Entries in the 'Spiritual Work' Category

A Lamp In The Human Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus (Tetzaveh),” (Command), 27:21: And you shall command the children of Israel, and they shall take to you pure olive oil, crushed for lighting, to kindle the lamps continually.

The olive oil is the Light of Hochma, the light of life. It is well known that during the war with Greeks, the Maccabees found a jar with olive oil. There was enough oil to consecrate the Temple for only one day. However the lamp burned for seven days and nights. This was the miracle of Hanukkah.

The phrase “burning the lamps continually” means that one has to be permanently illuminated by the Upper Light and always stay oriented directly to the Creator (Isra-El). In one’s aspiration to the Creator, one has to kindle a lamp of one’s desires, thus making all of them similar to the Light of Hochma, the Light of wisdom that dresses in the Light of Hassadim, the Light of mercy. If one is merciful to others, one receives the Light of life from the Creator, the Light of Hochma, and then one is called “a son of Israel.”
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of Eternal Book,” 8/19/13

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In Partnership With Me

Dr. Michael Laitman“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Article, “You Are in Partnership with Me,” Item 64: When that word of wisdom that was innovated in this world rises, it connects to those words of Atik Yomin, ascends and descends with them, and enters eighteen concealed worlds, which “Neither has the eye seen a God besides You.” They come out of there and wander, and they come full and whole, and assemble before Atik.

The Zohar explains how we can reach partnership with the Creator to us. To the degree that we take control of our egoistic desire to receive, we are found in partnership with the Creator to this degree. The Creator dominates all of reality and all of reality was created from a desire to receive. Therefore, we also ask the Creator to give us control over our desire to receive. And in this way we reach equivalence of form with the Creator.

Our desire to receive is that field within which we work together: both the Creator and us. We act within this field, and within it, we meet the Creator, and there we become His partners. After all, we ask for a force from the Creator that will make it possible to manage and control our desire to receive just as He controls us. The Creator created all of the worlds, and we want to create them; He shattered the worlds, and we correct them.

We become partners of the Creator to the degree that we are in control when encountering the ego, when encountering our desire to receive. Our degree of control over the desire to receive determines our degree of adherence with the Creator and our spiritual levels. The entire hierarchy of levels is our greater and greater level of partnership with the Creator, our working together.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Nine Stages On The Path To Unity, Point 2

Dr. Michael LaitmanOvercoming the Ego with the Help of the Environment

Having attained a certain point of mutual guarantee, I hold on to it, value it, enjoy it, and want to develop in it. But as a result of the Light that Reforms that I summon, this point begins to grow in a way that is not desirable.

The Light never operated so as to simply bring me to Ein Sof (Infinity), to correction. On the contrary, according to its plan, in its relations with the vessel, it has to show me how opposite I am from it. So to the extent that I make efforts to unite, my yearning, my work, and my efforts turn into darkness.

The moment I accept mutual guarantee as the mutual unity that has to dwell between us in spirituality, the place where we feel that we are together and not separated, the obstacles called egoism are revealed. This egoism is no longer part of this world, but is actually the real egoism that is revealed in contrast to our unity, our connection, and our mutual guarantee.

All the discernments during the descent are merely an indication of how weak we are when it comes to mutual guarantee, and nothing but that. Here the mutual guarantee of the next level is revealed: What is the connection between mutual guarantee and the Creator? What is His attitude towards this? How does He dress in it? How can our mutual guarantee depict Him to me? And so on.

There are two types of mutual guarantee that operate during the states of descent and ascent, and it is the gap between them that determines the height of the level you reach.

Thus we advance. On one hand I should feel the influence of the Light on me as much as possible, and on the other, I should clarify this feeling: “Where does it come from and why? How can I turn it to its opposite form and advance to the desired state?” Later these two discernments become the head and the body of the Partzuf: The head determines what happens to the body and how it should operate. But this is only if you control the desire.

In the meantime you constantly try to look at yourself from the side as well: What is happening to you? What is the Light doing to you? How do you change and how should you change? How should you respond to each and every state?

