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Above The Black Abyss

Dr. Michael LaitmanHow can we imagine the upper state in which the Creator reveals to you that He loves all those that hate you and hates all those that love you, including yourself? It seems that it brings you no good and that there is nothing worse than that. Before you are Pharaoh, Bilam, Balak, Amalek and Hitler all in one and you know how to overcome this because this also comes to you from the Creator, although indirectly.

The more we advance towards love, the greater the obstacles we come across. You overcome them and the “angel of death” becomes the “holy angel” in your eyes.

Question: I don’t understand this state. After all, the Creator is still perceived as good and benevolent. Do I see it together with the suffering of others and my own suffering in the past?

Answer: You see all the suffering that is in reality. This is a horrible picture: monstrous suffering, not one gram of pleasure, not a day of rest, only pain and suffering for thousands of light years. The suffering is everywhere. There is total emptiness in the desire to receive, not here and there, not from time to time, but one hundred percent suffering.

This state is called the illumination of the Shechina, and above it, you reveal the good and the benevolent. Otherwise, how would it be possible to discover Him? If the Creator just brings you goodness, then you discover Him in egoistic vessels. But if you discover Him in the full depth of the black abyss that is in front of you, then He is discovered in your vessels of bestowal that are aimed at bestowal.

Furthermore, you will see that He is good only towards those who are as bad as He is, and bad towards those that are good, in contrast to Him. This is how it will seem to you.

Our work is only in rising above the vessels of reception. If you see that the Creator’s actions do not match bestowal, it appears to you intentionally as an obstacle on the way, above which you have to rise.

Question: And what do I discover after this ascent?

Answer: The desire to receive, the general vessel of Malchut of Ein Sof, in a totally empty form: darkness, despair, worry, and fear, the dreadful trials of Job, and you fill it with the Light of Hassadim and with love.

Question: That means that after having corrected myself I feel good, no matter how much darkness is revealed to me. And now I look at the past and what do I see? Have I suffered or not?

Answer: This is already the next level, which you have to determine. In Gmar Tikkun (End of Correction) you don’t see that you’ve suffered of course.

Question: And what is the suffering that I feel now?

Answer: Now you are not the same person who will attain Gmar Tikkun. Eventually you will not recognize yourself in your present state. The feelings that were left behind are not you.

Question: So what am I now?

Answer: Something virtual.

Question: So what do we need all the present states for?

Answer: You feel them in order to prepare yourself, when you do everything that is in your power. It says: “I have exerted and I found.” You are getting ready until you find, until you rise above the Machsom (barrier), until then, the real “you” doesn’t exist.
[68061]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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From Your Actions We Shall Know You

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In the “Introduction to the Study of The Ten Sefirot Baal HaSulam says that a person can enslave and force himself to keep the 612 Mitzvot. What does that mean? What is the action he speaks about?

Answer: After a person reveals his 612 desires in all the 125 degrees of his desire, in all the forms and the incorporations, he tries to work in them with the intention of in order to bestow. This effort is in asking for a Masach, which he receives and tries to bestow with it. Then a person fulfills all the desires of others that are revealed to him.

Thanks to this correction he reaches the 613th desire, the final desire of love that is the incorporation of all the other desires. The general, comprehensive desire is revealed to a person, not as one of 613, but as the combination of all of them, the whole spiritual vessel, a totally new and unfamiliar desire that cannot be attained in any other way. In it a person discovers the Creator.

He sees the great vessel, which he filled when he acted with the intention of in order to bestow and that he treated like the Creator. Then a person suddenly understands the Creator, not his actions, but the Creator Himself. It is written, “From Your actions we shall know You.” Now a person understands not only the goodness with which the Creator fills all of us, but the Creator Himself.

We don’t know what this is. It isn’t about the Creator’s attitude towards us, but the Creator Himself, in a pure form, without regard to us. I have attained an equivalence of form with Him.  Now I see what it means to bestow, and from these actions I attain Him, I attain the upper half of Keter.

This is what the Creator wants from His created being. The whole creation exists for this peak up there. This is where I attain the Creator disconnected from the creation.
[68056]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Audacity Won’t Hurt

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can I oblige myself to change internally? Is there such an action? For example, if I constantly think and worry about the friends’ intentions and set an alarm clock to remind me to do that, will I be able to measure the result of these efforts?

Answer: I don’t know the result. I exert myself and I don’t know what I will find.

Question: How can I examine things this way? What is the purpose of such a study?

Answer: Carrying it out. If you did it, the result will be positive. All other questions and claims come from the ego, “What do I get from this? Do I lose anything?”

Try to detach yourself as much as you can: There is a mission and I don’t need anything else. The alarm clock rings and I think about the friends. Then they disappear from my sight until the next ring. That’s all.

We can succeed. The problem is the inner weakness: You don’t have enough audacity. After all, audacity towards Heaven opens up the doors for you.

At the moment you see things intelligently and without attracting attention you are trying to turn the doorknob quietly and slip inside. But no, you should pound on the door so that it will swing open.

Question: How can I acquire this audacity towards Heaven?

