Entries in the 'Prayer and Intention' Category

Where Is My Real “Me” And Not The Imaginary One?

laitman_940Question: If the Creator controls both my heart and my mind, then how can I choose and change direction?

Answer: Me, I am just a part of the system, something that is included in the group, and with the help of the connection with it, am able to participate in the general prayer, MAN.

It’s not my body and not my present feelings and mind. All of that isn’t taken into consideration at all, thus this world is called “imaginary.” It is possible to completely erase everything that we feel since there is nothing real about it. Everything is fictitious. So what do I have left? The Reshimo (reminiscence) isn’t me either, since it also comes from above. Only my efforts to be integrated into the group are taken into account, with the goal to return the system back to what it was in the beginning. And this is called MAN.

Question: When I work in the group, do desires of another kind awaken in me?

Answer: Of course it is another kind of desire. My desire to be integrated into the group and the efforts I make in order to connect to the friends is already my effort to reach bestowal since when I do this, I must annul myself.
[129437]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/14

Related Material:
My “I”
Where Does The Real Me Begin?
I Am Disappearing And Growing

The Only Good Activity

laitman_943The Torah, “Numbers” 11:7 – 11:8: Now the manna was like coriander seed, and the appearance thereof as the appearance of bdellium. The people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in mortars, and seethed it in pots, and made cakes of it; and the taste of it was as the taste of a cake baked with oil.

Humans are a part of the animate world. Many scientists affirm and verify this with their research.

Even though human society is distinguished by science, culture, and education, it is impossible to say that this is found above the level of the beast. We live, as it is said, “according to concepts and ideas.” But the concepts we have are basically those of a beast, since we use absolutely the same methods as they in educational social and other aspects.

Comment: But this declaration arouses much opposition among people of faith.

Answer: I understand them, but I don’t think that a nightingale does anything less well than some musician, who may have a completely distorted view of human relations.

Art has no connection to the transcendence of a person! It is simply a gift that is given by nature that a person manifests. It is no more than that.

Together with this he can also invoke murder and fanaticism, expressing his point of view in a beautiful language. For example, the famous composer Wagner was consumed by hatred not only of Jews, but also to all of humanity.

So both physicists and poets, as well as those who work for the sake of war and those who work for the state police, rest assured thinking that they are above the beast.

Whereas a bird performs its natural function and certainly doesn’t harm anyone, just as a lion that preys on other animals doesn’t harm the environment because it functions as an ecological “janitor.”

Nature is a complete system, and it is necessary to approach it as a whole, without exception of the human being and without claiming that his apparently multifaceted activities on Earth go beyond the limits of ordinary nature. The only thing that goes beyond its limits is when he uses his ego to cause harm to himself and others.

So we differ from ancient people only from our greater negative aspect. Today this is already gradually being revealed, and I think that soon people will begin to agree with me. This is even though I still remember those times in Russia when there was a fear of suggesting such a thing, for this was against the concepts of progress and the bright future of the nation.

So it was thought that they were going “ahead of the world” both in the realm of ballet and the building of missiles and in the area of armaments. In general this was considered something of which to be proud.

But the idea is that all of this is attained by our ego and therefore only harms humanity. If we want to do something good, in our inventory there is only one good activity, raising MAN.

Raising MAN is the elevation of desire to bestowal and love, connection and union. And we must act in this direction, for the Upper Light that created us arrives in response to the MAN.

Besides this, it also created the ego in us so that with its help we would again ask for additional Upper Light. And when the Light descends upon us in answer to our desire, then it will begin to transform the ego to mutual benefit.

Then we will feel only pleasure in all the phenomena in life, in all the tastes, in every possible thing. About this it is said that the taste of the manna was “as the taste of a cake baked with oil.”
[163587]

Related Material:
A Prayer, Growing Secretly In The Heart
All Requests Come From Below, And All Fulfillment Comes From Above
All The Difference Is In Intention

The Key To Every Problem

laitman_562_02Midrash Raba, “Behaalotcha“: Besides it (the MAN) also helped the judges solve complicated legal issues like to whom a slave belongs, for example. The judge would simply look on whose doorstep the slave’s MAN fell the following morning. The owner of the slave would be the person on whose doorstep the MAN fell.

