Life That Never Ends

Question: Does the world develop only according to the program embedded in it or is there a place for chance?

Answer: There is nothing accidental in our development. The beginning of creation and its end are linked together, as it is written, “The end of the action lies in the initial thought.” Therefore, there can’t be any mistakes or imprecisions in the process of evolution. Statistic and finances use approximate calculations and projections, but it is only because we don’t know the exact facts.

In nature there is nothing approximate; everything is uniquely determined by the final state that sets the beginning. A person moves forward stepping into darkness and not knowing what awaits him. But this is impossible in the evolution of nature. On the contrary, the end is predetermined and therefore how to reach it is known.

The example that demonstrates this is the electric eel that catches prey with electric shocks of 500 volts. It would seem that this property had to be developed gradually in the course of evolution.

But if the eel’s original charge was not 500 volts, but 1, 5, or 100, it wouldn’t help it catch prey since 500 volts is required! So how was this quality developed in him, if the small voltage wouldn’t bring any benefit?

However, “the end of the action lies in the initial thought”; this rule is valid always and everywhere. Therefore, nature unmistakably moves forward, but this is the way of suffering due to the blows that force the transition to the new state. All living creatures and cells are forced to annul themselves and die, but there is no loss.

In nature, the law of altruism operates, according to which every creature annuls itself for the sake of the general system. It happens automatically, not consciously. Only when we reach the human level do we face a problem.

After all, a person must comply with these laws of altruistic connection and cancel his egoism of his own volition. This way he becomes similar to the upper force, the Creator.

Life is connection, and a person aspires to this connection as to the essence of life. Due to his annulment for the sake of connection with others, like a cell in the healthy body, he begins to feel and reveal the upper force. In this way he reaches an equivalence of form with the Creator.

Therefore, the Creator initially created the desire to enjoy and shattered it so that a person would have the opportunity to renounce his egoism and become similar to his maker, the upper degree. The more we annul ourselves, renouncing our egoism, the higher we climb reaching equivalence with the higher level.

By killing our egoistic desire, we become free from it and can rise to the next degree. The one who is capable of it, reveals that life is precisely in annulment and in reaching the higher and higher existence. There is no death, there is self-sacrifice for the sake of connection. Unification is the main goal and the idea of life.

Therefore, the shattering was necessary. The recognition of our shattering is the foundation for implementing correction, i.e., unification.

I annul myself for the sake of existence on the higher degree where I continue to live. After all, my idea, my desire, and everything done by me exists there, as if I would have continued to live in my children, and they in their children, and so on. The one who kills his current egoism receives the next degree—the eternal continuation.
[200566]
From the 3d part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/17, Lesson on the Topic, “Mismah Arosa,” (Arosa Document)

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“But the words of the Torah are sublime secrets” (The Book of Zohar, “Beha’alotcha,” 58). What does “sublime secrets” mean? There actually are no secrets. We just are not ready or don’t want to discover them. The secret is with respect to us. The whole world is open!

The upper world, the world of forces, is here. Supposedly, we control it and do what we want in it. But in fact, we have no access to it. It is not possible for us to manipulate the higher forces because our inner characteristics are very limited. If we were to expand them, we would begin to exist within an entirely different world.

Comment: Often we “accuse” the wisdom of Kabbalah of being mysticism, but, in fact, all religions are based upon mysticism.

My Response: People are accustomed to accusing others regarding something in which they are themselves immersed. But the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks only about a method through which a person can discover himself individually and not in any other way, and it is not something easy.

It is natural for us to accuse the wisdom of Kabbalah of being mysticism, of fortunetelling, and so forth! After all, there is nothing more hated in our world than the wisdom of Kabbalah because it says that we must correct our nature, change ourselves. Who would want to do that?

Comment: But it is being done in the name of a higher purpose: attainment of the Creator!

My Response: The simple person doesn’t see that and doesn’t want it. For him it is better to shut his eyes like a child.

Question: What is the difference between what the wisdom of Kabbalah tells a person: “Change your nature and rise to the level of the Creator!” and what religions say: “Perform some actions in this world and you will assure yourself of the next world this way!” After all, in both cases, isn’t the person performing actions to gain the next world?

