Laitman.com » Depression

Depression Is The Best Advisor

admin_bb — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:07:06 +0000

Opinion (From snob.ru): “Patients with depression tend to evaluate themselves and the possible turn of events more realistically, whereas healthy people tend to overestimate.

“The down side of depression includes sadness, apathy, and loss of appetite; however, those who suffer from depression are notably better at making decisions than healthy people because they are more prone to analysis and to being more cautious.

“Cognitive problems are better solved by people with medium level of depression. Depression humanizes a person and makes him more moral. In a manic state a person can be violent and heartless, but in a state of depression one becomes sensitive and compassionate.

“While all of this is comforting, it does not justify depression.”

My Comment: Kabbalah develops one’s ability to be in two opposite states simultaneously. For instance, a person can feel joy and sadness simultaneously because alongside of his egoism, Kabbalah also develops his qualities of bestowal and compassion. This constantly expands a person’s perception and awareness of the world and allows him or her to be fulfilled by it while never becoming empty. This is impossible to achieve through our inherent egoistic qualities.
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Our Life Has Become Longer, But Sadder

admin_bb — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:40:31 +0000

In the News (from lastampa.il): “Italy is an aging, but healthy country, the third in Europe by life expectancy. … But there is a decrease in mental health: The use of antidepressants … has doubled over the past ten years.

“Depression comes from a deep dissatisfaction. In recent years, depression has become a real social problem.

“Society does not tolerate weakness. It is forbidden to show suffering. One must live in an artificial atmosphere of good mood. Melancholy and sadness have turned into a disease.

“The massive use of antidepressants indicates that pills are seen as the shortest way to resolve the issue, even without trying to solve it. Theoretically, the drugs should be taken in a critical situation until the recovery, but most people cannot abandon the medications and are not cured.”

My Comment: Depression is the most widely spread disease of the world, and it causes virtually all other illnesses. Our essence is egoism, therefore its emptiness, void, and dissatisfaction, is the foundation of our common condition.

A disease is the manifestation of the imbalance of the body, the system that constantly monitors its internal equilibrium. Our lack of balance between ourselves and with nature at the “human” level puts all the systems of nature out of balance: at the level of inanimate nature, the processes inside the Earth (the awakening of volcanoes, earthquakes) and on its surface (hurricanes), at the vegetative and animate levels, the extinction of species, and so on.
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Mental Health Problems Soar For Unemployed

admin_bb — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 13:00:28 +0000

In the News (from HealthDay News): “Americans who were jobless for longer than 25 weeks in the past year were three times more likely than those who were continuously employed to suffer mental health issues for the first time, a new study finds.

“’On the other hand, we found that people exposed to long-term unemployment were three times as likely as employed people over the past year to be exposed to their first bout of psychological distress in a clinically defined way,’ Goldsmith [an economics professor at Washington and Lee University] said.

“Being jobless also has a greater psychological impact on people with more than a high school education than on those with less education, the researchers found.

“Depression and general anxiety are the two primary causes of poor mental health related to long-term unemployment, the study found.

“The study also found that the psychological impact of unemployment tends to be greater among people in minority groups and those with higher levels of education.

“‘People with a lot of education tend to believe that they have control over events in their lives and are self-blamers. That is really damaging to emotional well-being,’ said Goldsmith.”

My Comment: Unemployment is inevitable as we produce too much unnecessary stuff, deplete natural resources, and pollute the planet. We have to accept the fact that we must feed, clothe, and equip ourselves with the necessary facilities, and not more. The freed time has to be dedicated to the studies of the global world, new integral society, and the way to reaching mutual guarantee. This will enable us to achieve balance with the surrounding nature and survive in a threatening ecological situation.
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Climate Change Threatens Mental Health

admin_bb — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 12:10:10 +0000

In the News (From France24.com): "Flooding, drought, and superstorms boosted by climate change are not only poised to ravage human habitats but mental health as well, according to Australian researchers.

"’Recent experience shows extreme weather events also pose a serious risk to public health, including mental health and wellbeing, with serious flow-on consequences for the economy and wider society.’

“Up to now, however, few efforts have been made to assess the psychological impact of climate change-enhanced weather events, which in Australia have destroyed communities, farms, and businesses.

“In poorer countries with less capacity to absorb such shocks, the consequences on mental health are likely to be even greater, the report warned.

“’The emerging burden of climate-related impacts on community morale and mental health – bereavement, depression, post-event stress disorders, and the tragedy of self-harm – is large,’ noted Tony McMichael, a professor at Australian National University, in introducing the study.

“Statistics from Australia show higher rates of drug and alcohol abuse, violence, family breakups, and suicide after extreme weather events, with impacts more pronounced in rural and semi-rural areas according to the report.

"’Evidence is emerging that drought and heat waves lead to rates of self-harm and suicide as much as eight percent higher’ when annual rainfall is at least 300 millimetres below average, it said.

“Children in particular are vulnerable to pre-disaster anxiety and post-trauma illness, the researchers noted.

“This is due not only to direct exposure of life-threatening situations and dislocation from family and community supports, but also to ‘the reality of living with long term threat,’ noted Ian Hickie, director of the Brain and Mind Research Institute.

