Audio Version Of The Blog – 04.06.14

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Man And Nature: Aggravation Of Relations

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Natalia N. Dumnaya , Ph.D. (Econ.), Head of the Department of Microeconomics, Finance Academy under the Government of the Russian Federation): “We break the foundations of our own existence, undermine the basis – locus standum, on which we stand, literally. Nature, as a self-organizing system, has its purpose – states that the system achieves by means of self-organization.

“In terms of nature, the human being has to serve its purpose. However, he has his own goals and positions as a part that evolved from nature. Man’s first goal is to save his life, and hence to satisfy his basic needs for food, warmth, clothing, procreation, etc.

“Man’s second goal is to search for new, more secure ways to meet his needs. Fulfilling his own goals, the human being also performs the objectives of nature. He accelerates natural evolution.

“However, as the complexity of human society is increasing, the relationship with nature becomes increasingly more apparent; there are contradictions. Now, the question is that the human relationship with nature must develop on the basis of searching for the area of overlapping interests.

“Since nature is a self-organizing system, then it follows that the productive forces created by the human being not only must not violate the natural dynamic balance of nature, but the second nature created by his hands, or industrial civilization, should be a continuation of the first. Human civilization must go from technocenosis to coevolution with nature.

The egoistic industrial-urban development path that leads to material and moral losses constitutes a threat to humanity itself. It is no longer enough to have purely economic efficiency criterion to select options for the development of the economy. People should take into account not only their immediate interests, but also the interests of nature.”

My Comment: There is no doubt that a person should study the laws of nature and follow them. Otherwise he causes their negative reaction.

In many cases, the reaction is not immediate and this calms a person down. Often, there is no clear connection between the action and reaction of nature to him. But it is precisely for this reason that we are given the mind to study the causal relationships of nature so that we reveal the next level of our being, beyond matter.
[131776]

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Dual Control Of A Single Power

Dr. Michael LaitmanAs a result of our work in a group, in studying and in dissemination, we need to reach such a state in which we feel that we are under the control of two authorities, two forces. One control is the control of our ego, the evil inclination, the king of Egypt Pharaoh who holds us in slavery.

But sometimes, more or less, depending upon the advancement of the person, another control is also discovered: the good inclination, the power to bestow, the yearning to go outside of oneself towards the other, towards the friends, towards unity, connection, and so forth.

A person is in the midst of such dual power, under the control of two angels: the good inclination and the evil inclination, which hold him by the hands on both sides and guide him forward towards the goal of creation. Certainly the evil inclination also acts according to the program of the Creator and helps a person to advance independently, exercising his freedom of choice.

If he didn’t have free choice, he would be like a beast and not an Adam (man). Through clarifying for himself how to use the evil inclination and the good inclination, the power of reception and the power of bestowal, and choosing how to advance with the right mixture between them, he builds himself as an Adam in the likeness of the Creator.

The connection between the evil inclination and the good inclination begins from the first approach to Pharaoh together with the Creator. The person begins to establish these two forces one against the other. The two forces are under his authority. He decides himself according to his inner state, which of them manages him now and can even pass from one control to another control in that he chooses who has control over him and why, if he is able to do it or if he requires the help of the higher force.

Pharaoh wants to control, and if the person agrees to the evil inclination separating him from the Creator, then he truly is in the Egyptian exile. That is, he attributes some kind of independent control to his evil inclination and says that he is not ready to resist it and is in complete servitude to it.

Of course, if a person thinks this way, it is a sign that he is a slave. But everything depends upon the person himself. He decides and determines in which form Pharaoh will use him or if he will use Pharaoh.

And all of this work was to reveal that there is no other force involved, as it is written “I, myself, and not a messenger.” A person clarifies that the Creator is above the two forces, beyond both the good inclination and the evil inclination. These two forces come from Above. Through the two forces, the good inclination and the evil inclination, that are revealed to him alternately, a person reaches the final conclusion and decision that there is a force beyond them that plays with him through these two angels: the good inclination and the evil inclination.

