Entries in the 'Inner Work' Category

Taste In Spirituality And Corporeality

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In our world, we all feel the same taste from certain foods or drinks. No one can say that sweet is bitter. Is it the same in spirituality, or is everyone’s experience individual?

Answer: In our world, we have a certain agreement on how to call a specific taste. However, how do you know that you feel the same thing as the other?

Question: And in spirituality, is there such consent?

Answer: Yes. The Kabbalists write Talmud Eser Sefirot, and other books on the attainment of the Creator because they have very precise and matching sensations, unlike the ones in our world. For example, if I recorded that on a certain level I sensed certain attainment, then you will feel the same sensation upon reaching that level.

Question: Do Kabbalists feel the same taste if they are on different levels?

Answer: Of course not. The fact is that in the spiritual world we can measure our sensations, but each one will feel them differently, proceeding from the root of their soul, from their vessel (Kli).
[204170]
From KabTV’s Lesson in Russian, 11/20/17 

Related Material:
The Kabbalists’ Time Machine
Spiritual World – One For All
Equal And Different

Preferring The Son Of The Unloved Wife

Dr. Michael LaitmanTorah, Deuteronomy, 21:15-17: If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him sons, if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved, then it shall be in the day he wills what he has to his sons, he cannot make the son of the loved the firstborn before the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn. 

But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength; to him belongs the right of the firstborn.

Everything that is said in the Torah must be understood in the spiritual and not material sense: as if I like this baby, and the other one less, or that this is a beloved wife, and the other one not.

At the spiritual level, everything happens in a completely different way. My favorite desires are egoistically closer to me. Unloved desires make me work harder and therefore, the firstborn comes exactly from them. This is my strength.

The “firstborn” is higher and stronger than what comes from a weak desire that I love, so contrary to all kinds of egoistic calculations, I should prefer a desire that originates in a more serious egoistic layer.

My “unloved wife” is complex, integrated, difficult, and has a tough character. It is my very strong egoistic quality and therefore, with its help I can attain a greater spiritual height.

However, I need to work on it, overcome myself, and that is why I have to take up precisely the unloved desire, raising myself above my egoistic qualities only to the act that draws me closer to the Creator and pushes me higher and further away from my egoism. Naturally, the unloved son gives a greater ascent, a greater elation. For this very reason it should be preferred.

Question: Is this the root for enemies eventually becoming closest people to me?

Answer: Of course. And vice versa, it is said that those living in your house will be your enemies because with your enemies, you have to work harder and correspondingly, you ascend higher.
[203724]
From KavTv’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book”, 9/26/16

Related Material:
Do Not Sell A Captive For Money
Esau and Jacob: A Battle for Leadership
And You See A Beautiful Woman

Do Not Ignore It

Dr. Michael LaitmanTorah, Deuteronomy 22:02-03: But if your brother is not near you, or if you do not know him, you shall bring it into your house, and it shall be with you until your brother seeks it out, whereupon you shall return it to him.

So shall you do with his donkey, and so shall you do with his garment, and so shall you do with any lost article of your brother which he has lost and you have found. You shall not ignore [it].

“Your brother” and all his possessions, including animals, symbolize desires that need to be corrected. You can use his animals, only not to kill them: You can feed, milk, and work with them in the field but only until you are asked to return them back.

The fact is that the desires developing in you sometimes cannot be corrected at your current level, and at a lower egoistic level you can do it precisely because you are using them temporarily.

Imagine that you have to perform a certain task, but you are too lazy. However, when you see that it is not yours, you are thrilled, you have a desire, an opportunity to fulfill it, and you take it upon yourself namely because it is not yours and relates to another. It frees you from the pressure that you feel when you are obliged to do something.

That is, you carry out the correction on a secondary level, as if performing it for another, thereby making it much easier. Moreover, you have no right not to use this opportunity. Hence it is written: “Do not ignore it.”
[204037]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/28/16

Related Material:
If Your Brother Is Sold To You
Sale And Redemption
Brotherly Connection

Holistic Medicine

Dr. Michael LaitmanTorah, Deuteronomy, 21:20-21: They shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.’

Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so you shall remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear of it and fear.

“A glutton and a drunkard” is a desire that like a cancerous cell absorbs into itself the Light of Hochma and the Light of Hassadim respectively. Naturally, this kind of desire needs to be killed.

Question: What is meant by “and all Israel will hear of it and fear”?

Answer: Spiritual correction has to be carried out in a general environment and have an impact on the entire nation, on all the souls. It has to be realized in such a way as to ultimately correct the entire system of connection between people or between the souls.

A person brings into the entire system such stress under which it impulsively goes into a different mode. In this way a cancerous part gets rid of its stupid intention and once again begins growth. Naturally, nothing is lost from the collective soul.

