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The Friend And Emptiness

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, “Shlavei Sulam,” 1985/86, Article 21, “Above Reason”: The envy that he feels toward the friends when he sees that they have better qualities than his own, it motivates him to acquire their good qualities, which he doesn’t have and of which he is jealous.

Thus, through the society, he gains new qualities that he adopts by seeing that they are at a higher degree than his, and he is envious of them. This is the reason why now he can be greater than when he didn’t have a society, since he acquires new powers through the society.

I envy my friends in a good way. I do not want them to be worse than me; I want to rise to their degree myself. And to do this, I need to be integrated into them.

I do not compete with them in studies on the basis of envy. We are talking about a property of bestowal, getting closer to the Creator, and that is why I have to learn from the friends how to become more giving. I will not manage without being integrated into them.

Thus, spiritual envy is opposite to the material one. Material envy places a person in the “black list” of those without whom my life would have been calmer, but spiritual envy prompts me to join him in spite of my nature, my desire. I need to “embrace” him internally, so he helps me rise to the same degree. Thus, spiritual envy awakens a greater internal effort due to which I break my egoism and turn it into a “lever” for advancement.

It turns out that envy in a group is a great force that comes from the friend whom I envy; the force that helps me rise above my egoism and connect with the friend.

But apart from that, I also need the power of the group that will help turn the destructive potential of envy into creative.

After all, at the beginning, my envy of the friend is so terrible that it is similar to hatred. He causes a negative, bad feeling in me because I feel that he is higher than me. Thus, he reveals a new “hollow,” an emptiness, a lack, a need for something in my desire. And as a result, I envy him; I hate him because he is better; he has an addition that I don’t have.

The Friend And Emptiness

 

Thus, the friend forms a desire in me and pushes me to advance only if I use my new need correctly. How can I turn it into bestowal, into correct fulfillment, the same as he has?

First of all, we need some closeness, some relationship, unity. Otherwise, I will not be able to see anything in him and will have nothing to envy. That is why we are called friends because we are linked.

Besides that, I need to recognize that addition in him, which I lack myself. A strong need is formed within me, and I treasure it. It is very important not to erase his addition and my new desire against the inner background of perception, but on the contrary to start working on it, so that it becomes the same that my friend has.

So, all this is done by means of the group’s opinion. You will not manage without it; neither will you manage without a friend. Both these factors affect me and play a crucial role in advancement.

As a rule, I feel envious of individual friends, not of the group as a whole because it is “blurred” in my perception and not directed exactly against my egoism so I could aim at a particular property.

Well, next I make the actions possible for me, and then the Light, the Creator, completes what has been started… The Light always “finalizes” our endeavors.
[111856]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/13, Preparation to St. Petersburg Convention, “Principles for Building a Better Environment,” Lesson 4

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Don’t Judge By The Number Of Pages

Dr. Michael LaitmanAll the Kabbalah books are called the books of the Torah since they were written by people who attained spirituality and are beyond the Machsom (barrier) that separates us from the spiritual world. The only thing you need from these books is the unique quality in them.

A unique quality means that all your current attributes, your emotions, your mind, your quickness, and your intelligence, all your human attributes, have nothing to do with spiritual attainment and, therefore, are useless here. You can be the most foolish or most clever, but it is totally irrelevant. You can study all day like a fool, not understanding a word and not even knowing the language they were written in, but it makes no difference, and it is just like knowing the whole book by heart.

There is only one thing that can help you: if you use this book as a unique quality. A unique quality is the special connection that you can establish with these pages. However, how do you operate any forces through these pages? You don’t know. It is because you don’t know yourself. You don’t know what these pages are. You don’t know the upper system. However, the moment you perceive the text as a unique quality, you operate a certain system that you don’t know.

Then, the system begins to operate on you! However, it has nothing to do with your emotions or your mind. You can cry or laugh as you read and it means nothing. All you must do is operate the unique quality that is in this book. It is a special condition that connects you to some upper force.

