News Report (from The Independent): “Year of the hungry: 1,000,000,000 afflicted” One billion people will go hungry around the globe next year … despite a second record worldwide harvest in a row. … The main reason has been that high food prices have priced the poor out of the market.

My Comment: As we can see, the problem is not a lack of food, but our inability to distribute it correctly. This is a result of our egoism, which controls us and does not allow us to consider others as we consider ourselves. Similarly, all the problems of our time will show us that they cannot be solved unless we do away with egoism.

There are two ways to correct egoism:

• Through suffering so terrible that one is willing to stop thinking about himself, because thoughts about self make him suffer, or

• Through connecting with others by bonds of love, above one’s egoism, and thereby revealing the joyous fulfillment of the corrected egoism.

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Two questions I received on development through Kabbalah:

Question: It says in a book by Rav Kook that there are two kinds of redemption: redemption that comes in due time (בעיתה - Beito), and redemption that comes in response to a person’s plea (אחישנה - Ahishena). Either way, redemption will come eventually. According to Kabbalah, we have to change from within, and then we’ll attain happiness. And by spreading the wisdom of Kabbalah, we will make everyone happy because they will receive the same Light. But then it would seem that Kabbalah contradicts the notion of the existence of time for correction.

Answer: You’ve mixed it all up! Kabbalah was given to us so that instead of progressing “in due time,” we will speed up time (progress through אחישנה - Ahishena). This means that we can develop without waiting for the suffering to come (without בעיתה- Beito).

Question: What do you mean by the point in the heart? Also, do you mean that fate - or circumstances in our life that might be difficult - push us to this point so we will discover our purpose?

Answer: Suffering and emptiness lead a person to the question about their meaning, cause and purpose. Gradually a person starts feeling that he needs to understand the cause of all that’s happening, and this feeling is a subconscious desire to reveal the Creator. A person then discovers the source of this knowledge (the books, group, and teacher), and reaches the goal.

The point in the heart is the desire to reveal the Creator, and Kabbalah is the method or means to reveal Him. The point in the heart is your soul’s initial desire, and your soul then begins to develop from this point. The point in the heart is similar to a seed: when it’s placed in the environment that’s right for its development (the group, books, and teacher), it begins to develop into a vessel of the soul - a desire in which a person begins to sense the Upper Force, the Creator.

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 Lesson on Shamati #14: "What is the Greatness of the Creator" [45:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Kabbalah Revealed, Episode 4: "The Force of Development and the Meaning of Suffering" [25:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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News Report (translated from mchs.gov.ru): Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations forecasts that in 2009 the number of natural disasters in Russia will increase by more than a third. There will be up to 250 emergency situations related to natural disasters, including flooding in Siberia and the Far East, fires resulting from a snowless winter and abnormal temperatures (particularly in forests), strong winds, storms, gales, hurricanes, very heavy precipitation, hail, thunderstorms and so forth. There is an increased likelihood of earthquakes and tsunamis in the coastal areas. Also set to increase are gas explosions and breakdowns of vital communications systems, and collapse of buildings and other structures. There is a high likelihood that epidemics and infections will break out.

My Comment: All of this can be avoided if we immediately take control of the entertainment and commercial sectors of the mass media, in order to purposefully educate the population on proper conduct in the new global world. However, this should be done without restricting the informational and communications sectors of the mass media. People should be taught what it means to be integrally connected and absolutely dependent on everyone. This should be the Ministry’s primary tactic and strategy!

In response to this act, society will immediately feel a reduction in Nature’s pressure, both the inner pressure on every individual and society as a whole, as well as the external pressure. Balance with Nature will bring about positive phenomena on all levels of our lives. We will then witness a simple, calm Moral Revolution that is so necessary!

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Interview with the Future: “The ‘I’ as a Part of Reality”

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An e-mail I received on December 18, 2008: I am writing to you because I am desperate, even though I feel extremely guilty for taking up your time. I have been deeply depressed for a long time, and the only other thing I ever feel is a lack of desire to live and emptiness. I don’t feel anything else.

