Question: The mechanics of the development of desire in our world is simple, and we have accumulated thousands of years of experience in it. What new knowledge does the science of Kabbalah offer regarding the use of desire?

Answer: Kabbalah offers the intention; nothing else is necessary! The Creator created the will to receive pleasure and He drives it to evolve. This desire is egoistic, making us constantly run after whatever might fill it. Such behavior characterizes the still, vegetative, and animate levels of existence. However, in our time, after millennia of growth, we have finally evolved to the “human” level (Adam), which is a totally different state of existence. A human is independent of the still, vegetative, and animate ways of existence.

To a human being, the most important thing is the intention, or the reason “why” do I possess the still, vegetative, and animate levels? What do I live for? He wonders about the purpose of life, and when a person has this question, he comes to Kabbalah. This is a totally new inclination where I don’t depend on the previous evolution of my desire. I have evolved, but what now? Now something completely new, mysterious, and unknown lies ahead of me.

Today’s human crisis is the crisis of the formula of our previous development which doesn’t work anymore! The previous period of evolution has ended where the only operating forces were Light and desire, pleasure and hunger. Now I see that there is fulfillment and I feel a need for it, but I don’t understand how the two are connected.

Previously it worked very simply: the greater my desire, the greater its fulfillment. But today even though my desire is enormous, I grab and enjoy what I want for an instant and then it’s gone. As a result, I don’t even want to run after pleasure any more. However, I still have to fill myself with something. Yet, I have nothing to do it with. Do you realize what a disaster this is?

Mankind does not know what to do with the situation. This leads to wars, crime, brutality, and terrorism because the moment man experiences emptiness and longing, he is willing to do whatever it takes to find at least some small fulfillment even for an instant!

We are now going through this transitional time. The egoistic desire has completed its evolution on the still, vegetative, and animate planes of existence. Now it has to grow as a “human,” which means “similar to the Creator.” This is an absolutely new form where one works in bestowal, the reverse of everything that one did before.

We neither comprehend this action nor where to get the strength for it. We do not have the mind, the desire, and the environment for it. We only have the science of Kabbalah, and even that is available only for those who have already discovered it. That is why we are making such great efforts to disseminate it because we would like to accelerate evolution and offer a remedy well in advance before the next blow strikes.

Otherwise no one will know what to do with this life: neither politicians, nor sociologists, nor psychologists, or any other scientists. Mankind will give up and agree to any sort of existence, hoping to conceal what is really happening and to continue living at least somehow.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Question: Why are there so many problems in family relations today, and so many people are getting divorced or cannot get married at all?

Answer: Egoism is growing all the time. It is no longer the way it was in previous generations where there was almost no difference between one generation and the next. People continued to live on the same land, in the same village, and the son inherited his father’s profession: If the father was a blacksmith, and the son became a blacksmith; if the father was a farmer, and the son became a farmer too. It was customary to live that way. People passed their clothes from one generation to the next, and so on.

Today a person is new at every given moment! In order to change one does not even need to be reborn. And since a person is new, he cannot stand what he had yesterday. Yesterday I got married to someone, and today when I look at her, I am bewildered. I think, “Is this really the woman I married?! Where is the woman I knew yesterday? Where are her qualities?” I don’t see those qualities today. I fail to realize that the change occurred in me. Meanwhile, I look at her and it seems to me that she has changed, and I am unable to live with her anymore.

No one is at fault here. If our evolving desire does not begin to be corrected, the family will be inevitably destroyed. What foundation should people use to come together? Once we stayed together at the “bodily-social” level: a common household, domestic life, children, chores, and the pressure of public opinion. Yet today no one cares about anything. People have risen above all these limitations; they don’t want anything.

Therefore, people are unable to be in and to create a family, and they don’t want to have children. Problems in the family are escalating and they are impossible to solve if the spouses are not united by the common study of spirituality.

No material activities will keep people together. Only this can save a family, as it is written, “A husband and a wife, and the Creator between them.” We have yet to discover to what extent we require the Upper Force, a higher idea, in order to connect at the level of “man.”

