Entries in the 'Inner Work' Category

The Whole World Is With You

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If in the spiritual world the entire reality is within me, it means that I’m the only thing that exists. This is scary to me since no one wants to be alone in the world.

Answer: Don’t worry, we’re inside of you! In the spiritual world I discover that the entire creation is inside of me, but this doesn’t prevent others from feeling the same because every single person consists of everyone.

This is why I am called Adam (man), similar (Domeh) to the Creator, and that’s how you and all our friends feel. If you start receiving the forces of connection as your own, you start perceiving your friends as integral parts of you. This is much bigger than your present state because it is specifically now that you’re alone: You are surrounded by egoists who are absolutely indifferent to you.

And with our spiritual advancement and mutual inclusion into each other, everyone feels that the whole world filled by the Creator is with them. The Creator has to fill the gaps between us so that we become as one whole in our thoughts, desires, and intentions. Then you’re not alone!
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From the lesson on Weekly Torah Portion 11/12/2010

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Who Owns The Screen?

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe screen (Masach) cannot be owned individually. On what will my personal screen be built, on the impressions of the corporeal world? The key is a desire (or lack thereof) to unite with those similar to me.

The screen is built on unity; it covers the breaking between me and the others. The connecting screen forms over this abyss of rejection and hate.

When we discover the breaking, we must “patch” it. How do we do that? The Light descends and corrects the gap which is this hate between us. All spiritual egoism (at the degree of Adam, man) that resulted from the breaking of the collective soul exists solely between us. As to my individual egoism, it is egoism at the animate degree.

The screen is laid over our broken state: The hate remains beneath it, and the intention rules above it. At first, it is bestowal for the sake of bestowal, or our unwillingness to exercise hate based on the directive, “That which you hate, do not do to your friend.” Then, we construct the second screen, or love for others as for the self. All of this takes place between us.
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From the Talk on 7/24/2011

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When The Decision Is Made

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe must achieve the state where we feel that we are standing between Egypt and freedom and realize that if we unite, then together we will ascend over our present nature and will be able to escape from any current state of existence. But as long as a person is unaware of his evil and desires to stay in “Egypt,” it is pointless to talk with him. It is necessary to experience the exile in all its turmoil, with all the problems and pains, in order to finally be able to make a decision to exit it.

Our point in the heart, “Moshe (Moses),” pulls (Moshech) us from our present condition onward. Then, it enables us to be willing to accept the “guarantee” (Arvut) but not before.

In this state, within one person, multiple desires are getting along together. Obviously, all his “Egyptians” and the “Pharaoh” are still in him, but “Moshe,” the Creator, and the “nation of Israel” are already revealed in him as well. These are all qualities of man: old, egoistic, and new, altruistic.

A person experiences doubts: Is he coming out of egoism, “Egypt”? And even long after he has exited it, he remains in doubt: Did I make the right decision, or should I go back? And so it remains until he corrects all of his egoism.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/17/2010, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Ascending To New Heights

Dr. Michael LaitmanDear friends!

We are all well-aware of the post-convention syndrome of general descent. Of course, we will not escape it this time as well, but only if we weaken the unification we have reached during the convention!

During the lessons, don’t hesitate to ask me questions about the prevention of the descent: We must turn the descents into a subsequent ascent! For the time being, I recommend that you study the convention lessons again and again.

I embrace you all,
Dr. Michael Laitman
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The Creator: The Witness Of Our Unity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I understand that I love my friend?

Answer: It happens when I cease to see his body completely and sense that our feelings (hearts) and minds are united together. At first we only imagine such connection to ourselves, but then it actually occurs beyond the bodies. In this connection we start to feel the Creator’s presence.

A state when you are capable of uniting with the friend in mind and heart and the Creator dwells between you is called love of the friend. One condition cannot be met without the others: All three parameters have to be joined together. The Creator becomes revealed between us as the witness of us being truly connected with each other.
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From Lesson 2, WE! Convention 4/2/2011

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And Then You Will Steal No More

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why is it said that the Surrounding Light becomes a vessel (Kli) for receiving the upper Light? Isn’t this only a condition for working with the desire to receive pleasure?

Answer: It is not exactly so. In reality, the desire to receive pleasure has never absorbed the upper Light even before the restriction since it is not intended for receiving the Light. That is, it received the Light not because it aspired to do so, but because the Creator arranged it this way. Therefore, this was not called receiving.

The desire to receive pleasure will never be able to be filled with the Light because it is opposite to the Light. The law of equivalence of form has to be observed. Therefore, the only Kli for receiving the Light is the Reflected Light (Ohr Hozer), bestowal.

We exist because a tiny illumination penetrates our egoism despite the prohibition introduced by Tzimtzum Aleph (the first restriction). This illumination vitalizes our entire world. However, it is not called receiving since the Light momentarily disappears—this is stealing.

Even if I truly wanted to bestow to the Creator in response, my desire would still be too small. The Reflected Light expands it, increases it 620 times, and gives me the opportunity to receive through bestowal.

