Audio Version Of The Blog – 1/10/20

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

Live On Two Floors At The Same Time

laitman_962.8The strength of connection within a ten is measured by the kind of disturbances we are able to connect. The egoism, which separates us and arouses hatred toward each other, is revealed, and we begin to unite on top of it. But mutual rejection remains inside, and we work precisely with these two states.

Check in your ten whether you go through states where you do not want to connect but make efforts to unite without eliminating contradictions and discord between you. Inside, on the lower floor, you are ready to kill each other. And atop this, you achieve love of your friends. If you are able to build such a relationship, then this is called “a ten,” and if you cannot, this is still not a ten. It is a simple condition, just two floors: all transgressions will be covered by love.

All friends in the ten should feel how egoism burns inside each of them, resisting unification, and how on top of this they understand that in spite of everything, they have to unite. Both of these floors must remain in us, so that between them we reveal the presence of the Creator within us. From the lower floor comes the force of desire (Aviut), and from the upper floor comes the force of intention (Zakut) from which we build a spiritual vessel (Kli) to reveal the Creator. And if we feel no rejection to each other, it is a sign that we are not trying to unite. This is the law.1

We must learn to live on two floors at the same time, between hatred and love, which support each other. Hatred is the heat, the fire that ignites love, which flares up more and more. One cannot exist without the other, plus cannot exist without minus; we only need to understand how to combine these opposites in our sensation. And this is not easy because our instinctive, natural response is to get rid of hatred.2

We leave all our quarrels and disagreements as they are, we do not even want to look at each other; but on top of this we begin to unite in the exact opposite form. I love what I hated, I connect with what I rejected, and I do not take my eyes off whoever I did not want to look at. I accomplish this overcoming by building one floor above the other. Only in this form is a spiritual vessel built.

By fomenting quarrels between us, the Creator gives us the opportunity to build an ever-growing Kli. Therefore, we must rejoice that a conflict suddenly flares up between us and be creative about what the Creator does with us. It is wonderful that He awakens enmity between us. It has existed for a long time; nothing new is emerging. All this hatred comes from the shattering, from a pit teeming with snakes, but it opens gradually so that on top of it we can build another and still another layer of connection.

Therefore, we must rejoice in the bad as we do in the good, because the good alone cannot build a powerful Kli. Let us mature and begin to build ourselves correctly.

We need to maintain constant balance: if we covered hatred with love, we need to check where the hatred disappeared, why it no longer pops up. Where is this snake, why doesn’t it raise its head? Apparently, we give it no incentives, and it has no reason to rise. You need to gain experience with good and evil. It is like in a family in which the couple never quarrels, they cannot awaken love. Therefore, they purposely tease each other to increase sensitivity in their relationship.3

We must try to feel how the Creator plays with us like He plays the violin: to be sensitive, ready and to invite the Creator. The whole world is the Creator’s appeal to creation in all possible forms, through sounds, images, colors, all this is the language of the Creator. If a person is able to perceive this language, feel, understand, and respond to it, then he gets connected with creation and the Creator within himself.

It is necessary to break away from the feeder because it is inappropriate for a person to eat from the same trough with a donkey. This means that I relate to reality not purely pragmatically, primitively, like an animal, but I see the melody of the Creator in it.4
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/19, Writing of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot

1 Minute 1:05:35
2 Minute 1:13:00
3 Minute 1:19:00
4 Minute 1:32:45

Related Material:
Take Me To The Spiritual World Through The Center Of The Ten
Moving Into A World Ten
See Through The Ten

Life And Death, Part 4

laitman_224Fear of Death and Other Psychological Metamorphosis

Question: In our world, somebody lives, somebody dies. Why is this process happening?

Answer: In our world, everything happens by analogy with the upper world. When in the spiritual world desires and intentions come together and the quality of bestowal arises in them, it is called life.

If these desires fall apart and cannot connect with each other in order to conduct the quality of bestowal and love, this separation is called death.

Question: Are there any special burial rituals according to Kabbalistic laws?

Answer: Absolutely not! Kabbalah has nothing to do with our body. It considers it just an animal and does not talk about it in any way.

