Prayer—Turning To Oneself

Question: There are many definitions of prayer that don’t exactly coincide with each other. But everyone  understands that prayer is an appeal to the Creator, to God.

Usually, a prayer is structured as follows: first comes the praise of the Creator, second, a plea for forgiveness for some sins, and third is gratitude for everything good you’ve received from the Creator.
Is it the same in Kabbalah or somehow different?

Answer: In Kabbalah it is all a one-sided game.

I have no one to address, not because there is no upper force, but because there is no point in addressing it since a prayer, from the verb “Lehitpalel,” means to judge oneself. Nobody is judging me, and if I have to turn to someone—it is only to myself.

In fact, this is how all prayers work. With its help, through the means of addressing myself, I have to check myself: What am I doing well? Which parts am I not doing well? What can I do to improve my state, to get better at? What does it mean to become better? Compared to whom and how? And so on.
Naturally, I have to praise the Creator so that the quality of the Creator, love and bestowal, is most preferred in my eyes.

Question: Do I have to ask for forgiveness and if so from whom?

Answer: There is no one to ask for forgiveness because the Creator is the absolute. If I turn to Him asking for forgiveness, it means that, practically, I am turning to myself. And I begin to feel whether I have acted correctly, how I should have behaved, and how I should act in the future. So it is self-judgment, realizing one’s evil and how to turn it into good.

And then I thank the Creator for helping me. But again,  I am addressing myself the whole time because the Creator is the absolute quality of love and bestowal, which we can awaken but only in the measure of our desire to be similar to Him.

Question: So, does the Creator answer only the right prayer?

Answer: Of course. And the right prayer is my desire to become similar to Him. Nothing else.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 4/1/19

Where Can I Find The Strength To Reject The Desire To Be Filled?

Question: Where does a person find the strength to reject the desire to be filled and to not receive the filling?

Answer: From the Creator. But in order to do so, one must be in a group because this force is not in us. We cannot refrain from receiving because we only consist of the desire to receive.

This is where we understand that we do not have the power to control ourselves. We begin to believe what Kabbalists say, that if you really want to attain the attribute of bestowal, there is no other way but to enter a group that engages in acquiring the attribute of bestowal because it is only through the group when a person annuls himself before it, that he can begin to acquire this attribute from the Creator.

There are not so many conditions for that, but it is very hard to absorb them in our egoistic mind.

• I need to be in a group.
• I need to annul myself before the friends.
• I need to not receive from the Creator so that later I can receive from Him everything that He has prepared for me.

There are many different movements that contradict each other, and it is very hard for a person to absorb them and to picture everything.

Although all one is required to do is to simply sit down, physically, like a machine and study the system, then all these actions run through him at the same time and he constantly changes. When a person changes, he feels the acquired knowledge and actions in a new way every time. When he feels it differently, he does not understand how all this takes place.

It turns out that the wisdom seems simple: there is only pleasure and desire, which must be integrated correctly in order for pleasure to be received for the desire and the desire will give for the pleasure, but this does not work out, and it is very hard to attain it. This is why there are other aids such as the group and the surrounding light.
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From Kab TV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 2/16/20

Shifting Into The First Spiritual Gear

We are in an integrated system, like gears connected together. This is the form of the ten, in which everyone should practically, as a sensory experience, reveal that we spin together like gears and depend on one another. Each one in his rotation determines the movement of all the others. If I turn myself even a little, I’m responsible for turning all the other wheels inside the ten. All friends are spinning because of me, and therefore, I am responsible for my turn.

I am obligated to take into account all the general movement that I am causing and evaluate whether it will be for the good of the entire ten, and only in this case begin to turn in the optimal direction and in the best measure. And not make any move before that.

Imagine that you are ten connected gears inside one mechanism, where each when turning, twists everyone. Therefore, before turning, I must take into account how this will turn everyone and whether it will be good for everyone. I am not allowed to make even the slightest movement without taking all into account.

But it’s impossible to live like that! And that is why we are given a special opportunity called “this world,” meaning such a machine that allows everyone to spin as he wants.

And then the lever on the gearbox is shifted from above, moving us to the next, higher gear where we find ourselves actually connected to one another and forced to take into account the general movement. So we rise to the first spiritual level. And if we establish our relations at this level and can spin together without leaving anyone out of connection with others, then we can advance ourselves and switch to third gear, and then to the fourth, fifth, and so on, and go through 125 steps.

At each level, we become more and more closely connected and each takes into account the increasing number of gears in the system. He sees them, feels them, and can calculate the whole system in general. And the general calculation for the whole system is the Creator; therefore, in this way we build Him, as it is said: “You have made Me.”

