Audio Version Of The Blog – 08.28.14

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Depression -The 21st Century Plague

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (M. Nikulina and M. Zubritskaya, Federal University): The entire psychiatric community all over the world is saying that now we are entering into an era of borderline neuropsychiatric conditions. According to the statistics of the World Health Organization, the number of people who require psychological treatment is growing more rapidly than the number of patients with cardiovascular and cancerous diseases.

Depression is a mental disorder characterized by a low mood with a pessimistic self-esteem, the inhibition of intellectual and motor activity, and diminished motivation. In the United States, around 15 million people are suffering from this illness. The mechanisms of depression are still unknown.

Antidepressants were produced 50 years ago. In the past depression was treated with herbal infusions like Duda or Hellebore. Pythagoras recommended listening to music. The media call depression a 21st century plague. In 2020 depression will be first among all illnesses.

A state of depression can continue for months, and prolonged depression for years. One of the symptoms of depression is hopelessness, it seems that it will go on forever, and the future is portrayed in very dark colors.

There are plenty of reasons for depression: familial problems, conflicts at work, lack of faith in the future, health problems, and crucial age groups.

Depression is not a sign of weakness of character, this is a real illness that requires medical intervention, as depression is a disturbance in the biochemical processes of the body.

Comment: Lack of egoistic fulfillment is the specific cause of all depression, as well as all diseases. So the number of patients with this disease will grow and the treatment will continue to be less effective until millions of people will be cut off from life. Then they will agree to listen to the advice that the wisdom of Kabbalah gives: how to be filled with Light!
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A Good Future Depends Upon Discovering The Upper Force

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You are saying that the entire world has to reveal the upper force. What does its revelation mean?

Answer: To reveal the upper force means to identify oneself with that single force that controls all of creation. I clarify that this force embraces and fills our entire world, is everywhere, connects all parts, and according to its program, brings them together towards a goal.

Question: Physical forces reveal themselves this way. They transports objects from place to place, change states and movement. How does the upper force reveal itself?

Answer: Physical forces are also a part of the one upper force. When the upper force is revealed, I understand its program, the thought of creation, the process of development and its goal. I discover my place, my role in this program and in the entire history of humanity. I understand what I must do in order to implement my mission in the most correct and efficient way. Thereby I assure the best, most correct, and most secure existence for myself.

All of the negative pressure that we feel is designed to push us towards discovering the Creator, towards discovering the upper force, its program, process, and goal.

Question: Why are all the signs that the time has come to discover the upper force unpleasant: anti-Semitism, war, and social problems?

Answer: All of these are signs that the time has arrived for everyone. It begins with the Jews and then the rest of the nations as well. We will discover the reason for our existence, what kind of a world we exist in, for what purpose, and how to attain a good and secure life. The entire world is in a great crisis.

All of the troubles come to us from the upper force forcing us to discover it. If we turn that development in a good direction, good events will happen. If we don’t, the situation just will continue to become more severe until there are wars, really. Whether good or bad events happen depends upon us.

Question: If the upper force is approaching us, how can this cause a problem?

Answer: The upper force awakens us with all kinds of pressures and threats, calling to us to discover it. Thus, we have to understand that we will not be able to get along without it.

The people of Israel have to understand that a good future for them depends upon revealing the upper force. So, it is necessary to explain the method of revealing this upper force to everyone. For this, we need to begin getting closer to each other. In this way, we build the right network of connections between us. We create for ourselves the conditions for discovering the Creator.

Question: In what way are the people in whom the upper force is revealed differentiated?

Answer: If the people are connected, united, and linked with “and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” then the upper force will be revealed in them. However, if the people exist as they do today, we will discover states in them that are the opposite of love. This means mutual hatred and separation.

Accordingly, the negative side of the Creator, meaning His absence, becomes  revealed within us in the form of all kinds of troubles in our lives: wars, a struggle to exist, and disputes between us.

All this indicates that we lack the Creator between us. However, if we begin to connect, we will approach discovery of the Creator more and more, according to the degree of our connection and unity.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write. Preparing the People of Israel for Light” 8/20/14

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Many Instructions, One Direction

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus” (Metzora), 15:3: And this shall be [the nature of] his uncleanness due to his discharge: [if] his flesh runs with his discharge, or [if] his flesh is plugged up by his discharge, that is his uncleanness.

Question: How can we characterize the term “his discharge,” which means a raw desire that remains inside or which comes out?

Answer: The body’s secretions are desires on the level of the still nature. If they come out, they may also be pure, but if they remain inside it is impossible to work with them.

In that case you cannot separate the pure desires from the impure ones and so you cannot raise them and work with them in order to bestow, in the connection with others.

“His discharge” is the desires that cannot be corrected. What is more, they are on different levels of: solid, fluid, gas, etc. All the four attributes are mixed and are parallel to each other.

