Young Group Discussion

[Zohar]

Very beautiful and heartfelt selections and motivations!

[Denys]

In today’s class, when we did the “above” and “below” exercise from Dr. Laitman’s quote, for the first time in all my time at kabu I felt the unity of the group.
The interesting part of this “first time” is that I don’t know any of them and it wasn’t necessary to feel the warmth of the unit.

[Jack Brenon]

I must have missed something about a “YG assignment”, but what I gather from reading the forum make me conclude that each student should  choose a passage from the book that had left an impression on him/her.  I Hope this is what the “YG assignment” was.  If not, it is a good passage on page 40 of the Rabash Social Writing Pdf version.  The passage that got my attention is copied below:
And when a person sees the evil in himself to an extent that he cannot tolerate it, he begins to seek advice for how to come out of it. But the only advice for a man of Israel is to turn to the Creator, so He will open his eyes and his heart and fill it with sublime abundance, as our sages said, “He who comes to be purified is aided.”  Then, when he receives help from the Creator, all the lacks will be filled with the light of the Creator, and he begins to rise on the degrees of holiness because the need has already been prepared within him by coming to see his true state. Hence, now there is room to receive his completeness.  And then a person begins to see how each day, according to his work, he rises ever upwards. However, we must always awaken what the heart forgets, what is needed for the correction of the heart—Love of friends—whose purpose is to achieve love of others. This is not a pleasant thing for the heart, which is called “self-love.” Hence, when there is a gathering of friends, we must remember to bring up the question, meaning everyone should ask himself how much we have advanced in love of others, and how much we have done to promote us in that matter.

[Peter]

Homework Young Group:

From Rabash, The Social Writings, Article 6: LOVE OF FRIENDS

‘For example, if there are ten people in that body, it has ten times more power than a single person does. However, there is a condition: When they gather, each of them should think that he has now come for the purpose of annulling self-love. It means that he will not consider how to satisfy his will to receive now, but will think as much as possible only of the love of others. This is the only way to acquire the desire and the need to acquire a new quality called ”the will to bestow.” ‘

This fragment impresses me because it is so clear, so fundamental. ‘He has NOW come’ I think is so powerfully phrased, because it seems like every meeting with the Friends is an opportunity to strive for this, to remember this, to say this to ourselves.

[Katel]

Impressions from Watching the Clip – “Relationship to one’s spiritual teacher”.

The disseminations and example of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman has lifted my perception of reality to a whole different level altogether. Life’s yearnings, confusions, bitterness, doubts, and even unanswered questions fizzled out so seamlessly. Presently, the vision of the purpose of this life and its meaning is clearer with being blessed with an enabling well-structured spiritual path leading to discovering the Creator. I beseech the Creator for health and longevity for the Rav to be very much around to continue nurturing this awakened point in the heart to maturity.

What I have to do in order to make myself a Rav?

To continue assimilating the teachings and following the guidance of my living Teacher, Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman to advance spiritually.

[David Edwards]

209. Three Conditions in Prayer

Shamati

There are three conditions in prayer:

1. Believing that He can save him, although he has the worst conditions of all his contemporaries, still, “Is the Lord’s hand waxed short” from saving him? If not, then “the Landlord cannot save His vessels.”
2. He no longer has any counsel, that he has already done all that he could, but saw no cure to his plight.
3. If He does not help him, he will be better off dead than alive. Prayer is the lost [1] in the heart. The more he is lost, so is the measure of his prayer. Clearly, one who lacks luxuries is not like one who has been sentenced to death, and only the execution is missing, and he is already tied with iron chains, and he stands and begs for his life. He will certainly not rest or sleep or be distracted for even a moment from praying for his life.

 

[1] In the manuscript, this word is written with what seems like two initial letters. With one, it means “lost” and with the other it means “work.” It would seem that the “proper” meaning would be to write “work” since it is a part of the phrase “prayer is the work in the heart,” but he apparently deliberately switches the letters to mean “lost,” as this is the word he is relating to through the rest of the article.

 

I chose this one because it clearly outlines the true depth of where a real prayer pours out from. It gives me a feeling of someone who is truly poor. I would say that to be given this feeling is the ultimate gift of love from the Creator.

[suzanne]

YG Assignment

I decided to explore the book Rabash The Social Writings and this article looked interesting “Concerning the Importance of Society Article No. 12 1984”, the following excerpt is from page 34.

“Therefore, in matters of work on the path of truth, one should isolate oneself from other people.  This is because the path of truth requires constant strengthening, since it is against the view of the world.  The view of the world is knowing and receiving, whereas the view of Torah is faith and bestowal.  If one strays from that, he immediately forgets all the work of the path of truth and falls into a world of self-love.  Only from a society in the form of ‘They helped every man his friend’ does each person in the society receive the strength to fight against the view of the world.”

I chose this excerpt because it talks about the path of truth, the world, and about Torah.  I felt humbled and that I have a lot to learn to stay on the path of truth and a little fear when I read “If one strays from that, he immediately forgets all the work of the path of truth and falls into a world of self-love.”  but I appreciate this fear because I am reminded I can “fall into a world of self-love” easily; and the friends and the ten is a method to “fight against the view of the world.”  I also feel curious about “a society in the form of “They helped every man his friend’.

[Author]

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