New Life #638 – The Good Ones

New Life #638 – The Good Ones
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

The wisdom of Kabbalah obliges us to reach love thy friend as thyself. Mutual guarantee will fill our country with a good spirit. When the connection between us is good, we are compatible with the general good force of nature and can bring it closer.

Once we were as one man in one heart, and when unfounded hate broke out we were destroyed. Now we need to rebuild ourselves. Our good future depends only on the connection between us through which our sense of security will improve and our enemies will be neutralized. Our spiritual leaders explained that if we are connected, no one will want to harm us.

Beyond mutual help, the project of “The Good Ones” also includes a PR campaign, discussion circles, in home meetings, and more. If we stop wanting to kill one another in potential, our neighbors will no longer want to kill us in practice. We will be good to one another and the whole world will be good to us. It is an equation that everything works by.

We have to radiate a spirit of connection and set a good example with our neighbors, at work, on the road, and in the media. There is the potential of goodness in every Israeli; it is in our DNA, and this is how we gathered around Abraham. The “Good Ones” is a positive wave meant to awaken the dormant love that is concealed in us. Mutual help in addition to a PR campaign about why it is important to connect will build a zone of security around us. If we connect, we spur the good force in nature and it balances the evil in us.

We tell our children that they should behave nicely to others, but we actually forget that. Let’s create good waves of connection between us, and they will spread like ripples from Israel to the world.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #638 – The Good Ones,” 10/25/15

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Receiving Illumination Through Suffering

Question: Is it possible to discover the Creator without studying according to a method with a teacher and books?

Answer: It is possible, but this is very difficult. There have historically been Kabbalists who attained serious and high states without study.

One of the cases was a person who attained the upper world when he was in a Soviet concentration camp. He began to write in Hebrew there even though he didn’t know the language at all. It is considered that the book was written in a high language that nobody speaks and nobody understands.

I showed his book to my teacher Rabash and he said that this was a very high spiritual attainment, but it is individual like the Book of Psalms by King David.

I was amazed at how a person who doesn’t know the language could write something like this. Rabash answered that it was specifically the great suffering that he went through, which revealed the upper world to him, and he expressed his feelings in writing.

It is necessary to understand that we exist in the upper world, but we lack the desire for it whereas for him, there was a breakthrough into the upper world. There was an additional case of a person who also sat in the prison cell of a concentration camp, and from tremendous longing and great suffering he began to feel the upper world, although not clearly. But he felt as if everything enveloped and held him. This is a normal first feeling of the upper world, and that is what he described in a book.

When he reached Israel sometime later, we met, but all of his spiritual sensations had disappeared. It could be that if he had remained in a camp, he would have reached a greater attainment. Since this didn’t happen, he will live this life without physical suffering. But he had an illumination there and the opportunity to discover the upper world specifically from a state of suffering.

Comment: There are many people who suffer and don’t receive an illumination like this.

Answer: It depends on from what they are suffering. If a person suffers because he is searching for the meaning of life, this could end with the revelation of some kind of illumination. We are found in an ocean of Upper Light, but we don’t have a strong desire for it. When the desire appears in a person, he has some kind of vigilance and he makes an effort so he will feel a higher illumination.

Question: If a person receives illumination through suffering, does this mean that we were created to suffer?

Answer: No, a person is born to discover eternity, the infinite, perfection, and harmony. Suffering is not the right way to attain the upper world, and if this happens, then the contact with the upper world is temporary because the person doesn’t develop permanent desires for spirituality. I don’t suggest considering the example that I gave because a temporary illumination like this comes in moments of very great disappointment and despair when a person sees absolute darkness in front of him.

This is called the “illumination of Malchut,” an abyss that is not a void, not anything except coldness; instead, it is a state in which all substance seems to freeze in him. That is, the person has moved to the beginning of the creation of the universe.

This is possible because all of us are moving in a timeless dimension. States like these can be experienced when the ego disappears, but they don’t give anything. In moments of intense suffering, a person can feel some kind of detachment from his egobecause suffering pushes him toward it.

