Salt And Pepper In Spiritual Work

Dr. Michael LaitmanEven when a person finally begins to hear what is being said about different kinds of bestowal that need to be attained, there is still a big difference in what bestowal he wants to enjoy. And then it is important with what bestowal he wants to bring contentment—changes also happen there. After all, he begins to understand that there is egoistic bestowal.

And this is what we reveal in the group. We enjoy getting together, it lifts our spirits and we feel inspired—so why not unite? Besides, we think that it helps us advance spiritually. But let us think: What are we are advancing towards? It is pleasure, even though it seems to be due to bestowal! Is this already spiritual pleasure or not yet?

However, in either case, we exert efforts and the Light affects us, clarifying our desires. As a consequence, we begin to better understand the different types of reception and bestowal—for whose sake they are performed—until we finally begin to perceive new flavors, which happens only with the help of the Light that Reforms, only by the group effort.

Now a person is able to distinguish between “strong spices” and the “food” itself. On one hand, he needs his desires to receive as “spices.” But on the other, he does not enjoy them, but the real “food” whose flavor they bring out—his degree of bestowal. One is built on the other.

And one does not need a lot of pepper, salt, or mustard to bring out the flavor of food, even though you cannot manage without them either. The same happens with our efforts to add our own aspiration to the work of the Light. It does not need to be big; a big effort is not required of us. But this effort is necessary and it helps us “find.”

This is why we need to try to evaluate every state we experience: Whether our states are really spiritual and stand for spiritual advancement? Or perhaps these are additives with an opposite flavor: pepper, salt, and mustard, and not the flavor of the Light and bestowal. These additives help to separate the form of bestowal, the Light that comes to us, on their background—the form that is expected of us from Above.

But this work is very important; it is necessary for preparation of spiritual vessels. Our work is to make efforts, which leads to a “finding,” as it is written: “I have labored and found!” This is the main principal of spiritual advancement.
[72289]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/2012, Shamati #117

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The Most Important Thing Is To Open Your Eyes

Dr. Michael LaitmanCorrection occurs from the easiest to increasingly more difficult. However, the due correction seems difficult to us on every degree, and we cannot imagine anything bigger and harder. Every person perceives it according to their own degree.

Yet if we look at the whole spiritual ladder, it is certain that the higher we rise, the more difficult the desires we work with are. But with the experience that one has already received and the partially corrected desires that he has previously reached, it is easier for a person to overcome these hardships and advance.

It is written that “wisdom comes with experience.” Thus we perceive corrections with more ease, they become clearer to us. The key is to conquer the first degree. The most difficult thing is to open your eyes.

Let’s hope that we will accomplish it very soon. It depends on the world and us since we are inseparable from each other.
[72298]
From the Preparation for the Lesson 3/9/2012

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There Is No Place For Aggression

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In the process of communication, people often become subconsciously aggressive. Should we somehow let a person know that he is aggressive at a given moment, even if subconsciously, without noticing it, or should this be left as material for integral work and clarification?

Answer: I think that all of this will begin to straighten out in the group, even when it starts studying the introductory materials.

But there are people who don’t respond to this, who don’t hear. They need to be placed in separate groups. That’s a different matter.

Usually, the general aggression subsides quickly in the face of the great goal that you set before people, when they approximate themselves to some new whole, in order to discover a perfect world and harmony. When you explain the structure of the universe to them, perception of reality, here they begin “to stumble,” meaning that there is no room for some petty, personal aggression.
[72248]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #11, 12/16/11

Without You The Upper One Will Never Be Great

Dr. Michael LaitmanAs the worlds expand from above downward, every Partzuf is smaller than the Partzuf that preceded it, like its another try to utilize itself on a lower level. Suppose that on the lower part of the Partzuf of Galgalta I cannot receive a steak for the sake of bestowal, but I can receive fish. This attempt to add something else is called Partzuf AB.

In the lower part of Partzuf AB I cannot receive fish, but I can receive a salad, and this is called Partzuf SAG. Each time I have another opportunity to add on a lower level than before. Thus the path back from below upward is prepared for us, on which we rise from this world to the world of Infinity, by adding on each level.

