Entries in the 'Egoism' Category

A Crumbled Cake

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, everything is revealed in a person. So, where are the spiritual worlds about which we study in the lessons?

Answer: It is in our attitude to the friends. Once, we were one whole and not slices of a whole “cake.” Then, there was one desire, and the Light resided in it. Later, the desire to receive came between us, the intention of “in order to receive,” and we crumbled.

Today, each cake crumb wants only to enjoy, to compare itself to others at the expense of others, by others. This is what we feel, and it determines everything. Accordingly, if we get rid of it, if we change the intention of “in order to receive” to the intention of “in order to bestow” that is aimed at bestowal, we will collect the pieces of the crumbled cake by ourselves. The upper Light will serve as the glue for that by filling all the voids between us.

Now, we are so contrary to one another that there is a void in everyone’s feelings, a vacuum between a person and the others. What is more, everyone wants to expand this void so as not to have any connection with those around him.

So, when I exit myself and call others, wanting to feel them despite the distance between us, I cannot annul this void. So, I want to ascend in order to build the necessary network above it, the network of the worlds of ABYA.

Then this void is filled by the upper Light. First, it was very small and just held us like cake crumbs, but, now, when we must fill the voids between us with the force of love and bestowal on top of the repulsion that remains, we discover between us a connection that is 620 times stronger. It is as if our cake has been filled with chocolate cream, and there is enough room to fill it with everything that is good.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/20/12, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Dr. Michael LaitmanSpecial Edition: Events in Southern Israel

Friends, brothers, we need to find a solution to our problems. And for that we need to understand their true cause. They stem from the law of nature that develops us in a certain direction—towards unity.

Actually, it is not complex; however, this decision is contrary to our egoism, and thus we cannot see it. I do not accept the idea that I need to change myself; I do not understand what it means to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But time is running, and we will have to turn to unity, in the worst case, under the real threat of destruction. By definition, the people of Israel have to be “as one man with one heart.” And when it begins to realize its destiny, all the troubles will recede, all the storms will subside.

The main thing is to start. After all, a person gets strength from the environment. So, if we act together, everyone will start to change, by being included in the process. We teach children to be kind and sympathetic; we reprove their antagonism and conflicts. It is time for adults to work on themselves. This is a simple solution—a “pill” that is easy to take. Let’s try, and the results will be immediate. Why do we need wars and terrorist attacks? Instead of war, public opinion and working together should be used, and Hamas will step aside.

Let’s reflect on mutual guarantee—not to win over the external enemy, but over the internal one. And the rest will come. It is the people of Israel who should initiate this process that will spread to the whole world.
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What Are The People Of Israel Lacking?

Dr. Michael LaitmanSpecial Edition: Events in Southern Israel 
Today the Jewish people are lacking unity in the human stage of development. This is the “Egyptian exile”—when a person suffers from its own egoism. At first, he seems a good “king,” but over time it becomes clear that he sucks all the juice out of the planet and of ourselves.

By the will of this “Pharaoh,” we have polluted almost all that is possible, in nature, as well as in relations between us. There is a crisis, what is called the “seven lean years” when we realize that our ego is literally killing us. We want to use others, instead of being a guarantor to each other.
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Let’s Open The Door To The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can The Book of Zohar help me recognize evil?

Answer: The Zohar, more than any other source, can help a person feel the evil. We advance on the way to the Light, to the Creator, to the force of bestowal, which is the only one who rules and who operates in reality since the desire to receive doesn’t move if the force of bestowal, the force of the Light, doesn’t impress it.

So it turns out that without Kabbalah books, and especially without The Book of Zohar, we wouldn’t discover the source of our movement, but would just wander in this world. It is the Light that impresses us in the form of circles if we evoke it to get closer to us equally on all sides, and then everything is immersed in different troubles and problems.

But what are troubles and problems? It is the feeling of our oppositeness from that Light. We don’t know what the Light is, but we feel bad, not knowing what it is.

If a small child feels cold, for example, he is shivering and crying and doesn’t know what to do. Next to him there is a door to a warm room, but he doesn’t know that he should go in there. So he continues to cry and to scream, but is not able to tie his bad feeling with the cold. He doesn’t understand that he feels bad because of the cold and doesn’t know that if he goes through the next door he will feel good and warm. He attains this only according to the actual phenomenon, but he doesn’t know where it stems from. He only reacts simply to his inner state, without a cause and with no results. This is how the simple desire to receive responds.

But if this desire begins to build a head for itself, then he already understands where things come from and why and how he can be saved, and what actions he should take in order to escape the bad situation—this is already a head. But how is it created? By the Light that by different actions builds in him this mechanism, which doesn’t exist in the desire to receive at all.

