Entries in the 'Dissemination' Category

Who Wants An Apple?

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur task is to carry the Light to fulfill the desires, to conduct by intentions.

Our intentions are addressed to the Creator, and the actions to a wider audience, to its needs. These requests always boil down to getting something, and thus they will remain throughout the spiritual ascent. People will ask for more again and again because it is the task of AHP. It grows in its desires, and we are growing in our intentions to bestow.

Question: But how can I ensure the fulfillment of their desires?

Answer: I am in the environment, in the community of people. And besides that, I have a connection with the Creator through the group, with the world of infinity. From there, the Upper Light passes through me and enters a community. Meanwhile, I am not just a fiber-optic channel. After all, in order to carry bestowal to people, I have to make calculations along the way:

1. First of all, I absorb their desires.

2. Then I raise MAN, the request for correction, to the group. In other words, I unite with the group.

3. Next, I raise MAN to the Creator. The request must come from our common circle, and thus I carry it through the group so that it would match the Creator.

4. The whole group gets a response to the request—MAD from above.

5. From the group, I have to transfer it down, having performed a Zivug (interaction) with the Light. And so here, I need to move from the state of smallness (Katnut) to the state of adulthood (Gadlut) to pass their new state to people.

6. And then I carry the Light to the community.

 

 

Question: Suppose for example, the community asked me to get an apple. So, in the end of this sequence, in part 6, will it get an apple?

Answer: Yes, it will get its “apple” through me.

We record the participants’ requirements in the minutes and proceed to the construction of correct relations between them. And as a result, the fulfillment comes from me to them, and then we will check whether everyone received what they desired.

Question: But will it not be an apple?

Answer: They will receive the fulfillment that will satisfy all their needs, including the unspoken and unrecorded, added during the waiting time. After all, spiritual fulfillment comes devoid of form and becomes clothed in a person, filling him like a vessel, desire.

Question: What is required from me at every step of this process?

Answer: The work according to the principle “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” I serve as a conductor, “stretch” from the Creator to the community, and dwell in everyone: in the Creator, in the group, and in the general public. I am a connecting link, like jelly I fill everything with my work, my incessant efforts.

And as I decide to take care of some part of humanity, I must constantly transfer the Light to it, worry about it, love it, connect it with the group, and combine the force, enabling connection with the people and the force, providing connection with the Creator.

The group is standing beside me all the time, supporting and guiding me correctly toward the Creator, and toward the “dependents.”
[116552]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/11/13, “The Peace”

Related Material:
Everything Begins From The Group
The Specifics Of Our Generation
From External Dissemination To The Revelation Of The Creator

Wonderful And Destructive Urges

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Peace”: Although I have thus far proven that one must work to benefit people, where is the proof that it has to be done for the Creator? Indeed, history itself has taken care of this for us and has prepared for us an established fact, sufficient for a full appreciation and unequivocal conclusion.

Is it enough to simply worry about the world when we approach the public? Is it enough to build a happy, integral, global, society in which everyone works together in collaboration and cooperates with each other? Or should all our actions be aimed at delighting the Creator, to such an extent that without it we wouldn’t lift a finger and go through any trouble for this suffering humanity or pay any attention to what is going on? If it is impossible to delight the Creator, then let the whole world burn.

I present this sharply and toughly on purpose, although not everyone will understand this. After all, it is actually the upper level that determines everything with regard to the lower level. If we yearn for and focus on the goal of creation, it means that we have a desire that matches it, a point in the heart that is connected to the goal of creation and not to nice, worldly social urges. Our work on the way to the end of correction is basically to rely on the principle of “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” This means that if the Creator is not part of our plans we will not succeed in anything that we do and all the nice initiatives will turn into futile attempts at establishing communism or kibbutzim and nothing but that.
[116308]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/08/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Peace”

Related Material:
For The Sake Of The Ultimate Goal
Careful About “Nice Urges”
Less Talk, More Circulation

Rigid Hierarchy Of Justice

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus,” (Mishpatim), 23:2: You shall neither side with the mighty to do wrong—you shall not give perverse testimony in a dispute so as to pervert it in favor of the mighty…

Being on the side of the majority always “bribes” us. People feel powerful when they stay with the majority. It’s implanted in us by nature.

