Good Environment – 10.27.11

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

The Key Is To Find The Correct Path

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe main problem is that a person, even after studying Kabbalah for many years, can’t grasp that the whole Torah becomes realized in the connection between people. This concept repels us so much that we forget about it every moment. We are ready to do anything else but that!

That is the first obstacle on the path. And here, everything depends on building the environment that will constantly hold a person on the correct line. We reveal the spiritual world only by deepening this connection inside the group, specifically an internal connection with the friends, not an external one. After all, the spiritual world is the connection between us.

We constantly develop this connection one step after another, and draw the Light that Reforms wishing for the general force of bestowal, called the Creator, to secretly dwell between us. We want to reveal Him so that He would correct the connection between us.

And then the connection and mutual bestowal that exists in the upper Light itself will be revealed inside our desires so that the vessel (desire) and the Light become equal. This is called the adhesion of the created being with the Creator.

The emphasis in our work has to shift to the group, the connection between us, so that all our desires and thoughts, except for the most vital ones relating to the maintenance of the animate body, will be directed toward the good of the others. And then we will go through, relatively quickly, all the stages that bring us to the revelation of the force of bestowal or the revelation of the Creator to the created beings.

The main thing is to direct oneself, to clearly and precisely define the line of work, which is only in the connection between the creatures. And that takes a long time because filtering out all the other possible paths, approaches, and means is the work against one’s egoism, disappointments, and that takes a lot of time.

But after a person finally makes this decision, meaning the Light directs him or her towards this state, towards a connection between the created beings, after that one gets on the right track.
[58515]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Loving Unconditionally

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Everyone recognizes and respects the principle of love for the neighbor as yourself. But in the new era, how can we turn people to love instead of hatred and separation?

Answer: To do this we gradually transition from the egoistic intention to the altruistic one. Every person wants to be loved the way he is. In other words, love is above all calculations. Someone appears handsome to me and someone else appears ugly. Someone appears good in my eyes and someone bad. Yet, if I love someone, then I love them as I would my own child, no matter what he is like.

It’s just that we love our children naturally, whereas here we need love that towers above our nature. It is written, “Every person denies others according to his own defect.” If you see a defect in someone, it means that defect is inside of you.

However, we are initially incapable of attaining unconditional love because by our nature we hate one another. I always look for flaws in others because this makes me feel better and higher than them, which is already pleasant by itself. When searching for self-gratification, I have to see flaws in others that put them beneath me at least in some regard. If someone appears higher than me and I cannot justify it, then I fall into depression.

So how can we attain love? First of all, “loving” means being imbued with the desires of the neighbor and being ready to fulfill them. Right now I am ready to use and exploit the neighbor, but I am told, “Use yourself in order to fulfill him.” Yet this is completely opposite to my nature. I can never climb up that wall.

That is why Hillel the sage made the challenge easier by putting it this way, “Don’t do to another what you yourself hate.” Be neutral, give up hate and love for the neighbor. By carrying out this condition, you will overcome the first half of the path.

You will thereby detach from your egoism, from the previous desires. You will give up the ill-intended plans and intentions. From now on you no longer want to harm your neighbor, either by mistake or deliberately. You don’t want to use him because it always harms him. And even though you still think that you can profiteer off your neighbor, you already begin to understand that you will end up a loser yourself. What’s good for him is good for you, and what’s bad for him is bad for you. You already see that both of you are connected together by a global network which is becoming revealed in the world today. That is why you have no other choice but not to harm one another, at the very least.

This is the first phase: You turn off your Malchut and raise it to Bina, to the small state, Katnut, Hafetz Hesed. And then you have to continue on the path to love.

All of these phases are actualized on the condition that you advance “from Lo Lishma to Lishma,” if in your egoism you nevertheless aspire to the altruistic goal. “It’s worthwhile for me to treat my neighbor well,” you reason. “After all, we are interconnected and there is no other choice….” And eventually, as you tread this path, you evoke the Light that reforms, which corrects your mind and feeling.