The MAN solves every problem between people. By raising MAN we raise our prayer for the Upper Light to come and fill us and provide us with the understanding, recognition, wisdom, and ability to make the right decisions in the connection between us, health, and security. We ask that it should make us perfect, eternal, etc., which means without any flaws: physical, moral, or any other kind.

The Upper Light called MAD descends upon us in response to the MAN. It is described in the Torah as our movement, since when we move backwards to our initial state the MAD falls upon us as the white Light that corrects everything and brings us to the one whole state. This is the reason that MAN solves any issues and conflicts between people. All the problems disappear, but life doesn’t become tasteless, monotonous, or pointless as a result. On the contrary, we begin to see a great world before us, which we need to explore and in which we have to find flaws all the time and ask to see them as perfect. When we feel that we gradually become perfect we will also see that the world is more perfect.
[163625]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/25/15

Related Material:
A Prayer, Growing Secretly In The Heart
A Brilliant Solution For All Kinds Of Problems
The Creature’s Biggest Problem

Asking For The Light Of Faith

laitman_239Question: Why on Passover is the Light revealed with mercy more than judgment?

Answer: That is how the higher system is arranged. It is impossible to act on me now with the force of judgment if I have no strength. What could it do with me in such a case? Bury me even more? This already happened in all the previous actions.

Now, I ask for the Light of mercy, the Light of faith, meaning the power to rise above my egoism and perform acts of bestowal, or at least not be in slavery, not to be buried under the desire to receive.

All of this can be checked only according to the thoughts and actions toward society. Only according to this can I examine and evaluate whether I have gone out from Egypt a bit or not.
[131181]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/30/14, Shamati #41

Related Material:
The Two Attributes Of The Light
A Time Of Special Mercy From Above
Good Turned Evil

The Common Work Between The Person And The Creator

laitman_236_01Our work is divided into two parts: clarification and correction. Both the clarification and correction are done by the Light that reforms, but no operation, neither the clarification nor the correction, can be carried out without our demand.

The demand is called prayer, the elevation of MAN, desire. The desire is required so that the Light will influence and implement precisely what we ask for, in other words, that the creature discovers a greater and greater desire to resemble the Creator, to rise level after level.

With the help of more and more precise clarification of all the details, a person can bring himself to accommodation, meaning an even greater closeness to the Creator. So, if there were no changes at every moment within the person, he wouldn’t turn in the right direction with the right request, so he wouldn’t get a response, an answer, a discovery, and a change; that is how it is throughout life.

If his state is not changed, he is found on the animate level. Only if changes happen in him as a result of the previous states in which it was clear to him that he raised MAN (a prayer), is he then called an Adam (man). After all, he builds himself with the help of the Light that Reforms, with the help of the Torah. This is, as it is written, “Torah was not given except to those who eat the manna” (Midrash Tanhuma, BeShalach, section 20).

So, through common effort with the help of the Arvut (mutual guarantee), responsibility and mutual support, we constantly need to help everyone, not just ourselves, and we always must be concerned that the entire world group will be raising MAN, in prayer, with a feeling of the need and the imperative for the right direction and the right form.

To turn correctly, many conditions must be met simultaneously. It is written, “…none might enter within the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth” (Esther 4:2); and we need to precede the request with a blessing, for this opens the person and organizes him correctly toward the upper Light, toward the higher level. It is up to him to arrange his relationships with the group so that his request will be adjusted to the higher level, to what the King is ready to hear from him.

The prayer must go out from the depths of the heart, must rise to be a general prayer for all, full of praise, thanksgiving, and happiness. For any bottleneck and sorrow there must be joy because this unique situation was given to him from above, and he wants to connect even more with the Creator, and all of this is not for his personal benefit, but to be concerned for the collective soul and to make the Creator happy.

Ultimately, our work is concentrated on raising a prayer, MAN, and we prepare the prayer through all the previous processes, through the changes in the human characteristics, beginning from Adam to Abraham. After that, the Avot (Fathers) are awakened in him, even though he doesn’t feel this and, after that, reaches a particular feeling of exile. All of this is so that, ultimately, he will get the method of correction and will know how to turn toward the Creator.

