Entries in the 'Prayer and Intention' Category

Getting Ready For The Congress: First Round Of Questions

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: This congress is quite sudden, and we fear that we will not arrive with sufficient enthusiasm. How can we prepare ourselves in the time we have left so that the convention will not turn into a festival?

Answer: The congress will not turn into a festival; we will make sure it doesn’t. Don’t expect celebrations, but rather most likely a forced march with mattresses. So you can stop worrying, it won’t be easy.

As for the suddenness, the best and most important things appear suddenly, the exodus from Egypt, for example that took place in a hurry. So there is nothing to complain about, it is just the opposite case.

Besides, we are talking about connection and unity, so do we have to make a fuss about that and say: “Friends listen to the news, we have to unite! Let’s prepare ourselves and in six months we are going to unite…”

Are we talking about something new we haven’t heard of? Do we have to start preparing for it only now? Shouldn’t we be ready for that all our life and every moment in our life?

What do we need a congress for? It may very well be that we will receive what we want to attain today and then there will be no need for the convention and other actions will be required instead. We should expect the coming of the Messiah every day.

Question: What should I expect from the congress?

Answer: That by the connection and the unity with others I will attain the general from of bestowal called “the revelation of the Creator,” the revelation of the “upper force.”

Question: This is the first convention that in advance you are not awakening us, leaving room for our exertion. How do we examine ourselves to see whether we are preparing ourselves the way we should?

Answer: I act according to the situation. In the current state, I don’t feel that I can spur you in any way other than what I am doing. Listen to today’s lesson again, and you will see that I am constantly waking you up. It also refers to the recent lessons and workshops.

What can I do if you don’t take this into account, if you don’t pay attention to that? I am trying to do my work. Besides, you should demand! I am ready to give a thousand times more, but where is your demand? You have no spiritual hunger; it is as if you are all full: “Well, tell us some more and we will listen…” what else can I say?

Question: How can we consolidate our forces in order to break through the Machsom (barrier) during the convention?

Answer: We need the unity that is attained out of necessity, the awakening of the desires and the impression. It says: “Each man shall help his friend.” Nowhere does it say that the teacher has to dance before the group in order to evoke joy or tears. The teacher guides the group in the right direction, but the students should follow this direction by themselves. There should be a collective desire among the friends. The teacher cannot do what the group should do, and you are wasting your time if you are hoping for this.
[81968]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/2/12, “Questions About the Congress of Consolidation in North of Israel”

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The World On The Scale Of Justification

Dr. Michael LaitmanMan forgets that he is always standing before the Light, the Creator, the good Who does good without any limitations. And all the limitations, obstacles, interferences, distance, and concealment exist in man himself. All he needs to do is remove this cover, destroy the obstacle, and it will disappear. All the disturbances that exist within man are the consequence of laziness and pride that are being placed as an obstacle before him by his ruined egoistic desire. We need to understand that if the upper Light fills everything, then all the disturbances only come from us.

If a person really comes to desire ridding himself of disturbances through the environment (meaning the teacher, books, friends, the group, and all the work that comes with it), this means that he really cancels it. This is because his efforts turn into a screen and the Reflected Light. The disturbance was caused by the absence of the screen and Reflected Light, and appeared in man as the result of the breaking. Each of our states come from the breaking because there is nothing in us other than a broken egoistic desire that paints a warped picture of different images and forms, sensations, opinions, thoughts, and desires for us in our ruined qualities; we call all these things “this world.”

Bu the moment that we wish to overcome this breaking, we understand that we’re experiencing all this within our ruined desire, which needs to be turned inside out. We don’t need anything other than this desire to turn everything the other way around. It’s a demand called prayer, an appeal, a cry, regarding which is written: “My children have defeated me,” because they have forced the Creator to change this deformed sensation and vision for the true one.

And as soon as we incline towards correction, we incline our entire world towards justification, and it inverts. We think that the Creator does it, but we actually do it with our own hands. The Light is always at absolute rest and is always ready to help us do something. Everything depends on whether we will be able to evoke it and obligate it to do this.