“Climate change will also render already stressful conflicts over resource use, especially for water, even more volatile, he added.”

My Comment: But namely man by his behavior, his lack of aspiration to balance with nature causes the changes of nature, its instability and variability. And then nature itself reacts to these changes and backlashes. It’s because nature consists of the following parts: still, vegetative, animate, and human. A human is the highest part of nature, not because of his animal body, but due to his desire and reason.

For thousands of years, nature was developing desires and reason in humans. While the desires and the mind were evolving, nature did not put obstacles for us. But at the end of the last century, the individual development in each person came to an end. Since then, the desire and the mind started to unite with nature in one integral network. The world became globally and integrally connected. The network between us made us interconnected.

However, the desires and the mind remained egoistic, and thus, are opposite to the network, and in the process of convergence, evoke greater hatred and crisis: Egoists cannot function in the common network. And because man’s desire and mind are the highest, that is, the most influential in the connection network between all parts of nature, people suffer more than others—and from all other levels.

It is the time for everyone to draw a conclusion because nature will force us anyway! Is it not better to change our inner nature: egoism?
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Depression Facts And Stats

admin_bb — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 18:24:42 +0000

Opinion: (Bob Murray, PhD and Alicia Fortinberry, MS): “Depression is one of the greatest problems and killers of our times….

“Antidepressants work for 35 to 45% of the depressed population, while more recent figures suggest as low as 30%. Standard antipressants… have recently been revealed to have serious risks, and are linked to suicide, violence, psychosis, abnormal bleeding and brain tumors….

“Long-term recovery from depression ultimately requires addressing the underlying relationship causes of depression, not simply symptoms such as chemical imbalance and depressive thoughts. This is why healing both the relationship environment and the whole person is vital in preventing relapse….

Depression Statistics

“Depressive disorders affect approximately 18.8 million American adults or about 9.5% of the U.S. population age 18 and older….
“Pre-schoolers are the fastest-growing market for antidepressants. At least four percent of preschoolers — over a million — are clinically depressed.
The rate of increase of depression among children is an astounding 23% p.a.
15% of the population of most developed countries suffers severe depression.
30% of women are depressed. Men’s figures were previously thought to be half that of women, but new estimates are higher.”

My Comment: Undoubtedly, depression will grow, qualitatively and quantitatively, in the entire world, in all. It’s because we have created the world unfit for life. For the time being, it is depression in particular that urges us to look for a solution. Depression disappears only when we create a warm and loving atmosphere in the society.
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A Generation That Does Not Sense Tomorrow

bb_admin — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 18:11:38 +0000

According to statistics, most of the demonstrators in Tel Aviv, as well as the organizers of the protest, belong to the middle and upper classes. Special research has been done on which layers of society populate these demonstrations and what the percentages are.

And the same thing is now happening in London. We think that people are coming out to the streets and raising havoc because they have nothing to eat. But that’s not the problem. Why has it become possible to incite them and agitate them to hold a revolution? It’s because the new generation does not feel that the future holds anything good for it. The tendency is for things to get worse. And this is the gist of the problem: that there’s no future!

What do I care about problems like an apartment, family, and children if there is no tomorrow for me? This means total despair, like depression, when a person does not understand what he should live for. And if he gets into this state, then he is ready to do anything at all to destroy this horrible feeling of inner sorrow. That is why people are coming out to the streets and holding revolutions even when they belong to the highest layers of society.

Their inner despair makes them vulnerable to being attuned and turned in this direction, while they don’t even understand what is happening to them. They explain this by a thousand of other reasons, such as the search for justice in society, as if they actually needed it. In reality, they don’t even know what this concept means because a just approach would make their lives even worse than they are today. They’re not looking for justice.

If we examine the serious, inner reasons, from the standpoint of the will to enjoy which we research along its entire depth, then the reason for the protests lies in the fact that there is no tomorrow! And this feeling reigns in the whole world. There is nothing that can be done about the situation unless we give people the light of hope for the future, which can come from just one source – the science of Kabbalah.
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From the lesson on 8/12/11, The Zohar

Suicide Boom In Japan

admin_bb — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:02:44 +0000

In the News (from rt.com): “A triple disaster on a scale the world has never known caused damage, destruction and uncertainty, forcing tens of thousands of Japanese refugees to leave their lives behind and seek shelter anywhere they can.

”Some people do evacuate,’ says Komae Hosokawa, a nuclear sociologist. ‘But the problem is they are the minority and they have been accused by their neighbors, by their classmates and of course by official personnel that they are causing unfounded anxiety among people, which is not good.’

“Though primarily a move towards self-preservation, this idea of desertion is defined by many as characteristically un-Japanese and has earned those who have evacuated the dishonorable title of traitor….

“’We hear some organic farmers committed suicide, because you know for organic farmers soil is everything,’ says Komae Hosokawa. ‘They nurture the good soil after many years of hard work and it is just contaminated in one night or two you know. So some farmers committed suicide, and I am very sad to hear the news. And many other farmers are also very much depressed.’…

“’The rate increases not in the epicenter, disaster epicenter, but in the peripheral areas,’ said Dr. Hirohito Hirose, a disaster psychology specialist, ‘Because survivors who have to reconstruct their life, they have no time to [contemplate] suicide.’

