Entries in the 'Inner Work' Category

I Am A Guarantor For Everyone

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What can be done if, on one hand, I do everything possible, for example, studying, integrating into the group, and performing dissemination; and on the other hand, I see that I have stayed in my pride and haven’t taken anything else into consideration, meaning, have simply blocked myself?

Answer: You need to ask the friends to help you, to support you, to pray for you. “Prayer for the many” is the prayer for someone else, for others.

A person can’t pray for himself since that would be an egoistic request. Even if you convince yourself that you, as if, want the attribute of bestowal, in any case it would be egoistic since you want it for yourself.

When I am in the group, I only want one thing, to be a guarantor for everyone. I want to be their guarantor and that they will attain everything that they want! And in this way we are all mutual guarantors for each other.

Otherwise, we won’t be matching in our attributes to that of the upper field. We are within it like charged particles in a magnetic field that separates us instead of attracting and drawing us nearer. Because we want to take advantage of it for ourselves, it repels us.

How can we attain similarity with Him? For this we need to connect to the friends, and then I will have some similarities to this field. It is here that the exact laws of physics work as described in The Study of the Ten Sefirot; there is no mysticism here.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/21/12, Shamati #30

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Turning My Core Inside Out

Dr. Michael LaitmanEverything is determined by the inner intention and no words are needed for that. If we know that we must constantly be connected, by overcoming all the interruptions, both the collective ones within the group and the private ones each of us encounters, we will have the right intention.

We constantly return to the intention during the lesson, while listening to the recordings during the day, and while reading the blog. So, I always remind myself and bring myself and return to the intention to connect. Besides, I also worry that all the friends will be connected since if we have a strong collective desire, we will discover the Creator.

If this general collective vessel doesn’t exist, we will not attain the revelation.

This condition isn’t the Creator’s or the upper field’s whim according to which it seems that you are asked to pay in one place in order to later receive something in another place, like in a store. This doesn’t exist in spirituality.

You need to feel a necessity, the need for that attribute of bestowal, and only then will you be able to discover it. Now too, it surrounds you on all sides. You are in this upper field, but you cannot reveal it because you don’t feel a need for it. So what are you crying about?

You don’t even know what the attribute of bestowal or what the upper field that you are yearning for are. You are crying about something that is totally different, about the fact that you didn’t receive a filling in your desire to receive, in your ego. If you really needed the attribute of bestowal, then you would immediately reveal it within this field.

After all, you are within this field, but your charge, your desire to perceive it, is weak at the moment. It could be that this charge is directed in the opposite direction, not in order to receive the attribute of bestowal, but simply in order to enjoy it.

You can check whether you are aiming at the same direction as that field by using the attribute of bestowal if you try to connect with others. Then you will see whether you really want connection or not, whether you need bestowal and love or not.

We will not receive the inner attributes necessary for the contact with the upper field, with the Creator in order to ask Him for the force of correction, until we begin to connect in the group above our ego, by trying to connect. Therefore working in the group is an essential preliminary condition. Therefore, it says “from the love of the created being to the love of the Creator.”

It is for this reason that the shattering of the desires occurred, so that by working with others we will be able to attain the necessity and the need for the attribute of bestowal. The main thing is the desire to learn to bestow.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/21/12, Shamati #30

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Summing Up The Roundtable Discussion

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What would you say at the end of the roundtable discussion to sum up its results?

Answer: I would say the following: We made an attempt to connect, to rise above our disputes, and we tried to perceive the connection as an uppermost value. It became clear to us that if we connect, then by this connection we will be able to solve different problems. If we continue with the roundtable discussions, we will have a chance to succeed.

We will live without conflicts and wars in a more appropriate manner that everyone will acknowledge. All layers of society can be part of this connection. No one will be deprived in any way, and it’s the safest way to solve problems.

If we continue with our attempts to connect by such discussions, we can reach a general consensus, unity, and mutual understanding. The representatives of all layers of society will unite, talk, and understand each other better. They will try to connect above all the differences and will not point at each other, blaming the others.

We raise ourselves to such a level in order to first think of our connection. Then from this connection, like in a family, we will solve all the problems each of us has.

There is no other approach that enables us to reach a just distribution of resources to which no one will object. First, we have to reach cooperation, and then we can already see what each one wants and decide how we can all do it together. But if we distribute the resources without this connection, it will bring about terrible wars, and then the strong ones will try to take a greater share. Then we will never be able to live in peace and in agreement.
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From the Workshop in Toronto 6/20/12 

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Connection Above All The Differences

Connection Above All The DifferencesQuestion: When we participate in the roundtable discussions, how can we explain that it’s worthwhile to attain connection above all the differences?

