Entries in the 'Group Work' Category

Faith Above Reason

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe have a Kli (vessel or desire) and the fulfillment is above it, not within it. The Kli is composed of broken pieces that we need to glue together. These pieces are my friends, however not just their bodies but the desires to connect together. We must connect, and to the extent that we connect together we actually realize and feel our connection, and thereby attain the corrected state.

It is in this manner that we receive the general desire to enjoy: We connect and receive the desire of the friend, meaning I feel them within me, am impressed by them, and grasp them as mine. In this way I “buy” friends and acquire a bigger desire. All of this I do rationally “within reason” as is said, ” A judge has only what his eyes can see.” This Kli becomes my work tool, like a screwdriver, pliers, or hammer.

However, the surrounding Light (the Light that reforms) is on a level higher than me. The Reshimo (reminiscence) of the dressing is always found one level above the Reshimo of Aviut (coarseness): Dalet (four)/Gimel (three), Gimel/Bet (two), and Bet/Aleph (one). This is found ” above my reason” according to the extent that I give more value to the upper Light and adhere to it above my intellect, since that is, after all, another level.

This means that the Kli has greater value according to the extent that we did more within the intellect in order to build it: we connected together, adhered to each other, we glued our bowl together. Whereas in the relation to the Creator, it’s preferred that He invite more problems, questions, fears, thoughts, doubts of His providence, and I, in spite of everything, will respect Him and try to adhere to Him. To the extent that my faith above reason is greater, it’s more valuable and I am attracted more to a higher level.

The greater the gap is, the greater the delta (∆ – difference) between the Light, the Creator, and the Kli, the desire. It’s more respectable this way. We must constantly maintain this relation and to see the friends as the greatest of the generation. I must feel, understand and see them only in this way.

While in relation to the Creator, everything is the opposite. The fewer doubts I have in relation to the friends, it’s better. And the more doubts I have in relation to the Creator (yet in spite of that I am attracted to Him), the better. In relation to the Light that reforms, it doesn’t matter how high it is. I am ready to adhere to it, to be impressed by it, to be assimilated in it, above reason. This is because I see that the Light that reforms will bestow on me, will control and execute changes in me.

But with everything that belongs to the Kli, meaning everything except the Creator, I must accept it within reason, in the clearest, most comprehensible, and examined way.

And thus the Creator will be revealed to me, each time more and more clearly within the Kli, and I will need to ascend and want to be higher in my relation to Him, to value Him even more than before.
[69840]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/12, Writings of Rabash

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Taking The Medicine Together

Dr. Michael Laitman with StudentsIt is said that if the method of Kabbalah if used correctly, it becomes the elixir of  life, and if not, it becomes the potion of death. A potion is not meant for pleasure, it is a medicine that can give us life or turn into a potion of death.

Question: How can I know that I am using the potion correctly?

Answer: If you take it together with all the friends, it helps you. Do you open your mouths together in order to receive the medicine from the Creator? Do you create a collective vessel for the potion of life? After all, “life” is the Light, bestowal, and so it can only be revealed in such a vessel.

Question: Does that mean that as long as I am in concealment I drink the “potion of death?”

Answer: No, you drink the potion of death if you want to use your friends only for your own benefit. The two concepts,”the potion of life” and “the potion of death,” refer to those who already have free will, those who study the wisdom of Kabbalah in a group with a teacher.

Question: How can we use this medicine in the Arava convention in order to live and not to die?

Answer: At the foot of Mt. Sinai the people of Israel were given the choice: If you unite as one man with one heart, you will receive the Torah, the Light that Reforms, and will aquire life. If you don’t unite, the Light of the Torah will become death for you and here will be the place of your burial.

Well, are you coming to Arava? Or are you scared now?

Question: But still, how can I check whether I am using the medicine correctly?

Answer: No one can know except you. Buy yourself friends and they will help you.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/2012, “Introduction to TES”

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Feeling The Friend’s Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe can talk about numbers, about what can be measured. We can talk about the influence of the Light as about some force, about the informational genes, about quantity, about something that can be measured without any connection to the desire, to the vessel.

Everyone should climb all steps of the spiritual ladder, but each one goes through them from his personal point in the heart, and so it is possible to measure his impression only by general assessment that relates to everyone. The personal feeling, however, is not passed on to anyone. It is impossible to explain in words how white white is or how black black is, how dark darkness is or how sweet, bitter, salty, warm, moist, or cold something is.

We can’t measure an impression because it is personal. You can weigh things: how many pounds, what informational genes, or what the force of the Light is. However, since others have a different desire, a different element, it is impossible to convey an impression to them, even if one can measure it internally. Therefore, a person, being in the same conditions as another, is impressed differently, in his own way.

We have to take this into account, although we cannot correct this until we reach the universal inclusion into one another. When everyone is included in everyone, which we call “as one man with one heart,” when all the desires and thoughts become interwoven, the Light of  “Rav Pealim Mekabtziel” arrives and welds everyone into one integral system.

