A Soul that Yearns to Free Itself from Shackles of this Life

202.0Question: One day a disciple came to his teacher and said to him: “Teacher, I want full realization and perfect attainment of the truth.” “Wait,” says the teacher, “It will take some time, and this will certainly happen to you.” “No,” said the student, “I want it to happen now, right now!”

The student followed after the teacher.  The teacher took the student to the river, grabbed his head, plunged it into the water, and held it until he began to choke. Then he released the disciple who cried out: “What are you doing?! Another moment and I would have died!” The teacher replied. “Now you understand to whom the truth is revealed.”

The question is: Is it really to this extent?

Answer: Of course. The upper truth is revealed only to those who cannot live without it, who agree to do anything for the sake of its attainment.

Question: How do we come to such a demand?

Answer: This is only at the will of the Creator.

Comment: Because there are a lot of things around us.

My Response: No, no, everything around you does not matter at all. But it is possible to come to the meaning of life, to reveal it, to feel it only if a person understands that there is no other way. That is, it should be above life and death.

Question: Does a person bring himself to such an extreme state or is he brought to it?

Answer: No, this is the soul. This is a soul that seeks to free itself, to free itself from the shackles of this life.

Question: Does it mean that these are special souls, and we do not know when this will happen within us?

Answer: Yes, but gradually an increasing number of souls are approaching this state.

Question: Is this what we call a cry, a prayer?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Does a gift come from above?

Answer: Everything is a gift. Absolutely everything is a gift from the Creator.

Question: Are my efforts to come to this point a gift?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Will it not come to a normal head otherwise?

Answer: Never to anyone, and in no way. It only comes from the Creator and only to those whom He designates for it.

Question: Tell me, please, is the revelation of the truth the end or the beginning of the work?

Answer: Revelation of the truth is the beginning.

Question: Will there again be getting to the fact that it is impossible to breathe, and revelation again?

Answer: But it will be different.

Question: Then the last question is: What is the truth?

Answer: Attainment of the Creator, attainment of the entire universe through the Creator. This is the attainment of the perfection of the Creator’s actions.

Question: Is this what we have to attain?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Does everyone have to attain this one way or another, sooner or later?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Will everyone be taken through this state when I cannot breathe until I attain?

Answer: Not to such an extent. There are special souls who have to go through this in such a large volume on their own. And there are those who follow them, in their footsteps, en masse.
[324648]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/8/24

Related Material:
The Parable of the Wise Man
A Special Soul
Great Kabbalists Are Special Souls

An Effort Is the Prayer

232.1Thus, the correction depends entirely on the connection of the letters ELEH the MI through MAN. This is why this correction is called “the holy tongue,” (Rashbi, Zohar for All, “Heaven and Earth”).

MAN is our desires. In rising to the upper world, they get included in its system and prompt parts of the upper world to connect with each other.

In this way, the nature of all worlds will start uniting and pulling toward each other. Then humanity will realize that it is included in the general nature of the world. Then it will begin to act logically and directly, in accordance with this system.

MAN is the raising of a prayer, a desire. The connection of any part occurs when raising MAN, a prayer occurs. If you want to connect with someone, you have to ask the upper force to do it.

Question: Why didn’t nature give us the strength to do this ourselves?

Answer: It will give that to you to the extent that you can use it for the benefit of everyone.

Question: But why should I ask for this? Let us say I made an effort and was given that, but no, I have to make an effort, ask, and pray.

Answer: This happens so that you really understand whether or not you are able to interact correctly in the world with all its parts.

Question: It is still not clear why the upper force shouldn’t give a person, after his efforts, the opportunity to connect with another part?

Answer: That is what it gives him.

Comment: But it says here that we need to raise a prayer.

My Response: So, this is effort. The effort itself is prayer.
[324780]
From KabTV’s “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” 1/21/24

Related Material:
What Is Worth the Effort?
The Last Drop Of Effort
The Effort Is The Pleasure

How Can You Make Happiness Follow You?

294.2Comment: There is a small parable about three brothers who saw Happiness sitting in a pit. One came and asked Happiness for money, and he received it. Another asked for a beautiful wife and received one too.

The third bent over the pit. “What do you need?”, Happiness asked.

The man asked, “What do you need?”

“Brother, get me out of here,” Happiness requested.

The brother extended his hand, pulled Happiness out of the pit, turned around, and walked away. And Happiness followed him.

What should a person do to make it follow him? What did he do anyway?

My Response: He did not demand anything. On the contrary, he did a good deed; he provided a service to Happiness.

Question: Is this the condition under which happiness follows you?

