Don’t Damage Your Future – Laitman Unplugged
Posted on April 4th, 2011
Question: Essentially, I don’t have any freedom of choice. Nature rules over me. So does everything really depend on me?
Answer: Creation begins with the still level, followed by the vegetative, animate, and human degrees. The human degree, too, begins to develop from the still level and undergoes the same stages. This was the course of evolution on Earth over millions of years.
Finally, we have reached the degree of “human within human” and become accountable. We used to live like animals under a stick, but now we have to meet certain demands. Whether we like it or not, today we must undertake certain actions.
A few thousand years after what happened in ancient Babylon, we are handed the method of correction once again. Free will, as well as responsibility that comes along with it, begins specifically with the “human within human,” with our current level. Hence, we are talking about absolute goodness, about the purpose of creation, and about how to stay on course, in order to advance without cataclysms.
Conscious development begins now, while until this time suffering spurred egoism on to develop. Without these “injections,” it wouldn’t have made a single move.
The still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature do not possess free will. Neither does a human being who exists at the still, vegetative, or animate level. The possibility of free choice appears only now. After all, now you have the “point in the heart” and you can use it to connect with the friends and find Infinity in your unity.
Choice is impossible without inner struggle. You choose with whom you want to be: your friends or yourself. It’s either we or me.
Absolute goodness is awaiting all of us at the end of the path, but you have received the opportunity to choose, and hence you can already aim at it. For this, you have to always hold onto the middle line, using your “Self” and the environment together.
[39546]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, The Principles of Global Education
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Question: Each person reaches a point where everything that used to help him advance and develop becomes completely useless. What should his plea to the Creator be in such a state?
Answer: Ask for anything you want but it won’t help! The Creator is a perfect force of nature. It isn’t an old man or a force that can be influenced. Not at all! The Creator is absolute and therefore does not change. If the Creator changed, that would mean He was different before and now became better or worse.
To ask the Creator means to develop new desires within me. The reason I sense change in His constant influence over me is because I change. The Creator never changes! He doesn’t hear or see anything from us. He is simply a great, eternal, existing, and perfect force of nature. We are the ones that must change until we become similar to Him.
Our prayers are self-judgment, self-evaluation, and the desire to change. There’s nothing to ask of the Creator, otherwise it’s as if you are saying: “You are not that good. Please be better!”
Gradually we will discover that we are dealing with nature. The Creator is nature. And within this nature only we can change. A human being is the only one who can change himself. Then a question arises: What state do we have to reach and how do we reach it, in order to feel eternal and perfect, like nature?
[39514]
From Lesson 3 in Moscow 1/16/2011, Questions and Answers
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Question: How do I strengthen the group and the bond with the friends if I can only act virtually?
Answer: So what if it is virtually? Distance isn’t an obstacle, and it is absolutely unnecessary to hold hands. Or, do you think that if I am familiar with your face and personality, I know you?
How did you find us? Through the Internet. Do you think it was an accident? In truth, your desires connected you with the collective system of Adam, the connection of all parts of the world together. In this system, there are multiple societies or circles according to interests and desires such as science, banking, business, family, and so forth.
Additionally, there is a unique circle connecting those who are seeking the purpose of life and the knowledge of what is worth living for. These individuals are located everywhere geographically and in various circles, but at the same time, without feeling or even being aware of it, they comprise between themselves their own circle, some field of internal, mutual connection.
When purpose starts calling a person from within, he gets in contact with this field, steps out of his circle, and enters this special, other circle. This is how you found us on the Internet.
Now, the new connection continues to grow stronger. We may not have seen or known each other before, but with time, we have a much greater effect on one another. Every day, you are receiving the thoughts and desires of millions of people from around the world who also have started pondering the purpose of creation and, thereby, finding each other.
[25869]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/2010, Writings of Rabash
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Question: My sensations and spiritual states are reflected on the reality that I observe all around me. Does that mean that I can judge the internality based on the externality?
Answer: Not at all! As it is said: “The world lives according to a plan.” In the corporeal world I go through various states and relationships; some are more pleasant than others, but I cannot label them with “spiritual tags.”
I have to hold onto my spiritual goal above all the sensations of the corporeal world. Even if the Creator does something awful to me, I still have to hold onto this grip. I am unaware of what happens and why it is happening to me. I am linked with other souls, events, and states that I have no clue about.
Today I still lack a sensation of the whole system that allows me to research these matters. It is silly for me to think that I can trace a connection between spirituality and corporeality. I am not an expert in either of them.
No research tools are available to me at this time: I don’t possess the intellect, sensitivity, or insight. I cannot observe the upper system (world), the lower system (world), nor can I trace any connection between them. It is still very far away from me. I don’t comprehend it at even the simplest spiritual level. I cannot understand it yet because it is based on annulling one’s ego. I am unable to clarify this since I don’t have such a desire yet, even though I wish to be included in the upper system.
What do I have except egoism? Is there anything I have to attain except bestowal? For that, I have to annul my ego and conduct internal work in the group with my friends. We build our inner unity to obtain a common strength that exists outside of each of us and belongs to us all.
