Opinion (His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama): “He said that the source of our problems is self-centredness. Theistic religions tackle this by complete submission to God, whereas Buddhism reduces self-centredness by focusing on selflessness, the lack of a single, autonomous self, and the advice to regard others as more important than us. He counselled that once we understand that our different religions have common goals, we understand the grounds for granting them equal respect. …

“‘Compassion brings peace of mind and with it better health; so cherish compassion. … As human beings we are all the same; we are born the same and we die the same. We need to emphasize the oneness of humanity, how we are all the same as brothers and sisters.’ …

“He said that when we are in the grip of destructive emotions we are unhappy, but when we develop love and compassion for others we feel happier and more at ease. Competitiveness and jealousy give rise to fear and mistrust; we lose friends and become lonely. When we are free from fear, trust and friendship grow. When our minds are at peace, we are less anxious and free from fear. And today, scientists and thinkers recognise that true happiness comes from peace of mind. …

“His Holiness then turned to the topic of secular ethics, his belief that in a materialistic world we need to find ways to foster and encourage people to nurture fundamental, humane, inner values. He feels that this can best be done through the medium of secular education, using the word secular as the Indian constitution does, not to exclude religion, religious believers or non-believers, but to accord all of them an inclusive respect. He encouraged his listeners to understand that if they passed on their interest in what he had to say about this to others, the word would spread.”

My Comment: Religions will never come together because they are based on the egoism of believers. They divide people. Rising above them and uniting, that is, accepting unity above all the differences, including religious, is the way out of the crisis. The appeal must be towards unity, despite the differences. We see in religions only hatred of strangers and people of other faiths and never true calls for unity and love. That is why, the Dalai Lama talks about non-religious ethics as appropriate to address the challenges of the 21^st century.
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Baal HaSulam, “The Peace,” First Method: Nature

This method is an ancient one. Since they did not find a way and an outlet to bring these two conspicuous opposites closer, they came to assume that the Creator, who created all these, who watches mightily over His reality lest any of it be cancelled, is mindless and senseless.

Hence, although He watches over the existence of reality with wondrous wisdom, yet He Himself is mindless, and does all that senselessly. If there had been any reason and feeling in Him, He would certainly not leave such malfunctions in the provision of reality without pity and compassion for the tormented. For this reason, they named Him “Nature,” meaning a mindless, heartless supervisor. And for that reason, they believe that there is no one to be angry at, to pray to, or to justify oneself to.

This is an ancient concept, approach, although we see it as a new attainment of materialism. The simplest way is to see the world as it is, and this was actually the initial approach of humanity. Religions, beliefs, and philosophical approaches came along much later, when man developed internally, became more complex, and began to invent different myths. In the beginning people simply saw nature and lived in it like animals who also don’t believe in anything. This is how we should actually relate to nature, as it says, “a judge only has what his eyes can see.”

The following approaches stemmed from the disagreement with what happens in nature; people invented them as different excuses, and so they are all false. In fact, we see facts that are independent of our attitude towards them. But man invents different excuses in order to sweeten life or to enjoy false hopes.

A healthy attitude to life is in the scientific approach. We see the effect of unchangeable exact laws everywhere, the activity of systems and the periodicity of natural elements. If I see that that’s the way things are, then it is so, and don’t offer me different lies. I see the truth and any addition to it is individual and cannot be counted on. It is in these additions that beliefs are created, while nature is revealed in facts as it actually is.

The wisdom of Kabbalah continues this approach, telling us about the principles of the perception of reality. We see this world before us, and, except for that it, says that there is a whole area called “the upper world,” which is not imaginary, but which can be studied scientifically. Thus the wisdom of Kabbalah continues conventional science and conducts research beyond the boundaries of conventional science.

With the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah, I continue scientific research and develop new vessels of perception, expand their range, and keep the principle of “a judge only has what his eyes can see.” There is nothing more than that; everything else, including religions, is actually philosophy.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/12, “The Peace”

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Religions, science, philosophy, everything that man has developed, is intended to bring him closer to the Creator. But this connection is actually fulfilled by the wisdom of Kabbalah.

If I study about the fifth level of “thickness” of my desire and about the processes that take place in it in connection to different periods or values, then it is generally called “science,” “philosophy,” or “psychology.” One way or the other, I study what is happening within my desire to receive.

