Gaia: KABBALAH - The Growing Kabbalah

Re: authentic kabbalah

http://lightofhope.gaia.com — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:13:49 GMT

I have a question, first about the comment about fire and earth, if the Kabbalah is about that then where does the other elements, Water and Air (which on earth seem to be life giving and life destroying)? And one initiated must know their postion in the universe correct?

Re: authentic kabbalah

http://telesterion.gaia.com — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:22:48 GMT

>>>but to truly WORK with kabbalah YOU MUST first work with someone who has been iniated into kabbalah . >>>

The DRM of the ancients.

Well, that cuts pretty much everybody out of the game. We might as well all go home now.

Re: authentic kabbalah

http://atmanjohn.gaia.com — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:20:26 GMT

AHHHH KABBALAH

well to start ,

kabbalah is not about all this talk talk talk ...........too much mind !

nor is it all about books ! ....can very easly get to too much mind again !

its about the HEART ,

not all lovey dovey , but the DEEP heart , divine heart in life !

simply , its A BRIDGE FROM HUMAN TO DIVINE SELF.

i not interested in any other part they call kabbalah !

I WOULD CALL IT AN INTEGRIL BRIDGE ,

NOT transending like yoga (thats even distorted too now )

KABBALAH uses the divine power of the hebrew language .

the qualities of HEBREW are of FIRE AND EARTH

FIRE = TRANFORMATION

EARTH= here , life on earth , practical

i speek from pure experence , not books not therory .
i have been taught kabbalah in a mystery school by a true master.

have a look at my kabbalah pictures on my profile ,

they carry an energy of kabbalah ,

this is my first gift to you .

but to truly WORK with kabbalah YOU MUST first work with someone who has been iniated into kabbalah .

this is another reason why books alone will not do it !

authentic kabbalah

http://atmanjohn.gaia.com — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:48:24 GMT

to all who want to bypass the huge amount of " kabbalah babble" out there .
LETS START HERE

Creanativity

http://mythaca.gaia.com — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:08:23 GMT

CREANATIVITY

nativity wreath

The Birth of Lght in Us All

When I was seven, an Irish Catholic family with four children roughly my age and a grandma called Nana moved in next door. Michael, Mary Ellen, Margaret, and Suzanne all went to Holy Martyrs, the school at the back of the mysterious church I passed when I rode my bike to the store. I loved to ride by when the church doors were open and you could see the candlelight in the darkness and smell the incense, but the sure footsteps of the nuns frightened me.

Nana’s room, crowded with old-fashioned furniture, religious statues and lace, was fascinating too, as was her two-tone 1947 Buick named Darlin’, and the real player piano she provided for the rec room. But what I liked best about Nana’s things were the little figures she set out in a stable once a year to tell the Christmas story.

nativity

I remember how Margaret and I cut fresh straw for the manger, and Mary Ellen lit the candle hidden behind the nativity scene so that the light fell right on the baby. We weren’t allowed to touch the people and animals, but more than once we slipped into Nana’s room when she was out and played with them.

At an estate sale last summer, I found a similar nativity set. It came in a bag with some other little figures, people and animals from around the world, and I couldn’t resist it. When I set the little scene out later, the other small people and odd animals seemed to want to be part of the story, so I let them.

Most of this fall I’ve been transcribing Ganesh Baba’s manuscript, Crea Sadhana, a yoga manual. At the time I set up the nativity scene, I was typing a section on swabhava, the quality of unfettered consciousness and pure love that yogis aspire to. Swabhava is the essence of a thing, the quality that makes it itself, the pure awareness that radiates from newborns (and enlightened beings) but is lost as babies grow, filtered by experience, buried under layers of enculturation and belief.

On a windowsill near me as I typed was a picture of the Hindu god Krishna as a young child. Looking at Krishna, I suddenly got it: the child Krishna and the baby in the manger represented the same quality!

baby krishna wb39

A little research led to more connections. The same quality of radiant purity is associated with Tiferet, the central sphere on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, and with Avalokiteswara, the Buddhist god of compassion whose thousands of arms touch everyone. In the Pythagorean Tetraktys, it is represented by the central stone in the pyramid of ten, the only one that touches all the others without ever touching the outer edge of the triangle.

Avalokiteshwara

images

Spontaneously, I moved the candle to the front of the nativity set, so the light would shine on all the faces.

The nativity scene continued to unfold its symbolism to me: Mary and Joseph represent the prime polarities, yin and yang, positive and negative, which come together to create anything new. The child at the center, creativity manifest, is love.

More research revealed a traditional esoteric message in the nativity. In ancient times, the concept of Christ was symbolized by the Greek hieroglyph, the image of a flame (Rho, parallel to the Egyptian Ra, the Sun or fire god) rising from crossed sticks (Chi, paralleling the Chinese concept Qi, life energy).

images-1

The guests at the nativity are associated with the seven steps of the esoteric path to liberation, seven levels of consciousness, lower levels represented by the four animals and higher ones by the three kings. One by one, the levels of consciousness are purified by the fire of understanding, the rubbing together of the two sticks of opposing ideas until the fire springs up and burns away the evidence of the old polarity.

All the figures together reflect the same seven steps of manifestation and three of the unmanifest that form the hierarchies basic to most esoteric systems. As Joseph Campbell explains, no matter where the systems originate, they have the same basic structure because they arise from the same human body/mind complex carried by the same spinal column and nervous system.

The only thing that still bothered me about the interpretation was that the animals represent lower stages of enlightenment than the wise men. Surely we are moving into a time of more sophisticated understanding than that. Finally, I exchanged some of the wise men for wise women and arranged all the figures in a circle so the light would shine on all the faces with equal intensity.

May the long time sun shine,
All love surround you,
May the pure light within you,
Guide you all the way on.

(Traditional Sikh song sung by The Incredible String Band)

Wishing you love and light in these dark times,

Eve

Peace In The World by Michael Laitman

http://princesamwise.gaia.com — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 13:56:31 GMT

Read the beginning of this article here first

Good and evil are evaluated according to an individual's actions with regards to the society

Before we set about researching the correction of evil in the human race, we should first determine the value of such abstract notions as good and evil. In other words, while analyzing the actions or properties of good and evil, we should clarify with regards to whom they can be considered as such. To understand that one should know the relative value of the particular compared with the whole, i.e. an individual with respect to the society in which he lives and from which he receives both material and spiritual sustenance.

Reality clearly demonstrates that an individual has no right to exist if he isolates himself from the society, which would serve him and satisfy his needs. From this it follows that man is initially created to live within a society. Every individual is like a tiny wheel inside one mechanism. No individual wheel has any freedom of movement. It is involved in the general motion of all the wheels in a certain direction so that the entire mechanism would be able to complete the given task. If one of the wheels breaks down, it is not considered as breakage of one particular wheel. It is estimated from the view point of its role in the entire mechanism.

Similarly, every individual's value in the society is determined not by how good he is by himself, but by the extent of his contribution to the society as a whole. And vice versa, we do not evaluate each individual's degree of evil. We rather estimate the damage he causes to his society.

It is clear as noonday both from the standpoint of truth and goodness, because the whole contains only what is present in the particular and the benefit of the society is the benefit of each individual. One who causes harm to the society harms himself. He who is of benefit to the society receives his share, since the particular is always a part of the whole. The value of the whole is a sum total of its parts.

It turns out that the society and an individual are one and the same. There is nothing negative in the fact that an individual is subordinate to the society, because both an individual's and the society's freedom constitute the same. Good or bad properties and actions are only estimated according to their usefulness to the society.

