Entries in the 'Spirituality' Category

Checking The Compass At Every Step

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur every action must be directed toward the final correction. Otherwise, this action is imperfect. We always seek the end and on this basis consider all the states.

In his time, Abraham sent envoys to eastern countries. The forefathers had to deal with Hagar and Ishmael (representing the right line), with Esau (representing the left line), and with Laban and other characters (symbolizing various properties). All this was necessary to introduce specific details of perception that will be manifested at the end of the generations. The wars with Amalek, with the nations who lived in the land of Israel, were not limited by that “place,”—that is, part of the desire—above which it was necessary to rise and overcome at that time. No, everything was initially aimed at the final correction. All the efforts are gradually accumulated and added to the overall total.

The forefathers realized the necessary preparations to receive the Torah, and then the preparation continued by the way of correction of the people of Israel, with the same intention, to be ready to correct the world.

There are more calculations it seems. All the stages through which Israel has gone are caused not only by the needs of its development, but also by its purpose: to become the means of correction for the world. These people received the Torah not only to correct themselves, but also to be ready to help the world later.

Baal HaSulam writes about this in his articles, “The Giving of the Torah” and “The Mutual Guarantee.” Everything is interconnected and the end of action is inherent in the original plan, and that is why we must keep the course at Infinity (Ein Sof).

After all, at every rung of the spiritual ladder, at an increasingly higher resolution with higher definition, we attain the world of Infinity, a round, integral, analog system in which everything is interconnected. Be it a fetus in the mother’s womb, an infant, a child, or adult, we always are talking about a perfect system that has all the necessary parts. It’s only that some of them are incorporated in the potential for further development, while others already have been formed.

It does not really matter what is before us, a “spiritual gene” (Reshimo) in which the world is hidden or the entire world itself. They are one and the same. It’s just that first we attain the Reshimo, and then it opens in our perception.

So, the system is always perfect. It is the same Infinity. It only is revealed depending on the one who attains it. That is why in wanting to attain spirituality, I must imagine it completely corrected. Otherwise, I do not reach it through my desire, I do not intend bestowal.

The calculation is as follows: In the corrected state, I bestow upon the Creator. For this, I must prepare the receiving vessels, that is, the “nations of the world.” For this, I must prepare myself in order to be connected with them. Thus, stretching the thread from the end to the beginning, I proceed to any action.

Conversely, if in my every action I do not intend the correction of the world in order to bring it to the Creator, if I forget that He is revealed and enjoys precisely in the desire of the world, if I do not pervade my actions fully with bestowal, then I do nothing. Then I am like a plug that obstructs the path for everyone and represent the forces of impurity.

With every step, we must create this mental picture, this calculation, constantly adding to it and expanding it. At first, I calculate to benefit myself, then my family, then my city, then my country, and, in the end, all of humanity. As Baal HaSulam writes, today we are all one family. So, could I isolate myself from the world? In that case, I am not going toward bestowal.

So, every time, to the extent of my strength, I need to imagine the entire chain to the end. That is enough to become similar to the Light and draw it for correction.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/4/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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There Will Be No Obstacles Along Our Way

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, “Make Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend-2”: After he has bonded with a group of people who wish to achieve the degree of love of the Creator, and he wishes to take from them the strength to work in order to bestow and be moved by their words about the necessity for obtaining the love of the Creator, he must regard each friend in the group as greater than himself. It was written in the book, Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah, p 143), that one is not impressed by the society or takes their appreciation of something, unless he regards the society as greater than himself. This is the reason why each one must feel that he is the smallest of them all, since one who is great cannot receive from one who is smaller than himself, much less be impressed by his words. Rather, it is only the smaller one who is impressed through appreciating the greater one.

This is the major law and rule to opening the spiritual world. If we follow all the instructions that Rabash gives us, then there will be no obstacles along our way. We have to be ready to take these steps since the world needs it. The Creator not only gives us a chance to establish the spiritual group by ourselves and to bring Him contentment, but He also gives us a much greater mission.

He lets us understand that the only way to bring Him contentment is by correcting His world. Therefore, He brings this world to the verge of collapse so that we can prepare the world for the revelation of the Creator, and thus bring Him contentment.

So when we work in order to become more united, we must remember that eventually we have to draw the whole world into the group and thus bring about the complete revelation of the Creator to the created beings. As Baal HaSulam says, these are the “days of the Messiah,” the end of correction.

So we have to keep the laws of connections, self-annulment, and self-concession very seriously to mutually support and strengthen one another in order to attain the spirit of life and confidence, and to be filled with hope by the fact that everyone is impressed by others. In order to do that, everyone has to see the others as great, and being impressed by them, should give them the power to work on our connection and unity.

