Audio Version Of The Blog – 08.20.15

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio

[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/download/audio/eng_o_rav_2015-08-20_declamation_blog-rav_full.mp3 title=’20.8.15′]

Love For Animals Or Love For People

Laitman_049_01Question: A human being is a part of the animal world, albeit a most developed one. Animals can be herbivores or predators who consume each other. Throughout the entire history of humanity, people ate animals, so we can be placed into the category of predators.

Why, then, did vegetarianism became so popular lately? Could it be a result of people’s development to such a degree where they are uncomfortable with killing animals for their own pleasure?

Answer: I do not think that humanity has developed that greatly because development should be internal, not simply the growth of intellect. We know that high intelligence does not make a person kind to others. That does not depend on the level of education, on what university a person graduated from, or how many Nobel prizes he or she has.

In general, I do not see that man is evolving in the human sense. It is impossible to find an example where a nation reached high inner development by virtue of its technical progress and technological accomplishments, or even by achievements in literature, music, and medicine.

Germany was the most developed country before the second World War, and look at what kind of suffering the Germans brought to the entire world.

Question: But I am speaking about just one specific aspect: a person’s treatment of animals!

Answer: And I am not talking about animals but about a person’s treatment of people! We know that the most developed nation at the time made lampshades from human skin. This is why I do not see any signs of advancement in the fact that a person refuses to consume animals as food.

We are talking about the development of human qualities in a person. If vegetarianism would be a consequence of such development, then it will be a different story. However, for now, we are not talking about that. Vegetarianism has no connection to the good treatment of people.

Question: Is it not kindness if a person refuses to kill an animal for his own satiation?

Answer: It is a completely wrong approach because, even given that, we kill and torture animals daily through our egoistic relationships with people, and killing and eating a chicken is not egoism because a chicken exists in order to lift a person. The inner premise of a chicken is to help a person live and to raise him to a higher level.

Moreover, our bodies have such needs that are impossible to satisfy by consuming only a vegetarian diet. A person needs meat. We do not understand this yet and have not researched it enough. I am sure that such research exists, but it is being hidden and not allowed to be published.

A person cannot live without eating meat. Our body and its digestive system, the entire system of food intake, is arranged in such a way that we are required to eat meat, except for those who do not like it by nature. There is a special type of people who do not like meat.

The conclusion is very simple. We cannot spread vegetarianism as an ideology through persistent means of pressure. We need to stop advertising it across all channels. Ardent vegetarians themselves look like predators who are ready to tear other people apart for eating a piece of chicken.

Let vegetarians show others how much kinder vegetarianism has made them, how much their attitude toward people, and not just toward animals, has changed for the better. Let them first correct their relationship to people and only after that toward animals and show an example to everyone! Only then will I understand that it is a revolution in humanity and not just a vegetarian revolution.

A vegetarian diet is being referred to as natural, as closer to nature. However, is it natural? If a person wants to follow his nature, then he needs to eat meat.
[164685]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/30/15

Related Material:
Nutrition: Natural Diet
“Animals” Don’t Belong In The House
Back To Nature

Our Collective Consciousness Influences The World

laitman_947In the News (Epoch Times):“According to a University of Princeton study, an emotion or a thought that several people share simultaneously can affect the physical reality. Our thoughts can be powerful not only in the ideological sense, but also physically, and a thought that is shared by several people is very powerful.
“According to the findings of the study of human consciousness in the 90’s carried out at the Princeton lab (PEAR), the human mind can influence a generator of random numbers. Such experiments have raised several questions: can people’s emotional response have an effect on a destructive earthquake, on a massive terrorist attack, or on the feelings of football fans, etc.? Can the shared joy of people during a special holiday influence our electrical appliances? The clarification and analysis of these issues indicate that there are deep subconscious relations between people even if they are not physically connected.”

 My Comment: The wisdom of Kabbalah allows us to reach a collective conscious influence that is purposefully focused on the world. There is no other method, and therefore the major principle by which we can attain this influence over the world is “love thy friend as thyself.”
[164312]

Related Material:
Can We Measure The Effect Of Thoughts?
The Unlimited Power Of The Mind
Mysticism Or Lack Of Senses?

How To Tilt China Towards The Way Of Light

laitman_547_05Question: I am concerned about the situation in China. What can be done to transform advancement through suffering to advancement through the way of Light?