Question: It would be interesting to see what would happen if the doctors who are trying to uncover the mysteries of cancer became Kabbalists?

Answer: They would still be unable to do anything. Of course, they discover that this disease is related to the violation of the internal program of a cell whereby it begins to devour itself or the surrounding cells and by this loses its ability to exist. Because ultimately, it begins to divide independently, not taking into account the surrounding space, and dies along with the entire organism.

In principle, it is clear that this is an egoistic mechanism that crosses all boundaries. It doesn’t have self-control, which speaks to the fact that it destroys itself.

For example, living in a village, I cannot burn down all the fields around me. What am I going to do afterwards? What am I going to eat? But this is exactly how an irrational cancerous cell behaves because egoism becomes its master. In this way, it destroys everything around it and then dies itself. The principle of a cancerous cell is: You die today, and I tomorrow.

The thing is that the entire system must be treated together, as a whole. This is why every several centuries, this type of medicine comes into fashion again. But I don’t see that it would ultimately win because a holistic method of medical treatment will enter the mainstream only together with Kabbalah. For now we remain within the framework of ordinary medicine.
[203872]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book,” 09/26/16

Related Material:
An Upper Doctor
New Life #80 – The Health Of The Heart
Balance Is A Guarantee For Health, Longevity And Success

Do Not Destroy Trees By Putting An Ax To Them

Dr. Michael LaitmanTorah, Deuteronomy 20:19: When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees people, that you should besiege them?

A tree is one’s property that grows and bears fruit. The attitude toward wild trees that do not bear fruit is totally different from that toward the trees that do bear fruit because this is your future, your next states. Such properties within you should get special treatment.

Question: What does it mean, “do not destroy trees by putting an ax to them”?

Answer: Perhaps the rudiments of a future spiritual state are starting to manifest within you, and that’s why they shouldn’t be cut down. Trees, especially those that bear fruit, require very special treatment.

The fruit tree “within me” is composed of my states that will yield results in the future, bringing me closer to the proper degree. After all, I plowed my egoism and I planted the seeds that will grow into a tree from which I will eat. A person has to realize that his future states develop only in this way.
[203142]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/21/16

Related Material:
To Protect The Future States
“You Have Been Rebelling…”
Fine Work

The Creator As A Friend

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhat is this picture that unfolds in front of us? It is nature that is revealed more and more both within and around us. We uncover nature deeper and deeper and see that we exist inside the system. Apparently, as we exist in it, the system advances us toward some goal.

On one hand, man is a product of nature. On the other hand, we are special creatures of nature that can reveal their maker.

Who created us? Nature. Who advances us? Nature. Where does it move us? Judging by the history of our development, by the process of evolution, we can figure out where we are heading to. So let’s investigate this and find out!

The wisdom of Kabbalah differs from religions in that it gives a person tools for the revelation of the upper force. It tells him what he must do, instead of crying and praying to the idols that we ourselves made in hopes to beg for a good life.

The most effective form of study that helps a person to advance is the wisdom of Kabbalah. This is the difference between the upper force that religious people imagine and the one that Kabbalists, who have contact and relationship with this force, discover. Kabbalists can address the upper force, receive from it, and have precise interactions with it.

And the upper force, meaning Nature wants us to be in such interaction with it. By working with the system of nature, we gradually begin to reveal within it the mind and the feelings that each time are one degree above us.

The problem is that we can’t imagine the upper force that is not clothed in the matter and form. If the upper force is the entire nature, then it as if disappears for us. However, it is revealed precisely in the connection between us in a very clear manner. We have to reveal the Creator as our friend.
[201732]
From the 3d part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/18/17, “Mismach Arosa,” (Arosa Document)

Related Material:
Assembling The “Puzzle” Of Creation
The Wisdom Of Kabbalah Is Scientific Research On An Experimental Basis
An Excursion Into Kabbalah—The Path To General Harmony

Who Are The Judges?

Dr. Michael LaitmanTorah, Deuteronomy, Devarim, 12:18: You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns which the Lord your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.

Who are the judges? This is the main problem. The judges are those who are above the person; the person appoints them by himself so they can restrict him, show him the way, and lead him further to “all gates” in all his movements, from the external world to the internality of a person, and from the internality of a person to the external world.

In our desires, decisions, actions, and even thoughts we should set up various systems of verification, analysis, and synthesis of what we are about to do; that is, we should create the system of control and analysis within us that would activate the executive system. This means that everything that exists today in the country should be within us.

The gates are the filters through which we act, they allow or prohibit us to establish contact with the outside world and even with ourselves. But with ourselves, this is already a somewhat different system that is arranged differently. That is why the filters, for the most part, are related to the interaction with the external world.

If a person really desires to improve, he can not manage without this.
[202963]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/21/2016

Related Material:
You Shall Set Up Judges For Yourself
Judges And Guards At All The Gates
Judges And Guards

What It Means To be Human


Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion from Facebook:
You claim that man is bad. Then what does it mean to be human?