You rise since with your Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE) of the lower one, you can add something to the AHP of the upper one. Although it may seem to you that you cannot add anything to it—after all, the AHP of the upper one is very big compared to you and you only annul yourself in it, like an embryo in relation to his mother—by that you add the state of greatness (Gadlut) to the upper one. Without you, it could never become great.

Although you exist as a vegetable there, by totally annulling your personality, you are enabling the upper one to be great on its upper level.
[72236]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/2012, TES

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The Forefathers: Then And Now

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: Indeed, there is no dispute here, for everyone admits that to begin with, it is enough to start with one nation …for the beginning of the correction of the world. Undoubtedly, both the physical purity and the mental exaltedness of our Holy Fathers greatly influenced their sons and their sons’ sons, and their righteousness reflected upon that generation, whose members all assumed that sublime work, and each and every one stated clearly, “We shall do and we shall hear.” Because of that, we were chosen, out of necessity, to be a chosen people from among all the nations.

We study the general system that stems from the four phases of the expansion of the Direct Light. The Light operates on the desire that it created as “existence from absence,” and inevitably, the desire develops by the four phases. Only in the last phase does it feel itself separated from the root, from the Light, and in this state perceives the root as the bestowing one and itself as the receiving one.

As a result of this feeling of separation, the oppositeness in attributes, the desire restricts itself and performs internal changes in order to resemble the root. The root gives it the feeling of self-deficiency that stems from the evil and lowliness of receiving, and so the desire wants to change itself and to resemble its root.

The four phases create the matrix of Yod-Key-Vav-Key (HaVaYaH), or the “the name of the Creator.” This means that the Creator imprints His name, His action, in matter, meaning in the desire of the created being.

All our development occurs following the format of Yod-Key-Vav-Key, through the four phases and their root, or through the five worlds. In each one there are five Partzufim, and each one is divided into five Sefirot, a total of 125 degrees.

The five general stages of development are divided according to the Aviut (depth, “thickness”) of the desire, from the root (zero) level until the fourth phase, or into five Sefirot: Keter, Hochma, Bina, ZA, and Malchut, or five Partzufim: Galgalta, AB, SAG, MA, and BON, or five worlds: AK, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya. In short, the format of HaVaYaH surrounds everything, and there is nothing else in reality except for these five parts of the desire to receive. The Creator is also inside.

Accordingly, the last phase, Malchut, which needs correction, also includes five phases that are corrected gradually, starting with the “tip of Yod.” The levels that preceded us are called “forefathers” and “sons.” And we stem from them. This is the order of the correction of the vessels.

In fact, the level of the forefathers begins from Adam who was the first to discover the Creator. Then came the souls who do not belong to this world, although we call them Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so on. It is a matter of numerology, as the name reflects the level that the soul attained in its correction.

We come after all these souls from the degrees of HBD and HGT, and we belong to the degrees of NHY. On the whole, all the souls make up the general vessel, and so at our stage we should see the continuation of the previous levels. Our small level is also divided into three corresponding parts: HBD, HGT, and NHY. In this round we are the forefathers with regards to the last degree, the last generation.

So we are connected to the forefathers because all the Sefirot match one another and are connected. Because we belong to the level of the forefathers, it is hard for us to be corrected. After all, it isn’t just about something that exists; rather, we have to rise in our mind and heart, in awareness and understanding, in clear attainment, and in a large scale, finite, and perfect action.

So we should be grateful that we were privileged to be the first. Yes, it is not easy. There are people in the world who prefer a “quiet place” and little responsibility, but there are those who want to spread the Creator’s name in the world. There is nothing we can do, it doesn’t depend on us; however, we should be grateful that we received such a special role, we should be proud. You can be a farmer, for instance, and simultaneously disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah.

There are many interruptions along this difficult path, which are especially meant for us. It will be much easier for others. We will build schools, kindergartens, and different systems for the new world: industry, management, government, and health care systems, and then people will enliven all that.

