Why Do We Have Everything, Yet We Have Nothing?

it-takes-time-effort-and-experience-to-reveal-the-upper-worldImagine that a guest from another planet arrived here. He looks around and says, “Hey guys, everything here looks great! You’ve got magnificent infrastructure all over the world, mobile communications, phones, the Internet, cars, and abundant crops. You have everything! But why is it that despite all this, you’re sitting at home scared, waiting to see what will happen, and soon you may not even have anything to eat?! What are you, crazy? What are you waiting for? Go to work!”

  • And we respond, “We want to work, but there is no one who will hire us.” The guest is appalled, “Well, start doing something! Send ships and airplanes out, take action!” And we say, “We can’t send anything out because no one is paying us, and we can’t do anything else either because the other guys aren’t supplying us with what we need…”

So, what we’re missing is a connection. How did this happen? We were connected egoistically, but now we have risen to the next level where we require altruistic connections. However, we don’t have them. This problem is all-pervasive, and everyone is left absolutely helpless. From now on, the only thing that will make anything work is the correct intention. The only way anything will happen is if people will have the correct intention. For example, the banks that will flourish are those with the correct intention. This is how the world will learn.

But this learning process started many years ago. About fifty or sixty years ago, we began to see that he who conquers by force is not the winner in the end. Rather, the winner is he who is able to arrange his life and business correctly relative to society.(From the lesson on Baal HaSulam’s article, “One Precept,” on 03.05.2009)

“God Will Help” Is Not Our Remedy

study-kabbalah-and-spritual-worries-will-outweigh-your-current-onesA question I received: Gordon Brown said almost the same thing as we are saying: that people have to achieve love for their neighbor. So what’s the difference?

My Answer: But is he able to implement this? No. “God will help” is not our remedy. We don’t “believe” in anything, but rather, we know that we have to make it come true. Everything is given to us on purpose: the heavens are for the Creator, and the earth (the desire) is given to man. We have to change our desire, and in order to do this, we have to study.

We have to bring everyone back to their workplaces and set up television screens at all the work stations. And everyone should spend a quarter, a third or even half of their work day studying, depending on the demands of their job. People today have too much time on their hands. We don’t need to produce more of anything since humanity doesn’t need anything more. We just don’t know how to interact and distribute what we currently produce. Therefore, everyone should sit at work and study. And this plan should be in effect for the whole world!

A family should not receive benefits to provide for its living expenses and a mother should not receive public assistance if they don’t study. They have to study! Right now we must treat all people like small children who have to go through nursery school, then school, and then high school in order to receive a diploma in the new world.

This is precisely what Baal HaSulam says. He says, “Guys, this is a new world where we have to be connected to each other.” (From the lesson on Baal HaSulam’s article “One Precept,” on 03.05.2009)

Women Just Can’t Accept That They Will Never Be The Same As Men

laitman_2009-03_7925A question I received: Do you ask yourself why women ask you the same question all the time? The answer is: because you don’t give them the answer. You don’t give the answer for the individual spiritual advancement of the women. When women ask you about this, you start a long speech about the men’s part, the group, the women’s role in the world Kli, and so on, avoiding saying how women can make spiritual advancement individually. Today at the morning lesson you gave a very perplexing explanation, ending with the frightening words, “if a woman advances in spirituality alone, she will get the form of an angel or demon.” So I have the feeling that you are avoiding telling us something.

My Answer: I have nothing else to say: a woman does not wish to hear the answer because it does not make her the same as a man. She cannot sit next to the men and study together with them at night, hug them, drink and sing with them, and so on, because she is a woman, and I cannot change that. I do provide the method of individual correction, but it is not what women desire; instead, they want to be “like men.” That is their tragedy.

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We Are Like A Wooden Chip In A Stormy Sea

immerse-into-the-waters-of-bestowal-and-you-will-become-pureToday’s crisis is the revelation of the Creator to the creatures, but it is happening from the opposite side. Globalization is the Creator’s force of unity and connection. Today, this force is being revealed to everyone, and this is why every person is starting to feel more and more dependent on everyone, that he belongs to everyone and shares the same pain.

So, the Creator is already being revealed to the creatures, but from His opposite side. I see this like a doctor who looks at a patient and sees that the patient is beginning to feel all the symptoms of his illness. Humanity’s illness is becoming revealed, and we have to turn it around – meaning, accept it in the right way.

We are the generation that is experiencing the revelation of the Creator, and it is already happening! Today, the views of an ordinary person and a Kabbalist are not so different. It’s as if a person is floating in a stormy sea, thrown around by the waves like a small chip of wood, up and down and from side to side. Everything depends on his agreement to cling to and unite with this stormy sea.

As soon as he agrees, he will immediately cease feeling any agitation and changes in the sea. A perfect peace will immediately overtake the sea of the Upper Light. It only storms because we resist every action the Creator makes, and therefore we can’t relax and yield to Him, and thus rise above our egoism, which wants to struggle.

If we do this,  we will feel that there are no changes taking place. All the changes are the results of one’s struggle against the Creator, and it is this struggle that makes the sea storm. The moment one will cease resiting, he will stop feeling the storm, and will instead feel absolute peace.

(From the lesson on Rabash’s article, “The Activity of the Greatest of the Nation,” on 03.17.09)

The Light Is Received Only Through The Study Of Kabbalah

doQuestions I received about the relationship between spiritual correction and corporeal commandments:

Question: How does one receive the Light or the screen?

My Answer: This can be achieved only by studying Kabbalah – see Item 155 of the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot.”

Question cont’d: Does one have to observe the 613 (or 620) commandments?