We have to ask for the force from above to connect us and we will make a covenant between us, mutual guarantee, mutual support, and the impression and being mutually incorporated in one another until we finally reach the collective power, the small spiritual force with which we turn to the great big world. Then we will see that when we have a collective spiritual power, even the slightest one, the world will be practically spread before us; it will be ready to receive from us, since the Light will pour through us unto the whole world. We will succeed wherever we go.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/13

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Absolute Love Above Fictitious Hate

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Baal HaSulam explains that if parents treat their son with absolute love, the son will inevitably begin to hate them instead of returning their love since he won’t worry that the parents will stop loving him. What about the Creator: Will we also begin to hate Him when we discover His absolute love for us?

Answer: We have to reach absolute love towards the Creator in our spiritual work, meaning regardless of whether we receive pleasure or punishment from the Creator. Our spiritual growth is based on developing love while feeling a growing feeling of repulsion until it reaches absolute hate, meaning feeling that the Creator hates us more and more while we develop a growing absolute love towards Him, in order to work in faith above reason.

Thus we can understand why the Creator has created in us desire in which we feel pleasure or pain. But we have to rise above that in a new feeling of bestowal, and then our attitude towards the Creator becomes totally independent of His love since we establish our attitude above the feeling of hate, according to the principle “love will cover all sins.”
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Material Success Is No Guarantee Of Spiritual Success

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, “Concerning Above Reason”: It turns out that a person has qualities that his parents bequeathed to their children, and he has qualities that he acquired from the society, which are a new possession. And this comes to him only through bonding with the society and the envy that he feels toward the friends when he sees that they have better qualities than his own. It motivates him to acquire their good qualities, which he doesn’t have and of which he is jealous.

Thus, through the society, he gains new qualities that he adopts by seeing that they are at a higher degree than his, and he is envious of them. This is the reason why now he can be greater than when he didn’t have a society, since he acquires new powers through the society.”

A person is born a small animal, and what he grows up to be depends on the upbringing. If we are talking about an ordinary, earthly upbringing, then a person develops due to society. He envies others and longs for pleasure, money, power, fame, and knowledge, and that is why he learns from society how he can achieve these goals, that is, success in this world. If he has prerequisites for spiritual development, he finds himself in the environment that can instill in him new properties —spiritual.

In the material society, a person develops naturally, by instinctively adopting the values ​​of society and seeking to learn from it how to reach worldly success. But spiritual upbringing is different because it requires a person to cancel himself, that is, it gives him the freedom of choice: to adopt its spiritual values from the environment or not.

Only to the extent of his self-nullification will a person be able to see the society as higher than himself. He will have to apply much effort to look at society from the bottom up, and then he will be able to receive from the society its values, the importance and greatness of the goal, and thus advance spiritually.

Spiritual success depends not only on the environment, but also on how a person uses it, that is, how much he annuls himself and appreciates society, whether he agrees to suffer, seeing others higher than himself. Envy forces a person to feel humiliated, but he needs to understand that it is for his own benefit to see the others as great. If he is capable of such an attitude, then he will advance. In the end, a person has to enjoy that he can stand against his egoism and trample over it in order to attain spiritual values and get closer to the spiritual goal.

That is why advancement in the material society is completely opposite to spiritual advancement. And success in the material world does not guarantee that a person will be able to succeed in spirituality because it is determined by the free choice of the person himself.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/13

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A Special Inclination – Present From Our Ancestors

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is it exactly that makes the group strong? What attributes should we work on?

Answer:  We shouldn’t value the power of the group by the number of people in it; that is a wrong estimation since there is a difference between the number of different people and their inner preparation. So, it is impossible to judge everyone according to the same parameters.

In Russia, for example, it is easy to organize a group of more than a hundred people while, in the US, it is difficult to gather even ten people. We cannot compare success by the size of the group. What’s important is the quality, which is hard to identify.

All of Eastern Europe, and especially Russia, is where Kabbalists were very active in the last generations. The most important Kabbalist in the history of the wisdom of Kabbalah after the Ari was Baal Shem Tov, who had many followers and students all over Belarus and the Ukraine who simply “plowed the ground” there so that their ideas were in the air. As a result, there were a great number of Kabbalists there from Poland, Galicia, and further to the east.

Consequently, the people who live there, and especially the Russian people, have a special sense, a special inclination for Kabbalah. That’s how the influence of the surrounding Light is revealed. Therefore, it is impossible to compare this region with Western Europe where just as many Jews and intelligent, educated people live and still the great inclination for spirituality has not been revealed. This is called “ancestral merit.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/13, Writings of Rabash

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Frequency Range Of The Upper Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanAll the changes are made by the Light that Reforms, but the desire to change comes from the environment. The Creator keeps the covenant between us, but we obligate Him to do so, as it says: “My sons have defeated me.”

