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Kabbalah: The Bnei Baruch Association – Kabbalah Education & Research Institute.
Kabbalah Revealed
What is the Purpose of My Life?
Interview between Rav Michael Laitman, PhD and
Journalist Sharon Atia
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by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD.
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Question: The aim of our talks is to give a person the opportunity to complete the path from his initial encounter with Kabbalah to the stage when he will be able to understand how Kabbalah can change his life, without delving into the details.
The Science of Kabbalah begins with the question: “What is the meaning of my life?” If we are meant to live, then why do we die? If people die then what is the point of living? When does a person begin to think about the meaning of life?
The most important question in life “What is the purpose of my life?” emerges in a person as early as in childhood. We remember that we already asked this question at four, five, seven or ten years of age, as well as in the adolescent years. This question “surfaces” from the inside and it is obviously completely natural. We find it necessary to find a justification for our existence from the point of view of our inner nature.
Various problems emerge for us as we become older, such as “the hormonal game” during youth, friends, studies, obligation before one’s mother and father, responsibilities in school, then in the army, responsibilities with regard to the government, then the need to start a family…. All of these things “extinguish” this question. However, it is not by coincidence that this question emerges in a person at the very beginning of his life, and it is intended to help him choose his life credo.
If we were to ask an adult or senior whether it is true that the question about the meaning of life emerged in him during childhood and juvenile years, he will agree and remember that he really thought about it, and not merely one time. In his youth these thoughts were very different from the current thoughts or the thoughts he has during adult or senior years, when it has become clear that there is no answer to this question and a person is compelled to flow along with the current.
All of us or all humanity who are adults, both men and women, find ourselves to be completely removed from the question about the meaning of life. We have literally extinguished it with various other things, as if it were completely unimportant. Truthfully, however, this is nothing other than running away. Do adults or solid individuals of 40, 50 or 60 years of age know the reason they are alive? Very simply, they have become accustomed to hiding this question from themselves in order for it to not cause them pain, since there is nothing worse than to encounter it face to face.
This can submerge a person into such a deep depression that he will even be able to commit suicide. After all, a person who asks the question about the meaning of life comes to the conclusion that he exists without any reason and, most importantly, he exists without a goal and without any result. This is in complete disagreement with the idea that man is the center of the whole universe and the pinnacle of creation.
It turns out that by suppressing the question about the meaning of life, we live our lives unconsciously. We do not turn on our brains or our mind, and we do not involve ourselves in achieving the most important thing only because we do not know how to clarify it. That is, we do not clearly see what the most important thing in life is and we “extinguish” our opportunities and slow down our systems, lowering them to the animal level of billion-count masses that merely exist and automatically perform some sort of actions.
They do not ask about anything great, as this is already philosophy to them: let philosophers discuss these questions. A regular person, in their opinion, should simply exist: don’t stick your head out, don’t be a white crow, don’t go beyond the socially accepted bounds….
In all countries and during every epoch, culture was directed in such a way as to use its grandeur, its constant improvement and modernization to extinguish the question about the meaning of life as skillfully as possible. If we look at our production, all our activity and universal progress, then we can see that humanity’s development is oriented against the question: “What is the purpose of my life?”
However, from generation to generation this question manifests in a harsher form. All our progress or “evolution” aspires to suppress it. I would say that this is precisely the reason why our development becomes less goal-oriented as centuries go by. As time passes our development leaves us fewer and fewer chances to receive an answer to the question about the meaning of life. It turns out that the more we supposedly develop, the stronger we suppress this question. It comes back to us as a boomerang and we perceive that nature obligates us to find the answer.
After thousands of years of humanity’s development, or the suppression of the question about the meaning of life, all of humanity arrives at the state when this question can no longer be extinguished. The time is near when this question will become manifested in a menacing form.
Suddenly everyone will begin to ask, without being embarrassed that half of their lives have already gone by: “What is the meaning of our lives? What is the purpose of our lives? How should be begin and end life? Why do I have to live my 70 years precisely in this form? Shouldn’t everything be just the opposite?”