Sometimes one of them comes to a person and sometimes the other one, which is why one feels he is thrown from one extreme to the other, in two directions. But thus it forms a relationship both with this force and that force, and ultimately with the one higher power, the Creator.
[131546]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/02/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Overthrowing The Old Foolish King

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is wrong with our actions of bestowal that they turn out to be for ourselves?

Answer: There is nothing wrong on the part of a person but only on the part of the Creator. The Creator arranges the state for us in which we can seemingly bestow: We perform actions and think that we bestow, but then we discover that it was an egoistic action in order to receive.

But I wanted to bestow with all my heart and at the same time didn’t understand that I acted egoistically, in order to receive, so why isn’t my action considered according to my intentions? It’s done purposefully so that a person will grow. I have to be shown that my ego keeps on growing.

If I see that I did something for myself, it means that I have already ascended to an upper lever and from there I look at my previous action and determine that it was in order to receive. Determining this fact is already a sign of advancement.

The Creator keeps on raising Pharaoh in me and gives me the power to deal with him. It’s a kind of a game that ends when I make the right decision and am ready for the change that instead of Pharaoh fulfilling me, the Creator should totally fill me, leaving me no way to return to my old self.

This means that I go through 49 gates of impurity, discover that I am totally submerged in my ego, and I want its control to be replaced by the Creator’s control. We are enslaved; we are merely a desire to receive that knows only one thing: that it is being operated.

This is what we need to understand. Today, humanity must understand through suffering that we are under the domination of nature and not above nature; that is, we are operated by it. We can only choose what domination we want to be under. First, we love our desire to receive and want to be in it. We do everything for it and don’t differentiate it from us. It’s the most precious thing for us.

The problem is that I don’t differentiate it from myself. I try to separate it from me and to see myself from the side, as operated by an alien force; I climb the stairs of comprehending impurity, pass through the 49 gates of impurity. That’s the most important thing.

The Light of AB-SAG that comes from Above performs the differentiation by showing me that I am not a desire to receive. Although this desire is in me and controls my mind and heart, I want to cut myself off from it, to separate from it. Thus, I clarify that I go through 49 gates of impurity until I feel the need to replace one domination with another.

I want to be ruled but not by the egoistic domination that I was given by the Creator from birth, by the “old foolish king.” If I want to be ruled by the Creator, I have to draw Him towards me by force, to bring Him into me so that He will dominate me. Then I expect another struggle regarding the acquisition of the attributes of receiving in order to bestow.
[131529]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/14, Writings of Rabash

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The Psychological Shield Of The Ego

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why do we constantly receive blows after we work well and carry out your advice? Will this process ever come to an end?

Answer: Your complaint is identical to the complaint of the Jews in Egypt who blame Moses: “As soon as you went to Pharaoh, he began to beat us! Don’t go to him anymore; don’t harden his heart; let sleeping dogs lie!”

This is the process, hardening the our evil inclination, as it is written: “A person should always provoke the good inclination over the evil inclination.”

Question: When will it come to an end? Where are we headed?

Answer: I don’t understand why you ask such a question. We are headed towards the state in which we will not ask about the outcome of our actions because we want to reach bestowal. After you overcome this psychological barrier (Machsom), the spiritual world opens up before you.

You will cease to ask about your future, but simply will bestow as if into a void. This will be your pleasure. This inclination will open up a new space, a new dimension, for you. You cannot perceive the spiritual world with your egoistic vessels of “when, where, and how?” It’s right here, but it can be revealed to you only with an opposite inclination. You don’t have the right vessels for it.

Question: So when will the Light finally cut me off my ego?

Answer: When the work becomes the reward for you. There is a psychological barrier here, which doesn’t let you ascend above this demand and to see, to know, to acquire, to be filled with, and to perform actions without expecting any response in return but only in order to bestow. Only this inclination will open up the entrance to the spiritual world for you. But don’t try to perform actions of bestowal in order to open it.

