Entries in the 'Society' Category

Unity Above Hate

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If the Creator always resides in our mutual connection, how can we unite and at the same time, forget about the Creator and stray off the path?

Answer: What forms of unity could divert you from the path? All kinds of them! The Russians tried to do it, didn’t they? They did. Fascists tried (“Fascio” in Italian means “unify,” “tie in a bunch”), didn’t they? They did! Kibbutzim, Sparta, armies, vegetarians, fundamentalists, and so on are all various forms of association.

This is why unification has to be thoroughly scrutinized, analyzed, and implemented not by us, but by the Upper Light. First of all, we must keep the principle of “I am the First, and I am the Last,” “The end of an action lies in its initial thought.” I must advance toward the Creator and not simply strive to achieve love and bestowal between us in a secular fashion.

We should be dominated not by the force of egoism, but by the force that is above egoism since all advancement occurs by way of “faith above reason,” above hate and not within or with the help of hate.

We hate each other, but there is someone we hate even more. Therefore, we unite, and our general hatred mutually connects us to even greater hatred for a third party that we wish to destroy.

There is a great margin for error here. That is why we have to employ the Torah, an instruction that always leads you to the Light; and it is the Light that corrects you, not you yourself. Neither in the mind, nor in the sensations, nor in any action on the way to correction, do you ever use what is in you except the Light that Reforms. You have nothing to add to it except your effort to annul yourself.

If you annul yourself, you give the Light an opportunity to work on you and make out of you a correct future form. Otherwise, the Light will make the wrong form out of you so that through suffering you would discover the correct method you hadn’t understood previously.

The Light affects you all the time. The question is whether the Light and desire are opposing each other or not, and you are the one who determines that.

This is the deciding point, the point of free will. Only the group can help you to place yourself under the Light correctly. While the Light illuminates constantly, you have to continually examine yourself in the group.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/10, Baal HaSulam, Letter 17, 1926

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Balance In Society

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Will there be any positive outcome if we affect other people, most of whom do not aspire to spiritual growth, by our example and thus facilitate good relations and communication in the entire society?

Answer: Yes, when we become an example, we will positively impact the entire society. Baal HaSulam describes it in his article “The Future Generation.” If the entire society decides today that we can’t exist in the egoistic form anymore and must start to consider each other, it will be a tremendous correction.

You may ask: “If a regular person does it without having a goal to reveal the Creator and bestow to Him, won’t it repeat an unfortunate experience of socialistic Russia?” However, in our times, there is a Kabbalistic group practicing bestowal and the dissemination of Kabbalah, and everyone who might wish a greater awareness can join us.

As to all the others, it is enough if they assist and support us, as do people who usually don’t enjoy studying and loading their mind with knowledge. If there is a balance in society, whereby one of its parts, such as the “head” which maintains the intention, draws the Light that Reforms to all through itself, and the other part carries out some supplementary actions, then we can achieve great success.

Let’s hope that we will succeed. The whole of mankind is designed as a pyramid, and according to it, that is exactly how it has to be. Only a few are responsible for the connection with the Creator and draw the Light to the masses (See Baal HaSulam’s article “The Future Generation”).
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/10, “The Freedom”

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The Upside-Down Pyramid

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is particularly the lowest, most external souls, the “wicked” that possess the strongest desire. Once they awaken and aspire to goodness, the entire pyramid will turn from the bottom up.

They can perform some simple, supportive actions, but if these acts are performed selflessly and wholeheartedly, they will no longer be mechanical acts. Such a person may not understand what needs to be done, but he is willing to cleave to you. The minute he does, he begins to receive everything that you have and grows! Suddenly, inside of this small desire the immense spiritual desires, the soul, become revealed.

In the spiritual world, each tiny cell, by connecting to the body, receives everything that the body has; it acquires all of its desires and is aware of everything that happens there.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

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Outer And Inner Spheres Of Influence

Dr. Michael LaitmanA person cannot avoid being influenced by the environment, which elevates or belittles him. It is impossible to resist if I am important in my eyes.

If I don’t wish to conform to this opinion, I have to construct another image around myself, one that will become meaningful to me. In that case, I will measure everything in relation to it: If I am being reprimanded or praised, foremost, I will check whether it is beneficial or harmful to this image. And then, let me be scolded, but if the image benefits from it, helps me to achieve it, and come closer to it, I feel good.

If I am being scolded by the people whom I hold in authority, I value their opinion. But if I regard them as foes, then the more they scold me, the more it convinces me that I am correct. I am glad they are criticizing my path. In this case, the most horrible condemnations may sound as blessings to me.

Let’s say you are being cursed by the Pharaoh, it’s great, because he is opposite to the Creator; it all depends on whose influence you choose. Hence, I must remain only under the influence of my environment that I chose for spiritual growth. I should be very responsive to it since with its help, I can aim myself in the right direction.

Upon entering such an environment, its opinion must become sacred for me. I copy all its values and live in accordance with them instead of with what used to fill me before.

If I wish to receive the mind of the Upper One, the Creator, instead of my own, then I unfold my entire future world in the head (Rosh) of the group, in their desires. I don’t have anything else: They are that very Kli which I receive the future world into. Therefore, the collective opinion of the group and its values, start prevailing over everything else.

In fact, I will never be able to uncover the tiniest particle of the spiritual world unless I step out of myself and exchange my head for the common head and heart of the group. Therein lay my sole choice and chance to reach spirituality.

