Audio Version Of The Blog – 04.08.13

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As The Call, So The Echo

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How will the force of unity in Europe help us reach our next level at the upcoming convention in America?

Answer: Europe and America have a strong influence on each other. But the fact is that the crisis in America is felt much less; there’s a possibility to gloss over it there. In America, there is one government, one power; there is no need to negotiate anything with anyone. They can do whatever they want and that’s it. They decided to print a hundred billion dollars more and printed them. The printing press is operating.

In Europe, it is much more difficult because it requires coordination between all the countries. That is why the crisis is felt much more there. If Europe had united, it could have dealt with the crisis easily. First, the crisis would have subsided quickly because the EU citizens had united above their egoism. In general, Europe is today’s Babylon.

But in addition, they would have begun to adopt a single solution and could do the same as the Americans. The whole crisis has spread only because Europe is divided. One part of Europe from Brussels dictates to the other part of Europe: And the other part doesn’t want this; in Nicosia, Cypress, the parliament refused to accept their decisions.

What kind of union is this? They will have to either truly unite or disintegrate.

In America, the condition is better from the point of view that they have simply decided, “We have no crisis.” They have determined this and live as if nothing has happened. But later of course, everything will “collapse.”
[104435]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/24/13, Lesson 6

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A Descent Is The Momentum For The Leap Upward

Dr. Michael LaitmanSpiritual vessels are made of the desire to receive and its restriction, the Masach (screen), and the shame that is contained within it. The shame is for not being able to turn myself to bestowal and of being afraid to tie every state that I go through to the One who bestows.

When I rise after a descent from the sensation of evil and from that height examine the previous state, I see that it wasn’t bad. I understand that the descent was the preparation for the current ascent. I begin to love and to value the previous state and to be grateful for it since without that descent, I wouldn’t be able to ascend now.

This allows me to value my ascent even more since it comes to correct the previous flaws. So, I correct this ascent by my new attitude toward it and learn from this experience for the future. Now, I know that I must prepare myself for the next state, for the next descent, so that I will be able to control it as much as I can and to work above reason.

There are very few chances to work above reason in a state of ascent, but the descent helps us here. The descents are actually the most helpful states, not the ascents.

A person’s work is to be grateful for the past and thereby prepare for the future. We should always say that everything that has happened up until now, whether a conflict with the friends or whatever it may be, was done by the Creator and that there is none else besides Him. You must add all these states toward the revelation of the Creator to you whether it is in the form of His “posterior” if it is a descent or in the form of His “face” if it is an ascent.

In the future, we must be prepared for whatever happens. This is called total devotion. This is what we prepare ourselves for in the group through investing our efforts in it in mutual guarantee and mutual help, which eventually return to the person himself.

Everything depends on our preparation. If we sit idly and do nothing, we hardly will feel any descents and ascents, but only mild changes in our mood. However, if we prepare ourselves in the connection with the friends, then we will be able to manage the pace of our advancement and see all our advanced states positively: both the ascents and the descents.

It is harder to relate decisively to an ascent than to a descent. In fact, when we are in an ascent, we are under the influence of the pleasure that totally fills us and doesn’t allow us to clarify the state we are in and to control the desires.

During a descent, however, it is your desire that forces you to look for help and even for salvation. Therefore, as it is written, “Pharaoh has brought the sons of Israel closer to our Father in Heaven.” The desires that are revealed during a descent—in exile, in suffering and in feeling bad—are those that bring a person closer to the goal, while the ascents don’t really help us advance.
[104233]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/13, Writings of Rabash

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A Prayer That All The Wicked Will Repent

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I know that I cannot ask for myself even if I want to please the Creator myself. Instead, one can ask only for the friends. So, how can I ask for help from the Creator to give me the strength?

Answer: You need to ask for help to be included in the group and to bestow to the friends in order to bestow to the Creator through them. Specifically this is the right request that attracts the Light that Reforms to us. Here, a closed circle, a ring, is created. I ask the Creator for the ability to bestow to Him.

