Entries in the 'My Similarity to the Creator' Category

Our Uniqueness

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and It’s Purpose”: It turns out that our final aim is to be qualified for adhesion with Him—for Him to reside within us. That aim is a certainty and there is no way to deviate from it, since His guidance supervises us in both paths, which are the path of suffering and the path of Torah.

There is an upper force that has created the desire to receive and has raised it. It gave the desire everything it needs to grow, but when it grew, it suddenly discovered that it feels bad, and that it actually doesn’t get what it desires. In its youth, while it was growing up everything was fine: It got everything that it desired. Then it desired more and received it. But now when it is grown, everything is different; it doesn’t get the filling automatically. On the contrary, the more it wants, the less it receives. So the desire thinks to itself: “Who or what is the cause of this bad feeling?”

Humanity is divided into several categories when it comes to this question. There are those ninety-nine percent who simply go on, attracted from the bad to the good, enjoying life as much as they can. There are those who go out searching for the truth, meaning looking for the reason for what is happening.

Humanity is trying to explain this contrast in the leadership that changes so dramatically when a person grows up. At first everyone treats him nicely until the real change comes and now everyone demands something from him and treats him badly. This contrast and this conflict are very confusing, and so there are those who begin to look for a solution. The upper force that has created the desire to receive and that has raised it to a great egoism can eventually bring it to the right state.

There are two forces that operate in reality and help us reach that state: there is the pulling force and the pushing force. The egoistic desire loves pleasures and hates suffering. In other words, it loves the filling and hates the emptiness. So it can be managed by these two states. When it is emptied, it runs away looking for a filling. When it is filled, it is drawn to it. By using these two reins we can do whatever we want with it.

But what’s the use if the desire totally obeys the Creator’s reins? After all, the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels develop this way, so what’s the need for creation? After all, in this way there is no uniqueness and man is also led by pleasures and suffering in life. The originality and the uniqueness of creation, of the worlds, among the created beings can only be revealed in unique creatures that can operate between these two “reins.”

This means even if the desire totally obeys the upper guidance and has nowhere to run, as the forces totally surround him even if they are concealed. The main thing is that these creatures want to attain the actions: What are they? What are they for? Which desires do they affect? They want to attain their own system by themselves and according to it they begin to understand who manages their desires. Thus, according to the principle of “we know You by Your actions,” they attain the operating mind, the force that operates in creation.

So when we grow and discover the two forces that operate upon us, the positive force and the negative one, when we see the “reins” that control our running, it’s a good sign. It means that we have moved from the ninety-nine percent to the one unique per cent, for which creation was meant.

When we discover the Creator’s bestowal in the form of suffering and pleasure, good and bad, coldness and heat, hunger and satiation, we should understand that it’s all in order to make us aware that the Creator is the Absolute Good. The wisdom of Kabbalah is the wisdom for the revelation of the Creator, for the revelation of His actions. Therefore, we constantly study ourselves: “Who am I and what am I? All of reality including the group is inside me.” Eventually I discover that deep inside me it’s the Creator, the Absolute Good that operates inside me.
[61976]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/11

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Why Are We So Different?

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe should all be thinking about nullifying ourselves and only caring about others because in this way we attain the Creator. Contrary to the assumption of many, we shouldn’t be concerned with caring for physical bodies. There are many methods and spiritual practices dedicated to this in our world. However, Kabbalah speaks of the type of love for one’s fellow that allows a person to rise above his egoism and obtain a connection that’s above it.

This shouldn’t be confused with “altruistic” societies that help the poor and the sick. They think that by doing so they are correcting the world that the Creator “ruined.” We see that such action only makes things worse. This is contradictory to human reasoning. But then again, we gradually begin to see that our mind doesn’t agree with anything.

We shouldn’t be concerned with fulfilling one’s egoistic desires, but think only of love toward our fellow man. It is only in this way that we’ll be able to sense the need for obtaining a new quality of love and bestowal through which we obtain love for the Creator.

It becomes clear now why we need so many different people around us that have nothing in common with one another, each one existing in his own egoistic desire and love for one’s self. All of this is given to us so that we can apply our own effort in revealing the Creator.

