Question: You said that time doesn’t exist. Then do the past and future exist?

My Answer: What exists is a sequence of events. They take place in us as sequential revelations, the realization of Reshimot. As they sequentially follow one another, they create the sensation of time – of the past and the future. However, this is a subjective sensation that’s inside us, and it takes place quickly or slowly depending on one’s efforts.

It is impossible to skip over anything, because all the Reshimot have to manifest one after another. When a Reshimo is realized, it depicts inside us a picture of our relationship with the Creator. This picture is called “the world,” and it consists of “me” and “what surrounds me.” To the degree that the Reshimot become realized, one begins perceiving one’s surroundings as part of him.

Question: Sometimes the clock shows that five hours have gone by, but I feel like it’s only been five seconds. Who should I trust, myself or the clock?

My Answer: Obviously, you should trust the clock. Next time the same five hours may seem like five days to you.

Question: When a person with psychic abilities predicts the future, what does he see – the future or the present?

My Answer: For him it’s the present.

Related Material:
Chapter from Book “Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life”: Regaining Consciousness
Chapter from Book “Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life”: The Reshimo

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I had a conversation that was recorded called “Kabbalists Write.” We discussed my fourth book, Attaining the Worlds Beyond. I spoke with Ben-Tzion Gertz, a writer and an editor of several of my books in Hebrew.

Immediately after my teacher’s passing (September 1991), I had to go to Toronto to visit my dying father. I wrote this book after I returned, following the death of my father (February 1992). I think that more than any other of my books, it conveys the feelings of a person who is beginning the path of Kabbalah, one’s impressions from encountering the world of Kabbalah. This is exactly how I saw this book – the first of a series of books that I would write.

Here is an introductory chapter from the book Attaining the Worlds Beyond:

“The need for this text became apparent to me from the questions that I received from my students, and from the questions that were asked during various lectures and radio programs, as well as from the letters that continue to flood in from all over the world.

The difficulty of explaining and teaching Kabbalah lies in the fact that the spiritual world has no counterpart in our world. Even if the object of our studies becomes clear, our understanding of it is only temporary. What we learn is grasped by the spiritual component of our ability to understand, which is constantly renewed from Above. Thus, a subject we initially understand may appear unclear at a later date. Depending on our mood and our spiritual state, the text can appear as either full of deep meaning, or entirely meaningless.

Do not despair if what was so clear yesterday becomes very confusing today. Do not give up if the text appears to be vague, strange, or illogical. Kabbalah is not studied for the sake of acquiring theoretical knowledge, but to help us see and perceive what is hidden from us. When, after we have contemplated and acquired spiritual strength, we begin to see and perceive, then our ability to attain the resulting spiritual lights and levels will bring us to true knowledge.

Until we can comprehend the Upper Light and can perceive what it presents to us, we will not understand how the universe is built and how it works, since there are no analogies to these concepts in our own world.

This text can help ease our first steps toward perceiving the spiritual forces. At later stages, we will be able to progress only with the help of a teacher.

This text should not be read in an ordinary fashion. Rather, we should concentrate on a paragraph, think about it, and attempt to understand examples that reflect in the issues discussed. We may then try to apply these issues to our own personal experiences.

We should patiently and repeatedly read and think about each sentence as we try to penetrate the author’s feelings. We should also read slowly, trying to extract the nuances of what is written, and if need be, return to the beginning of each sentence.

This method can either help us delve into the material with our own feelings, or recognize that our feelings are lacking regarding a particular issue. If the latter is the case, it is a crucial prerequisite for us to move forward spiritually.

This text is not written for quick reading. Though it deals with one subject only, ‘How to relate to the Creator,’ it deals with it in different ways. This allows each of us to find the particular phrase or word that will transport us into the depths of the text.

Although the desires and actions of egoism are described in the third person, until we can separate our personal consciousness from our desires, we should consider the aspirations and desires of egoism our own. The word “body” in the text does not relate to the physical self, but to ‘egoism,’ our desire to receive.

To get the most out of this material, I recommend reading the same passages at different times and in different states of mind. By doing so, you can better acquaint yourself with your reactions and attitudes towards the same text on different occasions.

Disagreeing with the material is always positive, as is agreeing with it. The most important aspect of reading the text is your response to it. A feeling of disagreement indicates you have reached the preliminary stage (achoraim, the backside) of understanding, which prepares you for the next stage of perception (panim, face).

It is precisely through this slow meaningful manner of reading that you can develop feelings, or ‘vessels’ (kelim). These are necessary for us to receive spiritual sensations. Once the vessels are in place, the Upper Light will be able to enter them. Prior to their formation, the Light merely exists around you, surrounding your soul, although you cannot perceive it.

This text is not written to enhance your knowledge. Nor is it meant to be memorized. In fact, we must never test ourselves on the material.

It is even better if we forget the contents altogether, so that the second reading will seem fresh and entirely unfamiliar. By forgetting the material, it implies that we have grasped the previous sensations and that they have now subsided, leaving a space to be filled by sensations we have yet to experience. The process of developing new sensory organs is constantly renewed and accumulated in the spiritual, unperceived sphere of our souls.

