The Spiritual GPS

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When I was driving back from the Convention at Beer Sheba, I was looking at my GPS as it was guiding me and warning me about hidden cameras on the intersections. I thought, why is it that there is no navigation system like this in the spiritual world which would predict our path for us? Instead, we need to rely only on Kabbalists’ instructions and the prophets’ warnings.

Answer: There is no navigation system like this in the spiritual world. This is because in your world, you are always “traveling” in the same egoistic desire, which is sometimes larger and sometimes smaller. That is why you are able to make certain assumptions about the future as well as to rely on the experiences of others. People even create tools for you which show you the way and are able to spell out the entire process and every step of the path for you. This enables you to see ahead of time what it means to become big and grownup just like they would spell it out for a child who wants to grow up and become a pilot.

However, in spiritual development we go through states where we are unable to predict and imagine things ahead of time. This is why there cannot be a navigation system of any kind there. It is because we do not see the next image ahead of time and we lack the instruments of perception to see these images. Instead, we are shown an undesired, opposite image. If you can understand that your lack of desire to connect with others is the future form that you need to turn into its opposite, this would serve you as a spiritual GPS. It exists, but it shows us the opposite image, one that is unpleasant to our ego, the desire to receive pleasure.

From that point on, everything depends on the way you will accept all these states. However, when you encounter something like this, you usually turn around and go back, thinking that the goal is there. You think, “The spiritual goal is not very easy or pleasant. Why should I go there? It would be best if I roll it back a little.” As soon as you turn aside, you immediately acquire the GPS of all the tools of this world such as everyone’s support, the benefit of social opinion, and everything else. This is how people get themselves into trouble.

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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/3/10, ”Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

What Can Help Families Stay Together?

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe only thing that can help a family stay together is a strong society that keeps both spouses together and directs them toward spiritual growth. Because they both go through different states, ascents and descents, they have to be a part of this society and to understand that spiritual advancement is impossible without each other. Then they will understand that they need a partner. The society of the future will take great care of marriages, but to do that we need a powerful influence from our environment.

We have already received enough blows from Nature to make us understand that it is essential for us to achieve balance. We have to establish good relationships between all of us. Only this will revive harmony and normalize Nature so that heat, cold, magnetic fields, and a thousand other parameters will come into balance. This world will feel like paradise, even on the material level. To feel this way, it is extremely important to achieve equilibrium. We have to observe a very simple condition where everything stays in mutual connection on all levels (inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human).

One of the prerequisites to achieving equilibrium is the establishment of the right types of connections within a family. Kabbalists rejected unmarried men as their disciples because a man without a wife is only “half a body.” It’s impossible to correct “half a body.” Previously, this requirement was very strict. Nowadays, everything is simplified. Everybody is permitted to study since we are undergoing a transition period and cannot obligate people to marry; it’s beyond our power. However, I hope the time will come soon when the next generation will realize that we have to observe material order and have a family in order to achieve balance with Nature.

Only by aspiring toward one spiritual goal can we preserve a family. Our egoism has grown so much that the usual material connections with children, family, and household cannot connect people to each other any longer. Everybody has a job, can afford a place to live, and be completely independent. A person feels relatively self-sufficient and doesn’t need his wife’s or children’s support. It is different from the past when no one could survive without a family. Now a person has the supermarket, modern-day household appliances, and health insurance.

Therefore, only a higher goal can elevate a person above the animate level and bring him to a “human” level (“Adam” is a derivative of the word “similar”). It is the only thing that makes a person similar to the Creator, reveals eternity, and raises us above life and death. It is the only thing that can ensure internal spiritual connection in a family. However, it is not accessible for everybody yet.

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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/10, A Lesson On Current Events

Describing The Wisdom Of Kabbalah

Dr. Michael LaitmanHow can we explain Kabbalah to people?

1. First and foremost, Kabbalah must be set apart from all the other so-called “spiritual” methodologies, philosophies, mysticisms, magic, and so forth.

2. We must develop a clear and concise explanation as to the essence and purpose of the wisdom of Kabbalah, and how it can help us solve all of our problems which all stem from one root, our imbalance with nature.

We know from physics and physiology that the law of equilibrium is life’s most crucial law. Life itself depends upon it and therefore it must be observed. If we manage to come up with an explanation that’s both simple and close to the heart, the people of today are ready to listen.

