Entries in the 'Spiritual Work' Category

Desire On The “House” Level

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “VaYikra” 14:36-14:37: …and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house. And he shall look on the plague…

When a person examines his desire with the help of the Upper Light that makes all the defects prominent, he understands that he has a plague, and he sees how this is revealed in relation to others.

For this he must enter into some kind of society, connect with others, and try to make moves for their sake according to the principle, “And you shall love your friend.” Everything is revealed according to the surrounding society.

The general rule, the general law of the Torah is “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This means that all of the characteristics of the person are defined in relation to the camp, the tent, the city, and all of humanity, meaning in regard to others and the law, “And you shall love your neighbor.”

The characteristics of the person are the egoistic desires for the sake of reception. They are discovered according to how much he corrects them with full bestowal towards others. The correction of the desires is done from within outward.

The inner desires are the most refined. After them come the more external desires. And it could be the other way around: first the external desires are corrected, and after that the internal ones. It depends upon the style of the person’s work.

The external desires are divided into body, clothing, house, and yard. The work with the desires in the third phase that a person corrects in relation to others are called “house.”

In these desires, he sees that part of them adhere to the ego. When he is on the level of the “priest,” meaning the level of “Bina” (bestowal), he looks at the more external desires on the level of “house,” and when he sees the deficiencies in himself or in others, he can scrutinize them precisely.
[141913]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/5/14

Related Material:
Light Desires
Turning The Land Of Canaan Into The Land Of Israel
Process Of Self-Scrutiny

A Garden Of Eden For Nine Billion

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “One Commandment”: …(good deeds) are justified in and of themselves, since human conscience necessitates them. However, if one performs them from this perspective, he has not done a thing. In others words, these actions will not bring him closer to the Creator and to actual work Lishma.

Idealism and a good attitude won’t bring us closer to positive results because they contradict the thought of creation according to which we should unite through taking steps towards the upper. Actions that are not aimed at the upper force will trigger a huge failure.

Baal HaSulam used Russia as an example of a country where the idea of building communism had totally failed. If one’s reciprocal “good deeds” are not directed to the right goal, nothing positive will occur, so it is better without them

There are plenty of charities that help various countries and different segments of the population. They save people from famine, epidemics, and other disasters. Still, more and more people starve, get sick, and suffer from numerous disasters. Research shows that humanitarian aid to Africa never improved the general situation; on the contrary, acts of charity made it even worse.

How can it be that the world doesn’t know how to distribute the abundance? Why do our attempts to save people who have nothing to eat have a negative effect? At first glance, it looks illogical.

Maybe, we demotivate people from doing their work? However, nowadays they don’t have to work. It’s better to pay them for not being employed, since there is not enough work for everybody.

The fact that among the aging population there will be less working people and more “freeloaders” sounds frightening. But in reality, here is no need for so many workers. It would be even better if the vast majority of people stopped working right now. According to the latest statistics, if there are fewer jobs, the world would become a cleaner and better place. As to food, clothing, and shelter, there is enough for all.

In my eyes, less than ten percent (10%) of the population are able to provide for the normal, basic needs of the earth’s entire population. If we implement modern technologies, only two to three percent (2-3%) of the world population would have to be engaged in work to cover the needs of humanity. We have no clue what prospects are open to us by modern science, nor do we realize that a technological revolution is already at our doorstep. However, we are not ready for it because nobody knows how to reorganize the world.

Unemployment is a direct threat to the social order. Riots of youth in France and England vividly demonstrated that a few idle teenagers can destabilize the life of vast regions and districts. What if there were a million or several million hooligans with nothing to do?

This situation must be prevented. Before we change the system we live in, people have to be educated and taken care of. Special systems that serve more than 90% of the unemployed population have to be established. People have to be busy doing something else, otherwise what will happen to them?  People, who stay home without having anything to do, gradually go crazy. Marijuana was recently legalized particularly for them, but what’s next?

Family values are being broken in the Western world and significantly fewer people want to marry or have children. However, staying single does not solve their problems.

The population of our planet is forecast to grow to nine billion people in the next fifty years. Actually, it’s not the worst thing that can happen to us. In the last one hundred years, the population of one billion grew to seven billion regardless of the extremely devastating wars that took place in the 20th century.

Our major problem is becoming more apparent. At this time, our “good works” are not oriented to the higher goal. Without the correct intention that crowns the entire process, we won’t achieve any success.

