Audio Version Of The Blog – 4/30/21

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“How Many Dimensions Exist?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: How many dimensions exist?

We live in an egoistic dimension, the quality of reception, where we have self-aimed desires and needs that we constantly try to fulfill.

Around us is a hidden dimension of an opposite quality: bestowal.

While living in this quality of reception, we are unaware of the quality of bestowal. If we could add this opposite quality to our receptive one, then we would be able to clearly and fully picture the world.

Moreover, even though we exist in the egoistic dimension of reception, we feel it only to a limited extent, and feel no connection at all to the dimension of bestowal.

Reception and bestowal are the only two dimensions that exist in the universe, and they both exist in relation to us, subjectively. If we reach a state where they complement each other, then we perceive n-dimensional space.

Based on KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Israel Shimshon on April 12, 2021.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Nourishment From The Upper Mind

276.01Question: Does the phenomenon of collective consciousness exist in the material world?

Answer: The fact is that the whole world has collective consciousness. But Kabbalists ascend from it. It is the Kabbalists who lose the commonality of consciousness with the others who inhabit this world because they want to rise above the collective egoistic consciousness and enter into another kind of consciousness.

The collective form of consciousness is given to all who live in this world because they all feed on the upper mind. This is natural. After all, what is our brain?—only an adapter to the upper consciousness. No more than that. Nothing happens in it. It is a huge system that connects us to what is happening above us.
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From the KabTV’s “Meetings with Kabbalah” 3/29/19

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Under The Great Act Of Creation

294.4Comment: Kabbalists say that The Book of Zohar does not write about our life.

My Response: What to write about?! About animals that improve themselves in their burrows, in their communication and actions? What are we doing in this world?!

Go up into space, see from the outside how the people live, what they are doing, and why they exist in general. We see how a huge egoistic force of nature twists people, constantly drags them into all sorts of nonsense, and pushes them inside their egoism.

Question: What should we do?

Answer: Explain to everyone that there is a higher goal! Otherwise, they will remain on the animal level.

All sorts of questions arise in them: “What am I living for? Why?” See what dramatic events are taking place in the world: globalization, the environmental and financial crises, the internal crisis in education, in everything! All this is moving forward.

We just need to tell people why this movement exists, that it is purposeful, so that they see it as an act of liberation from their low, limited lives.

In no way do I want them to think that we are somehow above them or consider their existence contemptuous. We ourselves also live in this, only we have already seen some light at the end of the path and know how to come to it. Therefore, we must explain it in a brotherly way, with love. After all, we are all under this great, dramatic act of creation.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #11

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Holding On To One Thought

632.4Question: Is it right to hold on to one thought, that I want to resemble the Creator, in all my actions and in everything that I do?

Answer: Yes, but this thought should also lead to many other thoughts that will help you. For example, the thought that in order to resemble the Creator I want to connect to the friends in the group, to be below everyone, or vice versa, to ascend above everyone in order to draw them behind me, etc.

The initial thought is the main thought, but secondary thoughts follow it, which are added to the one main thought. The more you engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah, the more you follow how you are getting closer to the Creator, the more secondary thoughts and desires emerge in you, but they all connect to one general common integral.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 2/3/19

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 4/30/21

Preparation to the Lesson

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Lesson on the Topic “The Approach to Studying the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

[media 3] [media 4]

Selected Highlights 

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 4/29/21

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“Why Preserve Earth?” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “Why Preserve Earth?

As the climate crisis escalates and extreme weather is growing increasingly frequent, experts are seriously pondering how close we are to the point of no return. CBS News reported on April 26 that according to Professor Timothy Lenton, a global leader on the climate crisis, “the West Antarctic ice sheet may have already passed a tipping point.” CBS News also spoke to other experts and reported that “their message was unanimous: Changes are happening faster than what was expected and the chance of hitting tipping points in the climate system, which just a decade ago appeared remote and far off, now seems much more likely and more immediate. ‘This is why I have been raising the alarm,’ Lenton said. ‘In just a decade the risk level has gone up markedly — that should be triggering urgent action.’”

Over the past several decades, we’ve tried countless tactics and ploys to curb emissions, decrease pollution, and diminish our exploitation of the planet. None of them worked. Moreover, we are not only exploiting our planet, we are exploiting all of life on the planet, and we are exploiting each other. The mistreatment of others that characterizes us is evident on all fronts, which means that the problem is far more systemic and deeply rooted than switching to renewable energy, for example, or curbing deforestation.

In my view, however, the question is not whether or not we hit, or are close to hitting the tipping point. I believe that the question we should ask is not whether Earth is doomed and we’re doomed with it, but rather why are we here in the first place. The universe we live in has been around for fourteen billion years or so. Earth has existed for approximately 4.5 billion years, and life on Earth began a few hundred million years after Earth was formed. We have evolved from atoms into molecules, from molecules into unicellular creatures, and from unicellular creatures to the countless forms of life on Earth in the water, on land, and in the sky. Finally, in the last few hundred thousand years, humankind has emerged. Gradually, we have become the rulers of the planet, exploiting its soil, flora, and fauna, polluting the air, the soil, and the water, and depleting Earth’s resources as fast as we can in order to gain power and wealth. Is this why we are here, to do all this harm? Perhaps, if we knew the answer, we wouldn’t be doing the inconceivable damage we are inflicting on the planet every second. The question of our purpose in being here is therefore the key question we must answer. If we know the answer to it, we will resolve all our problems and save the planet.

