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See The True Reality

928We must try to imagine a different reality, different from what we feel now, one where all of us are connected together. It actually exists in this form as a single integral world, and only my egoism detaches me from this reality.

Everyone is connected and everyone is corrected, and all the elements of nature are working as a single mechanism, a single system, in complete connection with each other. I am the only one who feels detached from others and judges them because of my own flaws.

If I depict the state of the entire creation in this correct way, I will see that Divinity (Shechina), the revelation of the Creator, dwells in all created beings, connects everyone, and operates within them.

Everyone is connected, everyone is corrected, and only I need to correct myself in order to see everyone in their true form.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/20, “Work With Faith Above Reason”

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Burning Candle

260.01How does a candle burn? A candle consists of oil below and a wick placed in it, which can be lit from above. Why does the candle burn? The oil cannot light up by itself but only thanks to the wick, which itself is also not flammable? The wick comes from the word “flawed” because it resists the light.

Yet, if the wick is connected to the oil on one side, then you can light it on the other side, and the candle will light up.

It turns out that it is the flaw, the resistance to fire, that connects the fire with the oil and turns it into a candle. The candle consists of three parts. The oil itself cannot be lit, and the wick itself is not flammable. But when the wick absorbs oil, it becomes flammable and turns into a source of fire.

Therefore, the more we discover questions, intentions, and thoughts against spirituality in ourselves that diminish the value of our spiritual work, the thicker and stronger our wick becomes because of them. If we overcome this resistance, the wick absorbs more and more oil. Then a light comes from above and lights our candle.

The moment the wick is ready and sufficiently saturated with the oil that rises through it, it feels that there is a fire above it and lights up. The fire will come right away and immediately light the wick, the problem is only in the wick itself, in our desire to attach to spirituality all the desires and thoughts that protest against spirituality, to connect above them. This is how the candle, the Menorah, is made.

Therefore, we cannot do without alien thoughts, without rejection from spirituality, without hatred for each other and the Creator. We have to experience, feel, and acknowledge all that. This is because the connection between corporeality and spirituality happens precisely because of the rejection from spirituality, which we overcome and together with it connect with the Creator.

This is the very rope that we can hold on to and connect this world with the spiritual world, the thread between us and the Creator.

Do not be afraid of alien thoughts, rejection, and problems, because “penny by penny joins into a great amount,” and as a result, we reveal a powerful connection between the material world and the spiritual world. We need both of these worlds; this is how everything was created by the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/20, “Work with Faith Above Reason”

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The World Where The Opposite Is True

608.02I exist within my desire, that is, sensations and mind, mind and heart. Inside them, I live and feel the reality called “this world,” and in it there is the universe, galaxies, planets, stars, the globe, and humanity.

But other than that, I have to imagine that there is a border of this sensation, followed by another perception, not in relation to the egoistic force where I pull everything to myself, but relative to the bestowal, when I push away from myself.

This is the reverse world in which everything is the opposite: instead of hatred—love, instead of receiving—giving, instead of attraction—repulsion. We live in that other world, not to do well for ourselves, but to do good for others, and for this we do all actions.

It’s like I’m going into space in a spacesuit. What’s inside the suit is my own little world. But outside of it is a very different world that I don’t know. I am not allowed to be there in the egoistic way that I am in now.

But if I can adjust my senses and mind to the conditions of that world, I can live there. And this is what we need to do: change the use of our heart and mind from the egoistic to the benefit of others. And by doing this, I neutralize my “I” and no longer need a special space suit, I do not need to protect myself.

After all, if I do not act for the benefit of myself, but only for the benefit of others, then I do not need to isolate myself from them. They can’t hurt me; on the contrary, I can use everything that is outside of this suit for the benefit of all.

We must try to imagine this difference between being “within reason,” that is, our present egoistic mind and heart, and “above reason,” in bestowal. In this way, we will gradually begin to approach the border between “within reason” and “above reason,” the transition from the material world to the spiritual world.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/20, “Work With Faith Above Reason”

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“What Is An Example That Nature Can Be So Cruel?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: What is an example that nature can be so cruel?

There are no such examples, because although I understand how people can perceive nature as being cruel, nature is not cruel at all.

Nature is a quality of absolute bestowal and love, without a shred of self-interest. When we feel nature in our opposite quality of egoistic self-interest, then we experience the opposite end of nature.

When I was a child, my mother scorched me about getting low grades at school. It made her anxious and distressed, but even though I experienced her as cruel in those moments, she was in fact acting lovingly and caringly toward me, wishing for me to develop as optimally as possible.

Nature is total altruism, and our quality is egoism. We feel opposite to nature’s kindness and love to the extent that we think and act contrarily to nature. This is the source for all of our negative feelings and suffering, and it is why we perceive ourselves as living in a bad world.

