Entries in the 'correction' Category

There Is No Good Without Evil Or Evil Without Good


A question I received: In Israeli society, there are various charitable events as well as donations made to help the poor. In the end, do these actions hamper the development of this part of the population or is this just another example of mutual guarantee?

My Answer: There is no good without evil or evil without good. We live in the period following the shattering of the common soul and this why in any piece of it, in any of our actions, there is some bad that consequently yields a positive outcome and there is some good which at some point leads to a bad outcome. And this goes on forever. Either in the beginning or in the end, it will be either good or bad. Good and bad go together until the end of correction when all evil turns to good.

When speaking of donations, helping others, volunteering in hospitals or  wanting to help starving people in Africa or other countries, we see that there is absolutely no benefit from any of these actions in the end. There are billions of dollars being spent on such things and there are thousands of people working in charitable organizations who enjoy their work. But the benefit is zero. I would even go as far as to say that it has the opposite effect.

Before people started seemingly to care and therefore began handing out food in Africa, the country created, produced and traded a huge variety of goods. Now that foreign countries are providing Africa with food and weapons, the African nations are only rebelling against each other.

In order to break a person, you only need give him the necessities so that he stops thinking and worrying about his own life. This is exactly what happened in Russia. They found oil and gas there and started to sell it, which led to the country’s collapse. Why do people need to work if they have money?

The same is happening with national insurance in Israel. If you are entitled to benefits you won’t want to come out of your house. “What do I need it for? I can buy a bottle of beer, watch TV and watch the time go by. Today everything is fine.” A person makes a sandwich, goes to the beach and spends the entire day there.

Nothing can be more destructive than these seemingly good works and care for others. It is better for a person to endure blows, as then he will be obligated to work or to study!

Related Material:
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Baal HaSulam Article: “Building the Future Society”

What Does The World Look Like To The Creator?


Even when a Kabbalist has already reached high spiritual degrees, it is still very beneficial for him to study books by other Kabbalists, because this enables him to see reality through other people’s qualities. After all, every person sees the world from his own point of view.

By learning how others perceive the spiritual reality, one begins to see it through each corrected soul, and thereby quickly joins the common soul. Picture it this way: at first I am a point inside a circle. As I correct myself, I build a connection with Infinity – a line from the center of the circle to the Light surrounding it. Then, by connecting to all the other souls, I broaden this line, like a sector, until it comes to include the whole circle. Now the whole area of the circle is my corrected desire. Therefore, I can only correct myself completely by uniting with the other souls.

However, this is still not enough, because my personal circle is flat. But there are more circles like mine – other corrected souls. When all these circles unite, they form a sphere with one common center. This means that I start seeing all the corrections of all the souls from their point of view.

Why is this? It is because the Creator looks at each soul from Above and activates it. And I have to reach the same level. Therefore, I have to “clothe” into every person and see his correction from his point of view – from within his soul.

Only then will I reach equivalence of form with the Upper Force. It is not enough for me to correct my own “flat surface.” I have to correct one surface after another, circle after circle, until they all unite into one sphere.

This is mandatory in order for us to reach similarity to the Creator. Each person has to unite with others in this way and to look at the world “through” them.

And after that, everyone has to unite all together, so all the individual spheres will be united into a “rounder,” more perfect dimension. At that point, all the individual differences between all the people will disappear completely. But this stage is already above the corrections we make…
(From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

There Is No Past, Present Or Future


There was an entire infinite Kli, none of which was corrected, and the Creator seemed to be a source of evil. I then corrected a single element in the Kli, just the element that belongs to me at this moment, and suddenly I discover that the Creator is now good to me!

So what was happening yesterday? As I continue the correction, I feel that He has always treated me well – in the past, the present, and the future!

But what about other people? When I connect to them, I discover that they are also part of my Kli. I thus expand my correction to encompass the entire creation – Infinity, and I incorporate it all within me.

