Audio Version Of The Blog – 02.14.14

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Fatigue From Crises

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Nouriel Roubini, professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business and Chairman of Roubini Global Economics): “At the same time, the Fed’s tapering of its long-term asset purchases has begun in earnest, with interest rates set to rise. As a result, the capital that flowed to emerging markets in the years of high liquidity and low yields in advanced economies is now fleeing many countries where easy money caused fiscal, monetary, and credit policies to become too lax. …

“But the short-run policy tradeoffs that many of these countries face – damned if they tighten monetary and fiscal policy fast enough, and damned if they do not – remain ugly. The external risks and internal macroeconomic and structural vulnerabilities that they face will continue to cloud their immediate outlook. The next year or two will be a bumpy ride for many emerging markets, before more stable and market-oriented governments implement sounder policies.”

My Comment: New government will bring nothing new; there is a need for a new society, brought up on the basis of integral education. Governments should be advised of this, even before they might be replaced. The key to their salvation is in the transformation of society!
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Anyone Can Become A “Man Of Light”

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Book of Zohar, “Beha’alotcha” Item 88: And the wise shall shine as the brightness of the “firmament” are the authors of the Kabbalah. They are the ones who exert in this brightness, called The Book of Zohar.

This is speaking of those who are striving to enter into The Book of Zohar, and this book is of equal value for all generations because it was written from the height of the completion of correction in comparison to all the rest of the books of Kabbalah. Baal HaSulam also attained the completion of correction, and therefore he was able to write a complete commentary for The Book of Zohar.

Therefore, The Book of Zohar belongs to all generations and every person who is involved and learns with it becomes an “man of Light,” meaning that he begins to shine like the brilliance of the firmament. In other words, his characteristics are changed so that the Upper Light begins to be radiated through him.
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From the World Zohar Convention 2/5/14, Lesson 1

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At The Apex Of The Changes

Dr. Michael LaitmanBefore our world was created, the spiritual Kli was created, and now in our world, it is up to us to restore it, to connect it anew from the shattered parts. These parts are us, and the shattering is in the mutual rejection between us. Parts of the Kelim, meaning us, receive an awakening from above, and, in this form, we ask ourselves questions about the meaning of life.

The meaning of life is found above our lives because we don’t ask about this in the framework of this life. We think only how to get along better in life, and, when we begin to ask, “What is the reason for living,” this is already a question beyond the limits of our world. This is already a question directed at the source of our existence, at the Creator.

In general, all of humanity is in a movement toward unity, but in a most unpleasant way and not with the greatest speed. All of us have advanced in such a form and reached this moment where our development has brought us to the finish line where all of us must begin to connect.

There is a group, all whom received the awakening from above, and it is up to us to realize the method of correction in ourselves, to connect with the Creator minimally. This is because connection with the Creator is possible only to the degree that we accept shortcomings from the entire world.

We receive the usual shortcomings from the entire world; in other words, all six shortcomings that Baal HaSulam enumerated, desires that are relevant to a person, to his body, which are food, sex, and family, and in addition to this, there are desires that are related to the connection of the person with society directed toward money, respect and information.

All six desires are active in every person in our world, but they are discovered in each one differently, and in each one of them, there are a multitude of different components, smaller desires.

All of human development first was directed toward developing desires related to food, sex, and family in humans, leading them to the growth of desires for money, honor, and knowledge so that they would pass through them and discover lack of fulfillment in them. Yet, in the meantime, it is difficult to say that all of humanity is found in such a condition.

Food, sex, and family are corporeal desires that don’t require any correction, in principle. However, in the higher desires for wealth, honor, and knowledge, a greater ego is discovered within humanity. Also, this ego is generally only preliminary, required so that a lack of true fulfillment would be discovered in it as well. This is the crisis. The lack of true fulfillment is the feeling of the crisis.

Therefore, we now are in a stage where humanity is passing through different crisis phenomena, and these crisis phenomena change all the time. Some of them have more of an influence on the economy, others on ethics, and part of them on politics and on the family. In general, there will be many and varied crises, and, accordingly, we must understand how we need to work with people.

