Good Environment – 1.25.2011

My Good Environment – Lesson Summary

Good Environment – 01.06.2011

My Good Environment – Questions of the Day

All The Troubles Lead To The Group

Dr. Michael LaitmanWritings of Rabash, “What Are the Misfortunes that Come to the Wicked…”: The sages said: Misfortune comes into the world only when there are sinners in it, and it starts with the righteous…”

It is impossible to advance alone. A series of descents causes such great egoism to surface in a person that he asks himself, “Is it possible to come out of it at all?” That’s when a persistent need for coming out of it causes him to turn to the group. Only there, together with others, can he summon the force that will lead him to the outside.

All attempts to climb out independently will fail. You cannot do anything here alone. That’s because a person has to correct the breaking, the shame, and prepare the exit out of himself toward his neighbor.

Therefore, all the descents are intended to bring us to the realization of our own powerlessness so we would turn to the group, having no other choice. Then, with the group’s help we must acquire the realization of the Creator’s importance. This importance will force us to look for a way out and will bring us to the right decision: Only in the environment will we find the forces to advance.

The environment as we understand it is an artificial image. It only seems like some foreign element to a person, and that is done deliberately so he would be able to reject his egoism, his desire to enjoy.

Therefore, misfortunes come to us in order to reveal the “sinners” in us more and more, but at the same time they come down on the states called “righteous.”
[31844]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/11, Writings of Rabash

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Self-Test For Spiritual Progress

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If I don’t have any study questions, do I nevertheless advance?

Answer: A person himself has to check whether he is advancing or not. How can he do it? By examining if during the study he experiences ascents and descents in his connection with the others and rejection thereof. Now I only need to know whether I am connected with the others and try to reveal the images that we study in The Zohar, the images of the Creator, within this connection.

Do I aspire for it? Yes, I do. How strong is my aspiration? How many times during the lesson did I leave and come back to these thoughts? How many times during this work did I feel concerned about the others so that they, too, hold this intention? Then, their collective thought will also act upon me so that even if I leave these thoughts, I will immediately return to them. It is actually good to have as many of these quick exits and entries as possible.

For this reason I need the support of the group, and I have to constantly hold the thought about the connection. This is my entire work. These signs help me evaluate my progress. If I stop thinking about the connection and never return to these thoughts again, I don’t advance.

Hence, don’t ask, but rather examine yourself.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Yitro (Jethro)”

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The Birth Of Intention Or Man

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe will to enjoy is our matter, while the intention is its form. However, you don’t have the intention or form until the will to enjoy meets with the Upper Light and builds the form at the time of this encounter.

You cannot acquire the intention for the Creator yourself. You only turn to the Upper One with your plea (raise MAN), and then MAD, NHY of the Upper One together with its Reflected Light, descends from Above. And when the Reflected Light of the Upper One clothes into your matter, it thereby gives you a form.

The lower part (NHY) of the Upper One that clothes into the lower one creates its form. Meanwhile, the lower one by itself cannot do anything but plea: “Endow me with the form of bestowal!” But it is the Upper One that decides what form it will be, and for this reason we need to annul ourselves.

Therefore, the group can supply me with the desire to receive the form of the Upper One, however, the group does not determine that form for me; it only arouses this need within me. And when I ask the Upper One, raise MAN, I don’t dictate my will to it. If I insisted on having a certain form, it wouldn’t be bestowal.

In addition, the Reshimo (informational gene) that determines my plea is already in me. By raising MAN, I raise that Reshimo, that gene, so that the Upper One could perform a Zivug: a union of male and female parts as if when conceiving a child. This union occurs Above, while I already receive a ready-made form that it begot.

All of my forms are already inscribed within me, in the chain of my Reshimot. I do not determine my fate, but only establish for myself the form of transition from one form to the other: either by the path of Light or by the path of suffering. However, the forms themselves are fixed; they are defined by the root of my soul and its descent into this world. I have to rise back following exactly the same path.

I only determine how I will transition from one stage to another: being pushed by the blows or driven by the Light ahead of me. I also decide whether I will advance quickly or slowly, that is, whether I will seek to learn from the Creator or He will have to teach me with a stick.
[31884]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Life Inside The Holographic Picture

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If we live in the holographic picture, does it change as we ascend the spiritual degrees?

