How so? Because our world only exists in our perception.

The below video, taken from Rav Laitman’s daily Kabbalah lesson, describes what happens to our world when humanity, as a whole, rises to a new level of perception.

Find Out More About Kabbalah and Our Perception:
* Video – Introduction to Kabbalah
* Video – Kabbalah, Science and the Perception of Reality
* Kabbalah Today Article – I Saw a Reversed World
* Kabbalah Today Article – Our World Is an Illusion—See for Yourself
* Kabbalah Today Article – Garden of Eden / The Revival of the Dead

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“Kabbalah is not for believing. The first rule in Kabbalah, which first of all is a science, says: ‘The judge has only what his eyes can see.’ Meaning, everything comes through experimentation, study, and observing for yourself.”
- Rav Michael Laitman, PhD in the video clip “Reincarnation.”

The following list of materials deals with the attainment of reality, a fundamental concept in the science of Kabbalah:

“Perceiving Reality” Video Clips:
* Belief – Do I Have to Believe in God to Live a Spiritual Life?
* Consciousness – What States of Consciousness Have Other People Achieved?
* Kabbalah – What Is the Essence of Kabbalah?

Articles in the Kabbalah Today publication:
* Baal HaSulam on the Perception of Reality – “That which we cannot feel, we also cannot imagine… We attain only manifestations and reflections of operations that stem from the essences.” – Baal HaSulam
* I Saw a Reversed World – Spirituality is an opposite world to our current reality, and it needs to be seen to be believed.
* Living the Spiritual Dream World – When we discover our true state of existence, we’ll see that our current state is just a dream.

Articles by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD:
* The Science of Kabbalah: A Method for Researching Man and the World – Kabbalah consists of a number of areas of study, though all of them talk about the attainment of the Single Field – the Common Law of Creation.
* Body and Soul – The science of Kabbalah is intended for revelation of the Upper World to the same extent of clarity and reliability as the earthly sciences reveal our world to us.
* Matter and Form in Kabbalah – The science of Kabbalah subdivides into two parts: the knowledge of matter and the knowledge of a form. However, unlike conventional science, even the knowledge of a form in the science of Kabbalah is based entirely on scientific research and practical experience.

Recommended Book by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD on the perception and attainment of reality:
* Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life – Free PDF Download | Purchase

Articles by Baal HaSulam:
* Preface to the Book of Zohar
* Matter and Form in the Science of Kabbalah
* The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy

Lessons by Rav Laitman on Baal HaSulam’s Article “Preface to the Book of Zohar” [approx. 90 min. each]:
1. wmv video | mp3 audio (9 November, 2007)
2. wmv video | mp3 audio (16 November, 2007)
3. wmv video | mp3 audio (23 November, 2007)
4. wmv video | mp3 audio (30 November, 2007)
5. wmv video | mp3 audio (7 December, 2007)

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I Saw a Reversed World

What is reality? How do we perceive it? Does it exist without us, or is it a picture created within us, depending on our inner qualities?

It seems obvious—reality is everything we see around us: houses, people, the entire universe…. Reality is what we can see, touch, hear, taste and smell. This is reality. Or is it? more…

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After a month of public lectures and interviews with the media across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and finishing by attending the 4th World Wisdom Council conference in Monterrey, Rav Michael Laitman, PhD has returned to giving the daily lessons, aired live from the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education Center in Israel (viewable daily on Kabbalah TV, 8:15pm EST, 6 days per week).

This video was taken from today’s first lesson, on the 113th article from Rabash’s notebook Shamati (I Heard). Rav Michael Laitman, PhD answered a student’s question on prayer and the perception of reality, talking about confusions that arise when working to make the shift from a corporeal perception of reality to a spiritual one.

Click Here to Download the Full English Text Translation of Shamati (I Heard)

Download this Lesson: wmv video | mp3 audio (58 min)

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QUESTIONYOURREALITY.com – the world’s first ever interactive video FAQ site on authentic Kabbalah, spirituality, world crisis and natural law.

QUESTIONYOURREALITY.com uses cutting edge flash video to deliver the authentic wisdom of Kabbalah in an entertaining, informative and dynamic fashion.

Choose from 5 categories of questions, asked by people off the streets, and receive answers and guidance to free further study on the topics.

Click here to go directly to QUESTIONYOURREALITY.com

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From Today’s Daily Lesson

What is Spirituality?