In principle, the method is the same method, but the approach to people must be according to their needs. In other words, for every civilization, for every culture that exists in the world today, there must be a unique approach. Therefore, desires are developed in different nations, in different people and areas, according to the place in which we must work.

Look, for example, at how Latin America leaped with a desire to realize spirituality and how much Europe lags behind it. There is no singular approach. We don’t know why it happens this way.

Accordingly, it is up to us to be sensitive to the pulse all the time, to see where to invest more efforts, where there is a greater need, an opportunity for more exposure. The world is in a global connection. Yet, nevertheless, many changes are taking place in all the different parts of the world.

Therefore, it is up to us to concentrate on a place where there is a need for correction, for spirituality, for inner change, or, as Baal HaSulam writes in the Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, where the question: “What is the reason for my life?” “How can I be fulfilled?” exists; when a question like this appears, people already are prepared for us to turn to them.

As we already have said, this question can expand into different areas, beginning with everyday problems in life to higher, more psychological, more internal problems. Therefore, this places a difficult problem before us.

The idea is that we cannot connect to the Creator if we don’t function as a conduit for His connection, for His bestowal, for His control of the entire world in order to pull all of humanity after us. You see, the entire system is undergoing a shattering only to be able to begin to feel the Creator through this shattering so that we will rise to His level. That is how the entire problem of His relationship with the creatures will be discovered and resolved. The “good and benevolent” is expressed in the creatures rising to His level and becoming like Him. This means everyone together, without exception.

In this way, it is up to us to have our hand on the pulse; and, besides this, it is up to us to be very sensitive to all changes, no matter how small. We now also are found in the higher world, in the world of Infinity (Olam Ein Sof), surrounded and penetrated with the Ohr Ein Sof, with the light of the Creator. There is no difference between our place now and in the future. Nothing changes except our feeling, our senses. The sensitivity is changed. It is up to us to develop and discover it in order to feel the Light. We are found within it, and nothing exists outside of it. So, all of the changes take place within us, and there is no need to travel anywhere. It is necessary only to work all the time on increasing sensitivity to the upper Light within us. This is our goal.

The problem is that, without movement, matter doesn’t exist. Matter exists only in constant motion, in change. Theoretically, if the movement were to stop, everything would disappear immediately. We see this with the atoms, with the elementary particles from which the atoms are composed. If we want to feel the upper world, we must increase our sensitivity to the changes that are taking place in us. Sometimes, it seems to a person that nothing is changing, that everything has frozen, has stopped, that there is no movement. The feeling that life has frozen is intended to show us that we must increase our sensitivity to all movement, and all the movements take place within desire.

At the moment that we begin to be integrated within a group that requires us to concentrate on the Creator through the connection between us, we immediately receive a countless number of changes at every moment. You will begin to feel that every second is an infinite unit of time, from beginning to end. During that second, we pass through a multitude of changes. This sensitivity to change is what we must discover.

I hope that the mutual integration between us through which all of us together are passing—among all of the various continents, civilizations and cultures—will embed in us the fundamentals of greater sensitivity to changes, and, inside of us at every moment, we will begin to feel tremendous changes in desire, direction, emotion, and perception. All the time, more and more, we will examine and direct them at every moment toward the Creator through the group, and, in this way, we very quickly will move the rest of the required way for the first discovery of the Creator.

Discovery of the Creator takes place specifically within these incessant changes because permanence or fixation doesn’t exist. The moment that you stop, everything disappears!

Therefore, the incessant changes guarantee that we are feeling the upper world, feeling the Creator. In our world, our feeling can be something permanent, but, in spirituality, this cannot be. Therefore, come, and let’s remember well that this condition can be fulfilled only if I am linked through the group, locked all the time on the Creator.

So, how do we raise sensitivity to the spirituality in which we are found? If I go out of myself and try to listen to what the friend says, suddenly I find myself in an empty void within the friend. So, within this empty void, how can I feel all kinds of changes and movements so that I will enter into his inner desires directed toward the Creator so that we will yearn for Him together?

We discover and attain the Creator to the degree that we are sensitive to Him; in other words, when the surrounding expanse is revealed to us and we try to feel its characteristics, the changes in it, its vibrations in regard to us, or more correctly, our vibrations in regard to it, our changes in regard to the characteristic of bestowal and love.

