How To Localize The Spiritual Area

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe evil that we need to realize within is not the same egoism that accompanies a person in his daily life. The real evil only becomes revealed in relation to the friends in the group. When you try to connect with them, you reveal how hateful and repulsive this idea is to you.

Evil is when you are indifferent to unity, when you constantly forget about it. Consider this evil! This is because you evaluate your evil egoistically; you judge it according to your full stomach or pocket, even though this is not evil but simply an animal body. Evil only becomes revealed against connection, which is where the breaking occurred.

The realization of evil in the “preparation period” begins with the moment that you begin to treat the group as the place that has the border (screen) before the spiritual world. The first contact with others is the crossing of the Machsom, the bridge that opens up from you towards the others. When you connect with the others into one whole in the very first property, the smallest Reshimo (the spiritual gene), this then becomes revealed as the crossing into the spiritual world.

Evil exists only here in the connection with your neighbor; everything else is not evil but just “weaknesses” of the animal body. One needs to completely transfer his attention from a polite treatment and an “intelligent attitude” towards the actual evil, where the breaking took place. Otherwise, you will think that a wolf and a lion are evil and birds are good. We are used to looking at creation in this twisted way, and it prevents us from seeing the truth.

As soon as you transfer your attention to your connection with your neighbor, you localize the spiritual area which only lays in the connection with your neighbor, and then the Creator becomes revealed between you.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/2011, "The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy"

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 02.11.11

Writings of Rabash, Dargot HaSulam “The Masses and the Unique Individuals”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Tzav (Command),” Item 182
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Explanation of the Article, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Lesson 13
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag “The Freedom,” Lesson 13
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“Ask The Kabbalist” – 1


 

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Good Environment – 02.10.11

My Good Environment – Daily Lesson Summary and Dr. Laitman’s Advice for the Week

An Insult To Honor

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: There are situations in life when someone insults me, making me feel very wounded and degraded. What is the exact order of analyzing this kind of situation?

Answer: In our current state, we are unable to tell what the right attitude to reality is. We are confused, being halfway between the sky and the earth. I haven’t revealed the Creator yet, but I am no longer in full concealment either. I perceive all sorts of wise sayings like quotes, expressions, and pieces of knowledge, as revelation, but that is not so. Everything has gotten mixed up inside of me.

That is why Baal HaSulam writes in “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot” that during these years, a person has to maximally focus his development. This is a period of great confusion when I cannot understand the truth, but I no longer agree with the lie. I am simply thrown about from side to side.

On one hand, there is no one besides the Creator. I am standing in front of Him. So how should I treat reality if the only thing around me is Him? And where am I? If He has screamed at me, should I scream back at Him? But it’s the Creator, so does that mean I have to hold myself back all the time? Should I remain totally humble, even in the face of a death threat? At times one looks at things this way.

In reality, there is not a great deal of advice we can give people in these cases because a person is subject to change at every second. That is why Kabbalists prescribe a specific order of actions for us, which is determined by concealment.

Why do they give us this advice? Because we are subject to the influence of two forces. The Creator did not create a very simple state were I stand before Him and reveal Him without being distracted by anything. Who am “I”? I am the forces of disunity and separation from the Creator. Moreover, these forces appear to me as myself as well as what is around me, but not as the Creator. To me the Creator is an invisible and imperceptible ideal.

The forces of disunity conceal Him from me and I have to unite them into one whole. These forces separate and distance me from the Creator, covering Him up. They divide into two worlds: inner and outer. In essence they belong to one nature of disunity, the egoistic desire, but appear to me dually, as opposites.

I have to unite them with each other and discern precisely the disunity in them. Looking at actions, thoughts, desires, and anything there is around me, I connect the inner and the outer, doing so only in order to attain unity. In that case, if I am able to do this, then I do not err.

We have to apply just one principle here: “A person judges things according to what he sees.” I do not try to reach the One who is concealed from me. But as soon as I unite all of the forces—my own and those of others—into one whole, I discover the single Creator inside.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/11, Writings of Rabash

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A Leap Across The Abyss

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe receive as much Light as we have Kelim, desires. That is why in this world we are very far from the true state. It is concealed from us by many veils and degrees, and without having many Kelim, means, and components, we would not be able to reveal the Light.

Creation is “existence from absence.” In other words, the only existing Creator wished to create someone outside of Him. This differentiating quality, something outside of Him, is called “creation.”

The Creator desires for creation to attain the fact that it is outside of Him, to overcome the gap between them, and to attain the state that annuls creation and the gap between them. Therefore, a person in this world must see himself as being exclusively in front of the Creator. There is none else besides Him. There is nothing outside of the Creator, not even the person himself.

Only in my perception and sensation was this illusion created that there is existence outside of the single Force, the Creator. Everything I can imagine was created deliberately so I would have something to grab onto, enabling me to get to the Single One from many Kelim.

Inside of this Single One there is no “me.” It is written, “The Creator is our God, the Creator is one.” Everything is included in Him. This is what man will have to attain. And that is how he will “leap” across the abyss lying between “existence from existence” and “existence from absence.” This is what we must reach.

Everything we have, including the great world, the spiritual worlds, the breaking, the Kelim, the friends, all the means, and the entire method are intended only in order for us to correct our perception of reality and recognize that besides the single Force, there is nothing, not even me.

My surroundings are formed in this way in order to help me attain that unity. I am always standing in front of the Creator, and there is nothing between us. That is how a person has to feel reality in his perception. Baal HaSulam writes about this in Shamati #67:

He who thinks that he is deceiving his friend, is really deceiving the Creator, since besides man’s body there is only the Creator. This is because it is the essence of creation that man is called “creature” only with respect to himself. The Creator wants man to feel that he is a separated reality from Him; but except for that, it is all “the whole earth is full of His glory.”