Answer: Audacity is not when I doubt things indecisively: “Is it worth it? Perhaps we are not worthy of it yet? Perhaps we should first accumulate power and knowledge….” Audacity is when I demand although I know that I don’t deserve it. I know it and I demand it as if the Creator owes me.

And this is justified. I understand that I cannot exit my ego, that the Creator has created me this way so that I cannot really connect with the friends. I know that I am standing in front of a wall because I have discovered this after the efforts I have made. I have already tried many things and I have already attained certain things, but all my achievements are futile in front of this wall. Each time the evil inclination overtakes me and tells me: “Wait a while, you still have to finish what you haven’t had a chance to. Perhaps in a month or two, maybe brush up on Shamati, and accumulate power… but now you are not ready yet. Let the others try.”

There must be audacity here, but very serious and thorough audacity: “I deserve it and that’s it.” This isn’t a senseless attack but a careful calculation. I bring the efforts I made with me; I don’t simply demand things, and I do it together with the friends. It makes no difference whether we look like a gang of criminals and not a consolidated group, we demand decisively, as brave people who will not give up.
[68053]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Spiritual Vessel: It Is Not A Pocket

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What should be the result of the Arava convention?

Answer: The word “result” in itself indicates that we are going there for some profit and that we want to get something. The truth is that I have to rise above myself, to lose myself and to feel “we” instead.

That’s all we need—to acquire the first spiritual vessel. This vessel in essence is a desire, a deficiency, and not an egoistic property. The desire to be with others in particular is revealed here, to connect to others. If it is constantly in me, it means that I have acquired that vessel.

But you expect to feel good as a result of our connection, that is, you expect to get an egoistic fulfillment. Start thinking and looking for the differences. There are many details here and it is good if you are confused by them, then you try to find out the truth.
[68049]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Bestowal Is Not Paying Taxes

Dr. Michael LaitmanLo Lishma (not for Her name) is when I agree to be partners with the Creator. I have no other choice since after all I want to attain everything that exists in the world. This is the way I begin, like an egoist, like all of us.

But afterward, I despair at acquiring what is desired. If they were corporal acquisitions, I would apply more effort since I know this does the trick, or I would go study at a university if knowledge were needed, or I would steal it, but one way or another I would attain what I wanted.

But if my goal is above this world and I want to reach the root of my soul, to discover the goal of my life, where it comes from and what the plan for it is, then I will not be able to find that in this world. And it is here that we see that we have no choice, and we can’t manage through our own forces, and thus we reach the wisdom of Kabbalah.

And here I am told, “Do you want to attain that? It’s possible, but in order to do that you need to bestow to the Creator.” And then I perceive the Creator as a partner, like the taxing authority, where I think I can gain for myself on the condition that I allocate to Him the percentage He deserves.

If this is His system, He created the world, and I am in this world as a worker, as an implementer, then it’s clear to me what the Owner requests. As it is written: “The shop is open
and the owner gives credit. The book is open
 and the hand writes.
 And whoever wishes to borrow 
may borrow.” Thus subconsciously, I feel that the Creator is my partner Who will ask for His part.

Lo Lishma, is my partnership agreement with the Creator. In truth, I would like to gain everything for myself and not share with anyone; I would like spirituality to continue like corporeality, with the same conditions. But there is no choice, I am forced to share: “Tell me how much You need, I agree.”

Even if it were 99%, but if the one percent that remains is dear to me, then I am prepared to work for it. The worker in the factory works for pay of 1,000 dollars a month, while the owner of the factory can make millions. Here, it is the same thing. Therefore, I agree to a partnership deal with the Creator, and this is what each one of us does. We don’t have to lie to ourselves. Our ego doesn’t understand another way.

And here is the key point: How should I relate to this partnership? Do I bring my egoism to this partnership and divide: That’s mine and that’s Yours?

Sometimes I want to take everything for myself. Sometimes I actually agree to give everything to Him, but of course, that’s on condition that I also get something from it. Subconsciously I mean it, in my agreeing to give everything, in all of this there should be some gain in it for myself.

In as much as my state of Lo Lishma seems to me as a perfect state, when I want to give everything to the Creator, I see myself in my imagination as adhered to the Creator, and thus everything that He receives will be mine. Thus I am prepared to give to Him like to my baby, where I am not sorry for anything that I give Him since nature obligates me to feel that it’s mine. It’s as if it is I, myself, and even more important than myself.

Whether I want it or not, I have no choice other than to be situated in this kind of unconscious partnership, that is beneficial to the ego, like with income tax. And if it’s possible to somehow conceal the taxes, then it’s clear that it won’t work with the Creator.

Thus, if we are on our own, our desires to reach bestowal to the Creator is egoistic, it’s a ‘fixed’ game from the beginning. We can agree to bestow only from desperation, a lack of choice, or from the expectation of receiving payment. Everyone wants such a powerful partner who controls everything; it’s a very profitable alliance. This is the basis for all religions.

But our goal is to recognize the egoistic alliance in this point, and to correct it. Since it is especially in this point that we battle: if my relationship to the Creator will become my “potion of death” or the “elixir of life.” Will I go from Lo Lishma to Lishma or stay completely within the deadly ego? Here is the critical point.
[67036]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the “prayer of the poor” that doesn’t go unanswered?

