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A Small Addition That Opens Up A Whole World

962.2All actions supposedly performed for the sake of humanity are actually done for one’s own sake in order to show one’s righteousness, strength, and power. Thus a person works and claims that he is making efforts for the sake of humanity.

But if I really want to work for the sake of humanity, then I need the power of bestowal, the upper force. Therefore, if someone claims that he is ready to work only for the benefit of society, it is a lie. He just does not understand what he is talking about.

But humanity no longer has the strength to work for itself because we have reached such a limit where everyone has already completed their egoistic development. And now we need to develop by uniting.

We see that all of nature develops in a similar way. At first amoeba, the simplest organisms, developed until molecules combined into more complex systems. As a result, they formed more complex bodies that had feelings and a mind, and made a division of roles within their connection.

Humanity is beginning to feel that we do not have enough force for further existence. And when we try to egoistically receive these forces from nature, we cannot do it, and we give up in desperation. This is when the science of Kabbalah must be revealed.

All our development up to this point has been in order to reveal us as a complete zero, that is, that we do not have a single correct goal and strength to reach any truth. We must discover this truth of creation.

A person is not able to work for the sake of humanity because he needs to rise above himself for this. I do not have the ability to feel humanity.

I can feel my family because it is one of the basic desires, which are food, sex, and family; therefore, I am ready to work for it. But humanity and even a nation are almost indiscernible concepts for me. After all, I must egoistically feel that they are in me so that I can work for them. And if I do not have that feeling, then I do not want to make an effort.

Therefore, one additional component is needed here: for the sake of the Creator, above reason, that is, a connection with the upper force due to its revelation. And it is possible to reveal the upper force only through the similarity of properties. This “small” addition opens the entire spiritual world, the true reality, before us.

But we must build the Creator ourselves. He does not exist outside of us. We cannot reveal the Creator until we reach the form of creation. And the form of creation is the ten, the group. Therefore, first of all, we must try to include ourselves into each other.

There is no Creator without creation. There is a common upper force that fills the entire universe. And to the extent that we construct creation, the ten, we can reveal a part of this abstract upper force that fills all of reality on one hand and is not felt by anyone on the other. It is revealed only to those who build the right vessel, the Kli, for its revelation.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/17/22, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Peace“

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To Accept Without Any Conditions

963.1Let me be in a state in which I do not understand and am unable to connect the thoughts and feelings I am experiencing as a result of it, I am like a shattered vessel that was broken into separate shards, despite this, I perceive this state—these thoughts and desires, and my existence in this reality—as received from the Creator. This is why I have to feel myself as perfect.

The Creator gives me a state that in my opinion is the worst state possible, and I cannot do anything with it. I have neither reason nor feelings for it, but I accept it without any conditions only because it comes from the Creator. Therefore I consider this state to be perfect and as belonging to a higher degree in relation to what I am able to perceive in my Kelim (vessels).

Then I ascend to this upper degree, the degree of bestowal, Bina, which is the degree of faith above reason.

In my opinion, this is a complete shattering because I do not understand anything and cannot connect one with the other. But if I believe that this state comes to me from the Creator, the only and perfect force, the good that does good, then I establish myself with regard to this absolute and increasingly expose myself to the influence of the upper light, to the influence of Bina.

Gradually I begin to understand and feel why the Creator arranged this work for me so I can rise from the will to receive, from all the problems I have, to the will to bestow, from this world to the upper, spiritual world. This is how I rise to the next degree and how I advance toward the state of faith. Even though I do not feel it in my Kelim yet, I am already making room for this concept.

All this is because I do not forget the simple truth: everything I receive now comes to me from the Creator, both the sensation of this world and the sensation of the will to bestow.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/18/22, “Faith Above Reason”

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“What Is Nature’s Plan?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: What is nature’s plan?

Nature’s plan is to facilitate every degree of nature’s development, from one degree to the next, in order to gradually reach the highest evolutionary degree, that of the human.

In Hebrew, the word for “human” (“Adam”) comes from the word for “similar” (“Domeh”), and a human being is one who becomes “similar to the most high” (“Domeh le Elyon”). Our inborn animate degree is a desire to enjoy, and this desire to enjoy remains intact throughout any changes we acquire. Nature, at its source, is a single force and thought that has no intention for self-benefit, but only acts in a direction of giving. In other words, the general force of nature (altruism) is opposite to our inborn nature (egoism).

While our innate animate desire to enjoy remains intact, we can develop our thoughts, intentions and attitudes to each other and to nature so that they shift from wishing to enjoy for self-benefit alone, to wishing to enjoy by benefiting others and nature. In other words, at the level of our thoughts, intentions and attitudes to each other and to nature, above our inborn desire to enjoy, we can become similar (“Domeh”) to the general force of nature, which is what turns us into human beings.

