Before you enter the group, you have the freedom of choice to enter it. After you enter it, you have just one choice: to strengthen your connection with the group. You must decide for yourself that this is your free choice, and you must always continue doing this. Therein lies your freedom!

Freedom is not when I do something I want, but when I continuously add my efforts to this connection. We don’t have any freedom of will in any other regard; everything else will happen automatically.

This is a very important principle. I don’t have any freedom in my entire life. I am a complete puppet. There is freedom of choice only in one regard: After the Creator brings me to the group and gives me a spark in my heart, I have one single freedom: to include myself in the group, to grab onto it with my hands and teeth as much as possible.

Once you "latch on" to the group correctly, you depend on it, on the influence of the environment, and you don’t have freedom in this regard. So where are you free? You are free inasmuch as you add your own effort to strengthen your connection with the environment in spite of your egoism. You thereby increase your dependence on the environment and its influence on you. There is no other freedom but this!

This is the mutual guarantee and we must always add more and more principles to it including love for friends, love for the neighbor, and your justifying them by faith above reason. Everything is inside this freedom of will, this approach by which I attain the goal.

The rest of my life unfolds according to a specific "script." You can even go to a fortuneteller who will be able to tell your future. You can predict everything in advance besides the one thing that belongs to your freedom of will. Everything else is driven by "blind" faith.

It is forbidden to predict the future because then a person might think that he has freedom of will in his regular life. However, if you know that there are no free actions, then the future becomes revealed to you. Yet, you can never reveal the future that relates to your freedom of choice because it depends on you.
[23360]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/12/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Are We Free People Or Just Cogs In A Machine?
Laitman.com Post: The Elusive Point Of Freedom
Kabbalah Insights: Puppets

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Group Work - No Comments →

Freedom of will is the most important topic because it poses the main question of our lives: Are we absolutely controlled from Above like any other part of nature? We see that everything operates under the governance from Above, meaning the governance of Nature (the Creator). There is nothing beyond Nature. We can discern the governing force in some actions, but in others, their governing force is concealed from us.

When we are young, we think we master our own lives, but as we mature and acquire life experience, we come to understand that it is life that controls us, and not the other way around. Indeed, where is the possibility for freedom of will when we discover strict and constant laws operating on all levels of nature: physical, chemical, and biological? And if there is a place where we do not see a law, it means that we haven’t yet revealed it as opposed to there being no law that operates with absolute certainty.

How can there remain an uncontrolled part of nature that wouldn’t be affected by any law? This is simply impossible! In all places where we reveal nature, we discover a strict regularity.

Then what is freedom of choice? Is it a possibility to do as I please without being subject to a deterministic law of nature? Where can freedom of choice come from? Can there be a white spot in nature that doesn’t comply?

It turns out that all of our apparent freedom is an illusion of a small child left to play in his room under strict supervision, yet thinking that he is free. That is, free will is explained only by our ignorance. And is this what we call freedom? Then what is man? Another part of nature completely controlled from Above without even being aware of it? If we are nothing but puppets, then we neither do good nor bad. What can be expected of me when everything I do follows the law?

All the things I suddenly wish to do are natural instincts that manipulate and control me from both inside and outside. There can neither be reward nor punishment if we are just ordinary “cogwheels” in creation. But what is the meaning of it all, if the entire existence is a prepackaged game?

It means first and foremost that we need to figure out whether we still have any freedom of will, and where it lies. After all, if there really is a choice here, then it is possible to either score very well or lose everything.

Therefore, freedom of will is the main theme in Kabbalah because it is the beginning of the next stage: whether we have freedom, and if so, how and where can I use it to the maximum benefit.
[23021]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/10, “The Freedom”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Choice Without Hints
Laitman.com Post: We All Live For The Sake Of Others
Kabbalah Insights: “Puppets”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Inner Work - 3 Comments →

Question: If I come to a pharmacy and see a line of 70 people, I go to pick up some other items and come back in an hour, when my turn comes. Why do I need to engage in spiritual work now, if I don’t know when I will be corrected? What do I need this for? I can go back to my business in this world for the time being.

Answer: There is no coercion on the spiritual path! If you don’t want to stay, then leave! You shouldn’t stay and hinder others. If you decide for certain that you do not wish to proceed by this path, tell your friends, and they will understand and wish you luck.

