Audio Version Of The Blog – 4/21/21

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“When Power Is The Only Goal, I Worry Less” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “When Power Is the Only Goal, I Worry Less

A famous Chinese proverb says that “An ant may well destroy an entire dam.” Nothing could be more apropos when describing China’s global policy. One small step at a time, they’re buying their way to world dominance. A food production company here, a port there, a politician here, a hedge fund manager there, the Chinese have all the tools they need: patience, perseverance, diligence, and money, lots and lots of money.

But as ominous as China may appear, I think it poses much less of a danger than other countries with ambitions to take over the world. Even if their plan succeeds, it will be nothing more than economic dominance. They have no religion, they’ve abandoned communism, and they have no other ideology in place besides the craving for power.

But as ominous as China may appear, I think it poses much less of a danger than other countries with ambitions to take over the world. Even if their plan succeeds, it will be nothing more than economic dominance. They have no religion, they’ve abandoned communism, and they have no other ideology in place besides the craving for power.

Over the past several decades, they have amassed gargantuan amounts of money and economic power, which they have translated into political clout the world over. There are great forces at play here, far stronger than China or any other human made entity. These forces, which come from the kernel of reality, are driving China’s dominance forward. I don’t think it’s to our detriment.

In fact, if I needed to choose between being under the influence of an ideological or a religious power, or a power whose ambition is only power, I would choose the latter. Moreover, even the independence we think we have right now is utterly illusory. We are dependent on the world, and on the powers of the world, in every aspect of our lives, so fearing that we might be taken over is nonsense since we’ve already been taken over, we just don’t know about it.

However, if we want independence, we can certainly achieve it. To do this, we have to rise above calculations of power struggles. When these are the calculations, we see that countries rise and fall; it is the nature of reality and history has proven that this is what always happens. On the worldly level, it is certain that America will fall and another country, or several countries, will take its place at the helm of the world. It is simply how things work.

However, when it comes to Israel, we have a choice. If we choose to be Israel, in the deeper sense of the word, we will always be free. In fact, the nations themselves will guard and cherish our freedom.

Being Israel has nothing to do with financial or military power; it has to do with our nature as Israelis. Currently, we are treating each other with selfishness and alienation. This weakens us and degrades us in the eyes of the world. The world examines our every step, but mostly how we treat each other. When we are mean and display deplorable relations to our neighbors, the world despises us and hates us. When we treat each other with respect and warmth, the world relates to us likewise.

We are the nation that coined the proverb “Love your neighbor as yourself,” which, as hard as it is to do, is still the most noble notion that has ever been conceived. And although we are completely opposite from it, the world does not forget where the idea came from and expects us to set an example.

If we, for the first time since the ruin of the Temple, manage to rise above our petty selves and truly feel concern for one another, the world will envy our ability. It will look to us in awe and seek to be like us. We, in turn, will open our arms and hearts to everyone, and become the role model, the “light unto nations” that sets an example of true peace—not truce, but peace!

This will be our true freedom, this will be our triumph over domination, and this will be our ticket into the global family of nations.
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“You Can Implant Chips, But You Can’t Implant Happiness” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “You Can Implant Chips, But You Can’t Implant Happiness

Last week, Neuralink, Elon Musk’s neuroscience startup, aired a video of a Macaque Monkey playing MindPong using only its brain after a coin-sized computer chip was implanted and connected to its brain with more than two thousand electrodes. The idea, according to Neuralink, is to develop a chip that will enable paralytics to perform independently many things they cannot do today by simply using their minds.

What we do need to implant, and for which there is no chip, is caring in our hearts. This cannot be done by surgery, but through an educational process. It may take years, but in the end, we will really change from within, and then everything will change from without. It is not new technology that we need, but a new spirit—a spirit of kindness, caring, and mutual responsibility. If we join hands in planting this spirit in society, we will also implant it in our hearts.

This may sound terrific, but it really gives me no joy. Before I got into the wisdom of Kabbalah, I might have been happy to hear such news, but now, I do not feel this way. All I know is that even if we sacrifice all the animals, and even ourselves, on the altar of innovations in biotechnology, it will not help us be happier people. We need to take a completely different route.

