The World Is A Harmonious Orchestra

We are all parts of one general whole and mutually complement one another as a result of the differences, contrasts, and oppositeness between us. This mutual complementing is obliged to emphasize and expose all the rejections we feel internally towards one another.

It is only by the right connection between us that we can find the ideal unity that will allow the revelation of all the differences and oppositeness between us, and on the other hand, the absolute whole, harmonious, and mutual cooperation between us. All the differences between us connect through our mutual love, mutual bestowal, and mutual agreement. When all the parts work together only for the sake of others, it makes their connection possible.

Question: How can we attain this realization?

Answer: It results from the great desire that each of us has to be filled with the Light. We have been looking for this filling, not only for many years, but also in our previous lives. Within a certain life, we stop and begin to dig more deeply into the question of how I can fulfill myself.

If we were all equal, we would be as one, but there cannot be much of the same thing. We can make many identical tables in our world, but there is no such thing in the spiritual world. There is no uniformity inside us, and we see it in people around us. It is thanks to our differences that such a global orchestra exists. In the meantime, it is not yet an orchestra, but a terrible cacophony (a combination of meaningless sounds). But if we bring them all together under the leadership of an experienced conductor, there will be a wonderful, coordinated, and harmonious orchestra.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 8/5/15

The Letter And Spirit

Question: Baal HaSulam says in the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 155, that even if we don’t understand Kabbalistic texts, we draw the power of correction, the Surrounding Light, by reading it. So why don’t people who know these texts by heart ever reach attainment?

Answer: They don’t draw the power of correction because the Surrounding Light should turn into the Inner Light when you acquire a Masach (screen), which means the intention to bestow. The question is do you yearn to attain a Masach? Are you drawn to correction? Do you want to reveal the evil inclination? Are you ready to go through this although it is unpleasant? Do you see this as an obligation and a necessity? Do you invest all your energy in the society in order to be under the influence of the friends? Only then will they lift you from your desires and pull you out of this swamp.

When you hate someone you have to make an effort so that you will love him. It is as if he did you wrong and you rise above that although the feeling of hate remains, and you work only for love by wanting to give him more than you give to your own baby.

Do you do that and hold on to this inclination regarding these corrections? If so, you are drawing the Surrounding Light that operates on you and provides you with necessary attribute.

At the same time you are diverted from the path, and you are thwarted by more interruptions, but you still have to advance by subduing yourself before the friends and asking for their help. Thus you evoke the Surrounding Light upon you, yearning for that attribute—for bestowal and love—above hate and rejection. Even if you are absolutely right in all your claims regarding the friends, you still try to advance “above reason.”

As for those you are asking about, they deal with the wisdom and not with the Torah, not with the method of correction in which the Reforming Light is concealed. They read the texts without any connection with the evil inclination that will be revealed or that is already revealed. They don’t come to the lesson in order to correct themselves, and they don’t study the Torah, but wisdom. Therefore it says: “wisdom among the nations, believe.” The “nations” refers to those who don’t want to correct themselves. However, those who want to reach unity are called “Jews,” and this is the whole difference.

Abraham gave “gifts” to the children of the concubines, meaning intermediate methods. They studied for pleasure, received a slight illumination, but didn’t fulfill the correction and didn’t ascend the ladder of the spiritual degrees. Such people study the material by heart, discuss it, argue….

We don’t argue and don’t discuss anything, for us only the Reforming Light is important. It doesn’t matter how much a person knows, what’s important is to keep in contact with the text that brings him the power of correction.

Eventually, however, the correction is everyone’s share, and I don’t underestimate anyone. If a person opens Kabbalah books, even if he walks in the dark, he is still moving forward.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Trying On The Garments Of The Light

In fact, the whole Torah talks about intentions as well as the direction people should orient their desires to, working, shaping and organizing them in such a way that they gradually achieve a higher level of similarity with the Light. The Light doesn’t descend to us in its original simple and abstract form; it’s already “pre-shaped.” After the Light enters desire, it transforms it in accordance with Its own qualities so that they start matching each other.

In our world, we see how water easily enters the vessel and takes its form. However, in spirituality it’s different: Merging doesn’t happen until the shape of the filler and the vessels completely coincide. This state is called “merging” or “full similarity of properties” that should be adequate to conditions which are different at each particular level of advancement. At a higher level, a stronger similarity of properties is expected; each subsequent step requires a much higher degree of matching until we achieve a phase when the vessel acquires the shape of the Light and they finally unite. This is the reason we constantly search for the correct form that will allow us to correspond to the Light’s shape.

The Light is always kind and makes good. It’s always the same; it permanently stays in absolute calmness, as it is said: “I, HaVaYaH, do not change Myself.” It means that His intention is always the same. All changes happen within us, and that’s why we have to constantly search for a form that we should acquire in order to be “appropriate” for the Light, the Creator.

Similarly, when people fall in love and try to gain reciprocal feelings, they think about how they should look, what to talk about, and how to behave so that it’s right and acceptable to the other party. When it comes to the Light, we should act likewise.

The Light brings forth certain conditions that are called “spiritual steps.” Each of them is associated with a specific type of Light that is “dressed” in a particular shape and stays within an adequate vessel. Our task is to bring our “garments” to similarity with Him. Then, the contact between the Light, Its “clothing” at a higher level, and desire (altruistic clothing of the Light at a lower step) will occur. Only under such circumstances will they unite.

The entire Torah is dedicated to this process; there is nothing except it. At each level, from the worst and the lowest up to the loftiest and highest, everything is defined only by similarity between the vessel and the Light. Correspondence of the vessel and the Light is called “intention.” It’s about what the vessel is oriented towards and what it strives to achieve. There is nothing else in this realm.

