Audio Version Of The Blog – 02.14.18

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio

My Facebook Page: “Valentines Day Post”

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 2/14/18

What do we love? We love what we enjoy.

In our world, we define love as a source of pleasure. We enjoy something, and love that same something that makes us feel good. Therefore, we love a juicy steak, a cold beer, a certain TV show, a person who makes us laugh, and so on.

This kind of love is purely egoistic. Likewise, we hate any source of pain in our lives. Nature works by moving toward pleasure and away from pain. We function in that same nature, as do animals, plants and even inanimate matter.

What, then, is true love?

There is no concept of true love anywhere but in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Why? It is because true love is a spiritual phenomenon born in us when we make ourselves of service to fulfill the desires of others. In other words, when we try to rise above our egoistic benefit, we become included in a desire that is not our own. Also, it doesn’t matter whether this desire is our partner’s, or a complete stranger’s.

We do not judge whether we think the desires, goals and passions of others are good or bad. If we love them, then we try to fulfill them as if they are our own. That is the essence of “love your friend as yourself.”

The effort to love others gradually detaches us from our inborn egoistic perception, granting us a new spiritual one: a new eternal and whole form of fulfillment opens up to us, unbounded by our world’s narrow egoistic limits. Immense spiritual pleasure stems from our merging with nature’s infinite source of pleasure, thereby accessing the knowledge of the perfection of the higher reality, which guides us toward increasing connection, harmony and perfection.

This is spiritual love. When we will feel such love, we will clearly understand that there is and never was any other kind of love.

So then, how can we come to feel spiritual love? Interestingly enough, feral children can help us understand…

Feral children grow up isolated from any human contact and raised in an environment of animals since they are very young. They have little to no experience with what is considered normal and acceptable human behavior in society, and thus their behavior is very similar to the animals they grew up around.

Our environment establishes our world, our thoughts and our behavior. Therefore, in order to achieve true, spiritual love, we need to participate in an environment of people who work on attaining spiritual love. This is the goal of a Kabbalistic environment. It provides the socio-educational conditions all its participants need, through study, discussions and exercises, in order to develop newly formed connections and sensations of spiritual love.

Baal HaSulam About The Commandment Of Love

laitman_219.01Question: Why do you say that your focus is on correcting the relationship between people and unifying them, while Baal HaSulam mainly wrote about the worlds, the Sefirot, etc.

Answer: Baal HaSulam had to reveal the system that governs our world. His Talmud Eser Sefirot, commentaries on The Tree of Life by Ari, The Book of Zohar, and other works formed the basis of his work.

But if we take the letters and articles of Baal HaSulam, they all talk solely about the process of attaining the Creator, which is the goal of studying the science of Kabbalah.

Spiritual attainment occurs only among the people who are engaged in creating a specific connection among each other. This connection must be similar to the ten Sefirot and that is why Baal HaSulam described it as The Study of the Ten Sefirot (Talmud Eser Sefirot).

As soon as people even minimally become similar to what is described as ten Sefirot, they immediately begin to feel the Creator in them. Meaning, these feelings are a sensor, a detector that reveals the Creator.

Remark: Once Baal HaSulam received a letter from one of his fellow citizens with a claim that Baal HaSulam defined a new structure, a new methodology.

Baal HaSulam replied with a long letter in which he stressed: “It seems that you have not sufficiently studied my words.” He noted that “when the people entered the land of Israel and there was no peace, it was impossible to expect that someone would fulfill the main commandment.”

In order for the Torah not to be forgotten, people began to engage in the rest of commandments, ignoring the most important one because they had no other choice. But the most important is: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

My Comment: It is written in black and white. There is no way around it. And this is exactly what is missing. There is a void in all modern religions in fulfilling the commandment of love for one’s neighbor. That is why everyone, including religious figures and systems, hate Kabbalah because it puts emphasis on achieving love for one’s neighbor.
[217403]
From The Lesson in Russian Language 9/10/17

Related Material:
The Language Of The Kabbalist
What Baal HaSulam Contributed To The Spiritual System
The Great Kabbalists And Their Works

Eternal Love

laitman_232.08.jpgQuestion: Does a Kabbalist have the pleasure of eternal love? Does he feel this sensation?

Answer: Eternal love is true love, when you generate all the negative and positive forces of creation within yourself, gather all the characteristics that exist in all the worlds, and unite the entire creation.

