Entries in the 'Group Work' Category

Free Will Remains, The Situation Is Getting Tougher

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If the lower Partzuf is in the dark, where does it get the strength to rise up and receive the Light?

Answer: Clearly, the lower Partzuf has no strength to rise to the upper Partzuf, but it does receive the desire to do so. A person receives the first awakening from Above, but later he has to realize it on his own. It is written: “The Creator lays a person’s hand on the good fate and says, ‘Choose this.’”

If you don’t, you will be given a second chance although it will happen in a different form. It is taken into consideration what states you are going through, but only in the context of free will. This means that you must respond correctly, or next time the setting presenting a choice will be more “aggressive” and not as favorable.

If the second time you miss what is expected of you, another awakening will occur yet again. After all, the plan of creation must come to fruition. But the settings will be getting tougher and more unpleasant. And so on.

Every time a person doesn’t act on an awakening sent to him from Above, the situation presenting the same choice gets more challenging. If he didn’t accept the properties of mercy (Hassadim) and didn’t use them for correction, then mercy turns into harsh properties of overcoming (Gevurot).

Thus, everything is determined by our responsiveness to what is happening around us.
[28905]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/10, “Introduction from The Book of Zohar,” Article “Who Created These”

Related Material:
Allow The Creator To Work On You
A Good Fate
A Speech At The Alternative Medicine Congress, 10.27.10

Don’t Try To Argue With The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I wish to see the whole world awake and aware. How do I achieve that?

Answer: You cannot step out of the boundaries of what the common system of the souls’ correction reveals today. And it reveals a great deal. The question is: To what extent can we can affect it?

The world does not yet feel the need for Kabbalah as it cannot tie what is happening to its correction. Man doesn’t want it. When something bad happens to me, I seek someone to blame and never blame myself. That’s natural for egoism, so we always turn our back on correction.

In such a setting, we must do whatever we can. And what we can’t, we should then at least lay a path by which the next generation will be able to walk upon and follow. The place of work is given to you by the Creator, and He can’t be argued with.

The world is awakening but not at the rate we would like. The Creator has other plans. After all, the impressions that are being imprinted in the souls on the path of evolution have to reach their depth. And this takes time.

We would prefer to charge forth; however, having learned the design of the soul, we realize that between its two states, there lie millions of actions performed in the will to receive (desire). At times, a computer “freezes” for thirty seconds, and there is nothing you can do but wait.

And still, with time the process accelerates. It used to take half an hour to download one simple program from the Internet, and now we download whole movies in half a minute. And yet, in any case we need to be patient: There are too many actions that have to manifest in the collective desire of Shechina (Divinity). Our urge to rush derives from our ignorance of the importance and necessity of each such action.

Therefore, we simply “press the gas pedal to the floor,” meaning that we give the world as much as we are able, regardless of whatever its response. It isn’t up to us. The world has its own evolutionary pace. Look at the tremendous efforts there were made by Baal HaSulam, and only 60-70 years after his desperate appeals something is beginning to move.

We don’t see the entire scope of egoism approaching correction. We need to thoroughly count our modest forces in order to utilize them for dissemination with the utmost efficiency. If not, our words will miss people’s ears and won’t plant anything in their hearts.

I spoke about it with Rabash and some other Kabbalists with whom we used to visit. I saw them burning within and being patient at the same time. They were truly “charged,” but what can one do with a child who is playing with his toys? He needs time to evolve.

Therefore, we need to work harder within, among ourselves. In this way, we will be able to pass the awakening onto the world, through the inner network of souls, and people won’t even have to turn on the TV or attend introductory lectures.

Put all your desire in action aimed at building the correct connection in the group as previous Kabbalists used to do. As to the outside audience, release the necessary knowledge in small doses in the degree of their readiness. Feed it from a teaspoon, as you would feed an infant.
[28918]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/10, “Introduction from The Book of Zohar,” Article “Who Created These”

Related Material:
Between Slumber And Awakening
Living In The Stream Of Endless Light

How Bina Works With The Souls

Dr. Michael Laitman with StudentsWe are studying an article from “Introduction from The Book of Zohar” titled “MI created ELE.” It speaks about Bina of the world of Atzilut and how its three upper Sefirot (GAR or MI) created seven lower Sefirot (ZAT or ELE).

