Audio Version Of The Blog – 3/28/22

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“What Is Most Important In Life, Love Or Money?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: What is most important in life, love or money?

FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried has become known as a generous billionaire. Before reaching 30 years of age, he made $22.5 billion dollars, but he lives and dresses modestly, and donates a lot of money to charities. Such an example raises the question: Does giving money and donating to various charities actually help the world?

No matter how many dollars a person throws at the world today, the world does not enjoy a penny of it. The world has no need for money. What the world needs today is love.

We live in a world of materialistic abundance, yet when it comes to love, the same world is a desert.

I very much hope that in the near future, people will discover a different attitude to what is important in life. We no longer live in times where we need to struggle our entire lives just to survive, or even to become rich. Today, we have different conditions that present us with an opportunity to discover a deeper and more internal fulfillment. Moreover, genuine happiness depends on discovering such fulfillment.

And that fulfillment is love. Love is much stronger than money because its fulfillment is inclusive and completely fills us when we attain it. Thus, what we truly need is love.

Based on the video “Does Donating Billions of Dollars to Charities Actually Help the World?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

“Why Do We Lose Control All Of A Sudden?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: Why do we lose control all of a sudden?

There was an unfortunate case recently of a 20-year-old calling the police multiple times in severe mental distress. Eventually, the officer on duty who took her calls lost patience, telling her: “Kill yourself quietly already.” Weeks later, she committed suicide. The officer who took her calls claimed that he felt deeply ashamed, and became immediately removed from his position. Each of us seemingly has a certain limit before we totally lose it and no longer are in control of our actions. Why are we made that way?

We are made with a certain limit beyond which we lose control in order for us to be able to eventually change our nature from the desire to receive to the desire to bestow.

When we relate to others out of an attitude of bestowal, where we purely wish to benefit them without any self-interest intertwined, then we understand them and their pains. Then, instead of losing our patience with them, we discover opportunities to help, support, praise and elevate them.

We should thus focus on increasing our sensitivity to each other, which is achieved first and foremost by listening to explanations of how interconnected and interdependent we are. By increasing our inclination to positively connect throughout human society, then we attract upon ourselves the positive force of connection that dwells in nature, and by doing so, we eventually start feeling that we live in a single system.

Such is the shift from the corporeal animate level of existence that we currently live on, to an awakening into a whole new human level of existence, where we feel ourselves as parts of a single whole. In such a state, we would feel close to each other, and we would have no sensation of others stressing us out or pushing us out of balance. Instead, we would seek opportunities to help, support and encourage others.

We would then view people who approach us with requests for help as doing us favors. It would no longer be difficult for us to connect with others, to feel and serve them. The more people would call us and nag us, then the more we would feel that such people help us rise from the animate level of existence to the human level—where we are in a mode of constant giving without a shred of selfish interest intertwined—and we would thus realize the purpose of our lives through this egoistic-to-altruistic transformation of our attitudes and relations.

Based on the video “Why Do We Lose Control All of a Sudden?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Lust For Power

547.01Question: Since ancient times, especially in ancient Greece, people noticed that the abuse of power leads to mental disorders. There are many different symptoms that result from a person staying in high positions for a long time. The ancient Greeks called this phenomenon pride and said that divine retribution comes for it.

How does Kabbalah relate to such a phenomenon as a thirst for power?

Answer: The thirst for power is the main thing that is in a person who wants to rule over what is around him and to manage and retain power.

See how a child grabs everything, holds it, pulls it to itself, and takes it into its mouth. This is the thirst for power, our basic state, so that everything I see and feel is in my power, in my strength, in my desires, states, and possibilities. I want to conquer all this, suppress it, and bring it closer to me.

In principle, the lust for power is necessary for our existence. If we don’t desire something, we won’t be able to breathe, eat food, and so on. The thirst for power begins with such elementary actions and ends with the fact that a person loses his mind because of his irrepressible desire to rule over everything, to suppress and control, and not knowing where to throw himself so as not to miss something.

The desire to dominate begins with a natural state and can acquire monstrous proportions.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 3/22/22

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Can Equality Of All Be The Foundation For Peace?

547.05Question: The ideologists of education, such as the philosophers Rousseau and Diderot raised the question of the structure of society to achieve peace, with the cornerstone of political freedom, equal rights, and civil equality.

Can equality of all be the foundation for peace?

Answer: There can be no equality of all because if there are two people, then it is already implied that they are not the same, somewhere in some ways they are not equal.

The concept of equality implies that there is still a contradiction inside that can be balanced. However, this equilibrium will exist in a dynamic state of inequality, which must be constantly addressed and corrected.

That is, equality cannot be reached in such a way that I achieved it once and that’s it. It must be reached and then constantly maintained and developed. There can be no such a thing as done and gone in the world at all.

Question: Is it possible that there is one point at which everyone can be equal?

Answer: No everyone cannot be equal. Then it will be just one person.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 3/4/22

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A Reasonable Attitude To Consumption

962.2Comment: Many people today, especially young people, are increasingly reducing their degree of consumption. This is becoming a new trend.

My Response: In principle, this is sensible and correct from all points of view. All consumption should be limited. Otherwise, it causes various undesirable consequences. This is first.