Needless to say, the above-said only refers to the individuals who do their duty in the society, receive as much as they need and do not encroach on their comrades' share. However, if certain members of the society behave differently, they cause harm both to the society and to themselves.

All the aforesaid is but highlighting the weak point that requires correction. This way everyone can understand that his personal benefit and the benefit of the society are the same thing and in this manner the world will achieve its complete correction.

Four categories: mercy, truth, justice and peace with regards to an individual and the society

Now that we have discovered the true meaning of goodness, we should take a close look at the means at our disposal for faster achievement of happiness.

There are four categories at our command for attaining this end: mercy, truth, justice and peace. All those who have tried to correct the world used these categories. Rather, humanity has developed until today within these four categories - the Divine Providence has brought people to their present state.

As was stated above, the best thing we can possibly do is take the law of development under our control. We will then free ourselves from the sufferings which history prepares for our future.

In accordance with this let's research and analyze these four categories in order to understand what they have given us up to now, and consequently find out what help we can receive from them in the future.

Practical difficulties in establishing the "truth"

When we "theoretically" examine positive properties, we naturally have no better one than "truth". The goodness we defined above taking into consideration the interdependence between the individual and the society, when he gives and properly functions within it receiving his fair share, is nothing but "truth". It is always in demand, because in practice this quality is not accepted by the society. In practice this lack of truth is predetermined by it. There is some flaw or factor, which prevents the society from accepting it, and we should find out what it is. If we profoundly research the practical significance of truth, we would undoubtedly discover that it is obscure and extremely difficult to see.

truth obliges us to equalize all individuals in the society, so that everyone would receive his part in accordance with his effort, no more and no less. This is the only real basis that raises no doubts. Obviously, the actions of the person who wants to benefit from someone else's efforts contradict both common sense and the category of truth.

But how can we imagine and comprehend this category for it to be accepted by the society? For example, if we oblige everybody to work equal number of hours, the category of truth will still remain concealed from us. Moreover, we will discover undisguised falsehood with regards to the worker's physical and moral state.

Quite naturally, all of us cannot work equally. There will always be someone, who due to his weakness makes a bigger effort in one hour than his comrade in two hours or even more.

There also exists a psychological problem, because the lazy person exerts a lot more energy in an hour than someone else who works for two hours. From the viewpoint of absolute truth we cannot oblige one part of the society to work for provision of the life necessities more than the other.

In practice it turns out that the strong and enterprising members of society benefit from the efforts of other people and thus malevolently exploit them, which certainly contradicts the category of truth. Compared with the weak and lazy members of society they themselves make very little effort.

If we take into account the natural law of "following the majority", we will see that the kind of truth based on the actual number of working hours is utterly unrealistic and impossible to implement. The weak and lazy will always represent the bigger part of society and they will never allow the strong and industrious minority to enjoy the fruit of their work.

So it is clear that the principle based on the individual's efforts is totally impracticable. It turns out that the category of truth cannot be the key factor determining the development of an individual and society. It lacks something that can provide the life conditions in the completely corrected world.

Moreover, we find even bigger difficulties seeing that there is no clearer truth than in nature. Every person most naturally feels that he is the only ruler in the Creator's world. He is quite sure that everything and everybody was created with the sole purpose of making his life easier and more comfortable. At that he does not feel any obligation to give something in return.

Bluntly speaking, everyone's nature is to use the life of all creatures in the world for his own benefit. Everything that the person gives to his neighbor is only done forcedly, under compulsion. But even then he takes advantage of his fellow creature. He simply resorts to cunning so that another person would let him have what he wants.

This means that the nature of every branch is closely related to its root. Since man's soul emanates from the One and Only Creator, the person feels that all the creatures in the world are created to serve him and should submit to his rule. This law is indisputable and inviolable.

People only differ by the choices they make. One chooses to use creation for receiving the basest pleasures, another craves for power and the third one seeks honor and respect. Furthermore, unless it cost so much, everyone would agree to use the world to get all of it together: wealth, power and recognition. However, the person is forced to make his choice according to his abilities.

This law may be called the "law of uniqueness"; it is imprinted on man's heart. No one can possibly escape from its influence; everyone receives his part, the great one according to his greatness, the small one according to his smallness. This law is neither good nor bad; it represents nature's reality and has a right to exist as any other part of creation. There is not a faintest hope to repeal or even slightly mitigate it as there is no chance to destroy the entire human race. In accordance with this, we will not act against our conscience by saying that this law represents "absolute truth".

How on earth can we convince an individual by promising him absolute equality among all the members of society, when all he naturally aspires to is to rise above society? After all that has been said, there is no doubt that nothing in man's nature can be more opposite to this.

Now we understand that it is utterly unrealistic to make an individual or society happy in accordance with the category of truth so that everyone would completely agree to it, as it should be in the state of Final correction.

The use of other categories instead of the category of truth

Now let's study three remaining categories: mercy, justice and peace. At first glance, they were not created initially to support truth, which is very weak and fragile in our world. From this point history began its slow, step-by-step movement towards organizing the life of society.

Theoretically all the members of society unconditionally accepted the rule of truth, but in practice they opposed it in violation of the agreement. truth has been destined to be used by the most deceitful people ever since. It is not to be found among the weak and righteous, so that they would use it even to a small extent.

Inasmuch as they could not conduct themselves in accordance with the category of truth, the number of the weak and exploited grew. This led to development of such categories as mercy and justice, because the foundation of society's existence obliges the strong and lucky to help the weak and miserable so as not to harm the society as a whole.

Yet the nature of things is such that in these conditions the number of the weak and miserable grows so immensely that they begin to threaten the strong, which consequently leads to discord and clashes. This served as a reason for the appearance of the category of peace in the world. So all of these categories: mercy, justice and peace originated and developed due to the weakness of truth.

This led to separation of society into groups. Some of them adopted the category of mercy and compassion, i.e. donating part of their own property to less fortunate ones; others adopted the category of truth, i.e. accepted the principle "mine is mine", "yours is yours".

Bluntly speaking, these two groups may be categorized as "builders" and "destroyers". Builders are those who care about society's well-being and for this they are ready to share their property with others. The ones who are naturally inclined to destruction find the category of truth (i.e. the principle "mine is mine", "yours is yours") much more convenient. Being totally unprepared to sacrifice anything for others' sake, such people prefer to protect their property even if it threatens society's existence.

Hope for peace

When external conditions brought these two groups to opposition and put them on the verge of ruin, the "builders of peace" emerged in society. These people rejected the power of aggression and offered new and just (from their point of view) principles of co-existence within a society.

However, as a rule these "builders of peace" originate from the ranks of "destroyers", adherents of truth and of the principle "mine is mine and yours is yours". This is because being strong and enterprising they will sacrifice their own lives and the life of society if the society does not agree with their opinion.

At the same time the compassionate and merciful "builders", who believe that their life and the life of society is above all, are not ready to jeopardize themselves and their society to force the society to agree with their opinion. They are the weak part of society usually referred to as cowardly and poor-hearted. It stands to reason that the brave who are ready to take risks always win, hence it is only natural that the "builders of peace" originated from the midst of the "destroyers".

From the aforesaid it is clear that the hope for peace to which our generation so impatiently aspires, is worthless pertaining to both the "subject" and the "object".

The "builders of peace" in every generation are subjects, i.e. the people who are supposed to establish peace in the entire world. Since they are made of the human material called "destroyers" and adhere to truth, i.e. live by the principle "mine is mine and yours is yours".

