Question: The thoughts about spirituality cause sadness and suffering in me because I do not feel the Creator. What can I do?

Answer: If a person feels real sufferings in his life, this pain hides the Creator from him. This is done purposefully so that we do not damage our relationship with the Creator and yet remain connected with Him rather than starting to hate and reject Him.

There are various states, but to the extent that a person feels bad, to that extent the Creator is hidden, we have to attain mutual support and guarantee from the environment. In this case, even at the time of greater troubles, the environment will help us rise above a bad feeling to its cause.

Then I will understand that the feeling of evil comes not from the Creator, not from the upper force, but from the force of my own egoism. I will start to divide my feelings in two parts: 1) my desires that are not corrected and make me feel bad in them, and 2) the Creator, the upper Light, that radiates good upon me.

Precisely because the Creator emanates good upon me, while I am opposite to Him, I sense good as evil; that is, for me His good turns into its opposite. Therefore, the Creator cannot be revealed to me more because I will feel so bad that I will not be able to stand it.

As long as we remain uncorrected and feel the Creator in His opposite form because our ego turns Light into darkness, the Creator is revealed to us to the extent that we can bear this. And to the extent that we cannot tolerate, He hides.

He reveals Himself only slightly to disclose just a bit of evil to us, so that we do not disconnect from our mind and can analyze our feelings. Then, I begin to check where this evil comes from and what causes it. Consequently, I come to the group, the books, and the teacher who explain to me that I evoke evil myself because of my oppositeness to the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/2011, Shamati #241

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The wisdom of Kabbalah is the means that allows us to rise from the animate to the human level. If we do not use this means for transforming our egoistic nature, we remain animals, as it is said: “All are like animals.”

Indeed, in that case, we develop only within our ego; we have nothing to correct it with and nothing with which to rise above it from the receiving desires to the giving desires. Then, we sense only this world; we live and die like animals.

While at the human degree, I become similar to the Creator (“man” or “Adam” comes from the word “Edome” or “similar” in Hebrew). With the help of the tool called “the Light that Reforms.” which I attract to myself by reading Kabbalistic texts and especially The Book of Zohar, the strongest source of the hidden upper Light, I can correct myself and ascend from the egoistic nature to the altruistic one, to bestowal and love for a fellow human being.

Then, instead of the desire to use the other, I bestow to him, and instead of hatred, I feel love towards him. To the degree that I attain this nature, I begin to discover the upper force in my altruistic desires, in my properties of bestowal and love. I sense what fills my new qualities, and this is called “the upper Light” or “the Creator.”

However, all this is attained in the force of bestowal. How can we achieve it? For this purpose, before the lowest level of the world of Assiya, “this world,” was made, the creature created by the Creator, called the common soul Adam (Man), was shattered into many pieces. Now, in order to attract the Light, these pieces must unite with each other in the previous state before the shattering when the Upper Light filled them.

Although we cannot unite with each other ourselves, by desiring this, yearning and striving with all our power, by our efforts, we draw the Light from that state of unity. This Light does not come to us and doesn’t clothe in us because we have not united yet. But it shines to us from afar, to the extent of our aspiration for it—for the Light of bestowal and love for the other.

But do I really aspire for this?…I imagine that I yearn for this Light, for something very nice for my ego. But if I interpret this correctly—as the Light of bestowal and love in which I enjoy by bestowing to a fellow human being and acting solely for the sake of bestowal—then I do not particularly want it.

Hence, first of all, in order to strive for the Light, for correction, in order to become a giver and love the other, I must acquire the importance of this. I can obtain the importance of correction from the following two sources:

1. If I suffer and feel pain, I strive to change my condition. I am even willing to give just not to feel bad. This is called advancement by the path of suffering.
2. I can receive the importance of bestowal and love for a fellow human being from the environment that will begin “to brainwash me,” convincing me of how important it is to bestow, how much we can win, how good it is, and what pleasures bestowal brings.

One seems to contradict the other: “Bestow and you will receive pleasure! Bestow and you will feel the upper World!” This is called “Lo Lishma (for oneself),” but anyway, this is an intermediary phase of advancement. In this case, I strive to advance by the path of “Lo Lishma,” the path of Light. We all are egoists and have to imagine an understandable self-gain ahead of us; otherwise, we will not be able to do anything.