In this case, a person is “bribed” by a different approach: “I need this to disseminate Kabbalah, to correct the world, since the majority of people will listen to me and I will correct them. However, to begin with, I have to establish contact with them and somehow become similar to them.”

I support these things in my students because a teacher has to care about his disciples. Constantly they attempt to persuade me that this attitude is correct. I agree with them, but then I “back track” (trick them out of it) in order to teach them how to work correctly. The contact will happen by all means.

The majority has to “bow” to an individual. In spirituality, everything is delineated by individuality, not by the majority.

Question: In other words, you are not a fan of democracy?

Answer: There is no democracy whatsoever! The world is organized from “top to bottom,” from the leader to the masses. The masses have to follow the leader. The leader has to aspire to the Creator. The leader is the one who is under the Creator. We see where democracy leads us. I hope that people finally will understand that a rigid hierarchy of justice has to come into existence.

Laws that act in nature are called justice. It’s not something that we “invent” on our own, but rather something that we learn and receive from nature.

The entire hierarchy that was made by the Creator, the Upper Light, represents justice. If in our eyes it is not so, then it means that we have to alter our properties. When we manage to change ourselves, we’ll agree with this notion. When we agree, we’ll see that it’s true perfection.
[115214]
From Kab TV’s “Mysteries of the Eternal Book,” 6/24/13

Related Material:
Choosing The Strong In Spirit
Turning Many Into One
Everyone Is Equal In Spirituality

The Creator In Every Object In Our World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is it possible to get the feeling that through cooperation with another person I am giving the Creator satisfaction?

Answer: For this we need to imagine that behind every friend, behind the group, is found the Creator, that “there is none else besides Him,” and that all of our relationships are in fact with Him and not with anyone else, and only the picture of the world confuses me.

People are sitting in front of me now. I need to feel in this that I am linked with them; I am linked with the Creator. The more that I behave in regard to them in a cleaner and more direct form, the more strongly I nullify myself in regard to them, the more strongly I nullify myself in regard to the Creator. On the other hand, the more that I try to bestow to them correctly, to bring them to that state, then I will be more like the Creator. That is to say, I need to relate to them either as being greater than I (upper) or as smaller than I (lower), and I am myself always found in the middle, between these and those.

In the end of the matter, both this and that, this is my relationship to the Creator. And this is what is given to me so I can see His relationship in regard to us through others; it is designed this way so that it will be easier for us to accommodate ourselves to working with them. Everything depends on our motivation.
[116149]
From the Stockholm Convention “Joy In Unity” Day One 8/30/13, Lesson 2

Related Material:
The Way To Feel The Collective Soul
Connecting The Entire World To The Creator
Becoming The Ruler Of The Plan Of Creation

Looking At The World And Empathizing With The Suffering

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, “Love of the Other”: I am looking at a tiny point, called the love of the other, and reflect on what I can do to delight all the others?

And looking at the people I see suffering, illness and everyone’s personal pain, and general misery of the whole society, that is, wars between nations. But besides a prayer, I have nothing to give them, and it’s called “empathy with the suffering of society.”

Love of people and love of the Creator are one and the same thing since it is located outside the body, outside a person’s selfish interests, and thus he does not feel any difference between them. That is why people are given the commandment to love one’s neighbor. After all, if I can check myself at all times and in all states, that is, in all the changes of my desires, then I will quickly understand whether I have it or not, and every second I can correct myself to quickly attain love of the other, which is practically the same as the love of the Creator.

I look at people and think of what I can do for them. They ask for food, family wellbeing, money, power, and knowledge: I have nothing that could fulfill those desires. And if I did, then, do I have to do it, is this the right way? Is this world given to us in order to correct and improve it on the physical level, organizing society to achieve material prosperity in the usual ways? We see that everyone tries to do this without success, so why would I suddenly be more successful than others?

But the only thing we have to do is to understand that “there is none else besides the Creator.” There is only one force that acts in the world. What we need to do is only to request from Him, to ask, to convince Him that we really want Him to intervene and to perform the work of the Creator. All the changes, all the corrections, are entrusted to Him, and our task is just to ask, to raise a prayer, MAN.

