Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 31
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Selected Highlights
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My new article on Linkedin “We Are Free – Free to Pray”
Even in the worst of times and under the most extreme situations, our hearts are always free. Whatever we face, we can choose how to relate to it. Now that there is once again a war in Europe, we can choose unity. War, after all, is only the most extreme state of disunity. Its antidote, therefore, is unity, and we can achieve unity if we pray for it—everyone, around the world.
A prayer is a precise request that comes from the bottom of the heart to mend a painful situation. In a state of separation and enmity, nothing can stop us from praying for unity and love. We are always free to pray.
A war is won with the spirit, not with weapons. Therefore, we must raise our spirits above our dismal physical situation and pray for the strength to unite our hearts above all the differences, divisions, and hostility.
If all of humanity unites around the war in Europe and prays for it to stop, for the parties to find the strength to resolve their differences peacefully, no ill-will will be able to resist it. Together, humanity can extinguish the fire of war around the world. This war is on us, on all of us. It is our duty, the duty of each and every one of us, to pray from the bottom of our hearts that the enemies will lay down their arms.
Everything that happens, happens in order to connect humanity, to unite it. The terrible events that are currently unfolding must become a springboard for global unity. However, this can happen only if we do not shirk our duty to rise above ourselves and form a global mutual responsibility.
If we do not seize the opportunity we have been given to strengthen unity around the world, then we are also to blame for what is happening and what is yet to happen.
Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is your viewpoint on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict?“
The current Russo-Ukrainian war awakens the awareness that as human beings, we desperately lack correction and positive connection. It shows how hatred can brew between two nations that have lived side-by-side for a long time, which share similarities in religion, language and history, and which play host to millions of families that were built with no regard as to whether the spouses’ respective families were Russian or Ukrainian. Despite their similarities, they instead emphasize their differences, differentiating and distancing themselves from each other up to a point of hatred. And the hatred boiled over into war, as if they share nothing at all in common.
Why does such a dire state come about? It is because human nature—the egoistic desire to enjoy at the expense of others and nature—is uncorrected at its basis. Moreover, this ego is already overblown, and still constantly inflating. Without correction—without mutually redirecting our intentions to benefit one another and nature—then it is bound to explode, to burst into flames, and bring about conflict and much suffering.
We then have no choice but to extinguish the flames of war by correcting ourselves, our egoistic nature, which presents itself today as the ego of one nation attacking to overpower another. We need to see that the ego’s correction is the only solution to this problem, as it is the only solution that treats the problem at its core.
We also need to understand that we cannot repair the war at its root cause—the growing uncorrected human ego—with the same egoistic powers at our disposal. Instead, through connecting to each other above our egoistic drives, which requires a guided method, we can invite the positive force dwelling in nature into our connections, and by doing so, be granted peace. Let us pray that the good inclination (intentions to positively connect to each other) will overcome the evil inclination (our innate egoistic drives) from person to person, nation to nation, and among all nations.
Based on the Writers Meeting with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on February 24, 2022, and the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on February 25, 2022. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Artur Voznenko on Unsplash.
From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 2/27/22
Over a thousand women from my students around the world gathered for a Zoom conference to raise a common prayer for world peace. Women are naturally closer to the Upper Force.
They are sensitive and feel the suffering of the world, the pain of humanity, and are able to connect together to bring the world to perfection and calm down the animosities.
Dear women, continue to raise your common prayer. We all depend on you!
Medium published my new article “Truth Social — A Much Needed Move that Will Not Work”
After being banned along with many of his supporters from liberal social media giants, former president of the United States Donald Trump launched this week his own social platform, Truth Social. The platform focuses on diversity. The first paragraph in the app description demonstrates it: “Think of a giant outdoor event tent at your best friend’s wedding. Who’s there? The combination of multiple families from all over the United States, and the world. Uncle Jim from Atlanta is a proud libertarian. Aunt Kellie from Texas is a staunch conservative. Your cousin John from California is a die-hard liberal. And guess what? They’re all together to have an amazing time and share their different viewpoints on the world. Although we don’t always agree with each other, we welcome these varied opinions and the robust conversation they bring.”
Any change in social media, or any form of media, depends only on whether, and to what extent, we ourselves change. If we want to bond, social media will help us bond; if we want separation, social media will help us divide. This is why it is essential that we stop trying to prove that we are right and start trying to show that we care for one another and want to form one, united society above all the differences.
