Love Beyond Infinity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Do we need to add more love from ourselves at each spiritual degree, and if yes, how is this done?

Answer: These degrees are still far away from us, but from the beginning we receive the desires (tools) for this thanks to our rising above our ego and trying to connect with the group, the friends, and to reach mutual guarantee and adhesion.

Thereby we build the vessels that can transcend one’s private calculation. I try to perform a general calculation, attempting to feel how another person can be more important to me than myself. These are already the first steps towards love.

Through these steps, we first of all build within ourselves an ability to love, beginning with the desire to simply feel the other. Afterwards, we want to feel the other like oneself, and then to feel him more than oneself, to begin to live in him, to want to fill him. Thus we reach a state where the Light of Hassidim (Mercy) fills all of our Kli, and thus we reach love.

We begin to receive the desires of the other (AHP) and to work with them so that filling the other will become our only concern. In this way we come to total devotion and absolute love.

When we are in absolute love, we constantly look for what else can be added to it. When we reach a certain degree, the Creator reveals to us more and more empty spaces, that is, higher and higher degrees. But when we reach complete love in the world of Infinity, it seems to us that as a result of complete mutual love and the absence of deficiency, a new dimension will open for us beyond the level of the world of Infinity. This is already the transition beyond the limits of love.

Indeed, according to our understanding and reason, absolute love cannot exist. If there is only white or only black, the creature loses its sensations. This is what happens with a son who feels the absolute love of his father. He has nothing to attain, nothing to work for, there is no empty space that he has to fill if he feels that no action of his, even the worst or the best, will change his father’s attitude towards him.

This is the problem. After all, each time he has to feel some response. In this interaction of bestowal and reception he perceives himself. Otherwise he won’t feel anything. His father, from his endless love, annuls the son. Thus the Creator conceals Himself.

And how it will be in end of correction, this we cannot tell now. Evidently, a new space will be discovered, in which the creature will rise to some kind of higher existence. It will happen after adhesion to the Creator and absolute love, after having felt the Creator fully.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/2012, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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A Spiritual Turn

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: An embryo in a mother’s womb turns as a result of the activation of physiological instincts. But how does a psychological change happen? How does this mechanism work?

Answer: First of all, when an embryo is being born, there is pressure from both the mother’s side (the pushing forces, the so-called labor pains) and the side of the embryo. It also helps this process in a certain way and advances.

Birth is a very serious complicated process, I would even say that it is somewhat tragic and threatening to both the mother and the child. Likewise, there must be some very serious pushing forces in our case, and nature has taken care of it by pushing us with different crises: family, identity, social, economic, ecological, and so on—through everything we do, that is, everything that makes up our womb.

In our current world, everything is gradually being set against us. These are the pushing forces—birthing contractions.

They are not yet as strong as they could be, but their culmination is near. We observe this in all the crises, and now on the development of the last economic crisis, which is literally threatening our lives. So, on one hand, we are already approaching the final stage, we are close to being born.

On the other hand, we do not feel comfortable inside in our current state. We plunge into drugs, depression, and different problems. We do not feel calm or comfortable on the inside. It is not just the world around us that is like that, but we are not able to find peace within. Nothing would change even if the world simply became indifferent for a moment: There are many conflicts and pressures inside us, which we want to escape but are unable to.

If we integrate and gather these inner conflicts and pressures into one single force between us, we will then add our own efforts to the maternal pushes, and of course will be born on a new level, that of “Man” or “Adam.” All this can be alleviated without “midwives” and “obstetricians,” but by using the helpful powers of society: social opinion, social influence, and pressure.

This happens when together we gather into this one unified image that has to be born, while on the outside our society works on integrating, connecting, discussing, explaining, and identifying all these forces around us. Then a person begins to understand this process inside him. This also pertains to upbringing, when we discuss our actions, history, purpose, and the purpose of all the conflicts; when we examine not just their cause, but their meaning: to bring us to a state where we all are like a single embryo in one mother-nature, which is pushing us outside of it onto the next level. Nature wishes to birth this embryo, and it needs to help nature to do this.