This is why we need to say: “No one will help me but me!” Because everything is in the person’s hands: the spiritual spark, the corrected desire, and the environment that needs to be organized so it represents a system of proper values, a scale of priorities. And with all this, a person will be able to advance and demand correction from the Light, the source, which will become revealed the moment the person really desires it.

On one hand, it’s written that the Creator does everything. But on the other hand, it’s written that everything depends upon the person. And in reality, everything is done by the upper Light, the upper force, but only at the person’s request. Even when we suffer today and seem to want to rid ourselves of suffering, in reality, we don’t want to be free of it. If we really wanted that, we would have ended all the suffering a long time ago.

In other words, the Light, the Creator, does all the actions, but man makes the decision regarding these actions. It’s written, “He labored and found,” it doesn’t happen any other way. This is why it’s necessary to understand that all the tools are known and the place of analysis is clear. It’s also necessary to analyze one’s intention, the direction of one’s thought, and the goal. And when a person makes the right analyses, uses his environment and all the tools given to him the right way, then the upper Light is ready to do this action the moment this desire appears in man.
[81750]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam, Igrot, “Letter 34”

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An Adventure For Adults

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In what way is the congress in the North different from the one we had in the Arava desert?

Answer: We already spoke about it yesterday in the workshop when we spoke about how our feelings change as a result of the workshops and our attitude towards them. We saw that each time the beginning is more difficult—it is harder to come to the workshop—but the entrance and the connection come more quickly and our impression grows and becomes clearer and more stable.

It is the same when it comes to congresses, since a congress is a kind of a workshop, but more complex since it is made of more parts, and we have to relate to it accordingly.

Of course, it is harder to get ready for the coming congress and to the impression we should receive from it compared to the Arava convention, in which we felt as if we were leaving Egypt and coming closer to Mt. Sinai. There was something of the legend there, a kind of an adventure. Today we are facing routine work: We are coming to a new place, we fix what is necessary, we have lectures…the previous impression is missing, it has been changed to a “standard procedure,” into routine.

This is good since this is how nature provides us with a more mature attitude so that we will try to penetrate our feelings and to be impressed by more profound things.

We say that in the Arava we attained the level of Shoresh (the root level) of our vessel. The fire burned in us and we felt like heroes looking forward to an adventure. Now we’ve moved on level one or two, the desire is also “thicker,” and our attitude should be more serious. There is no room here for the “airy” euphoria, to the childish impression anymore; we should search for all this inside, in the depths of our feeling and understanding. That’s what’s important.

Today we must attain the connection under difficult conditions, without the first impression, with a desire that is thicker. We have to be thankful for having received a thicker desire. Apparently we’ve managed to do something in the past and now we should attain a much stronger impression than before that isn’t childish but much more mature.
[81971]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/02/12, “Questions About the Congress of Consolidation in North Israel”

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Contact With The Future

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” item 15: When you examine the above three states, you will find that one completely necessitates the other in a way that, if one were to be cancelled, the others would be cancelled, too.

If, for example, the third state—the conversion of the form of reception to the form of bestowal—had not materialized, it is certain that the first state in Ein Sof would never have been able to emerge.

It is because the perfection materialized there only because the future third state was already there, as though it is in the present. And all the perfection that was pictured there in that state is like a reflection from the future into the present. But if the future could be cancelled, there would not be any present. Thus, the third state necessitates the existence of the first.

The whole plan, including the initial part, the middle part, and the final part couldn’t exist without the future form. It is said: “The end of the action in is the initial thought,” which is true according to every plan and every action—the future form is mandatory and in itself determines all the details.

The beginning is only the point of the created being, which is separate from the Creator. In the future form, the created being should be like the Creator, when he rises to the level of Adam, the “human” level, stemming from the word Domeh (similar.) This determines the process: to get from the beginning to the end, we must start our development from the end to the beginning. That means that “the end result of an action lies in the initial thought.” An “action” is already the end, the final and complete form, from which we know how to approach things. It is the only way the spiritual work takes place.