Answer: I do not know.

Question: Can’t we generalize that we shouldn’t demand anything, etc.?

Answer: No.

Question: When you ask for happiness, like in this parable, you receive some segment—money or a wife. Later, everything can change. You can get divorced, go bankrupt, and so on. But when you want to give it to the other, is this the secret?

Answer: I cannot imagine how you can give happiness to people, transfer happiness, or take away happiness. I think it does not depend on the person.

Question: What does it depend on?

Answer: I think it depends on fate.

Question: Does it mean that you will behave according to what is given to you? You either give away happiness or demand it for yourself.

Answer: Yes, and the main thing is to agree with it.

Question: Is this the main question?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So, can I change?

Answer: Practically, I cannot change. Perhaps the Creator can do this sometimes, at our earnest request. But I personally cannot change anything.

Question: But can I come to a state where I do not like myself the way I am? I don’t say “hate.” I don’t like myself when I demand happiness only for myself. Can I come to this state?

Answer: It is not easy to come to this, but it is possible.

Question: Can this be the starting point when I ask to be given the opportunity to somehow give happiness?

Answer: For what? Are you going to give people happiness? Are you taking on such a mission?

Comment: I see. Instead of happiness, I will give something else: unhappiness.

My Response: Yes.

Question: Your question: “For what?” If I answer egoistically: “In order for happiness to come to me, I understand that I need to give it away.” Is such a formula possible?

Answer: No, it is egoistic anyway.

Question: Is it still called “Give me happiness”?

Answer: Yes.

Question: It turns out to be such a dead end. How can a person get out of it?

Answer: There is no way. As the Creator predicts and decides, so it will be.

Question: Is it necessary to seek happiness after all or not? Or is it also in the hands of the Creator?

Answer: I do not think happiness can be found. You need to make happiness. That is, you need to put yourself in a state where you know exactly how to force it to reveal itself. Then you will see it.

Question: Then a very important question is: what do you mean by the word “happiness”?

Answer: By happiness, I mean the feeling of a person that his life was a success. It was a success.

Question: Does he have this feeling toward the end of his life, or does he have this feeling during his life: “I am living the right life, my life has been a success”?

Answer: No, I think it is already closer to the end.

Question: And during life, is there work going on all the time? Does it turn out that our life, in your opinion, is constant work?

Answer: Yes. It is when a person is looking for ways to rebuild his life again and again so that it brings the happiness that he imagines, let’s say, to make people happy, to make relatives happy, everything that he can imagine.

Question: But now you are still directing the vector “from me”—to make others happy. Do I in this way find the meaning of life for myself? Do I through this come to the conclusion that I am happy in this case?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is this constant work?

Answer: It is constant work, and it cannot stop. A person should clearly understand how to do this.

Comment: But along the way he should be disappointed, get up again, and so on, and so on.

My Response: I do not know whether he should be disappointed. He just should imagine his path. And then “The road surrenders to the one who walks it.”

Comment: That is, if happiness is following you, it does not mean that you are happy; you have to work all the time to make others happy. And this is not easy, as we understand it.

My Response: It does not matter that it is not easy. What is easy in life? There is nothing easy.

Question: But is this the path? Is precisely this the path?

Answer: Yes.

Question: When you say “the path of light” and “the path of darkness,” what do you mean by it?

Answer: The path of light is when you bring light to people. And the path of darkness is when you cannot do it.

Question: I cannot or I will not?

Answer: I think that you cannot and you do not want to is the same thing.
[324785]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/14/23

Related Material:
Happiness Is Always There
How to Sculpt Your Happiness
Who Will Mold Happiness For Us?

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 3/1/24

Preparation to the Lesson

icon for podpress Video: Play Now | Download icon for podpress Audio: Play Now | Download

1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, “Concerning Ancestral Merit”

icon for podpress Video: Play Now | Download icon for podpress Audio: Play Now | Download

2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 3, Part 10, Item 19

icon for podpress Video: Play Now | Download
icon for podpress Audio: Play Now | Download

Selected Highlights

icon for podpress Video: Play Now | Download icon for podpress Audio: Play Now | Download

Audio Version Of The Blog – 2/29/24

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3Audio

Lose Yourself for the Sake of a New Degree

276.02The efforts that one makes are but preparations for achieving devotion. Hence, one should grow accustomed to devotion, since no degree can be achieved without devotion, as this is the only tool that qualifies one to be rewarded with all the degrees (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 208, “Labor”).

Question: What does it mean to lose yourself for the sake of a new degree? Is that sacrificing oneself without knowing the state we are going to?

