Audio Version Of The Blog – 03.20.14

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/audio/eng_o_rav_2014-03-20_declamation_blog-rav_full.mp3 title=’20.3.14′]

A Wave Of Defaults Across China

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Forbes): “Last week a failure by Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy to meet interest payments on its debt became China’s first onshore corporate bond default, prompting some alarmed and alarming talk about a wave of defaults across China. …

“Here’s what’s happening. China’s economy is slowing down, and at the same time, Premier Li wants to increase the role of true free market behavior in China. Where companies would once have been bailed out either by banks or the government (or by both – most major Chinese banks are to some extent still state-owned), now there is a sense that small companies will be allowed to default on their debts in order to send a message to the markets. What Li wants is for people to understand that investment carries risk, that a bail-out is not automatic, and that markets must be able to accommodate failure and default. …

“The negative view is that one default must lead to another, and another, until a wave of defaults reduces investor confidence to the point that money leaves the whole sector and then prompts a whole other round of defaults, while also reducing the possibility for companies to raise new capital. But few who have watched China for long see any chance of the country letting that happen: if there was a sense of systemic crisis, it would intervene.”

My Comment: The entire world order is in default, and the sooner we recognize this, the easier it will be able to change it to the new world order:  a rational economy.
[130333]

Related Material:
The End Of The Economic Miracle
This Is The Center Of Correction
Concerning The Crossroads

Welcome To A New Kabbalah Course

Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education Center
New Kabbalah Course
Starts March 19, 2014
http://edu.kabbalah.info/

The Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education Center will begin a brand new live, interactive Kabbalah course March 19, 2014.

This course will enable you to discover the meaning of life, will give you a deep understanding of nature, the world, and man’s place in it, and will provide the necessary framework for the study of The Zohar and other Kabbalistic sources.

Kabbalah is a practical methodology that allows us to go beyond our five senses and attain the general law of the universe. The short course in the systematic knowledge of Kabbalah will give you a deep understanding of the world in your material and spiritual progress.

Register

Feel The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You have suggested that I should try to feel “there is none else besides Him,” to imagine it, because it is not the reality I am in….

Answer: This is not the problem. The problem is nullifying yourself to such a degree that you feel that only the Creator exists.

Question: How? I don’t feel that He exists in our reality.

Answer: Ask. You turn towards a force that you don’t feel and ask Him to give you the possibility of feeling Him.

Feeling Him means becoming like Him. It means nullifying yourself since the feeling of self occurs because you are opposite to Him. And to that degree that you nullify yourself, you feel Him.

He and I cannot exist simultaneously. So you ask Him to nullify you, and with this, you will become like Him.

Repeat this many times together with the friends, and this will gradually begin to enter into your emotions. There is no other way.
[130111]
From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day Three 2/04/14, Lesson 1

Related Material:
By Calling Of The Heart
“The Reason For The Difficulty Of Annulling Oneself For The Creator”
Faith: A Reward For Work

At The Groom’s Meal

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does overcoming above reason mean?

Answer: Above reason means above my current state, above how I feel and understand in my simple mind. Suddenly something unpleasant happens and I feel totally confused and cannot accept it in any way, and it simply cuts me off from reality.

I must first relate to it from the perspective called Beit Shammai that is accepted in the Talmud. It’s like an evaluator who writes a report about the current state listing all the facts, as if I assess a “bride exactly like she is.” I assess the state I am in: This is how I feel, and this is what I understand, and I have to be in this feeling and realization until they change.

There is another approach called Beit Hillel, and there is a dispute between the two. From the perspective of Beit Hillel, you should accept your state as the end of correction: “Everything is good and nice and is sent by the Creator; it is simply ideal.” This is the state I should reach, without annulling the assessment of Beit Shammai, which means that I don’t annul the real state. The state remains, and above it I establish the second real state.

When I reach a state that is compatible to Beit Hillel, I feel that it’s good in my new vessels and I understand and feel in my new vessels of perception that this is the real world of Ein Sof (Infinity). It isn’t that I just received some small illumination and agree and annul myself, but that I actually feel wholeness in my new vessels. The more changes, the more ascents and descents there are below, the higher above them I can build my new vessels in the opposite manner.

It works like an electric circuit that conveys positive and negative phases of alternating current to direct current. Therefore I need to work on two levels. On one level I work with what my body feels and what my mind understands, and above that, above my natural vessel, I establish a new vessel in which I need to see that “the bride is pretty and modest.”

