Entries in the 'path' Category

The Light Brings Us Luck

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can a person check if he is going by the path of the Light or the path of suffering? Is there some indicator?

Answer: You are advancing by the path of the Light if you are always choosing a better environment, meaning one that is more goal-oriented.

In this world I am surrounded by society, various groups, friends, and pleasures, and I have to choose: Which path will I take? At the end of the path there is a goal — the Creator, and whether I want it or not, I have to understand that this is nature which will win no matter what.

If I understand this, if I have “a part of divinity from Above” that is similar to the Creator, then instead of other social circles and pleasures, I must always choose the society that is connected to the spiritual goal.

It will enable me to reveal a desire for the Creator, which will be expressed in my connection with the environment. Then it will become the place where I reveal the Creator.

However, everything depends on what I want to reach at the end of the path. There are people who do not see the goal at the end of the path and therefore wander around life as if carried by the wind.

You have to check yourself to the degree of your understanding: What do you call the Creator, the right environment, and the goal? And you have to stay in the place where you think there is truth. If you have a spiritual spark, a point in the heart, then you will find the right environment for it and will not be able to calm down in any other place.

If you don’t have a point in the heart, then you will join this society thinking that you can receive something there, and later on you will leave. In this regard everything depends on luck rather than reason. Luck (Mazal) is Light which seeps (Nozel) from Above and pours into the point in the heart. If it comes, then you will advance.
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From the 4th part of the daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Pull My Hand Toward Happiness

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is there a method in Kabbalah that enables a person to switch from the path of suffering in this life towards the good and kind path?

Answer: Yes, this method exists. Through the group, the environment, the friends, and the mutual guarantee, you can organize specific conditions where the environment, and not suffering, pulls you towards the goal in a careful, wonderful, and loving manner. You will have it replace the blows you receive from behind that are constantly sent to you by the Creator as He pushes you, like a donkey, with a sharp stick.

Instead of the “donkey driver,” the special angel from Above that stabs your desire to receive pleasure, your “donkey” (“Hamor” in Hebrew, which comes from the word “Homer” or matter), forcing you to advance, you receive a good angel that pushes you forward and shows you the way.

This angel is called the “force of the group,” and you are the one who builds it. The only way to advance down the good path without problems, suffering, illnesses, and wars is through a strong environment which pulls you along, like an adult pulls a child by the hand regardless of whether he wants it or not.

A person knows that there is no choice and he needs to run in order to save himself from the tsunami or the Pharaoh’s army that follows him. The group will pull you against your desire because, naturally, you do not want it. This is exactly why you need the group to work this way with you.

For this, you need to connect to the environment and ask them to do anything they want with you as long as they take you with them. I am ready for anything, let them bind my arms and legs, I will pay for it. I will do anything for the group! Nobody can bring me to the goal or drag me there by force beside them.

If it weren’t for them, the increasing blows would catch up with me from behind since the Creator will not abandon His plan. This is the only way to save yourself from the blows. Nature does not compromise.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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An Apple In The Creator’s Garden

An Apple In The Creator’s Garden

Dr. Michael LaitmanMan develops like an apple that ripens on a tree until it attains the final, desired state. Man certainly goes through very opposite states on this path. He feels like a hard, sour, unripe apple. Yet can he nevertheless follow the path of Light instead of the path of suffering and feel that he is constantly coming closer to the good?

When following the path of suffering, our desire to receive pleasure constantly receives blows as it grows without receiving fulfillment. However, when we follow the path of Light, it takes us through the same states consciously, and instead of living in our desires, we live in intentions, which enable us to reveal the opposite world, the world of bestowal.

In it, I receive pleasure from bestowing to the Creator. The egoistic Kli (vessel) is the desire, and the altruistic Kli is the Reflected Light, the intention to bestow, Ohr Hochma (Light of Wisdom).

I not only accelerate my development with the help of the Light, but also perceive this path as pleasure because I am going toward a desired goal. I agree with His plan, and every moment brings me closer to it.

However, the closer I get to the goal, the stronger I feel that I am opposite to it. This is because we constantly keep increasing our sensitivity toward the difference between us and the Creator, as it is written: “The Creator is critical of the righteous to the thickness of one hair.”

On the first degree, I feel that our difference is not that major: Big deal, I receive, and He bestows. Then, from the first degree I rise to the second one, and even though I become more like Him, precisely because of this, I feel that the difference between us is no longer minus 10, but minus 100. I have risen (in other words, I acquired a correction), and it operated as a magnifying glass where I see my flaws 100 times stronger than before.

Even though I became one degree closer to the Creator, I also became 100 times more sensitive. Before, a difference the size of cart ropes did not bother me; now, I am bothered by even one little hair.

The only element that can be changed in the four factors of development (the foundation, the ways of development of the foundation, the environment, and the ways of development of the environment) that influence a growing apple or a person, his spiritual gene, is the influence of the environment. This is because only the environment determines whether the apple has good conditions for growth: enough sun and moisture.

