The Day That Decides Your Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt all depends on a person and is based on the creation of means for spiritual advancement, that is, on building the environment. Through this environment, a person draws the force that reforms him. By building his environment, he essentially builds his future spiritual world.

Being included in this environment, a person begins to feel that he exited his ego and is included into his fellow human being, whom he loves as himself. He comes out of himself and instead of his inner world, which he felt as “this world,” he feels the upper, spiritual world in the society, in the connection between everyone.

And inside this spiritual world, he reveals its property: the property of bestowal that fills it, that is, the Creator. Everything begins with this first change called “the beginning of the year” (Rosh Hashanah).

Before that, the person has done extensive preparatory work: He tried to form the environment around himself and draw the forces that would change him, fulfilled everything that was written in the books, and disseminated this knowledge to others to increase the number of people aspiring to the goal of creation. In this way he increased the total, cumulative desire to reach the goal, and it started to affect him more powerfully.

Nevertheless, he sees no success. Kabbalists write a lot about this condition, this point, this stage on the path. It is a special critical point called the “day of judgment,” when it is decided whether you will advance or fall, sentence yourself to life or death.

In fact, a person determines this decision by his previous work: whether he managed to build for himself the group‘s support and to receive from them the force of mutual guarantee so that they hold him against harsh judgment, that is, immense egoistic desires, which get revealed in the person and which he cannot resist on his own.

It is clear that we cannot stand against the egoistic desire that gets revealed in us, even against the smallest one. And only due to the power of the environment, through it, will we be able to receive the upper force. It is said that “the Creator dwells among His people,” meaning that the power of the connection called the Creator dwells in the connection between the souls, between the friends.

The Creator is the general property of bestowal, which we collect in parts. That is why the Creator is called “Boreh,” which means “come and see (Bo-Reh).” After all, we have to approach this state and see this phenomenon inside our desires.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/2011, Shamati #167

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The “Layer Cake” Of The Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe cannot manage our world today. I want to correct certain things in the financial system, the economic system, commerce, or in the relationships between nations, people, and a husband and a wife—and I can’t. There are certain plots, additional obstacles, and conditions, which I don’t take into account, and so I don’t succeed in anything. I lack knowledge; I don’t have a clear connection with the new world that is suddenly revealed to us, and I cannot be in clear contact with it.

Where does it stem from? It stems from the degrees that descend into our world from the world of Infinity. These degrees are already in us, they exist within us. They also appear under the influence of Reshimot (informational genes). That is, the forces of bestowal that are revealed to us are also inside me, in my perception of the external space. Yet these are not the egoistic forces anymore, but rather the forces of bestowal, and this is also my “layer cake,” my internal feeling of the world; it is also me. All this is within me. There is nothing that is outside of me.

“I” is actually the soul.

If I begin to divide myself this way, I begin to see that today’s world helps me. The “evil” egoistic force seems to appear in us as the dark past. And the altruistic force appears too. These layers are revealed in me: I begin to feel them not simply outside me, but within me. This is why I am “confused,” so perplexed, and I cannot find my way around in today’s world.

The Layer Cake Of The Soul_1

When we begin to understand this system and to find our way around in it, we see how it happens with other people. We understand that a “multilayer cake” appears in us like this: the informational genes from the past, from the present, and from the future, the egoistic powers of the past, the feeling of the present, and the indefinite, incomprehensible feelings of the future—the attribute of bestowal, the attribute of connection.

The layers that appear in me are not connected into one system yet, and this is why they are called “our crisis,” the separation between these parts. The crisis is called “integral” because it doesn’t let us see the connection between all the parts—we don’t have it in us. This problem will persist until we learn to control it.

Where is the problem? On one hand, I drew a question and a crisis, and on the other, I called the same thing “the soul.” In other words, today we are actually on the path, at the stage, and on the degree of discovering the soul within us. When we will unite all these parts within us, we will see a very interesting picture instead of them: We will see that we are made up of three lines.

On one hand, the egoistic forces are the bottom part of the cake. The altruistic forces, or the bestowal, are the upper part of the cake. The middle force is the connection between them; it is when we collect all this inside us and can work with them together. The middle part of the cake will connect the altruistic plus and the egoistic minus and will be able to work with them. This is actually all our work—in the middle line.

The Layer Cake Of The Soul_2

So today, with the crisis and the internal discord, we are about to discover our soul. Of course, the world is still very far from this. It will not discover it this way, but with our help, in much simpler ways, by joining us, and so on. We are about to discover this and should continue to advance towards it. It is all part of our nature.

The Layer Cake Of The Soul_3

The building of the screen and the formation of Partzuf takes place after the First Restriction. Our future state is already in this Partzuf. The Partzuf is made of the head that decides how to correctly connect the two parts in us: the part in which we can bestow and the other part in which we cannot. Rosh (the head) is above that, and thus it manages us.
[56084]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 9/25/2011

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Between The Two Worlds

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe crisis is not outside a person or in the systems that we’ve created externally; rather, this crisis is inside us. It is first of all in everyone’s understanding of what our real condition is. It “comes” namely from the system that stems from the world of Infinity, which we are beginning to study. Everything is predetermined. We are simply discovering our internal reserves, our inner Reshimot (informational genes).

And so we will advance until we discover that we are in a totally new system. In the drawing we can see one system, the second system under it, and the third on top of it.

Between The Two Worlds_1

The middle system is us in our ordinary sensations. The lower system is the new egotistic forces that appear in us. But at the moment we don’t clearly feel that they are ours. They appear in us out of nowhere, as if we are controlled by them. There are many theories about this issue, including some cosmic ones.