We don’t know what it will be like, but it could be that we will all begin to feel what others feel then…. Until then it is absolutely impossible. Only by quantifiable assessment can we somehow estimate what happens with others. But in the meantime it is impossible to feel that.
[69640]
From Preparation for the Lesson 2/13/2012

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No Point Bluffing

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: No matter what I do, calculations of self-benefit will always be behind it. Thus, I’m opposite to the Creator. Does that mean I won’t be able to reveal Him?

Answer: No, now we’re going through the preparation period in a state of Lo Lishma (not for Her Name). Above us is the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality). This is a very unique state. On one hand, on the way to the Machsom, you continuously aim to identify: What is bestowal? Is it good or bad? Who is the Creator? And on the other hand, you constantly think: “What’s in it for me?”

That is the state of Lo Lishma: You move forward and every time you need to justify that advancement in your eyes. No one is demanding us to take too big of a leap. Cooperation between the Light and the vessel, which began in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), brought about the division of the system into two parts. It divided into souls and worlds, vessels and Light, and both those lines, in correlation with each other, cascaded down. Now I need to combine them into a middle line and use them like reins in order to return to the point of my birth in Infinity.

Clearly, the system suits all my present needs and states, it doesn’t require me to bluff. I truly am an egoist who wants to take advantage of the whole world for self-benefit, steal from everyone, lie to all, and so forth. If I haven’t yet revealed it, I’ll soon realize that everything is that way. I only need to build all those things correctly so that receiving and bestowing will be balanced in accordance with my present degree.

I’m willing to invest in a group in order to gain a positive future for myself, the spiritual world. I don’t shut my own mouth; rather, I conduct an examination. Indeed, we’re talking about permanent rules. Nature can’t be wrapped around my finger. We aren’t hiding anything from ourselves or from others; otherwise, our approach wouldn’t be serious or practical. We learn about the forces operating in nature upon ourselves, forces destined to lead us forward to the goal. We need to conduct that study without shame and without hiding anything.
[69430]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/12, “The Peace”

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Aspiration Must Be Earned

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I know that the desire that’s awakened in me will be credited to me? After all, all my desires come to me from the outside, and the reason I think this way or that is because someone else is forcing me to?

Answer: If you come to the group against your desire and receive an awakening from others, this will be credited to you. It would mean you’ve drawn this awakening yourself, earned it with your own efforts. You extract it from your environment by force, and then it’s considered yours, your spiritual vessel.

After all, it was you who exerted the efforts to unite with the friends. The unification is felt within your desire, in the aspiration you’ve received. This aspiration will be the addition to your desire.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/12, Writings of Rabash

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Examination Of Spiritual Advancement

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What feeling indicates that I am progressing?

Answer: We advance in the form of turning wheels: some of the wheels go forward, and another moves backwards. Some of them move from bottom to top, some move from top to bottom. The wheel advances forward, and its parts execute various actions.

If a person measures himself in relation to a goal, then he understands that he progresses. But if he measures himself only in relation to ascents and descents or in relation to other states, then it sometimes seems to him as if he is moving backward or standing still.

There are many possibilities to measure the advancement. But the most definite examination is: Do you feel today, as compared to yesterday, a greater necessity to find connection with group? That is the surest examination.
[69653]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/12, The Zohar

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A Letter With No Addressee

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We have to reach a deficiency for the desire to bestow in the Arava convention…

Answer: We don’t need anything but that. It seems that this is only half way, but in fact, it is half of the coin, the other half of which is provided by the upper one. It is enough for us to desire to unite so as to reach mutual bestowal in order to bestow upon the Creator.

We call it “a need for a deficiency.” But we don’t feel a desire to attain unity yet so that thereby we could bestow upon the Creator. Therefore, we build a compound deficiency made of a double filling. We do not intend to settle for a need for a deficiency so as to feel this deficiency during the next convention.

The need for connection will bring us to bestowal in the group. And there is another need: to bestow upon the Creator. Both relate to the same intention.

Question: We have to yearn for perfecton and this will provide us with the right desire. How can we make sure that the picture of perfection doesn’t hide the need for a deficiency from us?

Answer: We want to attain the desire to bestow in order to unite. Thereby we can carry on our desire to bestow upon the Creator and to reach adhesion with Him. One way or the other, it is all dressed on one “skewer” and is on one line. You shouldn’t draw any differences here. Think about this a little and you will see that there is no problem here.

If you mention the word “bestowal,” you continue to draw the line towards the Creator, without stopping on the way. Bestowal requires connection with the friends because only that will summon the reforming Light that brings the attribute of bestowal. Why do we all need this attribute? Do we need it in order to have a nice beastly life? No. It is in order to reach bestowal upon the Creator. Why do we need to bestow upon the Creator? Perhaps He doesn’t need it at all? No, He has no such deficiency. Our goal is to reach adhesion with Him because by that we bring Him contentment. We please the Creator not by bestowal, but rather by adhesion.

Question: How can we tie a need for a deficiency with a need for adhesion?

Answer: We need the influence of the Surrounding Light so that we will understand that bestowal is the solution for all the problems. It brings us to everything we want to attain. I want to desire to connect and this is what I ask of the Creator, of the Light that Reforms. But what for?

