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Good Environment – 11.02.11

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

Light On The Surface Of A Page

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How was Abraham able to unite a nation back in his time if there was no Torah that united them yet?

Answer: The Torah is not a book or words, but the Light that reforms, the force that becomes revealed on the condition that we perform special actions. But all physical objects and words are just symbols.

The science of Kabbalah is called the true Torah, its inner part. But a Kabbalah book by itself is still not Kabbalah. A person can use it to gain the notion called the wisdom of Kabbalah. Everything depends on one’s approach: If he wants to use this wisdom for his own sake, then for him this is abstract information. But if he wants to use it to attain love for the neighbor, it is called Torah.

And this does not even depend on the book so much. Other books, such as the Talmud, Torah, and Psalms also contain the Light that reforms. But the Light contained in Kabbalistic books is closer to us, stands out more, and is much easier to extract. That is why we should use precisely these books.

By virtue of these books, even modern people like us who are small and confused, having no understanding, can imagine that we are coming closer to another state, to a different, new world. The author intentionally placed Light that is close to us into the book.

In contrast, the Light contained in other books, such as the Torah and Talmud, is contained deep inside. But in Kabbalistic books, it shines as if from the very surface since it is closest to you.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/11, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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Music That Warms The Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What should the music at the convention be like so it would really warm people’s hearts?

Answer: Joyful music is not mindless partying. Rather, it has to awaken a good feeling within me, sympathy for what is happening. At the convention, as well as every day, we must imagine our future state that we aspire to, from which we want to receive an illumination, a glow, an influence. Let the Light that reforms come from there and draw us there.

Looking at something beautiful, I am automatically drawn to it. But in this case I have to imagine the beauty myself, as an exercise before and during the convention. In December we will immerse ourselves in the world of the future for 72 hours. We have a single vessel in which a general bestowing force becomes revealed and we all dwell in mutual bestowal.

What do we discover by that other than a feeling of euphoria? What are our relationships? How do we interact in the family, among friends, at work (with our coworkers, employees, and employers), in the economy of the new generation, in ecology, in society? We are entering a new world and are starting to check its details: culture, upbringing, science, our attitude to all kinds of things…

And that’s where music can help us develop the right approach to life. And it doesn’t matter if it has words or not.

However, music should not draw me to any sad thoughts, to anything reminding me of a descent or despair. And this prohibition is effective in our day-to-day work as well. Sad music, the left line can only be used if I have built a strong right line ahead of time and am in it. As Baal HaSulam writes, only half an hour a day can be spent on critical self-analysis, on the condition that I worked in the right line for 23.5 hours.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/1/11, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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Until They Accumulate Knowledge And Gain Wisdom

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”: …when teaching the young, the women and the illiterate, they are taught to work out of fear and in order to be rewarded…

“The young” are people who haven’t learned wisdom yet. “The women” are those who do not have the force of the screen. “The illiterate” are those who understand only their own earthly, egoistic desire. And they are taught accordingly, in conformity to the reality. A person is not required to do something he is incapable of. He is promised a reward, “You will be well off. Just act and absorb others’ hopes that a special force will come and correct you, that it will unite you with others and by virtue of that, you will find yourself in the world of goodness.”

Now we must also conduct mass dissemination by the same principle, responding to people’s current desires. “Do you want to have money, honor, power, knowledge, a good life, health, a pension, and a vacation? Excellent. You will receive all of that if you unite.” They do not have to know about the Light that reforms because they do not have a point in the heart that originates from it. Therefore, in our explanations, we stop at mutual guarantee. But in reality, it is not what will solve all the problems; they will be solved by the Light that we will evoke when we aspire to the mutual guarantee. It will carry out all the changes for the better.

…until they accumulate knowledge and gain wisdom. Then they are told that secret little by little…

They will understand that bestowal in and of itself is the greatest and most important thing in the world. There is nothing more important than bestowal. There is no pleasure greater than being in pure bestowal, when its Light fulfills me. This is expressed instinctively in motherly love. And this secret is revealed by none other than the Light.

…and they are accustomed to that matter with ease until they attain and know Him and serve Him with love.