Naturally, these people defend their opinion with such fervor that they are ready to jeopardize their own life and that of society. This gives them enough strength to always prevail over the "builders", adherents of mercy and compassion, who in their cowardice are ready to share their possessions with others for the sake of preserving peace.

It turns out that demands for peace and destruction of the world are the same, while the need for mercy and building of peace are also identical. This is why it is impossible to hope that the destroyers will establish peace.

Hope for peace is utterly unfounded with regards to the "object" (i.e. the conditions for the existence of peace), because the conditions for the happy life of an individual have not yet been created in accordance with the category of truth. There is and will always be a not so numerous but important part of society, which is dissatisfied with the current conditions. They always make up a ready material for new builders of peace, whose generations will endlessly supersede one another.

Peace for a particular society and peace for the entire world

You should not be surprised by the fact that I mix up the notions of peace in a particular society and peace in the entire world, since actually we have already reached the level, when the whole world can be considered as one people, one society. In other words, inasmuch as every person is sustained by the entire humankind, he is compelled to serve it and care for well-being of the entire world.

We have already proved the individual's dependence on the society by comparing him with a tiny wheel in a huge machine. Thus it turns out that social and individual welfare are the same thing. Yet the opposite is also true. To the extent of the person's concerns about his own well-being, he certainly cares for the society's welfare.

What is the scope of this society? It is determined by the space in which an individual receives what he needs. For example, in ancient history this space was limited to one family circle. In other words, the person needed no other help but that which was provided by his family members. Consequently, he did not have to be dependent on anyone else but his own family.

At a later period, when families joined together to settle in small villages and towns, the person became dependent on his township. Later on, when settlements and towns merged into countries, he began to depend on the citizens of his country.

In our generation too every individual's welfare is provided by practically all countries of the world. Resembling a small wheel in an enormous mechanism, the person depends on the entire world.

In accordance with it, the possibility to peacefully establish a good and happy order in one particular country is unimaginable. There is no way to do this before it is achieved in every country of the world, and vice versa. Since today countries are already connected through providing one another with life necessities, it is pointless to speak about just ways of establishing peace within one country or nation. These ways should be sought for the entire world.

Although it is known and adequately felt, all the same humanity does not fully realize it. Why is it so? It is because according to the process of development in nature an action always precedes a realization of the phenomenon. Only reality will prove everything and push humankind forward.

In reality the four categories contradict one another

The four mentioned categories: mercy and truth, justice and peace inherent in each of us and concealed from other people split up in man's nature either as a result of development or education and contradict each other. So if we take, for example, the category of mercy in its abstract form, we will discover that its power suppresses all the other categories. That is according to the laws of mercy the other categories have no place in our world.

Mercy constitutes the condition "mine is yours and yours is yours". Provided the entire humanity behaved in accordance with this category, all the magnificence and value of truth and peace would vanish. If everyone were ready to give everything he has to his fellow creature without receiving anything in return, the factor which forces the person to lie to his comrade would disappear.

Since truth and falsehood are interdependent, in principle we would be unable to say anything about the category of truth. Unless there was "falsehood" in the world, there would be no such notion as "truth", not to mention that the other categories that only emerged to support truth would disappear as well.

Truth the principle of which is defined as "mine is mine and yours is yours" contradicts the category of mercy and cannot tolerate it, since from the viewpoint of truth the principle "to work and help your neighbor" is wrong, because it corrupts the person, teaching him to exploit others. Besides, truth maintains that everyone should be saving means for a rainy day not to become a burden for someone when times get rough.

Furthermore, there is no one who has no relatives or heirs of his property, who according to the principle of truth have a priority right before all the others. So it naturally turns out that the person who dispenses his property among other people poses as a liar with regards to his relations and heirs if he leaves them nothing.

Peace and justice contradict one another too, because for peace to be established in society a certain number of conditions should be met. They would allow the clever and industrious people to grow rich, while the lazy and unpractical ones would remain poor. Thus the hard-working person would receive his own share and that of the lazy one. He would be enjoying good life, until the lazy one turns into a beggar.

Of course it is not fair to punish the idle and unpractical people so severely, for they did not steal anything from anyone. What crime did these miserable people commit, if the Divine Providence had not endowed them with agility and intelligence? Should they be punished and subjected to suffering that is worse than death? So if justice is a condition for establishing peace, then peace is contrary justice.

Justice also contradicts peace, because if the order of division of property corresponds with the principle of justice (i.e. to give considerable valuables to idle and unpractical people). Needless to say that the strong and industrious ones will not rest until they abolish this practice that subdues the strong and allows the weak to exploit them. Hence there is no hope for peace in the society, because justice is opposed to peace.

Property of uniqueness in egoism leads to destruction and extermination

We can clearly see how our properties clash and fight with one another not only among groups of people, but also within one person. The four categories rule over the person simultaneously and alternately and wage such a war that common sense cannot establish order and harmony between them.

To tell the truth, the source of all our confusions is none but the property of "uniqueness" present in each of us.

Although we know that this magnificent and exalted property was given to us by the Creator (the source of all creation), when this feeling of uniqueness joins with our narrow egoism, it becomes destructive. It is the source of all misfortunes in the world, both past and future. It is said that there is no one in the world who is free from this property. All the differences between people are only determined by the way it is used: for gaining power, esteem, etc.

However, there is something in common among all the creatures: each of us aspires to use all the others for his own benefit using every available means and disregarding the fact that he builds his own happiness by destroying what his fellow creatures have.

It is irrelevant how everyone justifies his actions, because "our desires control our thoughts" and not vice versa. Moreover, the bigger and more important the person is, the more he feels his uniqueness.

The use of uniqueness as a means of development of an individual and society

Now let's try to understand what are the conditions that will be accepted by the entire humanity when peace prevails in the world, what is the positive power of these conditions that will provide a happy life to an individual and to society. Besides, we will try to find out what this readiness of the humankind to meet all the special conditions really is.

But first let's return to the feeling of uniqueness in every person's heart, which awakens the desire to take advantage of everything and everybody for his own sake. The root of this sensation stems from the Creator's uniqueness and extends to His branch - people. Here a question arises that demands an answer: why is this feeling revealed in us in such an ugly form that it becomes a basis of all the damage and destruction in the world? It is impossible to leave this question unanswered.

The fact is that uniqueness has two sides to it. If we look at it from the Creator's standpoint, i.e. from the point of achieving similarity to His uniqueness, it only compels to "give", because such is the Creator's property. There is no property of reception in Him, since he lacks nothing and does not need to receive anything from His creatures. Therefore, uniqueness (continuation of the Creator's property in us) is destined to be realized in us in the form of "bestowal", altruism and not egoistical reception.

On the other hand, from the point of view of practical action of this property in us, we find that it behaves in a completely opposite way. It manifests as egoistical reception, i.e. as a desire to be the richest, most powerful and unique person in the world. Thus these two sides are as opposite and remote from one another as East from West.

This provides us with an answer to the above question - how does the uniqueness emanating from the Creator, the Source of life on the Earth manifest in us as a source of destruction? This happens, because we use this precious means with a wrong, opposite intention - receive for our own sake.

Uniqueness will never act in us as bestowal and altruism. We cannot deny that there are people among us, in whom uniqueness acts in the form of bestowal. They share their property and achievements with the society.

However, these are two sides of one medal. They only speak of two aspects of the creation's development leading all to perfection. Starting from the stage preceding the conception, the creation gradually ascends the levels of development, one after another, until it reaches its highest predestination - the initially preordained eternal perfection.

