Audio Version Of The Blog – 01.17.12

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The Oxygen Pipe To Save The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe spiritual vessels, the desires, can be “straight” and “round.” There is a similar division in our world too. The desire of the group is “straight,” because we work with it, assess and weigh it trying to reach equivalence with the upper Light.

All the other desires in the world, which are represented by other people, are “round” because they are not related to the “line,” (the limitation by the Masach, screen, and the work that is directed by the Light), and they simply want fulfillment.

Now a growing emptiness will be revealed in them. If we do our best to connect to one line, and on the other hand, we join the world as a circle, then people will feel how they receive a filling from the “pipe” that is formed by us. Then they will be drawn to us, will adhere to us like leeches, because they will feel that here is the source of life.

But in order to avoid a situation in which we would have the fulfillment that they couldn’t have which would result in their being filled with hate, the system of integral education must be opened to them immediately in order to explain to a person how to attain the fulfillment.

The Light cannot pass from us to others just like that. We must build a network of the right connections, and an education system is necessary for that. There won’t be any contact between us any other way.

It only seems as if the integral education is meant to simply connect people to one another. On the inside, however, it is the connection of the “pipe” that passes the Light into the “circle.”

In our group we are all equal, there are no differences between us, and we make up the same vessel into which the upper Light comes. But our vessel is in the form of a pipe; we work with the Masach and the Reforming Light. We try to adapt ourselves to the Light, to resemble the Light, and the desire and the intention to bestow is a kind of channel for the Light, a kind of a pipe, we become when we connect with the friends.

The external world is a “circle.” In order to create a connection among us through which the external world will begin to receive the inner fulfillment from us, there must be a certain degree of equivalence and we need an adaptor, a connector between us and them, so that we can connect.

This is possible only by education that we will provide the world with so that people will know how to connect the “circle” to the “straight line” in this world. Then, through this pipe, the method of the fulfillment will begin to seep, and the world will begin to organize itself to receive this fulfillment.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/12, Shamati #36

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Staring Into The Mirror

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar” Baal HaSualm explains that the part of our brain responsible for our perception of reality is built like a photographic machine through which I see the world divided. I feel myself as a kind of body and see everything else that exists as outside of me. So all of reality is divided into two parts.

This, of course, is a lie and there is no such division. But the point is that there is a Creator and a created being, and the created being should attain the Creator as a result of his development. Attaining the Creator is possible only by observing Him from the outside, and so the created being has to feel that he exists separately from the Creator, standing opposite to Him.

Then by comparing the two opposites, the created being checks and understands the inverse attributes, realizes that he is opposite to the Creator, realizes that he is evil and that he needs correction to become similar to the Creator and to reach adhesion with Him. Thus he raises the level of “human” in him.

In order to allow a person to assess all these attributes, understand, get to know, clarify, and correct his perception—reality is divided into two so that it seems to a person that he and the external world exist separately.

This, of course, isn’t even close to the truth. The assumption that a person exists and the Creator is outside Him, outside the world of Ein Sof, is also not true. But such a feeling is necessary so that we will add our exertion to building our vessel and attaining the understanding and revelation. Then it will be a “human” who built all this out of his free will.

It is like giving a child challenging games and puzzles so that he will work and thanks to that grow, understand, see, try, make efforts, and build himself. The same happens to us with the dual perception that makes us sense ourselves and outside of us, the world.

All our work is to make efforts to connect the two parts into one whole picture called “there is none else besides Him” and “Israel, the Torah and the Creator are one.” This means to sense myself and the external world as one, and to understand that first I have to care about the external world and only then care about myself. After all, I will have to provide only what is necessary for the existence of my beastly body, and I have to try and see all the rest, all the external world, as most precious, my soul.

Then I will reveal that the external world is also me. It is because I treated it as something opposite to me that I hated, rejected and tried to stay away from it, that enabled me to learn about myself, about my nature, and about the “evil inclination.” I had a chance to fight all its fine attributes, the unperceivable, the coarse, and cruel attributes and by that to attain the Creator.