By virtue of multiple, repeated actions, the Lights influence the vessels and train them, meaning bring a different nature into them. In spirituality there is no pressure or compulsion. At every phase, everything is built only upon understanding, realization, and attainment. After all, the issue at hand is man’s formation.

Eventually, everyone will rise to the upper one, including those who are completely not disposed to that. After all, by virtue of the breaking, they have a part of the spiritual spark and therefore they can join the common work as parts of one body. Every cell in it carries out its own function, which is irreplaceable.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/1/11, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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Open The Faucet Of The Upper Light!

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt doesn’t matter what item in or part of The Book of Zohar we study. Rabash used to do this: He would close his eyes, open the book at some page, and begin to read in the middle of the line. He read a few lines, and this was enough for him. And then he would continue to think.

It connects a person to the source that explains to him about the good and correct future state. After all, you don’t know what this source is in itself. You only know that in doing this, you open some faucet that brings you the force, and this force has to influence you. It is as if you open a faucet of water, and it flows on you.

This is the way we need to relate to The Book of Zohar. The “water” flows on condition that we “stand under the faucet.” “To stand under the faucet” means to be together, to yearn as much as possible for unity since this is the nature of the upper waters that pour from one unified vessel. Thus, according to the measure that we unite together, desire to connect, and strive to be as one man with one heart, to that measure the Light of the Torah comes to us, and we merit the reception of the Torah, the reception of the Light.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/2011, The Zohar

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In Unison With The Universal Mind

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen we unite and feel the general force, desire, plan, and the general intelligence that governs us and that we have to comply with, and when we are in unison, harmony, and conscious movement with it, then we will feel the mind of the Universe or “noosphere” that Vernadsky spoke of. In other words, we will feel the upper force of the universe, the thought of nature, its highest plan, its beginning, and its goal. We will rise to the level of man, who will become the peak of nature, will be equal to it, and will understand the Thought of Creation.

We are required to become aware of this state, to understand it, to grasp this mind, this desire, this plan. How can we discover it? When we begin to move in unison, in harmony, like a school of fish, perceiving the movement of the surrounding field, and do so by our own desire, not instinctively like birds and fish, then we will begin to recognize this field, this great thought of nature.

The whole problem is how to find this field, begin to connect to it, and to find a common rhythm in our movements. To do this, we must change ourselves.

A person can change only under the influence of the environment, as we see it in ourselves and in our children. Otherwise, nature will change us harshly, forcing us by blows, putting us under the “steamroller of development.”

To avoid this, we need to be active and to create, in advance, the surrounding environment for ourselves that would bring us to a greater similarity to this single force of nature. Thereby, we will change. We have to surround ourselves with a simulator that would raise us all the time, unite, and move us closer to the force of nature, which today compels us to be integrally connected.
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From a TV Program “The Integral World” 10/16/2011

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In A Single Field Of Desires

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe live in an egoistic world, and every person sees it based on how much fulfillment and pleasure they can receive from it, how much they can benefit: personally and in comparison to others. A person constantly measures himself in relation to others: Sometimes it is better to receive less but somewhat more than others, than to receive a lot when others receive even more. We have become accustomed to acting this way in our world, and we always developed this way.

But now a completely different world is standing before us. It forces us to act in a different manner, for example, like ants that always work together as a single organism, or like birds that feel one another when they fly. When birds travel, the entire flock turns at the same time, like a single whole: It is not the first bird that turns with all the other birds following it, but all the birds turn together.

A school of fish also moves simultaneously, and so on. There is a precise connection between them, one common field that controls them. Everyone absolutely feels everyone else, regardless of whether they are the first or the last in the school, and this is why they all turn simultaneously. In a state of community, instead of perceiving oneself, every individual perceives the common whole and executes the common will, the common plan.

Nature obligates us to act together the same way, but instead of acting instinctively like ants, fish, and birds, we need to act consciously. This state is absolutely confusing to us. How can I perceive the entire world like one enormous flock and turn and interact together with it like one common whole with one head and one heart? However, now we are entering this state against our will and regardless of our desire. We already exist in it like one enormous flock of birds, school of  fish, or colony of ants, but we do not understand it yet.

