Question: Does a Kabbalist feel free? Free from what and for what?

Answer: A Kabbalist is torn inside into two parts. He feels the part in which he is in equivalence of form with the Creator, meaning that he feels that he is above the corporeal world.

He adapts himself to the Creator, identifies with Him, and feels himself elevated above all that exists. Moreover, submitting to the Creator happens above the annulment of one’s egoism, and therefore is felt as freedom. For there is nothing above the Creator, so to be a slave to the Creator is not an illusion. It is a feeling of freedom because the Creator is the highest level of existence.

And with the other part of a Kabbalist, before he achieves complete adhesion with the Creator in all his egoistic desires, corrected to love and bestowal, it does not feel like freedom. Quite the opposite, it feels even worse than a person in this world because he remains in the illusion, in the feeling that nothing is pressuring him.

However, the Kabbalist knows that he is under the power of his egoism, and therefore, his feeling of bondage is very troublesome, it weighs heavily on him. This, however, is exactly what pushes him forward.
[214975]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/2/17

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Question: If a person’s entire life is fully programmed from beginning to end, why in every present moment is he given the feeling that he himself chooses his next step: whom to marry, where to live, what to do?

Answer: Otherwise, a person could not survive; he would kill himself if he knew that he is living like an animal that is controlled in every move. What would remain in his life—only to seek how to spend every moment in a more pleasant way and to suffer less? What is the meaning of such a life and who needs it?

Question: So it is deliberately concealed from me that my life is already completely programmed in all its details so that I would be interested in continuing my existence as if I myself choose something, but in fact, nothing depends on me. Do animals have such feelings?

Answer: No. An animal instinctively obeys nature’s orders without questioning, like a biological machine. A person, however, can ask: “What am I living for? Why do I exist in this way? Can I change my destiny or not?”

This already is the beginning of a human being, which separates him from an animal. He begins to rise above his animal existence to a higher level. He no longer wishes to live only to fill his needs like an animal, but he seeks a higher goal.

Question: What does it mean to become a positive element of the program, having the opportunity to influence your destiny?

Answer: We are allowed to tune into the program of life only on the condition that we would add positive forces to it, that is, if we raise this program from an animal level to a human one, making an “upgrade” of it. If I use my life for the sake of positively influencing the general program that operates on us, which is called the upper force, then I receive the opportunity to do it.

Then I have a positive influence on my own destiny, on everyone else, and on the program as a whole. I am able to change the movie of life and become a partner with the higher force, which governs this entire program.
[211784]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” #886 on 7/25/17

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Baal HaSulam, The Last Generation: We see the concept of freedom as extremely high. No one will taste it, except for the chosen by the miraculous power. And they too can do this only through appropriate training. However, most people are not at all able to taste it.

Most people can also taste freedom, but not directly as the chosen ones, because the masses cannot be the avant-garde. In nature everything is created as a pyramid; that is, a small group makes a breakthrough and the rest follow them. Therefore, the masses can get what this small group will pass to them.

Question: Baal HaSulam writes that from this point the last generation will begin. Does it mean that it is at this point where there will be a sense of the middle line and everyone else will get a sense of freedom automatically?

Answer: Yes. But everyone will help, participate, and support the avant-garde as much as they can.

Question: Will the masses, who do not yet feel their enslavement to egoism and who are content with material life, still have a desire to feel free?

Answer: In different times and at different levels of human development, freedom and enslavement have always been felt in different ways.

The ultimate search for freedom means that a person is ready to disregard all egoistic and material fulfillments in order to achieve a higher goal, even one that will only give independence from the material world. This can already be considered as freedom.

Question: Can this be achieved only in the right society, which operates on the principle of the last generation?

Answer: It should be a group that supports the society and a society that supports the group. There is a mutual guarantee in this group, and all the rules of spiritual communication are realized between its members.

Remark: Baal HaSulam writes that, on the one hand, most people are not able to feel freedom. On the other hand, they do not want to be enslaved. It turns out to be an uncertain state: neither here nor there.

