Entries in the 'Egoism' Category

The Path Through The Broken Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanWith all our might we are trying to make at least some kind of practical action of bestowal, to see our environment as bestowing and perfect. We desire to lower ourselves before the environment and to see the friends as the greatest people of the generation so that through them we would receive the opportunity to come to the Creator. But the more we try to do this, the more we reveal that we only want this egoistically, in order to profit at everyone’s expense and to use everyone for our own sake.

These opportunities are constantly revealed to a person and he sees that he immediately recognizes them and wants to use society for his own interests. These are the best moments—revelations of truth. And if a person is willing to endure them and to advance without milling around in them, but continuing to move in the direction of bestowal to the environment, then he will reveal his desire more and more.

He will see that no matter how much he tries to act for the sake of bestowal, to bestow to the environment and to reveal the Creator through others in order to bestow to Him—in response to all the attempts he continuously reveals thoughts of the “broken egoism” and opposite intentions, meaning symptoms of the broken heart.

Only to the degree that a person aspires to bestowal and holiness does he reveal the expressions of the impure force that rules over him. And there is nothing you can do about it because we need this revelation. If egoism is revealed to a person so strongly that he comes to hate it and doesn’t want to remain in it, this is a prayer.

After that it is not necessary to ask for anything any longer. If one does, they will be artificial requests. A prayer is the sensation that is in the heart. If a person feels how much he suffers from his egoistic inclinations, which prevent him from using the means that should have brought him to bestowal to the Creator, then this is already enough. Through that he already becomes closer to the Creator. Everything turns out to be the other way around! He is closest to the Creator precisely when he reveals how broken and opposite to the Creator his heart is.

It follows that we should understand that our work is opposite to the work of a religious person who feels perfect, inspired, and exalted. In Kabbalah everything is opposite: the path to the Creator lies through the broken heart, which is precisely the time we discover how opposite we are to Him. And precisely from this profound descent, calling out to the Creator, we reveal that we have a point of contact with Him.

Therefore, joy and despair come simultaneously, supporting each other and uniting together. That is when the Creator becomes revealed as a result of the unification of these two opposites into one.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/11

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World Without Hollywood: Fiction Or Reality?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Will the tendency to move toward internal values cause the disappearance of occupations involved in film production, fashion, and so on?

Answer: In any case, our world stands at the threshold of great transformations in regard to all the previously existing values. It will manifest in abandoning the external preferences that used to be meaningful to people until now. Even today, we have witnessed quite a noticeable popularity of casualness in everyday dress codes, and it is for a good reason.

I often participate in global congresses and conferences, and every year I notice a growing tendency for a negligent attitude toward external values. There are fewer restrictions, and the participants are given much more freedom in the form they wish to use for their presentations. People have grown impatient of various ceremonies and everything that would push them into a certain square.

This is a common trend which confirms people’s gravitation toward internal values. They need to know the essence of things, not their external expression. This is how our ego advances us. I am certain that many professions related to fashion and design will eventually vanish.

People’s attitude toward external attributes only emphasizes the growth of their interest in internal values and demonstrates that nothing external attracts them any longer. Hence, we dress and act the way we do, and as for me, I am happy to see this status quo in the world.
[37067]
From the
Introductory Lecture Series 2/22/2011, “Preference for the Internal Over the External”

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This Unbearable Life Together

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You say that a married couple has to “play” at being a corrected family. But what should they do if the evil is revealed between the spouses constantly, if they fight often, don’t respect one another, and don’t understand one another?

Answer: Unfortunately, none of us received the necessary upbringing and we weren’t prepared for family life. We have to raise a man and a woman in a way that teaches them to establish the right interconnection with one another and with their children.

This is the problem of egoistic development: Each person thinks that he knows what to do. No one prepares a person for life. Instead of educating a person, we barely teach him some kind of profession. That is why the modern crisis is so deep.

The crisis of families has become unbearable. The whole world is being immersed in universal, total despair from the attempts of families to live together. And while this is happening we do not admit that the family unit is the foundation of all of life. Without it, life will not go on.

