Audio Version Of The Blog – 07.02.13

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A Point is Infinity In The Zero Scale

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Are there degrees during the period of preparation or is it one degree in total, and only by entering the spiritual world, will we begin to ascend the 125 degrees?

Answer: Even on the zero degree from which we start, we go through different stages. Every degree consists of ten Sefirot, no more and no less. And each Sefira has its own ten Sefirot and so on to infinity.

There is no such condition which is completely solid and does not include all the elements, the entire reality. There is only one picture of the universe but it is seen in a different resolution as if on the map with a different scale.

For example, we are going to the convention in St. Petersburg. If you look at the map of Russia, the city is just a point. But if you get closer and increase the scale, then this point turns into a big city. You get closer and see all the streets, even every building, etc.

Thus, our current state seems to us just a point. But in reality it includes the entire universe. Everything depends on the scale in which we view it and see all the details in it. The revelation of all the details is the ascent of the 125 degrees.
[111211]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/13, Writings of Rabash 

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A Look At The Purpose Of Creation Without Illusions

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe must not forget that a person alone cannot reach the feeling of greatness of the Creator and this means the greatness of the goal, because the goal is to adhere to the Creator by which we bring Him contentment. Our final correction is in this adherence, the final destination station, the entire goal of creation.

The Creator created the desire to enjoy, but we are in illusion now thinking that we are created to enjoy receiving. We are in this deception and that is why every time we get some pleasure, it immediately disappears. We need to understand this contradiction that we need precisely the desire to bestow because the goal of creation is to enjoy bestowal.

“To bring pleasure to the created being” means to bring them to the state in which they will receive pleasure from bestowal and not egoistical giving for the sake of receiving, and not even giving for the sake of giving, but receiving for the sake of bestowal. That is, we have to use our desires, all our abilities in order to bestow.

It turns out that any change in our nature is possible only under the condition that we nourish ourselves from some external source of inspiration, importance, desire, attraction, and push towards a spiritual goal from which we derive all the power advancing us to correction. All this energy comes from the environment. A person is able to do something only if he is influenced by the environment. And if there is no such influence, he will not succeed.

There are moments when a person is given an awakening from above and then he is able to turn to the environment. But in most cases, he himself cannot turn, and the environment must take care of conveying the importance of the goal and inspiration to everyone. Only then will we be able to advance in the right direction.

Therefore, there is no more important task than building the right environment. It is written, “Would that they left me and kept my Torah, for the radiance within it would return them to good.” The Light comes only when we are connected between each other. That is why the building of the environment is the main condition.

There is no point in waiting for a true spiritual revelation from above if it does not come out of our own efforts to unite with humans such as us. We need to understand and remember the fact that everything that happens in our relations with the external world, from us to it and from it to us, to everyone, and to us together, comes only through our connection.
[111157]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/13

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I Advise Look Less Into Yourself!

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt all depends on our efforts. We have reached such a level that we are able to prepare ourselves by the path of Light with accelerating time and by helping each other, as is said, “Help a fellow man.” But this requires unity, inner mutual demonstration, total inspiration, and passion.

Everyone should try to be impressed by others, even artificially. You are watching a lesson and it does not touch you today. But make even artificial attempts to cling to what is said there and this will happen. Thus, we achieve a common desire.

The path of Light means that I received the ready desire from friends because my soul is in them, and I, myself, have only the point in the heart of my soul, everything else is egoism. I do not have to use it all but to be constantly above it. This is called faith above reason when I am in the group instead of my mind and egoism, and I absorb all their desires and fulfill them.

Today, we can talk about these deep things because you have been in good preparation for a week. There is the desire to reach the spiritual vessel, even if it’s not very clarified, but I feel that your efforts give me the opportunity to reveal some details of preparation, connection. Thus, we will advance, we still have time before the convention.

These remaining days are the most important, not the convention itself. You will later understand what it means “to eat what has been saved for a long time,” that is, to be nourished by what you have revealed during the preparation. As egoists, we think now we’ll reach the spiritual world and get everything there. But we will come to the revelation of the feeling to what extent we were in the perfect state before, although it seemed flawed to us. Exactly as The Book of Zohar describes this, “The holy Zohar also spoke about it, saying that one who is rewarded with repentance, the holy Divinity appears to him like a soft-hearted mother who hasn’t seen her son for many days, while they made great efforts and experienced ordeals in order to see each other, because of which they both were in great dangers.” (Baal HaSulam, Letter 25). Then, time disappears and all the states come into one because what we reveal is that we initially were in the most perfect state.

