Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: Thus, in our world, there are no new souls the way bodies are renewed, but only a certain amount of souls that incarnate on the wheel of transformation of the form, because each time they clothe a new body and a new generation.
Therefore, with regard to the souls, all generations since the beginning of Creation to the end of correction are as one generation that has extended its life over several thousand years, until it developed and became corrected as it should be.

And the fact that in the meantime each has changed its body several thousand times is completely irrelevant, because the essence of the body’s self, called “the soul,” did not suffer at all by these changes.

Question: How does the population on earth keep growing if the number of the souls that reincarnate from one generation to the next is fixed?

Answer: The souls are divided according to the number of bodies. Basically there is one soul that is divided into many parts, but this division doesn’t really exist and we only perceive it that way.

In fact, reincarnation is a change of form of the desire to receive. There are many such reincarnations at every given moment.

There is only one soul, which seems broken. We see that it is dispersed in different bodies and divided into seven billion people and besides there are also animals, plants, and inanimate rocks. The whole world is part of the desire to receive that undergoes changes or reincarnations in their desire.

A Kabbalist writes about the reincarnations of the corrected desire that is equipped with an anti-egoistic Masach (screen).

Question: So what is the meaning of the corporeal world that we see, changing it in time?

Answer: The meaning of this world is to use it correctly to ascend to the spiritual level, that is, to add the spiritual essence to the corporeal picture that we see. By that we sanctify this world and it becomes spiritual.

We discover the connections between all the parts of creation: the inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, and most importantly, the speaking that are increasingly more connected by ties of love and mutual support until we reach the picture of one whole reality.
[161711]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/21/15, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How does the soul control the body?

Answer: There is no connection between the soul and the physical body, the body exists by itself. It is only if a person acquires a soul that the upper world is revealed to him or her.

One begins to feel not only that reality perceived within his ego for his own benefit that is our small limited world. He goes out of his ego towards love of others and horizons open up in front of him; he also begins to see the upper world together with our world. His view is expanded; he begins to see the entire creation in depth, seeing the connection between everything that exists, the entire creation.

The upper world is the system of higher management that operates our whole world. The purpose of this system is to elevate all those who live in our world to the level of the soul, so that everyone will be involved in mutual bestowal, instead of what is now, each one wanting to grab something, to get something for oneself. We need to work differently, with mutual bestowal towards each other.

Everyone must reach this sooner or later. If we are late in this correction, then we receive blows from all sides. But if with the help of Kabbalah we begin to change, to correct ourselves, then we merit a life where we see the entire world from end to end.
[159213]
From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 5/10/15

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Question: Why do we need to go through the entire evolutionary process of human society if the corporeal world is imaginary?

Answer: The corporeal world is very meaningful. As a result of it, we reach the understanding that our corporeal evolution has reached a dead end. We realize that we have evolved in the wrong way and that we cannot advance further in this way because our egoism leads us to the abyss, to death.

There is a phase in the evolution of our desire to receive that we must undergo and clarify here in this world. Egoism shows us its lowliness, its hopelessness, and its futility. We must undergo all this to feel it, experience it, and be incorporated in it.

This world is very important, and all the internal changes occur while living in this corporeal world. In addition, there are many corporeal changes that we don’t feel in our reality in this world.

It is hard to explain how we perceive our reality if our body is dead. We believe that we feel everything through the body, but this isn’t true. The body is only one of the illusions that we have.
[161747]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/21/15, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Why are so many people concerned lately about their appearance that they are willing to spend so much money to look younger and more beautiful?

Answer: In the old days, people did not give much importance to appearance. However, in today’s world, it has become very important because we are developing in our egoism and it increasingly binds us to the physical, material life.

Our ego wants to become similar in this material life to the spiritual world. Egoism is developing so much that it promises to provide us with the best life, to extend it endlessly to give us enjoyment and to look attractive, young, and strong in the eyes of others.

The general process of evolution, according to the program inherent in us, leads us so that we rise to the new degree of development, the spiritual one, and begin to live in the form of forces, spiritual qualities, not physical bodies, experiencing life only through the body.

To move to a higher level of existence, we first must make sure that we do not expect anything good from our bodily life. It can be neither eternal nor happy, and all its acquisitions are worthless.

Therefore, we must go through all kinds of states—the pursuit of wealth, honor, power, knowledge, and external beauty—to disclose the complete insignificance of these desires, that they bring no fulfillment. It is impossible to reach full and eternal contentment with life through them.

This is a time when we seemingly chase eternal life. In other words, we are trying to keep eternal youth. But as a result of this race and much wasted effort, we are to understand that this goal has no real value.

It is impossible to achieve either eternal life or true inner fulfillment in this way. The desire to look young and beautiful is given to us so that having been disappointed in it we would choose a higher goal.

This higher goal is really eternal. By reaching it we begin to live not in our physical bodies but in desires, aspirations, and intentions.

The desire to preserve eternal youth is just a certain stage of our development. After that, there will be the fashion to freeze one’s bodies, hoping to revive them in the future when more advanced technologies will emerge. But even in this approach we are destined to become disillusioned and realize that this is not the solution.