Answer: This picture constantly changes since we define its form ourselves. There are two vectors or forces: the desire to receive and the desire to bestow, and we establish the relationship between them. Various combinations of these two forces beget thousands of different forms before us.

Any  instrument or any natural spiritual or corporeal phenomenon in all the worlds, everything, originates from the interplay between the Creator and the creature: the Light that begets desire. There are only two components: the Light and desire, and the screen between them. The screen ensures the correspondence between the Creator and the creature.

This correspondence becomes established in ten qualitative levels (10 Sefirot), which also are divided into 620 (Tarach) parts, and so on infinitely. No matter what you do: Analyze reality and divide it into its components or, on the contrary, synthesize and generalize, everywhere you reveal the same two acting forces: bestowal and reception.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 11

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

613 Suggestions and 613 Deposits

There are two parts in Torah and Mitzvot:

A. The Torah and Mitzvot as they appear to all, are the keeping of Mitzvot and the study of Torah in the form of 613 counsels. These have the power to purify and cleanse the body [desire], and enhance the merit of the soul [intention], to be worthy and merit receiving the Light of the King’s face, as the soul was in its root, before it diminished and came into this base body [egoistic desire] in the base world.

B. Keeping the Mitzvot and studying the Torah in the form of 613 deposits, namely the matter of attaining His Names and the full reward of the souls.

The merit of the latter part over the former is as the merit of Heaven over Earth. This is because the first part is mere preparation, and the second part is the actual completeness and the purpose of Creation.
Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the book, From the Mouth of a Sage
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The Curse Of A Smart Aleck

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why can’t a person adhere to the Upper One and see in Him the reason for all that happens and thereby advance?

Answer: This is called “being too smart for your own good.” There is a “block” in our head that greatly hinders our advancement, preventing us from doing anything. Everyone is certain that he understands and can accomplish everything with his mind. Man is not able to cancel his corporeal reason, his “I.”

The law of growth and ascending from degree to degree necessitates cancelling the previous degree so as to acquire the next one. Even plants develop from seeds the exact same way. Any cell that transitions from one state to another undergoes the same changes. The only difference is that we need to make these changes intentionally, consciously, with our own demand!

In nature it happens automatically, instinctively. This is how an embryo grows in the womb, as does any child. If I want to acquire a profession and learn something, I know that I need to cancel my mind before the instructor. I want him to tell me and show me what to do, and I repeat after him.

I do what he does again and again until I grasp the principle, the inner foundation. Having done the action myself enough times, I now understand why it works this way and not another. As long as my egoistic desire supports this, I have no problem cancelling my reason in order to learn.

But here the egoistic desire is against such a cancellation, which is why I cannot learn anything! I hold my ground like a stubborn donkey (“Hamor” [donkey] is similar to the word “Homer” [matter]), refusing to move, even under threat of death!

And the threat is far from empty! We conclude our lives without having achieved attainment. And truly, the smarter a person, the more problematic this is for them.

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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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The Place Where Sinners Retreat

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe work above our matter, the will to enjoy. It has to grow all the time in order for us to grow, creating the form of bestowal and equivalence to the Creator above it.

That is why we experience the growing desire as a disaster. It comes when a person is ready for it. It is written, “The woe that comes to the sinners starts with the righteous.” In other words, the negative forms become revealed in those who used to be righteous, who made an ascent and prepared themselves.

Beginners who don’t understand the method yet are taken aback by this, “Why is it that after all the efforts I made, I am experiencing such negative states?” Suddenly the inspiration is gone and one feels indifferent to everything. However, with experience comes wisdom and a person realizes that the path forward lies through descents and opposition to the egoistic inclination.

The spiritual goal will always remain a question for me, “Why do I advance? Is it worth it for me to go against my egoism, my nature? Is it normal to work in such great descents, without any aspiration or motivation?” A person feels miserable and helpless, and experiences his state as unworthy and undeserved.

This is precisely the place about which it is written, “The righteous will walk where the sinners will retreat.” The entire matter is that we have to come out of our nature. We shouldn’t nourish it or tend to it, but raise it in order to ascend above it. Every time a person has prepared himself for an ascent, he is sent a new “burdening of the heart” so he would ascend even higher. That is how he advances on the spiritual path.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/11, Writings of Rabash

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