We are discussing the topic of perception of reality in order to gradually orient ourselves in the right direction. After all, everything depends on intention. There are many people who study Kabbalah, and in particular, there are currents that have nothing in common with it.

The science of Kabbalah is intended for the correction of our nature, and the more we correct ourselves, the more we feel the upper force, reveal the upper world, become included in it, enter it, and rise above our material life. This is called “liberation from the angel of death” because we stop feeling completely dependent on our body! We rise above our animal, biological body to the degree of general nature.

I do not feel pain from cutting my nails or hair, because my body belongs to the animate level, while nails and hair belong to the vegetative level, one degree lower. And from the height of the animate level, I do not feel any loss from the loss at the vegetative level. In the same way it will happen when I rise from the animate degree to a higher degree, to the degree of Man.

“Man” is not us today. “Man” (Adam) comes from the word “similar” (Edomeh) to nature, the Creator, light. And when I become such a “man,” I will stop feeling loss from what is happening in this material life. Therefore, the science of Kabbalah is called “a remedy against death.”

Let us hope that we will attain such a degree and begin to experience spiritual life today. It all depends only on our inner efforts. Let us try to connect our inner points and appreciate this special state.
[40042]
From the International Kabbalah Congress 4/1/11, “We!” Lesson 2

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Question: Why does Kabbalah become the meaning of life and something valuable for some people, while for others it is something unacceptable?

Answer: Those for whom Kabbalah is unacceptable have not yet felt the desire that responds to spiritual light, and therefore they reject this wisdom.

A person, being egoistic by nature, does not want to think about it. Kabbalah irritates him; on a subconscious level it obligates him to something and directs him to a completely different area from the one he is drawn to. He does not want this realm to exist; he does not want there to be a soul or a future world; he prefers to remain within the framework he has invented for himself. This is the first reason.

Secondly, people who come to Kabbalah and begin to study it suddenly discover that it says they must change themselves!

“I came here in order to receive and reveal knowledge, qualities, and feelings; in other words, to be filled. But here it says that I must fill the Creator by filling others, and that only through such movement from myself outward can I begin to sense the spiritual world. I don’t feel any attraction or inclination toward this. So, excuse me! Stay with your Kabbalah, and I’d rather leave.”

There are many people like that. When they leave, they feel deceived: It seemed that at first, they were captivated and drawn in, but then suddenly they discovered that it was not what they thought at all and that they only wasted time and energy. And they leave very disappointed.

They imagined that they would immediately grab the Creator “by the beard,” obtain this world and the future world, begin to control everything, uncover some secrets in order to fill their own precious, beloved self.

But it turns out that it is all different, in an entirely different key. The spiritual world is located on the next level, the level of bestowal, in simultaneous connection with our world, like in an electric motor.

Therefore, they leave very disappointed and become our opponents.

Yet we still support this. It is said that a thousand enter the study, and only one remains. It does not matter that they become haters of Kabbalah. How else can an egoist react?

But the person still retains a connection with Kabbalah, and gradually something seeps into him. Even as our opponent far away from us, he is still connected with us. Within him the spark he received has already begun to stir.
[221637]
From Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/29/17

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Question: If everything in the world depends on people engaged in spiritual development, does it mean we are responsible for all the suffering in the world?

Answer: We do not cause suffering in the world; on the contrary, by attracting the light, we move suffering from the material level to the level of spiritual suffering. Meaning, instead of suffering from wars, diseases, and all other problems, we suffer from a lack of spirituality. This is what the science of Kabbalah gives a person.

It brings him “suffering,” but it cannot even be called that; it is the suffering of love, as if I were invited to a meal in a couple of hours, so I do not eat right now to keep my appetite strong. This is called the suffering of love; it is when I realize that I should prepare spiritual Kelim.

And even now, in the empty Kelim, I feel the glow of the upcoming meeting with the people I love, and from the meal. This is what humanity needs to be brought to, to show them that there is a solution and to develop not as a result of the blows of nature.

