Entries in the 'Inner Work' Category

Ask The Creator!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You said that for the women to be able to carry out their function, they must turn to the Creator with a request. What does this mean?

Answer: The women should try to unite in order to create a great collective force and to convey their desire to the men. Women don’t have to connect with each other; they are incapable of that. They can unite in opposition to men, to “fight” against them. This is the nature of a woman; she can do that, in a good way.

When you begin to engage in this, you’ll feel that in relation to spirituality, to put pressure on the men, you cannot unite either. In the corporeal world, perhaps you can plan a joint action against the men, but you have no power in the spiritual world. Why? The Creator wants you to ask Him to participate in this with you so that He can help you unite and put pressure on the men correctly.

It turns out that from the very beginning, performing the correct spiritual action, you will feel that you need the Creator’s help.
[43540]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Where Does The Creator Dwell?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Where does the Creator, the upper Light, reside?

Answer: It is said about it: “I dwell among My people.” What does “among My people” mean? Among My people is among those who desire to reveal Me, the force of love and bestowal, to carry out the notion of “love your neighbor as you love yourself.” This is My people, among whom I dwell.
[43542]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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The Sense Of Direction In The Spiritual Realm

Dr. Michael LaitmanHow can we stay on the path of the correct development? It is very simple: A person should always see himself as opposite to the plan of creation.

Indeed, our nature is egoistic and therefore it is so easy to check myself: Do I see that every moment my thoughts and desires disagree with the goal opposite to it, are false and incorrect?

In reality, rationally and practically, I am looking for the means that would aim my thoughts and desires correctly: accurate diagnosis, analysis, the upper force, studies, relations with the friends and the group. However, first of all, I have to recognize that my current situation is incorrect—from the very beginning and every moment. Everything I want, think about, and intend is not valid.

Obviously, it should not make me depressed. On the contrary, I use this approach effectively in order to work on this problem: I immediately try to define the correct direction.
[43484]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/4/2011, “Peace in the World”

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The Simple Law Of Mutual Guarantee

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn order to accelerate our development, we are given all sorts of obstacles, pushed away, and confused into thinking that it’s not necessary to exert ourselves and we can simply wait until everything changes by itself. Or we begin to think that we had already put enough effort but haven’t yet found spiritual revelation. Perhaps, the Creator left His creatures, or this isn’t supposed to be for us right now, and we should wait for another opportunity, possibly in the next life. A person finds various excuses just to remove the obligation to exert himself.

However, it’s said: “The law is given and cannot be transgressed.” The upper Light remains at absolute rest, and we are inside it. Our desires can be developed only through our efforts. The extent of the correction of our desire and, consequently, the Light revealed in it depend on the extent of our effort. It’s a simple law.

We mustn’t forget about this law and should constantly remind ourselves to abide by this principle in the group, leaving no room for doubt and debate, various frictions, or questions: “Why don’t I receive anything? Where is the payment for my work, where is revelation, where is the desirable reward?”

Are you asking, “Where is it”? Here it is, right in front of you—take it! And if you don’t see it, cannot take it, it means that you are not ready yet. So, continue to exert yourself. What can be done if you don’t see what’s right beside you?

Thus, you shouldn’t think as if it’s possible to attain spirituality through some special, magical, secret means. Nothing will help except for work. The lack of sensitivity is what obscures the Creator and the upper Light. The sensitivity can be improved only through ascents and descents, solely through effort and search.

It’s also forbidden to listen to someone talking about disappointment and fatigue. Once somebody sighed heavily during Baal HaSulam’s lesson, and Baal HaSulam became furious at that person, saying that he never wanted to hear anything like that. A person can become tired physically, but he cannot be tired of the spiritual work, of inner efforts! It’s unacceptable to show such mood outwardly.

It’s understandable that people experience different states because they aren’t masters of them. However, a person shouldn’t show them to the surrounding people. On the contrary, no matter how one feels inside, he must always look inspired and willing to put effort into everything. This is the requirement of our mutual guarantee.
[43383]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/2011, Baal HaSulam’s Letter 56

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Accept Us In Your Assembly

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Does the network of connection between the great Kabbalists of the past also work on the souls that have not yet awakened spiritually?

Answer: No, these people don’t turn to them for help. You can study the Torah, read thousands of books, and this will not change anything in you. Moreover, even if you read the texts of Kabbalists with the intention to advance, the question is whether you are in the group, whether you desire to create together with others the same form of connection that exists between these Kabbalists.