On the contrary, had we organized the process correctly, the world could have turned into a paradise. For that, humanity doesn’t have to become zombies as it has now. People will acquire wisdom and obtain a new, enlightened spirit. They will realize what they are doing, and thus, they will be engaged in jobs of a completely different type.

People will be full of life. They will sense that they live in a vast reality, in an unlimited universe and that other worlds depend on them. They will interact with everybody around them. Together, they will change our reality. It is quite a different kind of work, isn’t it?

Gradually and methodically people have to be prepared for this transition.
[142043]
From 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/22/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
We Are Educators
Exile From Intention
Doing Good For One’s Own Sake

To Be Based In The Spiritual World

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe most important thing about our desires is to differentiate the pure from the impure, from the egoistic. There are egoistic desires that are possible to correct now, and there are those that are corrected at a later time, in the next stage, which are the higher ones, or those that aren’t in use and so are corrected at the end.

The uncorrected desires are spoken about in the Torah as those, as it seems, that go through a person’s skin and are seen on his face.

This is how a cell works in the material world. Genetics has discovered that our body is a huge mechanism, which includes trillions of trillions of cells and each of them are constantly correcting themselves, and what they cannot correct, they push outside.

We are not interested in what the cell throws out, but in the process of correcting desires, because it is the most important thing. The body, in any case, will die. But if you correct some of your desires, then you remain to exist in them. This means that you already have some hold on a minimum existence in the spiritual world. Afterward it is possible to continue working. The main thing is to establish yourself there.

Comment: This means that the desire doesn’t disappear, but remains for the future.

Answer: In nature there isn’t really anything that has no use. If something is not useful for us at the moment, it is only because we are not able to correct it.

Question: Even what humanity produces, is that also necessary?

Answer: Yes. But the corporeal world is automatically connected to the correction. In accordance to our thoughts and desires, all of nature is corrected, including the inanimate level of nature.

Comment: The weekly passage “The Leper” specifically speaks about this, that not only a person and his body, but also his house can be infected with leprosy.

Answer: Under the concept of “house,” man’s desires are also included. The Torah doesn’t speak about anything except man. All desires are divided into five stages: body, clothing, house, yard, and the rest of the world. But we mainly speak about the first four stages, since the main thing is to correct these four parts.
[141804]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/05/14

Related Material:
Layer by Layer Purification of Desire
Identifying The Essence Of My Desires
Correcting The Last Level

The Meteor Is Already Close

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If the upper force is good, why is it revealed in an unpleasant way, pressuring us?

Answer: The higher power pressures us from above in that it aspires to be discovered. Whereas, we are found below as separated, crushed, rejecting and hating each other. The pressure of the upper force from above increases our problems, because He wants to be discovered, but is not.

All of the problems pop up because of the approach of the Creator to us. If you are not adapted to Him, then His approach awakens negative reactions in you.

Question: I don’t understand how the approach of the Creator could be perceived as negative. It would seem that this would be the opposite; wouldn’t it be necessary to awaken some kind of positive results?

Answer: Imagine that you are a child. Your mother comes to you and asks: “Have you completed your homework?” And you haven’t prepared your lessons. So your mother threatens: “Watch out, I will come back in another hour to check if you have finished your homework!” As the hour passes you begin to be afraid of when she will come back because you still haven’t done anything.

How will her approach be felt in this case: good or bad? If you don’t comply with her demand, you feel her approach as unpleasant, you don’t want her to come to check you. Isn’t this so?

And now the same thing is happening with us. We are not carrying out those actions that we must carry out. We don’t want to become like one person with one heart, where all of Israel are friends, connected with mutual guarantee (Arvut). We are not becoming like those that we must be, and so the approach of the Creator awakens troubles, disasters, and wars within us and around us.

All of these are the result of the nearing of the Creator. The Holocaust was a result of His approach. That is how the approach of the upper force is revealed if we don’t adapt to it.

So we must prevent the blow through a remedy: Begin getting closer to each other, connect so that we approximate ourselves to the approach of the Creator. Then we will accept this approach as better and better, to the state in which the upper force will be completely clothed in us. There is no better state than this!

Question: Is the upper force like a meteor that is approaching our Earth?

Answer: The higher power is not approaching us with the speed of a meteor, which is 30 kilometers per second. This is a gradual process that began a long time ago. But essentially this “meteor” is already close, and its speed is increasing all the time. The inner and outer tension has grown.

