Audio Version Of The Blog – 09.15.13

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To Live And Not Merely Exist

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We know that now all of our efforts are in dissemination to the 99% of humanity. Are there some stages, levels that exist in the development of this process? What do we need to be prepared for?

Answer: Beginning from this moment in history that is revealed to us and onward, everything is determined only to the degree of our dissemination to all of humanity. The fate of the world, all the good and bad that will be with us, depends only on the formation of our link with all of humanity and the dissemination of the Creator, the Upper Light, within it. Not openly, but to the degree that we want the 99% of the public to understand. Everything depends only on this!

Therefore get rid of all the totally unnecessary things. What will go to the 99% is good. What does not go to them, this is bad. According to this you will change the structure of your groups, change your events and activities. Everything needs to be based only on the integral education of the public because in our world and in the spiritual world everything depends only on this.

Everything is leading to this, that the two worlds will be united. And this is what we need to do. The final goal is revelation of the Creator in the 99%, in the masses. If every action, every breath, is turned towards this, then you live. And if not, then you just exist. So decide what to do next.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/13, Question and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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In The Service Of His Majesty The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I can disseminate by way of the Internet but not on the street; I cannot; it is not pleasant for me.

Answer: I understand you. It could be that on the Internet you are hidden under some pseudonym and so forth. But in spite of all this, try to go out into the street, even without connection to a group and to friends, imagine that the Creator is next to you and He requires you to do this, He asks.

You are going out into the street not from your initiative; you have no link to this. He simply puts you there so that you will distribute flyers so that every person who passes by you will feel that the Creator is in you and you are granting him a portion of the Light, another handful of Light and another additional handful to everyone who passes by.

And it makes no difference how he reacts to this; it is the Creator who arranges their reactions. Sometimes it is good and sometimes it is bad; and you need to feel all this. All this is compulsory in order to “format” you a little and to accommodate you to the spiritual world. This is to say, the Creator is found in you and in others and you are the link between His inner and outer part, and ultimately also reach adherence with Him.

Imagine a state like this: You are alone, without a group, without friends, without anything. You have a package of flyers in your hand that you need to distribute. You are now in the service of His majesty the Creator. This is all. Everything is simple. You yourself don’t exist. Try it! You will suddenly feel that your ego doesn’t belong to this, and you are not found here.

There is some kind of an image, a puppet, which was created by the Creator so that it would distribute flyers. The Creator cannot take on your form. Therefore you took on this form. In other words, you are essentially the embodiment of the Creator. He is found within you: Now He acts with your hand; now He speaks by way of your mouth, and this is the Creator in the role of a stranger and He turns to you.

In this manner, He teaches you from two sides: from the side of the external world, the community, and from inside you. And you begin to feel all this within you. About this it is said: (Tehillim 139:5) “Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before”. And this is the revelation of the Creator to a person in all that happens to him.

And you arrange a single experiment like this. And therefore this is very interesting! You begin to feel where He is and where you are. In every fraction of a second and even with greater frequency, in you appear an immense number of thoughts, emotions, sensations, internal investigations, and the analysis of things.

In this manner you overcome the psychological barrier and will see how much this opens you immediately; you begin to understand how the Creator fills the whole world and that specifically He gives you these sensations of discomfort. What for? So that you will require Him and will not abandon your mission that was given to you in order to draw you to Him.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/13, Question and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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The Hearts Are Drawn After The Actions

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Book of Zohar—Introduction, “Rejoicing in Holidays and Not Giving to the Poor”: This is the meaning of Truth’s complaint about the creation of man, saying that he is all lies… However, Hesed said, “Let him be created because he does mercy,” since the mercies that he does, which is necessarily an act that is scrutinized as bestowal, through it, he is gradually corrected until he can engage in all the Mitzvot in order to bestow.

The attribute of truth speaks about the matter of the desire that is totally egoistic (in order to receive) and which cannot think about anything else but receiving for itself. So why was it created? After all, it isn’t worthy of anything. This is how a person sees himself in the mirror of truth.

But the attribute of Hesed is responsible for the fact that a person can change. This is because the matter of the desire can perform actions of Hesed (mercy).

