In the News (Catholic Herald): “Christians in Europe must break down ‘walls of fear and aggression’ and try to understand people of other faiths and backgrounds, Pope Francis has said.

“In a video message on Saturday to participants at the ‘Together for Europe’ gathering in Munich, the Pope insisted that ‘invisible walls’ are being strengthened and dividing people from one another. 

“’These walls are being built in people’s hearts,’ the Pope said. ‘They are walls made of fear and aggression, a failure to understand people of different backgrounds or faith. They are walls of political and economic selfishness, without respect for the life and dignity of every person.'”

“Pope Francis told representatives of some 300 European Christian organisations, movements and communities from different churches that they and their fellow Christians need to find new, more vibrant ways to offer Christian values to European society and to the world.

“’Europe is called to reflect and to ask itself whether its immense heritage, so permeated with Christianity, belongs in a museum or is still able to inspire culture and to offer its treasures to the whole of humankind,’ he said.

Question: Pope Francis is an extraordinary person. Is this warning about the lack of awareness of a person of other religions dangerous?

Answer: No, this is not a dangerous warning. He is simply stating a fact. Within the religions there are thousands of different “walls.” For example, if the “wall” that exists between Christians and Muslims is clear, the impulses that burn within each one of the religions are much stronger passions.

Question: Is Europe, as the Pope appeals: “still able to inspire culture and to offer its treasures to the whole of humankind”?

Answer: Europe is a tired continent. It is not ready to do anything.

Question: The Pope also said:“’Every authentic unity draws on the wealth of diversity which forms it – like a family which grows in unity in so far as its members can fully and fearlessly be themselves.’

“For Europe to be a family, he added, the good of the human person must be the central concern and groups and nations must find ways of working together that “are not only economic but also social and cultural” (Catholic Herald).

Answer: All of these words are right, but many of the inhabitants of Europe can say this; what is important is do they have a method for realizing these words? If not, then these are only beautiful expressions; it is like sitting next to our grave and crying.

The inhabitants of Europe have no faith in their power and essentially have no faith in the method of correction, the change. So Pope Francis is indeed looking at everything correctly and is saying the right things, but what is next? In fact, he is just lamenting over Europe. The Pope is the spiritual leader of not only Europe but also a billion other people. He must offer an educational method.

In the past, in their evolutionary development Christians became savages. Today, Christians and all of humanity must be educated to become human, connecting to become united, resembling nature, creating a single harmonious whole. Through connection like this, everyone can feel happy and balanced, and peace will dwell in Europe.

Comment: He also says, “Unity is like a family.”

Answer: Indeed, it is up to society to live as one big family. The Pope is correct that this situation doesn’t exist in Europe. The ancestors of European society didn’t set this goal for themselves. But he can now show them the way. He can turn to the entire continent of Europe as their spiritual leader.

We must write to him and actually spread before him a series of explanatory applications, documents, and materials. This should be his appeal to Europe. The Jews, and in their hands the wisdom of Kabbalah, exist to help the Pope to turn to the society of his European friends correctly. For after all, the wisdom of Kabbalah is derived from the same source from which Christianity is derived.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 7/4/16

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In the News (Pravda.ru): “Of course, originally people had no written language. Therefore, they tried to transmit information via various items. Historical examples are the substantive letters are wampum (Iroquois writing, whose elements were colored shells strung on a rope) and quipu (Peruvian writing in which messages were transmitted by means of the color and the number of nodules tied to a rope).

“Later, there was the so-called pictographic writing, in which information was transmitted through a variety of images (thumbnails). A figure indicated certain concepts. …

“Hieroglyphs, as we know, is preserved in the Oriental languages, up to the present day. It is characterized by the use of the same design elements in different characters. The main drawback of characters is that they have no connection with the spoken word, with pronunciation of words, but they convey their essence. …

“The revolution in the history of writing occurred with the emergence of syllabic writing. This category includes Sumerian, Old Persian and Akkadian cuneiform, Arabic and Phoenician letters, the Japanese system of Katakana and Hiragana … the Phoenician alphabet played a significant role in the history of mankind as it was the basis of the Greek language, which, in turn, came Latin , Cyrillic, and many other types of modern writing.”

My Comment: The Hebrew language developed through the attainment of the upper root in our world; therefore, its letters correspond to the vertical force of reception and to horizontal force of bestowal. The combination between them is the basis of the quadrangular letters of the Jewish alphabet. Each of the 22 letters is a symbol of a certain bestowal from the upper worlds upon our world. Many of the books of Kabbalah speak about this.
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Question: I have started studying the wisdom of Kabbalah and I have noticed that many people around me don’t interest me anymore. Is this an indication that my ego has grown or that the difference between our attributes has grown?

