A Civilization Of The Mindless

Question: Lately there is such a direction as behavioral economics. Many studies show that humans are not rational creatures, but instead, they are managed by sensory impulses, and they often act to their own detriment. Do you agree with this assertion?

Answer: A human being is a desire to receive and the desire to receive is devoid of logic (rationality). Each one chooses exactly what to enjoy for himself. But apparently my rational choice is contingent on education, habit, and values.

There are also other factors: fear of death, a desire to succeed, and looking good in the eyes of one’s peers in his environment. The survival and sexual instincts play a role that is no less important.

Question: For quite some time, psychologists have attempted to identify those hidden forces that don’t permit us to make rational (logical) decisions.

Answer: Today, on the long road of development, and through our increased power, we see that our entire civilization is completely irrational. It acts destructively towards itself and deliberately chooses the way of suffering.

For example, a mother teaches her child: “Be conciliatory towards others, be quiet, then you will have more friends.”  Whereas he says adamantly: “I don’t want to!” We see  examples of this not only in children. Adults and entire groups of people fight, kill, and destroy each other only out of envy, vanity and a desire to dominate.

It is completely understood that the aspiration to fulfill our inner drives and our irrationality is what manages us and we only employ our intellect later, when it is necessary for getting what we want.

Question: The expression, “Humans are emotional creatures” indicates that he feels the awakening of some desire within him. To what is he sensitive?

Answer: He is sensitive to what he is missing, which is to say, according to what he needs. He pays attention to himself all the time: “What do I want? What kind of desire is aroused in me now obliging me to fulfill it? I am a slave to my desires; they dominate me.”

Question: If intellect only serves the desires, where is wisdom found?

Answer: It is found within the desire. The desire to receive is our nature. This is apparent on all levels. Atoms maintain their form, plants absorb beneficial substances and emit harmful substances, and animals multiply. All of this is the desire to receive and fulfill itself with all kinds of pleasant things according to a program that exists in each individual.

That is how wisdom manifests itself on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate. Except in humans, the program for life for all other living creatures cannot be changed. Every cat will eat fish for pleasure, even if it has never tasted it previously. Everything is different with humans. You don’t begin eating Chinese food if you are accumstomed to a Slavic cuisine from childhood. What can be derived from this is that humans undergo a unique program that we call education.
[150635]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/11/13

Full Access To The Program Of Life

Question: Do “prophetic” dreams exist?

Answer: There are people who can predict the future. They enter a special state of trance, as if sleeping, and can see the events that will happen in the future. In real life, these states are yet to be manifested, but they can be seen in a dream state.

Comment: It turns out that some dreams are triggered by past experiences that remain in a person, and other dreams reveal the future, as if we are able to connect to a higher flow of information.

Answer: Yes, this is possible, because each of us has a program of everything that will happen to him before the end of this life, and maybe beyond. And if a person possesses special abilities that allow him to see the future, then he can predict it.

There have been seers such as this throughout history.Throughout the ages, people used them, but in the end, they were usually killed for making unwanted forecasts. It is no coincidence that the future is hidden from us. It is better not to know what is waiting for us and to try to build a future for oneself, thinking it as if is in our power.

Animals do not make any plans for the future, except for the instinctive storing of food for the winter. They do not do it consciously but instinctively. And if a person knew his future, he would just commit suicide because his life would lose all meaning. Therefore, nature has deprived us of the ability to see the future.

However, due to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we have the opportunity to improve our future. We can rise above our programmed destiny provided that we can rise to the level where this program of the future was written and then are able to enter that computer, the correct folder, and re-program our entire life anew.

We ourselves will be able to plan the coming intermediate steps and change all the states we go through, except the final one. The final state refers to a higher degree, which we are now unable to reach.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that this is the best and perfect state. And if we want to advance towards it along a good path, we must study it and understand from this how we can gradually realize this bright future at every stage of our development.

Starting today, I can draw to myself the fragments of a good future and realize them right now in my life. This is the purpose of the wisdom of Kabbalah that teaches us how to realize our good future.
[152333]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/11/15

Clinging To The Creator

The Midrash, “BeShalach”: The righteous among the people cried out: “Let’s fulfill the Creator’s will patiently”; those who are weak should split up into four groups. Each of them thinks that its operation plan is the right one.

