November 24, 2024
Archive for February, 2012
February 14, 2012 at 10:39 pm · Filed under What is Kabbalah?
The knowledge that the first Kabbalists acquired did more than help them understand how things worked behind the scenes. With it, they were able to explain the natural phenomena we all encounter. It was only natural, therefore, that they became teachers, and that the knowledge they passed on to us became the basis for both ancient and modern sciences.
Perhaps we think of Kabbalists as secluded people hiding in dim, candle-lit chambers, writing magical scriptures. Well, until the end of the 20th century, Kabbalah was indeed kept secret. The clandestine approach toward Kabbalah evoked numerous tales and legends surrounding its nature. Although most of these tales are false, they still baffle and confuse even the most rigorous thinkers.
But Kabbalah was not always secret. In fact, the first Kabbalists were very open about their knowledge, and at the same time, very much involved with their societies. Often, Kabbalists were their nation’s leaders. Of all these leaders, King David is probably the best known example of a great Kabbalist who was also a great leader.
The involvement of Kabbalists in their societies helped their contemporary scholars develop the basis of what we now know as “Western philosophy,” which later became the basis of modern science. In that regard, here’s what Johannes Reuchlin, a humanist, classics scholar, and expert in ancient languages and traditions, writes in his book, De Arte Cabbalistica: “My teacher, Pythagoras, the father of philosophy, took his teaching from Kabbalists … He was the first to translate the word, Kabbalah, unknown to his contemporaries, to the Greek word philosophy… Kabbalah does not let us live our lives in the dust, but elevates our mind to the height of knowledge.”
Other Routes
But philosophers were not Kabbalists. Because they did not study Kabbalah, they couldn’t fully understand the depth of Kabbalistic knowledge. As a result, knowledge that should have been developed and treated in a very specific way was developed and treated incorrectly. When Kabbalistic knowledge migrated to other parts of the world, where there were no Kabbalists at the time, it also took a different course.
Thus, humanity made a detour. Although Western philosophy incorporated parts of the Kabbalistic knowledge, it ended up taking an entirely different direction. Western philosophy generated sciences that researched our material world, that which we perceive with our five senses. But Kabbalah is a science that studies what happens beyond what our senses perceive. The changed emphasis drove humanity in the opposite direction from the original knowledge that Kabbalists obtained. This change in direction took humanity on a detour whose consequences we will explore in the following chapter.
The Big Questions
Kabbalah became hidden about 2,000 years ago. The reason was simple—there was no demand for it. Since that time, humanity has occupied itself with developing monotheistic religions, and later on, science. Both were created to answer man’s most fundamental questions: “What is our place in the world, in the universe?” “What is the purpose of our existence?” In other words, “Why were we born?”
But today, more than ever before, many people feel that what has worked for 2,000 years no longer meets their needs. The answers provided by religion and science no longer satisfy them. These people are looking elsewhere for answers to the most basic questions about the purpose of life. They turn to Eastern teachings, fortune-telling, magic and mysticism. And some turn to Kabbalah.
Because Kabbalah was formulated to answer these fundamental questions, the answers it provides are directly related to them. By rediscovering ancient answers about the meaning of life, we are literally mending the rupture between humanity and Nature that occurred when we turned away from Kabbalah and toward philosophy.
The above text was taken from the book Kabbalah Revealed: A Guide To A More Peaceful Life by Dr. Michael Laitman with foreword by Prof. Ervin Laszlo. Also available as eBook (PDF, Kindle & ePub formats), and for free PDF download.
February 14, 2012 at 10:17 pm · Filed under Education, Ego
When integration becomes your nature, you begin to feel Nature’s plan. When you achieve your corrected state, you become a ripe fruit and begin to understand the meaning of your existence. That’s when you rise to the next level.
This is achieved by changing man. And in principle, this is why egoism was given to us. With its help, by constantly ascending above it and changing ourselves in spite of its influence, which seems to halt us and get in our way, we develop ourselves integrally and assimilate into this integration. In other words, egoism constantly helps us develop.
