Entries in the 'Q&A' Category

The Ability To Be Grateful

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I see the spiritual path as a glass half-full. The filled half is love and the empty part is hatred. Shouldn’t each one of us see the full part of the glass and be inspired by what is there so that it will help us rid ourselves of many complaints and advance?

Answer: First of all, we must get inspired by what the Creator is doing with us. In reality we received an enormous credit that we didn’t deserve, a huge advancement and all the opportunities and conditions. Most importantly the Creator gave us the desire and the aspiration to move forward.

No matter what happens the Creator doesn’t leave us. You can’t imagine how thoroughly He is working with us, even when we don’t seem to want it! It is the Creator that lessens our desire for spirituality and then strengthens it once again. As a result of this we become hopeless and we yell and become a bit angry with Him. Then once again we love Him and we’re ready to connect. This is how the Creator plays with us. For the time being we don’t do anything on our own. We must see His masterful work in everything and be at least a little bit grateful.
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From the Arava Convention 2/24/12, Lesson #4

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The System Is In Need Of Intention

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: During one of the lessons you said that the intention for bestowal cannot be personal and individual. Isn’t it my personal relationship towards the society, to my neighbor?

Answer: We are in a system of mutual interconnection. It is also called the system of the worlds (Olamot), meaning concealments (Alamot). The upper force and the structure of the system itself are concealed from us. We don’t see that we are tightly connected to each other.

We are familiar with the “animate” relations: here are my parents, here are my relatives, these are the ones I love, these are the ones I hate, these love me, and those hate me. However, the finer, higher levels of the system are concealed from me. This is what my world is, my concealment.

By revealing the highest, the altruistic, system, of our interconnection, we will understand that whether we want it or not, we are tightly fused to each other. Now we are not active participants of this system; however, it already needs our active participation. The time has come to assimilate ourselves within it, to consciously join its flow, in order for each one to fulfill their function in it.

However, from our side, we don’t want it or understand it, and that’s why we feel ourselves to be in a bad condition. Of course, the general system continues to function, but due to our inactivity, we feel the defects of its work and we are puzzled. “What’s going on? What’s missing there?” This is reality and we call it the “crisis.”

Furthermore, the difference between what is desired and what is actual, between our initial state in the world of Infinity and the return back to Infinity from this world, is only in the intention. We change neither the system, nor the basis of our nature. Each one retains their characteristic traits, their connection to the reality, each one remains at their place.

The structure of our interconnection does not change as well. To someone you are a student, to someone you are a friend, and to someone you are close…Friends connect with the teacher, with each other and with the world. All of this doesn’t change, but is merely revealed to us. That’s why some extrasensory people know what’s going to happen in the future.

Freedom of will and all of our work is accompanied only by the conscious, sensible participation in the life of the system in order to become an active part in it by our own will, to “flow” with it as the Force (meaning the Creator), which controls it, wants it to flow. In essence, this is what our task consists of, to reveal the general flow and to merge into it. Let the rider and the horse move in sync. This is how we will move forward.

This way, our work is always done in intention: To what extent do I pull the system towards the Force, how much more do I understand it, how much more am I participating in its activity, how much more with its help do I reveal the Force instilled in it in order to flow together with it, and thus give pleasure to the Creator.

This is my task. This is what I participate in the life of the group for, among the partners, the friends, which I am given. Besides, I am carrying out the task for the world, I am awakening all of the parts of the system, building and activating it until it all completely assimilates to the inner force, until we flow together with it.

At the same time, of course, I have my own intention. However, it cannot be realized only inside of me. I will not make it come alive if I am not connected to others, if I am not working with them in harmony, if we are not cooperating in action, in understanding, in realization, in the maintenance and servicing of the system. Someone among us is a valve, someone is a piston, someone is a wheel, and so on. Everyone works in their own way; however, we are all aspiring towards the same goal.

It is said: “Israel, The Torah, and the Creator are One.” The Creator is the general program, which we aspire to implement. We are not simply uniting into a system, but we are keeping the course towards Him. We cannot find the connection without it, since it must lie on a certain formula, the goal of the program. It needs to be clear for us, for the sake of what and how we should be uniting. We discover the system in the aspiration towards the force acting within in, towards the general program. Without this, we cannot even make a step, including in the interrelationships between us.

So it turns out that my intention is related to the collective work with friends, the goal of which is to reveal the Creator.

In the end, I only add this intention, and not the action. In the same way, a government control system can be activated by the “stick” of a tyrant squeezing the last juices out of the population, or by the wisdom of a kind ruler pursuing happiness for the citizens. The structure is the same, the connection remains the same, nothing needs to be changed except the internal program installed into the system. Education, taxation, banks, hospitals and so on, all of these remain in their places. Only the intention completely re-builds the order of “energy flows,” changing their destination. In the end, intention changes everything.