Question: Why is there a fear of death?

Answer: The fear of death exists because a person does not know what is next. It seems to him that he continues to exist.

Question: I will clarify the question: why does the Creator cause us to fear death? Imagine a reality in which a person would not be afraid of death.

Answer: God forbid. Then he would not achieve any results in his life but would just exist. The fear of death from our youth pushes us forward to the meaning of life, to achieve, to accomplish, and to reveal it.

Question: What can you say about clinical death? Many people who have experienced it went through the same states: they see light, a tunnel, and they feel they are outside the body.

Answer: I have also experienced them and felt them myself. These are all sorts of psychological metamorphoses that we feel in a state of clinical death. They have nothing to do with spiritual states.

Question: Is it possible to say that a tragic death is a punishment for some sins? Or Kabbalah does not think so?

Answer: No. We cannot attribute different situations to our understanding of why this happened and what will happen next.

A person should always feel in a state of freewill, freedom of choice: what I exist for, what I live for, how can I rise to the level where I actually will do something really useful in my life.
[254852]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/14/19

Related Material:
Life And Death, Part 3
Life And Death, Part 2
Life And Death, Part 1

What Is The Solution To Anti-Semitism In The US? – Talk With Richard S. Hirschhaut

Richard S. Hirschhaut, Director of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) in Los Angeles, meets Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman to discuss the phenomenon of anti-Semitism in the US, and how establishing positive connections between Jews will help unite all people.

The US has the most favorable climate for anti-Semitism. Unfortunately, today, it has become a social infrastructure where speaking negatively about Jews is normal.

How can we change the situation?

The solution is in the Jewish origins. Who are Jews? They are the collection of 70 nations who lived in ancient Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization. United into one entity by Abraham and his teaching about balancing our egoistic inclination by creating a network of positive connections between people, they became the first and only example of this method’s practical implementation.

Today, the entire world is a part of a big global experiment as it experiences a crisis, and we all need a method of connection revealed in the teachings of Abraham to be applied on a broad scale. The Jewish people have the manual for this connection. Thus, as a mini-model of both the ancient and modern world, Jewish people need to present an example of cohesion and unity. When they do, others will follow their steps on the path to a good and fulfilled life.

Today, a lot of communities in the US are trying to do their best to ensure Jewish security, well-being and recognition of Jews among other nations. However, it is never enough unless Jews perform their role, and the anti-Semitism transforms into love and support.

The Method Of Correction, Part 6

laitman_571.01

For the Sake of the Neighbor or for the Sake of the Creator?

Question: Baal HaSulam writes that the method of Kabbalah involves two parts. The first part is the correction of a person’s relationship with the Creator; the second part is the correction of a person’s relationship with his friend. The second part is preferable. In the early stages of development it is more important.

Baal HaSulam then emphasizes a very interesting thing: there is no difference whether a person works for the sake of his friend or for the sake of the Creator since everything outside of him he feels nonexistent.

Why is there no difference between working for the Creator and for another person?

Answer: It is because it goes beyond the limits of my egoism, and it doesn’t matter to me who I work for. If you choose with whom to deal, from whom to receive, then, of course, the Creator is more preferable than some other person. But if you give to someone outside of yourself, outside of your egoism, then it doesn’t matter whom it goes to. If I have nothing from this, it goes somewhere into infinity.

Question: Is there any difference in if it is the Creator or just some other person, even a very important one?

Answer: What difference does it make if there is nothing there for me? It is emptiness.

Question: What if there’s something?

Answer: Then this is no longer bestowal. Bestowal itself must be important, but it does not matter if to the neighbor or the Creator. Precisely bestowal is the property of the Creator.
[256983]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 2/7/19

Related Material:
The Method Of Correction, Part 5
The Method Of Correction, Part 4
The Method Of Correction, Part 3

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 1/10/20

Lesson Preparation

[media 1] [media 2]

Writings of Rabash, “Love of Friends – 2” (1984)

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Rabash, “What to Look For in the Assembly of Friends” (1988)

[media 5] [media 6]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom” 

[media 7] [media 8]