After that a period of calm could come. But even if it comes, it will be for a very brief time. Periods of calm will become more and more compressed, whereas the tension will grow exponentially. This is because we are on the threshold of the general correction and the Creator is obliging us to carry out the correction, meaning to connect among us.

We must come to a state of “And you shall love your friend as yourself,” no matter how unrealistic this may seem to us. The higher power is prepared to force us into this through its pressure. But it is desirable to begin to study the wisdom of Kabbalah because from it, we discover how to attain this in ourselves before we are pressured from above with full force. We can reach this connection ourselves in a good way, without coercion.
[142264]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: Preparing the People of Israel for Light” 8/20/14

Related Material:
An Obscure Cloud Over The World
Equip Yourself With The Higher Power Of Nature
A Good Future Depends Upon Discovering The Upper Force

Secret Work

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus” (Metzora), 15:4-15:7: “Any bedding upon which the man with the discharge will lie, shall become unclean, and any object upon which he will sit, shall become unclean. And a man who touches his bedding, shall immerse his garments and immerse himself in water and he remain unclean until evening. And anyone who sits on an object, upon which the man with the discharge will sit, shall immerse his garments and immerse himself in water, and he shall remain unclean until evening. And anyone who touches the flesh of the man with a discharge, shall immerse his garments and immerse himself in water, and he shall remain unclean until evening.”

Any contact with the egoistic desires can lead to contagion of the corrected desires.

This speaks about a person who establishes an integral system of connection with others. Therefore, he has no right to begin doing anything without first clarifying his desires, since he may only suffer from that and eventually everything will break down. He will build it, but it will all collapse since there is an egoistic desire somewhere that will become active after being included in this whole schema.

It turns out that it is essential to discover my egoistic desire first. This is the essence of the Torah, which tells us how to draw the Upper Light in order to help us clarify the egoistic and the non-egoistic desires inside us; those that can already be corrected and those that are already corrected. Then they can be divided into three types: those that can be corrected, those that cannot be corrected, and those that are already corrected.

The Light should reveal these three levels inside me. There is nothing I can do with the revelation of the right desires, since they are ready. I have to simply suppress them so as not to allow them to connect with the egoistic desires, as it says that it is forbidden to sit in a certain place, to lie there, or to touch it.

Then it is essential to discover the desires that can be corrected and to start correcting them separately. The infected desires that cannot be corrected have to be isolated and only on the next levels, to the extent that I receive the powers of the next level, clarify them again and decide whether I can do anything with them.

It is a very serious study, an internal study: touching, incorporating inside me, exiting myself into the impure desires and vice versa, and drawing them to me in order to correct them. Therefore, it is called secret work since no one can see it on the outside.
[142181]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/5/14

Related Material:
Opening Pandora’s Box
Layer by Layer Purification of Desire
Identifying The Essence Of My Desires

A Good Future Depends Upon Discovering The Upper Force

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You are saying that the entire world has to reveal the upper force. What does its revelation mean?

Answer: To reveal the upper force means to identify oneself with that single force that controls all of creation. I clarify that this force embraces and fills our entire world, is everywhere, connects all parts, and according to its program, brings them together towards a goal.

Question: Physical forces reveal themselves this way. They transports objects from place to place, change states and movement. How does the upper force reveal itself?

Answer: Physical forces are also a part of the one upper force. When the upper force is revealed, I understand its program, the thought of creation, the process of development and its goal. I discover my place, my role in this program and in the entire history of humanity. I understand what I must do in order to implement my mission in the most correct and efficient way. Thereby I assure the best, most correct, and most secure existence for myself.

All of the negative pressure that we feel is designed to push us towards discovering the Creator, towards discovering the upper force, its program, process, and goal.

Question: Why are all the signs that the time has come to discover the upper force unpleasant: anti-Semitism, war, and social problems?

Answer: All of these are signs that the time has arrived for everyone. It begins with the Jews and then the rest of the nations as well. We will discover the reason for our existence, what kind of a world we exist in, for what purpose, and how to attain a good and secure life. The entire world is in a great crisis.

All of the troubles come to us from the upper force forcing us to discover it. If we turn that development in a good direction, good events will happen. If we don’t, the situation just will continue to become more severe until there are wars, really. Whether good or bad events happen depends upon us.

Question: If the upper force is approaching us, how can this cause a problem?

Answer: The upper force awakens us with all kinds of pressures and threats, calling to us to discover it. Thus, we have to understand that we will not be able to get along without it.

