My Spiritual Simulator – 10.10.10

Spiritual Simulator: Questions of the Day

Why Do I Labor And What Do I Find?

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, Shamati #161, "The Matter of the Giving of the Torah": "I labored and did not find, do not believe." We must understand the meaning of “I found.” What is there to find? Find concerns finding grace in the eyes of the Creator.

It is written about actualizing the method of correction: “I labored and found.” What kind of odd motto is this? I can understand the “labored,” but the “found” part is very unclear.

If I correct myself so as to achieve love of others, in this good attitude toward others and connection with them, I find not just anybody but the Creator Himself: the all-inclusive force of nature which binds everything into one whole system. Everything depends on labor. I must invest myself and sweat as I try to gather the entire system, to construct relationships with others, to establish the correct connection, and to feel it out in the darkness.

In this I labor, and then I ultimately find the Creator the moment the system’s parts unify. Thus, I reveal the universal force, and it becomes my inner life force. And if I don’t labor and conduct this search, I will lack the understanding and impressions necessary to unite all the souls.

Indeed, it is up to me to attain this system and learn to control it, just as every cell cares for the body as a whole, even though we have yet to reveal this. The same principle applies to all of creation: Each element is interconnected with all others and the whole system, as in a hologram. This is perfection.

For this reason it is impossible to forgo labor in actualizing the method of correction for then I would never be able to connect, understand, and absorb everything within.

But in spirituality, although he is rewarded with being favored, he must still pay the full price later—the measure of the labor that everyone gives. If not, he will lose the Kli.
[22999]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/10, "The Matter of the Giving of the Torah"

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True Evil

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does adhesion with the Creator imply?

Answer: Adhesion is a great correction, unification on the basis of equivalence of properties or “form.” We don’t need to change the substance of the will to receive itself. Yet, this substance has an egoistic form (intention) that is regarded as “evil,” opposite to the Creator.

The will to receive in itself isn’t considered bad and opposite to the Creator, just as the still, vegetative, and animate nature aren’t considered bad and opposite to the Creator. And until a person gets to feel that he is opposite to the Creator, he isn’t considered to have the “evil inclination” either.

First, it is necessary to recognize that your intention or the “form” of desire is opposite to the Creator. If not, a person has no evil: He simply acts in accord with his instincts. In Kabbalah, evil is defined as a property opposite to the Creator, the Good, or the Light. A person can sense evil only when the properties of goodness, connection, and love are revealed to him, and he can see himself as opposite to the Creator.

At that point, a person becomes a “human,” no matter how bad this human is at the moment. And this occurs only with the studying of the wisdom of Kabbalah. Before then, there is nothing to correct in a person and in all egoists of the world. It isn’t the form which requires correction.

Only the breach between me and the Creator demands correction. I must transform the form that is opposite to the Creator to a good one, similar to Him. And when we become equal with Him in mutual bestowal, then, as it is written, we attain connection called “adhesion” (Dvekut). This inner work (revelation of evil or brokenness and its correction) occurs solely by way of the Light that is drawn during the group studying of Kabbalah.

In one of his incarnations (Gilgulim), a person suddenly feels a “shot” into the heart, a “spark” that draws him to some new, non-materialistic life. He wants to rise above the mundane, earthly existence and comes to the studies and the group. As time progresses, he begins to feel how inadequate he is to bestowal. From that moment on, he realizes that his nature is opposite to the Creator. Only then can it be said that the “awareness of his evil” has surfaced in him.

But people usually think that “evil” means being just a bad person in the society, and not being against everybody’s unity with the Creator. Kabbalah doesn’t correct the earthly evil (not helping an old lady cross the street or not giving money to the beggars). This evil cannot be corrected at all; it only keeps growing untill we get rid of the spiritual evil.
[22862]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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The Spirit Of The Group

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is selfless bestowal to another? What do I have to bestow to the friend outside of the egoistic pleasure?

Answer: You don’t need to give him anything material. In your desires you offer him support so that he wouldn’t forget about advancement toward the Creator. This is what your bestowal is exactly. What can souls give to one another when they are apart? They can only awaken each other and give each other strength. It isn’t required to fill the friend’s pockets or refrigerator. Only the correct interconnection is needed, and the Upper Light will fulfill all the needs.

Provide the friend with energy, involvement, and joy from the goal for this is your duty. Without this obligation and spirit there is no group. The Creator has made it so that we exist in one place, meaning one spiritual space, one collective desire of all the friends from all over the world. But it still doesn’t mean that we are a group.