The order of development of these two aspects, points is as follows: the first point constitutes the beginning of evolution, the lowest level that is very close to non-existence. It corresponds to the second side of the property of uniqueness. The second point is a predetermined level, which the creation will reach and where it will rest and remain eternally. It corresponds to the first side of the property of uniqueness.

However, the period in which we now live is so advanced that it ascended above many levels. It rose above the lowest level (the second side of uniqueness) and distinctly approached the first side. Hence there are people among us who use their uniqueness in the form of bestowal. There are few of them so far, because we are still in the middle of our development.

When we reach the highest point of the "ladder", all of us will only use our uniqueness in the form of bestowal, and no one will ever think to use it for the sake of egoistical reception.

In accordance with the above-said, we found an opportunity to take a look at the life conditions of the last generation, when peace prevails in the entire world and the humankind reaches the highest point of the first side. It will then use its uniqueness in the form of bestowal.

We must copy this form of existence to such an extent that it will serve us a standard and penetrate our consciousness amid the turmoil of our life.

Life conditions of the last generation

...First of all, everyone should properly understand and explain it to his immediate circle of acquaintances that there exists an absolute interdependency between peace in the society (which means peace in the state) and peace on the planet. As long as social laws do not satisfy all and as long as there is a minority which is unhappy with the way the state is ruled, it will try to defy the state rule and demand a change of government.

In case this minority is insufficiently strong to openly struggle with the regime, there is an alternative, roundabout way to throw it off. For example, two states can be provoked and led to war, because quite naturally there will be many more dissatisfied people during the war. The dissident minority will then have an opportunity to become a decisive majority, overthrow the government and organize a new one that would better serve its own needs. So peace for an individual turns out to be a factor that directly affects peace in the state.

Furthermore, if we take into account the ever-present part of the society, for which war is a trade and a hope for a career advancement, i.e. professional military and armaments experts with a lot of clout and add to it another minority dissatisfied with existing laws, we will come up with an ever-ready overwhelming majority, which aspires to wars and bloodshed.

Since peace in the world and peace in a particular state are interdependent, even those citizens (intelligent and enterprising ones) who are currently content with the status quo are seriously concerned about their own security due to the tension maintained by the destructive elements of the society. So if they could understand the value of peace, they would certainly be happy to adopt the mode of life of the last generation.

Suffering vs. pleasure while receiving for oneself

If we take a close look at the above concept, we will see that all the difficulty consists in transforming our nature from the will to receive for ourselves into the will to bestow, since one contradicts the other.

On the face of it the concept seems utterly incredible. However, if we properly look into it, we will understand that the contradiction between egoistical reception and bestowal is nothing but a psychological factor, because in practice all of our actions are bestowal without receiving any benefits for ourselves.

Although we perceive egoistical reception in different forms, such as possession of property and everything that delights the eye, heart and stomach, it is defined by one word - "pleasure". So the essence of egoistical reception is nothing but the will to receive pleasure.

And now imagine the following: if the person could see all the combined pleasures he receives during his 70 years and all the bitter sufferings and hardships that befall him, he would most probably prefer not to be born at all.

This being so, what does man gain in our world, if he only enjoys twenty per cent of pleasure compared with eighty per cent of suffering? If we compare one with the other, the result will be sixty per cent of anguish without any compensation.

However, all the above said is a personal calculation we make while working for our own benefit. On a global scale the person gives much more than he receives for his existence and pleasure. Provided our intention changes from reception to bestowal, we will be able to receive delight in full measure without endless suffering.

Re: SFT: Tell Me What You Think!

Sat, 14 Apr 2007 10:25:37 GMT

Although this is yet another diversion from Kabbalah (though, not a complete diversion if we are on the same track) I think some of you will find this article to be of interest. ~Cheers.

Investigating Teens, Pop Culture, and Spirituality
by Steve Rabey

In an age of Matrix movies and Harry Potter books, it doesn't take a sociologist to prove that spiritual themes and images appear frequently in popular movies, TV shows, and music.

So how do teens deal with the spirituality in pop culture? Lynn Schofield Clark, a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder decided to find out. Clark, the director of CU's Teens and the New Media@Home project, spent six years conducting 250 interviews with teens and their families.

Clark's results are found in her recent book, From Angels to Aliens: Teenagers, the Media, and the Supernatural (Oxford, $29.95). One of her main conclusions is that different teens have different ways of playing with, incorporating, or dismissing what they see in the media. As for youth workers and parents, about the best thing they can do is talk to their teens and find out what pop culture means to them.

"I was giving a presentation at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Denver recently, and one of the women there asked me why her son liked punk rock full of lyrics about hating women,"says Clark.

"Hating women is bad, but my thought was that if you don't get hung up about the lyrics, you can talk to your son about his broader interest in punk rock music itself. Punk rock has long been associated with rejection of mainstream values and middle-class hypocrisy. If you try to get to that level, you can talk to your young person about things you both hate. Maybe you both hate middle-class culture or consumerism, the superficiality of materialism, or the never-ending quest to acquire more things."

Clark is a smart lady, but she's no egghead. She calls herself a "progressive mainline Christian"and is a member of Denver's Faith Lutheran Church. Her academic research is balanced by hard work in the trenches with kids. She has worked with young people in various churches and juvenile detention centers, and she currently devotes much of her attention to her own two children, ages two and four.

Her experience has helped her see teens as individuals instead of abstract monoliths. And when it comes to how teens interact with popular culture overflowing with references to "the realm beyond,"she organizes them into five distinct groups:

1. Resisters have no interest in organized religion, but they readily identify with the anti-establishment themes in supernatural dramas like X-Files.

2. Mystics are impacted by shows like Touched by an Angel but are unconcerned toward the organized church.

3. Experimenters are very interested in spirituality and are the most likely to go from seeing a TV show like Charmed to toying with Wicca.

4. Traditionalists, the category that includes most evangelical Christian teens as well as conservative Mormons and Muslims, are primarily concerned with personal morality and how the consumption of pop culture will help or hurt them.

5. The Intrigued are committed to their faiths but seek to balance their received traditions with the new information they get from the mass media.

Since teens vary so widely in their spiritual commitments and their responses to pop culture, Clark believes that engaging them in dialogue about pop culture is a good way to see if they're open to explore deeper spiritual concerns.

"It's often easier to talk to kids about pop culture than it is to discuss what they think or believe concerning religion,"she says. "Talking about what they like or don't like within pop culture is good because pop culture is really a vocabulary that is useful for young people in thinking about the many other things they grapple with."

Clark has a fair amount of contact with youth workers, and she's glad they no longer routinely dismiss pop culture.

"There's been a positive change in religious leadership over the last 10 years,"says Clark, a former TV producer. "I've been doing workshops on media for a long time, and it used to be that everyone talked about how violent the mass media is."

"That's often the case, but young people experience pop culture as their language, so when kids hear religious leaders reject pop culture they feel they are rejecting them. And that closes down dialogue rather than opens it."

"Today, when I meet with youth leaders, it seems they are very receptive to pop culture and realize it is the language of young people. You don't have to sell them on that idea anymore. Youth leaders know they need to use whatever resources are available to make connections to young people."

But not all youth workers find the proper balance between kids' obvious and powerful interest in pop culture and their less obvious but equally important need for spiritual formation. Clark has two suggestions for balancing things out.

"For one thing, we live in such a media-saturated society that I think it's important to create opportunities to take young people out of their context at a high school setting and away from the buzz of the media and take them to a place where they can seek transformation and talk about the things that are important to them. Doing something that doesn't have anything to do with the media or pop culture can help them get in touch with themselves and their spiritual traditions in ways that are different."