If you think that you’ll spend five years bettering your life in this world, and then you’ll return to a stronger group and continue the path together with them, these are false hopes. In five years, you will have to perform a much greater work: You will have to compensate your five-year-long engagement in egoism and catch up to the group in everything it went through during these five years.

Consequently, you are not shortening the path, but on the contrary, making it longer. Do you think that you’ll come to a group that is already in spirituality, and it will be easier for you? However, will you have greater equivalence of qualities with the friends? No, you will reveal even greater differences in qualities! After all, they will go thousands of miles ahead, and you will go ten miles back. The distance will increase! As a result, you will need to wait in line even longer.
[22745]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/6/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Persistence Is The Guarantee For Success
Laitman.com Post: A Unique Chance To Speed Up Time
Laitman.com Post: Don’t Let Your Chance To Have Free Choice Pass You By

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Group Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Filed under: Free Will - No Comments →

We cannot imagine what freedom of will is. To a certain extent, we feel free, but, in fact, we are completely governed, which includes our thoughts about freedom. Therefore, we don’t understand what the spiritual world is.

When we face the Creator, we perceive Him to be a vital, defining, and implementing Force. At the same time we have a certain “point of preparation” within which we are able to detach ourselves from Him. This is when our freedom of choice uncovers itself; after this point, we repeat the restriction and begin to shape our freedom.

So far we are similar to a fetus in the mother’s womb. Is it in any way independent? No, it is the one who is being developed. Its reality is a reminder of the future; its freedom is still ahead of it.

In our world a person represents a collection of pre-set qualities. There are no conditions for freedom of choice, but only its illusion in protein matter. The initial condition for freedom is to become similar to the Creator without “hints,” from scratch. If something awakened you in advance, that isn’t freedom.

This is why a special point of the Creator wakes up in us. We develop it in opposition to our egoistic nature. “A point of desire” against “a point of Light,” they both emerge as a result of the breaking. By correcting a connection between them, we independently achieve similarity to the Creator. Without this “tool,” we wouldn’t be born and become equal to the Creator.

GE (Galgalta ve Eynaim), sanctity, is above, AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh), wickedness, is below, and Tifferet, the middle third, is in the middle. It is a special state that is called “Klipat Noga.” Above is the property of the Creator, below is the property of the created being, and the middle is my “neutral territory.”

This is where an equal fight between sanctity and wickedness is taking place. I am the one who defines the outcome of the struggle between them. It is the place where I can correctly control these two forces that the Creator made on purpose so that I can build my freedom and independence.

[21913]

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/24/10, Shamati #97

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Taste Of Truth
Laitman.com Post: How Do We Find Our Point Of Freedom?
Laitman.com Post: Standing Between Good And Evil

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Inner Work - No Comments →

It seems so easy to just let the force of the Light come and correct us, making us love our neighbor! So why is the process of correction so difficult? The difficulty comes from the fact that this entire process is concealed, and that is in order to give us the freedom of will.

To be free means to go against my desire and understanding, when I don’t want it directly! My animalistic body does not aspire to this and my egoism does not help me do this. I have to find a new motivation to advance, which does not stem from my qualities. Otherwise I would just be increasing my animate egoism.

The reason for my advancement must be outside of me, in the environment. In order to advance, I have to use something that does not belong to the egoistic desire, and therein lies the entire difficulty. If not for this, every person would aspire to correction. Who wouldn’t want to receive perfection and eternity, feel the Creator, see all of his fate from beginning to end, and control it!?

Any person would agree to exchange this temporary world for an eternal one. However, people feel that this is too exalted, too difficult, and unattainable. And it’s all because we have to reveal the point of our free choice, called "the middle third of Tifferet."

We understand what love is and what hate is, but it’s not clear what a neutral state is, "the middle third of Tifferet." On every degree we have to make our choice while in that state. Otherwise we won’t be independent of the Creator.

What’s the point of creating a miserable creature that suffers in this world, and then giving it the knowledge that there is a perfect state and one must only use a means called the Torah to go from a bad state to a good one? In fact, any machine could do the same thing if there is good and evil, and a means to go from evil to good. There is no free choice here.

