Audio Version Of The Blog – 03.06.14

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The Structure Of Chaos

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Max Schupbach, PhD, co-founder of the first Process Work Center in Switzerland, and Process Work training programs worldwide): “What at the moment seems as chaos has a clear structure. The events that seem strange, in fact, make a difference, and they are the driving force of change. That what is marginalized today hides future organizations and the future of community.

“There is hidden meaning behind frictions, problems. If we had revealed all the details: measurable and immeasurable, rational and irrational, logical and emotional – we would have discovered unique solutions that were originally inherent in the situation and how it is possible to become creative, reaching the goal.

“A leader is not who knows everything, but who can establish sincere relationships, resolve conflicts. His main skill is an understanding of the processes that take place, love for changes, working with himself.

“A master is not a status, but the path, on which those methods that you study will become your way of life. You should realize that you will study throughout lifetime. A master understands that his destiny, his path on this planet has a definite direction, and his task is to go through it and make this path useful to others.

“In an attempt to achieve this, you will be constantly stumbling, learning new things. But over time, you will learn to accept both success and failure as positive. You will cease to enjoy when you complete a task as intended or to become upset if something does not happen because you will understand that both success and defeat are just parts of something larger.”

My Comment: It’s nice to see how psychological conclusions approach Kabbalistic ones.
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Transforming A Collection Of People Into A Group

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe group must be a means for ascent, for reaching the small state (absolute bestowal), for attaining the importance of the goal. To be in a group does not mean that one is just found in the company of a hundred people. A group is a system in which you want to be in the right line, following the point of choice.

Before the choice, this is not yet a group, but simply a collection of people, like the crowd that left Egypt that still hadn’t transformed into a people but was just a mass. Only after they received the Torah, entered into mutual guarantee, then it is said about them: “Today you have become my people.”

After the ego is discovered and Mount Sinai (“Sin” – hatred) was found between all of them, thoughts that were tearing apart those who had gathered at the bottom of the mountain, only then does the person feel a need for the group.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/2/14

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A Cement Mixer

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe foundation of the group is the daily morning lesson. Someone who doesn’t join it, at least during the hours that are convenient for him, simply cannot connect to me. And also the lesson itself must become a running operation of “mixing” all of us together in order to see ourselves as one whole and to expect the Light that will open between us.

The lesson must be very difficult, as if in a cement mixer where you must turn this whole mass through which the sand, cement, and water are mixed until it’s completely connected. That is how we must feel the lesson developing, with great difficulty and with much effort. If a person doesn’t feel this difficulty and oppose it, then he doesn’t build the Kli, he doesn’t attract the Light. This effort must be felt inside all the time, with tension and pressure.

To adhere to the Rav, to the Elyon (Upper), doesn’t indicate adherence to some particular person. The Elyon is not a person; rather, it’s a concept because within this person the connection is attracted towards what is higher. Therefore I must clarify:

  • Why was he chosen to be the Elyon with regard to me?
  • What exactly does this term “Elyon” to which I must adhere mean?
  • And how, through this external form of adherence, by which I adhere to the Elyon, will I attain internal adherence with Him?

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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/14, Topic of Lesson: “Teacher”

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The Rav Teaches The Group To Walk

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We know that to be connected to the Rav (teacher) is possible only through attainment of equivalence of form, the same desire. But often when the Rav turns to us with some task, suddenly it’s clear that the person is not ready to carry it out because this is against his understanding and inner convictions. It turns out that that he has a million things that are more important, and with this he misses this opportunity to connect with his teacher. How can the group give a person the power to grasp this opportunity immediately and transform it into a link, making his desire similar to the desire of the Rav?

Answer: In fact, the desire of the Rav is the desire of the group. It’s that desire that must be in the group but cannot yet has not be reached; this becomes the desire of the Rav.

The Rav doesn’t have his own desire. Where could he take a desire from with which to approach the group, the students, the lesson, everything? He takes the general desire of the group and according to this, he acts and behaves. This is not the desire that is in the group at the moment; rather it’s that desire which must be in the group. And therefore he is their guide.

The group is in a state of “-1,” and the Rav directs it towards a state of “+1” so they will know what direction they should proceed. This is the role of the guide on the spiritual path. His role is not to show the students where he himself is or where the Creator is; rather, he must show them their future state, the next step. Therefore a Rav must feel the corrected state the group must attain and show the students how it should be. And also, he must show them what should be done in order to reach that state. This is the role of the guide.

