Entries in the 'Spiritual Work' Category

A Pauper Who Is Rich And A Billionaire Who Is Poor

laitman_285_01Question: I always hear that the Creator is good that does good, but in the meantime I don’t feel this. So how can I be happy?

Answer: We are used to being happy when we feel that we have gained. If the ego gains at every moment, if it is comfortable, good, warm, and pleasant for me, money drips into my account, “One penny and another penny accumulate into a great sum” (Baba Batra 9b) and I enjoy. Thank God everything is okay, soon I will take a vacation, sail on a luxury liner, on Shabbat my favorite soccer team is playing; there is something to enjoy in life!

This is what we call “pleasure,” but this is joy now or in the future within the desire to receive. That is how we live. If I don’t feel joy in the present or in the future, I am ready to die. A person is not able to exist without joy, if not now, then at least from hope for joy in the future. Otherwise, “it is better for me to die than to live” (Jonah 4:3).

Now the question is asked, how can we be happy in a situation where we really want spiritual revelation but don’t have it? If at the moment we don’t have it, then everything depends on hope for the future; am I confident that ultimately I will have it? It is clear that in the present I don’t have anything! “A judge only has what his eyes see” (Sanhedrin 6b), and I see that I have not yet discovered the spiritual world, don’t understand and don’t feel it.

But am I sure that I will discover it? If I am in a group and the group radiates confidence to me that we are going towards revelation and we will reach it, then I will be happy! The friends give me the confidence that we will succeed. Without this, I won’t succeed in advancing; rather, I will simply sleep all day so I won’t suffer, because at the moment I have no joy and also don’t expect it in the future. It is impossible to die, and what is left is just to sleep, at least not feel anything.

This is exactly what happens to a person. This is natural; there is nothing to do about it. The question is how do we deal with this? How is it possible to stimulate the environment so that it will influence us and we will be happy and full of energy? For this it is up to us to appreciate the friends and to be connected with them. And in addition to this, we must awaken the Light that Reforms together so that it will stimulate us all the time and provide excitement. And then I will not only be excited by the words of the people, but I will receive illumination from above through them.

This illumination is called “faith.” Faith is power that I invest without getting anything in return. It seems that this is impossible, but the Light will influence me and will give me the possibility of doing it. This is called, “faith above reason.” According to my nature, I am not ready to bestow without receiving anything in exchange! But if the Light will give me a characteristic like this, then I can. And then my happiness will not be connected to fulfillment within my Kelim. As it is said: “Who is rich? It is the one who is happy with his lot” (Pirkei Avot 4:1).

And what is his lot? He doesn’t have anything! But he is happy. Maybe he is crazy or stupid? No, he is truly the richest and happiest person! The rich don’t feel happy because they are pursuing even greater wealth all the time, and they are not “the one who is happy with his lot.” This is called feeling rich and happy. He doesn’t need anything more; imagine what a wonderful feeling this is. Even billionaires don’t feel this way because they want more and more money. They are the poorest people of all! If an ordinary person doesn’t have a thousand dollars, they don’t have millions, billions. So which of us is poorer, who needs more? It means that everything depends on the environment and the illumination of the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light).
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/14, Writhing of Baal HaSulam

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Dissemination Revives The Person

laitman_938_01Question: How should we translate the suffering of the community from the physical level to the spiritual level, meaning to see in everything a lack of Light?

Answer: This happens by itself, for you are found in your own state and the community is found in its state. When you hear them, you perceive this differently anyway, for “all who condemn do so with their own defect” (Kiddushin 70b). So you will understand and feel these problems within your perception and Kelim. You have nothing to fear from identifying with their physical needs.

Even though their pain and complaints are justified, natural, and compulsory, you still feel them according to your understanding and on your level.

Question: Does this mean that I will constantly translate their complaints differently according to my changing states?

Answer: Your state will be changed along with them. You will suddenly begin to condemn the Creator for what He is doing to them; you will discover that you lack the ability to justify Him. Dissemination gives us a wide field of work; it revives and invites many changes in us.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/14

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The Law Of Love Is Not Enforced By Parliament

laitman_547_06Question: How do we turn to people in Israel with our message in such a way that it will not antagonize them?

