Entries in the 'Inner Work' Category

A Painting With White Spots

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is an unfolding Reshimo (a informational gene or record)? What exactly gets revealed to us?

Answer: It is impossible to explain because a Reshimo is a complete picture of the future which unfolds within me. At the end of this entire chain of Reshimot, there is my one last Reshimo that represents the world of Infinity.

Now, one of these states leading me on this path to the world of Infinity is becoming revealed. It is programmed with all the data except my mandatory effort and the screen. When I supply them, this Reshimo becomes realized and transforms into the true picture of reality.

Since this Reshimo includes in itself the entire picture of reality except for my own effort and my
anti-egoistic screen, it turns out that the Creator, who exposes a desire for my participation in this Reshimo, conceals Himself in it. It’s as if He is showing me a picture of reality with unfilled, left out intervals, in which I have to complete Him with my participation.

I cannot actualize a Reshimo in one go; it requires a number of actions, quite a lot at times. In the end, I must completely reveal the degree of similarity and lack of correspondence between us. Therefore, a Reshimo is structured and unfolds in such way as to not just bring me to the completion of this picture; it also must supply me with what I lack.

While I fill in the picture, I add all of the Creator to the point that has initially unfolded in me. After all, our goal at each rung is to become equal to the Creator.

I realize my Reshimo as though I am working and filling in something within me. Thereby, I elevate (fulfill) myself to the level of the Creator at my present degree. It is a multifaceted process that eventually leads me to perfection.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/2011,  “The Quality of the Hidden Wisdom – in General”

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Moments Of Truth

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do I thank the Creator for small spiritual revelations?

Answer: They immediately gain great value in a person since this has never happened to him. Never before have I valued rising above myself, but now I feel that I have risen above my egoism and view this as a real treasure.

Where does this attitude come from? From the Light. Obviously, it’s not me who makes the correct analysis. By the nature of things, while experiencing an ascent, I prefer to adhere to the truth.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, Writings of Rabash

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The Void Where The Supreme Thought Dwells

Dr. Michael LaitmanThanks to quantum physics, the deeper we penetrate into matter which, in and of itself, is inanimate and can be researched using a purely deterministic approach and mechanical discovery, the more we suddenly discover reason and feeling there. Although it’s we who endow matter with these properties, we find thought, a plan, there. We understand that we encounter someone’s thought.

Astronomers also claim that they feel as if behind the stars and the entire cosmos there stands a certain thought. If a person is developed enough, he comes to feel that way.

At my recent lecture in Moscow, I mentioned that if we were to magnify an atom, we would find a void between its nucleus and electrons. I’ve already received objections from my friend, a physicist, who denies that emptiness can exist inside an atom because all the entire space there is full.

Today, we understand that the electron is not a particle which is local, but a certain blurred cloud that fills the entire space of its orbit. That seemingly contradicts the way I presented it, but who knows what will happen and what physics will tell us in another twenty years? It’s clear that the entire theory will become even more abstract because as we advance, we find that our universe is not an assembly of solid particles and can’t be explained by ordinary mechanics; rather, the universe is approaching the spiritual form.

When I said that there are empty spaces in an atom, I meant the qualitative voids that are inside it. No matter how loudly our research claims that the entire space of the atom is full and that one electron fills the entire volume, together with that, we discover a void which hints at something with this emptiness. That’s the thought that’s hidden there.

It’s the same with states between the spiritual degrees. When we are passing from one degree to another, we get into the same kind of empty gaps. We fall there and become renewed. Therefore, each next degree is an entirely new structure.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/2011,  “The Quality of the Hidden Wisdom – in General”

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Praying In Order To Change

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How does a Kabbalistic prayer differ from a religious one?

Answer: Kabbalah fundamentally differs from all other methods and from everything there is in our world. In short, Kabbalah is one thing, and everything else another.

