Making Music With The Upper Wind

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere is a very big problem in Kabbalah: this science is described using an allegoric language. It is written in a very difficult manner. Using strange examples, expressions, Kabbalists address us, people in this world, trying to tell us about how to make attempts to enter the Upper World. They are trying to tell us something about the upper world, about the qualities we should aspire to.

This language is extremely not simple. We must always try to translate it to the language of feelings until every word comes to resonate with the right feeling in a person. Every word must “pull” on some string inside of me, giving rise to an inner response.

Until that happens, the text is unclear to us. It is absolutely external, does not touch us, and we do not perceive it or adapt it inside of us, and do not act in accordance with it. We have to find how to feel what the author wants to convey to us. This is the most important thing. Reading a Kabbalistic text is like tuning a musical instrument. If we attune ourselves correctly, then this instrument will begin to play by itself.

It is written that King David had a harp hanging on the wall, and at midnight, when the north wind swept through the room, the harp played. We are the same. If we attune ourselves correctly to the external force, we will begin to feel its influence and desire, and will match it by qualities, reaching a resonance with it and “vibrating” like it. That is what we have to attain.
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From the lesson in Moscow on 1/16/11, Writings of Rabash

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Why Does The Creator Need Me?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The purpose of creation is basically clear to me. What I don’t understand is why did the Creator do it? What does He need me for? Why did He make it all this way?

Answer: He did it for two reasons: First, His nature is good who does good, meaning that He wished to give us infinite fulfillment above time, motion, space, and all limitations. Second, this fulfillment must be of the same degree as the Creator’s so that we would enjoy a status equal to His and be as He is. Yet we have to achieve this ourselves by having received independence and increasing our “self” to His level.

We still don’t comprehend how we can grow to such a status, but we will reach a position equal to the Creator’s and become equal to Him in everything. The force of love and good, which in fact is the Creator, obliges Him to create a being and lead it to perfection. In truth, however, we already are in this state of completeness since He initially created us as such.

He didn’t create us in this despicable form we find ourselves at the moment so that we would have to reconstruct ourselves anew. No, all we have to do is unveil our true condition. As to the Creator, we are still perfect in relation to Him.

If we don’t achieve this status independently, we won’t be able to experience the world of and life in Infinity. We could experience it right now, but since our Kelim (vessels, desires) are not developed, we perceive this world instead.
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From the Introductory Lecture “Why The Creator is Hidden” 12/14/2010

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The Dawn Of A New World

Dr. Michael LaitmanMankind hasn’t sufficiently realized what it is supposed to discover or reveal. We are confused and don’t understand what action is correct to make. However, the wisdom of Kabbalah is not aimed at making our life comfortable in this corporeal world. On the contrary, it informs us that we have to start ascending from this world to the upper world, which is gradually being revealed to us.

There, life is completely different: It isn’t within us but between us. In the space between the elementary particles of the universe, we begin experiencing totally new phenomena and feel differently: that we are integral beings that are globally connected and living together in one unified system. Instead of feeling only myself, I will start feeling this system as one whole. Then we will lose the sensation of our individual selves. One’s “self” will become a collective, the entire world.

Kabbalah explains that this transition must take place in our time. That is why we are seeing a global crisis in everything that was created over thousands of years of our evolution. We have to become aware that we can’t exist in the previous paradigm anymore and that the time has come to step out into a different attitude toward oneself and the world. We must start exploring the “void” between us, which is filled with enormous forces that do, in fact, govern us all.

As a result, we will learn who we are and what we are here for, and will be able to achieve a completely different kind of life. On one hand, we are being pushed to this by pain, while on the other, we are being pulled by some internal force, a call. Every person has this “point in the heart,” a starting point of the new world that is being revealed in the void.

The entire wisdom of Kabbalah is structured in order to reveal this new world or additional dimension to us, where we don’t exist yet, and to tell us about the means that will help us develop an ability to feel and study it, as well as to interact with it.
From the lesson in Moscow on 1/16/11, Writings of Rabash

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The Groundbreakers

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe transition from the present, internal sensation to the external one is the most challenging step on the path of evolution. In the corporeal world, it is egoism that makes us grow by providing a natural motivation for us to search. In the upper world, we feel how wonderful it is to step out into the new dimension. We start seeing and experiencing it, and sensing the forces that interact with all of its parts. We unveil the tapestry of forces that connect us, which naturally results in our yearning for spiritual attainment.

We have to move on from our present perception to a higher one, and reside in both dimensions simultaneously. This is a very difficult psychological transition because it is as if we are being reborn.

Just like a newborn comes out of its previous place of existence into the external world by way of its own efforts, as well as its mother’s, so we have to pass through the very same stages of internal maturation and necessity to be born. With our own effort, we “flip upside down,” which signifies that we completely switch our perception of reality. The pushing force of the mother works in sync with the moving force of the embryo, and as a result we come out into the external world.

This is the most serious state and a crucial point in our lives. For the first time in human history, we are undergoing it on a mass scale. In the past, the revelation of the upper dimension or the external world occurred on the individual level. The first person to do so was Adam 5771 years ago. After him, over the course of thousands of years, many others discovered this possibility, attained it, and described it in their books, which have survived to this day. That is how the method continued to develop.