The representatives of the tribes of Reuben, Shimon and Issachar were scared and decided that it was better to jump into the sea than to confront the Egyptians. Moses calmed them: “Do not fear, be calm and you will see that the Creator will save you.”

The tribes of Zebulon Judah and Joseph called: “Let’s go and fight Egypt.” But Moses corrected them: “The Creator will fight for you.” The tribes of Dan, Gad and Asher suggested invading the Egyptian camp and causing a scare there. “No,” said Moses, “stay here and give up this plan.”

This speaks about the division of Israel into twelve tribes that yearn for the Creator but cannot unite into one nation since they embody three lines: the right, the left, and the middle. Since there are four phases of development in each of the lines, three times four is twelve tribes. We mustn’t mix them since they advance in a certain order, in separate columns in the desert.

All the problems and disagreements between them are necessary in order to understand that only the Creator can help them. Therefore, they need to adhere to Him and not run ahead or stay in one place, nor attack the desires by trying to destroy them or to move away from them.

In other words, everything that happens around them is arranged by the Creator and takes place where they are, “There is none else besides Him.” The only thing left is to connect to Him, and He will work everything out. All the problems are given to us in order to attainunity.

But at the same time, all our attributes and our impulses tear us to pieces. We fear that we will remain in the egoistic state and will not be able to leave it; therefore we are scared.

The only solution is to hold on to the state that was sent from above by the Creator, realizing that the scare is not so that we will fear the Egyptians, no matter what form the egoistic desires will be depicted to us, but to fear the Creator. This is already a different kind of fear, a fear of the Creator’s greatness. If we had that fear, no one would fear the Egyptians, our ego.

Moreover, Moses keeps saying: “Don’t fear, be calm, the Creator will fight for you, He will save you.” Therefore all of a person’s desires should be connected to the Creator.
[152230]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/30/14

Go Beyond The Limits Of Time

The Midrash “BeShalach”: Moses was such an outstanding leader that he could control hundreds of thousands of people by just a few words. He convinced them and promised them: “The Creator will perform miracles for you and you will be silent.”

But at the same time the fear did not cease. The people wanted to know, “When will the Creator save us?” and Moses answered, “Today.” The Jews exclaimed, “We cannot wait any longer!”

The people cannot wait any longer because they cannot leave the frameworks of time. People find it hard to understand that the point isn’t time and that if you connect to the uUpper force at a certain moment, the concept of time disappears.

Waiting symbolizes the feeling of time and the feeling of a deficiency of what you lack until the end of correction. But when you attain correction, time disappears and you enter a level that is above the speed of light, a different dimension. Therefore, the expression “we have no time” only indicates that the people are not adhered to the Creator yet.
[152301]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/30/14

It’s Time To Roll The Stone From The Well’s Mouth

The Torah, “Genesis,” 29:7- 29:8: And he said, “The day is yet long; it is not the time to take in the livestock. Water the sheep and go, pasture.”

And they said, “We cannot do that, until all the flocks are gathered together, and they will roll the rock off the mouth of the well, and we shall then water the sheep.” 

There are better times and there are less pleasant times in the history of humanity. Therefore the time that “all the flocks are gathered together” hasn’t come yet.

There were times in the history of humanity and the Jewish nation when we were very close to attaining the goal. There were several breakthroughs in the time of ancient Babylon, during the exodus from Egypt, and during the days of King David’s wars, until we finally have reached our time, which is exactly the time that “all the flocks are gathered together.” We have to reach connection because this is the only way we can influence the upper force and begin to change our reality.

The problem is in convincing ourselves and others and in actually realizing and feeling that fulfillment is only through connection. There is nothing but that. We reach a form that resembles the Surrounding Light only to the extent that we connect, and only then can we influence it, work with it, and direct it.

We begin to perform independent actions because we awaken the Upper Light and oblige it to operate in a special way. It is because we discover the need to unite in our connection and thus convey a perfect, ripe deficiency for the Light. Then the Light performs the last action and connects us.