After all, in every incidence of hate towards the external world, there is a need for the Creator’s help in some way. So my rejection of the external world and my decision to connect to it, the power I receive for that from the Creator, and the unity I attain, all bring me to adhesion with the Creator.

So it turns out that there are actions of connection with the external world and there is the acceptance of this world, the feeling of unity or the Creator. By the creation of this division of me and the external world and the “neutral zone” (“Klipat Noga“) between us, I get help from the Creator—a state that is already partially prepared to attain the connection with Him because of this false perception.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/12, Shamati #36

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Working In Circles

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe group is part of the external world for me, but I can’t work with the whole world at once to get a response from everyone and measure myself in relation to the world. The world cannot support me along my path because it doesn’t have the same goal I do. It has all kinds of different goals and doesn’t know where it is headed.

So I find a group, a part of this external world that I can connect and work with to clarify things. Indeed, on one hand it is foreign, a part that is external to me, but it is close to me according to its goal, perception, and studies. So it is worthwhile for me to connect to the group in order to get power and support from it. I see that with them it will be easier for me to advance.

Eventually I begin to understand that this isn’t a group of people, but they are the very parts of my soul that I need to collect and add to myself. Or perhaps to the contrary: I need to exit myself and to find myself within them rather than in my present “self.”

Then, together with the group, we want to expand our relationship with the whole world into a wider circle. This circle does not share the same goal; it has different aspirations. This is my more external part.

The parts of my soul called “root,” “soul,” “body,” “attire” and “hall.” “Root, soul and body” are the internal part, which I feel as myself, the “attire” is an external part but it is adhered to a person, and the “hall” is the more external part.

And so I play with the group as the external part that is closest to me, that is ready to join the same purpose. I don’t see it as a group of people but rather as my desires that are only dressed up in these masks that make faces at me. But I understand that I must connect to them because it is there that I attain the goal. If I exit my ego and become incorporated in them, there I will find the attribute of bestowal.

But we can’t just work among ourselves on our connection. We need to work together on something external. This external thing is the world. But here too, my desires seem to oppose me; these are my seven billion different desires that are showing me that they don’t belong to me. My ego separates me from them and blinds me, confuses me, and obliges me to perceive them as foreign and opposed to me.

I must work with the world, but it is much more difficult than working with the group. After all, at least I have something in common with the group: a goal, studies, and common processes. In the group it is as if I am in a kindergarten, in comfortable conditions that constantly help me exit myself.

But the external world has no conditions that help me: There everyone is against me. The only thing that ties us together is a collective problem, although it seems to us that we are headed towards different goals. The world by running away from pain eventually has no choice, it will reach the same goal that I see as good and desirable. So I should relate to all the circles around me—the group and the rest of the world—as to myself. They are only presented to me by the Creator in this opposite form so that each time I will learn to work with a more external circle. I perceive the inner circle, and together with it I begin to work on the more external circles.

We cannot worry only about one another. Like a young couple: How long can you look at one another before you get to know each other and become used to one another? Then they need to have a child so that they will both take care of him!
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/12, Shamati #36

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We Don’t Understand Him

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot“: Indeed, you should know that the reason for our great distance from the Creator…is for but one reason, which became the source of all the torment and the suffering that we suffer, and for all the sins and the mistakes that we fail in…. Clearly, by removing that reason, we will instantly be rid of any sorrow and pain…. And I tell you that, that preliminary reason is none other than the “lack of our understanding in His Providence over His creations,” that we do not understand Him properly.

So our only problem is that we don’t understand the leadership, His Providence. So let’s understand!

But no, we don’t want that. Therefore, the most important thing for us is to discover His Providence, to discover the way He treats us, the connection with Him. After all, this connection has a form, a formula, and a format that enables us to locate Him.

