Entries in the 'Evolution' Category

A Deficiency Worthy Of Our Effort

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe have to try hard and do our best in order to advance towards the goal of creation. After all, this road is much more than our natural development.

A Hard Nut

Nature pushes us forward and develops different desires and deficiencies in us, and we, of course, chase after and search for what we lack. What we lack are pleasures that are associated with food, sex, family, money, honor, and knowledge,

This is also how monkeys constantly take care of their needs, and their list of needs  similar to ours. In fact, we have a common lifestyle: We establish the same social hierarchy in human society; we love power, and in addition to that we love money. Nature obliges us to do so and this is how we advance.

But we haven’t advanced in any significant manner in this natural way and haven’t changed human society in any meaningful way in the last five to fifty thousand years.

If we speak about the goal of creation, however, it is about becoming similar and equal to the Creator, about adhering to Him. The Creator is a force that is opposite to our nature. We have a slight inclination to it that is tightly wrapped in a variety of “robes,” which is very subtle, covered by a shell like a nut.

To reach the goal of creation, we have to be equipped with a new deficiency not provided for by nature. This deficiency, the yearning for the goal of creation, will not grow in us by itself; we need to develop it inside us by our own efforts, of course with the help of the means we were given: a society, a method (the Torah), and the teacher.

The problem is that very few people want that, even less tend to the real search, and even less attain what is desired.

Coming Out of the Jungle

The truth is that today things are changing because we are facing global blows that threaten all of humanity. These blows have forced us to think about a new society that is not arranged according to a hierarchy or social classes that always raise those who are richer and more powerful.

Things are similarly arranged in the animate world. Generally speaking, this is the natural structure of a group, a nation, a society, humanity: the biggest baboon beats his chest and demands submission and obedience from others. We are the same: living in a general jungle divided into packs.

But the new nature, the goal of creation, demands a new organization and reformation from us; it demands that we become a circle, connected, one society. It demands new values based not even on desires for knowledge, which also give a little force, but on love and bestowal, on general mutual care.

It requires everyone to be on par with each other rather than seeking to dominate one another. In contrast to the old paradigm, the more a person exits himself further toward care for others, he can become more adapted to the real goal of our evolution, which is what we should reach.

It is time to be equipped with a new deficiency that becomes a circle, connection outside myself where I have no self interests.

The Birth of Man

But for me to flourish, something called Adam (man) needs to be revealed; there is a need for a different environment that provides me with the right examples of the new values. Where can I get the need for that? Nature doesn’t equip me with it because otherwise I would remain a baboon albeit of another kind.

However, a human being is not only a different social structure and not only equality with others. No, it is an attitude, an inclination; this relationship, mutual connection, must be conscious on my part so that I should want bestowal because of its special value. Moreover, I have no inclination for it, no power that awakens me and obliges me to want it.

Here we should somehow be equipped with a desire, with a new direction, for which we have no desire. In order to do so, there is the upper force, nature, the plan of creation that prepares an aid for me in an opposite manner so that during the process of the recognition of evil, I will still be able to understand who and what I am. And gradually, through quite difficult phases in the order of cause and effect, I will understand what deficiency I have to develop inside me in order to continue my advancement above it.

When I understand the problem I am facing in constructing a human being from the state of a baboon, I regard this new deficiency as a very valuable thing. If it is revealed in me, at least to some extent, I am very happy because this is how a human being is born that is ready to ascend above the creation.

The Exact Opposite

We have to relate to the deficiency that appears in us through the evil inclination that the Creator has created. It is called by different names: Pharaoh, Bilam, Balak, and Amalek. There are 70 names for the evil inclination, and on every level and in every state, they serve as help against opposition to the goal and enable me to advance towards it.

This help invokes an inclination, an urge in me, that is focused precisely on the goal. It helps me in a qualitative manner so that I will gradually understand how different this new goal is from my current feelings and mind. Therefore, we have to relate to all the disruptions that are invoked in us with great sensitivity.

Red Days on the Calendar

The same thing refers to all the Jewish holidays and the red days on the calendar. Rosh Hashana, Yom KippurSukkot, Simchat Torah, Tu Bishvat, Purim, Pesach, Lag Ba’omer, Shavuot, and the 9th of Av are all states along the way in which a new deficiency is revealed, a revelation of new evil that allows us to use it correctly, intentionally, and consciously.

