Audio Version Of The Blog – 1/29/24
Posted on January 29th, 2024
Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3 Audio
Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3 Audio
Question: We have to perceive the point at which a person gives up receiving pleasure for oneself as a desired state so as to get out of it into another world. But here we have a feeling of fear. Kabbalists describe it, but they do not seem to say anything further. Must a person determine for oneself how to stay in this?
Answer: We need to prepare ourselves to get out of our egoistic hearts, out of our “I.” We must get closer to this.
Then it will be easier and simpler for us to see our world from a different position—not from the body, not from the heart. Try to imagine it that way.
[323843]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Understanding What Is Written in Shulchan Aruch”
Related Material:
Coming Outside Of Ourselves In Order To Hear The Creator
How Can I Stop Thinking About Myself?
Don’t Be Afraid To Receive Pleasure
Question: What does it mean to come to the temple and want to take the Creator?
Answer: It means to get to know the Creator, i.e., achieve the same qualities as the Creator, come closer to Him, and be in contact with Him.
Question: What is “striking the lion first and defeating him?” What kind of work is this?
Answer: This work is to be unafraid of any obstacles on our way and boldly go forward.
Question: How can you fight laziness when you are too lazy to make an effort?
Answer: Make an effort against laziness. Besides, you have friends. So together, put pressure on your laziness and stifle it.
Question: I make efforts, but the Creator takes and turns everything around. Why does what seemed right turn out to be wrong?
Answer: It does not matter. The Creator can do as He sees fit, and you do as you see fit. Thus, you will come to a mutual solution.
Question: We must work in joy. But when we feel the joy, we do not see a lion (obstacle) on the road. So where are the efforts we are making?
Answer: You should see with your efforts that you are approaching the lion, seizing it, and putting it away.
[323872]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/24, Writngs of Baal HaSulam “A Sage Comes to Town”
Related Material:
Questions about Spiritual Work—64
Questions about Spiritual Work—63
Questions about Spiritual Work—62
Question: When you read the Psalms of David, there is such a strong connection that you feel the meaning of every word. Is it the revelation of the letters or a connection with the author?
Answer: This is not yet a connection with the author nor the revelation of the letters. We have yet to achieve this. This is simply revelation of a certain next level of connection with the Creator, but still a very small one.
Question: How does the understanding of the reading come about?
Answer: Pray, ask that the inner meaning of the words be revealed to you, that King David would reveal to you what he wanted to say. He was a great Kabbalist, which is why he reached such heights.
All Psalms from beginning to end can be read in any state. They are very, very sensual. Each of them contains a piece of infinity.
[323893]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/14/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “A Commentary on the Psalm, ‘For the Winner over Roses’”
Related Material:
The Special Power of Psalms
The Psalms Of King David
Psalms – The Spiritual Atmosphere
Question: Disciples asked the sage, “What happens after death?” The teacher did not answer. The disciples insisted, “Is there life after death or not?” The Sage replied: “Is there life before death, that is the question.”
What do you think about the sage’s answer?
Answer: This is a usual response. How do we perceive our current state, our existence—is it life or death?
Question: So then, what is life?
Answer: Life, by corporeal definition, is the existence of protein matter.
Question: If I pinch myself and feel something, is this life? If I eat something delicious and enjoy it, am I living? Is this life?
Answer: Yes, the life of protein matter.
Question: What about the life you are talking about?
Answer: This is a completely different level that needs to be achieved.
To do this, we need to rise above our nature and enter into the scope of spiritual, highest nature, when we feel life in which our non-corporeal matter exists. If the corporeal exists in the property of receiving, the non-corporeal exists in the property of giving. If we reach this state, we will feel what that life is all about.
Question: So I am a receiver now. This is called “protein existence.” And if I become a giver, is this above the corporeal?
Answer: Sure.
Question: Is that what you call life?
Answer: There is a different definition of life there, a way of giving to everyone and everything, and ultimately to the Creator.