I want to desire to connect in order to reach adhesion with the Creator. This adhesion is part of my way, part of the calculation. Therefore, the plea cannot be whole if the three elements are not welded into it: Israel, the Torah, and the Creator. This is the nature of our desires, and we only need to understand it. Then you will see: You need to add the Creator to your plea. Otherwise there is no reason to connect in our world. You don’t want it, you didn’t come to study Kabbalah in order to connect with others in social protest.

Therefore, when you discover your desire fully, you reach the formula: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” Just part of the sentence, part of the clarification isn’t enough. When we go out to the desert, we cannot cut our request in the middle of the sentence. If the request is whole, it must end with the word about the Creator because it is from Him that you get the power to perform changes, the power of the reason, awareness, and understanding. Everything comes only from this source, and so our requests have to end with it.

Otherwise, it is like sending a letter with no addressee. If you do that, no matter what you write, you will clearly get no reply and the letter will be lost mid-way.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/2011, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot” 

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The Presents Of The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Do we have free will when it comes to unification?

Answer: Our free will is in the desire to unite. When we fulfill this free will, the Light comes and unites us. So your desire is fulfilled when you come to unity.

Here we have to discern: Your job is to ask, but you don’t carry out the unification itself. No matter what we do, whether we dance or are deep in thoughts, we prepare ourselves for the influence of the upper Light, preparing the deficiency, the vessel for its presents, for the life that comes from Above. You should be like a small child who can’t perform a certain action but waits for an adult to do it.

This is what is missing in our request: We don’t expect help. This expectation should be revealed more clearly.

In the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 17, Baal HaSulam says: “Hence, the student pledges, prior to the study, to strengthen himself in faith in the Creator and in His guidance in reward and punishment.” What does it mean to “pledge?” It means that he is constantly “engaged,” constantly providing his half, and then the other half comes from the upper Light.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/2011, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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An All Powerful Desire

Dr. Michael LaitmanAll conventions must be permeated with a single idea. The idea is quite simple. The upper Light exists in a state of absolute rest, without any changes. It exists in total bestowal and there are no restrictions on its part. All restrictions on receiving the Light come from us, to the extent of our opposition to the Light.

Therefore, the only thing we need to do is to change ourselves and to some degree become similar to the Light. The Light bestows love, connection, and balance; hence, we must posses these qualities at least to some degree. By obtaining these qualities, we’ll be able to sense the upper Light, the qualities of love and bestowal within us.

This quality, this sensation is called the Light or the Creator. When we obtain the Light’s qualities, the Light will begin to dwell within us, and we’ll sense it and exist in it. We’ll observe ourselves and the world from within this quality because we’ll exist on the next degree called the upper world. This is what we need to attain.

This attainment can only come with the help of the upper Light because it has to influence and correct us. But how can we evoke its influence if the Light exists in a state of absolute rest? We have to desire this and the Light will correct us. The Light can only influence us to the extent of our desire and according to the specifications of what it is we desire.

If we wish to receive only for ourselves and to use our world egoistically, the Light influences us accordingly: It alienates us, thereby worsening our position. However, if we wish to become similar to the Light and to draw closer to it, then in accordance to our desire, the Light draws us closer. Basically everything depends upon the upper Light, on how it will exert its influence in relation to our appeal for it.

Therefore, all that’s required from a person is the desire toward love and bestow. And then, the Light will affect us, will give us the desire to bestow and love, which will become our Light. In other words, the upper Light represents an aspiration towards bestowal, a quality of love. This is what is called the measure of fulfillment of the spiritual vessel.

So, we must posses a great desire for bestowal, love and unity. This aspiration toward the Light will make us loving and giving and will allow us to exist on the next degree, in the quality of bestowal, in the upper world.
[69635]
From the Unity Day Lecture “To Acquire a Desire to Give” 1/29/2012

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Look Into The Root

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to “bring contentment to the creator”?  The Creator is the attribute of bestowal, so to whom am I bringing contentment?

Answer: This is how you imagine your world: in the form of images that you can do something to and get a response from. You don’t feel that the Creator is behind all these figures, and that they are all just figures that He keeps alive and through them presents Himself to you in billions of ways.

The attribute of bestowal is the one who bestows. After all, you are building your attitude towards someone not according to his externality, but rather according to his essence. It seems that he is made of many discernments, but where are they? In the flesh or in some figure? Try to imagine a figure of a person “in the air” without a body. Take all of the spirituality out of him and all of his desires, his passions, and his thoughts, which are actually outside the beastly body. Undress the body and turn to the essence of the person.

Then turn in the same way to the essence of the Creator. The difference between the two is that the essence of the Creator is whole and it includes everything. It manages everyone. This is the general force of nature, the general law of nature, its general mind that is all good and benevolent. The general mind is good and the executing force is benevolent.

We shouldn’t be confused by what we see. It is time to consider the essences. The body does not exist. A person’s essence is truly eternal and I want to connect with it. It may be depicted to me as some “ghost,” but it is actually infinite and limitless. All our essences are the different facets of Malchut of Ein Sof. When we connect, it is as if they all “spread” on it and eventually make it up and create the corrected vessel.

Don’t forget that you should look at the group with internal eyes.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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