Good Environment – 04.28.11

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

Kabbalah Moments: Asking The Creator

Weekly Torah Portion – 04.28.11

The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “Kedoshim,” Selected Excerpts
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In The Reflection Of The Upper Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If the Creator is unchangeable, why do each one of us perceive Him differently?

Answer: Each one of us perceives the Creator differently to the extent of the development of his or her soul, according to his or her desires and qualities. This is because the Creator Himself cannot be perceived. I never feel Him; I perceive myself in relation to the “simple upper Light.” And in relation to this simple upper Light, I discover myself.

So, where am I? You are the entire world. Do you feel it? Yes. Do you exist together with those around you? Yes. Well, then you are this entire world. It is your desire where you perceive everything.

Do you feel as if it were happening on the outside? You are wrong. All of it is inside you. The entire world is inside you. You simply perceive your reality this way, against the upper Light. You do not perceive this upper Light, but it exists, and also not on the outside, but inside of you.

Anything you could ever imagine is inside you, the upper Light as well. But what is the upper Light? You can only speak about it based on your experience. Where is it? It is inside your desires. Everything is inside man.

This goes on until we actually reveal the upper force.
[41534]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/2011Shamati No.1

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A Black Point In An Ocean Of Goodness

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe entire difference between Kabbalists (people with the point in the heart who follow the path of spiritual development) and the religious masses is in their attitude toward the Creator. Kabbalists say: “Everything depends on me. I must change, while the Creator is absolute and hence unchangeable.”

The only ones who can change are those who can be better or worse, but the Creator is just “good, who does good.” How could I ask Him to change and improve himself? Would this not make Him “bad” now?

A Kabbalist believes that he is the only one who needs to change, and nobody else is subject to correction: neither the world, nor friends, nor the group, not a single person. Right now, I exist within the good who does good, the Creator, the single force of nature “there is none else besides Him.” How I perceive Him depends on my qualities.

When I work with a group, I am the one working; I am the one changing. This is why it seems to me that there is the group that goes through different states, but in reality, I work with my shadow, my qualities.

It is the same in regards to the Creator. It seems to me that He treats me in different ways. Sometimes He comes closer to me, and sometimes He distances Himself, but it is me working with myself against the absolute, the good who does good, and there is none else besides Him. I am within Him.

Thus, “everyone judges according to their own flaws.” I see my shadow against the Creator. This is me seeing myself on the outside, the reflection of my own qualities.

This way, the entire world, except for the Kabbalists, is asking the Creator to change, and they are ready to do anything only so that the Creator would be kind to them. They do not think that they need to change their nature, correct their “evil inclination,” their ego, but they are asking the Creator to be kind to them as they are.

Kabbalists say the opposite: The Creator is “good who does good,” and “there is none else besides Him,” the universal, single force of nature. Nothing else exists besides the Creator. Besides Him, there is only a point of the desire to receive pleasure, “existence from absence.” Various actions take place within this point, and these are changes in its consciousness, its existence in the upper Light.

Suddenly, this point feels that it is expanding to the scale of Malchut of Infinity, the worlds form, and some changes happen. However, it is the same point experiencing all of this. Nothing has changed. All the changes are only happening in its sensations.

This goes on until it reaches a constant state, a sensation that it is like a black point that exists within “the good who does good,” the only One who exists. This entire circle, which we pass within creation until its complete correction (Gmar Tikkun), is only intended for determining our actual place, revealing the Creator.
[41552]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/2011Shamati No.1

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What Is A Spiritual Necessity?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is a spiritual necessity?

Answer: A spiritual necessity is the feeling inside of me that I lack the aspiration toward the neighbor, toward the Creator. It is the sensation of how much I am still unconnected to the inner system that I imagine as our common desire, the united heart “as one man with one heart.”

I am tormented by how far away I still am from this state and from the revelation of the Creator inside of this common heart. This is exactly what all of my suffering has to be about. And I must always try to check and see how much do I aspire to this and how much do I desire to attain this quicker.

Clearly, the environment has to help me do this. It must be imbued by the atmosphere of a common spiritual search where we are all simply killing ourselves over this goal. And this does not bear any relation to what happens to us in our regular lives in our world. This is a very deep inner aspiration and an inner way to check a person and the group.
[41670]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/11, Writings of Rabash

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The Point Where You Begin

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to ask from the Creator and how can we ask something from Him? Should we just say inside of us: Correct my qualities?

Answer: When a person first starts out doing this, he turns to the Creator as if He were an individual, an external authority, an external force that is outside of him as if he were praying to an “idol” or to some imaginary image. But you can’t do anything about that. This is how we imagine the Creator in the beginning.

