Entries in the 'Q&A' Category

Provide The Basics Of Life And Take Care Of The Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to provide the other with everything he lacks?

Answer: Surely, we are not talking about the reality of our world. Otherwise, you will be reproached with hard-heartedness: “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? You study Kabbalah and do not give away everything you have.” Ignorant people think that you have to sweat to provide the others with their material needs.

In truth, to help the other means to show him how he can correct himself. The only exception to this rule is basic human needs. We have to provide everyone with the barest necessities of life so that there will be no people in the world who lack the basics of life.

However, beyond that we care exclusively about correction of the soul. There is no place for doubt: First of all, a person needs to secure for himself the basic, “animate” existence, and in everything else he has to provide for the “human” within, meaning the soul.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/23/2011 on The Principles of Global Education

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Friends Of My Point In The Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: A part of me really wants to go to the Convention, but another part of me opposes it so strongly that I don’t want to see anyone. What should I do?

Answer: You have to make your free choice. You should understand that both parts of you, like all of the thoughts and desires that awaken in us at every moment, come to us from the Creator. These are conditions which are set for us; it is not the actual me.

What makes the decision is not my body, which gets sick and does not want to go to the Convention, and not my mood either. We act like a mechanism where all of the internal electrical signals are controlled by the upper force according to the program leading us to a certain state.

Life, death, and all of the states in between are determined from above and there is nothing accidental about any of it. Therefore, in every state I have to detach myself and look at this “mechanism,” meaning my body, its mood, and everything in it, from aside. The purpose of this is to see that this is the Creator’s work and to understand what He wants to give me right now, and to what state does He want to bring my “donkey” (Hamor, donkey means Homer, matter). Then I will understand how to work with it and will not identify myself with this “donkey.”

The more times a day a person is able to detach from himself in this way and look at himself from aside, like at a body in which some kind of forces are being awakened, without identifying himself with it, but rather using it as a means to attain the goal, the faster he will reach success. That is also how we should treat the friends in every regard. Don’t look at their faces or personalities, but at their inner desire in the pure form, which does not depend on anything external. This is the friend of my point in the heart.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/22/11, Preparation to the WE! Convention

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You Can’t Live Without Women

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why does society have a dismissive attitude to women? Why do men consider women beneath them?

Answer: This attitude results from the fact that a woman cannot attain spirituality on her own. She depends on a man for this.

Our common soul consists of the male and female parts where the female part, Nukva, is the desire for fulfillment. In our world this is expressed through the fact that a woman needs a home, that she has to give birth to children and take care of them. Her children encompass her entire life. That is why she depends on society to a greater extent than a man. She needs stability and confidence in tomorrow.

In other words, a woman feels more unsatisfied and this is a premise for her spiritual development, although it is perceived as weakness in our egoistic world. In spiritual motion everything is opposite because the greater the desire, the more a person advances. We, the creatures, depend only on desire. And if this desire is oriented the right way, then this is the key to success.

Therefore, unless the men absorb the women’s desire, they will not be able to advance toward spirituality.
From the lesson on 3/5/11, Writings of Rabash

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The Irreconcilable Quarrel Between The Creator And The Pharaoh In Me

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we ascend above all the quarrels in the group before the convention?

Answer: When preparing for the convention, you have to see how all of these conflicts are given to you as “help against Him,” how Pharaoh rises up and asks, “Who is this Creator for me to listen to His voice?”

The Creator tells you to unite with the friends, while the Pharaoh tells you to disunite! The Creator says, “Give in!” While the Pharaoh says, “No, you have to rule over them with an iron hand!” The Creator says, “Work joyfully,” while the Pharaoh says, “No, you will work dejectedly and enslaved to me.”

These two forces argue within a person when he reaches the “ten Egyptian plagues” as he discerns which of them is right. I have to understand that I determine which of them will take the upper hand and rule—the Creator or Pharaoh! Everything depends on me.

This is the most decisive point, and I am standing in the middle between these two parts of reality: the positive and the seemingly negative, which were prepared for me in this form in order to give me the freedom of choice. I have to decide that I want for the force of bestowal, love, freedom from egoism and ascent above it to assume power.

I am ready to accept the blows falling on Pharaoh and egoistic Egypt, and I am happy about them. Let the blow fall upon me because it is hitting my egoism, helping me to be freed from it, to ascend above it and no longer be inside of it. After these blows, I already come out of Egypt and am no longer enslaved to it!

Yet, a person shouldn’t work on himself, but in relation to the environment, the group. He shouldn’t correct some kind of qualities inside of him, but his attitude to others. The most important thing here is not to get confused and not to change the direction of one’s efforts.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/22/11, Preparation to the WE! Convention

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Where Is My True Self?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can one receive from the environment the importance of the intention to bestow?

Answer: Imagine that beside the environment there is nothing. There is no Creator, no property of bestowal, there is nothing but the environment.

We think that there is something else and it appeases us: There is the environment, but there is also the Creator, my own relationship with Him. In truth, there is nothing like that, but only the environment. Either you perceive yourself in yourself, or you can sense yourself inside the environment. It will also be you, but the perfect you that incorporates within of all of your lost pieces.

Beside these two components there is nothing. You are either submersed in your current self or you connect with the environment which you presently imagine as being outside of you: with the group, with the common desire. But that’s you!

