Distance In Spirituality

Question: What is distance according to the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: Distance in spirituality is the difference in attributes between two spiritual objects. If I compare myself to someone’s attributes and resemble him, I get closer to him. But if our mutual attribute has somehow changed, I draw further away from him. It is as if we are in outer space.
[211437]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/19/17

The Basis Of The Future Society, Part 2

Living Laboratory

Human society does not realize how much we are interdependent and what harm we do to ourselves by trying to separate and distance ourselves from each other.

And the true reality is one system with all elements of it completely interconnected at all levels. And we have an opportunity to see this inside human society.

The group is a laboratory where we study nature as a single organism. This means that people gather and start learning how to be together. If they can get closer to each other despite their egoism and awaken the force of unity, love, participation, and sympathy within themselves, then a special bond will arise between them.

It is desirable that the group is not mixed so as not to confuse us with the relationship of the sexes. It is better to have only men or only women in it of about the same age, status, and education so that it would be easier for them to understand each other.

The smaller the differences will be, the easier it will be for us to work and continue to approach each other more closely in this experiment that we want to perform on ourselves.

As we approach each other, we feel a joint desire for unity between us, a common force that can influence us. We will find that apart from a personal and egoistic desire that everyone came with initially, another common desire is born, which is called the “group.”

Before that, we were a simple gathering of people. But we become a group when we create and build something that relates not to everyone individually, but to all of us. Without this new power, which we reveal in each other, there would be no group. It is not possible to remove any member of the group and retain this force.

That is, we all depend on each other and we want to unite in such a way as to achieve this power of unity, which already works outside of us, above our level. This force does not belong to either of us—it is common. So we create an additional force that did not exist before.

A group in which we all are united and everybody annuls his egoism for the sake of others, wishing only good to one another, produces one new common force, which is called the strength of the group.

We feel related to this power. We no longer perceive ourselves individually and egoistically as we did before. This perception disappears and we do not want to remember it, but we try to learn only this common force. After all, this way everyone includes everyone else.

For example if there are ten of us, then each gets ten times more power than we formerly had. And then in the ten, the force is multiplied, 10 x 10, that is, 100 times more.

And this is only the beginning because by working on our connection, we multiply this common force more and more. It is interesting that this common force is no longer egoistic but altruistic, which is the force of mutual bestowal. After all, everyone has come out of his egoism toward others, and that’s how we give birth to the power of bestowal, the power of love and unity that is outside man.

This force exists in nature beyond our egoism. We suddenly give birth to a new creation—called Adam, Man, and not every one of us, as he was in his animal existence before.

Adam is a spiritual body, a force, not matter. We all feel that we exist within it, within this desire. With the help of this new force, created by us, we can explore a new reality, that is, can find out what we feel in it and how we can live in it.

We find ourselves in a completely different world, because we felt the world within our egoistic desire. And having risen above individual egoism and creating one common great altruistic force, we see a different reality in it, which is called the upper spiritual world. We acquire a new common mind, new sense organs and properties, and feel ourselves in a new dimension—not egoistic, as now, but in a world of love and bestowal.
[210405]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/4/17

Do We Know Our Thoughts?

Baal HaSulam, The Last Generation: It is important to make such a correction that no person will demand his needs from society. Instead, there will be selected people who will examine the needs of every person and provide for every single person. Public opinion will denounce one who claims something for oneself, such as today’s thief and scoundrel. Thus, everyone’s thoughts will be devoted to bestowal upon one’s fellow person, as is the nature of any edification that calculates it, even before one feels one’s own needs.

Question: Who will be inquiring about the needs of each person?

Answer: No one. Today we are in physical communication with each other. However, when our connection moves to the level of thoughts and desires, they will be understood by everyone. All thoughts of the mind and desires of the heart will be revealed to everyone, and you will begin to feel them, to feel this degree.

Question: Once you asked me: “Are you ready to have your thoughts broadcasted right now?” And I thought …

Answer: There is nothing to think about. Today, a person does not know his thoughts yet. If they really were revealed to you, you could not endure them because of the horror. Everything is not that simple; we must prepare for this.
[209643]
From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/5/17

Do Not Punish, But Encourage

Baal HaSulam, The Last Generation: There is no such word as “punishment” in the laws of the court, for according to their rules, the guilty ones are always the ones who gain the most.

In the future society, it is believed that proper encouragement affects a person far more than any punishment.

What does “punishment” mean? Perhaps a person did a good deed, but then found he was doing it for himself. The act itself is good, and the intention is bad. And how do we evaluate it?

