Entries in the 'Prayer and Intention' Category

Prayer Must Be from the Bottom of the Heart

562.02The main thing is prayer because it expresses our request and attitude to the Creator. Prayer shows that we already understand that we are completely dependent on Him, that there is absolutely nothing we can do on our own, and that everything depends only on how we will be able to ask. Therefore, our main strength is the power of prayer.

But we, on the contrary, usually cry precisely because we do not have the strength. It turns out that just when we have no strength left, we are ready for real work, which is prayer. Meaning that I should be glad when I feel powerless; I have come to the point where I can turn to the Creator, shout, ask, and pray.

It takes a lot of effort to realize that one cannot achieve anything on his own. Then I turn to the Creator, and ask Him for strength and help to raise prayer. Then, the Creator fulfills this request and allows us to cling to Him.

The Creator feels a person’s desire to adhere to Him, just as the Creator is already stuck to a person, although the person does not feel it yet.

Prayer should be from the bottom of the heart, and each time it is deeper and deeper. To turn with prayer means to cling to the Creator with my hands and feet as if I am in the Creator like a fetus in the mother’s womb. I drink and feed from Him, and I want to drown and infinitely dissolve in Him. That is, how I want to annul myself in front of the upper.

The appeal to the Creator is possible only through friends. That is, I want to grab hold of my friends and annul myself before them; this will mean that I have incorporated in the upper.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/18/23, “Everything is Obtained By the Power of Prayer”

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Work with Gladness

236.01And the most important is the prayer. That is, one must pray to the Creator to help him go above reason, meaning that the work should be with gladness, as though he has already been rewarded with the reason of Kedusha, and what joy he would feel then. Likewise, he should ask the Creator to give him this power, so he can go above the reason of the body.

In other words, although the body does not agree to this work in order to bestow, he asks the Creator to be able to work with gladness, as is suitable for one who serves a great King. He does not ask the Creator to show the greatness of the Creator, and then he will work gladly. Rather, he wants the Creator to give him joy in the work of above reason, that it will be as important to a person as if he already has reason (Rabash, Article 12 (1991), “These Candles Are Sacred”).

A person does not yet have knowledge; he does not even want to be in knowledge, but desires to be above it. In other words, even if he sees contradictory, opposite qualities within reason that should not be in the Creator, he still wants to elevate himself to worship the Creator, to place Him above himself.

Comment: When I succeed in rising above reason and experience joy, it also becomes knowledge that I have overcome; I have connected and I am happy about it. But still, at some point you come to feel it within yourself.

My Response: Of course you have joy because you have achieved it although the Creator did everything, but He did it with your nature. ​​He created your initial nature and at the same time made it possible for you to attain the next, higher nature.

But it becomes knowledge again, and you rise above it again.

Question: How can you be happy not just for yourself?

Answer: Then you will immediately fall.

Question: And where should one go beyond that afterward?

Answer: All the time higher, and there you will see.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/23, “Everything is Obtained By the Power of Prayer”

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Serve the Great

534From this one can come to clear awareness that he has no other choice but to pour out his heart to the Creator to help him so the body will agree to enslave itself to the Creator unconditionally, as he sees that he cannot persuade his body to annul itself completely. (Baal HaSulam, Shamati No. 5, “Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below?”)

Question: The body (egoism) will agree to work without reward only because it views the Creator as great. This will serve as payment for the fact that he works for the Creator.

Is there still a calculation going on here, to serve for the sake of someone great?

Answer: Of course. It is impossible to do so without any calculation because our desire to receive puts us on a different track; instead of working for myself, I do it for the Creator.

Question: Then at what point are we making an effort and what kind of effort is it?

Answer: Our efforts are directed against egoism, which constantly distracts us to its own needs. Try to work everything out so your requests would be the least egoistic.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati 5 “Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below?“

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How Can We Turn Torah into the Light of Life?

568.01Question: In Rabash’s article “What Is, “Rise Up, O Lord, and Let Your Enemies Be Scattered,” in the Work” it says that Torah gives a person medicine. What medicine does the Torah give in our group work?

Answer: You get a small illumination, a little upper light, and you begin to better understand where you are. And so you advance.

