Entries in the 'Kabbalah Study' Category

“Being Lazy Is A Sign Of High Intelligence”

laitman_564In the News (Independent): “New research seems to prove the theory that brainy people spend more time lazing around than their active counterparts.

“Findings from a US-based study seem to support the idea that people with a high IQ get bored less easily, leading them to spend more time engaged in thought.

“And active people may be more physical as they need to stimulate their minds with external activities, either to escape their thoughts or because they get bored quickly.”

My Comment: It is only worthwhile to add that an inclination toward physical or mental activity is latent in a person according to his nature. Moreover, in every activity its uniqueness, its type, and so on are also latent. All of this is derived from the location of the soul of the person within the general system of souls—Adam.
[192071]

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History Of Humanity – A Look Inside, Part 5

Laitman_083After the fall of the Second Temple, the people of Israel went into exile, i.e., completely disconnected from spirituality. This exit happened gradually because the Light fading level after level, Yechida, Chaya, Neshama, Ruach, and Nefesh.

Therefore, in generations of a few hundred years after the destruction of the Temple, there were Kabbalists, who were in its illumination. The spirit of the Temple was still alive in the people because the Light did not leave it immediately and was giving them a sense of belonging to spirituality.

However, eventually this spirit completely disappeared and remained only in rare people. Such chosen Kabbalists existed in each generation, until the time of ARI, the great Kabbalist, who passed all the method of Kabbalah that he discovered to his disciple Rav Chaim Vital. The ARI was unique because his soul came from a special place, from a general point of souls that is called Mashiach Ben Yosef.

Mashiach Ben Yosef is not a person, but a concept. There are many souls that belong to Mashiach Ben Yosef and also few souls that are called, or will be called Mashiach Ben David. We need to perceive it as a spiritual concept and not to tie it to a specific person in this world.

Looking at the history of humanity, it is hard for me to see an external form behind the internal one that is much closer and clearer to me. It is clear what forces act inside and what consequences will certainly follow. I can’t watch the puppets that turn upon the historical scene.

As soon as they distract me, I drift away from the inner essence of the picture and focus on the external form. Then I immediately get into egoistic desires and calculations of people who themselves don’t understand what is happening to them.

History is a very subjective concept. If we compare history books printed in Russia, the US, Israel, and Germany we will see that each of them describes the same events in very different ways, the exact opposite to each other.

So I prefer to stick to the force that spins all these puppets and creates history instead of focusing on the consequences of its manifestation in our world and on the way we explain them in our egoism, based on our emotions and stereotypes.

Also, geography doesn’t exist because Egypt, the land of Israel, the desert, and Mount Sinai in my story are spiritual concepts, different degrees of the ladder of spiritual forces. We should move to such a view of history and geography in order to judge these sciences properly, objectively, and to never be wrong. This immediately eliminates all disputes between historians and philosophers.
[192263]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/16, Writings of Rabash

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Looking To The Future Monkey

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (KM.ru): “Portal KM.RU as an educational project aims to acquaint its readers with the latest scientific achievements. Today our interlocutor – one of the leading Russian experts in the field of brain research, Professor, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Sergei Saveliev . …

“Expressed in everyday language, our brains are lazy, lustful and idle; that is, it wants to relax, eat well, relax and enjoy sex. The reason is simple: everything is managed through the calculation of the expenditure of energy required for mental activity. In humans, there is a special biological mechanism, which limits our ability to engage in intellectual matters. …

“What follows from all this, the main conclusion?

“Mankind is by leaps and bounds approaching beastliness. This I prove in my book, with facts and the research results. I think we should do something to stop the ongoing biological evolution. There is also the process of approaching the ‘bright’ future monkey.

“Wait, evolution is proceeding in the direction of degradation?

“Yes. Scientific evidence shows that the brains of people of our species has decreased. I emphasize that I speak not about the Neanderthals, but about our direct ancestors. Modern Europeans’ brain mass was reduced by an average of 200-250 grams compared to the Cro-Magnons. Do you know what 250 grams? It’s just the weight of the brain of Bonobo chimpanzees. So, with a decrease in the brain, the likelihood of genius is reduced.

“It may seem paradoxical, but the advent of computers and distribution systems of pseudo-information has spurred the movement of humanity back to the jungle and caves.”