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/10, A Lesson On Current Events

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Question: Are you saying that the fact that I egoistically use my neighbor right now causes a sandstorm in India?

Answer: Yes! We need to understand that all problems occur due to a lack of connection among us. And this does not mean that by drawing away from you I immediately cause some hurricane that brings sand. However, by being in opposition to you, I bring disparity into the balance of forces in nature.

All the forces of nature exist in unity, interconnection, balance, and universal harmony. That is, except for the human being whose growing egoism and unwillingness to consider others turns us into an active negative element which disrupts the balance of all the forces (of still, vegetative, and animate nature). The solution to the problem is to become an integral part of nature, like all its other parts.

We reveal that the world is in unity and complete interconnection; it exists as a locked system where everyone is connected to each other. This means that we are obliged to unite as “one man with one heart.”

You could object to this and say that we are incapable of this. However, there is the science of Kabbalah and by utilizing it we rouse the force of unification. Humanity will inevitably reach this conclusion, and we are already close to it. If we have already entered this period, from now on everything will occur very quickly.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/10, A Lesson On Current Events

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Question: Kabbalah says that the reason for all the problems in the world is man’s egoistic desire. But what is the connection between me being an egoist who’s opposite to the Creator and the extreme heat in Moscow or the ecological crisis?

Answer: We are all inside a closed system or sphere called “the Creator” where all the parts are connected through mutual bestowal. That is the law of existence of the entire system as well as each of its parts. We can see this on the example of the human body, the ecosystem, and so on. I exist inside this system like an embryo inside a mother’s womb, and I feel good to the degree I am connected and equivalent to the system and bestowing like it. And vice versa: To the degree I am disparate from it and have different qualities, I feel bad.

Proximity and separation are not defined by distance, but by equivalence of form. If I have a small egoistic desire, then even if I am different from the system, I feel small problems. But if my desire increases, then so does my sensation of discomfort.

Since man’s egoistic desire constantly develops, his opposition to Nature’s system, the Creator, also increases, and thus it is inevitable that man will feel worse. This will continue until he begins to understand what the reason for his suffering and problems is.

I will receive blows of fate from all sides until I understand that it is systematic and not accidental. The problems with the ecology are not accidental! I can no longer keep ignoring them. Similar problems will take place all over the world and in all forms. They will shake people up and make them stop and think, “Apparently, there must be a reason for this?”

As the desire grows, it feels suffering and creates a mind by its side in order to avoid the suffering. A person becomes smarter and shrewder. He learns to connect the causes and consequences and inevitably begins asking, “Why is this happening? Where are all of our problems coming from?” Usually people ask, “What did I do to deserve all of this?” And that is already a subconscious question about the Source of what is happening (Nature, the Creator).

People will reveal that what is operating here is the general law of the universe. Call it “Nature” instead of the Creator; either way it requires us to constantly and consciously maintain balance with Nature, which means we have to have the same quality of bestowal as the whole universe since all parts of the universe exist in universal connection and integral unity.

That is why there is no choice about the matter. Humanity is a cancerous tumor inside all of nature, and it is obligated to cure itself. Eventually, under pressure from all the problems, we will reach this realization. It’s already very close.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/10, A Lesson On Current Events

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Question: What is spiritual pleasure? Is it simply very intense enjoyment or something completely different?

Answer: The only difference between corporeal and spiritual pleasure lies in which desires I experience it: egoistic or altruistic. My egoistic desires of reception are limited. They gradually reveal their own emptiness, and I am forced to seek greater pleasure. As a result, I am never satisfied.

I have tried to fill myself with pleasure but failed since pleasure is a “plus” and I am a “minus.” When I attempt to receive pleasure, I only gain temporary satisfaction which resembles a “short-circuit” as it quickly dissolves leaving me empty again, and then the feeling of emptiness is twice as great. It has doubled because the pleasure I so eagerly sought has gone, forming the sensation of emptiness in addition to the emptiness I had felt before. So it follows that I’m always at a double loss. As a result, we evolve in our world from generation to generation, augmenting our empty egoism.

