Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do you define human progress?“

Human progress takes place in our attitude toward each other and to nature. The more we understand nature as a perfect mechanism, and the more we adapt ourselves to it, then the more we can consider ourselves making progress. By making such progress, we eventually enter into balance with nature, and by doing so, we achieve harmony and perfection.

Progress in our attitudes to each other and to nature leads us to balance between positive and negative forces, and the ability to successfully navigate ourselves among these forces.

We are born and we exist in the negative force, the human ego. This force makes us prioritize self-benefit over benefiting others and nature. We progress to balance among each other and with nature by aiming for a state where we each wish to benefit others and nature more than ourselves, and we work against our egos to achieve such balance.

Such progress in our attitudes to each other and to nature requires investing in educational programs that can make it happen. These programs should focus on guiding people to reach a state of positive connection to each other above our egoistic and divisive drives. If we progress in other directions, e.g., science and technology, without progressing in our attitudes to each other and to nature, then we will find ourselves in more and more of a tangle, using whatever we make or discover to our detriment rather than to our benefit.

Based on the video “Why New NASA Technology Doesn’t Impress Kabbalists” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can I stop being superstitious?“

We are unfamiliar with nature as a whole. There are several acting forces that suddenly appear to us, and we do not know what to do with them. We then believe in all sorts of things that supplement our power of faith, which serve to make us familiar with, and take control of, such forces. Those are what we call “superstitions.”

Then, the question becomes, how should we relate to the unknown? First and foremost, we need our faith to be in the force of love and connection, that there is a single force sustaining everything and everyone in a single system. If we wish for everything and everyone to be as one, then we are on the right track.

We can thus stop being superstitious when we relate logically to reality: that there is a superior force of love, giving and connection in nature, and we can do certain actions in our world in order to reveal that force and adapt ourselves to it.

Therefore, according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, if we wish to receive protection in our lives, we should direct ourselves at the force of love, giving and connection—the force of nature—and by doing so, we will attract this force into our lives. This is the meaning of what is written in kabbalistic texts, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.”

Based on the video, “How a Kabbalist Relates to Superstitions,” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: We say that there is none else besides Him and that the Creator does everything. At the same time, we say that we create Him by our mutual inclusion. Is it the same Creator or do we just lack the words to designate two different forces?

Answer: These are different manifestations of the upper force. The first manifestation is when the Creator builds, makes, and creates, and there is none else besides Him. The second is when we manifest the Creator in relation to ourselves and talk about the measures, steps, possibilities, and means of attaining Him.

This is completely different since we are already grading Him into levels, steps, and talking about the Creator: the light of Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida, and so on, at what levels, in what properties we perceive Him.

This is not the upper light that created us, but its various parts, which we, to the extent of our similarity to the upper light, snatch from it, feel, and reveal.

But, in principle, there is only one source—the upper light. On one hand, it is how He affects us and on the other hand, how we partially comprehend Him in our Kelim (vessels), to the extent of our similarity to Him.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/6/22, “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us” Lesson 1

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Question: I asked the Creator to be kind to my friends, to lift them up, but this is all material. How can I do something spiritual?

Answer: It doesn’t matter that we are in the material, egoistic part of creation. What matters is what we ask for.

We always correct from the egoistic part of creation to the altruistic one. This is how the prayer (MAN, Hissaron, lack) rises when I turn to the Creator from my faulty state and ask Him to transfer me to a corrected one. There can be nothing else here!

In a good state, I imagine myself connected with my friends, and all of us together are directed to our common unity, which we call the Creator. We want to give everything,  each of us outwardly relative to the others, to this common connection of all that is good and kind in us. This is the correct aspiration of a person through a group to the Creator.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/6/22, “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us” Lesson 1

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Question: Our convention is called “Rising Above Ourselves.” Could you give an outline for everyone of what we should do at this congress? What task would you set for us now?

Answer: Ascend above yourselves. We must unite, push, stomp on, and suppress our egoism. Not to suppress it so that it does not exist, but to rise above it, until the moment I feel myself in my friends.

