Audio Version Of The Blog – 03.09.14

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/audio/eng_o_rav_2014-03-09_declamation_blog-rav_full.mp3 title=’9.3.14′]

When The Minority Influence The Majority

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Karen Shahinian, journalist Slon): “We accept the opinion of majority as the truth, believe public opinion more than our own eyes because it is uncomfortable to be at odds with the majority. No matter what the majority tells us, it is important not to differ.

“Let’s say, there are only 10,000 people on a small square, and a huge silent country is around – the revolutionary minority has its own influence; it is not overwhelmed by the majority; it is important what the minority says.

“We have to comply with the opinion of majority, but not with the opinion of minority, but we listen to it attentively, trying to understand why they think differently, and this is the hidden power and influence of minority. Since we are not afraid of them, they are not dangerous, we begin to listen to them and think about the content.

“At the beginning, the influence of the minority does not appear, but time passes, and a serious question arises: perhaps, it is really necessary to stand up to the end and not to leave the square? Of course, if the opinion of minority was correct, and it was worthwhile to stay. It all depends on the unity of minority and its perseverance to articulate their ideas.

“At this moment, propaganda begins to divert from the content and to criticize the quality of the representatives of minority, to discredit them. This works because when a person thinks, he becomes nervous – and he is happy to hear the simple explanation of propaganda. The main and only weapon of the minority is persistence, not to stop to broadcast their ideas.

“From the point of view of biology, to differ from the majority is a mistake; if everyone behaves in a certain way, it means that it is the only correct way, and those who acted differently were eaten.

“The term “the wisdom of the crowd” means that the average response of the crowd is the most accurate and correct because everyone makes a mistake around the truth, and the average opinion is as close as possible to the truth. But this rule works only if the crowd is not biased, in a stable environment, when the circumstances are clear. But when everything is changing and insecure, the majority becomes confused, and the minority have a chance to influence by their idea.

“If the opinion of minority is not fiction, but the truth, it will be viable and gradually spread to the majority and become the norm. As soon as the economy falls and stability is disturbed, the majority will be disoriented and ready to accept new ideas.”

My Comment: In our case, it is necessary to add the influence of Ohr Makif, which, to the extent of our preparedness to re-educate the masses, will organize the conditions necessary for the correction of society.
[129292]

Related Material:
Tipping Point For The Spread Of Ideas
The Influence Of A Committed Minority
“The Living Water” For All Humanity

Confidence That Connects Us With The Environment

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the connection between confidence and joy?

Answer: Confidence brings us joy. The feeling of confidence is a result of the special illumination that comes from Above and sustains a person as if on a pillow of air, thus filling him with joy.

There are two forms of confidence: confidence because of what I have in my pocket, to what extent I am stronger than the environment, or confidence in the environment, of how strong the environment is and the fact that I am incorporated in it, which means that my confidence depends on the environment. It is one of the two.

Confidence is the connection with the environment when I am either stronger than the environment or when the environment is stronger than me, but I am connected to it. The best feeling of confidence is when I am satisfied with a state of smallness. Then, I am surely in arms of the environment, feeling confident like a baby in the arms of its mother.

When a baby grows, he doesn’t feel the same sense of confidence he felt before. He already has doubts and is afraid of everything, while a baby in his mother’s arms doesn’t worry about anything, and that is the best time.
[129253]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Confidence Is Revealed In Unity
The Light Of Confidence
Prayer And Confidence

A Duet: The Creator And Created On One Violin

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Today, many of our friends are going out to meet the public who will be hearing about the wisdom of Kabbalah for the first time. How can we acquire faith through the public?

Answer: Faith comes from the Creator and the deficiency for it comes from the public. We, on the other hand, must be in the middle as the coordinators, as a link. We reach the public with our intentions to delight the Creator since they are the general vessel of the soul that is before us, and we want to make it one so that the Creator will be revealed in it so that we will delight Him.

By going out to the public, we should feel that we are the Creator’s representatives who have received a wonderful opportunity to delight Him. We show the public that we have such good will and an open heart, without any self-benefit or any demands, but only the inclination to do them good.

