A "Trap" For The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We spend our entire lives chasing the “carrot,” but we never manage to grab hold of it. So what’s the difference between chasing the “carrot” and our efforts to reveal the Creator?

Answer: If a person chases anything, “carrot” or Creator, driven by his egoistic, receiving desires, then he won’t receive either. According to the law of creation, nothing can enter the will to receive except “Kista de Hayuta” – a tiny, short-lived portion of Light, which gives us the sensation of a small, short life.

If a person desires to feel a bigger life, this is possible in a different desire. For example, I catch a fish with a fishing rod, a butterfly or bird with a net, and an animal with a trap. There is a different tool for catching each kind of animal.

Likewise, our will to enjoy is unable to feel anything more than this small, short-lived life. Something greater can only be felt in a different “trap,” which we have to build. We can only feel it in the desire to bestow.

The complaint you expressed in your question is correct. In my natural desire, I don’t have the possibility of being happy. In order to be happy, I have to replace my desire “to receive” with the desire “to bestow.” After all, the most important thing isn’t the desire, but the fulfillment.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/15/10, The Zohar

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My Spiritual Simulator – 09.15.10

Spiritual Simulator: Questions of the Day

The Day Of Atonement

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn a few days we will observe a special day called Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). However, no one knows what inner state a Kabbalist will feel on that day and when the state called “Day of Atonement” will happen for him. One’s inner states do not occur according to the calendar.

The states that any person goes through can be personal or general. On the general level, people follow the common traditions of each holiday. When a group of Kabbalists reaches unity and through it achieves a certain internal state called a “holiday,” that state will not be related to the general holiday observed by all people. The inner holiday happens in accordance with one’s personal, internal state, whereas a general holiday takes place according to the calendar. Traditions and customs, as well as every single “specific” day, have a higher spiritual root. Therefore, a Kabbalist also wishes to follow the tradition together with others, as it is written: “The Creator stays with His people.” However, at the same time, a Kabbalist also remains in his own personal internal state.

Religious people follow customs and traditions, whereas Kabbalists perform inner actions in their souls by connecting to other souls into one common soul of Adam. By doing so, they please the Creator and correct themselves. Correction is possible only by way of uniting with others, as it is written: “Love thy neighbor as thyself, this is the great law of the Torah.”

People all over the world pray to the Creator (each of them addressing their Lord) and request “forgiveness.” But maybe it is worth explaining to them that repentance works only in respect to “love thy neighbor” and depends on whether you are “for it” or “against it.” We can figure out whether we sinned or not only by comparing ourselves to this rule. This is the only law we have to follow, as it is written: “Love thy neighbor as thyself is the main rule of the Torah.”

If the whole of humankind would virtually get together in order to clarify what is “love thy neighbor,” how powerfully the Creator demands it from us, and how far we still are from this state, that would be a real Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and it would lead us to Purim (in Hebrew “Kippur means “as Purim”), the complete correction.

When people pray for forgiveness, it is very important for them to know what to ask for. We weep and beg for so many years, but it doesn’t help. The Creator cannot hear our prayers in this form. That’s because this kind of appeal is opposite to the correct cry: We are not begging to feel love for our neighbors, and the Creator doesn’t listen to any other requests. Thus, we turn our back to the One who can redeem us and scream in the opposite direction. This is what most people’s Day of Atonement is like.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/14/10, “Preparation for Slichot

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The Spiritual Reference Point

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If we are advancing in the darkness, then how can we orient ourselves in order to go through all the phases of spiritual work and reach the understanding that we have exhausted all our efforts so we can then ask the Creator to help us?

Answer: We do not see the Creator and cannot play with Him the way a child plays with an adult. Instead of showing Himself to us, the Creator made a playing field for us: the group of friends. For this reason, He deliberately broke the soul he created into parts. This wasn’t done so we would relate to each separate part, but so we would relate to the unity of the parts as to Him. In this way, we make the Kli similar to the Light and go from love for the creatures to love for the Creator.

Therefore, in relation to the group (but not to separate friends), I have to separate myself from all the material calculations and see "myself, the group and the Creator as one whole." I should check my state and attitude to the Creator by my attitude and state in the group. I don’t see the Creator, but I do see the friends! By concealing Himself, the Creator gives me the opportunity to build myself and become independent and equal to Him.

