Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the connection between body and soul, and who is controlling who?“

Body and soul have no connection. The soul exists in and of itself, and the spiritual world reveals to us only if we attain a soul.

By attaining a soul, we start sensing a new reality outside the narrowness of our ego, which constantly wants to enjoy itself on account of others. Until we attain a soul, however, our ego is all that we know. It makes us seek fulfillment via a limited prism of desires—food, sex, family, money, honor, control, and knowledge—and the moment we start feeling enjoyment in those desires, the enjoyment diminishes, which makes us want to seek new and different kinds of fulfillment than before.

Our egoistic form of development leads us to an impasse: we start feeling that we expend more energy trying to fulfill ourselves than we do feeling fulfilled, and at that stage, fundamental questions about our lives awaken in us: “What is the meaning of our lives?” “Why are we here?” “Why is there so much suffering in the world?” “Where are we from? Where are we now? Where are we headed?” “What is reality?” and so on.

Such questions are our initial spiritual awakening. The more we want to get them answered, the more we seek through various methods, teachings, groups, and other environments, until we eventually arrive at the wisdom of Kabbalah. Kabbalah describes this process as the awakening of the “point in the heart,” or the so-called “seed of the soul.”

If you find yourself seeking answers to fundamental questions about life’s meaning and purpose, it is a sign that you are seeking to attain your soul. The wisdom of Kabbalah was devised as a method that guides our attainment of our soul, while we are alive in our bodies in this world. When we reach such an attainment, we then perceive and sense the depths of reality, seeing the interconnections among all that exists, and knowing how to act optimally at every moment in order to positively impact our eternal soul.

Based on an interview with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on Israeli Radio, 103FM, on October 5, 2015. Written/edited by students of Dr. Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What are major spiritual awakening symptoms?“

We have been evolving over thousands of years, and at a certain point, we start awakening to questions about the meaning and purpose of our lives. They are the first awakening that we receive toward spirituality, and they become our principle concern the moment that we start rising above our animate existence.

Unlike animals, our desires evolve from one generation to the next. We feel the desires of the next level of evolution, and our sensation of emptiness constantly grows, forcing us to seek new and different kinds of fulfillment to what we previously had. We thus gradually develop a more and more pronounced question about the meaning of life, which increasingly preoccupies us.

Newer and newer ideas surface in us, and we develop increasingly complex systems as a result of our growing unfulfilled desires. Science also develops in relation to the questions we have in each generation, and we can see the vast difference between today’s science and science a few centuries ago.

Moreover, the question about the meaning and purpose of our lives manifests itself first and foremost in certain individuals. Over the course of history, we have been driven to make breakthroughs in several areas, whether it be art, music, literature, poetry, science and technology. Our desires constantly grew according to a scale starting from mere survival necessities—food, sex and family—through to social desires—money, honor, control and knowledge. From one generation to the next, our desires become increasingly refined.

According to the great Kabbalist, the Ari (Rav Isaac Luria), the question about the meaning and purpose of life started emerging in humanity as a whole toward the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance. The technological, scientific and cultural revolutions in Europe thus became the trigger for the emergence of a totally new attitude to life and religion. Many people started no longer fearing being non-religious and getting punished for dissent, which signaled that desires in humanity grew to a new level where belief started falling short in the new demand for proof that had started evolving.

At the start of the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) wrote:

Indeed, if we set our hearts to answer but one very famous question, I am certain that all these questions and doubts as to whether we should study the wisdom of Kabbalah will vanish from the horizon, and you will look unto their place to find them gone. This indignant question is a question that the whole world asks, namely, ‘What is the meaning of my life?’

We could say that everything unfolding in the world today is due to us not finding an answer to the question about the meaning of life. We can see what humanity engages in and what it leads the world to, and it is all because people fail to understand what they exist for.

We mostly wish to file away the question about the meaning and purpose of life, and instead engage in much more immediate and concrete pleasures, keeping ourselves busy in order to avoid asking the question. It is because the question, if we engage in it without finding an answer, brings us existential suffering in addition to the suffering we experience in relation to our daily survival.