However, today, it is being transformed from an individual wisdom to a mass wisdom. Therefore, it is undergoing very serious modifications. We are the groundbreakers of implementing it, and the process will be much easier for the rest of mankind. We will be born first, and then all the others will follow us by the same principle.

We should be aware how challenging, profound, and unique our path is.
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From the lesson in Moscow on 1/16/11, Writings of Rabash

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"To Proclaim Your Truth In The Night"

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I have been studying at the “Kabbalah L’Am” (Kabbalah for All) campus for some time already, and now I am in such state that I don’t understand or feel anything.

Answer: The more a person studies, the more he enters a state when he feels and understands nothing. And then he overcomes this barrier.

It is a very interesting experience. It is written that at some point, Rabbi Shimon felt as a mere merchant, "Shimon from the market." That is, he felt as if all knowledge, perceptions, and impressions related to the wisdom of Kabbalah disappeared in him.

However, in correspondence with the darkness that enveloped him, he also felt the spiritual degree he was about to attain. After all, when a person is evolving spiritually, the gap between what he has achieved during the ascent and the place where he “falls” having lost everything is enormous.

Therefore, when you are surrounded by darkness, study it thoroughly and understand how it manifests; only this will help you. Examine what is happening, what feelings it instills in you, what you are desperate for, where you have no more emotional resources, and where you still do have some. This is what you have to clarify at the time of spiritual darkness. It is so-called “work in the night,” a period greatly valued by the sages of Kabbalah, as it is said: “To proclaim Thy mercy in the morning and Thy Truth in the night” (Psalm 92).

In other words, in the darkness, a person starts discerning what is going to be revealed to him since darkness is the reverse side of the Light. And when you don’t just sit and “eat” yourself but study the darkness correctly, the “morning” arrives and the Light illuminates everything. Hence, inside this darkness, a person has to see the Light, examine what it is he has to attain, and while still being in the dark, to feel that he is coming closer to it.

To be in the dark is a very rewarding job! It is a special state. This is how we are shown that we are unable to do anything ourselves. A person finally gets to know his true nature and realizes that without help from Above he is nothing.

If you are illuminated by the upper Light, you rise like a flower stretching up to the sun. And if there is no Light, you immediately fall.
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From the Introductory Lecture in North Tel Aviv 12/19/2010

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Adding The Universe To The Particle

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Kabbalistic method is built on group work, on the connection between us, on the aspiration for all of us to gather together, to collect all the common forces, and with our mutual efforts to help every person come out of himself to others. In reality the method is very realistic and simple. In order to perceive the upper world, we have to stop paying attention to the “atoms” of our bodies and switch our attention to the emptiness in the “interatomic space.” We can do this in human society or in a small group that allows us to change ourselves.

We have to get together, mutually helping each other, and start shifting our attention from ourselves to what is between us. The work is unpleasant, unclear, and very unnatural for us. But that is why Kabbalists wrote an enormous amount of materials. By applying the Kabbalistic method to ourselves, we add to it, complete it, and materialize it. We begin to accept and feel it inside. As a whole we adapt it to us and to real time, and implement it in the present.

Therefore, we carry it out and research it, as well as develop the phase of the practical realization of all of Nature. Today the method is applied on us, those who desire to complement our sensation of the universe with an additional, external part. Moreover, this is not simply an additional part, but the most important part. We begin feeling forces, phenomena, and actions in interatomic space, meaning in 99% of reality. First and foremost this enormous volume is filled by a thought, a plan, forces, and their interactions, and everything that activates us, who are tiny, microscopic parts.

This attainment of the root leads us out of the state of time, lack of vision, and submission, in essence a state of non-being, to a state of clarity, eternity, and perfection. That is what the right realization of the science of Kabbalah gives us.

All of this is realized in the group, where we begin to feel how to come to the outside, to the perception of others. We go from the sensation of “the world inside me” to the sensation of “the world in the world.” If there are billions of people or souls instead of me, then by coming out of myself I begin perceiving the forces that act between us, and I feel all the souls as one whole, as one closed system.

Today even on the material level something is already telling us that the world is global and integral, and everything in it is interconnected. Thus, I begin to perceive everything on the outside as myself. I thereby acquire a great desire, force, and fulfillment, which is at my disposal. All of this becomes my “self.” These are no longer people, but simply forces that exist in this form.

That is how a person starts to reveal the true volume and vision of the world.
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From the lesson in Moscow on 1/16/11, Writings of Rabash

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Hunger Is The Best Seasoning

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe speed of our development depends not only on us, but on the entire world as well. People whose points in the heart awaken are willing to unite; they are desperately trying to do it, but cannot because the world doesn’t feel the need for it yet.

We are not taken into consideration since we are an alien body in the world from the start. Spiritual sparks, sprinkled into egoism, exist solely to reform this egoism. They are the channels of the Torah, that very spice with the help of which all humanity, “the main dish,” has to reach the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun). And if this dish hasn’t been stewed enough yet, spices cannot be added to it in order to make the dish ready.
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From the Lesson on Weekly Torah Portion 12/23/2010

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Uniting Around A Common Source Of Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe have entered the developmental stage of the greatest level of desire, Malchut. And most importantly, this desire is common.

