Entries in the 'Collective Soul' Category

The Whole World Depends On These Three Days


Question: What inner work do we have to perform during this Convention, considering the entire weight of the responsibility for the whole world that is incumbent upon us?

Answer: We really do bear enormous responsibility for the whole world. But there are two components to this.

The most important thing is the connection between us. We have to understand that since the whole world is interconnected, then it doesn’t even matter how successful or not our address to the world is. First of all, the unity among us is definitely transferred to everyone.

That’s because all of humanity is connected as one. Baal HaSulam writes in the article “600,000 souls” that there is just one soul in the world. That means all humanity, all seven billion people, are connected together into one whole, into a single organism, the body of the common soul.

This organism grew to the extent that all of its parts, the particular souls, developed. Each of them developed until its ten material Sefirot. But now we have discovered that the entire organism is connected into one, as if the connection among everyone has closed up.

That is why people in whom the point in the heart has been revealed serve as the brain of this whole system. This is written at the end of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”: The whole world divides into the inner and outer parts. The inner part is we, people with the point in the heart.

If we connect with each other through a good, proper connection, this will expand to the whole world. Then, as Baal HaSulam writes at the end of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” this will splash out into the whole world, like when the right command comes from the brain to the whole body. Then everyone will take this command and start changing. This is called internal dissemination.

Whether we want it or not, our unity is transferred to the whole world and the world changes for the better. All other people also advance toward unity. After all, they simply live their earthly lives, not knowing where their thoughts and desires come from.

That is our inner dissemination, which happens without any words and without coming out to the world externally. However, in order to prepare people to be receptive to this so they will react to us faster, and besides, to give them the opportunity to work and act together with us, which will unite us even more, we also work on external dissemination for everyone.

It turns out that through our inner dissemination we intend for our unity to also be transferred to everyone else. This is enough. In the external dissemination we organize among ourselves and this gives us a field of activity, as well as unites us by giving us an additional, external reason to unite. That is how we act in the world.

However, without any doubt, the unity among us determines everything and in this regard it cannot be compared to anything else. Let us hope that over the course of these three days we will attain a new degree of unity. I don’t have any doubts about this because even now we are in this state and will be able to feel spirituality at least for a short time, to feel what it means to be connected in our hearts and thoughts.

All of this depends on every person’s inner efforts. Try to think that we all already desire to feel the unity between us, not to be in the bodies, but to immerse deeper inside, into the realm of our desires so they will all unite together into one whole desire. If we attain this, then we will feel the Upper Light that reigns inside of this desire and will experience the eternal flow of life. This is up to us.

Perhaps we will attain this only temporarily because the first time it happens, it really is difficult to hold on to this sensation constantly. But at least we will receive the first impression of spirituality, will “taste” it, and then we will already know what to aspire to.

I very much hope that we will attain this and that the taste of spirituality will remain with us forever.
From the 1st lesson of the WE! Convention on 4/1/11

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Standing At The Beginning Of Glorious Deeds

Dr. Michael Laitman The tendency manifesting today was clear for the Kabbalists tens, hundreds, thousands years ago. They talked about our epoch having calculated its time frame precisely based on the general laws of nature.

Throughout the course of history we were developing under the influence of the force that was pushing us forward. As our ego increased incessantly, we transitioned from process to process, from formation to formation in society, family life, education, culture, and so on.

We were advancing by means of the negative force alone and hence Kabbalists were able to calculate how much it would take for humanity “to hit rock bottom,” meaning to reach the need to rise to a new level and, instead of being developed by egoism, advance by means of another force: the force of universal unity.

The calculation pointed to the end of the 20th century, year 1995. From that time on, we will have to reveal for ourselves the method of correction of man who knows how to unite with the others into a single whole—absolutely, globally, and integrally.

Granted, today we are just at the beginning of this path. It is yet to continue. However, we, the people who received a gift from Above, “the point in the heart,” the aspiration upwards, have to turn to the entire world with an explanation about what is happening. By this we realize our predestination, warrant the impulse we received, and lead humanity towards the ascent to a new state, a new degree.

