Help Me Conquer The Black Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Creator created us as egoistic and forced us to break. We arrive after all of the preparations performed from Above downward, and that’s why it’s impossible to demand from us to want and attain bestowal. We need to be realistic and try to do what we are capable of doing.

But in reality, we are given the point in the heart with which we can perform some external actions directed towards bestowal. However, this does not occur inside the heart since it is completely egoistic.

This is how we establish our relationship towards bestowal: depending upon what will outweigh what: the point in the heart or the heart itself. The heart pulls everything towards it. This is its nature. The point in the heart is also pulling towards somewhere, and it’s not clear where. Both have forces opposite to each other. This state is given to me from nature.

However, through the means of the environment, I can increase the strength of the point in the heart by ten times, a hundred times, or a thousand times, that is, however much the opportunity presents itself thanks to the group and my connection with it. If the strength in the point in the heart becomes greater, I’ll be able to arrive at a state where I am able to balance it with the heart and try to outweigh it.

Sometimes the heart will win, sometimes the point in the heart will win, and in this way I will go through ascents and descents and move forward. It will continue until I finally have invested enough efforts in order to raise the point in the heart above the heart. One needs to continually try to achieve this overturn.

At first, I have the heart, black and evil, and the point in the heart. The point is very small, and the heart is much bigger than it. However, by virtue of connecting with other points and striving for bestowal, I receive from them the strength to withstand my heart, to fight and annul it, as it were.

Each time, applying ever more efforts of this kind, I finally arrive at the breaking and  understand that I am not capable of anything, I have no strength. This is when I raise a prayer (MAN) and a miracle happens—salvation!

There are a lot of transitions going on inside, and this doesn’t happen directly, but rather an overturn takes place. After all, we are not asking for what we receive afterwards. That’s why it’s called a miracle.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/2011, “Introduction to TES

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The Place Where The Human Grows In Me

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”: For observing Torah and commandments in order to bring contentment to our Maker rapidly develops that sense of recognition of evil, and here we benefit twice:

A. We do not have to wait for life’s ordeals to push us from behind, whose measure of goading is gauged only by the measure of agony and destructions….
B. We save time, for He operates to “enlighten” us, thus enabling us to increase our work and hasten time as we please.

On the second path we don’t wait for the suffering that constantly pushes us according to the natural process of evolution. Each time I feel negativity in the present state (desire -1), I run to the state that seems positive (desire +1). Then again I discover the negativity of the new desires in it (desire -2), and searching for a filling I move on (desire +2). Then again the whole process repeats itself: I discover a greater negativity (desire -3) and look for a way to fill it, until I reach a new positive state (desire +3).

Thus, I am being pushed forward by the sufferings that push me again and again in a most painful way. So how can we follow a different path?
It’s very simple: If you want to move on to the next state by yourself, before the negativity is revealed, don’t wait. You can hasten the process and shorten the time. You only need to understand what you are lacking. What you are lacking is a new desire, that minus (-).

“So this is what I lack! So I can have it with the help of the environment, meaning the group, the books, and the teacher.”

Thereby I do not advance under the pressure of egoism. My advancement is now different in quality: The desire of the friends motivates me, which is the whole difference. Before I followed my egoism, like a beast that only grows in size, but now I am moving forward with the help of another force, the force of the group that comes from the Light, from the Creator. This is where the human in me, who resembles the Creator, grows. This is because I receive the group’s desires and am filled with awe and impressions by them, which I fulfill.

Thus, I don’t just restrict and sweeten the path of suffering, but actually follow a different path, and that’s the whole idea.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/1/2011, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Pouring The Light Onto The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I read the book The Kabbalist, which among other things talks about how Baal HaSulam tried to reach the world. He told people everything but they didn’t listen. Why should the world listen to us today?

Answer: Baal HaSulam lived at the beginning of the present era and really wanted to hasten time. Before WWII he tried to arrange for 300 Jewish families from Poland to come to Israel. He wanted to establish a special group in Jerusalem, whose members would work in a small factory in order to make a living and be together all the time, connect all the time. He wanted to unite the people with his newspaper “The Nation.” He went back to Poland when the workers’ uprising began, hoping to direct them all to unity….

Baal HaSulam saw that the next level, the next state, is global unity. There are no intermediate levels. We have to rise from here straight to connection. But in his time there weren’t the right conditions for that. People ridiculed the Soviet Union in which a new society was formed by oppression. As a whole, the world has advanced the American way, towards attaining the “American Dream,” and it was impossible to talk about correction according to the method of Kabbalah.

However, today things have changed. I would like to emphasize that we are not talking about our accomplishments. On the contrary, we are small compared to all the groups that preceded us. However, considering the state of the world, we have to succeed. After all, today the world is helplessly facing all the emerging problems. The world has never been in this situation which seems like a dead end. It’s now clear that we are sinking into a total economic crisis and that we can’t do anything about it. There’s nothing to hope for and there’s no way out.

