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Impregnation And Spiritual Growth Of Man

944Rabash, Article No. 31, “Concerning Yenika [Nursing] and Ibur [Impregnation]”
Therefore, the beginning of the entrance into the work of the Creator is regarded as Ibur [impregnation], when he cancels his self and becomes impregnated in the mother’s womb, as it is written, “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.” This comes from the verse, “For if you call the mother, ‘understanding [Bina],’” meaning that he cancels self-love, called Malchut, whose original essence is called “will to receive in order to receive,” and enters the vessels of bestowal, called Bina.

After a person, closes his eyes, connects with others, and annuls himself before them, he becomes like a drop of semen that enters the womb, the place where the fetus begins to develop from this drop. He who thus annuls himself in the group is like a drop that enters the womb.

Gradually, by becoming more and more involved with the group in actions to annul himself, he begins to develop. These internal actions can be accompanied by external ones. But now while in virtual communication, we have little physical contact with each other, and it does not indicate anything.

The spiritual growth of a person depends on annulling himself before the group, on the help of his friends, communicating with them, and his attempting to understand more and more how to annul before them. This is how he develops in a constant search for proper annulment.

To the extent that he can annul himself, he grows as if on his own but inside the group, not hindering, but helping and connecting more and more with his friends. He kind of fills the inner space of the group. This is his development in the womb.

He thus develops to a state where he and the group come to mutual equilibrium: the group influences him and he influences the group, and this leads to the beginning of the process of birth.

In this process, there are a lot of actions that can be studied both from the side of the womb (Bina), from the side of the friends, and the person himself. And then all this comes into its concrete expression: labor begins and a person is separated from the group by the fact that his own egoism manifests. But with this egoism he can exist in the property of bestowal. This is his spiritual birth.

We see these states when a person annuls himself to the point that he wants to be absorbed by the group, wants to completely surrender and grow in it to the extent that they want him to be inside them. He fills the entire group, that is, he develops inside, in the womb, and the group expands, takes upon it all of his states, and the mutual development of the fetus and the group (womb) occurs.

They develop together until a person begins to independently manage his egoism to a minimum extent. And then the act of birth takes place, that is, separation of the individual from the group. But he does not separate from it. He becomes like an external force in relation to the group, draws even closer to the Creator, and becomes a connecting link between the group and the Creator on one hand. And on the other hand, the group connects him to the Creator.

The most important thing is for us to understand that the process we will undergo consists in annulling ourselves to the group. The nine months during which the fetus develops, that is, a person within the group in complete annulment before it, is the nine months of our development inside the group.

Here, there is the desire of Malchut, the desire of Bina, the desire of Keter, and all of this is combined together. There are a lot of various conditions here, but we will study this as we learn in practice.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Annulling before the Friends” Lesson 2

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“Opioids — An Escape From Pointlessness” (Medium)

Medium published my new article “Opioids — an Escape from Pointlessness

According to data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, last year saw a leap of nearly 30 percent in deaths from drug overdose, 75 percent of which was attributed to opioids. According to the data, deaths from opioid overdose rose by nearly 40 percent last year alone.

These alarming statistics are by far the worst of any country, but the US is not alone in its opioid crisis. During roughly the same time period, opioid use among teenagers in Israel has soared, accompanied by a surge in calls to emotional help centers.

In both the US and Israel, the problem is not opioid use per se, but the sense of pointlessness that drives young adults and teens to try to escape from reality. Today, when people have everything they need materially, questions about the meaning of it all become increasingly poignant.

This is true not only of teenagers and young adults, but also of their parents. In fact, part of the reason why teenagers cannot answer to themselves the question about the meaning of life is that their parents do not know the answer either and are just as perplexed. Since parents cannot provide answers, children remain frustrated.

Opioid abuse is only one facet of the problem. In truth, everywhere you look, people are unhappy, depressed, angry, and frustrated. This is why so many of them turn to extremes to find meaning: religious fundamentalism, extreme sports, violence, and substance abuse.

The solution, therefore, does not lie in a particularistic approach to opioid overdose. There needs to be a comprehensive system that informs people about the changing reality and teaches them how to deal with it.

This system needs to start in early childhood and continue well into adulthood. People should be placed in social circles that provide them with social support, warmth, sympathy, and empathy. The relationship with the group should be an extended one and continue through life, providing people with a base to lean on and from which to grow.

Gradually, people will begin to develop new values. Instead of seeking meaning and satisfaction derived from self-centered goals, people will find meaning in reciprocal relationships with others. They will begin with the core group I just mentioned and develop from there to wider and wider circles.

On the other side of the crisis lies a new society, connected and supportive. But getting there requires squeezing through a narrow cave where the light on the other end is dim and erratic.