Do we desire to create in the bond between us the same network of connection that exists between these Kabbalists? Do we want to move from the connection between the broken souls that think only about how to enjoy all sorts of earthly pleasures to the connection which unites our holy forefathers, the great Kabbalists of all generations? Do we wish to move from the broken system of connection between souls to the corrected one? We ask them to help us become similar to them so that they accept us in their assembly.
[43271]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/2011, The Book of Zohar

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Resting In The Hands Of The Great Kabbalists

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What corrections did the Kabbalists of the past perform for us?

Answer: Baal HaSulam writes in “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 11: The sages of the Talmud have made the path of Torah easier for us than the sages of the Mishnah. This is because …they have provided us with a new means instead of the penance presented in the above-mentioned Mishnah, Avot: the “Light in the Torah.” It bears sufficient power to reform a person….”

Why did the sages of the Talmud replaced the path of asceticism (“live on bread and water, sleep on the ground, lead a meager life, and exert in the Torah”) only with the study of the Torah? It’s because they corrected the network of connection between them. This general system of souls already contains the souls that act in it, and we can avail ourselves of their help.

After the breaking, the broken souls exist in the general system of souls. And although in the diagram we depict them as if scattered in a sphere, the system has a strict hierarchy which existed in the world of Nekudim before the breaking. The souls break and fall down following the same hierarchy: each one according to its level of Aviut (the thickness of desire), meaning that the souls with a bigger Aviut fall lower.

This system contains special souls, thousands of Kabbalists who are bonded together by a special connection. This resembles a skeleton of the spiritual system.

Reading their manuscripts, we evoke the illumination from the network of connection that they have built between themselves. This illumination corrects us, and we can avoid the path of suffering and deprivation which people followed in the past, without awakening the Light, but rather subjecting themselves to suffering so that it would help them destroy their ego.

We can’t follow this path. We are weak and unable to fight our ego directly. We can do it by awakening the already existing network of connection. We as though rest in the hands of the Kabbalists of the past, as a newborn baby in the hands of a caring mother, and they look after us.

We connect with their manuscripts, especially The Book of Zohar, the texts of the ARI and Baal HaSulam, and receive from there the Light, the care of these great souls.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/2011, The Book of Zohar

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Prayer: A Means Of Changing Oneself

Dr. Michael LaitmanA constant dialogue or requests to the Creator are good because it’s impossible to address Him artificially as in the words of prayers read from books. A person begins to understand that if he doesn’t feel these words, it’s not considered an address. The Creator will not hear it in this way; it’s necessary to turn to Him deciphering the words in relation to oneself, closer to one’s heart.

Then, instead of reading a prayer from a prayer book full of words that mean nothing to him: “for oneself,” “for bestowal,” “above reason,” “the Torah and precepts,” “good deeds,” “the Holy and Blessed One” (the same terms and quotes that Kabbalists use), a person starts to interpret them into a more sensory language. He does this even without words, in one’s inner sensations, and thereby really approaches the prayer, the request.

What help should one ask from the Creator? It’s to help us turn to Him with a request! This request will become a spiritual vessel, the “place” of the revelation of the Creator.

At each stage, one should check himself as to whether he addresses the Creator in his own words rather than repeating standard expressions from a book. Otherwise, it means that one doesn’t understand to whom he turns, how, for what, and that one is still detached from the address itself.

The ability to make a request is a great help that allows the person to change and correct himself. A request to the Creator should be viewed as a device which can change a person. The search for an answer to one’s request is not important; what counts is the requests themselves because they build a person.

Then, the person starts to understand that he is in front of the unchanging, constant upper Light. And his request is what is changing him all the time, creating his increasingly closer similarity to the simple, abstract upper Light. The person will be revealing his own image inside his requests. The image will correspond more and more to the upper Light, the level of the Creator. That is, a person attains the forms of the Creator inside of his request to Him and thereby advances.

Hence, it’s written: “God grant that he prayed all day long!” All the work is based upon the request and prayer.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/2011, Writings of Rabash

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There, Behind The Words

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhile reading The Zohar, we should keep trying to see forms of the connection between us instead of the words. Essentially, it is the only thing that the words describe since there isn’t anything besides Malchut which ties all souls within it. This is the connection we are supposed to see behind the words of The Zohar.

In that case, all images that appear in our imagination, all the sensations we experience below Malchut, below this connection, are regarded as either the dividing worlds (BYA de Pruda), the concealments, or our own world that exists solely in our imagination. And everything above Malchut de Atzilut, meaning the forms of our mutual connection, exist from Malchut of Atzilut through Malchut of Infinity, and all are revealed in Malchut.