Answer: It is necessary to give a rational explanation and not present everything all at once, but gradually. Baal HaSulam explains the picture to us in a concrete and clear manner, in a very scientific way, in that he understands all of the troubles that are still liable to appear if the people will not change their direction. And we need to adapt this message for the wider public and explain to people that only through connection between us will we reach anything good.

Success in such areas as education, security, interactions between people and more is assured only by our own powers. The nation is not ready to do this; it is incapable of it. It cannot create a “Ministry of Love” that will resolve all problems between us. No nation is involved in anything similar. It always belongs to the citizens, to the people.

And on the other hand, in ancient times, before the destruction of the Temple, the highest political establishment of the people of Israel was specifically the “Ministry of Love.” All the other ministries were under it. There were taxes, education, and security, but all the other areas and ministries occupied lower levels of the national pyramid. And the “Minister of Love” was the High Priest.

Today, in order to transform the pyramid that has been created and bring it to the state that it must be requires painstaking work among the people.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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What Is Possible To Ask From The Merciful And Gracious?

laitman_239Question: To reach prayer, is this the individual work of a person or the work of the entire group?

Answer: Of course this is the shared work of all of us. From where would I get the strength for it? If I don’t identify with the sorrow of the community, I wouldn’t be able to reach prayer.

Otherwise I will scream for myself, but for this won’t receive an answer from above. I must transmit to the Elyon (Higher) the request of others, the Prayer of Many. It is called this because I scream for the many, and not because many people scream.

The “many” are my own desires that are portrayed to me as strangers. I scream because I want to approach them, feel them like I feel myself, reach love of others as myself, and connect.

I don’t scream about it being bad for them and the Creator needs to help them, even though this is also prayer, as it is said, “One who prays for his friend is answered first” (Baba Kama 90b). The main thing is, when I see them as parts of myself and am connected with them, to that degree I am connected with the Creator.

After all, if I ask the Creator to be merciful to them and to solve their problems, then in this way I blame Him that He is abusing them and am thinking He is cruel and am asking Him to do something good for them. But I cannot turn to the Creator that way and I will not have equivalence of form with Him if I don’t decide that He is merciful and gracious.

So a true prayer is not a request that something good should be done for others. How can I ask the Creator to do something good if He is also good that does good? I ask Him to make such a correction in us that all of us will adhere with Him. This is the entire prayer, there is nothing more for which to ask.

If I see something bad, this is because there is a gap,; the forces of Shevira (Breakage) are discovered. And the Shevira is within me, so I see reality as being so bad. So I ask that all of us will be able to adhere to the Creator and give Him pleasure. After all, we are so despicable that we are not prepared to accept Him as He truly is: good that does good.

It means that we don’t ask Him to do good for us because in every case we are found in an optimal situation for us. We ask for correction of our distorted vision and sensation, so we don’t blame the Creator like little children who scream, “Bad Mommy!”

Question: But what is to be done with an evil inclination that constantly proclaims that everything is bad?

Answer: A person must try to rise above his evil inclination and not annihilate it. We need to rise above it and be higher than it because desires of bestowal must be above desires of reception. Yet it is forbidden to extinguish the desires of reception; for then the desires of bestowal cannot exist.

Without the Yetzer HaRa (evil inclination), what are we left with? The Yetzer HaTov (good inclination) cannot exist in us because this is the Creator, the desire to bestow. I cannot be the Yetzer HaTov; the Yetzer HaTov can exist within me only to the degree that it rides on the Yetzer HaRa.

The Yetzer HaRa assures me of detachment from the Creator, independence. And the Yetzer HaTov that controls it gives me the form of the Creator. However, I can only ask for the Yetzer HaTov to dominate over the Yetzer HaRa within me. Only the Upper Light can carry this out; I myself am not able to. This is not at my power.

I can only clarify that this is what is required from me. I get such a possibility as a result of the Shevira, which builds the connection between the desire to receive and the desire to bestow. So I get the ability to clarify, to analyze, to differentiate between one and the other. The Upper Light begins to illuminate these concepts for me and I see what is good and what is bad.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/14

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The Secret From Which Everything Begins

laitman_222_0Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Section 1: It is the opposite of the argument of the negligent in attaining the interior, who say to themselves: “We settle for attaining the Peshat. If we attain that, we will be content.” Their words can be compared to one who wishes to step on the fourth step without first stepping on the first three steps.

