Entries in the 'Prayer and Intention' Category

From Absolute Darkness

236.01Question: Recognition of evil disarms a person, and he understands that evil is a complete lack of love. Since there is no light of love, there is no strength to do anything because you are in absolute darkness.

What should one do in this state?

Answer: You should ask, and ask, and nothing else. There is no such thing that there is no strength at all. It means that you have no connection with the group. If you have a good connection with your ten, there is strength for any revelation.

You should strengthen your connection with the group and turn to the Creator from there. When a person asks only for himself, the Creator does not answer him. It is necessary to ask from the point of connection in the group. Although it seems difficult to us, we must do just that.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/20/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “He Will Save Them from the Hand of the Wicked“

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Everyone Needs Unity!

627.2Question: It is no secret that it is very difficult for women to unite. Where can we get the strength that would push us to unite?

What should prayer be like to strengthen us?

Answer: A prayer for unity. There is no need to complain about the fact that you are women and it is harder for you than for men. There are some actions that are easier for a woman to perform than for a man. With regard to their egoism, each person receives suitable strength.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/20/23, Writings of Rabash “What It Means that the World Was Created for the Torah”

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“That There Be a Will Above”

600.02It is known that in order to extend abundance from above, one must precede an awakening from below. We must understand why we need an awakening from below. Because of this, we pray that there will be a will above. It means that we must evoke a desire from above to impart below (Baal HaSulam. Article 57. “Will Bring Him Closer to His Will”).

To pray for the awakening of the desire above means to pray that the Creator has a desire to correct us. It should be focused on a person in accordance with his state, position, and character.

Therefore, ask the Creator to change you so that His attitude toward you becomes different and that you would have a desire to bestow to Him.

The Creator enjoys the prayer of the righteous because they begin to correctly assess that He is the giver and doer of good and turn to Him in their desire to ascend.

Question: Can we receive correction through one prayer without going through all the preliminary states?

Answer: No, we cannot go through all the states with one prayer. The Creator divides our states into many parts that are separated from each other, and for each of them we must raise a prayer.
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From the Daily Kabbalah lesson 11/12/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Will Bring Him Closer to His Will“

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Waiting for an Answer

239Question: In Baal HaSulam’s article “Two States,” it is said that the answer to a request to the Creator comes after a long time. It seems that there is some kind of bureaucracy at the top as if a letter to Him was lost there.

But it turns out that when a person begins to ask, his request is not yet complete and its adjustment begins, which takes time. Is this why you have to wait a long time for an answer? And when the request comes to a perfect state, does the person receive it?

Answer: We do not know that. Each time it can be a different reason. But we must understand that there is only one higher root that controls everything, and when it is revealed, it becomes clear to us that there is a higher control. And when it hides, it is clear that that control is at the level of our world.

Question: So, is it impossible to answer why such a period occurs?

Answer: This may not be clear to us. However, everything happens according to the same direction from above. Whether the Creator will answer or make a person forget depends on the upper management.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Two States“

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Saint-Exupery’s Prayer

627.2Comment: Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author of The Little Prince, wrote a prayer that begins

Lord, I’m not asking for miracles and visions, I’m only asking for strength to get through the day. Teach me the art of small steps.

Please share your comments about it.

My Response: It is very good. That is, do not make for yourself any grandiose plans or any big upheavals in life. There is no need! On the contrary, do precisely small steps, but so that you know exactly what they are, and that this is your real skill.

Question: Practically, does a person take a step and then need to check whether this step is the one he was thinking about, and how to finish it?

Answer: Yes, absolutely.

Question: What is next? How does the thought about the next step come?

Answer: According to what he has done, he can already continue to work.

Present me with the sense to be able to judge whether something is important or not.

My Response: This is very important when it seems to a person that there are many kinds of tasks, problems, solutions, and so on, and he makes a certain order in them.

Question: How do I understand whether something is important or not?

Answer: Because it includes everything else, and nothing else can be solved without my solving it first. That is, this is the key to solving everything else.

