Entries in the 'Inner Work' Category

Responsible For Humanity

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhat is the future of humanity because every day it feels itself more and more confused? Underneath the external bravado there are small, perplexed people who don’t know what to do. They rush from side to side, trying to eliminate the causes of all the problems: social, political, economic, and environmental. And the problems will keep on growing because at the center of them is the human being who is not adapted to the new system, a new world.

That is why we are faced with an enormous task of telling humanity about the new world and how to match it. We have to feel responsible for this.

There is no need to wait until suffering accelerates the development of humanity; on the contrary, it slows down this process. People hide from suffering, shrink, and can accept nothing. Instead of expanding, understanding, and correcting, people begin to regress backward. Only the proper awareness of the problems will speed up their development. That is why we need to make every effort to bring our message to humanity.

Integral education, integral upbringing, the integrality of all the levels, sectors, nations, and states is the future of humanity; there is no other method. It depends only on us, our global group, which way will take there: being forced or by a kind and short path. Therefore, I urge you to think about this and develop clear plans for our dissemination.

Dissemination consists of two systems:

1. Internal dissemination: the connection between us who study the science of Kabbalah and strive towards unity, as well as between us and the world;

2. External dissemination: through the Internet, books, lectures, workshops, etc.

But one should not be at the expense of the other! The proportion should be the following: internally, we have to expand constantly educating teachers and organizers. Hundreds of thousands, millions of people will need us!

You will soon see that this need will arise. Even today, if we were ready, we could find the employment of our forces in the field of integral education. You can do everything! You have no idea how important each of you are to the world! You have to bring yourselves up as teachers of the world. This is the guarantee of the good future of humanity.

I hope that we will be able to bring a new approach to the world, especially through our inner part, through internal dissemination, through the common network, linking all the people in the world. It depends only on us. And here of course, our personal obstacles will either help us or hinder us from accomplishing this mission.
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/9/12, Lesson 6

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Conventions: A Potential Leap

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn principle, conventions never end because the level that we achieve at each of them is just a small leap, a launching pad for further advancement. Everything depends on what thoughts we have when we leave the conventions: forgetting about them or holding everything that was there by means of our inner effort, and in any case not letting this state cool off!

Gradually, you will get used to constantly monitoring yourself from inside and rising above obstacles. Thus, the impressions from conventions will increase, and you will understand more: where I actually was and what happened there.

You will discover an amazing state that you did not experience firsthand at the convention. It appears after the convention when all sorts of interferences will start to emerge: on the way, at home, in everyday life. If you rise above them constantly, not reacting to the external things, but holding the state received at the convention inside yourself, then you will see how much you feel new nuances in it. Awareness will increase! If you begin to raise yourself with the help of egoism above all the problems, then you will begin to understand what it means.

That is why a convention is a potential leap of which you are not yet aware. After it, you enter in a chaotic sensual state where everything is mixed, and only then, when you begin to work on your egoism so that it does not cool you down and lead you to the side, then you will become aware of this state. It becomes yours, bright and personal; you pass it through yourself. That is why the moments of seeming distancing from the state received at the convention are very important.

Try to hold it all the time! We can hug, kiss, leave—it does not matter, but inside everyone must keep this state! Anti-egoistic work on oneself should be permanent! Do not destroy the ego, but work on it together with it! Then we will rise.
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/9/12, Lesson 6

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A Letter To The Beloved In The Front

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we connect what we study in TES about Malchut that raises MAN to Zeir Anpin, the prayer from which the spiritual birth begins, to the women’s convention?

Answer: True, it all begins from the female deficiency; this is the real deficiency, the deficiency of Malchut. Zeir Anpin symbolizes the male and Malchut, Nukva, symbolizes the woman.

We are expecting a strong general desire to be accumulated and gathered in the women in this connection above all the differences and the individualism. We hope that the women will help one another to connect and will be able to raise their general deficiency so high that it will be felt in the spiritual system.

If it is felt and revealed in the general system, then we men will also feel it. I asked the women to write a letter with a request, with a demand, with an appeal from the women’s convention to the men’s convention but, in fact, in the spiritual world; it doesn’t really matter whether this request is expressed in writing; the main thing is that it will be incorporated in the system of the general desire of creation, of the general reality.

A letter, however, can hasten this bestowal and bring it together, since it does obligate us to respond; let’s hope that we will receive a very strong push from the women’s convention, a stimulation, a demand to draw the Light that Reforms.

