Entries in the 'Q&A' Category

The Obligation To Illuminate All Of Creation

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can you contain it if you suddenly feel the Creator’s love for you?

Answer: It is indeed very difficult, there is no greater problem than to feel the Creator’s love; it simply breaks a person. So we have to be equipped in advance with the vessel for that attainment of fear by working with the friends in the group by developing mutual guarantee.

It’s for this reason that the vessel was shattered into many parts and we have to put them back together again against their will. They resist and don’t want to connect. Then as they adhere to one another we acquire the attribute of fear of the Creator. By working with the friends on the connection between us, we attain the fear of the Creator.

This is what we have to add to creation by ourselves and this is for what we live. All of creation already exists and the only thing missing in the king’s treasury is the fear of the Creator. This mission is recorded in our Reshimot (spiritual genes), and as we begin to fulfill it, we discover that it’s worthwhile to be in the attribute of bestowal and that we have to live in fear. I have to fear and to start enjoying my bestowal so that it will be completely external to me and so that nothing will return to me.

Even if I bestow and know upon whom I bestow and how much I bestow, by making an accurate calculation, I don’t need to feel any compensation. I don’t want to feel any pleasure in it, but only the actual action. Then I decide that I also want to feel pleasure and the action itself but I convey all that to the one I bestow upon. This continues until I reach phase four, which is the last phase—complete bestowal.

Everything is already complete in creation except for what a person has to add, which is fear. Imagine that you are in a big world now that is totally dark. You have to switch on the light that is made of your fear and by that you illuminate all of creation.

This fear is not to receive pleasure from my bestowal, of the fact that I manage reality instead of the Creator, of my closeness to Him, of the pleasures that He gives me, and of the fact that I suddenly discover that I am the most important person in the world.

The Creator comes to me and tells me, “I have chosen you of all the people! There is no one like you. You are the only human being in all of creation, in all of reality.” You have to be ready to accept this attitude that can make a person explode and you have to not be bought by it.

You have managed to bring the Creator contentment and feel what contentment you are bringing Him. Everyone will feel that he is special in his point and that there is no one except him out there. So we have to prepare for that in order to receive this revelation, the adhesion. Here it becomes clear that we will never receive anything in the vessels of receiving and that we have to annul them completely.

The vessel of fear annuls the vessels of receiving and is totally focused on the Creator, like a projector. Then you begin to work with the vessels of bestowal in which enormous Lights are revealed; you move to the other side and become the one who bestows instead of the one who receives: You bestow, bestow, bestow…

It’s as if the Creator appoints you to be the manager of his treasury so that you will bestow upon everyone. It turns out that now you appear before the created beings instead of the Creator. Imagine what pleasure there is in that on the part of the one who bestows that he has a chance to bestow goodness upon everyone. This is already the real work, and from this point the work with the real Masachim (screens) starts when you become like the Creator with regard to the whole world. The fear never disappears; it constantly accompanies you just like the basis of the desire to receive that remains.
[102951]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/13, Shamati #38

Related Material:
Let The Most Distant Become The Closest
A Difficult Trial Of Pleasure
Turning Fear Into Advancement

In Order To Grow In Spirituality…

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In one of the lessons, you said that a student, according to his spiritual progress, starts to disregard the teacher more and more. You also gave an example of your relationship with your teacher. To what spiritual level do we have to rise so that this disregard for the teacher will disappear?

Answer: As in our world, when do we begin to appreciate our parents and understand them?  When we become parents ourselves! But this does not justify disregard. One who wants to grow up must understand his nature and grow in spite of it.
[102941]

Related Material:
Listening To And Hearing The Teacher
The President’s Visit
There Is No Adhesion With The Creator Without Respect For The Teacher And The Group

Connection That Destroys Evil

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Peace”: And you find that all the seeds from which the good states grow are only the corrupted deeds themselves, meaning that all the exposed evils that come from under the hands of the wicked in the generation join and accumulate to a great sum, until they weigh so heavily that the public can no longer bear them. Then, they rise up and ruin it and create a more desirable state.

