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The Whole World Is My Reflection

Dr. Michael LaitmanA “slave” is a desire that I have assimilated inside me and it is thus under my full control. At the same time, I have subdued it to such an extent that it isn’t considered my ego anymore, but a full partner.

I can fully use it, not by pressure as I did when I was using it by force, but rationally and logically. This means that it is already in full agreement with me.

We only talk about intentions and desires since there is nothing other than that in a person. A person is a small world, so everything that we see, the picture of the world with everyone in it, is all a reflection of my inner attributes and nothing but that. If there is anything in the world inside me, it is a sign that this is how I see my own reflection.

This is the way I should arrange everything in my head while reading the sources, until I actually realize that. Gradually both your mind and sight will be focused on that, and you will understand that it is really so. Even quantum physicists and psychologists are starting to talk about this now.
[111951]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/29/13

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What Does Your Heart Draw You To?

Dr. Michael LaitmanA person who doesn’t engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah but simply watches and listens to our broadcasts gradually begins to automatically perceive all the terms and concepts of the Torah correctly, since the upper Light operates on him.

He doesn’t need anything other than that. If he does everything systematically, then he will undoubtedly begin to feel an opposite world and understand that everything that we perceive on the outside is actually inside us. It will be easy and simple for him to perceive that. He only needs to go through this change, and that’s all.

On the whole, this is what the fields that deal with borderlines like quantum physics and the theory of relativity talk about. A person tries and doesn’t understand why things occur in a certain way, and then he begins to realize and think in terms of the new system of coordinates.

But before every new level, before the realization, there is a feeling of darkness, of confusion, as if mud has been mixed in water and nothing is clear.

The main thing is that we are part of nature and cannot escape from it. We engage in the most natural science that only clarifies where we are, how we live, and how we perceive nature.

But if a person has no such inclination, you will not be able to persuade him to study. If he begins to feel the need for that, then he doesn’t need any words. He senses it like an animal, “this refers to me.” He will look around until he arrives at the wisdom of Kabbalah.
[111948]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/29/13

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The Torah Is The Basis For All The Laws

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe laws of the Torah have become the basis for all the laws since they are the laws of natural human connection. If we gradually evolve from an ape into a human being, then we naturally approach the fulfillment of the laws, or at least think that we should do so, although we don’t actually succeed. This means that they are the laws of the upper world to which we must eventually become equal, and the laws of the upper nature are fixed.

Humanity begins to awaken gradually and wants to behave according to these laws and live by them. It is very difficult to say to what extent we succeed since people don’t have the power to stick to them; it is a power that they must receive. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah does as it gives a person the power to fulfill these laws. We cannot fulfill them by ourselves since they are opposite to our nature.

However, if a person uses the method of Kabbalah correctly, he receives power and the mind for that, and then he can live by these laws. On the whole, it is all about education. We must educate a person correctly in order to actually change him from an ape into a human being. At present, people’s behavior is much worse than that of an ape.

Apes live according to clear laws of nature of the animate level and they fulfill its rules instinctively. Therefore, nothing is good or bad since it is their nature.

We have the option to act “for” or “against,” “in favor of,” and so forth. This means that we are given a certain level of freedom that allows us to clarify in whose favor we should use these laws, in my favor or the society’s, and how to become part of society in order to be as one whole together.

Usually, we choose in our favor and don’t think about the fact that if we connect to society then all the problems will disappear and there will be no more dilemmas. This is the issue for the future.
[111912]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/29/13

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There Is No Punishment, There Is Only Correction

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus,” 21:18-21:19: And if men quarrel, and one strikes the other with a stone or with a fist, and he does not die but is confined to [his] bed, if he gets up and walks about outside on his support, the assailant shall be cleared; he shall give only [payment] for his [enforced] idleness, and he shall provide for his cure.

