Entries in the 'Kabbalah Study' Category

With What Desires Should We Come To the Convention?

938.02Question: In preparation for the convention, we are solving simple issues of the corporeal world, for example, where the congress participants will sleep and what they will eat. Should we look for an opportunity to direct these ordinary desires to the Creator?

Answer: No, everything should be built by a ladder. Since you are gathering with your friends, you must make sure that there is an appropriate place, food, and everything you need. There is no need to turn to the Creator for this.

We turn to Him only so that He will connect us and send us special desires and connection of the hearts.

Question: With what desires should I come to the convention in order to bring contentment to the ten and the Creator?

Answer: With the desire to connect all the friends within yourself. You take the whole group, embrace it both physically and mentally, and raise it to the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “There Cannot Be an Empty Space in the World”

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“The Last Secret I Have Learned”

268.01For many years I have reflected about life.
There is nothing under the moon I cannot understand.
I know that I do not know anything–
This is the last secret I have learned.
(Attributed to Omar Khayyam)

Question: Is the correct outcome of life that a person realizes that he knows nothing?

Answer: Yes, this is really so. He comes to the end of his life and realizes that he does not understand anything from it!

Comment: Although during his life it seemed to him that he was accumulating knowledge.

My Response: Yes, he was a great sage and philosopher.

Question: Yes, he had children, raised them, raised others, taught others. As a result, he comes to the conclusion that he knows nothing and has not attained anything?

Answer: No, that life is something that cannot be attained.

Question: “This is the last secret I have learned.”

That is, it turns out that throughout life this is a secret, a person does not understand this. Why is it revealed at the end of life? Why not tell him this so that he would be wiser in the middle of life or at the beginning?

Answer: He will not accept it.

Question: So, go through life like that and as a result find out that nothing has been achieved by me and I have done nothing. Is that right?

Answer: This is obviously true.

Question: I wonder, are we still shown this along the way? Are there any such signposts that tell us: “Understand that you will achieve nothing or that you are nothing”?

Answer: I think this will not calm a person down. That is, youth and strength take their toll. He searches all the time until already in adulthood, especially in old age, he understands that the main thing for him is to live today. Tomorrow will come, he will live it the same way.

Question: This is when he comes to wisdom, to old age. But during his life, he still has a lot ahead of him, and he still goes on and on, right?

Answer: Of course, there are all sorts of plans.

Question: Is it right to live like this? Or is it necessary to come to the point somewhere in the middle of life that, as you say, we start living day by day?

Answer: But it is difficult for a person to agree with this. It is against our nature. We want to go forward all the time and achieve something. But in fact, we are not achieving anything. We quietly live this life as biological beings and that is it, and then we pass away.

Comment: But we are still somehow enjoying the challenge that we have.

My Response: This is like kids in a sandbox.

Comment: Look at Elon Musk, for example. He is on everyone’s radar all the time. He is enjoying himself. Sometimes he launches something into space, then he wants to move everyone to Mars, then something else, then to implant microchips. He is full of energy and pleasure.

My Response: Such people are indeed full of pleasure and energy and try to make everyone follow them. But does it have a meaning? This is a question.

Question: Why does a person not want to come to the conclusion that “I am nothing”?

Answer: Because he says, “I am nothing,” and other possibilities are revealed behind this.

I am nothing, and then what? Am I then nothing in trying to do what: to get rich, to control? And then what? Here he has all sorts of dilemmas.

Question: Is that why he is afraid?

Answer: Yes. He also does not want to stop.

Question: Does he then stabilize his life by running, creating, and inventing?

Answer: Yes, there are many like this.

Question: But in fact, do you think that one way or another they are destined to come to such an end anyway?

Answer: Everyone knows the end.

Comment: Yes. “For dust you are and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:19).

My Response: Yes. But the fact is that it depends on what goals he sets for himself, and they give him life, and the strength to move, get up, wake up in the morning, and do something.

Question: Do you think this is a sandbox game?

Answer: Yes, it is a sandbox game.

Question: What wisdom should come to him then?

Answer: If this is balanced with his general theory of life, then it is probably a good thing. But if this is just to run from Earth to Mars and somewhere else and back, then of course there is no point in that.

Question: What if a person suddenly stops and asks a question: “What is after that, what is next?”

Answer: It can be very bad for this person. Then he loses his bearings in life. This is even worse!

Comment: This is called depression.

My Response: Yes. So it is better to let him play in the sandbox and not think about anything else.

Question: Is it better when the questions: “Why am I running? What do I live for?” do not pop up?

Answer: Yes.

Question: But you insist all the time and say that a person should still come up with the question “What am I living for?” People who have this question come to us to study. Does it mean that it is good?

Answer: If they come to study with us, then they go further in their development besides building all sorts of ships to Mars. But we still do not know the meaning of life.

Question: But if we want to attain it, is that a good thing?

Answer: I do not know that. Whoever wants to live for this will of course come to us. The rest will be satisfied with less.

