Kabbalists On The Nature Of Man And The Nature Of The Creator, Part 16

Dr. Michael LaitmanDear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Discrepancy between Man’s Nature and the Nature of the Creator

When one emerges out of the bosom of creation, one is in utter egoism, self-love, and his every movement is without a shred of bestowal upon others. Thus, then one is at the farthest distance from the Creator, the property of absolute altruism. Therefore, his situation is regarded as being at the lowest point of creation.
– Baal HaSulam, Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah), Item 12

Although the will to receive is a mandatory law in the creature, it nonetheless completely separates it from the Emanator. There is disparity of form to the point of oppositeness between the creature and the Emanator, between the will to receive and the will to bestow.
– Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 13

Evil, in general, is nothing more than self-love called “egoism” since it is opposite in form from the Creator who hasn’t any will to receive for Himself, but only to bestow.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose
[46636]

Related Material:
Kabbalists On The Nature Of Man And The Nature Of The Creator, Part 15
Kabbalists On The Nature Of Man And The Nature Of The Creator, Part 14
Kabbalists On The Nature Of Man And The Nature Of The Creator, Part 13

Fixing The “Flesh” Of Your Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is the revelation of evil enough for advancement?

Answer: The revelation of evil is a powerful method of advancement since it is a discovery of an uncorrected desire. If you correct it, you will advance. This is why it is impossible to do it without the revelation of evil.

For example, you get into a car and try to reach your destination with it. Suddenly you see that the key does not fit the ignition lock. You start fixing the key. You fix the key, put it in the ignition, but it doesn’t turn. You need to fix the lock.

You fix the lock, you turn the key—the car does not start. You discover that the wires are not connected to the ignition. You need to connect the wires. The wires are fixed. Why will it not start? The battery is missing.

And you go step by step until you fix the entire car. But every time you discover whatever is missing until you complete the renovations and high polish the last drop of paint. Then you sit and drive. The car will not move until then.

Question: What does it mean to correct every component?

Answer: To correct means that you understand why you need the component, how it connects to other parts, and what its ruined and corrected forms are. Every component is a part of your heart, your soul. “Ignition” and “key,” “wires” and “battery,” every last component, all these things are your inner desires, the “flesh” of your soul.
[47033]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Reveal, Correct, Fulfill
The Whole Truth About The Surrounding Light
What Is Light?

When The Sun Does Not Leave The Zenith

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Surveys show that 80 percent of humanity believes in the higher power that controls everything. Why don’t we explain to people what kind of power it is and what it wants? It is much more interesting than the calls for love.

Answer: We have nothing to explain. The upper force is Nature, the law, the force as unyielding as the force of gravity. It is Absolute who is Good, does Good, and does not change.

If this force is invariable, it is as if nonexistent. The absence of change seems to cancel it. It is like living under the sun, forever stuck at the zenith. There is no point of taking it into account if it is and will be there always. It just is, and that is all.

In our life, we make calculations based on what has to change, on advancements we depend on. It is another matter if we talk about something permanent and indestructible on which we depend constantly to such an extent that it cannot be called dependence.

This is what the “Creator” is. And that is why it is so difficult to explain this to people. In reality, we pray not to Him but to ourselves. We seek how to change, and He is always unchangeable. Of course, I will change if I desire it, and to do this, I do not need to take Him into account. He is Good and does Good, and next to Him, I am like a spoiled child whose parents give him absolute love, while he does whatever pleases him and gets out of control, knowing that nothing bad will happen to him.

Thus, our problem is how to explain to people that the Creator is like a solid wall and simply exists. You can jump in front of it, wave your arms; this is your business, and the wall still towers over you.

A person can barely imagine that: “Then, whom am I dealing with? It means that there is nobody to ask.” How can we explain to those who believe in the higher power that it does not make sense to pray to the “changeable” Creator who would do better today than yesterday. Does it mean that yesterday He caused me harm?

In reality, we deal with the One who is Good and does Good to the wicked and to the righteous. But for a person, this means that regardless of whether he is good or bad, the result will be the same.

An ordinary person is subject to changes constantly. All the time, he compares himself with the world, trying to calculate the results of internal and external changes. He does not understand what the universal, general, great, immutable Force is. This eludes our sense organs because they are “tuned” to changes rather than to the static condition. I just do not see what does not change, does not disappear from my view.

That is why we cannot explain to people what the “Creator” is. Sometimes, I say that the “Creator” is Nature, that He is unchangeable, and there is no one to pray to, that a prayer is self-judgment. In response, they are ready to tear me to pieces. This is the problem: We judge ourselves, whereas others ask the Creator to change: “I threw a little bit in Your piggy bank, now, save me from troubles.”

