The Man In The Person

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How does the “point in the heart” grow? What is it composed of? What is the man in a person composed of?

Answer: The “point in the heart” is our launching point from which begins the birth of the Human Being, like from a drop of semen. All the rest, which he takes from his environment, from his friends, joins this point in the heart.

Question: What do we take from the environment?

Answer: One only needs to take the positive attributes. Since Arvut (Mutual Guarantee) was created in order to take from the environment all that is positive within it.

Question: How can a person measure his point and measure that he already has a microscopic man within him and that he is growing?

Answer: It’s according to how much he connects with the group and works with them for connection and unity. In the end, all that happens in the connection joins his point in the heart.

Question: You said that the Creator gives forces, He takes forces, and the man feels like a rag that waves in the wind.

Answer: The Light gives and takes forces according to the man’s actions. If a man feels like a rag, then that’s already good; It’s a sign that from this moment on, he’s able to be something other than a rag.

At first there’s the recognition of evil, meaning that his ego directs him. Later another stage of recognition of evil occurs when he understands that if he is an egoist, then he is played with from Above and is shaken until all the rubbish in the rag is released. And afterward he begins to understand what belongs to what, and then he acquires free choice and tries together with the society to solve this problem.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/19/12, Lesson 7

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What Does Prayer Begin From?

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere is a prayer and there is a plea. A prayer is when man addresses the Creator with his intention, which is already prepared. A plea is when he first asks the Creator to form a prayer for him.

Around two and a half thousand years ago, King David wrote in his Psalms, “Le Maan achai vereai.” It means, “for the sake of my friends, I ask You, and for the sake of the whole of Your creation” (it is called the “home of the Creator” because He later fills it). For the sake of Your home, I ask for You to gather it all together, because Your home must house all nations of the world, as it is said, “For My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

We searched for the words with which to address the Creator. However, in reality, we must receive these words from Above. The Light must teach us its language, which is called “the holy language” that is built upon the quality of bestowal and love, contrary to our perceptions and their expressions today. So, in reality, our appeal begins with the plea for correction, a request to change.

In our movement towards the Creator, it’s very important to find and feel reciprocity. There is no Creator without the creation, and there is no creation without the Creator. The Creator is what is being formed inside of us, the quality of bestowal, which manifests into us. It’s a field that is perceived on some matter with that matter being us. That’s why only by having prepared the correct “base,” a place, we begin to manifest, reveal, and perceive what we will be calling the “Creator.” We are talking only about the perception of Him in us. That’s why the Creator is called “Boreh” in Hebrew, from the words “Bo” and “Reh,” meaning “come” and “see.”

Man must control his aspiration to the Creator. If it’s correct, then man feels the aspiration of the Creator towards him. Reciprocity is always there, if that intention is correct, the Light starts to manifest in it immediately. Sometimes it happens to be the opposite, when the Creator corrects us, showing that we are not aspiring towards Him correctly, that it’s necessary to do it from a deeper point in the heart. But we must always aspire to feel reciprocity.

Any plea, any correct approach, if we want it to be in the quality of bestowal, it necessarily must begin with gratitude. Otherwise, it’s simply an egoistic appeal. Even if we are thinking about receiving the prayer from Him, or even if we would have liked to approach Him for the sake of our friends, regardless of whether this appeal is correct, it must begin with gratitude. Only then, on the height of this gratitude can one ask and then this request will be directed further towards broadening bestowal. I am often asked, “What to do if I can’t find anything in myself for which I could be thankful for?” Since as a rule, in the state when man actually wants to ask, he feels bad and heavy.

You need to compare yourself with others and see that you are special; you have been chosen by the Creator. You see what’s going on with the rest of the people to whom He has not given the small perception of Himself, called the point in the heart.

It’s simply a point because we are not yet feeling anything inside of it other that it’s something that belongs to the upper one. That’s why it directs us somewhere forward. If it will widen, then a perception, realization, and revelation will be formed inside of it. For now it’s just a point, but it leads us forward. While for the people who do not have it, unfortunately, it’s much worse.

