Archive for category: Blog

Question: People rely on particular models of the world that they have formulated in their minds when making decisions. All models, to some degree, are false because they reflect only limited properties of reality.

It would be interesting to know in what way a model of the world is false and in what way it may be true, maybe by assigning percentages to each aspect. What does truth and falsehood mean with respect to nature, or rather with respect to the model of nature that we build to reflect it?

Answer: Kabbalah examines two systems: the upper (spiritual) and the lower (material).

In the upper system we are all integrally interconnected, which is why there cannot be any independent states. It is an ideal level, called the world of Ein Sof (infinity), perfection, in which all objects of our world exist on the spiritual level. Everything experiences its complete interdependence and destiny, comprehends it, and therefore each part is able to interact correctly with all the others. This is an ideal system described in Kabbalah where all parts are inherently and clearly interconnected.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that we are approaching this ideal system by way of our material evolution. This is exactly what is waiting for us in the future. We may choose to accelerate the process to its revelation within our experience and understanding. Or we may allow the natural process to teach it to us through the blows of destiny, which is what we see happening today. That is how humanity advances.

Our world exists below this complete and ideal upper system because it came into existence as a result of a gradual degradation of this system and its descent along the 125 levels to the lowest level—the one where we live today.

In this world we feel ourselves completely disconnected from each other and if something does connect us, it is only our egoism. All our experiences are geared only toward using everything and everyone according to our personal interests.

Naturally, that which we call “truth” is only that which exists on a higher level. And that which exists on our level is absolute falsehood because the only thing that motivates us today is the personal egoism of each creature, egoism that blinds us, distances us from each other, and drives us to use each other as much as possible.

That is truth and falsehood from the perspective of Kabbalah.

There is no truth in our world. It can exist only in those individuals who attain the complete mutual interdependence of nature, in other words, the upper system, which they are trying to discover within themselves. Then they relate to all those around them with completely different intentions: friendship, love, cooperation, and unity.

This principle was initially described in the Torah, even though, unfortunately, no one really takes it seriously. In this lies the difference between truth and falsehood. Truth and falsehood are not the subjective proclamations of an individual who thinks something is true and something is false.

When a completely coherent, unified system of all forms of creation—inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human levels of nature—exist in a harmonious interconnected state, it is called truth. And a state that is a complete opposite to this is falsehood. And between them there is a multitude of possible levels—some with a little more truth, some with a little more falsehood.

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From KabTV’s “Together About the Main,” 12/8/17

Question: How can I rise above time?

Answer: In order to rise above time, you need to tell yourself that you do not have a next moment—everything is in this instant. You should live this way; there is only one instant. In each moment, you do not transfer yourself into the next one, but at this instant, you start and finish as if life is really ending.

Then you suddenly feel that this same moment begins to expand and there are an enormous amount of actions, thoughts, and deeds in it, but time disappears.

After all, time does not exist; it is our subjective feeling.

Question: What, then, is the future?

Answer: The future is completely unrelated to time. The future is what happens after the action I now perform. It is a different dimension in which the axis of time is nonexistent. After all, the axis of time assumes that regardless of whether or not I exist, whether or not I do something, time passes independently of me.

The wisdom of Kabbalah, however, says that this is not the case. It states that you must give up such an attitude to life and decide that only you create your own states. If you do not create them, then time does not move, nothing passes by itself from one moment to the next. If you did something in this instant, it is then called “a moment,” and each subsequent moment carries out in this manner.

We live in the world which, according to Kabbalah, is considered illusory and imaginary. The main lie we live in is that we exist in time.

Therefore, Einstein indeed made a revolution by declaring time a subjective concept, with nothing absolute about it that would happen with or without a person.

Time is a person’s inner sensation. If we rise above our egoism, then there is no time.

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From the Talk on the subject of “Time” 2/5/18

Question: Do we have the opportunity to comprehend the universal mind and learn how to correctly perceive, respond, and build our behavior in society and society itself?

Answer: If we look only at our life and at our limited possibilities and properties, then the future “does not shine” for us.

We see what is happening in the world: egoism grows and people indulge in it, no one is going to limit it and cannot do so, and no one can manage the world intelligently.

If there are some great personalities who understand this, their influence on society is so small that the chance of coming to a world correction is almost zero.

The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks of very interesting and rather revolutionary things. It explains that there is nothing outside. All that I observe and everything that appears to me—are my internal properties. Absolutely everything is inside me. But I see this as inanimate, plant, animal, and human nature that is outside only to be able to feel more, because I cannot see this inside of me.

If I begin to know the outer world as my inner one, to expand my participation in it, and to relate to the world with good connection and love, then I begin to feel these qualities in myself. They come back to me from the outside.

