News Story: Down the Tube: the Sad Stats On Happiness, Money and TV

“Put down the remote and back slowly away from the television.

Despite the sharp rise in our standard of living in recent decades, Americans today are little or no happier than earlier generations. Why not?

A new study suggests one possibility: Maybe we need to be smarter about how we spend our time. And, no, that doesn’t mean watching more TV.”

The article continues by outlining three components of happiness:
1. Your nature or personality, that is, whether or not you’re a happy person by nature – and you have no control over this.
2. Your life’s circumstances, such as your age, health, marital status and income. The study continues by saying that these are nowhere near as important as people usually imagine them to be, giving the example that even if our income doubled, we would get used to it very quickly.
3. Your use of your time.

The study showed that people were generally happy in activities that the authors described as “’engaging leisure and spiritual activities’ – things like visiting friends, exercising, attending church, listening to music, fishing, reading a book, sitting in a cafe or going to a party” – and that people choose to undertake such activities, instead of doing them out of necessity.

Moreover, the study mentioned watching TV as taking a lot more of people’s time than the above-mentioned activities did in the past, and that if we spent more time on the “engaging leisure and spiritual activities,” we would then have a more satisfying life.

My Response: Soon we will start finding out that even these activities will leave us empty and unfulfilled. We will search for fulfillment in all kinds of places, until we arrive at our last desire: the desire to discover the meaning of life, through the attainment of the Creator.

Related Material:

* ARTICLE: It’s All About Pleasure – Although we enjoy different things, we all share a common need to fulfill our desire for pleasure

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A question I received on my post Depression – the Epidemic of the 21st Century: I usually hear you talking about materialistic psychology. What is it?

My Answer: Materialistic psychology explains everything that is based on precise experiments, statistics, without the use of philosophy or psychological theories – it’s nothing but bare practice!
The following is an excerpt from the article “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy,” where Baal HaSulam writes about materialistic philosophy:

“Not only is it the wrong place to argue with them about their fabricated conjectures, but also their time has already passed and their authority revoked. We should also thank the experts of materialistic psychology for that, having built its plinth on the ruin of the former, winning the public’s favor. Now everyone admits to the nullity of philosophy, for it is not built on concrete foundations.

… For that reason we are grateful to materialistic psychology for having beaten it a deadly blow.”

Related Material:
* BLOG POST: Philosophy and Kabbalah
* LESSON: The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy – Baal HaSulam’s article with commentary by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD – wmv video | mp3 audio [57:39]

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A question I received: How did man evolve on Earth? You wrote that millions of years ago a primitive man appeared on Earth. How did he get here?

My Answer: Well, he obviously wasn’t put together with clay. His mommy and daddy gave birth to him just like our mommy and daddy gave birth to us – the same as how all animals’ parents give birth to their offspring. So what’s the difference between this first man and his parents? The difference lies in the Reshimo (spiritual gene) that appeared within him, the characteristic of our world’s final, egoistic stage.

The Reshimo of the still, vegetative, animate and human natures (also called “the four degrees of HaVaYaH”) is the template according to which everything evolves. Darwin, as well as every other theorist, is mistaken in thinking that a following, higher phase can evolve from a phase that preceded it. It’s simply impossible to evolve in such a way.

However, as a result of the souls’ decent into our world, there exists information (Reshimo) about the following phase in the last link of the preceding phase. As such, it only takes one generation for monkeys to beget people.

The first people are pretty much indistinguishable from their parents. However, they gradually evolve over the generations according to what their human nature dictates to them. They thus separate from monkeys and become more and more evolved human beings. The Reshimo within them progressively continues to manifest new signs of evolution and unity, starting to make them experience more and more suffering on the human level. As a result, they become evolved human beings.

Everything is initiated by the Reshimo – the informational gene – and not by the evolution of blind nature, as Darwin thought.

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A question I received: Do you really think that the world will ever take Kabbalah seriously? It is absolutely irrational. Besides, claiming that Kabbalah is the one and only truth discredits it in the eyes of the scientific community and aggravates the masses.

My Answer: You know, the title of my PhD dissertation was “Kabbalah as a Form of Irrational Consciousness.” I had to write “irrational” in order to say “the system of total interconnection in the universe,” because a person living in today’s modern world doesn’t yet understand or feel this system.

Today, a person thinks that taking care of himself is reasonable and rational. Kabbalah, on the other hand, explains the universe as an integrated system, and as such, states that all problems must be solved based on a common coherent system of all the worlds, including our world.

Let’s say that today, in light of the planet’s threatening state, we could decide together (or place our trust in some sage) on what is beneficial for the complete system, even if we just decide with regard to our planet, without Kabbalah or the Creator. As a result of such unconscious attempts to connect with the system of Adam ha Rishon (the system of souls), we would begin to feel the Upper world – the altruistic links between us. This altruistic connection to one another is the quality of the Creator.