This is why the method for correction is being revealed now. It turns to the world not by calling it to bestow upon the Creator, but by a message of mutual guarantee that’s being revealed very clearly on the part of nature itself. Everyone sees it, but they don’t know how to reach compatibility with the Creator; they don’t know that it’s by equivalence of form with Him that we can have all the abundance in the corporeal world.

We are working together on our level, aspiring for the upper force to be revealed in the point of unity between us. For us mutual guarantee is unification at the higher, spiritual level of Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE), thanks to which we, Israel, will pour the upper Light onto the world. All of humanity is actually one system, and hence, if the Light will be in us, it will certainly flow onto others.

 

This is exactly what our convention is for: We draw the Light from the Source so that it will be revealed between us. Then after the convention we’ll see great changes in the world. People will feel a special force: “Perhaps we can connect after all?” Suddenly this will be the real solution for them. There is no need to “escape,” there is no need to break up the common market and international relationships. On the contrary, with the help of all the present institutions, we have to change the approach and to aspire for unity and not for anything else.

The previous mechanisms are being destroyed and we have to provide everyone with a minimal reasonable standard of living and a sense of security. Everyone should receive the basic necessities. Humanity that feels so helpless now should adopt this approach. The developed countries are in a state of economic, industrial, and financial decline.

According to what is written in Kabbalah books, today, considering our investment in the world’s needs, we have a very good chance to reveal the upper force in order to correct ourselves. We only have to use our intentions as much as we can.

Clearly we are all egoists, and each of us thinks about his own well-being. Even in the group each one looks for his gain and not for bestowal upon the Creator. If we are lucky, we remember Him occasionally. But this doesn’t matter. All our efforts are accompanied by an egoistic desire “Lo Lishma” (not for Her Name), and we aren’t demanded to do more, just like babies. We try, we really make great efforts, and so the convention can really unite us.

Then we’ll be able to reveal the upper force for the first time, in order to correct ourselves and to pass on the correction to the whole world. All the signs and Kabbalistic writings indicate that it’s possible, and we simply mustn’t doubt that.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/1/2011, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Strike The Long-Awaited Goal

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why aren’t we able to unite?

Answer: You aren’t able to unite because you don’t have enough desire. You need mutual guarantee, meaning something mutual, through which you support one another.

There is the state itself, and there is its derivative—a higher level. When separate desires get together to create a common force, like in an army, a soccer team, or a gang of criminals, this results in a unified desire of a group. But that is not enough.

The fact that we unite still doesn’t make us rise higher. We just unite our forces, the way any group or military troop does. But we have to ascend to a higher level where our desires will become mutual and we will want to support one another.

But in what regard do we support one another? In a regular group there is no problem supporting one another. Psychologists work with soccer teams, giving them pep talks before the game so the players feel mutual support and unity.

However, we have to attain mutual bestowal and love, which is something we do not have and which does not promise us any real reward. I don’t plan on hitting a ball into the net and earning a million dollars for it, and I don’t risk my life, the way soldiers in an army do. Rather, the goal I am pursuing is one that gives me no response: nothing good and nothing bad. It’s some sort of bestowal, and I don’t feel anything inside at the thought of it—neither profit nor loss.

In the best case scenario, I only feel a loss because I waste my energy on this. And in the worst case scenario, I don’t have any idea why I am doing this and who I am planning to bestow to.

It turns out that we work together in the group to create inner support for one another, to create a force instead of the Creator, which will provide every person with the force of bestowal. And if we work on this persistently, then among us we begin to reveal that we lack an additional vital force for the realization.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/11, Writings of Rabash

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An Appetite For Spirituality

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe main thing we lack is desire, similar to how a sick person who lost his appetite needs to regain it in order to start eating and get well. Or, it’s similar to how we want a child to study and he doesn’t want it, and we don’t know how to transmit our desire to him so he would attain a good result. There are many similar examples.

A sick, flawed place first of all needs a desire for correction. Our problem is that we do not feel that we need it. Nothing besides desire is required of us, whereas we are thinking about fulfillment, the total opposite.

All of my worries, searches, efforts, and thoughts—everything must be aimed only at finding the right desire. And if I am thinking about fulfillment, then it’s egoism and it is opposite to the right intention.

The entire problem amounts to the right environment, which will imbue me with this idea so I will constantly remember that I lack nothing but the desire. This is called “asking for rain”—if a person asks for it, then the rain will come, the Light will pour from above. The only thing missing is our request.

And this is a problem because we lack the desire, the passion, questions, pressure, and aspiration precisely for the spiritual goal. We don’t need anything else but the right desire. But for that, a person must always be under society’s pressure so he will feel how he lacks the right desires.

