Audio Version Of The Blog – 04.30.15

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The Unlimited Power Of The Mind

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe geneticist Bruce Lipton claims that a person can overcome any illness by using the power of the mind, and that a focused mental effect can change the body’s genetic code.

Doctors have known for ages about the placebo effect: that by believing in the power of a certain medicine, a person can change the physiological processes in his body, even down to the molecular level, thus changing his genetic code. This can be achieved in different ways: by a special diet, by the influence of a powerful medium or by certain physical exercises. But Lipton believes that the most powerful effect on our health is actually the mind.

The main difference between man and other living creatures is that man can change his body and heal himself from hereditary and terminal diseases by mentally instructing the body. The problem is that only few of those who believe in the power of self-healing using mind power really do believe in it and are therefore successful. Most people subconsciously deny this option. In order to achieve self-healing, we have to overcome the barrier that is placed by our subconscious so that we will be able to influence our mind and thus the cellular processes and the genetic code.

My Comment: I believe that nothing is stronger than the  power of the mind, and that it is easier to control this power in a collective when a person annuls himself, lowers his psychological barrier, and allows others to influence him.
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How Does One Become Independent?

Dr. Michael LaitmanIndependence is a very vague and problematic concept. What does it mean to be independent in a world in which we are all connected together? How is it possible to be independent if I am connected with thousands of threads to all kinds of government institutions, businesses, and people?

A much deeper question is concealed here. As the wisdom of Kabbalah says, a person is a desire to receive, a desire for pleasure, and at every moment in his life, he searches for how to attain as many comforts as possible: sitting, getting up, moving, lying down, trying something, eating, looking at something, hearing something. If I must do something, how can I do it in the most comfortable and easy manner, expending the least energy?

Ultimately, we are managed by the laws of nature. We want to enjoy and get the most while giving and suffering minimally. If I am built like this, then what does it mean to be independent? How can I be independent? It is written: “The dead are free.” So will I become free only after I die and my body no longer requires anything?

And how is it possible to become free? How does a healthy person living in this world become independent if I depend on many thousands of sources of pleasure, food, air, work, my children, and my wife, basically on everything. Each one of these can exert pressure on me and affect me. I cannot be independent. Maybe only if I escape to another galaxy will I become free, but this is not called independence.

We must understand that there can be no independence as long as a person does not abandon his desire to receive, his nature. In my egoistic nature I can never be independent, because I depend on everything and everyone. I cannot live without children, without a wife, without friends, without all the people. Today I cannot live without all of humanity, for everything that I have in my house has embedded within it a particle of the labor from the entire world. So independence is impossible if I think of how to fulfill myself, for then I require everyone and depend on everyone.

Theoretically, a person can be independent when he stops being concerned about himself and begins to enjoy bestowal to others. If I can live like this, not getting enjoyment from taking from everyone all the time but through giving and bestowing to others, then I become independent. I need everyone so I can bestow and give to them and receive pleasure from bestowing. Then I am independent and free since I don’t depend on them in the same way that I did in order to receive pleasure from them.

Ultimately, I have no possibility of enjoying through reception, but only through bestowal. For with reception I depend on others, whereas with bestowal, they depend on me. And so I can be higher than everyone, I can become truly independent. I can feel myself as their lord in the sense that I am higher than them, but love them. And because I bestow and give to them, by fulfilling them, I enjoy without any restriction on their part. We attain such a state that the wisdom of Kabbalah describes as the future of humanity, when everyone bestows and gives to others and feels himself independent.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 4/19/15

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Letters Of The Higher System

laitman_610_1The Ari, “Shaar HaKavanot” (Gates of Intention): The first Katnut (smallness) of the Tachton (lower one), from NHY de Ima, the Tevuna phase, is called Elohim (א-ל-ה-י-ם), Din (judgment).

The second Katnut of the Elyon (upper one), from the HGT de Ima, in Bina, the Dinim are not revealed as they are in Tevuna, so this is called AHDTM (א-כ-ד-ט-ם), which is obtained by replacing the letters with the letters before it.

There is no letter before Aleph, and so it cannot be transformed. But Lamed is replaced by the Kaf before it. Hey is replaced with the Dalet before it. Yod is replaced with Tet before it. The final Mem – is replaced with the open Mem before it. And since it is impossible for it to remain open at the end of a word, it is written as a final Mem.

Imagine that we are in an inquiry and are beginning to differentiate between the forces, between the origins of the forces, the results of the forces that act on us, our participation in these forces reveals the higher system before us. The more we discover the system, the more we can understand how it works and functions. As a result of such an investigation, articles like these appear. Before us is a scientific article that explains the action of the higher system that manages us.

Question: What does the replacement of letters and their combination mean? What are “front” and “back”?

