Audio Version Of The Blog – 08.11.13

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Top Priority: Integral Education

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Should small groups focus their efforts on disseminating the wisdom of Kabbalah and integral education in order to bring more people to the group?

Answer: You can try that, but sometimes people live in such remote areas or isolated places where there are very few people and they can waste their energy in vain. Perhaps it’s better to make efforts disseminating the wisdom of Kabbalah and integral education virtually.

I believe that we should focus more on integral education since this is what will bring people into the inner group, to study the wisdom of Kabbalah. This is what will happen.

When we go out to the world with integral education, no one is stopping us; we have a method by which we can make the world a better place and we tell people about it. By using the right lexicon we can do whatever we want and no one will stand in our way.

When it comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah, however, there are problems: No one needs it, except for a very few. Can you imagine that you are these few people! You are indeed like diamonds, very rare. All the others will gather by the dissemination of virtual education. I believe that this is how we should operate.

If we started our dissemination today I wouldn’t mention the wisdom of Kabbalah at all. Unfortunately or fortunately that isn’t the case. We had to start from it, to learn the basics of the wisdom until we have grown to our current level. Today we are starting to develop only the method of the correction of humanity and not the points in the heart.
[114108]
From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Two” 7/13/13, Lesson 4

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Inspire And Impress The Friends!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: During the last workshop there was a very strong feeling of absolute confidence and joy among the friends. Is this the essence of the male mutual guarantee? Do all my actions regarding the friends have to make them feel this way?

Answer: The right awakening of the friends to the upper spiritual goal is when you show that you are in it and it fills you with great joy, pleasure, and enthusiasm; it gives them a huge charge of energy when you are serious and happily value the group you are in; when you fill the friends with great attentiveness, and all this comes back to you. What is more, it comes back to you in a much greater form.

You shouldn’t make any other calculations here. Try to feel this all the time. If you feel that they treat you disrespectfully, what difference does it make? The Creator arranges things that way for you on purpose. You should work and that’s it. Be smart and outwit the Creator.

Question: Still, I want to understand the concept of mutual guarantee more deeply. What is it?

Answer: Mutual guarantee is when you feel that you are responsible for the fact that all the friends should reach the goal. You feel that you can do that and that it depends only on you.
[114106]
From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Two” 7/13/13, Lesson 4

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Concealment For The Sake Of Revelation

Dr. Michael LaitmanConcealment begins when I perceive that it conceals the importance of the group and the Creator from me. Gradually, however, I begin to feel that the concealment supports me. This means that I feel that the concealment is sweet. I feel that this exile that cuts me off from the Upper Light and prevents me from contacting the Creator, from feeling Him is in my favor!

Then this exile becomes sweet since it is by that, by working with it, that I develop my vessels more, form relationships with others and increase my understanding of the Creator. Thus I turn the Holy shadow into revelation. The Masach (screen) that conceals becomes a Masach that reveals.

There is another shadow called the shadow of the Sitra Achra, of the Klipot (shells). When I am in that shadow, I feel that I am in concealment and that I cannot connect to the Creator. I cannot do anything, since I am detached from the goal in that state. This is why this shadow is called the shadow of the Sitra Achra. The Sitra Achra is any state in which I don’t feel that I am connected to the Creator, but that I am drawn to the opposite side, only in the direction of my desire to receive.

This difference between the shadow of Holiness and the shadow of the Sitra Achra is the difference between all the states in which we find ourselves. We have to constantly feel absolutely confident that we are in Ein Sof (Infinity) and that the Creator wants to be fully revealed among us. The problem is only that we feel the concealment which we have to develop even more in order to turn it eventually into a revelation. Then “and the shadows flee” (“Song of Songs”), they will turn into a Masach by which I will be able to relate to the Creator as He relates to me.

So all we have to practically do is to constantly focus ourselves on the Creator. My reality totally depends on Him. Everything that I receive I receive from Him. On the one hand, I receive a feeling from Him which may be unpleasant, but I have to tie myself to the Creator as to the good and the benevolent. I can do that only if I acquire the right attitude towards Him called the intention of in order to bestow.

Although I may feel bad in different discernments, the moment I want to justify the Creator and to treat Him with love, I acquire the intention of in order to bestow by doing so. This intention of in order to bestow allows me to turn my feeling of suffering into a sweet good feeling.