Question: If there is this question we have come to it, there is no escape. We came to the question: “What is all this for? What am I running for? What is this life for? For what?”

If this question “What do I live for?” does not stop, but on the contrary gives a person life, can we say that it is good? Does it turn out that this is a different kind of person, a different character? That is, he is not satisfied.

Answer: Yes, it depends on the character of the person.

Question: How was it with you, may I ask?

Answer: I had this since I was a kid. Therefore, the sandbox game for me was something…

Question: But you had it, right?

Answer: Yes!

Comment: Indeed! You were a scientist, you wanted to be a scientist, and so on.

My Response: Yes.

Comment: Then something happened to you.

My Response: I realized that it was all pointless.

Question: Is it because you were stopped, you were not allowed to go where you wanted to go?

Answer: This as well, but still, the desire to attain is disappointing in itself. No matter how much you yearn to attain, you see that it all leads to infinity.

Question: Does it not give you additional desire to live? To infinity, after all, the infinite. endless knowledge, the infinity of everything.

Answer: No, even new knowledge, even if you reveal something new every day, you still need to continue tomorrow. I do not see any special, good impulses in this.

Question: Please tell me, we are getting a little closer to a dead end. How can a person live with this? With what you are saying, how can he live?

Answer: I do not know. I sometimes think of my history teacher from school. He was saying: “A person’s life consists of watching a movie, reading a good book so that it is somehow interesting. And that is life.”

Question: Is that all? No need to rush anywhere, just live like that?

Answer: Yes, he was already elderly.

Question: But you were eager, were you not?

Answer: I was eager. I was not particularly impressed by these words of his. But still, in some ways they remained in me.

Comment: You said that one of the happiest moments of your life was the moment you suddenly started to get answers to your questions. You suddenly realized that there is what you were looking for behind this.

My Response: Yes!

Question: Are you personally still in this state?

Answer: Maybe not as much as before, but I am moving forward, yes.

Question: So, after all, when you get answers to these eternal questions, is this life?

Answer: This is life. Because these answers are in turn new questions.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/13/23

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What is Fate?

633.3It is written about in the book, Tree of Life, by the Ari, “There is not a day that is like another, or a moment that is like another; there is not a person who is like another… Rather, each one must correct that which belongs to his part” (Rabash, Article 10, 1984 “What Is the Degree One Should Achieve in Order Not to Have to Reincarnate?”).

Question: Who determines the part I need to correct?

Answer: It was already determined before you were born, before you realized you existed. Therefore, you must attain and correct yourself as much as you can.

Question: Can we say this part is related to fate?

Answer: Of course, this is the fate of man. Fate is the part of the egoistic desires one must correct.
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From KabTV’s “Practical Kabbalah” 1/2/24

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Life Outside the Body

712.03In our world, we are all connected through animalistic senses: vision, hearing, smell, touch, and tactile sensations. A person must go beyond their boundaries in order to begin to feel the upper, that is, what is above the corporeal senses. This is not something mystical, but something that a person does not perceive in his physical body now, but it exists around us!

The technical devices we use now give us a very small additional range of sensations. They only expand them, because behind the devices there are people who still translate these huge expanding ranges into information accessible to them, otherwise they will not understand what is happening with the device. It turns out that we do not go beyond ourselves.

Therefore, we do not need to invent all kinds of devices, but to correct and expand ourselves: “Do we have this in us?”

Kabbalah says that when a question arises in a person about the meaning of life, it means that he has a need to expand the perception of his five senses. Not in expanding the spectrum of frequencies in each sense organ, but in expanding oneself into some new area.

If you want to truly deepen your perception, you must radically change it from reception to bestowal, i.e., begin to contact the environment not in your senses, but outside of them, because they limit you. They refer to your animalistic body.

How can you leave the body as if it were not there? How can you make yourself feel life outside of yourself, not disturbed by your body? Then you can talk about something that really exists objectively. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah deals with, as it does not study at all what we perceive in the body.

Therefore, when people say: “What about vision, and hearing” I have nothing to say. Kabbalah immediately rejects all this, leaving it to psychology and other methodologies, this is their business. It has no connection with those desires, qualities, and thoughts that an ordinary person has because all this relates to the same quality of reception.

We need to move from the quality of reception to the quality of bestowal, i.e. neutralize ourselves by absorbing all perceptions, learn to exit ourselves and feel the space undisturbed by our body the way it really is. This is called “exiting the body,” “exiting into the spiritual world.”

Then it does not matter whether your body is alive or dead. After all, you begin to feel everything with completely different qualities that have nothing to do with your physical body. Therefore, this wisdom reveals to us the eternal perfect world. And you, to the extent of adaptation to it, to the extent of your coexistence with it, to the extent of your consolidation in it, become eternal and perfect.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Eternal and Perfect” 12/1/11

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Fulfill Your Neighbor’s Desires

528.01Question: When commenting on one of Rabash’s articles, you said that loving your neighbor means attaching his desire to yourself and working with your desire to fulfill his desire. How does this happen?