From a corporeal point of view, we understand what it is about, but if we penetrate more deeply we will discover that it is much more complicated. It is about a person who can be incorporated into society after the damage that was caused to him, to be a normal, integral part of it, and whoever has caused him the damage should compensate him.

Question: What is the meaning of “and one strikes the other” in the internal work?

Answer: A person includes the whole world inside him, and when there is a war inside him, he should become his own judge and consider clearly and accurately what inside him is “for” and what is “against,” according to his level.

There is an upper court, a local one, a regional one, and so on, which means that there are different levels according to the depth of the problems that arise. There are problems that can be solved by a simple dialog between people, and there are problems that require the intervention of a third party. The Torah speaks about the intervention of a third party, when the judge decides what to do in a specific case.

It is about the three lines in our behavior. There are actions that are solved by the intervention of special upper forces, conditions, and so on.

The Torah doesn’t refer to prison. According to the Torah, it isn’t just useless but even harmful to a person since you cut him off from society. There is no greater punishment than to cut a person off from society since it is in society that he fulfills himself, and  if you cut him off from it, he is considered dead. So, there can be no isolation. We can banish a person from one society and bring him into another, lower one that is more suitable for him.

In the past, there were cities of refuge to which a person could escape if he had committed a sin unintentionally. However, if he left that city, he could be caught and punished. The escape to a refuge city, to an asylum, was his correction.

This means that the upper Providence had operated on a person in such a way that he had unintentionally killed another person or caused harm to another person. This means that he didn’t take part in this action and that it initially was unintentional on his part, but internally, under all his thoughts and ideas, it was still part of his nature or of his connection with that person. It turns out that he had caused harm or the death of another person, even if it was unintentional. Now, in order to correct this, he must get away. The word “punishment” doesn’t exist in the Torah at all; there is only the word “correction.”
[111909]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/29/13

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Covering All Of Creation By Myself

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe laws of the Torah are very complex. We can study and examine them according to The Book of Zohar or according to the writings of ARI, but they are all about very complex systems. Since every person is actually a system that is “stretched” over all of creation, each of us is like skin that is stretched over all the worlds.

However, we lack this knowledge and these feelings. We don’t live in this dimension so that we can discuss it by understanding it and the interruptions we insert into the general system by our actions, whether they are positive or negative. This system somehow operates mutually with us by summoning in us certain voids, desires, and awakenings, and we must respond to all that.

So, I must feel the whole system. It must be inside me, and I must control it, manage it. In this case, we can speak about how a person is responsible for all that. It turns out that all the laws of the Torah are actually the clarifications of my state inside the system. Where do I discover my corruption now, my incomplete incorporation in the system? How should I complete all this, which means to draw away from one thing and get closer to another?

Generally speaking, the entire life of a person who is correctly incorporated in the system comes down to his determining how to “spread” even more over all the system and be incorporated in it more fully so as to cover all of the five worlds by his essence. Then, I become a fully corrected person. So, the five parts of the Torah tell us about how I gradually cover all of creation in circles: All the worlds of Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, and Adam Kadmon (primordial man) since all of creation is inside me.

“Covering” means to totally feel and cooperate with all of creation. It is already my whole, inner structure, my inner constitution. Even today, all of creation is inside a person, but he simply doesn’t feel that. He feels the world external to him.

However, he must feel that everything is inside him, like a musician or a painter who feels by their inner sense that everything they want to convey is through their creation, from inside him. A person reaches this feeling when he wants to feel that he is connected to the whole world.
[111906]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/29/13

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Test-Driving The Family Car

Dr. Michael LaitmanJudgment and mercy accompany each other in familial relationships and always need to be in balance. On the one hand, as an egoist I want to use my partner, assuming that my wife needs to do what I demand of her, and this is called “judgment” by me. And “mercy” means that I absolutely detach myself, taking into account what my wife wants from me, and try to build the ideal model. How would I relate to her if I didn’t have my egoistic interest and I was entirely intending only to serve her?