Therefore, I am in the group, together with people who also want to attain spirituality. It is not important that all of us envision the spiritual world as a good prize: We want to be above others, to earn more, to rise above this short life filled with sufferings, to reach something worthwhile and great.

Even if we promote the importance of this goal to each other, then something exalted, great, eternal, perfect, and worthwhile will be revealed in the connection between us, and we will have strength to advance towards the inner connection between us at least slightly. If in the connection between us, we discover the common internal force called the spiritual vessel, the will to bestow, then in this vessel, to the extent of this will to bestow, we will reveal the Light: the Light of bestowal, the upper Light, or the Creator.

So, before we start reading The Book of Zohar and thus draw the Light, we have to imagine that we aspire to be in the inner connection between us when each nullifies himself and feels only others: everyone together, the whole inner group, where we are connected with each other in our souls. And in this connection between the souls, we reveal the Light, the common force of bestowal and love—and the Creator within it. If this is our line of thinking during the reading of The Zohar, it influences us in the most effective way.

It does not matter how much we understand the text and know the words. It is important to think about one thing only all the time: “Now, I am taking medicine. I want to connect with others, and then, in the unity between us, I will get everything: the entire spiritual, upper world. I am looking forward to this!”
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/2011, The Zohar

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My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice for the Week

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Question: What do we need in order to realize that all the problems and blows that we experience in this life are, in fact, the Creator’s messengers?

Answer: We need the opinion of the environment, public pressure. It is necessary to link the two opposites: on one hand, to feel strong fear and on the other, to be a hero, to simultaneously be both very naive and very smart, depending on what is being discussed.

We usually get confused between them. When we should be naïve, to lower our heads, and just trust, we act like a “smart aleck” and take pride in it. When we should be clever, we act like fools.

A great deal of our energy and time is consumed until a person gets straightened out. Sometimes, a tiny little mistake made in only a moment or over a few days costs us ten or twenty years of hard work.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/2011, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Why is it that I understand what needs to be done, but I don’t always have the strength to remain dedicated to the goal?

Answer: This is because understanding happens only in reason, whereas a dedicated attitude toward unification and connection must be in the desire. However, reason and desire are two different things. I can say lots of smart and great things with my mouth. My mind would agree with all of them, but I cannot find the desire within to carry out even the simplest action.

The desire requires correction, and in order to correct it, first of all, I have to annul myself before the friends so as to receive through them the Light that Reforms, provided that we study correctly in the right group. Then, in this partially corrected desire, I’ll be able to carry out some tiny action.

From my head, I can talk about the highest possible states even now, but in order to manifest them within the desire, I need to labor hard and persistently. I still need to find the form in which to draw the Light that Reforms and how to accept and use it correctly. Words are not enough for this.

There are plenty of wise guys in this world if you only judge by words. It is said: “Believe the wisdom of the nations,” but the difference between a “nation of the world” within man and “Israel” (aimed “straight to the Creator”) is that the former only understands with reason the entire spiritual world; it doesn’t want to correct itself. However, “Israel,” aimed straight to the Creator, corrects its desires.

These two parts may contradict one another completely. A person may appear to be an angel in terms of what he says by showing thorough knowledge and a strong grasp of the theory.  (Like the “Kabbalists” that Baal HaSulam once met in Jerusalem did who knew all the books by heart.)
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/2011, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: The external society is constantly goading me on with threats of humiliation and harm to my Self. Feeling this “knife” pointed at my throat, I cannot stop chasing after material things. Why don’t I feel the same in the group?

Answer: Indeed, in certain predicaments, a person desires to be “pricked” by some external stimulus since he is unable to wake up on his own. But such an approach is incorrect. Only when a person is unable to arrange a necessary “disturbance” by employing the group and the books, only then he will feel the “knife at his throat.” However, if he knows how to arrange it, then he is given some time, then some more, and some more. Besides, the group is also supposed to take care of a person and be responsible for waking him up.