So, do not forget that your desire is in the other, in the collective vessel. Now, everyone is getting ready for the convention and if you are integrated with them and want to receive a desire, hopes, and inspiration  from them, then it’s in this way that you discover your true spiritual vessel. You need to look inside yourself less, if possible do not look there at all, and take your emptiness as salty appetizers or spicy seasoning and become included in the friend right away. He contains all the main courses, fulfillment, both the vessels and the Light. And I have only additions that incite my appetite from my inner emptiness.
[111141]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/13, Shamati #117

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How Not To Fall Asleep In Class

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You said that you can talk for ten hours and not get tired. How can we make sure that we do not get tired and do not fall asleep during the lesson?

Answer: It depends on importance! If this is important to me, then I will not fall asleep. So, you constantly need to excite yourself. Importance is taken on purpose from above, or rather egoism is raised, and that is why it is “jammed.” And we need to raise it again in our eyes. This depends on the environment.

It is not a problem to stay awake in class after a good rest. The problem is to raise oneself in spite of fatigue. This is very important! One needs to work on this.

The friends around you also have to charge the atmosphere. Now, I am saying familiar words that you have heard many times before. Do you see anything new in them? If not, then it is a problem. A person should not remain indifferent to the fact that he does not feel novelty. It depends only on him. And the words are all the same. We must be angry with ourselves!
[111117]
From the Preparation to the Convention in Krasnoyarsk 6/13/13

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The Crisis In Art

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Nikita S. Mikhalkov, Soviet and Russian filmmaker, actor, and head of the Russian Cinematographers’ Union): “The president of the International Moscow Film Festival Nikita Mikhalkov explained why most of the festival are characterized by gloom and despair and summed up the results of the 35th film festival.

“Gloomy movies are a reflection of the global trend; a movie from any major festival triggers ‘the desire to put a bullet in the forehead of oneself or one’s neighbor.’ We are in a state of severe human crisis. Just a conflict between two persons, which are in abundance in literature and were many in movie, is not enough. We need to be scared through 3D. People have developed a habit of an internal disaster; the death of the screen has stopped worrying. ‘We have lost respect for life, for people, and this very crisis if born out of this,’ Mikhalkov suggests.”

My Comment: But the question arises, why doesn’t art make people interested in a new world? It is because the artists do not see a way out of the crisis. However, they do not want to hear about the need to correct people. I hope that the fall of art will bring them to the need to accept Integral Education as a necessity and that they will base their artwork on it for the mass audience. After all, art is a means of educating people.
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The Two Major Guiding Signs For Our Ascent

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If I understood correctly, we are corrected by first seeing something in “faith above reason” and then by the Light that Reforms which makes it part of our reason.

Answer: Attaining the real state in the corrected perception is called attainment “within reason.” First I see the level that is above and which I cannot reach and fulfill inside me, but I can adhere to it by a means called “faith above reason,” to receive it above my reason, above my attributes.

The Two Major Guiding Signs For Our Ascent
I am on a certain level and want to ascend to the next state to my future self, whichever way I want to imagine it, and so I pray for it and ask. But in this future, upper state, I need to imagine the group, the teacher, the goal, everyone on an upper level and myself here below.

When I adhere to them this way, I totally yearn to be there like a child who dreams of being a grownup. So from the upper level, the first illumination, called the Light that Reforms, comes to me. This is what happens since there are always two Reshimot (spiritual genes) in us: Reshimo of Hitlabshut (from the future Light) and Reshimo of Aviut (thickness) (from the current desire). The determination of the Light is always on a higher level, for example, four/three.

The Reshimo of Aviut is called “reason,” and the Reshimo of Hitlabshut is called “above reason.” This is how the levels of the ladder are arranged. We are in the system and its laws operate on us as we study the wisdom of Kabbalah. In the meantime we cannot feel their influence on us, but we live in it. From the moment a person begins to study, he already operates within the upper system and he needs to feel the meaning behind every word.

The ascent up the ladder is an ascent “above reason” and entering “within reason,” and then again ascending above reason, etc. We need two things in order to advance this way and to not get stuck on the way: self annulment and loyalty to the upper. There is nothing but that. These are the two major guiding signs; I can ascend if I want to annul myself and raise the upper.

But there is no rope that ties me to the upper. I create this connection by myself by annulling myself and adhering to Him. It seems to me that the upper operates in a totally unreasonable way and I seem to blame Him for many sins. Different states are presented to us from above since we are so opposite from spirituality and cannot see the truth, but I have to annul my opinion and adhere to the upper unconditionally.

