The living conditions of the last generation require every member of society to know how this society operates, for what purpose it exists, and in what form it should exist.

He must understand that there is no other way than the way nature advances us and affects us from all sides, and our duty is to consciously move toward the right goal of our development, without making mistakes.

The very first thing a person should learn and explain to others is that peace in society, peace on the planet, and peace in each country depend on each other. We see the shattering that the world is in today, what conflicts countries are involved in, and how it affects every person. There are still people who are dissatisfied with the country and are trying to change the government in it.

We need to understand that there is only one way to fix the world; otherwise, we will face the same problems and wars all the time. Therefore, it is so necessary to spread the wisdom of Kabbalah, which explains the structure of the world and the purpose of its existence and discusses the possibility of achieving this goal in the only way: increasing mutual connection between all people.

Only in this way will we be able to come to a good life and not just live comfortably until the end of our days, and after us through the flood, but to achieve eternal life. No one dies, because there is no death; there is only a change in the form of our existence. Time after time, our form is renewed in many cycles of life.

People have always dreamed of eternal life. It is only out of desperation that a person tries not to think about how short life is and how much suffering there is in it. We have to start getting closer to each other; otherwise, the world has no future.

In this sense, a person is more unhappy than an animal because the animal does not know that it will die and does not make any plans for the future. A person knows that death is ahead and still continues to live and move toward it—a completely disgusting state.

What a relief it would be to know that life does not end and that there is life after death. Our universe is infinite and eternal. It is time to say goodbye to the communist idea that a person has nothing in life but an animal body. The animal body of course will die, but everything else in us, human spirit, will remain. We have the opportunity to correct our soul, our inner part, the non-disappearing human self, and belong to eternity.
[305587]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/7/22, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Peace in the World”

Related Material:
We Must Be Eternal!
Ascending Above Time
Master Of Time

Filed under: Body and Soul, Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Globalization, Society of the Future, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: It is said in The Book of Zohar that the Creator sheds tears into the great ocean. Is it because He cannot make corrections for men? How can we understand that the Creator sheds tears?

Answer: Tears are Ohr Hozer, reflected light, i.e., those properties that a person must express in order to clothe the direct light of the Creator in his reflection. Then the light of the Creator is clothed in the light of man, and a good, normal, direct contact arises between them.

Tears are like those remnants (Odafim) that a person cannot correctly perceive and clothe the direct light in them. Therefore, they are thus distinguished and expressed.

Comment: As far as I understand, a person should wish to correct himself, but he does not want it. And the Creator, as if, suffers because of this.

My Response: If we speak from the side of the Creator, then yes. The upper Partzuf sheds tears.
[305232]
From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 11/6/22

Related Material:
Crying from Kabbalah’s Point of View
Eyes And Tears
The Meaning of Spiritual and Physical Tears

Filed under: Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: On one hand, you talk about faith above reason. On the other hand, there is no faith at all in Kabbalah but only attainment. What does it mean?

Answer: Faith above reason is attainment. Faith is the quality of bestowal, the quality of Bina. Bestowal above egoism is called faith above reason. With the help of this condition, a person discovers the upper world by himself.

There is nothing you can do about the fact that the concept of faith has been distorted in our world. Everything in our world is distorted.

Only a person who has risen to the quality of bestowal can we say is a believer.
[219167]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 9/24/17

Related Material:
Rising Above Reason
An Operation In “Faith Above Reason”
Faith Against Reason

Filed under: Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Comment: Shame and guilt are feelings directly related to social norms. As norms are changing, shame and guilt are changing. What used to be shameful is not considered so today. Shame, nevertheless, is the result of incongruity to the ideal. Self-condemnation is a destructive forms of shame is constant self-condemnation.

My Response: That is correct. Why does a person feel ashamed? As a result of self-condemnation.

Question: What does he condemn himself for?

Answer: Everything. That is why there is a sense of shame: “Why am I like this? What is wrong with me?” And so on and so forth.

Question: Is this feeling good or bad, and should it be exterminated?

Answer: It should be very well targeted. Then there will be no sense of shame, and there will be serious work on yourself.

Question: Should there or should there not be a sense of shame?

Answer: The feeling of shame for the fact that you did not have time to correct yourself into something more proper, kind, and so on.

Question: So, I actually have to see something good in front of me in order to experience shame? I do not see anything too good around me. There must be an ideal opposite me. There are no ideals today. I am talking about an ordinary person.

Answer: No, it is not about you seeing the ideal in someone in front of you. The fact is that you would see yourself a little better, a little better than yourself at the moment.