The intention by which I connect to the Creator sweetens all the bad feelings in my desire to receive. I begin to feel the emptiness or the suffering in my desire to receive as essential. It is on top of this emptiness that I build myself a new world with the intention of in order to bestow.
[114040]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/06/13, Shamati #8 “What Is the Difference Between a Shade of Kedusha and a Shade of Sitra Achra”

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A Special Way Of Breathing

Dr. Michael LaitmanAttaining the Creator depends on the tightness or density of our connection. What does the density refer to? To how compactly and tightly together we are connected. We have to enter one another so that there will be nothing left in me and I will be in the others. This is what everyone should do, each of us in everyone else. There is nothing that is left behind except for the body. Everything that we call the soul, the point in the heart, our yearnings are all in the group.

The environment that absorbs me helps me dissolve in it. Does the group have to think about how to do this? Frankly, we have never spoken about this issue.

For the first time in this convention I feel that I can already start talking about how to establish such an environment, when by artificially drawing away from one another we expand the distance between us in order to fill it with the Light of Hassadim. Then we do the opposite as we contract by tightening the connections between us, this time in order to fill it with the Light of Hochma. We have to gradually reach this type of breathing by the actions we perform together, but it will be fulfilled after we connect. Then we will be able to perform it.

Can you imagine the work that is done in the group? We should all work together, to understand one another, to feel one another internally. Words cannot express this in any way. This is how Kabbalists work, by creating a space inside them for the revelation of the Creator as they expand and contract each time.
[113926]
From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Two” 7/13/13, Lesson 4

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God Exists …

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from The Telegraph): “Professor Antony Flew, the rationalist philosopher who died on April 8 aged 87, spent much of his life denying the existence of God until, in 2004, he dramatically changed his mind.

“After months of soul-searching, Flew concluded that research into DNA had ‘shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce life, that intelligence must have been involved.’ Moreover, though he accepted Darwinian evolution, he felt that it could not explain the beginnings of life. ‘I have been persuaded that it is simply out of the question that the first living matter evolved out of dead matter and then developed into an extraordinarily complicated creature,’ he said.”

Francis Crick, professor, was awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery of DNA:

“‘An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going.’”

Michael Behe, professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University, the author of Darwin’s Black Box: ‘The argument of the book is that what science has discovered in the cell in the past 50 years is poorly explained by a gradual theory such as Darwin’s. And if you look at it, the evidence suggests that, in fact, many systems in the cell show signs of purposeful Intelligent Design.’”

Francis Collins, an American physician-geneticist, former Director of the Human Genome Project: ‘With quantum mechanical uncertainty and the chaotic unpredictability of complex systems, Collins writes, ‘the world is now understood to have a certain freedom in its future development.’

“‘It is thus perfectly possible that God might influence the creation in subtle ways that are unrecognisable to scientific observation. In this way, modern science opens the door to divine action without the need for law-breaking miracles,’ says Collins.

“Given the impossibility of absolute prediction or explanation, the laws of nature no longer preclude God’s action in the world. Our perception of the world opens once again to the possibility of divine interaction.”

My Comment: Science leads us to the realization of the beginning in nature: the cause, plan of development, and goal. However, scientists do not have a complete picture of the universe, including our world as part of it; for this there is the science of the actions of the CreatorKabbalah. But the God of religions does not exist, there is nature: the laws, properties, and interactions that can be revealed and attained to the extent of similarity with these properties.
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Progress In “Faith Above Reason”

Dr. Michael LaitmanSpecifically when I am found within the group, very close to the friends, we need to awaken the “Surrounding Light” on ourselves, which appears to the degree of density between us, the degree that the power of connection appears between us despite weaknesses, lack of desire, and even our laziness when we are swimming within some kind of indifference.

Even so, it is up to us to attract the Upper Light upon ourselves, and it is attracted only through unity, not through anything else!

Have you already felt this? So, continue to realize the unity even in states where you don’t want anything, for specifically when you don’t want to come close, your efforts will be most useful for prayer is created here.

You will not be successful at all, but you must reach the same state as in a convention, but already with today’s Aviut (thickness), with the newly discovered denseness of ego, when you seem to yearn for this but with a new deficiency, then the new level appears in you.

How does this happen? We know that when the Partzufim begin to be extended from above to below, then first Partzuf Galgalta goes out, and it is clothed Partzuf AB and after it, Partzuf SAG.

