The Spiritual Couple – Laitman Unplugged
Posted on April 15th, 2013
Question: There are several levels of desire in a person. How do you sort them out?
Answer: Generally speaking, we measure things according to the Lights that enter the vessels when I overcome my ego. After all, I don’t want to be in contact with others at all. I don’t even want to see them, but I overcome myself and receive, “buy” the other’s desire, just like the upper does with the lower in order to draw MAN upon them (a request for correction) and to receive MAD (a response to this request) and to pass it on to them. Thus I develop, by playing the role of the upper for others.
Question: And how does that happen? In our world a cow doesn’t become a human being and leaves don’t grow out of rocks…
Answer: Imagine a person’s life: He graduates from school and goes to university, becomes an engineer, and then a scientist, and finally has everyone’s recognition. If we look at his body, however, the opposite happens, since he becomes exhausted with time: Once he had lots of hair and now he is bald; once he was potent and healthy and now he is ill.
We don’t see what was added on the human level since he has received that from others. In our world, it’s impossible to see that since here we are all the same in our physical form, and the human being in us is our inner level.
In order to rise to it you have to connect to others, to the friends, against your will, in resistance. In order to do that, I have to rise above my ego and to start acting for the benefit of others. Then I begin to feel the other and can receive his desires. Thus we establish the connection of the upper and the lower, and I can develop and pass him the Light, fulfillment.
[104755]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”
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In the wisdom of Kabbalah, when we speak about “matter,” we mean desire. At a fundamental level, the desire is just an inanimate drive for self-preservation, the “laziest” of desires. It is satisfied with preserving its structure only, that nothing should hurt or help it. The main thing is to remain this way forever. This is the simplest desire, an eternal rejection of any development. Like the flow of water, the desire of the still is to aspire to a more stable existence, and the most stable one is below.
Problems begin only when desire develops, becomes “heavier” like elements at the end of Mendel’s Periodic Table. They are no longer stable and so are ready to “illuminate,” to emit radiation. There are times when they break down.
Generally, everything technical, all of our technology, is based on the still level. It is only recently that we have begun to enter into living cells with the help of biotechnology. Until now, we have been satisfied with the lowest level of matter, which happens to be very rich and great. This is not just rejecting something; rather, it is possible to utilize it in various ways.
For example, by connecting metals, we get wondrous results. Even semiconductors and components of electronic systems are the result of metal alloys due to adding or subtracting electrons, due to differences between the substances. In brief, only on the still level do we use a richer variety of forms, and some are not yet known to us, and with respect to the vegetative level, we are complete amateurs.
Question: Why specifically is there a potential of intense power in still matter? Nuclear explosions, stellar processes—do these seem like a yearning for rest?
Answer: The vegetative level absorbs substances from the environment and use it to develop, but the still level only wants to preserve itself. The ideal state for it is a stable environment in which it also is stable, and, on the contrary, environmental influence doesn’t develop it. Rather, it shatters, destroys and “kills” it. Plants absorb what is useful to them and emit what is damaging, and thus develop. Even if the still level emits or expels something, this is only so as to remain even more still. Radioactive substances ultimately stop radiating, even though this may take hundreds and thousands of years, because on the lower levels processes progress at the slowest rate. In any event, all this tends toward rest, emitting only what doesn’t help it maintain a static state.
So energy, which originates in nature, is derived from communication between the Light and the vessel or in other words, from a conflict between opposites. If we can create resistance between plus and minus, we get energy and utilize it. This is relevant to nuclear energy. We create it with the help of resistance, and if this resistance doesn’t exist, in contrast, we push opposites toward each other resulting in an explosion.
Incidentally, in an atomic explosion, first, there is activation of a regular explosion that brings two opposing parts together to the point that they begin to emit the energy of a nuclear explosion. Clearly, I am giving a primitive description of these processes for illustration only and not in detail.
Therefore, when there is a lack of resistance when opposites come together, this leads to a “short circuit” and destruction. In Kabbalah, this resistance is called a screen (Masach). When we have a screen, we get positive energy for spiritual work, and when we don’t have it, the Light enters the substance of desire and shatters it.
Question: Still, why is such intense energy released with a nuclear explosion on the still level of nature?
Answer: Indeed, this energy destroys the vegetative and the animate returning them to the still level. This happens because the level of the still is the fundamental level of development. Everything begins from that, and it is ready to destroy, returning everything to its source.
However, in any case, the primary source of energy is the Light, Kli (the desire), and the resistance between them.
