Entries in the 'Spiritual Teacher' Category

Students Are My Fortune

165If a person is not seriously engaged in a group and does not experience common conditions with it, he does not advance.

Question: Suppose a person has the opportunity to attend lessons, but he does not, then he is no longer on the path, but he is still somewhat engaged in it. How should we treat him?

Answer: What can you do with him? You cannot throw him off the roster! He still exists, and in the next incarnation he will again come to Kabbalah and again will have to continue his correction.

So how can you not accept him or refuse him?! You tolerate him only if it does not interfere and does not harm! If he causes harm, that is another matter. But in other cases, you have no right to throw him away.

Do you think my teacher did not have to tolerate me? Did I do everything perfectly? I remember all my faults today. But there is nothing one can do.

Question: Are you so patient with your students because you yourself went through this at the time?

Answer: Maybe this is why. In addition, I am still advancing, and therefore I feel that there is no other way. They are my children. I feel a sense of necessity; I have to, and so on.

But in everything else I am impatient. I have wild nerves and impatience for everything except for a person who tries, but does not succeed.

In other words, in everyday affairs I am impatient, problematic, and intolerable. But not in spirituality. I love my students very much; I value them very much; they are my fortune. All of them! I feel them in myself, probably like a woman feels a fetus inside herself.

Question: How can you distinguish being angry in the corporeal part from your being loving in the spiritual part?

Answer: It depends on the person. If he is developed spiritually, then he understands that now I love him or hate him corporeally, but spiritually I have only one patient attitude toward him, nothing else. I take upon myself all his spiritual problems, suffering, and everything that is in him, like a parent whose child is sick or something happens to him. They are just sick together with him.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Unwanted Students” 1/14/13

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Feelings that Replace Language

961.2Question: Your teacher Rabash’s native language was Yiddish. How did it happen that you made contact with him without a common native language?

Answer: The teacher and I did not have a common native language, but we had a common mentality. He understood Poles and Russians perfectly because he grew up in Poland. In 1922 he arrived in Palestine during the time of the formation of the country, the nation, and he felt perfectly well what had happened here over the years.

But his Polish roots, especially the roots of Baal HaSulam, were felt very strongly. Therefore it was easy for me to be with him because I am from the same places that combine Russian, Belarusian, and Polish cultures, spirit, and even food.

Question: Although you shared a common mentality with Rabash, he still spoke to you in Yiddish. Did you have any problems with this?

Answer: No, I did not feel any special problems in understanding him as a person and being close to him. After all, we are practically from the same time, only slightly shifted. He was 45 years older. In fact, this is a small difference in feelings and in the approach to the world.

Of course, the fact that he was a Kabbalist and felt the world with its roots from above is another matter. But in general there were no problems.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Laitman’s Teacher” 2/5/11

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The Correct Contact of Teacher and Student

165Comment: You said that it is easy, in principle, to perceive the teacher’s words correctly if you include yourself in his desires, in the desires of the upper one.

My Response: If I do this in order to achieve something spiritual, then it develops me.

And if I do this because of coercion (fear of punishment) or because I need some kind of reward, like a soldier in the army who either wants to be a general or is forced to serve, then what do I get from this?

It is very important before whom I annul myself, for the sake of what I do it, what goal my teacher or the upper one pursues, and what goal I pursue.

This contact is reasonable, pre-established, voluntary, constantly renewed, and is maintained under the analysis of both. Such a contact is necessary, but it is not at all easy to create. To do this the student and the teacher must understand each other.

They should be like two individuals who are aware of each other’s states.

There is a clear agreement between them; we enter into such contact when the teacher wants to pass on to the student what he has and the student agrees to accept it and asks the teacher to give it to him.

They agree to certain types of relationships when they have to be unpleasant to each other, put pressure on each other, and somehow overcome the mutual remoteness. The student will begin to feel antipathy, even disgust toward the teacher, and the teacher must understand this and help the student adapt to a new connection at a new level. That is, they move forward to work on the process of including the student into the teacher, to change the nature of the student, and to mold him into something completely new.

And the student agrees to this. He goes to this operation for his own transformation on his own accord.