Answer: We seek the right environment throughout our lives according to our internal attributes, our hobbies, and our goals, and so without a choice we are drawn to people whom we find interesting.

For me, for example, these are my students and friends who share the same views as I do. This, of course, doesn’t negate my natural attraction to my children and my grandchildren because they are my family, but this has nothing to do with spirituality.

As for other people, I am just not in contact with them because we have no common interests. Sometimes I meet people I studied with in the past or who were in my life at different stages, but apart from some small talk such as “How are you?” and “How is everything?”, we have nothing in common.

After a couple of minutes there is nothing to talk about anymore. Therefore it is okay to accept the fact that the wisdom of Kabbalah diverts us a bit from our old acquaintances. Life has separated us.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/10/16

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New Life 735 – Blessings And The Connection To The Creator
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

“A person should not enjoy the world without a blessing.” It isn’t easy to understand what the sages mean by that, but they don’t refer to empty words. A person should reach the revelation of the Creator and true gratitude.

Children learn to say blessings and adults should learn how to actually discover the Creator.

Those who have revealed the Creator say that He is good and benevolent to all, and therefore I have to be like Him. The blessing is only a reason to connect to the upper force in order to identify with Him. The blessing should include the intention to discover the Creator and to bring Him delight.

All our work is to correct our attributes, to correct the desire to receive, which is totally egoistic. All this can be fulfilled only by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah in a group of people.

It says “the commandments were given only in order to purify the created beings,” that is, purify us, to correct our egoism. To bless actually means to reach a state in which a person enjoys the actual connection with the Creator and his giving to the Creator.

The purpose of the blessing is not to say thank you but to ascend to the level of the Creator, to be loving and giving like He is. Giving to the Creator can only be by giving to others, as it is written,  “from the love of the created being to the love of the Creator.”

Therefore, “love thy friend as thyself” is the greatest rule of the Torah. This is the goodness that a person can “give” the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 735 – Blessings And The Connection To The Creator,” 6/21/16

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New Life 734 – Why Do We Bless?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

The reality that we feel is not the actual reality we live in. This is the reason scientists have been trying for quite a while now to break through this world and discover the forces that manage it.

Nature operates according to laws. And so the question is: What is the general force, the general formula that manages nature? The first man to discover it lived 5,776 years ago. He discovered the Creator, the general force.

When a person changes himself and his attributes, his perception of the world changes. If he nullifies himself, as if resets himself, he perceives the true reality.

The upper reality helps us get to know it better, and we can do so either willingly or as a result of pressure. The upper force is good and benevolent, and there is none else besides it.

I have to tune myself to the upper force in every situation in my life. Thus I gradually annul the partitions between me and the upper force, and this is from where the custom of blessing stems. The goal of everything that comes from the upper force is for our own good. It leads us to the revelation of the upper force.
[188489]
From KabTV’s “New Life 734 – Why Do We Bless?” 6/21/16

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Question: If a person doesn’t feel the Creator and explores a world where there are no images, is it possible to say that by reading a book he can simply program himself and then begin to feel what is written in it?

Answer: We need to assemble and make a sensing and thinking organ for ourselves that will understand the new relationships that appear in us, and between us and can manage and change them. In a sense we do program ourselves.

Otherwise, what could be a reasonable approach for study?

Certainly I transform myself into some kind of system, but it is a system that I can manage! And so the infinite Light in which I am found and begin to perceive is upgraded within me and I can come in contact with it. Even though it is a wave, it becomes a quantum within me because it is upgraded even though it is infinite. This paradox happens here!
[183339]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/28/16

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Question: Are you moving away from traditional Judaism?

Answer: Without a doubt. The reason for this is that we must reveal the knowledge about the world we are living in to people. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah reveals. It teaches a person how to discover the world that is hidden from him, more precisely, to discover the Creator, because nothing except this “field of life” exists.

Religion teaches a person mechanical actions that he must carry out in order to mechanically, but unconsciously, conform to this field. It aspires to hold a person only at the level of implementing instructions. This form is convenient for religious domination and also subordinates a person because everything is clear: carry this out and you will receive a reward!

Kabbalah explains that through this acceptable mechanical implementation, a person’s state is called “exile” from spirituality, meaning exile from feeling the Creator.

