Question: What is the collective perception of reality?

Let’s say I am a biological organism consisting of billions of cells that are united and that is how I perceive the world. But each cell in me somehow perceives the world as well. Could it be compared with how the individual perceives the world and how the society perceives it? How does the Kabbalist perceive the world?

Answer: Our body organically perceives the world though all its pores, though all its cells, though all its organs of perception: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.

A Kabbalist perceives the world though the common desire, which consists of both the still, vegetative, animate, and human desires taken together. That is, to some extent, a Kabbalist perceives everything that exists in the universe as his own. For the most part, it is humanity’s desire that he feels as his own.

And it is not easy at all. This imposes a big change in his impressions of the world, brings corresponding reactions within him. Baal HaSulam writes that he feels everything within himself, on himself, but not at the level of separate sensations.

Let’s say there are ten children in the family, everybody has their needs, and the mother as if feels all of her children. She feels in general: what they lack, what is best for them, and so on. She does not feel the individual egoism of each, but in general, this desire, their aspiration, and the opportunity she can give them.
From a virtual lesson in Russian 7/10/2016
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Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag (RABASH) was the closest to us link in the chain of the great Kabbalists, through which the upper force reveals itself to the world and passes the Torah to us. He is our upper degree and the only spiritual Partzuf on which we depend, and therefore our study is mainly based on his articles. Rabash did everything to prepare the foundation for the future generation that will come.  

Although it wasn’t simple, he found strength to fully annul himself before his great father and teacher Baal HaSulam, without making any calculations for himself. Thanks to this he attained all the spiritual degrees. We are yet to see from his works how high he had climbed. His works are written in a very warm style, with the great care about the reader, a student.

He had a very wide, warm heart full of love. However, if we were able to comprehend the depth of his works, we would see that he was at the state of GAR of the world of Atzilut and even higher, which is hard to imagine.

Rabash paved the way for us by writing articles and setting customs that we try to keep. He gave us the form in which the Kabbalistic group should exist, and we continue this way.

Baal HaSulam was like the ARI, creating a methodology for spiritual ascent, and Rabash brought it to the practical implementation, and in this he was like the Baal Shem Tov. I have never seen such a detailed description of the order of spiritual work in any other Kabbalistic writing: how a person should organize himself in his immediate environment, in the wider one, in the system of the worlds, and in the relationship with the Creator.

All these systems that a person has to go through in order to reach adhesion with the upper force are explained in such a systematic form only in the articles of Rabash, and nowhere else. A person can take these articles and follow them because they will build the right attitude and concepts in him.

There are no other books like these. We don’t just receive commentary in the articles of Rabash, but precise instructions for what we have to do, what reaction to expect, and how to advance further. He explains to us the entire process we need to complete, the reaction we receive to it, and the internal states that our soul goes through.

I have read these articles many times, and of course I will continue reading them, and I can attest that they are concealed and not revealed. After a few years of study you will start to reveal an immense depth in them. You will suddenly see that Rabash writes about things you haven’t noticed, understood, and felt previously. These articles aren’t simple, but are very multilayered, and they become revealed in accordance to the reader’s readiness. They provide such support and assistance to the beginners on the spiritual path that we can’t receive even from the works of Baal HaSulam.

Baal HaSulam is a Kabbalist of great height, scientist, and researcher, and Rabash is a spiritual mentor, soft and loving, who takes your hand and leads you through all the states. Only when we grow spiritually will we be able to fully appreciate his significance.
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From the lesson “For Rabash’s Memorial Day” 10/6/2016

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New Life 679 – Transforming Into People Of Light
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

To understand what Torah and Mitzvot (commandments) are from a spiritual aspect, we must disengage the subject from our previous knowledge. Kabbalah explains that the entire substance of creation is egoistic, the desire to receive, exist, and enjoy. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us a unique method for developing the “speaking” level, the level of Adam (from Domeh – similar), that is similar to the upper force through using the positive force to correct the negative in us, and this is called “studying Torah.”

The desire to receive is comprised of 613 desires—248 are more refined and 365 are denser—and with correction of the desires, a person becomes a person of Light, a person of bestowal and love. Our development brings us to the understanding that the ego is destroying us, the recognition of evil, which leads to correction.

