Questions I received on perception, mountains and poor people:

Question: Do animals and nature feel their “self”? Do they perceive reality differently than we do, or do they perceive limited reality like us?

My Answer: They live, but they don’t feel that they live. They don’t have a perception of their “self” or that it’s “their life.” They also don’t feel jealousy of others, but are concerned only with survival.

Question: If we exist in an imaginary reality that we create in our consciousness, then where are we all actually going?

My Answer: By gradually discovering that our reality is distorted, we unknowingly prepare ourselves for attaining the true reality. Science is discovering that matter and waves are the same thing. By studying our perceptions, we have discovered that solid can turn into liquid, and liquid can then turn into gas – a substance that’s imperceptible to our senses. But then the imperceptible gas becomes liquid and then solid again. For example, a piece of ice melts and evaporates, and then condenses into water and becomes solid ice again.

Reality is subjective and depends on our senses. We create it within us. All development is aimed at bringing us to the true state – “There is none else but Him.”

Question: What are mountains from the point of view of Kabbalah – for example Mount Miron and Mount Sinai?

My Answer: A mountain is a mass of egoism, because earth is desire (Aretz means earth, and it comes from the word Ratzon – desire). A mountain is a “protruding” desire. By rising to the top of the mountain – by rising above one’s egoism to the Creator, to equivalence with the Creator, one attains Him.

Question: The Bible very often speaks about poor people. What is a “poor person” in spirituality?

My Answer: In Kabbalah (the Torah) a poor person is one who does not have any knowledge of the Creator (Ani be Daat). It’s because knowledge of the universe and attainment of the Creator (of the only force in existence, the source of everything and the one who governs everything) – is the same thing. A wealthy person in Kabbalah (the Torah) is a one with a wealth of knowledge (of the Creator).

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Questions I received on descents and how to deal with them:

Question: Sometimes I lose the right intention and feel like I’m straying from the spiritual path. Sometimes I feel afraid and empty in relation to this world. There are even times when I feel inspired and I make many actions, but I still feel like this is a lie and that I lack the right intention. When I have these feelings, should I try to see the Creator and what He is trying to “tell” me through them?

My Answer: You will have to collect even more impressions in order to begin feeling the Upper State. What should you do? Just continue. (Read the texts of Baal HaSulam and Rabash that talk about this). No one knows ahead of time what volume of their soul has to become fully revealed in every Reshimo and on every degree, in order for the soul to then ascend to the next degree. Therefore, the only thing we should do is “push” in one direction, “as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load.” “It’s not up to you to complete the work, yet you must do it constantly and persistently, and you aren’t free to leave it,” and then the correction will come as “redemption at the hands of the Creator, instantly and unexpectedly,” according to the principle “you made efforts – and you found it.”

Question: When I am in the state of descent, should I immediately open up a book, or should I try to overcome this state on my own first?

My Answer: It is best to open up a book, go to our website, or to my blog – to read or watch something that your feelings will respond to. For beginners I recommend my fourth book – Attaining the Worlds Beyond, as well as quotes by Kabbalists.

Question: Is it possible for a person to be advancing too fast and risk falling because of it?

My Answer: Descents are useful, and they have to happen between the degrees. They won’t go by quickly or slowly depending on whether a person puts in all his efforts or not. It’s because he isn’t the one to determine this; it is determined by the nature of the degrees – the next degree becomes revealed to him as soon as he is ready to go on to it – as soon as he has prepared his Kli to perceive it. In other words, the corrected, ready Kli becomes filled with the property of bestowal, the Light, or the Creator.

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Questions I received on whether Kabbalists ever wrote about the age of the world and past civilizations:

Question: In many lessons you have said that our world is several million years old, but that according to the Hebrew calendar we begin counting the world’s age from the moment that the point in the heart awakened in a person named Adam (from the moment he decided to become similar to the Creator). What Kabbalistic sources did you get this information from?

My Answer: Baal HaSulam says in his article, “The Last Generation,” that periods of the Earth’s formation lasted 30 million years each. This indicates that the Earth has existed for millions of years.

Baal HaSulam also writes in his letters that Adam was the first person in the world who revealed the Thought of Creation. Obviously, Adam had parents and relatives, and wasn’t the first person in this sense, but he was the first person to attain or reveal the Creator. In every other regard, all of nature evolves because of the Reshimot that surface and become actualized, going from the still level of nature, to the vegetative level, to the animate level, and then the human level. This happens step by step, and on the surface it appears just like Darwin thought. However, it doesn’t happen through natural selection, but through sequential revelation of the Reshimot according to the pattern of HaVaYaH.

