In The Middle Between The Creator And The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why is it so hard to understand what the connection itself is?

Answer: It is hard for us to perform these actions because we initially relate to them and approach them egoistically. I cannot annul my mind in perceiving the world, in perceiving the group, and in perceiving myself, and start clarifying the situation by using a cold external mind.

First we should understand the reason for our actions and what I am required to do. The Creator wants me to bring about the correction of the world. The world is all the reality that appears before me. This means that I have to relate to it accordingly and to be included with the public, with the people, who at their level of development, are also in exile in Egypt; even if they are not in the final stages, they are in very advanced stages. People are already feeling that they have reached a dead end; they are feeling that it is the end of the world; they have encountered ecological problems, wars, famine, suicide, despair, etc. This is the “exile in Egypt” for them, an exile from the prosperity they knew before and helplessness.

In the past a person used to make changes in his life and find relief in it. Today there is nowhere to turn to; one doesn’t find comfort anywhere. There is no comfort at home and in the family, and nowhere to rest. Children don’t show any hope for something good; at work it is impossible to settle for what one really needs together with others since there is no goodness. The hope to rest when one retires is becoming imaginary, and we cannot be sure that when we grow old we will have food and shelter. People live in uncertainty: All their lives they saved in some fund, but if they ever will get this money back is a big question. And these are only some of the problems.

So when we are approaching the Creator, do we take into account what He wants and not what we want? The Creator wants the correction of the world. Is this how we approach people, taking their desires and worrying about them? I am not sure. Do we go out to the people enough, those who, by the way, feel the exile much more than we do? Are we included in their exile, and their corporeal troubles? Do we gradually turn their troubles into spiritual troubles at our level?

If the Light influences people through us, people will feel good. This is what the part of the world called “Israel” should do, to become “Light unto the nations.” For all those who have no contact with the Light, I have to be the “adaptor,” their envoy. Do I start from that?

The Creator wants to bring them Light and advancement, while I am only the link. I have to take their deficiency and to turn it into a necessity to connect at my level, the necessity for the Reforming Light and to transmit this request upwards, and not my personal desires. This means to bestow.

Do we do that? Do we give enough weight to dissemination in order to absorb the people’s desires? The account begins from the lower degree and not from the middle. The true deficiency is concealed in the world, while we receive our deficiency from the Creator and only have to be part of the whole.

By absorbing the deficiency from people, you have to connect with the friends. Otherwise why do you need this connection? What for? Who is your future bestowal intended for? Without the world there is no way you can reach it. The Creator doesn’t need your bestowal; he doesn’t need any favors from you. You can bring Him contentment if you pass His Light downward, if you manage to convince people that they need to change. Then by the slight change in them, you will increase it and raise it to the Creator, and thus draw the connection from the bottom up. You will grow from smallness up to His high level and will take your place in the middle. Without the connection between the two ends, you are playing with something that is based on nothing but the ego.

Question: So what are we doing wrong? After all, we are trying to bring our message to the world.

Answer: It seems that we are not impressed by the world’s desires enough in order to act by them. Eventually we are only left with a “fictitious” formal impression of the work that is done. Everything turns out the opposite: We want to advance and so we use people as a means, instead of being the means for their advancement and to bring people what the Creator wants to bring them. We are turning everything upside down: Instead of being servants, we are becoming the proprietors of the situation. The Creator depends on us, the nations depend in us, while we look at them standing in the middle.

The point is not the actions, but our inner attitude. The deficiency of the Creator and the deficiency of the world are what should be important for us. It is from these deficiencies that we should stabilize our self-deficiency so that it will lead to the desired result. “Israel” belongs to the level of Bina, and it has nothing of its own. Its upper part is the Keter and the lower part is Malchut. In the middle there is only a cut. So how can the two parts be connected? It is we who have to become this connection and this is our only property.
[74697]
From the 4th  part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/5/12, Writings of Rabash

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In The Role Of The Connectors

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You are saying that the desires of the masses should be in first place and not our own spiritual aspirations. But today I am worried about my advancement and this is the reason I disseminate. How can I make this internal transition?

Answer: I have to understand that everything that will happen to me depends on others, on the extent to which I bring them closer to the source. To do that, I have to bring them closer to me, and then they will provide me with the right deficiency in order to turn to the Creator. That’s why they are suddenly important to me.

