Audio Version Of The Blog – 12.12.11
Posted on December 12th, 2011
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Question: After the convention, I feel enormous separation and repulsion, which I never felt before. Can this be a result of my working incorrectly at the convention?
Answer: After the kind of unity and ascent that we felt at the convention, if a person feels separation, repulsion, and confusion, these are correct states. Resistance from our egoistic nature has to mount, and to counterbalance it, we have to fight these states.
If we maintain ourselves in that same point of unity that we attained, then by virtue of egoism which becomes attached to it, this point will start to grow. We received an example, and we must live in that same inspiration. We already contain a state called “unity,” which we attained at the convention in the clearest, most vivid form. I must preserve this state, trying to remain in it at every moment of my life.
True, now I will immediately receive all kinds of disturbances, but they are all intended for me to strengthen myself more in the same point that I attained at the convention. Then this point will grow based on all of these disturbances. They will enter it and will support it with the help of my efforts. And then this point will expand. That is how I grow this point to the size of the first spiritual level. I don’t have any other opportunity to grow in spirituality, but only by virtue of the disturbances, “help against me.”
[62921]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/11, Writings of Rabash
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Question: After the unity we felt at the convention, should a person studying with us virtually or online go look for a physical group to be in?
Answer: Going to look for a group today is not the same it was 200 years ago, when a person would leave his home with a staff in hand and go off to search. Today a person enters the Internet and is already together with us, in the common group. He already attended the convention and understands what this is.
Should he look for a physical group? I don’t know if he has that opportunity. The closest group might be several hours away from him.
Yet one should try to stay connected to people nevertheless. Sometimes you have to feel how much you don’t want that connection. Maybe by connecting to others virtually, you idealize the situation, thinking that you are already united with them completely, while in fact you are hiding behind the computer screen. So come out from behind the monitor and connect with them in reality. Go and see whether this is possible….
Obviously, now, after our unification at the convention, we are starting to feel confusion, repulsion, and separation—states that are opposite to unity, one against the other. That’s because in order to grow, we must always advance on two legs. Therefore, don’t be surprised that we are suddenly finding ourselves in opposite states. We must finally get used to the fact that these states have to alternate and follow one another.
Therefore, if a person does not have a close connection with a certain group, then he doesn’t go through these states dramatically, quickly, and intensely. All of this gets drawn out and “smudged” for him. He must nevertheless have some sort of physical connection with others. After all, we are in this world and cannot annul it completely. We cannot turn this world into a virtual world. We are here in our bodies and all sorts of connections between us because this is important. We accelerate time by having a physical connection between us.
[62923]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/11, Writings of Rabash
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In the News (from RIANovosti): “The euro’s decline may be closer than the eurozone’s authorities think. Jacques Attali, former chairman of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), said the euro might not survive beyond Christmas. The Wall Street Journal writes that companies providing software for foreign exchange trading ‘are testing systems that could handle trading of previously shelved European currencies.’
“‘The issue now is: Will the euro still exist by Christmas? There is more than a one-in-two chance that the single currency will not survive,’ the French economist said.”
My Comment: In any case, there are only two ways in front of us:
Integration cannot be partial, in this case, only economic. It should be general and complete. Otherwise, it is like being a partial virgin, partial thief, partially faithful, and so on. It’s because the parts that are not integrated will break the integrated part.
[62804]
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Opinion: (Gerald Celente, founder of Trends Research, world trend analytic at the Summer Trends Journal): “Celente will continue to make clear that ‘Happy Days’ will not soon be here again. He will continue to explain that, budget deal notwithstanding, no future Fed quick fixes or DC schemes can reverse the ‘Greatest Depression’ – bound economy. No bipartisan miracle will eliminate the budget or trade deficit, restore the dollar to its former glory, or bring back jobs lost to China, India, Mexico, etc. Europe’s financial crisis is equally critical.
“And the EU, IMF, and ECB rescue policies will prove as ineffective as America’s. Those warnings are not ‘alarmism’ or ‘pessimism’ they are just a matter of drawing logical conclusions from hard facts and incontrovertible data.
“Nevertheless, even with a major economic collapse ahead of us, Celente is convinced there is a basis for expecting positive global outcomes in the long-term. The potential ‘Game Changer’ lies in a widespread recognition that the Industrial Revolution mindset and policies will not, and cannot, work in a 21st century world.
“‘It’s not just Model T economics that’s outmoded, so are our approaches to education, healthcare, politics and, yes, the military,’ says Celente. ‘The old adage “Generals fight the last war” is as valid as ever. While the technology may have changed, the mindset hasn’t. The conviction that brute force can prevail in an occupied country defended by guerilla combatants has proven a multi-trillion dollar, decade-long failure. Yet even as old wars drag on with no victory in sight, new wars are started such as “Operation Odyssey Dawn” launched against Libya five months ago, a “kinetic military action” that was supposed to end in ‘day’s, not weeks.’”
