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In Anticipation Of The First Face-To-Face Meeting

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur goal is to reach a true prayer, which means to understand what we lack. It is true because it is accepted Above. This means that a deficiency on the part of the lower one and a deficiency on the part of the upper one have to be equal, the lower should ask for exactly what the upper one wants to give him.

This means that I have to feel that I only lack bestowal and the understanding that only the Creator can give me this filling: the force of bestowal and the ability to bestow, all the necessary conditions. The Creator has to reveal the desire to bestow and how to reach it inside me by showing me upon whom and what I can bestow.

This whole system of connection is called the Torah. And both the Light and our ability to bestow are included in it. But until then I have to work and first of all check what I want, what desires there are inside me, and to what extent they are all in order to receive.

Then I become included in the right environment and with its help, I gradually begin to change. I already begin to hear that the spiritual world isn’t meant for self-pleasure, but for the good of others. I realize this gradually and with great difficulty. I hear about it, but it takes a long time until I really understand this in my mind and feel it in my heart.

There is a great distance between simple awareness and actually doing something. We have to exert ourselves while in our natural ego in order to perform actions that are totally opposite to it, that are aimed at connection and bestowal. Even though it may be artificial and against my will, it is still called “above reason.”

But what can fuel my machine, what can be the reward? After all, I can’t work so that others will feel better, I don’t see any benefit in it and I can’t even move a finger for this cause, I can’t perform even the slightest action. My nature doesn’t work on bestowal energy. I don’t feel someone else’s desire as my own in a way that I can fill it and feel as if I fill myself.

In the meantime, I don’t feel anything, and it is as if others don’t exist for me. To fill the others is against my interests. So I operate mechanically, as if I bestow upon them and connect with them. Actually I do it for my own sake.

However, I understand that this is what “You labored and you found” means! I exert myself, and in the meantime the Light influences me and changes something in my soul. Gradually I begin to feel the greatness of the Creator and the importance of the environment, but it takes years to reach this internal attitude.

I advance by first realizing that bestowal is good for my own sake, and gradually I begin to perceive the importance of the attribute of bestowal itself. There are ups and downs on this path. One time I may value bestowal more and another time I may want to use it for my own sake, to enjoy the fact that I am on this path. Sometimes I don’t think about it at all, but only about receiving, and then I wonder about wasting my time and I have doubts about the whole way. So I advance by going through all these states.

The goal of the advancement is to bring me to a true prayer. I receive all the elements of this prayer from the environment. There is nothing in a person himself that can bring him to spiritual attainment. He needs a teacher that will constantly guide him, he needs a group in which he fulfills the whole process, and he needs books through which he receives the Light that Reforms.

These three elements are not part of our desire to receive and of the corporeal life. And they must be organized so that with their help we can attain the importance of the spiritual properties.

This is possible only by the Light. How can I otherwise wish for something that brings me no self benefit but only requires that I make efforts, and what is more to enjoy it. But the Light gradually cleans me and gives me this ability, and then I begin to value the spiritual connection with the Creator.

I attain a true deficiency, which is very powerful. Besides, its truth is proven to me since the Creator accepts it and responds to my request. Thus we meet Him for the first time “face-to-face,” the Creator’s deficiency connects with the deficiency of the created being.

This means that the Creator is revealed and then a person rises above his ego and begins to work in order to bestow. This whole process is divided into two parts: The first phase is the preparation for the true prayer. The moment we attain it, we begin to advance with it by gradually revealing a greater deficiency. But from the moment we attain this true deficiency our attainment of the Creator begins.
[76157]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/24/12, Writings of Rabash

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A Journey To The Foundations Of Creation

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we explain the influence of a Kabbalistic book on a person to the general population?

Answer: As I study a book on psychology, I begin to reveal different phenomena in myself. I talk to others in the group of people who want to change who are using the group therapy method. We work on ourselves, I uncover my reactions, I get to know my own character, and I compare it to others.

Suppose we are scientists who gathered in a group. Within it, each studies its own nature about the natures of others. A book helps us: It was written by an intelligent person who gives necessary explanations. Thanks to that, I no longer view myself from within, but try, to whatever extent possible, to look from the side, from an objective position, in order to understand who I am, what I am, what for and why… . What is this creature that is me? Of course, in our world there is no true objectivity, no real separation from oneself, but an approach does exist, and through its means we come to all kinds of results.