However, we are gradually beginning to realize it. We see that we can no longer control ourselves and influence things like we did before because now a completely different mutual work plan is being revealed where you must feel everyone else, and all people together have to feel the common movement, turn, and move in one direction.

We have to distribute everything between us according to this: to consume and to manage seemingly private matters that suddenly become public. A person does not have anything private. Anything he does is part of the collective. At the end, his little work must include the general plan. He must feel like he is an element of the flock, which is operated by the general thought, the general mind, the general plan.
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From a TV Program “The Integral World” 10/16/2011

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Uneasiness Before The Convention

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the fear that needs to be felt before the large upcoming convention in December?

Answer: Uneasiness before the convention is the anxiety and fear that I will not carry out what I have to according to the program of creation, which defines who I am, the qualities with which I have been created, and how I can participate and invest the most of myself to accelerate the development of the entire spiritual vessel.

Every person must feel responsible for the development of the entire common vessel, and this is referred to as the measure of my bestowal to the Creator. We need to concern ourselves with this and understand that everything only depends on me.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/2011, Writings of Rabash

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What Will Make Me Love Others As I Love Myself?

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”: It is said that anyone who buys a Hebrew slave, it is as though he buys a master for himself. It means that if one happens to have but one pillow, … one must give it to one’s servant.

“Love thy neighbor as thyself” is the second rule that we face after we have learned not to do to others what we hate. This condition has especially high demands.

At the stage of “love thy friend as thyself,” it is not enough to refrain from criticizing or considering your friend as lower than yourself. You must raise your friend above yourself so that he will become the most important thing in the entire world for you. From now on, I must worry about him first, like a mother who devotes herself naturally to her child and renounces herself in order to provide him or her with everything necessary. We must relate to everyone this way.

Of course, we are not able to even think about that. This condition is so hateful and repulsive to us that we can’t even imagine to ourselves how we would come to realize it.

However, the Light that Reforms exists in the world. It operates at its own pace, according to the plan of creation, and it draws us closer so that we will accept this condition. Whether we want it or not, in the end we will need to fulfill it either willingly or through pressure by suffering. One way or the other, we are speaking about the law of nature that today is bringing everyone to the first stage of the spiritual path, to the principle of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

We all need to feel that we are together in the same system, we are mutually connected to each other, understand each other, and are dependent on each other. The integral system unites us in all intentions and meanings. We yet will discover that each desire and thought of a person is connected to the rest of the souls.

Of course, we are not able to fulfill this condition, and we surely don’t want to. Instinctively, we reject and ignore it. I don’t agree with this condition to such an extent that I immediately forget it. So, what am I to do?

One needs to carry out exercises in a group by which he will want it nevertheless. No one tells me that I need to realize the condition that I forbid myself to do to others that which I myself hate. I can’t perform that against my desire, and even more so I can’t love others as I love myself. It is impossible to force me since I have no control of my heart. However, I am  able to perform actions that will change my heart.

Questions arise here: How can I want something like this? What do I need it for? This is where a point of choice is: I can invite the Light that Reforms for either good or bad, one of the two. In the end, I will want it to come, but what will cause me to want it?

On one hand, we can build an environment that will impress me with the greatness and importance of the goal and will direct me to bestowal and mutual love. Under the influence of the friends, I will want even what is not important to me now. Then, the Light will come.

Or on the other hand, we can feel the lack of our efforts as suffering, even a world war, until in the end, we will need to ask for the Light that Reforms anyway, to ask for correction, and ask for good relationships between fellow men.

For example, today, Israel’s existence is under threat, and this negative situation should awaken us to correction. Do you want to get rid of the threats? Invite the Light that Reforms, and it will do everything for you. Nothing will help except that. After all, a hero doesn’t win by force.

We only need to unite. Our unity will attract the Light into the world, and it will correct everything. It will do so gradually, in accordance with its program that we don’t know. But in any case, the manifestation of the Light in the world will bring us to good.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/2011, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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