Audio Version Of The Blog – 04.23.14

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Half Of US Universities Will Disappear

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Bloomberg): “Dowling College, which got a failing grade for its financial resources from accreditors last month, epitomizes the growing plight of many small private colleges that depend almost entirely on tuition for revenue. It’s been five years since the recession ended and yet their finances are worsening. Soaring student debt, competition from online programs and poor job prospects for graduates are shrinking their applicant pools.

“Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen has predicted that as many as half of the more than 4,000 universities and colleges in the U.S. may fail in the next 15 years. The growing acceptance of online learning means higher education is ripe for technological upheaval, he has said.”

My Comment: Schools and universities will be replaced with a new education system that will bring a person into an integral society, whose main task will be to work on creating an increasingly unified humanity.
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You Could If You’re Lucky

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can a student who comes to the convention cross the Machsom?

Answer: We must believe that it could happen at any moment. This is called the coming of the Messiah: the Light will come and take us from below upwards. But I cannot promise anyone that this will specifically happen at this convention.

Although everything is possible; we are in our world under the complete control of the Upper Light; anything can happen. When his time comes depends upon the root of a person’s soul.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/14, Writings of Rabash

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The Best Time To Escape

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, “The Need for an Action Below”: Thus in the exile in Egypt when Pharaoh bestowed his pleasures upon them, they were enslaved to Pharaoh and could not leave the exile. But when they performed an action, which means that they awoke to come out of exile since this action is considered a matter of free will, then the Creator broke his powers from Above, which means that He took the pleasures by which he enslaved the people of Israel. And when he had nothing to give, it means that the Creator broke his power and burned him in the river of DiNur (Light), which means that He removed all his powers to influence.

This is actually what happened to us after the Zohar convention. During the convention we received a payment and everything was fine. Many people came together and there was a great awakening and we enjoyed and felt pleasure in all our vessels. Then Pharaoh stopped paying us and our ego felt that it was empty.

That is the best time to escape, but instead we fall and lay down motionless. Time after time the desire to receive gives us a little pleasure and then takes everything away and we wither.  But gradually we begin to understand that we cannot depend on it anymore.

It is all a result of the influence of the Upper Light and not the result of our accumulative experience or time. The point here is that it isn’t a matter of time, but of an illumination from Above that operates on us and brings us to a new state. The Light shines and changes the vessel.

If we understand what we are doing as we remain without a payment of pleasure and agree to leave the state and to rise above it, we are ready to bless the state in which we don’t get any benefit, and we don’t depend on Pharaoh, on our ego. Thus we can leave him, break away a little, and draw away from him.

It is actually when you don’t get any pleasure that you should begin to pray, to ask, or bestow if you can. The group should impress you in these states. This is the best time to make an effort.

We mustn’t escape in a time of descent, as we usually do. A descent is an opportunity we are given by Pharaoh in order to escape from him. During this time he doesn’t hold us by his power, and doesn’t bribe us with pleasures. We have to be ready for such states, not sitting at home and watching our lives go by, but rather making efforts and exerting ourselves.

Where can we find the powers to do this? It is actually during the convention when we feel good that we have to get ready for the time when we will surely feel bad and when there will be no payment. This is called a treaty, a mutual guarantee.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/14, Writings of Rabash

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The First Acquaintance With Parts Of My Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If I come to the convention and I don’t know anyone there, will this help me in spiritual advancement?

Answer: You don’t have to know anyone. What will you recognize there: faces, the physical character of the person? None of that matters. What is important to me is that these people have an attraction and inclination towards developing their souls, and that is why they are coming. We will be involved with this development there.

I don’t think that it is necessary to be familiar with these people. It is even better not to be familiar with anyone so as not to pay attention to physical bodies. We need to rise above the bodies and above all materiality and concentrate only on desires for spirituality.
[133081]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/14, Writings of Rabash

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An Encounter That Can Be Life-Changing

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestions about the One for All and All for One Convention in Paris: 

Question: Can an encounter with a Kabbalist change my life?

Answer: What can change your life is an encounter with the entire group that is gathered at a convention and your connection with it. I don’t want to promise you miracles. The wisdom of Kabbalah is a science that teaches a person how to change himself to be like the Creator.

This is something very serious and not simple. If you want to be involved with this, come to the convention, and if you don’t want it, there is no coercion in spirituality.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/14, Writings of Rabash

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The Bottom Dollar

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The exodus from Egypt seems like a great miracle, how do we qualify for exiting Egypt?

Answer: There are several conditions for what we call a miracle. First I cannot predict it, I can only prepare myself for it, but I don’t know when I am fully prepared. It can happen at any moment.

Second, I operate a mechanism that is above nature since I transcend my current nature, this corporeal level, to the spiritual level, which is called birth into the upper world.

I suddenly draw Light into my egoistic desire that influences me and provides me with the attribute of bestowal. These events do not seem to stem from a cause and effect relationship: the next state doesn’t stem directly from the previous state.

One moment I am on the animate level and suddenly I rise to the human level, and the Light of Ruach, to which I had no connection before, enters me. This is how the level of the vegetative also stems from the still, animate from vegetative nature, and now the human level from the animate level.

