Entries in the 'Egoism' Category

All Fears Stem From Concealment

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere can be different fears: for my condition in this world, for my relatives, and for the whole the world. But all these are corporeal fears that stem from the fact that a person isn’t connected to the Creator in the right way at the moment so that he could realize that everything is in His hands and that “there is none else besides Him.”

A person doesn’t understand that he is totally under the Creator’s control, and so he fears for himself in this world. Since he has no contact with the Creator, he feels that he and this world are detached from the upper force. He thinks that this world exists on its own.

Then there is another stage when a person begins to worry about the way things are in the next world: about himself, about his relatives, and about the world. This means that he separates himself and the world from the Creator, as if all these things exist separately from one another, and he looks for a connection between them that can ensure the best existence for him.

All this fear stems from concealment, so nothing can help except for advancing towards true fear, the fear of the Creator.

This is already a different kind of fear; it isn’t regarding this world and not the next world, and not about the reward and punishment in it. There is simply fear that remains in a person for now; he hasn’t totally discovered that the Creator controls all of His good creation and that he has nothing to ask for and nothing to worry about, not in the present and not in the future.

When he looks back at the past he is ashamed of his bad deeds. This means that he still hasn’t adhered to the upper Providence so that he can understand that there is none else besides Him, except the only Providence.

It turns out that the cause of all the fears is the concealment. Everything is determined only by our transition from concealment to revelation. There is no other criterion to assess our states. Concealment, an insufficient feeling of the Creator, and incomplete faith above reason, all lead to fear and worry.

This level is called “repentance of fear” and it is the intermediate level before wholeness. It must exist. On this level a person clarifies how many desires in which he feels this world are still disconnected from the only good, infinite Providence of the Creator.

He can arrange his desires faster if he connects more strongly to the group. Inside it he will always find the upper Light and himself operating, and he will process all his fears correctly so that every fear will advance towards wholeness as much as possible.

Complete fear is called the Light of Hassadim in the illumination of Hochma. He should approach such a fear gradually by his examinations. If he demands it correctly, he demands to know about all the interruptions, which means about all his desires and discernments in which he doesn’t yet resemble the Creator and in which there is no whole fear.

In the meantime a person is not in a state of whole fear, worrying whether he has the intention of in order to bestow, above all his vessels of knowledge, his vessels of receiving, but actually this is what makes up the complete fear. At the same time, worrying about this, about how great his bestowal is, which means above what thickness of the vessel that was revealed, he can rise and be in bestowal. This is how we reach complete fear.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/12, “Introduction to the Study of the The Sefirot” 

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“Let’s Join Our Hands, Friends, So Not To Be Lost One By One”

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why does the desire, the fire in the heart, which was felt earlier, disappear? How do we support this desire? How can we keep ourselves in the desire to reveal the upper force, taking into account that we do not feel it?

Answer: The Creator gives us our primary aspiration to attain Him, pushing us forward with all kinds of troubles in this life, a feeling of emptiness, and pulling us with the expectation of revealing the truth, meaning. But we have to go further by ourselves. This initial push from behind and pull forward are temporary; do not expect that they will propel you forward all the time.

You have to cultivate this thrust forward yourself, and it can only come from the environment. You must build your group, your environment, so that it excites you, pulls forward, teases, so that you see friends who succeed and strive forward more than you do, so that you become jealous, envy them, so that they give you the importance of the goal, and you feel support in that from them.

In order to be impressed by them, you have to annul yourself. If you consider them greater, then even a small drive towards the goal that you see in them will seem great to you.

This is the basis of all Rabash’s articles about the group. The Creator gives us only the initial impulse and nothing more: the negative force from behind and a small attracting force forward, and only for a certain time. And then He begins to give us more and more egoism, the hindering force, so that we develop our own pull towards Him on this hindering force. You can get it only from the environment. That is why freewill is only in the creation of the environment suitable for us.

So, if we do this seriously, we will definitely reach the goal, but this is the most important thing, this is a guarantee of our advancement. So, I am very happy about our unity at the Siberian Convention where we will try to unite to feel our next state there, on the spot. It is before us; this is our next step. Let’s make it together, and it will bring success. “Let’s join our hands, friends, so not to be lost one by one.”
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From a Virtual Lesson 12/2/12

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The Higher The Mountain, The Happier The Ascent

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why are there only seven billion people here on Earth and not 700 billion, for instance? After all, if there were, the common vessel would be a lot bigger and we would feel greater pleasure?

Answer: It is not about quantity; it is about quality. In this case, we are dealing with qualitative expansion—to what extent I am able to transcend myself.

When I start rising above my egoism, I don’t feel other people at all. Instead, I feel the field, the desire, the vectors that I am able to merge with to connect in our common desires, aspirations, and senses.