It is revealed within us in this manner so that we will be free in our advancement towards our goal in a conscious manner, like human beings and not like baboons that nature pushes and who run ahead only by the force of the ego. We discover several forces and the balance between them.

The main thing we learn from these holidays is which special deficiencies we need to discover in order to ascend to every level that the holidays and special days represent. They require a deficiency that is focused on attaining the goal.

This deficiency stems from the human level that is external to us. If we look correctly at the problems that arise, we will discern the help against the creative force within them.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/02/15, Writings of Rabash

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How To Avoid A Hopeless Situation

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus”, 22:26 – 22:28: And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall remain under its mother for seven days, and from the eighth day onwards, it shall be accepted as a sacrifice for a fire offering to the Lord. An ox or sheep you shall not slaughter it and its offspring in one day.

This is speaking  about the corporeal part of a person’s desire and how it can be raised and corrected in relation to the previous level.

First, there is development in utero and then the period of suckling. A week is enough for an animal to receive and to adapt to a whole level of HGT NHYM, since an animal goes through only seven levels of development and not ten like man.

During the seven days (seven levels) the animal receives and adapts to everything from the upper level and detaches from it. It lives according to instinctive laws, and therefore a human being that is on the animal level works instinctively.

When you look at the world you see that everyone learns from others how to live and repeats what they see. Animals don’t have the three upper Sefirot that symbolize a head and therefore their head is on the same level as their body, not above it.

The same thing happens today, with a world that is currently on the animal level of development. Its head disappeared some ages ago when the real great minds disappeared.

Humanity evolves in a totally automatic manner, despite what scientists, philosophers, governments, bankers, or the masses say. They only pile up their meager  changes on every level of nature, but it does not at all change the perception of their evolution.

The critical moment was when man began to produce and earn more than needed. From that point onward, capitalism began to develop, but until that moment everything was simple and natural. Man lived by providing his basic necessities, not because he wanted to, but because there were no new technologies to help him.

But when man invented the plow that allowed him to plow deep into the ground, he began to engage in making pottery and metal working, which were opportunities to make greater profits than needed.

The added value inspired the ego and the ego began to spur the added value. Instead of the internal, moral, ethical development of man, the world turned in the direction of technological development and this was the turning point that determined the direction humanity would follow.

But today we are at the end of this path, where our technological development is collapsing and we are facing a hopeless situation. We must understand that we have to decrease our desires to a level that is suitable for a decent living. It is as in mathematics: a necessary and sufficient condition. This means that consumption should be sensible, while all our energy and options should be focused on attaining the upper goal and making ourselves human beings together with all of humanity.

Comment: It turns out that there is no choice, just like in Pushkin’s legend of The Fisherman and the Golden Fish. He should have stopped when he had the luxury palaces, but the old woman couldn’t and eventually she was left with nothing,. We are at that same point right now.

Answer: But we have the option of a soft landing. By using the wisdom of Kabbalah we can show humanity, in a good and sensible manner, what would happen if we don’t accept this method. Otherwise we will still fulfill the goal of creation, but in a hard way, through revolutions, wars, and problems.

We see how conflicts suddenly break out in a seemingly empty place. You just need to strike a match. There is great hatred in the world as everyone hates everyone else and therefore the tiniest spark can start a fire.

We have to do our very best to make the world understand that the Torah speaks about the improvement and modifications of man along a good, healthy, safe, smooth path of harmonious evolution. Haven’t we suffered enough that we don’t want that? Do we have to suffer a lot more in order to change our path towards positive evolution? Therein lies our problem.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/28/14

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The Paradox Of Levels

Dr. Michael LaitmanWithin the connection an additional force is concealed. All ten of us together are equal to one Elyon (Upper One). That is how the law of evolutionary and developmental steps works in nature.

Through connecting everyone on a lower level, an evolutionary leap to a higher level happens, and there the connection is made again and again, followed by a leap in development and a breakthrough to the next level. This is how it is all the time. It is a physical law of nature.

Thus we  have emerged as human beings with all our strength, intelligence, with the human body and all of its fibrils and cells—only through the power of unity, the power of connection. Without it, nothing would have happened. Starting from the Big Bang and onward, only the power of connection has been at work.