Why do I fantasize about the hidden spiritual essence of an illness, family or financial problems, or conflicts with my boss? It is silly! I am not ready for these kinds of calculations yet.
A new computer is only a piece of metal until I install the operational system, turn it on, run the programs, and enter data. Only when I familiarize myself with the software will I be able to start working with it.
We don’t have the Kelim (the computer) so far, not to mention the software! That’s why we cannot comprehend the internality by observing the externality.
[25885]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/2010, Writings of Rabash
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At the human level of this world we can study, know, and somewhat control the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature. Albeit not in the best possible way, we nevertheless are able to understand and change nature to a certain degree.
However, we cannot control humanity, the human society, and today it manifests increasingly clearly in everything we do. We are unable to raise a new generation, our own children, correctly. Previously, we didn’t think of it, but today we are facing a problem: The young generation is completely detached from us, and we are unable to do anything with the young.
If we could turn them into reasonable, good people (though we ourselves don’t know what it means), then at least our children would have a good life. All generations hoped that their hard life will pay-off with the success of their children. But today we are in a transition period: We as if rolled over the peak of expectations and started to descend, having lost any hope that the life of the next generation will be better than ours. This is why people no longer want to start a family and have children.
Essentially, we face the following problem: If we want to build a normal life for seven billion people on a simple, corporeal level, we need to exist at the spiritual level. By being at the human degree (4), I can rule over the lower levels: the still (1), vegetative (2), and animate (3). But in order to keep my own degree under control, I must rise above it, to the spiritual level (5). Then from it, I will be able to govern my own human degree (4).
So the state of affairs is very simple: To repair education, family, interpersonal relations, business, ecology, economy, to deal with new diseases and viruses, I must know where all of it stems from, for what reason, where the forces that govern the human level are. These forces do not exist here, and it means that I must rise to a higher degree.
This is why Baal HaSulam rejoiced in the opportunity to reveal the wisdom of Kabbalah to the entire world, and not just to himself, to a handful of disciples. And although this “handful” grew to a few million people who follow our lessons and materials, we nevertheless talk about everybody in the world.
Soon we will reach a state which we can’t even describe. Without an elementary knowledge about how to govern this world from the fifth degree, man won’t be able to succeed in any area of social life. Even today the programs humanity initiates to benefit family, country, and the world get stuck and fail.
Hence, Kabbalah is needed not just to help you and me enter the spiritual reality. Massive crises accumulate into one multi-system crisis that pushes the entire world toward the ascent to a new degree.
We stand out from the rest of humanity by the fact that, being at the fourth level, we received the “point in the heart,” the desire to enter the fifth level. We are motivated to move forward by a good impulse, while the rest of the world is being pushed toward it by enormous suffering that hits it from behind. We are being lured with a “candy,” the aspiration toward something good, while the rest of the world moves out of hopelessness, being pushed with a “stick.” They are like animals that do not know where to go, how to cope with disasters that occur everywhere. And it is only the beginning.
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From Lesson 1, WE! Convention 4/1/2011
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Today we have all the possibilities to advance spiritually and circulate the wisdom of Kabbalah throughout the world. By unifying together in our world-wide group, by connecting with our spiritual sparks, “the points in the hearts,” we act as representatives of the upper, spiritual system in our world. Besides, we circulate the wisdom of Kabbalah together. We do not need anything else.
We are situated at the apex of the pyramid of humanity’s development. In the extent that we unite together, it will influence the entire world. And we also have to bring the entire world closer to us.
Yet we shouldn’t think that the entire world has to study Kabbalah or that all people are destined to understand what it is. Not at all! This is akin to a human body, 99% of which is composed of matter governed by the brain. Meanwhile, the brain is the people who strive for spirituality.
The rest will accept this structure of the world; this awareness will get over to them, and they will draw closer to us. But, similarly to how in today’s world the majority of people live an ordinary life and don’t feel the need for great achievements, so in the future the rest of the people will participate in the spiritual process passively.
[39623]
From Lesson 1, WE! Convention 4/1/2011
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Question: What inner work do we have to perform during this Convention, considering the entire weight of the responsibility for the whole world that is incumbent upon us?
Answer: We really do bear enormous responsibility for the whole world. But there are two components to this.
The most important thing is the connection between us. We have to understand that since the whole world is interconnected, then it doesn’t even matter how successful or not our address to the world is. First of all, the unity among us is definitely transferred to everyone.
That’s because all of humanity is connected as one. Baal HaSulam writes in the article “600,000 souls” that there is just one soul in the world. That means all humanity, all seven billion people, are connected together into one whole, into a single organism, the body of the common soul.
This organism grew to the extent that all of its parts, the particular souls, developed. Each of them developed until its ten material Sefirot. But now we have discovered that the entire organism is connected into one, as if the connection among everyone has closed up.
That is why people in whom the point in the heart has been revealed serve as the brain of this whole system. This is written at the end of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”: The whole world divides into the inner and outer parts. The inner part is we, people with the point in the heart.