We have to establish the right environment below that will become “Knesset Israel, the assembly of Israel, yearning for the Creator,” an assembly is a Minyan, a group of ten.

In The Frequency Range Of The Upper Light_1
If each of us totally annuls himself before the others we obligate the upper Light to be revealed among us. It’s revealed the moment we establish a systematic contact, when we connect this way to one electrical circuit as if by wires that resemble His nature.

This happens according to the laws of spiritual induction, the equalization of frequencies and the equalization of attributes. It isn’t you who changes and it isn’t you that changes anything, but it is you who performs the actions that will bring about the change in you. This is how it happens on every step: you have to perform the actions and the Creator makes the changes. If your actions are not successful yet, it means that you haven’t succeeded in reaching an adaptation to the Light in your connections with others. You haven’t reached the right frequency range yet.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/13, The Zohar

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The First Cell Of A New Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanNature has made a dog instinctively connected to its owner. It feels that its life depends on the owner, and so it annuls itself before him. We, too, should annul ourselves, not instinctively, but by our own freewill by making our own decision, by working against our ego that doesn’t exist in animals, in order to attain the same correct loyalty and self-annulment without any preconditions, just because the upper is my source of life.

We must learn from nature, but there it happens by itself while we must work hard. There are such difficult states that we simply cannot accept this, and that confuses us and erases all our efforts.

This “dog’s loyalty” is not that different from the way a person must subdue himself before the group and it is much less than the loyalty we should feel toward the Creator. All our study and all our work are meant for that, for stabilizing the necessary vessels in us through which we can contact the Creator. We need them so we will have something with which to come to Him.

This is all given to us for our preparation: a teacher, a group, the world, the study, the dissemination—everything that we can think of—and it is all in order to create the first cell by which you adhere to the Creator. It is like a cone. You perform many actions below, and you only reach one point of adhesion with the Creator above when you really enter the womb with the drop of semen.

The First Cell Of A New Life_1
According to the spiritual ladder you perform a great deal of actions below, billions of actions that eventually turn into one action at the top of the ladder, and in this one action, you come in contact with the Creator. You turn a great number of actions into one small, qualitative action with regard to the Creator.

This is the only thing that allows us to reach Him. See how many actions a small child does until he can perform one rational action. See how hard he works at running around until he finally manages to do something meaningful where the mind, the feeling, and the motion become one whole.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/13, The Zohar

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Let’s Melt Into One Another

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What sort of annulment is required from the group of ten in the coming men’s convention?

Answer: We must attain total self-annulment with regard to the group of ten. It will not happen immediately, but rather gradually. Eventually, I must disappear, melt into the group just like a liquid that is poured into another liquid and is mixed until there is a total merger. I want to melt into everyone, to penetrate everyone. This is the self-annulment that I should reach with regard to my group of ten.

The moment I reach full disappearance in it, at the exact point that I disappear, I begin to feel the Creator. It is the hole through which I enter the spiritual world, which is called “the point of the needle.”

It is hard work, but it can become very easy if each of us supports everyone and we all help one another. Everyone should set an example for the others as to how much he annuls himself, and how he lowers himself and submits himself. You must show that, and this also will help you and awaken the others. Then, they will impress you in their turn. This is very important.

A group is a womb, and, the moment a person disappears in it, he is conceived in spirituality, like a drop of semen, and begins to grow as a spiritual formation. Only the initial spark remains of him, and around it, his new spiritual vessel is formed that is made of all his future concessions.

After the first ultimate self-annulment that turns you into a spiritual embryo, new egoistic desires are evoked in you on top of which you continue to annul yourself before the environment and the Creator. You already feel His Surrounding Light that isn’t just the Light that Reforms, but you feel the Creator in the Surrounding Light, like a pillar of smoke or a cloud.

You already begin to identify His presence to a certain extent, which means the attribute of bestowal. It is because you already have annulled yourself, and you continue to concede. You cannot see actual clear formations in the vessel that is formed by your self-annulment and your concession yet, but you already can sense them. This is why it is called a cloud or smoke.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/13, Writings of Rabash

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If There Is No Joy It Means There Is No Faith

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom Rabash’s article “The Matter of Suckling and Conception:” It is written, “Serve the Lord with Joy,” meaning that the joy has come to a man from serving the Creator. However, if he is working without joy, this is because of lack of faith in the greatness and importance of the King. Otherwise, there has to be joy and an uplifted spirit without any preparation for that.