The same pertains to the soul. When we receive good conditions for growth, we will not need wars and suffering. If we want our apple (soul) to grow, it needs to be in balance with the environment.

In order to do this, it is necessary to establish a connection with this environment and attain the Upper Force through it, attain the Creator who turns into the environment and corrects it so that I, the environment, and the Creator would unite into one whole.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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In The Beginning Of The Path

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe begin our spiritual path once we acquire a relatively large egoistic desire following millennia of development, notably in this incarnation thanks to the point in the heart. Because of this point, the desire to receive develops faster and more “aggressively,” demanding more as it does. The point drives the desire in an unclear direction so it raises its head and increases its demands from this world.

Developing within the space of our world without the point in the heart, it belonged to the desires of the masses, but now, the spiritual impulse is leading it somewhere else entirely. We continue to develop egoistically, but our ego has grown and now wishes to “devour” all of reality, corporeal as well as spiritual.

With these two forces, man begins his spiritual search until he comes to the group and finds the method of correction. If he utilizes this method correctly by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah with the intention of using the environment to draw the Light, he embarks upon a road of spiritual development. In this process, man’s ego is combined with his aspiration for bestowal, which he derives from the environment. Gradually, a demand grows in his heart, and the Light cultivates it.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/10, “I Am the First and I Am the Last”

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Disassembling Teaches How To Re-Assemble

Dr. Michael LaitmanOn the spiritual path we have to exert efforts like a restless child who runs around like mad, causing havoc, breaking and smashing things. He’s lacking sense, but after dropping a glass a few times, he will discover its brittleness and learn how to hold it properly. Having disassembled something, he will learn how to put the parts back together.

In a similar fashion, we need to attain the breaking of the collective soul that happened before us, to discover the forces of the breakage. Otherwise, we will not know how to gather all the shattered souls into a single whole.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/5/10, “What to Look for in the Assembly of Friends”

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We Can Circumvent All Of The Suffering

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If everything in the world depends on the people who engage in spiritual development, does this mean that we are responsible for all the suffering that occurs in the world?

Answer: No, we do not cause the suffering in the world. On the contrary, we draw Light and transfer the suffering from a corporeal level to a level of spiritual suffering. As a result, instead of suffering due to wars, illnesses, and all other problems, we suffer from the fact that we lack spirituality. This is what the science of Kabbalah gives to a person. A person “suffers,” but it is not true suffering since it is the suffering of love.

If I were invited for a meal in a few hours, then I would avoid eating now in order to save my appetite for the meal. Similarly, the understanding that I need to prepare my spiritual Kelim is called the suffering of love. However, even when our Kelim are empty, we are able to feel a slight illumination in anticipation of our next meeting with the people we love. This is what we need to bring to humanity: We need to show them that there is a solution to the blows developing in nature.

Right now we are entering a period of ecological problems which can cause suffering and death for thousands of people. We are witnesses of natural disasters that break out all over the world, including China, Europe, Russia, and America. The only way to save ourselves from these disasters is to prepare our spiritual Kelim. We don’t need to prepare our Kelim in a corporeal sense, waiting for decades of suffering before finally realizing that there is a reason and purpose to the suffering, and that we have a choice. There are two paths leading to the same goal, the path of Light and the path of suffering.

Why should we suffer in vain? If we draw the Light, then it reveals how opposite we are to it and we suffer due to seeing a better state compared to the one we are in now. This is what the science of Kabbalah offers to a person: the path of Light instead of the path of suffering.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/1/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

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Choose A Benevolent Future

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The system of the spiritual stimulator works with people who can realize the principle of “faith above reason.” However, most of humanity cannot act according to this principle, and only very strong blows can force them to do this.

Answer: They still will start participating in it because there is no other choice. We need to somehow rise above ourselves, above our lives, fate, and the forces of nature that compel us to do something with ourselves. We need to act and search for some external, kind governing force which protects and cares about us.

I believe that people will quickly see that there is at least some refuge here. They will sense this with a “sixth sense.” It is written very clearly in Kabbalah that we have no other choice. Either we find a way to unite as one whole and to reach a state of being one society in complete interdependence, mutual help, and, consequently, even mutual love on our own and through the path of the Light, or we will be pushed to do this by the nature around and within us through the path of suffering.

Development of this system and the dissemination of it, its realization for educating children and solving social, family, and other kinds of problems will draw more and more people who now are distant from the goal of Kabbalah. However, both the system and Kabbalah will become meaningful and accepted in the society as a kind and common force for everyone.

It will be a parallel, alternative social system which will not contradict any existing social systems. However, to the extent that humanity begins to understand that this system can be the source of help, support, and a means for a more correct behavior, balance, safety, and so on, people will come here. Gradually, it will become more and more in demand and necessary for humanity.

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The Fast Road To The Spiritual World

Dr. Michael LaitmanLight comes to us from Above and awakens specific parts of the common soul in order to advance them according to its program. This program is very complex and assumes that the souls will awaken in a specific order and combination among them like parts of one body. This is invisible to the eye, but according to the inner structure of the soul they are all connected with each other. The Light connects them together so they will perform the mutual work of searching for the quality of bestowal.