Every time some higher essence from Above is added and penetrates the matter despite the lack of any preparation for it in the matter itself. No matter how I try to turn my egoistic desire to enjoy, I will not manage to turn it into a desire to bestow.

I can increase my state of Lo Lishma (not for its sake) to a huge dimension, but inside there will always be a certain degree of an intention for myself. I can reach faith above reason that will cover the missing 999 dollars in the envelope that my friend gives me as a repayment of a 1000 dollar debt and instead of the one dollar that is actually inside, I will see the complete 1000 dollars.

But still, this last dollar remains and ties me to my desire to enjoy. I cannot break this connection. And suddenly Light is poured from Above, breaks this connection, and then provides me with its nature. It’s a miracle that is above ordinary nature.

The Light that shines during the exodus from Egypt is the Light of spiritual birth, GAR of Hochma, although it’s perceived as the greatest darkness. This action is carried out from Above. In the process of corporeal birth it isn’t so obvious: There is a baby inside a mother and he comes out, but we should understand that birth is the transition from one nature to another.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/14, The Zohar

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A Spiritual Hunger

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: This entire process through which the person passes from the moment that the Creator awakens the point in the heart in him and brings him to a group is like a miracle, a stroke of luck. How can a person consciously participate in this process?

Answer: Luck is needed all the time; a miracle is happening all the time. These are all miracles. A person must yearn for this miracle to happen to him, that the Creator will help him in each and every state.

The deficiency, the yearning, the craving, for help from Above must be in us all the time, like a gnawing hunger, like an inner emptiness. That should be our desire for the Creator at each and every moment.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/16/14, Writings of Rabash

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125 Malicious Grins Of Pharaoh

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How does a person feel the blows of Pharaoh?

Answer: Pharaoh has all possible means to beat us. The whole evil inclination that was revealed at the time of the sin of the tree of knowledge is Pharaoh.

If the Light hadn’t entered the desire to receive during the shattering, there wouldn’t have been an evil inclination but simply a desire just like that of all of the still, vegetative, and animate nature. The evil inclination revealed after the shattering when the Light touched the desire and as a result all the spiritual force entered the desire to receive.

Before the desire was simply on the level of the animate and now it suddenly jumps to the human level, which is similar to the Light. Pharaoh is opposite the Creator in the desire to receive in order to receive. Pharaoh is built by the Light that entered the desire during the shattering.

Now, so we will awaken, Pharaoh cuts layer by layer from the 125 levels and each time shows us forms that are opposite from the Creator. Then we need the Creator, the Light that Reforms.

Pharaoh presents a form that is opposite of the Creator. In order to turn it from anti-Creator to the Creator we have to ask for help, and this is our work. This is why the experience of the exile and the work for Pharaoh is so important for us.

The first thing that Jacob does when he goes down to Egypt is to bless Pharaoh. We need Pharaoh because without him we will not be able to discover our shattered forms.

Question: So why do we need to yearn for the Creator and not for Pharaoh?

Answer: To the extent that we yearn for the Creator, which means through the group, through mutual support and mutual guarantee, we prepare the ground for our correction and to that extent Pharaoh presents an uncorrected part to us each time so that we can correct it. We don’t need to yearn for Pharaoh. The moment we organize all the support: the group, the guide, and the Creator, the corrupt form of Pharaoh is immediately revealed.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/16/14, Writings of Rabash

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In Nature And In The City

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: My child is influenced by the environment: classmates, outside, friends, Facebook, and so on influence my child. And I have no way of protecting him from the negative influence of these environments.

There remains only one way out: organizing a reference group. This is a group of children whose opinion is important to my child, and they can direct him back on track. How many people should be in this group?

Answer: Preferably 10-15 children, otherwise the group is not felt. A group is what surrounds me, and the environment is something greater than that quantity that I can count on my fingers. Meaning, it is something more powerful.

Usually we find ourselves in a group of ten people, and in a group of five people we feel most comfortable, it is pleasant not only to talk to each other, but also to just sit quietly. But such a group is good when there is a certain closed intimate atmosphere, suppose in a pub around a separate table or in a big collective that is divided into many groups.

If we will take children out in nature, it is better in a big group so that an atmosphere of surroundings will be felt. Otherwise, a child will feel lonely, because he has gotten used to being enclosed in a big city, and it isn’t this way in nature.

Therefore, to fill some imperfections, the lack of the sense of security, that they have in a city (people, homes, adults, police, etc.), there must be a company with more people.

A modern child is quite remote from nature and in order for him to feel comfortable outside the city he needs surroundings that will arrange some type of life: a campfire, food, music, someone fishing, someone gathering firewood, etc.

Besides that, as the mass of the collective is greater (to a certain limit), the more strongly it internally, psychologically, and subconsciously influences each one. Therefore, it is preferable that not less than ten to twenty people will go on an excursion outside the city.

A group that works successfully within can include hundreds. For example, when our central group goes out to nature, then several hundreds of people gather, including adults and children. Along with that, no external pressure is felt, on the contrary, clear mutual cooperation and the feeling of security and comfort is felt, precisely thanks to the amount of people.
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From Kab TV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 12/12/13

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