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Michael Laitman, PhD

Lying to the Receiving Nature

Q: What do I do if my will to receive doesn’t let me do what I intend to do? Can you lie to it, or use some trick?

A: If you’re trying to make your will to receive (your nature of enjoyment, satisfaction, simply living) accept your position, it means that you have come up with some “bait” through which you promise it pleasure. This will allow you to do as you intended.

It’s as though it is happening not within one person but between two people who lie to one another, just as the Torah and other holy books seem to speak of many people, when in fact they refer to various attributes of the same person and the connections between them.

The questions that are resolved there are very similar to yours: what to do, can man lie to his own nature, and, in general, which is the best way? Therefore it is recommended to read a lot. Remember, “Whatsoever thy hand attaineth to do by thy strength, that do” (Ecclesiastes 9, 10).

Man must try everything even before the receiving nature discovers that it takes no pleasure in it, and only then will it agree to ask things of the Creator…

Q: Does it matter what makes you stop being an egoist?

A: At first, the aim is for me, Lo Lishma. Man confuses working for the Creator with working for himself. But it is precisely that situation, which allows him to make an effort. As a result of the effort comes the Light that corrects from Above, and man begins to understand what it means to be “outside myself, to work ‘not for me’, but ‘for the Creator’.”

Those questions should be asked, but the answers are feelings that go along with the corrected vessels. The question is a vessel; the answer is a Light. In the meantime, the answers are only good for calming yourself down and encouraging you to make an effort.

In general, man grows like a baby, which unconsciously imitates adults. Actors learn the same way. In fact, any study is based on repetition; you learn that which you still don’t know, the degree you have not yet reached. That process is called, from Lo Lishma to Lishma; from “for me” to “for the Creator” - from the sensation of this world to the sensation of the spiritual world.

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