These are people who are complete strangers, very different from one another, and have completely contrasting material qualities. Yet, we have to believe that this is all arranged from Above. We have to leave behind everything that prevents us from uniting and search for a means that can help us accomplish this. The search will enable us to understand that the only basis for unification is bestowal, which is above reception. Nothing but this can unite people.

This path is very inconsistent, as if we are traveling across a very uneven road and our car is constantly thrown up and down by all the potholes and bumps. Yet, despite everything it has to keep going and advancing forward. The more we advance, the greater is the frequency of bumps and the more sensitive we are to them. In other words, the changes taking place in us are more drastic and significant. The truth is that they were the same before, but we did not notice or feel them very much.

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It is impossible to advance down this road unless you even it out. Then our car will roll along quickly and easily! The only way we can smooth out every pit and bump on this path is to have a common opinion in the group and unity among us. This is the only thing that will fill in all the pits and unite us together, making our path smooth and even.

There is no possibility to advance spirituality without evening out the road. The disturbances and problems that arise before a person who desires to advance individually, or worse yet, a group of individualists, are so great that it is impossible to overcome them. The car will inevitably get stuck and it will be impossible to get it out. A person will remain in the same place; his life will be over, and he still won’t complete the path or attain the goal.

Therefore, our work must be aimed at unity. Then we will reveal that we can attain all the results precisely through unity! Our spiritual advancement on this path depends only on this. All the efforts and revelations happen only in one direction inside this connection that unites us all.

Everything depends on how much a person values the connection among the friends above all the problems that become revealed, and he understands just one thing: “There is none else besides Him.” All the disturbances come from the Creator. He gives rise to these inner pits and bumps inside us, confusing us in a thousand different ways. We have to imagine that all the problems come from Him and their only purpose is for us to unite.

Therein lies the secret to success! This is the basis upon which everything begins and all the rest is built.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/15/10, “Concerning the Importance of Friends”

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Everything Depends On Every One Of Us

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhy don’t we gather only those around the world who belong to the most active part called “600,000 souls” and work on their spiritual correction? Why worry about the rest? It is because today we must be in the general, integral flow from the very beginning.

We see that global cataclysms are affecting the whole world and there is a general awakening. All the phenomena are starting to be so connected and related to everyone that it forces us to worry about the general organism.

The general, full, spiritual redemption (Geula) is the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah among all the nations, and for this reason all parts of the common soul must help the other. Some of them do it by attaining mutual guarantee, another part supports them, and there are many other circles.

The active part called “Israel” must be the first to complete its correction in order for this wisdom to then spill over to the whole world. However, the rest of the world must also help this part accomplish this because we thereby accelerate our path. The choice between the path of Light and the path of suffering does not depend only on those who have a point in the heart. We see in practice how mutual help influences everyone and strengthens all of us.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/11/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

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What Path Will You Take?

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam’s article “Preface to Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 7: Now you can understand their words about the verse, “I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time.” The Sanhedrin (98) interpreted, “Not rewarded – in its time; rewarded – I will hasten it.”

Thus, there are two ways to attain the above-mentioned goal. Through their own attention is called a “Path of Repentance.” If they are awarded that, then “I will hasten it” will be applied to them. This means that there is no set time for it, but when they are awarded, the correction ends, of course.

If they are not awarded the attention, there is another way, called “Path of Suffering.” As the Sanhedrin said (97), “I place upon them a king such as Haman, and they will repent against their will,” meaning in its time, for in that there is a set time.

There are two paths before us that lead to the same goal, and we are at their intersection. At every given moment we should feel that we are at the crossroads that determines our freedom of will, and the choice here is very simple: to take the path of the Light or the path of suffering.

A third path does not exist. We must advance by one of these two paths and decide at every given moment what our next step will be. Your foot is already up in the air, and now you have to choose where to land it: on the path of Light or on the path of suffering.

The moment will pass, and you will once again have to make a choice. Your foot has been lifted from Above to force you to make a step, and it is up to you where to place it, on which of the two paths. In accordance with our choice, you will receive the strength and the means to advance since you have to keep moving ahead, one way or the other.

If you advance by the path of “Beito” (natural development, in due time), the forces of nature are pushing you onward against our egoism since you wish to advance led by your ego. Hence, you are impacted by the forces that oppose your egoism, trying to keep you in bestowal. But on the path of “Ahishena” (hastening time), you start to consciously convince yourself through the environment that being in bestowal is worthwhile. Thereby you draw the Surrounding Light, and it returns you to goodness.

On the path of “Beito,” you receive blows and learn through them. Sooner or later it will result in your request or prayer for correction and advancement like you would have by the path of “Ahishena.” Conversely, if you initially take the path of the Light, you will save time on the first segment of the path, where you would have otherwise wasted time through your lack of desire to listen and exert your own effort.

There is no time to think about where to land our foot! Everything depends on the preparation of the spiritual environment.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/4/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

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