation of rejection and hatred in all its forms to come to the realization of egoism as absolute evil in order to seek the way to correct it.
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A Place That Has Been Blessed By The Creator

Dr. Michael Laitman

Rabash, “What is the Advantage in the Work that is more than the Reward”: And the main preparation that is called exertion, that one has to annul himself, which means his self-ness…which means that he annuls the opinion of the landlords and yearns for the opinion of the Torah…as the sages said “the Torah exists only in those who kill themselves for it,” which means in self annulment, and there is no self domination here but the domination of the Creator. Then the Creator can say “every place that I shall mention.” Why can I mention My name? Since a person has annulled the domination of this place for the Creator, then “I shall come and bless you” can be fulfilled…which is the reception of the Shechina.”

We already know this formula. A place is the desire to receive and also the Creator who fills this place, which means who fills the desire. We regard the vessel as a place and also call the Light, which fills it, a place. Everything depends on the phase to which we refer, whether it’s the desire or the one who created it and fills it.

It says, “Every place that I shall mention My name,” where the vessel is arranged according to the Creator’s name, HaVaYaH, with all its discernments, “I shall come and bless you.” The Light will come and correct the vessel, and will clear the right place for the Creator to be dressed.

It’s important to constantly measure to what extent we get closer or draw further away from the Light so that “there shall not be a strange god among you.” To what extent the concept of the Creator, the upper force, all the images that are depicted in our imagination, become the attribute of bestowal that is dressed in me. I can measure my state according to the attribute that is received and according to my attraction to it.

Of course, there are also opposite states like for and against, but it’s between these two directions, from these two inclinations that we advance. We have to check to what extent the concept of the Creator, which means the attribute of bestowal that is dressed in us, is more desirable each time and to what extent we hope for it, expect it, and are attracted to it. Until “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one” in the same place.

Now we perform exercises, trying to annul ourselves and to reach connection only between us, for the time being. As is says “from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator.” But if we also remember that we do it so that we will become one vessel in which we will be able to reveal the Creator one day, the upper Light influences us and connects and organizes us. Thus we will gradually feel the place that we are preparing for the revelation of the Creator, and will check whether it’s ready for the Upper Light, for the attribute of bestowal to be dressed in.

Then we will begin to identify movements in that place, and whether we are receiving the Creator or not, whether He enters us or whether He exits us. We will understand how we can draw Him closer or drive Him away from us if we want to ascend to a higher level in order to be more adapted to Him. After all, we have to draw away from Him between the levels.

When all these actions become familiar and are under our control, we gradually reach a greater equivalence of form with the Creator and He is gradually revealed to us. Thus we establish the place, and the connection between us begins. After the connection, a distance is created, which teaches us to return to connection despite the distance. Thus we learn to control these processes as much as we can and to monitor them.

This is only possible with God’s help, of course, with the help of the upper force. We mustn’t forget that He is the one who organizes and who manages everything, but with our active participation. We decide that we want to reach “make your desire His desire,” and thus establish the place.

We are already in the process of establishing the place, although we don’t really understand how to do it, which phases we go through, and what else we have to do. Actually, nothing is clear. It isn’t a formula with one unknown, but rather a formula with many unknowns that we have to solve. It’s an integral system in which everything is incorporated in everything and depends on everything.

But when this picture clears up, we see that it includes many details that are interconnected into one system, although in the meantime it’s very foggy and unclear. It’s impossible to hold on to this with our coarse, egoistic, primitive hands.

But by working in this world, we gradually begin to raise its components to the spiritual level and to insert into every attribute, every force, every event, into everything that happens, the Creator’s spirit, our spiritual yearning. Then we begin to see another picture behind the picture of this world. Behind this picture we discover a system of forces of the upper world. This is how we establish the place for the revelation of the Creator.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/14

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The Spiritual Structure Of The Desires

Dr. Michael Laitman“And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: ‘Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and the base thereof of brass, whereat to wash; and thou shalt put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein. And Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat; when they go into the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to cause an offering made by fire to smoke unto the LORD….’” (Exodus 30:17-20)

In spiritual work a person must purify himself in all of his desires.

This speaks about the spiritual structure of our desires. The desires, like our bodies, are composed of a head and a body.

The main thing is our hands and feet, what we take and towards what we are going. Therefore it is necessary to wash them, for they constitute an instrument for our advancement, of our mutual cooperation with each other.

And the body itself is only the Sefira of Tifferet, which is passive relative to the hands and feet. For where your feet carry you and what you take in your hands is the responsibility of the head. But previously the head must take stock, and only after this is it possible to wash the hands and the feet, meaning, to purify the desires from an egoistic intention.

“They shall wash with water, that they die not” symbolizes that after purification of the desires, the person is no longer detached from the Upper Light; he doesn’t receive for his own sake, because this is spiritual death.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/9/13

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The Role Of Religions In The Process Of Correction

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It is said in the Koran: “The Almighty does not need helpers.” Why then does Kabbalah teach us that we have to become the Creator’s partners and assistants?

Answer: Religions originate from the right, left, and middle lines. Islam derives from the right line relative to the Creator; Christianity comes from the left line; whereas Judaism originates from the middle line. That is why the Muslim calendar is based on the lunar movement, the Christian calendar is based on solar cycles, and the Judaic calendar is based on both of them and is built in accordance with the middle line.

