Entries in the 'Free Will' Category

Freedom—Liberation from Egoism

591The quality of freedom, which we receive as a result of spiritual work, is the desire to be above the desire to receive. That is, as one gets closer to the Creator, one falls under His influence and begins to transform all of one’s desires, intentions, and qualities to similarity of form to the Creator.

Question: Why is this called a quality of freedom, because it actually falls under the influence of the Creator?

Answer: Liberation from egoism is freedom for us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Freedom”

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Everything Is from the Creator

558Question: What should our thoughts be focused on to come to study the Torah, as it is said, day and night?

Answer: To do this you need to understand that everything that happens in us that arises in our thoughts and desires comes from the Creator, and we must only react correctly to this.

Question: If all thoughts and intentions are from the Creator, then the prayer given to me is also from Him. At all points I connect myself with Him. How can I outsmart and persuade Him to reveal Himself?

Answer: Beg, do not persuade or somehow deceive. Just ask, that is precisely where your freewill lies.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/19/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “A Thought Is a Result of the Desires”

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The Golden Rule of Decision-Making

202.0Question: There is a little puzzle, three frogs were sitting on a log, one decided to jump. How many frogs are left on the log?

Answer: This is an old puzzle. “Decided to jump” and “jumped” are not the same thing.

Question: Exactly! So, three frogs are still sitting on the log. Sometimes, we think we’ve jumped, but in reality, we’re still deciding whether to jump. I have a question: How do you make decisions correctly?

Answer: You can make a decision correctly if you absolutely know its outcome in advance and are already in that outcome. It’s like looking at the present from the future.

Question: So, you have to anticipate and foresee the result?

Answer: Absolutely! What else is a decision for? It’s a decision about the future.

Question: You sort of place yourself in it and then make the decision?

Answer: Of course.

Question: When you decide, do you have to jump right away? Is there any time for reflection?

Answer: If you have decided definitively, rechecked yourself, and conclusively decided, then you must act. Otherwise, every minute is a delay.

Question: Tell me, how do you reassess? Do you reassess yourself? Measure seven times…

Answer: No. I don’t know about seven times, but you have to assess. Because it shouldn’t depend on your momentary mood or any conditions. It should be a normal, firm decision.

Question: So, if you made the decision, after all these checks, you have to jump?

Answer: Yes.

Question: But what if you made the wrong decision? Checked everything, did everything, and made the wrong decision.

Answer: How do you know it’s wrong?

Comment: You ended up not where you wanted.

My Response: But that’s after the decision.

Comment: After I’ve already jumped.

My Response: After implementation?

Question: Yes, exactly. I realized I made the wrong decision. What should I do about it?

Answer: Do nothing.

Question: But I beat myself up over it! Checked everything, jumped, and everything’s wrong?!

Answer: There’s nothing you can do. Nothing more to do, nothing to blame.

Question: Don’t blame yourself?

Answer: No, under no circumstances!

Question: How do you not fall into doing so?

Answer: Attribute all that to the Creator.

Question: So, measure beforehand and after it happened…

Answer: The Creator did it. Absolutely clearly, the Creator.

Comment: That is, we have now come to the golden rule. I check everything…

My Response: I decide, I act, and the rest is up to the Creator.

Question: And then the result is the Creator?

Answer: Yes.

Question: No regrets, nothing?

Answer: Nothing. That’s how it was intended from the beginning.

Question: So, He was spinning me around from the start, I was reassessing it and it wasn’t me doing it? He was the one twisting me?

If one could live like this, there would be nothing to regret at all.

Answer: Then live like that.

Comment: “Live like that”! If only we could learn to live like that.

My Response: Don’t regret anything and don’t think about anything at all! Everything is arranged from above.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/11/23

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We Can’t Be Left Alone

963.4The eagle was sitting on a tree, resting, doing nothing. The little rabbit saw the eagle and asked: “Can I sit like you and do nothing?” “Of course, why not?” he answered. The rabbit sat down under a tree and began to rest. Suddenly a fox appeared, grabbed him and ate him. Moral: To sit and do nothing, you have to sit very, very high (Fable, source unknown).

My Response: Yes, but I don’t think this is the solution to the issue. And the eagle has problems; it has enemies, and it also must defend itself and imagine other conditions.

Question: So it still needs to keep an eye out?

Answer: Definitely. No living being can exist like this, without caring about anything.

Question: When can I allow myself to be at peace?

Answer: Only if, heaven forbid, you are dead.

