Entries in the 'Free Will' Category

Man Can Attain The Creator’s Mind

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen the created being starts to clarify what free will is, he sees that if the property of bestowal in him is above the property of receiving, then the former leads him to the truth and freedom! Thereby, the created being chooses bestowal since he understands that only bestowal carries completeness and independence from one’s desires, meaning the absolute truth that is above the Creator as well as the creature.

Man achieves such an exalted state. After all, both the Creator and the creature reside in their corresponding properties: those of the Creator and the creature. But man has to make a choice that is independent of both these properties.

It looks like the force of the Creator and the force of Creation stand against each other, whereas man performs a unique act regarded as a “prayer.” He makes a choice that lies above both of these forces. Thereby, his new desire (Kli) is produced in which the property of receiving and the property of bestowal, or the attribute of the Creator and the attribute of the creature, unify as one above these properties.

This is how man receives a unique result: He finds the Creator’s Keter. It is not the Creator’s acts by which man himself is made, but rather His thoughts, the plan that precedes creation. This is an outcome of the middle line that rises above the first two: the right and the left, the properties of the Creator and those of the created being, which reach man in action. But in the middle line, man rises above the beginning of Creation.

Herein unfolds a new opportunity given to the created being: to rise above all existing forces and properties. Indeed, all forces, properties, desires, information genes, everything that exists in the universe and is revealed to us—the matter of reception, the force of bestowal—are only the instruments to bring the creature to more exalted notions preceding the act of Creation.

Hence, in every state where the creature needs to make a correct choice, it feels totally helpless relative to the point that precedes its entire birth. It needs to discern the vessels and the Lights, the desire to receive pleasure that it possesses and the desire to bestow, while the choice lies above both of them.

The prayer is born when the created being realizes that in the state that he has reached as a result of all of his discernments, he does not and cannot have any chance to rise above these equally valuable options and make a decision. Here the Creator has the final say!

We think we need the Creator only to defeat the force of egoism with our own force of bestowal, to dethrone Pharaoh. But there is more to this than a simple confrontation of desires when man stands between the two forces: the Creator and Pharaoh. The essence is not in clarifying who is more powerful and thus will win, but rather in unifying both of these forces as one in the middle line and ascending over them.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/11 on Prayer

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A Unique Copyright

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe see that discussions on education taking place around the world leave us helpless. Nobody knows what to do about it. Everyone raises their hands. And this is why we need to grow stronger and emphasize this topic, highlighting its importance in our eyes, showing that we have a position and an understanding, a method that comes from Nature itself.

On one hand, we can prove that all our principles come from Nature. But on the other, we deliberately build on this foundation, wishing for every individual and for society as a whole to reach a certain correspondence with nature and become Human, similar to the Creator.

If we openly, seriously, and boldly demonstrate this to everyone, nobody will be able to resist it. After all, this is the place of our only free choice, and this is why humanity is so confused and lost in this area. The Creator left it to us. We are able to make everything else work one way or the other, with one exception: We do not know how to give people Light in their lives so that they can find their optimal place in it. To do this nowadays, we need to know the entire system and understand what the upper force demands of us.

We expect that the method of education will open the doors for us to different mass media channels and Internet portals, and that the governments, the UN, and UNESCO will finally hear us. And the process is already rolling since no one can steal this “copyright” from us even if they were to repeat it word for word. This is because they lack a method to realize childhood and adult education, a method that applies to all the people around the world, the method that everyone can use because in practice, human education goes straight from the upper Light to the human soul.

This is why we have joined the International Year of Youth announced by the UN. Let us hope for this to advance us and spread the method of correction around the world with the help of our groups and mentors. The method of Kabbalah can definitely be referred to as an educational method, the method of shaping a Human.
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From Lesson 3, Metzoke Dragot Convention 2/25/2011

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Creation Swimming In An Ocean Of Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere are only two forces in the universe: the force of bestowal—the Creator, and the force of reception—creation. They begin from the state one opposite the other where the force of the Creator is infinite, like an ocean of Light that is at eternal rest. And the force of creation begins with a small point inside this Light of Infinity.

The Creator’s aim is to raise this point so it will become as big as the Light and equal to it in every way both in size and quality. This will mean that the good and generous Creator has carried out his good and benevolent action—the action of bestowal.

Therefore, the Creator gives creation all of the qualities that are present in the desire to receive pleasure, in opposition to what is present in the Creator, in the desire to bestow, so creation would independently decide and freely choose the state of the Creator, bestowal, as the highest and most desirable quality compared to everything that is present in creation. Even if it received the opportunity to acquire infinite fulfillment for its own sake, it would prefer to remain empty just to be closer to the quality of bestowal.