This is what we are discovering today. “The world lives as stipulated,” “I have not changed Myself,” the system does not change, we only add our intention to it, the screen and the reflected Light. And then, everything flows in a new way according to our approach. Earlier, we pulled everything towards ourselves because of the tyrant who ruled within us, but now we are pursuing the wellbeing of a close one, and this already a different ruler.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/12, “Questions and Answers”

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Is Our World Finite?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is there any hope that our aspirations and values that we now strive for will be passed to our children and from them to their children? After all, we see that everything is declining.

Answer: Nature will not die, life will go on. We’ll have to live in our current dimension, which we’ll feel as long as we do not complete our correction.

So, don’t worry about the end of the world, what will remain or not remain for our children and grandchildren, and whether this world will exist in a few generations. Our world will cease to exist only when it is no longer needed. That is, when the last people complete their correction, all of humanity that will exist at that moment will simultaneously feel that this is the final correction that closes them together into an ideal global community and allows them to begin to feel the gradual disappearance of this world.

But even earlier, to the degree that a person corrects himself and becomes integral, our world disappears from his sensations. However, it does not “disappear” completely, but only as the world of governance, as the world that has some importance, special purpose, besides the one that allows us to ascend higher.

This world will disappear from our perception only when we complete our correction in it. It doesn’t really exist; it exists in our senses. We desire to reach this state.

Why are we talking about our children and grandchildren? The same awaits them. It’s all perpetual motion, until the final correction.

So there is nothing to fear, there is no need to make plans. We are still little to understand anything about it. Do what you have to do today—it’s the best.
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From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 2/12/2012

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Disseminate In Order To Mature

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If there is no agreement in a Kabbalistic society, how can we broadcast agreement to the outside world?

Answer: On one hand, that is correct. On the other, we should definitely do something. This is why nature has given us this opportunity. The Creator is deliberately pushing us toward this educational process.

We can see this in the example of the family, when two young people get married. They are not particularly wise yet, but when they have a child and become parents, gradually they acquire responsibility, triggered by need and other circumstances. Thus they mature and become adults. When a person doesn’t have children, he remains a child.

Therefore, if we circulate our materials to the outside world, we will mature as well. Otherwise, we will not. This is the only reason we are given dissemination work. It is what compels us to mature.

We study in the wisdom of Kabbalah that if we don’t disseminate, we can only have a small state (Katnut). If we do disseminate; however, the Light passes through us to others, and we acquire a big state (Gadlut), the Light of Hochma, the Light of Wisdom. Therefore, whatever state we may be in, there’s nothing for us to do other than engage in dissemination.
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From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 2/12/2012

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In Search Of A Spiritual Partner

Dr. Michael LaitmanAbout 40 years ago, divorce was considered a dishonorable act; today, there is nothing unusual about it. People don’t understand why they have to get married, give birth to children, and why they should continue to live!

If the answer to this question is not found, a person won’t need to have a family or give birth to children. I can continue living by myself as comfortably as possible; what will happen later is not my concern. Today, this is the way our ego relates to life.

But if I discover a higher goal, how to open doors to another world, to eternal intention, moreover, if I know that it can happen here and now, then even though it takes more responsibility and imposes certain liabilities on me such as nullifying myself to attain this goal and reach its importance, it will force me to create a family.

Next, I marry a woman that I choose not because of my animal instincts, but rather as a result of my search for a spiritual partner! My wife stays with me all the time and becomes an indicator through which I trace if I am still on the right track.

Then, we actually achieve the goal, which connects us; instead of our merely tolerating each other, we join together as one whole! This is called: “A man and a wife and Shechina (Divinity) between them.”

We begin to relate to each other through the Creator since we are not alone: He always is between us. That’s why I perceive my wife through the prism of the Creator, that is, I see both the Creator and her. Accordingly, she sees the Creator and me.

If we don’t take into account the third factor we won’t be able to build a triangle (a man, a wife, and the Goal), nor will we be able to live together. At the animal level it is possible, but at the “speaking level” it is not feasible.

I won’t be able to identify the Creator if I don’t look at my husband or wife through this prism.

Originally, we were parts of one common soul: Adam and Eve. Now, we have to revive this “structure”, although the serpent (our huge ego) has split us. We have to correct this “serpent” and reveal the Creator between us.

Question: So, it’s useless to wait for a “prince on a white horse.” Should we rather search for the Creator?

