Entries in the 'Inner Work' Category

Patience – And Everything Will Come

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Where can I take the force to cancel myself before the group so that everyone feels himself smaller than the others?

Answer: If the group develops correctly and passes from state to state, then everyone in the group is in his state, completing the others. As a result, the whole group advances.

Although some of the friends can feel in descent and some in ascent, and a part perceives with the mind and a part feels, but altogether they are moving forward. It requires patience. Spiritual awe involves the willingness to endure and persevere. We need to understand that I do not perform the actions myself, but I call them.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/11, Writings of Rabash

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An Intermediate Form Between A Person And The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Creator created us as material opposite to Him—the desire to enjoy, which does not feel or understand that there can be something except itself. We feel only ourselves and wish to receive and derive pleasure from everything else. Every person feels only his own desire and the fulfillment in it. These are the only two states perceived by the desire to receive: yes/no, 0/1. This is how egoism works, and this is the order of work that we observe in nature in many instances and in different cells.

However, in order for the desire to enjoy to exit itself, to rise above its quality of perceiving good and evil only within its ego, and to feel good and evil outside of itself, we need some special tool that does not exist within the egoistic desire. The egoistic desire lacks any foundation for rising above and creating something opposite of itself.

We don’t even know what this opposite means; we cannot imagine what the spiritual world is. In order to reach it, we need to perform the kind of changes in ourselves that the desire to enjoy is incapable of performing! Nonetheless, this is our duty: to reach, understand, and execute them ourselves. Otherwise we will not receive independence and become equal to the Creator as is instilled in the goal of creation.

Thus we are given a means called a group—something foreign to the egoistic desire. In regard to this strange object, the egoistic desire feels the same as in regard to the Creator, considering it nonexistent so to speak. It does not give it any independent value and simply wishes to use it. However, it understands and feels it is in connection with it.

On one hand, the egoism wishes to use the group like any outside object. On the other hand, it can use it in the opposite form: in order to achieve bestowal, a quality that is opposite to it.

Therefore, we have an intermediary form between degrees, a means of transition—like corals are between the inanimate and vegetative levels; a mythical half-plant, the “field dog” between the vegetative and animate levels; and the monkey between the animate and the human levels. And the intermediate form between man and the Creator is the group.

If a person joins a group and is able to work with it for bestowal, he will be able to rise to the degree of the Creator. One needs to try to reach this by his own effort, since becoming like the Creator means, first and foremost being independent, understanding, feeling, and demanding your changes on your own.

All of this is supplied to us by the environment. Therefore, it is written, “One who aspires to the Creator (Isra-El), the Light of correction and the Creator are one whole,” and “love for the creatures leads to love for the Creator.” We need to view our environment as a means to achieve the goal of creation. To the extent that the goal of creation is important to you, you should value the group to the same height.

This pertains not only to those in whom the point in the heart has awakened that pulls them toward the goal of creation; it pertains to all of humanity. Everyone will need to build such examples: societies or small states that will serve as examples, which everyone else will emulate while trying to draw closer.

In this manner, the whole world will advance correctly, nearing the form of the new human being, the new humanity. Consequently, we need to achieve love for the Creator—similarity to the quality of bestowal and altruistic perception. Love for the friends is a means for achieving this goal.
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From the 1st part of the  Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/11, Writings of Rabash

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The Uppermost Ideal Is “We”

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to unite? Is it by our thoughts or by practically hugging someone? What is the meaning of the concept of “unity”?

Answer: If you are talking about the ninety-nine percent of the world’s population, they need to understand that they have to unite on terms of equality and mutual concession. They have to realize that we are all in the same boat on this one, small planet that could explode any moment.

The concept of “unity” refers to the unification of all of our efforts for attaining agreement above all the differences that tear us apart. It is when we put collective interests above personal ones.

