What Is Written in the Book of Life?

198Question: The sage spoke a simple phrase, “A person must acquire both knowledge and wisdom.” And when asked what the difference was, he replied: “Knowledge is achieved by reading books, and wisdom is achieved by reading the book that you yourself are.”

What kind of book am I?

Answer: Life, the book of life, experience.

Question: Is this me?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What does it mean to read this book?

Answer: Do not forget, remember, understand how you live.

Question: So was this book written in myself?

Answer: It is written in you by your life. But only you can be imbued with it and understand it if you leaf through it.

Question: On one hand, it says “reading.” You just said, “It is being written.” What does it mean to write this book in myself?

Answer: Writing is my writing it myself. Every day, every minute, at every moment, I solve some problems or tasks set for me and take them into action. And here I just need to understand how all this happens, which decision is correct, and which is not.

Question: If this is a book that must be read, what is the correct solution?

Answer: I must think through what I am doing, what I need, why and how, make a decision, and act.

Question: How can one make the right decision?

Answer: I must make the right decisions as if each were the last, final decision, and I will not be given an opportunity to redo.

Comment: So you do not give any room for error at all. You seem to say: “This is your decision and that is it.”

My Response: How will you correct these errors? There is no error correction. Now I have made a decision and that is it.

Question: What is this book written with?

Answer: The book of life is written with doubts and blood.

Question: Does blood mean suffering?

Answer: Of course.

Question: So this whole book, it is scary to say, is in blood, that is, in my suffering, in what I went through, and what humanity went through? That is my book.

Answer: Yes, we have been living this way for thousands of years.

Question: Is this the correct scripture? Is that how it was supposed to be written?

Answer: Yes, there is no other way.

Comment: That is, I do not regret anything, nothing that happened, all the suffering that happened, including the most terrible. It turns out that all this was necessary to write a book.

My Response: Yes.

Question: What are the last lines in it? What does this book lead to?

Answer: It encourages us to open our eyes even wider and look at the world clearly. And we would see that it is only we who paint a picture of this world and ourselves in it. In reality there is nothing else.

Question: Except what?

Answer: Except that we determine all this.

Question: Do we determine the existence of this world? Just the way it is?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What is it really like?

Answer: There is no world.

Question: What is it there?

Answer: Whatever you define is what it is.

Question: But do I exist?

Answer: Whatever you define.

Question: That is, I determine that this is such a world, and I determine that it is me in it? And that’s all?

Answer: That is it!

Question: What is there?

Answer: There is nothing except your impression of how you draw it.

Question: Let us say that I come to this, although it is not easy to understand. I come to this, so what? And that is where this book takes me?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: They say that after all we are led to happiness.

My Response: What happiness?! Is someone telling you about sky-high happiness? About the fact that there will be some kind of happiness at the end of days?

Question: What do they lead to then? I want to believe…

Answer: Toward that you get to know the world in which you found yourself in.

Question: And is this how I am led by these sufferings and blows, just to get acquainted with this world?

Answer: Yes.

Question: But they beat me for some reason. Not just for me to get to know the world. Is there something I should gain from all this?

Answer: You do not gain anything from this except a place in the cemetery. Nothing else.

Comment: I still want to hear something from you about some kind of plan.

My Response: You do not need anything! Thoughts like yours, they only drag a person into all sorts of impossible dreams, thoughts, and so on.

Question: Do you say, “We need to calm down”?

Answer: Of course.

Question: If possible, let us summarize. I read this book of life, write it, live my book of life in order to come to the point of…?

Answer: Do not ask for anything.

Question: Can we stop here?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So I ask all the time, and it works. And you say: “I must come to the point that I am not asking for anything”?

Answer: Nothing! So this is the world, this is life, and I exist in it in order to calm down.

Question: Can we say that by this I accept everything that comes to me? Is this the result of this book?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Do I just accept everything?

Answer: Everything.

Question: I still want to add. Is all this good? Is it something good? Or do you not want to answer this?

Answer: I do not want to tell you what does not exist. A person is very scared, and therefore he still hopes that he will get something good from this hard life at the end.

Question: Do you say: “All the good is that you accept everything”? Is this the result of my life and this book?

Answer: Yes, the result of your life is to understand the real nature in which there is a clear law. And if you fulfill it, then you fulfill it; if not, then no. And to this extent you agree.

Question: What law is this?

Answer: This is the law “to each according to his work on himself.”
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/9/23

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In Constant Dialogue with the Creator

256Comment: You have said more than once that the perception of reality, i.e., everything that surrounds you, is your dialogue with the Creator.

My Response: Not only mine but everyone’s! We are all in direct, constant dialogue with Him because the Creator is nature, and what we feel in us or around us is all nature or the Creator.

