Entries in the 'Q&A' Category

The Key Is To Think About Unity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I learn to place more importance on the intention rather than the understanding of the text when we study the Kabbalistic sources in the group or when I read them alone?

Answer: When I read alone, I also have to think that we all are connected together. It is as though I plunge into our collective desire which connects us into one, where we are united all together even though we don’t feel it.

I try to be on the same level. Being together with everyone inside the system that connects us all, where we all share the same desire and energy, I wish to sense that there are no differences between me and the others.

Then, when reading the text, I try to penetrate into its essence as much as possible and, most importantly, not to disconnect from the inner connection between us. If I need to give 99% of my strength to the thoughts about our connection, I have to do that. Then I use only 1% for understanding what I read. Sometimes I don’t even know what I am reading about: So big are the distractions that come to me.

However, I should not worry about the fact that later on I won’t be able to tell what I just read. The key is to wish to connect with everyone when my eyes follow the letters. This is enough for the text to influence me.

I specifically want to emphasize that first of all you have to think about the connection between us, and only then you may read and understand the text as much as you are able to.
[40184]
From Lesson 4, WE! Convention 4/2/2011

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A Book Versus A Computer Screen

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Does it make a difference in a person’s correction process whether he reads Kabbalistic sources from a book or from a computer screen?

Answer: When I’m talking about something, in my mind I picture the source of my words: a book or Rabash’s words. I never had this question because at that time I couldn’t have had it; therefore, I don’t have a clear answer. But in my opinion, there is no difference.

There are people who are used to reading a written text, and there are those who have become used to reading from a computer screen. I open the books only during the lessons. All of our books can be found and downloaded from our website. One can accommodate his or her needs: make notes, change the font size, and so on. Yet, it’s still important to open up a printed book.

I think that all our books should be a part of every friend’s home library. After all, a book is more than just a collection of printed pages. It is a reflection of a spiritual object, a certain idea that contains a deep inner meaning.

A book’s prototype and its predecessor is a scroll (Megillah), from the word “Gilui,” meaning revelation. Try reading from a book and from the screen: You will sense a greater depth in the way you relate to the written pages.

During our lessons, when millions of people are studying together, I would like all of us to read from the books and to see each other on the computer screen.
[40194]
From Lesson 4, WE! Convention 4/2/2011

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Simplicity On The Outside, Unity On The Inside

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In order to approach the people who don’t have the point in the heart, we’ll probably need to unify and focus even stronger among ourselves….

Answer: Dissemination to the masses demands higher concentration from us. After all, we want the words that are seemingly unrelated to Kabbalah to carry the force of oneness, the spiritual force. You can write about some external events and predicaments, but you have to put all our unity into it.

It is similarly difficult to write children’s books which have to explain very deep things in the simplest words. Try to explain to a child how a plane is made. How can such a great heavy vehicle fly? Imagine what wisdom is needed to deliver it in a simple and clear form.

There has to be a true specialist to do this, one who is familiar with all the details, feels them, and is talented on top of that. Like Rabbi Aba who could disguise the words of Rabbi Shimon, he must channel all this knowledge into an easy language and bring it to a child in a finished form so that he may easily understand everything.

Dissemination to the public is a very complicated task.
[40097]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/2011, “The Freedom”

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Time Stops When You Do

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why does the exit from Egypt occur in the darkness, late at night? Is it not tied to time?

Answer: As time passes, there are no changes in spirituality. Only the animate body grows along with its earthly desires. Meanwhile, there is no time in spirituality. If you performed no action, the time stood still.

In the spiritual world there is no axis of time, meaning the axis where our actions get deposited on. Time in spirituality is the amount of actions, the chain of causes and effects that you have realized.
[40231]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/2011, Writings of Rabash

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A Portion Of The Surrounding Light In This World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It is written in one of the books that there are spiritual objects. What are they?

Answer: In our world there is nothing that would connect us with spirituality besides special books. These books carry spiritual significance because they really speak of spirituality. Reading them, a person attracts spirituality to himself or herself.

It is most advantageous to read these books in the group when everyone gathers together with the intention and attracts the Surrounding Light. Besides the environment, meaning the group and the books, there is nothing in our world.

