Entries in the 'Spiritual Work' Category

Complete Freedom!

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Book of Zohar, “BaHar” (On Mount Sinai), item 85: …“And He said unto me, ‘You are My servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’” “And He said unto me, ‘You are My servant” is the degree of slave, left line, Malchut. “Israel” is the degree of son, right line, ZA. When they are included as one, it is written, “In whom I will be glorified.”“

The two lines: the left, the level of the slave (Malchut), and the right, the level of the son (Israel), have to be united and glorified, which means to be revealed.

On the one hand, we have to totally submit and enslave ourselves to the upper leadership. We can say, of course, that now He governs us and that we are totally enslaved to Him and cannot do anything without Him, but this is the attribute of a bad slave.

The left line has to be loyal to its master by stating, “I want to be His slave. I want Him to govern me internally through the desires over which I have no control.” This is my freedom. My freedom is in choosing whether to remain under the domination of the Master or to leave Him. I choose His domination because I cannot feel any freer than when I am under His leadership.

Later, when I ascend higher, the level of the slave enters to the level of the son. The difference between the level of the salve and the level of the son is that I do everything my Father desires and not my Master. Now I want to carry out all His actions consciously, even if He doesn’t force me to do so. And, even if He didn’t know about it, here I work without connection to Him, and am like Him.

These two states have to be clearly felt by a person and then the third state appears between them, the middle line, when I am neither a slave nor the son. The middle line doesn’t exist in nature and is created and appears in the connection between the right and left lines, giving a person a feeling of complete freedom. It is like being in a vacuum, where the first condition of the slave doesn’t operate or have any impact on me, but neither does the second condition of the son.

I can totally disconnect myself from any connection with the Creator and be independent in all my actions, desires, and thoughts. Complete freedom!

This is what the thought of creation is all about, which is bringing a person to the feeling of freedom that leads to his choice of the state to be where the Creator exists and to yearn for Him. If I yearn for that myself by 10%, 15%, or 20%, I gradually turn myself into that exact image, the same replica, and to that extent I am called Adam, a human being.

I disconnect myself from the Creator in the middle line because otherwise I have no freewill. This isn’t an illusion of freedom. I need to feel that I am totally free. Moreover, this feeling comes against a cacophony of all kinds of egoistic desires, urges, and temptations. Pride, envy, the desire to do whatever he wants, and to be the master of the universe grow in a person.

Imagine that you are immersed in water and on the surface, instead of clear water, turbidity from the bottom suddenly rises, and it is all yours, the waves of your egoistic thoughts and desires. It is actually on this background that you begin to make a human being out of yourself.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/18/14

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From One Jubilee To The Next

Dr. Michael LaitmanA new cycle of selling the land begins after the jubilee. I can sell it to someone for 10 years, to someone else for 20 years, and so on, until the year of the jubilee when the land once again becomes mine.

I cannot sell it anymore since this land cannot be someone else’s property until the jubilee year. A person feels that he is a stranger, a foreigner on the land and that the land isn’t his but  belongs to the Creator who was only renting it to him. The reason is that the land symbolizes our desire.

Question: What does that mean on a more internal level of understating? How can I sell my desire?

Answer: You can do whatever you want with it in order to get the right crop from it, but you should know that eventually you have to return the corrected desire to the Creator in the form of bestowal. The jubilee symbolizes complete compatibility with the Creator. The jubilee is common and shared by the whole nation. Everyone knows about it; you cannot cheat anyone, and there is no need to present any documents. This is the way the counting of the land has always been done: from one jubilee to the next and at which time everything goes back to the beginning.

Comment: This is felt as a very deep point and everything is very complicated. We, who exist in this dimension, find it hard to understand.

Answer: If you are connected to the Creator, the general force of nature, and you know that you are subordinate to Him, nothing is complicated or difficult.

Today, we begin to feel quite sharply that we are governed by nature and that we have no choice. We don’t control things and all our naive notions that we are the masters of nature and that we can take anything we want from it by force are gradually fading.

We are like small children who, without mom and dad, begin to realize that we have been left alone in a giant sandbox not knowing what to do next and that we have corrupted it to such an extent that playing in it is impossible. All the kids’ games are over; it is time to grow up.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/13/14

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Either Towards Earth Or Towards Heaven…

Laitman_712_03The Torah, “Leviticus,” 25:14 – 25:15: And when you make a sale to your fellow Jew or make a purchase from the hand of your fellow Jew, you shall not wrong one another.