This is very difficult and we can only count on luck and on our good fate here and not on our reason. The moment you decide that you have to follow your reason, you remain on your level and don’t move anymore. You have already broken the connection, fell off the rope that pulled you upwards, lost the direction and the ability to advance. Your reason immediately throws you off to the corporeal level and you are not a developing human being anymore but have fallen out of the system.
[109558]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/03/13, Writings of Rabash

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From Now On The Account Is Only With Regard To Love

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can a created being nullify his shame before the Creator?

Answer: These are the same corrections that we perform in the worlds of BYA when we raise them to Atzilut. Atzilut (from the Hebrew root meaning “with Him”- “Itzlo”) is the place of the love of the Creator and the worlds of BYA are the place where the created being exists.

All the clarifications of the outcomes of the shattering are only clarifications of love. Without the shattering we wouldn’t be able to understand this love. It became possible only because the shattering has revealed the hate, the shattered desires that prevent us from getting along with the Creator. We want to mutually respond to His love in “faith above reason.”

Imagine that I am willing to give everything that I have as long as I can express my love in response to your love. I don’t want any give and take accounts between us: “You are for me and I am for you,” but only mutual love that is above any gain; this is called a perfect pairing.

This is the reason for the spreading of the worlds from the top down and for our ascent from the bottom up. In fact there is no up or down in the upper worlds. “From the top down” means the mechanical preparation of pairings in which the Masach (screen) and the Returning Light participate in Zivug de Haka’a (coupling of striking). But from the “bottom up” it is only accounts of love and not about the quantity and quality of the Light, which means not about the filling but about its derivatives, what I receive beyond all the presents.

Our only work is to establish the feeling of love for the Creator in us. But we discover the total opposite of love in all our desires, which means hatred. But this is already a revelation of love since we discover its oppositeness, which is already a great achievement.

The shattering allows us to understand what love is! A person who has not experienced shattering doesn’t know how to love and doesn’t know how to hate and actually doesn’t feel anything. The shattering brings us to a very acute state; it forces us to clarify things very accurately with regard to love. We don’t measure the temperature, blood pressure, or the weight of the Light and the size of the vessel; we only measure the love that depends on certain conditions or doesn’t depend on anything.

This is the outcome of the shattering, which gives us such incredible opportunities. Thus, it becomes very clear why it was necessary for the descent of the worlds to be from the top down until this world.
[109336]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/13, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Growing Up “Against Our Will”

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: We must know that the above-mentioned law of development, which is spread over the whole of reality, is guaranteed to return all evil to good and useful acts through the power of the Government of Heaven Above, meaning without asking permission from the people who inhabit the earth. However, the Creator placed knowledge and authority in the hands of man and permitted him to accept the above-mentioned law of development under his own authority and government, and handed him the ability to hasten the process of development as he wishes, freely and completely independent of the boundaries of time.

Representatives of the still, vegetative, and animate nature are unable to change the law of development, but we can do this, we can “take it into our own hands,” i.e., use it for acceleration. We have the ability to slightly change its action, to get out from under the total control of nature with its indispensable imperatives to get involved with the management through our efforts. Due to this, our development will continue, firstly, faster and secondly, in a more pleasant way.

As a rule, the force that develops us is cruel. It is called the “press” or “roller” of development and it leads us forward only by suffering. Our desire is drawn to pleasure and ideally strives for bliss which requires no actions. Fulfilling the desire, pleasure “paralyzes” it, immobilizes it; we see this sometimes in young children. Filled to the top, I become still, freeze, feeling no need for any movement. That is why we need troubles and suffering that will spur us to move us from the spot and develop us further, to force us to move faster.

As a consequence, the force of development appears to us as bad, negative, and we run from it to where we can see the positive, the good. Moreover, we always run in the direction opposite from where we got the blow. Thus, we “automatically” pass the still, vegetative, and animate stages of development, as well as their equivalents on the human degree, not knowing and not feeling that we are driven by the law that can be used.

But in the end, we find the “human in ourselves” who wants and can effect what is happening. He looks for means of self-development, the advancement of self. He finds out what his purpose is, what he lives for; he asks questions about the meaning of life with the purpose to find the force of development, to learn the law of development and use it for his benefit, i.e., for the realization of the goal.

As for our relations with other people, as well as the still, vegetative, and animate nature, we must bring them benefit as well based on our development, meaning to include them in the good development that we will reach.

Not everyone is able to accelerate the process. The majority simply follow their nature. We are talking about development and development is always contrary to our nature, always goes with efforts, through force, under pressure, with pain. It is always opposed to the egoistic desire, which only wants to enjoy the current state.

