Entries in the 'Lectures' Category

Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 1/7/22, Part 2

962.6Question: How can I check whether I am causing harm to the society?

Answer: We have to check and adjust ourselves so we act solely for the benefit of the group.

Question: Why should a person try to become the lowly part of the body and not its higher part like a heart or a head?

Answer: Because one needs to annul oneself.

Question: Yesterday I heard that we are not annulling our egoism, but are rising above it. Today I hear that we are to annul our egoism. Could you please explain?

Answer: You can hear many different things: how we destroy something, burn it, behead it, and so on. Here we mean intentions for our own sake. But desires themselves remain, and we correct them by adding the correct intentions to them.

Question: When I annul myself in the ten, I feel the state of light, happiness, joy, and love. How do I know that this is not egoistic joy but that it comes from the Creator?

Answer: Enter the group again with these desires and intentions and check if this is perceived correctly by all the friends. Then you will know.

Question: Does the process of annulment, growth, and birth repeat itself?

Answer: It is a repetitive process at each degree. It is, of course, in different qualities but at each degree.

Question: What remains of a person after he has managed to annul himself in an ideal way?

Answer: What remains is a Kli (vessel) that gets filled with the upper light, the revelation of the Creator.

Question: What does it mean to ascend if our goal is to bring contentment to the Creator? What should I think about when I annul myself?

Answer: Think exactly about this: I am doing this in order to bring contentment to the Creator, to become equal to Him, close to Him, and to adhere to Him.

Question: What should I do if I no longer understand what annulment is? Is it that I ask the Creator for the friends as a great one asks for the small ones because this is adhesion with the Creator?

Answer: Annulment is when I replace my concerns with the concerns of the group. This is called annulment. Everything else is just words.

Question: If at least one friend in the ten does not annul himself, will the ten not be able to feel the Creator?

Answer: It does not matter. The main thing is that there should be at least two friends who can annul before each other.

Question: If a person successfully annuls himself through the group, does this allow him to create a personal Kli?

Answer: Of course. I cannot be responsible for others. I am trying to do everything I can by annulling myself toward others.

Question: How can we not confuse annulment with indifference or laziness?

Answer: Annulment is not laziness and indifference. In order to annul, I have to work very seriously on myself.

Question: What qualities strengthen the desire of everyone to annul before the ten?

Answer: By what he sees in the friends.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Annulling before the Friends” Lesson 2

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Impressions From The Convention

938.03Question: Why did I have such strong fluctuations of good and bad states and feelings at this convention?

Answer: We have reached such a state where we really begin to connect in one common powerful Kli (vessel) that can accumulate such energy in our hearts that the Creator will be revealed in them. We are already approaching this state. In this regard, this convention is special. It is not formal, it is more internal, and it is already collective.

Question: It seems that at this convention we were dissolving in one desire. We felt differently than at other conventions. We wanted to advance and reach the goal. What does this show us?

Answer: This shows that we are already in the correct state and we only need to increase it. I feel the same way and I am very happy about this convention.

Question: The desire to unite brought us together. And women had a desire for a prayer of such strength that both the heart would respond and the mind would agree. What can we do to achieve this result?

Answer: You must mentally embrace the entire Bnei Baruch so that all of us can feel warm and joyful, light in the heart, and soft inside. And continue in this state. You can do it.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Adhering to the Friends” Lesson 3

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Ascend By Faith Above Reason

233Question: What is the connection between bestowal and faith above reason, and what is primary here?

Answer: Faith above reason is the Kli (vessel) that we create, and bestowal is the force, the work of the Kli directed at each other and at the Creator. We will gradually begin to feel all this.

Question: If I see all the friends in the ten as the Creator, does this mean that I am building the Kli of faith above reason?

Answer: Yes. The only question is, is it really so or are you deceiving yourself. But we are yet to learn to check ourselves, to measure, and to weigh faith above reason. And so we will move forward. Each stage will be different both in content and power.

Question: Is it called faith above reason when I already feel love toward the ten and that it is not a game?

Answer: In this case, it is considered that you must ascend to the next step.

In regards to the next step, you are still in an egoistic state. You will again have to apply the same methods as the rest, that is, to ascend by faith above reason because everyone who is higher, his egoism is greater. We cannot escape this work; it is the same for everyone.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Going with Faith above Reason” Lesson 5

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A Disturbance Is Help From The Creator

962.1Question: When rejection from friends appears, how should one work with it practically?

Answer: It is very simple: clench your teeth, raise the greatness of the Creator and the greatness of the goal to the point that you thank Him for giving you such contradictions and disturbances because it is now clear to you that by rising above them, you are rising to Him.

In our world, in our states, there is nothing more correct, more reasonable than when a problem is put before us. In this case, it is clear to you that if you overcome it, you will get closer to the Creator. That is, it is a hint and help from the Creator.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/6/22, “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us” Lesson 1

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What Can You Demand From Friends?

528.02To advance toward the goal, I can demand  greater rapprochement and love from the friends despite all their negative qualities.

If we would unite with each other today, now, with all our negativity, rejection, distrust, unwillingness, and so on, we would definitely reveal the Creator all the way to final correction (Gmar Tikkun).

There is no other way out, so we are advancing in that manner. We have only one way— to rise, as we call it, above our sins, i.e., our neglect and distance from each other.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends” Lesson 4

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The Great Kabbalists’ Gain

544Question: In our world, it is accepted that the small is annulled before the great. But in the example of Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma, this great teacher annulled himself before his students who knew nothing. What did Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma gain from this?

Answer: He gained being included in people yearning for the goal. And it doesn’t matter that they were on a very small degree relative to him, a great Kabbalist. He gained by annulling before them.