Hence, this is the only picture we should be seeing behind the words, trying to recognize what form, type, and expression of our mutual connection The Zohar is describing at a certain moment. After all, Kabbalists, the authors of The Book of Zohar, see nothing but that as well.
[43279]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/2011, The Zohar

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Whom And What Does My Uniqueness Serve?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Based on my teaching experience, I see that Kabbalah reveals the uniqueness of an individual, but it does this in its own way. What’s the secret here?

Answer: My craving for exclusiveness comes from the Creator but in a spoiled form. I realize it through examples: I learn from the world how to be exclusive. For example, I want to be a famous soccer player, follow latest fashion trends, am drawn to wealth, strength, deception, or dream of a career as a mafioso or a university president.

In any case, I learn from the environment which imposes certain values on me. They pull me to what suits me more according to my nature. Each is impressed by something else; most importantly, it is to demonstrate one’s exceptionalness.

Thus, during my development, society dictates bodies of laws to me, and I have to express my uniqueness according to them. I cannot decide anything by myself. For instance, if I found myself in an environment of drug traffickers, I would follow them, dreaming about an exciting career of a drug baron because I wouldn’t see any other examples.

It turns out that in this world, I throw my uniqueness at the mercy of society. It seems to me that I rise above everybody, but in reality, I serve them. Ultimately, I do what they want.

On the other hand, developing spiritually, I receive from the environment the realization of the greatness of the Creator, the greatness of the will to bestow. This is an abstract idea, and I don’t know what it is. Through studying, I receive the Light that Reforms. Again, I have no idea what it is and sense only the result of its influence.

What evolves in me? It’s the point in the heart with its “spiritual genes.” Thus, I develop myself and realize my exclusiveness only in spirituality. Here, everything is decided by the Light that Reforms. I correct only my external form, and my “I” develops within.

If we could recognize our “spiritual genes,” each would see himself or herself in the final state, the way he or she should be. However, a question arises: What is my uniqueness? If it’s already incorporated in me, where am I myself?

I express myself in the realization of my own exclusiveness. I attract the Light to grow a human from my “spiritual seed” and thus acquire an addition to my studies, the coefficient of development: adhesion with the Creator, His form, the ability to be in His place.

Thus, each of us actually realizes his exceptionality in order to become like the Creator, to come to adhesion. I am not growing just in size; along the path, I obtain everything He has, clothe into His garment.
[43309]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/2011Writings of Rabash

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Ask Whatever You Please

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrankly, it doesn’t really matter what assistance a person is asking the Creator for. The key is to keep asking every instant. May one never forget that there is none else besides Him, the good who does good. May one tie every little thing that happens to him with the Creator.

In fact, a person usually thinks that it’s not the right time to be asking for help, that he is supposed to do something first, succeed in something on his own, carry out some act, and only after that turn to the Creator. But that is all wrong! No actions are necessary. The entire method is intended solely for revealing the Creator.

Hence, the more frequently you turn to Him, the more dependent you feel on Him, the more you bother Him, transferring to Him all the responsibility for everything that is happening to you, the less you need to worry.

According to His program, He will push you away, hide, and place all kinds of obstacles and concealments before you. Regardless, make it a habit to constantly seek and appeal to Him. It is the shortest and most reliable way.

It doesn’t require intelligence, only perseverance. If a person takes such a position and doesn’t lose track of it (with the help of the group’s reminding), then by constantly turning to the Creator, the upper force, nature, he definitely discovers how to appeal, why, and for what. One learns the Creator’s character, which prayers He answers and which He does not. Thanks to his firm desire to enter this communication, the dialogue with the Creator, a person can start clarifying who He is.

This is described as “Do anything that is in your power, but just don’t leave.” That is, we must ask for everything, even without thinking, just a like a child who grabs whatever he may and keeps nagging at his mother: “Give me, give me, give me!” These appeals will give way to the clarification of what really is worth asking for, where the “commandments” and the “transgressions” are in all this, where one is given free will, and what the responses are to his actions. That’s how a person learns.

It’s good that this won’t let you get confused, and you won’t think that everything depends on you or the environment. You will connect all these three “dots” together: yourself, the group, and the Creator, and direct it all in the right direction, to the upper force, to being dependent on Him.

Later on, you will start assessing how you are asking. Are you appealing for your own sake, for the benefit of the others, or for the Creator’s sake? This is how you learn about it on the way.
[43288]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/2011, Writings of Rabash

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