Question: Is this peace?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: But you always say that the Creator is at rest. And we must move toward peace one way or another.

My Response: For us, this state is death, because we must kill ourselves, our egoism.

Question: Is this state what you mean?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So I have to kill my egoism? And my whole path is to kill it?

Answer: Yes.

Question: But we are all “rabbits”? We can’t be at rest. There is danger everywhere: on the right, on the left, everywhere?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So, you say that danger exists precisely because we are, as it were, attached to this egoism. How can we not be a rabbit?

Answer: To do this, we need to know exactly what awaits us, what we must sacrifice, and how to be free. That is, we must study the nature of our world, the nature of the higher world, and the paths of transition from one state to another.

Question: This, in principle, is education?

Answer: Yes. It is not simple. I must remake myself, become a person of the upper world.

Question: How does this peace begin?

Answer: With love your neighbor as yourself. And this is already the height of an eagle.

Question: That is, we can allow ourselves some initial, minimal repose if we come to this rule: love our neighbor as ourselves?

Answer: If we accept it at least theoretically.

Question: Do you think we do not even accept it theoretically?

Answer: No, of course not!

Comment: We talk about it all the time.

My Response: We are talking.

Question: Then what does it mean to accept it, at least theoretically?

Answer: Accept it, that is, begin to look for ways to master this law, this condition, look for how to get out of your egoism, and how to rise above your nature.

Question: To love and not to hate? Peace instead of war, good relationships instead of evil. Although you always say that human nature is different.

Answer: You can’t do anything. Especially in our time, we are already approaching this. We still have to somehow prepare ourselves to move to the next level.

Question: In your opinion, is humanity already at this stage and has lingered on the previous one, or not yet?

Answer: No! We are not at any stage yet!

Question: Have we not realized it, but maybe we are there?

Answer: No, on the contrary, we are beginning to realize what stage we are at and that it is far from ideal.

Question: So since our nature is different do we need to take a step into the abyss?

Answer: This is not a step into the abyss. These are rash actions; they are not welcomed by anyone. On the contrary, we must clearly understand what is in front of us and take an absolutely rational step forward.

Comment: So I know that in front of me is “love your neighbor as yourself,” and that is the only way I am going.

My Response: Yes.

Comment: There will be a lot of interference from all sides, naturally.

My Response: We can overcome them all if it is we.

Question: If it is not me, but we?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Could humanity make this decision at some point from great suffering or from what?

Answer: I have no idea.

Question: Then a small group can?

Answer: A small group can. And I cannot imagine that humanity can.

Question: Is it contagious if a small group comes to this?

Answer: This is the mission of the Jewish people: to become such a group and show all humanity that this is possible.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/30/23

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Wicked or Righteous?

228As our sages said (Nidah, 16b), and these are their words: “Rabbi Hanina Ben Papa said, ‘That angel appointed over pregnancy is called Laila [night]. He takes a drop, places it before the Creator, and says to Him, ‘Lord of the world, what shall become of this drop? A mighty one or a weakling, a wise or a fool, wealthy or poor?’ But wicked or righteous he did not say’” (Rabash, Article 10, “What Is the Degree One Should Achieve in Order Not to Have to Reincarnate?”).

That drop of semen from which a person emerges is practically neutral and contains everything. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, we understand what germs of good or evil actions we have and how we can speed up or slow down our good or evil development. In principle, this is what practical Kabbalah deals with.

Question: Does it mean that what kind of person one will be, strong or weak, smart or silly, rich or poor, does not depend on him?

Answer: It all depends on the drop of semen from which he develops. But a person determines whether he can influence his destiny through good actions. He must choose whether he will be righteous or wicked. This is his only choice, and everything else is already given in the drop of semen.

Question: In regards to what do we determine whether one is wicked or righteous?

Answer: Regarding the fulfillment of the commandments. Will he love other people, since “love your neighbor as yourself” is the basic law of the Torah, and will he treat the world this way?

That is, being wicked does not necessarily mean doing some kind of evil deed. It is enough that he simply thinks about himself, and this is already a sin.
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From KabTV’s “Practical Kabbalah” 1/2/24

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Don’t Be an Elephant Tied to a Post

424.02Question: Often, elephants are simply tied to a post with a thin rope. They are not in cages or shackles, yet they do not run away. Elephant owners say, “When the elephants are tiny, we tie them with the same rope. At this age, it is enough to prevent elephants from running away. And when they grow up, they believe they can’t just run away and never try to get free.”

