Audio Version Of The Blog – 06.26.15

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Beauty For The Sake Of Prestige

Laitman_070Question: Formerly, plastic surgery was available only to Hollywood stars. But these days it is popular among ordinary people who want to look younger and more beautiful.

People say these operations free them from many psychological problems they had.

Why doesn’t a person agree with what nature gives him instead of trying to reach perfection with the help of such corrections to his or her appearance?

Answer: A person seeks to preserve his youth because of  his natural desire to live eternally. He knows that he is bound to die and no one knows what will happen afterward.

Even despite the fact that our life in this world is not serene, requires a lot of exertion, and tries our nerves, it is better than total darkness and disappearing.

Therefore, no matter how hard life is, a person’s instinct for self-preservation makes him strive to continue to exist.

There are cases of suicide, but this is an exceptional phenomenon. From nature, the human being tends to protect his life and extend it as long as possible. Only great suffering can force a person to agree that his life be cut short, but not otherwise.

That is, the desire for eternal life is a natural phenomenon. And it is very important for a person to feel beautiful, strong, dignified, and confident. He is willing to invest a lot of effort and money for it.

It would be possible to work for half a day in some simple position to secure the necessities of life. But we want to be as good as our neighbors and show off our expensive cars and fashionable clothes and, therefore, must work hard.

External beauty is the same object of pride as a new car, which has value in the eyes of society and determines our status. If we didn’t live in human society, we wouldn’t worry about our beauty and would care only about what is necessary for existence and nothing else.

It would be possible to wear pajamas all the time—soft, warm and comfortable—and just as easy to arrange our entire environment. But our pride and desire to show off in front of others make us care about our appearance.

If we did not live in a competitive environment, neither men nor women would have cared about their looks. This occurs only under the influence of society.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/6/15

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The Meaning Of Life: The Question That Cannot Be Avoided

Laitman_109Question: Why do you popularize the spreading of the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: As a result of our development, we are beginning to ask about the meaning of life, about its purpose, and about the nature of suffering. So, we must give the common man, far from attaining the meaning of life and the nature of the suffering, the possibility of knowing about this. This is because the depression, sadness, and lack of understanding of the purpose of existence appearing in our time brings aggression, violence, hatred, and wars. We see how peoples and nations clash in a mad, wild “sword dance,” and all of this is because they don’t understand the meaning of life.

Look at what is happening in politics, in the economy, everywhere and in everything! Ignorance and stupidity—people puff themselves up like turkeys, harming others and annihilating each other. Today, many internally ask this question, but don’t express it out loud. Subconsciously, it presses down on them. They would like to find the answer to it, but they cannot, and so it depresses them even more. Instead, they begin to occupy themselves in “games” with bombs, airplanes, terrorism, etc, which end in terrible events, especially these days.

So, we must invest maximum effort so that people will understand how and what is truly carried within the question about the meaning of life, the meaning of the universe, the meaning of our existence here and in other states.

We must make it possible for our people to become the people of Israel, meaning that they yearn for a goal, because they don’t have the right to hide from their destiny. They are obliged to discover the characteristics, foundations, and qualities that exist in them, and thus save humanity from great suffering that would otherwise await us on the way of development.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 6/1/15

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The Blessing Of The Priest

laitman_232_09As it is written in The Book of Zohar, When the Cohen extends his hands, the Shechina dwells on his fingers, because the Creator agreed with the Cohen in these blessings. Israel is blessed from above, from the Shechina that dwells on his fingers, and from below, from the Cohen, pronouncing a blessing.

The prayer of the Cohen (priest) has a very interesting effect. He is covered by a special cloth called a Tallit and holds his hands up in a certain manner and says, “The Lord bless you,” and so forth.

At the same time, the people must not look at him because the priest embodies the Upper Light which is forbidden to look at directly, only through a Masach (Screen), the Returning Light, received with the preparation of the intention of in order to bestow.

Therefore, everyone present lowers his eyes. There is nothing special in this corporeal action in our world except for a hint of the inner spiritual state of a person who receives the Light of an upper state.

It is said that, “When the Cohen extends his hands, the Shechina dwells on his fingers.” This is a condition where the Upper Light passes through all nine Sefirot up to Malchut, through all the states of Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey of the Creator’s name, and thus imprints in Malchut.

Malchut, by itself, produces the Returning Light (Ohr Hozer). This says, Amen. “Amen” means truth. This word is commonly used, but hardly anyone understands its true value.

When Malchut says “Amen,” it means that it receives everything that descends down on it from above and becomes the recipient of the first nine Sefirot.