On every level, we can utilize this energy only if we control the state. At the present time, we can control processes well only on the still level. As to the other levels, we still have not learned to use them because we still don’t know and aren’t connected to the source of life. We have in our hands only the plus and minus of the still level, and on the other levels we still need to be similar in form to the real life, meaning a screen with the Reflected Light.
Therefore, as of today, we don’t understand the deeper mechanisms that are characteristic of the vegetative and the animate world. It is true that we investigate various phenomena, yet we don’t touch the essence, the inner, vital force. It eludes us because it is developed in accordance with spirituality.
So, life is a unique phenomenon. All conditions are formed such that there is only one place in creation, like the point in the heart, where the silent level develops into the vegetative. All the components and factors from here to the infinite are connected together to awaken the development of the vegetative, animate, and speaking nature on Earth. In this sense, the Earth can be said to be found at the center of the entire universe.
[104750]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”
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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” item 33: …any contentment of our Maker from bestowing upon His creatures depends on the extent that the creatures feel Him—that He is the giver, and that He is the one who delights them. For then He takes great pleasure in them, as a father playing with his beloved son, to the degree that the son feels and recognizes the greatness and exaltedness of his father, and his father shows him all the treasures he had prepared for him…
“Playing” means that I feel the Creator’s desire, His attitude, His need to create us because of His desire to do good to His created beings. I feel the unending love that flows from His level. He created us in order to allow us to feel His love, and we can enjoy this love only if we understand it, to the extent that we can value it.
We are together in this mutual love like two lovers, like a father and son. They play together, but the son perfectly understands his father and is adhered to him. They are incorporated in one another in their desires, and each one can fill the other. They are originally opposite from one another by nature, but thanks to the correction, they are united and have endless opportunities to develop. This inner contradiction is not an obstacle, but rather, allows them to reveal infinite love above the separation.
Question: Why do we talk about evil so much and so little about the good?
Answer: First, you should talk about the good with one another, about the goal of creation, and about the work and the group.
Second, we study and examine our vessels, our desires, and this is not more or less, but a lack of desires. Our study and raising a request for correction stem from the lack of fulfillment in the desire. We learn how to reach the right desire and to raise it in order to receive the forces, the Masachim (screens), and the correcting Lights in response. Only then do we reach fulfillment and eventually are rewarded with pleasures as a result of the adhesion, the unity, and equivalence of form with the Creator.
So, all our work is done under pressure, but if you value it, if you appreciate this pressure, if you remember that you are working for a reason and to serve the Creator, if your faith is strong enough—which means the forces of Bina, the forces of bestowal—then, even if it’s about overcoming unpleasant states, you still will enjoy it. After all, you have another force, the force of Bina that raises you above Malchut. Although you don’t feel comfortable in Malchut, Bina gives you the feeling of the ascent.
It is difficult to express this dualism in words, but this is our work. We make efforts, and then the question is whether we enjoy them or not. That depends on for whom are we making these efforts.
In any case, there aren’t so many words about excitement and pleasure in the story about this work. The work, itself, is most of the story.
Personally, I enjoy most of the states I go through. Sometimes, you are thrown into an unpleasant feeling and sometimes into indifference. Anything may happen, but you should try to hold on to the ascent and to enjoy every state. After all, if the Creator manages you, if you are constantly in His hands, even when He cuts you off and throws you out, eventually there isn’t a moment without pleasure.
Back to the playing of the father with his son: We actually feel it in a state in which you don’t receive anything. It is in contrast to our perception. There is nothing in your vessels. The Light of NRNHY is not the fulfillment that you receive from someone, but your attitude toward the Creator that is built on top of the emptiness inside you. It is this attitude that reveals to you a Light that is “in the air,” the attitude itself. It is the Light of bestowal and love that comes from you.
We say that the abundance of the Light comes from the Creator and is revealed in all the worlds, but, in fact, it doesn’t mean that you are egoistically filled with pleasure—no. It is because it happens above the first restriction, in the attribute of “to bestow in order to bestow,” and then, in “to receive in order to bestow.” It is in complete contrast to our current views, and it is impossible to explain this.
This is the reason we cannot describe the pleasure that we experience to others when we play with the Creator. It is all a result of self-annulment and devotion, above the Machsom (barrier), outside yourself, in your aspiration outward, above the pangs of love.
[104741]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/09/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”
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Question: How do you see the most effective way of promoting integral education in America where the entire system is built on an individualistic social and economic principle of separation between people?