He passes himself into the hands of the teacher who then begins to sculpt from him something completely new. In this way the student goes through all the stages of transformation where he completely changes his past nature along the way. This requires very serious mutual work.

If it is done in a group and the students support each other, it is much easier. And if they do not think about it and do not support each other, then they do not have the opportunity to do it.

I hope that we will have such an opportunity.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Student and Teacher – the right contact” 12/1/12

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Find the Teacher Within the Group

165Question: Do you draw whatever you explain to the students from the next degree?

Answer: For me, it is not the next degree. I am in it, and if necessary, I will give you a part of it.

Question: Since you are on much higher than your students, you have to descend to a degree that is slightly higher than them. How does your incorporation in the common mind happen?

Answer: I work with a higher degree. That is my teacher.

Question: So you still have the student–teacher system?

Answer: Naturally! It does not change! And the fact that his body died, what does the body have to do with it? Even before it was not the transmitter of information.

Question: But before everything was passed from mouth to mouth, from teacher to student. And in the current period it is all with the group.

Answer: It used to be with a group before too. All Kabbalists have written about this for thousands of years. There had to be a group anyway because a teacher is just a means. In fact, we have to connect to each other in one unified system.

Question: It turns out that your teacher is the next degree for you. And for each of us is it the group?

Answer: Yes, and this group connects to me.

Question: So, there are three degrees from the individual to the teacher?

Answer: No. You find me within the group. As soon as you can somehow unite, you will immediately see me there.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Higher Intelligence” 1/2/11

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The Status of the Teacher

587.01Comment: The Kabbalists of Kotzk deliberately underestimated the importance of the group, which gave the friends the opportunity to do internal work.

My Response: This is intended for great people, not for us.

Question: If a person is equal to others, should he still try to be lower than others in a Kabbalistic group?

Answer: There is no such thing to be equal to others. Who knows what level one is at? The person himself does not know. It all depends on how he presents himself.

For example, I cannot place myself low because then the students will not respect me and will not accept the method and study. I have to take that into account. In front of the students it is necessary to keep myself accordingly; otherwise, they will not have an incentive and opportunity to learn. This is how a person is arranged. Until they can appreciate me as having the keys to their spiritual world, I have to play before them.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Motherly Care” 12/31/12

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Potentially Revealing the Next Degree

945Question: How does your mutual activity with students occur: contact, symbiosis, or connection?

Answer: When students ask me questions and convey their desire to me, I start to dig into myself and find the answer. I myself do not have these questions. It is like a child who asks: “Dad, how does it work?” Then the father starts thinking about it and explaining it to him, but otherwise, the father would not have thought about it.

But there is no problem for me. Let’s say that the father needs to know a certain device, instrument, or story, and if he did not know it, then he could not give an answer to the child. I do not have such a problem because I am in the general system of the universe. Therefore, when students ask me something, they highlight this system to me with their questions, and I explain it to them. The only problem is how to present everything so that it is clear to them.

Comment: But everyone understands that this is literally just one second of insight that disappears from a person.

My Response: It does not matter!  If the desire of people connected to mine, to my capabilities, and made disclosure, then it remains in the world and makes it easier for everyone to further disclose and use it.

By doing this, I am potentially revealing the next degrees, which will then be very easy to reveal. In other words, the degrees already exist, and you will climb them. I am preparing this for the future.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How does Laitman use students?” 12/15/12

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What Kind of Students Does a Kabbalist Need?

234Comment: There are students who leave us but somehow remain connected to us.

My Response: Those people are trying to adapt their studies of Kabbalah to our world. They cannot tear themselves away from us because they want to use the egoistic world for their corporeal ascent.

For example, someone insists that I explain Kabbalah to academics and politicians because he wants to look wise in the eyes of the whole world, he wants to be proud of his association with Kabbalah.

And I do not need it at all because there is nothing great in the greatest of this world. Therefore, he begins to complain about why I don’t explain Kabbalah to important people and don’t go and bow to them.

Why do I need it? I need students who will implement Kabbalah within them, within themselves, and by doing so correct the world! And I am not going to engage in such “marketing.”

