Audio Version Of The Blog – 12.19.14

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Music That Attracts One Towards Attainment Of The Upper World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: For me, the “Melodies of the Upper Worlds” is a unique series. The inimitable spiritual experience that a person feels when performing this music can be compared to a rainbow, which is singular, but at the same time produces a variety of different colors and leaves a very wide range of emotions, musical impressions and experiences.

What is this music? How does it become integrated into the world and with the general spiritual attainment of a person?

Answer: Music fills the whole world. On the face of the globe there is no place in which a person doesn’t express himself with some kind of sound. Even animals sing, hum, and echo in different voices, expressing happiness, bitterness, fear, and suffering. And all of this is music, an expression of inner emotions.

The world is full of melody. Even when you look at the sky, the stars, and the universe, you feel that they are filled with harmony. And music is harmony.

In our world there are many kinds of musical styles and various expressions of music. People from all nations in the world and throughout all historical periods have used a variety of musical forms or particular types of external conventions of communication that express their inner emotions.

But besides the usual earthly music that composers throughout all times and societies have created, there is spiritual music which a person experiences when he is speaking not about earthly happiness and suffering, but about emotions that he feels on attaining the upper world, the higher power, the Creator. Throughout human history we have had unique spiritual teachers who marched alongside humanity, but in parallel to it or above it. They used their own methods of expression of spiritual understanding when the true soul sings. The soul doesn’t include our earthly experiences, but the experiences of the discovery of the higher state, the upper world. There have not been many people like these in every generation.

Left to us are some sketches and memories of them. But we don’t know what musical instrument King David used. Was it a stringed instrument, a flute, or possibly an instrument similar to a violin? Even though we read Psalms, we cannot sing the songs as he did.

The written words don’t give us a clear sensation or understanding of how to perform them. At the same time, for example, in the Torah, above and below the letters are clear signs, the marks of cantillation, that give us an understanding of how to sing the text of the Torah.

And if the person is advanced in his spiritual attainment, meaning in the feeling of the controlling system in our world, how he enters into it, feels, understands, and adapts himself to it, he begins to cooperate with it. And he then begins a conscious emotional and intellectual dialog here.

That is, that attainment is carried out on two levels in the heart and mind. Between them are created unique and interesting transitions with a predominance of emotions or with a predominance of the intellect. And yet the music is derived either from emotion or from intellect. In other words, the music of the soul and its general feeling is born as a result of good harmonious relationships between the emotions and the mind. That is what is amazing about attaining the upper world.

When a sage enters into the spiritual world, he begins to feel a higher harmony that cannot be described in words because completely different feelings and a multileveled mind are produced within him. Contradictions merge and approach each other, and unity is extended instead.

So our earthly musical means cannot contain the volume and intensity that a sage feels upon attaining the upper world. No orchestra nor organ will help here, since after all, the idea is not about the instruments that carry what a Kabbalist feels on attainment of the upper world, rather he is also in an audience, which is said to be ready in some form to understand what is conveyed to him.

For example, those who attend  symphonic concerts are not people from the street, or those who are outside playing dominoes. A particular audience goes to these concerts, knows about musical culture, and by way of the musical sounds, aspires to feel particular levels of our world, life and death and everything in between them and what fills them. That is also how it is here.

It is necessary to prepare an audience to grasp spiritual music. This is so that people will begin to hear something higher within those sounds, greater than what the human ear usually can grasp. If we prepare people, they will begin to discern the sounds of the upper worlds hidden in these melodies as if they are heard within them, clothed within them and which are revealed only to people who can hear them and understand about what they are speaking.

The exceptionally unique characteristic of spiritual music is that it attracts the listener itself, and he then begins to aspire to it, be interested in its inner content, and tries to understand the inner layer of emotional and intellectual information that it contains. It is possible to play it before an entire audience and it will itself attract them. When the time comes, it will be possible to give a short course to help people to discover the inner layer that exists in these works.
[141978]
From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 2/09/14

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The Upper Sphere Of Nature

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the Creator according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the upper force ?

Answer: The Creator is the highest nature. Nature has many levels, and the uppermost level includes everything that we are able to discover with the help of all the sciences and the science of Kabbalah, which reveals the mechanism of force of bestowal. All this together is called the Creator.

