In The Shadow Of Mutual Guarantee

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: But the end of the correction of the world will only be by bringing all the people in the world under His work.

All our work is to clarify the Creator’s nature and to understand what the attribute of bestowal is. We can do that only from the opposite state, from the state of receiving. So according to the Light of bestowal we feel how opposite we are from it.

Here a person feels rage and has bad feelings. Can he cope with them and overcome them? Or rather, does he close his eyes and remain in his ordinary nature as long as he doesn’t have to take part in the eternal struggle between these two forces that “rub out” his desire, layer after layer, until nothing is left of it? This is actually the problem: How can we cope with these clarifications? How can we check, study, and feel the Creator’s nature out of the created being’s nature?

A person receives an illumination from Above only if he prepares his supporters and the right environment. This includes studying, dissemination, ordinary life, work, tithing, and all the conditions that Kabbalists require. The main thing, of course is the environment, the group, the friends among whom a person clarifies his connection with the Creator. That is how the strings between the Creator’s nature and a person’s nature are woven.

On the whole we feel hatred, repulsion, and understand that this is the normal way since the truth is revealed: The created being discovers how opposite he is from the Creator’s nature. Sometimes the Creator’s nature is revealed in a way that in response, a person simply feels how bad he is towards someone or something, or towards himself.

But if the Light is revealed in all four phases, he begins to understand who he is, who the Creator is, and who the friend with whom he finds himself in different opposite states, is. Thus a person already sees a whole picture.

This is how the Light “plays” with us: Sometimes it opens up a bit more and sometimes a bit less; it isn’t coincidental, but rather according to an accurate program, according to a person’s devotion. To the extent that a person is ready to be under that “shadow,” under the “umbrella” of the teacher, the group, the study, etc., he can be advanced along the spiritual path. So, one way or the other, we always advance qualitatively, deeper into the psychology of the soul.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 5/16/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee”

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The Resolution Adopted Unanimously

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is a decision reached in a “group of ten” (a training group of ten people): Is it according to a simple majority vote or must everyone agree?

Answer: If there is some kind of “majority,” this is no longer called a “group of ten.” A group of ten is “one man with one heart,” so what kind of “majority” can be there? A minyan is formed from ten people if they are all united in one heart, in one prayer. So how could a group of ten adopt some kind of resolution if a part doesn’t agree wholeheartedly?

You cannot show that you are a hero and agree with the decision of the friends despite your dissatisfaction. There is no coercion in spirituality! In a group of ten, a resolution can only be adopted if there is universal agreement; otherwise, the “group of ten” concept doesn’t exist. All must be as one.

In contrast, the spiritual directorate adopts a resolution with a “compelling” majority, 8 out of 10 for example. This is because it’s composed of people with different opinions regarding various problems relevant to our world and they are trying to find a solution. They don’t make decisions about spiritual work.

There are people who decide what we will eat at the meal, what the schedule will be for the day, which article we will learn in the lesson, and I don’t even ask them what kind of a decision they adopted. But the concept of a “group of ten” applies only to spiritual connection as one person.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/13, Writings of Rabash

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Integrality: New Horizons

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Do people have to be experts in order to solve a certain problem during an integral debate or can people come to a solution when they are correctly connected, fulfilling this integrality?

Answer: To tell you the truth, I don’t think that there are any problems at all except for understanding the integral nature. When a person begins to look at the world from a new level, everything becomes transparent, simple, and clear. He sees all the problems since they appear as a result of lack of connection between two systems: the integral and the linear. As a result, he comes up with different interesting solutions that didn’t exist before, even technical and scientific ones.

I am sure that humanity will greatly benefit by that since we will suddenly begin to feel the inner nature of things. It’s because we have always studied nature not as it is but from our egoistic perspective, and therefore it was in a very limited range of frequencies. But when we exit the boundaries of our body, of our ego, we feel nature outside ourselves, that is, as it really is and not as we perceive it, and so totally new opportunities open up for us. Thus the integral level is new science, new technology, and totally new horizons.

