Question: I value what is written in the sources and in the prayer book because you said they were written by Kabbalists, members of the Great Knesset, but I imagine what is said there in the most corporeal way. How should I turn to the Creator? Should I pray to Him if I don’t feel Him?

Answer: We don’t feel the Creator, so having no choice, we imagine Him in different corporeal images. If we want to attain Him or at least to imagine who we turn to correctly so that we can really turn to Him, we have to understand who He is, which means to gradually attain His attributes.

A man’s need to reveal the Creator stems from this world, from which we gradually begin to depict Him correctly to the extent that we acquire the attribute of bestowal, which means to the extent that we begin to resemble the Creator according to the rule “from the love of the created begins to the love of the Creator.”

If we do it any other way, we will not turn to the Creator but to His oppositeness, to our ego, to Pharaoh. When we turn to him we ask for corporeal fillings, not to acquire the attribute of love and bestowal. This is the reason that Baal HaSulam says that first we have to imagine the Creator and then pray to Him.

Only if our efforts are aimed to the connection with friends, which spur and summon the influence of the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), the Light of the Torah that reforms, to the source, to the attribute of love and bestowal, is the image of the Creator revealed in a person. It is revealed as the only upper force similar to the way the image of the parents is formed in a small child as something that is whole, safe, protecting, the source of himself and of the whole world.

A person who begins to study the wisdom of Kabbalah draws away from the religious perspective of the Creator if this is how he was brought up, and seems to leave the religious path. After the correction of the first level of the ego, by correcting himself in a group of friends who try to get closer to each other, by fulfilling the Kabbalists’ instructions in the connection between the friends in the group, by drawing the Light that Reforms, the Surrounding Light(Ohr Makif), by the attempts to get closer to the friends; he gets closer to fulfilling the main rule in the Torah, “love thy friend as thyself.” It is only under the influence of the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif)  that saves and corrects a person that a student begins to feel the presence of the Creator in the world. Thus our forefathers advanced in their attainment of the Creator to the extent that they resembled Him.

Then came the period of the sons when the feeling of the Creator through uniting in the group became more real. An urge to turn to Him appears and is felt as the source of life and all of a person’s attributes and actions. A person becomes totally focused on the connection with the Creator because he feels that the Creator manages all his thoughts, desires and actions.

So the only thing left for a person to do is to ask the Creator for the ability to make the right choice in his thoughts desires and actions because it is as if he wants to overtake the Creator in his yearning to resemble Him. The period of the correction of a person’s nature is called the period of the sons and it is said “my sons have overtaken me,” which means that the sons overtake the Creator in their yearning to resemble Him.
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Question: Many people know that if they want to realize themselves, their lives, then before every action it is very important to stop for a minute and think: “What do I really want to achieve from my actions?” and then proceed to implement it.

Is it true that tuning into something I want to achieve, an intention before the action has a power to influence the reality and help me to achieve the desired?

Does setting what I wish to achieve, the intention before the action, have the power to influence reality and help me achieve the desired?

Answer: The intention is called what I want to achieve in the end. And then all my actions along the way are directed to the same state I want to achieve.

I am not talking about earthly intentions. Kabbalist works with the upper force that rules all of reality, and he is constantly in connection with it. He sees all of reality as emanating from this force that draws reality, both internally, the way he feels, and externally, which he perceives in his five senses.

Therefore, I take into account only this force because this is the only force that forms the reality. And my intention is directed only to this force—how I lock myself on it all the time, how I get closer to it, in every situation in my life associated with good or bad people, or with my internal states, or with animals, or plants, and inanimate objects—everything I feel I relate to the same upper force that creates this reality for me.

I seemingly exist in some movie that this force creates for me. Part of this movie I feel as if it scrolls around me and part is inside me in the form of my reaction to the actual movie. The upper force does all this both inside and outside of me.

The extent I need, in every minute of my life, to recognize and be adhered with the upper force that forms my reality around me and inside me, that is my intention.

Then I begin to learn what the upper force does to me by carrying me through all kinds of states, both external and internal, that is, my reactions to them.

On the basis of each state, the external and internal together, I need to declare that there is no one else besides this force and that it is good and does good, because it does everything, even the most frightening and unpleasant, only in order for me to turn to it as creating every state, because it is the first and the last. Only the upper force does everything occurring in the past, in the present, or in the future, all of this.

I start reaching such a state that I live inside this intention and my goal is to live in it all the time, together with the fact that I have to carry out various actions that the same force forms in me in both the spiritual and corporeal world.

In essence, this is my life. I gain by recognizing inside the same force what it wants from me, how it forms me, how it creates the upper world, how I attain it, etc. I advance in two planes: I need to treat this world as coming from above, and to the upper world, as rising to it from below.