For the present, we still live in the material world. And when our actions help us move to the upper world, we stop seeing the material world, our bodies, and we communicate and feel our desires only as virtual forces and properties. It all depends on which level we are talking about.
[210187]
From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/12/17

The Basis Of The Future Society, Part 1

Question: Kabbalah says that there is one force in nature that can change our whole life for the better and make us happy, but it is possible to attract this force only by working together in a special group. What is a group from Kabbalah’s perspective?

Answer: The concept of group for our world is something irrational and non-existent. Although we do hear the word “group” everywhere, Kabbalah puts a completely different meaning in this concept.

The whole reality is one integral system bound by all its parts and properties into one whole. It is just like all organs in our body are connected into one system, and so our body lives. And if this system breaks down and the body becomes ill, then the problem is not with some separate organ, but mainly because the communication between organs is broken.

Traditional medicine operates on the principle of allopathy; that is, it concentrates on the treatment of a particular organ or a small part of the body and does not take into account the rest of the body. The eye doctor does not treat ears, and the otolaryngologist specializes in ears but knows nothing about the kidneys, etc. This is the problem; we do not treat our body as a single system.

The further we advance, the more we are convinced of the incorrectness of this approach. The world becomes round and closed, and we find out that everyone is connected with each other. This is a result of our high level of development. We discover that we exist in one system and in complete interrelation with each other even when we develop in an egoistic form.

We have no choice but to look at the world from a different perspective and to begin to perceive humanity as one. If we continue to see ourselves as separate individuals, it will lead to our having very bad lives, even into breakdown and catastrophe, the signs of which are already felt today.

They say that you can reach anyone through a chain of five people. And generally we live in a world where trade, travel, communications, and industries have become transcontinental. But people are not ready for this. Each of us remains by himself, as a huge individualist who is not ready to connect with others as all systems in the modern world unite.

We also see that all objects are interrelated when we observe the universe. Advanced methods of scientific research show that the universe holds many secrets that we cannot comprehend because we do not use a common, integral approach in our study.

We cannot even imagine the quality of communication that exists between all parts of reality. By its nature, we cannot associate sound with light, health with nature. Only now are we discovering that we are dependent on what is happening on the sun and other stars and that our state and mood depend on phenomena in the universe. Gradually we will reveal this universal relationship.
[210320]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/4/17

The Point Of Choice

Torah, Deuteronomy 28:29: You will grope at midday, as the blind man gropes in the dark, and you will be unsuccessful in your ways. You will be only oppressed and robbed all the days, and no one will save [you].

To enter the land of Israel means to reach the desires that can be directed toward bestowal and love and at the same time reveal the Creator between them. If we can master the upper light that surrounds us, then we will be in heaven, and if not, we will be in hell. It is one of the two states.

Question: Is it that a person must think repeatedly about whether he should go to the land of Israel or not. Or is he already going there and cannot turn back, saying: “I cannot”?

Answer: He cannot turn back, just as today we cannot do anything; whatever stands before us is what it is. Let’s say we are moving toward war. Can we move toward peace? We can. But what do we choose? We choose one of the two. However, one of the two is still before us.

Question: Nevertheless, are we told: “Are you moving toward war?”

Answer: No. We have either a blessing or a curse. The same thing is true here: if you cannot succeed, then you will be thrown back many degrees in order to begin ascending again.
[209958]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/7/16

Signs Of Progress In The Study

Question: How can I check whether I am making progress in studying Kabbalah? How is progress measured?

Answer: A sign of progress in the study is a change in your attitude to life. The more I understand that life is much longer than the time between my birth and my death, the more ready I am to exit these limitations; the more deeply I get to know my life and discover the hidden forces that impact this world, the more I have progressed.
[211357]
From the “Beginners’ Q&A” 7/24/17

The Purpose Of Courts

Question: Why will we need courts in the future society?

Answer: The court is necessary in order to direct a person to the upper goal. Since a person is an egoist, he needs a strict framework that would always direct him and not let him to go astray.

Like we take a child by both hands and teach him how to walk, showing him how to do it, limiting him, and constantly watching him, so we must teach a person throughout his entire life.

Question: Let’s say I leave the framework slightly. In this case, what is the difference between the court and education?

Answer: There is no difference. They should be engaged in education.

At the head of the courts should be the greatest, most educated, and most enlightened people. A judge is the highest position in nature and in society. He has the right to manage everything because he is on the high spiritual level.
[210085]
From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/12/17