It only seems that there are material objects around us in this world that confuse us and hide the real essence of our activities from us. Whatever we deal with in this world, we still interact with levels of our adequacy to the Light.

The language of Kabbalah talks about this openly and clearly; it explains the kind of inner changes we have to achieve in order to reveal the general Light. Our duty while learning Kabbalah is to “try on” everything we learn and see if the “dress” fits us and at this point figure out what our unity should look like.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

When Will A Monkey Become A Human?

Question: The recognition of the shattering, of the total oppositeness of our attributes, is simply a disaster after which we don’t see how we can advance. What can we do about it?

Answer: If a person discovers such a shattering, he already begins his correction because then he understands that his advancement is only possible in “faith above reason.” It’s like wanting to ascend to the human level while being on a beastly level. It’s like trying to make a human being out of a cow, a cat, or even a monkey. You understand that it is impossible. Something is needed here that can never happen.

Now you are discovering that you will never be able to be human! After all, your state is such that the Creator will always outplay you because you are a beast, an angel.

You will be able to ascend and to become human only if the upper Light comes and performs a miracle on you. This is why it is called “the miracle of the exodus from Egypt,” “the miracle of the crossing the Red Sea.” It all happens miraculously, that is, it has nothing to do with the level and the state you are in. A force form an upper level comes to you and performs this miracle.

Scientists don’t know how the vegetative level evolved from the still matter. Try to bring a stone to life, let’s see what happens. How does the animate level evolve from the vegetative? Something like that is simply impossible in nature with its accurately separated levels: One is the vegetative level, and the other is animate. Between the vegetative and the animate levels there is some intermediate form called the “dog of the field,” and between the inanimate and the vegetative there are the corals. Between the animate and man there is the monkey that doesn’t belong to either level.

We don’t understand what the monkey form symbolizes in spirituality. To be a monkey means to perform actions by which you are trying to resemble a human. Then the upper Light influences you and transforms you from the level of the animate to that of the speaking.

The term “monkey” indicates that my desire is to resemble a human, Adam, meaning to resemble the Creator.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/2012, TES

Selfishness

There is no such thing as motion from one world to the other in spiritual "space". There are only inner states, which enable us to perceive our inner envelope. It is the Creator that we perceive but this perception is clouded by screens representing the different manifestations of our selfishness. The perception of the Creator, creation and space, as obstacles are suppressed, is progressively revealed but we are not aware of it. The portions of selfishness that we remove correspond to the levels of the spiritual ladder or "worlds" we ascend. Worlds are nothing more than degrees of perception that we have of the Creator.

Selfishness, which separates our perception from true knowledge, can only be found in man. This is not the case with the Creator because perfection and openness define his relation to man. The absence of the Creator is only felt by a man who dissimulates the worlds from himself, as if he were hiding behind the veils of his own selfishness.
The removal of selfishness does not occur all at once. In the beginning, the Creator grants man periods of time corresponding to lives in this world as an opportunity to elevate himself spiritually. Man is master of the whole process. During each of his consecutive lives, man must remove a certain part of his selfish nature and draw himself closer to the Creator. Man will repeat a new life as long as he does not correct himself. Correction means that his desires termed "body" in Kabbalah will no longer form a barrier between him and the Creator. When this occurs man's attributes will bond him with the Creator regardless of the world in which man finds himself.
The abandonment of one's selfish envelope is called "terrestrial death" leading to rebirth in our world. The corrected parts of the soul's selfishness merge and a kind of "redistribution" takes place. This is because all souls are but one creation and all envelopes are but pure selfishness. The correction of the original soul was made possible by splitting into parts the one and only creation, Adam's soul. These parts are individual souls and it is easier to correct each fragment than to correct the whole.
This explains why souls move from one world to another during their correction. When the correction is completed, all individualized souls will be once again brought together within the primordial desire. The primordial soul will receive all of the Creator's light revealing his perfection .
There is, ultimately, only the endless world, the world of perfect bonding with the Creator. Outside that world, all that man perceives is nothing but fragments of the infinite perfection, the endless world.
One fragment of the endless world is called "Adam Kadmon", the following one « Atzilut » then "Briah" then "Yetzira" and "Assiah". The smallest fragment of the endless world corresponds to our world. In other words, the endless world as we see it with our senses contracts to reach the size of our world. When our perception broadens we can call this world, for example, the world of Briah and so on. It all depends on the scope of our perception.
The subject of our studies is only man. Besides man and his sensations there is only the endless world The Malchut of the endless world must go through numerous corrections. Nothing is created in vain.
The Baal HaSulam quotes the example of a small insect in the jungle, spending all his life to find food and whose existence is totally unknown. Even this insect and all his parts are very important for the fulfillment of ultimate consummation.
Nothing is created in vain by the Creator, and all events occur in harmony with the goal we are nearing. As far as we are concerned this process takes place whether we want it or not, whether we understand it or totally ignore it. Everything progresses towards the fulfillment of correction as planned by the Creator, towards His complete revelation to all creatures in this world.
The various parts of Malchut of the endless world differ in the intensity of their desires. They correspond in our world to the parts of the natural kingdom- mineral, vegetal, animal, human. Similarly mankind is composed of many types of peoples.
Why, then, do we study man so closely and not in the spiritual correction, say, what stones, for example, need to accomplish? Haven't they been placed in our world to reach the purpose of Creation?
Man is set apart. The correction of nature depends on human correction. By working on himself, man "animates" nature to help it reach the state of full correction.
Man himself however has not received the Torah of our world in the same way: the peoples of the world have received 7 commandments, the Jews 613. These commandments are also observed different ways depending on the number of corrections a soul must carry out when coming to this world. Being born to the nation or the Jews does not grant any specific privileges. The Jews have more corrections to perform, the others less.