In Galgalta was Reshimot Dalet-Dalet (4/4). After that, when it is refined, clarified, then the Reshimot Dalet-Gimel (4/3) is left, and, within the SAG, the Reshimot Bet-Gimel (3/2) is received.

Progress In Faith Above Reason

What does the gap between Reshimot de Hitlabashut and Aviut of Dalet-Gimel (4/3) give us? Dalet is a Reshimo of the Light because it is clothed on the Partzuf, and Gimel (3) is a Reshimo of the Kli, the desire (Aviut).

If we advance from above to below, then there is a Tzimtzum of the levels or Partzufim, the states.

What happens if we advance from below to above? Suppose I was at the Saint Petersburg convention and arrived there in state “1.” Let’s symbolically call it “Saint Petersburg Convention 2013.”

At the time of the convention, I received good fulfillment, and now it is up to me to rise to the next state which must be more intense.

In the previous state, I had Reshimot 1/0, where 1, is something illuminated from my future state depending on my Aviut, and now I need to rise to a level in which I will receive 2/1 fulfillment.

For this, I must transform the previous Light (1) that filled me into a Kli, this is to say, the previous Keter (the Light) transforms into the next Malchut (Kli, desire).

How do we do this? We don’t need to think about it. The Light will do this instead of us, but it is up to us to understand that it transforms previous fulfillment into a new deficiency, into a deficiency of the new level. Therefore, it is up to us to advance with “faith above reason,” specifically to yearn for connection just as at the convention.

“2” is the attraction of the Creator because this is a greater Light than before. It is forbidden to confuse this Light with the Light of the Torah, the correction, because this is specifically the light of fulfillment, the discovery of the Creator in us according to equivalence of form with bestowal.

Therefore, every friend included in a group discovers the Creator within connection. In this kind of form, we advance. This is called advancement with “faith above reason.”
[113118]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/13, “Faith Above Reason”

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Instead Of Hierarchy, A Circle

Dr. Michael LaitmanAll of us are found in this world as if in a boat in the middle of a stormy ocean and if you don’t fulfill your function in it, you will not bring any benefit. If you will not work to set the sails in it, hold the wheel, bail the water, and if you don’t row with the oars, then you sink the whole boat.

You are included within the general system and must carry out your function, and if you don’t function, then you harm everyone, like a transistor that is burned within a complex electrical circuit and is disabled, or a guitar string that snaps. It is certainly possible to continue to play the guitar even without this string, but what kind of a tune will this be?

The word “system” encompasses a powerful sense and it awakens fear in a person. Since I am found within a system, I depend on everyone else one hundred percent. I, myself, am not ready to do anything. I cannot strike you, kill you, or compel you to change by force or threats. This is because the connection between us is internal, in my heart, and I am not familiar with your heart! You can arrange all kinds of problems for me in life with the help of the desires in your heart, and what can I do? I am really helpless.

This is called being found within a single system. I don’t depend on some terrorist or dictator, but rather on every person in the world and especially on my closest friends. My entire spiritual life depends on them, and for me there is no possibility of influencing them! I am not even ready to check what is in their heart in order to understand how faithfully they carry out their function in the general system. Perhaps, they are actually destroying it.

The integral system that is being discovered now before us is really terrible. Do you know how we are connected and why; all of a sudden there was a flood in Europe or an unusual heat wave in America? We don’t know the original cause or what the final result will be. In the integral system everything is linked, and these links disappear from before our eyes since we are not “integral.” We don’t act according to that plan, that arrangement.

Up until now, we have developed according to our nature, like animals, only more developed, but this evolution has stopped. We have reached an integral connection that is now revealed before us. Our contribution to the system is the management of this entire system. Therefore, we must discover how we can manage it and carry out this work for everyone as integral components within the system.

It must be clear to everyone what his function is. This is like an electronic device that includes the most complex systems that completely stops functioning because of one burned-out transistor.

It is very important to understand this in our function. At one time it was different and everything depended on the individual, himself, if he was great or small. There is a story about this, that a war was lost because of one nail. The blacksmith lacked one nail and he didn’t secure the horseshoe well; the horseshoe fell off, the horse stumbled, the commander riding on the horse fell off, the enemy saw this, rushed to attack, and won the battle.

