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The Ego’s Evil Under The X-Ray Of Hatred

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe examine love relative to the hatred that awakens in a person toward the source of evil: whether he can love the source of his suffering despite his feeling bad. By that, he has to isolate himself from the evil, from the place in which he feels the suffering, as if it isn’t his nature.

This is a very delicate point. In the ordinary egoistic nature I hate the one who brings me sufferings, the source of evil. It’s just as we often soothe a child who hurt himself by hitting his head on a table, by telling the child to hit the table back. It’s a natural, instinctive animal response.

But the spiritual work was meant for the correction of man, and all the corrections are possible only if I feel that someone makes me feel bad and I realize what comes to me is only love and goodness. So all the painful signs should focus me not on the source of this bad feeling but on the source of evil inside me, on the place where I feel this evil, on my evil inclination. It’s there that I feel sufferings, bad relations, and that is what I have to detach myself from, to put a Masach (screen) on, a restriction, so that eventually it will turn the evil to its opposite form.

It’s as if there is a table before me with a five-course meal and every dish tastes horrible, smells bad, and looks rotten. It isn’t just that the food is a bit salty or too spicy, but that it’s actually poisonous. I, on the other hand, have to correct my vessels of perception so that I can love this food, which at first seems impossible. In the same manner we also reach love on top of the correction of our vessels in which we feel hate.
[104123]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/3/13

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What Lies Ahead?

Dr. Michael LaitmanAn endless process is expected in which there will be big local conventions. On the 10th to 12th of May there will be a convention in the US, in New Jersey, and in June there will be a convention in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. In July there will be a convention in St. Petersburg, in August there will be a convention in Europe, and in September the holidays begin in Israel…in short there is a big convention in a different country every month.

I see all these meetings, as well as the study and our workshops, not as isolated events, but as an uninterrupted, continuous, smooth process in which we are “pressured” to reach the gathering before Mt. Sinai. We have to clarify all the stages and then go through them internally, and this will be, of course, accompanied by many inner eruptions and explosions, and at the same time, we have to stay on track in order to eventually discover the new spiritual vessel, a new life.

You must understand that we have to die and be reborn internally. We have to be reborn in our perspective of life and of the world, in all our set of values, in education, and culture, in everything. We have to change, to move on to an unknown round, adjusting to a dimension that we cannot even imagine now.

In order to do that, we need a strong collective force and a continuous evolutionary process. No matter what happens, we have to think only about correction. The “ten plagues of Egypt” will be revealed to us, and so we have to learn from Moses what to do about them. The Torah calls him “the most humble of all.” This means terrible suffering and above that, gratitude and joy. See how much trouble the people of Israel caused him in the desert…

We will go through these steps together.
[104120]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/13

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A System Of Spiritual Measurement: The Group

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is it possible to check whose servant you are: a servant of Pharaoh or a servant of the Creator? How is this examination realized, intellectually or emotionally?

Answer: We check with the mind what we feel in our heart. A heart is all the desires of a person, and I need to check who controls my desires: the will to receive with an intention in order to receive or with an intention in order to bestow. The will to receive is always there; it is the substance of creation, but I must examine for what I am working.

This examination is done only through the group. In our physical world we cannot measure anything without a scale of measurement. We require some unit of measurement: a meter, a kilogram, Hertz, a measurement scale with which I will be able to measure and weigh some phenomenon.

How can I weigh a desire and my intention that controls it? This is only possible depending on how I adhere to the group and associate myself with the whole. Through this I can measure myself and change something within me. Otherwise, I will always be mistaken.

Therefore, “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself” is called the fundamental rule in the Torah for it controls everything. If I do not place myself correctly relative to society, I will not be able to see where I am at all. With my measurements, I will not be able to discern any error, neither the smallest nor the largest.
[103981]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/13

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We Are Not Slaves To Slaves, Rather We Are Servants Of The Creator!

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, “Dargot HaSulam,” Article 932, “The First Innovation”: All innovations begin only after the person merits leaving acquisition for himself. And before then, he is absolutely immersed in his desire for pleasure, and this desire dominates him. Therefore, no innovation can happen in him, everything comes only from his ego. An innovation can come only through the power of another nature, which a person doesn’t have yet. For this reason, all innovations begin only after the person leaves his ego, the desire to receive for himself, which is to say, he leaves Egypt.

And this is the idea that it is forbidden to teach Torah to idol worshippers.

One who serves other gods is a person who still doesn’t have contact with the Creator, who hasn’t exited Egypt. This is the name of a spiritual level, so, a regular person of this world is not to be called this. Idol worshippers are people like us who are drawn to the Creator, but they still ascribe particular importance to material values, to reception for oneself.

