The Immensity Of Our Desire To Enjoy

A question I received: Why is it that we have to wait so long and suffer so many negative lessons that wound us before we finally realize which is the right path?

My Answer: We don’t wait! Every single moment we evolve, step by step. But our ego, our desire to enjoy, is simply infinite. Its depth is enormous: an enormous creature. Imagine to yourself our endless Universe; well, the human desire is billions of times greater than the entire universe.

Now we need to begin our correction. And my desire to enjoy contains a thousand qualities in which I need to feel blows so as to react with an “Ouch!” And then it will need another thousand blows to make me go “Ow!” This is no joke; our entire lives go by exactly like this. Finally, I will need yet another thousand blows to resolve for myself: “That’s it, I can’t handle it anymore! Something must be done.”

Every quality is comprised of four levels (Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet). And until we reach the final, fourth level, we will continue to receive blows and suffer without stopping to think about our predicament. It is just like if I feel pain in one part of my body and then another, I endure it and tell myself that it’s no big deal, until finally I realize that something must be done. The same principle applies here. But that is exactly how it’s supposed to be, because we are made out of a complex, multi-layered material which develops out of a point. There is no choice in the matter.

Only at the end of correction will all that we’ve passed through merge together and produce perfection of attainment, fulfillment, and understanding.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/10, Article “The Giving of the Torah”

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Peaceful Unification Of Opposing Forces In The Middle Line

Laitman_724The Zohar, Chapter “VaEra (And I Appeared),” Item 41: Also, the south grips to the east because the warmth in the south grips to the warmth in the east. And the east grips also to the north because its moisture grips to the moisture in the north. It turns out that south and east are tied to each other through the warmth in both; the east and north—through the moisture in them; north and west—through the cold in both; west and south through the dry in both; and all are included in one another, hanging down in one another.

If we are not building the middle line, then forces (of north and south) which are opposite one another are growing. Because they don’t come to reconciliation through the middle line, they collide and try to cancel each other. This causes an explosion. Then just like a volcano explodes in Iceland in our world, a war becomes ignited within a person or outside between people. Everything happens because these two lines, the right and the left, reached some magnitude and collided rather than united peacefully into the middle line.

People are the ones who have to perform the connection through the middle line at our level. Then peace will also come to all the previous, lower levels. We have ready the capability for us to create the middle line. If we are not building it then a short circuit occurs between the two poles and this leads to disorders on all levels: inanimate (problems with ecology), vegetative, animal, and human, or at all levels at once. This all happens because we did not reach the correct connection in the middle line.

The left and the right lines conceal a great danger when they are in direct connection with one another. If the Light and the vessel connect without the screen then the “breaking of Kelim” occurs, but only at lower levels. The Zohar says that even though North and South, East and West are opposite to one another, each of them still has a capability to complement the other. However, if we don’t provide a connection for them through the middle line, they will meet anyway, out of balance and lacking peace, like enemies….

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/10, The Zohar

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The Soul Is Between Darkness And Light

Laitman_023Zohar, Chapter “BaHar (On Mount Sinai),” Item 66: …there are two creations in man, creation for good and creation for bad. With the Torah, he separates them and the Creator gives him a soul from Him, to dominate over both—the one that is good and light, the next world, and the one that is evil and dark, this world—as it is written, “And He blew into his nostrils the breath of life.”

Our entire reality stems from the separation between darkness and light when we can truly “filter” the qualities that pertain to this world and to the world to come. We begin to build ourselves through discernments, by distinguishing the qualities for the sake of bestowal and those for the sake of reception.

All that we study in our world is our animal existence, meaning our nature. Why animal? This is because an animal doesn’t grow, but always remains at the same level with respect to its perception.

Therefore, until we begin to use the Light so as to build ourselves, by distinguishing the bestowing qualities from those of reception, until we amass these bestowing qualities, desiring to dwell in them, and build ourselves out of them, we exist only in this world.

Just as drops of semen begin to form into an embryo in the mother’s womb, so we must try to utilize the group, the environment, the study, the intentions, and various actions to continually add and accumulate the qualities of bestowal within. This is how a spiritual body will be formed.

Every time we reveal yet another part in bestowal and wish to gather them all together, this is called our next reincarnation. Indeed, we see our new life every time and a new opportunity to keep gathering and adding to us the qualities of the human level that are similar to bestowal and the Creator (the word “man” in Hebrew is “Adam” which is from “Edome,” similar).

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/10, The Zohar

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 04.30.10

Shamati #73 After the Tzimtzum
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Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 45
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaEra (And I Appeared),” Item 62
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Casimir Effect Or Step Into The Higher Dimension

Laitman_911A question I received: If the direction toward the Light is positive and the direction toward spiritual darkness is negative and we have to work from within this minus to get to the plus, then where is spiritual zero? What is this state?