When do I study that? During the exile. That is the right time and the right situation.

Besides, there are people who yearn to rise above their desire to receive, above the exile. Thus they develop this ability internally—they study about higher levels with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah. On this level they acquire a connection with the Creator, which means that they build their desire to receive so that it will take on the Creator’s form.

It has no form or shape, and in order to stabilize this resemblance I summon the Surrounding Light that reforms me. This Light enters my desire and builds the form of bestowal in me, which is similar to the Creator, the Returning Light.

So science, philosophy, and psychology speak about what is happening within our desire to receive. We develop these disciplines without changing ourselves but in a rational manner. So even the worst person can reach great heights in every scientific field. A philosopher may be a Nazi and indeed anyone. Today it is possible to arrange a philosophical concept that will justify all the evil in the world.

The wisdom of Kabbalah, on the other hand, has a different approach: A person changes himself for the good, to bestow, and to this extent, he discovers the Creator. This is a totally different wisdom, and ordinary scientists cannot understand it, since it is based on a person’s transformation.

Today, such change is necessary, as the upper dimension that is being revealed obligates us. This is where the cry of science, philosophy and man stems from. If we don’t start changing ourselves according to Godliness that is being revealed, we will find ourselves opposed to it. The real problem isn’t concealed in this world, but rather in the fact that the Creator “lands” on us, the integral network of the general mutual connection. It is hanging over us, like a giant flying saucer from a science fiction movie, and descends, thus leaving us fewer and fewer options to maneuver. Let’s hope that people will understand this.

So it all depends on a person: whether he changes himself in order to continue his development correctly now, or not.

Let’s get back to science and philosophy: The exile of the Jewish people and its integration with the nations of the world was meant to provide us with science, with information about the desire to receive. The wisdom of Kabbalah, on the other hand, teaches us about the external reality, changing our desire, and it is arranged that way so that the Light will go through the desire and will give it the form of bestowal. Without the passing of the Light, the wisdom of Kabbalah wouldn’t exist. It appeared when people began to explore their desire, its structure, and life, and after having examined it, they began to draw the Light that Reforms upon themselves, which means that they began to reform themselves and to change to the good, to bestowal instead of receiving.

The Light changes my discernments and I collect the data and eventually discover a new science called “the wisdom of Kabbalah.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/12, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Until the destruction of the Second Temple, the wisdom of Kabbalah was the Torah, the study of the Israeli nation, the group that Abraham brought out of Babel and made into a nation that lives according to the laws of the wisdom of Kabbalah. The destruction of the Temple means that they fell from love thy friend as thyself into unfounded hatred.

Since then the wisdom of Kabbalah ceased to exist among the people who we still call the people of Israel, although they were no longer connected to the law of love thy friend as thyself, and therefore have no right to be called “Israel” (Yashar – Kel), which means “straight to the Creator.” So the understanding of what we need the wisdom of Kabbalah for was lost. Baal HaSualm speaks about his fear, “and it is fearful that it will be forgotten, God forbid, in the people of Israel.”

He is afraid of that, but others don’t even think about it since they don’t know what the wisdom of Kabbalah is needed for. And to that end, Baal HaSulam wrote the “Introduction to TES,” in order to explain why it is obligatory to study the book “The Study of the Ten Sefirot“ (TES) and the wisdom of Kabbalah in general.

He didn’t see that people were interested in this wisdom or that they respond to his appeal, that they even listened to how important and essential this wisdom is. Everyone rejected it by finding different excuses. Religious people who studied the Torah didn’t understand why they needed something else. And a person who lived an ordinary corporeal life was afraid that the wisdom of Kabbalah would ruin his life. Who knew what forces were hidden in it, what he would summon upon himself by mentioning the Holy names, perhaps he would summon troubles by that…

Others justified themselves by saying that there were people who studied Kabbalah, who called themselves Kabbalists, but who didn’t recommend it to others. There are many reasons why the wisdom of Kabbalah was pushed aside, away from general attention, and it is a wonder that it has existed until now. After all there were many wisdoms that were forgotten and have disappeared throughout history.