Therefore, when we are working for dissemination and meet with different people, from young children to those that have grown old, we need to understand that we do not bring them any material goods of this world. Although we organize all sorts of activities and clubs, it is only the external, related phenomena, and if it were possible to do without them, we would have done without them.

We need to organize this material framework only to create a practical basis on which the work of the Creator is realized. But everything else, the action itself, happens only through a prayer, a request, in response to which the Upper Light that Reforms begins to work and fills the desire.

We cannot understand how reality changes. Either it changes from one’s material actions, correcting something in the world, or the Light comes and changes our inner properties, and we can see that the world has changed and become better.

All the actions are realized only by the power of prayer and through the help of the Creator, His work, changes, coming from above to below. We still have to accompany this by our material actions, but then we will see the Light of the Creator, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made” and earth.
[116388]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/8/13

Related Material:
Give, Give, Give Us Correction
All Who Feel The Sorrows Of The Public Merit Consolation
Careful About “Nice Urges”

An Amplifier 600,000 Times Stronger

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe can influence our emotional states and even the spiritual ones by corporeal actions. Everything is based on this world and stems from it, from this actual earth. This is actually what can help us determine our spiritual states. First everything is revealed on the lowest level, and then I gradually penetrate deeper into the earth into the foundations, into the desire.

As the desire is gradually revealed and we can penetrate more deeply into the earth, we get a chance to turn the desire into bestowal and to raise it higher upward. Thus the earth (Adamah in Hebrew) becomes Adam, which resembles, Domeh, the Creator.

So we have to respect our corporeal actions and value their influence on us. We see to what extent we depend on different forms, pictures, and rumors. It takes special skills to use them correctly and, in fact, this is what we have to teach humanity. Everything that is above the earth, above this world, is part of our work. We perform the work of this world, on this level, in the desire to receive together with the public, and our AHP is always in them.

Thus we work mutually by learning how to be in contact with the public and the public learns from us how to summon an inner change and get closer to one another by simple corporeal actions. The variety of actions that we perform in order to bring people closer is called integral education. For us the same thing turns into the wisdom of Kabbalah on our level and not in the corporeal earth, in the common corporeal desire, but above it, in our vessels, in GE, in which vessels, Lights, Partzufim, and couplings operate and the Light is conveyed to the whole system.

This is how we have to work with all of humanity. People begin to work in their own desire while we raise their exertion to the spiritual levels. It is then that we reveal how what seems as trivial, egoistic, simple work on the lower levels becomes great work when it goes through this huge amplifier, through the whole spiritual ladder.

An example for that is Malchut, which is corrected by being incorporated in Zeir Anpin, in its own 60 Sefirot HGT NHY, and by this common work they rise together up to the level of Arich Anpin, as they grow 600,000 times bigger. By that we should understand that it is the slightest work of the public that summons the most powerful and most important response from above.
[116208]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/28/13, Writings of  Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
The World Is An Infant In Our Hands
From External Dissemination To The Revelation Of The Creator
A Down Payment That We Must Justify

The Point Of View Of The Universe

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe should clearly understand one thing: our success completely depends on the Creator and nobody else besides Him. “We are not the ones who will finish the job, but it’s not up to us to refuse it.” We must act applying maximum energy and at the same time staying confident that the result is solely in the Creator’s hands. We already know it very well. It has been proven dozens of times. We realize that we are playing a game the results of which are known beforehand, that everything comes from Him and that He is the One Who organizes everything with a divine “cunningness,” and that there is nothing at all we can do about it.

You can lie on the couch all day long and in the evening you’ll receive your salary as if you worked all day. However, we are obligated to accept the upper governance and work all day long. The same applies to our external dissemination. These two lines teach us the way that the spiritual realm is built: out of contradictory properties that look totally incompatible to our brain. It’s fine for now! Later, we’ll be given a different kind of mind.

Let’s hope that with each day we’ll need the Creator more and more. At the same time, we have to be cautious of weakening the other side of the coin and make sure that our own contribution in the process also has to expand day after day. Without it, we won’t have a need for the Creator. These two lines do not cancel or annul each other. If we manage to act so, we’ll accelerate creation of the first spiritual vessel.

