Yesterday morning I woke up rocked me by a dream trilogy that spoke to me in the kind of way some dreams do and leave a film that you just can’t shake. After about a half hour of trying to analyze the dream and figure out what the “message” was, I gave up and decided to simply surrender into the heaviness that accompanied it (which, of course, I wasn’t in the mood for and was resisting).

Which also meant that my day would likely involve tears and being uncomfortable and not being able to say “Fine!” when anyone asked how I was doing today. All the stuff my mind loves to bookmark for workshops, long walks with dear friends—you know, more appropriate times. Not right in the middle of my life. How rude.

So, because I trust my practice and know that the highest truth for me is to move in and through whatever is here, particularly when the tug is strong, I did. I know there is always a gift waiting for me when I take care to do “the work.” For me this ultimately means the need to feel, heal and deal with whatever is here and not climb over it! So, I cried through getting my hair cut, before and after my radio show, at the acupuncturist, in the parking lot—and eventually realized what it was that my dream was trying to tell me. That I was sad and needed to cry. That’s all.

Some of it was old, some of it was current; bottom line, I had stuffed and been stuffing some grief and simply needed to feel it, so it waited and then spilled over ‘cause I couldn’t hold it back any more. The difference between me today and even ten years ago is; today I know that it’s okay to be sad, to feel whatever, wherever and whenever I need to. It’s part of how I love myself. Funnily enough, I didn’t apologize as much, and I didn’t tell a long story to some of the folks who saw me cry, I just said whatever made me feel more comfortable. As a result of being true to myself, I got some great hugs and much-needed Kleenex. Imagine that!!

When I got home a friend had sent me this Hopi prayer and I thought, “How Divine is that! The gifts are already beginning to pour in as I emptied out.” So I thought I would pass my story and it along, just in case you need a hug, some hope or maybe permission to have a good cry! Enjoy…

HOPI MESSAGE

“You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour
Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour.

And there are things to be considered:
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships? Are you in right relationship?
Where is your water? Know your garden.
It is a time to speak your Truth.
Create your community. Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.
This could be a good time!

There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold on to the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly.

Know the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river
See who is in there with you
And celebrate.

At this time in history we are to take nothing personally.
Least of all ourselves.
For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word “struggle” from your attitude and your vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

Learn to celebrate yourself with Maryanne’s video webinar series this summer, teaching you how to ask the right questions of potential dates BEFORE you agree to a relationship ~ honor yourself and what you deserve! http://bit.ly/cvsc90

The universe provides what is needed.  For all of us.  There is plenty to go around, and if we could all accept that, imagine what would happen.  There would be no more jealousy, no more “who does she think she is” when we see one of our friends stepping out of the box and creating a new and better reality for herself.  I say “she” and “her” not because I think this only applies to women (it certainly applies to everyone!), but because women face a particular social stigma when it comes to self promotion.

When a woman does whatever she has to do to get what she wants in business and in life, she’s a narcissistic, selfish bitch who should be ashamed of herself.  But when a man does whatever he has to do to get whatever he wants in business and in life, he’s a pioneering entrepreneur that we can all admire.  Where does this inequity come from?  Truth is, it’s been in place for countless centuries, and the effect is that many women are too afraid of judgment to get out there and promote themselves, even in small ways.  They’re afraid of how they’ll be perceived, and afraid of what those perceptions will say about who they really are.

But self promotion doesn’t have to be like that.  We can wake up and accept that promoting our passions and achieving our dreams is not about manipulation or narcissism.  It’s nothing to be ashamed of.  It’s about embracing what we want, and not being afraid to share that with others.  Here are a few pointers to promoting yourself without ending up feeling like you did something wrong, or like self-promotion is an offensive act you should be ashamed of.

First of all, ask yourself:  who is your source?  Be honest.  What or who is the source of the things that come to you in your life?  The answer can be painful to accept, but right there is the source of your anxiety.  If you don’t know who your source is, or believe that it’s somewhere outside yourself, it’s time to have a closer look.

Secondly, remind yourself that everything you see, believe, and perceive is all about the stories you tell yourself.  If you have convinced yourself that men can do something that women can’t, or that self-promoting women are somehow in bad taste, then that’s the truth for you.  It’s difficult to accept that we create our own truths, but this is actually a great opportunity to embrace your beliefs and the stories you tell yourself, and heal them so that you can have a better attitude.