Religions operate according to this scheme of two lines. The difference between Kabbalah and religion is free will, the third line. A person has to find the point where he can carry out actions independently of himself and his earthly choice, so he won’t look for self-benefit.

If we find this point and act based on it, it means we freely build ourselves and are independent of our previous nature. We cut ourselves off from it and give birth to ourselves, instead of having the Creator do it.

This point of independence poses the difficulty. It constantly confuses us and erases everything we understood and felt a moment ago, immersing us into a "fog" all over again. But it is happening because we are being led into a completely different dimension of life where we will reveal the true reality instead of the unconscious state we are in today.
[22062]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/27/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Taste Of Truth
Laitman.com Post: How Do We Find Our Point Of Freedom?
Laitman.com Post: Concealment For The Sake Of Salvation

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will - No Comments →

At a certain moment after many incarnations (Gilgulim), an initial awakening for spirituality, the point in the heart (Reshimo), is roused in a person. It is comprised of two forces: 1) emptiness that one feels from the worthlessness of this transient, vain existence and despair from being unable to find fulfillment in this world, and 2) some inner “spark” that makes a person seek something unknown that exists beyond this world.

On the one hand (downward), there is despair; on the other (upward), there is a spark. As a result, a person sets his course. Together, these two forces form within a person the Reshimo: a new direction in his existence.

This Reshimo leads him to the teacher and the group who study Kabbalah. Later on, he gradually realizes that he will be able to build the force of bestowal or equivalence to the Creator only by connecting with other Reshimot similar to his. This is his only free choice and act of free will in life.

A person’s success is determined by the degree to which he is able to increase his spark with the help of the group, against all personal obstacles. If he manages to enhance it, he will feel the need for faith (bestowal) and for the others (the means). It is all defined by the luck in reception (absorption) of the effects of the spiritual environment (the teacher’s recommendations and the collective opinion of the group).

The environment is not just the group or the friends, but Shechina (Divinity). My connection with them is the connection with the Shechina, Malchut of the World of Atzilut, the collective soul of Adam. Unity of the friends in annulling their egos and attaining the property of bestowal evokes a response from Shechina and receiving the Light of correction from her, Ohr Makif.

Thus, a person enters interacting with the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) that advances him to the revelation of the property of bestowal (faith) within himself. And within this property, he reveals the Inner Light (Ohr Pnimi). All our work is aimed at increasing the desire for the property of bestowal through the correct environment and the importance thereof. It can’t be learned; this work is described as “we shall do, and we shall hear.”

A person exerts effort in connection with the group despite the fact that he may not feel the need to do so. In return, he receives support and the collective need, the desire, accumulated by the friends in the group: the need for faith and bestowal.
[21672]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/21/10, “Who Testifies for Man”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How Can We Desire The Most Important Thing In The World?
Laitman.com Post: Welcome To The world Of Bestowal
Laitman.com Post: Spirituality, Freedom and Bestowal Are The Same

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam explains in the article “Arvut” that no one can attain the goal without help from one’s friends because otherwise a person won’t have the fuel, the “spirit of life.” A person on the spiritual path must arm himself with a great desire after revealing the breaking between us because the force of hatred between us lays bare the evil inclination. Even The Zohar talks about how the friends in Rabbi Shimon’s group revealed hatred, and only after that did they reach love, level by level, by means of the Light they evoked through mutual study.

The goal is also something we discover inside our interconnection. By gradually restoring the connection between us with the help of the Light, we reveal 125 levels until reaching unity with the Creator. Thus, we attain the Creator Himself, the force of the Light that Reforms. If, however, we don’t base everything on the revelation of the place of the breakage and its correction, then our actions will bear no connection to spirituality.

Indeed, we have just one contact with the spiritual world, and that is the place of the breakage of the connection between us. It is written, “I created the evil inclination.” This is what we have to find and reveal. That is why our entire work is devoted to discerning the quality of connection between the friends on the path to revealing the Creator: myself, the friends, and the Creator (or Israel, the Torah, and the Creator).