A group begins with the promise to inspire each other. Moreover, we are not talking about external actions, but the inner desire where we are interconnected. Everyone passes the collective impulse and confidence in the path to the others, and this is what is called mutual guarantee.

If you lose capacity to inspire the others, it means that you are drilling a hole in our boat. “And if I am tired, can I rest?” If you do, then you are unable to receive inspiration from the others and are drilling a hole under yourself in the common boat, and because of you, all the others drown.

You either take part in the mutual guarantee or you don’t. This is the way we have to strengthen our troops. Everyone and all of us must see how we depend on each other more and more. This is practical work: A person examines his demand for connection with the group day by day. This is the exact point of interconnection that has to become a foundation for all our hopes.

The boat will reach the point of destination, and in the meantime, our job is to keep it safe from holes and see to it that the certainty in achieving the goal and awareness of its importance gets passed on to everyone. Indeed, there is nothing more important than unity and revelation the universal force of bestowal – the Creator, the Light – among us.
[22717]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/6/10, “In Everything We Must Discern Between Light and Kli

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Kabbalah Conventions Bring Us Closer To The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do we use the upcoming World Kabbalah Convention in order to bring us closer to adhesion with the Creator?

Answer: It is exactly what we aspire to achieve. We are building an environment in order for it to affect us all, to instill new values into us, and to make us feel ashamed that we are not yet in bestowal and don’t feel the same way that we will during the congress.

I realize that during these three days I will feel a burning flame within me, excitement and inspiration. Then why can’t I always feel that way? Before and after the congress, I will probably undergo difficult states, ascents and descents. During the congress, too, there will be moments when I will and will not desire unity, when I will be “for” and “against” it at the same time.

This teaches us how much we need the group and the pressure we feel from the friends so that thanks to their impact, we could attain adhesion with the Creator sooner. This is what we should experience at the convention.
[22834]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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Come To The Epicenter Of Unity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why is it so important to physically participate in the upcoming Kabbalah convention?

Answer: The Creator conditions a person, and if one finds himself in a situation where he is absolutely unable to come to the convention, then this situation was prepared for him by the Creator. In this case, a person should try to join the congress in the form that he can.

A person may not be able to come to the convention physically, or maybe he doesn’t have the necessary funds, but there must be a serious excuse. In other words, it depends on the opportunities that one is given and whether or not he is using them correctly.

Each person has to make an honest calculation within himself as to how much depends on him. But if spirituality is really the most important thing in his life, there cannot be any double standards here. Everyone should ask himself whether or not he would go if by going to the convention he would win a huge amount of money, improve his health, do something very dear to him, or save his life. Make your calculations along these lines.

There is no doubt that such magnitude of unity can only be achieved at a congress and no other place. We arrange congresses overseas as well, but this congress is the most powerful one. Therefore, I cannot imagine that a person living in Israel would not have an opportunity to come. If this is the case, let him write us about what prevents him from coming, and we will work on it.

If a person lives abroad, however, it could be a problem. It is possible that he lives in a country where it’s dangerous to travel to Israel, or maybe he has no financial means to do so. In this case, he should figure out how to join the others like himself locally and watch our broadcasts together with them. But it is necessary to unite with someone.

In the worst case scenario, if there isn’t anybody nearby, then a person should watch the broadcast alone. But I hope that there will be very few people in this situation as the essence of our entire action, our entire correction lies in unity.

If the only commandment is to unite, then why wouldn’t a person want to come to the place with the greatest power of connection that he can possibly reach? Let’s not look for excuses. The Creator considers only one thing: How did you utilize the conditions handed to you from Above?

Therefore, let’s hope that many of our friends will gather at the convention, in the setting most beneficial for our unity, and at all locations so that we will attain a spiritual revelation.
[22654]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/5/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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The Secret Of Success

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Many people around the world study Kabbalah and wonder why your organization is more successful than others?

Answer: This is because we think about bestowal, about Kabbalah circulation. We are prepared to spend our money to distribute millions of free newspapers and to do many other things. The more efficiently we use our financial resources, people, and time, the more we will succeed in spirituality. Thanks to this in particular, we have a TV channel in Israel and other opportunities that we have been given.

We succeed because we strive to bestow, to circulate, and to want the Creator (the Light that Reforms) to help us. We stand firmly on this: We try to be the means for correction and not to stray from the path.

