Entries in the 'Suffering' Category

Give A Person What He Is Ready For

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In recent years we have been talking a lot about the work for the 99% of the planet’s population. If I have already changed and I see the world corrected, then why should I be changing them?

Answer: If they were not suffering then, possibly, you would be right. If they were not looking for a way out of their condition, then of course we would not be addressing them.

The science of Kabbalah was hidden throughout all of the millennia. The first time it was revealed was 5,773 years ago, but then it was hidden again. Its second revelation happened in the Ancient Babylon 3,700 years ago. However, nobody used it practically and it was hidden again. Now, throughout the past decades, it is gradually being revealed again. This third revelation is characterized by the fact that it is global.

A serious need exists in the world: how to go on living? Humanity has finally discovered the futility of its existence. What is life? A form for the existence of protein matter and that is it? But since you have already developed to such an extent that you are constantly suffering and you are constantly lacking something, then these sufferings are drawing the questions: What do I need this life for, how, and why?

Since before those questions were revealed, while the sufferings were not revealed in a more or less global form in the family, in society, culture, and science, and today even in economics as well, we did not come out to the large masses.

However, if a person does not need anything today as well, then don’t tell him anything. Let him live peacefully. The Creator gives him desires on a particular level, and he fulfills these desires: He has a home, a garden, chickens, a small yard. He is fine; it is enough for him; so don’t touch him. You have no right!

However, if a person is suffering, try giving him something so that he will find an answer to his question about suffering.

But if suffering is manifested already in the global form: the terrible state of children in schools, the detachment of youth, depression, drugs, suicide, lack of work, and the complete destruction of the past relationship towards life, then we can speak, but in general, not addressing each person. Speak about the reason behind what is going on, about our egoism, and how we can come to a better life if we correct it a little, if we change our relationships between us.

Practically, we are only advising about how it is possible to improve our state and only where people have a big question about this. That is why we disseminate Kabbalah only in those places, where it is necessary, where people really do have a need.

Question: If I go to disseminate to the 99% of the population without the minimum preparation, will I bring them more benefit or harm?

Answer: One needs to study about this. We have special courses open for educators and teachers, for people who work with the masses, for lecturers. All who participate in dissemination are required to pass these courses.

Everyone is obliged to this without exception. Everyone! Each one must take these courses and keep developing constantly. And this helps. First, this shapes a person; addressing others he becomes connected to them, and in the contact with them, he begins to form himself.

Dissemination is an effective means for spiritual ascent.
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From the Vilnius Convention 3/24/12, Lesson 4

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If You Don’t Want To, You Won’t Find Anything

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, Shlavei HaSulam (The Steps of the Ladder), 1985, Article 15: And the more they afflicted them”: “And the shell of Egypt, is the general shell, where the sparks of Holiness fell, that the People of Israel who were in Egypt, had to correct them. Then there must first be such pain and suffering that they can’t leave their control, as it says “and the Children of Israel sighed from the work, and they cried out, and their cry rose to the Lord from the work, and the Lord heard their sigh.

There must be a feeling of exile, there must be such strong suffering and pain that “it is better to die than to live” if I can’t come out of Egypt, if I don’t achieve what I want. My desire has to be so big. Otherwise it isn’t a vessel; it isn’t a place for the revelation of what we are looking for.

At the same time, my crying out should be strong not only in quantity but also in quality. I have to know what I am yearning for in exile, what I want to discover, what is happening to me.

So the exile is the most serious preparation for redemption. In exile I clarify things, by clarifying what exactly I want and in what way. This is the reason why the exile cannot be less than 400 years, according to the four phases we go through when we build our vessel. Only at the end of this process can we come out of exile and really receive what we have prepared. The upper Light has no form and now too it fills everything, but we don’t feel it. We must acquire the four phases, a whole vessel, and then the Light will be revealed.

So it isn’t about 400 years, but actually about four whole phases of building our vessel. The forms we develop in it totally depend on each of us. Of course, we receive the initial spur from Above as it is written: “The Creator puts a person’s hand on the good fate and tells him, take it.” But later on a person’s fate is in his own hands.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/6/12, Writings of Rabash

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Shame Worse Than Death


Question: It is written, “I, HaVaYaH, do not change.” What does this symbolize in our work?