Question: Where does the point of shame begin—from which moment? I have to see something good and feel that I am not like that?

Answer: The point of shame begins from the moment you study yourself and realize that you have to be a little better and comparing this image—to be better than yourself—shame arises from the difference between them.

Question: Where can I get this image?

Answer: We can get it only if we study the science of Kabbalah. It will tell us what it means to be righteous and, based on this, we will see how much we have not grown to this level, and we will be ashamed.

Question: What is a righteous person from the point of view of Kabbalah?

Answer: A righteous person is one that justifies the Creator’s action on him. In everything. And then, by realizing that I am not like that, I feel ashamed.

Question: Then there are two shames. Is the shame experienced by an ordinary person in our life real shame?

Answer: That is a different matter. It is a shame that I was caught stealing, and so on.

Question: Would you call it shame, the fact that I was caught?

Answer: Of course. There are a lot of people who blush like that. And if they were not caught, they would feel proud.

Question: But that is not the same shame you talk about all the time?

Answer: No. I am only talking about the shame that arises in a person who feels himself a degree less than he should have been. Meaning, a degree less than the righteous. And he must come closer to this state of the righteous all the time.

Question: Shame in our world, the usual shame when a person blushes that he was caught stealing, does this shame lead to that other shame or is it a step toward it? Or is it purposely given to us in this world after all?

Answer: It is interconnected but very complicated.

We should try to do what is revealed to us.

Question: And when a parent says to a child: “You should be ashamed of what you did,” where does he come from?

Answer: He must proceed from the fact that the child will correctly discern between what is desired and what is actually there.

And when a child understands this difference, he is ashamed that he is not in the best state where he could be, and then this feeling arises in him which can be called shame.
[304675]
From KabTV’s “New with Michael Laitman” 8/18/22

Related Material:
The Right Attitude To Shame
Is Shame A Means Of Defeat Or An Ascent?
Shame Develops Man

Filed under: News, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Faith above reason requires a special mind. The fact is that the man of this world: you and I, each of us, is built out of egoism, the desire to enjoy, inside of which he feels the whole of reality.

We feel only what can bring us pleasure or, conversely cause suffering, that is, plus or minus relative to our egoistic desire to live pleasantly.

However here a special approach is required by us: I do not want to feel what is pleasant or unpleasant to me, but I try to break away from this dependence, rise above it, and evaluate reality regarding what is good or bad for others. After all, in this way I will begin to see what is outside of me. Otherwise I don’t see anything, the whole world for me is only what determines my own egoistic benefit.

By this I limit myself very much and do not go beyond the animal that thinks only about its stomach, or am like a small naive child who understands only his own pleasure and does not take others into account.

Then the child grows up, and he seems to begin to take care of others, to see and understand the world better. But in fact, we still do not see the world, but simply expand the field of our interests more and more and we can assess what will benefit us and what will harm us.

The sensor with which we perceive reality is created from a single desire to enjoy, and this must be realized. We live inside our egoistic desire, and this is called the creation of this world. In fact, there is no this world, the future world, the upper worlds; there is one reality that depends only on our perception, on our attitude to what is happening.

There are some phenomena in the world that we do not feel at all, because our perception is determined only by what is good or bad for us. We just don’t notice anything else.

If the signal is not picked up by my egoistic sensor, the desire to enjoy, neither as positive nor as negative, I do not feel it at all. Maybe something big is happening around me, but I don’t see anything.

Kabbalists who have attained the upper world say that it is right here. We don’t need to fly somewhere to the other end of the universe, to another galaxy, all the worlds are already here, next to us.

Only we don’t feel them, as we perceive reality only by one narrow parameter: “I feel good” or “I feel bad.” It turns out that the whole reality is limited only by my primitive egoistic interest.

But how can I see more, feel more, understand more, and start coming out of my cocoon? This is possible if I rise above the feeling of “I feel good” or “I feel bad” and acquire the quality of bestowal, the one that is called faith. Then I will feel everything not relative to my own benefit, but in relation to others.

If I begin to evaluate reality in this way, then I rise above myself and gain a new sense organ: faith above reason. Thus I get out into a new, external perception of reality, independent of my egoism. I will be able to feel what others feel outside of me, and thus my view becomes relatively objective, depending on how far I can separate myself from my own interest.

I begin to see the objective reality that I was able to reveal: 125 spiritual degrees, five upper worlds, and gradually develop my view until I see everything that is outside of me. And what is outside of me is called the Creator (Bo-re), that is, “come and see.” Now, I don’t see anything in my desire to enjoy, but I have the opportunity to attain the Creator, the reality that is outside of me.