Next I will discover that they are my parts and then I will find out that they, in fact, are the parts of my soul. The need for the “Self” totally disappears: Let it burn, I only want to provide for them, that’s most important. The previous self-consciousness disappears: My upper part belongs to the Creator, my lower part belongs to the created beings, and I am in the middle, in the neutral middle third of Tifferet that exists only in order to connect the two halves. We shouldn’t do anything with it.

Question: So it follows that when we connect with the masses in order to absorb their desires and to serve them, we do the work among us and we receive the answer somewhere from Above. It’s quite a complicated system….

Answer: The system is simple: Above is the plus and below is the minus, and you allow the entrance in the middle and open up the way.

It can be drawn differently, like a fan. On the left there is positive pressure (P+), on the right there is negative pressure (P-), and you determine what will come out. On one hand, there is the nation, on the other hand there is the Light, and in the middle, Bnei Baruch (BB).

This is exactly how nature is built. This system is normal and natural. Let’s draw it in Kabbalistic terms. Above there are Keter and Hochma, in the middle there is Bina divided into GE (Galgalta ve Eynaim) and AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh). At the bottom there is ZON (Zeir Anpin and Nukva). At the top until the middle of Bina there is the system of the Creator, at the bottom there are the lower ones, and among them there is Bnei Baruch. It’s all the same: Above there is the plus, below there is the minus, you are in between, and the tap is in your hands.

This is our work. We connect in the group in order to correspond to the Light, and below we build the system of dissemination that conveys the message of love of others and unity. This is how we connect with the people in order to bring contentment to the Creator.
[74641]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/6/12Writings of Rabash 

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Between Minus Infinity And Plus Infinity

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe are part of a system called the world of Infinity. In this Infinity, there exists the desire with various forms and modes of reception and bestowal, as well as the Light that is revealed within the desire to the extent that desire ascribes importance to the attribute of bestowal. The more the desire expresses bestowal, the more the Light is revealed. If the desire doesn’t long for bestowal, the Light is not revealed.

It is called the world of Infinity as all possible forms of creation, from the most egoistic to the most altruistic, from minus Infinity to plus Infinity, exist in it.

Desire itself was created by the Creator, and all of its forms are revealed according to the plan of development that also comes from the Creator. However, as a result of all the metamorphoses and changes that the desire, spinning and boiling in this cauldron, goes through, a new, special point of self-awareness, of independence, is formed. And this point begins to grow in all the states that the desire goes through: to feel more, to understand more, to feel itself as existing, and to attain its independence.

This point is most important because it grew from the middle, third, line. It doesn’t exist in the nature of the Creator nor in the nature of the creature, which is opposite to the Creator and completely subordinate to Him. Of course, it is a derivative, the result of the clash between these two opposite attributes, but it is absolutely independent.

It is difficult for us to imagine how this independence is possible if everything was created by the Creator. But imagine two completely opposite fields, divided by a chasm along the entire range from minus to plus Infinity, where neither one can exist. The border where both of these attributes meet and battle with each other is where the creature can exist independently.

On one hand, it is still considered the created being, meaning that it was created by the upper force. On the other, it has an attribute that makes it possible for it to stand opposite to the upper force, not being under its full control. In the meantime, we are unable to grasp how this is possible. Man doesn’t understand how, being under the full control of the Creator all the time, he can nevertheless remain free!

Two completely different, opposing attributes exist, and the creature can exist only in the abyss between them. It becomes the creature only to the extent that it makes efforts to acquire awareness. This awareness is something third that did not previously exist.

All the rest already had existed in the creature: all the forces, the attributes, and the character that determines who I will be. For all of this, it is written: “Go to the Master Who made me.” However, above all this, I create something third, independent. It is like a child who grows and suddenly becomes independent, having his own opinions. Obviously, this is created under the influence of heredity, education, and environment, but this is the manifestation of his personality, not just a simple sum of fixed parameters according to a plan inscribed into it.

It is like when we cook soup, add all ingredients into it, and in the end receive a new essence called soup. Or we slice and mix five ingredients: tomato, cucumber, onion, salt, and pepper. In the end, a new essence appears called salad.

Today, we live in this world, unconsciously fulfilling the commands of our nature. From where can something new appear to us? Only if you position yourself between the two worlds of reception and bestowal, wanting to belong to both in order not to detach from either of them, but use them both, then thereby you create a new essence, like a new dish, the “salad.” You take all the desire from the world of reception and give it the form of bestowal, which is called Adam.

The fetus is composed of the matter, the desire to receive pleasure, but from the outside, it adopts the form of the Creator, the Light. Then, the substance and form together are called man.