Since the intention to act for the good of others is concealed, it is impossible to know with what intent a person is acting. When we work in a group according to the method of the wisdom of Kabbalah, the 613 desires that we must correct are gradually revealed in us, and to identify these 613 desires within us and correct them, we must attract 613 Lights on us. In the beginning we identify only one egoistic desire, and after that we clarify the rest of the details.

Like a drop of semen that enters the uterus and develops into a fetus, the person also enters a special group and grows in it, and through communication with a group according to the special method, a sense develops in him that identifies the desire to bestow. The 613 Mitzvot are the 613 desires, each one of which, we must work with for the sake of others, with the intention of bestowal.
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From KabTV’s “ New Life 679 – Transforming Into People Of Light,” 1/19/16

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New Life 670 – The Social Mind
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe 

A man’s way of thinking is very personal and individualistic so a person acts in his own interest at the expense of others.

This is very clear when we look at babies. A baby doesn’t think about anything but himself, and until the age of three cannot feel the other, and if he grows in a family that is too indulgent, he continues to relate to the world this way even when he grows up.

A person is not born with a built-in inclination for empathy but actually the opposite. He is a total egoist who learns to calculate things, but there are mirror neurons in our body just like animals have.

We are all part of one system and are tightly connected by infinite lines of internal communication: thoughts, desires, and impressions. It is all one general network, like a bag of croutons in a bowl of soup. We have an innate ability to feel the other, but it is egoistic so that we can be careful of what can harm us. It is only through the special method of integral education, based on the wisdom of Kabbalah, that we can learn to use the connection between us in a non-egoistic manner.

The goal of our development is to build the right mutual connections between us until we feel as “one man in one heart” and are in perfect reciprocity, in mutual complementation. And then no one will need to care for himself because everyone will care for him and he will care for them.

When a person becomes free of self-concern, he feels like a baby in his mother’s arms and is free to care for others. On the way to this wholeness, he undergoes a state called the recognition of evil in which he feels that it is impossible to continue the bad relationships between people today.

At the peak of our evolution, in the corrected state, we will be able to feel everyone simultaneously. Our neurons will connect and become one brain. This will happen only if we use the method of the wisdom of Kabbalah that teaches us to properly connect to and love others.

Then we will be like school of fish or a flock of birds moving as one body and will feel the upper force in our common brain that navigates us to increasingly greater connection.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 670 – The Social Mind,” 12/31/15

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Comment: One of our listeners wrote that his child has no interest in life and says that he wants to die.

Answer: An aspiration for something else that is beyond this life is already appearing in the world and is especially apparent among children. Previously there was never such a problem as childhood depression. But today it is appearing at a very young age.

Depression among adults didn’t exist 100 years ago either. It appeared as minor sadness or melancholy because of boredom, especially among the nobility. But it has manifested intensively only in our time. And this disease is a lack of meaning in life, and many people suffer from it.

However, this is also progress since nature intentionally arouses such sensations in us.

Question: How long does it take a person to reach a state in which he can look at his body as if it were a foreign object, as if it were a little puppy by his side?

Answer: This is independent of time, since the wisdom of Kabbalah has become part of our lives in the 20^th century, people are continuously developing internally. So it is impossible to say now how long it will take every individual to reach that state.  

A person who reaches it now may have tried to attain it for years, while it may take someone who comes five or ten years from now only a couple of months. People are born today with a different potential of spiritual power, and in a couple of months, they perceive what took us years.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/20/15

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Once in awhile it seems as if nature is going crazy, but the truth is that it isn’t nature that is going crazy, it is we who are going crazy. It is time to look in the mirror and realize where we have gone wrong and recalculate a route that includes a way to balance the system.

We live in the system of nature that includes the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human levels. Different forces operate in this system and they are all connected into one huge network. Any movement in the network affects everything.

The system of nature is a closed system, round and interconnected, and therefore aspires to constantly keep its balance. This balance was kept more or less until several decades ago, and people lived a quiet life on this planet that provided everything they needed. But we have lost all restraint since the middle of the 20^th century.

Air, water, and land pollution have become part of our daily life; the earth is warming; our food is filling up with toxins, and new diseases have developed in the minds and bodies. The standards that were set to protect our health and international treaties to limit the emission of greenhouse gases have been broken over and over again. This is what happens when money makes the world go round and people prefer to turn a blind eye.