Each time his appeal has to be more precise, right on the same wavelength that the upper one is ready to absorb. All of the conditions are always arranged according to a person’s level; he is required only to perform work he is capable of. It is according to the internal and external conditions that he gets—group, teacher, books and study—that the person is ready to design the right demand. And, in response to the right demand, the MAD (Male waters) comes. If he raises a deficiency, then he gets power from above, Mayin Duchrin (MAD), overcoming clothed in water. That is how the person acquires the power with whose help he will be able to realize himself.

Precisely according to his previous request, according to the raising of MAN, in response, the person receives an answer (MAD), and he knows exactly what to do with it. So, it is written, “…his seed is blessed” (Psalms 37:26). That is how the person advances from the realization of the MAD to clarify an additional, greater deficiency, and he searches for new opportunities to bestow to the Creator, meaning to make it possible for the Creator to bestow to the creatures.

So, the person again searches for how to think about the creatures and not about himself and how to think about the Creator not about himself and about the creatures. That is how he organizes the next MAN.

Every time, he will understand, feel, and adjust himself more and more to the higher form. The person and the Creator become partners, and they work together to benefit the souls. The person asks for their sake, and the Creator implements his request. The request, the deficiency, comes from the side of the person, and the fulfillment comes for all of the souls from the side of the Creator.

Therefore, the person adheres to the Creator with his point in the heart, thanks to their common work. After all, all of the intentions of both of them are directed only toward the benefit of one soul that they see as a place for common concern, connection, and love. All of this is revealed within all of the souls.

So, it seems that a man, the Creator and Divinity, the entire community of souls are found in adhesion with each other.
[131991]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/14, Writing of Rabash

Related Material:
If There Are No Requests, There Are No Changes
The Components Of A Correct Prayer
First Thank, Then Ask

Everything Is Closed In One Circle

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the unity of friends that Rabash talks about?

Answer: Unity is when we clarify the teacher’s advice among us and examine it according to the sources in order to grow stronger and then to fulfill them together when we are equally connected. We try to make the connection between us into a mutual force field in which everyone is equally connected and focused in the right direction when everyone helps one another in mutual guarantee in order to reveal the attribute of bestowal among us, the force of bestowal that operates all of reality and is external to us.

We ascend from below wishing to establish this attribute by our desires, our vessels. We want this attribute to be dressed in us and to be revealed in the vessel according to the equivalence of form. All this happens between us. This is how we want to attain all the levels of our general soul, which we now build between us.

Then we will have to attach all of humanity to this unity so that our small circle would grow bigger from internality to externality. We will discover all the levels of the desire in it—0, 1, 2, 3, 4— and all the Lights—Nefesh, Ruach, Haya, Yechida—all the 125 levels that determine the intensity of the connection between us if we attach all the other shattered parts.

It is a very clear picture. Everything is closed in one small circle, in its central point.

Comment: The picture is clear, but I cannot fulfill this connection with the friends.

Answer: Of course you can’t because you have to add the Creator to the connection. He is the one who stands in your way and doesn’t let you connect. You are used to doing everything by yourself in our world. You depend on your mind and your feelings, on your energy and your power, but in spirituality you cannot do anything but discover a deficiency and aim it at the One who performs everything, at the operating force.

Don’t forget that! Have you ever thought of connecting to a group of egoists and attaining everything? This is called “the seat of the scornful,” and this is clearly no way of attaining anything.

You sit and cry that nothing works out, which means that you discover that you cannot do the work and that you need a partner. It is through the group and the teacher that you feel the need for a partner that has to help you. Then your prayer will solve the problem.

All you need to do is to reach the right request. This has to do be a prayer of many in which everyone connects to the same goal and understand that only the Creator can fulfill it; only the Light corrects the vessels, which means that only the Light connects them. If there is the right demand ( more or less), it is fulfilled.

The factor of time operates here as many pennies add up to a big account. In the mean time, we have to go through additional phases of scrutiny and clear up different concepts, and then it will happen.
[132143]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/26/14

Related Material:
The Missing Half Shekel
Our Victory Depends On Our Faith
Build A Boat Within Yourself For The Friends

The Punishment For Laziness

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus” 26:34: Then, the land will be appeased regarding its sabbaticals. During all the days that it remains desolate while you are in the land of your enemies, the Land will rest and thus appease its sabbaticals.