Yet nowadays a new problem arises. The ego that once grew, bringing me a sensation of emptiness, stopped growing. Logically this should have made me content, but I feel that I have nothing to gain pleasure from now. This new problem is worse than the previous one since there is no hope for fulfillment. Beside that, I feel that egoism is integral, representing the sum of all seven billion individual, egoistic desires. I discover that I depend on everyone, and everyone depends on me. For this reason, I find that I don’t know what to do with it, which drives me to extreme desperation.

During this period, a person might find solace in drugs, which only postpones the realization of the total crisis for some time. Yet, even this “solution” expires for it makes a person aware that this path is false, and that to disconnect from life means to agree with death. But nature does not allow it! We are faced with the question, “What to do next?” And the answer lies in transitioning from “pleasure from reception” to “pleasure from bestowal.”

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/6/10, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”

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Question: What is freedom and freedom from what? How do we achieve it if both the corporeal and the spiritual worlds are defined by rigid laws?

Answer: The only freedom that exists is freedom from our egoism. I want the Upper Light to descend, take me over, and replace my egoism. I perceive the power of egoism or altruism over me as necessary: It is either one or the other.

There are only two types of nature: the nature of the lower one (reception) and the nature of the Upper One (bestowal). Both are preset, and function in accordance with invariable laws. The only free action we are able to take is to rise from one nature (egoistic) to the other (altruistic). In other words, we can break free from the power of the laws of egoism (reception) and transcend to the “jurisdiction” of bestowal.

We will not be able to evaluate even our own initial nature until we acquire the second, altruistic nature. We are currently locked within a single dimension, and for as long as we remain in it, we cannot comprehend it.

Look how often we err! For thousands of years, we developed within our egoistic nature, and we still do not know it. This is because we are locked inside it, but in order to understand it, we need to have something opposite to compare it with.

If we possessed an opposite nature (that of bestowal), we would be able to compare it with our egoism and thereby comprehend what reception and bestowal mean. However, in our world, there is nothing but receiving. Whatever we do, we do it solely for our own sake and benefit. This is why we cannot understand our own actions and how this world operates.

You see that humankind continues making mistakes, and doesn’t know what further direction to take. And now that we have reached the peak of egoism, our complete inability to understand this world is obvious. This fact pushes us to the realization that none of us has a choice but to transcend our egoistic nature.

Moreover, in order to simply live well within the boundaries of our egoism, we need to step out of it and study it from above. It is impossible to learn about an object while remaining within its bounds. We have to be above it in order to be able to study it. Only if we rise above ourselves can we learn who we are and what the right way to live is, at least in this world. This is what today’s global crisis is pushing us toward.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/25/10, Shamati #99

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Everything that the Kabbalists of the past did, each acting according to his own conditions and time, was the preparation to our present state. Thanks to it, we have all the primary sources necessary today, which enable us to advance: the writings of the ARI, The Zohar with the Sulam Commentary, the writings of Baal HaSulam and RABASH.

There has never been a time like ours before. The Kabbalists of the past were not given the opportunity to work in similar circumstances to what we have today: a global crisis that resembles the crisis of ancient Babylon and reflects the breaking of the common soul in the Upper world.

About 80-90 years ago, Baal HaSulam wrote that we would live in the generation of the Messiah, at the era of spiritual redemption. As the nation of Israel has already acquired their land and established a state, it means that we now have an opportunity to build everything according to the spiritual law of love thy neighbor as thyself and unite together as one spiritual nation.

However, it is impossible to reach this state without the realization of evil, and for this we need either great suffering, or for the Light to reveal our evil. Today we have an opportunity to draw this Light, to see that we are opposite to bestowal and love, and to begin the correction by uniting with society and the nation. Let’s hope that it happens soon!

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/10, Pri Hacham, Igrot (Letters), Letter 38

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A question I received: There are Internet systems where one comes to download the information they need. Maybe that is how we should attract people’s attention to the method of correction?