If I build my new vessel correctly and perceive the bride correctly, I discover that the groom lands into my vessel (“groom” and “land” in Hebrew have the same root Hebrew). Thus we reach the coupling called “the groom’s meal” according to the name of the filling.

When I attain this state I can see that I was also at the groom’s meal before! But my vessels were not ready and so I didn’t feel the taste of being in the King’s palace but of some wretched hut in corporeality. Instead of the delicacies and the table set with plates of gold and silver, the wonderful music and the delicious scents of the King’s meal, I felt a bitter taste with my corrupt senses. In fact, I wasn’t in this world in the first place but in the world of Ein Sof, and it’s only because of my corruption that I saw this world instead.
[130225]
From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/14

Related Material:
Decorating The Bride
You Become Patient To The Degree That You Are Patient
Standing With One Foot On The Next Level

Sacred Hatred

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It seems that the action required of the created being in the dialogue with the Creator is only a prayer.

Answer: In this state we reach a real cry, not just a prayer. This is how strongly we feel the burning need for the removal of the concealment, and there are two states here.

In the first state I discover how I hate the concealment, from my personal egoistic perspective. I really hate this concealment and only want and hope that it would disappear, rot, and cease to exist. There is no greater joy for me than to discover that it has disappeared, burned, and been destroyed.

This state is meant to teach me and to show me the full measure of my hatred towards the concealment. Now I need to reach that, although I suddenly lose interest, but I hate it only because by removing it, I delight the Creator.

Can I reach the same burning hatred towards concealment because it stands in my way of delighting the Creator? I already have something to compare it to, my personal egoistic hatred. Now I need to apply the same impression with regard to the Creator: Can I hate this obstacle so much, although it’s not a hindrance for me but for Him because it doesn’t let me delight Him? And it’s certainly not in order to receive a reward, but in order to bestow.
[130132]
From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/14

Related Material:
How Can We Hate Evil?
Hating Evil Brings Us Closer To Goodness
Drawing the Creator’s Image When He Is Concealed

Gratitude To Teachers Who Save Us From A Life Of Hell

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Section 8: Therefore, come and see how grateful we should be to our teachers, who impart us their sacred Lights and dedicate their souls to do good to our souls. They stand in the middle between the path of harsh torments and the path of repentance.

They save us from the netherworld, which is harder than death, and accustom us to reach the heavenly pleasures, the sublime gentleness and the pleasantness that is our share, ready and waiting for us from the very beginning, as we have said above. Each of them operates in his generation, according to the power of the Light of his Torah and sanctity.

It is difficult to describe what would have been if the Kabbalists had not prepared and given us the wisdom of Kabbalah with all of the preparations and corrections that they made in the higher system, whose essence we wouldn’t even know yet if they had not written all the books for us. It is like a baby born in today’s world in a hospital with all the latest medical equipment.

A multitude of instruments monitor his health and the health of his mother, so the birth process is much easier than it was a hundred years ago. What wonderful food and treatment has been created for him, everything possible. And after that, he goes to kindergarten, elementary school, and university, and is educated. The world took the trouble for thousands of years to give a person born today all of the best for his development.

But the infant who is born doesn’t understand and is not aware of this. That is also how we seem to the Kabbalists who prepared the correction of the systems of worlds for us and who through their correction raised Lights in it from below to above to the highest level. It is just like a newborn baby gets all of the services in a safe, secure world that is ready to accept him and to give him the best of everything.

It is yet to be revealed to us what great and powerful systems the Kabbalists prepared for us to help us be born in the spiritual world. And they also wrote books for us through which we can study and awaken ourselves. Everything has been done thanks to these great Tzadikim (righteous). Without them we would not be able to go out to the spiritual world.

Adam HaRishon and Abraham could do this themselves since they were very refined souls. Therefore they could discover the Creator without preliminary work in a group and suffering, but only thanks to the refined souls that worked within them. But in our state, with our dense ego, at the end of six thousand years, we cannot approach spirituality without their help.
[129987]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/14/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Kabbalists’ Legacy: Not Only Books
Resting In The Hands Of The Great Kabbalists
A Feather Bed Is Not An Interruption On The Way To Spirituality

The Book Of Zohar Is A Carrier Of Spiritual Information

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When reading The Book of Zohar, we look at the Hebrew letters on a white background and feel their power. If The Zohar were translated into other languages, would this power be maintained?

Answer: The letters of The Book of Zohar are not sacred, meaning they don’t carry a particular spiritual energy. A person receives the spiritual energy because through these symbols (for these are not letters but symbols) he is connected with their spiritual source, with their essence.

