Entries in the 'Spirituality' Category

Playing With A Rubber Band

Dr. Michael LaitmanI think that we can already advance to the next level, to a new feeling. The feeling is that I am in the group, in unity, in a mass of friends, and if I feel that I am pushed out, it’s the evil inclination.

Thus the Creator plays with me: He draws me away from the group, as if pulling me like a rubber band so that I will want to return and cry to Him, “What are you doing?!” Leaving the unity each time is more strongly felt in me, and I cry out, “Don’t do that! Bring me back!” As strange as it may seem, such states tie a person to the Creator. It’s in this contrasted action that they allow me to see that He is playing with me through the evil inclination. The Creator told Moses from the beginning, “Come to Pharaoh.”

Now I also feel that I am in the center of the group while he “pulls the rubber band backward,” pulling me out of there. He gives me the right feeling, and I immediately respond and am drawn back. Then once again He pulls me out, and I respond again. The question is how sensitive I am to the pull and to what extent do I resist each time it happens?

We begin to play, and the evil inclination becomes “help against” for me. I learn from His actions as He reveals my evil to me and pulls me out of the circle of friends. Eventually the Creator reveals to me the extent of the center, all of Malchut in different angles and discernments. I play with Him time after time, behaving differently each time. The main thing is that I identify His game in everything that happens. The evil inclination is the force we have to acquire as the basis above which we discover the Creator; where else can we reveal Him?

So every time He pulls me out of the group I am connected to, the exit provides me with new “grounds” for work in which the Creator and I can understand and feel one another like partners in a game. In this game we can be rivals, enemies, or friends. The states and relationships change in a sequence of connections and attachments. We play, and it isn’t just a game, it’s the game of life.

Question: In order to carry on with a game a person needs a certain reward….

Answer: First of all, use envy. If I stop the game, I will lag behind everyone else. This incentive is very clear and simple. It isn’t by chance that it’s said that envy, lust, and honor take a person out of this world. I must be like others. They are more advanced than me, they are in bestowal and I am nothing. Everyone has these simple urges.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/12, Writings of Rabash

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A Ticket To The World Of Desires

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In the book Shamati, in the article “The Most Important Thing is to Want Only to Bestow,” it says: “The force of faith is sufficient for one to work in the form of bestowal.” What is faith?

Answer: We don’t know what faith is. It is a kind of force that doesn’t exist in our world. In our world, in all the natural sciences, in physics, chemistry, biology, and other sciences, we discover the forces of the still, vegetative, and animate nature that operate as forces of attraction and rejection.

In the spiritual world we suddenly discover forces that operate oppositely from these forces. Suppose, there is a natural force of rejection that we see in this world, but in spirituality it is the opposite, the force of mutual attraction is formed between these objects, as it says: “Love shall cover all sins.”

We begin to discover this to a certain extent in quantum physics: If we place elementary particles that are equally charged (electrons for example) in the same place, they will begin to reject one another, not only because they have the same charge, but for quantum reasons as well (the force of anti-symmetry); none of them wants to be where the other is.

So what is the force of bestowal? It is a force that is revealed above our nature in a form that is opposite from it, as it says: “I have seen the opposite world.” We can only say that the spiritual world operates according to intentions and not actions. There are no actions there; only what takes place in the intentions is taken into account, since our bodies don’t exist in the spiritual world, but only the desires and the intentions.

Imagine that your desires operate. What terrible things would happen in the world! In a split of a second the world would cease to exist, people would burn one another.

So in order not to find ourselves in such a world, we are all in an imaginary world in which we can perform physical actions as much as we are allowed to. To the extent that a person can operate his desire for the good of others, he ascends above his body and enters the spiritual domain where he acts according to his desire and his intention.

Otherwise, how could it be possible to bring a person into a reality that is totally under the domination of his desire?! After all, he has no control over his own desire and his intention.

So only to the extent that a person to hold his desires and work correctly with his desire and his intention does he enter the spiritual world, is he allowed to enter. It is called “entering the King’s palace after having climbed the mountain,” and there he begins to correct the world, to the extent that he can control himself.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/12, Shamati #30

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Make A Wish And It Comes True!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If we ask a child what he wants, there will always be some little person that hasn’t yet been tormented by life that will answer: “I want to be a magician!” After all, our problem is in the fact that we lost the ability to want a lot and with great power. Life has beat us down, made us small, made us suffer, survive, and to wish for nothing more than to stop suffering.

Answer: Throughout our whole lives all we do is try to get rid of suffering instead of obtaining true fulfillment, pleasure and attainment. This is something we are lacking. We are overwhelmed by our existence. This is an enormous misfortune for humanity. A person who comes to this realization understands that living this way is meaningless.

