Entries in the 'Inner Work' Category

The Fulcrum

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe environment is a tool for self-correction, and self-correction is the means for the correction of the world. This is because a person who changes himself just a little thereby changes the entire world.

Archimedes said, “Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough, and I will move the world.” The entire problem is that point, the fulcrum.

You can “move” the earth if you have the right and safe point to lean on. Even if the left part of the lever is just a meter long, if the right side is, let’s say, millions of meters long, even if you use the force of just one gram, you will turn the world.

You have to be a hero in quality, not in quantity. It is all about how much you prefer spirituality over corporeality, meaning internality over externality. This means that you choose the fulcrum. If you see spirituality as more important than corporeality, then no matter how much the earth “weighs,” you have a lever that can turn it. This is the “heavenly mechanics.”
[75820]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/2012 on Holocaust Memorial Day

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Egypt In The Eyes Of A Slave And The Eyes Of A Free Man

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can a person count 400 years (levels) of his stay in exile if Egypt is in total darkness?

Answer: It is impossible to count that, and this is why the escape takes place suddenly, in a hurry. A person does not know when he will come out of exile. Suppose the 400 years of exile are to end today at 13:30, but you can’t know that. Don’t you see that according to the story, the escape is sudden? You are told only what you must take with you: the components that make up your spiritual vessel so that later you will be able to rise above it.

According to the story, after we come out of Egypt, we leave nothing behind. I take all the gold, all the sheep and the cattle, all the property, and leave behind me an empty, destroyed country. I destroy to the ground the country that once flourished, big and prosperous with beautiful cities, and I leave.

Of course, I leave for a better life, and there is nothing to lose. There is no reason to stay in Egypt where there is not even water to drink because everything has turned to blood, and everything is dead.

This is how a person sees the corporeal world that he leaves. In fact, the beautiful palaces are still there and so are all the good things, everything is flourishing, but in my eyes it looks like a destroyed land in the dark. This is how it is perceived in my new discernments that oblige me to disrespect all the luxury and see it as trash and to want to escape from it.

However, if I looked at everything through the eyes of a slave, I would see the rich land and think that that there is no need to escape. After all, the land of Egypt is surrounded by a desert.

But suddenly I decide that staying there is the worst thing, and there is nothing worse than that. It isn’t just a desert, but a place of awful destruction and lowliness. It is all in the eyes of the beholder.
[75818]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/2012, TES

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The Only One Who Will Help Me

Dr. Michael LaitmanBy trying to unite in the group, we don’t just evoke the Light, but the Light that Reforms. It doesn’t correct me, but it gives me new details of perception. Its job is to show me that I am totally detached, opposite, broken, immersed in hate, and laying at the bottom. First, I come to this recognition.

Beyond that, the Light obliges me to feel that nothing can save me, and it is impossible to come out. It gives me the feeling that there is no force in our world that can correct me, although I seemingly do want to connect with the friends and love them.

However, I continue to work and do my best, together with the great hate for separation and the great desire to unite. With the help of the Light, I begin to understand that this is very important. Then, it reveals the most important internal point to me: the understanding that only the Creator can help me.

Thus I reach two things. On one hand, I begin to hate evil, and on the other, I come to love the good, meaning absolute bestowal, when I actually want to go out of my way toward others. I have acquired a big deficiency, the need for unity and love. In addition, above the call of the heart, I have reached the understanding that no one can help me except the Creator.

So, eventually, I acquire a deficiency for the Creator. First, I assumed that together with the friends, we would tear down the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality), and as a result of this demand, I would penetrate nature more deeply and discover the inner force hidden in it—the only one force that can help me. I feel that the desire aimed at the Creator is born in my heart.

This is the top, the climax of my work on the corporeal degree, with all the means available here. From this point on, I am “locked” onto the Creator: How do I ask, demand, oblige, and beg Him for help?

This desire develops and takes on new forms. For whom is the Creator’s help meant? I begin to see that until now, I wanted to use Him, even pay Him. However, I actually need the changes in order to bring Him pleasure. So, by changing internally, I begin to change our mutual relations, until above all my personal calculations, I want all the changes to bring Him pleasure.

This is the work of the Creator: I work and consciously aim all the fruit of my work toward Him. Then, I ask to feel Him. I ask not as I do now, not for my self-benefit, but on the contrary, I tell Him: “Don’t reveal Yourself, otherwise my desire to receive will begin to enjoy. Just tell me what is for Your good. This is the only thing that I want.”