And it would seem that everything depends on Him—how much I receive so that I can bestow to Him? But it is not so because all the preparations that occur in this cycle depends on me. It is impossible to go through this without feeling the anguish, the evil, and the pressure that ultimately require me to turn to the Creator.

All my efforts are not to be rid of the bad physical sensations, the beastly anguish, but rather, what I invest is not in order to be released from the bad physical emotions, from the beastly troubles, but to give to the group and add to it for the good. I can advance only like this, not like a beast that flees from the blows.

If we suddenly find ourselves pressured, frightened, and confused, we cannot want just to flee from this state because it is unpleasant. Rather, we should want this condition to advance us toward the Creator who arranged this for us. If all of us feel like this, then we will advance.

I don’t ask the Creator to take all the unpleasantness, all the evil, from me, but I ask for the evil to be transformed to good. So, the person needs to pray: “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.”
[104228]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/13, Writings of Rabash

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The Revelation Of Egoism Is The Highest Gift Of The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I am very excited about your statement to women and I think that it is right, especially after the experience I gained as a result of the exercise that you suggested: try to get closer to unity and if you find that you criticize your girlfriends, attribute this to the Creator.

As a result of this exercise, I discovered that my attitude not only to my friends but toward absolutely everyone (except my kids) is criticism. It is like an instinct, like breathing, which you do not notice. And the more you do it, the more it persists. Despite the fact that I continue to attribute this to the Creator, it is growing, and I just don’t have strength up to the point of nausea. Sometimes there is a desire to have someone wipe me out.

What can I do with this if it is my nature? Men do not have it; they are much purer. How can we, women, help each other find and correct this quality?

Answer: Only when a person applies efforts to unite in the group according to the method of Kabbalah does one discover in herself or himself the forces that oppose this. These forces are called egoism. And all the other desires to “grab” more for oneself exist in everyone, even in animals, and from the point of view of Kabbalah are not considered egoism.

What to do: the same as the men do, who also have this but in a different form. The revelation of egoism (Pharaoh) is the highest gift of the Creator because this brings the need to turn to Him for help! And turning to Him leads to His revelation!
[104060]

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Another Planet – And Chaos

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Julia Fang and Jean-Luc Margot, University of California, Los Angeles): “The planets in our solar system are delicately arranged, according to astronomers. If a new planet were suddenly introduced, the additional gravitational pull would result in collisions and orbital ejections. Now that significant planetary systems have been discovered around other stars, astronomers are trying to determine whether those systems are similarly delicate. To that end, Julia Fang and Jean-Luc Margot of UCLA created millions of simulations of three- and four-planet solar systems, based on the arrangements of those that have been discovered by the Kepler space telescope. The average spacing of the simulated planets was very similar to that of the planets in our solar system. When Fang and Margot then introduced a new planet to each of the simulated systems, they found that at least one-third of the three-planet systems and nearly one-half of the four-planet systems became catastrophically unstable. Although the researchers caution that Kepler‘s observations allow for some variations in planetary arrangements, they believe that balanced systems such as our own are common.”

My Comment: There is a plan in everything, system dependence, full mutual connection and purpose. The only correct work of man is being in accordance with the absolute law of nature, which is achieved by studying and applying integral education and upbringing. Knowledge of the upper system will allow us to travel beyond time and space, changing them by changing our properties. How to realize it practically is explained and studied in the science of Kabbalah.
[104009]

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There Are Things That You Have To Do Yourself

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, Shlavei Hasulam, 1984/1985, Essay 19, “Come to Pharaoh – A”: The Secret of the Pursuit of the Evil Inclination and the Other Side Is to Cause the Tzadikim to Err and to Adhere to the Sacred.

The evil inclination is an “angel” that rightly carries out its work. It constantly shows us how weak we are and not ready for anything and thus obliges us to turn to the Light that Reforms. And then we receive a power from above that carries out what is necessary. So, if the ego were not to show us our complete failure, we would agree with what is and would never turn to the Light.