It is about the line between us and the Light of Ein Sof. The “Light of Ein Sof” is the Creator’s attitude towards us, which is above all the circles. In other worlds, it is the line that passes through all the circles until the central point.

We can’t attain the Creator by ourselves, but through that line we can build, we discover His attitude towards us, and so we rise up the spiritual ladder. Eventually, when we go through all the levels and reach Gmar Tikkun (the end of correction), we fill all our desire with the Light in all the circles. This will be a sign that after having corrected our desires, we feel the Creator and understand Him. After all, we reveal only Him.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Do I Check Myself?

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe goal: We have no idea what it is and no desire for it. We want something totally different, and it isn’t even the opposite because we don’t have anything to compare it to. Kabbalistic books speak about one thing, but we think in a totally different way and don’t take it in at all.

A certain urge simply appears in us: We aren’t happy with life and we try to find fulfillment. At the same time we are confused and we deceive ourselves that we are attracted to some wonderful sublime goal. This only increases our pride and nothing more.

In fact, the only thing we want is to satisfy our ego. Here too, we don’t know exactly what it is: We don’t see its limits, we can’t measure our yearning, and we don’t see to what extent egoism controls us and how addicted we are to it. All our life passes in foggy blindness and ignorance.

So the question is: If we did catch the end of a thread and we do have a chance, how do we make the best of it? Of course, we distance ourselves from different false methods in which we determine that there is no true filling. They are meant for people who cannot make a thorough examination and are happy with the “truth” that satisfies them.

But it could also be that we are caught in the illusion of a certain method, and that if we look at it from above we will see that it is also false. Just like many mystical methods that seem true to their followers.

Who can check that? What can we count on with regard to that? Can I, at my present level of development, examine what is happening outside my level?

After all, everyone judges according to his present “self,” and of course reaches positive conclusions: “Everything is fine; I am in the right environment and the right method.” Everyone examines the situation according to his level and his height, according to the depth of his criticism and ego and so he justifies himself.

So perhaps I have also been “tricked” that way? Perhaps I am also satisfied with what I have, swimming with the current, just like yesterday?

How can I still assess the situation not as part of the routine? How can I rise to a more qualitative approach? Let’s stop here for now, with the question that we have to ask ourselves on the spiritual path.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Lessons About A New World: Whom Do You Give Yourself To?

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur whole process of evolution is through the environment. If there were no environment, I wouldn’t develop, despite the Reshimot (reminiscences) in me. We see that if children are left in the forest and are found only some time later, they develop like the animals that took care of them in the forest. They develop according to the traits of those animals, they suffer from the same illnesses they do, they think and want the same things the animals do, and even live the same lifespan of those animals.

This means that their body got used to living with animals to such an extent that they were impressed by these animals, so that if a child is found at the age of 6 or 9 (and there have been several such cases), then despite the treatment and good conditions they lived in afterwards, they lived the same number of years as the animals they had lived with. They lived 12 to 20 years at the most.

In other words, our body greatly depends on the society in which we develop, and in that sense a person is very flexible. If we take a dog or cat for example, who lived with man for ages, they only get used to people a little. Of course, they can’t live in the forest like wild dogs and cats, since they have a different character. They also pass on to their offspring a different attitude to man and the environment. Yet they are not that flexible. Man on the other hand, when incorporated in a certain environment, is impressed by it very strongly, even fatally. Compared to an animal that gets used to living with people, man is much more powerfully impressed and becomes accustomed to the lives of animals.

This means that we all depend on our environment. Therefore, in education, we should also first pay attention to the environment as a factor that determines a person’s development. A person’s whole future depends on this. If we change the environment, we change our personality, our desire, our perspective, and our paradigm of life. Therefore it is very important to be careful, to think, to check, and to consider the place we enter, the friends and the circles where we spend our time, and whom we give ourselves to.

