Entries in the 'Egoism' Category

Children Are Anti-Matter In Our World

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe only thing we lack are anti-egoistic screens (Masach). The desire itself does not change. It only becomes revealed for being used to the degree of the screen that it has.

The screen determines what desire you can use, how much, and in what way. Therefore, we already have everything besides the screen—it is the only thing we need!

The screen is the force to overcome my egoism in spite of my egoistic desire, despite the things that seem attractive, sweet, completely obvious and rational, and are confirmed by my entire mind! Yet I go and do the opposite!

And I don’t just do the opposite, turning a minus to a plus. That would be very simple. Rather, I am in no way guided by my desire, logic, or any of my calculations. There is only one calculation for me: “This is the desire of the Upper One!”

I don’t receive anything at all from this, and don’t desire to receive anything. I want to know just one thing: that this is the desire of the upper one. This is called a “screen”—the force enabling me to act this way, above my desire, above nature, above egoism and all of its calculations.

And there is great pleasure contained in this. This is not masochism from enjoying trampling my desire, but pleasure from the fact that this makes me similar to the Upper One in some way.

It’s like a child who desires to be similar to an adult. This is a natural instinct children have. They have to make great efforts to achieve this, even though nature helps them.

The upper nature has endowed children with this enormous gift, enabling them to grow. It gave the will to enjoy such a powerful thrust that it forces it to work very hard, never stopping to rest. Look at how little children act, running about non-stop and doing something all the time.

This is the pure upper force, the force of bestowal, the force of the Creator, which is present in small children and in any creature that desires to grow. They do this against their nature because our nature aspires to rest! We can see this from all the laws of physics: Everything aspires to a restful, motionless, and balanced state. The laws of entropy, conservation of energy are aimed at this.

Yet in the case of children we see how the body does not let them take a break. A child is always running about, eager to do something, and it is impossible to stop him. In our days this phenomena is called “hyperactivity,” but in fact it isn’t “hyper” activity, but normal behavior for the increased will to enjoy that is being revealed in the last generation. For such a developed desire, this is not an exaggeration, but the norm.

It’s a wonder looking at what children do; they are anti-nature. We have simply gotten used to the picture where children know no rest and that’s why we aren’t surprised by it. But where does this body or desire take this moving force, causing him to run around this way?

This is the regular picture, inherent in any creature. An adult mother, such as a dog or a lioness, is lazy, sleepy, lying down, sleeping, sitting calmly, and wishing to rest. And all around her there are cubs whirling about and never tiring. This is the opposite nature. And man behaves the same way.

This aspiration is given to children from above, against nature, in order for them to develop. Likewise, we have to ask for this force in order for us to spiritually develop!
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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The Dissertation Defense Is Canceled

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If my egoism is crying because it feels bad, how can I remain in the thought that this state is where the truth lies?

Answer: We focus on things which essentially are not up to us. We need to go through the entire chain of spiritual states, but if we focus on them too much, start analyzing them, and “writing a dissertation” on them, we don’t move on. We do not advance.

True, a person has to understand his condition in order to complete it. But to do so, he has to move on to the next state and once there, make a conclusion about the previous one. Our work is to hasten the time, and this depends on the influence of the environment. The more I absorb from it, the faster I will move on. Any procrastination brings harm.

A certain state may be good, but I if I sit there and start analyzing my ascent piece by piece, then the very first extra moment spent there becomes Klipa, impurity. That’s because I stopped due to feeling comfortable, pleased, and good there.

It follows that we have to beware not to submerge too deeply into ourselves and constantly look forward. This is very important. Sometimes people procrastinate, unable to move on, thus turning their condition into a subject of their “scientific research.” This is not good.

I have to allow only an instant to feel the state I have found myself in. I barely touch it, and then immediately, with the help of the group, I move on to the next state, not delaying it for another second. And while you are at it, don’t forget that the work is done by the Creator, whereas our job is to prepare MAN for Him, a plea for correction. We must prepare ourselves in order for Him to do the necessary work upon us.