But how is that possible? After all, the desire to receive is in a total lie and only wants to benefit for its own sake. It is true, all its intentions are for its own good, but the actions can be aimed at in order to bestow. Then, despite this internal split, despite the gap between the thoughts and the actions, the actions with the inaccurate intentions at the moment can change the desire.

I use the actions of bestowal in order to reach the attribute of bestowal. Although I don’t want to reach bestowal and I only seem to be yearning for it, if I try to do so as much as I can by connecting to the friends, the teacher, and the Creator, then together with this lie on part of the attribute of truth, these actions will bring me to correction.

I cannot evoke the Surrounding Light by my egoistic intention, but the action itself is in order to bestow and I am aware of that. So I evoke the Light that Reforms and it influences me to the extent that I seemingly want to exit my egoistic intention of in order to receive and acquire an altruistic intention of in order to bestow.

It is true that I cannot and don’t want to bestow, but my actions are aimed correctly, and that is enough. A correct action together with the wrong intention evokes the Light that corrects the intention.

It is because I am made of a desire and an intention (a thought). I cannot control my intention, since I always want for myself. Sometimes it seems that I really want the good of others, but then it turns out that it’s all a fixed game and that I simply lie to myself since I don’t understand myself. My intentions are wicked, wrong or evil (by mistake or even intentionally). This is a result of the shattering of the vessels and there is nothing we can do about it.

But I can perform actions in the group, in dissemination, and in spreading integral education. If these actions are arranged correctly so that I can fulfill them, I have to ask the group for the power to come to the lessons and to the teacher in order to gradually acquire wisdom and turn to the public in order to convey my message to them so that they will accept my opinion. I arrange my actions as if I bestow as much as possible. This is enough in order to evoke the Surrounding Light, which in response begins to change my intention.

This is because my actions are correct and only my intention is corrupt. Now it’s also added to my actions by the Surrounding Light that operates. Thus “the hearts are drawn after the actions,” until the intention matches that action.

We are different from everyone else only by our intention by which we draw the Light that Reforms. If we don’t do that, we will not succeed and things will even get worse. We will go through a new round that will eventually also bring us to the good but by the path of suffering.

Performing good actions is not a problem. I can give out presents only because there is an angel with a stick standing behind me, and if I stop for a moment, I immediately receive a blow. It turns out that the action itself is fine, but the intention is sometimes concealed even from me. So the only thing I need is to evoke the Surrounding Light by my efforts. I try to add the right intention regarding the friends, the teacher, the study, and the public since it’s these efforts that evoke the Light that Reforms.

The matter of the desire doesn’t change, the actions don’t change; the only thing that changes is the intention. The whole creation is intended only for establishing the right intention and to gradually connect it to our actions.

The actions have to match the intention. First I don’t want to receive anything since I don’t have the right intention, and then I can already receive something thanks to the Masach (screen) and the Returning Light. I can already bestow in return, and then I operate the desires, my vessels of receiving.

This means that our work can be in avoiding receiving or in receiving in order to show that we understand what the Creator’s love towards us is and we want to thank Him for that and to repay with the same attitude. The main thing is that the intention determines the quality of the action.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/26/13, The Zohar

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Procrastination Is Like Death

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe problem is that we agree to remain in the current state as it is. We think that due to this we are becoming smarter, but this is the effect of the egoistic forces (Klipot) of this world. Indeed, in our world, the longer I stay in one place, live there, observe different phenomena, the more experience I gain. And there is none wiser than the experienced.

It turns out that I ought to be in the same stage as long as possible, and thus I will “grow older” there, that is, will gain wisdom (Hochma). This is what we see in our world concerning our experience. And so we resist any change. It seems to us that there is nothing wrong if one state will continue day after day.

But we need to have faith above reason, understanding that each degree is possible only from a higher degree. Everything received by us at the present stage comes from the next one above it. This is the source of all our actions, decisions, conclusions, and strength. The head is at the top and, below it, we have just its consequence, that is, the body. We will never learn anything from these consequences and will not know the real cause of what is happening.

We will only see how one is related to another, but why? This reason will always be false. We will replace the knowledge of the true root with a link between its consequences. And they do exist. But the origin of all that has happened through this chain of events is only at the highest degree, it’s always at the top.