So, from the level of our world, I move on to another kind of work, done relative to the Creator. At the same time, I continue to work in the group, but now as one whole with it.
[75857]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/20/2012, “Preface to The Book of Zohar”

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Nazism: Will It Disappear?

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 67: If, God forbid … an individual from Israel enhances and appreciates one’s externality, which is the nations of the world in him, more than the inner Israel in him, meaning the externality in that person rises and soars, you yourself, the internality, the Israel in you, plunges down. With these actions, one causes the externality of the world in general —the nations of the world—to soar ever higher and overcome Israel, degrading them to the ground, and the children of Israel, the internality in the world, to plunge deep down.

This is what has been going on since the days of the Maccabeans and even in the times of the Second Temple, when they tried to disseminate Greek culture among the people. If we check this throughout history, we’ll see that every time we had a chance to avoid great trouble we didn’t do so.

But today, when we must finally fulfill the plan of creation and have all the necessary means, we surely have to feel that we are indeed responsible for the whole world. The Nazis brought suffering not only to the Jews—the pain and suffering were afflicted upon many people. According to the estimates of historians, 60 million people died during WWII.

We should understand that today we are facing the same danger, but it concerns the whole world. Hitler was no more than a puppet. This, of course, doesn’t justify his atrocities, but ultimately it’s about a very negative combination of forces that was created by those who have free will because of the disrespect towards the spiritual goal.

There are actually no “negative figures” in the world. These are simply the same “positive figures” that appear so that we will correct them. And if not, they are depicted to us as “negative figures,” up to such extremes. In general it’s about a unified system.

Today, as we enter a new era, we should draw conclusions and learn from what we’ve been through. As unpleasant as it may sound, we have caused all the troubles. We should be careful so as not to summon this nightmare upon the whole world in the future.

Baal HaSulam warns us about it in simple direct words. He says that Nazism can return, and we cannot be sure that it will not happen. People always say “never again!” as if they understand how to manage the world. Actually you can say that if you advance by the upper Light, you know for sure what is ahead. But you know nothing about the system and are not trying to correct it, so your words are worthless and you advance from one blow to another.

It’s time to wake up and to understand that the choice is in our hands.
[75746]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/2012 on Holocaust Memorial Day

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We Should Prefer Internality

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 71: Each of us remainders should take upon himself, heart and soul, to henceforth intensify the internality of the Torah, and give it its rightful place, according to its merit over the externality of the Torah.

And then, each and every one of us will be rewarded with intensifying his own internality, meaning the Israel within us, which is the needs of the soul over our own externality, which is the nations of the world within us, that is, the needs of the body. That force will come to the whole of Israel, until the nations of the world within us recognize and acknowledge the merit of the great sages of Israel over them, and will listen to them and obey them.

Also, the internality of the nations of the world, the righteous of the nations of the world, will overpower and submit their externality, which are the destructors. And the internality of the world, too, which are Israel, shall rise in all their merit and virtue over the externality of the world, which are the nations. Then, all the nations of the world will recognize and acknowledge Israel’s merit over them. And they shall follow the words (Isaiah 14, 2), “And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord.” And also (Isaiah 49, 22), “And they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.”

On every level, everything depends on the correlation between internality and externality, and the upper levels determine what will happen on the lower levels. So each of us, meaning anyone who is studying the wisdom of Kabbalah and who belongs to “Israel,” that is, to the category that aspires straight to the Creator (Yashar – El), determines how things will develop by preferring internality over externality, by placing the spiritual advancement, love, connection, and bestowal over the external part in him, which is based on self-interest, success, honor, a desire to control others, and so on. This internal conflict within each of us and the way it’s expressed in the group determines where the world is headed.

But if everything depends on us, what do we need dissemination for? The point is that today the whole world needs to examine the relationship between internality and externality. On every degree, on every level, everyone should make a decision regarding this and prefer unification—in order to join us. Then “the nations of the world,” or our egoistic desires will support the altruistic part that leads the world forward.

Thus, as we’ve already said, everything depends on the correlation between internality and externality, between spiritual advancement and all corporeal interests. So a big question is: What can we do so that there will be no more disasters? As difficult as it may seem, we must accept what Baal HaSulam says: “There is none else besides Him,” and “the law is given and cannot be transgressed,” and no one can influence the advancement of the world except those who have access to the Light that Reforms.