Start to work with what you have, and you will see that you can convince people. Don’t say that you haven’t been given enough tools for the correction of the world. It is not true! In the meantime, if you don’t feel what sort of means you are holding in your hands, begin to work, and you will see that these means exist. The audience will agree with what you say even before you agree with yourself.

You will actually learn from the audience that this is the next stage. Even though you are on a higher level, in your lower part, in your AHP, you are more coarse than the people you are going out to. They are more refined because they are found in GE.

This is a paradox, an internal contradiction. You are on their level with your receptive desires (AHP), and they are on the same level with their Kelim of bestowal (GE). Although they are on a level lower than yours, they discover desires within themselves that are more refined than yours. You are coarser, and essentially, more of an egoist than they are. Yet, the fact is that you want the Creator and not mundane things.

They agree with what you say to them more rapidly and more easily than you agree with the statements yourself. About this, it is written, Talmud Babyli, “Ta’anit,” 7a: I learned much from my masters, more from my friends, and even more from my students.” You receive back from them precisely what you said to them yourself. They bring you evidence, intelligence and emotion, and you finally will begin to understand, feel and be stimulated by what you told them.
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From the 2nd part of Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/14, Writings of Rabash

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Coming Out Of Our Corners Towards Each Other

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe must connect ourselves to the same force that manages all parts of creation in order to improve our situation. It is up to us to cause it to influence us harmoniously, for it is good and that does good. This force produced the entire universe, the planet Earth, it created all of our lives and develops us according to its program. It has led us from the big bang to our day through the process of evolution. With great wisdom, it connects all parts of reality, but up until now, only a small fraction of reality has been known to us and we are confused even about that.

We are still very weak in the area of science, but in addition, the science of connection has been given to us, making it possible to be aware of the general force of nature. This force transmits knowledge to us called the wisdom of Kabbalah. As long as we investigate reality with the help of our physical intelligence, we receive the most meager facts about reality. We obtain scant knowledge about physics, chemistry, biology, botany, and astronomy.

We know a little about everything, but we don’t have the general picture. There are so many different sciences precisely because we are not ready to digest everything together and see one universal formula for all of reality, as Einstein dreamed of.

This indicates the limitations of our vision. And the main thing in the attainment of reality is not to see its parts but the connection between the parts. It is possible to discover all of science according to this connection. Indeed, in all of reality, only one force exists that advances it towards a particular purpose (the goal of creation). The goal of creation is unknown to us and we don’t understand why and where some kind of force is pushing us since we lack this knowledge.

Reality is whole and the general force of nature is whole, but human perception is the opposite and doesn’t allow us to see all of reality in a general integral form. Therefore, reality doesn’t appear to us as good. To help us correct ourselves and our perception, the sense of the general global crisis has been given to us.

The crisis was created because reality is beginning to approach us as one complete picture. We suddenly feel that everything is connected in politics, the economy, and in human society. In general, we understand that according to the laws, this is how it must be since everything is mutually connected in our universe: all the stars and the galaxies. But we still don’t know how we are connected to all of this. We investigate the laws of inanimate nature and a bit of the laws of the vegetative and the animate nature in a most limited form. But the laws of connection between one person and another are not known to us at all. Now for the first time, the network of connection that connects everyone has been revealed to us.

In the meantime, we don’t want to be aware of this connection and everyone wants to exist by himself. So apparently an opposite process is taking place, for each one tries to isolate himself because it is not comfortable for us to feel that we are connected. Entire nations isolate and fence themselves off, amplifying protectionism.

A person wants everyone to leave him alone and let him live quietly without needing anyone. This is our opposition to connection.

But the general force of nature that pushes us forward brings us to a unique state. We discover that we are found in a global, integral system of connection, connected by millions of connections and channels to such an extent that nobody can move, like a puppet on a string tied to a billion other threads that connect it with all the other puppets everyone. So we are all connected together.

If I were just connected with all the others, well, that would be all right. But in addition to this, they also hate me! And today, this is being revealed to us gradually. We are found in a world that is becoming more and more threatening to all of us.

Therefore, each one wants to hide in his apartment, in his own corner. The young don’t even want to marry and bring children into the world. They don’t want to communicate with anyone. They have a mobile phone and a computer, so they are compelled to communicate with the world only by way of these channels. Because of this, everything else doesn’t affect them.