The most important aspect of our reading is the way we feel about the material while reading it, not afterwards. Once we experience these feelings, they become revealed within the heart and mind, and manifest themselves when they are needed in the continuous process of the soul’s development.

Rather than rushing to complete reading the text, it is recommended to concentrate on the sections that appeal to us the most. Only then will the text be able to help and guide us in our search for personal spiritual ascent. The goal of this text is to help us become interested in the mysteries of life, such as:

Why were we born into this world? Can we enter the spiritual worlds from here? Can we ever understand the purpose of the creation? Is it possible to perceive the Creator, eternity and immortality? How can we begin to grow spiritually?”

Related Material:
Purchase the book – Attaining the Worlds Beyond
Kabbalah In Our Times – Spirituality, Kabbalah and the 21st Century

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Below are some quotes by Albert Einstein that reveal some parallels between his conclusions and the principles explained in Kabbalah:

• Man’s real value is defined by the degree to which he has liberated himself from egoism and by the means he used to attain it.
• A person starts living only when he managed to surpass himself.
• One who wants to see immediate results from his work should become a shoemaker.
• A human being is part of a whole, called by us universe – a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a prison, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. Nobody can fulfill this task to the end, but just the efforts to reach this goal are a part of liberation and a foundation for inner confidence.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Einstein on Religion
Laitman.com Post: Does G-d Play Dice with the Universe?

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Yesterday I went to a museum called “A Dialogue in the Dark,” where the visitors enter a completely enclosed hall that’s absolutely dark inside. Our guide explained that when a person is in the dark, he starts perceiving the world differently – not through the sense of sight, which normally gives us 80% of our information, but using the other senses. And they somehow compensate for one’s loss of eyesight.

Similarly, in order to develop the spiritual sense, we have to realize that we are in the dark. That is to say, we have to feel that we can’t make our lives good in this world using our five bodily senses, and that even when we have all of our five senses, we are still left in the dark. This is the feeling we must attain in order to desire to develop the spiritual sense. And that’s exactly what’s happening today to all humanity – it’s gradually realizing that it is in the dark.

Our sight is an internal vision; we perceive everything inside us. It’s possible to depict the same picture by transmitting electrical signals to the brain. What’s important is that one perceives the internal picture on the screen that’s on the reverse side of the brain. So what’s the difference if I have eyes or not? The important thing is that the picture is formed in my consciousness, and the same could be achieved by developing other senses and additional qualities.

That’s why I asked our guide – who wasn’t born blind (since one who is born blind can’t compare one picture of the world with another) – whether he has been able to develop his remaining senses [Read more →]

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Two questions I received on how to connect spirituality and regular life

Question: How does the spiritual world influence and enliven our world, if the two worlds aren’t connected? Do they have a “cause-and-effect” connection? If so, then why isn’t our world also perfect and eternal?

My Answer: Our world is governed entirely from above. And every day we are becoming more and more convinced of this, because no matter how we try to change things, nothing goes according to plan.

The only way we can influence the Upper World (from below upwards) is to evoke (ask for) an acceleration (but not a change) of the process of our correction (by studying in the group and disseminating). We will perceive this acceleration as if evil and suffering are replaced by goodness and pleasure.

Question: Why does a person have to separate the spiritual part of his life from the regular one?

My Answer: It’s necessary to separate the two worlds. However they aren’t separate in and of themselves, but only relative the person who attains them. Outside a person, there is only the general Light. Once a person attains the Upper World, through it he sees our world, and he is no longer confused about the origin of everything that happens and about the connections between all parts of the world. But if he starts attaining the Upper World from our world, then he will get confused and start seeing forces through objects. He will do the same thing that the religions and faiths do – start thinking that there is spirituality inside the objects of our world, worshiping material objects such as trees, lucky charms, red strings, holy water, or predicting the future. This is why Baal HaSulam writes that one first attains the Upper World, and only after such attainment, one starts researching (from the Upper World) the descending forces that form our world, and the phenomena in our world.

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: On Roots and Branches
Kabbalah Today Article: Baal HaSulam on the Perception of Reality
Kabbalah Today Article: I Saw a Reversed World

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A question I received: When a person becomes religious, doesn’t he do this because his point in the heart (desire for spirituality) has awakened? Or, does he do it because something happened in his life that made him seriously think about life? If we assess the situation, we see that these thoughts cause a great change in people’s lives. Let’s say that these changes aren’t spiritual, as described in Kabbalah, but nevertheless, what – if not inner awakening – can make a person who was born into a certain world, completely change his life around, and adopt a lifestyle that isn’t easy at all?

My Answer: Surely a person constantly questions his goals, and the surfacing of all kinds of desires in him prompts changes in his life. However, all these desires and occurrences surface at the level of our world, and as such, are unrelated to spirituality. It could also be that this person starts worrying about the world to come, about what will happen to him after he dies, and thus starts noticing everything in the world as being illusive and transient, and that he’ll be left with nothing at the end of it… In either case, he is pursuing security, and religion offers him a reward for his efforts.