There is no distance between the Creator and me. This distance appears only as a result of the distance between me and another person. By erasing the distance between myself and others, I erase the distance between myself and the Creator. My first contact with a friend is my first contact with the Creator. The more that I begin to connect with others (not through the physical bodies, but only through the points in the heart which is above my egoistic desire), the more I begin to reveal the Creator and to unite with Him.
[62150]
From Lesson 2, Arvut Convention in the Arava Desert 11/18/2011

What If I Fall Out Of The Loop?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We have pledged to take care of one another in order to uphold the standard we achieved in the Arava and to keep moving further. But what should a person do if he suddenly discovers that he has “fallen out of the loop”? Should he feel that he is drilling a hole in the common boat?

Answer: Of course. And this should be a source of great distress for him. First of all, it’s not simple to reach the sensation of unity, but he should at least regret the fact that he is separated from it. Secondly, let him feel bad from knowing that all the friends are already there. Thirdly, his absence harms others, and this entire harm is recorded in his account.

This way, he misses out on much more than his personal concern because his part is idle in every one of the friends and does not complete each one of them. It turns out that his harm is multiplied by the number of members in the group.

Until now we talked about the egoistic calculation, but now let’s look at the problem from the other side. A person does not support his friends with mutual guarantee, does not become similar to the Creator, and does not attain bestowal to Him by working in the group. This spiritual damage is not as obvious, but we have to remember about it as well.

Question: Can we say that by doing so a person shifts not only the whole group, but also the whole world to evil?

Answer: If you have received the opportunity to enter mutual guarantee with your friends, then by participating in the common work, obviously you shift the world to goodness. After all, every person is part of the common network and we are its central part. Therefore, by strengthening the group, I strengthen the whole world in its spiritual ascent. And the opposite is also true.
[61337]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/11, “Mutual Guarantee”

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Personal Participation Required

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere is a desire to receive and there is a desire to bestow. The whole creation is nothing but an opposition of one to the other. The desire to bestow manages the desire to receive in order to bring it to the identification of itself and to make it equivalent to the desire to receive.  That is the initial program of the desire to bestow.

The nature of the good, according to the science of Kabbalah, is benevolence (doing good). As the Creator is perfect, to that extent he has a program of improving the creation. And there exists just one path toward perfection: The creation has to feel the Creator’s state. He created the creation as opposite to Himself, separated from Himself, and He guides the creation through a sequence of states through which the creation attains the wisdom of the Creator and feels what there is in the Creator.

But it is not enough just to understand and feel, the creation attains the Creator’s nature by itself including everything that is in the creation and its management. So, the force of giving is called “Light” and the force of reception “a vessel”. Similarity in their qualities is called “an intention of bestowal” or “a screen“. Due to the altruistic intention and by the nature of its action, the desire to receive becomes the one of bestowal. If it receives to please somebody, it, in fact, commits an act of bestowal using reception as a means: It doesn’t have any other way to establish contact and give anything to anybody.

How can we participate in the process? How do we gain more understanding? How do we reach the degree of the Creator? How do we feel His actions? In short, how do we become like Him? After all, this is the goal—to become like Him.

We still don’t understand what it means “to bring pleasure to the Creator,” but “equivalence to the Creator” is closer to our current egoistic understanding. To be like Him means to bestow, to understand bestowal, to take upon oneself, to govern the creation… Everything is in that.

But in fact, to be like Him is to understand the whole program and the complete course of actions assumed by it from the beginning to the very end in the first place. Such an understanding requires the whole to be disassembled and then put back together. In this way, we reveal the gap between the Creator and the creation together with the connection that brings them into equivalence. In that, Light and darkness, plus and minus, positive and negative connect on every level.

In the process of our development, under constant influence of the Light, a vessel acquires various shapes until it reaches the “final stop”—complete equivalence of qualities with the Creator. But the vessel has to go through these states of sequential changes with understanding, in agreement, by desiring them, and even acting independently.

Thus, we need to realize our oppositeness to the Creator, want to change and become like Him, understand the program that will change us, enact it by our own desire, and carry out the whole chain of sequential actions ourselves, upon ourselves and at the same time upon all the levels of the creation under us: inanimate, vegetative, and animate.

