Question: Is it correct that according to Kabbalah, in the present moment of a person’s existence, one has no independence, not a single thought of his own?

Answer: Of course not. From where?

What does “his own” mean? Where can one’s own thought come from at all? From the vacuum of space, from some kind of an empty place? It arises from  something!

A child growing up has some thoughts, suddenly he begins to understand something. From where? After all, nothing can come from nothing. It appears and manifests itself.

It is just like when I turn on the radio. So what, that I turned it on? I have to tune it to some wave and then it will give me some information, it will somehow manifest itself. In fact, we are the receivers of a common information field, a common thought.

We automatically follow the instructions of this thought up to a certain point of development until suddenly something opposite appears in us. We do not want to act automatically as we did before. I have a revolutionary desire to rebel against this thought: I want to find out what for, why, for what reason I live, and not to be some kind of machine. I have to feel that I exist on my own.

Here a rebellion arises within a person. From that moment on, he has the opportunity to become a Kabbalist, that is, one who attains this thought from the outside and then agrees or disagrees with it. This is how his movement toward this thought begins: in disagreement, in rejection, in distance, in opposition.

It is from the fact that he attains his oppositeness and does not want to agree with this thought that he begins to explore it. He, a Kabbalist, begins to explore it and sees how perfect and pure it is, and he wants to receive it.

He makes of himself the receiver of this thought, not automatically the way he was created, but independently, explicitly. This is called attaining the Creator.
[297513]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Secrets of Immortality” 1/7/11

Related Material:
The Common Field Of Thought
The Result Of Our Thoughts
What Is A Thought?

Filed under: Perception, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: In the modern world do we need to educate the surrounding society first of all and not the individual?

Answer: We need to urgently change mass media. This is a very difficult job because it leads to the greatest revolution at all levels. Absolutely at all levels.

The mass media pass on certain politics of each country to a person. We understand that changing it can impact big changes in society.

Comment: Naturally. If society and its laws are egoistic, when everyone thinks only about how to snatch something for himself, then the media is also built on the same principle.

My Response: Do not replace one with another and do not swap them. It is because the media is loaded and directed at people in this way that people are like that, and not the other way around.

Indeed, a person is initially an egoist, but it is the mass media that teaches him how to use his egoism. No one else. The environment, not the parents.

However, if parents also act badly, it is only because they have been taught this way, they have seen these examples. A person is brought up only by examples, as they say: “You lie with dogs, you wake up with fleas.” Therefore, we have to take into account that if we want to change something, we need to change the environment. Basically, what else do we need besides improving a person? Nothing else.

To do this, you need to change the environment around a person. Give him the right examples, not by force, but so that he is surrounded by them. Then he will have to change.

If we encourage bad examples, we end up with a terrible society. I watch TV programs and they just scare me. This is the future society!

Most programs do not talk about anything except murders and investigations. Everything revolves around this. There is nothing else. They practically make people accustomed to the fact that they live in this environment and must conform to it.

I once gave a report about this in Arosa, Switzerland at the famous World Spirit Forum. I was applauded, and that was the end of it. What else can they do? This is a massive problem. People have no problems besides education. Everything depends on the education.

If we took today’s generation and were able to educate it well, then in 10 or 15 years we would have a normal society, a completely different civilization.

Why can we not realize that we can do this, for the sake of our children? Let’s create a good society for them. Let’s make the world completely different, and they will become different.
[297485]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Outlaw” 12/19/10

Related Material:
When There Is No Correct Education
The Proper Education For A Person
Education By Example

Filed under: Children, Crisis, Education, Globalization, Perception - No Comments →

Question: Tsiolkovsky had a feeling that death does not exist. He wrote that the universe is unchangeable, boundless, and constant. He related to human life and all of development in the same way. He said that man was created in order to come to some kind of perfect, intelligent system, intelligent life.

What is this perfect stage to which we are being pushed?  Tsiolkovsky also said that at that moment, the path of suffering in the development of humanity will end.

Answer: Of course, indeed, this is the ascent above our egoistic nature when we unwillingly, whether we want it or not, act only in self interest.

And the universe demands a different state from us, equivalence with it, when all forces are balanced and complement each other.

Looking at the universe now, we see it egotistically: everyone grabs, devours, pulls, draws in, and consumes. It is I who see it this way.

And if I would look at everything correctly, I would see that everything is in absolute harmony. And then I would also be in harmony with everything that is happening, and would see a different universe undisturbed by my ego.
[297144]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up. The Will of the Universe” 28/11/10

Related Material:
The Entire Universe Came From A Spark Of Upper Energy
The Universe Is A Computer Program
Meet The Programmer Of The Universe

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Perception, Science - No Comments →

The rest of the concepts, which combine the reason for their method and other methods, are forbidden to us. One who uses them breaches, “Turn you not unto the idols.” (Baal HaSulam, “Body And Soul”). 