Answer: The masses can deny their state, but they do not feel an aspiration toward something higher. It is not a stimulus, an incentive for them. That is why people need a leader—a more spiritually developed group that would push them forward.

We see how this manifests itself in humanity. There are entire continents that are lagging behind in their development, and they must be led.

For example, Africa; although it was freed from the so-called slavery 70 – 80 years ago, have the inhabitants of this continent done something themselves? They are very good workers and some people break into science and culture, but the whole continent needs a group of forward-thinking leaders. Otherwise, there is always a leader among them who eats them for a snack in the literal sense of the word.

The same thing happens in other countries. We see that there are such nations that need a leading group.
[211186]
From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/19/17

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Question: If it just seems to us that we ourselves choose our destiny but in fact it has already been written in advance, then how does this program manage my life, how does it guide me through all the events?

Answer: You exist within this program as its passive element. It does not even need to control you because you are included into it as one of the transistors in the processor. Various signals go through this transistor and it seems to it that it lives an independent life. This is how you feel your personal life as a fragment of the general picture.

Question: In this case, how should I relate correctly to the various sad and happy events in my life?

Answer: Animals respond to everything instinctively in accordance with the inherent qualities included in the program. Therefore, they cannot have any independent reaction. People, however, have developed above animals and so they began feeling experiences associated with complex memory systems, and from them they built answers to the things that happen to them in life.

An animal reacts only to the momentary conditions, such as rain, snow, or a dangerous predator. But people have already begun to connect their destiny with different forces of nature, and therefore they started to worship the sun, the moon, and so on. They started bringing offerings to these forces, trying to appease them. This is how religions appeared.

Our forefather Abraham also made idols until it was revealed to him that he could not influence his destiny in this way. Religion provides only psychological help, which of course is also very important. But it does not influence the upper forces of nature in any way.

Question: Through what can you influence the upper forces of nature?

Answer: A person exists inside the forces of nature, under their influence. However, if he finds out to what goal they lead him, he will be able to go ahead of these forces. If he himself performs actions, even before these forces push him, then he will be able to advance voluntarily to the goal assigned to him.

The forces of nature advance him by sufferings, pushing him from behind, and he will advance through his own actions, striving to move forward.

Question: How will I find out to what goal the forces of nature are pushing me?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah deals with this. By studying it, a person learns how to advance toward the goal. He will already have the vision of the state in which he should be.
[211997]
From KabTV’s “New Life #887” 7/25/17

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Question: What is the significance of the unconscious development 99% of the time of 99% of the people if the goal is quite the opposite, reaching absolute awareness and the semblance of the Creator of 100% of the people?

Answer: The point is that freewill must be kept here. Therefore, we shouldn’t rush humanity by a stick to happiness only and make them go through all the states at one time in order to attain the final uppermost level. It is impossible. A person needs to go through every state, to discover and assess what has happened, the current situation, and what will be, what is worth making efforts against his nature for and what is not.

So it is not an easy process. Every time a person reaches a decision, it has to perfectly match the spiritual level to which he wants to ascend. This is the reason that he must understand what that spiritual level is, what state he is in with regard to it, etc.

This is very complicated work of scrutinizing states, starting from the current level until the next level. A person scrutinizes how to find the forces and the attributes inside him that will change him so that he will become more similar to the higher level. It is impossible to digest all that at once. It requires great many efforts, time, and working with the environment and the group.
[211451]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/2/17

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Baal HaSulam, The Last Generation: There are two enslavements in the world, either enslavement to the Creator, or enslavement to His creatures. One of them is a must. Even a king and a president necessarily serve the people. Indeed, the taste of complete freedom is only to one who is enslaved to the Creator alone, and not to any being in the world. Enslavement is necessary, for reception is obscene; it is beastliness. And bestowal, the question is “To whom?”