On one hand it occupies your whole mind and all your feelings, and you experience such states which you simply don’t know how to exit. But on the other hand, you should know that the Creator sends you these states so that you will solve the problems that are created only in the connection with Him and with the goal. The solution to the problems begins with the fact that the goal is the resemblance to and the equivalence of form with the Creator and this is more important than the problem. On the whole, everything is less important than mutual guarantee.

The key to mutual guarantee is the recognition of the importance of the goal. It is because mutual guarantee is a kind of inner feeling which we have to attain: I determine the inner state and how it depicts the new reality. It isn’t just the point of our unity; it expands and becomes the point of the new reality. It is this recognition of the importance of the goal that sustains it and develops it.

We have to constantly clarify what we need and what we don’t in order to raise the importance of the idea of mutual guarantee.

From this point, we return to the greatness of the group and its effect on us. This effect should be versatile; we should use envy, lust, honor, ambition, everything that can pressure me, push me, and shake me. This should be the way everyone operates on everyone else.
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Becoming A Great Priest

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus (Tetzaveh),” 29:29-29:30: The holy garments that are Aaron’s shall be for his sons after him, to be exalted through them and invested with full authority through them. Seven days shall the one son of his sons [who will be] the Kohen in his place wear them, the one who is to enter the Tent of Meeting to serve in the holy.

The spiritual levels constantly rise since they are constantly corrected adding new levels to the ladder, which are the soul. In order to rise to the level Aaron was on previously, it takes seven days, which symbolizes the seven lower Sefirot, to correct the attributes of HGT NHYM.

It’s like a regulator, and because a person who ascends to this level has to be corrected this way in order to become totally similar to these garments, to the corrections of Aaron that were made on this level, then it’s as if a person enters Aaron’s role, Aaron’s level.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/28/13

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Thus Shall The Altar Be Most Holy

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus, (Tetzaveh),” 29:37: For seven days you shall perform atonement upon the altar and sanctify it; henceforth, the altar shall be a holy of holies. Whatever touches the altar shall be holy.

An altar refers to the general desire upon which a person raises parts of his egoistic desire that were meant to be corrected. There are parts that have to be killed because they cannot be corrected in their live state. There are parts that have to be used as food and there are parts that have to be burnt.

There are many options of correcting the desire, but they all refer to one thing only: We need to establish an intention of bestowal on top of each desire and only then use it either in the form of food or as material to burn. When burning something, the unpleasant scent that may rise symbolizes the change of the corporeal part into a spiritual one, that is, the ascent of the uncorrected desire and transforming it into the next state in the form of incense.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/28/13

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My Donkey And Me

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is it possible to hold onto the balance between the inner concentration and communication within the convention?

Answer: This is a perpetual problem that must be solved regardless of what you are doing. Very heavy or light moments can come, different pleasant or unpleasant feelings, but the person must always be composed of two parts. In one part he feels his beastly body, what is happening to it.  And in the second part, he is like a person riding on his donkey (Hamor), on the egoistic substance (Homer).

Such a split feeling must be with us everywhere, in completely different moments in life; it should be with me when I am alone, with friends, with my family, with my wife and children, or when I am just walking down the street. I must divide myself into two parts: the donkey and me sitting on it.
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From the Talk at a meal 1/26/14

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What If I Remain At Home?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What do you recommend for those people who cannot come to the convention?  And how can those who are in the convention support the friends who stayed at home and continue with integral education activities?

Answer: During the convention we must bring everyone together into local centers or in someone’s home, gathering as many people as possible. The minimum of many is two. Even if two people can connect, it is better and worthwhile to do this instead of sitting alone.

During the convention we must free ourselves from all work and be together with us all the time. Follow all that is happening in the convention and join with us heart and soul. And also we must not forget to think about all the friends throughout the world constantly.

But during the convention we don’t think about external dissemination activities in integral education; we concentrate only within us, only in our connection. The convention must be conducted with constant thoughts about our ascent. And only at the end of all of these conventions, from this growth, will we begin thinking about and going out to external dissemination.