Answer: Front and back are Ohr Yashar (Direct Light) and Ohr Hozer (Reflected Light), a level and its interior. There are various combinations and replacements of letters. Originally, each letter has its character as a complex structure. A letter is a desire to receive that has a Tzimtzum (restriction), Masach (screen) on it and Aviut (thickness/will to receive). The letter is completely enveloped in Light and so it maintains its particular form that indicates its relationship in regard to the Light. So the letter is called a “box,” a letter.

For every letter, meaning for every particular state, there exists a state before it and the next state, the higher and the lower. There are states that happen simultaneously, from right and from left. There are states that are a reflection from the ten Sefirot of the Elyon on the ten Sefirot of the Tachton, so all of the Sefirot of Hochma are connected, all the Sefirot of Bina are connected, and so on.

Even though the Light gradually passes through other Sefirot, through all the letters, all the stations, it passes through a particular wave that is perceived only through the Sefirot of the same name; Ohr Bina is perceived only through the Sefirot of Bina and Ohr Hochma is perceived only through the Sefirot of Hochma.

The connection between a Sefira and all the rest of the Sefirot, and the connection between those types of Sefirot are completely different types of connection. It is just as the health department connects all the doctors in the country. Along with this, doctors have a multitude of other connections, with other departments, with the family, and so forth.

That is how the system is built. In order to express these connections we need symbols to describe them. The combinations of letters make it possible for us to do this. And yet, this is not a sufficient description. Only someone who feels and recognizes these states in himself, when looking at the letters, he can implement, examine, and then understand about what they are talking.

No language, not even all the languages together, can express the integral connection. With the help of a limited language and a “slice” it is impossible to express wholeness. So the Kabbalists don’t describe the entire spiritual system. They only indicate signposts on the way for those who follow them, and so that we will have Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light).
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/14, Writings of the Ari

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The Devious Snake’s Game

laitman_527_03Baal HaSulam, Shamati #86, “And They Built Store – Cities”: There is yet another saying in The Zohar, that the serpent bows its head and strikes with its tail. This means that sometimes it lets one take upon himself the burden of faith above reason, which is the bowing of the head, but it strikes with the tail.

At first, the ego allows a person to advance since the Sitra Achra (other side) needs Light. If a person doesn’t advance, he will not receive anything. Therefore, the evil inclination operates in a devious manner and seems to free a person, allowing him to run ahead in order to attain success, to understand and to feel more.

Then, the ego grabs the person and swallows him again. Then it releases him in order to swallow him once more. This is how the ego plays with us like a cat with a mouse.

This is the meaning of Pharaoh bringing them near. It is explained that he deliberately brought Israel to repentance, so as to afterwards take everything from them into his own authority. This is why the Ari wrote that Pharaoh sucked all the abundance that came down to the lower ones. He sucked from the Oref and from the throat, which is considered the head of the body, meaning it would take everything in its vessels of reception.

The main thing is not to despair. After all, a person sees that he doesn’t attain anything despite his great yearning for connection, understanding, feeling and working in dissemination, and doing everything he was required to. Suddenly, he falls into the ego again and even to a worse state than before.

This reoccurs many times in the duration of 400 years. The main thing here is the support of the group, taking on a regular duties he ties himself tightly. It is better if the group notices his work so that if he falls, the group immediately pays attention to that and begins to take care of him.

A person works like a piston: He advances, yearning to reach bestowal, and wants to do anything in order to attain that, but then—boom—everything turns the other way around, and he falls into egoism; the snake strikes with his tail and swallows all the results. Then, a person runs forward once again, full of strength and the spirit of life hoping to feel and to attain everything, and, once again, falls powerlessly, despairing that the desire to enjoy took everything.

A person must go through many such states, and no one knows when they are going to end. After all, the darkness of Egypt awaits us at the end. First, we advance from the seven years of satiety to the seven years of hunger and then to the plagues of Egypt, after which comes pitch darkness. In the darkness, we suddenly and hurriedly come out of Egypt.

We cannot know what is about to happen a moment before the exodus at midnight. Therefore, we must grow stronger. Everything is based on one simple principle: “…that he swallowed riches, and then he vomits them up again…” The desire to enjoy swallows the attributes of bestowal that a person wants to reach time after time. The ego takes all that and pulls a person inward.

Eventually, the ego is suffocated and cannot contain everything that it has swallowed. After all, the desire to bestow reaches a critical point in the desire to enjoy, and then there is an explosion, and a person is freed of the domination of the ego.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/14, Shamati #86

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The Common Work Between The Person And The Creator

laitman_236_01Our work is divided into two parts: clarification and correction. Both the clarification and correction are done by the Light that reforms, but no operation, neither the clarification nor the correction, can be carried out without our demand.