The evil inclination is not the sum of evil tendencies; it awakens in me not despair from failure in these or other things because I am an egoist. The evil inclination is a unique force that stands against the Light and points at It by its opposition: “Here this is what you need.” So, darkness awakens us to search for Light, to awaken the dawn. This is not just the ego with its constant lusts and desires: jealousy, lust, honor, control, and so forth. No, instead, the evil inclination is the “bad” tendencies thanks to which we feel the need for help from Above. So this is saying that it is essentially also good.

Question: But you sometimes talk as if we have the power to advance…

Answer: Without wasting these powers, you would not realize that you need to ask for help. It is not enough here to know only that you are powerless—you must also have the experience. Look at a toddler: No matter how many times you explain something to him, he needs to try everything himself, and not just once. He doesn’t believe your words: “What do you need to do this for if you don’t ever succeed?” No, he must go through everything on his own.

Question: But in spite of all this, isn’t it terrible that we have to waste all that time?

Answer: This is exactly why we need it. You see, by trying to act independently you are correcting the Kelim, your desires. From time to time, when you reach despair, you are gradually purifying and arranging them. Understandably, you want to jump immediately to the final correction, but you must learn a little first.

All the Lights and all the Kelim, vessels, descended from the perfect world of Infinity to an absolutely imperfect and shattered state. Thus a system was created—from opposition between the Light and the vessel—you cannot improve upon the already established sequence. After all, there is nothing superfluous or peripheral here. The Light bestows in an absolute form and the vessel receives in an absolute form, and we build the appropriate connection between them. This is not something arbitrary or someone’s whim; this is the inevitable consequence of conditions that were originally set.

Between the two desires—bestowal and reception—another system of relationships cannot be created different from what is in the worlds of Adam Kadmon and ABYA. There simply cannot be. Absolute laws are at work here; so there is no reason to be sorry about “wasting time.” You cannot skip to Infinity in one leap. You need to pass through all the stages; otherwise, the will to receive will not succeed in acquiring the intention to bestow.

On the way to final correction, you require the Creator, the Light, more and more. Call Him whatever you want, but there is only one force that acts in reality. And within your great will to receive there is a small point. It needs to understand where it is found, to identify its desire and turn to the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif – OM) with a request that all parts of this desire will be corrected. There is nothing other than this. All of our work relies on this: that from this point in our desire we turn to the Light.

Yet for this many tests and attempts are required. You see you are working with the ego, a force that wants to establish its dominance and won’t allow turning to the Creator. On the contrary, the Creator is concealed to the degree that you establish yourself; we must decide: “It’s either me or Him.”

And therefore, (1) we first need to make the first restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph – TA) on our ego. This doesn’t say that we destroy it; we only recognize that with its help one is not allowed to reach bestowal. You don’t want to use the ego, even if you want to. So you cause it to “atrophy.”

After that, (2) you turn to Bina; you want the force of bestowal to rule in you. This brings you to a particular discovery (3). It is true that you only discover the Light of Hassadim, but this is already something. Thus gradually you remove the coverings, the concealment, from yourself…

There Are Things That You Have To Do Yourself
Imagine this from an example. There are two people in front of you: me and a young man who is energetic, smart, handsome, and whose accomplishments are obvious. Next to him it is as if I dissipate, fade from your field of vision. So, all of your work now is to move the focus from one to the other. He conceals, covers, and hides me. This means that you need to “nullify” him from your eyes. So you “restrict” him and then start replacing him with me. It turns out that I am worth something; I am important to you, and so you are ready to enter under my authority instead of his authority….

Thus, many actions are required, steps on the way to bring you to revelation. Nothing is done by itself. From the start, you are under the authority of the egoistic desire and need to pass to the authority of the altruistic desire. You see, your desire cannot remain “not associated with anything”; either the intention to receive or the intention to bestow must dominate it. And this transition requires some time.
[103986]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/13, Writings of Rabash

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In The Magnetic Field Of Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is prayer?

Answer: Prayer is a request to the Creator to give me the power of bestowal. The general power of bestowal, upon which the world is based, dwells within the world; it is the foundation of the world. This power is called the Creator, the Emanator, and it is the foundation of all of reality. If I turn to it, I can only ask for the power of bestowal. What else could it give me?