However, the reason that Baal HaSulam discusses the meaning of life in his “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” is because he wants to show how we need not have any lofty goals or special thoughts in order to embark on the spiritual path. Very simply, if we feel bad and we do not know why we are alive, and such questions keep surfacing in us making us feel uneasy, and that we need to get these questions answered in order to justify our existence, then we can start taking steps on the spiritual path.

The wisdom of Kabbalah was made specifically for answering the question about the meaning and purpose of life, and it is open to all, regardless of age, gender, background or any other seeming differences.

Based on a Virtual Lesson on January 31, 2016. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does it feel like to sell your soul?“

Human nature is a desire to enjoy and it divides into a few levels: individual desires for food, sex and family; social desires for money, honor, control and knowledge; and a tiny desire for spirituality.

Our soul is where we feel fulfillment.

If we dedicate ourselves to fulfilling corporeal desires for food, sex, family, money, honor, control and knowledge, we experience transient fulfillment in such desires, and by doing so, we attain no eternal soul. This is considered selling our soul to Satan, as the Hebrew root for the word for “Satan” is “Hasata” (“diversion”), i.e., that such desires divert us from attaining our eternal soul.

If, however, we dedicate ourselves to fulfilling our spiritual desire, then we can attain and discover our eternal soul while living in our world.

Our spiritual desire emerges initially as a tiny desire among our corporeal desires, which in Kabbalah is called a “point in the heart.” This desire is felt as a certain kind of emptiness and uneasiness, a feeling that our other desires cannot entirely fulfill us, and it leads us to question the meaning and purpose of our lives. The stronger we feel this desire, the more we traverse teachings and environments until we eventually find a method for attaining the soul while we are alive in this world. The wisdom of Kabbalah is a method for the soul’s attainment. It is open to anyone, but those who have a sincere desire to discover the meaning of life will be those who reap the maximal benefit from the method.

Based on a Virtual Lesson on April 3, 2016. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: Do you think that envy is a positive quality?

Answer: Yes! Without it, a person cannot advance!

Question: Even if initially it is egoistic?

Answer: One nevertheless is moving forward.

Question: If a person has already crossed the barrier (Machsom) and can balance both forces within themself, altruistic and egoistic, then what kind of envy is there?

Answer: Envy is good in any form. It moves a person forward. It develops one’s egoism to the point where one understands that one cannot advance with egoism and he or she begins to correct it to altruism.

Question: Is there such a thing as envying the Creator?

Answer: But this already is a very advanced state. Here it is necessary not to be mistaken, which means to envy the Creator.

We should envy Him because the Creator is the quality of absolute bestowal and absolute love. If you envy Him in this, then it is very good, be envious, even jealous.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/3/19

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The Book of Zohar, Chapter Bo, Item 68: It has another way of approaching the herbs: When the quiet Nile returns from Malchut to its place, when it rises and falls. Since its waters are still, it walks quietly and the great monster climbs unto those Niles and is not there in the still Nile. And all the herbs grow around that still Nile on either side. Then, that monster climbs unto the herbs and grows among them, and then returns to all these Niles.

These rivers are silent because they consist only of the property of Hassadim, the property of mercy, bestowal. They do not have egoistic desires; they do not work with the ego, thus they are so quiet as if the water did not flow anywhere, still, calm, silent water. Eternal peace.

Hassadim is the property of Bina, the property of sufficiency; it does not need anything for itself. Everything can stop and freeze. Only if needed for someone else, then Bina will start using those desires. If someone needs something, she will absorb those desires and the river will begin to murmur, merrily filling the one who needs it.

In the meantime, no one needs it. Therefore, even the large green crocodile personifying wisdom has no place for existence there. In this state, it does not exist because there is nothing and no one to excite any desires, thoughts, or decisions, because everything is still in an absolutely frozen state.

There are only small ups and downs, small excitements in this calm water, which prepare changes in future states. That is, the property of Bina lays down future changes in us, but we still do not feel them and go with the flow.