The people of Israel have to understand that a good future for them depends upon revealing the upper force. So, it is necessary to explain the method of revealing this upper force to everyone. For this, we need to begin getting closer to each other. In this way, we build the right network of connections between us. We create for ourselves the conditions for discovering the Creator.

Question: In what way are the people in whom the upper force is revealed differentiated?

Answer: If the people are connected, united, and linked with “and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” then the upper force will be revealed in them. However, if the people exist as they do today, we will discover states in them that are the opposite of love. This means mutual hatred and separation.

Accordingly, the negative side of the Creator, meaning His absence, becomes  revealed within us in the form of all kinds of troubles in our lives: wars, a struggle to exist, and disputes between us.

All this indicates that we lack the Creator between us. However, if we begin to connect, we will approach discovery of the Creator more and more, according to the degree of our connection and unity.
[142192]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write. Preparing the People of Israel for Light” 8/20/14

Related Material:
Anti-Semitism As A Demand For Attention And Love
A War Between Good And Evil
A People Or A Bunch Of Refugees?

Many Instructions, One Direction

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus” (Metzora), 15:3: And this shall be [the nature of] his uncleanness due to his discharge: [if] his flesh runs with his discharge, or [if] his flesh is plugged up by his discharge, that is his uncleanness.

Question: How can we characterize the term “his discharge,” which means a raw desire that remains inside or which comes out?

Answer: The body’s secretions are desires on the level of the still nature. If they come out, they may also be pure, but if they remain inside it is impossible to work with them.

In that case you cannot separate the pure desires from the impure ones and so you cannot raise them and work with them in order to bestow, in the connection with others.

“His discharge” is the desires that cannot be corrected. What is more, they are on different levels of: solid, fluid, gas, etc. All the four attributes are mixed and are parallel to each other.

It is very important on which level and which attribute you correct, according to which Aviut (thickness), and according to who or what the correction is performed.

It can be our attitude to the land, the plants, the animals, or to man. It turns out that there are many instructions here, but one direction, and this is actually what you should work on now, although it always belongs to the immense multi-layer desire you are in.
[142086]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/5/14

Related Material:
Opening Pandora’s Box
“Horde”
Layer by Layer Purification of Desire

From Instinctive Solidarity To Genuine Unity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What do we need to do in order to become a true nation of Israel? It seemed to me that I was seeing examples of mutual support and solidarity all around.

Answer: This is a solidarity that arises intuitively during a common danger, but it is not called mutual guarantee. In difficult times, we all are willing to help each other, flocking together instinctively.

This happens in any society, in any group, and even among animals because it provides psychological support, elevates the spirit, and gives a feeling of greater confidence and connection. However, it has nothing to do with “Love thy neighbor.”

Love for one’s neighbor is such a deep inner bond that it only can be achieved through a special connection between us, attainable through the wisdom of Kabbalah.

We receive an example of such feelings during special discussions in a circle, and in workshops, but this is not enough. We need to pass the basis of this method to everyone so that each person will understand where this feeling comes from, why it arises, and how to implement it.

Each of us must become a carrier of this method, because in it, lies one’s life and one’s soul. With it, one builds their eternal existence, their independence. This is why it is not enough simply to hear about it for a few minutes. Rather, one must understand what world we are living in and what system operates us. Through this, we can understand the forces of nature, change them, and use them for our own good.

Then, we can show an example to the entire world and call upon it to unite, “Look at the world that is opening before us! We can ascend to an eternal and absolute degree, instead of existing for a few decades on this earth and ending it at that. The gates to a new world are being flung open before us.”

This is what each of us subconsciously is awaiting and what the nations of the world want. However, the Jewish people hold the key, and we are obliged to open it up. It is ready for our use!

I very much hope that the pressure that we are feeling today, from the internal anti-Semitism that exists within us and the external pressure, would be enough to turn the attention of the entire nation to the inner teaching, in other words, to the wisdom of Kabbalah.

There are people with a book of instructions by which this nation must live. Without them, we are attempting to imitate the nations of the world, but it does not work. We need to structure ourselves in accordance with these instructions.

I hope that the suffering we are enduring today will be enough to draw our attention to this topic, because otherwise, problems will increase and continue to grow until they oblige us to become a true nation of Israel and a light for other nations in order to lead the entire world to correction, to the good connection.

