Entries in the 'Spiritual Teacher' Category

We Do Not Learn from Mistakes

766.9Comment: You said that in reality children never learn from their parents’ mistakes.

My Response: Of course. How could that be? You cannot convey your life experience to another even in our world, much less in the spiritual world.

I remember my teacher sat in front of me on long winter evenings in Tiberias, and I pestered him with the same questions. He looked at me with compassion, eyes full of pity. He had very expressive eyes.

I saw that he sympathized with me, but could not help in any way more than what he was trying to explain, guide, and suggest. Usually, after my questions, he would sigh and say: “Let us read something.” And that was it, nothing else.

I remember I felt very bad. We went with him for a walk in the Beit Shemen forest. This was at the very beginning of my study. I studied with him for about a year, and a year is nothing to study Kabbalah. He saw that I was completely torn to pieces. I prayed: “Help me with at least something!” Such requests are generally not typical for me, but I blurted out: “Help!”

He looked at me with such pain, like a father who is ready to give everything to his hopelessly ill child, but can do nothing to help. We sat on a bench; I can show this place even today. He took from his pocket the article “Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before” (“Achor Ve Kedem Tzartani”) and began to read to me. This is an article from the book A Sage’s Fruit, which we were just preparing for publication at that time.

In principle, the title of this article can be translated as “I control you from all sides.” I cannot say that I understood anything in it. But what else can you give a beginner?

In this case, we are talking about those people who strive to penetrate the spiritual system; they feel bad because they do not know it and do not attain it, and this pain speaks inside of them! After all, nothing corporeal was pressing on me at that time. I was perfectly settled, healthy, and young. It was spirituality that I lacked!

Question: Can you now evaluate how he perceived you at that moment? You, in fact, were part of him.

Answer: Of course, I was incorporated in him. He perceived me as a small system that needed to be adjusted, and he sympathized with it and really wanted to help it, and it reacted naturally. What else can you do? You just have to keep working with it and wait for the results.

Of course, he was worried about me, but he was worried as a father for a child who was not in a hopeless state. The father has a medicine that he gives to the child every day and sees that in the end the child will recover and do what is needed.

One day I could not overcome myself and did not follow him to take him to the sea. Then he was taken there by another student, who on the way asked: “Why is it always only Michael who accompanies you?” Rabash replied: “I cannot do anything about it. He has a special soul.”

I learned this 20 years later from that friend during a chance meeting. I did not even think about it and, moreover, I was surprised that Rabash said that about me to another student.

Therefore, when you look at a student, you take into account his entire future, and it sets you up to treat him accordingly. You tolerate his antics and lead him forward, or you “hit” him more often, or maybe, on the contrary, you pull him out “by the forelock.”
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. You do not Learn from Past Mistakes” 1/15/12

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Incorporate into the Desires of Others

165Question: You said that there is a certain futility in conveying information when you do not know the other person’s desire. When asked how dissemination should work, you said, “You must take a person’s desire and ‘wear’ it yourself,” meaning, convey this information from your own experience, and only then will it work.

How do you do this? After all, each case is individual, and there is no such thing as a programmed response.

Answer: I never have programmed responses because every time I communicate with someone, I connect with them and become included in their desires.

First, I feel the entire system of creation, albeit at the level that I can perceive it. Just as a person feels our world, I feel the inner system of connection between everything, the place of that person, and my place within it. Based on this, contact occurs between us.

It does not matter what they tell me or even what I tell them. What matters is that this contact is always aimed at reaching maximum connection and maximum integration of this person into the common system of creation.

Suppose there is a particular individual element in front of me, and I connect him to the overall system precisely at the time I am communicating with them. This is what I do with each of my students.

Then, if they continue this themselves, they become an independent element in this system and act within it. But their connection was initiated by me from my side. And they must continue from their side. So, each time I seem to give birth to them on some level, in some world, and then they must continue to live.

Just as animals give birth to offspring and they are blind, unable to hold their heads up, crawl around their mother, so too must a human, who is even more helpless, try to survive, just like them.

Question: You described the state of the student relative to you. How can a student do the same thing relative to someone else?

Answer: People constantly do the same thing in their interactions with each other, but they don’t see it, don’t understand it, and of course, they operate at a much lower level.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Effective Transaction of Wisdom” 12/28/11

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When the Greatness of the Upper World Does Not Let Go

231.01Question: You patiently explain the same things year after year. Where do you get such patience from?

Answer: You know me. I am impatient! But I have no choice. That is an example of the greatness of the goal, the vision of the upper picture of the universe prevailing over all my animal qualities.

I am terribly impatient and harsh. I cannot stand people. I am an introvert. I have so many negative qualities I am shocked at myself.

But when I see a spiritual system, get involved in it, and work for it, then all these qualities work the other way around, oppositely. I become patient and explain the same thing twenty times. For many years now,   I start every morning and end every day like this. But it could never have happened before!

I made many revolutions in life until I came to the science of Kabbalah. I am not even talking about myself, but about the fact that this system, once revealed to you, conquers you, seemingly enslaving you. You cannot stop working for it because its greatness, harmony, and perfection will not let you go.

You cannot turn to something different because it is like falling into manure. Will you stay there? No! You still have to get up and dust it off.