Our entire world was given to us in order to direct ourselves toward a particular wave, toward the characteristic of bestowal and love, like in a radio receiver. In the beginning, a rough, approximate tuning is made between the friends. As we continue, we connect to greater and greater external circles of our world, and, as a result of this, we direct ourselves more and more precisely, emotionally discover more of the characteristic of bestowal and love, and in such a form, we begin to feel the Creator more and more clearly.

For our entire world, all of the creatures, the fragmentation and the corrections are required only in order to direct ourselves toward feeling the characteristic of bestowal and love, the Creator, and as long as all of humanity has not entered into this system of mutual feeling—of mutual vibrations, of the tuning of the self—we cannot discover the Creator at all, not any person in the world.

The Kabbalists carried out great work in the past, but they reached a very limited range of attainment because humanity was not at all ready to begin to feel this yet.

However, as of today, we already have been able to determine that humanity is ready to integrate into clarifications of feelings of mutual bestowal and love and from them, to become aware of the Creator. In other words, today, the general rule, “From the love of man to the love of the Creator,” is being actively realized specifically by tuning into a high sensitivity to bestowal, to mutual connection, mutual integration according to the principle, “That which you hate, do not do to your friend,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Our mutual tuning leads us toward the Creator, and, through gradual expansion of our circle of sensitivity, to all of humanity, in this way, we discover the Creator within this new sense of bestowal and love.

That is how the general rule of “From the love of man to the love of the Creator” is realized, but it is specifically through feelings, through increased sensitivity.
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day One 2/2/14, Workshop 4

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Sandpaper On Egoism – Balm On The Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanEach of us once was a fetus in his or her mother’s womb. Our mothers nurtured us and as a result we developed. Imagine a state when you are there, inside. How does one feel while being in the fetal state?

The fetal state is analogous to our current stage of development. The breakthrough to spirituality is completely parallel to the stages a fetus goes through while it grows. The opposing forces (bestowal and receiving) descended from spirituality and ensure our evolution.

In The Study of the Ten Sefirot there are about a thousand pages that explain how spirituality can be attained. The book describes the descent of both forces into this world. Stages of descent are similar to the way we come to and then develop in this world.

So, what are the ways of advancement?

A group serves the “womb” for us; we have to take the best possible care of it. Our advancement should be conscientious and this is the difference in spiritual progress, spiritual growth from any other kind of advancement.

In this world, a fetus never worries about the place that ensures its birth and further growth. A fetus advances unconsciously. The same applies to humanity, its advancement is mindless; we are driven forward by forces, incentives, properties, desires, “chances.” etc.

We are the ones who have to create a suitable environment for our growth, the surroundings that will ensure our advancement. Our progress completely depends on the development of our environment. If we don’t elevate the group, if we don’t unite, connect, or enhance the collection and unity of friends, we won’t advance.

In his writings, Baal HaSulam mentioned that regrettably there were cases in the history of humanity when the “fetus” appeared stillborn. It happened solely because a group stopped caring for their unity.

At each step, we have to enhance our connection. When we manage to boost the unity among us, we rise and go through a new state, a new day, until we complete the entire nine months of our development. Then, we are born. The process of birth in this world happens in complete agreement with spiritual laws. This explains why those who are aware of spiritual laws also realize what’s going on in this material realm.

Thus, the development of the group, we should always choose over our personal progress, since only through the group can we “pull” ourselves up. This is the way we ascend: We trigger the influence of the Upper Light on us, demanding from It and appealing to It, begging and praying that It raises, unites, and connects us. Our connection activates the surrounding force, the mother’s womb, in which we are conceived. We call it Malchut or Shechina. This is where we turn into a man.

There are two opposing forces that reciprocally interact, the force of receiving and the power of bestowal. They have to come in balance with each other. Each time, when the equilibrium between these two forces is reached, it gives rise to an ascent. Then, we strive to a new state of balance, thus rising again. This is how we progress and are born. In fact, we ourselves grow.

The problem is that we have to relate to both developing forces positively, with joy. They are not always very pleasant; both of them work as “sandpaper” on our egoism and trigger numerous troubles and problems. We should always keep in mind that everything is organized by the Creator and only by Him. The Creator has enumerable methods to “bother” us; every moment He sends something to each of us separately and to all of us together.