May God grant us the understanding of the simple meaning, the knowledge of which they attribute to themselves. After all,  on the way to it we must pass through the way of the Sod (secret), Drush (interpretation) and Remez (hint). And as long as we haven’t completed the previous steps, what simple meaning can there be? A person attains the Peshat on the fourth level of the corrected desire; how can that happen if we haven’t yet corrected the first, second, and third levels?

When I correct the first level of the desire to receive, I discover that the entire Torah is a big secret for me. And this is already an attainment. Until now I didn’t even know this, and now I understand my lack of knowledge. As a result of this, a connection is made between me and something that is hidden from me, but for now I cannot discover this secret. And after this the Drush appears, I already penetrate into things and see the connections between them, but still don’t understand the principles by which they operate.

After this I discover the Remez; I still don’t recognize the causes and the results, don’t get the exact purpose, but I can already see how the Creator operates and I can cooperate with Him. And only on the fourth level do I gradually attain His goal, and this is already adhesion. And then the Peshat is revealed to me because between me and the Creator there is no longer any concealing clothing, no screens, or partitions.

So if a person already studies Torah, he must relate to it with great seriousness. This is because it is called Kedusha (Sanctity) and Kedusha is bestowal. Am I advancing correctly towards bestowal through learning the Torah?

By learning the wisdom of Kabbalah I gradually discover that I am immersed in darkness, I don’t understand and don’t feel that something exists that is concealed from me, inaccessible to me. This feeling is the discovery of Sod, a very important feeling in the present stage. For this desire, the deficiency that dominates in me, will help me to reach Peshat.

And yet how is it possible to remain indifferent when I see that I don’t even have a drop of understanding? This is worse than death, for the dead don’t feel anything and I feel a spiritual deficiency. I am most unfortunate. So, as a result of studying, we discover darkness….

Question: How can this be? I thought that after we discover the Sod, we solve all the problems.

Answer: In this way I solve the biggest problem; I finally understand that all of my problems are derived from my attitude towards the Creator. In other words, it is up to me to build the right relationship.

Until now I didn’t know this. It seemed to me that it was about other causes and circumstances. And now, after I attain the Sod, I see that I have no connection with the Creator and that I depend only on Him. This is already not bad, for it is the truth. Finally I am locked in, connected to something true, real.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/14, Writhing of Baal HaSulam

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Who Determines The Appearance Of The World?

laitman_423_01A very egoistic perception of the world is typical in humanity, according to which we think that the world revolves according to the way that we manage it. That is what governments, powerful people, the rich, and the successful think. Even the simplest person thinks that his entire life is the result of what he does.

Everyone blames someone for anything that happens, and all of us think that we are the masters in this world. We acknowledge that the nature of humanity is evil and egoistic, but what can be done if we are like that? That is how we are and that is how we live and run the world. Certainly we could manage it better, not with such barbarity, but more thoughtfully and humanely. But nothing can be done about our being like that.

We construct all kinds of systems and try to be involved in this world as much as possible. We agree that it is imperfect, but that is how it is. People suppose that the world is the result of our management, our behavior, the connection between us, culture, education, politics, economics, commerce, etc.

All of this determines how the world appears. We hope that through our actions we can improve our lives somehow, and we cannot accept that the picture of the world that we perceive and see is not at all the result of our activities.

But the Creator, the Higher Power, draws this picture for us at each and every moment according to the Reshimot (spiritual genes). And a picture of the world is portrayed within us according to these Reshimot, and we cannot influence it in any way, but only determine the right attitude towards this picture, meaning an awareness that it comes to us entirely from the Creator. This applies to the past, the present, and the future. The Creator arranges our perception according to such a timeline.

What is important is not how we relate to the world, but how we relate to the Creator! The moment that we turn our attention toward the director, the origin, the Creator of the world, we immediately acquire the right perspective. And then it becomes clear that the whole world is concealed, evasive, a temporary image that is drawn within our mind with all of its nations, countries, and the entire terrible mess that is happening on the face of our small planet and within each and every individual person.

This picture becomes clearer to us at every moment in all kinds of different forms, in all of the various international and private quarrels, all of the different types of internal and external problems. All this is only so that when faced by all these troubles, we learn to justify the Creator, the source. All of these forms are clarified within our ego, within the desire to receive, which is the opposite of the Creator. And so we see our inner malfunctioning and perceive it as an external reality.