Man will have to search for the answer, and the answer is: “Husband and wife, and the Shechina between them.” We have to understand that egoistic development has brought us to a dead-end: We cannot stand each other anymore. Only the importance of the goal can help us, and we can attain that goal only if we have the corrected family which gives their children the right upbringing. Only on this condition do we acquire similarity to nature or the Creator. Then we reveal Him, unite with Him, and attain eternal life on the spiritual level.

Only the spiritual goal will obligate a person to create the right family, to have children and the right relationships between the spouses.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/11 on Women

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Primordial Fear

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe first commandment that was given to us is the commandment of fear. This means fearing whether I am advancing down the spiritual path, whether I am acquiring the spiritual world, whether I understand what I read the right way, and whether I really act in the group.

In short: Will I succeed? I have to be consumed with this worry all the time. If I relax, then I immediately get off the track leading to the goal.

In our world, psychology enumerates over 800 kinds of fear. Do I earn enough? Am I healthy? Will something bad happen to me?

However, in Kabbalah, we are not talking about derived fears, but the primordial fear: Am I going toward the goal? Will I be able to bestow? This is already worry for something for which I don’t feel the slightest need.

Will I feel this need? Will I acquire it sufficiently in order to make efforts and aim toward the goal? I have to carry out an entire process: from the smallest worry that isn’t even clear yet, to full fledged fear aimed precisely at the goal like an arrowhead, which brings me to the realization, “Do I sufficiently give to the Creator? Do we become equal in this way? Am I not in a lower position, like a guest who receives the host’s feast in a way that he isn’t ashamed?”

This fear is the first commandment. But it is something we have to acquire. We do not have it initially. The goal is invisible and I don’t care about the quality of bestowal. Do I really need love for the neighbor? But I have to come to need it to such a degree so as to feel fear, “What if I don’t attain it?”

This is simply an outrage from the perspective of egoism. It’s completely unnatural.

However, by means of the environment and the Light that reforms, we can attain this. Fear helps us attain the worry: Will I receive the Light so it will turn me into a person who worries about bestowal?”

Therefore, we are yet to go through a big process of building the necessary conditions. However, in reality it is possible to actualize it simply. In this regard everything depends on the extent of the efforts we make.

First of all, I have to really be scared for my spiritual path. “Am I advancing toward the goal correctly?” Secondly, only once I acquire fear does the quality of love come to me because there is no love without fear.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbaah Lesson 3/4/11 on Love

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False Equality

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Does the modern-day equality of the sexes harm the relationships between men and women?

Answer: The “equality” that we establish according to our egoistic reasoning is not really equality, but a distortion of the laws of nature. In nature, the male and female inclinations are not identical, but on the contrary, they are different, opposite, and distant from one another by all possible inner and outer qualities of personality, life activity, physiology, and everything else. By drawing an equal sign between them, we crush nature and create a giant fissure that will not benefit anyone in the end.

I don’t have to explain what going against the laws of nature means. Instead of learning from nature and giving each gender the form appropriate to it, we are trying to do whatever comes into our heads at such a high level that this will bring us many more troubles. In the end, no one will be happy about this “equality.”

By nature I have to be a man with specific qualities and carry out a specific function. I have a niche that I have to take. That is the place of my appeasement, correction, fulfillment, and perfection. Therefore, I cannot indulge the egoism that rules over me and act however it wants me to by the orders of egoistic forces. There’s no doubt that all of this seriously harms things.

Let us hope that we will somehow go through the corruption to correction. However, there are many troubles waiting for us on this path.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/11 on Women

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Learning From Nature

Dr. Michael LaitmanWritings of Rabash, Article 535 “On Partnership”: The husband works and brings home money, while the wife takes the money and her work lies in going to buy the food and preparing it, making sure that the meal will be tasty. Then they are both happy and satisfied. If the wife cooks tasty food, then the husband has an appetite and then he has the strength to go to work and bring home money.

Analogously, if the feet go out into the street and the hands buy food and give nutritional substances to the brain, then the brain has the energy to think.

This is how nature itself has arranged things, although in our times many things happen differently. In the end we have to become similar to nature. No matter how much we try to run away from it, we will have to come back. Obviously, we won’t be returning to primitive life in the caves, and besides, today there wouldn’t be enough caves to go around.