Question: What is important for a person?

Answer: To understand what he wants from life in general. We can say in another way, to understand what the Creator wants from him.

Save me from the naive belief that everything in life has to go smoothly.

My Response: In fact we cannot plan steep, difficult turns; we still want it all to be smooth.

Question: But he writes, Save me from the naive belief. Why should I be saved from it?

Answer: This will stop a person if he imagines such obstacles on the way.

Question: Are you saying that a person should think that it would be better if everything were smooth?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What if steep turns start?

Answer: If they start, I want to run away.

Question: What should I do if all these ups and downs start?

Answer: We need to increase the importance of these steep turns within ourselves. Then it will be possible to overcome them with pleasure. The steeper the turn, the more significant it is.

Question: Is there a law “the steeper the turn, the steeper the ascent”?

Answer: Yes, of course.

Send me the right person at the right moment, who will have enough courage and love to utter the truth!

My Response: Of course, everyone would like to have such a person. Some do succeed.

Question: So is this combination—enough love to utter the truth—the right combination?

Answer: It helps a lot.

Comment: Usually, during our conversations, you have said: “Why are you spilling your truth on a person? It is your truth. It is like you are spilling your ego out on him. Here, however, you say that this combination, when you say it with love, is a different deal.

My Response: This is a great help!

I know that many problems solve themselves, so please teach me patience.

Comment: This moment is always very difficult for me to understand.

My Response: Although it does not look heroic or correct, the wisest thing, in fact, is to go with the flow.

Question: That is, not to take fortresses by storm, but to go with the flow?

Answer: Yes. It will come to you anyway. Everything is in the hands of the upper, and we need to agree with this.

Question: Is this the most difficult moment, this agreement?

Answer: Yes.

You know how much we need friendship. Make me worthy of this nicest, hardest, riskiest, and most fragile gift of life.

My Response: It is really very difficult. The fact is that being worthy of friendship means giving everyone around such a state.

Comment: In my opinion, this is impossible.

My Response: This is practically impossible and can be interpreted as your weakness. But this is the real strength.

Spare me the fear of missing out on life.

My Response: Yes, a person is afraid of missing out.

Question: How can one not be afraid?

Answer: It can be either absolute relaxation, it is what it is—or it is a pursuit of what should be, but it still will not be.

Question: How can one get rid of this regret that I missed something?

Answer: I think that this passes too. If I missed something, so be it.

Comment: This is what you say, but a person beats himself up all the time, thinking: “I missed out.”

My Response: Well, how long can he do it?

Comment: “I had to do it.” How does he know? Thoughts come, and one cannot escape from them. “This is what I had to do and I did not do it. Why did I not do it?! It was so easy; I could have done it all easily.” And so on. All these thoughts bother a person so much! I know it for myself.

My Response: Dreary.

Question: Dreary, yes. And a person thinks: “Why am I sitting on this thought?!” Can you advise how to cut it off?

Answer: My advice is to relax. Because you do not really determine anything.

Do not give me the things I desire, but the things I need.

My Response: This is right and good. But these are such requests… You will be given what you really need.

Question: Do you proceed from this line?

Answer: I proceed from the direct line of a person’s coexistence with the Creator.

If a person wants to somehow awaken this coexistence between himself and the Creator, to somehow change it for himself and his philosophy—I believe that this is not necessary. By this you tell the Creator that you are not worthy to take from Him what He gives, and nothing else.

Question: Do you mean that our brain and our thinking stand between us and the Creator? If we cut off this part, would we cancel the brains?

Answer: Then we would become animals. This is what makes us humans, but such humans who are always looking for ways out.

Question: What is your advice after all these prayers?

Answer: My advice is to continue searching, rushing, screaming, asking, and advising the Creator on what to do.