Thus, they won the war without any logical basis, only because of a small nail, and not even because of the nail, rather because all the events developed linearly, according to a chain, until reaching the high commander upon whom everything depended. However, we already have left a hierarchical system, a round system operates today. Therefore, it is impossible to find the original reason upon which everything depends. Rather, everything depends on everyone and everyone is linked together and considered equally, both the great and the small, and this is a very big problem.

We already have begun to understand that it is specifically the connection that will give us the spiritual form.
[112902]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/05/13, Writings of Rabash

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The Only Criteria Of Success

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean when you say that the Reflected Light (Ohr Hozer) is realized in the group?

Answer: The Reflected Light is realized in the group since we are unable to imagine spirituality, the soul, or the Upper Light, as of yet.

If we take seven billion people, and ask each them very seriously and carefully what they think spiritual work is, it will become clear that each one of them has a different opinion, and no one has a clue what they are talking about, yet, all of them have some idea about it. That’s why we never want to act theoretically, only practically.

In other words, we are not interested in fantasizing. Kabbalah is a purely, practical science, a science of understanding the true system of the universe through the tools that are in my hands. Anything that is spoken theoretically, I don’t care about, because anyone can say anything they want.

Today, we agree with some things, “Yes, that guy is surely right!” Tomorrow, we realize that it was nonsense. That’s why we don’t “buy” any words, hypotheses, or theories. We refuse to take them into account. It is a prerogative of philosophy that, nowadays, already has turned into a household name.

I remember my meeting with physicists in San Francisco, the authors of the movie What the Bleep Do We Know? I brought a friend of mine, a professor and doctor of philosophy, to this meeting. At that time, I planned to write a book together with him. These physicists did not even look in his direction. They could not hide their contempt. Physicists research reality and we respect them for that and look forward to further contact with them.

It is exactly the same practical approach that we should have. With it, we need to approach the world. Only then would we be able to persuade others that this methodology has practical value. Baal HaSulam writes that we should make a space where we would show the entire world how this methodology works, what happens to people who are involved in it, and what kind of future they can anticipate. The only way to achieve this state of affairs is to show it to them as a model! That’s why there is no place for theoretical speculation.

You can object to my words by saying, “You only sit for three hours a day with your students, and all you do is read, and read, and read.” I do it only to attract the Upper Light. It is outlined in Item 155 in the Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot. We do it solely to attract the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), and there is no other meaning behind it. That’s why, in my eyes, those who are very knowledgeable and those who know nothing are absolutely equal.

There are people who remember many quotes by heart and know how to use them. They help me in my group work and assist me in preparation for the lessons. However, in spirituality, it doesn’t matter if a person is hardworking or very able. One’s realization is possible only within a group!

It is said that studying is available not only to wise men since one’s advancement doesn’t depend on their aptitude. Only one factor, a strong group, defines everyone’s success! It is the only criteria of attainment.

When one grinds one’s teeth and forces oneself to join the group against one’s egoism, one eventually begins rejecting his group-mates, “I don’t want to be with them! It’s disgusting! I am ready to do anything, but I don’t want to go to friends’ meetings, and I don’t want to do anything together with them.”

Why do we need to disseminate? Do you think that we do it in order to tell the world about us? No! We do it because it is our joint work, our common mission. While working together, we attract others and, thus trigger even greater Surrounding Light onto us. However, the real Surrounding Light that connects us with each other and organizes us descends to us only when we disseminate.

If, in the process of dissemination, someone experiences multiple predicaments but continues one’s work, one attracts an even bigger surrounding Light.

Consequently, first of all, people reveal their egoism; that is, they clearly realize that they don’t want to be a part of a group. In the beginning, our resistance is quite small. Then, it gradually grows. Contrary to our ego, we begin searching for various methods to join the group. Our inclusion into a group that happens against our egoism is, in fact, reasonable. We already understand why and for what purpose we do it; that is, we go by “faith above reason.” One should find strength to act contrary to what is on one’s mind and in one’s heart.

Only then will the Surrounding Light descend.
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First Love Is Not Just A Splash Of Feelings

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the purpose of falling in love?

Answer: It is to bring a person to bestowal, to encourage one to get out of oneself, and, by experiencing “personal” love of the opposite sex, one would understand that love must be applied to all of humanity and all of reality.