We should apply our efforts as if we were “an ox under a yoke or a donkey to the load,” meaning that we should run faster and use our energy mechanically. As to our intentions, we should clearly realize that in every action of ours, the Creator is both in front of us and behind us, and that He “embraces us from the front and the back,” and that we work only together with Him.

Later, we’ll figure out that He works inside us also . Then, where are we in this picture? This is the point at which we start attaining a transcendent power, the spirit that dresses into everything around us. We understand that “There is none else besides Him” and that there is also a tiny point from which we look around and see that “There is none else besides Him.”

This particular point has nothing in it at all: It has neither volume nor width. It’s just a point that emerged “out of nothing” (Yesh Mi Ayin); it’s a point from which we observe that “There is none else besides Him.” Finally, we get to realize that the Light, the desires, and all states that we’ve been in throughout all of history, and in everything, there exists only one force, the Upper Force. “The Creator is the first and He is the last.” There is no other revelation that is greater than this one.

However, when we say that “There is none else besides Him,” it doesn’t mean that we don’t exist, since in order to make this statement, somebody has to be present in all places, in each and every property, in each of His actions, and then from that point, we have to decide (being on the opposite side) that in fact “There is none else besides Him.” By doing so, we completely merge with Him, meaning that we achieve cohesion and become equal to Him in all our actions, thoughts, programs, connections, etc.

It’s our duty to test everything there is in the Creator in order to comprehend that everything is about Him and finally arrive to a conclusion that ““There is none else besides Him.” All we have left is this one black point out of which we look around, but it’s a peculiar point from which the entire universe can be observed, from edge to edge, in all directions and ranges: the entire Malchut of the world of infinity.
[115823]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/13, “Group and Distribution”

Related Material:
Connecting The Entire World To The Creator
The Black Center Of The Infinite Universe
The Purpose Of Life Is The Revelation Of The Creator

Formula Of Action: Creator – World – Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanEach and every action of ours should contain a vibrant appeal to the Creator. Any material activity that is not accompanied by intentions like: “Why am I doing this? Who am I interacting with together (with Him)? Why am I doing what I am doing (in order to reveal Him)?” Any action of ours that is not associated with clarifying these questions is completely useless.

If one prioritizes material actions and success above spiritual activities and attainment, one descends to the “ground” level instead of committing a spiritual deed. It’s a shame to waste time on such things. Our existence is not meant for it.

Does it mean that you approach others to tell them how wonderful it is to be together? Is it really your goal to organize a kibbutz or a collective farm? Not at all! You want to talk with them about unity and about an exceptional force that each of us contains inside because (from this point on, you should continue the dialog internally, in your thoughts) the power of unity will allow us to reveal the Creator in order to please Him.

You are obligated to continue this formula to the very end. We have to start with the Creator and conclude with the Creator. The Creator has to be in the beginning of our thoughts and He must be at the end; in the middle, there is our material world. It’s as if you start from state 1 of the world of infinity, go all the way down, from top to bottom, to this world, to state 2, and then return back to state 3, to the world of infinity at the end of correction.

Each of our actions is an implementation of the entire chain: from the world of infinity in the beginning of creation to the world of infinity at the end of creation. Repeat it to yourself as a mantra; it’s important that you do it until your heart begins feeling it. It’s as if you try to start up a dead engine; you try as many times as needed until it starts working.

Each time you do it using your material desire, which as of now doesn’t have anything in common with any kind of spiritual activity. You repeat it, as a child who doesn’t understand the meaning of words, until you start understanding. The Light impacts desires, clarifies and connects them until one begins feeling what one reiterates. Out of my own experience, I know that it works, although it requires lots of time.

However, there is nothing we can do about it, since the time, in fact, is just a chain of changes that we experience in our desires. Each time we go through a new correction. It’s a blessing that we have received a job that requires assistance of the upper force. Even if we artificially proclaim that we need the upper force, we can be assured that various troubles and enemies will not force us to understand how much we need the upper force.

