Audio Version Of The Blog – 10/25/19

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What Am I Striving For?

laitman_284A person goes through several stages in regard to his efforts to study the science of Kabbalah and their results. At first, I will inevitably relate to my studies according to the rules that I am accustomed to in the corporeal world; that is, I want to gain understanding from my studies and reward for my efforts. We cannot imagine another way because this is how we operate.

As time passes, I become disillusioned with the path, seeing that years have passed and there is no result in sight. I studied many sources: articles, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot,) The Book of Zohar, I worked in a group, but I still fail to understand what the correct result should be. I do not evaluate my changes in relation to bestowal, in my attitude toward my friends, or in a closer connection with them, that is, the external indicators of the correction of our broken desires, which we need to connect. Instead, I look for personal gain, which the egoistic nature obliges me to do.

Even if I agree that we must connect, my primal concern is still my personal accomplishment: I want to reveal spirituality, to know and understand it, to see and feel it—it is all about me!

Here, it takes serious effort to reach a true calculation. From bitterness and disappointment, obscurity and misunderstanding of what is happening to me, I begin to make the correct calculation, guessing that the goal is not to attain, but to acquire the properties of bestowal, the desire to connect with others, and love.

When I change the purpose of my work, I begin to move toward a prayer, correctly forming my request to the Creator. If I am after acquiring knowledge, wisdom, and success, as is customary in our world, then everything depends on my efforts. The smarter I get, the more time I put into the work, the more I will succeed. But if I change my goal from material to spiritual, wanting to transform myself from a receiver to a bestower, then the result does not depend on what I do in this world, but rather on how the upper light affects me.

This is a totally different approach. Therefore, I curb my pride and do everything the group requires of me. Because I have no choice—this is the only way one can draw the light that reforms. Only with a prayer can I attract the upper light to myself and truly transform.1

If one comes to the lessons, is involved in dissemination, and in group work, and teaches, and still feels that each day he is losing strength, at risk of completely breaking away, he begins to criticize the path. But the fact is that he is not evaluating himself correctly. He feels as if he is falling every day, but maybe he is actually ascending? Everything depends on what is measured. He is indignant about not receiving the sensation, the attainment, the understanding. He is looking into his egoistic desires and does not see any fulfillment in them. Why does he feel that this is a loss and not a gain?

This is a great success because another day has passed and I have received nothing for my egoism, and another day, and another. And there will be many more days like this. To what end? What am I trying to achieve? I want to reach despair from my way being wrong, and I should not get that at all.

I must reach complete disillusionment in the calculations that I have made in my desire to enjoy. How is it possible for me to find anything spiritual there? The fact that with each day I see a bigger and bigger zero is help from above. This is how the Creator is showing me that my path is the wrong one. As if He is telling me: “You can keep trying all you want, but you will not achieve anything until you become completely disappointed.”

I have to think carefully: I work with desires to receive, but acquire no spirituality in them. And what is the spiritual reward I am trying to receive? A spiritual reward is love for another to the point of loving the Creator, bestowal, coming out of oneself. Is this what I am striving for? If not, what success can I be expecting?

I need to decide if I want such a reward. If so, I must ask the Creator to change my desire for me, to become a giver like Him, to love others, to connect with others. Only then do I realize that I have never felt further away from this goal.

I look at the friends around me and realize that they are infinitely far from me, as if in another universe. I used to feel them somewhat before, but now I cannot feel them at all, as if they are not people but ghosts. It turns out that I already see my desired and my actual state. I must raise the importance of spirituality. It doesn’t matter if I like this state or not, it is a very important one.

For this, I apply efforts to listen to my friends who are assuring me of the importance of spirituality, and I tell them the same thing. The truth is that I have no idea what it is and do not feel any importance of it. Who in this world finds it important to love his neighbor? Do we have any respect for such idealists? There aren’t any left in our time.