Answer: People usually like to argue, but instead of arguments I want to explain to them that connection is above everything. Let’s leave our dispute and not sink into it, but rise above it. Clearly, if we connect, we draw the upper Light upon us, which fixes everything. But how can I explain this to a person who doesn’t even know that all this exists?

The explanation is very simple. There is absolute abundance in the world! There are no problems except for one single problem, which is the fact that people are not connected and cannot get along. They cannot divide this wealth and abundance among them as they should, and so there is such great friction among everyone and the whole world suffers.

We all suffer only because of the human ego. But the moment we connect, we’ll immediately discover the way to fix everything so that everyone will receive what he deserves and equally with everyone else. Therefore, the connection is the solution to all our problems.

If, on the one hand, we receive all the abundance from nature and on the other hand the world is such a bad and painful place, it’s only because people can’t fix it. If they connect they will reach true prosperity.
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From the Workshop in Toronto 6/20/12

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Convention In Miami – 06.24.12

Miami Convention, Workshop 3

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Miami Convention, Lesson 4

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Convention In Miami – 06.23.12

Miami Convention, Lesson 1

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Miami Convention, Workshop 1

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Miami Convention, Lesson 2

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Miami Convention, Workshop 2

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Miami Convention, Lesson 3

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The Light Is Always The Answer To A Request

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Messiah’s Shofar”: And because of that, Rashbi permitted himself and disclosed the wisdom of the hidden in his books, The Zohar and the Tikkunim. However, it was with great care, since he only permitted Rabbi Abba, who could disclose with intimation, so only the sages of the children of Israel would understand, and the sages of the nations would not understand.

The reason for that is that if people driven by egoism find something in this wisdom, they will not be able to advance. In another article, Baal HaSulam brings the example of an unripe fruit that can harm a person. Answers that are received without exertion, without self-advancement, only block a person’s way.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed gradually, so that a person would understand more according to his internal spiritual growth, and thus advance. However, if he received the answers in advance, without growing and developing a vessel, it would stop him and not allow him to advance. Then he wouldn’t need to change and to acquire new attributes, and it would prevent him from discovering the way to the spiritual world by himself.

This is why Kabbalists took great care not to reveal things that people are not yet able to understand. The wisdom is acquired according to a person’s readiness. We study in order to summon the Light that Reforms, and when it corrects us, we begin to understand and to feel the material that we study.

The process is as follows: We connect in a group of about ten people, and then by the power of our unity we can raise MAN to the upper force. As an answer, we receive the Light that Reforms, which means the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif – OM). This is what changes us, meaning, truly unites us (∑) and corrects us, and thanks to this correction we discover the upper world in our corrected attributes.

So these are the stages of the process:

  1. We unite
  2. We raise MAN for correction
  3. The Surrounding Light corrects us
  4. We discover the upper reality.

If we don’t perform the two initial steps, connecting and raising MAN, then nothing happens. Therefore, Kabbalists wrote their books in stages, according to our advancement in our study. When we read it for the first time, we discover our ego. Then we understand that there is only one choice, to rise to unity (∑), and then we discover that it isn’t enough either and that we have to raise MAN. If we do that then the Upper Light, the Surrounding Light (OM) completes the work.

The Kabbalistic books are revealed to us according to these stages, and it is all by the study. In the first stage, I discover the evil, in the second stage, I see that I cannot do anything and that I have to connect with the friends, and in the third stage, I understand that we will not manage without a request that the Light will connect us because we cannot do it by ourselves. Then the Light comes and completes the work. The first half of the work is our responsibility and the second half is fulfilled from Above and it is called “the work of the Creator.”
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From the 1s part  Daily Kabbalah Lesson  6/20/12 in Toronto, “Messiah’s Shofar”

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How To Acquire Your Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I am actually only an animalistic body and I don’t have a “soul” yet. How do I acquire it?

Answer: A soul is part of the Creator from above. It is bestowal; it is the level of Bina, the level of general love.

If you acquire this attribute, it means that you have received a part of godliness from above. “From above” means that you consider the value of bestowal and love as higher than all your other beastly desires.