Answer: The Light comes from Above, and it is all bestowal. It is good and benevolent, and it created “existence from absence,” something from nothing, a desire that is absolutely controlled by receiving. It only wants to feel good.

Then, the Light begins to develop the desire by putting it through four phases. As a result, it doesn’t feel itself simply as Light, but as the one who receives, who is opposite to the source. This summons shame, a terrible feeling, and it has nothing more than that.

It turns out that receiving is a good thing, and there is nothing wrong in being the opposite, but these two factors together create a feeling in me that I cannot bear. It tears me to pieces, and I am ready to do anything just to not remain in this state even one second longer. I am ready to do anything. Even committing suicide is no problem. The main thing is not to suffer, not to bear this oppositeness.

This is true shame. We don’t know it. We use the word, but we don’t know what it means. In Part One of The Study of the Ten Sefirot, “Inner Reflection,” Baal HaSulam says that shame was prepared for the high souls, and they are the ones that discover it. This is because, in order to do so, one has to feel the Creator, His pure bestowal, and one’s own pure receiving to the fullest. One contradicts the other.

The process that is described here flows from the top down and is called “the four phases of the Direct Light.” So, by its influence, the Light leads the created being through his development.

This is the structure of HaVaYaH: the tip of Yod, Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey. This structure is fixed, and it appears this way from the top down.

Until now, the development was done by the Direct Light. From this point onward, it is your turn. However, you feel terrible shame. It simply burns you from the inside, and you can’t bear it. Therefore, from now on, you won’t be able to relax until you balance the shame.

First, you want to escape it, but that doesn’t change anything. Everything remains the same. It isn’t possible to relax, and you have to change yourself, but how can you do that?

The created being simply “goes crazy.” The shame tears him from his place, tears him from his desires, and keeps on pushing him forward to end of the road. He cannot rest until the one who receives and the one who bestows become equal in their bestowal.

Only when we reach Gmar Tikun (the end of correction) will we stop changing. Then, the shame will disappear, and the oppositeness between the Creator and us will disappear.

So, the Creator says “I, HaVaYaH, do not change,” which means only that I brought this process down. However, this is enough to not allow us to rest until Gmar Tikkun.

Only then will we reach harmony and begin changing together with Him, according to Him. The Creator won’t be the first. We will merge with Him into one to such an extent that all the differences in thought, in our desire, and in every other way will disappear. We will start everything together in cooperation.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/30/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Everyone Has The Right To Learn

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: People who recently found out about Kabbalah have doubts about whether or not it should be studied methodically. What is the use of regular, systematic study of the science of Kabbalah?

Answer: Throughout history the only people who came to Kabbalah were those who felt a burning worry, a burning desire. A person could not hold himself back. It was important to him to find out what the essence, source, or meaning of life is. And according to this desire, he “ended up” with the science of Kabbalah. And that’s because everything we see in the world is a spiritual force field in which we move. If the spiritual desire awakens in a person, being an aspiration to the Light, to bestowal, to the Creator as the source of Light, then he finds Kabbalah by moving to it naturally, similar to a charge in an electromagnetic field.

This happened in every generation. However, today is a special time when not only individuals, but masses are discovering that our world is empty. They feel this from the suffering and inner emptiness, and then they also ask the question about the meaning of life. However, their question is aimed not so much at the source of life as at the cause of what is happening: Why do they feel bad and where could goodness come from?

This desire is vested into the garments of our world. It does not yearn for ascent or the search for the source of life, its force, its Governor. A person just wants to know how to arrange his life to avoid losing everything. His family is falling apart, his children are strangers to him, he has no job, everything is vanishing into thin air, and who knows what will happen next? This is driving millions and even billions of people to the same Source, although on a lower level of desire.

Therefore, today we accept everyone to the study of Kabbalah. If a person wants to study and find out some things, then let him come and study. At first we present the science of Kabbalah to him in an easy, friendly form and talk about “rights” rather than “responsibilities.” But later a person sees that just like in any other area, here he also has to exert efforts, and he has to do it more and more. In order to acquire something important, one has to work a lot. This is not a secret, but a person first has to see that there is something to gain here.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/5/12 on Kabbalah Learning

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Above The Black Abyss

Dr. Michael LaitmanHow can we imagine the upper state in which the Creator reveals to you that He loves all those that hate you and hates all those that love you, including yourself? It seems that it brings you no good and that there is nothing worse than that. Before you are Pharaoh, Bilam, Balak, Amalek and Hitler all in one and you know how to overcome this because this also comes to you from the Creator, although indirectly.