If we connect with each other through a good, proper connection, this will expand to the whole world. Then, as Baal HaSulam writes at the end of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” this will splash out into the whole world, like when the right command comes from the brain to the whole body. Then everyone will take this command and start changing. This is called internal dissemination.
Whether we want it or not, our unity is transferred to the whole world and the world changes for the better. All other people also advance toward unity. After all, they simply live their earthly lives, not knowing where their thoughts and desires come from.
That is our inner dissemination, which happens without any words and without coming out to the world externally. However, in order to prepare people to be receptive to this so they will react to us faster, and besides, to give them the opportunity to work and act together with us, which will unite us even more, we also work on external dissemination for everyone.
It turns out that through our inner dissemination we intend for our unity to also be transferred to everyone else. This is enough. In the external dissemination we organize among ourselves and this gives us a field of activity, as well as unites us by giving us an additional, external reason to unite. That is how we act in the world.
However, without any doubt, the unity among us determines everything and in this regard it cannot be compared to anything else. Let us hope that over the course of these three days we will attain a new degree of unity. I don’t have any doubts about this because even now we are in this state and will be able to feel spirituality at least for a short time, to feel what it means to be connected in our hearts and thoughts.
All of this depends on every person’s inner efforts. Try to think that we all already desire to feel the unity between us, not to be in the bodies, but to immerse deeper inside, into the realm of our desires so they will all unite together into one whole desire. If we attain this, then we will feel the Upper Light that reigns inside of this desire and will experience the eternal flow of life. This is up to us.
Perhaps we will attain this only temporarily because the first time it happens, it really is difficult to hold on to this sensation constantly. But at least we will receive the first impression of spirituality, will “taste” it, and then we will already know what to aspire to.
I very much hope that we will attain this and that the taste of spirituality will remain with us forever.
From the 1st lesson of the WE! Convention on 4/1/11
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The tendency manifesting today was clear for the Kabbalists tens, hundreds, thousands years ago. They talked about our epoch having calculated its time frame precisely based on the general laws of nature.
Throughout the course of history we were developing under the influence of the force that was pushing us forward. As our ego increased incessantly, we transitioned from process to process, from formation to formation in society, family life, education, culture, and so on.
We were advancing by means of the negative force alone and hence Kabbalists were able to calculate how much it would take for humanity “to hit rock bottom,” meaning to reach the need to rise to a new level and, instead of being developed by egoism, advance by means of another force: the force of universal unity.
The calculation pointed to the end of the 20th century, year 1995. From that time on, we will have to reveal for ourselves the method of correction of man who knows how to unite with the others into a single whole—absolutely, globally, and integrally.
Granted, today we are just at the beginning of this path. It is yet to continue. However, we, the people who received a gift from Above, “the point in the heart,” the aspiration upwards, have to turn to the entire world with an explanation about what is happening. By this we realize our predestination, warrant the impulse we received, and lead humanity towards the ascent to a new state, a new degree.
It is a very special degree. The body, the parts of which are disassembled and even opposite to each other, feels sick. But if they begin to unify in harmony and inter-connection, then instead of feeling the illness, the body will sense the life of a higher order. This is how we, with our animate body, feel ourselves at the human degree. The body is an animal, but there is something in a human being that brings him or her back to a higher degree.
And now, by uniting with each other in harmony, we acquire a sensation of a life higher than our present one. It is our spiritual life.
Surely, we have to work on this in the group. This is the primary responsibility that has been placed upon us. In addition, it is our duty to bring the entire world to this, to mitigate the enormous suffering that we may evoke by advancing by means of the negative force, being pushed with a “stick.” Indeed, we already see that humanity’s misfortunes are becoming increasingly unexpected and dangerous.
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From Lesson 1, WE! Convention 4/1/2011
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The Creator created the desire to receive in the form of a point and wants to bring this desire to self-realization by means of successive actions. It is only possible to get to know something as a result of knowing the opposite.
Consequently, the desire to receive must come to know itself and the Creator, one from the other. In other words, it must come to know the original, fundamental nature of the desire to bestow as well as the nature of the created being, the desire to receive, which was intentionally created as opposite to bestowal.
Originally, the created being is deprived of any understanding and realization of either. It represents a point which is only slightly different from the Creator, and that is why it is called “existence from absence,” while the Creator is “existence from existence.” That’s all there is to the created being. It can attain everything else from this point: as compared to the Creator. While developing in relation to the Creator, the upper Light, the quality of bestowal, the created being finally sees itself as maximally opposite to Him.
Its growth is an ever deeper knowledge, understanding, attainment. The point remains the same. It does not change in any way besides the fact that it gains a deeper and deeper realization of how opposite it is to the Light. Attaining this depth, it becomes a terrible “monster,” an evil inclination, reaching the greatness of the Light in its opposition to it.
The point attains all of this in depth, revealing a fathomless gap between itself and the Creator. It is impossible to throw a bridge over this abyss. In essence, the point attains how much it is cut off from the Light.
This means that it is growing in its perception, understanding, and attainment. It is growing negatively, revealing its own oppositeness to bestowal.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/2011, The Principles of Global Education
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