So we don’t need to regret the difficult situations that we went through in the past or that we are going through now in the present and to lose all hope for a good future. Rather we need to rise up and adhere to our root, which is only good that does good. And everything that we feel in this reality, ourselves, and this world is intended only so that above all of this we connect with the absolute good source and abandon our desire to receive in which we feel such a distorted and inferior picture of this world.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/14

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The Immense Potential Of The “Speaking”

Laitman_712_03From an article by Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”: Section 3: Let me explain the matter. We distinguish four divisions in the speaking species, arranged in gradations one atop the other. Those are the masses, the strong, the wealthy, and the sagacious. They are equal to the four degrees in the whole of reality, called:
a. Still,
b. Vegetative,
c. Animate,
d. Speaking.

…Atop them is the speaking, consisting of an emotional force and an intellectual force together. For this reason, its power is unlimited by time and space in attracting what is good for it and rejecting what is harmful, like the animate.

This is so because of its science, which is a spiritual matter, unlimited by time and place. One can teach others wherever they are in the whole of reality, and in the past and the future throughout the generations.

It follows that the value of one person from the speaking equalizes with the value of all the forces in the vegetative and the animate in the whole of reality at that time, and in all the past generations. This is so because its power encompasses them and contains them within its own self, along with all their forces.

After the desire to receive was created, it began to develop not quantitatively, as if its weight was one kilogram and it developed into ten kilograms. In no place in nature is quantitative development considered to be development. If a child were to grow, increasing only his weight, he would be called mentally undeveloped.

This means that we always associate development with a new quality. First of all there is the gathering of wisdom, the recognition of evil, inquiries and observations. And if we require more power for this, then we get it accordingly.

Apparently, only qualitative changes are considered to be developmental in nature. Quantitative development is not considered. What would the benefit be from adding one more, a million more or even a billion more of the same? But it is important that an addition changes the quality, like a change in the number of electrons, protons, and additional particles within the atom, and accordingly there is development.

The atoms connect into molecules; the molecules become more and more complex and connect into cells. The nucleus of the cell appears within the center of the cell and is ready to manage the processes within the cell. The cells gain the possibility of connecting, specializing in different activities. This is not talking about the number of cells here, but about their quality. Different types of cells begin to be formed from stem cells from which the human body is built.

This means that development is always qualitative. Baal HaSulam doesn’t talk about quantities either. There are four levels of development that exist in the world: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking; they are levels of development and are qualitative. The qualitative development is that the desire to receive begins to understand what it wants more and more.

And this is right, from where could it know what it wants? If I am a desire to receive, in order to know what my desire is, I must know what the Creator wants from me. I am not conscious of this on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate. And on the level of the speaking, I already begin to understand that my intellect is a copy of the intellect of the Creator who implanted it in me because it was specifically His desire that I would understand and think and would be conscious of Him in a form like this.

This is called development. Thanks to development like this, I can control myself and the various processes. But it is up to me to understand that all of the systems that are found in me, all of my intellect and emotion, all of the results of development are a gradual copying within me of the characteristics of the Creator. He leaves only one thing in me, freedom of choice within these systems, meaning to resemble Him or not!

That is how we developed according to these levels, shaping more and more complex systems on the levels of the still, vegetative, animate and speaking. And this makes it possible for us to approach the understanding of our nature more and more on the level of the speaking and control the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate. We add more and more desire to receive to ourselves, and together with this, we add to our ability to use it.

On the level of Adam this is no longer talking about a greater ability to use the desire to receive, but about the ability to understand the desire itself. The level of the Animate realizes itself maximally. The Adam is constructed differently from a qualitative aspect and for him the main thing is not to realize his desire, but the purpose for which he is doing this. The level of Adam (Man) begins specifically from it. Otherwise, we would be a continuation of the animate level. For an Adam, what is important is the reason he wants to realize himself.

Here begins the recognition of evil. We run after different goals that only cause trouble for us, until the Adam—by the way of Beito (in its time), by the way of suffering— reaches the question: What is the reason for living? This means that he searches for a suitable purpose to which it does not bother him to dedicate his life. The development of desire is done gradually and systematically and ultimately brings us to the right result.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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A Specific Replica Of The Creator In My Heart

laitman_960_2Question: What inside me resembles the Creator exactly?