The more we advance towards love, the greater the obstacles we come across. You overcome them and the “angel of death” becomes the “holy angel” in your eyes.

Question: I don’t understand this state. After all, the Creator is still perceived as good and benevolent. Do I see it together with the suffering of others and my own suffering in the past?

Answer: You see all the suffering that is in reality. This is a horrible picture: monstrous suffering, not one gram of pleasure, not a day of rest, only pain and suffering for thousands of light years. The suffering is everywhere. There is total emptiness in the desire to receive, not here and there, not from time to time, but one hundred percent suffering.

This state is called the illumination of the Shechina, and above it, you reveal the good and the benevolent. Otherwise, how would it be possible to discover Him? If the Creator just brings you goodness, then you discover Him in egoistic vessels. But if you discover Him in the full depth of the black abyss that is in front of you, then He is discovered in your vessels of bestowal that are aimed at bestowal.

Furthermore, you will see that He is good only towards those who are as bad as He is, and bad towards those that are good, in contrast to Him. This is how it will seem to you.

Our work is only in rising above the vessels of reception. If you see that the Creator’s actions do not match bestowal, it appears to you intentionally as an obstacle on the way, above which you have to rise.

Question: And what do I discover after this ascent?

Answer: The desire to receive, the general vessel of Malchut of Ein Sof, in a totally empty form: darkness, despair, worry, and fear, the dreadful trials of Job, and you fill it with the Light of Hassadim and with love.

Question: That means that after having corrected myself I feel good, no matter how much darkness is revealed to me. And now I look at the past and what do I see? Have I suffered or not?

Answer: This is already the next level, which you have to determine. In Gmar Tikkun (End of Correction) you don’t see that you’ve suffered of course.

Question: And what is the suffering that I feel now?

Answer: Now you are not the same person who will attain Gmar Tikkun. Eventually you will not recognize yourself in your present state. The feelings that were left behind are not you.

Question: So what am I now?

Answer: Something virtual.

Question: So what do we need all the present states for?

Answer: You feel them in order to prepare yourself, when you do everything that is in your power. It says: “I have exerted and I found.” You are getting ready until you find, until you rise above the Machsom (barrier), until then, the real “you” doesn’t exist.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Can We Not Suffer?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why do we view our spiritual path to be “masochistic”? Why can’t we avoid the emptiness and suffering?

Answer: On this path, we suffer from love. We regret that we are deprived of similarity with the Creator.

Do you really think that the Creator deprives you of food, water, shelter, and health? No, we are talking about the suffering of those who want to be like Him.

Suddenly, our egoistic desires and pleasure get bigger; the desires and pleasures are in fact the same and we cannot cope with them any longer. In this case, we suffer, and the Creator disappears from our sight. Previously, He exposed Himself to us. But later on, predicaments show up and we cannot handle His revelation any more. So, He conceals Himself from us.

There is no comparison with the suffering of a regular person who instead of earning ten thousand yesterday, earns only a hundred today. We have to understand the language of Kabbalists who talk about spiritual things rather than on the material plane. On the spiritual path, “punishment” means the Creator’s concealment and our inability to bestow.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/19/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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The Joy Of Waking Up The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Creator is pleased that the created beings advance, although their advancement is full of great problems and worries, just as parents of a mentally retarded child are happy that he begins to progress and grow wiser. He is the one who has prepared all these problems for us; He is the one who has hardened Pharaoh’s heart.

This is how we advance until a person begins to feel that he is in a world that is totally bad. First, as long as he was in a state of “total retardation,” he thought that the whole world was good. Now he feels that he is in a bad world and begins to search for the meaning of life and what we are living for.

He continues to develop through the environment, the group, and the right books and begins to discover why he feels bad. It turns out that this bad feeling is purposeful. After all, it says: “I have created the evil inclination.” There is an upper force that worries about him and takes care of him. It isn’t just the environment, but something more sublime.

He learns not only about himself and his dependence on the environment, but also about the upper force, a third factor. He understands that the upper force intentionally makes him feel bad so that he will want to exit this bad feeling and he tries to exit it.

