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Healing Through Pain

Laitman_198Question: Pain is one of the common indicators we are confronted with when talking about health or its absence. We strive to be released from pain in all possible ways and methods. However, certainly, doesn’t the mechanism of pain have a function?

Answer: First of all, when we are talking about some phenomenon, we must understand its origin. The source of the nervous system, like all systems, all of matter, life, and creatures, is the desire to receive. Primitive organisms have no nervous systems, but only a kind of transfer of acids and electric fluctuations characteristic of atoms and molecules.

To the degree of the growth of the desire, a body develops unique systems within it that are concerned about its well-being, health, and feeling good. On a particular level, together with the other systems in the body, the nervous system develops.

Systems of good and evil support each other and pain protects us. Without pain, I would not feel my hand nearing fire or that some disturbances are happening in the body. So, remedies for relieving pain are, in fact, contrary to nature.

Pain develops on several levels. Sometimes, it is difficult to separate physical, corporeal, and mental pain, pain from the past, the present, or future, my pain and the pain of someone I love or hate. Here, we suddenly begin to exit our bodies and participate in the feeling of pain or its opposite, happiness, in external systems according to the degree of connection with them, regardless of their being good or bad.

Why must lovers fight sometimes? Why is it impossible to live like two angels on a rosy cloud? This is because, in this way, they can feel the limitations between them and their degree of penetration into each other. Pain contains a lot of information, like an electrical discharge through which it is possible to convey great amounts of data.

It is clear that we are linked with each other through our physiological systems, but, among them, there is a particular pronounced complexity to the pain system. It reaches very high levels, moving from physical pain to mental and spiritual pain. Sometimes, depression can be helpful. It never has been as exaggeratedly emphasized as it is today.

Depressive states stop a person and relax him. They are aroused for him to get along correctly where he is, not to get any closer to other people because of the risk of epidemics. Depression now rises from a corporeal level to a mental level and even the spiritual system.

This becomes a big problem for modern medicine that, as far as it seems, doesn’t feel sufficient profitability in this direction, so it doesn’t get involved with it.

In fact, through happiness and good influences on a person, we definitely can heal most illnesses. Without a doubt, this is relevant to modern diseases like cancer, heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes.

Question: Is there a difference between pain and suffering?

Answer: Suffering is relevant to systems connected to understanding the source of pain. It is associated with a feeling of guilt, dependence or interdependence on someone. Suffering is more relevant to a state of mind than it is to a physiological feeling.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/9/14

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The Kabbalists About The Nation Of Israel And The Nations Of The World, Part 10

The Mission of the People of Israel

…And the internality of the world, too, which are Israel, shall rise in all their merit and virtue over the externality of the world, which are the nations. Then, all the nations of the world will recognize and acknowledge Israel’s merit over them.

And they shall follow the words (Isaiah 14, 2), “And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord.” And also (Isaiah 49, 22), “And they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.”

That is what is written in The Zohar (Nasoh, p 124b), “through this composition,” which is The Book of Zohar, “they will be delivered from exile with mercy.” Amen, would that be so.”
Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”, Item 71

…the blessing of peace in the whole world precedes the strength, meaning the redemption, because “God did not find a vessel to hold the blessing for Israel but peace.”
Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”
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The Children Of The Universe, Part 10

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You are saying that up until now we have been studying nature in a limited, subjective manner, since we base our studies on our ego that limits every research.

This means that we shouldn’t invent new telescopes, microscopes and particle accelerators, but actually something that is totally different. What kind of instrument do we need in order to study the universe?

Answer: We need a new program for mankind. Nature has made us egoists, and in that sense, we are not very different from the animate level. We have only invented different tools and instruments and now we have atom bombs and other such weapons in our hands instead of a stick. We have advanced in the same direction through our evolution.