"I also think it's important for youth leaders to receive spiritual mentoring themselves so they are involved with other youth leaders and pastors. This way they are constantly held accountable for how they are mentoring their young people, which will help them move beyond just getting together and having fun all the time."

Clark also has some interesting theories about what she calls "the dark side of evangelicalism."Here's the sound-bite summary: evangelicals' fascination with end times novels like the Left Behind series and spooky attractions like Halloween Hell Houses have fueled a widespread interest in spirituality that leads to fascination with shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer as often as it does to the kinds of frightened repentance Christians often hope to induce.

If you want to know more than that, you'll have to read Clark's book. But don't even think about doing so if your efforts to stay on top of pop culture already have you feeling inadequate and depressed.

"It's easy to feel overwhelmed,"she says. "Youth culture is nothing if not changeable. And as soon as adults recognize something is cool it's already passé."

"But the goal of being a youth minister is not trying to be cool by knowing everything, but trying to be open to learning about it and modeling how you adopt a lens of faith through which you see popular culture and everything else in your life. Your job isn't to know everything, but to help young people interpret what they see within the framework of their faith, so that they can make connections between their own experiences and their faith tradition."

SFT: Tell Me What You Think!

Sat, 14 Apr 2007 10:23:22 GMT

Spirituality in youth culture has always interested me -but never more so today. There is a growing concern within me that the spiritual side of humanity is being ignored at best by todays youth. When I stumbled upon the following to articles, I am given hope through example; and am shown that it is possible to turn things around. Tell me what you think.

Spirituality For Kids Foundation: http://www.spiritualityforkids.org/about.htm

Each child deserves to develop into a strong, clear, happy human being, who is in control of their destiny, on the path to achieving their full potential, living a bright extraordinary life defined by tolerance and human dignity.

This is the purpose of the Spirituality for Kids Foundation (SFKF).

The Spirituality For Kids Foundation is the umbrella organization that provides the funding, research, development, support, implementation, and management for all of the spirituality for kids programs, services and products which include: The Spirituality for Kids Program, Spirituality for Kids Outreach, Spiritual Parenting, Spirituality for Teens, Kabbalah Children’s Academy, Spirituality for Kids training, Summer Camp, Spirituality for Kids Publishing, Personal Consultation, Hotline, Website, and physical locations.

SFK programs products and services provide understanding of the laws of the universe. Children are taught practical tools to help them experience life as a great adventure full of opportunities and challenges not problems. Based on the wisdom of Kabbalah, SFK programs use art and artistic expression as a medium for greater learning. These teachings predate any religion, race or national identity. They espouse peace and fulfillment as the birthright of all humanity.

The Spirituality for Kids program is a weekly and weekend after school program geared to children from 6 – 12 years of age. SFK teaches children how the spiritual laws of the universe, such as the law of cause and effect, the duality of our human nature, and the structure of the universe affect their lives. The key universal law that is the cornerstone of the program is that fulfillment comes from sharing. (Currently being offered).

Three key spiritual concepts that the children learn in the Spirituality For Kids program.

1. Cause and effect—the non-physical law in the universe that sets the tone for every aspect of our lives.

2. The two forces within us. There are two forces that exist within us simultaneously. the positive light that has no limits, that shares with others who believe in the good, and the opponent within us, the limited, destructive, uncaring, selfish part of us that we came to overcome. By knowing about the existence of the two voices in each of us, by differentiating between the two and by using their light to overcome the dark, children develop self-esteem and understanding of their own brand of light, and empowerment that they can control their destiny.

3. The structure of the universe. SFK provides an understanding of the universal spiritual rules that we can live by. By learning and understanding the system children develop a hope and enthusiasm for life and for the future. -- The key is to the whole system is to share.

Spirituality For Kids Outreach is a program for at risk children and their families, who are living in high crime, poverty-stricken communities. They are at risk for all the things that rob children of their chances to lead productive lives.

This course is given free of charge to the students. They receive round trip transportation to the SFK outreach site, and are given a nutritious hot meal. Children and their families develop practical skills they need to set their lives “right” to discover their own gifts and inner value and to recognize the value of others. They learn the importance of tolerance and human dignity. Imbued with the appreciation of life, they discover that hard work leads to lasting fulfillment.

Spiritual Parenting – available for parents to understand, use and reinforce the tools in their own lives and with their children. (Currently being offered at the Kabbalah Centre)

SFK Publishing arm – Books, audio and videos that teach and support the wisdom provided in the courses. Also produces teaching and support materials for the instructors. (Currently producing books including Power of Kabbalah Teens, training materials, tapes and CD ’s)

Kabbalah Children’s Academy – full day school that includes a superior general studies curriculum integrated with the SFK program. (Two existing locations New York, Los Angeles)

Physical locations – Maintenance and purchase of buildings that house all the KCA and SFK programs.

Training – continuing education and training for instructors, volunteers and support staff.

Summer camp – An adventure-filled nurturing experience utilizing and living the tools of SFK.

The Spirituality For Kids program began 10 years ago in Toronto, since then these tools have been offered to children all over the world, including the Kabbalah Children's Academies of New York and Los Angeles, which were founded on the principles of Spirituality for Kids. The results were so profound in the children who were raised with these principles, that in October of 2002 the Spirituality For Kids Foundation was formed.

--

Spirituality for Teens (SFT) had an amazing breakthrough last month when the NYC Department of Probation, Family Court announced that it will be offering a mandatory class for boys, ages 16-18, who have committed a first-time offense. All boys who successfully complete the SFT program will have their cases dropped. Currently, there are 35 boys being taught at this location.

SFT’s uniqueness lies in its ability to translate universally-accepted spiritual principles into concrete, practical tools that at-risk and vulnerable teens can apply to their lives… and see immediate results. The key spiritual principles, such as ‘cause and effect’, provide the groundwork for taking responsibility for one’s life and the greater good of the community.

At the beginning of a recent probation class, several boys shared with the teacher that they felt it was authority figures (police, parents) who were preventing them from being happy. By the end of the class, the same students were already accepting personal responsibility, admitting it was the choices they made that led them to be on probation – not anyone else.

It was an amazing example of how learning the profoundly simple spiritual laws of life can redirect a person’s path in life in a short amount of time.

Re: Kabbalah Solutions For Global Harmony

Sat, 14 Apr 2007 09:59:59 GMT

I have not yet had the pleasure to read this book in its entirety, but what I have read has been profound in many lights.

Those interested in the many ways in which Kabbalah can help raise one from human egoism might also enjoy todays reading in the Zohar Lounge Room: Zohar Reading 3: Portion of Shelach Lecha

For Our Friends In India

http://princesamwise.gaia.com — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 23:08:12 GMT

Kabbalah Newspaper Hits India

from Kabbalah For Women by Josia

We've got the world's best delegation on a mission in India at the moment right before the most important holiday of the year (Passover) - a couple of our top guys are there handing out the Hebrew version of the free Kabbalah newspaper in the major cities.

Time for all those Israelis who have headed out to the Far East searching for answers to gather up their stuff and head back home. This is an actual picture from the special mission in India. More to come when the guys get back home and tell us about it.