He sees that there is a method that enables him to wake up from the dream everyone else is in. He is not “retarded” any more; he reaches the recognition of evil and wants to rise above it in order to understand why he feels bad.

He begins to search the reason for this bad feeling and discovers that there is probably an upper governance. Here he reaches correction and connects with the environment.

He discovers that all these problems were intentional. The upper force didn’t create evil in order to bring him pain and sufferings, but so that when he rises above the evil, he will attain the upper force itself, and will be able to control, to understand, to feel, and to determine everything.

It is all thanks to the fact that he used his evil nature purposefully. Then the good force is revealed in contrast to the evil force. A person begins to work with these two forces, when he is above them, and thus he becomes a partner of the upper force, the Creator. Just as the Creator manages all our life and this world by these two reins: good and evil, he also wants to manage the whole world by himself, by the good and the evil. He wants the Creator to teach him how to do that.

Thus from being totally detached from life, like a retarded child who grows thanks to the egoistic environment that develops him and supports him this way, he begins to rise above this environment to an upper dimension. Eventually, he learns to use all of the environment, all of his nature and the upper force itself, in order to become like the Creator. He does all this in order to attain the upper force, to discover It.

At first he does it unconsciously, like a mentally retarded child who is dominated by the upper force. Then he begins to gradually exit this state, thanks to the evil force, that discovers the egoism inside him. He developed this way to a certain level, until he asked himself: What is the reason for all this evil? If everything were good, he would have no questions.

He has no choice but to search for the good force in contrast to the evil force. Then he grows wiser until he learns to use the two in order to rise above them.

This whole process takes place under the motto: “There is none else besides Him.” There is one upper force in everything, which helps a person go through the whole way. By recognizing and feeling the whole process, he understands what the upper force has done for him, and that It suffered much more that the person did. Because when a person suffers, the Shechina suffers much more.

This is how a person reaches the love of the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/12, Shamati #1

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Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Romania has been shaken by collisions for a week now. In Bucharest they are becoming quite brutal. Our friends there are very worried. Overall, how should we view the suffering that the world experiences?

Answer: We must only disseminate materials about unity. And there are several rules in this regard:

– We do not mix with anyone;
– We are not “for” or “against”;
– As educators, we relate to people very considerately and unsophisticated.

That is how we approach the situation, according to the principle, “Love will cover all sins.” It is necessary to reach consensus, conciliation, unity. This does not mean that everyone calms down and goes home, since in that case we would be against the protestors. No, we are for change. However, in all of history, methods like this have never brought about anything good.

We have live examples before our eyes: Egypt, Tunisia, and other countries. For example, what was the use of the spontaneous disorders in London? This approach does not bring anything good to anyone. And Egypt has become immersed in devastation and is left with nothing. So, disorders won’t help.

That is why we have to release explanatory brochures with materials about mutual guarantee, including our advice: communication, round tables, and integral upbringing.

But first of all, we must concisely describe the current situation: Why is this happening?

And in doing so we do not speak out against the government or anyone else. We are talking about a natural process, a regular phase of our evolution where the world is becoming global and interconnected.

So what should we do? We have to adapt to the new conditions. After all, there is no other way to go. The integral network is already expressing itself. It’s simply that previously we adapted instinctively, whereas now we must reach harmony with the changed world consciously, with our own awareness. This is our new level of development.

Next, we have to explain how to do this: by means of integral upbringing, with the help of a good environment, which will convince every person of the need to unite with others.

Romania is a pretty homogenous country. It is not home to different cultures living side by side—it’s not America or the united Europe, so there it’s easier to talk about unity. This approach will appease the people, will revitalize the country, and will give people work. People will rise in their consciousness and will understand what is happening. They will see for themselves that this is good for them, their children, their country, and people.

As a whole, we are only inviting everyone to unite, and no more than that. There are no hidden “fees,” dirty tricks, or attempts to make money off of someone. On the contrary, let them do everything themselves. Let them organize the learning process and build an environment according to the laws of nature, while collaborating with psychologists.

This is what we have to offer, especially considering that there are many countries standing at the threshold of the same kind of strife.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/12, “Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot”

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Who Is The Stick Being Prepared For?

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is written, “A thousand enter a room, but one comes out to the light.” So what can we do to make sure at least a dozen people succeed, or a hundred people? Indeed, our ideal result is nothing less than one hundred percent.