Hence, when lying to one’s friend, one is lying to the Creator; and when saddening one’s friend, one is saddening the Creator. For this reason, if one is accustomed to speak the truth, it will help him with respect to the Creator.

If a person advances toward revealing unity, then he sees everything as the means that helps him reveal the single Creator. It is written, “Stand up, the Creator, and Your enemies will disperse.” In other words, a person sees that all the disturbances don’t actually bother him, but they are Kelim, means. By uniting them into one whole, inside of them he reveals the Lights, until they all merge into one simple Light.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/11, Writings of Rabash

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Bestow? What For?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why would a person possibly wish for correction for the sake of bestowal?

Answer: There’s no question about this because no one knows this about himself. King Solomon also asked himself the question about love between a man and a woman: Who could possibly understand it? It is a heartfelt passion, a desire, and desire is created by the Creator. We must only use all of the inclinations that can aim this desire toward the goal.

The Creator gave me all of the means, and I have to arrange them correctly in order to advance forward. If I don’t do this, then He helps me by “pressuring” here and there. In the end I will still have to correctly use everything at my disposal.

The desire and environment were given to me by the Creator. I must only organize them correctly with each other, bind them together into “Israel, Torah, and the Creator,” and use them as they are intended in order to advance toward the goal.

I do not do anything myself besides this “proper placement.” And even when I put everything into its place, I first and foremost use the Upper Force. If the Creator does not build my spiritual home, then who will?
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 2/10/11, Writings of Rabash

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The Phases Of Attaining Kabbalah

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What stages does a person go through when attaining the science of Kabbalah?

Answer: When a person begins to study, he first learns to perceive this world correctly, even though he studies a higher level, the following dimension where we are all united together, meaning an integral world. Yet, by studying it, we actually begin to understand how separated we are from one another here in this world, and how each one of us eats up the entire system instead of working to complement it together with everyone.

Every person exists like a cancerous cell inside the common body. This sensation and understanding comes precisely by studying the global state of the system. Then the difference between these two levels: the upper one that’s united in harmony, and our level, which is completely divided into individualists and egoists, begins to be felt very acutely.

By studying together with other friends from the whole world, he begins to attract the force of development to himself, which gradually influences him. This force is present inside nature and it begins changing him and making him more connected to others. As a result, he begins to perceive this world as a single, common system.

This happens naturally, from within, but not artificially, the way we forcefully connect one thing with another today. Then a person’s attitude to the world, to life, and to himself changes, as well as his plans for life. And because he begins feeling the world better, more correctly, and more globally, the world becomes transparent for him.

He sees the connections operating behind the external picture of the world, among all the parts of reality. It is like embroidery: on the front side you see flowers, while on the reverse you see the connecting threads that tie all the parts together.

A person sees all of this and is no longer in the dark. He feels how everything is connected together. Thus, he becomes wise and no longer acts foolishly. This is the first phase of attaining the science of Kabbalah.

Next, when a person penetrates deeper, he begins to reveal the levels of connection between all parts of reality. He begins working with all of these connecting forces. Then it becomes clear to him that everyone in this world acts like puppets on strings.
He sees how everything is controlled by these strings, which extend from the reverse side of the “embroidery.” We, who live in this world, have no freedom of choice. Our behavior is determined by genes, hormones, and the forces governing us. But this person attains the level where decisions are made and can determine on his own how to behave and what kind of future he wants to see.

That’s because he sees the general system correctly and becomes included in it, becoming of one opinion with it. His desire begins acting together with the desire of this system. This is the second phase of attainment. After that there are more phases—all together there are five.
[35043]
From my lecture in Paris on 2/1/11

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Why Do We Need The Language Of Branches?

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe language of branches is attained when you ascend from this world, and then in the upper world, you reveal the roots of everything existing in this world. But the goal isn’t simply to connect the branch with the root. This language does not connect us with the spiritual world, but with our teachers! This is the means that helps them to teach us.

We do not understand the spiritual language they speak as we did not learn it. And we do not have to know it because we are already familiar with it from our world. That is why we can hear it and learn from them about what happens in the spiritual world.

You open up the book in which some kind of words are written. If you were not living in this world, then you would not understand anything. But from our world, you are already familiar with what Kabbalists talk about, and you desire to attain the root to find out what they are pointing to in the upper world since they do not say a word about the material world.

Kabbalists do not describe our world with even one word. The Torah is not connected to our world and a person who interprets it this way materializes it and commits the greatest crime, creating “idols” for himself. It is talking only about the spiritual world. But in order to speak the same language as you, Kabbalists describe the spiritual world using words of our world in order to awaken some kind of connection or attitude to them within us.

This was deliberately planned in the thought of creation so we would begin rising from our world to the spiritual world. Thus, we have to take all of the means for this existing in this world.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/11, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Then You Will Remember Everything You Learned

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen you receive spiritual attainment, first of all you will begin feeling certain spiritual phenomena inside your desire. Suddenly, you will understand what they are called and what this is.

And then you will suddenly begin to understand what the book talked about and will remember how you read about it or studied it at some point. You will suddenly remember everything relating to this spiritual phenomenon that has become revealed to you just now.

Everything will immediately unite inside of you—the word that names all of this, the understanding of this spiritual state, the memory about where it was written, and when you had studied it. All of this will become clear to you and connect with the spiritual phenomenon that you now reveal and feel.

However, first the sensation has to come to you, the attainment—without words! And then immediately after you will clarify the words, the definitions, and the connections to the degree you are ready for it.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/11, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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