Audio Version Of The Blog – 01.05.15

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Changing Our Vision To Manifest The True Reality

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf we ignore the bodies that divide us, then all of humanity is one common desire to be fulfilled. Everything material in this reality in the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels all desire pleasure.

They manifest themselves differently at each stage. Pleasure for a stone is when it has the inner strength to sustain itself in its current solid state. It exists and does not allow outside forces to split it.

The plant does not just preserve itself, but also develops, expands the scope of its life, and takes up more space than what it originally started with. It enjoys the sun, water, and air, and its capacity to absorb these things give it a strong sense of life and vitality.

Further, animals have an even greater desire for enjoyment and they move from place to place in order to fulfill this desire.

A human being’s case is a special one. There are people, who like animals, look for greater connections with pleasure and guarantees for their preservation throughout their entire lives.

Everyone in one way or another is familiar with the desires related to food, sex, family, money, honor, and knowledge. However, some people have a special impetus, for they want to connect with the higher force and experience pleasure from it.

A person with such an impulse wants to know why, for what reason, and in what reality one lives, where one came from, who rules a person, and what happens to one after the death of the body. A person feels that these questions have an answer. In the desire to be fulfilled and in this primordial requirement, a person starts experiencing a qualitatively new enrichment while wondering what lies beyond life in our world.

There are a lot of people like that on Earth. In particular, such questions arise in those who fall into depression and seek refuge in drugs, etc. Most of them think about the fact of their existence and the meaning of life. For them, a life without any meaning is not sweet and they do not feel that satisfying normal desires is enough.

Such existence seems animalistic to them, and providing for oneself, having one’s own well-built “crib,” and taking care of offspring does not, in principle, separate humans from the animal world. Here we are still at the same level, and on the same line on the graph of the animals.

On the other hand, a true person is the one who wants to rise above one’s bodily life and understand why one lives. This question came to the fore on a massive scale during the days of the Tower of Babel, when people opened egoism to the maximum level at that time. Many people wondered why this happened and what the purpose of the ego was. They asked themselves, “What would we get from building a tower to heaven and why do we need an architectural masterpiece like the pyramids of Egypt?”

There was no answer. This is when Abraham appeared. He had studied the problem of sudden flashes of egoism in the relations between people and came to the conclusion that all of this was intended to help people unite above egoism. He saw that if they could do that, then the negative force of the same egoism would raise them above it to a new, spiritual height, a qualitatively new level called “the world to come.”

The world to come is a reality entirely aimed towards bestowal. We leave our lives in this world as it appears to us now, emerge from this endless egoistic battle in which one devours the others, and rise to another level of being. There we will treat each other with love, as it is written, “Love will cover all crimes,” and this relationship will be passed down to the levels of the still, vegetative, and animal natures.

Abraham was the property of mercy (Hesed) and taught people how to live according to the principle of love thy neighbor as thyself. Because of this, his students gained a new perception of reality, seeing the world through the prism of bestowal. I used to seek personal gain everywhere; I wanted to use everything to my advantage, and now, it is the opposite. I switched to helping others, loving others, and feeling the pain of others.

This is when my world changed. I turned the paradigm of greedy reception and absorption into the opposite, and this is the polar transformation of my ancestral properties that allows me to open a new reality.

In other words, it all depends on my perception. There is no objective reality; it is only what I see.  At present, my perception is based on the force of reception, and I have to change a setting inside me to see and understand the reality through the prism of the power of bestowal. If I do this, then everything will appear in front of me in a different form.

Moreover, Abraham discovered that the program of nature managing the development of the human race would lead us to this state. Replacing the concept of total reception with the concept of total bestowal, replacing hatred for your neighbor and using others to benefit yourself with love and using yourself for their benefit, will transform your world.

A person is used to living in this world and everything here seems natural. One does not understand that, in fact, all this is just the fruit of a certain perception of reality, and it all depends on the mechanism of our perception. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to change it.

Thus, Abraham brought people to ask questions about the meaning of life, people who had matured and demanded to see the true reality, to reveal the cause and the program’s goal. And he taught them how to change their vision to manifest the true, complete picture of reality.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/25/14

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What Will We See In 2015?

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (Globes): “The planet has entered into the period of ‘discovery of truth and enlightenment of humankind.’ This is the period of Pluto. It began in 2014 and will end in 2016. Pluto symbolizes death and rebirth, the revolution in mass consciousness.

“The discovery of inexhaustible sources of energy, superconductivity, and global communication will be connected with this. All this will radically change human life  and the world order. Humanity is on the verge of the era, which may be called the Apocalypse, when the old world order is collapsing and the new one is being born. The word ‘apocalypse’can be translated as ‘the discovery of the truth.’