Answer: Certainly, the person is performing the same actions according to his egoistic nature. But to become equal to the Creator, a person must turn himself inside out. This is an absolutely different approach, so few agree with it.
[200538]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/14/16

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Question: What is the spiritual root of an object in our world? Does the ocean have a spiritual root? Where is it and what is an ocean?

Answer: In the spiritual world, there is no question of “where?” The ocean is. It is about certain attributes, many forces that are interconnected.

Water symbolizes the attribute of bestowal (Bina), in which different animals (Malchut) appear. This means that Malchut rises to Bina and the mutual cooperation between them brings it life, by obliging Bina to turn to Keter and receive Light.

The Light spreads in Bina and performs certain actions in it, and thus marine life is created in the seas, in rivers, etc. Everything stems from Bina and then gradually descends to Malchut, which means that all the creatures gradually come out of the water and unto the land and begin to multiply, to spread, and to live on it.

We learn about the mutual cooperation between Bina and Malchut as Tzimtzum Bet (the second restriction).

The mutual cooperation of the forces creates this picture of our world until a person reaches spiritual attainment and then he looks at the world and sees which forces are behind the earthly objects, how they manage the world, and how certain spiritual attributes affect the upper roots.

Question: Why are there mountains, plains, and valleys in our world? What is their spiritual root?

Answer: According to the wisdom of Kabbalah everything stems from the attributes of two forces: Malchut and Bina or the Light of Hochma and the Light of Hassadim, the attributes of reception and bestowal. The mutual states that are created between them reflect and have such implications on our world.

There is no need for anything else but these two forces. Together the attributes of bestowal and receiving create the whole variety of attributes, the types of characters, and the objects on all the levels of nature: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking.

There is nothing in nature but these two opposite forces: an electron and a positron, a plus and a minus.
[199992]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/14/16

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New Life 480 – Don’t Fix A Rusty Engine
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Question: The issue of minimum wage has been on the news very often lately. This is a matter of great concern not only in Israel but in other countries as well.

We would like to examine this issue not so much from an economic perspective but from a social perspective. After all, the minimum wage in a country can tell us a lot about the society and it raises many problems that are related to the social relations in the country.

As an employment advisor, I see how the middle class is gradually falling to the category of minimum wage earners. Generally speaking, this refers to nearly one-third of the workers who receive minimum wage or a bit more. It is close to a million people, including people who have higher education: teachers, young architects, social workers, etc. Today many find it hard to make ends meet because of the low wages they receive.

There are many arguments about this issue in Israel, including the moral and social aspects. Is there a point in enforcing artificial equality? Or is it better to maintain the laws of the free market in every area?

Economists have not reached an agreement on this issue either. Some claim that high minimum wage increases unemployment and weakens the economy. Others believe that these claims are baseless. Seven Noble Prize winners, for example, deny any relation between unemployment and minimum wage and claim that raising minimum wage is beneficial for the economy.

What is your opinion on this matter?

Answer: I deal with a different kind of systems. They are controlled by different laws than those acceptable in modern society. These are the laws of nature, not the artificial laws of this world that are enforced as a result of egoistic rivalry.

Therefore, I find it hard to enter the rotten structure of society founded on “dog eat dog” and every man is despised foe. In such circumstances it is impossible to give advice on specific issues since the whole system is hopeless. The only thing we can do is to get rid of it and to create something new.

On the other hand, we have already seen how to destroy the old world without building anything better. After all, the basis remains the same egoistic basis.

Today we are subject to the market economy that exists according to its own rules. This means, as a rule, an employer would like to pay an employee nothing for 24 hours of work a day without any breaks or vacations. The employee, on the other hand, in general, does not want to work except to receive a salary in his bank account and not a minimum wage but a maximum wage.

Under such circumstances, society exists on the account of the competitive potential of its members: everyone tries to attain as much as possible by games of power, negotiations, agreements, and many other factors.

For example, between an employer and its workers, there are labor laws, authorities, trade unions, workers’ committees, etc., but all the parties involved still want to benefit from what is going on and no one wants it to end.