Answer: If my friend in the group strongly desires something, then with the help of my desires, I can try to fulfill his desire.

Question: Are we talking about any of his desires or just spiritual ones?

Answer: No, not only about spiritual ones. If a friend lacks anything, you feel that desire and strive to fulfill even the simplest wish.

You incorporate yourself in your friend, and he, understands your action, and carries it out on others. That is how a Kabbalistic group forms by working to instill in each other feelings of love, attention, and mutual assistance. As a result, these feelings unite the entire group and direct them from itself to the Creator.

The group is a training ground that prepares people to turn to the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Practical Kabbalah” 12/19/23

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What Is Wisdom Revealed For?

221.0Question: What is wisdom revealed for? To pass it on to others, to reveal it to the world, or are there any other reasons?

Answer: Why is wisdom revealed? It is in order for us to feel the Creator, to be in some way equal to Him, to be able at least partially to perform actions like Him. To do this, we need the light of Hochma.

Comment: If any understanding comes, we must try to reveal it to the world. But at the same time, there is a feeling that you cannot always explain everything in an understandable way. There is always some doubt.

My Response: We will not do without a doubt. You just have to go ahead and listen to the lesson. You need to listen to each lesson two or three times. Return to it after some time, in a week, two, or three. And then gradually it all fits together and turns into one big picture.

Comment: It happens that you are overwhelmed and realize that even if you try to listen to something, it still passes by because you cannot perceive such a large amount of information. That is, the quantity of listening is not equal to the quality.

My Response: It will always be like this because you cannot absorb everything that radiates at you. Gradually, over the course of many months, it passes into you, begins to soak in, and fits into shelves in your head.
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From the Daily Kabbalah lesson 12/27/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “What Is He Will Give Wisdom Specifically to the Wise”

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Learning from the Friends

944Question: Rabash writes that there must be equality in the group; otherwise, you will not receive the importance of the goal.

Why is equality one of the principles of spiritual work?

Answer: We must very precisely ensure that in the group everyone respects and loves each other, yearns for connection with each other, and no one is more or less than the rest. This is the work with your egoism.

Question: In this case, how can we learn from others?

Answer: You can learn from the other when you consider him important. The condition you set for yourself is to imagine each friend as your teacher. In this case, being in a group where everyone is bigger than you, you will have the opportunity to learn from everyone.
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From KabTV’s “Practical Kabbalah” 12/5/23

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Why Do We Have to Be Ashamed of Our Nature?

549.01Question: The reason the creations do not receive pleasure lies in the difference of form between the Creator and the creations. The Creator is giving and the creations are receiving.

This causes shame in creations and as a result the Creator must conceal Himself. But why does a person have to be ashamed if the Creator made him this way?

Answer: The Creator created the property of shame with the purpose that through our own efforts and with His method we would gradually rise from the animate level to the level of the Creator, the highest level in the spiritual world. We must come to this state.

Typically the force from above brings a person to a group. There he sees people similar to him and he wonders: “How can I be connected with them? How can I get closer to them according to the principle “love your neighbor as yourself?’”

This helps him feel what the property of the Creator means and gradually rise to His level.
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From KabTV’s “Practical Kabbalah” 12/5/23

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Work on Texts

209Question: Sometimes it feels like you are drowning in spiritual information. What is the best thing to do? Should you try to figure out every word, thread this knowledge letter after letter, or stick to your ten like a fetus to the uterus and look for the source of light in it?

Answer: In principle, both ways are good. Just don’t mix it up so that you don’t get in a mess.

I think first you just need to parse the text well so that you have the right internal associations with the words of the text. After it gets inside, chew it well and swallow it. After that, you can continue to parse it at the next stage.

Question: What if the text is rejected and you cannot accept it, then what should you do?

Answer: That is not good. Indeed, the text is rejected, but we still have to chew it and swallow it, otherwise we will not move further. There are some texts that have to go through us like this, hard. I understand you, but there is no escaping this, you have to work on them.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Difference between Faith and Intellect”
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Different Degrees of Attainment

627.2Question: In his articles, Rabash refers to Rambam, then to his father and teacher, Baal HaSulam. Why doesn’t he speak for himself? It’s as if he relies on someone else. Has he not attained these degrees?

Answer: He cites the arguments and reasons of the great Kabbalists, on whom he can rely, and so can we.

Comment: But he went through these states anyway.

My Response: It is in your eyes that he has gone through everything, but not in his. For him, in any case, there is a difference between, say, Rambam and himself. These are different degrees of attainment.

Question: So should we study what the Rambam tells us?

Answer: In principle, what we read from Rabash’s writings is enough for us.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/17/23, Writings of Rabash “What Is the Reason for which Israel Were Rewarded with Inheritance of the Land, in the Work?”

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