Who am I and for what purpose do I exist? How have we appeared here and where do we go? Isn't it possible that we have already been in this world before? Can we know ourselves and the universe? Why man suffers and is it possible to avoid the suffering? How to find the peace, the satisfaction, the luck? How can we attain tranquility, fullfilment, happiness?


Many people in every generation attempt to find answers to these persistantly haunting questions, and the very fact that this happens from generation to generation signals that we still have not found satisfactory answers. Studying nature, the cosmos, we find that all that surrounds us exists and functions in accordance with strict, purposeful laws. Regarding ourselves as the crown of nature's creation, we find humanity to be as if it were outside this system. For instance, seeing in what wise and logical manner nature created each part of our organism, seeing the precise purpose in the functioning of each cell of the body, we are unable to answer the question: what is the purpose of all this living organism.

All that surrounds us is permeated by the cause and effect relation: nothing is created without a purpose, in the world of physical bodies there exists definite laws of motion, dynamics, rotation. A similar logic exists in the plant and animal kingdom. But the primary question, i.e. for what purpose does all this exist, that is, not only ourselves but also the entire world surrounding us - still remains without an answer. Is there a person in the world who was never, at least once in his life, concerned with this question? The existing scientific theories maintain that the world is governed by invariable physical laws which we are unable to affect. Our sole purpose consists in wisely utilising those laws to live out well some 70 to 120 year of our life, preparing the ground, both literally and figuratively, for future generations. But for the sake of what? "Did humanity develop by way of evolution of the simplest forms?" or "Was life brought from other planets?" or...but that has no relevance.


There are two dates - birth and death, and what occurs between them is unique and, therefore, precious. Or vice versa: life is nothing if after it there is an end, darkness, precipice. Where is the wise, all-envisioning, logical Nature, that creates nothing in vain? Or, do there exist laws and goals still undiscovered? Our studying of the world is in essence merely the studying of the world's reaction to our actions, which we perceive by our five senses: touch, smell, sight, hearing, and taste, or by instruments that increase their range . All that is beyond our studies is not perceived by us at all, it does not exist as far as we are concerned. Moreover, we are unable to miss the lacking senses, the way we do not miss a sixth finger or the way it is impossible to explain eyesight to one born blind. For this reason man will never discover hidden forms of nature by the methods at his disposal.

According to the Kabbalah, the spiritual world exists but not perceived by our organs of sense; our Universe is a tiny part of this world located in the center and our planet, the Earth, is its inner centre. This world of information, thoughts and feelings, affecting us through material laws of (perceptible) nature and chance, places us in certain situations that determine the way we act. We have no influence in matters like the time and place of our birth, or who we are going to be, whom we are going to meet in our life, what consequences our actions are going to have.


According to the Kabbalah, there are four kinds of Knowledge, available to man, and he must comprehend it.

The Creation: Study of the creation and the development of the worlds: how the Creator has created it, how the spiritual and the material worlds interact, what's the purpose of the human's creation.

The Functioning: Study of human nature, of the connection with the spiritual world, known and so called Practical Kabbalah.

The circuit of the souls : Study of nature of each soul and its circuits. How man acts in this life and in the following ones. what's the purpose for descent of a soul into a body and why the certain body gets a certain soul. The history of mankind as the result of the certain order and the transference of the souls are discussed as well.

The Rule : Study of our world - inanimate objects, plants and animals, their nature and role; how are they ruled from the spiritual world. The supreme rule and our perception of the Nature, of the Time, of the Space. Study of the supreme powers moving the material bodies to the certain aim (point). Is it possible to divine the main mystery of the human life without asking about its source? Each man tries to think about it.


A quest for the purpose and sense of an individual life, as well as of the life of humanity at large is the central question of man's spiritual life. Since mid-20th century, we have been witnessing a rebirth of mankind's religious orientation. Technological progress and the world cataclysms that have given rise to all kinds of philosophical theories have given man no spiritual satisfaction. As the Kabbalah explains it, of all existing pleasures our world received just one tiny spark. Its presence in material objects gives us pleasure. In other words, all agreeable sensations that man experiences in different situations and that are caused by different things are, in fact, due just to the presence of this spark. Furthermore, as time passes, man has to keep seeking out new objects of pleasure in the hope of experiencing greater and greater pleasures, little knowing that all those objects are but outer shells and that the essence of Ner dakik remains the same. And there are two ways of bringing man to absolute satisfaction through his realizing the need for elevating spirit over matter:

(1) The way of the Kabbalah
(2) The way of suffering

The first way is the study of Kabbalah, while through such study man, little by little, gets free from his egoism.
The second way is usual: suddenly feeling a kind of spiritual hunger and looking for a source of satisfaction. we can only advise the readers to choose the way of the Kabbalah in time not waiting for the way of the distresses.

Based on works of the prominent kabbalist Rabbi Ashlag (1885-1955)



Kabbalah


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