I think that successful dissemination can be helpful. We don’t have any powers and will not have any in the future. We need another very large, broad, and strong belt of people around us who will support us.
[131526]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/01/14, Writings of Rabash

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Black Letters That Describe The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn spirituality there are no letters, there are no symbols through which one can comprehend it. Spirituality is comprehended only with vessels that we gradually construct within us. Baal HaSulam writes in Letter 14: “All the multiplication in spirituality relies on the letters that are sucked from the materiality of this world…,” meaning that from the states through which a person passes, as is written: (Isaiah 45:7) ‘…and creates darkness.’”

We are not ready to grasp the Light, we perceive it according to its absence, according to the black letters on the white background. In such a form we reach awareness of the Light from the darkness, from the troubles, from the absence of Light.

A person doesn’t have the vessels for discovering the Creator, discovering the characteristic of bestowal. He doesn’t know, doesn’t understand, and doesn’t feel this. This is found beyond him. To explain bestowal to us is like teaching a dog to be a person: to understand, to feel, and to make decisions like a person. This is simply impossible.

Everyone is born on the level of a beast, as it is said: (Job 11:12), “…from a wild donkey a man will be born.” And only the Light that is summoned by us builds the level of Adam (man) in us. So we require all kinds of “letters” that are built in us from darkness. Some kind of illumination, some kind of small revelation, reaches us and suddenly all kinds of deficiencies and problems are revealed. So over this contrast of one opposite the other, we learn about various states until they are all connected into spiritual sensations and discernments.
[131544]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Apparently I Am A Slave Of Pharaoh

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to ask to be above Pharaoh?

Answer: To be the slave of Pharaoh means to clarify with certainty, with mind and heart, that I am not ready to do anything except what the ego, the desire for pleasure, dictates to me now. That is how I discover Pharaoh,  the power that controls me now.

However, how can I know that this is Pharaoh? It is on condition that the Creator invites me to go with Him, when He says: “Come to Pharaoh.”

This means that the second power is revealed, the Creator,  the power of bestowal in contrast to the power of reception. And then I can clarify relative to every one of the forces and decide when I am under the control of the Creator and when under the control of Pharaoh. Ultimately, “the children of Israel sighed from the labor”, we are not prepared to remain in slavery to Pharaoh any longer.

99.9% of the time of my entire life, I am under the control of Pharaoh and am not ready to be freed from this control. The more that I advance, this percentage grows to just about 100%. First I didn’t think that I belonged to Pharaoh 100%; I thought that I fell into the ego rarely, like all people.

Then I felt myself in the Egyptian exile and I didn’t feel this at first. For the first seven years of plenty, I was also under the control of Pharaoh and fulfilled all of his orders, but I agreed to this and therefore everything was wonderful. I didn’t feel myself in Egypt, in slavery. I had knowledge, control (Joseph managed all of Egypt), and I was filled with plenty.

However after that it became clear that all of this wasn’t good. In reality nothing changed except my assessment. What seemed to me as good, spiritual, causing advancement, now seems completely otherwise now. I see that all of this was egoistic, not spiritual, but absolutely materialistic, and there is no advancement in it, rather the opposite. Therefore this is called the “seven years of famine.”

No change took place except in our perception. Everything is determined by a person’s attitude, but outside nothing changes.

Question: If I am completely under the control of Pharaoh, how can a request for redemption be built within me?

Answer: When I discover that this is Pharaoh, then the opportunity to ask is created. If I begin to understand that I have business with Pharaoh, this means that the second force already exists in opposition to him, the power of the Creator. Otherwise, I would not have discerned that Pharaoh is in front of me; rather, I would have lived a normal, good life, advancing in studying, in dissemination, and in the group.

Why is it suddenly bad for me? It is because I determine that this life is bad. Apparently what do I lack? Yesterday everything was still okay. Right, only today everything is no longer okay because I have new demands and I don’t agree with a life like this. Here the seven years of famine begin.