Yet, nature does nothing bad. It holds a constant benevolent attitude, and due to human nature’s opposition to nature in and of itself, we feel myriad phenomena in life as bad and evil. We need not blame ourselves or nature for this, it is simply a given situation that we were born into.

However, we have been granted an egoistic quality in order to be able to correct it and make ourselves as altruistic and complete as nature. Moreover, the more we evolve, the more our ego grows, and the more we feel our opposition to nature as one that causes greater and greater suffering in our lives. This development is in order to lead us to a point where we develop a sincere desire for self-transformation: to change our egocentric self-aimed modus operandi into one that is balanced with nature—altruistic, caring and loving. The process of changing ourselves to become more like nature is called “the process of correction,” and we have been given a method by which we can undergo this correction with more awareness and understanding than if we were left to our own devices.

For the time being, however, we have no such awareness, and we are like the child who does not understand why our parents are yelling at us.

Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash

A Step Into The Open Door

294.4Now we have special opportunities for spiritual advancement. The door is opening; one might even say that it is almost open, and all that remains is for everyone to enter the spiritual world.

We are already beginning to understand little by little how the spiritual world works. We have not yet crossed this threshold, but we are right in front of the open door to spirituality. There has already been a big breakthrough since the beginning of the pandemic.

We need to focus on our thoughts, intentions, sensations, and not on mechanical actions. This is how Kabbalah differs from religion; it speaks of a person’s intention, which he should receive from the upper force through his group and work with it. And religion speaks only of physical actions, of words.

Every person who wants to attain the Creator has the opportunity to do this without any distinction between race, gender, or skin color. Kabbalah is meant for everyone; the only difference is in our desires because we come from one soul of Adam HaRishon. Initially, he was generally one person, and then he was divided into a man and a woman.

We must return to this unity into one person who is all in the intention of bestowal for all his desires. Therefore, the end of correction is the same for everyone, both men and women. And the general correction is that all desires in the world—inanimate, vegetative, and animal—receive the intention for bestowal from us, people. And then the whole world will rise to the level of bestowal and unity.

Therefore, all religions will oppose the method of connection among all because each of them tries to divide people and prove its rightness. Each religion considers itself the only true one and better than others. But the science of Kabbalah comes from the side of integral nature and explains that we all belong to one system. That is why Baal HaSulam says that a person can remain in his own religion, in his customary family ways and traditions, but not to the detriment of universal connection and unity.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/20, “Work with Faith Above Reason”

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“The Chance We Were Given Today, 73 Years Ago” (Times Of Israel)

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Chance We Were Given Today, 73 Years Ago

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted in favor of a resolution, which adopted the plan for the partition of Palestine, which paved the way for the establishment of the State of Israel. For the Jewish refugees from the Holocaust, that resolution meant hope of a safer life in a Jewish state. For the world powers, it was a way to ease the burden on their conscience after having done nothing to save the Jews throughout the war, and even prevented their escape while it was still possible. For the world, it was an unwritten, unspoken, and perhaps inadvertent contract between the Jews and humanity, where the world was to give the Jews a sovereign state, and the Jews would build in it a role model nation that would serve as “a light unto nations.”

After a heroic battle, the Jewish settlement paramilitary organization in Palestine repelled the six invading Arab armies from Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia, which joined the armed forces of the Arab residents of Palestine, and established the State of Israel. It was time to start carrying out Israel’s commitment to the world.

This is when troubles began. Israel had been fraught with division from the very beginning. Zionist groups strove among themselves over power and over the way to run the struggle for the establishment of the State of Israel. Once Israel received sovereignty, these struggles did not abate but rather escalate. Waves of immigration from Arab countries and war ravaged European countries created new cultural enclaves, and every sect mocked the other sects. Many Jews from poorer countries, mainly Muslim countries such as Morocco, Libya, and Iraq, were sent to towns far from the center of the country and became what is known as “the second Israel.”

In June 1967, another misfortune struck Israel: After being threatened and harassed by its neighboring countries, and after realizing that there was no hope of avoiding another war, Israel opened fire. Within six days, and with relatively few casualties, Israel defeated and conquered territories in Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, including the Old City in Jerusalem. While the military triumph was a much required blessing, the hubris that it brought with it has been a plague we haven’t been able to shake off despite all the years that have passed, and all the failures we have suffered since then.

That hubris has only made our separation worse, and Israel has become a model of divisiveness, alienation, internal hatred, and slyness, the opposite of our intended goal in being here. Instead of mending the separation that inflicted on us the ruin of the Temple and the exile two millennia ago, our return to Israel seems to have revived the enmity within the Jewish people, and the ancient unfounded hatred is resurfacing.

The Jewish people are very opinionated and intransigent. This is our nature and nothing will change it. Nor should it change. We have been given this obstinacy not for ourselves, but precisely so as to serve as a model to the world. We must give up the notion that we can ever change each other’s mind. Instead, we must focus on nurturing unity above our different views. We need to focus not on this or that moral or ideology, as these only separate us. Rather, we should strive to elevate the value of unity itself!