All of these efforts are intended to lead us to the fact that there is no choice; we must rise to the next level of existence, that is, to make the transition from life in the body to life within the soul. All our life is pushing us toward this goal.

All our life values—food, sex, family, money, honor, knowledge ,and all the fulfillments of this world—are designed to disappoint us and aim us to the only direction, which is to lead us from existence in the physical body to life in the soul.
[161461]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/6/15

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Question: Do you suppose that people should look for a way to extend human life?

Answer: It is not necessary to think about ways to extend our lives since we see that large numbers of people in the world willingly would give up living entirely. Rather, we must think about how to make our lives qualitatively better. Just because of the fact that people fear death does not mean it makes sense to prolong life. It makes sense only if life in our world would take on a positive and qualitative form for all of humanity.

I think that when a person attains the scheme of creation and sees the logic and the wholeness of the entire system, he will not think at all about existence in physical life; this will not interest him. He already exists within the entire system of mutual connections, and, when he attains that, his physical, beastly body will stop being important for him or felt by him, and this means that he is dead. He is within the entire system, beyond feeling the beastly life of the physical body, and so the entire physical state disappears, and his physical body is considered as if it were dead.
[161291]
From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 5/27/14

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Question: Is spiritual beauty a feminine quality?

Answer: Spiritual beauty is only a feminine quality because a person who knows how to reach this Inner Light has a desire to get it in order to bestow.

The desire to receive is considered a woman’s property, and the desire to give this Light to others is a man’s property. That is, such a person combines two spiritual qualities: male and female.

Spiritual beauty is born as a result of our desire to achieve immense bestowal. And then a person ceases to pay attention to external beauty.

Question: What should a woman do to radiate inner beauty?

Answer: If a woman wants to preserve eternal youth and beauty, she must take care of her inner beauty, that is, to think about how to help others, how to love all people and to show them a good example. Then she will be very beautiful.

Question: Do ordinary people see this spiritual beauty by looking at her?

Answer: If a real man (Adam), that is similar (Domeh) to the Creator looks at this woman, he would see her inner beauty. We are not talking about the physical body.

No matter what methods we use to rejuvenate it, it will still grow old. Even if we can extend life of up to 200 years, up to a 100 years, a person will look and feel young, and then he will live as an old man another 100 years.

Medicine can relatively easily prolong human life for hundreds of years, but is there any sense in it? Isn’t it better to develop one’s soul in this physical body in the shortest possible period and begin to live in it?

I can achieve my general correction in 20 – 30 years, build my spiritual body, and begin to live in the spiritual world. Why do we need to stretch our existence in this world—the lowest and worst of all the worlds? We need to perform our task in it and get rid of it, having obtained eternal life. Then youth and beauty will be seen as something completely different.
[161293]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 6/2/15

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Question: Why do people dream of being forever young?

Answer: It is natural that a person strives to preserve youthfulness. But what is more important for him is to hide from the thoughts of his imminent death. Fear of death is very evident even in animals. The animal body does not want to die—it is a natural instinct.

Although animals are not concerned about the question of eternal existence, they are terrified of death. This fear also lives in the human body because it is animal.

Question: I am more concerned not about the thought of death, but about aging. I come to the mirror, see new wrinkles, and realize that old age has come. Why is it so important for the human being to be young?

Answer: It is not old age that distresses a person, but the fact that it means the approach of death. By itself, old age is a relative concept. When I was ten, I saw fifty-year-old people as very old people whose lives has ended. Today, I am seventy, and I like my life. I would not change it to younger age.

I’m getting old, but the question is whether I have realized my purpose in life, and if I have not yet implemented the program and I have built plans for the future.

Comment: But every woman really wants to be young!

Answer: For women it happens differently: the appearance is very important for a woman. A woman will cease to worry about her wrinkles only if she changes her physical beauty to spiritual. This is a completely different beauty – the immense Inner Light (Hochma) that is revealed in a person and the force of active bestowal and love for people that radiates from it.
[161240]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 6/2/15

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Question: What is the secret of eternal youth?

Answer: The secret of eternal youth is to correct one’s nature from egoistic, which forces one to take care only of oneself, to altruistic in order to take care only of others.

It is a totally different approach to life and to people. Anyone who ceases to care about keeping eternal life and youth for oneself and begins to care about others will live forever. Indeed, he becomes similar to the eternal, perfect, infinite Light of life that fills the entire universe.

A person changes his nature to the nature of Light and turns into a channel through which the Light flows to people. He receives Light only in order to convey it to others.

Question: And meanwhile he would not grow old?

Answer: Our whole life is taking place within the biological, animal body, and that is why it is so short. Eternal existence is possible if we develop the force of love and bestowal, which is called the soul.

A person who has received this power feels that he belongs to eternity, to the other reality, the upper world, to the “Garden of Eden.” Therefore, the death of his physical body, this protein matter, does not bother him.