And then you understand, “I have to love others, but not because I will feel good and not because we are in one system, no matter how global and integral it may be.” That is not what matters. You are simply enchanted by the quality of bestowal in and of itself. You don’t know what makes it so good, but you feel that besides bestowal, you don’t want anything else. You do not fulfill yourself and do not anticipate pleasure. You bestow out of awe, reverence, greatness, out of recognizing bestowal as such in the pure form. Now it is everything to you.
[58899]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/27/11, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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You Will Find The Creator In The Group

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do I come to the Creator, when in reality I do not have the desire?

Answer: For you, the Creator is the collective vessel of all souls to whom you bestow. It is written: “I dwell among My people.” When this vessel manifests fully, you reveal the Creator in it.

The Creator is not some separate entity that exists outside of your reaction to the collective Kli. He neither has a form nor an appearance; He does not have an entity outside of what you find in the collective vessel.

For you the Creator is the group. When you reveal the connection between the friends, then in this common connection you reveal the Creator (Boreh), which comes from the words “come and see” (Bo-Reh). He manifests in the form you are able to see.

But He does not exist until then. Right now you do not have the Creator because it is written that you must go by what you see. You must not imagine anything outside of the limits of actual perception. You will reveal the Creator when you reach universal interconnection. It is the actual vessel that becomes imbued with mutual bestowal. And the Light will be revealed in this vessel.

It is not an abstraction of some sort—the vessel will seem to vibrate from the desire to bestow. Its “trepidation” is the Light, penetrating the universal interconnection. Everyone wants to bestow to others, everyone is connected with others, and this is why every part fulfills the other parts. This bestowal of one desire to another is called the “Light.”

Hence the Light in the Partzuf is the measures of the response in the desire. There is no Light without the vessel. The actual vessel becomes the Light when it begins to bestow. And the Creator is the commonality of bestowal, which becomes revealed inside the vessel, in the group.

Our entire work in the group brings us to the conditions that allow us to reveal and attain the Creator. I don’t go from the group to the Creator like from one room to another. The group is the vessel where I reveal everything: the upper Light (mutual bestowal) and the commonality of this Light, this bestowal, called the Creator.

Everything becomes revealed in the vessel of unity over the breaking. There is no other place, even now. There is no other reality other than the desire to receive pleasure, which experiences different states inside. It thinks that it is divided, broken, and welded to different extents and with different connections on different degrees; however, all this is happening inside of it. When it unites, it perceives the Creator, and when it loosens unity, it is left with a tiny Light. But one way or another, the reference is always to the desire and its experiences.
[58522]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/2011, “Peace in the World”

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Don’t Give Charity Where It’s Not Needed

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: An incident occurred in Tel Aviv where a woman saw a homeless man and decided not just to give him money, but to help him for real. She found him a job and took care of him, and then he killed her….

Answer: She took away a life of freedom from the vagabond. He sat on the street to his heart’s content, not worrying about what time of day it is, whether it’s morning, afternoon, or night, and not thinking about what was and what will be. He was above time and space, above all worries.

People will always throw some coins into his purse or give him something to eat…. The homeless are a special breed – they do not want to depend on anyone or anything. This is a wonderful feeling: I don’t care about anything.

“Where do you live?”
“On earth.”
“Do you have to get somewhere or get something done in time?”
“I don’t even have a watch. I don’t care what time it is.”
“But maybe you owe something to someone? Or someone owes you something?”
“Nothing of the sort.”

And now take a look at yourself: You have a million things to get done at the office and thousands of circumstances. People are calling you, expecting things from you, and your family is also demanding its share…. You simply have no idea what it’s like to be homeless. “Without a home” means without boundaries. I wish you could experience this careless sensation at least once in your life.

This is not a weekend or a vacation when you are also burdened with cares as well. A homeless person has everything tidy, he has no cares in his head and no boundaries, as if he is already floating in the clouds of the world to come.