If there is a possibility of working at home, then this is great, for then there is no need to see anyone at all. Today people are drawn to lives like these, every man for himself, or at most, for his family. And even the family is temporary. It is common today to sever familial connections a number of times and build them anew to break them once again.

All of this is happening because we are being obligated from above to be in connection between us. But we, on our side, try with all our might to sever this connection. We don’t want to be dependent upon each other because this connection is obligatory and threatening. About our times the prophets wrote, “The haters of a person are sitting in his house.” So a person avoids all connections. But in spite of it all, we must go out of our corners and take the first step towards one another.
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From KabTV’s “The Meeting of Worlds” 6/16/14

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Do The Stars Affect Our Fate?

Dr. Michael laitmanQuestion: The Zodiac signs and fate, the topic is exciting and intriguing and not much understood. Do the stars affect our destiny; is it possible to predict it and what you can do with this knowledge?

After all, the most difficult thing in life is its unpredictability. We live not knowing what will happen to us in the future, what surprises are in store for us.

A person cannot control his life. And that is why people are so interested in astrology, which supposedly can predict a person’s character and his entire fortune by the stars.

Astrology was known in ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, in the East, India, China, and among the American Indians. And today, many people believe that there is a connection between the stars in the sky and the human state. Does this connection really exist?

Answer: The entire universe develops gradually, step by step, and the human being is the last stage of its development, the most developed of them. But just because people are developed more than animals and have such a mind and feelings with which they can reveal nature to a greater degree, they feel very vulnerable.

It is said that a two-day calf can already be called a small bull. Having barely been born, he already has the same mind and feelings as an adult bull. He knows what plants can and cannot be eaten, and will not fall from a height, as opposed to a small child who should be taken care of and educated until he becomes wiser.

If a child is not educated, he will grow as an animal. But if we give him the entire human experience, accumulated over many years, he will become a human being at the level to which he was given an opportunity to develop. A human being develops himself, and as he develops, he reveals the world.

Therefore, a human being is a very sensitive creature because he has to feel nature in a subtle way. He is strong because he is able to build for himself the systems that protect him against the adversities of nature. The human being has discovered fire and invented electricity in order to heat his home and light the darkness of the night. He has learned to communicate over long distances and invented the Internet.

Human beings perfected nature, adding to it all the amenities that he lacked. And at the same time, he himself has not changed much, and it is obvious that there are very clear limits of human capabilities.

We can improve our lifestyle in every way, but we cannot answer the most important questions, “What is my destiny? What awaits me in the future? When will I die? What happened to me before I was born and what will happen after my death? What happens beyond the boundaries of this life?”

“Why in my life, did I meet the people who surround me? Why was I born with this character, of this gender, in a particular country, and in a certain period of time?”

All this remains a mystery to us. There is some power that controls us and we cannot influence it. We are able only to make ourselves more comfortable in the place where we were brought by fate. We build houses for ourselves rather than living in caves, and we prepare and store food for future use.

We are developing that which relates to the material life of the body. That is, we use the human mind and senses, which raise us above animals, for the benefit of this animal level, our bodies. For the purpose of satisfying our bodies, we have developed all the sciences of physics, chemistry, biology, and zoology.

We cannot get outside of our body with our human mind and feelings. It turns out that we are using all that was given to us above the animal level, such as  great intellect and the ability to study nature and reveal its laws, just for the sake of our animal welfare.

We wanted to move quickly and created a car, we wanted to talk over distances and invented the radio and the Internet. But all these inventions are made for the convenience of the body and its health, either for oneself or for one’s family and children.

There is no invention made by our highly developed mind which was intended for the benefit of  rising above the degree of the animal level.  Universities, stock exchanges, and museums were all designed to provide maximum comfort for our bodies. It is sad to see in what primitive way we use subtle senses like a sharp mind and the ability to evolve and  develop from generation to generation.

We fly into space and make huge advances in medicine. A hundred years ago the average life expectancy was no more than 40-50 years, and today we are getting close to 100 years. In another 50 years, we may live for 200 years. We have the opportunity to make our life in this world much more intense, long lasting, healthier, prolonging the existence of the body. But what we can do with it for such a long a time?