On the one hand, I think it has to be this way: open to everyone. The liberal tech giants have become intolerably brazen and audacious. On the other hand, I think it is a big problem to give equal presence to all the views because if you want to open the platform to everyone, you are likely to lose everything.
I understand the aspiration to tell the truth, to bring a little justice and balance into the news media. At the same time, I do not think that truth exists where there are people. Because of the corrupt nature of humans, even projects that begin with the best, and purest, intentions end in corruption and depravity.
You might try to balance the inherent bias by participating in social platforms from both sides of the political aisle, but this, too, will not work. Instead of getting a complete picture, you will get two pictures, warped and distorted in two opposite ways.
If you are seeking the truth, know this: There is no truth where the ego guides our thoughts and feelings. The ego sees only its own side. Since reality consists of multiple sides, the ego cannot see the real picture of reality. Therefore, any view, by default, is wrong.
The only possible solution to the division in society is to stop looking for the truth and start looking for love, or at least, for some level of care and concern for one another. If we change how we relate to one another, we will not need to build separate media platforms to express our views because we will welcome each other’s views.
The internet, like every manmade system, reflects our nature. Since our nature is inherently corrupt, so is the internet. It will not change until the people who make it change.
Currently, we are so divided that we are not even looking for the truth. All we want is for people to tell us that we are right. Accordingly, we go on social media in search of like-minded people, and the media platforms realize it and cater to our wishes by presenting to us only people who think like us and speak like us.
As a result, society has become divided into multiple “parallel universes,” and each universe thinks that its own reality is the only one, since it never meets the inhabitants of other universes.
Since social media aspires to keep us on it for as long as possible, it will show us different views only when we begin to look for them. If we seek to connect with people who hold alternative viewpoints to ours, social media will introduce them to us. If we seek to find our own image in the reflection, this is what we will see.
Therefore, any change in social media, or any form of media, depends only on whether, and to what extent, we ourselves change. If we want to bond, social media will help us bond; if we want separation, social media will help us divide. This is why it is essential that we stop trying to prove that we are right and start trying to show that we care for one another and want to form one, united society above all the differences.
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Question: Valentin writes: “I have a strange feeling that everything around is a lie. The government lies, managers lie, the media lie. There is no truth in anything anywhere. But then how does one live? Whom can we believe? I’ve never felt it so sharply before.”
Answer: Yes, it depends on how much you have developed and feel the actual nature of the world, that egoism lies at the basis of the nature of the world. When a person begins to feel this, he really gets lost: “Where can I go?”
There are people who go to some distant islands or somewhere in a village to live quietly by themselves. They even disconnect themselves from the outside world in some way. And there are others who believe that if they accumulate wealth, for example, they will protect themselves, their future, and their successors.
Question: So how can he live with this feeling that he constantly sees that he is being deceived everywhere?
Answer: This is the nature of the world, and then—Kabbalah.
If he does not agree with the nature of our world, then he can only do one thing, go against this nature.
Question: What question should he have?
Answer: He should ask a serious question: Is it possible that the world is arranged by lies or not?
The world is designed so that we can change it. Therefore in our egoism we perceive the world in this way. If we change ourselves, the world will change.
Question: If he has such a sharp feeling that everything around him is a lie, does it mean that he needs to change?
Answer: Certainly. Otherwise he will not change the world. We think about changing the world all the time. This is the highest egoism.
Comment: This means the media cannot be destroyed, the government cannot be overthrown, the managers cannot be replaced.
My Response: Don’t do all this. We must try to show the whole world that its very nature—still, vegetative, animal, and human especially—is absolutely egoistic. And we need to correct this nature. Moreover, it is corrected from the “human” level.
Question: Therefore I always start from myself?
Answer: Start from yourself and others, with the connection between us, with the connection between people, and then nature will change at all levels. From top to bottom it will go to the animal, vegetative and still world.
Question: If I, an ordinary person, start with the connection with my loved ones, start trying to make it kind—no matter what, no matter what skirmishes and so on—will I start changing the world?
Answer: Yes, of course!
Comment: There are such rulers around in this world today that a person wants to overthrow them so much!
My Response: No, there is no need to overthrow. That would be an even bigger mess. That is all the wrong technique. It is necessary not to overthrow. It is necessary to show them how this should change.