Question: How do we turn Torah into the light of life rather than a poisonous potion?

Answer: It depends only on our intention. If we want our turning to the Creator to elicit a corresponding reaction from Him, we must unite and ask Him for only one thing—to draw us closer to Him.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/23, Writing of Rabash “What Is, “Rise Up, O Lord, and Let Your Enemies Be Scattered,” in the Work?“

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Suffering is A Lack of Connection with The Creator

276.02Question: It is written in Baal HaSulam’s article “The Eighteen Prayer” that there is a commandment to pray for suffering. How can we do this correctly?

Answer: By suffering we mean a lack of connection with the Creator, with friends, with all of humanity. Praying for suffering correctly means that I am not asking the Creator to take it back, I am not asking not to cause it in me.

Through suffering He reminds me that I am not corrected. Therefore, I ask Him to correct me, and then, to the extent that I am corrected, I will begin to feel the world differently.

Question: What does a Kabbalist suffer from?

Answer: The Kabbalist suffers from the fact that he wants to love more, but is not yet able to. The point is that there is a limit to the extent his heart is in the intention of bestowal. I want more, but I do not have the strength yet.

Question: What do we pray for when the Creator already cancels suffering?

Answer: We pray that we correct ourselves and treat each other with love, and then the suffering itself will disappear.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/23, “The Eighteen Prayer”

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Two-Way Connection

942Question: You said we should turn to the Creator from a global connection. How do you know we are in such a connection?

Answer: You must be connected to each other so that everyone feels the friends. And from this global connection, starting from your lowest level, rise higher and higher to the Creator and only together make a request to Him until the Creator begins to answer you. Such a two-way connection will be constantly between you.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/13/23, “Reinforcing Ourselves with There Is None Else Besides Him”

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The Role of Intention in the Work for the Creator

528.04At every step of the spiritual path, the main role is played by the intention to achieve the desire of the Creator.

It is possible to build the right intention through the fact that we connect with our friends, slowly begin to think about others, and thus come to a state where our thoughts and actions are focused on taking care of them. We ask the Creator to help us in this, and we thus achieve the quality of bestowal.

Question: If we are in the ten together scrutinizing the intention, should we not come to some kind of scrutiny of who has the right intention and who does not?

Answer: No, everyone scrutinizes their own intention.
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From  the 1st psrt of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/23, Writings of Rabash “What Is the Measure of Repentance?“

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The Power of Prayer

239Question: How is a blessing felt in a prayer?

Answer: A person feels that any response from the Creator is practically a blessing.

Question: How does my prayer help correct others?

Answer: The most desired prayer for the Creator is when we pray and ask for others and not for ourselves. It is by asking for the other that we correct, as they say, all their transgressions and they begin to feel better and easier.

This is how the whole world is corrected. Therefore, we must pray for others.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati 113 “The Eighteen Prayer“

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May the Creator Have Mercy on Us

237Question: In what regard should the upper force have mercy on us?

Answer: In regard to the fact that you are callous, that you want everything for yourself, and that in no case do you ask for others. We ask the Creator to have mercy on us egoists, and to teach us to ask for others.

Question: What does it mean to ask for the unnecessary in my prayer?

Answer: This means that it is unnecessary for me personally. I have to ask for everyone, for the whole world.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam Shamati 113 “The Eighteen Prayer“

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What The Creator Tells Us

962.3Question: When a person finds himself in a difficult situation, often hopeless, he turns to the Creator. Today, many people in our country turn to the Creator. Some have already lowered their hands in helplessness, some in anger, some in a plea, prayer, and demand, meaning, the Creator turned the nation to Him today.

Our hearing is sharpened today. What do you think we should hear? What does the Creator want to tell us?

Answer: That we should unite. This is the most important thing. If we unite, then we will defeat our internal enemy and external enemy, and in general then we will win.

Comment: You separate internal and external enemy; please explain this.

My Response: The most important thing is our egoism. We must defeat it, and then we will defeat the external enemy.

Question: So, one depends on the other?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And yet, what is the Creator telling us now?

Answer: He only tells us about connection. Nothing else! He will act in accordance with our connection.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/16/23

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