In our world we assume that we operate differently, but it isn’t so. It simply seems that way since half of our actions and thoughts are concealed. It seems that something new is going on, that I am doing something, but in fact I don’t see what is going on behind the scenes where everything is arranged for me, where the future form determines the current form from which it is supposed to stem.

It seems as if I go through some process of development and that I can affect it according to my desire and my plan and to obey the desire of those around me. In the meantime, I simply don’t see that everything is predetermined and programmed.

The future form determines everything there is and everything that there will be, and only our attitude affects the feeling, the manner according to which we accept what is happening.

So we don’t need to think about the actions themselves at all. Our intention is the action. Our attitude towards what is going on is the one new element we can add on our part according to the principle of “Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before.” The Creator holds everything in His hands and all the created being has to do is to change his perception of reality as he accepts it as good, in equivalence of form, or in the form of suffering.

Question: How can it be that although the final phase already exists we still have to make our own independent efforts?

Answer: Our independent efforts are necessary only so that we will want to format new internal values for the new perception. If you waste your energy in order to change the world, it only means that you are foolish. You don’t need to change the world in the present but to contact the future. Animals do it instinctively, and man developed this ability when he climbed down from the tree.

After all, it is impossible to advance without knowing the future. Ancient pagan beliefs were intended only to connect to the future. Today we simply don’t understand them and that actually the customs, the dances, the rituals, and even the martial arts were designed not in order to harm someone but only to “lock” the future upon ourselves.

Man has always faced the problem of contacting the future and of feeling it. If I shoot an arrow from a bow, for example, I only have to capture the moment in which I actually hit the target, feel the future moment in which the arrow already reaches the target. That’s enough. This is called “living the future,” being in contact with it. Then by that feeling I can arrange my actions on my way to it.

But we have not been developing in this direction for quite a while since the growing ego has deprived us of the natural perception that was in our basis and we lost contact with it.

If I don’t know the future form and don’t connect to it, I don’t act; it is a sign that my desire isn’t clarified yet. So there is nothing to cry about—I have to aim all my actions towards the connection with the future.

Our future is the attribute of bestowal and I have to express it by different means. When it is clear to me how I have determined my future form, I ask for its correction and then I discover it.

Accordingly, now too, if I imagine the group correctly, it shows me the future in which I am totally connected to it in all my attributes. This is my first spiritual level. On the next level I will be given a greater egoistic desire, I will draw away from the friends again, I will begin to disrespect and hate them even more in order to reunite with them after I overcome these interruptions. This process continues until we become like Rabbi Shimon’s students, united above the burning furnace of hatred.
[81819]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/1/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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A Kabbalist And The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can we say that only my attitude separates my current state from the next state?

Answer: Attitude determines everything, or in other words, the intention. When you change your intention, you change the worlds in your perception. The difference between this world and the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) is in the intention. All the states differ only according to your attitude, to your intention. In fact there is nothing but the state of Ein Sof. Everything else is a picture that we depict by our intention.

Question: Today I hate and I don’t like the people I come in contact with during the day. On the other hand, if I respected them, any contact with them could bring me pleasure and I would gladly help them all day long. Is it a good connection that I need or is the force that will be revealed the important factor here?

Answer: It is the main thing. The point is not to be “nice,” or “sweet.” You have to unite with others because in the unity you discover the Creator. In Kabbalah, this is called a Mitzva (commandment): You are fulfilling a commandment.

On the whole, the purpose of all our actions is so that we will become equal to Him, like a guest who becomes equal to the host. In other words, to bring the Creator contentment, just like He brings us. So the right attitude towards others should be aimed at attaining a good attitude towards the Creator. Without it, why do I need to be in good relations with those around me? For my own good? This is absolutely contrary to what is expected of me.

So it says: “The end of the action is in the initial thought,” and “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one”; it is on this principle that we should establish everything.