Laws of Nature (multi-language lessons)

http://princesamwise.gaia.com — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 19:52:45 GMT

Friendly announcement: If there are any hearing-impaired members here, please kindly let us know so that we can try to make a 'transcript' of the videos and audios that are posted in this pod. Any volunteer transcribers can just jump right in and transcribe any requested video/audio for others to read. Thank you for your support. Love and blessings, Samme

Sep 3, 2006 4:50 AM

Learning To Control Nature

from Kabbalah For Women by noemail@noemail.org (Josia)

Michael Laitman gave a really cool lesson this morning about controlling nature. He explained how we can only control things by understanding the laws of nature. Once we have a grasp of how those upper laws work, we can rise up to a higher level of existence where we will experience everything as good.

Kabbalah Solutions For Global Harmony

http://princesamwise.gaia.com — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 19:37:54 GMT

Nov 14, 2006 11:42 PM

From Chaos To Harmony: the Solution to the Global Crisis according to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

from Kabbalah For Women by Josia

Rav Laitman's latest book reveals how we can experience lasting fulfillment and happiness by learning Nature's law of love and harmony:

According to Rav Michael Laitman, PhD, the chaotic state our world is in stems from one reason only: human egoism. Changing our attitude toward others will restore balance and harmony in all of nature and make our lives safer and much happier. His latest book, From Chaos to Harmony: the Solution to the Global Crisis according to the Wisdom of Kabbalah (link to free eBook), outlines a clear path for achieving joy and harmony in this lifetime. It takes us from not knowing why we are unhappy, to thoroughly understanding the root of our unhappiness and what is required of us to restore happiness for ourselves and our children.

By clarifying the root of the present global crisis, and introducing the means to correct it, Dr. Laitman imparts the reader with a simple means of correction: our thoughts. According to Laitman, "When we build a correct attitude toward society, we are gradually admitted into a whole new level of existence, superior to anything we've known before." This is a higher form of existence where we experience a genuine sensation of Nature's wholeness and perfection.

The picture that is gradually presented to the reader is founded on principles from the ancient wisdom of Kabbalah, along with contemporary science's latest discoveries. From Chaos to Harmony introduces an innovative way to resolve today's crisis, and achieve success and prosperity for ourselves and all of humanity. With it, we will be able to take our first real steps toward realizing the laws of Nature. And it is only at that point that we will feel how we are all part of Nature's single, comprehensive system, and taste the perfection and harmony within it.

No other book provides such a concise guide to understanding the laws of Nature through the words of a prominent Kabbalist. From Chaos to Harmony is a must for anyone who wants to take immediate control over his or her destiny and discover the source of infinite happiness. It really does exist.

Puppet on a String

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 14:41:47 GMT

Taken from Vol1 of Kabbalah Today

Puppet on a String

Clearly, Saddam Hussein’s death isn’t going to stop the violence. From a spiritual perspective, Saddam was a just a puppet on a string.

“The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes” (Proverbs 21:1).

More than 3,000 American soldiers have already died in Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians were killed by their own countrymen. In both cases, the numbers are increasing even as you are reading these lines. Iraq is a sad reflection of the current state of the world.

According to Kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (1884-1954), this is just the beginning. In his “Writings of the Last Generation,” he wrote that if humanity did not change its course, it would be dragged into a third and even a fourth world war, and those remaining would still have to make the necessary change we are facing today.

It is not a question of good or bad political choices; there is no single evil individual leading the world to doom. There is a reason why the world is in crisis, and the sooner we understand the reason, the better our situation will become. As King Solomon said, it is not in the hands of kings or rulers to determine where the world is going, it’s in the hand of the Force that created and guides the world. This is why it is written, “To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord, He is God; there is no other besides Him” (Deuteronomy 4:35).

Kabbalist Ashlag also wrote that the phrase, “there is no other besides Him,” means that everything that happens, all the good and bad experiences and all the friends and foes we see before us are His messengers. If this is how we relate to them, we will discover the Creator through our relationships with the people around us.

Toward the end of his days, Ashlag wrote a series of essays describing how events will unfold as humanity achieves spirituality. Today we call those writings, “The Writings of the Last Generation.” While describing that these events must unfold, he wrote that we could choose to experience them as spiritual processes, in which case they will not materialize in the physical world, or as physical processes, in which case they will manifest as conflicts and clashes among people and between humanity and nature.

Ashlag also explained that the human ego continually develops in quantity and quality. This is why we constantly want more money, more power, more sex, more of everything. But at the height of egoism, he writes, we will want to control the entire world, know how everything works, and govern it. In short, we will want to become godlike.

The Kabbalah, and practically all spiritual texts, explain that the Creator is good and therefore wants to do good to us, His creations. Because there is nothing better than the Creator Himself, He wants to give us everything He can of Himself: all His knowledge and all His powers.

To accomplish that, He created a “school,” a “playground” where we can practice at being Creators. This is our world. The rules of the game are really quite simple:

1. He is good and therefore wants to do good to you. Granted, you don’t feel it. If you did, you wouldn’t have to choose between being good or not; you’d know what to do to be like Him. But there’s a hitch: when you know what to do, you become a copycat, not a student who learns through your own scrutiny.

2. If He is good, and I want to be like Him, I, too, have to be good. To whom can I be good if I can’t see Him? I can “practice” being good on other people.

3. Every time I discover a bad quality in me, and learn how to turn it into a good one through practice on other people, I “graduate” and move on to an even worse quality. This is actually a positive development. Realizing you are worse than you thought doesn’t mean you have become worse; it means you have grown, and have “earned” the right to know yourself better. Ironically, the recognition of your own evil is a reward for your good behavior.

We progress in spirituality by trying to build a better world and a better society. The Creator helps us by sending harder tests for us to pass. This is why the human ego continually develops—the greater the ego, the harder the test. With each test we pass, we become “owners” of another degree; we gain the ability to relate to it from the Creator’s perspective. At that degree, we are no longer puppets on strings because we have gained the knowledge and the power of the Creator.

The atrocities in our world reflect our overblown and uncontained egoism. But these ordeals don’t have to manifest as natural disasters, terrorism, or global pandemics. If we channel our egos in the right direction the moment they arise, they will not have to manifest in such horrendous displays.

The human ego only points to qualities in our souls that are not (yet) similar to the Creator. At first, these qualities may feel like minor inconveniences, like a mild headache. As the ego grows and dissimilarity with Him continues, the headache becomes a migraine. But if we work on ourselves within when it’s still just a headache, it won’t turn into a migraine, and we won’t have to deal with colossal tragedies. We will feel life as an ongoing revelation, a series of countless possibilities of being like the Creator. Our relationships with others will reveal infinite opportunities for similarity with Him. As a consequence, we will feel love for others, instead of hate. Thus, the harsh school will become a cheerful playground.

For this to happen, we need a teaching method. Kabbalah states that if there is none other than Him, then He is the one who put the ego in us, and He must have done it for a reason. Instead of suppressing the ego, Kabbalah offers study books (and other, more modern means of schooling) that teach us how to channel our egos in the same way the Creator channels the hearts of kings.

This is the great revelation that Kabbalah introduces to the world. Instead of killing each other, we can all learn how to be omniscient, almighty, Godlike…and happy.

physics of hebrew alphabet origin=dna charge acquisition

http://implosiongroup.gaia.com — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 13:08:31 GMT

the rabbis and the war mongers
will NEVER get past psychobabble
unless they discover

the origin of hebrew is just the necessary charge
acquisition symmetry for DNA...

animated:

http://spirals.eternite.com

kabbalah is a kindergarten to get you ready to think
about how DNA swallows charge domains
to make gravity and your immortal electric field..

and symmetry is the ONLY language..

if you can't think in the language of the pure symmetry of light
(see origin color

www.goldenmean.info/fractalcolor

then you are still condemned to religious metaphors which have trapped
the genepool for millenia

dan winter

goldenmean.info

Re: Exploring the Boundry: Science and Spirituality

http://inlink.gaia.com — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 11:26:47 GMT

It is most gratifying to know that my message here has been picked up by Zaadster Maninde Paul, poverty fighter, whose location is Tarime, Mara, on the other side of the planet. My message has been picked up by Zaadster Farzad, who was born in the Middle East, who has lived in the U. S. most of his life and loves America.