“This disaster has certainly taken its toll on Japan’s economy and such constant reminders of an intense topic can harm the collective psyche of the people who live here as well.”

My Comment: Perhaps, it seems heroic, but is it not an escape from certain problems, which they have no strength to solve constructively? A human being is a vulnerable creature, a small desire for self-preservation, fulfillment.

That is why a lack of fulfillment, a feeling of emptiness, is felt as suffering which one wants to get rid of, possibly, by an escape from existence itself.
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Depression In Modern Life

admin_bb — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 08:10:49 +0000

Opinion: (Jerry Kennard, healthcentral.com): “We’re more anxious and depressed than ever before and the situation is worsening rather than getting better. The argument that modern technology would one day protect us from ill-health and distress and open up a world of leisure and, by implication greater happiness, is looking decidedly dated….

“Lead author, Dr. Catriona Morrison, from the University of Leeds, in the UK., found that high internet use is associated with depression. High internet use is frequently associated with gambling, interacting in social communities or viewing sexual content. According to Morrison, ‘the study reinforces the public speculation that over-engaging in websites that serve to replace normal social function might be linked to psychological disorders like depression and addiction.’”

My Comment: We mistakenly think that the Internet can replace communication. This is the very means that pulls us into loneliness and unnoticeably isolates each of us from others to such an extent that we no longer can communicate directly.

This condition will be worsening until the full realization of it as evil, and then, society will understand the need for a good open direct communication. Only it can eliminate depression!
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In The Zone Of Choice

bb_admin — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:19:23 +0000

In the past egoism spurred us on from behind and from the sides, always leaving the path forward free. However, today the barriers are not arising along the sides, but in front of us. It’s as if a wall rises up before us, leaving us no place to run, nothing we can do.

This state is becoming more and more apparent: I don’t really want anything, I don’t feel that I can keep growing in my egoism. It is incapable of giving me answers to the questions that arise in me today. I have outgrown the previous phases and have entered the next level of questions, the level of adulthood and new necessities.

Food, sex, family—all of these are falling apart, taking on strange, “mutated” forms. Wealth, fame, and knowledge don’t seem to promise me a lot either.

Science is in a crisis and does not answer my questions, even though a mere 50-60 years ago it still seemed like it would give us answers to everything.

Power has become petty in our eyes: We see that its only objective is money. And money…. Is it really worth wasting your entire life on!? My questions have already outgrown any number of zeros that a bank account can display.

When a person loses the necessary “fuel,” emptiness emerges inside of him and he finds himself asking, “What is worth living for? For myself? But I lack fulfillment. For my children? But when they get older, they will leave the nest. And besides, why raise them at all? What bright future do they have ahead? Disintegrating families and a decomposing society?” A person does not feel attached to anything and does not have hopes for anything. That is the kind of impasse that our questions have led us to.

But there is also a completely different reason for the dead-end state: We are exhausting the natural resources. Today it is already clear that human progress won’t be infinite, both from the point of view of our demands and from the point of view of our existence as a whole. If we continue squandering the natural resources at the current rate, then very soon we won’t have any raw materials left even for the vitally necessary products.

90% of what we produce today consists of oil, be it energy, plastic materials, and so on. When the oil reserves end, we will be left with nothing. But nevertheless, we still keep on squandering it.

Thus, on one hand nature places a barrier before us in the form of ecology, climate, and resources, and on the other hand, egoism no longer pushes us forward. It asks questions that we cannot find answers to here, in our world, in this small children’s room where we had so much fun playing until now.

Today the situation already resembles suicide: We are irrationally using up the last remaining resources.

We have to understand that because of this, we find ourselves in the zone of choice. This is where freedom of will emerges, the freedom for us to start understanding the program of our development: “Who are we? Why are we here? What for?”, and together with us, the rest of the world. Now is exactly the time for us to solve this challenge. Otherwise humanity will find itself in a truly hopeless impasse.

In reality the gist of the problem is not the financial crisis, the technology crisis, or the crisis of families. We are in a crisis with ourselves. We have to understand who we are and what we are here for, both from the point of view of nature, which obligates us to this, and from our own point of view. Only then will we be able to set things right inside of us and in the world.
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From the Talk about a New Book 7/11/2011

The Depression Cure

admin_bb — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 07:48:48 +0000

Opinion: (Stephen S. Ilardi, Professor, the University of Kansas, thedepressioncurebook.com): “Most Americans work long hours, eat on the fly, and lead increasingly sedentary, isolated lives. Alongside this lifestyle, depression rates have skyrocketed: approximately 1 in 4 Americans will suffer from major depression at some point in their lives….

“Our bodies were never designed for the sleep-deprived, poorly nourished, frenzied pace of twenty-first century life.” That is, depression is the brain’s reaction to stress.

My Comment: Depression is a reaction to inner emptiness. A person can live through anything if only he can justify the misfortunes in his life. Then, difficulties enhance the effect of victories and achievements. The main cause of depression is a lack of motivation and purpose.

