Entries in the 'Body and Soul' Category

Spiritual Attainment Of Women

Laitman_120Question: Men go through the reincarnation of souls. But what about women? Does a woman have an eternal soul or does it just extinguish and that’s it?

Answer: There is no difference between men and women. Moreover, if a woman is able to overcome her egoism and begin to connect with other women in mutual support, they can surpass men in their spiritual attainment.

I would say that the Creator loves women more than men.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 1/14/18

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What Determines The Level Of A Soul?

laitman_267.02Question: Regarding the development of a soul, is it a development of the desire to receive the Light of the Creator?

Answer: Yes. The Creator only gives. We can only receive. Receiving for the sake of bestowal, we turn reception into giving. This is why a quality of reception with the intention to bestow is called a “soul.”

Question: What determines the level of the soul?

Answer: There are five spiritual worlds—Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, and Adam Kadmon—after which comes a world of Infinity. Each one has 25 levels of attainment in it, so there are 125 levels in total.

They come from the integration of Light and desire; therefore, we simply state this fact.

The level of the soul is determined by the number, that is, the strength of my desire from 0 to 125.

The strength of the desire is determined by where I am. If I am able to bring the right intention to my desire, then the Light of the Creator enters it, and all three components—the Light that fills me, my intention, and my desire—will be called a “soul.”

Question: What kinds of souls are there, for it says that there are still, vegetative, and animate levels?

Answer: They are simply gradations that have no relevance for us. You should not think that there is an animal soul in an animal, a human soul in a person, and an inanimate soul in a rock. It means that each desire contains five components: still, vegetative, animate, speaking, and universal.

Based on that, we say, “His soul has settled into an animal or a plant.” They are nothing other than levels of desire. Just as I have a desire to consume, let’s say, 100 grams of one thing and a kilogram of another, such is the difference between the animate desire and the speaking one. These are simply token names having no connection with our world.

Indeed, everything is accurately regulated, spelled out, and quantitatively divided according to levels of energies, strengths.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/14/18

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Physical Body And Soul

laitman_626Question: Is the human physical body part of creation?

Answer: The physical body is not a part of creation and has nothing to do with the soul. You can do anything with your body, but the soul develops according to its own specific laws.

Question: What does it mean when it is written that the sparks of the soul fell into this world and dressed in bodies?

Answer: This world only means egoism. Therefore, the sparks of the soul fell not into this world and not into the bodies, but into egoism.

Our body and what we observe, see, and perceive with our five corporeal senses belongs to the animate level. Kabbalah says nothing about the animate level.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/14/18

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What Does One’s Lifespan Depend On?

laitman_600.04Question: What determines the life expectancy of different people?

Answer: Does it really matter? Is it really a gift to live long?

It’s worth living, while you can solve the serious problems for which life is given. And as soon as this possibility runs out and you exist only to serve your animal body, then it is no longer worth living. But we do not dispose of it; therefore, it is forbidden to reduce life expectancy in any possible way.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/31/17

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Does The Soul Remember Its Past Lives?

laitman_561Question: Why doesn’t the soul remember the experiences of its past earthly lives?

Answer: The soul remembers everything perfectly well because its current state is determined by its previous states that it has already passed through.

Everything is absolutely deterministic. There is nothing that happens by chance.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/31/17

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Starting A New Page

laitman_600.04Question: Is the quality of mercy, the demonstration of kindness and caring, states associated with the presence or absence of a soul?

Answer: Neither mercy nor cruelty have any association with the soul. It is simply ordinary earthly egoism.

Comment: This is not easily understood by a person…

Answer: If we want to figure something out, we must reject all of our pre-existing conceptions and start with a new page.

This is how it happens in all the sciences, in everything. If I have some kind of a preconceived notion, even more so when it relates to an area in which I have no competency and I could be drawn into a confusion that could last my entire life, then I must first annul myself and only then start to study and understand.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/14/18

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Degrees Of Independence

Dr. Michael LaitmanAchieving independence is in essence the entire work of a person on this earth. The whole process—from the moment of our birth in this world and before entering the spiritual world and the subsequent development of the soul until the end of its correction—is advancement toward independence.

Independence is realized in achieving similarity with the upper force, the Creator, nothing more or less than that. Until a person reaches the Creator’s degree, power, and similarity with Him in all qualities, he won’t complete his development and won’t gain independence.

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” “It is written in The Zohar: “With this composition, the Children of Israel will be redeemed from exile.” Also, in many other places, only through the expansion of the wisdom of Kabbalah in the masses will we obtain complete redemption. They also said, “The Light in it reforms him.” They were intentionally meticulous about it, to show us that only the Light enclosed within it is the cure that reforms a person.

Hence, it is clear that only in this way is it possible to reach the independence that we want so badly and to become free, even in the material sense. Only in this way will we be able to free ourselves from the external threat that doesn’t leave us even for a moment, each time forcing us to fight for our survival.

After all, the opportunity to return to their land was given to the people of Israel as an opportunity for a limited period of time, precisely in order to achieve independence that depends on the revelation of the wisdom of Kabbalah among the masses.

We exist inside the system of nature, in a special network that acts according to its laws. It is possible to study particular forms of the manifestation of these laws on inanimate, vegetative, and animate degrees, as does physics (the inanimate level), botany (the vegetative), biology, zoology, and genetics (the animate, that is, everything relating to living organisms).

There is also a part that relates to a person’s inner world. Psychology and psychiatry dabble in it, but their abilities are very limited, and, in fact, this area remains practically unknown.

The only science that really deals with the person’s inner world is the wisdom of Kabbalah. It studies a person as an internal system acting according to certain prescribed laws, and it lets you understand these laws and use them in order to change human nature and bring the person to the good form of existence.

