Question from Facebook: Human nature is to always take care of only one’s beloved. Is it really possible that we will pray for others? This is absolutely unnatural and false.

Answer: Absolutely. You’re right. This is already a true starting point. Is it possible to correct and change our nature to the opposite, to the correct balance between us? If all of nature—still, vegetative, and animate—exists in an integral mutual connection, how can we make people co-exist among themselves in the same way?

We see that this is possible in a limited field: in engineering, trade, science, art, but not in communication between people.

How can this be achieved? Only by changing human nature from egoistic to altruistic. And this is beyond our control. We can only wish that it happens.

But there is a power in the world called the upper force because it is above our egoism. It can correct us. We will feel each other closer than our brothers, sisters, parents, and children. We will acquire such a feeling, and it will oblige us to be together as one family.

Question: Do I have to think that in this process, I am attracting the upper force?

Answer: It’s not important. It’s a matter of methodology. There are different human levels. The main thing is that there is such a positive force in nature that can change us if we draw it upon ourselves.
[206289]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/27/17

Related Material:
What Is Prayer?
The Labyrinths Of Understanding
Finding The Force That Evokes Love

Filed under: Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: How can I shape the right thoughts within me and cleanse my mind from all kinds of nonsense? Is this possible and is it necessary?

Answer: It is possible and it is also necessary, but it is possible to do this only through a group that is directed toward the discovery of the Creator so that He will carry out this action.

The Creator makes all the corrections and changes, and everything that happens in creation. What remains for us is only to turn to Him with a specific request so that He will do what is needed for correction. He will do this anyway, but He is “waiting” for our desire.

For example, when we open a water faucet, water flows from it. So it is in spirituality as well. We can open the faucet within us and then the Light of the Creator will work through us and correct us.
[206259]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/15/17

Related Material:
I Am The Act Of The Creator!
Where Do Evil Thoughts Come From?
Only One Comes Out To The Light

Filed under: Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: How do thoughts of a Kabbalist affect all the worlds?

Answer: A Kabbalist’s thoughts influence the worlds to the extent he can rise above his animalistic state and act independently. What does independently mean? To the degree that he can, through his thoughts, overtake the Creator in His plans, he acts independently.

If I, while studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, understand the thought of creation and everything that happens to me, then I can move half a step ahead of the Creator, like a child who drags an adult by the hand. The fact is, that in this case a person rises to a different level. All Kabbalistic books speak only about this.

It turns out that with my desires, I cause actions of the Creator. As it is written, “The righteous decides and the Creator performs.”
[205967]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/15/17

Related Material:
A Kabbalist Can Stop A War
The Thoughts Of Kabbalists Are Above This World
Practicing Kabbalist

Filed under: Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Torah, Deuteronomy 22:23 – 22:24: If there is a virgin girl betrothed to a man, and [another] man finds her in the city, and lies with her, you shall take them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall pelt them with stones, and they shall die: the girl, because she did not cry out [even though she was] in the city, and the man, because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So shall you clear away the evil from among you.

This is an example of how a person’s actions do not correspond to his intention and desire. They do not match each other, and therefore correction can only be through renunciation. Such dead actions have no continuation in spirituality, and therefore these desires must “die.” Death usually occurs through stoning because desires fall in the Lev HaEven (stony heart).

Question: What does it mean that the intention decides to connect with such a desire?

Answer: It seems to a person that by working with this desire he will be able to get a little closer to the Creator. He thinks that he can perform this action, but, in fact, he cannot.

For example, he gets an opportunity to perform some action, and he wants to do it for the sake of bestowal, for the sake of further advancement in the love for the Creator, in expanding his spiritual vessel, but it turns out that this is wrong.

In our world, this is expressed in such carnal pictures, but in the spiritual world, everything happens in a completely different way.

It is written, pelt the girl and the man with stones. Since they both are under external influence, it is not only his, but also her, responsibility for the event occurring. That is, the desire that is among other desires must also control itself.

This is about ZON of the world of Atzilut, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut that connect together, and therefore, both resistance and agreement are possible here. The city in which they connect means the world of Atzilut.

There are many subtleties here. First, everything happens above the Parsa that is represented by the city wall surrounding the city. It symbolizes the influence of the surrounding society, to which the girl herself, her parents, and this man belong. Thus, it takes into account not a personal, but a public correction. Therefore, they deserve a harsher punishment.

There are many such conditions in the Torah, and this is natural, because it is about correcting our intentions. The desires remain the same.

Our single desire is divided into 613 parts. Each of the 613 private desires has its own egoistic intention that must be corrected to an altruistic one, for the sake of others, and through others for the Creator. This, in principle, is our spiritual work. The Torah is talking only about this and nothing else.

A man symbolizes intention and a woman—desire. The right combination of male and female parts with the right action for bestowal leads to the birth of the next spiritual degree.
[204875]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/5/16

Related Material:
Spiritual Betrayal
The Subtleties Of Spiritual Ascent
Love And Loyalty

Filed under: Spiritual Work, Torah - No Comments →

Preparation for the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic: “Awakening the Need for the Help of the Creator” 

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 8, Item 11

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” “Conveyance From a Wise Kabbalist to an Understanding Receiver”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog - No Comments →

Question: I am the kind of person who needs examples, not explanations, for concepts that I don’t understand. If the wisdom of Kabbalah is a science, is it possible to give examples of the phenomena about which you speak?

