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Learning How To Work With Egoism

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe entire Torah, in other words, the whole method of correction, is intended to bring the human being to the degree of love, or in the language of Kabbalah, to bring him so that he corrects the breaking, and in social terms: to organize us into an integral society. Thus, we see the realization of the wisdom of Kabbalah in our world.

The purpose of creation is to bring us to an inner unity which also will be accompanied by an external unity between people. We all will become as one. As it is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples,” (Isaiah 56:7), and “I will yet gather others to him, together with his gathered ones” (Isaiah 56:8). Thus, we will come to a complete redemption.

According to the understanding of Kabbalists, we must realize this transition now, and everything that is happening indicates this.

So, the method is designed to accelerate us on the path to this correction. Otherwise, we face the path according to “in its time,” which is very long and full of suffering. On the other hand, by accelerating, we can make our path fast, easy, comfortable, and enjoyable. For this, we were given the wisdom of Kabbalah or the method of integral education as a means of revealing the Creator in this world.

The “Creator” is the essence of the property of the “Good That Does Good,” in other words, the property of love and bestowal that is revealed in a person and between people, in their relationship with each other. Due to this relationship, this love of the created beings, they reach the revelation of the Creator and love for Him. Thus, the method of correction is realized as it is written, “Love thy friend as thyself is the great rule of the Torah.” Starting with love for others, we reach the love for the closest One, for the Creator, and then we are in adhesion with Him, which is the ultimate goal.

As Baal HaSulam writes, everything that we create, striving to achieve adhesion, is built above the desire to receive, above our egoism, and that is why we need to learn to work with it, to learn how to handle it correctly, starting with the full spiritual incapacity at the present moment up to the state where this material of desire is ready to use in order to sculpt out of it the image of the human being (Adam), similar (Domeh) to the Creator, that is, the force of love and bestowal.

How is it done? It is with the help of the Light that Reforms in the group with the friends. It is here in the group that we have the freedom of choice, the only free action that we are capable of. Therefore, it is not worthwhile to make extra efforts in looking for other ways and means. We have power over this action while in everything else our independence is illusory, but in reality we just allow nature to involve us.

If I use my freewill correctly, I move forward by the path of hastening; that is, I set the pace of my advancement myself. Then, my states, consistent with my efforts, will be more effective as well as more convenient and fast. After all, I am preparing myself to adequately, correctly accept changes that always have an anti-egoistic character. I desire them.

However, this requires a well-organized group, studies, participation in dissemination, everything that we identify in our work.

So why do we need the force of the Light, the force of the Torah? What do the words, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice” mean? The fact is that my advancement depends on the recognition of evil. If I can identify it quickly and as clearly as possible recognize its negative effect on me, then, I am ready to get rid of it.

That is why I must focus all my efforts precisely on the recognition of evil. My egoism, my desire to receive, initially is ready to reject everything that is bad for it, depending on how bad it is in comparison with the possible pleasures and consequently with the right approach, my nature will serve me on the path.
[119347]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Dawn Of A New World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: There is going to be a convention in Bulgaria this weekend (November 1-3), Dawn of a New World. What do you expect of this meeting?

Answer: First, the convention will be much bigger than we expected: We expected 200 people to participate but instead about 500 people have already registered and it isn’t final yet. Our friends from the former USSR, from Europe, from the Far East, and also many friends from Israel are coming. You can arrive before the convention starts. I intend to give my first lecture on Thursday evening.

It will be a very practical convention that is dedicated to the dissemination of integral education. We will all deal with questions of how to develop and how to implement the method of integral education and will also discuss current problems.

We are starting to establish a language of our own concepts that enables us to give more concrete explanations about the global crisis, about the disintegration of the institution of marriage, about problems in education, and other problems in every area of our lives. We will speak about how to approach ordinary people, how to talk to them in order to convey our thoughts, and will explain how they can be saved from the situation they are stuck in and cannot escape.

The deterioration and the downfall is everywhere and those who are at the top today will fall even lower than others. We are going to hear about new problems and decrees every day. The governments are not to blame. It’s simply the Lights that are revealed in which we will feel and discover an increasingly worse state.

There is only one way to avoid this and it is by connection. If we begin to connect, then we will feel better in the Light that today brings us the feeling of evil and darkness.

This is the transition from the path of suffering to the path of the Torah, which means from the path of “in its time” to the path of “I shall hasten it.” The tool for this change, for turning the darkness into Light, is changing me so that I will learn how to perceive it differently. I change myself and by that I also change the Light that reaches me. The Light is divided into two types: the Light that corrects and the Light that fills and we have to use it accordingly.

