New Life #358 – The Good Life Channel: Humor And Mood
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What makes us laugh, what will we find if we learn to laugh at ourselves and how will the ability to laugh at human nature help us create a connection between us?

Summary

Humor leads us to dress up as all kinds of characters, freeing us from our seriousness. Through humor and jokes it is possible to educate and learn in a way that will be remembered by the learner.

Laughter is contagious; it lowers tension and relieves stress. We laugh because of unexpected phenomena. Humor and laughter must always come from love; otherwise, it hurts someone. An example is the use of gentle humor in relationships between couples.

It is worthwhile for a person to laugh about his weaknesses sometimes. Don’t “play” at being perfect.

As a society, we can laugh at our egoistic nature that prevents us from connecting with each other.
[147415]
From KabTV’s “New Life #358 – The Good Life Channel: Humor And Mood,” 4/24/14

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Question: Is there any connection between the spiritual world and the corporeal world, between the body and the soul?

Answer: There is no connection, unless perhaps when we are worried or persecuted. Then certain changes take place under the pressure and tension, but nothing more than that. Our body is an animal and there is nothing spiritual about it. Today we can easily replace all its organs. And as for the soul, if there is a soul, it remains, and if there is no soul, nothing changes.

Question: What is the function of the brain? Is it ours or do we belong to it?

Answer: The brain is like a modem that connects us with the upper mind on its basic level, which means with a minimal connection. In fact there is nothing in the brain but grey matter.

Question: But after all, we say, a wise man, the crown of nature…

Answer: They used to say that in the past, but I don’t hear such expressions anymore today. We are already ashamed of ourselves. Fifty years ago we still believed that we would grow wise and reach great accomplishments, but now everything has collapsed.
[182020]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/21/16

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Torah, “Numbers,” 35:33: And you shall not corrupt the land in which you live, for the blood corrupts the land, and the blood which is shed in the land cannot be atoned for except through the blood of the one who shed it.

The land is the connection between us through which water flows, the Light of Hassadim. We necessarily have to interact so that between us only good attitudes to each other will flow.

Torah, “Numbers,” 35:34: And you shall not defile the land where you reside, in which I dwell, for I am the Lord Who dwells among the children of Israel.

In the network of connections between souls is the Creator. We need to build the network of such a power that we begin to feel Him. The power with which we begin to feel the Creator is called a spiritual degree. In total there are 125 degrees in the increasing formation of the connection between us, and in this the feeling of the Creator increases.

It turns out that we are called the children of Israel only if we build this network. Otherwise, we are nobody. For if we exist separately, we are animals and even worse because animals instinctively are correctly connected with each other and we are not.
[182717]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/16/15

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Question: In what way is the wisdom of Kabbalah different from psychology?

Answer: Psychology is not a science because it cannot measure the internal parameters of a person.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, a person can arrange internal changes and see how the world that he perceives changes. It follows that it is not the world that is changed; rather we are the ones who change.

We think that we run the world and are investigating it, but actually, when we begin to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, we see that we are not investigating the world but ourselves, seeing the inner changes and how according to them the world that we perceives changes.

From this is derived that the world is not changed, but only we are the ones who are changed. We think that we manage the world and investigate it, but in fact, when we begin to learn the wisdom of Kabbalah, we see that we don’t investigate the world but ourselves, our disturbances, changes, reactions, and so forth. Externally, only one permanent parameter exists and this is the Upper Light.

Comment: Psychology also investigates the reactions of a person to the external world.

Answer: Psychology cannot measure anything, even though it is somewhat “correct.” Therefore Baal HaSulam welcomed materialistic psychology. He believed that it would inflict a final “blow” to religions, mysticism, various spiritual pursuits, as well as philosophies that invent anything from unverified data.

In contrast, the wisdom of Kabbalah says that there is one and only one force, one and only one parameter, that is immutable and absolute in relation to which we are changing. This is the Upper Light. And since we are made in a particular set of properties, through our changes in relation to the constant Light, we depict the world.

