Two questions I received on spiritual perceptions:

Question: On one hand you say that there is no connection between the soul and the corporeal body, that these are two parallel worlds. On the other hand you says that there’s no such thing as this world and that world, that everything is united, and our current reality is the lowest part of the spiritual world which is revealed in our sensations for the time being. Does this mean that the corporeal body is also the soul or spirit?

My Answer: Of course, this world is what we perceive in our smallest desire. The rest of our desires are concealed from us, and become revealed to the degree that we progress toward spirituality. What becomes revealed in them is called “the Upper World.”

At the same time, all of one’s desires remain. This is why a Kabbalist retains the sensation of our world, but this sensation is also complemented by the sensation of another world – the Upper World. And at the end of all the corrections, all the worlds “fold up” into one – the World of Infinity.

Question: While listening to your lessons I have this thought that the Upper World is concerned only with our reaction to everything that happens to us, and what it (the Upper World) sends us. Is this correct?

My Answer: That’s absolutely correct, and how to correctly react to the Creator’s influence is exactly what we study. It is a process of attaining Him and achieving equivalence with Him.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Reality Is Imaginary
Laitman.com Post: Perception of the World
Laitman.com Post: How Will We Know That the Revelation of the Upper World Is Not an Illusion?

Filed under: Perception - No Comments →

A question I received: What is ”The New Society” written by Rav Ashlag? This is almost word for word the Communist Manifesto:

1. The acceptance of the religion of “love thy neighbor as thyself” (meaning the religion is “love thy neighbor as thyself”!).
2. A just distribution of the profits, so that each works according to his skills and receives according to his needs.
3. Private property exists, but its owner must not profit from it more than he really needs.
4. Property owners will be under public supervision, or under self-trusteeship, or through bookkeeping.
5. The unemployed will receive their needs equally with the employed.
6. Profits will be utilized for building public assets.

Question: Why does Kabbalah preach Communism when it has been proven that it does not work?

My Answer:
1. “Love thy neighbor as thyself” is the general law of nature, since nature is a single organism.
2. “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” is the law by which any interconnected system operates.
3. The owner benefits from realizing himself for the sake of the society because he receives respect and dignity.
4. He remains under the supervision of society until he rises to a degree above his egoism in every respect.
5. Those who are unemployed for reasons that are not in their control will receive the same as everyone else.
6. All the profits, except those necessary for every person to live, are collective and will be used for the benefit of the entire system.

The difference between this and the Soviet structure is that every person receives the Upper Reward for the common unity – adhesion with the Creator, an eternal and perfect existence! This is the reason why people will observe the commandment of “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” with everything it implies.

However, humanity will come to these conditions gradually and willingly, not by force. That’s because the revelation of the concealed world gives people the strength and the desire to exist in it!

Filed under: Society - 2 Comments →

Two questions I received on people who don’t study Kabbalah:

Question: Those who feel the point in the heart are already receiving blows of fate in order to make them follow the designated path. But what about everyone else?

My Answer: Everyone is pushed toward the goal of creation by blows of fate because we go through a part of the path – before revealing the point in the heart – unconsciously, by means of blows and running away from the suffering. However, after the point in the heart is revealed in us, we still receive the blows, but gradually we discover the cause behind them and their purpose.

From that moment on, we must already aspire to the goal (the Creator) consciously and through our own additional desire – a desire that isn’t received from above, but from our environment (the group).

Question: As far as I can tell, there is no group in France that’s close to me. Are there any plans to establish one? I am new to Kabbalah and feel a bit lonely sitting in front of the computer screen by myself, even though there are other students in my country who feel the same way.

My wife is not against me studying Kabbalah. She says that it’s ok because it’s kind of “biblical.” However, I am already afraid that the community will influence her and she will blame me for engaging in “satanic” things. How should I react to this? I am sure that it will be a struggle, but I don’t want to stop studying Kabbalah.

