Entries in the 'Inner Work' Category

How To Localize The Spiritual Area

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe evil that we need to realize within is not the same egoism that accompanies a person in his daily life. The real evil only becomes revealed in relation to the friends in the group. When you try to connect with them, you reveal how hateful and repulsive this idea is to you.

Evil is when you are indifferent to unity, when you constantly forget about it. Consider this evil! This is because you evaluate your evil egoistically; you judge it according to your full stomach or pocket, even though this is not evil but simply an animal body. Evil only becomes revealed against connection, which is where the breaking occurred.

The realization of evil in the “preparation period” begins with the moment that you begin to treat the group as the place that has the border (screen) before the spiritual world. The first contact with others is the crossing of the Machsom, the bridge that opens up from you towards the others. When you connect with the others into one whole in the very first property, the smallest Reshimo (the spiritual gene), this then becomes revealed as the crossing into the spiritual world.

Evil exists only here in the connection with your neighbor; everything else is not evil but just “weaknesses” of the animal body. One needs to completely transfer his attention from a polite treatment and an “intelligent attitude” towards the actual evil, where the breaking took place. Otherwise, you will think that a wolf and a lion are evil and birds are good. We are used to looking at creation in this twisted way, and it prevents us from seeing the truth.

As soon as you transfer your attention to your connection with your neighbor, you localize the spiritual area which only lays in the connection with your neighbor, and then the Creator becomes revealed between you.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/2011, "The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy"

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An Insult To Honor

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: There are situations in life when someone insults me, making me feel very wounded and degraded. What is the exact order of analyzing this kind of situation?

Answer: In our current state, we are unable to tell what the right attitude to reality is. We are confused, being halfway between the sky and the earth. I haven’t revealed the Creator yet, but I am no longer in full concealment either. I perceive all sorts of wise sayings like quotes, expressions, and pieces of knowledge, as revelation, but that is not so. Everything has gotten mixed up inside of me.

That is why Baal HaSulam writes in “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot” that during these years, a person has to maximally focus his development. This is a period of great confusion when I cannot understand the truth, but I no longer agree with the lie. I am simply thrown about from side to side.

On one hand, there is no one besides the Creator. I am standing in front of Him. So how should I treat reality if the only thing around me is Him? And where am I? If He has screamed at me, should I scream back at Him? But it’s the Creator, so does that mean I have to hold myself back all the time? Should I remain totally humble, even in the face of a death threat? At times one looks at things this way.

In reality, there is not a great deal of advice we can give people in these cases because a person is subject to change at every second. That is why Kabbalists prescribe a specific order of actions for us, which is determined by concealment.

Why do they give us this advice? Because we are subject to the influence of two forces. The Creator did not create a very simple state were I stand before Him and reveal Him without being distracted by anything. Who am “I”? I am the forces of disunity and separation from the Creator. Moreover, these forces appear to me as myself as well as what is around me, but not as the Creator. To me the Creator is an invisible and imperceptible ideal.

The forces of disunity conceal Him from me and I have to unite them into one whole. These forces separate and distance me from the Creator, covering Him up. They divide into two worlds: inner and outer. In essence they belong to one nature of disunity, the egoistic desire, but appear to me dually, as opposites.

I have to unite them with each other and discern precisely the disunity in them. Looking at actions, thoughts, desires, and anything there is around me, I connect the inner and the outer, doing so only in order to attain unity. In that case, if I am able to do this, then I do not err.

We have to apply just one principle here: “A person judges things according to what he sees.” I do not try to reach the One who is concealed from me. But as soon as I unite all of the forces—my own and those of others—into one whole, I discover the single Creator inside.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/11, Writings of Rabash

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The Complicated Path Of Attainment Of The Divine Simplicity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If everything in our world originates in the upper roots, where do all kinds of artificially invented objects come from, those that do not exist in the nature, such as a vehicle on wheels for example?

Answer: All of nature is a picture that appears in me, and all of it descends to me from Above. In the spiritual world, there are no automobiles, but the notion itself has to exist; otherwise, how would we make it up?

