Entries in the 'My Similarity to the Creator' Category

A Blessing Or A Curse?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why is it so important not to condemn the Creator, but to constantly justify Him?

Answer: If it hurts you that you curse the Creator and you wish to correct the situation, it isn’t because you are afraid to speak evil of Him, since everyone justifies Him in words, everyone.

The difference between those who have revealed the Creator and those who haven’t is that if a person hasn’t revealed the Creator, it means that he curses Him. If a person has revealed the Creator, it means that he blesses Him.

This is the way it is revealed in the vessels, in a person’s feeling, according to equivalence of form. If I understand the Creator, feel Him, thank Him, and bless Him, feeling that I am like Him, it is to this extent that I reveal Him. Once I reveal the Creator, I bless Him.

But if I am in a state of concealment, it means that I curse the Creator. There are different levels of concealment just as there are different levels of revelation. There are levels of deep concealment in which I am like a baby who is forgiven, no matter what he does at the moment, as long as he grows and is healthy. He can make a mess and break things, but he is still forgiven since he is a baby! This is the form of concealment.

There can also be a form of concealment in which I begin to realize that I should behave properly, but in the meantime I cannot. Thus I keep on developing. The concealment or revelation of the Creator, however, are always a sign of what I say about Him, whether I bless or curse Him.
[147210]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/14, Shamati #1

Related Material:
A Blessing In The Heart
Blessed Are You Who Created The Worlds….
Blessing And Condemnation

The Resolution Of The Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is very important to check yourself: “What worries me?” Every moment that I feel alive and well, I am full of worries. So what do I worry about?

Am I worried about my own well-being, tranquility, achievement, what will make me happier, peace and quiet, security, food, and family welfare?

Or am I worried about friends, like a mother with a baby, searching for what they are missing and what should be done for them?  Do I worry about the group like a faithful nanny? This means I must check the intention of my worries.

The whole of creation gradually descended down to our world in which we exist in physical form and in the most inferior situation. We feel as if we are detached from the spiritual world, when in fact that can’t happen. So this world is called the imaginary world.

We suppose we exist in a vast world filled with lots of physical objects. However, in fact, it is all spiritual, but we don’t recognize or feel this.

So it is very important to check what I am worried about at every moment. Entering the spiritual world means continuing to be concerned about what is essential and vital in life: food, sleep, health, money, and relationships with people, but subconsciously, I am always troubled by the thought of how to organize the group so that it will become the Shechina (divinity), a place for discovering the Creator.

I must get used to being happy about my concern for the group. If I stop worrying about it, then I am worried about why am I not concerned about the friends. This must become habitual. In our world, habit becomes second nature.

Suppose that they give me a baby who is a stranger for whom I have no feelings. But I have no choice; I am compelled to worry about him day after day. I begin to be concerned about him and he becomes important for me. Ultimately, I begin to think about him all the time. It is the same thing in relation to the group. We must attain this state that is possible thanks only to determination and constantly returning to my thoughts about the group.

And after all these nice plans about taking care of the group, about my supporting it, attracting Light into it, about the Creator and giving Him satisfaction, I must ask myself, where He is and where I am subconsciously. I must always clarify what I am doing all this for. Certainly I hope to receive some reward, but what exactly?

It could be that in the meantime, I am not ready to imagine a reward for myself. It could be that I understand that afterward, for my effort I will demand control, respect, and transcendence of life and death, something tangible and very important for me. And here I must examine what is more important for me: Is it my reward or the ability to give satisfaction to the friends and the Creator?

Can I forego the reward, or at least part of it? And when I forego a reward, won’t I replace it with something else other than fame and the pursuit of honor?

What does it mean to give pleasure to the Creator? By what means can I do this and with which desires do I feel it? Through what will I feel that the Creator gets pleasure from me? It is necessary to try to separate my desires and perception into as many parts as possible and see how to work with them. The more parameters that I have, the more I will develop my perception.

This is like pixels on a computer screen that determine its resolution: In one square centimeter there can be two hundred pixels, there could be a thousand, or there could be ten thousand. The more points there are, the better and clearer the picture becomes.