This ascent from the breaking to the correction, we must realize with our full personal participation. According to the changes required at the moment, we have to gain mind and feeling, become included into the common program, and make the actions to invoke and guide the necessary forces.

Only in this way will we reach equivalence of form with the Creator and become like Him in force, understanding, and everything else. That is the highest degree of our development.
[60065]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/7/11,  “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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The Economy Of Global Mutual Guarantee

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe economic system of today’s world is the most obvious demonstration of our connection with one another. That’s because we are primarily connected through the economy, production, and trade. And we see that there are several thousand large corporations in the world that are interconnected, that envelop the whole world, not giving us a chance to move.

But they also can’t move! And now, to their shock, they are discovering this and don’t know what to do. They don’t have any freedom of movement in relation to one another.

This is how the common, global system of mutual guarantee is being revealed to us. But we don’t desire it, we don’t aspire to it from our end. Yet nature, the Creator, is showing us the mutual guarantee, our connection with one another. Under these conditions, how can my mind possibly help me?

The mind can only help me in one regard: to leave my animate mind and start learning, becoming familiar with this system.

However, this system is not built according to my earthly mind because my mind is personal, individual. It helps me exist in this egoistic world, showing me how to win more and do more for my own benefit, thinking that others were created to serve me.

But now, when I am revealing a system with which I am firmly connected and on which I am fully dependent, my previous mind stops working. I have to adapt to this new system! It’s as if I come to some unknown place and first of all I try to take a close look at what’s around me, to learn the customs of this place in order to adapt to them. And once I get to know it well, I can start acting in it and improving my state.

But how can we get to know this global system in which we have found ourselves if we cannot figure it out with our earthly mind? Even all of these huge corporations which seem to control the world, are in reality not in control of anything. And this is now being revealed to them. The mind of every particular person individually does not work just as the corporate mind does not.

It turns out that I now have to discard my animate mind and acquire a new mind—an integral way of thinking. This will be the creative mind, the mind of the common system, meaning the mind of the Creator.

It won’t be easy for us to acquire it. We will have to develop ourselves, turn ourselves into one, connected whole, try to feel ourselves as one person, one system. Then we will attain this single, connected system and will thereby “wrap up” our own egoistic desire and connect with one another. That is how we will gradually build our common vessel, reuniting the parts of the broken Lego.

Within the connection between us, we will reveal the upper mind, the program, its essence, and then we will understand what is happening! Only in this case will our state be corrected.
[58353]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/11, “The Acting Mind”

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HaVaYaH: The Phases Of Growth Of The Mind And Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanAll of the differences and all of the parts of the creation in general are contained in the division into the four levels: still, vegetative, animate, and human. Such a division is derived from the four phases of the expansion of the Direct Light, HaVaYaH, the tip of the letter “Yod” and “Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey,” the phases of development of the desire, called Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut.

When the development reaches the last step, Malchut, she begins to react to all of the stages, located before her; she performs various actions; she accepts them or she does not accept them; she agrees with them or does not agree with them. Everything that happens further is unfolded inside of Malchut; she cannot change what happened before her, the first stages, called the first nine Sefirot.

The whole of the science of Kabbalah is dedicated to the reaction of Malchut (the creation), to what happens to her. If Malchut does not feel anything and does not realize anything, then what is happening is called the zero stage. When she only receives and begins to perceive that she fully consists of the desire to receive, it is the first stage, the still level.

If she feels that she is in the desire to receive, but she does not agree with this, then this is already the vegetative level. A plant already has its own opinion; it is overcoming something; it wants to live its life. But it cannot perform its own movements yet, and it does not understand its internal urges.

When it starts to make movements relative to the environment, trying not to depend on it and to develop in the direction according to its individual character, this is already called the animate level. And such a person differs very much from his environment.

The next level is when he begins to actively use his desire to enjoy. And then he wants to be individualistic, as if the vegetative level does not agree to simply obey the orders of its nature, it searches for something more from life. He wants to come out from the rule of the environment and to become free from it, like the animate level. And if he also wants to come out from under the Creator’s control and become similar to Him, then it means that he has reached the human level.

However, it is also possible to look at the development of these phases of HaVaYaH from another point of view, from the way the upper governance is being revealed to the person above him.