Philosophy has gone through a great deal of trouble to prove that corporeality is the offspring of spirituality and that the soul begets the body. Still, their words are not acceptable to the heart in any manner. Their primary mistake is their erroneous perception of spirituality, that spirituality fathered corporeality, which is certainly a fib.

Opening paragraph from Baal HaSulam’s “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy.”

Today’s daily lesson featured Baal HaSulam’s article “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy” with commentary by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD, and with an onslaught of questions by the students of Bnei Baruch.

The lessons will be continuing daily at 10pm EST on Kabbalah TV, and will be available in the Kabbalah Media Archive.

Download the full lesson: wmv video | mp3 audio

Rav Michael Laitman, PhD explains how it is possible to study the connection between the physical and spiritual worlds only if you both live in the five senses, in the body, and in addition have developed the sixth sense, the soul.

Click here to view the video at Kabbalah TV

Rav Michael Laitman, PhD states that the only reason we perceive miracles is because we have an incomplete perception of nature, and that by attaining a complete perception of nature, we would not perceive miracles as “miracles,” but as preordained events in nature’s plan. Jeffrey Satinover MS, MD continues by giving a scientific example of a miracle stemming from an incomplete perception of nature.

Click here to view the video at Kabbalah TV

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Click here to view the video at Kabbalah TV

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“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Thomas Jefferson, final draft for the United States Declaration of Independence.

“The idea that it’s ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’ and not ‘life, liberty and happiness’ is that the elusive nature of happiness is such that all someone can ever give to you is the opportunity to pursue.”

Will Smith on Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness (taken from The Pursuit of Happyness official site)

The Pursuit of Happiness

The Pursuit of Happyness is a film about Chris Gardner (played by Will Smith), a man who in unfortunate circumstances (homeless and financially insecure) struggled to earn financial and domestic stability for himself and his son. The Pursuit of Happyness has been received warmly by the American public as an inspirational tale of determination, courage and hard work (i.e. the pursuit of happiness), that by using these qualities one can achieve a better life (i.e. achieve happiness).

“Happiness” is portrayed in this film as a better state than what we already have, and “the pursuit of happiness” is the path we must endure to achieve happiness. In particular, Chris Gardner defines happiness as a state of financial and domestic stability for himself and his son. We can all relate to this goal, especially if we already have these comforts, and look upon being homeless as a lesser standard of life that must be overcome.

The Problem with the Pursuit of Happiness

A major problem with us today is that many of us already have these comforts, but still aren’t happy. We have our security, and simply living securely isn’t good enough and we want more.

Ironically, if Chris Gardner were already living securely, with a comfortable home, good job and family, and strove to make more money for a bigger house and a flashier car, and then if he continued fiercely striving for more power and respect, we would no longer consider this an inspiring story of determination and courage, but one of ambitiousness and greed.

Such a story is more characteristic of The Godfather than The Pursuit of Happyness! However, in both cases and in every area of human life, we can conclude that everyone is involved in this very same aspiration to a better state of life, in the pursuit of happiness.

What is at the Source of the Pursuit of Happiness?

This common pursuit of happiness is that we all view our current situation as lacking something, and need to work (we need to pursue…) in order to fulfill this lack (we need to pursue happiness). Right now, take a moment to think about what you want. Just by thinking about it, you’re already feeling that you are lacking this thing and you need to do something to achieve it.

This brings us to the question: What is at the source of this pursuit of happiness? What makes us happy?

That one person pictures to himself a secure family life as happiness, and another pictures love for another person as happiness, and another pictures a huge amount of wealth and power as happiness, and for another it’s a new dress, CD, car or gadget… to all this we can pose a conclusion: that it is not the money, the respect, the power, the food, or anything that we picture to ourselves that makes us happy… that before all these things, we have desires for them—we want them—and only the moment when we fulfill our desires is when we feel happiness.

Now that we understand that it is not money, food, family, sex, knowledge, honor, power or any physical thing we can picture to ourselves that makes us happy, but the act of fulfilling our desires, we can start learning how to also take part in this pursuit of happiness, directly at its source—desire and its fulfillment.

Where am I and Where are Others in the Pursuit of Happiness?