The same thing happens also happens with our desires. The more we scrutinize them, the closer we come to the truth, to true perception.
[147091]
From the Convention In Los Angeles “Day Two” 11/01/14, Lesson #4

Related Material:
Two-Sided Work
Be Drawn To Love
Turning To The Group Is Turning To The Light

The One Who Sets Everything In Motion

Dr. Michael LaitmanDuring our study we first discover the actions of our ego in every state. This is called another god. It is when I think that I do things by myself and that my life is determined by others such as world leaders who keep law and order, those who are close to me, those who are distant, friends, and foes. In short, I see many operating factors, both positive and negative.

Each time I grow stronger I see that it isn’t so. I simply look at what is going on as wrong and attribute those actions to those around me. But when the situation clears up, I see that the Creator sets them in motion and that they actually don’t understand what is going on. He is the only one who operates them in order to influence me. Thus, I once again discover that there is none else besides Him.

That’s the way it is in every state. Each time I eventually discover that there is no other force before me but Him.

This also applies to me: Now it seems that I am exerting myself, acting or doing something, arranging my connection with others and that I am independent in my thoughts and desires, but it is all a lie. The Creator governs everything.

Why do we see a different picture? It is so that we will be able to correct the vessel, our desires, and our ability to perceive and see that there is none else besides Him and that only He operates in reality.

Where do I reveal that? In the states, desires, and thoughts that now make me feel confident in knowing that we are all independent. It is with regard to this notion that it is written: “as the advantage of the Light out of the darkness.” The more I attribute more definite and certain independence to different factors, the more clearly I eventually discover that there is none else beside Him.

By undergoing different changes that guide me for and against the uniqueness of the Creator, I eventually begin to discover Him, not only in different situations, but also in the intensity, in the thickness (Aviut), of my desire, not only to its width, but also to its depth. I see increasingly how it operates on me through every external detail.

Then it turns out that instead of the friends and the group, I am dealing with the Creator. But that doesn’t mean that I should disrespect them. On the contrary, in the meantime, they have attained equivalence of form and so I relate to them just as I relate to the Creator. Therefore it says: “from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator.”

It turns out that in all the troubles and contradictions, and in all my quests for the source of this life of sorrow, I have been brought to the one and only source and I see that it is actually the Creator who presents this whole reality to me. Previously, the force against it confused me by showing me that others are to blame for everything that happens, including me, since I made so many efforts. Now it turns out that only the Light operates both for and against.

I, on the other hand, am only a spectator looking at God’s work, at the only force that operates in all of reality.
[147103]
From the Convention In Los Angeles “Day Two” 11/01/14, Lesson #3

 Related Material:
Unlimited Access To The Computer Of The Creator
Healing The Point Of Disconnection
There Is None Else Besides Him: The Flirting Of Lovers

Short Stories: The Evolution Of Abraham’s Group–Isaac

Dr. Michael LaitmanAfter Abraham founded his school, he began to develop the Kabbalistic method with the students who joined him. Thus he created three systems: a system of studying, a system of dissemination, and a system of fulfilling the wisdom of Kabbalah.

The system of dissemination takes into account the level of a person’s development. Everything depends on how people can perceive the spiritual idea, to what extent it is close to them and can answer their expectations, and to what extent they can be shown that this system is beneficial for them.

Later, when they ascend and develop, they will be ready to understand other options that the wisdom offers them. Therefore, a person should always be approached on his level, in a language that he understands, so he be can attracted by knowing you can actually help him realize what he wants.

This is what Abraham engaged in when he explained that the ultimate goal of our evolution is love and bestowal, and those who wish to attain it internally, at least to some extent, should come to him.

This is how the next stage of the development of Abraham’s school began. At this point, it was called Abraham’s group, since all the members in the group began to work on the connection between them, accepting the fact that unity is above separation.

When the leap of the ego occurred in ancient Babylon and people wanted to build a tower to reach heaven, that is, to the uppermost force, it was putting pressure on the negative force.