It is very clearly and sharply said. By our nature we are opposite to the Creator. Egoism limits us and reduces us to one small animalistic point.

Therefore, only if we enslave and tame it, bind it within ourselves, make a restriction on it and build our existence above it, do we achieve the quality of the Creator. In this case, nothing stops us; we become limitless and absolutely not subjected to any kind of restrictions.

This is indeed the achievement of infinity because if I rise above my egoism, then nothing restricts me and I continue advancing only in the attainment of the Creator. And the Creator is the entire universe: both from the point of view of matter and from the point of view of its filling.

Question: However, a negative connotation prevails in the word “slave.” Why must a citizen of the last generation feel like a slave and not like an accomplice of the Creator?

Answer: This state cannot be expressed in any way other than as a slave of the Creator.

Today we are slaves of our egoism, and even double slaves because we are not aware of this. Egoism enslaves us so much that we do not feel our slavery.

Imagine that there is a planet where people work all the time for an evil master who sits on the top of a high mountain; they, drugged with laughing gas, are full of happiness, and work for him with pleasure and great devotion. This is us today.

We do not feel our slavery to egoism, and we are pleased that we are working for it more and more. We work hard in order to enjoy and it looks like we do enjoy, we just do not see where it all disappears. Yet, everything goes into egoism and along the way there is practically nothing left for us.

Therefore, the realization that you are a slave of egoism is a great insight that does not come to a person easily.

To exit ignorance is possible only with the help of the upper Light, the special energy that allows you to rise, exit your egoism, and feel that you are suddenly leaving it. Previously you did not imagine that it was in you or that you were in it. You worked for it constantly and all your thoughts, feelings, and senses were completely in it.

It is like leaving the atmosphere. You never lacked the feeling of it and suddenly you feel that you can exit it. This is when you begin feeling: “Yes, I was a slave.”

Even in our world it is not simple to feel slavery. People who were slaves in previous generations did not consider their lives to be bad. They thought it was right, that they were born this way and they will die this way. They fully agreed with this until egoism itself began to grow and lead them to the next state.

The development of egoism occurred under the influence of the upper force, the Creator, since the Creator wanted to take humanity through the stage of physical slavery.

Now we have come to a state when we must fully understand our internal spiritual slavery that forces us to correlate everything only to egoism in all our sensations and to understand the world in which we live. Egoism commands us in everything: how to feel the world, how to interact with it, and what to want.

A question arises: How do we remove this egoistic program from ourselves and begin to look at the world correctly? How to replace egoism with a different slavery and become slaves of the Creator and nothing else? After all, what can we do? We can only replace one thing with another because the point of choice is between these two states. And we begin to feel that by choosing slavery to the Creator, we chose freedom above egoism.

Thus, the last generation is the transformation of society and consciousness, the liberation from its previous program of functioning in thoughts and feelings, like in the computer, when you completely erase the previous program in yourself and begin loading a new one.

Question: So the ultimate skill is that I begin to feel as a slave to my egoism?

Answer: You begin to feel this way because the previous program suddenly stops working; it is obsolete and already cannot solve new problems. It impedes your existence and needs to be changed.

This is why today we feel ourselves and the world in crisis. “Crises” translated from in ancient Greek is “birth.” This really is the birth of a new program.
[211152]
From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/19/17

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Question: You said that we are actually twice over slaves of egoism. Why twice?

Answer: Because we carry out all the demands of egoism and we are not aware of being slaves to it; that is, we are in double concealment.

Question: Why does a person gain absolute freedom when he becomes a slave to the Creator?

Answer: The thing is that we are not speaking about our animal body. Because if you are merely a creature consisting of desire and reason, of heart and mind, then there is no program of independent action that exists in you.

But when I ask: “Why do I exist?” then that is no longer a question of the body; it is a question that comes from something higher than animal existence. Asking myself that question, I think about which program am I realizing, which program am I choosing for myself, for what?