I believe that humanity will come to assess reality with such objectivity, that personal and national issues will take a back seat or disappear altogether from our field of consideration. This is because solutions will come by themselves when we deal with the system as a whole, when everything is measured from the standpoint of the WHOLE of humanity.

Kabbalah is the one and only truth, because no other science in the world today speaks about and examines the whole world as a single organism. Even today, we are not yet thinking like Abraham was thinking 4,500 years ago.

* Kabbalah as a Root of All Sciences
* Kabbalah as Compared with Other Sciences

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Two questions I received on my post When Will People Recognize Kabbalah as a Science:

Question #1: Dear Rav Laitman, I made a search of your posts, and found no reference to chaos theory and fractal geometry. In my Kabbalah classes, here in Colorado Springs, and in my reading, Kabbalah and fractals are essentially synonomous. Such terms as “resemblance,” “similarity,” and “equivalence of form” are all applicable to fractals. I am wondering if you have considered this science, discovered by Benoit Mandelbrot in the 1970s, as a model and vehicle to explain Kabbalah?

My Answer: When I started studying Kabbalah in 1979, I ceased my serious scientific studies. Instead, I worked to provide for my family, and I gave everything else exclusively to my Kabbalah studies. My knowledge of other sciences is limited only to the extent necessary for clarifying Kabbalistic principles. If the science is genuine, i.e. if it’s based on practice and experiments, then it is always and in all ways similar to the science of Kabbalah.

Question #2: Do you think increasing availability of information instantly over the Internet and the advent of mobile devices such as the iPhone will increase interest in Kabbalah, and how do you perceive the future of human technology as a vehicle for attainment of the Upper Light?

My Answer: Everything in our world, technology included, is developing for only one purpose: to help humanity correct itself in the most optimal way, either through positive or negative influence, and come to equivalence of form with the Creator. Equivalence of form with the Creator is the purpose of creation. The very existence of our world, and everything developing in it, is only for this one purpose! For instance, thanks to the Internet, we can now study Kabbalah together from every distant corner of the planet, as if we are right next to each other.

A question I received on my post Hyperactive Children – the Result of Evolving Egoism: You talk about ‘Hyperactive’ children and mention the use of Ritalin. I would be interested to know your thoughts on severe ADHD and whether you have seen the actions of such a child without medication? The reason I ask, is that 3 members of my family have been diagnosed with ADHD, but one has it severely. I know there is no right answer here and each person is different to the next. With Ritalin, he can be a very loving and caring person, but without it, he can be suicidal and has come close several times to being sectioned.

My Answer: You’re speaking of an illness, and not the typical hyperactivity that stems from an increased egoism of the new generation, which contains sparks of spirituality, attracting them to discover the Upper World, and as such not letting them be at peace in this world. In your case, the children need proper medical care!

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Cellular memory is an interesting phenomenon: a recipient of an implanted organ acquires certain characteristics and habits of the organ’s previous possessor. People with implanted organs assert that their preferences, behavior, and social manners have changed. Some people suddenly develop interests in arts, those that feared heights become mountain-climbers, and so on…

Kabbalah says that our entire body is a complete, sole mechanism and it is impossible to implant something foreign into it, without having the entire organism incorporated into this change. This is because each cell has its own brains, memory and modus operandi; it perceives the entire body and participates in the body’s full operation. The work of the cell in sustaining the life of the body stems from taking part in the operation of the entire organism.

In light of this, we can only guess how tightly we are all connected within that whole organism of our earthy civilization – and how we share our properties with one another.

As both our individual and collective egoism continues to grow, the interdependence and interconnection among all people will become more apparent. Thus arises the opportunity for us to establish completely new principles of upbringing and education. These principles will be based on our influence on one another and the interconnection of all people within a single, common organism.

That brings us to the method of attaining a common, harmonious society – similar to a healthy organism – based on the principles of complementing one another, and keeping the balance between the two forces of creation: reception and bestowal.

Here is how Kabbalah explains it:
1. In the upper part of one’s soul there is a lower part of a higher soul,
2. The lower part of one’s soul is in the upper part of a lower soul.

This means that everyone’s soul is completely connected with both its upper and lower soul, and therefore lacks its own free space. Realizing that will bring humanity to absolute integration.

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It seems to us that nature is governed by the law of survival of the fittest. But in fact, this couldn’t be farther from the truth, because the interconnection among all species forces them to care about each other’s survival. Zoologists, for instance, know that the fierce fights between animals always end with peace, and never lead to death or even injury, because they fight only to establish the hierarchy within the pack.

An outside view on a living organism might suggest that it’s completely controlled by blind nature: it seems that hostile forces surround it as it struggles for survival. However, scientists are discovering that everything is dynamically balanced, and survival is based not on struggle, but on the mutual cooperation among all species, where both support and struggle complement and balance one another, thus creating equilibrium.