Abraham, however, claimed that the negative force stems from the same positive force and has to be operated differently, by absorbing it as what we call the left line (the negative force). He believed that the ego that rises in people should be studied and worked with correctly. This is the reason that the period that followed the development of Abraham’s group is called Isaac.

The correct use of the ego is called the sacrifice of Isaac, which means that we bind our ego and threaten to kill it, totally ready to sacrifice it, although we understand that we will not attain the Creator without it. On the other hand, resemblance and equivalence to the Creator can only be attained if we limit the ego correctly. For us, it is like cutting our own flesh.

We learn to control our ego, to bind it, manage it, and place it under the attribute of love and bestowal without destroying it and without threatening it, and we become ready to break away from ourselves (since the ego is the whole self). This process is part of our evolution, and when we perform it, we are have the opportunity for the correct, productive, and focused work with our ego. This is the essence of the story of the sacrifice of Isaac.
[146497]
From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/15/14

Related Material:
Short Stories: Abraham’s Rough Path
Short Stories: The Source Of The Spiritual Practices
Short Stories: The Spiritual Father Of Humanity

The Most Stubborn And Most Purposeful

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Book of Zohar, “Tzav” (Command), item 16: “Command Aaron” comes to crown that spirit of holiness up above, separate the spirit of impurity and lower it down from Israel by desire and prayer, and from the priests in the act of sacrificing the sacrifice, each by what is appropriate for him.

A priest is the heaviest and most egoistic part in a person (the fifth level), who by correcting himself, reaches the most sublime heights.

The popular belief is that the priests have the worst character, as they are rude, rigid, and have no feelings. This is because when the lowest ego is corrected it reaches the greatest heights in its opposite form.

The ego of the priest is reversed and ascends from the lowest level to the highest level, and thus the priest can be the leader of the nation, the spiritual guide. Being on a higher level than everyone else according to his ego, he now becomes higher than everyone else according to his altruism.

On the whole, all Kabbalists are very stubborn, coarse people who work on themselves only to change internally and resemble the Creator. This is not seen on the onside, and in everyday life, they are ordinary people. All their spiritual work is concealed from the eyes of strangers, and therefore it is called the concealed wisdom.

The more a person develops spiritually, the tougher, more stubborn and obstinate he becomes. The Upper Light sustains him in this state and in all his actions. A person is in a state of clarification at every moment in his life as to what happens to him and how he can direct himself to the right path.

He first clarifies this and then sorts it out, burns, cuts, and kills his egoistic intentions by four kinds of deaths and leaves only the pure desires. Only then does he begin to correct them by attaching them to his altruistic intentions. Instead of thinking about himself, he begins to think about others; instead of worrying about himself, he worries about others; instead of loving himself, he begins to love others. Thus in every situation in life he puts his intentions through others to the Creator.

Therefore, for the priests it is the most sublime, greatest, most serious, and most spiritual law and decision.

On the outside it seems that the priest’s decisions constantly change, but on the inside he focuses on one point. But, because the ego is constantly swinging in different directions, it turns out that a person seems to be going round and round in the Sinai Desert until he cleans it completely.

He doesn’t change his initial decision, but only more finely tunes it, like a missile that constantly corrects itself according to the system that observes its flight, each time changing the angle of its flight and getting back on its initial track. A person also thinks that there are constant changes inside him while the goal and the direction remain the same. This is his future adhesion to the Creator, with the attribute of absolute love and bestowal, in the complete unity of all the shattered souls,

If a person constantly aims at this, he follows the optimal path.
[134081]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/27/13

Related Material:
Becoming A Great Priest
Where Is The Door?
Absorb The Entire World Into Yourself

A Generation Of Seekers

Dr. Michael LaitmanA person faces many questions as to how to act, work, and speed up his development, that is, to speed up the revelation of the Creator. Revealing the Creator, the force that manages all of reality and our part in it, is the only thing a person does in this world.