I ask this power to approach me, which is to say, to influence me more with its power of bestowal. But when the Creator begins to affect me with His bestowal, I can hold onto this in various ways. If I am ready for it and have similar characteristics, I feel His approach as good, good for me. But if I have opposing characteristics, then I perceive His approach as something bad.

So, there are two forms of grasping the Light: like a “rooster” or like a “bat.” Why does the bat ask for light, that it will be like the darkness?

A prayer is called the raising of MAN, “Mei Nukvin.” The feminine desire, Nukva, my will to receive, wants to rise to the level of Binah; it is asking to be given the characteristic of bestowal.

What is called prayer is when we turn to the Creator, to the Light, to the characteristic of bestowal, asking this bestowal to dwell in us and become our own characteristic. I cannot be like the Creator, “a part of the divine above,” but I want His characteristic to begin to dominate in me.

As long as the Creator illuminates me through His bestowal, this characteristic is found in me and to that degree I have that characteristic. But if the Creator takes His bestowal from me, I fall immediately. It is as if a magnetic force is holding me in the air like a piece of metal. It acts on me all the time, and so I am suspended in the air. The moment that this influence stops, the moment that the magnet stops streaming its flow, the force that holds the piece of metal, and its field disappears, then immediately this piece falls.

So we also receive the force of bestowal. We don’t receive it directly within our nature; instead we always remain with the nature of the will to receive, like the piece of metal suspended in the air. It can be suspended in the air only due to the influence of the Light. Therefore, prayer must never stop; we depend on the Creator all the time.
[103929]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/13

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The Only Way To Be Happy

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If the created being was created in order to please it, then why must a person work in order to attain bestowal upon the Creator and cannot simply enjoy life, only goodness?

Answer: A person sometimes can enjoy the corporeal life, but not all his life and not all the time. Even very rich people who really have everything cannot feel pleasure every moment of their life since it wasn’t the goal of creation.

Looking closely, we will see that even a king’s life isn’t easy. The Creator arranges a role for everyone and forces a person to advance according to the goal of creation, in a good or a bad way. People usually advance by the path of suffering, which is called “in its time.” But if a person’s soul has a special root, he is given a chance to hasten his development, to “sanctify time,” which means that he actually can participate in the Creator’s work. In order to do so, he must hold onto two forces internally, not operate according to one force like ordinary people do.

It is impossible to advance only by pleasures in the corporeal world. We see that the world is sinking into greater suffering, despite the technological advancement that seemingly allows full prosperity. The Creator disrupts all our attempts to organize our corporeal life and doesn’t let us enjoy it. The evil inclination that He created constantly controls us, thus destroying all our good beginnings.

If our attempts didn’t contradict the goal of creation, then undoubtedly, everything  would work out somehow. We would live like animals according to our instincts and the plan of nature, and everyone would find his place in the general symbiosis. However, we cannot do that since we must reach a special state.

This refers especially to those in whom the point in the heart has awakened, but all people suffer since they feel the forces that compel them to develop. This happens “below reason,” unconsciously, without understanding where, why, and how they should develop, and what forces manage them and push them forward. A person instinctively tries to avoid an unpleasant, evil influence and is drawn to goodness. All his calculations are based only on where there is less suffering and more good.

However, for the special souls the Creator prepared a special of path of development by the good. They must summon the forces that develop them by themselves: the upper Surrounding Light that Reforms. These people are happy about the bad feeling just as they are about the good feeling, knowing and understanding that it all comes only from the Creator, that there is none else besides Him, and that He plays with us.

This entire life is a game since the upper one develops the lower one through a game, and we only need to accept the rules of this game, despite its complexity, the confusion, and its difficulty. We must exert ourselves greatly in order to identify the Creator’s game and to stay connected to the One who plays with us. In this case, we find ourselves between two forces, Pharaoh and the Creator, and are happy about the chance to advance. Then we really can advance only by the good way!