During the two days of the integral education convention, we will think about and discuss how to go out with this method, but nevertheless, the focus is devoted to our assembly. Therefore, stop all external activities for these days and join us.
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From the Talk at a meal 1/26/14

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Nine Stages On The Path To Unity, Point 1

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn order to better understand the process of educating a person, we have decided to present the nine phases that the public goes through with the analogous root in the nine phases for those who study the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Familiarization with the Concept of Mutual Guarantee

The feeling of mutual guarantee appears when a person feels the group and not himself, when the concept of a group seems great to him and dominates him, replacing the feeling of the self. This is exactly how the feeling of the self disappears and the concept of the group appears. This doesn’t weaken a person because the feeling of mutual guarantee is stronger and is actually above us.

This feeling is attained by mutual help, by everyone’s mutual bestowal upon each of the friends. Everyone wants to identify with the group, join it, embrace, and be incorporated in it, to be as one man in one heart and one mind. Everyone feels that he has to dissolve among the friends without a trace. Everyone wants to drown in the group. And all help each other in this.

Each of us turns to all the friends and together we speak about one thing: about how to connect. How to imagine the good mutual connection between us, the way it was before the shattering of the vessels: one vessel, one desire, one thought, one intention, one feeling, where everyone feels the others as if they are one whole.

We shouldn’t clarify the negative aspects because we want to establish the positive ones, Noah’s Ark. We want to rise from this world, so why should we penetrate it even deeper and delve into it?! We only want the good. The Creator brings a person to the good fate and says: “Take it.” What do we need the bad fate for?! We don’t want to know how opposite we are from others. We must unite in order to exit to spirituality. We unite and that’s it, period.

We reach a state, as it is said: “as one man in one heart,” “all of Israel are friends.” Then we complete this action. So the first phase is the phase of mutual guarantee: We become one whole.

At first glance there is nothing left to do afterward, but it is clear that we only speak about mutual guarantee according to the principle of “the end of the action is in the initial thought.” The road before us may be long because we have to establish ourselves. It is thanks to this self-construction that we come to know the Creator.
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Steps To The Path Of Unity

Dr. Michael LaitmanA person comes to an educational course as a result of a certain need. First he doesn’t understand where he is. Then as time goes by, he accumulates different impressions and feels the excitement in connection and unity time and time again, to such an extent that he begins to cry in the circle.

Eventually he feels that he has caught fate by the tail and that he has an exceptional chance to improve his life and the life of those around him. The goal of bringing the world to unity becomes so sublime that he is ready to dedicate his time to it.

A person who begins to study the wisdom of Kabbalah expects a similar process. First he wants to know about the structure of the worlds and has no desire to hear anything about unity. Gradually he feels a growing desire to read articles about the group, but only about the fact that we will feel good together, like in a synchronized society or a team.

We gradually move from the message about the group to the message about unity, mutual guarantee, without clarifying why we need it yet.

Then we yearn to be as one in the group, and we understand that all our yearnings and longings have to bring us to unity with the Creator, according to the law of the equivalence of form.

As we yearn for unity with the Creator we discover that we don’t have the power to do so and we begin to realize that the only way to receive forces is from an external source. Why do we suddenly think about that? Because this is how the system is arranged: When you complete a certain part, it places the next part before you.

We have to achieve this state in our work with the external environment, with the public, so that we feel that these people are like our own children. Then, having no other choice, we will turn to the Creator with a request concerning them.

Once again we understand that as a result of the law of cause and effect, all this is done so that we will be able to focus on Him, so that all of humanity, everything that exists in reality, will focus on Him, yearn for Him, and want to delight Him, so the created beings will go through the process of evolution and will eventually realize that He is actually the One who has created all of creation as the absolute good. Thus, everyone will reach unity with Him.
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Variety Of Desires

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus, (Tetzaveh),” (Command), 27:21: In the tent of meeting, outside the dividing curtain that is in front of the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall set it up before the Lord from evening to morning; [it shall be] an everlasting statute for their generations, from the children of Israel.

It’s written about human properties, since humans encompass the entire universe, that it’s as if they collect everything there is inside themselves: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking nature. The speaking nature consists of “common people,” meaning the simple desires of a speaking level and the desires that are oriented towards the Creator; they are called “Israel,” intentions focused straight towards the Creator.

Among these desires, there are some that refer to Levites and Cohens; they personify the lower and upper parts of the spiritual Partzuf, a transcendent system. Aaron represents the highest part of the spiritual system, its right side.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of Eternal Book,” 8/19/13

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