Audio Version Of The Blog – 04.27.17

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio

The Work Of A Person And That Of The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the inner work of a person, the work of the soul?”

Answer: Kabbalists call the efforts against one’s desire work.

Let’s say I want to lie down, but despite that I get up and go to work. In our world, this is what we call making an effort. But we forget that if I get up and go to work, this is already my will. It means that I overcame my desire to lie down on the couch and watch football and decided that it would be better to go to work and earn money. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to get up and set off for work to waste my energy there. Even if by overcoming, I’ve nonetheless,used my desire.

That is, I exchange one desire for another because I see this as a clear benefit. This is the physical work in our world, work that everybody performs: athletes, artists, workers, it does not matter who and how. If a person can overcome himself and accomplish something, it is his material, physical work. What if he cannot? Approach with a whip and he will want it.

In other words, if by shaming, condemning, inflicting suffering, or affecting a person in any other way it is possible to change his desire and force him to perform a particular activity, this is called the work of our world. In the end, he’ll want to do the work to avoid suffering.

By definition, spiritual work is impossible to perform. A person inherently cannot do it by himself because the upper Light or the Creator does it for him. That is why this work is called the Creator’s work.

The truth of the matter is that I have to ask the Creator to perform this work for me. Meaning that my requests and pleas are the preparation for Him to correct me—this is my work.

He has to perform the work because the property of absolute bestowal and love are completely nonexistent in the framework of my nature. And in accordance with the way I am created, I am not capable of performing the spiritual work.

That is why I have to persuade the upper Light that I really want for it to do it on my behalf. So, why would this work be written on my behalf? Because I’ve succeeded in persuading the Creator. I did everything for this to happen and that is why it’s considered my work, although it is called “the work of the Creator.” This means that He performs, but I beg and plead for it to happen.

This is the only possibility for a person’s free will in our world, in our condition.
[204704]
From KabTV’s lesson in Russian 12/18/16

Related Material:
Grateful For The Awakening From Above
One Desire, Different Intentions
There Is None Else Besides Him: The Flirting Of Lovers

Are We Guarded From Above? Part 6

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Everyone wants to make their lives as safe as possible. In Judaism there are all kinds of traditions and symbols that are regarded as means of guaranteeing protection from above: a mezuzah for the protection of the individual and their home, or prayers, such as the traveler’s prayer, the blessings of the home or the business. Shabbat also is considered to be a means of protecting the person who observes it.

Do all these methods actually guarantee our protection from misfortunes?

Answer: All these provide nothing more than a psychological effect. It gives an individual an inner experience of calm and confidence, but they do not impact the occurring events. First thing that Abraham did was to destroy all the “idols,” that is, all external symbols, that can affect our fate. This symbolized the beginning of his spiritual path.

So if today a person believes that external objects and actions can guarantee them protection from above, it is considered idol worship. Traditional commandments of Judaism are not meant to guarantee us protection in this life. Kabbalists created them in order to give people a feeling of belonging to the nation of Israel, in order for them not to forget about their connection with others, about the Torah. But by following them, they are not changing their fate.

A person donates a few cents before getting onto a bus so that the bus does not explode; he as if wants to buy for himself a kind reaction from the Creator for a dollar. But even in this way, he is connecting himself with the system, with the society. This is why I do not laugh at this tradition and view it as beneficial for the wider masses. However, that which is good on one level, is called idol worship on a higher level of development.

Question: It is said that the home with a mezuzah on its doorway is protected by the Creator. How does the mezuzah protect those who are in the house?

Answer: It does not, in no way. It provides purely psychologically comfort, a positive feeling. It is a way for a person to calm themselves. It acts like a tranquilizing pill, nothing more.

If an individual really wants to be under the protection of the upper force, he must study it and enter into contact with it. He needs to know in what way to fulfill the desire of the upper force, not to get what he wants, but to act according to the purpose of creation for the benefit of the entire system.

If he does this, then of course he becomes desirable in the eyes of the general force of the system, called Creator, and he guarantees for himself correct, positive, and fast advancement.
[205011] 
From KabTV’s “A New Life,” #818, 01/26/17

Related Material:
Are We Guarded From Above? Part 5
Are We Guarded From Above? Part 4
Are We Guarded From Above? Part 3

What Is Hatred?

laitman_570Question from Facebook: What is hatred?

Answer: Love and hatred are forces that drive a person and manage the world. What I suffer causes me to hate the source of suffering. What I enjoy causes me to love the source of pleasure. This is how these forces are expressed in our egoism. I appreciate everything only according to whether I feel bad or good as a result of whatever I encounter, as a result of the filling.

Comment: A person is usually intimidated and shaken by the word “hatred” and regards it as a very extreme situation like war or murder.

My Response: A person has to ascend a bit to the philosophic level, because we are part of nature in which there are two feelings, love and hatred, or pain and pleasure, which constantly manage us, and if it weren’t for these two opposite phenomena, we would not be able to exist. We would not be able to feel life if it weren’t for the constant feeling of love and hate.

Question: Why do you often say that true hatred exists only on the way to love?

Answer: Because that is what it is meant for. If our desire to enjoy is not filled, then we suffer, and if it is filled, we enjoy. This is what everything is based on.

