Entries in the 'Spirituality' Category

What Is The Soul?


A question I received: You claim that our souls determine the state of the world, which presumes that we have great wisdom and experience. On the other hand, you say that we are like animals and that there’s nothing left of us after our bodies die. What does that say about our wise soul which determines its future incarnations?

My Answer: The soul is the property of bestowal. If you have acquired this quality through the study of Kabbalah in this life, then you have a soul, and you feel your eternal existence through it. But if you haven’t acquired it, you will have to return to this world to do it.

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What’s The Use Of Our Suffering?

A Question Is the Sensation of an Empty DesireWe exist within a law of nature, which is now being revealed and obliging us to follow it unconditionally. Since it is a law, it is therefore impossible not to follow it.

For example, take the law of gravity. When we know this law, we are able to build a plane that can easily move through the air, even though it is heavier than air and opposite to this law. However, if we were unfamiliar with this law, we would crash. This is how all of Nature’s laws work: if one doesn’t follow them, he kills himself.

We still don’t realize that we are now under the influence of a new law of nature – the law of universal interdependence between people. This law obliges us to completely unite with one another – to join our desires and thoughts. However, this is completely opposite to our current desires and thoughts.

Nevertheless, the law of universal interdependence or mutual guarantee is gradually being revealed to us, because we have developed to the necessary level. In the past we did not feel this law because we had not yet reached the final level of our egoistic development.

This is why we are gradually beginning to realize that we don’t know how to use everything around us. We don’t know what to do with our desires, thoughts and actions in order to receive even a small pleasure, the way we did before. Now, as soon as a person wishes to use others, he is crushed by a blow. And if this is still not evident to anyone, it will be revealed to them very soon. So what should we do?

In order to reduce the blows, we have to take a closer look at their cause. We will then see that these “plagues of Egypt” are there to separate us from our egoism, to enable us to understand that egoism is the source of all our suffering. But is this possible? Can we really separate ourselves from our very nature?

It is possible, because when we reach this state, we reveal the need for help from above. But until then, we can’t even suspect of this possibility. So it is none other than the affect of suffering that helps us reach the right inner demand: “Let the Upper Force come and correct me!”

We then see that the Creator did this on purpose – in order for us to feel that we need Him, and then to grow and become like Him!

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The Two Ways Of Reaching Our Goal

A question I received: I have heard you say many times that the desire is the only thing that exists, and only the desire determines everything. Then why don’t all the desires that I have in life come true?

My Answer: It’s because in addition to your desire, there exists the program of creation. In other words, there is a certain plan, and according to this plan the whole of creation advances towards its pre-determined goal. This advancement toward the goal is called Beito, which means advancement along time, where everything occurs in due time.

However, a human being consists of a desire, and therefore he feels the fulfillment of the desire as pleasure and the lack of fulfillment as emptiness or suffering. This is how he feels the affect of the program, which uses our desire for fulfillment or pleasure to control us. After all, we always aspire to pleasure and try to distance ourselves from suffering.

If you wish to realize the program of creation on your own and to achieve the goal quickly and pleasantly, instead of being driven to it by blows, you can do so by directing your desire according to the rule, “Make your desire like the Creator’s desire.” What is “the Creator’s desire”? This refers to His desire to bestow all of Himself and His state into your personal perception. As a result of this, you reveal a new level of desire, perception, awareness and understanding. And when this happens, you feel the gap between yourself and the Creator. Then, by intentionally eliminating this gap, you liken your desire to the Creator’s.

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The Spiritual Root Of Medicine


A question I received: If we convince the whole world to play a game for one day where everyone will do nothing but bestow, then humanity would feel the flavor of bestowal. Would this action draw enough Light to correct us?

My Answer: Any doctor knows that there is almost no medicine that can cure a person immediately. This can only happen by virtue of a miracle, but not a man-made medicine.

A person could drink a drop of poison and die, or he can use it to create a medicine. It is no coincidence that the symbol of medicine is a snake. It is a known fact that every medicine is poison, but not every poison is medicine. When poison is used as medicine, it is taken in very small dosages and over the course of a long time, until a person is cured. This is the law of correcting the animate body, and the same law holds for correcting the soul.