If the environment demonstrates special values that are equally important to all members of society, a person feels that he is part of the society and acknowledges its goals as his. In this case, there is no void; public opinion gives him assurance that there is something to live for. If, however, the cause of depression is not removed, drug treatment is the only option.
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Depression Is Sweeping The World

admin_bb — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 11:35:56 +0000

In the News: “Depression affects 121 million people worldwide. In can affect a person’s ability to work, form relationships, and destroy their quality of life. At its most severe depression can lead to suicide and is responsible for 850,000 deaths every year….

“In conjunction with the World Health Organization World Mental Health (WMH) Survey Initiative, researchers from 20 centers collaborated to investigate the prevalence of depression around the globe. To be classified as having had a Major Depressive Episode (MDE) a person was additionally required to fulfill five out of nine criteria including sadness, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, low energy and poor concentration….

“MDE were elevated in high-income countries (28% compared to 20%) and were especially high (over 30%) in France, the Netherlands, and America. The country with the lowest incidence was China at 12%….

“Women were twice as likely to suffer depression as men, and the loss of a partner was a main contributing factor…” (Source: BioMed Central)

“The new research discovered that for both British men and women the probability of depression peaked at about 44 years of age. In the US, unhappiness reached a peak at about 40 years of age for women and 50 for men.” (Source: telegraph.co.uk)

My comment: The more our egoism develops and alienates us from each other, the more the world around us manifests itself as integral, that is, opposing us, egoists-individualists, and the more our lives appear harder, worthless, and pointless. And depression in us will be developing as the biggest problem of humankind, which we will not be able to get rid of other than by turning our mutual rejection into attraction.

The chief problem of humanity is to correct human nature. It is a pity that people do not wish to hear about this and suffer. But these sufferings will nevertheless make them realize the cause of evil and accept the method of correction. It is a pity that everything happens by the path of suffering.
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Egoism: An Interrupted Flight

admin_bb — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 11:15:45 +0000

For millennia, we advanced with the slow growth of egoism and developed society, technologies, and various sciences in compliance with it. Then, during the Renaissance, a steeper ascent began that peaked in our century, with a consumer society.

When this egoism reached a certain level, it suddenly stopped, “interrupted its flight,” and its graph now turns into a horizontal line. It will not grow further.

In this state, humanity begins to feel depression as it can’t see how it can satisfy itself. Earlier, being at the intermediate stages of our development, we always aspired to something greater. Every time, it seemed to us that the next state was better than the current one, and we wanted to achieve it. We raised children, hoping that it would be better for them than for us, that their world would be higher, wiser, and so on.

However, today we don’t want to have children because we don’t see how their life will become better. We feel that egoism cannot grow any further; it has nowhere to grow. We even begin to limit our most ambitious space programs. Everything is declining. Besides that, resources do not allow us to develop freely. We begin to deplete ourselves in terms of energy, resources and in terms of our inner potential. We have nowhere to grow, nothing to strive for. “I don’t want anything.”

Over 50 percent of the people in the world experience some form of depression. We are not talking about drugs, terrorism, divorces, mutual estrangement, or conflicts between parents and children. All these are symptoms, an indication that egoism begins to “run out.” It can’t fulfill itself at the current level, on our small Earth.

Egoistic desires consist of two groups:

Food, sex, and family. These desires are natural; they are present in every human and in animals.
Wealth, power, honor (which are essentially the same thing), and knowledge. These desires are social.

Today, both these groups of desires no longer grow any more. They seem to have reached their peak and remain at the same level.

Soon, they will begin to diminish. A human will not need all that; he will begin to give up his “conquests,” to become empty internally because he will not expect any new desires or any new fulfillment. In our world, these six desires exhaust themselves, and this is also one of the reasons, one of the components, that drives us towards the crossing of the “Machsom,” the barrier between the worlds. They push us from behind by sufferings.
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From the 1st lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

There’s No Time To Be Depressed!

bb_admin — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 08:10:02 +0000

The convention in America has just ended and now we must already start preparing for the next convention which will be held in Moscow in the summer. We do not have time to get depressed and later think about how to come out of the descent. And we have no right to do this.

Suppose I caught the flu, but I have a baby at home who is also sick. What will I think about: my own illness or the baby’s? Obviously, I will do everything I can to make him get better.

And we are in the same situation! We are facing a more serious problem now, so can we really allow ourselves to get depressed? There is no time for that. Only two months are left to prepare! Afterward, time will become compressed even more and we have to prepare for this right now. Period!

But here you are, telling me that today you are experiencing some kind of depression, as if you’re in a fog. What are you talking about?! We don’t even have a moment to cool down. Right after the convention, as I was traveling from New York to Toronto, I already started thinking about the next one.

Our work is simple: to strengthen the connection between us until its inner content, our mutual bestowal to one another becomes identical to bestowal to the Creator, completely equivalent to it and equal to it in size and quality.
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From the lesson on 4/8/11, “Preface to Ptiha”

The Cure For Depression Is A Connection With Other People

bb_admin — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:32:18 +0000

The “Globes” newspaper has published a comprehensive article about the “happiness industry,” which is making us more and more unhappy. The rate of depression in the West is constantly on the rise, while the average age of its victims is decreasing. According to data from the World Health Organization, by 2020 depression will be the second cause of disability and death in the world, surpassed only by cardiovascular diseases.

