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Freedom From The Vagaries Of Fate

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is there any connection between freewill and luck?

Answer: On one hand, luck seems to be predetermined from the moment a person is born. Everyone is born in different conditions and with different attributes, which means with his own fate. If I am born with certain attributes, then my destiny and my path to the end of correction have already been determined. It depends on one’s place of birth and on other factors that do not depend on me.

But let’s try to put aside the different conditions that are beyond our control and that vary for each individual, like cells in a body where each has its own purpose and destiny. If we look at what is left, the question is whether we can affect this in any way, whether with this freedom of choice with the option to correct myself, can I become totally equal to everyone?

One is born clever and another so smart, one is born to a rich family and another to an educated family, and still another may be the son of a shoemaker obliged to follow his father’s line of work, etc. Everyone is totally different, but if a person is awakened from above, which means that his point in the heart is awakened, he can equalize himself with all the others.

Those who have not received the point in the heart are very different: like a cat and a lion, like a mouse and a cat. On the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, everyone is different, but the level of the speaking equalizes all the human beings including the still, vegetative, and animate nature that are incorporated in a human being, and thus also reach equality.

All this is done by the freewill that is given to man, and by that he neutralizes his fate, which was predetermined by nature. From the perspective of this point of freewill, everyone has the same specific work, which is relatively equal. No one has an advantage over others in this sense.

It may seem that certain people have to make very little efforts to enter the spiritual world and there are those for whom there is not enough. But it all depends on conditions that are unknown to us. We cannot take our previous reincarnations into account or a person’s history, what happened to him and what will happen to him. All this is already in the corrected state in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), but we simply don’t know it. Therefore it is difficult for us to measure everyone’s work.

Thus it is said simply: “Do everything that is in your power!”
[118395]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/13/13, The Zohar

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“Though War Should Rise Up Against Me, Even Then Will I Be Confident”

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf people understood that all the misfortunes that befall them—hunger, war, and disease—could easily be eliminated by one appeal to the Creator, that we only need to move toward Him before all these hardships, haunting us for thousands of years, fall upon us; what a light and easy life we would have!

After all, we are all in a common boat in the same current. But how many thousands of years has humanity been under pressure so that we finally realize that there is no alternative, we have to get closer to the Creator. All problems come just for that reason.

How much unhappiness and misery throughout history could we have avoided had we listened to Abraham in ancient Babylon and united as one man with one heart? All our history would have been different. We would easily have achieved a higher dimension and lived as in Paradise, in a harmonious union of the desire to enjoy and the desire to bestow, developing our attainment to perfection.

We should not forget that all the troubles and problems are designed to push us toward the Creator. But as long as a person is developing on the still degree, he advances very slowly, through a lot of suffering. On the vegetative degree, development becomes more intense, and on the animate and human, even faster. We see that the rate of change is increasingly growing, that is why in the course of our life we can accomplish many various actions every hour.

We have an opportunity to check how one affects the other and how our advancement toward the Creator affects the fact that we avoid troubles. It is said, “Thou embrace me from the front and from behind.” “From the front” is the direct control of the Creator if I seek Him and draw the Light that Reforms to myself, according to my efforts.

And “from behind” is His indirect control if I am too lazy to make efforts and to advance myself. Then, the same Light that was supposed to be revealed before me as Surrounding and Reforming Light affects me from the reverse side in order to turn me toward the source by the path of suffering. And this advancement is stretched out for a long time and is accompanied by suffering.

As it is sung in one Sabbath song, “Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear! Though war should rise up against me, even then will I be confident.” “Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear!” is a high state when a person reaches the realization that he is pushed by pressure from behind because that is the form of advancement now. But he relies on the Creator, on the Upper governance, understanding that everything comes from there, and that is why only by striving upward can he save himself from all troubles. And most importantly, he relies on the help of the Creator so that he will be able to seek the Creator not out of fear but to bring Him pleasure.
[118326]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/13/13

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Don’t Postpone Anything

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why do I keep forgetting and lose the line of thought that we have to be as “one man in one heart?”