We have disrupted the balance in nature on every level and there is a price to pay. Climate changes and natural disasters have begun to hit us over and over again.

The Human Network

Alongside these processes, the connections between people and between countries have also developed. Industry, commerce, the economy, culture, and modes of communication have turned the world into a global village. A network of infinite ties has been woven and has created mutual interdependence between everyone.

In order to function properly in this situation, there is a need for positive mutual treatment, but this is something we have not developed. We could develop systems of mutual help and support between people all over the world and make sure that everyone feels good and thus keep the balance, but our egoistic nature didn’t allow us to understand that in time.

An increasingly growing gap has been created, a gap between the unbalanced network of the connections between people and the balanced network of the forces that operate in the system of nature.

We Can Correct Things

“Our planet is rich enough to provide for all of us.” (Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Baal HaSulam).

Although we have seemingly crossed the red line and the point of no return, we can still correct things. Our planet can be rehabilitated and become a pleasant, blooming, flourishing home for all of us. Our planet can also feed tens of billions of people if we only learn what it means to really live as human beings.

In order to do so, we have to agree on certain points. First of all, that we have to ensure that things are good for everyone, not just ourselves. Secondly, any consumption beyond what we really need to lead a healthy balanced life destroys us and our common home.

The most important thing is the relationships between people. We must learn to balance our relations. Mutual consideration and not doing to others what is hateful for us, trying to support one another and to connect nicely, until we even manage to love one another, and our good thoughts about one another will heal the world.

“The ascent and descent of every part of reality depend on the ascent and descent of the power of man’s mind.” (Rav Kook, “The Treasures of Rav Kook”)

Development Lab

Where should the positive wave that will wash the whole world start? Here in Israel, why? Because deep inside us the great rule of “love thy friend as thyself” is imprinted. Mutual guarantee is what has made us a nation. True, it will not be easy because we Israelis also have the biggest ego in the world, but there is no other choice. The world needs the quality of the original Israel, like oxygen.

The great spiritual leaders of our nation have developed the wisdom of Kabbalah, the wisdom of connection, in order to help us in the process of correcting the world. It is a scientific method that tells us how to receive the positive force from the depths of nature, the force that can balance the evil in man and help him connect positively with his environment. If we learn to relate well to each other, we will calm ourselves, humanity, and the whole world and total balance will be restored.

“When humanity will reach its goal… by reaching the complete level of love of others, when all the bodies of people in the world will unite into one body and one heart—all the hoped for happiness will be revealed to humanity to its fullest” (Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Baal HaSulam”).

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Question: How do we develop additional senses? Can we use ordinary science to invent instruments that enable people to see what a Kabbalist sees?

Answer: It is impossible to invent such instruments, but anyone can develop his senses and acquire the attributes of love and bestowal in order to transcend the boundaries of this world and feel the upper world, provided he correctly uses the Light that reforms.

If we get closer and establish good relationships between us, developing the sense of mutual bestowal, we draw the influence of the upper Light which provides us with new senses. Then we will see the upper reality, the upper forces, and will be able to use them in order to fully manage our life in all its details. We need the additional sense organ in order to manage our lives and improve them.

It is all in our hands. It is the nation of Israel that are given the opportunity to make our lives happy and to show an example for the whole world.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 8/16/15

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The wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed specifically in our time because we are in year 5,776, which is at the end of a 6,000 year period of human development that began with the first revelation of the upper force to a human being.

So it is worthwhile for us to use the knowledge of this wisdom as rapidly as possible to leave all of our troubles behind and attain a completely different life. We see how the higher management influences us and constantly puts us into very difficult situations in order to obligate us to reflect on the question,  “What can help us improve our lives?”

Baal HaSulam wrote in the article, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”, section 39: Now we have shown that the Creator’s desired goal for the Creation He created is to bestow upon His creatures, so they would know His truthfulness and greatness, and receive all the delight and pleasure He had prepared for them… 

So where is all this?! Every person asks: “Where is this good or at least something that isn’t so bad?” And all of this is because we exist within our five senses and these limitations, and without evolving, we cannot attain what the Creator prepared for us. After all, they are not designed for this. We associate this life in which we now exist with our body. But this wonderful life and all the good that is prepared for us by the Creator belongs to our soul.

Question: Is this what is called the “world to come?”

Answer: Yes. But it is written: You will see your world in your lifetime (Berachot 17a).

