Stay Afloat

We see the entire world as being full of evil, but we understand that this is not true because this is how it seems only because of our egoism. Therefore, we rise above it and adhere to the Creatorwho is good and does good. After that, we can develop our sensations, mind, and heart in order to see the world as evil and nevertheless be above this evil inside the force that is good and does good.

We need to arrange ourselves so that as more or less evil is revealed in the world, we will  always remain in adhesion with the good who does good, as it is written: “They have eyes and see not; they have ears and hear not.” We sense evil within our egoistic desires and we always establish ourselves in order to remain afloat, like a buoy on the surface of the water. The more evil that is revealed, the more we amplify the good who does good, and as such maintain ourselves above in faith above reason.

Knowledge reveals more and more evil; Malchut of the world of infinity opens more and more, as it is said that toward the end of correction, impudence will multiply. All the while we constantly keep afloat by clinging to the good, to the upper one. This is how we want to spend every day and every second of our life.

It is clear that a strong inclusion in the group is needed. We live always on this border, afloat, in the point of balance between the two worlds. Then it turns into the middle line where we ourselves awaken darkness and attract the light. Yet, for now, all we have to do is try to float on the surface of this evil, constantly adhering to the good.¹

My buoy is the ten. I build this buoy by annulling myself before the ten. I do not drown because I care for the friends, for their benefit, not my own. This lets me stay afloat, otherwise I will drown in the water. The nine friends are the nine points in the heart that remain afloat in the feeling that “There is none else beside the Creator,” and I support them and hold onto them.

I am not just grabbing them like a drowning person, I am trying to keep them from drowning, and therefore, I am afloat too. I annul myself before the buoy to absolute zero.²

First of all, you need to annul yourself before the ten in order to surrender yourself to it—this is the very first stage of spiritual work. I can then be sure that I am included in the ten. No matter how high I am, like in the example of Rabbi Yossi ben Kisma, by annulling myself before the friends, I perform the first spiritual action. After all, the ten will always be higher than me. I can be the greatest, but if there is a ten next to me, it will always be higher than I am. Therefore, my first spiritual step is to annul myself before it.

After I annul myself, above this self-annulment I can already perform all kinds of actions within the ten through my inclusion in it. I must find out what my friends want and fully use myself to fulfill their desire. The ten on a spiritual degree is my tool for communication with the Creator. Alone I have no opportunity to contact Him, I have no one before whom I can annul myself and in relation to whom I can develop my desire on the spiritual degree.

I reveal the evil and the darkness in me and I want to grasp the light, but this is only possible through the ten by annulling myself before it like Malchut annuls itself before the first nine Sefirot or like the lower one annuls itself before the dark Malchut of the upper. I must then make every effort to support the friends, that is, to pass my qualities that are corrected from reception to bestowal to the ten. In this way, I begin to belong to the higher, already-spiritual degree, and all this an expansion of faith above reason.

I am already preparing for the next revelation of evil. I am changing all the time, and therefore, I cannot create any support within myself, any safety belt against the impudent egoism when it erupts in me. Therefore, I tie myself to the group. If today I invest in the group as much as possible, elevate the friends, serve them, annul myself, then with this I create insurance for myself for the future.

The group is my protective buffer, the battery, the first nine Sefirot that will later support my Malchut. The investment in the friends, the mutual guarantee, is necessary for advancement because later they will feel that they are obliged to save me, to free me from prison.

The group works like a pump. I adhere to it, receiving more strength from it, and then I receive additional egoism that throws me away from the friends. The friends return me back to them but only through the efforts that I invested previously. This is how I work all the time, like a piston in a pump.³

The ten is a spiritual structure, not a corporeal one. This is not a burden or difficult duty for me, but my lifeline. To be more exact, it is a system for the revelation of the Creator. It seems that I work with ten corporeal people with whom I do not feel any connection. Yet, gradually, thanks to the reforming light, I begin to feel an inner connection between us in which the Creator’s revelation is manifested.

