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Two questions I received on the masses’ participation in the method of correction

Question: Please let me know whether I understand you correctly or not: You’re saying that there will be a very small quantity of people serving the Creator through studying the science of Kabbalah in comparison to the whole of humanity?

My Answer: No. Everyone needs to understand that there is a method of attaining happiness. Until everyone comes to this understanding, then no one will actually achieve it. That’s the condition. People subdivide into four groups according to their natural development and the size of their desire. Those with the largest desire are Kabbalists, and those with the smallest desire are people who will merely understand that they need this method for survival; that they need to join the rest and do everything like everyone else, like in a herd. It’s the same way as the masses operate today, according to social influence and advertisement.

Question: You have described the main mass of society (99% of people) as being “individually and socially passive.” These are, apparently, people who don’t ask questions about the meaning of life, i.e. people without a point in the heart. Are all such people just flesh and bones made for the herding, or can they all be “awakened” in the foreseeable future for spiritual progress?

My Answer: Every single person has free will. The only difference is the extent to which one’s free will becomes realized within oneself. However, according to one’s soul, each one needs to completely and independently realize oneself. There are leaders and there are followers, but all are conscious!

Related Material:
Part 1A from eBook Interview with the Future: A Hidden World
Chapter 12 from the eBook The Open Book: Four Degrees in the Development of the Desire
Article: Freedom of Will

 

 Do We Have Free Will, or Is Everything Predetermined? [05:14m]: Play Now | Download

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A question I received: How should a person who is beginning to study Kabbalah behave when he encounters a person whose desire to receive wants to harm their neighbor, taking the following into consideration:
1. There is none else but Him
2. The desire to bestow is good
3. Teach by example
4. If I don’t do it for myself, then who will?

My Answer: He needs to understand that the person standing before him probably isn’t a Kabbalist or a beginning student like himself, and that it’s likely that he’s misunderstood this person. These four conditions can be misunderstood to such an extent that they will allow absolutely anything to take place:
1. There is none else besides Him: anything is allowed since everything comes from the Creator;
2. Bestowing is good: I can pressure others to bestow and accuse them of stinginess when they don’t bestow;
3. I demand examples of good behavior from everyone: continue nurturing and educating me, while in the meantime, I haven’t been fully taught, so I can do anything I wish;
4. If I don’t do it for myself, then who will?: this is why I only care for myself. I know that I also need to care for others, but I don’t have enough time, etc. Instead, it should be read in the following manner: “If I don’t force myself to become corrected, then no one, even the Creator, will be able to do it,” because this is where one has free will.

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Article: Making Choices Impairs Subsequent Self-Control: A Limited-Resource Account of Decision Making, Self-Regulation, and Active Initiative

Making choices drains a person’s psyche. The freedom to choose is a fundamental value in modern society, where people find themselves having to make choices all the time. However, American physiologists concluded that the need to make constant choices drains the resources of the human psyche, damaging people’s ability to solve basic problems and overcome the difficulties of daily life. The results of the research, on how choice affects the human psyche, were published in the April issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

From the perspective of Kabbalah, when we ascend a level higher, we discover the control panel operating us, and that which seemed as the freedom to choose is actually the realization of the Light’s influence on the Reshimo - the gene of desires. This gene’s activation generates a person’s movement, physically, mentally, and in every which way.

When those studying Kabbalah receive desires from their environment, their group, to “ascend above themselves,” above their egoism, and demand the Light during the study of Kabbalah, then this Light elevates them, evoking a desire to bestow within them. We then “rise above ourselves,” above our desires to receive, and gain the “freedom” to act against our original nature. However, at the same time, we are obliged and compelled to act according to our new nature. This freedom to choose lies between the two natures, in choosing which nature to act in accordance with. Freedom lies in the choice that presents itself in Klipat Noga: “Who will rule over me?” and in response to this, choosing the Creator, similarity to Him. We receive the forces to make this choice to the extent that our environment provides us with the sense of the Creator’s greatness.

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Freedom of Will

Does man have the freedom to act according to one’s own free will?

If we consider our actions, we will find they are compulsory, that we are forced to do them, and that we have no freedom of choice, since our actions are driven by either pleasure or pain. Thus, we haven’t the freedom to choose pain or to reject pleasure.

Man’s advantage over the beast is only that one can endure suffering for a remote, future goal. However, here, too, it is not a choice, but rather a calculation. It follows that Providence guides every person towards the goal, using pleasure or suffering, and without consulting us.

The social environment determines what people enjoy; every movement they make is subjugated to the fancies of society.

It follows that if there is no freedom of will, one is not one’s own master. And if we are not our own masters, that is, if we do not do what we want to do, but what society dictates, then there are no reward and punishment. [Read more →]

 

 Lesson on "The Freedom" [01:57:42m]: Play Now | Download

 

 Lesson on "The Freedom" [01:57:42m]: Play Now | Download

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There’s nothing more criminal in the modern world than the falsehood and irresponsibility permeating mass media. Anybody can write, anything can be written, and it also costs next to nothing, reaching and spoiling everyone. A person’s destiny completely depends on the environment (see Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Freedom“). Crimes, crises and suffering are all results of the involuntary absorption of incorrect and harmful information. Mass media feeds us this information and gets us hooked on it, changing the way we think and ruining us. Thus, by changing mass media, we’ll change the world!