Does life have meaning in a different form? When a person asks this question then possibly he begins to see some way out.

Reply: If you ask a child what it means to be a magician, he will say: “I’ll make a wish and it will come true.”

Answer: A person can achieve this. And as a result of our development, we must achieve it!

But despite the fact that it can be difficult, it’s not so easy to escape from the corporeal life and to become involved in a different attainment, in ascending and changing your view of the world; it is, however, within each and everyone’s power. Basically nature is pushing us all to become magicians.

A magician is someone who makes a wish and then makes it come true or attains it on his own. You wished for it and got it!

That is when you begin to comprehend nature, its eternity and perfection, and then you don’t simply imagine getting a house by the lake, a yacht, and so on, but you understand what to desire!

First you stop desiring something material; it doesn’t bring you fulfillment, you instantly elevate to the next level. For this reason we are no longer talking about animal or general human fulfillments in our world.

A person instantly elevates to a different level, a level of attainment. He becomes interested in the harmony of nature and he becomes fulfilled by seeing the picture of forces that govern us, how they arouse us and lead us forward.

This is the kind of desires that arise in a person. I’m not saying that everyone possesses these desires to begin with. They arise in a person that is truly interested in the meaning of life and wishes to become a magician. That is, to become a magician, you must take this giant apparatus, this governing system into your hands.

When you begin to see and to comprehend the system, then you truly begin to become fulfilled by its harmony. This is the highest pleasure! To this degree you become closer, become included in the system and sense its eternity and perfection. You no longer associate yourself with the perishable animal body because you no longer exist on the animal level, but you exist on the “Human” level. Your body can die, but you attain entirely different desires and you exist in them.

No desires remain in a person that can’t be realized. If they are directed in accordance with the general system of nature then they will surely be fulfilled. These desires are one’s that are aimed toward love and bestowal.
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From KabTV’s “Talks with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 3/11/12 

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How To Survive The Storm Of Doubts?

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe can rise to the spiritual level only after we accept the condition that we don’t expect any reward. But how can I reach such a decision? How can I ask for power from Above? How can I do that if I only have a corporeal mind, corporeal feelings, and can only act egoistically since I don’t know anything else? Where can I find the right forms and the right discernments from which I could form the right request: to receive only the power to bestow and not to ask for a reward? This is called the level of Bina, Hafetz Hesed, Noah’s Ark.

If a person advances persistently being careful to keep all the conditions, he is not required to have any special attributes other than the ones he was born with or to belong to special people. Everyone is given the right conditions for his work by being sent doubts: “What is this work?” and “Who is the Lord that should listen to Him?” This happens when he is thrown once into the “flood waters” and once into “clean waters,” and then into “water of discord” and the “peaceful waters,” into different discernments of Bina that are revealed to us.

A person should clarify whether he accepts them in the right line, the left line, or the middle line, and in each of these lines there are his own lines: In the right line, there are three lines, and in the left line, there are three lines, and it’s the same in the middle line, and they are all incorporated in each other.

The main point here is not to stop and to stubbornly advance in the simplest way, not to be clever and try to solve these problems with our corporeal mind. This whole philosophy is worthless and only the purity of the heart can help. A person who succeeds is not necessarily clever and may even be a bit foolish, but is dedicated to the goal and stubbornly advancing straight towards it, by trying to do his job. Of course, the evil inclination constantly grows in him by evoking thoughts of criticism and doubts, but this attitude will eventually lead a person to success.

All the clarifications start from the well-known questions of Pharaoh: “Who?” and “What?” Then different types of waters are revealed. “Who?” and “What?” are questions about the Creator’s greatness, about whether I need Him or not and about what kind of a reward I expect. In the meantime these are simple clarifications as to who is in control and how.

Later I encounter different kinds of waters and am forced to clarify: Whom do I want to hide from? What am I hiding for? What kind of waters are the floods for me, and what kinds aren’t?” A person draws this whole picture, but there is no flood in that! The flood is for me; it’s a result of my malicious thoughts, bad influences, etc.

It’s determined by where I feel myself and not by physical disasters like the storms and floods that we encounter now. We actually create the flood inside us. Although there are natural storms and floods like the one in North America, they are also created by humans, by their attitude to life, which summons such a response from nature.

