Entries in the 'Inner Work' Category

When You Are Prepared To Jump Higher

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe began our preparation for this convention many months prior to it; we anticipated uniting with one another, breaking our ego, and attaining unity. In spirituality, one always needs to strive for perfection; anything less is impossible. After all, if you want to jump on the table, you need to prepare yourself to jump higher than the table, and then you will land on it. This applies to everything.

We set a goal for ourselves at the convention: to attain the revelation of the Creator. Naturally, every day this needs to be our goal. But this time we really aspired towards it, and this is why we have taken a big step forward. We have acquired a new status. We created a new Kli (vessel) in which the sensation of connection, unity, the goal, and the way of reaching it has already manifested.

Some felt that they have come a lot closer to it, while others not as much. Some experienced it from the side of the Kelim (vessels), and some already from the side of the Lights. The people who felt that they are not yet part of it acquired the realization of evil; they discovered how much they are yet to correct.

We have experienced a multitude of different states together. We discovered that the environment by acting upon a person can do anything with him because a person is completely susceptible to its influence.

Of course, we lack the environment’s constant influence. Of course, for now we are unable to cancel ourselves in relation to it. And, certainly, the environment is not displaying a force strong enough to determine everyone’s direction.

However, we have definitely developed a connection between us. And I think that soon we will also begin to reveal more and more fulfillment in it.
[27530]
From the Talk during the Closing Ceremony, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/11/10

Related Material:
We Have Received The Opportunity To Ascend
Salvation Comes In A Blink Of An Eye

Let The Light Continue Its Work

Dr. Michael LaitmanStudying Kabbalah provides us with a connection to the Upper World. The split between our and the spiritual worlds is an abyss, a barrier, an iron wall, which is impossible to move. Only the Upper Light is able to break it.

Therefore, we cannot connect to the Upper, spiritual world other than by studying authentic primary sources: the writings of Rashbi, the Ari, Baal HaSulam, and Rabash. Only due to this will the Light that Reforms come to us.

We need to constantly study their writings, thereby giving the Light an opportunity to continue its work. You will feel that the unity we achieved at the convention will spread out from its beginning to the ten Sefirot, and it will obtain fulfillment. I expect this to occur very soon, and in regard to every participant of the convention.

We have yet to feel what kind of mutual inclusion into each other we have achieved, the men, women, and even the children. Each of us acquired a broader, multi-layered, and complex Kli (vessel), in which one can already prepare himself to receive the Light.

Now, after the convention, if we all live in one theme by studying the works of the Kabbalists at the lessons, we will be connected to the Light that they contain. In addition, we will unite with all the friends who are going through the same material as we are, the same day, during the same 24 hours. Nothing can unite us more than daily presence at the lessons.

Because we will draw continuously new portions of the Surrounding Light every day, what was born between us at the convention, that for which we laid the foundation, that seed which we sowed into the ground, will continue to develop, and it will give its ten Sefirot. We will feel the Upper Light, the revelation of the Creator, in them.

We are now at the threshold of this. It is an accumulative process, as it is written: “Penny after penny accumulate into a big account.” Unity that arose at the convention, a connection that took place between us is a great achievement. It is the beginning of a new stage of our spiritual development.
[27526]
From the Talk during the Closing Ceremony, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/11/10

Related Material:
When You Are Prepared To Jump Higher
Cleave To The Teacher And Follow Him

Taste The Spiritual World Today

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is impossible to imagine how we would live if we saw ourselves as mere animals. However, humanity has religion (faith) which helps it to curb its egoism somewhat. All these belief systems are based on one idea: the existence of life after death.

But the wisdom of Kabbalah thinks otherwise. It states that there is a state called “death,” in which we exist presently, and there is a different state called “life.”

If so, then it follows that I exist in this world only once, and nothing remains after I die? But what can come back? What do you have that can be brought back? The body dies and loses the force that forced it to move, like an engine that worked before and suddenly stopped. Where did this force go? Do you think that it returned somewhere Above, to “its original place?” No, the molecules just stopped working. Was there anything spiritual in them?

How is it that we suddenly have such fantasies? Yet, the whole world lives with this belief. At least, there is some consolation that there will be something after death as well.

Then, why do Kabbalistic books state that if we don’t correct ourselves during this lifetime, we will return to this world again and continue to reincarnate this way? This is really so; we just need to figure out what this means.

In Kabbalah, faith is attainment. It means seeing and feeling the spiritual world, as it is written: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” I “sample” Him with all my senses in such a way that I feel Him in “all fibers of by body.” This isn’t faith; it is the most real sensation that can possibly be.
[27691]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, “Body and Soul”

Related Material:
Hurry While The TV Is On
Compensating The Lack Of Knowledge With Faith

Hurry While The TV Is On

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If there is no life after death, then why is it written in The Zohar that the soul rises to heaven after death, and angels take it to its judgment, and so on?

Answer: Not a single word of The Zohar talks about the physical body. The Zohar refers to the death of egoism, after which the Upper Forces called “angels” begin to influence it.