Answer: It means losing your egoism, to stop feeling it. Without this, we will not be able to rise to the following degree. Therefore, we must be ready to sacrifice our ego.

Question: Do we sacrifice our qualities or some levels of the desire to receive?

Answer: In principle, we do not sacrifice anything. We agree that the upper light gradually annuls our egoism. Before any new state comes to us from the Creator through our friends, we must annul ourselves and be ready to help each other in everything.

We need to be in this direction all the time, to want to get closer to the Creator, to turn our state in such a way as to be in unity with Him. The main thing is to not stop and move forward. There is a better future prepared for all of us.

Question: How can we effectively build a new level so that it is in love and bestowal?

Answer: To do this you just have to love.
[325602]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Labor”

Related Material:
Losing Myself in the Friends
Overcome Yourself by Raising the Importance of the Goal
Life Beyond Time

Make an Atomic Bomb and Stay Silent

229To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me (Isaac Newton).

Question: What do you think of that?

Answer: That is normal. Precisely because he explored and felt the world, he calls himself a child.

Question: Because he saw what the world is like?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And he says that he just found a few pebbles, that he was lucky. He doesn’t get proud of the fact that he is like that. He says: “All this was given to me.” Where has all this gone today? Nowadays scientists do not think like that.

Answer: Today it is no longer possible to investigate the world using such methods of internal contemplation. And this is exactly what he used. Today they use technical and technological methods.

That is why there are no more Newtons. The last Newton was in the form of, I would say, Lev Landau. There was no one after him.

Question: Then what is your definition of a scientist?

Answer: A scientist is one who wants to understand the meaning of the existence of our world. It does not matter what he is: biologist, technologist, who, or what. If he seeks to understand the nature of the existence of our world, then he is a true scientist.

Question: Basically, over time, does it turn out that the Newtons have been exterminated?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Why were they brought down? Why did it all come to this current state?

Answer: Nobody likes scientists. Nobody. Not a single scientist could rise as much as he was supposed to by nature. Science is in conflict with government—any government! That is why no one respects them.

Different kinds of seminars and academies are organized for them. This is true. And shut up! Make an atomic bomb for us, space flight, all sorts of rockets, planes, guns—and stay silent.

Question: What do you think if we took Newton from that time and transferred him here—as he is, without the influence of anyone else—how would he respond to these instructions to make a nuclear bomb, a hydrogen bomb, or to create weapons? Would he go for it or not?

Answer: I think he would not. Each scientist, in accordance with the depth of his attainment, simultaneously feels the height of science and cannot connect it with those egoistic, mercantile demands that the government offers him.
[324100]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/25/23

Related Material:
Evil Boomerangs Back to You
The Kabbalist Sir Isaac Newton
Newton About The Last Days Of The World

The Land Flowing with Milk and Honey

627.1Question: What is “the land flowing with milk and honey.” This must have some kind of spiritual basis, what is it?

Answer: The land flowing with milk and honey means that from our base (where we are), there is both the light of Hassadim and the light of Hochma, which complement each other in their connection, and we will never have problems in this.
[325384]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/24, Writings of Rabash “What Is, ‘The Smell of His Garments,’ in the Work?”

Related Material:
At The Borders Of The Promised Land
Desert Flowing With Milk And Honey
Egypt Flowing With Milk And Honey

Be in Joy

572.02Question: It says that one who serves the Creator should be joyful. What is this state of inner joy?

Answer: If I am striving toward the Creator, then I should feel joy from this alone.

Although I am still far from getting close to Him, I must constantly think about Him, imagine that I have a connection with Him, turn to Him all the time, and be happy.
[325335]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “My Adversaries Curse Me All the Day”

Related Material:
Advance in Joy
There Is No Room For Despair And Disappointment
The Joy Of Anticipation Of Ascent

Everything Is Resolved at the Roundtable

528.01Question: How should we work internally and externally when a desire to convince and defend our opinion to others appear when scrutinizing Kabbalistic sources?

Answer: This is not right and it shouldn’t be like this. Try not to get involved in such matters at all.

Let everyone express their opinion, and then find out why it is this way and different way. But everything should be decided at a roundtable, preferably when the ten is complete.

Question: What follows from what: individual work from the work in the group or the work in the group from the individual attainment of the internal work?

Answer: It is interconnected. You cannot determine one of the parameters. They always affect each other and mutually determine each other.
[325339]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Rewarded—I Will Hasten It”

Related Material:
Refocusing The Work In The Group Of Ten
Unification Of The Souls = Equivalence To The Creator
The Kabbalistic Group Is A Spiritual Booster