Today we encounter great difficulties at work, like overcoming distances, transmitting energy, and information, and we try to squeeze all that into fibers, cables, and to transfer it over distance. How much fuel do we need to burn to receive minimal efficiency factor? When we look at nature in the general integral form, we see that it has a 100% solution: Nature has no surpluses, there is never a redundant part left over, which disappears somewhere. There is no such thing! So wonderful solutions come up in the integral society.  But we can solve and fulfill everything only integrally.
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From KabTV’s “The Wisdom of the Crowd” 5/6/13

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The Collective Wisdom Of The Group

Dr. Michael Laitman with StudentsQuestion: The system called the “wisdom of the group” now is being realized in a corrupt form. What or who will become its guide, director or leader, when it becomes corrected? How will this leadership appear?

Answer: The collective wisdom of the group will become their guiding leadership. There cannot be any leadership from within the group. It can only come from above them in the form of their educators who are one level above them. The group doesn’t create itself, it must be organized by someone from the outside.

So, a shared intelligence, shared thoughts and feelings, is now created within it, meaning the image of a unified group that advances as a unit by discussing, feeling, and being aware of its integrality. But nonetheless, there is a leader who stands above it. He directs the people, giving them new tasks, supervising everything.

This is because they cannot rise by themselves, they will stray to some side or be swept away somewhere. They might somehow still hold onto their position, but to rise above it, they still need a guide who is on the next level and therefore can give them advice about what to do next. In nature, everything is arranged like a pyramid.
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From KabTV’s “The Wisdom of the Crowd” 5/6/13

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 05.20.13

Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” Concerning Love of Friends-2

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The Book of Zohar – Introduction, “Mother Lends Her Clothes to Her Daughter,” Item 19, Lesson 13 

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Writings of Baal HaSulam The Mutual Guarantee,” Lesson 13

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 05.19.13

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/audio/eng_o_rav_2013-05-19_declamation_blog-rav_full.mp3 title=’19.5.13′]

Knowing The Creator Is Called A Thought

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is a thought?

Answer: A thought is the point of connection between the created being and the Creator. It’s a special deficiency by which the created being can rise. On the one hand it’s a corporeal deficiency since a person is helpless, not knowing what to do with his life and how to manage in life. Everything begins from ordinary earthly, bodily troubles. But if a person manages to transcend these problems without leaving them but by seeing them as a means, then they provide the infrastructure from which he can rise to the Creator and thank Him for having awakened him.

If a person wants to know what the right intention is and the right attitude to everything that happens, it means that he demands a thought. He raises his corporeal point of deficiency to Bina by not asking about himself, but rather, by asking what this should lead him to in the connection to Godliness: How he can get to know the Creator by these deficiencies. Knowing the Creator is already called a thought.

Thus, this black point becomes Nukva for Hochma, which means that it’s incorporated in Bina that demands the understanding. This deficiency forces Abba ve Ima (Mother and Father) to copulate and to birth the future human being, to the next level.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/13, The Book of Zohar – Introduction

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Thought And Feeling

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is thought connected to feeling in creation?

Answer: Malchut that raises its request, the black point of deficiency, is the feeling. But this feeling cannot take on a certain character, volume, or form if it isn’t incorporated in Hochma and Bina. These two forces are meant to build a form called Adam that resembles the Creator, out of the raw and formless desire.

After the request rises to Hochma and Bina two opposite forces begin to operate on it. One force cannot set the direction and there have to be two forces that operate in different directions. The force of receiving and the force of bestowal build a form that is similar to Keter out of the raw material, out of the deficiency of the lower.

Both Hochma and Bina come out of Keter and so Malchut rises to them and asks them: “Build me like Keter since you come out of Keter and know it. So please make me like it.” This is our whole fulfillment.

Malchut doesn’t know what Keter is because it is Above. It’s the “edge of Yod” that we attain. But “from Your actions we shall know You,” which means that we will understand the Creator according to what is made of us, and therefore it’s called a thought.

You don’t need to be very clever in order to fulfill this, since the less wise you become and the closer you are to your inner reality, the better. Spiritual wisdom does not depend on the corporeal mind. No Kabbalist is wiser than ordinary people and isn’t born a genius, but rather has average abilities within the framework of this world.