We should accept His “treatment” and accept the states we go through in our material lives as blessing and a lot of luck. We have to realize that everything that happens to us is just the way He treats us and leads us. We should connect everything that happens to us with the notions “There is none else besides Him” and “He is the absolute good that does good.” No doubt that we perceive our lives contrary to His unconditional benevolence since we regard His influence through our egoism. As soon as we unite, His guidance will transform in the “absolute good”—truly!

Sometimes we happen to feel a spark of complete benevolence during our group gatherings or while we are engaged in collective actions that aim at enhancing of our unity. On other occasions, this state emerges on a personal, independent basis. The latter is not as desirable as when the group “digests” the Creator’s impact jointly.

The effects we receive mostly are not enjoyable. They become satisfying only when we correctly connect them with ourselves, thus reaching the middle line between the right and left lines (between good and bad states), when we pursue spiritual advancement by means of connecting with others.

All we have to do is just properly understand and accept the upper influence and correctly assess it. Our job is to constantly analyze and refer to the same notion over and over again; i.e., anything that happens to us, inside us, in our hearts and thoughts, desires and inspirations, everything that ever happens to us is done solely by the Upper Light.

Why does it work this way? – Because our job is to connect with our friends and pray that the Upper Light elevates us to the next state, to the property of bestowal.

We should tune ourselves in a way that we won’t miss an opportunity to ascend. Very rarely do we realize that everything that goes on with and in us comes from the Creator and that He is the one who sends all situations to us only because He wants to make us plea to Him in order to transform our “troubles” into a positive advancement. Each moment of our time, all our existence, is a permanent appeal to us from Above, a call to rise to Him. Our job is to tune ourselves up so that we won’t miss this chance.

The main prerequisite to it is to “lift our hearts to the Creator’s path.” Constantly, each one of us separately and all of us together should make our relationships with Him much more sensitive. If we manage to do so, we’ll start understanding what He is telling us. He talks to us exclusively through sensations that emerge in us; whereas we respond to Him through our reactions to sensations that we receive from Him. It happens over and over again: we receive a new sensation from Him and react to it, etc.

This is how we advance, like children who learn by reacting to stimuli. It’s not important if a child’s reaction is good or bad, right or wrong, this is the way children grow. We advance the same way.
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day One 2/02/14, Workshop 2

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Nine Stages On The Way To Unity, Point 9

Dr. Michael LaitmanPreparation for the Integral Convention: Integral Educators.

We discover that we are destined not to maintain our link to the Creator and that we don’t need the wider public to keep the “raspberry ball,” rather we must have the raspberry ball in order to serve the wider public. And specifically through this discovery we approach the end of correction.

This makes it possible for us to see the integrality, the links, and the Arvut (mutual guarantee) in nature. We begin to determine our relationship to the wider public: how much we need it, for without it we cannot give contentment to the Creator, and how much the Creator wants humanity and not us.

That is how we attain our destiny and disappear. A “nation of priests” is when you don’t exist. You serve the wider public, serve all of humanity, and serve the Creator. And in this you see your anonymous role. You have no part or inheritance in anything, in sum you are the connecting link, a conduit, a component for transmission. And this is good because with this we can truly be closer to the nature of the Creator.

We must present and give an example to the world, and through this example convey to it the spiritual condition that we have attained. Even though in the meantime this is the opposite side of the spiritual state, if we succeed in turning the face of the world towards us, we can turn our face towards the Creator. By turning toward the world with love, we can turn with love towards Him. About this it is said: “From love of the creatures to love of the Creator.”

And in order to turn the face of the world towards us, it’s necessary to awaken the people to the right understanding of solidarity with them. For this it’s necessary to convey the inner tension in words. The words must be very clear and deep. Only in this way can we be integrated into the outer circle, truly connecting with them. And then we receive the required addition that will help us to rise and enter into a higher level.

The correct integral educator for spiritual development must awaken this development in a student. If we succeed in reaching the hearts of the people, then specifically those experiences and impressions that we awaken in the wider public will make it possible for us to grow the raspberry ball, enhancing and strengthening the point of contact with the Creator and feeling Him.

