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How To Discover The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanHow can we discover the Creator? Essentially, this is the purpose of the creation of the worlds and all of humanity, and all of our long history in which we don’t understand where we have come from and where we are going and what is happening to us every minute.

That is how we develop: without understanding and knowing the reason for any event. However, at some time, we will reach a point of development when we can begin to discover the reason and the essence of everything that is happening with us. Through the reality that is revealed before us, we can discover who activates it.

In other words, I exist in a world. This means that I feel myself as existing in a body. I have feelings and intelligence, and, with them, I feel my existence. Likewise with them I perceive the reality in which I am found. This reality exists and changes. It follows that I and the environment exist. The environment includes within it only everything that I can perceive with my senses.

The Kabbalists say that there is a comprehensive general force that stands behind all of this reality inside and out, a force that penetrates everywhere and carries out activities both outside of me and within me.

If so, then, first of all, I must detect some kind of basic point from which I will determine what changes on the outside and what changes on the inside, and, from this point, I will begin to identify these changes. This inner point is my “self,” and within it there is only one characteristic of perception: “I am the one who is feeling.”

Now, I have been given a permanent, endless exercise for the duration of my entire life: how through all that changes within me—in my sensations and in my intellect, how within my internal changes—I perceive external changes, how through all that happens within me and outside of me do I discover the hidden force, the hidden and imperceptible desire that carries out all of these actions, all of these changes.

This force constantly holds me in some kind of state, changes these states, and constantly replaces the surrounding conditions. If I am sensitive and aware—trying to maintain my ability to examine and scrutinize, discern and locate this force—then, gradually, I will be able to identify it through everything that happens inside and outside of me. From this, I will begin to understand and feel Him so much that I will not relate to my inner and outer changes, but will see the cause, the force that carries out, and realizes these actions.

I will know why He does this, the purpose, what He wants from this, how He teaches me all the time to feel, to understand, and to discover more, to such a degree that I will discard all of the externals, meaning myself and the environment, and I will see that I (this inner point from which I constantly have tried to discover this force) and this force adhere together.

There is no external reality, not my body, my emotions, nor intellect. There is no environment with its whole mess. There is no world filled with human beings. All of this disappears, and only the link between me and this force remains. All that happened between us was only to develop a direct connection between us, such a connection that is called “adhesion.”

This is our work, and to carry it out we must go out to the wider public, connect with the group, study, and participate in all kinds of events. All of this is ultimately to bring myself to such spiritual work in which we constantly try to discover this inner force that surrounds and determines everything.
[141454]
From the Convention In New Jersey “Day Two” 8/9/14, Lesson 4

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In A Cloud Managed By The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why does it always seem to me that there is still time and that it is possible to wait until tomorrow? Why don’t I dive into the study and dissemination, but find new excuses with which I deceive myself and others?

Answer: This is because you need to correct yourself, specifically thanks to these “whys.” The Creator gives us such questions and exercises like we give a little child in school. We must understand that they are required for our development, and we must try to respond to them correctly.

Generally, at the end of every exercise book, there are answers for the questions. However, for us, every question is given one general answer that includes within it an endless number of terms: “There is none else beside Him.”

In a group, there must be a sensation that we always are in a cloud managed by the Creator, and we must live in one basket mutually within this cloud, moving toward full awareness and management, and, simultaneously, nullify not ourselves, but our ego.

This means that I must manage, influence, understand, and work, but not within my ego, but rather within a state that I now must acquire, own, and master. This is an absolutely new state, and I must enter it.

A cloud into which it is necessary to dissolve my ego and in which I must begin to feel myself as active, as understanding, must envelop all of us. This is called “work in a group.”

This shared feeling must hold us within it, and we need to nurture, develop, and take care of it. This, at least partially, amounts to support by the friends. The group exists on this platform.
[141355]
From the Convention In Toronto “Day One” 8/4/14, Meal

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The Essential Secret Of The Jews, Part 50

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

The Postulates Of The Theory of Integrality

In the integral world we feel not only the still, vegetative and animate levels of nature, but the connections between them.

There is nothing neither unnecessary nor harmful in nature.

The only harmful element is an incorrect connection.

A microbe in a certain sense is “wiser” than a human being, since it is able to accurately execute Nature’s commands.

Communication is the foundation of life.
[143379]

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Preparation Time Is Over–It’s Time To Act!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we understand, know, and feel the effort that we must make in order to connect?

Answer: We see what is happening in the world, and to some extent, we begin to feel that everything leads us forward and that there is one force leading us to one, unique goal.

