Audio Version Of The Blog – 04.22.13

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Advancing Towards Equality Is Advancing Upwards

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can the group practically bestow upon every member so that he will be able to accept every state as the good and benevolent?

Answer: It is possible only if the group thinks about everyone unequivocally, and there is no separation in any way. We have to be very careful of that and aspire for an equal attitude towards everyone.

I am not talking about a division according to professional occupations, or about some work meetings since this has nothing to do with the group work. But there has to be total equality as to what belongs to the group. It is a very important condition: Advancing towards equality is advancing upwards.

Suppose, you want to organize an event that will help you connect, and you invite 15 people. Of course you choose them according to your ego. Why don’t you invite other people? Because you value them less and feel that they are more distant from you. So, it turns out that instead of connection you bring about separation.

There are people in the group who are quiet and not dominant, and so we tend to forget them since our ego doesn’t recognize them. If you organize a special meeting especially for your work group that assembles according to their occupation, then it is normal. But if you just choose people you want to be together with, then you should be very careful so as not to harm the connection. Be careful of that since your future depends on that.
[105441]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/13, Writing of Rabash 

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Your Personal Problem Is Everyone’s Problem

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How should we look at personal problems through the group?

Answer: I have never come across any problem that doesn’t concern anyone but only the person himself. Try to give me such an example. You have a backache, for example. How can it relate only to you if you are a member in the group and now, because your back aches, you lie in bed instead of participating in some activity with us: the studies or the intention?

You have made us weaker, and we are all affected by your illness. What should we do if we are all in a boat and your job is to turn a certain handle, but you don’t do that? Everyone else is in their place, and there is no one to replace you. Without your participation, the boat will not be able to float properly.

Where have you seen any personal problems in an integral system in which everyone is totally connected to one another? It would be very interesting if you could give me such an example. It would mean that the Creator not only created the general soul, but something else in addition to it.

Even if you came in sick, but overcame your backache and turned the handle, but you didn’t feel that the Creator is good and benevolent, it also means that you are not with us, albeit in a different way. You cannot participate in our revelation of the Creator as the good and benevolent. So, what should we do with you?

From this it follows that there simply cannot be any personal problems in the integral system. Nothing is private! Every individual influences everyone and judges himself and the entire world to the scale of merit,

If someone’s back aches, it is exactly as if your own back aches. After all, you have to love your friend as yourself. In the integral system, it makes no difference where the ache or the flaw isthey belong to the whole system. It doesn’t matter where the illness is at all since because of that illness, the system cannot be perfect anymore. It makes no difference which screw is responsible for the general malfunction; the whole system doesn’t function properly now.
[104960]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Treatment Through Education

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Our task today is to think how we can help a person understand what he needs to change to feel better. How can we do this?

Answer: People should be treated by means of education. Their brain is affected, their system of perception, the system of analysis, conclusions, the system of realizationall this is affected by the terrible malignancy called “egoism” that eats on them from the inside.

First of all, we need to identify what kind of  terrible new growth this is, which we didn’t observe within ourselves before, or if we did, it wasn’t to such an extent it could be defined as fatal.

We need to understand the depth and breadth of the problem. After all, this is not a private issue of a certain country: Doctors are bad, patients are bad, or medical services are poor. This is a problem with a general health care system that follows the same principle as the rest of the world.

The same thing is within the economy, trade, and industry. For example, in a supermarket we are sold what spoils quickly because it’s advantageous for producers that we shop as often as possible and they want us to stay attached to the system. We are trained to use certain products. The same thing occurs at work, on vacation; everything is managed.
[105635]
From KabTV’s “The Medicine of the Future” 4/7/13

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Giving In To The Dominion Of The Friends

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 44: When he begins to delve in Torah and commandments, even without any intention, meaning without any love and fear, as is fitting when serving the king, even in Lo Lishma, the point in one’s heart begins to grow and disclose its action.

When the point in the heart awakens in a person, he comes to an environment in which he is provided with all the conditions for his inner spiritual development. It is said that “the Creator puts a person’s hand on the good fate and tells him: Choose it.” This is exactly where his free will is: to advance to the center of the group and through the group to the Creator.

Then a person begins to understand the system, the “kitchen” where everything is “cooking.” From that point on, if he looks for how to focus correctly on the goal by using the influence of the environment, subduing himself to the environment, and yearning for the Creator through it, then his point in the heart expands and grows.

Here his basic participation with the intention that is not yet aimed at pure bestowal is enough. Even if a person doesn’t feel sorry about that yet and can’t think about that seriously, it’s still a start. If he already has a “point in the heart” and, most importantly, is already incorporated in the right environment that influences him, that’s development.

