Audio Version Of The Blog – 12.23.13

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Rising From The Bottom

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The Israeli nation waited for the Messiah during the time of exile. How should we work with the same deficiencies that are revealed in people today?

Answer: We live in a generation that is waiting for everything but the Messiah. We live in a generation that only wants materialism, and matter covers us over our heads.

Our generation is starting to reveal the domination of corporeality and it is in this generation that the desire that is aimed at the worst and lowest basic existence, that which is totally meaningless, is revealed.

It is from this lowest point in this world that we can actually discover and start the way back to the goal of creation.

Even if we descend along the way, these descents are already additions of the Light that show us how opposite we are from it…

Baal HaSulam says in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“, item 63: Thus, in our generation, although the essence of the souls is the worst, which is why they could not be selected for Kedusha thus far, they are the ones that complete the Partzuf of the world and the Partzuf of the souls with respect to the Kelim, and the work is completed only through them.

This is because now, when the Kelim of NHY are being completed, and all the Kelim, Rosh, Toch, and Sof are in the Partzuf, full measures of Light, in Rosh, Toch, Sof, are now being extended to all those who are worthy, meaning complete NRN. Hence, only after the completion of these lowly souls can the highest Lights manifest, and not before.

The vessel has to be as deep as the height of the Light that is dressed in it.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Everyone Can

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar“: Throughout the generations those who ascended and were rewarded with Dvekut were few, but in the generation of the Messiah, everyone can reach Dvekut and attainment.

The restrictive conditions throughout history in every generation, in every state and circumstances where Kabbalists lived, didn’t allow them to reach the end of correction, and so their attainment and revelations were not complete.

The one exception in history is the case of Rabbi Shimon and his students. This small group was especially allowed to reveal all of reality, the process, and the goal so that they would pass these basics from the beginning of the exile, from the state before the destruction of the second Temple, from the corrected Israel to the nation of Israel that is totally corrupt and dispersed. Thus we will be able to get back on the path that will lead us to the good state.

So in every generation, there were only certain individuals who attained the spiritual world, while in our generation anyone can. There are no limitations from above and everything depends on a person’s ability to connect to the friends. The individual is powerless and incapable of anything, but he can connect with the friends in the group and thus reach the goal.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Existence In Two Worlds

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe soul is the one and only vessel (Kli) in which we feel ourselves as a single whole. In the spiritual world nobody feels himself separately because we all feel the unity, feel the sum result of the connection.

In that we lose ourselves individually, each one of us finds himself specifically in total unity, and this is an indescribable feeling. There is no need to fear losing yourself, for we acquire an eternal and perfect existence here and not a miserable, egoistic, temporal, and wasted existence.

And besides this, from the eternal, glorious and infinite world, we see our cocoon and those people who still exist within it, as in a dream, like blind people trying to exploit everyone to their own detriment and not understanding it. Each one wants to pull the blanket over himself and thinks that with this he will get something good, but in the end all of his attempts only bring suffering.

So how is it possible to come out from this cocoon? We do so only by way of the group. In what way is it possible to begin to do something within it? For this a very interesting state is given to us, existence in bodies. Therefore our inner feeling can be both within the cocoon, in our egoistic body, and outside of the cocoon, outside of our body, in an altruistic state.

People who already exist with their feelings outside of the egoistic cocoon still can live physically in our world because our body has no connection to the spiritual world. This is simply some physiological entity, an imaginary component that is portrayed for us as existing, but essentially this entity is completely imaginary and doesn’t exist. Physicists have also already spoken about this, not just Kabbalists; science is gradually approaching this fact.

In other words, the Kabbalists can exist simultaneously in the upper world in a spiritual form and in the material world within the physical body, returning to the material image that appears in our world to leave their impressions for us, to teach their sensations, perceptions, and experience that they received by going out from our world to the upper world. They tell us how they worked in a group, united with it, learned the fundamentals of the states of the group and with its help gradually passed to the upper world.

We must use their advice, recommendations, and instructions to follow after them as after guides that show the way. So we also call them revolutionaries, pioneers, and we go after them. If not for them, we would not know how to organize in a group in a precise form in our world. But even if the group is organized in the right form, this is still not enough.

Besides this, we must be involved in learning about the upper world and about those laws of reciprocal cooperation of bestowal and absolute love that exist there with bestowal above reception with constant overcoming of our evil inclination. On the other hand, we also must be involved in external dissemination in order to bring all the rest of the parts of the one collective soul after us until we attain complete adherence, coming together, connection, until we attain a state like this that will be completely similar to the Creator in all characteristics.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day Two 12/14/13, Lesson 4

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First Unity, Then The Ego

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If there are stages in the development of the human ego, are there stages in the development of the group ego?

