Audio Version Of The Blog – 08.12.13

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Check The Source Of Nourishment

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When you go out to disseminate, people’s positive responses make you feel good. So where do these powers come from, is it from my ego or from the Creator?

Answer: If you don’t demand powers from the Creator, then you naturally receive them from the ego. There are only two sources for a person’s motivation and accordingly it may be egoistic or higher, either in order to receive or in order to bestow.

So how can you check yourself? How can you find out that you are actually working in order to bestow?

I feel different disappointments, problems, emptiness, and even troubles in my desire, but I only demand one thing from the Creator, to raise my altruistic motivation without any reward for myself. I am glad that my ego feels bad, that it is empty and dissatisfied. It is a good sign; if I can continue working now it is indeed in order to bestow.

According to Kabbalistic terms, I “restrict” my desire, and put a screen (Masach) and the Returning Light (Ohr Hozer) on top of it. Generally speaking the desire always remains empty since restriction is not nullified. Then I begin to work above my desire in order to bestow, being sure that I relate to life, to reality, to the Creator, and to everyone correctly.

But if I don’t feel emptiness, disappointments, or troubles in my ego in order to be drawn above them to bestowal, to worrying about the Creator, then it means that I am still in my egoistic desire. I work in it, and although I advance towards the intention of in order to bestow, I am still immersed in self love. Of course, I try to bestow, but all my attempts are nourished by egoistic motives. This means that if I didn’t receive pleasures, I would have no motivation, no powers, no urge to carry on along the spiritual path
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/8/13, Questions and Answers

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“Seek The Lord Where He Is”

Dr. Michael LaitmanOn one hand, the Creator is always the first to awaken us and any ascent that we feel is an inevitable response to His illumination. On the other hand, what is a person’s work?

Although a person knows that “There is none else besides Him,” he should remember the principle of “If I am not for myself, who is for me?” Although the Creator awakens him, as long as a person is in concealment he should feel that he awakens himself. He mustn’t relax and wait for the Creator to wake him up.

No, we must act. I have to organize an environment and use all the means that I have so that I will not fall asleep, but rather will stay awake and responsive as possible to picking up attributes that are close to bestowal and love. With the help of the environment and other means, I prepare myself so that even if the Creator awakens me I will feel a greater and more powerful ascent.

The final awakening is that we are working together with the Creator, like a horse and its rider who have merged and the horse even wants to stay ahead of the desires of his rider like a faithful servant. So at any given moment I should remember that the Creator will undoubtedly wake me up, but everything depends on the opportunities that I actually take.

We don’t know and we don’t see these opportunities. Perhaps my accumulated efforts will spur the awakening from above after a while; perhaps there are other conditions, such as special spiritual states that belong to the “Sabbath,” to the “beginning of the month,” to the “beginning of a year” or to other holidays that are connected to the work in the “day” and the “night,” etc. The special awakening from above is also concealed in them, but we have to be more prepared for the awakening from below and constantly be sensitive to it.

If a person develops a craving, a need, for not forgetting the upper Providence for a moment, he discovers that this Providence is permanent and it stems from the Creator who is good and benevolent and that there is none else besides Him. A person discovers the truth: that the picture that the upper force draws for him of a person’s whole world, including the person himself and his environment, that it is all done in order to increase a person’s sensitivity to it. The Creator, the only force, has only one goal, that a person should always feel that the Creator is good and benevolent and that there is none else besides Him. So a person has to correct his vessels of perception and that is what matters.

It is written: “Seek the Lord where He is.” One thinks the awakening and the changes come from the Creator bringing him constantly changing states. But when I reach a state of Hafetz Hesed, I discover that there are no changes on the Creator’s part. Behind everything that is sent to me, everything that I feel at any given moment—the concealments and the revelations on different levels, the confusions and even the detachment from the Creator and later regaining consciousness, which means being conscious of the upper Providence—behind all this “scenery” I discover that there are no detachments and that the Creator never weakens His relations with us. On the contrary, He awakens stronger and more corrupt desires and attributes in me time after time, which means that they are opposite from Him, so that by this contrast between the Light and the darkness I will discover the Creator more clearly, the good and the benevolent, that there is none else besides Him.