Even acts without an aim can purify one’s will to receive, but only in the first degree called “still.”

A person doesn’t have the right intentions yet and he can’t see himself as one who bestows yet, but he can at least choose to “lower his head” with all his might, to annul himself, and thus advance. The greatness of the still level is its ability to subdue itself before the group and the study. This level ends when a person totally annuls himself before what has been revealed to him on the current level. This is the climax of the still level.

Afterwards, on the vegetative level everything changes: If before he only had to restrain himself while rising above his ego, now he has to open up as much as he can. Such a change is typical in each transition from one level to another.

Question: So, it turns out that the still level is not as “coarse” as one may think?

Answer: I may not understand or feel anything and may not be able to participate in real bestowal, but I need to acknowledge the lack of feeling, mind, and the right attitude, the lack of anything spiritual. I am 100% outside the dimension of bestowal. So how can I enter it?

To do that, I have to annul everything that awakens within me. I don’t delete and don’t cover up my attributes, but I know that I can’t enter spirituality with them. So, I cling to the dominion of the environment. They tell me to join something, and I do that without understanding what it means. They tell me to read, to study, and so I read and study. They tell me to do something, so I do it. I do it specifically because I am told to do so. In other words, I subdue myself before the group and the study with all my might. I accept this dominion as I relinquish myself thus advancing to the correction of my still level.

After all, my still level can’t move by itself, and so the only way to do that is to have the friends move me from the outside. In order to do that, I have to be in their hands.

In this nobody has any obstacles. Everyone is capable to perform these actions upon himself. A person just annuls himself before others and depends only on this. Self-annulment automatically puts him into their hands. Later he will be asked to perform actions that are based on interdependence and cooperation, but on the still level he only has to renounce himself. The desire grows, the interruptions increase, there is greater confusion along with disagreement, and the answer to all that is self-annulment. One needs to lower his head time and time again and thus advance. This is the first phase on our way.
[105267]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/13, “The Introduction to The Book of Zohar

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Responsibility For What Emerges From The Egg

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If all of my states are determined by the upper force, where is my responsibility for bad deeds?

Answer: I cannot change the state I’m already in. I prepared this state with the Creator like His partner. I had an opportunity to prepare myself so that the state approaching me now would have manifested in a better form, but I didn’t do that.

The present state itself cannot be changed already. It is the natural end result of all the previous conditions that I certainly could have influenced.

I could put an egg under a hen, I could put it in the sun, or I could put it in an incubator and accordingly, I will get results determining the speed of my development and my attitude. Everything will be different!

But when I find myself in some situation, it is already too late to do something about it. Having acted according to the principle of “if I am not for myself, then who is for me” and in the end, recognized that “there is none else besides Him,” I received this outcome. I make the most out of this and realize from the start I had to reach a state like this.

So, if everything is already established from the start, where is my free choice? But only having justified my present state as correct and already established from the start, since “there is none else besides Him,” can I decide what to do next and say: “If I am not for myself, then who is for me.”

“If I am not for myself, who is for me” is the period when I am acting and working as if the Creator is not next to me, since I don’t know where He is, this is hidden from me. But why do I need to act like this? If I make the right effort, then ideally I will accept the entire state revealed to me as coming from the upper force, from “there is none else besides Him.”

Working like this, I prepare my perception for the coming states. The Creator can reveal a state for me that today seems simply terrible. But after the preparation that I do now, working according to the principle of “if I am not for myself, then who is for me,” I will accept this state as the manifestation of absolute goodness of the Creator, which benefited me. This will be my reward at the conclusion of a “complete workday.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/13, Writing of Rabash

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The Differences Between The Light And Darkness

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere are many “waves” of desires within us. Where does this separation into many parts, levels, sides, forms, and so forth come from? The fact is that the Light, which is pure bestowal, enters into desire, whose nature is reception.

The Light and darkness were connected together through opposing characteristics at the time of the shattering. As a result, all the Lights are incorporated into all the individual desires and form countless combinations. The differences and facets in understanding, perception, and analysis, the wide spectrum of colors, sounds, tastes, and smells are derived from this. Everything comes from the various combinations formed through the conjugation between the Lights and desires.

It is precisely thanks to this multiplicity that we discover the Creator. We would otherwise feel ourselves at the bottom of the still level in Malchut of the world of Infinity.

