Entries in the 'Inner Work' Category

Towards Simplicity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Today, scientists are discovering that we are all interconnected, that countless threads, which we never even knew existed, stretch out between us. How does a Kabbalist see this? Could it really be that this enormous tangle moves constantly before his eyes?

Answer: In reality, everything is very simple. And the further we advance, the simpler it is. Man is simple, and the Light is simple, while the multiple calculations arise because egoism interweaves with the desire to bestow.

The further a person progresses, the more naturally he perceives the picture of the world. Habit becomes second nature. The same way you view your family and loved ones: It becomes your life, your nature, and you no longer exert efforts in the relationships with your loved ones or those whom you don’t really know. You know each of them and understand all the connections.

Right now it seems to you like a problem because it requires efforts. But when the desire to bestow reigns within you, problems disappear. There’s nothing simpler than coming to know the spiritual world and living in it.

“Is such a thing possible? How can I take care of everything, to control the movement of all the atoms and all the worlds?”

You don’t need to control anything since all of it is revealed within you, as your own system. And this is why each subsequent degree will be even freer from pressure, from the necessity to understand what’s happening. With every step, everything will become only clearer.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/29/2012, “Introduction to TES“  

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The Wicked Have Their Own Truth

Dr. Michael LaitmanI need to separate the outcomes of my every action and every state into two parts: 

1. The state itself came from the Creator, and it is always good;
2. While I, in accordance with my desires, can call myself either the “wicked” or the “righteous,” depending on whether I justify this state or not.

Moreover, which criteria do I use to justify it? If it is pleasant for me, then of course I justify it. What am I in this case then: the“wicked” or the “righteous?” I am the wicked because I justify the Creator egoistically.

It could also be the opposite: My state is evil for the will to receive and good for the will to bestow since it allows me to move forward. It turns out that the Creator is helping me by sending a bad sensation so that I don’t remain in the same place and instead realize that there are still things that require correction in my relationship with Him.

True and precise self-evaluations are always needed. Everything depends on a person who attains the given state, analyzes it correctly, and comes to a demand. And what does he demand? He asks for the forces of bestowal, and nothing more.

If I ask for good, this demand will be egoistic. At the same time, I am not able to ask for harm to my egoism. The very same ego lurks in any such request.

How can I beg to progress to the next state, which undoubtedly bodes harm for my egoism? Could I really ask the Creator to correct me, that He take away the most precious thing I have right now? If in my current desires I yearn for pleasures, how can I ask to stop receiving pleasure? It won’t be an aspiration of the heart but simply words that don’t count in spirituality.

A person has no possibility to raise a prayer for correction on his own. The only way is to appeal from within the point in the heart (without attaching anything from my own self since egoism reigns within me) by connecting to the group at the same time. Only together with the friends can I make my contribution to the common prayer for correction. And this prayer will help us.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/29/2012, “Introduction to TES” 

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A Woman Is A Desire

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: All of us, men and women alike, are looking for ways to ascend to the next degree. How can a woman come to the correct understanding of it? After all, the men unite and discuss these questions in the groups, while a woman doesn’t participate in this process?

Answer: A woman is the vessel that a man needs to fill with his work towards the Creator. What does he fill this vessel with? With the Creator. Here a man acts only as a means. This is what we call a screen and the Reflected Light. This is the men’s work. And the women’s work is an enormous desire for the revelation of the Creator.

So where do you see a small role of a woman if she is actually the very desire without which a man has nothing to do? This is why unmarried men were never accepted into Kabbalah. What’s there for him to do if he doesn’t have a wife? This is called “half a body.” There is such a concept in Kabbalah: An unmarried man is half a body. With only half a body you shouldn’t be coming to study.

This is why we need to understand what the role of a woman is.
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From the Vilnius Convention 3/24/12, Lesson 3  

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A Game Of “Toy Cars”

Dr. Michael Laitman with StudentsQuestion: During the seminar one friend said that when he was a child he played with toy cars and that the game was reality to him. What is preventing us today from revealing that everything we are doing isn’t a game but reality?

Answer: If we truly played, we would have revealed the Creator already. The whole game is in the group. Up until today we hadn’t gotten together as needed. We were doing the preparation work, and time didn’t go to waste. We were waiting for the general state and atmosphere in the world as well as our own inner readiness. Gradually we’ve come to the point where we’re ready to realize this readiness in the group. Such groups will multiply throughout the world.

