Question: The Ari, the great Kabbalist of the 16th century writes: “A blind person in Kabbalah is a person who has no reflected light.” That is, this is one who “does not have the light coming out of his eyes.” What does this mean?

Answer: We are talking about a spiritual state where a person can correctly understand what he feels. After all, even now we are in some sort of space in which everything exists! However, we do not know, do not understand, and do not feel it.

In the spiritual world one who has no reflected light is considered blind. This means that I cannot reflect the pleasures that come to me, I cannot receive them not for my own sake.

In the upper world it is impossible to receive directly into egoistic vessels, and therefore I am limited. To the extent that I can rise above my egoism and reject pleasures for my own sake, I can see.

I see means I attain, because the highest attainment is seeing.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 9/10/21

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All we need in our life is to reveal the Creator. The Creator is called “come and see” (Bo-Re) and He is revealed in the connection between us. Therefore, we need to take care of our Kli on which everything depends.

Everyone today is locked in their rooms by their egoism. We need to finally break the walls of our hearts in order to make one big hall out of many small rooms that can accommodate the Creator where He can enter and be revealed.

Therefore, the main thing that we can do to bring contentment to the Creator is to break the walls of our hearts in order to unite into one heart. If we want to achieve the connection that Kabbalists write about and make efforts to awaken each other, then in the end we will achieve the right thoughts, desires, and actions.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/21/21, “Everything is Obtained By the Power of Prayer”

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why is it socially acceptable to hoard wealth while so many go without basic needs?“

We exist in an egoistic nature that constantly develops. It makes us want to enjoy at the expense of others and nature, and it is the source of all misfortunes and problems. We can fight with the many problems that we encounter, whether they be poverty, disease, inequality, oppression, drug abuse, depression, stress, anxiety, and the list goes on and on. However, in the end, all problems are an outcome of the constantly growing human ego.

Human egoism has been developing since ancient times. Our desires were originally very small, merely wanting to provide for our basic survival needs. They later developed through stages where we aspired for money, honor, control and knowledge. Moreover, the desire for knowledge is the desire for information about how to more effectively exploit people in order to optimally fulfill our egoistic desires. Money is equal to all the other pleasures, because everyone aspires for money. This is why, in our world, money gives people a sense of confidence in the present and in the future. If society would hold no value on money, then we would not accumulate it.

If we knew that our life depends on attaining nature’s eternity and perfection by unifying “as one man with one heart,” that precisely by means of attaining an altruistic sense of existence in our connections we would reach another level of life, and another guarantee for our lives—then we would be able to change our approach to money and stop treating it as a value that surpasses everything else.

This is why we need to realize the general law of nature, the law of altruism. By becoming equal to the law of altruism, we can merit perfection and eternity. Accordingly, we will also reach a state where money will disappear from the world.

Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 9, 2006. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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It turns out that there are two authorities here acting in the above-mentioned conduct of development: One is the authority of heaven, which is sure to turn anything harmful and evil to good and useful, but it will come in its time, in its own way, heavily, and after a long time. Then there is the authority of the earth. When the “evolving object” is a living, feeling being, it suffers horrendous torments and pains while under the “press of development” which carves its way ruthlessly.

The “authority of the earth,” however, consists of people who have taken this above-mentioned law of development under their own government and can free themselves entirely from the chains of time, and who greatly accelerate time, namely the completion of the ripeness and correction of the object, which is the end of its development. (Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”)

We have a starting Point A, from which humanity begins its way and moves in it toward the ultimate goal, Point B. The ultimate goal is the next situation, the upper world, the completion of correction.

If we take the power of development into our own hands and begin to act, this way will be much more pleasant.

As a rule we begin from a particular moment in our lives. We encounter the wisdom of Kabbalah, see how worthless our lives are, and begin to use this wisdom to reach the ultimate point of our development rapidly, which is absolutely identical for all of us, the difference is in how we reach it—either by the way of suffering or by the way of light.

In the way of suffering, terrible events are waiting for us, even a World War III really. In contrast, the path of light is the way of attainment, when from the start I begin to act to attain my future state, approach it, and eventually attain it.

Question: If I am going in the way of suffering, will I be able to reach point B? In any case at some stage I will need to reach the way of light, simply much later and still go through the same thing. Which is to say, is entry into the ultimate point possible only by the way of light?

Answer: You are right in general. The way of suffering elevates you in any case; you will go through a particular section of the way, after which you could fall again, rise again, and fall again, and so on until you reach the same ultimate point. There could be entries and exits. In principle it is not just dependent on you, but on the time in which we are living, the general condition of humanity and other circumstances.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 7/14/19

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Question: You say that by crossing into spirituality, on one hand I unite with the Creator, and on the other hand I become His partner. This sounds somewhat contradictory. How can this be?