You unite the negative and positive poles of everything in the universe and include everything within yourself, and it begins to work like a perpetual motion machine within you.

This is eternal love; it constantly renews and is endless in its manifestations of love.

Question: Why isn’t this called egoistic love?

Answer: It’s because this love manifests above your individual egoism with respect to all the others that appear to you as opposing negative characteristics, and you restore a positive balance. It turns out that both the minus and plus work simultaneously.

This is a a kind of technical model: a minus cannot exist without a plus and a plus cannot exist without a minus. They exist together, yet in regard to us, only one of them is revealed. When we connect three lines together within us: plus, minus, and the balance between them, i.e., the middle line, it begins to work in us and we feel all of creation.

Question: Is the Creator the force that is discovered between the plus and minus or is He the force that helps me reach this state?

Answer: The Creator is the middle line that is discovered between us, and this is love. Only by ascending above the correct balance of plus and minus, do you reveal the Creator, which is called love. The Creator and love are the same thing.
[217243]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/13/17

Related Material:
Love Is Nothing More Than Harmony, A Mutual Balance Of Plus And Minus
Love The Lord Your God With All Your Heart
The Revival Of Love

Newsmax: “Suicide Rise After Robin Williams Signals Need For Media Revolution”

The largest portal Newsmax published my new article “Suicide Rise After Robin Williams Signals Need for Media Revolution

New research found that in the five months after comedian Robin Williams had committed suicide, there was a dramatic increase of almost 10 percent in suicide rates across the U.S., and it had a lot to do with how the media communicated the suicide to the public.

For several months, major news outlets repeatedly described or speculated on the suicide method and the site of suicide with all the visceral details, going against the basic standards established by the World Health Organization for how the media should cover suicides.

Reporting guidelines for celebrity suicides weren’t established arbitrarily. Previous studies have already documented the parallel increase between suicide rates and media coverage of suicide, and pointed at the risk of reinforcing suicidal tendencies by media reporting.

We also know that guiding the media on how to cover suicides does have an impact. For instance, popular rock star Kurt Cobain’s suicide in 1994 had very little impact on suicides in the Seattle area where he lived, with the media being restrictive in its coverage, and accompanying it with suicide prevention messages. In contrast, the suicide of Marilyn Monroe in 1962 was widely covered and was followed by a 10-12 percent increase in suicide rates.

So if both history and science are painting such an obvious risk for public health, what is guiding the media to do otherwise?

The answer should be easy to see: media outlets are guided by one thing, and that’s ratings, because ratings means money. It’s that simple.

This is why front pages and news programs made their coverage as sensationalist as possible in the case of Robin Williams, with some even portraying a glorified version of what happened. As long as it can win them more points in their battle for our attention, they will go for it.

Sadly, those who carry suicidal tendencies, those who are not as emotionally resilient as the rest of us, are the first to suffer the consequences. But it’s not only them, because we are all trapped within a vicious cycle: Headlines are becoming more obscene, while we are growing more oblivious to them, which in turn drives producers to create even more sensationalism, and the snowball just keeps rolling down the hill.

Robin Williams Wasn’t the Only One with Split Personality

Media outlets are not accountable to anyone besides their shareholders. As long as this continues to be the reality, the vicious cycle will continue to escalate. If we wish to make public health a real priority, then media outlets must be required by law to work together with psychologists, sociologists, and public health experts when it comes to covering events of such nature.

But there are even more lessons to learn from the case of Robin Williams. Like Williams himself, many people today lead a double life, appearing to laugh on the outside while crying on the inside. We’ve built a booming industry of distraction to keep ourselves continuously entertained, while depression has become the number one cause of illness and disability, and is the diagnosis most commonly associated with suicide.

Social media is encouraging and cultivating our “spilt personality” like nothing that came before it. We can hide dark and gloomy feelings behind colorful photos with glossy filters. We could have a thousand friends on Facebook yet no one to talk to, thousands on our contacts yet no one to connect with.

New Media Channels Are Bound to Emerge

The media is our broadest common environment, and it’s especially like that in the digital age. Sooner or later, we will have to see the need to make it a healthy environment for ourselves and our children.

But a change cannot happen before we recognize just how malleable we all are in the hands of media channels that only care about ratings. Whether we want it this way or not, our media channels affect us on multiple levels, from our worldviews to our health and wellbeing.