I understand why entrepreneurs do these things: they’re kids, and they like to play with such games, but this is not a good example; it is really not a good example. If anything, what they are doing to the monkeys reminds me of what the Nazis did to people. This is how I feel about it, truly. When I started my scientific career as a bio-cyberneticist, I might have appreciated such things since I, too, was dealing with the functioning of systems in the human body. But today, fifty years down the line, I cannot view this favorably. It is simply not the way to make life better. If there is any benefit in these investments, it is the realization of their futility and our need to look elsewhere for happiness.

What we do need to implant, and for which there is no chip, is caring in our hearts. This cannot be done by surgery, but through an educational process. It may take years, but in the end, we will really change from within, and then everything will change from without. It is not new technology that we need, but a new spirit—a spirit of kindness, caring, and mutual responsibility. If we join hands in planting this spirit in society, we will also implant it in our hearts.

“The War Never Ends For Some Warriors” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “The War Never Ends for Some Warriors

On the eve of Israel’s Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of the Wars of Israel and Victims of Actions of Terrorism, Itzik Saidian, a wounded soldier, set himself on fire. He was not physically hurt, but his soul has been shattered for years. In 2014, an APV (Armored Personnel Carrier) carrying nine soldiers from his platoon was hit by an RPG shoulder-fired missile. Seven of his friends died in the fiery explosion, and the two who survived were injured by the explosion and the barrage of bullets that followed. Itzik was not on that APV; he came to rescue his friends and saw what was left of them, and his soul was shredded for good. He kept fighting; he wouldn’t back down, and he stayed with his unit even after the battle. But that day, when he saw what had happened to his friends, prevailed over him. He never recovered. Itzik is not alone. For many warriors, who experienced the horrors of war firsthand, the war never ends.

People need hope. If there is no hope in sight, if their present is full of torment and their future is bleak, I can see why they would see no point in living. But if their pain has a purpose, a worthy goal that is within reach, even if only in the long run, then life has meaning and existence makes sense.

The other day, a student asked me a hypothetical question: “If you were to meet Itzik Saidian a few minutes before he torched himself, what would you tell him?” When you meet a person with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), the clinical name for the state such people are in, the most important thing is to listen to them, be with them in their pain. Only afterwards can you say anything. But when the moment comes to speak, I would tell him that for all the pain, life has a higher, more sublime and beautiful goal than he can even imagine. And even though at the moment, he is agonizing, he can still reach that goal. Despite all the pain, it is precisely from that state that he can rise to eternity, wholeness, and beauty, and be happier than any person on the planet.

I, too, have had my share of trauma. I grew up in a family that was wiped out almost entirely by the Nazis, I was in a car accident when a bus collided head on with the car I was driving, and I remember every second leading to the collision. I was clinically dead for days, and when I came to, I couldn’t breathe because my lungs were filled with blood. I remember the anguish. In fact, toward the end, it got so bad that when the doctors finally told me they were going to operate on me to clear my lungs, I literally jumped on the bed in the surgery room and said, “Cut me open!” And I meant it!

Despite the pain, I know what I have gained from these ordeals; I know what they have given me. The purpose of life is to rise above it to a higher realm that we can find if we truly seek it. And sometimes, it takes great pain for us to start seeking, but it is always worth it.

For this reason, I would tell Itzik, and anyone who is suffering unbearable pain, that the hurt is precisely the lever that can lift us above any injury. I would stress that nothing ever happens without a reason, and the pain he feels right now is only the beginning of a road whose end is bliss and beauty. And precisely this place of unbearable heartache is where that road begins.

People need hope. If there is no hope in sight, if their present is full of torment and their future is bleak, I can see why they would see no point in living. But if their pain has a purpose, a worthy goal that is within reach, even if only in the long run, then life has meaning and existence makes sense.