Answer: If a strong national government still existed in China, in their place, to save China I would send the entire population to a mandatory course on the subject of Integral Education. By this means it would be possible to attract a very great Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light). And it makes no difference how much they would understand. There is no need to understand; rather, the need is to simply carry it out, just as everyone once read the writings and quotations of Mao Tse-tung from the Little Red Book; so now everyone would also be involved in Integral Education as a wonderful tool.

In my opinion this method is close to them and they are ready to do it. This is imperative; there is no other solution, and otherwise we will be approaching some extremely tragic events. What is to be done with hundreds of millions of people who are left without work, income, and are hungry for a slice of bread? What will they do in cities? Also returning them to villages is no longer possible. This is a problem of the whole world.

In fact, as of today, the world just about doesn’t need China. This period ended rapidly; it lasted around twenty years. There was rapid prosperity, and that was it; there is no longer a need for it. The whole world is in a crisis, nobody needs to buy anything. The United States is not interested in the continued prosperity of China because it must provide work for its citizens. And besides that, Chinese production is not as cheap as it was before.

There are a multitude of reasons, but we don’t understand them and think that it might be possible to correct something with the help of various economic levers, decreasing or increasing interest rates. But nothing will help. In this manner it is possible only to pass the time. We are approaching world war, but in the meantime we hope to postpone it a bit.

It is impossible to extinguish the negative baggage that humanity is accumulating more and more. There is no solution to any of these questions. After all, masses of people, weapons, hatred and strife between everyone are connected to this; all of these have become an insolvable problem. If there will be local flare-up, the fire will spread all over the world. As of today the state is deteriorating rapidly not just towards local flare-ups between individual nations, but in the formation of two very large blocs that are against each other.

The Creator expects our correction. Forces are revealed and shaped according to the lack of work on our part. Here the laws of nature are active. If we don’t open the crater of the volcano to release a little of the pressure that is gathering in it, then it will heat up until it will ultimately erupt.

It is now impossible to release the pressure through specific actions in one place or another in the world, as had been done until now. The world requires correction, connection. But it is in a state that is very far from connection, nobody wants to hear about this. All the organizations that were once established for the sake of connection, as in the example of UNESCO, the United Nations. and major international organizations, with time have become political forces. No organization has remained that will work for the benefit of building connections between people.

We have reached the final point of clarification, and understand that it is impossible to build something with the help of an “egoistic person.” Now the question is will people want to accept Integral Education? For if this will not be, it is frightening to think what will happen to the people of Israel. The whole world will pounce on us. This is a very serious problem towards which one cannot turn a blind eye.

So going out to disseminate is a question of survival for us. Our survival depends on our going out to disseminate and the degree of our success in it. The high spiritual method is becoming something very practical in life. Spirituality, dissemination, and preventing the threat of world war are all connected. Suddenly, in a moment, the world can be transformed, so we must relate to this with great seriousness.
[130236]
From the 3d part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
This Is The Center Of Correction
Concerning The Crossroads
Do We Hasten Time?

Equipped With An Intention

Laitman_065Question: How can we unite if the breach between the different streams and sectors seems impossible to bridge?

Answer: That’s the way it should be at the end of the exile. It doesn’t surprise me. We have reached this state as a result of ages of evolution. The modern world is the advanced level of the evolution of our ego. It is good because the ego is revealed in its clear and specific form on this level. The only thing missing is the recognition of evil: we have to understand that we feel bad precisely because our ego shows us that it is the source of all evil.

We still lack this recognition, which means that we shouldn’t just suffer because we feel bad, but rather we need to discover the reason for this evil. At the moment we don’t associate the split between us with a military escalation somewhere in the world, with demonstrations, with problems that come up all the time, and with the rising cost of living. We don’t associate all that with our ego, and therefore we still lack the recognition of evil and simply feel bad.

We have to work on that and to explain that it is actually the lack of connection between us that is the source of every form of evil and that the correction is also lies in the same cause—the renewal of the connection between us.

Humanity itself will never be able to discover this dependency and that the lack of connection between people has a destructive effect on nature and on the ecology. We can convince people that the separation has a bad influence on society and leads to breaches between religious and non religious sectors, between the rich and the poor, between different streams; it also leads to problems in the educations system—but all this belongs to the human level. When we speak about the effect on the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature it becomes hard to explain that.

People have to undergo terrible afflictions before they can see the connection between these things. Therefore, it is our obligation to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah, and Baal HaSulam says that the time for that has come.

Question: Can we convince people by setting a personal example for them, by showing them the good outcomes that the study of Kabbalah can lead to?

Answer: I don’t think it will help even if we run around and demonstrate beautiful examples of connection between people. Our main work is to use our intention. We have to perform actions, but most of all we have to focus on our intention and not look for solutions other than integral education.