I always live this way. Then my attitude toward my reality is called intention. There are many intentions described in the books of Kabbalists: how I need to relate to every step on my way, in my life.

Through the intention I form my reality. If I connect everything with the upper force that creates my whole life, both corporeal and spiritual, then I already live in one world and not in two because everything comes from this upper force and there is no one else besides it.

Then I influence my reality favorably; I build it because, in fact, the reality does not exist and everything depends on the way I construct it.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/18/16

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Question: How must a person direct himself toward the correct perception of what is happening with him?

Answer: This is spoken about in the most important article about man’s spiritual work, “There is None Else Beside Him.” Beginning in the morning, you must constantly direct yourself to feel that you are in a world in which the one and only power and will that builds and manages it is the Creator.

And along with everything that you absorb and in spite of anything that may happen to you, you must only strengthen your inclination and yearning within the consciousness that everything that is happening to people and what is around them, including what is happening with you, all is the intent of the Creator. He is the first, and after Him are all the characteristics and features of our world that influence and act upon you.

You must examine yourself constantly, do not begin to lose and divert your attention from your inner intention that everything happening within you and around you is derived only from the single upper force. And despite the internal and external changes, the reason for everything that will happen is that I will not change my attitude toward the Creator as the only reason for everything.
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New Life 531 – The Prayer Of Many
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Even when masses of people pray together for everything to be fine, there is no guarantee that their prayer will be answered.

Nature demands that we should be in a state of “love thy friend as thyself.” We have to educate ourselves to love.

To pray means to check yourself as to whether you really aim at love of others. It is hard for us to feel love for others, so this process takes place in a group, in a Minyan (a group of ten), in the prayer of many.

The good and benevolent force is everywhere, but it is hidden from us. Our nature is opposite from it and so we don’t feel it. All the evil in our life stems from the fact that we are opposite to this good force.

If we don’t want to be deluded into thinking that we already love everyone, we have to work with people, in the group, in relation to everyone. All the people in the world are part of my soul. We acquire our soul through love.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 531 – The Prayer Of Many,” 3/1/15

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New Life 530 – Which Prayers Are Answered?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Even though we constantly try to improve our situation, life today is nothing. It is somewhat pointless and meaningless.

We have to live under pressure; otherwise, we would not have developed throughout history. Today we have reached a general state of crisis, including in the perception of life. Everything is available, yet nobody is satisfied. This situation leads people to ask about the meaning of life, as well as to be carried away by fundamentalism like Daesh and so forth.

In the natural environment, everything operates according to absolute laws, and we must also live that way. It is up to us to recognize the final state nature is leading us toward. Then we will know if there is a place for prayer.

The sages of Kabbalah discovered that there is a component of freedom of choice within the absolute laws of nature.

The possibility of choice doesn’t change the final outcome but the way in which we advance toward it. There is a path of suffering and stress, and there is a path of self-awareness. The transition between them is with the help of “prayer.”

In fact, all people pray. What the heart wants is the prayer of the person. Yet only the prayer of many is answered. The prayer of many is a prayer for the many, that things will be good for everyone. When we pray together for someone to be healed, the connection between us influences the higher system. In addition, the patient gets strength and encouragement from this; his spirit is fortified and this gives his body and spirit the power to heal.

In conclusion, the higher power is good and benevolent, and all the problems in our lives derive from the evil inclination in us, the ego, the desire to receive for ourselves. If we connect to correct the evil inclination in us to aim toward love for others, we will be cured of all troubles.
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From KabTV “New Life 530 – Which Prayers Are Answered?” 2/26/15

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New Life 529 – What Is Prayer?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

We are found in a particular reality and yearn for another reality. Prayer is the means for this change.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the reality that we feel is portrayed by our internal characteristics. This means that everything that I see outside of me radiates from my interior.

Praying means that I direct my heart toward correcting the ego in me that separates me from everything around me. “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) – this is our next level of development. This is what upgrades our attitude toward reality. This upgrade includes two stages: wanting to love and receiving the power to do it where prayer is the means for doing it.

I search for a connection with the upper force in nature, the power of love and bestowal, that will help me to love. Prayer is not a means for fulfilling what we lack individually; so understandably we see that it doesn’t help. Prayer is turning toward the upper force in nature that produces and directs reality toward a particular goal. This operation is not simple. I must know how to penetrate into the “big computer” that manages the world.

Only prayers that come from love for others, from a pure heart, from a desire for things to be better for everyone, are answered. Nothing can change for the better if we don’t change ourselves and advance toward inclusive connection.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 529 – What Is Prayer?” 2/26/15

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Question: In your blog you include some Psalms of David. Would it also be worthwhile to similarly include the main prayers from the Siddur (prayer book), which are essential for our spiritual advancement?