It seems that there is nothing new here as everything already existed. But you did the work—you lent the matter the Creator’s form. You took the matter from one area, the property from the other, and you combined the two together. As a result, a new essence was formed. It is no longer the first or the second, but something third. It’s like the salad that has a meaning on its own; it is a new taste, a new existence.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/2012, TES

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If You Don’t Want To, You Won’t Find Anything

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, Shlavei HaSulam (The Steps of the Ladder), 1985, Article 15: And the more they afflicted them”: “And the shell of Egypt, is the general shell, where the sparks of Holiness fell, that the People of Israel who were in Egypt, had to correct them. Then there must first be such pain and suffering that they can’t leave their control, as it says “and the Children of Israel sighed from the work, and they cried out, and their cry rose to the Lord from the work, and the Lord heard their sigh.

There must be a feeling of exile, there must be such strong suffering and pain that “it is better to die than to live” if I can’t come out of Egypt, if I don’t achieve what I want. My desire has to be so big. Otherwise it isn’t a vessel; it isn’t a place for the revelation of what we are looking for.

At the same time, my crying out should be strong not only in quantity but also in quality. I have to know what I am yearning for in exile, what I want to discover, what is happening to me.

So the exile is the most serious preparation for redemption. In exile I clarify things, by clarifying what exactly I want and in what way. This is the reason why the exile cannot be less than 400 years, according to the four phases we go through when we build our vessel. Only at the end of this process can we come out of exile and really receive what we have prepared. The upper Light has no form and now too it fills everything, but we don’t feel it. We must acquire the four phases, a whole vessel, and then the Light will be revealed.

So it isn’t about 400 years, but actually about four whole phases of building our vessel. The forms we develop in it totally depend on each of us. Of course, we receive the initial spur from Above as it is written: “The Creator puts a person’s hand on the good fate and tells him, take it.” But later on a person’s fate is in his own hands.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/6/12, Writings of Rabash

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The End Of The Slavery In Egypt Is Near

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe are nearing the exodus from exile only when we begin to understand that we are in it. “Exile” symbolizes my perception of everything that I receive in my desire to receive as worthless and unimportant. Everything that is in my ego belongs to “Pharaoh,” and I am allowed to receive only what is necessary.

This doesn’t mean that I have to limit myself in every way, like a monk living in the desert. I simply don’t see anything material as very important, and accept it as necessary for my existence. All my life is devoted to achieving love for the Creator, the general attribute of bestowal, through the connection with others.

If a person has such an internal necessity and he is included in the group, he begins to aim himself correctly, which means to hate everything he receives in his ego, trying to be satisfied with what is essential. At the same time Pharaoh bribes him and gives him everything. This means that he builds beautiful cities for his ego, Pithom and Ramses.

He feels that in relation to the intention of in order to bestow in which he wants to be in his thoughts and heart, he is in exile, because he has no powers to bestow. Then he feels that he has complaints towards the Creator, for not helping him come out of exile, which means that He doesn’t let him be the one who bestows.

But in the meantime a person’s desire is very small and he has to go through 400 years in exile. This means that he has to raise his desire until he will really want to bestow.

All our work in the exile in Egypt is in a group in which everyone grows stronger and receives from others the greatness of the goal, the pure bestowal, and the nothingness and meanness of his preset state in which it is impossible to achieve mutual bestowal. From a spiritual point of view, this is very bad.

So a person begins to perceive the term “exile” correctly: exile refers to bestowal, the ability to bestow, and so he really feels that he is in exile in Egypt. Until he reaches a state in which he cannot bear it any more. Then the “ten plagues of Egypt” begin.

A “plague” or blow symbolizes the fact that you are offered different good corporeal things, but in spirituality you receive nothing, and a person feels this as a blow.

He feels the hardening of the heart, and the corporeal desires keep growing. He has no choice. He understands that the egoistic desire will continue to grow and to confuse him by distracting him and drawing his attention to different corporeal goals, different clarification in the group, so that he will overcome the corporeal ego by the contact with the friends. Only from them can he learn to appreciate the way and the goal of creation more, the greatness of the Creator, and the meanness of the egoistic filling.

One can receive all these values only from the society, from the environment. Then, despite the difficulties and the interruptions, he still adheres to the group above his feelings and his mind because only in it does he find protection and salvation. He understands that otherwise he is lost. He understands that only when he looks above the egoistic desire because from the point of view of the ego the situation could be wonderful and bring knowledge and other benefits.