We aren’t born with a feeling of natural love for all of humanity. We just don’t have this desire or need built within us. On the other hand, we have an urge for sexual love. It’s a very strong impulse, the most important one that comes right after the basic need for food.

Freud is right. In essence, this instinct outlines the basis of human society. We must explore it so that, by using it, we can take care of humanity and build correct interactions among people.

Question: However, the feeling that is generated by this instinct is accompanied by a lot of confusion.

Answer: It is true. We have no idea how to use it. We confuse sex with love. Moreover, we are lost between true and false values.

For example, if I look at a woman and sees that she is very fashionable. I “fall in love.” My criteria, my internal measurements, that are imposed on me by society force me to go against my nature, against nature, and against the correct behavior that would lead me to a right type of contact with this girl and in fact a correct connection with her.

We should enlighten people in the areas of personal and social psychology, to “clear” it a little bit from the sediment of society and show people who they really are, what they need and why they are unhappy. We should explain that they fill themselves with substitutes, whether it is gluttony, going on vacation, various adventures, and so on, because no matter what they do, people are unable to satisfy their basic instincts. All this should be taught.

Question: The first love is an extremely strong sensation. When I fell in love for the first time, I felt life at its utmost vibrations. It was as if someone pressed a button on a remote control and added maximum volume to my internal world. I went out of my boundaries. When one is in love, one feels alive as never before. At the same time, one’s life vibrates between two poles, happiness and disappointment. I was full of energy. It seemed to me that I could turn the world upside down and squeeze it in my palm. I was ready to do anything to win the heart of my beloved. What kind of power is it? Why is it that when we are in love, we acquire so much energy that can’t be found anywhere else? What source does it come from?

Answer: This shows you that you can gravitate to a total stranger and enjoy connecting with him or her to such an extent that you need nothing else at all. Even if you are not ready for sex, it’s something else. It’s close to sex, and yet it is not the same. Moreover, it is quite the opposite. If we combined this enchantment with sex, they would devour each other. It’s more of an abstract, platonic love.

This example demonstrates that there exists another type of internal connection that is quite different from, let’s say, the one that exists between a host and his guests. I am ready to do whatever is needed to get feedback, to achieve unity, and find mutual relationships.

I need nothing, but that reciprocity. All I want is to retain a precious thread that is not of physical nature, not bodily, but, rather, is deeper and more spiritual. I necessitate it and aspire to it. I cannot eat, drink, walk, study, or think of anything external. I am not myself anymore. It’s something that drags me out of myself. I dream to see the one who has stolen my heart. There is nothing more important in life than her or him. Nothing at all is even close to this feeling. It fills my horizons.

This is love that everyone goes through at some point in life. We are involved in a special situation, the program that demonstrates to us that there is a special type of Connection (spelled with a capital “C”) being installed in us.

As a rule, the first love doesn’t last long and, most often doesn’t end up with physical closeness. Everyone undergoes this wave so that each one of us can have a sample of spiritual connectedness, rather than just having reminiscences of a specific person.

It’s not by accident that classmates are so glad to find each other on the Internet. They are driven by a subconscious desire to return to the innermost, original feeling. What’s so important if, a dozen years later, I see the girl who, at some point, was the most wonderful person in the whole world for me? Will I be touched or revived by seeing her many years later, or shall I be upset? What can we say about our ex-love at this time in our lives? What can we learn from this spark that was not extinguished by any of life’s winds nor covered by the ashes of our life experiences?

Our first love remains fruitless in the material sense of the word. We haven’t married these people, nor did we have sexual contact with them. Instead, we are filled with a “program,” knowledge, sensations, that demonstrate that there exists this kind of Connection and a kinship of souls. Then, in the relationships that we acquire later in life, we consciously or subconsciously seek the same feelings and try to resurrect them, at least, to a minor extent.

It’s not about the appearances of our beloved ones, not about the innermost image of the girls that happened to captivate young men’s hearts, but rather, it’s a sensation that each of us wants to get back.

This desire can be awakened in all, and in old age, it beckons even stronger than ever. After all,  a person sees that, besides this feeling, there is nothing of value in life, nothing real. This warm source gives us energy to live. It lives in us and pursues a high goal. With its help, we can begin correcting not only our family relationships, but also social interactions. I assume that the key to success lies particularly in this field.
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From the “Talk About New Life”  6/20/13

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