Entries in the 'Daily Kabbalah Lesson' Category

A Thread Towards The Kabbalists Of The Past

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We read primary Kabbalistic sources that contain the Light. Is there any other way to attract it?

Answer: You have to learn to keep connection with the system in which people are in bestowal. You have to keep connection with Kabbalists, with the primary sources, since the Light fills them.

We all are in the single system of Malchut of the world of Infinity. Everything that happens further is merely garments, concealment, and curtains behind which our state becomes darker. However, this all is the same Malchut.

Therefore, wishing to awaken the next states, you establish contact with people, souls, and desires, which are already corrected—with the Kabbalists. You read what they have written for you to keep connection with them, to be as close as possible to their place in the general system.

How else can you attract the Light that Reforms? You need at least a thread to the same idea, to the Kabbalist’s message. Even if you read the text in translation, even if its presentation is difficult for you and you prefer an easy, adapted version, but the idea itself is essential for you. At least in something, you should be connected with the desire of Baal HaSulam, Abraham, Rabbi Akiva, Ramchal, the Ari, Moshe, and so on. You need a thread that leads to the corrected part of the system.

How could it be otherwise? Would you talk about mutual guarantee on the streets? What do the egoists who chant similar slogans think about? Like soccer fans, they are ready to beat the tar out of anybody because love between them is always directed against something else. This is what egoism is, and it does not understand anything else.

The word “fascism” also means connection, unity, but only in opposition to someone. This is what may happen if we do not give people the Light that will neutralize this attitude and spread mutual guarantee worldwide, rejecting the possibility to love some and hate others.

Otherwise, without this message, Nazi regimes will be installed. People will unite to combat the crisis and then will turn against each other.
[47808]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/11/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

Related Material:
Resting In The Hands Of The Great Kabbalists
Accept Us In Your Assembly
I Want To Be A Grown-Up!

Changing Ourselves Together

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn our times physical actions don’t determine anything. Nature is demanding the right attitude from us. And this is the problem. We shouldn’t give out free help to people or take the last shirt off our backs. What’s required from you is a different attitude. You have to change yourself rather than the way you act.

Until now we acted physically, the way our egoism or false altruism desired. We gave out bread to the poor and generally speaking, tried to change the world any way we liked. But it’s been enough. The results speak for themselves. From now on, we are the ones who have to change.

Instead of changing the world, we want to change ourselves with the help of external forces. This is the new tendency. On this path we will see how everything we have managed to concoct is becoming corrected.

But it’s difficult for a person to grasp this. He thinks, “What, I have to change? Why don’t you just take 10% more in taxes from me instead.” And therefore, this requires the public opinion. It will make easy what now seems difficult. And then it won’t be so difficult anymore. If everyone starts thinking about this, then I will happily join them. After all, the influence of the people around me works by itself. It does not depend on me, I don’t determine anything. I depend on others.

And therefore, we don’t have to turn to every person individually. The most important thing is to change the environment, the general way of thinking in the world. And everything else will come along.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/11, “Arvut”
[48152]
Related Material:
Becoming Global On The Inside
When Problems Aren’t Solved One At A Time
Life Under Hypnosis

When Problems Aren’t Solved One At A Time

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When a person starts listening to us, he naturally starts asking: What should I do?

Answer: You have to receive more and more information about the fact that the world’s well-being depends on the good connection between people. And it depends on that absolutely. Money, your place of work, pension, vacation, health, ecology, weather, education, marital relations – and anything you can only imagine cannot be built or corrected “head on.”

What seems to be the problem? If we have a financial crisis, then we’ll print more money and will give it out to whomever we have to. There’s a problem with Libya? Then let’s put pressure on Libya. This is nonsense, but not the kind we can laugh at. It is very bitter nonsense.

No matter what the problem is, today it is impossible to solve it head on, directly, even though this is precisely how we acted in the past. How easy everything used to be: Something happened here so we corrected it here, something happened there so we corrected it there. But that won’t work anymore. Now this is impossible.

We have ended up in a closed system, and while you are fixing one of its parts, another part breaks down. Today you have to know the whole system. Today you have to include it inside of yourself, think globally the way it does, and sense it globally. That is the only way you can achieve success.

Why are the G7, 8 or 20 meetings useless? Why doesn’t a single government program to come out of the crisis work? This is the whole reason.