A Kabbalist uses any contact with others only in order to advance. He performs necessary physical actions in order to make a living, but he always calculates what energy, what attention is required of him in order to perform spiritual actions and thus bring the Creator contentment. Thus a Kabbalist uses the world in order to please the Creator.

Question: Does he enjoy doing this?

Answer: Yes, not in order to enjoy, but in order to perform the necessary actions. The pleasure is not the reason for his actions anymore.

Such an attitude changes everything and thanks to it you see the spiritual world. After all, your relations with others and with the Creator become clearer and you discover the network of forces, the network of relations, the network of thoughts, the network of intentions, and the network of operations. This is what actually exists. Then our world gradually becomes less important for us and so does its form, as it “evaporates” into this network, since it becomes meaningless.
[81816]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/01/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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A Vessel For The Light Of Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the creation there is only a Light and a vessel for it. The vessel for the Light is not the desire to receive that the Creator created, but the yearning for the upper one that stems from the created being itself.

The Creator evokes the created being by a spark of the Light so that the created being will be able to develop this yearning inside. The created being has to use this spark correctly by turning to the environment, which means to an external force since inside it only has an initial desire and a spark.

The desire is on the Creator’s account and it cannot become a vessel for the Light; it is just a general desire to receive. The spark directs this desire to an external force, to an external factor. If by this external factor the created being develops and the additional factor inside, this desire that is created by the created being itself will become a vessel for the Light.

This additional desire can only be bestowal, because the desire to receive is in the created being’s nature, something that is different from this desire can only be a desire to bestow.

It seems as if the Light of Hochma is the Light of the mind that fills all the desires with understanding. But it isn’t so. The Light of Hochma is the Light of life. It is the Light that created the desire to receive opposite to it. Thus it fills this desire and gives it vitality.

The vessel for the Light of Hochma is the measure of Hassadim, the measure of bestowal that the created being can develop in him. Therefore it says; “He gives wisdom (Hochma) to the wise,” which means that the Light of Hochma enters a vessel that is especially for Hochma, the desire to receive that yearns to bestow, which means to resemble the Giver. Then the Light of Hochma is dressed in such a vessel.

The more the created being exerts himself in order to attain a deficiency for the Light of life (life symbolizes bestowal), the more the Light of life, the Light of Hochma, is dressed in it and revealed in it. The Light doesn’t come from a distance, it is revealed within the created being since it has always been in it and only now is revealed.

So we only have to try not to be foolish and not to hope to receive the Light in order to receive, but to understand that the spark we have received was given to us so that we will develop the attribute of bestowal inside us with the help of an external force, meaning with the help of the environment. This external force will convey the yearning for bestowal to us, which symbolizes “life” and the “Light of life.”
[81596]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/12, Shamati #145

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Wanting Only To Bestow

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 30, “The Most Important Is to Want Only to Bestow”: The most important is to want only to bestow because of His greatness, because any reception is flawed. It is impossible to exit reception, but only to take the other extreme, meaning bestowal.

We are present in a single state: in the field of information belonging to the property of bestowal. There is only this force field, and its force is the force of bestowal. This is how it is revealed to us.

Within this force lie its foundations, which we do not attain: abstract form and essence. What we attain, as the Kabbalists tell us, is the force field whose force is characterized by bestowal.

In order to exist independently within this field, we were created from the opposite force, the force of reception. If a person simply experiences whatever was determined by his or her nature and does not change himself, then within that unified field he feels the reality called “this world.” Each one can personally absorb this picture in oneself and live through it. This world is called imaginary because we don’t feel what really exists outside us and it is as if we are existing in an unconscious state and seeing a dream inspired by the vibes of imaginary perception.

Within this dream we are developing more and more towards awakening and awareness. Our entire evolution, our whole history fit into this process.

How can we feel the external, true reality in which we actually exist? How do we probe for this field of upper force that created us, sustains us, influences us, and constantly develops us in order to attach ourselves to it?