Today we have a problem: It’s as if we are riding in a car with a material gear, in which we are not allowed to take into account others, but we are required to switch to the first spiritual gear. And so the coronavirus appears, brings us trouble, prevents us from continuing in the old way, and obligates us to rise. And to rise to the spiritual level, we must begin to feel one another, better adapt to one another. And how to do it if there is no such feeling?

Make an effort, ask together, pray, and then from above we receive a feeling of mutual strength. The Creator will harmonize our connection, unite us, and allow us to feel dependence on one another, which will give us reason and understanding of how to arrange all this in a general form. And so we will move forward.

We need to make such a transition now. It will happen anyway, whether we wish it or not. But this switching can occur as a result of our efforts and conscious participation, and then it will be nice, pleasant, smooth, and gentle. Otherwise, it will happen through another world war: the third, fourth, fifth, sixth… Who knows how many more wars and personal troubles are ahead of us? It is better for us to shift the gearbox ourselves.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 4/26/20 “Connecting the World in the Last Generation”

What Does A Kabbalist Know?

Question: Many people in the world, even those unfamiliar with Kabbalah, believe in some kind of the upper force, a God. What do you think they are praying for? How is their prayer different from yours as a Kabbalist?

Answer: The fact is that, being at the corporeal level, they simply believe in some kind of upper force, upper mind, upper predestination, plans, goals, etc. They believe in what will happen to them after they leave their bodily shell.

They believe, but a Kabbalist knows. He feels it. For him, it is the next level of existence, which he is already in.

Question: And what do you know that do we not know?

Answer: I feel the existence outside the body, because in fact our bodies do not exist. It is only necessary to neutralize your egoism, and then you will cease to feel the heaviness of this body, which pulls you and controls you. You will begin to feel how your soul rules and leads you.

Question: And how do you pray for those who have become infected with the coronavirus or sick with other diseases?

Answer: I do not pray for them. I am just trying to tell everybody about what kind of people we should be: mutually kind, interdependent, feeling that we are connected by an upper nature so that we do not violate the laws of the correct communication of nature, and in this way come to a state of kindness, reciprocity, and love so that all our transgressions, initial claims to each other, and anger are covered with love.

This, in principle, is a prayer. I ask the Creator to give me the strength to cover all negative attitudes toward people, to the world, with positive ones. Not to remove them, but specifically to cover them: “Love will cover all transgressions.”

Question: What would you wish for yourself in this difficult period?

Answer: I would wish for what I always do: as much force as possible to do good to the world to the extent and in the way that the Creator leads me.
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From KabTV’s “Coronavirus Is Changing Reality” 3/26/20

On The Threshold Of A New Society

We are on the threshold of a completely new society, a society the Kabbalists wrote about.

Today, we are witnessing the fact that nature is rebelling. It no longer wants to deal with evil people. It must bring them to balance with itself, and we resist. Accordingly, to this extent, nature must correct us by negative reactions. This is exactly what we feel upon ourselves.

All viruses are intended to bring us back to some state of balance. If we understand this, then we will easily correct ourselves and the system in we exist in together on Earth. Thus, we will get a completely different humanity. I hope we will discover this in the shortest possible time, maybe even in a year and a half. It is unlikely that it will happen sooner.

If we want to explain in every possible manner how humanity should behave and what the correct response to the coronavirus is, then we can literally do it in that period of time. Still, it will not happen until the coronavirus goes around the globe and everyone sees how much power it has over us.

People will understand that it was we who caused it through our uncorrected relationships and our bad attitude to nature and people; we will begin to wonder how to correct this. Only then will the coronavirus disappear. We must go through all the stages of the revelation of evil, its correction, and the manifestation of good.

I really hope that we will witness this very soon.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/15/20

The Path To Correction Depends On Us, But It Is Not Short

These days, humanity is in turmoil, not knowing how to perceive the special state we find ourselves in. It seems to us that it depends on those who hold power and money, the governments, the army, and the mafia.

However, we need to understand that, in fact, they have no influence. Everything is determined only by the relations between people. If we raise the importance of connection and unity, then all of humanity rises, and if we lower it, then we all fall.

Therefore, we should not wait to hear in the news which government came to power; rather, we should check through our own relations, who we elect and who we remove. We should be engaged not in politics, but only in connecting people.

The entire world is within us, and it is necessary to bring unity and connection to all these opposing forces that are supposedly pulling each one in its own direction, not only the development of this world, but the entire reality, including the upper system, the upper world.

The entire reality must take part in the integral connection and work concertedly in order to reveal within its relations the form of the upper force, which is the crown (the highest Sefira Keter) and governs everything. If we organize the reality within us in this way, we force all the opposing forces of nature to start working together and moving the world toward connection.