It is between us that the Creator is revealed. Within our relations and bestowal to each other, new sensations are revealed, a network that makes it possible to feel the upper force. This network is woven from the qualities of the friends: from bestowal and love within which we begin to reveal the Creator. These properties of the network allow the upper light to reveal itself in them.

Then the ten, from a burden, from the ten corporeal bodies, turns into a mechanism of connection, into a detector for the revelation of the Creator. The group becomes the vessel of my soul.⁴
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/3/19, “The Absolute Zero”

Both Feelings And Mechanics

Question: Once again we have approached the study of the Preface to The Wisdom of Kabbalah (Pticha), but at a new level, through feeling. This is so interesting, so deep, that again we miss the technical details.

Why, when we start to ask any technical questions, does it takes us away from the sensory perception that we have entered, knocks us out of it?

Answer: This happens only in the beginning. For example, when people learn to play a certain musical instrument, at first one has to work on technique. They have to do exercises and get used to the instrument.

Once they have mastered it, then it is as if they unite with it and the instrument begins to express their feelings, those that they cannot express themselves. I take a violin in my hands and it sings they way I never could. But through its singing, through its longing, through its sounds, I am able to express myself.

It is the same here. First we have to learn the instrument. Our instrument is feelings, nothing more than feelings because we are merely the desire to enjoy. This is what the Creator created in us.

In order to express our feelings for the Creator, we need to take them above our egoism, that is, through the desire to the friends. This is a great, special, wonderful opportunity to take our feelings through them because I will not get into the Creator otherwise!

The group for me is an instrument on which I play. If I did not have it, I would not be able to convey anything to the Creator. Therefore, the shattering of the common desire into a vast number of desires gives me an opportunity to play, as if on piano keys, all sorts of melodies of connection. From them, I assemble a symphony, a song of love for the Creator. These are feelings. Yet, they work on mathematics, on desires.

Several times in our lessons, I told you about my friend who worked on the restoration of the organ in the Riga Cathedral. He told me how complex this instrument is. He had books and articles on the structure of the organ with complex mathematical formulas, including diameters, pressure, tune, and so on.

A question arises: what are we going to study: mechanics or how with its help we can evoke feelings? The Creator needs both.

Why? It is so we could fully become masters of the desire that He created, and with its help, express everything in the same way He does, as our quality of bestowal in relation to His quality of bestowal. So that we could connect, adhere to Him.

Therefore, we do not go into feelings with no connection to mechanics. Currently, we do not pay more attention to feelings, because once we run into this, we do not understand what is required of us. We must develop our sensory perception, and then we will play.

We will look at different drawings and cry or laugh—each one will have one’s own reaction. You have no idea how many drawings there are—thousands. So you don’t have to worry about mechanics. You will have all the mechanics you want.

Thus we will come to this. Then everything will be balanced: both feelings and mechanics. You will be able to play the instrument perfectly and express your feelings through it so that both you and the Creator will really be in a common understanding and enjoyment.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/4/19

New Life #265 – Overcoming Social Anxiety

New Life #265 – Overcoming Social Anxiety
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Overcoming social anxiety requires that each of us play the character of Noah by making an inner effort to put others at ease. Whether I am at work or at home, I do not do what is hated by me to others and I make room for everyone. I restrict myself and become like air that does not pressure anyone. Everyone must agree to go into Noah’s Ark together and hide there from the evil force that separates us. Today, we imitate characters from films and no longer know ourselves. We play all kinds of false characters, according to false values. We need to cleanse ourselves from this hypocrisy since it only leads to stress. If everyone plays the “Noah” game together, we will connect to a wonderful puzzle in which everyone will find his place.
From KabTV’s “New Life #265 – Overcoming Social Anxiety,” 12/6/13

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What’s Better? Reading From a Book or a Tablet?

Posted on June 23rd, 2019 at 10:16 am

Prison Is Not What Reforms A Rapist

Question: Your Instagram readers are asking: “How can we accept evil?” You answered: “There is no evil. Evil simply points out to a person that he hasn’t reached perfection in goodness.

That is, concealed good is felt as evil. It is felt acutely so one will pay attention to what other possibilities exist for him to correct this property and turn it into good.”