But if we want to really exit our bubble and don’t want to keep on being the worm that lives inside the bitter radish and who perceives it as its whole world, we need to pay more attention and make more efforts to the acquiring of a second nature. We have to try to program ourselves anew in that direction so that the two types of nature will be integrated inside us: both our old nature that receives and the new nature that bestows and gives.

Then we will really see the other half of the universe, of the world, or even worlds, and we would also see the reason for everything that happens. It is actually by studying the nature of bestowal that we attain and learn about our root and its plan. Otherwise, if we stay inside, we will not discover or know anything about ourselves and will simply continue to improve our mechanical and technological toys and nothing more than that.

The new level is a person’s inner technology, without any clever tricks that we created through the ego. It is a method of acquiring the power of bestowal, and is part of nature that we only have to take out so that it will be dressed in us and form the system of a parallel perception within us.

Question: How will this affect our daily lives?

Answer: First of all, we will discover how and what we should live for and how to improve our lives. The universe itself originated from these two forces, and by establishing the mutual cooperation of these two systems of receiving and bestowal within it, we rise above them to the thought that created the universe. Thus we actually, and not just symbolically, ascend to an eternal infinite state.

Generally speaking, we develop towards this basic question one way or the other. It isn’t just a question about the reason for our sufferings and the meaning of our bitter life, but about the basic initial reason, about its purpose. Only the universe will be able to provide us with an answer when we ascend above the egoistic attraction, which for the time being, is symbolized by our planet earth.

Question: Where is the field of work in which we can properly develop the forces of bestowal inside us? Is it about my relations with the universe or with other people?

Answer: It is about relationships with other people, because they are actually the most developed matter. It is by mutual cooperation and by my interactions with them that I can develop a second nature.

This enables me to discover new things in the universe. When I exit myself, I see a different dimension through the prism of the force of bestowal in which space has no meaning. I look at the world above matter.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 3/2/14

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Short Stories: From Wandering In The Desert To The Last Exile

Dr. Michael LaitmanAfter standing at Mount Sinai, the people of Israel began the process of internal self-correction called the forty years of wandering in the desert.

Forty years stands for a period of time (although it has nothing to do with actual time, but indicates a certain number of steps) covered while rising from complete egoism and correcting its portions to the point of attaining complete altruism.

However, it doesn’t mean that they were connected to the Creator. They reached a state of only standing in front of Him, but not yet merging with Him. Even though the property of mutual bestowal was already shaped in them, they didn’t ascend to the degree of reciprocal love.

At this point, they had to implement another tendency called mutual love, i.e., to transition from a condition of “not doing to others what they didn’t want for themselves” to “loving their neighbors as themselves.”

The first criterion was achieved in the desert and signified that all of them would never have a desire or a thought of harming others no matter how beneficial it seemed to them.

And yet, it is not the degree that allowed them to reach the level of loving thy neighbor as thyself, which is a prerequisite for the restoration of huge, universal, internal egoism and re-directing it towards altruism and connection with others.

This level can be reached in the process of conquering the land of Israel, where seven nations (seven gigantic egoistic qualities) had to be overcome and surmounted. This process is called the war of liberation. In other words, conquering the nations, making them leave the land or killing them stands for modifying​ the ​egoism that is associated with the last step of correction in the land of Israel.

By internally correcting, the Israelis attained the state called the Temple, i.e., they achieved the revelation of the Creator among them that kept them united for about 800 years before the Temple was destroyed.

This period of time was full of numerous twists and turns, rapid ascents and crucial downfalls, wars with Rome and Greece, and various local conflicts. The only reason for these events taking place was to enhance the connections among the people of Israel.

The people reached the state of correction and attained the Creator. They knew the purpose of their lives and realized that they existed in the eternal, perfect, infinite world. Their physical actions and spiritual attainment were inseparable. However, they began gradually sliding down from this height until they completely lost it.

The question is why was this situation created if they reached the state of complete correction?! It was given to them in order to correct the Babylonians throughout the world. They still remained at an egoistic degree of ancient Babylon, at a low, selfish level. The Babylonians had not gone through the stage of Egypt or did the stage of the golden calf.

