Entries in the 'Q&A' Category

One Man, One Soul, One Creation

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Does The Zohar talk about our one common soul or about separate souls?

Answer: The Zohar talks about the soul of one person. That’s because there is nothing else in all of reality besides one man, one soul, one creation, Malchut – it doesn’t matter what you call it.

And if it seems to us that there are many people, many desires that are separate and foreign, all of that comes from the lack of the right perception of reality.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/11, The Zohar

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“Do It Instead Of Me!”

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can the “evil inclination” make any autonomous movement?

Answer: The “evil inclination” and the Light work in unison since the “evil inclination” is the other side of the Light. It isn’t some desire that does whatever it pleases. It doesn’t exist in reality.

On the contrary, the Creator, with the help of the Light, awakes in a person all sorts of sensations or the dark states, which are regarded as the “evil inclination.” What personal desire can possibly be there in the world?! Who can possibly have it?! Nobody moves because they wish so!

Only in the degree of a person’s ability to recognize the “evil” and the “good” inclinations and stay in the state of faith above reason does he start to reveal some possibility to be free in that state. Free from what, the Creator? From the “good” or “evil” inclination? To be free means that a person voluntarily agrees to carry out the action that the Creator will perform anyway.

There is no reality that would be occurring on its own volition. The Light works upon everything decidedly and irrevocably, and it can’t be reasoned with. The additional element regarded as “man” is nothing but the fact that a person understands, feels, and agrees with the Creator’s actions. All we add is our agreement, so much so that the Creator demonstrates to us: “Do this instead of me!” and we do what He does. This depends on the level of one’s understanding, the height of his attainment.

What other option do you really have? Everything is predetermined, as it is written: “He that is banished be not an outcast from Him.” Everything is under His total control. Nothing works but the Light. We add our equivalence with the Light, with the Creator. And hence, in order to bring us to this awareness, the “evil inclination” was created so that we had a counter desire to speak against it: “I don’t want to!”

It is intentionally so, in order to give us an opportunity to examine and comprehend this—from the struggle between good and evil, from our unwillingness and disagreement, like a stubborn child who rebels against his parents.

But gradually, we search, agree, and realize how perfect everything is. And then, even if the Creator didn’t exist and neither did His power, I still wish for everything to be done the way He did it. This is regarded as a “complete righteous” who totally justifies the Creator. Let’s hope we will come to it one day.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/12/2011, The Zohar

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The Precisely Measured Infinity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If we ascend to Infinity, then it looks like we will never get satisfied and will constantly desire more than we have, won’t we?

Answer: It isn’t an endless but a clearly defined ascent: 125 steps, the Light of Nefesh-Ruach-Neshama-Haya-Yechida (NRNHY), desires of Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, Malchut. There is a limit to which I am supposed to unify with the others, until we become as one man with one heart, which is regarded as Malchut of the world of Infinity, where we attain the Light of NRNHY, the Light of Infinity.

Everything lies within its borders; everything has a measure. When we hear “the Light of Infinity,” it means that the vessel and the Light are completely equivalent to one another and there are no restrictions. From the desire’s point of view, it is the infinite fulfillment by the Light.

If I fill a glass with water to the top, it means that it is infinitely filled. There are no restrictions: As much as the glass can contain so much liquid was poured into it. It is an infinite fulfillment since it isn’t limited by a certain level, above which it’s impossible to go. It received everything it could possibly receive.

Thus, at times, we experience a sensation of total fulfillment as if there isn’t a greater pleasure! This means that you have reached total fulfillment. There were 10 ounces of desire, and all of them are filled. If you don’t need to grow further, then you have reached your infinite fulfillment. But someone else might need the fulfillment valued at 10 tons, and until he has gotten them, he will feel restricted. Once he is filled, he will experience infinity.

Infinity doesn’t get measured by distance since there is no distance in spirituality. But when we reach unity among ourselves and all of us link together in the integral, ideal system, the upper Light, the property of bestowal, can be completely revealed within such perfect connection. This is what is called the Infinity. It is a quantitative notion, rather than a qualitative one.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/12/2011, Writings of Rabash

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A Prayer For The Society Is A Prayer For Oneself

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Does a prayer for the society always mean that I pray to complement them to perfection?