Over the course of thousands of generations’ existence, humanity has created or invented various forms of sciences, systems and methodologies that try to answer the question about the meaning of life. For example, take religions. People created them in order to calm a person down and to narrate a certain process to him through various means: his existence before his birth in this world, entrance into life and life after death.
They assert that we have to go through this life. During this life it is necessary to behave in a certain way in order to correspond to the life on the other side, that which precedes birth in this world and continues after death. That is, one must carry out some sort of laws and observe certain restrictions.
Question: You are saying that religions establish laws and restrictions…
Yes, religions in the “psychological” form have helped man to answer the question “What is the meaning of my life and what is the purpose of my existence?” A person lives with this faith and feels more stable, confident, and comfortable in the past, the present and future.
Religions convince a person that the meaning is not so much our current life as it is in its continuation after death, where various phenomena await a person. This way, religions, besides lowering the level of a person’s stress and calming him, in essence do not answer the question “What is the meaning of my life?” because they also lead a person away from it.
A person can truly reveal this question only by independently attaining life that is beyond earthly existence, and by seeing all his incarnations and the reality that is above this world with his own eyes. In order to really see the essence of the question “What is the meaning of life?” a person must achieve the revelation of all reality and all the worlds located above him without waiting for death.
When a person sees all reality in its entirety, his question about the meaning of life carries a different character: “What am I in all this huge reality? Why do I exist in it?” Based on his attainment, he receives the answer: “I exist for this and this….”
There is no need for a priest, prophet or philosopher to convince a person to accept his answer to this question. After all, it may turn out to be a lie, even if it is a useful lie. Just as a person’s question is personal and intimate, the answer he receives on his own is just as intimate.
He finds out where he is located in the entire chain of incarnations or in infinity, which is beyond time and place or beyond the life here in this world. A person attains who he is and what he is in the genuine form rather than in the current state, when he is clothed into a material body. Until a person has not yet revealed all reality in its entirety, he is unable to correctly formulate his question, meaning to analyze it in the context of the entire universe and to receive the correct answer.
There exists one method called the Science of Kabbalah that does not tell a person: “if you carry out certain laws you will live well and you will receive a reward in the future….” It asserts that every person, regardless of gender, nationality, age - even if he is still a child - when the question about the meaning of life emerges in him he is obligated to investigate it.
There is nothing to be afraid of. After all, your entire life is ahead of you! When will be the next time you will ask this question? At age 70? The fact that it did not come to you naturally when you have just begun your life is a sign of the need to search for the answer already today. Your entire impending life is intended specifically for this.
Every person should reveal the entire universe for himself, attain all the worlds and reach the state where he sees himself in various forms of existence: the state prior to coming out of the mother’s womb, in the form of a certain creature called “a person in this world,” and after death, when his bones disintegrate into the earth and the part called the soul passes into a different and higher dimension that escapes our perception.
You must reveal all of these things right now! In this case, during the time you are here in this world you will realize the notion “human” to the full degree. You will probably find out what to do in order to complete the cycle of your reincarnations and your existence in all the other states, worlds, etc.
The importance of the Science of Kabbalah consists in the fact that it gives a person the ability to relate to his life responsibly. This question, which may seem so childish - “Why do I live?” - is in reality the most serious question. The science that allows me to answer this question on my own is more important to me than all other sciences. These latter sciences are precisely what “blocks” the former by enticing me with various temptations, directing me to various life achievements or the seeming goal of human progress…. If we do not place the Science of Kabbalah at the center of our lives, in such a way that everything we do benefits it, then we will not arrive at the correct development.
We can see that mankind’s entire history moves along in the reverse direction with regard to the question “What is the meaning of our lives?” and we move farther away from it. This was done purposefully, in order for us to approach this question as adults - seriously. The pain of our lives compels us to resolve this question in the clearest and most perfect form. By becoming completely convinced that we cannot run away from it and by working out the correct relation towards it, we will understand how to build the system of raising children in order to develop within them the ability to reveal this question.