Thus, by changing the parameters within us in relation to the absolute characteristic of the Upper Light, we can make measurements according to the results we receive from these parameters. This is the wisdom of Kabbalah.
[182282]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/28/16

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Torah, “Numbers,” 35:33 – 35:34: And you shall not corrupt the land in which you live, for the blood corrupts the land, and the blood which is shed in the land cannot be atoned for except through the blood of the one who shed it. And you shall not defile the land where you reside, in which I dwell, for I am the Lord Who dwells among the children of Israel.

Blood is the Light of Hochma. Water is the Light of Hassadim. It is impossible to reach the harmonious society and the state of connection between parts of the common soul if we do not interact with each other correctly egoistically. Our egoistic parts have to be appropriately connected to each other.

It turns out that while remaining an egoist, each one establishes altruistic connections with others, like extending wires of altruism between themselves. I, from my egoism, head altruistically to you, and you, from your egoism, in the same way to me, but inside, each of us remains in his desire! We override this desire and work only above it, building bridges above egoism.

The most important thing is to make a restriction on myself and a screen and the correct attitude to others. Then we, in practice, place at the head of our actions all the connections crisscrossing between us, not ourselves.

This huge, multi-layer, multi-vector web of connections is called the “common soul”—one for all! Each one of us individually is nothing, but by participating in the operation of the universal “web,” it is its creator.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/16/15

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Question: Why does the Creator “say”: “I created the evil inclination” (Kiddushin 30b), and boasts that He created the evil inclination?

Answer: Because if the egoistic evil inclination that is completely detached from the spiritual world didn’t exist, then also we and all of creation that is the opposite of the Creator would not exist.

If the creation will rise to the level of the Creator, then it will have some additional value. Its nature is bound to be the opposite of the higher nature, otherwise it would not be independent.

The descent of the worlds from above to below, the breaking of the soul, the manner of our existence in this world, and everything that we experience was done by the Creator so that we will feel at least a little of what the evil is that exists within us that the Creator created.

We can access this evil gradually, and through its transformation to good, we climb the 125 spiritual levels.
[182017]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/21/16

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New Life #352 – Controlling Time
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

We feel that time “flies.” What causes this, and is there a possibility of changing our perception of time and our feeling about it and to learn to manage it?

Summary

We are going through a multitude of internal changes, so it seems that today time moves faster than in the past. The pace of life was once like riding on a donkey, and today it is like flying in an airplane. There are remote places in the world where people have no sense of time.

The more the desire for pleasure develops, the perception of time develops. We want pleasure every fraction of a second. I should learn to manage time, it shouldn’t manage me. We are stimulated by the program of desire for pleasure. If we rise above it, we will become masters over time.

There is an “I” and what is outside of me. According to nature, I am more important. If I succeed in reversing this, I will control time. Someone who learns how to control the definition of who is more important, whether it is him or something outside of him, gains control over reality.

Transforming the senses transforms desire – from a desire only for my own pleasure, to a desire to give pleasure to others.
Transitioning from being a receiver to giver gives you the ability to control time.
From KabTV’s “New Life #352 – Controlling Time,” 4/17/14

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Question: According to the accepted definition of science, the wisdom of Kabbalah is one means of describing and understanding the world around us. What do you want to achieve by promoting not the science, but just one perspective on the structure of the world?

Answer: Every corporeal science is one possible perspective of the structure of the world, while according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, all of nature and everything that was created stems from a desire to receive pleasure—no matter whether we express it by physical or psychological parameters. It turns out that by remaining within the framework of our science we are very limited.

Look what is happening with us. We don’t know where we came from, and we are not sure that we can predict what will happen the next day, not the next minute, or in a few years. What use is science if it doesn’t give people an understanding of the world and how to manage it?

The most important thing is to understand the formula of our development and what happens to us. We don’t even know how the engine that turns and moves us forward works. As Einstein said, we are just like kids playing with pebbles on the beach while the sea itself is unattainable. And so the claim that we can seemingly determine what science is, is like a kids’ game.

On the whole, science is based on human perception because there is a human being behind every instrument who feels and understands everything through his mind and heart. When we take it into account as variables in our measurements, we begin to see the world as a system that is constantly changing, and this system is dominated by us.

We can measure it, feel it, and work with it; we can insert different parameters into it and see what happens. This is already a systematic, cybernetic approach. Man cannot affect nature without changing your parameters because man doesn’t know how to adapt to it and how to see the result.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/28/16

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