Audio Version Of The Blog – 09.04.14

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Increasing Our Sensitivity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You say that our next work is to perform exercises in increasing our sensitivity.

Answer: This is what all our work comes down to. The only thing that changes in us is our sensitivity and therefore we perceive the world around us changing. But in fact, it remains the same. This means that the direct Upper Light totally fills everything.

My Reshimot (reminiscences) are constantly changing and spinning, substituting a new Reshimo under the constant Upper Light that fills everything, and therefore a different pictures appear in me, like single frames in a movie.

Question: What should we do in order to start feeling the pain and suffering of our friends?

Answer: We will begin to feel our friends only as a result of our efforts and through this, the Upper Light will influence us.

The Light operates in two ways: On the one hand, it can influence the unprepared vessel so that our Reshimot will constantly grow, and so we see that the world is developing and developing badly, because the Reshimot are revealed as more and more shattered each time. This is because the Reshimot come in an increasingly stronger flow appearing on the background of the constant white Light. But if we want to discover these Reshimot by ourselves, since their correct fulfillment enables us to move towards the Creator and to resemble and become like the Light, we will feel our evolution as good.

There are two options to perceive the Light: a negative one, like darkness, and a positive one, like the Light. Therefore, I give an example that there is Light (Ohr) and there is Orta (night in Aramaic). It is the same thing and these two words have the same Hebrew root.
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From the Convention In Sochi 8/25/14, Lesson 2

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Expecting An Enormous Influence

Dr.Michael LaitmanQuestion: In order to correct and balance the ego, a person must feel it as evil. How must we make indifference and insensitivity toward others intolerable?

Answer: Indifference is the greatest problem. When I hate, this is good; when I love, this is very good. However, we go through 99% of our lives with feelings of indifference. People consider this normal in our current life.

What can help get me out of indifference, to awaken and hold me in this state every moment of life? It is only the environment.

You have moved through very good states of very great elevation of sensitivity, more internal, not an external request for change. This is enviable.

If all of our groups were like this, then certainly the general situation would become much better. It will be possible to attain this in the next convention by trying to prepare and transmit to everyone the feelings and sensations that you have experienced, are experiencing, and will again try to experience within you. It is possible.

If you connected the state that you experienced with the 300 friends who were in Sochi, and you multiply it by five, with the same mass that will be in the convention in Saint Petersburg, and after that, 500 times, then even much more, with the mass that will disperse throughout the world, we can achieve a lot.

This is one of the most useful examples because you will multiply the sensations, the demands, the aspirations to each other,  the neutralization of the ego, and the desire to be a single whole by that quantity of people with the help of envy, through showing them how this is working within you, and not in them. So, the multiplication of your yearning will happen together with their yearning, and this will produce an immense influence and impression.
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From the Convention In Sochi 8/25/14, lesson 2

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At The Balance Point Between Two Forces

Dr. Michael LaitmanInitially there is only one force in nature that created, manages, and determines everything. It is neither positive nor negative. It is simply an attribute.

We can feel this force only by its opposite aspects because we don’t feel anything in the form of one phenomenon, one value. The term “value” means that it includes two parameters: the base and the dimension, one (what it is and what it wants).

Our feelings are always made of two opposite attributes that are based on different contrasts: black and white, silence and noise, etc. This means that as created beings we feel ourselves only if there are two opposite forces in us.

The Creator is one unique force that wants to create us and to bring us to the upper state, but in order to exist and to be able to reach every state we have to be made of three forces:

  • The negative force which differentiates us from the Creator; the ego without which there cannot be a created being.
  • The positive force that can balance our ego.
  • The middle force that is created and revealed between them as a result of the right balance between the two forces, i.e., the best use of the ego in its correct form, in the form of bestowal and love. This is the result because the third line, the middle line, is man.

In order to balance the ego that we receive from the Creator, we have to assess it as evil and understand that it was given to us from above and to balance it in order to make something that resembles the Creator from it. Thus, all our work comes down to a request, to a demand, in an action that draws the positive force that can balance the negative force.

We have to assess the ego as a negative force that is inside us, and the attribute of love and bestowal, altruism, as the positive force that is external to us. It is the Creator’s attribute and therefore sustains all of creation. We should want to balance these two forces inside us by using the ego in its balanced state with the right line as much as we can.

All this can be fulfilled only under the influence of the right example that the environment sets for us because a person will never feel the desire to work against his own nature, against his ego. He will always avoid it and will find any means so as not to annul his ego.

Balancing the ego by bestowal means using it in a zero state only to exist in a minimal form or restricting the use of the ego and then allowing it to be used correctly by balancing it with the right line. But all this is only to the extent that a person can work with the environment.

This whole world (the still, vegetative, animate nature, and man), a condition we feel we are in, is given to us so that we can use the environment correctly and want to acquire the positive force that balances the negative force.