Everyone needs a “program of work”: What do I aspire to, what have I attained—which desire, how did I gain a better understanding of what I lack, did I come closer to it? Do I have the willingness to endure, because desire means suffering due to the lack of the desired thing? Am I happy that I lack spirituality, that I feel a yearning and aspiration for it—the suffering of love?

For that we need social pressure from every person upon every person in order to collect our common desires and attain revelation. The aspiration has to be logical, mutual, common, and total. Then our unification will be called “an assembly of souls aspiring to the Creator” (Knesset Israel).

What do people do in that assembly (Beit Knesset)? They ask, pray. Then it’s called Malchut, from which a request rises and to which fulfillment comes.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/1/11, Writings of Rabash

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Formula For The Transition To Goodness

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal Hasulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”: The philosophy of morality called “ethics,” which is based on an empirical knowledge, through examination of the practical reason, whose essence is but a summation of the visible damages that result from the nucleons of egoism.

…Once they have germinated, after they reveal in us. This approach is based on personal experience: Only after many punishments, the stubborn child begins to think about the reason for the punishments. In the same way, we first experience unpleasant feelings from different actions and only then begin to reach some conclusions. This is the path of suffering: I suffer until it forces me to change my ways.

It all depends on my egoism, which calculates benefits versus costs. For example, I sit in an uncomfortable position and still don’t want to move in order to change it. I suffer, but not enough to change my position. How long will I stay in this position? Until the suffering grows to such an extent that it will be worthwhile to make an effort to sit differently.

We always calculate things this way, and our body deals with it just fine: We can leave our present situation only if we feel suffering which make us feel that it is better to invest energy and to move to another position in which there will be no suffering.

So my calculations depend on comparing the level of suffering, the pleasure, and the efforts it takes to change. I calculate whether the expected pleasure is greater than the present suffering and the efforts I have to make.

It is a very simple formula: And thus, I can make the transition from state to state, from bad to good, because it is worth it..
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/1/11, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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We Have A Good Chance To Be Heard

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You are going on a tour in Europe soon; how can the European groups help? If they all connect, will this change the situation?

Answer: The point here is not so much in the connection of the European groups, which is also important, but rather, in general dissemination. We have to connect; we have to send our documents to different organizations, including the leaders of the EU in Brussels. We will gradually see the result.

We already see the positive results of working with the UN. In a formal document about education, for example, their introduction was literally “copied” from our materials.

We must understand that we are given a chance to be heard these days because people already acknowledge their helplessness. When they hear sensible ideas from us, they can use them to some extent. There are cases in which a person’s position doesn’t allow him to do that although he may totally agree with us.

But one way or the other, we have to do our best. The European groups must try to connect and start goal-oriented dissemination, aimed at the addresses of the different governments and at Brussels. We mustn’t forget the Internet and its European part either. Eventually they will hear us.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/11, “The Freedom”

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Dr. Michael LaitmanComment: There is no force in society now that is interested in education because it is a very long process, and politicians are elected for four to five years….

Response: Integral education is a very quick process. Until now education has been perceived as the acquisition of knowledge, which really takes many years. But in addition to theoretical knowledge, what is needed nowadays is first and foremost practical application. We are talking about how to convey the idea about the structure of the world in a suitable way for the general population.

The first part of the course will take no more than two or three months. Afterwards, a person will understand that he has to act differently so as not to harm himself. Even after the first week or two, he will already understand that the world isn’t what he thought it was.

A person will see that today’s world is global and integral. He will see that he is mutually connected to the rest of the world and so he must change the principles of his behavior. He will understand that the will of nature motivates history, that evolution has a goal, and that we simply must accept the laws of the integral system. Only a comprehensive connection will allow us to live a good, balanced life.

Besides, a person will change his attitude to unemployment, to employment, and to the consumerist society that has gone too far with its enthusiasm. He will understand that we need sensible balanced consumerism. He will understand that the problem isn’t the fact that there aren’t enough jobs, but that there will be no more jobs. It isn’t that we are reluctant, but that we are simply not mutually connected and so we are opposite from nature. This understanding obliges us.

And so a person already begins to perceive what he has to do both personally and by incorporating with the society. It turns out that it does not depend on the government. He cannot demand like a small child: “Give me the benefits that I lost!” You will not have them, no matter how hard you cry. The government has no hidden ace up its sleeve. Even if you change the government and put it on trial, you will get nothing.

The correction can only come through education. Period!

The world is advancing towards harmony and balance, and this balance has nothing to do with over-production and over-consumption. The integral education is effective in a very short period of time. It helps a person change his attitude towards what is happening and he immediately changes according to the new form.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/11, “The Freedom”

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