A Recipe For Adhesion: Don’t Forget To Add The Light

Baal HaSulam, Shamati, article 25, “Things that Come from the Heart”: In other words, all the concepts upon which he builds his building, saying one must always follow in the path of the Creator, is founded in the Dvekut with his teacher. Thus, if he loses the foundation, then all the concepts are powerless, since they will now be lacking the foundation.

Hence, one must not rely on one’s own mind, but cleave once more to books and authors, for only that can help him, and no wit and intellect, as they are lifeless.

Question: What is adhesion?

Answer: On the whole, adhesion is when two people have the same desires, the same thoughts, and the same values. In that case they are “adhered” to one another.

The question is how can two people who are so different be adhered? They are different in every sense and do not match in any way. There cannot be perfect adaptation in nature, so can they attain resemblance, and become “adhered” to one another?

If each side rises above himself and doesn’t want to use his attributes for himself, but rather gives the other everything that is in him, and the other also wants to rise above his personal interests and to act in favor of the other, then they resemble one another. In what way? In giving, in bestowal, which means that they are “adhered.”

How can this be attained? They cannot do this on their own, the Light is needed here to connect them. This means that in order to be adhered, two people need the Creator between them. It is a kind of a “sandwich” with the Light in the middle, and this is called a spiritual unit. You can also compare it to a small dumbbell.

Question: So how can we draw the Light so that the adhesion will be realized?

Answer: First, each one has to rise above himself and ask himself: “Why should I adhere to someone? What is adhesion? Could it be that I want to connect with others to achieve something in this world, like in socialism? Or do I want it in order to attain the Creator? Who is the Creator?”

In short, in order to reach the simplest action, I have to renew the whole system since there is no halfway in spirituality; everything in it is integral. Just like in a holographic picture where in order to change a small line I need the right scale to change the whole picture.

So every question that we have actually includes everything in it. If you ask what we have to do, the answer is simple—do it all. We need to clarify who the Creator is, what we need this for, what the act of creation is, what freewill is, and what “each one shall help his brother” is, what the group is, etc. Everything should be included in this. We can see this picture in different resolutions, but one way or the other, everything is in it.

Question: Can we rise above our general, “round” desire to receive like in a hot air balloon, and keep this general state between us?

Answer: Each of us is an egoist, and spirituality is what is between us connecting and bringing us together.

What I feel inside me now is called “this world,” and what I feel between us is called “the upper world.”

If you and I are close to one another and differ only by one measure (1), then I feel the Light of Nefesh. If the difference between us is doubled (2), I attain the Light of Ruachbetween us since now I have overcome a greater distance. On the one hand, our ego grows and separates us, but on the other hand, we adhere to one another despite the ego, and by that attain a greater intensity.

Our mission is to hold on to this state and to constantly return to it, and if you want, you can take it upon yourself. What else do you have to do in this world except for that? Take a decision where your life should flow and whether you want it to flow in the spiritual dimension. I cannot dictate this to you. At the Arava convention I gave you an example of what you should do. If you want to fulfill this, then do it and the results will be according to this fulfillment.

[98494]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/13, Shamati #25

Lose Your Material Self

Question: How do we become a lower Partzuf that annuls itself before the upper one and requests to be created in the spiritual world during the congress?

Answer: Our upper Partzuf is the group and only there does theCreator get revealed. We transform the group into Malchut, theShechina, while the upper for it is Zeir Anpin, the Creator. We need to induce the state that within our connection the upper force is revealed.

It’s quite doable and very likely to happen. Illumination from this state will certainly be granted to us, and we are already receiving it, everyone according to one’s degree. But when we truly connect, then instead of a personal illumination, we reveal the Light.

It will also be revealed to each person in the degree that one has achieved unity and exerted oneself. But it will be a clearly defined portion of Light and not some external illumination. I am confident that not only at the men’s but also the women’s congress we can feel such illumination. Our group’s annulment before the upper means that everyone renounces oneself in full force for the sake of unity and inclusion in all the others, and will lose one’s material self there and exist solely under the spiritual influence.

We studied in the article “600,000 Souls” that there is only one soul, everyone attains only it, and plugs into the very same soul. In truth, there is no division and only the force of the shattering is causing us pain right now because we think each of us has his or her own personal soul. We imagine it only because we haven’t reached complete attainment yet and remain in confusion, fog, and loss of awareness. Therefore, at the congress, we wish to plug into this one soul. [98221]

From 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/10/13, Talmud Eser Sefirot

The Group Is “Pulling” Everyone Forward

Question: At one of the Arava congress workshops there was a question about the point of no return that we have to pass through on the path. How are we supposed to pass through it: individually or together with the entire group?