Everything depends on my correction. To the extent I correct myself, I discover that the Creator is good, and to the extent I don’t correct myself, I reveal Him as evil. Every person judges things to the extent of his correction or lack thereof. There is no past, present, or future; there are only degrees of revelation of the corrected Kelim, the degrees of my correction.
(From Part 3 of the revelation)

Our Inner Coordinate System: World-Year-Soul

The Soul Is the Property of Bestowal, and Until We Develop It, We Remain AnimalsThe spiritual world consists of the same parts and connections between them as the material world. However, we can only feel the spiritual world to the degree our sensations enter it.

Forces descend from Above into our world, and they have inanimate, vegetative, animate and human qualities. This is what we observe: the expression of the Upper Forces in our world as objects and actions.

Our encounter with the details of perception gives rise to the forms. For example, say I see an object before me now. It appears to me in a specific form, but if I had different qualities, then I would see a different form. Baal HaSulam gives the example of a table: I see it one way, but an angel sees it through its qualities.

Reality or perception is produced when my qualities unify with the Light’s, due to our having common or similar qualities. Beyond my perception, there is only Infinity, out of which I perceive just the part that I have shared qualities with. So how can I attune myself to having shared qualities with the Upper World? I can do it because inside me, I have the same coordinate system (world–year–soul and a ready-made reality) as it has inside. And when I ask for it, the Upper Light makes my system similar to the Upper Level. This is called the correction of the soul. It’s when I make my inner system similar to Infinity, in a specific measure. I thereby determine my spiritual level and the degree to which I perceive Infinity.

The Physical Actions We Make Cannot Correct Anything In The World


There is no sense in trying to correct anything in our world, as it is a world of consequences, which descend from the spiritual roots. However, if we can somehow affect the upper roots, we will also  be able to change the material world.

The roots cannot be affected by separate individuals. It is only by uniting together that we can achieve a connection with the root, since we do not exist there as individuals. In the roots, we are all united as one system.

Therefore, if we wish to change our reality, we have to unite. When we have this desire, it will draw the Light upon us, which will correct everything here in this world.

We will then truly “correct the world.” But if we try to correct the externality – the external actions, behavior, or religious commandments – then it is pointless, since there is nothing to correct here. All of these all merely an imprint on the inanimate matter of what happens Above.

This is like trying to hit an image that’s projected onto a wall using light, or kissing it and asking for forgiveness. That is what our actions are like, but we think we can change something this way.

Only a person’s inner corrections can influence the material world. This is why we disseminate Kabbalah instead of encouraging people to correct the ecology, the crisis, and finances.

Nevertheless, a person is always more willing to “correct” the material things, especially if he knows that his efforts will be seen and valued by others, or if he can be proud of his own actions, society will support him. In this case, a person is willing to do anything, and this drives him to carry out such actions.

Inner, spiritual work is difficult precisely for this reason: it isn’t valued by the people around us or even by our own egoism. However, the true work occurs only inside a person, and it does not depend on his body or the physical actions he makes.

Related Material:
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Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 09.06.2009

michael-laitman_daily-lesson_sep-03_0001_previewPreparation
I can feel empathy for someone in the material world, but this will only be a measure of my participation in his suffering. It won’t be pain that I myself feel.
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Part 1, on Baal HaSulam’s Letter 23
The spiritual world is not a theory. Actually, it is much more real than the “reality” we are familiar with now.
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Part 2, on Part 12 of Talmud Eser Sefirot, “Inner Observation”
All the corrections are made by the Light. So if a person acts on his own, he is acting inside his egoistic desire.
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Part 3, on “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” Item 142
Reality is something that you have in common with the Light. You gradually perceive one more part, and then another one, and so on, but you always perceive only the things you are ready for.
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How Does Spiritual Development Measure Up With Material Prosperity In Different Countries?

laitman_2009-06_1300_wQuestions I received about spiritual transitions in different countries of the world:

Question: You said that we cannot lump humanity together by force because all people are different. Does this mean that in the near future there will be a certain number of people in every country (more in some areas and less in others) who will be able to perform this complicated and difficult transition into the spiritual?