My Answer: Let’s say a person visits our site and downloads the information. Then what? We want him to visit the site for the sake of communication! Of course, we can display a certain pool of information about the necessity to communicate with each other. But then what will happen? Suppose we provided our user with additional information about what we learn at the lessons. What’s next?

What is the best way of providing people with information about Kabbalah? We have to involve them in the system and offer them an example of, the need for, and the possibility of communication. People should see that our way of solving worldly problems is all about making the right connections between us. We have to show our users that we trigger confidence, safety, and love into our lives; they have to see the way we advance and find new properties within ourselves that further allow our perception to rise to a new dimension, up to the level of sensing the Creator.

Where else can these properties be found? They are found only within the right communication among us.

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The story of the creation of Adam shows his creation and subsequent division and multiplication. Biologists maintain that sustainable existence of the biosphere is possible only if bio-geochemical cycles are closed. Otherwise, living creatures will quickly consume all resources and will be intoxicated by byproducts of their vital activities.

However, for the cycles to be closed, there must be a community of microorganisms of different species that share bio-geochemical functions among them. Some microorganisms use resources from the environment and supply it with products of their vital activity, while others use these products and return, as their waste products, the original resource back to the environment. No microorganism can close the cycle by itself as it would be a perpetual motion machine.

It is even more obvious in the chemical pre-life stage. There is no single organic molecule that could persistently self-replicate and maintain homeostasis in the environment. Only complex organisms consisting of  a large number of different molecules that have established “mutually beneficial cooperation” or symbiosis are capable of achieving this.

Thus, it is obvious that the first living species was not a single microorganism but a polymorphous community characterized by the active exchange of genetic material. Diversity, symbiosis, task-sharing, and information exchange – rather than the qualities that evolved from a single, organic molecule – are the primal qualities of Earth’s life. Today it is becoming clear that community rather than a single, microbial species stood at the beginning of life’s development on Earth.
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Correction begins with the realization of evil, as it said: “I created the evil inclination and Torah as a means for its correction.” If the evil that the Creator purposefully created was not revealed, who would want to correct himself? The sensation of evil and suffering pushes us to change. At first, we want to change everything on the outside; we want to change the entire world. Later, we do agree that we need to change ourselves. Every person, nation, and society, and our entire civilization as a whole needs to go through this change.

Correction cannot begin without the need for it. In other words, I need to feel that I’m miserable without correction. This is why we must develop and cultivate our egoism, experience in it various blows and problems such as emptiness, loss of hope and fulfillment, and be completely unable to change it. We search for ways to change the world until we discover that the evil in us is to blame for everything. Then, seemingly by accident, we discover Kabbalah.

However, someone had to prepare it for us in the form of books and websites because our nature, confined in the desire to receive and fill itself, is incapable of contact with the Upper World and directly feeling the Creator. In order to do this, we first need external methods: a teacher and books.

Usually this knowledge is passed from one person to another through people who have already acquired the connection to the spiritual world. This connection with the spiritual world has to be already present in our world. Otherwise, we, being complete egoists, would never be able to even think of the spiritual world. We would search for a way to free ourselves from suffering only on the level of this world.

This is why it is necessary to circulate the wisdom of Kabbalah. The people who feel empty in this world will discover it as the method of absolute fulfillment. Then, the following two conditions of the beginning of correction will be carried out: 1) people feel bad, and 2) it is revealed to them that there is a method which will make things well. Gradually, people will begin to correct themselves and realize the purpose of their creation.

Our generation is still revealing the first condition. People are looking at different methods and techniques in order to fulfill themselves. Sometimes they even turn to drugs and alcohol, but gradually, this passes. Soon, even the desire for drugs, violence, and fanaticism will disappear. People will feel and understand that they are not able to fill their inner emptiness this way.

The desire for pleasure changes. It rises to the next level, and it is impossible to continue as before. People can no longer find comfort in drugs. They begin to search for a deeper solution. But we need to develop until we reach the state when people will be left with no other solution but the wisdom of Kabbalah.

We can shorten their search by spreading this method so everyone will understand more quickly that we have to reveal the Upper Force that governs us. Only this can help us.

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