Now I need to find the balance between these two extremes: judgment and mercy, which is called the “middle line.” This requires experience, mutual work, a process in which each teaches the other. But we already begin working with the new creature—with the person in us who is ready to consider the partner, to understand him, to be sensitive to him, and to love him as he loves himself.

In a form like this you can approach not only your wife, but also you begin to be sensitive to other people. After an exercise like this with your partner, you feel that you are prepared to connect with people and to manage them: on the street, at work, in every place where you are found. They will begin to submit to your influence because you are relating to them with the “middle line,” with the right proportion, to the degree that the person approaches you, so do you as well.

In an automatic manner you reach a balance with the world and begin to feel that you can manage it. You see the “middle line” is the fundamental law of nature according to which the entire universe operates, except for human society because the human being was created as an egoist. And now you correct this and balance your ego. By learning to consider your wife this way, you begin to consider everyone else in the same way when you construct the shared “middle line” in relationships with them.

The first line is called “judgment”; this is what I demand for myself from the other. The second line is called “mercy,” meaning that I give my wife everything that she wants from me when I absolutely detach from my desires. It is as if I bring her into myself.

We are two egoists who stand facing each other. If I satisfy my ego, this is called judgment in relation to my wife, and if I satisfy her ego, this is called mercy. I need to place these two lines in a form like this so that a third line is formed, the “middle line.” This means reaching adherence, a covenant. Our goal is to bring these two egoists together and to bring them to connection. The first compulsory condition, without which it is impossible to begin to work, is the readiness of each to feel the desire of the other.

Balance is based upon the degree that each one is prepared to nullify oneself. We cannot fulfill these two egoistic desires that stand facing each other to the end. Only on condition that one side will reduce his claims a little, can we fulfill the other side a little.

Question: But how do you know the limit to which you need to concede? You see, you said that this doesn’t have to be absolute love without any boundaries. Must I show that I react to the relationship of the partner and take this into account?

Answer: It is necessary to find the point of balance, as if you are driving a car focusing on the goal that you want to reach. That is how we need to check if we are approaching the goal: Are we approaching each other, do we see that the partner reacts to our efforts to come closer in the right way?

I turn our family steering wheel to the right and try to insert as much compassion as possible into my relationship, and I see to what point this works well, and when deviation becomes too great, I need to adjust the steering wheel. And my wife also turns the steering wheel, which is to say, we begin to manage, to “direct” ourselves. We are already working above our natures! We become humans who rise above their natural instincts.
[110313]
From KabTV’s “A New Life #46” 8/01/12

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More Food Is Produced Than Humanity Needs

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from The Washington Post): “It’s a question that keeps crop scientists up at night: How are we possibly going to feed the world over the next few decades?

After all, consider what we’re up against: The global population is expected to swell from 7 billion today to 9.6 billion by 2050. …

“Farmers are doing everything they can to squeeze more productivity out of their farmland, but they’re starting to hit a biological ‘wall,’ a limit on how much yields can keep rising.”

My Comment: Actually, the only problem is that food is distributed unevenly between different countries. And its even distribution depends only on people, on their care for each other. And no international organizations will solve this problem.

Otherwise, in full abundance, we arrive to the point that half of humanity throws out surplus food that would suffice the second half. And the hungry half raises riots and wars. Nature forces the human being to change himself.
[111867]

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I Envy Means I Grow

Dr. Michael LaitmanA person has no strength to do a single spiritual action. We need to take a sober look at the reality, understanding that we act in the framework of strict laws and forces, which we have to organize for ourselves. That is why if he does not connect himself with the environment correctly, in order to connect through it with the source of the method of correction, that is, with the teacher, and through the teacher with the Light that Reforms, then he will be constantly spinning within his desires and aspirations that lock him in this world.

He will never go beyond the limits of this world. And while he will learn something, ultimately he will remain with the same nature with which he was born and will remain on the same level. It is possible to rise to a higher degree only under the condition that a person receives an additional, qualitatively new desire, rather than increasing his common earthly needs for money, family home, power, and knowledge.

