Conformity Is Not A Bad Thing At All

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Materialistic psychology discusses the psychological concept of conformity, when a person submits to the opinion of the majority. From the point of view of psychologists, conformity is a bad thing, while nonconformity is good. Perhaps from the perspective of integrality, conformity is a very positive thing?

Answer: First of all, a person’s subordination to society and their surrounding environment is a law of nature. In other words, there is no truth or falsehood, no good or evil, nothing—there is only the directives of the environment, and I obey them, I am brought up within them. What the environment proclaims to be good or evil, right or wrong, I accept as such.

We can convince ourselves that salty tastes sweet, no problem! If the environment starts referring to salt as being sweet, ultimately I will start consuming salty candy. It alters our inner physiological parameters to such an extent that we change completely.

We cannot say whether it’s good or bad. We are simply stating a fact. After all, can I really say anything bad about acceleration of free fall or other physical parameters? This is what exists. The way we apply this is another story. But saying that it’s bad and we should therefore change and distort a person—this actually is bad. Our task is to correctly apply the laws of nature with the aim of achieving our similarity, compatibility, and harmony with it.

Question: It turns out that a social-psychological law like conformity is a big plus that helps us to unite?…

Answer: We are able to change a person precisely by virtue of the surrounding environment. Mass media, society, and upbringing, it all constitutes the surrounding environment. We selectively influence a person from the outside in order to transform him or her. This is our only tool of influence on a person.
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From “Lessons About the New World” #8, 12/15/12

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Above The Level Of Death

Dr. Michael LaitmanIntegral upbringing strips a person of practically everything that characterizes our modern society. What remains is only their normal, peaceful, and regular existence (we call it the beastly level, but not with disdain as this is the level on which our physical body exists). At this point a person devotes all of his or her resources only to master the next degree, that of “Adam,” the degree of universal mutual guarantee, ascent, and unity. It is precisely in our unity that we reveal the next level of our existence: the attainment of eternity and perfection.

And this is possible since by breaking away from our animal body and attaining the complete picture of nature, its mechanism, dynamics, and the forces that permeate it from beginning to end, this entire process, a person connects to and associates himself with this process and already simply lives on that level. It’s as if he or she breaks away from their own body (we cannot imagine this state yet) and associates himself with the attained common unification and exists within it to such extent that even if his body dies, he doesn’t feel death. It’s as if this is the death of his beloved pet animal who lives next to him. He doesn’t feel that his “self” loses something thereby.

Since our body represents merely the sum of our desires and our notion of self, if we no longer associate ourselves with it, it’s as if we live detached from it. This is also a psychological problem, but it can be overcome in the course of integral upbringing.

We need to lead our students towards this gradually since the problem of death, despite the constant attempts to “bottle it up,” nevertheless drives a human being. In any task that we set before ourselves, we subconsciously include this element and are compelled to address it. Any decision that we make: to have children, to support a family, to appear a certain way in the eyes of society, and so on, anything presupposes an element of inclusion of the self into something outside of ourselves since in this manner it’s as if we continue on.
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From “Lessons About the New World” #8, 12/15/12

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 02.16.12

Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Rabash According to What Is Explained about Love Thy Friend as Thyself
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Creates Worlds and Destroys Them,” Item 221, Lesson 64
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 6, Lesson 25
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Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 99, Lesson 44
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Audio Version Of The Blog – 02.15.12

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
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The Attack Has Already Begun

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We have a life-changing Convention ahead of us. Every moment is important for preparing for the common attack. How can we carry out the attack so it would merit an answer?

Answer: I think that we aren’t getting ready, but have already started the attack and must raise the bar at every second.

We shouldn’t wait for the trip out to the desert to start uniting. The Convention is unification. So why don’t we start it right now? Maybe we should even cancel the trip? Let’s carry out what we planned right here, what difference does it make?

Let’s give some real thought to what we want. All we need is the unity of hearts, here and now, and not in the Arava in a week. Already now, every moment must be used to the maximum for uniting.