We must convince ourselves that at this point our goal is to gather all the flocks together and to connect the people in the world in whom the desire to fulfill the goal of the wisdom of Kabbalah has ripened. This is the reason we were given the wisdom of Kabbalah, since we will discover everything else along the way when the Upper Light begins to operate in the connection among us. Then we will realize what the Light is, how it operates, discover its effect on us, and begin to ascend the spiritual ladder.

All of humanity has to go through this path but in an easier manner. Israel has to go through it first and then the whole world. People should understand that there is nothing but the connection between us that awakens the Light that Reforms to change humanity. To the extent that humanity changes, it will begin to discover a new world through its new senses that were corrected by the Light that Reforms.

It is because the reality that we feel is totally dependent on our perception. If our desires are egoistic and separated, we feel a shattered world in that shattered vessel, just as we see the world as it appears now. It is not surprising that the situation is growing worse to hasten us to reach connection.

To the extent that we begin to work in correcting our senses, we will feel a new reality. Just as we feel the shattering now in our corrupt vessels, we will feel a perfect world in our corrected desires that are governed by one force, by the Light that operates in our desires, connects, corrects, and fills them.

Therefore, everyone speaks about connection and mutual guarantee these days. It is because it is the only action we have to perform from now until the end of correction, and it must be performed by both the nation of Israel and the nations of the world. The sooner we do this, the sooner we will reveal the Light to humanity and thus fulfill the goal of creation.

It all depends only on the connection between us. We consistently and persistently have to work on this and constantly convince ourselves that this is our only goal. No matter how much a person knows, it has nothing to do with the true reality. The only truth is his yearning to connection and bringing others closer to connection.

“Every man shall help his friend!” We have to explain to everyone the importance of this action and that our future depends on it. Many years go by until a person begins to understand that his ego is doing everything to deceive him and divert his attention from this, as if it is a trivial matter.

Therefore a person listens, but doesn’t hear; so  one rejects and forgets this idea time and time again. But the time comes when we all have to start acting and telling ourselves and the Upper Light that we must reach connection no matter what. Then the passage for the revelation of the soul will open.
[151703]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/08/15, Writings of Baal HaSulam

How To Manage Success

Question: Do the stars tell what my own fate will be like? What is so special about the stars?

Answer: Nothing! These elements, the stars in the sky, are constant, and from day to day, from year to year, from epoch to epoch, over the centuries, they go through the same cycles.

Therefore, we can calibrate the position of each of them at any point in time and connect it to our birth, a wedding day, or other events, or make a conclusion about whether to fight or make peace, and things such as that.

In essence, the sky is the time axis in which we exist. Therefore, it is not difficult for us to determine the movement of the stars where we are located. Clear and unchanged laws exist here.

Therefore, based on the date and place of birth, and the date and place of birth of parents and the positions of the planets at this time, you can see how nature affects us. After all, this effect does not come from the stars. Still, vegetative, animate, and human levels of nature are all on the same map within the same system.

Therefore, according to the law of nature in the still level, that is, according to the movement of the stars and their combinations, we can say that we can influence what is happening on the human level. And even though man and the stars are very distant, the system itself is one.

This is why there are signs on the map of the heavens. Based upon what has been observed for thousands of years, we can say that we can suffer damage or succeed in a particular case, with respect to this or that person or a couple going to get married or entering into some sort of a deal. To some extent, we can imagine this.

It is written in the Torah, for example, that Haman was a great astrologer, and Abraham himself once studied astrology, selling idols and amulets.

The problem is that ordinary people do not have the possibility of a reverse impact on their fate. In order to influence one’s own destiny—that is, the higher power—only one that knows how to do it can do it from the bottom upward.

Kabbalists are the only ones that can accomplish this. As it is written in a very famous saying of the sages, “Israel is above the stars and signs of good luck.” In the wisdom of Kabbalah, it is written how we can connect with each other, to be prepared for it not only to protect ourselves, but also to rule over our own destiny and rule over our luck.