Talking of the Creator as of the unyielding law of nature, we deny a person the possibility to turn to Him. A person does not see that he has to change. A new strong “dose” of development is necessary so that a person begins to behave differently.

Whatever we talk about, including the crisis, we essentially explain to people the path of suffering: “Alternatively, it will be troubles, and it is not worth it. Let’s change.” It is not a lie, but not the truth either.

We should tell something else to a person who comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah desiring to reach the goal of creation: “You have to be above this. No matter whether it is good or bad, you have to rise by faith above reason. You should not make your actions conditional on suffering or pleasure. This is not bestowal. Faith above reason means that you rise above the reward. Or do you work to escape evil and achieve good in the future? Are you expecting compensation? Do you want to reach the purpose of creation for yourself instead of giving pleasure to the Creator?”

On the other hand, whom are we supposed to please if the Creator is the law? This is a delicate moment in our explanations.
[46848]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/17/2011, “Mesiah’s Horn”

Related Material:
What To Ask From The Creator?
How Can We Tell The World About The Force Of Unity?
Education For The New World

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 07.06.11

Shamati #38, “The Fear of God Is His Treasure
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter,” Truma (Donation),” This Is the Donation,” Item 385, Lesson 16
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 1 Table of Questions and Answers for the Meaning of the Words,” Item 44, Lesson 33
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 17, Lesson 12
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Item 13, Lesson 8
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

My Objective Is To Desire

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is it possible to remember the Creator all day long? How is it possible to bring Him into every moment?

Answer: We are in Malchut of the world of Infinity, which is entirely filled with Light. However, instead of this eternal, perfect state, we see and feel our own qualities which depict the material world to us. Therefore, if we want to aim ourselves at the goal, at feeling the world of Infinity, then we need mutual guarantee from our environment. The friends have to give us the forces, the desire, the persistence, the diligence, and the realization of the goal’s importance.

After all, I have just one goal—to obtain the right desire, and nothing else. Let me constantly feel that I’m not concerned enough about doing good for the Creator the way He does for me.

You might object, “But I don’t know what He gives me. Judging by my life, sometimes I could say that it would be better if He did not give me anything.” That’s true. Obviously, every person rejects things in accordance with his own defects. Therefore, my attitude to the Creator can be defined this way: I want to reach a state where I will desire to bestow to Him.

And the actual result will come thanks to the Light’s influence, thanks to the efforts that we make time after time. The Light pours upon us again and again, and suddenly these illuminations create a desire in a person.

We don’t know what Lishma, an awakening from Above, is. But when it comes, a person is able to say, “Now I know, now I understand.” One has to make efforts, like a little child, and from these efforts the sensation will emerge. But not before that.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/7/11, Shamati

Related Material:
A Splinter In The Universe Or A Beloved Child?
Change Is Impossible Without The Light
The Simple Law Of Mutual Guarantee

We Do Not Have Another Planet

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Harald Schumann, one of the chief German experts in the field of globalization, an interview with bfm.ru): To continue to live the way we live now, we need two planets. So, something will definitely change in our world, whether we like it or not. The only question is whether we dare change voluntarily or when we are shaken, when wars and conflicts begin, when we have to act in a great hurry.

My Comment: This is what Kabbalah says as well: You better take advantage of the knowledge offered to you and change towards similarity with Nature or the Creator yourselves, rather than being forced in great suffering. Is the entire humanity like a silly stubborn child?!
[47127]

Related Material:
The Planet On The Edge
A Tsunami In The Deepest Reaches Of Your Soul
A Global “World-Country”
The Global Matrix: There Is No Time For Ourselves

The Light Revolution

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is it possible to explain the Kabbalistic method using terms of modern science?

Answer: Can you explain the mathematical Fourier transform to a cow? These are different degrees. A person who does not have a “sixth sense,” a point in the heart, cannot understand what you are talking about. He does not have a need for this, and therefore, it’s pointless to talk to him. Therefore, in our wide dissemination, we have to conform to the desires of the masses rather than of those who study Kabbalah.

Throughout all the generations, the world did not understand Kabbalists. And the world is right: From their degree people are not capable of this yet. It says in the Psalms, “You save humans and animals…”—but when? Today you cannot explain to people about the altruistic intention Lishma. It’s even difficult to talk to them about the topic of the perception of reality. This is intriguing and provocative, but they don’t understand or grasp the essence because they simply can’t.