Egoism is built only for the purpose of keeping me in a lower animal existence and it says: “You exist in order to fulfill your material desires as long as these desires exist.” And I continuously fulfill them. But with time, that program begins to dim smoothly, slowly lowering in importance and a person begins to feel that his life is ending.

In reality, nothing ends. The egoistic program is simply designed in such a way that little by little it brings us to a state where we no longer want to fill ourselves and that is why everything ends. The only thing left is death, in other words, the end of the desire to continue to fill ourselves.

But there is also another program, when I initially don’t want to live by fulfilling the desires of my body because I understand that this makes me a slave to these desires. I don’t see the point of existing this way and feel that my life is meaningless.

As the egoistic program develops, it purposely leads me further, showing me its meaninglessness, and I begin to feel that it is not worth it for me to live. We see this in the new generation that searches for anything that will let them forget themselves.

That is why we need to discover the true meaning of life for ourselves. If that meaning is false, then it can be found in anything because that same egoism will help me find some amusement, like football, and I will fall into minor pleasures of our world and become their slave.

Or I continue to develop further with a desire to find the truth—something that is above my sensations. I don’t want to fill myself with material pleasures and see the meaning of life only in them. I want to know that I exist above them. And then I am left with one big question: “What am I to do, how do I achieve this?” In other words, I need to reprogram myself, rise above the preprogrammed egoistic program within me, and only focus myself on the achievement of the goal.

The new program really does allow you to achieve a new goal, a new state, and I am obligated to carry it out. It is built atop the rejection of the previous program and that is why in the counterbalance between the two programs, in the difference between them, I experience my freedom as I rise above the old program and engage in the real one.
[211174]
From KabTV’s “The Last Generation,” 6/19/17

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Question: Kabbalists write that eventually all the people must come to the revelation of the upper force. But, at the same time, the wisdom of Kabbalah awakens fear and rejection in many people. What causes this obstacle that has been accompanying the path of Kabbalah for thousands of years?

Answer: This obstacle is in a person’s nature; one’s egoism does not tolerate the wisdom of Kabbalah; in fact, it is death for it. A person should come to Kabbalah out of despair and the inability to answer the question “What is the meaning of my life?” He feels he must solve this question and without it there is no life.

Question: Does it mean that if a person would accept Kabbalah easily and joyfully, he would never require the upper force and could not exit his egoistic nature? Is this why one has a negative attitude to Kabbalah?

Answer: If the study of Kabbalah was beneficial to a person’s egoism, of course, he would not protest against it. All our pursuits in this world, such as science, education, culture, and religion are aimed at fulfilling our egoism.

We develop all these areas based on our egoism, and therefore, they do not cause any resistance. Some are engaged in one area, others in another one, but each one understands that there is a place for everything.

Whereas, the wisdom of Kabbalah is contrary to everything because it is opposite to human nature! It says that we need to cross out this person we see in the mirror, that is, ourselves, and to build the complete opposite in its place.

Question: But people do not know all this. A person gives all sorts of other reasons when he is criticizing Kabbalah. Where does this hatred come from?

Answer: The hatred arises subconsciously. It does not matter that a person does not understand, he feels rejection subconsciously, the way anti-Semitism exists subconsciously throughout all generations.

A person subconsciously feels that there is a confrontation between our egoism and Kabbalah within the general system. As soon as he hears about Kabbalah, the protective mechanism within him begins to work, forcing him to avoid it because it threatens egoism.

Question: Then why are there people who aspire to Kabbalah and want to study it?

Answer: It is because they are awakened by the general system. In every person, along with great egoism, there also is one percent or even a fraction of a percent of the desire that aspires to the upper system that controls our life. This system is called the Creator, the upper nature.

If this one thousandth of the desire begins to shine, if the spiritual spark is ignited in a person, then he is ready to give up everything in order to increase it and to look at the world through it. After all, he sees that the remaining 99% that belong to his egoism will bury him; in other words, he will end his life the way he started it.