Comment: We join you in your good hopes!
[142152]
From the program “A New Life” #426 8/14/14

Related Material:
If You Are Asleep, Wake Yourself Up
What Is Happening To Us?
In An Eternal Debate With Oneself

The Essential Secret Of The Jews, Part 31

From the book The Essential Secret of the Jews, M. Brushtein:

A Desire – It Is Matter

Let’s go back to the primary creation—the desire. We figured out how the desire appears and how it developed after its appearance.

Doubt may surface that the desire is primary. However, it does not bother Kabbalists, since in any case, it is the desire that determines the individuality of any object.

“And of course, it makes no difference whether this force, being the will to receive, is a result and a fruit of the material that had produced it through chemistry, or that the material is a result and a fruit of that force. This is because we know that the main thing is that only this force, imprinted in every being and atom of the ‘will to receive,’ within its boundaries, is the unit where it is separated and distinguished from its environment. And this holds true both for a single atom or for a group of atoms, called ‘a body.’  (Yehuda Ashlag, “The Freedom”)

The consequences of the primary four phases of development of desires we can see everywhere.

“That force, the will to receive, is present in every element of reality, as we have explained above. Also, all four types: still, vegetative, animate and speaking emerged from them.” (Yehuda Ashlag, “The Freedom”)

The desire to bestow upon the Creator (Nature) was further manifested in the following way.

“And if we define things by their own names, using the concepts that will cause no errors on any side, then we need to distinguish two forces—negative and positive. In the mechanism of natural human development they act as ‘egoism‘ and ‘altruism.’

“I am talking about not the ethical meaning of these concepts, inherent in everyday language, but only their material part.

“These forces are present in all parts of reality, in each in accordance with its essence, as well as in man, in accordance with his essence.

“They are the primary motives of all human actions.” (Yehuda Ashlag, HaUma [The Nation])

Experience suggests that altruism cannot be taught as it cannot be learned. Meanwhile, the “altruistic” method exists. We will talk about it later.

And finally, the main reason that this book was written.

“It turns out that when humankind achieves its goal, with respect to the success of the bodies, by bringing them to the degree of complete love of others, all the bodies in the world will unite into a single body and a single heart, as written in the article, “The Peace.” Only then will all the happiness intended for humanity become revealed in all its glory.” (Yehuda Ashlag, “The Freedom”)

We are talking about perfect unity with the Creator (Nature).
[141877]

Related Material:
The Essential Secret Of The Jews, Part 30
The Essential Secret Of The Jews, Part 29
The Essential Secret Of The Jews, Part 28

The Way To Adhesion With The Creator

Dr. Michael Laitman Shamati 1, “There is None Else Besides Him”: A man must always try and cleave to the Creator. Adhesion with the Creator is an indication that everything that happens is coming only from Him, and that He acts and influences me only with the help of the Light; “there is none else beside Him” and He is the “good and beneficent.” I try to discover these two facts and keep adhering to them. I try with all my might and I make sure not to leave either of them.

In everything that happens, I first look inside my mind and see that this comes as an influence on me from the good and benevolent and that “there is none else besides Him.”

In the representation that develops within me of this whole world and of what is within me, this entire system directs me towards that source that presents this representation of our world, this life, and me. It is here He wants me to discover only Him through all this theater, until the theater disappears and only He and I remain in adhesion.

So, we have no other work except to orient ourselves like this at every moment of our lives. And everything else is designed to help in this: studying the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to attract the Light that Reforms and awaken it further so that it will illuminate more strongly. I must be in a group with the friends so that they will frequently remind me about this.

I must be involved with dissemination to show how this one force acts in the world, because I go out to the world, wanting to lead it towards an arrangement where it will be connected into a single whole that is integrally linked with “there is none else beside Him.” All of these activities are designed only so that behind this whole world, behind the friends, behind the study, I will discover the Creator with whom I am in adhesion.

And that is how it always has been. Even now, we are in this state, only it is hidden. This brings me much confusion. This concealment is called Olam (world), from the word, “Olama” (concealment).

We must remove this world, remove this concealment, and then everything that we are feeling now with our senses will disappear, the entire still, vegetative, and animate nature. Everything will become connection between us, between our connected desires. To that degree, we discover the one power, the good and benevolent. Everything ends in a state of “one receives one,” one creature is filled by one Creator. This is the completion of correction.
[142093]
From the Convention In New Jersey “Day Two” 08/09/14, lesson 4

Related Material:
The Entire Universe Is On A Single Axis
If It Seems You Are Going Backward
The Right Adducts And The Left Rejects