Answer: Yes, but you have to complement them only in your eyes. Society does not lack anything. Except for you, everything else is corrected. Everyone judges according to their own flaws. A person sees the world through the prism of his defects. If you were corrected now, you would see that the entire world is corrected.

Hence, a prayer for the society is a prayer for your society which exists within you. This is the place of your Shechina, the “place” where you reveal the Creator. This is what your society is. After all, you never see anything outside; rather, within your desire, you see your broken vessel, desire.

“I pray for the society!” Except for you, nobody needs your prayer or all the beautiful words falling from your mouth: “I work for the sake of the society!” All of it only seems like work.

You don’t even know how much you are closed inside yourself. You have to correct only your inner desire. This is called “society,” “world.” It is all within you, as it is said: “A person is a small world.”
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/10/2011, The Zohar

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Life Is Change

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is it possible to attain the true reality if a “researcher” and all his measuring tools keep on changing?

Answer: What difference does it make whether I investigate the world which is changing all the time, while I am not, or the world which is constant, while I am always changing? If neither changes, I will be unable to tell anything about the world since I won’t have the means for measuring it. After all, measurement is only possible between two changing parameters, on the basis of their relationship to each other.

I determine a relationship between them, and it becomes a unit of measurement for me. I use this unit to measure all the rest. There are two parameters unequal to each other, two points in space. I measure their relationship, which determines the difference between them, and accept it as a unit of measurement: for example, a degree of temperature or ten centimeters. Then I use this unit of measurement to measure all other occurrences.

I begin by saying that I found some sort of distinction. Now using it as a basis, I am going to measure all other distinctions between properties, forces, places in space, and desires. It doesn’t matter between what and what, but I always measure the difference, the changes. If there are no changes, nothing can be measured; I simply lose all sensations.

If no changes were happening now, the world would appear still to me. It would die, and I would lose all understanding, awareness, and sensation, as if nothing existed.

Our life is not an experience of some state, but a sensation of change from one state to another. And if the changes between states are called life, it turns out that I can have two forms of life: One is when life changes outside of me, and the other is when life changes inside of me.

If I assume that life goes on and changes outside of me, this is called life in this world. Life that changes inside of me is called spiritual life, the life of the future world. Life always means change; everything depends on where I notice it.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/10/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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310 Worlds As Your Reward

Dr. Michael LaitmanTalmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 1 “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 7: Our sages have said, “The Creator is destined to bequeath each righteous 310 worlds.” …

It is like a person who says to his friend, “Work with me for just a minute, and in return I will give you every pleasure and treasure in the world for the rest of your life.” There is indeed no greater free gift than that, since the reward is utterly incomparable with the work, since the work is in this world, a transient, worthless world compared to the reward and the pleasure in the eternal world.

Question: So is there reward after death or not?

Answer: After which death? If the animate body dies, it gets buried. But if the egoistic desire dies, then that’s not the end. After that it is necessary to “revive the dead”—the dead desire.

First it is necessary to “bury” the egoistic desire, to read the commemorating prayer over it (Kaddish), to bless the Creator for the fact that my egoism has died. I say, “You have killed my egoistic desire and I am very grateful to You for that! Now let’s continue working. Let’s revive the dead and give it the intention for the sake of bestowal!”
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/12/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Growing On One’s Own Volition

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When I work in the group and search for the connection with the common net, I use my senses. Would making the senses more sensitive facilitate the formation of a sixth, spiritual sense?

Answer: We perceive the world with our animal senses in order for us to be free of spirituality, both in its positive and negative manifestations. Indeed, the evil inclination is just as spiritual as the good inclination. All of this is the Creator’s forces. The situation is intentionally arranged in a way that allows us to be free from spirituality and develop independently.

This is the preparation phase, intended for us to prepare an independent point. Afterwards, when we ascend above the Machsom into the spiritual space, this independence will manifest in us taking on the Creator’s quality, His form. This is why man is called “similar” to the Creator.

As for our present perception in the animal senses, it is merely the preparation to ensure that we become independent from the Creator. Upon revealing in practice that everything comes from Him, we can oppose it and sway ourselves on our own volition, and not because nature forces us.

It is written: “No matter how high one rises above others, the evil inclination rises above him.” We are always given an additional desire to resist, balk, and stubbornly hold our position before the Creator. Otherwise, we would simply “melt away,” having lost our very essence in spirituality.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/12/2011, “Peace in the World”

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A “Round” World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Everything depends on our desire. So how can we come out of our “standard set” of desires which are stuck in this world?

