Entries in the 'soul' Category

Compensating The Lack Of Knowledge With Faith

Dr. Michael LaitmanSomeone once calculated that there are 3,800 different religions and beliefs in the world, but all of them circulate around two notions: body and soul. Indeed, if we did not perceive anything besides the beastly body, we would exist like animals. It seems to us that we have a soul, some kind of life “beyond the body.” A person wants to know what is the purpose of my life? Why do I live?

Even though we are given these aspirations and questions in order to search for answers within the system of laws of nature, we turn them into mysticism, groundless assumptions, and take them as the foundation for our view of the purpose of life, its end “here” and continuation “there.”

The question of whether our life will end bothers us. This is because we perceive time, and we are not attached to one given moment, as are animals. We think about the future, and we want to know what will happen a moment from now. However, the questions of “What do I live for, and what will happen after I die?” are already above nature.

This is why humanity has invented beliefs and religions: It has to compensate the lack of knowledge or facts with faith, meaning assumptions without proof. We are not even aware of it, but this works on all the levels, in the smallest things, every moment, every step of the way, in every direction and level of life.

I complete every lack of facts with faith, and I think that this is exactly how it is going to be. Sometimes, it happens, and sometimes, it does not. This is how our life passes.

In every particle of our existence, in every part of time, movement, space, and existence of reality, there is an enormous unknown share, namely:
1) The cause, which descends from Above,
2) the consequence, determined from Above, and
3) we, determined by cause and consequence in a narrow gap of the perception of life.

This is why we are obligated to compensate all the unknown with faith. People believe that there is an Upper Force, “a spirit,” which turns into everything that exists, gives it life, and determines destiny. That is, the essence of matter is determined by the “soul” which gives it life.

This is because our egoism wants to think that it belongs to eternity. There is no proof of this, but it benefits us to think this way. The organism’s defense mechanism does not allow us to agree that things can be different.

Otherwise, this life would be impossible. If a person did not feel eternal, if he absolutely felt that his life is finite, he would not be able to live. Imagine that you are told the exact date of your death. This puts a cross on your entire life beginning with today. This is because, from then on, you will continue living with the precise comprehension of your imminent death. A person is not capable of living like this.

The most natural sensation given to us by nature is that a soul, which somehow lived before our birth and will continue to live after our death, robes in our body, and the main reward and punishment is in the future world, and not here. We await our reward for all our current work.

A person does not even need to be taught this. He will think this, regardless. We are not able to part with these illusions, the same way as we are unable to part with our egoism until we rise to the world of truth, not after the death of the body, but after the death of egoism.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, “Body and Soul”

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Revealing A New Earth And Sky

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the article “Body and Soul” Baal HaSulam explains that we live in one world, but it split into two parts in regard to each of us: an apparent one and a hidden one. Throughout history, we became better and better acquainted with our world, we revealed new continents, examined inanimate nature, flora, fauna, and cosmic space. Reality spread out broader and broader before our eyes.

Kabbalists say that this is not the limit. We just need new aspirations, an aim at bestowal – then the diapason, the range, of our qualities and feelings will become broader, and we will begin to perceive in them the reality that is currently invisible to us.

Today an inner impulse, a need to discover the hidden reality, is awakening in many people. Before, egoism constantly pushed people to explore our world in order to seek out new pleasures, the abundance in various forms, in it. And now, having exhausted all other opportunities, we wish to reveal the hidden reality.

In order to help us in this, Kabbalists wrote books. The main book, with the help of which we can find what has been concealed, is The Book of Zohar. While reading it, we need to pay less attention to the text itself since we still don’t understand what it is about. Instead, we should aspire more to what this book can give us.

The Zohar brings us revelation of “a new earth and a new sky.” The “earth” is the desire, and the “sky” is the degree of Bina, bestowal, on which we will see the reality of bestowal. Therefore, during the lesson we think about how to broaden our perception, to open our eyes, and to allow the still hidden part of one world to enter our sensations.

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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/30/10, “Body and Soul”

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Transplant Of My Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen I connect to the group, it is as though I transplant my soul from one place to another, from the body I’m in now to another body. I transfer my soul from the sensing of its presence in this body, to sensing that I’m transferring it to another one.

This other body is called the group. However, by “group,” I don’t mean my friends’ faces, the individuals that are more or less connected to one another. By group, I mean a new system, or not even a system, but rather a new desire which exists outside of me.

This is the most corrected desire that exists at the end of correction. This desire has no lack because the Creator exists within it and fulfills it entirely. This is a great and perfect desire with only one thing missing: my connection to it.

