Mark Zimmerman's Blog
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
If you are like me and have wrestled with the questions such as “What is the purpose of my life?”, then I believe you will find this interview with Michael Laitman of great interest. Dr. Laitman explains that Kabbalah is not magic, mysticism or red strings, but a rigorous scientific study of the structure of the spiritual worlds. It is meant for anyone, no matter what age, gender, religion or culture.
I think we all realize there is a new world order. Nations are not isolated anymore and our actions all affect each other. The global financial meltdown is one example, but we also see environmental issues; new diseases that jump national boundaries; poverty and famine; political unrest and the threat of the next world war. Kabbalah offers us a methodology on how to understand our global connections and manage these connections for a better world.
This interview also covers questions such as: Why are so many celebrities drawn to Kabbalah? Does Kabbalah help your relationship with money? Do you need to meditate? …and it even touches on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
Illuzia is a new short film series created by Vladek Zankovsky, comprising various Kabbalah concepts, each film playing out a Kabbalah concept with satire, perceptual displacement, humor and suspense.
As Zankovsky states, "In Illuzia, I wanted to put across ideas I’ve received from my study of Kabbalah. There are unique ideas in Kabbalah that many people are still unaware of, and which people can benefit so much from, and I have yet to see such ideas explored in film. So I saw a place for communicating these ideas across in an entertaining and easy-to-grasp way. My hope is that these films will spark more interest in this amazing wisdom.” There are thirteen films in the series, and each film is accompanied with a short text elaborating on the Kabbalistic concept that the films represent.
Below are five films from this series on YouTube:
* REALITILLUZIA - a film about reality
* FILMILLUZIA - a film about destiny
* CRISISILLUZIA - a film about crisis
* YOGILLUZIA - a film about spiritual seeking
* ESCAPEILLUZIA - a film about escaping from the day-to-day life
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Posted by Mark Zimmerman
Jim Hopkins of the New Zealand Herald, in his article "Human Nature Root Cause of Crisis" supported the notion of egoism, or "self-interest" as he put it, is the cause of the financial crisis:
"As fat cats fell like hail from the upper storeys of Wall Street skyscrapers, they voted to save their own skins and to hell with the economy.
There's something strangely comforting about this, if only because it demonstrates the reliable consistency of human nature.
Just like the oft-condemned and much maligned financial wizards who'd precipitated the crisis, the men and women of Congress had, predictably, put self-interest first.
As most of us do almost all of the time. That's why we have moral codes. It's why the exceptions to the rule are so notable. And why they privately shame us - just a little - when drawn to our attention.
Like it or not, disquieting as we may find it, self-interest is what drives human behaviour.
We're big enough and ugly enough to handle that, surely?"
Michael Laitman, in his blog post "What Caused the Current Financial Crisis?" continues by discussing Kabbalah as the method for correcting human nature:
"What difference does it make “Who’s to blame?” (supposedly!) or who is trying to hush up the financial crisis? The crisis keeps progressing regardless. We have to find its true cause - the quality of egoism inherent in man’s nature, and an effective way to overcome it. It can only be overcome by the force that can correct egoism – the force of the Light that created egoism in the first place. This force is evoked when we study it – by studying Kabbalah. This is what we should do instead of looking for for a scapegoat - “who hushed it up” or “who is trying to hush it up now.”"
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
KABBALAH TODAY (Issue 3, May 2006) - Click here to view e-version
Kabbalah Today (Issue 3, May 2006) talks about love as the source of all sensations, as the source of life, and as the ultimate goal for which we will all strive. The feature article "Love, Love, Love" has Chaim Ratz discussing Kabbalah's take on love - that in Kabbalah one strives to attain the love of the source, the love of the Creator, as expressed in the word "Dvekut" ("Adhesion").
The issue also features a picturesque Kabbalistic story by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD "The Omnipotent Magician Who Could Not Be Alone," and a Kabbalistic story series by Michael R. Kellogg depicting the journey of Desire and Desiree in their pursuit of the Creator, as well as other Kabbalistic concept articles, with a piece on The Zohar, the technical study of Kabbalah, Kabbalah and human evolution, and a story on the life and times of Baal HaSulam (Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag).
This entire paper is available as an e-version, as well as in PDF and MS Word formats from the Kabbalah Today website: www.kabtoday.com
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
Google, in their new "Project 10 to the 100th," are giving away $10 million to help materialize ideas of helping other people.
Reading through the introductory paragraph of Google's "Why this project" page was much like reading through the first part of an introduction to Kabbalah - that, in Google's words, "beyond a certain very basic level of material wealth, the only thing that increases individual happiness over time is helping other people." Kabbalah would put it like this: We cannot find true fulfillment by only trying to fulfill ourselves, we can only find true fulfillment by fulfilling others.
99% of the world's population would agree with this statement, but in terms of "How do we do it? (i.e. How do we help other people?)" - that is the point where the problem lies. Google claims that they don't know the answer to "How do we do it?" - and that's why they're asking the public, to give ideas on how we do it, and Google is providing the cash to put these ideas into action.
In terms of an idea for this project, I was immediately inspired by Kabbalist Michael Laitman's statement from his 2-minute "The Needed Shift in Human Consciousness" speech at the 2005 World Wisdom Council meeting: that we create a non-stop global-scale marketing campaign, which focuses on promoting altruism as the "in-thing" - that we can be respected in society only by our altruistic actions toward others (and that we treat all actions where people put importance upon themselves with indifference).
Moreover, this question of "How do we help other people?" should continually be raised to the public through this promotion, so that this question constantly resonates in people's thoughts, and so that people will start thinking more about how to fulfill other people and less about how to fulfill themselves - that true fulfillment is only through the fulfillment of others.
I am very happy to see the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute taking the initiative to put efforts into this project, with their own Project 10 to the 100th page. They have put a callout for ideas on their blog, and it will be very interesting to see what people interested in authentic Kabbalah will come up with for this project.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
Everyone interested in developing their understanding of Kabbalah's basic concepts and fundamental principles is invited to join Bnei Baruch's upcoming Kabbalah course for beginners. The course starts on September 3, at 8pm EST. It will go for 24 weeks, with 2 lessons per week. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask the lecturers questions, and get them answered live. Moreover, if one can't make the lessons, one can download them free at their convenience. For more information about the course, and to sign up, continue reading at the course's information and registration page.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
When Pope Benedict XVI had addressed large crowds, ending with his remarks to approximately 350,000 young people at Catholic World Youth Day, he told those in attendance at a Mass in Sydney that "In so many of our societies, side by side with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading: an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair." He called for young people to become "messengers of love" to counter a world that was becoming increasingly spiritually barren. These words reflect with great clarity, the sensations of so many people on this planet-around us is prosperity and wealth but no sense of joy in life and great fear of the future.
It is due to this emptiness that there is a renewed interest in spiritual matters, as evidenced by the hundreds of thousands in attendance in Sydney. There is also a growing interest in authentic Kabbalah, as well. The wisdom of Kabbalah can not only help us understand the underlying reason for this "spiritual desert" and why there is so much fear, despair and emptiness, it also shows us how to escape this desert and become "messengers of love" to the world around us.
Related Material:
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
On July 4, American celebrated their Independence Day, a very important holiday to Americans, as they remember this day to commemorate their break with England, the "mother" country who so heavily taxed and oppressed them. Most countries celebrate such a day of freedom, a day in their histories that signifies freedom from occupation, oppression or slavery in one form or another.
What does independence really mean, not just in terms of a country, but also in terms of personal freedom? Depending on where you live, you may be controlled by some governmental regulations, religious or cultural tenets, or societal customs, but can you be free, even though you may have to follow the rules and regulations of the physical structure in which you live?
There is much talk about freedom, and it seems that everyone wants it, but the fact is that we really don't know what true freedom is, much less how to achieve it. There is a way to find this freedom of choice within, and only through the achievement of this goal can we realize global freedom. Here's a list I put together of some resources exploring this topic that each of us so fundamentally yearns for:
Videos
* Do We Have Free Will or Is Everything Predetermined?
Articles
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
European MTV host Eden Harel asks Rav Michael Laitman, PhD whether or not a Kabbalist can also live as a Buddhist, which led to an explanation of two approaches to the ego. In short, Rav Laitman describes the difference between the two approaches as that of diminishing the ego (in Buddhism) as opposed to increasing the ego (in Kabbalah). The aim of increasing one's ego in Kabbalah is not to make more money, have more power, honor and knowledge etc., but to aim one's desire for the greatest thing that we can ever achieve: spirituality. Watch this Video at Kabbalah TV [03:53]
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
Kabbalists name the first man who wrote a book on the wisdom of Kabbalah, 5,000 years ago, Adam ha Rishon (Hebrew for "The First Man"). The book he wrote is called Raziel HaMelech (The Angel Raziel).
The nature of our world is juxtaposed with the nature of the higher world, both of which are sensed simultaneously by Kabbalists who reveal their properties to us. From his writings, we see that Adam was not a savage, but indeed a great Kabbalist with enormous insight into the nature of the higher world. He spoke of the souls which would follow from his soul, the paths they would take through the worlds to come, and their eventual ascent back to their roots. Watch the Video [03:15]
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
Evolution, both for humanity as a whole and for the life of a single person, is determined at the level of desires. Throughout history, and throughout our life, we have evolved through basic physical desires for food, sex, family and shelter, and then as our desires grow, we demand social attention in the form of money, honor, pride, power and knowledge. When our desires evolve to their greatest extent, and none of the aforementioned fulfillments can satisfy us, we begin to desire spirituality-a need to associate with something beyond everything that can fulfill us in this world. Watch the Video [05:44]
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
Many who associate themselves with Kabbalah these days offer fortune-telling, numerology, charms and blessings and relate their approach to Kabbalah to how it can help a person in this world. Rav Michael Laitman, PhD aims to debunk such approaches as misconceptions about what Kabbalah really is, in order to pave the way for a definition of Kabbalah: as a method of self-correction, and nothing other than this. Watch the Video [03:20]
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
What is the difference between the wisdom of Kabbalah and other spiritual approaches which appear in times of pain and inner turbulence? Rav Michael Laitman, PhD explains that Kabbalah is the only method that addresses all problems directly at their source: human nature.
