God made man direct, but people seek many tricks. The direct path is very difficult because it is in complete contradiction with our egoism. How can we go on it?! We are always trying to do something for ourselves. And for our own sake, it is always against others. And so a direct path is impossible.

Like a sailboat that sails into the wind but at an angle and always maneuvers in such a way that it is possible to go as if against the wind, but forward, so should a person. That is, you have to maneuver and move forward, but this is not easy.

Comment: But still, it says here that God made man direct.

My Response: God made a person direct, this means the prototype of a spiritual person. But in fact, when a person appeared in our world, he was absolutely the opposite.

And now how am I supposed to reach that goal that I cannot come to in a direct way? It is not my nature. I have already fallen from it. So, I’m going, constantly adjusting myself to it, correcting a little, falling, rising, and maneuvering in a crosswind.

Question: What about the tricks of other people? All these egoistic games of ours?

Answer: No, these are all egoistic tricks, they do not move us toward that goal. I understand this goal, I understand the impossibility of coming straight to it because I have a completely different internal state. I am an egoist, not an altruist, like the goal itself to which I must come. Therefore, I move all the time, tacking.

Question: Does King Solomon even talk about the selfish man of our world?

Answer: No! He cannot go forward. He does not move, but revolves all the time around himself, his beloved.

Question: For how long?

Answer: Until on some cycle he realizes that it is nevertheless necessary to move.

Question: Tricks to the direct path?

Answer: Tricks against himself, against his egoism.

Question: Is this what a person should understand?

Answer: Yes. And then he will go forward. This is already wisdom. Because he understands his nature, understands that he must go against it, but is not able to take a direct path. And so he can still dodge it and with its help, maneuver, and reach the goal.

Question: Do you maneuver?

Answer: No one can go straight. In Kabbalah all the more so. It tells how to maneuver, how to use several forces, how to overcome descents, ascents, how to deceive egoism.

Question: That is, Kabbalah also teaches this: how to deceive your egoism?

Answer: Of course. This is a necessity. But this makes a person wiser. He applies both egoism and altruism together, and so goes forward.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 12/23/19

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Question: Will recognizing that I depend on someone correct something or help someone?

Answer: Of course, because we influence nature with feelings and reason. With them we influence the world around us more than physically.

Therefore, it is very important if we know how we are interconnected. Thus, we can be in a common integral interaction in a single system called Adam so that the calls of the Prophets to become one, as one person with one heart, are manifested in us.

But this is all in the future. Nature sets this as its goal, and it will lead us to this. It will make us understand that we are a single system.

Despite the fact that we exist in separate egoistic protein bodies, we will have to realize that we exist in one single energetic, sensory, spiritual field.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 4/19/20

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Question: We say that traveling, fashion, and current pleasures are not needed anymore. What will we give people instead? What are we going to tell them? What will they get pleasure from?

Answer: I offer you traveling in an absolutely different volume—in the spiritual one. You will be able to travel yourself, fly anywhere and however you wish through all levels, move from world to world, instead of just seeing this small, messy, smoky planet. You can feel what life outside the body means. It is all up to you.

The coronavirus is a medicine that helps us rise to the next level of existence, to feel nature. So do not be afraid, there is something to compensate for your so-called loss.

I have visited all the continents and dozens of countries myself, and I can say that nothing remains in the end. All this is needed only to fill yourself and forget. You will see, in a couple of months you won’t even remember about it. You will be captured by the other unknown far-away places.

Question: And will the people from outside hear this?

Answer: They will! The virus will do this, not us. It does not depend on what I am telling you. I am just informing you in advance. You will see in people how they will be drawn toward completely different far places.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 4/5/20

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Comment: In the corporeal world, there are many desires and needs and one must seek constant enjoyment for them. In the spiritual world, on the contrary, there is constant abundance, and you need to look for things you are lacking.

Answer: Yes. In order to bestow contentment to the Creator, I always have to be willing to receive from Him.