They take my desire to receive pleasure from two sides, the right and the left, and lift it “on their wings” (screens) to the first, second, and third “heavens.” This is the name for the different levels of Bina where I increasingly begin to receive more properties of bestowal.

Thus, these “angels” lift me to the “sky,” the common property of Bina. There, I reveal an entire Creator’s palace behind this property. Bina includes the properties of Malchut within it, the receiving desires within the bestowing desires, and thanks to this I reveal the Creator.

However, is it really connected with my material world and the physical senses, the life and death of this animal body? Actually, I only think that it exists; it does not exist in reality.

Does anything really exist behind the image on the computer screen? These are nothing more than electrical signals, forces, and vectors that paint this image for you. In the same way, you are being drawn this three-dimensional image which you perceive as this world.

We already have laser devices which can create three-dimensional images in the air of people around us that speak among themselves. These sensations are a complete illusion. You just cannot touch them with your hand because everything is “in the air.” However, soon, it will become absolutely “real,” just like the illusion of our world.

This is exactly how we see this world although it does not exist. So what life after death can there be? The television got turned off, and that is it: You did not have the desire to reveal the Upper World “in this life.” However, there is no need for the body to die in order to reveal spirituality. There is no connection between one and the other.
[27682]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, “Body and Soul”

Related Material:
The Most Materialistic Approach
When The Alarm Rings

The Most Materialistic Approach

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Zohar does not speak about the physical death. It speaks about the desire to receive pleasure which becomes corrected and attains similarity to the Creator. A regular person has not yet reached this.

When a person works in the spiritual world, he has the left and right lines (the two “angels”), between which he builds the middle line. My ego, Pharaoh, stands on the left side, and the Creator, the Light, on the right side.

I create my spiritual vessel (Kli) with a screen to the extent of my ability to transfer this desire to receive pleasure to the middle line and attract the Light from the right line, the intention, toward it.

The screen is the intention to bestow, while the vessel is the desire within it. In this way, I build myself with these two forces, and I am the third one. Then, I begin to exist in a spiritual reality. Once I have built this “third one,” the desire with the intention, it means that I have acquired a soul.

However, if I did not build it from these two forces, then I do not have anything except for one point where I do not feel anything. This is merely a tiny desire which does not depend on me at all, “a desire out of nothing” (Mi Ain).

It is written in The Zohar that you need to kill your egoistic desire. You attract the Light toward it, kill it, and bring it to the intention to bestow. This will be you, a living you.

All of this can be done with the help of the proper environment which is called “the Holy Society” (Hevra Kedusha) because it helps you bury your egoism. This way, you receive an eternal soul, a part that is similar to the Creator.

You make it yourself, and if not, you do not have a soul. You exist below the life line, in this world, where you have nothing but an animate body, matter (Homer, substance, is consonant to Hamor, donkey). This is the most “materialistic” approach.
[27679]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, “Body and Soul”

Related Material:
Hurry While The TV Is On
When The Alarm Rings

Love Is A Vessel For The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf we don’t receive the desire to bestow from the environment, we will not be able to reveal the spiritual world through our own efforts. Indeed, spiritual pleasure is infinitely greater than its corporeal counterpart. Even the smallest pleasure which we receive upon ascending to the first spiritual degree out of 125 is billions of times greater than all the pleasures of our world combined.

The “Big Bang” is the result of a tiny spark of Upper Light that infiltrated our world and caused our whole universe. And it was merely a tiny spark! Meanwhile, now we are primed to reveal the entire Light of NRNHY to its full measure. It follows that for this we will need unlimited vessels of reception.

Therefore, we cannot receive all this Light; otherwise, we would simply explode. This is why each person needs to build external Kelim (vessels) outside of himself. Only through connection, a mutual inclusion into one another, are we capable of achieving great external desires.

Even now we are all swimming in the Upper Light; we are just unable to feel it. There is no place inside of us that can be filled because we only have a tiny spark. In Baal HaSulam’s Letter No. 8 (Fruit of Wisdom, Letters), he describes the Light that is revealed in us:

“At the hour of attainment one feels the Upper Light which is revealed and based on all the reverse transformations. And it seems to a person, at the hour of attaining perfection, that all the suffering he had gone through was valuable because it allowed him to appreciate the sweetness and flavor of the Light, of uniting with the Creator. And all of his organs and tendons shall say and bear witness that anyone among the living in the world would gladly agree to chop off his hands and feet seven times a day, if only he could attain the flavor of adhesion for but a brief moment in his life.”

In other words, we need to understand that spiritual revelation is something infinitely stupendous, and we need to prepare our empty desires (Kelim) for it. A great inner work awaits us, and yet it is incredibly easy only if we do it together with love. This union determines everything!

If I unite with others and feel that I exist together with them in one Kli, in one desire, then the Light becomes revealed inside. It is written that “love thy neighbor is the main rule of the Torah (Light)” because love is a vessel for the Light.
[27640]
From Lesson 1, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/9/10

Related Material:
A Screen In The Black Cosmos Of Desire
Boundless Love

When The Alarm Rings

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn their books, Kabbalists only write about the soul. They do not touch our world which is below the life line. It is an illusion given to us temporarily so we would begin to awaken from this dream and build a true life.