My Answer: The global connection between all people that’s being revealed in the world, and the nonconformity (and opposition!) of human relationships to it, will bring about such immense blows of Nature upon humanity – from climatic to economic – that people will quickly discover that Kabbalah’s method to change the world for the better is unique.

However, we should try by all means to inform people today about the reason for the crises and suffering, in order to shift humanity’s development from the path of suffering to the path of conscious correction. Then the suffering will be replaced by Nature’s favorable treatment of humanity.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Let Others Mature On Their Own
Laitman.com Post: Who Can I Talk to About Kabbalah?

Filed under: Suffering - No Comments →

News Report (translated from Kursor.co.il): “Obama Will Soon Disappoint His Electorate.” People are putting great hopes on Barack Obama. He isn’t just a political leader, but the hope of the entire generation, a man who will bring prosperity to all, and first of all, redemption from the financial crisis.

My Comment:
The reasons why Obama was “elected”: In recent years, the world sees the United States as an international cop and overbearing teacher. It is fighting a war in Iraq, keeping prisoners in the jails of Guantanamo without trials or charges, and its arrogance sets it against regions such as Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Moreover, it is once again starting a cold war with Russia. In other words, the United States has earned an extremely unfavorable image. They are even accused of all the disasters happening in the world.

This unattractive picture has been augmented by the current global financial crisis, for which everyone blames the United States because it is the international center of the entire global economy and finance. The worse people all over the world will feel during this developing crisis, the more hatred and blame will be put on the United States. The world opinion is that the Anglo-Saxon white Protestant America has been ruling the whole world and arrogantly setting the standards for everyone, for too many years.

In order to relieve all of these negative attitudes and to alter their unfavorable image, Americans decided to bring the African-American Obama to the post of President. This neutralizes the hatred of the United States’ black and Hispanic population, brings about greater understanding and connection between the United States and the Latin American countries, as well as Asia, Africa, and even Europe. It also removes grounds for Russia to accuse the United States, since with a black president, there are many things you can’t blame America for anymore. The operation was accomplished professionally and just in time. However, apart from diverting accusations, anger, and the international community’s negative attitude to the United States, will it bring positive results?

The Solution: According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the global crisis is just starting and will keep growing. It will last until humanity brings itself to full equivalence with Nature (the Creator). Kabbalah explains how to do this.

Disappointment: Today, however, it is very unlikely that Obama’s advisers are ready to hear what Kabbalah has to say. Apparently, the world must suffer several more blows – like the Pharaoh in Egypt – in order to hear the truth. Hence all those who hope for positive changes have failed expectations ahead of them! The Creator gave this world a new leader – Obama, but he can only become that leader by starting a global reconstruction of people’s perception of the world.

The situation in the world can only be improved by studying the essence of the global world and educating all of humanity about a new attitude to the world – the world as one whole. If we create a system of global education about the global world, then the whole world will immediately feel that it is congruent to Nature (the Creator), and everyone’s hopes will come true!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Can We Avoid a Recession?
Laitman.com Post: America – Optimistic, and Why?
Laitman.com Post: Why Was America Hit First?

Filed under: Crisis - 2 Comments →

News Report (from BMJ ): A national survey of US internists and rheumatologists shows that half of American doctors regularly prescribe medications that are known to be useless in treating their patients’ illnesses. The doctors use the prescriptions as a placebo, having no affect on the patient’s organism.

My Comment: This psychological effect – which uses the force of belief to get results – has been the basis of shamanism, faith, religion, and our daily beliefs in thousands of “valuable” things in life for thousands of years now. In contrast, Kabbalah elevates man above his nature where he loses his attachment to empty “values.” This gives him the opportunity to become attached to the Upper Force instead.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah – the Cure for Any Affliction
Laitman.com Post: Egoism and Its Manifestations
Laitman.com Post: Health and Kabbalah

Filed under: Health - No Comments →

Questions I received on how to work with the material and the group:

Question: When does a person who studies the science of Kabbalah go from simply “absorbing” the information (reading, listening and seeing) to actually perceiving the Upper World?