Finally (for now), it’s a good idea to get out there and have some fun while testing your new-found beliefs.  Go on, try a little self promotion and see how it feels.  Awkward?  Like everyone is judging you harshly?  Yeah, that’s to be expected, at least at first.  If you’ve spent the first part of your life being told that women shouldn’t self-promote, and spent the next part reinforcing that message within yourself, you’re not going to get rid of that belief overnight.  But as with any anxiety, the best way to eliminate it is to face it, and continue facing it until the anxiety subsides.  And it will – but not overnight.  What’s especially difficult to accept is that no matter what you promote, there will be people who grumble about it, or are vocal about not liking it.  But so what?  There are people who will like you and people who won’t like you regardless of whether you self promote or not.  So you may as well get out there and show the world what you’ve got!  Shadows aren’t so scary when you shed light on them, and you can get started turning that light on today.

To go further with Maryanne’s brand of self-inquiry, check out her 4-DVD series, Thrive, on sale now for $25.99! https://www.maryannelive.com/products/cds/shop.product_details/3/flypage.tpl/2.html

A wise woman once told me that I could create an energy and a flow in my life of positive things if I would just learn how to stop complaining about the things that seemed to be problems in my life.

It was a hard pill to swallow. I didn’t know anyone really noticed. But guess what? People do. Try to eliminate not only verbal complaints but internal complaints as well. Live one day consciously complaint free and take inventory at the end of the day.

1. Were you able to accomplish more today?
2. Did you feel lighter today?
3. Did you feel more hopeful today?
4. Was it hard to stop the internal complaining voice in your head?
5. Did you recognize a time when you could have complained but instead redirected yourself?

While learning how to stop complaining is not something that may happen overnight, a daily conscious effort in eliminating it from your everyday conversation is one small step towards living a more productive and satisfied life!

The Church of Scientology is a controversial religion founded by science fiction writer, L. Ron Hubbard.

Hubbard wrote many books, essays, and lectures based on his philosophical beliefs and began creating Scientology organizations in the early 1950s.

{GirlShrink.com is a site for expert advice and counseling for women on relationships, mental health and more.} As with most religions, Scientology seeks a world free of crime, hatred, ignorance etc., and has a very hands-on way of accomplishing those goals in the communities it serves.

A big controversy around the Church of Scientology, is on its views of psychology and psychiatry. They have very strong views that psychiatry does nothing to help people and is in fact a “pseudoscience”.

Many critics of Scientology will say that Hubbard’s theories were not based on any facts, and therefore does not make it a science. Others would call it a dangerous cult. Not a “real” religion.

Hubbard’s more popular works include:
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health

I read this one when I was 18 years old and it went completely over my head. I read it later, and while I see good intent, thought it was off the mark and a bit culturally biased. But form your own opinion:)

Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought

In an effort to understand this religion a little better and to give this author one more try – I read this. I find Hubbard a difficult read. He probably needed a good editor:) But this will tell you what Scientology is all about. So read it if you’re interested in knowing more without going to a Sunday church service.

Additional resources: Visit main site at: http://www.scientology.com

Lisa Angelettie, M.S.W., is a psychotherapist, author, and life coach. She has been helping people make smarter life choices since 1998. Get more free tips like this when you subscribe to the GirlShrink newsletter .

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Guest Author: Rav Michael Laitman PhD

Foreword
Kabbalah is known to be a secret wisdom. It is precisely this secrecy surrounding Kabbalah that gave rise to numerous legends, falsifications, gossip, ignorant arguments and wrong conclusions. Only at the end of the 20th century was the wisdom of Kabbalah allowed to be revealed to all and even circulated around the world. Therefore, addressing the reader at the beginning of this book, I feel obliged to tear age-old layers off this ancient wisdom that is common to all mankind.

The wisdom of Kabbalah has nothing to do with religion, meaning it is no more related to it than physics, chemistry or mathematics. It is not a religion and this becomes obvious from the fact that religious people know nothing about it and do not understand a word in it.

The most profound knowledge about the laws of the Universe, the method of apprehending the world, the achievement of the Purpose of Creation was originally kept away from the religious masses in the first place. Kabbalah was waiting for the time when mankind matured sufficiently to accept this wisdom and to use it correctly.