My Comment: Victor Hugo once said that: “There is something mightier than all the armies of the world, and that something is an idea.” Education of the masses is needed to reveal this idea. According to Kabbalah, this is most important. As Baal HaSulam writes, we all need to sit behind school desks for a few months, and we will begin to understand our world and our state in it, and realize that we need to unite to attain equality and balance: equality between us and balance with nature. We attain eternity and perfection by carrying out these two conditions.
[62877]
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In the News (from JN1): “For many in the world, Rabbi Michael Laitman is the leading Kabbalah expert. A Russian Refusenik who later emigrated to Israel in 1974. He studied under the renowned Kabbalist Rav Baruch Shalom Ashlag (or Rabash).
“Since then he has founded the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute. Rabbi Laitman gave a lecture at The World Arvut Convention and interpreted The Zohar, the primary literature of Kabbalah. He explains that Kabbalah is a method to connect man and the world and it isn’t a mysticism or faith. He says it is meant for all people and those of any religion can practice Kabbalah.
JN1’s Jordana Miller interviews Rabbi Laitman and some of the participants.
[62857]
Question: What does it mean to direct all our thoughts and desires toward the Creator? How can we incorporate the Creator into this entire process?
Answer: First, we have to do everything in our power to connect in order to feel unity. We should constantly feel this unity above all the disturbances we experience in our thoughts and desires. No matter what I do, I do it feeling that the group is inside me. If you can, try to imagine that the Creator also fills us and is inside us.
I warn you: We will not be able to hold on to the state of unity felt during the convention much longer. More serious obstacles will arise, and I won’t be able to connect to the friends and will surely forget about the Creator.
These problems are given to me on purpose so that I will try to attach myself to the group and ask the Creator for help, demand that He carries out our connection. The Creator is the attribute of bestowal and love, and I want the attribute of bestowal to dwell among us.
If we don’t see ourselves as corporeal bodies, but rather close our eyes and feel the field in which we share a common sensation, then the one who stabilizes, fills, and sustains this feeling, the main force that arranges, creates, and maintains all this is called “the Creator.”
The force of bestowal existing in creation is the Creator, His front side, and the force of reception in creation is His back side. And I am the black point of “existence from absence (Yesh Mi Ain)” situated in this force field of bestowal and reception.
[62862]
From the st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/2011, Writings of Rabash
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Spiritual work focuses on the unification between us and the merger with the upper force that shapes us. How can I quickly, correctly, and effectively unite the three factors: myself, the group, and the Creator? To achieve this, Kabbalists wrote their books for us. In reality, these books are intended for them so they can share impressions and unite with each other.
When I read a book written by a Kabbalist, he reveals to me what he has discovered himself. Of course, he writes not about the material world, but about his spiritual attainment, about various spiritual states, and while reading, I also experience them.
In our world, reading fiction, I imagine myself as the hero living through the described situation. However, reading a Kabbalah book, a Kabbalist does not fantasize, but experiences the appropriate spiritual state, feeling the same as the author. In his time, the author revealed some reality, and now I enter it, describing it within myself by means of spiritual forces.
Kabbalists could limit themselves to the technical language of symbols, like programmers who write codes in “computer language.” Sometimes, we see those “hieroglyphs” on the screen and cannot comprehend them. Indeed, nothing else is required. After all, I only need to know how to combine my desires: in what form of bestowal, relative to whom and to what. Accordingly, I describe a particular state. I perceive a picture of reality within myself, in my desires and thoughts, and it can be described in a simple way.
The Book of Zohar is different. It is written in a poetic language and addresses our feelings, using the concepts of our world and its psychology. We should not forget that we actually talk about the spiritual world, about our inner reality, how we are united with each other. Any state described in The Book of Zohar shows me how I, the group, and the Creator unite together again. This is the only thing one should think about while reading The Zohar, and then the book will definitely help us reveal the relationships at the higher degrees.
[62850]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/2011, The Zohar
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Starting now we must strengthen that which we have attained; we must grow the unity that was born between us at the convention. This point must multiply. Even though it appears to be overwhelming and never-ending in the beginning of the journey, in reality it is not so. The spiritual stages are much shorter that the first, preliminary stage.
When we rise from Malchut and merge with Zeir Anpin, the spiritual power intensifies sixty times, and when Zeir Anpin rises to YESHSUT, it creates six hundred times stronger intensity. Every new degree includes the ten Sefirot and adds a position, increases our might by a power of ten: six thousand, sixty thousand, and so on.
Moreover, we must not forget that the entire world needs the spiritual ascent. We must convey the method of correction to humanity, the method of universal unity. We must correct the crisis in this world, which will be expanding, seizing everyone without exception, to the very last village, the very last corner of the world. It will manifest in every family and in every person. This multi-crisis will touch on every area of human activity.
And this is why all of us will have to work in the role of mentors, disseminators of the method. The crisis will not stop until the entire world enters a mutual interconnection, until everyone becomes like we are now. We assume that this is impossible, but in reality, it will be much easier for the world to do than for us. Desires and ideas are easier to spread in large masses, down the threads of the inner interconnection. The collective soul did not go anywhere: We are separated only in our sensations. People will understand us very quickly, come closer, and connect with us.