Answer: The Creator is above anything else! Later on you should focus on who can replenish Him in your eyes.
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From a Lecture “About Femininity” 12/14/10

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Reeducating Leaders

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Usually, leaders are extremely aggressive toward other people. They hit where it hurts the most, but when they receive feedback, they get offended and walk away. And that happens all the time.

Answer: If these people don’t hear about the necessity of integration with others yet and thus continue behaving this way, they have to be put on some kind of probation. That is, they can listen, record, summarize, or draw graphs and tables for many months. They discourse and discuss everything purely theoretically.

They can write a PhD thesis from all their research, but they can’t “push” all of that into themselves; they can’t use it in practice. They have to be somewhere on the side from the practicing group as the latter can already start putting this method, the system of integration, into practice. And they have to be given an opportunity to work with materials, which is what we usually do.

Each group has people like that, and it is necessary to agree with that. Nature created them this way. Usually, I assign them to work with materials.

And they work on it for many months. They dig, invent, compare, systematize, and search for interesting excerpts based on examples or scenes; generally speaking, they do any work related to processing materials. They prepare reports because by examining various companies and social movements outside of us, we get in touch with the world.

While working on these materials, they have to write about connection between all external cases they observe or events they see in the group. We give them group video recordings in which the group discusses its yet unrealized integral ties, exposing all obstacles, imbalance, and disputes between its members. They process all of that, discuss, make conclusions, and so on. This kind of work with materials changes them gradually.

Usually, people like that are highly egoistic and have a stronger sense of shame (we understand that egoism and shame are the same thing); they are more demanding toward others and can’t see themselves from the side. In general, these people are extremely strong, but they totally lack the ability to see themselves objectively, from the side. They simply lack this by nature, but it has to gradually develop in them under the influence of the material.

They work with the material, study, systematize, and then bring it back to us, and the instructors check it. Usually, we get enough people like that and form a separate group out of them. We start working with them by showing materials of the same kind which they work on, and then we proceed with discussions.

And then various nuances appear, and these people start realizing what they lack in order to be inside of the group, get closer to it, and not just be independent judges and stay above everyone else (they immediately put themselves on the level of instructors). Gradually, they realize that they are worse and lower than everyone else in the group because the rest of the people already starts feeling the need for integration, starts seeing and guessing the difference between them, while they don’t. They can only see other people from the side, but not themselves. That is the work.

If a group has people like that (usually, there are not that many of them), these could be future leaders because they can go far with that enormous egoistic charge they posses. But they have a long way to go. They don’t immediately get into an integral interaction. Sometimes it takes years for them to start feeling the need for the group, the need to put themselves under its influence. Otherwise, they won’t be able to reach their new integral life on the level of “Man” and will remain a mechanism that observes from the side but doesn’t change itself. After all, the essence of the method is to change a person himself. And this gradually appears in them as well.

Any kind of coercion against them is forbidden. Realization of one’s own nature should go through a person and occur in him or her without urging, but just under the influence of the “hints,” when you give them materials and the materials work on them.

We distinguish and encourage people like that: “See how special you are.” Yet a group should be more or less homogeneous, and we have to put such people into a separate system so that they do not interfere with everyone else.

You can turn them into your assistants, but make sure that the pride they will feel does not hinder their development. We just have to be quiet in many cases and wait for them to change.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #10, 12/16/11

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Group Is Power

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: During the process of integral interaction, a person should feel tension between his egoism and the work on rising into the collective “we.” From my experience in psychotherapy, I know that sometimes people are not able to handle this tension, they slam the door and run away, while those who manage to handle it advance. How important is patience in this process?

Answer: What is needed here is the support of the environment that has to give a person the understanding that there is no other solution—this journey can be completed. And encountering resistance means that he is not connected with the environment that would support him and turn his efforts into an easy existence, giving him the feeling that there is nothing to fear and everything is very simple and easy when you do it collectively in a group. But when you try to do it on your own, it gives rise to the forces that expel you. In nature everything is directed towards unity.

Evidently, in your psychotherapy practice you lack the element of group support, the influence of the group on a person. We know that even weight loss groups, Alcoholics Anonymous, Drug Addicts Anonymous, and other groups are powerful.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #9, 12/15/11

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Tears Of Joy

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When we speak about feelings, we immediately imagine an emotional person, open to everyone. On one hand, this can be stimulated. On the other, it is possible to switch a person’s focus so that he or she won’t become too emotional. What should be the optimal degree of emotionality in groups of integral education? Is there a place for tears?

Answer: Of course! We see how grown men cry under the influence of the group—a person suddenly has such feelings that he is not able to control himself. And he doesn’t really feel any particular need to do so.