My Comment: This is a process that is necessary only for recognizing the evil of our beastly egoistic nature. After humanity passes through the stage of the recognition of evil, with the help of the Kabbalists, it will discover the possibility of attracting a second, anti-egoistic force to itself, the force of goodness, bestowal, and love. It will be able to exist within the right integration of these two forces in the middle line.
[192379]

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“The Wisdom Of The Crowd To The Landfill”!

laitman_528_02In the News (Slon.ru): “Despite the fact that the referendum and other manifestations of the majority opinion can look the part as a sure way of making public decisions (after all, it is the voice of the people), scientists’ experiments show that we should not blindly believe in the wisdom of crowds. How do you know which of the vast majority has the necessary knowledge to make important decisions in politics and other areas? Journalist and scholar, Scientific American author, George Musser explains in an article in the Aeon, why the widespread opinion in the society could be a trap, and how to understand someone from the crowd closest to the true knowledge. Musser calls on – it needs to appeal to the knowledge of knowledge (in other words, meta-knowledge). …

“In this case, as shown by a recent study by researchers from the German Institute of Human Development at the Max Planck Society, the true knowledge of the complex issues is incapable of being presented by a large number of people, but by a relatively small group – about 10 to 40 people. As says Bloomberg, is absolutely correlated with the practice of the formation of councils, committees, boards and juries in the court for the adoption of specific decisions.”

My Comment: The wisdom of the crowd is knowledge that we can gather similar to the integral knowledge that the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about. Kabbalah takes into account the integral tool of the upper world and uses it to lead us to the correct goal. Scientists’ experiments are gradually approaching what the wisdom of Kabbalah has already been saying for 6,000 years.
[192373]

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New Life 705 – Jewish Culture: The Synagogue

New Life 705 – Jewish Culture: The Synagogue
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

The internal essence of the synagogue is a place where people connect and ask for the power to love one another. Today the attitude to the synagogue is very far from the attitude to a place that the synagogue is supposed to represent.

When Abraham and Sarah gathered people in their tents they taught them to connect and to reveal the upper force in the connection between them. When the Temple was destroyed we drew away from the upper force, from love of others, and the synagogues became formal rituals.

Unfortunately there is no warmth or love in the synagogue today and so people are not attracted to it. They only come to pray and then hurry back home. There is no soul in the synagogue, no spirit of life, and this is a state called exile. In order to come out of exile we need the force of the Messiah, the force that can draw us from exile, from the separation between us to connection, to the revelation of the soul. The Temple and the Ark of the Covenant, and nowadays the synagogue and the Holy Ark, are symbols of spiritual roots.

There is no holiness in stones if there is no holiness in the heart, and holiness is love. We have to pray for the love to be restored between us.

A Minyan, a prayer, reading the Torah, etc. are all symbols of the right connection in which the Creator is revealed. There is no trace of the inner essence of spirituality in all the rituals held in the synagogue these days. One can be psychologically moved by these rituals, but this isn’t the necessary correction of the heart. In the synagogue, all the hearts should melt into one heart in which the force of love is revealed, and the real Torah is the force that can connect all the hearts despite the evil inclination that is revealed.

A Minyan, a group of ten people who come to the synagogue wishing to connect, can reveal the Creator, the force of love between them. The revelation of the force of love in the world is the purpose of development, as it is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations.”
[179827]
From KabTV’s “New Life 705 – Jewish Culture: The Synagogue,” 3/17/16

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Donating And Spirituality

Laitman_049_01Question: From the point of view of the wisdom of Kabbalah, is a donation a type of spirituality, or is there a difference between “giving the surplus” and “giving the last?”

Answer: There are no kinds of donations that belong to spiritual impulses.

For everyone, there are strict rules that depend on which stage a person is in.

When a person begins to study, according to his degree of advancement, he begins to understand what he can really spend money on if he has surplus cash; it could be for buying books, coming to a convention, and the like. However, not every donation leads to something good!

For an uncorrected person, this donation is revealed as more egoistic, according to which he supposedly will gain the world to come.
[192285]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/3/16

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History Of Humanity – A Look Inside, Part 1

Laitman_417Question: You claim that the solution for all problems is in our unity. I am an historian and have studied the history of the destruction of the First and the Second Temples. The First Temple was built by King Solomon, and I am not sure that there was any unity between the people of Israel at that time.

It also doesn’t look like people knew what unity was during the construction of the Second Temple and afterward during the time of Herod. Anyway, if by “Temple” we mean internal connection and not a material concept, then why do we mourn the destruction of the Temple on the ninth of Av?

Answer: There is a difference between the way historians and Kabbalists study history. Historians study events in the form in which they are seen by us based on the visible facts. The cause for all of the events also derive from the analysis of what they have seen. Therefore, they concluded that there were quarrels and feuds between the people of Israel and that clans were fighting with each other.

Humanity works with the means that are available to it and tries to understand the processes we undergo with their help. Therefore, historians ascribe what has happened to different reasons: economic, personal, and random events.