I perceive them in myself and thus I understand that, in addition to my true consciousness, i.e., a large information field, there is nothing outside, and I exist with respect to it. And all other creatures, including humans, exist only in me as my internal properties.

When one starts to get insight into this, one understands that there are no contradictions here—you just see other people who have certain properties and seem to exist, like you, but in reality you are one in one whole mind.

According to Kabbalah, humanity will come to a state when they will be convinced that they are under threat of destruction. But people cannot destroy themselves because it contradicts the general development program. Thus, people will understand that they have to move into such a relationship that will give them the opportunity to begin to feel themselves existing at the next level —not only in the power of reception, but in the power of bestowal.

And then between these two planes—the lower (egoistic) and the higher (altruistic)—we can exist in such a way that egoism will be directed to the benefit of love and bestowal because we need to feel others and know what to give to them and how to be with them in the right communication.

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From KabTV “Together on the main thing. Alexander Zhdanov,” 11/24/17

 

Question: In the year 2018 will there be less stupidity in the world? Or vice versa, the more there is, the closer we will come to discovering it is foolishness?

Answer: Both. Two opposites are necessary. On one hand, there will be much more stupidity, as we now see in politics. On the other hand, there will be many people who understand that this is stupidity, insignificant, and dirt.

This will change the general state of nature, the network of forces we are in. We don’t have any need for rulers and there is nothing to expect from them, nor from the intellectual and bourgeois elites who seem to hold the world in their hands.

The desire of the masses to change the situation and unite with each other correctly will gradually lead to a change in everything that nobody can oppose.

Question: Baal HaSulam said that first it is necessary to educate the entire generation, and then they will choose the right leader. How, in your opinion, should the system of government of the future be?

Answer: It is only through the method of correcting the person, through educating the person, that people whose foremost concern is society’s welfare will gradually make their way into governance.

Question: But will one person rule, like kings in the past, or will it be a society?

Answer: I think that it will be a community, but very small, a kind of Sanhedrin as was established in ancient times. It included 71 people who managed the spiritual life. I don’t think you need any more than that.

Each one of them will take responsibility for one system or another of the union: One will be responsible for the system of children, a second for the system of women, a third for the field of science, and so forth. They will solve all questions collectively.

They will be chosen by the overwhelming opinion of the masses who will feel and “smell” who these people are that can manage them. Baal HaSulam writes about this at the end of the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar.”

Question: Can you tell when this will happen?

Answer: No. But it seems that during the course of the next two or three years humanity will understand that all the systems must be replaced; otherwise, we will reach a dead end.

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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/24/17

 

It is an art to be able to handle the revelation of darkness as it gets stronger and stronger. From experience, a person understands that darkness comes only in order to point him in the correct direction.

He loves the darkness, appreciates it, and tries to experience it in perfection. The darkness is only felt in his egoism, while he is above it and can build the force of bestowal above the darkness, revealing the Light in it.

It is a multi-layered state, like a sandwich. The darkness is revealed at the bottom. Then comes the right attitude to it—understanding that it is here to help you, that it is the revelation of a new degree—and then you have to rise above it.

At first, I get scared (“You hid Your face, and I got frightened”) and try to flee the danger and evil that is revealed in the darkness. But then I stop myself, realizing that the darkness is here to help me and that I should not curse it. Just the opposite, it draws me closer to the Creator, like a frightened child who clings to his mother more tightly. The same is true for me! Therefore, I see that the darkness is help from above.

I love this darkness and even want to intensify it, to draw it closer. I begin to work with it intentionally, actively, with full understanding. My life becomes constructive: Light and darkness become the two forces, the two lines, which let me progress. That is how I turn darkness into help. I await the darkness, searching for more ways to cling to the Creator.

At first, I still fear darkness because it brings unpleasant feelings with it: fears, disturbances, uncertainty. But gradually, I begin to understand how helpful the darkness is because the advantage of the Light is known only from darkness. So, Light and darkness become my building blocks.

The darkness becomes even more important than the Light because specifically out of the darkness I can reveal just how much I want to give pleasure to the Creator. My desire for pleasure is not inspired by darkness, while the desire to bestow is very much inspired by it. Therefore, the Adam (human) inside me rejoices in the darkness and turns it into Light.

Light does not come to a person. The person changes inside and therefore transforms his opinion on what Light and darkness are. That is how he gradually reveals that creation always existed in a perfect state and that he is the one who is always changing, understanding more and more that there is no evil in the king’s palace and no darkness.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/18/18, Lesson on the Topic: “From Obstructions to Ascents”