On the whole, there are two ways for us to evolve: through suffering or the power of the Torah. It depends on my interconnection with the group: how much I put in and receive from it in return.

I need to keep receiving guarantee and assurance from the friends. Essentially, I am supposed to feel like a baby in his mother’s arms. There is no safer place in the world than that, is there? A baby calms down in the mother’s arms; he doesn’t want to be placed in the crib or anywhere else, but only to remain in the place where trouble doesn’t exist by definition.

This is mutual devotion; it is natural both in the baby and in the mother. They are programmed by nature, whereas we must achieve this above our nature. Imagine: The group, like a baby, is in your arms, while you, like a baby, are in the arms of the group.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah World 6/24/2011, “The Freedom”

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My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice for the Week

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We are created with egoistic nature and can only think about filling ourselves with pleasures. That is why if a thought about bestowal occurs in our minds, slightly raising us above our egoism, and we start thinking in the opposite direction, it certainly does not come from our inner nature, but from the Light, from the Creator.

There are only two forces in the universe: the force of the Creator, the desire to bestow, and the force of the creature, the will to enjoy. Thus, if the desire to reflect on what is higher than one’s earthly existence, that is, about the meaning of one’s life, suddenly awakens in a person, this means that the upper Light started acting upon him.

Then, a person is brought to the group, or he comes across a book about Kabbalah, or all of a sudden he hears an interview—everybody encounters Kabbalah as if completely “by chance.” However, we should understand that there is nothing accidental here. And when a person is brought to the right place and given an opportunity to connect with the teacher, the books, and the group, he should not miss this.

Not everything depends on us, and everybody will have to go through a process, but there is some part in it that we have to organize ourselves. And if the Creator has called us to spiritual development, from the moment when we recognize this invitation from Above, we should not miss it.

That is why we get together in groups, come to the lessons every day, inspire each other with the importance of the goal, and organize various events. All this should convince me of the importance of the process of spiritual development. If the group is constantly thinking about how to reach the goal, this affects each of us and forces us to be empathetic.

Then, if I am given any opportunity with thoughts about advancement and the greatness of the spiritual goal awakened in me, I immediately react to this. These are very important moments. Everything depends on how a person responds to the Creator’s call.

In reality, every day we get several such invitations. And if we react correctly, then tomorrow, we will get even more of them, and the day after tomorrow, even more!  This way, you can reach the state when all the time you will feel that you are in a dialogue with the Creator, until in all these opportunities, thoughts, and desires changing in you, you feel a constant connection with the Creator.

There are several levels of this connection that should increase more and more and acquire different types. It comes and goes to awaken a greater desire in us. It is like a game, a flirtation, with which the Creator inflames a desire in us so that we chase Him. As it is said: “’My Beloved is like a deer” that always looks back, running away, disappearing and getting closer. Thus, the Creator is playing with us.

The key is not to miss the opportunities as they arise and to react properly. In those moments when you feel an awakening, you should not forget that it comes from Above, and you have to answer this call. As it said: “Call upon Him while He Is Near!”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah World 6/24/2011, Shamati #241

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Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: Prior to the giving of the method of Kabbalah, the children of Israel had assumed the relinquishment of any private property to the extent expressed in the words, “a Kingdom of Priests,” and the purpose of the whole of Creation—to cleave unto Him in equivalence of form with Him: as He bestows and does not receive, they, too, will bestow and not receive. This is the last degree of Dvekut (adhesion), expressed in the words, “Holy nation”….

How do we exit this world? We enter the period of preparation. After that we cross the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality) and rise to the level called “Hafez Hesed,” that is, bestow for the sake of bestowal. This is the degree of Bina.

Then, we rise to the degree of Keter, to reception for the sake of bestowal, and receive the Light of Hochma (Wisdom), while on the level below, we received only the Light of Hassadim (Mercy).

On the degree of Bina, we cancel “private property,” meaning arrive at the state of Hafez Hesed and are not supposed to use our receiving desire. This is also preparation, the phase of the correction of the vessels. The reception of the Light takes place on the next degree.

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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah World 6/24/2011, “The Freedom”

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My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice for the Week

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