Coincidentally, I received an email this Friday 13 from my Zaadster friend Dolphin Blue. He refers me to his Blog. Dolphin Blue informed me that today has been considered unlucky due to patriarchal fear of feminine power. Just yesterday I wrote Farzad this:

"The world's Jewish, Christian, and Muslim authorities need our help. The authorities base their beliefs on patriarchal times, and for a practical reason, during patriarchal times. Life was precarious in the desert. Men and women, out of necessity, had their separate roles. With the industrial revolution in Western society, the roles of men and women became integrated."

"The scriptures are the stories of how misguided humanity has been. The Bible starts with, "And God said, Let us make man in our image" (Gen. 1:26). It could not have been in the image I know man to be. That's why I say to my Zaadz friends, let us change the world. Let us make man in our Zaadz image."

Farzad agreed.

Why Are So Many People Coming To Kabbalah?

http://princesamwise.gaia.com — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 11:17:11 GMT

Shalom! Enjoy this video. Love and blessings to all! Thank you, Samme

Re: Exploring the Boundry: Science and Spirituality

http://inlink.gaia.com — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 17:00:45 GMT

Pursuant to the Kabbalah, I've been invited to express my thoughts here: that is, my totally out of the mainstream ideas. My best wishes to the departed, always, but my time is devoted to the living. God said, "Let us make man in our image" (Gen.1:26), and God gave us dominion over all other life. Plants have shown us that they are conscious, and do better when we bless them. However, we humans are conscious of vastly more than plants, in fact, are unlimited in our awareness. We set our limits.

One of our recently departed, a Zaadster, I'm informed, Chad Christopher Cobb, wrote I Am You: Mystical Experience and Epiphanies. Epiphanies, the appearance or manifestations of a deity to me, to you. Our departed Zaadz friend saw in his diety love for all, and he was you. Unfortunately, he was confused. Folk lore has much to do with the world's reality; that is, the unsubstantiated but largely accepted truth. My goal is to see my friends at Zaadz looking within for the truth.

Presidential candidate, Senator Obama recently said, "I just see people of one world and the potential for peace in every single person I meet." What does Senator Obama propose we do to stop Iran, who denies the Holocaust ever existed, who over and over calls for the obliteration of Israel, who is killing Americans in Iraq? Senator Obama refers to war as "dumb." Ever since 6^th century, Mohammad, Islam's prophet, Islam been going to war on the commands of Allah. What can we say to Muslims who believe they are commanded by Allah to obliterate Jews and Christians, to force the world to worship the one true god, Allah?

Most believe the world I envision is anarchy. I'm someone who wants to end all institutions, governments, religions, and start from scratch. I departed my old life and never looked back. When everything could have gone wrong, everything went right.

Here's one individual who believes as I believe, Dr. Evan Harris Walker. In his book, The Physics of Consciousness, Chapter 18, "A God for Tomorrow:" "I think one thing at least is certain: It is clear that consciousness can be broached scientifically. Consciousness exists. And for the first time, we have used the instruments of scientific investigation to fit its existence into the overall tapestry of reality. For the first time, we understand what consciousness is. We can understand mind as including conscious experience and will. We can see how these fit into the physical processes of the brain that are involved in thinking, the data-processing operations at synaptic junctions in the brain . . .we have discovered that every path we have taken to learn something of the structure of the universe finally comes around to the same result. Whether to understand the interconnections of will, to understand the most basic facts in quantum theory, or to discover the beginnings of the Big Bang universe." The Big Bang universe is first of all the conscious I, secondly, the conscious we, and thirdly the conscious it, and all exists under a "supreme Consciousness out of which everything else springs. . . It is consciousness that orders space and time out of a chaos of random events."

Moses led the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage. He climbed the mountain and received his commands from I AM THAT I AM. Hardly anyone understands that I AM that I am. I led myself out of bondage. I give you the same right. I am not you. You are not me. We each have our own destinies and common ground. When the individual demands his right to be himself, without coercion from government or religion, but rather in cooperative and voluntary association with other people, then we will have a world at peace.

Exploring the Boundry: Science and Spirituality

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 11:57:53 GMT

Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, the scientist from the movie What the Bleep Do We Know!? and author of five books including The Quantum Brain: The Search for Freedom and the Next Generation of Man, met with foremost Kabbalist, teacher and founder of the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education and Research Institute, Rav Michael Laitman, PhD to discuss science, spirituality, and the boundary between them.

Dr. Satinover, who represents the perspective of quantum physics, opened the discussion by disagreeing with the link made between quantum theory and spirituality in What the Bleep Do We Know!? He immediately drew a line between the two worlds - physical and spiritual - saying that while modern quantum theory invites one to spiritual questioning, it cannot say anything about the spiritual realm.

The film encourages people to focus on one of life's fundamental questions: "What is reality?" It also stimulates people to think beyond a commonly accepted scientific worldview; one that treats everything in our world as coming from, in Satinover's words, "a dead, mechanical object." In other words, it is a worldview that considers every living thing to be unfeelingly machine-driven, as if under the control of some super-computer.

We have depended on this outlook to bring us nearly all of our technological and medical advances. Materially, it has brought us nearly everything we rely on in our modern existence. Spiritually, however, it only allows us to imagine some lifeless material-generating machines.

Life beyond the mechanistic worldview

Satinover believes that this has contributed to a common human longing to understand the nature of reality differently. Moreover, this longing, mixed with the tenets of science, can demonstrate to us that there is something to life beyond the mechanistic worldview.

Here, Satinover disagrees with the movie's claim that quantum theory is the border-crossing science that unites scientific and spiritual perspectives.

In his viewpoint, quantum theory shows that there is something working beyond mere mechanism, outside the physical world. Furthermore, it is inherent in quantum physics that this "something else," as Satinover emphasized, "cannot be described at all," and it also cannot present us scientifically analyzable characteristics.

This is why Satinover calls quantum physics "a boundary science." It brings us to a boundary where, on the one hand, the material world reveals that there is something beyond it that is not just some dead machine; and on the other hand, quantum theory says that you cannot use scientific methods to decipher what that "something else" is.

The boundary of our own perception

Satinover's talk embodied a man's quest for freedom. Where we humans have freed ourselves from so many boundaries throughout our history, we now seek to free ourselves from a boundary that is inside us - the boundary of our own perception.

At the end of Satinover's talk, this is all we were left with - our perception. Although quantum theory indicates that there is something beyond the physical world, it objects to a scientific investigation into that "something." Satinover concluded that quantum theory leaves it entirely up to us to make that judgment about what that "something" is.

Therefore, with regard to spiritual conclusions, quantum theory (as Satinover presented it) fails, since it lacks analytical approach to this "something." Quantum theory ends in one's perception, which, as Dr. Laitman went on to clarify, is the place where a Kabbalah student begins.

Dr. Laitman talks about Kabbalah

Dr. Laitman centered his talk on human perception. Put aside our theories, discoveries and technologies, and you are left with a person, an individual, who perceives reality through five senses.