What is the difference then? It is in the fact that Kabbalah is based on changing a person himself rather than something outside of him, his surroundings; neither is it built on asking some “dear God” to start treating me better or to change other people’s attitude toward me. I do not ask Him to change my state of health or fate, nothing of the sort. I ask Him to transform my egoism, only that!

The entire method of Kabbalah is arranged so that a person can transform himself. On the other hand, all other methods and religions are founded on the idea that the Creator should change His attitude to a person: I ask Him to be more merciful and kind to me while I bribe Him.

Kabbalah doesn’t allow anything of the sort. In connection to the Creator, I am like man that changes in the face of the Absolute. And this Absolute is unchangeable. If the Creator is a primordial cause, the beginning of all, and if He is absolutely good, absolute, eternal, and perfect, then He cannot change. Only that which is imperfect can change. He cannot change.

Therefore, all changes occur solely in man. In other words, depending on my strengths, internal states, and properties, I feel more or less comfortable. But it is just me because I can change. The Creator never changes; He is a constant, omnipotent force of Nature.

Accordingly, all the prayers Kabbalah describes constitute man’s plea to be transformed. Who does one address these to, a wall? If the Creator is constant, eternal, and complete, then He doesn’t react to you in any way.

However, when you appeal to Him, you become different and receive a different response because you increase your sensitivity while doing so. You are still present in the same constant field regarded as the “Creator,” in the same constant force. Yet you are praying while wishing to change, and as a result, this field affects you with greater intensity. This is what we call a “prayer.”

The word “to pray” in Hebrew (Lehitpalel) means self-imposed judgment. “To pray” means to judge, evaluate, and rebuke oneself. It isn’t an appeal to someone, in order to be shown mercy or favored. No, it is self re-evaluation. This is what a prayer is.

Hence, although religions use the same word, in Kabbalah it has an opposite meaning, much like everything else.
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From Lesson 2 in Moscow 1/16/2011, “A Prayer of Many”

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The Internet’s True Purpose

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You mentioned that evil is revealed in relationships between friends. However, if a person studies over the Internet and is not engaged in mutual work with others, how can he reveal evil?

Answer: I see that people enter Facebook and a number of other social networks and are simply living there. Passions are seething and love is in full bloom; people even get married – if it turns out that the couple is indeed a man and a woman.

Although the network is full of lies and filth, we should respect it. Once, we were walking with Rabash past a stadium, and he said: “We have to respect this place, it brings joy to people!” The same is true of the Internet. With all the garbage that’s in it, it connects people. It provokes people, forcing them to stir up all the evil hidden deep inside of them: envy, hatred, lust, hunger for fame, and lies. It’s has all kinds of things in it, but it helps us actualize many Reshimot (informational genes).

All of humanity is there and everyone is lying non-stop, wanting to outsmart each other, arguing and bickering. Do you have any idea of what it does to the ego? What other common ground could you find to bring them together? Which other place? Instead, with the help of the virtual connection, people realize (and process) their Reshimot and are moving forward in the understanding of their egoistic nature.

So why can’t we, those who are seeking to reveal the Creator, the property of bestowal, fulfill our spiritual Reshimot correctly through such a virtual link, too? I’m sure that the entire Internet has evolved just for that. We’ve come to the final stretch of the path and it’s time to accelerate our advancement. Thus, in order to satisfy their need as always, people have come up with such a connection.

That’s why we need to set up a social network between us so that every one of our friends, regardless of whether he or she is part of a physical group or not, will feel close to everybody and will be permanently connected to our general idea, the purpose of our joint effort, work, study, and communication.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/2011, “The Quality of the Hidden Wisdom – in General”

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What Will You Choose After All?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can an attribute that is totally opposite to the will to enjoy and seems to be killing it nonetheless unfold in it?

Answer: If it were two types of matter, matter and antimatter, then it would be impossible to unify them indeed. But if it is matter and an opposite intention to it, then it is possible. Besides, it gets revealed to me on condition that I will manage to unify them in the middle line.