These forces will appear to us as opposing each other, clashing with and hating each other, supposedly unable to reach any compromise or connection. Each will try to take control over the others.

However, this is exactly the sign of the development of reality in which all the contradictions are added. There can be no light without darkness and no good without evil, and vice versa. All forces must work according to their nature but in one direction.

Each force operating in the general system must understand that it can only work according to its nature, and therefore must not resist it and only perform its function. It is necessary to arrange all the forces so that each of them supports the others and all of them are directed to the revelation of the upper force.

The path to correction is not short, but it depends on how much we try to accelerate it without waiting for time to do its work. We need to be smart and patient and accept what is happening without panic, but with wisdom, knowing that whatever is going to happen will happen.

There is an upper Ruler in the world who controls everything; our task is only to help Him. Our help is very important, but it is the Creator who begins creation and He finishes it.

Our strength is in the fact that we are many and we are very different, but we are ready to be together as one man with one heart. We agree to connect in order to make the upper force a ruler in our world that will be revealed in the entire reality. Therefore, the main thing is to continue on the same path, regardless of one’s moods. We just need to know that we have to do everything in our power and thus advance.

We should be less impressed by news headlines because we see that governments themselves do not understand what is happening and they themselves are getting sick not knowing what will happen tomorrow. Obviously, they do not have a new program and they hope to return everything to the old, pre-viral times when they were strong and rich. However, this will not work.

Although countries have already begun to move toward equitable distribution in order to provide everyone with what they need in this critical state. It will be interesting to see how the powerful people of this world will later try to “correct” this state and restore the system of industry and trade again, and the Creator will  correct them with His own forces.

After all, correction lies only in the connection between people. If we disseminate through this connection, we will come to the healthiest state, the most balanced with the surrounding nature, which requires only this balance from us.

Nature is expecting humanity to consume only what is necessary for a normal life and to direct all its other forces to the revelation of the upper world.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/20, Selected Highlights

“How Do I Overcome Pessimism And Inferiority Complex Within My Mind?” (Quora)

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do I overcome pessimism and inferiority complex within my mind?“

Pessimism and optimism are characteristics embedded in us, which we are born with.

While we have characteristics that we receive from birth, the way those characteristics can be influenced and directed is through the many varied social influences in our life.

The examples we see in our society—from our immediate families through friends, acquaintances, the schooling we receive, the media we consume, and the culture we participate in—all influence the expression of our characteristics.

Therefore, if we feel a problem with our inner characteristics, we need to think about everything and everyone influencing us, and what kinds of changes we should make in our surrounding social circles and in the media we consume in order to positively impact us. It is as the saying goes, “Tell me who is your friend, and I will tell you who you are.”

Also, pessimism should not be thought of as a bad quality. It is an inborn quality, and some people are naturally more pessimistic, while others are naturally more optimistic.

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash.

It is important for us to understand that we live in an globally interdependent system of nature that acts out of a balance between all positive and negative qualities, including optimism and pessimism.

Therefore, in order to reach balance with nature, we need to learn how to positively connect with other people who have different characteristics.

The resulting mutual complementarity we would develop, where we each sustain our inborn characteristics but learn how to direct them in ways beneficial to all human society, would thus “click” us all into a harmonious homeostasis with each other and nature.

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The Union Of Stony Hearts

The union of hearts is the feeling that we are in one heart: We understand each other, we feel, we have one goal, and there is only one force that controls us. But connection implies within itself an understanding of what disconnection means.

One does not exist without the other; opposites support each other. Two properties must exist together: the Creator and creation, the desire to enjoy and the desire to bestow. And then we feel one against the other.

However, one quality, only the desire to enjoy or only the desire to bestow, we are not able to notice. Therefore, we must feel two opposing qualities in our connection.

First of all, we must thank the Creator for the fact that on all continents, all the people all over the world are now in the same state. The Creator gives us both a spiritual and material state. This has never happened before. Our material world is beginning to connect with the spiritual world, and this is really the action of the Messiah pulling this world to the stage of the upper world.

Therefore, one must be more bound by hearts, intention, appeal to the Creator, and prayer. And so we will develop our common feeling. It all depends on the personal, small contribution of each one.

I have a heart of stone that does not feel anything, but I hear that friends feel each other, and therefore I strive for them. And the other is so eager, and the third, there are millions of us! You should not miss your chance, do not neglect what the Creator is giving us.

You will begin to see more and more, day by day, how our group is receiving a blessing from above, an ascent, an understanding, a connection with the Creator. The Creator fills the voids between us that are expanded by the virus, and opens up before us opportunities for spiritual advancement.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/20, Selected Highlights