Entries in the 'Q&A' Category

A Transparent World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Do I have to correct the desires that unfold in my relationships with other people today, such as wealth, power, and knowledge?

Answer: No, you don’t. You don’t consider these desires. Why should you? Leave them. After all, they appear in every person individually in a unique combination, while you must correct your attitude to others as a whole, without breaking it into parts.

Treat your desires simplistically. First of all, you must reach the degree of pure bestowal: “What you hate, do not do to your friend,” meaning don’t take pleasure in the suffering of another.

At any rate, whether I am aware of it or not, I always prefer to look down on others. If a person is lower than me, I rejoice, and if I am lower than him or her, I suffer. Thus, my priority is to reach a degree where I stop comparing others to myself. I don’t wish to measure them against what I am.

When I gain such an attitude, the world takes a very different form in my eyes. It is as if I tear off one veil, take one filter off my perception—and open wide a new world. I suddenly get to see others as having no connection to me, to my ego. I eliminate any personal benefit, any interest.

I don’t measure a person by how he or she looks, what they wear, or how they act. I don’t look at them at all. I have neutralized all our relations. The world is full of opportunities. What kind of opportunities? I don’t know just yet. In fact, I don’t need anything. I simply exist along with the others and don’t do anything to them which I, myself, would hate.

It is a very, very transparent, pure spiritual degree since it unfolds above all the material desires of a person. On the outside, it is absolutely undetectable, yet you see the world very differently now.

It is difficult to describe its contours. Are people suffering in your eyes? Are they all righteous, or do you still sort them into good and bad? It is very complicated to explain the inner picture that appears in a person when he or she takes the egoistic filter off.

However, one way or the other, you are faced with a totally different reality, another type of relationship between people. After all, everybody judges by his or her own flaws, whereas you have rid yourself of it and see the world undistorted by the false egoistic mirror.
[45912]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/20/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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The First Contact With The Method Of Correction

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Only upon completion of the current phase does desire realize that it must cross onto the next level. How do we convince humanity that the egoistic desire has reached its limit?

Answer: We are not going to convince anyone. We want people to realize that it is so on their own. This awareness should never come from us. On the contrary, the clever minds among humanity do understand that it is impossible to continue egoistically since in this manner we are consuming ourselves and the Earth.

It isn’t that obvious yet and doesn’t make us shiver. However, it has penetrated into the mind. We already understand that this is the path of evil, despite the fact that we don’t feel it just yet. After all, a sensation is a correction made.

People are prepared to discuss this issue, but have no clue as to how to resolve it. They have a basic thread of connection with the method, an understanding that man’s nature should be reformed, but they don’t know yet how to accomplish it.

We are being ruined by egoism, our “angel of death.” The “thinking” crowd is willing to agree with this much. However, they are not clear yet as to how to reform it and what benefit it will bring. Still, it’s a start.
[45920]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/20/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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The Everyday Work

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The last three conventions in Italy, Spain, and Moscow were special. What should the group do now?

Answer: The end of the convention means that now you have to rise to the level of this convention in your “everyday” state. We seemed to have pulled ourselves up onto the bar, and now we have to stand on our feet on it.

In other words, we put a ladder to the next step and climbed to the top. Here is my current state:

We exerted efforts during the convention and have barely made it there. And now, we have to stand up on this rung—all together.

This is our everyday work until the next convention. As soon as we stand upright, as soon as we master this step, we will be ready for it.

We should not hold it automatically, simply putting a check mark on a date in a month or two. Maybe, it will mature in a week or two, or on the contrary, in half a year; it all depends on how quickly we realize and master the potential for our ascent to the top. Everybody has to master it within himself.

When I was at the convention, the entire ascent was embodied for me in our world group. I united with the friends and through this unity rose higher.

However, it happened under the influence of communication, the society, the external environment. I felt ready to merge with them, to be together with them. At least, there were minutes like this and perhaps even hours.

Now, not being under the influence of the friends, I must do this within myself: rise from my knees and stand on my feet. This is a serious and painstaking work when I feel that the charge I received from the friends lives in me, helps me with my group and the world group in dissemination and in studies, and all the time gives me energy so that I act together with them.