My Answer: When he becomes equivalent – in the minimal degree – to the quality of bestowal described by the text.

Question: When studying the materials by the aforementioned methods, does it make sense to try and unite with the Kabbalist’s way of thinking, rather than finding a connection with the material itself?

My Answer: That’s exactly what you should do – try to unite with the author and his intention.

Question: Can the point of the breaking be revealed only in the group? Or also with other people close to me, such as my husband for instance?

My Answer: It can only be done by trying to unite the aspirations for the Creator by drawing our joint aspirations for Him closer together.

Question: Sometimes I meet people who seem very close to me spiritually, and it’s easier for me to connect to their desires. Is this egoistic equivalence of form? Or the pattern of the reincarnation of souls?

My Answer: These are the same.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Shamati – The Most Valuable Book In the World
Laitman.com Post: We Must Only Unite Our Points In the Heart
Chapter from the Book Spiritual Search – “Equivalence of Form”
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Acting Mind”

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

Two questions I received on the arts:

Question: I know that the arts are a manifestation of the ego. But being a person who dabbles in poetry and music, I can’t help but ask: What is the spiritual root of poetry? Can I (a person who hasn’t developed a spiritual Kli nor crossed the Machsom) write poetry and songs about Kabbalah and the Creator? After all, I don’t receive the Light into my soul yet. Should I try it anyway?

My Answer: Actually, the root of the arts is power and ambition. It doesn’t matter over whom – it may even be yourself. Follow the example of the great Kabbalist King David: the Psalms he wrote are still recited today by the entire world. Do as he did!

Question: Kabbalah fights egoism. But at the same time you reject philosophy, history, and the arts. Why?

My Answer: I do not reject anything. I only want to arrange everything according to its level of importance. Since Kabbalah speaks about man’s correction, connection and union with the Creator, eternal existence, and how to replace suffering with pleasure, hence it is incomparably more important than anything else in our lives. After all, what else can compare to Kabbalah when its purpose – and its capability – is to deliver man to a happy existence in this world, and to add an eternal and perfect existence on top of that?

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Is There Anything Spiritual About Works of Art?
Music Inspired by Kabbalah

Filed under: Arts - No Comments →

Three questions I received on ups and downs along the path:

Question: For many years I felt that I was an egoist. Then I came to Kabbalah and understood why I felt that way. Now I study and participate in dissemination, but I started to feel even emptier. On the other hand, there is hope.

My Answer: The feeling of emptiness comes from the influence of the Light, which shows you that you are empty and that you can only fill this emptiness with the Light. For this to happen, you must desire it – and this desire can only be received from the environment.

Question: Lately I don’t feel like I’m a bad person anymore. Of course I’m still an egoist, but I no longer feel bad about it. On the contrary, I feel uplifted, I am more focused during the lessons and I do more dissemination than before. How can I tell whether I’m still on the right path?

My Answer: If you always focus on being united with the group, if you understand that by uniting you will receive the desire that will evoke the Light of correction – then you will reveal the Creator.

Question: I ask the Creator to correct me, since it’s not in my power to correct my own state. On the other hand, I’m ashamed of this request because it means that I’m dissatisfied with the state I’m in – a state given to me by the Creator in order for me to develop. How should I understand this contradiction?