I don’t think we will be able to make any progress through our actions. Actions are important, but they take place on the account of the Upper Light that operates according to our intention. The action itself on which the intention is based is not so important. We simply have to use all the options that open up from above.

We are nearing the right intention all the time—this is all our work. Consequently, we draw the Light and we don’t need anything else except the Light. I am not armed with a gun or a spear, but only with the intention that I have to use in order to draw the Light.
[129918]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Intention As The Destiny of Israel
Intention And Action
Overall Participation

Research In A Kids’ Sandbox

Laitman_079_02Question: Why did Kabbalists prevent the spread of ordinary science among the Israeli nation?

Answer: Kabbalists did not prevent the spread of science, it simply developed to the extent that it was necessary. After all, before the destruction of the Temple the whole nation engaged in spiritual attainment in absolute devotion. Why should they have studied insects in the jungle or electricity?

External science explores how we should work with different expressions of the Light in this world on the lowest level. It is useless if I can work directly with the Creator, with the same phenomena on a higher level. There I am actually incorporated in the actions and work with the phenomenon, and that is a huge difference.

Compared to this sublime work, external science is simply a game in a kids’ sandbox. This is the reason that the nation of Israel did not engage in science beyond what was necessary for building or in order to satisfy the needs of the body. What is the point in dealing with it any more than that?

There were people who knew how to process leather, how to prepare food, and how to build houses, how to do anything that was a basic necessity, but not more than that: for a living, for the family, for the next generation. It was impossible to live without it and so they had to provide those needs.

But money, respect, and knowledge are human desires that lead to a breach in society and were therefore kept on a minimal level. It was only after the Israeli nation was exiled that they gradually began to descend lower and lower.

They couldn’t engage in anything else when they were in exile and so they engaged in anything that was possible, especially in commerce and in developing the banking system since they could engage in that everywhere and it gave them a sense of security. They could secure their future this way.

Thanks to the fact that the Jews dispersed all over Europe and the Middle East, they could establish a network similar to the modern integral network in commerce, industry and finance. They began to build it more than 2000 years ago. If a Jew from Spain reached Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, or the countries in northern Europe he could always find Jews there with whom he had a common language; he could find a place to live, to understand their lives and they could understand him.

This was not the case among other nations. There were only small villages in Europe which were so far away from one another. On the other hand, it was easy for the Jews to build such systems because they felt that they belonged to one nation, to one Creator; they studied from the same books and read the same prayers. Moreover, they never knew what the future would bring. If you are a person that can be counted on because you fear the Creator, I can leave a sum of money that I have saved for times of trouble. If something should happen, I can always come to you and you will give me back what is mine.

This is how the systems of commerce and industry developed. There was no need for external sciences because they had their own system. Books were transferred from place to place. It was a very strong network. This is actually how humanity began to wake up and advance from the age of barbarism.
[129748]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
A Science Of The Transition Period
The Warning Of Our Sages
The Future Society Amidst The Ancient World

The Creator Precedes Everything

laitman_276_02Why do we understand the world in which we are living? It is because we feel it. If we started to feel it in a different way, it would be understood as something else felt inside ourselves.

In other words, the feeling must be prior to understanding. It is impossible to understand the reality we don’t feel. This doesn’t happen. Sometimes, it is possible to understand something in our world according to our imagination because we have models of feeling particular objects inside, and it is possible to imagine them in some form. But this is a problem.

Are we ready to imagine, let’s say, the taste of grapes with benzene? Which is to say, as long as we haven’t tangibly experienced something, Kelim (vessels) are not created in us since Kelim are desires, feelings, and before this, our brain has nothing to work with.

So, our problem with the Creator is that He is the only force, and we have the opportunity in our world to feel ourselves separate from Him, and this is the greatest thing that He ever did. He created something as if it exists outside of Him (existence from absence), and specifically from this nonexistence it is possible to begin to attain the Creator.

But it is impossible to understand Him with the intellect because He is characteristics, manners, and activities that are completely incomprehensible to us. Levels of approaching the Creator are according to the degree of equivalence with Him. The biggest problem of our getting closer is that with every step of our approach to the Creator, we must understand more and more—feel, know, and grasp inside of us—that all of our movements within our desires, thoughts, drives and plans, whatever they may be when we direct ourselves directly toward Him, and even any opposing activities when we want to twist and lie to ourselves, in all of this the Creator precedes us.