Answer: Different parts of the world come to the need to do something at different times and in different aspects; otherwise, it will be bad. After all, there is no solution—not economic, not financial, not political, and not social, not anywhere. The crisis is general, but not its particular manifestations as it was in the past. That is why we need to disseminate Kabbalah for those who have the point in the heart and integral education for the rest.
In Europe, they still resist a lot even though they feel bad, and it will be even worse in the near future. In Russia, they only now have begun to feel that something is coming. As it is said, “As long as thunder breaks out.” For the time being, it is possible to put up with everything there, and thus, until it comes, a year or two might pass.
It is the same thing as in America. The Americans live according to the principle, “Today, you die, and, tomorrow, I die.” They will be able to ignore the crisis for a long time. They will print dollars—for them, it is not a problem—and they will climb out at the expense of the rest of the world.
Therefore, the problem is in Europe. Then, there are North Africa, the Middle East, Iran, not to mention China and India, and, in addition, Russia with the southern republics of the former Soviet Union. All that comprises the closest area of a very serious crisis that needs to decide for itself what to do.
However, each of them has its own problem with dissemination.
We cannot disseminate in the Arab countries, and that is a big problem. Perhaps, they will come to this from their point of view and, eventually, will revive Sufism.
In Europe, this may go through integral education, but before that, they should be shaken well. There are a lot of problems, tension, and strife.
Russia is an oil state. Until oil production falls, it will be bad. When it falls, it will be bad on the one hand, but good on the other hand. Then, everyone will understand that they need to save themselves, not by covering with money, but by restoring a correct society. There, it is the easiest thing to do because the Russian people are agreeable to integral education; they have it in their genes.
As a result, our world group must feel itself in the center of the world. As the Earth is at the center of the solar system, so should we feel ourselves in the center of the universe, and around us, the world Bnei Baruch group, the rest of the world, and all the planets and stars, are spinning.
[104726]
From the Virtual Lesson 4/7/13
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Question: What forces a person to come out of the state of Bina, of Hafetz Hesed?
Answer: We never leave the state of Bina, or Hafetz Hesed, but only add to it. In spirituality we never lose a state, but always rise higher up the ladder. If I remain in the state of Hafetz Hesed, “to bestow in order to bestow,” I will fall into the intention of “in order to receive” for myself. “To bestow in order to bestow” is the minimal level I have to be on.
I build higher states of “Hafetz Hesed” above it with increasingly greater thickness (Aviut) of desire up to the infinite state of to bestow in order to bestow. I begin to dress additional bestowal on this state of Hafetz Hesed in which I don’t need anything and I am happy to be living in the forest not to worrying about anything without even a shirt.
In the state of Hafetz Hesed I don’t bestow in any way. This is called “to bestow in order to bestow” but I have nothing to bestow. It is as if I bestow that way, by giving up my ego, which makes me one who bestows. It is like a mother who asks a child “do me a favor, stop making so much noise.” He doesn’t produce anything beneficial, he doesn’t give anything to others; he only calms down. This means that he is doing his mother a favor.
This is the state of Hafetz Hesed, which means that I stop playing with my egoism; I don’t want it, I want to remain totally naked and to totally devote myself to my mother by listening to everything she says. I don’t do anything good yet, as she may expect of me, but I have already stopped doing bad things, as she asked. This is called “to bestow in order to bestow.”
On the whole, I don’t give her anything except for “virtual” pleasure. I have stopped making noise, breaking things, shouting and going wild, and that’s it. This means that I have reached the state of Hafetz Hesed, which is only possible on top of the minimal thickness of the desire until Ein Sof (Infinity).
But above this I already begin to receive in order to bestow, to do something that mother desires: to help her with the housework. This is already above to bestow in order to bestow; this is real bestowal.
[104666]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot
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“One Should Always Sell the Beams of His House and Put Shoes on His Feet” (Shabbat, 129).
Question: What does it mean to “sell the beams of his house” in the spiritual sense?
Answer: “The beams of his house” are all the thoughts, the desires, and my whole attitude to life, that obligate me to worry about myself instead of uniting with the friends. In order to build one general image, one system, I have to sell this “house” that is so dear to me.
But this is not enough either. I have to buy shoes to put on my feet, which means that I need a defensive force that would hold me in its field. It isn’t enough to just annul my opinion and lower my head before the group, which called to “sell the beams of his house.” I also need to receive powers that allow me to remain adhered to the friends above all the thoughts that are evoked in me.