As Gaon from Vilno said, people can begin to study Kabbalah at 6-9 years of age. When a child’s perception is sufficiently developed and he asks: “What is the meaning of my life?” - this is a sign that he is already able to study the Science of Kabbalah, meaning to investigate the question that emerged in him. Obviously, he will do this to the degree of his abilities.
However, we should never extinguish this question in a child, since this question contains the entire foundation or base from which a person grows up. Otherwise, if we block or suppress the question about the meaning of life from childhood, then instead of a real person a child will become a creature that lacks any goal and that drags on a pitiful and meaningless existence.
Besides religion there also exists a secular culture in every nation. It became formulated in conjunction with various religions and faiths, in interaction with the development of psychology and medicine, and side–by-side with the dissemination of the drug culture, alcoholism and prostitution. We have developed various kinds of systems on various levels, only in order to drown out the question about the meaning of life or to prevent it from coming out.
In addition, we have created a certain scale of values within the boundaries of our society, according to which the most significant person is considered he who is most skillful at turning away from the question “What is the meaning of life?” and he who is successful. These human achievements relate to the still level. One person became a famous artist, another – a great scientist, another – a very rich man….
This way, people who have moved farther away from this question than everyone else and who have achieved success at the meaningless development on the animal level are in the center of attention and occupy the highest position with correspondence to our scale of values.
The Book of Zohar writes about this. It says that humanity’s development must occur in this form until the end of the 20th century, or until humanity achieves a specific state.
It is already known that culture, upbringing and various methodologies of development are no longer able to crush the question about the meaning of life and, after all, man is compelled to reveal it to the full degree. Otherwise, this question, which has arisen before all humanity so harshly and so menacingly, may lead us to endless tragedies, misfortunes, catastrophes and extinction.
When we have no choice, having cast away the advice of various psychologists, philosophers and religious leaders, or everyone who covers up the question about the meaning of life; we will stand before it as nude babies before a huge universe and we will ask ourselves: “How can we find out the purpose for which we live?” Then, from this naïve question, the aspiration to study the Science of Kabbalah will immediately appear literally in every person and people will feel that specifically it contains the answer.
The Book of Zohar describes the period we are now approaching. Therefore, as it is said, we should not be afraid that outsiders will come to Kabbalah in the same way they came to it over the course of thousands of years of its existence, and who ascribed various nonsense to it, such as to suppose that they will become successful at something with the help of Kabbalah. In our time the only people who will come to Kabbalah are those who are restless due to the question about the meaning of life, or those who are no longer able to run away from it.
Those people who are not bothered by this question so much, who are able to exchange it for money, fame or knowledge and who hope to accomplish some sorts of supposedly magical actions with the help of Kabbalah, will quickly discover that, in reality, the Science of Kabbalah contains nothing other than the answer to the question about the meaning of life.
Kabbalah is not mysticism and not the science about foretelling the future or the ability to see one’s past reincarnations and so forth…. Kabbalah is the methodology that reveals all existing reality to a person. By reaching this kind of revelation, he will finally understand the genuine content of the question about the meaning of life, and he will receive an answer to it.
We are an organization that aspires to present all humanity, in every language, and to everyone within whom this question awakens in its final form (compelling him to search for the answer), to present these people with a methodology that allows them to independently find it. Nowadays we see that everything stated in the Book of Zohar is becoming realized in our days. Humanity as a whole as well as each person in particular, although still subconsciously and even without feeling it, are already oriented towards the Science of Kabbalah from the inside or within the question about the meaning of life.
This is only the beginning. We are the first of the generations that must come to the correct solution to the question “What is the meaning of our lives?” We can feel the degree of progress and force, and the all-encompassing extent to which this development is becoming realized.
We hope that already in our days we will see millions and even billions of people reach such a level that they will be unable to muffle the question about the meaning of life within themselves and they will come to the Science of Kabbalah. Then our life will change, it will become filled by a completely different inner content and it will acquire a different appearance. Humanity will achieve peace, assuredness and a mature understanding of its existence, which is inseparably connected to all the reality that will become revealed to us.
