Audio Version Of The Blog – 11.16.13

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One America “Virtual Convention” Day One – 11.16.13

One America “Virtual Convention,” Day 1, Lesson 1

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One America “Virtual Convention,” Day 1, Workshop 1

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One America “Virtual Convention,” Day 1, Lesson 2

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One America “Virtual Convention,” Day 1, Workshop 2

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The Secret Of Desire

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal Hasulam, Shamati, #3, “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment”: In order for us to attain what He had wanted us to attain and understand it as “His desire to do good to His creations,” He created and imparted us with these senses, and these senses attain their impressions of the Upper Light. Accordingly, we have been given many discernments… .

In the end we attain what has been given to us to attain. Why is everything arranged specifically like this? This is unknown to us.

The Creator created something which is called a “desire for pleasure”; it receives some kind of “fulfillment” and is stimulated emotionally by what it “enjoys.” And the reaction of this desire that the Creator created is what we are talking about. This is our entire life. This is us.

The true essence of this desire is unknown to us. What exactly did the Creator create as “something from nothing”? What is its essence? Why does it awaken some kind of reaction, an emotion, stimulation, whenever it needs fulfillment? We have no answers. We are speaking only about the observations that we already perceive, but we are not ready to compare them with “from nothing.”

And who knows what will happen in the future? There, in the depths of the inaccessible, is found the essence of the things that came as something from something and something from nothing; something from something is fulfillment, and something from nothing is the lack.

We discern all kinds of phenomena within our desire to receive. And here Kabbalah, which studies and investigates the desire to receive, the “substance of creation,” and the stimulation of the desire to receive called fulfillment comes to our aid.

Fulfillment can be either positive or negative: From positive fulfillment the desire enjoys, from negative fulfillment or a lack of fulfillment, the desire suffers. That is how its reaction is established.

These things are individual; they belong to this desire, while other desires feel and establish them in another manner. All of the measurements and definitions are established only according to the way in which particular phenomena are revealed.

In a manner like this, we don’t know what constitutes the desire to receive in itself. We only know about the emotion that we feel with it. We call this emotion “life,” “vital energy.” And the desire in itself remains a secret. What the desire wants is one thing, and what the desire truly is, is another thing.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/13/13, Shamati #3 “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment

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The Warmth Of The Soul And Spiritual Aspiration

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When we are conducting integral workshops, people who are participating in them reach a special state of mind. What is the difference between a heartwarming state and a spiritual state?

Answer: The heartwarming state is the state when a person seeks to feel others closer to himself. This state can occur not only between the friends in a group, but also between strangers who are gathered in a company and reach heartfelt understanding, usual getting closer with each other, not pursuing any spiritual purpose.

The spiritual state is when your goal is to rise above your egoism, to unite with all the others in one whole, and desire to feel the Creator in it.

Question: We are really trying to get closer to the goal of delighting the Creator at the workshops, and thus feel a very nice, warm feeling. Can this be called a heartwarming state?

Answer: Sure, it can. Only it is not spiritual. The spiritual state is the highest goal to which we aspire. I cannot express this feeling in words, but it will be felt as something shared, as if I disappear in others. I do not exist, I am seemingly detached from myself and am inside my friends. Moreover, this “I” also does not seem like me but a new emerging spiritual substance which is my real “I.”
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From the Bulgaria Convention “Dawn Of A New World” Day Two 11/2/13, Lesson 4

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To See An Angel

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We study that angels are forces. When does a person begin to clearly feel them within?

Answer: In the corporeal world, we sense various forces related to still, vegetative, animate, and speaking nature. They are related to gravity, climatic phenomena, and the entire world that surrounds us.

They participate in human life by the positive or negative influences contained in them. These forces are called angels. Therefore, when we read that three “men” came to Abraham, the angels Rafael, Michael, and Gabriel, it means that he discerned these forces within. Angels are the forces of our soul, not someone from the outside. Some of these forces appear, some disappear, and their influences constantly change.

In truth, there is nothing but angels at various levels of desire. A person perceives them and classifies which of them he can advance with and which he cannot. The same is observed in our world. Only here, we recognize external forms of the forces: wind, rain, sound, people, animals, internal sensations, all of which are angels.

A Kabbalist in our world doesn’t look at the outside of phenomena. He sees through them what the Creator wishes to show and influence him by. Therefore, he focuses on the inner essence of the event and its meaning. After all, through these effects, the Creator is speaking with us. What does He want to say?

He wants us to unify the influences of all levels, still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, and bring them into our heart so that we feel only Him behind them. Then, they won’t be an obstacle that conceals the Creator any longer.
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From the “Weekly Torah Portion” 10/22/10

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Drop Your Crutches

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why do you insist that the development of science is detrimental to mankind. We would not be able to study Kabbalah today without the modern means of communication?

Answer: We cannot imagine what the world would be like if we were to develop according to the spiritual path instead of the path of scientific and technological advancement, egoistically.

Everything we are trying to do through science and high technology is merely pathetic compensation for the things we would be able to achieve in our spiritual vessels.

This is like breaking a leg and instead of treating and healing it, I make crutches for myself. It is the same when it comes to hands, and all the other parts of the body.

And in the end, instead of having a normal, healthy body, which I could have had corrected and enjoyed, I become burdened by a thousand prosthetics all over the place, and I feel proud about it: Look at the wooden legs I can make!

This is what all of our science and its attainments are like…

We kept evolving it to its egoistic, corporeal height because we did not want to ascend and make the proper correction.

As soon as we transition towards the proper inner correction, we stop feeling that we need all these achievements of modern science.

Why would we need the Internet to communicate if we could transfer information and sensations directly from heart to heart, brain to brain, like through a wide unlimited pipe.

We simply do not want to connect like one man with one heart! Otherwise, we would not need all these wires to send messages to communicate.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/10, “The Wisdom of Israel in Comparison to Science”

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