The demand is called prayer, the elevation of MAN, desire. The desire is required so that the Light will influence and implement precisely what we ask for, in other words, that the creature discovers a greater and greater desire to resemble the Creator, to rise level after level.

With the help of more and more precise clarification of all the details, a person can bring himself to accommodation, meaning an even greater closeness to the Creator. So, if there were no changes at every moment within the person, he wouldn’t turn in the right direction with the right request, so he wouldn’t get a response, an answer, a discovery, and a change; that is how it is throughout life.

If his state is not changed, he is found on the animate level. Only if changes happen in him as a result of the previous states in which it was clear to him that he raised MAN (a prayer), is he then called an Adam (man). After all, he builds himself with the help of the Light that Reforms, with the help of the Torah. This is, as it is written, “Torah was not given except to those who eat the manna” (Midrash Tanhuma, BeShalach, section 20).

So, through common effort with the help of the Arvut (mutual guarantee), responsibility and mutual support, we constantly need to help everyone, not just ourselves, and we always must be concerned that the entire world group will be raising MAN, in prayer, with a feeling of the need and the imperative for the right direction and the right form.

To turn correctly, many conditions must be met simultaneously. It is written, “…none might enter within the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth” (Esther 4:2); and we need to precede the request with a blessing, for this opens the person and organizes him correctly toward the upper Light, toward the higher level. It is up to him to arrange his relationships with the group so that his request will be adjusted to the higher level, to what the King is ready to hear from him.

The prayer must go out from the depths of the heart, must rise to be a general prayer for all, full of praise, thanksgiving, and happiness. For any bottleneck and sorrow there must be joy because this unique situation was given to him from above, and he wants to connect even more with the Creator, and all of this is not for his personal benefit, but to be concerned for the collective soul and to make the Creator happy.

Ultimately, our work is concentrated on raising a prayer, MAN, and we prepare the prayer through all the previous processes, through the changes in the human characteristics, beginning from Adam to Abraham. After that, the Avot (Fathers) are awakened in him, even though he doesn’t feel this and, after that, reaches a particular feeling of exile. All of this is so that, ultimately, he will get the method of correction and will know how to turn toward the Creator.

Each time his appeal has to be more precise, right on the same wavelength that the upper one is ready to absorb. All of the conditions are always arranged according to a person’s level; he is required only to perform work he is capable of. It is according to the internal and external conditions that he gets—group, teacher, books and study—that the person is ready to design the right demand. And, in response to the right demand, the MAD (Male waters) comes. If he raises a deficiency, then he gets power from above, Mayin Duchrin (MAD), overcoming clothed in water. That is how the person acquires the power with whose help he will be able to realize himself.

Precisely according to his previous request, according to the raising of MAN, in response, the person receives an answer (MAD), and he knows exactly what to do with it. So, it is written, “…his seed is blessed” (Psalms 37:26). That is how the person advances from the realization of the MAD to clarify an additional, greater deficiency, and he searches for new opportunities to bestow to the Creator, meaning to make it possible for the Creator to bestow to the creatures.

So, the person again searches for how to think about the creatures and not about himself and how to think about the Creator not about himself and about the creatures. That is how he organizes the next MAN.

Every time, he will understand, feel, and adjust himself more and more to the higher form. The person and the Creator become partners, and they work together to benefit the souls. The person asks for their sake, and the Creator implements his request. The request, the deficiency, comes from the side of the person, and the fulfillment comes for all of the souls from the side of the Creator.

Therefore, the person adheres to the Creator with his point in the heart, thanks to their common work. After all, all of the intentions of both of them are directed only toward the benefit of one soul that they see as a place for common concern, connection, and love. All of this is revealed within all of the souls.

So, it seems that a man, the Creator and Divinity, the entire community of souls are found in adhesion with each other.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/14, Writing of Rabash

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Four Angels

laitman_281_02Baal HaSulam, from the article, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 14: Now we have found the opening to the above study regarding the four sects, Mercy, Righteousness, Truth, and Peace, which negotiated with the Creator regarding man’s creation. These angels are servants of man’s soul; hence, He negotiated with them, since the whole act of Creation was created according to them, as each and every soul consists of ten Sefirot in Ohr Pnimi and Ohr Makif.

  • Mercy is the Inner Light (Ohr Pnimi) of the first nine of the soul.
  • Righteousness is the Ohr Pnimi of the Malchut of the soul.
  • Truth is the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) of the soul.

And Peace is the integration between the three previous characteristics that are impossible to attain. Peace claims that the person “is all strife.” In other words, the opposition between Ohr Pnimi (Inner Light) and Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light) is so great that it is impossible to overcome it.

