Post-Congress Syndrome (St. Petersburg) – Laitman Unplugged
Posted on July 28th, 2013
Question: How can one help a friend correctly if we see that the evil inclination has been aroused in him and he accepts the thoughts that come to him as truths and convinces others of their truth?
Answer: A person found in a group begins to feel within himself all kinds of anti-spiritual inclinations as a result of his good work. We see how suddenly he is changed acutely. Moreover, he justifies his behavior. It is typical for everyone to justify himself.
First of all, you need to connect among you immediately (without him, even though he also wants to share in this), and discuss what to do about him very seriously.
Agree among yourselves as to how you will influence him. He needs to see how we are working to connect, that this is what is important and essential for us, for this is specifically what we are learning, and this is how we do it. About this, there is no argument. This must be so!
If he is opposed or something is not right for him, we simply show him, “You see, this is not our invention. This is what is written in the sources, and we carry out these conditions. Whoever doesn’t carry them out has no place here. Therefore, either stay and gradually be included in the general work, or go.”
It is necessary to show clearly and precisely that only the collective state of the group should determine his behavior, for connection is a general desire of all together, according to a single method for one goal.
It is forbidden in any way to condone such things! He has no right to chill and relax the hands of the others! We must let him understand clearly that we relate negatively to his behavior, but it is necessary to do this gently, gradually approaching vital explanations. We must agree among ourselves to distance from him so that he will see that we continue to connect and support each other, and so forth. If he will not adhere to us it is a sign that his place is not here.
It is necessary to explain to him (with love, you see, we want him to stay), that, to our sorrow, we don’t see the right behavior in him appropriate for the requirements of the spiritual method, therefore, either he surrenders himself to the group, or if not then he will harm it and so for his own good it would be better for him to go.
However, even if he goes, this must be done so that he will have the possibility of returning. For example, it is possible to offer him the option, “You don’t need to come every day. Come when you want to be included in the group.” It could be that he will come once every two weeks, and after that it could be that he will return completely.
[112628]
From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day One” 7/12/13, Lesson 2
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“Faith above reason” means that a person has pushed the limits of the property of bestowal within himself, exiting himself. Faith is called bestowal, the property of Bina, the Light of Hassadim. When I am on any spiritual degree, in any state, I expand my possibility of bestowal and love. This is called “faith,” which begins to predominate, to prevail over the property of receiving, over egoism. Reason is the Light that we receive that fills our egoistic desire. But faith is the property of bestowal, the condition of spiritual advancement.
After the convention in St. Petersburg in 2013, I heard from many people that “now was the first time we felt that we really achieved something.” Indeed, after this convention we first felt unity, and not everyone by himself, but something common, some common mass that linked each other together, closes everyone in itself. In addition, we have found that there is connection between what happens in us and what we study in the primary sources (partly, in The Book of Zohar, partly in the articles of Baal HaSulam and Rabash) about the conditions of connecting a person within the group, the conditions of our unity.
All this has become much closer to us. We seem to have confirmed the correctness of our development. This means that we have received new knowledge. And how can we now go in faith above the acquired reason?
In this state, of course I can be happy that I have become convinced of the correctness of my path: that I have a teacher who does not fool me, that I have dispelled my doubts and solved some problems. But I fell into the desire to receive and got a bit of the Light into these desires. On the one hand, it’s good that I have achieved this, it should be so. We must never doubt that what we receive and what we are in is how it should be, and we got it from the Creator. And now another question arises: How can we go further?
Next, I have to close my eyes to everything that I received and advance to faith above reason: to break through to the next level by the fact that I do not want to look at the gained knowledge or to pay attention to everything that exists in me today as a proof of the correctness of the path. I want to move forward with eyes closed, only for the sake of bestowal. This means that I should not think that I have confirmation of the evidence that I am advancing on the right path or whether I have the inner confidence that I am in the right group with the right teacher or not.
If we go by faith, it’s completely different conditions, the opposite of reason. That is, the property of bestowal is opposite of the property of reception, as is the property of the Creator opposite to the property of the created being. So, the next degree that we have to cover, to which we should ascend, is realized not by our reason and not with our confidence, but on the contrary, when we rise above them.