His entire being is suffering and he wants to leap out of his body, apparently to stop existing. In a state like this he can feel a little detachment, but even though this is a state of antimatter, it is far from being spiritual.

If you want to achieve conscious fulfillment from the higher force correctly and rapidly, it is possible only through connection with friends according to the correct Kabbalistic method. All the other ways are incorrect.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/20/15

New Life #684 – The Need To Criticize Others

New Life #684 – The Need to Criticize Others
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

It is natural to criticize others since we are all egoists. Each of us wants to be the king and to rule, and even in school we can already see who the critical and cunning kids are, qualities that accompany them in political positions and on an international level. The more a person’s ego grows, the more he feels distinct from others and the greater his criticism of others.

Today, social networks and the Internet enable a person to criticize everything and to say whatever is on his mind to let out steam. In the future, the ego will be even more complex, pride will grow, and very few in the world will behave differently. In ancient times, in the early days of humanity, the ego was collective, but as the ego developed more and more, each member of the tribe felt that he was separate. The sense of criticism developed in order to separate man from others to our current state when everyone hates everyone else.

A person attacks the one who criticizes him while allowing himself to criticize everyone else since he feels that he is the clever one who understands everything. On the next level of the development of the ego, a person will feel so distant from others that he will have nothing to do with them, not in commerce or in any other area. Each of us will sit alone in his home and only machines will do the work for us. People will not even engage in sports; everything will freeze.

There can be constructive criticism only toward someone we love, but today everyone hates everyone else, and when everyone feels isolated and lonely and the question of “what am I living for?” awakens in a person, the correction of the ego will follow.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #684 – The Need to Criticize Others,” 2/2/16

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New Life #508 – The Whole Truth About The Upper Force

New Life #508 – The Whole Truth About the Upper Force
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe.

Summary

There is an operating system surrounding the universe and the different forces of this system operate our world. Above these forces there is one force. The goal of our spiritual development is to get to know the upper force, to understand that it operates from inside us and speaks inside us.

All the Holy sources teach us how to discover the upper force. The wisdom of Kabbalahtells us that we shouldn’t blindly believe that this force exists, but should explore, study, and discover it by ourselves.

The great Kabbalists, who were very wise people that lived thousands of years ago; they developed many levels, and wrote books in which they encoded the inner secrets of the upper system. All these books actually teach us how to attain the upper force.

Today the wisdom of Kabbalah is being revealed, inviting everyone to learn how to develop his soul and get to know the upper force; it is the attribute of love andbestowal, the good and benevolent force. This is how the ancient Kabbalists actually broke through the borders of time and space and conveyed the message about the force of love and bestowal to us in the books written through “love thy friend as thyself.”
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From KabTV’s “New Life #508 – The Whole Truth About The Upper Force,” 1/22/15

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An End To Competition

The desire to receive is the matter of creation. This desire develops on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature and undergoes different phases as a result of which more and more complex structures are formed. The elementary particles gather into atoms, the atoms are connected into molecules, and the molecules are connected into different materials: gases, liquids, solids, and plasma.

Later, the level of the vegetative formed including all its components. Here the organization and composition of matter is much more complex and unique since it develops, absorbs, emits, multiplies, etc. The animate level is even more complex.

Generally speaking, matter increasingly includes more different parts and is more complex. Different processes occur in it caused by internal software and also by the external influence of the environment.

Eventually there is the level of man, which in its development also undergoes the three earlier phases: the still, vegetative, and animate. Wisdom is developed, and desires for food, sex, a family, money, respect, and knowledge. Mankind develops emotionally and cognitively, and the main part of our development is in the relations between people, social development.

In addition to that, modern research indicates that we give up our cognitive development for the sake of social relations. This is because society generally emits and expels people who are too intelligent. They are humiliated because they stand in society’s way of feeling as one body. Society prefers people who are grey, simple…

Therefore, according to the software of nature, humanity has preferred to develop, not in a special emotional or cognitive way in the form of a large, unified, grey society, but one in which people are connected. This is what we are more attracted to while we don’t like, belittle, and reject everything that is not part of this standard framework. This is the way we evolve.