We need to attain it here in this life and in this world. A person doesn’t acquire the next world after his death; he attains it here in our world.

Even now, we are in this infinite world, but we don’t feel it because our five senses of sight, hearing, smelling, taste, and touch lock us into this minute envelope called “this world.”

If we expand our senses with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah, the wisdom of perception, and immediately depart from feeling this world, outside of its limitations, we feel the world to come, meaning the world that comes as a revelation. And there we discover all the pleasures that the Creator has prepared for us.

Baal HaSulam wrote in Shamati #75, “There Is a Discernment of the Next World, and There Is a Discernment of This World”: There is a discernment of “the next world,” and there is a discernment of “this world.” The next world is considered “faith,” and this world is considered “attainment.”

It is written about the next world, “they shall eat and they shall delight,” meaning that there is no end to the satiation. This is so because everything that is received by faith has no limits. However, what is received through attainment already has limits, since everything that comes in the Kelim of the lower one, the lower one limits it. Hence, there is a limit to the discernment of this world.

Faith is the new force that we acquire with the help of studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. We receive the power of faith, a unique sense that helps us open the borders of this world and begin to feel what is beyond it.

We expand the world just like a child who goes out of his room and sees a vast world: However, what is received through attainment already has limits, since everything that comes in the Kelim of the lower one, the lower one limits it. Hence, there is a limit to the discernment of this world.

Question: What limits is Baal HaSulam talking about here?

Answer: If we go out of our five senses and acquire an additional sense called the sense of bestowal, love, unity, and connection, then through that, we move to a wider world, a more expanded sphere than the one in which we feel our lives and existence.

It is called redemption when you go out of the framework of this world, like from a dungeon or prison where you feel that everything is pressuring you, is limited in time and space, and you cannot be free of all the troubles that crushes you within it, and so you go out into a spacious and wonderful world.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103 FM, 8/9/15

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Consenting To Changes

At this time, we are witnesses of the very beginning of the process: Europeans have recognized that they cannot leave refugees to fend for themselves, but at the same time, they don’t know how to take them in.

Those same Europeans, who for thousands of years, if not more, murdered each other and in which executions were an everyday “theater” for the common people, no longer live as in the past; they are unable to resist the invasion of refugees.

The question is, “Why?” The failure to act is fraught with serious danger.

We see that nature obligates us to change our internal structure. We will eventually understand and acknowledge that we really need this change. We will consent to this state of affairs and will wish for these modifications to our nature. Only then, will we gradually start changing.  

The situation will reach a degree at which we will suddenly sense that we are unwilling to go back to our egoism. On the contrary, we will continue our path towards correction and eventually we will break the boundaries that separate us. This is a global process and it will last until we all merge into one family and become as one indivisible whole.

It will happen under financial and economic blows, numerous threats, and a series of natural disasters. Nature is unbalanced because of us, so, it will push us around.   

So far, we haven’t started building the equilibrium and unity, which we should have already realized according to evolutionary development. That’s why nature will force us to understand the situation we are in and to want change.

As a result of numerous disasters, the people of the world will eventually realize and feel that it is the people of Israel who know the solution to this problem. Then, they will appeal to the people of Israel and put this requirement forth. This is the time when Israelis will disclose the methodology of correction, called the wisdom of Kabbalah, to all nations. In essence, the wisdom of Kabbalah is the art and science of connecting people.

When this happens, Israel will turn into the “Light for the nations.”
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 8/27/15

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Question: If I imagine that the Creator is behind of everything that is happening to me, will I always be angry at Him. Before I used to be angry at the people surrounding me, blaming them for all my problems. If there is none else besides the Creator, will I have to hate Him now?

Answer: Don’t worry, this is normal. It doesn’t matter what your attitude towards the Creator is. The main thing is to keep thinking of Him all the time. Do not forget Him! It doesn’t matter how you relate to Him, whether good or bad. The main thing is to think about Him all the time.

The Creator wants a person to be connected to Him. He wants the person to be the one who is looking for this connection, not the Creator looking for him. The person should see one Creator in everything, as the One who is good and does good. These are the two parameters, the two properties, through which one can sense the Creator.

Around me, there is just the Creator, while the entire world is His external manifestation as though these are actors who move on the stage according to the director’s idea.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life”  2/5/2015

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