But it is us who attain the Creator fully and wholly, not like the forefathers in the past. They only had the Light of Nefesh, while we attain the head of the level with the greatest vessels of NHY, the essence of the Thought of Creation itself. This is because the wisdom of Kabbalah begins with the question about the meaning of our lives, about knowing the Creator, about attaining Godliness. All this is revealed on our degree.
[72131]
From the Arava Convention 2/25/12, Lesson 7

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Celebrating The Victory Of Intention

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, article “Purim”: It is said that in the end of correction, all the holidays will be annulled except for the Book of Esther because there has never been such a great miracle as on that day. Neither on Saturdays nor other special days such a great Light was revealed but only during the days of Purim. And that is why there is a great advantage of Purim over all other days.

Indeed, before the end of correction it is impossible to correct all the shattered sparks and vessels, but only 288 sparks out of 320 so as to connect them to bestowal. And this is clarified gradually, but there are 32 sparks left of all the sparks, which cannot be clarified.

And this is called the “stony heart (Lev HaEven).” And it is only when all the 288 sparks will be clarified completely, the stony heart will be corrected, as it is said: “And I will remove the stony heart from your flesh, and I will give you the heart of flesh, and then death will disappear forever, and all the evil will be corrected into goodness, and the darkness will shine like the Light.”

It follows that the Light of Purim corresponds to the end of correction and is revealed only by miracle. And for that reason, all the holidays are annulled except Purim, which belongs to the end of correction, when all the evil will be corrected, and there will be no difference between damned Haman and blessed Mordechai, and Haman too will be corrected to goodness.

Haman is the ego that manifests when we rise from the exile and attain the level called “to bestow in order to bestow” that characterizes Mordechai the righteous. The righteous symbolizes the attribute of Bina (Hafetz Hesed) from which we rise even higher and totally erase any memory of Amalek by attaining the level of “to receive in order to bestow.” This is already the next degree.

When Mordechai, the intention “to bestow in order to bestow,” the point in the heart, manifests in a person, he begins to fight with the desire to receive within him. Haman is the grandson of Amalek, which means that he is behind Amalek by two degrees. When Haman is corrected by Mordechai, he gets closer to Amalek by one degree and becomes his son.

Haman and Amalek are the egoistic forces, Klipot (shells). Haman is revealed in the beginning of our path, and we have to bring him to correction, “to bestow in order to bestow,” which is called Mordechai. Thus we rise one degree upwards, to the level of the son. Then we reach Amalek himself, the shell that stands opposite to the intention of “to receive in order to bestow.” This matches the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Amalek symbolizes the egoistic intention, all the big desire to receive with the intention for oneself, which a person discovers and gradually corrects. Haman is the part of Amalek that is revealed upon entering spirituality, the attribute of Bina. Then many other wicked described in the Torah are revealed, and they are all the offspring of Amalek. We only have to destroy the offspring of Amalek, “to erase the memory of Amalek,” because it is the egoistic intention.

Of course, it isn’t about people or actions, but only about intentions.
[72159]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/2012, Writings of Rabash

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The World Through The Prism Of The Environment

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What do you have in mind when you talk about life outside the body?

Answer: Even now we are living a life outside our bodies. I live in my feelings, desires, and thoughts received from the environment. They are not mine but obtained by me from the surrounding environment. Of course, they exist within me, but I call them “out of body” because I live by interests received from others who impress upon me and advise what’s worth living for, what to think about, and what to feel.

I don’t even realize that if I lived in a forest, my understanding of the world would be completely different from the one I have right now. It’s as though the environment gives me a different view of the world and forces me to perceive it one way and not another. And indeed, this is a big problem.

Suppose my environment makes me think that being a cannibal, or killing people, or taking advantage of them is normal, while you see life completely differently. You have a completely different attitude to animals, yourself, the world, and family. We live within the model of perception that society instilled in us throughout our development, and accordingly, this is the way we see the world.

When I travel to a different country, sometimes it really strikes me that people think completely differently there and gravitate towards different values. Thus they have another way of looking at things, and they don’t see what I see. They judge people differently than we do. And if we get acquainted with history books or law codes of different countries, we will see just how different we are.