Answer: We don’t perceive the world as “round.” We are still under the illusion that it is linear and that we can be successful in it with the help of our ego. But the world now operates under a different program, and the only way to achieve success is through unity. This is a completely different algorithm of the world, but we still “don’t get it.”

For thousands of years man achieved success based on the size of his ego, but in the past 50 years this trend has run its course. We are moving ever further into an integral world, and in an integral world he who is more connected to others makes the most profit. We see that the more connections one establishes, the more countries one gets involved, the more successful one is. People feel this instinctively and gravitate toward integral solutions.

However, we still don’t realize that the solution from our sorrows necessitates our connection on the human level, above the banking system, global industry, and other global mechanisms. This situation began to materialize following the Second World War, when the United Nations, UNESCO, and other international organizations were founded. However, even they are still operating with egoistic methods, instead of adopting an integral, all-embracing approach.

In essence, all countries need equality. Why should some countries have the veto power over any decision, while others don’t? So what if someone is bigger and someone else is smaller? On the contrary, in a “round” system, the bigger ones ought to be more compromising since otherwise, they only care about themselves.

Our approach is completely twisted, and yet we are beginning to feel that the world is becoming truly “round,” integral, and interconnected.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/11/2011, “Peace in the World”

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“Ask The Kabbalist” – 21

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“The Creator’s Worker” Proficiency Test

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If a prayer is a plea for correction, rather than elimination of suffering, why is it written that one should pray for the latter?

Answer: It is written that one should pray to reduce suffering because in the place where I am feeling it, the flaws of my egoistic desires are revealed to me. They are what I am praying about, meaning that I may discern what is wrong in me and how I can correct that area in order turn it to bestowal.

If we are speaking about a normal person, he prays to feel good, to get to an open faucet that pours abundance from Above into his hands. His pain is material, meaning within the desire to receive pleasure. This is what he is seeking fulfillment for. Therefore, his prayer is corporeal and naive.

He doesn’t view his pain as the means to come to the Creator. He simply wishes to calm it down, subdue it, fill the internal void. This is how most people usually pray, be they secular or religious folks. All of them strive to feel good, which makes them willing to pray for it. All they do is beg: “Give me, give me, give me” because their ego is suffering, and it has to be pacified.

A true prayer is when I say: “There is none else besides Him.” He created the egoistic desire in me, “the evil inclination,” and I have to find out what it is. If my desire to enjoy is hurting, I need to use prayer as a remedy. After all, the Creator created this desire. He is responsible for the pain I am feeling and nobody else. I feel the pain in the place where I haven’t become complete by unifying with the Creator, but I must.

Let’s say I am in the first grade. They gave me homework to do, but I didn’t do it. I didn’t prepare for the exam and failed it. Now, I have to take the consequences. I suffer, but this suffering is appropriate for my age, for the first grade.

In the same way, every person feels pain in the area where he didn’t pass the exam, didn’t correct himself, didn’t keep up with the Creator’s “curriculum” toward the goal, the state of correction. Therefore, he should thank the Creator, the upper Light, who instills in him this sensation of pain. It is a symptom of illness that is given to you so that you go to get the treatment for it, and then you will be well.

Hence, don’t look for ways to make the Creator ease your pain; rather, seek how to cure it. In fact, if you simply shut it down, then tomorrow, you will wake up with a much greater pain. Today, you took a painkiller, stopped feeling the pain, and are happy to be seemingly okay. But you are deceiving yourself. Tomorrow it will be worse!

In other words, there are those who treat all their pains and daily problems with any drug, any painkiller there is, just to get rid of suffering. They pray to be granted neither suffering nor a reward for it. Others pray to let there be suffering if it points out to them where they need to correct themselves in order to gradually reach the Creator’s degree. For that, they are willing to accept it and thank the Creator equally for what is bad and what is good. After all, these sensations are there to wake us up and guide us on the path.

These are two very different methods. There are those who cry: “Save me, give me my peace!” This is the way of the masses. However, those who say “No, we will use all this pain in the most efficient way” are the Creator’s workers. After all, we wish to do His work since we desire to be His partners. If He is awakening us, we are willing to wake up.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/9/2011, Shamati No. 113

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