This is a completely different understanding like that of a young child and of an adult beside him. The child knows his toys and knows how to play with them better than adults do. But the mind, hidden in these games, concerned with how to build with them and teach the child in order to advance his development is all done by the adult. A child would have remained at the same level if he hadn’t been given new toys and put in a more developed environment.

Therefore, we must understand that our willingness to remain in the existing condition is an egoistic Klipa. The group and the teacher must put pressure on everyone and move him toward the goal, not agreeing that people get stuck in one position for many years. Being frozen in one state is religion (Daat). And an ascent every time above knowledge (Daat) towards faith, bestowal, requires work. A person has to be awakened to it because our egoism does not allow us to move and hangs onto our feet.

Usually, the ego holds us by the feet and coaxes: “Stay here and everything will be fine.” Why bother if it all depends on the Creator and comes from Him, because it’s said that “it is better to sit and do nothing”? A person immediately finds a lot of quotes to justify his laziness and ceases to advance.

It turns out that he is already dead. This is because spiritual advancement is calculated by the states (even momentary) during which the person tried to get closer to delighting the Creator, and that is why he was searching how to bring pleasure to created beings, because only through the created beings is it possible to bring pleasure to the Creator. Thus this chain is closed, helping us scrutinize. The Creator is the cause and the created beings are the means. The created being is the means and the Creator is the goal.

But the person thinks that he is tired, out of energy, motivation, and the feeling of importance, and he agrees with this state thinking that it will move by itself. He hopes that in the end everything will pass, and thereby he already condemns himself to death. Only the group can help here, the influence of the environment, mutual guarantee, and, above all, constant responsibilities according to a strict daily schedule that a person has to carry out. Thus, he buys time.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/28/13, The Zohar

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How Not To Fall Under The Influence Of Ordinary People

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I work with other people if they are all egoists? After all, I will fall under the influence of their ego and will ultimately damage myself instead of correcting them.

Answer: There cannot be something like this because I am found on a higher level than those to whom I disseminate. They have a very small ego and I have an ego that is ten times larger than theirs. They don’t know anything about the structure of the world, whereas I know. They don’t understand what manages them, what their nature is, what is happening in the world, what the reason for the crisis is, whereas I understand. I am higher; I can explain everything to them, and I can never fall under their influence.

I have not seen, for example, that a 40-year-old teacher will fall under the influence of 10-year-old children because these are different levels. If you are found on the same level in which the rest of humanity is found, you don’t have any reason to go to them, you will immediately fall under their influence and without a doubt they will damage you, will transform you into being inferior to what you are now because your contact with them takes place on the same level. I am speaking about this from my own practical experience and from what I know about life. Try to practice this and you will see.

But first you need to change yourself, to become another! First you need to arrange the connection with the group; you must have support and understanding why you are going forward.

It cannot be that our people would fall under the influence of an ordinary person who sits at home and suffers. How can he attract me to him? What can he offer to me from his life? Do I want to live like him? If I am ready, if I am found on a level higher than he is, then he cannot influence me in any way because he is small relative to me! I want to help him. At the start I look at him from above to below, not with contempt, but rather as a small child who requires help.
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From the Stockholm Convention “Joy In Unity” 8/31/13, Lesson 3

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The Double Meaning Of The Term “Ego”

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I want to compliment the people of Scandinavia. They stand out in their ability to listen to one another in the group. If someone begins to speak, everyone listens to him, perceiving what he says and picking up each comment one by one. Then they move on to the next speaker. They have a remarkable ability to understand one another!

Answer: Every nation has its own positive and negative attributes. In fact they are not positive or negative. If we connect into one system, we are like a puzzle and we suddenly feel that each one finds his place without having to change. There is no need to pressure yourself! There is absolutely no need to cut off certain “tails” or sharp ends off yourselves.

We have to make efforts that are aimed only at connection and uniting among us. Then we will see that all the evil in me and all the evil or the good in others suddenly comes together complementing one another and making a wonderful picture. The correction is not in the fact that we have to correct each of us or to correct nations or civilizations but only in our connection between us, just the way we are.