We are probably tied to this world with a thin “string” since childhood and do not try to escape. What kind of string is this?

Answer: Habit.

Question: Or do I know that I can’t escape?

Answer: And that, too.

Question: Which is the greater factor?

Answer: I think that I won’t be able to escape.

Question: So, this world suppresses us?

Answer: Yes, initially.

Question: Please tell me why we are afraid to take a step. We know there is freedom somewhere, but we are still afraid to take this step.

Answer: To do this, we need to overcome ourselves, that is, all our habits, our attitude toward the world, all of this must somehow be annulled.

Question: Are we afraid?

Answer: Yes, it is animal instinct, just like the elephants.

Comment: Here we have a house. We have sustenance, but who knows what will happen there? You are calling us to break out, to take this step.

My Response: It is not me who is calling, but the great sages of Kabbalah say that we need to break out of this magnetism and rise above it. And then we will see another world and ourselves differently, and in general, all of life, the entire universe.

Question: Have they taken this step?

Answer: Yes.

Question: How did they have the courage to take this step?

Answer: It is not their courage. It was given to them by nature.

It is given to certain people from above, from their inner state, their inner content. Everyone else can follow their advice and accumulate a certain amount of energy that allows them to break out of this attraction.

Comment: You try to break out of this magnetism, you follow the Kabbalists, you follow what they say, and it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work—for years!

My Response: It is accumulative. This is a process of accumulating the necessary energy and efforts that will ultimately allow us to go beyond the limits of gravity.

Question: How can you not despair because so much time has passed?

Answer: We have no other way to leave this post to which we are tied with a “string.”

Question: That is, despite the time, although despair has already set in, you continue to try to take this step?

Answer: Certainly.

Question: And still, the question is: How not to despair?

Answer: There is no other way out.

Question: Should you come to this thought that there is no other way out?

Answer: Yes, there is no other way. You will be lucky, so to speak; you will accumulate strength and break free, break the “rope,” and run like a little elephant across the field of life. And if you are unlucky, you will remain on a string until next time.

Question: Isn’t the word “lucky” offensive?

Answer: We don’t know all the world’s laws, and that’s why we say it.

Question: What will help you double or triple your strength?

Answer: That is what we are studying. This is our unification, the study of the laws of the upper world. As a result, we accumulate a certain amount of energy to break out into a free orbit.

Question: Is a group escape more remarkable than a solo escape?

Answer: Yes, most likely.

Question: But is the escape of one person also possible?

Answer: We see this in the ancient Kabbalists and even in recent times, like Baal HaSulam and others. They were able to escape from selfish, earthly gravity.

Question: Please tell me why we believe this is so. After all, we haven’t escaped yet.

Answer: Because otherwise the essence of earthly life loses all foundation.

Question: Does earthly life make sense only if we take this step?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And that is what it exists for?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So, you say the meaning of life is to take this step and break away from this “string”?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What is this space that we enter when we break away?

Answer: This is a free space in which we can act according to its laws, the laws of this free space.

Question: What are they?

Answer: This is freedom from gravity, from egoism.

Question: Is gravity egoistic?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And when I’m freed, what’s there?

Answer: Free actions, free life, free-floating. Indeed, like an elephant in the air.

Question: So now all my actions are egoistic, I am being led, and am not free here? And there?

Answer: And there you are free.

Question: I secretly want this, don’t I?

Answer: I don’t think that’s what we want.

Comment: Everyone talks about freedom and somehow imagines it.

My Response: I don’t know why he needs freedom. He doesn’t know. He just wants to get away from his “rope.” Why? Quite possibly from childish stupidity. We don’t know what’s next either.

Question: But freedom is freedom from egoism?

Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/30/23

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Where Does “Blind Nature” Lead Us?

294.2We, the chosen species, with reason and knowledge, have become a toy in the hands of the blind nature, which leads us astray, and who knows where? (Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”)

Question: Igor writes: “I have a hundred questions about this one passage. Why does such a great Kabbalist, Baal HaSulam, call nature blind?”

Answer: Because it acts according to its own law and does not turn anywhere. And that is why such a movement is called blind.

Question: So it is still directed by someone or something, and it moves without changing. Is this called a “blind state”?

Answer: Yes.

Question: He asks: “Is it blind nature that has led us to war now?”

Answer: This is the so-called blind nature, yes. It controls our egoism, and it leads us constantly, constantly into contradictions among ourselves until we realize the harm of such relationships and want to correct them.

Question: It deliberately brings us into collisions, and the stronger the collision, the faster we realize something?

