ONE Convention Preparation: Special Q&A Session with Dr. Michael Laitman
April 26, 2024
Archive for July, 2014
At Last, an Introduction to the Secret Laws of Nature and What They Mean to Your Life!
Why Some Laws of Nature are Apparent and Others are Not
We live in a world we know only partially. There are many rules in Nature, some of which we discover easily because they are evident from our own existence. The law of gravity, for instance, is evident because when we try to fly without the proper instruments we fall right back to Earth.
Some laws apply only to Earth and some also apply to space. Some of these rules are perceived through our senses and our bodies, but there are other laws, such as the laws of radiation, whose action we cannot feel. We can only see the phenomena they produce. We cannot perceive, hear, or see waves, but we do recognize their effects.
There are other rules whose effects we do not know. At times we feel certain phenomena, but we cannot clearly identify their origins. Either way, our experiences demonstrate that if we knew all the rules that affect the world, we might be happy and successful.
How Society Is Organized according to Nature’s Laws
Some rules we learn from experience, some rules of behavior children pick up from their parents, their friends, the environment, and the general society. The rules we learn by education are not innately known to us. It is not clear that this is how they actually exist in the world, but our educators persuade us in various ways that it is so, and that this is a path worth treading. If children could see for themselves that something was wrong, they would not do it.
What Does Kabbalah Have to Say about Free Will?
How to Find the Point of Free Choice in Life
We believe that we have many possible futures to choose from. But choosing means seeing the future, so what is this choice based on? How does one know which future is best? If we could see the result of choosing one option and the result of choosing another option, we would know which was better. But in truth, there are no options to choose from whatsoever.
A certain Reshimo awakens within a certain will to receive, meaning within a certain person situated in a certain environment. Subsequently, that person realizes the Reshimo, accumulating further impressions from life’s events.
If we realized that we are only marionettes, and that at the same time we can change our future, we would then be at a point of choice. In other words, we could then choose an environment that would influence us positively and assist in our spiritual development. Such an environment would help us realize that Reshimo in the same direction and the same preexisting ladder, but we would do it willingly, instead of under pressure.
What a Positive Social Environment Can Do for a Person’s Development
In any given state, the Reshimo in the awakened will to receive, and the environment are all predetermined. Even if one had an urge to realize the Reshimo, this urge would stem from within; and even if one used the environment to accelerate the unfolding of the Reshimo, it would only shorten the predetermined unfolding period.
If the Spiritual Reality has Qualities that are Opposite to Our World, then How Can a Person Discover It?
A Quick Rundown of How Kabbalah Speeds Up a Person’s Entrance into the Spiritual Reality
The difference between the revealed and the concealed in this world and the spiritual world is only with respect to us. Everything we still do not know—in this world, as well—is called “concealed.” If what is unknown becomes known, it becomes revealed. Thus, at any given moment we are in both the revealed and the concealed. The difference between this world and the spiritual world is in the way we acquire forms and patterns of perceiving reality.
The spiritual world is a reality where the patterns to perceive it do not come naturally, from within us or from the environment. Because the spiritual reality abides by opposite laws than our natural laws, where we presently exist, the spiritual world requires that we invert our attitudes. But where can we find the “opposite” strength to build “opposite forms”?
Such an inversion requires a special process, called Segula (merit). Segula refers to an indirect process that traverses the Upper System, and then returns to the individual. Using Kabbalah studies, one draws nearer to the Upper, altruistic Thought. This Thought does not act upon the will to receive, or upon the ego, but rather on the altruistic point—the point in the heart.
Utilizing the Point of Contact with the Spiritual Reality to Advance towards It
The similarity of nature between the point in the heart and the Upper Thought creates a connection between them, and they possess the same nature. The Upper Thought acts upon the point and molds it into various patterns, which we perceive as seeming to exist outside of us, in the spiritual realm.