But the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah begins from a completely different root. Kabbalah says that the root cause of everything in our world is the force of nature, which has a program. Under this program, the force of nature, which can be called the upper force or the Creator, our reality unfolds.

Kabbalists study the actions of this upper force, try to understand it and ascertain the event which has occurred from its actions, instead of studying events relative to the subjective perception of a person, which depends on his development and his ability to comprehend events and their causes, the way historians do.

A person sees a spectacle unfolding in our world: Herod, Pharaoh, Moses, Solomon, and Nebuchadnezzar. But they all are just puppets on a stage. Can we see the hand of nature that is acting inside the dolls and moving these puppets on the stage?

This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah deals with. It explains that creation has a beginning and a final goal. The upper force of nature leads all of the creatures from the beginning of creation to its end so that eventually they will achieve the same level of development and the same abilities as the force of nature itself.

Our desire to enjoy, which is opposite to the force of nature, to the desire to bestow, must develop and reach its worst form, opposite to the Creator and standing against Him. Then, a special creature should appear, which will have a desire to enjoy and a desire to bestow in itself simultaneously. It will be called Adam, a man, because it will be able to become like (Edome) the Creator.

A person is given conditions in which he can grow. He must include within himself qualities that are 100% opposite to the Creator and qualities that are 100% similar to the Creator at the same time. In this way, a person can become a perfect creature, independent due to his opposition to the Creator and equivalent to Him at the same time. This is the development that the Creator planned for creation.
[191959]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/16, Writings of Rabash

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The Wisdom of Kabbalah: What Is It About? Who Is It For? And For What?

laitman_214Question: What is the wisdom of Kabbalah about?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us how we all have to rise above our egoism by the good force in nature, the Light, and how to become good and connect with everyone into one whole desire. The positive attribute of love and bestowal that is revealed among us is called the upper force because it is above our egoism. It is called the Creator because He created us with an attribute that is opposite from Him, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination.”

Question: Who is the wisdom of Kabbalah intended for?

Answer: For anyone who feels a desire to discover the secret of his birth, his destiny, and the meaning in of life. According to all our sources there are no limitations in studying the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Question: Why do religious people object to the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: Only religious people who do not understand the goal of the wisdom of Kabbalah object to it, as do many non-religious people. The wisdom of Kabbalah does not refer to religion in any way because religion does not have the goal of changing a person’s attribute from egoistic to altruistic but only to keep him in frameworks where he can live according to corporeal customs. Baal HaSulam describes this in great detail in the article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose.”
[192551]

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“Who Can Stand Against The Children Of ‘Anak?”

laitman_293Torah, “Deuteronomy,” 9:1 – 9:2: Hear, O Israel: Today, you are crossing the Jordan to come in to possess nations greater and stronger than you, great cities, fortified up to the heavens. A great and tall people, the children of the ‘Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard said, “Who can stand against the children of ‘Anak?!”

When a person advances in his Kabbalah studies and tries to get closer to his friends on the spiritual path in order to reach unity where the Creator will be revealed, he sees huge external and internal obstacles in front of him.

Internal obstacles appear between the participants who try to get closer to each other because such an egoism erupts between them that, as The Book of Zohar tells us, they literally want to kill and burn each other.

On the other hand, they are subjected to adverse external influences because everyone who doesn’t participate in the movement to establish a common heart are their adversaries.

These are the nations of the world, people of Israel that aren’t connected to their movement yet, and the so-called mixed multitude (Erev Rav – workers of Pharaoh). It means all of the adversaries of Kabbalah, all adversaries of the method of connecting people into one whole, are currently enemies of the spiritual path.

We see this for ourselves and cannot do anything. This is a natural product of our advancement. After all, it is written, “Who can stand against the children of ‘Anak?”

Our adversaries seem to us very strong, wise, sure of themselves, and logical. They understand what they are living for and are convincing because there is an egoistic world in front of them where they exist and navigate perfectly.

From their point of view, you are an unreal person full of unrealistic fantasies and just lead people away from a normal life. It is exactly like Pharaoh who said to Moses, “Why do you and Aaron distract people from my work? Let them work for me, I will pay them, and everything will be fine.”

Pharaoh commanded his servants, “Give them more work so that they won’t listen to these two. What is it that they suddenly decided to deal with some kind of love?!”

Today, the same thing happens. The ideological Kabbalah haters, the mixed multitude (Erev Rav), are trying to succeed especially in this. In all times, there is a war waged with them.

Question: But the people of Israel are entering the land of Israel and beginning to develop it.

Answer: The people of Israel gradually are joining the handful of Kabbalists under the leadership of Moses and Aaron, which includes their disciples and the ancestors of the tribes. In this way, they gradually lead people to a state of connection between them that is called the land of Israel.