It is said: “I learned from all of my students.” We will yet understand why through a connection with students a person can learn more than from teachers.
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The Creation Of The Golden Calf

Dr. Michael LaitmanMoses is the point in the heart the function of a spiritual guide after which a person follows. When this characteristic disappears from a person’s feelings, he requires a strong base, which is the golden calf. Gold, (Zahav) – “Give me this” (Ze Hav), is what clearly exists, and over which he has control. This is a precious metal containing the immense power of the Creator; but we always use it with our ego only to grab something strongly, to acquire personal security, material security, and so forth.

In principle all this was taken from Egypt. All knowledge, everything that fills the ego and gives a person security, is the basis of Pharaoh. Therefore he opposed the Creator and said to Moses: “Who will lead you forward on your way? It is either I or the Creator.” In other words, either you proceed “within reason” or ascend with bestowal and love, either with reception or with bestowal.

What does it mean to make a statue of the golden calf? A calf embodies the characteristic of bestowal, but when we make it from gold, this transforms the characteristic itself.

A person doesn’t make a golden calf all the time. This was done once, as was the Shevirat ha Kelim, the shattering of the collective soul. And after that a person discovers parts of it within himself: another part and another part and so on.

The shattering of the vessel occurred when an immense spiritual ego was revealed. The creation of the golden calf is an activity during which the person makes a form from this ego that he imagines will lead him forward. With this, his spiritual work has already been discovered, which in the meantime is impure, the opposite of the Creator.

There is nothing terrible about this except for one thing: The person is going in the opposite direction, but in the meantime he hasn’t encountered suffering that would turn him around. In principle, everything is summed up in only choosing the easy, short, and quick way, and not to stumble on the blows all the time and to learn from them.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/9/13

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The Opposite Side Of The Characteristic Of Bestowal

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus,” 32:2-3: And Aaron said unto them: “Break off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.” And all the people broke off the golden rings, which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.

Jewelry embodies the feminine part of the spiritual work that includes women, the elderly and children. This is what is said here; that all spiritual work with which the people of Israel adorn themselves becomes its opposite, bestowal.

Aaron was the desire of the “high priest in us,” this was the greatest power at that time that the people of Israel found for advancement. If not for him, how would they have created the “golden calf”? This power agreed to work that was the opposite of bestowal because the ego was now in control.

A person advances in a particular way and it seems to him that this direction is completely right, and when the ego rises, then all that he profited in a given part of the way with which he advanced, now becomes the opposite. Therefore even such a pure characteristic as the high priest becomes unclean.

We encounter many such phenomena in our world. Suppose that a person is involved in some kind of science, wanting to bring humanity goodness and happiness, and as a result of this he produces a weapon that brings death.

Question: If a person advances by means of the “golden calf,” his ego, so in my opinion a level called “fear” is missing here.

Answer: The opposite, fear pushes the person towards the calf and he acquires security. In principle, fear must work together with shame because the person must supervise and criticize himself to the degree that the shame arises in him at every level.

Shame invites the first restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) into us and it must bring us to this: that with its help, we realize the Creator. This is because the source of the shame is in feeling what is standing before me, and this is only the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/9/13

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The Hierarchy Of Desires

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus” (Tetzave), 28:39, 28:42: You shall make the linen tunic of checker work, and you shall make a linen cap, and you shall make a sash of embroidery work…And make for them linen pants to cover the flesh of [their] nakedness; they shall reach from the waist down to the thighs.

It is talking about corrections which come from inside of a person and appear in this allegory.

A sash that is mentioned in Torah is different from a regular sash in the way that it covers the body from the top and separates the top part from the bottom part. The top part is Galgalta Eynaim, the bestowing desires. The lower part is the receiving desires.

Nakedness is a desire to receive which can be corrected only partially. Therefore, only after the correction of the upper part, which is symbolized by the tunic, turban, and sash, one can start correcting the lower part in a partial way: from the waist to the knees. This means the correction of the receiving desires.

Those desires that are located even lower almost do not become corrected. Their use is simply stopped since one performs a restriction on their use. This is sufficient.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book,” 8.28.13

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 02.14.14

Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Workshop

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Baal HaSulam,Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 31

[media 5] [media 6]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

[media 7] [media 8]