Now, think how to value your friends who can help you awaken toward a new life. Understand that you are together in a dream, and only a tiny spark that you have been given can help you come out of it. This is similar to the times when you sleep, and you understand that you can wake up if you try. This “clue” that can help you wake up is the “point in the heart.”

When you connect all the points that wish to awaken and demand for the “alarm to ring,” the Upper Force will awaken you. It will pull you out of this dream. Otherwise, we will all just continue sleeping.

The only possibility to reveal the spiritual world is being in this dream. There is nothing lesser than it, lesser than the beastly existence, lower than this illusionary life.

The only thing that will remain after death is what you have attained in the spiritual world while in this life. Where would something else come from? Why does it not exist now? How does your animate body get in the way? Why do you need to suffer now to enjoy later?

We only have what we perceive within the desire to receive pleasure. If, in addition to the perception of my corporeal life, I will also acquire a spiritual one, then I will definitely have it. It does not depend on the corporeal life. There are two types of desires: one is “for your own sake,” and the other “for the sake of bestowal.”

This means that, for now, I will continue living simultaneously in two worlds, and once the body dies, I will continue living just in the spiritual world. The animate body dies and ceases to perceive this reality in its five senses, similar to as if I had lost my hearing now. This way, all the corporeal sensations disappear.

Egoistic desire cannot exist forever; it has a limit. However, once you acquire the desire to bestow, it is eternal.
[27676]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, “Body and Soul”

Related Material:
This Life Is A Dream
Compensating The Lack Of Knowledge With Faith

Life Inside The Desire

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: While reading The Zohar, who can I identify with in the text instead of imagining some abstract forces?

Answer: We can imagine only one thing: the connection between us. In the end, we exist inside Malchut. Parts of Malchut unite with each other in all possible connections. It is a net of connections that constantly change, like in an electric device or computer. The matter, the desire to receive pleasure, remains an unchanged, rigid desire.

The forces inside the desire begin to work, serving as the material with which they can connect to each other. We exist within this desire along with the force that works in it. And everything that this force does inside the desire is done because we created it this way, as though we printed it using a model, and that’s it.

Inside this desire are “impulses,” the forces of good and evil, Light and darkness, two influences from the Creator which pass through this desire. We perceive and feel our reality as “me” and “the world” I live and feel within this material. We are talking only about the forces that act inside this matter, the desire to receive pleasure.

Thus as we read The Zohar, we wish to completely leave the picture of this world since it is false. I am situated in the desire to enjoy, and the force that acts in it is presented to me. And there is nothing else, no pictures or images.
[27926]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
How To Understand The Zohar
When The Alarm Rings


A Cry In The Desert

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does raising MAN mean?

Answer: MAN is a plea to become like the Creator. It occurs when a person feels helpless, as though he’s in a middle of a desert. He is stripped of all things, he’s withered, and others can’t help him. He understands that he has no chance of reaching love and bestowal. He feels weak and “surrounded by lions,” desires that are “devouring” him. His life is in danger and he is unable to get out of this state and enter bestowal.

The whole world is at a person’s feet except for bestowal and love for his friend or the Creator. It doesn’t matter what pleasures the ego fills itself with; if the quality of love and bestowal doesn’t stand behind all of these things, the person is lost in the desert. In this desert, this empty ego, a person’s spiritual desire becomes so powerful that it makes him cry out, and this cry reaches the goal.
[27907]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/10, The Zohar, Introduction, Article “The Rose”

Related Material:
If You Don’t Wake Up, Tomorrow Everyone Will Be Asleep
Living In The Creator’s Environment


Why People Like Looking At Clouds

Dr. Michael LaitmanAfter Tzimtzum Bet (Second Restriction), every upper Partzuf moves its lower part into the lower Partzuf. The lower part of Bina submerges into Zeir Anpin, and the lower part of Zeir Anpin submerges into Malchut. This is why the upper part of every Partzuf is visible, and the lower part is hidden inside the lower Partzuf.

This is the structure according to Tzimtzum Bet, and this is precisely how we are connected with one another: Every person has a part of him included in another person. Everyone is inside everyone.

We are not able to visually imagine a holographic image like this. There is no person who is not included in everyone, and there is no person who does not include everyone, a part from every person. This integral image is similar to one big cloud without a beginning and an end or separate parts. Simply, everyone is included in everyone.

This is what Tzimtzum Bet does to us when Bina connects with Malchut. For this reason, regardless of whether we want it or not, we have an absolute influence on one another. Once we understand this and use the consequences to properly influence each other’s thoughts and desires, then we will quickly attain the mutual guarantee and the common Kli (vessel).

The system is already built according to this principle. The question is only whether we want the system to operate according to it. This is the entire difference between the world where we exist and the spiritual world. Our world is what we want to see in it, while the spiritual world completely corresponds to the Creator’s desire.
[27669]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10,, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

Related Material:
The Inexhaustible Means For Advancing
The Cave Of Machpelah: The Place Of Spiritual Life