Answer: Of course.

Question: “How can those who have knowledge and intelligence, as it is written here, be called a toy in someone’s hands? After all, do they have intelligence and knowledge”? That is, us.

Answer: It does not matter. In fact, nature still controls them. It increases or decreases the egoism in each of us and in all of us together, and we are thus controlled.

Question: But do you agree that we are intelligent and knowledgeable?

Answer: Relatively. But not higher than our egoism.

Question: So it is higher than us? Does it decide everything?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Igor asks about the same sentence: “It says that we are being fooled. Somehow I really do not like this.”

Answer: We are shown how limited we are, how stubborn and unidirectional we are, and how we lead ourselves to bad results.

Question: That is, on one hand, they say that we are reasonable, but on the other hand, we can be fooled. Doesn’t this indicate some kind of contradiction, that we are not intelligent?

Answer: No. Our mind works only within very limited boundaries and in no way prevents us from being stupid egoists at the same time.

Question: Igor asks, “They say that it is unknown where it (nature) is leading us. You say all the time that it is known where it is leading us—to unity, love. Yes or no?”

Answer: Toward unity and love, but in a very tough way.

Question: We do not know where it leads?

Answer: Yes, because we are in continuous struggle with each other throughout life, throughout history.

Question: So our task is to succumb to blind nature?

Answer: No! What are we going to do with this? On the contrary, we need to find out that we are in the hands of blind nature and that the only thing we can do is to correct ourselves.

Question: Is this what it wants from us, blind nature?

Answer: Yes. Awareness of evil.

Question: Can we say that we are the ones who are blind?

Answer: Of course.

Question: And that is why we perceive nature blindly?

Answer: Yes. But we cannot do it any other way; it is very difficult.

Question: So, you have no complaints against humanity?

Answer: I have no complaints against anyone.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/6/23

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227Comment: Igor asks questions about Baal HaSulam’s article “The Freedom.”

Somehow this quote does not quite match with what you are saying. It is written in the article: “It turns out that there is no such thing as selfishness in the world, since no one here is free or stands in his own right.” How is there no egoism? You are saying we are all egoists.

My Response: No, this egoism is not ours, it is not our choice. It is our nature that is imposed on us. And of course, we have to seek ways to get rid of it and correct it.

For this, the science of Kabbalah exists. And if we gradually correct our nature, we will see that there is a way to rise above egoism and live according to different laws.

Question: So, when it is said that there is no egoism in the world because there is not a single free person here, does it mean that we should want to approach freedom? Otherwise, if you stop a person on the street, as you’ve been saying all along, and say, “You are an egoist,” he will say, “What do you mean, I am an egoist?” He has no awareness of evil.

When does this awareness come?

Answer: To achieve this, you have to start studying Kabbalah. And gradually, over the course of just a few months, a person begins to understand that selfishness guides him and he cannot escape from it anywhere, he is enslaved by it, and therefore the only one to blame is the Creator.

Question: Not myself, but the Creator?

Answer: Yes! Who created the ego?! So, it is said:”I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.” So, the only thing we have to do is to reveal our nature as selfish and to reveal the method of correcting our nature as Torah.

Question: Meaning that when I feel bad and I understand that this is because of my egoism, I blame the Creator for this and not myself?

Answer: You can blame the Creator. But, in principle, the Creator does not run anywhere from this responsibility. He says: “The light in the Torah reforms him; the Torah is the light of Torah, which reforms a person,” and why I have made you egoists; and for you to correct yourself, you must study yourself and agree that it is precisely this attitude toward the world as evil and the opportunity to correct the world that are in your hands.

Question: Why does it take millennia for humanity to get to this form?

Answer: It does not want it. It does not want to look in this direction.

Question: It does not want to look within itself? And millennia of wars, suffering, blood, everything, everything are needed?

Answer: All of this is part of the correction process. It is us who count everything by days, hours, weeks and so on, but the Creator has no time.

Question: So, you are saying that there is no history as such? History does not exist?

Answer: There is, but all of it eventually is connected to the general correction nonetheless.

Question: Meaning, it is a force that accumulates? And only for this one solution: The evil is in me and I should correct it?

Answer: Of course, and nothing else is needed besides that.

Question: It is amazing of course! All historians and archaeologists are engaged in history, archaeology, and sciences digging out how we came to be: the Big Bang.And, in essence, it turns out that everything converges to one point.

Are all these sciences necessary, in your opinion?