He will have to grow old and die—this is inevitable and always will be. But during his life in this body, a person has the opportunity to reveal his soul, to expand it, and to raise it to such a degree that through his inner force of bestowal and love he will become similar to the Light, the general force of the entire reality, which is called the Creator.

Question: Does this have anything to do with religion?

Answer: This is not connected with religion at all and is available to any person from any part of the world. Human life is not limited to the physical body, which is sooner or later destined to grow old and die. This material life is given to us as a lucky chance to find and develop one’s own soul during the existence of this body.

The average person feels everything through his body, and therefore it is important whether it is young or old or how many wrinkles it has. Here we are talking about developing beyond one’s biological, protein material, animal body, to another body—spiritual, that is, the desire to bestow and to love, to care about others.

This desire is called the spiritual body or soul. During this life in a physical body we have the opportunity to develop the spiritual body—the desire to bestow. Thus, we gradually move with all our thoughts, intentions, feelings in the spiritual body and begin to identify ourselves with the soul.

Despite the fact that our physical body lives in this world just like everyone else, our spiritual body becomes more important for us. We are concerned with the soul and develop it and attach less and less importance to the physical body until it disappears from our field of attention.

We do not feel its physical death, as people of this world. And there comes a time when we totally separate from that body because we have nothing else to do with it. Indeed, we have developed our soul and through it feel the existence within the force of bestowal and love, the Upper Light that fills the entire universe.
[161193]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 6/2/15

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Question: Where does the force of love, due to which we exist, come from, from the earth or from the sun?

Answer: The force of life is called “Light,” and it comes from everywhere, from all of nature. We exist within this field.

But since we are egoists and want to receive only for our own benefit, we can absorb from it just a tiny spark of life, the minimum force that supports our physical animal existence. All of nature is filled with the energy of life, but our egoistic desire allows us to absorb from it only a minute portion that can revitalize our body for a limited time.

While a person is young, he is able to extract more vitality from nature. And as he ages, he becomes increasingly tired and gets less and less vital energy, until it dries up completely.

Question: Everyone dreams of revealing the secret of eternal youth; why does one get tired?

Answer: Because people do not know the secret that allows you to live forever. The secret is that a person must correct himself, become similar to the upper force of nature—such as giving and loving. Then he will be able to receive more life energy.

This life energy is unlimited and is called the Light of Infinity. And only we egoists limit our abilities to receive it by wishing to use it for our own benefit, and therefore we receive only a tiny spark of life from this endless source.

A person seemingly stands near a rapidly flowing river and scoops out energy from it with a small cup  to support his life. While he is young, he still manages to scoop up something. But then he gets older, becomes tired, and he does not have enough strength to get this vital energy for himself.

But he himself can become similar to this flow of Light and exist within it. Humanity has not yet revealed this secret. This patent is intended for everyone, but we must reveal it gradually. We need to be ready for it and be developed enough to understand how to use it.

After all, for this we will need to rise above our nature, which is completely egoistic and aimed at receiving, consuming, and filling oneself.

Here, a person has to switch to the opposite approach in order to receive only what is necessary for his body and to have no other worries about himself, but only to take care of how to convey this great Light of life to all of humanity.

I am beginning to think not about myself but about all the others, and thus become like the upper force, the Light of life. Then I go into it as if into a river and become as eternal and perfect.
[161138]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 6/2/15

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Question: Our entire lives are theater. Is there some program or plan to everything that is happening to us? Is there a director of this play?

Answer: When we investigate nature, we see that everything functions in it according to precise laws of physics, chemistry, biology, and zoology. It seems that human life must also work according to particular laws. In humanity, all the individual laws of nature connect together and manage us. We are in a field of energy that moves us to a state where we begin to ask: “What is this game, where is it leading us, what are we living for and for what purpose?”

Religious people solve this problem very simply: They believe that there is a Higher Power that manages us; we don’t need to worry and think about what will happen to us. Kabbalah says that the solution is through our bringing this force out of hiding, opening our eyes and seeing the entire creation: this world and the upper world, the spiritual world. Then we begin to live in all of the worlds. From the height that we attain, we see how everything is managed and why it is necessary for it to be managed specifically this way and not another.

And in truth, we approach this because the upper force inserts us deeply into the game until we understand that If we don’t discover and know the conditions for this game, if we don’t become participants and conscious partners of the upper force, then our lives are under threat.

Question: What does it mean to win in this game of life?

Answer: Winning is possible only when we discover that this is truly a game, and we discover where it leads, what the program of the director, the upper force, is, and how to become His active performer. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to do this. When we discover this game, then we see that it is the highest in the world. It is arranged according to clear and precise laws that cannot be violated and it leads us to a wonderful and sublime goal. This entire game is designed to confuse us and then awaken in us a need to discover the secret of the game of life.

The purpose of the game is to transform all of humanity so that it becomes similar to the Creator, bringing us to a state of absolute goodness, an eternal and perfect life. In the end, we receive infinite fulfillment, but on the way we must discover our complete loss, lack of knowledge, lack of understanding, the crisis that we experience today. And all of this is so that we will solve the mystery of this game.
[160518]
From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 5/17/15

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