If we reach the public with this intention, we will succeed. We are in a state of Hafetz Hesed with regard to the public and with regard to the Creator, which means that we receive the ten Sefirot of Hassadim, the level of the priests (Cohanim). The main thing is to prepare properly, just like musicians who tune their instruments. This is actually the way we should calibrate ourselves, as if we draw the bow over the strings of a violin back and forth, thus checking the inner inclinations with which we go out to the public and the inner inclination with which we turn to the Creator. This way, the abundance, the Light, will flow through us to the public without any interruption on our part. The deficiencies of the public rise from the bottom and the Light descends from Above, the desires from below and the Light from Above.

Try to tune yourselves this way, and you suddenly will feel that you are managed totally on the one hand by the public and on the other hand by the Creator.
[129249]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Until The Shadow Clears Away
This One Is For Mommy
The Soldier Falls Asleep And The Convoys Pass

Instinct And Intelligence

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What are thoughts and how do they influence the general system?

Answer: Thoughts appear where there are some desires that are found in opposition and in conflict with each other, and a need is created to balance them in some form.

If, due to a lack of difference in desires, no thought appears, then only instinct operates.
[129241]

Related Material:
Finding The Force That Balances The Ego
The Creator’s Game
The Mind Doesn’t Give Instructions To The Ego

The Center Of The Group Is A Place For Solving All Problems

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Do you suppose that we already have the possibility of bringing everything to the center of the group and solving all our questions there?

Answer: If you are thinking of advancing spiritually, meaning toward the characteristic of bestowal, then you simply have no other choice. The center of the group is the point of departure for a channel that leads us by way of all the worlds to world of Infinity. Nothing else is given to us.

The center of the group is a place in which we balance each other. Everyone is different, but all are equal. All help each other even though all are different. In that, we completely nullify ourselves and absorb the desires of the others in order to realize them. Afterward, we present one complete and unified desire, and in this manner enter into this conduit through which we rise to the world of Infinity.

Question: Is it possible to bring material questions to the center of the group?

Answer: It is possible for a group to come with all kinds of material questions and to try to solve them with your friends. In every case, this will be much closer to the truth than what you would decide by yourself.

If all of your friends would be on a particular spiritual level, mutually balanced (this is talking about a group that is more or less correct), then in such a manner, you will be able to solve the problems in your lives.
[129239]

Related Material:
The Center of the Group Appears Between Us
Refocusing The Work In The Group Of Ten
High Voltage Zone In The Center Of The Group

Keep The Inspiration

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can we create a practical device based on the workshops that will help us after we disperse and go back to our homes?

Answer: I have already spoken about this practical device. Continue to hold yourself in that state in which we hold ourselves during the conventions.

It is necessary to try that the journey back home does not influence us. Nothing more is necessary, and even if the journey back is influential, we hold onto the connection. So then you cannot imagine how much our opposition will elevate us.

We need to hold onto that rope that raises us up during that later time when the environment—the entire world with its thoughts, deficiencies, and goals—pulls us back. Therefore, we need to hold more strongly to the group that is going forward so that those thoughts that pull us down will not tear us from it. Imagine a picture like this. Even if we hold onto a position for a short time, in spite of it all, we rise higher.

Precisely now, this movement forward will be realized in those people who will hold onto the group. I performed some work on you, and now it is your turn to work. Connect yourselves to the “fueling station,” and you will be filled with inspiration. Now, with the help of this inspiration that you received in potential, you need to realize it at least a little. Otherwise, it will dissolve with negative consequences.
[129182]

Related Material:
The “Pluses” And The “Minuses” Of The Convention
Life Goes On In The Orbit Of The Convention
Conventions: A Potential Leap

Everything Isn’t Easy

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 1: Who would dare extract it from the heart of the masses and scrutinize their ways, when their attainment is incomplete in both parts of the Torah called Peshat (literal) and Drush (interpretation)? In their view, the order of the four parts of the Torah (PARDESS) begins with the Peshat, then the Drush, then Remez (insinuated), and in the end the Sod (secret) is understood.

