Audio Version Of The Blog – 05.16.14

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Russians Do Not Want To Be Independent

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from the Higher School of Economics, Moscow): “Analysis showed that the average Russian, in comparison with people of other countries, demonstrates more pronounced values ​​of safety and self-affirmation and less pronounced values ​​of openness, innovation, creativity, freedom and independence, risk, fun and pleasure.

“The worse are the values of caring about people and nature. Russians are not able to combine care and equality, care and openness. Concern for others, openness and independence occupies last place.

“Russians tend to be conservative, dreaming of power and wealth; the rules of life are unimportant for them. They are not ready for socio-positive conformism and independent activity. The most common type of Russians are those who have not expressed a certain value; they prefer the value of preservation.

“The values ​​of openness, independence and caring for others in Russia are 1%.

“Russians are leaders in adherence to the egoistic, individualistic values, which contradict the stereotype that Russians have a strong sense of collectivism. Paternalism is expressed in high-value of security and low value of independence. The values show high stability and do not change much over the years. Commitment to the values ​​does not mean adherence to them in practice.

“Thirty percent show a tendency to punish the generous! If in other countries 20% of people punish more greedy ones, in Russia 15% punish the more generous. The reason is competitiveness, the desire to win, beat, be first. Society in Russia tends to consume, but it is not development, but an adaptation method that does not require efforts.”

My Comment: The study is relevant only at this stage of the “development” of civilization, and the crisis will further “equalize” everyone. Now the winner is the one who will base the correction of society on the method of Integral Education and the wisdom of connection.
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Desire, Light, Desire

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can the power of the group help me in disseminating and make it easier for me to explain our ideas to people?

Answer: Of course, it is the general force that affects us, which we call the power of the group. But in fact we are the ones who operate the light that operates. We use the power of the group and friends and by our desires to connect, we draw the Light that begins to operate on us, and so we succeed. Everything goes through the Creator, through the general force.

I operate the desire, the desire operates the Light, and the Light operates the desire. Therefore, we have to thank the Creator after every action because eventually He is the one who does everything. But I operate the desire and by that I operate Him to do it.

A desire cannot influence a desire. Even when we say that we influence one another, it is not direct influence, but only through the Creator, through the Light. We cannot connect directly, and it is the Light that operates on the cooperation between us in small portions.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/14, Writings of Rabash

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The Distance Between Theory And Practice

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: There are friends who theoretically understand the whole path and the requirements, but in practice they cannot annul themselves with regard to others. How should we attain connection in practice so that it will be more than just lip service?

Answer: There can be a gap of 10 to 15 years between the moment a person understands things theoretically until he can actually implement what he understands. A person continues to come to the lessons and has to do something, but he cannot bring himself to the center of the group, to participate and to incorporate into it voluntarily.

If he does it voluntarily, it means that the accurate desire to reach the Creator is already stabilized in him in its real form, which means in order to bestow, and that he already feels the right connection between people.

A person can listen and speak beautiful words and he can also understand everything, but it may take another 15 years until he actually participates in the work voluntarily.

He cannot do anything by himself. He tries, but it leads to nothing. The Upper Light still has to work on him and influence him bit by bit.

If a person incorporates  into the center of the group and realizes that this is where he will find the goal of creation, it is great progress; everyone should wish for this.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/02/14, Writings of Rabash

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An Eternal Day

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus” (Tzav), 6:1-6:2: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt-offering: That is the burnt offering which burns on the altar all night until morning, and the fire of the altar shall burn with it.”

An altar refers to the feelings and the desires that a person can correct from hatred to love. The correction is done at night in the dark when a person doesn’t see any self-benefit, since otherwise such actions would not be in order to bestow focused on the connection with others.

So we work in the dark until dawn. This means that we don’t feel the Light, the beginning of a new day, unless our desires are corrected.

The fire that burns all the incorrect egoistic intentions has to burn until the morning, until we change all our desires to altruism and begin to feel the Upper Light called morning, according to the law of equivalence of form.

Question: What is the meaning of “on the altar all night until morning, and the fire of the altar shall burn with it?”

Answer: This work never ends. The most correct state is the feeling of both day and night, as it is written: “Here is the day for you and here is the night too.”

The Torah tells us that in the future there will be no night. When all our egoistic intentions burn and only the desires with altruistic intentions of in order to bestow are left, then we will begin to feel only daytime.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/6/13

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Why Doesn’t The Creator Answer Our Cries?

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe have no other way to turn to the upper force that depicts all of creation, all of reality to us, except for speaking to Him through the center of the group. I cannot turn to Him by myself and my appeal doesn’t reach Him. We see that people have been crying out to the Creator for ages, praying to Him, but no matter what they request, it leads to nothing; there is no answer and no response.

The Creator doesn’t answer since we don’t speak to Him correctly. The Creator is a fixed rigid system, the unchanging law of nature. It is like the laws of this world. Everyone understands that we can cry and complain if we fall from the tenth floor, but these tears won’t help since a person will still fall down and crash.

The same thing happens with the Creator. We try to attribute human frailties to Him, hoping that He will forgive us, have mercy on us, show His generosity, just like a person who wants to seem nice and polite, but this cannot be! The Creator is the general law of nature and nature knows no mercy.

If we don’t know how to relate to nature, to the Creator, nothing will help us; this is the way it has been so far. Kabbalah, however, teaches us exactly how we should act. Then we can know how to manage in the framework of these laws and how to use them.

So you shouldn’t feel sorry for yourselves and for the friends, but rather should understand that we intend to keep the general law and use it correctly. But in order to do that, we have to adapt ourselves to this law first. No matter if we want to or not, we will still be bent so that we will want to.
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From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day Two 5/10/14, Lesson 2

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Pioneers of the Integral Movement

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How does one keep the unity in a group if we are far from each other, scattered all over the country?

