Founder and president of Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute. Content is based on Dr. Laitman's talks, and written and edited by his students.
Book of Zohar Provides Method of Connection
The book of Zohar explains the reason for all our troubles and the need to return to a uniform form in all of humanity.
How? By connecting in groups according to the method that is provided in the Zohar and when we do we will reveal this positive force that will balance our negative force. If even a part of the people of Israel do it this positive force will spread through us to the rest of the world.
From my talk with Senator Nathalie Goulet of Normandy/Orne
#world #nature #Israel #StartUpNation #spirituality
Why Are We So Stressed as a Society When Modern Living Is Meant to Make Things Easier?
The cause of stress in our lives is egoism, the desire to enjoy at the expense of others, and our egoistic paradigm that encourages us to engage in individualistic-materialistic competition with one another.
It is true that we have a competitive nature and that competition exists in order to develop us, but the difference between competition that leads to increasing problems, such as stress, hatred, and pressure, and competition that develops us in a positive direction is the goal for which we compete.
We do not need competition based on egoistic goals, which encourage the expansion of increasing individualism and materialism. That is the kind of competition that brings about more stress, hatred, and pressure in our lives.
How, then, would we define the goal that brings about social progress?
It is where we want to develop and understand that a “war of minds” begets wisdom. Kabbalistic sources describe this as "the envy of authors begets wisdom." Instead of chasing after transient egoistic goals for more money, respect, and power, we would be wiser to learn how nature governs us and how we can enter into interaction with nature to attain the meaning of life. By doing so, we would engage solely in actions that are beneficial for everyone, and we would also bring about no harm to anyone. We would then reach a life where we all feel similar to the aristocrats of about a thousand years ago, where we need nothing from anyone, exploit no one, and all live comfortably.
Taken from New Life series - Demanding Work Culture -episode No. 1251
Full episode available here >>
https://t.co/8T2pQOYELN
Why Does Communication Break Down Between People, and How Can It Be Prevented or Fixed When It Happens?
Broadly speaking, communication is life’s essence. The world began with a certain particle of energy that generated two opposing particles, and from then on all evolution has taken place through connection, various forms of connection, and degrees of opposition and distance between the connected elements. However, all of that is communication.
In the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human levels, as the intensity of opposites increases, so does the strength of connection required for life to develop, and a new mode of connection gives rise to the next form of life.
One year after the next, we discover just how interconnected all parts of nature are, how high the level of integration is among all its elements. On Earth, for example, the oceans, atmosphere, heat in the planet, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, and winds comprise a single ecological system that strives for balance between opposites. Balance requires opposing forces, but ones that are connected. This balance expresses itself in the creation of more and more forms of connection, within increasingly complex systems.
The foundation of all communication is that a given element feels a need to fulfill itself and goes beyond its own boundaries to seek fulfillment. Every connection it forms is based on the calculation: “What’s in it for me?” This is true at the level of atoms and galaxies, as well as in human relationships. Romantic relationships, family ties, and business connections are all formed according to the same calculation: “Is it worthwhile for me?”
However, today we approach a state where this communication program no longer works at the level of human awareness and perception.
We are increasingly discovering that we have no control over what is happening. All forms of human connection we have built throughout history are on the verge of a collapse. These include commerce, industry, economy, finance, international relations, our relationship with the environment, as well as education, culture, and media, and even the basic unit of existence, the family.
It is not that people are not trying to communicate, but somehow it just no longer works. For example, couples decide to marry, and within a short period of time they discover that there is no hope. At work, in society, within countries, and globally, agreements do not hold, and alliances do not last. The ability to commit to others has become increasingly difficult, and this makes it difficult to plan for the future and places us in a dangerous situation.
At this juncture, evolution compels us to move forward and to seek a new system of connection that is fundamentally different in nature. What kind of system of connection can this be? Not a one-sided connection, as it has been until now, in the format of “let’s see how I can be fulfilled by you, and what I need to give in return,” but a communication that is fundamentally two-way and complementary.
