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Life Is Good If You Know Its Meaning

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere is only one means to reach the goal of creation—the science of Kabbalah. Any other goal that appears in this world can be achieved by using our forces. But we do not have the force to attain the goal of creation; we have no possibility of understanding it. We are not designed originally to be able to see the goal and reach it.

But there is a state inherent in the process of our development in which we feel bad without achieving the goal of creation even in our normal life on earth, as if it is not related to the higher goal. However, we exist in the material world to rise out of it and reach the goal of creation.

So, there comes a stage in our development when we suddenly feel that it is enough, we can no longer continue like that, and it is necessary to find the meaning of life. From this moment, a person begins to search for this meaning.

This question awakens in individuals and in entire groups or even in the whole world. Of course, this was facilitated by blows that people feel as suffering according to their current perception, meaning average worldly problems with food, family, money, respect, and knowledge.

A person feels a lack of fulfillment in these earthly desires, which cannot be satisfied with anything, and thus he starts crying: “What is the meaning of my life?” He loses the taste of his existence so much that he does not understand why he needs this life if he does not reach the goal.

Then, he comes to the need to realize the method of Kabbalah to achieve the goal of creation. So, the entire material life of humanity aspires to one goal.

To some it comes earlier, to others later, according to a specific process, depending on the root of each soul. But sooner or later, everyone must come to this goal, changing his nature so that all our egoistic desires diminish to the level of basic necessities.

This material level is neither condemned nor praised because a person satisfies these basic needs in order to exist for the realization of spiritual purpose. And all the available forces he will devote to the achievement of this higher goal.
[92813]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/13/12, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot 

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Dr. Michael LaitmanThe wisdom of Kabbalah is the only means that actually enables me to have control over my fate. No president or prime minister will help here, since the same fate that is in the hands of the Creator also “pulls them by the ear.”

But I don’t reach the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to pray and beg: “Please! Let me feel good!” I don’t want to reveal the Creator, to know His plans, to discover how to influence them, or how to be part of them. It isn’t just any revelation; I am given access to the “keyboard” from which the orders to all of reality are sent.

In addition to that, I am taught how to act, how to control, and to manage my fate and the fate of the whole world. I am told about the structure of the worlds and of this world, about the history of the process, its reasons and its direction, the nature of all of creation, the system of the leadership and the system of Providence. In short, there is nothing that is not included in the wisdom of Kabbalah. It tells us about nature and its absolute laws, which we don’t know. If we know them, we will have control over everything.

The Creator isn’t random outbursts of emotion, and not someone’s capricious desire that leaves me an opening to the truth at the last moment. The Creator is the general law of reality. If I study it, I know how to relate to it, how to incorporate in it, how to manage it.

If I want it, I will have that chance. With time I discover that I first have to understand the Creator. When I understand Him, I immediately agree with Him, just as a person agrees with his mother when he grows up and sees that her desires were only in his favor.

The opportunity to manage the absolute law is free of contradictions: By the revelation of the general system I see that only the right integration between Him and me is necessary here. I only need to change myself and I fulfill it on the levels of the spiritual ladder. On every level I turn to the Creator, and we are incorporated in each other and reach an agreement in the middle line, after which we are together in harmony and peace. We reach equality in the current state, in every moment of my life, because we both value it as the best.

Thus I manage my fate, since on His part it is managed in the same manner. What can be better for a person?
[92725]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/12, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is said that there is none wiser than the experienced. It seems to a person that he has been through a lot and that he understands a lot. However, there is none wiser than the experienced doesn’t refer to mere understanding, but to actually having been through all these states and feeling them. Who knows what other states are yet to come.

So a lot of patience and endurance are required of us no matter what happens. The main thing is to adhere to the environment that will help a person hold on in any situation and to not leave the path, to hasten time, and thus to turn all the problems that are revealed to help, for the good.

The evil that is revealed is detachment from adhesion, from the feeling that “there is none else besides Him.” This is what the person sees as evil and not the unpleasant bodily feelings, until all his organs begin to feel the same thing. This means that the Light that Reforms brings him an actual feeling of pleasure from the fact that there is none else besides Him that dominates him.

Until then a person has to go through many states in which he feels lost and wants to totally disappear from this reality. But eventually, he reaches opposite states when all the emptiness that is revealed turns into the one place in which he can value and praise the Creator’s domination, the dominance of the force of bestowal.