“We are facing the period of enlightenment of humanity, when the veil will drop from the eyes of hundreds of millions of people. Of course, such a revolution in consciousness will be accompanied by momentous political and economic decisions, the realization of brilliant and dazzling ideas, and the emergence of charismatic personalities.”

My comment: The wisdom of Kabbalah completely agrees with the statement that “the planet has entered into the period of discovery of truth and enlightenment of humankind.” That is just not by way of great discoveries in science and technology, but through the spiritual change of human beings.
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With The Flow And Against It

Laitman_182_02Question: Is globalization, which has already been observed in the world for a long time, compatible with the ideas of the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: Clearly, globalization is the program of development for the whole world, and the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks specifically about how the world develops and in what manner we humans must adapt to this development. This is because we have freedom of choice; we can go towards the goal that was programmed into the plan of creation in either a bad way or a good way.

Our entire choice is in this: Either nature pushes us forward through suffering, up to the next world war, or we will wisely go according to nature.

Question: Do you suppose that there is a threat of a coming world war?

Answer: Certainly. The wisdom of Kabbalah warns that there could be a third nuclear world war and even a fourth. But in any case, the program of creation must be implemented; all of humanity must unite into one single whole according to the principles of equal mutual relationships, friendship, unity, and mutual assistance. In any case, nature will force us towards this if we ourselves don’t understand that there is no other way out except to realize what the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about and to reach this by a gentle and intelligent way and not through suffering.

Comment: Opponents of globalization say that when we all gather together and unite, we will lose our national identity.

Answer: What difference does it make what we lose and what we don’t?! If nature is moving in this direction, then only a fool can go against it.

It is necessary to take a look at the movement of nature itself. After that you must think: Do you want to go along with it? If not, then you will be swimming against the stream; that’s your business. What will result from this? Russia is an illustrative example.

I am not saying that the West understands it all to the end. It also inhibits its movement along with the flow, but at least it changes. In the West, in spite of it all, there exists some kind of understanding of a need for progress, for it is organized according to an egoistic principle. While in Russia, everything was organized according to an ideological principle. Ideology was above the egoistic nature there, and that was their downfall. The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about our need to ascend to the next level, above both ideology and egoism.
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From KabTV’s “The New Year” 12/25/14

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Pioneers Who Broke Through To The Truth

laitman_749_02The Tower of Babel represents separation, lack of understanding, and distance between people. From that situation, through overcoming this separation, a group emerged that followed Abraham and later became the Jewish people. Because they wanted to discover the meaning of life, Abraham taught them how to discover the hidden force that acts in nature.

Question: This is the entire secret of the Jewish people, that they revealed this force?

Answer: They discovered this inner force in nature; the rest of the people who were around them didn’t feel it and lived as if they were in another world. For with their discovery of the higher power, the group of Abraham discovered the existence of a new world between them.

They lived on the same planet, but they also saw what was happening beyond its limits, behind the physical image. We feel the Earth and everything that exists in it by way of our corporeal senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touch. Whereas, they received a new perception: an understanding and feeling of the two forces that manage the world—the force of reception and the force of bestowal.

Ordinary people didn’t understand this at all. It would be necessary to pass through the same inner transformation as the group of Abraham did in order to understand it. And this is the secret of the Jewish people; they began to recognize and obtain the forces that manage the world.

Question: And this made it possible for these people to manage the world by themselves afterward?

Answer: They could participate in this management correctly.

Question: Does it follow that this group has managed the world throughout all of history?

Answer: No, this group was designed to manage the world, but they didn’t succeed in carrying out this role. Yet this task remained imposed upon them.

Question: The Jewish people have strongly influenced humanity throughout history, far exceeding the influence of any other people. It follows that it is not by chance that even thousands of years ago this group began to obtain the forces that manage the world, while in general, it never occurred to all of the rest of the peoples that there are forces like these. Do Jews have some kind of advantage over the others?

Answer: The Jews have an advantage, but they don’t use it to the detriment of others, but rather to help the whole world and to raise it to the same level. They are not arrogant about this; on the contrary, they feel that they must prepare themselves to serve all of humanity, to bring everyone to the same discovery. For it is written: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:7), “…and all nations shall flow unto it” (Isaiah 2:2).

The Jewish people were only the first group of all of ancient Babylon to discover the higher power. They were pioneers who broke through to discover the real world. But ultimately they must bring this to all of the inhabitants of Babylon.

All of humanity, at the end of its development, must attain the same vision of the world with the two forces that manage it—the force of reception and the force of bestowal. As it is written: “…for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them” (Jeremiah 31:33).
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/25/14

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When Poison Turns Into Nectar

laitman_571_06Question: It says: “and honor the face of the old man, and thou shalt fear thy God: I am the Lord.” What does that mean?

