Entries in the 'Inner Work' Category

Love Is Not Leniency

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How does one bestow upon the world?

Answer: You take the desires of everyone and fill them as much as you can. That is called love. That is the act of love.

Question: Which desires do I take?

Answer: If you love them, you fill only their necessary desires. You won’t buy unhealthy food for your child. You buy him something tasty, but the main thing is that it is healthy.

Question: But what if he specifically wants fast food?

Answer: If you love, you can’t fill the desires that are bad for him. After all, you wouldn’t give your son a knife to play with if he asked for one. Isn’t that the same thing as fast food?

A true relationship, a real love, hardens you. The pity you feel now is actually egoistic pity; you feel sorry for yourself, not him. If you really had pity for him, you would give only what is healthy for him, only that which benefits his development and nothing else.

The child will get used to this very quickly. If you behave this way from the beginning, he won’t even ask you for things that are harmful.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/2011, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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The Work Of Our Forefathers And Our Work

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe preparations in our souls are called the “merit of the forefathers.” There are people who fulfill their free will and use the merit of the forefathers, but only in everyday corporeal matters.

If a person is more prepared, he begins to raise this merit to a moral level, to ethics. There are people who have already advanced to questions about the meaning of life and its purpose. But there are people who start asking about the innermost meaning of their lives: Who is giving me this life? Who is running my life? How can I see their goal and participate in it?

A person begins to feel that life flows independently of him, that he cannot hold onto life, feel what it is for, or who is running it. Life flows through him, but he can’t understand it, which makes him feel bad and anxious.

So he begins to search, and the search becomes the main focus of his life. Thus, he finds out about the merit of the forefathers and the preparations that have been made inside him. He understands that he has to discover them: to uncover the forces of the soul that operated in him secretly and led him without asking for his consent. He begins to feel that all the preparations were made in order to allow him to reach his root, meaning the forefathers themselves.

Every person can reach the root of his soul and everything that was done for his awakening. When he comes closer to his root, he attains the whole system through it, and in the system he discovers the upper force, the Creator.

Then he understands that the whole descent from the world of Infinity down to this world, all the preparations that were made in the root of the soul, is the work of the forefathers. Now, when a person reaches his self-realization he attains the level of the forefathers and is incorporated in them, as it is said: “When my actions will compare with the actions of my forefathers.”
[58645]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/2011, Writings Of Rabash

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Everything Is Ready For Correction

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe preparation has already been made from Above, on the part of nature, the Creator, for every person according to the root of his soul so that he will be able to connect with other souls, to correct the shattering, and to reach his individual correction. This is how each of us fulfills all the preparations made for him or her, included in the root of his or her soul.

According to this preliminary preparation, people find themselves in different situations: Some awaken to spirituality more, some less, and there are those who don’t awaken at all.

It makes no difference whether in the meantime a person worries only about his corporeal desires, or whether he is lost in imaginary ideas about spirituality, which take him off the road of truth; whether he is closer to spiritual work, or whether he is already on the right track and has started rising on the spiritual ladder. We were each given the same conditions that were initially prepared from Above. They were created as a result of the descent of the worlds, the shattering of the desires, and their incorporation in each other. Thus, every person, at every given moment, has free will.

The system of the upper worlds spreads from the world of Infinity, and through the world of Adam Kadmon and the shattering of the vessels reaches the world of Atzilut, creating the worlds of BYA. Then Adam Ha Rishon (the First Man), the one general soul, the internal part of the worlds of BYA, the internal desire of all of creation, is born in them.

Then Adam Ha Rishon is also shattered, and all his parts get intermixed: The desires to receive and the desires to bestow, Galgalta ve Eynaim and AHP, are incorporated in each other and fall. All this happens to allow the best conditions for work.

When the process of mutual incorporation of the souls is completed (which the Ari told us about in his time), the correction of the world begins. Thus, we should understand that all the events in the world are only the result of our lack of correction, our failure to exercise free will on time, and our refusal to use the conditions that had been prepared for us in advance.
[58649]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/2011, Writings Of Rabash

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Love Of Friends Is Our Common Treasure

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt takes a long time to begin to see clearly and discover that if you can collect all the forces contained in the friends and attach them to yourself, this will be your spiritual vessel, the organ of spiritual sensation with which you will feel and understand the essence of life that is above the physical body and exists inside the soul. Then a person will understand the principle of “love thy friend as thyself,” directed exclusively at this higher goal. He will realize that his friends with their desires and aspirations for spirituality, for reaching the same purpose of creation, in essence, are parts of his own soul.