So we have to strengthen a person’s inner readiness for the correct perception by different means. There is no blind fate or a mechanical nature that plays an incidental game with us. No matter which desires or thoughts awaken in us and come to our mind out of nowhere, it all comes from the upper force. We only have to do one thing, and that is to strengthen ourselves by different means and to respond correctly to everything that happens.

Of all the things going on in my heart and mind, inside me, and in the world (since it is one system), I want to discover one thing only—that everything is operated by one “engine.” The thoughts and the desires that awaken in me and the thoughts about the thoughts and the desires that were caused by the desires, all stem from one source that operates so that I will connect to it and be detached from it time after time and thus will establish a stable, multilayer, multifaceted connection. Thus, we clarify and search for the Creator, “seeking the Lord where he is” and discovering that He is really very near, that He is inside a person.

This means that there are no inappropriate thoughts and no lowly desires, but that everything was meant to help a person understand that nothing separates him from the Creator; the Creator is with him, and the whole world, including the still, vegetative, animate, and man, are elements that make up the connection between them.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/7/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Latent Period Of Spiritual Maturation

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe law of equivalence of form is the main law of the worlds, including “our world.” This equivalence can be direct and opposite, attracting or rejecting, that is, they interact and work at the same frequency. This may result in some pulse, a seemingly negative or positive interaction, but the law of equivalence is the most important law in creation! Therefore, if we aspire to the characteristic of the space that surrounds us, to the characteristic of the Light, we awaken its influence on us.

This influence is called the the Returning Light or the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), which surrounds us implicitly. But the moment we move as it does, according to its nature, we immediately begin to feel its influence on us. However, “immediately” is conditional because first of all the influence of the Light is gradually gathered in us, then we begin to feel it.

We need to know exactly what the means are for attaining the first level of discovering the Light when it transforms from Surrounding Light to Inner Light (Ohr Pnimi). All this is explained simply, there is nothing unique here beyond simple physics.

The person wants to know where he is because his point in the heart draws him to its source. The source is found in the world of Ein Sof, but he doesn’t know this. However, there is a link between the point in the heart and the world of Ein Sof.

Afterward, the person enters into some kind of group, which has a teacher, friends, and books. All this is done through the Surrounding Light. It creates the environment for the person; this is its function and this is under its control.

All conditions were created from the start and one doesn’t even have to be concerned about this. But if we make efforts and are concerned about building the group, then ultimately these means increase the influence of the Surrounding Light and it attracts people. Suddenly, seemingly by chance, more people arrive. Each one of us knows how that happens from his own fate, from his own story.

When I told my teacher how I found him, he immediately explained to me that there is nothing accidental; the point in the heart simply reaches a particular stage in its development. Throughout a person’s life, it awakens him all the time, it doesn’t let him rest, and gradually devours him from within. He suffers; he is concerned about his life being so uncertain, superficial, and lacking value. Sometimes he suffers from depression, sometimes he searches, even tries to emulate others, but it does not work…

We are all familiar with this and we have played in this life. The rest lived it as if it were real, and for us there was no point to it. And yet we tried to live it. So gradually the “point in the heart” grew and developed within us until it finally broke out and demanded serious, true realization. Suddenly we found ourselves with some books and with a person who explained everything to us, in brief, somehow we found an environment. It’s clear that this is the most important thing, yet we don’t pay particular attention to it.

The main thing is that we found a teacher, or some Internet site, or something else, but we don’t value the group, because this is already the next stage of development. This is quite a different property that doesn’t exist in us: to be in a group, in an environment, in a community, which I must lower and nullify myself in front of. I must imitate everything about them and just serve them.

Yet when we come to any other environment, for instance, when we get a job, we are very nice to everyone; we egoistically want to be part of the team and want them to relate to us nicely. We are nice to everyone and expect the same treatment in return. In time this passes and we become like everyone else.

And with us it is different. It doesn’t matter what you are and how you relate to everyone, you must begin to work on yourself. And we don’t understand or more precisely don’t even hear what must happen in a group. And this goes on for many years. Even though this is a latent period, it’s really very important.

It must be organized very precisely. Because we don’t understand what we are doing, there must be some people in the group who guide it, they must be “police” and “guards”; there must be a precise and strict system about all requirements like in the army. And then we will gradually begin to understand.