We are the ones who define what route: the path of Light or the path of suffering. This is a very concrete choice: We either go one way or the other. The Creator wants us to connect with Him. If we obligate ourselves to do that with the help of a group and by keeping in mind the importance of the goal, then we’ll choose a positive and concise way. If not, then the “help against us” appears. At this time, we feel it on our skin. This is wonderful, since it’s help from above; it’s already a revelation of the upper governance.
[115370]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/23/13

Related Material:
How Does One Move One’s Attention Towards The Creator?
United With The Creator
Helping The World Reveal The Creator

Returning To Bestowal

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The ten days between the Jewish New Year (Rosh HaShanah) and the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) is the period of repentance, or more literally, return (Teshuva). What is this action?

Answer: We are talking about returning to bestowal, to the state that preceded the breaking of the vessels. Bestowal means that I calculate my every action not in my desire but in the desire of the other. It is said about this: “Make your desire as His desire.” That’s what it means to love, to bestow, to try to neutralize one’s own desire, to become included in the desire of the other, to take his desire as if I am he and to try to fulfill it.

What exactly does the other person want? He wants to make money, to succeed in life, to get rid of someone, to use someone else, etc. Of course, I do not help him in this. No, being in the property of bestowal to some extent, I “integrate” in the other; I feel his properties and want to correct them. So, I have to make sure that he is corrected like me. I have to ask for him.

And I ask for correction for him; I want to carry his bestowal in everything. I accept his properties, intentions, desires, especially the bad ones, and correct them: I ask for correction for him. He is unable to ask himself, unable to understand that this is wrong, unable to “see the baby,” i.e., to look to the future. And I become the “head” for him.

That is why the letters of the word Israel (ישראל) make up the expression the “head for me” (LiRosh – לי ראש). I am doing spiritual work for the other, instead of him, I raise MAN—a request for correction—like the first-born and raise him to our common parent Partzuf Aba ve Ima. And from there, I get twice for myself to move into adulthood (Gadlut), which will allow me to form the genuine property of bestowal upon the other. And based on this property, I will start to bestow.

That’s what the action that we are talking about is. All this is also included in the correction on Rosh HaShanah. The New Year is in essence the peak, the result of the completed degree and ascent to the next one.
[116179]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/13, Lesson on the Topic: Rosh HaShanah

Related Material:
Getting Ready For The New Year
Man’s Birthday
Celebrating The New Level

Becoming The Master Of One’s Destiny Again

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday, a special condition has developed in the world caused by the fact that the spiritual and the material are converging. And to the extent that our actions are consistent with the current stage, we influence our own destiny.

Over the past two thousand years, this has not happened. The period of exile of the people of Israel lasted until now, which it had to pass through by suffering. Baal HaSulam says that a premature exit from the Egyptian exile after two hundred and ten years, instead of four hundred, became the root of all subsequent exiles.

Either way, you need to go through all the stages of the path. The breaking itself, the destruction of the Temple, defines this situation, where you are not the master but the dependent who is to experience everything through whatever comes to him.

And the people of Israel have experienced, lived through, these two thousand years until it came to their end. Today, a new, opposite stage, a new birth begins. The crisis (in Hebrew: Mashber) is birth. And so it is the time to rise to our feet.

The first time in two thousand years, our current actions, both material and spiritual, based on physical strength and the power of intention, determine our destiny. And it is determined in two ways: either carrying out the development in its time or speeding it up, one of the two. It was not like that previously, this “fork” appeared just now.

That’s why the world manifests its “round,” interconnected nature, and we discover that we are broken at the level of humanity, the people of Israel, everyone and all people. This period began with the first wave of Aliyah, the return to the land of Israel about 130 years ago, which was a sign of the new times. And now we have to get to work, knowing that the fate of the world is directly related to our efforts on the path of corrections.

And so today, during the Jewish New Year (Rosh HaShanah), when the attributes of judgment (Dinim) take effect, we have nothing to fear. If I am afraid that I will be exposed as an egoist, I have to understand that I finally have the opportunity to repay. I can carry out corrections, can ask for forgiveness, not just beat myself on the chest and shout nice words, but really wish to get rid of bad qualities.
[116183]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/13. Shamati #122

Related Material:
A New Year, A New Beginning
A Weak Point Becomes A Point Of Freedom
The Festive Calendar Of Ascent And Connection