Answer: It is because you don’t feel it as a critical need; that’s the whole problem. When a person is sick he constantly thinks only about the medicine that can heal him. It is said that the Light is a remedy for all ills, but we don’t feel it.

We don’t regard the wisdom of Kabbalah as a means for personal and general advancement, since we feel good this way. We cannot spur ourselves so that the goal will attract us so strongly that we will be ready to do whatever is necessary.

So what happens in this situation? It says: “I am placing upon them a king like Haman…” and then having no choice we will have to do what has to be done, which means by the path of suffering. The sufferings are necessary, but we can replace them by inner sufferings, to shake ourselves and to ignite our desire for the goal. If the goal is important and I am far from it, I feel pain. I don’t ignore the pain, but rather, I make an effort to overcome the gap between me and the goal. This means that the pain pushes me forward.

But instead, we relax each time and think that it isn’t so bad and that we can wait. Baal HaSulam, however, warns us in his book The Sages’ Fruit, “Letter 13”: …and the truth will show him the way, and the one who feels sorrow makes his sorrow known and he cannot hide it or restrain himself. Indeed this is how I will feel all of you together when today will become tomorrow and instead of now you will say later. And there is no remedy for that, except to make an effort and to understand this mistake and this distortion that the one who is saved by the Creator is saved if he needs the salvation today, while he who can wait for tomorrow will become wise only when his life is over. You feel this because you have neglected my request to exert yourself in the love of friends, which I have explained to you every way I can that this merit is enough to provide everything that you lack.

Everything that happens to us is only in order to strengthen love of friends because to the same extent, we draw the Light that Reforms that corrects everything. If we perform a certain action, we have to first check if it leads to a stronger connection or whether it leads to separation. Then we will immediately understand what should be done and what shouldn’t be done, what we should get closer to and what we should run from. It is because we draw the Light by the connection between us. When we connect, we draw another portion of Light, and so on and so on. This is the whole secret, and there is nothing but that.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/13, The Zohar

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Together It Is Easy To Work, Alone It Is Easy To Kill Time

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do we overcome the desire to postpone everything till tomorrow, till the next lesson, till the next convention? There is a feeling that there is still enough time and that we can wait.

Answer: It is the illusion of the ego that a person cannot overcome by himself. If you are alone at home you will surely deal with different foolish matters and it will lead to nothing. It will just be a waste of time today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and also in a year and two years from now. You will never be able to use the time efficiently as long as you are by yourself. It is “either a group or death.”

Everyone must make a certain commitment that cannot be postponed or that he cannot escape. These commitments should tie you to the friends and you should work on something together.

You have to constantly tie yourself to the need to advance in different ways:

  1. work committments
  2. friends
  3. shame of not finishing, that everyone would know and see what you haven’t completed.

The feeling of shame should be as strong as the fear of death. Being among the friends is the only thing that will push you to make good use of the time. If you are alone and you can use the time as you wish, you can be sure that it will fool you. Time is a shell (Klipa) and a very strong egoistic force. It will draw you to different silly dealings.

But when we work together, we suddenly work easily, gladly, and pleasantly!
[118296]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/13, The Zohar

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Instructor Of Attaining Happiness

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What connection should there be between those who study the integral method and their instructor? Does he have to appear “great” in their eyes? What is this greatness about?

Answer: An instructor knows people’s nature. He is like a spiritual father for his students. They see him as a person who understands their inner part. This is the attitude that our instructor has to earn.

When a person comes to the class for the first time he doesn’t know what it is. However, right after the first class he begins to understand that this is a very interesting method that gives him the feeling of happiness and fulfillment (this is the most important thing for the person). After all, we are created in such a way that practically whatever we do is directed toward the sensation of fulfillment. We call this fulfillment, happiness.