Laitman continues by explaining that it is impossible to convince a person that this is true, because before a person comes to acknowledge their own nature as the source of every problem they perceive, they must first arrive at the question about the source of their pain by themselves. The only requirement to investigate this proposal is one's desire to know whether their life has a purpose or not. Moreover, this question "What is the purpose of my life?" can only be raised after one has suffered sufficiently for it to warrant their interest. Watch the Video on Kabbalah TV (04:20)
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
Great Kabbalists throughout History overviews the Kabbalistic lineage and literature from the time of Abraham to our era. The first Kabbalistic book, Sefer Yetzira (The Book of Creation), written by Abraham, described his spiritual revelations. This was the primary source of the wisdom of Kabbalah until the time of the second great disclosure by Moses in the form of the Torah, a book of spiritual revelations written in a language distinct from its predecessor - that of "branches," or material consequences. Following the Torah came The Zohar (The Book of Radiance), written in the language of Midrash (Legends).
Contemporary Kabbalah began with the revelations of the Ari (Isaac Luria) in his book Etz Chaim (Tree of Life) during the middle ages. This continued until the Baal HaSulam (Yehuda Ashlag) in the 20th century who wrote Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot), a modern textbook commentary on previous works. Watch the Video on Kabbalah TV (05:41)
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
Best-selling author William Simon and promoter Bill Gladstone interview Rav Michael Laitman, PhD on how authentic Kabbalah can help with life's day-to-day problems, and ask Rav Laitman about his personal experiences with Kabbalah, his teacher, his family and his move to Israel earlier in his life. This interview delves into the depths of one's personal spiritual search and how, through constant perseverance at self-transformation and improvement, one can achieve answers to life's most pressing questions, and break down psychological barriers to discover a new world of eternally amassing pleasure. Watch the Full Interview on Kabbalah TV (1 hour)
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
In the video, Do We Have the Ability to Feel Others?, Prof. Ervin Laszlo talks with Rav Michael Laitman, PhD about how feeling others - empathy - is the mark of a higher consciousness that we need to achieve. He mentions how modern science is approaching the phenomenon of oneness, how modern science recognizes oneness as a part of nature and evolution, and how this knowledge is needed for people to recognize the move needed in order to realize the oneness that we all share. Rav Laitman adds that the reason we don't currently understand and feel our oneness is because we are locked in our five egoistic senses. Watch Do We Have the Ability to Feel Others? (03:15)
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
In the video, Critical Mass, Prof. Ervin Laszlo talks with Rav Michael Laitman, PhD about the need for a critical mass of people to affect positive global change. When people begin to think and act differently, it affects others, and Laszlo discussed examples of such behavior in new groups which are emerging these days, which he hopes have the ability to spread worldwide and exert global social influence. Education, information and explanation are also discussed in relation to this process of spreading the message of positive global change, and influencing people through creating a new dialogue-one with this message of global change inserted into it. Watch Critical Mass (05:13)
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
When one searches for how to improve one's life and finds methods for strengthening the body, better health, healings, charms, blessings and many methods considered as spiritual undertakings. In the video, A Comfortable Framework for the Masses, Basketball player Guy Goodes clarifies whether these things really are spiritual or not with Kabbalist Rav Michael Laitman, PhD. Spirituality is an often encountered term within things these searches, and Rav Laitman describes how spirituality is unrelated to such methods because spirituality is unrelated to the body.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: Can the Global Suffering Be Avoided?
Natural disasters and crises in technology, education, family life, ecology, social and international problems, have a purpose-to bring us to the question "What is the meaning of our lives?" In Can the Global Suffering Be Avoided? Rav Michael Laitman, PhD talks with Bnei Baruch student and senior lecturer Eran Shayovich about the purpose of suffering and the role of the wisdom of Kabbalah in our era.
Rav Michael Laitman, PhD (from the interview):
Today, we have reached a general crisis-in technology, in education, in family life, social problems, international problems of all sorts... and it really is a general crisis where in all areas of humanity we see that we don't know how to progress. We don't know what direction to take because whatever direction we take, we see that after a few years, we actually come to a bitter result. And until now, any development that took place was only in order for us to arrive at such a situation and conclusion, and to have this question awaken in us: What should we do? What is the meaning of our life? Why do we live this way, and is there a plan for evolution that doesn't bring us to failure and bitter sensation? Watch this Video...
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
Always With Me is the disclosure of a close twelve-year Kabbalistic teacher-student relationship between Kabbalist Rabbi Baruch Ashlag (Rabash) and Kabbalist Rav Michael Laitman, PhD. In the film, Rav Laitman recounts the intensity, mystery and scrutiny between his long relationship with Rabash-his initial search and discovery of an authentic Kabbalah teacher, their fierce study sessions together, their private trips to secluded areas, as well as the historical implications of the wisdom of Kabbalah in the 20th century and its future dissemination. Watch the Film...
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
No. Studying Kabbalah involves only inner work in changing oneself, one's perception, sensation, and attitude toward reality. The aim of this self-change is the achievement of perceiving and sensing the source of life, the source of pleasure, and acquiring the same attitude as our life's source has toward us.
This does not involve any customs or rituals. Kabbalah is not and has nothing to do with religion, mysticism, magic, meditation, numerology, tarot cards or many other things it is commonly associated with. Kabbalah can be considered to be the purest of sciences, so pure that it can only be called "wisdom." This is because it describes the complete picture of nature, not only the picture we receive through our inborn five senses, but the picture that we can perceive with an additional sense. Moreover, it offers a method of how to achieve this additional sense during one's lifetime.
Further Reading:
- Kabbalah.info - If this was news to you, then consider seeing the "3 Things You Should Know About Kabbalah" Flash presentation at the homepage of the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute: www.kabbalah.info
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
The world is perfect, and only we need to change. Our perception of the world is the only thing that needs changing, to see that me and everything around me is being embraced and guided by a force of absolute perfection.
This force created everything and relates to everything through one attribute: unconditional love. The only change that needs to take place is that our perception transforms to be able to sense this force, to see and act in the same way it sees and acts.
This force is hidden from our inborn five senses. It is what created them, and it waits for us to evolve to the state when we will feel a need to sense it. Once we evolve to this state (which Kabbalists have described as beginning in our era), we will become less satisfied with the pleasures of this world, and start feeling the need to sense something eternal, whole and perfect.
The wisdom of Kabbalah is a method that was designed in ancient times and developed throughout history specifically to be disclosed in our era, when this need would start becoming felt on a mass scale. Its methodology describes everything relating to this deep, inner need: where it comes from, why it comes to a person, and how a person can use it to achieve eternity, wholeness and perfection.
Today, this method is taught at the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education and Research Institute-www.kabbalah.info-which offers all of its study materials and resources at no charge.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
The spiritual world is comprised of forces that precede everything taking place in our world. There are no words or languages in the spiritual world; rather words and languages are consequences in our world of causal forces operating in the spiritual world.
Kabbalists, who attain the sensation of the spiritual world and wish to express their attainments, do so using words structured according to four languages:
1. The language of the Bible
2. The language of the Hagada (legends)
3. The language of the Talmud
4. The language of Kabbalah (Sefirot, Partzufim and Worlds)
Most Kabbalists use the language of Kabbalah, because it is the most precise and scientific language for describing the spiritual world.
The reason that these languages came about, and that different languages are used in different historical periods, is that each language caters to the needs of its generation's desires. Each new generation spawns a Kabbalist who rewrites the wisdom of Kabbalah to suit the desires of that generation.
Related Material:
- Why Does the Kabbalistic Language Use Names from This World - Rav Michael Laitman, PhD discusses the reason for Kabbalah's use of words in this world to describe objects in the spiritual world.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
During October, 2007, Rav Michael Laitman, PhD will be touring the United States and Canada as part of a book promotion campaign to promote his recent English book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Kabbalah (written together with Collin Canright).
Rav Laitman will be giving lectures on the wisdom of Kabbalah, its role in our era and humanity's future, in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, St. Louis, Toronto, Mexico City, and other cities throughout North America.
Click here for more information and full details on Rav Laitman's public appearances
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
The Kabbalah books best suited to guide our generation's spiritual development are the writings of Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), Rabbi Isaac Luria (the Ari), and Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai (author of The Zohar). The authors of all these writings wrote from the same spiritual level, however in different periods of history, and thus the language and style of their writing reflects the needs of the people in their periods.
There were Kabbalists who achieved higher spiritual states, however they were not specified the roles for adapting Kabbalah as a method suited for anybody to study. There have been thousands of Kabbalah books written throughout history, however only the writings of the aforementioned Kabbalists fulfill the above role. This doesn't mean that other Kabbalistic writings are to be undervalued. Although there were other Kabbalists who achieved higher spiritual degrees than the Kabbalists mentioned here, they were not given the role of adapting Kabbalah as a method for the masses. Some were also not permitted to write at all, and others wrote only for certain other Kabbalists who were already in the perception and sensation of high spiritual states.
- VIDEO: Kabbalah Books (02:56)
- Interactive Video FAQ - "Question Your Reality" - World's first interactive video FAQ on Kabbalah, spirituality, the global crisis and the law of nature.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
A person often comes to Kabbalah out of simple curiosity. Maybe one hears someone talking about it, or reads about it, or sees a flyer for an introductory lecture, or someone writing about it in an online forum… it doesn’t matter. When a person starts taking an interest in Kabbalah, it is precisely then that obstacles start preying on him from all kinds of directions. Obstacles come specifically to fight or deter one’s interest, and by this, to strengthen one's true desire. Whether it is the opinions of friends, family or workmates, or whether it is one’s own desires for other ways of receiving pleasure in our world, or some kinds of new situations and people that seemingly pop up out of nowhere… it is common and normal for one to receive all kinds of disturbances shortly after taking an interest in the wisdom.
This is already a taste of the inner work that is to come in Kabbalah. It is all a question of one’s desire, of what one wants. If one has a sincere desire to discover the purpose of one’s life and starts listening to others’ advice, then one may lose precious time by pursuing others’ directions. In any case, one will always return to one’s most fundamental desire: to discover life’s purpose. There is no escaping this desire, as it is the only desire which is eternal and exceeds all the others.