This means that gratefulness is possible here. Not the egoistic one for the fact that the Creator has made me special, but for the fact that by these means, He entrusts me to think of others. He, Himself, is located in His quality of bestowal and can’t get any closer to the creatures because then they would simply get “tied” to Him; they’d be tied to the Light, to the pleasure, and wouldn’t be able to pass into the quality of bestowal. That is why, through people like us, He gives the possibility to get closer to others and to gradually explain to them about contact with the upper force.

However, no matter what may happen, it’s very hard for us to go forward, although we know that everything comes from the Creator and everything is corrected by the Creator, the Light. Yet, our approach to Him must be formulated from us, but it’s also being formulated under the influence of our appeal to Him. That is called a prayer, or the preparation to a prayer: “Give us the possibility to correctly address you and ask correctly. Give us the possibility to ask not for ourselves as much as it is possible, to feel others, in order to ask on their behalf.”
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/19/12, Lesson 6

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Recreating Higher Harmonics

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam has an article titled “The Reason for the Difficulty of Annulling Oneself for the Creator.” Basically, this is most important. After all, what stands today between us is our ego, our “I.” If we were to nullify it, we would immediately feel the Creator to the extent of our nullification.

My egoism stretches from me to the world of Infinity. I gradually nullify it; in other words, I correct it in 125 steps, and the Creator keeps manifesting more and more in the corrected egoism.

Let us mark my point in the heart in red. It is I, and my egoism is before me. I rise as much as I am able to cut the “slices” of this egoism, until I correct all of it. And every time I correct it, the Creator becomes revealed in it.

This way, the “I” stands before us, between us and the Creator. This is why the article is called: “The Reason for the Difficulty of Annulling Oneself for the Creator.”

A person experiences difficulty when he wishes to nullify himself for the sake of the Creator, in other words, when he wishes to sacrifice his “I” for the quality of bestowal. After all, nullifying yourself means to completely stop caring for yourself. Moreover, this is just the first stage. And then, once I correct my entire past egoism to “stop caring” for myself, I begin to use it to work for the sake of others.

So, the entire reason it is difficult to nullify yourself is because the person feels like the entire world remains in its place, but he disappears. Then what is he left with? It seems like absolutely nothing. He leaves his family and friends in the name of nullifying himself for the sake of bestowal.

Then what am I, my friends, relatives, the world, everything that is in me and that I have? Other problems and questions arise as well. No matter how much I want to do it, I suddenly feel that something once again holds me from within, does not let me rise or invest myself fully.

Thus the ego, the only evil in the world, is multifaceted. And it keeps revealing itself more and more. I seem to have risen above it, I do not need anything for myself, I am ready to enter others and only exist in them, but as soon as I arrive at this moment, different thoughts that break me immediately appear in me, different desires, multidirectional intentions, and I once again lose the concrete, correct intention.

So, this entire problem, the reason for difficulty is simple, the problem is the lack of perception of the Creator. And the only thing that can help us with all our efforts is only feeling, revealing the Creator. There can be nothing else: Either you always feel yourself, always remain in yourself, and this egoism constantly “wobbles” you in it, taking your thoughts someplace else, or the Creator is revealed to you and only then will you be able to be in the power of the Creator, the power of bestowal, and not your egoism.

And, Baal HaSulam writes that as soon as the person feels the Creator, his soul, his inner desire immediately will want to connect with the root, to be a part of it, to nullify itself without a single thought just doing it naturally. We need to reach this state, in other words, we need to force the Creator to become revealed in us. And then all the problems disappear.

For this reason, the main thing that a person needs to reach is the perception of the Creator in order to feel that it is this quality, this force that fills the entire world and controls everything, and that there is none else beside Him. No emptiness of egoism will remain unfilled. All of it becomes filled with the Creator and becomes His absolutely obedient “operational device” doing everything according to the quality of bestowal, and connects to it without a single problem.

The upper Light created this desire, broke it, and shaped it into the form we perceive. The Light has specifically made the desire in this way and completely changes it by filling it. This is why the main thing a person needs to reach is the perception of the Creator, to feel that this quality fills the entire world and controls and governs absolutely everything.