The Rav demonstrates your best future state for you and nothing more. Therefore you must agree with him, surrender yourself, work for him, and help him because he is showing you your future form: If want it, accept it; if don’t want it, then there is no reason to study in vain, so leave.

The students will never see or know the desires of the Rav himself. Rather all of his behavior in regard to the students and the group is determined by their future level, their next closest step, like hands extended to an infant that teach him to walk step after step. This concept, this principle, is called a Rav, a spiritual teacher, who is a little higher than the students. If he were to turn to them from a height of two levels, then there would no longer be a connection among them and this would not bring them benefit.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/14, Topic of Lesson: “Teacher”

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Keep Your Attributes

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus” (Ki Tissa), 33:12-33:13: Moses said to the Lord: “See, You say to me, ‘Lead this people forward,’ but You have not made known to me whom You will send with me. Further You have said: ‘I have singled you out by name, and you have, indeed, gained My favor.’ Now, if I have truly gained Your favor, pray let me know Your ways, that I may know You and continue in Your favor. Consider, too, that this nation is Your people.”

A person understands that he has to bring all his attributes to the Creator. It is by these attributes that he forms the image of the Creator inside him. The Creator has no image and He is revealed only inside a person. Therefore, a person is called Adam, someone who has attained a resemblance to the Creator.

So Moses guards them realizing that all his attributes are necessary for the attainment of this image. In previous states we hold on to all our egoistic attributes tightly, but when we come to the recognition that they are opposite from the Creator, we want to get rid of them. However, when we feel that they are essential in order to resemble the Creator, we begin to cherish them.

This is the reason that Moses asks so avidly for his people, which means for all the egoistic attributes, because otherwise he cannot attain a complete image.

The Creator bribes a person by promising to destroy half of his egoistic attributes because in order to completely resemble the Creator, it is enough to correct half of them.

But a person shouldn’t stop of course, because thanks to his most egoistic attributes, he can delight the Creator by becoming like Him.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/16/13

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Turning Poison Into Medicine

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus” (Ki Tissa), 33:14-33:16: So He said, “My Presence will go, and I will give you rest.” And he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go [with us], do not take us up here. For how then will it be known that I have found favor in Your eyes, I and Your people? Is it not in that You will go with us? Then I and Your people will be distinguished from every [other] nation on the face of the earth.”

The Creator has to bring everyone to the level that they resemble Him. There are no concessions.

A person has to acknowledge the fact that he cannot get rid of any of his attributes because he has to correct them all. He begins to regard the most egoistic things he reveals about himself carefully, understanding that eventually they have to be inverted. Without annulling anything, he looks straight at his inner spiritual atlas realizing that the right image of the Creator cannot be without the absolute correction of all his desires to love and bestowal.

At the same time, a person hates these attributes and despises them! He would like to erase everything, to detach himself from his past, which constantly chases him. He blames himself, the Creator, and anyone he can for what he has to go through and for the many mistakes he has made in his life! The gradual recognition that they were all necessary for the attainment of the ultimate goal, but that what was so far only needs to be corrected, and these actions are absolutely right but simply need to be inverted—this is already a great revelation for a person.

He shouldn’t blame anyone for the past, because all his sins were determined intentionally. They are in him from the start and will be revealed in even more wild manners. But they are all necessary. He is ready to undergo anything just so that he wouldn’t lose them and will be able correct everything.

Question: What gives a person to strength to reach that?

Answer: The importance of the Creator and the fact that this is the only way to delight Him. Suppose I sit at a table that the Creator has set for me, which is full of different delicacies. Every dish before me is poison: it tastes terrible, bitter, and awful! I have to change inside me so that I will feel infinite pleasure by tasting and eating something that is disgusting and at the same time feel that it is sweet because I received it from Him. Everything depends on the intention that can turn the poison into medicine.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/16/13

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The Soldier Falls Asleep And The Convoys Pass

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom the The Book of Zohar, “The Donkey Driver,” Item 109: All the righteous stand in the lower Garden of Eden, clothed in precious adornments, similar in quality and form to those which they wore in this world, meaning in the same form as people in this world and according to man’s actions in this world. They stand there and fly away through the air, ascend to the Assembly in the Supernal Garden of Eden, fly there and bathe in the dew of the pure river of Apharsemon (persimmon), then come down and fly below in the lower Garden of Eden.