Answer: The Creator gives us a very small desire. It isn’t even considered a replica of the Creator because our world is simply a fleeting shadow. It is just like being allowed to smell a bowl of soup instead of being able to eat the soup.

It is practically nothing, but still this is where we start.

The Creator only gives us the stimulus, the awakening towards Him and that’s all. Everything we receive later in addition to the initial stimulus comes from the group and the teacher. Without the group and the teacher a person has no chance of reaching any contact with the Creator and of fulfilling the connection with Him properly. The group is his spiritual vessel and the teacher is the upper level, and then there is the Creator.

The Creator only gives you the initial awakening: He brings a person to the right environment and says, “Take it!” But in order to take it we need to connect to the group, to the teachers, and to the books, and through them to the Creator. Before that we only have a point in the heart, a spark that the Creator awakens in us that forces us to search for Him.

Everything else in us belongs to the level of the animate and is not a replica of the Creator’s attributes but simply a developed desire to enjoy. A human being is only the point that yearns for the Creator. This is the point of the desire to enjoy that is connected to Bina, to the desire to bestow.

If there is no such connection between the desire to enjoy and the desire to bestow, if Malchut and Bina are not connected, the created being is not called a human being, Adam, who resembles the Creator. Such a connection can only be in phase four and actually not in all of phase four but only in its special part that is later clarified. Only the human level in our desire is designated to ascend towards the Creator.

Question: Why do we need the inanimate, vegetative, and the animate levels of nature in the first place?

Answer: The desire to enjoy has to develop through all these levels because otherwise it cannot be independent. On the first three levels there is the same desire to enjoy, but it operates itself according to the internal software embedded in it, while in phase four, the desire begins to ask “why do I have to operate this software?”

We need all the four phases for the desire to develop, since on the one hand, it has to totally disconnect from the Creator, and, on the other hand, it has to reach an equivalence of form with Him. Therefore, the Creator and the created being, which are the root phase and phase four, have to draw away from one another in all the other phases. An accurate calculation takes place on these levels as to which discernments are necessary for the created being in order to be opposite but at the same time similar to the Creator, in what exactly he is opposite from Him and in what way he is similar.

There must be an opposite part in the desire to enjoy that doesn’t change, but it has to be similar in his desire to bestow that is built above his desire to enjoy. These two forms exist in him simultaneously.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Foundation Of Independence Is Detachment From The Creator

laitman_739The “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” is a very important introduction that Baal HaSulam wrote to prepare a person for studying from The Book of Zohar with the Sulam commentary. With its help, a person can approach The Book of Zohar to a particular degree while without the Sulam commentary The Book of Zohar is not understandable to us at all. The “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” includes within it the entire wisdom of Kabbalah relevant to the descent of the worlds from above to below and what the ARI revealed in his book, Etz HaChaim (The Tree of Life).

Abraham was the one who revealed the progression of the worlds, and, after him, Moses described it in the Torah, but in a concealed, encrypted form, and now we are learning to realize the progression of the worlds in practice. So, we must discover it in an understandable and appropriate way for realization and usage.

Because of this, Baal HaSulam explained all of the wisdom of Kabbalah from its beginning, from the source from which the thought of creation is derived and how the creation was created and materialized according to this thought. The Creator, the higher power of bestowal and love, creates outside of Himself something that is His opposite. If the Creator is the force of bestowal, He had to create the force of reception. But after the force of reception was created, it disappeared within the force of bestowal, meaning that it was managed by it one hundred percent. So it is as if the creature doesn’t exist, for substance is not what is important. Rather, what is important is whether it is independent from the Creator or not.

One could ask, how could it be independent? How is it possible to create something that later will be completely independent if it comes out of the Creator? After all, everything that the creature has is derived from the Creator, and it is impossible to sever this connection. It cannot be that there is anything new with a creature because everything that is new in him is also derived from the Creator. Nothing exists in the world other than the Creator.

So, how is it possible to bring the creature to independence? It is as if he were to negate and conceal the unity of the Creator in the world contrary to logic because if there is one source from which everything is derived and other than that nothing exists at all, how could it be that a creature would be independent at all so much so that he could be against his Creator and not artificially, but actually, according to his desire?