On this path creation has to go through an enormous amount of discernments, but they can all be divided into two parts: quantitative understanding and qualitative understanding. All the work of creation lies in realizing its evil. It has to understand how bad its egoistic quality of reception is compared to the Creator’s quality of bestowal.

And the reason it is bad is not because it causes creation to suffer. In that case creation would choose bestowal egoistically. Yet these discernments of good and evil should not depend on the desires of creation itself, meaning it cannot choose something that it would be able to enjoy naturally.

The choice has to be made from a point that is independent of your own desires so you would prefer bestowal for the sake of this quality because it is the most exalted one. And it shouldn’t happen because you plan to receive some kind of fulfillment or benefit from it.

Therefore, on this path creation always starts by asking, “Who is the Creator so I would listen to His voice?” And “What will I receive for all of this work?” That is, it reveals all of its desire, the entire vessel (Kli) and its size as well as quality, attains itself, and demands natural fulfillment according to its egoistic qualities.

Then it works by analyzing its desires from within, and reaches the understanding that it is completely limited and aspires only toward its own pleasure, which is therefore false. Under these conditions, it cannot objectively value the truth.

And when it tries to reach the truth in order not to depend on its own desires, to “hang” between the sky and the earth, it sees itself as “half sinner and half righteous” like on the scale of justice. From here on, creation already starts working on its own free choice.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/11 on Prayer

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The Soul Will Teach A Person

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the corporeal world, our perception of beauty constantly changes, and we are forced to follow the opinion of the majority. After all, we live in a human society and respect its values whether we like it or not. This is our nature. At the end, every person will esteem the things that the majority in his environment respects.

We do not even realize how unreasonable these values are. So frequently fashions change in education, culture, the industrial sector, creativity, and even food. We see them come and go, without any actual value. Everything beyond the limits of our animate existence that the body requires (simple shelter, family, and food) has value in our eyes only because the society appreciates it.

But spirituality is different because nobody is dragging us there. We need to build our own society and awaken it ourselves so it would pull us after it and through it, to spirituality. In other words, we are given free will in the spiritual development, and no one will force us there!

Of course, the Creator stimulates us: He arranges a hard life for us in this world and deprives us of fulfillment. But on the other hand, life is no longer as difficult as it was in the past, and we are not starving. Yet, we feel an inner emptiness that pushes us to develop. And when we discover this emptiness and start thinking about the purpose, the meaning, and the secret of life, but are unable to answer these questions, we realize that no one can tell or explain it to us, nobody pulls us after them.

We look around and fail to see any examples. We receive examples in everything else in life: the choice of a profession, the style of our home, the kind of things to buy, what to do, who to be like. The human society gives us examples of everything. And only spirituality remains without examples, as if you existed in an empty vacuum, and every day, even every moment you are faced with the questions: what to do, where to go, where to get examples of spiritual values and purpose?

This is a big problem. But on the other hand, this is a consequence of the freedom given to us! This is because when a person enters spirituality, he builds his own soul. Nobody teaches him. There are many advices and books, but all of them are merely general explanations around this topic, which only support us a little.

Ultimately, everything depends on the person himself. He needs to build his own environment which would provide him with the spiritual values and direction and be just as sound as the environment in our world with all its examples. Without this, he naturally would not know how to advance.

This is the main difference between the spiritual and the corporeal advancement.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/2011, Writings of Rabash

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How I Educate Myself

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn this world I constantly tailor myself to the standards that the society imposes upon me by convincing me to buy or do something, while in the spiritual world I need to draw an example from the Creator. However, the problem is that if He were to reveal Himself, we would fall completely under His influence and would become a million times more dependent on Him than we depend upon the environment today.

We would become absolute slaves, like the still, vegetative, and animate forms of life, which do what nature commands them to do and fully follow their instincts. And then we would not even feel like we live an independent life.

But the Creator, this general force of nature of creation, wants us to be independent and equal to Him, instead of following His orders like a robot. There would be no point in creating the creature which automatically follows its nature’s orders, and where the entire outcome is clear from the beginning.

The Creator’s plan was to create man free so that man himself would choose to rise to the level of the Creator, to learn about his Creator, and want to become just like Him! Just like any person in this world wants to be loved for who he is, the Creator also wants us to become acquainted with Him, attain Him, and see that His state, quality, and force is the ultimate perfection.