Then he is able to relate differently to all the states, relationships, people, and values that were previously hateful and caused him pain. He understands that “there is none else besides Him,” and that everything that happens is for his own good. Then he begins to love them until he attains complete absolute love.
[92695]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/12

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Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice): “Just how profound is this concern for status? A few years ago, a study was conducted in which participants were presented with pairs of hypothetical personal circumstances and asked to state their preferences. For example, people were asked to choose between earning $50,000 a year with others earning $25,000 and earning $100,000 a year with others earning $200,000. They were asked to choose between 12 years of education (high school) when others have 8, and 16 years of education (college) when others have 20. They were asked to choose between an IQ of 110 when the IQ of others is 90 and an IQ of 130 when the IQ of others is 150. In most cases, more than half of the respondents chose the options that gave them better relative position. Better to be a big fish, earning $50,000, in a small pond than a small fish, earning $100,000, in a big one.”

My Comment: That is, a person is willing to give up money, education, and intellect just so others have less! That is our nature: We perceive and appreciate everything relative to the environment. Therefore, the better environment we choose, the better options we envy, the greater achievements we can reach. It is useless to go against nature. You only need to learn how to use everything that it has invested in us.

How is it possible with these egoistic qualities to achieve integral interaction, brotherly participation, love for the other; what is required of us now at a new stage of human development?

That is why Kabbalah teaches us how to organize ourselves into small groups and create integral communities, like the connection of groups of cells into the organs of a body, and then the connection of the groups in the system, as in a living body, until everyone connects in a single organism—Adam.
[92816]

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Kabbalists’ Legacy: Not Only Books

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn Kabbalah, the historical aspect plays a minor role. It doesn’t matter when or in which generation a certain Kabbalist operated; what’s important is what he did and what he fulfilled in the general system of the worlds, which corrections he made, so that thanks to this, those who come after him would be able to advance in a better, easier way. I cannot assess the Kabbalists or compare them until I am in the upper system myself. I judge according to what I see today. Suppose someone has left wonderful writings that light my emotions and my mind and enable me to advance. Accordingly I see that Kabbalist as great.

On the other hand, Baal Shem Tov, for example, didn’t leave any books, but all the Kabbalists that followed him rose thanks to his study. The Ari didn’t write anything either, all his teachings were written by his disciple, Rabbi Chaim Vital. There were also Kabbalists who shortened the way for the next generations. It all depends on the root of a person’s soul. Only in the network of the connections between the souls can we discern what each of them did in the general framework, and what corrections he made in it.

Rabash says that the Talmud sages made the greatest corrections. On the one hand, they had attained spirituality on a very high level, and on the other hand, they were already in exile. This allowed them to write and to describe the states on a corporeal level and at the same time to make great spiritual corrections. In the “Introduction to TES Baal HaSulam speaks about the requirements of those times: “You shall eat bread and salt, drink water sparingly, sleep on the ground, and labor in the Torah.” But by their spiritual work, Kabbalists have annulled these extremely difficult conditions and left us only one means, the Light that Reforms. Since then, it is enough in order to fulfill the goal of creation.

They, of course, drew the Light before that too, as it says: “You shall labor in the Torah,” but this was in addition to asceticism. Later the authors of the Talmud developed the channels of abundance to such an extent that now we can lead an ordinary corporeal life, needing no luxuries and settling for the necessities. The Light creates such a reality that we don’t need to think or to worry about that.
[92700]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/12, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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The Limits Of Clairvoyance

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can you identify a Kabbalist? Even though the spiritual work is concealed, can the fact that a person speaks about correcting our desire be some indication of that?

Answer: I don’t know. He may have read Kabbalah books many times and describes their content to you. Well, what of that? Is he a Kabbalist according to this? Or is it enough that his blessing makes your body tremble?

And what if a person says something and it happens a couple of days later? There are quite a few people in the world that can foretell the future, but a fortuneteller is not a Kabbalist. He tells you what will happen to you in this world, but it has nothing to do with Kabbalah and nothing to do with spirituality.

A well-known fortuneteller, Wolf Messing, accurately foresaw the events that were to happen in the future including world wars and peoples’ fates. He even predicted the day and the hour of his own death. During the crisis with Cuba, he actually revealed all the cards, describing the concerns of the two sides and the consequences of any move. As a result, the two sides reached an agreement and eliminated the threat of war.

A person can feel what is about to happen in the world, since everything already exists, but is concealed from our perception. For us it is a secret, but in fact there is no time and it is about the levels that are revealed one following the other, so there are people who can see “through” this order.