Therefore it makes no difference in what language the book is written and in what form the person will get it. The main thing is that he will comprehend it as a carrier of spiritual information and will understand that he needs to properly attune to it.

At one time I was very interested in the subject and talked about it a lot with Rabash. I remember that I was very surprised when he said: “What difference does this make? This book could also be written in English. Only the key to the connection between my soul and the collective soul, Malchut de Ein Sof, is conveyed to us not through the English language, but through Aramaic and Hebrew.”

These two languages were in use in ancient Babylon since the days of Adam. Also they went as a pair, as direct and indirect. In fact, they are very close and are able to express spiritual characteristics because the Kabbalists conveyed all of the spiritual information to us through the arrangement of the letters and the words. The Book of Zohar works with this a lot. The entire problem is in conveying the information.

For if we were not in concealment of the Creator, we would not have any need for letters. I would feel what he feels. And there would not be any need for letters, for words, for sounds, for combinations of colors, nothing, because it would be felt directly in my heart. Pay attention to how often it is difficult to convey what we feel even in our native language. This is because all words are only an external conveyance.
[129889]
From a lesson in Russian, February 7, 2014

Related Material:
The Secrets Of Reading The Zohar
The Zohar: The Link To Perfection
Through The Letters Of The Book Of Zohar

For The Sake Of Spiritual Advancement

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, Shamati, #25, “Things That Come From The Heart”: Regarding things that come from the heart, enter the heart. Hence, why do we see that even if things have already entered the heart, one still falls from his degree? Why do we see that even if things do enter a person’s heart he still falls from his spiritual level? We see that even if a person is impressed by what the teacher conveys to him, he still falls from the level on which he received the Torah, the intention and the thoughts of the teacher.

The thing is that when one hears the words of Torah from his teacher, i.e., the wisdom of his teacher, he immediately agrees with his teacher, and resolves to observe the words of his teacher with his heart and soul, because he really wants it to be fulfilled. But afterwards, when he comes out to the world, he sees, covets, and is infected by the multitude of desires roaming the world, that is, to other people’s desires, thoughts, and plans dealing with all sorts of nonsense and not spiritual development in this case, and he and his mind, his heart, and his will are annulled before the majority, that is, those conditions the environment is in.

As long as he has no power to judge the world to a scale of merit, they subdue him. He mingles with their desires…. What does that mean? If I am in a foreign environment, it is the Creator Who plays with me and Who places me there in different external conditions so that I will grow stronger with regard to the inner decisions that I have already made, despite the external influences that appear.

Suppose I am on my way home from the convention now and when I get on the plane I am already under the domination of a foreign environment. Can I remain in the same inner condition that I felt during the three conventions—concentrated, focused on the goal, feeling elated and feeling my friends—when I am under external conditions that pressure me? If I can, it is a state in which I control the outside world; if I can’t, it means that the outside world controls me.

But afterwards, when he comes out to the world, he sees, covets, and is infected by the multitude of desires i.e., society at large, dealing with nonsense, then if he cannot overcome himself, his thoughts, desires, and heart obey the majority.

Overcoming the multitude consists of two parts.

First, when I realize that I am detached from the support of the friends, I myself internally alienate them and keep away from them.

Secondly, I don’t see that everything is managed by the Creator anymore and that the thoughts of the multitude are sent to me on purpose so that I will tighten the connection with the group, with the sources even more than before, and will regard the external effect as the Creator’s game. After all, He sends me “helpers,” guards who want to throw me down the mountain I have been climbing on my way to the Creator, but I keep moving forward, holding on with my teeth in order to stay above the water and in the right direction. No matter what the influence of the environment is, I don’t go along with the current, but rather row towards my goal.

As long as he has no power to judge the world to a scale of merit…

After all, the Creator works for a person through the whole world! If I justify the world because it actually operates in order to help me advance, it means “to judge the world to the scale of merit.”

But if I cannot judge the whole world to the scale of merit, which means to draw it in my direction, realizing that the Creator sends me these obstacles on purpose so that I will advance more strongly; if I cannot connect to my friends and to the goal more strongly, then the world becomes external and the Creator disappears from it. If I forget that He is the one who has arranged everything and think that the world influences me by itself, the Creator disappears from it and I am left under the dominion of this world. … they subdue him. He mingles with their desires, i.e., a person diverts from the goal.