I highly recommend that you always be with a book wherever you are. If you have a few free minutes, short breaks at work, open a book and read a short excerpt. Little by little you will start noticing that you are drawn to it more, advance more, and that all your thoughts are changing. Start getting used to it.

I grew at Rabash’s very simply: There weren’t any computers back then, and I always had a book in my hands. Wherever I went, I had a book with me. This is how I re-read all the books many times. I even used to take The Study of the Ten Sefirot with me, a book that is hard to read in the middle of the street. But it contains a section with questions and answers, and I read them. I also read The Book of Zohar and different articles.

Today we have a wealth of books. I think that everyone should have them at home. Each month you can read a different book, not from cover to cover, but wherever you open it. This is what Rabash taught me to do.

During our walks, if he got tired, we used to sit for a few minutes on a bench. I always had a book with me. He would open it at random and start to read. After a few lines, he would close the book and continue the walk. And that’s how it was all the time!

Do it: Get a portion of the Surrounding Light for half an hour or an hour, and then do it again and again. A book has to be in your hands. This is why I’m for publishing them in a pocket-sized format.
[40172]
From Lesson 4, WE! Convention 4/2/2011

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Tipping The Scale Toward Unity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I be sure in each given moment that I’m advancing correctly in my Kabbalah study and that I didn’t fall off the path?

Answer: Each moment I have to choose between egoism and the point in the heart, as if I’m on a balanced scale. And each time I have to tip the scale toward the point in the heart and unity. There is no other action besides uniting.

Usually we want to study and carry out various actions. By doing so we’re subconsciously running away from uniting. I experienced this myself. It took a long time for me to start hearing this.

I loved to study, organize the material, and convert it into a methodical system. I did everything imaginable accept for working on unity. The sooner we begin to feel that uniting is our duty and become used to delving into this perception, the sooner this habit will become second nature.

We must constantly train ourselves to want to feel the inner world of our friends, their aspiration toward unity and the Creator. If my aim is within them, I stop noticing what they look like on the outside.

After all, in our own families we don’t pay close attention to the faces of our loved ones. We feel their souls, character, and mood. Similarly, I have to constantly try to feel the friend’s desires aimed at the same goal that I aspire towards. This is the desire I wish to connect with.

It really doesn’t matter what the friends look like and what their personalities are like. I only care about one thing: What is their aspiration? This is most difficult for men, and precisely here lies the essence of their work. For women it is easier to switch to this perception because they pay less attention to the external appearance.
[39776]
From Lesson 2, WE! Convention 4/2/2011

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Every Person Is Important For Perfection

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It’s easy to love my friends who are studying the science of Kabbalah together with me, but I can’t do that with my colleagues at work. How should I treat them and all other people in the world?

Answer: In principle, we have to treat everyone as parts of our soul. That is how I have to think about everyone, including the greatest villains. They are outside of me in the world because all of these desires and qualities inside of me are not corrected yet. Therefore, externally I have to treat them with tolerance, understanding that this is the path of correction. The time will come when they too will join this path.

The common soul, the single created creature consists of many parts. Some are more important and some are less, just like in our physical body, which is built exactly according to the structure of the soul.

The soul also has a part called “body,” which is the common desire that’s divided into many systems and sub-systems: the brain, heart, liver, kidneys, and other important systems that are interconnected and without which the body could not exist. Some of these systems can be artificially recreated, but they have to be present in the body. On the other hand, there are systems that do not necessarily have to be present in the body, for example, the limbs, muscles, and bones.

The common soul has parts that are particularly important, the brain and heart, as well as those that are less important but still necessary for existence. The brain and heart were mostly corrected from Adam until our time by the lineage of Kabbalists that we know about and whom we study.

Now the phase of the common correction has set in when besides the brain and heart we are beginning to correct the lungs, kidneys, liver, spleen, and so on. These are important parts, but less significant than the brain and the heart. People who study Kabbalah belong to these parts.

All the rest of humanity belongs to, for example, the muscles, bones, and limbs, which are systems that are not necessary for the organism’s existence, but they are necessary for its fullness. That is how we should treat them, and in essence they make up 90% of the entire soul.