Meaning, he should not see that he has no joy from the work, rather one should see that he will prepare himself to know whom it is he is serving and what His importance is, and joy is the outcome. Saying, that if he has no joy in the work, it is an indication that he has no idea about the importance of the Creator, and then one has to correct himself regarding the matter of faith.

There are people who feel no connection to spiritual matters at all and just live an earthly life. There are people who light up with spirituality and cannot leave it. And there are those who tend towards one and then the other side, wavering between the two.

It depends upon how much the Light illuminates a person. Perhaps, the Light is so weak that it gives a person only a sense of earthly existence. He chases pleasures, but they are directed not at the Creator, but just at something that he sees before him.

If the Light becomes a little stronger, then a person begins to discern that all that exists has its internal root and it comes with a particular purpose, for a reason. Thus a person advances, sometimes more, sometimes less, feeling the question, “What is this life for?”

In the end, the Light brings him to the place where he can realize his desire for spirituality. But even there, the Light pulls him to one side or to the other side, and due to these changes of states a person reveals that he lacks a connection with the source of his destiny, the source of life, the force that controls him. The more he feels his dependence on the upper force, the more he desires to know it, to understand, to approach it.

He faces various states in which he has to change his attitude towards what is happening. After all, on the one hand, he feels these states as pleasant and unpleasant, and on the other hand, he must understand that all of them come from the same Light that shows a person either day or night, either light or darkness.

The Light wants a person to relate to these states above them; that is, it doesn’t matter whether a person feels them as good or bad. What’s important is that through these states he knows the root from which they came. This means that a person works on the greatness of the Creator. He does not care what he gets from the Creator, he uses everything for advancement.

And then even more, he welcomes everything that comes from the Creator not because in this way he advances, but because in this way he can bring joy to the Creator. Thus, a person adheres to the Creator more and more and senses His greatness. He identifies himself less with the states that he receives from the Creator and his feelings, but he looks more at the One from whom he receives it all.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/13

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A Person Lives Within Desires And Acts Emotionally

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Must a person learn to feel every level of existence or is this feeling awakened automatically?

Answer: Only sufferings can occur automatically. They force us to learn, meaning, to feel all levels of existence, and the learning is self-correction, to return to my senses that were lost. Integral education involves this.

Today, I exist as a fragment thrown out of the general system. To be incorporated together with everyone, as one body, I must acquire senses that I have lost. Then I will be able to feel the other as I feel myself and the environment that surrounds me as my nature. This enables me to link correctly with the human world that surrounds me—humanity and civilization—and with the environment, the world of the animate, the vegetative, and the still.

To do this, I am required to have appropriate senses, feelings. Without feelings, I am simply not ready to act. A person lives within desires and acts emotionally. Therefore, we must recover these five senses.

Then, it is clear that nutrition and everything else will automatically be sustained in us. However, to develop these five senses in a person, we must at least bring him to the right society. With the influence of the environment, everyone can change.

The environment has the same characteristics as I do. The moment that it begins to be linked with me, it begins to pressure me, to work on me from all directions. All that I have—the infinite desires, thoughts, efforts, movements, and comprehension—all these are found 100% within the human environment. Therefore, they work on me and even mold me, acquiring every form for me internally and externally.

Therefore, for us, the main thing is precisely integral education. A person is changed under the influence of a properly adapted environment. Only after this, he begins to comprehend the influences and the more subtle fields that exist around him. His sense of smell begins to grasp what it was not ready to do before. His hearing suddenly changes. One begins to feel everything around him from a distance, like a blind person does. With sound, I can measure distances with my eyes closed.

This means that a multitude of new senses become included within me. Then, I can handle things correctly by myself; accommodating myself to the people around me. Considering that all of my senses have been sharpened clearly, I will relate differently to food, smells and sounds, everything. I try to change everything to be in harmony with this. In this way, I am changed under the influence of the environment. Through my influence and together with the environment, I change the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate. That is how this must work.

I am sure that we will succeed in recovering our lost senses through which it will become possible to feel the world around us, and with the influence of an integral link with the environment, we acquire additional senses on the level of “Human Being” found beyond the nature of the animate. Thus, I will feel life, the origin of life, the behavior of the universe, all that exists around us. In the meantime, this is beyond my senses, not perceived by them.

Together with all of humanity, or at least with part of it, I will feel the spiritual creation as one purpose, as one thought, and its influence on me. I am found within it. Everything passes through me. Everything that I do, especially the internal actions, are found in harmony with this immense system. If they are not yet in complete harmony, I will correct them. I see how I am linked through billions of threads with all the spiritual and physical elements of creation.
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From KabTV’s “The Medicine of the Future” 4/7/13

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