There isn’t any other way to realize this other than in a small group of ten people. If the group is large, it has to be divided into tens and then rotate. It doesn’t matter who you’re seated next to because you’re revealing your point in the heart. You don’t pay attention to the animal essence of your friend. You can dislike him for his inherent qualities—it only makes it better. It will make it easier to find contact with his point in the heart and not his corporeal part. This is how we have to work, and this is called “playing the game of toy cars.”
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From the Vilnius Convention 3/24/12, Lesson 3

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To Grow From A Capricious Request To A Valid Demand

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere is nothing but the relationships among us, relationships of receiving and bestowal. The result of these relationships should be to bring contentment to the Creator. The upper Partzufim cooperate: Abba and Ima, and ZON perform endless different actions, the Reshimot (reminiscences) change, but the main thing is the intention of the person who operates this whole system.

Before he operates it everything in it is dead, still. Then a person comes and the first thing he does is to weed out the dry thorns from the vineyard, which means that he cuts and separates the “stony heart” that cannot be corrected. Then he begins to work with all the rest. Prior to that, the whole system is quiet and a person operates it according to his exertion: He “presses the gas pedal,” he wants the system to work in order to bestow.

There is a set table in front of me and I have to gradually take everything that is on it and enjoy the refreshments in order to bring contentment to the host. So I check my vessels and see that they are vessels of receiving. I mustn’t receive even one gram of pleasure in them. First I must restrict myself. If the host is important to me, I will not enjoy for my sake, but will only want to enjoy for his sake.

But how can I bestow upon him, where can I find the power to do so? I begin to look for different methods and advice, and eventually reach the request. In order to receive such power, the Creator has to be revealed to me as the One who bestows, and then He reveals His greatness and His importance to me. But when the power of bestowal reaches a person, it doesn’t rule him, but according to a person’s request, it only rules his desires to receive.

I am made totally of this desire to receive, so how real can my request for the power of bestowal to rule me be? I can scream forever, but it will just be empty tears because I don’t know what to ask for. It’s like a baby who cries loudly, but no one gives him what he wants. We are angry that we don’t receive the spiritual revelation, just like babies.

I have to know exactly what to ask for. If I know what to ask for, how to ask, and for what reason, then my request will be effective. How can I demand the attribute of bestowal? First I have to acquire its importance. This means that I am asking for the Creator and His revelation. I am not asking to enjoy Him, but only to attain the greatness of bestowal: “Let me respect you!” This is the final request. It isn’t so that I’ll feel good and receive pleasure. I only want to respect Him without taking myself into account. We can receive and demand this necessity from the environment.

This request should not be expressed in words, in a fiery speech, or a carefully composed telegram. It’s revealed in the heart, it breaks the walls of the heart and spills out. I ask not in order to enjoy the feeling that I bestow, that I am great and equal to the Creator. I want to acquire the attribute of bestowal itself and I check my intention to improve my attitude to the friends.

Then I will understand what Kabbalists write about and I will consciously be included in what is happening in Malchut of Atzilut. All these things take place in a clear and clarified manner inside me according to the process that Kabbalists describe and reveal it in small portions one after the other. We are very close to that.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Travelling In Secret From Oneself

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen we read The Book of Zoharwe should imagine that we are already in the highest state—we should desire to reach it. The higher state is the state in which we are connected.

The Zohar describes how the force of bestowal reaches us and what work it performs on us. Some parts of the soul rise and others descend in their feeling, understanding, and perception of the changes that take place in us. By reading this book together again and again, we expect that the force of bestowal will affect us by carrying out all the spiritual actions within us.

If we were in the revelation of the spiritual world, then during the reading, everything that we read about would be realized in us openly. But if we are in a state of concealment and want these actions to happen within us, they are still realized within us, but in a concealed manner and to the extent that we are not in the spiritual world yet!

It’s just like a child who sits in a toy car, turning the wheel and imagining that he is driving. He is really driving, and in a way he is like the real driver he will become in fifteen or twenty years. He is already in the process, but in the preliminary degrees and states when he hasn’t attained the actual realization yet. But these states are essential on the way.

Similarly, by reading The Zohar now and imagining that we are in it, we are enabling the Light to act specifically upon the attributes that we read about. It makes no difference whether we understand what is written; in the meantime, the Light influences and advances us.

I don’t know what is concealed behind the names of the Sefirot and the angels, and I cannot picture anything, but it makes no difference. I only imagine one thing: Right now I am under the influence of the Light, the force of bestowal, that will grant me this force so that it will rule over the force of reception in me. Thus I will go on until this Light stays with me permanently.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/2012, The Zohar 

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As Fast As Possible

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 125: To avoid having the scale of merit of the entire world lacking, when one is qualified to sentence them to a scale of merit, one has no other tactic but to always pain himself with the troubles of the public, just as he suffers with his own troubles.

