News Report (from The Independent): In an article called “Scientists prove it really is a thin line between love and hate,” Steve Connor, The Independent’s science editor, reports: “Scientists studying the physical nature of hate have found that some of the nervous circuits in the brain responsible for it are the same as those that are used during the feeling of romantic love – although love and hate appear to be polar opposites … the ‘hate circuit’ shares something in common with the love circuit.”

My Comment: According to Kabbalah, the difference between love and hate lies only in the aim of one’s intention: “toward oneself” or “away from oneself.” Furthermore, if we begin doing systematic work to acquire the feeling of love, then we will feel that we “come out of ourselves.” There – “outside of ourselves” – we will feel a completely different flow of time, space and perception, to the point that we will cease perceiving ourselves, and replace “self” with “others.” By transferring the center of perception from “inside of us” to “outside of us,” we will feel the Upper World, the Creator. We will feel this precisely in the desires of others!

Question: What is the spiritual root of unrequited love?

My Answer: There is no such thing as unrequited love in spirituality! It exists only in our world, when one’s egoism doesn’t feel that it could be fulfilled by one’s partner. It’s because our egos distance us from one another, and everything is built upon using one another.

However, when there is a spiritual connection, then everything is built upon bestowal and complementing one another. To the degree we are corrected, this definitely happens.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Love Is Providing Others With the Means to Fulfill Their Point in the Heart
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah Deals Only With the Actual Attainment of the Creator
Kabbalah Today Article: Love, Deciphered
Lecture: Unconditional Love

Filed under: Crisis, Egoism, Events, Group Work, Love - No Comments →

New Report (from Commodity Online): Commodity prices are currently dropping, mainly on expectation of favorable crop prospects but also because of a slowing world economy. This could mean a cutback in plantings followed by reduced harvests in major exporting countries. Given continuing low grain stocks, this scenario could lead to another turn of record food prices next year – a catastrophe for millions who by then would be left with little money and no credit.

My Comment: The fact that the prices are decreasing – especially for food – seems like a good thing. However, everything in our world is heading for the worse because it is built on egoistic relationships.

The drop in prices makes it unprofitable for farmers to seed large fields. This will lead to smaller harvests. a sharp rise in prices, and then to hunger. It’s a paradox of our egoistic world: cheap food causes hunger!

Related Material:
Laiman.com Post: How Will Hunger Affect the Earth’s Population?
Latiman.com Post: When Will Hunger Start Affecting Us?

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Questions I received on the soul’s correction:

Question: Which actions bring about the soul’s correction?

My Answer: When the quality of bestowal is born in a person, helping him rise above his egoism.

Question: How is this expressed on the corporeal level, among people who study and don’t study Kabbalah?

My Answer: It doesn’t. No one around you will notice anything. How could they?

Question: How is love for others implemented if the corporeal aspect is not used?

My Answer: Through thoughts and intentions. If possible, also through actions – the dissemination of Kabbalah.

Question: What is the purpose of this blog?

My Answer: To explain the purpose of the world’s creation and how to attain it through the good path.

Question: What is the purpose of man’s existence?

My Answer: To attain the purpose of his creation.

Question: Why don’t these two things coincide?

My Answer: Because people do not want to actualize the method of attaining the goal and instead prefer to be on the path of suffering.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Intention and Action
Laitman.com Post: Why Did I Open this Blog?
Kabbalah Today Article: Echoes of the Future
Article: “The Structure of the Soul”
Article: “Who am I?”

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Egoistic religion: Nature and Science, the two most quoted science magazines, have published synoptic articles on the origin of religion (“The Origin and Evolution of Religious Prosociality” in Science, and “Religion: Bound to Believe?” in Nature). This topic became popular again after the release of Richard Dawkins’ book, The God Delusion. Dawkins supposes that the spread of computer and biological viruses is similar to the spread of religious ideas: that their spread is based on an egoistic mechanism, and this is why we are so susceptible to religious ideas.

Altruistic religion: Canadian psychologists Ara Norenzayan and Azim Shariff of the University of British Columbia went even further. In an article published in Science magazine they suppose that the value of religion must be tied to the stimulation of positive behavior and personal example, and with people’s egoistic need to constantly display their high moral qualities, trustworthiness and willingness to sacrifice their personal interests for the benefit of society.

Kabbalah: These ideas are surpassed by Kabbalah, which allows man to ascend entirely above his egoism and to make it “absolutely useful” to society, by giving everything and receiving only what is necessary in order to live and bestow. In this scenario the reward is not what one receives from society, but comes from the Creator – closeness with the Creator. This is what gives one the energy and inspiration to work wholeheartedly for the benefit of the society.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Religion’s Place In Our Lives
Laitman.com Post: Religion Is a Cultural Tradition, Kabbalah Is the Method of Correction
Humankind vs. Human Kindness
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”
Baal HaSulam Article: “Peace in the World”

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Baal HaSulam. Article “The Peace.” He who breaks the laws of nature:
Because the world is governed by the Creator, who has a specific goal in all of His actions, hence anyone who breaks the laws of nature that were set by the Creator, harms the end goal, which is founded on the observance of all these laws without exception. And he who breaks even one law violates and harms the end goal that was set by the Creator, and will therefore be punished by nature (by the Creator via nature).