Answer: Man is bad because evil is inherent in our nature and develops more and more in the course of humanity’s evolution.

To be human means to take all of your negative qualities and transform them into positive.

This is realized with the help of a special higher energy that exists in nature and is called “the upper Light.” I take my egoism in the left hand, the upper light, the enormous unlimited power of goodness, into the right hand, and I begin to combine them so that they support each other.

In the meantime, egoism begins to play with the upper Light, and the upper Light shines billions of times more precisely because egoism joins it. This creates a huge new sphere of life called the upper world.

A person has to do all this, and the wisdom of Kabbalah explains how. And the Creator helps us to the extent that a person desires it.
[203623]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/15/17

Related Material:
Why Was Man Created Imperfect?
From Animal To Man
Why Did The Creator Make The Evil Inclination?

Advancing Through Peace, Not War

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen you approach a city to wage war against it, you shall propose peace to it. And it will be, if it responds to you with peace, and it opens up to you, then it will be, [that] all the people found therein shall become tributary to you, and they shall serve you. (Torah, Devarim, Shoftim 20:10-11)

If you have desires which you can cover with an intention to bestow, then there is no need to fight them.

In general, one should not fight with the desires, but only with the intentions. This war ends if you turn them from the intention, “for my own sake” to the intention, “for the sake of others”. Everything depends on the influence of the environment and development of the individual.

Question: When I offer peace to a desire, does it mean that it is ready to accept the intention to bestow?

Answer: Yes. From a psychological point of view, we always need to start with this and not break ourselves. If it is possible to gently move to a different level of our inner work in understanding, in bestowal, in concern for external factors, then our victory is in this.

Everything depends on how you study, how you disseminate, how connected you are with friends. This is how you advance.

Our progress, for the most part, is not actualized through war. It is not necessary to constantly be in a state of stress. Of course, it is not to say that there may not be some battling, but it has to be controlled and appropriate. On one hand, never relent, because your responsibility is only to engage in correction. On the other hand, all intentions and desires that arise in you, need to be reframed with help from the Light, the upper force.

That is, you need to begin passing such Light, such thoughts and actions through them that would enable you, very gently but inevitably, form a connection with the Creator above them and to understand that they come from only one source, and you should only connect to that source through them. Only then all of them will become yours and will obey you. This is the challenge of our lives.

Comment: This is always very difficult because basically, you are changing your nature and it is somewhat of a forced process.

Answer: Everything depends on the intention of a person. Let us say, right now you need to take a 40 lbs package somewhere. It is not easy to do it, it is hard. But if you need to bring it to your beloved little grandchild, who needs it very much, then it becomes much easier, quickly you find the strength. Because everything depends on desire, goal, and intention.

Comment: However, the intention is given from above. That means it is necessary to ask for it.

Answer: Of course, but you have to demonstrate persistence in this.

Comment: The example with the grandchild is clear to me, but with the Creator it is more complicated.

Answer: Why is it more complicated? If everything in the world occurs only in order to turn you to Him, then there is nothing complicated. Imagine for yourself that you receive everything from Him and only in order to turn toward Him.

He is very jealous and will do everything in order to get you to pay attention to Him. It is a terrible jealousy, almost impossible to describe! In every minor detail! In whatever it is! And only when there is enough attention from you (no more and no less), then everything is well.

That being said, we are not talking about performing mechanical actions, such as making a blessing before a meal. We are talking about a person  who changes his attitude and reveals the Creator thanks to His nudges.

Direction toward Him must not only be in every action, but in every breath, in every glance, in everything, so that every cell, every fiber, yearns toward its source.
[202693]
From a TV program “Secrets of the Eternal Book,” 09/19/2016

Related Material:
A Futile War Against The Desire
You Shall Set Up Judges For Yourself
The Division Of The People Of Israel

Walking Through The Wall

Walking through the WallIn the past, Kabbalists had to put their bodies through physical torments in order to reveal spirituality, as it is said: “Eat bread with salt, drink plain water, sleep on bare ground, and study the Torah, and then you will succeed!” Nowadays you can sleep on a featherbed mattress, like a princess on a pea, eat whatever you want and as much as you want.

The question is, where do our intentions lie? We have reached a state where we shouldn’t focus on our actions but rather on our intentions. After all, actions are easy, whereas correcting the intention is the most dreadful, difficult act. This is the fate of our generation, it’s the final degree of correction.

Right now we are standing before a wall. We must change our attitude toward the Creator, the single force of Nature. This wall will collapse only when we decide, in at least one of the tens, to walk through it. The corporeal world will then begin disappearing from our perception.
[202698]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/19/2016

Related Material:
One Desire, Different Intentions
Approaching The Correction
One’s Own Trial