Question: What is the difference between my request to rise above Pharaoh and the state where I am found beneath him?

Answer: One of the criteria is: Who wins: the power of reception or the power of bestowal? Where do I get the reward I deserve in exchange for my efforts? No one works for nothing and I also want a profit.

My profit can be in the vessels of reception or in the vessels of bestowal: either I feel that the profit belongs to me or to someone else. And this someone could be close to me or far away and even a hated enemy. This depends upon the degree of correction of my desires of bestowal.
[131540]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Remember That You Were A Slave In Egypt

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, “What is the Blessing ‘that a miracle happened to me in this place’ in the Work”: And at the same time it says, “remember that you were a slave in Egypt.” This means that a slave is a bad thing, and still a person sometimes wants to remain a slave since the slave said, “I love my master.”

However, the matter of exile is according to the measure of suffering and pain that one feels in exile. To that extent, one can feel joy at his redemption. The sufferings one feels is the vessel that can receive the Light if he is freed from the sufferings.

The sufferings one feels should be suffering from being in exile, from his inability to perform true acts of bestowal. This is called exile and slavery

However, if a person doesn’t suffer, he may be an Egyptian or even a minister of Pharaoh. Slavery must be against one’s will. He may want to be a slave until he reaches a state where he wants to escape from slavery with all his might and all the means that he has.

We must imagine what exile and slavery mean—how, through them, I accept my nature as foreign domination that is inside me. Pharaoh enters me like a bacteria or a snake. He fills me, and doesn’t let me move or even breathe freely. If I do something, he swallows all the fruits of my work, thus turning everything to his benefit.

If I don’t distinguish between him and me, I do everything for his sake without any account or recognition. I think that I want to fill myself and not Pharaoh because I identify with him. This is called the animate level.

If I begin to consciously work for Pharaoh, it is already a real sin. It is a Klipa (shell). If I begin to hate him and to object to his domination, it is the work in exile. This is how the seven years of famine arrive in which I see that I cannot do anything, and everything turns out to be for the sake of Pharaoh. However, I don’t want it and won’t accept it! Thus, our struggle is ignited until it reaches its end.
[131522]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/14, Writings of Rabash

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To Give My Ego To Slavery

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: There are types of dissemination that require all of us to be out in front of the public. But what should be done if not everyone has the ability and talent required for that?

Answer: I only know one thing. If I want to execute an action correctly, I need to put myself into the hands of the group so that it will decide and determine what I should do. It could be that they will say, “Sit and don’t do anything since you will spoil it all.” And so that will be my participation in the dissemination.

I can be a driver, an usher, a lecturer. It doesn’t matter what I do. But it is preferred that the group decide that for me and that I don’t decide anything for myself. That means being a slave. I am in spiritual work.

And then I am released from all the doubts: I was told and I do it in the best and most completely naïve way, without entering my mind into it. My mind is only for understanding what they want me to do and to carrying it out in the best way without going into my “I,” into my initiative.

Thus, there needs to be the leadership that includes experts in dissemination who decide and determine what to do, who themselves participate in all these activities in order to be an example to everyone. And everyone needs to follow them. And those who don’t want are drilling a hole in the general boat, and we don’t need him at all in the group.

A person needs to understand that he needs to purify himself from all these forms of the ego, from the worry of it not being pleasant, from the doubts about doing this or that. If you simply cannot carry out what the group decides, then leave the group. After all, you must rise above your beast.

The group is stronger than you, and if you receive its protection, then execute and be happy that you now have the opportunity to do it. And if not, then you will stay with your ego and have no chance to advance. In this case, no need to bother the others. Go rest, we will meet in the next incarnation.
[130595]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 04.06.14

Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 40

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Workshop

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The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “Parashat,” “BeShalach

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Writings of Rabash, “Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 16   

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Writings of the Ari, “Shaar HaKavanot,” Pesach 

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