Answer: As it advances, the united group overcomes all stages of the path. Although everyone may be undergoing a particular state at his level, in fact, we all are going together.

Question: So, is it possible that the group will “drag” me through a certain state?

Answer: The group doesn’t act selectively, choosing him and only him; it “pulls” everyone forward. No one advances alone; our entire way is by the group. No matter how much a person puts in, he still “eats” what the others do. It may be in a lesser degree, but he still moves along with all the others. And hence, everyone passes the Machsom; everyone comes out of Egypt, including the “children,” “women,” “men,” and “elderly.” [98488] From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/13, Shamati #213

A Baby’s Efforts Accelerate His Birth

Question: During the convention, we made efforts to be born, but how can we synchronize them with the labor pains that come from Above?

Answer: That is why we are given exercises from Above: There is a time of descent, and a time of ascent; there are times when we get together and when we study. And the most important states are those when we unite with each other: during the lessons, other joint activities, and at the conventions. Now, we add our efforts to the natural labor pains in order to accelerate this process.

And in fact, our actions today speed up our birth both quantitatively and qualitatively. As a result, we begin to understand and better feel where in fact the most crucial point is, where we need to press, what a newborn will be according to our expectations.

A newborn is our next degree, like children going after their parents, that is, our next state. We pass all these states due to the concentration of our efforts, in addition to what is given to us from above.

We do not feel in our work what belongs to the preparation from the Creator’s side and what He does. We apply pressure, trying to annul oneself before everyone else in order to create one heart, one desire, and trying not to interfere. But everything else is done by the Creator. He awakens desires in us and we act, but it is not added to our own account. Only our effort that we apply in order to annul ourselves, our self-sacrifice, is counted.

Such actions are given to us with great difficulty and for a few moments. But nothing more is required; we can acccumulate these moments and very quickly reach the force of bestowal, and feel this force clothed in us. This is called the revelation of the Creator to the created being. [98410] From the Arava Convention 1/18/13, Lesson 5 

Is Spiritual Pleasure The Same For Everyone?

Question: What is the difference between the pleasure that a man experiences and a woman experiences in the state of the common integral mind, or is it the same?

Answer: Every person has his own pleasures because everyone has his own root and his bonding with others. They are strictly subjective. Therefore, it is impossible to say how men are different from women in their state of pleasure and fulfillment.

This difference can be explained in the image of what exists in our world. After all, there is a difference in how a man perceives our world and how a woman does. A man somehow is capable of feeling what another man experiences. However, he is unable to feel a woman’s experience. He cannot understand her because she has a completely different view of the world.

A man and a woman are two worlds. The same applies to spirituality. Being a male part in the spiritual world, it is impossible to imagine the experience of a woman’s part. You can attract and include her desires in yourself in order to fulfill them, however, not instead of her, but for her.

Question: However, shouldn’t it merge somewhere in the end?

Answer: In the end, it merges in complementing each other, in mutual bonding, but it is still a bonding of two opposites. [95840]

From KabTV’s “Talks with Michael Laitman,” 3/11/12

Not By Wisdom, Not By Force, Only With Patience

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 141:I am found nowhere but in the Torah. Therefore, keep the Torah and look for Me there, and the Light in it will reform you and you will find Me,” as it is written, “Those that seek Me shall find Me.”

This is what we try to do, striving to connect as one man in one heart, attaining mutual guarantee and “love your neighbor as yourself” by showing our readiness for such a connection during the study. And then in each moment, we reveal how much we are incapable of this, and then again we try, despite everything, to think about unity and connection.

We hope that our study and connection will help us reveal the Creator in order to bring Him pleasure. This becomes the prayer during the study, an action of correction, and it draws us nearer to the goal. If the friends try to connect in the right way, rise their points in the heart above their ego, free from its control, and connect them, which takes place during the lesson, which tells about such states, then in this we attract the Reforming Light. And this is actually our exertion.

There will always be disturbances, more and more. Therefore, we need to strengthen each other, and precisely then, when the despair comes and big obstacles appear in the path, a person is helpless before them, doesn’t know what to do, wants to escape, gets tired and falls, falls asleep or the opposite, becomes angry and cannot bear this state. But precisely these states are the most beneficial for adding one more drop of work, another ounce of effort, by which we attract the Light on us.

One who does not despair and give up is the one who succeeds. Here neither wisdom nor force will help, only patience. Time will do it.

“Time” symbolizes numerous efforts that a person does in each moment, even the smallest ones. These efforts accumulate, connect, and in the end, bring a solution.
[98320] From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/13, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”