“On them” means that, in principle, we need to explain its essence to the world. And the rulers are puppets. The hearts of the rulers are in the hands of this upper nature. And we need to understand that it is an explanation—just an explanation—that can lead people to change their attitude to themselves, to the world, and to others.
Question: And if someone who sees a solid lie around starts explaining to himself and others that this is human nature, that it is necessary to rise above it, to work with it, and to switch to good connections, what will he see instead of this lie?
Answer: Huge egoism. And we need to talk about this. Where is the method of correcting the world? It is in correcting a person. But not just in shouting and putting pressure on others. Rather, the method is in teaching, ennobling, and changing a person.
Question: If I start to change, what do I see?
Answer: If I start to change, I begin to see that this is what the world needs. And the world will change accordingly along with this. I will see more and more goodness in this world. And to the extent that I have such an impact on the world, I will see how it is changing.
This way—through our attitude to the world, and not only from me—we will bring the world into a state of correct balance.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/3/22
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Question: How long will coronavirus last?
Answer: I hope that it will not end, but will deepen and expand more and more, that it will put such barriers between us that will show us how much we hate each other and how distanced we are from each other.
Question: With what probability do you claim that it will not end?
Answer: I say what I see. I cannot measure how it will be.
Question: But this is not a 100% prediction, is it?
Answer: No, but it will probably happen in this way. If not, then it will be replaced by something more serious.
The coronavirus replaces a lot of bad events like wars for us. It distances people from each other and limits them. Therefore it is very good that it exists in this form.
I am all for the coronavirus being increased even more because it shows people at what distance they should be from each other, so their internal feelings correspond to the external ones. As long as you do not think good about a person, you will not be able to come close to him.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 12/21/21
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Question: If we act in bestowal between friends, does this mean that we work in faith above reason?
Answer: In general, yes. This is the beginning, and then you will see what will happen.
Question: Do our views about the Creator also produce the corrections necessary for the revelation of the Creator in us? In what way?
Answer: Undoubtedly! How? Under the influence of the upper light that we awaken by our striving for each other and from within us toward the Creator.
Question: Rabash writes: …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. What are these organs that he is talking about in this passage? How does one feel them?
Answer: Organs are the qualities of bestowal. In my qualities of bestowal that I cultivate in relation to my friends, I will begin to reveal the Creator.
Question: Is it possible to consider as a state of closeness to the Creator when, through our prayers, a friend who left the group returns?
Answer: Yes, it’s good. After all, it was the upper light that acted.
Question: There are always some obstacles in our world, and we try to overcome them all together through prayer. Is that enough, or is there some other advice?
Answer: That’s enough for now, and then you’ll discover other possibilities.
Question: What does it mean to believe in the faith of the sages, how does one come to this?
Answer: We must take what Kabbalists advise us, what Rabash writes in his articles, as a basis, and implement it.
Question: How can we feel the Creator with all our organs if we have only five egoistic sense organs?
Answer: You have a lot more of them, millions of sensations: taste, color, whatever! We don’t know that yet. And then you will see how many different possibilities of sensations there are in us.
Question: What is the difference between a personal Kli (vessel) in faith above reason and a ten’s Kli in faith above reason?
Answer: By a personal Kli we mean a group. What other Kli could there be otherwise? You yourself are not a Kli. You yourself are just a black dot.
Question: How and in what does faith above reason differ from self-hypnosis?
Answer: Faith is higher than reason; it is a clear construction of a spiritual Kli (vessel) in accordance with what Kabbalists tell us. And here I have to follow the instructions written by Rabash, Baal HaSulam, and other Kabbalists.
Question: It is said to believe in the sages and walk the whole way with your eyes closed. What does it mean to “walk the whole way”?
Answer: The whole way means that you need to impose the quality of bestowal on all your egoistic desires when the screen (Masach) is above the egoistic desire (Aviut).
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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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Question: You said that the most important thing is to reach unity, even at the smallest level. How can unity be divided into levels? Isn’t unity absolute: either we have it or we don’t?
Answer: Each level has its own measure of unity. We have a desire and against this desire we have the upper light. This is all graduated in 125 degrees and each degree has its own correction. Then there is an ascent to the next degree, the revelation of shattering and its correction, and so on. That is, everything repeats itself at each degree. However, these repetitions are completely different from each other.
Question: What is unity?
Answer: Unity is when you work toward one goal and that is what unites you.
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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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