After all, companies, groups, and unions have an interest, and even if they fight for the rights of the workers and lower classes trying to achieve minimum wage, pensions, stipends, and other benefits for them, they still think only about themselves. These people hold good jobs and receive their share, or in other words, operate egoistically.

Therefore, there is no one we can demand correction from. It is impossible to correct only part of the mechanism. If an engine is totally rusty, we can change a certain part with a part made of gold, perfect in size and in every parameter, but this will not help. The fixed part may even disrupt the whole system and even more.

I remember when I was a student, a girl decided to clean part of the window in the dorms where we lived. As a result, we discovered we then discovered we had to clean the whole wall of huge windows. And then when the sunlight entered the room, it turned out that the whole room needed a good cleaning.

In short, if we intend to fix something, we need to take whole system into account. It is an integral system in which all the parts are mutually connected; it is impossible to isolate the minimum wage as the factor for economic success. We have to approach the whole system integrally and give it a good shake, or, in other words, to take it apart and put it back together again differently. No individual fixes will help the whole picture.
[150601]
From KabTV’s “New Life 480 – Don’t Fix A Rusty Engine,” 12/23/14

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash, Vol. 3, Article 645 

Shamati #57, “Will Bring Him as a Burned Offering to His Will”

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Question: Did you feel that you were above your teacher? Was your teacher always happy with you?

Answer: I never had a feeling like this, but there were times when I was not happy with him. There was a time when he expressed his dissatisfaction with me, and I have felt this as a blow to this very day.

Question: Do you continue to listen to the recordings of the lessons of Rabash?

Answer: No, I methodically read his articles.

Question: Would you recommend that your students listen to recordings of Rabash’s lessons?

Answer: You will not get anything more by listening to the recordings. If a person is attracted to this and it arouses special feelings in him, then by all means he should do so.
[200675]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/7/16

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Question: What is the phase that follows unity and correction? Can you guide us toward it?

Answer: The moment a person attains unity, he is guided, as it is written,”the Torah will teach you.”

Question: Should a person hope that the friends will love him or is it enough to try to show them love?

Answer: He should try to do so himself!
[200076]

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In the News (The Guardian): “In her first party address since announcing she would run for a fourth term as chancellor next year, Merkel focused on law-and-order issues guaranteed to fire up her party’s conservative base. …

“The year 2016 had made the world more uncertain and unstable, Merkel said: ‘When the world has been turned upside down, we have to first do everything to make sure that Europe doesn’t come weaker out of the current situation than it went into it.’”

My Comment: Certainly! The world is advancing toward absolute anarchy. Angela Merkel is an absolute neoliberal. They advocate that the world be united, that there be no borders, that everything be in common! Everyone without exception will be allowed to come to Europe. They believe that a human “salad” like this will ultimately bring about a correct and balanced situation; they believe that a free public market in society and the political national leadership will make a society that can adapt itself to any situation on its own.

Ultimately, it will become clear that this is not so because the ego is what adapts itself, and they don’t take that into account.

They don’t see this because each one prefers to think that he is managed by common sense and logic, meaning a balanced ego and not a limited ego.

Question: What would happen if they were to understand this?

Answer: They will not be able to understand this because they are very far from keeping balance between the two lines, the right and left, in the third, the middle.

This is the same as it was with Trotsky and his associates who believed that there is no way to curb human evil, selfishness, except with harsh repression. And then you can press the people to rehabilitate it. As the saying goes, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” And they really made a hell, killing forty million people. But they had good intentions.

Comment: This is contrary to the neoliberal approach; after all, they don’t seek to annihilate anyone. On the contrary, they say that there is much that is good in a person and we can be united.

My Response: They really think that way. But they proceed under the assumption that it will happen by itself. But in Europe, neoliberalism has died and is heading toward fascism. Ultimately, dictatorial, fascist regimes will rise to dominance throughout the world. Baal HaSulam, the Kabbalistic giant, spoke about this and emphasized that after capitalism we would be compelled to dip into fascism or immediately leap into socialism of the Kabbalistic kind.