Answer: No. If we had right away engaged in what is necessary, correcting ourselves and uniting, then we would not have needed all of this.

Question: In other words, we don’t really need all the knowledge?

Answer: No. We would have learned everything from nature itself.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/6/23

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We Can Live Without Wars

963.4Igor writes:

Now I am reading the Baal HaSulam’s article “The Freedom.” Cool article! It is as if he wrote it today. And a lot of questions arise.

Here, for example, it is written: “…we must be watchful not to bring the views of people so close that disagreement and criticism among the wise and scholarly might be terminated, for the love of the body naturally brings with it proximity of views. And should criticism and disagreement vanish, all progress in concepts and ideas will cease, as well, and the source of knowledge in the world will dry out.”

Question: But isn’t it because of disagreements that all these wars are happening today? Wouldn’t it be better if there were no disagreements?”

Answer: No. Then everything would be very unilateral, one-sided. Without contradictions, humanity would not be able to move forward and develop.

Comment: So, in principle, all these wars are necessary?

My Response: I am not talking about wars. Everything can be settled by other methods. You do not have to fight right away!

Question: Why do we always want to resolve disagreements with wars and drastic decisions?

Answer: Like little children, this is what humanity looks like today.

Question: Baal HaSulam is talking about completely different solutions?

Answer: Absolutely about all disagreements! We need to decide everything when we sit together and discuss.

Question: Igor writes further: “But there are no people who would like criticism. People lie when they say the opposite. Is it possible to educate a person so that he will want criticism?”

Answer: Of course. Contradictions are where truth is revealed.

Question: So you can accept criticism?

Answer: Without criticism, how can a person develop?

Question: You even want it, it turns out?

Answer: I do want it, of course.

Question: And you do not resist it?

Answer: I do not resist at all. On the contrary. The more criticism, the more opinions and disagreements, the more can be revealed: who, where, how, and why in this way did the Creator create society, man, and us in such a contradictory form. And only in this way is the truth comprehended.

Question: So you are saying that what a person should desire is a result of criticism?

Answer: Truth is learned through argument.

Question: Next. “Why, having declared at the beginning that criticism is creative, we later come to the point of destroying it?”

Answer: Because everyone likes to put pressure on the other until he agrees. And if he does not agree, I will kill him.

You see how everything is done in the world. Our egoism prevails over all other opportunities to discuss and grow.

Comment: But on the other hand, we say that egoism is our nature. It must stick out.

My Response: After all, we have to correct it somehow.

Question: So our task all the time is to saddle it?

Answer: Yes.

Question: When is criticism constructive and when is it destructive?

Answer: You can see it from here. When it leads to mutual discussion and ultimately agreement, it is positive. And when it leads to contradictions, even to the point of war and destruction, then of course, it is harmful.

Comment: But humanity always comes after all the wars…

My Response: And that is egoism, which we do not work with. There is nothing you can do about it.

Comment: But after the wars, it comes to the conclusion that it is advisable to sit, talk, discuss.

My Response: This is because war still gives some kind of awareness of evil. But then again.

Question: “If you come to internal criticism, does the external one disappear?” asks Igor. “So we can say that external criticism is an indicator that internal criticism is absent? Is this true or not?”

Answer: Yes, yes.

Question: And the question: “What happens in a corrected world full of goodness, love, as you say? Is there criticism there?”

Answer: It all depends on a person’s upbringing and how he educates himself.

Question: Here we have come to a world that is full of love and kindness. We are heading there. Are there any criticisms there?

Answer: There is criticism, of course. Necessarily. There are a huge number of opinions and contradictions, but all this is discussed and constantly brought to some common denominator along which all of humanity advances.

This is what is called that everything is decided at the level of love.

Question: “Love will cover everything”—is this what they say? Is this how things work in a corrected world?

Answer: Of course. And only over disagreements, disagreements remain.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/6/23

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See a World Full of Prosperity

715Question: Why is it possible to come to absolute love and bestowal only after the shattering?

Answer: We would otherwise not feel how truly egoistic and broken the state we are in is. It is from our distancing from each other that we begin to realize how much we need to be connected.

This is all necessary for a conscious process, for freedom of choice. If we existed only in the light itself, we simply would not feel that light.

Question: How long should this take? Does nature have a deadline?

Answer: Nature has no time and no deadlines. But in principle, we are already quite close to realization.

As our great teacher Baal HaSulam writes, we are in a process called “the last generation.” It is quite possible that we will yet see the world shifting from receiving to giving, from hatred to love.
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From KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 10/10/23

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