Should We Search For Evil Within Ourselves?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is revealing one’s evil inclination the most important thing?

Answer: We shouldn’t try to reveal our evil inclination and it’s not important what states we experience. The most important and the only possible action we can perform is to attract the upper Light.

The Light will lead me through all the stages which are currently unknown to me: I will reveal my evil inclination, correct, and then fulfill it. Only the Light can help me along this path. I have to aspire toward the upper Light which will act upon me. The form and sequence of those actions are none of mine concern.

I shouldn’t be thinking about the Light revealing my evil inclination because I don’t know what it’s supposed to reveal. And even though it is written in the books about it, I don’t yet understand what the “evil inclination” really is. It’s not worthwhile taking your attention and concentration away from the essence: attracting the Light.

Otherwise, we start looking for this evil inclination within us and start thinking that each negative quality we posses is the evil inclination. But believe me, we haven’t revealed it yet.

The evil inclination is an angel. That is, when we reveal the evil, we discover that the Creator is concealed within it, and that this evil inclination comes from Him. This is why in order to reveal the Creator, we must think about unity instead of hatred! And while I aspire toward unity, I reveal that the evil inclination is what gets in the way.

I am always aspiring toward unity, while the upper Light acts upon me and ultimately reveals to me who I am. I have to go through all the stages: 0,1, 2, 3, and on stage 4 (Behina Dalet), I always feel that I’ve completed a certain step and received a new understanding. And then once again I go through all the stages, and on the fourth stage a new understanding is revealed.

This, however, doesn’t change my attitude toward the past, present, or the future. I always aspire toward unity without thinking about anything else. And it doesn’t matter to me whether I’m in a good state or a bad one.

I’m fine with whatever becomes revealed to me. Nothing can stop me from going forward: neither the good, nor the bad, nor any philosophical theory that I conjure up in my head, which only confuses me, making me believe that I understand what’s happening. All of my attention has to be focused on unity only. Then I can be sure that I’m attracting the Surrounding Light.

When you begin to over-intellectualize and decide for yourself what to do, you instantly lose the Surrounding Light. You must aspire only toward the Light which is whole and absolute. It is written that we must be ready to accept the mutual guarantee as one man with one heart. We should think only about this.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/2011 on the topic of “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice”

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When The Righteous Unite

Dr. Michael LaitmanAs soon as the righteous [those who wish to justify the Creator] unite, there immediately intensifies mutual hatred [egoism] that causes fights and quarrels.
– The book, Noam Elimelech

When ten of Israel [who strive toward the Creator] unite in order to acquire the property of love and bestowal, through their force of oneness, the property of love and bestowal is drawn to the world.
– Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter, The Language of Truth
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Between The Creator And Pharaoh

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn nature there is no freedom that has appeared from nothing. Nature is a system of laws and nothing in it can stand beyond the law.

We are being controlled by two forces: reception and bestowal. Freedom is when we are able to supplement the action of one force with that of the other and, standing between them, comprehend the reality that has unified them both within.

I always have to choose which influence to put myself under, under control of which force to be. It has to be one or the other: the force of bestowal or that of reception.

Moreover, in order to gain autonomy, I don’t want to be dominated by either of them. On one hand, Pharaoh tells me: “Who is the Creator to me that I must listen to Him?” But on the other, I have to preserve Pharaoh in tact, even if keeping myself at a distance. I flee from him so I may obtain the second force as well. Before, I was the Pharaoh’s slave, and now I become the slave of the Creator.

All of this is done so that in the end, we can reach the middle point between them. It is regarded as the middle third of Tifferet, Klipat Noga (Noga shell). This is the place where the scales which hold good and evil come into balance. I stand in the middle and neither the Creator nor Pharaoh controls me: I rule over both of them. This state is described as “My sons have defeated Me.”

This is a subtle balance that a person must build at every spiritual degree. We align two forces, two lines, the right and the left, judgment and mercy, and thereby advance in the middle line.

Thus, my work lies in finding both Pharaoh’s force, the evil inclination, and the Creator’s force, the good inclination, in the present “animate,” “blind” state. I place them before each other since the Creator says: “Come onto Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart.” When the evil force increases, the Creator can also grow in my eyes and show Himself behind Pharaoh. Then they will both unfold equally in my point in the heart, and this point will receive freedom, the power over both forces.

That’s what I need to accomplish. In this point of mine, between the good and evil inclinations, in the middle third of Tifferet, I find my freedom at last. And this is my real Self. From the points that emerge at each spiritual degree, I construct the middle line, the line of the human within, until I reach Infinity.

In the world of Infinity, we create our autonomous state which is 620 times more powerful thanks to the fact that we use both these forces in full. This is the correct method for utilizing the forces of the Creator and Pharaoh that rule in nature. And man is able to accomplish this.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/2011 on The Principles of Global Education

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