Therefore, the whole world is the revelation of the ego on the white background of the Light, and the ego should gradually bring us to a state in which we will begin to feel that this state is unbearable. Or it will develop under the influence of the growing ego and bring about sufferings that will force us to look for a way to cope with the ego.

We should develop the correct positive force inside us and by it feel even the smallest ego inside us as bad. That will be enough for us to want to balance, neutralize, and use it correctly.

But in any case, the natural course of our evolution, which is constant and which cannot be changed or affected in any way, means that the ego is constantly growing in us and in the still, vegetative, and animate nature but to a lesser degree. The only thing we can do is to feel that the ego is bad as soon as possible and thus draw the Light that balances and corrects it.
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From the Convention In Sochi 8/25/14, Lesson 2

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The War With A Faceless Enemy

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The recent war [in Israel] has left people with the feeling that we as if lost control of the situation and the ability to live a normal life in our country. We are used to the constant feeling of anxiety, uncertainty, waiting for sirens, and the inability to sleep at night.

The war seemingly ended, but we feel that we have not achieved peace, security, and the resolution of this conflict. An agreement has been signed, but no one believes in it. We have already witnessed seven ceasefire agreements that had were violated. Where is the guarantee that this will be observed?

External pressure is growing, and Israel finds itself in international isolation. This war has brought great damage to Israel’s economy and produced a wave of layoffs. There is a feeling of insecurity undermining our foundations: the army, the government. What is happening to us and what can we do in this situation?

Answer: I really empathize with this general feeling of fear, anxiety, frustration, bitterness, and helplessness, and at the same time I am filled with hope and confidence, which did not exist before.

It seems to me that this time our people finally feel all the instability of our position and will be able to wake up to the correct requirement of security and stability, which was not cared for and was even neglected before.

I remember the Six-Day War awakened such strong emotions  in me as if I were born again. I felt like a Jew, with my own country, which now correctly was correctly establishing itself, moving ahead and building itself in a new way. From that moment I began to make every effort to get out of the former Soviet Union and move to Israel. For seven years, from 1966 to 1974, I was refused and fought for the opportunity to repatriate.

There was a feeling that Israel was moving in the right direction. But when I came to Israel, I felt that the people were in some kind of euphoria after the Six-Day War. There was a feeling that we were stronger and did not care about the rest of the world. We were like a self-confident child who does not understand his own boundaries, his strengths, and duties.

This victory produced a negative effect on our people, filling them with so much pride that it went beyond the limits of necessary national pride. We lost a sense of moderation and went out of balance, neglecting all the boundaries, which we had to establish for ourselves. We had to educate our people and to organize the life within the country and outside it in the correct way. But instead of all this, there was just a feeling of disregard, pride and confidence in our heroism.

After the Yom Kippur War, it was not noticeable that the nation had received some correction. I think Golda Meir, who was the head of the government at that time, hoped that there would be a serious internal analysis made, a reconsideration of their attitude, and would reach some sort of equilibrium between the warring parties. But this did not happen. The people were as if deaf.

All the subsequent military operations left the same footprint—the Lebanon war, terrorist attacks, bombings in buses—it was an exhausting war with terrorists. The Gulf War was added to this, when we could do nothing with Saddam’s missiles that were launched at us. We had plenty of opportunities for internal analysis, but we did not use them.

Only now, in the last war, is the first time we have felt that we are against an enemy that cannot be defeated by conventional means. There is no one to sign a peace agreement with because it is not a state, but simply a gang of terrorists with whom nothing can be done.

It is possible to fight with a country, to go into battle, to come to some kind of result, then sign an agreement and leave it at that. We would have known that these agreements would be executed at least to some extent and would keep us in some framework.

But here there is no body with whom to sign an agreement. Of course, the agreements that we sign now are worth nothing. Once the terrorists have an opportunity, they will immediately attack us, not even recalling the paper on which their names are signed.

In addition, we do not sign an agreement with them because we do not recognize this right for Hamas. And they do not recognize our right for existence. The war against terrorists is a war with a faceless enemy. They can promise you anything today and tomorrow do whatever they want.

Therefore, we certainly will not achieve any peace agreements. The cease-fire can last for months or years or may end tomorrow. Everyone is aware of this: both us and them. We were under pressure from the United Nations, the United States, and Europe, but they understand that these agreements are worthless because they have the same problem with these terrorists.

Therefore, they want agreements signed with them at our expense that will allow Europe and America to exist peacefully. They throw Israel like a bone to the dog. We need to try not to turn into such a bone because we are dependent on Europe and the United States, so we are in a difficult situation.