Answer: How can I give you an example if you don’t see and don’t understand spiritual phenomena yet? You need new extra senses so that you will see what I see, then you will understand what I am talking about. This means that you need to expand your senses, and this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah engages in.

Only a person who becomes a Kabbalist, which means who receives spiritual information, can see this information though his insight and not with his eyes.
[206546]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/22/17

Related Material:
How Does One Reveal The Spiritual World?
Show Me The Upper World
How To Convey The Knowledge Of The Spiritual World?

Filed under: Perception, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, Shamati, 153: However, there is a special role to the thought: it intensifies the desire. The desire remains in its place; it does not have the strength to expand and perform its action. Yet, because one thinks and contemplates on a matter, and the desire asks of the thought to provide some counsel and advice to carry out the desire, the desire thus grows, expands and performs its actual work…

Our thoughts can expand or diminish our desire according to what we think about and what we engage in. If I keep thinking about something, my desires regarding that object grow and develop and I already live in them and begin to operate them.

Question: If I have a desire to fill myself and all my thoughts are automatically aimed at that, I cannot think about anything that doesn’t fill my desires. But the desires are under the Creator’s control. He created them so everything is under His control and domination. So where is my freedom?

Answer: Only in hastening your development. If you are in the right society and it influences you correctly, you hasten the development of your desires. The Creator can impact you more intensively; your desires will change more quickly, and thus you will begin to advance increasingly faster in the right direction toward the desired goal. Everything is predetermined, but the speed of the motion and style of movement will be optimal.

Comment: The whole correction is in the fact that you have to think about others, but I can’t think about others because I don’t have this desire and so I have no such thoughts.

Answer: If by being in the right society you evoke unto yourself the Surrounding Light, the desire and thoughts that determine that it is vital to be in contact with the friends will emerge in you.

Question: This means that it is impossible to change your thoughts and desires without the Creator’s force, without His help.

Answer: No. Without the Creator’s help, a person remains a beast.
[206428]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/15/17

Related Material:
Everything Will Be Clarified In The Thought
Through The Prism Of Two Desires
The Saga Of Desires

Filed under: Free Will, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Torah, Deuteronomy 17:8 – 17:10: If a matter eludes you in judgment, between blood and blood, between judgment and judgment, or between lesion and lesion, words of dispute in your cities, then you shall rise and go up to the place the Lord, your God, chooses. And you shall come to the Levitic kohanim and to the judge who will be in those days, and you shall inquire, and they will tell you the words of judgment. And you shall do according to the word they tell you, from the place the Lord will choose, and you shall observe to do according to all they instruct you.

A person can never decide by himself how to act. The solution of the problem can be found only on the next level: either on the level of Levites (ascent to Bina), or on the level of Kohanim (ascent to Hochma). This is the only way we can accumulate strength for our own correction.

It is written: “If a matter eludes you in judgment, between blood and blood, between judgment and judgment, or between lesion and lesion…” It speaks about person’s scrutiny of his qualities; after all, he doesn’t know what drives him: correct or incorrect qualities, or correct or incorrect thoughts. It is not known where his egoism hides, how it incites him and gives him some kind of a bribe.

Therefore, each one should always rise to such a degree where he could decide his actions and intentions with the help of an external standard. A special force is required for this: the next degree, ascent to it, acceptance of its qualities and advices, so that it would change, test, and subjugate a person. Then he will be sure that he moves correctly.

We advance this way in constant contradiction “between blood and blood, between lesion and lesion.” How else? If from the beginning of creation to its full correction a person is an egoist, then every time bigger and bigger egoism is revealed in him.

Let’s say you corrected yourself by 90%, but the revealed 91% that must be corrected is bigger than all the previous ones. Therefore, you can’t rely on anything, and every time you are in absolute incomprehension, wondering, and marveling at everything that happens to you.

Every time, the unique, kind Creator completely disappears from your senses, and instead of Him, there are multitudes of all sorts of haters, traitors and evil dogs. All this you must again relate to the Creator as arising due to the lack of connection with Him. That is, these are the qualities that are specifically created in you so that you would get closer to the Creator. You have no choice.

Everything is arranged so amazingly that you unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously, or as a result of big problems, worries, sleepless nights, searches, and internal struggle with yourself finally catch the end of this thread that returns you to the uniqueness of the Creator and His absolute goodness.

Such is the way of awareness—scary on one hand and beautiful on the other hand—because you are born on the level of the Creator and become similar to Him.
[200170]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/24/16

Related Material:
To Do Evil In The Eyes Of God
One’s Own Trial
Crossing Edom

Filed under: Spiritual Work, Torah - 1 Comment →

New Life #643 – Centralization In The Israeli Economy
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

The wealthy are respected everywhere in the world and they have direct access to government officials. The wealthy have a very strong desire to swallow and control everything; otherwise, they wouldn’t be wealthy. Every person exploits others as much as possible; this is human nature, even that of the ordinary citizen.
[169932]
From KabTV’s “New Life #643 – Centralization In The Israeli Economy,” 11/5/15

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, Globalization, Israel Today, New Life - No Comments →