Therefore, my natural desire to enjoy and the intention to bestow work in two different areas: one in desire, the other in intention. And all my calculations and struggle are aimed at how to bring them together.

Suppose I have the desire to enjoy that I live in. In addition to it, I receive the intention to bestow, which could be either below the will to enjoy, or at the same level as the will to enjoy, or above it.

Now I need to somehow connect them together. Pertaining to intention, I acquire it only by way of the “Light that Reforms,” the Surrounding Light. I draw it if there is an aspiration for bestowal within me, the “point in the heart” that I cultivate by being in the group.

All of this resides within my desire and unifies as one: I, the group, and my will to receive. If my desire remains below, in the degree of its importance, but the group and the point in the heart are above, and from within them I desire to bestow, then I raise a plea (MAN). And in response, I receive the Surrounding Light that supplies the intention to bestow to me.

Now, having received the intention, I can choose between three options:

  1. to place it below my will to receive (desire), that is, to use it for my desire to receive pleasure, my personal benefit, what is regarded as impurity (Klipa),
  2. to place the intention at the level of the desire and bring them together which is a state of ambivalence, or
  3. to place the intention above the desire, which is “holiness,” bestowal.

That is what constitutes my work: In which of the three states I am able to reside. If a person starts paying attention and feeling what is really happening within him, he will realize that he constantly faces a choice, as if standing between the weighing pans of a scale. On one hand, there is reception; on the other, bestowal. And in the middle, there I am with a dilemma: What should I choose?!
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/2011, “The Freedom”

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The Upper Thought Is Bestowal

Dr. Michael LaitmanAll creation is the will to receive pleasure, and that is why it requires transformation and fulfillment. But this can be done only by some part in it that will gain understanding, wisdom. This part doesn’t belong to creation itself; it descends to it from the Creator, from the desire to bestow.

There is nothing in the universe except these two forces: the desire to receive and the desire to bestow. From the relationship between these two properties, the creature starts analyzing itself and the nature of the force that affects it.

As a result, in the desire to enjoy a mechanism gets formed, which is regarded as a “head” (a “Partzuf’s Rosh”), meaning a mind, thought, and discernment. With the power of this thought, desire begins to attain itself.

At the still, vegetative, and animate levels, the desire to enjoy acts instinctively. And a creature of this world called “man” who acts instinctively as well is also included herein. Try as we may to measure and evaluate ourselves by our own devices or by the view of others, we always judge within our egoism.

All our “compassion” is solely for our own sake, and all our actions are for our own benefit. But remaining locked inside ourselves, we can’t know who we are. We can only weigh and prefer greater desires to the lesser ones. And the ability to make such a calculation is called “thought” or discernment in our world. But in essence, it is merely an evaluation: What is greater, more vital, and beneficial for our egoism. That’s all our mind is about.

All these discernments take place at the animate degree, at the level of our animate body. This is how we live and evolve for thousands of years. But when we acquire an additional property, the property of Bina, bestowal, it is at that point that we begin to perform an assessment based upon two attributes: reception and bestowal. That’s when the mind, the “head,” which makes decisions is now called spiritual since it makes a calculation pertaining to bestowal, the attribute of the Creator.

Relative to Him, it evaluates what the created being should or shouldn’t do and how. Hence, work only within the desire to enjoy is regarded as animate since it’s the highest degree it can attain. This is how we all exist, as it is written: “All are similar to the mortal beasts.”

But one who acquires the desire to bestow is regarded as “human” (Adam) since he is “similar” (Domeh) to the Creator. That is the Kabbalists who attained the property of bestowal, the Creator. Then, they calculate coming from the two properties, reception and bestowal, meaning that they analyze how to connect within a person the desire to enjoy and the intention to bestow, to what degree the intention to bestow can rule his desire to enjoy.