But all these conditions awaken a lot of hope in me that the people of Israel will eventually begin to figure out what the solution is, what we depend on, what power can help us, and where it is. And then we will rebuild our lives in a new way.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 8/27/14

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The Essential Secret Of The Jews, Part 38

From the book: The Essential Secret of the Jews, M. Brushtein

The Postulates Of The Theory of Integrality

Development began with the Big Bang.

Development is in connection.  

Development trends are in a growing complexity of connections.

The program of development  “pushes” towards connection with “the right addressee.”

The purpose of development program is to connect absolute opposites.
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Correct The Error To Reduce The Suffering

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe exist in a field of thought. When this field operates in one direction while I operate in another direction, the difference between the pathways, my error and its degree, are perceived as the degree of my suffering.

To-Correct-the-Error-Is-to-Decrease-Suffering

The bigger the error, the bigger the suffering. Everything depends on how opposite the direction of my desires are to the program of creation.

How do I test myself in relation to the program of creation? I have the group for this. When I cancel myself in relation to the group, in other words, when I bring my desire closer to the program of creation, I begin to move according to this program and then I feel good, suffering cannot affect me because the source of all the suffering is our lack of correspondence to the program of creation.
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The Circle Of Good In Nature

Dr. Michael LaitmanYou do not believe that it is possible to realize the correct formula of existence on the scale of mankind, so we realize it as an example in the group. And then we discover that there is a force of nature that we can use.

We exist as a small group in big the large nature, and we make ourselves similar to nature.

That is we are no longer clashing with it with a delta of lack of correspondence, and everything that exists in nature enters us in harmony and a good way. We feel its positive influence and good results.

The-Circle-of-Good-in-Nature_0

The force of nature will begin to bring us closer to it through this good influence, and we will keep attaining a greater similarity to it.

And again it will increase its positive influence over us and we will keep becoming closer and closer to it. So we move towards one another!

And you do not have to refer to nature as the Creator, even though it is the same thing! The word does not change anything; people simply associate it with a religious stereotype.

It is the natural law of similarity of properties and the law of love, of connection in an integrated system. We did not come up with them! We are simply returning to our place in the system of nature as its inseparable part that is connected with everyone.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/10, “Matan Torah” (The Giving of the Torah)

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The Formula of Optimum Advancement

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Zohar is the strongest spiritual force source from which we can draw Light, strength, anything man desires. But it is necessary to understand that we receive everything according to our desire.

When I desire to reach the purpose of creation and I direct myself straight at it, I receive from it one hundred percent help and strength.

But when I move in a different direction, the Light must influence me, my desire to receive pleasure, to the extent of my deviation in order to overpower it and return me to the proper path.

I perceive the difference between being precisely directed towards the goal and deviating from it as suffering. This suffering forces me to return.

This is like when a small child whose hand I am holding wants to pull me somewhere aside and I hold him and pull him back, so he pulls me in another direction, and I pull him back again.

It is the same with us. When we deviate from the path, the Light returns us by force. But we feel this force acting in opposition to our desire, we feel it as evil: illnesses, problems, suffering, wars, and death.

This is why, if we want to advance in the good way, like good children, so we will not suffer any more, we need to ask: How do we obey and advance down the correct path, straight, and without mistakes?

Baal HaSulam writes that there is a simple formula: “Israel (those who aspire towards the Creator: Yashar – straight and El – Creator), Torah (which comes from the words “Ohr” – Light and “Ora’a” – instruction) and the Creator are one.”

I am Israel. Torah is the Light that will influence me, advancing me down the good and the straight path. The Creator is bestowal.

 The-Formula-of-Optimum-Advancement

How do I arrange to advance according to this formula? In “Freedom of Will,” Baal HaSulam explains that this can only be done with the help of the group.

When I connect the attainment of the goal with the group, in the group, I become part of it and I desire to reveal the Creator in the connection between us. I am definitely advancing in the right direction when I do this.

For this reason, when we read The Zohar, wishing to attract its Light towards us, we need to concern ourselves as much as possible with this Light becoming properly manifested.

This is because Torah can be both the elixir of life and deadly poison. And it can happen that we will go in a completely different direction, and then it is written: “Preferably, sit and do nothing.”

This is why we should arm ourselves with the correct intention and remember that we are all reading The Zohar so the Light will bring us unity.

And it does not matter what we read, how much of it we understand, whether we hear and understand the language. The intention is what matters.

This is because the “amazing” force (Segula) of The Zohar only affects man in accordance with his desire. For this reason once we want to connect, the Creator will become revealed in this connection.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/10, The Zohar

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 09.04.14

Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Workshop

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Rabash Dargot HaSulam,” Article 31

[media 5] [media 6]

The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “The Second Commandment,” Item 202

[media 7] [media 8]

Writings of Rabash, “Shlavei HaSulam,” “Love of Friends”

[media 9] [media 10]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose” Title: “Conscious Development and Unconscious Development”

[media 11] [media 12]