The four angels are four parts of the Kli that want to receive in order to bestow and resemble the Creator in this way. The Ohr Pnimi and the Ohr Makif act within the first nine Sefirot and within the Malchut of the internal and external.

With the completion of correction, all of these angels will become absolutely satisfied and until then, all of them will not be pleased. This is because the Kelim are not filled with their intended Lights. Ohr Pnimi and Ohr Makif oppose each other and come to beat each other.

The angel of peace is intended to assemble the entire structure with the help of all the components, but he cannot understand how to do this. There is no way to solve this problem. This is our situation. All of the states described in the books of the Kabbalists are about the relationships between Zeir Anpin and Malchut, the ascent of Malchut and its descent, the seven periods of the Nukva, the states of Katnut (Smallness), Gadlut (Adulthood), and so on; all of these are states of the yearning of the person for connection with others.

We go through states like these, and the book says what we must do with our inner characteristics to connect with others with their help. With connection, we reach the ten, complete Sefirot and attain divinity.

The angels are the forces that are active within us. There are forces by means of which I can connect slightly, and they are called mercy and righteousness. There is a force with which I cannot connect between them, and its name is truth. I am not prepared to reach truth because I am living an absolute lie. It is impossible for all of the Ohr Makif to enter into me.

Even with the angel of Peace, I don’t know what to do. What kind of peace can there be in me if there is no completion and wholeness within me? These states are discovered in my relationships with the group or with all of humanity. To the degree of the discovery of the right relationship, I clarify that the group is only the wrapping in which I discover the higher power, the power of bestowal, the Creator.

All of The Study of the Ten Sefirot talks about what is happening within us, within our desires and in relationships with others, but in terms of a high psychology. We don’t feel what is happening with us inside, and the Kabbalists want to explain this to us to help reveal our inner characteristics and forces and begin to work with them.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/14, Writing of Baal HaSulam

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 04.30.15

Writings of Rabash “Letter 59” 

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The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts 

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 9, Item 1

[media 5] [media 6]

Writings of Rabash “Rungs of the Ladder,” Item 26 

[media 7] [media 8]

Audio Version Of The Blog – 04.29.15

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A Limousine As A Gift To A Sworn Enemy

Laitman_733From an article by Rabash, “What Is the Blessing, ‘…who has made for me a miracle in this place’ in the work?”: As it is written, “We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt” (Deuteronomy 6:21), being that they endured suffering in Egypt and it also says, “…and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage….” (Exodus 2:23), so the idea of the Mitzvah (commandment) “Remembrance of Egypt” was given to us, as it is written, “…that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life” (Deuteronomy 16:3).

This is not saying that the slavery in Egypt was difficult; rather, the difficulty was in the inability to bestow. I am ready to work and do everything necessary, but I don’t see that in some way I will at least bestow to the Creator through this. This is called, “exile” and “slavery.”

Pharaoh siphons all the results of my labor from me; everything goes to him. This doesn’t speak about the difficulty of the work, but about its result. After all, I cannot give the Creator any satisfaction. “The children of Israel sighed” because of that, and not because their work was difficult.

Without any connection to the difficulty of the work, it is difficult for me to see that I am not ready to bestow to the Creator in at least some way. This is a very important discernment. The cry was not from fatigue and exhaustion from the work; rather, this is only speaking about the relationship with the Creator. After all, I see that my sworn hater takes all of my effort.

This is a very strong feeling. Imagine that everything that you earned in this world went to your most hated enemy. Let’s say that you saved up some money for a period of time; you dreamed of buying a limousine and suddenly you see that there is no money and your neighbor is driving a new limousine.

Comment: The greatest frustration in the seven years of famine is that you continue to do the same work; you invest in the group and in dissemination as in the seven years of plenty, and you know that Pharaoh will get all the results and you will be even more discouraged.

Answer: No, you think that you are working “for the sake of bestowal.” And in the end, when you vigorously did all of this work with love and devotion, it suddenly turns out that all of this was for your sake and the Creator didn’t get anything. Nothing is considered to be bestowal and you are an even worse egoist than before. This is the slavery in exile.

And the problem is not that this cost you a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, but rather that the result didn’t reach the right destination, that the Creator didn’t get any satisfaction. And I am not sorry because He didn’t get any pleasure from me; rather, it is because through my action I didn’t succeed in giving Him satisfaction (even though I am in concealment from Him). A person climbs the ladder of detachment from himself and sees how much Pharaoh doesn’t let him bestow.

Question: I can’t imagine how it is possible to be detached from Pharaoh so that all the fruits of my labor will go to the Creator.

Answer: If part of your heart is found with the Creator, then you will feel this, like with your children and people who are close to you. Therefore it is said, “As one person with one heart.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/14, Writings of Rabash

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