According to the number of years after the Jubilee, you shall purchase from your fellow Jew; according to the number of years of crops, he shall sell to you.

Question: It says “you shall not wrong one another…” What is the meaning of doing wrong?

Answer: A person first of all wrongs himself. If we could feel in every action that we make that everything is temporary and wouldn’t see our actions and our relations as an eternal component, realizing to what extent they are conditional and fragile, everything would be much easier and simpler.

But each time we cling to our desire, to our opinion, to our minor temporary mood, and believe that this is the main thing since this is what operates in me at a certain moment and fills me, and this is my small world.

But if at the same time I could include the whole world inside me, the greater sphere, and act accordingly, despite the fact that I am under the domination of my small desire, I would have a certain account with the upper level and then I could certainly feel and tune myself in a totally different manner.

A person has nothing of his own. My best state is when I don’t feel that my body is mine, not to speak of more external things.

I only have one internal point and I adore it. This means that I want to attach it to the Creator from my own personal place, to adhere to my land, to my small square that is the combination of all my internal attributes, the combination of the right and left lines.

It is my part, a tiny cell in the general body, and by connecting to it I return to my origin, to my place. This is the most perfect state, the end of all the corrections.

However, in order to do that I have to feel the whole general body. Only then can I find my place with regard to all the other points, all the other tiny squares like my own, that the image of the Creator is made of. It actually doesn’t exist, but we put this image together by gathering our corrected desires into an image, a form that has volume, and by adapting ourselves to one another.

If we could understand that this is the role and the goal of a person’s existence in our world, we would perform all our actions with a different intention. Therefore, on the one hand, all our actions would have a totally different weight, but on the other hand, we would focus them on attaining the spiritual state and they would lose their momentary significance and acquire eternal significance.

We would relinquish the minor momentary benefit for the sake of a greater eternal cause and behave in a totally different manner by using every moment not in order to quickly grab something but in order to make another step toward our eternal point of connection with the Creator.

Question: At the same time, concepts such as my home, my job, my territory, and “it is necessary to pass on to the children”… disappear…

Answer: There are laws for all that, the laws of the Torah, that explain every action that I make: how I should wash, dress, walk, and communicate with people and with animals, with everything and everyone.

It is because I have to be compatible not with what I want or what I imagine at the moment but with the perfect eternal state that I should reach. Although I don’t really know it at the moment and don’t see or understand it, this is the reason that I was given the instructions of the Torah, so that I could advance along the right path that was predetermined, even if I don’t understand things.

It is like flying in a plane according to what the instruments show and not seeing anything beyond that. I focus myself on the goal according to the instruments in contrast to what I feel in the current state, which means that we were given two states that guide a person: a temporary state and an eternal state, and they are regarded as the fulfillment of the laws of the Torah.

The problem is that I become totally devoted to the temporary state and believe that it is the main part. I sink into it with my head and get lost in it. It simply sucks me in.

In order to exit it I need special powers that come from above, which gradually pull me out a little and allow me to decide. I am in the middle, at the decision point: Do I return to the direction of the earth or advance towards heaven?
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/13/14

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Where Is My Spiritual Wealth?

laitman_528_04Question: In the physical world a rich person has a large fortune. What I get from spirituality, I get from the friends?

Answer: Your spiritual wealth is determined according to how much you can fulfill others. This is what is called “buying” from the friends.

Your purchase remains outside of you. But you also go outside of yourself. Your desire to bestow to them is called your spiritual Kli. And what you attract through this Kli, by fulfilling the friends, is called Light. You move yourself entirely outside. And this is called your spiritual acquisition. The spiritual Kli is not found inside of you.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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In A Secret Cave In The Circle Of Friends

laitman_528_02Question: How do we fulfill our deficiency of reaching mutual help and true connection?

Answer: True connection refers to a person’s inner work and not just to gathering in one place for different events. We don’t have to go to the desert in order to connect, but we actually do it wherever we are. The work of connecting is concentrated in everyone’s heart and goes through all the hearts.

We have to feel mutual concern, a necessity and a need for one another. It is according to this yearning, according to the need for connection, that the Upper Light will influence us. And it will be necessary for us  because we will not succeed in our dissemination without it.