The Kabbalists say “one’s soul shall teach one.” If one listens to one’s deepest inner voice in order to discover what one really wants, and no extraneous opinions deter him, then this person can make great strides toward discovering life’s eternal state while living in their earthly body.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
The main problem with our existence in this world is that we do not perceive where we came from and where we are headed. If we could perceive this, we would receive a whole new attitude. We would live in a whole new dimension; with perception and understanding of our life's cause. For this reason, Kabbalists state that the purpose of our existence in this world is to achieve this perception and contact with our life's cause.
According to Kabbalah, discovering our life's cause will make our lives easier and happier. We can always return to this perception after we have achieved it, exploring it further, and learning from it in order to arrange our lives optimally.
Kabbalists refer to such study as "one's soul shall teach one." In other words, one learns and perceives from within one's soul. This perception teaches one how to progress in life. Until this perception is achieved, one needs to work within environmental conditions that will influence and guide one's building of one's soul. These environmental conditions consist of:
• a Kabbalist teacher - who has already achieved this level of perception,
• a group of students - with a common desire to achieve this perception, and
• books of Kabbalists - who founded the method for the achievement of this perception.
Related Material:
Interactive Video FAQ on Kabbalah and Kabbalah's relationship to global-scale issues.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
QUESTIONYOURREALITY.com is an interactive video FAQ site based on people who were video-recorded on the streets of Toronto and New York.
In QUESTIONYOURREALITY.com the instructor, Tony, appears amid a minimalist white background environment in a variety of entertaining ways to deliver video/audio answers to peoples' questions.
QUESTIONYOURREALITY.com offers anybody with spiritual questions a captivating forum to get them thinking differently.
The site is divided into five categories:
- Kabbalah for Beginners
- World Peace
- Perception of Reality
- Freedom of Will
- Science of Kabbalah
Each category contains key questions relating to it, asked impromptu by people off the street, and answer videos ranging between 2-to-6 minutes length. Additionally, the answers aid to guide the viewer to related materials for free download, where one can freely delve deeper into the subject matter.
QUESTIONYOURREALITY.com is recommended for anybody who has an unanswered question deep inside. It is precisely based upon these questions, and can (literally) shed a completely new light in them.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
Nights of Kabbalah is the true story of renowned European actor Israel (Sasha) Demidov and his search for meaning in life. It shows the other world of a famous actor's life: that on the other side of all the glamour, fame, and popularity, there is a world filled with fears, sorrows, emptiness and darkness. In the depths of that world, a man searches for himself and his connection with God. Through this search, Sasha developed a relationship with a Kabbalah teacher, and used this relationship to investigate his inner world. This relationship opened up a new life to Sasha. The film traces this new life, the ongoing double-life he continues to live between his external fame and talent, and his inner journey into a completely different world.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: To Be Happy with Everything (and Not Less) - [02:48]
In an era where we are viewing our desires as problematic and harder to fulfill, many turn to methods of suppressing their desires and "being happy with less." In this interview, Rav Laitman states that it is impossible to be happy with less. Laitman doesn't talk about "suppressing" our desires in order to be happy, but "correcting" our desires. Rather than trying to tell ourselves we don't want something, or "letting something go" from our thoughts in order to feel empty and content... Rav Laitman talks about how we have to learn how to use each of our desires correctly.
Using our desires correctly is done through the intention we place above the desire: "for what purpose do I use this desire?" Laitman maintains that once we learn how to use all our desires correctly, we will achieve a completely different level of existence than our current one, "the whole of reality" or "Godliness" in his terms. Moreover, he states that realizing this achievement is the purpose of us being created.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
Take the opening paragraph of Baal HaSulam's article "The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy," add some commentary by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD in the daily Kabbalah lesson of Bnei Baruch, and you get an explosion of questions from the students of Bnei Baruch.
The opening paragraph from "The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy":
"What is Spirituality?
Philosophy has gone through a great deal of trouble to prove that corporeality is the offspring of spirituality and that the soul begets the body. Still, their words are not acceptable to the heart in any manner. Their primary mistake is their erroneous perception of spirituality, that spirituality fathered corporeality, which is certainly a fib."
In this heated lesson, Bnei Baruch students dug into Rav Laitman searching for the best possible answers to how Kabbalah approaches spirituality and how philosophy approaches spirituality (i.e. the limits of everything we can call "philosophy" and the limits of what it can define as "spirituality"). This led into a deep intellectual excavation into the nature of our perception of reality (including heavy emphasis on "What is matter in corporeality?" and "What is matter in spirituality?").
This lesson is recommended for anyone searching for a general definition of philosophy, of everything we can call philosophy, and the limits of philosophy and the limits of our perception of reality in the five senses as explained from a Kabbalists' perspective - "a Kabbalist's perspective" meaning the perspective from a person who has achieved an additional sense with which to perceive deeper layers of reality.
Download the full lesson for free here: wmv video | mp3 audio (55 min. | 15-07-07)
"The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy" lessons will continue daily, at 10pm EST, on Kabbalah TV, and archived versions will be available for free download at the Kabbalah Media Archive.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
In his latest article - Life - Whose Is It? - Rav Michael Laitman, PhD describes the need for planet-wide cooperation, but moreover, discusses the need for knowing why we need planet-wide cooperation.
As Rav Laitman writes in the article: "To save our own lives, and the lives of our children, we need to cooperate. However, we will not want to cooperate unless we know what for."
The article traces the roots of the "oneness" concept, back in the wisdom of Kabbalah 5,000 years ago, and how today is the time we need to realize our oneness. Moreover, Rav Laitman explains how in order to experience our oneness, we need to understand the meaning of our lives, which he states as the "need to achieve such a sensation of the universe that there will be no difference between life and death, and existence as physical entities or spiritual entities. If we could freely live in all dimensions, earthly and spiritual, and not just in our present perception, we would know that we truly are eternal."
The purpose of Kabbalah studies is the same as the above-stated meaning of our lives, and whether it is achieved consciously through the Kabbalah method or unconsiously through natural development, we will all reach it.
Click the following for the full article:
Life - Whose Is It? - by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD.
Saving our planet has become a key issue on our global agenda. But to avoid further destruction of Earth, we must answer a much deeper question: What is life for?
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
The meeting "An Encounter Between Science and Kabbalah" had Jeffrey Satinover MS, MD opening with a lecture about the boundaries in science, how science has discovered that “something else” is operating beyond the level of our physical world, but that it also cannot be researched with the scientific tools we’ve devised to research such phenomena. Satinover stated (in the video Physical and Spiritual Connections) that “when it’s understood properly, it’s an extraordinarily powerful impetus to the development of one’s spiritual life.”
Rav Laitman went on to discuss how if we look more fundamentally at the world around us, before we have theories and assumptions about all sorts of phenomena, we have a person and this person’s perception of reality. Starting from this foundation, Rav Laitman discussed our current perception of reality through the five senses, which forms our perception of “the physical world,” and stated how Kabbalah is a method of building a new tool of perception within the person, a “sixth sense” in which one can perceive the spiritual world.
These 3 new videos contain questions from the audience which both Rav Laitman and Dr. Satinover answered:
- Physical and Spiritual Connections (03:52) - Jeffrey Satinover MS, MD discusses the limits and contradictions of studying the physical world through science; that the physical world reveals “something else” that is happening and which science cannot explain. Rav Michael Laitman, PhD explains how it is possible to study the connection between the physical and spiritual worlds only if you both live in the five senses, in the body, and in addition have developed the sixth sense, the soul.
- Miracles (04:37) - Are there miracles in the world? Miracles are approached from a scientific standpoint; that “the judge has only what his eyes can see.” Rav Michael Laitman, PhD states that the only reason we perceive miracles is because we have an incomplete perception of nature, and that by attaining a complete perception of nature, we would not perceive miracles as “miracles,” but as preordained events in nature’s plan. Jeffrey Satinover MS, MD continues by giving a scientific example of a miracle stemming from an incomplete perception of nature.
- Reincarnation (01:02) - Reincarnation, according to Rav Michael Laitman, PhD, is a real phenomenon that can be perceived through experimentation in the science of Kabbalah.
- Also, an article summarizing this meeting - Exploring the Boundary Between Science and Spirituality.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
“Love thy neighbor as thyself” is the most fundamental commandment behind the world’s three major religions.
Not just through religions, but all of us want to hold good relationships with those around us, even if it’s only to at least one other person.
The problem lies in that neither the three major religions, nor any other man-made system has a method of achieving “love thy neighbor as thyself.” Many people say that “we just have to love each other,” but they don’t say how we can do it. And so, in every area of human life, no matter how nice we try to be to each other, we always find that our self-aimed desires grow and cause conflicts between us.
If we had a program, a method that could teach us how to love others as ourselves, which would show us how to not fall into all the traps of our self-aimed desires, then the answer to the initial question would be “no, we wouldn’t need religions.”
Is there such a method where we can discover, through research, what love is and how it works, to such a level that we can actually learn how to love each other? Can we actually set “love thy neighbor as thyself” as our goal, and work toward making it a reality? - www.kabbalah.info
Love Links: 8 key love resources
1. The Need for Love - love articles, quotes and resources at the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Blog.
2. The Law of Love - article in issue 3 of the e-version of Kabbalah Today.
3. The Law of Equivalence of Form - video stating how everything in lives moves toward balance.
4. Toward Integral Consciousness - video showing scientists discussing love and oneness.
5. The Table of Free Voices - globally-recognized social and creative contributors meet.
6. Why Can't We Just Get Along? - video on why we can't love each other (yet).
7. Unconditional Love - classic lecture on Kabbalah's approach to love by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD.
8. One Law - article on love as the universal law, by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
Bnei Baruch has updated their "What is Kabbalah?" page to include video and beginner resources. Such a page has been long-awaited, so that people can see what study options they have before them when first encountering Kabbalah and how to continue. Here is a review of the services offered:
As with all study resources at Bnei Baruch, the courses and study materials are free of charge.
Study Options at Bnei Baruch
Option #1: Live, Interactive Courses or Self-Study Courses - After watching the video and reading the article that gives a briefing on what Kabbalah is (and isn't), Bnei Baruch offers following through the study with either an interactive study course given by Bnei Baruch-approved live instructors at the ARI Online Education Center, or if one wishes to do self-study, a 15 x 25min lesson video course - Kabbalah Revealed - is also offered. A deeper investigation of the Kabbalah Revealed course reveals complete lesson transcripts of each episode in MS Word format, as well as links to related material for each of the lesson topics.