The essence of the matter is that every gender has to be provided with the appropriate field of activity for which it is intended, both in the spiritual sense and in its material projection. Everything comes from the spiritual world, and therefore, we have to study its laws in order to then turn to the material world according to them. In spirituality there are two Partzufim: male and female. The female part is the carrier of the desire, the “home,” and the “vessel” that has to be ordered the right way. But doing that requires the force that the male part brings.

Where should this force reside? What does it have to incarnate into? How should it be expressed? The answer is: in the female quality. The revelation of the male quality in the female one is the home, the children, and everything connected to the family.
Therefore, if we divide the male and female functions even in every individual, and if we skillfully arrange all the things in their right places, then we gain time and speed of development, reducing troubles and aspiring to the goal by the good path.

It’s worthwhile for us to learn from nature. After all, we can’t escape it. We are just small parts of the great whole. If we will know this and keep it in mind without trying to jump over our heads, if we act precisely according to nature, then we will reach the perfect state.

In this regard we have to understand that our incorrect functioning is a result of egoism. We are deliberately confused in order to have the opportunity to search for the right form of our activity in life without putting on airs as if we have risen above nature. Otherwise we are in nature’s power and in addition are also proud of being slaves to egoism.

Our work is, first and foremost, to make an analysis: Who are we and what are we, where are we located, where are we going, what controls and motivates us, and what do we have to reach? Once we discern all of these foundations, we can then establish the right order of controlling ourselves, both from above and from our own end. Then we will reach similarity to the upper image. We have to use precisely that image to learn how to build our lives here, below.

The matter here is not the fashion or the customs of the times. Nature has its own laws and it really is worthwhile for us to follow them.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/11 on Women

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A Dog Following A Person

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is confidence in my life?

Answer: Confidence in my life is the sensation that I am so connected with the group that inside of that unity I reveal the Creator. I have attained this connection myself. It is recorded in my account and therefore does not disappear. And if it does disappear all of a sudden, then it’s only for me to restore it on a new level in order to attain a stronger connection. And I also have confidence in this—that in the future I will always be able to maintain that connection and thus I will advance.

Confidence in my life is the sensation that by virtue of my own efforts I have attained a connection with the Creator and have been filled by the Light of bestowal, Hassadim. Only the Light of Hassadim, bestowal, raises us above egoism and fear for ourselves, giving us confidence. Either you will worry for yourself, or for others —one of the two.

There is only a psychological barrier here, and if you go beyond that boundary (barrier or Machsom) and instead of yourself you will start experiencing others, then you will receive the sensation of total confidence in your life. This is given to you only by the force of the Light. Obviously, you cannot change your own nature. And when that happens, you will feel that you don’t lack for anything and never had. You will be in the Light of the Creator, in His power. And what problems could you possibly have in the King’s castle, which contains anything you could possibly wish for?

Only the upper Light can free you from the fear of death because it gives you the sensation of eternal life. You begin to live in everyone else and lose the sensation that you live inside of your egoism, your animate body.

Right now you are afraid to lose this life inside of the body because you do not have another life! The moment you begin to live the other, spiritual life, and rise to its level, there you will perceive this earthly level, this body the same as a dog or a donkey that’s beside you.

That is how you will sense this earthly life, like something that merely accompanies you until it leaves you. But you won’t feel sad or scared about it.

Don’t worry, we are yet to attain the eternal life that Kabbalah delivers to us!
From the 4th part of the Daily KAbbalah Lesson 3/3/11 on Confidence

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How To Build A Passageway Into The Upper World

Dr. Michael LaitmanAll our prayers can only be for the desire to bestow. But when a desire does not come true for a long time, a person reaches despair because he still exists with desires to enjoy.

If I had bestowing desires, I would not despair. I would be fulfilled by my anticipation. But since my desires are egoistic, my aspiration to bestowal does not fulfill me.

That is when a person falls. It says: Woe to the one who abandons his efforts before he has completed them. That is when the group has to help a person endure so that he would be able to add another drop above that boundary of despair he has attained, no matter how much he is no longer able to. This is exactly the place where he has to add a little bit more effort—in the same place where it seemed that he has reached total despair, by using the additional force he received from the environment.

