Entries in the 'Prayer and Intention' Category

A Messenger With A Package For The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Which parts of our appeal to the Creator should we clarify in order to make it right and accurate?

Answer: It’s like speaking to me on waves which I don’t perceive, such as radio waves or TV waves, and every sort of radiation wave that I don’t perceive. I don’t even notice that you are saying something to me.

The appeal has to be strong enough, from a whole heart, and it also has to be in the right frequency that I can perceive. When I perceive the appeal in the right intensity, I also have to decode it. There are several filters in my mind which it has to go through until it reaches my heart and penetrates it.

So I have to know something about the issue of which you speak. The Creator has only one issue: to bestow upon the created beings, since He is good and benevolent. If you speak about bestowal and about doing good to the created beings, He is willing to hear you. This is how He is arranged!

The upper Partzuf , which in regards to us is called the Creator, is arranged that way. If you speak about an opportunity to bestow upon the created beings, He immediately hears you, and later He will hear you more and more, depending on the level you are on, an upper or a lower level. This is how He hears.

To hear means to take your prayer, the deficiency that you raise upwards and to raise it even higher. The Book of Zohar says that a special angel, a special force, does this. The Light from Above dresses in your deficiency and this whole package, the deficiency with the Light that fills it, is conveyed downwards to the created beings.

Question:  Do I have to clarify exactly to whom I appeal?

Answer: You also have to clarify to whom you appeal. First you should prepare yourself and express your gratitude, bless and praise Him, since otherwise you are not focused on the upper one. All these prayers are necessary only in order to arrange and to help you focus, and to prepare you for contact with the Creator. Therefore, you should sing to Him, and praise Him, and this will give you the right direction to Him. Otherwise you won’t know which way to go.
[132031]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/07/14, Writings of Rabash

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A Unique Opportunity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What can we do if we don’t manage to bring the majority of the group to do the very least that they have to: pay maaser, disseminate, work in the group, and come to the morning lessons? Is it possible to establish mutual guarantee with friends who don’t come to the morning lessons?

Answer: Ninety-nine to one hundred percent of the groups that Kabbalists formed throughout history were unsustainable. But the conditions were different then and there was no need for general correction and dissemination, and so they disintegrated.

Today when we can go out and participate in collective events, I don’t understand why you can stay away from such relationships as we deal with other people, and through them correct ourselves and the mutual relations between us. The Creator is actually concealed in the ascent above the mutual repulsion that we feel! If you overcome the repulsion and build a bridge that connects you above it, this is the point that the Creator will be revealed.

This opportunity is before you right now. If you want to reach the revelation of the Creator, go ahead. Here is the upper world, the Creator who gave you this condition: The revelation of the mutual hatred. You don’t need anything else. You have already reached this wonderful state. Baal HaSulam said: “I am happy at the revelation of the wicked,” I am very glad at the revelation of all the problems since otherwise I would have no chance to ever attain anything.

We need a creative approach in order to deal with the negative feelings that arise: the repulsion, the hatred, the weakness, the reluctance to do anything. We should understand that this is the building from which we, as crushed stones, construct a building in which we begin to feel the upper world. We need to collect these scattered bricks of hatred by force and become the material that connects them! This is called the correction of the general soul.
[132023]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/14, Question and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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Crying Over A Heart Of Stone

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I am trying to clarify, what is it that my prayer needs to include?

Answer: Prayer is work with the heart. If you try to relate to reality correctly, then what happens in your heart is called “prayer.” You cannot plan to pray between 10:00 and 10:30. It’s not possible to work this way.

Everything that we experience in the depths of the heart is called prayer. We can carry out all sorts of different actions to influence the heart, but we are not able to arrange a prayer in it. We can only prepare the heart to feel, and then this sensation will be a prayer.

The Creator is within your heart in its most central part where the fourth phase (Behina Dalet) of your desire is felt. The Light acts from the depths of the heart, in the fourth phase. Arranging the prayer means carrying out a variety of activities around the desire that form an impression in it, soften it. Yet ultimately what happens with this desire will be called prayer.

We are not masters over the prayer itself. Sometimes you invest immense efforts in order to reach the heart, yet it remains dry and doesn’t want to react. You run and try, sing and cry, read emotional texts, yet the heart doesn’t react.

Maybe it only seems that way to you, for who knows what happens within the heart? We don’t feel its depths. However, the efforts that you invest bring much benefit. The strongest prayer is when you don’t feel that your heart reacts even though you do everything to change it. And it is silent and doesn’t react.

You understand your absolute powerlessness and you feel the true stony heart within yourself that is not changed at all. You can cry, run, jump, do everything, read psalms, prayers, Shamati articles, go out to look at the sky, be integrated into a group, yet the heart remains a stone. But specifically these efforts to change it to a heart of flesh are the most beneficial means. Then you will receive a response to your efforts.
[131507]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/14, The Zohar

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A Concealed Intention

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Book of Zohar, “VaYikra,” Item 411: The root of all the sins is the increase of the left over the right. Every person has a root Above, and a person who sins increases the left and separates it from the right and creates a dispute between the right and the left, just like the dispute between them before the middle line included them.

All our actions in this world are characterized by nothing but the intentions. If, for example, I kill a man, it all depends on whom I kill. If I kill an animal, the main point is why I do it: perhaps I kill only for the fun of it and perhaps I want to give someone a present.

This means that all our actions are characterized by the intentions, because the same action can lead to a terrible outcome and it can lead to a good outcome, but our intentions are concealed. So the wisdom of Kabbalah is called the concealed wisdom. It teaches us how to control our secret and true concealed intentions which are behind our decisions and our ideas.

When we begin to search ourselves seriously, we come to the conclusion that we are total egoists who seem to act for our own good, but who actually only cause ourselves harm. How can we change ourselves so that we will really do ourselves good? This is a problem.

All our work is internal and so it’s called the concealed study. Another’s eye doesn’t see how a person works on himself, who he is and what he is, since the great changes are internal and not external.

When a person begins his spiritual work, he withdraws into himself and becomes simpler, but at the same time, he seems a bit strange to others because totally different values that are not accepted in society gradually develop in him, which may appear strange to those around him. But on the whole these are trivial phenomena.
[132261]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/24/13

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The Condition For The Revelation Of The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanA prayer to the Creator should always be collective. After all, what do I ask for? Feeling hatred, a gap, and the inability to connect to others, I ask the Creator to help me overcome these states. Then I can pray for everyone with everyone.

All our differences, when we can’t work together or gather and discuss something is a great state!  But the feeling of repulsion will constantly grow stronger. We know the students of Rabbi Shimon who wrote The Book of Zohar used to gather, but at the same time, were ready to burn each other to ashes, since they felt such great mutual hatred between them. These are the states we have to go through.

The revelation of hatred actually appears in groups that advance. If a person escapes from this and stops coming to the group, he simply doesn’t understand what is going on. He doesn’t understand that everything comes from the Creator, that there is none else besides Him, that all this is necessary so that he will be corrected, and that the group should rise by its correction above all the conflicts.

If we feel real hatred, it is the condition that leads us to our collective prayer. By collecting all our mutual hatred, we have to ascend above it, because this is our common problem, and then we will discover the spiritual world. Now the condition for the revelation of the Creator is right before us.
[32027]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/14, Question and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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Let’s Be Wiser

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere was single, whole Kli that was full of Light; after that it was shattered. The Kli (Neshama) wanted to receive in order to bestow with all of its might and not be separate; it did not discern that within it were desires that were not directed towards reception in order to bestow, that some kind of desire was left there that had never been revealed from the beginning of creation called the stony heart.

And so the Kli (vessel), this Neshama (soul), was shattered, and the Light that this Kli was intended to hold was removed and became Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light).  In Ohr Makif there are two characteristics; the Light that was removed that was within the Kli and filled it, and the Light that was removed that held the Kli that initially created it in order to bestow.

These two characteristics are found in the Light; the Light of correction and the Light of fulfillment. We must understand that these two Lights act only according to our lack of them. First we need a Light that connects. If the deficiency is not directed towards connection, then the Light doesn’t work. We don’t attract it and we don’t invite it.

The Light can be attracted only through our lack, consistent to its action, so that we will be directed towards each other; I to it and it to me. Therefore a prayer must be for connection, for the Kli was shattered, and its connection is the only thing that the Light performs at our request.

And without our request, the Light performs another thousand actions, which it does anyway. So before we read The Zohar, we need to direct ourselves correctly: ask for connection if we want to attain some kind of result from our study.

A person can sit for 20 or 30 years next to the book, as if he is present in a group, but if he doesn’t artificially develop a desire for connection, through all kinds of texts, videos, conversations and so forth, then he remains without a prayer, meaning without help from Above.

He is still included in the study, but studying like this is through a long and difficult path, requiring a long time and passing through unpleasant conditions. So let us be wise and understand that we have the opportunity and support to heed the advice of the Kabbalists and let us invest the necessary effort.
[131971]
From the 2nd part of the
Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/06/14, The Book of Zohar

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If There Are No Requests, There Are No Changes

Laitman_049_01Our work must concentrate on prayer to make our request as correct and precise as possible, in the maximal way that we are prepared to get from our condition. At every moment we need to try to locate the right request according to its direction, intensity and character. This is the most important thing.

If we examine ourselves, we will see that we are not asking the Creator. And even if we ask, we are asking for ourselves, regretting our personal condition. And this is certainly the manifestation of the greatest ego.

Ordinary people in this world who are not involved with studying Kabbalah are in better condition than we are. After all, they don’t demand that the Creator should change, improve, or correct what He did to them, disagreeing with Him. They simply accept everything as it is, since they are separated from the Creator. At least they don’t come to Him with demands and claims, asking where is their deserved reward. A demand like this is completely opposite to the right prayer.

It is possible to arrange such a change in us so that we will ask correctly only by working in a group. A person by himself cannot hold himself in this process. If he is alone, he will fall into his ego again; he will begin to attribute everything to and demand for himself. He doesn’t have the means to format himself and arrange his appeal to the Creator correctly. This is possible only through common prayer.

It’s worthwhile for us to see all of these concepts very clearly. If we don’t get any changes on the way, this is a sign that we are not asking for them. All spiritual advancement is realized only through the prior discovery of a deficiency, a request.
[131987]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/14, Writings of Rabash

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The Components Of A Correct Prayer

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion:  What should the group do in order to achieve turning towards the Creator correctly?

Answer:  The group must influence each one of its members and provide all the required conditions for revealing the MAN (prayer) in each and every one. This means it’s necessary to clarify:

  • What is the Creator?  Who is the Creator?
  • Exactly how do I turn to Him; with which request? This means that there must be a prayer of many, for the many.
  • How exactly should one ask within a very narrow range? If I want to turn to the Creator, I need to do this in an extremely narrow gap according to the form of the request.

First, I need to prepare myself for turning to someone with very high qualities. My fear is not a beastly fear regarding Him but from reverence of His spiritual elevation.

My prayer must pass through the group, for which I ask like a father would for his beloved children. Due to this, I become similar to the Creator, bringing myself to His characteristics through equivalence of form and attaining adhesion with Him.

He is the bestower, and I also want to bestow. We have a shared field in which we work for our bestowal. My investment in bestowal is the deficiency, a request to Him to bestow to others. And He is happy to bestow to them through my request, for my request opens the possibility of bestowal for Him. The whole world is in trouble, with problems, in crisis; so we can see what a vast field of work we have.
[131985]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/14, Writings of Rabash

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Give Contentment To The Creator With Every Word Of The Zohar

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Book of Zohar, Parshat “BeShlach,” section 134: The order of the emergence of the Lights in the three Nekudot of Holam, Shuruk, Hirik. That in the beginning Malchut rises to Bina, under her Hochmah, and then her Bina and TuM fall below her level to ZA.

And she is left with only two Sefirot, KH, and with two Lights, Ruach Nefesh. And it is considered that Bina is pierced, so that nothing is left in her but Ohr Nekeva, which illuminates from below to above. And so her Sefirot are called by the name pierced stones. And this is the point of Holam.

With each word that we read, we try not to forget what we want from our connection, we renew our request with every word.

Now we try to go one step forward, not only to seek a connection with every word, but we ask also for the success of the friends, we ask for them.

From the intention and request for connection, we pass to an intention and request for the sake of the friends. And now we have to add an intention here that we want to give contentment to the Creator with each and every word, to create a feeling, a relationship like this, a state, which will surely bring contentment to the Creator. In this way we arrange the Kli in which we give contentment to the Creator.

If the group intends to give contentment to the Creator, and I disappear in it, so the entire group gets the same value as the Creator. Only the group is the Kli, and the Creator is the Light that connects, corrects and fills the Kli. By being included in a group and praying for a connection that will bring contentment to the Creator, we already yearn to give Him joy.

And the main joy for the Creator is when we try to bring this connection to the whole world. For we are ourselves the Kelim designed only to realize and carry out this work, but delighting the Creator is possible only with the Kelim of the whole world. So we go out and try to connect them.

In The Zohar we read about actions that take place on high levels. Why do we think that this will help us? Because there are no other actions other than the act of connection, but on every level this happens in a more subtle, more detailed, more complex, and more intense form. But it is the same ten Sefirot with more and more bold acts of connection.

So no matter where we read, if our intention is right, meaning for correction, for connection, we read all in this way and will open all the channels of Light.
[131966]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/06/14, The Book of Zohar

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First Thank, Then Ask

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion:  What is each friend’s work to constantly hold everyone in a collective prayer (raising MAN)?

Answer:  Each and every one must discover within himself a deficiency regarding the group and disseminate this to others, in other words, to show love to your friends. And, besides this, we need to awaken all to a general concern for correcting the world, bringing everyone to form a single family.

We need to speak about this between us, disseminate this to the entire world, and provide confidence to every one that this is precisely what the Creator wants. Toward this form of humanity, as one family, we need to go forward and raise this as a prayer.

First of all, we need to praise and give thanks, to speak about the greatness of this mission and all of its components. And then we ask for the revelation of the Creator to the creatures, i.e., that everyone will feel the importance of bestowal. This is called the revelation of the Creator to the creatures.
[131982]
From the 1
st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/14, Writings of Rabash

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