If I want to advance correctly, I have to participate in destroying evil by concrete actions along the way. These actions come down to the most efficient act, which is connection among the friends. It is the connection that destroys evil.

Question: What does it mean that the evil appears during the connection?

Answer: That’s right. The true evil is revealed only when I want to connect with others and see how repulsed I am by them and how much I hate them. I am attracted to them and this repulses me and I feel rejection. This is the evil inclination and that’s the only thing we have to correct. Everything else are animalistic feelings.

After all, Adam, a human being, is only someone who is attracted to the connection with others. The negative response to connection is the evil inclination that I correct and turn into the good inclination.

My first inclination is to establish a connection with the group and with the friends. Then I feel that I don’t want to study or do anything anymore. Instead I feel the hardening of the heart; I am tired of trying, “How much longer? I don’t see that anything good comes out of this…” This is the evil inclination, the Pharaoh in me that I have to work on now. His evil is that he opposes the connection.

On the other hand, the result of the connection is called “Creator – Bo-Re” which means come and see (Bo – come and Re – see in Hebrew). If I connect with all the souls or with some of them, then in the connection between them I discover the Creator. In other words, I reach connection and there inside it I discover the result.

But in the meantime I feel bad since my desire is extinguished and I fall asleep and don’t see the point in anything anymore, not in this world and not in the next world. Nothing is worth the effort anymore. Now when I feel the hardening of the heart, I have to find the power to act, to raise MAN, a request.

So how do you do that if I already want to receive a sleeping pill for the rest of my life? Here we need an environment to help us wake up. This environment does two things:

First it “buries” my evil inclination.

Second, when we connect, and together rise to Holiness, we ask for the force of bestowal by the prayer of many with all our might.

Therefore, the good inclination can only be revealed in the group. Then from Above, I receive the good force, the force of bestowal that unites me with the friends and the Creator.
[102887]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/13, “The Peace”

Related Material:
We Need Corrected People Instead Of Angels
Turning Good To Evil
Egoism Is The Force That Opposes Unity

Desire Is Like A Target For The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can we ever prove that all of the matter of creation is a desire to receive?

Answer: Ask physicists, and they will tell you the same thing, but in different words. There are several basic principles, such as the second law of thermodynamics, and there are several natural constants. If we dig a bit deeper, we will come across the concept of mass. Behind mass, there is energy, and, behind energy, here scientific knowledge comes to a dead end.

We can say that there is a force behind energy, but what is that force? How can we describe it? Scientists are trying to find these bases and when their research will be completed, drawing a line from their studies to the desire to receive, the desire to keep its existence on all the levels of the still nature, the vegetative, the animate, and the speaking.

Even if we speak about the most elementary phenomenon, it is always about its nature. We refer to something that wants to sustain itself in its form of existence. This is the desire to receive, the desire to exist. Without it, there would be nothing, not even for a short while. In this source, even time doesn’t exist yet.

So, the desire precedes everything, and, beyond that, there are different forms that it takes upon itself.

All the sciences and the wisdoms speak about what man discovers here in the framework of corporeal reality. On the other hand, the wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t speak about our egoistic desire that is only typical of this world, but about a raw desire, about a force that is not dressed in anything yet.

Question: Can it be studied outside the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: No, outside the wisdom of Kabbalah, we simply don’t have the necessary tools. We cannot build an accelerator that would bombard the desire and record its responses. It is because it is much deeper than the micro-world, deeper than the quantum effects. Therefore, you can work only with it inside yourself when you become the “area” to which the Light comes. It hits the desire, and, as a result of their meeting—as a result of the cooperation between them—different particles are created, according to which you discover the Returning Light that descends to a lower level and evokes new Reshimot (spiritual genes) in you.

