Audio Version Of The Blog – 04.17.15

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Is Good Education The Key To Happiness?

Laitman_083In the News (from The Health Site): “Better education may help you earn more, but it may not make you a lot happier than those with low educational attainment, a new study claims.

“Getting a good education may not improve your life chances of happiness, showed the findings published in the British Journal of Psychiatry. …

“The researchers examined socioeconomic factors related to high mental wellbeing, such as level of education and personal finances. Low educational attainment is strongly associated with mental illness but the research team wanted to find out if higher educational attainment is linked with mental wellbeing.

“The team found all levels of educational attainment had similar odds of high mental well-being. …

“High mental wellbeing was defined as ‘feeling good and functioning well’. People with high levels of mental wellbeing manage to feel happy and contented with their lives more often than those who do not, the researchers noted.”

My Comment: As it is written in the Torah, “He who increases knowledge increases sorrow,” better less, but with the right intention, and simply, “the less you know, the better you sleep.”
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Never Interfere With The Laws Of Nature

laitman_764_3Question: How do we relate to the powerful, multi-leveled intimidations that are abundant in the Torah, like “If you won’t follow My laws… etc.”?

Answer: The Torah never intimidates anyone. It is a clearly written instruction and like any other it explains what and in what order things should be done.

I remember one time when professionals showed a technical specification to a scientist. He looked it through and said: “If you follow this instruction, you’ll get an accordion instead of a submarine.” Everybody was perplexed, looked at each other and silently stepped away from the scientist. Later, things turned out to be as the scientist predicted. In other words, knowing the laws means: “If we act in a certain way we’ll get certain results…”

Comment: Do you mean that similar to those “professionals” all humanity doesn’t hear “the scientist?” We are warned: “Do not turn rivers backwards. It will ruin the ecology!” Nevertheless, we still do what we want.

Answer: Yes, you are right. It was a communist project. The world was afraid that they would actually reverse the flow of rivers. There is nothing you can do with an uncontrollable country that was all of a sudden preoccupied with a crazy idea. Should they ever implement this plan, it would change the world ecology and turn the Earth into a lifeless planet. Water would disappear and life would vanish from the face of Earth.

Fortunately such grandiose projects are quickly forgotten. It’s incredible that they considered this plan in the first place. Humanity must choose a different path of advancement. There are other ways of getting a greater harvest.

When I was in Krasnoyarsk, someone asked me: “Is it possible with the help of Kabbalah to correct what happened after the Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric station was built?” Locals told us that after the dam was built fish stopped spawning; everything around the construction died; things are not as they used to be. We should never interfere with the laws of nature.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 11/12/14

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Under the Authority Of The Upper

laitman_624_05_0The Torah, “Leviticus” 25:51: If there are still many years, according to them, he shall return his redemption [money] out of the money for which he was purchased.

I can get into an agreement with my owner and gradually “buy myself out.” He will let me go under the condition that for each year of freedom I will repay him the amount of silver that equals the sum that he paid to purchase me. In other words, I will return “the screen” to my owner. “Silver” in Hebrew is “kesaf”; it derives from the word “kisuf” that stands for “a covering, a screen.”

Question: If everything that the Torah tells about takes place inside us, what does my brother who I can sell mean?

Answer: There is a condition: Approach me and I will repay you. In other words, I can go to a store and take whatever I need even if I have no money. However, my name will be added to a debt book. I will be allowed to take endlessly as soon as I use everything I take from “the store” to enhance my spiritual elevation. Again, I can take from the spiritual store everything I want. The major condition is that I should use whatever I take from there correctly.

As soon I start using things that I take from the “store” in the wrong way, things that I get and keep are considered my debt and are registered in a special category. On the Day of Judgment, a calculation is made: how much I received and how much I returned.

On my spiritual path, I should always use this opportunity for my advancement. That’s why the Torah says that if an owner bought a slave, the latter can be freed under the condition that they come to an agreement that the slave gradually, day after day, month after month, year after year, returns the price for which he was purchased.

It means that one should cling to the upper Partzuf and the latter will feed him. One stays under the screen of the Upper. One works with the Upper Light, and by annulling one’s egoism one works together with the upper Partzuf as a fetus or as a minor Partzuf.