This is similar to a transplanted organ that has to be accepted by the new body and feel its different parts, then nullify itself before them and connect through the incoming and outgoing blood vessels. This is how a transplanted organ becomes more and more familiar with this system, connects to it, and starts functioning together with it. It understands that everything depends upon the extent to which it was able to integrate itself into the system to become an indivisible part and literally lose itself in it.

This is called reaching Malchut (Kingdom) of the World of Infinity, the last degree of correction. The extent to which I connect to this new desire (group) is called Shechina (Divinity, the presence of the Creator) that is where I reveal Him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/5/10, Rabash “The Matter of Schechina”

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The World Is An X-Ray Of You

Dr. Michael LaitmanWork in the group takes place in two planes: 1. the greatness of the group, the friends, or the Creator (which is the same thing), and 2. your own insignificance compared to the group and the Creator. If I orient myself in this manner, then I receive the right desire, which enables me to cancel myself and become part of the group.

The moment I really become part of it as just one point, I begin to feel that I am a spiritual embryo immersed in the Light that fills the group.
The faces of the friends that we see around us are not called a “group.” The group is the common desire of souls united with each other and given to me as the place where I meet the Creator. I have to work in relation to this “place” because I am a desire or vessel, and this place is the desire or vessel that I work with in order to become part of it, to adhere to it and expand myself. I can work with it because we have the same nature!

However, I cannot work with the Creator because He is Light. He is the quality I reveal inside of our common vessel (the “place”) to the degree I enter it and participate in it. Right now this place appears to me as filled by separate particles (souls). But if I saw the true state inside, I would see all of them as special souls and spiritual Partzufim united by one connecting net, one desire.

I have to correct my attitude to them in order to seem them as connected, and that constitutes my correction! The group is Malchut of the World of Infinity. There is not a person in the world who isn’t connected with others and is not at the End of Correction.

However, right now I see a different world due to my uncorrected vision, as it is written, “Every person judges to the extent of his own flaws.” When I demand greater inspiration and energy to advance from them, I am turning to my own reflection in the mirror!

The Creator has arranged the whole world we see in front of us in this way. It is a copy of me with which I work. To the degree I demand that the group work and unite, it influences me in response in the same way. In essence I work with myself, as if standing before a mirror and making different faces at myself!

It was in order to accomplish this that the Creator divided my perception of the world into me and everything outside of me so I would have the opportunity to work and attain the inner sensation. Otherwise I would never be able to feel Him. I wouldn’t even understand that something else can exist besides me.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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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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Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I turn to the group if no matter what I do I remain an egoist in my thoughts? And how can we feel the Surrounding Light at the Convention and turn it into Inner Light?

Answer: Tuning into the group means attaining the common desire so I won’t have any thoughts about myself, any individual goal or opinion, but only the common one, “as one man with one heart.” It’s when I don’t want to feel myself and judge things with my own mind, but only be together with everyone.

I don’t know the meaning of common thoughts and desires, but I hope it will be something that belongs to everyone. To the extent we unite together in one heart and one mind, to that degree we are called a group. Otherwise we are not! By virtue of this unity we will be able to advance.

At the Convention we have a very powerful influence on one another because if a person desires to put this force of common inspiration to the right use, he will be able to intermix with the rest of the desires. Granted, this requires serious inner work and efforts. Then a person will be able to join and feel the common mind and the feeling of all the souls that have already attained all the spiritual degrees while in our world.

If we unite together even for a fraction of a percent, then we will already be included into the common system of souls and they will all start to influence us. The Kabbalists of all generations, the prophets will start to work together with us! We will enter the place where they all dwell and will unite together with them in one common mind and feeling.

We can be next to them as babies, but nevertheless we will still have the same sensation and mind and will begin to attain this common soul. This connection will remain forever, even if it later disappears from our sensation. The fact that we attained it will already be “recorded in our account”!

Nothing disappears in the spiritual world. All your attainments are recorded in your account even if you lose that sensation later on in order to rise one level higher. Nevertheless, this level is already yours!
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/28/10, The Acting Mind”

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Three Windows On My Computer

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur path can be imagined as a computer screen where three windows or documents are opened at the same time. The last window is concealed; I don’t see it. This is me in the state of the Final Correction, in unity and adhesion with the Creator, in the root of my soul.

The window in the middle is my path, my advancement along 125 degrees. The first window is the one I now see in front of myself, my current state.