If you acquire this part of the attribute, it means that you have received a soul. Why? It is because, with this part, you will be able to love others and to bestow upon them. You will feel a different world, the next world, something that is external to what you are feeling now. Every sphere that you are feeling now, as if you were in it and which surrounds you, is a sphere that you feel inside your ego.

If you acquire the attribute of bestowal, it is as if you exit this sphere and enter an upper sphere that is external to you. You get an extra corporeal feeling, a special emotional state (extra sensory), and then you begin to discover the upper world, thoughts and desires that are aimed fully at bestowal and love. This is called an “addition” above the five senses with which you currently depict this world: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and feeling.

You add extra senses to these five senses, which operate in bestowal, called Keter, Hochma. Bina, Zeir Anpin and Malchut in which you feel something else that is totally in bestowal. The new structure that you have acquired begins to take on the form of Adam, which resembles the Creator.

Now, you exist in an egoistic sphere called “this world,” you feel everything only within your ego, and this is your life. Suppose you expand yourself all the way to some external sphere. What you would feel in it is called the upper world.

So, the vessels that you acquire along with that, the desires and the thoughts, are called Adam, the one who resembles the Creator. The Light that you attain in these vessels, the filling, is the Creator, the attribute of bestowal and love.

Then, you attain an even greater world, the next level, and thus you advance up 125 degrees. However, there, you already have an upper mind and feelings that help you understand what is going on. The main thing is to exit the first sphere because its nature is aimed totally inward, and it is opposite to all the other spheres whose nature is aimed outward.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/15/12, The Zohar

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Let There Be Fewer Penalty Laps

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is it important to understand exactly what the Creator wants from me or is it most important to simply continue as best as one can?

Answer: The Creator wants only one thing from you: for you not to leave Him.

There is no thought, desire, or action in the world, which does not lead towards the revelation of the Creator, directly or indirectly. There is nothing besides this.

We would have revealed Him directly, but this is practically impossible to do. And since we are not capable of moving from point “A” to point “B” by the shortest direct path, a number of indirect reasons arise that direct us and make us move.

These events may confuse a person in many ways, placing obstacles in front of him and making him spin around them for many long years before he makes one step forward. Although it would seem that he could have moved directly without going around.

But in everything that is happening in the world and in the whole of the human history, there is nothing besides the movement towards the Creator. Why else should all events occur if everything is defined by the opposition of the Light and the vessel and the revelation of the Reshimot, (informational genes)? Everything is directed only at clarifying and correcting them. Either, we directly perform our work on them, or as a consequence of the separation, nature will make us come to the same result by the path of suffering. However, this will take a long time since the forces of egoism (Klipot) are stretching it out like rubber, turning each point into a long period, in this way depriving us of strength and confusing us.

As it is said: “The Creator created man straight, but people have thought up of numerous retributions.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/5/12, Shamati #25

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It Is The Light That Gives Birth To Man

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Zohar is the Light that Reforms, and The Book of Zohar is also called “the Upper Light.” We can enjoy this Light only if we know how to draw it, when we are in equivalence of form with it.

What should we do in order to attain equivalence of form with the Light? The Light bestows, how can I bestow? If I tighten the connection with the friends, annul my ego a bit in order to connect with them, try to be a bit closer to them through different actions, events, and by dissemination, I become a bit more similar to the Light. To the extent that I get closer to it, I am rewarded by it influencing me more.

The Light is fixed in its bestowal, but by my actions I draw myself closer to it and become more like it. Thus, I am rewarded with the influence of the Light, and as a result my vessel becomes the one that bestows.

According to my internal change, when I become the one who bestows in my desires and my attributes, I begin to discover the changes that occur in me. Suddenly I discover such desires and thoughts (in the heart and mind) that are totally different from the ones I had before. Thus I feel more and more changes inside me until I acquire a new state in which I feel: “That’s it, I’ve changed!” This change reveals a new collection of attributes, desires, and thoughts in me that is called a Partzuf, man (Adam), or the Creator, which are all the same.

Since according to this new structure, the sum of the attributes, desires, and thoughts in me, I discover a new internal figure, which is a “human,” and in it, I discover its root, the reason that gave it birth, which is the Creator. Thus we discover our spiritual development.

Let’s hope that by our yearning for the level of Adam, which means that in return for the annulment of our ego, the connection with others and with the whole world, and the study of The Zohar, we will enjoy the Light that Reforms and will receive the form of a “human.”
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/15/12, The Zohar

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