Then I will understand where I really live, what nature is, and what is happening to me. Therefore, this technique is called Kabbalah (reception), because it teaches how to get a sense of all this boundless reality. And a person who has developed such feelings is called a Kabbalist because he perceives reality objectively, not distorted in his egoistic perception, but as it really is.

Even the very first exit from your egoism allows you to feel that a higher, spiritual reality exists! Thus I begin to understand where I am, what for and why, what process I should go through, what state to reach. And before that, we are completely blind, insensitive, and have no way to look above our egoism. Only faith above reason allows us to break out of it.
[263978]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/30/20, “Concerning Above Reason”

Related Material:
Viruses Instead Of The Creator
A Cross Section In An Unknown Dimension
That Elusive “Faith Above Reason”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Perception, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: Very often your students demand an explanation of the results of spiritual and also in material actions, because they believe that it is impossible to make efforts and not get results. When you were in this situation, what saved you?

Answer: I have always been saved only by the realization that there is nothing else in the world. I have suffered so much in the search for truth, until I found Kabbalah, and from the moment I began to study it, no illusions were left for me about anything created, invented by people, and therefore, I do not take all this seriously.

Of course, I can be engaged in research, but I immediately see the corruption of any other system of worldviews, any other attitude to the world. I am only in one huge movement of internal correction.

This is an enormous gift – a priceless gift that the Creator gave to the inhabitants of this world in order for them to rise to the highest point of unification with Him. How is it possible to leave it?!

I personally missed it so much. It can be said that from the moment of birth until I realized what I had actually found, I was in constant depression, in a feeling of worthlessness.

Even when I was a child, I always looked at myself and the world as if from the outside. I did not perceive it directly, but as if from the side. I looked at myself and the world from the outside: “Well, and what is here? What is the purpose, what for, how, why?”

I think that many people feel this way, but it was accompanied by very unpleasant sensations for me, this worthlessness was pressing me. On the one hand, it was necessary to study and acquire a profession, and on the other hand…

That is why, when I found Kabbalah, of course, right away I dropped everything. I had a great business, all the conditions, and I gave up everything, I couldn’t look at it. Not that it used to interest me, no. I just didn’t have anything else. And now the opportunity to attain the truth appeared—the global, absolute truth. I couldn’t be engaged in anything else, and I became fully immersed in it. So harder or easier, but regarding the goal, I have no questions.
[305365]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Where Are the Results?!” 11/9/13

Related Material:
This Is Undoubtedly the Right Place!
Feeling Life!
Dangerous Fictitious Dealings

Filed under: Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: What is faith above reason?

Answer: Faith above reason means that I rise above my nature and enter the state in which the Creator is, and it is opposite to me, to the way I am today.

The Creator is the quality of bestowal, universal connection, and global love. Initially, I didn’t have this quality. But if I can somehow create it in myself, gather it, and reveal it, then it will be above my current egoistic nature and will be called faith above reason.

After all, reason is what happens in my nature, in egoism, in understanding and feeling. And when I rise above it and want to act in the opposite way, then I will be in the quality opposite to reason—in faith above reason. Opposite does not mean “contrary.”

In our simple understanding of life there are generally a lot of such inconsistencies that you need to first get around and then try to feel, because faith above reason comes in the feeling that there is such a state as the upper world, as rising above yourself, as life in the name of bestowal, and you want to find this state.

When a person has such an inner motion, he begins to prepare for the exit from egoistic slavery. This follows from the fact that a force called the upper surrounding light acts on him for a certain, but long period.

This force is caused by the desire and actions of a person to change himself. And although they are egoistic in their inner content, they are altruistic in their purpose.

If a person receives such an impact from his work in a group during Kabbalah lessons and wants to gain additional strength, to gain a  quality above this world, then it gradually begins to originate and develop in him like the intrauterine development of the fetus. And then this quality of faith above reason is born and begins to exist on its own. It is called the soul.

Speaking in the language of Kabbalah, a person adheres to Bina, as if detaching himself from Malchut. Therefore faith above reason is the quality of Bina, which prevails over the quality of Malchut, or the quality of bestowal, which is realized over the quality of reception, or the desire to bestow, which is organized above the desire to receive.

According to this principle, the construction of a common soul is arranged. This is the principle by which we exist in the spiritual world. We have to build this in ourselves. Until then, none of us has a soul. There is only a physical body, which is not mentioned at all in Kabbalah.

