Abraham’s Immortal Wisdom on How to Best Understand God

Abraham’s Immortal Wisdom on How to Best Understand God

How the Wisdom of Kabbalah Originated

Let us, for a moment, journey back through time to ancient Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization. Roughly 4,000 years ago, situated within a vast and fertile stretch of land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what today is Iraq, a city-state called Babel played host to a flourishing civilization. Bustling with life and action, it was the trade center of the entire ancient world.

Babel, the heart of the dynamic civilization we now call “ancient Babylon,” was a melting pot and the ideal setting for numerous belief systems and teachings. Its people practiced idol worship of many kinds, and among the most revered people in Babel was a priest named Abraham, who was a local authority in the practice of idol worship, as was his father, Terah.

However, Abraham had a very special quality: he was unusually perceptive, and like all great scientists, he had a zeal for the truth. The great 12th century scholar, Maimonides (also known as the RAMBAM), described Abraham’s determination and efforts to discover life’s truths in his book, The Mighty Hand:

“Ever since this firm one was weaned, he began to wonder. …He began to ponder day and night, and he wondered how it was possible for this wheel to always turn without a driver? Who is turning it, for it cannot turn itself? And he had neither a teacher nor a tutor. Instead, he was wedged in Ur of the Chaldeans among illiterate idol worshippers, with his mother and father and all the people worshipping stars, and he—worshipping with them.”

In his quest, Abraham learned what lies beyond the borderland that William Crookes described so many centuries later. He found the unity, the oneness of reality that Heisenberg, Schrödinger, Einstein, Leibniz, and others intuitively sensed. In Maimonides’ words, “He [Abraham] attained the path of truth and understood the line of justice with his own correct wisdom. And he knew that there is one God there who leads…, and that He has created everything, and that in all that there is, there is no other God but Him.”

(To interpret these excerpts correctly, it is important to note that when Kabbalists speak of God, they do not mean it in the religious sense of the word—as an almighty being that you must worship, please, and appease, which in return rewards devout believers with health, wealth, long life, or all of the above. Instead, Kabbalists identify God with Nature, the whole of Nature. The most unequivocal statements on the meaning of the term, “God,” were made by Baal HaSulam, whose writings explain that God is synonymous with Nature.

For example, in his essay, “The Peace,” he writes, “To avoid having to use both tongues from now on—Nature and a Supervisor—between which, as I have shown, there is no difference…it is best for us to…accept the words of the Kabbalists that HaTeva (The Nature) is the same…as Elokim (God). Then, I will be able to call the laws of God ‘Nature’s commandments,’ and vice-versa, for they are one and the same, and we need not discuss it further.”)

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Now You Can Know the Grand Unified Theory of Everything

Now You Can Understand the Grand Unified Theory of Everything

Why You Must Understand How Global Interdependence & Global Crisis Interconnect

When the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression first broke out in August of 2008, many politicians and financiers in key positions emphasized the need for unity and cooperation. They voiced a need to restrain the egocentric frame of mind dominating Wall Street and expressed a fear of separatist and protectionist tendencies. Headlines such as The Economic Times’ “World Leaders Seek Unity to fight financial Crisis” prevailed in newspapers all over the world, signaling a general willingness to unite and cooperate in the face of economic uncertainty.

At first glance, this spirit is understandable, if not called for. After all, the world’s financiers knew that their institutions were linked together so tightly that if one failed, the others would follow, and politicians were warned that if they did not bail out the banks in their countries, their own economies would collapse, precipitating a domino effect that would bring down the entire global economy.

However, in the face of a crisis, it is natural to do the opposite of uniting: close yourself off and protect what is yours. This seems like a safer route than joining forces with “foreigners,” especially when those foreigners may be regarded as culprits or, at least, contributors to the making of your plight.

For politicians, it would seem more natural to put their own countries first, as with the British Corn Laws tariffs of the 19th century and President Hoover’s 1933 “Buy American” Act. Yet, as the delicate balance of cooperation and self-interest teeters back and forth, we survey the destruction wrought by the financial crisis and find that the majority of voices champion unity and denounce protectionism and separation. Why is this so?

If we consider this question from a purely economic or psychological aspect, we will not arrive at a conclusive answer. However, when we view it from the perspective of the science of Kabbalah, we will see that the forces involved in international relations, and indeed in any relations, are forces of integration, not of isolation. They are far more powerful than any rational or irrational decision-making process, and determine our moves “behind the scenes.”

On the international level, these forces determine global trade, politics, treaties, conflicts, and ecology. On the national level, they determine the trends in education, welfare policy, media, and local economy. On the personal level, they determine our relationships with our families, and on the deepest level of existence, they determine evolution—ours and that of every other element in Nature.

To understand the forces and elements that create reality and stir it in its course, we must first come to know their origins and their final destinations. Otherwise, trying to understand reality is like trying to grasp the inner workings of a car—its engine, the engine’s connection to the gear, the way the gear shifts the power to the wheels, and so on—without explaining that a car is a machine built to transport people safely, comfortably, and quickly from place A to place B. Without explaining the car’s purpose, what good is any discussion of its structure?

 

The Secret to Reality Even Cutting Edge Physicists Haven’t Found Yet

Like science, Kabbalah researches the inner workings of reality. But unlike science, which observes phenomena and offers theories as to their end goal, Kabbalah sees the goal first and from there explains the structure. That goal, as explained by Kabbalah, is for every person in the world to discover the single, fundamental force that creates and governs all of life. In other words, the goal of Kabbalah is for every person to discover life’s creative force, obtain it, and reap all the benefits this discovery implies.

