Entries in the 'Inner Work' Category

The Comprehensive Integrality

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I still don’t understand what the “integrality” that we speak about all the time means.

Answer: Essentially, it’s about changing our approach, about a new “data set,” about a new perspective of the world. What is an “integral?” Let’s clarify this in geometric terms. Suppose there is a certain area that can be divided into small squares of a certain size. Then the area of each square is one square (1…²). In addition, we are also left with smaller parts that are not squares.

So how do we calculate the general area of the body (S)? We add all the squares to the area and then we have to calculate the area of the special parts (S-?). If we were speaking about weight, we would have to see what their center of mass is (He-?).

So we divide this area into even smaller squares and then add it up. The sum () is called an “integral” (). Thus we calculate from zero to infinity (), down to the smallest details.

In the same way we reach the lowest level of the human race by integral education, down to the last detail. Eventually each of us, every “square” is equal to all the others. This is how integral education relates to generality, wholeness, and complexity.

The education will not correct the ego. The ego will still remain as it is, and there is nothing we can do with it: It cannot be re-trained, re-educated to move from reception to bestowal. The integral education “cuts corners” a little, but it doesn’t correct humanity. By implementing it we only bring people closer to a state that allows us to bring them the Light, and the Light will do its job, which we call “reform.” The conclusion is that the circles that we build will actually change only after we pass the Light to people.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/13, “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Applying To Work For The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to be the Creator’s worker without any preconditions?

Answer: Suppose you say: “I don’t care what I do, I am ready to do anything from being your deputy or your chief foreman, to being the last, lowest, most despised cleaning man. I am ready to work for any wages from half the kingdom to nothing at all. I don’t care how pleasant the work is, whether I receive pleasure from it, or whether I am beaten. I am ready to be beaten every workday as long as you allow me to work for you. I beg you, take me without any preconditions!”

Everything depends on your tolerance here, on your patience, and on whether you are ready to withstand the unpleasantness and the pleasantness, the rewards and the punishment involved. Thus you advance above your “donkey,” above your ego that feels good or bad, and receive half the kingdom or blows in return for a day’s work. But the human being in you is totally adhered to the landlord. Do you agree to work this way?

You want to be given such conditions since it helps you attain the pure intention with regard to the landlord. But if you didn’t have such conditions you wouldn’t understand where you are and whether it is your ego that motivates you, lies to you; you are like the thief running before everyone shouting, “Catch the thief.”

You want to know exactly who is managing you, and it is possible only according to the changing states. You will attain nothing by feeling bad alone; there is no Light without darkness, and there is no darkness without Light; you need to feel both.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/13, Writings of Rabash

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The Circles Of Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe connection between us is where we will find everything. We begin to discover the idea of “connection” according to our advancement and we see that everything concentrates in it and depends only on it, including our private life, our health, our success, family welfare, the entire world, and our spiritual attainment. Everything depends only on the connection in the group that advances by the power of faith, by mutual bestowal.

There is no other means by which we can change anything in our reality except for making greater efforts to connect. Then, everyone receives everyone else’s power (of the whole group of ten) and thus acquires the general force of bestowal as one whole by which he can advance.

We must reinforce the connection in the spiritual cell that is made of ten people in order to ascend to the second level, and we need a greater connection with the external circle for that. Thanks to the connection with the external circle, you can “squeeze” the inner circle of friends even more and thus reach the second level, the Light of Ruach, in order to advance even further.

The quality and the quantity complement one another and allow a person to advance. Everything concentrates in the center of the group and depends only on it. The main thing is to reach the first feeling, and then you will not be able to break away from it anymore, but rather will be attracted to it like to a source of life.

In the meantime, however, we must act artificially as we play. Soon it actually will be revealed, and then you will see that it is really so. Then, you will discover that, instead of greater efforts to connect and to squeeze, you will have to do the opposite kind of work and try not to hurt or harm others.

The Creator will give us opposite exercises. When you are in the ego, you enjoy the fact that the others suffer a little and that they feel bad, and if it is your enemy, you actually enjoy the fact that you can harm him and beat him. However, now you are ready to give up everything for people that you didn’t love before and by whom you even were repulsed and hated, as long as they feel good. You are amazed at your previous attitude since everything turns the other way around.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/13

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Do We Hasten Time?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Our mission is to hasten (bring to the state of “I shall hasten it”) the process of development. Are there any criteria according to which we can examine things?

