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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 19

What Is Correct to Seek: Recognition of Evil or the Feeling of the Creator’s Greatness?

The most correct course of action in order to progress is to attach, cling, and bond with the upper force, the Creator, as Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) writes in his article “There Is None Else Besides Him.” He also writes that half an hour each day should be spent in self-reflection, not looking up, but looking within. Also, even when looking within, we should check what we have sensed, examined, and seen in the Creator.

A routine inward focus on ourselves is called “a complete descent to the level of this world.” It brings about despair, not progress. We are where our thoughts are. Who are we? Our thoughts. If our thoughts are focused on materialism, we are in materialism. If we are focused on Godliness, we are in Godliness. That is what we call “ascents and descents.”

It is thus beneficial to be as attentive as possible to Godliness. As Kabbalist Baruch Shalom Ashlag (RABASH) writes, the group should work to elevate Godliness constantly and focus on how to raise the Creator’s greatness. We should not think about ourselves but about the greatness of the Creator. Why? It is because we become inspired by what we receive from above.

Certainly, we should not neglect the inner goal and the desire for self-recognition of evil, but we should not linger in the negative for too long as it causes despair, which is unhelpful. Only connection with the Creator is helpful. By continually punishing ourselves for being bad, we actually distance ourselves from correction by punishing the Creator. Thus, expressions of joy, awakening, and elevation of spirit are signs that we are moving in the correct direction. Conversely, sadness, weakness, self-punishment, and guilt are signs of stagnation, not progress.

This is the general approach to advancing in the direction of Godliness. If there is a healthy spirit of struggle and overcoming in the group, everyone will abandon their doubts with more ease and speed. Doubts arise constantly and must constantly be set aside. It might seem endless, but there is an end, which comes after several years of effort. The time required is shortening. In earlier times, it took twenty or thirty years to reach Godliness, but as time presses on, more developed souls enter the world and the pace of progress accelerates so that today it is possible to reach Godliness in just a few years.

From a Talk on the Article “What Is Preparation for the Reception of the Torah?” 5/16/2002

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Question: How does the Creator open a person’s eyes and heart to His greatness?

Answer: The Creator does this with the help of light, and then a person receives the corresponding sensation.

To live in the ten in the greatness of the Creator means that each of the friends and all together they think only about how to reveal His greatness and move forward under the influence of this sensation.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/20/24, Writings of Rabash “Serve the Creator with Joy”

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Question: How can we properly correct those uncorrected desires that may have been hanging between us like heavy weights for years?

Answer: The fact is that we approach increasingly heavier desires gradually. The Creator reveals to us precisely the level of desires that we are capable of correcting.

Therefore, we should not run away from them, but, on the contrary, we should constantly bring them before the Creator. And then we will feel what is wrong between us, between us and the Creator. This is our work.

When a person moves forward and wants to be in harmony with the Creator, then he sees which of his desires contradict correction and hinder him. At that point, he turns to the Creator and asks for His help.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/17/24, Writings of Rabash “Abraham Arose”

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If an animal were to kill intentionally, it would have been a human act (Stanislaw Jerzy Lec).

Question: Do we kill intentionally? We humiliate, we call everything we can murder. Why are we so offended when we are called animals?

Answer: A person must realize his place in nature and understand that he must consciously intend to grow up and fulfill his destiny.

Question: That is, become a human being?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What is your understanding of becoming human?

Answer: To become a human being is to reveal the Creator and follow His laws.

Question: What are His laws?

Answer: Love your neighbor as yourself is the most general law of all nature. And then there are specific laws about how we should create a society, help each other, and so on.

Question: So in principle, it is the proper offense for a person when he is called an animal: “Are you an animal”?

Answer: Of course.

Comment: But we see that animals help each other.

My Response: Animals work on instinct. Therefore, if they want to help or do something to each other, then it is an instinct. This is not a problem of choice.

Question: So it is as if they cannot do it any other way?

Answer: No.

Question: Can a person do it differently?

Answer: Yes, a person has a choice, and therefore he has to want one thing and try to change himself and be different.

Comment: This possibility of choice is inherent in us, does it spoil everything? And all the time, for some reason we choose to belittle another, kill, or something similar, and free ourselves from everything.

My Response: It makes us feel better.

Question: In which case will we feel better if we raise another, start loving, and so on?

Answer: If we raise others, we will feel fulfillment, pleasure, peace, etc.

Question: That is, I do something good for someone else, and that makes me feel good. Is this a possible option?

Answer: It is possible, but then the question arises: am I doing it in order to feel like this or in order to be like the Creator?