Then, I look at the map of the heavens that the wisdom of Kabbalah reveals to me, and this map reveals the stars and the signs of good luck to me, the so-called Mazalot, the “drops of luck” (from the Hebrew word Nozel, or drain). These are the special lights that fall upon us drop by drop from a higher system, Rosh (head, brain) Atzilut, and influence us by forming all sorts of phenomena at the bottom, within us—the current and the forthcoming ones in the future. All of these forces are called signs of good luck (Mazalot).
[152312]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/8/15

Magic For Sale

Spiritual Weapon

Question: Is there such a thing as magic? Do we have the possibility to use supernatural force in order to change our reality?

Answer: No. The actual concept of “supernatural” must be reset. If we are talking about what lies above our being, then we can correlate the entire natural phenomenon to this realm.

We cannot influence the movement of Earth and other celestial bodies. However, we can calculate them. Thus many things have crossed from the mystic into the scientific realm.

However, there are still so many facts unknown to us, the roots of which slide away from our perception. In this area we are still weak; we are still standing before nature that we cannot figure out in advance. Meanwhile, a person yearns for security; he needs a “guarantee policy” against all threats.

This is where magic comes from. First, magic provides us with security against threats including enemies, that now a person can confront armed with a spiritual weapon. Second, it is an opportunity to start the attack, to establish one’s superiority, to cleanse the area of wrongdoers that stand on one’s path.

Supernatural for Sale

This is where many people make promises by claiming that they know how to do magic and will assist only if their services will be paid for.

There is black and white magic. If the first one is to cause harm, then the second one, in its turn, promises to help. Such a division, however, is purely arbitrary, just like children when they play bad and good people. A person feels weak before the forces that determine one’s life. A person would want to control one’s own fate and, therefore, comes to see the people “in the know.”

Besides all of this, the death of our bodies really scares us, as well as the unknown ahead. What will happen to my soul? Where will it end up? Can I escape hell and ensure I end up in heaven? This also causes a huge worry upon which others can make good money.

Question: Does this mean that there is no magic?

Answer: No, however, the problem is that everything that we refer to as the inner world of a man is associated with our psychology. As a result, a person can be influenced in such a way that it may seem like magic to one. In that regard, this happens to many believers.

There is nothing you can do about it because such are the properties of our psychology. Ultimately, everything comes from ignorance.
[152352]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/18/15

Nature Is Our Home

Question: Do the stars influence the personal fate of a person?

Answer: Such a connection exists. But it isn’t the stars themselves that influence humans, animals, or plants; rather, according to the changes in the position of the stars we can understand which correspondent changes are happening on the levels of vegetative and animate. This doesn’t mean that one influences the other, but according to changes that happen in the heavens, on the level of the still, to which we pay attention, we decide that we must be changed too.

But the stars themselves are not the cause of these changes. It is not on the level of the still. It can remain absolutely hidden from us. But it influences the stars, plants, and people. We don’t see the real cause, and so we have no choice except to link our fate with the stars.

Thus humanity has learned throughout all of its history, from experience. They paid attention to particular plants that followed the moon. Others followed the sun. There were those that opened in the daytime and others that opened at night. From this astrology was born.

Astrology is based upon experience that human beings gathered. Over thousands of years they watched the phenomena of nature in the heavens and on the face of the earth and discovered how one depended on the other, how everything was connected. They constructed records, tables, and pyramids in South America and in Egypt. But all of this teaches only about the mutual connection of all the forces of nature that human beings discovered.

Even people who lived 10,000 years ago had already discovered that our world is global and that all things in it are linked to each other: human nature, the plants that are around him, the animals, nature, and the weather. Everything is connected into a single whole and in every part there are signs of all the rest of the parts, so much so is the system integrated.

Question: How does it follow that in ancient cultures this connection was already known, but because it didn’t since then it wasn’t developed and was even lost? Don’t we get the impression that the ancients were more developed than us?

Answer: The ancient people were more developed than us and were closer to nature. They weren’t afraid of nature; rather, they lived within it and so they understood and felt it. They understood nature better because they attributed everything that was happening with them to it. They connected their entire lives to it: The life of the family and their children, the nature of the person, everything that happens within the family and the community, the weather, the behavior of the animals, and the state of the crop yields in the field.

For them this was one world, and from this perspective, they were more advanced than modern man. Through the development of technologies we have detached ourselves from nature and have stopped respecting and valuing it, feeling it as our home. We will soon have to return to this perspective.
[151836]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/1/15