If a person is under the full control of the Creator, it means that he is completely bestowing, just not realizing it. Every person in the world is working 100% for bestowal and is working for the Creator. He is not opposed to anything and he does not even know that he can resist. He is acting according to how the Creator is controlling him, meaning he is in complete bestowal.

Then, his egoism grows and he starts to realize it. And then he understands that he is opposite to the Creator. And the more a person develops, the more his egoism grows, it is as if he is coming out from the Creator’s control and begins to disagree with Him. Of course, he is still carrying out all of the orders from above, but the question is about how much of this he understands, realizes, and agrees with.

It turns out that the whole of our game is not in the actions themselves, and not in how we dispose of our lives, but about how much we agree or disagree with the actions of the Host above us.

The more disagreement is awakened in a person, the more claims he has towards the Creator about His rule, the larger is the growth of the egoism. And simultaneously, with this oppositeness being revealed to him, he needs to want to correct himself in order to agree with Him again.

That is why, “the higher the person, the bigger his egoism.” On the other hand, he is already carrying out the actions of a mature person and comes to be similar to the Creator and towards agreement with Him, completely giving himself up under the control of the Creator, regardless of all of the resistance of his egoism.

Such phases of development can be seen in our desire to enjoy and the desire to bestow: the direct and the opposite HaVaYaH, meaning in the desire and the intention, the mind and the heart. This is how the levels of development are developed in a person.
[52679]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/26/11, Shamati

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What Does Man Begin With?

Dr. Michael Laitman

Man begins with the unity of our thoughts and desires into the smallest possible vessel. And then it keeps growing larger as a result of the addition of newer and newer parts. In this way, he becomes man, Adam, stretched to the ends of the universe. And his connection, his mind and heart, is being built from all the broken pieces contained in each of us because each piece contains the mind and the heart inside of it.

The connection of these forces is similar to how matter forms in our world throughout the whole of the evolution on the still, vegetative, and animate levels. Matter started to unite in the same form. And when we start to unite our parts, we also go through the same steps, the still, vegetative, and animate, in the unity between people. These are called the spiritual states: embryo – nurturing – maturing (Ibur – Yenika – Mochin).

That is why all of our work depends on for the sake of what we are uniting—for the sake of the quality of bestowal to rule in us, meaning for the sake of the Creator, for the sake of His pleasure, or for the sake of ourselves in order to make it better for ourselves when we only think of our own condition in this world and about our bodies. Meaning that we are concerned with our bodily existence and not about gathering the image of man from our pieces.

That is why the “prayer of the 18 blessings” describes the spiritual path so well, the direction, the intention, the urge towards the next step, onto which the world, the human society has to rise to now. That is why the necessity for unity is being revealed. The only question is: For what sake does it happen?

And here, humanity divides into two parts. Those, who understand that unity is necessary for reaching the human level, the image of man. They are actively building this image. And the rest are related to the desire, and unite for the sake of a good life in this world.

This is the way they divide: the screen is called Israel and the desire is called all of the people who only need to connect to those who will do the work that is laid upon Israel.
[52557]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/11, Shamati

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Circle: The Quality Of The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanCurrently, a new governance is being revealed in the world—a “circular” one. But that doesn’t mean that the “straight” governance disappears. We need to understand how we can use the straight line to fill the circles, meaning how to combine the individual with the society and what relationship to build between them.

“I” need to remain. I am one who governs and makes the decisions, understands, attains, and aspires “straight” to a certain goal, but I do all this for the sake of (circular) bestowal, love, by cancelling myself.

It is an apparent contradiction, as it is written, “He who wishes to live kills himself,” or like the Creator commanding Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac while promising that the entire posterity will stem from him. We don’t understand how this could be, but this is how the circular governance is revealed from the other side. And because of that we find ourselves in such complicated states—broken and unclear. However, by beginning to check, scrutinize, and get confused by them, in so doing, we draw closer to spirituality!

Indeed, the spiritual world comprises these two forms. Up until now we have existed in only one form—the straight one. I press, and others press back on me—and so we all live by the law of “might makes right.” And even if we see opposite relationships, such as that between a mother and a child, they too are governed by nature via the straight line.