How can we make an effort in order to ascend above all the strange thoughts that confuse us? We must understand that it all comes to us on purpose from the Creator. On one hand, He draws us to Him, and, on the other hand, He confuses us and keeps us away from Him so that we will be able to develop the right attitude towards Him and towards our nature so that we will connect to Him.

It is actually by our opposite nature from the Creator and by the confusion and lowliness of our level that we can clarify, discover, and reach adhesion with Him.

It isn’t easy, but we must clarify this process because this is how we grow. At the same time, we must be ready for even greater external problems that the Creator will present to us as we advance so that it will be increasingly more difficult to clarify our inner problems. As it is written, “He who is greater than his friend, his desire is greater.”

The Creator created such inner conditions for us in which we fall into our ego because of the most trivial things that a beginner wouldn’t fall into, but a great person does fall into them since, for him, it is a great problem.

For example, it makes no great difference if a manual worker who works with a heavy hammer digresses one millimeter in the wrong direction, but, for a brain surgeon, any slight digression may cost the patient’s life. Therefore, if we don’t go through the descents ourselves, we will not know all the subtleties since it is only by our progress that we become aware of them.

The Creator wants us to get close to Him, so we need support. We mustn’t forget that our progress is not in studying the material more deeply, but in the internal connection between us. If the connection between us is right, we will feel the filling of the inner force called Light, or the Creator, the Bore inside us, which means come and see. How do we do that?

I see that it is different on every continent. Israel is characterized by special problems, and, here, the Creator leads us in a cruel and serious manner, but, still, the Bnei Baruch group lacks the power to connect. If we speak about Israelis in general, they still think that missiles falling on their heads is normal and that it will all go away.

Along with the afflictions, people become numb and don’t understand what is going on. This is like a child who is beaten and becomes increasingly more stubborn as a result. The more he is beaten, the more stubborn he becomes, and nothing can be done.

Therefore, working with Israelis is not at all easy. Thousands of people go out to disseminate every evening, organizing discussion circles, giving out brochures, and doing their best to influence the public. These are the conditions that the Creator has arranged for us.

In South America, the groups are very successful, sensitive, and knowledgeable. There are groups who find it hard to go out to disseminate, but they get along well with one another. There are groups, on the contrary, that go out and disseminate our materials. I was in Columbia, Chile, and Mexico, and every group is unique. I believe that the goal should be that all of South America should connect because of their common language.The Creator has given them a very serious condition, and they must ascend above the different regions and not play the game of separation anymore, “We are here and you are there,” but rather establish one serious Latin American department, which means to direct all their efforts to establishing one whole.

The Mexico group had a very powerful convention of connection and understanding. People already have grown and they are well trained and organized. The problem is that spirituality is above the ego, and only if we connect above the ego, restrict it and build a Masach (screen) will we be able to feel the upper world, the feeling of the soul.

This is very serious work. During my trip, I was convinced that the preparation period is totally over. There are no people in Israel, Canada, and South America who know more or less than others, or people who don’t know the material as others do. We really have reached a certain common basis, and now we must work only on our connection, which is the most important thing. The preparation period is over. Now, we must work.

In Israel, the work on our connection is in a worse state since it must go through all 125 levels until we reach complete connection.

The question is how we can actually do that. I believe that we will not be able to control this from inside the Bnei Baruch Center since, despite the mentality that has very little effect on the fulfillment in spirituality and all the practical recommendations which are identical for everyone, the conditions do matter, and we must work together in any case. It is because it is the same rule for everyone, and the way you fulfill it is up to you.
[141262]
From Meal 1 of the Convention In Toronto “Day One” 8/4/14

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Choose What’s Best, Choose Life!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The Creator gives us a choice and says: “Choose what’s best, choose life.” What is our choice?

Answer: We have to understand what is best for us. There are only two options we can choose from: either for myself or for the sake of others through the Creator.

“Choose life!” Life refers to spiritual life and to the existence in the attribute of bestowal.

This is what we are advancing to through a lengthy search, coming across small lowly matters until we go through all our ego to its very bottom, until we reach the lowest, most contemptible states, until we are actually immersed in self-mire and do not cease to be ashamed of it. It is because the Creator doesn’t lead us to justify ourselves but that we will justify Him by recognizing the opposite attribute that He has, the soul.

Choosing life means that in contrast to all the attributes, phenomena, and negative events, we will be able to recognize the Creator’s oneness and wholeness, His uniqueness, and will be connected to Him both on the good side and on the evil side by understanding that everything stems only from Him.