In order to achieve it, we follow the advice of people who have already been through this process and who attained the revelation of the Creator. This is the reason that we study the wisdom of Kabbalah, which by definition is the method of revealing the Creator to the created beings in this world. All we have to do is to fulfill and implement what Kabbalists say.

Of course, the closer a Kabbalist is to our times, the more useful his advice is for us because he better understands us since he is lives the same lifestyle that and is as our contemporary.

Thus, we begin to study the system that includes, not only the system of concealment between us and the Creator, but also the system where the Kabbalists are, those who have attained the Creator. They revealed the Creator during their lifetime in this world, which means that they removed the concealment.

They are not in this world anymore, but the fruits of their work are not lost, and by using them, we can develop a special sense and recognition above our ordinary physical senses and mind.

Our physical perception of the world is even more limited than that of animals. All animals can feel a tsunami approaching three days in advance and flee to the mountains. It is only humans who don’t suspect anything. We don’t even feel nature and are the furthest from it compared to all the animals. However, it isn’t about the existence of the corporeal body but about our attitude towards the upper force.

The desire to attain the upper force awakens only in man and even that doesn’t happen in everyone. But in every generation since the existence of mankind there are people in whom such a need to reveal the Creator awakens and they fulfill this desire.

Besides revealing the Creator they also leave us their writings though books, letters, and articles. Each one writes in his own style about how to remove the concealment, the system of concealments, and how to use the system.

It is because it isn’t revealed all at once and not fully, but gradually. Thus we have to go through certain actions. Kabbalists tell us how to help each other do that if there are people in our generation with the same yearning for revealing the Creator.

There have been many generations of Kabbalists since the first man (Adam), who was the first Kabbalist to attain the Creator and who removed the concealment. We can use their legacy, and besides their writings, we can also use their help.

When we enter a system where the Creator is present, but invisible, we can use the help of Kabbalists who have already attained His revelation. They are actively incorporated within this system and sustain it on a certain level of revelation and attainment by bringing it closer to us and helping us become incorporated within it.

We only need to attain the sensitivity and the recognition needed to reveal it so that we can use the system correctly with the help of the Kabbalists.

We also have to carry out all their recommendations in this world. In our generation there are many people who want to reveal the Creator. We are living in a special time when there is permission to reveal the wisdom of Kabbalah to everyone. Anyone who wants to reveal the Creator can come and reveal Him.

Thus we have a unique opportunity. If we unite in our search for the Creator, it will be like looking together for someone who is lost in the woods. We can all go out together, many people, and search the whole forest. Everyone can go and cry out: “Hey, where are you??!” and so by helping one another, we will eventually find the one who is lost.

Similarly, we can look for the Creator together. Such a collective search is much easier than searching individually. It is actually impossible to find the Creator by one’s self, but together we will do it quickly and easily.
[144978]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/5/14

Related Material:
Knowing The World We Live In
A Science Whose Time Has Come
At The Balance Point Between Two Forces

The Diagnostic And Curative Power Of The Torah

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why does the holiday of Simchat Torah (rejoicing with the Torah) immediately follow Sukkot?

Answer: During the seven days of Sukkot, when I am in the Sukkah, which means surrounded by the surrounding Light, I being am corrected. This Light reaches me through Scach (branches that cover the Sukkah), which itself, is a whole spiritual mechanism.

I have guests every evening, such as  Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and David, each of whom symbolizes a special attribute in a person. In other words, it is about forces that correct my attributes by turning them from evil into goodness.

I perform internal work on the entire path to perfection and use the Torah as the force of correction, and thanks to that, I am able to identify the evil within me and identify it to such an extent that eventually there is none left.

After this diagnosis, the Torah turns the evil in me into goodness and then I resemble the Creator, the absolute goodness. I am filled with love and bestowal towards others and through them to Him, since it is actually the same thing. Thus I discover what is called “the whole world is filled with His honor.” He is in everything that seems to me as being external.

Question: The holiday of Simchat Torah symbolizes joy. What is a person actually joyful about in this holiday?