GAR created (Bara), meaning it drew from within itself outward (Bar) its lower part, AHP. Having descended to Zeir Anpin and Malchut, AHP is now able to interconnect with the souls that ascend to Malchut from the worlds of BYA (Beria, Yetzira, Assiya) and are willing to be reformed and unified.

The souls ask for the strength to unite, and they don’t need anything except that. They understand that by doing so they will acquire a Kli where the Creator will be revealed. Besides, they realize that their own strength is insufficient to accomplish such unification and the upper force is necessary.

Therefore, they raise their desire to Malchut of the world of Atzilut, causing it to merge with Zeir Anpin as one whole, ZON. At that point, ZON discovers that in Malchut and Zeir Anpin, there is the lower part of Bina, ELE, and this part elevates them to Bina, MI, itself.

As a result, the souls, Malchut, Zeir Anpin, and both parts of Bina, unify Above and receive the Light’s force there: the property of bestowal that rules in the upper part of Bina completely. Thereby, MI creates ELE and later reforms the souls that ascended to Bina.

If we wish to act following the example described in The Book of Zohar, we must strive to find among us the desire, the need, to ascend to Malchut de Atzilut in order to enter Bina’s AHP. This need will flame up in a person when he gets eager to become part of the group because Malchut of the world of Atzilut recognizes and responds solely to this specific desire.
[28924]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/10, “Introduction from The Book of Zohar,” Article “Who Created These”

Related Material:
Don’t Try To Argue With The Creator
Do I Exist Or Not?

Do I Exist Or Not?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: During the lesson, we are constantly trying to build the same plea, which makes it less acute. How can I renew it every day and plea as if for the first time?

Answer: This is the key, and if you succeed, you don’t need anything else. But I don’t know how to help here for this is exactly what is described by “Whatever is in your power, do it!”

No work is more important than preparation to the lesson. Dissemination and everything else you do in this world, everything must revolve around one point: to build an inner plea during the lesson, the anticipation of the Light that will descend and reform us.

This must become our obsessive thought, an internal ache, a feeling that without it I will die, and it will be even more frightening than to die in the corporeal world! It is impossible to arrive at such powerful desire on your own; a person needs the group, support, and collective inspiration. We need to feel despair which accumulates over the years of effort….

It is the most profound point around which everything revolves. If you reach it, you will succeed in everything. There is nothing more; this is the point where you connect with the Creator. Through it, from below upward, the prayer, MAN, is raised. His response, MAD, arrives through it from Above downward, for now as the Surrounding Light.

This need, the aching point, must stand out clearly and conspicuously as the most meaningful need. We need to constantly care for it and think how to enhance it, how to come to the studies with a broken heart so we may bond together during the lesson.

The rest is not important; what you know and what you’ve done does not matter at all. The final outcome of your entire life and all your effort is contained only here, in this point. If you come to it, you will attain everything; if not, nothing else is worthwhile.

Nothing else is taken into account but this point for only it is called the "human" within me. It determines whether I do exist or not.
[29053]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/7/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

Related Material:
The Game Of Bestowal
The Spirit Of The Group
Help Me Today And I’ll Help You Tomorrow

Cure For Lethargy

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It has been several weeks since I found myself in a fog that has blocked years of studies. I barely understand the words. If it weren’t for the group, I wouldn’t be here anymore. No matter how much effort I make, nothing can bring me out of it. What should I do?

Answer: This shows that you have made a profound effort. You probably participated in the convention and our collective states, you received an enormous amount of Light, and now in this Light you see that you don’t merit the revelation of the property of bestowal. Your desires (Kelim) don’t need bestowal yet, and they subconsciously reject it.

Thus, we are dealing with the state of fog, fatigue, confusion, helplessness, and unwillingness. Everything is clear except one thing: Why I can’t assert myself above all these feelings, these psychological obstacles? Why am I unable to detach myself from it and determine what is happening to me? After all, this is how a physician diagnoses a patient as well.

If you examine yourself thoroughly, you will see that you are going through the correct state, the right stage on the spiritual path. In fact, our sages tell us that one is never lowered in spirituality, rather one is always elevated.