Kabbalah allows man to control his destiny; it is the knowledge that was passed to all peoples of the world. It deals with the realm hidden from our five senses. It operates only with spiritual notions, meaning with things that happen above the material level, beyond our perception in the upper world.

Kabbalah describes the upper world by using the language of metaphor or the scientific language.

The metaphorical description: Kabbalah borrows the names of spiritual objects, forces and actions from the language of our world. This is necessary, because we have no words at our disposal that can describe unearthly phenomena. But since a certain force descends from each object in the upper world to form a corresponding object in ours, a Kabbalist living in both worlds sees this connection and describes the spiritual reality by using the names of our world.

However, Kabbalists’ descriptions seem like accounts of earthly actions to those who have not yet attained the spiritual realm. Kabbalah speaks exclusively of what happens in the upper world. The use of familiar words and definitions leads to false conceptions and erroneous conclusions. Hence, Kabbalah forbids imagining a connection between the names of our world and their spiritual roots. This is considered the grossest error in Kabbalah. That is why it was forbidden for so many years up to this time: man’s development was insufficient, we imagined all sorts of demons and angels where something totally different is meant.

The scientific description: Starting from the 90-s of the 20th century one is allowed to study Kabbalah and is encouraged to disseminate this wisdom. Why is that so? It is because people stopped thinking of natural forces as manlike creatures, mermaids, centaurs etc. They are now ready to conceive of the upper world as a domain of forces, force fields: the world above matter. Starting from the 16th century, from the period of the Lurian Kabbalah this wisdom began to describe the upper world by using strictly scientific definitions and methods.

What am I living for?

What is the subject of Kabbalah?

Kabbalah deals with the question about the purpose of life. From a very young age man starts asking this question, but then forgets about it in the course of his life. Man cannot traumatize himself indefinitely with this unanswered question. The answer can be found only in one source – the wisdom of Kabbalah, which was available only to a chosen few throughout the centuries. Generations have come and gone, but only the representatives of the last generations can receive the irrefragable answer to the most important question.

But even today when Kabbalah has emerged from a secret doctrine to become accessible to practically all our contemporaries, it is intended directly for those who, having matured and even grown old, do not cease to ask themselves this childlike question – what is the point of my life and the life of all mankind?

People who feel this question very sharply come to Kabbalah. They do not feel satisfied and filled in their daily life. They suffer neither manias, nor depressions – they simply cannot reach peace of mind in this life. Why? Kabbalah answers this question.

Stages of development of desires

The development of mankind over thousands of years of its existence is a development and realization of different levels of desire. The search for ways of fulfilling these emerging desires determine this or that level of civilization’s evolution and everything we define as technological and scientific progress.

Owing to the fact that desires constantly improve, i.e. vary from smaller to bigger, mankind advances.

Kabbalah divides the entire complex of human desires into five stages:
• Primary desires – for sex, food (it is said: “Love and famine rule the world”…);
• The second stage of development of desire – striving after riches;
• The third stage of development of desire – craving for power and fame;
• The fourth stage of development of desire – thirst for knowledge;
• The fifth stage of development of desire – aspiration to spirituality, to the Creator.

The need for sex and food are animal desires, because animals have them as well. Even being in full isolation man feels hunger and the urge to reproduce, i.e. to have sexual relations.

Desires for wealth, power, fame and knowledge are the beginning of human desires, since to satisfy them man must be surrounded by other people.

Man is born, his animal and human desires develop, and then he finds out that their realization does not satisfy him, since his secret but true aspiration which he cannot yet realize and formulate, falls outside the limits of this world.

Man receives this desire from above. It is neither given by nature as animal desire, nor does it develop under the influence of a society as do human desires.

Kabbalah calls this level of desire – the desire of spiritual light or man’s soul.

Kabbalah studies the spiritual construction named the general soul or Adam. This construction consists of 600.000 parts, each of them in turn splitting into a multitude of fragments which are located inside earthly desires.

According to Kabbalah, the Creator is a universal force governing the entire creation, which includes all the individual forces of the universe.

Emergence of a new kind of desire

The set of earthly desires is called man’s heart. And the fragment (desire), placed from above into the heart, is referred to as a point in heart.

During his biological life in this world man should completely fill his spiritual desire. He will repeatedly come back to our world, until this goal is reached. Thus, each generation in our world constitutes the same 600.000 souls, vested in the bodies of our world.