Still he had his own egoism. So by annulling before them and thus becoming included in them, through these small uncorrected souls he was able to raise them along with him to the height of the degree he had reached.

Question: How can we receive the greatness of the goal from our friends?

Answer: I advise you to close your eyes and do everything that is written in the articles of Kabbalists even if you do not agree with it. You don’t need anything else.

The most important thing is to close your eyes, annul before your friends, and go along with them. No matter how big you are, take an example from Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends” Lesson 4

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The Third Temple

laitman_940Question: How not to quarrel in the Third Temple?

Answer: The Third Temple operates on completely different grounds, according to different criteria. Quarrels are not possible there. When we ascend to the spiritual world, egoism no longer grows; we are only influenced by the correcting force that we add to our egoism. Therefore, there cannot be further shattering.

All this is stated in theory according to the laws of the correlation between the negative force of reception and the positive force of bestowal. By studying the methodology, we understand that we really are moving toward this state, and there will be no other.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/23/17

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Free Public Lecture In Los Angeles November 3rd

LA 2014 Lecture Dr. Michael Laitman

Touching The Creator For The First Time…

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn our world, each of us has a very small desire for spirituality, a point in the heart. The whole heart is our egoism. Of course, we are not talking about the physiological heart-pump; we are talking about desires. And since I only have a minor desire toward the Creator, I am unable to receive more than a thin illumination from the spiritual, which fills our whole world with pleasures.

In order to become similar to the Creator, it is necessary to unite with the friend because the Creator can be felt only in the desire to bestow, i.e., between us. As I try to unite with my neighbors, I begin to understand that I am unable to desire this.

Touching The Creator For The First Time
However, I need to continue to exert efforts, in order:

  • I act for the purpose of uniting with the friends,
  • I discover hatred toward the friends,
  • Gradually, I acquire the importance of the goal, the quality of bestowal,
  • I even acquire a need to bestow.

The Surrounding Light corrects the quality of bestowal in me.

Then what do we lack in order to unite and receive pleasure? Much like a little child cannot understand what is wanted of him when grownups demand that he behave well, we, grownups, also don’t understand that we lack some conditions and actions due to which we will understand what is being demanded from us.

Only due to this, the Creator “broke” the common soul (the common desire), separated it into an infinite number (let’s say, seven billion souls) so that we could elucidate what we lack in order to enjoy Him. Let’s suppose that He is some dish that I am unfamiliar with, which I won’t take until I wish to eat it. But what should I desire for this?

In order to arm ourselves with the right desire we have to work on unification between us. And through this work I understand what I should desire. And after we try to unite, our hatred toward the friends will be revealed. And then along with investing in others and having others invest in me, we reveal the importance of the goal.

Of course, all the while the Surrounding Light affects us. And as a consequence of its influence, I begin to acquire a need for the quality of bestowal: I wish to feel it, to acquire it! I already begin to hear that it is worth it, that it is something great, special, and elevated. I am told that with the help of the desire to bestow, I will break through into another dimension, where I will exist above all problems and above this whole world, and furthermore, I am coming to this here and now!

In addition, I don’t die; I acquire an additional quality. So, why not? And my egoistic desire consents to this: “Ok, so you’ll have a quality of bestowal too!” This is called Lo Lishma (desiring spirituality egoistically, for your own sake). In other words, it occurs gradually, naturally, because such changes are instilled in us from nature.

Thus I have the importance of the goal, and then I acquire a need for bestowal, and if I achieve the full measure of my efforts, the Surrounding Light already influences me and reveals the quality of bestowal in me for the time being, very slightly. Yet it is already enough for me to touch the Creator and feel Him.

The first contact with Him is the most important and the most difficult, but then, after this, a person no longer needs further explanations; he begins to understand on his own what is being discussed.
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From a Lecture for “Kabbalah for the People” of 11/2/10

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Get Out Of The Black Box And Enter The Spiritual World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the force of bestowal?

Answer: We do not know what it is in our world. My entire “I” is the ego or the force of reception. I do not know what it is to “bestow,” and I do not know what “neighbor” means. I can only feel my neighbor do good or bad things to me; I can express my solidarity with him, but I do not feel anything outside of me.

In other words, I represent a certain black box, and I only live through the things that go inside it and that make an impression on me.

I do not know what is happening around me. All I know is the impressions that the things around me make on me. This is why we say that we experience the entire perception of reality inside us.

I am not able to come out of myself and feel what is happening around me, as if my senses were a mile away from me. I think that I see something a mile away, but this is not true. My imagination paints everything for me.

The property that helps me feel the things outside of me (whether they exist or not) is called the property of bestowal. We do not have even the slightest degree of it.

However, when we begin to work on mutual bestowal in the group, according to the principle of “love thy neighbor as thyself,” we begin to acquire a certain need for obtaining the property of bestowal.

Only after this do I begin to read, let us say, The Book of Zohar together with the group. Through this, we evoke the influence of the force of bestowal over us.

Coming-Out-Into-The-Spiritual-World-From-A-Black-Box

So far, I do not know what bestowal is, but Kabbalists tell me that it is a wonderful force.

Since this book speaks of phenomena that happen outside of you, you need to read it together with the group, and, if you really want to attain the property of bestowal and you are connected with your friends above your ego, then the Light that Reforms, the force contained in the Torah, will come during the reading of The Zohar, and you will begin to acquire the property of bestowal against your ego.

As it is written, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice, for the Light in it reforms.”

Once you acquire the property of bestowal, you will begin to perceive things outside of you, that is, the upper world. The exit into the spiritual word has levels. You will be able to attain infinity to the extent of your entrance into the spiritual world.
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From the Lecture at the Study Center, Kabbalah for the Nation, “Perception of Reality” 11/23/10

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