I listen to the lessons every day, but even when I suddenly hear and understand something, it instantly disappears before I can even remember or feel it. I participate in the Bnei Baruch dissemination projects, but it doesn’t give me strength. I am rapidly falling. Everyone is thinking about the crisis and how to come out of it, but I can’t even come out of myself. All I can feel is unbearable pain and resentment. I don’t know what to do. Please reply to me on your blog!

My Answer: The two forces acting in creation are the Light and the desire; everything that exists is comprised only out of these two. They interact in such a way that sometimes the Light dominates, and sometimes the desire. We sense this alternation between them as the contrast of joy / fulfillment and bitterness / emptiness.

Since you cannot come out of your depression, my advice to you is to delve into it even more than it really is: artificially push yourself into even greater self-denigration, feelings of anger, resentment and guilt. This way, by pushing yourself down with all your might, you will take control over the depression, and you will then discover just how artificial all your sensations are, how much they depend on your subjective outlook. And then, from the bottom of your descent, you will feel joy and Light!

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 "Kabbalah Revealed" Episode 4: The Force of Development and the Meaning of Suffering [25:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Everything that was created, and everything taking place, is necessary for us to understand the Creator. If a person does not forget this, then he focuses on understanding how the Creator communicates with him through everything that’s happening inside him and outside him.

This is similar to how an infant learns to communicate with his mother. Have you ever noticed how intensely he looks at her, trying to understand what she is saying to him, trying to learn her language? It is precisely through the current crisis that we are given an opportunity to detect what the Creator is clearly trying to tell all of us.

In the past, He only communicated this way with select individuals. But today, all of humanity must start paying attention to the Creator’s actions. This is what we lack.

If the world would understand this, we would avoid all the unpleasant events taking place today, as well as those still in store for us. That’s because instead of fighting wind mills, we would communicate with the cause of it all - the Creator.

The faster we begin to discern the Creator’s communication with us through the things taking place, the sooner we will understand Him. We will then discover what it is we need to correct and change - and the world will be filled with Light.

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 Thought of the Creator [4:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Excerpts from the morning lesson: A person has to ascend from the lowest level called “our world,” where everything is concealed, to the highest level called “the World of Infinity,” where everything is revealed. The levels of ascent are called “the worlds” and they reflect the degree of our desires’ correction.

There is no fulfillment without a preliminary feeling of emptiness. When each of us corrects his individual desire (emptiness), we give shape to the Upper Force, revealing it to the degree of our correction. This is why we ask this Force for correction rather than revelation.

The fulfillment of the desire does not happen through reception, but through bestowal. Otherwise it’s impossible to be fulfilled. To be exact, it’s possible, but the fulfillment will be limited to our world and our lifetime. Any more than that is impossible. This is so in order to enable us to arrive at another method of fulfillment – bestowal.

Then, a person is fulfilled by his love for his neighbor, by bestowal, rather than by something coming from outside. Suffering is a feeling of uncorrected desires. We perceive them as suffering because they differ from the Creator.

In Kabbalah we study our future states, and this enables us to develop. The development of one’s soul is analogous to the development of a child: by desiring to be grown ups, we draw the force of correction upon us.

One must perceive problems and suffering as a chance to advance by overcoming them. Everything happens only for one’s advancement. However, if one prepares correctly, then instead of perceiving the pain of the suffering, one will perceive its direction and move along it. In this case, instead of perceiving the suffering, one perceives the path.

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”, item 19:
When all human beings agree to abolish and eradicate their egoistic will to receive for themselves, and have no other desire but to bestow upon others, all worries and evil in the world will cease to exist. And we will all be assured of a healthy, complete and secure life, since for each and every one of us there will be a whole world ready to satisfy his every need. However, when everyone has only the will to receive for himself, from here originate the pains, the wars and slaughter which we cannot escape. They weaken our bodies with all sorts of sores and maladies.

Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”:
Evil is nothing other than self love, called egoism, since it is opposite to the Creator, who hasn’t any will to receive for Himself, but only to bestow.

Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”:
The shared quality of all the people in the world is that each and every one of us stands ready to abuse and exploit all the other people for his own private benefit by every means possible, without taking into consideration that he is going to build himself through the ruin of his friend. And it doesn’t matter what excuses each of us invents for acting this way.