Now we are entering a period of ecological problems that can cause the suffering and death of thousands of people. We see natural disasters occurring all over the world, in China, Europe, Russia, and America.

The only way to escape it is to transition to preparing spiritual Kelim, not in an earthly form, not waiting decades for suffering to pass until we finally realize that there is a reason and a goal and two paths to the goal: the path of light and the path of suffering.

Why should we suffer in vain? Let us draw the light now that will show us the difference between its state and ours, so we would suffer from the fact that we want a better state, rather than from feeling bad now.
This is what the science of Kabbalah offers man—the path of light instead of the path of suffering.
[20487]
From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/1/10, Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot“

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You will not break natural egoism with artificial means such as public opinion or education. There is no cure for this but a natural religion (Baal HaSulam, The Writings of the Last Generation).

Baal HaSulam believes that neither education nor public opinion will help humanity, only religion will, that is, enlightenment, which is absolute and unlimited. By religion, Baal HaSulam means the science of Kabbalah, which reveals the upper force, a system through which this force, from its highest point in the world of infinity, governs all the worlds, the system of governance, and us in our lowest world.

Without understanding how this system works and adapting to it from our side, from the bottom up, we will not be able to attain the meaning of life. At the same time, we do not attach any philosophical connotation to the concept of “the meaning of life,” because without an understanding of life’s true essence, we cannot function normally.

We are moving to a state in which any of our actions that align with the direction of development toward the goal of creation are beneficial to us and yield positive results. If the action is not directed precisely toward the goal, if it does not move us closer to it, it yields a negative outcome, and we suffer. Moreover, we may not know which actions produce which outcomes, as we are not familiar with this system.

In order for us to know exactly what to do at this point in our development, to stop standing still or going backward, falling, getting bumps, and moving from crisis to crisis, we must understand what the science of Kabbalah says.

It explains which system a person lives in and which worlds surround him, how the upper force, the Creator, governs us through these worlds in the lower world, how we should respond to the Creator’s governance, and what we should come to, which is complete similarity, alignment, and adhesion with the Creator.

Nowadays, the science of Kabbalah is becoming very relevant because we see that today, none of the global rulers, neither philosophers nor scientists, have a good idea of where we are, how we conduct ourselves, or how to manage ourselves to ensure a more or less tolerable “tomorrow,” rather than head toward destruction.

Today many are increasingly aware of this, but people still do not understand that there is a system of knowledge known as “Kabbalah.”

In general, we call religion the study of the upper force, not just faith in the upper force, but the study of it. That is, the science of Kabbalah is the science of the upper force. If the upper force governs us through a system, then we can study that system. It may be impossible to study the upper force itself, but at least its effect on us can be understood, investigated, and applied.

Kabbalists, those who have mastered this system in the past, write to us from the depths of time that the desire of the upper force is for us to reveal it, understand its goodness, eternity, perfection, and strive to be like it.
[212758]
From KabTV’s “The Last Generation,” 7/3/17

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And what is that purpose for which He has invented this entire reality before us in the upper worlds and in the lower worlds?…

However, we should understand this question of our sages, who asked about it: “If the purpose of the creation of the worlds was to delight His created beings, why did He create this corporeal, turbid, and tormented world?

Without it, He could certainly delight the souls as much as He wanted, so why did He bring the soul into such a murky and filthy body? (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 1, “Inner Observation“).

There are 125 degrees of attainment of the Creator. Five Sefirot form one Partzuf, five Partzufim form one world, and there are five worlds in total. It turns out that five Sefirot multiplied by five Partzufim and five worlds equals 125 degrees.

In order to attain them from zero to final correction (infinity), I need, as a person in whom there is nothing spiritual yet, to ascend this ladder from the outside.

By ascending to the first degree, I begin to acquire a spiritual vessel, a soul (Neshama).

Before entering the spiritual ladder, I represent a material (animalistic) desire to receive, and after entering, a desire to receive with intention.

