Question: In the wisdom of connection there is an exercise called, “Mirror.” Each one sees his own defects in a partner. Suppose that parents have trained in this and now want to include their child in the shared field. With this they see some shortcoming in him; they understand that this is their own shortcoming. Do partners need to work on this?

Answer: Before they include a child in exercises of this type, it’s necessary to explain the psychology of a person to him. For example, let him read a book in which they describe the psychological training that makes it possible to understand who he is and how he perceives the world.

You don’t even teach the child, rather simply want him to understand how limited people are,how much they don’t see and don’t feel their environment, how much they deceive themselves. You explain to a child that by being familiar with himself, he will better understand the surrounding world, society, and his friends; it will be easier for him to connect with them.

This means that first of all it’s necessary to bribe the ego. Just as they give a sugar cube to a circus bear and he performs a task, so also here, you always need to think about some kind of “candy” you will give a child so that he will be interested. With such difficult exercises, children need to be involved children gradually. Certainly it’s difficult for them to overcome their original ego, but then they are drawn into it.

We must be very careful so that the child will not go far in his thoughts and imagination and won’t start imagining that the world is completely reversed, like in a mirror, in that he thinks that you are his reflection. This is because the psychology of children is not yet stabilized, and sometimes this can be damaging and painful.

Therefore here it is necessary to behave according to the inclinations of the child. There are technical people who have great difficulty in understanding this because they basically have a mechanical perception of the world. And there are those, who have an affinity for quantum illusions and uncertainty. So it’s necessary to take into account all the aspects of the child’s character.
[131611]
From Kab TV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 12/11/13

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Question: Suppose that a lazy child grew up in our family. What does this indicate about the parents? What is the shortcoming or defect?

Answer: First of all, this indicates that the child has no motivation to move. He has no greatness of a goal that would make it worthwhile for him to get up, detach from his favorite computer he is sucked to, and to begin to get involved with something else.

Question: So is this is a shortcoming of the parent who didn’t develop other areas of interest in him?

Answer: Perhaps it is a mistake of the parents, and it could be that life itself doesn’t obligate the child to be involved in something else. Everything comes to him easily, both in school and at home.

In a case like this, it is necessary to behave according to a peg pulls another peg. So if he is lazy, you shouldn’t to force hobbies or other activities on him that compel him to run or do something with his hands; rather, give him to opportunity to progress specifically along his own route. He will sit behind that computer or with that tablet, but he will do something creative. Therefore it is said: (Proverbs 22:6), “Train a child according to his way.”

Incidentally, laziness is inherent in every person from the start. But there are people whose inner psychology is directed towards attaining everything without investing physical energy. From the side it seems to us that he is lazy, but essentially he is simply trying to solve his problems this way.

I don’t see anything bad in this. If people were to do fewer activities that are useless, it would be much better. Basically they carry out useless and even harmful work. So laziness is a very useful characteristic. It is only necessary to direct it in the right way.
[131609]
From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 12/11/13

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The Torah, “Exodus” (Pekudei), 40:33: He setup the courtyard all around the Mishkan and the altar, and he put up the screen at the entrance to the courtyard, and Moses completed the work.

The building of the general vessel in which the Creator can be revealed has ended. A person’s preparation for the attainment of the Creator has ended.

Now, we are required to perform special, inner work for the creation of such conditions in which the upper force will be revealed in a person’s seemingly corporeal attributes.

The Torah, “Exodus” (Pekudei), 40:34-40:38: And the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the Mishkan. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the Mishkan. When the cloud rose up over the Mishkan, the children of Israel went out in all their journeys. But if the cloud did not rise up, they did not set out until the day that it rose. For the cloud of the Lord was upon the Mishkan by day, and there was fire within it at night, before the eyes of the entire house of Israel in all their journeys.

If we examine what the Torah says through images in our world, we can cross the Sinai desert in two weeks. However, the Israeli nation wandered in the desert and actually camped there for 40 years. So, this is how the preparation of the place for the revelation of the Creator is described allegorically. If we have a desire to reveal the Creator, He is revealed but not in a clear, external manner.

The point is that there are different levels and grades on the part of our desires, of coming closer to the state of love and bestowal in the connection between us. Although some of our desires have attained the level of Moses, the other desires do not adhere to this state. Therefore, the revelation of the Creator is vague at the moment.

The cloud and the smoke are signs of the right and the left lines. Fire is revelation and a cloud is concealment.

This refers to the initial states of our spiritual development, leading to a complete connection. There is already a vessel (a corrected desire) formed in a person, and he knows that when he continues to work, he will discover the upper force in this vessel. It is a very serious stage in our spiritual formation.
[131601]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/16/13

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 16-1

Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 16-2

Workshop

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

Writings of the Ari, “Shaar HaKavanot,” Pesach 

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Opinion (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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As 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 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/02/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: 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 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/14, Writings of Rabash

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Question: 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 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/01/14, Writings of Rabash

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In 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 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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