The Wisdom Of Kabbalah About Depression

laitman_532Question: Many people including youth and elderly people suffer from depression today. For some reason it is considered a mental illness. Is there a solution to depression according to the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: There is a solution. Depression is the result of our unsatisfied desires. A person has nothing but desires; if these desires are fulfilled, we feel joy. If they are partially fulfilled, we feel partial dissatisfaction, a state we are in all the time and which we have gotten used to.

We try to neutralize this dissatisfaction in different ways: by watching movies, playing football, taking pills, using drugs, etc., and thus somehow we keep ourselves afloat.

There are modes of depression in which we feel a deep black, gaping emptiness inside us, and we don’t feel any filling in the present and don’t feel that there will be any in the future either, which is indeed a difficult situation.

A person usually lives with hope for the future. He plans ahead to go on vacation, to go fishing, to play football with friends, etc. A person is usually occupied with thoughts about food, sex, family, wealth, respect, knowledge, and recreation. We have invented all this in our world as a distraction so we will be able to exist in this life. But when it is all swallowed by darkness, a person is in a serious mode of depression and is ready to die. With regard to this it is written: “my death is better than my life.”

The moment a person begins to feel such modes of depression, he asks himself about the meaning of life: “Is there no meaning to life in this world?” Such states lead him to the wisdom of Kabbalah. Therefore, it is practically impossible to reach the wisdom of Kabbalah without feeling depressed because it is a question of the meaning of existence.

If a person finds meaning in actions like sleeping, eating, traveling, and in general finds pleasure in something, the question about the meaning of life does not emerge in him. It is as if he is fine, but this meaning in life is on the animate level. If a person is not satisfied by such actions, he reaches the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Therefore, the first question a person asks as he comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah is: “What is the meaning of life? How can you fill this life? What is the point in this life?” It is actually the pointlessness that develops a person because our entire development is only under the pressure and suffering of the desire to discover and attain something. A person feels that he lacks something, but in fact he lacks the meaning of life.

After all the revelations throughout human history, the question is: “What for? Why? What is the meaning of all this?” Eventually it should bring us to the revelation of the true meaning of life.

We should understand that our world is merely a springboard from which we have to push ourselves and ascend to the next dimension that is right here in this world. We transcend to the next dimension while living in our corporeal body, while living in this world with a family, a job and everything else, and at the same time, we begin to attain the next world. This is the true meaning.

The system pushes us to search for this meaning and there wouldn’t be anything without it. And so our ego is called help against because it is actually the empty ego that pushes man in the right direction.
[199954]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/2/16

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Everything Proceeds From Spiritual Roots

laitman_746_02Question: Why do we need Kabbalistic geography? Is it related to the geography of the corporeal world, which is about coordinates, landscapes. etc.?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah explores and teaches everything that stems from the root of creation. The root of creation is the four phases of the spreading of the Direct Light, which means the first ten Sefirot. When the Light began to bestow a point inside it, the first phase appeared and then the second phase, the third, and the fourth, then there was a restriction and everything continued to develop.

The Light that spreads affects the desire that appeared in it, the desire to receive, to enjoy, to be filled, and the desire began to change accordingly.

Since on one hand, the Light carries the filling , and on the other hand, the attribute of bestowal, which is its essence and conveys them to the desire, two reactions occur in the desire. The first is that the created being enjoys the filling of the Light because it is opposite from the Creator so that it can receive pleasure from Him. The second is that the desire gradually resembles the Light and perceives its character and attributes, which diminishes the desire to enjoy in it.

All the next levels of the development of the created being stem from the emergence of these two opposite attributes in matter, in the desire to enjoy. The created being develops through five worlds by being divided into an external part called “the world” and an internal part called “soul.” It thus develops until the lowest point in its spiritual evolution.

Then there is a transition to the level of our world and the spreading of its matter, which is a mark of the spiritual world. And the matter of our world is a matching replica between matter and the spiritual forces.