We must teach a person to know and to learn what surrounds him, and explain to him how dependent he is on the environment and how he can manage his life by it.
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From “Lessons About a New World” #3, 12/29/11

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Introductory Lecture “Course To Be A Man, Human Development” – 01.17.12

Kabbalah for the Nation Introductory Lecture Series, “Course to Be A Man, Human Development”
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A Helping Hand Stretched Out From The Darkness

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe do not understand what it means to enjoy bestowal. The goal of creation is to bring pleasure to the creatures. And they will really enjoy: The only question is how?

We do not understand that the desire that we feel today is foreign and distant from us. To enjoy bestowal is not the pleasure of what the other enjoys. That would just be an arrangement that is beneficial for both of us.

And if I enjoy the fact that he feels good even if I feel bad, but I overcome myself, as parents do sacrificing everything for their children, this is not bestowal either. We can hardly imagine the desires that emerge in the spiritual world. It is possible only to give some approximate examples, like physical branches in relation to the roots.

Therefore, we must try to imagine as much as possible how special this concept is, separate from the familiar and requiring a psychological revolution. The entire world inverts in our consciousness, and then we discover something entirely new.

This requires internal effort and detachment from the old environment, the willingness to: escape from the current state, jump in the Red Sea (Yam Sof – the Sea of the End),  loose one’s head, abandon everything that one has, and be left totally naked and defenseless, accepting everything no matter what it is, only if it comes from Above.

We need to prepare ourselves for the convention in Arava in this way, and if we are able to hold ourselves in this state, we will achieve a breakthrough—in this darkness, to the waters of the Red Sea, and we will overcome everything no matter what is revealed.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/12, Writings of Rabash

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Who Is The Stick Being Prepared For?

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is written, “A thousand enter a room, but one comes out to the light.” So what can we do to make sure at least a dozen people succeed, or a hundred people? Indeed, our ideal result is nothing less than one hundred percent.

Take a regular person off the street. He lives a decent life, but suddenly he begins to get bombarded by all kinds of problems and misfortunes: conflicts with his wife, kids getting out of hand, health issues that the doctors can’t seem to fix…. Everywhere he turns, he discovers evil. Things keep deteriorating and there’s no solution in sight.

Admittedly, everybody else appears to be in just as dire straits and that makes it all more bearable. After all, man always checks himself in relation to others both in joy and in sorrow. When any given misfortune befalls everybody, it makes it easier to endure. We all come from the same soul and no one can judge himself in a vacuum, separate from others.

We all compare our state with the general prosperity or misery. I am incapable of sensing myself exclusively, for without the human environment, I fall back to the animate degree. And if there aren’t animals around, I’ll revert to the vegetative degree. If you abandon a human being in the woods without animals, he will invariably become like the vegetation that is his environment.

So then, today we exist at the very stage when the crisis is enveloping the whole world. Sure, the media mitigates the situation by showing us that people everywhere are hurting. This appeases us for a time so that the next blows will be harder and penetrate deeper until they become unbearable. But for the time being, I look at others and remain content with my own lot despite all the problems that are besetting me. Other people’s suffering allays my vigilance; the upshot is that the evil will break through into my consciousness only after it becomes too much to bear.

How can we remain in a state of helplessness when it becomes a matter of life and death? That’s when the suffering clues you in that its arrival is not accidental but purposeful. The chain of Reshimot (informational genes) leads you to this thought.

However, we don’t want to lead humanity down this path filled with pandemics, natural disasters, world wars, and so on. We want to bring humanity to the recognition of evil today while people are still finding comfort in the misery of others and empty hopes.

How do we do this? This brings up the issue of understanding the governance: You see that it is sweetenting your life, but at the same time you see the stick it’s preparing for you in the event you fail to recognize this governance in its true form in real time, through the prism of mitigated suffering.

Such is the path of the Torah, and such is the path of suffering for all of humanity. It’s all in your hands.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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