I’m not even talking about cultural differences or specific cuisines. I am interested in a person’s worldview and not in what he likes to fill his stomach with. What’s important is a person’s understanding of historical events, of human life, of good and evil, his or her attitude to reward and punishment, to what one should achieve, and what kind of life one wishes to build for oneself.

Some people are prepared to spend day and night playing cards and enjoy having others serve them, while for others it’s important to make their contributions wherever possible, to take interest in achievements of science, and to reveal something new for themselves. The outlook on such things can fluctuate from one extreme to another.

We see that the problem of society is that we don’t understand each other. What do wives usually complain about to their husbands? “You don’t understand me!” And this is actually the case because we really didn’t receive an upbringing about how to live in a family.

When I was an adolescent, I wasn’t educated about what a woman is. Is it some living creature that exists by my side? Does she have certain demands, a unique personality? What vision of life does a woman have as opposed to a man? A woman is a completely opposite world, not dependent on anyone. Do I understand her? Do I wish to understand her? Do I take her into consideration? Am I capable of doing this?

Since we haven’t received any internal models of what a woman is, what type of mentality she has, and how she sees the world, we don’t have an ability to take her into consideration. A man truly doesn’t understand her, and this is why each of their meetings abound with mutual attacks. They try to get along somehow, yet they aren’t capable to actually understand each other, that is, to become included in one another. And this is a big flaw in our upbringing.

Statistics on divorce rates and on those unwilling to even start a family attest to this. We see a similar situation in child education: We don’t know how to approach a child correctly. We all know that there is an increase in child abuse cases, and it is all because parents don’t understand them.

In regards to my own children, I have sensed just to what extent I don’t understand them, how unprepared I am for being a father. After all, a father is an educator, a creator, someone who shapes the child for their life to come. But I wasn’t able to do that due to the fact that neither the feeling nor understanding of everything that pertains to children was developed in me at all, while it’s absolutely necessary to teach that.
[66726]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 3, 12/29/11

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A Greenhouse For Humanity

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the near future, humanity will eliminate all types of unnecessary jobs except for the ones needed for providing all that is required for normal and rational life. A person will have to work two or three hours a day and the rest of the time will be free.

In these hours people won’t simply be freed from work but will have to create an environment that will influence everyone else. And each of them will have an effect on others so that any person will be under a correct influence of several types of environments that facilitate his or her further growth.

This process is similar to the way that fruits and vegetables are grown in a greenhouse. Different conditions are provided in succession and in specific combinations, and because of that, they grow bountifully and we receive excellent sweet fruit to suit any taste. We need to do the same with ourselves and with our children. This work will become the main occupation of a person living in a new era.

There is a reason why we consider the current crisis not as a tragedy but as a positive phenomenon, the birth of a new society, a new humanity in which we begin to prepare ourselves for the next stage of unification and realization of all possibilities that each of us has.

In this manner, we are progressing towards mutual connection and understanding and as though creating from the entire humanity an image of one man, all parts of whom harmoniously complement each other and create a single entity.

In this single humanity that we create we reveal one force that gives us the feeling that each of us no longer lives in an individual inner sensation but in a common perception of this unified whole. A person lives his own life but at the same time, he or she senses the lives of everyone else who now have become so close to him that he understands them, feels them, and is included in them.

It turns out that I no longer live the life of a simple little person, but my life is intertwined with the breathing and living of the entire humanity. From the state of a small, weak individual I begin to ascend towards the most exalted status in nature. This is how we perceive life from this new “speaking” level that belongs to the degree of Man.

Our psychology, attitude towards life, and worldview will change from a petty, egoistic, and narrow personal outlook to a broad and global perception. And through the prism of the entire humanity, as if through new glasses, I will begin to see a new world.

I begin to view it differently and reveal within it a life that depends not only on the desires of my body, but on all people in the world. And then I rise to a sensation of life beyond my body. In this manner, through psychological ascent we reach a special state.

The entire process that we have to undergo can be divided into two parts. The first part is the path we traveled thus far. Throughout its entire duration, we developed without utilizing our environment that much. And even if we had to resort to its aid, it was only in rare cases.

