Fundamentals of Kabbalah – 09.04.11
Posted on September 4th, 2011
Question: How can we explain to people the true meaning of social justice?
Answer: Along with the external demands, people feel deep inside the bitterness of inequality, of social and national injustice, of various differences. A person values himself not for who he is, but in comparison with others. Never before have we lived as well as today, but when we look at each other, we feel bad.
Of course, there are people who truly live “from paycheck to paycheck,” and their living standards should be immediately raised to the minimal level. However, all the other imbalances need to be fulfilled primarily by way of mutual unification.
No “just distribution” will help here: It will only aggravate conflicts. Any addition to someone would raise rumors and criticism, discontent and resentment. Try to increase salaries in one of the sectors, and it will be hated. Even if this is not done at my expense, and even if I am not supposed to get more, I am still wondering why the money was given to them and not to me.
In what case will I be happy for a person who was given a raise? Only if I am connected to him by the ties of love. So, first, I should be taught the right attitude so that I consider him. For starters, before we even reach mutual guarantee, we need to understand that we completely depend on each other.
[53201]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/31/2011, “The Nation”
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Question: Many of us belong to a religious group in addition to Bnei Baruch and attend church services regularly; and some of us even teach Sunday School or Bible Studies at the church we go to. Perhaps it’s being generous to say so, but it seems the vast majority of the people who associate themselves with a religion are indeed searching for answers to life’s questions.
Is it a worthy task to introduce the Kabbalistic method of Baal HaSulam into the Bible study curriculum of the Western religious institutions? And if so, what is the correct approach?
Answer: Religion exists due to the concealment of the Creator, while Kabbalah is the method of His revelation in the corrected desires of man. Therefore, religion and Kabbalah have opposite purposes. As soon as the Creator becomes revealed, there is no place for religion.
[51712]
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Question: How can we avoid a didactic and threatening tone in our explanations?
Answer: You need to show people that what you are talking about is not your imagination, but the phenomena and laws of nature.
For instance, I had an acquaintance in Russia who was an expert in materials strength. Once by chance, I attended his presentation. He was shown the specifications of a particular unit in a submarine, and he drew a conclusion: “It will not withstand it. Under the planned operating conditions, it will be disasterous.” And indeed, despite the emotions and distrust of his interlocutors, it happened the way he predicted.
I was impressed by his strictly scientific approach: These are the laws of nature, and nothing can be done here. The fact was that the unit could not withstand the pressure.
Thus, we have to show people that this is not our personal opinion, but these are the laws of nature. “Look and see for yourself. Shout as much as you wish, but it will not work.”
Everything depends on the correct explanation, in other words, on education. This is our entire work. Regardless of a person’s views, I just want to show everyone that my message doesn’t come from me; it is not my personal opinion and not my religion. This is the nature of things; check and make sure yourself.
Of course, I should prepare and adapt the material to make my presentation suitable for the audience. But overall, my task is to present the facts.
Imagine, a person is jumping from the 100th floor because at the level of the 99th floor, a green fabric is stretched, which appears to him to be a lawn. So, I need to push away this illusory “grass” ahead of time and show him the real distance to the ground.
[53302]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/2011, “The Nation”
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Question: Why does the egoism in our world keep the mind and feelings from connecting?
Answer: It is an obvious fact that when we are very worried about something, the mind vanishes into thin air. And when we try to understand or examine something, then feelings disappear. These two different approaches, sensory and rational, cancel each other out.
This is a consequence of the breaking. Our root is in the breaking, when the screen that used to connect the mind and the heart, calculation and pleasure, disappeared. That is why in our world, we are unable to make a correct calculation based on feelings. And the more we can leave our feelings behind, the faster we can look at them from aside. The more we move away from our feelings, the more we are able to make a sound calculation in the place which has been freed up, on that same interval that is not filled by feelings.
It appears to us that we are able to connect the mind and the heart, but in reality we cannot. If I were 100 percent inside my sensation but started coming out of it by 30 percent, I would be able to work with my mind in the place that is 30 percent free from feelings.