Thus we gradually advance to the good. There are people on such a level of development who simply cry out when they feel bad. There are others who try to escape in different directions, but don’t know the right direction. There are also those who manage to escape. There are those who understand that there is no need to escape, and that if we perceive the Light that comes to us and it makes us feel bad, here in our place, we will turn it to good, and there is nowhere to run at all. So they overcome their state, transcend it, and discover the Light in the same place. It all depends on our development.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/18/12, The Zohar

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The Future Is In Superhumanity

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Ken MacLeod, an award-winning science fiction writer): “Theoretically, Marxism came up with a secular, materialist account of what made humanity distinctive: a complex, evolving, and indefinitely extendable interaction of labour, consciousness, and social relations, all rooted in the mutually reinforcing co-development of hand, brain, and tongue. …

“But the aims of most of the millions of ordinary people who believed in socialism were modest: full employment, social security, free education, and healthcare.”

My Comment: For the first time in human history, we can select in advance one of two ways of our development towards the state of complete balance that has been established by nature. We need to see our future state because it is opposite to our egoistic nature. If it had matched nature, we would have just moved forward automatically as throughout our history, pushed by our growing egoism.

It is the oppositeness of our egoistic nature relative to the next altruistic state of humanity that stops us in transition to this state. The pressure on us, egoistic individualists, from integral altruistic nature will constantly increase, producing crises and disasters that will push us to understand the causes of our suffering and to accept balance with nature, to achieve unity among us and with it as the peak of our development.
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Interconnection As A Remedy For The Crisis

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister): “Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría said that Spain must be united in tackling the crisis and called for the difficult situation to be handled with shared determination, both nationally and internationally, to avoid ‘cracks’ that would make us vulnerable and ‘to strengthen and shield ourselves from uncertainty.’

“Regarding the reform of the public administration services, she highlighted the need to promote a ‘far-reaching’ reform that avoids duplication, saves money and improves the service; in short, one that provides ‘coherence’ and better channels resources. She insisted that this reform is the most important structural reform currently being implemented by the Government and announced that ‘an important merger process’ will take place at the end of the year because ‘21st Century governments cannot function with 19th Century structures,’ she said.”

My Comment: This is how nature will gradually force us to accept its higher general law—all its parts tend to a single form, mutual connection, and equilibrium. Of all the still, vegetative, and animate parts of nature, it is the human being who is an offender of balance. Our egoism wants to grab and use the whole world for itself. Suffering or reason or their combination will force it to be tamed. The example of Spain shows that they are close to the realization of the problem.
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A Prayer For Correction

Dr. Michael LaitmanEgoism pressures us, holding us in its slavery and not letting us rest. Every moment we continue doing selfish calculations in its favor with no end to it. How can we escape from this slavery? By all means of establishing ourselves stronger in this demand, that we are in the group, study, and participate in events, dissemination, workshops, gathering of friends, and festive meals only to obtain the force of bestowal. This is called faith.

A person experiences the suffering of Job which is the symbol of unbearable human suffering, revealing all of his egoistic nature to the deepest level and discovering that he can do nothing with it. No matter how much he checks himself, he won’t find a single grain that will bring forth something good. This is called the suffering of Job that can’t be overcome and somehow healed because in fact it’s impossible to find any clue in our nature from which correction could begin. That is, we have no power by means of which it would be possible to perform the actions of bestowal.

But it’s said that the Creator created the evil inclination and the Torah as a means to correct it. That is, there is a remedy: the upper force, the Reforming Light that comes to a person on condition that he requires correction. All that we need is to discover our plea, and then the Light will affect us.

A plea is a desire, the need to be corrected. It’s not just an egoistic desire to enjoy, but a regret that one was born an egoist. This requires preparatory work carried on from generation to generation, the influence of the environment, of the Surrounding Light that reaches a person even unconsciously and without his knowledge.

Even without studying Kabbalah, a person begins to get to know his evil. As in our current state of crisis, humanity is about to do this in order to discover that we are all egoists, and there’s no way out. Everything is heading towards this, and we’ll just devour each other, and will it be the end of civilization on the earth? What are we to do?

There’s a general and personal preparation period in which a person’s evil nature is slightly revealed. He feels that there’s no escape, and it needs to be corrected. And if the point in the heart awakens in him, he begins his correction. But those in whom the point in the heart is not awakened, they feel the true suffering of Job, with no hope to change themselves. Any actions that seem altruistic to us, any charity and noble impulses will nonetheless turn out egoistic in the end. Becoming more aware, a person begins to understand that throughout everything, egoism is manifested, acting only for its benefit. No matter how nice charitable organizations and actions look, they do not bring any correction.