There is another system that seems as opposite from us: the altruistic system, the system of bestowal, connection, the integral system. Our egoistic system is opposite to the new system.

All these systems are revealed in us, in me. Why did I draw myself “inside myself?” it is because I feel that the egoistic forces inside me are not mine. They begin to appear in me as strangers, as coming from below. On the other hand, I already feel that I have gotten “entangled” with some other system, which isn’t the one I have created.

Between The Two Worlds_2

Until today, only the middle part of the system existed for me, the part that is colored in yellow, “me.” I exist. This is me. This is our world, in which we found our way around easily. Everything was all right.

Now I see that there are certain thoughts that aren’t exactly mine, and also certain feelings, as well as desires. Why? It’s because I don’t feel that they bring me self-realization, that this is exactly what I need. This is why people escape to drugs, divorce, or different kinds of terror. They don’t feel that it is them. The feeling of my individual “self” disappears. We begin to feel that certain forces (not ours) are filling and pushing us.

We feel that our egoism is external to us. It is the force that arrives from the outside. It isn’t me. I am something different.

There is something else in me, something natural, and I am simply being loaded with egoistic forces. They irritate me. Thus, I begin to feel that my egoistic forces are not mine, and I call them “the evil inclination”—the evil desires, the malicious desires, the desires that are not mine, that were instilled into me.

A person becomes detached from his nature. The “I” begins to identify with the addition above one’s previous nature. He already has the feeling that “I” is not my desires, “I” is not my thoughts. I can detach myself from them, I can rise above them, and I can change them.

This is why I have drawn the system as two parts. It is very important because in this form I already begin to see myself as something complex. There is the “I,” and there are my desires and the egoistic attributes that simply exist in me, but I can somehow annul and change them. I am not tied to them at all.

As a result of the discovery of “who and what I am,” I begin to feel that at the same time I am in another world. That is, everything around me seems the same, yet something is different, something has changed.

I seem to find myself in an environment where there are other thoughts, other feelings, some conspiracy against me. I still don’t get what it is, but I am in a space where there are many different forces, different thoughts, and different ties that flow around me. I feel that they exist, but they don’t touch me. Rather, they only wrap me, and I can’t do anything with them.

This is our feeling in the world: It is very clear and leads to clear results.
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From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 9/25/2011

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Sensual Attainment

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You said that about 10% of the people who come to study Kabbalah are drawn to The Study of the Ten Sefirot. Do we need to consciously raise the importance of reading the original sources if a person is attracted to it from the beginning? Or is circulation above everything else in our time?

Answer: In other words, 10% of those who come to Kabbalah want to study it as a science, to climb the mountain of knowledge, and to understand it with the mind. The rest don’t. Yet, the latter are the ones who do advance forward unlike the 10% who simply study and that’s it.

The study has to be sensual, attained from life. When you enter this system, you exist in it, adapt to it, sense everything, and start understanding it from your sensation. You start working with it by being in it. By connecting with other souls, you begin to understand what this connection with a fellow human being is all about, why it is mandatory, and so on. In other words, all of this is actually a direct, natural, sensual knowledge. I wish all of us to come closer to it.

This is a special year, a special time. We have entered a stage of true practical Kabbalah, when we attain this entire system inside of humanity, which is beginning to unfold now, like linked cogwheels. And we have to take part in it, discover it, and help all others.
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From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 10/2/2011

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Cursory Thoughts On Shamati, “A Pomegranate”

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe word pomegranate (Rimon in Hebrew) comes from the word loftiness (Romemut). The more the attribute of bestowal is elevated in my eyes, the more I can advance above all my personal calculations.

From where can I take this greatness of the attribute of bestowal? It is only if I place myself under the influence of the environment. And then the external force of all the friends will come to me, and they will “brainwash” me, will penetrate my heart, and most importantly, will give me the sensation that the attribute of bestowal is most important.

We are in an ocean of Light, but we don’t feel it because we belittle it. How can we receive the sensation of its greatness that will enable us to feel it?

In any vocation, the most important point is to be sensitive to the smallest details that non-experts do not feel or understand. If I am a tailor, and I look at some shirt, I can tell you everything about it: What material was used and exactly how it was sewn. But if I am not a tailor, for me it is just a rag.

At present we are in a sea of Light, but we have no ability to “grasp” it, to discover it, or to see it. It is because we don’t see its importance. Why? Because this Light is the attribute of bestowal, and I don’t feel any importance in it; it is the farthest thing from me. I don’t want it and won’t want it.

It is only if an external force will come to me and “brainwash” my mind and heart, commit me to think that this is exactly what I am missing, and constantly influence me, only then will I say in the end: “I want it!” And then I will discover it. This is called that I have built the vessel for the property of bestowal called “importance.” And then I reveal this property, and this is called the “Light.”

From this we see how important it is to give the correct definitions, the correct meanings to words. In spirituality it is the secret of success.
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From the 6th lesson at the Toronto Convention 9/18/11

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 10.11.11

Writings of Rabash “Letter 12 (2)”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Pekudei (Accounts)” “Bronze Mountains,” Item 158, Lesson 8
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 6, Chapter 15, Question 185, Lesson 10
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Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 148, Lesson 64
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Writings of Baal HaSulam Peace in the World,” “In the Absence of the Ability to Establish the Attribute of Truth, They Tried to Establish the Noble Attributes,” Lesson 5
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