You need to be responsive to their mind and heart and keep trying to find within what the true environment is. As a result, you will suddenly get to realize that they have it all although they themselves are unaware of it. It is this particular group in relation to which you have to nullify yourself, and that is where you will find the entire World of Infinity.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/2/10, The Writings of Rabash

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Hardships Of Transition

Dr. Michael LaitmanMan has always clung to religion and all sorts of beliefs because he had to somehow catch hold of spirituality, like a child that calms down by hugging a favorite toy or a familiar blanket. A person needs such "props" his or her entire life. Today, however, when our ego has reached such proportions that it won’t be satisfied with a toy, a person loses it and doesn’t know what to hold on to.

Then, everything becomes acceptable, and nobody cares about anything; notions of good and evil, religion and morality, no longer bind. That turns into a huge problem for society.

That’s when we need to circulate the wisdom of Kabbalah as quickly as possible to replace the disappearing bridle, a function primarily filled by religion which used to keep humanity at bay.

Kabbalah does so by giving humanity a purpose and revealing the Upper Governance to it. A person shouldn’t think that there is no higher authority; there is! However, instead of a system of morality that intimidates people with punishment in the afterlife, we need to actually discover the true Governor. Without it, it’s impossible to get along in the tumultuous transition period when mankind is freed from everything that binds it.

Once, everything used to fit into a clear pattern. Everyone knew how to dress based on his or her social standing strictly instilled by society. Now is the time of complete freedom when everything is allowed. And it’s just a beginning. Soon, all shame and morality will go out of the window.

Instead of being controlled by religion, faith, fear of punishment in this and the future worlds, the promise of Heaven and Hell, and the opinion of society, which puts everyone (be it a slave, a peon, or a lord) in his place by dictating the norms of life, even clothing, instead of all that, we will suddenly find ourselves completely unbridled. That has been done intentionally to replace this control with conscious, willing self-subordination to the Upper Governance.

The transition itself, however, is very problematic. Only when a certain part of humanity finds the connection with the Upper Governance, with the Creator’s "whip and bridle," and allies itself with it, serving as an example to others, then it will be easier for the rest to accept it.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/10, "The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose"

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Love and Understanding Above Everything Else

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Today there are families which do not accept their children because of their homosexual orientation; these children are cast away by their families. After the terrorist attack at the “Bar Noar” night club in Tel-Aviv, one of the injured did not even get a visit from his parents.

You have asserted a number of times that it is necessary to treat children according to their needs and preferences. How should parents treat their homosexual children?

Answer: I cannot impose and tell parents how to build their relationships with any of their children, but I believe that love and understanding must prevail everywhere. Neither society nor mass media explain these things to people, even though specifically in mass media there are many people who understand this problem.
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The Light Brings Us Luck

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can a person check if he is going by the path of the Light or the path of suffering? Is there some indicator?

Answer: You are advancing by the path of the Light if you are always choosing a better environment, meaning one that is more goal-oriented.

In this world I am surrounded by society, various groups, friends, and pleasures, and I have to choose: Which path will I take? At the end of the path there is a goal — the Creator, and whether I want it or not, I have to understand that this is nature which will win no matter what.

If I understand this, if I have “a part of divinity from Above” that is similar to the Creator, then instead of other social circles and pleasures, I must always choose the society that is connected to the spiritual goal.

It will enable me to reveal a desire for the Creator, which will be expressed in my connection with the environment. Then it will become the place where I reveal the Creator.

However, everything depends on what I want to reach at the end of the path. There are people who do not see the goal at the end of the path and therefore wander around life as if carried by the wind.

You have to check yourself to the degree of your understanding: What do you call the Creator, the right environment, and the goal? And you have to stay in the place where you think there is truth. If you have a spiritual spark, a point in the heart, then you will find the right environment for it and will not be able to calm down in any other place.

If you don’t have a point in the heart, then you will join this society thinking that you can receive something there, and later on you will leave. In this regard everything depends on luck rather than reason. Luck (Mazal) is Light which seeps (Nozel) from Above and pours into the point in the heart. If it comes, then you will advance.
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From the 4th part of the daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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How To Place Yourself Under The Influence Of The Environment

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Now, when so many people are about to arrive at the Convention, will each of us be able to attain the sensation of the spiritual world?

Answer: This entirely depends on us. I think that we are going through very good, advanced states and the right preparation. Lately there are many drastic ascents and descents happening every day and I am very happy about that.

These states are wonderful because in order to unite correctly, we have to reveal both the evil and the good. Both the evil and the good become revealed one after the other, alternating.

All the states we are going through are the preparation a person goes through with awe and excitement. We should not be feeling rest or a static state, but as if we are about to enter an important event and go through inner sensations.

We have to understand that all the states we are now going through are given to us from Above and each of them is absolutely necessary. In spite of these states we have to carry out everything that is incumbent upon us.

If I place myself under the influence of the friends, if I cancel myself as if I have closed my eyes, and I completely don’t care about what I want and my only desire is to feel their influence, then it is a blessing from Above. This might seem like easy work, but when you do it you are immediately faced with obstacles and worried thoughts. They come to us deliberately and we will have to overcome them and remain under the influence of the environment.

People who know how to work this way will benefit a great deal. They don’t separate from the problems, but “swallow” each of them, and above every obstacle they advance by faith above reason, explaining to themselves that what is happening at the Convention now is more important to them.

Thus they shift “back and forth,” each time entering and exiting various states, tuning out of the Convention and returning, as it is written, “The Torah will come out of Tzion,” meaning the Light will come out of the exits (descents).

The Torah comes out of these kinds of exits and entrances (into spiritual states), when there are obstacles and people constantly analyze their states; eventually, the Light appears inside them. If a person is able to behave this way and at the same time to sing and dance, then there is nothing better. If he holds himself this way, then he will definitely feel the spiritual world.

A person will suddenly feel that the world is eternal, that it is common and interconnected, and that he is inside the flow of a special Upper Force.
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From the lecture on 10/26/10

Kabbalah Insights: Pyramid

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOyb1DoGUus]