People who can hold onto these two forces and manage them by themselves like reins or who can become like a horse that advances by itself by guessing the desires of the rider, these people feel that they are happy. They have many problems. The entire world, for which they are responsible, is on their shoulders, but they are happy about their role, about the connection with the Creator whose commands they fulfill.
[104239]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/13, Writings of Rabash

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A Safety Net Or An Insurance Policy

Dr. Michael LaitmanA person has to create a “safety net” around him so that he won’t break when the workload is heavy, when his sensitivity is sharpened and he is shown all the evil within him. Advancement is measured by how fast a person wakes up and feels happy for having received the “hardening of the heart,” as Baal HaSulam says: “I am happy with the revelation of the wicked.”

A person begins to work with the wicked, with all the interruptions: his lack of desire, the thought about how hard and useless the work is; he is critical of the friends and the teacher and has complaints about his life. The world around him may be in ruin and people may feel depressed, but when he looks at them, they seem to be successful. He is shown a distorted picture, and people on the street seem full of vitality and wisdom.

All this is a theater and a lie, and a person definitely needs a safety net that will make him feel secure and strengthen him to keep on moving forward. There are two conditions for that: The first condition is the group that focuses a person on the Creator. The second condition is to immediately turn to the Creator in order to receive the force of bestowal that allows him to be above the force of receiving that the Creator will evoke in him the next time. This is how a person advances.

Therefore, Rabash says that the Light helps “only those who want to leave the domination of evil,” which means those who exert themselves. I can’t hope that the Light will correct everything by itself and that nothing depends on me, that there is no point in taking steps in the direction of the friends. The Light will not influence me if I don’t first do everything that is in my power.

I am only capable of the simplest thing: to take care of the friends, to connect to them, to hug them, and to do something for them, even with the wrong intention. In response to these false intentions and these lies, the Creator gives me the hardening of the heart: I begin to feel terrible heaviness and reluctance to do it; I don’t see any sense in it. This means that the Creator reveals the evil in me, and it seems that I am getting worse each time and getting further and further away from the goal.

And the truth is that it makes sense that in everything one exerts himself one advances to a certain extent, but he doesn’t go backward. (From Rabash’s article “What is that Before the Egyptian Minister Fell, Their Outcry wasn’t Answered in the Work”). That’s the way things seem to me now since I accuse and judge everything in the world by my corruptions.

And the excuse is that one doesn’t go backward, but rather advances towards the truth, which means that I don’t approach the false goal, as I see it in my egoistic desire, but rather the truth, and then I see to what extent the evil can operate in them. To the extent that the evil is revealed in a person, he can return to the right place with the help of the group in order to turn to the Creator.

Without a group a person has no chance of remembering that he has to turn to the Creator. He will forget it and will miss the chance that he was given from Above. He will not be able to use the awakening he was given and will simply fall and drown in the evil within him. So we need an environment that raises a person to the good state and shows him in which directions he should act in order to come out of the descent.

The group operates like a mother who supports a child who is learning to walk, and he only needs to make a step forward, thus he takes one step after another until he acknowledges the total evil within him, and then the Creator helps him. Then we see that the Creator hears a person’s prayer the whole time, and that it is the Creator who has put the person through both the good states and the bad states.

… and so we need to be very strong and not to escape, but rather believe that the Creator hears every prayer. A person has to try to hold himself in every situation in the direction of the Creator and to make sure he has the necessary support. The courage is not in fighting my laziness, my bad feelings, the despair, the fatigue, or the helplessness; all my efforts should be focused on arranging the right support for myself, which means getting ready.

Thus a person “secures himself” and puts himself, in advance, in a position that doesn’t depend on him. It’s as if he buys an insurance policy. I don’t know what will happen in a moment and I want to make sure that the moment I grow weak and will not be able to control myself, then someone else who is powerful will take care of me. He will undoubtedly help me and do everything that is right for my sake.

I make myself such an insurance policy in advance: through the study, my commitment to the group, and my participation in duties. I organize everything so that when I fall, I will not be completely detached and will not get lost. This is the only way we can advance.
[103755]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/13

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