🕎 WEDNESDAY PRAYER: NETZACH-MAIN READING FOR THIS WEEK – FOR MITZVOT – The Science of Kabbalah
READING: SUNSET TUESDAY
Main Reading for KABBALISTIC PRAYER this week, today with THE READING FOR MITZVOT.
ARVUT OF: Sheridan Moreton-Judd.
The Science of Kabbalah
-Rabbi Michael Laitman, PhD
Mankind is constantly searching for a logical substantiation of their existence. To this end, man has been studying the laws of nature for many thousands of years.
Despite this, modern scientists are finding that the more they advance in their scientific investigations, the more confusing and unclear the picture of the world becomes. Answers to the question about the purpose of this world and mankind’s existence have not yet been found.
Kabbalah as a science offers a specific method of investigating the world. This method allows a person to develop the ability to perceive the part of the universe concealed from us. The world “Kabbalah” means “receiving”; it is a method that allows one to receive the highest knowledge, and to perceive the true “objective” picture of the world. Kabbalists explain this technique to us based upon their experiences. They have written books that teach the methodology of investigating the universe and receiving the answer to the question about the meaning of life.
From the beginning of time man has searched for answers to the main questions of life: Who am I? What is the goal of my existence? Why does the world exist? Do we continue to exist after death? etc. These unanswered questions about the goal and meaning of life add to our everyday human suffering – Why do we need to suffer at all? It does not allow us to feel fulfillment, even when some of our everyday desires are temporarily satisfied.
A person, having reached the desired goal, quite quickly begins to feel a lack of fulfillment again. Looking back he is able to see how much time he spent in agonizing attempts to reach the desired goal, but in comparison did not feel a substantial pleasure from the accomplishment.
As there are no answers to the questions of life, the search continues in many different directions. Ancient beliefs and currently popular eastern teachings are a part of these searches. Meditation as well as physical and intellectual exercises allow a person to feel more comfortable in this world, but this is just an attempt to distract oneself from the questions, since one’s desires are left unfulfilled and the meaning of life is not found. All these methods relax a person as they lower a person’s desires, not because they have reached the answer to the goal of life and meaning of suffering.
However, soon man discovers that it is impossible to ignore the truth. We begin to perceive that a huge volume of knowledge necessary for further existence is hidden from us, and feel a strong necessity and urge to discover this truth.
Attaining knowledge
In the process of studying Kabbalah man must attain the knowledge of the fundamental systems of the Universe.
Creation. The process of the creation and development of the worlds in the extend, conceivable to man. That is, how the Upper force, by way of consecutive restrictions, created the worlds and objects within them.
The laws of interaction of the spiritual and material worlds, and their consequences. The purpose of the creation of man is the making of a creation that is able to comprehend the greatness of the Upper Consciousness and ultimately become like Him.
Functioning. Man’s entrance into this world and exit from it. How do man’s actions evoke a reaction in the Upper worlds, and how does this reaction affect our world and each individual person. The individual path of each person from the time of the creation of the worlds until the attainment of the ultimate Goal.
The circulation of souls. The study of the essence of each soul and its circulation. Man’s actions in this life and their consequences in following lives from the beginning to the end of the world. In what way and for what reason does the soul descend into the body, and what governs a specific body taking a specific soul. The Secret of Chance and the investigation of the history of mankind as a consequence of a specific order and transference of souls. The connection of the soul to the common control of the system of worlds, the soul’s circulations, the cycles of life and death – everything that all our paths in this world depend on.
Governance. Studying our world: the still, vegetative, and animal nature, their essence, role and their governance from the spiritual world. Governance from above and our perception of nature, time, and space.
The Method of Kabbalah
Out of all the sciences which are constantly developing and investigating the world around us, Kabbalah is a special science that helps develop us in a completely unique way. Besides the material world that is studied by the natural sciences there also exists another world that is concealed from us. The science of Kabbalah studies this hidden world. We sense that this concealed world exists. Why without seeing this world do we still suspect that it exists? As we uncover only partial laws of the Universe, we understand that more complete laws must exist, ones that are more logical and are capable of explaining all aspects of our life. This means that something escapes our senses and is not currently being grasped by us.
We understand that if we had other sensory organs (for now we can not even imagine what kind) then we would obviously perceive the world differently. Our perception would be broader and deeper in some kind of other way. But we do not presently have such organs. This lack of knowledge of the laws of the universe causes a feeling of great discomfort within us. We suffer as we do not know how to correctly behave with each other and with nature, and we do not see the cycles of our life, death, and birth.