Therefore, whatever happens in the spiritual world in the coordination between the forces, happens in our world in the coordination between the different parts of different matter. This leads to a very interesting phenomenon: on the edge of some galaxy, the tiny quite unimpressive globe appeared. And despite what we know about the universe and that the Earth is somewhere on the side, it is actually at the center of the universe from the perspective of the impact of the upper forces in our world.

Of course we don’t feel that because we don’t have the scientific instruments that enable us to perceive it, but Kabbalists tell us about this.

Then the oceans, the seas, the continents, islands, and huge areas of plants and animals, the underwater world, and eventually man, who historically settled all over the earth and now covers the whole globe, appeared on the surface of the Earth.

The existence of the continents, oceans, natural areas, four races of mankind, numerous nations, different ethnic groups, and everything else stem from the upper spiritual root.

The coordination of the spiritual forces in the spiritual world is revealed in our world in the form of a corporeal seal, including the earth and everything on it, including us. If we take our small system, which includes the sun, the moon, and the different planets, the Earth and everything on it, the wisdom of Kabbalah describes everything in a very detailed way. It even tells us about hidden places in the universe, which we have only recently discovered, and sometimes about things that one can only guess that they exist and which we will probably discover in the future.

Generally speaking, geography, as well as astronomy, is fully described in the wisdom of Kabbalah. You can also find the roots of geology, and anthropology in Kabbalah books because there is nothing new under the sun and everything spreads from the upper root to the lower branches, to its outcome.

Because there is only the coordination between forces in the upper root, it creates the imprint of these forces and the connection between them in the matter of our world, and this is actually the reason that we can describe the upper spiritual forces through the objects in our world and by the interaction between them.
[199848]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/14/16

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New Life 808 – Between Liberalism And Judaism

New Life 808 – Between Liberalism And Judaism
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Man is the crown of creation because his desire is the greatest. His desire is an egoistic desire, which means he enjoys at the expense of others.

The ego buries us in this world, but we have been given an opportunity to ascend above it to an infinite unlimited world.

5,777 years ago, a scientist named Adam, whom we call First Man (Adam HaRishon), discovered that it was possible to ascend above our nature and developed the method for correcting man and society. Kabbalists who followed him continued this method, but as the generations descended, the Jewish people distorted the method of correction and now it is only empty words. Judaism today is built only on externality without the internal correction that is found only in the wisdom of Kabbalah.

We are facing a revolution that Adam HaRishon predicted 5,777 years ago, a revolution in which relationships of exploitation and egoism will change to relationships of connection and love. We have to lead all of humanity to love of others, to the feeling that we are all one, to the feeling of the upper force.
[200010]
From KabTV’s “New Life 808 – Between Liberalism And Judaism,” 1/3/17

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 02.07.17

Preparation for the Lesson

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Lesson on the Topic: “Ester ve Gilui (Concealment and Disclosure)”  

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Giving of the Torah,” Item 1

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 02.06.17

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Do Not Confuse The Wisdom Of Kabbalah With Other Methods

laitman_546_01Question: Education is carried out today through various media. Does the education you speak about require some kind of physical contact, or can it be realized virtually, through the Internet?

Answer: Physical contact is certainly preferable. But if it doesn’t exist, it is also possible virtually.

But don’t confuse the Kabbalistic education with any other methods! It is possible to arrange lessons both online and offline, the main thing is to adhere strictly to the Kabbalistic method and not mix it with anything else; otherwise, you will be confused and not clarify anything.
[199915]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/3/16

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At A Challenging Moment

laitman_562_02Question: There are now more than 3,000 different spiritual faiths and practices in the world. When a person has a problem, he automatically turns to some force with an internal scream. To whom or what is a person turning to at such a moment?

Answer: If you want to turn correctly, you must only turn to the Creator for help in connecting with others and discovering Him. This means that in the wisdom of Kabbalah we are asking the Creator to change us. Generally, all people ask the Creator to remove the disturbances that are in their way, meaning to change the world “according to a person’s desire.”

