Entries in the 'Spiritual Teacher' Category

A Teacher Who Is Always With You

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We need to take upon ourselves work that is foreign to the ego and completely above its power, and charge the group’s to do its best. Then not having achieved the result, we ask bring the matter as a helper to and worker of the Creator, and only then do we get the result.

How can we differentiate at the beginning of the work between madness and folly versus courage and consideration? Where is this boundary found?

Answer: Here it is necessary to have someone who manages the process who “there and then” can approve or reject every detail that the operators need to know about using it. So they need to be maximally connected among themselves more and more, so as to turn to Him nevertheless.

The world cannot get along without a “king,” without his representatives, without those who are loyal to him. Man needs someone near him who knows more than he does, who sees the future and outlines the right directions. “This is not for us but we will go there, will do what you think is right within these limits.”

This hierarchy must be constant. Among our groups there cannot be some kind of group that does everything it thinks is important according to its discretion will ultimately succeed. This is because the ego constantly accompanies it and the group needs new discernments, new stages of clarification all the time.

Regretfully I don’t think that this great dependence will diminish with time. On the contrary, it will grow. I know this from my mutual relationship with my teacher Rabash: The more I advanced, the more I needed him, actually came closer and closer to him.

In our world it is precisely the opposite: The more that a child grows, he becomes more and more independent until he leaves his parents’ home.

Whereas here you become more and more adherent to those who are higher, for essentially they link you to the Creator, you simply are not ready to get along without Him. And therefore, I now learn much more from my teacher than I learned thirty years ago….
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/20/13, Lesson on the Topic: “Sukkot”

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So The Student Should Become The Teacher’s Son

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen I was Rabash’s student he could answer every question that I had but only to the extent that it was possible to reveal things. If you reveal more than a person can grasp you may harm him.

A teacher knows exactly what can be revealed and what must remain concealed, only to the extent that a person is loyal to you can you reveal something to him. This usually happens among relatives, with a son or with a son-in-law. This is interesting since they value your good name.

You cannot be more important to any other student than he is for himself. This is the essence of our nature! So you should conceal yourself from them so that they will feel that there is something they should overcome here.

What do our corporeal difficulties to get close indicate? If your followers are a son, a son-in-law, or a brother, they value you no matter what. So even if they descend to the corporeal level, they will guard your good name since it is also their name. A student, on the other hand, loses contact with you when he descends to the corporeal level and stops being your student.

It is not a person’s fault. This is how the connections between us are arranged naturally, and so you cannot give a student what you give a son, a son-in-law, or another relative.

This is very meaningful during the first phases. A student can be like a son to you only if he is spiritually connected to you. Otherwise, what other connections do you have with him? You try to bring him to the spiritual level, but the question is to what extent he can do so.

It is about interesting corporeal attributes and how they come in contact with spirituality, but in the meantime, through the simple ego. If we speak about a certain level of loyalty when it comes to a son or to any other relative, it exists to some extent since it is based on egoism. You may say some more to them and they will never use it against you. It is possible to reveal to them a bit more than to others on a minimal level.

But this stick has two ends. The student can grow to a level on which he treats the teacher as a father despite his inner resistance. Here an opposite attribute is created and the student can do more than a son. In order to do so, both have to work seriously.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/29/13

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Rigid Hierarchy Of Justice

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus,” (Mishpatim), 23:2: You shall neither side with the mighty to do wrong—you shall not give perverse testimony in a dispute so as to pervert it in favor of the mighty…

Being on the side of the majority always “bribes” us. People feel powerful when they stay with the majority. It’s implanted in us by nature.

In this case, a person is “bribed” by a different approach: “I need this to disseminate Kabbalah, to correct the world, since the majority of people will listen to me and I will correct them. However, to begin with, I have to establish contact with them and somehow become similar to them.”

I support these things in my students because a teacher has to care about his disciples. Constantly they attempt to persuade me that this attitude is correct. I agree with them, but then I “back track” (trick them out of it) in order to teach them how to work correctly. The contact will happen by all means.

The majority has to “bow” to an individual. In spirituality, everything is delineated by individuality, not by the majority.

Question: In other words, you are not a fan of democracy?

Answer: There is no democracy whatsoever! The world is organized from “top to bottom,” from the leader to the masses. The masses have to follow the leader. The leader has to aspire to the Creator. The leader is the one who is under the Creator. We see where democracy leads us. I hope that people finally will understand that a rigid hierarchy of justice has to come into existence.

Laws that act in nature are called justice. It’s not something that we “invent” on our own, but rather something that we learn and receive from nature.

The entire hierarchy that was made by the Creator, the Upper Light, represents justice. If in our eyes it is not so, then it means that we have to alter our properties. When we manage to change ourselves, we’ll agree with this notion. When we agree, we’ll see that it’s true perfection.
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From Kab TV’s “Mysteries of the Eternal Book,” 6/24/13

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Contact With The Teacher

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What can be done if the group opinion is contrary to the opinion of the teacher? Which side should one choose?