Each generation are the 600.000 souls in a rank which are progressing forward in order to be filled by spiritual light: the body dies and the soul moves and dresses in a new body, works in it again for the sake of being filled and so on until at a certain stage of development it will be filled with the Supreme Light.

Most people only feel the needs limited by the framework of our world. These include man’s creative, intellectual, cultural aspirations and the need to research and understand the structure of our world. This testifies, or indicates that souls dressed in the bodies of these people have not yet reached a desire for spirituality – the fifth stage of our desires’ development. Souls of this type do not cause aspirations to develop for what exists outside of the worldly bodies in which they are installed.

But there are a small (so far!) number of souls of a different type. Being installed in a protein body, such a soul forces man to long for something unearthly and eternal. Like others, he tries to be satisfied with what this world can provide, but to no avail. He sees how other people crave for riches and success, and realizes it is no more than a game. He participates in these “games”, often not without success, and it brings him no satisfaction.

Gradually, trying himself in this world, disappointed and disenchanted, man begins to feel that his soul demands a different kind of filling. Having at last received a desire for the spiritual, man feels that he can no longer fill himself with earthly pleasures and feels his life is empty. Then he begins to look for the way to fill a new, spiritual desire.

Search and disappointment are the highlights of this new kind of desire, so characteristic of our time. Starting from the middle of the 20th century forward, more and more people are awakening to this spiritual desire sent from above. Being combined with all other desires, it creates a conflict in man’s heart. The fifth desire causes inner discomfort and ultimately leads a person to Kabbalah. Such people come to us and we begin to explain how they can fulfill this desire.

However, since spiritual desire descends from above, it cannot be filled with objects of our world. Kabbalah shows man how this most exalted desire can be filled.

Kabbalists, who fill this spiritual desire (“Kabbalah” means “reception” in Hebrew) call this filling the Light or, rather, the Supreme Light.

This Supreme Light is called the Creator, because He both creates this desire and fills it. However, if this desire does not manifest in man he goes on living like all others.

Searching for satisfaction and the process of filling

Human life is a process of endless search. Man incessantly looks for something that can satisfy his new desires: he keeps seeking after food, wealth, sex, power and knowledge. All these desires constantly pop up and alternate in him. Man devotes his entire life to satisfying them.

There are many people in the history of mankind who managed to fill their spiritual desire. In their books they tell us about the search for satisfaction and the process of filling. Their explanations and the description of this process have developed into a science called Kabbalah. Such people call themselves Kabbalists.

Kabbalists explain that while being in our world man should fill his soul with the light so that it will rise to the same spiritual level which it was prior to descending and dressing in man’s heart, i.e. his earthly desires. Our task, regardless of all other desires called “heart” or “body”, is to fill that point in heart with the Supreme light.

Kabbalists say that filling the soul with the light gives man a sensation of the upper world. This means that he can simultaneously live (feel) both in the upper world, and in ours. He unites these two worlds in him. The state, when man in our world completely corrects and fills his soul at the highest spiritual level, is referred to as the End of correction of a soul or simply “the end of correction”.

From the moment he begins to feel aspiration to spirituality a person receives his initial information on Kabbalah. Kabbalah enables the person to master a method of filling his soul, to attain a state of infinite delight, sensation of eternity, absolute knowledge and perfection. Moreover, he receives an opportunity to realize it now, in this world, in this life, instead of coming back again and again to this “not the best” of worlds searching and suffering from birth to death.

Since souls continuously change, develop and improve, the task of Kabbalah is to create a method of reception of the spiritual filling suitable for each generation. This science is called “Kabbalah” – reception, because it offers a method of filling the soul with the light. Kabbalah teaches man to receive the Supreme Light and fill the soul with it, i.e. both desires of the heart and spiritual desires. This is possible, since all our desires are created by this very light. Hence, only direct filling with the light can satisfy us.

Spiritual desire – what is it?

The first four categories of desire are clearly understood and felt, but we have no idea about spiritual desire.

Man won’t discover what “the spiritual” means as long he keeps satisfying his desires by means of objects of this world. He sees these objects and knows exactly what he is after. But when a spiritual desire awakens in him, he sees no source that can possibly fill it. Man feels helpless and lost: life loses meaning and taste; there is nothing to fill it with. He simply feels bad. Something uncertain “pulls” him. But to where? Man doesn’t know where to turn because the source of pleasure is concealed from him. Normally he chooses to forget all about it.