But the circular governance is being revealed only in our days, which is why we feel so helpless. In order to advance, we need to understand it at least a little bit. And for that, we need qualities like love and faith above reason, which transcend the straight governance.

They are measured and filled through working in the straight line, but the qualities themselves exist above the desire to enjoy. And when we achieve the desire to bestow, which clothes inside the desire to enjoy via a screen, we remain in the straight line but nonetheless make ourselves similar to the “circle.”

The circle is the Creator quality, while the straight line is the creature’s quality. But since we work in the straight line with faith above reason and wish to be similar to the circle, we fill the circles. The Creator as if abandoned this place and gave us the freedom to act. And we don’t return Him to this place with our demand; instead, we begin to work in there as He did when He was there. This means we fulfill the circular sphere through the straight line.
[52309]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/22/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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At The Threshold Of Eternity

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe have to create a society that will let all the people in the world move correctly into tomorrow. Otherwise, we will not survive. We see what is happening today, especially in developed countries. And the rest are rapidly approaching them. People are starting to feeling that “there is no tomorrow.” But in fact, this is a wonderful state where we are egoistically breaking away from the past and are entering a neutral state, like being “in limbo.”

Now is exactly the time to show people the following system of relationships that will lead us into the feeling of a completely different state. We are entering the next stage of our development. Just as we evolved from monkeys and gradually developed within our animate state, similarly, today we are beginning to develop within our inner, human state.

Today we are rising to the level called “Adam”—a human being, who is similar to the Upper Force of nature. This force wants to teach us to become integral with it, and that is why this crisis is global and integral.

We have to become similar to nature. By accomplishing this, we begin to understand the internal mechanism that drives us. The inner program of nature is taking us toward a specific goal, while we are not even aware of it. We die without knowing what we lived for. We are born and do not know where and why. We do things instinctively because nature forces us to do them, and nothing more.

In reality, there is a whole program of actions, a causal relationship! Every part of nature has a cause, consequence, and goal. Nothing exists without a purpose. And likewise, we do not exist pointlessly either. We can see this because nature is now raising us to this level now—to the next level of development.

At the current level, we are still just realizing our animate egoism in which we were created and which develops in us. By ascending to the next level, which is global and integral, and becoming globally connected with nature, by changing ourselves in accordance with it, we gradually start perceiving the inner mechanism, the internal thought of the Upper Force of nature. As astrophysics say, the entire universe is a thought. When a person becomes conscious of it, he begins to feel eternity.
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At The Threshold Of Practical Kabbalah

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is “practical Kabbalah”?

Answer: “Practical Kabbalah” is when you act in practice and not just inside of yourself. However, inner work is also called practical Kabbalah, when you create an intention, adhesion (Zivug), and reception of Light for the sake of bestowal. It’s when you don’t just read about it in a book, but attain the instrument of bestowal called “a screen” and can use it to perform practical actions.

You have matter which you have to work on. And this work is only possible with the help of a screen. You receive a screen by virtue of the Light that reforms. All of this is called practical Kabbalah. There are no other practical actions besides giving matter the form of bestowal. The will to enjoy has to acquire the intention for the sake of bestowal. This is the only action operating in the world.

Besides the science of Kabbalah, nothing can bring this about because this science talks about how the general system operates and how we have to operate inside of it. If I take this entire science and start realizing it, this is called “practical Kabbalah.”

It’s similar to how there is theoretical physics and practical, applied physics. In the theoretical part of it, you can think about things and you may understand them or not, but then you come to the practical realization where you stage all kinds of experiments, study and measure things, and check whether they’re one way or another. It’s similar to children who play in order to grow, and once they become adults, they perform these actions correctly in real life. This is what the scientific experiment is intended for.

The actual practice is already the realization of the scientific achievements in life. And the same thing is true in the science of Kabbalah. If you study in order to realize it in practice, that means you are already at the threshold of practical Kabbalah, even though it might take you a lot more time to acquire a screen and start carrying out these actions. Still, according to your direction and goal, you are already considered to be dealing with practical Kabbalah.

The only practical action that exists in reality is adhesion with the Light (Zivug de Hakaa), the degree of equivalence of form that we attain.
[51493]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/11, “The Nation”

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