Entries in the 'Perception' Category

The Friends I Live Among

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I move from “me” to “we?” What is the meaning of justifying the Creator only when a person is happy not because he is successful but because his friend is successful?

Answer: The point is that you should adhere to the friend and through him feel reality. How can I check my devotion to my friends? It is according to how happy I feel when they are happy and how sad I feel when they are sad, bringing myself into the group only in order to help them reach the good state.

Here I begin to discover to what extent I actually want the opposite: what fire of hatred and envy is revealed in me towards them, and to what extent I cannot want anything good for them because I like this separated state.

There is a great deal of work I have to do here so that these examinations will bring me to the right conclusion: I have nothing but the friends among which I live!

If my friend has a problem, I work with it as if it were an obstacle standing between me and the Creator. It makes no difference. I will be able to annul myself there, my “I,” and on the other hand, will feel great with respect to the friends, meaning that I want to do everything so that that they will feel good, like a good mother.
[102406]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/13, Shamati #6

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Who Determines The Taste Of The Bread From Heaven (Manna)?

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Lord spoke to Moses, saying “I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying ‘In the afternoon you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be sated with bread, and you shall know that I am the Lord, your God.’” (The Torah, Exodus, “BeShalach”, 16:11-16:12)

In order to understand what “manna” is, we should consider the following comparison. Someone wants to release a new machine, a “3-D printer,” which are filled with proteins, pastas, legumes, soy and much more. You just key into the printer what you want to eat, and shortly you will get the desired dish. We can get sausage that is made of soy and it tastes like meat.

This device has various cartridges: pepper, lemon, etc. When the order is placed, the printer prepares the order and gives it to you on a plate. Have we ordered a spicy smoked barbeque? Please, enjoy! Do we prefer any other flavors? No problem! All these “tastes” are made of one filler ingredient, for example, soy.

So, what is “manna”? The upper Light doesn’t have any particular characteristics; all the properties are set up by the consumer. After all, the printer cartridges don’t have any specific properties; we define the parameters; we choose combinations we want and define them by setting the order. So you think you want meat in the evening and bread in the morning. But in fact, only one product goes in the machine, only the consumer determines the flavor, color, and appearance.
[102224]
From the TV Program “Mysteries of Eternal Book,” 2/4/13

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Genuine Dissemination

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How did Kabbalists of the past abide without dissemination? How can we spread the Light that we receive from the group without losing its qualities while we interact with the masses?

Answer: Let’s look at what it means to disseminate. If we think that the soul is placed outside of one’s body, it implies that all seven billion “outsiders” represent particles of this person’s soul. It’s not about beautiful words; it’s the truth!

What are we supposed to do with it? We have to disseminate. If one doesn’t attach these particles to oneself, one won’t obtain a place, a Kli, vessel, in which one will sense the upper world.

How can I attach all these particles to myself? I can do this only if I give to them, if I treat them as parts of myself. That’s why it’s said: “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” then he will become an internal part of you. To the extent of our ability to relate to the world in accordance with this principle, we will be granted a chance to sense our soul. It’s “located” in others, although we don’t realize this fact. By neutralizing our egoism and by changing our attitude to all seven billion “outsiders,” we will access our own soul. This explains why we can’t name this process “charity.” It’s because we are trying to discover our own eternal and perfect selves.

The wisdom of Kabbalah appears to us as the most “lucrative business” ever. There is nothing more “profitable” than eternity, perfection, and infinity. Of course, all these matters require much contemplation; we should think about these subjects until we fully “digest” all questions and doubts. However, you have to understand that there is nobody outside us and that everybody and everything (people and all of nature) are only our external Kli, vessel.

In Kabbalah we learn that the soul consists of Shoresh, Neshama, Guf, Levush and Heichal. Our internal desires are comprised of Shoresh, Neshama, and Guf, whereas our external Kelim are Levush and Heichal, meaning “dresses,” “halls,” and “palaces.” They represent external desires. If we relate to them as ourselves, we start sensing the upper Light, the higher life, and our eternal existence in them.