Option #2: Articles for Self-Study - The next section in the Kabbalah beginner resources is the Articles for Self-Study. It first offers direct links to the following 6 "What is Kabbalah?" articles (which follow on from the article in the "What is Kabbalah?" page):
- Why Am I Looking for Something Spiritual?
- What does Kabbalah Teach and What Does Studying Kabbalah Do for Me?
- What is Reality?
- Why Do I Feel Bad?
- Why Kabbalah? Why Now?
- Rav Michael Laitman, PhD Answers Questions on Kabbalah
It also offers links to the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Blog, which offers daily news and updates on the latest content that the organization produces, and the online version of the monthly Kabbalah Today paper - also hosting articles suitable for first-time reading.
Option #3: Videos for Self-Study - Another slight scroll of the mouse and you encounter links to videos through which you can acquire an introductory basis to Kabbalah. There are links to Perceiving Reality's 8-minute introductory video on the way we perceive reality, which introduces Kabbalah as a method capable of revealing the whole picture of reality to us.
There is also a link to the video Kabbalah - Five Basic Principles, which has Rav Michael Laitman, PhD answering a question asked by author Bill Simon: "Are there, say, five basic principles of Kabbalah, and if so what are they?"
There is a link to Kabbalah TV - the official TV and VOD space of Bnei Baruch, which hosts a large range of introductory videos as well as the live daily lessons given by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD directly from the Bnei Baruch Education Center in Israel. One can easily follow the categories to gain an understanding of many of Kabbalah's basic concepts, and start applying the wisdom to one's life.
Also in the section is a link to another "What is Kabbalah?" video produced by two students of Bnei Baruch, made in a more advertising-like manner, and which still provides a basic explanation of what Kabbalah is and isn't, and how it relates to a person individually.
Option #4: Books for Self-StudyThis section provides links to key beginner books of Rav Michael Laitman, PhD. The first book pictured is Kabbalah Revealed: The Ordinary Person's Guide to a More Peaceful Life, and is linked to its free PDF e-book version as well as its print version (for purchasing).
This book covers all of Kabbalah's fundamental principles in the simplest and shortest exposition Rav Laitman has ever provided. There is also a fun flavor to the book, making it possibly Rav Laitman's book with the widest audience appeal. It is not only for people interested in studying Kabbalah, but also works as a general interest book for anyone wanting to discover some new concepts and practical advice that can help them understand and live their lives better.
The other pictured book in the section is Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life (Free PDF E-Book | Print Version). This book also forms a good introduction, however with a complete different audience appeal. Those more interested in reading a down-to-earth scientific explanation of Kabbalah are recommended to this book. It arose from meetings that Rav Laitman had with three scientists from the film What the Bleep Do We Know!? and the explanations of Kabbalah that Rav Laitman gave in these meetings.
Also in this section is a link to the Kabbalah Books site, featuring print versions, ordering options, and reviews of all of Rav Laitman's books. Finally, there are links to other free e-book and audio book versions of Rav Laitman's books: Attaining the Worlds Beyond (Free PDF E-Book | Audio Book), From Chaos to Harmony: The Solution to the Global Crisis According to the Wisdom of Kabbalah (Free PDF E-Book), Introduction to the Book of Zohar (Free PDF E-Book), The Science of Kabbalah (Pticha) (Free PDF E-Book), and Basic Concepts in Kabbalah (Free PDF E-Book | Audio Book). All these books provide different vantage points for homing in on the wisdom of Kabbalah, suited to different kinds of people and levels of involvement in the study. For more info, see their reviews at the Kabbalah Books site.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
In an article published today in issue 4 of the monthly Kabbalah Today magazine, called "Mission: Possible (And Mandatory)," Yoav Bernstein discusses the growth of anti-Semitism as resulting from an intensification of the human ego, and that the method of the ego's correction, possessed by the nation of Israel, is not being implemented in its due time.
Bernstein states that the lack of correction of the ego, in which it is inverted from constant reception to constant giving, is causing more intense separation among people. More and more people are subconsciously feeling that the nation of Israel is largely responsible for the world's problems. According to Bernstein, people who feel like this are "right" in feeling so.
This is because, as it is written in Baal HaSulam's article "The Bond," the nation of Israel are the ones who must first unite against their ego, and realize the spiritual law of "love thy neighbor as thyself." Moreover, not only are they responsible for achieving this among themselves, but also for passing the revelation of this law on to the whole of humanity.
In a video also released this week, called "The Nation of Israel's Role," Rav Michael Laitman, PhD reinforced the opinion that Israel, who possesses the method for humanity's correction, must start implementing it; that "this method (Kabbalah) is being revealed in our times in order to save us from our own growing egoism."
Materials published this week on the nation of Israel's role:
- Mission: Possible (And Mandatory) - Article by Yoav Bernstein in issue 4 of Kabbalah Today.
- The Nation of Israel's Role (04:31) - Video featuring Rav Michael Laitman, PhD describing the nation of Israel’s role in the world, its connection to the wisdom of Kabbalah, and the reason for the present-day rise of anti-Semitism.
- A Trail of Anti-Semitism - Article by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD discussing the intensification of anti-Semitism and the purpose of the nation of Israel: to learn how to love their neighbors as themselves (as taught by Rabbi Akiva), and then pass this teaching on to the rest of the world.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
The wisdom of Kabbalah was first developed 5,000 years ago. It was built to address human nature as the cause of all problems humanity could ever experience. However, 5,000 years ago it was not clear that human nature is the cause of all the problems, and thus, people didn't relate to it.
It was then developed to a certain point and eventually concealed 2,000 years ago after the writing of The Book of Zohar. Ever since that time, it has been developed in secrecy, in hiding, but it was still always developed and adapted to whatever generation it was in, and kept private. People knew about it, but they only knew about it; they didn't know it.
As for our era, Kabbalists said that at a time when humanity has exhausted all of its options, of enjoyment, of believing that tomorrow will be better because we will do something better, we will improve our technology, our science, our sociology, government structures... when we are done believing that we can do it better, then we will need something that will teach us why things have been going wrong all along.
At this point we will understand that human nature is the very cause. In other words, there is no way that we can do something right without first correcting our own nature. When this awareness develops in humanity, the wisdom of Kabbalah-which is designed precisely for the correction of human nature, will appear. This is why, especially since the end of the 20th Century and the beginning of the 21st Century, the wisdom of Kabbalah has been gaining popularity.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: What is the Essence of Kabbalah? (04:31)
If you look in the comments section of most of the videos discussed in this blog (all of them are found on this page), you'll notice comments either praising or denouncing Kabbalah as a meditative practice, as a religion, as magic or something that's only for crazy people...
This video aims to, in as quick a summary as possible, state outright what Kabbalah is not. As stated in the video, "Kabbalah is not and has nothing to do with:
religion,
magick,
mysticism,
witchcraft,
divination,
cults,
healings,
meditation,
self-help,
philosophy,
theory,
parapsychology,
ESP,
telepathy,
clairvoyance,
new age,
psychokinesis,
superstition,
dream interpretation,
phrenology,
tarot cards,
mantra’s,
yoga,
red strings,
holy water,
blessings,
Judaism,
Islam,
Christianity,
Buddhism,
Hinduism,
Sufism, or anyism,
past life regressions,
holistic medicine,
numerology,
faith healing,
aromatherapy,
secret societies,
reiki,
hypnosis,
channeling,
transmutation,
phrenology,
astrology,
astral travel or projection,
lucid dreaming,
spiritualism,
communicating with the dead,
out of body experiences,
magnetism,
voodoo,
freemasonry,
theosophy,
reflexology,
UFOs,
creationism,
fanaticism,
or any other belief…"
Although at some point within this dictionary of what-Kabbalah-is-not-isms someone might be ready to point their finger with a "But I heard that!..", if one approaches the definition that is introduced straight afterwards, as if they had never experienced anything called "Kabbalah" before, then one can save a lot of confusion and time:
This wisdom is no more and no less than a sequence of roots, which hang down by way of cause and effect, in fixed, determined rules, weaving into a single, exalted goal described as “the revelation of His Godliness to His creatures in this world.” (Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag, in his article "The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah")
The rest of the video explains and attempts to simplify this definition of Kabbalah.
"Godliness" is explained as being "the laws of nature"; laws that humans haven't yet succeeded to reveal through any of our religious or scientific methods to date.
After going through what Kabbalah is not, it is most correct to define "what Kabbalah is" as a science. This is because it concerns the research of the cause-and-effect chain of nature, of how our world and everything was created, and through this research aims to reveal the complete picture of nature and its laws to the researcher.
If a word like "religion," "mysticism" or "meditation" is still floating around your mind near the word "Kabbalah" (or any of the above-mentioned words), then you should watch the video.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: What is Prayer in Kabbalah? (04:01)
Continuing the Perceiving Reality series of questions and answers, a young man asked the following question regarding prayer:
"A lot of people around the world pray, and I don't see the world getting any better. So my question would be: What does prayer have to do with Kabbalah? Does it help? Are our prayers even heard?"
Perceiving Reality went on to define what people actually do when they pray, why prayers are so rarely answered, and described how Kabbalah approaches prayer.
In order to best introduce Kabbalah's approach to prayer (which is fundamentally different to most known conceptions of prayer), Perceiving Reality drew a comparison between prayer in religion to prayer in Kabbalah, presenting where and how they are fundamentally different.
Essentially, the difference presented was that of an external approach to prayer in religion, where one prays to the Creator to make Him change something from Himself for the person's benefit, to an internal approach to prayer in Kabbalah, where one prays that the Creator would change the person to understand what the Creator is doing, and see it as good.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
The title and theme of Rav Laitman's lecture this coming Monday is "From Chaos to Harmony: The relevance of authentic Kabbalah in our lives."
Details:
Monday May 14, 7:00--8:30pm
3701 Chesswood Drive, hall #216
Toronto
Lecture will be available in 3 languages: English, Hebrew and Russian.