The uppermost ideal is “we.” All the rest is meaningless. It makes no difference who is right and who is wrong. First and foremost, it is “we”! This should be the basis for making decisions, organizing different actions, and creating plans and programs. Everything should be done only in terms of “we”!

Gradually, we are beginning to understand that we all are so different only so that this “we” will be rich and varied. Each of us still will be able to exist in it namely with his or her individualism.

Take any electronic system, and you will see that there are many separate parts, but they all work together. The collective idea exists above all opposite elements.
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From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 12/11/2011

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Inside A Unified System

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If all the women of the world group really worry about the men’s advancement, will they be able to integrally influence the thoughts of the entire world?

Answer: Of course they will. This is because we are part of the world, and we are connected with it globally and integrally by millions of different networks, whether we want it or not.

The entire system of creation is so mutually interlocked that every thought, every desire is part of this system. You don’t give orders to influence or not to influence. All of our internality, all our desires and thoughts, our hearts and minds, are in this system. So undoubtedly, by being a strong internal part, we strongly influence the entire external world.

Especially now, when we are beginning to attain the upper world, we will become a billion times stronger than anyone else. So the same kindness, cooperation, concern, and mutuality will gradually permeate the rest of the world, and all people will feel a need for it. They will begin to understand that nature is arranged in such a way that we all are interconnected and should be joined together by positive forces, by positive thoughts and desires.
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From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 12/11/2011

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A Single Whole: “I, The Group, And The Creator”

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When you return to the point of unity, what should be the correct internal movements in order to develop this point?

Answer: It is “I, the group, and the Creator.” You should try to feel them as something that has volume. “I and the group” means that I am part of the group and dissolve in it to such an extent that “I” becomes “we.” The Creator is also in the group. Together, we reach a state where there is neither “I” nor “we” nor the “Creator,” but rather all of us integrated into one whole. This is the point of unity.

Question: If a person sees that he has a great desire to care and think about others, is this the right attitude?

Answer: Yes, but this is not enough. There also should be the point of the Creator from Above. Otherwise, you are simply creating a group of people who care about others.
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From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 12/11/2011

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Example Of The Creator On Our Lives

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to be like the Creator?

Answer: It is written: “Just as He is loving and merciful, so shalt thou be loving and merciful.” We have to gradually reveal the connection between us, which means to be like the Creator. We don’t have any other examples of how to be like Him. The Creator does not let us sense Him, He does not send us pictures, images, or documentary films of Himself. We can only imagine Him based on our lives.

Those that have attained the Creator tell us that His example in our lives and the form closest to Him is the connection with the group of friends, and the articles about the group lead us to this very special bond.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Advice For A Person Who Wishes To Correct His Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can a person use the concept of “love of friends” so that he’ll advance toward it even when he doesn’t feel this love and connection?

Answer: If you feel that you must advance in the direction of love of friends because by doing so you are correcting your soul, then you know exactly what to do.

However, if you are in a state where you don’t feel the need to obtain this love, then you have to search for advice that will help you reveal the necessity and the importance of attaining the love of friends. This is the only thing that exists. If “love thy neighbor as thyself” is the main rule of the Torah, then besides it, there is nothing else for you to fulfill. All of your actions, in mind and heart, have to be directed at obtaining greater love and connection.

It seems like a simple thing. We don’t feel the taste for this work, and we don’t understand what’s so special about it. We want to be engaged in more serious activities, and we don’t get the principle of love of friends.

However, if I realize that the matter of creation is egoism and that the only way I can work on it is by working on the connection between myself and my friends, then our connection becomes a field. If I use it correctly, it becomes a field that’s blessed by the Creator and if not, it becomes a field that’s lurking with thieves and predatory animals.

We may feel that this isn’t serious or important and that there are far more exalted goals in this world. We are asked to love each other as if we are asked to be good children. However, there is really nothing else besides this.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/2011, Writings of Rabash

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The Liberators

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe help from outside from the friends, group, teacher, and books are the necessary conditions, which you need to view as external forces, belonging to your soul. Everything outside a person is his soul.