We will find out where and in what world we are really located, what are the laws according to which we live, and how literally every instant we can perceive safety, perfection, eternity and the fulfillment by all existing pleasures. Any person will be able to achieve a high level of development and genuine prosperity, rather than momentary success that we achieve at the expense of other people or due to their misfortunes.
Thus, if we properly resolve the question that emerges at the beginning of life, this will add the correct direction to a child’s development, and his entire subsequent life will be different. He will never feel himself to be defective, suppressed, condemned by someone else, and he will not feel as if the whole world threatens him. He will not find himself in the state where he has lost the taste for everything and he is compelled to search for the meaning of his daily life, as it is useless to live in the worst-case scenario.
He will not become a person who endlessly consults a psychiatrist or takes drugs or alcohol…. He will not be concerned with how to drown out his sadness and he will not suddenly take off to India….
Therefore, it is very important to give a person the knowledge about the fact that it is necessary to fill our short lives with the solution to the question about the meaning of existence. It is not trivial that this is our first question, and obviously our entire life is given to us in order to find the answer to it.
Question: What are opponents of studying Kabbalah afraid of?
Among opponents of Kabbalah there are people who are afraid that their methodologies will come to an end, meaning the methodologies that allow them to live and to provide for themselves and which they use to control others. There also exists another type of person; these are people who stay away from Kabbalah because its opponents portray it to be mysticism, something frightening, something forbidden to be studied and that people are forbidden to teach. These people benefit from doing this, meaning they avoid losing their income and power.
Therefore they have created such a bad name for Kabbalah, and now other people are afraid that they will harm themselves. They fear that a person may begin to study Kabbalah and become insane, that his cultural level will decrease, that he will become a shady person who cannot be trusted, or that he will become a social outcast….
In the Introduction to the Talmud of the Ten Sefirot, literally in the first item, Baal HaSulam says that there exists a rigid iron wall between us and the Science of Kabbalah. If we do not demolish this wall then our life will constantly become more and more difficult. As the article entitled “The Last Generation” states, humanity may reach the third and fourth world wars, after which there will remain only a very small group of people.
However, these people will nevertheless arrive at the necessity of resolving the question about the meaning of life and they will find the answer in any case. In reality, it is ultimately impossible to exist in our world without knowing why you exist in it. This knowledge must be authentic rather than seeming knowledge. That is, it cannot be knowledge of the kind that becomes formulated over the course of one’s life because society determines one’s norms of behavior, one’s type of activities, forms of entertainment, pleasure and life standards without basing all of these on anything.
For example, suppose a random person suddenly appeared and said that life must be this way or another way…. This is how representatives of various religious and psychological methodologies behave, as well as representatives of scientific and cultural development…. On what basis does humanity accept these dogmas, the dogmas for whose sake it wastes its entire life? This takes place because we do not see the genuine world and the genuine reality. Therefore all rules and all establishments have been derived based on our world.
But why is true reality concealed? It is concealed purposefully. If a person does not have a real desire to solve the question (“What is the meaning of life?”), then this is not necessary; let him remain on the level of animal existence. However, if a person really has the aspiration to acquire meaning to his life, then he will come to the Science of Kabbalah and he will resolve this question.
Question: Does this mean that, until today, humanity has existed in vain?
Until this day humanity has existed in vain. However, it is beginning to realize this only now, based on the experience of previous generations’ meaningless existence.
Question: Could we have managed without all of this colossal technological progress?
We could have resolved the question “What is the meaning of life?” even thousands of generations ago.
Question: Would life be different in that case?
In that case life would consist of man’s existence with the awareness of all reality, the Upper force, his own self, all the worlds and all forces of nature. Man would feel himself to be an eternal being rather than a creature “pressed” for time (which measures a specific segment of life for him and compels him to bustle about). He would live with the perception of timelessness or beyond time.
His psychology and his relation towards his existence would be completely different. They would be based on the understanding that everything is without end, that nothing is canceled and that nothing disappears. He would relate to himself in an absolutely different way, as well as to other people around him, to the entire reality as a whole, to every phenomenon and to everything that exists.