Similarly, when you’re a grade school or college student, you can’t advance unless you solve exercises in the process of the study. That is how we develop in Nature, by constantly solving some kind of problem.
There is a very interesting goal before us. Our egoism is like a constantly developing and resurfacing exercise. If we try to solve this exercise, our egoism will transform to connection, mutual love, altruism, and integrality.
Then we will see that we were created this way on purpose. This egoism constantly developed in humanity throughout history, precisely in order to bring us, today, to its intelligent realization in our community. Then, precisely thanks to it, by transcending it, realizing it in what seems like the opposite direction—the direction of connection and integration between us—we will see that it was all created for a purpose, that this is precisely the higher phase of Nature—the egoistic one—and it is pushing us to the next level. What level is that? We will find that out only once we rise. We will simply feel it.
This information, energy, thought, and desire will shift to a completely different level. With their help, by attaining the integral connection between us, we will rise to a different level of existence. I suppose that this will be higher than the initial and final points of our development within the boundaries of this universe. It will be a level above our universe.
The above points were taken from the book The Psychology of the Integral Society by Dr. Michael Laitman and Dr. Anatoly Ulianov. Also available as eBook (PDF, Kindle & ePub formats).
February 13, 2012 at 10:18 pm · Filed under Education
If I tune into the global, integral system, then I have to include everyone around within me. Otherwise I won’t be able to connect with them harmoniously.
Therefore, I have to experience and understand everyone. That is, I have to reveal all of my qualities and all of the inclinations that exist in me from the beginning, but that are concealed or distorted by Nature for now.
I have turned myself into an egoistic mutant! But if I start revealing these qualities inside me, I will discover an ability to feel the whole of Nature—the still, vegetative, and animate parts of it—as well as all of humanity, and even beyond.
When we include everything within us, when all the streams of information, thoughts, and desires pass through me, I begin to feel the following, higher level of Nature, its plan, its overall thought, the cause and effect, its goal, and the final state of my existence.
In every piece or fragment of Nature’s actions, we see a cause and effect development with a specific goal at every stage. But we do not see the final goal! Today this final goal is defined as absolute harmony of all parts of Nature.
By uniting among us and with the entire surrounding world, we begin to sense Nature’s plan and its final state, the goal. We begin to feel ourselves existing simultaneously at its next level, which is informational, common, and complete.
A person starts to feel eternity, infinity, perfection, that which exists beyond our universe, in the infinite thought of Nature, that which incited this drop of energy to explode and create our universe.
And perhaps we will come to sense or observe our universe conceptually, from aside. But that is already a different mind.
This opens up tremendous perspectives before us. And that is what should happen because the attainment of integrality leads us beyond the boundaries of our universe. It is a breakthrough into the next level of sensation, attainment, and information.
The above points were taken from the book The Psychology of the Integral Society by Dr. Michael Laitman and Dr. Anatoly Ulianov. Also available as eBook (PDF, Kindle & ePub formats).
February 13, 2012 at 7:05 pm · Filed under Love
- If we create an environment that has the qualities of bestowal and love, it will be just like a mother.
- If I can build an attitude toward others, meaning that I acquire Nature’s quality of love and bestowal, and relate to others through that quality, like Nature, where Nature is inside of me and I perform that action toward others, it means that I love others.
- One needs to explain what love means to oneself by delving into how much one loves oneself. Look at how you sit, sleep, eat, do things, what you like, what you don’t, how you’re constantly drawn towards pleasure, because you love yourself, and you want this person to enjoy himself, right? So the very same way, think for your neighbor to enjoy himself. Is that possible?
- Love is like having a pet at home that you grow. And you grow it through concessions.
- What is love? Love is when you accept the desire of another person as more important than your own, and you thrive to fulfill it.