Over the past several decades, we’ve tried countless tactics and ploys to curb emissions, decrease pollution, and diminish our exploitation of the planet. None of them worked. Moreover, we are not only exploiting our planet, we are exploiting all of life on the planet, and we are exploiting each other. The mistreatment of others that characterizes us is evident on all fronts, which means that the problem is far more systemic and deeply rooted than switching to renewable energy, for example, or curbing deforestation. The problem that causes all our plights is us, or more accurately our nature—human nature. Unlike any other being on this planet, we are exploitative, mean, and abusive to each other, to all living creatures, and to the planet we call home. In fact, we are so heartless that we cannot restrain our greed even when we know that our doing will ruin the future of our children and grandchildren. Instead of a home to live in, we are handing down to them a planet-size pile of trash. What good parent would do that? None, of course, but we are not good parents.

Yet, not all is lost. In the first lockdown that was imposed nearly all over the world at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, multiple examples of nature’s resilience from around the world proved that Earth is much stronger than we thought, and can recover even from prolonged human exploitation. Therefore, if we solve our one problem, human nature, the rest of nature will quickly recover and planetary balance will be restored.

Changing human nature may seem impossible, at first, like pulling oneself out of a swamp by one’s own hair. However, we can learn from nature how to do that. In nature, things change according to their environment. Adaptability is key to the survival of any species. If we create an environment of friendliness, mutual responsibility, and caring, our nature will adapt to its environment and will become likewise. We needn’t change ourselves, but only our superficial behavior. Then, if all of society behaves kindly, people will become genuinely kind. Just as living in a cruel environment forces everyone who lives there to be cruel, even if they are not cruel by nature, the opposite is just as true.

Once we make our social environment friendly and considerate, our nature will become friendly and considerate. Once we become friendly and considerate, we will stop being exploitative. Once we stop being exploitative, we will stop abusing each other, other living beings, and the planet as a whole. It turns out that to save ourselves and our planet, our sole focus should be on changing our social environment from hostile to friendly, from abusive to considerate. Everything else will quickly follow.

Moreover, transcoding our inherent nature will reveal to us realms we cannot conceive right now. As long as we are concentrated only on ourselves, all we see is ourselves. But the purpose of our being here is to grow far beyond ourselves, to grasp all of reality, to understand on the deepest level why we exist, why there are life and death, creation and destruction, and how everything is connected. Only if we start thinking of each other will we stop thinking of ourselves, and only if we stop thinking of ourselves will we start perceiving the world around us as it truly is. This is why the one question we should ask in order to secure our lives, the well-being of the planet, and even our happiness is “Why are we here?”
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“What We Can (Or Can’t) Learn From Whales” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “What We Can (or Can’t) Learn from Whales

Many years ago, when I was a university student at the Medical Academy in Leningrad (today’s St. Petersburg), there was a special project that the academy conducted in the Black Sea. It had to do with communicating with dolphins and trying to learn their language. The project didn’t amount to much, and the lesson was learned.

We must focus our communication efforts on our own relations, on creating healthy, balanced, and considerate relationships among us. This will help us, and will help the whales, much more than learning the meaning of whale-sound A compared to whale-sound B. It is ourselves we need to study and correct, not them!

A few days ago, a student told me that a project is underway in Israel to try to learn the language of the whales using high-tech equipment, linguistics, and Artificial Intelligence. He asked me what I thought about it. I told him about the experiment in Leningrad and concluded that it, too, would not amount to much.

If we want to learn from nature, it is not in order to communicate with animals, but in order to understand the matrix of nature, how it operates, to understand the secrets of creation and the mechanism of the creative force that makes it. I realize that it’s impressive to see how whales communicate, but then what? Where does it lead us? Will it teach us how to communicate with one another? No, it won’t. And if we cannot communicate with one another, what good does it do us to see how well other species communicate?

We must focus our communication efforts on our own relations, on creating healthy, balanced, and considerate relationships among us. This will help us, and will help the whales, much more than learning the meaning of whale-sound A compared to whale-sound B. It is ourselves we need to study and correct, not them!

All of nature is already operating according to the law of balance, where life and death, growth and decay, giving and taking are balanced and mutually supportive. Only humans seek only to take, take, take, and give nothing in return. And because we are the only being that’s egocentric and destructive in all of creation, it is so vitally important that we focus on our own communication, our own relationships with one another, that we learn to care about each other!

Once we learn this, we will also understand all of creation, how to communicate with other species, and how to support the thriving of all life on Earth. If we look up, to our higher selves, to being connected heart-to-heart with all the people, we will be able to contribute to all other species, and our existence here on Earth will have a meaning and purpose, and will benefit all creations.

“What Are Individual Consciousness And Collective Consciousness, And How Are They Different From Each Other?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: What are individual consciousness and collective consciousness, and how are they different from each other?

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, defining individual consciousness and collective consciousness depends on transforming our inborn natural qualities into a new mode of perceiving reality.

Those who transform their perception of reality into one that is above the inborn egoistic mode of perception, where we want to enjoy for self-benefit alone, perceive reality as a single force of love and bestowal that connects all parts of reality.

Those who do not transform their perception of reality into one that is above the ego, instead perceive reality through much more limited self-serving filters.

Reality thus becomes modeled in us according to our desires and their transformation, or lack of.

There is a major difference between the two modes of perception, and the wisdom of Kabbalah is unique in that it describes the need, the process and the method for transforming our qualities in order to shift from one mode of perception to the other.

Based on KabTV’s “Meetings with Kabbalah” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on March 29, 2019.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.