It is true that Koran says: “the Lord does not need helpers.” This is because human participation is impossible in both the right and left lines. People start taking part only when the middle line is built out of the right and left lines. Thus, we ascend to becoming partners with the Creator by becoming similar to Him.

This is why Kabbalah speaks about partnership between a man and the Creator. This is not the usual practice in Judaism as it emerged after destruction of the Temple and the people of Israel fell from their spiritual level. Today, after two thousand years of exile, we begin correcting the devastation that happened after the collapse of the First and the Second Temples. We have to establish a middle line inside us, i.e., we should ascend above our ego.

Religions are built in a way that they don’t require people to get rid of their egos. On the contrary, religions use the ego to attract us, involve us, calm us down, and promise a tranquil life, health, success, and wellbeing. Religions are a structure associated with exile; they are totally suitable for exile. We don’t reject this phenomenon at all!

However, now we live in an era when people of all faiths start rising above their religions and strive to attain the Creator. On one hand, they don’t have any other choice because their lives are so unpredictable! Our internal desire advances and demands that we know and reveal the Lord. In each of us there is a spark: in the sons of Israel, the spark is a consequence of their prior spiritual step; in the nations of the world, it is a result of a mutual penetration with the children of Israel during the period of exile.

That’s why today so many people begin awakening. When one is ready to attain the Creator, one doesn’t need a religion, but has to study Kabbalah since Kabbalah is the wisdom of the revelation of the Creator to the creations in this material world. This is the difference between all religions (the right, left, and middle lines) and the authentic “religion” (Kabbalah) as Baal HaSulam defines it in his writings. In his article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,” Baal HaSulam writes that there is only one authentic religion:  the wisdom of Kabbalah that brings us to attainment of the Creator by obtaining His properties.

All other religions were active during the exile. Their goal was to lead us to our time so that from now on we start the process of self-correction. During the exile, the purpose of religions was to educate people, support them in a civilized manner, and provide them with knowledge, morality, and ethics. Religions have fulfilled their roles. They acted inside humanity, thus letting us advance. Religions served human interests.

However, today their role expires; this phenomenon is obvious in all religions. Soon, we will witness huge transformations, increased resistance and big fights. The epoch of correction has been launched. Nothing can stop it. The world is degrading day after day, like a cart rolling downhill with tremendous speed. That’s why nowadays all religions will have to comply with and adjust to the wisdom of Kabbalah. Let’s hope that it will happen in a mild, civilized way and that religions will eventually accept their new roles and places.

Religions are important for our self-correction in so far as they begin to implement the principle of “loving our neighbors as ourselves.” All of them have this principle “on paper.” All they have to do is start practically implementing this doctrine; there is nothing more we can expect from them. As a result, they will revise themselves and then they will come to support the wisdom of Kabbalah, thus giving it a chance to correct everybody without exception.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Nine Stages On The Path To Unity, Point 8

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn Preparation for the Integral Convention

The Good Future of the World

The reality in which we are found is portrayed under the influence of the Light on the desire. We can change the relationship between the Light and desire, consciously or unconsciously, consistently, in stages, intelligently, with our own powers, through shared work, or as if by chance, as is written: “The Creator will accomplish that which concerneth me” (Psalm 138:8).

However, in every circumstance, the reality that we perceive, both the physical and the spiritual, is portrayed through the action of the Light on the desire. And when we reach the equivalence of the Light and the desire, complementing them, making peace between them, we bring peace to the whole world.

Therefore even people without a point in the heart who are not prepared to create a connection between the Light and the Kli and to equate their form by means of the Masach and Ohr Hozer, see the world differently. They don’t see it as the spiritual world because there are no spiritual components to their sensitivities. Yet since they also aspire to unity through various desires, whether speaking of a desire for money, security, education, honor, or control, they will be released from all the problems in their lives.

Of course, gradually other problems will be discovered in order to advance them further, but they will see that the world is coming closer to the good all the time. And this is already the good way, the path of Torah, and not the path of suffering. As a result of the unity from the unconscious influence of the Light upon them, they will see the changes for the better. They will discover the operating system of reality, meaning they will feel that thanks to good relations between them, the world is changing, changing their perception, their internal reaction to what is happening.

Will they be healthier? Yes. Will they discover other positive phenomena? Yes. Will there be fewer natural disasters? Yes. We will yet see how a person will activate the inner forces connected to the nature of the still, the vegetative, and the animate.

It’s up to us to understand that we have the strongest weapon that can be. All the forces of nature are for us, and even the Creator, in fact, wants to say to us: “Please use Me. Everything is in your hands.”

When we bring peace to the world, people will be involved only in a circular connection. Perhaps part of them will work about an hour per day; and with the rest of the time everyone will be involved with thoughts about how to resemble the Creator and will feel pleasure in doing so.

We still don’t understand how this could be, but that’s what will be. This will become the center of life. Besides the necessities, people will be involved only with connection to others, in bringing the connection between them to a greater depth, greater sensitivity, until the physical body and the material world are discovered as imaginary.

Another world will begin to unfold; connections beyond this world will be discovered, and we will see that all of these “spider webs” are interdependent. And as a result, people will begin to understand the wisdom, the thought of creation that is latent in all of its parts. This is called the glow of Divinity, the revelation of Divinity, meaning everything breathes, one thing depends upon another.
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Preparation for the Integral Convention, Nine Stages On The Path To Unity, Point 8

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 02.11.14

Preparation to the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Workshop

[media 3] [media 4]

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 3, Chapter 7, Item 1

[media 7] [media 8]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar

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