And then I want to feel the Creator in all this. But one after the  other: first feel the friends and then the Creator.

Question: So throughout the convention I should feel my friends, not myself?

Answer: Yes. This should run like a thread through the convention: “I want to achieve a sense of connection with my friends, a connection in which I will discover the quality of the Creator, the upper force of bestowal, love, and connection. I don’t need anything else from my life. Just that.”
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/6/22, “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us” Lesson 1

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Comment: Greta Thunberg scolds world leaders for their years of empty chatter and climate inaction. She criticizes England, the USA, and China for manipulating statistics, and gives many examples, especially about England. England calls itself a world leader in the field of climate, and they have, as she says, power plants that are one of the largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions.

My Response: Yes, they run everything on coal. It’s a tradition.

Question: She “put them all in the naughty corner.” It feels like we no longer listen to scientists, we don’t trust them, and this girl is being published everywhere; she is being listened to; she is on a pedestal. Is this how our time is?

Answer: Our time is the most corrupt and the dirtiest. They took this girl, made whoever they required out of her, and let her out on a short leash.

Question: Do you think there are some forces behind her? The media don’t know what to do.

Answer: Yes, who would have heard her otherwise? They look at a person with one eye and understand where he can be more suitable to earn a rating. Do you really think that a child jumps out on stage by him or herself? Who allows it? Who gives the radio time, screen time, TV time, etc.?

Question: Why is this being done?

Answer: Firstly, the world needs such noise. It is a distraction. Secondly, there are big forces behind all this, forces which benefit from it.

Question: Which heroes would you bring out today? What kind of heroes does today’s time need?

Answer: It must be some very serious organization, a gathering of scientists, politicians, and economists who all sit together and seriously discuss what we can do. But first we need a very serious report, that is, research.

Question: Do we have to reach the depth of the problem of what is happening?

Answer: We understand the depth of the problem.

Question: It’s clear to you. Nobody talks about it much. Will humanity have to come to the depth of the problem?

Answer: We won’t be able to do anything. Everyone pulls in their own direction toward where they can make more money.

Question: So, to my question: “Who should I bring out to be heard?” is the answer: “The one who leads to the depth of the problem”?

Answer: If they seriously tackled this issue, they would come to the conclusion that nothing can be done and nothing is needed!

There is only one answer. We can bring the world to balance only if we ourselves enter into balance in our relations. And then we will simply find ourselves in a world in which everything will be enough and good for everyone.

This is not a fantasy or utopia; it’s just something that will happen involuntarily. If we make the balance in the world at the level of “man,” then all the lower levels—animal, vegetative, and inanimate—will also come into balance.

Comment: It’s like you’re addressing a person and saying that he needs to change for the sake of good connections. And a person can’t do that! He doesn’t want to!

My Response: He can’t. Then he will be brought down.

Comment: He needs an enemy.

My Response: He himself is the enemy!

Comment: You say to a person: “It’s all you! Because of you these ecological problems are happening.”

My Response: Yes.

Question: How do we get out of this story?

Answer: There is no way. Either we kill ourselves or we start changing ourselves. One or the other.

Only the correction of man can bring nature into balance. And it is possible to bring a person into balance only if we gradually create an atmosphere of love your neighbor between us.

Question: Should we all be exhausted in search of a way out? Do we need to be exhausted in order to come to what you say?

Answer: Then we would really want to hear the answer here. We would be able to hear it.

Never mind! That’s all right. The upper governance knows everything and can do anything, and it does everything anyway.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/1/21

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Question: There were so many different kinds of natural disasters last year. The year started with a wild cold spell in Spain. They did not expect it and were not ready for it. There were earthquakes; there were floods in Indonesia. A glacier came down in the Indian Himalayas and buried 170 people. There was a sandstorm in Beijing and flooding in Australia. In Western Europe, heavy rains washed away cars and flooded cities. Fires raged in California, Turkey, and Greece. An earthquake in Haiti killed 2,200 people died. On the Canary Island of Palma, a volcano erupted for three months. This has not happened for 500 years. Dozens of tornadoes swept across the United States. A typhoon hit the Philippines and left havoc in its wake.