Everyone feels that his friend’s aspirations towards the spiritual goal are the organs of his spiritual body. That is why he understands that love of friends is a connection to their spiritual aspirations, from which each of us forms the vessels of his soul.

When everyone attains “love of friends,” collects everyone’s desire to achieve the goal, he reveals his own soul; we unite all these souls together. Thus, a mutual faithful relationship emerges that gives everyone what the other, the second, and the third has. After all, everyone is included in all the rest!

There is a difference between the original point from which I started, the root of my soul, and the rest of the desire received from the friends. But both the former and the latter are forces of my soul. The same applies to other friends: Everyone has the same forces. The only difference is that everyone relates to the rest from the position of his root, his starting point.

It turns out that we have a common vessel (desire), one network connecting us, with which we achieve the desired goal: love of friends that connects everyone together. Thereby, we reveal mutual connections, an aspiration called mutual bestowal, and the general force called the Creator. This is the essence of our life and the purpose of creation.
[58913]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/27/2011, Writings of Rabash

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A Training Fall

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What kind of contract do we form that allows us to continue when our desire disappears?

Answer: A contract formed for the sake of the future is like an athlete training for a future competitive performance. I am training now because I want to attain great results later.

These are artificial exercises in the same way as when I lift a bar-bell, jump to get stronger, and then perform what I am now training for. I do exercises that imitate the future state so that I can better withstand it when it comes.

This is done in the army and anywhere else where the purpose is to educate a person and prepare him or her for special actions. The real-life situation is imitated with the use of imagination. The person knows that he is participating in training maneuvers that are directly related to reality and are close to the situations he will encounter in real combat.

In forming a contract, we are working for the future. The only difference is that in our contract, we want to connect with the upper force that we feel close to now. This is why we do exercises that teach us to not detach from it even in states of separation that will come at some later time.

There is no past, present, or future. I do not attract anything from the past; everything exists in me now, in the present. However, today, when I prepare myself for a state of descent, I receive an opportunity to better withstand it.

After all, I have already built the model of this state and did the exercises ahead of time to prepare for what will happen if the Light that Reforms does not come to me, and the strength that supports me will not be there. Otherwise, how could I demand it and act as it was with me.

I form this contract with my friends and the Creator, the force that gives me life and supports me, the force of spiritual life. Right now, this force holds me and gives me the opportunity to listen and learn, but a day could come when I could not come to the lesson, participate in it, advance, or ask questions. Then, I will want the force, which now is close to me and inspires me to study, to stay with me and help me once again.

I train for the future in the exact same way as any sportsman or person who thinks about tomorrow and prepares himself for future action. This is not a written contract, but you can replay this situation within you as if you were going somewhere with somebody else. Come to certain arrangements with another person and do certain things. For this reason, you plan ahead of time how you will be going, what you will say, and how you present yourself. You place yourself in a similar situation ahead of time.

However, what is special about a spiritual contract is that you form it when you are full of strength and plan for a future state of complete hopelessness, trying to become accustomed to it.
[58781]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/2011, Writings of Rabash

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A Game That Requires The Whole Of Mind And Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If I know that I am searching for eternal happiness contained in bestowal, but I am not yet feeling it, what should my artificial appeal be like?

Answer: We need to talk more about the qualities we don’t yet possess but are playing with like children. Except that a child perceives his game to be the most serious and real thing, and he grows due to this fact. While when I am playing, I know that this is not serious and not real. Herein lies the whole problem.

If I were able to invest more of the heart and mind into this game, I would be receiving more benefit from it. Although however it may be, the game works nevertheless. The Light is influencing me and I am changing.

Most importantly, one needs to continue. As it is written: “Let anything happen, whatever may come, only do not leave,” and then you will come to it. The Light will keep influencing you ever stronger each time. And even though it may require years, in the end you begin to notice changes inside of you, to value the quality of bestowal, and to move forward with it.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/2011, Writings of Rabash

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We Have No Other Mission

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why is so much time and effort spent on these questions regarding corporeal life, that is, economic and world crises? As a beginner to the study of Kabbalah, this seems like a contradiction to what we are being told in the beginner classes regarding the “spiritual” and “corporeal” life. Can you provide some clarification, please?

Answer: The single purpose of our existence in this world of imaginary reality felt in the property “to receive” is to discover a true reality felt in the property of love and bestowal. To achieve this we are brought to the teacher and the group so that we, in the effort to unite with them into a single whole, would attract upon ourselves the influence of the upper Light and would reveal the world of bestowal.