For more information, call 416-840-5487 or e-mail info@bbtoronto.info
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
ARTICLE: The Needed Shift to Altruistic Social Values - by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD
In this article, Rav Michael Laitman, PhD describes altruism as Nature's law, and that it is advantageous for humanity to reach this attitude in its relationships. Laitman goes onto state that the advantage of realizing altruistic relationships is that by doing so, humanity will elevate to a new level of existence, one that is in equivalent in form with Nature.
Until then, Laitman states that all that humanity needs is to increase the social appreciation of altruism, and revoke the prizes given for egoistic goals. In other words, rather than focusing, say, on one's special swimming, acting or professional skills, one is instead only evaluated according to one's contribution to society.
Since the majority of prizes given in society are for individual excellence, we have preparations for this shift in attitude, and it only requires our active part to increase the recognition of its importance.
Related Video: Rav Laitman introduced this message at the 3rd World Wisdom Council forum in November, 2004. Click this link to view the speech he made (6 min).
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: The Purpose of Creation (01:44)
Baal HaSulam's quote from item 39 of his article "Introduction to the Zohar":
"The purpose the Creator desires of creation is to bestow upon His creatures, so that they may know His genuineness and greatness, and receive all the delight and pleasure He had prepared for them."
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: What is Prayer in Kabbalah? (04:01)
What are we actually doing when we start talking to what we think of as God?
Why are our prayers so rarely answered?
This video explains Kabbalah's version of prayer, and presents the difference between prayer in religion to prayer in Kabbalah.
The religious versions of prayer don't help one achieve the goal of Kabbalah studies. In other words, speaking words of praise or request to God isn't considered prayer according to the method of Kabbalah.
Perceiving Reality describes relgion's prayer as conceiving a Creator which changes His attitude toward the person if the person requests it.
Perceiving Reality describes Kabbalah's version of prayer as initially stating that the Creator's attitude doesn't change toward the person - that the Creator is a constant force of good and bestowal - and the prayer in Kabbalah is that the person requests of the Creator to change him or her, so that he/she can perceive the eternal and perfect Creator.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: Why Am I Never Satisfied? (04:37)
Perceiving Reality explains that the calculation consciously and subsciously operating our every move is "How do I receive the maximum amount of pleasure for the minimum amount of effort?" (It's described in the video as the "E=mc squared of the ego.")
Pleasure, the reception of pleasure, is worth the effort. Whether it's a pleasure we will achieve in the next moment, or whether it's a pleasure that awaits four years from now, say, at the end of my university degree, we always calculate the present suffering with regard to the future pleasure and determine our actions as worthwhile or not if the pleasure we will receive justifies the effort we invest.
Opposite pleasure is a need for it. We experience everything through a comparison of opposites; light compared to darkness, black compared to white, and pleasure compared to pain. Opposite pleasure is a lack of pleasure called "pain," and we experience pleasure on the meeting point between the need for it and its fulfillment. (There's a clever example of the need to eat a steak and what happens during the process of its consumption in the video.)
We cannot feel pleasure if we don't have a need to feel pleasure. In the above example, when we're hungry and we start eating the steak, we feel the most pleasure is in its first bite. Then as we continue to eat, the pleasure diminishes, since the need for the pleasure also diminishes. Once we are full, we no longer need to eat, and from this point, if we were to keep eating the steak, it wouldn't be experienced as pleasure, but as pain - from bloated, to sick, to...BLURGH!
Our egoistic desires limit our experience of pleasure. The reason our need for pleasure diminishes once the pleasure is received is because all of our inborn desires are egoistic in nature. Our egoistic, self-serving desires are built in such a way that they can never be satisfied.
We feel that a greater pleasure exists beyond our present experience of pleasure. It does! All we need is a need for it, and then we can feel it. This need has to be for unlimited, boundless and ever-expanding pleasure.
How do we acquire the need for never-ending pleasure? We cannot acquire it through ourselves. This need has to come from others. We have to start needing to fulfill others, and through fulfilling others' desires, feel a constantly increasing pleasure. We have to desire "to bestow" rather than "to receive."
The desire to bestow is a spiritual desire. One taste of it is greater than every transient, egoistic pleasure we feel in our lives. It is not just a small pleasure extracted from our egoistic needs, but one that takes pleasure in everything. There is both no limit to the desire to fulfill others, and there is thus no limit to the pleasure one can extract from such a need.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: The Difference Between Faith and Knowledge !!! (03:25)
This conversation between Eden Harel and Rav Michael Laitman is like watching a conversation between the popular arguments of religion and science:
- Religion says that all you need is faith in the Creator.
- Science says that faith isn't enough; you need proof.
Insert Kabbalah into the science definition, and then you have a method claiming that by performing its experiments upon yourself, you can progressively reveal proof of the Creator's existence. The experiments in Kabbalah are aimed at developing a sense organ that doesn't exist in us from birth, and then, through this newly acquired sense, feel the existence of the eternal and whole Creator. See the video
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
"The depth of wisdom and learning contained in the Holy Book of Zohar is concealed behind a thousand locked gates."
Baal HaSulam, in Preface to the Book of Zohar.
It's not that The Zohar is really hidden. The field of which The Zohar speaks is completely open. So why do we call it "hidden"? It is hidden only with respect to us, to our inborn perception ability.
In order to perceive what The Zohar speaks about, we need to transform our perception so that it "moves" closer to the level of perception from where The Zohar speaks. Then we won't read its stories as some kind of abstract imagination about roses and donkeys, but we will see the qualitative, inner part of it through our own inner correspondence of qualities with its author.
This is a long way from us.
To bring this book closer, Baal HaSulam wrote many books and articles to simplify the method of this inner transformation, and tried to explain it in academic and layman's terms. His disciple and student, Rabbi Baruch Ashlag (Rabash), further clarified the inner work of rigorous and continuous self-transformation through his articles.
Today, Rav Michael Laitman, PhD (disciple of Rabash) and the students of the Bnei Baruch World Center for Kabbalah Studies further work to simplify and clarify the words stemming from the height of perception to our world. This is so that everybody will have the opportunity to ascend to the level of which The Zohar speaks; the level of endless perfection and continually amassing pleasure.
Bnei Baruch have just updated their Zohar website resources, including new articles and features to help guide anyone who is searching for something more than this world has to offer:
The Zohar - Updated Articles and Features at the Bnei Baruch World Center for Kabbalah Studies
- The Zohar - A Brief Introduction – Who is The Zohar for? What is The Zohar about?
- Introduction to the Book of Zohar - About the Book – Introduction to the Book of Zohar (Laitman Kabbalah Publishers: 2005) is an in-depth commentary by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD (available for free download) on two of Baal HaSulam's introductory articles to The Zohar.
- The Mystery of the Book of Zohar – Why has The Book of Zohar been hidden throughout history?
- The History of Kabbalah and the Zohar – the fourth chapter from Rav Michael Laitman’s book Kabbalah for Beginners, outlining a brief history of The Zohar’s origins, how it’s come to us today, and how we should approach it in our times.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: Kabbalah - Five Basic Principles !!! (06:52)
In this video, Rav Michael Laitman, PhD expands upon the following five points related to the Kabbalah method:
1. There is an Upper Force. We all live in it, and we are all the egoistic parts situated opposite it.
2. The Upper Force develops us by increasing our egoism. Our egoism is increased to a stage where we become conscious of how destructive it is, and that we want to exit it.
3. We are one soul. This soul was shattered into millions of parts that don't feel the existence of the one interconnected body. The correction of this shattering is the purpose of why we were created - to reconnect back into one soul in relation to its Creator, the Upper Force.
4. The destructive ego in our times. In our times, the destructive nature of our egoism becomes more evident, and two paths open up: to use it the same way we've always used it (for our own sake), or to use it to connect back together as one soul.
5. Freedom of choice. Our freedom of choice lies between choosing our future evolution
(i) within our nature, through suffering, or
(ii) above our nature, through the conscious attainment of the Upper Force.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: Kabbalah - Five Basic Principles !!! (06:52)
In this video, Rav Michael Laitman, PhD expands upon the following five points related to the Kabbalah method:
1. There is an Upper Force. We all live in it, and we are all the egoistic parts situated opposite it.
2. The Upper Force develops us by increasing our egoism. Our egoism is increased to a stage where we become conscious of how destructive it is, and that we want to exit it.
3. We are one soul. This soul was shattered into millions of parts that don't feel the existence of the one interconnected body. The correction of this shattering is the purpose of why we were created - to reconnect back into one soul in relation to its Creator, the Upper Force.
4. The destructive ego in our times. In our times, the destructive nature of our egoism becomes more evident, and two paths open up: to use it the same way we've always used it (for our own sake), or to use it to connect back together as one soul.
5. Freedom of choice. Our freedom of choice lies between choosing our future evolution
(i) within our egoistic nature, through suffering, or(ii) above our egoistic nature, through the conscious attainment of the Upper Force.
Watch the video!
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: Your Life's Purpose !!! (13:10)
Public appearances of Rav Michael Laitman, PhD with Mexican media in January 2007 yielded an array of spiritual enquiries answered by this leading Kabbalist.
Journalists, radio interviewers, publishers and the Mexican public probed Laitman's mind for answers about life's purpose, self- and social transformation, understanding Kabbalah, the connection between man and nature, who is and isn't a Kabbalist, the sixth sense, the ego's development, free choice, and the spiritual importance of our era.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
The new newspaper site www.kabtoday.com brings the experience of reading a newspaper to the web. Scan your eyes over the paper, page by page, click on the section you want to read, and enjoy this user-centered experience. Much friendlier than your standard PDF.