However, in order to attract the maximum amount of Light, we need to carry out simple mechanical actions. In this case it’s impossible to demand anything else from someone. At this stage, we are in a state that we must obey. They tell me today that it’s my turn to wash the dishes in the kitchen, so I go and wash. It’s my turn to do something else, and I do it. And if not, they will throw me out because it’s impossible to convince me any other way. It’s impossible to explain to a person that this is how we connect and approach love of the other and with this we will begin to feel the upper world. What is the connection to the upper world? It’s all so far away from those sweet words…

Therefore in the first stage of its development, the group needs to stubbornly maintain all the conditions that don’t depend on us but that are contingent upon the physical parameters for attracting even greater Surrounding Light onto us, more precisely onto our point in the heart, on this “fetus” of our spiritual strength that aspires to advancement. Indeed this fetus is running forward egoistically, and we need to attract the influence of the Light onto it.

Then comes the next, more difficult period, when people who enter into a group already begin to feel ascents and descents, all kinds of inner changes, simultaneously both pleasant and unpleasant. We need to gradually explain to them from where everything comes, that this arrives from the influence of the same source. And this is not just a psychological factor, let’s say, today he is depressed, and tomorrow he is happy for no reason. Here we begin to clearly feel the expression of some new characteristics and powers that hadn’t previously existed.

We must explain to them that the Surrounding Light influences us through two lines. Its influence in the “right line” elevates us, expands our emotions, our understanding. The Light illuminates us already, even if it’s not in an apparent way, and we still can’t feel or define it, but we already feel something: The limits of intellect, emotion, and consciousness are expanded.

We see greater connection between one thing and another and then suddenly everything will be clear to us within those same limits in which we are found. Everything is as if illuminated by Light. And so we enter into another state where, on the contrary, there is detachment, darkness, confusion,  and such, so that you don’t understand where you are found at all, you are bewildered.

States of the “right line,” and likewise states of the “left line” become even more extreme. When in an extreme right state you are found in such euphoria that you are afraid of doing something wrong. And in the extreme left state you feel darkness, nothing is clear, there is no yearning for anything, you are ready to abandon everything, you have absolute confusion in your head.

All of us know this from experience. But we must pay attention to the new people who pass through this. We need to help them; we need to soften their state.

I remember the first time I was in a state of euphoria when I asked one of the elders who studied with Baal HaSulam, “What is this?” He answered: “That’s it; another two weeks!…Wait for a change.” I relaxed and waited. After two weeks, I received such a blow that I got up with difficulty! That is how I understood what “That’s it” means.

With this they let me understand that all this was okay; this was something normal. You sit in a lesson like a dummy, as if you don’t exist, and it seems as if someone is playing a joke on you. They specifically showed me that they understood my state, and in fact the same thing is happening to them only at different levels. In them this is not so visible. Just as now, for example, my students don’t see what kind of states I pass through. Many of you haven’t seen this yet as we are used to it, we already live with it.

But we must support the new ones. We must get them to understand that this is the normal effect of the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) which affects the point in the heart and the heart itself (desire).

The Latent Period Of Spiritual Maturation
When it influences the point in the heart (right line), then we feel the increase of inspiration, a push forward; immediately a reaction that attracts the Light is awakened in us, we are ready for the noblest possible deeds. And when it influences the heart itself, the result is the opposite, there is an increase of egoistic desires in us and we are pulled down.

Basically, from both of these states we receive an increase in the Light and an increase in the desire opposite to it. And our goal is to shape the “middle line” for ourselves so that both the egoistic desire and the altruistic aspiration for bestowal, for connection, for revelation, and so on will connect in us.

The central point is the desired condition in which we control ourselves. We connect the right line and the left line in us through emotional and intellectual effort. Where is this realized? Only in a group. If the person tries to carry this out alone, nothing will come of it. Where can an egoistic desire acquire an altruistic characteristic? How can you aspire to the Light? You see, you don’t know how to do this. How can you, through using the characteristics of the Light, correct the additional ego that you received?

What is the result here? You need to make a Kli from your egoistic desire and correct it into the characteristic of bestowal through a Masach (screen) and Reflected Light (Ohr Hozer). Where will you realize this?

All this can be realized in a group and only in a group; only in it can you realize your characteristic of bestowal with which you can clearly construct yourself together with them, with those with whom you want to connect. Therefore the Ohr Hozer needs to pass through the group and be realized in it.