Why is it that a person can die instantly from taking a drop of poison, but he has to take it for months in order to be cured? This is the consequence of a spiritual process: the breaking of the unified soul into parts. This breaking was carried out from above, and therefore it is instant, whereas the correction, the re-unification, and the cure occurs slowly, depending on us.

Why did the breaking of our souls and the need for correction occur even before we came to this world? It happened so that in the process of our correction we would elucidate the cause, the process and the goal of creation, thereby forming ourselves in similarity to the Creator, the Upper Force of Nature.

And since a person had to reach similarity to the Creator (who is called in Hebrew Bore = Bo – come, and Re – see), this process takes so much time, namely 6000 years, from the first attainment made by Adam, to the last one.

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From Lack Of Balance To Perfection


A question I received: A lack of balance is obvious when looking at people who consume more than the necessary for a normal existence. But how can you say this of a person who barely makes it from one paycheck to the next?

My Answer: He is also not in balance. There are seven billion people inhabiting the earth, of which 50% are hungry and 40% don’t have enough for normal sustenance. Only half a billion people are happy with their material lifestyle. However, they are precisely the ones who experience depression, take drugs, end up divorcing, committing suicide, and so on.

Perfection descends to us from the World of Infinity, and the only way we can reach it is by rising to that spiritual level. This is realistic and attainable, and Nature is pushing us toward it. And the method of attaining the perfect state is being revealed to you – it is the science of Kabbalah!

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The Creator’s Name Means “Come and See” (Advanced)


The Creator is the quality of bestowal that is revealed in a person’s corrected desire, in his intention to bestow. Our only task is to develop this intention to bestow by connecting among us. Then, we will reveal the Creator – the quality of bestowal and love found within this connection.

In Hebrew, the Creator is called Boreh, which is composed of the words Bo and Reh – “come” and “see.” What does this mean? “To come” means to change one’s desire from reception to bestowal. Then the desire to bestow that one has attained (or the desire to bestow in order bestow, Galgalta Einaim) and love (receiving in order to bestow, AHP) becomes his attainment and revelation of the Creator.

Stated differently, the Creator is the force that connects us to each other. Therefore, the connection between us is what reveals the Creator to us. If we connect through mutual love, then we will sense the force of bestowal inside us. This is the force of the Creator that is revealed between us.

The Creator is the force that connects us to each other. The Upper Light has endowed us with the power to bestow to each other, and by bestowing to each other and getting to know this Upper Force, we attain the Creator. How does this happen?

By bestowing to each other, we attain the quality of bestowal, and thus we attain the source of the bestowing force, because it contains its higher origin, Keter. This is how the Creator becomes revealed in us, or in our desire. He is revealed in the upper part of the Kli, which is why the revelation is called “a revelation from above.” The revelation happens in Keter with regard to the lower part of the Kli, Malchut.

For this reason, Kabbalists named Him “Boreh” – “Come and see.” When one ascends from below upwards by means of the Reflected Light, one ascends from one’s nature – “the will to receive” to the Creator’s nature – “bestowal.” One then attains the complete ten Sefirot of the Direct Light. One attains the Creator’s attitude to him as well as the Creator Himself – the root of everything.

It turns out that aside from one’s soul (which consists of 10 Sefirot), there is nothing else to reveal. This is all that was created, and one senses the Creator within this creation.

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The Butterfly Effect Is Strongest On The Level Of Thought


A question I received: The world is going through drastic changes lately. Do these changes have an effect on the still and vegetative levels of Nature?

My Answer: What we see is but a small portion of what is going on in the world. In reality, there are various species of plants, fish, birds and animals going extinct. Why is this happening?

The world is whole and integral and all of its parts are interconnected. Therefore, even the smallest change that occurs in this unified, interconnected system causes changes in the whole of Nature’s organism.

This is analogous to a body where a small injury is felt by the whole body, and the body’s vital functions immediately respond by isolating the injured part.

Similarly, the world crisis is a consequence of human activity, since man has the greatest power of all other parts of nature. He incorporates the whole world and is therefore capable of changing it.