You don’t know what this force is, where it is concealed, or how it operates on you and influences you. You simply use it as a unique quality. You don’t have to know anything except for the term “unique quality.”

Even if you study everything that is written here by heart, it will not bring you any closer to spirituality. On the contrary, it only will push you backward. As it is written, “The view of landlords is opposite from the view of Torah.” Wisdom without intention doesn’t help a person advance in spirituality since it has no unique quality. This is the reason that we don’t judge by the quantity of knowledge, but rather operate “above reason” by trying to draw the force that is above our emotions and our mind.
[111647]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 7/02/13, The Zohar

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The Levels Of Ascent: From “Servant” To “Master”

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus,” 21:5-21:6: But if the servant shall plainly say: I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free; then his master shall bring him unto God, and shall bring him to the door, or unto the door-post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.

By acquiring the attribute of bestowal, a person goes free, and he performs the action by himself, “I am not going, and I am staying here because I love my wife and my children.” He is ready to work with all the desires, with the attribute of bestowal, and takes the work with Malchut, with the ego, upon himself. Therefore, his desire is a deficiency, a “hole in the ear” in the attribute of Bina.

The ear symbolizes the attribute of Bina, bestowal. The hole that is made by the master is the feeling of deficiency a person still must correct, and this is what his wife and children symbolize.

A person cannot feel the deficiency that the Creator gives a person by himself and continue correcting himself. In order to feel this desire, the Creator creates an “opening” and gives him the feeling of a deficiency. It is because the attribute of Bina is the attribute of bestowal and in order to create a deficiency in it, one must ascend to a higher level. This is already the next level in which a person works with his new desire.

It is not a simple thing to create imperfection and it is only in the power of the Creator’s attribute. This is why He is called “Creator,” as He creates something external to Himself, outside wholeness. Everything he creates is lack of wholeness that only the Creator can create. It is not in a person’s power. We are always attracted to wholeness.

Now, when the servant has a desire to become a human being and he ascends to the level of Bina, to the level of freedom, he says, “I don’t want to be free because I love my wife and children. I want to correct this desire so that they will be with me.”

This means that he wants to ascend with them. It is a very sublime recognition, the attribute of Bina that wants to work with Malchut that wants to correct the creation. Thus, a person reaches adhesion with the Creator since he remains by his master forever.

If he grows so much that he feels the need to work with his wife and children, which means, with his whole egoistic desire, and can raise it further up, the Creator brings him closer to Him and helps him do so.

Thus, a person ascends from the level of a “servant” to the level of a “master.” First, he worked for the master as a slave but now, although the attribute of a servant remains, he already is called “God’s servant” who loves the master and who has attained Bina consciously.
[111629]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/11/13

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On The Way To A Higher Level

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, Exodus, 21:17: “And one who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.”

“Father and mother” are two upper spiritual objects, two upper forces that enable you to correct yourself. They give you the power of wisdom and the power of spirit.

Question: But how could I curse them?

Answer: If you don’t want the upper level. You have to annul yourself before father and mother in order to receive it.

In our world there are many children who disagree with their parents, look down at them, and disrespect them, although actually both the parents and the children are greatly confused here. What is more the generation gap is constantly growing and everything is regressing.

In the spiritual world, however, everything is towards ascent; everything in it is opposite from our world. So a person who doesn’t understand the conditions of mother and father simply destroys himself, which means that he must be put to death. It is only by death, which means by recognizing the fact that one is totally detached from the upper Light, that he can feel his real state and begin to rehabilitate himself properly by establishing a good connection with the upper level of mother and father.

Question: Are the children the next level of the parents?

Answer: They have to ascend to that level and then while in it they become higher than their parents since they have ascended to it with their ego.
[111815]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/11/13

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And Don’t Forget…

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, Letter 19: However, one must know in one’s heart that the Creator chases him just as much as he chases the Creator. One must never forget that, even through the greatest longing.