Mass media needs to change to the degree we change. However, it needs to lead the way, as a group helping us reach a higher goal.

 

 The 4th World Spirit Forum - Plans to Better the World Using Media [17:00m]: Play Now | Download

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A question I received: The article “Brain Scanners Can See Your Decisions Before You Make Them” states that, according to a research that was performed, “researchers using brain scanners could predict people’s decisions seven seconds before the test subjects were even aware of making them.” So my question regarding this is simply, do we have freedom of choice?

My Answer: A person doesn’t realize that his inner system of desires has already made all the calculations and put out the result. Such studies prove what Kabbalah has been saying all along: everything depends on our desire, and not on our external, philosophical reasoning. Thus, only the Upper Light can correct us; we cannot correct ourselves on our own.

 

 Freedom of Choice [15:59m]: Play Now | Download

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I have received many letters expressing concern about the future…

Our perception of the world depends on our understanding of what’s going on here. If we would understand the Creator’s plan, we will discover happiness, safety and perfection.

Prior to the 21st century, humanity didn’t have any free will! We had no free will in our development as it was automatically driven by our constantly growing egoistic motivation - until it had reached its peak.

Today, our free will is becoming apparent as we have the opportunity to rise above our egoistic nature and no longer depend on it. By realizing this opportunity properly, we will directly - with the least amount of suffering - exit our present nature. Then, we will enter another dimension of the universe, where we will experience a different sensation of life - one that is eternal and perfect.

Our egoistic nature imprisons us; it attempts to absorb everything into itself, and thus remains empty and ultimately dies. And even if we don’t choose the path of conscious transition to the altruistic dimension, nature’s plan will be carried out anyway - just as it has been up to this point - only by the harsh influence of its strict laws.

We are the only intelligent creatures in the universe. Everything was created for us, because only we have the ability to enter the higher dimension. This task is serious and its goal is marvelous. Currently, humanity is in a state that induces a search, which is good, and that is why I’m not afraid, but full of hope.

 

 FILM: Freedom of Choice [15:59m]: Play Now | Download

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Question for ML: While in exile, Kabbalists kept the secrets of Kabbalah hidden on the account of society not being ready for them. As a result, upshots of egoism generated religion within society, in order to save the nation. I have been studying with you for two years via the Internet and books, and the more I study, the more I understand, especially when I repeat.

Why did Kabbalists lead humanity to a way of thinking that is opposite to Kabbalah? As a religious person, I live by the principles of faith, physical commandments, and putting my soul into this work, and I suddenly come to understand that all our definitions are based on egoism? Is that not deceit? I feel myself cheated and betrayed. I don’t want to write too much, I hope that my question is clear…

My Answer: The purpose of creation is to create the ego and grow it to an unbearable limit, at which moment we realize the need to rise above our ego, and build new relationships of bestowal and love by OURSELVES (in ourselves and our surroundings). Kabbalists look painfully (the suffering of Shechina) upon humanity’s suffering, and help as much as they can without interfering in the independence of correction. In general, Kabbalists needed to wait until humanity matured, in our era, to disclose Kabbalah to everyone. Today, anyone can learn about the purpose of creation, the reason for our present situation, and about our final, already-existing goal. We have free will only from toward onward, and our free will lies in choosing one of two paths (either allowing suffering to push us against our will, or through a conscious desire) to reach the purpose of creation - equivalence with the Creator.

 

 FILM: Freedom of Choice: Play Now | Download

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Question for ML: From our birth, we’re controlled by the genes embedded in us. So who are we? Where is our “I”? Please, can you write something about how genes (Reshimot) control us from the inside, and society from the outside, making us all ROBOTS! There is no free will - there’s no reward or punishment for our actions!

My Answer: Kabbalah reveals the desires and thoughts in which a person is free! Using this knowledge, we can change our destiny.

Anorexia as addictive as ecstasy

Everything is controlled by the desire for pleasure.

Scientists are suggesting that anorexia is addictive. Their studies show that the feeling of hunger stimulates similar bodily responses as does the drug ecstasy. If their studies are correct, then you could say that anorexic girls are simply drug addicts, getting their fix from hunger. What difference does it make what a person gets pleasure from?

Genes affecting generosity may be found

Scientists are just beginning to find genes that may underlie generosity. Their DNA tests showed that people with a particular variation of a gene called AVPR1a gave away their money 50% more of the time. This study was published in the magazine, Genes, Brain and Behavior. “The experiment provided the first evidence, to my knowledge, for a relationship between DNA variability and real human altruism,” said Dr. Ariel Knafo, a psychologist who was part of the research team.

The genes responsible for altruism have evolutionary significance. Since good deeds can be considered as having mutual benefit, and since today’s social relations are becoming increasingly complex, concepts such as altruism and the ability to cooperate are becoming more important than ever before.

My Current Mood: cheerful

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