Answer: The prayer of the poor is a plea of a person who understands that no one can help him but the Creator. He feels that he has no rights, no merits, no good deeds, no support, and that he has nothing. Even his egoism no longer sustains him and this is called total poverty.

In this case only the Creator (through the group) can help him. This plea for help is the prayer of the poor for bare necessities, only to save his soul.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabalah Lesson 1/30/12, Writings of Rabash
[68282]

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The Abyss Below Our Feet

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is impossible to attain true love without the basis of  hatred. Without hate there is only beastly love, a game of hormones: One shot and you love; another shot and you fall out of love. In our world, love is actually a pursuit of the fulfillment. When you want to eat, you love pie, and when you want to start a family, you love your spouse and children. These are simply different kinds of fillings that can be reconstructed if we implant certain electrodes in a person’s brain.

True love is built only above hate. Otherwise it is impossible to feel it. In our world, there is no love; we are talking about human love, not animal attraction that brings egoistic pleasure.

Question: It reminds me of cartoons where the characters find themselves in the air above an abyss and they still keep running for a while before they look down.

Answer: Exactly, they discover that they are hanging above a chasm, and then they fall. This is exactly what is happening in the world today. This is really a nice description of the crisis. This is why those in power are afraid to look down.

Question: How can we hold on to something in this situation? How can we reach true love?

Answer: Actually, I am a small person and I don’t feel sublime things, but am only confused in my present state. So what should I do?

The answer is simple: You need a group. This is both the diagnosis of the disease and its cure.
[68209]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/31/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Indifference Is Worse Than Hate

Dr. Michael LaitmanHate is inseparable from love. This principle should be engrained in me so that it becomes my program in relation to the world, through which I look at everything. In this form, I always will be in the middle line, in the middle third of Tifferet, Klipat Noga, in the point of my free choice.

Otherwise, I cannot orient myself and do not know where I am: in the area of bestowal or reception, or in a complete fog. Until I form two opposite lines, I am not in the world, which can be a reality.

So we go through so many ups and downs until we begin to understand the weakness of being only in the right or only in the left line. To be just in the right or just in the left is an egoistic state, Klipah Ishmael or Esau.

And if I am in the right and in the left line in order to connect them and rise above them so that the right line is always a bit higher than the left one (as there is always an inclination to the right), then I build the middle line.

But they both are present and support each other. Through this system of two lines, it is possible to see the importance of bestowal, in comparison to reception. And if there is no reception, how can we check?

Therefore, hatred and rejection must exist. A person, who is not in close contact with his friends, does not want to connect, and stays on the sidelines, might have excellent relations with others, might be a good friend, quiet, and calm, but not be involved in the work.

On the other hand, someone, who is argumentative and volatile and who cannot get along with anyone, may be able to establish inner contact with friends. Not only do we need to consider this criterion check judged by such outward appearances, but everyone needs to examine oneself inside.
[68195]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/31/12, Writings of Rabash

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Davos: The Major Themes

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Time Business):Capitalism needs a fundamental overhaul. …The most rational arguments have pointed out that not only is capitalism the best system yet devised for enhancing the well being of the greatest number of people, but that it is also immensely supple and flexible. But a surprising number of attendees (and these are the world’s most direct beneficiaries of the current system) seems to agree that something is wrong.

The Arab Spring must end happily. …The powers at the very core of the World Economic Forum are interested in the Arab Spring as a matter of paramount global importance. (That said, among the regular attendees, the Eurozone is of far more interest. At one panel discussion on ‘The Future of North Africa,’ the auditorium was about 10% full. For a ‘Future of the Eurozone’ panel taking place immediately after, it was standing room only.)

The Eurozone crisis will continue to muddle along, but muddling may be enough. The European finance ministers in attendance are all staying on message: Eurobonds are not happening, austerity measures are the way forward now, greater fiscal union is the end goal, and Greece will not default or leave the Eurozone. Interestingly, for the first time in a long time, most of the policital/policy/media hive mind is cautiously optimistic that the Eurozone may actually be starting to heal itself.

China is still the star. Brazil has come to Davos in a big way. As has Mexico, and India, and Azerbaijan. But the panels on China are packed, and everybody wants to talk about China, and while the cult of the Chinese technocrat has long been on the rise, we are now reaching the full flower of absolute reverence. American business people speak in hushed tones about the new generation of Chinese leaders as if they are supermen: They are well-educated, worldly, wise, and compared to the haplessness and paralysis that western governments have demonstrated over the past two years, they are paragons of good governance.

Americans and Europeans are pointing fingers at each other. Why is the global economy not in full recovery? The Europeans complain that none of this would have happened if the Americans had not taxed the global financial system when its housing bubble burst. To which, the Americans respond that that may be true, but they claim to have put their house in order and the only thing that’s holding America’s economy back now is European uncertainty. Then, arguments commence.”

My Comment: So far, most important is to demonstrate to the world that somewhere the smart guys are concerned about it day and night
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