In fact, the ego is not what exists in each of us but is what doesn’t allow us to connect.

Suppose we are not egoists but when we try to connect between us we begin to feel opposite forces that make us feel repulsed by one another. These forces which operate in contrast to our connection are called ego.

But if we don’t try to connect and don’t include these attracting forces in us, we don’t have a spiritual ego and what is revealed among us is the ordinary corporeal ego. All my corporeal desires for food, sex, a family, money, respect, and knowledge are all parts of my corporeal ego with little correlation to other people in particular.

The real ego that requires correction is the anti-social ego. Only when we yearn for one another are the forces that are against the connection revealed.

An ordinary person has no ego, he wants to be richer than others or stronger than others, so what? There is no need to correct such desires; they help us advance; they have to remain constant. We only have to correct the spiritual ego in order to establish our connection above it.
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From the Stockholm Convention “Joy In Unity” 8/31/13, Lesson 3

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What Unites Us?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Our group has split into two parts: Those who engage in integral education and those who don’t want to engage in it and think that we should just sit together and unite; what is the problem?

Answer: I wouldn’t force those who don’t want to engage in integral education to go out and disseminate; let them engage in other types of work in the group; after all, there are plenty of other things with which they can engage. Gradually they will understand that without integral education, without going out to the 99% of humanity, they will not feel the need for the Creator.

When you go out to disseminate you begin to feel: “How can I explain this to people? How can I convey this feeling to them? How can I summon the understanding in them? I cannot do anything by myself. Where can I find the power to convince them?” So you feel that you need the Creator’s help.

It is for your sake that you were given the integral work with the public, so you will feel that you need Him. This work is not meant for them but for you.

Those who don’t engage in integral education will not feel the need for the Creator. Why do they exist? They will remain in the group; however, they will see how enthusiastic you are and realize that they have to do something.

You will really unite and feel the need to succeed in your work with the 99%. They will not feel that. What will push them to unite and for what? The public will demand the force of unity from you. You will tremble and feel scared, unpleasant, and unclear, and so you will undoubtedly need the Creator and will benefit compared to those who don’t engage in integral education.
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From the Stockholm Convention “Joy In Unity” 8/31/13, Lesson 3

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A “Golden Key” For Humanity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Today, in any city in the world, we see products on the shelves from all the large corporations that are actively conquering markets. Why can’t we also actively enter the general global market and disseminate the idea, which, in fact, would pull crowds after it?

Answer: If we were to sell what the ego needs, then it would be very simple for us. We could turn to people and show them that, let’s say, with the help of a unique wonder pen, it would be possible to write without mistakes, and they would run to us. And if the regular display of the pen wouldn’t produce any impact, then we would advertise it.

But with the help of the integral method we cannot fulfill the ego. On the contrary, we tell people about the anti-egoistic actions that they need to carry out on themselves. Therefore we cannot go out to them directly and sell this as something desirable.

In what circumstance does our product become desirable? This will happen when problems appear for people. We can come to them only as doctors. After all, if they feel that it’s bad for them, they will run to the doctors and ask for a remedy.

Now the time has arrived in the history of evolution that we have been expecting for thousands of years: Humanity has reached a state in which it’s beginning to feel its nature as evil and nothing can be done about it. Suppose that some kind of terrifying “organism” lives in a person, for example, some kind of cancer or radioactive disease, and he cannot get rid of it; the disease eats him from within. The same thing is happening with our ego.

When we begin to understand that the ego is devouring us, doesn’t develop us, forces us to divorce, not bring descendants into the world, and forces children to abandon their parents, to need drugs, and brings us to a terrible state where we clearly see that the ego is our enemy, our evil, our original nature, that there is nowhere to escape from it; then we look for a way out. Or we will continue to slowly kill ourselves through drugs with sweet ecstasy, withdrawing from life in a narcotic delirium. After all, humanity, governments, and the people are ready for this. Look at what is happening and will happen again with the popularity of drugs, especially if it would be carried out as a mass campaign with the right advertising, then it would be possible to achieve anything.

Or we can rein in our nature and transform the evil to good.

