Entries in the 'Spiritual Work' Category

Where Do We Find The Connection Between Us?

laitman_938_04Question: At the workshops we reached such a connection in our tens that a question arose. What more can be done? What else can we add to this?

Answer: I think that it is impossible for us to come any closer to each other on our own. We have experienced the limit of coming closer on our own and now we need to attract the Creator to this.

We passed through a stage of feeling and understood what it means to be one whole to some degree, and now we need to learn what the upper force is, try to feel it, enter it, and dissolve in it with the entire ten so that it will rule over us. When we totally plunge into it, we will find the connection between us there.

Question: What does it mean to attract the upper force? Is it in thoughts or in actions?

Answer: We, collectively, need to imagine ourselves as existing in the property of complete bestowal that rules over us, envelops us, and governs us. By coming closer to my friend and desiring to become included in him, I prepare myself for the Creator to descend upon me. This needs to be clear in feeling, not in actions.
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From the Convention in Saint Petersburg 9/21/14, Lesson 5

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Consolidating Hearts

Laitman_931-01Question: When we try to measure the desire of a friend by ourselves, to enter into him, an oppositional force begins to operate within us. Where does the second, balancing power that will help us “enter the friend” come from? What are we missing?

Answer: An external foreign force is required for us to smash our ego. We see that we are not consolidated in our hearts. It is impossible to scrape the membrane off the heart. This sack full of blood boils and beats within us, measuring every second of life that remains and we cannot do anything about it. What is required is an external force that will connect our hearts.

It is possible to invite it only through the right intention while studying the real Kabbalistic sources by Baal HaSulam and Rabash. So we must constantly try, try, and try to do this. There are no other possibilities.

You must all try together to nullify the iron wall that exists between you. You feel how much it separates between your hearts. So try to break through it!
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Three” 9/21/14, Lesson 5

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Everything Is Determined By The Importance Of The Goal

laitman_527Question: How does one build the desire “to receive for the sake of bestowal” correctly?

Answer: To receive for the sake of bestowal is an incredibly difficult thing and not worth thinking about in the meantime. Our first task is to rise above our ego. And we must use our ego and more “for the sake of bestowal,” this is a very tall order.

Comment: But leaving one’s own nature is no less of a “very tall order.”

Answer: No, it is much lower. Everything begins with a person nullifying himself with regard to the group. Growth and the accumulation of the importance of the goal, the level called Lo Lishma (not for Her name), happens while he is still within the ego but gradually advances towards departing from it.

Departing from the ego is called crossing the Machsom (barrier), a conditional boundary between two worlds, physical and spiritual. Further a person begins to rise in levels of “bestowal for the sake of bestowal,” reaches the fifth, maximal level and only later the level of “reception for the sake of bestowal.”

Question: And if I don’t have a desire to be integrated with others, what happens then?

Answer: Nobody has this desire. But necessity obliges one. If you want to attain the goal of life, you need to go through all of this, and if not, then you will need to go through this against your will. Initially you have no desire to work against the ego, you are an absolutely healthy person. But the importance of the goal obligates you to begin to work against it.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Three” 9/21/14, Lesson 5

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On The Physical Level

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If a person in our group of ten is sick and suffering, can we help him somehow?

Answer: You must help him in any way possible.

A group of ten is Arvut—one for all and all for one. It is a clear understanding that only together can we attain the goal and that each friend is more important to me than myself.

Question: And so he becomes healthy?

Answer: If you want that very much, then yes.

Question: Perhaps there is some kind of algorithm about what to think. Advise us about what is important so that the person will truly become healthy.

Answer: I cannot do this because all of your algorithms will be egoistic. We are not on the same level so our requests to the Creator and our requests for the health of the friend will be able to be integrated. In the meantime, they cannot be integrated. So I cannot speak about something that is more than this so that you will not egoistically begin to use everything that comes up in your mind.

You must help a friend in healing or stabilizing domestic problems through your good desires and intentions on the normal physical level.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Three” 9/21/14, lesson 5

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Inviting The Light Of Correction To Be My Guest

laitman_921Question: The idea that the shade of the Sukkah symbolizes the need to settle for little frightens me since I want to feel that I am in the world of Infinity that is full of love and forces of bestowal. What restriction does it refer to?

Answer: The whole world is open before you. Go ahead. Go right back to the Creator! Sukkot is only the beginning of the year.

There are still many more states ahead in which you will work hard. After Sukkot, there is the holiday of Simchat Torah (rejoicing with the Torah), and then there is Hanukkah, the “Festival of Lights” when our practical correction to bestowal begins.