In order for a person to really be able to hear words about the correction of his desires, he needs one more level of desire. But until then, we can only accelerate his development using external means. One way or another, as long as he doesn’t feel the sting in his heart, he won’t understand your explanations.

That is how the world is built. People are on different levels of development, and even at the end of correction the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels will remain. Yet it is written, “Everyone will know Me from the smallest of them to the greatest of them,” meaning each person according to his level.

The time will come when we will see how people will start grasping our words: some through scientific terms, others in the language of feeling, and others yet by virtue of simple actions, which are enough for a person to join the unity. Some need to attain and feel the adhesion, to actively participate in it, whereas for others this is unnecessary. Everything is determined by one’s desire.

We shouldn’t suppose that everyone will receive the same degree of desire for bestowal and the Creator’s revelation. However, every person will receive the full measure in accordance with his own vessels, and will be filled thanks to the common inter-inclusion.

That is why to this day Kabbalists concealed their knowledge. But now this knowledge can be revealed, although every person will hear just an insignificant part of it. Nevertheless, as a whole the Light is already starting to operate in a big mass of the common desire. This is the revolution that is happening in the world today. The modern crisis is essentially the inter-inclusion of desires.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/11, Shamati

Related Material:
When The Sun Does Not Leave The Zenith
The Revelation Of Kabbalah To The World: For Evil Or Good?
The Catalyst Of The Spiritual Desire

It’s Better On A Helicopter…

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Where is my freedom of choice? How can I decide between two choices?

Answer: Man does not face two choices, but only one. We are not standing at a crossroads, needing to decide whether to go right or left. There is no such thing! I am on a straight highway, and my only choice is whether or not to accelerate my advancement.

If I’m moving very slowly, then every moment I receive blows from every bump on this rough, broken highway that’s full of potholes, where wild beasts can attack me at every turn, and a host of other problems and even wars await me.

Or I can take a helicopter and fly over the highway. That depends on me.

However, the direction remains the same and the goal we achieve is the same. And although it says that we can fall off the path, that doesn’t refer to deviating from the highway itself, but to a refusal to travel at a high speed of our own accord.

In that case I advance in accordance with the engine of the program of creation, which is called “in its time” (Beito), and at every step I receive problems, blows, wars, hardships, diseases, and crises, everything that transpires in our lives, in all possible manifestations of the desire to enjoy.

Indeed, it has to demonstrate to me all of these problems so that the despair and problems compel me to “refine” it and cease to desire pleasure in such states. That is sufficient to correct the desire to enjoy at this first degree: the animate level.

Question: How can I check if I fell out of the helicopter onto the highway again?

Answer: First of all, I sense it in accordance with my degree of awakening, inspiration, and aspiration toward the goal. I must check whether I’m “burning” with the importance of the connection with the group, which is the only means of advancement. Am I working toward it, am I making use of all the means at my disposal? These means are the teacher, the group, and the books.
[47037]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Faster Than Time
Escaping The Developmental Press
Make Every Instant More Exalted
Blows In One Point

A New Kabbalah Book In Slovenian


My book Kabbalah Revealed is being published in Slovenia.
[47000]

Related Material:
“Kabbalah Revealed” – Now Available In Croatian
Kabbalah Revealed Recently Published In Czech And Italian
The First Kabbalah Book In Macedonia


The Collapse Of Globalization

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Chris Hedges, “The Collapse of Globalization): The crisis signifies the collapse of globalization. “We must embrace, and embrace rapidly, a radical new ethic of simplicity and rigorous protection of our ecosystem—especially the climate—or we will all be holding on to life by our fingertips. We must rebuild radical socialist movements that demand that the resources of the state and the nation provide for the welfare of all citizens and the heavy hand of state power be employed to prohibit the plunder by the corporate power elite. We must view the corporate capitalists who have seized control of our money, our food, our energy, our education, our press, our health care system and our governance as mortal enemies to be vanquished.”

Hedges criticizes the media and celebrities for advertizing an ego-centric way of life, calling it “self-promotion” (‘the cult of the self).” He claims that ” until we awake from our collective self-delusion, until we carry out sustained acts of civil disobedience against the corporate state…we will continue to be rocketed toward a global catastrophe.”

My comment: The author,lacking the insight to see that Nature has its own laws and there is no movement backwards, urges moving backwards—this is death. Instead, we must understand the principles of our evolution and clarify what we can change in this movement. And this is where we should direct all our efforts towards.
[47132]

Related Material:
Crisis And Resolution
Humanity Is Entering A New Stage
The Crisis Will Put Everything Into Place