A Kabbalist’s Attributes

laitman_222_0Question: Can a Kabbalist be annoyed and impatient with those around him at times?

Answer: If a person engages in the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah and wants to achieve something, he certainly feels tension and anger, has doubts, and different questions such as how he should act in the best possible way, and whether he should do his work one way or another. Although he is already included in the upper force, he has freedom of choice to use it in a better way, and so there is room for all the human feelings.

Question: As a Kabbalist are you ever insulted by anything?

Answer: No, what can I be insulted by? I can only be insulted by the upper force that takes everything upon itself.

Question: Is it typical of a Kabbalist to feel responsible?

Answer: A Kabbalist feels the greatest sense of responsibility because nothing forces him to work for the wellbeing of others except for a sense of responsibility and commitment that he has taken upon himself. The feeling of responsibility that he has is only with regard to the Creator and not anyone else. To the extent that a Kabbalist develops spiritually, he becomes increasingly less greedy. He teaches people how to discover the Creator in the right connection between them; he serves as a teacher for his students, an advisor, a mentor, and a coach until his students can advance independently. Then he feels that he doesn’t need anything and is only happy that they don’t need him anymore and that they can advance on their own.

Question: Does a Kabbalist have to be brave?

Answer: Everyone has to be brave and especially a Kabbalist. He has to clearly understand that he is in a conflict with the Creator who is revealed to him in different ways. A person undergoes such transformations that he needs to be persistent, stubborn, brave, and steadfast. A Kabbalist cannot be cowardly under any circumstances, but must be able to stick to his opinion when facing the Creator, when the Creator is testing him and trying to divert him from the right path by invoking in him different doubts, which thus strengthens him. This strengthening is attained thanks to a person’s very strong resistance.

Question: Is it typical of a Kabbalist to feel fear? What is he afraid of?

Answer: No, the fear disappears. A Kabbalist can only fear one thing: that he may not do what he has to do correctly.

Question: To what extent is a sense of humor important for a Kabbalist?

Answer: A sense of humor is very important in a Kabbalist’s work. I really appreciate humor and jokes and so did Rabash, my teacher, who used to listen to the jokes I told with great pleasure. Humor is a brilliant thought that comes to mind when a person encounters several awkward situations that contradict one another and knows how to connect them.

Question: Does a Kabbalist feel shame, and if so, of what?

Answer: A Kabbalist feels shame only if he doesn’t use an opportunity to attribute everything to the Creator; it isn’t shame of having been able to do something and not doing it because everything is fulfilled from Above, but it is shame of having had an opportunity to attribute what happened to the Creator and missing it. This is also arranged for him by the Creator so that he will attribute everything to Him.

Question: What would happen if I suddenly discovered that I did something 20 years ago that I feel ashamed of?

Answer: The past will be revealed to you as terrible transgressions and you have to understand that it was all done by the Creator, not by you. A person is not to blame for anything. Even the cruelest person didn’t do anything by himself. It is all arranged that way by the Creator on purpose.

Question: What is being noble for a Kabbalist?

Answer: Being noble is being committed, being responsible.

Question: Does a Kabbalist ever feel a sense of revenge or anger?

Answer: A sense of revenge is a correction. A person naturally feels angry when he cannot fulfill the corrections that depended on him, but the fact that he hasn’t corrected himself is intentionally arranged that way by the Creator. A Kabbalist is a person who is in an uncorrected state and each time rises from it to a more corrected state, and so he does have all these feelings.

Question: Is miserliness typical of a Kabbalist?

Answer: If you are referring to money, he can save money in order to spend it on dissemination.

Question: Can a Kabbalist be unfaithful?

Answer: He has a different set of values and so such things are not typical of him.

Question: Can he be jealous?

Answer: Jealousy is a positive attribute that motivates a person. We have to develop our feeling of envy of those who advance faster and further ahead along the spiritual way.
[191913]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/17/16

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New Life #353 – Past, Present, Future

New Life #353 – Past, Present, Future
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

On the one hand, how is it possible to conduct one’s life beyond the past, present, and future, and how can the connections between us help influence our future?

Summary

Feeling “only this moment” either means dying or learning to transcend the past, present, and future. It is possible to discover our developmental timeline, the program of creation, and to control life. This is a supreme pleasure!

One can try to train one’s mind to enjoy the “here and now,” and that’s it. But this is not the purpose of existence.

The purpose of human existence is to develop tools for managing its future like the present.

All of nature is connected, interdependent. The development of the human species is also in moving toward mutual connection. Someone who wants to enjoy maximally from now until the end of his days must build a good connection with everyone. If you hurt someone on the way to your personal enjoyment, this will come back to you. The world is round. If a person creates connections of friendship and mutual love with everyone, he assures himself of a good life.

On the way to a complete connection with others, you need to check your attitude toward them yesterday, in order to improve. Don’t eat yourself up about the past, just decide that from now on I want to correct the relationship. Through the wisdom of connection and special exercises, I begin to feel that others and I are one.

And when I begin to include all of reality within me, everything becomes me. I become unlimited.
From KabTV’s “New Life #353 – Past, Present, Future,” 4/17/14

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 08.29.16

Preparation for the Lesson

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Shamati #1, “There’s None Else Besides Him”

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, Item 133

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Peace” 

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 08.28.16

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How Can We See The Upper World?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I see the forces that depict this world to me if I haven’t acquired a Masach (screen) yet, and the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light) doesn’t influence me?