In general, this is a completely faceless and objectless form. Simply a person feels good, easy, worry free , safe, etc. All of this is adds up into the category of happiness. If a person understands that he can reach this only together with the whole team, then his instructor can be called a “professor of happiness.” This means that you are an instructor of attaining happiness.
[118309]
From Kab TV’s “Through time” #2, 9/17/13

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The True Sweet Point

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhat is called “faith in the sages” is when I follow everything that is arranged for me from above. In every Partzuf, in every situation that I see before me, I see the Creator.

The True Sweet Point
I see the whole wide world before me and I need to understand that all of these things are pictures that the Creator draws for me. I don’t know what I truly see. However, if I take the entire world as a picture within me from the Creator, then I am moving in the right direction in the right degree of truth and falsehood.

This direction is true, and so I see before me conditions that must exist: Israel (my yearning directly to the Creator – Yashar El), Torah (all of the shattered Kelim with the Light that must bring them to unity), and the Creator. All three of these conditions gradually transform into one, for I try to identify the Creator that acts within the world and presents this world to me in a new form all the time.

I accept this world as a picture of the Creator for He wanted me to feel this, understand this, taste the bitterness and sweetness, the truth and the falsehood, and unite this together with Him in a single point. Ultimately, these three components must reach unity, which is called the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun).

All of our work with truth and falsehood and bitter and sweet are essentially clarifications that we must make. To do this, we need to be in a group to clarify our relationships between us,  to learn to draw the Light that Reforms. As a result, we must connect all of reality, on one hand, attributing it to the Creator and on the other hand, to myself accepting it as a display that the Creator shows me so that I will be able to connect all parts of reality to it.

That is how we reach the common point of everything called the end of correction. In our world now everything is bitter and false, whereas at the end of correction only sweetness and truth are left.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/30/13, Shamati #148 “The Scrutiny of Bitter and Sweet, True and False”

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Mikhail Delyagin On The Crisis

Opinion (Dr. Mikhail Delyagin, well-known Russian economist; Honorable Professor from the University of Jilin, China; researcher, Moscow State Institute for International Affairs; member, Russian Academy for Natural Sciences, author of more than one thousand published articles in Russia, the United States, Germany, France, Poland, China, India and other countries): “When the historians, economists, sociologists, and men of culture meet together, each one says: ‘Listen, we have a crisis! Oh, also we have one! And also we have one! And we have one!’ Everyone has a crisis. This is happening now because a general change is occurring to all of humanity. The appearance of humanity is changing; our mutual cooperation with nature is changing. It is changing both from the side of nature and the side of humanity.

“From the side of nature there is ‘the law of conservation of risks.’ This is a conclusion that is not provable, but the facts support it. This means that in a closed system, if you reduce the risks in certain parts of the system, then as a result an enormous system risk is created. This means, if we say it crudely, if you reduce the individual risks, the general risk that is typical for that system will not disappear. It is pushed to the general system level and in the end disassembles that system.”
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Manpower For Integral Education

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why is it that a person who works in the enterprise of disseminating the integral method cannot organize his own business? Let’s say he also works in a winery. 

Answer: It’s because his main task will be how to make a profit in the winery.

When I work for some boss and come here, then my head is relatively calm. I live here as a volunteer and hope for the opportunity to work here. However, when I have my own business, this is another matter. We are working toward a time when we will not have private businesses. Rather, there will be joint enterprises.

Question: Suppose that a person works for a particular period as a volunteer. We teach him, he goes through our training program and has an internship with us, and we want to keep him busy. What are the conditions for admission?

Answer: He needs to have been studying with us for a few years. He, our friend, is involved with us in all of our organization’s activities: attends conventions, is occupied in some way with content, volunteers with the dissemination of integral education, and so forth.