If you connect to these forces, ask their help so they pull you out of yourself, out of your ego, you see that in your entire soul, existing around you, there are no closer to you and more important parts than your friends. Only these external forces can pull a person out of his prison cell, from the shackles of his ego.

Now it is clear why the group and love of friends are so important. After all, they are the closest to you, special parts of your soul, given to you by the Creator so that with their help you break out from yourself.

The closer I become to them, the more I draw them towards myself and seek them: I do not do to others what is hateful to me and I love the friends like myself. This way I acquire the vessel of my soul (the property of bestowal), which belongs to me.

According to the perception of reality, everything that a person sees he sees within himself. His eyesight and feelings are divided into internal and external, but this is just his impression. And then, at the end of correction all is connected into one. But for the time being, this division is present in all the elements, and its correct use is a springboard into the spiritual world.

That is why Baal HaSulam writes in “Preface to The Book of Zohar” how thankful we should be to the Creator that He divided our reality into internal and external in such a way that we see the world around us, although it is all inside. It seems external to us, and although it is an illusion, it helps us psychologically treat it as strange, external forces and use it to exit our ego and reach bestowal.

I was given the illusion that all my reality is divided into myself and what is outside me, which is not mine. In this form, I can imagine the ego, in which I exist, and the intention to bestow, in which I do not exist yet, in the example of this imaginary reality divided into an internal and external part. And then I can work with it.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/2011, Writings of Rabash

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The Point Of Unity Is In Everyone

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: There were plenty of people at the last Arvut convention who attended physically or virtually and did not feel the point of unity you and many others talk about. Could we say that the convention was useless for them and gave them nothing?

Answer: Of course not! They are also co-participants of this achievement, and it is in them, only it has not been manifested clearly, personally. It’s similar to how children live with us in one world, but cannot feel everything that adults do. If these people make necessary efforts, they will feel the point of unity that was achieved by everyone with their participation. It already exists in them in a hidden form.
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A Gift That Grants Us Infinity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: After the convention, we received a “gift” of distance, heaviness, and tiredness. Since to some extent, this is a consequence of attaining the common Kli, is it possible that some friends will receive such intense heaviness and tiredness that it would throw them off the spiritual path?

Answer: Of course, why not? Everyone receives a precisely calculated measure of Lights against the Kelim (vessels). No one receives it without a reason and there is no protection here.

Everything occurs in accordance to the balance between forces and desires since we are situated within a system of laws. Although we say that this or that is done according to the Creator’s desire, these are merely words. However, if you exist within a system of laws, then it simply cannot be that He just decides to do something.

The Light is at absolute rest. Desires change according to their Aviut (thickness or coarseness), according to the Reshimot (the informational genes) that are revealed in them. Therefore, there is no particular desire from Above that wishes to do anything. By praying and asking, we prepare our desire so that it becomes more acute, and thereby we perceive more than before.

Praying means judging ourselves. The correct interpretation of the word “praying” is when I do something with myself, rather than with Him. Who do I affect with my request? In my prayer, I think about how I may change so that I may perceive all the goodness from Him. After all, the upper Light is “the Good who does Good to the wicked and to the righteous” and no changes come from Him.

Thus, if some of our friends were thrown off the path after the convention, if some descended, others became a bit tired, and yet others got confused, this indicates that everyone was granted heaviness of the heart according to their Kelim. If he is able to manage this heaviness and return to the same degree of excitement and inspiration that he felt at the convention, he truly will reveal the soul.

At the convention, he achieved the point of unity and was thrown off it into the outside circle purposely. Now, if he returns to the same point of connection, the entire external circle will join this point. It will acquire “flesh,” meaning that it will have a Kli and Aviut.

Within this Aviut, he will reveal the world of Infinity. This will be his very first, minimal spiritual degree, but in his sensations, it will be revealed as infinity.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/2011, Preface to The Book of Zohar

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