Answer: We don’t accelerate the process. At best, we approach it.

Through our inner efforts, we have an impact on new relationships that reveal positive states in the nation of Israel and in the world. We sweeten and soften many states, but it isn’t hastening yet (the state of “I shall hasten it”).

The state of “I shall hasten it” is when the world begins to move by a new force that pulls it forward by going through us. This isn’t happening yet.

On the whole, we are a major part of the general system, the active part that influences what is happening and that brings goodness, but it isn’t enough to hasten the process.

I do hope that we will be able to become that missing part, the link between the upper and the lower, and that we will truly be Light unto the nations, the link to the world of Light,  and even if people will not feel this Light, it will not matter. Its force will draw them to the good and they will begin to make the right decisions, will start to come closer to us in thought, and will be able to hear our message, to understand, internalize, and accept it. “Even if we don’t fully understand it, we already see and feel that it is true.”

Then, we will attain the state of “I shall hasten it” and not just “I shall hasten it” but even what is called “The Messiah’s Shofar,” a level on which the message of unity spreads throughout the world.

The most important means to achieve this is integral education since the more we connect with the world, the stronger is our deficiency to turn upward for help.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee”

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A Sign Of A Solid Covenant

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is special about a person’s work in preparing himself for a descent; what helps him to keep the covenant he has made prior to the descent?

Answer: I depend on the Light that Reforms that must take care of me. So I need to have an absolute whole desire for this Light to sustain my complete dependence on it.

I want to be above my discernments and my feelings, but at the same time keep my eyes open. There is a certain duplicity here, a paradox. On the one hand, I want to understand, to know, and to feel everything in my reality, in my state, all the discernments in that state, and on the other hand, no matter what happens in this state and no matter how much I clarify and connect all my discernments, I have to eventually adhere to the Creator on top of this data.

This means that I want to grow above my understanding, my feeling, and see everything through my ego: above it, below it, and in it, in three discernments. I only ask that all this will not break our covenant, that I will attain devotion for the Creator despite everything, and will be filled with gladness; gladness is the right sign of our solid covenant.

If I don’t burst with such gladness, then it means that I don’t have a covenant with the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/13, Writings of Rabash

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Completing The Work Of The Present Level

Completing The Work Of The Present LevelQuestion: Would it be worthwhile for us to change the form of the conventions gradually and to do them not for those who have been learning the integral method but for those who don’t study and want to hear about it? Immense efforts and means are invested in preparation for conventions. Might it be preferable to invest in attracting people who are not familiar with the integral method?

Answer: Certainly, it would be nice to use all our means for world dissemination. However, it is impossible to turn to a person and say: “Let’s set up a virtual convention, and the effort and resources that could be invested in a physical convention, we will invest in dissemination.”

Question: Why not? It is certainly very nice to see like-minded people with whom you are familiar at the conventions. However, these events gather so many people now that it is more and more difficult to meet people whom we know. So, our experiment to create a big family where everyone knows everyone else essentially becomes a fantasy. Is it worthwhile to waste our resources and efforts on this?

Answer: You might be right. I feel that we are going in this direction, but every paradigm must finish its work. So, I hope that what is being conceived now will ultimately come into being: a virtual world system of integral education that will not require constant meetings.

However, today, when I come to Europe, for example, and hundreds of students arrive from thirty countries, for them, this is not just a meeting with me. This is an organization. They communicate with each other, regroup, and agree on how to disseminate, what must be done next, and so on. Along with this, I try to give them the opportunity to connect, to mold an organized center for information and publicity by themselves.

The power that is created through our communication is what is called the wisdom of the group that today already has been established through experiments.

We are dealing with physical values, not imaginary ones. When people gather and organize some kind of society among themselves, a great power and potential appears, which is greater than the mere sum. This is natural and scientifically proven.
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From KabTV’s “The Global Crisis” 3/19/13

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Learn About Permanence From The Light

Learn About Permanence From The LightThe first and primary rule is that the upper Light is at absolute rest. The influence of the Creator on us is constant, as it is written, “There is none else besides Him”; His manifestation, HaVaYaH, is invariable. Therefore, the reactions and changes within us need to reach stability and cease changing as well so that from our side also, there will be a permanent relationship existing at absolute rest, meaning in perfection.