Similar to the feminine part in creation, we look up from below, while the Creator, the male part, turns to us and acts from above downward. All we need to do is just bring ourselves to Him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, Writings of Rabash

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Moments Of Truth

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do I thank the Creator for small spiritual revelations?

Answer: They immediately gain great value in a person since this has never happened to him. Never before have I valued rising above myself, but now I feel that I have risen above my egoism and view this as a real treasure.

Where does this attitude come from? From the Light. Obviously, it’s not me who makes the correct analysis. By the nature of things, while experiencing an ascent, I prefer to adhere to the truth.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, Writings of Rabash

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Europe Is A Tough Nut To Crack

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is so unique about the Berlin Convention? What do we have to do there? What should each of us and all of us together do, as well as among the groups?

Answer: Right now whether you want it or not you are under the impression of the things I say. It’s as if you are slightly suppressed and included by me into one single desire, a unified thought. And that unites us.

All of these qualities, means, desires, thoughts, the things we have already gone through, the things we desire, our aspirations, the huge amount of people and groups—all of this comes together into one. The result is that it works on us, giving us a very powerful, progressive impulse.

But we have a “small problem”: It seems to us that we have a small egoism and must only overcome it, turn some small knob, press some button, and by that we will have finished the job. We don’t understand that there is a great system at work here. It’s not just a “tumbler” that someone on top wants or doesn’t want to switch. We are in a system of two opposite forces: bestowal and reception. And until this system does not work by its dialectic, by its motion forward, by the law of the unity of parts, this won’t happen.

We only accelerate the time with our efforts, but we will never be able to make a jump. This is impossible due to the nature of things. Everything is done by way of gradual, sequential, and strictly determined movement, step by step. And through this step by step movement forward we constantly come closer to success, the moment when it will “shoot out.” The transition will happen! And it will be sudden.

Our conventions greatly accelerate the movement and therefore they are very important. During the several days that we are together and around us there are also many people around the world, during that time a very serious processing takes place in the degrees of our inner development.

One way or another a million states have to pass over us. We have to go through them. And every convention occurs differently, having new aspects, new forms, and feelings.

Therefore, the Berlin Convention is bound to be special because it will be a meeting of people who are permeated by the desire and qualities of the environment where they live. That environment is very bad; Europe is a very problematic continent, the source of all problems and wars, and having extremely great egoism, although it is already dwindling now, along with our entire civilization of the past. Still, it’s a tough nut to crack. That is why this convention is extremely not simple, and in fact, the most difficult.

The easiest Convention is one held in Latin America. The people there are fiery, open-hearted, and sincere. I have never met people like that anywhere. After that comes Russia. But in Europe things are most difficult, and the more difficult things are, the more interesting, and the more spectacular is the result and effective the work.

Therefore, I hope to have your support, both physical and virtual, so that we will “work on” Europe all together.
From the lesson in Moscow on 1/16/11, Writings of Rabash

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The Internet’s True Purpose

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You mentioned that evil is revealed in relationships between friends. However, if a person studies over the Internet and is not engaged in mutual work with others, how can he reveal evil?

Answer: I see that people enter Facebook and a number of other social networks and are simply living there. Passions are seething and love is in full bloom; people even get married – if it turns out that the couple is indeed a man and a woman.

Although the network is full of lies and filth, we should respect it. Once, we were walking with Rabash past a stadium, and he said: “We have to respect this place, it brings joy to people!” The same is true of the Internet. With all the garbage that’s in it, it connects people. It provokes people, forcing them to stir up all the evil hidden deep inside of them: envy, hatred, lust, hunger for fame, and lies. It’s has all kinds of things in it, but it helps us actualize many Reshimot (informational genes).

All of humanity is there and everyone is lying non-stop, wanting to outsmart each other, arguing and bickering. Do you have any idea of what it does to the ego? What other common ground could you find to bring them together? Which other place? Instead, with the help of the virtual connection, people realize (and process) their Reshimot and are moving forward in the understanding of their egoistic nature.