Admit to Him that I do not like His governance, then eventually, try to reach a state where I agree with His governance and do not try to do anything, not because my strength has run out, but just because I understand that I cannot think of anything new, and everything that I have experienced and felt was all given to me by the Creator in order to help me completely relax and leave my control of the world. And that’s the end of it.

Comment: I expected you to say, “To agree with the Creator.” But you said: “Go through all the disagreements, go through all your jumps and hops, and come to an agreement.”

Answer: Yes, our entire life is in this.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/3/23

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Set the Intention

525Question: What is intention?

Answer: Intention helps you engage with me so that I can influence you more.

And if you bring me a gift, you will get more from me, not because I owe it to you, but because you will demand more from me! Then you will hear me more, feel me to be more obliged, and absorb more from me.

We are in a world where we can start interacting, literally from very primitive, simple egoistic relations, and even below egoistic, the most mundane. They will influence our spiritual relations with each other, the beginning of the spiritual perception.

Our world is wondrously created as a prerequisite for spiritual ascent; it is where you can begin developing completely from scratch without relating to the next world in any way!

Question: Within a Kabbalistic text, what does your intention mean, and how does it work?

Answer: I live in it, and you are in connection with me; therefore, it is all transmitted to you.

I make no intentions in regard to you; I just absorb the text. I am at the particular level this text writes about, and you, in relation to me, get a small part of it. After all, there is a need on your part to receive from me. Therefore you raise your desires to me, and I raise my desires to feel what the text says even higher, to the Kabbalist who wrote it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Set an Intention?” 12/3/11

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168You should attach an intention to each of your actions: why am I doing this, what for, with whom, and so on. And then you will have a completed action, as it said that the commandment without intention is like a body without a soul.

Question: What should I feel from this? What is the expected result?

Answer: Wait for the result from the Creator.

We should not think about what state we are in but about what state the Creator wants us to be in. That is the right intention. You will act accordingly based on this.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/10/23, Writings of Rabash “What Is, ‘You Will See My Back, But My Face Shall Not Be Seen,’ in the Work?“

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There Is Nothing Better than Silence

545I grew up my whole life among sages, and have not found anything good for the body besides silence (Masechet Avot, 1:17).

Question: Why does silence have such a height, I have not found anything good besides silence?

Answer: Because a person, in principle, should talk to himself. When he talks to himself, he begins to transition to the Creator.

Question: Prayers are written in words after all, and are said three times a day when necessary. There is a time for saying prayers. Why?

Answer: This is for those who do not know how to be silent. It is for those who need to say something, cry out, and so on.

Usually, if a person can express it all within himself, it is the best and strongest. It is a screaming silence.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 9/21/23

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In Your Own Words

508.1Question: How do we pray for what we lack?

Answer: In your own words. Tell me in your own words what you think you lack in order to be fully connected with your friends and with the Creator.

On the other hand, what in your egoism would you like to get rid of in order to adhere to your friends and to the Creator?

Comment: I literally hate my egoism.

My Response: Great! So you have something to ask for.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/5/23, Writings of Rabash “What Is, ‘A Ladder Is Set on the Earth, and Its Top Reaches Heaven,’ in the Work?“

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Tune Your Heart to the Wave of the Creator

525Question: In article 241 of Shamati, Baal HaSulam writes: “Call upon Him when He is near.” By what signs can we understand that the Creator is close to us?

Answer: When we think about the Creator, we want to get closer to Him. When we have some kind of relationship with Him, it means that we are close to Him. At this time, you must definitely turn to Him and raise your requests.

Question: The article also says that if a person does not take advantage of the opportunity, he remains as before. What does it mean to “not take advantage of an opportunity”?

Answer: If you are given the opportunity to ask the Creator to draw closer to Him and did not do this, it means you did not use it.

Therefore, you must constantly tune your heart to turn to the Creator, especially together with your friends, and then you will definitely have the opportunity to contact Him, and an answer to your request will come from Him.

You must always try to feel as if you are tuning into this wave with your heart, and your request will not be sent into the void.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Call Upon Him When He Is Near“

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