Question: When a person begins to study Kabbalah or while he is still searching for the answer to the question about the meaning of life, the process itself is still somewhat boring: books, lectures…, until it becomes the state when suddenly “the heavens open up.”
The clarification of the question “What is the meaning of life?” and the further search for its solution is very difficult work, and a person must put his entire life into it. Baal HaSulam says: if a person really receives an inner push towards solving the question about the meaning of life, then by way of diligent studying and skillful guidance (meaning by receiving the correct upbringing) and thanks to the correct use of the methodology of Kabbalah, he is able to clarify this question in up to five years’ time. Then the entire reality begins to open up to him, meaning all the worlds and his infinite and boundless existence, and during all his subsequent years he already receives the answer to the question about why he lives.
This is the way in which a person attains the entire universe, rises above himself, and during his life in this world (on average during the 70 years of his earthly existence) he achieves the state in which his persona includes all reality in its entirety. Then a person’s entire life becomes built, ordered and attuned in such a way that he understands and attains this upper reality, and he controls it. By doing this he becomes equivalent to the common force or the common program of the entire universe. This is the main goal of his existence.
To express this in Kabbalistic terms, a person achieves equivalence of form with the Creator or the Upper Force. Every person must arrive at this state during his existence in this world regardless of gender, nationality and without any restrictions on age. As it is said: “Everyone will know Me, from small to big.” There are many sayings about this theme.
Question: What if five years have gone by and a person has not achieved anything?
This process may take five years, and maybe more…. In The Introduction to the Talmud of the Ten Sefirot in Item 18 Baal HaSulam says that a person begins to perceive the upper reality after five years of studying with the condition that he maximally exerts all his inner forces.
We can often see that as much as 10-15 years pass by, until a person finally reveals the question “What is the purpose of my life?” and enters the perception of the upper reality. Then, let’s say after 15 years of studies, he continues to absorb into himself the entire other reality he has revealed, and this is called the attainment of the upper worlds.
Does the education we give to kids require ay less time? As if by receiving it they become equipped to exist in this world! A person is hardly ready for life at 30 years of age.
We, however, are talking about a child who begins to ask the question “What is the meaning of my existence?” at 5-7 or even 10 years of age. Let’s say this question ripens in him for 10 more years, until he finally understands what really is the meaning of his life, for what purpose he lives and why he was born. Only after this, when he has a mature and formulated world-view, he continues his life with open eyes and attains the genuine reality.
This allows him to attain the past, the future, the reasons for everything taking place, and to understand how he can influence the forthcoming events, what his role is in that which already occurred, what his place is in the existing reality and how to act within the system of the universe most effectively….
Question: The question about the meaning of life does not always emerge so simply, “out of nowhere.” For the majority of people this question arises after they have experienced difficulties and suffering. Is it natural for it to arise in this way?
Naturally this question should arise in childhood, in the way this happens with us without any suffering. What suffering can a person have at the age of 5-10 years?
It is just the opposite: a child plays with other children and enjoys life…. Nature is benevolent to him and it wishes that the question about the meaning of existence ripen in him in these kind conditions, in a playful form and with a joyful relation towards life. Nature treats him kindly through parents and through society. From the point of view of nature and the Upper Force, it is desirable that we come to the question “What is the meaning of our lives?” precisely in this way.
Due to the fact that parents and society as a whole suppress this question in us and bring us up incorrectly, we become immersed in problems and misfortunes. As a result of incorrect development we finally ask ourselves this question while experiencing rather unpleasant situations, harsh suffering and being in a stupefied state.
Why do we begin to ask about the meaning of life during moments that are by no means wonderful and joyful? This occurs because the width of the layer that formed since the time when a person first extinguished the question about the essence of existence, which emerged in childhood, is equal to the size of the pain and suffering he has endured by 40 years of age (for example). This question pierces to the outside through the accumulated pain and suffering and it once again “floats to the surface” within him above all of the suffering.
This occurs to the individual person as well as to the entire humanity as a whole. After thousands of years of development the question about the meaning of life stands before us again and again.
