How can we change our egoistic intention, which was given to us by nature and always exists within us, without any doubts or clarifications? It is called the evil inclination, which was born first. And now we need to give birth to a good inclination.

And that is why we are working together on our evil inclination in order to build a good inclination within each of us through mutual guarantee. We turn to the Creator. as if to a bank, and say that we want to build a building of bestowal.

Each of us has not a penny to his name, but we sign the mutual guarantee. There are nine friends backing me up, ready to sign a guarantee that I will be in bestowal because they will support me. Since I am in their complete power, whether I want it or not, I will certainly be in bestowal.

This is how we come to the Creator, and everyone signs a guarantee for their friends. No one can be a guarantor for himself because he does not have such powers; where will they come from? But he can be a guarantor for a friend, and in this way we come to mutual guarantee. Then the Creator begins to invest His upper force in this mutual guarantee that we have signed.

What have we invested in this mutual guarantee? After all, no one has anything, so no one can pay anything for the other. But since we want to help each other, this very guarantee helps us start building a common building.

None of us can be the foundation of this common building, nor is anyone its owner. Only due to the fact that each supports the other, due to our mutual support, does this entire building stay upright.

This is how we build the spiritual building. There is nothing in it; it is maintained only by our mutual guarantee and by our appeal to the upper force. That is why this building is spiritual.
[293160]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/22, “Faith Above Reason”

Related Material:
Arvut Obliges Bestowal
Mutual Guarantee—Support And Example Of A Group
Caring For Friends Means Caring For Your Correction

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Mutual Guarantee, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

KabNet published my new article: “Robin Hood of the Trees”

Carbon is the tradable currency of the forest. Trees absorb carbon from the atmosphere as part of the process of photosynthesis and share some of it with fungi that grow on their roots. In return, the fungi give them nutrients and minerals such as nitrogen and phosphor, which trees cannot absorb from the soil, but fungi can. Now, a new study by the Israel Society of Ecology and Environmental Sciences has found that fungi do not use all the carbon for themselves. Instead, they “pilfer” carbon from stronger trees and pass it on to weaker ones. In a sense, they are a kind of Robin Hood of the trees, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.

Once again, we find that where we see “survival of the fittest,” there is in fact “survival of the friendliest.” The ego hides the truth from us and prevents us from building peaceful and abundant lives for ourselves.

Connections among humans are far more complex and intricate than those among trees. If we used them correctly, they could sustain all of us abundantly, even if there were many more people in the world than the current world population. But we do not use them correctly. We use them to abuse and dominate others. In doing so, we condemn ourselves to eternal wars and inevitable destruction.

Our egos are blinding us. They make us feel that if we share our fortune, we will be left deficient. In truth, empirical evidence shows that those who share end up having greater abundance than those who do not, both financially and emotionally, while the tightfisted end up on the losing end of life.

The current crisis in computer chips, for example, could have been prevented if we only coordinated our needs instead of each company stocking up on supplies and “emptying the shelves.” The shipping crisis, where ships wait outside ports for weeks before they can unload their cargo, is also an unnecessary result of our unwillingness to cooperate, to consider others’ needs, as well.

If we want to utilize the interconnections in our society to our benefit, we need to start thinking about how we use them for the common good, not only to benefit those in power. Otherwise, supply shortages will worsen to the point where we will have difficulty providing ourselves with the most basic and necessary staples.

It may not be natural for us to share, as it is for nature, but we have no choice. This is why we were given intelligence, so we can use our intellect to learn why sharing pays.

Nature has its Robin Hoods; we have nothing but a movie. So if we want a peaceful and abundant tomorrow, we must nurture the hidden Robin Hood within us.

Filed under: New Publications | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: The Creator gives us everything, but what can we give to Him?

Answer: The Creator gives us everything in order to correct us in accordance with our desires. If we are able to ask Him, then we are ready to change. In accordance with this, He shines upon us the light of bestowal and love, and changes us.

The only thing we can give to the Creator is the raising of MAN, that is, raising our desire to be more and more similar to Him. The way He bestows, we also bestow.

Question: How can we determine that we are in a request for the sake of the Creator and not for our own sake? Is it according to the amount of light we received?

Answer: There is no way! How can you weigh it, measure it, or even feel it?

We simply need to yearn to be in the same desire, in the same intention toward one upper quality of love, toward the Creator. Only in this way can we gradually increase our request, raise it all the time, study it, and make it so diverse that it turns into a real, serious task.
[293050]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Asking the Creator to Fill the Place Between Us” Lesson 7

Related Material:
What Can We Give The Creator?
Giving Contentment To Others Gives Contentment To The Creator
How Can We Please The Creator?

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Events, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: If I free my friends from my own shortcomings by exalting them, then what are my next actions?

Answer: If you hide your shortcomings from your friends, you steal from them because they will have nothing to rise above.

Our ascent lies in the fact that after seeing the negative qualities of others, I rise above them. That is, I begin to evaluate my friends not negatively, but positively.

This means rising above your egoism. When you see a friend in a negative way, you must reach a state where these negative qualities will appear positive. As it is written: “Love will cover all crimes.” Crimes remain and I cover them with love.

There is nothing else. No matter how negative we may be, we can be positively connected with each other. This is how we must learn to work.

Question: But if I exalt my friends and see them in full perfection, where does my previous view, when I endowed them with my qualities, go?

Answer: It stays. Nothing disappears. All your negative opinions about your friends and your own desires and thoughts all remain in the common Kli (vessel). And then the negative and positive parts will still work with each other in symbiosis.

Question: And if I do not hide my negativity, they have nothing to justify in me?