Nature’s plan is thus to develop us not to become nature, but to become like nature in our thoughts, intentions and attitudes to each other, or in other words, to change our attitudes to each other from egoistic to altruistic, from a negative connection to a positive one. When we do so, we undergo a monumental shift from being opposites with nature—receiving from nature at every given moment—to being partners with nature in our attitudes to each other and to nature, and we thus achieve balance with nature. Making such a shift also means attaining a state of completion, perfection and eternity—opposite sensations to our current animate state.

Nature is guiding us to that exalted state. Moreover, the human degree is the final ultimate degree of our evolution that we are developing toward. We cannot rise any higher than that. We can only acquire nature’s altruistic quality in our thoughts, intentions and attitudes, but not in our actual receptive nature.

Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on December 2, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Building The Degree Of Faith

232.06How can you become independent of your feelings? And what is the joy of such work?

The joy is that I can be independent of what I understand and feel because the ability to understand and feel something higher than myself awakens in me. It is as if I am beginning to add another degree to myself, another state, that contains the mind and feelings of an upper level, which is called “above my reason.”

I am working on putting aside my own understanding and feeling. And besides it, I now want to build another higher state in myself, a state where there is a completely different understanding and feeling received from the Creator. Only to Him do I cling, and He defines everything for me. All my feelings and mind are only from Him! There is none else besides Him.

I build this degree above myself and in this form I advance.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/18/22, “Faith Above Reason”

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“The Tragedy Of The Commons Is Our Reality” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “The Tragedy of the Commons Is Our Reality

A widely known term, at least in academia, is “the tragedy of the commons.” The term “commons” describes a resource that everyone can use at no cost, such as air. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School Lawrence Lessig explains that the tragedy is that when there is a limited amount of a commons, the competition over it causes its depletion because people work out of self-interest, whereas if they were considerate, everyone would have enough.

Until recently, we thought that we could emit as much gas as we want into the atmosphere without consequences. As a result, we have polluted Earth’s entire atmosphere. We thought we could litter the oceans indefinitely, but we have polluted all of Earth’s oceans. We have depleted Earth’s fresh water reservoirs, contaminated Earth’s soil, and we have turned our entire planet into a barely livable place. We have inflicted a worldwide tragedy of the commons on ourselves, and now we are paying for it. Our last resort is a joint effort to change our behavior, but in order to change our behavior, we will have to change ourselves, from the very foundation of our being.

Ecologist Garrett Hardin popularized the concept of the tragedy of the commons in an essay titled “The Tragedy of the Commons: The population problem has no technical solution; it requires a fundamental extension in morality.” In his book The Future of Ideas, Lessig quotes Hardin’s explanation: “‘Picture a pasture open to all,’ Hardin writes, and consider the expected behavior of ‘herdsmen’ who roam that pasture. Each herdsman must decide whether to add one more animal to his herd. In making a decision to do so, Hardin writes, the … herdsman gets the benefit of one more animal, yet everyone suffers the cost, because the pasture has one more consuming cow. And this defines the problem: Whatever costs there are in adding another animal are costs that others bear. The benefits, however, are enjoyed by a single herdsman. Therefore each herdsman has an incentive to add more cattle than the pasture as a whole can bear. …Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit—in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.”

However, Hardin concludes in his article, “Education can counteract the natural tendency to do the wrong thing, but the inexorable succession of generations requires that the basis for this knowledge be constantly refreshed.”

Hardin wrote his piece in 1968, when the realization of the toll of humanity’s reckless behavior was in its infancy. Since then, we have not learned any lessons. We did not refresh our education; we never even began.

Earth’s free commons are finite, though we would like to believe the contrary. “Using the commons as a cesspool does not harm the public under frontier conditions because there is no public,” writes Hardin in relation to the early white settlers in the US. But “the same behavior in a metropolis is unbearable.”

Now that we have depleted Earth’s pool of fresh air, fresh water, and sources of food, the scarcity is beginning to take its toll. Allegorically, we have been borrowing from a shop that seemed to have no keeper, but we have been wrong, and now the keeper is collecting the debt.

However, we can avert the emerging catastrophe of depletion. If we (finally) apply the self-education we so badly need to apply, we will find that there is plenty of food, fresh air, and fresh water for all. We are already producing far more than we are consuming. If we had a sense of mutual responsibility, and goods actually went to people who need them, we would reduce production so dramatically that we would not worry about emissions quotas and other limitations.

The root of our problem is not that we are depleting Earth, but that we are trying to destroy or at least control one another. As a result, we inflict on all of nature and on ourselves an existential tragedy.

We will be able to change our modus operandi only if we change our motivation from aiming to destroy others to aiming to build them. When we realize that we can blossom only in a flourishing social environment, we will begin to think about others in constructive and prosocial ways, and then we will transform our world.