The unity that took place there, at the convention, under the external influence, must be mirrored in my realization.

[45687]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson from Moscow 6/16/2011, Writings of Rabash

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When A Stream Turns Into A River

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What should we focus on: external circulation of Kabbalah or inner connection?

Answer: Firstly, disseminate outwards to let people know that the crisis can be overcome, that in reality this is not a crisis. In the same way, Rabbi Shimon’s descent before the decisive ascent turned out to be the nicest and most desirable state.

The crisis is intended for our good. Using it correctly, we can arrive at the best state easily, freely, and without problems.

Recently, I was asked: “What can replace the human desire for something greater than the necessities of normal life?” That is basically what we have to explain to people.

The crisis is really for our good. One way or the other, we will reach balance between ourselves, balance with nature. We have nowhere to escape: Either the matrix of nature, getting closer to us, cuts us into pieces by force and re-connects us into one “mixture,” one collective “dough,” or we come to this voluntarily in order to change ourselves and unite. The difference is huge.

If we understand this movement correctly, then of course, the crisis is for our good. We can transform a tragic life that threatens us and our children into a beautiful ascent. We have to explain this to the greatest possible number of people.

While Kabbalah was spreading through a small stream from teacher to disciple, it sufficed for a few people with high knowledge to pass it maximally, accurately, and clearly. However, this stream has become a wide river that involves the entire humanity. A global, integral crisis is coming, and we are not talking about the height of the teaching, about the details, but about the breadth and accessibility.

With this purpose, Baal HaSulam wrote such articles as “The Revelation of Godliness,” “The Mutual Guarantee,” and “The Freedom.” They provide initial information, properly described and addressed to the widest possible audience.

In our time, the overall force of correction exists namely in the masses, in the huge masses of people. Through us, they understand what the matter is, we make their life easier with love towards them. In response, they will give a little push forward, and it will affect us as well. It is said in this regard that the nations of the world carry us to the Temple of the Creator, that is, raise us. They raise us specifically because we give them the method.
[45695]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson from Moscow 6/14/2011, Shamati #4

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Open Sesame!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does the revelation of the collective women’s desire depend on?

Answer: It depends on the correct organization of the women’s groups around the world. They should be in contact with each other; they should have a women’s virtual magazine or website; they have to communicate, to help other women understand what Kabbalah is, what it leads to, what our common goal is, and what the role of women in this process is.

Your collective women’s desire depends on how much you will be able to become organized together, apart from the men’s group, so that there is a separate large international women’s part. In the spiritual world, in principle, we are presented like two collective parts: men’s and women’s.
[45644]
From the 2nd lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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Don’t Let Yourself Be Bribed When Searching For The Truth

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we not retreat from demanding the truth so we would finally reveal that we are lying to ourselves?

Answer: If a person is able to hold on to the truth, then he is very lucky. We see that there are many people in the world who don’t need the truth and who don’t ask what they are living for.

In others this question already arises, but from the point of view of, “What am I suffering for?” That is, this is not a question about the meaning of life, but about how to find the taste in life now that you feel a bitter taste instead of sweet.

And there are other people who don’t ask about a good life, but about finding the truth in it. And there are people who don’t ask about the truth in life, but about who gave us this life, about the Creator. And this question is no longer about myself, because I no longer care who I am and what will happen with my life, one way or another. I want to come to know Him, to attain the Creator, and exist in Him—in the very source, the root.

There are many levels in this attitude depending on a person’s demand, his sensation and attainment. Here everything depends on the root of one’s soul and the current life cycle, meaning, at what stage of development he is on.

But even if in our current state we are still not granted the chance to ask about the truth, then we can develop these desires inside of us by means of the environment, the “teacher, group, and books,” and advance that way. However, this is not easy and it requires you to reveal what lies at the very depth of yourself, inside of your informational genes, Reshimot.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/20/11, Writings of Rabash

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Love Is A Two Way Street

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we explain to people why love is necessary?

Answer: You can love to eat fish for lunch, you can love your little son, or you can love your neighbor or the Creator. The same words designate completely different notions.

Is it worthwhile to praise love for the neighbor to a person who loves fish? How can you describe to him the pleasure from bestowal? What will he understand? That he has to give his fish to someone else? Is this love?