That’s why one should never regard the world as externality. It only looks as if it’s outside us, but in fact, the entire world is inside us. We study the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” in which Baal HaSulam explains that everything that appears to us as externality is in fact inside us. In other words, everybody is within me.

Something that appears external to us is an illusion that should be destroyed as soon as possible by relating to everybody and everything with love. Only under this condition can we serve as “transmitters” of the upper Light to others. It will pass through us and allow us to sense eternal perfection.
[101998]
From a Virtual Lesson 3/3/13

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Joyful Are Those That Seek The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanAs it is sung in the song “Sing for Him, Chant to Him…joyful are those that seek the Creator.” All our work depends on it; are we capable of being in self-scrutiny, criticism, and unpleasant inner discernments so that, by ourselves, in our forces, we reveal the evil even before we stumble into it through compulsion, “in its time“? It is necessary to reveal it before that, in “hastening time”: pulling ourselves into connection, even though it is against our nature, revealing the evil, and finding a cure before the blow.

Because in the cure, there is part of the poison, part of the snake, so it cannot be pleasant. And if we are capable of finding the cure ahead of time, then we progress as workers of the Creator, by requesting of Him.

Therefore one doesn’t need to be afraid of the revealation of evil or of the wicked being revealed. The main thing is to see this revelation correctly. Until all the evil and flaws are reveled to the end, we will not come to the good; we will reveal it only together with the correct preparation to reveal the illness in order to correct it.

Because there is no doubt that all the “wicked” already exist. If a thought, a desire, and an urge come to a man, it is a sign that it was already in him before. But if we reveal it by preparing ourselves correctly, then we open this “Pandora’s Box” and we quickly and easily correct all the sins; this is called the short and pleasant path. But if we are not ready for such a revelation and do not want it, then we will go in a long, difficult painful path until it will finally be revealed.

It is impossible to prevent the pain completely, but it needs to be a pain of healing as in a man who goes for surgery, treatment for a wound, or gets dental care. It is not pleasant, but we agree to it; therefore, everything depends on preparation. And if a correct preparation is made, then the group, the community, and the world groups are ready to see the revelation of evil, and then “Joyful are those that seek the Creator,” and we will have what to sing to Him about.
[101327]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/13

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Perception Of Reality: From Antiquity To The Present Day

Dr. Michael LaitmanA person aspiring to spiritual attainment begins to see that the whole world is one system. It is constant joyful work, and you become accustomed to it gradually. It becomes a necessity. You already exist at this level.

All the other levels are flat, one-dimensional, and it’s impossible to think of them as before. A person begins to get accustomed to thinking in the n-dimensional space which becomes compressed into a single force and purpose; therefore, it’s not difficult to feel the whole world connected with a single goal, with a single thought, with a single force, up to the point that you look at the starry sky and see what connects all the stars.

This raises some very interesting questions, such as, “How did the ancient astrologers associated stars in the constellations?” After all, if I look at the stars I’m unable to join them in all the signs of the zodiac, Orion, the Big Dipper and others. I don’t have such a great imagination as the ancient Greeks or the Babylonian astrologers because the stars are far away from each other and in different planes.

Let’s say that one star is hundreds million years closer to the Earth, and the other is millions years farther. But they saw them connected to each other as in a single plane. What is it: just primitive representations or human fantasy? Where there is a bear with four or five stars forming a square with a tail? How can one imagine this?

It’s a very interesting thing: The idea that links the stars in the zodiac signs is attained by a person through his influence on it.

The ancient astrologers had a feeling of the connectedness of these stars. Due to the development of egoism, we became detached from the universe, from perceiving it as a whole, but they had a sense of relative connectedness because they perceived it as a host of gods, of uppers forces that influenced them. And it was not because they were small or primitive; it’s simply not twisted, not coarse human perception without the number of filters as we have. That is, they had a much greater perception of the Light. If we begin to correct our egoism, we will now feel the Light many times more because we are much coarser than they were.
[102292]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/4/13

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You Have All The Cards In Your Hands

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn every spiritual state on the spiritual levels, there is the Inner Light and the Surrounding Light. But in our state, as long as we do not attain restriction and a Masach (screen), we can be assisted only by the Surrounding Light.