Comment: As I understand it, the sage meant that you have to rise above this world in some way.
My Response: Yes.
Question: So why is it that even the disciples of the sage are interested in this question of what is beyond death?
Answer: Everyone is interested in it. The students have not reached this point yet, they strive for it, they have not revealed it to themselves, they also exist in this world. That is why they are asking. Naturally.
Question: Have you asked yourself this question, what is in that world?
Answer: I had a purely scientific interest in it. But I realized that science does not deal with this and never will. Today, they are talking about it openly. But in the days of my youth, they did not talk about it so openly, although I understood it anyway.
Question: When you were searching, did you seek what was there? Or what is here?
Answer: No, I was not looking inside myself.
Question: What did you long for?
Answer: I longed to reveal the secret of life.
Question: The secret of this life?
Answer: Yes, of course. I knew of no other.
Question: Whether I live or not, right?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Did you have a feeling you were not living?
Answer: I felt there is something more, beyond.
Question: When a person has this question of what lies beyond, does it mean he is pulled by this life? That is, when a person has such a sign, suddenly such a feeling arises in him, should it be seized?
Answer: Yes, we need to develop it.
Question: Not to run from it?
Answer: No, of course not.
Comment: But it gets to you, it hurts.
Answer: If it gets to you, good. It means you will get to it, too.
[323180]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/23/23
Related Material:
Life
What Is Life and Death?
Life And Death—Alternating Sensations
Question: What is the state of the still level in the ten?
Answer: The indicator of the still level in the ten are the very initial feelings of spirituality. At this level, we do not yet experience the quality of bestowal.
The initial, spiritual thing is when we read the articles of Rabash, Shamati of Baal HaSulam, and feel that they develop us.
Question: What facilitates the development of the transition to another level?
Answer: The fact that we are constantly studying and learning from our materials.
[323820]
From the Daily Kabbalah lesson 1/11/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Still, Vegetative, Animate, and Speaking”
Related Material:
Feel the Ten
Caring in the Heart
The Ten Commandments Of Connection
“In our land” is the day of Shabbat [Sabbath], which is a sample of the land of the living (Zohar for All, “The Flower Buds”).
Question: How does the Sabbath relate to the future world?
Answer: On the level of time, it may seem to us that the future world comes after this world. In reality, we are not talking about astronomical time, but about human development because we must reach a level where the meaning of our existence, the existence of our entire world, is revealed to us; i.e., we understand what we live for.
In this way, we can become partners with the Creator, and work with Him on the transformation of inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human nature so that it would be in harmony with the Creator and reveal Him.
Question: What does it mean to be a partner of the Creator? Does it mean agreeing with His actions?
Answer: To understand the Creator, after all, to agree, it is necessary to understand His actions. And for that, it is necessary to change yourself and become like Him. That is our task.
Question: It turns out that man’s task is to agree with the actions of the Creator, right?
Answer: To become similar to the Creator. And then, as a result, we will agree with His actions.
[323701]
From KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 1/7/24
Related Material:
My Self Is Actually Not Mine
Stages Of The Formation Of The Mind: Waking Life In Stone
I Am My Beloved’s And My Beloved Is Mine
Question: What is the truth of the recognition of evil?
Answer: The truth of the recognition of evil is a state when we already understand that evil is absolutely uncharacteristic of the Creator and we are ready to reject this force.
This is when we build a good angel (Malach Tov) within ourselves, the correct depiction of creation.
[323881]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/24, Writings of Rabash “Concerning Help that Comes from Above”
Related Material:
What Is Evil?
Evil Is Our Inability To Feel Love
Get To Know Yourself, Get To Know The Creator
Question: There is a wise saying for the difference between like and love. When you like a flower, you pick it. If you love a flower, you water it daily.
What does it mean to love, to water a flower?
Answer: It is very simple. It is to understand what the one you love needs and to provide it for him or her, to fill them, to “water” them.
Question: So do I first need to find out what this person needs and give it to him? Is this called love?