In truth, the states we go through are imprinted in nature’s system, and they all lead to happiness. However, how we experience those states depends on us. The path is paved, but we determine how to walk it. It will lead us all to rise above our selves, and immerse ourselves in humanity, and ultimately in all of creation. Life provides each of us with opportunities to take initiative and move in that direction of our own volition. We often miss these opportunities or decline to take them, and then nature leads us to our predetermined, yet blissful goal against our will. Our predicaments, our trials and tribulations are the levers that life hands us to propel us toward a better reality, a more transcendent one. Itzik’s trauma, however dreadful, is such an opportunity, and so are the traumas of countless people who suffer for no apparent reason.
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“Food For Thought” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “Food for Thought

In modern times, food has become not only a vital source of nutrients used for our survival as an organism, but it has transformed into an obsession with us. Over the last fifty years we have started consuming countless industrialized, processed foods, and at the same time, a new trend of so-called “healthy diets” has taken consumers by storm.

Each one of us should eat a healthy simple diet and drink clean water. All the foods we put into the body should be as natural and simple as possible, close to the source. We should eat in moderation, just enough to live. That is, we should not limit ourselves through abstinence but eat normally. The main thing is not to become sidetracked and dragged into the “healthy” hysteria to make a cult out of it while missing the essence of life.

There are lots of foods that are produced for the sole purpose of filling someone’s bank account, and as a consequence, for the purpose of filling the hospitals with patients. We consume products processed with chemicals and preservatives used in both agriculture and food production. It turns out that it is possible to make a profit on every food product that is invented, a way to make it into a successful business. So accordingly, entrepreneurs who identify an opportunity to rake in profits, advertise forms of food and diets that are supposedly healthier. They recommend to the public what to eat and hire their own experts and researchers who will validate and promote the product or lifestyle they sell. And the experts do as they are requested: “Indeed yes, this is the way to eat, this is the right way to live!”

Despite all the studies and advertising, there is usually not necessarily any real benefit to this or that food. Even if we were to prove that we would extend our lives from 80 to 90 years through some special food, what would be the benefit of living another ten years? The end is the same, so exactly what does the person gain if we focus on the length of life instead of the quality of life?

Each one of us should eat a healthy simple diet and drink clean water. All the foods we put into the body should be as natural and simple as possible, close to the source. We should eat in moderation, just enough to live. That is, we should not limit ourselves through abstinence but eat normally. The main thing is not to become sidetracked and dragged into the “healthy” hysteria to make a cult out of it while missing the essence of life.

Since the human body is similar to that of any other animal, the care it requires is like the care of any animal, simple and basic care. If we truly want to reach a more holistic and balanced approach to life, we should turn our attention to the development and investment in the soul. These are the essential questions that should feed us: What do we live for anyway? Where is the world going? What is the purpose of it all? What is our special role in this life and world?

We will find the answer to these intriguing questions by observing the various forms of existence in nature. How all its levels—inanimate, plants, and animals—consume only what they need and nothing more. How the power that governs all forms of life, the supreme mind acting in creation, causes them to exist in perfect integration, in reciprocity, without omitting or neglecting a single detail. We must admire the ramified connections in nature which sustain the world, and we should strive to resemble them in our interactions.

In the pursuit of the intellect operating within nature, we will develop our higher functions—our mental, intellectual, and social capacities. Most importantly, we will develop the soul. In an attempt to liken ourselves to the system of natural laws, we will create a healthy, strong, and robust society that will eliminate the morbid relationships of mutual exploitation and profiteering at the expense of others. Thus we will live not only a better life, but also an existence full of much deeper meaning.
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Why Do Love Marriages Break Up?

627.1Question: There is this problem in the world: people cannot find a reliable life partner. So there are many dating sites, people are searching for each other in the media. Still, most of the time, they find no one.

In Japan, they even introduced artificial intelligence to match pairs according to character, genetics, emotions, and so on. How do you feel about matchmaking?

Answer: Positively. What is good in the fact that some guy starts a love relationship with a girl? What happens there? They have children, they are forced to marry.

It is better if there is a matchmaking origination where they look in advance who is suitable for whom. Humanity has existed continuously and for many thousands of years in this way in all cultures. There is none of it today.