Freud, who was one of the founders of this approach, acted very logically. However, material society can only design experiments based on the details extracted from life, from the matter that appears before our eyes. If we grasp something from it on an empirical, experimental basis, then that’s what we can use without crossing the boundaries of a rational approach based exclusively on experimental data.

How is this different from the wisdom of Kabbalah? In it, I work exactly like psychologists do, without knowing or prejudging anything in advance. Desiring to know and study myself, I come to a group like to a School of Psychology. I have teachers and textbooks, and they speak to me about myself, explaining what it is that I am. Only their explanations penetrate further inward and touch upon the deepest layers of my being.

It turns out that there, on the inside, there are two forces: reception and bestowal, though not like the ones in our world, but fundamental ones, which govern me and all of nature. Kabbalah speaks about perception of reality, but again, penetrating deeper than psychology. I learn how I am connected to everyone else; I begin to understand to what extent the picture that I’m seeing is true. It turns out that when I address someone, I address that image which is depicted inside of me.

All these aren’t fantasies but real, material facts. I only need to check how I perceive reality, what in that perception depends on my properties, and which of those properties I am able to change.

And here they explain to me that there is a property called “reception” and I’m currently in it and it defines my entire psychology of the perception of reality. I look at everything through just one prism: “How can I enjoy what I’m seeing?” The egoistic desire inside me wants only one thing: to receive pleasure. And this is why the images that appear inside of me are dictated by my egoistic desire: Each time I am gauging the extent of pleasure or, conversely, of hatred and rejection. Should I bring a given detail closer or push it away? This is how I evaluate everything, and the contours of everything that I am seeing appear in this mirror. They seemingly appear in front of me, but in reality, they are within me, inside my receiving desire.

In this manner, I begin to understand how I am perceiving reality and how I can rise above the current perception, replacing it with a true one. “Your next degree,” Kabbalists tell me, “is a transition from a receiving view of the world toward a bestowing one.” I’ll simply acquire a new tool that will help me discover where I actually am.

And then, when I discover a second reality, two possibilities will appear before me: to perceive either through reception again or through bestowal. It’s impossible to make do with just one of these forms; I need to completely master both of them. By attaining reality in bestowal, I attain it in reception. It is written “The Creator made one against the other”; I ascend in two lines and they both grow in me equally until I acquire knowledge of the system, the method, the formula, which would allow me to use them in a form that is excellent for my desire. In other words, I fill both the receiving and giving desires within me in an optimal, best possible way. The formula is always based on a limiting value, such is its necessary condition: “You will receive nothing other than the maximum.”

This is what we study in the wisdom of Kabbalah, and we study it in a group, that is, in a laboratory that includes chemistry, physics, biology, zoology, and other components. On the whole, we explore the foundations of universal Nature, which, ultimately, is a receiving desire and a giving desire, and also intentions to receive and to bestow.

This is why I became so happy when I discovered it back then. In science, everyone is occupied with his narrow segment of the field—but then what? While here, the very foundations of Nature lay before us. First, we’ll reveal reality for ourselves and grasp the fact that everything is inside and there’s nothing outside. All of reality unfolds internally within its borders, and we reveal all of it completely.

We do not know what comes after that, but the approach remains entirely scientific. There are no contradictions here; on the contrary, the Kabbalistic method is so universal and all encompassing, so fundamental that it supplies us with ease and simplicity in everything.
[76032]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/12, Writings of Rabash

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The Spiritual Reference Point

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt’s said: “Those who love the Creator, hate evil.” `That is, we are given a reference point: If you are in the state of love for the Creator, then you hate evil, hate egoism, and this should be felt simultaneously; otherwise, you are straying from the direction. You will think that you love the Creator, but if you don’t feel the hate for egoism at the same time, then, you have no direction, it vanishes. In order to align it, to make it a straight line, on the one hand, you have to strengthen it in the hatred for evil, and then the second point will be precisely aimed at the love for the Creator. We don’t know what the Creator and the love for Him is. But if we start with the hatred for egoism, this is already a direction.

It’s said in this case: “Those who love the Creator, hate evil,” and they are whom the Creator saves from this evil. Therefore, our work is to reject and repel egoism and to attract good, bestowal, and love.
[76120]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/25/12, Lesson 5

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Am I Righteous Or Am I A Sinner?