A very great profundity is concealed here that is not understood by us. We attain this independence only after we finish the entire correction. However, in the meantime, we need to learn all the stages according to which the Creator created the creature to make it possible for it to have freedom of choice.

Independence is detachment of the creature from the Creator. It is only when the creature has its own power, emotion, and intellect—everything that is required to be independent—and this is not merely to exist, but to determine his deeds on his own, independently, to rise to the level of the Creator. This process and its results seem impossible to us. So, the desire to receive that was created by the Creator as His opposite and is managed by Him must go through a progression of changes as a result of which he will acquire independence, the power to determine his independence according to his intellect and emotion.

For this, the desire for pleasure becomes detached from the Creator and connects to Him numerous times, which means that it goes through ascents and descents. Thanks to this, we begin to compare states and learn from them. In the beginning, we compare every descent and every ascent, and then we examine the ascents and descents in comparison to each other.

As a result of the experience that is gathered from the comparison between the ascents and descents and the examination of the future states in comparison to previous states, we develop our intellect and feelings. From the comparison between countless ascents and descents and the various connections between them, we build the sensations and intellect that are developed, and we construct the various stages between them.

Ultimately, the study of the Creator brings the creature to independence, for, as it is written, “By Your actions we know You.” The creature learns how the Creator behaves with him so that he builds himself in regard to the Creator according to this. Apparently, the foundation of independence is detachment from the Creator!

From the “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”, item 4: Hence, when they are bound together, the will to receive is annulled in the Light within it, and can determine its form only once the Light has departed thence once. This is so because following the departure of the Light from it, it begins to crave it, and this craving properly determines and sets the shape of the will to receive.

Subsequently, when the Light dresses in it once more, it is regarded as two separate matters: Kli and Light, or Guf and Life. Observe closely, for this is most profound.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/2/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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He Who Stands On The Earth Builds Heaven

laitman_742_03Baal HaSulam, Shamati #34 “The Profit of the Land”: All the torments that exist in the world are but a preparation for the real torments. These are the torments that one must reach, or he will not be able to acquire anything spiritual, as there is no Light without a vessel. These torments, the real torments, are called “condemnation of Providence and slandering.” This is what one prays for, to not slander Providence.

A person who advances towards the Creator goes through many unpleasant states that eventually teach him to ignore them and to know how to justify the Creator on top of them. We see that our life is full of fatal mistakes and we burn with shame for what we have done in every moment of our life.

We torture ourselves for being evil, for having missed so many opportunities to advance quickly and to attain a good life. Now too we cannot make good use of the time and opportunities we have been given.

It is wrong to think this way. We mustn’t attribute any importance to reality itself and to how we behave and take the opportunities we have, but rather, we need to justify the Creator for everything that happens both inside us and around us. We should not simply justify Him for everything He does, but also understand that behind this whole picture there is a different picture of the upper system to which we should adhere above all the ugly forms that appear before us at any given moment in the past and at present.

We mustn’t regret anything because we condemn the Creator who arranged everything! All these pictures should actually remain, and we should build the positive attitude towards the Creator above them by our efforts. This is a person’s main work.

We have to build the exact same attitude not only towards bad events, but also towards good events, since they come from Above and we have no reason to relate to the good or the bad ones differently. It makes no difference what the Creator presents to us and how it is depicted in our ego. In fact, what our ego finds attractive like success, achievements, and even acts of bestowal are all reasons to turn to the Creator and to attribute all these essential actions to Him. We had to undergo all that including the good, the bad, and the neutral events in order to build the right attitude to the Creator.

By changing our focus from the actual actions, from all the values and all the events in the past, present, and future to the providence of the good Creator, we turn the picture of the world from a negative to a positive one, from the fictitious form called this world to the form of the next world. If we want to see all the most horrible events or the most joyful ones as good, if we see everything only in the Light of the Creator as good, we thus reflect all these events in the opposite light, and by them build the first picture of the spiritual world.

Then we see that there is a great advantage to our desire to receive, which depicts everything to us in opposite forms as help against. Therefore it is written: “the profit of the land.” If we relate to our ego this way, we can build Heaven above it.
[129346]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/14

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