Question: Dear Rav, from what I heard in your lessons, I understood that Baal HaSulam was a man of great attainment. At one of the lessons you said that Baal HaSulam wrote about the Earth’s formation and the numerous shifts that took place between the liquid and solid phases, each lasting for 30 millions years. Have Kabbalists ever mentioned anything about past civilizations?

My Answer: No, because they aren’t interested in this one bit. Kabbalists direct all of their attention upward, above this world – to the goal of creation, rather than backwards – into the depths of history.

There are no intelligent civilizations besides ours. This fact becomes very clear from studying the descent of the Light and Kli from the World of Infinity into our world. We exist in the World of Infinity even now, but our distorted senses depict it as our world. The Ari begins his revelation of the universe from the moment when only the Light exists, and then the embryo of the future creature appears. The only thing that emerges from that point inside the Light – is us.

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We exist in a sea of information. We are floating inside it like croutons in a bowl of soup. Everything and everyone is inside the soup. There is no time here, and that’s why it doesn’t matter whether you are watching a live broadcast or a recording of the lesson – because everything and everyone is inside this sea of information, including Abraham, Rashbi, Moses, the Ari, and Baal HaSulam. Whether you are part of the lesson in “real time” or not is only a psychological impression of a person who hasn’t yet come out of the boundaries of our world.

For example, when a person doesn’t know that the lesson isn’t being held in real time, then he watches it as if it were. It’s because this information doesn’t get old. And it doesn’t matter what time of day or night one studies, because everything that we study immediately enters and becomes revealed in the entire universe.

This information has never been revealed to man, and it is becoming revealed only now, with the help of the united group. This force already exists in the field that we must fill – in the entire volume of the World of Infinity. And we fill it. And then the rest of humanity also exists in this information, because they exist in the same field that we are adding our information to.

We are doing this, because following the Restriction, only a thin glowing line passes from Infinity to this world – to the center of the universe. Everything besides this thin line is empty space, and we fill that space with the work we are doing.

This is why the sensory and rational information that we extract already exists in this space. And all the people, regardless of their location, or whether they want it or not, are already spinning around it, in harmony with it.

There is a good example of this in nature. Have you ever seen a flock of birds fly in the air, and suddenly they all make a turn together? How do they know that they need to turn? It’s because they receive their information from one place. And it’s the same with all parts of nature. Physicists are already discovering that the field of gravity spreads immediately and that elementary particles immediately inform one another about any changes happening to them. Everything we learn already exists “around us” – so just tune in to it and become filled!

This is why there is no time and it makes no difference when you watch the lesson. You get in touch with the spiritual information that has already been revealed in this space – and this information exists there for you.

(Taken from the lesson I gave on 06-27-08.)

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Questions I received on turning egoists into altruists, and attaining the goal of creation:

Question: How do you explain your allegation that all of nature, including wild beasts, is altruistic?

My Answer: By the fact that it unconsciously follows the Creator’s plan.

Question: How do you plan on turning egoists into altruists?

My Answer: Through the influence of the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif). See item 155 of the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.”

Question: In doing so, are you removing the “defective gene” in man?

My Answer: No. Rather, everything remains and grows bigger, becomes supplemented, and corrected!

Question: Why do you think that humanity has to go back in its development in order to become equal to God again?

My Answer: Humanity was never equal to God. It must attain this state by developing and becoming corrected.

Question: What do you think of building an altruistic society out of ascetics?

My Answer: I am against it. Asceticism goes against Nature, because the goal of creation is perfect fulfillment.

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A question I received: Rather than the “punishment” related articles, I would like to read more about how a student of Kabbalah should not be drawn into being a little more isolated than the norm. Surely some hermit-like behavior is inevitable when one is in a “virtual group,” physically isolated from Kli participants and not particularly interested in spending too much time in idle chit chat.

My Answer: You are right – one studying Kabbalah cannot help but grow detached from the world. On the other hand, every day I spend some time watching news or movies about nature and current events. Every day I go to the sea, where I speed walk for five kilometers and then swim. I spend the rest of my time sitting in one place, indoors – and I’ve been following this routine for many years already.

So don’t worry about feeling isolated from the world. This is how one feels in the beginning – as if one is leaving this entire world. This happens because you are being filled by spiritual information, but later on you will also find room for this world.

Time will balance everything out. Don’t worry about this, and don’t make any artificial actions. I recommend not wasting your time on communication with empty people. Whenever you can, absorb the maximum possible knowledge and impressions from the Kabbalistic sources. Find a sensible way to distribute work, sports, family, and Kabbalah – and soon you will feel the result!

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A question I received: I am a 31 year old woman, married with five children. Recently my marriage went through a difficult crisis. My husband cheated on me with my best friend (a divorcee) and then left me for her. Their relationship continued for four months, and it was very difficult for me to live through that period. Now my husband and I are living together again and trying to rekindle our relationship. He says he needs to share with me what he went through during that period, but I’m afraid that I just won’t be able to bear the pain of it all over again. I think that I have to erase everything that happened from my memory in order to go on with my life. What do you think?