Trump is a sign of this line. It is now necessary to convey this to everyone as clearly and distinctively as possible so that everyone will see this.

Comment: I have noticed that today, within every nation, a leader, a “Trump,” is suddenly discovered.

My Response: Indeed, Trump awakened everyone. He opened the door. Understandably, he is also like a puppet on a string and doesn’t understand what he is doing.

An interesting period can be expected for us now when Trump in the US together with the leaders of Europe and Russia will begin to create a common policy.

Question: Do you believe that additional “Trump” figures will pop up in Germany, France, and throughout the world?

Answer: I am convinced that there is no other way out, or war will break out, and this would be the end of humanity. So I think that Russia, Europe, the United States, and even India and China, must do everything possible to reach an agreement between them and create a new system, communism.

Question: Are you sure you are not mistaken?

Answer: I am not mistaken. One of the two will happen: either the Nazis or communism in the Kabbalistic sense will arise, when everything will change in a communal direction only, in the direction of connection between people, which will determine their movement forward.
[199060]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 12/7/16

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New Life 478 – The Right To Change Our Fate
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi

Question: The thing that impresses a person who hears about the wisdom of Kabbalah for the first time is that the wisdom of Kabbalah gives him a chance to change his fate. Each of us would like to get rid of his daily troubles and suffering, his financial, health, and family, and the problems in every aspect of our life. Is the wisdom of Kabbalah really that powerful that it allows a person control over his fate and enables him to change it?

Answer: I am glad that more and more people ask about how we can change our fate and whether this is really possible. It raises several questions. Is our life really in the hands of blind fate or is our fate predetermined and meant to lead us to a certain goal? Can we influence our fate? After all we feel that we are totally controlled by it.

There are people who can even foresee the future. I know several such people and I can confirm that they did actually foresee things that later came true. They had a premonition as to what would happen in the future.

This means that all the events have already been registered in a certain program above, which later descend like a computer program and begin to operate, and we are in it moving according to this program.

There is indeed fate, and today we are becoming increasingly more convinced that we are in its hands. In the past, we lived far from one another, one country to the next, one continent to the next, and so we felt we had no control over our lives.

Things are different today: humanity is strong enough and has enough knowledge, brains, ability, desire, and an inner need to control our lives, but we see that we cannot do so. It is a miracle: we do everything we can in order to manage our lives, but things only get worse.

It wasn’t so in the past, but today we realize we are absolutely helpless and unable to control our fate in any way. The question is whether we can influence our fate.

In every generation there are people who can foresee the future and who can say what will happen. Foreseeing fate is one thing, but changing it is a totally different issue. No one can do that. If someone promises you that, you should be very careful.

Question: It turns out that fate is like a finalized script of a play that we are going to act in. There are people who can foresee our destiny, but no one can actually change it. Does the wisdom of Kabbalah enable us to reveal our fate and most importantly to change it?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah is a science that is first and foremost meant to reveal the plan of creation to us, which means the process we undergo. This process controls us and leads us to a certain goal from one generation to the next. It began even before the creation of our universe and it will bring us to the end of creation when this whole world will take on its new form, which is different from its current form.

The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us only about part of the general plan. The plan itself is much wider and includes other dimensions beyond time, motion, and space, but the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks only about what we need to do here while living in this world, as we call it, and how we can change our fate during this lifetime. It enables us to change our state at every given moment so that it will be for everyone’s sake: for our own sake and for the sake of our children and grandchildren.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is a very practical science and is only meant for practical use.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah there is fate and everything that is registered has to be fulfilled, but we can change the way we undergo these states. Suppose I am a child whose parents sent to first grade and I have no choice but to go to school for ten years until I graduate.

However, it is up to me how I will spend those next ten years: whether nicely or in a terrible painful way, whether I will feel good or bad, whether I will be punished or receive commendations. This means changing our fate.

Question: It turns out that the script has already been written and according to it I have to be in school, but it is up to me how I will feel in this predetermined state.

Answer: It is up to me how the program will operate on me to the extent that I manage to learn it and how to use it.
[150481]
From KabTV’s “New Life 478 – The Right To Change Our Fate,” 12/21/14

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