Answer: It is that he has used the Torah correctly and has corrected himself in equivalence to the Creator.

Question: Why is it so delightful to resemble the Creator?

Answer: Since we reach adhesion and equivalence of form with Him, now we can bestow unto Him just as He bestows unto me. This is how we are made and there isn’t a more sublime state for us.

Question: But still, what is concealed behind that?

Answer: I was created as a desire to receive pleasure, so in a state of complete equivalence of form to the Creator, I receive pleasure from Him. By turning all the evil into goodness, into similarity to the Creator, I begin to receive all the goodness and infinite abundance from Him. It is because I also want to bestow infinite abundance.

Thus the festive symbolism of the month of Tishre describes the path to the end of correction, which results in the eighth day, Shmini Atzeret, after which there is nothing else to correct. The word “Atzeret” stems from the Hebrew word “to stop – Atsar,” which symbolizes the end of correction.

We compare this perfect state to a pomegranate. All my 613 desires are the seeds of the pomegranate that have finally changed from evil to goodness.
[145402]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/5/14

Related Material:
Preparation For Receiving The Torah: The Light Of Correction
A Joyful Giving Of The Torah Holiday
From The Giving Of The Torah To The Giver Of The Torah

The Torah As An Engine For Change

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah is a force, a means that corrects and transforms my evil inclination into a good inclination. Through its realization, if I attain a good result, then I reach Simchat Torah. Then I am happy that I had the Torah by which I corrected myself, achieved success and attained something good.

Question: if the Torah is a means for correcting evil, then the person must first identify the evil within him. And until then he doesn’t require this means. But if I have already begun searching inside, what evil will I discover?

Answer: The basic answer is that the evil is examined in relation to the Creator. Everything that is against the Creator is called evil. Whereas, the Creator is called “good and the does good” according to His actions.

My evil differentiates me from the Creator because I feel everything according to equivalence of form, and vice versa. I cannot perceive something with which I have nothing in common.

But the evil inclination is very important because the Creator is the one who created it. He created it in opposition to Himself, named it appropriately, and gave me some kind of mechanism, a key, through which I can discover this evil within me and transform it into good. And then I become good, precisely in the same form and at the same level as the Creator.

When I understand and perceive this, then the Torah acquires very great meaning in my eyes. This is because with its help I can transform from being a small bug into something very great and good, like the Creator, acquiring the same power, the same ability to bestow and love, the same knowledge, the same attainment, and the ability to become eternal and complete.

Torah for me is no longer just a Torah scroll in a chest. It is not just a book, but the power of correction, the power of inner changes.

This is a system that works and has an influence on me. It knows which desires to awaken in me, and I am changed.

This is a spice in the cauldron of the evil inclination and it could also be something outside of it. It cooks it, orders, arranges, plans, and transforms it into an opposite state. It is indeed an enormous means.

And now the whole question is, how should I use it? As far as it seems, here I will need to play some kind of role, do something myself.

And so my evil is precisely similar to the intensity of the Creator, but opposite and against Him. It is such a gigantic monster inside that it is even frightening to describe it. Therefore, the Torah must possess an even greater intensity to transform it from the evil inclination into the good inclination according to the degree of my participation.

During this process. I become good like the Creator in the same measure, in feeling and intellect, in intensity, and in all of my facets and details. By transforming my evil inclination into good, I reach compatibility with Him. Not too bad, is it?

And if this is the case, then a person who has learned to use the Torah has every reason to be happy on the Simchat Torah holiday. This is because he understands what is happening. Throughout the entire year he goes through everything by shaping and attracting the Light that Reforms to himself. This Light influences him, acts on him and corrects him time after time, flash of Light after flash of Light. And ultimately he reaches Simchat Torah, when he is entirely good and corrected.
[145345]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/5/14

Related Material:
The More Impenetrable The Darkness, The Brighter The Light
A Dwelling That Corresponds To The Structure Of The Soul
Benevolence Under The X-Ray

The Start Of The Countdown

Dr. Michael LaitmanI feel immense joy in the fact that now most of my students in the world are beginning to understand and feel that the spiritual world is discovered in the connection between us.