Of course, there are certain restricting factors. But in general, they really lead to tears, tears of joy and liberation, to various expressions of positive energy. This is natural. Of course, this is a very emotional process.

After all, emotions are our essence. And the mind is only intended either for suppressing them, as we do it in life, or on the contrary, for using them for our benefit, which is what we are trying to achieve in integral upbringing.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #9, 12/15/11

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Life In An Exalted State

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When people spend several hours a day in an integral education group, is there a place for music and songs? I know that there is a lot of music, joy, and sublime states in your center.

Answer: We are constantly trying to be in an exalted state, not playing it, but actually examining it on ourselves. First of all, this helps us feel how realistically this is connected with nature and that this is the goal of our development, the goal of nature.

When done differently, when we create this artificially, then it carries no value at all! On the contrary, it only brings harm!

A proper and good union of people, when no one is suppressed and everyone tries to work for the community, produces a lot of positive energy, and a person does not want to leave this state.

He suddenly discovers that this state is not boring, not difficult, and it is possible to always be in it. He falls asleep and awakens with it. He begins to feel that this state contains absolutely all the opportunities for self-realization for him with society and with this new level he is attaining.

He begins to see that in comparison to the previous state, this one is much wider and more exalted; it simply unravels the entire possibility of harmony before him. It is like when a musician hears something off-tune in comparison to a well played Beethoven or Mozart composition.

This is the way a person perceives the difference between his past private life and the harmony he reveals. He cannot go there. At first this often makes him tired because he still needs to make emotional inner effort, but then some time goes by and he can no longer be without it.

And then it becomes his life, a necessity. He reveals that all of nature also exists in this harmony and nothing else exists!

He begins to understand that the past level of his existence only consisted of caring for his physical body in other words this was an animal level of existence. He agrees and understands it. And the “human” level is the collective image that we are building here.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #9, 12/15/11

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The Drama Of Transitional States

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: There is a theory in psychology that examines a child’s psychological state at all stages of birth. The first stage is fairly comfortable. The second and third stages are when the unborn child experiences pressure, a chemical attack, which stimulates his birth, and the last stage is the most pleasant; it takes place after his birth. The two intermediate states are horrifying. In one case, it is the hopelessness of the situation. In the second case, it is quiet dramatic work between good and evil. Right now, is the entire humanity essentially entering these two stages?

Answer: But we do not have to go through these stages in such a dramatic way. This absolutely is not necessary.

Of course, if we go under the influence of nature, which is the path of evil, since nature only evolves us through obligating forces without softening them, then of course, we will not easily undergo being born into the new world. This way is with lack of understanding, alienation, absolute helplessness, and loss of any orientation! You are cornered, are not able to breathe or turn around, you do not know where to go and how to do it because any move you make causes even greater suffering: internal, external, and social.

Today the crisis in Europe is an example: No matter in which direction a move is made, it only gets worse. Maybe it is better to not do anything? It is even scarier to not do anything. So where are we heading?

It is very interesting to observe the process of the crisis. I think that many will be describing it in the future. It is not yet completed; we still have a long way to go to end it. It will end precisely with our spiritual birth.

The world crisis will only get worse, even if sometimes we observe periods of calm, like between birthing contractions; we know that they gradually become more frequent.

So, if a period of relative calm comes along, people will no longer scream: “That is it. It is over,” like they did last time.

I published many articles then, saying that the crisis will soon resume, but no one paid attention. Now people have learned through blows that everything returns.

We will not understand it until we feel that we are in a constant trap, and that a break is given to us only to figure out how to act and start striving on our own towards the exit through the birth canal (which keeps getting narrower around us, pushing us towards a greater integration). When we first feel this need emotionally through suffering or through social opinion instead of suffering, then we will understand that only our greater integration, concentrating everyone into a single whole, will help us complete this birth with understanding.

The main thing is realization. After all, a person can go through any problems and he even creates them for himself on purpose to attain a desired result.

If we continue to resist, without the understanding of where it is all taking us, then nature will push us through suffering. But we not only resist, but we also make negative movements, like today in Europe, again they want to separate, but there is no way back.

Comment: People who took the drug LSD seem to have experienced all the stages of birth, which have been genetically retained in their subconscious. When a person ends up in the second or third stage under the influence of hallucinogens, it usually ends with a suicide. Now, once you have explained the monstrous states we are headed toward, it became clear to me that such pressure and helplessness will become so unbearable that people jump out the windows and commit suicide.

Answer: These are horrible states, horrible wars, suffering, and extermination, when death seems to liberate, but it can’t be found! So a person must experience enormous suffering.

This is not about death; this suffering must accumulate to make us realize the need to ascend.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #9, 12/15/11

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