In other words, now I want to go only to the property of bestowal, paying no attention to anything, despite everything I received at the convention, despite the sensation that gave me confidence, the foundation of life. I am interested only in that, and I want to enter in that.
[112969]
From the Virtual Lesson 7/21/13
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It is necessary to reach the point when all your life is in the friends, together with them in collective unity where there is no difference between us. Our bodies disappear, and there is only the desire that feels the pleasure from connection and is not torn apart. All the parts not only want to unite but have already adhered to each other and dissolved in general unity, having turned into completely uniform, homogeneous material.
All our features and differences disappear in it because we complete each other so much that we turn into one unit, so much so that I do not care whose hands these are, whose feet, whose brain, whose back. Everything is collective as the image of one person. We begin to feel force within this unity that revives this general image that we have built, which is called the human being, Adam. This animating force is called the Creator.
We need to strive to this and live in it all the time. Every moment we need to seek how to strengthen this form where we come to love the Creator through the love of friends. If, for a moment, I leave this search and do not reinforce this state, I fall immediately. I will not feel this right away, but there is no doubt that I fell. It is possible to move only in one direction or another. There are no fixed states in spirituality. Do not think that you can stop and rest. Whether you want it or not in the spiritual world, it is necessary to feel where you are heading every second: to unity together with everyone or in the opposite direction. It is either one or the other.
Trembling fear is required here, which is the First Commandment, and without which you cannot even hope to advance a bit. If some material goal in this world requires me to change direction—to think about the group, the connection to the Creator to help us carry out this material task—then it already is good because it changes my direction.
At least, I am not directed toward a personal interest but at something collective, together with everyone. This already forces us to remember that we need the Creator because without Him, we will not succeed.
If this does not exist, then stronger blows must be sent to us so that we feel our helplessness, the same as the entire world, and we are compelled to recall that only the Creator can help us. No one else can. The main thing is to change direction. As soon as we do this and begin to work in the correct direction of unity, clarifying what and why we need this connection, we immediately change the goal and means.
First, we needed the Creator to succeed in achieving various external goals, and now we understand that external goals were purposefully placed in front of us in order to frighten us and force us to recall the Creator. Thus, we are awakened on the basis of a simple psychological egoism.
For the time being, it is a purely selfish approach, but it teaches us how not to exit “holiness.” After all, there is holiness even in this connection.
[112816]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/18/13, Writings of Rabash
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We should understand that a descent is an indication of the revelation of the illness, the revelation of evil. Evil is when we have no connection with the Creator who is concealed in our environment, in the group of the spiritual commando. Our efforts to return to the previous feeling of unity has to be focused on the Creator and not just on our connection.
The Creator was absent from our intention. We thought that we could simply connect and thus attain everything. We have lost the last link in this chain, the Creator. Now we have to emphasize this most important component according to the formula: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator,” and realize how important it is since without it there is no mutual guarantee and no covenant; without it nothing can exist!
Now we have the chance to feel the one major component that is missing which sustains everything. This is the reason that we have to gradually lose the feeling of unity and to descend further and further down, only in order to realize how much we need the upper force, which is responsible for our connection and which operates everything. If we think about the Creator, we belong to Him and He takes care of everything and will make sure that we will not exit Holiness.
It says: “For my brothers and my friends I shall speak of peace.” On the one hand, I pray that the Creator should help me with my brothers, and on the other hand, I work with my brothers in order to reveal the Creator, to reach Him and to bring Him contentment. This means that I worry both about the vessel and about the filling.
[112808]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/18/13, Writings of Rabash
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Question: What does it mean to bring the Creator into our unity?
Answer: It’s the feeling that it is impossible to hold on to this unity without the Creator. We are gradually losing it since we lack the cause of all causes, the only force that sustains all of reality. This is what we need!
This is how a person feels himself in this world. We already have to reveal the great system that is outside our childish playground and to understand how it operates, and how the Creator has prepared everything for us. This is called the revelation of the Creator.
It’s time now after having attained and tasted the feeling of unity. Now we have to discover the One who has created and fulfills this unity.
[112804]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/18/13, Writings of Rabash
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There is a force that operates inside us, in the desire to receive, in the whole creation, in Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity), and our goal is to discover this force. We suddenly begin to feel that there are certain voids inside us and that we don’t know what to do with them. We cannot fill them by ourselves or control them. This feeling of helplessness and powerlessness repeats time after time and becomes increasingly clearer.