I desire to hit the target that hides behind the horizon, and this is possible if I have a visible reference point. If I correctly aim at it, then I will definitely hit the unseen target. This reference point for attaining the goal, the Creator, is the group which the Creator artificially created for us (and out of us) by giving us the illusion that we hate each other.

To the degree we unite, we "hit" Him more and more precisely. If we unite precisely in order to find Him, then this is the right kind of work.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/15/10, “What is the Advantage that There is in Work Which is More than the  Reward”

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Making Our Way Toward The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe only way to check the spiritual states is to check your connection with the group. In order to give us the opportunity to develop in the group correctly, the Creator lets us feel the presence of a higher force, but He Himself remains concealed so we would create a model of Him inside our unity.

By repeatedly revealing and concealing Himself, He awakens us to feel a need to reveal Him precisely from His concealment in the point of our unity. I cannot see the Creator in advance the way I would see any goal in this world. By concealing Himself, the Creator gives us the opportunity to build His image by analyzing the qualities of "myself and the group" the same as, "myself and the Creator."

We discern and evaluate these qualities as we make our way towards Him by feeling around and forming something that is a mystery even to our own selves. Gradually, as we form the spiritual system inside us, we use our desire and the force of the Creator, the Light. Thus, we create the image of the Creator out of them.

Because we create Him inside us from darkness without a visible example that we could copy, we come to reveal, understand, and perceive Him. That is how we truly become equal to Him.

All of the obstacles we receive, which are cruel in their wisdom are lessons which the Creator has planned for us like an instructor who enlightens his disciple. We are building an inner system of governing by bestowal: the system of the screen and the Reflected Light. Precisely the reflection enables us to become similar to the Creator and to adopt the same qualities.

That is how a person gradually becomes human – similar to the Creator.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/14/10, Writings of Rabash

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"Selichot" The Time Of Repentance

Dr. Michael LaitmanHow, during the Ten Days of Repentance (Selichot), between the New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), can we see ourselves as the completely wicked? A “completely wicked” will surely attain repentance, Selichot. But we can feel as such only if the Light comes and exposes our true nature.

We are already the completely wicked, except that we don’t recognize it for there isn’t enough Light. In other words, to become the wicked, we don’t have to commit any transgressions since we are already in them. We just lack awareness of our evil. There isn’t anything we haven’t done in our egoism: stole, killed, and gossiped, but we didn’t realize it was a sin. And indeed, this isn’t the sin that the Torah is talking about and what the Creator implies.

To prepare to repent means to try to unite and through our unity draw the Light that Reforms. Then, we will unfold our sin, our unwillingness to be one. The only sin there is lies in the rejection of oneness. In fact, a person would do anything, even die, rather than unite with the others!

And when a person realizes that there is nothing more important than this but that he has no desire for it, he is ready to repent. We lack only awareness of our evil to be able to cry out and ask for the strength to unite, for the force of love and correction.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/14/10, “Preparation for the Reception of Torah”

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Kabbalah For Beginners “Yom Kippur” – 09.15.10

Kabbalah TV Channel 66’s Kabbalah for Beginners, “Yom Kippur”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

What Lies Beyond The Horizon?

Dr. Michael LaitmanAt first Nukva does not have a desire to receive the Light because it is just a point in relation to Zeir Anpin (it is behind Zeir Anpin’s chest). But then Nukva starts to grow and to receive the Light in order to build its desires (vessels, Kli). The Light comes from Zeir Anpin to Nukva, and thus Nukva builds itself up by virtue of its connection with Zeir Anpin.

They connect “back to back,” at which time Nukva goes through its formation, the formation of its screen or the forms of bestowal that Zeir Anpin teaches it. By adopting these forms, Nukva acquires more desire and force and is then able to become befitting and similar to Zeir Anpin. Nukva becomes Zeir Anpin‘s “wife,” and they (creation and the Creator) unite “face to face” where she receives fulfillment from Him.

However, creation can never become the Creator. It has to become similar and equal to Him! One thing cannot become another; it can only become similar to it. This is sufficient, and we don’t have a need for anything more!