The pain that drives people to opioids and other forms of escapism is the result of the pressure from being in the process of shifting from one world to another. On the one hand, pleasures from the old world no longer give them the joy they once had; on the other hand, they have not discovered the pleasure in reciprocating with others. As a result, they feel “trapped in a cave” and are desperately looking for an escape.
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“Playing God” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “Playing God

Life is full of games. Animals, babies, children, everyone plays games. When we become teenagers, different games begin, which become increasingly sophisticated over time. We put on and take off personas of icons we admire or that influence us, but in the process, we lose touch with who we are.

Playing God means aiming to become similar to the quality of giving, the quality that engenders all of life. It is the most complicated and most intricate game in existence. It is also, by far, the most rewarding.
Games are a natural means of development. They help us prepare for our next level of development—physical, intellectual, emotional, or spiritual. As we grow up, we come to feel that we must hide our real selves and put on some persona that will be popular. This is how we begin to forget who we are.

As we grow up, we develop new personas for every new phase in life. We develop a persona for being with friends, a persona for being at home with the family, a persona for being a parent, a persona for being at work, with strangers, or anywhere else we go. In the end, even when we are alone and do not need to put on any front, we do not know what “persona” to wear because we are so unaccustomed to just being us.

Sometimes, at night, before we fall asleep, a question creeps into our minds: “Who am I? Do I really know who I am without all the masks and fronts I have put on throughout my life? And most importantly, will I ever find the real me again?”

The answer to that question is that it is possible, but on one condition. You need to play a special game for this, and put on a special persona: You need to play at being God. God is not some kind Santa sitting on a cloud, or an entity that governs the universe. God, otherwise known as the Creator, is a quality, an attribute: God is a quality of absolute giving and caring about others. Only the quality of absolute goodness can engender something since anything else looks inward, to please itself, rather than outward, to build a new and independent being.

Just like a mother engenders life through her love, the Creator engenders life through His love. If we want to find our true selves, we need to play at being like the Creator, in a state of pure giving and caring for others.

It may feel awkward, at first, but so does every persona we put on. Just as every persona becomes natural after a while, so will the persona of the giver.

Playing God means aiming to become similar to the quality of giving, the quality that engenders all of life. It is the most complicated and most intricate game in existence. It is also, by far, the most rewarding.

There are no losers in this game because you can play as long as you want until you win. When you win, you become the persona you were playing. In other words, the quality of giving becomes second nature, a new nature that you place above your original one, and both of them exist within you.

Once you have obtained that other nature, your perception expands to encompass all of reality. You suddenly understand why everything happens because you see things from the same perspective that created everything and sustains everything. You understand not only the present, but the past and future, too, become known, and “time” acquires a whole new meaning. As our perception becomes unbounded, so does our sense of existence, and life and death become phases of development, while we ourselves transcend both as we become omnipresent and omniscient like the quality that has engendered and sustains the world.
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Which Life To Enjoy?

544The essence of the assembly is for everyone to be in one unity and for all to seek but one purpose: to find the Creator. In every ten there is the Shechina [Divinity]. Clearly, if there are more than ten then there is more revelation of the Shechina. Thus, each one should assemble with his friend and come to him to hear from him a word about the work of the Creator, and how to find the Creator. He should annul before his friend, and his friend should do the same toward him, and so should everyone do (Maor VaShemesh, “VaYechi”).

We need to practically adapt what we are studying to the relationships between us in the group. Otherwise nothing will come of it; it is just a waste of your time.

Rabash in such cases said, “If a person doesn’t want to participate in a group, what to do? Let him go and enjoy life.”

It is one of two things: either enjoy life on the streets or enjoy life in a group aimed at the Creator. Otherwise a person is neither here nor there. He only gnaws at himself, which is worst of all.
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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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Good Power Filling The World

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This means that he must believe above reason and imagine that he has already been rewarded with faith in the Creator that is felt in his organs, and he sees and feels that the Creator leads the entire world as the good who does good. Although when he looks within reason he sees the opposite, he should still work above reason and it should appear to him as though he can already feel in his organs that so it really is, that the Creator leads the world as the good who does good (Rabash, Article 28, “What Is Do Not Add and Do Not Take Away in the Work?”).

You must believe above reason, that is, contrary to your understandings, opinions, and beliefs, and imagine that you have already been rewarded with faith in the Creator, as if you already feel Him with all your organs, and see and feel that the Creator leads the entire world as the good who does good. We must be clear about this.

And although at the moment I don’t feel the Creator as good who fills the whole world with His good attitude, I try as best I can to imagine what kind of world it is in which such a phenomenon manifests itself when everything around is filled with the revelation of good power.

No matter where I turn, no matter what I think, no matter what I do, no matter what I encounter, everywhere I see the manifestation of the Creator’s kindness. His presence fills the whole world.