This means that the adhesion to Him is above pain or pleasure and we should feel that it makes no difference at all if we get joy from Him or not. The main thing is that it stems from Him. Our goal is to ascend above the ego in adhesion with the Creator.

We mustn’t fear that. The group has to support each other by understanding every friend, no matter what happens to him, no matter what ascents or descents he has, no matter what happens with each of us. All this is necessary only so that we will exit our ordinary egoistic corporeal system of events and value not the person but the Creator’s actions that are displayed by the friend.

Although not everyone fully understands this yet, we are already close to a state that we can go through this. Our getting closer is possible because now the gathering of our mutual feelings and mutual understandings are taking place in us since the Creator is doing that with us. Thus, we can begin to feel everyone as one single huge whole, the soul , which actually reconstructs and fulfills itself this way.
[141314]
From the Convention In Toronto “Day One” 8/4/14, Meal 1

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A Key Stage In Dissemination

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe are obliged to approach this whole subject from the thought and purpose of creation, from the perspective of the general, the whole picture. We cannot understand and know even a single part if we are not familiar with its place within the whole. Since all of reality is one system, there is no part that is not determined by the whole.

In general, all of creation, the entire desire to receive, defined as Malchut of the world of Infinity, must reach correction, equivalence of form with the Light of Infinity, meaning that it must increase itself 620 times through 125 levels. Accordingly, if we consider our world, it will be clear to us that all of the creatures that we see must reach the end of correction. We are talking about all of humanity, even if a few billion more people are added to the Earth’s population.

On the other hand, the still, vegetative, and animate nature are in adhesion with the Creator, for the instinctive force of nature that manages them is latent in them, without asking them at all.

In principle, free choice and the possibility of acting according to their desire without being connected directly with the Creator is given only to humans. This means that the opportunity is given to people to change themselves a little.

We still need to examine precisely how this ability is expressed in someone who yearns to be like the Creator. People like these are called “Israel,” which means straight to the Creator, “Yashar El.” And someone who doesn’t yearn for this is said to be part of the “nations of the world.” But ultimately, both they and the others must reach full equivalence of form with the Creator through cooperation between them.

In the course of development in our world, there are people, more precisely, desires, with such a yearning that has been prepared from birth. People like these (Israel) receive a push (a call) to discover the Creator, to approach Him, and reach adhesion with Him. They must do this first and the others will come after them; for ultimately everyone will reach their own final correction regarding the Creator.

The difference in the means for attaining the Creator is also derived from this. In general, the means is called the wisdom of Kabbalah. But Israel and the nations of the world use it and realize it differently. The time allotted for the entire process is 6000 years, during which, without a doubt, all of the creatures must reach adhesion with the Creator.

All of the still, vegetative, and animate nature ascend and descend on the ladder of adhesion together with the level of the speaking without any effort from their side. And people must advance individually and collectively from their free choice.

So there is a difference in disseminating the wisdom of Kabbalah to Israel and the nations of the world. A person who belongs to Israel feels an attraction and link to it; he feels that the opportunity for fulfillment is hidden here, so he is very happy to encounter the wisdom of Kabbalah. This is because from the start he has felt a deficiency that is expressed in the question: “What is the reason for living?”  At the moment he has no reason for living; he doesn’t sense any true “taste” and fulfillment in life; instead he always feels something is missing. In such a case, after he becomes familiar with the wisdom of Kabbalah, he discovers that he has found a means for fulfillment.

And the people who don’t feel that anything like this is missing and simply feel bad on the still, vegetative, and animate levels of development, can nevertheless feel a deficiency through which they can connect to the wisdom of Kabbalah. Clearly, they don’t need it at all, but the usual deficiencies that the Creator awakens in them, with the help of the general crisis, push them to search for a better life. So gradually they find a deficiency for higher things.

There are a number of reasons for this. One of them is that their daily deficiencies are still developing and the “point in the heart,” that was formerly concealed, now becomes revealed. And besides this, the desire to ascend can also be discovered as a result of integration with the people of Israel, meaning with the people who yearn for the Creator, and, together with them, they become one body, one vessel (Kli). This is the way that is designed for most of the nations of the world.

In any case, it is up to us to look at things correctly and also understand the reasons for the negative attitude of the nations of the world toward the people of Israel and the accusations against the people of Israel, that instead of bringing them pleasure, they bring them suffering, troubles, and problems. They blame Israel for every evil that exists in the world, and this points to a link between the nations of the world and Israel, and their interdependence also. Even though the nations of the world discover the connection in a more negative form, in spite of it all, this still speaks about how much they feel their dependence on the children of Israel.