Helping nature is fundamental for us. Nature divides our birth either into a tragic or into a good and easy birth, which is called coming out with the maternal waters. What are “waters?” The water is an alleviating action. When we willingly aspire to this, we can easily cross the “Rubicon”—a natural, spiritual, and a psychological change.

Question: Does a person make his contribution to the spiritual birth process, like in the case of an embryo, by actively participating in the group of integral education?

Answer: Of course it has to be a group because the group represents the embryo! One person is not an embryo (he cannot be born); an embryo is specifically an integral connection between people when we prepare them for birth.

First small groups form, then bigger ones, then many groups appear. When they begin to understand each other, they become like one person in a group, and in relation to other groups every group also represents a single individual. This way they come together: like cells into organs and organs into a single body.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” #9, 12/15/11

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How To Develop One’s Inclinations?

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe environment determines what inclinations are more developed in a person (pertaining to the animal body or to the level of man), how we use them, and which of them we develop to a greater or lesser degree.

If parents place a child into an environment where, say, science is valued above everything else, then it’s no surprise that the child too gets imbued with its importance and begins to understand that development in that direction is an extremely important and honorable pursuit. And even though until then he had only rudimentary inclinations for science, say, he merely wanted to learn some interesting things from life (which basically is a commonly shared desire), under the influence of the environment, these abilities developed in him in a special way.

In other words, the surrounding environment can alter the balance of my inclinations within me and to develop some of them more than others.

I experienced this myself. My parents really wanted me to develop my abilities to the fullest, as best as possible, and for that reason they signed me up for various athletic clubs. I was a runner, doing the 500-meter dash. Later they sent me to a music school, and there I made my acquaintance with classical music, which to this day I esteem, love, and understand more than all the other types of music.

But my parents didn’t really place special importance on theatre, for example, and therefore I didn’t develop in that direction. But science and technology were very important both to my parents and to me. I had a natural inner impulse to engage in science. And I remember that I myself went to join children’s clubs where much attention was paid to the study of physics, astronomy, and other sciences. I gave all my strength and knowledge to this.

In other words, a child develops under the influence of the environment: the influence of parents, the surrounding environment, the place where the child lives, and the opportunities that it offers. Ultimately, all this develops a person in a diverse way; moreover, part of his inclinations develop more, some less, while others get suppressed altogether.

The environment in which a person is born and develops throughout their childhood exercises, restricts, and forms their free choice. And a person continues his life like this. I wouldn’t even say that we have free choice in this. Maybe there is some, but even whatever is there we take from our environment. It’s a matter of fashion or friends who happen to be near a person as if by accident and instill certain values into him.

We also need to acknowledge the importance of the experience we accumulated in all our previous lives, of the so-called reincarnations from which we receive Reshimot (informational genes). Going from incarnation to incarnation, a person carries over with him his entire accumulated potential of development. In other words, after being born, a person doesn’t only develop through the influence of an increasingly modern society, but inside a human being new inclinations appear from generation to generation, which we call the informational genes (Reshimot), and he or she develops under their influence. This is especially felt in our time.

If we look at children, we see that they quickly grasp anything modern much better than we do; it’s as though they were born already prepared for it, having made the necessary clarifications and possessing the qualities that help them perceive the modern world. After all, look at how skillfully they manage with computers, mobile phones, and other innovations! But with us everything is different. If I ever need to figure out some new technology, I rely more on my children. It’s as if they already have an approach to it, they seem to have an inborn ability to sense the nature of these new things and understand how to work with them completely naturally. It’s as if these are “indigo children” or aliens from another planet!

Taking these children as an example, we can see that evidently, there exist informational genes, Reshimot, that evolve and are passed down from generation to generation. We call this process reincarnation, but in reality, there is nothing mystical about it.