We can improve our environment and make it comfortable by knowing the laws of physics, chemistry, and other sciences. We can also improve a person’s inner qualities by knowing the laws that the wisdom of Kabbalah explains to us.

These laws remain unchanged and absolute from generation to generation. They are ready for our use, unlike the laws of psychology that constantly change, with declarations that something considered harmful yesterday is today considered useful.

The person’s inner nature is subject to absolute and immutable laws. These laws come from the Creator, nature’s highest force we comprehend to creation’s very depths, the nature of which is opposite to the Creator.

Therefore, Baal HaSulam writes that only through the disclosure of the wisdom of Kabbalah can the entire world shift from exile to redemption. The people of Israel must do it first and show an example to all other nations. This is called “to be a Light unto nations.”

In this way we exit all of this world’s limitations. We are compelled to exist in this world in order to support our body, trying every moment to provide to it the most comfortable conditions. We spend our entire life servicing the body, which eventually dies, turning all our efforts to ashes.

However, we can start working on ourselves in order to achieve true, eternal degrees of existence that are above the care for our animalistic body. When we do so, our main concern becomes attaining the upper force and similarity of qualities with it.

To the extent we become similar to the Creator, we receive an opportunity to be as eternal as He is. Then we begin to climb the degrees, reaching an ever-greater force of eternity and perfection.

Of utmost importance is rising above our body that is given to us only in order to accompany us for some time, until we exit it. If I dedicate myself to the care for it, meaning place myself inside it, then I am engaged in a losing business from the beginning.

It turns out that I invest all my strength and my entire life in developing and filling something that will inevitably die. It means that all my efforts are completely useless. Therefore, we simply are obligated to realize opportunities that the wisdom of Kabbalah gives us.
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Answers To Your Questions, Part 221

laitman_565.01Question: What is a soul?

Answer: A soul is a desire that is similar to the Creator, meaning a desire with an intention of bestowal and love. A soul doesn’t exist in anyone; a soul exists only when we create it from our egoism.

Question: Recently a desire has arisen in me to pray only for the purpose of thanksgiving by means of reading Psalms; “My soul, bless the Lord” (Psalms 104:1) and “My soul, praise the Lord!” (Psalms 146:1) is all I can say in prayer. Is this correct?

Answer: Look at the Psalms I shortened on my Twitter.
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In The Circuit Of Souls

laitman_214In the “Introduction to the Book From the Mouth of a Sage,” Baal HaSulam writes: “It is known from books and from authors that the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah is an absolute must for any person from Israel. … if one studies … but has not learned the wisdom of Kabbalah, he must reincarnate into this world to study the secrets of Torah and wisdom of truth. ..

“You can therefore see the utter necessity for anyone from Israel, whoever he may be, to engage in the internality of the Torah and in its secrets. Without it, the intention of Creation will not be completed in him.

“This is the reason why we reincarnate, generation-by-generation through our current generation, which is the residue of the souls upon which the intention of Creation has not been completed, as they did not attain the secrets of the Torah in the past generations.”

It is our duty to make this last effort and spread the wisdom of Kabbalah, the method of correction of the souls that descend into our world at this time. These are the smallest, lowest, and most insignificant souls. But because of their insignificance, they will give out the greatest Light after correction.

Here, the law of inverse relation of desire and Light operates. That is why it is the lowest desires that exist in our world that should give out the greatest Light, which will correct all souls, connect them, and give them one common Light impulse from which they will all unite.

Question: Are the souls that recirculate in our world all the time the same souls?

Answer: No. Sometimes there are also renewals and conjugations of souls, their mutual merging and division. It is very complicated. Just as in a living organism: cells, liquids, and systems are constantly mutually replaced and transformed.

This can only be grasped in feelings. When one reveals the whole system, he begins to see what happens in it. And it can be revealed only if a person constantly tries to imagine that everything that happens in it comes from the Creator.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/29/17

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Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 3/19/17, Part 2

Laitman_177.06Question: What is a “moment” for the Creator? After all, it is said that the wrath of the Creator lasts for a moment, yet his kindness lasts for a lifetime.

Answer: The concept of a “moment” is explained in the Book of Psalms: “For His wrath lasts but a moment; life results from His favor” (Psalms 30:6). For the Creator, a moment is the time it takes the creature to reach full unity with Him.

Question: When you talk about people connecting into a single whole, do you mean uniting in the imaginary world or in the true spiritual world?

Answer: I mean unity of desires, so it doesn’t matter.

Question: Are all pleasures in our world the result of the Light?

Answer: The Light is what a person enjoys. A person may have good desires or bad desires—Klipot (shells). This doesn’t mean much in relation to our world because all of us in this world are in a state of absolute Tuma’a (impurity). The difference is only whether a person elicits discomfort or pain in another person, or provides him with happiness and pleasure.

Question: If space doesn’t exist, then can a Kabbalist move in space instantaneously while he is in a physical body?

Answer: We cannot move anywhere in the physical body. The physical body is just a physical body. The intent of the Kabbalist is to exit the world of bodies and enter the upper world, the world of forces.

Question: I am very afraid of death. What is going to happen next?

Answer: I promise you that there is nothing frightening about death and there is nothing to fear. All in all, this is psychological, like a little child who is afraid of an injection. There is no death. Don’t worry.

Question: Is it possible to resolve external wars by peaceful means through internal correction?

Answer: Certainly! Without a doubt! That is the purpose of Kabbalah.

Question: What is the origin of the creature, and what is his correct perception?

Answer: The origin of the creature is the Light. His correct perception is in constructing a reflection of the Light within the creature.

Question: Are all of us found in the imagination of the Creator, like characters in the imagination of filmmakers?

Answer: We cannot say in what form we are found in the imagination of the Creator; this is an intangible and incomprehensible state.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/19/17

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