Although we have been studying the spiritual system for many years, and in spite of all this, the heart does not want to hear about the shattering of the Kli of the collective soul, its descent and fall into this world, the division into a multitude of people, the expansion of the Kli, the equal distance from the center to the periphery all over the Earth, and the growth of the ego. Generally, this takes a lot of time, and many years pass before the heart understands and reaches the awareness that something is not okay, and it will then respond to problems with connection, with unity.

From the very moment that the person begins to hear this, he enters into the way towards the goal of creation and goes forward at a constantly increasing the rate, amassing experience and gathering the distant, scattered and shattered parts of his soul. He already knows that everything is concentrated only in his group of ten, in a hundred, in a thousand, and that the upper world, the Creator, and the completion and goal of creation are found precisely in this place.

If he automatically turns to the group, no matter what happens, this is a sign that he is standing firmly on his own two feet and is facing the goal correctly. I hope that the results of our convention will become a feeling like this for many who are here and those who are together with us throughout the world.

This is the most difficult starting point of the countdown. Nobody, anywhere was ever was able to attain this. Many have tried to do this through all kinds of conditions for thousands of years, but only individuals succeeded, even though people were ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of this. So a gradual approach, recognition and discovery of the starting point and investment of much effort required subtle and continuous work.

It seems to me that we are seeing its beginning. The sensation that everything begins and ends with contact, connection within the group, that everything is determined there and besides this there is nothing, will show us later how to operate in the world, and how to manage nature through our unification. This is because we are raising MAN, our desire for connection, unity, and correction.

The world will then advance forward towards harmony, unity, happiness, and fulfillment of the law of equivalence of form at the same rate as us. In this transition from  “me,” the yearning for the Creator that I imagine, to the we, where within this we is one single whole within our separated we, the general power of connection called the Creator is discovered.
[145310]
From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Two” 9/20/14, Lesson 4

Related Material:
In The Connection Between Us
Everything Is Within The Group Of Ten
Where Do We Find The Connection Between Us?

What Does The Creator Feel?

Laitman_043On the Sukkot holiday I hold in my right hand and in my left hand the “four species of plants,” connect them to my heart and sway, meaning that I seemingly attract Lights. All of these things are certainly symbols of internal activities for attracting the bestowal of the Creator, which I summon into myself.

Then, I raise myself, correct myself, remove the concealment, and reach revelation in its place.

All of the ceremonies of the Sukkot holiday are no more than signs and symbols of what is happening in the heart where a person makes his characteristics compatible with the Creator. So, he is called an Adam (man), from the word “Domeh” (similar) to the Creator.

The Creator is fully the giver. He is the characteristic of bestowal and love. There is nothing more than this. There is only complete bestowal, complete love, absolute, pure, perfect, and infinite, and it is revealed in us to the same degree that we are ready to absorb it, to bring ourselves in line with it.

In general, I can understand and feel every characteristic only if it is found within me.

When I look at some cockroach, I don’t feel that it lacks something, that it loves its children and right now, is running to them with crumbs of food. I don’t share any characteristics with it to be able to feel it.

However, if I would begin to go deeper to penetrate and explore, ultimately, I would feel the needs of the beastly level. People are able to be sensitive to animals they are close to, including pet owners or scientists who devote themselves to research.

For example, in my childhood, I had a friend who always had small animals living in his pockets: here a mouse, there a bird. He even would come to school with them, and, much later, he went on to study zoology. So, he understood them. He would find a white mouse and pet it, and the mouse wouldn’t run away.

He would say, “You know, he is not afraid to approach you,” as if he was whispering to it.

However, we need to develop other feelings within us to be able to feel the Creator. If my friend recreated the feelings of the mouse within himself, so we need to give shape within us to a feeling of the Creator, bestowal and love.
[145120]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/5/14

Related Material:
Rehearsals In The Theater Of The Creator
Rise To The Very Beginning
The More Impenetrable The Darkness, The Brighter The Light