Precisely for this reason our organization “Bnei Baruch,” our entire life and our entire work is oriented exclusively on spreading the Science of Kabbalah and clarifying its content, clarifying that which it can give a person - the reason the Science of Kabbalah exists and the fact that it does not contain even a drop of mysticism.
Our salvation is in Kabbalah. Its predetermination is to bring the light of life to all humanity. In our time it is gradually becoming revealed, as this was foretold in the Book of Zohar as long as two thousand years ago.
Question: Who was the first person that asked the question “What is the meaning of our lives?”
This person is considered to be Abraham. The Midrash writes that Abraham constantly asked: “Who is the master of all that exists? Who is the master of the universe? If everything spins, this means that someone must be moving it? What is the reason all of this exists?” As a result, the Creator became revealed to Him. Abraham was a person within whom the question “What is the meaning of our lives?” ripened to such a degree that it was no longer able to avoid piercing to the outside, and this inner push led to the revelation of the Creator.
We must develop ourselves and our children in such a way that the question about the meaning of life will ripen in us in the same way it did in Abraham. Then we will understand why we live, we will reveal the Upper Force and all reality will open up before us.
The same thing that happened to Abraham happens to every Kabbalist. The difference between them may be the height of attainment, the level of the methodology’s development and the intensity of the question itself. Every person has a different path, since every person has a different root of the soul than everyone else. However, ultimately everyone goes along one path – the path of Abraham. This is the path of the formulation of the question “Why and what for does everything exist?” as well as the revelation of the genuine world in which we live.
Question: There are many people who are trying to find the answer to the question about the meaning of life. Many of them turn to religion.
Within the basis of all questions asked by a person, there lays a concealed or inner question: “What is the meaning of my life?” However, it does not become revealed in its genuine form, but rather from underneath a layer of several “concealments.” Therefore a person makes mistakes on the path to the genuine solution and enters a certain secondary state, which he ultimately perceives as suffering.
It puts pressure on a person and compels him to return to the question about the meaning of life and once again to search for the answer with a greater scrupulousness. Then a person once again leaves this question as he becomes subjected to the influence of society, civilization and the changes of fashion, and he once again moves further away from the real solution. And once again a person becomes farther away from the genuine answer, and then by way of suffering he once again returns to the same question…. This continues to take place until he reaches the state when he simply is unable to run away any longer.
Take a look: who is more successful in our world than everyone else? The rulers of various governments, presidents, ministers…. Who are they? They are people who suppress the question “What is the meaning of life?” most successfully. Any politician says that supposedly only he knows what all our well being depends on and how to fix our lives…. Every political party directs how to live…. We call precisely these kinds of people “flourishing,” which is completely opposite to the truth. Precisely they are the greatest foes and the greatest haters of people.
Question: Why has a political movement of Kabbalists not yet emerged?
Because Kabbalah and politics are incompatible. To create a political movement means to become mixed up in a discussion with political leaders, and there is nothing to talk about with them. They are concerned with things that are absolutely opposite and contradictory to Kabbalah.
We cannot solve any problem together. They do not solve it; but just the opposite, they want to conceal it in such a way that will benefit them. After all, the desire to possess strength and power is speaking in them. This is clear to everyone, including themselves.
How can I go in the same direction with this kind of a person, if he is moved by the desire to rule and if his main task is his own well being?! He is not planning to reveal reality to people in order for them to see the truth. He finds it necessary that they believe that he is the possessor of truth and for them to depend on him.
In the same way, “spiritual” leaders attract the attention of the masses to themselves and try to win their recognition. Or they aspire to win political recognition by making their way into the government or by acquiring money and power. How is it possible to talk with them?!
What is even worse is the fact that they sell the Torah. It is predestined to reveal the entire universe to the masses, in order for them to find out how to control their lives and to become fit to solve the question about the meaning of their existence. These “spiritual” leaders muffle it even more and desire that the masses remain on the lowest level.