Answer: Honor is the state in which you adhere to the upper level by wanting to receive everything that you can from it, thus allowing it to operate and bestow unto you. This is how honor is expressed.

Comment: Suppose I pay someone a visit and the kind host serves me refreshments and says: “if you honor me eat a bit more.” And I eat out of my respect for him even if I am full.

Answer: This doesn’t happen in the spiritual world. There we see an accurate correlation between what the lower lacks and what the upper has. The upper offers you what you lack and you have to prepare yourself for the meal by eating only for the sake of the host. Although these flavors fill you, it is actually above them that you should establish your attitude to the host because you do it only for him and not for your own pleasure.

But this is a problem that you have to solve gradually. First you must find out if this is the custom. Suppose I have some coffee now and I feel good and I thank the host and try to ascend above the flavor of the coffee so as not to enjoy it but only the action of bestowal.

If, for example, I was served gasoline instead of coffee, what should I do about it? Would I drink it and enjoy the fact that I delight the host? This is a problem.  What I receive, what the host gives me, does matter; I respect him and believe that I should give him everything, but I fulfill it above what I find pleasant or unpleasant.

What should I do so that it wouldn’t matter to me at all? The main thing is that I can respect the host, no matter what he gives me, even if it is poison. Then the poison becomes nectar for me because I only respect the host and agree to everything as long as I can delight him. Therefore everything depends on our thoughts.

We can totally detach ourselves and not feel the taste at all, I remember asking my teacher Rabash once why is it that when I begin to eat with the intention of not for myself but in order to bestow the taste suddenly disappears. There can be a great dish before me and I can be very hungry and really want to eat but when I restrict myself internally and focus myself on the intention of in order to bestow, I don’t feel the taste of the food anymore. Later he began to treat me differently seeing it as first signs of my serious work on myself.

In this case, it isn’t only the flavor that disappears, but you can actually drink a whole glass of poison and it will be like the remedy of life for you, carrying a blessing.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/16/14

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Enough Of Being Outcasts

laitman_933Question: Despite the fact that Israel is constantly under siege, at the end of every war there is a feeling that when it ends a new and happy life will begin. Now we have a feeling that we are stuck in this war and no one knows when it will end. Where does this feeling come from? Is it true? Can we end this war at all?

Answer: It is naïve to think that we can ever settle the account with our neighbors. Their constant unchanging goal is to conquer this land and to settle here. There is no way we can keep them from aspiring for this goal with threats and fear because they will still continue to wish for it. They have everything they need in order to continue this war and to pressure us unlimitedly.

They are not willing to make any concessions. For the Arab people, and in principle, for the whole world, this land is their territory and where their state should be. If you want to live here, you should convert to Islam and stay. If you are not a Muslim, you don’t belong here and you should leave.

It is all very simple. The problem isn’t the Jews and not even Israel, but the fact that the people living here are not Muslims. Therefore they see it as an eternal problem unless we manage to find a solution for it. Moreover, the threat of Islam is spreading throughout the world because the Muslims are trying to reach every corner of the world, including Siberia.

Comment: When we were in France we were told about the rapidly spreading Islam there. And on the Internet are scattered terrible pictures of Islamization. In particular, the newly created state in Iraq of people being executed and the photographs of their severed heads published on the Internet.

Answer: This is why they are feared.

Question: Does this mean that this war will not end?

Answer: Of course not! It isn’t about that. In the past, the founders of our state naively thought that we would bring our civilization to our neighbors and that they would be very glad to build a new life here together with us and to live in peace with us. I do respect our leaders for what they have done and created, but the hope that we would somehow be able to get along with our neighbors is totally absurd.

Question: So what can we do in this situation?

Answer: We can either pack our bags and leave or continue to live here the way we do as long as we have the power to keep on fighting. We will be able to manage for a while. And then what will happen? Who knows? After all, a hundred thousand rockets can be targeted at us not only from Gaza but also from neighboring counties. If they shoot them all at once, the chances that we will be able to stand against all of them are very small. There are different types of rockets, not only homemade ones made from a piece of metal pipe.

In addition to that, the whole world is against us. All the nations and peoples no longer respect and love us or take us into account. If in the past they expressed their support and tried to justify us, today they blame us for everything, no matter what we do.

We protect the Arab population and their children and let them know in advance when and where we are going to attack so that they will be able to leave in time. We risk the lives of our soldiers so as not to kill a child or adult civilian.

On the other hand, our enemies do everything they can to kill our innocent children and civilians and we are still seen as guilty in the eyes of the world although we don’t start the wars. The world doesn’t care. The world hates us because we don’t fulfill our role in human society.

I deliberately present the problem as extreme. If I didn’t have a solution, I wouldn’t do so and I would pity the people, but it is actually in order to spare and protect them that I present the issue of the inefficiency of all our wars, becayse we can prevent all that and make our life here peaceful and happy.