My Answer: In each and every state, the Creator is waiting for you to move closer to Him.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Preface to the Science of Kabbalah (“Pticha”) – Item 1
Laitman.com Post: Redemption Will Come at the Hands of the Creator
Baal HaSulam Article: “Finding the Creator Within”

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

The Congress that is currently taking place in the UK is the first Kabbalistic Congress to take place after the revelation of humanity’s crisis. Just two months ago we held a Congress in Odessa on the Black Sea, and back then we still couldn’t speak about the future as explicitly as now, since now it is a definite requirement. We are entering the period that Kabbalah was intended for, the reason it was revealed to man, because its application can bring the world to the one and only goal, but through a completely different path – a path that is pleasant and swift, through realizing the law of Nature which states that “The global humankind must unite into one whole, according to the law of ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

This is against our nature, we hate it, it seems unrealistic, and is repulsive to us, but it is necessary because it is a law of nature. Hence, this state can be achieved either through great suffering, or by attracting the Upper Light upon us. Kabbalah is the method of attracting the Upper Light for our correction. So use this means, pass it on to others – and then all of humanity will gradually and easily shift to a different state that’s harmonious with Nature – the state of rest, confidence, and happiness.

Filed under: Conventions - No Comments →

Preface to the Science of Kabbalah (“Pticha”). Items 3-5, summary:

3. The order of distancing, of the weakening of the desire to bestow, resulting from the development and growth of the desire to receive, from above (from bestowal, similarity to the Creator) downwards (moving away from Him) – happens along five degrees or five worlds: Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya. The World of Assiya includes our world (HaOlam Hazeh). “World” – Olam comes from the word Olama – concealment, because to the degree one grows distant from similarity to the Creator, the Creator becomes concealed.

All creatures originate and have their root in the World of Infinity, in the Thought of Creation to “delight the creatures,” in their initial state.

4. The distancing of the creation from the Creator is necessary for the following reasons:

• To give creation (man) an opportunity to be independent. This is accomplished through the complete concealment of the Creator in our world.
• The gradual distancing occurs through the Light’s fulfillment and its subsequent expulsion. These contrasting states create sensations, realizations, and experience in the desire, giving it the opportunity to compare, and thus make it suitable to achieve its intended purpose.

The creation’s purpose is the following: after its forced descent into our world, it is to use its free will and awareness to compare and to choose bestowal over reception. Thus, by choosing that similarity to the Creator is the most important thing, creation must gradually ascend to Him, until reaching full equivalence and adhesion with Him.

5. The degrees, the structure of creation, and all the actions are determined by the nature of the Light and the desire.

Phase 0: Light (the Creator’s attitude to the creature) emanates from the Creator’s plan to create the creature in order to delight it by making it similar to Him (the small state is not considered complete). This phase is called zero or the root. It incorporates the future creature in the form of a point of the future desire, similar to a drop of semen or a seed.

Phase 1: The Light influences the point of desire, developing it to Its own size and then filling it. The desire feels the fulfillment, called the Light of Wisdom (Ohr Hochma). Because the desire is fully dependent on the Light, it doesn’t feel anything besides mere existence, like an embryo within a womb. This phase contains everything that the Creator had allocated for the creature.

Gradually the desire becomes aware of its distinction from the Light and wishes to become like the Light – bestowing. This new desire is defined as a new phase:

Phase 2: This is the desire to bestow to the Creator, to be like the Light. As a result of this, the desire feels a different kind of pleasure than in phase 1 – the pleasure of being similar to the Creator, the Light of Bestowal (Ohr Hassadim). However, gradually the desire realizes that it merely desires to bestow, but does not actually bestow. This realization results in the emergence of a new desire – “to receive for the sake of bestowal,” and this is already defined as phase 3.

Phase 3: The desire receives like in phase 1 (the Light of Hochma) with an intention like in phase 2, and feels that it bestows, like the Creator (the Light of Hassadim). Due to the sensation of being on the Creator’s level, a new desire develops – phase 4:

Phase 4: This is the desire to enjoy the Creator’s status or position by receiving the following from Him:

a) The pleasure of being filled with pleasure, and
b) The pleasure of being similar to Him.

Since the desire receives everything that can possibly emanate from the Creator, phase 4 constitutes a fully developed desire.

Related Material:
Download PDF version of Pticha

Filed under: Books - No Comments →