It’s difficult to explain to a person how this is done, this takes many years. Perhaps now this period is contracted and truly passes more rapidly. I see how many people are beginning to understand this rapidly and comprehend this, more naturally understanding the method. But still it’s very difficult for us. This is so contrary to our nature, because at every stage, on every side, the person seemingly passes through the entire way again.

You see, every level is composed of ten Sefirot and really begins from that state called an “embryo.” And then there is the feeding state (Yenika), the small state (Katnut), and then the big state (Gadlut). And every time we need to begin from nothing. This is truly amazing because every time you are born at the next level.

In our world, we don’t see, we don’t feel these incarnations, but on a spiritual level, we gradually pass through these periods of development. And all this takes place solely and only within the group. In no place, in no way, with nobody, not with anything, can you check if you are doing this correctly or not, if you are acquiring the Light, if you are gradually transforming into a man (Adam) of the world.

To the degree that any kind of motivations are awakened in you, you realize them in connection with the group, you seemingly adjust, direct yourself to the group, to connection with it. This is me. I direct myself to the group, to a link with it, and in the end receive a rejection from it. I go to a plus, and in the end I get minus (rejection). We call this rejection the “evil inclination,” which is to say, this is what I need to correct.

The Latent Period Of Spiritual Maturation
This requires prior action: first my inclusion in a group, second, the discovery of the evil inclination. This is my true ego. Everything linked to our world is not called ego. All these are our normal beastly characteristics and we can relate to them absolutely quietly. This rejection, the serious addition that I begin to receive, this is my first egoistic level. And I need to begin to work with it.

The next stage (the third) is my participation in a group against my ego. And when I do this, when I invest as much effort as I can, I begin to attract the Surrounding Light (the fourth stage) onto myself. That is how this works.

To the degree that I am included in a group, the upper Light comes to me through the collective soul, through the entire empty void. Everything is realized only by getting closer within the group.
[112699]
From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Two” 7/13/13, Lesson 3

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Does The Second Half Of My Soul Exist?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Does someone exist who is especially meant to be my husband, the second half of my soul?

Answer: Yes, there is a soul like that. In an idealistic way, it would be desirable to find it, but I don’t think it would be possible to determine it immediately. If we really create a large society, both good and broad, where many circles will work to choose mates from the young people aged 18-20, by each one setting up a circle that would suit him, then they would be able to identify their perfect mate.

But for that they would need to feel this way from within the most inner part. It is a concept through hard work and diligent self-purification from artificial strata, and it is only possible through the society, the environment, which supports you in this matter and helps each person. We, as if, put ourselves in a special machine for peeling potatoes that peels away all the Klipot (shells).
[112370]
From the Talk About New Life 6/20/13

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The Crisis Is One Of The “Tentacles” Of The Monster Of Globalization

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Peter Koenig, former World Bank economist): “It is an artificially imposed, holistic crisis. Holistic meaning that it is a step towards full spectrum dominance of the US hegemony and its co-opted European allies. It is one of several tentacles spanning the globe, probably the most powerful, of the monster of globalization – towards a One World Order (New World Order) – a term already coined and used by then British PM Gordon Brown at the London G20 Summit in 2009. Ideally, the new world order would eventually be led by an elite served by a class of serfs. The middle class would basically disappear.

“Other tentacles, like NATO and eternal warfare against invented ‘terrorism’; Genetically Modified Organisms – GMO food; the petroleum cartel; pharmaceutical and other non-transparent industries – would help limit or reduce the world population, so that the elite could enjoy the Earth’s finite and non-renewable resources with a comfortable life much longer than if these resources would have to be shared with 7 or 8 billion people.

My Comment: There are many versions about the nature of the crisis, and even if we had known the “most correct” one, we would need to add to it the version of the Creator: His program of creation, His plan and purpose. So, without knowing the hidden calculations of the “great” of this world who are ruled by the Creator, we know directly from Him what will be!
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The Music Of Baal HaSulam At The International Music Festival In Moscow

On August 27, 2013, in the Rachmaninov Hall, the Moscow State Conservatory is hosting their annual International Festival “Gathering Friends.” Included in the festival is a concert of piano music titled “Armenia-Israel: Dialogue of Musical Cultures” from the musical project “Secrets of Armenia.”

The author of the project is my student Mikael Hayrapetyan, a famous pianist,. He will perform the music of Baal HaSulam from “The Music of the Spiritual Worlds.” Before the presentation, the guests will learn about the features of this music and the history of its creation. This will help to tune in to the musical perception.