This is why the Torah is called the method of correction that includes the Light that corrects me and the Light that fills me. The two Lights together are called the Torah.
[119336]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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World Kabbalah Convention And Integral Education Training In Israel

Dr. Michael LaitmanBnei Baruch World Kabbalah Convention

The Bnei Baruch World Convention will be held February, 6-8, 2014. The convention will be held in Bnei Baruch’s new building if space permits.

Integral Education Training in Israel

Prior to the opening of the World Convention in Israel, on February 4-5, 2014, there will be an intensive training in the method of integral education for our friends from abroad.

Please inform all the friends, as airfare booked in advance is much cheaper.

Profitable Investments In The Spiritual Bank

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Will I feel less physical pain if I follow the path of “I shall hasten it?”

Answer: A person tries not to think about whether he will be personally hurt or not while following the path of “I shall hasten it.” He only thinks about how much he can bestow. Still, the path of “I shall hasten it” is better and much more comfortable than the path of “in its time,” and we should follow it, although such thoughts about profit cannot be considered being on the path of “I shall hasten it.”

It’s as if you are asking: “In which bank can I get a greater profit for my investment? In the egoistic bank or the altruistic bank?” In the altruistic bank you make a billion dollars for each dollar that you invest, but when you want to receive your 100 billion dollars after a year, you are told: “Sorry,  this is an altruistic bank! All the money that you have invested has already gone to new contruction, to helping the poor, for classes for children, for repairing the homes of those who need it.”

You begin to shout, “But I invested my last dollar!” That’s true, but you invested it in the altruistic bank, so what do you expect? It’s true that the bank made a great profit for you and that you have earned billions of dollars, but you receive it all as an altruistic profit.

If you are not happy that your dollar yielded a 100 billion dollars after a year and that the whole sum was transferred to all of humanity, then it’s your problem that you don’t feel happy. If you perceived all of humanity as your children, then just imagine how happy you would feel that you managed to give your children such a huge sum of money.

Question: But if we still have to suffer, why should we study Kabbalah?

Answer: Why suffer? If I advance, then every obstacle along the way is not considered a hindrance but a springboard. It’s as if I encounter it and by using it I leap onto it as a springboard to go a great distance.
[119203]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/28/13, Shamati #70 “With A Mighty Hand and with Fury Poured Out”

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The Trend Of Our Time

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If people are forced to sit at desks as a necessity in order to make ends meet, then how will they be able to come to the Creator? Under pressure?

Answer: Of course! Didn’t we come to Him under pressure?

Look at everyone who is sitting next to you. Do you see joyful, happy faces? Take a look at these sour faces. What holds them here and compels them to come to class at night? Only what creates a desire in them, a need, a lack, no matter what.

People will either intoxicate themselves with drugs, or they will have to be engaged in unification.

We must understand that the trend will remain. People will suffer blows that can only be cured by unity. The growing egoism will manifest in us more and more clearly as a guiding force against itself. We will feel more and more its “suicide” by which the ego shows us that it cannot be used.

In the end, we will realize that the most important thing is to get rid of egoism, and it helps us in this process. Gradually it becomes more and more opposite to the Light; it turns out that, on the one hand we are developing, and on the other hand we are constantly feeling the negativity of our development.

Moreover, the negativity of our development does not remain at the same level, but qualitatively increases all the time; we become smarter, wiser, more experienced, and that is why we begin to perceive and analyze our development from a completely different point of view.

When experiencing blows twenty years ago, we did not understand where they came from. We thought that the most important thing was developing the economy, how much interest goes to this or that, and according to this  we considered our lives to be more or less successful; today we have stopped calculating the interest. Nowadays many already know that egoism forces us to “eat” ourselves; we have come to the realization of evil.
[119238]
From a Talk About Dissemination 10/17/13

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The US: Bandits’ Territory

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Freelance Bureau of International Investigation): “Up to 500 bandits account for one policeman in the U.S. Street crime hits the U.S. cities. Volunteers of the Freelance Bureau of International Investigation’s North American office, coming out of their houses, were in the midst of gang warfare. …

“The FBI in 2005 equalized street gangs and terrorism, declaring these crimes a major threat to U.S. national security. According to the feds’ official data, more than 33 thousand of gangs operate in the country, and the total number of members exceeds 1.4 million people! Don’t be naive, the FBI didn’t include in the list all American prisoners (there are 2.2 million imprisoned people in the U.S.), but only the active members of gangs, mostly young men. In other words, American gangs include the same number of members as the number of military who serve in the U.S. army! …