This is the beginning of the age of the Messiah. If we view 6,000 years of development as 6 days, then we are in the last thousand, the last “day.” The difference is that we are now revealing the universal connection, Malchut that is connected to Yesod.

If Malchut becomes revealed by itself, it is the animate level. But if Malchut’s connection with Yesod, with Zeir Anpin, becomes revealed, then this is already the human level. Therefore, this connection that becomes revealed awakens our aspiration for something higher, causing us to search for the meaning in life.

We seem to have a connection with Yesod, which is the source from which life, the Light of Hochma, comes to us. We feel that we need changes and our entire world demands correction. Yesod also unites everything from above downwards since it is the sum of the previous five Sefirot (Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, and Hod).

On the other hand, Yesod is the place of union with the Creator (Brit, circumcision), which concentrates all of the corrections of the connection between the Creator and creation. This is the source from which Malchut receives the entire Light of life.

In our days we are beginning to feel this Yesod. We are suddenly awakening and we don’t understand what is our life—where does it come from? We die, but is there life above us?

We start to be impressed from feeling the connection with Yesod, which is becoming slightly revealed to us. This time is called the era of the Messiah, when the Light of Yesod has to pull us upwards (from the word Moshech, to pull out). Yesod is a male quality, whereas we, creation, are a female quality, Malchut. We have to elicit the union of these two parts, the male and the female.

For now our points in the heart are awakening because a small illumination comes out of Yesod and reaches Malchut. On one hand, each person feels an individual awakening inside. On the other hand, we feel connected with each other because Yesod unites all the Lights together from above downwards.

When all of these Lights pass through Yesod, unite, and come to us as one common Light, that Light includes many components and therefore awakens an awareness in Malchut that we are all connected. We have to attain equivalence with Yesod ,and the Light we receive from it awakens this universal connection inside us.

For now this connection is not correct, not good. We still have to go through the realization of evil and other corrections. But nevertheless, this connection has already emerged. These days are called the era of the Messiah because he pulls us out (Moshech) and elevates us.
From the lesson on Talmud Eser Sefirot on 1/7/11

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There’s Someone Watching You

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Where is a person’s free choice if everything comes from the Creator? It seems like I can’t do anything myself.

Answer: If I am creation, then everything I have inside came to me from the Upper One. I am beneath Him, being a lower level.

You can say that you have been stuck on this level for too long and you are not advancing in the slightest. But this also comes from the Upper One! Only a part of His actions is expressed clearly, while a part is expressed unclearly. Therefore, even the simplest logic tells us that there can be nothing in the lower one that is absent in the Upper One. Then where is my freedom?

The Upper One put you in a specific state. He made you in a specific way, creating you and the environment so that through the relationships between you, you would be able to generate a new quality.

If you aspire to mutual bestowal with your environment, then a force comes to you from the Upper One that connects you, the environment, and the Upper One.
This is where your freedom of will is expressed. That is how you earn the opportunity to become equal to the Upper One.

Question cont’d: But Kabbalists say that everything that happens afterwards also comes from Him!

Answer: Of course everything comes from the Creator! But we are talking only about what relates to our level. I don’t know what will be revealed to me after the end of correction.

Imagine a child who is allowed to do anything he wants in his room. At that moment he thinks that everyone has forgotten about him. But when he becomes an adult, he understands that this was done deliberately and in fact, he was always under supervision. Someone was watching him so he wouldn’t harm himself, while he felt that he was free.
From the lesson on 12/31/11

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The Daily Lesson For The Whole Day

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe have to understand that our daily study is not for acquiring knowledge, but for development. Every lesson you attended, whether today, yesterday, or the day before yesterday, are phases of your development.

This is not a study of some article or a part of Talmud Eser Sefirot. By studying this material, you discern which levels you should develop through. Therefore, later on, over the course of the day, it is very important to remain inside of what you studied at the lesson.

You have to spend the whole day revolving around the hours when we meet at the lesson. It is necessary to work on the lesson and to process it, trying not to lose it, and by reading my blog. You have to process this material as much as possible. By doing so we already unite in our thoughts and find ourselves in our common, specific phase of development. This is very important since through it we already produce one common thought.

I saw that even Rabash did the same work: Over the course of the day he returned to the material that we studied in the morning. He also talked about it using the same words, recalling the article we read. This is good since it means that a person lives it, transferring it from his head to his heart.

Every day Rabash and I would go out for a stroll, and if I came a bit early I would find him sitting and reading or writing something that dealt with the morning lesson. Afterward, when we rode in a car, we only talked about the article or the part of Talmud Eser Sefirot that we studied at the lesson.

If he had to go to a doctor’s appointment, he took articles or a volume of Talmud Eser Sefirot with him, and while sitting in the waiting room we talked about it and studied it. Usually it was the same material that we had just studied in the morning.
From the lesson on Talmud Eser Sefirot on 1/7/11

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