In general, I am not interested in people who cannot pass spiritual laws through themselves. According to the definition of Kabbalah, they are considered animals, that is, they are content with the animate level.

I do not neglect them, but simply sort them according to the line of desires. Desires for this world prevail in them, and I need people with desires for the upper world. Suppose you were given a desire for the higher world, and you began to apply them in the direction of our world. Then stay with them! Nothing can be done.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. What to Expect from Kabbalah?” 12/28/12

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Replenishment from the Spiritual Level

250Question: When speaking of the spiritual, you give everyone the importance of the goal. How essential is it to be told about the importance of the goal? How do you raise its status for yourself?

Answer: From students! But unlike you, I feel your inner connection and I see who you are from the inside. Among you, you say what you see, and I see the next layers. There you are all mutually connected and devoted to bestowal and love. There you are all on a spiritual level, and from there I get nourishment. That is why I am never in a broken state.

Comment: Sometimes, when you come to a lesson, it feels like you haven’t entered it yet.

My Response: No, it does not mean that I did not enter it. It means that I have left the past state, because I always prepare before the lesson for at least 40 minutes if not an hour. So I don’t come to the lesson right after I open my eyes.

I get up, do a little exercise, take a hot shower, and sit down at the computer; I always go through some materials and only then do I go to the lesson.

The reader begins to read the text and I must immediately respond to it. I must live in it and not just talk about it.

I must be in constant interaction with the material, Baal HaSulam, Rabash, and Ramchal. For me, The Zohar is my world! There is an animal part of the world and a human part. I am in the human part.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Who Rules Laitman?” 12/27/12

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If There Is No Connection in the Group

49.01Comment: Sometimes you say to a student: “Do it this way.” And it is obvious that he is not happy about it because your advice is against all the rules. But you say: “It is better for your development,” and you leave him alone with himself.

My Response: But what can I do? Sometimes I need to show a person a little bit that he is close to spiritual actions, but slips past them, and does not want to enter into them. Inner egoistic security pushes him away from this and protects itself.

Question: You once gave an example: You are riding in a bus that is shaking and either you grab the handrail and you will be thrown out, or you will do something that is not typical of egoistic nature, grab a friend and it will help you. Is that really how it works?

Answer: If there is no connection in the group, it is very difficult to hold on! But through natural suffering, it is simply impossible! This is such terrible suffering when you have to give up your egoism in everything, in every element, and tear yourself to pieces slowly, piece by piece, in every cell.

Therefore, we need to understand what an amazing means we have, the upper Light, which we can attract through our correct interactions with each other. It can easily influence us and gently change us.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Correct Contact Between Student and Teacher” 1/11/13

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Feel the Teacher

165Question: We often listen to the teacher and think that the perception of his words occurs through the eardrum. How can we perceive it not through the vibration of the air? You said that in Kabbalah to listen to a teacher is a big job.

Answer: Of course. It is necessary to hear through the equivalence of qualities, through aspiration to the teacher, through the state when you try to “get into” him and fully adapt to him.

In our world, it is also desirable to understand and feel an ordinary school teacher, and to connect with him if he really wants to pass on his knowledge and his approach to you. After all, this is not just knowledge from a book; rather, he wants to convey his view to you, his philosophy. Then it is very important for you to be closer to him.

This is the difference between dead Western science and the sciences that were taught in the East, in Tibet and in China, no matter where. This is a completely different school. There, the attitude to the teacher was like to dervishes, Sufis, and rabbis, like to spiritual teachers.

In the West, you did not have to enter into a special internal contact with the teacher, everything there was aimed not at becoming closer, but at individualism. But in the East, on the contrary, the connection was the main thing, and students always coexisted with the teacher.

It was an entire system, although nowadays we have moved away from it and all this no longer has any original forms.

Where are all these correct relationships that Abraham once passed on to his disciples and sent them to the East? Then all these teachings passed from Ancient Babylon to the East, each in accordance with its tribes, its peoples, and gradually developed into Tibetan, Indian, Muslim, and so on. But today this no longer takes place on Earth.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Correct Contact between Student and Teacher” 1/11/13

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