This is also happening now, but it is concealed from us in order to obligate us to reveal Him, to desire His revelation. We must reach such degree of despair where we understand that only revelation of the Creator can save us. No other appeal will work: Coming together, giving us the right intentions, giving us strength, understanding what is happening, even uniting—all these things will be consequences of the revelation of the Creator.

And, Baal HaSulam writes that a person’s entire effort in his spiritual work must manifest in the attainment of this sensation, in other words, the realization of the fact that in reality, the only thing that he lacks and which solves absolutely all the problems is the perception of the Creator. He must not think about anything else but the main reward he would want to receive for all his efforts: to feel filled by the Creator.

There are no questions in this state. Everything is clear. But do we lose the freedom of will in this case? Do we become some “holy puppets?” The Creator rules in us and this obligates us to only operate through bestowal. Does this mean that we turn into “angels?”

It does not. This is because the quality of bestowal, which we receive from the perception of the Creator, does not nullify the egoism. It only fills it, and together they become like two categories, two forces, two qualities, which mutually complement one another. A person only acquires the true freedom of will when he has these two forces in equal proportion. The Creator does not suppress egoism and does not nullify it; He balances it in such a way that the person acquires the ability to be between these two qualities, these two forces of nature.

And then we begin to grow our point in the heart, connecting these two forces to it. It grows like a drop of semen in the mother’s womb.

Baal HaSulam continues that it is necessary to know that there is no difference between a big light and a small illumination, which a person attains. After all, there are no changes in the Light. All the changes only happen in perception.

In other words, we are always in the full, enormous volume of Light, but we feel it only to the extent of our correspondence, the similarity of our qualities to its qualities. And only our efforts in revealing the Creator create the higher qualities in us. If a person is able to increase his desires directed towards the quality to bestow, the right appeal, to the same extent he increases the quantity of Light that enters them.

What can he do to increase his desires, to expand them, and to prepare them for closeness with Light? Baal HaSulam’s response to this: by praising and exalting the Creator, the qualities of love and bestowal, the qualities of relating to your neighbor and others outside of yourself.

When a person acts this way, he feels grateful to the Creator for having brought him closer to Him, for giving him at least some foundation, some starting point, which allows him to begin to act this way, to rise above our world, our egoistic state. The person acquires the ability to at least slightly feel the Creator, the quality of bestowal, to somewhat understand what we speak about in the group, trying to find its center—the feeling that arises between us.

These are already certain preliminary flashes of Light, greater and greater radiance. Though, we feel like these are our desires, our thoughts, as if we are moved and found something in us. In reality, we are not able to find anything in us. When we develop certain feelings, all of them come only from the vibrations of Light, which is sometimes closer and sometimes further from us. When a feeling of warmth appears between us, when we express a greater connection, a wider net of relationships, it is only because the upper Light is beginning to gradually manifest.

And the main thing is that in addition to the importance of all this, I always need to be conscious and constantly try to verbalize inside myself how important the connection with the Creator is for me, this power to bestow, this universal force, which today is concealed from me; how the revelation of these two forces will give me the opportunity to act freely, to be like the Creator in relation to everyone else, in the same intention, love and bestowal.

This is no accident, it was the Creator who gave man the point in the heart, attracted him, and gave him the opportunity to advance spiritually. He is with us, with all the friends around the world. And the more importantly, the person deems this to be, the more he expands his Kelim, the place where Light, the Creator, will eventually manifest.

Gratitude to the Creator must always be greater than the request; the appeal must follow gratitude so that my attitude towards the quality to bestow would really come from my movement in its direction. And this only happens when I attune myself to gratitude, appreciation.

We need to express gratitude for everything, even the most unpleasant sensations. This way a person begins to understand the uniqueness of the Creator’s governance over him. He understands and realizes that all, even the most negative influences that he experiences in this world, are also designed for his sake, for his benefit. And the Creator Himself suffers from it a billion times more than him, just like we suffer in relation to our children.