If we try to attain the Light according to the women’s request, we will have a form that is closer to bestowal compared to the form we could create on our own. Women can even ask egoistically for themselves for help for them to connect and attain spirituality. But when this desire is aimed at bestowal and connection, at least a little, it is connected to the wisdom of Kabbalah, and incorporated in a man; he already accepts it as a spiritual desire, since it is already a foreign demand. So by fulfilling this demand we create a much stronger spiritual act than if we tried to create it by ourselves, for ourselves.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/13, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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The Women’s Convention: Nothing Comes Easy

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can you “exit yourself”? Do you connect with everyone through internal concentration, in thought, or by physical contact and interaction?

Answer: Everyone is different, but rejection is manifested in everyone according to his egoism, and according to this, he is given the opportunity to make efforts. You should not think that it’s easier for someone and more difficult for someone else. Even if everything comes easy for someone, it’s only at the beginning. So, nothing comes easy to anyone; it’s weighed out equally for everyone.

There are people who are more open and expressive, and conversely, some are more reserved and introverted. But in the end, no one can say that he should make more or less effort than the other; this measure is equal for everyone; there are differences only in the expression, in the style of the external manifestations, but not more. That’s why there is no one we should be envious of. According to the nature of man, with the conditions that are always set for him from Above, he is given strength and ability to overcome obstacles.
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From the Virtual Lesson 1/6/13

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Your Personal Invitation Of The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What state does a person go through at the lowest point of the descent and what is he supposed to do then? What is our mistake?

Answer: If I fall to the bottom of the descent, then at this lowest critical point I cannot do anything by myself. It is as if I am neutralized by all the Light that operates on me.

The Light operates on me during all the phases of my development (the Surrounding Light 1), and under its influence I descend. Its action leads to my descent by adding a corrupt desire to me. Eventually I find myself at the lowest point in which I cannot do anything. There are no means by which I can ascend; I am under the total influence of the ego.

But the moment I begin to rise, at least a bit, thanks to the gap between the new state and the state I was in, I already have to do something independently. I rise to the first state with the help of the group, but thanks to the level I rose to, I now have to start doing something by myself: to raise MAN, a prayer, a request, to exert myself. I have to draw the Light by myself in order to start its influence according to my invitation and not through someone else.

I cannot wake up and pull myself out of the lowest place independently and without help: “A prisoner cannot rescue himself from prison.” But the moment I rise a bit with the help of the friends, I can already carry on by myself. I am not a prisoner that is chained down anymore! I have a friend who helps me on the outside to get out of this pit.

But if after I have been helped to rise a bit, I am too lazy and don’t exert myself, if I don’t immediately turn to the Light that Reforms, but wait and rise simply with the current of time, with the help of the environment, then I don’t draw upon myself new spiritual powers.

The moment I get an opportunity, I immediately have to start working by myself. Otherwise the Creator will help me get out of the pit once or twice and then leave me since I don’t do anything on my own. He sends me help: through the group, through the friends, in different ways, but if I don’t respond to it enough, He leaves me.

It turns out that He has to add evil and sufferings down below where I fell, different corporeal problems, so that I will finally understand that I have no choice and that I have to rise. I understand that it is worthwhile to exert myself a little and to advance for the lowest corporeal reasons. I will try to escape from corporeality to spirituality because I feel bad in my ordinary life.

In that case I don’t rise by drawing the Light that Reforms but because of ordinary animal sufferings.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/13, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Are There Limits To Loyalty And Love?

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe will have to go through many states in the spiritual work. The first, easiest, and most essential step is to invert from “I” to “we.” After all, “we” still includes me, and in it is included our general pride. Everybody disappears in this concept, not only me. We see in our regular lives that it’s relatively easy for a person to identify in such a way with a group, with a military unit, with the family, to tie himself with other bodies.

Later on, greater and more difficult discernments will arrive, more personal correction. I begin to worry precisely about the most hated people who cause me the most troubles and problems. And it is not even just hatred, I open the highest degrees of hatred and repulsion that an ordinary person cannot even imagine and feel. I, however, must rise above all my ego and reach such a state that this most-hated person, whom I would want to trample, becomes more dear than myself, and I prefer that he will get all the best, and nothing will be left for me.

It’s not easy to attain such a correction, but certainly in the end it has to be like this, and not just in general, but towards specific people. At first we go from my personal “I” to the general “we,” and afterwards, in “we,” the elements begin to reveal, meaning “Him.”

And in all these actions, the rescue is only the greatness of the Creator that rises above my self-importance, in order to help me happily get rid of my “I” for the sake of another’s benefit. I will be thankful for the opportunity that was given to me to turn my hated ones to the Creator’s beloved ones, because from them He will get greater pleasure.

This is such terrible “masochism” that can’t even be imagined, but it’s all based on the greatness of the Creator. We are required to raise this greatness to such a degree that nothing will remain from my feeling of “I.” This is called “existence from absence,” and we are returning to this absence. But this is still not the limit to self-nullification! But we will talk about the next steps later …
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From the Preparation the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/13

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“Banging Your Head Against The Wall” Or Starting To Think?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to ask of the Creator? Where is this Creator? How can I ask for something from Him, if I know nothing about Him?