We’re not offering people a science, but a remedy to get rid of their problems. This suits all people from all walks of life because we walk together with nature and its laws, which are applicable to all.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains how to achieve balance, or in other words, connection with the Creator, which is the same thing. It tells us how to actualize our lives within this law of equilibrium and equivalence of form.

The rule “love thy friend as thyself” denotes a completely corrected and natural connection with the environment. If I unite with the environment into a single whole, then I won’t feel any problems or misfortunes because I will be perfect and eternal as is all of nature!

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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/10, A Lesson On Current Events

Ticket To The World Of Infinity

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe reside in the only existing reality, the World of Infinity, but we are “unconscious” within it and don’t realize where we are. In order to bring ourselves to perceive this singular reality instead of remaining unaware of it, we must exert effort like a maturing child does or a person who is coming back to consciousness.

What are the conditions required in order to feel this reality? They are: stepping out of self into oneness, mutual guarantee, and love. In spite of our egoism that doesn’t allow us to meet these conditions individually, we must fulfill them all together. As a result, we will find ourselves in the corrected system, the World of Infinity.

Understandably, we hate working against egoism, but we must make an effort to complete this job as if we are children playing a game. “Playing” means I imitate the Upper One as if I already possess His quality. Making efforts to obtain it is called playing. It brings the hidden forces to light and that is how I progress. I aspire to a higher degree and my effort draws the Light which reforms me so that I become equivalent to the degree of its source.

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From the Weekly Torah Portion 8/13/10, “Shoftim

We Already Have The First Spiritual Desire!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why is it that after every Convention where we experience a great ascent and inspiration, we always experience a descent?

Answer: This is a spiritual process. During the Convention we receive a big “Kli” (spiritual vessel) and connect to a new, bigger desire. However, if we don’t add anything to this new desire afterward, we feel empty.

Over the course of the Convention I connect to the desires of thousands of people and feel that we are all one man with one heart. I feel our mutual guarantee as if I lost myself and dissolved in them. I pass myself over into their hands! Even if this feeling is just there for a few moments and unconsciously, it still happens. Thus, for the first time I already connect with others and reveal a spiritual desire, a Kli, which I did not have previously.

Previously I only had material desires that I wished to fulfill egoistically. This is called the animate level of desire. However, now without even knowing how it occurred, I joined something very big. This connection is a lack of spirituality or bestowal. It is a spiritual desire that was not present in me before.

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Now I need to work on it. Yet, instead I leave it, wishing to return to my former regular desire, and await ordinary egoistic fulfillments again. But what about that new spiritual desire? In comparison to material desires, that huge spiritual desire remains empty!

That is why I lose the taste for life and do not understand how I can fulfill myself. The usual “meat and wine” do not bring me pleasure like before. Therefore, in light of the forthcoming Convention this November where we will reveal an even greater, stronger spiritual desire, we need to prepare the right response to it now, ahead of time.

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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

The Seal From Above

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What’s the middle line? Is it a screen?

Answer: The middle line is the correct combination of the receiving desires (Kelim) and the forces of bestowal. I first prepare these desires and only then request from Above the power of the screen specifically for these desires. When I receive this force, I acquire a spiritual vessel (Kli) which is called the middle line where I’m able to perform the deed of bestowal.

Before the middle line emerges, I clarify what the left and the right lines are, what drawing the Light from Above downward means, and how I halt it completely through restriction. I have to discern what it means to push the Light away from below upward, and to what degree I can manifest my desire in order to create the Reflected Light that part of the Direct Light will clothe in, and not just simply push the incoming pleasure away as I did during restriction (Tzimtzum).

After all these clarifications are completed and I arrange myself to the best of my ability, I ask the force from Above to create an authentic desire, a spiritual vessel (Kli) from all that I have prepared. If I have prepared myself correctly, I receive the Upper force which does answer my request and unifies the desire to bestow and the desire to receive pleasure from both directions, left and right. It tests and sorts the Kli. I ask the Creator to participate in this for I don’t know how to work with it.

