Entries in the 'Q&A' Category

Blocks For Building The Spiritual Reality

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Even while reading The Book of Zohar, my thoughts roam about in different directions. How can I always keep the goal in mind?

Answer: We are inside of a force field with forces deliberately drawing us in different directions. But this happens precisely in order for us to connect them in one direction, to bring them to a single reality with our own efforts.

Therefore, this is how we should view our states, which are often confused and unstable because they are all intended to awaken us to search for a force that’s higher than these opposite forces that awaken within us, so this one force would rule over them. It’s so we could unite them and bring them together as the proper combination of constituents to the spiritual reality.

If we find a higher force that forms the entire picture for us, this will already be a higher level than our state. Therefore, on one hand, I must favorably accept these different states, thoughts, desires, and this entire confusion while understanding that I am receiving all of this data to work with, like blocks that I have to put together correctly.

Now every person must find for himself what kind of force, principle, and attitude he can use to properly unite all of these disturbances so they will go from being disturbances to components of the same spiritual picture that he wishes to attain.

In reality there are no disturbances. They are all desires that are not properly connected into one desire and therefore seem superfluous to us. But that is not so. Each of them, with its aspiration to the opposite direction, deliberately points to the lack of our direction to the single force that includes everyone, the upper level, the force of the Creator.
[60236]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/9/11, The Zohar

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Approaching Perfection For The First Time

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We can compare the group to a car that functions only when all its parts are in order. If one of them breaks down, the car will stop. On one hand, this is very exciting, but on the other, it is a bit scary. Could it be that if one person loses the right intention during the convention, nothing will work?

Answer: No. There are 125 degrees that separate us from perfection. The ideal system is still far from us, so in the meantime we are required to do the most corrupt spiritual work on the first degree below. Here you needn’t worry about everyone’s utmost perfection. It is enough if we just try a little—and we will get our first toy car. Even if it isn’t a Porsche, but some piece of junk without an engine, still it’s a car.

On the first level, only the initial, “weightless” perfection is required of us, the weakest connection that still has many deficiencies. If in general, we come to the convention with the right desire, it will be enough to attain a 1/125th degree of perfection. It’s in our power to do it.
 


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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/6/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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The Spanish Dilemma

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion (from the Spanish group): We can do some dissemination work today. Half of the people in the group believe that we should do it, and the other half thinks that we need to participate in the Gathering of Friends. What should we do?

Answer: Dissemination is more important. It will increase your desire to connect. Whatever you say, it’s better to be involved with the general public.

We can see that on ourselves: Had we sat in friends’ gatherings and meetings without going out to the streets during the last three moths, we wouldn’t have attained what we have today. It has rebuilt us, it has changed us. Dissemination is at the basis of change. Thanks to dissemination, we have a greater need to unite, to come together, to understand the material better, to simplify it, and so on.

Dissemination builds us, and I am very glad that the groups are starting to understand this. Baal HaSulam wrote about this, and we shouldn’t try to outsmart him, thinking that we can manage on our own without the groups in which we work and without the world to which we bring the message of connection. Despite the childish arrogance, we should be a bit more critical of ourselves, which will help us take part in dissemination.

Read what Baal HaSulam wrote and put his words into practice.
[59914]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/6/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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The Importance Of Volunteering At The Convention

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Tremendous efforts are required in planning and running the December convention. What is the right attitude toward volunteering at the convention?

Answer: It is hard to express the importance of everyone putting forth maximum effort, professionalism, and desire. It will be a great loss for those who miss this opportunity.

We are talking about a major event at the beginning of a special, fateful year, a truly momentous transformation of all humanity that must move to a new path. It will take place either by great suffering or by the Light that we awaken from within by our exertion and efforts to achieve unity. It is by our desire and efforts that we evoke the Light that will reform us.

It is important to understand that we don’t draw the Light directly; rather, we strive for unity, over and over again, although we may be exhausted: These efforts in particular bring us the Light. Even when we feel rejection, frustration, and reluctance, we still make efforts resisting our own resistance, and then we will evoke a most powerful Light. I hope we will reveal great, burning hatred between us and at the same time, with the same intensity, yearn for love. It will be very good if these two poles manifest in us. Let’s hope this happens at least to some extent.