However, when a person couldn’t care less about his security or finding a place to relax, or about being rewarded in this world or the world to come; when he wants only one thing – to discover the truth – he then discovers the wisdom of Kabbalah. Such a person has sought after all desires and revealed their emptiness. He neglects them because they are based on compromising with his consciousness, “sweeping things under the table” so to speak, and they make him ignore the painful inner questions. The desire to discover the truth makes him incapable of lying to himself, and ready for anything as long as it leads to the truth. The point in the heart is speaking within such a person, and not his earthly desires, his heart.

Related Material:
Article: The Alternative of Our Life
Shamati Article #28: I Shall Not Die But Live
Lesson: Shamati Article #28 – I Shall Not Die But Live
Lesson: Shamati Article #28 – I Shall Not Die But Live
Lesson: Shamati Article #28 – I Shall Not Die But Live (Transcript)

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The structure of the world is simple, because it’s perfect, and at the same time, it is extremely complex for the very same reason. Its simplicity needs to be attained, and such attainment depends on one’s similarity to the world and understanding of it.

However, as long as our consciousness remains uncorrected, we will continue complicating the picture of the world, inventing all kinds of theories (like String Theory and parallel universes, to name just two out of thousands). The world appearing before us is the world we, and only we, imagine. We can never understand what it’s like outside us. In other words, we can never understand the world outside of our our sensations and reason.

There is, however, a different world – and we can feel it if we acquire different perceptions or qualities.

According to different sensations, we can imagine the world according to a different reason. Right now, however, we are incapable of reproducing such a sensation within us.

The purpose of this world’s existence and development is to transform into a different world.

Related Material:
Kabbalah Today Article: Baal HaSulam on the Perception of Reality
Kabbalah Today Article: “I Saw a Reversed World”
TV Program: Perception of Reality – Lesson 1 of 2
TV Program: Perception of Reality – Lesson 2 of 2
TV Program: Perception of Reality – Lesson 1 of 2 (Transcript)
TV Program: Perception of Reality – Lesson 2 of 2 (Transcript)

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A question I received: I’m worried about the environmental problems facing our world, such as the degradation of the environment and people’s declining health. From Kabbalah’s perspective, how should we change the laws regulating the use and preservation of the environment? What should the national and international environmental laws be? What approach should be used to develop the appropriate framework and regulations?

My Answer: We could command nature to change, or we could command man to change. But in any case, man is a part of nature, and our commands will only cause us greater separation from nature, which will result in further harm to nature and to its integral parts – us. None of our attempts to reduce humanity’s harmful influence on nature will yield positive results. The fact is that nature’s actions are purposeful. Its influence on us has nothing to do with how we treat the still, vegetative and animate levels of nature. Nature reacts only to our attitude to one another. Man incorporates the whole of nature within himself, and it “falls” or “rises” together with him. Everything is measured according to the highest level, called “man.”

Nature affects us in order to force us to change, and what we have to change is our attitude to other people, not our attitude to nature. We need to change our egoistic attitude to others to an altruistic one, like a father feels for his children. We will then become an integral part of nature, and our attitude to all its other parts will change as well.

This cannot be done by coercive methods – since we have to change ourselves! If we realize this, we will reduce nature’s blows coming to us and to its other parts.

The other problem is that even if we realize that we need to change, we have no idea how to do it. And that is why we have been given the science of Kabbalah, which originated in the very beginning of our egoistic path, when we separated in Ancient Babylon. It’s a science that shows us how to unite into one whole. Sharing it and inculcating it into the consciousness of every person is precisely what constitutes the laws of the new civilization. We only need to understand that “preserving the environment” means protecting it from our egoism. Let’s work together.

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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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I have received many letters expressing concern about the future…

Our perception of the world depends on our understanding of what’s going on here. If we would understand the Creator’s plan, we will discover happiness, safety and perfection.

Prior to the 21st century, humanity didn’t have any free will! We had no free will in our development as it was automatically driven by our constantly growing egoistic motivation – until it had reached its peak.

Today, our free will is becoming apparent as we have the opportunity to rise above our egoistic nature and no longer depend on it. By realizing this opportunity properly, we will directly – with the least amount of suffering – exit our present nature. Then, we will enter another dimension of the universe, where we will experience a different sensation of life – one that is eternal and perfect.

Our egoistic nature imprisons us; it attempts to absorb everything into itself, and thus remains empty and ultimately dies. And even if we don’t choose the path of conscious transition to the altruistic dimension, nature’s plan will be carried out anyway – just as it has been up to this point – only by the harsh influence of its strict laws.

We are the only intelligent creatures in the universe. Everything was created for us, because only we have the ability to enter the higher dimension. This task is serious and its goal is marvelous. Currently, humanity is in a state that induces a search, which is good, and that is why I’m not afraid, but full of hope.

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