As children we ask ourselves: “What are we living for?”, but later hormones ignited by adolescence suppress this question along with the will to discover the meaning and source of life. Our sexual and intellectual aspirations lead us away from the solution to this problem. Then it arises again to disturb us. Those, who can’t fill the emptiness and demand an urgent answer to that question, find Kabbalah or rather, are led to it from above: when this happens the time of filling the human soul arrives.

Spiritual space

When the human body dies, the soul passes to a new-born one. From one life to the next the soul gradually accumulates readiness to manifest in man. He lives many lives without feeling his soul – an aspiration to the upper world. Take care not to confuse it with the earthly “aspiration to loftiness”, which normally stands for creativity, poetry, music and art.

Man feels the manifestation of the soul as a new desire, longing, as emptiness and has no idea how to fill it. The search begins from this moment; ultimately it leads man to Kabbalah. Thus all people in the world are led to Kabbalah, because it is the only method of filling the soul.

When a man discovers Kabbalah, i.e. finds a Teacher, books and a group, a so-called “preparatory period” (for discovering the upper world) begins. This period can last for a few years (minimum 3 years).

Spiritual space opens up before him. Man finds himself on the periphery of that space with the Creator being in the very center. The spiritual space is a realm of properties similar to a physical field with a maximum manifestation of power in the center and the gradual weakening of it towards the perimeter until this property completely disappears on the border beyond which our world begins.

By changing his properties according to the properties of the Creator, man can move in spiritual space: the difference of a man’s properties from those of the Creator makes them remote from each other, while the similarity of their properties leads to their closeness. A complete equivalence causes them to merge.

We, in our initial state, are opposite to the Creator’s properties; hence we are totally outside of this field and cannot feel the Creator.

Having completed the preparation period, man reaches the first, minimal degree of similarity with the Creator and crosses the barrier (Machsom) between our world and the upper one.

He then begins his spiritual advancement; distinctly feeling the Creator he consciously corrects his properties becoming ever closer to Him.

Kabbalah describes the process as an ascent through 620 steps. This gradual rapprochement with the Creator through the similarity of properties consists of consecutive correction, i.e. the substitution of all 620 egoistic properties for altruistic properties. It speaks about the method of correcting desires on each of these steps. As a result, man each time attains the Creator on a new, higher level. Man must correct all his 620 desires step by step, i.e. climb all 620 levels, while existing in his physical body, living in this world.

Upon completing his spiritual ascent, he fully associates himself with the soul and need not return and incarnate into the material world.

Man’s death – What dies the body or the soul?

Man does not die, his biological body does. To begin with, we all feel only our body – the earthly desires. Then a desire for spirituality awakens in us.

This desire is not of this world, it belongs to the Creator. If man develops it he starts feeling not only the properties of his body, but those of the soul which is a part of the Creator’s properties within himself.

If man corrects himself so that the spiritual desires suppress the desires of the body and the body completely associates itself with the soul, he perceives the death of his body as shedding a cover from the soul. The body dies but man feels detached from the body while still living in it.

The body dies, but man feels detached from the body while still living in it. If we live inside the desires of our world (sex, food, wealth, power and knowledge), we receive filling through our body, i.e. through its five senses. We may irritate our brain with electric impulses by sending signals through electrodes attached to it and feel pleasures ostensibly received through the five senses. In this case we directly influence pleasure centers by sending the same signal they receive from the sensory receptors.

This is an example of directly affecting the pleasure centers, which receive all signals.

Soul, screen and delight

We receive spiritual desires directly from above. To fill them we need a special sense called “a screen” (Masach). As soon as man acquires this sense, he starts feeling pleasure through it. The pleasure is called the Supreme Light. It enters our desire to enjoy it through the screen. This desire to enjoy the Supreme Light is called “soul”. The light is not felt as the source of pleasure unless man acquires an additional sense capable of picking it up.

All components: the light (pleasure), the screen (means of reception) and the soul (receiver) are in no way connected to our physical body. Hence, it doesn’t matter whether man has a body or not. As soon as man establishes contact with the Supreme Light, he begins to correct himself so as to be filled with it. The gradual likening of one’s properties to the light and the consecutive filling with it is called spiritual ascent.