Such a person has a different mind, “the head.” And even though all his actions continue residing in the desire to enjoy, the aim of these actions and their intention which moves and governs them is bestowal. And it is evident that this is a completely different type of calculation as well as perception, which cannot be comprehended by those who for the time being view things with mammalian eyes. It is written: “The view of the Torah is opposite to the view of the laymen.”

The “view of the Torah” is bestowal, whereas the “view of the laymen” is egoistic reception. And although the matter remains the same, the desire to enjoy, it all depends on how it is used, on the intention governing this matter: Will it be egoistic or altruistic, for my benefit, or for the benefit of others? This will be the test for our desire.

In all upper, spiritual worlds, only one law of bestowal governs everything, while the desire to enjoy obeys this thought and such an intention. And only in our world, in the state from which we start our ascent, the governing law is the one that submits everything to the interests of egoism.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/2011, “The Freedom”

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When The Light Force Suddenly Unfolds

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Kabbalah states that the entire world resides within me. What then is this external Creator’s force that descends upon me?

Answer: I don’t know what external force it is. I only know that all of a sudden something occurs in me, and a new property unfolds within. How then does it differ from thoughts and desires that used to appear in me before? Were they also new to me?

However, it’s absolutely clear to me that this property emerging in me right now, which is regarded as the force of bestowal, is something totally new and different from all of my nature. It is completely opposite, reversed relative to it, and it unfolds in such a unique form that it is cardinally different from all of my previous experience.

In order to connect to it, I have to rise above my ego, by having exerted enormous effort. I must cut myself off from my egoism, tear away from it, and constantly battle with myself so that I don’t fall into egoistic calculations.

Only under condition that I cut myself off from my egoistic calculation do I start attaining the force which is now pulling me toward itself, which acts within me by inviting me to join it instead of remaining in my egoism. This is the force of bestowal.

This power that is unfolding within me radically differs from all my previous strengths, thoughts, aspirations, and all of my nature. I feel this since it mandates me to cut myself away from all that I was before!
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/2011, “The Freedom”

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Milestones On The Way

Dr. Michael LaitmanTu Bishvat, “The New Year of the Trees,” symbolizes the fruit of the spiritual work, growth. On the first stage of our spiritual path we turn the egoistic intention Lo Lishma into an altruistic intention Lishma, bestowal for the sake of bestowal. Once a person acquires the property of Bina, he becomes a “tree of the field.”

Then a person moves to the stage of receiving for the sake of bestowal, and the barren tree of the field starts bearing fruit. This is a result of a person’s work, of his degree. Now, he uses his “tree” to grow fruit, fill the souls, and he relates to them as the source of bestowal, like the Creator. This way the person becomes equal to the Creator and completes the correction.

We Kabbalists see the completion of man’s entire work in Tu Bishvat. Overall, all holidays have dual roles: They embody a certain part of our path, and at the same time they contain a certain element in them that symbolizes its completion.

Passover, the celebration of the exit from Egypt, signifies what we already see, how we abandon egoism, and why. After all, it is impossible to leave it without knowing the purpose. Shavuot, the holiday of the giving of the Torah, is also more than the acquisition of the means of correction: We know why we receive it. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is the beginning of all the changes, and the final goal is already planted in the initial plan. The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, once again reminds us why we go through the chain of corrections. The same applies to Chanukah and Purim.

All these customs of our world symbolize the stages, milestones on the path of our spiritual correction. That is where they come from.

They do not seem to be special. On Tu Bishvat we eat fruit and sweets—what a weak hint! Purim also looks more like a children’s holiday. But in reality, these are the most important holidays, and their outcomes are the most convincing. This is because they refer to the results, the fruit of our efforts.

Purim represents the final correction, the end of the path. Then both forces, the positive and the negative, support one another and participate in attaining the final goal. Tu Bishvat also symbolizes the ripening of the fruit, and the difference between them is in the level of perception. The field tree is the vegetative level, while Purim is higher degrees.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/2011, “Because Man Is the Tree of the Field”

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