He can get all this in this world. But if he needs to move from the earthly plane of “money-family-power-knowledge” to the next, higher dimension, then he needs a completely different desire—the need for the property of bestowal—because our world is based only on the desire to receive. The spiritual world is based on bestowal, to which a person has to become attracted and aspire to as to the greatest treasure:  the desire that will be able to serve as a lever for him, a springboard.

He has to suffer because he is not capable of loving and giving, but is this possible? Only the envy of other people that appear great, attractive, and important to him can help him. He discovers that they are glad that they have the ability to bestow, they find something unusual in this property of bestowal, and in comparison to them he is nothing.

If he has the point in the heart, he begins to envy them. Without this point he has nothing to hold on to, has no sensing organ to feel that they have something special that he does not have. He will not feel that he lacks something. It is like a person who loves music and dreams of becoming a musician will not envy the one who wants to become a physicist. Physics and poetry are completely different worlds.

This also works in spiritual aspiration. Only if a person has the point in the heart, he has at least an initial opportunity to envy people who are in the property of bestowal. At first he is attracted because it seems mystical, promises some supernatural abilities, the power of the mind, the ability to manage his own life and the life of others, power over the entire creation.

That is, at the beginning, the property of bestowal is clothed in all kinds of material garments, not at the bodily level “food-family,” but at the level of “money-power-knowledge.” In essence, it all comes down to one thing: to the power of dominance (the power of money, the power of knowledge). It is a purely egoistic desire, but one hopes that he will reach success in the revelation of the spiritual world.

If he has a strong desire, then initially it seems to him that he advances quickly and successfully, but later he suddenly discovers that he is behind, and that he cannot really connect with others. On the other hand, he hears that connection is the main tool for advancement. He begins to hate this method, but has nowhere to go.

There a decisive battle takes place from which many escape. But there are those who remain. They increase their point because due to helplessness they surrender to the environment. Then they finally begin to understand that spirituality is not in money, power, or knowledge, but only temporarily it became clothed in these material garments in order to lead a person further.

And now spirituality pulls him further upwards because he begins to appreciate the property of bestowal and love for the other on its own. He feels that this very force, this property, is unusually exalted and unique; it is above this world and possesses the divine essence. Precisely these forces of bestowal rule in the world.

Gradually, the person bows lower and cancels his egoistic nature, agreeing to annul himself before the property of bestowal. All this work takes place within the group. The influence of the environment is the only factor of such change of values in which bestowal and love for the other becomes more important for a person than the usual good things: food, money, family, power, and knowledge.

He is increasingly imbued with the desire to bestow from the environment, and thus he comes to the stage of the path that is called “Lo Lishma.” He invests all his efforts and does everything possible to increase the portion of “Lishma” in “Lo Lishma”; that is, he bestows and bestows, wanting to be involved in the property of bestowal, but still expects to get something in return. For the time being, it is still egoistic bestowal, for the sake of reception; however, it is approaching altruistic bestowal.

Here, he needs humility; self-nullification; the greatness of the goal, of the group, of the teacher, of the Creator. All this becomes very important for him, and except for this, there is nothing else… Everything he dreamed of before is gradually devalued: first money, then honor, then power. Whom does he need to rule over and for what purpose? He wants the upper Light to rule over him. That is, it is not just the desire to dominate himself, but the desire to bow before the Light so that it can do its work.

The person discovers his weakness in everything: He can neither cancel himself nor acquire the property of bestowal. He does not find a single bit of bestowal and love for the other within himself, but he cannot rule over his egoism either. He feels that he is naked and helpless. Because he is no longer interested in wealth, honor, and knowledge, he has nothing left but the point in the heart that is called the sign of the covenant with the Creator. Suppose he learns everything that happens in the world, all of the science invented by humanity. But all this is included in the same Light, and in its true, direct form, instead of the reversed back form, on which all earthly science and knowledge are based.