The world is built like a pyramid, comprised of the still, vegetative, animate and human levels (from the bottom up). The sum total of all the still objects is equal to one object or representative of the vegetative level; the sum total of all the vegetative objects is equal to just one element of the animate level; and the entire animate level is equal to one person. So just imagine how much greater is the force of the Upper Degree compared to the lower degree, since just one of its elements is greater than everything in the lower degree!

Therefore, one negative thought or one small negative desire of man has a negative – and a thousand times more potent – impact on all the lower degrees.

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It Is Not the End Of The World, But The Beginning


A question I received: If every one of us reaches the desired balance, will it be possible to stop natural disasters? We’ve destroyed the world enough already.

My Answer: We have destroyed much of the world and we have passed the point of no-return long ago. According to all calculations, we are approaching the end, and doing so at great speed.

However, by reaching harmony with Nature in our thoughts and desires, we will be able to forestall all the “irreversible” imbalances in Nature. All of these phenomena are not caused by our material misdoings, such as excessive consumption or the depletion and pollution of the environment, but by our egoistic attitudes, thoughts and desires.

The latest scientific data shows that man’s attempts to affect change on the physical level have had little impact on the environment. Therefore, these material actions cannot be what is responsible for the shifts we are currently seeing in Nature. In fact, the changes in nature are determined by the program of creation: to bring us to the highest level of existence. And it is inevitable that we will attain this.

We can reach balance with Nature by being considerate of each other, by attaining a “mutual guarantee.” And to the extent we will reach this balance, we will influence the lower degrees of nature as well – the animate, vegetative and still level. Then, all the negative occurrences will abate. All of these problems or disturbances in Nature, arise only because of the lack of harmony between people. All of the disasters and crises happening in the world are but an expression of unbalanced forces. And it is our egoistic attitude that brings about the negative consequences on the still, vegetative, animate and human levels of nature.

When a volcano erupts or a tsunami breaks out, these things happen within you. It is within you that there is an imbalance on the still, vegetative and animate levels. This is why you are seeing these external pictures, which are but reflections of what is happening within you!

The world will not “end.” However, we may reach a state that is “almost” the end of the world. This will be a turning point and the beginning of a new life. Kabbalah offers us a body of knowledge and advice for how to behave in this critical situation. It gives us a method that lets us reach the perfect existence quicker and easier.

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What Will We Be Like When We Rise To The Level Of Nature?


Everything in reality is divided into:

The internal part: the spiritual world, the world of roots, decisions, and intentions.

The external part: our world, the world of branches, consequences, actions, and execution.

Our work lies in revealing the internal part through the things happening to us and the influences being exerted upon us. In other words, we have to rise from the level of action to the level of intention in order to understand what the single and common Force called Nature demands of us and why it develops us specifically in this way. By examining what happens to us, we will gain the complete knowledge of ourselves and Nature (or the Creator), including Its desire, reason, plan, and thought.

In order to obtain this knowledge, one has to attain the same qualities that are inherent in Nature: qualities of bestowal, love, and the commonality between all of its parts. Otherwise one won’t understand it. If one performs the same actions as Nature, and if one studies these actions and agrees with them, then one attains the level of Nature (the Creator). This is how one reaches the level of Adam (from the word Edameh – similar to Nature, the Creator).

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Learning to Live In the Spiritual World

laitman_2008_3173Wishing to prepare our children for a good life, we teach them the best way to “get ahead” in this world. To this end, we spend many years educating a child, gradually making his exercises more and more difficult, while hoping that the upbringing we give him will prepare him for life in the world that he reveals.

This is exactly how the Creator treats us: He demands that we go through a preparation for entering the spiritual world. We have a limited amount of time to go through this preparation, and we don’t have a choice – within that period of time, we have to learn to live in an integral world, in a universal and unified nature – the Upper World.

The sooner we understand what is required of us and the sooner we agree to be reeducated, the less suffering we will feel. This is because our suffering comes from the pressure of forces that compel us to change. By agreeing with the Creator, we will be able to change consciously, happily and voluntarily.

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