We are starting to need and are working toward people leaving their former employment and becoming contractors for integral education. Regardless of whether someone makes integral education their full-time endeavor or remains as a volunteer, anyone engaged in working in integral education will need to sign a contract agreeing that they will completely adhere to our ideology and methodology.

Question: If, for some reason, we are not compatible with each other, can we let a person go?

Answer: If the need for the expertise of the person disappears, as a general rule, we let him go. The reason for dismissal can be a lack of professionalism when the person plays so much that he simply stops working and we cannot do anything. For many months, we wait, encourage him, struggle over him, but we see that he has lost interest, has begun to work in a bad way. So, we separate from him.

He also realizes that he cannot take advantage of mutual funds, for those contributions that we receive from people are intended for integral education. We cannot use them without thinking because they don’t come from our pocket but rather from the common general pocket, and therefore, we are not held responsible for them.

I cannot just take this and give someone a double salary. This is not because there is no money. Rather, it is because I need to check from the aspect of the spiritual point of view. What am I doing with this in regard to those people who earned this money and invested it here? Am I acting correctly? Am I responding to their expectations that this money will be invested for a purposeful goal?
[118192]
From Kab TV’s “Through Time” 9/17/13

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Towards Integral Thinking

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Suppose that a person goes through a ten session course of integral education. In what form can he disseminate this knowledge further?

Answer: I don’t think that a ten session course makes it possible for a person to disseminate further, even if he is a psychologist and comprehends the main idea. In spite of it all, he must think integrally, at least to a particular degree, and not only know how to build a connection with others (perhaps psychologists have this ability), he needs to know towards what he is leading them, in the name of what he is working; otherwise there will be no inner strength. Even if he does everything that you do mechanically, I don’t see any possibility of this getting positive results. Therefore, there is something that he doesn’t have.

So, he will deviate from the way and everything will get mixed up; he will adopt our method and transform it into something else. In spite of it all, he must live the method. Even if a person doesn’t have a “point in the heart,” he still needs to undergo comprehensive training. At the very least, this should be a one year course.

Question: You say that there must be a higher goal for people. They need to live this. In the name of what do they need to disseminate?

Answer: We don’t tell them that the world and the crisis demand this. We explain the structure of the system of creation, the system of interaction between the person and the world. And then it becomes clear to them that the person needs to be constructed precisely in a form like this and not another, that he must be integrated into the general picture of the world, and only then will we reach balance, and only then will we be in the right connection, and only then will we become healthy people in mind and body.

We must bring people to this gradually, not preaching to them but guiding them to illumination. And suddenly it will be clear to them what the reason for all the maladies and problems is: The problem is in our relationship with the unified system of nature. And then they will see toward what the intentions of all their activities must be. From the understanding of the global picture, they will begin to understand what absolute mental health is for example, or what the problems in the family and education are.

All of this must be summed up in balance with nature, in being like it. And to be similar is possible through cooperation, as long as the cooperation is in mutual responsibility, mutual connection, and mutual love.

This can be presented to people as universal harmony, for whose sake they must study and disseminate. I don’t know to what degree it’s possible to speak with them about the soul, even though today nothing is hidden any more.

Question: Must there be something in this goal that directs them toward spirituality?

Answer: For most people it’s not compulsory to aspire to purely spiritual categories. What is important to them is the world as an ideal picture, the harmony of humanity with all of nature. There are people to whom this matters. Nevertheless, they don’t need to reach particular heights. After all, a basic sense of responsibility in regard to humanity to some extent is latent in every person.

If you say: “Donate a dollar so that harmony will dwell in the world,” he will give this dollar. But to sacrifice himself, he will not agree.

Question: What is better to do in conditions where resources are limited? Should one talk about this for two hours to a hundred teachers, let’s say, or bring two teachers to a higher level.

Answer: You cannot be sure that if you work with two for a few months you will get the desired result. And if you light up the eyes of a hundred people, there is hope that at least someone, through our method, will continue to go further.
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From Kab TV’s “Through Time” 9/16/13

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