People reject this study, but Baal HaSulam thought that this should stop. The time had come for mankind to change our attitude and to show people why the wisdom of Kabbalah is necessary and why it came into the world—in order to raise humanity to the level of unity with the Creator, which is the goal of our life, the goal of creation. It is time to fulfill this goal here and now.

For this reason Baal HaSulam wrote TES and “The Introduction to TES” in which he explains the importance of its study. In his time it was very hard to bring this idea to people. Today it is accepted in a totally different manner, and we can openly advertise the widespread study of the wisdom of Kabbalah. I remember what a buzz it made in Bnei Brak, an orthodox town, when people found out that I brought a group of nonreligious students from Tel Aviv to my teacher, Rabash. Rabash made a real revolution, but there was no other choice, the world is in such a state that the wisdom of Kabbalah has to be revealed.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/11/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Question: Does Lurianic Kabbalah reject occult hermetic sciences? Can a materialistically oriented person consider hermetic sciences real? Do they actually exist, or not?

Answer: All hermetic sciences are not real; they have no basis for them whatsoever, they’re just a figment of somebody’s imagination, a fantasy. Having my doctorate in Philosophy (the subject of my thesis is “Philosophy, Religion and Kabbalah”) gives me the right to state with confidence that Kabbalah is a pure science.

Because philosophy and any other of our attempts to understand reality are based not on research but solely on reason, which is really based on what is not known, as a rule, they are based on our egoism, but we do not realize it.

As a result, philosophy died a long time ago. All so-called spiritual teachings are gradually vanishing, since people rise above them and see that they are invalid. There are no substantiations or verifications concerning the seriousness of multiple spiritual teachings. They’re exclusively based upon our sensations, but as we all know, feelings can be very diverse; that’s why presently there are about 2800 religions and belief systems, and we see them gradually disappearing.

Kabbalah is not for or against them. It stands aside them; it explores nature as physics or any other regular science does. The major principle of Kabbalah is investigating nature, becoming similar to it, and winning. Kabbalah is a very concrete science; it doesn’t talk about the soul in the way religions do. A soul in Kabbalah signifies an extremely serious and profound attainment and understanding of the world in which we currently live. The purpose of this kind of realization is staying afloat and protecting ourselves from a huge storm that approaches us in response to our ignorance and unwillingness to follow the laws of nature.
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From the Georgia Convention, 11/5/12, Lesson 1

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Question: You have mentioned several times that Kabbalah is a science. Do such concepts as “individual or personal aspect of God” and “the way through Kabbalah, through devotion” have a place in it?

Answer: The higher power in Kabbalah is called “Nature” or the “Creator.” You can call it “God.” But this higher force is not at all what believers mean. This is a clear physical, absolute, good influence on everything that exists, permanent and unchanging. That is why if believers, no matter what faith, ask God to change, in principle their prayers are aimed at this; the people who study Kabbalah strive to change themselves because in their understanding God is absolute.

If He is absolutely good, if He is absolutely loving, then I cannot ask Him to change because He is already absolutely good and loving. The concept of absolute already means that I have no one to ask. For example, how can you ask, for example, your mother who loves you absolutely already to be kinder towards you?

Therefore, all the aspirations, the entire work, of a person is to change himself, to pull himself, to become like God. That is why a human being is called “Adam” from the word “Domeh – similar.” He has to reach this level, to attain it.

Thus, Kabbalah is not related to any religion in its relation to the world and is called science.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/05/12, Lesson 1 

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In the News (from The Jerusalem Post): “It is time for “Jewish” to mean hero; a hero that knows himself, that knows how to overcome his own ego and to love others, teaching others how to do the same.
“It is in these stressfully precarious times, with a growing, world-enveloping economic crisis and the looming threat of Iran, that I found myself in a very interesting meeting. A meeting so delicate and intensely profound that it brought me to wonder in awe about the future we are all about to be living.

“Maybe it will be completely terrible and chaotic, politically, financially, socially and ecologically – but maybe not. Maybe we’ll pull through and find it to be uplifting and transforming.

“I found myself sitting together with my old university professor, the big-hearted and wise psychologist Dr. Kalman Kaplan, an expert in Biblical Psychology and the author of the TILT: Teaching Individuals to Live Together model, and one whose depths I cannot fathom: Dr. Michael Laitman, scientist and…Kabbalist. It was not your ordinary discussion about where we are and where we are heading; there was a very pressing feeling that something big needs to happen, and that it can only happen through the collaboration of many.