We understand that we have to solve the problem, but we understand more clearly that we cannot do that since it’s beyond our powers. We go through different feelings and states and cannot hold on to them. We can cry out to the friends, try to perform certain actions, but nothing helps.
We feel helpless as if facing fate and the upper force, and so we understand that we need the presence of the upper force, the force that operates the whole universe. It has to start operating and performing what we cannot do, to control all the voids that were created between us and in which we feel that we are drawing away from one another and that our feelings are cooling down.
It seems that the Creator must control this state, since we cannot hold on to it. This demand already focuses us on the Creator. This is how we acquire experience and the awareness that the void, the chilling down, the detachment, the created empty spaces that didn’t exist before the descents, are all meant to create a new space for the Creator.
Later you feel that there is nothing but these voids! All of reality that is revealed to a greater extent is actually an empty space. If the Creator doesn’t feel it, it will disappear, since you have no control. The only control you have is to obligate the Creator to control.
You are in the center of reality, in the black middle point, and reality continues to expand. This void develops to the dimensions of the whole universe, swallows you and you totally disappear in it. The illumination of the empty Malchut that we feel is a very scary feeling. So you simply must have this void filled by the Creator.
Thus you thank the Creator for having awakened you to get closer by evoking the feeling of detachment in you. This is the state we are in after the convention. If we don’t want the convention to end, we have to forcefully keep the Creator, the operating force, in this picture and to try to connect “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one” equally like three partners.
We forget about that and think that the main thing is Israel, which means us. But if we don’t worry about all three conditions, we are not called “Israel!” We want something to happen in our unity and that is right, but what is lacking is keeping ourselves forcefully in these three conditions. We don’t feel the Creator that must be between us, like a root that we have to reach. We don’t always remember the Light that Reforms, the Torah that has to bring us to love. Besides we have to clarify what exactly love is and to what extent it is mutual devotion and the devotion of all of us to the Creator.
These are all important issues that we have to process and to clarify. Their clarification is to constantly search where Israel that yearns for the Creator is in the connection among us. What is the Creator that we yearn for? What is the Torah and how does it operate on us? What should we do so that it will operate on us so by its bestowal we will discover the Creator’s image among us and take on His form?
We have to work on that and it will seem more vague, unclear, and crumbling each time. The Creator will let us feel more and more detached each time so we will fill the empty space, the bigger and wider circle, the inner emptiness, with the Creator’s presence.
[112616]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/13
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Question: What is the meaning of an empty void and how can we obligate the Creator to control it?
Answer: An empty void means that I don’t control it. The control can be mine, as Pharaoh says: “I will rule,” or it can be the Creator’s control. It’s one of the two and there is no third option.
And empty void means that I surrender; I cannot do anything. This is what happened in the convention, where there was a special feeling of unity, of connection, and of power. It was a very pleasant elated feeling, as if spiritual. But suddenly we begin to understand that it wasn’t just a corporeal feeling that was simply nice and pleasant.
It’s true that it was interesting and powerful and that we felt together and everyone stopped feeling himself and enjoyed the feeling of being incorporated in others, but where is spirituality in all that? From the new state we begin to examine things and see that perhaps there was nothing spiritual about it, but that we were just having a good time.
This means that now we feel the previous state as an empty void, a qualitative empty void. We understand that it wasn’t very spiritual since the unity of “Israel, the Torah, and Creator” was lacking in it and especially the Creator. We discover that we must bring the presence of the Creator into that state and to fill with His presence all the empty voids that are revealed.
It’s just like a child who is given more and more complicated, challenging games that force him to think and to understand, to know and to ask questions. He must develop and penetrate things and clarify what is lacking and how to fill it. This is how he advances.
So a fall is not a descent, but a revelation of areas that are meant for the spiritual filling. We have to work in order to fill them. First we have to see that we cannot control the feeling in these places of regression. But before that we have to make every possible effort, in order to find out that we are helpless. If the connection is still important to us, we will feel that we need the Creator’s help.
There are several levels here. Do we yearn for the same connection we had before or are we grateful that we don’t feel it now since we need the revelation of the Creator now?