It is very simple: there is a small cell and if we don’t fill it, it suffers and hates the source that doesn’t fill it. It wants to change it, convert it, and destroy it, as long as it doesn’t suffer. But if a source that fills it emerges, then the attitude toward it is called love.

There is nothing but that.

However, there are still various systems of memory and restoration systems, which build the relations between us.

Question: Does that mean that we constantly feel love and hatred toward the Creator?

Answer: Everything that we feel in the corporeal world is what we feel toward the Creator because there is none else besides Him. Everything around us are His revelations with regard to us. He sends us a feeling of suffering or of pleasure toward which we feel hatred, repulsion, or the opposite, attraction and love.

Question: If we hate someone, does that mean that we hate the Creator?

Answer: Of course, because there is none else besides Him. He is the one who organizes everything for us; all our calculations should be made only with the Creator.

If a person begins to focus himself only on the Creator and understands that only He exists before him, everything will be peaceful and good, since he knows how to manage his relations with the Creator. He knows what he has to do so the Creator will be felt as good, fulfilling, loving, and kind with regard to him. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah is about.
[201246]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/18/16

Related Material:
Hatred Is The Beginning Of Love
Roadmap To The Creator
Loving The Tough Father

The Problem Of Our Time

laitman_603Question: I want to marry, to love, to give my warmth and caring, but men are not ready for this kind of relationship. Why have I not succeeded in marrying?

Answer: This is the problem of our time. We have not changed the economic and familial situation that was typical of all peoples until recently: family, wife, children, home, yard, the husband went to work and brought home the salary. In all areas in life, a normal order and way of life prevailed.

With the rise of capitalism, the spread of factories, etc., women began to break away from men and men from women. New relationships appeared, the need for family disappeared. Men and women began to provide for themselves separately. Children began to be disconnected from their parents and avoided their influence. In other words, the development of capitalism destroyed the family.

Question: Could the reason for this be that people are now living much longer? In the past, they lived together for 10 to 15 years, and today they are living together for 60 years. How is it possible to endure that?

Answer: Indeed, this is also a problem.
[204438]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/4/16

Related Material:
Why Are There So Many Single Women?
Why Marry?!
Men And Women: You Cannot Eliminate The Differences

Perception Of The Kabbalist

laitman_751_2Question: Quantum physicists have established that electrons behave either as waves or as particles. When we observe them, they behave like particles of matter.

Answer: Scientists say that there is no matter as such, but there are only waves that manifest as matter relative to us.

Question: It turns out that if I look at the ten through my egoism, then I see ten bodies. If I look at them through eyes that aren’t influenced by egoism, I would see some kind of energy, some kind of force, instead of the bodies. Is this how the Kabbalist perceives everything?

Answer: The Kabbalist within his egoism sees everything the same way all other people do. But by rising above the ego, he begins to see forces, desires.
[205308]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/11/16

Related Material:
Who Can See The True Reality?
The Objective Perception Of The World
The Entire Universe is Within a Man

Employer-Employee Relations

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What should the employer-employee relations be like if both study the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: They would be like ordinary relations. At work, you are the boss, the manager, and I am the worker, and in spirituality, we are friends and are absolutely equal! These two relationships have nothing to do with each other. There is no difference between the two parties in a friendly unity.
[205221]

Related Material:
Two Parts Of The Same Group
“Friend” Means Equal
We Are A Group

“You Shall Make A Guard Rail For Your Roof”

laitman_232_06Torah, Deuteronomy 22:08: When you build a new house, you shall make a guard rail for your roof, so that you shall not cause blood [to be spilled] in your house, that the one who falls should fall from it [the roof].

The roof of the house is a screen through which we come in contact with the Creator. Therefore, it is necessary to make sure that no one can use it to harm himself.

This rule also comes from the fact that, firstly, the roof was once considered the safest place where one could hide from wild animals. Therefore, it served as a refuge for sleep.

Secondly, in the Mediterranean climate, the houses were very hot and people slept on the roofs in the cool. The law to create a fence (Maake) on the roofs comes precisely from this fact, and this direction must be strictly enforced.

Therefore, in Israel the roof of each house is fenced.

The inner meaning of this commandment is that in this way you must build your screen, like in a Sukkah (in a hut). Through it, the upper Light comes to you from above and your desires ascend.

Therefore, there should be a restriction on all impure desires in the screen so that no one can use it to harm. After all, if you use the screen for your own sake, it collapses and this is considered a descent.
[204280]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book,” 9/28/16

Related Material:
A System That Protects From The Upper Light
To Cover The Earth In The Sukkah Of The Light Of Correction.
Come Out Of Your Reliable Home And Dwell In A Booth

Convention In Chile “Day Two” – 04.27.17

Convention in Chile, “We are all one 2017” in America, “There Is None Else Beside Him,” Lesson 3

[media 1] [media 2]

Convention in Chile, “We are all one 2017” in America, “Concealment & Disclosure,” Lesson 4

[media 3] [media 4]

Convention in Chile, “We are all one 2017” in America, “Covenant,” Lesson 5

[media 5] [media 6]