The modern person is sinking in loneliness, but society does not throw him a life-buoy. With the exception of Islam, the role of religion as a source of support is dwindling to nothingness. Communities are falling apart and the concept of a big, happy family in the Western countries is becoming nonsensical. As people shift to the space of virtual communications, they mistakenly suppose that from now on they can manage without a real, caring environment. As a result, a person looks for the solution to all the problems one on one with himself, inside his shell, perched by a computer screen.

The life of a society that suffers from attention deficit flies by at lightning speed. People twitter short trills hoping to have the time to express something that won’t be heard by anyone a moment later. Anything requiring inner efforts, persistence, and time is rejected at the root. When a person is empty, having no true goal, then worry and depression settle in. So where can he get that goal? Where can he find meaning?

Today all serious researchers assert that happiness lies inside contact with others, in bestowal, and that real meaning can only be revealed in the interconnection between us. Viktor Frankl, the famous Austrian psychologist, says that a person sitting at home and trying to find meaning on his own is like someone trying to break into an open door, not understanding that it opens inwards instead of out.

“You won’t find happiness in a shell,” says one of the interviewed experts to the “Globes” newspaper. By focusing on himself instead of extending a hand out to others, a person only increases his narcissism and depression.

The Underlying Cause Of Crisis – Laitman Unplugged

admin_bb — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:34:10 +0000

A Chance For Fundamental Change – Laitman Unplugged

admin_bb — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 14:27:40 +0000

I’d Rather Jump Into The Water

admin_bb — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 14:20:37 +0000

Question: What is the connection between depression and our nature?

Answer: Depression is a sensation of emptiness in desire. There are desires but no fulfillment. It is the most vivid manifestation of our nature. After all, the Creator created desire, and this desire yearns to be fulfilled. This is our essence.

The collective desire where we all reside or every individual, little desire it is comprised of requires fulfillment. When desire lacks inner fulfillment, the question is where the fulfillment is. If it is somewhere near and the desire feels that it is close but not inside, then depression occurs.

If this fulfillment never existed in the first place, there would be no depression. Who knows what kind of emptiness I feel? How does some African peasant know that he lacks a laptop or a washing machine? But if future fulfillment, which could be but isn’t in you yet, appears in your vision, your sensation, it gives rise to depression.

Thus, depression characterizes not a primitive person, but rather someone advanced. And the farther we move forth, the more depression there will be since desires mature and so does the awareness of the lack of their fulfillment.

It is evident how for the last forty years depression has been getting more wide-spread in humanity. Today it is one of the top problems. Moreover, it has also become an illness. It will keep growing, and there will be no way to stop it.

In the nearest future, they will have to legalize and sell drugs to anyone who wants them. Basically, we will be glad to take anything to not feel this depression. But we won’t be able to overcome it anyway. It will come to the point where a person will see the “fix” before him or her but won’t be able to use the drug. Why? Because they will feel that it is not the answer to their question, not the “fix” to their internal void.

Therefore, the battle with depression is the major battle of man with his emptiness that is precisely what pushes him forth. Hence, by the number of those who are depressed, we can judge how close humanity is to becoming aware of its evil.

Nothing will help a person except a decisive, firm, and dynamic engagement in the correct society. Only there will he be able to suppress his or her depression, and very intensively at that: by switching themselves off, by turning off their feelings, and thrusting themselves into the environment as if flinging themselves into the water. There is no other medicine but the influence of the environment. And as a result, fulfillment will come and immediately eliminate one’s depression.
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From the 2nd lesson at the Berlin Convention on 1/28/11

Who Will Help Me?

bb_admin — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 12:49:19 +0000

Shamati #1, “There is none else beside Him” Not only does he not progress in his [spiritual] work [and does not see any clearance ahead], but [it seems to him that] he regresses, that is, he lacks the strength to observe [the Creator’s will] even “for his own sake,” [while it is the Creator who pushes him forward].

We don’t create a real egoistic desire that is able to overcome anything. Instead, we start experiencing weakness, indifference, and our operation by automatic pilot. “Let happen whatever will.” We just go with the flow. Sometimes things are a bit better and sometimes a bit worse.

That only by genuinely overcoming all the obstacles, above reason, can he [advance forward]. What does “genuinely overcoming above reason” mean? It’s when in spite of one’s desire and thoughts, without having any predisposition to do so, a person begins to connect to the teacher, the group, and the books. Altogether this is all called “the environment” or the surroundings.

But even in this case, when he begins to connect to them, he is still thrown about, up and down and in relation to the teacher, the group, and the sources or books. Sometimes he wants to and sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes he believes it and sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes he’s sick and tired of it, and sometimes he strives forward, and so on.

As the difficulties mount, a person starts to feel that there is nothing attractive or special on this path, and nothing motivates him to advance. There is no spark, nothing really worth giving up his life, career, and success for.

As a result, a person falls. His fall is serious, real, deep, and pretty lengthy. Thus, he reaches the final decision that not the group, nor the teacher, nor the books, nor exertion—nothing will help him in the world besides the only governing force, the Creator.

All the times that a person fell and rose, all the states that passed over him were all in order for him to feel total and absolute dependence on no one but the Creator. Imagine how much a person has to be beaten from all sides, shaken up, pushed away and attracted, and shown the existence of a great number of forces and various causes for his states so that in the end he would become convinced that there is nothing besides the one, single Force. If it doesn’t help me, then no one will. Only it will come to my rescue if I demand it.