So we have to admit that we are responsible for the afflictions in the world and the troubles we experience. This is what Baal HaSulam says: Since Israel preferred externality over internality and didn’t open the wisdom of Kabbalah in the right time, to this extent they summoned the Holocaust upon themselves….
[75749]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/2012 on Holocaust Memorial Day

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Striving Toward The Force Of Ascent

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe cannot be simultaneously in egoistic and altruistic intentions, desires, and goals. These are two opposite properties, which cancel each other out. So if I extol bestowal and Light, if I exalt the ability to step outside and ascend above myself, and with that, if I feel how my friends are supporting me, if I sense how much this protects, inspires, and fills me, if I feel enjoyment, love, and fulfillment, then no place remains where I can think about myself, I simply dissolve in their love and concern.

Therefore, when people are playing and enacting this state, through that they evoke the surrounding Light on themselves. It gradually develops them up and leads them to that state. And then a person’s self-concern involuntarily dies off. He or she exists on the earthly level only to the extent required to simply support his or her existence, and no more than that. And this condition is the most comfortable one for our body, for our egoism.

Then all the person’s efforts involuntarily take form and add up to just one intention—to bestow. And within it, in this intention to bestow, within the light of Hassadim, he now begins to sense the revelation of the Creator, fulfillment, and warmth. He discovers completely different properties and other possibilities. They suddenly appear out of nothing. Before, he simply didn’t feel them, and now he reveals them.

We need to try to combine our efforts, like children who are playing the same game together, not one against the other, but together, and to not forget about the fact that it’s specifically our collective impressions, our penetration into and connection with one another that supplies us with the force of ascent.
[75712]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 1

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Anyone Can Generate Happiness For Everyone

Dr. Michael LaitmanOther than personal informational genes (Reshimot) that influence the inner condition of an individual, there is another factor that has a big impact. This is the general awakening from Above (Etaaruta DeLaila), which is called “weekdays,” “Shabbats” (Saturdays), and Holidays, all of which denote perpetual relative “ups” and “downs.”

There are “seconds,” “minutes,” “hours,” “days,” “nights,” “special days of the week,” “extraordinary days of the month,” “special months of the year,” and “leap years” all inside one another. They play a tremendous role in our lives since our path includes these states.

Even the smallest state contains all others like a holographic picture. We’re connected with a special Light that shines for us and thus modifies the Surrounding Light so that on various days we get different types of the Surrounding Light even though we continue applying the same level of effort.

Our work stays unchanged, but by the mere fact that it’s a Monday, the Surrounding Light differs from the Light that we had on Sunday. We alter our labor “from below;” at the same time, conditions “from Above” also get modified in order to “meet” our work and equate it with the external conditions that are called “the world, a year, a soul.”

This applies particularly to various time segments such as “seconds and minutes,” etc. since it brings us in compliance with them. The awakening from Above is of great help to us. Changes in the upper worlds happen perpetually, every single second. It provides us with additional sets of changes that shorten our path to spirituality.

The system is built in an exceptionally wise way. Concurrent to our personal growth, we correct the whole system on a large scale because the awakening from Above originates an exceptional state within us. Thus, a microscopic change that we achieve impacts the whole system and improves other people’s condition by bringing them a lot of happiness.
[75816]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/2012, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Which Desires To Fulfill?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: From what I understand, when we speak of fulfilling desires at the “human” degree, we’re talking about fulfilling the desire for connection with the Creator. Should I also be fulfilling a person’s corporeal desires, like his desire to watch football?

Answer: The fact is that all unfulfilled desires of our world, meaning suffering, are aimed only at revealing the Creator to a human being. And only if we continue toward this goal will these desires be fulfilled.

We see that the world is full of pleasures, opportunities—anything you can think of—and still people suffer. We see that despite the fact that there’s an abundance of resources in the world, half of humanity is hungry. We see that despite the great advances made by medicine, people are sicker today than they were in the past. We see that although people are given all the means to lead a normal life, they still get divorced and don’t want to raise children, suicide rates are rising, and so on and so forth.

Why is this happening?! What is the problem?!

So you let a person watch some football. Then what? It is better to teach him something that will actually allow him to come closer to the source of fulfillment because any fulfillments that I can give him, besides whatever is necessary for our physical body, will only divert him from the goal, causing him to suffer in the end.

There is nothing else. There is only one goal. And all of humanity must aspire to it.