With this, we should go out to people because they don’t understand it themselves and cannot find a “golden key” in nature, a unique and wonderful means that is ready to change their evil nature that is exterminating them, society, the family, and the environment. This means will help us to create relationships between us, which will transform our lives into a Garden of Eden, not in the sense that everything on the face of the earth will be for us (this is not the problem) but that humanity will truly feel itself as being in “paradise.”

In the “Garden of Eden,” (heaven)  means, at the level of the higher power, in a state of eternity, perfection, absolute attainment. It’s very difficult to express this in words since there is nothing analogous to this in our world.
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From the Stockholm Convention “Joy In Unity” 8/31/13, Lesson 3

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“And His Fruit Is Sweet To My Palate”

Dr. Michael Laitman“Song of Songs,” 2:3: The upper world is built precisely above the emotion in the desire to receive which is called the feeling of “this world.” Seemingly, these two worlds stand one on top of the other; the world below is found within the desire to receive where I feel the evil.

After that, I build a good relationship with the Creator in spite of the unpleasant feeling. Then the feeling of the upper world that I constructed within my relationship with the Creator, the feeling of the connection with Him, begins to dominate the feeling of darkness, evil, and emptiness within the desire to receive so much that this emptiness becomes desirable to me.

Every time I discover a greater and greater desire to receive and the feeling in it is less and less pleasant, then above this I immediately build a better relationship with the Creator. And so it is until I discover all of my Malchut, all of the immense desire to receive, and above it I build a relationship with the Creator, the Good Who does good.

And since my egoistic desire becomes emptier all the time, it follows that I build the level of Bina, Hafetz Hesed (Desired Mercy). I don’t need anything for my ego, I don’t even need a shirt. I don’t need anything, no covering for my desire to receive, I am left naked of everything, and above all this, I build my good relationship with the Creator. This is called the level of Bina, Hassadim (Charity).

And after this I begin to receive all kinds of delights in this empty desire. It is as if I returned to the suffering through which I had already passed and build above it a level of bestowal to the Creator, a good relationship with Him, where I discover my empty desires. Now I work with these desires with the intention to bestow. All the evil that I felt then, over which I built a good relationship to the Creator, now transforms into goodness.

I understand that from the start the Creator sent me only goodness, but I felt it as evil because I received it with the wrong intention like a little child who doesn’t listen to his mother and screams that she is bad. The mother does everything for his good but he perceives it as bad since he doesn’t know, doesn’t understand, and doesn’t identify with her intention.

So it is the same with us like children who grow and became wiser, we begin to accept a good relationship with the Creator and feel great delight in it as His love is now revealed to us. But we must transform this relationship into love for Him.

These states are very difficult and demand great efforts, a level of complete faith in which the Light of Hassadim is filled with the illumination of Hochma, and we begin to work with the 613 desires to receive of the AHP. This process through which we are now passing is specifically written about in the “Song of Songs” (2:3): I delight in His shadow and sit, and His fruit is sweet to my palate. We receive only sweet fruits from the Creator, the fruits of the Tree of Life, and after that everything depends on how we perceive this gift.

So let us feel that even now we are found under the Creator’s good supervision, and with the help of the environment, we must see Him as the Good Who does good at each and every moment. If moments arrive which we do not attribute to the Creator and we are detached from Him, then we do not believe that everything comes from the Creator; this is forbidden. First of all, it is necessary to relate all that happens to Him, there is none else besides Him. And after I attribute everything to the Creator and understand that everything comes from Him, then it is necessary to work on the feeling that He is always the Good Who does good to both the good and bad.

In other words, all the thoughts we have which are either good or bad do not matter to Him. The Creator always relates to us with good; it doesn’t matter what the situation is. But we must work on our perception until we discover His good within us. And then all the exiles, emptiness, killings, the Holocaust, all the disasters that we have been through will be transformed thanks to our intention.

It doesn’t matter why all the bitterness and suffering happened to some people or the supposedly accidental events occurred. Everything must be attributed to the Creator and felt as though these were the best events of our lives. After all, this was the result of His intentional help, the right relationship with us from the beginning of creation until its end. This is called the right work with the shadows.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/6/13, Shamati #8 “What Is the Difference Between a Shade of Kedusha and a Shade of Sitra Achra”

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