This is a short list of what happened. Can you translate to us in human language what nature is saying to us?

Answer: Nature tells us: “It serves you right!” Really, how you treat nature—disturbing its balance in everything possible, at all levels, in all cases and possibilities—this is how nature reacts.

Imagine that you have a sick body, the whole Earth, the whole globe. And what will you do?

Question: So what do we do?

Answer: Do not interfere, do not disturb its relative peace. It is in homeostasis—very well, let it stay that way, don’t touch it!

Question: But one way or another, don’t we have to produce something, extract minerals?

Answer: It depends in what doses. It’s like the doctor says: “In moderation.” It’s the same here: you dig into the ground, you start picking at it, taking stuff out, digging it out, pulling it out, sucking it out. You have to understand that it all needs to be replenished at some point.

We are slowly getting old and dying. The same thing probably happens with the Earth.

Question: How do we enter this dialog? How do we behave with nature so that we have homeostasis with it?

Answer: We must understand that this is a living organism, an actual living organism. And if we impact it, we must do everything very carefully and cautiously.

And it is necessary to compensate and to understand that if it is one organism, it does not matter where you operate. If you do something somewhere in Australia, it will resonate in Canada or somewhere in South America. We are really responsible here for everything and for everyone.

We have nothing but this land! We can’t fly anywhere and do anything. And we just do whatever we want here today! And there is no reaction, no calculation, no thought for tomorrow!

Comment: Our current thought is to gain from this—to earn more, more, and more money.

My Response: But then we lose 20 times more. We must compensate for all this.

Comment: A person has a thought: “After me, even a flood.”

My Response: The whole problem is in our egoism. That’s clear.

Question: If possible, can you give one more recipe? What is a person’s work with this organism called Earth?

Answer: The Earth is a very wise organism. Its laws, which are still unknown to us, hide huge layers of wisdom that are our future. And that’s why we need to treat it very carefully and with respect.

Question: So are you saying that if this thought enters a person and lives in him, then he will have a completely different attitude and everything in general?

Answer: Yes, which means if you dig with a shovel, you must explain why, for what, how, and how you will compensate for it. It’s as if you borrow from the Earth its matter, its energy, and its power that it will have to invest in what you, for example, plant in it.

Question: So even for such a small intervention, I have to make a huge calculation before I do it?

Answer: Yes. It’s an attitude, but it will save us. Otherwise the Earth, as it is said, “will spew you out.”

Comment: Yes, it will spew us out. It seems that the hints have already become very clear and are knocking on our door.

My Response: Yes. There is a beginning.

Comment: Let’s hope that we will understand.

My Response: No, there will be no hope here. Until a person corrects his egoism, he will inevitably harm nature and the planet he lives on. And it will be bad.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/30/21

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Question: Does mutual guarantee free us from egoism?

Answer: Mutual guarantee does not destroy egoism, it raises us above it, as we usually say: faith above reason, the quality of Bina above the quality of Malchut, bestowal above reception.

Reception does not disappear. Everyone who is higher than the other, his egoism is greater. Therefore, we grow both in Malchut and in Bina. And this is how we rise.

Question: On what does it depend that some friends can accept the law of mutual guarantee much more easily than others?

Answer: It depends on the qualities of the soul, on its depth. But, in principle, we must understand that there is nothing else but the recognition of evil in our egoism, the opportunity to rise above it, connect with others, and attain the Creator in this state.

This is all we have: four stages of ascending to the Creator. In general, there is nothing difficult here. We have talked about this many times. This is what you have to do between you.

Question: To enter the mutual guarantee, do I receive strength only from the friends or can I receive it from my egoism, since it is beneficial for me?

Answer: For now, it is all mixed. You still cannot determine exactly where your strength comes from and what your intentions are. But this is at the beginning. Later you will have the opportunity to check yourself in the upper light.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Working in Mutual Responsibility” Lesson 6

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Everything Is Obtained by the Power of Prayer”

Selected Highlights 

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