In addition, if we still feel constant changes within us, if we feel physical or spiritual time, movement, or place, this is a sign that the creature has not yet reached perfection. We must yearn for a state where everything will be invariant, where adherence will be permanent.

All of our work is to act on those outside of us and help friends reach this kind of state. We cannot influence ourselves. Nobody works on himself since a person is not master over himself. However, since we are in a closed integral system, it follows that all the action is done only outside of the person and directed toward others and from the others, on the person himself. The person cannot act on himself.

Therefore, all the activities are done within a group, in a group of ten. Together with this, I need to desire that the action of the group on me will hold me in a perfect and permanent state. If I behave like this toward the friends and they behave like this toward me, then from this, we learn how to behave toward the Creator. To the degree that we connect to Him correctly, we discover His relationship with us, until we reach permanent connection and adherence.

All the changes are intended to show to us where we still lack permanence so that we can reach absolute rest. Therefore, one of the main rules of behavior in the group determines that a person cannot influence himself. Instead, he is activated and influenced only by the environment. To the degree that he influences others, he discovers himself, developing within himself sensitivity to the similar, external influences of the friends.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/13

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Shattering For The Sake Of Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do we receive the Creator’s desire to bestow and become the ones who bestow ourselves?

Answer: The Light that shattered the vessels inserted its desire to bestow into them, into the desire to receive. So when the desire to receive discovers the shattering, it also discovers the Creator’s desire to bestow inside it. This is already concealed in my vessels.

The Creator inserted the desire to bestow into my shattered vessels during the shattering. He gave me His testimony as to how much He wants to give me. I am incorporated in His deficiency to give by the revelation of this testimony. This becomes my desire to give and my ability to bestow by the Light that Reforms. This is the preparation that was inserted into us during the shattering and that was imprinted in us.

Otherwise I wouldn’t be impressed by His desire to bestow and couldn’t respond to it. It can be revealed in me only thanks to the fact that my attitude towards the Creator has already been imprinted in me.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/13, Writings of Rabash

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Tie Yourself To The Group Like A Ship To A Pier

Tie Yourself To The Group Like A Ship To A PierQuestion: What does it mean to open oneself to the impact of the environment?

Answer: Can Malchut influence itself? It changes only under impact from outside. Every quality affects other external characteristics, forces, and properties, and thus, it changes its state. It is impossible for any Sefira to be changed without changing the entire system of ten Sefirot in general.

For some reason, we think that we ourselves can do something with ourselves. If, for example, I want to stay on a diet, I need an external influence that will help me maintain it. I remove all the temptations around me so that there are no sweets nearby. I create a new schedule, and so forth. That is, I should organize all the external factors—still, vegetative, animate, and human—so that they have the desired effect on me. I think only about the surrounding conditions.

I make a contract in the event that I will change in a moment, and then the terms of the contract keep me in the same state. To do this, I make an agreement with the person who will influence me or support me on the still, vegetative, and animate levels. It doesn’t matter what these forces are. The main thing is that they keep me in the desired state.

I have reached a certain state and want it to become permanent, and from it, I was able to advance even further. So, I must strengthen this state, fix it like a ship that drops anchor to avoid drifting from the shore or ties itself to a pier. I always need external support of all the four types: still, vegetative, animate, and human.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/2013, Writings of Rabash

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We Have To Be In A State Of Work

Dr. Michael LaitmanAfter the recent convention in New Jersey, we feel a certain fogginess, a certain distraction, and an inability to concentrate. I understand that we have been through several days of very active clarifications and strong feelings, but we must transcend all that.

There is the person’s inner state, and there is the state of work, in which we must sustain ourselves by connecting above all the states we have been through in order to draw the Light that Reforms. If we wait for things to work out by themselves, we only will acquire an animal mind, but if we operate as a group and draw the Light that Reforms, the Light will come from Above and give us the upper, spiritual mind.

These are two different levels in which there is a totally different perspective. It is either an animal’s perspective or a perspective of man (Adam), similar to the Creator. We must choose now through whose eyes we want to look at reality. If we simply sit and wait without yearning for the inner group concentration, we will go back to the animal life, to the animal perspective.

We shouldn’t be afraid of leaving all our previous feelings and accounts and of expecting only the Light that Reforms, no matter which states it brings us. The main thing is to exert ourselves in drawing the Light. So, let’s make an effort and focus on that.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 05/14/13, The Book of Zohar 

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