Eretz (land) is Ratzon (desire). If we are not engaged with the correction of our desires, certainly there must be some kind of punishment for the opportunities and the conditions that we missed, which are those needed for making a connection between us, for love, to gather together and to make it possible for the Creator to be revealed between us.

According to our unity and the pressure we create, He can be revealed between us with greater energy and in an abundance of revelation. If we don’t do this, then all kinds of negative situations that were used incorrectly accumulate, and then we pay our debt for this.

It is written, “Then, the land will be appeased regarding its sabbaticals. During all the days that it remains desolate…” This means that we didn’t work with our desires and now it is necessary to balance everything all at once and with one blow. This is received in the form of suffering.

Question: What is “the land will be appeased regarding its sabbaticals?”

Answer: The Sabbath is a seven day preparation for connection on a particular level. But if we neglect this, then as much as we didn’t carry out the connections, they remain negative and uncorrected (this could be the seventh year, the year of the Jubilee, and so forth), and become a very great debt.
[157898]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/10/14

Related Material:
Learning To Manage The Creation
The Laws Of The Surveillance System
Awakening By The Light

The Upper Goal Determines Everything

Dr. Michael LaitmanComment: You told us that your teacher Rabash used to sing and dance when he was in states of darkness and that is how he came out of those states. What do you do when you are in states of darkness?

Answer: When I remember Rabash’s determination, his aspiration, yearning, and refusal to accept anything except being with the Creator and holding only to his father’s method, I am flooded, if not by strength, then at least by patience.

Without that, I would certainly not be able to continue to work because I am not made of iron. Students leave me, and, of course, I am sensitive to that.

But I immediately think of Rabash and that gives me great power. He was like a rock! And therefore, I invoke in me feelings that belong to that rock and get strength. He gives them to me!

As for my students, I think that they see how I work and they should take an example from me. Rabash didn’t tell me anything! I simply saw a person who totally dedicated his life to spiritual attainment. What is more, he never thought twice, not even once, and always sacrificed himself.

I was always amazed by the fact that he never thought about his internal or external problems, and his reactions and decisions were immediate. There wasn’t one bit of a doubt! Every problem changes our routine and we sink into doubts. He had such an internal power that he only advanced forward and was absolutely calm externally. It was unbelievable!

Therefore, the main thing for us is the upper goal. It is superior to everything, determines everything, and I am its slave. My ideal state is when I am incorporated in this system as its component. Although I am a live component, I want to be incorporated in it as someone who has no personal life and who performs its laws without any questions.

I want to correct myself to such an extent that I become a cogwheel within it that moves in accordance with the upper system without any thoughts or doubts! This is called being the Lord’s slave, which means a person’s complete correction. I fully attain the system and the force that manages it.

Comment: Which means that a thought arrives and you immediately follow it…

Answer: No. I still have to clarify things, reach a solution, and make a decision, but all that doesn’t take place according to earthly time but on frequencies or at a pace in which the beginning and the end actually become one.
[156875]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/12/14

Related Material:
Borrowing A Bit Of Wholeness
Global Darkness Before Dawn
Connecting With The Upper Through The Connection With Equals

The Perpetual Fire Is A Call To Action

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Book Of Zohar, “Tzav”, item 50: It will not go out. Of course the fire of Torah will not go out, since a transgression does not put out the Torah, but a transgression puts out a Mitzva, and one who commits a transgression puts out a Mitzva, which is called “a candle.” Thus, one puts out one’s candle from one’s body, meaning the soul, of which it was said, “Man’s soul is God’s candle.”

If a person sins in spirituality, he might extinguish the fire of the Mitzva (commandment) as a result. But his ego and the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) will still bring about the appearance of the candle, the connection between the Creator’s attributes and a person’s attributes. Then a person’s attribute will gradually be corrected in accordance with the Creator.

This state is often mentioned in the Torah, like in the story of the Maccabees, for example, who found only a small jar of oil that lasted for eight days, although logically, it should have been only enough for one day. This means that the perpetual fire symbolizes the continuous yearning for the goal, continuous connection, and continuous understanding, just like the perpetual fire that is lit in memory of those who are no longer with us.