Answer: This is indeed called love.
Question: So when I see a withering flower, for example, it is easier for me to water it, see it start to lift its head, and suddenly come to life. And when love withers away completely and the flower dies, do we then lose hope or do we still water it?
Answer: What else is left?
Comment: Leave it. Look for another flower. Or should I still water it?
My Response: I think you should still water it.
Comment: That is, this hope should be.
My Response: You can revive it with your feelings and by giving it water.
Comment: We are talking about love, which is believed to not be there. However, you feel that there is no such thing as no love there. You say we can revive it.
My Response: Yes, absolutely nothing disappears.
Question: Is something still alive there? It is so beyond reason after all. How can we believe it?
Answer: It is beyond reason, but we can see it in nature, too.
Question: As when something suddenly sprouts from a completely barren land?
Answer: Yes. We can overcome even the state of death.
Question: Can we overcome a dead, withered state?
Answer: At any state, at the vegetative level, at the animal and human levels.
Question: How can I convince myself of this? This is the most important thing.
Answer: It all depends solely on the expansion of your inner feelings. If you want, even the Pharaoh’s mummy will come to life. Let us say he was buried two or three thousand years ago, and your attitude toward him reorients itself so he begins to come to life.
Question: When you say “come to life,” what do you mean?
Answer: To live at our level.
Question: Meaning, will all the vital forces come back to him? This is not fiction?
Answer: It will not be fiction.
Comment: But in our current state, the way we understand things now, this is just pure fantasy.
Answer: Of course. This is decomposition into natural elements.
Question: Can we put them back together with our efforts?
Answer: We can bring them back together; we can do it.
Question: Where can I get the patience to work in this way?
Answer: No one has the patience. But there is an understanding of the process you are talking about. Let us say love has died in you now. And then what?
Question: Where to get the patience, as you say, to even raise the dead?
Answer: Let us say you have realized you are able to revive it with your efforts during, say, fifty years.
Question: Do I have to invest fifty years into this?
Answer: No, you are not thinking of investing fifty years into this. You are thinking of what you are reviving. The years become unimportant; you are already living the outcome.
Question: This is beautiful! Is this the way to live?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Then all my efforts matter less, everything I invest into it fades in the face of this goal, this revival. And then I will revive it?
Answer: Yes, of course. Your spirit will penetrate this dead state, and it will sprout.
Question: When can I give up, raise my hands because I am unable to revive it? Is there such a thing?
Answer: That is weakness.
Question: Is it really a weakness? And does it come to the person all the time? How do I work with it?
Answer: I once had a neighbor in the next apartment whose little son was ill with brain inflammation. I remember how, at about two or three in the morning, as I was going to the lesson, she knocked on my door and brought me this child, a little bundle, handed him over, and said hopelessly: “Take him.” That was it. That is the kind of state we cannot get to. Fight it!
Question: So, no surrender, neither with what I see nor with what I hear? Is that all?
Answer: Keep going!
Question: Is this what we call coming to real prayer?
Answer: Yes.
Comment: It is not easy!
Answer: But in my story, it was already too late. The child was already… the body was still reacting somehow, but everything inside was already nearly dead.
Question: And yet you say we cannot give up? Should that never happen?
Answer: Never.
[323299]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/27/23
Related Material:
Love Is A Beast
What To Do If Love Is Gone?
How To Save A Marriage
Preparation to the Lesson
 Video: Play Now | Download |
 Audio: Play Now | Download |
1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, “What Are the Times of Prayer and Gratitude in the Work?”
| Video: Play Now | Download |
Audio: Play Now | Download |
2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 2, Part 7, Item 5
| Video: Play Now | Download |
Audio: Play Now | Download |
3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “600,000 Souls”
| Video: Play Now | Download |
Audio: Play Now | Download |
Selected Highlights
| Video: Play Now | Download |
Audio: Play Now | Download |
Daily Audio Version-MP3
Get the Weekly eNewsletter
Follow on Twitter