One can come out of the Upper’s influence only if one “repays” him. Although, there is a problem here: Who will take care of one, should one come out of the authority of the upper Partzuf? One is still very small. It means that one’s relatives have to take guardianship over one and that one has to transition from one governance to another. This kind of transition is called “a shift” from one power to another. It’s as if you are moving from one country to another that has a totally different system of governance.

It is not easy since one alters the means of one’s spiritual elevation with the help of which one rises.

Question: What kind of desire plays this game with us?

Answer: The desire to be independent and optimally use ourselves at every given moment of our advancement. Getting out of the authority of someone else’s owner and finding our own host is a very big step forward.

In order to understand who “somebody else’s owner in us” is, we have to know the law of the inverse relationship between desires and lights. So, being maximally independent of somebody else’s owner means that I do great work that is equal, let’s say, to the force multiplied by the distance. The greater the distance between us, the more exertion I apply, thus getting a bigger screen and attracting more light.

Each one who reads this passage should interpret it in their internal language and start slowly “grinding” and cleaning oneself.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/19/14

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Questions About Pesach

laitman_281_02Question: What is Egypt?

Answer: Egypt (Mitzyarim Mitz – ra) is the concentration of the evil we are in and the hatred we feel toward each other.

Question: What is the meaning of the nation of Israel going down to Egypt?

Answer: The Jews who went down to Egypt are not a nation yet. They become a nation only when they gather at the foot of Mt. Sinai and accept the condition of ascending above the ego.

Question: What is Moses?

Answer: Moses is the force that pulls a person out of his ego and directs him toward the goal of creation, toward the Creator, toward the right action. According the wisdom of Kabbalah, it is called the “point in the heart.”

Question: What is the meaning of the phrase, “The Creator brings Moses to Pharaoh?”

Answer: There is an inner conflict in a person and the rejection of the ego, Moses versus Pharaoh.

Question: What are the ten plagues of Egypt?

Answer: The ten plagues are an essential precondition when I understand that my ego can no longer be my refuge, I have to detach myself from it, to ascend above it. It gives me so much pain and suffering that I cannot bear it any longer and must break away from my ego.

Question: Why does the breaking away from the ego occur at night, in total darkness?

Answer: The fact is that the separation from that the ego must be absolute; even if I don’t see anything before me, I still run away from it. Although I could stay in it and enjoy my corporeal life in an egoistic manner, I prefer to exit it into the darkness.

Question: What is the meaning of crossing the “Red Sea”?

Answer: A person understands that he must give up his previous egoistic perception totally, and he wants to get to know the world anew.

Question: What does it mean that the water of “the Red Sea withdrew and split in two”?

Answer: This isn’t a natural phenomenon, of course. It doesn’t exist in nature no matter how hard we try to explain natural phenomena that we don’t understand.

“The water withdrew and split in two” means that a person is allowed to enter the attribute of Bina (bestowal). He goes through Malchut to Bina and receives a feeling of elation. This means that the evil water now becomes water that helps us advance toward the goal.
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From KabTV’s “A Talk About Passover” 3/18/15

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Servants Of Their Own Freewill

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus” 25:39 – 25:41: And if your brother becomes destitute with you, and is sold to you, do not work him with slave labor. As an employee or a [hired] resident, he shall be with you; until the Jubilee year he shall work with you. Then, he shall leave you he, and his children with him, and he shall return to his family and resume the status of his fathers.

If I have desires that are not ready to exist separately, I must keep them with me and with all seriousness, “stand them on their feet.” After finishing all the work on the entire cluster of desires, they detach and move away from me independently and continue their independent existence.

We are always talking about desires and not about bodies. This speaks about a schema in which an immense desire exploded into 600,000 parts that must be reconnected with each other to transform again into one general whole, even though egosim and mutual rejection is burning within them. All of this remains, but it is covered and neutralized through love.

It follows that this tremendous ego and tremendous love, which is created between them thanks to the ego, remain and gather intensity, inner attainment, and inner unity with the Creator. Therefore, all the problems are only needed to reveal more obviously the state of our unification with the Creator. Everything revolves around this; there isn’t anything else.