“A significant expansion of their activities was an unexpected consequence of the sharp rise in the number of gangs. In addition to traditional racketeering, street trade in drugs and arms the gangs began to put into practice illegal transport of migrants, human trafficking, and prostitution’s protection. Gangs began to develop high tech crimes such as counterfeiting, credit fraud and theft of personal data. These are even more frightening. …

“Considerable figures are even worse when you consider that most of the gang members are men aged 18-25. Tough recruits begin to levy children in school. According to the report ‘The fight against juvenile violence,’ prepared for the U.S. Congress, the schools ranked fourth among the criminal gangs’ recruitment centers. One in five American high school students gets an offer to join the gang. …

“The most common age of the groups’ new participants is 10-12 years old. Moreover, the following cases become more frequent. Gangs’ recruiters affect first-graders (in the U.S. school age start at the age of 5-6 years old). ‘Gangs are worse than terrorists,’ the psychologist Mary Jo Rapini says. ‘They use naivety and low self-esteem. Children see themselves as small, helpless, incapable, therefore, joining a gang gives them a sense of self-worth, care and safety.’…

“Moreover, since May 13, after making of the amendments to the federal regulatory act 32, the U.S. military got official authority to temporarily take over the duties to suppress the large-scale riots amid extraordinary circumstances. To the contrary, if the government fields army troops and heavy weapons against 1.4 million armed gangs, then it will not be the suppression of riots but a real civil war.”

My Comment: The U.S. government is going by the path of suffering, not willing to introduce the method of integral education and upbringing as the only means of salvation from a future civil war. We must use our example to show how it is possible to bring people to good relationships between each other by allowing the force of unity (the Upper Light) to change our egoistic nature. Then everyone will understand that it is possible!
[119391]

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The Connection Between The Teacher And The Student

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In what way should the connection with you be expressed by those behind the screen?

Answer: Your connection with me should be expressed in that you write me specific, serious questions about the lessons, not made-up, but thoughtful. I will be answering them in writing or verbally.

Indeed, communication occurs when we do something together. A portion of knowledge that you get from me every day is not considered connection. Connection is when we make, create, something new together. If I teach the wisdom of Kabbalah or integral education and upbringing and you study this, then there is a connection between us.

Connection is possible only when you are similar to me. We know that unification between the two objects happens only to the extent of the similarity of their properties. And what similarity can be between us if I am a teacher and you are a student? What similarity can be between the created being and the Creator if the Creator only gives and the created being only receives? What can you give in return? Unity with me. And what can it be? If you act the same way I do. Only that! And how else can you act? To teach me as I teach you? No, teach others as I teach you.

Therefore, there can be no more effective state than that of dissemination; otherwise, you do not process material. In the spiritual world, the one who does not pass information through himself closes himself and does not perceive anything. You cannot imagine what a tiny dead fraction of what I give you, you perceive, precisely because you do not pass this along further in any form.

Those people who are engaged in translation or processing the lessons are the happiest people because what they hear or process eventually reaches someone. And those who do not do this have no other way out of themselves; they are a dead end.
[119229]
From a Talk About the Dissemination 10/17/13

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The Ego: Friend Or Foe?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When we work as one group, we make great efforts, but the ego is revealed each time anew and separates us. What should we do? After all, it disturbs us from disseminating efficiently.

Answer: I don’t understand how the ego can stand in your way. What would you do without it? You exist thanks to it and it’s only thanks to it that you can rise as it continuously grows and swells inside you. It’s by rising above the ego that you can keep on growing and without it you will attain nothing. Its growing is a clear sign of your growing.

How can you see the ego negatively?! It’s the force that develops us and without which it would be impossible to be shaken. After all, you can only be shaken or pricked by your ego. It’s very simple.

We mustn’t relate to the ego this way since it’s our nature. Everything that the Creator has created was created in total harmony. When all the inner and external envies are revealed, we should understand that it’s impossible to make even one step forward without them! What’s more, you can change them into the opposite attributes on the spot. It is possible.

The ego increasingly grows on the way to our spiritual attainment. At the same time, it’s gradually revealed through terrible states, in the form of scary forces that are opposite from the Creator.

Today very little of it is revealed in the form of different positive or negative impressions, even without any specific reference. However, when you have a more accurate goal, you will reveal your ego in ways that may seem like your beloved or your dear child being kidnapped before your very eyes and their lives being threatened. What would you feel then?! What would you do?!

When your ego is revealed that way, as it kills your slight movement towards the Creator, it will take on different forms. Now it is only the prologue.
[119186]
From a Talk About the Dissemination 10/17/13

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