Kabbalists tell us about the states we will have to go through on the spiritual path. They tell us so that we will yearn to move forward, by using all the means we have.

If we don’t demand, don’t “push”, we will not summon the Reforming Light. After all, everything is fulfilled by it. There is no other force except for the force of the Light. We should try harder to draw it.

The inner “spring” manages the actions of the Light, as if it were wound and set free, and thus the creation began until the whole process ends. At a certain point we have the chance to influence our own fate, because from that moment on we have to grow consciously.

But if we don’t want to grow according to the opportunities we are given, we are pushed forward by the “stick.” Eventually we will grow wise and understand and feel what is going on, and will take part in it consciously. But in this manner, every step will be accompanied by great suffering. One way or another, you cannot change the stages on your way. You will have to go through all the states and the levels, but each of them will start from a blow: “Oh! I understand there is no other way. Well, what can I do, maybe it’s worth it. Oh, it isn’t bad. Wow, it’s absolutely great!” And then again it’s the same story; once again you don’t want to do anything until the blows move you.

But we can manage without the detours that throw us off our feet. Instead of falling into troubles, we just lose the importance of the goal a little and by that acquire an incentive for a new ascent.

This is the whole difference, and it is very simple: Do you want to bring the Creator contentment or not? His only pleasure is that the created beings will want to come to Him by themselves. The point is not the sufferings, although you judge according to them. You even surrender in advance when they come, out of laziness. But you can rise: “Yes, I am lazy, I don’t want anything, and still, perhaps I could try to respect Him and to make Him happy?” This is the calculation you make, and so you hasten time. But if we rely on self-benefit, there will be no hastening of time.

The only chance is to feel that you are a guest and to bring contentment to the host. Otherwise, it is as if you are saying: “I will drop by when I need something. First let me build up an appetite, and then I’ll come. In the meantime sit by the table and wait for me.” But you can act differently: You smell the delicacies that He has prepared for you, you appreciate Him, you ask Him questions, and the main thing for you is to taste the meal in order to bring Him contentment. Only then do you approach the table.

It is great work that is totally aimed at bringing the Creator contentment, and not in order to shorten the time of the exile. You interpret “exile” differently: You are in an exile not away from pleasures, but from bestowal upon the host.

This isn’t a small part at the end of along path that takes months to make. This is all our work. This is phase four that is formed after the pervious phases. It is very dense, and works on very high frequency, at a “mad” rate. If the phases of our evolution lasted millions of years in the past, today it is all condensed into several years. We hardly approach the real work and the world is already losing direction and losing the feeling of time. Soon time and distance will actually disappear from our perception. People will cease to feel these limitations.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Revealing The Unity Of Nature

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If we achieve the goal and unite in one common world Kli, what changes will occur in Europe?

Answer: We must understand that all the problems, including the crisis with all the suffering, appear for one reason: to guide people to find the root of the cause, to find why this is happening. We see that scientists, economists, and politicians cannot do anything.

The world has entered the stage that Kabbalah mentioned a long time ago. We talked about this before the 21st century. I heard about this twenty years ago and did not believe that this could happen. “So,” I thought, “they talk. What can I do?”

The world entered a different stage. Today, we are on a completely different level. We must reveal the unity of nature. That is why the world is global, it is integral, not only in us, but around us.

Today, we reveal the upper force at all levels of the development; the still level of nature including space, not to mention the higher layers, and vegetative and animate nature are one whole. All of this is a global, integral force from zero to infinity, one whole.

There is an exception that is a problem. Inside, there is a human being, the center of the world. He is given freedom, and he does whatever he likes in spite of everything else. He is a terrible negative against everything else.

We compare this human, that is, all of humanity, this collective image, to a cancerous growth because he eats everything around him. He destroys everything living and is in contradiction with the rest of nature. The rest of nature is global, integral, and united. We are not united at all, not integral and not global.

We say that the global crisis has come. What does that mean? It means that you do not match the rest of nature! Where is the crisis? Is it in you or in what surrounds you?

You must rebuild yourself. You are a human society that also must become global and integral. How can this be done? It can be done by uniting, achieving equality, interconnection, and mutual understanding. All of our development shows us the extent to which we are interconnected. We cannot get away from it.