After asking the “Who?” or “What?” questions several times, I begin to clarify the different types of waters, and I am approaching the right prayer. This means that I have to clarify the deficiency that I have to reach in order to get the power that will raise me above my desire to receive and enable me to truly bestow. After the flood retreats I will come out of Noah’s ark and will begin to work with my desires to receive in bestowal. It says that Noah understood that the flood was over when the dove brought him a branch from an olive tree, which is a sign that there is not only Hassadim (water) but also Hochma within the Hassadim.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/12, Writings of Rabash

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Shorten The Path To The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanAfter all the efforts a person makes, being confused, running around and then relaxing, trying to do something in the group or by himself, in the study, in external dissemination, after all these attempts all these efforts concentrate in one point called a request, a prayer, the raising of MAN, a demand. This request, which is an urgent need for help creates the first contact between a person and the Creator, since as a result of all his efforts, both consciously and subconsciously, he summons upon himself the influence of the Light. We do everything because of deficiency, desire, it doesn’t matter what type it is, whether it’s for or against, negative or positive, there is only a desire, a deficiency and from it we act. So every time we discover a new deficiency, a new need for fulfillment, we evoke and summon the Light, since they are inherently connected. So we first evoke the Light, and then it operates.

Thus, by different actions, we just need to shorten the path. What do we mean by “to shorten?” If we operate with the right intention, the changes in us occur much faster and we increase the frequency of our changes. We can’t skip a thousand Reshimot (spiritual informational genes), to miss them, and then to skip several thousands again, and thus leap along the time axis. We can only “scan” all the Reshimot by processing each of them, but if I operate purposefully together with the environment that supports me, organizes, and pressures me, I process the Reshimot quickly.

Eventually, we reach the right deficiency, which according to its intensity and character are “Reshimot of dressing” and “Reshimot of thickness.” “Reshimot of dressing” is not inside, since it’s always on a higher level, but I understand it more or less, I imagine the state that I want to reach with the sufficient thickness. If this Reshimot is more or less adapted to the state of connection, to the contact with the Creator, then it happens.

Fulfilling the Reshimot most quickly occurs during the study of the sources, as it says in many articles that it’s desired to turn the study into a prayer. Usually all the efforts are revealed in a person during the study and the most efficient conditions are while reading The Book of Zohar.

If a person thinks about his correction in the connection with the group, in order to incorporate in it, to lose himself, to turn it to a general desire to reveal the Creator and by that to bring Him contentment, The Zohar is very helpful in fulfilling the Reshimot in this direction in the quickest way.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/12, The Zohar

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The Ark Of Unity On The Stormy Flood Of Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanAs The Zohar says: “He has seen that the angel of death is approaching along with the flood and he hid in the ark.” Meaning, that he understood that the claims to the Creator and spiritual work deprive him of the spirit of life, and therefore he came to faith above reason, the properties of Bina, the desire to be only in bestowal, to receive nothing and rejoice in his share, considering slavery to the Creator as a tremendous honor.

A person’s task is to organize an environment that will continue to guide him to the goal, praising its importance. He should take care to make this environment as large as possible and to make important to himself. But on the contrary, he is prevented from doing this by being sent questions: “Who is the Creator that I should obey Him?” and “What does this work give you?”

He begins to doubt why he should do inner work, what is the point? There are all kinds of interference in this work, coming from the family and various other sources. And only the environment will help a person stay on this path; there are no other factors. A person must understand that he has no power himself.

There is a war between two forces: The right side is the environment, the society, radiating the force of unity and the importance of the goal within him. And on the left side are egoistic questions sent by the Creator: “Who?” and “What?”, which over time turn into a turbulent flood.

Everything comes from above, from the same source, but if a person tries to set a strong environment on the right side to support him, by this he realizes his only freedom of choice. And then on the left side, the Creator organizes disturbances.

Caught between these two opposing forces, a person is completely confused; he cries, feels helpless to the extent that he needs either to escape or to hope for a miracle.

And then in this hopeless condition, when a person is almost drowned in the treacherous questions “Who?” and “What?” and cannot get out of them, the idea of the ark is suddenly born in him. He understands that he will be saved only if he gets the property of Bina, bestowal, Hafetz Hesed that will be higher than all his requests.

These requests will remain, a person cannot completely get rid of them; it does not depend on him. But if in spite of all these problems, he enters the ark, deciding that these turbulent murky floodwaters, all these doubts and problems are not related to him, he can be saved.

From what and for what is he saved? It needs to be checked! After all, the questions “Who?” and “What?” (“Mi” and “Ma” in Hebrew) that generate the floodwaters (Ma-im, “water” in Hebrew) offer a very attractive material solution. An ark is intended for entering a state of unity, adhering to the same goal. Thus, a person will be able to advance.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/12, Writings of Rabash 

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I Want To Escape To The Upper World!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: There are so many beautiful bright people and forces in this world. And in spirituality, it is said, “There is none else besides Him,” dryly and simply. How can I feel attraction to the spiritual world and taste and pleasure from it so that I will want to rush there?