Baal HaSulam. Article “The Peace.” Attainment of the Creator is the path to peace:
The egoistic opposition between people and nations will disappear from the world only with the help of the Upper Force of the Creator (Nature), if we will desire unity with Him. This is initially implanted in the Thought of Creation. And if we aspire to this goal of adhesion with the Creator, then our envy, pride and hatred with disappear, and we shall assemble together into one heart, filled with the knowledge of the Creator.

Baal HaSulam. Article “Peace in the World.” The whole world is regarded as one single society:
In our times, when every person is dependent on the whole world in order to provide for him, in the same degree every person becomes dependent on the whole world just like a tiny gear in a car. Hence, we can no longer consider the well being and safety of a certain country or nation, but only the world as a whole. After all, today the well being of everyone in the world depends upon and is measured by the well being of all the people in the world.

And don’t be surprised that I link the well being of the individual with the well being of the society and even the whole world. In reality we have already reached a state where the entire world is regarded as one society. Today every person in the world is nourished by the entire world, and therefore must care for the well being of the whole world.

Baal HaSulam. Article “Freedom of Will.” The source of suffering:
Unity of the society is the source of happiness and well being, whereas separation between people is the source of all miseries. All fortunes and well being depend only on the drawing together and unification of the global community.

My Comment: Baal HaSulam wrote the articles “The Peace,” “Peace in the World” and “Freedom of Will” back in 1924-1927!

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Two questions I received on life after the full correction:

Question: If people will rise to the highest spiritual degree, how will we live? What will we eat? Where will we sleep? How will we travel from one place to another? What will be our general form of existence?

My Answer: There are two states:

1. Before the full correction, when our corporeal level of egoism is still not corrected. Hence even though we attain spiritual degrees, we still retain the sensation of this world.

2. After we are fully corrected, when even our corporeal egoism is corrected, we will cease perceiving this world. That’s because it is perceived precisely in this corporeal part of our desire, whereas we will sense ourselves as being fully and exclusively in the World of Infinity – the only true state. All the other states are partial states of its concealment. In Hebrew the word for “concealment” is Olama, and it is the root of the word “world” – Olam. Hence all the concealments of the one existing state of infinity are called worlds.

In the article, “The Future Generation,” Baal HaSulam provides a detailed description of what life will be like before the attainment of the second state above. I have also written a book on this article, called The Last Generation. In addition, there are lessons on it in our online archive.

Question: Did the sons of Israel accept the mutual guarantee after the exodus from Egypt? And what does the exodus from Egypt represent for us?

My Answer: Yes, after their exodus from Egypt the sons of Israel (the group of Kabbalists, students of Abraham) accepted the condition of the “mutual guarantee” – an absolute spiritual bond between them, and the willingness to be as one soul of Adam.

For them as well as for us, this signifies the complete unification into one desire (one soul). However, in our case this is no longer a unification of a portion of the “Babylonians,” but of the whole “Babylon” (all of humankind) in the joint desire of Adam.

For more on this, see the article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee).” In it Baal HaSulam writes that the sons of Israel are just a transitional link intended to pass the method of egoism’s correction, Kabbalah, on to all of humankind.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter “The Seventh Commandment”
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Chapter from the Book A Guide To The Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah: Lesson 9
Shamati #110: “A Field Which the Lord Has Blessed”

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Three questions I received on the global crisis:

Question: Why do you devote so much time to analyzing the crisis? Why should we care about the suffering of these oblivious and egoistic animals (or why should we pity them egoistically, since we can’t do it any other way)?

My Answer: 1. These people are all close to me!
2. Just like everything else in the world, the crisis has a reason and a purpose. Its purpose is to bring out a need in mankind’s to reevaluate its behavior.

The suffering will not stop until we accomplish this, and accomplish it right. I do the things I do in order to help people choose the correct attitude to what’s taking place, which will reduce the suffering.

Soon enough this “oblivious and egoistic animal suffering” will affect you as well. When it does, please don’t forget to write to me about how your opinion changes regarding how much time people should devote to this problem.

Question: Does it make sense to think of the reciprocal hatred (or lack of reciprocal love) that’s being revealed in the world as a reflection of the state the Bnei Baruch group is in, or my personal state?

My Answer: The group and the world are interconnected, but are on different levels: the group depends on the world for its spiritual ascent, and the world depends on the group to reduce the force of the suffering that descends upon it (whether or not it wants to listen to the group).

Question: Why is the unity of the common soul being revealed today from its reverse side? Do we really need to feel pain from realizing our connection to all people in the world?