When we come to that realization, completely new media channels that are accountable to the people are bound to emerge. They will be channels that recognize the media’s role and responsibility in public health, in maintaining a balanced spirit in society rather than sensationalism, and most importantly, in contributing to social unity rather than division.

The internet can already provide the technical infrastructure for such a media revolution, but the drive from the people must come first.
[221751]

The Latent Period In Spiritual Work

laitman_592.04There is a certain “latent period” in spiritual work when a person does not see that he is advancing or doing anything. It is similar to a pregnant woman who does not yet show signs that there is a new life growing inside her.

It is due to the fact that spiritual actions fall within the force of bestowal, while a person does not yet possess this quality, and therefore cannot see the spiritual actions. If there is a Kabbalist next to him, then he can, through his force of bestowal, see what is happening to a person and what is in store for him, while the person himself cannot.

Sometimes a person cannot detect any changes inside himself; although preparation is underway and very important changes take place, they are below his sensitivity threshold. After all, he is not yet in the intention to bestow at this stage.

Therefore, a person can never see his next degree; it is only perceptible to a Kabbalist next to him. Like parents who know how their children will grow up in a year or two, but their children themselves do not understand.

All this concealment is on purpose to give us the opportunity to develop the Kli (vessel) of bestowal. If the next degree were revealed, we would be unable to work in bestowal, having full knowledge of it.

It is a blessing that the breaking and concealment took place because of which we are able to develop the Kli of bestowal, faith. I don’t want to see or know! Even the seeing and knowing that is later revealed, the ability to see the whole creation from beginning to end, I do not accept into the same Kelim (vessels). I don’t want to get answers, I want to bestow above them.
[220935]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/18, Writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter 56

Related  Material:
The Counter Of Inner Changes
A New “Computer” On Every Degree
If You Only Listen

My Thoughts On Twitter, 2/13/18

Dr Michael Laitman Twitter

There are more lessons to learn from the case of Robin Williams. Like Williams himself, many people today lead a double life, appearing to laugh on the outside while crying on the inside. Read my full article about his #suicide #depression @newsmax

#Socialmedia is encouraging and cultivating our “split personality” like nothing that came before it. We can hide dark and gloomy feelings behind colorful photos with glossy filters. We could have a thousand friends on Facebook yet no one to talk to”

From Twitter, 2/12/18

Related Material:
My Thoughts On Twitter, 2/12/18
My Thoughts On Twitter, 2/11/18
My Thoughts On Twitter, 2/9/18

A Soul From The Perspective Of Kabbalah

laitman_527.03Question: Can we say that Kabbalah is the psychology of the soul?

Answer: No. Kabbalah is everything! And the soul, if we are talking from a wider point of view, is all in all some kind of feeling.

A person believes that the soul is his inner experiences and concerns, but this is simply the vital force that acts within him and makes it possible for him to ascend. To a particular degree this force also exists in animals.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, the soul is called our egoistic desire, which with the help of the upper Light we correct into its opposite desire, into an altruistic desire, and this desire works with an intention to bestow to others, instead of receiving.

The soul is a person’s movement away from himself toward the outside, the ability to bestow, to love others without any personal benefit.

If you attain this characteristic, which must work for a very long time, it means that you have a soul. If you don’t have this property, then there is no soul.
[218297]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 9/3/17

Related Material:
What Is The Soul?
A Person Is Not Born With A Soul
Once More About The Soul…

My Facebook Page: “Robin Williams Suicide”

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 2/13/18

New research found that in the five months after Robin Williams committed suicide, there was a dramatic increase of almost 10 percent in suicide rates across the U.S., and it had a lot to do with how the media communicated the suicide to the public.

Media channels ignored the basic standards set by the World Health Organization for celebrity suicide coverage. Why? Because the only thing that guides media outlets is ratings, which means money.

Sooner or later, a media revolution will have to happen. New media channels that are accountable to the people will recognize their role and responsibility in public health, in maintaining a balanced spirit in society rather than sensationalism, and most importantly, in contributing to social unity rather than division.

The internet can already provide the technical infrastructure for it, but the drive from the people must come first.

Read my full article

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 2/14/18

Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Writings of Rabash, “Concerning Love of Friends”  

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “600,00 Souls”

[media 5] [media 6]