The body is only a means for the spiritual advancement in this exciting process; otherwise it is of no interest because a small pleasure cannot be felt at all in comparison with a great delight: the greater delight suppresses it. Therefore, although a Kabbalist lives in the same world as we do, he is actually already in the upper world.

Since we cannot feel his world, all his sensations are beyond our perception, on the other side of Machsom.

When man associates himself with his soul and not with his physical body, he experiences the death of this body as a change of clothes. The sensations he acquired in this world do not disappear, and the world he lives in stays with him after his body dies. Everyone living on earth can and must complete their way in accordance with the Creator’s plan.

What data is Kabbalah based on?

Kabbalah uses only precise, experience-tested data. No theories or assumptions are taken into consideration. Everything Kabbalah is based on has been received from people who personally attained the spiritual sensations through the point in heart, through the soul. They tested, measured and described their sensations. The combined results of their research form the science of Kabbalah.

As in any other science, Kabbalah operates with precise mathematical, physical and graphical data (diagrams and tables). Instead of dealing with feelings, Kabbalists use vectors, forces of gravitation and suppression of desires: their correlations are numerically measured; desires and their filling are accurately defined. This is the means by which Kabbalists describe their sensations of Supernal Providence.

In our world we can measure neither man’s inner efforts, nor his subjective sensations, to all the more accurately compare perceptions and impressions of two different people. One can only sympathize with psychologists and psychiatrists, who are totally unable to operate with the parameters of man’s soul.

The history and the language of Kabbalah

Everything that we know about the upper world even before we discover it by ourselves was written by people who personally attained it. They described their method, their sensations, conclusions and offered recommendations so that we could follow in their path. Kabbalistic books are the accounts of their journeys in the upper world.

Everyone begins the attainment of the Supreme governing Force by asking the question about the point of his life, sufferings, and the purpose of the universe, destiny and chance. A deep analysis of these questions leads man to the necessity of revelation of the Supreme Force. The first known Kabbalist described his impressions of the divine revelation around 3700 years ago in the book entitled “Sefer Yetzira”. He used the language of Kabbalah in his book, which is still studied by Kabbalists today.

The languages of narrative and prophecy are also used for the description of the spiritual domain. It makes no difference to a Kabbalist which language a book about the Creator is written. In whichever language, like a musician who hears music while looking at the notes, a Kabbalist feels what the author describes in a Kabbalistic text.

Material and spiritual senses

We are born with five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, through which we receive some information from outside. Our brain processes this information and produces a combined picture of the surrounding world. These sensations are called “this world” or “my world”. Precisely speaking, we don’t know what exists around us. We just attribute our reaction to some outside influence.

Our ear is designed so that a membrane separates between our inner part and the outer reality. This membrane may be more or less sensitive, healthy or damaged. Accordingly, we define a sound as strong, weak, high-pitched, low-pitched or even imperceptible. The quality of the sound I hear depends not on what it is like on the outside; it is determined by the parameters of my sense, i.e. by my inner qualities. What I feel is not the outer fluctuations, but my sensor’s reaction to them. In fact, I perceive something inside and call it an outside sound.

The same refers to the rest of our senses.

It turns out that we are an absolutely closed system: each of us feels only his inner reactions to an outside unknown influence. We can never perceive something that happens outside of us objectively. Whatever we feel in our senses is processed by our brain and the information is presented in a certain way. Outside of our senses we have no idea what this information is like. We are locked inside ourselves.

What can the additional consciously acquired sense provide me with? It allows for receiving information not via my natural five senses into my egoistic desires (interpreting everything in terms of personal profit, i.e. being biased), but directly and impartially. This way I can achieve a genuine attainment of the absolute and objective universe.

This is what Kabbalah allows us to do. Like any other science, Kabbalah is characterized by repeatability of experience, registered data etc. Kabbalah is a science and has nothing to do with religion. Religions do not teach Kabbalah, because it reveals to man the true universe, where the Supreme governing Force desires only one thing – to make man equal to itself.

Gematria of the soul

If two Kabbalists read one and the same description of the upper world, they will perceive a certain picture. But how will they be able to compare their sensations? Each feels them according to the inner properties of his soul.

If one Kabbalist has a larger screen than the other and his spiritual level is higher, the pictures he can see will definitely be different. If you are in the 5th grade and I am in the 10th, you naturally understand more than I do.