Answer: We know that our small children don’t agree with us about many questions. Either they don’t agree because they are still small or because we didn’t explain everything to them sufficiently. This must be clarified.

But if you truly have a conflict with me and it is not imaginary, then you have a problem. Then you get absolutely nothing from me! And this says that you don’t have any possibility of advancing spiritually.

I suggest to people who don’t have contact with me, to leave us and search for another teacher, for time is running out, life is going on and coming to an end. That’s too bad. It could be that you will have another teacher with whom you can find contact and move forward. I say this for your own good. If there is no contact with me from your side, then you are not bringing any benefit to the entire movement of the world group.

There must be contact with the teacher as there should be with the Creator. Even contact with a friend must be as it should be with the Creator, because all this is connected together: group, teacher, and all the Kabbalists and transforms into being a single whole.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/13, Question and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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The Mission: Hastening Time

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How will the correction of the masses take place?

Answer: The general public will gradually connect to us. They will begin to appreciate us more and more and to better understand that we are the ones who bring them knowledge, the technology of ascending, and f this ascent, the change and the reorganization of life.

They will become an integral part of us and incorporated in us. This movement is mutual and it is performed as one whole until the end of correction. Of course, it is a long process. I don’t think I will be able to be part of even part of it, but I do hope that I will be able to lay the theoretical foundations for this process together with my students, some initial practical seeds. Later the younger students will carry this on since humanity is indifferent. It takes time.

Everyone actually has his own mission. So I will bring them to the point that I have to bring them to.

Question: Do you have a definite feeling that this is your mission?

Answer: Undoubtedly! It isn’t even a feeling; it is a fact! I see how I am being managed, how the method of correction is conveyed through me, and how I depend on the students and on the state of the world.

This mission is a spiritual legacy and there is nothing I can do about it: You cannot run from it and you cannot perform it better than expected, since you depend on others. This means that I am connected both from above and from below.

But I want to constantly expand these limits since our work is to hasten time. If you hasten time you advance faster, more easily and in a more pleasant and correct manner, without great afflictions that humanity can summon upon itself.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/24/13

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Love For A Teacher

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the right way to develop love for a teacher and what are the correct ways to demonstrate it?

Answer: The word Rav (teacher) is derived from the word “big.” Loving the Rav means to respect him. To love and respect the Rav means that you should follow his advice. There is nothing else that you need besides this.

Loving signifies that you hear your teacher or, at least, you are trying to listen to what I say to you (my students) and that you read what our teachers have written. In fact, this is enough. I assure you that if you act like that, your love will be mutual.
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From the Preparatory Lesson for the St. Petersburg Convention 7/11/13

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Two Ways Of Revealing The Point In The Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean not to place a stumbling block before a blind person?

Answer: It means that you shouldn’t tell a student what he cannot yet overcome.

It isn’t about the masses, but about students, although the general public also slowly catching up.

The difference is that individuals who have a point in the heart advance along the straight path by revealing this point individually, while the public follow their own path and discover the point in the heart among them. So our path is independent of the others and we only create the influence of a small environment around us. The public, however, advance towards the Creator (the attribute of love and bestowal) by the connection between them.

Question: Is there any illumination coming out of this point in the heart?

Answer: It depends on the connection. In case of the general population, the point in the heart is created in the center of the circle, while in our case it is in each one of us, and these points connect in the center of our circle. So in our case the movement is individual, in a group, while for them it is only in a mass, in a group and not personal. Therefore, we have to educate and serve them.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/24/13

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The Temptations Of The Left Line

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen a person is not tightly connected to the right environment he begins to draw away from the spiritual work, since the left line is so tempting!

These are not only physical temptations that temporarily distract you, that you can work out and return to the spiritual work, but also are temptations such as control, wealth, respect, praise, and knowledge.

You can probably imagine that if people who study the wisdom of Kabbalah were allowed to receive great wealth, it is doubtful that anyone could resist this temptation. If they were given palaces, yachts, and an army of servants, it would precede any other desire they may have. This is how a person is simply brainwashed. He turns into an animal in a golden cage.

He may also be given unlimited control. Suppose someone tells you: “We need you to be the president of the world. We want one person to manage everything. Anything that you desire will immediately be carried out in the world, through the whole human hierarchy.” At the same time it isn’t about the correction of the world and of people, but about ordinary technological evolution.

What can stop a person? Nothing.

You may also be tested not by wealth or domination but by fame: You are told that you are awarded the Noble Peace prize or that you are invited to speak before a prestigious forum. You are surrounded by flatterers who praise you and compliment you. Everyone looks up to you and is impressed by you! The Creator can present this kind of a show before you.

And the most important is knowing that society sees you as the wisest, smartest, most talented person of all. Knowledge is not wealth, nor power and glory. Ordinary human knowledge is to cover the whole universe; everyone looks at you as the only one who understands the secrets of the universe. Here the worship is much more significant since it is actually between the ego and the next level.