So, it isn’t the time for personal calculations of one’s efforts now. No efforts are necessary here, but true self-sacrifice. Everyone must take part in the work as much as possible.

Unfortunately, it is very hard to give each one a job. We cannot supply work for all the volunteers, but at home you can prepare and shoot video clips, prepare a variety of materials for dissemination to attract new people, and so on. Look for something of your own if you see that all the jobs are taken here.

Question: What duty should I take in order to utilize it in the best possible way?

Answer: Choose something that is the most suitable for you. Each one should check himself and find a job according to one’s abilities. If you know something about electricity, ask the electricians. If you know how to cook, go to the kitchen.

Question: Perhaps garbage collection would be more beneficial?

Answer: Not necessarily. Everyone should do his best. If you are a specialist, you should volunteer where you can be the most helpful.
[59785]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/2011, “The Peace”

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Questions About Israel And The Will To Receive

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What organ of the “body” of the collective soul will Israel become? Or is it the embryo of Adam?

Answer: It will be its head since “Isra-El” means “Li Rosh” or “my head,” as said by the Creator. All people in the world who aspire to reveal the Creator belong to this part of the collective soul.

Question: Did the creation of the awareness of the existence of complimentary desires expressed as the will to give and the will to receive create egoism? Does egoism in its extreme form exhibit similarity to a singularity that, in analogy to the astrophysical “black hole,” only receives? Can the breaking out of the cage of egoism be compared with the breaking of a vessel, where the breaking of egoism is the turning of the desire to receive into the opposite desire, namely the desire to give?

Does the breaking of egoism and the combination of the desires to give (expressed by individual souls) evolve a creature that has the desire to give? Can this combinatory process be compared to the spiritual equivalent of the big bang that created the material world? Is the creation of the will to give and the will to receive the breaking of a “spiritual singularity” manifested on the human level of reality as the breaking of a material singularity (also called big bang)?

Is the purpose of our lives in our reality to drive the evolution of a spiritual reality by virtue of an individual’s intentional breaking of the vessels of egoism (imbalanced awareness of the will to give and receive)? Is an individual’s willful intent to break his own vessel of egoism similar to the original intent of the Creator creating these desires?

Answer: I’m leaving your questions, and my answer to all of them is “yes!”
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Questions On One’s Friends, The Screen, And My Language

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: After reading the post “The Influence Of The Environment On Decisions And Memory” I wonder where the concepts of individual integrity and the existential term of living authentically fit into this equation. If you are not certain (are we) of the truth of your perception of memory, how would you be able to determine whether you have made a correct assessment of the choice of friends within social dynamics? Surely I can’t confine my activity to the friends I meet in the Kabbalah seminars? What do I do in my relationship to the people I meet day to day in my ongoing life experiences?

Answer: By developing spiritually, we are distancing from everyone who is not involved in this. According to the law of equivalence of form, they cease to be your friends.

Question: What is the difference between a screen (Masach) and an intention?

Answer: The screen is the true (working) intention.

Question: We must choose our words carefully. “I think that YOU should do this” is not the same as, “We would all be better off if we did this.” We should be careful with specifying who is the giver of the information since it makes people feel talked down to sometimes. When people say, “You have not reached it yet, you will know when you do,” it makes them feel bad like the person knows more. This creates resentment.

Answer: You are right, but I am a teacher, and this is my language for those who want to learn.
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Through The Machsom – By The Diagram Or Not?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is it possible to cross the Machsom without the knowledge of diagrams and the general system of the Universe?

Answer: Yes, it is if your work with friends is directed at true unity. However, you still need to study something to attract the Upper Light to yourself. You should work together with the group, virtually or physically, and study the material, which describes how we are connected.

By assembling a Lego set, a child builds his future states, that is, he creates something.  We, too, need to create something, and at the same time we need to attract the force that will pull us towards the next level.

That is why by trying to unite in the group through studies, we attract the upper Light that unites us, and we begin to understand this scheme namely from connecting. We could not know it, but we should study it together in the group; otherwise, the upper Light will not be manifested. It manifests from those forms in which it exists.
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Fundamentals of Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/11

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No War!