Right now we are in a crisis that is justifiably called global and integral. Now we feel that we don’t have a choice, and that through the use of the environment we need to develop in a direction whereby all of humanity becomes integral and global, bound together as one man with one heart. This can be achieved with the help of a corresponding environment.

This is the life on a “human” degree that begins after exiting the animate level at which we were living by will of chance. And now we begin to guide our development in a specified direction in order to receive from the greenhouse a wonderful fruit in all of its perfection.

Because of this study we will know how to organize our environment and through it to shape ourselves and all of humanity. This is why the topic of “Environment as a determining factor of a good future of humanity” is the most important in the study and practical activities of this course. I hope that this educational program will be accepted in the entire world. It will guide us to a good life and yield wonderful fruit.
[66730]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 3, 12/29/11

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Making A Stranger Your Own

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf we talk about the new generation, a new era in which we exist, we come to even more important conclusions. All of us living on this planet are tightly interconnected and dependent on each other, that the surrounding environment is becoming one for all of us, and that we exert an influence on climate and ecology. What happens in one place causes an earthquake or a tsunami in another; a war in one country immediately affects others.

We see that we don’t simply need to affiliate ourselves with a certain society or a group, but have to organize a common, global, and integral upbringing.

Since we are tied together, our upbringing and environment that we create (the determining factor of our development) need to transmit the same values to us so we will understand each other while still maintaining our individuality and freedom. After all, if we are so dependent on one another, we need to understand and feel each other, to become closer.

The whole problem is that we don’t understand one another, the way it happens in a family where each person complains that they are misunderstood. People are incompatible with each other because they have different values, tastes, and attitudes to life….

On one hand, in order to understand a loved one or even a stranger, an upbringing is required. But on the other, this stranger should become less of a stranger if today’s culture, upbringing, economy, and all existing structures are so close and interdependent.

It’s necessary to develop a system of global, international, and multicultural upbringing, and this great worldwide organization should ensure that each person in the world has something in common with others in their upbringing, culture, and attitude to life. Then a person will know how to accept another, and in the end, people will grow closer in their views and tastes; they will be able to make their life more secure and reach agreement among themselves.

Moreover, this won’t be just a mutual understanding between two strangers, but will have an impact on international agreements, crucial political decisions, economics, defense—on everything. We need to come closer to each other, and this depends on whether or not we can create a single system of upbringing for everyone.

Putting it differently, we need to understand that environment as a factor needs to become the solution to all of our problems. This is instilled in nature! Thus, instead of putting people in jail and isolating those who commit malicious acts, we need to forcibly, by court order, place them in a special environment that will educate them and turn them into productive members of society. Accordingly, we will verify the influence of the environment on such a person and, on the condition that he or she has been reformed, will release and transfer them to normal society.

This same principle works in relation to children and schools too. We need to check and identify different types of people and decide what is most suitable for every layer, for each age group. Based on this, as well as by considering the personality and peculiarities of a person and by utilizing the surrounding society’s comprehensive influence upon a person, we can give him or her the possibility to express themselves in the best possible manner.

That is, we have a comprehensive and diverse tool that includes a multitude of circles and different groups, and we need to try to guide a person towards the influence of a given society until he or she acquires a correct and harmonious form.

This is similar to a ripening fruit that requires both warmth and cold, night and day, moisture and dryness, light, and a certain combination of minerals. Here, too, in order for a person to mature and turn into a ripe “fruit” that tastes sweet to everyone, society shouldn’t pressure him or her from one direction only but exert all possible diverse forms of influence.

This is why an environment is a single factor through the use of which we can correct all the evil that exists in a person and in humanity, caused by our egoism. We only need to take this tool into our own hands, to organize various types of environments that will correspond to the culture, education, and habits of a given nation, to peculiarities of different civilizations, and in this manner to find an approach to every part of human society, in any country, down to each individual person.
[66733]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 3, 12/29/11

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 03.12.12

Preparation to the Lesson
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Shamati #99 He Did Not Say Wicked or Righteous
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter Beresheet (Genesis),” “And the Lord God Built the Rib,” Item 280, Lesson 79
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 7, Item 4, Lesson 3
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Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 101, Lesson 48
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