That is when the following need arises in a person: for the Creator to definitely help him. The formation of this demand is also very not simple. It does not happen in one moment, but it gradually surges up in a person, becoming vividly expressed, fierce, and persistent. Like a child who demands what he wants no matter what—just give him what he wants, and you can’t convince him any other way. That is the kind of state we must reach. And in this state the Creator really does help us.

Only those people who truly want to draw near the Creator, so they will not settle for little, meaning remain as senseless children, they are therefore given help from Above, so they will not be able to say that I have everything and what else do I need?
From the 4th lesson at the Berlin Convention on 1/29/11

The Recipe For Happiness? Thanks, But No Thanks!

bb_admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 16:06:28 +0000

Question: Can Kabbalah help a person find mutual understanding between a man and woman or fix relationships in the family or at work?

Answer: No, you will not be able to create a good life for yourself in this world with the help of the science of Kabbalah. A good life will come as a result of your using all of the evil that becomes revealed in order to attain love for the neighbor and love for the Creator. Then the desires in which you feel bad will no longer emerge in you. The science of Kabbalah does not lie to a person! This is not psychology or charlatanism; it is not mysticism or a magical means to improve our lives!

Kabbalah says that the evil which becomes revealed to you is goal-oriented. It is intended to push you toward correction. You do not have to nullify the desire in which you feel bad, but rather, you have to admit that the desire is bad because of your hatred to the neighbor, and when you correct your hatred to love, you will be able to enjoy love for the neighbor and then the bad desires will no longer become revealed in you.

If you want to create a family or you are already married and a disagreement, animosity, or a misunderstanding comes up between you, that misunderstanding is impossible to correct without correcting your attitude to creation and the Creator. The Creator is between you: “Husband and wife—and the Shechina between them.”

For now the Shechina is still in exile. It becomes revealed as an evil, harmful force, the force of mutual hatred which sets you one against the other. The Creator does this deliberately so you wouldn’t connect on the previous, animate level, the way a female animal unites with a male animal in order to produce offspring, but in order for you to merge with one another as two souls into one soul and reveal the common force of bestowal that will connect you together.

If you are able to correct the relationship between you in this way, you will really become a family. Otherwise you won’t be able to do it. Kabbalah does not give you hints, solutions, or medicine for your current state, but elevates you to a new state where you will be able to be happy, successful, and perfect.

All of the suffering, problems, and blows become revealed in our world not in order to bring peace and perfection into the world, but in order to elevate us above our world. Otherwise it is similar to building communism in Russia. If you do something not for the sake of the Creator, meaning not in order to reach absolute bestowal, then you won’t achieve anything.

I feel bad, I have problems with my family, at work, with my children, and with my health, and I want to succeed in all of these areas. Kabbalah says I will feel good? Then fine, I agree to study Kabbalah! To do that I have to bestow to others? Then I’m even willing to bestow to others—anything to feel good myself.

This is called Lo Lishma (not for the Creator’s sake). This means that you know the method and you want to bring it to life for the sake of everyone so that you would also feel good. Now everything depends on what proportion you are willing to bestow to others in order to improve your state.

At first it is 1% for others and 99% for yourself. Then it’s the opposite: 99% for others and 1% for yourself until you acquire the force enabling you not to want anything for yourself. “I don’t care about what happens to me, I want to bestow to others.” This is called “bestowal for the sake of bestowal.”

However, we will never be able to return to a successful and corrected material life. All the methods that say that they can achieve this are lying, and Kabbalah tells you from the onset that this is impossible because all the evil in this life exists in order to elevate you to a new level.

Therefore, if you apply the science of Kabbalah to improve this life and you begin selling holy water or red strings, then it becomes a deadly poison. We have to understand that the reason for the general state of the world is the need to elevate us, but not to improve our situation. This is the difference between Kabbalah and other methods.

Therefore, if someone promises you a good life in this world, or health and happiness in your personal life, don’t believe it—it’s a lie and goes against nature! Nature wishes to elevate us to the “human” level. And when you aspire to this state, everything falls into place in the most wondrous way!
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/11, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

What Does Kabbalah Give To A Person?

bb_admin — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 09:57:07 +0000

Question: What does Kabbalah focus on and what can it give to a person?

Answer: When childhood ends, a person’s eyes gradually begin to open and he finds himself in a particular world. It is possible to live in it without giving it much thought; to simply live “like everyone else,” watching others. But possibly, a person wants to understand a bit more in life. Everything depends on a person’s internal need, which pushes him.

A person wants to discover the reality around him: his room during his childhood, then his yard, city, country, the world, the whole planet, and then he goes on to outer space. But in the end, he comes to understand that all of these attempts do not give him satisfaction.

Today humanity has even lost interest in space exploration. The only thing left of it is mercantile use for operating mobile phones via satellites or for espionage. We are no longer inspired by space travel to far-away galaxies. Man’s internal desire has changed and does not aspire to far-away, cosmic distances, but on the contrary, it aspires within.