My Answer: One observes the 613 commandments when he corrects his 613 desires by the Upper Light during Kabbalah studies. However, mechanical actions do not correct anything!

Question cont’d: Does putting on the Tefillin and saying the Shema prayer also play a role in receiving the Light?

My Answer: No.

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We Are All Under Nature’s Law Of Balance And Comfortable Existence

how-do-you-fight-group-lazinessWe strive toward balance in every way, whether consciously or unconsciously. This is how we all relate to everything around us. We only feel comfortable when everything around us is in balance. At every moment, all that we desire is to attain balance with all the forces that influence us. Our only aspiration is to neutralize them all.

Question: Is this aspiration for balance good or bad?

My Answer: It’s neither good nor bad. It’s a law of Nature that we all follow, whether consciously or unconsciously. However, by shifting from the unconscious way of balancing to a conscious one, one reveals the forces that affect him, including the main force – the Creator. And this is how one attains absolute comfort!

Question: So why is it that we don’t reach balance, even though we constantly strive for it?

My Answer: In life, the rule is that every time I want to reach balance, I reveal a greater level of imbalance. A person who desires one hundred ounces of pleasure begins to desire two hundred grams once he acquires it, and then four hundred grams. Therefore, he never reaches balance and always feels a deficiency. The forces of attraction and repulsion are never in balance.

This law governs our lives. Let’s look at illness, for example. Let’s say that I have high blood pressure. What does this mean? It means that my inner system is unable to maintain a balance with the external pressure. Thus, I have to take a drug that will balance it.

We are being pressured by an aerial pillar eighty kilometers high, and there are tons of pressure on us. But the same kind of pressure also exists within us, which balances it. Otherwise we’d be squashed. This is how everything in Nature, on all Its levels, is balanced. And when you see an imbalance, you reveal the steps necessary to reach balance. (From the lesson on Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Freedom,” on 03.06.2009)

We Won’t Need Surplus In The Future Society

ventureA question I received: When you were explaining the principles of correction, you said an organization should keep only the minimum needed for maintenance, and transfer the profits to a joint account that would belong to all the people. This account would accumulate a large amount of money. But what will this money be used for?

My Answer: Using this approach, the world will attain balance with Nature because it won’t consume more than it needs and won’t take excess from Nature. Whatever is left will be filled with spirituality. This means that a person will have leisure time, a good salary, a car and so on. And in addition, he will have the right relationships with other people and the whole of Nature – its still, vegetative and animate levels. Therefore, he will not break nature’s ecological balance. Relative to other people, he would consume only what he needs for a normal life, and relative to the whole of Nature, all of humanity would do the same.

If you are in balance with Nature, then you won’t have any ecological anomalies. Health problems will also cease to exist – both the ones that come to us from inside, meaning from the animate level, and those that come from external influences. Since people will be in balance, there won’t be any surplus, since nothing extra would be left over. If everyone consumes only what is necessary for existence, we wouldn’t have to work 20 hours a day, polluting the environment, and we won’t have the problem of not knowing what to do with the surplus. We just won’t have any.

Everyone will live his life righteously, not wanting anything for himself. If I have all the necessities and my mind is occupied with spirituality, then I’ll be in the spiritual world and I will enjoy it. But in the past, all I had to enjoy was 20 pounds of meat that I have stored away! Surplus is only needed as long as not everyone has everything that is necessary. But if everyone is provided with everything they need, then we will not require anything else from Nature. When humanity unites as one person, then it will interact with Nature only on the basis of necessity.

This is how a Kabbalist acts: he consumes whatever he needs for physical life and devotes the rest to spiritual work. In fact, this is the only thing that fulfills him. We have to work 8-10 hours per day only as long as there are people in need. And if there is no one in need, then there is no need to work so many hours. How much will people work?  It will be determined by the necessity. And how will necessity be defined? People will define it according to their feeling of balance.

This way, the world will reach balance, as will the world’s population. We just don’t understand what balance is. It is when “the horse” (the creature) moves along with “the rider” (the Creator), and there is no strain or difference between them.
(From the lesson on Baal HaSulam’s article, “One Precept,” on 03.08.2009)

Religion Is Just A Cultural Framework In Our World

holdA question I received: As a student of Kabbalah, I am finding myself questioning my religion (Christianity), but my faith in God is ever increasing. I want to keep a religious life but find myself with an urge (a pull) to convert to Judaism. This is a serious matter when looking at it from a Christian viewpoint. Your thoughts, please.

My Answer: The attainment of the goal of creation bears no relation to religion. Religions are no more than the cultural framework of a certain society. In this sense, they can continue to exist, but everything that’s above them can only be attained through the method of Kabbalah. This is true for any person, religious or not.

People usually abandon religion when they begin to attain Nature, the Creator. But later, once they see that religion is no more than a framework in our world, like a social club, they become ready to physically observe their religion.

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What Happened In Ancient Babylon?

conceptA question I received: How is it possible that people who lived in Ancient Babylon and had qualities that allowed them to feel the Upper Worlds, suddenly became egoists and disconnected again? Does that mean that the process of a person’s spiritual development is reversible, and every advanced Kabbalist who developed his point in the heart can degenerate to the animate level again?

My Answer: The group of Babylonians rose to their complete correction, but then, in order to transmit their knowledge and method to the world, they fell from their spiritual level. This happened in order for them to become like all the people living in the world. Today, this group of Babylonians is revealing the rules and the method of controlling our world to all of humanity, so everyone will be able to reach the level of the Creator – the highest level of Nature. This responsibility constitutes their choice!

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