St. Petersburg Convention “Day Two” – 07.13.13

Convention in St. Petersburg, “Method of Creating the Right Relationships in the Group,” Day 2, Lesson 3

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Convention in St. Petersburg, “Method of Creating the Right Relationships in the Group,” Day 2, Workshop 3

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Convention in St. Petersburg, “Harmony at Work,” Day 2, Practical Workshop 

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Convention in St. Petersburg, “Good Environment as the Means of Achieving the Goal of Every Person,” Day 2, Lesson 4

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The Outcome Of An Action

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus,” 21:15: And one who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

In this case a person cannot continue his correction since he is nourished by his “father” and “mother,” Abba and Ima. A strike means to harm the connection with them in such a way that a person disrespects and puts down this connection, breaking the Masach (screen) that his father and mother have given him. The attribute of Gevura from the left line reveals the ego that doesn’t want to be under the parents’ protection, under their Masach.

A person cannot continue his correction since all his corrections are fulfilled only by these two upper Partzufim, Abba and Ima. He refuses to acknowledge them, hits them, sends them away, draws away and removes their control over him, accepting their love in the form of hate that is opposite from him, and this is what actually kills him as a result.

There isn’t even one action in all these punishments. It’s all about the outcome of my action. There are no decisions to be made here. A person clarifies things and then his current level dies.
[111820]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/11/13

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Advancing By “Entrances” And “Exits”

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is clear that we can only advance above the corrupt egoistic desire that is revealed to a greater extent day by day. Only by overcoming it and yearning for the spiritual goal with the right inclination do we gradually advance toward the end of correction.

The main thing is to start anew each day, which means every moment. You must feel the new egoistic desires, thoughts, doubts, and disagreements with the goal, and urges awaken in you from one moment to the next. You become critical with regard to the spiritual path, the environment, the teacher, the books, and the sources, and are drawn to other goals.

It is also important how deeply you delve into inner self-searching since they can bury you under their heavy load. You mustn’t spend more time on them than necessary, but only feel where you are and immediately aim at coming out of the darkness. We need the right attitude to begin with.

If you understand that your advancement is based only on negative clarifications, then you can be grateful for them and advance. You will not be afraid to discover increasingly more unpleasant clarifications every minute. On the contrary, the more “entrances” and “exits” that you make with regard to the goal, the spiritual attributes, bestowal, love, and connection, the happier you will be that your life is full of corrections.

Even if you prepare yourself in advance and come to some big event, to a big convention, and go through very serious, honest, inner clarifications there, the very next day, you should be happy that you begin everything anew from the same corrections and the same problems that you seemingly already have been in.

Nothing repeats itself, although it may seem that way. However, a person must get used to starting anew each time, until the clarifications add up to a full measure and provide a person with a new level to work on. There, too, the work begins anew each day, although it is a totally new kind of work.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/13

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The Domain Of The Unique

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, Letter 42:  And when everyone has annulled himself and everyone worries only about the Creator’s sake, then they have no private judgment, since there are no more private opinions, and all the individuals annul themselves and all enter the domain of the unique.

Incorporation is the main thing; incorporation brings the general vessel back to the corrected state and what is more it adds to the vessel an intensity that is 620 greater. What used to be simply connected in the system of Adam HaRishon (first man) before the sin, has become something that is much greater. It isn’t the same matter and not the same initial “earth” anymore but actually becomes similar to the Creator in every sense.

In terms of intensity that is 620 times greater, it is about a qualitative ascent that cannot be described in words. We go through a kind of enhancement and move from the created being to the Creator, thus raising ourselves to the level of the Giver.

This doesn’t mean that from now on I surround the whole world by my perception; it isn’t about this world at all, but about totally different levels. The size of the first spiritual level cannot be measured in our world, neither in height nor in intensity.

Everything is attained only by incorporation when I fill the friends and the friends fill me. No one can fill himself, only others can and it is only from them that he will receive a filling.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/05/13, Preparation to St. Petersburg Convention, “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself,” Lesson 3

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Incorporated In One Desire

Dr. Michael LaitmanA Collection of Laws, “the Breastplate of Judgment,” The Laws of the Guarantor, Law 3-30: The main thing about observing the Torah is the desire and it is attained by unity. Therefore, everyone should be incorporated in the community of Israel in great unity. And therefore during the receiving of the Torah, they must immediately become responsible for one another. It is because when they want to receive the Torah, they should immediately be incorporated as one, in order to be incorporated in the desire, then everyone is certainly responsible for his friend since they are considered one.”

What is unity, what is mutual guarantee?

It is a state in which I “is replaced” by every member in the group; I receive his reward and punishment, and everything that belongs to him. It is as if you have done whatever he has done. You deserve whatever he deserves. There are no investigations and no examinations; I am fully responsible. This is called connection or ultimate incorporation.

Of course, we don’t reach that immediately but step by step. On the whole, the general vessel must return to its whole state. Now the ego separates us, all the parts of this vessel, and we have to reconnect into something that is totally homogeneous and unified. In order to do that we “absorb,” cover the borders between us with love, go outside and connect between us, as if the borders do not exist. Thus we increase the intensity of the connection between us by 620 times, which is the sum of 613 commandments of the Torah and seven more commandments of our sages. Thus we are incorporated into one desire by mutual guarantee.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/05/13, Preparation to St. Petersburg Convention, “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself,” Lesson 3

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 07.12.13

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
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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.

 

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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/11/13

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