“The topic was us. Jews.

“What is going on with us, our identity, our strengths? Are we aware? Are we awake? Are we tapping in to our great ancient wisdom and do we see how relevant it is to today’s issues? Sadly, everyone around the table agreed that the situation is less than favorable.

“So many Jews in America have lost touch with their biblical values and identities, Dr. Kaplan reported. The rich psychological wisdom that could teach us all how to live together is rarely made use of, he said. And what more do we need in a global, interconnected world, than to learn how to live together?

“This is the role and the light we were always meant to bring to the world, said Dr. Laitman. It is in these days of growing interdependence and a gradually revealing crisis of relationship that we can finally do our job. We talked about the trends of extreme individualism that were at the basis of the multi-faceted crisis. In such an intricately woven system of ties and interconnectedness, the lack of shared values followed by reckless self-concern results in dangerous imbalance, Dr. Laitman explained. Dr. Kaplan added that the Jewish tradition emphasizes the right blend between self and other.

“So yes, I thought, we all know that “Love thy neighbor as yourself” is the highest law, but how do we achieve it? How do we merge self and other in such a smooth way as to bring ourselves and the system we are part of into balance? How do we build a bridge across all our differences; our differing points of view, traditions and habits? I remembered the forces that enabled us to build the state of Israel against all odds, and realized that what we need is a powerful and deep shared purpose.

“RABBI KOOK wrote that “unity which comes from the demand of one’s own good, which is for the sake of each individual’s personal good, is a random unity, which is based on an individual’s self-love, and it will not last, for it has no true center. And even when this so-called unity grows, it will end up in the flames of hatred and civil war, since each individual pulls in the direction of his own fulfillment. But the unity that comes from the acknowledgment of the value of the higher purpose, which comes only through the good of others, is based upon the true love of all, and it will last, and the longer it does, the greater and stronger it will be.”

“It is interesting to note how hard times push us closer together; we manage to collaborate, to help each other and feel a togetherness that is uniquely powerful. It’s because of the shared purpose of survival that we can suddenly transcend our petty arguments and differences.

“Imagine how wonderful it would be if these pressures (Iran, the economy, our ecology) only served as triggers to remind us of our true, positive common purpose, of life as a unified, loving people, setting an example to all.

“I learned from Dr. Laitman that Kabbalah is the inner teachings of the Torah, and that it speaks exactly of this. It is all about knowing yourself, and learning to love others, to discover the power that is found in connection. It’s a sense of connection that we already know deep inside and need to reawaken; as is written, thousands of years ago it kept our nation strong, and its loss brought about the destruction of the temple and the great exile.

“I agreed with him that we would all benefit greatly if we could just remember what it is that we have, buried deep in our consciousness and on our bookshelves. Creating educational programs that would teach and remind us of the great treasures of our tradition and how to make them relevant to our daily lives, whether you are secular or observant, would assist in uniting us and bringing back our Jewish identity.

“It would not be the identity we may experience now, the one that so many have walked away from for more “modern” and “free” definitions. It would be a deeper, much more expanded and empowered one, an acknowledgment of our purpose and responsibility.

“The two scholars spoke gravely of how much we have forgotten. They said we need a shofar, a horn to awaken our sleeping brothers to collaborate for the sake of our higher, root cause. Dr. Laitman mentioned the Ari Institute, which has been creating programs that teach the laws of integrality, of how we all need to live in this new global world harmoniously with the natural, interconnected system we are part of; programs that teach the tools that we need to be ourselves, and to love others just the same.

“I was glad to hear that such options are already available. More than anything, our world needs love, connection and inspiration.

“I never would have believed it, but I discovered that these missing ingredients were always there, right under my nose, in my own tradition. Maybe I am the only one who is surprised, but what is certain is that these tools; this wisdom, needs to be actualized so that we could walk out of this crisis not as victims but as heroes. It is time for “Jewish” to mean hero; a hero that knows himself, that knows how to overcome his own ego and to love others, teaching others how to do the same.