We have to understand that mutual guarantee is the solution and the right approach to any problem.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/11, Arvut

Related Material:
Mutual Guarantee On A Silver Platter
A Proposition We Shouldn’t Refuse
Our Oversight

Anyone Who Seeks Unity Is Our Ally

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Apart from the Light as the correcting force, how do we differ from other organizations that acknowledge unification as the only way to save humanity?

Answer: We don’t. Moreover, why don’t we collaborate with these organizations? If they do indeed wish to unite people, we can get in touch with them.

If one or another group, be it a religious, secular, or an international one, takes course toward unification, even if it is only for a short term goal, and if it isn’t a distracting maneuver on their part but a true aim, we are definitely with them. Them aiming at unification is an advancement in itself.

I don’t know whether such organizations exist. Those I have seen do brisk business behind a nice facade. But if there are some, we will be happy to cooperate since unity underlies the world’s success, especially during the time of a growing crisis. There aren’t any problems in unifying our forces with those who already see what the solution is.

In his time, Baal HaSulam went to Poland in order to join proletariat who rose in aspiration to achieve unity, socialism, and communism. Thereby, he wanted to test whether there was a chance to correct, to re-direct them a bit so that their solidarity would be authentic. You don’t really think that he brought the works of the Ari with him to study them with industrial workers, do you? Obviously, not. He didn’t intend to ask them to follow the Torah and commandments at the material level either.

Why did he go then? What did he think to find in the people so contrary to the image of a religious Jew? He wanted to explain to them a little more, to give them his strength so that their desire to unite would take the most correct form, at least to a certain degree.

His trip to Poland from Jerusalem is an example we do not yet comprehend. We view Baal HaSulam as naïve since we don’t see the spiritual aspect of it. There was an opportunity there, regardless of the fact that it didn’t get realized. But the upper force makes its own calculations in this regard. He went because there was a real chance to succeed.
[47811]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/11/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

Related Material:
Searching For Wise Allies
A Person Should See The Road Ahead!
Baal HaSulam Describes The Society Of The Future

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 07.14.11

Shamati #122 “Understanding What Is Written in the Shulchan Aruch″
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter “Truma (Donation),” “Menorah Shekalim this Month,” Item 572, Lesson 23
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 1 “Table of Answers for Topics” Item 65, Lesson 39
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 25, Lesson 18
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

“The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” Lesson 2
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

 

Experts, Speak Out!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It is very difficult to explain to people that the solution to the burning problems lies in the interconnection between people.

Answer: No, it’s not. After all, we are supported by many specialists—not just theoretical physicists, but scientists who research nature and current problems, including economists, politicians, sociologists, psychologists, bankers, and representatives of large companies.

Today everyone is talking about the economy because it is a connection between us: how much do you owe me and how much to I owe you. This is not culture or art, religion or ethics. It is money, a precise measuring device of our mutual bestowal. This is a net of the correct, egoistic, healthy, solid connection between us. We have ruined it with our “bubbles,” but by itself it was surprisingly adequate.

And so, we have to explain to people that this network is no longer working. And this has to be explained by the experts whom we will attract—thousands of people who stand at the head of the world: bank directors, corporate analysts, and so on. Let them talk while we will stand on the sidelines. After them the word will be passed over to the scientists, and then to representatives of the education system. Go ahead—take others and use them.

That is how I see it happening today.

Question: The average person will be curious to hear them out in his free time, but this is still far away from his personal cares and the troubles he encounters in life.

Answer: There is no other solution. We have to give time for the initial phase to transpire, until we convince man that this is where the problem lies. In order to understand the world’s troubles, it is necessary to study what is happening. It’s like a sick person who “plows” through the internet searching for information about his illness and the means to cure it. Thus, we only have to give people a “link,” a connecting cord between what is happening now and the solution.

This task is incumbent on scientists, and we have to act in this direction without any further delay. We will implant and disseminate their, not our, explanations, which are weighty and well-founded. In principle, we have to become an “advertising machine” that quickly brings the rush of information from the experts to the masses. Without mentioning ourselves, we will raise them in the ratings, publish them on sites, and promote them on networks.

We don’t even need our own portal. We don’t want to “win people over” to it from the territory they are used to. This is real work on dissemination.

Question: What should a small person understand from this who does not understand anything and eats whatever he is fed? Is it enough to give him the message that together is good and apart is bad?