All three are states of my soul, what it perceives, since “we cannot name anything we do not attain.” Kabbalists have gone through this path, have experienced all these states from beginning to end, and they tell us about the process they have gone through.
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From the lesson on 10/22/10, Baal HaSulam’s Letter 17

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The Root Of The Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen a Kabbalist attains a spiritual degree, he “dresses” into the same form that is called “Abraham” or “Moses,” for example, and he “hears” what they say to each other. In The Zohar there are stories of people talking to each other even though they lived in different centuries, and you would think: How is that possible? It is because it is talking only about the spiritual world, not about people; it is describing desires and qualities that are called by these names.

Your name is also present there because you also have a root of the soul! However, for now it is not called by your current name. When you ascend there and correct this state, you will receive this name. You will reveal it. That is what you have to do: Reveal the root of your soul.

When you attain this point or your main, inherent spiritual quality, then from that point you will become included in the entire rest of the Kli of the World of Infinity. This will mean that you have revealed the soul of Adam HaRishon and it became yours, coming from your point.

Your spiritual vessel with the Light inside it is called by your name. You just don’t know it for now because you are not familiar with your spiritual gene that acts inside of you, the spark, the point in the heart. You don’t know where it comes from. It pulls you toward your root, but you don’t know what that root is, where it is located on the ladder of the degrees, and in what state it exists. You have to reveal it and discover that this is, in fact, you.

This does not mean that you are limited by that root; on the contrary, you will rise even higher! However, you will attain everything from that point. Therefore, every soul is obligated to attain its root and every person has his own root.

There are “forefathers” who are called “the heads of the degrees” or of the “generations.” They are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These aren’t roots of particular souls, but fundamental qualities. They are names of the Creator’s qualities.

On the other hand, each of us has his own root point that he must attain and in which he must correct himself. From there one corrects his connection with all the other souls. This is the meaning of the full, individual correction which every person must perform.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/27/10, “600,000 Souls”

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Quantum Uncertainty Of An Uncorrected Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “600,000 Souls“: There are three periods in a person’s spiritual growth:

1. The spark of the soul that alternately flares up and dwindles;

2. A particular soul, when a person perceives himself as part of 600,000 souls, the common soul;

3. Coming close to perfection, the common soul, because his egoistic desire has been fully corrected and no longer poses an obstacle. This enables him to become completely unified with the common soul of Adam.

There is a point here that is difficult to explain, similar to the principle of uncertainty in quantum physics. The fact is that there aren’t “many creatures,” but one single creation. Every person who perceives himself as creation is that creation, while everyone else in relation to him are not independent creatures, but parts of his own soul.

Therefore, even though it seems to us that there are billions of other creatures in existence, in spirituality, a person attaches all these parts to himself and in relation to his free choice, they are all at the end of correction. He is the only part that can be deemed as existent, from his perspective.

However, it is precisely in this separated form that he is considered non-existent and he has to attach himself to spirituality, to the common soul! He has to accept all the other parts which seem “foreign” to him as if they already are in the spiritual world.

He has to understand that “every person judges others to the degree of his own corruption,” and in fact they are already in the final, corrected state, while he is the only one who is not. So who is called creation, the only one that exists? It is precisely the one who isn’t yet “created” and still needs correction.

When we acquire the spiritual vision, we will see the world in this way. Baal HaSulam describes a very high state here. When it says that only one soul exists, it doesn’t mean that everyone just unites into one common soul, but that there are no separate souls in existence in all of reality.

This is a temporary illusion we have as a result of the three coordinate axes (time, motion, and space) through which our picture of the world is refracted. When these axes disappear and we stop being dependent on them, we will ascend above them and will see a reality where only one creation exists.

To achieve this we have to correct our egoistic desire, which is what evokes this illusion in us that there is a reality existing in time, motion, and space on the level of this world.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/10, “600,000 Souls”

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Studying The Creator’s Actions

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If there is only one soul, then why is it necessary for 600,000 souls to attain mutual guarantee among them?

Answer: We attain the single soul precisely from this division into parts. It is impossible to attain what the common soul is without going through the breaking.

In order to understand this picture, we must first reveal it as broken and try to gather it back together. When you work hard and reach the understanding that you cannot do it on your own, without the Upper One, then you will reveal the One who can help you. And together with Him you will put this “puzzle” together.

Then you will find out what He did and why He broke the common soul. He did it for your sake so you would put the broken parts back together and in the process understand how they have to be arranged and what connection they should have. It’s as if you are putting together a car from thousands of parts and you have to understand why every part is necessary and how it has to be connected with others, and in what order.

When you put it together, you understand that in order for the engine to work, it needs the force of life! That force of life is called the Creator. Thus, we come to know Him from His actions. Otherwise we would never be able to understand Him.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/10, “600,000 Souls”

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