They cannot act independently. They cannot feel a yearning for spirituality, but only function according to orders coming to them from the brain and the heart through us, the various important organs. This does not lower their significance because if we are talking about one common soul, then the absence of one tiny cell disrupts perfection.

Therefore, everyone is important and at the end of correction every person is as valuable as everyone. That is the law of a closed system’s perfection. We study this principle on the example of an analog system: It has an entrance and an exit, and if anything is disrupted inside of it then it does not produce the necessary result.

However, there is a difference during the time of correction. Parts that are more important are corrected earlier, and after that the less important parts are corrected according to a hierarchy. Therefore, don’t wait for the world to hear and understand what we are doing because billions of people belong to the passive part. They will join the process because they will see that it’s impossible to do anything else. That is how the world will be corrected. People might be extraordinarily smart or developed, they might be great scientists, artists, and cultural activists, yet be completely deaf to spirituality. That is how we should treat everyone.

Only those who come to the study of Kabbalah through various paths belong to the inner system. Therefore, we have to value every person here because he was chosen by the Creator to be part of an important organ of the common system and is therefore a great asset. Meanwhile, others might not be so important. Even the children of many Kabbalists did not take the same path because every person has his own part in the system and it is not passed down hereditarily. So arm yourself with patience.

The main work takes place among those who belong to our world group, but externally we can also act to advance the world. By disseminating materials about the future, about what might happen, and about the solution offered by the science of Kabbalah, we prepare people to the extent it is possible. However, true work with them lies in the fact that as a result of our unity, they will feel a certain awakening.

What will they awaken to? To join us externally. They will want to be involved and serve the process of correction as much as possible. There are already people like this now and their mission is very much worthy of respect.
[39763]
From the 2nd lesson at the WE! Convention on 4/1/11

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You Can’t “Fall Asleep” And Then “Wake Up” At The End Of Correction

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: As far as I understand, the Creator is playing a game with us and this game has a specific purpose. But every game has an end and that means that this game will end in about 200 years. Is that right?

Answer: Actually, I hope that it will end even sooner. I am telling you with total confidence that we can complete it in several years. There are no obstacles.

Question cont’d: If this “game” will end and we will get where we have to get in any case, meaning that we will correct our soul, then what is the difference between the left and right lines? And what will happen if we choose the path of the left line?

Answer: The purpose of creation is for every one of us, with each of us being a small point of the common Kli or desire, to attain perfection, meaning the same kind of unity with all the other points of this Kli as the one existing among the cells of a perfect, healthy organism.

In order to reach this goal, we have to understand, feel, and attain this entire common, huge system because in essence we are one single organism in which we are united with one another. Even our physical body functions by virtue of being permeated by a certain informational field. It’s not just a lymphatic system, a cardiovascular system, a nervous system, and so on, but a certain common informational system. Therefore, it is impossible for me to take a sleeping pill and fall asleep, or freeze myself for 200 years and then have someone wake me up and I will be at the end of correction. That is impossible!

I have to develop my mind and heart, my ability to understand, realize, and attain. After all, in one hour we cannot shove into a child all of the knowledge that he has to acquire over 20 years of study. And in exactly the same way, we cannot teach a person who grew up in the jungle everything that he has to gradually receive over the course of several decades. We have examples of this.

In other words, every person has to go through his personal path of development, gradually and persistently raising himself. The only difference is whether he will be nudged forward by a “rod” at every step of the way, or if he will advance forward out of his own desire.

We have to go through specific phases of correction and every one of us has to go through them one after the other. And with every step, I am like a child being forced by his parents to read one more word, then one more, and so on. I suffer greatly because I am forced to study, until I understand that I will have to do this one way or another.

But if I am smart, then I understand that I can develop a desire for reading. For example, when looking at my friends who have already learned to read well, I begin to be ashamed of my inability and I get a desire to “catch up” to them. Then I don’t need anyone to scold me but I move forward by myself.

This is the difference between the left and right lines—the path of suffering, when “blows” come down on you from all directions and the “sweet” path where you are in the right environment which awakens the feeling of envy in you. You look at them and envy that they have something you don’t. And this forces you to move.
[39824]
From the 3rd lesson at the WE! Convention on 4/1/11

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