The Unconscious (or Conscious) Drive that Governs Your Life

The human being is created in the image of the Creator. Therefore, knowingly or unknowingly, he or she aspires to have all the attributes that characterize the Creator. For example, the Creator is in a state of eternal and complete rest. Because of that we too aspire for rest, and all our movements are only a means to attain it. The Creator is one and unique, therefore, everyone declares how much he or she, meaning his or her ego, is also one and unique. Our aspiration to achieve things we think cannot be attained comes from our soul, which is a part of the Creator. We in fact aspire for the situation of the Creator, who is actually free. And this is the purpose of our existence. If that weren’t possible, the concept of freedom would simply not exist.

Why Your Only Independence Is in Rising Above Your Nature

Our freedom, our independence, is only possible to the extent that we are freed from our nature and can rise above it. That is because our nature is predetermined. To attain the real and absolute freedom, we have to activate a special mechanism to open the door of the cage of our corporeal world into a spiritual, eternal, and free realm.

We have to fight for our freedom. Our whole life is comprised of struggles for bits of fictitious freedom, which society obliges us to engage in. We try to be as it would have us be, and we are prepared to fill up our lives with empty acts, just to get some recognition and respect.

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How to Find the Point of Free Choice in Life

We believe that we have many possible futures to choose from. But choosing means seeing the future, so what is this choice based on? How does one know which future is best? If we could see the result of choosing one option and the result of choosing another option, we would know which was better. But in truth, there are no options to choose from whatsoever.

A certain Reshimo awakens within a certain will to receive, meaning within a certain person situated in a certain environment. Subsequently, that person realizes the Reshimo, accumulating further impressions from life’s events.

If we realized that we are only marionettes, and that at the same time we can change our future, we would then be at a point of choice. In other words, we could then choose an environment that would influence us positively and assist in our spiritual development. Such an environment would help us realize that Reshimo in the same direction and the same preexisting ladder, but we would do it willingly, instead of under pressure.

What a Positive Social Environment Can Do for a Person’s Development

In any given state, the Reshimo in the awakened will to receive, and the environment are all predetermined. Even if one had an urge to realize the Reshimo, this urge would stem from within; and even if one used the environment to accelerate the unfolding of the Reshimo, it would only shorten the predetermined unfolding period.

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From the Daily Lessons – In following video, Rav Michael Laitman, PhD talks about freedom: what it is, what it isn’t, and where freedom can be found. He deals with the question “What does it mean to be free?” asking “What is free in you?” and explains how to attain a different kind of nature, and acquire the ability to exercise freedom against everything constraining us.

Video: Where Can True Freedom be Found Today?

Download this Lesson: wmv video | mp3 audio [54:02]

Additional Sources:
Videos
*Where Is Our Freedom?
*Upbringing – an article by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD

*Society’s Approval is the Greatest Reward – An Interview between Michael Laitman and TV anchor Lev Novozhenov
*Influence of the Environment – a post on Laitman.com – Michael Laitman’s Personal Blog.

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Our modern idea of freedom is embedded in remoteness, individualism and isolation. The true idea of what freedom means has been inverted and long forgotten. Here are three sources of information on what true freedom is and how it can be attained in our world today.

1. Video: The Freedom Prison
In this excerpt from a morning lesson Rav Michael Laitman, PhD provides a definition of freedom that is completely opposite to society’s idea of freedom, but is more natural than anything else.

Download this Lesson: wmv video | mp3 audio [66:42]
Shamati Article #190 “Every Act Leaves an Imprint” (the article on which the above video’s lesson is based)

2. Freedom of Will (An article by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD)

3. The Freedom (An article by Baal haSulam)

Related Material:
Newspaper Articles:
* Kabbalah Today Article: The Freedom Blues
* Kabbalah Today Article: A Kabbalist, a Geneticist and the Meaning of Life
Short Clips:
* Do We Have Free Will or Is Everything Predetermined
* “Kabbalah Revealed” Episode 10: Free Will, Part 1
* “Kabbalah Revealed” Episode 11: Free Will, Part 2 The Four Factors

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* Cracking the Happiness Code – To crack the happiness code, we must start by realizing who we really are, what our nature is. more…

* Better than the Virtual World!? – Our attraction to the virtual world indicates great progress in human evolution. It plays an important role in humanity’s preparation for spirituality. more…

* The Freedom Blues – When you realize that there is no freedom in this world, you’ll begin asking about the meaning of it all, and then you’re on your way to real freedom. more…

* The Desire Grows – Humanity Evolves – Whether it is the tiniest movement of our body, or humanity’s entire evolution, all we do is motivated by one thing only – the desire for pleasure. more…

View/Download Kabbalah Today Issue 11:
* E-version
* PDF version
* Word version

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