Long ago there were humanists who propagated love for animals, people, and nature. But today we see financial or political gain behind all such calls. We have to work on making spirituality an important goal for us. The more my friends tell me about it, the more I will absorb it and feel it as truly important. I cannot neglect what is important to others. If my environment values the quality of bestowal, I too will value the spiritual world that operates on the basis of bestowal.

It is another realm, the anti-world that runs on the law of bestowal, and I have to draw near it.
We can never use our egoistic desires, mind, feelings, and rationalism to measure spirituality. This is something that exists above us. If you read a clever book to a cat a thousand times, the cat will not get any wiser. But we are susceptible to the light that reforms, which gives a person new, additional desires. One begins to feel spirituality in these new desires.

So, let’s calm down and think of how to attract the light. This is the whole point, and for this we must connect with our friends. I may not want to, I may not love my friends, but there is no choice: If I make an effort to go above my rejection, I will attract the light that reforms and succeed.2
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/19, Writings of Rabash, Article 33 “The Felons of Israel”(1985)

1 Minute 21:45
2 Minute 30:45

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Without Intention There Is No Result
Striving For The Ideal Connection
Striving For Rest

Is The World Crisis The Fault Of Jews? – Talk With Joshua Goldstein

Joshua Goldstein, Chairman of the US Division of Herut North America, meets with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman to discuss the unity of Jews, and awareness of how it influences the world.

What Is Our Freedom Of Choice?

Laitman_041.01Question: If the point of freewill is in approaching the Creator, then how can I bring someone closer to the Creator because by doing this wouldn’t I deprive him of his choice?

Answer: No. Freewill is not in moving toward the Creator. To this, you are awakened from above.

Do you want to say that you, yourself choose this path? Why? Somebody somehow influenced you. From where? How? You yourself do not know and do not remember. This doesn’t matter. The fact is that today you feel that you want it. But it is not your choice.

Your choice is not in selecting the vector of direction of where to go but in displaying even greater strengthening of the goal at every stage of your path. When your arms weaken, your legs give way, when you fall and have to get up to go forward again, this is when your freewill is manifested.

The Creator organizes a descent for you; you must understand why He organized it for you, and thus implement it correctly and go forward.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 8/18/19

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What Gives Rise To Awe?

laitman_237Question: If I no longer have a fear of the Creator, does this mean that I am in adhesion with Him?

Answer: The question is whether you feel not fear, but awe.

You should have a state when you think, care, and worry about how you feel about the Creator. You want to prove yourself as loving and caring with respect to Him, and willing to please Him, meaning to be the right element of His creation.

Fear disappears and turns into awe, and this is a completely different feeling: higher and nobler.

After all, fear belongs to the animal level: I am afraid for myself. And when I no longer worry about myself, when I feel the Creator as eternal and perfect, and unable to do anything harmful to anyone from His perfection, the fear on the animal level disappears. It is extinguished by the comprehension of the Creator. I then only feel awe because fear turns into a feeling of His perfection. Fear and perfection give rise to awe.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 2/13/19

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New Life 249 – My Internal World, Part 1

New Life 249 – My Internal World, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Humanity doesn’t understand what life is for and wants to receive without giving. We lack motivation and meaning because we have not integrated with the general system of nature. Changes in mood are evidence that we perceive reality subjectively, through a desire for enjoyment. A mental mechanism operates alongside desires, opening and closing them, directing us as to what we will feel. Today, entire nations fall into despair. Human development should bring us to the essence and summit of life. Integral education teaches people how to find solutions through circle discussions. We form connections in the circle, praise one another, and discover another level of existence based on a sense of “we” instead of “I.” In an integral society, we feel elevated as if we were hovering in the air and receive pleasure and power to progress together.
From KabTV’s “New Life 249 – My Internal World, Part 1,” 11/10/13

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 10/25/19

Lesson Preparation

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Lesson on the Topic “Hardening of the Heart – Invitation to Ascend” (Preparation for the Convention in Bulgaria)

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 88

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