Thus, He cannot reveal Himself to us so that we will not become His slaves and automatically follow His orders. He plants in us the desire to develop and strive towards Him, but He conceals Himself. So how can we become like Him in this case?

He comes up with a simple solution. He creates the creature called Adam (man), a spiritual force, a quality similar to His, and breaks this creature into a billion pieces! And now the created being itself, and not the Creator, must put together an environment for itself like from pieces of interconnecting blocks. This environment has to mirror the creature’s image of the Creator, its knowledge of Him.

Man advances and builds his own environment to influence him in the opposite direction and develop him. It follows that we build our own Creator, and this is why He is called “Boreh,” meaning “come and see.” We build our environment and in this way we build ourselves.

I am not able to create myself or influence myself. I am a finished product of my environment. But by constantly building my environment, a shell to influence me, I indirectly influence myself. It turns out that I build a system for my own education.

Then I am somewhat separate from the Creator, and I freely build myself by creating my own environment in accordance with the values that I want to instill in myself. I am not able to change myself, but I can artificially build a society to convince me of the values with which I now disagree. This society will convince me that I need to strive towards bestowal.

And since I have built this society myself, it is as if I had built myself. In other words, I constantly build the Creator’s image within me, and thus I advance to the point when these three forms: I, the environment, and the Creator draw so close that we become as one whole.

This really is free development because I do everything myself, I constantly think and decide on the ways to advance. I examine the world that now becomes revealed before me, and I test myself for ways to properly advance.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/2011, Writings of Rabash

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How To Use Your Freedom

Dr. Michael LaitmanSomeone is constantly working with our consciousness in the corporeal world: all mass media, films, television, and newspapers. We receive examples of life in school, at home, from our environment, friends, and the entire world. We are constantly under this influence without even realizing how much we depend on it and follow these instilled values.

It turns out that in our corporeal world I only carry out someone else’s desires. But in the spiritual world I am left with an absolutely unfilled emptiness, and I don’t know what to do with it: Where to go, or what’s going on? And this is very difficult.

But on the other hand, we need to understand that in our world we don’t perform any independent actions and never realize our own desires; we never choose how to dress, what to eat, what to think, our profession, or partner in life. I receive all the tastes from the environment and work according to this program. When fashion changes in the surrounding world, I immediately change my direction and start chasing it.

We have already gotten accustomed to living like this, and this is why we feel confused when we are suddenly given freedom: We no longer know what to do with it. This is exactly what happens with our spiritual development. We are given complete freedom in it. What do we do with it, and where to get the examples?

But if you were given examples, you wouldn’t develop yourself as a free person who possesses freedom of choice. You wouldn’t find or reveal your soul. A person stands puzzled without knowing how to continue.

This is why Kabbalists advise us to learn from nature, from the environment. Nature, its general, upper force, is the Creator. We need to learn from Him, and we need to reveal Him. He needs to become our environment, and we need to draw examples from Him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Freedom Is Born From Love

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the middle third of Sefira Tifferet and why is it called free?

Answer: It’s as if it doesn’t exist by itself. As Baal HaSulam says, it exists only as the place over which Klipa and holiness fight.

This is the place where a person experiences himself and his independence. It is where he has his inner struggle and doubts: what to identify himself with, the upper or the lower? This is called the middle third of Tifferet, the place of free choice.

Question: What is this part made of? And how does freedom of choice become revealed there if this part is influenced by the upper one or the lower one, depending on whom it identifies itself with? Then where is the independence?

Answer: That is how the place of freedom is arranged for a person from Above. This is not confusion or lack of clarity the way freedom in our world refers to the absence of precise knowledge of what to identify yourself with. Rather, in the middle third of Tifferet it is absolutely clear to me what the quality of bestowal is above and what the quality of reception is below. I am in the middle, and this middle is all of me. That is to say, all of my reality is the middle part of Tifferet.

Wherever I am under the influence of the upper one or the lower one, I feel their influence, meaning I feel them and do not relate this to myself. But in the middle third of Tifferet I reveal the full HaVaYaH, myself. This part contains the full ten Sefirot, the discernments of the entire Partzuf.

If I want to attain the upper one, then I ascend to the upper part, and if I want to attain the lower one, then I descend to the lower part. But who am I? This is the middle part of Tifferet, like a thin layer between the upper and the lower. Yet, in reality it is not thin.

The middle third of Tifferet comes from the fact that in the four phases of the expansion of direct Light, Bina decided that it desires not to receive, but to become similar to the upper one, and to do that it has to attain bestowal. However, it cannot attain bestowal because its matter, the will to enjoy, does not change. In order to make it seemingly bestowing, it has to receive for the sake of bestowal. That is, it uses the Giver’s force of love.