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhat is the connection between the hatred of evil and the salvation from evil? On one hand, simply by being human, we understand that when I hate something I distance myself from it. This guards and protects me, helps me to be safe from evil. But this does not work in the spiritual. There it must evoke the upper Light in order to correct me.

There is another instruction for understanding this, which states the world is only created for two states, either the state, perception, and comprehension of absolute evil or the state of absolute goodness. There is no other option. In other words, the world is created either for absolute sinners or the absolute righteous; it is one or the other, there is no third option. This is why it is worse to be an incomplete righteous than an absolute sinner. How can this be? This is what is written. So what are the teachers showing us?

The fact is, they write, that from the Creator’s perspective there is nothing in the world that might have dual meaning, a little bit of goodness and a bit of evil. From the Creator’s perspective there is only absoluteness—either absolute goodness or absolute evil, either absolute bestowal or absolute reception.

And for this reason, when a person wishes to advance toward the goal, he has no right to accept that there is a bit of this and a bit of that in him! This is the worst quality, the worst state!

Accepting it is a bad quality. Being in this and consoling yourself that there is nothing horrible about this is a bad state: There is a bit of this and a bit of that in me, I am no worse or better than others, there are these and those. When I console myself with these kinds of thoughts I will neither be able to reach the state of absolute sinner or absolute righteous. When I fail to reach these states, I stay suspended somewhere and I lack the point of reference for advancement.

From the Creator’s perspective, there is no difference between good and evil. There is no double meaning from His point of view: absolutely everything is good.

In our state, in our world, when a person begins to perceive that everything comes from the Creator, then he is already analyzing his attitude towards the world. If everything comes from the Creator, I either perceive that the world comes from a good, eternal, perfect source or that the world is full of suffering, contradictions, and meaninglessness. And if so then I do not believe, feel, and acknowledge that the world is really eternal, perfect, and good as the One Who created it and fills it.

Why do we need this? When, from the beginning, we perceive the world as perfect, good, eternal, and full of Light, then the problem is in us, in our perception of the world, in our sensations. When I feel that it is opposite to this absoluteness that I am able to imagine, then I evaluate myself, my qualities, as opposite and egoistic. However, when I do not see anything good in the world, then I am a sinner—I am not justifying the Creator, I accuse Him of creating this. And if I do not feel either thing, then I do not even acknowledge the fact that He exists and that He has created and maintains all of this; in other words, I deny the presence of the upper force.

A person must clearly understand his attitude toward the world from which he comes, and what it is like in relation to the Creator.
[76117]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/25/12, Lesson 5

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How Much Am I Uncorrected?

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe world around us is in absolute calm, all filled with the upper Light. We must correct our feelings, our organ of perception. There is none else besides Him. What else do you want?! Here He is—in front of you, around you, within you.

Remove your “I,” and you begin to feel what kind of world is around us, in the form of the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), and what kind of the world is within us, in the form of the Inner Light (Ohr Pnimi). Just remove the partition, and everything will be fine.

The separation is cancelled by restriction and then by the screen. In the beginning, egoism is annulled, and the Light passes through you freely. This state is called “Ibur” (conception), the state of being inside the mother’s vessel, when you are completely surrounded and exist inside Mother Nature, the Creator.

And then you start to grow like an embryo inside your mother, are born, and develop further. When you begin to convert your egoism into bestowal, in the likeness of the Creator, then something that exists independently, in the likeness to the Light, comes out from you. You don’t obstruct the Light that passes through you, but amplify it.

Only from the initial setting to “There is none else besides Him” do we continue to tune ourselves to the fact that the world is filled with absolute good. If I don’t feel this in the heart, desires, and don’t fully understand it in the mind, I am not corrected. Then, I find out how much I am not corrected.

These states are typically intermediate and require further development. It takes place in the group. When I make an effort and explicitly go establish harmonious relations with the friends, then I immediately see how much I don’t want that! My egoism is manifested instantly, pushing me away from the friends. This occurs naturally. And I reveal that I am a sinner, and a serious one. Then, I have an opportunity to go further to request correction. This is the next stumbling block and the next reference point.

The first reference point is “There is none else besides Him.”

The second reference point is to see that everything is absolute good through this focus, like through a telescope.

The third reference point is the group, through which I must see everything, in order to come to a clear understanding whether I am a sinner or a righteous one.

There are no in-between states. We should avoid them. This is appeasement that will lead us nowhere. We just lose time!
[76111]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/25/2012, Lesson 5

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Why Is It So Hard To Ask?