If you wait a week, then these days will go by in vain. Every moment is a peak. The Convention is already happening.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/12, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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The Geometry Of The Upper World


The Zohar is the source of the power. But this power is like electricity: it all depends on what you connect to it—a heater or an air conditioner, a device that creates pressure or vacuum. This power can perform whatever you want.

Our desire is called an intention: what we want the power to do for us. And it does. Even our worst requests and our best requests that are aimed at the goal or at the opposite from it, the power performs everything according to the request of the lower. But if my direction matches that power, the benefit I receive is maximal. If my direction doesn’t really match the direction of the power, then according to my diversion from it, according to the cosine of the angle between us, I reach only partial fulfillment. If I aim at the opposite direction, then I am opposed to this power, the power neutralizes my power, and I suffer. But through the loss, this power still turns me towards the goal. This is because I always receive a combination of the positive or negative powers in the measure of my direction coinciding to the thought of creation.

There is a straight line to the goal and I should follow it. If I follow this line—our powers unite. If I digress from the line, then although our powers are the same, I lose the cosine of the angle, according to my diversion.

But if I aim in the opposite direction, not totally opposite but in a certain angle—then according to the cosine of the angle in which I am the opposite from Him, the Creator neutralizes the power. So in any case, I get a response from Him, although it is a negative response. This negative response is the combination of His power and my power. Therefore, eventually He turns me in the right direction through suffering.

If I am below the zero, I feel pain, and if I am above the zero I feel pleasure. In any case, all of humanity advances with or without intention. The power that directs us works constantly. We call it the Reforming Light.

So the main thing is what we want because the Light operates, especially while reading The Book of Zohar.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/12, The Zohar

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Look Into The Root

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to “bring contentment to the creator”?  The Creator is the attribute of bestowal, so to whom am I bringing contentment?

Answer: This is how you imagine your world: in the form of images that you can do something to and get a response from. You don’t feel that the Creator is behind all these figures, and that they are all just figures that He keeps alive and through them presents Himself to you in billions of ways.

The attribute of bestowal is the one who bestows. After all, you are building your attitude towards someone not according to his externality, but rather according to his essence. It seems that he is made of many discernments, but where are they? In the flesh or in some figure? Try to imagine a figure of a person “in the air” without a body. Take all of the spirituality out of him and all of his desires, his passions, and his thoughts, which are actually outside the beastly body. Undress the body and turn to the essence of the person.

Then turn in the same way to the essence of the Creator. The difference between the two is that the essence of the Creator is whole and it includes everything. It manages everyone. This is the general force of nature, the general law of nature, its general mind that is all good and benevolent. The general mind is good and the executing force is benevolent.

We shouldn’t be confused by what we see. It is time to consider the essences. The body does not exist. A person’s essence is truly eternal and I want to connect with it. It may be depicted to me as some “ghost,” but it is actually infinite and limitless. All our essences are the different facets of Malchut of Ein Sof. When we connect, it is as if they all “spread” on it and eventually make it up and create the corrected vessel.

Don’t forget that you should look at the group with internal eyes.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Unrest In Greece

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Bloomberg): “Rioters set fire to as many as 45 buildings during violent street protests against government austerity measures in central Athens late yesterday and overnight, Greek police said.

“Prime Minister Lucas Papademos won parliamentary approval early today for the spending cuts needed to secure an international bailout of 130 billion euros ($172 billion). The measures equal about 7 percent of gross domestic product over three years and include a debt swap that would shave 100 billion euros off more than 200 billion euros of privately held debt. Greece was granted its first aid package of 110 billion euros in May 2010.

“A total of 170 businesses in Athens suffered attacks during the protests, the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry said today in a statement on its website. Initial estimates put the cost of damage to buildings and equipment as well as from theft at tens of millions of euros, the chamber said.

“Seventeen banks, four bookstores, five department stores and shopping malls and 70 clothing and footware shops were among businesses that suffered damage, the Athens-based association said.