Without the force of the Giver’s love for me, I cannot transform my reception to bestowal to Him. But if I know that He loves me and I plan to receive from Him only for that reason, then I use the force of His love. At first I have to reveal His love, and inside of it to reveal my reception, and then to receive from Him only in order to show Him my love.

From the same field where the second phase (of the four phases of the expansion of direct Light) makes the decision, that is where our notion of the middle third of Tifferet is born, in which creation feels free to make decisions.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/2/11, The Zohar

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Replacing The Values

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhat in our development is up to us? We inherited certain attributes; we have been influenced by the environment since childhood. How can we decide what our development should be like from here on? What do we need to do for it?

On His part, the Creator has done what was in His hands: He laid our path through internal and external Kelim (vessels), our own nature and the environment. And now, finally, the upper force is offering us free will. Naturally, this is a very narrow area. After all, our internal development has already brought about numerous details of perception, and moreover, we exist in a specific environment.

As it is written in the article “The Freedom” and in “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” the Creator brings a person to a certain state, a certain group, an environment, and says: “This is for you; take it.” And a person has to strengthen himself in what he takes. And what he takes is a bond with the environment.

So it follows that if a person strengthens this bond, then with its help, he or she receives “supernatural” values. This is the only way a person can adopt principles that on his own he would never choose to respect. The environment has the power to affect him and alter the scale of his priorities to such a degree that he totally replaces his values and is willing to do things that are against his nature.

This is why, while talking about lesson preparation, we primarily speak about the environment. A person prepares himself in the right environment and, by participating in its life, discerns the true values: bestowal, love of others, adherence with the Creator, and altruistic intention Lishma (for Her Name). On the whole, in the eyes of a person, the Creator’s nature must become incomparably more exalted and profound than the nature of the created being.

A person receives awareness of this importance from the group: “It is desirable to make it so.” The group cannot provide more than that; it only elevates the importance of the goal in our eyes. How profound the goal is depends on the level of the group and to what extent a person is willing to lower himself before it.

However, it isn’t realization just yet. A person merely arranges values for himself: “If the Creator is my goal, I go for this goal, which means that I change to fit it.” But who transforms a person? Who performs these changes in him? After all, by nature, from birth, he is immersed in the desire to receive pleasure. Desire itself will always remain as is. Who will reform its intention from wanting to receive to wanting to bestow?

That is what the method of Kabbalah is intended for.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/2011, Writings of Rabash

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The World Is Awaiting Your Verdict

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I keep trying to unify the world if I see an enormous amount of weapons and preparation for war in it?

Answer: We need to do what is up to us. The world has reached a threatening state and is rapidly moving toward undesirable events, but regardless, it still remains divided into groups, and no one is willing to yield their interests, even in the face of an imminent threat of explosion.

Every country defends itself and conducts a policy of protectionism, trying to separate from all the others. This tendency leads to war. After all, no one wants to unify with the others and take their interests into account. It is similar to children’s games where little proud egoists come into conflict, except that each of them holds a deadly weapon in their hands.

We need to accept this as conditions placed on the collective soul that needs to be reformed and try to instill the correction of all these phenomena. We ought to perceive everything we see in the world as a testament to our lack of effort.

All other people are deprived of free will and the ability to comprehend what is going on. How, then, can they correct anything? They are managed from Above. We need to make it so that on the scale of the world, the cup of mercy may outweigh the cup of guilt. This choice is in no one’s hands but ours.

All other people are blameless, and the states they are going through are merely the consequences of our actions. Their distancing from each other shows us how rapidly the flaws instilled in nature unfold in comparison to how quickly we make corrections on our part. We are lagging so far behind!

Those who are given free will and are shown to what degree the world keeps shifting toward the cup of guilt must be aware of what they are doing. It is written, “One should always consider oneself half sinful and half righteous,” and “if one performs a good dead, he sentences himself and the whole world to a scale of merit.”

So, where are they, our “good deeds”? It looks like we are able to do much more than we do. If you see that the world is experiencing greater problems, it points directly at you, all of us, telling us that we haven’t achieved that unification, dissemination, oneness, self-annulment, and guarantee that we were supposed to achieve. Let’s hope that we will wake up, as well as all our friends around the world.

We must think it over really well since the condition of the world is very threatening, and everything depends on us. I appeal to all who are listening and join us around the world. It is only we, our thought of oneness, who are capable of correcting the world and not letting this dangerous state grow to such an extent that it may enter confrontation and collapse.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/2011, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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