Choosing To Be Born

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the meaning of the expression “There is no coercion in spirituality”?

Answer: There is no coercion in the spiritual world because eventually it all depends on a person’s exertion.

In this world receiving rules, and in the upper world, bestowal. In both cases I am obliged to obey, and this is coercion. After all, these are nature’s laws.

Take the law of gravity, for example, this is a fixed force that immediately pulls me to the ground. Can you resist its coercion? “I don’t want it to operate on me, I have my own plans.” That won’t work. The law operates, whether you like it or not. It is the same with the laws of bestowal and receiving. All of reality is full of coercion.

You are free only when you choose. What kind of a choice is this? The choice is to switch from receiving to bestowal with the help of the group, the Reforming Light, and the teacher. Actually, receiving and bestowal are one law, one force. Your choice is in how to obey it: positively or negatively. You make that choice by yourself.

So what is your choice? Is it worth it or not to join bestowal? You know everything that happened previously and something of what will happen in the future. We can’t yet feel and touch the place where the choice is made. Yet actually, an amazing void opens up for you there.

We often mention the fable of the worm that lives inside a radish. When he makes a hole in the skin, a whole world is revealed to it. It is a very narrow opening, and it is the worm’s choice to be born or not. Every time you make that choice, another small part of you is born, and you enter the new world that is already prepared for you.

Although it is a very slight and fine action on my part, it is as if I operate a huge system by simply pushing a button. The place I make the choice is exactly the “spirituality” where there is no coercion. I open up a new world for myself, and my attitude towards it becomes free.

The law operates in both places, but when I enter the world of bestowal, I acquire freedom: All this is mine—the corrected desire to receive with the intention of in order to bestow, and I control it. I am really free; with this desire, I can carry out any action of bestowal that I want. This is the only thing that I want, and there are no restrictions.

Therefore it says: “There is no coercion in spirituality.” I am born, and I transcend from a rotten apple into a wonderful world, sunshine, fresh air and singing birds. When I go through this narrow passageway, I acquire a new attitude that is based on bestowal and I become adapted to the big world. In it, I am free.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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