This is why we must not blame Him for anything, be mad at Him, or be unhappy with something. When a person understands that he is under the influence of one, single, constant, eternal Force, then, of course, this state cannot exist. He always, first experiences the sensation of enormous gratitude as if he were melting in it, and then his appeal follows in the same direction.

But, Baal HaSulam writes that since a person only experiences everything inside his desires, he is never able to precisely evaluate the actual degree of connection between him and the Creator. This is because our egoistic desires, until corrected, always “deafen” the evaluation of our connection with the Creator. No matter how I perceive Him, even if it is in the best possible way, I still have a feeling about it, and I evaluate it. And my evaluation is always lower. This is because it is made in my egoistic, still-uncorrected desires, and this is why I always remain unhappy about something. Egoism removes an enormous amount of “overtones,” “higher harmonics,” from the perception of the Creator, and leaves only a poor light.

Imagine: Instead of my beloved appearing before me to embrace me and cover me in kisses, I was mailed a tiny package, and that is it. Similarly, my egoism in the end removes absolutely everything: I receive some package, which looks absolutely insignificant.

We must complete this on our own: these “harmonics,” “overtones,” the things filtered out by egoism, all the higher things it “cuts off,” the special attitude, pleasure, and sensation. We must add the things that were filtered out by egoism by using gratitude and exalting the Creator.

If I am able to do this, then I begin to perceive the manifestation of the Creator precisely in these additional “harmonics.” The filter removes Him and leaves me with nothing but a small, insignificant gift, a small glow, and I must restore it. And I restore it by addressing Him with admiration and being grateful. Then, in my address, the Creator reveals Himself.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/19/12, Lesson 6

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 09.02.12

Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Baal HaSulam Igrot,” Letter 21

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The Book of ZoharSelected Excerpt “Safra de Tzniyuta,” Lesson 11

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The Book of ZoharSelected Excerpt “Aharei Mot,” Lesson 1

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 1, Part 3, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Chapter 2, Item 3, Lesson 31

[media 9] [media 10]

Kabbalah for the Student, “A Handmaid that Is Heir to Her Mistress,” “A Slave and a Handmaid,” Lesson 2

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 09.01.12

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
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A Point Which Encompasses The Whole Process

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “A Handmaid that Is Heir to Her Mistress”: This is similar to a heavy load, which none can lift or move from place to place. Hence, the advice is to divide the load into small parts and subsequently transfer them one at a time.

The Creator has created a big, strong, thick desire to receive exactly according to His measure of bestowal and His desire to bring contentment to the created being. The Creator made this desire very complex, so that it can feel and understand Him and become similar to Him, so that it will accept and internalize the whole thought of creation and will process it in response. It is the same with the rich host, who although being first, wants the guest to become just like him without any limitations.

Many gradual corrections are required in order to do that. It is impossible to transfer the “load” at one time, meaning to correct the vessel that was created by the Creator. We have to clarify and to examine things in this vessel, to understand and to accept the process and to fulfill it on our part, in order to reach the identical form of the Creator. We have to do all that with attributes that we don’t even have.

A person is actually a machine, except for one point that comes from the Creator in the form of a spark. We don’t know what this spark is, but this is what brings us to life on the way to resembling the Creator. Something from inside doesn’t let me rest until I become like the Creator. If a person has such an urge, he must fulfill it without any questions. Only on the way, when he begins to understand something does he have freewill.

So it is about gradual actions through which we gradually add all the desires to receive to our spark, thus creating around it the form of the Creator. We build these forms from the desire to receive according to the plan that is in this point. All our Reshimot (reminiscences) from here until the end of correction are in this tiny “ball.” It is like a drop of semen, but this drop determines how and in which order parts of the desire will be added to it until a whole man is created around it.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/12, Article “A Handmaid that Is Heir to Her Mistress”

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Whom Do I Want To Please?

Dr. Michael LaitmanAccording to the wisdom of Kabbalah the ideal is to “please the Creator.” This means that we have to restrict ourselves and receive the Returning Light, which in turn means to be ready to accept His form in order to bring Him contentment. This is our goal; all the clarifications and all our actions are meant to “please Him.” It’s the same in our world when by wanting to please someone I accept his desires as my own.