In our world, feelings and the mind cannot work together. If the mind and feelings were connected, it would be the Reflected Light, a spiritual action. Before this occurs the Restriction (Tzimtzum) must happen, the reception of the Light that Reforms, the merger with the upper one by faith above reason so as to acquire the mind and the heart of the upper one, or to work above one’s feelings with the help of a higher reason.
This already relates to spiritual work. It’s exactly the purpose of the screen: to connect the sensation and the mind, “The Torah and the work.”
[52733]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/8/2011, Shamati #45
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Question: I first became familiar with Kabbalah through the Kabbalah Centre. I have a set of The Zohar translated into English by Michael Berg. I really enjoy your site and receive your email, but recently I saw a video on your site that says, “no red strings.” Do you stand apart from the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles (the Bergs) and if so, what is the difference between your information and theirs? Also The Zohar I have, do you feel Michael Berg’s interpretations are accurate?
Answer: There are many organizations that study Kabbalah. If you study authentic materials of Baal HaSulam with the intent to rise above your ego, not for the sake of health, business success, or prediction of the future, but to achieve a modest existence in this corporeal life and come to the complete bestowal of everything to people, you’re in the right place.
Nowhere in Kabbalah will you find information about amulets being a method of egoism’s correction, and the ARI criticizes them. How can money buy the future, if all of Kabbalah is the method of correcting egoism?
[51795]
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Question: If the Creator doesn’t exist outside, but is revealed within us, then what is the Surrounding Light? Doesn’t it come from the outside?
Answer: There is Malchut of the world of Infinity. Besides it, there is nothing else.
Once it was full of the Light of Infinity. Then a restriction was placed on, and it assumed a different form once the Light of Infinity left it. Then the same Malchut manifested itself in the form of worlds and souls, meaning its parts. Some of them pertain to external orbits, and others to internal ones.
Similarly, in our world the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature represent the external part, and the human or speaking level represents the internal one. This determines spiritual development as well: Man is tasked with the intention, while the other parts of nature only carry out actions. Ultimately, Malchut of Infinity arrives at its final state: the end of correction.
Thus, there are many states, but no matter what they may be, they are all permeated with one desire and one Light. What changes, then? The awareness, the intention over the desire. In other words, changes occur only with respect to the creature’s attitude toward the Creator or desire for the Light. Nothing changes except for my attitude, understanding, perception—my acquaintance with the world I live in.
[52740]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/26/2011, “One Commandment”
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Question: What does the science of Kabbalah say about the current moment? How can it help us in this important transition period?
Answer: We live in a special time. Our world stands at the threshold of the ascent to a new, inner, spiritual, stage of development of the human within us.
Until now, as the science of Kabbalah explains, we were developing naturally, obeying the impulses of our egoism. It forced us to transform society, change family life, develop technologies, reshape countries and formations, and introduce changes in education and culture. We were always headed in the direction that the natural inner urge pulled us towards.
But today we have reached a certain satiation. The world as though ceases to provide us with pleasures. It no longer satisfies us economically: We feel certain barriers preventing us from moving on. The American theory of the consumer society with infinite growth of exports and imports, with unlimited technological and productive capacity has exhausted itself. Moreover, we have transitioned to the downward trend, to decline, which, according to economists, will be long, and no one knows when it will end.
According to the science of Kabbalah, the way we understand it today, the crisis will never end. At this stage of development, we have realized our egoism, as well as the potential of the surrounding nature, causing terrible distress to it. As a result, we are on the verge of collapse in the areas of human and social development, education, and ecology.
In this situation, we need to consider what has happened to us. Are we going to continue in this manner? We have literally ruined ourselves, having evidently made a mistake in our objectives and goals. Do we want to increase consumption, thereby destroying the environment? Do we want to get stuck in our “mechanical” race?
Having hardly used manufactured goods, we throw them away to buy new ones. And this is our life. Would we want to fill our being with similar games in wealth, honor, and power? Is the meaning of human life in monthly changes of mobile devices and other symbols of consumption?
Today, the process that we are going through forces us to slow down and invites us to reflect on it. Evidently, there is a different program built in Nature, and we have to look into it.