What does it mean to love the neighbor? It has a completely different meaning. Loving the neighbor means attaching his desire to yourself and working with your desire in order to fulfill his desire. Then we both meld together into one whole, where I fulfill him and he becomes fulfilled. In what does he become fulfilled? In his desire. His desire in relation to mine is like Malchut in relation to Zeir Anpin. I am like the Creator, and he—the creation. That is what my work is.

Thus, “love” is the relationship between the Creator and creation. Only this is love—the creation’s attitude to the Creator. If I can build this kind of attitude to others, or in other words, if I acquire the quality of the Creator, the quality of bestowal, and by means of it I relate to the neighbor’s desire just like the Creator does, it turns out that the Creator is inside of me, and I make the necessary action in relation to the neighbor. This means that I love the neighbor.

We don’t have the right to use the word “love” in any other sense, context, or case. Otherwise we will confuse it with our “love of fish.”

We are talking about the extent to which the Creator, the quality of bestowal, dresses into me. First of all we have to carry out the principle, “Do not do to another what you yourself hate.” That is how I become neutral. After that, I have to acquire his desire instead of my own. Another person’s desire becomes more important for me and therefore he becomes higher than me. I am ready to do everything for him, just like I would for my sick child in our world. I am entirely “short-circuited” on his desire; it is what makes me act.

That is exactly why I am similar to the Creator, like Zeir Anpin who receives a request from Malchut. The more another person’s desire is able to activate me to bestow, the higher I am than him. This is love. Do you see how different this is from our current notions?

The more I can bestow to another person, the more I provide him with the Light of correction. After all, there is mutual guarantee between us. I do not fill his egoistic desire, but I reveal inside of him the desire to be in one system with me so the Shechina would reign between us. So what should I provide for him? I give him my support of the mutual guarantee, which he also provides for me by revealing it in his desire. This is love.

No one is indulging the other’s egoism. I don’t reveal the egoistic desire in the other person, but the desire for mutual support in order to reveal the Creator in the relationship between us. The Creator cannot be revealed in any individual or just in my attitude to another person, unless it’s fortified by the same attitude from him. Love does not work in one direction. It is a two way street. It requires a connecting net through which impulses of bestowal are flowing, a net permeated by feelings of love, relationships of mutual guarantee and mutuality by which we strengthen one another.

In the meantime, egoism remains below, without making any calculations to fulfill it. After all, we rise above it, connected by our mutual intention for the sake of bestowal. And when it reaches a specific level of unity, creating a net above us, then we reveal the Creator, the mutual quality of bestowal and love between us.
[45908]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/20/11, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Envy As Much As You Want

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Women have many different desires. How can I identify and distinguish the desire for spirituality so it is above all other desires?

Answer: In principle, it is a general question, not only a woman’s but a man’s as well. Everybody has numerous desires. How can we distinguish the desire for spirituality so it becomes the most prevalent? This is possible only when I am in the right environment that inspires me, that builds the correct value system in me. I become inspired by others and envy them. Envy is a good quality; there are no bad qualities, you only need to use them properly.

If I use envy correctly, if I do my best to perceive what the general women’s group thinks, join them, absorb their enthusiasm for the goal, and recognize with their help the value of spirituality above everything else, my desire increases as a result.
[45634]
From the 2nd lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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Inspire The Men!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean for the force of the receiver to submit to the force of the giver? Does this mean that I must raise men above myself?

Answer: Every one of us must raise the others above himself or herself. I do the same in relation to the group, the environment: I lower myself as much as possible and become lower than them (-), but on the other hand, I try to receive from them as much greatness of the goal, the group, and the Creator (+) as I can.

I will not be able to receive from the group without lowering myself. Only a small one can receive from the big one. Thus, I lower myself in order to take in their desires, thoughts, aspirations, and the greatness of the ultimate goal. Thus I enrich myself. To the extent of my ability to receive the entire plus from them and make it mine, it will determine my aspiration to advance. But if I do not receive this plus from the group, I have nothing to advance with.

I always receive the desire to aspire forward only from the environment. This is because I am but a preset point, and there is nothing else in it; it is only given to me in order to work with the environment. My entire spiritual vessel (Kli), my entire soul, is what I receive from the environment; it does not exist in me.