If we clearly understand that this is His address to us and want to tune in to Him, then we relate to nature differently, i.e., we try to find mutual understanding, a two-way connection with the Creator.

This means that we already treat the environment around us and ourselves as His manifestation. That is, I myself am also a manifestation of His thought.

Question: How do you perform this action?

Answer: I begin to listen to that point in me that feels everything. What does it feel? It feels the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Creator is Everywhere“ 12/24/11

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Hit a Single Point

507.03Comment: During seminars, connection meetings, and conventions, we go through different states, find some point of unity among ourselves, and try to constantly hit it. But it seems that these actions will no longer have the same force as the first time.

My Response: No, it is not like that. There should be even more impressions from these actions! Here we are not dealing with momentary egoistic findings when we use the effect of surprise or some kind of novelty.

We do not need novelty! On the contrary! As we move forward, our egoism is pumped up from time to time, and by climbing it we feel much greater internal actions during the same external actions.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Head Against the Wall” 12/21/11

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Questions about Spiritual Work—78

549.02Question: What is the root of honor?

Answer: It is in egoism.

Question: I have no desire to climb the spiritual degrees, but I invest as much as possible in the work and leave everything to the will of the Creator. Is that correct?

Answer: No, it is not correct. It is necessary to also make efforts by yourself.

Question: When a person has done a lot of work at a convention, has become a great righteous in his own eyes, and sees himself above the rest, he becomes a big problem for the ten. How can we help him get out of this trap, since as a rule it does not end well for him?

Answer: Usually in this case, the person leaves the group. But we have to wait. Maybe we should just talk about this case, not about this particular friend, but in general, as if it happened in a different place.

Question: Is the desire of a student to reach the state of righteousness an egoistic desire?

Answer: If a friend wants to reach this desire at the expense of others, then it is egoistic, and if he simply raises himself, this is not egoism.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Honor”

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 2/19/24

Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, “What Does It Mean that Charity to the Poor Makes the Holy Name, in the Work?”

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 2, Part 7, Item 41

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3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Foreword to The Book of Zohar”

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Selected Highlights

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 2/18/24

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Is it Beneficial to Share Your Personal Feelings?

234Question: What are qualities that cannot be revealed to someone?

Answer: Some personal impressions and experiences. And although at the preparatory stage they are such that there is nothing forbidden in them, it is still better if a person more or less hides them from others.

Question: Can we share our feelings with the teacher; can we open our hearts to him?

Answer: It is better not to, but you are free to ask questions during the lesson. There is nothing secret that you have to hide; you don’t have it yet.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “One’s Soul Shall Teach Him”

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Freedom—Liberation from Egoism

591The quality of freedom, which we receive as a result of spiritual work, is the desire to be above the desire to receive. That is, as one gets closer to the Creator, one falls under His influence and begins to transform all of one’s desires, intentions, and qualities to similarity of form to the Creator.

Question: Why is this called a quality of freedom, because it actually falls under the influence of the Creator?

Answer: Liberation from egoism is freedom for us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Freedom”

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Angels Are Our Helpers

565.02Angels said to the Creator, “Master of the world, what is a woman-born doing among us?’” (Rabash. Article 34, 1990, “What Are ‘A Layperson’s Vessels,’ in the Work?”).

Question: I get the impression that angels feel some kind of jealousy toward people. Are they some kind of independent beings?

Answer: Angels are the will to receive, which at the moment, according to the article, allegedly oppose the advancement of a person to the Creator so that he would understand better how to move forward and would turn to the Creator.

Question: Does it mean that angels are our competitors?

Answer: Angels are our helpers, but as a rule, they act through the questions. But these questions shape a person and raise him.

Question: How can we correctly interact with angels?

Answer: We interact with the Creator. Only with the Creator, but about the questions that the angels awaken in us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/24, Writings of Rabash “What Are ‘A Layperson’s Vessels,’ in the Work?”

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Providing for the Creator

624.07“Israel provide for their Father in heaven.” What provision do they give Him by which He is sustained? (Rabash. Article 34, 1990, “What Are ‘A Layperson’s Vessels,’ in the Work?”).

Question: Usually the Creator sets the table, i.e., the host invites the person. But here, on the contrary, a person prepares a meal; he is like a host. Why is it the other way around? Does it mean something?

Answer: It all depends on what you are doing it for—either for the sake of receiving or for the sake of bestowing. If for the sake of bestowing, then you feed the King. But if it is for the sake of receiving, then you are being fed.

The actions are different, but everything determines the intention. It reverses the actions.

Question: How can we control the intention? Is it through a request, or in some other way?

Answer: Only through requesting.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/24, Writings of Rabash ‘What Are “A Layperson’s Vessels,” in the Work?’

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