My Answer: Yes, but in fact, not everyone will perform it consciously, with understanding, in detail, and in steps. There are people in the world who have a greater understanding of this, those who have a lesser understanding, and there are also those who don’t understand it at all and only know how to use it by living the simple life of an average man.

Question: Does that mean they complete the transition almost without realizing it?

My Answer: They realize it, as it passes through them, but it passes in a relatively passive manner – only because they connect to those who attain actively. Ninety-nine percent of humanity is comprised of such passive people.

Question: There are countries where the majority of the people are still on the level of animal desires. Since we can’t push them anywhere by force, how will a new world order be organized?

My Answer: First of all, I see that Europe has more people who are on the level of animal desires than perhaps other “less developed” places. Second of all, the order of correction will organize itself, so we don’t need to organize it.

In this regard, our views and assessments of these civilizations: America, Europe, Africa, etc, are erroneous. We look at the level of knowledge, the level of our corporeal culture, the level of prosperity, and comfort of life. However, this has nothing at all to do with how well the “human” part is developed in a human being. Bedouins who live in tents in a desert could be much more human and much more open than modern European savages.

Related Material:
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Kabbalah Corrects Only Your Soul, Not Your Externality


A question I received: Do my behavior, actions and attitude to people influence my spiritual development?

My Answer: A person who studies Kabbalah has to behave in whatever way is generally accepted in his society. Don’t try to play games or do anything unnatural, and do not tell your coworkers that you study Kabbalah. If you participate in dissemination, do so in social circles external to your own. The reason for all of this is so others won’t influence you negatively later on.

All the corrections that you can possibly make are not done by you, but by the Surrounding Light that returns one to the Source. This Light influences and mends the only thing that is broken – the soul. By correcting the soul, the Light restores all of its parts.

When looking at Kabbalists who perceive the Upper World, the Upper Dimension, or the Creator, you wouldn’t notice anything special about them, externally. Or vice-versa: how would you try to find a Kabbalist according to his behavior? There are plenty of people who volunteer in hospitals and protect the environment and wildlife – but you won’t find one Kabbalist among them! You also won’t find Kabbalists among those who meditate on mountaintops or practice all sorts of Eastern techniques.

You can only correct that which is broken, and the only thing that is broken is your soul. Your soul is incorporated in all the other souls, and therefore, by incorporating yourself into them correctly, you will be able to correct everything. Anything we do in this world, aside from the things that are necessary for existence, brings no benefit to us and only causes us harm. Therefore, you should only concern yourself with the correction of your soul.

Related Material:
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In Spirituality, Preparation Is The Most Important Time


A question I received: According to Kabbalah, humanity’s correction takes place over six thousand years. Most of this time has already passed, and there’s just a little over 200 years left.

Why have we begun to use Kabbalah for correction only now, at the very end of the allotted time period? And even now, many people still don’t have any idea about this teaching. It seems that the world will end up reaching correction through great suffering. Why did the Kabbalists begin to put so much effort into teaching and disseminating Kabbalah only in the “final minutes” of correction?

My Answer: It is because the world has only now reached its maturation, as Kabbalah predicted. The reason for this is that the most important aspect of spiritual actions is the preparation, which depends on a person and occurs inside him. This is also why it takes so long. However, the act of correction itself happens quickly because when a person is influenced by the Upper Light and the revelation of the Creator, he changes instantly. Try it for yourself!

Therefore, the remaining 230 years is more than enough. And if we’ll want to, we will be able to reduce this time.

Related Material:
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Obama’s Presidential Job Approval Ratings Show Steady Decline


In the News (from Rasmussen Reports): The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that … 40% Strongly Disapprove [of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President] giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -12.

My Comment: Yet, the crisis is still ahead, and Mr. Obama does not have answers to it. The new administration will lead to a degradation of morals in America, and that, together with the crisis, will cause terrible consequences… until the people will reveal the method of correction, Kabbalah.

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