The force of the Surrounding Light depends on how much we value it, on our appreciation of the upper, of the next level, which means the Creator. But we cannot value Him. We were only given a couple of means by which we can develop an inner feeling of the greatness of the upper. The upper for us is the group, the teacher, and the books, meaning the study that tells us about the spiritual world and the Creator hidden behind all these means.

We begin to value the upper who is external to us by using all these means: the group, the teacher, the books, and the intention of attaining equivalence of form with the Creator in order to bring Him contentment. Although we don’t feel it for the time being, even if we just talk about it trying to feel it from time to time, we raise the greatness of the upper in us by that. Then at a certain point He becomes so important that He allows us to feel His presence next to us.

It’s because everything that is external to a person is the Holy Shechina, the Godly presence. But everything depends on how much we value Him. All the other rules of behavior in the group as to how we should speak, what to demand of it, and how to treat it, stem from this condition, from the need to value the upper.

Accordingly, the Surrounding Light shines upon a person. It is the real upper Light, but in the meantime it operates on the lower as the Light that Reforms, which means that it brings about changes in us by gradually bringing us closer to bestowal. Then finally it will give us the “restriction” and the Masach, which means the ability to work spiritually.

Then we will begin to understand where we are and what is happening to us, but at the same time, we have to work in faith above reason and value the upper despite all the problems the upper sends us and all the reasons for an opposite attitude. This is our work that is based on our great appreciation of the upper until we adhere to the posterior of the upper as if it were His face. Then we will see that it was never His posterior, but that He has always turned His face full of light to us. Thus we leave exile and reach redemption.

At first it was as if you were unconscious, but then you begin to feel that you are in exile, so, step by step, you begin to get closer to redemption and finally you leave exile and come into the Light. These are the levels of ascent according to your appreciation of the upper, and later your adhesion to Him.

We have all the means, all the roads are open, and everything depends on us. There is nothing else that we need. The Creator has given us every possible opportunity and everything else is up to the person. We will not be forgiven and there are no concessions from Above if we don’t do our work, since otherwise we will not build our spiritual vessels.
[102235]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/13

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The Quantum Unity Of The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Alex Chulichkov, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences): “It is impossible to predict the polarization (the direction of oscillation of the electromagnetic field) of the photon emitted by an atom. But it is possible to cause the emission of two photons of the same polarization, but of an unknown direction.

“The photon does not have a definite polarization until it interacts with the observer. However, measuring the polarization of one of the photons will allow the determination of the polarization of the other photon in the same instant. How can the second photon instantly “learn” about the measurements conducted with the first photon, no matter how far they are scattered, and find the polarization at the same instant? Conclusion: our world is not a set of local atoms, bricks; it is a whole, and what happens in one part of it instantly changes the whole.”

My Comment: This is a fact. And the conclusion is simple: All of us are one whole, and that is why we should come to a single form by our own efforts, and from it we will begin to see, feel, and exist in the upper, quantum world—the eternal and perfect world, beyond space, time, and motion (See The Study of the Ten Sefirot, p. 1 “Inner Observation”).
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The Uncompromising Upper Kindness

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why is the Creator so uncompromising with the created being by setting tough, immutable laws for him? Why can’t He be more merciful, like a father with his son?

Answer: A child can never justify his father’s toughness. He cannot understand the father with his childish mind and see the future results and the benefit that his father’s education will bring him. The child wants to play from morning to night, to eat only sweets, and to watch TV. He cannot justify the parents’ constant demands and so he listens to them reluctantly since he feels his dependence on them and not because he justifies them.

In spirituality everything is much more complicated since we don’t feel to what extent the upper Providence treats us gently. In a child’s world, his oppositeness is not an indication of what he is about to become; if a child is obedient and does his homework and cleans up the messes he makes, the parents cannot come complaining to him since there is nothing more they can demand from him.