Everyone must participate in dissemination no matter what the outcomes are, as long as he is incorporated in people’s desires and feels committed to them. Everyone must bring these deficiencies into the group and then we will feel a great need to connect.

Question: How can we connect all these desires into one general prayer that can be accepted by the upper?

Answer: What’s important is not the desires of the public, which we feel, but the fact that we don’t have an answer to them. This unprocessed raw deficiency for something specific has to be brought to the group. Because we are all anxiously under the influence of this deficiency, it will force us to connect. This is the work in the heart, the insecurity that you feel after a dissemination action that will force you to look for the connection in society where you can find security, a filling, a safe place to hide, and get some rest from all your worries and your troubles. It is like being in a womb, like being in a secret cave, concealed from everyone. Where is this place in the group?

You discover that it exists! Your friends are connected there and there is room for you too. You will discover it like the vision of Rabbi Chiya who saw the meeting of the upper souls. You will also see your real self, sitting on the heavenly throne speaking with the friends. You will see this state as the absolute truth, because all the levels already exist in potential. Incorporate in the group, look for your place, and then like Rabbi Chiya you will discover that everything is easy and that you are sitting among the friends.

Question: Are there any clues that can help you find what you are looking for?

Answer: You are looking for the force of connection, for the vessel in which you can feel the Light, the filling. You lack the vessel, which is the connection with others when these deficiencies connect into one spiritual desire on an upper level, like all the still matter that equals one plant. We will be rewarded with the Light that is revealed. The Light connects us and we become a desire to receive on a higher level of quality. The upper force only expects the quantity and quality of our exertion, our measure.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/14, Talk about the Importance of Unity

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Desire Is A Person’s Only Image

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus,” 25:6 – 25:7: And [the produce of] the Sabbath of the land shall be yours to eat for you, for your male and female slaves, and for your hired worker and resident who live with you, And all of its produce may be eaten [also] by your domestic animals and by the beasts that are in your land.

Everything that belongs to a person, to his vessel, which is made of the parts of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels, divided horizontally, vertically, and upwards, has to be included in his work. He has to prepare his desires so that they are ready to be filled with the Upper Light. A servant, a maid, cattle and beasts are all parts of a person.

When we reach that state, we will see that all the other parts of nature (the still, vegetative, and animate), which we feel externally to us, will be filled with the same Light and it will be clear that they are not external but all exist inside. We will discover that our external and internal world is one whole, general world. This means that my animate part and the whole animate world that surrounds me, my vegetative part and the whole vegetative world that is external to me, the part of the still nature in me and the whole universe, are actually one unique whole.

It turns out that the one, unique human figure that we create when we fully connect includes all of creation inside it, which we feel as one whole. There is no division into I and others. Humans, animals, plants, and inanimate nature all become one unique desire in which the concept of the one Creator is attained, which is the one force of nature. This is typified by the seventh millennium.

And the Creator’s attitude to this—the attainment of the thought of His creation, the plan, His actions, His main initial desire to create the created being in His form and image—is already the next three thousands: the eighth, ninth, and tenth. Then it is all locked into one unique whole that is not divided into thousands of years, and the created being enters another dimension, which we know nothing about. But he exists, since we have clues to that in the writings of great Kabbalists, but nothing more.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/13/14

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A Sabbath Of Solemn Rest In The Seventh Year

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does the following refer to? Leviticus 25:3 – 25:4: You may sow your field for six years, and for six years you may prune your vineyard, and gather in its produce, But in the seventh year, the land shall have a complete rest, a Sabbath to the Lord; you shall not sow your field, nor shall you prune your vineyard.

Answer: All six years of working the land are six years of correcting our desire when we constantly work on it. And in the seventh year the corrected desire will be filled with the Light of the Creator.

Then we don’t need to do anything since the Light fills the general desire and connects, weakens, and dominates it in such a way that the main thing for us is not to interfere.

Which is to say, all the actions that are incumbent upon us must be directed in such a way that we don’t disturb the Creator from sinking into us, filling, connecting, and placing us together as one single package in which all the characteristics of the Creator on the levels of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking are connected by the one and only Light into a single whole.

And this is called the seventh year, which is the year of solemn rest. Therefore, this is called Shabbat (the Sabbath), the freedom and cessation from work. But actually there is very strong inner work, only it is directed in the opposite direction as I nullify myself and don’t do anything, making it possible for the Creator to act.