Eventually we reach a special stage in which global society becomes more or less homogeneous, and the point in the heart begins to awaken in many people—a new deficiency, a new desire. It is a special desire that is revealed according to the plan of creation, and there is nothing we can do about it. It isn’t a way to be above others on the same plane, not an addition of intellect, feelings, or any other talent. No, this point totally belongs to another world and therefore involves no competition with anyone as is customary in our world.

For ages impudent people who tried to stand out in society and to be above others were excommunicated because society usually doesn’t tolerate such people. But the point in the heart is a totally new urge. It doesn’t invoke competition against someone who doesn’t have that point; it opens a new world for everyone and on the whole doesn’t interrupt in anyway. Such people are called “Israel,” which means Yashar-El(straight to the Creator). They interact with one another, with others, and especially with the upper force in a different manner.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Does A Woman Need A Group?

Question: You have said that naturally there cannot be true friendship between women, why?

Answer: True friendship cannot be between men either. Their friendship is no different from childish friendship. Women don’t know how to be friends because they are individualistic; we see that in everyday life.

In the spiritual world, both men and women encounter the same problems and it makes no difference that women are more distant from a mutual connection between them than men who seem to find it easier to connect to one another, but it only seems so at first. But when women begin to build internal connections between them, they see that it isn’t that easy and so do the men. Therefore my advice is not to think that it is easier for men to perform spiritual corrections.

Question: Do women need a group?

Answer: Women need a group just like men do. In spirituality, women have to perform all the actions that a man performs: the same closeness, the same mutual guarantee between them. In the spiritual world it makes absolutely no difference which body you are in; think that you have no body.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/6/15

New Life #636 – How To Be A Good Person

New Life #636 – How To Be A Good Person
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

When people will see that it is impossible to continue living as we do today, the situation will change for the better. Recognition of the evil in our situation can come from life itself, and this will be painful, or from a development of awareness. A good example of the development of awareness sparing one from suffering can be seen in the global campaign against smoking.

Latent in nature is a hidden, positive power that can balance the evil inclination in us, and the wisdom of Kabbalah is a means for discovering it. The good power is calledLight, and it makes it possible for a person to control his evil nature, to reach balance. If we want to bring the hidden positive force into our lives, it is worthwhile to approach the wisdom of Kabbalah.

In the discussion circles that are made according to the method of Kabbalah, 10 people together become a detector of the good force. The conversation circles of Kabbalah are a means for awakening the positive force latent in nature and achieving balance.

If we build connection and love in Israel, nobody will be able to harm us; this will acquire true security for us. Why? This is like a body in homeostasis that illnesses cannot approach, for it has a natural immune system. If we balance ourselves internally, the haters of today will become friends; they will feel that it is good to be with us.

A person experiencing a conversation circle through the television or the Internet or who listens to our conversations, approaches balance. The good force balances the evil in us and brings health, tranquility, protection, a good attitude, and wisdom on all levels.

In conclusion, we are facing difficult situations; it is obligatory to learn to balance the evil in us. Kabbalah is the method for doing this.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #636 – How To Be A Good Person,” 10/21/15

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New Life #688 – Levels of Thinking

New Life #688 – Levels of Thinking
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

The desire to enjoy is the matter of creation and it is divided into 4 levels: the still, vegetative, animate, and man. The more the desire to enjoy grows, the more power of thought it requires in order to be optimally filled. The power of thought serves the desire and it is especially evident in young children, while grownups hide their aspirations.

We can study creatures that are on a lower level than we are with our mind, but we find it difficult to study ourselves since in order to learn who I am, I have to rise to a level that is higher than me, to the level of Godliness, and I can do that by using the wisdom of Kabbalah. The power of thought that is greater than that of man is called the power of the Creator, which is the upper thought that connects everything. When a person discovers the upper thought, everything changes: his accounts, his values, and his plans, and he begins to discover that reality is actually himself, and then the desire to bring everyone to the same recognition awakens in him.
From KabTV’s “A New Life #688 – Levels of Thinking,” 2/9/16

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