Look what happens: A country is boycotted, disconnected from financial transactions or something else, and it cannot do anything. That is it; life has ceased. Cut it off from the rest of the world, and it cannot exist. That is the extent to which the world is global. This never happened before.

Our society is opposite to this globality; the present human nature is opposite to it. That is why, naturally, if we remove this contradiction, we will see the force of nature revealed in its entirety.

We will find ourselves fully connected with the entire world, moreover, as limitless, infinite. We will feel ourselves existing eternally in harmony with all other layers of nature.

This applies not only to countries that are suffering from the crisis. We should consider the level to which we rise and see all these crisis phenomena as obstacles for us to overcome to reach the highest goal. Just as a person has crises in the individual sense, a state does in the national plan and human society is in global terms. This is the only way to look at life.

We cannot approach governments today and talk about this with them because they are the greatest egoists and will not be able to understand it. Nevertheless, their minds are changing. There is a big difference between what they said five years ago and what they say today because blows and punishments make a person wiser and more receptive. That is why I hope that we will be able to accomplish this.

In addition to the materials that we are preparing to submit to UNESCO, the United Nations, and other international organizations, we are connecting many scientists to our work who have the same opinion that we have, those who understand that human nature, the nature of human society, must be fundamentally changed.

The problem is that they do not have a method. There is no doubt that we need to be in global equilibrium with nature, to be in homeostasis with it. Thousands of scientists in the world are talking about this, but we also should do it. How can it be done? We must…? There is no answer.

Millions of people around the world are becoming unemployed. The crisis will bring us to a point where we will produce only things that are necessary for our existence.

That is why people must understand. They should study themselves and change themselves instead of polluting and depleting nature. I do not need much to feed my “animal” for my normal existence.

I have to dedicate the remaining time, the rest of my strength, to changing human society. Then, we will feel eternal and total harmony. This will be much more than what we try to achieve today. Therefore, we should view the crisis as an obstacle above which we must rise together. That is why we are here.
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From the Vilnius Convention 3/24/12, Lesson 3

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The Force That Fills The Whole Universe

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere is none else besides Him, besides the force that governs us. This force is the only one. It means that there is nothing around and inside us but a single force that does and makes absolutely everything.

We study this force even in our sciences. We feel it within ourselves and around us. We are derivatives of this force. We exist in it; we simmer in it like little pieces in a pot of soup. It penetrates, creates, and carries everything out on us. This force fills the whole universe and originates from the Big Bang from which it further spread everything existing in the universe.

If it seems to a person that he exists outside of this force, it’s only because he simply doesn’t feel it, much like a small child left in his room while his mother is in the kitchen. The toddler thinks that there is no one around, that he is completely free and can do whatever he wants. He doesn’t understand that in reality his mom is watching him. We, too, are little children who think that they can do everything they wish on this Earth with the toys they make, play with, and get lost in.

In reality the upper force creates, acts, and organizes everything. This is the way we are advancing forward.
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From the Vilnius Convention 3/24/12, Lesson 3

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An Opening For The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanFeeling the importance of our goal comes from the Light that Reforms. It doesn’t depend on a person at all. He should only let the Light be revealed in him and everything that happens with him will be done by the Light.

All this will happen to you and you will be great, if you only open up a place for the Light in you. We mustn’t think that it happens thanks to some special abilities a person has. We should only appreciate and respect the teacher, not as an actual figure but the information he conveys, because through him you receive the Light. In addition, we must appreciate the group, because without it you will not be able to perceive the Light, to feel, understand, and use it. You will have nowhere to let it in.

Question: What does it mean “to create an opening for the Light”?

Answer: The more you are adhered to the Light, to the source, and want to annul yourself, the more you are included with your Galgata ve Eynaim in the AHP of the upper one.

The AHP of the upper full of Light of Hochma is its vessel of receiving. You can be there if you annul yourself. Then you are swimming there in the waters of Bina and growing. You have everything, the whole world, “from one end to the other”; it all depends only on how much you annul yourself.

But you are already born with your independent vessels. You have to minimize yourself in relation to the state you were in in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity). This is because the upper is Infinity compared to you. Therefore, you should diminish yourself to your own measure, which should have on the outside like an embryo.

This transition is very close, these are labor pains in which you get your own “garments,” instead of staying in the upper one without any form of your own and only annulling yourself, you are acquiring your form now. We don’t see this in our world because an embryo already has a form even while he is in his mother’s womb. But in spirituality it isn’t so.
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From the Internal Convention 3/3/12, Lesson 2

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