As a result, he remains dependent only on the Reforming Light that comes to him through the entire ladder of spiritual worlds, through the teacher, through the group, under the condition that he wants to return through them everything that he has back to the Creator. The Direct and Reflected Light clothe in each other.
[111003]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/13, Shamati #175

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Progress Is Easy When Everything Is Ready

Dr. Michael LaitmanPeople have a unique characteristic that doesn’t exist in any animal, if he wants to eat something sweet, he will mix this with something salty, which is to say with an opposite taste. The principle of “the advantage of the light over the darkness” is expressed in him significantly. Even on the animate level there exists a phenomenon like this, but to a very limited degree.

The same thing happens in the states through which we pass, and there are very good and pleasant states among them, yet we lose them afterwards without paying attention. The feeling gradually fades and I don’t feel the loss. I lack the awareness of its importance and the incessant concern that I must protect this feeling.

So why do they take this state from me and not let me realize its importance and remain in it? This is so I will attain an even higher state. Yet I don’t feel any need of a higher state; I have no appetite for it; there are no “appetizers” that will increase my appetite. Therefore I must construct the additional desire within me by myself so that I will not be satisfied with the present state.

This is very difficult. Only if I want to expand my desire for bestowal, will a possibility like this exist, thanks to the environment. But if this is speaking of the desire to receive, this is totally impossible. Therefore they give us a state of descent.

A descent can happen in this way; I cannot be satisfied in the present state and want to add to it. I compare myself to the environment and see that the others advance in bestowal more than I do. In this way emptiness is formed in me and I aspire to greater bestowal without a descent. Which is to say, the environment forms an impression of descent in me, and I no longer need a real descent.

And if I don’t feel the descent through comparison to others and don’t see that they bestow more than I, then they give me a real descent and add ego to this, a desire for pleasure above which I must succeed in working and bring to the correct form. This is a lengthy process that continues for a long time.

That desire that I finally attain, after working on my ego after the fall and bringing it to the form of bestowal to the next level, I could have already received ready-made from the environment and used immediately! Think about it!

Specifically in this place we need to make effort. And not to take the long way to first fall and only then to be awakened by what is bad for me. Because then I will be forced to fall into this world, into its egoistic desires, until I will finally be awakened, remember that I need to aspire to bestowal, and will turn to the group to study. This is a very long way.

In contrast to this, if I expose myself to the influence of the environment, then envy and ambition drive me out of “this world” of the previous situation. Even if I am found in an excellent state and have now reached ascent, I can describe this to myself as a descent relative to the state of the environment that seems to me higher and more successful. All the friends seem great to me, raised higher.

It could be that at this moment despair is awakened in me, a sensation of my lowliness relative to the others, a material worldly envy that they succeed and I don’t. Yet this will only spur and arouse me, and from there it is very easy to pass to spiritual envy and to get carried away after them, to want to work with them and to be like them. This is already a state of “Lo Lishma” after which the Light that Reforms immediately appears and helps us to advance.

Be that as it may, the advantage of the light is known only from the darkness, and don’t believe that it is possible to find the spiritual world without effort. And vice versa, don’t believe that someone makes an effort and doesn’t find it! Fulfillment is determined only by the Kli, vessel, and it doesn’t matter where we get this Kli: Do we construct it ourselves during difficult work on ourselves with the help of the environment or do we receive it ready-made from the environment?

Ultimately my Kli is found among the friends, in the environment; that is where my soul is found. Therefore it makes no difference if I am immersed in myself, in my ego that arouses in me opposite states and through this compels me to turn to the environment, to go through external activities outside of myself in order to be connected for something with everyone else, or if I immediately receive from them the right aspiration, thanks to envy, and then easily attain the same goal.
[111147]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/13, Shamati #117 “You Labored and Did Not Find, Do Not Believe

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