One can only perceive as far as the senses allow. Although we have expanded the range of our senses with instruments such as microscopes and telescopes, we still feel that something is hidden from us. Whether it is science that brings us to this conclusion, as Satinover discussed, or whether it is just one's own life; we (for the most part) feel that there is something more that is hidden, and whatever it is, its appeal is growing in our time.

Laitman cited the renowned Kabbalistic text The Zohar as stating that, from the end of the twentieth century onward, the desire to know the forces imperceptible to our five senses will evolve and "the world will begin to feel that the knowledge in the wisdom of Kabbalah is necessary for its very existence."

How does the wisdom of Kabbalah compare to other teachings?

The main difference, Laitman stated, is that while all of our teachings evolve naturally, through our five senses, Kabbalah nurtures a sixth sense. The desire to know what is hidden from the five senses is like the nucleus of the sixth sense, what Laitman defines as "a point in the heart." The wisdom of Kabbalah develops this desire into a sense that can perceive an additional reality that our five senses cannot.

Laitman made the point that this is why Kabbalah is called "the wisdom of the hidden": it discloses the part of reality that is hidden from our five senses. In such a state, one engages in a new reality, experiencing existence outside one's own body, beyond the range of our five senses, and ascends in levels of perception that Laitman called "spiritual worlds."

One who attains the sixth sense, according to Laitman, perceives and researches different worlds - upper, spiritual worlds which complement one another. They become a reality for that person. One is said to lose sensation of time, space, and motion as he or she feels an endless stream of life, independent of the five senses. Since a Kabbalist acquires a different sensation outside the five senses, he or she lives with a different approach to life and to reality.

This view of spirituality that Laitman discussed blended two age-old disparate approaches to reality: the scientific, which relies on research to bring observable, veritable results; and the religious, which relies on the revelation of one or many individuals, and following interpretations of those revelations. The Kabbalistic method of attaining a sixth sense promises revelation through research where the subject of research is one's own perception.

Satinover's and Laitman's discussions came into contact on the point of everything boiling down to our perception. They also agreed on a spiritual reality existing beyond a certain boundary. Whilst Satinover described quantum theory's inability to analyze beyond this boundary, Laitman first described the boundary - the five senses - then introduced Kabbalah as the area of research which delves into this hidden arena. Quantum theory expresses something of a limit of enquiry in the five senses, while Kabbalah doesn't deal with the five senses at all, offering instead a method to develop the sixth sense.

So at the end of the discussions, Satinover and Laitman left us with two choices regarding spirituality: either make up your own mind about what it is, or develop another sense and research it.

View the original article

One Law for Human Kind

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 10:51:17 GMT

I think this article emphasises not only what the Kabbalah can teach -but what a community like Zaddz can teach, in essence. Please feel free to read through the article then pose discussion points of your own. I would very much like to run with the premise set by this article.

73 years after the Nazis’ attempt to limit freedom of expression at Bebelplatz square, Eldad Beck, Yedioth Aharonot (the most popular daily newspaper in Israel) correspondent to Berlin, asks Rav Michael Laitman, PhD, what he thinks is the solution to the global crisis.

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Q (Eldad Beck): Rav Laitman, what brought you to participate in this meeting, next to so many other participants?

A (Rav Laitman): Our world is headed for a very special time, an unprecedented state in the history of humanity. We are all feeling that we are living in a small village, and that we are connected to each other. Therefore, and in light of the evil that is surfacing throughout the world today, such a meeting as this is the call of the hour.

On the one hand, we are discovering that we are connected to each another, and affect each other. We are realizing that we are dependent on one another in everything: economy, science, culture, education, and finance. On the other hand, the human ego has evolved to such a point that we cannot stand one another. This hatred is appearing specifically today.

Because people cannot even stand themselves, they are driven to depression, which has become the most common illness in the world. Because people cannot tolerate other people next to them, divorce rates are skyrocketing. We are living in constant dissatisfaction, looking for something that seems unattainable. The world is in despair, falling into drugs and terrorism.

All these problems stem from two opposing forces that act in reality: on the one hand there is the force that connects the world and binds it together. On the other hand there is the repelling force, which throws each of us into his or her separate corner. Today, the opposition between these two forces is culminating, and we will soon be forced to find a solution to it.

Meetings such as this one in Berlin are characterized by a search for answers, for solutions. In the passing year, as a representative of Ashlag Research Institute (ARI), and Bnei Baruch—Kabbalah Education and Research Institute, I participated in similar meetings in Japan, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, and Chile. I find that participating in such meetings has a positive effect, because people are slowly beginning to understand the solution that the wisdom of Kabbalah offers them. This is a scientific solution, which explains that human society follows natural laws that are just as accurate as physics or chemistry, albeit hidden from us. Because we are unaware of their existence, we keep erring as we have been erring all throughout history.

For thousands of years, humanity has been trying to achieve something good, only to keep discovering that the good is not really good, and moved on to the next attempt. Yet, now we are in a situation where for the first time, humanity simply must understand the general law that affects human society. Humanity must understand how it should organize itself and how it should function.

Q: Is this law the same for all the people?

A: It is a law of nature. Science is discovering that there are laws operating at all of life’s levels: inanimate, vegetative, and animate. Similarly, the human society, also called “the speaking degree,” follows a law called “nature’s law.” And even though we don’t know it, this law still exists.

When we research nature, we discover very interesting facts and phenomena. We understand that human society should be organized and function like cells in a single human body. In the body, although each cell is egoistic in its nature, it relinquishes its selfish interest and works for the common good. In this reciprocal work, each cell is awarded not only its own life, but the life of the entire organism. Conversely, each cell that does not dedicate itself to serving the body, will detach itself from the body and thus die.

Q: In other words, you are not confining the disease you are talking about to a specific population; you’re saying it exists everywhere in the world?

A: Everywhere. In that sense, it makes no difference which nationality, religion, or culture you belong to. It concerns everyone. The whole world has one illness. We must begin to come to terms with the idea that to keep nature’s law of the human society, we must relinquish our egos. Our egoistic social behavior is affecting more than just the human society; it is affecting the environment, as well.

Q: How is this explanation about the world’s predicament connected specifically to us, to Israel?

A: That’s simple. The wisdom of Kabbalah we were talking about—the method to correct the world—is in our hands. Kabbalah describes how all the people are interconnected among themselves and with the whole of nature, and how we should organize our lives harmoniously. At the end of the day, the solution will be found within the people of Israel. If we work to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah, we will change the world for the better.

Q: How do you feel about participating in this discussion here in Berlin, a city with a “charged” past, where the Nazis burned books? Isn’t it a problem for you?

A: If there is anything I can say that will somehow help save Israel and humanity, I feel I am obliged to do it. My example is my teacher, Rav Yehuda Ashlag, author of the Sulam commentary on The Book of Zohar. In the 1940s, he published a paper which he called The Nation. In it, he explained about the holocaust and warned of its imminent arrival. No one heeded.

Hence, if I have even the slightest opportunity to make a difference, who am I to turn it down? I am not claiming that I’ve come here to change history, of course, but still, Rabbi Ashlag is my role model, and I must do as he did. For this purpose, we are now publishing a paper called Kabbalah L’Am (Kabbalah for the People).

Q: And do you think there is still time to save the world?

A: It all depends on us, on our desire to change. With the wisdom of Kabbalah, we can bring the entire world to a state of wholeness, joy and well-being. But we can do that only by disseminating the wisdom of Kabbalah, because this is the only way we will be able to avoid suffering from people, and bring the collective redemption closer to us.