Answer: I am connecting with the Creator as a partner. In the beginning we were connected during intrauterine development. And before that, there was a connection when I did not even understand that I was inside the Creator. Ask any person in the world, he does not feel that he is inside this huge, global, integral nature.

Gradually, he becomes more and more aware of this through all kinds of sufferings and crises. It becomes obvious to him: “Look what is happening today in the world with the climate, look where we suddenly find ourselves, what reactions come from nature!”

All this is in order to shake us so that we see that the world is one and there is a certain relationship, a law, that we break.

We must comply with this law, be equivalent, in harmony with it. This is what mother-nature, the Creator, teaches us. But it is not Him that gives us blows specifically. We ourselves cause them by our inadequacy and by not fulfilling the condition of equilibrium.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #19

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #10 What Is, “Hurry My Beloved,” in the Work

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 56

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Question: Is the concept of guarantee something through which we can gain resistance to selfishness?

Answer: Of course. One nullifies oneself in relation to others in order to create a joint common desire.

When a person annuls one’s animal component (receiving for oneself) and wants to include only one’s human component (transmission to others), a single common desire arises in which the Creator is revealed.

Question: Suppose seven or eight thousand people gather, as is usually the case at congresses, and they try to enter the state of Arvut (mutual guarantee). It will work, it will not work, we do not know, but we really want it. Will so many people help you achieve the result?

Answer: Of course, both quantity and quality. The quantity is irreplaceable, it is necessary. But even more important is the quality, the tension of the bond between us. Everyone’s egoism tries to tear him away from others. Therefore everything depends on the strength with which we connect with each other.

The meaning of spiritual work is to find in our common connection that property of bestowal and love that is higher than our nature.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #20

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The only thing we need is to reach faith. Feeling the Creator is called faith. This is the absolute opposite of the religious understanding of blind faith we are accustomed to in our world.

The force of faith is the force of Bina, and if we receive it, then within this quality of bestowal we begin to feel our root according to the equivalence of form with it. If I start bestowing at least a little bit, in this new quality I begin to feel the upper force according to my equivalence with it.

We attain the feeling of the Creator through the force of bestowal, and acquiring this force is called faith, the force of Bina. We feel the Creator even now, but we are not aware of this. We do not understand that it is He who is depicting the entire picture of the world: the universe, the stars, the Earth with all its inhabitants, inanimate matter, plants, animals, and people.

The Creator is concealed behind this entire picture because we are not yet similar to Him with our qualities, and therefore, we do not come into contact with Him. The law of the spiritual world is the law of equivalence of form.

Faith is a measure of the connection between a person and the Creator. Faith does not appear in a person just like that. First, you need to develop a desire to bestow, and this spiritual vessel (Kli) is called faith. Inside of it, you will receive the light of faith. The desire to bestow filled with the light of faith is called the degree of Bina.

The more a person corrects himself, the more he obtains the degree of Bina, the degree of faith, within which he feels the Creator more and more.

If I develop the quality of bestowal above my will to receive, that is, faith above reason, above the force of egoism, I begin to reveal the Creator to the extent of my equivalence with His qualities.

Then the question arises: What do I really feel, the Creator or the measure of my faith? In fact, I feel the “Divine part from Above” revealed within me, the force of bestowal. I call this force the Creator, come and see (Bo-Re). Before that, the Creator did not exist, but when I acquired the force of bestowal, He began to exist in me.

Kabbalah only speaks about the way to reach equivalence of form with the Creator, measure it, and develop it until we will begin to bestow to Him 100% and He to us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 9/23/21, “Baal HaSulam. Shamati, 4. What Is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels when Annulling before the Creator in the Work?”

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The last day of the holiday of Sukkot is called Shemini Atzeret. It is kind of a festive gathering because we have corrected the entire soul, the light has entered and filled it.

This ends the long period from the days preceding the New Year (Rosh HaShanah) to the last day of Sukkot.

Question: The name of the holiday “Shemini Atzeret” is taken from Tanakh. It is interesting that the celebration of Simchat Torah, which was introduced by the sages in the 6th – 7th century AD, falls on this day. What is the connection between them?

Answer: The state when we complete all corrections completely, receive seven lights, and they fill our soul, is called the Rejoicing of the Torah (Simchat Torah).

The Torah is the upper light that enters the corrected Kli (vessel) during the seven days of Sukkot, meaning the seven degrees. Then we celebrate the end of our corrections.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/7/19

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