Only if we focus on uniting above our differences, we will find the real merit of the differences, the real value in each distinct view, and the benefits of uniting above them. If we unite above our opposite opinions, we will create an entity that functions like any organism does, where the different, and often opposing, organs work in harmony to create a solid, healthy living being. If any part of that body were to grow weak or disintegrate, the living being would die. If all the organs operate to the fullest, this is when the organism is the healthiest and strongest.

If Israel makes peace among its vying sects, the world will look and learn from its example. If Israel does not do it, the world will regret having agreed to the creation of the Jewish state in the first place and will take whatever measures are required to eliminate it. Israel, in that sense, depends on itself. Its internal relationships will determine its external future. No other country in the world is in that position.

In Hebrew, the word “shalom” [peace] comes from the word “hashlama” [complementation]. If the struggling factions in the Jewish people learn to complement each other rather than compete and wish to annihilate each other, they will benefit, the world will benefit, and there will be peace, both in the sense of complementation, as well as in the sense of tranquility and good relationships. If the factions in Israel do not manage to unite above their differences and complement each other, then we will miss the opportunity that the world had given us on November 29, 1947, and the State of Israel will not be able to survive.
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“How Do You Overcome Fear?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: How do you overcome fear?

We can overcome fear by establishing positive connection to each other above all the phenomena that we are afraid of.

Positive connection is one where mutual support, encouragement, kindness, understanding, care and love prevail over all differences, problems and fears.

We would then generate a balanced and peaceful atmosphere that would make our every interaction positive and fulfilling.

Fake Reality

Dr Michael LaitmanComment: There is technology that creates a fake reality today. We’ve reached a state where technological advancement has made it possible for us to duplicate a person’s voice and make videos where I can put whatever words I want into anyone’s mouth. For example it’s possible to make a video of you, Dr. Laitman, where you’re saying, “I think it’s better that no one studies the wisdom of Kabbalah,” and you’re going to say, “No, it wasn’t me,” but you’ll be able to watch the video and see yourself say it…

My Response: So don’t watch anything.

Question: So that’s my question: where is this all taking us?

Answer: To a point where I don’t believe anything that I see or hear. Nothing. I have just one source, which is the book that I got from my teacher, and the upper force, through which I connect.

Question: So you’re saying that in the future it’s preferable for a person not to believe anyone, I mean to believe…?

Answer: Of course not. Not even to listen or watch.

Question: So how will people communicate?

Answer: They will have to learn how to really communicate correctly. All the senses through which I feel reality are deceitful. We will have to learn how to communicate correctly until we connect “as one man with one heart.”

Question: What do you mean?

Answer: It means that what we have to correct is our hearts.

Question: What is the essence of the correction itself?

Answer: It is that everyone wants the benefit of others.

Question: And what does that say about truth and lies?

Answer: There will be no lies. Will I lie to someone whom I truly love?

Question: So what I understand is that the world is advancing toward a lie over life, or lie…?

Answer: That is how it has been for a long time. I think everyone can agree.

Question: So tomorrow it will be impossible to believe anything that you see, hear, perceive, so I have to build a shelter, go in there, and come out…

Answer: You have to correct yourself and others, to truly be in one heart together with others…

Question: You completely confuse me. Is that truth or false?

Answer: This will be the truth. If everyone thinks the same then that’s the truth.

Question: But how will everyone think the same, we’re different…

Answer: We’ll correct ourselves.

Question: How will we be the same then?

Answer: In our mutual love. This is the upper nature, that all of us are in a good relationship with each other, and then between us we feel the force of good that dwells among all of us, and that’s actually the truth.

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Unique Level Of Annulment

530Question: Let us say I am the minister of health and you are the minister of finance. We need to make a decision in an hour whether to close the country for quarantine or not. It is clear that we will have different opinions. So, should you annul your opinion and I mine?

Answer: No. Neither of us can annul his opinion. It will not do any good. Here we need to create a completely different system of decision-making but definitely not from the cabinets of ministers.

We need to assemble a group that wants to rise above their egoistic opinions. Not to take the side of one or another egoist but to rise above themselves. This is possible only when each of us annuls himself before the others.

The ten (Minyan) is enough for this. If everyone in the ten starts annulling themselves to the others, then we can feel the community, feel what it means that we have annulled ourselves.

This point of annulment will be the starting point of our spiritual development, which is the foundation of the degree of Bina—the degree of new knowledge. We should start with this.

Question: Does it mean that even if we concede to each other and find something in the middle, we will not get anywhere either? Does the solution lie at a different level?

Answer: Yes. Unfortunately, this level is still unclear because it is really special and unique.

Comment: You are talking about feelings that are impossible to grasp.

My Response: In this case, humanity will have to suffer a little more before they close their eyes and accept this from people who already have this feeling.
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 9/25/20

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