In other words, if it is ready to receive the nine Sefirot, it becomes Nukva, the female part of the nine Sefirot, and it represents the whole nation.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/28/15

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The Destiny That Has Been Chosen For Us

Laitman_043Question: If the Jewish people are in the land of Israel to carry out spiritual work, why is it so difficult to live here? Every small thing that is resolved easily somewhere else in the world becomes a terrible and intolerable war in Israel.

Answer: The reason is that everything happening in Israel belongs to spiritual correction. Therefore, it is so difficult to correct even a small step, because the spiritual correction is made here. We are correcting the spiritual system through which the Light and abundance descends to the entire world.

The changes that happen with the people of Israel influence the higher system that manages all the higher worlds, not just our world. There is no chance of influencing the higher system through the nations of the world. Only the people of Israel influence the higher system. Jews can disagree with this task and try to live a simple life like everyone, but no one asks them what they want. This role was imposed on us and it is impossible to refuse to carry it out, just like when we are born we don’t choose our father and mother.

So, there is no reason to discuss whether we like this role or not. Let’s talk only about how to carry it out now when we have freedom of choice, and, if we don’t choose this role of our own freewill, then we will get blows until it seems that there is no choice, and we need to advance in a special way. What can one do? We were born with this destiny.

There is no other way for the upper management to agitate and arouse us. We don’t understand what we’re doing and through what corrections are made. Constantly negative influences are acting upon us from above, and we try to run away from them, but we cannot escape. So, gradually, but correctly, we advance and reach correction.

The Jewish people have existed like this for the last two thousand years. It is useless to rebel and protest; we are faced with a very simple choice. Either the people of Israel will fulfill its mission and truly become the people of Israel living according to the principle, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and in this way influence the higher system positively through which all of the positive changes will spread through the entire world, the rest of the seventy nations of the world, or we don’t carry out our role, and the indignant nations of the world will come to us and beat us until we agree to carry out our obligations.

Around seventy years ago, the Holocaust broke out because we were not ready to accept our role. I hope that now we will be ready for the role so a new Holocaust won’t come, the shadow of which already can be seen over the horizon. We can refuse to accept this role, but this won’t help. We are in a network, in a system, that connects the entire world, and this network will find and pull us everywhere, wherever we try to hide.

The time has arrived to carry out our obligations regarding the entire world, and they will require this of us. A boycott of Israel will begin from all sides. This will become a complete blockade that will strangle us until we carry out the role that was assigned to us by the general system, and the sages explain to us how to transform all the evil to good. We must only stop being so stubborn and listen to their advice a bit.

Question: Is there any promise that everything will turn out well?

Answer: The promise that the end will be good is on condition that we begin to change and correct ourselves.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/15, Writing of Baal HaSulam

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Spiritual Genetics

Laitman_115_04Question: Are there two types of software operating simultaneously in the Israeli nation: the egoistic software of Babylon and the altruistic software of Abraham?

Answer: The egoistic software actually existed in those who joined Abraham. Their egoism developed according to a particular system, and they kept ascending above their ego and connected according to Abraham’s method. The other Babylonians, on the other hand, did not overcome their egoism and did not connect, and so it developed in them in a different manner, unfelt and very slowly; that is, they drew away from one another and spread all over the globe.

It turns out that the Jewish people were much more egoistic than all the other nations, but at the same time, they already knew the method of connecting by which they ascended above their ego. There were already two lines of conduct in them, the egoistic line and the altruistic line parallel to it, and they developed along the two lines. This is Abraham’s method, and whoever accepts this method and lives by it is called the people of Israel (Am Israel). “Israel” – “Yashar El” means straight to the Creator, to the upper force that governs the world, to the attribute of love and bestowal.

We are connected to this method whether we like it or not. We carry it inside us! Our nation actually was founded on the basis of this method, and although we don’t feel it, it is embedded in us on an internal, spiritual level.

The Jewish people are a very interesting group of people that has existed for thousands of years and it has been studied in depth. But it is impossible to discover its spiritual inclination on the genetic level because it is on a level that is not expressed by any genetic attributes. It is actually this level that the nations of the world feel in us because it is the strongest. There are people who look at a person and say, “This is a Jew!” How do they see that if he comes from South America and has red hair, for example? There is something in a person that people actually feel, although it is hidden.

To be continued.
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From KabTV’s “About Our Life” 6/4/15

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 06.26.15

Writings of Rabash “Rungs of the Ladder,” “Love of Friends”

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 11 

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,” “His Guidance Is Purposeful Guidance”

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