And if I do not receive anything from the environment, if I walk around with my nose up and have no desire to hear anything from them, these additional desires cannot appear in me, and I will not have a soul, a place to reveal the Creator. This is very important.

The same pertains to the feminine and masculine parts. The masculine and feminine parts must be tuned to one another. We must lower ourselves in relation to the other part in order to hear and perceive their desires, and then we will receive their aspiration from them. In other words, we must listen to one another and lower ourselves in order to receive the greatness of the goal and the desire from the opposite group.

How do you raise the men above yourself? You simply need to show the men’s group that you exalt them, that you look forward to their achievements, that you believe that they will be able to pick a star from the sky, that you believe in them. Inspire them, and then they will be capable of anything! Be just like a mother who always tells her little child how big, strong, capable, and smart he is and thereby boosts his positive growth. This is necessary for the men because they really depend on women’s approval.
[45630]
From the 2nd lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Many friends exerted themselves a lot before the Moscow convention. The importance of the goal was high. What did we lack? What should we, as a group, realize now at the new level?

Answer: In other words, you would like to say that the convention was not successful because we did not reveal in ourselves the property of bestowal. However, we could not achieve it in one go. It is impossible. A child cannot skip a few years of his growth.

Development is a sequential, step-by-step process. Not having realized a certain Reshimo (informational record), you cannot start realizing the next one. You simply will not have the tools in the mind and feelings to develop further.

We have done a great job; we advanced in our perception powerfully and intensively. And now, after the convention, we will go through the process of realizing it—perhaps not altogether pleasantly, but necessary.

Practically, the work that such a convention performs in you is equivalent to half a year of intensive studies. How many people who attended the convention study normally so intensely? We “propelled” them and those who were with us around the world at least six months forward. Such gatherings are very effective, and I am in favor of organizing them as often as possible. I am ready to give all I have got for it.

Naturally, after the convention, the stage of realization comes: “What have we achieved?” Here, a person should proceed to analyze the entire method with the help of articles and studies. He has to re-evaluate it again.

After the convention, many people begin to analyze the method of Kabbalah in general: “What for? Why? How? Is it correct or not? Is it a tale or a real method of my transformation in accordance with general Nature?” These are very useful, necessary, and essential processes that must occur in each of us.

Kabbalah makes you a human, not a robot, not a “half-believer” or mystic, but a researcher. Exploring yourself, you perceive the world and the Creator because all of it is within you. The entire process in based on self-knowledge because a person exists and nothing more.

Each of us has a sense of his “Self” and his world. Now, I feel you, the hall where we are, the planet, the Universe, and all of it happens within me; this picture has been created within me. How can it be changed? How can it be investigated? Is it truly like this? Or is this world presented to us as ethereal, transient, and changing? I perceive everything through the changes of my own properties.

That is why it is impossible to skip developmental stages. I must form them within myself. I have to be my own judge, researcher, and analyst. Essentially, I have to become the Creator of myself. Kabbalah develops in you the need to understand absolutely everything, who and what you are, and to create out of yourself an absolute, perfect form that will be called “the Creator.”

This is long and hard work, but namely it is intended for every human being. Do not think that someone living in a jungle is incapable of such work. He will be included in it because he will have a Kli, desire, shared with others, common thoughts and feelings. Whatever he lacks he will obtain from others.

Had we not evolved under the influence of our environment, we would have remained little “animals.” It is namely the environment that develops us and gives us the missing qualities, desires, intentions. Thus, there is no person in the world whose environment would not include the entire humanity. Anyone can reach the level of anyone of us, no matter how primitive he is.

The entire process of self-knowledge and creating in oneself the highest property should proceed in this manner, step by step. On one hand, this process is individual because a person raises himself, and on the other, it is seemingly a group process. However, in reality, there is neither group nor humanity, but only your immediate part rejected by your egoism and perceived by you as alien.

When you work on yourself, wishing to gradually bring this part closer to you, to accept it as your own, you work against your innate egoism. And you turn it into the force of connection instead of the force of rejection of the seemingly “external” part, of humanity.
[45620]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson from Moscow 6/16/2011, Writings of Rabash

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