Generation after generation, one reincarnation after another, go by without any benefit. Gradually this question arises in a person, and more and more people begin to search for the meaning of life.
[210766]
From KabTV’s “The reasons for the negative attitude towards Kabbalah” 7/19/17

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Question: Is my entire life truly pre-programmed and every minute of life detailed inside this program?

Answer: How could a random event take place? In nature, there are no accidents. It is just that we only understand one percent of whatever is happening. Therefore, upon observing some occurrence in the system of nature, we, like small children, scream, “It fell by itself; it broke on its own!”

In truth, strict laws operate in nature, and everything is specified down to the most minute detail. Only naiveté could lead one to believe that something happens by chance. Where else would it come from if not from the balance of forces?

Every event was “commanded” by forces and is a consequence of their specific combination. There are no miracles. Nothing happens by itself without a cause, without having been arranged by nature in advance.

Question: Why are we even alive then? Why is a person given life if everything in it is already predetermined to the last detail?

Answer: And why do billions of fish live in the sea and millions of species of animals in nature? People are given life in order to develop and achieve a state where they themselves will tune into this program and have the ability to make correct changes in it, which the program is waiting for.

The program wants to develop people to such a degree where they can understand it and become its active, positive elements. Kabbalah helps achieve this. Then, a person begins to understand the program, to take part in it, and to act above his nature, above the program that courses through him.

Through studying the wisdom of Kabbalah and implementing its method in a group, a person receives the forces that allow him to change the program, rise above his “blind fate” programmed from beginning to end, and start controlling it. He becomes an especially important component of this program, and through that, he influences his own destiny and the fate of all inhabitants of this world.

Question: Why doesn’t a person get the ability to control his destiny from the beginning, and instead, first must go through life mechanically?

Answer: At first, a person lives like all other animals who spend their entire lives grazing on some fodder. Suddenly, at some point in his life, he awakens, looks up, and says, “No, I do not want to live with my head buried in a feeding trough!”

I want to know where the force that controls me comes from! I want to get to know it, and control my own destiny! A simple animal existence is not enough for me. After all, the fodder and my body, all of it, is animal. I desire to develop in a way where I can consciously tune into this program. A program of life exists, and I want to become its independent element.”

To be continued…
[211719]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/25/16

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Question: Is my entire life and all of its events pre-programmed in advance? Where does this program come from?

Answer: Our entire reality is a program in which we exist and are developing within its flow. We ourselves are elements of this program upon whom it works and pushes forward.

The program is the forces that act on us and take us through different states. You were a child, studied, then you went into the army, then got married, had children, and so on. Did you choose what would happen to you? We did not choose anything, although we have the illusion that everything is in our hands and that we ourselves decided where to study, whom to marry, etc.

But all this is not true. Life passes through a person without asking him. Now, at 70 years of age when I look back at my life, it becomes obvious to me that I did not choose anything. I was pushed into all kinds of situations, forced to react to events and to go through different states.

Concerning the future, I might still have the illusion that I can act on my own volition, but regarding the past, it is clear that there were no choices.

Some might blame themselves for having acted a certain way instead of another, but the majority of those who were already made wise by experience understand that whatever happened had to happen, and nothing could be changed. Such is fate.

Question: And where is my destiny recorded and everything that is going to happen to me?

Answer: It is recorded in the general program that exists in the force field of nature within which we exist.

Question: When is this program written: before a person’s birth, at the time of his birth, or during the course of his life?

Answer: The entire program is already written from the beginning of creation until its end. Of course, even before a person’s birth, there is a program of his entire life’s path. This script exists inside the field of force called Shechina, a common desire, which is the material of all of creation. In this field, there is a force that advances the desire to enjoy to its final state, to the intended goal.

The formula of this force acting on a desire is called the thought of creation. The thought of creation is that program, that force, that formula, that advances the desire from its initial form to the ultimate. For 99.99% of the people, this program is written in advance, but for 0.01%, it is not written.

To be continued…
[211601]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/25/17

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