In their obvious form, the roots of the upper world manifest to us as four levels of nature: the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking ones. And the rest come down to us in the form of thought. All our artificial inventions (such as missiles and cars) root in the upper thought and are not a result of our observation of nature. It doesn’t expand in a direct, mandatory manner from Above downward, but rather are invented by man who completes himself with all that he lacks in this world.

The four stages of the Direct Light expand from Above downward, from the world of Infinity to this corporeal world, bringing forth the worlds, Partzufim, Sefirot, and their numerous combinations. And at each degree, everything that is present in the lower one, all its forms, come to it from the upper one, although we think that at the lowest level there may be more developed forms because its lack of perfection requires finding greater diversity and combinations of matter.

Above, in the world of Infinity, everything merges into one whole, in integral oneness. That is how simple it is compared to our complex world. But in essence, this world of ours isn’t the richer one; it simply must divide into such a great number of constituents.

Below, there are billions of elements of nature: minerals, plants, animals, and man, and in each of them, there are countless multitude of details. But as we climb the rungs of the worlds, we see fewer and fewer of them.

After all, to decode the notion of oneness that exists Above, in Infinity, we need numberless elements that, when put together correctly, can re-create this wholeness in our world. And it is only natural that there is an enormous difference between the upper and lower degrees, in the extent that the lower one is more material and, consequently, requires more detail.

Besides, there is nothing in the lower one which wouldn’t exist in the upper one. Simply, the individual details that get revealed in the lower one are linked as one in the upper one and, hence, are perceived by you as one whole. But in reality, it isn’t just whole. As in the world of Infinity, everything merges into one in its aim to bestowal, and we don’t see any division. However, it doesn’t mean that all these definitions do not exist.

In the world of Infinity, there are countless elements, but all of them are linked into one whole, and therefore, it is called a simple, infinite Light that fills the entire creation. But in truth, it isn’t a “simple” Light of Nefesh, but rather NRNHY de NRNHY (Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida), which is “620 times” greater than what is only perceived as simple.

The lowest degree just gets to know itself in such a “complex” form. We create so many different things in it only due to our weakness since we are unable to attain the upper one otherwise. And when we reach the highest degree, we don’t need all these supplements any longer.

All the abundance of details that I have at my lower degree roots in what I added in order to complete myself relative to the higher degree. But from Above downward, it is the very same elements that keep descending to me.

The same world of Infinity is present in our world. And the entire variety of details that are added by me or revealed to me in nature derives from the fact that I am unable to perceive this “simple” world of Infinity. Everything around me is regarded as the imaginary world. All worlds are merely “disappearing concealments” of the world of Infinity, where there is nothing but desire (the will to receive) filled with the simple Light.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Was I Here Already?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why does Rabash reiterate the same points in his articles so frequently, as if walking around in circles?

Answer: He never reiterates or repeats himself. The same words sound from different states, different levels of Aviut (coarseness of desire). He repeats the sentence at another, deeper level. After completing the first “circle” and discerning whatever was said for yourself, you move a degree deeper and then start the analysis seemingly from the same sentence, but closer to the truth, to the root.

We undergo the four stages of development, reach the speaking (human) degree, and on it, go through the four stages again, until we reach the degree of “human within human.” All of it comes from Above, from the Direct Light (Ohr Yashar). And only the last degree, the fourth within the fourth, can respond with the Reflected Light (Ohr Hozer). It itself does not realize what it is responding to because on the way back, the development it goes through remains unclear yet again, until it reaches the root.

Only at the end do we understand the beginning and the entire path. We exist in an integral system, and until a person clarifies all the details, all the interconnections between the souls, and all the ways that affect them, he is constantly forced to balance himself. For this reason, one is constantly subject to changes.

The understanding comes only at the end of correction when the entire system becomes balanced for you. It is said about it: “Everyone will know Me, from the smallest to the greatest.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/9/2011, Writings of Rabash

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When The Heart Is Heavy

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can one accept the heaviness, which distances him from the group and the goal, with joy?