It makes no difference how we perceive ourselves, in whatever desires, thoughts or actions, we always discover Him first and, after that, ourselves. And where am I? It becomes clear that the “self” of each one of us is specifically in understanding the fact that the Creator is everywhere and one must adhere with Him at this point. So, the self gradually, in parts, in some point, will adhere with the Creator until reaching full equivalence with Him. This form is called Adam (Man).

However, for us, it is difficult to imagine this because everything must happen within our desires, and this will be realized only when we begin to move within our inner analysis toward the discovery of the Creator in everything inside of us and around us, according to the principle of “There is none else besides Him.”

What I am thinking now, this is His thought. Is my reaction to this thought also my reaction or His reaction? In what way can our thoughts be equivalent? In what way can I see the difference between Him and me? If I don’t agree with the thought that is aroused in me, it means that this disagreement comes from Him, and here it begins to become clear where my form still is not like His.

This is a very interesting analysis. In the beginning, it is tiresome. After that, it begins to be interesting. After all, this is a constant inner game that, in fact, adds to our life and gives it inner meaning, inner energy, a source of movement. If a person begins to search for the Creator in all of his drives, feelings and thoughts—even in movements that are unconscious and instinctive reactions—it means that he is searching for the way in which he is different from the Creator.

In the still, vegetative, and animate nature, the Creator manifests instinctively. Everything happens there according to particular laws. There are no problems, and all of the laws of nature are carried out precisely.

So we cannot have any complaints against animals, not can there be any complaints of animals against each other. Everything is in a particular balance: who eats whom and who exists at the expense of whom. Everything is defined from the start. Everything must exist this way. There is a precise and instinctive transmission of nature here. The Creator acts in them naturally and is not expressed in any form.

It is the same thing in regard to people in whom the Creator does not want to be revealed. He works instinctively. We see that all of the great politicians, economists, and in part also the scientists (there are those who already are conscious of their difference), not to mention the common people, all of them exist instinctively. The Creator is not revealed in regard to them.

In what way is He revealed to us? First, He compels us to search for the reason for our existence—meaning, to begin searching for Him—and brings us to a feeling as to where and in what way we are beginning to grow above our animate level. If I am involved in this now, I am trying to understand in what place in me, in my thoughts and feelings, I can grasp the Creator, where He constantly challenges me, manages me from within. This thought is related to the level of Adam. I want to rise above instinctive behavior and consciously recognize the management of the Creator, conscious from my point of view. This is precisely the way we must go.

Here, we gradually begin to detach from Him and connect with Him consciously, which is to say that previously I was under the instinctive management of the Creator: Everything that I did, all of my previous life specifically had to be like that. Everything is attributed to Him!

From this moment on, I want to feel His activity in all of my feelings, my desires, in whatever happens inside of me and, after that, decide if I agree with this action, how I can adhere with Him, but consciously.

In the beginning, I must feel that He—this is He, and I—this is I, and that He is doing something within me. Do I agree with His desires and thoughts with heart and mind, to what He is doing with me? If not, I must connect with Him and adhere to Him above my desire and thoughts. This is very great work. Here, I begin to separate myself from the Creator (this is called “analysis of the state”) and after that, make a correction, connecting myself to Him (this is called “correction and adhesion”).

The distance between Him and me is determined by my ego that I am beginning to discover within me, and the more that I work on myself, the more my ego grows from minus to an immense plus or from instinctive behavior to an awareness that He is the one who is acting this way, but I still agree with Him and move back toward Him. This proceeds conically, and we must connect these two systems within the middle line.

Through the understanding that without the ego we could not differentiate ourselves from Him, become an independent, created being, we give great contentment to the Creator. Only then do we begin to understand what existence from absence is, and from there we connect ourselves to “existence from existence.”
[129647]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/14

Related Material:
Seeing The Uniqueness Of The Creator
The Closed Door As An Excuse To Enter
What Do You Do When The Creator Is Everywhere?

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 08.20.15

Preparation for the Lesson 

[media 1] [media 2]

Writings of Rabash “Rungs of the Ladder,” “What Is the Foundation on Which Kedusha (Holiness) Is Built”

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Rabash “Rungs of the Ladder,” “Which Degree Should One Achieve So He Will Not Have to Reincarnate?”

[media 5] [media 6]

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts, Chapter “Divinity,” “When the Son Does Not Do the Will of His Father, His Mother Has Permission to Strike Him”

[media 7] [media 8]

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, Item 94

[media 9] [media 10]

Lesson on the Topic: “Preparing for the Convention”

[media 11] [media 12]