About the paper Kabbalah Today (from the Editor's Note):
Kabbalah Today is an apolitical, non-commercial paper, aspiring to convey the same message that was conveyed in (Baal HaSulam's 1945 publication) The Nation. It is intended for everyone, regardless of gender, faith, nationality or age. With today's increasing interest in Kabbalah, a Kabbalah paper seems to be the order of the day. Its aim is to disseminate the vast knowledge hidden in the wisdom of Kabbalah in clear language and at no cost. We believe that this wisdom can change how we perceive ourselves as individuals and as a society. It is our hope that Kabbalah Today will add a new dimension to our lives, and help to enhance unity and love among all its readers.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
Monday 5th, March 2007
*Lecture: "From Chaos to Harmony"
The Club House of Boca Isles South
Where: On Cain Boulevard
Off Glades Road
Boca Raton
When: 8:00 PM
FREE LECTURE
*Lecture in English
Wednesday 7th, March 2007
*Lecture: "Kabbalah, Science and
the Meaning of Life"
University of Miami and
Florida Israel Cultural Institute
Where: John J. Koubek Memorial Center
2705 S.W. 3rd. St.
Miami, Florida 33135
When: 7:00 PM
Free Admission
RSVP
(305)925-9414
*Lecture in English
Thursday 8th, March 2007
*Lecture
"Kabbalah and Perception of Reality"
at
Beth Torah Benny Rok Campus
Perez Chapel Hall
Where: 20350 Northeast 26 Avenue
North Miami Beach, Florida 33180
When: 7:30 PM
Free Admission
RSVP
(305)932-2829
Contact: Pablo Levi
*Lecture in Spanish
Please note: Change of Address
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: How Do We Get Rid Of The Ego? !!! (05:03)
Our era is one where people are questioning and looking into the ego more and more. How do we get rid of the ego? How should we deal with the ego? We see how people's clashing ego's cause so much suffering these days, whether on personal, social or global scales, so we start looking inside ourselves to do something about this phenomena we don't quite understand - the ego.
Perceiving Reality begins by answering that we first have to define what the ego is. According to Kabbalah, the ego is defined as the "will to receive pleasure." The ego is defined in Kabbalah as everything that constitutes creation, that "ego" or the "will to receive" is the very substance of creation, and it doesn't have to be gotten rid of or changed - nor can it be.
It's not that having a will to receive pleasure causes clashes among us. It's that the intention for which we use this desire is aimed at pleasing ourselves. Moreover, this intention to please ourselves is rooted in our inborn nature, and converting this intention into its opposite - i.e. a will to receive to please another - can only be done by acquiring a new nature, not given to us at birth.
This is the work in Kabbalah: converting the egoistic intention to receive pleasure for ourselves into an altruistic intention to receive pleasure through giving to others. This isn't the usual notion of giving as we perceive it through our five senses in this world - like giving a present to someone or just being kind. It involves acquiring a new sense, a new intention, that is in a constant state of bestowal like Nature itself.
The video uses an example from Baal HaSulam's Pticha (Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah) of the guest and the host to explain this.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: What Is The Nature Of Coincidence? !!! (02:48)
"What is the nature of coincidence and how should I interpret it?" was the question asked to Perceiving Reality, who used a basic Kabbalistic concept to answer simply: there are no coincidences.
Us perceiving seemingly disconnected points of reference that we connect together under the name "coincidence" stems from our lack of perception of nature's complete picture. Kabbalists, who have discovered the complete picture of nature, tell us that once we will see it, we will notice how every single motion, desire and thought in creation was planned and pre-programmed in order to move the creation to its final destination, i.e. adhesion with its creator.
This is portrayed graphically in the video with a clever mountain example. You'll have to see the video for that.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
"Why is all so complex (Rav Laitman refers to the study of Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot), a daily study text of the Bnei Baruch World Center for Kabbalah Studies)? What is complex is not at all complex as compared to what exists. The problem is not the complexity. During our studies we use our soul vessels and not our intellectual vessels. Were I to learn with the intellect, I would have noted it down, understood it, received it as vessels and constructed a picture out of it. This picture would have been more or less clear and I would have understood it in a determined way, to which I would only add. This is the way I have studied all the subjects, let us say, in the university and after that as well.
But here we study with the soul!"
Quote of Rav Michael Laitman, PhD from the lesson on Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot) on 13.02.07 (26:26) wmv video | mp3 audio
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: What is Kabbalah? (03:06) !!!
With the aid of the additional sense that we attain through the method of Kabbalah, we create a connection with the Upper Worlds - the system of forces guiding our reality.
In Kabbalah, I study myself - what my nature is, and what I can change in myself. It's not a study of something I have to do externally, under external conditions. All the experiments are conducted internally, within me, inside me.
Therefore, Kabbalah is called "the hidden wisdom." Using it as a means, I undergo inner transformations that only I know and feel. They're hidden from other peoples' eyes.
Kabbalah speaks of what we still haven't succeeded to perceive, because it's what we have no control over. We can perceive what we don't yet perceive only through true attainment in mind and feelings, in our thoughts and in our desires, and not out of theories and assumptions.
Kabbalah doesn't engage in visions and imagination; not is it mysticism or a new-age trend, rather it's a method by which a person can develop a higher awareness and attain spirituality.
This is a goal that's reachable, possible and essential for everyone.
If you have a desire for spirituality, and you want something more than this life, then you can, with the method of Kabbalah, with this divine wisdom, develop this desire and begin to feel spirituality within it. -- www.kabbalah.info
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
This new book by Michael Laitman From Chaos to Harmony: The Solution to the Global Crisis According to the Wisdom of Kabbalah states the cause of all problems in our world as rooted in the incorrect use of human nature - egoism - which has grown throughout history to its overblown state in our era.
Laitman goes onto discuss that altruism is nature's law, and all levels of nature other than the human level - i.e. still, vegetative and animate - function altruistically. Laitman gives many examples from the latest scientific research into altruism in nature to support this claim.
Then he goes onto state how the solution to the world's problems is for humans to reach an altruistic level of relations with each other, and that this can only be achieved through altruistic education. "Education" is defined as leading by example.
The question is, how can we co-create an altruistic level of interrelations to serve as an example for our future generations?
The method of doing this, states Laitman, is by creating a society that places all its honor and respect on a person's contribution to society. In other words, only altruistic actions aimed at uniting humanity into one altruistically-functioning body will be honored, and all egoistic goals will be treated indifferently.
While this may seem completely impossible from the standpoint of where we place honor and respect in our current egoistic framework of relations, the more we promote that the cause of all problems is egoism, that all nature outside of our egoistic design functions altruistically and that altruism is nature's law, then the more we will come to realize that only by working to obey this law will there be a solution to the problems in the world.
In other words, we have to change our attitude to the world to an altruistic one, and in order to do so, we need to build our environment around us in such a way that it promotes altruism as something great and worthwhile for us to want to aspire to it. In the future, let us hope that we will go to perform altruistic acts in the same way as we go to buy a Coca-Cola today.
The book is available for free as a PDF at this link: http://www.kabbalahmedia.info/mekorot/eng_o_ml-sefer-from-chaos-to-harmony.pdf
The book is also available for US$4.95 at this link:
http://www.kabbalahbooks.info/product_info.php?products_id=198
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: Who Are All The Other People Around Me? !!! (01:58)
Rav Michael Laitman illuminates the phenomenon of oneness - that by attaining an additional sense and expanding the range of our vision into spiritual vision, we see everything as a single whole, and feel all seven billion people in the world as one person, as being inside me rather than outside me. According to Rav Laitman, this is the whole reality that exists unperceived by our five senses, and that a person will eventually attain the additional sense capable of perceiving this whole reality. For more info: www.kabbalah.info
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: Critical Mass !!! (5:13)
Rav Michael Laitman asks Prof. Ervin Laszlo's opinion on the following question: "Does it seem to you that awareness is really awakening in people and they are beginning to be aware of the catastrophe we are facing? Do they realize that we need to transform human nature? Or do they think that it is enough to repair the flaws we cause nature through technology?"
Laszlo continues to state that he isn't sure that people understand the depth of change that is required.
After further questioning, Laszlo continues to state that a critical mass of people who are working at changing thought is what will initially spark a global change.
Laszlo and Laitman continue by discussing education; that a new system of education is needed to be introduced to humanity to guide its progress to a more evolved level of awareness. Here is a transcript from the last part of this video, on education:
Rav Laitman: As far as I understand, we have to create a worldwide educational channel, and try to reach every single person so as to guide this step-by-step, gradual and phased progress. Actually, we need to present a new education to humanity. In your opinion, isn’t this basically the essence of our influence over the world that would bring it to correction? Isn’t this raising of awareness dependent upon explanation and education?
Prof. Ervin Laszlo: Yes, absolutely; education and information. Education should be based on relevant information, but very often it is not. The problems that we are facing—individual and above all, collectively—are not part of the standard curriculum in schools. They should be there already in grade schools, in high-schools; they are not even there in universities. We are now trying to create another university, an alternative university, called "The World University," where these kind of problems and solutions will be discussed. Education is the safest way, but it is also the slowest; it is relatively slow because it takes years for people to go through the system.
Information and informal education or adult education, if you like, is a much faster way. So I think here, using the internet, using all the modern telecommunication technologies to talk to people, to discuss it with them and to help them—not so much to educate them, but enter into a dialogue with them—so that we can learn from each other. We can enter, insert that elemental wisdom that you are inserting through the Kabbalah, and that I am trying to insert using the wisdom from the sciences. I think we have to insert that element and then begin a dialogue. And the dialogue will develop, will spread, because the ground is ripe; the times are mature. We know that change has to occur and therefore we must start the process.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: Do We Have The Ability To Feel Others? !!!
"To enter into another person's feelings ... is the sign of a higher consciousness. ... To feel that we are one together, that we are not separate." Prof. Ervin Laszlo.
Laszlo goes onto briefly mention how science is today documenting this phenomenon of oneness occurring in nature, citing Jung and Vernadsky among others.
Rav Laitman mentions that "it is necessary to raise the human being from the level of our existence to the level of the higher flow of information, energy and awareness at which we are all connected together. We will then understand and feel that we all belong to a single system and that we are essentially one body. We just cannot see it while we are in our five egoistic senses."
Here, Laitman provides an entry to the wisdom of Kabbalah that he teaches; that in order to come to feel our interconnection, we have to attain tools of perception other than the five senses we were born with. www.kabbalah.info
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
The Kabbalah TV channel hosting Rav Michael Laitman's daily lessons - Kab TV - has undergone a facelift: a new interface featuring Video On Demand. You can now choose from a wide range of videos (including new ones) arranged according to 7 categories:
- About Kabbalah
- Talks
- Films
- Integral Consciousness
- Kabbalah Revealed: Short Videos
- Kabbalah Revealed: Full Episodes
- Perceiving Reality
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
Rosh (head) symbolizes beginning, and Shana (year) is from the Hebrew word for change, Shinui.