Baal HaSulam, “The Revelation of Godliness (Matan Torah)”:
It is a natural law for a person to regard anything outside his own body as unreal and non-existent. And any movement that a person makes to love his fellow man, cannot be considered “love of a fellow man” because it is judged by its goal: to benefit from this action. It is not in man’s nature to perform any action out of love for one’s neighbor, without expecting a reward, and hence such an action is completely impossible.

And only the revelation of the Creator (the Upper Light,Ohr Makif) is able to change us.

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A question I received: Lately we see parents doing awful things to their children, which shows that they feel extreme hatred for them. Why?

My Answer: This is an expression of people’s boundless egoism, which only keeps increasing. Lately we also witness many new relationships between the sexes and between generations. People want to curb procreation, they don’t care about creating a family and raising children. This is particularly apparent in large cities, where the native population is gradually being replaced by newcomers.

Another very difficult social and ethical problem that’s emerging is, “What should be done with the elderly?” The current economic crisis is going to destroy pension funds, and there will be no one to feed the senior citizens because the number of people working will be significantly less than those retired.

Furthermore, the young generation that’s able to work will find itself in a world that has completely exhausted its natural resources, a world that’s unable to feed them. As a result, there will be wars and hunger.

Or we can quickly correct ourselves and Nature through the method of Kabbalah, which will promptly bring people and the world to a state of harmony and balance!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Horrible Manifestations of the Ever-Growing Egoism

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Two questions I received on dealing with difficult situations:

Question: In every situation I try to see that “There is none else beside Him,” but sometimes I don’t have time to see what the Creator is trying to tell me. What should I do?

My Answer: The most important thing is to make efforts. The Creator will let you understand as much as necessary - accept it with gratitude.

Question: My Mother has a very aggressive cancer for nine months now, and I don’t know how to cope with it. I’ve been studying Kabbalah with you for four years. I go through very difficult times every day. How should I shift my mind and my thoughts with Kabbalah to be able to cope with this, to be able to help her and myself?

My Answer: You have been given an opportunity from above to correct a lot in a short period of time, by holding yourself in “faith above reason” (bestowal above egoism). In spite of all your thoughts about the illness and its tragic ending, you have to ascend higher in your thoughts and see that all of this is going on in a physical body while the soul goes through correction, thereby detaching from the egoism of the spiritual body.

And of course, you should read the article “There is None Else Beside Him” and other articles that talk about the oneness of the Creator and His Governance. They will tell you that: “Everything is governed by the Creator alone, and He governs everything with absolute goodness,” only you don’t feel it due to the absence of the quality of bestowal inside you.

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Two questions I received on how to talk to people about Kabbalah:

Question: How can a person who’s on the animate level understand that he needs to be corrected just from the blows he receives? If a person has never studied or even come in contact with Kabbalah, how is it possible to explain to him that all the bad things happen because we act incorrectly? People who experienced major tragedies change their outlook on life, but still, they don’t always choose the path of Kabbalah.

My Answer: We see great suffering in the world, sometimes even worse than death, and this has gone on for millennia. Sometimes death seems like redemption, yet our nature, our will to receive, does not let us give up our lives. And despite all of this, people do not aspire to Kabbalah as a means of fulfillment.

Why don’t they see that the method of neutralizing all the evil and acquiring the good is right under their noses? And even if we offer it to them, they won’t hear us! It’s because a person can “choose Kabbalah” only when a specific desire (Reshimo) surfaces within – the “point in the heart,” the desire to fulfill one’s soul.

But if the desires (Reshimot) surfacing in a person are still prior to “the point in the heart,” they are considered preliminary. His life takes place inside these desires and there he remains, despite all the suffering, and he won’t perceive that Kabbalah is the salvation. Perhaps he will throw himself into mysticism, religion, and other practices, but not yet Kabbalah.

Question: When is it best to talk to people about Kabbalah and when to keep quiet? I travel a lot and meet many different people, with whom I talk about Kabbalah. However, lately I started to understand that by talking to people about Kabbalah, I’m doing something wrong. Still, I know that this is the purpose of my life and of my travels. How can I do it better?

My Answer: You can talk about it, but in a simple, not overbearing manner, in a way that your listener will like. It would be good to give them a newspaper or a book with our website’s address on it.

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 Evolution of Desires [05:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Achieving Happiness [02:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 A Comfortable Framework for the Masses [02:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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