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The Secret Solution to Every Problem in Your Life

The Secret Solution to Every Problem in Your Life

Who Else Knows How Widespread the Current Crisis Is?

The world is feeling the effects of a seemingly unsolvable global crisis, affecting all levels of human activity. Since 2008 tens of millions of people throughout the world have lost their jobs, their savings, their homes, but most importantly—their hopes for the future.

Our health, it seems, is not more wholesome than our wealth. Modern medicine, the pride and joy of Western civilization, is grappling with resurfacing diseases previously believed to be extinct. According to a report published by the Global Health Council,

“Diseases once believed to be under control have re-emerged as major global threats. The emergence of drug-resistant strains of bacteria, viruses and other parasites poses new challenges in controlling infectious diseases. Co- infection with multiple diseases creates obstacles to preventing and treating infections.”

Earth, too, is not as hospitable as before. Books such as James Lovelock’s The Revenge of Gaia, Ervin Laszlo’s The Chaos Point, and films such as Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth are just three examples of a cavalcade of alarming reports on Earth’s deteriorating climate.

As global warming melts the ice caps in the poles, sea levels rise. This has already caused dramatic shifts and tragic events. A report by Stephan Faris in Scientific American lists some of the places already affected by climate change.

In March, 2009, Peter Popham, a writer for The Independent, provided another angle to the climate predicament: “Global warming is dissolving the Alpine glaciers so rapidly that Italy and Switzerland have decided they must re-draw their national borders to take account of the new realities.”

A more tragic result of climate change is hunger, caused by extended droughts in some areas and constant flooding in others. According to the World Food Program, nearly a billion (1,000,000,000) people worldwide are constantly hungry. Worse yet, in excess of nine million (9,000,000) people die every year from hunger and related causes, more than half of whom are children. This means that today, in the most technologically advanced era in the history of humankind, a child dies every six seconds due to lack of food and water.

In our homes, problems abound, as well. The New York Times announced that according to a census released by the American Community Survey, divorce rates have risen to the point that today there are more unmarried couples in America than married ones. It is the first time in history that single-parent families are the norm, and double-parent ones are the exception.

Many scientists, politicians, NGOs, and UN related organizations warn that humanity is facing a risk of unprecedented catastrophes on a global scale. Anything from mutated avian flu through nuclear war, to a massive earthquake could wipe out millions and drive billions into destitution.

 

What Everybody Ought to Know about Interdependence

Yet, crises have been occurring throughout history. Our era is not the first in which humanity has been at risk. The Black Death pandemic of the 14th century and the two World Wars easily outweigh the peril that our current plight presents. Nevertheless, what distinguishes the current crisis from those previous is the tension characterizing the current state of humanity. Our society has gone to the extreme in two directions that seem to conflict with one another—globalization and the interdependence it entails on the one hand, and increasing alienation and personal, social, and political narcissism on the other. And that is a recipe for a disaster such as the world has never seen, whether in the financial sector or beyond.

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3 Things You Need to Make Spiritual Progress

3 Things You Need to Make Spiritual Progress

1. A Teacher

The study of Kabbalah does not just include work in the books. Physical actions for the benefit of the group, organizing lectures and Kabbalah study groups are more beneficial than the study itself. Serving the teacher is also more beneficial than studying with him. In his “Speech for the Completion of The Zohar,” Rav Yehuda Ashlag quotes the following saying of ancient Kabbalist sages: “Make for yourself a rav and buy yourself a friend.”

In other words, choose a person whom you think is important and make that person your teacher. Then, try to please him or her. Your teacher is very important to you. By pleasing your teacher, you’ll get used to doing for others, and by the force of habit you’ll be able to do the same for the Creator. By being spiritually close to your teacher, you’ll receive the degree by which the teacher appreciates the Creator. That will give you a chance to do at least something for the Creator, and enter the spiritual world this way. At the same time, you will acquire the sensation of the greatness of the Creator and you’ll be able to advance to complete adhesion with Him.

Observing your teacher’s requests with the aim to fulfill them allows you to attain spiritual resemblance with them. You’ll be able to receive their thoughts and knowledge, and above all, attain their love and attraction for the Creator, which would give you the ability to develop and progress spiritually. However, studying with your teacher is always motivated by the desire to attain personal knowledge for yourself. As a result, the study does not bring with it spiritual nearness to the Creator. In other words, by doing things for the teacher, you attain their thoughts and by studying you will attain only their words.

You can only attain their thoughts if the motivation to serve the teacher stems from the desire to please the teacher, and not yourself. In the opposite situation, when our motivation is our desire to serve for self-gratification, studying is the goal and becomes more important than serving the teacher.

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Kabbalah: The Method of How to Receive Pleasure

Kabbalah: The Method of How to Receive Pleasure

We cannot live without pleasure. After all, our very essence is the will to receive delight and pleasure, and the purpose of creation is the attainment of perfect pleasure.

There’s nothing wrong with the pleasure itself; we must correct its objective, not the desire itself.

So what do I do with my desires? I want a big, beautiful house; though a small one will do just fine. I want a new car, though the old one still runs. As for my job, I’m still interested in one that bears more responsibility. Do I have to clear out these desires in order to make room for more study?

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