The greatest pleasure is to get to know the upper: the upper force, upper governance, because it is built on the opposite positive and negative forces: the desire to receive and the desire to bestow. Their clashes within us cause enormous gaps that we fill and enjoy.

First there is a huge lack of comprehension of harmony and order, and then we can grasp the harmony itself. When the opposites that were totally incomparable finally fall into place and complete each other, a person experiences indescribable delight in his senses and mind (awareness).

Question: In other words, the higher the mountain, the happier the ascent at the end?

Answer: The more joy you feel when you are standing atop of it.
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From KabTV’s “Foundations of an Integral Society” 3/11/12

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An Enormous Gift For The Suffering Of Love

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur spiritual path is divided into two parts.

The first part is rather difficult since we don’t exactly see what we are doing. But this is precisely what helps us renounce our egoism. If we could see what we are doing, then our egoism would participate in this process and only grow, and we would never be able to break away from it. So since we can only go forth with our eyes closed, that is, through separating from our egoism, gradually severing it from ourselves and transitioning to connection with the friends by exiting ourselves into the property of bestowal, then of course this is difficult for us.

Our path is based on the fact that we draw the upper Light, which influences and corrects us. In other words, I am unable to correct myself, I cannot rise above my egoism, I can’t do anything with it at all, but I can draw the upper Light upon myself.

Therefore, exertions in the wisdom of Kabbalah are very interesting and differ from exertions in our world where I directly affect an object, an area, or the properties that I wish to change:  Here it is different. If I want to change something, then I have to draw the Light upon that object, that dimension, or those properties, so that the Light would change them. Thus, I’m constantly addressing only the Light so that it would change these properties.

How does the Light know which properties to act on?

It’s very simple. If I’m advancing toward the property of love, of mutual bestowal, toward the property of connection with the friends, if I’m trying to unite with them, then I discover that I’m an enormous egoist who wants to exploit them, who wants only personal gain, and who couldn’t care less about everyone else. When I discover this in myself and it evokes enormous suffering in me, then I begin to ask the Light to correct me. In revealing my inner egoism, I begin to turn to the Light and ask for it to change me.

That is, I prepare an enormous uncorrected desire, reveal it in myself, and I feel how disgusting it is to me, how repulsive, how much I don’t want for it to exist inside me; it’s like a cancer that I want to cut out of myself—and then I turn to the Light so that it would perform this surgery on me.

Thus, we have a very clear progression on our path: I’m moving all the time toward connection with the friends, towards the purpose of creation, the property of bestowal and love. I’m always moving towards exalting these properties, parameters, and definitions above myself, to make them my highest values. In the end, I reveal how opposite I am to that, how much I don’t want it, how artificial it all is in me, and so on. And then, from this bitterness, I cry out to the Light.

So there’s a big problem here: People who aren’t capable of realizing this and who aren’t capable of suffering will not be able to go through this path. Moreover, the suffering is qualitative. A person feels it during normal life, even when everything is going really well for him. This is the suffering of love, when I would like to connect with the friends, when I know that it’s necessary, but I see that I can’t. Only this kind of suffering is meant here—no other!

It’s not about whether or not I know the subject well, not that I’m a wise guy or say, impatient—no! The only thing that I need to reveal is my rejection of connection with others. Only this! Bestowal! When I’m repulsed by connection with others, when I suddenly begin to despise it, to not want it, this is precisely the property that I need to grab onto and to ask for its correction. This is the entire secret of Kabbalah. There is nothing else!

Therefore, the first part of our path is a gradually increasing revelation of evil within us, and then, in a single moment it becomes corrected. This is why there are two phases to our advancement.

The first phase is when throughout a few years we accumulate enormous, heavy, and lengthy suffering.

And then, in a single moment it becomes corrected, and we open our eyes and see a completely new picture around us. It turns out that the entire creation functions in the property of bestowal and love: The entire world works this way, while to me in my egoistic properties it appeared that it was built on properties of egoism, conquering, violence, brutality, and so on.

This is similar to how laboriously a rocket heads for its orbit in outer space, but afterwards, during orbit, in weightlessness, a calm suddenly sets in: Everything is quiet, the engines stop working, and you are out in space.
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From the Virtual Lesson 11/18/12

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“Sanctification Of The Moon”

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe rising of Malchut to Bina is called “the sanctification of the moon.” This means acquiring the faith by which a person has to sanctify his work above reason. He understands that he mustn’t work with his desires to receive, but that all his work should be within the vessels of bestowal.

But in the meantime he has no desire to bestow, and he doesn’t even understand what it means. Therefore, the Creator points by using a “finger”: “Look, this is the form of bestowal!” That is, a person gradually begins to discover the form of bestowal and understands that this is the desirable form.