As Baal HaSulam writes in the Introduction to the Panim Meirot U Masbirot, they leave the masses in the state of blind people who bump into the wall. After all, people want to resolve the problem of their existence, and the spiritual leaders precisely interfere with this. They tell those who come to them that it is forbidden to study the Science of Kabbalah. Why? Because they are afraid that they will lose power over the masses of believers.
Question: This way, we come to the deduction: if I do not do something for myself, then who will do anything for me? That is, a person must carry out the work independently?
A person is able to finally exit out of the power of all political and spiritual leaders and the influences of fashion and social opinion by observing several conditions. The first condition: the Science of Kabbalah must reach every person in order for him to know about its predestination, in order to liquidate all his fears and a fearful relation to Kabbalah as to some kind of mysticism or as something dangerous. He must break these dogmas.
The second condition: life itself must bring a person to the state when he perceives himself to be empty and begins to see the force of his inner development and the fact that his rulers are behaving foolishly, immorally and inhumanely with regard to society, to themselves, as well as to the Creator.
The task is how to be conducive to an effective combination of a person’s internal realization of evil with the external circulation of the Science of Kabbalah. This way, we will get through to a person and he will more quickly arrive at the conclusion that his most important question about the meaning of life can be revealed only with the help of the Science of Kabbalah.
Question: But Kabbalah by itself does not awaken the question about the meaning of life?
Kabbalah by itself awakens the question about the meaning of life. However a person must come to it with a certain preliminary question, meaning he must ripen. What does this consist of? He realizes that he is unable to manage his life and he does not find the answer to the question about his existence that constantly nags on him. Not scientific progress, nor the development of psychology, nor the opportunity to be rich and famous (for example an actor), nothing in this world is able to bring him to inner fulfillment, meaning to the answer to the question “What is the point of my life?”
Question: This means that Kabbalah will pass by many people without having touched them?
Just as before, there remain people within whom the Science of Kabbalah does not find a response. It appears that they will come in 10-20 years, or maybe in the next incarnation. This is not our problem. According to the upper calculation, we are being pushed toward the solution to the question about the meaning of life with the force that corresponds to the level of our development.
Therefore if people who aspire to solve the problem of their existence will begin to do this correctly, then even a small amount of these people will be sufficient in order for humanity to live successfully and without pressure, conflicts and wars. For example, let’s say 10 people will deal with the question about the meaning of life. Thanks to this they will be able to be above our reality. The others will not come to this state. So what? This is not important.
Every person is absolutely free in his choice. Kabbalah does not evangelize. It must be presented to humanity, and whoever will come – will come. By dong this we will observe the law: there is no forcing in the spiritual, and then our life will be harmonious.
If our reaction is adequate to the degree that the common development awakens the question “What is the meaning of our lives?” in man, this is called that we are bringing the entire universe into balance. This also guarantees a successful life to us.
We do not turn a person to religion and do not attract a person to ourselves. We give public lectures, and whoever comes is welcome. We sell books in stores, and whoever is interested will buy them. We have created the biggest Kabbalistic website in 22 languages and we constantly perfect it. Our task is to circulate Kabbalah in order for a person who is already ripe - meaning ripe to study it - to be able to find all the necessary books and articles….
Baal HaSulam writes: “We must open centers of study, write books and spread the Science of Kabbalah in all the nations everywhere….” In the worst-case scenario, all humanity, and first of all ourselves, will become immersed in huge tragedies, including the threat of annihilation.
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Kabbalist Rav Michael Laitman, PhD.,
Kabbalist, Rabbi, & Author
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World leading Kabbalist, Rav Michael Laitman, PhD has an MS in Bio Cybernetics and a PhD in Philosophy and Ontology.
Rav Laitman is the author of 25 internationally selling books on Kabbalah; his books have been translated into nine languages.
His lessons are broadcast live throughout the Internet and cable TV to tens of thousands of students the world over. In recent years he has become a sought-after lecturer in academic and learning circles in the US and Europe
His search for the meaning of life led him to the teachings of Kabbalah in the 1970’s. At first he studied Kabbalah with various teachers in Jerusalem and other parts of Israel. In 1979 he discovered his true teacher, Kabbalist Rav Baruch Shalom Halevi Ashlag (1907-1991).