Question: Do we feel this state while reading The Book of Zohar?

Answer: I feel a tremendous power in this, which prepares me from within for tremendous changes. I am like an embryo in its mother’s womb, in an absolutely secure state: he does not need to think about anything, decide anything; the mother does everything.

She prepared everything for him, developed him, and now she is pushing him out along with those calm waters in which he existed. He must be born now.

Here, finally, new forces appear in him when quiet, calm waters turn into pushing ones, helping him to be born. And then there is the next development of events.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar,” Part 1

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Question: Why in this world can we work internally, only in a group? After all, our attitude toward other people has not been corrected either.

Answer: The spiritual world is the attribute of bestowal, the act of bestowal from oneself, from one’s egoism. If you are not in a group and do not create this attribute inside of yourself through the connection between you, you cannot bestow.

Besides bestowing in the group, you also need to be connected to the upper light, which will enable you to do so. In order to do this, you need to work on yourselves truly and seriously, and you will encounter very complicated states if you do not want to do so.

You can engage only in the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah without using it in practice. This type of study will explain a lot about the world and give you a certain sense of peace, independence, and the right attitude toward different events in life. You will reveal and know a lot, even without attaining the upper light, and your life will be interesting.

But, if you want to be active participants in the system of the upper world, you must be among friends and try with all your might to attain the attribute of bestowal.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 11/25/18

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Question: If the right line (the power of the light) and the left line (the power of my ego) both stem from the Creator, what does it mean to manage them?

Answer: You can manage them only if you are connected to the friends and not any other way. There is nothing other than this network and it is only inside it that we reveal the upper world.

It is simply amazing. We exit ourselves, cease to feel ourselves, and only feel what is between us, which is the Creator, the upper world.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 11/18/18

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic of “Chapter Shemot“

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot, ‘Histaklut Pnimit,’ Vol. 1, Part 3, Chapter 5, Item 3

Lesson on the Topic of “The Law of Love in the System of Adam HaRishon”

Selected Highlights

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “How There May Be Good in the New Administration”

At first glance, it seems as though the Biden administration is going to be nothing but bad news for Israel. On the other hand, we should ask ourselves what is bad and what is good for Israel. It is clear that Biden’s administration will be inundated with Israel bashers and Israel haters, including the Jews who will serve there, and including Obama, who will be pulling the strings behind the scenes. This will truly put Israel to the test. We will have to think how we conduct ourselves within the country, among us, and toward the world.

The people of Israel do not develop well when they are pampered. In that sense, I think that the tough times ahead may be good news for us, a chance to reflect on our purpose here as individuals, as a state, and as a nation. It is an opportunity to hone and cultivate our most valuable, if not only asset: unity.

I have no doubt that in the end, we will draw the right conclusions and become what we were meant to be: a beacon of unity, a role model society that sets an example of successful relationships, and people and nations will want to learn from us. The only questions are how long it will take and how much pain it will cost to get to this idyllic state.

We cannot stop the engine of evolution; it is pressing onward to bring us together and open our eyes and minds to the truth of our connectedness. There is great bliss and wondrous insights in being connected to all of reality, but it requires a yielding of the individual ego. This is something that is very hard to do.

When the ego becomes obstinate, it needs a “nudge” from behind. In the case of Jews, it is antisemitism, which reminds them they have to unite. In the case of the State of Israel, it is both antisemites and Israel bashers. In the end, these critics and haters are doing a great service: They are forcing us to reinstate our forgotten unity. However, would it not be better if we united under milder pressure?

The important point is that we acknowledge our disunity, the vitality of unity to our survival, and that unity is the example we must set to the world, to be “as one man with one heart.” This is the key point we must remember, and it’s not a question of whether we have an Obama votary president in the White House or the most favorable American leader in Israel’s history.

If we, the people of Israel, do what we must do, it will not matter who is occupying the White House. If we unite and set the right example, we will do good to the world regardless of external ill-intentions.
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