Having attained a certain degree, I again fall back into an animalistic state in order to climb to the next degree. It is only in this way! I have no other choice than to make such a “loop” at each step.

Question: Why, besides the animalistic state, the desire to receive, does the protein state, our body, exist?

Answer: It seems to you that it exists because as long as you do not have spiritual attainment, you must feel your desire to receive. Matter has to exist somehow on an inanimate, vegetative, and animate level. And what relates to you as a human being is only your desires. If they have any relation to matter, it is only because they clothed in it. But in principle, this does not matter.

Question: For what purpose are we in the illusion that we have bodies?

Answer: This is a necessary condition for your constant presence in desire.

Question: What does it mean to “bring the soul into the body”?

Answer: The soul is the desire to receive with the correct intention. But sometimes the soul implies the light that enters the desire. And then it turns out that the soul enters and exits.
[232155]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 4/15/18

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Question: Suppose a person has endured a serious illness, suffered greatly, and then recovered. Does this mean that he has drawn closer to the Creator?

Answer: In principle, by experiencing such suffering, a person begins to take his state and his capabilities more seriously.

But no one draws closer to the Creator through suffering, this is an incorrect method. He has absolutely no need for our suffering. On the contrary, the Creator wants a person to be in joy from the fact that He created the world, created man within it, and gave him the possibility to draw closer to Him.

Therefore, under no circumstances should one submit to suffering. This is an incorrect attitude both toward the Creator and toward life. We must try at all times to feel ourselves within the benevolent field of the Creator. The sufferings we have endured should teach us not to enter such situations again.

Question: But if, as a result of suffering, a person comes to the question, “What am I living for?” Is that getting closer to the Creator?

Answer: This is simply a question that should bring him into a special state in which he clearly clarifies what he lives for.

But under no circumstances should one sink into self-torment, because it distances us from the Creator. It may seem to a person that through suffering he becomes purer. This is incorrect. In Kabbalah there is no such view. It is quite possible that many religions welcome this, but under no circumstances does Kabbalah.

Suffering has never purified a person from egoism, nor has it given one the ability to rise above the ego. On the contrary, it pushes him away from using egoism only because he fears suffering. But this is not a correction.

Suffering merely pushes us toward a more correct decision. We must draw the correct conclusion and act as required.
[260725]
From Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 1/26/20

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Question: You say that a person should improve and change. Some people can intelligently lay out what is happening in the world and why. Some religions describe this by saying: “Because people do not believe in God, He punishes them.” How can you stand out from a large number of smart people?

Answer: I am not going to stand out.

Comment: But you want people to know the truth.

My Response: I say what I say, but I do not want to criticize others. A person who yearns for serious analysis and scrutiny of cause-and-effect phenomena will see a rational seed in me, and in all others, their failure.

Comment: Many people convert to Buddhism. They may think they will find peace in Buddhism.

My Response: They may think that, sit there for a few years there, and then come to their senses because they will not find a solution. Their solution is to disconnect from this world, reach nirvana, and detach from everything.

Where do we see an example where Buddhists are happy? Where do we see in India (with its castes and disunity, where people live in squalor, and everyone fights for their piece of bread while they worship the sacred cows that walk the streets) an example that we should live like this? Is it the fact that they retreat into their illusions where they find at least some escape from this life? Or is it their belief in burning souls and then launching candle-lit boats along the Ganges?

I do not see anything in this, not in their state structure, nor in their friendship with each other when they shout about love. What kind of love is there with their castes where you cannot give a hand to another, let alone marry someone from another caste, where there is such poverty, such a separation between classes?

What can they set an example in? In an escape from reality.
[350664]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Harry Potter Platform” 10/4/10

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Question: Lately, I cannot understand what faith above reason is. Could you explain how one reaches this state, and what it actually is? As I understand, it is given by the Creator, and without this faith, one cannot move anywhere.

Answer: Faith above reason is that the intention to bestow and love are higher (in importance) than the intention for one’s own sake.