As we are discovering today, we are all connected to each other, and between us there exists a certain common field, akin to a gravitational or electromagnetic field. This is a field of thoughts and desires that ties us all together above time and distance. We exist within this field and in this manner transfer to each other, or from generation to generation, the information acquired by us. Therefore, it’s not surprising that our physical bodies, existing within this field, detect new information, and so a new generation immediately becomes prepared to correctly enter a new epoch.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 3, 12/29/11

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At A Turning Point Of Evolution

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe change from generation to generation in the process of evolution, and after thousands of years of our development we arrive to a special state where we exist on this earth as a global and integral society, commanding knowledge and capability. In the process of our development, we received strength, intellect, and ability to perceive and sense many things, everything that we didn’t have before.

Whatever forms, however unpleasant, we may take on during all the states we experience, ultimately they bring us to some perfect states at the end of the path. We don’t see its end since we are still in the process of development, but let’s hope that soon we will manage to feel these states.

We need to learn to do what needs to be done at the given moment in order to ensure an easy, kind, and comfortable process of development for ourselves, which will lead us to the bright future, security, prosperity, and happy life.

As we go through various states in the process of our development, we see that we aren’t really able to control them. Certainly, we try to make our life more comfortable, we change society, family structure, the system of upbringing, culture, and our mutual relationships, while all the time trying to bring ourselves to a better, more comfortable state. We strive precisely towards that since we are merely the desire to receive pleasure from life, and to whatever extent possible we try to obtain these pleasures. This process happens gradually, and each time we use means available to us at the given moment.

Whenever we want to change our life, we lean on scientific achievements. We study to see what else we can extract from nature, and above all, in what ways we can emulate it in order to organize our life; which laws of nature can be used in order to protect us. For example, it is useful for us to know the weather forecast: what conditions await us in every season. We need to study the nature of man in order to supply ourselves with healthcare, medications, to develop technologies that make housekeeping work easier, such as washing machines, food processors, and other household appliances.

In other words, above all we concern ourselves with securing comfortable conditions for our existence. At the same time, we try to avoid suffering as much as possible, both the small private suffering and the big, global kind, and along with that, we try to derive pleasure from every state. This is the nature of man, and all our efforts are directed towards satisfying our natural needs.

We develop through the influence of internal impulses. In every moment, at any stage of development, a new desire arises in each one of us and we strive to fulfill it. If we look at ourselves from the side, we’ll see that we behave similarly to little children in whom desires change every minute. Now I want to eat, now to drink, then to sleep, and after that to watch some interesting program on TV. And on top of that, I’m also obliged to go to work….

In other words, I am constantly developing under the influence of a few forces. One of them pushes me from behind: I have to work and to prepare life’s necessities for myself; after all, nothing happens by waving a magic wand, and the pleasure that I desire doesn’t just arrive to me on its own. This only happens in paradise, not in real life.

And here, first of all, a question arises: Where do our desires come from? Part of them is determined by the physiology of our body, which at certain times must fill itself with food, to rest and sleep. And in between, it wishes to delight in something interesting.

We divide all of our desires into desires for food, sex, and family. This is a basis without which we cannot exist, just like any other part of the animal world. And besides this animal life, we desire to have interests worthy of a human being. And that includes money, power, honor, knowledge, culture, upbringing, religion, and many other similar things that we ourselves develop and need no less than food, sex, and family. At times, we’re ready to sacrifice food, sex, and family just for the sake of receiving a better education, to make scientific discoveries, to enrich our cultural life. There are people who are prepared to literally sacrifice themselves in order to become rich, to achieve fame, or to gain power. And then food, sex, and family aren’t that important to them anymore; they barely pay attention to that, just enough to achieve what they desire.

All these desires are intermixed inside each of us, and everyone tries to realize them according to his or her possibilities. But there is a complete set of them in any person, and the means through which he or she is ready to realize them depends on that person’s upbringing and environment.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 3, 12/29/11

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 03.01.12

Preparation to the Lesson
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Shamati #117 You Labored and Did Not Find, Do Not Believe  
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