Indeed, all this is under the control of the properties of Bina, the force of general bestowal, which is called Elokim, the Creator. What else exists besides this is not known to us. The wisdom of Kabbalah gives a clear answer to this, as in any science: we do not know what is above the force of bestowal and are not able to reveal this.

Maybe it is only a temporary restriction. Generations are advancing one after the other, revealing and correcting nature. Perhaps, after we correct the entire reality and reach the end of correction of all generations, new opportunities will be open to us.

But for the time being, we do not have the slightest contact with what is above the quality of bestowal. Perhaps, nature exists there in different ways that we, due to our structure, are not able to understand and feel. When we reach the end of correction, then we can talk about what is next. Kabbalists hint at this slightly in their books, but we still cannot understand them.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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What Does A Kabbalist See?

laitman_928Question: In the article, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Baal HaSulam writes that all of the worlds are identical in all of their details. What does this mean?

Answer: The whole world is like a copy of the higher world. The material is different, the intentions are different, the fulfillment and the essence are different, but it is a copy of the upper world with the characteristics of the lower.

Suppose there is a flower in our world and there is a “flower” in the upper world. A “flower” in the upper world is a collection of characteristics that have a connection between them resulting in a flower in our world.

A Kabbalist who opens the upper world, opens his eyes, and begins to see this connection. And in accord with the inner picture of our world that is found in him, he begins to attain the upper world and sees the roots of this worldview. He sees that a flower in the lower world is a result of a gathering of particular forces in the upper world, which he is now discovering. In such a manner he has the “branch” and “root,” the “root” above, the “branch” below, and the connection between them.

So the Kabbalist looks at the unique gathering of these forces in the upper world that results in a flower in our world. He calls them by the names of flowers, for example, a “rose” with its thorns and leaves. He understands what to call these things. Otherwise he would have no possibility of doing this.

The language of the branches comes from this. Without it, the Kabbalists couldn’t talk about the upper world, where there are only forces. In order to exchange insights between them, Kabbalists don’t require a language, for they are themselves included in these forces and activate them. But in order to transmit their attainments from generation to generation and to teach, they need the language of the branches. This language is very precise, for they know every root for every branch in this world, and since it has a name, it is clear to them what to call the root.

For us this is a problem. When we open books of Kabbalah, we see that everything is written in our materialistic language. This confuses us and we begin to think it is talking about our world. But the Kabbalists are not relating to this world in any way. Only the physical sciences are involved with this world.

Question: Are there roots in the upper world for all the branches in our world?

Answer: Yes. For everything that exists in our world there are roots in the upper world, but they are unknown to us. One could ask this differently: Are there many more roots in the upper world that have no branches in our world? No, for every root there is a branch in our world. There is no Light or phenomenon in Olam Ein Sof (the World of Infinity) that doesn’t reach the lowest point of this world.

In our world, the Kabbalist even sees the Light that is working within the material, whereas we only see the wrapping, the substance. Whereas he sees the Light, the energy that activates all of the components of the substance, he sees the intention of the creation, the goal of creation, the thought of creation. So behind all of the faces, all of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, he sees the realization of the goal of creation in each and every moment, either a bit more in the way of suffering “in its time” (Beito), or a bit more in the way of Light “I will hasten it” (Achishena). He sees how this world is constantly progressing, as if it is swinging on the balance.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/15/14, Writing Baal HaSulam

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The Wisdom Of Kabbalah And Corporeal Sciences

laitman_283_02Question: What is the difference between the wisdom of Kabbalah and other sciences?

Answer: You attain and establish all the other sciences by your five fictitious senses, while you attain and establish the wisdom of Kabbalah by a new sense, which you receive from Above and by which you explore the upper world (since it all exists only with regard to the created being).

The difference between the wisdom of our world (which includes all the sciences that have already been revealed by us and which are yet to be revealed) and the wisdom of Kabbalah is that in the science of Kabbalah you have a sense of bestowal and you can control and explore yourself, the spiritual world, Godliness, and this world.

On the other hand, in conventional science, which studies this world, there is no external perspective, no objective point of view from which you can see the world and yourself and see what is right and what is wrong and how subjective everything is. Of course everything is absolutely subjective with regard to your senses. If you had additional senses or a sixth finger, you would discover something new.

This means that the sciences of this world and studies in this world using the five senses a person has are very limited and are only intended to bring a person to such a development of his ego, of his desire to receive, that he should understand and realize that he cannot advance any further with the sense of receiving that he now has.