Answer: How can you feel an attraction to the upper world? If you felt more attraction than you do now, you would be driven by your egoism, you would never be able to rise above it to overcome it, and you would hasten there. So it is concealed in order to give us as the opportunity to make efforts that are above our ego, not for our self-benefit.

If we moved to the upper world through our egoism, we would forever stay within our selfishness, we would have no chance to get out of our egoistic shell, and we would be buried in it, buried alive. We would never go beyond the egoistic sphere.

If the upper world were revealed to you right now, you would immediately understand that this material realm is worth nothing at all! We would clearly see that people are animals that live only to feed themselves. I feel sorry for this life; at this point, nothing is worth our efforts, there is no sense to have children and continue suffering…nothing really matters! Is it clear? Then what?

Ah, there is the upper world! First and foremost, it’s eternity that is beyond any limitations. Time, movement, information, everything becomes completely open to us. Time ceases to exist; it only exists in this world, as physicists say, only below the speed of light. Information becomes completely available there. One begins sensing oneself as existing in infinite space. One acquires absolute knowledge about everything that is going on in the entire system of the worlds, in the whole universe, since this system is analog. There is not a system clock, it does not work on pulses; it is always in continuous motion and at the same time rests in calmness. You feel that you are inside of it and at the same time you know that It somehow exists within you, meaning that you are everything there is!

If you happen to see even the smallest piece of that picture, even one gram of it, you’d become a slave to this sensation. Baal HaSulam writes that if the revelation of the upper worlds to us would happen before the contraction of our desires (at which point a man becomes able to keep his egoism to himself and even rise above it), then even one drop of revelation of this enormous pleasure would force one to chop off his hands and feet seven times a day just to experience this sensation once in his lifetime.

Do you understand? You would be a slave and couldn’t do anything at all except to pursue this pleasure. You would make huge efforts in the group and everywhere else only to receive this sort of pleasure. In other words, you would aspire to it egoistically, and thus you would distance yourself away from it even more.

Question: How can we possibly want to achieve that state if we don’t have powers of our own?

Answer: Ask your friends. Only they can ensure your future. If they go for it, you’ll have it, if not, you won’t.
[85914]
From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/17/12, Lesson 1

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A Flood Of Water In The Work

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom the article “What is a Flood of Water in the Work” by Rabash: In The Zohar, Noah comments on the words “and I am bringing a flood of water on the earth”… we know that when a person begins to work in order to bestow, the body claims, “What mean you by this work?” What is the sense in not wanting to work for your own good; after all, you should worry about enjoying life and to bestow means that you don’t work for your own good. So it is against our nature and this is called “a claim of what.”

But there is another claim, when the body objects to the Creator’s work, when a person says to the body that we have to believe in the Creator, that He looks after and leads the world as the good and the benevolent. Then the body comes to a person with Pharaoh’s claim that says: “Who is the Lord that I should listen to Him?” which means that it is hard for him to believe in the Creator. This means that he says that he can work for the Creator’s benefit, but only if he feels the Creator’s greatness does he understand that it is worthwhile to work for Him.

These two questions: “Who?” and “What?” have to appear before every person on his spiritual path and to be revealed to their fullest. A person should know how to cope with them and to understand them deeply. These are fundamental questions that result from the great exertion invested in the group, in the study and in the great efforts to advance towards the goal.

As a result, the questions of “Who?” and “What?” are revealed to a person and it is these questions that balance and stabilize him and help him clarify the powers he needs in order to build his spiritual vessel.

This vessel that is built of two opposite lines in every one of its parts, above which a person builds the middle line; above all the attributes and the discernments he has to determine a common discernment called the middle line.

So first he has to clear the two questions of “Who (Mi)?” and “What (Ma)?” which means with the water (ma-im) of the flood. Rabash writes: “And if a person is happy by these two questions, that he now has a place to work above reason, it turns out that he is saved from the flood of water.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/12, Writings of Rabash 

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The Main Thing – To Strive For Unity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the correct way to act during the workshops?

Answer: One should act according to Rabash’s writings about the assembly of the group: A person has to lower himself to the group and imagine himself in the assembly of completely corrected people who may not seem so to him as I see them through my egoistic filter as uncorrected to the extent of my corruption.

I have to actively participate in the discussion even if I don’t have anything to say. They will understand and support me.

The main thing is to aspire that the soul will be one whole, to the center of the group, not forgetting that these “ten” in the world, along with all of us, are all united in a spiritual body seeking to reach the first similarity with the Light, the same property, mutual bestowal!

As soon as we reach this level, we sense the fulfillment from the Light, from mutual bestowal, and from connection—we are born as a spiritual object.

Good luck!
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