The light of Hanukkah symbolizes complete bestowal, and so it is impossible to use the Hanukkah candles for light, but only in order to see them. As it is written, “These candles are holy,” and Holiness is bestowal. Afterward, we attain an even a greater correction and reach the holiday of Purim.

Purim is directly opposite to Yom Kippur (Kippurim). On Yom Kippur, we decided that we cannot do anything with our absolutely terrible egoistic desires. In Purim, they all are corrected to such an extent that we cease to clarify them. We can eat and drink as much as we want, and we are sure that it is in order to bestow and that everything will work out for the best.

Question: How does a Sukkah that we build in the yard symbolize the Sukkah that we must build in our heart?

Answer: Building a Sukkah in the heart means to create the conditions in which our desire to receive will be corrected by the Surrounding Light, which means that all our intentions will be focused on the benefit of others.

Therefore, it is customary to invite guests and to receive very honorable visitors in the Sukkah: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and David. They symbolize the Lights that come and correct a person.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/2/14

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The Concealment That Precedes Revelation

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe lack only one thing, which is a need, in every state, to reveal that “There is none else besides the Creator.” At first, this statement is completely abstract because I only read about it in a book.

But later, it becomes closer and closer to me and I see that “There is none else besides Him” in everything that happens around me, in all the people I meet and in all events. The Creator is concealed behind all of that, Him and no one else.

“There is none else besides Him” in my thoughts means that it is He who put these thoughts into me, and I am only sensing them. And when it comes to how I perceive and react to these thoughts, here too “There is none else besides Him.”

Do I make the decision about how to react? Is there anything in my reaction that is from my own self, or is there only “None else besides Him?” By delving into these questions deeper and deeper, I come to adherence with Him.

If there is actually “None else besides Him” in any state, any place,  any thought, or in any of my supposed decisions or actions, it means that everything is determined by the Creator. In essence, I am simply discovering that He decides everything, and I only have one point from which I can establish that everywhere, in everything, the Creator is the one operating. This is how I reveal that I am completely adhered to Him.

Striving to constantly hold on to “None Else Besides Him” and to discover the Creator in each of our thoughts and desires, in heart and mind, brings us to adhesion with the Creator. Nothing more is required of us, this is the most important. We simply need to train ourselves to this attitude in all of our daily life.

How should one work with concealment, with the fact that there is me, there is the upper force, and concealment between us? How should I relate to this concealment?

In essence, concealment stems from my own desires that are intended for revealing the Creator. If they were not meant for revealing the Creator, then I would not sense concealment within them. Generally, I would not even feel them as relating to the Creator.

There are a great many desires, which at the moment, lay dormant inside of me, without manifesting themselves in any way. But in those desires where I consciously feel the Creator’s concealment, I have the possibility of revealing Him first and foremost, on the condition of working with them correctly. This concealment is the state that precedes revelation.

It follows that the main concealment occurs on the very principle of “None else besides Him,” forcing me to attribute actions to myself or to others. Accordingly, I divide reality into my own self and the world around me.

However, if I attributed all the actions that are in my mind, reason, and the surrounding still, vegetative, animate, and human world to the Creator, then I would feel the corrected Shechina (divinity). Only the point from which I see that everything is done by the Creator is called the point of restriction, the point of my “I.”

Without this point, there is no creature, but everything else, except it, belongs to the Creator. And if inside of me I see “None else besides Him,” and all around me “None else besides Him,” then I reveal that indeed “There is none else besides Him.” It is not difficult at all. We simply need to strengthen each other in this intention. If you agree, then let’s sign the contract of mutual guarantee. There is no need for anything else.

This principle of “There is none else besides Him” is the only thing that you need to implement. We perform many actions in this world, but all of that is simply in order to help us hold on in this intention of “None else besides Him” through any activity. There is nothing else that we need to do besides that.
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From the Workshop on 10/6/2014

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When The Heart Is Silent

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: There is a sense of very strong unity in our ten, but, at the same time, there is a feeling as if the heart is covered with a crust, and nothing can shake it up. What do we do with this?

Answer: Kiss this state the way one kisses the stick that hits him.

In fact, it is a wonderful revelation, but a person perceives it like an unpleasant state since, with it, you fall into a silent, dull despair.

Moreover, the concept of the Creator is somehow blurred. You seem to hear what is said about Him, but do not feel anything. Right now, it is some abstract notion to you, not properties and forces. You cannot attach Him to anything because the Pharaoh (ego) fills your common heart.