Question: So what is the sixth sense that a person acquires when he studies Kabbalah?

Answer: The sixth sense is that attribute of bestowal. If the Light shines on you and influences you, it gives you its attributes and then your receive the attribute of bestowal, which we simply call the sixth sense. It isn’t just another sense in addition to your corporeal senses.

The Light gives you an additional attribute in which you can see and feel what is external to the desire to receive, what is external to you.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/14, Writing of Baal HaSulam

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Thou Shalt Not Sow Thy Field With Two Kinds Of Seed

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It says in the Torah: You shall not crossbreed your livestock with different species. You shall not sow your field with a mixture of seeds, and a garment which has a mixture of two kinds of material shall not come upon you. What does that mean from a spiritual perspective? What should a person’s spiritual work be?

Answer: It is about the right and the left lines that you have no right to connect. Every action you make, every thought or desire that you have, should be performed so that they are aimed at bestowal or receiving. There should be the right clarification of a person’s attributes and a recognition that it is only receiving in order to bestow or bestowing in order to receive.

Cattle, field, or garment refer to different levels of a person’s desires: the animate, vegetative, and still. It is all inside a person, and a person is a small world! This is our first assertion. According to this perception, everything is inside us and we reflect that through our feelings.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/9/14

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Unity Is The Guarantee Of Victory, Part 1

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What exactly do we celebrate on Chanukah? What are we happy about, and how do we make our lives happy today not only on holidays?

Chanukah is dedicated to events that happened in 167 BC, the war of the Maccabees. But the war was conducted not only against the Greeks.

Between the people of Israel themselves there was a great schism that divided the society into two groups: those who opposed the invasion of the Greeks and those who supported it. The secular elite accepted new values that were brought to the people of Israel by the Greeks.

And the second group, that called itself the Maccabees, opposed the penetration of Greek culture into the Jewish people. In this manner, a schism appeared among the people, an internal ideological war. And all of this was under the conditions of a serious external threat.

Is it possible to see here some kind of parallel with what is happening in our day in Israeli society, which also lives under conditions of an internal schism and an external threat today?

Answer: Clearly, the situation today is much different from the wars of the Maccabees. This is because the Greeks didn’t come to conquer the land of Israel; they only wanted to instill their culture, attitude towards nature, science, and way of life into it.

This was the inner essence of these wars. They were intended to disseminate Greek materialism to everyone. The Greeks agreed that higher forces of nature exist, but they were very simple. The main thing was that a person should bow down to them, and he could then live however he wanted regarding everything else.

They didn’t demand that a person live according to the laws of connection and unity, as was customary among the people of Israel. So, many people willingly accepted the dominance of the Greeks. If a person accepted Greek culture, their statues, their stadiums, then he would become like them. Much later, the English and the French established colonies in African nations with identical goals by bringing their culture to them.

In other words, this was a war of cultures. Among the people of Israel, a war broke out because the people didn’t want to accept the Greek materialistic approach to life. This led to an internal schism among the people of Israel between those who accepted the Greek approach and those who opposed it.

A materialistic approach to life was accepted specifically by the elites, the military officers, the rich, the executives, and the highest strata of society.

Question: And what was the culture of the people of Israel in that period that they so much wanted to protect from the Greeks?

Answer: This was the same culture that manifested itself in the group of Abraham on the basis of, “And you shall love your friend as yourself.” It connected everyone through love and mutual bestowal. Each one understood that he was connected with everyone else and existed thanks only to this connection and unity.

Through the realization of a connection like this between them, they felt their connection with the higher power of nature. This is because there is only one higher power at work in all of nature, which can be called the Creator.

This power illuminates a person according to the law of equivalence of form. When we connect among us, then we also become singular, like this power. And so it begins to illuminate us and we feel it. We feel this illumination, the presence of this bright power among us, which brings us blessing and success in all of our activities.

This is like a good energy that is discovered in every person among the people of Israel and in all of these people together.

Question: If this force is the bearer of such goodness, why were the Greeks against it?

Answer: The idea is that in order to discover this force in our connection, it is necessary to conduct a struggle with our ego. This is because the ego pushes us away from each other and it is necessary to fight it all the time in order to have an inclination to be drawn towards everyone.