We can improve the conditions for the existence of the body and for our families and children. We can answer any question, except for the main one concerning our fate. The concept of destiny includes the form in which we existed before birth, what this form will be after our death, as well as what happens to us in the middle interval from birth to death, and what tests we will have to go through in this life.

On the one hand, we recognize that all this is planned. But with respect to us, it appears as a complete accident. We think that now it is a coincidence, but maybe we can rise up a little bit, then look down and see the program, which is extremely curious.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/1/15

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The Relevance Of The Torah In The Modern World

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe section Kedoshim is the main section of the Torah and is translated as “Holiness.” Holiness is the level of Bina, the level of absolute, complete ascent above all egoistic desires. Therefore the right fulfillment of all the laws described within it should bring us to a state of bestowal.

Comment: But the system of prohibitions is examined in this section and tells us what will happen if we sin.

Answer: The prohibitions are not in order to scare us. Fear doesn’t help a person. We are made so that nothing can stop us. Moreover, it isn’t about fear of rulers in this world or fear of being punished by the Creator as considered by religions.

This specifies the option of sin and the punishment. We should understand the whole chain of spiritual actions so as to prevent any movement toward sin and to avoid committing acts that are prohibited. It is by such acts that you detach yourself from the ascent and by which you harm no one but yourself.

The correct understanding of the whole system, meaning the entrance, the exit, the inner part of the system, the way it works, etc., isn’t just a condition but the concealed laws of nature, which we don’t feel. Therefore it says, “Don’t behave that way, don’t do that.”

These are basically internal laws, which means they relate to the the desire, the intention, and the mind and heart. They are explicit and relate to the general system of nature, but they are concealed from us and we cannot see them unless we begin to implement them.

We begin to feel part of the laws of nature from birth by trial and error, just like a baby who finds that some things work while others don’t. He looks at others and repeats their actions, gets stuck on something and cries, which means that he gets used to what is allowed and what is forbidden.

There are laws of mutual relations between people that say, “This is allowed and this is forbidden,” but a person still doesn’t see the hidden meaning within them. Gradually, he begins to understand that he can be punished for some things and in regard to others, he is allowed to continue. He begins to realize that some things are not nice, and here the shame, envy, and the desire for control stop him, which means that different desires guide and direct him.

There are also laws that he doesn’t feel at all, when he doesn’t feel giving or bestowal from the environment and society, and these are also laws of nature! These are the laws that the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us and this is the reason it is called the concealed part of the Torah.

On the whole, these are the same laws and the same morality, but they are felt on a level that humanity has to reach in order to fulfill. Today we have reached a level that we have to fulfill the laws of general life on this planet, which has become a small, all inclusive area.

We see how borders are nullified and no matter where we go, it is the same mass culture everywhere. People are beginning to realize that everything is collective. If there are any unique local characteristics, they do not stem from the depths of history, but are artificially created in order to attract tourists.

We have changed internally and have become cosmopolitan, living in one common space. We preserve what existed before only in order to profit from it. The unique attribute of our times is a pragmatic approach to everything that once seemed holy and that we considered our legacy.

Now we have to keep the laws of unity, but unfortunately, we don’t feel the actual unity, nor living on one planet like one family totally dependent on one another.

The Torah tells us how all of humanity should attain the correct, cooperative life. Previously very few knew the essence of the Torah, but today its revelation to the world in its true light is required.

Thus, the nation that was given the laws that tell us how to live in unity penetrates the nations of the world like a river and begins to raise them to that level. At the same time, we need to constantly remind people that we did not invent these laws, these conventions and customs, and neither did anyone else. They are simply the laws of nature. Now we have simply arrived at a new level of our development from the still, vegetative, and animate levels to the human level.

Before that we lived and grew like animals, instinctively fulfilling what developed within us. Now, however, and despite our animal level, we should consciously begin to somehow get closer to other people even though we are repulsed by it. This is the human level that is opposite in every way from the animal level. This is the level we are now reaching.

Therefore, the Torah is becoming increasingly more relevant today.
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From KabTV’s “The Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/23/14

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The Upper Mind That Is Concealed In Nature

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You say that the Israeli nation was chosen by the Creator in order to help all of humanity get closer to Him. But we don’t live in ancient times or in the Middle Ages anymore and don’t see that the modern world needs the Creator. Only religious people speak about the Creator, not people in the ordinary world, and no one feels the need for Him.