Answer: Yes. And a “big person” also has to understand just this. You’re not really planning to tell him about the altruistic intention Lishma, are you? He is not ripe for this on the inside yet. It is written, “Raise a lad in his own way.”

Question: Does this mean that similar to the people who used Facebook as a means to force manufacturers to lower prices on their products, we should simply push governments to unite?

Answer: Yes. We are looking for experts, those who not only understand the idea, but are able to put together a working action and then to make it happen. There are several million people in the world who would like to and are able to join this work that will have to be carried out. This “army” only needs to be organized to carry out the task.

In the meantime, we will remain behind the scenes. Today we don’t need the television anymore. After all, all of humanity is on the internet already. That is the only way we will be able to organize ourselves and that is what our dissemination enterprise will be doing as well. These are the changes we have to start making now, without any further delay.
[48030]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/11, “Arvut”

Related Material:
Partners In Conversation
Becoming Global On The Inside
Two Ranges Of Kabbalistic Broadcast

Becoming Global On The Inside

Dr. Michael LaitmanFirst of all we have to change our paradigm, our outlook on life and the world. I have to change on the inside, change the boot disk, renew my standard for evaluating myself, the world, and society. Without changing man, we will not be able to change the world. After all, the world is his copy.

Human nature is the basis upon which society, the environment, learning, culture, economy, and all other spheres of activity are built. The world is an external projection of what is concealed inside a person. Therefore, it is precisely man who needs to be changed. All the efforts have to be concentrated precisely on this.

The problem is not the economy, production, or education. Everything will normalize when man changes. And for that he has to be educated. Education or upbringing is, in essence, man’s inner transformation. No external “band-aids” will help.

Maybe this idea should be presented to the UN, UNESCO, and governments, explaining that our only objective is to change man. After all, without that he will not change the world.

That is why today humanity’s best minds do not understand what to do and what to change. We have entered a level that demands new, qualitative changes from us. From now on we have to act in our world with the help of a quality called “guarantee.” We can only do it together. By yourself you won’t achieve anything.

For example, a person who opens up a business will discover that it is connected with all of the businesses of the world and therefore they must also be taken into account. Otherwise there won’t be any success.

From here on you cannot take one step without considering the common, global system. And therefore, you have to be global and united with everyone yourself, on the inside.

But I’m not global. So what should I do? Could it really be that I will never see success without that? True, I won’t see it. This is an immutable law. Without an integral interconnection you won’t achieve success in anything. Take a look: We are already immersed in multiple crises. And there is only one way out: To change ourselves.

How can we change? How can we reformat ourselves? How can we brainwash ourselves? How can we un-install the old program and install a new one? After all, from now on I have to have a common sensation and mind with everyone so my actions will naturally correspond to the new state. My very nature has to change.

This can be done by the “Light that reforms.” People will discover it anyway. Maybe they will do it by the path of great suffering, but there is no other way to go. You have to change in order to change the world, and you have the means for that.
However, you have to get to that Light by means of the realization of evil in order to understand what you lack, “I have to change!” But how do you know? And how exactly should you change? Do you have a desire that’s formed? Not yet.

That is why you have been given a field in which to work (the group), a means (the science of Kabbalah), and instructional advice (the teacher). Go ahead, act, start becoming included in the system of guarantee, playing it in order to discover the flaw that you have to correct. Then you will have something with which to turn to the Light for correction.

You won’t even have to go anywhere: To the extent your desires become formed and clarified, the Light will begin to act by itself. After all, you are inside of it, and therefore it immediately works in conformity with your efforts. As soon as you build something inside of you, the Light immediately influences you. This way, gradually, you change even without seeing the little wheels that spin inside of you.
[48016]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/11, “Arvut”

Related Material:
Global Crisis Solution: Change Yourself To Fit The World
Mutual Guarantee On A Silver Platter
Our Oversight

A Game Of The Spiritual World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The daily lesson is divided into five parts. Should the intention be the same throughout?

Answer: Of course! That’s all there is since the entire Torah speaks only of the connection between us.

The first part of the lesson focuses on how we should relate to the connection between us and use it to reveal the general quality of bestowal: the Creator. It’s like an introduction before actualization, like having the rules of the game explained before it begins. That’s the first part of the lesson.

The second part of the lesson is the game itself. Here is where we should genuinely try to do the following:

  • To always think about the network of connection between us;
  • To always listen to what The Zohar speaks of;
  • To combine and to connect The Zohar’s text to the bond with the friends that you imagine so that the connection with the friends will assume the form that The Zohar describes.

