Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What should a young adult be reading, seeing or experiencing to spark a strong desire and knowledge to become a world-changer?“

No matter how egoistic we are, we contain several altruistic forces. We can develop these altruistic forces by means of a special targeted influence of culture, education, science and upbringing. That is the essence of what we should prioritize as a society.

We should each receive an explanation about the fact that human society is integral and unified. We need to exist in unity, in mutual love according to the principle, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

This is where we should orient our literature, cinema and means of mass information. It is what we should discuss in society, and we should prioritize such influences so that they become of utmost importance to us. By doing so, we will each become valued solely by our contribution to society.

Then, the young generation will definitely become permeated by hearing and seeing wonderful examples of positive contributions to society from all directions. After all, we become obligated by social influence, and this is why we will become obligated to take care of society. As a result, our attitude toward each other will become altruistic and we will reach balance with the general law of nature, the law of love and bestowal, and we will accordingly ascend above materialistic life to spiritual life.

Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 9, 2006. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: There was a movie Groundhog Day where a person wakes up and lives the same day, wakes up and lives the same day, over and over.

A viewer writes: “How can we deal with disappointments in life? Everything is bland; this was not the case before the coronavirus. Everything is the same, the same emotions, the same fears, like Groundhog Day every day. Nothing is new, nothing changes. I just want to go to bed as soon as possible. Sleep, sleep, and dream. What can I do?”

Answer: I understand him. If, for example, we establish a six-month quarantine, then it would be good to take a pill and wake up in six months. But we cannot do this!

Comment: A person gets up and it is the same day for him.

My Response: Yes. And he must understand that it is the same day and that he cannot change anything. And what should be done to change this? How do I get off this carousel?

To do this, he must change himself. And if he starts to change, the world will start to change and there will be no Groundhog Day.

And the cycles of life that we go through are all the same! It seems to us that every day is something new, that every second is new. There is nothing new.

Question: So if your goal is just to live an ordinary life, to have ordinary desires, then Groundhog Day will happen more often?

Answer: Yes. That is what we have been shown. We are becoming more developed but, as it is said: “He who adds knowledge, adds pain.”

Question: So, we live by this knowledge that we accumulate and now even that is insipid? We do not need it anymore?

Answer: Our knowledge only leads us to a dead end. It shows us how powerless we are against the most important thing: to change something in our lives.

And now we see that the world is entering such a loop again. There was a little bit of democracy, some freedoms, and now we are again entering into a noose that will crush us and tighten ominously around our throats.

Question: Give us some practical advice: How should a person get up in the morning? What should he tell himself, what steps should he take?

Answer: We are expecting positive changes to take place outside. There will be none! We must realize that there can be changes for the better only if we change from inside. That is when we will start depicting our world the way we want it to be! That is what we need to do!

Question: In the meantime, the world is depicted by our nature, our egoism?

Answer: Yes. Our ego has finished its development. It shows you the whole world you exist in. This is what it can give you. And as a result, it will now pressure you, pressure you so much that you will not be able to exist in this world. So you will feel bad, sick, afraid, rough, uncomfortable; in general, anything is possible.

And this is just so that you understand that there are no external changes any more. We have gone through all the stages of our egoistic development, we have reached a state where what can happen next is just to kill each other. That is all, nothing else.

We have driven ourselves into a dead end with our previous immense selfishness. And now we want nothing at all. The new generation doesn’t want anything. We thought that they would be more developed, more driven, but they, on the contrary, do not want anything. And this is true.

And we would be the same in their place. And in some ways, we understand them.

It is all good. And what is the use of demanding, squeezing something out of this world again and again. It cannot give you anything else; there is nothing else in it.

Question: What should I say to my egoism if I have already realized that it was my egoism that painted the whole picture for me?

Answer: That it is right, that it has done its job, it has led you to a state where you must understand, while you are completely disappointed, that you can no longer exist in such a paradigm. You cannot!

What to do? Correct yourself, and the world will be corrected. This is a completely different technique: correcting the world by changing yourself.

It is not easy, but this is a good moment in history when we really need to change the source of our development, the system, the methodology of our development. When our development depends not on how we break the surrounding nature, but on how we change ourselves. And as a result, the world will change.