Dr. Michael Laitman

Question: What can we do right now to prevent a war from happening in the world?

Answer: We have to unite! In our world, all we can do is attract a greater revelation of the Light. All changes in the world occur as a result of the influence of the Upper Light, which can only be attracted by means of similarity of qualities.We should be paying attention to whether there is unity between us and other groups, whether we are in a state of constant unity, closeness, similarity of qualities, goals, thoughts and desires.

Here I don’t mean our corporeal desires. I’m talking about our aspiration toward the Creator and whether we are united in our desire to reveal Him.

If we understand that it can only be done this way, then our closeness and our unity will attract a greater revelation of Light. First this will cause good things to happen between us and later this good will spread throughout the world.
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Fundamentals of Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/11

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Knowledge That Accumulates In The Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I feel that I absolutely do not understand, perceive, or feel The Study of the Ten Sefirot. What should I do about it?

Answer: I wrote in one of my books that in 1982 I studied the chapter that speaks about the structure of the world of Atzilut (although it might not have been the first time). It has been almost thirty years, and I still cannot say that I understand absolutely everything.…

Atzilut is the world of correction. You are not able to understand how complicated this system is because you do not see beyond this world. You do not sense how great and enormous creation is, which includes entire worlds and Infinity! We do not realize what this is because we are accustomed to operate only within our tiny circle, and we judge everything else according to these measures.

We study The Study of the Ten Sefirot in order to attract the upper Light. The more we speak about it, the sooner we will understand that we also consist of the same pieces. This helps us to make certain that we are on the right path and attract the Light. We advance through ascents and descents, requests (MAN) and responses from Above (MAD).

The key in this entire study is to arrive at a simple solution that you need the Light that Reforms, which will reveal this upper system, this network, to you. And only then will you be able to understand what is happening. Otherwise, you will simply mechanically memorize the words.

If you are studying only to collect knowledge in your head, then you are simply wasting time. You can play with words and pretend to be a wise guy, but we study in order to think about our union and connection during the studies and search for the Light that will give us life.

Now, when I learn about the spiritual embryo, I must want to become an embryo! It is all I need. Otherwise, what is the point in reading: “the bestowing SAG,” without knowing what bestowal is, or “the screen of the fourth level,” without perceiving the screen. If we do not attract the Light, it is empty reading. It can take you even further from the truth because you will think that you have already grown and now understand everything.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/2011, TES

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Pride, Forcing You To Bang Your Head Against The Wall

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We see terrible examples of hatred and hostility in history. What kind of hatred do we have to reveal in order to unite above it and rise to the spiritual world?

Answer: We cannot evaluate the past with its dreadful catastrophes and fratricidal wars. Jews fought one another more fiercely than the Romans or Greeks who attacked them. This is how the scrutiny of the shattering takes place. Good and evil blend together, desires intermix with intentions; all the catastrophes and problems happen on earth only to clarify all this.

This is part of the correction! Throughout the history of humankind, we see how much blood has been spilt and how many people have been killed—billions! Wars have been waged constantly; in all places, people have inflicted terrible harm upon one another! To the present day, every day, constant disputes and arguments happen all over the world, and all of that is the clarification of the desire to receive pleasure that has to reveal itself and come to the conclusion that it needs correction.

As a result, it discovers that it needs to correct itself and become one common desire. And when it realizes that it is incapable of doing this with its own power, it starts thinking: What kind of force can help it with this?

At first, a person, by his or her naivety, tries to correct everything with his or her own powers, and it takes a lot of effort and time. And regardless of how much it is explained to one that it is not he who makes corrections, it doesn’t help. One has to get desperate and bang one’s head against the wall a thousand times in order to finally say: “Oh, now I understand that I’m incapable of doing this alone! I need an external force, the Creator, the Light that Reforms!”

Now a person understands and feels from within, in the desire that he has clarified after having banged his head ten times against the wall, that redemption will come only from outside. And then he starts working in this direction and looks for the Light of correction.

But he searches for the Light alone at first, banging his head ten more times, until he suddenly realizes that the Light gets revealed only in a connection with others.

We have to go through all of that. There is nothing we can do about it.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/3/2011, The Zohar

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