The world is built in such a way that if we act according to the law of the correction of nature with the help of the Reforming Light, then we correct it. And if we don’t follow this law, all our best actions are turned into harmful ones. And with these best intentions, we cause the most damage, not bringing any good. That’s why Rabash writes that when he looks at all the suffering that the world experiences, he has nothing to help other than to pray for their correction.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/18/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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A Spiritual Triangle

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do we achieve freedom of will from our egoism through the connection with each other? How can I consciously be free and develop freely, not pushed by a stick towards happiness or by being attracted by a candy to the same happiness? I want to become aware, understand, and realize myself and my free will, independent of these motives. How is this possible to implement in the group and by what conditions? After all, this problem exists even after the Machsom when I already know and understand everything.

Answer: A person attains independence from the Creator when he asks the Creator for the sake of the group and asks the group for the sake of the Creator. If he is one-on-one with the group or with the Creator, this cannot be achieved. This is a triangle.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/5/12, Workshop 1

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Squabbles Or Connection?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we assess the state that the group is in, and is it worthwhile to do so?

Answer: When a person is sad, angry or experiences some strong emotions, we say to him: “Relax, rise above yourself”, and so on. Meaning, we always invoke him to ascend above his emotions.

Our work in the group should all the time be based on us always ascending above our ego. We understand it, appreciate it, because it is precisely it that pushes us forward and does everything that is possible for us, so that we rise above it. Therefore, the ego is called “help against”. Meaning, all the thoughts, desires and intentions that pop inside us each moment, everything that we have internally, everything that flows within us in an unceasing current is required only so that we rise above it and “swim” above it.

When a person grasps and understands this and begins to work with it, he attains the goal very quickly. This is in the group and also personally in each one of us. Meaning, in the group we have to treat each other in this way, also towards the general state of the group, that includes all sorts of discernments and everything that is just possible.

What discernments can be in a group if we don’t rise above ourselves? Are we like scandalous neighbors in a building that begin to inquire into the relationships, or sloppy drivers that argue between them?!

We need to ascend above, to connect, and afterwards clarify what the problem is. And it could be that this is not a problem at all, but actually a special assistance that helped us connect. But without connection, it’s not a group, Kabbalistic discernment, but just a quarrel, a regular mundane condition.

Therefore, we must first and foremost connect. For this, a third person may be required, or some sort of additional conditions, but without connection we will never clarify anything. There will always be someone right and someone guilty.

I mean our group relationships, and not dissemination work, like in every enterprise there are those that understand more, managers and employees that are subordinate to them. In a group, we can solve all the problems only from the point of view of connection and unity.
When we connect together in the point of unity and hold on to it (since this is the main thing for us, and the Creator intentionally arranged everything for us so that we will attain this connection and hold on to it), then we will see what is bad, what the problem is, and not gloss over it, but try to understand its essence.

This is required only to realize that the connection solves all the problems. “Love will cover all sins.” Meaning, in principle nothing has to be corrected, because all the quarrels and oppositions are required only to rise above them and to connect. There is nothing else in them. There is no need to turn to them; you in any case won’t find the truth in them.

By the way, it’s the same thing in a family. Rise above all the problems and connect! And what happens with what was before? There was nothing, in any case you won’t be able to help. Each one of us is opposite to the other and most importantly, always different.

What is the point in you starting to inquire about something? The Creator deliberately arranged for you such conflicting new traits that cannot even be imagined. All our lives are composed of them. Everything that we see now around us is like a movie in which only all of our incompatibilities are shown to us, from which this picture of the world is composed. When you begin to ascend above, then you “swim” in a completely different plane: in unity.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/06/12, Lesson 2

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Learning The Wisdom Of Love

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is said that there is none wiser than the experienced. It seems to a person that he has been through a lot and that he understands a lot. However, there is none wiser than the experienced doesn’t refer to mere understanding, but to actually having been through all these states and feeling them. Who knows what other states are yet to come.

So a lot of patience and endurance are required of us no matter what happens. The main thing is to adhere to the environment that will help a person hold on in any situation and to not leave the path, to hasten time, and thus to turn all the problems that are revealed to help, for the good.

The evil that is revealed is detachment from adhesion, from the feeling that “there is none else besides Him.” This is what the person sees as evil and not the unpleasant bodily feelings, until all his organs begin to feel the same thing. This means that the Light that Reforms brings him an actual feeling of pleasure from the fact that there is none else besides Him that dominates him.

Until then a person has to go through many states in which he feels lost and wants to totally disappear from this reality. But eventually, he reaches opposite states when all the emptiness that is revealed turns into the one place in which he can value and praise the Creator’s domination, the dominance of the force of bestowal.

Then he is able to relate differently to all the states, relationships, people, and values that were previously hateful and caused him pain. He understands that “there is none else besides Him,” and that everything that happens is for his own good. Then he begins to love them until he attains complete absolute love.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/12

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