Question: It turns out that in this world we are always running around in search of pleasure. And in the spiritual world there are a huge number of them, but there is no desire. Where can I get it?

Answer: There is a solution to this. In our world, the solution is to go to the level of spiritual reception, that is, for the sake of bestowal. In the spiritual world, you have an absolutely unlimited opportunity to receive for the sake of bestowal. Naturally, you have to build this over your egoism, but this justifies itself.

Comment: In the corporeal world, we only experience pleasure for a few seconds. With each passing moment it gradually disappears and then you have to wait for some kind of desire to arise again.
And in the spiritual world, as the Kabbalists say, pleasure is infinite. It is hard for me even to imagine this.

My Response: No. In the spiritual world there is a constant yearning to form a desire to bestow, and in accordance with this, there is an opportunity to realize it.

Comment: The famous English writer Oscar Wilde said, “In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. The last is much the worst; the last is a real tragedy!”

Answer: When you receive, you are disappointed because the feeling of pleasure disappears. Pleasure is felt only on the contact between desire and fulfillment. And if this contact is no longer there, then the fulfillment becomes disgusting because instead of pleasure it brings suffering.

Therefore, the wisdom of Kabbalah is based on how to receive correctly. A person receives only with the intention to bestow. There are two opposite elements together here: the desire to receive with the intention to bestow.

If a person builds the correct correlation between them, which is called the Partzuf, then he has the opportunity for infinite pleasure, unlimited in either time, quantity, and quality.
[264785]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 6/10/19

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Baal HaSulam, “Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before”: This means that the whole path of creation that the Creator created is regarded as two opposites in one subject, and all the combinations in the world were made in this way, and this is the whole of the act of creation.

Therefore, nothing disappears in the spiritual world; everything remains. It is an eternal, perfect, ever-growing world.

Question: In the material world, pleasure is gained only as a result of an action, and therefore, if we could, we would gladly give up the action itself. But in the spiritual world, is the action itself the pleasure and is it without any connection with the result?

Answer: Of course.

Remark: But in our world, there are also such pleasures when a person is ready to do something for the sake of another.

My Comment: If there is love. My teacher gave such an example. Does the Queen of England have a desire to feed her little child? She does. Does she carry it out? She does.

But she has a thousand helpers, let them do it. No, she wants to feed the child herself because there is love. Any action, if accompanied by love, gives pleasure. And vice versa.

Question: Can this indication serve as a check for a person?

Answer: Of course. Therefore, even in our world, we do a huge number of actions out of a desire to please another, and then the actions themselves bring us pleasure.

Question: That is, if I want to check whether I am in equivalence of form with the Creator, then I should not expect a result since the action itself should bring me pleasure?

Answer: Absolutely.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 6/10/19

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Question: If the Creator created us as egoists, then this is our nature. What should we do and how?

Answer: Yes, our nature is egoism. We are created absolutely opposite to the integral quality, the Creator. Therefore, we should try to unite despite our evil beginnings and ask for nature (the Creator), inside which this integral force is located, to correct us.

Then, contrary to our original egoistic qualities and relationships, we will begin to feel the development of altruistic qualities in us.
[265826]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 4/12/2020

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Lesson Preparation

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 66

Selected Highlights

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 6/9/20

“E Pluribus Unum,” the US motto displayed on the official seal of the United States, is particularly relevant in today’s America in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. Its meaning, “Out of many, one,” represents the ultimate goal of any society, and the only cure to racial tensions such as those currently suffocating the US and numerous cities around the world. Is it possible to envision a future positive state from where we are, with society’s wounds still bleeding? Indeed, there is no other alternative.

Socialists, communists, capitalists, rich, poor, people of all the races, colors, backgrounds, and walks of life make up America’s melting pot—a modern-day Babylon with the same internal divisions and struggles that characterized that ancient civilization.