Today, in addition to the group, the entire world is being revealed as another group. It discovers the harmful egoism within and gradually realizes that egoism is so evil that it wishes to get itself rid of it. Our task is to tell that it’s possible, to explain how it can be done—not by studying Kabbalah, but our world as a global, integral, and closed system, which is becoming a single whole more and more, as well as to instruct them on how we can build a society of mutual guarantee that would correspond to it.

If we assist them, we grow because we do not have any other mission. Baal HaSulam writes about it in the articles “The Giving of the Torah,” “Mutual Guarantee,” and others.
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An Everlasting Sensation Of An Eternal Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Where exactly should a person start in order to feel the whole system of the universe inside?

Answer: Start only from our joint inclusion into a single group. Men or women, irrespective of who, where, and how, if everyone tries to unite into one system, a system of a mutual guarantee, we will begin to represent a closed system. We will start to feel a common pleasure in the form of spiritual Light that will circulate between us.

It is an everlasting sensation of an eternal perfect life that exists above our present existence and has nothing to do with our animate body. In other words, when you begin to feel this enormous circulating pleasure, our life will cease to be felt as the only one that exists. Even the death of the body will not be perceived as death anymore. It will just be a departure from the lowest and most insignificant part of you.
[58613]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 10/16/2011

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An Adapter Between The Creator And The Creature

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: While we read The Zohar, should we think about uniting with the 99% of humanity or only with those who have a point in the heart?

Answer: We should think about the whole chain: “Israel (the one who aspires to the Creator), the Torah (the Light that Reforms), and the Creator are one.” What’s the purpose of the Torah, the Light that Reforms? The purpose is for the 99% to be corrected. Israel is in the middle in order to organize this Light, bring it to the vessels (desires), and create a connection between their desires and the desires of the nations of the world so that the Light will pass through this adapter or transition and correct the nations of the world. In essence, the nations of the world are the object of influence; namely they need to be corrected.

Israel went through the breaking, passed the whole necessary preparation, and now also exists in the worst possible, broken state after intermixing with and becoming included in all the nations of the world. In addition, we still don’t know what happened to the ten lost tribes of Israel. All of this was necessary in order to bring the source of the upper Light in accordance with the nations of the world.

There should be an adapter in the middle, like Bina between Malchut and Hochma with Keter. Keter is the Thought of Creation; Hochma is the Light given to the creatures by the Thought of Creation; and Bina understands, receives, feels, and adapts the execution of this plan for the creatures with the help of its upper and lower Sefirot (GAR de Bina and ZAT de Bina).

Therefore, Israel as a whole is called “Bina.” On one hand, they should make themselves similar to the Creator since they were prepared for this by the “merits of the patriarchs.” On the other, after their breaking, the destruction of the two Temples in spirituality, and their intermixing with the nations of the world in exile, they have the readiness to also be included in the latter. Thus they can be in GAR de Bina, which is us in the process of our studies while in connection between us and the Creator, as well as in ZAT de Bina, which is us interacting with the nations of the world, their education, the dissemination of the science of Kabbalah to them, and so on.

However, on their own the nations of the world are ZON, which require correction. These ZON that require correction also have our part, Zeir Anpin within them, and a part of Malchut, which is only them. Therefore, they also have already been included in Bina.

Thus, when we study, work, and realize any actions, we should also take into account the whole system. The end of an action is in its initial thought, and we need to see this whole creation, understand how we fit into it, and realize the Creator’s order—our mission.
[58619]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/2011, The Zohar

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Discovering Oneself In Infinity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In the article “Peace in the World,” Baal HaSulam writes that in reality, we bestow upon others without any benefit for ourselves. What does that mean?

Answer: We are all in Infinity, in a wonderful system. We all bestow upon each other, and all the souls are corrected and completely filled. The end of an action is in its initial thought. Nothing separates us, and we are all in adhesion with the Creator. He and His Name are one.

Yes, we are in Infinity, but to become aware of this state, to exist in, control, and understand it in all its depth, and through it to comprehend the force that established it, we must understand and become conscious of all its elements. This is why we find ourselves in a completely opposite state and begin to gradually develop. It’s like a baby who doesn’t know where he is, what is happening around him, and who takes care of him. But little by little he grows, until he becomes an adult.

So we now are in the world of Infinity, but do not sense it. And all of our work is to return to the real reality, to discover what already exists. This is what the revelation of the Creator to the created beings is.

I discover what already exists, and everything depends upon me. Therefore, Baal HaSulam writes that it isn’t more than psychologically work on ourselves. By way of inner changes we discover the real state in which we exist from the beginning.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/2011, “Peace in the World”

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