Answer: The movement is only forward. There is no other movement, not in nature and not with the person.

So don’t think about the ego and you don’t have to think about the group ego. It’s necessary to yearn only to advance towards group unity. Then in a natural way you will pass this group egoism. Very big problems will appear among you in unifying, in understanding, in general, in how to endure the friend who is next to me, and so forth.

But in any case, the yearning must only be forward. You don’t need to think about “how will we discover our ego as quickly as possible.” You should only think about positive discoveries, not the negative ones.

The fact is that all of Malchut is latent within us, the entire immense ego, the enormous intention for the sake of my beloved self. But we begin to yearn for unity and not in any way for anything else!

When I yearn for the right side all the time, then my ego grows on the left side in a different form parallel to it. And in a manner like this it follows that at the moment I rise to a particular level, immediately a negative intention “for my own sake” appears simultaneously. In the end, I include the negative component within the positive component and thus I create my Kli.

From the positive component I have a “screen(Masach), and from the negative I have an inner desire that I transform into positive, and in this way I grow all the time.

It’s said: “Everyone who is greater than his friend, his desire is greater.” Therefore my main foundation (1) must be yearning for unity that grows (Σ) all the time. And the ego, that is the intention for myself, will always be secondary (2), and it will not disappear; don’t be concerned about it.

You ask, “How in a group can we discover its entire ego?” You will discover the entire ego of the group when you reach the higher line, the completion of correction. But in spite of it all, you will advance towards this upper line only with the “middle line” in that you always yearn for the right first, only for unity. And the “left line” will inevitably appear in you.

First Unity Then Ego

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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day Two 12/14/13, Lesson 2

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“Is There A Revolution Coming?”

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Chris Hedges, American journalist specializing in American politics and society, best-selling author of several books, senior fellow at The Nation Institute in New York City): “As long as most citizens believe in the ideas that justify global capitalism, the private and state institutions that serve our corporate masters are unassailable. When these ideas are shattered, the institutions that buttress the ruling class deflate and collapse. The battle of ideas is percolating below the surface. It is a battle the corporate state is steadily losing. An increasing number of Americans are getting it. They know that we have been stripped of political power. They recognize that we have been shorn of our most basic and cherished civil liberties, and live under the gaze of the most intrusive security and surveillance apparatus in human history. Half the country lives in poverty. Many of the rest of us, if the corporate state is not overthrown, will join them. These truths are no longer hidden. …

“Popular revulsion for the ruling elite, however, is nearly universal. It is a question of which ideas will capture the public’s imagination.

“Revolution usually erupts over events that would, in normal circumstances, be considered meaningless or minor acts of injustice by the state. But once the tinder of revolt has piled up, as it has in the United States, an insignificant spark easily ignites popular rebellion. No person or movement can ignite this tinder. No one knows where or when the eruption will take place. No one knows the form it will take. But it is certain now that a popular revolt is coming. The refusal by the corporate state to address even the minimal grievances of the citizenry, along with the abject failure to remedy the mounting state repression, the chronic unemployment and underemployment, the massive debt peonage that is crippling more than half of Americans, and the loss of hope and widespread despair, means that blowback is inevitable.”

My Comment: Indeed, even with all the sophistication of the police apparatus of the authorities, no one can predict the course of events when the masses are not provided with the basic necessities. To satisfy their necessities of life, it is necessary to educate people in the spirit of integral education and upbringing, reciprocity and to replace material values with the spiritual ones, fulfillment from unity, mutual support—and further from the revelation of the higher existence.
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Under One Blanket

Dr. Michael LatimanQuestion: Why is the Surrounding Light attracted when I give friends gifts?

Answer: Because I give a present to a friend not because I want to deceive him, entice him, and obtain some simple earthly benefit from him, but only for the sake of the spiritual goal.

Under One Blanket

The point in the heart is important to me, and I work from that point on his desire to receive to fulfill his desire to receive; that is, I give him a gift. But I do it because it is important for me to attain the Creator; He is the root cause of everything (No. 1).  For this, I operate my ego (No. 2) and give a present to my friend’s ego (No. 3).

I can influence his ego with a gift, but I influence his point in the heart by the Light that Reforms (No. 4). I cannot influence his point in the heart; it is a spark from above, a part of divinity from above. But the Surrounding Light does influence it because starting with my first action I made this calculation that attaining the Creator is more important to me than pleasing my egoism. That’s why I do all these steps even though I would gladly remain lying on the couch and doing nothing.