Changing myself means changing my evil attitude toward everything around me, my consumerist, egoistic attitude into a kind, altruistic one. And then I will begin to see the world differently. I will begin to see another control system through it.

I will merge with this world, I will comprehend its eternity, infinity, and perfection, which is something that I do not see now because I look with my limited egoistic eyes.

This is what we must do.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/11/21

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Prophets, Joshua, 11:23: And Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war.

The intention for the sake of the Creator, for the sake of bestowal and love covered all the desires, the whole land (Eretz, land is from the word “Ratzon,” desire). And everything calmed down for a while because the whole land had not yet been conquered. And then there was a war again because everything is revealed gradually, at certain egoistic levels.

Question: It is said that the land was distributed “according to their divisions by their tribes.” What is the origin of the division of the land, the egoistic desire, to the tribes of Israel? What is the principle of division?

Answer: The fact is that egoism consists of four levels of Aviut (depth of desire). In spiritual work a desire works on three lines. Therefore, 4 levels multiplied by 3 lines gives the number 12. Accordingly, people were divided into 12 tribes.

Each tribe has a more or less egoistic part according to that tribe.

Question: What kind of tribe should it be so that it settles on the most egoistic land?

Answer: It is the royal tribe. The strongest tribe represents the greatest egoism. This means that you have the ego in front of you divided according to its levels into 12 parts. Each of these levels is assigned a certain property. Therefore, each tribe takes its place on the ground and develops it. It was clear to the masses that entered the borders of Israel how they should divide the land.

Question: It is said: “And the land rested from war.” What does it mean?

Answer: This means that each desire realized what kind of inner work would help so that it can be directed to the Creator.

There were no problems in dividing these desires since in such a state a person clearly understands what desires, inclinations, and intentions he has.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/2/21

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Question: Must a Kabbalist justify the actions of the Creator like world wars and disasters or should he try to prevent them?

Answer: Preventing or justifying these are different things. A Kabbalist must in any case try to prevent these actions and also justify them.

Question: Can Bnei Baruch prevent a third world war? Or must we justify this action of the Creator?

Answer: This depends on us: on how much our unity will be revealed throughout the world, on how much it will become a safeguard for the world protecting it from its egoism. The problem is that egoism is constantly growing and it ignites and invites problems like world wars. There is nothing to do here anymore. You see that Baal HaSulam wrote about the possibility of a third world war and even of a fourth world war. We hope that our actions will nevertheless prevent this and will make it possible for us to disseminate the method of unity throughout the world. Act! Act among you and around you.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 7/14/19

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Comment: One common spiritual method is the so-called “Osho teaching.” Like Kabbalah, it speaks about unity and about the perception of the universe as a single whole.

My Response: A great number of people talk about unity. Nowadays physicists and even economists say that everything is interconnected. Russian geologist Vladimir Vernadsky (1863-1945) developed the theory of the noosphere. In principle unity is an ancient concept that existed before Kabbalah.

Kabbalah is only four and a half thousand years old. It originated in ancient Babylon. However, even before that, people believed that everything in nature is interconnected. On the one hand they worshipped the sun, the moon, the stars and various forces of nature, and on the other hand they still believed that there was something that unites them.

The medieval scientist and scholar Rambam wrote that at first all people believed in the existence of one single force. Then they saw that all sorts of phenomena occur in nature, as if under the influence of different forces: the moon, the sun, wind, water, and so on. They realized that the one single force hidden from them manifested itself through various private forces, and they began to worship them because they saw an obvious image. Thus, polytheism appeared.

Initially monotheism prevailed, a single upper force. Even when people began to worship its various manifestations, they realized they were worshipping angels, that is, representatives of one upper force.

Therefore, the unity that Osho or other methods speak about is a very ancient postulate.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Seekers” 9/16/09

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Question: What is equality between people?

Answer: If we build a society in such a way that a person will have satisfaction from it: “I did it, and everyone sees it, everyone knows, everyone understands and thanks me,” then there is no greater pleasure for that person. He will be ready to work from morning till night. It is only necessary to properly build a chain of public relations.

There will be no equality ever and there is no need. It is not programmed by nature. It does not exist in the animal pack either. What equality exists there? There is a leader, followed by a pair of males helping him, and all the others trail behind. Equality is not programmed by nature. Equality is leveling, it is death.