It is a very special degree. The body, the parts of which are disassembled and even opposite to each other, feels sick. But if they begin to unify in harmony and inter-connection, then instead of feeling the illness, the body will sense the life of a higher order. This is how we, with our animate body, feel ourselves at the human degree. The body is an animal, but there is something in a human being that brings him or her back to a higher degree.

And now, by uniting with each other in harmony, we acquire a sensation of a life higher than our present one. It is our spiritual life.

Surely, we have to work on this in the group. This is the primary responsibility that has been placed upon us. In addition, it is our duty to bring the entire world to this, to mitigate the enormous suffering that we may evoke by advancing by means of the negative force, being pushed with a “stick.” Indeed, we already see that humanity’s misfortunes are becoming increasingly unexpected and dangerous.
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From Lesson 1, WE! Convention 4/1/2011

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One Soul For All

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe spiritual world is a unified soul, one for all. By unifying with the others, everyone attains the same integral soul. In the article “600,000 Souls,” Baal HaSulam writes that there is nothing else in the world but one soul.

Every person attains this collective soul in an individual manner, according to his or her program or Reshimot (spiritual genes), just as at present, we observe the surrounding world and see it in our own way. I cannot compare the taste that I obtain from a certain food with how others taste it, or my impression of a painting that we both view. Everyone has impressions that match their Reshimot.

Even if we are standing in front of the same picture in spirituality, the same worlds and Partzufim, everyone receives an individual impression of it anyway. This uniqueness doesn’t vanish.

How do I unify with the integral soul? You do it by way of desires. Suppose I am in the center of the spiritual worlds: Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, Adam Kadmon (AK), or the world of Infinity. By exiting myself, my ego, and unifying with the others, I attain the dimension of the integral soul. In it, I perceive the spiritual world. The more I step out of my ego, acquiring the others’ Kelim (vessels), the more exalted world I perceive thereby.

How do I do that? I “purchase” new desires since I have only a point, an embryo, of the soul. The new desires that I gain while unifying with the others are, in fact, the Kli (vessel) of my soul.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/18/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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Eureka! It Does Exist!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Does the desire to bestow develop with the help of the desire to receive? Will it change and unite us back into the collective soul?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah states that the entire path of our correction amounts to our uniting together and reaching the property of bestowal (the Creator) in our connection because this property brings us together.

Development occurs by virtue of unification. And when the desire to bestow enters the desire to receive, it supplies it with the force of development by facilitating various connections. And since it is the desire to bestow, it fuses various parts.

Contrary to it, the desire to receive remains there in the capacity of the still level and does not bond with anything. Hence, if we want to draw closer to the desire to bestow and develop, we need to facilitate ties between us and our mutual inclusion.

And it does not matter that we are separated by distance, differences in character, opinions, and education. We will later see that our previous development (as various distant nations that hate and disregard one another) is needed so that above it, we could start forming our mutual inter-relations. And between these connections we are destined to reveal the property of bestowal (the Creator).

It exists but is hidden inside. This is precisely what we wish to reveal at our conventions.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/2011, Writings of Rabash

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In The Radiant Sphere Of The Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Zohar, Chapter “Yitro (Jethro),” Item 465: On Sabbath, the Torah is crowned with him, crowned with all those Mitzvot, all those sentences and punishments in seventy branches of light that shine to every direction…. Who saw those gates that open to each of the directions in them, where each consists of ten, and they are fifty gates? They all shine and illuminate in that light that is emitted and which never stops.

Where can I reveal all these details? I can find them only in the internal connection between the friends. The Zohar describes all types of connection that we will reveal, until it becomes an infinite bond between us, when we completely correct it.

All states and relations The Zohar describes, as well as various images of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, including people and all kinds of situations, or in the language of Kabbalah, Partzufim (souls), Olamot (worlds), Reshimot (spiritual genes), and Sefirot (properties), along with their ascents and descents, all of them are expressions of the internal connection between us, the people who are willing to unify in order to reveal the upper world within, in their relations.