And now someone comes and brings him down to earth, closes him up within four walls and forces him to live by schedule: wake up, wash up, shave, brush your teeth ,get dressed…. What kind of life is that?

We don’t understand these people, yet they live in a sensation that raises them above matter.

Question: How can we help these people?

Answer: To help someone does not mean to indulge yourself like the way people in Israel are who are trying to house Bedouins in apartments. The Bedouins don’t want to live within four walls and end up setting up their tents again right across the newly built neighborhood. Even if you give them a ten room apartment, they still won’t want it since they have their own ideas about what a household is.

When helping someone, you have to follow their desire rather than yours.

Question: So we should’t help people living in these conditions?

Answer: No. A person has everything he needs and he does not need anything more. If he needed housing, he would arrange it. But he does not want it. For him, setting up “his own corner” is already a restriction. It puts pressure on him. He likes sleeping any place that turns up and not worrying about the next moment.

Compared to him, we do not understand what freedom is. We are slaves while he is a master.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/27/11, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”
[58896]

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The Solution To The Crisis Is The Revelation Of The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do we connect the structure of the universe we are studying with the development of the current crisis?

Answer: Malchut of the world of Infinity has divided into an enormous number of separate egoistic pieces, which now must acquire their common structure.

How do they do it? We do not know and cannot know this structure—it is very complicated. Eventually it will become revealed to us. But there is an enormous number of connections between us, and we have to “restore” these connections. We restore them when we work with one another, disseminate, and unite.

The Solution To The Crisis Is The Revelation Of The Light1

This is exactly what we have to do. This is our objective, and this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks of.

The current crisis, on one hand, is the revelation of the system of the common interconnection (colored red in the drawing), but on the other, it is the demonstration of the fact that we are egoists and do not wish to be connected with one another. Every one of us is a separate egoist.

So what do we do? The crisis appears because we are separate egoists, but the actual system is altruistic. Where can we hide from each other? Nowhere. No props will help us fix this crisis now, even though in Europe they have been thinking a lot about finding a solution. But they are not able to think of anything because the only thing that can be done is to restore an integrated system of connections between us. We will not be able to achieve anything without restoring it.

The entire problem is for the upper Light to start operating between us, and we could open the path for it through ourselves towards one another. This is called mutual guarantee. I reveal the Light for you, you for me, and thus we reveal it for one another, until the Light fills the entire volume of the world of Infinity.

The Solution To The Crisis Is The Revelation Of The Light2

Today we are in the beginning of the path. We must do all of this together. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah exists for. This is why we go out to the streets and try explaining this to people.

The extent to which they will join us will make it easier for us to open all leaves and valves on the path of the upper Light. I hope that in this way we will quickly come closer to solving the crisis. We have a medicine, a remedy for it. We simply need to fully reveal it for us and the others and start using it.

Good luck to you in this. I hope instead of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, we will feel it going through us.
[58498]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 10/16/2011

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If Love Is So Important, Then What Are We Waiting For?

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe principle of love for the neighbor as for oneself is known to all, yet there is a lot of confusion surrounding it. Eveyrone agrees that they have to love one another, although some are wiling to exterminate a large part of humanity out of their love, thinking, “Those wretched people! Why should they suffer?” And it’s even more surprising how vaguely this principle is reflected in different religions.

As a result, we are cooled, and we are not worried about not loving our neighbor. Our upbringing and environment have completely neglected this question. Therefore, it is time to stop and think: Is it really that important? Maybe it’s enough to give moral teachings to children and to show elementary respect among adults? Or should love for the neighbor nevertheless be the goal of life at every moment for every person and everyone together? Should we live just in order to attain this quality as fast as possible?

This question we face is extremely important. If we are talking about the meaning of life, about the attainment of the goal for which we came into this world, then why do we neglect this principle so much? In essence, we are extremely far from understanding the fact that this principle is the universal law of the universe and of nature. All other laws which we know, and especially ones we do not know, rotate around this axis.