Universal wisdom, general balance, homeostasis, which we discover in Nature, remains outside of man. For Nature, a human being is a foreign element, a cancerous tumor, devouring its environment and itself.
We are destroying human society, spoiling ourselves and our children, distorting everything, and leaving ourselves no opportunity for correct existence. If we look at the world “from aside,” people seem to be blind, moving along a suicidal path. They continue to play power games, to destroy themselves, children, society, and the future, and are not aware of this.
That is why we are in the crisis. In fact, this is not a crisis. This is salvation. Today, when all the systems created by us are collapsing, we get a clear sign which leads us to the point of truth. Finally, we can see that we have no choice but a radical change of attitude towards life.
Instead of continuing to roll down towards self-destruction, what is still wanted by politicians, economists, and, indeed, by the greater part of humanity, all the people, communities, and organizations who already see what is happening must together work out a new approach towards the world and nature, in order to move on in a different way.
[52667]
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Question: When there are many people sitting in a hot room, there will always be one person who is cold and who forces everyone else to turn off the AC. Say most of humanity is able to adapt to the impending changes. But what should we do about those who are stuck and are not ready to leave the current state?
Answer: It’s important to correct yourself rather than the world. True, I want to elicit external movements and I try to help people understand the process and method of self-correction. However, in essence, I only care about how to correct myself. I do not correct my neighbor. I give him the method in the gentlest form possible, but I do not make him act; this is already his choice.
Therefore, we do not bother people who aren’t ready for change in any way, shape, or form. They aren’t ripe for it yet. When disseminating the Kabbalisic method, we let every person assess it for himself. I have already stated on numerous occasions that I don’t care how people accept our message. I listen to their responses only to improve the presentation: to state something in a new way and to answer a question that bothers someone. But if I have given all I have and a person still rejects and scorns my words, then I treat him with respect. To me this is also a sign of success because I was able to approach him and reveal his resistance. This is the correct reaction for him today, and nothing can be done about that.
We turn to the outside world only in order to improve ourselves. And if we improve ourselves to the best of our ability, then I don’t have any complaints about people’s responses. Let’s wait another year, or five more years.
However, if we go too far, this will be coercion and we won’t be leaving a person with the opportunity of free choice.
[52963]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/29/11, “The Nation”
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Question: Two forces act in the world: the force of bestowal and the force of the desire to receive, created as existence from absence. What is my “I,” my intention? Where does it come from?
Answer: We do not feel the Creator because we are in one desire: the desire to enjoy. Even if I want to give, it is just for fun. In reality, I am confused in intention and action. My action can be either reception or bestowal. And it can be accompanied by the intention to receive for myself or the intention to give to the other. There is nothing else, and this is our whole life.
In our world, there is an action to receive and an action to give to the other, as well as the intention to receive for oneself. But the intention to give to the other is non-existent; I do not have that ability. I can give something to somebody or receive something from somebody, but my intention is directed exclusively at receiving for myself, whereas the intention to bestow to the other belongs to the spiritual world, but I cannot reach it. It is not my fault: I am created like that.
There is no confusion here at all: My entire routine is aimed at self-enjoyment.
What I need is an intention, and it is the most important thing for me (!), regardless of what action I perform: giving or receiving. I perform bestowal to my child, to those whom I love, to friends, and even to my employer because I receive a reward in a natural way or in money, in the form of respect, power, and so on.
The key here is the intention, according to which I operate. How can I achieve the intention for the sake of bestowal to fellow human beings? And what will it give me?
This is where the problem occurs. If all of reality exists outside of me, then what I currently receive inside is only its tiny part called “this world.” It is terribly small, tight, limited in time, space, and everything else, but by crossing to the other side, I will get rid of any limitations.
This is the difference between the intentions. If my intention is aimed at myself, I will not be able to feel anything greater than I perceive today. If my intention is directed at unity with the other, to be in him, then I save myself from this horrible life with its fatal end and ascend to the next degree of life; I live outside the body. The only difference is in intention.
[52692]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/26/2011, “One Commandment”
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