This variety makes it possible for us to peel away layer after layer, to clarify the essence, and to distinguish differences between possible combinations of the Lights and the vessels. So, we begin to discover the Creator in contrast to the creature: We transition from “existence from absence” to “existence from existence,” “format” the vessel and the Light, light and darkness. This is our work. So, in spirituality in every moment we carry out billions of corrections, reaching the smallest details.

This is similar to the classification and clarification of matter in our universe. It seemed an impossible task to perform at the time, but it wasn’t  Mutual integration enables us to work in all directions simultaneously so that even one small action produces billions of results in the entire Malchut.

Today, this picture is still concealed from us, yet as we continue, we will clarify and identify more subtle and deeper components. This will be possible for us when we begin to distinguish between bestowal and reception in every part.

I am able to comprehend in its spiritual form only a corrected desire, as one of the 613 desires, into which the Kli is divided. Until correction I face only an “egoistic monster,” Pharaoh, which can’t be separated into parts, in which nothing can be clarified. As long as the Light has not arrived, I will not be able to feel any desire and see how to activate it for the sake of bestowal above my ego, I will not be able to discern its separate facets. The only thing that I feel in Egypt is the ten plagues.…
[105460]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar

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Spirituality Has Its Own Mathematics

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We know that there is no “almost” in spirituality, but at the same time, the spiritual path is divided into levels, and each of them brings us closer to perfection. How does the absolute combine with the gradual advancement?

Answer: On every level, on every spiritual degree, we each have our own measure, according to the order of the realization of the Reshimot (spiritual records). The big general vessel was shattered to pieces, and each piece has its own limits, its own measures of conjugation with others, its measure of correction, and its own “measure of efforts,” both in the absolute value and individually.

Indeed, there is no “almost” in spirituality. If at a given level you correct nine parts out of ten, then you have not managed to correct it yet. Only after you correct the tenth part do you complete the work.

In the same manner the electron cannot exist separately from the atom. The atom is made of many particles and they all have to be in the right place. Later other bigger, more complex forms are created: molecules, cells, and bodies, and they each have to be in their whole measure. Even the smallest measure has to be whole, down to the last smallest particle.

Question: On one hand, everyone has to be as one man with one heart, and on the other, it says that every person can judge the whole world either to the scale of merit or unfavorably. How can we explain that?

Answer: It’s impossible to explain that on our level. It’s impossible to perceive by our mind. It isn’t the laws of ordinary mathematics that operate here, according to which one plus one equals two. Spirituality has its own mathematics.

Question: What is a “whole measure?” What is the criterion for wholeness?

Answer: A whole measure is a sign of change on every level, according to the principle of “I have exerted myself and I have found.” I increasingly exert myself and suddenly I “leap” to a new state. It’s only according to this reaction that I know for sure that I have exerted myself enough. It’s impossible to predict it. There is no “counter,” no indication in advance, according to which I can judge my success.

It’s because we work “above reason,” in bestowal, and bestowal cannot be measured. The measures are always in the desire to receive. In bestowal, the measurement can only be with regards to the revelation, and so it’s always according to “I have exerted myself and I have found.” This “finding” is the ultimate check.
[105446]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/13, “The Introduction to The Book of Zohar” 

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Find Your Place Of Work

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 44: And all the spiritual elements of still, vegetative, and animate in that world, which correspond to that Sefira of Malchut of Assiya, serve and aid that Partzuf of Nefesh of one who has risen there.

Question: What are the spiritual elements of the still, vegetative, and animate nature?

Answer: All the five phases, from the root phase until phase four, connect in a person’s exertion. Although we exert ourselves only with regards to the intention, only with regards to the human nature in us, there are also other layers in the desire, in which we are managed, having no free will. These layers of desire are similar to our physical needs and are included in our work; they operate on us while we cannot influence them in any way. As Baal HaSulam says in “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” the elements of the still, vegetative, and animate nature ascend and descend together with the human level having no accounts of their own.

Question: Does this mean that in spirituality we also do things not by our choice?

Answer: Of course. The same thing also happens in our world since it’s an exact replica of spirituality. I don’t need to work on the multitude of spiritual forces that don’t belong to the human level. On the human level I also have to clarify things first and only then perform corrections. First, I should clarify where exactly I can exert myself so that I will bestow where it can lead to actual results. Most important is to differentiate between the “working area” and the “non-working” one and to put much effort in the former.
[105464]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/13, “The Introduction to The Book of Zohar” 

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 04.22.13

Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash Dargot HaSulam,” “Article 821”

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The Book of ZoharSelected Excerpt, “Bereshit,” Item 17, Lesson 3

[media 5]   [media 6]

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 10, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 14, Lesson 34

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee,” Lesson 1

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