Nevertheless, there is a small point from which you determine that you are under the influence of Pharaoh, and this actually is the very state of despair from which, seemingly, there is no way out. It is better to forget, erase everything, press some button inside yourself, and end up in a land far, far away.

Such states will keep taking hold of you over and over. This continues beyond the exodus from Egypt because you need to attach all these egoistic desires to yourself during the forty years of wandering in the desert and the ascent to Bina, and in conquering the land of Israel, which is the work with the vessels (Kelim) of reception. You will always have these descents, and each time they will be deeper and deeper.

What can we do? In such cases we immediately begin to read from our sources. If possible, one should immediately run to the group. It is the most effective thing possible. One can engage in any form of dissemination, but the best of all is physical contact. If you are alone and there are no other options, then try to listen or read, but do it very clearly and intensely. We need to plow our egoism.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Two” 9/20/14, lesson 3

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The Good Luminescence Of The Holiday

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we begin to feel in the holiday of Sukkot all the concepts that you are telling us about: the surrounding lights, the upper force of nature?

Answer: By being among us and taking part in the holiday lessons, activities, and meals, one can sense this taste a little bit. However, in order to experience the true feeling of this holiday, an enormous preparation is required. As it is written, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

One can taste, see, and feel the upper Light, or the Creator, the overall force of all of Creation only after the work of preparation in which a person forms a special, altruistic organ of perception within himself.

To perceive any natural phenomenon, a specialized suitable instrument, a detector, is required. The Creator is a force of love and bestowal. If, inside of me, there also would be even a little bit of bestowal and love for my neighbor, then I would be able to feel the Creator and to reveal Him.

However, if there is no love within me, it means that the Creator is concealed. It isn’t Him concealing Himself from me, but I conceal myself from Him since, as it is written, “The whole earth is full of His glory.” This force fills all of reality, except for me. I do not have the power of love and bestowal, and therefore I am unable to feel that such a force exists around me.

I am like a radio receiver that does not have the required wavelength range, and therefore I cannot catch His wave and do not know whether He exists or not. For me, it is as if He does not exist.

This is what the entire work of changing oneself and correcting one’s attitude toward others is dedicated to, and with it I tune myself like a radio receiver to the Creator’s wavelength, the wave of love and bestowal.

This is why the wisdom of Kabbalah has this name. It is the science of receiving (Kabbalah), receiving the Creator’s signal. A person cannot reach this instantaneously. He needs to study in order to first feel what properties he has right now and what he needs to change in himself in order to reach the state of revelation.

The correct process is, as it is written, “From the love of the creatures to the love of the Creator.” We exist in the world full of rocks, plants, animals, and people so that we can exercise our correct attitude to them so as to develop inside oneself the sensitivity to that wavelength on which connection with the Creator is realized.

Question: Why is it that, during a holiday, a special feeling appears and is experienced by many people?

Answer: During the holiday, there is a small, general light, spreading between everyone. It happens because many people are awaiting the holiday. Their desire acts in the world and generates this illumination. However, it is still very far from the action of the upper Light that Kabbalah is talking about.
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From KabTv’s: “New Life” 10/2/14

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The Common Point In The Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to be Moses with respect to the friends in the ten?

Answer: Moses (Moshe in Hebrew) is the one common point of the entire ten. You collect your points together and feel as one single point. This is your Moses which draws you out of egoism. The concept of Moshiach, that is, one who draws, pulls out, comes from the verb “Lishmoh,” to pull, to draw out.

Question: If one of the friends is in a descent, does it mean that the others are Moese for him?

Answer: They pull him out, yes. But this action is not called Moses.

Moses is specifically the sum of all aspirations of the points in the heart aimed at attaining the Creator. In other words, they are aimed so the property of bestowal and love will start to develop inside this point. But it is merely a point, and only to the extent that you begin to attach egoism to yourself, like AHP to Galgalta ve Eynaim, will you begin to grow.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Two” 9/20/14, lesson 3

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Everything Is Within The Group Of Ten

laitman_940Question: A strange feeling of pride for the group of ten is appearing within me. Previously, I thought that I was better than anyone. And now something appears in me that has made it possible for me to feel this group of ten. This amazed me. What is this?

Answer: We begin to feel that the group of ten is like a body in which we truly feel the upper world, specifically within it a new life is revealed, new characteristics and connections that will be called the world of Infinity.

Everything is latent within the group of ten in its structure within its revealed characteristics. We don’t need to run to some place and look for something somewhere anymore. Everything is only within it! Within it are found good and evil, we and the Creator. Within it we discover the whole world; through it we can see the world correctly. Everything is in the group of ten.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Two” 9/20/14, Lesson 3

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