Answer: It is actually approaching, not distancing. In Hebrew “offering” means “closeness” (קרבן – קרוב). It is yet another layer of the uncorrected desire hidden in me, which I wasn’t aware of and couldn’t work with. And now it has manifested.

What is revealed as darkness, as heaviness of the heart is the part instilled in me that now has come to light. I can receive additional Light into it, a new understanding and sensation. This is why we rejoice in it.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/9/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Soaring On The Wings Of Bestowal

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere are no machines, planes, electricity, bread, or water—I created all these forms out of my desire to enjoy, and this is how they appear to me. There are only the force of reception, the force of bestowal, the screen, and the Reflected Light, according to the way they can clothe into each other.

Natural forms that exist in nature come from the Direct Light, whereas those created by man come from Reflected Light. Everything we produce in this world by our work is but the forms of our will to receive created by our effort, the Reflected Light.

I take my desire and start modeling a car from it, as from plasticine or clay. It is my realization, my form, whereas the substance, the will to enjoy, is given from Above. The entire picture changes only on our screen. Similarly to how today a person is so used to a computer screen that he doesn’t even want to look around. For him, a computer screen has turned into a true reality. If we always existed inside this screen, we would have no idea that there is something else beside it.

The one and only mechanism based on the Direct and Reflected Lights operates all the time and at all levels. However, the picture will begin to change when we develop a desire to become similar to the inner force which governs this entire reality. It won’t surface for us to exist inside this reality; we will want to unite with the force that drives it from inside. We will search for it, wishing to be together with it!

And then we will perceive reality simply as matter and not as our inseparable part. Now we live inside this matter governed from Above. Yet, I wish to penetrate into molecules and atoms so as to reveal the spiritual force there, the higher mind and plan, and live in it. We will rule over matter together with Him! That is, I will elevate myself above matter, above the still, vegetative, and animate degrees.

But what about a person who today is polishing his favorite car? How can he agree that this whole world is a bluff? No insurance will pay for his car left in the Reflected Light, so what will he gain in return?

He shouldn’t worry; he will feel that he can fly even without his car. To move, he won’t need any auxiliary means of the still, vegetative, or animate levels: neither a camel, nor a carriage, nor a plane. He will soar by his own forces, the forces of man! Mother Bina will lend him her wings!
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Now Is The Time For Independent Work

Dr. Michael LaitmanEverything is comprised of two triangles: the upper one with the Direct Light and the lower one with the Returning, Reflected Light. The triangle with the Upper Light is diminishing due to the descent of the worlds from Above downward so as to supply the creature with the place for existence in which it can realize its bestowal, raise the Reflected Light.

We can make a cut at each level and see these triangles: Depending on the strength of the Direct Light, the creature is capable of raising the Reflected Light. The higher we rise, the greater the Direct and the Reflected Lights are.

It seems to us that we live in some kind of world, but in reality, there is nothing beside desire and the Light, and we always carry out the work of the Creator whether we want to or not, realize it or not, are aware of it or not, or agree with it or not. We always work for the Creator, the only difference being our willingness or not.

The still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature operate without awareness, by natural instinct. But at the speaking degree, we have to comprehend, attain the root, agree with it, and only then act correctly.

Hence, while we were developing as “primitive people” having remained so over thousands of years until very recently (with the exception of Kabbalists who revealed the upper world, starting with the first “man,” Adam HaRishon), we advanced under the pressure of our egoistic desire that pushed us to evolve.

We applied a lot of effort throughout history. We worked hard to harvest the land, produced various things and products, fought, invented machines and new technologies, built houses to only destroy them later, carried out revolutions in all areas and levels of life. In short, we exerted effort to exist, to receive the Direct Light. These efforts were our “Reflected Light” in the spiritual worlds.

This is the essence of our material development. It is material because it took place inside the egoistic desire.