The quality of the soul is a combination of all of its properties. Man in our world has an entire set of properties: greed, jealousy, mercy etc., but everyone has them in a different proportion. By studying Kabbalah one can discover the desires of the soul, describe and formulate its structure.

The Creator created a single desire – the soul called “Adam”. 600.000 fixed structures, separate souls can be singled out in it. Each soul (both common and individual) includes 620 inner parts, desires. Their combination determines the soul structure.

Each of these soul structures receives its name according to the principal, distinctive quality. It has a numerical value called Gematria. Gematria of combined properties is expressed by letters, i.e. the Hebrew letters are used instead of numbers. In order to define the souls numerically, they are given names, since originally there were no numbers in Hebrew (they are designated instead by letters).

Then absolute attainment is achieved

As a result becoming corrected, all souls merge into one common soul and start interrelating within a unified system. This common soul construction binds all individual souls together, so that ultimately each of them feels what all the others feel. This is the achievement of absolute attainment. Such a state is called the “Final Correction”, after which the soul, receiving the light from above ascends to the Source – the Creator, becoming equal to Him.

All souls are obliged to achieve this state not later than 6000 thousand years from the point of “the creation of the world” – when the aspiration to the upper world awakened in man for the first time. The year 2005 coincides with 5765 from “the creation of the world”. We have a little more than two hundred years left, but our efforts may considerably shorten that period.

Why is Kabbalah a science about reception of pleasure?

In Kabbalah we understand pleasure as filling in all its manifestations: material, moral, intellectual or physical. Furthermore, here we speak of delight (filling), which is absolute, eternal, perfect and infinite.

Delight is felt only when a very strong desire is present – provided there is a crystal-clear desire for something, which is unavailable. The received pleasure instantly extinguishes desire which in turn reduces pleasure. The greatest delight is felt only during the first contact of the desire with the desired, the way the first bit of food feels in a hungry man’s mouth. Then hunger subsides, the desire disappears and satiation sets in. The food stops bringing the delight that was felt at the beginning of the meal. Gourmets leave the most delicious dishes for the end of a feast, because greater delight compensates for the lack of desire.

If we start researching the various kinds of pleasure we receive from knowledge, power, riches, sex and food, we’ll notice that all of them diminish upon reception of the desired. Oftentimes man works for years to get what he wants, but having received the object, stops enjoying it.

It is the disappearance of the sensation of pleasure forces us to look for new delights. Advertising, fashion etc. supply us with new desires, and we get carried away by the constant pursuit of anticipated pleasure. Once the desired is received, we feel compelled to seek new enjoyment. This process is endless. Hence, man can never really be delighted. He is constantly moving.

Kabbalah teaches man how to receive non-vanishing pleasures: eternal, absolute and perfect, revealed as permanent peace and delight. Hence, this method is called “Hochmat HaKabbalah” (the science of reception). It was given to us by the Creator so that our enormous desires would be immediately satisfied and then new desires would emerge, be fulfilled and so on. The absence of a gap between a desire and its filling would allow us to enjoy never-ending peace and delight.

How can such desire be created? It does not exist in our world. Hence, the soul is opposite to our entire world. It differs from this world by its property of altruism called “a screen” in Kabbalah. The process of acquiring a screen is the subject of Kabbalah studies.

We speak about a strictly practical approach, about mastering a special method. It can be accomplished in the process of studying certain Kabbalistic books. For example, the principal Kabbalistic six-volume composition “The Study of Ten Sefirot” is compiled as a regular academic textbook: in each of its 16 parts, on more than 2000 pages the structure of the upper world is expounded in modern language. The part of the books entitled “The Inner Reflection” gives a more detailed explanation of its functioning. The part called “The Meanings of Words” provides questions referring to the meaning of the words used. Finally the part called “Questions and Answers” deals with descriptions and explanations of spiritual phenomena.

We welcome and await all those who find no peace searching for the answers to the questions about the structure and functioning of the universe, about the purpose of life. These are the people who discover the spiritual point in their hearts. It is for them that we created our internet site available in 22 languages – http://www.kabbalah.info.

Lisa Angelettie, M.S.W., is a psychotherapist, author, and life coach. She has been helping people make smarter life choices since 1998. Get more free tips like this when you subscribe to the GirlShrink newsletter .

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