At the same time, I am together with Him in full accord and unity with Him. I work, but my work is summed up in synchronized action with the Creator, and this is very complicated and difficult.

So I must prepare myself for rest so that all of the density of the ego, the entire six years during which I corrected it, will bring me to the seventh year, the year of solemn rest, the year of the Shmittah (letting go).

After that will come the eighth, ninth, and tenth (millenial) years, which correspond to attaining the level of GAR, the levels of Bina, Hochma, and Keter. In them I attain the mind of the Creator, His plans, and He, Himself. This is the highest level, which is called the secrets of the Torah.

What is meant by the secrets of the Torah? After I attain the seventh millennium, all of my images, the entire apparatus of my understanding and consciousness is so transformed that only then will I be able to understand what the three upper levels symbolize: the eighth, ninth, and tenth millennia.

Question: Is it possible to say that the six years of working the land are plowing, elevating, and transforming the ego?

Answer: Yes, I transform the ego like we transform the ground when we plow it before sowing. The spiritual seeds of the person cannot grow if he doesn’t transform his desires (the ground). This is realized during the six years, and in the seventh year the fulfillment happens through the Light of what was planted.

Question: Is it only then that the sprouts appear?

Answer: No, they come out every year. It is just that during the six years (Hesed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, and Yesod) I work the ground in such a way that in the seventh year, all that I attained in the work, that I dug into my ego, is ready to be filled by the Light.

So the Light realizes this without my actions. I now finish my work through opposite actions since  I must help the Light do this from its side and not from the side of the ground.

Question: What does “fulfillment by the Light” mean?

Answer: When the desires of the person completely transform to be similar to the Light in quantity and quality, he then feels that the Light is found within him.

In fact, the Light was always in him, except now the person begins to feel it because he prepared his senses, his understanding, for this. He sees that even before then, he was in the world of the Creator, and that everything was filled with Light, “there is none else besides Him,” but now he feels it and discovers it. This is the seventh millenium.

So Shabbat is called a sacred day because it is the sum of all of the immense work that a person passes through to attain the Creator, to discover Him within himself.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/13/14

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The Mistake Of Those Who Don’t Care

Dr. Michael LaitmanHumanity has reached a dead end that is already making itself felt. We live in one global modern village and we reluctantly discover that we have to connect, to begin to think and talk about that. It is time to take our place on the human level within the general system.

A Hazard to the System

All of nature, the levels of the still, vegetative and animate, is global, integral and mutually connected in all its parts. All the created beings from reeds to the biggest predators are welded into one system, and together, sustain the general order. On the other hand, we are not part of that picture. Man is the only true and harmful part in nature. It is because we have no limits in the satisfaction of our needs. This is typical of the whole human race in every aspect of life, including family, work, social relations, etc.

The rate of divorce, for example, is growing and so is the abyss between parents and children. Young people find it increasingly hard to find a mate and start a strong family. These extreme changes have taken place in the last 50 years or less. They have even had an impact on the Jewish people who always cared about helping young people marry and helped with their starting a home.

Inseparable Individuals

The reason for all that is our ego, which has reached its last phase.

Egoism refers to the fact that I cannot identify with others. I feel others only to the extent that I can benefit from him or her. Ideally, I wish to squeeze everything I can from others. This isn’t an accusation, of course, but a psychological fact about human nature. This is our nature.

However, on the other hand, we have locked the whole world into mutual ties of a single network that cannot be broken, in the global economic, financial, social, family, and political development. The problem is that this network is full of hate, conflicts, confrontations, egoism, and pride.

Consequently the world shakes as a result of the continuous obstacles, worries, and threats. The lack of unity between us invokes inadaptability to nature on the whole and so the world suffers terribly.

Not My Business?

Question: Most people live an ordinary life and although they profit at the expense of each other, they don’t set any special traps and don’t plot against those around them. So where do they go wrong? It is hard to see yourself as an absolute egoist in the continuous flow of daily worries, in the constant battle to survive.

Answer: That’s true. But if you justify yourself that way, you still suffer. So you should find out why. This requires a sound scientific approach even before we refer to the wisdom of Kabbalah, which sums up and includes the whole world.