When he interprets the whole situation correctly, he discovers that he is facing Pharaoh. This stems from many reasons, attributes, and attempts that he accumulates for 400 years in exile in Egypt: the four phases he has been through in each of his desires to receive when he raised the yearning for bestowal above it, which is called “faith above reason.”

Going through these four phases is called “the time of preparation.” And when it is about to end, a strong resistance to the ego is revealed, called the ten plagues of Egypt, darkness. These are final clarifications and revelations that really help a person exit the slavery to his ego.

Thanks to them he grows stronger and finally escapes in the dark, at night, feeling them in his desire to receive with one point that leads him, called “Moses.” Thus he raises his ego and achieves redemption.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/5/12, Shamati

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Individuality And Commonality

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Lithuania is a small country. There are only 3 million of us. We strongly protect our cultural mentality, our native language, and ethnic roots. That is why we are concerned; will we dissolve in the world if we will increasingly be integrating with it?

Answer: I perfectly understand you. I lived in Lithuania back in those years, when the strong pressure from your big neighbor was being felt, Russia. I understand your worry for your people, for the nation, for the identity and identification.

However, we are talking about the need to feel oneself not as an individual, separated, opposite, hating, far away from the neighbor, but on the contrary, to feel commonness with everyone. We are talking about the fact that man is a part of the common world and must work in it accordingly, like a small organ in one unified organism.

The different organs of the body, the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, each one of them works in its direction, but all of them together obey one fixed law, and that is why the body lives. A lot of opposite processes are happening inside of it, but all of them are nevertheless coordinated by one large controlling action.

That is why, the integral movement forward, which will make us, the whole world, to be global, in no way denies the individuality of a person, a country, a people, a nation, or a society. In no way!

Individuality remains, like the uniqueness of each cell or each organ of the body remains, but this is because they harmonize with the rest of the body, and then this body lives.

Then our planet Earth also has the opportunity to exist, and in turn so do each people, each nation, each state inside of it, which have their own culture, their customs, establishments, and so on.

I often hear that fear emerges in people: “I must completely cancel myself? It is as if I will not exist? I must completely give all of myself to others and the society?”

No, no way! And the same goes for a country or a nation, preserve everything that you have!

When you are working on integration, then you create a healthy normal society inside, and on the outside you come in contact with everyone else with goodwill.

Like the heart and the lungs, they are different, but they work in partnership among each other in order to support the whole of the organism. Meaning, the integral direction, unity, does not lead to leveling out or annulment of individuality.
[74588]
From a Lecture at Šiauliai University, Lithuania, 3/22/12 

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Is Work The Center Of Life?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If half of the human population will not be working, then won’t an opposition emerge between those who work and must give to those who do not do anything other than study all the time?

Answer: First of all, one needs to look at those who work and those who study as everyone who participates in the same pursuit. There will not be such a concept as “working or not working.” According to our research and statistical data, 1-2% of the Earth’s population can produce all of the necessary food products and an additional 6-7% of the people can produce everything else that man needs. Everything that is necessary; do you understand? Let’s say, it’s 10% of the entire human population, and what about the rest of the people? What should be done with them? Destroy them?

We need to understand that a person shouldn’t be working in the way that he’s working today at all. Except for the past couple of centuries, never has a person been working from morning until night. Work has become the most important for him. And for comfort, kindergartens are being organized close to companies. Work in general has obtained the status of the center of life.

But why should it be this way? Why can’t a person come to work for only two hours a day, and study for the rest of the time? At that, he is working on self-education, integral development. He joins this process and each time, every day, to the extent of his changing, he must bring himself to a greater balance with nature. And this is a constant renewal. We will be obligated to do this. Nobody needs to give up anything; everyone is equal in this.

Today, when you communicate with a person, first of all you find out: who are you, where are you, what is your occupation, how much do you earn? This is all that interests us. But now we are coming to a different society. Neither the earth, nor the natural resources, or the environment (as much as we have already polluted it) will allow us to behave this way any further. We already see this.

In no way are we convincing anyone, like the rest of the scientists, that we need to act this way and not another; we simply offer a possible solution. We will be happy to hear other proposals. We are also constantly searching, supplementing this methodology with newer and newer data. In general, this work is part of the research. If you were to ask me 10 years ago, then you would have heard only a small part of what I am saying today. Besides, we have discovered a lot from our colleagues around the world with whom we are cooperating closely.
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From a Lecture at Šiauliai University, Lithuania, 3/22/12 

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