Answer: You cannot see anything before you acquire a Masach!

Question: You have said that we are all asleep and that this whole world is depicted to us as a dream. What stops a person from waking up and will he still exist in his physical body and continue to participate in this dream when he wakes up?

Answer: To wake up means to feel the upper world that manages us and to participate in its management.
[191883]

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Why Should We Study “The Study Of The Ten Sefirot” (TES)?

Laitman_137Question: Isn’t our method overloaded with terms that increase the egoistic mind, which is useless in spirituality?

Answer: Our study of the wisdom of Kabbalah is based on a very limited study of Talmud Eser Sefirot (TES), with an emphasis on the study of the basics of the spiritual work.

I constantly regret the fact that I cannot study TES (The Study of the Ten Sefirot) with my students to the extent that we should. After all, studying about the upper world, about the leadership that manages us is essential in order to draw the Surrounding Light, (the Light that is external to us as long as we are not corrected), as it says in item 155 in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot.”
[191950]

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Buddhism And The Wisdom Of Kabbalah

laitman_281_02Question: You often have said that Eastern doctrines are based on the suppression of the ego. One of the basic principles of Zen Buddhism is that truth cannot be expressed in words and that the only criterion is personal experience.

The Zen Koan system (questions and answers) is based on the principle that it is impossible to answer the teacher’s question by using formal logic.

The method is meant to spur the student on, helping to transcend the limits of logical thinking to reach a level where he has no rational support.

It seems that you often use a similar method, whether consciously or unconsciously. Is that really so?

Answer: To some extent this is also one of the techniques used in studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, but it doesn’t mean that the methods are similar, not in development nor purpose.
[191902]

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The Day The ARI Departed

laitman_570Question: Not long ago we marked the day that the ARI departed. Why do we specifically mark the day of the departure of a great Kabbalist?

Answer: Actually it is a holiday for us. Because a giant like the ARI departed from our world, he ascends the levels of attainment and in this way he is able to positively influence more and more about our world and us, everything that is connected with him.

Clearly, this speaks about his soul and not his body. The body is a “beast” that we bury and that is all. Nothing happens with it, nothing.

The ARI is a giant soul that was clothed in a body in our world. In this manner, a young man of 37, whom we call the ARI, began to reveal the wisdom of Kabbalah to his students. For a year and a half he revealed the entire method, the entire system of the wisdom of Kabbalah, which nobody before him was able to reveal.

The ARI knew more than everyone and knew how to convey and formulate it as nobody before him was able to. For this we are in debt to him because he laid the foundation for the method of correction of a person and the world, which we must implement. Through this we attain the highest, eternal, and complete level of our development. Therefore we are grateful to him.

He left only one student after him, Chaim Vital, who recorded everything that he heard from the mouth of his teacher with absolute precision, and where he had doubts about the precise transmission of the words of the ARI, he left comments. We learn these writings, like all the Kabbalists in the world have done for five generations. Specifically thanks to these records we are able to advance in a good way toward the correction of ourselves, all of nature, and the whole world.

Without these records and writings, we would advance like little wretched and stupid “beasts” that don’t even know why they live, what their nature is, what their development is, and why they are given sufferings.

Whereas the method that was revealed by the ARI helps us understand toward what we must develop, what the goals are, what the stages are through which we must pass in our development, and how we must pass through all of these stages. For our development in a good way under the influence of the good force instead of the evil force, we are bound to be thankful to him.

Comment: They say that the ARI was a turning point in the history of humanity.

Answer: Humanity discovered the method of correction in our world through him, understanding why and how everything is done in the world. There were giant Kabbalists before him, as exemplified by Abraham, Moses, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, and others. But it was specifically the ARI who succeeded in disclosing this method and revealing it for us.

So only the ARI is a giant teacher for us, and we absolutely rely on him; he opens our eyes. Already Baal HaSulam and Rabash have come after him, a father and son who described the method of the ARI in a purely practical way so that in our time we can use it and attain truly visible results.

The ARI discovered the wisdom of Kabbalah in our world, and today, someone who truly wants to correct himself and attain the goal of creation, to discover the upper world in addition to this world, can use this method. Our Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education Center accepts everyone who is interested, in all languages, and is ready to help anyone who specifically wants to study the writings of the ARI.
[191754]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/10/16

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New Life #351 – What Is Time?

New Life #351 – What Is Time?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

What is the concept of time? Is it subjective? What does our feeling of time depend on and under what conditions can we understand and manage it in order to achieve something in life?

Summary

If my senses were equally impressed all the time, I wouldn’t feel time. Time is the outcome of change. Pleasure and lack of pleasure, this is what gives me the feeling of time since I am made of a desire to enjoy. Measuring whether our desire is filled or not is what gives us the feeling of time. The feeling of the future develops out of the desire to enjoy and learning how to attain what we desire.

There are many types of time, but in terms of the perception of reality, everything is in me, in my box. The perception of reality is totally subjective. Sometimes time is stretched and sometimes it goes by very quickly. We can have an objective perception of reality only if we learn how to manage our nature—the desire to enjoy. Managing the desire to enjoy means acquiring a higher desire, a desire to bestow, and working with both of them.
From KabTV’s “New Life #351 – What Is Time?” 4/17/16

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 08.28.16

Preparation for the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” Article 8

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, Item 131

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Peace,” “Necessity to Practice Caution with the Laws of Nature” 

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