- You don’t know what love is. The way we feel love is “I enjoy someone or something.” Here love means that you feel the other, you feel what’s going on in him, and then you accept his desire atop your desire. And the whole of you, in all of your abilities, opportunities and possibilities are in order to fulfill that desire.
- The general force of the universe is the power of love and giving.
- In our world, we love things that give us pleasure. That’s not love. I love the pleasure; I don’t love the giver of the pleasure. Start bringing me candy everyday, and I’ll relate nicely to you. Stop bringing me candy, and let’s see how I’ll treat you then.
- A collection of people – evil in nature, egoists – who have corrected themselves up to the degree of love between them, they, with the love between them, will be able to draw others into the center of love.
- Upon the ego that separates us, we need to receive a power, a desire, an ability, to feel everyone the same as I feel myself, and even more so.
Sources:
- Make The World As Your Mother, Psychology of the Integral Society Series
- I Love Fish, Kabbalah Moments
- Love Your Neighbor, Kabbalah Moments
- Growing Love, Kabbalah Moments
- What Is Love?, Laitman Unplugged
- What Is Love?, Kabbalah Moments
- Don Miguel Ruiz Interview With Dr. Michael Laitman On Personal, Social And Global Change
- What Do I Love?, Kabbalah Moments
- Center Of Love, Kabbalah Moments
- Love Another As Thyself, Kabbalah Moments
February 12, 2012 at 10:34 pm · Filed under Kabbalah Revealed, What is Kabbalah?
It is no secret that Kabbalah did not begin with today’s Hollywood trendy hype. It has actually been around for thousands of years. When it first appeared, people were much closer to Nature than they are today. They felt an intimacy with Nature and nurtured their relationship with it.
In those days, they had little reason to be detached from Nature. They weren’t as self-centered and alienated from their natural environment as we are today. Indeed, at that time, humanity was an inseparable part of Nature and nurtured its intimacy with it.
In addition, humankind did not know enough about Nature to feel secure; instead, we were afraid of natural forces, which impelled us to relate to Nature as a force superior to our own.
Being intimate with Nature, on the one hand, and afraid of it, on the other hand, people aspired not only to learn about their surrounding world, but even more important, to determine what or who governed it.
In those early days, people couldn’t hide from Nature’s elements as they do today; they couldn’t avoid its hardships as we do in our “manmade” world. And most important, the fear of Nature, and at the same time, the closeness to it, urged many to search for and discover Nature’s plan for them, and coincidentally, for all of us.
Those pioneers in Nature’s research wanted to know if Nature actually had a goal, and if so, what humanity’s role might be in this Master Plan. Those individuals who received the highest level of knowledge, that of the Master Plan, are known as “Kabbalists.”
A unique individual among those pioneers was Abraham. When he discovered the Master Plan, he not only researched it in depth, but first and foremost taught it to others. He realized that the only guarantee against misery and fear was for people to fully understand Nature’s plan for them. And once he realized this, he spared no effort teaching whoever wished to learn. For this reason, Abraham became the first Kabbalist to start a dynasty of Kabbalah teachers: The most worthy students became the next generation of teachers, who then passed on the knowledge to the next generation of students.
Kabbalists refer to the designer of the Master Plan as “the Creator,” and to the Plan itself as “The Thought of Creation.” In other words, and this is important, when Kabbalists talk about Nature or Nature’s laws, they are talking about the Creator. And vise versa, when they are talking about the Creator, they are talking about Nature or Nature’s laws. These terms are synonymous.
To a Kabbalist, the term, “Creator,” does not signify a supernatural, distinct entity, but the next degree that a human being should reach when pursuing higher knowledge. The Hebrew word for Creator is Boreh, and contains two words: Bo (come) and Re’eh (see). Thus, the word, “Creator,” is a personal invitation to experience the spiritual world.
The above text was taken from the book Kabbalah Revealed: A Guide To A More Peaceful Life by Dr. Michael Laitman with foreword by Prof. Ervin Laszlo. Also available as eBook (PDF, Kindle & ePub formats), and for free PDF download.
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