In the course of investigating the world, our knowledge always reaches a limit which prevents further advancement. There are many different methodologies that develop our ability to predict the future and go beyond the boundaries of regular perceptions, but they too, in general, add little. We are able to vaguely predict the future, but we cannot clearly perceive the world around us and properly interact with it. Man (which is seemingly such a developed being) feels even more helpless and lost as he continues to develop and progress. Ultimately it appears that scientific methodologies that investigate the environment do not actually achieve the desired goal. We are then forced to recognize that the root of the problem lies in the limitations of our sensory organs.
There exists a clear methodology that allows the development of an additional sensory organ: the “sixth sense” (it can be called the screen or reflected light). This organ allows us to see, feel and investigate the part of the Universe that is not perceivable through the regular five sense organs. The difference is that we receive the five senses at birth, however the sixth sense we have to gradually develop ourselves.
At some point in time man receives a specific sign from above. He begins to feel the necessity of developing this sixth organ, the necessity of experiencing the concealed or outer Universe. This happens gradually. Humanity and man develop according to different levels of desires: initially there is the desire for just the animal pleasures (sex, food, etc), then for wealth, power, rank, fame, knowledge, and after these emerge desires for the attainment of the Upper or spiritual realm. These last desires are those located beyond our regular perceptions.
This first desire to perceive that which is located beyond us is the seed of the sixth sense. After this it is up to the person to develop it. One cannot develop it by oneself. There exists a specific methodology that was given to mankind.
In every generation those people who receive from above the feeling of necessity to develop the sixth sense one way or another come to teachers and books and develop this feeling within themselves. They are called Kabbalists, meaning receiving the outer or higher information. They lay this information out in books, describe their perceptions, impressions, and pass on to us their experience and the methodology of how to realize the process of creating the sixth sense organ in order to come to this higher state. In principle, they talk about how man, having realized all his preceding desires for the animal pleasures, wealth, rank, fame, and knowledge, arrives at the necessity of attaining the outer or hidden universe.
Ultimately every person will come to this state, if not in this lifetime, then in the next. As a result of all lifetimes one must reach the state of existence beyond time and space, beyond the five sense organs, with a new organ of perception. This is essential in order to reach the state of eternity, universal peace, and boundless knowledge.
All Kabbalists pointed to our time as the point from which there will begin a mass assimilation of the spiritual realm, or a mass development of this sixth sense organ in man. Kabbalah studies the construction of our soul, its path, its descent from the highest state – the World of Infinity – through many worlds until “our world”. This path downward ended in the end of the last century (Kabbalists pointed the exact date – the years 1991-1995) and now the path upward has begun.
All Kabbalists existing before our time were just people who walked this path and prepared for us a methodology of ascent. We are the first wave, the first group of souls descending into this world which must begin to ascend in a mass order.
In our time the science of Kabbalah is becoming more and more popular, despite the fact that very few people understand what it is, why it is called a science, and why it reaches people in this way. However, the pull can already be seen, and it is perceived on the mass level, which is what Kabbalists foretold many centuries ago.
What should a person do when a clear desire to understand the highest knowledge emerges? One begins by developing the “point in the heart” (in Kabbalah this is what the desire is called) according to the methodology which Kabbalists assembled. After some time (this can take a few years) one will begin to gradually and increasingly feel the outer world. Only then one begins to understand the reasons behind everything that happens in our world. He already sees the picture of that, where all the signals from our actions, strengths, and thoughts are going to.
In order to see this picture, it is necessary to develop the sixth sense. In our five sense organs it is not perceivable. Our “I” – the true essence of man – is perceived only in the sixth sense. As soon as it develops man begins to feel what is called the “soul”. One begins to literally see thoughts and desires. One is able to perceive in what way they pass from him to other people, in what way he receives them and is under the influence of others, and how this connects in the whole universe with all of surrounding nature and descends back to us.
Man receives the opportunity to clearly envision the past, present, and future in real time. The concept of time disappears and ultimately one sees everything in absolutely equal and open manner. Besides vision, man begins to correctly evaluate what is happening. And most importantly, the opportunity emerges to influence the above control that from the outside governs us and our society. One is able to not only predict what is to come, but to literally change it. These abilities only emerge in a person to the extent to which he is able to overcome his egotistical nature and begin to think according to the laws of the Upper world.
All these things are real and they are absolutely accessible to all. Moreover, all of nature, or the common law of control of all creation, works in such a way that it constantly makes us move in the necessary direction. All mankind is unconsciously progressing, but the individual who begins to consciously move towards this goal (the attainment of the total Universe and life in its total volume) this person no longer feels the pressure of nature on him (i.e., suffering), and immediately the whole Universe seems filled with good instead of evil.