Thus, if Israel are rewarded and take the law of development that their bad attributes must go through in order to invert them into good ones, they will bring it under their own government. In other words, they will set their minds and hearts to correct all the bad attributes in them and turn them into good ones by themselves. Then, “I will hasten it,” meaning they will be completely freed from the chains of time.

There is a point on the path from which the person receives an impulse, the realized need for development. He wants to know why and for what he lives on the Earth and then he comes to the means that is called the “wisdom of Kabbalah.” This means allows him to develop himself without being dependent on the limitations of time by the path of acceleration.

If a person, for whatever reason is lazy, shies away from this opportunity, then his path lies somewhere in the middle between time and acceleration.

That is why we must strengthen the group and always make calculations between them: to what extent is acceleration in our hands? Ideally, we should fully control it.
[110308]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Peace in the World”

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A Game That Is Closer And Closer To The Truth

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe third principle in familial relationships is that when a person feels that they love him and are concerned for his welfare, this awakens great happiness in him and this obliges him to reciprocate with a similar relationship. In this way we give an example to each other.

We agree to work on a system of relationships between us and so we are acting consciously and understand what is happening. Nobody allows himself to “shoot from the hip” with what comes to him regarding a partner. We want to build a good family so we play at perfected relationships which don’t really exist at the moment but from a hope that we will reach this. We show each other that this is merely a game at the moment, but it is a game that advances, and all the time it becomes easier and easier and closer to the truth.

We are obliged to play since we agreed upon this!

Question: What if I try to build a good relationship with my wife but nothing helps because she is such a great egoist that she refuses to take any step towards me?

Answer: This says that I haven’t acted wisely, otherwise I would play with her ego and would surround her from all sides. She depends on me and if she is a great egoist this is a sign that she has great desires that I can fulfill. Therefore I control the situation.

The whole problem is that in general we don’t know how to play with this ego. The more the ego of the person grows, the more he becomes like a child, the more he becomes like a baby. It is very easy to get the right reaction from him if we act correctly with him since he is not his own master but depends completely on his ego.

Man (Gever) is one who is able to overcome himself and it is impossible to influence him directly. You cannot hurt him, you “fall” upon him and he stands his ground. He won’t react immediately but overcomes himself. If your partner is egoistic like this, unprepared to control herself, you can play with her as you would with a baby.

We must intentionally show each other a good relationship, even exaggeratedly, and check to see if we get a similar relationship in return. If there is no similar relationship, we must work on this. I try to give her a good relationship all the time, but if I don’t see a similar relationship in return, I refrain from doing this. I try to do something good again and if I get a good reaction, I give her an even warmer relationship. If not, I also distance myself. I present myself intentionally, showing her that I am ready to treat her well but only on condition that she will reciprocate.

So in this way we build our married couple: unity, communication, what is called a “family.” This is exactly the way I must relate to children with the help of the “carrot and the stick.” The entire method is built upon concession; I rise above my ego in a calculated and controlled manner according to a program that was specified from the start.

But this is not just absolutely unconditional love which will awaken contempt in the other person. I must show that I love, that I concede everything, that I nullify myself, but not so my partner will do whatever he wants. Even parents who have infinite love for their children must not show this. I must add “judgment to mercy” or “mercy to judgment,” controlling the situation with the help of these two reins depending upon the reaction.

I set for myself the goal of bringing us to connection and I inform my wife of this. But she must know that in this unification I have two reins in my possession: judgment and mercy, love and hate, and one doesn’t work without the other. As it is said, “Love covers over all iniquities.” Do we agree to reveal the iniquities and cover them with love or not? If so, let’s try.

This is like I’m driving in a car, I turn the steering wheel to the right and to the left to maintain the right direction. The problem is that we are not sensitive to the partner, the other. Therefore I turn to my wife with a request to be sensitive to her. What wife would refuse this? This is an eternal complaint of a woman regarding her husband, he doesn’t understand her, doesn’t look at her, and doesn’t want to share his experiences.

And on the contrary, I ask her to reveal herself before me so I can connect with her. It is up to me to understand how she understands, feels, and reacts regarding me. If I know all this, then I can manage our relationship in the family with the help of my steering wheel. And she will feel this and begin to control her steering wheel regarding me so that finally these two steering wheels will join into one steering wheel that we turn together.

This is an emotional process as if the two of us are found on opposite scales trying to maintain balance all the time. The ego of each is growing all the time and balances itself regarding the partner. So we are always balancing, renewing our relationship all the time. This assures us of having a deep and infinite development within which we discover a whole symphony of love.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life #46” 8/1/12

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