These additions are what build the passageway into the spiritual world. After all, they awaken us to an additional prayer, which is answered by the Light that comes and turns the desire into a bestowing one.

Then we begin to enjoy bestowal in which there can never be disillusionment! There is no restriction in the world of bestowal. The whole world is in front of you—go ahead, be fulfilled without any limits, infinitely! Do anything you want!

After all, if your intention is to bestow to the neighbor, then there are no restrictions for you.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/11, Writings of Rabash

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Let The Light Work!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: To reveal the upper force, we need to come out from within ourselves, from within our egoism. But essentially, we do it for our own sake, in order to receive eternal pleasure. Isn’t this the most egoistic thing that can ever exist?

Answer: That is true! Naturally, all of our actions are purely egoistic. And no matter how much I lie to myself about wanting to connect with others, attain love for my neighbor, all of it is for my personal pleasure.

But something very special happens in the middle, something we do not even realize. When we agitate one another: “Let us unite! Let us sing and dance! Study together!” we evoke the upper force. It influences us and changes us even without our intention. This is called “Segula,” the “miraculous quality” of the upper Light.

And then I suddenly feel: “Really? I truly want to change? Why all of a sudden? What am I, crazy? To bestow? To love for real? Think of others? Then what will happen with me?”

I suddenly begin to feel that thinking of my neighbor has become more important to me. I do not yet exist in this quality, but I begin to want for this to happen. Before I rejected even the thought of this, but then gradually I come to a state when I really want to acquire the quality of bestowal and love for my neighbor.

Why all of a sudden? It’s because the Light influences me. This is called a miracle, which we refer to as: “The Light that comes reforms.” The same Light that created us to only think about ourselves changes us. And this is a miracle referred to as “the miracle of exit out of Egypt.”

When this happens, we feel something change, switch inside us. This changes all my foundations, my attitude towards the world, my view of the world and humanity, and my thoughts of everyone. I suddenly become my absolute opposite.

This is an act of creation, the Creator’s action. We see the actions of the Creator by feeling this inner revolution. And this is why this entire process that we experience is referred to as the Creator’s work. After all, we only evoke this action, and the Creator realizes it.

So do not be afraid, be honest: We really do not want anything but receiving pleasure and only thinking about ourselves, and we are all still egoists on the inside, regardless of the pretty words we use. But the Light comes and changes us due to all our actions in the studies, dissemination, and unity.

Let the Light work!
[36809]
From Lesson 1, Metzoke Dragot Congress 2/24/2011

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Ascending To The Breaking

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: There are states that all groups go through, including groups of children. We feel that we have attained a certain level of unity, and then our egoism grows and everything falls apart, and thus we lose confidence. How can we acquire it again?

Answer: This is a good state. We are advancing on the spiritual path together and uniting in order to acquire the spiritual world together. In other words, we unite our egoistic forces intending to break into spirituality and reach the Creator. We think that this is our initiative, that we are leading.

But then we begin revealing hatred, repulsion, and problems among us. That’s because we have to realize that we are incapable of bestowal, that we are egoists who do not wish to unite unless there is a goal standing before us that is clear to our egoism.

When setting out to unite, we talked and thought about spirituality, and studied it at the lessons. That is how we “ruined” ourselves because we attracted Light from there directly into our egoistic breaking, and due to the imbalance, the difference of qualities between the two, the breaking naturally developed. We revealed it.

That is when we have to understand that we have discovered the truth and have ascended from the material level to the level of the breaking. If now, at this level, we will begin uniting with each other by means of the same Light, then we will apply the method of correction and will reveal the spiritual reality inside the corrected Kelim. That is when we start making corrections, whereas until now there was simply nothing for us to correct because we united with our egoism, being happy at how much fun it was.

Every person who reaches the breaking and acts against his egoism must unite with the friends despite the repulsion. This is possible to do only with the help of the upper Light. It separated me from others and now I must feel that it reunites me with them. As soon as it does this in the smallest degree, I will begin to feel the spiritual world. After all, the connection between us is already spirituality.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/11 on Confidence

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