There are two paths:

1.      The first is called “the path of suffering”: Whether we want to or not under the influence of the field of bestowal, we will keep developing and still come to want to know the One who governs us, influences us, develops, and guides us. Suffering will compel us to get to the root of its cause and we will discover that we suffer because of Him, because this is how He affects us.

Then we will have to come to know Him, to draw closer to Him in attempts to change His governance. And, like the first Kabbalists, through suffering, we’ll discover that this field, this Force acting on us, wants us to become similar to it by uniting with each other. This is called the law of equivalence of properties.

Why is this necessary? The fact is that through this, we will be the same as Him: eternal, whole, and perfect, and at the same time will remain independent. After all, if we were within Him, under His complete governance, then it’s as if we don’t even exist. However, our development contains a polarity: Inside us, a force grows which is opposite to the field of bestowal, and at the same time, we need to work on ourselves in order to become similar to Him.

2.      If we do not want to go through the path of suffering but by the path of Light, through the good influence of the field of bestowal, then we reveal a simple law: In order to remain independent, we need to demand from this Light all the changes that accompany our growth. If I demand and the field executes it, then there is no problem with remaining independent while at the same time being similar to Him. After all, I myself, against my own desire, ask for it to change me.

In this way, during the course of development I include two forces in myself:

  • The force opposed to this field: the field is wholly aimed at bestowal, while I’m wholly aimed at reception;
  • The form of bestowal, which I clothe on my force of reception

Inside of me is a force of reception, the cruel egoistic desire yearning only for personal gain, while on top of it I clothe the opposite form, the force of bestowal and love. But how can I know how to ask for the force of bestowal? After all, I don’t know what that even is. Whatever I may be imagining, all of my speculations are based on the force of reception and won’t allow me to truly demand changes in myself. Anything that I ask based on my own nature will always be directed at reception, sometimes concealed or camouflaged, but reception nonetheless.

How can I ask this field to give me a true force of bestowal so that it would start to be revealed in me like the force of reception, so that I would have two forces opposite to each other?

For that we were given a special existence: We see ourselves as living in the world filled with people just like us. And if I want to obtain a desire aimed at bestowal, a request for bestowal, then I can unite with others, with at least one other person. After all, the minimum plurality is two. But Kabbalists say that it is better if there will be at least ten of us, since this is a whole quantity. I need to start uniting with them in order to reach the desire for bestowal.

How do we unite? The Kabbalists who discovered the method explain this also: I need to sit together with them, eat and drink, study among them, and most importantly, maintain the intention: What do I want to achieve through all these actions? It’s important not to forget that my intention is to obtain a desire to bestow. This is what Baal HaSulam writes about: “The most important is to want only to bestow.”

It turns out that I work with people who desire the same thing, we are together in one group, and someone teaches us. How all this came to be, we don’t know, as if by accident. But in reality, that very same field drives us in the same way that an electromagnetic field places iron filings along the lines of equilibrium. In the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Baal HaSulam writes that the Creator brings a person to a group and says: “This is for you, take it. Here is your free choice.” And the choice is only to be strengthened together with the friends on the path to the desire to bestow. We cannot achieve the desire itself, because that desire is the Creator. However, we are obliged to want this desire among ourselves, and then, feeling the need for it, I will feel in my heart that I am lacking bestowal and that I want to be a giver.

Why? I don’t even know. It happens on its own after a long time, five, maybe ten years. This is why we were given this life. Little by little, in the heart of a person, a desire and need for the property of bestowal appear.

Everything here is subject to simple “physics of forces”: The more acutely my heart experiences the need to come to bestowal, the more powerfully the field of bestowal affects me. This is how we come closer: I according to my need for it, and it according to the force of bestowal directed at me. As a result, we begin to feel each other, and I obtain internal changes: In addition to the natural force of reception, a force of bestowal appears in me.

This is how a correct form is developed: A receiving desire inside and a giving desire on the outside – a form of man (Adam), similar (domeh) to the Creator. His receiving desire, the “material” of creation, remains, while on the outside it’s covered with a garment, a “wrapper,” a desire to bestow.