Comment: That is, if I do it in order to feel good…

Answer: So, this is an egoistic phase.

Question: That is, this is one of the egoistic phases? And it turns out that I have not come out of anything?

Answer: No.

Comment: And if I do it to be like the Creator…

Answer: This is a completely different reason.

Question: Is it supposed to be, is this the reason?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What does it mean to be like the Creator?

Answer: The Creator is a property of bestowal and love. If we want to get closer to this property and treat all those around us or at least some part of them in this way, then in this way we become like the Creator, achieve common feelings with Him, and this is the goal of our development.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/15/24

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Comment: In the 1960s, an American psychologist Martin Seligman conducted experiments with dogs based on Pavlov’s design. I am talking only about a part of the experiment, because it is very complicated.

The purpose of the experiment was to form a fear reflex to the sound of a signal. While Pavlov’s animals received meat after a signal, Seligman’s animals received an electric shock. To prevent the dogs from escaping prematurely, fences were built.

Seligman was confident that when the animals were moved to an enclosure with a low partition, they would run away as soon as they heard the signal. However, in the new cage the dogs sat on the floor and whined. Not a single dog jumped over the easiest obstacle—nor did they even try. When a dog that was not involved in the experiment was put under the same conditions, it easily escaped.

It turns out that the same thing happens to people. A person who is driven into helplessness cannot even jump over a low fence. He does not believe that there is a way out, he just lies on the floor and whines.

Question: What is it about us when a person himself renounces his freedom? You are no longer tied. Quit your job! Leave the country! Get away from this constant failure! You are talented and smart! But no way, he stays in the same place.

Answer: External pressure fetters a person and deprives him of all opportunities for development, awareness, and victory.

Comment: That is, pressure and fear are serious…

My Response: They are a serious weapon in the hands of society or a person.

Question: And if you master this fear and pressure, can you put people down?

Answer: Yes, that is what they tried to do.

Question: But if we talk about our life, does a person still agree with his life even though this is a cage and he suffers in it?

Answer: He has nothing in return. A person does not see that there is something other than this, and therefore, he agrees and tries to find at least some small pleasures, fulfillment, and satisfaction within this framework. This is our life.

Question: How can we see at least a small break and somehow slip through this hole and jump out of it?

Answer: We need to get education that if we want to become the best, then for this we must gain an understanding of freedom from ourselves, from our egoism. And then we can achieve equality among everyone.

Question: What role does egoism play here? For this person who falls down from the blow and does not move, what role does his egoism play? Basically, everything is suppressed in him.

Answer: It is in this very state when he lies under blows that he is beginning to develop the ability to rise above himself. And he begins to fantasize, one might say, how this can be done.

Question: This is how he can break free?

Answer: Yes, in this way he gradually grows.

Question: So this power of suppression and the power of fear is even positive in some sense?

Answer: Yes, it is positive for a person. It develops him.

And what does the Creator use when he wants to lead us to the better, to goodness, to rise above ourselves? It is only by the opposite force, the force of fear, the force of fear of suffering, and so on.

Question: So, now you seem to reassign this to the Creator, that all these are His actions? There are no leaders, there is nobody—just the actions of the Creator?

Answer: Of course, and they are directional.

Question: What kind of creatures are we?

Answer: We are small, weak egoists.

Question: And what are we supposed to grow into?

Answer: We are supposed to understand our little egoism, which represents our entire nature, and wish to rise above it, above this egoism. And for this we need mutual assistance and understanding that there is a different opportunity to exist, and we only need to rise out of ourselves.

Question: Meaning that then we jump over this “fence” and leave?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is this “fence” really low?

Answer: Yes, it is, just slightly above the ground.

Question: Does this low “fence” seem like an impenetrable wall to us?

Answer: This is a psychological obstacle.

Question: Precisely psychological?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Then there is a question about freewill. In what case can we take this step toward freedom? What should happen to us?

Answer: We can direct ourselves to the freedom of will if we decide that we have no other choice and do not try to run away somewhere, hide, embellish, or sweeten our existence in egoism, in exile from the good, from kindness, from everything.

If we pull ourselves up by the bootstraps in this way and act, we will see that it is possible.

Question: What is a free person, what does it mean to be free?

Answer: A free person is one who has no restrictions. And this is, first of all, internal freedom.

Comment: “No restrictions” can be understood in different ways.

My Response: “There are no restrictions” means that a person can live with everyone—everyone will feel good with him, and he will feel good with everyone. That is, this person is not guided by his egoism.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/13/24

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