So the question is: Where did this come from and what for? For the first time in human history, we are not simply trying to do “more,” but we first want to understand: Why should we do it? This is a question about our root: Where does everything come from? And where is it taking me?

Year after year, it becomes harder for people to sell something new, and that is because they are already satiated with everything. This does not mean that they do not have desires, but that you simply cannot give them what they want! That is why they are left unsatisfied, disillusioned, and begin taking drugs in order to forget about it all.

They need an answer about the meaning of life, and not simply how to arrange a well-fed, comfortable existence for themselves that’s pleasant for the animate body.

This can even be seen in fashion by how much simpler and free it has become. This indicates that man is becoming free of material values as he no longer sees meaning or fulfillment in them. He simply wants to feel comfortable and not feel the lack of something material, without excessively focusing on it or taking care of it.

This makes all the difference. I need a car, a house, and a thousand different things in order to live comfortably. But they are not interesting to me by themselves. I simply want to provide comfort for myself, but I actually do not need anything. They make my life easier, and that’s great, but all of this is not a goal in itself. I want to discover something else, something higher.

That’s where an inner question arises about the essence or meaning of life. A person can no longer find help in technology development, science, philosophy, or psychology; nothing will be able to answer this question. And that is because it is a question about his root: Where do I come from? Do I have a higher purpose besides this animate life?

I have already exhausted this life, but what else can I receive? One more super-fashionable toy or a TV? You can dream up any entertainment possible, but all of it comes from a level that I am no longer interested in. And I am not to blame! Inside of me there are questions awakening which belong to another level.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/11, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

Why Do We Need Waste In Spiritual Work?

bb_admin — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 09:39:14 +0000

Question: How can a person follow the advice of “being joyful” if he feels “the taste of waste” in his spiritual work?

Answer: This is a phase where you still do not understand the importance of waste. Yet, can anything grow without waste, manure, or fertilizer? There is nothing useless in the world; everything depends only on your attitude. We have to go through all of the states and feel each of them. In these states death seems sweeter than life, but you aren’t able to avoid them because you have to understand what the “will to enjoy” is.

I am speaking frankly, without exaggerating: Unless you experience this, you won’t be able to come out of the power of the will to enjoy, even though this also doesn’t help a great deal. This is the revelation of the “angel of death.” Without the group’s support, without a strict daily routine, and without taking on obligations, it is impossible to cope with this feeling.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to take on obligations that compel you to carry out a certain task today. It has to put pressure on you like a yoke on a bull. There is nothing worse than feeling free. Despite the fact that you do not see, feel, understand, or remember anything, you start to work because you have to, and gradually you come out of the state of descent and continue your path.

We are controlled by two forces, and the only opportunity we are given is to shift from the rule of one force to the influence of the other. Besides the rule of two forces, there is an intermediate state where you choose what influence to be under. You have to try to control these two forces from the intermediate state, the middle line, as if these are two reins that you hold in your hands.

That is why you have to stick to the daily routine: Go to the lesson, go over the lesson, sing, dance in your room when no one can see you, laugh—do anything you can to come out of a bad state! You have to disagree with and oppose the control of this force! The worst thing you can do is despair.
From the lesson on Rabash’s article on 11/7/11

I Don’t Want Anything But The Light!

bb_admin — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 08:37:12 +0000

We are all outcomes of the Light, and therefore, we have to attain it. All of our strongest desires, prayers, and yearnings are aimed toward the Light.

We subconsciously desire this alone, and, in truth, throughout our entire lives we are after nothing but it. All of the other fulfillments and sources of pleasure, such as food, clothes, new cars, and whatever else all come from the Light! We only perceive them in a certain form, as some type of pleasure, such as a car, a child, family, warmth, rest, a beautiful landscape, and so on. However, in fact, there is only Light, which depicts all of these objects for me, and I feel only it.

Therefore, people will gradually cease being interested in of all these things and will instead try to find their source: the Light itself and not its derivatives. I won’t desire to have a certain car anymore because what does it actually give me? It gives me pleasure. Yet, in truth I wish to get this pleasure in its “pure form,” without the actual car. Why do I need this chunk of metal? After all, it pleases me only when I drive it, and when I don’t, there is no pleasure. So, when I get tired of driving, it just stands by the house. But I still seek pleasure!

While we were undergoing our historical evolution, we constantly aspired to find things and "waves" that were more subtle and elusive. That is why everything in the world today is becoming smaller in size; quantity is becoming quality. We are the same: Instead of investigating the corporeal world, we are starting to yearn for spiritual attainment.

People don’t yet understand it yet, but the number of suicides and terrorist acts, the rise in drug abuse and the divorce rate are all indicators of man’s enormous lack of fulfillment. It is so great that, in fact, man is unable to fill this lack in his life. And that is a sign of man’s need for the Light itself, rather than all the other substitutes that the Light can depict in us.
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From the program "Kabbalah for Beginners" on 12/08/10

Don’t Let Yourself Fall

bb_admin — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 18:36:34 +0000

I see how many people who felt great excitement at the Convention are experiencing fatigue and depression now that it’s over. Why did everyone feel such an elevated mood? It was because we were under a powerful influence from the environment. So what is it that now prevents us from feeling the same way?