So why can’t we, those who are seeking to reveal the Creator, the property of bestowal, fulfill our spiritual Reshimot correctly through such a virtual link, too? I’m sure that the entire Internet has evolved just for that. We’ve come to the final stretch of the path and it’s time to accelerate our advancement. Thus, in order to satisfy their need as always, people have come up with such a connection.

That’s why we need to set up a social network between us so that every one of our friends, regardless of whether he or she is part of a physical group or not, will feel close to everybody and will be permanently connected to our general idea, the purpose of our joint effort, work, study, and communication.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/2011, “The Quality of the Hidden Wisdom – in General”

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The Night Of The Exodus From Egypt

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to thank the Creator?

Answer: After all the efforts that are required from me in dissemination, studies, and the group, I reach despair and then I start perceiving my egoistic desire separately from myself. It’s the same as how a sick person feels the place of the illness and its source—the painful area inside him, which he discerns and wants to isolate.

Then he begins working to come out of Egypt, to isolate his egoistic desire. A person tries to separate from it, but cannot do it. That is how the first and second Egyptian plagues go by.

After that a person starts to feel that all of these changes in relation to his evil inclination are evoked by the Creator. As the Torah tells us, the Creator informs Moses that He has given more strength to Pharaoh in order to ascend and project Himself above him.

A person starts to see and understand that the Creator does all of the work inside him. He leads him up, out of the egoistic calculation, and then lowers him, and then a person falls back. Then the Creator brings him out once again and later a person falls again. That is how time after time, a person acquires the knowledge and sensation of the fact that unless the Creator performs these actions upon him, he will always remain in Egypt by himself, inside his egoistic desire.

These impressions accumulate, becoming clearer and stronger, until a person cries out, ready for anything—even pitch darkness for his egoism —anything to run away from it. This is the “Egyptian darkness,” the night of the exodus from Egypt. There is no darkness in a person greater than this one, but if he knows that he is following the Creator, then he prefers this darkness. Of course, he does not prefer it in the desire for pleasure, but because the Creator is walking ahead of him.

And the way to attain this is through meticulous work.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, Writings of Rabash

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At The Threshold Of The Next Level

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Who or what gives me an example of the next level?

Answer: The example of the next level is given to you by darkness. That’s because the next level first becomes revealed as darkness. However, I have to try to discern the Light in it, which is something great and special. It only seems like darkness to my ego, but if I had a desire to bestow, then I would see the Light and the entire system of souls that are filled by infinite Light.

Therefore, darkness is the example of the future degree, until I turn this darkness to Light.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, The Zohar

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Hello Desire!

Dr. Michael LaitmanOnce a person gains experience, he sees that he is unable to do anything by himself. All of his notions of good and evil are built on personal benefit, and therefore the ascents and descents that he experienced were actually unreal. He evaluated his good attitude to spirituality, the inner ascent, as “day,” while his negative attitude to spirituality seemed like “night.” But that is incorrect.

“Night” is a state where a person makes discernments, firmly knowing that they are egoistic and that he is unable to ascend above his egoism. And if he is able, then it is only thanks to the Light that grows slightly stronger and gives him these moments. The Creator helps a person to “peek” out of himself to the outside, and only then does he merge with bestowal. This is “day” for him.

I have to be ready for the constant “therapy” of the Creator, who takes my evil that hides beneath the grain of good and transforms it to bestowal, revealing new goodness to me. It is impossible to convey these things. They come only as a result of inner work. Until then, Rabash writes that “You cannot greet a friend” because your “friend” is not good yet. First you have to attain peace (Shalom) or perfection (Shlemut) with the Creator, and then you will reach conciliation with your “enemies,” meaning you will return to your egoistic desires above which you have ascended. You will take them and complete your work with them.