We don’t know what will happen afterward, after the final correction, Gmar Tikkun. Right now it’s impossible for anyone to imagine this. Possibly, when we get there we will reveal completely new possibilities, similar to how a person in our world is now suddenly beginning to reveal the spiritual world, making this entire world of ours seem like a tiny grain of sand compared to the spiritual universe that is opening up before him.

That is how enormous the spiritual world appears to a person in his impressions, sensations, fulfillments, and attainments. It’s as if a person is born anew and perceives everything that happened to him in the past as nothingness. It’s even smaller than a drop of semen compared to a grown-up person because that drop belongs to the same material world and it already contains all of the information about the future person; all it has to do is develop. In contrast, something completely new is born in the spiritual world. The spiritual world means a new perception of reality where instead of perceiving egoistically, inside oneself, a person comes out of himself and perceives on the outside.

Perhaps after the end of correction, we will break through to another dimension, which we cannot imagine right now in any way. We can’t even imagine the spiritual world even though we have all kinds of tools to perceive it, including the Torah, religion, and Kabbalistic texts. However, there is absolutely no evidence of what will happen after the end of correction. Kabbalists do not say even one word to give us a hint about this. They only tell us about the path of correction, but no one talks about what will happen after we become equal to the Creator.

The Zohar strictly confines our research to just the matter and the form clothed in matter. We cannot ask about the abstract form and the essence because we do not have the instruments with which to research them in order to receive the answer.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/14/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Connecting The Creator And The Created Being

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does a Kabbalist who has reached the final correction feel?

Answer: In the state of the final correction (Gmar Tikkun), enormous changes are constantly taking place. A soul exists in ascent and descent “simultaneously” since it feels these two opposite states as identical, as one. The two extremes are united in the soul as one whole because a person has corrected his perception of them and feels them as one occurrence.

However, as we ascend to the World of Infinity, “transitions” from emptiness to fulfillment do not cease to exist, but instead turn into a comparison of the Creator’s initial opposite acts: “existence from existence” and “existence from absence” (Yesh Mi Yesh Ve Yesh Mi Ain). And I, a human being, unite them within myself, adding to the Creator’s act.

This is what dictates the necessity of creating man: He needs to unite these opposites in himself and discover “existence from existence” out of “existence from absence,” that is, reveal the Creator.

From the Talk on The Light that Reforms 9/8/10

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Infinite Rest With Infinite Speed

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why do we strive to achieve balance and absolute rest ingrained in our root, the World of Infinity, if you say that there, too, we experience ascents and descents, emptiness and fulfillment?

Answer: In the World of Infinity ascents and descents happen with infinite speed and frequency. This is exactly why we call this state “absolute” rest. The creature is alive only under the condition that it senses itself and its surroundings, and the sensation is built out of the “contact” of two opposite forces. It is said: “The sensation of Light originates from the sensation of darkness.” We perceive the interchange of various phenomena that are in “touch” with each other through their opposite qualities, such as “shadow and light.”

The state of Infinity means that the creature senses everything within itself simultaneously, and this is why such a state is considered “absolute rest.” This means that the creature exists at an infinitely high frequency of comparisons, contrasts, and judgments, all of which represent sensations.

This continuous frequency in particular allows the creature to be in all places of infinite space simultaneously. The sensation consists of impressions of deficiency and fulfillment (descent and ascent). The more often they happen in the creature, the higher the creature is on the ladder leading to perfection. The ability to be everywhere at the same time (with infinite frequency) means that we fill up space and sense rest. This is the End of the Correction of the Soul (Gmar Tikkun).

Quantum physicists haven’t yet discovered the fact that it is impossible to stop the movement of simple particles because it causes matter to disappear as they cannot exist without movement. Even if they managed to stop the particles, they would vanish since matter only exists in constant motion between two states: “emptiness or fulfillment.” By the way, quantum physicists confirm that a quantum can be in two places (states) at the same time.

Rest is not the absence of movement, but rather a continuous movement, which allows us to be in all places at the same time. Infinite speed doesn’t mean that I transition from one point to another instantly, but that I am in both at the same time. This is real rest.

From the Talk on The Light that Reforms 9/8/10

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