Comment: But you say that the last generation should be built on the principles of equality.

My Response: Equality means that everyone has an equal right to realize themselves according to their natural abilities and capabilities. Everyone should have equality in realization, in the opportunity to express themselves.

Let us say I was born in a family of rich, strong people, and someone was born in a family of weak, poor people. It does not matter. There should be equality in the opportunity to move forward and not in the fact that everyone was trimmed to the same size.

The next stage will really be like this. When a person begins to receive only spiritual reward and this will be enough for him, when he realizes that for a normal existence he does not need more than what his animal body requires and everything else will be revealed to him as a spiritual reward, a connection with a higher power, with eternity, harmony, and perfection, then the people themselves will consciously cease to be interested in some kind of earthly rewards.

They will not need any medals, no extra money, nothing, and all the rewards will be spiritual because the connection with the Creator will be opened before them.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Hope for Peace” 9/9/09

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Prophets, the Book of Joshua, 8:1: And the Lord said to Joshua, Fear not, and be not dismayed; take all the people of war with you and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land.

Question: In fact, the city was taken by deception. Why is it necessary to work with egoism by deception? Why can’t you take it directly?

Answer: Because egoism is right: it wants to enjoy, to receive. It does not deceive anyone. It leads a person to pleasure, fulfills him. That is why it is so difficult for us to give it up.

We must act by deception, by thievish actions: to lure out the warriors of the city of Ai who are inside us. And it turns out that we are always acting in a bad, indirect way. Otherwise, egoism cannot be defeated.

Question: How can we figure out what is true and what is false?

Answer: Truth is something that comes from the Creator and should prevail in the end. And a lie is anything that works against it. However, everything is relative. Who said that receiving is bad and giving is good? There are completely different philosophies and methods where the opposite is true. And they speak absolutely from the heart.

Question: That is, the truth is understood only if there is a connection with the Creator?

Answer: If the Creator stands above this and says that it is true, then we must accept it, we will discover that this is really the truth and at the end of our actions.

Question: How can I hear what the Creator says? How can I get closer to this truth?

Answer: You must begin to act as He says, that is, to act anti-egoistically, and gradually you will see a deep inner, higher meaning in this.

Question: Is this a correct postulate: If my egoism feels bad, it is good?

Answer: In general, yes. But we are not talking about self-torture or any kind of torment.

It is necessary to work with egoism very nicely, pleasantly, directly. And the deception should be based on the fact that I deceive it the same way I deceive a child when I give him sweet medicine. Only in this way. And that is why I do not feel that I am deceiving, that I am transgressing something.

Question: When we say that we should hate our egoism, what do we mean?

Answer: Egoism should be hated only because it is directed against the Creator and stands in the way between me and Him.

And at the same time, we must respect it. Egoism is considered an angel, the force of the Creator, so there is no way to go anywhere. As a result, respect and hatred are combined. You just need to learn how to work with the ego correctly.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/19/21

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At that time, the great priest, Michael, takes the Ruach and offers it as an offering of sweet savor before the Creator, ZA. It sits there in ZA de Atzilut and is refined in that bundle of life, on which it is written, “Neither has the eye seen a God besides You.”

Afterwards, it comes back down from there to the Garden of Eden on the earth and is refined with all kinds of refinements, dresses that clothing of the air of the Garden of Eden once more, and sits there now in a crown that is twice as big as what it was prior to its ascent to ZON de Atzilut. (Zohar for All, Lech Lecha, item 102)

The ascent is performed by a special force that acts in the same way as, for example, a magnet, wind, or the force of gravity act in our world.

Just as there are four degrees in the corporeal world: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human, so in the spiritual worlds of Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, and Atzilut there are four different forces that carry out the ascent.

These forces are called the angels Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Rafael, and they lift a person up the degrees of the spiritual worlds. In principle, every world has its own force. Nevertheless, they all work together in each of the worlds, despite the fact that one of them is the leading one there.

The very first force that lifts a person to the upper world is Michael, “Mi-kaEl” – “Who is like the Creator.”
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #18

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic: “Faith Above Reason”

Selected Highlights

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