Answer: We should think about unity, love, and good relations, and how to instill them in each and everyone. We should not expose our egoism. But if it catches the eye of others, that is a different problem. Perhaps it is their problem that they feel this way, and they should work on themselves. We must be an example. This is already mutual work.
[292735]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends” Lesson 4

Related Material:
Raise The Friends In Your Eyes
Love Above All Differences
Sparks That Are Lighted In A Circle Of Hearts

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Events, Group Work, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

A person cannot strive for the property of bestowal in a natural way because it is contrary to our nature. But if I try to change myself in a group, then I will begin to receive help both from the group and from the Creator. And then I can succeed.

The only thing that is required of me is a request, a prayer. It is the main thing. We must come to it. We should constantly try to develop it so that it is as general as possible and strong, it is the only one that works.

So it is written by Baal HaSulam and other Kabbalists that everything is achieved through the power of prayer, the power of asking the Creator. Since He created egoism, only He can correct it and direct it correctly.
[292829]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Asking the Creator to Fill the Place Between Us” Lesson 7

Related Material:
The Infinite Power Of Prayer
What To Ask From The Creator?
Praying In Order To Change

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Events, Group Work, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does the future hide from us?“

We have been created such that we should build our own future from how we adjust ourselves in the present, and not draw it from various sources and wait passively for the future to simply happen.

We have to make sure that even in the present we currently live in, we operate in such a manner where we constantly construct ourselves. Otherwise, if we sit and wait passively for the future to happen to us, we simply let life’s circumstances determine our future.

We are formed by the desires inside us and in our surroundings. Therefore, in order to determine our future, we should consider how we connect optimally among each other and with nature.

We are all parts of a closed system that we need to enter into balance with if we are to experience it harmoniously. We should thus be interested in improving our relations in order to reach balance with nature, because if we make no strides in our attitudes to each other and to nature, then we will experience this closed system we are in negatively, through all kinds of afflictions.

Based on “Spiritual States” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on December 21, 2021 and a Kabbalah lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on January 13, 2019.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Filed under: Q&A, Quora | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: Does a person choose his environment?

Answer: No. As it is said in one of the articles of Baal HaSulam, the Creator brings a person to the desired state: “You place my hand on the good fate, to say, ‘Take this for you.’”

It depends on us only to strengthen ourselves in this way, or at least not to leave. Cling to it with your teeth and keep it that way.

Question: It is said that a person is obliged to nourish from his environment. What kind of nourishment are we talking about?

Answer: It means absorbing properties, values, assessments, and tastes from your environment.

Question: Why is dependence on a spiritual environment considered freedom?

Answer: Because you become free from your egoism.
[292819]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends” Lesson 4

Related Material:
A Simple Formula For Spiritual Life
How To Choose A Better Environment At Every Moment
Proper Environment

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Events, Group Work, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: Why does the property of bestowal prevail precisely within the friends and not somewhere else? After all, we studied that the Creator is everywhere and He is pure bestowal.

Answer: But we do not see this. When we develop the quality of bestowal through our friends, we will see that the entire world is in this quality.

But now I am in a state where I feel that the entire world is egoistic. Therefore it is written, “Everyone judges according to his own flaws.”
[292873]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends” Lesson 4

Related Material:
The Creator Is Inside The Environment
To Become Similar To The Creator
Making A Step Toward The Creator

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Events, Group Work, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: In 1938, Einstein wrote in an article entitled “Antisemitismus,” “Why Do They Hate the Jews?,” “In brief, we may call it the process by which dislike and hatred of a given person or group are diverted to another person or group incapable of effective defense. … Why did the Jews so often happen to draw the hatred of the masses? Primarily because there are Jews among almost all nations and because they are everywhere too thinly scattered to defend themselves against violent attack.” In addition, “Almost beyond imagination were the charges brought against them, charges known to their instigators to be untrue all the while, but which time and again influenced the masses.”

How does Kabbalah explain the reasons for antisemitism? Why are Jews hated even in countries where they have never been seen?

Answer: Explaining the source of antisemitism, Einstein, of course, is far from being a genius. I have read his publications on these topics as well as those of many other great people. Not understanding the spiritual root of what was happening, they picked up certain connections and laws from the corporeal world. But true connections exist only at the spiritual level.

Therefore, everything they say on this topic is completely wrong. That is, some of their observations may be partially true and partially not, but the foundations are completely wrong.

If Jews did not have the Kabbalistic methodology that should correct our world and bring all of humanity to perfection, then the world would not have any complaints against them. And now completely different people suddenly begin to assert that Jews are the cause of all evil in the world.

And in fact, it is true because so long as  the world is corrected and some people have the “key” to its correction, then they are to blame for what is happening in the world. We must quickly pass on this “key” to everyone else.

In humanity, this feeling exists at a subconscious level because we are all children of nature. Nature develops us and people feel it internally. The world feels its dependence on Jews.

The internal demand for correction, for the fact that we should exist on a different level is externally expressed in the form of antisemitism.

In addition, since the development of Jews happened in order to bring the world to correction, in accordance with this, they have a huge potential for studying, understanding, correcting, and developing the world.

And we see that in sciences, arts, in everything where they make efforts, they achieve results hundreds of times greater than everyone else. This comes from their spiritual disposition.

This phenomenon is confirmed by statistics. Despite antisemitism, facts and figures speak for themselves. Jews are always at the head of all kinds of movements in science, art, politics, jurisprudence, everything. They are obliged to fulfill their spiritual task.
[287785]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Expulsion” 12/11/09

Related Material:
Natural Anti-Semitism
The Roots Of Anti-Semitism, Part 1
As An Eyesore

Filed under: Israel, Nations of the World | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic: “Faith Above Reason” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam “You Have Made Me in From Behind and Before”

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 117

Selected Highlights 

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson | Add Comment / Ask Question →