One of your readers is asking: “What about rape? Abnormal behavior in our connections?”

Answer: This is egoism, it is excess. Of course, this is evil. But egoism must be corrected, and then there will be no evil. That is, this is an incorrect attitude toward another. The intention toward another is just intention. If it acquires either a positive or a negative form, then we have to discern and correct the “minus” into a “plus.” But the intention itself cannot be changed. In other words, we cannot castrate a rapist; we need to reform him.

Question: But how?

Answer: How to do it is another thing. Actions will not change the world. We have to delve into the root of the problem, into why some people treat other people in such ways, and correct that direction,or in other words, his intention. This is what the science of Kabbalah deals with.

Question: Suppose someone commits violence against others. What does it mean to correct his intention, that the same actions of the same person would be beneficial to others?

Answer: Did he intend to hurt others? No, he wanted to fulfill himself. So let him fulfill himself through different actions: acts of kindness toward others. He needs to be corrected, reformed, and educated differently.

He will then receive the same pleasure, even a much greater one than he would have felt while perpetrating violence. Kabbalah can give him pleasure that is 620 times greater. Instead of violence, it will be acts of kindness toward another person, as that person will be enjoying it together with him.

Question: What accounts for such transformation in a person?

Answer: The upper force, the upper light. This is not a simple matter. Nor can the rapist do much about it. A person must be changed, re-educated.

Question: But what can be done?

Answer: At the very least, do not imprison him. According to the Torah, there is no concept of prison. There is no concept of “isolating one from the society.” In order to isolate him—there were six cities of refuge. That is where one would get re-educated.

Question: What happens to a person when his intention changes, when his attitude toward others changes? At what level does this change take place: chemical, psychological?

Answer: On the spiritual level. On the highest, most inner level. He has to change his attitude, his understanding of where he is: in a society, in the world, his attitude toward life and death, toward the whole universe, everything has to change inside him. This correction takes place under the influence of the upper light.

Question: Suppose a rapist wants to change his attitude…

Answer: Even if he doesn’t want to change, we will gradually influence him in such a way that he will want to change himself, and will be changed.

Question: What does it mean to influence him in such a way that he will change?

Answer: Through examples, education. It is an educational system that has to influence him over a long period of time. People that were sentenced to the refuge cities could not leave. If a person killed or harmed anyone, he could find a refuge there, turn himself in and admit his crime, and then the societies in the refuge cities would work on him.

He was influenced in such a way that the upper light could affect him. One has to put himself under the influence of the upper light. A person cannot do it himself, he is completely corrupt. Therefore, he is aided in such a way that the upper light begins to affect him.

How is this achieved? By inclusion into society. The collective works on attracting the upper light, and a person, by being in the society, whether he likes it or not, receives a portion of the upper light through it, and the upper light reforms him.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/28/19

What Is Understanding?

Question: How do you explain the phenomenon when you suddenly begin to understand?

Answer: Understanding is an awareness of the connection between the previous and the present state, that is, cause and effect. The connection between cause and effect is called understanding.

Question: What does it mean to understand the Creator?

Answer: From His actions on us we begin to understand Him.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/3/19

New Life #264 – Sexual Development, Part 2

New Life #264 – Sexual Development, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What attitude should a person establish from a young age toward others in order to build the right relationships with them and what emotion should we develop in order to succeed in finding a partner that suits us?

A man and a woman, like plus and minus, can form a spiritual connection over the opposites, above the human ego. Even during sexual intercourse, each one needs to be directed primarily at achieving the inner spiritual connection. The intensity of the joy of intercourse in the degree of the speaking is immeasurably greater than what we know of in the level of living. When I’m hungry for sex, I have to think about how I can, with the help of this urge, fill my partner up. Each one thinks only about how he or she can transcend oneself and give pleasure to their partner.
[124498]
From KabTV’s “New Life #264 – Sexual Development,” Part 2, 11/29/13

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Len Saxe – Anti-Semitism

Posted on June 21st, 2019 at 9:36 am