This means that it isn’t enough to annul myself, but that I need an additional force that binds me to the group. This is called a “covenant” or “shoes on his feet (raglan),” so as not to “spy” (meragel, which has the same root as feet in Hebrew) for the benefit of my ego.
[104554]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/13, Writings of Rabash
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Question: Would you say that the source of Anti-semitism is hatred of unity?
Answer: No, if the Jews showed and “radiated” unity, if they explained it, if they loudly talked about their mission, about what they are called to give to the world, then the attitude toward them would be completely different.
Once, during the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Jewish people were “good students” of spiritual advancement. However, for further steps, they had to reveal Egypt, Pharaoh, meaning the state of descent, which could be corrected later in order to rise to the degree of the First Temple.
However, they didn’t manage to preserve that level: Inner disagreements began and that led to the Babylonian exile. It was followed by a new level of unity and revelation, and the ascent to the Second Temple. Then unfounded hatred threw the people into the last exile.
All these falls on the path were necessary, and the results of the last of them merged in the “latent” period with a certain measure of suffering, which did not stop until the era of the Ari. Since that time, recovery started in the world, mainly in Europe: the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, partial emancipation, and so on.
However, all that time, the Jewish people were slow in correction. Chaim Vital, a disciple of the Ari, wrote about this. The Jews could not be awakened. They continued to be immersed in their habitual existence.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the situation became tense. Big parts of the nations of the world found themselves in a serious breaking and did not know in which way to develop further. In fact, if the Jews had revealed the method of correction practically at that time, before WWII, they would have prevented it. It was possible to come, theoretically, to the necessary recognition of evil, which is much more efficient than the death of tens of millions of people. Spiritual correction at a higher degree would have worked completely differently. There, even a small understanding is worth a huge material loss.
Then, came the 21st century. Do the Jewish people realize correction, completing the program of creation up to the necessary level? Indeed, in its inaction, it can reach a complete failure and will be forced to go into exile again. Moreover, there is a question as to who will give it refuge this time. During the Holocaust, no one was willing to accept Jewish refugees, and all this is according to the upper program from which there is no escape.
Back in the Middle Ages, the Jews were invited because they could foster development. However, since the time of the Ari, they are not wanted because the world does not need what they offer. The world needs the method of correction, instead of a banking system and industry as in the past. Are the Jewish people ready to give the nations of the world what they really need today?
[104588]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/13, “Holocaust Remembrance Day”
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Question: What does the effort beyond human power mean?
Answer: The effort beyond human power is what is not directed in the natural human direction, at personal benefit. It’s revealed within the group, in dedication to their environment, and this is beyond human, personal efforts. In addition to that when a person reveals this, he finds himself unable to do such things. That’s why he turns to the Creator with a request to help him make such an effort.
It’s said, “For my brothers and companions’ sake I will say, ‘Peace be within you!’” It’s impossible to turn to the Creator with a request that is not aimed at the benefit of the Creator Himself but below Him. But the human being is allowed to turn to the Creator for help in building his vessel. This is the only justifiable prayer.
[104604]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/13, Writings of Rabash
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Question: Each of us has already filled his personal measure of exertion, and if we only connect for the one small collective blow, we will breakthrough. What does this collective blow mean? Do I have to clarify the general state of the whole group instead of my personal clarifications?
Answer: A blow is not a mental clarification, but an effort in our heart in order to be incorporated in one another, in order to connect and to devote myself to society so that I can draw the Light that Reforms for the friends; this is what every individual should do for everyone.
It turns out that we build one common heart and mind between us that is similar to the Creator. The force of bestowal, the Light, appears according to the equivalence of form. This whole collective zone that is full of Light is called the general soul because the Light that fills the vessel is called a soul or the revelation of the Creator.
This pattern continues the whole way. There are 125 degrees of my ego: from the 1st to the 125th degree; I discover them one by one, restrict each one on the level of the first restriction, then the Masach, a state of smallness, and then a state of greatness, while being incorporated in everyone. This is all our work.
Thus, by rising higher above my ego, I build 125 degrees of ascent, the entrance into the general collective heart, into everyone. Then it becomes the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) for me, that is, full of the Light of Ein Sof. Where do I discover it? In the connection with all the friends which all of humanity later joins. Behind each of us there are many other millions of people who join us and connect through us, who are incorporated in the general collective force that we have formed.
[103934]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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