For this reason they are called AKUMA (an acronym for “Servants of stars and constellations,” and also round-about (Akum), “indirect”). You see they are not directed “straight to the Creator” (Yashar-El), like Israel rather they worship stars and fate, which is to say, they are found dominated by various egoistic forces and values.

It is forbidden to teach Torah to idol worshippers. “Forbidden” means impossible. You see the Torah is the Light, the entire upper system, all the spiritual worlds, the relationships between a person and the Creator. It is impossible to teach this to an idol worshipper, who is found in egoistic receptivity and has no connection to the system of bestowal.

And indeed, when the person is in Egypt, which is to say in egoistic receptivity, he cannot be a Yehudi, (from the word “Yichud” – unity, which is to say uniting himself with the entire creation and with the Creator), for he is enslaved to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. The person is enslaved by his ego, the king of the material world.

And when he is a slave to Pharaoh, he cannot be a servant of the Creator. It is either Pharaoh or the Creator, because everything depends on the intention, with what a person identifies himself and what he wants to serve: personal benefit or bestowal.

“And this is the idea, ‘For the children of Israel are mine,’ they are my servants,” the Creator says, “and don’t be a slave to slaves.” You see, Pharaoh is also a servant of the Creator, he is an angel, and he is a system which carries out the thought of creation from compulsion, without any free choice. Pharaoh is an angel; you see it is written: “I created the evil inclination.” The entire creation, the entire ego is found in the hands of the Creator. And if the person serves in the name of Pharaoh, he is called a “slave to slaves,” for he serves the slave and not the Master.

When a person serves himself, he cannot be a servant of the Creator, for it is impossible to serve two kings at the same time. And only after the person leaves Egypt—after he receives enough Light that Reforms, raising him above his desire for pleasure—which is from reception for oneself, then he can be a servant of the Creator. But in order to remain a servant of the Creator, he needs to choose this all the time: in each and every moment, with every desire. And then he is ready to merit to the Torah. What follows from this is that the first innovation is the departure from Egypt.

The Torah begins with the departure from Egypt and onward; therefore, after this the giving of the Torah happens. The Torah includes all the Light of Infinity, all the upper Light, which fills the upper worlds and is designed for the gradual correction of the will to receive of the creature until he reaches equivalence of form with the Creator.
[103938]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/13

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“Scientist Predicts”

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Chris Martenson): “Chris Martenson is a world-renowned expert on identifying dangerous, yet hidden, exponential growth patterns in global economies, energy demand, and food consumption…

“And he is predicting a 60% stock market collapse will strike in the next three months.

“Martenson’s opinion isn’t to be taken lightly, as his research is highly regarded by the United Nations, UK Parliament, and Fortune 500 companies. …

“Unfortunately, Martenson is not the only economist predicting a massive, historic meltdown.

“In fact, his figures are conservative compared to other experts in his field.

“In a recent interview, Robert Wiedemer — an economist best known for correctly predicting the collapse of the U.S. housing market of 2006 and the stock market collapse of 2008 — provides disturbing evidence for 50 percent unemployment, a 90 percent stock market crash, and 100 percent annual inflation . . . starting this year.”

My Comment: The fact is this trend can be stopped only by moving immediately to integral education for the public, and in line with this, gradually reducing production to the necessary dimensions.

Integral education will allow the transition to equal rational allocation of required products, goods, and services, and will provide all the other resources for education and training, i.e., for the correction of people as an integral part of nature. Only in this way will we be able to prevent blows that will nonetheless bring us to make the same conclusions. for the correction of people as an integral part of nature.
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So The Group Will Absorb Everything

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the meaning of adhering to the group?

Answer: To adhere to the group is to be with the friends in the entire process through which they are passing, to perform the tasks, to participate in all the events: in studies, dissemination, duties, gatherings of friends, workshops, and paying maaser. I need to try to be a useful and active participant in all this. These are mechanical actions of joining a group, which are visible.

Besides this, within myself, I wholeheartedly try to be included in this image called a “group,” to disappear, to melt there. I want to be absorbed within this concept of the “group,” the “society,” so that nothing of me remains.

If I try to do this according to my egoistic motives, to the extent of my efforts, I become closer to the Light, and It brings me thoughts about this and shows how appropriate I am to it or not. So, I begin to demand that the Light correct me more. I begin to relate to my inclusion in a group in a more practical way, connecting this inclusion with the Light that influences me and helps me to enter a group.

It follows that the more I am included in it, the more states I begin to discern: greater or smaller inclusion, how much I forget about myself, how much more I belong to the friends, how much more or less I love them. Only according to this do I evaluate my ascents and descents, since no other ascents and descents exist.

And so together with everyone, I turn to the upper Light that makes of us one whole. And here the work begins. All measurements and evaluations take place only in regard to the group because without this there is no correct measuring scale, there is no correction with which I would be able to examine myself.