The need for spirituality is not a result of extra mental abilities or even emotional ones. It’s something that is totally independent of corporeal attributes. So there is nothing to worry about; if you have a desire that forces you to sit and study, it’s enough. It’s a sign that you can develop it, and not by knowledge and different debates. The wisdom comes later, as a result of the spiritual attainment. First, you discover the feeling and only then you grow wise by it. It works in a relatively opposite manner from this world in which the more coldly you think, like a computer or a machine, the better calculations you can make and the wiser you are.

In spirituality everything is the opposite since the spiritual vessel is based on emotion, on the desire to enjoy. All the accounts are in the desire to receive. If you don’t take this desire apart and start playing with it, you will have nothing to work with. How else will you reach the feeling, the understanding, and the attainment?

A thought is the force of Bina, and Bina is totally based on a strong feeling, since it’s the level of Hochma that wanted to resemble Keter. It’s like a guest who discovers that he wants to be like the host since otherwise he cannot exist.

The problem is not just to exist, but to exist in the Light of the host. But this is impossible if you don’t repay Him by at least treating Him as nicely as He treats you. You cannot pay Him like in a restaurant and compensate Him for the expenses He had in preparing the refreshments for you, for the cost of the products, the fuel, the work, plus 20%. He expects a feeling from you that is revealed in thought, in Bina. Everything is fulfilled in the vessel of feeling. So all our advancement stems from disappointment, from tension, and from a feeling of economic shortage, which we translate to a spiritual deficiency.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/13, The Book of Zohar – Introduction

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The Pictures Of Reality That Come To Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe true reality is the Creator because He exists on His own, independent of any additional force. He just exists and that’s all! However, the existence of any other reality except the Creator depends on two opposing forces.

None of them alone can provide this existence. Only due to their connection, they produce grains of our temporary, artificial, short-lived reality, which is called creation (Beria) because it is outside (Bar), outside of the Creator, and exists only under certain conditions. This artificial reality is our life today.

However, the Creator has given us the opportunity to understand and connect creation from below upward with the help of two opposing forces: bestowal and reception. Thus, we complete the universe, which was created by the propagation of these two forces from above to below, adding to it our own consent from below to above. It turns out that we seemingly bring to life the artificial creation that was created by the Creator, making it real.

By our consent, accepting the Creator’s thought in order to assemble ourselves from two opposing forces at every step from below to above, we give creation the real force, being the Creator’s partners as equals, on the same degree. After all, we take His mind, His direction, and His attitude, and we add this upper divine mind and attitude to the forms that spread from above to below, due to which they seemingly rise from below to above.

The two forms, receiving and bestowal, come to us already prepared. We are not responsible for the evil, egoistic nature and, moreover, for the kind nature of bestowal. However, due to our yearning for good properties, we make our own contribution, achieving understanding, knowledge, adding our personal attitude that is becoming united with the Creator.

What matters is not the two forces themselves, receiving and bestowal, but their connection—consequence, “derivative”—the notion of unity that is born out of the work of the mind and heart.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/13, Writings of Rabash

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The Task Of Humanity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: All the predictions that you gave in the past few years unfortunately have come true. Sadly, they were not very joyful. Do you still see the next stages in the same dark colors?

Answer: No, I’m always an optimist. I would not want to see the world in the way in which I see it today, although regrettably it’s what I had predicted. The point is not to guess and to gloat, but to try to somehow change to where we are heading to.

We are approaching the next stage of human development when it will develop internally, morally. Humanity needs to change itself and become similar to nature that surrounds us, to fit in its global scheme, meaning that everyone completely depends upon each other as well as on nature in general: The still, vegetative, animate, and upper levels, are those forces which in reality control the entire system of the universe. We need to reveal this system, to adapt to it, to fit into it. This is the task of humanity.

Many scientists in the past wrote about it and current scientists still write about it. This system has been popular for hundreds of years. In particular, in Russia, academician Vladimir Vernadsky and his followers wrote about it. Today, there are many people in the world who understand it.

But the problem is that humanity has to begin to realize this task. And the main thing about which I am concerned is the transition period from our state, from this paradigm to the next one. Here, humankind is facing great challenges.
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From KabTV’s program “The Global Crisis” 3/19/13

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