Take a regular person off the street. He lives a decent life, but suddenly he begins to get bombarded by all kinds of problems and misfortunes: conflicts with his wife, kids getting out of hand, health issues that the doctors can’t seem to fix…. Everywhere he turns, he discovers evil. Things keep deteriorating and there’s no solution in sight.

Admittedly, everybody else appears to be in just as dire straits and that makes it all more bearable. After all, man always checks himself in relation to others both in joy and in sorrow. When any given misfortune befalls everybody, it makes it easier to endure. We all come from the same soul and no one can judge himself in a vacuum, separate from others.

We all compare our state with the general prosperity or misery. I am incapable of sensing myself exclusively, for without the human environment, I fall back to the animate degree. And if there aren’t animals around, I’ll revert to the vegetative degree. If you abandon a human being in the woods without animals, he will invariably become like the vegetation that is his environment.

So then, today we exist at the very stage when the crisis is enveloping the whole world. Sure, the media mitigates the situation by showing us that people everywhere are hurting. This appeases us for a time so that the next blows will be harder and penetrate deeper until they become unbearable. But for the time being, I look at others and remain content with my own lot despite all the problems that are besetting me. Other people’s suffering allays my vigilance; the upshot is that the evil will break through into my consciousness only after it becomes too much to bear.

How can we remain in a state of helplessness when it becomes a matter of life and death? That’s when the suffering clues you in that its arrival is not accidental but purposeful. The chain of Reshimot (informational genes) leads you to this thought.

However, we don’t want to lead humanity down this path filled with pandemics, natural disasters, world wars, and so on. We want to bring humanity to the recognition of evil today while people are still finding comfort in the misery of others and empty hopes.

How do we do this? This brings up the issue of understanding the governance: You see that it is sweetenting your life, but at the same time you see the stick it’s preparing for you in the event you fail to recognize this governance in its true form in real time, through the prism of mitigated suffering.

Such is the path of the Torah, and such is the path of suffering for all of humanity. It’s all in your hands.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Managing The Past, Present, And Future

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur livelihood is measured by the ratio between three Lights: There is Reshimo (reminiscence) of the previous state; there is the inner Light and the surrounding Light in the present state with the Masach (screen) between them that separates the Light that comes to these two Lights.

The inner Light gives us the feeling of the present. The surrounding Light, which remains because of what we cannot overcome in order to bestow yet, gives us the feeling of the future. The Reshimo, the basis on which I make this calculation, gives me the feeling of the past.

My uncorrected egoism is what divides time into past, present and future for me. If I receive a Masach of 100% for all my desire, I no longer experience different times. The concept of time ceases to exist and only the world of Ein Sof exists.

This means that the past, present, and future don’t exist by themselves! We have simply become accustomed to perceiving and feeling these influences this way, but this is only a psychological problem. There is no time; there is only the state of the soul, which feels the influence of the Light that constantly changes. This is why it seems to us that time passes.

When I move from the concept of corporeal time to the spiritual one, to the ratio between the Reshimo, the inner Light, and the surrounding Light, which determines the past, present, and future, I begin to relate to this condition differently. It becomes clear to me that time doesn’t exist, and it all depends only on me. I can hasten time if I hasten myself and approach the present from the past, and from the present, approach the future more and more closely.

It all depends only on the speed in which I acquire the Masach, develop it, clarify my situation, and perform actions of in order to bestow in the ten Sefirot of my soul. This is all our work because there is nothing else we should do but hasten time.

If we “press the gas pedal” ourselves, we advance quickly and shorten our way, and make it pleasant, leading toward the desired goal. Then we go through it with joy and pleasure as we justify the Creator and thank Him for being good and benevolent, for arranging such a wonderful path for us.

But if we don’t make enough efforts in order to advance, if we don’t press the gas pedal, but rather are pushed from behind by sufferings, we advance in the natural pace of evolution when everything happens in “its time.” Therefore, this advancement is felt as unpleasant and brings about great sufferings because the Light that comes doesn’t find desires that are ready to receive it and so it is compelled to remain outside and to pressure us and cause us pain and sufferings.

In this case, all the Light comes without “sweetening” but as is, and so it is revealed as Gevurot, as burning fire. Everything comes from the Light, but it can be received by desires that are ready for it and that summon it, and it can come according to the natural process, in its time. So the main thing is to hasten our work.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/12, Shamati #35

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