Everyone advances in being able to see how the 613 desires of his or her soul expand outward in bestowal to the other souls and how from every soul, its 613 desires also expand to all the others. Imagine this: There are billions of souls that match the number of people in this corporeal world. From each soul, there expand 613 desires to every soul, all of them link into each other, and with a new, mutual linkage they bestow to each other again, and interconnecting once more, they continue to bestow.

Thus, finally we will see a sphere that has no empty “space” since all of it is filled with the souls’ bond. If we reveal this bond in the minimal measure, in 1/125th part of it, we begin revealing the Light flowing in the channels between us. This is called the revelation of the Creator because this Light is, in fact, the Creator, and that is what The Zohar describes.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, The Book of Zohar

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Who Decides: Desire Or The Light?

Dr. Michael LaitmanOnly after we have applied all the efforts to unite with each other can we hasten our development and return to the authentic and corrected sensation of reality in order to wake up from this dream, this concealment, in which we exist. We can go by the path of suffering, but it is not development! We do not arrive at an autonomous desire to return to the Light, to the state of adhesion with Him in which we once existed in the world of Infinity.

We have to come back to the world of Infinity and merge with the Creator into one whole, but we must do so by our own desire and by ourselves. It shouldn’t be as it was earlier when, not having the intention, we were under the rule of the Light which sustained our connection with its force, in spite of the complete opposition of our desires. The Light simply filled us without our agreement: This is how we existed in similarity to it, being supported by its force.

But now we have to come to it by our own authority. First, there has be the desire and then its contact with the Light. In the initial State 1, the Light precedes the Kli (vessel). In the final State 3, when we return to that very same unified soul, the desire precedes the Light.

And all the sufferings and afflictions that push us forward do not result in real advancement; we do not correct anything thereby. After all, we haven’t done anything ourselves. And only if we try to act ourselves, meaning to work on our unification which we reach against our egoistic desire, against our resistance, only then our efforts are regarded as our contribution to correction.

Hence, the Light will never concede and allow us to progress without our free participation and the yearning to return to the state of unity. We ourselves have to decide that we are returning to bestowal—to the degree that we unite against the force of the breaking, which dwells among us.

A person has to understand that within his efforts to unite with the others he will find everything: the force of separation, breaking, and hatred, as well as the force to overcome this division: the force of love and connection. And only such actions go toward his account and draw him closer to the final correction. They are the only indication of his progress.

In any situation, we need to try to see ourselves as one man with one heart who represents our collective soul.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/11 Preparation for the WE! Convention

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The Radiance Of The Integral Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to penetrate into the integral system of souls that The Zohar talks about?

Answer: It can’t be explained in words. If we could get inside this system, we would experience spiritual phenomena behind The Zohar’s words and feel what every word signifies. We would be able to recognize all of these properties and desires. We would understand why they have such appellations and are defined by these kinds of relationships between them. Everything would become clear.

However, all of this unfolds from the inner vision of the system. The souls are connected with one another in a single organism, in mutual support, guarantee, partnership, and the annulment of each soul before all to a greater or lesser degree, at all possible levels, while every soul still functions above its ego.

In the system where we are connected with each other at the internal level, we unite over our egoism. In this case, you get to see the entire system. At the same time, you are also able to see this world as more external in relation to the internal system since this world remains in egoism and is controlled by it.

In the spiritual system, we are motivated by the aspiration toward oneness while in this world, we are ruled by the inclination toward separatism, withdrawal from each other, desire for personal power, and vain pride. They are two opposing forces.

In this world, I cancel others and exalt myself, whereas in the internal system, I annul myself and exalt the others. That’s the tendency, and this is why both of these systems seem to differ so much.

To the degree that a person gets involved in the internal system, he gets to see the connections between all souls. He feels how everything is completely harmonized and the life force, the mutual bestowal that forms billions of channels between the souls, circulates between them, while this multitude of luminous channels turns into the perfect Light that fills the relationships between all souls.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/23/2011, The Book of Zohar

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Equality In A Global Family

Dr. Michael LaitmanAll souls are interconnected and distributed into different levels of nature: still (S), vegetative (V), animate (A), human (H), and spiritual (S). The souls that have corrected themselves are on the spiritual level. Those on the human level have a “point in the heart” and aspire to spirituality. All the rest do not.