My Answer: There is no zero in the spiritual world; we can’t imagine it. However, there’s a state called Klipat Noga (Shining) where I’m unable to decide whether to turn to one side or the other, which is to say, for my own sake or for the sake of bestowal. This intermediate non-equilibrium state is called zero.

I’m between two natural forces. There’s no third force, which is why this state is unstable. It requires me to immediately make a choice. The zero state exists only in my personal perception and only for the moment when I must decide what to do. I have to feel that this zero state is an abyss because I have neither state.

This is a very good state because, when I feel absolute zero, I have nothing to cling on to. At all other times, I’m either in bestowal (holiness) and have nothing to worry about, or in egoistic desires (Klipa or shell) feeling that I’m Pharaoh’s accomplice. In this state, I enjoy neither spiritual nor material life.

However, a person that’s reached Klipat Noga feels that he has no grounds to make a choice; he has neither plus nor minus. Suddenly, I’m at a crossroads and have nowhere to go. It’s a completely indeterminate state. I thought it was a narrow chink right in the middle in front of me when suddenly it sweeps open and I see an abyss before me.

Right here is the exit into the higher dimension. If I grasp onto the Creator and decide that I have no choice, then I have to ascend to the level of the higher energy. It’s as if we enter a spiritual vacuum and reveal the Creator in it. The moment you’re ready to step into it, He comes out to you.

In quantum physics, a similar phenomenon is called the Casimir effect: a force from nothing. If two uncharged conductors are placed a few micrometers apart in a vacuum, then the energy from the vacuum will start flowing into them and create a force of attraction. Try conducting this physics experiment and you’ll get visual proof that the Creator exists.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 4/22/10

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Everyone Is Equal In Bestowal

Laitman_506_2A question I received: How will a memory (Reshimo) about a past pleasure help me if, today, I’m unable to receive my favorite dish from the Host and need to limit myself to less?

My Answer: This is a fair question from the perspective of healthy egoism. However, you need to perform a calculation on how much pleasure you can bring to the Creator rather than on how much you can fill your belly. A memory of the past will allow you to perform an act of bestowal without making a mistake.

I came to visit Him knowing that I could accept only the pleasure that I would be able to return to Him. I did everything I could and left. The next time I come to Him, I’m weaker because I already have experienced the pleasure and now I desire it. After all, the hunger comes during the meal. The Light weakens me, and now I want to continue this pleasure. It would be easier not to start at all than to start and then stop.

In other words, when you come to the Host for the second time, you can’t receive the same pleasure for the sake of bestowal anymore. Therefore, you’re forced to receive less in order to give pleasure rather than receive pleasure. You evaluate the same pleasure that you received before according to the strength that you have now in order not to err.

This difference between the impressions from the Light and from the desire (Reshimo de-Hitlabshut and Reshimo de-Aviut) allows me to receive the maximum of what is possible and only for the sake of bestowal. I receive a lesser amount of Light (for example, the Light of Haya instead of the Light of Yechida), but I receive the same pleasure due to the fact that I give the full 100% of what’s possible despite having less strength.

From the perspective of egoism, there’s a difference in the pleasure, and from the perspective of bestowal, there is not. The force of the anti-egoistic screen does not depend on me. I do the most that I can in my state and in such bestowal, everyone is equal, the great and the small alike.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/10, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

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Evening Zohar Lesson – 04.29.10

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaEra (And I Appeared),” Item 41
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The Protective Shield Of Bina

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe World of Atzilut is separated from the Worlds of BYA by a special screen called Parsa. This is not just the end of one world and the beginning of another, but a special shield the World of Atzilut has from the lower worlds, separating them and not enabling them to connect.

The protective shield has the quality of Bina, the quality of bestowal, mercy. If anyone wishing to receive approaches this boundary from below, the sensation of this quality throws him back because he is an egoist.

This is how all the qualities of Bina operate (such as Noah’s Ark, womb, city walls, and the letter Samech). They indicate what is spirituality: that it is “for the sake of bestowal.” That’s why a person who is an egoist runs away from it if he is not ready for it.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/10, Beit Shaar HaKaVanot

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The Light Is Inside Me, Not Outside

Dr. Michael LaitmanA question I received: Do I feel just my reaction to the Light and never the Light itself?

My Answer: That’s right. “The Light” is my reaction to bestowal and I don’t know where or from whom it comes from. The Light is what I feel within me; it is my desire to bestow, the impression inside my will to enjoy.

The same thing is true in our world: I don’t know what causes my pleasure. I take a piece of cow, make a steak out of it, put it in my mouth, and enjoy it. Can you explain that? The cow is surprised, thinking, “I have half a ton of meat, so why don’t I enjoy it?”

In other words, everything depends on the desire, not the fulfillment. The spiritual vessel is HaVaYaH (Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey) or desire, and the Light in it is designated by additional letters, meaning other desires. Yet, we use them to designate the Light, the desire. I never feel the “meat,” but only my impressions of what I call “meat.”

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/10, “Matan Torah”

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