The elementary schema, according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, is a Masach (screen) that begins to ascend from Tabur. In the next level, there is Zivug de Haka’a (coupling while striking), and the Returning Light descends again from one level to another, thus overcoming the difference in energy in the previous state. From there, it “throws” Tagin on the letters (“crowns” above the letters, and eventually, the differences in energy bring about differences in frequencies, differences in attributes. This comparison enables you to discern the details and put together the general picture.

It is just like a baby who tastes everything, and thus begins to know the world since taste is the main sense that he can use and rely upon at the moment. In spirituality, the new Lights that are revealed in the desire are called “flavors.” They help us learn what is going on.

So, the matter that the target the Light hits is actually me, my desire to receive. Just like scientists who bombard their targets with particles by increasing their energy, we, too, do the same thing, not with corporeal matter, but with the matter of desire, by rising from phase four to phase three, to phase two, and so forth.

Therefore, we cannot speak with scientists about such matters. Of all the sciences, physics is the closest to the wisdom of Kabbalah. We speak about concrete phenomena and forces.
[102834]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/14/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
Closing The Chain Of Desire
Are The Exact Sciences Really So Exact?
Physics And Lyricism

A Guide Through The Desert To The Promised Land

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why does it say, “And Moses led them to the bottom of the mountain and they gathered at the bottom of the mountain.”

(“Mountain” comes from the Hebrew word contemplations). Does this mean that Moses led them to the end of the thought, the understanding and the mind, which is the lowest state?

Answer: The role of the attribute of Moses in a person is to establish the understanding of what the attribute of bestowal means in him. Moses has to help the people of Israel know who the Creator is. In all our Reshimot (spiritual genes) that include all of Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity), there is such an attribute called “Moses,” a level that connects between all the shattered parts. Its role is to help a person know the whole attribute of bestowal. When a person acquires such an attribute, he can already add his vessels to it and work  to receive in order to bestow.

This means that “Moses led them to the end of the thought and the understanding.” He leads a person through all the desires, his vessels, called “the desert,” purifying the desires, these vessels in the desert from the intention of in order to receive called “Egypt” by bringing everyone to the intention of to bestow in order to bestow. Then they are ready to actually work in the three lines, which is called the conquering of the Land of Israel.
[102829]
From the 1st  part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/14/13, Shamati #53

Related Material:
The Force Leading Us Out Of Egypt
Exile Is Separation From Brothers
Everything Starts From The Exodus From Egypt

Envy Each Other More

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Would you say that the quantity and quality of our exertion depends on our envy of the friends?

Answer: Yes, it also depends on your envy. It says, “Envy, lust and honor take a person out of this world.”

We may ask ourselves what is so good about these attributes, what can be worse and more reprehensible than losing your human form? A person who is envious can harm others and enjoys stepping on others and destroying them.

In short, we are talking about negative attributes, but they are actually the ones that take a person out of this world into the upper world. After all, they show me the real ego.

How else can I establish my connections with others if I don’t feel envy, lust, and a desire for respect? If I don’t have such attributes, I don’t need anything; I can live somewhere in the suburbs and sometimes go out shopping or doing different errands to provide my basic necessities and come back home.

But suddenly, in this peacefulness, I discover that I envy others; I want to attain the same things that they have and even more in order to seem higher than them. Then I move to live in the city and start a “career”…

It is impossible to advance without revealing my own bad attributes. We should only understand that they are “help against.” We shouldn’t block them but rather let them come out, as Baal HaSulam says, “I am happy with the revelation of the evil.”

Question: How can we combine feeling envious of the friends and requesting not for me but for them?

Answer: The envy of the friends is a great catalyst for my advancement, but advancement towards what? Towards bestowal. I don’t mean to reach greater achievements than them on the corporeal level; I want to succeed on the spiritual level. In spirituality, success depends on how much I annul my “self.” When I want to advance, I organize everything that I have received from the friends by envy, lust, and the desire for respect, and then I begin to understand that spiritual advancement is actually transcending myself.