Possibly, the rest of the souls do not require such advancement. If a point in the heart awakens in a person, he or she ascends upward, but these will be special, exceptional cases. In general, the souls do not undergo such cardinal changes.

It means that we should not demand of humanity to adopt the structure of the developed societies. This is why it’s hard for us to believe Baal HaSulam who writes that all people already became one family and humanity is ready to ascend spiritually. Nevertheless, this is so.

A tiny part of the brain the size of a square millimeter rules over the entire body. Similarly, a small part of humanity has to govern it, connecting it with the Creator. From this part, everyone will receive correction in a passive form which corresponds to their type of souls.

Nothing should be done about it. Don’t equalize everyone according to the democratic model. They will be equal when each will become corrected according to their egoistic potential, their Reshimo (informational gene). Then everybody will become a single “body”; however, 90% of this “body” will be “flesh,” “bones,” “muscles,” “tendons,” and so on.

How many important organs does an organism have? How much is allotted to the brain? What portion of the brain represents a person per se? It’s a tiny part, a “microprocessor,” not more.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/2011 on The Principles of Global Education

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A Lego Made Out Of The Creator’s Pieces

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: During the lesson we work with the Light that corrects us. But what do we work with at the Convention?

Answer: At the Convention this happens even more! We don’t have any other means to influence what is happening to us besides the Light that reforms. It is the only thing we can awaken!

We awaken our future states that haven’t been revealed in us yet and which are about to be revealed. They are states of bestowal to the outside, where every person bestows outward, to his neighbor. This is precisely the quality that we want to discover—each person inside of him and all of us as a whole.

When we reveal this quality of bestowal, it means that we have revealed the Creator. As Kabbalists tell us, this quality gave birth to us, formed us, and dispersed us far away from one another so that by uniting with each other we would reveal it once again.

In the meantime, the Creator is in exile. What does that mean? We can say that He also disintegrated into tiny pieces and is inside all of these broken parts that are far away from one another. As soon as you begin connecting them, you start to recreate or restore Him, the common force of bestowal.

We have to build an image for ourselves that is close to the truth. Otherwise we live in various religious fantasies, imagining an unreal, non-materialistic picture.

We have to understand that the difference between faiths or religions and the science of Kabbalah is that faiths or religions want to imagine spirituality in the material desires, which perceive everything “within” and therefore build their notions according to the earthly reality, with creation being below and the Creator being above, as if they are separated by distance rather than qualities. They do not talk about man’s correction.

In contrast, the science of Kabbalah says that everything is inside of man. Thus, the upper reality or dimension becomes revealed in a person’s inner corrections and changes. Therefore, the most important thing for us is to correct man. By correcting our qualities, a person feels that the Creator is revealed inside of him.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/11, The Zohar

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Dr. Michael LaitmanThe environment is not people’s faces or their material bodies, but the desire or force that I receive from them. Then this desire becomes my own, becoming added to my point in the heart.

If I am able to receive from them the impression about the greatness of bestowal, the Creator, the spiritual goal, the desire to bestow, then I have the opportunity together with them to awaken the force of the Light that is concealed there. Then, under the Light’s influence, this desire begins to be corrected – meaning instead of the opposite side to show me the face of spirituality, the quality of bestowal, in which I reveal my life in the Light of bestowal. This is the revelation of the spiritual world, the Creator to the creatures.

That is why the Creator is called Boreh – come and see, meaning everything I received in the desires which I collected from the environment. The environment is my own desire, but seen from its opposite side and therefore seemingly relating to other people.

I received this desire from them and understood that it is my own, and therefore I want to attach is back to myself. However, spirituality is structured so that my AHP (lower part) is inside Galgalta Eynaim (the upper part) of other people. That is why I cannot return my AHP without receiving Galgalta Eynaim of everyone else.

It turns out that my receiving desires return to me, but together with the bestowing desires of others, meaning corrected desires, and I attach them to me together with the Light of Hassadim that fills them. Thus, the greatness of bestowal that I tried to receive from the environment is ready-made spiritual Kelim, desires in which I attain spirituality.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/11

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