Naturally, The Zohar speaks of the bond between us at very exalted degrees. But as we imagine ourselves at these exalted degrees, in those states, we will grow, as children do when they imagine themselves being adults, since the upper state described by The Zohar will influence us.
[47890]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/2011, The Zohar

Related Material:
Open The Door For The Light To Come In
You Cannot Build The Intention Alone
Preparation For The Encounter With The Light

The Ladder Of Properties

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Book of Zohar, Chapter “Truma (Donation),” Item 503: “You shall make a table.” A table stands inside the tabernacle with a high blessing upon it, and food for the entire world coming out of it. This table need not be empty for even a minute, but food should be on it because there is no blessing on an empty place. For this reason, there must always be bread on it so that the high blessing is always in it. From that table, blessing and food go forth to all the tables in the world, which are blessed thanks to it.

The key during the reading of The Book of Zohar is to organize the system of values within oneself so that by every word, one would move along the ladder of properties and inner definitions, understanding that everything exists within one’s desire. This desire has multiple shades, and within them, one has to try to understand the study material. Then, as a result of these efforts, the Surrounding Light will come to him.
[47768]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/11/2011, The Zohar

Related Material:
The Desire Specialist
How To Enter The Book Of Zohar
Attaining The Wisdom Of Creation

Being Afraid To Betray His Love

Dr. Michael LaitmanEverything depends on the creature’s desire. Everything around us remains in an invariable state: We are surrounded by the Light of Infinity, the Creator, nature. It’s not important how we call it; it is the perfect quality of bestowal and absolute love reigning in the world and filling up everything with itself.

However, we will not be able to reveal this upper Light, the Creator and His relationship with us, without possessing the right tools, the right desires, Kelim (vessels). That is why the entire method of the science of Kabbalah consists of how to make yourself worthy of sensing the Creator.

The Creator is always kind and embodies good, bestowal, and love. The greatest pleasure of all is to feel His love toward us. The only problem is that this can only be felt within the desires of bestowal because by coming in touch with the egoistic desires, this perception disappears immediately.

So, it turns out that from my side, the only vessel worthy of revealing the Creator’s relationship with me is the fear that I may not be able to receive His love toward me and answer it correctly. If His relationship toward me is to be revealed—and this is the only pleasure which really exists in nature—then I will have to be ready to receive it in the vessel called “trembling.” I am afraid of using this love for my own pleasure, enjoying it egoistically, and instead, I want to answer Him with the same kind of attitude.

This is called trembling because I must be afraid of the fact that at any given moment, my relationship may be ruined. It may be turned around, and instead of thinking of Him, I could begin to think of myself.

However, my ability to always remain as loving toward Him as He reveals Himself to me depends on His influence upon me, meaning that my feeling this fear or not depends on the Creator. I ask Him to give this to me; this fear is my main concern. As soon as I achieve the right fear in the right form and am strong enough, I will immediately begin to feel His relationship toward me.

It is as if I keep increasing the voltage on a lamp until it finally lights up! From that moment on, we can see it shine. In the same way, we are located in an ocean of love and bestowal coming from the side of the Creator, and the instant that the condition inside of me called “fear” is implemented at the right level, I will begin to reveal the Creator’s love inside of my trembling.

Both of the following conditions depend entirely on Him:

  1. The creation of the vessel that ensures this fear in me. Otherwise, I cannot be sure of myself. In this sense, I am completely dependent on His help called the Light that Reforms;
  2. The fulfillment, the revelation of His love toward me, in such a way that I accept it when it is revealed and relate to it correctly. I don’t want this love to spoil my response to Him so that I would suddenly fall into egoism.

It turns out that in building the vessel (desire), in its fulfillment, and the result of its fulfillment, I absolutely depend on the Creator. In order to reach adhesion with Him, I need the fear from which my spiritual vessel is built, reception of the Light, and the results of this reception.

If I concern myself with implementing these conditions in the right form relevant to my level, I will reach adhesion as a result. I will create the spiritual vessel and receive fulfillment into it. This is how we reach the goal: adhesion with the Creator.
[47326]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/2011, Shamati #38

Related Material:
Fear For Bestowal
Use Your Mind To Bestow
Meeting The Creator On The Bridge Of Love