The process of a tree's development symbolizes the process of spiritual development in a person, from the seed that is planted in the earth, to the flourishing tree that produces fruit.
The 15th of Shvat - Tu beShvat - symbolizes a state where man makes the decision to invest all of his strength into discovering the purpose of his life. He finds that all the powers needed for spiritual development are hidden inside him, and that all he has to do is choose the correct way and realize it. When one makes this decision - to progress toward spirituality - one begins to grow like a tree and finally produce spiritual fruit, namely receive infinite pleasure and reach perfection.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
Here is a recorded version of a song that Bnei Baruch students Jose and Walter prepared for the NA Kabbalah Convention's concert night - Born to Bestow Light.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
Seth Breitman, a student of Bnei Baruch, played an amazing four-song set with his band at the 2nd concert night of the NA Kabbalah convention. Here are three recorded versions of songs that were performed:
1. Life Line [3:16]
2. Break Free [3:34]
3. Song of Ascents [3:41]
For more of Seth's songs, visit the audio section of his blog www.spiritualize.info/audio
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
The North American Kabbalah Convention was held over the weekend. Over 1000 people came to the Hilton Newark Hotel in Elizabeth, NJ from all over the world to increase the common desire for drawing the Upper Light and hastening the speed of discovering the point of common, unconditional love between all people.
Many newcomers who came prepared for the convention, according to the Kabbalistic method of drawing the Upper Light taught at Bnei Baruch, are quoted from the final day's Yeshivat Haverim (Gathering of Friends):
Seth from New York: I can't even describe the awe and inspiration that I feel. The light and love that we all felt was an inspiration for all of us, and I know we're all going to take it back with us and it's going to help us for a long time to come.
I never saw the Rav speak live before. Everyone told me that it was inspiring in ways you just couldn't describe and it was true. ... And I just couldn't be happier than I am right now feeling the love and the light from everybody here. Thanks, L'Chaim!
Fabrizio from Miami: I get goose bumps as I am talking about this - the emotion, the feeling, the camaraderie, the love that we all shared in this conference, to me, is amazing and if anything, it's only a glimpse of what's to come.
Abraham from Queens, NY: I asked two of my friends here what they felt, and whatever they felt, they couldn't even explain it in words, because they knew they finally found out what a true connection is, by seeing you together and really trying to help out in everything that you can. ... Just imagine this, what we have, in bigger numbers, in the billions!
Ketil from Norway: We are not created to live our lives alone. It's more and more crucial to break out of this solitary shell and start to give. Also, the more that we do this, the more we realize we are one. And the greater thing I experienced here is that it is also being practiced ... I can't describe it and put it into words because then I'll just collapse! I just want to kiss you all!
Mike from Connecticut: I'm starting to realize the world needs a heart, one that is capable of pumping the Creator's love to every little corner, to every little cell. I'm a cell that wants to grow, that desires to sense the entire living organism. It's becoming more and more important. I hope to never let go of the thought that I and everyone can be the constant veins and arteries which carry the message of the soul's correction. My name tag says "Stanford, Connecticut, USA," but I pray that we all begin to sense distance as relative, and that we are always together. Maybe someday soon, when everyone is gathered, our name tag can say "Gmar Tikkun" (Heb. the End of Correction). L'Chaim!
Chaim from New York: When I started studying, as I watched the lessons, and you start to get the importance of the goal... You know, sometimes I'd be by myself and I'd say "Wow, is it even realistic? I'd be happy if just the first step happened, if I could just get a glimpse of that spiritual reality." And I didn't think it was realistic.
Let me tell you something. After this congress, I feel that it's realistic, that with this group, and with this cable (my friend Alex called it a cable), that we can weave this giant cable through the entire world and bring us all, in our lifetime, to Gmar Tikkun. L'Chaim!
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: Do I Have To Believe In God To Live A Spiritual Life? !!!
Perceiving Reality answers that if you just believe in God, then you can't live a spiritual life. So what is spirituality? According to Kabbalah, spirituality can't be defined as a belief or philosophy, but only as a clear perception and sensation of reality.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: Great Kabbalists Throughout History !!! (05:40)
This video has Rav Michael Laitman overviewing the lineage of Kabbalists and the books they wrote, while differentiating the common understanding of what's written in these books with the Kabbalistic understanding.
He explains this by describing the different languages of each of the books. Ultimately, the language of Kabbalists is a language of branches. This means that they express forces, structures and inner processes occurring in the higher world and in one's inner attainment of it using names of items in this world.
It is because of this use of names in this world that the books of Kabbalah have been (mis)interpreted according to physical objects, events and people, and all kinds of systems have been devised out of this physical understanding of spiritual processes.
Kabbalah appears today with its explanation of inner definitions of its language, because today, different from all other eras, a need has arisen in many people to discover the source of life. Moreover, this need will evolve into more and more people, as we exhaust the pleasures and joys of this world more and more. Wait, the video doesn't go that far...
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: What Are Weapons of Mass Destruction For? !!! (03:35)
Perceiving Reality places this question within a general perspective (which is taught in Kabbalah's beginning stages - see this article for an example).
There are two paths humanity can take from here:
1. The path it has always treaded, called "the path of pain,"
2. The path of ascent into higher consciousness, called "the path of Light and transformation."
The Path of Pain isn't really a path. It is simply the existence we live in where we don't have clear perception and sensation of where we come from, where we are headed, what our purpose is, and how to act according to the reason why we were born into this world.
The Path of Light and Transformation is the path where we discover (i) our own nature, and (ii) the force which has created us and guides us into the understanding of what it is.
The Path of Light and Transformation is offered to us from the moment we are attracted to questions about our life's purpose: Who are we? Where are we from? Where are we headed? Why were we put here? Why is life so hard for so many people? Why do so many people feel so bad? etc.
So what does this have to do with weapons of mass destruction? While treading the Path of Pain, we are given circumstances that push us to ask the above questions. Since we are opposite in form to the force of development (we are egoistic, the force that guides us is altruistic), we feel these circumstances as pain.
"The path of pain is really the evolution of egoism over millenia" says Perceiving Reality host Anthony Kosinec. The more we've tried to receive pleasure in life, the more pain has been revealed to us; and as egoism intensifies, so does the forms of its pleasures ... and its pains. Do you start to get why there are these big weapons of mass destruction sitting there now? Do we have to wait until certain people are controlled in their desires to think that affecting these weapons of mass destruction in a certain area would be a better option than not to, or is there something we can do about it? See the video for more...
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: Why Can't We Just Get Along !!! (03:28)
When Mark in Toronto was picked among the thousands on the streets of the Toronto book fair to ask a question related to humanity's state, did he expect the answer that Perceiving Reality gave him above?
In an overview, here is how Perceiving Reality's answer looked:
Question: "Why can't we just get along in the world today? Is there room for everyone?"
Answer: "You're an egoist."
Well actually, that wasn't Perceiving Reality's answer at all (you'll have to watch the video for that). But this did get mentioned within the answer, and it is the main hurdle a person has to reach if he or she really wants to effect a difference - to realize that our very human nature is pure egoism, that our human nature is the cause of all personal, social and global problems, and only through changing human nature itself, learning how to use it oppositely to the way we use it today, is there a solution to every problem we face.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
ANIMATION: See 5,000 years of religion in 90 seconds !!!
Now internalize this map, and start to ride a totally new process that exists right now, in an opposite direction to the process you are currently in. What does it mean, to "internalize the map"?
At www.kabbalah.info it is explained that ancient Kabbalistic texts only speak in terms of layers of perception, desires, forces operating reality, and they don't say a single word about this world, the "physical" world.
At the time of the first Kabbalists, everyone was in the perception and sensation of the higher world. Over time, the egoism within people grew, and people lost their sensation of the higher world, of spirituality. Since then, all terms in Kabbalistic books have become interpreted in physical ways, as nations, people, wars among people, etc. when Kabbalists themselves only used these terms to describe forces and inner processes taking place in an individual's inner attainment of spirituality.
"Israel and the nations of the world" is commonly misinterpreted as meaning a physical nation of "Israel" with its agenda, and a physical manifestation of "nations" as meaning other countries that aren't Israel, with their agendas.
Kabbalists intended these words only in terms of desires: "the nations of the world" are the desires for goals aimed at directions other than the attainment of life's source, and "Israel" is the desire directly for the source of life (stemming from the Hebrew "Yashar-Kel" literally meaning "straight to God"). Only when one begins engaging in inner work can these definitions start taking on a whole new meaning, when one sees that the only thing that truly exists in reality is one's own perception, and starts working on one's perception in order to include reality's complete picture within it.
This inner work is available to all today, because more and more people will come to want that connection straight to life's source, after becoming dissatisfied with the multiplicity of other goals that stand before us in abundance today. The method is called "Kabbalah" and has been around long before any identification of an Israeli nation or a biologically Jewish people. Kabbalah belongs to anyone who feels a yearning for truth, for working to better oneself and better the state of the world. It belongs to one who is confused because he or she sees every other goal in the world as short-lived and simply not good enough to remain fulfilled in.
It belongs to one where the "point in the heart" has manifested; an inner point that wants to feel a new reality because this one isn't good enough anymore. That point, called "Israel" in the ancient Kabbalistic sources, needs a method to guide it directly to life's source, and to get past all the things designed to distract it from this goal.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: What Other States of Consciousness Have People Achieved? !!! (04:06)
"Each higher state is more inclusive, more creative, less material and more caring and intentional. The Kabbalists that have penetrated the highest state say that it is absolute love."
This is what Perceiving Reality host Anthony Kosinec has to say right at the end of answering this question. But the whole point to this answer isn't to simply take his word for it. The whole point is that, if you somehow feel that you want to enter into a higher state of consciousness, then there is a method called "Kabbalah" that states, in a scientific way:
Hypothesis: Kabbalists have attained all levels of perception and sensation in reality. They state that they exist and are attainable by anyone who feels a desire to attain something more than what is offered in this world. Through their guidance, we can attain the complete perception of reality too.
Kabbalah (Hebrew for "reception")
Aim: To attain the complete and total perception of reality - a clear perception and sensation of life's source.