Imagine that I am short-sighted and it would take me five minutes to get close enough to you to recognize you. On the other hand, if I put on my glasses, I will be “closer” to you without having to wait five minutes and will immediately identify you. Time and distance are the same thing, the same essence, it all depends on the “glasses”…

One way or the other, such abilities have nothing to do with Kabbalah. Different secret agencies use such techniques, but clairvoyants are not Kabbalists.

A Kabbalist is a person who identifies with the Creator and is already on the spiritual ladder. What is more, it is a person who can already receive in order to bestow on the third level of the first Sefirot.
[92698]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/12, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Constant Care

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I live in Saint Petersburg. What can I give to the Georgian group while physically present at this congress?

Answer: This is a very good question.

First of all you can give your warmth and physical participation. You can leave them with the impression that many people from all over the world are with them, that they are not alone in the mountains, they are our big family and together we are advancing toward the goal; we can’t do it without each other, otherwise we won’t this goal. If the Creator aroused all of us that means we have to work accordingly, we cannot separate any part of ourselves and say that “we’ll deal with them later.” This can’t be done.

It’s like children in the family: Can one be taken care of at the expense of the other? You have to do something with each child and the same thing applies here.

The most important thing for them to understand is that we see them, we feel them, we’re watching them, and we want to see them growing stronger.

On one hand, we have to offer our help and support and on the other, show them that we expect them to become big and successful. This is the kind of impression we must leave them with and afterward we must constantly keep in touch with them.

This is really a good, serious group and these are good states. Georgia is a very important region. As strange as it may seem, it influences everyone else. There are a few places in the world such as the Baltic states and Georgia where the population is only a few million, but they are very sensitive.

This is why we must help the Georgian group and show great concern.

We have to understand that Georgia in relation to great forces such as Russia, Europe, and America is a rather delicate point. Thus, it’s here in particular that our fine work can give results in many distant places.
[92561]
From the Georgia Convention 11/6/12, Lesson 2

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The Creator Is Revealed Within The Unity

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe next level after love of friends is love the other as you love yourself. We connect not only with the point in the heart but also with all the other values which complement one another like one harmonious chorus. And then I begin to love all the attributes of all the friends because they complement me and I complement them, forming one complete whole.

Through the point in the heart we are not able to connect in order to reach equivalence of form with the Creator. We reach equivalence of form with Him when all of our attributes become completely connected, complementary with each other. Therefore, love the other as yourself is the level on which unity, that is, the Creator is revealed in man.

From here it is clear how important my friends are to me. Their importance is that without them I am not able to reach anything. We are all parts of one creation and we broke and feel ourselves as divided. Everyone is an egoist, feels only himself, and others he feels only to the extent that according to his concepts, they can help him or bother him. This means that friends are only important in mutual work, and it is only when I constantly annul myself in front of them that I am able to connect to them. This is the importance of the group.

Attainment of the goal depends on our constant longing from the beginning egoistic point of each person, the point in the heart, via the group, via the connection to the revelation of the Creator within it. This means the quality of the One, the Unique, the Unified.

The “Creator” is specifically an attribute and not something that exists personally. We can’t feel anything in separation. We feel the manifestation only on matter. Thus, when we speak of a certain force, we mean where and how it is expressed.

Accordingly, when we speak of the Creator, we mean the attribute of unity, uniqueness, love, bestowal, the attribute of abundance, the completeness that is revealed in us. Otherwise, we can’t speak of Him since we don’t know how it can happen externally to us.

So the group must reach a state where it will demonstrate the attribute of the Creator.

From here appear many different conclusions: “How to make a friend”? How to relate to him: as to greater or smaller than myself? Like to a student or to a Rav?

It turns out that all of the answers are correct: Also as an equal, also as a student, and also as a Rav. At first sight, how can he be equal to me, if all of us have completely different natures!? He can be equal to me only in one thing: I am not able to attain the Creator without him and he can’t without me. It seems that from the beginning we are partners in adversity.

And afterward we begin to operate in the following way: Each one of us needs to be above the friend in order to help him, and to be under the friend in order to know how to receive inspiration from what he has, to receive from him the recognition of the importance of the goal, and to yearn for unity. This longing is lacking in each one of us and will always be lacking. It is possible to receive it only from others.

Thus I work with the friends: He is greater than me, he is smaller than me, he equals me. And then a connection really takes place. The main point of this work is called, “Make yourself a Rav and buy yourself a friend.”
[92451]
From the Georgia Convention 11/06/12, Lesson 2

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