Good Environment – 03.08.11

My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice for the Week

Kabbalah Moments: A Satisfied Woman

The Underlying Cause Of Crisis – Laitman Unplugged

Introductory Lecture “Reaching A Balance” – 03.08.11

Kabbalah for the Nation Introductory Lecture Series, “Reaching a Balance”
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Instructions For Lighting A Spiritual Spark

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe can already rise and enter the spiritual reality for moments in time, even before we permanently begin to live there—everything only depends on the strength of the connection between us. When we reach a certain minimal level required for the perception of the spiritual world, we will feel how we approach and enter it.

Kabbalists give us precise advice on what to do in order for us not to wander around in darkness, by touch searching for the proper connection that would allow us to reach the spiritual world (because for now we do not feel or understand it, but operate according to our egoism instead).

We collect all these advices and try to use them to form a method that is more suitable for our time, conditions, and qualities. It is impossible to penetrate spirituality by individual strength.

That same spark of Light that erupted from the spiritual world and created our entire Universe and us in it needs to change us. It births a spiritual vessel out of our “point in the heart,” the spiritual spark placed in each one of us.

That big spark has separated into a multitude of tiny sparks, and each one of us has a part of it. We need to grow it. We need the Light to influence and develop us, raise us, like a full body grows from a drop of semen, beginning with an embryo, to a small person, and then an adult. But the problem is that we do not know how to evoke the influence of the Light upon us.

This is why we need to follow the advice of Kabbalists as closely as possible; this is the entire secret to success. Just follow the instructions and move a point at a time, and you will eventually come to a place when you will “activate” this mechanism, and it will suddenly begin to work!
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From Lesson 2 Metzoke Dragot Congress 2/25/2011

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A Convention Is The Holiday Of The Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Does a convention hold a greater potential for attracting the miraculous force of the Light than at regular times?

Answer: Yes. It is precisely at such great gatherings as an international convention and generally during all the special gatherings and assemblies of friends that we make very big efforts with our mutual forces, and that is exactly what is necessary for attracting the miraculous force of correction.

That is why Kabbalists advised us to hold such gatherings, and we act only according to their instructions. After all, we want to attain something through miraculous means without understanding how it happens, without seeing the cause and effect connection between the next level and the one we are on, and without knowing all of the conditions that we have to observe to achieve it.

That is why we follow the Kabbalists’ advice and they tell us that we have to become included in the society, to unite with others as much as possible, to study together with everyone with the intention to attract the Surrounding Light, meaning by expressing our desire to ascend to a higher level, to bestowal and unity. And it’s clear that the more of us that get together, the greater is our might in quality and quantity, and the more significantly we can advance.

The sum of all such actions and the accumulation of efforts is what finally brings us to the “finding.”
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/11

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Reviving The Last Little Island Of Spirituality

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur world started with a tiny spark of Light that broke into the void and embarked on its evolution. Thereby, the Light made, begot, created, produced (the four stages of the Direct Light, corresponding to the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels of nature) everything there is in our Universe.

And the further development suggests that man, meaning all of us, must reach the root from where this initial spark once came. Now we are passing through the last stage of evolution so we may rise to this spark all together, and break through the tiny opening in our system into the place where our root is.

This return is possible only by way of our unification: We must come so tightly together that we may become as small as this spark. Therefore, people who attained the spiritual world strove to tell about the necessity of reaching oneness, the unification of sparks that reside in everyone into one spark.

This development has continued since the time of Adam HaRishon, up to Abraham in ancient Babylon, followed by the exodus from Egypt and further on; until two thousand years ago, we hadn’t come to an undesirable state. In truth, Kabbalists who lived throughout those times, starting with Abraham, lost their spiritual root and fell from brotherly love to unfounded hatred. This fall occurred in the time of Rabbi Akiva.

The region of the Dead Sea, Qumran and the nearing areas, is the place where people used to flee, unwilling to succumb to the descent that occurred in Jerusalem when even the post of the High Priest could be bought and everything had taken a low, despicable form. This remote place remained the last sanctuary for those who desired to keep unity and love between them in order not to lose spiritual connection with one another. So they fled there since they felt that they could stay together, far away from all those relations that were coming in force in Jerusalem.

That is why, almost two thousand years later, we have gathered here in order to continue this process. After all, there is no time in spirituality! We came from a sacred state where we were all bonded and felt the spiritual world, spiritual life, and another dimension, but then lost our awareness as if we were hit on the head and stopped sensing the spiritual world in which we lived. Today, we wish to return to that reality.

To achieve this, all we need to do is arrange the same kind of society that existed years ago since the spiritual laws haven’t changed. As we did then, so do we now need to become as one man with one heart and achieve brotherly love and oneness in accord with the laws that the Light and desire obey in the spiritual world. And then we will find ourselves in it!

Our corporeal bodies have to accompany us until we attain the spiritual world fully. But for the time being, we have to reside in these bodies; after all, we haven’t received the right to live in spirituality permanently and must remain the permanent residents of this material world. As to the spiritual one, we will ascend to and descend from there until we have established ourselves in it for good.