Answer: The Creator is equivalent to nature. The whole huge system of nature, the immense power that includes and sustains all of creation is called the Creator. This definition is totally different from the common religious definition.

The problem is that because our mind and our feelings are so limited, we cannot recognize the fact that the upper force also has feelings, understanding, a plan, and organizes the process that leads to a certain goal.

We picture this force as a still force, like the force of gravity that simply pulls and that’s all. We think that only us humans have minds and thoughts and nature doesn’t.

But today there are many scientific publications that speak about the upper force that develops all of matter. This force has a plan and a goal that are predetermined, and it advances us according to this plan. Our situation is no coincidence and nothing in the world happens by chance.

Even ordinary evolution, which seems to us as arbitrary, is in fact predetermined. Each time different desires connect and there is a struggle between them, they are carrying out the precise plan that is predetermined. The only thing is that we don’t know it, but today scientists are already beginning to speak about it.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/28/14

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Changing Our Vision To Manifest The True Reality

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf we ignore the bodies that divide us, then all of humanity is one common desire to be fulfilled. Everything material in this reality in the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels all desire pleasure.

They manifest themselves differently at each stage. Pleasure for a stone is when it has the inner strength to sustain itself in its current solid state. It exists and does not allow outside forces to split it.

The plant does not just preserve itself, but also develops, expands the scope of its life, and takes up more space than what it originally started with. It enjoys the sun, water, and air, and its capacity to absorb these things give it a strong sense of life and vitality.

Further, animals have an even greater desire for enjoyment and they move from place to place in order to fulfill this desire.

A human being’s case is a special one. There are people, who like animals, look for greater connections with pleasure and guarantees for their preservation throughout their entire lives.

Everyone in one way or another is familiar with the desires related to food, sex, family, money, honor, and knowledge. However, some people have a special impetus, for they want to connect with the higher force and experience pleasure from it.

A person with such an impulse wants to know why, for what reason, and in what reality one lives, where one came from, who rules a person, and what happens to one after the death of the body. A person feels that these questions have an answer. In the desire to be fulfilled and in this primordial requirement, a person starts experiencing a qualitatively new enrichment while wondering what lies beyond life in our world.

There are a lot of people like that on Earth. In particular, such questions arise in those who fall into depression and seek refuge in drugs, etc. Most of them think about the fact of their existence and the meaning of life. For them, a life without any meaning is not sweet and they do not feel that satisfying normal desires is enough.

Such existence seems animalistic to them, and providing for oneself, having one’s own well-built “crib,” and taking care of offspring does not, in principle, separate humans from the animal world. Here we are still at the same level, and on the same line on the graph of the animals.

On the other hand, a true person is the one who wants to rise above one’s bodily life and understand why one lives. This question came to the fore on a massive scale during the days of the Tower of Babel, when people opened egoism to the maximum level at that time. Many people wondered why this happened and what the purpose of the ego was. They asked themselves, “What would we get from building a tower to heaven and why do we need an architectural masterpiece like the pyramids of Egypt?”

There was no answer. This is when Abraham appeared. He had studied the problem of sudden flashes of egoism in the relations between people and came to the conclusion that all of this was intended to help people unite above egoism. He saw that if they could do that, then the negative force of the same egoism would raise them above it to a new, spiritual height, a qualitatively new level called “the world to come.”

The world to come is a reality entirely aimed towards bestowal. We leave our lives in this world as it appears to us now, emerge from this endless egoistic battle in which one devours the others, and rise to another level of being. There we will treat each other with love, as it is written, “Love will cover all crimes,” and this relationship will be passed down to the levels of the still, vegetative, and animal natures.

Abraham was the property of mercy (Hesed) and taught people how to live according to the principle of love thy neighbor as thyself. Because of this, his students gained a new perception of reality, seeing the world through the prism of bestowal. I used to seek personal gain everywhere; I wanted to use everything to my advantage, and now, it is the opposite. I switched to helping others, loving others, and feeling the pain of others.

This is when my world changed. I turned the paradigm of greedy reception and absorption into the opposite, and this is the polar transformation of my ancestral properties that allows me to open a new reality.