Before that, he couldn’t discover it, appreciate it, or imagine it. After all, what we call bestowal in our world is not bestowal but latent receiving, false altruism. Undoubtedly, as long as a person is managed by his egoistic desire, he must feel some pleasure in his actions, since otherwise he wouldn’t be able to move.

Even when he fills others, he must feel some profit, or that the other is dearer to him than himself. Then he feels natural love towards him, like a mother who is ready to give her baby everything. Another option is that we are so closely connected that the wellbeing of another is inseparable from my self-benefit, or that I am managed by fear!

The motive can also be benefit, an additional profit, or a desire to cut down my sufferings. It is also felt as an egoistic profit and usually even a greater profit than the pleasure.

I can feel a profit from the addition and also a profit since I don’t lose. In that case my joy is even greater.

A person can find 100 dollars on the street, feel happy and quickly forget about it. But if he loses 100 dollars, he will regret it much more than if he found that sum of money, since it is like cutting something off oneself.

Therefore, we have to understand that the power of faith is above the desire to receive and is acquired in two phases: first in the vessels that work for a profit and then in the vessels in which we feel the loss. Our whole desire is divide into two parts: levels 0-1-2 (the thickness of the root level, phase one, and phase two) that are called GE, and levels 3-4 (the thickness of phases three and four) AHP. First bestowal is performed in the vessels of bestowal and then in the vessels of receiving.

Clearly, it is much more difficult to work in order to bestow in the vessel of receiving, since a person feels an immediate loss then. He could have received a direct pleasure in those vessels, and now it is the opposite, he intends to bestow with these vessels, and so it turns out that this is a double loss for his ego.

But he “sanctifies himself,” which means that he acquires the attribute of bestowal and thus advances until he is rewarded with the “sanctification of the moon,” when the attribute of bestowal becomes holy for him.

He himself cannot shine like the moon, but he illuminates to the extent that he is adhered to the upper force, to the source of the Light, to the sun, with the help of the power of faith. Thanks to that, the moon is sanctified.

Just like the earth, the moon cannot generate any light, but it loyally adheres to the sun above the earth and thus begins to shine. It isn’t its own light, but it shines thanks to the fact that it doesn’t receive anything for itself, but only in order to illuminate for others.
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From the 1st part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/30/12, Writings of Rabash

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You Drew A Winning Ticket Out Of Thousands

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf the spiritual path were felt as pleasant and beneficial to our nature, our egoism, who would reject it? The entire world would run to us to study and sit at the desk. Everyone would come if he felt joy and sweetness in this.

No one would refuse such a tempting opportunity to reveal the future before him and obtain all the knowledge. Our ego would have pushed us forward, pulled us, not giving us a moment of rest. Envy, lust, and ambition would be burning in a person, promising him all sorts of fulfillment in this world and the upper world, the Garden of Eden. All this would have inspired and attracted him more and more.

Of course, this is not so, and it is difficult for us to understand and impossible to agree that all of reality, except ourselves, is opposite of what we see. It is full of contentment and pleasure, the revelation of the upper force. All this is revealed to the extent a person acquires the property of bestowal.

It is impossible to achieve spiritual fulfillment, the degree of the Creator, in any other way. So, true management is hidden behind its opposite form, and we are not able to appreciate it, to understand and taste what the intention to bestow means. We do not have the tools to enjoy bestowal.

Please give to anyone! However, you will not feel any pleasure from it because your desires are opposite. And only one in whom the spark was lit in the darkness of egoism, forcing him to seek bestowal, and one who cares about that spark, trying to increase it through studies and the environment—advances. Indeed, there are few chosen ones, of all the thousands.
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From the 1st part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/02/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Uncovering The Poisonous Lie Of The Ego

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How should I make sure that the study does not become a “potion of death” for me?

Answer: We have to reach the state in which the study becomes a “potion of death.” In order to do that, I have to discover that I am immersed in my ego and that I hate everyone including the Creator. I see that I don’t want to connect with anyone and to bestow upon anyone. But I know that this is the goal of creation and I have to attain it. This means that I already discover two lines that contradict each other.

Along with my inner understanding of the necessity to reach bestowal, I discover that my nature is opposite from it. Then I discover that it is the “potion of death.” I have to find out that receiving for myself and using others are deadly for me.

I look at the friends’ faces and understand that I want to use them all: I want to be more clever than all of them, more beautiful, more strong, and more successful.

If my approach to each of them weren’t like that, I wouldn’t feel and see that anyone exists at all. I wouldn’t discern him in my sensory organs, since behind my sight there is my ego, and if I don’t intend to use a person for my benefit, I don’t see him at all. He doesn’t exist for me!