“Several national heritage sites were burned including a neoclassical building from 1870-1881, designed by German architect Ernst Ziller, which was gutted by fire, according to an e-mailed statement from the Athens City Hall.”

My Comment: This will only increase social tension. Studies suggest that only the solidarity of society, the proper distribution of income, and a feeling of unity will create a person’s sense of happiness, peace, and contentment, even with a modest lifestyle.

But this form can be achieved only through the preliminary education of people. We need to introduce mandatory education for all unemployed people, including housewives, retirees, etc., and in a few months society can be brought to conscious integral changes.
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The Counter Of Inner Changes

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do I recognize the Light’s response to my request?

Answer: First of all, any change is for the good, even if it does not feel very pleasant. Secondly, there are constant changes, only we aren’t able to count them.

The level of our sensitivity is too crude to perceive the changes that happen in me. The counter is on, but only after it reaches 1,000 RPM do I begin to feel this jump into the 1,000-plus interval. And the counter keeps rolling; it reaches 2,000 RPM and I feel another change. I can’t recognize each small, subtle RPM.

But as I ascend the spiritual degrees, I increase my sensitivity, and begin to better distinguish the changes. This means that “the Creator is demanding of the righteous to the hair’s breath.” I distinguish this thin hair, but before I would not even see a big rock.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/12, The Zohar

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Excuse Me, What Does Humanity Have to Do with This?

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen a person comes to Kabbalah he does not understand why he needs humanity. Kabbalah tells us that there are forces that operate above our world that depict this world in our perception. This is why we want to fly away somewhere into the unknown, to the Creator, His spiritual system.

Accordingly, man also perceives the study materials personally, on his account, without feeling the urge to unite with others. This is the initial, very limited perception with which we, being egoists, all begin our journey.

Only after several years, as the result of the influence of the surrounding Light, I understand that I really must unite with my friends and reveal the Light in their inner interconnection. But when you think about yourself, the Light has an opposite affect: It shows me how mistaken I am, and then I see that I need to unite with the group. I will find the upper World there, in the depth of it.

This is a very big revolution in consciousness. Man begins to understand that the spiritual world actually exists; it exists in the connection between people, a place with completely anti-egoistic coordinates.

Then a problem arises: How do you prove this to yourself, how do you bring yourself closer to having a proper attitude. This must become so important that everything else will appear extraneous. From now on I focus only on the group, on uniting with it. It is my only aim and nothing else because I depend on it. This is the second stage.

And then the third stage appears, an even more complicated one, when you figure out that you also need to do mass dissemination. “Since when? We are going towards the Creator, after all. At first I wanted to get there alone, then I understood that I need a group. But since when do I need to take care of everyone else? A billion Chinese, a billion Hindus, half a billion South Americans, half a billion Europeans, Africans, what do they have to do with this? Who cares for whom and why do I have to do it?”

Here we explain to the person that he, the group, and all of humanity must unite in order to become like the Creator. Another obstacle he disagrees with: “My friends and the world groups have one goal, but the others do not.”

And this also is true. After all it is written: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” I am “Israel.” The group is the “Torah,” the reforming Light. And together we go to the Creator.

On the other hand, the remaining 99% are below and they aspire towards their corporeal pleasures. So why do we need them?

In response to this, again and again, we need to explain that we are a transitional link and that we must become “a kingdom of priests”; in other words, we must educate all of mankind about mutual guarantee and integral unity. Then we will connect the masses to us, like AHP to Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE), and we will unite all the people with the Creator into the ten Sefirot.

It is very difficult to explain this to friends in the group. In the group is our field of our action, the source of everything, and where we reveal everything. The circle manifest there: AHP, us, the Creator—all inside, everything ends in the group in a single vessel, woven from the unity of the points in our hearts. A part of it comes from below and a part comes from above.

Our groups do not understand and do not wish to switch to being the messengers of mutual guarantee to the masses. It is very difficult for a person to allow himself something so opposite, to see how different things connect into one. But gradually everything will work out.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/12, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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