Thus I receive a desire to ascend from the friends, but I don’t interpret it correctly: to ascend means to rise above myself, and to be incorporated with them. Thus the group is “help against”; it evokes a negative awakening in me, which I turn to positive in order to eventually return to the connection with the friends.

Here I have a problem again, the desire grows again, and I repeat the whole process…

Question: How can I aim the envy, the lust, and the desire for honor in the right direction? After all, it is very easy to justify myself in pursuing the right goal and finally fall into the darkness and distortion along the way. How can I build the internal boundaries that direct me, in addition to the teacher, the group, and the books?

Answer: You have to annul yourself before the friends. As a result of the annulment, you evoke the envy, the lust, and the desire for respect inside you; you open your eyes and begin to examine things and don’t just let them go on.

Otherwise, you find yourself in corporeal envy, lust, and desire for respect; you want to be different, to rise above the friends. But the group is built in such a way that it won’t let you fall into this. You will change in any case since the atmosphere here is special and people are dealing with inner search, and so your attitude towards the friends gradually takes on a more correct form. So even new friends here receive the right direction and aspire for the truth and not for the usual profit for themselves.

Question: But each of the friends was given the optimal conditions to advance, so what is there to envy?

Answer: I want to include them inside me. In each of them there is something special since otherwise he wouldn’t be here. So I want the same thing, this means that I want to be Adam, a human being.

The optimal conditions are not reason to relax, but rather a reason to bring the good out of everything, from all the states and the friends.
[102762]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
Envy Is Useful When It Increases Wisdom
Envy Is Not A Flaw
Envying The Friends

Fundamentals Of Kabbalah – 03.17.13

A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah

[media 1]  

If We Met Adam…

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is it possible that in the world that is “made out of nothing” there appeared a methodology that describes the real nature that is opposite to the nature of creation? What serves as a bridge between the worlds and connects them?

Answer: 5772 years ago, there lived a man who was the first human being ever to ask himself: “What is going on in the world? Where does it come from and for what was it created? Who is the “boss” that governs this world? Why is it rotating around Him and together with Him?”

This person’s name was Adam. By asking these questions, he tried to solve the mystery and not only did he unravel the “secret,” but he also wrote a book, “The Secret Angel,” which means a “secret force,” since the word “angel” means “force.” From this book, we see exactly what he attained, felt, saw and described in his allegorical stories.

Adam started a whole galaxy of Kabbalists who described spirituality in an unprecedented and thrilling way. We feel the same things while reading their books, since the upper nature is unchangeable. It means that today contemporary Kabbalists who reveal the system of nature and the ones who lived five hundred, one thousand, fifteen hundred or even five thousand five hundred years ago (like Adam) talk about the same things.

They describe one and only one force that falls into many sub-forces which influence us and define everything that happens to us. This science is called “the wisdom of Kabbalah.” If I read a book that was written fifty, five hundred, fifteen hundred, or twenty five hundred years ago (for me, it’s the same!) there is no difference between them whatsoever. All of them describe the same things.

So, if I met the author who wrote a book four thousand years ago, let’s say Abraham, I would be able to easily speak with him about these topics and he would answer my current questions about what we should do and on what to concentrate. We would have no problem speaking with him since our questions and clarifications would be exactly the same and we would easily understand each other’s concerns, thoughts, and aspirations. He would understand our questions and give us thorough explanations that would be very apparent to us since we are dealing with eternal matter, the everlasting force, and perpetual movement. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah is all about.
[102122]
From the Virtual Lesson 3/3/13

Related Material:
Malchut That Wanted To Attain Keter
Man Does Not Give Up
Kabbalah Without A Trace Of Mysticism

The Whole Truth About Kabbalah – Laitman Unplugged

How Kabbalah Changes The Mind – Laitman Unplugged