And yet, how long will it take you to awaken from your slumber? That is up to you. Are you hastening the time? Your condition is favorable for advancement, but you must detach from it and move on as soon as possible.
[29134]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/8/10, “Introduction from The Book of Zohar, Article “Mother Lends Her Clothes to Her Daughter”

Related Material:
The Perfect Formula For Spiritual Ascent
The Benefit Of Pretence

Joy Through Tears

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is there a sign to help me see whether or not I’ve managed to awaken the friends in the group? Will they appear happier?

Answer: Only children can feel happy without a reason, but an adult cannot. He can only rejoice when he has completed his task: reached the goal of adhesion with the Creator.

If you read King David’s Psalms, you will see that he doesn’t stop talking to the Creator; he is either crying and asking the Creator for help or blessing Him. These are two opposite states, and a person must remain in both of them. On one hand, he is screaming and crying, begging the Creator; on the other, he is happy that he has the need to turn to the Creator, to demand from Him, and that the Creator has given him this opportunity.

His body or ego suffers, but his soul rejoices in knowing that thanks to these states, it receives the privilege to ascend to spirituality and connect to the Creator. Therefore, the book of Psalms is the most holy book since regardless how King David feels, good or bad, he experiences adhesion with the Creator.

But how can there be adhesion when one feels bad? After all, if I am in adhesion, I am supposed to rejoice. Why is he crying then? He is crying because he is lamenting his uncorrected desire while his intention is in adhesion with the Creator.

This is something that we are still unable to comprehend or to act accordingly. We are still acting like little children. When something doesn’t go our way, we fall into despair or, on the contrary, when we become happy about something, we forget about everything else. But we are unable to stay in both of these states at the same time, and it’s a shame.

This means that a person cannot control himself because he cannot correctly connect the events he is going through. On one hand, he has to undergo these unpleasant states, while on the other, he has to feel a connection with the Creator, the One who sends these mishaps, confusion, and problems.

But in the group, where there is a connection between the friends, this can’t occur because one friend is in a state of ascent, another is in a descent, a third friend is asleep, and so on. Thus, a person perceives all of these states simultaneously and is included in all of them.

There are those who are strong and others who are weak, but everyone, in accordance with their personal attributes, receives problems, traps, and difficulties from Above. Each person undergoes them; the only question is how quickly the states give way to each other.

We are given an opportunity to “take off” a 1000 times faster than what is happening with us today. And this means that we can reach spirituality not in a thousand years, but at this very moment!
[29121]
From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/10, Writings of Rabash, Letter 24

Related Material:
Why Wait For The Blows?
Manual: How To Bring Joy Back

Give Yourself To The Friends Without Leaving Out Anything

Dr. Michael LaitmanWrite down and learn what the intention has to be during the lesson: to merge with one another as one man with one heart, inside the system of our interconnection called “mutual guarantee.” On one hand, every person feels himself, and on the other hand, above this sensation he feels such a strong connection with others that he is unable to perform even one free motion. That is how devoted a person has to be to the group.

It’s as if I am weaved into a spider web through which all of my incoming and outgoing signals pass. I don’t have anything of my own in the mind or the heart. There is just one point remaining, which constantly yearns toward this net with all its strength, wishing to give itself to it.

This is self-rejection. To the degree I give myself to others, the Upper Light influences me and makes me a part of the common net. Then I feel how on one hand I am devoted to it, and on the other hand, it is all mine.

It’s the same as how a mother gives all of herself to the child and they both feel that the child is hers. One does not exist without the other. It says about this in the Song of Songs, “I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me.” That is how we must work.
[29231]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/9/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Place Of Residence: The Group
A Clear Criterion
My Contribution

Place Of Residence: The Group

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: At the lesson we have to aspire to one place and unite everything into one. However, over the years I have developed different notions of spiritual phenomena. When reading about Bina and Malchut, I perceive them differently. Is it possible to reduce them to one point?

Answer: They really do have to become one whole. In essence, Bina and Malchut are the qualities of the Creator and creation. We do not know exactly what this is, but nevertheless their interconnection and relationships indicate union.

Bina lowers a part of herself into Malchut, the letters “ELE” of the name Elokim. Malchut ascends into Bina, changing the name MA to MI. Behind the descriptions of these processes in The Book of Zohar we discern the bonds connecting them.