We are looking for a connection between us in which the Creator is concealed. This is the key that opens the door to Him. By correcting our attitude to our interconnection, we find the quality of bestowal and love, and that is how we reveal the Creator. This is the only way a friend can help a friend. This constitutes our only free action. All other acts are compulsory, puppet-like. We shouldn’t demand anything from each other besides the desire to help.
[21964]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/26/10, “They Helped Everyone His Friend”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Human Reality
Laitman.com Post: Prepare A Place For The Light To Work
Laitman.com Post: How Can You Help A Friend?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Group Work, Unity - No Comments →

Right now we have the opportunity to hasten the rate of our advancement by egoistically choosing the lesser of all evils. Obviously, this isn’t free will yet because free will allows me to choose what I want, whereas here I am offered only pain and pleasure, and told: “Choose!”

Baal HaSulam describes two scales of measurement: “bitter versus sweet,” and “true versus false.” We must ascend to the degree of truth instead of falsehood, or in other words, sweetness and bitterness. Everyone sees that there is no free choice here, but only the analysis: To what extent I am controlled by my mind and to what extent by my heart?

Everything is determined by what is revealed to me and what is not, and what is more important: truth or bitterness? Obviously, I will choose according to my perception. However, real free will emerges solely in the group. The group serves as that external factor by which I discern the meaning of the external truth.

Therefore, “truth” means I have to be part of the group. However, there is resistance between the truth and the group, which is my egoism, the will to receive pleasure. It is a complete system and it doesn’t depend on my ability to discern “true,” “false,” “bitter,” and “sweet.” I don’t need to be smart or sensitive. It doesn’t matter who is more intelligent, witty, or farsighted. At the end of the day, we view everything in relation to the group, our unity, and the Creator.

I exist in this circuit, this spiritual transistor where I activate the Light that streams from above downwards to the degree I am united with the group.

This is our free will, found in the middle third of Tifferet. On one side of it there is the ego and on the other side, the group, and I perform an analysis on the scales of “true and false” over “bitter and sweet” in relation to myself and the group.
[#21912]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/24/10, “Waste of Barn and Winery”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Truth Lies In The Middle
Laitman.com Post: The One Action Where We Implement Our Free Will
Laitman.com Post: From Illusory Freedom To Truth

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Unity - No Comments →

After going through many life cycles, a person reaches a point when he experiences the initial spiritual awakening – the point in the heart (Reshimo). It is comprised of two forces:

– Emptiness due to the futility of his transient, perishable life, and from the despair of not being able to find fulfillment in this world

– An inner “spark” that pushes him to some unknown place that’s beyond this world.

On one hand, the despair pulls him down, and on the other hand, the spark pulls him upward. Eventually a person chooses his route. These two forces as a whole cause a Reshimo to form inside him or a new direction in his existence.

This Reshimo brings him to a teacher and a group of people studying Kabbalah. After that he gradually realizes that only by uniting with other Reshimot that are similar to him will he be able to build, together with them, the force of bestowal that’s similar to the Creator. Therein lies his only freedom of choice in life and his only free action.

His success depends on how much he will be able to increase his spark with the help of the group in spite of all personal problems. If he increases it, then he will feel the need for faith (bestowal) and for others (the means). Everything is determined by how well he can receive (or absorb) the influence of the spiritual environment (the advice of his teacher and the general opinion of the group).

The environment is not just the group or friends, but the Shechina. The connection with them that I acquire is my connection with the Shechina, Malchut of the World of Atzilut, the common soul of Adam.

When the friends unite in order to annul their egoism and to attain the quality of bestowal, their unity evokes a reaction from the Shechina and they receive the Light of Correction (Ohr Makif) from it. That is how a person starts to interact with the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), which brings him closer to revealing the quality of bestowal (faith) within, and the Inner Light (Ohr Pnimi) inside that quality.

All of our work comes down to increasing our desire for the quality of bestowal and increasing its importance; the way to do so is with the help of the right environment. It is impossible to learn to do this. It can only be done according to the verse, “We will do and we will hear.”

A person makes efforts to connect with the group even if he does not feel a need for it, and in response he receives support and a general necessity. It is a desire which the friends accumulate among each other – the need for faith or bestowal.

From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/21/10, “Who Testifies for Man”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Simple Scheme Of Creation
Laitman.com Post: The Mechanism Of Correction

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →