Question: What does it mean to delight the Creator?

Answer: Delighting the Creator means to give Him a place to be revealed in His created beings.

Question: Can I assume that the intention to delight the Creator is the action that helps us to go outside to get rid of egoism and connect with others?

Answer: Yes. The intention to delight the Creator should be primary, and on this basis, we build all our other activities.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/13, Question and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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Question: What does it mean that before we go out to people it is necessary to obtain the power of the Creator with the help of the group, the teacher, and the books?

Answer: To obtain the power of the Creator means understanding that His power, His revelation in that Kli, which is designed for this, is necessary for me. That is to say, not within my Kli, but rather in the Kli of the other. I take other people’s deficiencies and raise them to the Creator; that is, I ask for the power of their correction from Him, for the discovery of the fulfillment within them.

People want more money, but I know that it’s possible to satisfy this desire only through approaching the Creator. All the unsatisfied desires for money, honor, control, health, security, and problems in education are derived from a lack of Light. This is specifically why people are screaming. They go out to demonstrate in the streets or sit at home and silently curse the whole world and governments, but basically they want Light.

They simply don’t know what this is, like an infant who doesn’t know why he is screaming; he only knows that he hurts! But why he hurts and what needs to be done in order not to cry but to laugh, is unknown to him.

And since I do know this, and therefore, through the reception of the deficiencies of people, what they suppose they are missing, I raise them as I feel them, in a different form already. I feel that they lack Light! And this is what is called turning to the Creator. I work for their sake, as on a higher level, and raise their requests to what is above that, to the next level above me.

In this manner, their prayer, their MAN, which is only: “Give, give, give! Give us food, sex, family, money, respect, information.” I pass these to the Creator and say: “We, which is to say they and I together with them (because they stick to me in my AHP, and we become a single spiritual Partzuf), need your help! We require your Light so that it will correct us and fulfill to give You satisfaction.

And as proof that I truly want to please the Creator, I nullify myself towards the group, the teacher, the study, and the outer world, humanity. I am ready to make concessions to these in order to show the Creator that I truly want to attain bestowal, even just a little, even without intention, but at least a little! And then according to this “small amount” the Light acts on me, and through me, it passes to those below. Thus a link is created: lower—upper—upper upper, and I am like a big brother to the little ones, taking twice as much in order to convey it to others.
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From the Preparation from the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 08/26/13

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How do I organize myself so that all of my thoughts, calculations, examinations, and clarifications will always be directed towards the Creator and not towards myself? This is the only and most essential question: How do I move my attention from myself to the Creator?

As long as the person has not begun to feel the Creator through the Light that Reforms, at least a little, even not clearly, but to some degree, he begins to feel how some kind of power pulls him, brings him closer to it, organizes his whole life, until then he has no ability to think about Him. With his powers he never can move his attention from himself to some strange object that doesn’t even exist for him.

He never thinks about what is around him, about the many strange objects, he doesn’t take others into account, except if he is dependent on them. Therefore the environment that tells us about the importance of the Creator, the power of bestowal, the field in which people are found and which organizes for us the entire process through which we pass all the time is so important to us.

Even though we still don’t perceive, don’t feel, or don’t identify this power, still the environment can awaken in us the feeling of its importance all the time. That is how we can return time after time to the thoughts and calculations that focus on the Creator, even if they are all for my own personal good, but in spite of it all they are linked to Him. This state is called Lo Lishma.

And if we seek the discovery of the Creator, in other words, some kind of thought about bestowal within my work, then it can come only from the point in the heart. There are people in whom a basis exists, a gene with information (Reshimo), a spark of the characteristic of bestowal that we had before the shattering of the soul of Adam HaRishon. It follows, that they have some kind of spark from that shattered “Screen” that attracts them towards spirituality.

Which is to say, the person himself doesn’t do anything in particular himself, and simply within him the spark is awakened. This doesn’t depend on him; it is simply that this is how he was born. And if he arrives within a group of Kabbalists, then the group and the study can ignite that spark in him. Thus, time after time he receives awakening: a little more and a little more, in that he overcomes himself, sometimes by himself, sometimes with the help of the teacher and the group. Thus he attracts the Light that strengthens his link with the Creator.

He no longer feels just a vague aspiration like before he reached the group, rather a little more. But this is still a very distant link; you see he is not ready to think about the Creator all the time, rather only at unique moments when he gets extra illumination. And then he is awakened and reminded with the higher power. But in general, he moves according to the desire to receive in an egoistic form, which is to say, to acquire additional knowledge and feeling, and not in order to be concerned about the Creator. This is an artificial turning towards the Creator, as if it is to get the characteristic of bestowal.

But that is how the time passes, and thanks to a person’s present efforts, the Light does its work time after time. He begins to understand that he remains empty and doesn’t reach any success. From the sensation of emptiness within the desire to receive and thanks to the illumination that he receives within his point in the heart, he begins to understand that without help from above he has no chance of getting out of this state. And in order to truly reach bestowal, it is necessary to go out of the ego, to rise from the world in which he is now found, and to leave all the previous values, all that was close and dear to him.

If he feels attractions like these to go outside of himself, then he must be careful that this will not be on his own account; that is, he must clarify more deeply what he is doing this for, what it means to bring joy to the Creator. This must transform into the entire goal for him, the most precious thing in life, more precious than everything that he has in his world. Everything that he had until today was absolutely nothing in comparison to the opportunity to give satisfaction to the Creator.

This is to say, he aspires to this not because he hopes that in this way he will organize all the rest of the things in his life, and not because he hopes to benefit from greater fulfillment when he uses the Light egoistically; rather, he strives to understand and to feel what the true meaning of Lishma is, the intention in order to bestow without any reference to himself. Therefore all the actions must be towards the other, and only when they are towards others can they bring bestowal for the sake of the Creator.

The person doesn’t feel any reason for these actions, he has no desire for this, rather he aspires to this artificially, really forcing himself to think about this. But thus, time after time, when he thinks about this and discusses this with the friends in workshops, clarifying all these concepts, with his efforts he attracts the Light that Reforms and begins to approach the truth. He must check in what place he wants to receive benefit from this advancement.

In this way, a person gradually exits himself—through the other to the Creator. The Light gradually will grant to him the characteristic of bestowal.

And it is impossible to forget that specifically these states, when the person is devoid of sensation, emotion, and excitement, is confused and foggy, these are most useful for giving effort, if he tries with all his power to bring himself to consciousness. Therefore in the work the descents are more important than the ascents. The ascents are designed only to give an impression, an example, of what must be attained during a descent.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/04/13

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Spirituality begins from restriction. Restriction means that a person doesn’t ask for anything for himself. His desire is closed before his own pleasure and he uses it only in order to bestow. If he can bestow, he uses it, and if he can’t, then he doesn’t use it. It is as if there is a switch in him, a trigger that works only in one direction.

It is like a computer that can be in a state of 0 or of 1 and nothing but that. If there is no one he can bestow upon, it is a state of 0, and if there is someone he can bestow upon, it is 1. This means that I open myself, accept the deficiencies of the other, and convey them to the Creator. This is how Malchut that wants to resemble Bina works. It restricts its own desire, and locks it for using for its own sake, but thanks to that, it can feel the deficiencies of others. This is called “make your desire His desire,” but with regards to the created beings.

By acquiring the desires of others, I convey them to the Creator like a prayer, MAN, and get a response according to the rule: “The first born receives twice as much,” for himself and for the lower. I don’t need anything for myself, but I receive twice as much since my desire has changed and now I include in it the deficiency of the other. Thus I fill the two of us.

I fill my desire to bestow and not the desire to receive! When I convey a desire to bestow to another, I first convey the Light that Reforms to him, and then incorporate him in me, which means that I add him to myself like to the AHP of the upper. When he is ready to annul himself before me, I convey to him the force that allows him to build his own vessel and to receive the filling for himself.

It turns out that our work with the public is divided into many phases. First we have to work among us in order to acquire the desire to bestow upon the public. It should not be a desire to bestow for the sake of self-pleasure but truly in order to bestow. I work with my desire to receive only in order to bestow.

Thus we awaken the public, and they are impressed by the fact that they can fulfill their egoistic desires. But thanks to the connection with us and the mutual incorporation, they receive the force of correction and correct their desires. Then we can raise a double prayer, MAN, and receive a double response: for ourselves and for those we asked for, and thus we fill our collective vessels of receiving.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/21/13

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Israel cannot grow without praying for everyone else that are in their egoistic desires and aware not even aware of this. This prayer should be only for the needs of others; it doesn’t matter what state we are in ourselves. If we have the spiritual spark, we have to work for the sake of bestowal in faith above reason.

The most important thing is the prayer, nothing more. Every action is more useful and effective the more quickly it brings us to the prayer. We need to choose the actions in our lives that will lead us in the most concise, direct, surest, and precise way to the prayer.

The prayer should be “the prayer of many” that is “double,” meaning that I ask for the lower, for “the many.” It’s called the prayer of “many” not because I ask for myself and for the other, but because for him these forces are not united around the Creator. There is no intention, no ability to connect them together.

Recently there is a growing crisis around the world that needs to be viewed as preparation for the prayer. What is the relationship between me and the flood in China, the volcanic eruption in Iceland, the unrest in Egypt, and the civil war in Syria? I cannot believe that all this happens only for me to form my prayer. We lack sensitivity, comprehension, and understanding of the system to recognize that this is really so. Even with these tangible, clearly revealed events, it’s difficult for us to see their connection with ourselves.

From this we can understand why Baal HaSulam wanted to talk to Ben Gurion to explain to him why he went to Poland to the workers strike. The upper management involved the Jews in all the events so that all these states would bring them to the prayer.

When the true picture is revealed to us, we will see how everything passes through us as through a lens focusing the rays of light. The entire universe eventually becomes compressed through us like through the eye of a needle. Thus the connection between all the rays of Light and the source is established.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/22/13

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Question: All kinds of thoughts and desires are awakened in me and I find myself in all kinds of states in life. If I know that they all come from the Creator, how should I react to them? How can I strengthen the link with the Creator through them?

Answer: First, if I am detached from the Creator, I must be sorry about this. After all, in our world there cannot be anything worse than detachment from the connection with him.

Therefore, I need to hold myself “on the line”, and not forget that this is the Creator who constructs all of reality for me. He portrays in my imagination this “picture of existence” that is drawn with the five senses: There is myself, the world in which I exist, and there is some kind of external force that causes this sensation for me. And so I don’t want to divert my glance from this “picture” with the three components: I, the world, and the Creator. To the degree that I relate the feeling of myself and of the world within me to the Creator, to that degree I am found in a connection with him.

In the meantime this link is not apparent, not clear, but is already felt internally. In order to strengthen it, I need a group, study, and teacher—the unique part of the reality that I can use. All the rest of reality is opposite from the Creator and conceals Him from me. It only confuses me, even though this is for my own good. In contrast to this, the teacher, the group, and the study help me on the way if I relate to them correctly, don’t make light of them, but value and respect them. When I want to approach them, they approach me, are ready to help me and influence me more strongly. Thus I also try at every moment of my life to go together with the higher power.

And the picture of reality is the divider between us until I discover its activity in everything that happens between me and the higher power. And then the entire world transforms into a bridge that links between us.

When I look at everything that happens to me, in thoughts and desires, and at what happens in the external world, I want to see the thought of creation behind all of this: Why does the Creator act like this? As is understood, He acts for my own good and helps me build the right connection. And I am excited all the time and from morning to evening go through an incessant series of exercises.

In other words, I must keep in the direction of the unity of Israel, the Torah, and the Creator. “Israel,” this is me trying to discover the Creator, and specifically by discovering the Creator, I see my goal, the “Torah,” this is the entire world that I must connect into one Kli, one desire. Gradually I discover my part and my Kli to which I relate without hatred already, but with love and empathy. After all, I know that behind them stands the Creator, and therefore these parts lose their negative character. Now I look at them like I look at the Creator who activates them in order to change my attitude.

In a form like this, I begin to love the worst things in the world, and they transform into the best means of advancement for me. This is speaking about the hatred, the ugliest events, wars, and so forth. Suddenly they transform into states that bring me closer to the Creator, and by way of them, on a background of threats and pain, I feel how the negativity transforms into a good, wonderful feeling, into absolute love from the side of the Creator. The evil transforms to good.

In the essay, “The Creator’s Concealment and Revelation,” Baal HaSulam explains this transformation. The concealment adds a minus to everything, and so everything in my eyes is harmful, all people are evil, the payoff is not enough, and the family endures illness, and so on. And suddenly I see an opposite picture: Everyone is healthy, the payoff is enough, there are no enemies, there aren’t bad and disgusting people, and so forth.

Everything depends on discovering the higher supervision. It is not necessary to correct anything externally; there is only one task: to discover the guidance of the Creator.

This changes our relationship to correction from the root. It becomes clear that only the work between us, with whose help we are strengthened in order to discover the higher supervision, can change the world. And therefore, if we advance in a large group that makes massive and widespread dissemination to the degree that the Creator reveals its potential, with this we transform all parts of reality into active parts directed at discovery of the Creator.

After all, I feel the world and myself with my desire as two parts: an inner Kli and an outer Kli. And this is saying that I simply connect to myself, attribute to myself, more and more parts, in particular those that are related to human nature in which there is free choice, and after that, according to the degree of correction, also the parts of the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate.

This happens like this. First we attract to ourselves the components of the still, vegetative and animate that relate to human nature, and then their counterparts that are portrayed for us as the animate, vegetative, and still of this world are also combined with us. Thus all of reality transforms into being a single corrected Kli.

What is derived from all this is that we lack only one thing—maximal connection—so that with the help of the teacher, the group, and the study, it will be possible to make all of us as active a part as possible that is directed throughout the day towards discovering the unity of Israel, the Torah, and the Creator.

In addition to this, the Creator appoints us to correct the entire external world: our external parts, the desires, the external Kelim. And we are obliged to combine them also, to discover in them the guidance of the Creator who is good and does good, that there is none else besides Him.

Therefore, a person must seek the Creator at every moment when he grasps the end of the rope, the thought, or the desire that is a reminder of the higher guidance that he is required to discover.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/07/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We should see every moment of our existence as an opportunity for fulfilling our life, our existence, what this life and this reality were given to us for. Reality is arranged so that we, the created beings, will be able to attain our Creator. We have to become acquainted with Him from a state that is totally opposite from Him so that our attainment of Him will be as complete as He wants it to be.

This means that if the Creator wants us to attain Him to a certain extent that includes many sub-levels and individual revelations, then we have to be in a state of concealment in each of these sub levels. Since the concealment can be attained only by the opposite state, from being in a state of revelation, the descent into exile and the pulling away from the Creator is also gradual. The more we descend down the levels of concealment, the more we can attain the revelation from one level to the next.

If we were to imagine all of reality correctly, then there is nothing else to do but reveal the Creator! So in every action, in every state, in all our work, in the study, discussion, connection, and dissemination activities, all we lack is only this intention. The only thing we lack in every action is the desire for one outcome, to discover the Creator, the force of bestowal and love, and then we will be worthy of Him.

We prove our readiness by our efforts and the exercises that we perform between us. The only thing missing in all our work is the right intention before every action that we perform at any given moment. First we have to focus ourselves on the Creator, on His revelation. If we focus ourselves on Him, we can already understand how to establish the connection between these two points, between ourselves and the Creator.

The connection should be established from Him and not from us, from the force of bestowal and love. We should find out how to establish the systems that are adaptable for the revelation of the force of love and bestowal and what my inner vessel should look like so that it can reveal this attribute. In order to tune it, I begin to connect to others, connect the whole global soul to me: the still, vegetative, animate, and the human beings that are connected by me. Thus I create a place where the Creator and I can be together, where we have a chance of being revealed to one another.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/09/13, Writings of Rabash

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The main thing that we lack in order to succeed in our work is focusing our attention on the inner spiritual success, which means on the revelation of the Creator, rather than on external corporeal success. The revelation of the Creator should be our only goal, and all our work, dissemination, study and efforts at any given moment should become the means for attaining this goal.

It shouldn’t be the opposite! We don’t pray to the Creator that we should succeed in our dissemination or in our life. This is how all the religions operate when they turn to the Creator so that He will help a person in his corporeal life and fix things for him. We do the opposite: All we need in life is to succeed in one thing: in the revelation of the Creator, to connect to Him, and to feel that we bring Him contentment by doing so.

In the meantime, we lack this pure intention in all our actions. Even if it is artificial and doesn’t suit our mood and our feelings, still from Lo Lishma (not for its sake) we arrive at Lishma (for its sake). So in the meantime we express this desire only externally and look for the right words to express our intentions.

Although these intentions are not real yet and don’t come from inside, we want them to come from the bottom of our heart. We operate like small children who repeat the actions of the group without understanding anything. This penetrates us gradually until it becomes second nature and then we begin to feel the meaning of the words.

We can draw the Light that Reforms that will turn from the Surrounding Light into Inner Light even with desires that are not real at the moment. The structure of the spiritual ladder and the relationships between the spiritual Partzufim enable us to do that. Everything is intentionally ready so that we can evoke the action of the Light upon ourselves although we are not in the spiritual world yet.

So let’s first of all add the right intention to the great efforts that we make in our external actions. As it says “a Mitzvah without an intention is like a body without a soul.” If we want to perform a Mitzvah, which means a commandment from the Creator to adhere to Him, then we have to turn every action that we perform into a “sacrifice” – Korban (same root as “getting closer” – mitkarev in Hebrew).

The voice of the Creator will be revealed to us between the two angels, which are the two forces, the left and the right, receiving and bestowal, we will hear Him between the angels (as Moses did). We can do that if we work with our powers correctly: focusing on the intention of revealing the Creator in order to bring Him contentment in every action that we make, like a beloved person.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/09/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Must we yearn for the joy that we speak about all the time or will it come naturally?

Answer: We constantly should feel joy. This means that I am filled with the spirit of life that comes through the group that constantly keeps me focused on the importance of the goal, that we are special, that we were chosen for this mission, for this great work in order to serve others.

Since it pleases the Creator when we serve others, it is the greatest and most important work for us, and it must be done with joy. Otherwise, you probably are headed in the wrong direction and are not connected to the Light, to the Creator.

You cannot weep and perform the spiritual work simultaneously. You need to focus yourself.

See what King David says in the book of Psalms. He describes great problems that one encounters along the spiritual path, but it all is done with joy. Therefore, these are not just prayers, but a song!
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Three” 7/14/13, Lesson 5

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Question: Why is the Creator revealed to us through despair?

Answer: Despair is a very good state, but only when it won’t be the final state. After despair it’s necessary for a solution to come.

Despair is when I look at my desires and see that I am not prepared to do anything. This is wonderful! Baal HaSulam writes that there is no happier state in the life of a person than when he feels that there is nobody who can help him, not even himself: In general, everything is breaking down and in crisis.

Baal HaSulam, Letter 57: There is no happier situation in man’s world than when he finds himself despaired with his own strength. That is, he has already labored and done all that he could possibly imagine he could do, but found no remedy.

At this moment he begins to understand that only the Creator will help him and then a true demand to the Creator appears within him. Therefore despair is a wonderful feeling, only that it needs to be properly formed.

There is nothing like this, that we go through something and it’s incorrect or it’s unnecessary in the direction of the goal. Our efforts give us the right intention as to how to relate to what we are going through. In any case we need to pass through those states; only that the right relationship regarding them hastens the way, softens it, and transforms it. But in every circumstance this is according to the same pattern, these are the same states, and you cannot do anything about it.

You were some fragment in the corrected Malchut of the world of infinity (Ein Sof). This Malchut was shattered into fragments, and as in the case of any uncorrected part, you must grasp the location of your corrected fragment. There is no place to escape from this! You must again be gathered and grasp that part in the shattered circle. This circle will already be in consciousness, 620 times more perceptible than before, but this will be the identical circle completely, the same desires (they don’t grow, you see), but they simply become recognized.
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Three” 7/14/13, Lesson 5

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