It is very hard to avoid temptations such as domination, wealth, fame, and knowledge along our spiritual path; in fact, it is impossible. We have to guard and protect students who are attracted to this. Therefore, in all the religions and in many societies, the son is usually next to his father so that he can pass down to him his life’s occupation. The son will never object and will always support and keep his father’s line since he wants to preserve his name and the character.

Educating students so they will be as loyal to you as your sons is very complex. In order to do that, one must tyrannize them, so that they will not break away from you, so that they will receive as many blows as possible during the years they are with you, and begin to realize why they get closer or draw away: for respect, for knowledge, or for wealth? So they will at least begin to feel these things.

I feel that students divert from the right path according to their internal distance from me, and according to the contempt they feel towards themselves. In that case I have to show them that it isn’t they who draw away from me but that it is I who draw away from them. If a student develops this correctly, he will understand that it isn’t actually drawing away but getting closer to me and then he will overcome everything. If he doesn’t, then nothing will happen.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/24/13

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A Merciful Attitude From One’s Father

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When does a student become close to you like a son?

Answer: When he becomes an absolutely loyal assistant, and for him, when my state becomes more important than his state. This is called “spiritual slavery.”

Only then can we speak about our being close, which is called adhesion (Dvekut). It is because now his whole life is dedicated to fulfilling my mission. Then he “enters” me and follows this path. This is called adhesion: GE of the lower enters the AHP of the upper. This isn’t a single action but continuous work.

On the whole, temptations such as respect, glory, attaining something in this world, and the existence of the egoistic self are very typical of talented students and are very dangerous. They find different justifications for their actions, but there is no justification for that.

Therefore, there are students whom I consciously treat coldly, distantly, reject them, and display a certain hostility and suspicion towards them on purpose, although they believe that I really treat them coldly.

I treat them like a father who shows his son that he doesn’t treat him mercifully, and that he should be on guard. There are those who are repelled by this while others continue to hold on. The righteous follow this way, understanding the right attraction in this rejection as they try to get closer to the teacher, while the wicked flee.

The Creator leads us on an identical path. The teacher’s attitude is simply revealed more clearly to his student. After all, it is the teacher’s job to convey the Creator’s attitude to his student in a more explicit manner.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/24/13

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Three Levels Of Learning

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is it possible to maintain the intention “for the sake of the friend” most of the time and the intention “for my sake” only for a little time?

Answer: We are found in the world of Assiya, the world of action, because we don’t have the right intention and we can awaken it only by means of action, by way of all kinds of movements in matter. Therefore it is written, “Hearts are drawn after deeds.”

Friends in the group need to feel your aspiration, you must give them an example. After all, when you show them your aspiration, the importance of the goal, you try in all kinds of forms, even shrewd ones to awaken the friends as if playing with them and unintentionally showing them your excitement; this also helps you somewhat. But the greatest help is dissemination.

It is written: “I learned much from my teachers, and from my friends even more than from my teachers, and from my  students, most of all.” (Masechet Ta’anit 7a). My teachers, this is the highest level, from them it is possible to learn only when you are found like an embryo (Ubar) in regard to them, and in the fetal state you can acquire only the Surrounding Light.

You enter into them, cling to the walls of the uterus and remain in this state for nine months. This is called the “fetus,” which is to say, totally unconscious development.

Within the fetus it is as if emotion develops, but the fetus itself doesn’t feel anything. It reacts, yet this is not its reaction, rather the reaction of the body in regard to what is higher, in regard to the teacher. In a form like this each one is found within the teacher like a fetus.

Relative to the friend, you are on the same level and the only action between you is connection. So interaction like this cannot be carried out with what is higher or with what is lower, because the coupling, the connection, can only be if someone is equal. This is to say, the forms of the desires, the intentions of the friends complete each other as in a puzzle.

The third level is when you teach. Then the Light descends on you because there is a group of students in front of you (a Kli), they open their mouths like chicks and you must feed them.

In this circumstance you draw the Surrounding Light onto yourself (not even you, rather them). Therefore it is written, “From my students I learned most of all.” Why most of all? – Because in the first case you receive the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), in the second case, you complete each other, which is to say Hassadim plus Hochma—a small illumination of perfection.

In the third case, you truly receive a great Light that the students attract through their desires, unconsciously, incorrectly, it doesn’t matter which, and this Light passes through you.

If we didn’t internalize this and would run to the world to disseminate, we would get tremendous results. And it doesn’t matter what is disseminated: integral education or the wisdom of Kabbalah. What difference does it make? The main thing is that in any case you must teach them what they want if they truly want this. Therefore, if we teach, disseminate, serve, bring connection, which is what we aspire to ourselves, then we get a positive result.

So what does the wisdom of Kabbalah exist for? To discover the Creator within connection. Therefore they do the same thing. So it is written that all the people who don’t feel the Creator will lift upon their shoulders those who have the “point in the heart” and will bring them to the mountain of the Creator, which is to say, they will elevate them. They will push, compel us, perhaps harshly, perhaps softly, so that we will be elevated and will provide them with the knowledge, the fulfillment that they require.
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Three” 7/14/13, Lesson 5

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