The thing with all these desires is that none of them leave us with a true feeling of happiness. Why? It is because precisely at the moment when we fulfill them, they disappear. New desires then enter us and force us to pursue their demands. It is as if we are constantly in the pursuit of happiness, and we either never reach happiness, or the moment we do, it immediately slips through our fingers.

The reason for this is because the whole time we are only trying to fulfill one person—me. In other words, our desires are all self-aimed, and can never be lastingly fulfilled. However, we constantly find ourselves yearning toward something better, something lasting and eternal, and feel that somehow, somewhere, it has to exist.

The trick to achieving true happiness is precisely the opposite of what we’re accustomed to thinking: we cannot achieve true happiness by trying to fulfill our own desires, but only through pursuing the fulfillment of others’ desires. In other words, we need to feel that the more others are happy, the more we are happy. We need a desire that grows and expands when it is fulfilled, drawing more and more fulfillment, and through this desire I feel happiness from making others happy. This is a desire for unlimited, endless happiness. We all have this desire, but we just don’t know how to fulfill it yet; we don’t know how to pursue it.

If we return to what Will Smith said at the beginning of the article, that “the elusive nature of happiness is such that all someone can ever give to you is the opportunity to pursue”—the wisdom of Kabbalah is the method which gives us the opportunity to achieve unlimited happiness. It is a time-tested method of discovering happiness fulfilling others, and guides us in learning how precisely to fulfill others so that they will become happier and happier. Our happiness then multiplies by the amount that we are able to fulfill others and make them happier.

To find out more about this desire for unlimited happiness and how to fulfill it, check out the following videos and links:

Why Am I Never Satisfied? 04:37
Our inborn egoistic state never allows us to be completely satisfied. Perceiving Reality describes what we should do with our ego in order to experience boundless, complete and ever-expanding satisfaction.
Click here to view the video at Kabbalah TV

Development of Desires 04:59
An outline of all the desires we have, and how our desires develop.
Click here to view the video at Kabbalah TV

Click here to read a review on this article at Squidoo

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Journalist and anchorman Vladimir Molchanov interviews Rav Michael Laitman, PhD on the purpose of egoism, the situation with Israel in relation to its neighboring Muslim countries, the restoration of Nazi regimes, the behavior and practise of religious leaders, the increase of hatred, Kabbalah as a supranational concept, how Rav Laitman began studying Kabbalah, the laws of nature, the use of science in the world and its relation to Kabbalah, the spiritual root of political unacceptance of drug legalization, Kabbalah’s view on new-age gurus and movements, Zephath as a Kabbalistic center, Kabbalah’s view on amulets and icons as symbols of faith, the upbringing and education of children, the reason for Kabbalah’s widespread dissemination today and the sixth sense.

Click here to read full interview

This is a section of the interview, on the laws of nature:

V. Molchanov: You claim that there exist objective laws of society, and no one, including Bush or Stalin, can do anything. What are these laws? Are the millions of people who were destroyed by Stalin and Hitler a consequence of these objective laws? Do they fall into these laws?

Rav Laitman: Unfortunately, yes. If we talk about laws, we need to part from our feelings. We just need to learn what happens with the forces that influence our world.

The picture is the following: a single, all-encompassing and absolutely altruistic force directing humanity toward equivalence with it. Like any physical force, it performs actions without taking our feelings into account. This is the state we are in.

You are talking about a kind God, feelings, and the fact that He takes care of His creatures. There is no such thing. Objective laws of nature are described in Kabbalistic sources, as well as in my books and our translations, which are all recitations of old books. A scientific description of Kabbalistic knowledge was first done in the times of ancient Babylon, when Sefer Yetzira (The Book of Creation) was written. This whole conception, the whole scheme of Upper governance, is already described there.

If we look at what is happening to us from aside, not like creatures that experience various feelings and suffering, we will see that it is the influence of forces. And they will continue to lead us further ahead in this manner. If we don’t come to understand them, and if we don’t begin to know precisely how to act, like in physics or chemistry, how to implement and realize these laws with a benefit to us, we will continue to suffer further. more…

Click here to read full interview

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“Envy, lust, and honor bring a man out of the world” (Mishnah, Avot 4:21), Kabbalah explains that this declaration made by the Mishnah sages isn’t meant in a bad way. On the contrary, it means that if you know how to work with these desires, they will elevate you beyond your present reality, your present world, and let you into the spiritual world.