Comment: In England, there is a method of determining by smell: you come in, you smell something and say “This is my smell.” And they say: “This smell suits this girl. Or this guy.”

My Response: This is very important to us. The cells that react to smell cover a big area in the brain.

Question: Can it be that this British method is quite advanced?

Answer: It is not advanced. It is natural and old.

Question: Does it mean that to a large extent, I even determine my partner by smell?

Answer: Undoubtedly!

There is no doubt that by this we are attracted to each other  by this or distance from each other even unconsciously. What about all that perfume and so on? It is natural.

However, this should not be the criterion. We should approach each other not on the level of smell, although this is also very important, and not on the level of other various tastes, but on the level of understanding our correct aim to the purpose of creation. If we were all aiming for the correct purpose of creation, it would be much easier for us to find a partner. After all, in principle, we would not be separated from each other. We would not split up. This purpose would unite us all.

Comment: For young people, it is way too exalted to talk about the purpose of creation.

Answer: And what happens in the end? It turns out very low. They will not invent anything new. They get something like love for an hour  and that is the end of it.

Question: What should they understand?

Answer: They need to understand why they are getting married, why they need to tie up their life with a certain person. In the end, you still will not be able to create married couples. They will meet, have children, and run away from each other.

Question: How can one find a lifelong partner?

Answer: Only the final purpose should hold us together.

Question: Why do I look for a partner? Why do I get married?

Answer: In order to reach the final goal together with my partner through correct connection with him or her. Yet, I also need friends for that.

The purpose of creation is to reveal the upper force that manages us. To understand and attain what we exist for, what happens to us, who controls us, and where it leads. That is what we need to reveal so that we open our eyes to where we are.

Question: Does this thirst have to be in him and in her, in the guy, in the girl, and in general in all people?

Answer: Yes. You must discover this need and together with your partner gradually move toward it.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/14/21

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“What Life Lesson Did Your First Love Teach You?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: What life lesson did your first love teach you?

Our first love gives us a wonderful feeling, totally overwhelming us and making us feel alive.

However, most of us don’t end up marrying our first love. It is as if we are tricked into receiving a divine taste, which is then taken away from us.

Why do we experience these elevated feelings that soon fade away?

It is in order to develop our feelings, especially regarding the special feeling of love. After losing our first love, we can then learn to work on ourselves in order to understand what love truly is and how to reach it.

We can then add intellect to the original emotion of love that we had from childhood, before our hormones developed, and which swept us into a frenzy. Afterward, we can discern how our initial feeling of love gave us a special sense of life.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we are given the elated feelings associated with our first love in order to show us that the light of love—an eternal creative force beyond our current perception and sensation of reality—is greater than anything else we feel in our lives.

We can bring this light into our lives by wanting to love as the force of love does: with no calculation of self-benefit embedded within. It was this same force of love that illuminated upon us and gave us the feeling of love through what we felt as the object of our first love.

We have the opportunity to reach a much greater sensation of love by thinking about the source of love from which we receive everything, including our first love. However, we have problems connecting the eternal force of love that is behind everything we feel (which is called “the Creator” or “nature” in the wisdom of Kabbalah) to the original juvenile love that we felt.

All love comes from the same single source. Hatred also stems from the same source, existing in love as its opposite, like the opposite side of a coin. We are given such emotions in order to develop ourselves and become as loving as the force of love itself—with no shred of self-interest in our love—and by doing so, experience eternity and perfection.

Therefore, the elated feeling of our first love is given to us and then stripped from us in order to help us work toward achieving it by ourselves. Love is the ultimate source of all life, the force of nature that creates, sustains and develops everything in existence, and toward us.

Instead of receiving an object of love and yearning with no choice, as we did with our first love, we can learn from such an experience in order to apply our own yearning to love all humanity, nature and the reality surrounding us. By doing so, we acquire the greatest possible love, and we all develop toward such a sensation. Everything happening to us ultimately comes to develop us in order to discover the perfect and all-encompassing love that exists in reality.

Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Nellia Kurme on Unsplash

Everyone Wants Connection With The Creator

961.2Question: From the point of view of Kabbalah regarding spiritual work, the whole society can be divided into three parts:

Israel“—people who strive for the Creator.

“Egyptians”—people for whom spirituality is not important at all and they are busy fulfilling their material needs.

The “mixed multitude”—people that on one hand fear God, and on the other hand want to use the connection with the Creator for their own sake, which is identical to working for the Pharaoh.

The question is: How is it possible to use the Creator or connection with Him for oneself?

Answer: If you look around, the whole world more or less believes that there is a higher power, the Creator. Look how many temples have been built on Earth and all kinds of denominations have been created! And all of it is an expression of man’s desire for connection with the Creator. In fact, there is practically no real atheist in the world who completely cut themselves off from the Creator.

Comment: They say that only two percent of people in the world are atheists.

My Response: If you really dig into this issue, then this is not the case because the point of connection with the upper force was initially established within us. Any person can be driven to a state where he demands faith in the Creator because without this he will have no reason to live and somehow hold onto this world.

Therefore, all people are clearly divided into two classes. One kind are those who live a normal life and use their connection with the Creator in order to add confidence and all kinds of sensations to themselves. These are ordinary believers of all colors and denominations, no matter what kind.

They can be very different, opposite, even opponents, but they still believe in an upper force, they call it differently and clothe their connection with it in different stories. All of this refers to the cultural framework of humanity’s connection with the Creator.

And there are people who want to reveal this connection for real. So they demand it, they want it to appear, they want to reveal the Creator Himself so that He manifests in them just like a person we know would appear before us.

Just as in the surrounding world we see the still, vegetative, animate, and human nature, they want no less obvious manifestation of the fifth type of reality—the higher power, the Creator. In what form and what conditions are there for it to manifest itself, this must be clarified. But in principle, such a desire exists in a person.

Therefore, the wisdom of Kabbalah says that if such an aspiration exists in a person, then it can be fulfilled, one just needs to know how it is done. And then you will feel how in our world, in addition to the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human species, there is also a higher level—a force that controls all of them and determines absolutely everything: past, present, and future. This mighty, great, omnipresent force can manifest and reveal itself to any person.

The science of Kabbalah is the system of knowledge that prepares us for the revelation of the Creator, and we can gradually understand Him. This is the subject of its study and implementation.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/2/21

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Grow Out Of Yourself As Adam

742.03Comment: The commandment: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” corresponds to the act of Creation: “Let the earth sprout vegetation, seed yielding herbs and fruit trees producing fruit according to its kind in which its seed is found, on the earth.”

My Response: Earth (Adamah) comes from the word “domem,” something inanimate, absolutely dead, dust. On the other hand, here we mean Adam: the earth from which Adam grows like the Creator.

When you think of the Sabbath day, which you need to come to as to the end of the whole epic of existence in this world, you start to grow. Then a spiritual sprout appears in you, which gradually increases and becomes a tree.

Man is called a tree similar to the Creator. That is, the plant represents something that changes.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #10

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How To Remain In Spiritual Sensation?

934Question: When we attract the light, then we realize that we cannot do anything by ourselves and that only the Creator rules. It feels like an illumination in the group. How can we provide the group with at least a small constant illumination so that we always hold on to this level?

Answer: How to make you constantly feel close to the Creator?

You must connect together in such a way that everyone tries to maintain constant connection with the friends and with the Creator. But being only in connection with the Creator will not help because collective support from the ten is required. You should all try to think about the friends, and they will also think about it and about the Creator. Then you will hold on to it and will not fall.

You will not be able to reach a state that you feel some kind of spiritual attribute in you, a spiritual ascent, without falling from it. Only your friends can help you.

This is the reason we learn that a person cannot get himself out of prison by himself but only with the help of the friends. If you support each other all the time, you will be able to constantly be in spiritual sensation.

Question: So this constant illumination is us being in Arvut?

Answer: Yes, Arvut between you will bring you to constant illumination. Good luck!
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 4/9/19

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