In the science of Kabbalah, the body means our egoistic desire to receive and to enjoy; it exists within us and is completely unrelated to the animal body.
[242486]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 12/23/18

Related Material:
Faith Above Reason Is Attainment
Faith And Reason
To Believe Means To Feel

Filed under: Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: Is there any force of internal energy that can suppress, say, arrogance? A Kabbalist is still at a much higher degree than an ordinary person. If a person has really gone too far, can a Kabbalist use some internal forces?

Answer: Upper forces, secret forces? He cannot, he does not know how, and he should not.

Comment: But there are people who go against the upper nature—so to say.

My Response: There are no people who go against upper forces. This is incorrect. No one goes against the upper forces. Not that he has no right to—he cannot, he is unable to because he is controlled by those same upper forces. How can I go against the Creator if what I do, say, and think comes from Him, and I am just a dummy, a puppet?

This cannot happen. You just have to understand that there are degrees where I have to rebel, including physically. It is said about this: “He who comes to kill you, kill him first.” And in all other cases—no. I cannot act here by any upper forces.

All the gain that a spiritual person has is in his spirit. He cannot use it to harm others. Otherwise, it is no longer spirit, it is not spiritual. The spiritual is only the right intention in the right action of bestowal and love. But this action can destroy the enemy both mentally and physically.

If you really act with love and dedication and your opponent is the opposite, then in the end, he will lose. It can happen through great suffering, through long-term problems, but he will lose. It will be so because he goes against the plan of nature.

Question: If you look at the Holocaust from this point of view, the Nazis lost because of it. But was it, as you have just explained, as a result of the fact that they were going against the plan of nature?

Answer: If the Jews were united among themselves—not against the fascists but among them according to the method of Kabbalah, according to the method of human development—then there would be no Holocaust, everything would be the opposite. Both Europe and the entire history of mankind would have developed differently.

Also today, if Israel were more united, if we could unite it under the banner of bestowal and love so as to become one, in a state of mutual guarantee, then, of course, we would not have any external problems with our neighbors.

All borders would be completely open, and the whole world would rise to a completely different level of relationships.
[305360]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Secret Powers of the Kabbalist”

Related Material:
Unshakable Sense of Justice
Our Strategy Is The Unity Of The Nation
Behind The Supernatural

Filed under: Israel, Nations of the World, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: Why do students of a Kabbalist have some kind of an inner yearning for Kabbalah?

Answer: Not only for Kabbalah. Sometimes they have a yearning to go live in some village, in some kibbutz or some such place, in order to gather a group of like-minded people there.

But this is just a certain point on the way of their development. After this group, they will understand that they are drawn to a broad society in order to realize their idea there, otherwise they will not ascend.

Question: But why, when a person experiences difficult states, does he not abandon Kabbalah, but rather still holds on to this source?

Answer: How can he break away from it?! Indeed, at the same time, he loses hope to reveal the upper world. How is this possible?

A person cannot be satisfied with a lower level than the one to which he has developed. He simply cannot.

Offer me now a golden cage, that is, not to study Kabbalah, but anything you want in this world. Can I do it?! I will get desperate the next day. What will this wealth give me? What will I do with it?

A person can no longer descend to this level because we are bonded. We realize the level of egoism that works within us. We cannot go lower; it is against the movement of nature. If people come to us and then leave, then they find out that they are not yet at this level; they were mistaken. It means that they are one floor below.
[305277]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Beware of Kabbalah” 10/19/13

Related Material:
Kabbalah and the Temptations of Our World
To Look at Everything Through the Goal
Taste For Beauty Remains

Filed under: Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: Sometimes you give an assignment: “Do it this way, put everything like that.” Everything is done okay. Right away you come and say: “Take it all apart, put it away.” What is the right way to relate to this?

Answer: To say thank you that I gave you two tasks instead of one.

If all this would go straight in a deterministic way, then we would develop only our brains and nothing else. Exactly thanks to the fact that we are faced with such events in which we do not understand anything, we cannot orient ourselves with our head and feelings in them, the necessity to jump to another level arises in us: how to flip yourself, your brains, how to change the way you look at the world.

It is precisely in this that a person begins to feel the need: I am obligated to look differently, I am obligated to begin to understand differently, I am obligated to hear and see differently so that everything will change in me. Such a necessity has to appear.

Comment: But when you can’t find an explanation for what is being done to you, then you can simply get lost.

My Response: And you hold on to your head less, to your approach to life, to your mind, and give yourself up to the flow!
[305200]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Confidentially” 10/12/13

Related Material:
Hear And Be Heard
Contact Of Hearts
One Question Two Answers

Filed under: Spiritual Teacher, Spiritual Work - No Comments →