As soon as the Kli is ready, it gets “stamped” by the “seal” from Above which is a warranty that it won’t break once I begin using it. Further on, I continue to work in the middle line and receive in order to bestow, in faith above reason, while my forces of bestowal are working from below upward, and I’m certain that it will continue to be so.

To be in the middle line is a complete sequence of actions. There is a middle line in the states of Katnut (smallness), Ibur (conception), Yenika (nurturing), and Mochin (maturity). In each phase and without exception, in order to attain the middle line, I need assistance from Above in assessing, aligning, and merging with the Creator.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/10, The Zohar

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What The World Rests On

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Zohar, Chapter “Lech Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 4: People should observe the work of the Creator. After all, all the people do not know and do not consider what the world stands on and what they themselves stand on.

What does the world rest on? It rests on desire. What are people grounded in? They are grounded in desire. The Zohar is speaking of the types of desires the world and we rest on and how we can change these desires. After all, everything that happens within our desire makes up the reality that we experience.

Our perception of the world hinges on how we change our desires. In his article, "The Creator’s Concealment and Revelation," Baal HaSulam writes that nothing changes outside of us. And it is solely our responsibility to replace our perception of this world with the perception of the World of Infinity.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/10, The Zohar

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Kabbalists On Kabbalists, Part 7

Dr. Michael LaitmanDear Friends, please ask questions on the passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Who Is a Kabbalist?

In the souls of the great righteous [those who have become equal to the Creator in the quality of bestowal] there is everything: all the good and evil [their evil, corrected to good, and the evil that is the ego of the entire world which they correct], and they suffer for everything [include in themselves all of the world’s uncorrected desires so as to prepare them for correction by their owners] and receive pleasure [supreme attainment] when they turn [correct by including within] all the evil into good.
– Rav Kook, Orot Kodesh, 3, 153

No generation is without chosen individuals [Yechidey Segulaon whom the Creator’s spirit rests, to whom Elijah the prophet is revealed and teaches the secrets of the Torah. [This refers to the special people who are able to attain the Creator even in the period of Galut (exile) out of the spiritual qualities and prohibition on their attainment. In our time of exiting Galut, this attainment is available to all people.]
– Rav Chaim Vital, “Preface to the Book, Etz Chaim

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The Strength Of Love Is In Resisting Hatred

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe are incapable of receiving into our desires all the Light of bestowal that is prepared for us at once. The solution to this problem is simple: to receive it in small “doses,” generation after generation, and let billions of people and not just one person work on this in each generation. In this way, we will receive all the Light into one joint vessel of our common soul.

The goal, however, is to collect all the broken parts of the common soul that were deliberately shattered from Above and now feel separated and hostile to each other. The hatred that exists between us encompasses the entire force of connection which was meant to reveal itself by us “receiving in order to bestow.” However, this failed to happen and led us to “receiving for our own sake.”

So, this dividing force transforms itself during the breaking into its opposite and is now at the disposal of the created beings. By correcting hatred in all prior generations and within the multiple parts in each generation, all we do is recover the connections between separated souls. In other words, our goal is not to receive the Light for the sake of bestowal, but to re-connect the splinters that emerged after the breaking. By attaining connection, the creature will reach the power of bestowal and, later on, attain “receiving in order to bestow.”

We have to realize that correction of the state of separation between us and construction of relationships based on bestowal and love is our distinction. Not only did the Creator shatter us into multiple particles; most importantly, they were separated by hostility. To correct them means to collect and connect these particles back together. We have to pay attention to this rather than concentrate on the Light that becomes revealed within us. The Light that corrects our desires, the Light of love and bestowal, has to descend to us before anything else.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

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Entrance Into The Garden Of Eden

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Zohar, Chapter “Lech Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 104: When the Ruach comes out of this world and enters the cave of Adam HaRishon and the patriarchs, they give him there a letter as a sign, and he goes to the Garden of Eden. When he approaches, he meets the Cherubim there and that flaming sword which turns every way. If he is rewarded, they see the letter that is the sign, open the gate for him, and he enters. If not, they repel him outside.

When we read The Zohar, we should imagine a greater or a smaller desire to bestow or only the desire to receive, that is, we should envision changes in bestowal. That is the entire spiritual world. However, these variations contain all color shades and all gradations of qualities. Everything we read in The Zohar is about changes in the quality of bestowal which manifests as such in our perception.

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