This is why today, an educational process of installing the realization that we are all dependent on each other in every way should be the most essential component, the bedrock of any program aimed at mitigating every problem: from depression to deforestation.
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“Why Everyone Thinks We Are So Terrible” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “Why Everyone Thinks We Are So Terrible

The more humanity evolves, the more it installs negative reactions on all levels of nature. But its adverse effect is felt most strongly on the human level. Within the human level there are also divisions: There are the Jews, and there is the rest of the world. Don’t believe me? If you check how many UN resolutions concern Israel and how many concern the rest of the world, you will find that in all major committees, such as the Human Rights Council or the Security Council, Israel is the subject of UN resolutions several times more than all the countries of the world combined! What’s more, all those resolutions are condemnations and calls for Israel to correct its behavior.

If the whole world feels that Israel is several times worse than all the countries of the world, put together, it makes sense for them to deal only with us, the main problem of the world. Therefore, whatever level of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiments the world has expressed so far is certain to increase.

It is written that Israel became a nation at the foot of Mt. Sinai when they united “as one man with one heart.” However, it is also written that when Israel received the law of unity, the commandment to love one another as themselves, hatred for Israel descended upon the nations of the world (Midrash Rabbah, Shemot 2:4).

Since that fateful day, we have been indebted to be a model nation, to set an example of unity to the entire world. In the words of our sages, this was called being “a light unto nations.” When we succeed, we are hailed as heroes and the world feels that it can learn from our example how to manage its affairs. When we fail, and more often than not we do, we are condemned as villains and blamed for all the problems in the world, especially the conflicts.

Since the inception of our nation, all the sages throughout the generations have confirmed the link between our unity and the well-being of the world. Over the past century or so, however, we have grown so thick that we have lost all sense of our obligation. The term Tikkun Olam [correction of the world], which so many Jewish leaders like to use in an ethical sense, does not actually refer to any other nation. It refers only to the correction of our sina’at hinam [mutual hatred without cause], which prevents us from being “a light unto nations” and enables the correction of the world.

What we define as antisemitism or as anti-Zionism is really the demand of the nations that we set the example we are obligated to set: an example of unity.

People define spirituality in many ways, but if there is one law in our world that is truly spiritual, and yet openly present among us, it is antisemitism. There is no rational way to explain it, yet everyone feels it and cannot resist it. Therefore, rational explanations will not heal or even lessen antisemitism.

The only remedy to Jew-hatred is Jew-love, namely for Jews to learn to love one another for no other reason than to set an example of unity over hatred so the whole world may be healed from conflict. Only when we follow this one spiritual law will we be liberated from the oldest, most persistent, and most malignant of all hatreds.
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Contact The Creator

624.03Question: You said that condemning oneself leads a person to prayer. How do we get to the right point to evaluate ourselves when we are in an ocean of concealment?

Answer: At any given moment, you can see absolutely clearly how you feel about your friends. Try to realize what Kabbalists write to us, and you will see how much you disagree with what they write and how much you do not want to get close to other friends, unite with them, and work for them. That is, you will be absolutely clear where you are.

Hence, you will begin to worry about what will happen to you next if you do not change yourself. And in order to change yourself, you must turn to the Creator. That’s it.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/6/22, “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us” Lesson 1

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The Starting Point Of Spiritual Work

524.01Question: You said that we have a lot of work to do before annulment. What kind of work is it?

Answer: Before annulment, we have the work in preparation where we create a group, study the methodology, etc. But this is still not the beginning of spiritual work.

Spiritual work begins with my practical annulment before the ten when I clearly feel that I must restrict my egoism in order to get closer to my friends.

Moreover, these are not just pretty words. I must clearly feel what I am doing and how close I am to them until our current negative connection becomes positive, when we yearn to replace each other, help each other, and free each other from problems.

And all this will be between us, between our desires and hearts. That is when we can begin to create conditions for the revelation of the Creator.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Annulling before the Friends” Lesson 2

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My Friends Have Wonderful Properties

610.2How can I see only excellent, superior qualities in all my friends? In an ideal state, I could say that I see an ideal world, ideal people, and ideal friends before me, and only within my egoism do I see shortcomings in my friends, in the world, in the Creator, in everything.

But I gradually adjust myself in such a way as to see the real picture of the world where everything is filled with one Creator—”There is none else besides Him.”

If I want to see the Creator, the upper world, then I can do it only in my corrected properties. And how can I understand, accept, adapt, and improve them? Only to the extent that I raise the group and the friends in my eyes.

All this is within our power and is practically in front of us. This is how we must act. This is a very good calibration, a correct adjustment to the spiritual world. That is why the Creator did it this way. We must try to use it all the time although our egoism will constantly interfere.

Question: What are these higher properties that I am trying to see in my friends?

Answer: They are above yours. They are superior to you in everything.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Adhering to the Friends” Lesson 3

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