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe spiritual work is different from the work we do in this world. This world is the world of actions. I perform a certain action in order to get a certain result. There is a thought, there is a goal, a plan, and accordingly I begin to work to fulfill the action in order to reach the goal—this is how I perform the whole process.

But in spiritual work we have another key partner that does the work. We only create the work for Him. He works and performs all the actions, the plan is His and He does everything. We are only responsible for the fact that we can activate Him.

The boss here is the Creator, He has His own plan and all the materials and the power to fulfill it, everything that is needed. Everything takes place according to a predetermined plan, but only if we hasten it.

It is as if there is a lazy contractor that undertook to build us a house, but we always have to come to him and ask that he do something. As long as you demand, he does; the moment you stop demanding, he immediately stops. We fuel this machine and only then does it begin to work.

It is very hard for us to internalize this, to understand, and to feel it because we don’t feel the one who performs this work and we think that we have to do everything by ourselves! What is more, this work is done on us, so we don’t really perceive what is happening.

If I could see the Creator and understand that everything depends on Him, then I would certainly constantly ask Him, beg, and urge Him. The problem is that I don’t feel Him! This is the essence of the concealment of the Creator, that I don’t feel that I am in His hands, and so I don’t ask Him to do anything.

I don’t feel that I depend on Him, but I think that everything is within my abilities. This concealment created the egoistic power in me, a shell, by making me feel sure that I myself will rule! So the Pharaoh in me says: “Who is the Lord, that I should listen to His voice? Do everything by yourself!”

This is the point where the domination of the ego is revealed; this is the place where the “shell” and the “Holiness” in me clash.

“I rule!”, means that I will do everything by myself and not the Creator. I prefer to do everything by myself, instead of asking Him to do something. But we know that our work is to reach the request. This is the only thing that we need. Then everything happens by itself.
[76242]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/12, Writings of Rabash

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We Will Be In Touch!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: There are a lot of new people who are used to studying virtually. How can we describe to or give them a taste of the sensation of conventions so that they would come to the convention?

Answer: First of all, whoever can come should necessarily do so. If a person is given such an opportunity and he doesn’t utilize it, it harms him since he as if disregards an opportunity to connect. And he shouldn’t try to convince himself that it will be better for him to stay at home or with his group. If he can come to the convention, even if he is the only one from his entire group that doesn’t stay behind to participate in a mirror convention, he should still come, whoever can come should come.

Second, it is necessary to create certain conditions the way we did in the past, both during the convention in the Arava desert and the European Congress in Vilnius, meaning we should hold big mirror conventions.

Besides, we will broadcast from Bogota, Santiago, and other cities. There will be lectures for the 99%. So we will be in touch anyway, and you will feel this connection.

Question: How advanced should we be in order to come to the convention?

Answer: Not at all. You simply have to wish to be there, and then—you are invited.
[76229] 
From a Lecture on Unity Day Around the World, “Preparation for the Congress” 4/22/2012  

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A Special Invitation For Our Students In The U.S.

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we make the convention in the U.S. unique so that it will connect the groups in America into one?

Answer: I don’t know whether we’ll succeed, but I have great hopes because the time has come.

Unfortunately, our friends in the U.S., even those who finished their studies at the Education Center and live in different places, still don’t understand or don’t see a need to unite. Quite possibly, at some point we need to organize a separate convention for them. The management of our Education Center in St Louis should take care of it.

Perhaps people didn’t study enough material on the importance of unification, about the fact that they can discover what they have learned about the upper world—how it manifests, becomes revealed, and is sensed in a person—only in unity, that is, not in a single person, but in a connection between us.

Where is this connection? Do they aspire to it? If they don’t yearn for it, they will not sense it. So they finished some theoretical course, and it all ended there.

Most important is practice, a practical revelation of the upper world for oneself. They are not doing it. Meanwhile, life is getting worse all the time. It pushes us towards unification, but not through the wisdom of Kabbalah, the good path, but through the path of suffering. I think that they should understand that after having a theoretical basis, it is best to realize it in practice, and so come to the convention.

I invite you all. Those of you who finished courses at the Education Center and live in the U.S., I would very much like to see you at the convention. Let’s make the most of it!
[76226] 
From a Lecture on Unity Day Around the World, “Preparation for the Congress” 4/22/2012 

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