Answer: You should look for Him! Everyone should imagine Him in his heart, or perhaps in his imagination, although Kabbalists don’t deal with imagination.

The Creator is called the general force of nature. Why do we say that we turn to Him? This is really very confusing. But there is a force that I can discover according to my desire. In our corporeal life I also discover different phenomena according to my desire. If I had no desire, I wouldn’t see, I wouldn’t breathe. For everything, there is first a desire and then you experience, discover, hear, and understand it, open your eyes more, and make a breakthrough. It is all according to the desire.

It is the same here. The spiritual world is merely a connection that is concealed from us for the time being. In it we discover our life that is independent of the body; the body is dead, while we continue to live in this connection. This is called a “soul“. Now we have to discover it. Our body doesn’t interfere. If we annul it—which means that we live in it because we are alive, without giving it any special attention, without glorifying it, using it as is, feeding it, letting it drink, washing it and putting it to sleep, and taking care of it as we take care of an animal and not more than that—and invest everything else in discovering the soul, then we will discover it.

A soul is the connection between everyone. In order to discover it, you have a point, a beginning of a soul. If this point is missing, there is nothing we can talk about, you are free, go deal with your body, enjoy life. But if you have a point in the heart, the beginning of a soul that evokes you, that doesn’t let you rest, then you come to a Kabbalistic group and you are told how to start revealing your soul, your connection with others. It isn’t a connection between humans, between their bodies, but a connection between individual desires in which there is a point, a beginning of the soul.

Imagine that there is a concealed network among a million members of our global group (although there are many more). This is what we have to discover. The moment I discover the 1/125th part of this connection, I am already on the first level of the spiritual world and in that network, I discover the spiritual world, my self, eternity above time, motion, and place, the whole spiritual dimension, and the source of all this that is called “the Creator.” This is what we are attracted to.

There are people who have already discovered spirituality, written about it, and told us accurately and in great detail how to fulfill this revelation gradually, and what we should do. All this is called “Torah“, the book of instruction. It doesn’t speak about any physical actions or movements with our body; we can leave it alone. It is only about how we can develop our sensitivity through the connection with others, toward the upper force, and then you will attain eternity.

Question: I am sitting here with the text of The Zohar, trying to feel something else that is here as a result of our collective efforts, but I can’t. I continue, and I fail over and over again. You are saying: “Ask the Creator!” but I know nothing about Him, I have nothing to hold on to!

Answer: My advice is that if you have hit your head against the wall a thousand times, then perhaps something has “moved” in your head as a result and you can think a bit more deeply about the Creator: “Who is hiding there? Who is standing in my way? Who has put this wall before me?” You are not just hitting your head against the wall anymore, but you are adding thought to it. A person grows wiser as a result of the blows, right? This is what I expect of you.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/13, The Zohar

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Freewill: More Questions Than Answers

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn what state do we currently find ourselves? Who is organizing this state for us? Who “resets” us, who prepares us by leaving us only one correct action, which in so doing we will succeed?

We see that everything is determined in Nature. We are in a rigid system that chains us in on all sides and doesn’t let us move freely by even one millimeter. On the contrary, every movement you make shakes the system and it responds immediately. If you understand that, then your reactions are correct. Imagine that you are standing naked, completely surrounded by needles that almost touch your skin. You can’t even make the slightest movement, and at the most you may be able to move your eyes a little.

This is how the laws of nature “wrap” us. It’s even much more than that since they operate both in our mind and our emotions (in the heart), and I have to check: Do I have any free will? Does anything exist except this nature? If so, then this is where my self is. But can anyone exist on the outside? In the meantime I am totally, internally and externally, surrounded by needles and can’t move independently at all.

So we have to clarify what there can be besides nature. Has it left one of its creatures called “Adam – man” something that enables him to become free of it? And besides, how can this be if the whole universe is a system of absolute fixed laws? We are in a system that is totally mutually connected and each day we discover its integrality more and more, that it is deterministic and that there is no freedom in it; so how can it be that there is something outside its whole laws and frameworks? It’s a serious problem: Who is outside the laws? Of course, it isn’t our animal body, which we can study thoroughly since we have all the necessary data for that.

On the whole, we all totally obey nature’s laws, and if we are satisfied with that, then everything can keep on flowing that way, but if we can discover at least one grain of freedom that would really be a wonder. For what is the freedom intended? How and for what has nature made room in itself for it, why has it restricted itself and not entered this zone? What is this space in which the real created being who is not under the influence of nature actually exists? What is this created being actually? Does it have any laws of its own according to which it operates?