My Answer: You are right. Don’t think about the past, but only about the present and the future. Think of your husband as if you’ve just met, and erase everything that happened. This is what Kabbalah advises us to do, and it’s the same with our relationship with the Creator. This action is called “Dilug” – skipping over.

One should think that events happening now are happening through one’s active participation and that they are actions that he can and must change. However, as soon as part of an action or the entire action has happened, one should immediately accept it as something that happened according to the Creator’s initial plan.

In other words, do not regret anything, but also do not be proud of what you did or think that it happened because of you, that you participated in it. Rather, accept it as something that nature gave to you and that passed over you in order to teach you about the following action – which depends entirely on you. Your attitude to the future should be ordinary, materialistic – without relying on the Creator. We learn in Kabbalah that everything depends on raising a MAN – a request for correction.

It is difficult to relate everything that happened in the past to the Creator. Yet it is necessary, because otherwise you can’t be constantly unified with the Creator. The union with the Creator lies in always perceiving Him, while attributing all of the past to Him, and all of the future – to yourself.

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Two questions I received on overcoming our fears:

Question: In one of your lessons on the book Shamati you spoke about fear, and you said that when a person is afraid, he should immediately connect to the Creator. Can you elaborate on this? What should I do when I feel chilled to the bone with worry about my loved ones?

My Answer: You should connect everything that is happening with the Creator, with yourself, and with the entire world, so that all of these will unite into one and there won’t be any difference between them. All of your doubts and fears should vanish within this union. And if they don’t – then it’s even better! Then you can ask the Creator to help you.

Actually, if you open The Book of Zohar , you’ll discover that the first correction, “Pkuda Kadma” (in Aramaic) is when one attains true fear. In fact, fear always haunts everyone and everything: On the still level of nature, there is fear to preserve its structure, on the vegetative and animate levels of nature, there is fear to become filled with what’s necessary and to push away what’s harmful. And it’s the same with man.

Question: Can studying Kabbalah help one get rid of his fears, for example, the fear of being on stage or of expressing one’s opinion?

My Answer: Yes, because studying Kabbalah develops your perception of the unity of everything, of the integral universe. It also replaces one’s earthly fears with the true fear – the need to attain the Creator.

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A question I received: Hello to all the spiritual “sharks,“ to the people creating a revolution in love! I have a question about the great Kabbalists who have stopped reincarnating. Why did they agree to end their reincarnations? It’s such a shame! Instead of coming back here and helping us, helping Rav Laitman give lessons, disseminate, and correct the world, they are sitting up in nirvana, in the World of Infinity, connected to the Source of the soul of Adam HaRishon, at a time when we need them the most! If I were granted the final correction, I wouldn’t just agree to stop reincarnating and passively wait for the other parts of my soul to be corrected through suffering. I wouldn’t agree to “play with the Leviathan.” So why did they agree to it? Where is their conscience?

My Answer: I completely understand your egoistic anger about not receiving help from above, but I can’t share it with you! When a person ascends and matures spiritually, he gains a new understanding of the causes of what’s happening, the purpose of the world and the method of its correction. He reveals the integral picture of the universe and clearly sees all the causes, phenomena and effects. And when he reveals all this, he becomes “righteous” – that is, he justifies the Creator.

Continue studying and evoking the Upper Light, and then your “eyes” (your soul’s vision) will open and you will attain the same state as the great Kabbalists – you will become like them. According to nature’s plan, we must all reach the state where we understand and justify all of the Creator’s actions. So nirvana and games with the Leviathan are ahead of us! It’s written, “The purpose of creation is to please the creatures.”

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Noah, the well-known character from the Torah, represents a stage in one’s spiritual development. It’s when a person realizes that his egoism is evil, and that he cannot save himself from it because it is his entire nature. He then understands that only the Upper Force, which is outside him, can change him. This is why he builds the Ark – or in other words, in response to his appeals, the Upper Light creates the property of Bina (bestowal) in him, and he then remains inside it so that his egoistic desires and properties will no longer rule over him. When he enters the Ark, he ascends above egoism and enters the realm of bestowal, isolating himself from his egoism, his nature.

Today every one of us and the entire world as a whole are beginning to feel that we are in a threatening state – the state of Noah before the Flood. We are being threatened by the inner (individual) and outer (worldwide) Flood (egoism), which we have brought upon ourselves and cannot overcome on our own. Our only salvation is to hide in the Ark, that is – for every person and for everyone together to acquire the property of bestowal, to ascend above our egoism. Then everything will reach harmony – just like all the species of creatures that were in the Ark, and we will make the transition to renewed life.

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