The main thing right now is to strengthen the feeling of unity which appeared at the convention. These are the actual spiritual gates. There are new people among us who have simply enjoyed being with their friends. There are people who feel something greater, people who already manifest this feeling of a spiritual revelation, the first attainment and not just a union. And there are some who have advanced even further. We represent a full spectrum, and I am very happy about these variations in the collective vessel. This means that it lives and develops.
Now you just need to strengthen it, and you’ll see that it will be relatively easy. We need to protect our unity at least a little bit, despite the disturbances. We will return back home, and most important is to keep what was attained.
I stay close to my friends despite the distance and watch the world from aside. I sit on a plane or a train, and the entire world is outside my window. Everything flows by me on the outside, but what matters to me is what is happening on the inside. This inner flame is more important than anything else, more important than life. I put all things in their places, distribute them according to the scale of values, and then the key is to remain on top, at the tip of the pyramid, in the feeling I have attained. I am even prepared to die with it because eternity is concealed in it.
[62792]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/9/2011, “600,000 Souls”
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Rabash, Letter 8: And as soon as I acquire the quality of bestowal, sparks of love promptly begin to shine within me.
At first we acquire the power of bestowal, the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), and then the Light of love, the Light of Hochma (Wisdom), dresses in it.
The heart begins to long to unite with my friends, and it seems to me that my eyes see my friends, my ears hear their voices, my mouth speaks to them, the hands embrace, the feet dance in a circle in love and joy together with them, and I transcend my corporeal boundaries. I forget the vast distance between my friends and me, and the outstretched land for many miles will not stand between us.
It is as though my friends are standing right within my heart and see all that is happening there, and I become ashamed of my petty acts against my friends. Then, I simply exit the corporeal vessels and it seems to me that there is no reality in the world except my friends and me. After that, even the “I” is cancelled and is immersed, mingled in my friends, until I stand and declare that there is no reality in the world—only the friends.
Rabash writes this from spiritual attainment. This is exactly how we attain spiritual reality: There is nothing in it from our current perception—only our friends. Besides, this does not refer to the faces that stand before my eyes today, but a special inner force found in my friends, a unique spark that every one of them has received from Above. These sparks are the friends of my spark. We unite them into a group.
Rabash, Letter 40: And when one begins to feel the love of his friend, joy and pleasure immediately begin to awaken in him… His friend’s love for him is a new thing for him…
He suddenly reveals it, but before he did not know, did not believe in it, was not ready to accept it. Our problem is not as much to love our friend, but to feel the love from him. We also resist this love because it imposes certain obligations on us. However, when I discover a new feeling a friend has for me, I can no longer ignore it. This way my friend begins to “buy” me, attach me to him.
…he always knew that he was the only one who cared for his own well being. But the minute he discovers that his friend cares for him, it evokes within him immeasurable joy, and he can no longer care for himself…
He can no longer continue caring for his needs as before. It is written in the article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” that when I am sure, when I feel that others love me, I stop being concerned with myself, unreservedly.
This is not just an addition of strength, which allows me to make a new calculation and stop thinking about myself. The moment I feel how much my friends love me, I fully reject self-love. I seem to forget about myself; I stop perceiving myself. Love that comes from the outside, from my friends, takes over me, and carries me out of my own limitations—to them.
… and he can no longer care for himself since man can toil only where he feels pleasure. And since he is beginning to feel pleasure in caring for his friend, he naturally cannot think of himself.
It is inevitable: If I want to help my friend to not care for himself, I must show him that I take care of all his needs. In this case he rejects himself “by definition.” This way I take him out of his egoism.
Instruction or traditional education will not help here. Man must be given love; this will absolutely disconnect him from his own needs.
But can love awaken a desire in man to reject his own reality? It is written: “Love breaks the habitual.” Love does not obey the mind. And only when there is this kind of love from friends, then everyone lives in a world that is all good, with no concerns for themselves. Man feels how he acquires the quality of bestowal, and then according to the law of equivalence of form, he forever unites with the upper one, the perfect Giver….
This refers to the most powerful force in nature, to working with love in two directions. It is possible to control our life from two sides and obligate man to love by displaying love for him in a certain way, even without an opposite force of pressure and suppression.
Love comes to us from the Creator the same way, but it is as if He guides us down the spiritual path with two “reins”: suffering and pleasure. They both come from love. Thus, if I wish to help someone, this can only be done by multiplying my love. This way I obligate a person towards everything that is required.
This is why it is written: “Buy yourself a friend.” It says “buy,” meaning always give him love, and you will see how he will become attached to you. You “acquire” him, you become soldered together, and you beget the same response in him. At the end each of us becomes included in the other.
And when all the friends become included in the others, every one of them receives a complete vessel of Infinity, a complete soul. This way we do not only attain our individual root, but also the entire Malchut of the world of Infinity with all the Lights of NRNHY, the most powerful force in the entire reality.
[62781]
From Lesson 8, The World Arvut Convention 12/8/2011
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