In other words, it all depends on my perception. There is no objective reality; it is only what I see.  At present, my perception is based on the force of reception, and I have to change a setting inside me to see and understand the reality through the prism of the power of bestowal. If I do this, then everything will appear in front of me in a different form.

Moreover, Abraham discovered that the program of nature managing the development of the human race would lead us to this state. Replacing the concept of total reception with the concept of total bestowal, replacing hatred for your neighbor and using others to benefit yourself with love and using yourself for their benefit, will transform your world.

A person is used to living in this world and everything here seems natural. One does not understand that, in fact, all this is just the fruit of a certain perception of reality, and it all depends on the mechanism of our perception. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to change it.

Thus, Abraham brought people to ask questions about the meaning of life, people who had matured and demanded to see the true reality, to reveal the cause and the program’s goal. And he taught them how to change their vision to manifest the true, complete picture of reality.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/25/14

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What Will We See In 2015?

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (Globes): “The planet has entered into the period of ‘discovery of truth and enlightenment of humankind.’ This is the period of Pluto. It began in 2014 and will end in 2016. Pluto symbolizes death and rebirth, the revolution in mass consciousness.

“The discovery of inexhaustible sources of energy, superconductivity, and global communication will be connected with this. All this will radically change human life  and the world order. Humanity is on the verge of the era, which may be called the Apocalypse, when the old world order is collapsing and the new one is being born. The word ‘apocalypse’can be translated as ‘the discovery of the truth.’

“We are facing the period of enlightenment of humanity, when the veil will drop from the eyes of hundreds of millions of people. Of course, such a revolution in consciousness will be accompanied by momentous political and economic decisions, the realization of brilliant and dazzling ideas, and the emergence of charismatic personalities.”

My comment: The wisdom of Kabbalah completely agrees with the statement that “the planet has entered into the period of discovery of truth and enlightenment of humankind.” That is just not by way of great discoveries in science and technology, but through the spiritual change of human beings.
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A Civilization Of The Mindless

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Lately there is such a direction as behavioral economics. Many studies show that humans are not rational creatures, but instead, they are managed by sensory impulses, and they often act to their own detriment. Do you agree with this assertion?

Answer: A human being is a desire to receive and the desire to receive is devoid of logic (rationality). Each one chooses exactly what to enjoy for himself. But apparently my rational choice is contingent on education, habit, and values.

There are also other factors: fear of death, a desire to succeed, and looking good in the eyes of one’s peers in his environment. The survival and sexual instincts play a role that is no less important.

Question: For quite some time, psychologists have attempted to identify those hidden forces that don’t permit us to make rational (logical) decisions.

Answer: Today, on the long road of development, and through our increased power, we see that our entire civilization is completely irrational. It acts destructively towards itself and deliberately chooses the way of suffering.

For example, a mother teaches her child: “Be conciliatory towards others, be quiet, then you will have more friends.”  Whereas he says adamantly: “I don’t want to!” We see  examples of this not only in children. Adults and entire groups of people fight, kill, and destroy each other only out of envy, vanity and a desire to dominate.

It is completely understood that the aspiration to fulfill our inner drives and our irrationality is what manages us and we only employ our intellect later, when it is necessary for getting what we want.

Question: The expression, “Humans are emotional creatures” indicates that he feels the awakening of some desire within him. To what is he sensitive?

Answer: He is sensitive to what he is missing, which is to say, according to what he needs. He pays attention to himself all the time: “What do I want? What kind of desire is aroused in me now obliging me to fulfill it? I am a slave to my desires; they dominate me.”

Question: If intellect only serves the desires, where is wisdom found?

Answer: It is found within the desire. The desire to receive is our nature. This is apparent on all levels. Atoms maintain their form, plants absorb beneficial substances and emit harmful substances, and animals multiply. All of this is the desire to receive and fulfill itself with all kinds of pleasant things according to a program that exists in each individual.

That is how wisdom manifests itself on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate. Except in humans, the program for life for all other living creatures cannot be changed. Every cat will eat fish for pleasure, even if it has never tasted it previously. Everything is different with humans. You don’t begin eating Chinese food if you are accumstomed to a Slavic cuisine from childhood. What can be derived from this is that humans undergo a unique program that we call education.
[150635]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/11/13

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