But what does the “revelation of the Creator” mean to us? Do we perceive it as the force of bestowal that obligates us to be more devoted to everyone else, since by this devotion we bring the host greater pleasure? This is already the process of clarification. We are in a good state and we have to understand the process. The main thing is to be just as grateful for the bad as for the good.
[112613]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/13
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If we yearn for bestowal, we have to check ourselves and what our demands are, how pure they are, and that they are without an intention for self-benefit. We have to do it now when we have received an additional desire and have to add the force of the intention and the force of our concentration for the work. We have to try to reach the right request without mixing it with our private requests and with our ego that has now awakened in us with the desire to benefit from the work we have done for the good of our desire to receive.
Everything has to be focused only on bestowal, so that we will not even want to know that we bestow. The reason is that the actual understanding is already our payment and our reward. We want all the payment for the efforts we have made to be aimed at bestowal. Then it will be a true Returning Light.
We have to constantly fear not to receive any reward for our efforts, so that all our intentions and actions, the bestowal upon the group and the environment, and our prayer will all be external to our body. We have to greatly fear that it will not come back to us and to guard ourselves from it. Thus we build a Masach (screen) above ourselves that first protects us from the reward so that it will not come back into our desire to receive.
If we can constantly do that and feel sure that we can keep the covenant on the previous level, not thinking about receiving, we can already begin to do another kind of work and to yearn to increase our bestowal. Thus we work in both directions. On the one hand, we guard the wall that doesn’t let any self-benefit enter our body, our desires. On the other hand, we increase our bestowal outside ourselves.
This is actually the same direction thanks to which the image of the one who bestows is revealed in us. It’s thanks to this guarding that doesn’t allow any self-benefit, guarding above our personal desires, that the desires begin to take on new forms and concern about attaining the goal. We have to guard them very well so they will not receive any response from our work of in order to bestow.
As a result of this work of restricting our desires and expanding the desire to bestow, we begin to form the image of the one who bestows inside us, the image of the Creator. Then we already begin to understand what bestowal is and what altruistic actions are. We begin to acknowledge the force of bestowal as the first, elementary, primary force that revives all of creation.
Then we already have someone to ask, whom to turn to in our prayer. First this sublime image did not exist in us and we used to imagine different things without any real basis. Now, there is already a basis, and the image by which we can understand that “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” There is already a direction from us to the image of the one who bestows. This is how a person advances.
[112394]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/13, Writings of Rabash
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Question: There was a feeling at the convention that every second a thought, a desire, was renewed and grew, and no moment was wasted. But after that, when we need to add more to that image of the unified man that we have created, instead of multiplying it, conversely, we are losing what we have achieved. What can we do when we go out into the world, when we become confused and cannot preserve the former state because our thoughts are running in other directions?
Answer: Going into the external world, you need to be in even greater tension because it has been created as a means to increase the previously reached degree. And if that does not work—this means that you do not feel yourself within the group.
Imagine that you are a scout sent by your friends to a foreign territory in order to find out the situation there. What will you tell them when you come back? Are you going to be like those scouts who were sent to the land of Israel and upon their return said that we would not be able to cope with the people who inhabit it and we will be defeated by egoism?
This is still called the development by the path of suffering because this takes places in the conditions of descent, alienation. If you feel that you slide lower and gradually come out of holiness, it means that you have already become disconnected from the upper force. In order for you to become included in the environment, you as if lock yourself in a submarine, in order to seek the upper force with which you will achieve mutual bestowal, “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.”
But being torn from this upper, internal force, you also pull yourself from the environment. Everything is connected by a chain: Israel, the Torah (group), the Creator. Since you are separated from the Creator, you also become excluded from Israel because you are no longer aimed “straight to the Creator” (Yashar-El). At the same time, your group turns from the gathering of Kabbalists into a crowd of clowns.
It is a critical point. We cannot keep ourselves in this environment because it lacks the general force of bestowal, the revelation of the Creator. We need to keep it with all our strength as much as possible. Otherwise, we will not have the motivation, the reason, to reach this environment and connect to it more and more strongly.
You need to work on this point, which is still clouded, by focusing your attention on it, and gradually it will begin to become clear. As if it were not visible and then began to emerge from the fog due to various other reasons, events, “from your actions I will know you.”
[112813]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/18/13, Writings of Rabash
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