At that point, we won’t have to live in these corporeal bodies, and they will dissolve from our perception. This world regarded as “illusory” will dissipate as well, and we will start living in the new reality eternally.
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From Lesson 2 Metzoke Dragot Congress 2/25/2011

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At The Threshold Of Infinity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: During the lesson I am constantly thinking about the upcoming convention and it’s hard for me to focus on the lesson. Am I losing something as a result of this?

Answer: Of course not. We always feel the pressure in the process of preparing for such massive events. Once a year we get together at a convention in the United States, and we should see this as a unique opportunity to unite with each other. There is no other opportunity to receive more Surrounding Light, support, and strength to advance than at gatherings such as this.

This is exactly what I personally expect. I remember how when I began studying with Rabash, literally a few months later we traveled to Tzfat together. In a small yard by a little house, all of Rabash’s students gathered who had studied with him at different times and suddenly they wanted to join us. About 40 people gathered, which was a pretty big group before I brought new students to him.

I saw how excited he was by this trip and by being there. I asked him, “What is so special about it?” He explained that these gatherings are the most effective means in our world for spiritual advancement when a person comes in order to unite with others, works for this sake, makes efforts, and desires to receive the forces from others, to gather and absorb them inside of him, to literally drink up this might. And this depends only on him and his sensitivity.

If I prepare for the convention the right way, then when I come there, I receive everything I possibly can. It all depends on me. It is because we are standing in front of Infinity. I can come to the convention and not receive anything, scorning others, and leaving there even colder than before. Or I can come there and be impressed, touched, and inspired. I can absorb so much strength and Surrounding Light that I wouldn’t receive during years of study. Everything depends on my preparation.

Therefore we must already be preparing for the upcoming convention. Before such a huge event, when a person is planning to connect with others, he must experience worry and fear, feeling that he is standing at the threshold of great inner changes. This pressure-filled expectation and preparation is even felt physically.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/11, The Zohar

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Communism Turns Out To Be Good!

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Last Generation”: The world is one family, and the framework of altruistic communism should ultimately encircle the entire world with an equal standard of living for everybody.

Question: So it looks like Kabbalah must bring communism into the world?

Answer: Our problem is that we don’t understand the true meaning of words. When we utter the word “Torah,” we visualize a “holy” book; when we speak of “commandments,” we think of some physical acts that we have to perform; and the word “faith” for us is when we blindly believe some stories we are told.

In other words, we replace the truth with false ideas. In fact, commandments are steps of correction of the egoistic desire, and the Torah is the force that reforms them.

The same pertains to the word “communism” that derives from the word “a commune” and reads equality, unity, and brotherhood. But great egoists used these words for their low purposes opposite to communism.

They established the worst dictatorship in history: a dictatorship of the minority over majority, a regime of complete spiritual suppression and violence, which not only used a person as a work force, a slave, but attempted to completely and forcefully eliminate in man the desire for pleasure, egoism.

But in fact, “communism” is a very exalted, beautiful word. It implies brotherly love among humans who live according to the law of mutual guarantee bonded by one desire.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/2/2011 Lesson on Money

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The Last Halt On The Path

Dr. Michael LaitmanMan undergoes different stages in his perception of his relationship with the society: from wishing to use it in a coarse, material form to falling into despair and wanting nothing at all any longer. In other words, somewhere on the way to a “global world,” there comes a “halt” accompanied with a total disappointment from the previous use of the environment.

This is why divorce is so popular these days, and man strives to break all connections with society to be left alone. But while we are going through this crisis, we arrive at a new use of society, and hence, are willing to acknowledge it as an instrument to achieve the spiritual goal.

Even though our intention is still egoistic, society is becoming important for us indeed. We begin to perceive the environment and the global, unified humanity as a more exalted state of existence, a means for achieving a better life: eternal and complete. This is the next stage in the evolution of our perception of reality.

After it, there comes a more advanced stage when because of my engagement in the environment, I discover an even deeper, more exalted state. The environment for me transforms into the place where the Creator gets revealed.

Now I understand that everyone only seemed small and despicable, divided and individualistic, in my corrupted properties, my uncorrected view. I realize that it’s not true at all! They have always been unified and lived in love and perfection, together with the Creator and the Light that was filling them.

And I, in the degree that I bond with them, influence them, and receive their influence by starting to interact with them, also become part of them. I get to value them as much as I value the Creator. After all, He is revealed within them (“come and see”), in the corrected state of the society. And hence, I discover that except for this single state of integral unity, there is nothing else!

So it seems that our attitude to the society is the only device, measurement, and place of our work, the only thing a person possesses. And the Creator is there, inside it! The transformed society is the Creator Himself.

The corrected human society contains the entire nature within: the still, vegetative, and animate ones, and all of it together are regarded as Malchut of the world of Infinity. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to whether we are transforming, advancing, beginning to value our environment, and seeing in it great potential more, as pertains to us. Our transformation is determined by the transformation of our attitude to the society, and it is the only way to evaluate our advancement.

It may look very odd, but that very humanity that you wanted to save and do good for, considering them as little people with beastly interests, is gradually revealed to you as Shechina, Malchut of Infinity that has always been before you, but you couldn’t see it with your corrupted eyes.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/2011, Writings of Rabash

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