My friend begins to wonder: Why am I doing this for him? If we study together, I could tell him directly that the intention of the gift is for our spiritual advancement, that I bring him the gift to buy a friend, and with his help to reveal the Creator. And when the friend is awakened by my words, my gifts, and the Surrounding Light, he will also make the calculation that it is most important to attain the Creator (No. 5).

After many such gifts (one is not enough), I “buy” the friend. In ordinary life, without the addition of the importance of the Creator, we just “bribe” a person and his egoism through giving him presents. As a result, he begins to show me favor too, to help me, as usual: “You give to me, I’ll give to you.” Or we have common interests and we help each other realize our egoistic desires: go fishing or play soccer together.

However, this scheme is very special because I, through the Creator, begin to start influencing the friend, his point in the heart. From this, his point in the heart is awakened and he is compelled to do the same actions toward me. He must do so! From his point in the heart, his egoism is influenced (No. 6), and, with it, he gives me gifts (No. 7). It turns out that he performs the same cycle of actions toward me.

Since we both work in such “cycles,” we bring our points in the heart closer together. They begin to work on the same wavelength so closely that they are as if under one blanket (No. 8). And then, due to the Surrounding Light, the “blanket” turns into a screen (Masach) (No. 9).

It is an inexorable law. A man can cry for a thousand years, but until he has fulfilled the laws, it will not work. If the requirements of the law are fulfilled, then success is guaranteed. It is called: “The law is fixed and cannot be violated.”

We need to understand that we exist within nature in its system of laws. We only need to learn these laws thoroughly and find out where we have made omissions until we obtain the desired result.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/13

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To Correct the Heart…

Come and see the words of the sage Rabbi Even Ezra in his book, Yesod Mora, (The Foundation for Fear) p. 8b: “And now note and know that all the Mitzvot that are written in the Torah or the conventions that the fathers have established, although they are mostly in action or in speech, they are all in order to correct the heart…”
Baal HaSulam,Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

Those who engage solely in the dresses of the Torah are gravely mistaken. And when the Creator’s demand is abandoned and the majority of the multitude of the sages of the Torah do not know its purpose, and they consider the wisdom of the Torah with its purpose as mere addition of some quip to Talmudic debates—which, though truly sacred and precious—they will not illuminate our souls.
Rav Kook, Igrot (Letters), Part 2, No. 153
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Looking For The Door

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe work of the spiritual teacher is called a “mantle” (robe of the high priest). Baal HaSulam says in letter 26: This is why this work is generally called “a mantle,” as it is an overcoat, “beyond” human conception,” since the teacher dresses his pupil in it. “And in which there is a combination, as in the edges of the Kli, which is the place where the filth is collected. This means the ego.

During the training period, he is in a state of “to and fro,” as are all those who seek the opening. This means the exit to the next level. And in the last moment of the march when he is close to the opening, but he doesn’t know that, since the opening suddenly opens up at the last moment. When a person completes the left and the right lines and the only thing left for him to do is to create the middle line, this opening opens up.

But if he hasn’t done so yet, then when he approaches the opening, then, of all times, he grows weary and turns back. This is called Zahav (the golden), from the words Ze Hav (give me this), which means from the doubts: What for? Why? This vessel of gold is the most precious of all the other vessels, but it’s built out of the disappointments and the disrespect of everything that we go through. For the movement is done through the craving and the longing for Dvekut (adhesion) with Him, which is built gradually by such maneuvers, when a person almost reaches the opening itself, but doesn’t see it. And it is this place that he is repulsed by since there is the greatest filth, and so a person turns back.

He is also called “a bell” (Paamon) because he doesn’t have the strength to open and he turns back, thus spending his time going to and fro (Paamaagain,  time and time again, looking for the opening.

Also, he is called Rimon (pomegranate) because the Romemut (sublime, exaltedness) of above the intellect surrounds him from all sides. This is the place where the greatest filth has been accumulated and a person cannot overcome it or leap above it if he doesn’t work in exaltedness, above the intellect. Hence, again he is called Rimon for otherwise he would fall entirely. The only way to go through this is with our eyes closed, in exaltedness, above reason, by the power that one receives from the teacher, from the friends, and from the books.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 12.23.13

Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash, “Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 44

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The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, Parashat, “Beresheet,” Item 855  

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 2, Chapter 6, Item 69

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar

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