If we fulfill our physical body on the animate level with all it needs for survival, all our remaining motives, all our remaining desires must be aimed only at achieving the goal. Otherwise, if I use them in some other direction and not toward the goal, I receive feedback that will trigger suffering in me, to make me correct my direction.

Therefore, if I give a person anything other than his bare necessities, something additional, like letting him watch football, my actions indirectly cause him to suffer. I’ll buy him a ticket to see a game, and he will definitely receive some blow from fate because he’s not moving in the right direction. This will happen all the time. That is why humanity’s suffering only increases as we develop further.

And we have no other means of doing good to a person other than to give him a normal, sensible standard of living: food, shelter, family, health, and everything else, but only in order to achieve the goal. Herein lies the program of creation.

And If I lead him away from this path, I am to blame for him failing to achieve this program of creation. And both of us will suffer for it. I cannot act in any other way.

That is why all my work in this world amounts to helping people to feed and take care of themselves only so that they understand how they can truly achieve happiness. All other paths only lead to misery because the Light’s influence will be opposite in order to guide the person to itself thereby.
[75893]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/2012, Workshop 1

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Which Game To Play?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: During the workshop, the work was very intensive, but now I feel that I have lost the sensation that I acquired over the course of the workshop. So do I have to play this game my entire life?

Answer: You don’t have another choice. You play this game one way or the other!

You either play a game that the surrounding society presents to you, the society that doesn’t know itself what game it is playing. Or you play a real game offered to you by people who attained the upper layer of the universe. For you it is a game that tells you what you can attain. And so you choose. There is nothing else: You have two games to choose from.

One game is this life, and everybody plays it. They curse this game, not knowing by whose will they ended up here and when they will finish it, because they constantly lose in between.

Another game offers you an opportunity to attain a completely different level of nature, of the upper, spiritual matter, and do it in the course of your lifetime, even during its relatively short part. You only need to yearn for this revelation, to change your properties into bestowal and love: not to use others for your selfish interests, but to try to have a good, benevolent connection with them. That’s all. There is nothing else!

The theory is very simple. And practice depends on you. Choose which game to play. You either learn from people who want for you to do good and to create a world similar to the force of bestowal and love. Or you will learn from the examples of the surrounding world: mass media, TV, newspapers, and soap operas.

That’s the choice you have. The surrounding society shapes you anyway: either the group or the “street.” Only that! Ultimately, the choice is up to you.
[75890] 
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/2012, Workshop 1 

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Thoughts About Bestowal

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why is the Creator concealed from me? What is He afraid of?

Answer: During the preparation period a person sometimes feels that the Creator is concealed from him, and sometimes he doesn’t feel anything. As a person advances he feels how much he needs the revelation of the Creator so that he will be able to bestow.

A person understands that without this revelation he will never be able to bestow. Only the revelation of the Creator in contrasts to my ego will provide me with the attribute of bestowal above receiving, “faith above reason.” Then I will be able to restrict myself, and will receive a Masach, (screen) and the Returning Light, and will be able to bestow, but it all depends on the level of the Creator’s revelation to me.

I am waiting for His revelation, not in order to receive pleasure from Him, but so that I will be able to work above my desire to receive. This is the state we should reach and we are almost there. We have to feel that the revelation of the Creator is essential, so that we will be able to attain bestowal and connect among us and bestow upon Him.

First different thoughts come up, searches and then feelings. It is the state of the “posterior,” which is a state of deficiency, of necessity. The “face” is already the filling, the revelation. But in spirituality the filling and the revelation symbolize the ability to bestow by which I am filled.

I am not filled in my vessels of receiving as I previously thought. New vessels are depicted in me and by them I feel a deficiency for connection, for bestowal, a yearning to see everyone and all of reality as one. By trying to actually implement this I suddenly understand that I can’t do that and that I want to do something else, but I don’t have the “hands” to do so.

I cannot perform an action of bestowal. It is like wanting to do something in this world but not having the tools to do it, and so I feel totally helpless and powerless, lacking the understanding and the resources to carry it out. I feel like a fish that has no fins that cannot do anything and cannot change anything.

I understand that I need a certain force, in order to discover all three discernments: right, left and the middle. Then I will discover how to work with the right and left lines in order to build the “head” between them, the mind. My fulfillment is when I will be able to fulfill this action of bestowal above myself. I have to imagine exactly how to put all the components together, in order to feel the importance of bestowal, who I bestow upon, what do I bestow, and by what do I bestow. This means that I clearly understand this action.
[75389]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/12, Writings of Rabash 

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