Question: Then, do the children of ‘Anak cease to be giants?

Answer: Actually, there are no more giants in the land of Israel. They appear there only when another shattering happens.

For example, before the destruction of the First and the Second Temples egoistic societies appeared that stated that they knew how to serve the Creator, destroying through this the level of bestowal and love that was achieved between people. It was they who brought the Romans and Greeks to Israel that banished its people from it. Since then, we have existed in this state for 2,000 years.

Even now, they don’t let us to assemble together to reach integrity, bestowal, love, and unity between us. They feel that it undermines the foundation of their power over the people, and therefore, they are strongly against the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Question: How do we not see giants in them, that is, knowledgeable and logical people?

Answer: It is said very simply, “Turn your gaze to them, and they will turn into a mountain of bones.” We need to unite between us, attract the force of the Creator to us, and direct our energy to the connection of the people.

By this, we will destroy the giants because they exist only in order to shatter people to pieces, small currents, to not let them assemble and make them work only in egoism.

Therefore, even though they sometimes talk about the principle of “Love your neighbor as yourself,” they haven’t realized it themselves.
[192346]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/4/16

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New Life 495 – How Can We Control Luck?

New Life 495 – How Can We Control Luck?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Life in modern times is very dynamic and by nature we are forced to balance it with  confidence and control so that in various life situations we will be happy to feel doors are open before us. How can we control luck?

Leading figures in politics, wealthy people, or world leaders would be very happy to maintain their positions, but we are gradually discovering that the world today operates according to different laws that do not depend on them. Our growing awareness requires the world to change with regard to us, but reality, or what you may call fate or luck, invites us to change and to develop.

A Little Bit of Luck

The word “luck,” “Mazel” in Hebrew, stems from the root “to drip”, and refers to a force that drips on us bit by bit and guides us to develop in the right way, helping us to advance correctly toward the spiritual goal. According to the Torah, we can control our fate or our luck according to the rule that Israel are above the stars and fate. What does that mean?

Israel refers to every person who aims at Yashar-El, which means at resembling the Creator, the general upper force of nature, the good and benevolent force, the force of love and giving. A person aims at that goal like a pilot who checks all the data he has while preparing for and during a flight: the different pressures, his location, the route, etc. He constantly adjusts his path and navigates in order to bring the passengers safely to their destination.

A person who wants to discover the upper force and to improve his life also constantly checks himself every step of the way. When he is ready to advance toward the spiritual goal the luck force puts delicate pressure on him, guiding him and enabling him to advance smoothly. The same luck force continues to guide him toward the final destination, fine tuning his advancement more and more. A person who focuses on the goal correctly feels that the luck force pushes him forward in a nice and pleasant manner.

The Changing Technique

What is it exactly that the luck force guides? Here is some background: man is basically a desire to receive pleasure and joy, an egoist who cannot easily change his desires and his perspective. This is where the luck force, the developing force, comes in. The luck force helps a person feel and understand the need for a change; this force helps a person change his attitude.

Luck gradually turns the egoistic desire to receive pleasure at the expense of others to a desire to give and to love others. The more a person changes his perception, the more loving he becomes and the more he begins to see and feel a better more beautiful world. This transition sounds unnatural, and rightly so. After all, it is about restarting a person’s attitude.

So how can we prepare ourselves to changing our luck for the better? According to the wisdom of Kabbalah it is possible only if we organize the right environment, which will promote values of love of others. Such an environment is built of a group of friends who have a clear goal toward which everyone helps each other advance more easily, more gladly, and by mutually supporting each other. Thus a person acquires the luck that helps him advance consciously, and gradually develops more love and giving to others, a new attitude to himself and to his environment.

Heaven on Earth

A person can develop during his lifetime. A person’s internal development from egoistic self-love, called this world, is a natural, normal state from which we begin to live our lives. We can develop toward our ideal state, toward the goal of love of others, and use the luck force correctly. Changing our attitude toward others and feeling greater love and bestowal is called the next world.

The change a person undergoes by changing his intention from self-love to love of others is called the transition from this world to the next world. In this state a person begins to feel that he is unlimited, about to enter heaven. There are no limits to love and bestowal, and a person feels that he is in an infinite dimension in which everything is good, for his own good.

In summary, the goal of life is to teach us to love, no more, no less. The more we try to resemble the force of love and giving, the more will be worthy of being called Israel, straight toward the upper force, and the more the luck force will operate on us, helping us gradually connect to the upper force, to heaven, without any limitations, until we feel eternity and wholeness.
[151820]
From KabTV’s “New Life 495 – How Can We Control Luck?” 1/8/15

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