Now we have to work on our own to create a powerful environment for ourselves. At the Convention this happened by itself thanks to the enormous force of influence from the great mass of people who spent so much time preparing for these special moments, the three days of the Convention. Our preparation worked, together with the great help that we received from Above (Itaruta de Leila).

Now each of us personally as well as all of us together must make the same efforts. Then we will feel that we are advancing just as powerfully as we did at the Convention! We will be able to make great leaps along the path; otherwise we will stretch out over a year or even years what we can achieve within a week.

If a person feels a descent, it’s a sign that he is not connected to the environment and does not sufficiently awaken its influence upon himself! In addition, the environment as a whole does not sufficiently worry about the general inspiration to ensure that it’s never any less than it was at the Convention.

Why should we suddenly fall? We should always remain on an ascent, and we are able to do that! We should not agree with the fact that we have lost this general mood.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/10, “Body and Soul”

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When Darkness Takes Over

bb_admin — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 08:18:19 +0000

Question: How can I keep being joyful when I am in a descent?

Answer: Everything depends on what your goal is. I remember how when I was a kid in winter we used to climb up a hill and then slide down on a sled. We weren’t happy on the way going up, but only on the way down. Therefore, everything depends on the goal. If you know that the descent reveals new matter to you which you can use to build your next level, then doesn’t it make you happy?

When mess and confusion come to me, when everything becomes “smeared” before my very eyes, I am happy. That’s because I will acquire new knowledge, new feeling, new closeness, and new revelation after the darkness. Inside the darkness that falls upon me, inside the clouded feelings, inside the fog in my consciousness, I look at myself from aside, detaching from the confusion and sadness, and using them to assess the upcoming ascent.

That is how Rabbi Shimon understood that he was standing before the ascent to the final correction when he felt that he was “Shimon from the market.” Even though we haven’t reached such high levels yet, nevertheless when you are overcome by weakness, when the sun is veiled away, you have to see that this is preparation. That is how the material of the following degree is revealed when it is not yet realized, when it still hasn’t taken on the necessary form.

When this happens, you shouldn’t sit there and wait for whatever comes; don’t stay in the same place, gathering up your strength, but on the contrary, start working. Try to immediately overcome the obstacle and pull yourself out of the darkness, even if it is very slight. Thanks to this, all of the matter that has to join the process will start to participate more quickly.

You have the opportunity to carry out systematic preparation on a daily basis with the help of the studies and the group. Stay connected all throughout the day and don’t let go of the spiritual thread even if it comes to you through the headphones of an mp3. And let others remind you about the goal since you disconnect from it when you are in a descent.

If you constantly stay under the influence of the right environment, then even when the negative side gets stronger, you will be able to see your state from aside and analyze it. This will enable you to relate to what is happening in a different way. Joy comes when you build the next state.

The only thing that can deprive you of the ability to work is a total break with the spiritual connection, caused by insufficient preparation. You should prepare for every moment of your life in such a way that you will never come out of the right influence. If you really value the group, then joy will never abandon you.
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From the lesson on Rabash’s article on 11/19/10

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A New Fulfillment For A New Need

bb_admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:43:17 +0000

The modern person has all the comforts of this world, but we are still unsatisfied – in fact, more so than before. In the past, if a person had a loaf of bread a day, he could not dream of anything more. Compared to that, look at all the things a modern person needs. Yet, is he satisfied? No! And everyone is asking: Why?

Satisfaction is not to be found on the regular, human level, and none of the new toys we get will help. We want to dope ourselves with “stuff,” but the emptiness that surfaces in us comes from a completely different place: our lack of similarity to the Creator. That is why we cannot fulfill it with anything other than the sensation of the Creator!

This emptiness gradually forms inside us and accumulates to a specific measure in order to “explode.” That is when a person comes to understand that he can no longer suppress that emptiness. He has to fulfill it since otherwise his life will seem worse than death. It is impossible to find fulfillment for this desire in this world because it is a need to reveal the Upper World, the Creator!

Yet the body’s protective forces compel us to search for ways to confuse ourselves. People take drugs, alcohol, or fill their lives with empty, fashionable things or trips. Thus, like ostriches, we hide our heads in the sand to escape the problems.

That is how the protective force of our ego operates, wishing to prove to itself that it is fulfilled and to conceal the emptiness that never can be filled. Why think about the things we could never attain anyway and spoil our lives?

But this cannot go on for long! For now we still manage to confuse ourselves on the “animate” level in order to avoid feeling the unfulfilled need on the “human” level. But the cover up will unavoidably blow up.

In different periods throughout history similar states brought about revolutions, wars, and dramatic, tragic solutions. Let us hope that in our case the solution will not be so cruel. In our case, we have to rise from the level of our world, the “animate” degree, to the level of the Upper World, the level of Adam or the Creator. This is not in our power and humanity is starting to go crazy from its own futility.

On our egoistic level it was possible to ascend from one degree to the next by way of revolutions, wars, new regimes or religions, and new technologies such as book printing, the steam engine, the Internet, and so on. All of this provided fulfillment for a certain segment of time, but now egoism has exhausted itself and the need to reveal the Creator demands precisely the spiritual fulfillment. We are revealing a new inner desire: to reveal the One who controls us.

From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”