Even the roots of different plants coalesce and create a unified system, as plants with less developed roots receive additional support from stronger ones. When one species of plants is being replaced by another, it isn’t a struggle for territory, but a developmental process of the circle of life.

The interaction between plants and insects is no secret either: flowers give insects food (nectar), while the insects transport pollen, thus ensuring fructification. Even the size of insects corresponds to the shape of the flowers in a way that helps them with the selection of pollen. The interdependency among plants and animals is so strong that the extinction of certain types of plants leads to the disappearance of certain animals. And that, in turn, leads to the extinction of another type of plants and animals, because everything is interconnected within nature’s all-inclusive system.

As it happens, in addition to a struggle for survival, there is also cooperation in nature, both within the species and between them. And the reason for this is not anyone’s direct, self benefit, but simply because everyone’s survival is possible only through the interconnection with all the others.

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Comment for ML: On the one hand, one who has checked out other methods and comes to the method of Kabbalah, discovers that there is no other method for attaining spirituality. On the other hand, Laitman says, rather dogmatically, that there is no other method which can lead a person to spirituality, however, he also says that every person has to verify everything for himself.

My Response:
You’re right. If you tell modern scientists that you possess the one and only true universal wisdom, they won’t even talk to you. This is because modern science, especially over the last century, has come to understand nothing is absolute. Human instruments of attainment are limited, and do not comprehend the complete picture of creation, but only tiny pieces, and therefore any conclusions are impossible. Kabbalah reveals the universe in pieces as well, but as a hologram, where each piece contains the entire universe in itself, on a smaller scale, in the same 10 Sefirot, according to the principle “the particular is equal to the general.”

The process of verifying the validity of doctrines, methods, philosophies and religions – sorting through and comparing them, by a researcher who is subjective and undergoing personal transformations as well – is endless.

Or you can forgo all other doctrines, mysticisms, philosophies and religions of this world and commence an analytical study of Kabbalah, as a scientist-researcher and as a Kabbalist, i.e., attaining the Upper World just as you sense this world. Then you can verify for yourself that you are passing though the same states described in Kabbalistic books and in exactly the same order. Sure, these states could be unpleasant – periods of frustration, apathy, and so on, since you are discovering a robot, an egoist and an animal within yourself, out of which you will then be building a human being. And yet, the order of the development of that human being in you is genuine and verifiable at all times in history. At the same time, you will begin to understand how your consciousness, attainment and perception of the surrounding world depend exclusively on your qualities, and how everything changes as they change. In summary, either the world will keep deteriorating as our ego grows – or we will change ourselves and the world will change for the better!

My Current Mood: creative

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Kabbalah divides everything in existence into pleasure and the desire to receive that pleasure. Nothing else exists in nature. Objects in nature consist only of the desire to receive pleasure and its fulfillment, and they differ only by the degree of their desire to receive pleasure.

The desire divides into the following levels:
1. Still
2. Vegetative
3. Animate
4. Human (Spiritual)

Desires 1-3 are desires to receive pleasure for oneself (at someone or something else’s expense). These desires are natural, i.e. nature gives them to us. When the body dies, the sensation of life disappears. Desire 4 is the desire to please others (and receive pleasure by doing so). Nature doesn’t give us such a desire. It appears under the influence of the Upper Force, which is attracted through the study of Kabbalah. Since this desire is independent of the body, whoever acquires it comes to feel his existence as eternal.

Everything in our world – including love – is determined by the egoistic desire to receive pleasure. Both humans and animals buy and exchange love, as with any other type of pleasure or fulfillment. This shows, yet again, that our desires stay within the limits of the animate level.

Monkeys also pay for sex. Michael Gumert (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) discovered this fact while researching 50 macaques. On average, female macaques have intercourse 1.5 times per hour. But if a male grooms a female, that number increases to 3.5 times per hour. The macaques grooming is done by picking fleas off each other. If there are many females around, then the “cost” of sex drops – a male can “buy” a female for eight minutes of flea picking. If, however, there are few females, then the male has to groom her for sixteen minutes before she gives her consent. According to Ronald Noe of Strasburg University, the same kind of socio-sexual interaction also takes place universally among human beings.

My Current Mood: okay

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Kabbalah is the science of revealing Nature (the Creator). It was discovered by Abraham, as a result of his research into egoism’s growth within human nature. He was a Babylonian priest who focused his attention on the increasing egoism in his nation. Abraham revealed the complete picture of Nature (the Universe). Subsequent Kabbalists complemented his research with their own, adding details and developing the method of attaining Nature for anyone who so desired. Such development continues into our times: Since egoism constantly develops, within each individual’s lifetime, as well as from generation to generation, so the method of attainment is being expanded and perfected. Today, we’re developing a method that will allow the masses to master Nature/the Creator.

It is true for all sciences, that every new scientific discovery had always existed, but was unknown to us beforehand. Since egoism is growing, there are also new discoveries in Kabbalah – with regard to the people who are attaining them.

My Current Mood: energetic

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