Question: Does that mean that you don’t see a rational solution here?

Answer: There is no rational solution since the problem itself isn’t rational. Our whole nation isn’t rational. We have existed for thousands of years and have given the world religions, the basis of civilization, and have invested a lot in science and in culture in different countries all over the world, and what of it?

We actually see an opposite outcome. We are outcasts who don’t belong to this world. Everyone hates us and thinks that we are the source of all the evil in the world. Therefore we should listen to them to understand why it is so.

Comment: We can come up with superficial answers to this problem. The Jews are envied because they are too smart. They have been at the top of the economies of many states and have seemingly stolen a lot.

Answer: Don’t they steal in Russia now when there are no Jews? Or do they steal less in the US? This isn’t the reason. The reason emerged long before that.

Comment: I was born in the Ukraine where I felt anti-Semitism on a daily basis without any apparent reason. The word Jew was simply used as a curse word just like the word idiot or a fool.

Answer: Common folks feel this hatred, dislike, and hostility subconsciously. They don’t understand, but subconsciously they feel that for some reason you are meddling with their life. There is something about you that affects the world and their fate depends on you.

As a person who has been studying Kabbalah for forty years, I know the reason for everything that happens. We Jews have to balance the world and bring it to a state of equality and to the revelation of the system that governs the world. People accuse us of making the world go round, that we manage it, but we manage it badly.

The world is indeed managed through us, but unfortunately at the moment it is done badly because it done through great suffering and blows. Therefore the nations of the world accuse us of all their problems.

It turns out that the world receives negative energy through us. This is clear according to the wisdom of Kabbalah and is also evident to the naked eye. Can we change things so that the world will receive positive energy through us? The wisdom of Kabbalah has a simple answer to that: in order to do so we have to connect.

Comment: But we have given the world so much: science, law, innovative technologies, Google, Facebook…

Answer: This is totally unimportant since the world receives the negative energy through these things too. After all, our ego has helped the world develop egoistically. The world doesn’t need that at all.

The Jews were given different talents so that they will affect the world positively and not in a negative egoistic manner that helps people develop industry, commerce, science, and the arts; people don’t need that! Although we have given the world all that, no one has ever thanked us.

Today we begin to realize that all the great achievements don’t make us happy. Although we have the newest technology, we feel empty inside and we feel bad. People who lived in caves were happy and managed without antidepressants.

We have to provide the world with positive energy that reaches the world through us! It is all a matter of unity. When we unite, the positive energy is conveyed to the world, and when we are divided, negative energy is conveyed through us.

It is very simple. If the Jews in Israel begin to unite, the world will immediately begin to treat us positively. But we should unite not in order to attack someone or to manage egoistically in our counter attack; we should unite above our ego.

The Torah says: “love thy friend as thyself.” Our nation is based on being as one man in one heart. This is the precondition for the creation of the Jewish nation, and we have to keep it. This is the only way that a blessing will come unto the world. All the Kabbalistic sources speak about it. Why don’t we try to do so?

Whenever criminals or fascists unite it is always against something. Our unity, however, is for spreading the rule of “love thy friend as thyself,” which will gradually spread all over the world.

Imagine how nice and kind the nations of the world will be to one another if they feel that it comes from us. To the same extent, the ice between us will also melt.

Comment: You are like a storyteller telling fairytales because everything you describe is against our nature.

Answer: That’s true, it is against our nature, but the wisdom of Kabbalah spoke about that several thousand years ago because in the past we did live by the principles of this system. Rambam said that our nation was created on the basis of an idea since a Jew is not a nationality but membership in the idea of unity. Today every person can become a Jew. He cannot become French, but he can become a Jew.

Question: If we were united in the past, then why were there 12 tribes?

Answer: The 12 tribes stem from a spiritual ladder, “Yod – Hey – Vav – Hey” (ה-ו-ה-י) , where each letter (property) is multiplied by three lines: the left line, the right line, and the middle line. This makes up the whole system of 12 tribes.

Every tribe has a role, an attribute, and it was forbidden to mix them to such an extent that it was forbidden to marry someone from another tribe. However, there was still mutual help and complete understanding between them.

This is why we must build our system according to the spiritual ladder of Providence. The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us how 12 Lights descend unto us and we receive them in our state, and we have to unite together into one whole.

After the breaking of the first and second Temples, the ten tribes disappeared and merged into the nations of the world. We don’t know where they are, but they will reappear in the future. Two and a half tribes have survived and all the Jews today all over the world belong to them, but we don’t know who belongs to which tribe since everything has been shattered and dispersed. Today we simply must unite.
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From KabTV’s “Current Situation in Israel” 7/24/14

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