In our perception of reality, it seemed to us that we produced concrete and fixtures, relationships in the society, crops, but essentially, we produced the Reflected Light and inside it, received the Direct Light. Meanwhile, it seemed to us that we worked in the material world, surrounded by our machines, factories, houses, fields, and products.

This is how it seemed to our egoistic desire, whereas in reality, the desires (Kelim) with the screen and the Lights at the still, vegetative, and animate degrees were at work. And we all behaved like obedient children, carrying out everything that the Creator wanted. Nobody could escape this since that’s how the will to enjoy and the Light that acts upon it work.

And when we reach the speaking degree, considerations become completely different. This is why we no longer have the strength… The Creator tells us: “Do it yourself, alone!” And I’m at a loss: “Do it myself, while nobody is forcing me…?”

The Creator awakens me only occasionally and awaits the Reflected Light from me. Now, He wants me to do it by myself. This is the work we have to complete.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Reunion In Malchut

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If Malchut is the desire to receive pleasure, how can she gather all the souls under her wing?

Answer: Malchut is the will to enjoy. It used to include all the desire to receive created by the Creator. Later, it was broken in order to give this desire a capacity to know itself and the Creator, and based on that knowledge, to perform autonomous actions. In other words, it broke into multiple, fragmented parts that feel hateful and disconnected.

Malchut is the point where all the broken parts used to reside. Now, by their own free will and effort, these fragmented parts are gradually coming into oneness in the same Malchut, in their root.

It could be described in other words: The created being, in its experience and perception, is divided into multiple parts which seem alien to one another. These parts must keep uniting together until they feel bonded. An example of such oneness is the upper one, Zeir Anpin, which manifests according to their effort.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/2011, Writings of Rabash

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The Greater The Ego, The Greater The Correction

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What can we learn from the current internal state? What is the correct attitude toward them?

Answer: The correct approach is not to focus on any of them. The key is to keep going forward. A person cannot evaluate an internal state that he or she is in. Until we arrive at the end of correction, we won’t know whether we have achieved anything whatsoever.

In fact, you are undergoing a process of correction non-stop. Moreover, the farther you advance, the more corrupted you feel. Having repaired yourself and absorbed the upper properties to a certain degree, with their help, you get to see how far you are from the other levels to which you are yet to ascend.

The final degree, Yesod, includes it all. You must absorb all there is and reach the final correction of Yesod. Only then will you receive the illumination of the Sabbath and start sensing that you are standing at the threshold of the end of correction.

Therefore, we are expected only to continue on the path without focusing on the fact that it is becoming much harder. The most difficult stages are regarded as “signs of Messiah” since that is where our Aviut (coarseness of desire) increases.

This is why compared to our forefathers, our states are heavier, but thanks to it, we are willing, able, and merit drawing greater Lights. Even though they clothe in the forefathers, it is we who evoke them nevertheless.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/2011, Writings of Rabash

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The Paradigm Of Acceleration

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen Zeir Anpin becomes revealed before Malchut, we can accelerate the speed of our development. Up until now, having advanced in the course of history on the still, vegetative, and the animate levels, we were not able to accelerate time. We didn’t know at all about what state we were in and which process we were going through.

But now, having entered the period of corrections, we possess the freedom of will. We can speed up the course of events without having to wait for the end of the sixth millennium. Everything depends on us.

With our efforts, we can include the qualities of Zeir Anpin into ourselves in less than six thousand years. After all, we are referring to spiritual degrees, not a date on a calendar. And that is why we are able to hasten the ascent to the level of the seventh millennium.

Baal HaSulam writes about further development in “Introduction to the Book, From the Mouth of a Sage.” These are also spiritual levels since Shabbat (Saturday), the seventh millennium, is the Sefirot HGTNHYM. Besides this, there are three more levels called the “head.” We enter into them after seven thousand years, and this is beyond our current attainment since it involves receiving into the Kli which has already completed its corrections and become similar to the Creator in its qualities.

It is not written anywhere about this. Kabbalistic books contain only faint hints at these stages. Let’s hope that we will reach them quickly as well.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/2011, Writings of Rabash

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