I have no indication and evaluation of my emotions, not in relation to the Creator and not in relation to myself, if we don’t do this within the group. The group is the place where I feel, measure, and carry out all spiritual actions.

There is no other place outside of it! There, in the group, I need to discover hatred and my ego, all of my characteristics. All that is discovered outside the group doesn’t require any correction. Only what is discovered in the relationships between the friends, this is the only thing that we need to correct. Pharaoh, the ego is the force of mutual rejection and of hatred that is discovered in a group. And outside the group, this is all the physical life of the animal body.
[103976]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/13

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The Shell Of Security

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Three times a week for half an hour, I teach children in one group and twice a week in another. We play unity, that we love each other, and they love this. But they will leave me in two years. Will it hurt them when they leave for the world where they are not liked much?

Answer: Don’t worry. It will be much easier in the world for a person who has received integral training. We think that we need to prepare children for our cruel world, so that they are ready for any problem. Don’t do that. On the contrary, these people suffer most of all. And if a person relates to everything softly, with the help of the upper Light, he creates a shell of security around himself.
[104040]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/23/13, Lesson 5

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Starting To Work With The Light

Starting To Work With The LightWhen the descent ends, you begin to realize that it would be better to control it and to ask for a Masach (screen) that would enable you to transcend such state. Then, despite the inner repulsion, you would be able to aspire to the friends and to still feel love and connection. You understand that this is the better way.

The first time it happens, you can’t make any decisions while in the state of descent. You only feel how total darkness falls on you, burying you under it. Then you examine yourself and think that it could be good to learn to somehow control such states. The next time darkness comes, you try to somehow resist it and ask for help.

You don’t really succeed, but when the darkness disappears, you examine yourself again and think with what to arm yourself for the next round of darkness so as to ask for a screen. Thus, each time you grow wiser since “there is no wiser than the experienced.” Eventually, your reach a state in which you begin to demand a screenyou begin to work with the Light.

This is the most important moment in our work: being able to see the Creator as your partner and to actually start working with Him, as it says, “I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me.”
[103765]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/13

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Contractions That Precede The Birth Of A New World

Contractions That Precede The Birth Of A New WorldQuestion: Have we reached the lowest point from the Creator?

Answer: We are at a doorstep of sensing the Creator. We can tell by observing what is going on in the world and within ourselves. We exerted enough, held a huge number of conventions, including the ones in the desert. We hope that this current convention, the upcoming Passover week in Israel, as well as our efforts that are directed to unity and mutual connection will become the last attempt and we will attain revelation.

We don’t know when it will happen. It always happens unexpectedly. It’s described in the original sources. Generally speaking, we are standing at the doorstep of a spiritual revelation. As a rule, it always emerges out of the darkness. The transition to the next step always takes place similar to the exodus from Egypt in the middle of the night or to the birth of a child who comes into the world out of nothing, from the darkness.

Let’s hope that we will attain revelation here and now. We have to stay alert, wait, and wish for it to happen to us every minute of our lives. Even if it doesn’t happen immediately, still my personal understanding and experience tells me that it will definitely happen.

By no means can I sign for it or pledge that it will happen since everything that occurs to us depends on the entire the world. That’s why neither I nor the greatest Kabbalist of the world are capable of predicting how and when it will happen. We are pioneers. Past Kabbalists were individualists; they revealed spirituality among themselves, in small groups, such as Rabbi Shimon’s disciples, students of the ARI, Ramchal, and Baal HaSulam.

Now, it’s our turn to transition to the next level. I can’t accurately predict the exact date or any specific conditions that will bring us to revelation. Nevertheless, we are at the doorstep, on the eve of entering a spiritual realm. Nine months of intrauterine development are over and the labor has already started. This is the state we are in at this time. It can last for a while, similarly to how a child moves slightly back and forth, and the mother senses this movement as birth contractions. We are already at this stage.

Question: Is it the lowest point from the Creator in respect to the humanity?

Answer: It’s the farthest point and at the same time it’s the closest one. After all, there has to be a difference of potentials.

Contractions That Precede The Birth Of A New World

On one hand, “birth contractions,” a huge tension and tremendous efforts, are inevitable. One may wonder, what is happening? But we know from everyday life that this is the way children are born. Everything will turn out well.

Question: How do we sense the life of this point: individually inside each of us or in the group?

Answer: It’s not a point any more. We will be born when we connect. Connection among us will be a construction consisting of ten parts, ten Sefirotthe first image of an infant that we will birth. This construction of ten parts has to have a certain structure: an internal tension and a huge power that connects all antagonistic, egoistic, desires together. A unity of complete opposites creates a “voltage” where the upper Light becomes revealed.

It’s a law of physics, a superficial molecular tension, nothing but that! We observe the same things in everything around us: in nature, in technologies. Any natural phenomena are built from opposites.
[103407]
From the European Convention 3/22/13, Lesson 1

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