There are many questions to answer here. Spinoza and Kant mainly dealt with these questions. It’s a complex system that belongs to us since we ask the question about the meaning of life by refusing to accept the deterministic approach, aspiring to be above the predetermined corporeal state, and to find something else….
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/4/13, “The Peace”

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At The Forefront Of The Spiritual Attack

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur correction depends on our receiving a new attire called Masach (screen), or an intention, because we were created from the matter of the desire to receive, which is totally opposite from the Creator. This enables us to use our desire to receive in order to bestow in the same way that the Creator treats us since adhesion is possible only according to the equivalence of form.

So, all our work is first to discover how opposite we are from the Creator and then, according to our sorrow because of this oppositeness, to ask for correction, equivalence of form. This is, in fact, all we must do.

So, why must we go through such a long path. Isn’t it possible to ask the Creator to make us whole, right away? In fact, the Creator has created everything whole. We are in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), identifying with Him, equal to Him, and in absolute adhesion with the Creator, and only our recognition of this state is missing. This recognition determines our independence.

Adhesion was created by the Creator, but on our part, we only have to be like a drop of semen that is adhered to the mother’s womb but hasn’t developed into a human being yet. It doesn’t feel its “self” yet. It doesn’t feel that it exists as an independent being. In order to discover its self-existence, this drop of semen must draw away from the Creator in its feeling of independent existence to the distance in which they were strongly adhered.

On the one hand, from the perspective of the nature of this drop, it will draw further and further away from the Creator according to the size of its desire until the entire desire contracts into a point, into a zero, into “nothing,” and totally disappears. However, on the other hand, the way back will be revealed to us: the need to overcome this great distance because of the differences in our nature and to attain equivalence of form.

When we reach equality and connection above the distance between us, we attain the Creator’s form and understand and feel Him, His plan, and this entire program. This is why, on one hand, we become independent, and on the other hand, we adhere to Him according to our own desire and freewill.

Thus, we discover all of creation. In this process, it becomes increasingly clearer to us. It is impossible to do that all at once since the heart must understand this process and not only the cold mind.

The revelation is possible only where there is concealment. The darker it is, the more the Light that arrives can illuminate all its dark caves, all the opposite forms of the darkness. Then, as a result of the connection of all the direct and inverse forms, the recognition is born, the attainment, as it is written, “The advantage of the Light is knowable only from the darkness.”

Our world is built in the exact same way. If a person doesn’t understand a certain phenomenon, he may pass by it and not even notice it. In order to discover a new, natural phenomenon, a person must study a lot and be in the vanguard, at the forefront of the scientific discoveries. He must know everything that is revealed to us and then suddenly see what is beyond the boundaries of the attainable, which means to discover something new. In order to do that, he needs to attain and recognize all the vessels that he has attained so far.

The same rules operate in the wisdom of Kabbalah. People who are ready to be in the dark in order to attain spirituality draw upon themselves the Light into the darkness, and then, in the gap between them, they begin to discover the spiritual attainment and the equivalence to the Creator and the adhesion to Him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/13, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Checkpoints Throughout The 125 Degrees

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 133: It is rather like a king who wished to select for himself the most loyal of his subjects in the country and bring them in to work inside his palace. What did he do? He issued a decree that anyone who wished, young or old, would come to his palace to engage in the work inside his palace.

However, he appointed many of his servants to guard the palace gate and all the roads leading to it, and ordered them to cunningly deflect all those nearing his palace and divert them from the way that leads to the palace…

And only the heroes among them, whose patience endured, defeated the guards and opened the gate. And they were instantly awarded seeing the King’s face, who appointed each of them in his right place.

The guards are appointed in order to guard a person. He mustn’t come near the King’s palace and pass the place where the guards stand, unless he establishes an inner guard.

The Creator has many policemen and they are on each of the 125 degrees, preventing a person from coming nearer. They show you that you are allowed to rise only to a specific level, and you are not allowed to pass above that for the time being. It is because they see that you are not ready for the upper level yet. This is what happens each time.

The guards make sure that a person will not advance any further (although it is impossible, since there are rigid laws of conformity in the spiritual world). The guards reveal deficiencies to a person—a place for self-checking. They evoke him and don’t let him relax in his current state by bringing him all kinds of troubles.

They guard the person; the Light and the Creator don’t need to be guarded because it is impossible to harm them if you are not worthy of seeing them. It is all done according to the equivalence of form; if I am not suitable for a higher level, I don’t recognize it.

What does it mean that I cannot advance? Do I see that the road before me is blocked? If I haven’t corrected myself yet on the previous level, I cannot advance and climb the mountain a few meters further, but the guards help me and point me at the problematic point. They are there in order to protect me, to hasten me, to bring me closer, and to help me reach the necessary discernments. Everything is in a person’s favor and for his correction.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/13, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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