Such a “consumer” attitude toward the Creator like this will begin to change when very strong feelings appear in the person that everything that is happening in the world is a result of his attitude toward the Creator.

If we are talking about a Kabbalist, then everything depends on the level he is on. Likewise, a Kabbalist passes through states that bring him below a regular person. When he is in descent, he is able to ask for himself and to carry out deeds that are difficult to define in advance.

But this happens only during a descent. When he is active, when he has power, clearly he always asks for help in changing himself because he understands how the system operates.

A Kabbalist understands that blows are goodness and kindness; they are help and concern from the Creator, because precisely thanks to these blows, he can connect with the Creator above them.

The problem is that the blows don’t happen only to him but to all those who are close to him until the completion of correction. But in the beginning of the correction, everyone is vulnerable to the Creator!
[199950]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 9/25/16

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Can We Predict The Future?

laitman_220Question: Is it possible to scientifically predict the future?

Answer: It is impossible because Western society has lost its stable form and there is no new model of society or a state to replace the old model. There is a trend of social decline and of social isolation. The waves of immigration from poor to wealthy places are increasing. And the mechanism of assimilating immigrants is refused and the gates are closing.

The future is depicted to us as if all our basic necessities will be given for free. Robots will work and people will be idle. This future is opposite from the present and is not compatible with it. Therefore, the transition to the future, which is about to take place in ten years, is not understood and cannot be predicted in any way.
[200137]

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An Education In Common

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is the education of the members in a group studying Kabbalah adequate, does it have a place and in which circumstances exactly?

Answer: We have an education in common: I with him, he with me, we, all of us are together! We don’t really educate each other. It is just called an “educational method.” It is actually an educational method for correcting a group of Ten so we form the proper connection between us!

After we create a group of Ten, everything else comes automatically. We discover the positive force in nature, it balances the negative force, creates the correct system of mutual connection between us, and we begin to feel a connection with the system of the world that until now was concealed. It is called the upper world or the concealed world.

We feel it in our desires through which we weave connections between the ten members. That is how we attain our soul, our eternal and perfect state! From this moment on, what happens in our earthly life, in our temporary body, no longer matters because we have already revealed the next state, the next level.
[199909]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/3/16

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A Network Of The Right Forces

laitman_934Question: Can you detail the basic principles of the educational methods of the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: The first principle: a person cannot educate himself on his own, and the teacher or educator cannot raise him! To do this a group called a “group of Ten,” of which he is a member, is needed. A guide who is outside of the group explains in how they should interact with each other to strive for the positive upper force. The negative higher force already exists in us. It is our egoism.

How do we attract the positive higher force? This occurs as a result of the correct interaction within the group, as much as ten egoists long to unite with each other. Along with this, each one nullifies himself with respect to the others and tries to increase and elevate the importance of the other nine people in his eyes. He tries to make an equivalent connection with all of them, thinking about them equally and absolutely balanced.

All ten people build a mutual connection between them on equal terms: Each one is higher than the others when he shows how he wants to give them everything that he has, and each one is lower than the others by demonstrating a desire to listen to each and every one of them equally in that he wants to create the correct network of mutual links between them. That is how there are three forces present in this network, positive, negative, and neutral.

So to the extent that they are ready, they gradually cultivate and shape everything and weave a network from the correct forces. Along with this, they pass through ascents and descents on the way and overcome every possible problem together. The Light then works on them in a positive manner because they are longing for it.

The Light eventually begins to be revealed in them and basically each one gives a negative force from himself, and all of them receive the positive force together. They begin to exist within a sandwich of the common collective positive force and the common collective negative force, which balances them. In this manner, from the two forces, they create a balanced system called a soul.

Within it they feel the upper world and the flow of special forces, emotions, and characteristics. This is the implementation of the method.
[199646]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/3/16

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