My desire is unable to reveal the greatness of the Creator without the screen and the Reflected Light; it is very small. Meanwhile, the Creator is Infinity. Therefore, by revealing His importance and greatness I become included in His Kli (desire) and thereby obtain an infinite ability to bestow. After all, I want to fill Him!
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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What Makes A Kabbalist Suffer

Dr. Michael LaitmanA Kabbalist suffers when he sees that the world lags behind in advancement toward unity, the revelation of the Creator, and perfect life. We are capable of doing it, we have all the conditions for it, but we ignore this opportunity and do not fulfill it. Thus, we cause various problems upon ourselves and bring suffering to the Creator.

A Kabbalist is the one who suffers the most exactly because he has reached the revelation of the Creator. After all, in relation to the world he is like a mother in relation to her children. The entire world is his Kelim, parts of his soul. While they are uncorrected, a Kabbalist suffers for them more than they suffer themselves.

Every person feels his personal egoism and suffers because his Kli (vessel, desire) is empty. However, a Kabbalist includes everyone. He wants to treat everyone with love and fill everyone with absolute goodness. However, people do not want it; they do not agree to unite and annul their egoism even a little, in order to create one big desire (Kli) which can be filled with the Light of Infinity.

A Kabbalist cannot correct the world; he can only suffer for it and wait until people will express some minimal readiness to advance. Certainly, most of all he feels for his students since their suffering is directed toward the goal. He cannot advance them artificially since it will harm them and hinder their development. Therefore, he talks with them at the level corresponding to theirs.

We study the authentic sources, and our connection with them determines how much we can receive from them. This is exactly what I reveal and not what I understand in my desire. I work with the collective need which arises in order to be revealed to everyone.
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From Kabbalah for Beginners 12/13/2010, “Who Is a Kabbalist”

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A Beggar’s Box For The Upper Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, “Explanation of the Article, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”: Baal HaSulam once said an allegory about it: Two people who were childhood friends separated as adults. One of them became a king, and the other, indigent. After many years, the poor one heard that his friend became a king and decided to go to his friend’s country and ask for help. He packed his few belongings and went.

When they met, he told the king that he was destitute, and this touched the king’s heart. The king said to his friend: “I will give you a letter to my treasurer to allow you into the treasury for two hours. In those two hours, whatever you manage to collect is yours.” The poor man went to the treasurer, armed with his letter, and received the longed for permit. He walked into the treasury with the box he was used to using for his beggary, and within five minutes, he filled his box to the rim and merrily stepped out of the treasury.

But the treasurer took his box from him and spilled its entire contents. Then the treasurer told the sobbing indigent, “Take your box and fill it up again.” The poor man walked into the treasury once more and filled his box. But when he stepped outside, the treasurer spilled its contents as before.

This cycle repeated itself, until the two hours were through. The last time the beggar came out, he told the treasurer: “I beg you, leave me what I have collected. My time is through and I can no longer enter the treasury.” Then the treasurer told him: “The contents of this box is yours, and so is everything that I have spilled out of your box for the past two hours. I have been spilling your money every time because I wanted to benefit you, since each time, you were coming with your tiny box full and you had no room for anything more.”

We are unable to receive the entire Light of Infinity at once. Therefore, all our work on receiving the Light is divided into many phases and states.

In addition, all our past states from the previous life cycles accumulate and gather into one common state where all desires (Kelim) and all the Lights unite together until we come to the state of final correction (Gmar Tikkun). In this state everything merges into one, and Malchut of Infinity filled with eternal Light becomes revealed again.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/17/2011, “Explanation to the Article, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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In Search For Freedom

Dr. Michael LaitmanKabbalists try very hard to explain the main moment of our work: how we arrive at free choice. They start by explaining that we have no freedom whatsoever. Findings in biology, ecology, psychology, genetics, and other sciences make it evident. We are not free.

Every person is born into a family he didn’t choose, a society he didn’t pick, a nation he didn’t decide on, with the traits that were not his choice. He was schooled at a place that he didn’t select either. And how could he have made a choice himself? His family, kindergarten, and school provided the environment, under the influence of which he developed.

Very seldom, as if accidentally, a person finds himself or herself under a foreign influence, for instance, of the books, and develops slightly differently than his surroundings. There are very few people like this, and they being guided from Above.

With regard to everything else, as Baal HaSulam writes in his article “The Freedom,” I’m not independent in the way I sit, eat, sleep, dress, or speak. In general, it is not me. Everything is imparted on me by the environment, the priorities of which force me to hold myself and behave in a certain way even when I’m alone. I have internalized the values of the environment and they have become my own.

Initially, I was a drop of semen; I received everything else from the environment: my parents, the close ones, educators and teachers, friends, street, city, and so on. Even a drop of semen itself wasn’t me either, but a set of traits I inherited from my parents.

It follows that man has no freedom, has nothing that could be said to be his own. From one side, it is very hard to agree with this, but from the other, scientists have discovered it already and subscribe to it completely. Only in the human society we nevertheless judge a person by what he or she is, even though in reality, a person embodies the environment which “sculpted” him or her.

From the spiritual point of view, given the conditions in which we find ourselves, we can’t talk about ourselves as such. In spirituality, each of us begins with a drop of semen called the “point in the heart.” When a person begins to feel this point within himself or herself, he or she is brought to the appropriate environment.
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From Lesson 1, WE! Convention 4/1/2011

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