The concert is part of the upcoming International Music Festival, which is a very significant event in the cultural life of the capital. It is presented by the Moscow Department of Culture and the Conservatory management and is held in one of the best venues for classical music in the world Rachmaninov Hall.
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The Kabbalists About The Nation Of Israel And The Nations Of The World, Part 4

[Commentaries in brackets are mine]

Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee): The Entire Nation of Israel is Responsible for One Another

This is to speak of the Arvut (Mutual Guarantee) [that can be achieved only] when all of Israel became responsible for one another.

Because the Torah was not given to them [to the group that was founded by Abraham and brought to a decision to stay in Arvut by Moses] before each and every one from Israel was asked if he agreed to take upon himself the Mitzva (precept) of loving others in the full measure, [as a result of their work on achieving unity] expressed in the words: “Love thy friend as thyself…

[The essence of the commandment is] Each and every one in Israel would take it upon himself to care [for all participants of the group] and work for each member of the nation, [for each friend] and to satisfy all their needs, no less than the measure imprinted in him to care for his own needs.

And once the whole nation unanimously agreed [to be in a state of a complete unity in their desires] and said, ‘We shall do and we shall hear,’ each member of Israel became responsible that nothing shall be missing from any other member of the nation. [Meaning their spiritual development] Only then did they become worthy of receiving the Torah, [the Light of correction that would gradually lead them to Arvut] and not before [because there was no readiness to implement mutual guarantee and the desire to unite as it was before the shattering of one unified Soul.]
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A Second Chance For Those Who Failed To Exit The First Time

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom Rabash’s article “For Those Who Were on the Faraway Path, Passover is Postponed to a Second Passover”: The greater one’s faith in the Creator is, the stronger one feels detached from the Great King and the more one senses one’s sinfulness—proportionately to the degree of one’s faith in His Greatness. Consequently, a righteous man (the one who apprehends the Highness of the King) sins more than a regular man.

If one acknowledges that one is a sinner, it means that this person was allowed from Above to slightly approach Divinity and was granted a chance to understand that he had sinned.

It is said: “The Creator niggles at the righteous by a width of a hair.” If one feels that he sinned, one shouldn’t be afraid of it, since it is a sign that he has been elevated from Above. That’s why one has to self-strengthen and accept the burden of Heaven, then one achieves success.

To the extent of one’s closeness to the Creator, the feeling of insignificance, wickedness, and detachment from Him becomes stronger, meaning that everything works upside down. A common religious person doesn’t pursue a spiritual path; he prays and thinks that he is close to the Creator. However, the one who happens to connect one’s proximity to the Creator with one’s personal properties is already able to evaluate oneself more fairly, thus one evaluates the distance between him and the Creator accordingly. Each next assessment gets more accurate; it allows one to see how far from the Creator one really is.

We realize that the distance between us and the Creator increases and that we have to observe lots of conditions in order to overcome the remoteness and become closer to Him. This explains why it’s written that “the Creator “picks” at the righteous for the width of a hair.” It’s not because He treats them bad; rather, those who are already quite close to becoming righteous (meaning those who are at the doorstep of a complete and pure bestowal) calculate their similarity with the Creator on a very fine scale. This kind of reckoning allows them to see that they are still extremely far away from the Creator and that they have to undergo multiple corrections.

That’s why there is the concept of the “Second Passover.” It’s for those who failed to exit from Egypt during the first Passover. In a month, they are given another opportunity, which is called “the Second Passover.” People who feel that they are big sinners and whose path is particularly long reach their goal only at the time of the Second Passover.

It means that one shouldn’t worry and despair because the Path seems too long to him, even though many people are taken aback by this fact which forces them to quit their path.

On the contrary, it’s a sign that they are approaching the goal! We have to eventually reach a state when Pharaoh admits that the Creator is the one who is righteous and that he (Pharaoh) is the one who is wicked; this is the state when the exodus from Egypt takes place.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/5/13

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 08.12.13

Preparation to the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Meaning of Conception and Birth”

[media 3] [media 4]

The Book of Zohar — Introduction, “Heaven and Earth

[media 5] [media 6]

Talmud Eser Sefirot Vol. 6, Part 15

[media 7] [media 8]

Writings of Baal HaSulamExile and Redemption

[media 9] [media 10]