Then, when a person subdues to the desires of the world that surrounds him, he is led like sheep to the slaughter. He has no choice; he is compelled to think, want, crave, and demand everything that the majority demands; that is, he is under the domination of the external society. This is also under the authority of the Creator. He shouldn’t think that anything other than Him operates here. But this is a completely different control, not I shall hasten it (Achishena), but in its time (Beito). He then chooses their alien thoughts and their loathsome lusts and desires, which are alien to the spirit of the Torah. In that state he has no strength to subdue the majority, and goes along with the current, like the rest of the world.

Instead, there is only one counsel then, to cling to his teacher and to the books. This is called “From the mouth of books and from the mouth of authors.” He has to hold on with his teeth to the lessons and to the sources and to choose what is closer to him and what impresses him most strongly. It may be a certain article or a passage from TES, a song, anything. What’s important is that it should strengthen his connection with our society. Only by cleaving to them can he change his mind and will for the better. However, witty arguments will not help him change his mind, but only the remedy of Dvekut (adhesion), for this is a wondrous cure, as the Dvekut reforms him.

Only while one is inside Kedusha (Sanctity) can one argue with oneself and indulge in clever polemics that the mind necessitates that he should always walk on the path of the Creator. But this is all nonsense. However, one should know that even when he is wise and certain that he can already use this wit to defeat the Sitra Achra (other side), one must bear in mind, that all his wit and nice conclusions, the studying and the agreement with the friends, that all this is worthless. This is not an armament that can defeat the war on desire, for all these concepts are but a consequence he has attained after the aforementioned Dvekut.

Everything depends on how strongly a person ties himself to the group. After all, he has to speak to his friends on the phone, to contact them on the Internet, to prepare some material for them, to participate in the daily work. If he doesn’t do that, nothing will help. We are the ones who need the dissemination and not those to whom we disseminate. It compels us to be in constant movement and to improve. This is the only way we can advance!

What I say is based on my personal experience. Unfortunately I can think of 30-40 people who I once brought to Rabash who also engage in Kabbalah to a certain extent now, but you can feel what it means to study Kabbalah without advancement when you speak to them.

In other words, all the concepts upon which he builds his building, saying one must always follow in the path of the Creator, is founded in the Dvekut with his teacher. Thus, if he loses the foundation, then all the concepts are powerless, since they will now be lacking the foundation. Hence, one must not rely on one’s own mind, but cleave once more to books and authors, for only that can help him, and no wit and intellect, as they are lifeless.

In principle, this article says that everything that is sent to us in life is sent to us intentionally by the Creator, and we mustn’t forget it. We have to take advantage of all the obstacles in order to advance and to grow stronger in our advancement.

In fact there are no interferences. All these obstacles and barriers are a springboard. If we overcome them we will advance; if not, it means that we will have to overcome them indirectly. Everything depends on our participation.

The point is that we are not given any obstacles from Above that cannot be overcome. The Upper Light operates in a manner that is adapted to each of us according to our personal circumstances. All the obstacles that we encounter are always adapted to our abilities. It’s the ego that we have to correct on the next level. If a person remembers that, he adheres even more strongly to the advancement towards the Creator, to the teacher, the books, and the group.

Thus, he is not controlled by the external environment, although he is in good relations with it, but internally he is loyal to himself and to the environment. Moreover, gradually and without words, he begins to influence the environment so that it suddenly begins to change.

Let’s keep the connection between us so that the impression of the week we spent united, feeling wholeness between us, and in a wonderful state will only grow stronger! After all, we will each go our own way and each one will receive his own interferences and we have to keep the spirit of mutual guarantee and be committed that nothing will detach us from the group and that we will overcome all the obstacles and feel that we are together as if we have never gone our own ways.

If the interferences don’t pull us in different directions, we will feel the connection between us even more strongly, and this is actually what we need. If we can do that, then there are no words that can describe the level to which we will immediately ascend. We can fulfill our dream within the coming week! If we all, regardless of the distance between us, think about the fact that our friends should remain connected just as they are now, we can be sure that the Messiah will come. The word Messiah stems from the Hebrew word “Moshech,” “to pull,” and the Upper Light is revealed that completes all the corrections, pulling a person out of his ego to full adhesion with the Creator.
[129190]
From a lesson in Russian, 2/07/14

Related Material:
“Things That Come From The Heart, Enter The Heart”
How To Start Hearing The Teacher
Should We Cleave To The Teacher Or To The Group?

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 03.20.14

Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Workshop

[media 3] [media 4]

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, ParashatBereshit-1,” “Let Us Make Man,” Item 159   

[media 5] [media 6]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 10

[media 7] [media 8]