As a result, more people join us and are attracted to us without even knowing why. It is not because we are so good, but because the Light acts this way, spreading out in circles from the center. It is a law of nature. There is no luck or protection here. We must continue to do our non-profit dissemination in a more efficient and precise way, and it will bring us success again and again. This is because the Light is with us! We know how to attract the Light!
[22615]
From the Talk on Education 10/1/10

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Fata Morgana

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is it true that one can love another only in relation to the desire for spirituality because in this case I am not required to fulfill another person’s corporeal desires? After all, I clearly see that now I am not even willing to share a piece of meat at the table.

Answer: For now, it is enough for us to unite in our desire to attain the Creator, but later, you will feel as though you are sitting next to your little son at the table. Would you be able to grab his piece of meat and eat it? This is how you will treat the whole world.

But why is this necessary or what will you receive in the end? We usually forget the answer to this question, that is, the purpose of bestowal, and this is why this action feels so artificial to us: You will feel similar to the Creator and will bestow pleasure to Him, after having attained such a great correction.

Currently you have no need for this at all, and that is why an act of bestowal looks forced and unreasonable to you. There is only one goal: similarity to the Creator. It only seems to you that the world is suffering, that there are poor and unfortunate people. But once you correct yourself, you will see that they are all rich and happy, intelligent and healthy (see Baal HaSulam’s article “The Creator’s Revelation and Concealment”).

We can’t comprehend what an illusion all the suffering in the world is. Each person is being shown an ugly world on purpose so he can feel how much he needs to correct in order to see perfection. We see how everyone thinks differently and has his own opinion, but where does it come from? It is the result of everybody seeing a different picture of the world because there is no picture or form: Everything is revealed within the properties of a person.

When I start unfolding the truth, I realize that behind all the pictures of the world, which appear before my eyes like mirages in the desert there stands one Thought which is projecting the reality that I currently see. And this form is so vague, like Fata Morgana that soars in the air and is constantly changing.

I can steer my way through all these fantasies and the unknown only by leaning on the group because it constantly corrects my focus toward the truth. The truth is the attainment of the single force that governs all of the Fata Morgana. Having attained this force, we can understand how it creates all of these forms and why, we become one with it, and work together with it to reveal the true picture of this world.

It is written: “A man will give anything to find the truth.”
[22930]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/3/10, "The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings"

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The Pendulum Of The Upper Worlds

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If the Light builds desires (Kelim, vessels), then why do we remain in the same state of Infinity and only uncover it?

Answer: In the process of expanding and descending from Above downward, the Light created all of the states of descent (the spiritual “rungs”) in such a fashion that the development or ascent is determined by the impact of the corresponding “rung” or spiritual degree on us, and not by the impact of the Light. The Light does perform actions, but solely if it is forced to do so.

Herein lies the entire essence of the construction of the system of the Upper Worlds. The system was broken into parts in order to place obstacles on the path of the Light’s influence upon the desires so that specifically the need from the side of the desire would open the passage for the Light’s action.

In the initial state, you and I reside in Infinity, but we don’t perceive each other since we are in different properties. The descent to this world is constructed from this condition so as to allow man to return to the Upper World on his own. In fact, the whole purpose of descending from Above downward lies in man’s independent ascent from below upward.

A person doesn’t perform an act on his own, but evokes it by forming a desire for it. As soon as the desire to rise higher is formed, it triggers an ascent to the next rung.

Thereby, a person discloses the previously concealed degrees. He seeks the forms of the will to bestow (the forms of bestowal to the Creator), and if the acquired form matches a higher spiritual degree, he evokes the forces of correction and ascends according to the principle: “Make your desire equivalent to His so that He may act as you desire.” Then, Zivug (spiritual coupling) occurs.
[22933]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/1/10, “Within My Flesh Shall I See God”

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Kabbalists On The Language Of Kabbalah, Part 14

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

The Language of the Kabbalists Is a Language of Branches

The language of Kabbalists is a language in the full sense of the word: very precise, both concerning root and branch and concerning cause and consequence. It has a unique merit of being able to express subtle details in this language without any limits. Also, through it, it is possible to approach the desired matter directly, without the need to connect it with what precedes it or follows it.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence

Thus, Kabbalists have found a set and annotated vocabulary, sufficient to create an excellent spoken language. It enables them to converse with one another of the dealings in the Spiritual Roots in the Upper Worlds by merely mentioning the tangible branch in this world that is well defined to our corporeal senses. The listeners understand the Upper Root to which this corporeal branch points because it is related to it, being its imprint.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah
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