So it is a high level if I discover that I am in a state of Lo Lishma (not for Her name) and that I want to use everyone, but understand that it is the “potion of death,” which means the opposite of what it should be. After all, I want the truth, but I exist within this lie. It is a result of a great Light that comes to a man and illuminates on him showing him the real corrupt state he is in and enables him to understand it.
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From the 1st part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/30/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” 

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The Accomplishment Of The Kabbalists Of The Past

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What do you mean, “Kabbalists passed the Light to people”? After all, they just changed their perception.

Answer: Kabbalists are the people who cross the Machsom, integrate in the upper system of management, and by their desires to become corrected, bring their activity to this system.

We study this in the system of the upper worlds, which is in a passive state and works as though idling; it has only the Light of Hassadim. And when our corrected egoistic properties become integrated into it, then the Light of Hochma appears there and the system begins to work. As if you add gas, and the engine starts working, not idling; it’s the same thing here.

That is why the Kabbalists who have corrected themselves, being parts of the entire system, both ours and the upper one, added their Light to this system. They added the Light of Hochma on their corrected egoistic desires, and thus the entire system already works on different revolutions. That is, it is capable of accepting us, processing us, and including us into itself; this is their accomplishment.

We are acting today in the same way. Correcting ourselves, we in general do the same for the future generations that follow us. Thus gradually, everyone follows one another.

Therefore, the correction of the world occurs from lighter egoistic qualities to the heavier ones. And people who will come to Kabbalah in a few years to correct themselves will be much more egoistic than we are, but we will prepare the ground for them by drawing the Light into the system of the worlds, which without us would have worked only on the Light of Hassadim, that is, it would have been in the small state (in the state of “Katnut”).
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From a Virtual Lesson 11/18/12

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A Voluntary Righteous

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf the upper Providence were revealed to us, then all the people in the world would become absolute righteous. They would be forced to obey the law of bestowal, which means that they would be compelled to be righteous and not from their freewill.

This is what would happen if the Creator were revealed to us. We are all waiting for Him to be revealed, but we would immediately lose our freewill. We would be like animals that blindly perform all of nature’s orders, just as we are forced to obey our egoistic nature now. We would carry out the orders of the nature of bestowal in the same way. If there is a law of nature, I obey it like a machine.

So we shouldn’t expect the Creator to be revealed to us before we are independent and have the force of the Masach (screen). Then we will be able to receive His revelation by the Returning Light, by rejecting the pleasure. Until then, the revelation will not be in our favor, of course, since it would force us to be become sacred animals. We have to rise above this level in order to become human beings.

Therefore, the Creator is revealed only to the extent that a person remains independent. Now we are managed by the egoistic intention and obey our ego. Then the point in the heart awakens in us, and we begin to struggle against that dominance, organizing a group that will be on the side of this new force, the point in the heart.


The struggle will succeed if I can diminish the external society, so that I can leave its dominance. Behind my ego there is all of society, and behind the spark of bestowal, the point in the heart, there is the Kabbalistic group. I have to raise and to increase the importance of the spark and of the group as much as I can, and on the other hand, to lower and reduce the influence of the ego and of the external society as much as possible.

To the extent that I do that, I increase the importance of bestowal in my eyes, and the Light influences me according to my efforts. This exertion operates like my prayer (MAN), and the Light that Reforms comes in response to it and changes me.

Eventually my new structure is formed: from Above I have a Masach and Returning Light that serves as my new vessel in which I bestow upon the Creator. From below, under the Masach, there is my restricted desire to receive, my ego.

To the extent that I have performed such a restriction, the Creator can already be revealed.
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From the 1st part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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The Biggest Egoist

Dr. Michael LaitmanAs a rule, only people with a high level of egoism study Kabbalah. Other than that, nothing fulfills them. Science, technologies, arts, family relationships, jobs, hobbies of any kind, lots of money…nothing brings them contentment. They are torn apart by one question: What is the meaning of life?

They don’t believe in religion since they have already exceeded this developmental stage and lost the ability to blindly follow any trends. They don’t see any value in this world since they regard everything around them as a regular “animal” existence and nothing more than that.

Naturally, they don’t have a desire to hug everybody, dance, or do any childish things like “sitting in a circle, drinking and eating together, singing songs.” They consider it weird and odd, and they are right.

Their egoism is above average. Thus, they strive to reveal the upper; however, they are forced to behave “immaturely” and childishly. Unfortunately, nothing can be done about it.

They join a group that is already in the process of advancement and has more or less revealed and understood the methodology of growth. They enter a group that feels, recognizes and acknowledges (at least studies) the necessity to bond in order to discover the properties of the upper world through the connection among friends. This is because the qualities of the upper realm can only be revealed in unity.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/6/12, Lesson 4

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