In reality, my current perception of myself is conditioned by the fact that my egoism tears me away from my true “self,” and I think that I exist outside of it. It’s totally the opposite! My entire Kli (desire, vessel) of the soul is there, inside my true “self.” It’s just that the concealment acts upon me and I consider it foreign. Subsequently, it will become revealed to me whom I stole from, whom I deceived, or harmed. It was me myself, the people closest and dearest to me!

Question cont.: Under what condition can I receive the importance of bestowal from the environment?

Question: By faith above reason! You are looking for a rational confirmation, for a certain logic which would explain that you appeal to the group and receive support from it. Such logic does not exist. Indeed, if you were able to substantiate this logically, it would be advantageous for you to be in this team from the egoistic point of view, for instance, like in a football team. Here, however, you have no rational support!
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/2011, The Book of Zohar

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The Creator Does Not Exist Outside Of Us

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is it possible to ask the Creator for help and to desire only to bestow, without receiving anything for ourselves?

Answer: This is exactly what we ask for. I ask the Creator to give me the opportunity to bestow, where “to bestow to the Creator” means to bestow to the group because it is written, “I dwell among My people.” This is the same thing.

There is no other Creator. “I dwell among My people” means that He becomes revealed in the group. The common force of the group is called “the Creator.” To bestow to the group as a whole means to bestow to the Creator.

We think about this in the earthly sense and that’s why it seems to us, “What’s so special about the group? What can I give to them? How silly!” But if you really would come out of yourself to bestowal to others, you would reveal the upper reality instead of this world. It’s just that we don’t achieve this.

A question arises: But many philosophic teachings also advocated bestowal to society and considered the voice of the people to be the voice of God? Yet, that is incorrect because they did not use the correcting Light, the inner force that is present in society.

At the end of the day, what does the science of Kabbalah say? You have nothing besides desire. Inside of this desire there is a special force called “the Creator,” which was concealed there from the beginning. You can awaken this force inside of the group if you really want to advance to it, to bestow to the group. There you come face to face with the end results —with yourself, with the group, and with the Creator. Everything is inside of the group, in the bestowal that you acquire outside of yourself.

And it makes no difference whether you bestow to the group or the Creator. Bestowal in the group means bestowal to the Kelim or desires of others, whereas bestowal to the Creator means that you become more included into the common force of bestowal that reigns inside of these desires.

We have to detach from the religious notions, from our inherent faith in some kind of Creator who rules somewhere up in the sky and influences us from there. Look at how much power this stereotype still has over us! But in fact, there is no upper force outside of us! This force is inside of the group, in the connection between us. And there is nothing besides this reality, which you reveal. There is nothing outside of reality.

By delving increasingly deeper into these notions, you start to understand that this is a very materialistic approach.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/11, The Zohar

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A Lego Made Out Of The Creator’s Pieces

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: During the lesson we work with the Light that corrects us. But what do we work with at the Convention?

Answer: At the Convention this happens even more! We don’t have any other means to influence what is happening to us besides the Light that reforms. It is the only thing we can awaken!

We awaken our future states that haven’t been revealed in us yet and which are about to be revealed. They are states of bestowal to the outside, where every person bestows outward, to his neighbor. This is precisely the quality that we want to discover—each person inside of him and all of us as a whole.

When we reveal this quality of bestowal, it means that we have revealed the Creator. As Kabbalists tell us, this quality gave birth to us, formed us, and dispersed us far away from one another so that by uniting with each other we would reveal it once again.

In the meantime, the Creator is in exile. What does that mean? We can say that He also disintegrated into tiny pieces and is inside all of these broken parts that are far away from one another. As soon as you begin connecting them, you start to recreate or restore Him, the common force of bestowal.

We have to build an image for ourselves that is close to the truth. Otherwise we live in various religious fantasies, imagining an unreal, non-materialistic picture.

We have to understand that the difference between faiths or religions and the science of Kabbalah is that faiths or religions want to imagine spirituality in the material desires, which perceive everything “within” and therefore build their notions according to the earthly reality, with creation being below and the Creator being above, as if they are separated by distance rather than qualities. They do not talk about man’s correction.

In contrast, the science of Kabbalah says that everything is inside of man. Thus, the upper reality or dimension becomes revealed in a person’s inner corrections and changes. Therefore, the most important thing for us is to correct man. By correcting our qualities, a person feels that the Creator is revealed inside of him.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/11, The Zohar

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A College Degree At The Age Of Twelve

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What exactly does the wisdom of Kabbalah give to children that a good private school is unable to provide?

Answer: Kabbalah develops a human being. It gives him tools which then make one’s life easy. It gives a possibility to perceive and learn everything in an easy way because it reveals abilities in a person which allow him to understand everything.

He will not encounter any difficulties that would make him feel incapable of overcoming them. He will be looking at everything from above as something that he can learn. He will not experience any difficulties in acquiring any knowledge.

Kabbalah studies expand a child’s tools of perception to a higher level. As a result, he will not have any problems with ordinary sciences such as physics, chemistry, or biology. He will look at them as a science of the lower levels of nature: inanimate, vegetative, and animate.

Kabbalah immediately begins to develop the human level within a child. The rest of the levels come amazingly easy for him. He can graduate from a college within two to three years at the age of 12 to 15.

We just did not set such a goal until now. However, we can organize such a group and request the department of education to give them qualifying exams. Let them see how developed are these children and how maturely they think. They really deserve a diploma according to their human level.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/2010, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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“Ask The Kabbalist” – 11

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