Second, we lived already through years when we were just beginning to cultivate the Earth by modern methods. There were abundant deposits and minerals.

Today we are discovering the limitations of such an attitude toward the Earth. This, in principle, is not a bottomless sphere, but a very complex system. What we are leaving for our children is unclear.

Question: It is estimated that if all of humanity rises to the standard of living of the United States, we would need four planets with such a volume of minerals, materials, and production to provide the whole world with the level at which America lives.

I wonder if America will reduce consumption or will there be any other solutions? Maybe a virtual world, where people will need fewer material things, will replace this?

Answer: I am sure that the problem here, of course, is not in America and in the number of people, but in the fact that, unfortunately, we are controlled by great egoists who feel only replenishment of their own pockets. They do not care what happens next with this pocket even though everything is disappearing from it as well.

This is a pure type of egoism where a person feels that he gets more and more of something in banks, factories, and enterprises.

The only thing that we need here is serious re-education. Otherwise, the planet will force us to switch to a different consumption regime. But it will be a forced regime. Look at how hard it is in countries in many parts of the world. People will have to starve.

Question: And this is despite the fact that now we throw away half of the food we produce?

Answer: Yes. People will have to starve not only because of this but because there really will be no food. Look at what is happening to forests and fields. There is no way to reverse it. Half of the people will die out. The other half will understand that it is impossible to live like this and will slowly limit themselves. But they will still not achieve anything by this.

We will have to understand that only our good relationships will give us an understanding of how to treat ourselves and nature correctly. It requires a new attitude of a person toward people and the world around them. And this is our entire egoism.

This scenario of the extinction of half the planet is possible but not necessary. Our planet, as Baal HaSulam writes, can feed tens of billions of people. No problem! But only on condition that we cultivate the land, plant, harvest, and distribute it for this very reason. Then everyone will have enough of everything.

Question: Obviously, it is necessary to re-educate not only ordinary people, but first of all managers who make decisions?

Answer: Absolutely everyone! Absolutely everyone in our world will have to change themselves, their attitude to the world, and not as an individual consumer but as a social unit consisting of billions of people. We will have to perceive all this as one single whole. Then there will be enough of everything for everyone.
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From KabTV’s “Virtual world” 2/9/22

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Through The Prism Of Approaching The Spiritual

284Question: You said that when a person wins a large amount of money in the lottery, it’s a curse. What did you mean by that?

Answer: This distracts him from his normal path of life and it is not a gift from above, but a curse. ​​That is why the Creator said: “Behold, I give you a reward and a curse, and you choose a good path.”

Comment: But the man did not choose. He just filled out a lottery ticket and won.

My Response: Well, give it away.

Comment: That isn’t easy either. You need to understand whom to give to and how.

My Response: In fact, I would rather not take anything for myself at all, not an apartment, not a car, not what I have created in life or in the world. We need only the essentials for existence. More than that, it can turn into a rejection of the spiritual for a person.

Everything should be measured through the prism of whether it brings us closer to spiritual development or distances us. There is no other criterion.

If a person is in a spiritual search, then he himself determines whether this is a blessing or a curse for him. It is already easy.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 2/8/22

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The Trial Must Be Public

259.02Question: How does Kabbalah relate to the death penalty? Should there be a death penalty for murder?

Answer: As a deterrent, yes. It was used this way in ancient times. The death sentence was passed once every 70 years, and it was considered a brutal trial. Imagine how rarely this was used!

The death penalty, as such, should exist. A person should understand that other corrections are possible. The execution is not just death, but it also cuts you off from the opportunity to correct yourself because it means we do not want you to achieve correction in this life, with our help, in connection with us. This is, of course, terrible! And it is a whole system.

It may seem to someone that I am saying rather ordinary things. In fact, Kabbalah implies to these things huge layers of influence, education, and decision-making. Moreover, decisions are made by the whole society. The trial should be public and in no case private.

Today, various trial scenes are shown on television. But this is theater! Instead, everything should be in practice. People should take an active part in the education of members of society and definitely including schoolchildren. But, of course, this is a matter of the future.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Presumption of innocence” 3/10/10

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Nothing To Look Forward To In This World

222This generation is coming to a state where nothing is left for them to look forward to in this world. On one hand, the world seems to have become so accessible, but on the other hand, so insufficient that I just don’t know what I am doing here.

Therefore, today, the question about the meaning of life strikes everyone.

Almost half of humanity is in a state of concealed or overt depression to the point that depression has become a viral disease that infects both people and the animals living close to us. Antidepressants are now available even for cats and dogs. And from person to person depression is transmitted almost through the air.

In the near future, we will see an even greater descent. It began in the 1960’s when disillusionment and nihilism started to manifest.

Previously it seemed to us that they were characteristic only of special “golden” youth. However, this is a serious problem that we don’t know how to handle. Drugs, divorce, antidepressants, and private psychologists, one tries anything he can, and in the end, he is glad to be leaving this world.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Uup. Summing Up” 4/7/10

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 3/28/22

Preparation to the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Lesson on the Topic “Pesach (Passover)” 

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Love of God and the Love of Man” 

[media 5] [media 6]

Selected Highlights

[media 7] [media 8]