It is very important on which level and which attribute you correct, according to which Aviut (thickness), and according to who or what the correction is performed.

It can be our attitude to the land, the plants, the animals, or to man. It turns out that there are many instructions here, but one direction, and this is actually what you should work on now, although it always belongs to the immense multi-layer desire you are in.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/5/14

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One Person Brings The World To Either An Ascent Or A Descent

Dr. Michael LaitmanThose parts of “the created” by the Creator’s desire, that can awaken towards the spiritual, are called Israel. And those that are not yet able to awaken are called the “nations of the world.”

These parts exist within every person, in accordance with his desire. The wisdom of Kabbalah does not look at the bodies but only at a person’s desires.

Also, as soon as a person acquires the desire for the spiritual, he begins to be called Israel. But as soon as this desire disappears, fades, and begins to hide among his egoistic desires, he immediately begins to belong to the “nations of the world.” And this pertains to all of us.

The egoistic desire that is referred to as “nations of the world” also divides into two parts: “the righteous of the world” and “the beasts” (these want to hurt their neighbor), and the other ones achieve what they want, but not at another’s expense.

All the desires divide this way into these four groups:

  • Egoistic desires called the “nations of the world”: harmful and harmless
  • Desires that are inclined to “bestow,” which are called Israel: those devoted to bestowal and those that are not.

When one studies Kabbalah, he inclines the entire world towards the good, because he attracts the Upper Light with his studies, which causes the world of egoism to become kinder. But when one only studies the regular Torah (the open Torah), only the physical observance of the commandments, he worsens the suffering of the world (he inclines the world towards blame).

There is no state in between. This is why every person connected to the Torah must begin to study Kabbalah! Otherwise, he harms the world.

The Zohar tells us about this and Baal HaSulam explains the meaning of this.

The entire system is made in such way that when people only take care of the corporeal observance of the commandments without studying Kabbalah, they lead towards a state when all other parts of the soul, which do not pertain to spiritual work, but only the egoistic desire, gain a greater strength and feel more opportunities to realize their ego.

That is, these people, who only do the corporeal observance, evoke all the evil, which later becomes revealed in the other three parts of the soul.

 

One-Person-Brings-The-World-To-Either-An-Ascent-Or-A-Descent

 

And those souls that pertain to the three lower parts do not posses any freedom of will of whether to be good or bad. Only those who study the Torah have a choice: they can incline the world towards good or evil. And the highest group, which studies the “inner Torah,” or Kabbalah, have little choice if they do everything that depends on them!

The entire choice belongs to those who exclusively study the “external Torah”; this is the most problematic part. Everything depends on whether they will also begin to study Kabbalah, and to what extent.

Those who can study it but do not, absolutely harm the world. But those who study it, though not to their full ability, they benefit the world to a greater or lesser extent, but they do not harm it. This is a big difference!

If all the people who have some kind of connection to spirituality studied Kabbalah at least a little, there would be no evil in the world! There would be no crises, no problems. This is the key to success, nothing else needs correcting, not the banking system, nor ecology. And nothing else will save us from our misfortunes.

The only thing that will help is for all the people who are connected to the Torah to study specifically the inner Torah, instead of the external Torah, and then the entire world will come to goodness; all the people will only feel the desire to do good deeds.

This is the conclusion made in The Zohar and by all the Kabbalists of the following generations.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/5/10, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar

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Launch Your “Inner Collider”

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhat is the purpose of creation? What are we living for? What is the purpose of life on earth? Mankind was interested in these questions at all times, but it especially concerns our generation, and even though we often hear about different forms of the existence of life in the universe, in reality, we see that we are alone.

We really are alone in this entire, enormous system of the universe, and we do not understand at all that we exist on earth in special conditions that made life possible, and this is a very complicated thing.

Just to originate the material form of life requires a collection of forces and a formation of conditions that enable its creation, not to mention the state that will be the origin of the development of life in the spiritual world.

All these things always have astonished the great human minds in all generations. How and why did it happen? What is the need in nature or the upper force that has created everything in this exact form?

Additionally, if not for the Kabbalists who actually have revealed the spiritual world and attained that exact point where life originated, we would not have known anything.

We know that the physicists who tested the collider in Switzerland wanted to attain the point of origin of the so-called “Big Bang.” In other words, they were trying to simulate the spark of light that burst into this world and brought with it all of the matter that has formed in this world following this burst.

However, Kabbalists already have gone beyond the limits of our world in their attainments, and they have completed the entire journey from the beginning of creation in the spiritual world to its final correction, and they have told us everything that happened there. We can find out about it from the Tree of Life by the Ari.

Kabbalists who have attained the spiritual world tell us that the upper force that made and created all of reality operated on the basis of a program and decision, and that all of that is called the “thought of creation.”

They explain to us that there is an Atzmuto (the essence of the Creator) of which we do not speak because we cannot attain Him. We only attain the actions that come from Him. They are called the “thought of creation,” a thought or program. This program goes through us and constantly manifests in us since we are its derived action.