So we must awaken the forces of society that will obligate each one to be attracted towards it, to publicize this knowledge and call for everyone to be concerned about everyone else. This is called mutual responsibility. The main thing is connection and unity between us. We exist and win thanks only to this.
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From the program “A New Life” 12/11/14

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It Is Impossible To Know The World Only By Its Pieces

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When there is a need to work together, groups of people gather and determine who is strong in what, and they get along and perform some activity together. Why doesn’t this mechanism work on a global level, between the nations? Why don’t we get along with each other?

Answer: The higher supervision is a goal-oriented supervision and so it accompanies and directs us towards complete attainment. This is attainment of the Creator, meaning attainment of the only general universal force that fills everything. In other words, a person develops such that eventually he will be able to fulfill himself through the system of worlds, and through the system, he will understand the general force that exists in nature.

When we were created, we could absorb something only through in small, discrete segments, pieces,  or sections. The most that we were prepared to do is to arrange these small sections together and create an integral form from them.

On the other hand, the Creator exists in analog form, beyond the integral, and on a higher level where there are no boundaries. That is His nature, the nature of pure bestowal. And He wants to bring us to that level.

And so our present plans will not help. No matter how much we want to know and be conscious of the world, nothing comes of it for us. On the contrary, we need to reach a state where we despair of all of our plans and goals, seeing that none of them succeed, and understand that the main thing is that there is a very unique plan in nature and it is worthwhile for us to implement it. Only then will we attain everything through changing our own nature.

Today we want to become aware of nature in digital form. But this won’t work, for every segment differs from the others. It is only possible to attain them all together, beginning on a small scale, and on a greater and greater scale after that. This way is called ascending the levels of the worlds. But if we just want to connect the separate segments with each other, this will not work for us and we will not be able to assemble the general picture from this.

Therefore, our plans will not be realized. According to our present intelligence, we won’t attain anything that is found above the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate. Today we have reached the end of the development of the still, vegetative, and animate levels, and now require higher levels of development in order to continue. But these levels require our personal, internal, psychological participation, and here we come to the end of science.

Question: Which is to say, we can never logically explain peoples’ really poor situation to them?

Answer: We will not succeed. There is only “from your deeds do we know you.” Even though you might be a great Kabbalist, you cannot explain spiritual phenomena to a person even though he could be very intelligent. Since he is not familiar with the transformations that you are going through, it is impossible to explain and to describe analog phenomena in a digital language. There you are attaining divinity to some degree or another and here you are connecting pieces or segments, in other words, separate parts of the whole.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/07/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Center Of The World – The Center Of Thought

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Your academy is called an “International Academy” and it seems this is not in vain. Together with this, as a Kabbalist do you suppose that you must live only in Israel?

Answer: From this perspective, Israel is the central point of the world. First and foremost it is necessary to establish a harmonious society here, built on the correct mutual relationships between people.

The moment that we begin to do this, even to a small extent, the attitude of the nations of the world towards us will immediately begin to change. This is because our influence on them doesn’t work through their awareness but through a common management system.

Comment: You suppose that the center of thought must specifically be there, where the nation of Israel is found, and after that it is necessary to spread from there throughout the world. But this could become a source of a negative attitude towards you from the rest of the entire world.

Answer: Why? Tell the whole world that you are building a new society to show everyone how it is necessary to exist, and suddenly you will see how everyone understands you.

Comment: But some individual Babylonians won’t understand this and will say that this is their land.

Answer: They will be changed immediately! There is no connection to the Arabs here at all. They are simply a toy to put pressure on us until we truly understand what we must do. Everything depends upon us!

The nations of the world have no freedom of choice; rather it is only with us! For there has already been a time when we rose above the egoistic level and we existed within two forces, an egoistic (receptive) force and an altruistic (bestowing) force. Today we need to balance the egoism through altruism and create a society of harmony. The moment that we begin to do this, the nations of the world will change their attitude towards us.

Throughout human history many thinkers and philosophers from different cultures have spoken about this, but they didn’t have the tools to do this. Whereas we have these tools, which are the wisdom of Kabbalah and the inner spiritual gene (Reshimo) that is latent within us.
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From  KabTV’s “A Special Opinion” 8/17/14

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 12.19.14

Writings of Rabash, “Shlavei HaSulam,” “What Placing the Chanukah Candle on the Left Means in the Work”  

[media 1] [media 2]

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “Love of Friends”

[media 3] [media 4]