From the time he met Rav Baruch Ashlag (known as the Rabash), he was never apart from him and spent most of his time in his presence, as his disciple and personal assistant. Up until his death, Rabash passed on to Rav Laitman the wisdom he had acquired from his father, Kabbalist Rav Yehuda Ashlag, known as Baal HaSulam for his Sulam commentary on The zohar (The Book of Radiance).
Rav Dr. Laitman held a successful public meeting in San-Francisco in March 2005 with leading American scientists, participants of the blockbuster hit "What the Bleep Do We Know?" Here are some of the impressions of the scientists after meeting Dr. Laitman:
Fred Alan Wolf, PhD. author of eleven books, among them The Yoga of Time Travel, Matter into Feeling: a new Alchemy of Science and Spirit, and Mind into Matter: "I admire your knowledge. I would love to sit at your feet and study for a long time."
Jeffery Satinover, MD (Psychiatry), MS (Physics) – Author of seven books including The Quantum Brain & Cracking the Bible Code: "The emergence of Kabbalah from its concealment in a genuine form is historically significant and is truly remarkable."
Rav Laitman is the founder and president of the Bnei Baruch Association – Kabbalah Education & Research Institute. Bnei Baruch is an Israeli based non-profit organization that is dedicated to spreading the wisdom of Kabbalah to all of humanity.
Bnei Baruch conducts daily Kabbalah lessons, broadcasted live on the Internet and available for free.
In 1996 Bnei Baruch created, what is now the largest and most popular Internet site on the subject of Kabbalah--www.kabbalah.info. This website provides unlimited access to Kabbalistic texts and media in over twenty languages, and hosts over a million readers every month.
Website: www.kabbalah.info.
Further information is available at www.kabbalah.info.
The following study
e-books, and resources are free,
and available in the formats listed below:
• "Attaining the Worlds Beyond",
by Kabbalist, Rav Michael Laitman, PhD.
Audio book
(MP3 format): www.kabbalah.info/
engkab/
worlds_beyond.htm
PDF:
www.kabbalah.info/
engkab/
book_4/Attaining-Text.pdf
•"Kabbalah for Beginners"
Palm download:
www.kabbalah.info
/engkab/ebook/kab_
for_beginners.htm
•"What the Bleep…"
Video Discussion:
www.kabbalahmedia.info/
~video/KabbalahMeets
ModernScience/Kabbalah
MeetsModernScience_
pilot_eng.mpg
Rav Laitman's Latest Book Releases:
•The Kabbalah Experience
Never has the language of Kabbalah been as clear and accessible as it is here, in this compelling, informative collection. The depth of wisdom revealed in the questions and answers of this book will inspire reflection and contemplation.
•The Path of Kabbalah
“Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness” (Exodus 20:3). This commandment from the Bible is the basis of the Kabbalistic wisdom, for Kabbalists know that the only true reality is that of His Essence, the Upper Force.
For more information on obtaining these books and others, visit:
http://www.kabbalah
books.info/default.php
View these fascinating video clips from Rav Laitman's world lectures !!
The Needed Shift in Human Consciousness
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=4Q0NsgtFMhI
05:11
Dr. Michael Laitman's speech at the World Wisdom Council meeting in Tokyo, Japan,
"Creating a New Civilization" - November 2005.
Creating a New Civilization - Tokyo 2005
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=WZF2L4CEfZc
06:23
The World Wisdom Council's 3rd meeting "Creating a New Civilization" in Tokyo, November 2005.
Israeli artists meet Rav Michael Laitman, PhD
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=-mUumQWnlGM
07:36
Israeli artists meet with Rav Michael Laitman, PhD to talk about the meaning of life, free choice, and life's basic questions.
Attaining the Worlds Beyond
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=uUWl8-WPeKk
05:14
A video inspired by text from Rav Michael Laitman's book "Attaining the Worlds Beyond."
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You'll find it in
The
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