Answer: I think that it is still too early to study the Siddur. We are talking in our lessons about prayers as the correct expression of turning toward the Creator, of His revelation to the Kabbalists.

The Kabbalists discovered the Creator, and from their practical experience in turning to Him, meaning the creation within them of desires, requests, MAN, they described the formation of prayers for us.

But we ourselves must be in connection with the Creator, at least on the level of Lo Lishma (not for Her name), so that the words of the Siddur that were created by the giant Kabbalists, the participants in the Great Assembly more than two thousand years ago, will not seem naïve and strange.
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New Life 695 – The Influence of Intention on Reality
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

The more a person directs himself, the more he prepares himself, the better results he will get. Kabbalists have other intentions; they work with a unique power, the upper force that depicts all of reality for us. In every situation they experience, whether it is internal or external, they must determine that “There is none else beside Him” (Deuteronomy 4:35) and that He is good that does good.

Kabbalah teaches us how to build intentions and to begin to identify the higher power, transcending feelings. When we recognize the force that is acting within all of reality, intentions of bestowal and love for everyone, of “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), that is born in us and the desire to sustain everything, disregarding nothing, and relating to everything with goodness. All of reality is created from a single force of bestowal and love; we have the ability to recognize this while we are alive. This supreme intention is called, “And you shall love your friend as yourself,” and loving means wanting to benefit, an intention which is found above a desire for pleasure and which manages it. This is an intelligent act clothed in emotion.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 695 – The Influence Of Intention On Reality,” 2/18/16

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New Life 694 – The Power of Intention
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

It is written “Last in action, first in thought” (Lecha Dodi); so people who want to realize life begin to clarify what their intention must be, what is the highest intention appropriate for me? What is the highest thing for which it is worthwhile to live? When we were young we asked ourselves questions like these and later we forgot; we flow through life on “autopilot.”

The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about intentions and explains that we are living within intention. We are built according to a desire for pleasure and intention is clothed on that, while we have the ability to control intention and change reality. The reality that we feel at present remains and a new reality called the upper world is added to it. Higher, spiritual intentions are intentions to bestow goodness, love, and connection to others. The intention that is directed within me creates the image of this world, and intentions directed outside of me create the upper world. Most people live without thinking about their intentions and without clarifying why they are living.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 694 – The Power Of Intention,” 2/18/16

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Question: What does it mean that the AHP of the upper falls into the GE of the lower?

Answer: AHP are vessels of receiving and GE are vessels of bestowal, Hafetz Hesed, that don’t want anything, but are satisfied with what they have. Keter, Hochma, and the upper part of Bina are only bestowal with no receiving.

It is only from the middle of Bina and downward that the thought begins of how to repay the Host, Keter, for the pleasure that He has given it. This is the reason that Bina develops vessels of receiving (Zeir Anpin and Malchut) so that it can receive in them in order to bestow.

This is the reason that there is only bestowal until the middle of Bina, and below that, receiving. The fall means that we cannot work with our receiving desires without having a Masach (screen) over them in order to bestow, and so we don’t use them. Only after we receive the Light that Reforms can the AHP rise, but only on condition that we receive an answer to the prayer (MAN) from the lower.

It turns out that we can use our desires to receive only in order to bestow unto others, unto friends or the public. We never will be able to use our AHP for our own sake in order to reach a state of greatness. What should we do that for? This simply cannot be! We can receive only according to the request of the lower.

This is the whole formula of “from the love of the creatures to the love of the Creator.” It is only because we want to receive a request from the created beings and want to bestow unto them that we have a chance to delight the Creator and feel love for Him. This is one action: the receiving of the prayer from them called “the love of the creatures,” and the request that is aimed upward for the fulfillment of this prayer called “the love of the Creator.” According to this formula, the action immediately is fulfilled.

The public gives us its deficiencies to bestow. Although they cry “give us bread!”, we must translate this request to spiritual deficiencies. At the same time, we must gradually teach people and bring them to spiritual needs. As it is written, “for they shall all know Me from their smallest to their greatest.” This means that we must teach the public that all of their deficiencies ultimately should be the desire to reach bestowal unto the Creator. Then, we will receive the right request from them and raise it upward. This means that “the love of the creatures” will connect through us to “the love of the Creator.”

This is the whole system. This is the only action by which we perform corrections. Three components are needed for this formula. The lower is the public, we are in the middle, and the upper is the Creator. Therefore, it is impossible to only study Kabbalah and perform correction. It is either together or death. A person is called Adam, one who resembles the Creator (in Hebrew). How can we resemble Him?

We must believe that the Creator is only a good and benevolent force, and this is also how we should relate to the entire world. We are the only ones who can help people reach the good, and therefore we must do that. This is the reason we receive their deficiencies and raise them upward.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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