This happens under the influence of the surrounding light that descends during study, and while participating in the group, and dissemination. Until the light gives you this quality, you cannot understand it.
[3045]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/28/08

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Comment: You have a very broad mind, but the human brain cannot perceive and sense the entire universe so broadly. There is wisdom in you.

My Response: This is a consequence of spiritual attainment, not because on the earthly level I am intelligent. On the earthly level, I am not Newton or Einstein.

Question: Then where does your vast knowledge come from?

Answer: The fact is that I have a completely different volume of desire. In my desire, I look at everything that happens in this world as a game of little children. I see our world on a level that I can easily grasp, understand it through-and-through from top to bottom and from bottom to top in its entire volume, in all its connections. For me, it is like a sandwich.

I see it consisting of four parts: still, vegetative, animate, and human levels of matter, and see how they interact with each other and gradually develop so that the human level will finally rise upward, into the spiritual world, and pull all the other levels along with it.

I see this purely speculatively, visually, but precisely because I have developed a spiritual Kli, a spiritual desire, within myself. Otherwise, I would not be able to see with such volume and such clarity from top to bottom and, so to speak, manipulate it.

I have spoken with scientists in our world with great minds who contain so much information based on the fact that “someone said,” “someone thinks,” “according to this,” NS “according to that.” They drown in an enormous mass of information, unable to chew it. Because they rely on knowledge, and therefore, it is difficult for them.

Question: But you cannot see through all the states of other people, can you? You are not omnipresent to see everything as if on a plate.

Answer: Yes, I see nature in general. Of course, I do not know all the states, all the metamorphoses, everything that happens and passes through each one. I simply know the general plan of development. I have gone through it myself and therefore understand what the others must go through since the path of the individual and the path of the whole are absolutely identical.

I know the nature of all transformations and changes, and therefore, it is no secret to me. I do not know a person’s private states; I am not a psychic who can look at another person and say what he is thinking, like Wolf Messing.

Kabbalah, by the way, does not give such abilities at all (to do some kind of extrasensory tricks in our world, perform various stunts, add twenty-digit fractions, numbers, and so on). It does not allow seeing the past or seeing the future in a private sense; it simply gives the general system of all development. You feel how you pass through this system, and understand from what you are now going through, how it must develop further.

You do not enter private souls. And why is that needed? What difference does it make what I might see in others?

Question: So, you recall the states you went through, and only because of this can you understand what is happening with a person?

Answer: Of course, only from my own experience and only up to the degree on which I am today. If you ask me about what is above this degree, I can only guess, I am not certain, absolutely not certain.

Moreover, all my experience tells me that all this is absolutely incorrect. On the contrary, if you tell me: “What do you think: will it be this way or that way,” I can tell you anything, and it will still be unpredictable.
[350300]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Reason and Feelings” 10/5/10

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Question: If Kabbalah is a science, then why is it said that the surrounding light acts only on those who believe?

Answer: Faith is the force of bestowal. It is not about believing someone’s words. In the science of Kabbalah, faith is the force of bestowal, Bina; it is not words spoken by someone and accepted by someone else as fact.

In science, it is not customary to believe, and Kabbalah does not use this concept of faith. It is not a religion!

I rely on the advice of the Kabbalists in order to draw the surrounding light upon myself. They tell me what needs to be done and they explain why.

With their help, I study the system, trusting them the way a child trusts a schoolteacher or their parents. A small one must trust the grown-up in order to rise to a higher degree, relying on the instructions that come from there, but no more than that.

In religion, however, in our world, faith is not trust with subsequent ascent and verification, but a fanatical loyalty with one’s eyes closed.

I do not accept the words of the Kabbalists as facts; I implement them and test them on myself. And afterward, having provided myself with a full set of knowledge and evidence, I will be able to continue the research on my own.
[4875]
From the Kabbalah Lesson 9/11/09, Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book From the Mouth of a Sage”

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