This period of performing mechanical actions ended in the time of the Ari in the 16^th century. The Baal Shem Tov, the great follower of the way of the Ari, began to introduce the wisdom of Kabbalah to the masses in a practical form. Opponents rose up against him and a war began between the supporters of the revelation of the Kabbalah to the people and those who opposed this movement.

Currently, the religious part of society carries out the Mitzvot (commandments) mechanically, and a large part of society is moving further and further away from any tradition. I believe that it is specifically for the part that is “moving away” that it is necessary to reveal Kabbalah, the heart of Judaism, the true Torah, the ability to discover the Creator. When people don’t find answers to the meaning of things, they move completely away from the Jewish people. The example for this is American Jewry.

Studying the wisdom of Kabbalah reveals the possibility and opportunity to discover the Creator.

Our Bnei Baruch organization invites anyone interested in entering spiritual life and the feeling of eternity, because it is said that “they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them” (Jeremiah 31:33), “and all nations shall flow unto it” (Isaiah 2:2). Any resistance to us will disappear in the future, both by our opponents and by that part of society that still doesn’t perceive that the wisdom of Kabbalah brings freedom from all troubles and an ascent to the sensation of wholeness. This is because human egoism is growing constantly and pushes a person toward discovery of the Creator as “help made against him.”
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In the News (Time): “When teachers are stressed, so are their students, according to a new study.

“In the report, published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, researchers assessed the burnout levels of 17 teachers of fourth through seventh grade. They also assessed levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their students—more than 400 of them—by taking saliva samples at three different times during the school day.

“The researchers found that students had higher levels of cortisol if their teachers reported higher burnout levels. …

“The study is the first to link teacher burnout to physical stress changes in their students.”

(Psychological Science): “‘Stress Contagion,’ Emotions are not simply concepts that live privately in the mind, but rather affective states that emanate from the individual and may influence others. … infants’ physiological reactivity mirrored mothers’ reactivity engendered by the stress manipulation … These findings suggest that mothers’ stressful experiences are contagious to their infants and that members of close pairs, like mothers and infants, can reciprocally influence each other’s dynamic physiological reactivity.”

Answer: Look at what scientists are discovering . All people are connected to one another; there are “threads” that connect our thoughts, desires, intentions, and impulses. Could it be that the wisdom of Kabbalah is right in saying that we are in a global network that totally connects us in every respect? It turns out that it is indeed so.

Scientists have discovered that a student’s bad mood affects the teacher and vice versa, so what’s new? See what scientists research compared to what the wisdom of Kabbalah explores, to what it teaches us, and what it tells us when it explains the laws of the network in which we are all connected.

If we change the mutual relations between people somewhere in the world, we will affect people who are at the other end of the world by that action.

Of course there is a tight connection between everyone. We simply need to know this system.

If I turn on my computer but don’t know how to use it, what can I do with it? But if I’m familiar with the program and how to use it and what the effect of my fingers on the keyboard and through the keyboard on the program is, I can affect it.

At the same time, if I know what my computer can do and how it can affect the whole world, assuming that my computer is connected to the global computer network, it is a totally different matter.

Similarly, I can play my internal keyboard, which is Tzimtzum (restriction), a Masach (screen), and the Returning Light, and thus affect the network between us that is called the one general unique soul. If I can consciously affect this network by being inside it, through my thoughts, feelings, and desires, by wanting to bring it to the good future state it will reach anyway, by wanting to push it there because otherwise I will not be able to affect it, of course I affect it! I begin to see and to realize how it undergoes all the changes and how it develops.

So why is it surprising that everything affects everything? Are we talking about the fact that children drive a poor teacher crazy with their childish nonsense? Everything and everyone is mutually connected and are in one system. No one can escape, there is no escape. So let’s learn about the essence of the connection between us, its nature and how we can affect one another and bring everyone to the one unique whole.

Thus we will gradually discover a totally different level of mutual cooperation between us, a different level of our existence! Today scientists are publishing studies about things the wisdom of Kabbalah has been talking for 6,000 years.
[189552]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 6/30/16

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Question: Suffering is an integral part of our lives, no matter how much we try to live well. What is suffering, and why do we suffer?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah considers everything, starting from the bases of creation, of which there are two in nature.

First is the Light, the force of love, bestowal, and unity that is called the upper force, the Creator (Boreh), which means “come and see” (Bo-re), because we must reveal it. This force created the creature, the desire to enjoy, the lack of fulfillment.

The Upper Light develops a desire and forms it as a need for all sorts of fulfillments. All creatures, including ourselves, are various desires. Human desires can be divided into six types: food, sex, family, money, honor, and knowledge. Each person feels a natural need for all of these fulfillments, but in different proportions.