Answer: Now, we are in a transition period, in a stage of building our system, and we still don’t know how to organize it correctly. No historical parallels exist for this; along with you, we are the first, the pioneers.

Each time some new possibility is discovered, we grasp it and realize it. But nobody knows what will happen tomorrow because we depend upon tens of thousands of our friends, each of whom has free choice.

While we are all linked with each other, each one has free choice, and in this manner, we become such a complicated and complex system that it is impossible to predict how it will behave tomorrow.

I know how to advance correctly, which principles must be maintained, and also I hope to understand what must be done in every moment that comes. But all the stages through which we pass are completely new, and I myself have not gone through them. I have gone through stages on my own personal spiritual path, but not through the path of an integral group, or of humanity, or a mini-humanity, this being our group.

So I don’t know how to build a group like this where all of its members are scattered over a large area, as in France, for example. It is necessary to try to do this according to the current existing technology. Once a month or once every two months it is worthwhile to gather in some single place, and all the rest of the time to be in contact with each other.

It is necessary to work together on some single project that will connect us and build our relationship. Certainly there is a difference if we are in a physical connection or not. It is not by chance that we are living in this world of physical bodies. Connection between bodies is the foundation for the birth of a new life. So when we gather together in conventions, a connection is created between us that is used as the foundation for spiritual development.

But after the gathering, each one can organize part of our general work for himself in the place he is in and move forward. We need to build a group and advance just like that. I am sure that with time additional opportunities will be revealed to us. If we overcome physical distance, then we will benefit very much and will immediately begin to feel a spiritual connection between us. It is necessary to relate to this only with complete seriousness.

In the meantime, I cannot say more than this. I will be happy to pass through all the stages of this way with you, but no person in the world has yet had experience with this. Even if Rabbi Shimon, the author of the Book of Zohar, or Baal HaSulam were in my place, they also would not know this. What has not been revealed practically on the lower level, no one can know, since this depends upon people’s free choice.
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From the “One For All And All For One,” Convention in France, Day One 5/09/14, Lesson 1

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Duties Are Part Of Our Spiritual Work

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we increase the importance of duties so that friends in the group will understand that it is part of the spiritual work?

Answer: A person understands the importance of the group and the rigid frameworks he is in according to his spiritual level.

These frameworks determine whether he will follow the path of suffering, together with the whole world, or the short and comfortable path. If I understand that this gives me a unique opportunity that can disappear at any moment, then I need to make the best of every moment I have this opportunity.

It is like a person who is under the water and finally manages to rise to the surface and breathe. I also have to seize every opportunity, make haste, and participate in building a framework for myself. Thus I create the living conditions inside the aquarium or the hothouse where I can grow.

So a duty is purely working on my connection with the group. We already know that our advancement depends only on our connection with the group. This means that we have nothing to worry about but our connection with the group that is closely available.

Then we discover the mutual guarantee, the Creator, the prayer, the MAN, in the center of the group. But first we have to establish the framework of the group. The framework of the group is first of all participating in the duties and the different activities that support the group.

So whoever thinks lightly of the duties simply loses. The group will exist without him, but he will not be able to exist without it. If he wants to discover spirituality, then he has no choice but to make haste, to incorporate in the group, and participate in everything possible in order to advance it towards unity.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/14, Writings of Rabash

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A Divine Patent

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe should try to explain to people the option of correcting themselves in a good way, since otherwise they will realize the need for change by tremendous suffering. The prophets already spoke about the terrible things that might happen to humanity if we continue to advance by the force of pressure.

A prophet sees the natural evolution of all the levels without man’s participation. But people can sweeten their predictions and limit them so that things will look totally different.

A prophet sees and accurately describes the laws of nature. A law is always the adaptation of two opposing forces on every level. This is all that exists in nature: a plus, a minus, and some adaptation between them.

The adaptation is different on every level and may be chemical, physical, biological, psychological, etc. But, there are always two opposite forces between them and any formula: from Newton or Einstein, or any chemical interaction, it doesn’t matter. It is all the same; everything is only about the interaction between opposites.

How can we show people that we are advancing towards such opposites, which have to be corrected in advance, and if we do not correct them, we should at least neutralize them?

Our correction is in two phases. First we have to remove the mutual hatred, which means to isolate the two opposite forces so that they will not be able to get close to one another. Second, we have to use the two forces correctly so they will actually spin the engine that generates positive energy.

At the same time, the first part removes the negative energy of the wrong connection between us, which is called “don’t do unto your friend what is hateful to you.” Then we become neutral.

In the second phase, we use two opposite forces, such as love and hate, by connecting the two Divine forces, placing a helpful mechanism (load) between them. This helpful load is our connection, our unity.

In other words, by connecting we actually become the load ourselves, and then the forces begin to illuminate inside us, generating the Light like a light bulb. This is the state of the future upper world.

Everything is very simple. Imagine people with opposite attributes flying towards each other about to crash, an explosion, murder, or war is about to happen. But at the same moment, a slowdown begins according to the law of “don’t do unto your friend what is hateful to you.” When the velocity diminishes, they begin to connect according to the law of “love thy friend as thyself.” Eventually instead of collisions and wars, there is suddenly love, affection, friendship, justice, and agreement.

That’s the reason that humanity’s expectation, the yearning for the right connection, is between two opposite characters called the Tabernacle.

The greatness of our forefathers is in the fact that they discovered these laws and passed them on to us with infinite care for all of humanity, so that we will be able to use them and advance along the good path.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/06/13

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 05.16.14

Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” Letter 17

[media 3] [media 4]

Workshop

[media 5] [media 6]

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts

[media 7] [media 8]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 42

[media 9] [media 10]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Giving of the Torah,” Item 4

[media 11] [media 12]