This is the eternal memory that should be a call for action for us. We have to guard this fire in us and be in a continuous contact between the Upper Light, the Creator, and our egoistic desire. It is because the Light illuminates because of our desire, which gradually wanes and serves as fuel for the Light.

The Creator (the Light) appears only when we can ascend to His level and turn ourselves into a burning fire. Until then there is no Creator and this is the reason He is called “come and see,” Bo-re.

When we try to change ourselves into the attribute of love and bestowal, steam rises from the oil through the wick and the candle is lit. Then the form of the candle is not only the Creator’s form, His attribute, but also the person’s form, the form of Adam (Man/human), who resembles the Creator, since now they match and are in adhesion.

As a result, the element that doesn’t burn by nature begins to burn. Without it there is no fire, but it appears only when it yearns to reach an equivalence of form with the Creator. The Light actually appears as a result of that, because without it, there is no upper level and no upper world.

The spiritual world appears when we create it inside us from the materials we have. First it is the group that yearns for connection in order to discover the attribute of love and bestowal in the connection between them. If such an attribute awakens between us, then as  a result of the compression between us, the pressure, and the desire to connect, there is an ignition. Then the Light appears, which is the Creator’s image that appears between us.
[134097]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/27/13

Related Material:
Constant Light
A Lamp In The Human Heart
A Flame Clings To The Wick

Lending The Desire – The Land

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus,” 25:25 – 25:27: If your brother becomes destitute and sells some of his inherited property, his redeemer who is related to him shall come forth and redeem his brother’s sale. And if a man does not have a redeemer, but he gains enough means to afford its redemption, he shall calculate the years for which the land has been sold, and return the remainder to the man to whom he sold it, and [then] he may return to his inheritance. 

The land should return to its original owners and one shouldn’t make an effort to attain it. It shouldn’t be taken back by force, but rather returned according to agreements that take all the details into account.

Basically, this isn’t about a piece of land, but about a person and his desire. It is hard to understand what renting out the desire means. Do I let my desire to someone and he works on it? What do I gain from that? How can he pay me?

For example, there are people who can correct my desire on the spiritual level of agricultural work, and there are those who own the land and can benefit from it by renting out their desires to others so that they will work and receive the crop.

In order to understand the meaning of renting out my desires to someone, we have to think about how people should relate to one another in order to attain correction together. How do they buy and sell? How do they connect and incorporate into one another in order to attain the jubilee?

Comment: If we say that nothing is mine, I aim at the jubilee anyway. I have one goal, which is to reach the Temple, Bina, and I ignore the fact that the road to it is dirty and that drunks are lying on the sidewalk, for example, since I am headed towards the goal.

Answer: No, you will not reach it if you don’t look to the sides, since reaching Bina means being incorporated in everyone and bringing them to correction on your back. So where is your attribute of bestowal? On what basis do you cultivate, arrange, and raise it? After all, it isn’t a walk towards Bina, but creating it inside you. It doesn’t exist externally to you.

Question: Does that mean that I can ascend only if I include everything inside me and process it?

Answer: Of course! Everything inside you should be organized in such a way that you are led to the attribute of Bina. This means that internally, you have reached a state that you have raised inside you and doesn’t exist on the outside in any form or place since the whole world is inside you. Therefore, you cannot ignore the drunks and the dirt and not correct them. It is very easy to do it mutually. The main thing is to attain mutuality.

The first level is the most difficult. Afterwards, everything becomes much easier and simpler, and at the same time much more difficult. It is because the higher the level a person is on, the greater his desire and the interruptions he encounters. On the one hand, he already has an inner guide book that helps him understands and find his way around, but at the same time, there is greater confusion and bigger problems.

Question: What is the meaning of renting out my land or selling my land?

Answer: It means to cling to others so that together with these people, who seem to be strangers, I can correct the land, since otherwise I cannot correct it by myself.

It is only by connecting to another person that I can correct the still nature part of my desire, which is the land, and then we can both become temporary owners of that land. In order to do so, we have to accept each other’s desires as common desires and thus cultivate the land (the earth). This means that everything is aimed at love of others, at connection with others, until we become one common whole. All the laws of the Torah aim towards this.
[155741]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/13/14

Related Material:
From One Jubilee To The Next
Either Towards Earth Or Towards Heaven…
Everything Begins From The Land