Entries in the 'Inner Work' Category

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.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book,” 09/26/16

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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.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/21/16

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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.
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From the 3d part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/18/17, “Mismach Arosa,” (Arosa Document)

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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.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/21/2016

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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.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/15/17

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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.
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From a TV program “Secrets of the Eternal Book,” 09/19/2016

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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.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/19/2016

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Writing The Torah On The Walls Of The Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to write the Torah on the walls of your heart?

Answer: The walls of the heart are the most evil, stony desires. That is why it is allegorically written that the Torah has to be written not on the internal, softer part of the heart, but on the external part.

To write means that all changes that we have to undergo and that are described in the Torah have to be reflected on our general egoistic desire called “our heart.” In that way, we gradually correct ourselves and the hearts that were at least partly involved in this movement.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 9/4/16

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Everything Depends On Realization

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Does the study of Kabbalah guarantee reaching the upper degree?

Answer: Study itself is not a guarantee. You can study physics your whole life and not be a physicist. Everything depends on realization.

If you have a group, a guide, if you hear what he says and realize it between yourselves in the group connection, attracting the Surrounding Light, which changes each of you and unites you into a unified whole, one united desire, then the results of the realization are evident.

You start feeling one force in one desire according to the law of the equivalence of form because you’ve created a united desire: one from many.

This desire contains the power of unity in which you feel a unified power of nature, which fills the entire universe on all levels, in all dimensions, and this is all the outcome of your realization. If you want this, yes, if not, no. Study in itself will bring nothing; you can study all your life and achieve nothing.
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From the Prelimenary Lesson, the Prague Convention 9/9/2016

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Where Does The Program Of Development Lead Us? Part 3

laitman_941Question: How will connecting into the circle affect the feelings of the people and bring them happiness and satisfaction?

Answer: In the connection between themselves, people will feel life on a higher level, above this entire world, as it is written, “You will see your world in this life.”

While living in the physical body in this world we attain a sensation of a new reality and right away start feeling a new degree, above our body, beyond it. Thus we transition from the sensations of this world to the sensation of the upper world.

Eventually our body fulfills its purpose and dies, like any other animal, yet the human within us already reaches the spiritual life. That is the goal of the wisdom of Kabbalah, to which a person cannot come by himself. We need to obtain this method from Above, from the next degree.

Question: If eventually one has to reach a spiritual life, why do we have to go though such a long process of development in this world in physical bodies?

Answer: We have to attain a spiritual degree by ourselves. If we were to develop toward it naturally, intuitively, like the vegetative from the still or the animate from the vegetative, we would  have remained inside nature. Man has the possibility to go against his nature and build something that contradicts it.

The entire nature is egoistic, in it each exists only for his or her sake. We want to reveal a new form of existence, opposite to our former nature. This is a so-called spiritual and it is the form of man, Adam, as it is similar to (Domeh) to the upper force of nature, which is pure bestowal and love.

Question: What is the relationship between the reality we feel now and the spiritual state that should clothe us? Will we continue to live a regular life in this world?

Answer: This is an absolutely different form of existence, in different dimensions. It is eternal and perfect, beyond any restrictions and boundaries. This form is mentioned in cosmology and Einstein’s theory of relativity.

Science slightly touches the concepts that are beyond time, movement, and space. Human psychology is freed from all these restrictions and we transition to a new psychology: from introvert to extravert, to the sensations outside us.

Question: Speaking of the future state of humanity, how will people relate to each other after they connect?

Answer: Everybody will treat others absolutely like himself. It will be a form of a circle, in which all are equal.

Question: How is it possible if we are not equal; every person is unique.

Answer: Everyone is unique by nature, but we reach a universal equality because we love each other, each according to his or her abilities.

Question: Humanity has been talking about love of thy neighbor for thousands of years, but it hasn’t materialized yet. How is Kabbalah going to make it a reality?

Answer: It’s true, the idea of loving thy neighbor has been around for the past six thousand years. But in our time, we have reached complete disappointment with our development, our existence on this earth. And now people are starting to ask, “What are we living for and why?”

If previously a person used to be preoccupied with what to buy and acquire, nowadays he asks about the meaning of his or her life. In the face of full material abundance, people feel disappointment and emptiness, which further locks them inside themselves and brings further separation. The future form of humanity is fully connected and integral, which is directly opposite to what we have today.

And that is why the method that attracts a special external force, what is called the Light that Reforms, the force of Light that starts working upon us and solders us with each other.

All that a person needs to know today is how everyone can connect together in order to reveal the upper dimension. Humanity has to enter it and be born in a new world. That is why the word “crisis” translates as “birth.”
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From the TV Program “A New Life”,  09/06/2016

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