Servants are those desires that cannot be independent, so they seem to have been sold into slavery. That is, I agree that that it is necessary for me, like a small child,  to be ruled by someone great, because there is evil in me and I want someone more mature than me to manage me, otherwise I will go on in a bad way. So, I agree with this voluntarily.

A person who cannot serve and take care of his ego by himself is subordinate to another person (a greater ego) and if adhered to him, is ready to work with him for his ego, because in this case, the one who is greater will protect him and take care of him. This is like a child who compensates his parents by giving them pleasure. That is how nature created us. I give my parents pleasure and in exchange they take care of me. And if nature hadn’t created me such that merely through my existence I gave pleasure to my parents, they would not be concerned about taking care of me. So the servant gives pleasure to his master and is ready to work for his sake. And the master takes responsibility for him, for his life and the satisfaction of his needs.

In our world, we incorrectly understand slavery. Slavery is a state that one enters with his own free will. As long as I want to be a servant, I remain a servant. And if I prove that I want to be freed from the shackles of servitude, this will happen immediately. We see this in the example of the Exodus from Egypt, which represents egoistic servitude. If you want to abandon the ego, then please, all that remains is to show your desires: what you are ready for.

Am I ready to live independently, without the ego, and get fulfillment and food for myself, to work on the development of this process? Do I understand that this is not for the sake of the ego, but for the sake of the Creator? How must this be realized? If I show proof of all of this, then the way is open.

Question: But from a spiritual point of view, a servant wants to have a master, for this is sweet for him, this is a good situation. Why should he leave it?

Answer: Incidentally, that is how it was. Slavery was not submission and subjugation! But I have to show that I have matured, that I want to and can take care of myself and my family. I no longer have a need for a master who manages me; I am ready to manage myself. And the ego that controls me, whispers to me: “What do you want this for, why? Live in comfort!”

We see that seven billion people want to be slaves. There is no one who wants to become independent in place of the Creator, meaning to care about everyone. Nobody wants this! Everyone wants the conventional material prosperity, swirling among them, helping each other within their little closed circle. This is their small world, and what is outside of it doesn’t interest them. After all, in a small circle, I feel everyone else like myself. Whereas in a large circle, I need to go outside of the boundaries of my self. It follows that society has not yet developed sufficiently.

I feel partnership only with someone who is equal to me and I am not ashamed of that. The main thing is that I will be like him and he will be like me. We aspire to it and pay careful attention to this. The entire goal of our existence is to feed our beast (the physical body), and bring a person to a state of absolute equality with everyone. This creates a very interesting situation, a natural communism, where people exist according to the laws of nature, satisfied with only the minimum necessities of existence.

Suppose that I raised carrots, cabbage, and potatoes in my garden. For the winter I have five sacks of potatoes, two sacks of cabbage and I don’t need anything more. Why should I work anymore and toil for someone else? Would it be for how the neighbors will look at this?! Why should I suddenly tear down the borders of my circle? That is how we live.

Comment: It is amazing, but 70% – 80% of people really don’t even want to expand their plot of land, because what they have is sufficient for them.

Answer: And this is a natural communism that is revealed on the animal level. After all, animals in the forest search for their food for for that day, and the next day they search for something else. Whereas among people, this is revealed a bit differently. They know in advance what they minimally need to live.

Is it possible to rise above this state? It must try to do so with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah, that begins developing desires not in a negative direction, in the direction of the ego, but in a positive direction, towards altruism. Equally altruistic and egoistic components will grow in people. That is how they gradually grow.

Comment: It is interesting that sociologists have tried to awaken people, calling upon them to develop a business and realizing that they cannot motivate them to do this.

Answer: Business for people like these symbolizes going out of their normal balance. They feel that they are in the right situation that is good for them; they don’t need anything more. They have something to wear, something to eat, and this is enough. And if something is broken somewhere, they will do a little fixing, put in some kind of board and that is how they will continue to live. As said in a Russian proverb: “A peasant will not cross himself before it begins to thunder.” Only an urgent need will force him to do something.

The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks precisely about this level, but not in such an anarchistic form when a persons completely irrelevant. It explains that the correct next state of humanity is concern for oneself and others. But this is only on a level of existence necessary for living; everything else is directed towards spiritual development.