So first and foremost, I need to want to bestow, and when this desire reaches a certain degree of tension in the heart, the field influences me by induction, introducing into me the force of bestowal.

Finally, it clothes in me and I become a sort of a sentient “probe” or “sensor” for this field. Suppose I received inside me ten grams of desire to bestow. First of all, through this, I was born; in other words, I begin to sense the field that surrounds me, I feel that I exist within it, I feel its properties, its attitude toward me, and my attitude toward it. In addition to the current material level, I enter into a connection with this field on a new level that is called the spiritual world, and this, in essence, is how we attain the Creator.

This field contains all the information about the past, present, and future, about everything that happens to me and to the whole world. A person who maintains connection to this field begins to understand how to make contact with it correctly, what to ask of it. Through this, we find ourselves in an enormous flow of information that fills all of reality. Here we learn who the Creator is, what this field is, how to establish contact with it, and how to operate the entire system. Thus man ascends higher and higher, more and more is included in the spiritual world. And all this only from the desire to bestow that he received in himself from this field.

Returning to the desire to bestow: A condition is embedded in it—one needs to want to become a giver. And who would want that? Special people with a point in the heart, that is, with a small charge that directs them for the field of bestowal of which they are a part.

And what of others? Others cannot strive for that. Like the first Kabbalists, they can reveal this field through the path of suffering and misfortunes, anguishing, not understanding the reason for what’s happening and in general, what they live for.

To the measure that this state is becoming formed, we are arriving to the present, singular point in history. The path of suffering of the world has more or less been revealed today. Many people, even if not all seven billion, are already asking the questions: “What do we live for? What is the meaning of life? What are we suffering for?” This question, coming from them, cannot receive an answer. Moreover, they don’t know where and how to direct their suffering. After all, they don’t understand and don’t feel anything except for this world.

Here comes the turn of the people with a point in the heart: We are obliged to become for others what the Creator is for creation. After all, it is we who are able to connect them to the field of bestowal, and this is our purpose, what Baal HaSulam describes in the article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee).” This is why we awaken en masse toward the upper force, while others receive this awakening from us. This is our work.

Thus, “the most important is to want only to bestow.” We are able to desire it with consciousness and awareness, because we were given a particle, a spark of its field, and with its help we can aim our course, and aspire towards this field in order to reveal it. By uniting our sparks, we will be able to demand from it the force of bestowal. While the others aren’t capable of this, they need our guidance.
[81119]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/21/12, Shamati #30

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A Flat Tire Or A Flat Desire?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I see the current situation as unbearable in order to yearn for the next state?

Answer: You need the Light for that. Don’t we sometimes feel that we cannot stand ourselves? Don’t we torture ourselves when we see that we are wasting our lives by using everyone for our own benefit? Don’t we condemn ourselves for wanting to rest and for looking down on everyone?

However, we cannot bring all these feelings together. The problem is that a person thinks that he can do something by himself. A person is successful and is very lucky if he understands that without the Light, he can do nothing.

A person should not search himself, but, on the contrary, he should say, as it is written, “Go and tell the craftsman that made me.” Let the Light correct you; this is the only option.

The Creator wants to evoke you and spur you on to contact Him by every bad feeling he sends you. This is the reason He created evil: so that we will use the Torah, the Light, as a “spice,” as a means for correction.

So any bad thing that happens to you gives you a chance to turn to the Creator. However, if you don’t turn to Him, if you look for help elsewhere, this is called “other gods,” as if it weren’t Him who sent you these troubles.

This is where the group comes in, in creating a consolidated perspective, a clear understanding that everything we receive is from the Creator. The moment we feel a flaw or a defect, we must turn to Him. If this is the general approach, then I will certainly not forget this.

We forget these simple facts in our spiritual work because we don’t make sure that it should be the common, general protocol, the general atmosphere in the group. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t waste our time.

Question: However, I turn to the Creator not so that He will solve my corporeal problems, but so that He will help me demand a greater connection since the connection is the solution.