A rational scrutiny indicates that we suffer because we cannot get along, cannot get along with one another.

You may ask what can you expect of a poor man who goes to work in the morning and comes back in the evening. But, these miserable poor people have created a network of seven billion parts that lack the right connections between nodes. This is the reason that we are all opposite from the unity embedded in nature.

What is required of us today is the correct unity and connection. We will not end this war if we don’t understand the problem.

But each of us shuts himself off in his little corner:

– I don’t know anything, what do you want of me?

– You feel bad. Don’t you want to correct and change things?

– I want to, but it isn’t my fault; I simply live my ordinary life.

This is no way to deal with problems. We gradually sink more deeply into dangerous situations and the pace of events is accelerating from one year to the next. Some of these events are already behind us and we should learn from them. We have to finally realize what is going on instead of hiding in our den, pretending that it doesn’t concern me, since humanity is made of such people who say that they have nothing to do with such things.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 2/15/15

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Unseen Reward

laitman_534Question: What reward do I get for my efforts? After all, we don’t see the way ahead, and the past is already gone. So where is the reward that makes it possible for me to continue to advance?

Answer: You receive an enormous reward, a very respectable reward. If people were to see what you get, they would be very envious of you. This would embitter their lives. However, you must learn to appreciate this reward, because even though it is right in front of you, you don’t notice it. The upper world, the spiritual state that you receive, is really close, but you don’t feel it. You don’t have the tools through which you can appreciate it.

If you were to give a child a red rattle and something of value with an unattractive color, he will grab the rattle and throw away the valuable object. We also don’t feel what we get.

You made the effort; you came to the lesson from a distant city. So, you need to feel that a large sum of money has been put into your account, at least a hundred thousand dollars. If you were to feel this, then you would come every day, for you would have enough incentive! However, in order not to increase your egoistic desire and think only about the compensation and count the bills every day, you can’t see the payoff. Even though there is a payoff, you aren’t shown it so that you won’t run after it. Therefore, your payoff is being poured constantly into your hands and is gathering into a big pile. You don’t need to be worried; nothing will be lost. You will get everything once you know how to use it correctly. Then, you can take the entire payoff that you received during the period of Lo Lishma and use it in order to bestow. The main thing is to understand how we get to Lishma, in other words, how we attract the Light that Reforms. Therefore, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created for it the Torah as a spice, for the Light in it reforms it, for the illumination in it will bring him back to the good” (Babylonian Talmud, Kiddushin, 30b, Eicha Rabbah).

All of Infinity fills everything, even though we don’t feel it. In the meantime, we still need to use it as the Light that Reforms, and then it will build a Tzimtzum—Masach, Ohr Hozer, Rosh, a new Partzuf—in us and will teach us to receive the Light within the Partzuf.

The Light does everything, and I only invite it. It is only up to me to know what action must be done, and the Upper Light will bring me even that intelligence. It is up to me to be in constant contact with the Light and demand it, step by step, action after action.

In this way, I adhere to what is higher, building my soul, my Kli of bestowal, from within my desire to receive.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/14, Shamati #8

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The Day Of The Revelation Of The Creator

laitman_933Question: The weekly Torah reading Shemini (eight), speaks about this, that after seven years of dedication, on the day of the start of the service in the Tabernacle, Moses calls to Aaron and his sons to make special sacrifices. Moses and Aaron go out to bless the people, and the greatness of the Creator appears before all of the people of Israel. What is the meaning of the “eighth day?”

Answer: The first seven days correspond to the Sefirot: Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod and Malchut, whereas the eighth day is attainment, the elevation of Malchut to Bina. Bina is the discovery of the beginning of divinity among us.

In the Pirush HaGadol, it is said that the people were concerned about whether the Creator would be revealed. It depended on how they would go through the first seven days, in other words, the absorption of the lower characteristics that are found in a person (Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod), which enter into Malchut, and how Malchut reacts and absorbs these characteristics, as a result of which Bina will be revealed in it. This is called the revelation of the Creator because the Creator doesn’t exist on His own; He doesn’t exist.

We must understand the relativity of our discernments, our perception of reality. When we say that the Creator doesn’t exist, we mean that we cannot perceive Him, that we cannot define Him. From our point of view, He doesn’t exist as long as we haven’t become equivalent to Him with the characteristics of bestowal and love through the connection between us.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/18/13

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