However, it is written in the Vilna Gaon prayer book that the attainment begins with the Sod…”

In fact, nothing is as simple as it seems. Attainment of Torah is divided into four parts and even they are arranged in an opposite order in comparison to what is accepted by the common folk. People think that they are learning Peshat while, in fact, the Torah is hidden from them and at best is conveyed in the form of Sod.

Vilna Gaon writes that we begin learning from Sod since in the beginning we don’t yet know anything. The Torah describes the arrangement of the worlds; their management by the Creator is intended to reveal the Creator to the creatures. This is, in essence, the goal of Torah, and to do this is possible only through correction of the creature to the condition of “and you shall love your friend as yourself.”

The Torah was given as a means for spiritual realization and its learning is practical, and in this way, the person goes along according to the order of the levels of Sod, Drush, Remez, Peshat.

In other words, first I grasp only a few small hints from the great secret, the darkness that envelops me and prevents me from understanding anything.

Then, the first thread connects me with the Light, with the Creator, with the higher management, and then I begin to understand and to feel a little.

That is how development passes through four stages with four levels of Aviut, and as long as we haven’t absorbed them, this is not called that we have acquired and understood the Torah, for the Torah clothes the Creator and through it the person corrects himself. In that, he turned around the corrected vessel by the Light. He needs to dedicate his entire life to this process. For this, he lives here in this life, and only in this way does he continue in the right direction, the way of the four levels of attaining the system which includes the vessel and the Light.

People think they are learning Peshat even though they remain in the “superficiality” of the text and prefer to understand it “as it is” and not go into it deeper. However, in fact, everything is the opposite for through this approach a person doesn’t understand anything of what is written and the truth is hidden from him.

Peshat symbolizes the removal of the “clothing” from the Torah, from the system of worlds, when I discover them completely. Their uncovering means the removal of the Masachim, the clothing, and the concealments.
[129173]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
The Passage In The Wall
From Secret To Simple Interpretation
The Morning Lesson: According To The Call Of The Heart Or A Time Table?

Freedom From Oneself – Laitman Unplugged

What Do You Prefer?

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 69: When one increases one’s toil in the internality of the Torah and its secrets, to that extent, one makes the virtue of the internality of the world—which are Israel—soar high above the externality of the world, which are the nations of the World.

So everything depends on preferring internality to externality. These two parts are essential in the Torah, in our actions, in our intention, in our desire, in everything. We should always distinguish between what is more internal and what is more external and prefer one to the other.

Thus a person focuses himself on the right goal and advances. In fact there is nothing else we should do but to prefer internality to externality all the time, to clarify what is internality and what is externality, and to prefer one to the other.

A person is like a dipole, or like the needle of a compass. I prefer that the needle would constantly point at spirituality as a result of placing it on top of corporeality. Whatever is closer to bestowal, to the internality of the group, to the internality of the world, to concentrating my efforts, should always be above anything corporeal. This clarification is actually the only thing I am required to do at any given moment, and nothing but that.

Question: How is the thought of creation integrated in this division into internality and externality?

Answer: How could the thought of creation be fulfilled if we didn’t have the freewill to prefer internality to externality? This is how we fulfill it.

The thought of creation is to do good to His created beings, to bring man to the Creator’s level so that he will be independent and will also resemble the Creator. This is already two opposites: How can you be independent and at the same time resemble the Creator? This is a paradox. So we always work in faith above reason, in bestowal above receiving.

The externality is close to my ego, it is my life; I want that my self-love, my desire to receive, will always be full and that it will feel good. I want to feel good and comfortable in it, that everything would be nice and peaceful. The internality is bestowal: It’s worrying about others, adhesion to the society and the teacher, and through them, adhesion to the Creator.

If I don’t prefer one to the other, how will I choose? How can I form myself? This is all my work. Without this I will not be able to form myself in any way.

When a person wants to acquire a form, he summons the Light that Reforms and it does the work. But without a person’s yearning there is no independence and there is no attainment of the Creator since there is no vessel, there is no desire.
[129008]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
We Should Prefer Internality
Divide Yourself Correctly
“Aliens” From Ancient Babel