A person must have a deficiency, since without a vessel the Creator cannot awaken towards him. The Light can only bestow in response to some yearning on part of the vessel, on part of the soul. So a person is brought right from the start to Kabbalah from above without actually awakening towards it on his part. There is only a spark of awakening that remains in him after the shattering, like in the levels of the still, vegetative, and the animate nature that exist and develop without freewill at all.

But a person must begin to work and perform independent actions according to his freewill. This is why he is brought to the wisdom of Kabbalah, to a group, and then he is given greater freewill.

“When remembering that the Creator misses and chases one to cling to him as intensely as one wishes for it himself, he then always goes from strength to strength, with yearning and longing, in a never-ending coupling, the complete perfection of the soul.”

It doesn’t matter what state a person is in as long as he remembers, thinks, and even feels that everything that happens comes from an upper root, from the Creator. The Creator operates him like a human hand inside a puppet. If a person feels or knows this or looks for that during his whole life, it is called a continuous merging with the Creator.

A person constantly searches and clarifies how the Creator manages him. We have to feel that at least and to constantly think that everything that happens to us comes from the Creator. We must constantly delve into this thought until we begin to feel it. It is even better to ask to feel that everything inside me operates under the management of the upper force. Everything that I say, think, feel, or any movement that I make now is not my own doing at all; everything comes from above.

I must understand that I am managed from above and that I don’t decide anything or do anything at the moment.

“He then always goes from strength to strength, with yearning and longing, in a never-ending coupling, the complete perfection of the soul. At last, one is endowed with repentance out of love.”

This is a process we have to go through. There is nothing but the search for the Creator but each time in a higher and deeper resolution, by wider actions to the depth of the worlds, until the whole desire to receive is revealed. A person begins to understand how the Creator manages him and sees from one end of creation to the other. He discovers the Creator’s actions in every detail of the creation and discovers the Creator in each detail.

Thus a person can adhere to everyone. He cannot adhere to his friend unless he determines that the same upper force operates both in him and in his friend.
[111783]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/08/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The “Beast” Suffers, But The “Adam” Rejoices

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf the Creator pokes you with sharp thorns, these are not real thorns, rather simply the natural evolutionary steamroller that develops you just like the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate. This is not the development of the Adam (man) in you.

You indeed evolve, acquiring a little more intelligence, feeling, and understanding. But you don’t develop on the human level. Because the human level is the development in which you need to construct yourself through the creation of an environment and ready yourself for this environment to “poke” you with its thorns. Only then is this called the hastening of time (Achishenah).

The Adam in us is developed only by the way of hastening time. And the pokes that we receive from above, from the smallest things to terrible wars and disasters, all of this still doesn’t add anything to human development, but is used to prepare for this.

It is impossible without these troubles, but they are said to bring us to a state where we decide that from now on we must develop independently. We have now reached such a milestone. And so if we don’t go out to the wider public and don’t begin to work with them actively, to agitate and wake them up, along with agitating ourselves through our active deeds, we summon more thorns from the higher power, further blows at the still, vegetative, and animate levels.

And so we will need to escape from the blows like beaten animals as long as we are no wiser and begin to think: “Why do we need all this? Wouldn’t it be better for us to develop evolutionary forces for ourselves, desirable both in the eyes of the Creator and in the eyes of the person? We must awaken the dawn ourselves!”

This is to say, that Israel (those who yearn for the Creator Yashar-el) hastens the times. This is the difference between the level of “Israel” and the level of “nations of the world,” that advance naturally through the influence of nature.

What is the difference between the pokes that I receive from nature and the pokes that I create in myself through the group? The blows can come from a wife, from children, from a boss, from neighbors, from the police, from the internal revenue service, from the bank, or from something greater, like wars and diseases. All these blows belong to the animate level, to our earthly life.

But the level of the speaking (the Adam) is when I myself understand the goal of creation and want to advance towards it. Therefore I build a group that will influence me in a selective and goal-oriented form, so that I will advance towards that goal in a precise form. I relate to this environment in a unique, intentional way and want to get from it an exact reaction that obliges me in a particular way to turn towards the goal of creation.