But on the whole, the ideal in our world is to “show off” before others, according to their values, whether it’s wealth, respect, control, or knowledge. How do people want to attain success and greatness? They do so by feeling that “I” am important. We can see this clearly in the younger generation that grows with its natural instincts in search of values. By discovering everything that is important for others, the young yearn for success according to the scale of values that society dictates.

So whom do we want to boast before, the environment or the Creator? This is the difference between the world and the one who yearns to correct himself with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah. We want to advance and to be compatible with the Creator, to be equal to Him, and by that to bring Him contentment. The resemblance is possible only thanks to His force. We have to perform the right actions so that His force will influence us and make us resemble Him.

This work is called “the Torah and commandments.” Torah is the Light that Reforms, which means the Light that corrects us. In other words, we want to correct ourselves and not the world. This is the whole difference between those who deal with the wisdom of Kabbalah and those who deal with any other method.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is the method for the correction of man. A person advances to the level that he corrects himself by becoming similar to the Creator. This is why he needs the wisdom of Kabbalah, the wisdom of the Light. If he doesn’t have the goal of self-correction, he doesn’t deal with the wisdom of Kabbalah, but with something else.

This is where the great difference between all the dealings in the world and the work of people with the “point in the heart” who study and fulfill the wisdom of Kabbalah lies. For them the important thing is the constant internal changes. Others try to improve their lives by using those around them. There is a very big difference here. While the world presents the “moral perception,” we advance according to the method of the Torah, which means according to the Light that Reforms, or in other words according to the method of Kabbalah.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/29/12, Article “Exile and Redemption”

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Gratitude To The Creator Is The Elevator To New Heights

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the article “One’s Future Depends On and Is Tied to His Gratitude for the Past,” it is written: The praise and gratitude that one gives to the Creator for the past expand the feelings, the Kelim, his properties, and his abilities to feel and appreciate in heart and mind the Creator’s influence upon him. And one is elated by every single point of the interaction between them, begins to feel and understand, attaining to Whom he is presenting the result of his labors, and in accordance with that, by expanding his properties, he soars ever higher to new sensations.

This means that gratitude is necessary for us. We do not influence the Creator, the Light, in any way. We don’t understand what happens within Him further. We speak of these sensations only from our own attainment, from our feelings, from what are, through human language and within our experiences. When we speak about something or someone, we speak of how we envision this object. This is why Creator is called “Boreh” (“Bo” – “Reh”),  “Come” and “See.” It is because when you come to these properties, you discover Him within them, and based on these properties, you render your opinion.

Therefore, gratitude is necessary in order to expand our Kelim and to change their properties.

Each of us has a point in the heart, and right now we are feeling something inside this point. But we cannot sense any picture inside it, since everything is compressed into a single point. We need to expand and unfurl it. How can we do this? On the one hand, we do it through the gratitude to the Creator. But in order for this method to affect us, we need to broaden this point by gathering within ourselves the points of our friends.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/19/12, Workshop 7

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We Should Only Strive Upwards

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe more strongly we are drawn to bestowal, the more our vessels of reception are enlarged for us. If our vessels of reception get bigger, we suddenly fall and find ourselves in darkness, needing to correct these desires. And that’s why we need the vessels of bestowal again.

So if we yearn for adhesion in bestowal, this is enough in order to constantly sway up and down, like on a swing: once in reception and once in bestowal. Each time you advance by enlarging both the vessels of reception and the vessels of bestowal.

But if you only think about your vessels of reception and about their corruption, constantly checking what is in them, it will lead to nothing. You will only discover their greater emptiness and nothing more than that.

The shattering occurred so that we won’t be left with our egoistic desires with no hope for correction, and as a result sparks of bestowal entered the receiving desires. Thanks to these sparks, the desires to receive can connect to the desires to bestow and disturb their peace. Thus they insert their ego into the desires to bestow, Galgalta ve Eynaim.

This way the desires to receive, AHP, also get a chance to be corrected. By that we can understand how important the broad dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah is.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/12, Shamati #45

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