So, if Kabbalists come to these people and will work on their inner development, without taking them out of the same good situation they are in, then the soul will begin to be developed in them. If a person works for himself, believing that he have nothing more, he will continue to work for himself, and the Kabbalists will develop a his soul, adding spiritual egoism, not physical.

Question: Is it possible to call the present existence of these people slavery?

Answer: No, for these people have a feeling of freedom. I take care of myself, I help my neighbor because he will help me in turn. We depend upon each other. We are like one family. I don’t think about more than this. So I am free!

Question: And if we add a spiritual component to this, is it possible to expand the circle gradually?

Answer: No. It is not necessary to expand the circle, but only to increase the connection between people. After all, people live to feel goodness in themselves and enjoy each other. But in fact, it is specifically the Kabbalists who make this component of pleasure among them.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book“ 11/12/14

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The Higher Desire, “Moses”

laitman_740_03

When of all the people the Creator called only Moses and no one else, it meant: “Moshe, I know you’re upset that denied the opportunity, as all the others, to contribute to the construction of the Tabernacle of the Covenant.

“But you shall know that you have another task, more important than theirs. Their job is finished; your work is just beginning now. I urge you in the Tabernacle to give you the instructions about the sacrifices that you explain, and then pass them to the people. Your teaching the Torah to the people is dearer to me than their gold and silver offerings.” [“The Great Commentary”]

This speaks about work on a higher level of attainment. Suppose that a person builds his house and after the construction of the building, there is the finishing work and equipping the interior of the home. The construction of the building is an easy job, which is usually performed by construction workers. And inside the house, a higher order of work is done.

That is also how it is with spiritual work, everything depends on the level of the desire to receive: 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4. The work of “Moses” is the highest work of the last level that we divide into many different sublevels: Cohens, Levites and so on; everything that the person does with the help of his higher desire is called “Moses.” Desires on a lower level, build the tabernacle. On an even lower level, those found around the tabernacle are doing work around it, and so on. So every spiritual level is completely different in relation to the other levels.

When a person carries out spiritual actions on various levels, each time he has a new understanding. For example, the world of Assiya (the lowest level) is the level of action. The next world is the world of Yetzira, which is creating. The world of Beria is found on a level of creation in which the person becomes a partner of the upper force. Atzilut is the world of intentions. The person who is involved in its general work rises gradually up the ladder of worlds and passes through all four levels of work, and their highest level is the level of “Moses.”

Question: Does it make sense that now when the tabernacle is ready, it is necessary to begin to purify it? In other words when Moses purifies the tabernacle, does he bring sacrifices?

Answer: No, after everything is ready, the work with the prepared Kli begins.

This is because the tabernacle, the courtyard, and everything that is found in the tabernacle, including the decorations, are not physical parts, but parts of the soul of the person. They have already been corrected and are compatible with each other; the feelings and the intention of the person are in a particular relationship and all of his desires and thoughts are directed towards bestowal to others and through the others to the Creator, as it is said, “From love of the people to love of the Creator.” Otherwise, love of others won’t bring any benefit and we don’t attain the goal, because the other is the Creator. In any case, we must maintain this arrangement all the time—from love of others to love of the Creator.

So we must connect the entire equation so that it can be discovered within the person, meaning all of the emotions, thoughts, the relationships towards the environment, the group, the people, in a small or large group of people. This is the soul of the person.

In our world, this formula is realized among the people. But when a person begins to work with it, he begins to feel not the people, but his inner thoughts and desires. And if he connects with them in spite of his ego, he feels that he has resistance, which is called the “evil inclination.” If he corrects it, he begins to feel the Creator within it. It is then said that the inhabitant is found within the tabernacle.

Question: What does it mean that the Creator turns to Moses regarding the more important work, which is explaining the sacrificial laws to the people?

Answer: Moses is that part of our soul that is in contact with the Creator. Through him we receive all the commands, discoveries, and clarifications, everything that is required for us to resemble the Creator and ascend to the level of bestowal and love, to the level of “Adam,” the level of the “Tree of Knowledge.”
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/13/13

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 04.17.15

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Freedom” 

[media 1] [media 2]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Future Generation”

[media 3] [media 4]