Imagine that the Creator (the good, positive force) fills the whole world and you and your friends unite in such a way that you want to feel this force through your intention for kindness. You want to make yourself a detector that reveals this power to the extent that you want to create it among yourself in the group.

To do this, there must be several people giving, influencing each other positively, so that in connection with each other they uncover a quality that would reveal to them the Creator who fills everything. This is how we create the Kli (vessel) for the revelation of the Creator.

We have everything for this. It doesn’t matter that we don’t see or feel anything yet. The main thing is that we are together. We will strive for this as much as we can. And in accordance with this, we will gradually force the Creator to reveal Himself in the connection that we artificially create between ourselves in feeling.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Going with Faith above Reason” Lesson 5

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To Work On Egoism

608.01Question: What is the difference between imagining within reason in our reason and being in faith above reason in action? And how does one lead to the other?

Answer: We can imagine these states as we like, but we still need to understand that everything depends on how we act, react, and how we build our relationships. We need to create a relationship as if the Creator is revealed between us and is constantly revealing more and more.

In this case, we will really prepare ourselves for the fact that we will reach a state when He begins to reveal Himself to us. And then we will have to create a protection against not revealing Him explicitly. This is called restriction, creating a screen and reflected light.

Only to this extent will we be able to attain Him, because we will form a Kli (vessel) of bestowal within ourselves, a quality of bestowal, and we will become like the quality of the Creator. All we need to do is to work above egoism on the quality of bestowal.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Going with Faith above Reason” Lesson 5

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What Does The Desire To Feel The Group Lead To

938.03To annul yourself in relation to the ten means that you have to define your common goal,  realize you are in the same boat, and there is nothing else left but to become dependent on each other so much that you will all feel like one common whole.

And then, as you get closer and closer and constantly work on it, you will be able to feel how the Creator dwells in all this.

Every friend should think that he wants to feel the group, only this system, and live inside it. Then you will begin to feel that there is an upper force inside it, the Creator who pulls you, guides you, and shapes you inside the ten. And the ten becomes a common system. You have to feel it.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Going with Faith above Reason” Lesson 5

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“Have Human Beings Reached Their Full Potential As A Species?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: Have human beings reached their full potential as a species?

We will reach our full potential when we open our hearts to each other, and in our shared heart, feel a completely different reality above the limitations of our ego.

We will then be in a state where we will be able to bestow abundance to everyone with our thoughts, living in a network of such mutual connection that no one would need anything else.

We need only learn how to tap into the greatest energy source—the upper force. We can receive it out of thin air. It exists right here and now, but we do not feel it.

The upper force is endless because it is different to the receptive force that is our nature. We have no idea how a tiny spark from that energy source broke into our universe, created the galaxies, planets, people, animals and so on—that everything and everyone was created from a tiny spark of that force. Do you understand how powerful that is? We still cannot comprehend it to this very day. It simply vitalizes everything that exists.

How can we tap into this energy source? First, we need to understand that its qualities are those of love, bestowal and connection. By equalizing our form with its qualities of love, bestowal and connection, we then no longer pose any disturbance to it and let it flow uninhibitedly into our lives.

We will then realize our full potential—discovering the full extent of love, bestowal and connection between us and with the upper force.

Based on the video “How Humanity Can Reach its Full Potential” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Pride Is The Best Helper

294.1Question: Psychologists, religions, and spiritual movements often tag pride as the greatest evil. Pride is behind insults, diseases, wars, and all kinds of sufferings. Author Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth contends that there are 41 evidences of pride, which include: self-infallibility, a patronizing attitude to others, a sense of self exclusivity, feeling like a victim, bragging, the ability to put an opponent in his place, and so on. All these evidence pride within us, but in disguise.

Why is pride given to a person?

Answer: This is our main quality!

This is precisely our egoism, which supposedly wants to raise a person above others. Pride is given in order for me to realize how sinful, vicious, insignificant, stupid, weak, etc. I am. It is in order for me to understand in all my actions and thoughts, that is, in my mind and desires, that if I want to do the right thing, I must act only by the force of connection with the Creator.

Question: Does it mean that it is not evil, but rather good?

Answer: Of course! It was created to show us how insignificant we are if we are under the control of pride.

Comment: Psychology and religions say that it is the greatest evil. Yet you, after all, say that this is the greatest good.

My Response: Evil leads us to absolute good. It is what the Creator created: “I created evil and gave the Torah, the upper light, to correct it.” So, go and correct yourself.

The Creator created pride so that we would realize our insignificance in it, and would want by all means to get rid of it, and therefore, to find strength, to find the mind to turn to the Creator so that He would do it. Thus, pride leads us to the Creator, helps us find a connection with Him, and allows us to reach the height of the Creator.

Question: What does pride turn into in this case?

Answer: Into complete agreement with the Creator. There is nothing left of it but joy in obtaining the greatness of the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/4/21

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