“What a meeting it was. I left feeling somewhat concerned, because it seemed like there was so much to do. But I was also glad, because it seemed that there was so much we CAN do. And really, it would only take awareness to change things around.

“I know that the awareness and collaboration of the many great people who are reading this can make it happen. To stand up to the constantly rising trends of anti-Semitism, to give an example of the only true solution to our crises, to give hope to all – let’s remember who we are, let’s bring our nation, and the world some light.”
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Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 11, “Joy With a Quiver”: Hence, where there is love, there should be fear as well, as fear is the hollow. It follows that when there are both, there is wholeness. Otherwise, each wants to revoke the other. Love is called existence, whereas fear is called dearth and hollow. Only with the two of them together is there wholeness. And this is called “two legs,” and precisely when one has two legs can one walk.

All our work concentrates on two lines: the right and the left, and the middle line comes from Above. Here below, we must first worry about wholeness. We should always turn to the right line first and deal with it: to think about wholeness as much as possible, about the Creator’s greatness, about the importance of the goal, and about the greatness of the friends and the group.

On the other hand, it is impossible to constantly be in a state of wholeness, since there will be no advancement then; if a person never leaves the state of wholeness, it is called Hassidism when everything is seemingly accepted with love and joy.

A person raises himself artificially to this kind of attitude, ready to rejoice no matter what happens. Thus he annuls the criticism in him. So it is possible to educate a person to adopt this kind of attitude. Education puts a person in one line, either the right or the left, and he follows this line and constantly holds on to one principle.

There are faiths and religions that keep a person in a state of joy, in constant elation, and there are others that keep him in constant weeping, forcing him to torture himself and to feel that he is a sinner, like a “fool sitting idly eating his own flesh.”

But the right way to advance and to build a human being has to be along two lines, and a person must build them by himself. He must develop the right line by the environment, by imagining the greatness of the Creator, as much as he can. He builds the right line to the extent that he can annul himself before the environment that provides the feeling of the Creator’s greatness.

This means that to be in the right line, he already has to have annulled himself, which means that the left line is included in the right line. If by that he subdues himself before the greatness of the Creator, which he receives from the environment, and he builds his right line, then it is already part of the spiritual work and not just in order to feel happy.
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From the 1^st part to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/12, Shamati #11

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Opinion (Dalai Lama, The 14^th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso): “All the world’s major religions, with their emphasis on love, compassion, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness can and do promote inner values. But the reality of the world today is that grounding ethics in religion is no longer adequate. This is why I am increasingly convinced that the time has come to find a way of thinking about spirituality and ethics beyond religion altogether.”

My Comment: It is time to break away from faith in the unprovable and to follow only real knowledge drawn from the comprehension of Nature as the upper management system, while being limited to the understanding of matter and the form of matter, as stated in The Introduction to The Book of Zohar and nothing more, because anything beyond is part of what cannot be felt, and that is why it is unprovable.

Only by comprehending nature, its laws and trends of development, and only to the extent that it is revealed to man, as indicated by Kabbalah: “The judge has only what his eyes can see,” can we find the right solution to all our problems.
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Baal HaSulam, “A Handmaid that Is Heir to Her Mistress”: The sages of the nations of the world studied all the books of the children of Israel and turned them into delicacies to strengthen their faith, meaning their wisdom, called “theology.”

We see that all the religions took names, words and, concepts from the wisdom of Kabbalah and used it and turned it into something that is totally opposite from Kabbalah in order to prove that they are right. As if by playing with the words and definitions it is possible to change this world. Today it is gradually revealed, but in the meantime throughout history it brought about great destruction all over the world and especially the destruction of the people of Israel.

Until now all the religions were fueled by the wisdom of Kabbalah because without it they wouldn’t even know what to call the different forces and would remain at the level of ancient Greek mythology. By stealing the description of the spiritual system from the wisdom of Kabbalah, they pretended to understand its structure and thus grew very strong and lured billions of people who are attracted to that. Of course, it became a great flaw in the correction of the world.

But on the other hand, the flaw and the corruption takes us deeper into the matter of creation and by that we feel more clearly the oppositeness between the two forces: the evil force versus the good force. This path is actually necessary. There is no goodness without evil, and there is no evil without goodness.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/12, “A Handmaid that Is Heir to Her Mistress”

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