If a person lacks these fulfillments, he feels suffering, emptiness, and even pain. Sometimes, this suffering is so strong that it becomes unbearable.

Food, sex, and family are desires of our body, natural instincts that are inherent to all animals. Money, honor, and knowledge—that is, the desire for power, fame, position in society and in science—are purely human desires.

The source of suffering is the lack of fulfillment of these desires. When the Light doesn’t fill the desire, it begins to suffer. Suffering can be big or small, lengthy or instantaneous, general or personal, and so forth.

The wisdom of Kabbalah states that it has a method to get rid of suffering. Not by chance is it called the wisdom of Kabbalah, which means the wisdom of receiving because it teaches how to fulfill all desires.

On the one hand, this is a very popular topic, but on the other hand, this wisdom is hidden. If people knew that there is a method that enables us to fulfill our desires and become completely happy by getting rid of suffering, from the smallest to the largest, global, and universal ones, then, it might seem what could be better than this?

Indeed, there is nothing better. If we used the wisdom of Kabbalah, then we would be able to fulfill all of our desires, all the created material of creation, and feel in it only pleasure and eternal fulfillment that is called eternal life. Suffering would disappear from the world and we would be completely happy.

Conversely, all other ways and attempts to avoid suffering and fulfill ourselves will end in an imminent collapse.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 6/23/16

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In the News (Society for Personality and Social Psychology): “Diminishing a person’s belief in free will leads to them feeling less like their true selves, according to recent research published in Social Psychological and Personality Science. In a pair of studies, researchers from Texas A&M University manipulated people’s beliefs in free will to see how this would affect the subjects’ sense of authenticity, their sense of self. …

“‘Whether you agree that we have free will or that we are overpowered by social influence or other forms of determinism, the belief in free will has truly important consequences,’ says lead author Elizabeth Seto, a Graduate Student at the Department of Psychology at Texas A&M University. …

“‘Our findings suggest that part of being who you are is experiencing a sense of agency and feeling like you are in control over the actions and outcomes in your life,’ says Seto. ‘If people are able to experience these feelings, they can become closer to their true or core self.’”

Answer: Psychology is not a science. It is based upon experiments in limited conditions.

First, there is no person who can accept and live with the knowledge that are managed. If we could reach a state like this, it would be good.

Question: Does this mean that psychologists cannot convince a person that they are controlled?

Answer: Certainly not. They can’t even start.

You can tell a person that all kinds of external and internal forces govern him and in fact not his. And he is not the one who chooses what to do because a few seconds before making an alleged decision, the information has already been formed and shaped in his brain and he only expresses the prepared result.

Science has already proven this is so. But a person cannot agree with the fact that he does not make decisions on his own because it is against his egoistic nature.This negates his identity, his “I,” his freedom of choice.

He can agree intellectually, but in another second he will forget it anyway. His nature erases this data from him automatically and he begins to live again as usual,  as if everything were up to him.

Comment: Psychologists say that attempts to reduce a person’s faith in freedom of choice increases aggression and gives rise to deception.

Response: Theoretically yes, but in fact, if speaking about a normal, sane, and balanced person, he cannot act according to this belief and respond negatively.

Question: Does this mean that a person always feels that he is free?

Answer: Yes. When teaching “The Freedom” (written by Baal HaSulam about freedom of will), we see that even when one hears that he is managed, he agrees, “Yes, yes, yes,” and continues on his way; he doesn’t even ask how to become free. It doesn’t concern him because he needs to feel confident in himself.

So I should feel within myself that there is a higher power that controls me through all kinds of systems, circumstances, and events, both external and internal, in everything that I do.

I have to feel it, not just hear it from someone. That is when I will feel I am bound hand and foot; no matter what I did, it all came from somewhere but not from me. I begin to strive to this “somewhere.” Where is the source of my behavior, the source of my future, my fate?—so at least I will know how this is works in nature.

No matter how much we talk about this, we cannot convince a person. It requires much work for him to discover his lack of freedom. But when he does discover this, simultaneously he will begin to feel who it is that manages and controls him. This is a revelation of the Creator.

Psychologists, as usual, are immersed in their speculations. And this, of course, will not lead to anything.

We need to show man that he is not free, but along with this he must be given the opportunity to find free will. When he sees the big picture and begins to realize it correctly within a particular small society, he will begin to understand where to move.

Therefore, the correct message is: freedom of choice exists, but only in choosing the appropriate society.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 6/26/16

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