If we want to understand ourselves and the world we are in, then we have to attain the general law of creation. Without attaining love for the neighbor, we won’t be able to find out who we are and where we are. This is the key allowing us to see the whole picture correctly, to understand it, to feel it, to become included in it and to use it for total self-realization.

By acquiring love for the neighbor in practice, we attain the quality of the Creator. All other laws are just facets, partial expressions of this fundamental law of reality. It’s similar to how the law of gravity can be expressed in different ways, but as a whole, it always determines how one object is attracted to another.

There is a general phenomenon and there are particular cases of it. There is a law of universal bestowal, and for us it is first and foremost expressed as the social principle, “love your neighbor as yourself.” By realizing this principle in society, we carry out the universal law. It controls us, and if we want to arrange our lives well, we have to aspire to realizing it.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/27/11, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”
[58903]

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I Am A Conductor Of Light!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do you regulate your relationship with the Light and pleasure before you have a screen and exist in the spiritual world?

Answer: Today we can only come closer to creating a society that will gradually make us desire to open ourselves up to the Light, the circulation of this Light, so it will go through all of us, and we will be in one single system.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is based on convincing man to connect with others: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” When a person approaches this state, he begins to feel how the Light literally begins to pulsate within him, break through his egoism. And a person becomes a conductor of the Light to the extent that he opens himself up to it, in order for it go through him to others. This very gradually becomes revealed in the work in a group, in work with others.
[58501]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 10/16/2011

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Let’s Reveal The Path For The Light!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is it possible to bestow in our world without receiving pleasure, and how does one connect bestowal with our world?

Answer: We are talking about the transfer of energy, desires, and sensations, about the mergers of desires. We don’t generate Light; we only open the path for it with our intentions.

We are surrounded by Light that fills Malchut of the world of Infinity. However, as a result of the restriction, it contains a large amount of disconnected desires.

When we direct our intention to bestow toward one another, we as if raise the blinds within ourselves, and the fulfillment from the Light begins to circulate between us. All the “valves” open, and each one of us begins to feel that he exists in a single living organism.

Essentially we don’t receive or bestow Light. We only open the path for it with our intentions.
[58504]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 10/16/2011

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How Can We Check Whether Our Request Is Correct?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can a person check whether his request is clarified and correct?

Answer: If I can perform what I am asking for, it means that my request was correct. I discover deficiencies in me and ask for them to be corrected, and then I see that after some time (since it takes time in our world), I actually understand, want, aspire to, and can do it.

All the previous discernments now become much clearer. I suddenly agree with and desire all the actions and opportunities to get closer to others, which at first seemed totally unrealistic, undesirable, and repulsive to me.

I criticize people less and am able to get closer to them, understanding that spirituality can be felt only in the connection between us. I perceive the spiritual concepts more correctly and understand that we talking about the inner connection between us because this is where the spiritual world is revealed, while the concentration of the attributes of bestowal is the Creator.

I understand that spirituality is attained by practical deeds in this world, which was especially created in a way that enables us to perform certain actions even without any desire or intention for it. We can compel ourselves to do it, just as we can do many other things against our will: We go to work and fulfill different obligations in life.

This is impossible in the spiritual world because there is only pure desire there. In our world, however, the corporeal body clothes the desire, and hence the body can perform different actions even against its will. Thanks to this we can get closer to others in situations that contradict connection totally. This is the wonderful attribute of this world!

So in order to acquire the next, new level, we always have to fall into this world, which means to fall under the authority of our body. We aren’t talking about the physical body, but the desire detached from spirituality, which enables us to perform different actions even without a desire for it.

I begin every spiritual level by a physical action, with the egotistic desire, the intention for myself, and with an aspiration to profit and to receive reward. Having started this way, I can proceed to spiritual actions.

This happens in every level, until the end of correction. This is why this world must exist. Otherwise, we won’t be able to approach every new spiritual level independently.
[58404]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/23/2011, Writings of Rabash

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