On one hand, Kabbalists tell us that this program is directly carried out by us. However, on the other hand, we are not just parts regulated by it, but also can come to understand it, feel it, join it, and even participate in it, since that force unattainable by us wants us to become its partners.

This is why you launch your “inner collider,” which brings you directly to the beginning of the universe, and you return to the spiritual world through the beginning of the universe, and rise from the lowest spiritual world of Assiya to the worlds of Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, Adam Kadmon, and the world of Infinity. In addition, when you tune into the world of Infinity, you acquire infinite attainment, perception, and understanding outside of time and space.

We will be able to attain this only by uniting together as one man with one desire.
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From the Lecture, “Kabbalah for the Nation” 11/16/10

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Darkness Will Shine Like The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The Creator is called Bore (“come and see”). What does “come and see” mean? What does He want us to see?

Answer: When I was a student, I also asked Rabash, “What does a person see who attains the spiritual world?” He responded that if one were to gather all the pleasure that mankind has experienced over the course of its existence into one enormous pleasure, this will only be a tiny glow—that is, a tiny spark—in comparison to the pleasure that exists on the first spiritual degree.

Imagine that you are enjoying yourself like all of mankind in all the generations! This would be a kind of pleasure that we would not be able to even hold onto! This is why, when we attain the spiritual world, our desire acquires an intention for the sake of bestowal and we become able to hold onto the pleasure that is a billion times greater than the pleasure of this world.

Where does this pleasure come from? In order to convey my sensations, I was not able to find a better word than “harmony” or “balance,” or “a union of opposite properties and processes.” This gives us the sensation of perfection, the greatest pleasure.

It is written that “There is no greater joy than the resolution of doubts.” This is exactly what we feel. All the things that are considered to be opposite in our world begin to connect and complete each other in the spiritual world because one cannot exist without the other, like darkness and light.

In this way, the desire to receive pleasure and the Light begin to complete one another and work together through the screen.

As it is written, “Even darkness will not obscure [anything] from You, and the night will light up like day; as darkness so is the light.” Before the entrance into the spiritual world, we feel a great darkness that suddenly begins to shine like light, and this is the first, small sensation that comes from meeting it.

However, gradually, we will see how all the problems and suffering, failures and wrongdoings, suddenly begin to bring us satisfaction and understanding of their need and purpose.
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Excerpt from the “Kabbalah for the Nation” Lecture 11.21.2010

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The Flight Path Into The Spiritual

Dr. Michael LaitmanI have a problem: I do not know how to advance toward the spiritual goal. I do not see it, and I cannot aim at it. This is why I constantly need to analyze to make sure that I do not deviate from the path. This is because even the slightest deviation in the beginning can lead to my inability to reach the goal, even if I continue going in the correct direction.

However, I will think that I am going in the true direction, and I will not even notice “having strayed from the path.” This is why it is best if I stop, check where I am, and maybe even go back. Then, it may be possible for me to continue correctly on my path.

However, which signs will help me determine and make sure that I am advancing in the needed direction, even though the goal is concealed from me?

After all, for instance, for a rocket to hit its target when it is launched, the course of its flight is calculated according to very complicated formulas taking different factors into consideration: wind, speed, earth rotation, and so on. However, at least, we know all these laws.

However, when speaking about the spiritual goal and rising to every new degree, we need to do the entire analysis in the beginning of the path while we do not understand anything yet, do not see the Creator, do not imagine the path, and who will tell me whether I am wrong?

This is why Kabbalists say that the correct formula for the attainment of the goal is “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” Besides that, it is necessary for all three of its components always to be equal; none can prevail over another. All of them need to be together, constantly tuned into the same point.

Israel is a person in the world who strives to come to the goal: straight to the Creator (in Hebrew, Isra (straight) and El (Creator). The Creator is a level of Bina, and Bina is the property of bestowal, Hafetz Hesed.

The-Flight-Path-Into-The-Spiritual

What is the Torah? It is the Light that Reforms. In other words, I always need to strive toward a certain correcting force that can influence me and correct me until I reach a state where Israel, Torah, and the Creator will become one.

The Creator is the root toward which we strive. He is our goal, the absolute, complete property of bestowal. In other words, when I correct myself completely in all of my desires, my correction will be called the Creator (HaKadosh Baruch Hu).

This is why, before I undertake anything—whether it is my thoughts, desires, or intention—I need to hold on to all three components within me every moment in order for them to be equal and give me the sensation of unity between them.

Then, I will walk correctly toward the goal.
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From a Lesson on “Kabbalah for Beginners” 11/17/10

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 08.28.14

Writings of Baal HaSulam  “Introduction to the Study of  the Ten Sefirot,” Item 49

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Writings of Baal HaSulam  “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose” Title: “The Absolute Good”

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