What does that mean? I stop seeing the other as opposite to me. Instead, I take into account their desires and needs alongside my own, and examine how we can exist in a complementary connection.
Communication at this level requires incorporating the other within ourselves, to accept them as they are, without any interference from our ego, as if we ourselves do not exist. Another way to view this is that we step out of ourselves, move into living in the other, and act from within them, through their qualities. Yet another way to describe it is that we connect to such an extent that no difference remains between us.
This represents a progression to a different level of values. Each person no longer exists for themselves, but we exist for life itself, for the communication between us. We stop thinking about what we feel and want, and begin to think about the formation of a new level of life, as if we are partners who together give birth to a third entity.
The common entity we create is a new form of life, in which we feel the single force of nature, the same force that originally created two opposing forces. This is how we complete the full circle, and through complete communication between us, we consciously return to the starting point from which everything was created.
In this developmental process, the concepts of time, motion, and space disappear, as do the notions of “us” and “someone outside of us.” All distinctions of our current, earthly perception of reality fade away, and we advance to a world of information, emotion, mind and heart in a pure form, without physical matter. This is also called the world of thoughts and desires. It is the next evolutionary stage that humanity must reach, and today’s myriad technological developments are merely a preparation for that.
Therefore, we should not despair when we see a communication breakdown today. It points to the need for us to rise to an optimal, complementary form of communication. I wish us all success on this path.
#communication #relationships #sustainable #future
Based on “New Life 126 – The Essence of Communication, Part 1” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Full episode available here >>
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What Is the Significance of Shavuot?
Shavuot represents one of the most profound moments in spiritual development: the receiving of the method for revealing the Creator within human connection. In Kabbalah, this method is called the Torah, not in the sense of a historical or religious text, but as the force and instruction that enables a person to rise above egoism and attain the higher reality.
What makes Shavuot unique among all holidays is that it symbolizes the moment humanity received, through certain individuals, the possibility of consciously reaching the purpose of creation. This method is both called “the wisdom of Kabbalah” and “the Torah” because it teaches how to reveal the upper force in our world through corrected human connections.
While corporeal goals such as wealth, social status, and power are transient, the goal of the Creator’s revelation, the attainment of the higher force of nature through human connection, is the only goal that is eternal and perfect, and to which all humanity develops.
However, before the Torah could be given, humanity had to reach a very specific state: the revelation of hatred and separation. This is symbolized by Mount Sinai. The word “Sinai” comes from the word for “hatred” (“Sinah”). The people stood around the mountain only after discovering the enormous egoistic rejection that separated them from one another.
Why was this necessary? It was because, without feeling the depth of division between us, we would never feel the need for a method of connection. Only when we discover the inability to unite with others does the need for correction truly arise.
The mountain represents the enormous egoism standing between people. Climbing it means rising above hatred, rejection, and self-love. The Torah is the method by which such ascent becomes possible. Through regularly refining our aim to positively connect with one another above our differences and divisions, we attract a special force called “the upper light,” which gradually transforms our egoistic human nature into its altruistic opposite, bringing us closer together and connecting us into a single whole.
This is why the holiday is called “Shavuot,” which means “weeks.” It marks the completion of seven weeks, 49 days, counted from the exodus from Egypt until the reception of the Torah. Egypt symbolizes slavery to egoism, and the exodus represents the beginning of liberation from it. During these 49 stages, we work on correcting egoistic intentions step by step.
Each of the seven weeks corresponds to inner qualities that need to be purified and transformed. This process is internal, a gradual transition from self-centered desires to intentions of love, giving, and connection. By correcting these desires, we begin to discover the upper force, the higher reality, and the spiritual world.
Therefore, Shavuot is a living spiritual state that every person must eventually pass through. It reminds us that the revelation of the Creator becomes possible solely through unity above division, through the transformation of hatred into connection, and through the construction of relationships based on mutual responsibility and love.
Based on KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on June 11, 2024. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
#spiritualdevelopment #love #connection