Method: www.kabbalah.info
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: Kabbalah Books !!! (02:56)
Kabbalists state that there is no time in the higher world. They state that by attaining the perception and sensation of the higher world, we would feel a whole new reality, a whole new level of connection with the universe, with each other, and with the source of life. They state that the higher world is ultimately where we are headed, and where we came from, and everything that has happened in this world is only to lead us to the need to attain the higher world, out of our own free choice.
In order to guide us to the higher world, Kabbalists write books for us. These books describe the structure of the higher world to us in a concealed language. They don't cater to our intellect, because our intellect is incapable of understanding and unlocking the path into the higher world. Rather, Kabbalah books aid our journey beyond our intellect, to the field that generates our intellect, the state where our desires and perception are created.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: Can a Kabbalist also live as a Buddhist? !!! (03:50)
The ego is there. It's in us, doing something. The question of what to do with it has led to many different approaches.
In this video Rav Laitman makes a very general statement about the systems of the East approaches to the ego; that ultimately, all systems of the East are aimed at suppressing the ego.
Can all of the East's systems be summarized like this? Is it true? What does a person attain if he or she really works hard on the ego according to a system of suppressing it? If I can now diminish my ego, lessen it, so much ... then what's there for me at the end of that process?
"The smallest particles that any living creature can sense" is Rav Laitman's answer in this video. He makes the point that people with naturally smaller ego's can work according to these systems, because according to the size of their desires, they can be fulfilled by this work.
On the other hand, Rav Laitman states that a person with a larger ego needs a different system, one that is capable of increasing the ego in a direction that it will be filled with a complete perception of reailty, complete fulfillment. For this, he recommends the wisdom of Kabbalah as this system.
One who feels oneself as "cruel, tight-fisted, a careless spender, and lustful," in other words, one who feels that they can't work in diminishing their ego because it naturally demands a lot more, needs more to be fulfilled. Consequently, if such a person feels a need for a spiritual fulfillment, and is too restless to control themselves in lessening the ego, then the method of Kabbalah is a much more likely candidate.
Moreover, Rav Laitman states at the end of the video that the ego naturally evolves and grows, and that all systems of the ego's suppression will, at some point, no longer be able to fulfill a much larger ego that will emerge in people.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: Kabbalah, Science and the Perception of Reality (09:42)
An example was used in the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know!?" to present how we perceive reality: When Columbus' ship approached the American shores, the Indians standing on the shores couldn't see it. Only when one of them saw ripples in the water, and looked for what was causing those ripples, could he make out a big floating house. He described was he saw floating in the water to the others, and then they too saw it.
The point of the example is that they could only see the ship once they'd built up the perception of it inside them.
In the above video, Rav Michael Laitman takes this example one step further. He says that the ship doesn't even exist outside them; that outside them, there is only constant Upper Light, and that the Upper Light forms these pictures within them.
In other words, Rav Laitman makes the point that nothing exists outside the person; that everything in the world is only our perception. He uses this example to illustrate that Kabbalah is the method of changing our perception of reality in order to perceive what we don't yet perceive - the Upper Light, unobstructed by images that it forms within us.
This is the goal of Kabbalah studies - to equalize in form with the Upper Light and discover the true state of existence outside of our body. For more info: www.kabbalah.info
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: "Kabbalah Revealed" Episode 1 - A Basic Overview (25 min)
In the first episode of "Kabbalah Revealed" - a TV series made for the American TV network "Shalom Tv" - Anthony Kosinec aims to introduce a practical approach to Kabbalah, as taught by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD at the Bnei Baruch World Center for Kabbalah Studies.
This is a very good introductory lecture to authentic Kabbalah as studied at Bnei Baruch. I highly recommend this lecture as a very good place to start for anybody who is curious in the wisdom, to see if it's the path you've been looking for. All following lectures in this series are available for free from the www.kabbalah.info website, as well as every other media you would need to embark on this spiritual path.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIDEO: Kabbalah for the Masses (2 min)
In this new video, Kabbalist Rav Michael Laitman, PhD explains to award-winning author Bill Simon what "The Zohar" predicts for humanity as occurring from 1995 onward.
You can delve into this too. Think about why you're looking at a Kabbalah blog right now. Why did you choose a Kabbalah blog over anything else you could be looking at? Why was this choice made over the millions of other options you have before you?
Kabbalah states that you didn't have a choice at all. Your desire dictated to you that this would be the most pleasurable option out of the millions of others.
This desire - the desire for spirituality - is the desire that "The Zohar" stated would begin to develop throughout humanity from the year 1995. And once this desire evolves to its height, it will then be capable of being fulfilled with what it wants: spirituality, the perception and sensation of eternal existence.
Kabbalah is a method of speeding up the evolution of this desire. The Kabbalah method gives us means to rise above time, space, and motion, and feel a new reality through consciously evolving this desire at a rapid speed.
For more information about the Kabbalah method, visit www.kabbalah.info
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
If you want guidance from one of the world's leading spiritual teachers, and if you live in or around New York, then this is an event you shouldn't miss!
Whether you have an interest in Kabbalah directly, or are simply interested in issues of where's the world and humanity headed, who are we, where did we come from, what is our purpose in life, why are there escalating problems throughout the world, and how can we work to fix them...then this is an event you shouldn't miss!
For more information about this free public event, visit www.kabbalahevent.org
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
Kabbalist Rav Michael Laitman, PhD will be giving lessons to regular Kabbalah students of the Bnei Baruch World Center for Kabbalah Studies, as well as new students who are attending the first ever North American-based free online interactive Kabbalah course.
There will also be workshops for new students, a cultural evening of artists and students from around the world, a free public question-answer symposium with Rav Laitman, meals and much, much more!
For more information and registration information about the North American Kabbalah Convention, please visit: http://www.kabbalah.info/~newyork/convention/
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
TORONTO: Rav Michael Laitman, PhD will be giving a free lecture on Sunday, January 7, 7pm - 8:30pm. Click here for more information
NEW YORK: Rav Laitman will participate in an open public question-answer session, Saturday, January 13, 6pm. Click here for more information
Rav Laitman will also give lessons spanning the entire range of Kabbalah's fundamental concepts at the North American Kabbalah Convention 2007, January 12-14. Click here for more information and to register
MEXICO: Rav Laitman will participate in media events promoting his recent book release in Spanish Alcanzando Los Mundos Superiores (Attaining the Worlds Beyond), and give lectures to the public and in universities.
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
VIEW THE 5-MINUTE VIDEO HERE!!!
Baha Portris from Iraq had the above question to ask Perceiving Reality when Perceiving Reality director Andrew K. Martin approached him at the recent Word on the Street book festival in Toronto (or maybe I wasn't supposed to disclose the whereabouts of that black background at the beginning. D'oh!).
Now take the answer that Anthony Kosinec gave Baha, and now think that Israel and the Nations of the World aren't countries. What's that? Yes. They are not the countries, people, race, nationalities, and everything we've ever thought them to be.
Person reading this: "Huh?"
They're desires. They're inside us. Don't let everything you've ever known up until today fool you. This video and the whole Perceiving Reality project is an invitation to invert your whole perception of reality inside out. Click the above video for a taste of it, and click the below link for a feast of it...
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
The Kabbalah Center of Berg keeps getting advertised under the "Ads by Google" section on the right of the main page of this Kabbalah section, out of my control.
So this prompted me to make this disclaimer, to let you understand that the only connection between Berg's Kabbalah Center and the Kabbalah that is mentioned in this section is the word "Kabbalah"-other than that, nothing.
A lot of myths have developed about Kabbalah. The main one is that it's Jewish mysticism. Kabbalah is neither a religion nor mysticism nor anything to do with magic, miracles, Madonna, holy water, or anything we perceive with our five senses.
Kabbalah is an ancient method of self-transformation aimed at attaining the sensation of the Upper Worlds-the source of our existence. It's a method of changing our nature from its inborn egoistic program, to an altruistic program, in order to equalize in form with the way Nature operates on us.
Watch this 25-minute introductory lesson with Anthony Kosinec (a fellow student of Rav Michael Laitman) for a deeper clarification of what Kabbalah is and what Kabbalah isn't: http://www.kabbalah.info/engkab/kabbalah_revealed/kabbalah_revealed_1.htm
Also, view a short 4-min clip "What Kabbalah Isn't" from this lecture specifically focused on this topic here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXdwI2avix4
Posted by Mark Zimmerman
On September 9, 2006, 112 world representatives met as part of The Table of Free Voices global dialog in Bebelplatz square, Berlin.
Each participant, chosen for their ongoing social or creative contribution, answered 100 questions that were selected by the event’s organizers as humanity’s most important questions from hundreds of thousands of entries.
This event really served to sharpen the focus of asking questions aimed at improving ourselves and the world’s crucial state.
All attendees were there for one purpose: to raise the awareness that humanity is one, and we need to look beyond our differences and somehow come to feel this interconnection and love between us; that the solution to all our problems lays in raising our awareness to this level.
Why is this being mentioned in a Kabbalah blog? Despite the fact that Kabbalist Rav Michael Laitman attended the event, the love and interconnection between us (which was the subject of much discussion) is what is claimed by Kabbalists to be sensed as a result of attaining the highest level of spiritual attainment.
However, it’s not as simple as just saying a lot of nice words. Work is needed to achieve it; to overcome our nature, which is absolute egoism, and attain the perception of our interconnected, altruistic interrelationships, which are hidden from us in our current state.
Put simply, we have to change human nature into its opposite—from egoism to altruism—and then we will start feeling this love and interconnection we all seek. Kabbalah provides a method for engaging in this process of inner transformation.
In Rav Laitman’s words (from “The Table of Free Voices” event): “By rising from an egoistic level of relations to an altruistic level we will understand that the whole world is one system, and that we all belong to one body, and that this is how we must relate to one another. By doing that, we will truly become civilized, educated, good and modern people. But as long as we act as egoists toward each other, and as long as we only keep thinking of ourselves, we haven’t really yet emerged from our caves.”
- Dropping Knowledge: The Global Dialog Platform – all 11,200 answers from the event are archived here, as well as forums for further dialog open to the public.
- VIDEO: The Table of Free Voices – an 8-minute video by ARI Films on the event, as well as pictures from the video.