So it is up to us to think carefully about how we can correct this situation and why the Creator arouses us and the nations of the world specifically in this way so that we will ultimately reach absolute adhesion with Him.

In the present stage, our dissemination focuses on the people of Israel. As Baal HaSulam explains in the end of the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” in the beginning of the process, the inner parts that yearn to discover the Creator are joined. After this those who have Reshimot (spiritual genes) remaining in them from their former ascents to bestowal and adhesion with the Creator from the days of the Beit HaMikdash (temple) will join them, meaning the collective vessel (Kli) with an intention for the sake of bestowal on the basis of union with Israel. So we must awaken those who are called a Jew by “passport” and not according to their aspiration.

And together with this, we must awaken all the nations of the world so that they will know the general process, because we are in the days of the Messiah, as Baal HaSulam and other Kabbalists write. Today we are talking already about the whole general correction so everyone must recognize the process of correction and share in it.

So it is up to us to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah to the whole world. After all, it is said that the redemption will specifically come thanks to the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah and the dissemination of The Book of Zohar throughout the world. There is a need both in people who yearn for the Creator and are called Israel in spirituality, and also in people who belong to Israel in our world (the Jews) who don’t feel the yearning. As of today, everyone must understand the goal of creation.

So the Creator is arousing problems everywhere, including the threat of a third world war and the general crisis in nature and in human society. Through this, He awakens all people, all the nations of the world, to work to attain the goal. So our explanations must reach everyone without exception.
[141324]
From the Talk about the Importance of Dissemination 8/12/14

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Where Is Our Sight Concealed?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Sight for us is what we see, so what is spiritual sight?

Answer: You actually don’t see anything. It is the mind that sees, and in the spiritual world it is quite clear.

Question: So why do I need the two openings in the form of eyes and all the reflected light that I receive?

Answer: All our body is merely a kind of glued together “papier-mâché.” We actually don’t feel anything in our hands, our tongue, our nose, our ears, or our eyes but only in our brain and even deeper than that, in our desire.

A person’s body is the scenery, the continuous external display of our internal attributes. It is made especially so that you will see that there is someone before you. Still, everything that you see and feel is only inside you, in your brain, or rather in your desires. Since we work at the level of the material world, it seems that everything depends on external sensors or detectors called senses.
[141228]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/20/14

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The Nations Of The World Will Help The Jews Unite

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It is typical that the heads of many organizations that come out against Israel are themselves Jews. How must we relate to this?

Answer: If we want to change the situation, we must work only among Jews and this will absolutely be enough. But it would be very useful if we would be helped from the outside.

So we must turn to various organizations and go out to all the nations of the world, and explain the entire process to them so they will gradually understand why hatred towards Jews is created in them and what it is they expect from Israel. Then the whole world will help the people of Israel, but only on condition that they will understand their obligation to unite as one person with one heart.

After all, through Israel, the power of unification will open for the world. Unification is the only thing that is lacking in the world. Imagine how wonderful the world would become if all people were connected with good ties. There is full abundance in the world; it is only necessary to distribute it correctly among everyone, then everyone will be happy.

Comment: One of the most tangible examples is an independent expert at the UN for the protection of human rights in the Palestinian territories, Richard Falk, best known for sympathizing with the Palestinians and his negative attitude towards Israel. The newspapers have called him “anti-Semitic.”

He is a member of an organization “Stop the War” that refers only to the war against the Palestinians and blames Israel with all its might. He is a highly educated person, a former professor at Princeton University, and at the same time, appears to be against Israel even though he himself is a Jew.

Answer: This is not a unique phenomenon. It would be worthwhile to bring the explanation to him, to send him our information, our pamphlets. Correction will come from both sides. The main thing is unification among the Jews, which must be discovered and expand, and then from them it will break out to the nations of the world.

But for the Jews to be able to consolidate and create this power of unification, they require help from the outside. This help can be negative, just as a threat from wolves force sheep to join together. And it could be positive help, from a good force, when the nations of the world help this unification and also want to join it. And then the Jews will unite, they will want to please the nations of the world and implement their demands.

This means that it is possible to attain this unification with good or with evil. Certainly it will be much better if the nations of the world will understand what is happening and demand that the Jews unite, they would declare that this is imperative for them and would even exert pressure and help in attaining this unification.

Such a level of awareness can be reached through our dissemination,turning the world toward a good way of evolution. So dissemination must be directed both toward the Jews and the nations of the world, but nevertheless, the main work is done among the people of Israel.
[141327]
From KabTV’s “Anti-Semitism” 7/21/14

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