Accordingly, we have to build our intention. By uniting with the group, I see it as the place, the focal point where the quality of Bina, bestowal, or Elokim is revealed. That is where I raise my desires and yearnings. It is where I want to unite as a corrected part of Malchut.

I hope that Bina will help me by means of its vessels ELE, which are lowered intentionally in order to take care of me in order to become a motherly womb for me and raise me spiritually. That is how I should relate to the group.

The group is the system that is empowered to present Elokim, HaVaYaH, to me. It is the place where I receive nourishment, and from where the Lights and changes come to me.

My conception of the group depends only on how able I am to reject myself before it. The Upper One may take on any forms, but it happens only to the degree that the lower one ascends the degrees of self-rejection and becomes similar to Him, going through the phases of conception, feeding, and adulthood.

This is what I want when I subject myself to the group’s influence, the place that nourishes us. This should be my intention at the lesson: to constantly search for my place in the story about the interrelationships of Bina and Malchut.

They connect through Zeir Anpin, through HaVaYaH, the quality of mercy, the Light. This is the entire system that develops us. Our territory is the lower part of Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut herself. That is where our entire life is, both the material and the spiritual.

That’s because reality is one. Even though we only see an illusory picture now, it is just a flaw in our perception, an illusion caused by meager understanding and sensation. When the fog begins to clear, the Upper World will come through from it, our connection with the group, with the other souls, which comes through in AHP, meaning in the lower part of Bina (ZAT), Zeir Anpin, and Malchut.

This is what all of the science of Kabbalah talks about. This is the expression of our relationship with the Creator, with the unity of HaVaYaH and Elokim, which we have to attain.

Therefore, we have to understand that ZAT de Bina is the corrected group in which we find ourselves. We will never reveal anything more. we discern only the degree of our ability to unite in the lower part of Bina, in the group. That is our place. By giving ourselves over into its power, we will reveal our true reality, which is concealed from us for now by a veil of hazy perception.
[29237]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/9/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Working In Two Directions
This Is All We Need!
Building The Vessel Of Love

Building The Vessel Of Love

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In reality, I don’t like my friends at all. What states can help me recognize the Creator in the group?

Answer: You don’t like the Creator to the degree you don’t like your friends. In order to reveal the Light, you need the vessel of love. I connect with the inner point of my friend, with his spiritual desire.

If he is in the group, it’s certain that the Creator brought him here. The Creator gave the point in the heart to my friend, and this is why we are together. I have to connect to this inner point all the rest of the properties which I see in my friend and in myself.

These properties have to become the support, the ground for the growth and development of this point. All our desires will be building a new spiritual Partzuf around it.
[27904]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/10, “Introduction from The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Rose”

Related Material:
Give Yourself To The Friends Without Leaving Out Anything
My Beloved Group

Why Wait For The Blows?

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf you gain what you so passionately desire by going through a lot of pain, you give thanks for the bad like for the good. Obviously, it isn’t the path of Light, but such is reality. We, however, have to advance only by way of the Light, as it is written: “In Your Light, we shall see Light.”

Why can’t I feel this evil long before it hits me? Why can’t I run ahead of the blow? I know it is possible! If I enter the group, I receive an awareness of my evil from the friends. It isn’t the Light that comes from Above which reveals it to me, but I discover and recognize it on my own.

Making efforts to unite with the friends, I see how unable I am to do so and feel my total uselessness. At the same time, however, I receive the greatness of the goal, cry to the Creator for help, and advance.

Having received the Surrounding Light, I turn to the group again, only to feel resentment once more, and cry out to the Creator again. He provides the Light that Reforms. The Creator draws me closer to Himself and holds me up. I begin to feel, understand, and attain more, thereby moving ahead. Then, the cycle repeats.

This is a non-stop, unbroken action that must be performed at an infinite frequency, and you are to be constantly in it. Moreover, your plea to the Creator and to the group, as well as receiving the Surrounding Light, occurs automatically. One follows the other.

You simply “press the pedal” to move in the right direction. As to how all the “cogwheels” spin in the “engine,” you are not interested in that. So, why wait for the blows?
[29022]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/10, Writings of Rabash, Letter 24

Related Material:
Building The Vessel Of Love
A Clear Criterion