In the spiritual world, however, it is different: There you are always a criminal, since you arrive there with shattered vessels to begin with. You are treated kindly and are taught the method of correction; a group is organized for you, just like a kindergarten with a caretaker and with different toys. This is huge help from Above and mercy; all your sins are forgiven and you are given support in every way, just so that you will be able to reach correction and understanding to some extent.

In our world, we understand “education” as coercion directed at the child. But in the spiritual world, coercion is impossible. I can see that a student doesn’t change for years, repeating the same mistakes, falling into the same pits, and I cannot say a thing. I was the same way and it lasts throughout the entire path.

This is our path and there is nothing we can do. Unless a person determines the lesson, the method, his Torah by himself, he will not be able to advance. There cannot be coercion here, only recognition.

Therefore, we cannot complain that we are under the dominance of a cruel father despite all the terrible events of our history. We cannot justify them but later we will see that all the actions of the upper Providence stemmed from love. Although we cannot justify this in our current state, since we are too far from that, when we discover the truth, we will see what great correction it brought about.

“He has given a law that cannot be broken,” means that there is one law. There is a Light and a vessel which are opposite from each other, and this is the law. Later, when they are incorporated in one another, the law of evolution appears by this incorporation, called the law of equivalence of form. It all stems from one thought as one law.

Eventually I have to reach a state in which I want to keep this law by my own will, by myself, as if there is no one else, as if there is no Creator. When I become like the same creator looking at his creation determining the law according to which it should exist, it will mean that I have reached an equivalence of form with the Creator.
[102143]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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What Hides Behind The Screen Of Lies?

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe problem is that we need an inner connection between the friends and the teacher so that the external forms of the interruptions that are purposefully sent to us will not weaken, but rather, will strengthen this connection. It is indeed very difficult, since our ego depicts everything in an ugly external way and forces us to blame one another.

We cannot rise above the obstacles and external conditions that the Creator places us in so that we would overcome them by ourselves. The external corporeal picture strongly influences us and we cannot leap over it and rise in different states of conflicts, disrespect, feeling distant from others or when it comes to different corporeal accounts.

All this draws a person further from the goal, and it doesn’t just repulse him, but also causes him such harm that he will need to work for a long time in order to repair his past mistakes.

Baal HaSulam tells us in his letter that as long as a student yearns to get closer to his teacher and climbs the hill, the desire burns in him. But the moment he gets physically close to the teacher, his yearning diminishes gradually, until it is totally lost. Therefore, it is much easier to be distant than to be near. We all know that important people try to keep the crowds distant in order to increase the people’s interest in them.

A person creates a kind of image of a friend, the teacher, and the Creator, and doesn’t want to know the truth. He feels good living in the fantasy that he has created for himself and it is hard for him to get away from it, to erase it, in order to accept something new. If this picture is closer to the real picture, then, on the whole, it is less pleasant and more obligating.

So a person who sometimes hears the voice of the Creator and receives an invitation to stroll in His garden for a while, eventually doesn’t attain anything. It is because he doesn’t try to rise above his nature, above the inclination to reject his friends and his teacher and to imagine them as he sees fit instead of seeing the real picture so that the physical closeness or distance will not make a difference and also so that the spiritual closeness or distance will not lead to any changes in his relations with the friends, the teacher, and the Creator.

We have to try to rise as much as we can above our corporeal attributes and to be more objective. This means to judge above reason and to enter the collective vessel, outside one’s self.
[102132]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Each Added Detail Brings Us Closer to Simplicity

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe more one advances, the closer he approaches simplicity – the plain explanation (Pshat), that is, the original and genuine desire to be pleased. All insubstantial, complicated and confusing forms we observe at this time will be simplified.

As if we just completed a puzzle, the picture becomes more clear and smooth. No longer are there thousands of tangled and obscure details without connection due to missing pieces.

Each complication and confusion results from the “evil force,” rather than deriving from our advancement. To the degree of our development, everything around us becomes included into the upper Light. We attain simplicity through a multiplicity of particular details. Reciprocal connection between the opposites is what makes a difference.
[101683]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/13, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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