While here is the Garden of Eden! True, it hurts to see it unfinished like this, but the system itself is shining on you. So you have to take an active part in reviving it completely.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Laitman’s Negative Properties” 1/5/12

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528.04“Not all who want to take the Lord may come and take. This is why we need the righteous of the generation. By adhering to a real teacher, whose desire is only to bestow, and then one should do things that his teacher likes, meaning hate what his teacher hates and love what his teacher loves, then he can learn Torah that will not be a potion of death (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 245, “Prior to the Creation of the Newborn”).

Question: What does it mean to bring contentment to the teacher, and how does this manifest itself in the ten?

Answer: The teacher requires only one thing from you—to approach the Creator through the ten all the time. That is all. Do you want to be liked? Do this action, nothing else is needed.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Prior to the Creation of the Newborn”

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Is it Beneficial to Share Your Personal Feelings?

234Question: What are qualities that cannot be revealed to someone?

Answer: Some personal impressions and experiences. And although at the preparatory stage they are such that there is nothing forbidden in them, it is still better if a person more or less hides them from others.

Question: Can we share our feelings with the teacher; can we open our hearts to him?

Answer: It is better not to, but you are free to ask questions during the lesson. There is nothing secret that you have to hide; you don’t have it yet.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “One’s Soul Shall Teach Him”

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Cling to the Degree of the Righteous

961.2Question: If we perform all the external work, what about the internal work that helps us cling to the degree of a righteous person, and what actions will lead to ascent?

Answer: Clinging to a righteous person can only be achieved by fulfilling his wishes, i.e., studying and coming closer to friends. Everything we learn is the desire of a righteous person. And if, to some extent, it becomes the desire of the student, then the student is considered to be coming close to the righteous person.

Therefore, we can merge with the Creator only by creating closeness between us and the Creator over all the circumstances that He sends us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Why We Need to Extend Hochma

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Hand In Hand with the Creator

154Question: In Shamati 101: “A Commentary on the Psalm ‘For the Winner over Roses,’” Baal HaSulam writes that only the one who has attained the light of faith can say: “My work is for the king.” How does one achieve this during the preparation period?

Answer: During the preparation period it is necessary to strive for unity, and when you reach it, then you will understand what you have achieved.

Question: A person goes through many states and sees that he cannot do anything and that only the Creator can lead us through all states. A feeling arises that during the preparation period, we are preparing a special Kli for meeting the Creator. Is this Kli called Shoshanim?

Answer: It does not matter what it is called. What matters is what you experience. You passionately desire the Creator to take you by the hand and lead you into these states like a little child you take by the hand and he walks with you.

This is what we need to expect from the Creator’s actions on us. And then we will see the whole world from end to end and feel that everything is filled with the light of the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/14/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “A Commentary on the Psalm, “For the Winner over Roses”

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The Only Means to Reach Unity

945Question: How or through what action do we accustom ourselves to prayer so that our hearts agree?

Answer: We explore our thoughts and desires and try to bring them closer to each other.

Question: Are there any example of how to do this?

Answer: When you hear what your friends say, try to be with them in your heart.

Question: The best state for my friends is when they are in faith above reason. Then they have no claims against the Creator. How can I help them have faith above reason? Or is this still a group action? What means are there besides prayer?

Answer: Nothing exists except prayer. You and each of us must listen to the friends and be with them with all our hearts because connection happens precisely in the heart.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Understanding What Is Written in Shulchan Aruch

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Raise a Friend’s Spirit

165Question: If a friend does not feel any lack in spirituality, then it seems there is nothing we can do to help him. However, Rabash gives advice in his articles that one can always raise his friend’s mood and spiritual state. Do you have any recommendations on how to raise a friend’s spirit?

Answer: For this, you need to show an example and draw him to a more optimistic state. For example, I try to raise the spirit of my students at every lesson.

Question: How did you do this when you studied with Rabash?

Answer: We talked about the good forces in the world and about how much the Creator is waiting and eager to bring us to unity, bestowal, and love.

Question: Can a student raise the spirit of his teacher?

Answer: Yes, because the teacher loves him, the student can raise his teacher’s spirit by his actions when he shows a good progress within the properties of bestowal and love.

Question: Let’s say that when you pass by me you see that I am reading Talmud Eser Sefirot. Will it influence your mood in any way?

Answer: Even if I see that you are reading a book on Kabbalah will raise my mood.

Question: Or, for example, if you learn that I come an hour in advance before the lesson and prepare for it?

Answer: This would be a special attitude to the lesson that will make me want to help you, approve of you.
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From KabTV’s “Practical Kabbalah” 12/19/23

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Can Gifts become an Obstacle on the Spiritual Path?

600.02Question: Generally when people have some connection, as soon as monetary relations enter it something beyond our control happens; we begin to change and make various calculations.

Why does everyone revolve around money?

Answer: Money tells how much I buy (from) within you and you buy (from) within me. When I give you money, I buy a part of you. This is the equivalent of my investment in you, of my efforts.

Not only money but even gifts are the same way. I have big problems with this. If someone let’s say from South America brings me a special Tequila, I put it on the table for everyone. But what if it is a personal gift? Then it is a problem: should I take it or not? A person feels that he gave you something. It means you should give him something back.

However, is it good if he thinks this way? Then he will calm down and will not put efforts to attain the upper world, but rather, he will be waiting for a reciprocal gift from you. This will relax him. It is impossible to attain spirituality without your own efforts. It turns out that if I accept his gift, I can trip him into deceiving himself. Therefore, one should not do this.

It is allowed only in the measure I feel that by giving a gift to me, he understands that he is the one who is receiving a gift because I accept it from him. Only in this case!
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. It’s all about money” 12/4/11

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