This explains why the people of Israel, who stood way above their egoism, fell from their degree and reached the level of other nations, but still preserved a huge egoistic potential.

Here is the point when the antagonism between the people of Israel and the Babylonians (the rest of humanity) appeared. The nations of the world do not associate the people of Israel with this material civilization this people do not feel like they belong to this world. There is something strange, not like other peoples.

It can be felt through numerous tiny details. No matter how much some Israelis want to be similar to other nations that inhabit our planet, they just cannot be similar to them, since they do not come from this world. Instead, they fell from spirituality to this realm.
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From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/22/14

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What A Pleasure It Is To Delight Others!

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur advancement along the spiritual path is divided into two phases. During the first phase, a person cannot and is unable to connect himself to the Creator, and the Light doesn’t have much influence on him. In the second phase, he begins to feel that there is a certain connection, a certain relation to the Creator, thanks to the influence of the Light.

He doesn’t really understand where it comes from, but he begins to notice it. It is just like in ordinary life when you don’t notice a certain person and all of a suddenly he becomes important to you and you begin to think about him and take him into account. The same thing happens with the Creator. A person begins to assess the states he is in, to check and examine whether there is any connection with the Creator, if it will delight Him, if He will enjoy it, and if He will respond to it.

Just like in any other process of development, the change is the result of the influence of the Light that Reforms. A person begins to pay attention to whether he relates to the Creator in any way in his actions and thoughts, how the Creator relates to him, and whether He is happy and enjoys it.

Here the image that he has of the Creator is important: Does he identify the Creator with the attribute of love and bestowal that is revealed in the public, in the people?

Baal HaSulam, Shamati #19: Also, one needs to conduct oneself with the will to receive and say to it, “I have already decided that I do not want to receive any pleasure because you want to enjoy. This is because with your desire I am forced to be separated from the Creator, since disparity of form causes separation and distance from the Creator.”

This determines what side a person is on. The more important it is to him that the Creator receives benefit, the less he notices his own benefit and the more personal pleasure he receives by delighting the Creator. This becomes the most important benefit for him.
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From 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/11/14, Shamati #19

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Real Love And Not Hypnosis

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How will an integral system help me cope with fear? Now I know only that I have no money in my wallet.

Answer: First, it is important to establish a proper relationship with family members, then with the environment. A person depends on the environment. All that is in his apartment was obtained through society.

Each individual is dependent on society and cannot be disconnected from it.  So let’s see how we can tie ourselves to the society so that everyone feels comfortable and, at the same time, feels responsible. Then there will be more confidence.

We must introduce a question of reciprocity between money and egoism and a requirement to be considerate towards others. Otherwise we would eat each other, like a cancer eats an entire body.

All this has to be explained gradually, attracting the evidence of scholars and the media so that a person would learn it in its entirety. We’re talking about feelings, the ones that gnaw at us and are impossible to neutralize with money: fear, worry, uncertainty.

Question: Why can a society give me, as a person, the warmth and confidence, which I myself cannot achieve?

Answer: Confidence, warmth, love, and a pleasant sensation are received from the outside, and depend entirely on the environment, and never on one’s self or one’s inner feelings. We can influence you so that we can take you through all the senses, from one extreme to the other. We will fill all of your bodily material desires with the optimal basket of consumption and all your human aspirations above this basket. What else?

A person should be able to keep himself in the inner equilibrium, inner harmony, and to feel good. Can it be completely healthy? Yes, and is due to the positive vibrations that emanate from society. And this is the real state, not an illusion or hypnosis.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 9/3/14

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 11.18.14

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 15 

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The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “Introduction,” “The Eleventh Commandment,” Item 244

[media 3] [media 4]

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, Item 49 

[media 5] [media 6]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 70

[media 7] [media 8]