Answer: Yes, the solution is indeed in the connection among us. The Creator sends you a problem in such a way and on such a level that you will identify it as a problem.

If he sent you a problem in its true form, as lack of bestowal upon the friends or lack of love, then at that moment you wouldn’t feel sorry about it. So, instead, he presents it differently to you.

You didn’t exert yourself as you should have in working on the connection among us, and this corruption is depicted to you as a totally different external problem such as a flat tire, for example. You come out in the morning and see that you have a flat tire, so you curse life and the Creator, and change the tire with the spare tire if you have one.

Thus, the real problem takes on a different form that enables you to feel sorrow and pain. Now, besides the necessary external actions, your work is to understand that the Creator has called you since you are not connected to the friends and do not reveal the Light. Otherwise, what do you need troubles for?

Question: So, how can I turn to the Creator now? After all, the Creator is a force, the law of nature; it is useless to pray to Him and to ask from Him.

Answer: “Praying” doesn’t mean to ask something from Him the way we see it. By praying, I discover a deficiency within me and a need for the Light so that it will come and influence me. Praying means to discover a deficiency that is aimed at correction, at the right filling, by the force of bestowal, by the Light. It is the attribute of bestowal by which I want to be filled. This is called praying.

However, I never discover such a deficiency. Instead, I feel that I lack something. How is it possible to turn the egoistic deficiency, the fact that I lack something, into a deficiency for the attribute of bestowal? This is our internal work called “God’s work.” When, together, with the friends, I switch from a corporeal deficiency for my self-benefit to a spiritual deficiency for the attribute of bestowal, I summon the Light that Reforms, and my desire is fulfilled.
[81454]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Racing Past Psychological Barriers

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we possibly demand help in order to overcome concealment if at this time, as if we are dead, we do not sense any desires?

Answer: Concealment is given to make you scream for help. In concealment, “the righteous will follow the Creator’s path, and the sinners will fall on them.” Besides going through concealment, one can experience many other problems of a much worse nature.

Concealment indicates powerlessness and bad moods; it’s a state at which one doesn’t know who to ask for help and doesn’t possess the correct thoughts or desires. It’s as if one is wandering in complete darkness and all of a sudden hits a wall.

We have to acknowledge that this is the actual place for the work we are supposed to do. If one remembers that he is in concealment, it means that he can eventually rise from it. This is how a point of internal shattering reveals itself. It is only about the psychological barrier that you have to overcome, although it feels as if you cannot find energy to cope with it.

In fact, you can do it. If you conquer yourself and overcome your psychological barrier from within, and manage to open a book, you’ll see that the Creator deliberately “plotted” this state for you, since from this point you’ll reach a new understanding and will make another step ahead. Our entire advancement consists of points like this.
[80616]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/5/12, Shamati #25

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So That No One Will Be Forgotten

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How should we direct our “Prayer for the Many” before the convention in the North so that it will personally influence each one of us so that we will feel the importance of the group and for the world?

Answer: Conventions of this kind are very beneficial. I saw it also according to the groups I visited lately. We need to maintain the intention of bestowal for all of our friends all over the world. It is very influential and advances them significantly.

Each time, I happily discover that the gap between the groups shrinks more and more. It is especially now as the groups opened to meet the general public, when we support the unity of the congresses, and especially with the workshops, the groups feel a very, big change. The distances between us disappear, all gradually become one group, and this causes great happiness.

The convention in the North will begin on Thursday of next week. I very much hope that our friends can get away from work and their other involvements. Nowadays it is not so simple, since it can cause unpleasantness on the side of the employers. I warn you: Don’t put your position at work in danger and don’t leave if there is no possibility to take a vacation.

We will try to have a continuous live broadcast.

As to the preparation, the main thing is the connection. This means a really deep, internal connection between everyone, between all the groups and all the friends so that not one of us will be forgotten. We must prepare for more consolidated and dense activity. From Sunday of next week, we will devote special lessons to this. Be with us, and everything will work out.
[81520]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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