Question: Up to now I have not understood what the benefit of reading from The Book of Zohar is, I perceive it as abstract and it doesn’t awaken any emotion in me and my thoughts about the connection between us are not at all connected to what we are reading.

Answer: Suppose that I checked the temperature and found out that my body requires more heat, otherwise it will get cold and will not be ready to maintain normal metabolism. In order to warm my body they suggest that I light an oven. The oven requires heating material, etc. What is the connection between cutting down trees or laying a gas pipeline and the metabolism of my body? If we ask a little child, he will tell you that it’s not necessary to cut down trees or drill and produce oil. Who needs that black liquid?

The fact is that you are like that child and you don’t see the connection between things. But the Kabbalist sages say that there is definitely a link between what we read in The Zohar and the connection between us. In the example of the fuel, there is a direct connection since they are involved only with external causes. And here this is talking about your soul that you want to correct. The Book talks about the most internal phenomena that are taking place within it.

When you on the lowest level, you make some efforts just to sit in the lesson and listen to my voice that you hate at the moment. You want to sleep and instead of this you must sit and listen to all of these explanations that you don’t understand. But if you invest the smallest effort, obligating yourself to read and to listen, then what you read and hear is happening inside of you. But these phenomena are happening in the highest states and levels connected to the world of Infinity.

From you to the world of Infinity there is a thread, a conduit through which you get some kind of energy. The moment when you show at least a small awakening from below, not sleeping in the classroom, you don’t sleep for the entire lesson, rather you try to hear to some degree, and then this transfer is already beginning to work. And all of the levels are in it, including those about which we read in The Book of Zohar, but they are very high. And they are activated by your small desire that you can awaken now.

Suppose that you are ready to look with only “half an eye,” from half of a dream and your brain is 99% asleep. But this is not important, for in spite of all this, you awaken the desire and the conduit begins to work. Even though this conduit is sealed, at least something is passing through it. And thanks to that small amount that passes, all of the levels about which you are reading in The Book of Zohar begin to work. You look at us with quarter of your eye open and are connected to the reading with one percent of your mind; this is not important, for on the higher levels there is a Light that is much stronger and the greatest desire. And you activate them and obligate them to work.

So I am ready to tolerate those who are just about asleep in the lesson because they still have some small desire. And in the meantime they are not aware that they are activating all of the high levels that are described in The Book of Zohar.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Desperate Attempts To Decipher The Rav

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If a Kabbalist lives in two worlds, in the physical world and in the spiritual world, then how are the physical and spiritual divided within him? Does the physical influence the decisions and behavior of a Kabbalist?

Answer: According to my experience I can say that it’s impossible to understand this from the outside. A person doesn’t see anyone outside of himself. He always sees everything through his eyes, through his brain, through his desire to receive, through his heart. And therefore he never sees another person as he is, rather only through his filter.

All the more so when he looks at his Rav, he cannot decipher where the spirituality and the physicality are here. He doesn’t know the percentage that the physical enters into the spiritual with his Rav . The lower cannot make these calculations regarding the higher.

Understanding is possible only if you have an internal “judicial” system within you identical to that which is in the higher. But if you don’t have that system, then how can you judge someone? So this is impossible.

It’s even impossible to achieve this with yourself, all the more so someone else; this is something completely unknown. We see only the images that are portrayed within us. Therefore we need to go with faith above reason with regard to every person, and certainly with regard to the Rav. WITH regard to the Rav there is a relationship on a much higher level because in this case our ego portrays for us all kinds of decisions, actions, and thoughts that always transform everything in our favor and make life easier for us.

Therefore, I don’t see any other possibility beside following the Rav with eyes shut and doing everything possible, as it is said, (Ecclesiastes 9:10) “Whatever your hand attains to do [as long as you are] with your strength, do.” And it’s also the same thing regarding a friend, for in this way we hold the friend as higher, like a Rav.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/14, Topic of Lesson: “Teacher”

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 03.06.14

Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”  

[media 5] [media 6]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”  

[media 7] [media 8]