My Answer: This is the only way to convince people to correct their nature. Pain is the measure of our imbalance with Nature. And we’re the ones who establish its severity.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Reflections on the Crisis

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A question I received: If hunger spreads all over the world, how will it affect the Earth’s population?

My Answer: The Malthusian theory says that the world’s population has always been limited by the natural fertility of the land and the development of bio-technologies:

• with natural farming – up to 10 million people;
• with extensive farming – up to 100 million;
• with intensified farming – up to 1 billion.

However, all models expressing the dependency of the earth’s population on its fertility assume that the world’s population is a natural (egoistic) system.

In the past, a process taking place in one part of the world did not have a significant influence on the other parts, and even less so on the population. But the moment the planet’s population became one collective whole, the laws of the system changed. Today, despite cultural differences and physical distances, an intrinsic phenomenon of global interdependency of all people is becoming apparent.

How will this affect the earth’s population? Our planet can even feed 100 billion people, provided that they observe the system of interconnection in which they exist. If people obey the laws of nature and consume only what is necessary for their existence, in brotherly interaction among them, as parts of a single organism, then they will never have to fear a demographic crisis. After all, the only cause of all the crises is our cruel attitudes to each other. Nature destroys us to the degree we oppose it.

Take Russia for example: There is a huge difference between its level of  economic development and how the population uses it. Cruelty, insignificance of human life,  abundant prisons and concentration camps, alcoholism, and lack of decent medical service – are all contributing factors to a short life span and high mortality rate.

In countries that are less developed than Russia, the life span is longer because the attitude to people is more merciful. In Russia it’s almost as if the government itself is interested in the destruction of its own people! How else can you explain the encouragement and proliferation of the “beer and vodka culture,” as well as drugs? However, fighting alcoholism directly is always ineffective, and only increases the number of people in prison.

The attitudes of the government and of every person to man, society, and mankind must be changed. This must become Russia’s national idea. Quit the path of trying to “force respect” and “force peace,” and instead set an example of sympathy, bestowal, and love for everyone in the world. This will elicit well-deserved respect and honor.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: When Will Hunger Start Affecting Us?
Laitman.com Post: It Takes Just One Spark of the Upper Light to Correct the World

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News Report (translated from Israland): Hollywood will be affected by the global crisis as well. Nevertheless, film studios feel better than everyone else because most people prefer watching movies to watching the market keep plummeting. This is what happened during the Great Depression in America 80 years ago.

My Comment: Man is a will to enjoy or be filled. His top two demands are “bread,” and “something to feast his eyes on” (a spectacle). It has always been this way throughout our entire history, when the ego was growing from one generation to the next.

Today, however, we’ve stepped up to a new level of development: We are no longer pushed forward by the quantitative growth of egoism, but by its qualitative change. Today egoism has become global. Hence we can no longer be satisfied with “bread and a spectacle.” The blows of fate are manifesting due to our global, egoistic opposition to the altruistic Nature. And the blows will keep getting bigger until we change the direction of our development, redirecting it toward the correction of our egoism, until we reach the point of “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Only then will we become similar to Nature and the blows will stop coming at us. Even Hollywood will have to change its “spectacles” from egoistic to altruistic if it is to survive!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Source of All the World’s Problems

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A question I received: A new worldview seeking to shift the entire civilization to a new level of consciousness has been published on the site of the national movement “RUSSIA IS US,” in the section “A New Worldview,” on the discussion forum, and other places.

Your thoughts and ideas from different articles published on your Kabbalah Academy websites and the Internet at large, were used in building a foundation for the new worldview. We would greatly appreciate your comments and suggestions.

With deep respect,
Alexey Yurievich Bartunov
Leader of the national movement “RUSSIA IS US”

My Answer: Dear Alexey Yurievich,

I will be very happy to participate in an opportunity to build a better Russia. I have always said that the inner demands of the Russians are close to the Kabbalistic ideas. The search for a national idea, self-expression, self-realization in the world in the capacity of a special enlightening force that draws respect and praise – all this is possible precisely by correctly implementing the idea of unity of all the nations. Russia can come forth as the initiator of an organizational plan for the new humanity. I am completely together with you in this!

Additional Comment: Professor Dov Sadan writes in his book Spiritual Revival that during the revolutionary period in Russia, Baal HaSulam took part in Polish workers’ demonstrations and supported them by carrying a red flag! He explained that what was happening in Russia signified that the masses were coming closer to the ideas of Kabbalah.

Later, after moving to Palestine in 1921, when socialistic changes started taking place in Poland, Baal HaSulam returned to Poland again and tried to get in touch with the leaders of the Polish workers’ movement. He wanted the socialist changes to be implemented correctly.

Unfortunately, people could not hear him. After all, to do this the society should have been able to rise above its egoism and recognize that there is no path other than global unity.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Russia and Israel Have the Opposite Problem
Laitman.com Post: Instead of Seeking to Change our Economic Systems, We Should Draw the Upper Light of Correction

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