Humanity’s history has been wrought with intense wars and social struggles that erupted due to inequity, discrimination, racism, and xenophobia. All these ailments have one common root: human nature with its intrinsic desire to belittle and even annul the other for self-benefit. From generation to generation, as humanity developed, our egoism swelled until the gaps between us became pronounced and complex.

Today, we have reached such high levels of mutual hatred that if we do not pursue unity to compensate for our hostility, we will destroy ourselves. And based on our life experience, we know that transformational change is difficult because it requires that we leave our comfort zone against the protests of our ego which clings to the familiar status quo. Habits of prejudice tie us down and we resist change.

Because we always extrapolate from the past to envision the future, it’s difficult to imagine a bright tomorrow ahead of us. But if we view our current conditions as a fertile ground for a deep transformation, we will find an invitation at this challenging time to abandon our destructive past and move into a whole new level of coexistence.

Humankind is a family living in one household called Planet Earth, where we are entirely dependent on one another. Thus, we have no other choice but to come to an agreement and cultivate good human relations above anything that divides us—gender, race, religion, ideology, background, or interests. The goal should not be to erase our differences, but to use them as the means to reach a higher state where we complement each other to reach peace, understanding, and support.

In our day and age, hate cannot be cured by separation, and vice versa—separation will never lead to love. Hate can only be cured with love. Such terms as “love,” “inclusion,” and “unity” may sound delusional since no one truly wants to connect. It is against our nature—to receive for ourselves. Therefore, nature is pushing us from behind in the direction we need to go, pushing us the hard way to observe its laws of mutual responsibility and learn from them how to solve our predicaments.

When we look at nature, we see that despite the constant struggles for survival, its elements maintain an overarching balance that fosters growth and prosperity. Moreover, the struggles actually contribute to the healthy evolution of species. The interdependence of everyone and everything in a closed, round world, stimulate and advance the principals of equality and connection as in a close-knit family where every member is different and complements each other. That is the only way to maintain and ensure harmony and vitality for all.
The pressure of our globalized world represents the first time that nature demands from all of us, without exception, to understand who we are, the world we live in, and the urgency of harnessing the force of love between us. Even small steps toward unity and rising above our differences will make a huge positive difference toward becoming “Out of many, one”!

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 6/9/20

It’s very impressive to see the public displays of remorse as police officers, celebrities, politicians, and regular white folk kneel before African-Americans and ask for their forgiveness. But looking at the past tumultuous two weeks in the US, has there been any real rapprochement? Are the factions any closer? Are the gaps narrower? No, not really. The gestures, as genuine and impressive as they truly are, will not quell the hatred.

Violence degrades the victim; kneeling degrades the offender. Neither achieves equality. And without equality, the power struggle will continue.

Achieving equality requires something else: a new goal that the vying parties feel is higher and more worthy than their loyalty to their own faction. If the sides could, even slightly, shift their attention from themselves, and see the harm that the struggle itself causes to all of society, they would rise above their distrust and join hands in building a better society for everyone!

COVID-19 and the protests over the killing of George Floyd indicate that local solutions do not work since the society has become interconnected and interdependent throughout the country and throughout the world. Realizing this fact is the first step toward finding a sustainable solution.

Acknowledging the interconnected nature of the world we live in requires a conscious effort to learn. We must learn that human ethnicities and races are not above or below one another; they are varieties that together form the beautiful fabric of human society. Just as all of nature would be dull and unsustainable were it not for the myriad creatures that make up the global ecosystem, humanity would be deficient and lame if even one of its elements were missing.

We need to change our approach from seeing the other as a hindrance, to seeing the other as an asset. If we consider what is best for humanity, we will realize that what the other can contribute to humanity, I will never be able to contribute. But because that other person, race, or color, gave this to humanity, I, too, can benefit from it. In the end, my happiness and sense of fulfillment depend on the happiness and sense of fulfillment of every person in the world. If only we had realized it sooner…

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