The environment must arouse jealousy in me, that they advance and I do not, they influence each other, and I don’t, and they look at me as lagging behind them. These are also thorns, but are qualitative, compared to some kind of illness, adjudication or familial problems. These are no longer earthly problems, but spiritual. I myself need to create a state like this that will inflame and oblige me to forge ahead.

And I enjoy these thorns because they stimulate my advancement. And a dual relationship is formed in me towards them. On the one hand, the beast in me suffers; but the Adam in me rejoices.
[107079]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/03/13, Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam”

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Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why is it written in The Zohar that a single rose with thorns is selected rather than all the other roses without thorns?

Answer: There are souls who exist without feeling a need to advance towards a goal. And there are souls who advance toward the goal of creation, which is that they want to transform their intention from “in order to receive” to an intention “in order to bestow.” For this they require thorns, like a rose, which is to say sufferings from their condition in the present state. They need to establish that this egoistic state is bad, and that the state of bestowal and love is good.

They receive a motivation to advance either from natural evolution, which pushes all of humanity forward like an evolutionary steamroller that forces development, or we need to create an environment like this for ourselves that will show us how much our state of “in order to receive” is bad and how much more preferable and good for us it would be for us if we were in a state of “in order to bestow.”

Thorns are forces that obligate the person to change his nature. Without them there would be no changes. Therefore it is impossible without thorns, and the question is only about who builds the thorns. This would be either the Creator, according to the program of natural evolution, called “beito” (in its time), or the person himself who wants to hasten his development and advancement and shorten the time; therefore he creates a society that will show him how much his development lags behind everyone else. So due to jealousy of others, he will pursue them.

These are also “thorns,” but others that are more useful and intentional. There is a particular sweetness to them because the person receives support from his environment. Development under the influence of these thorns is good and rapid and is done by the environment.

And someone who doesn’t have an environment like this doesn’t have thorns like these to help his development. The development of the person is done only by the environment on condition that he participates in his own development. For with this he begins to understand the program of the Creator, the plan, the thought of creation. It is specifically this which we must perceive, since Israel is called “Li-Rosh- I have a head” (a permutation of the letters of “Israel”), therefore we must acquire this knowledge, the goal, of this entire system before me, so that I will transform to be its house master, resembling the Creator.

The third state, which is the completion of correction, is separated from the first state, which is the beginning state of creation, in that we construct a head, intelligence, understanding, and awareness for ourselves. The Creator wants us to perceive His actions, as it is written: “From your deeds we will know you.”

Therefore we cannot advance through the thorns that come to us from nature, from the steamroller of evolution, rather solely and only if we ourselves design for ourselves an environment, that will “poke” us all the time. This will signify that we are developing ourselves. This is called the hastening of time, achishenah (I will hasten it) when “I awaken the dawn.”
[107059]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/03/13, Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam”

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Ten, Not Nine Or Eleven

Dr. Laitman with StudentsThe entire progress is realized only in the group of ten. From that moment on, we only work in it. The group of ten could be hundreds of our friends around the world. This also is called ten people, not nine or eleven.

Everything has the same structure of the ten Sefirot. The only difference is the scale, a greater or lesser resolution. You see ten people before you, but when you approach, each of the ten people turns into ten, and then each of these ten turns into other ten, and thus to infinity.

However, in essence, you see the same HaVaYaH, the same group of ten in which absolutely everything is included.
[111566]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/4/13, Writings of Rabash

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St. Petersburg Convention “Day One” – 07.12.13

Convention in St. Petersburg, “A Single Governing Force of Nature,” Day 1, Lesson 1

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Convention in St. Petersburg, “A Single Governing Force of Nature,” Day 1, Workshop1

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Convention in St. Petersburg, “Round Tables,” Day 1, Practical  Workshop 

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Convention in St. Petersburg, “The Collective Influence of the Single Force of Nature Manifests Inside the Circle,” Day 1, Lesson 2

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Convention in St. Petersburg, “The Collective Influence of the Single Force of Nature Manifests Inside the Circle,” Day 1, Workshop 2

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