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Rav Michael Laitman, PhD describes the terms “Tikkun” (Correction) and “prayer” in Kabbalah, how one relates to another, and what the purpose of prayer is in Kabbalah.

Click here to read article

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In today’s lesson on Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot), Rav Laitman defined “spirituality” and “soul” in relation to a student’s question (19:00).

Student:What’s the difference between the 6,000 years and the 600,000 souls? Does it have the same weight?

Rav Laitman: You think about spirituality as if it’s defined and deterministic like corporeality: “Here is a cup, so I call it ‘a cup,’ and there is a book, so I call it ‘a book’… and ‘a soul is a soul’”…

There is no such thing in spirituality.

Spirituality is only the interweaving of forces and nothing else.

You’re a building engineer and have bricks on the mind (laughter). Ask a person who works with computers if he or she can define what’s inside the computer. Ask this person what matter he/she’s dealing with… It’s evasive. Where is matter within the computer? There’s RAM and different memories being burned, the existence of movements and connections of things creating different forms out of themselves… this is how it is in spirituality.

Spirituality is a multitude of different forces and vectors, connecting among themselves, creating new forms time after time until they reach their initial form—the adhesion of the creature with the Creator. This has been preplanned and already exists in the Rosh (mind), because the end of the action is in its initial thought. Moreover, we need to reach this.

Until we do reach this, all these forces and vectors operate in the billions—an infinity of forms and connections among them.

Where is the soul in this picture? Time after time, consciously and unconsciously, and in each and every one of us, there is a renewal. We live this renewal of these forces; we sense and live in a part of it, and there is a part we don’t sense.

You are a multitude of forces, interconnecting and operating, but what do you perceive out of this magnificent totality? You only perceive a very small, primitive stratum, and this is what you call “I am Gaby,” “I am Michael,” “he is Nesse” and so on. We name and sense ourselves like this.

Internally, however, each and every one of us is a soul. What is the soul? It is the entire Kli (vessel/receptacle) of Infinity and we have to find out how this Kli is adhered to its Creator.

In the meantime, I discover something tiny, false and opposite called “a dream.” The sages who have reached this vision say about it “I have seen an opposite world.”

We don’t feel anything of this great reality. It’s like you have a great big balloon. This balloon is you adhered to the Creator. You only feel a spot on this balloon, and you call this spot yourself, your life and your world. Within this balloon are a constantly renewing interconnection, circulation and revolution of forces. And at each moment, at each second, you can define this as a new soul, a different soul. There is a unique connection between these forces, in their resemblance to their Creator, in their fulfillment and absence of fulfillment. There is no such thing as a defined soul.

You may tell me: “Maybe you’re right, but I read in the book Shaar HaGilgulim (The Gate of Reincarnations) different stories about the soul coming from one person who was a merchant, and later on to another person who was righteous, and then to a third person who was a thief, and a fourth person who was something and someone else…” So is a soul something defined in a person or not? We thus need to understand these stories, because this Hollywood-like storytelling version is far from understanding what is really written there. So for the time being, you can take that in each and every stage there is a change, a new soul. And so it is written “each day a man is a new man.”

Rav Michael Laitman, PhD in the lesson of Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot), Volume 6, Part 16 (May 3, 2007): wmv video | mp3 audio (38 min)

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All human suffering is a result of having one need unfulfilled:
the need to perceive and unite with the Creator.
Click here to read the article

United Press International (May 1, 2007): In this article, Rav Michael Laitman, PhD raises the argument that all suffering is only a result of lacking the perception of the source of the suffering – the Creator: “The only element lacking in our world is the perception of the Creator. All we need is to fulfill this lack, and therein is the key to a perfect life, free from suffering and full of bliss.”

Rav Laitman continues by discussing the reason for the Creator’s concealment and how Kabbalah is emerging today as the user-manual for revealing the Creator.

From the article:
“How much easier would life be if the Creator were not hidden, but were clearly perceived and seen by every one of us? With such a perception, we would have no doubts about His existence. We would be able to observe the outcomes of His Providence on the surrounding world; we would know the cause and the purpose of our creation; we would clearly see the results of our actions and His reactions to them. If we could see Him, we would share our problems with Him, ask for His counsel and assistance, complain to Him about our troubles, and ask Him to explain why He treats us as He does.” —
Click here to read the article

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