However, later on we begin to reveal that this force exists only inside of us, according to the prohibition, “You shall not make other gods for yourself,” meaning ones that are outside of you.

We delve deeper and deeper inside, where we discover that the Creator is located precisely at our deepest point. It’s like your mother, who gave birth to you and is therefore perceived by you as the innermost force that created you, being the point of your origin, your source. That is how a person senses the Creator.

The Creator begins to be felt inside of you as the innermost source of energy, feeling, and reason.
[41667]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/11, Writings of Rabash

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Difficulties Are The Help From Above

Dr. Michael LaitmanOnly a person who, in sync with the root of his or her soul, desires to find one, unified, upper force that governs reality, is “helped” from Above and sent obstacles. The Creator keeps revealing new desires in him or her, which lure them in various directions. So, one forgets that there is none else besides the Creator and gets entangled again and is unable to assemble the image of the unique upper force within to which one should be turning.

All these difficulties are the help from Above sent in the form of obstacles to someone who possesses an aspiration toward finding the Creator. And a person thinks that the others succeed in keeping this one picture, one sensation that there is none else but the Creator. But for him, this image constantly fades away and gets lost.

It is easy for the world to say it, but he is the only one for whom it’s hard, and he constantly struggles through it as if in a fog and doesn’t understand who acts: himself, the Creator, or both of them together, and what relationship should be formed with Him. Nothing is clear.

It seems unfair that he gets only hardships from the Creator instead of help. Is that how a loving and kind Creator would act? Why then does He use such cunning devices and set man up for such problems in life and from which we don’t know how to escape?

A person thinks that even the most ruthless person wouldn’t do this. After all, where does all the cruelty in the world come from if not from the very same upper force? All of the most brutal and horrible things come from only one force, and moreover, we have to decide that this force is good, endlessly loving, and working solely for the good, is that it?

If we take a look at the world, it’s impossible to acknowledge this. We only get convinced of how easy it is to confuse us and it  makes us doubt the uniqueness of the upper force, when we see the world before us, filled with pain, problems, violence, terror, and hate.

Is it not the same upper force that causes it? Surely so, since there is none else but Him, and we don’t do anything ourselves. I see with my own eyes that the world is ruled by the force of evil not the force of good. And try as I may to hold myself to the thought that there is none else besides the good Creator, I balance as if on the point of  needle and am about to fall. After all, from every direction I receive proof of the very opposite, and it seems quite real to me.

I can’t even close my eyes to what is happening and lie to myself. I see that I simply must get to know the Creator! And then, a true need emerges in me. I am not willing to view Him as an evil force! But for me to experience Him as the good force, I require His help.
[41542]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/2011, Shamati No.1

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Paving The Path To The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanEgyptian bondage starts with Joseph’s desire to unite with his brothers, but instead hatred unfolds among them. That is the point when they enter Egypt and sell him to it.

Joseph (the righteous man, the foundation of the world) is what is called the ground, Sefira, which connects all Sefirot preceding it, or “Jacob’s sons.” He wanted to unify them all, but they didn’t comply; each of them wished to be alone. And Joseph says: “You have to unify in me” since Sefira Yesod binds within itself all the other Sefirot; it has nothing of its own.

However, all the other properties in man opposed it, and that is why they started to experience the Egyptian exile. In other words, our entire work pertains solely to unification for which you have the world group as well as the local one. And each of us has opportunities to advance both in the physical and in the virtual groups. Additionally, everyone has already done some preparation for unity, but we haven’t been able to make a final decision yet.

And it could be that we will have to make a final decision every instant that nothing will help us unless we unify, above everyone’s personal egoism. There, in the point of our oneness, spirituality lies. This miniscule dark point suddenly unfolds and we find the entrance to the spiritual world in it. It is such a narrow and tight passage that it would have been hard to believe something could actually open there.

It is similar to giving birth. First, the exit is closed, the embryo remains inside the womb regarded as “Mem Stuma” (letter “Mem” is the property of Bina, closed on every side). And only later on, when the enormous desire to be born is present, this letter “Mem” splits into two doors (the letters “Dalet,” from the word “door” or “Delet”) on two hinges (“Tzirim” or “hinges,” the word that also means natal contractions), and that’s how a baby is born.

But the moment before, a newborn has no chance to know, predict, or sense that the state it is in can open up. Therefore, a strong environment is necessary. It will constantly pressure every one of us and ensure us with a guarantee: the power of support, the force of awakening that will always bring me back to the intention for unity.
[41122]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/2011, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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