At first a person greets his “friend,” meaning his desire, acquiring bestowal for the sake of bestowal. Then he also greets him with reception for the sake of bestowal, meaning that he returns to his desires and works with them. That is how he attains the final correction.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, Writings of Rabash

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Don’t Suffer, But Enjoy!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You said that inner discernments begin even before the Machsom. But what should I discern if I still haven’t acquired the quality of bestowal and am entirely immersed in my will to enjoy?

Answer: It is precisely before the Machsom that you must discern just how much you desire everything in life only for your own good. However, these discernments are made with the help of the Light.

I constantly check: Am I doing this for myself or for the sake of others? I do this in relation to everyone and in all directions. I constantly discern what my thoughts and calculations are: “I hate him, but I have to ascend above this because my hatred comes from my ego, my will to enjoy. But if I ascend above my ego in the intention of bestowal, then I will start to love this person and act for his good. Even though this will evoke negative sensations inside the will to enjoy, in my intention I will feel that I have ascended to holiness and bestowal.” These discernments take place constantly before the Machsom.

Try to enjoy the fact that you are trampling your ego. One might think that this is masochism, a psychological disorder. But it’s not a disorder because at the same time you are united with your future inner quality of bestowal, which is good. You identify yourself with this new quality.

This does not mean that you like suffering. No! You like being inside this new quality of bestowal, and therefore you try to ascend above your will to enjoy. Even though you suffer inside it, you still enjoy in the quality of bestowal. And after making the discernment, you suddenly feel, “There’s absolutely no reason for me to suffer! On the contrary, I have turned my will to enjoy to the will to bestow, and this enabled me to ascend even more!”

This is not simple. But by virtue of several such actions, it happens. In any case pleasure is a sign that an action has reached completion: either in reception, Klipa, or in bestowal, holiness. Either way, pleasure has to happen as the completion. We enjoy in any case because the goal of creation is to enjoy.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/11, “The Quality of the Hidden Wisdom – in General”

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Humanity In Transition

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe exist in the opposite form to the Creator’s property of bestowal: the egoistic will to enjoy. On the spiritual path, all desires that gradually unfold within us, from the lighter desires to the heavier ones, have to be transformed into the intention to bestow.

In contrast to the still, vegetative, and animate levels, as we humans evolve, our egoism does as well. Our entire history is a non-stop growth of the will to enjoy and a chain of attempts to satisfy it. This is our nature. Therefore, we constantly wish for this desire to be realized, fulfilled.

So it goes on until at some point of his development man arrives at the question: “What do I need this for?” His desire completes its quantitative stage of evolution and transitions to the qualitative one. Now, a person needs not just a better car, bigger home, and more comfortable world. He starts asking questions regarding why things occur the way they do: “What for? Why? What is happening with me and what does it give me?”

New questions rise above the previous levels of evolution. At the human degree, we start evaluating and analyzing life, not being satisfied with the role as a “go-for” person who thoughtlessly serves egoistic desire. In previous generations, very few contemplated such questions and attained the source of events, the essence of the process and its purpose. These individuals are called Kabbalists, from the Hebrew word “the one who receives” (Mekabel) since they receive the revelation of the upper governance, advancing thereby. As for the others, they didn’t feel the calling for the answers to such questions.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah which assists a person in finding answers to the questions regarding the purpose of life (the source and goal), it is written that the time would come when many would wish to know for what we are living. In their gradually emerging egoistic desires, the masses will start transitioning from the animate level, from seeing a good life, to the human degree, to the question of for what is it worth living.

Kabbalists marked the time when such a transition was supposed to begin: the end of the 20th century. And it truly did. Today, “the highest priority questions” arise in a great many people around the world and to a certain degree among all of humanity. We see how growing despair, drug abuse, divorce rates, and the human crisis in general demonstrate that the questions regarding the purpose of existence halt our normal egoistic development, and they demand that we seek answers. Only then will we find the strength to continue the journey.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/2011, “Because Man Is the Tree of the Field”

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