If you imagine something that you do not perceive in your senses, it means that you are imagining it to yourself, and therefore, it is idolatry.

To imagine something in your uncorrected, non–spiritual qualities as real is pure idolatry. There is no other way to call it.

Question: So, should we not imagine unification, love, or bestowal either?

Answer: You can imagine it not as something independent but as existing between people. Then there is nothing wrong with it.
[296907]
From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/5/22

Related Material:
Internal Indicators in Spirituality
Fighting Idolatry
Idols Are Attributes Of Comfort

Filed under: Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the importance of humans to the Earth?“

The importance of humans to the Earth is that we truly realize what it means to become human, and fulfill our role here by doing so.

Becoming human means adjusting our attitude toward people and nature on all of its levels—the still, vegetative, animate and speaking—so that our attitude aligns with the altruistic attitude sourced in nature.

In other words, we need love. By increasing love in our relations, we can stop the spread of hatred. By failing to add love in our relations, we let hatred abound and thus find that we become increasingly imbalanced among each other and with nature.

Planet Earth feels human attitudes, whether or not we feel love, hate or anything else. We live on a living organism, which is now suffering.

In order to alleviate the Earth’s suffering and to make the Earth happy, we need only wish to create a positive, mutual and balanced life, that we become the source of this newfound balance, and we will then also bring balance to the planet, to the atmosphere, and to everything else in nature.

When we reach balance among each other and with nature, we will experience a whole new abundant and perfect life.

Based on the video “It’s Time to Reassess Our Relationship With Nature” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Filed under: Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Preparation to the Lesson

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

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Foreword to The Book of Zohar”

Selected Highlights

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3 Audio

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why should you care?“

If we fail to reach mutual care in our times, then we can expect ourselves as a humanity to regress, rather than progress, as we head into the future.

Any current progress we make is for profit purposes. If there were no thirst for money, would medicine and surgery continue developing? Nothing would develop. We would live as if in a primitive society.

However, in our times we will feel a growing awareness of the need for mutual care. For the time being, however, the modern world does everything possible in order to obscure it, even though it is crucial to its survival.

Today, human egoism—the desire to enjoy at the expense of others—undergoes immense exponential growth, and we cannot object to its demands. Our overblown egoism could lead us to such disastrous states as nuclear wars, or nature itself will trap us with its own disasters, and it would all be in order for us to reach an agreement: that we invert our attitudes to each other, to solely consider the other’s benefit without taking ourselves into account.

By making such a fateful shift in our attitudes to each other—to become more caring for each other—we would see the dark picture of the world fade away, and a new harmonious and peaceful world open up to us.

Based on the video “Here’s the CONSCIOUSNESS SHIFT We’re on the Threshold of Making” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Jack Finnigan on Unsplash.

Filed under: Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Istanbul Convention – Israel Should Make Its Own Rules”

The Istanbul Convention is a human rights treaty that was drafted by the Council of Europe and was opened for signature on May 11, 2011, in Istanbul, Turkey. The treaty aims to prevent violence, protect victims, and end the impunity of perpetrators. The treaty is based on the premise that tackling domestic violence requires international cooperation. Recently, there have been voices in the Israeli government calling on Israel to join the treaty. Should Israel do so, it will obligate Israel to make rules that meet the requirements of the Council of Europe.

Perhaps the treaty is indeed a sincere attempt to deal with the escalating violence around the world, but Israel must decide its own rules. We should not adopt cultures or rules that do not belong to Israel, but conduct ourselves the way a Jewish state should conduct itself in every aspect of its life, including when it comes to violence of any kind—from domestic violence through abused migrants, and to every other form of mistreatment.

The people of Israel were given morally just rules thousands of years ago, which have become the basis of Western ethics. However, when our sages established them, they were based on our ancestors’ profound understanding of human nature and its whims and dispositions. When other cultures adopted Jewish law, they twisted and warped it to the point where it has become unrecognizable and, worse, worthless.

The result is that these ethics do not work. For all the rules and regulations by which the world has tried to curb violence and make people more humane toward each other, the opposite has happened. We have become more violent, unjust, and abusive.

Therefore, in order to understand how to deal with human nature and prevent abuse, we should not look outward, but into our own past. Our sages teach us how to reign human nature successfully. They tell us that we should not suppress any trait or try to eradicate it, but only use it for the common good. In this way, we become masters of our impulses instead of letting them drive us into mischief.

The social rules of our ancestors teach us how to rise above our ego and become considerate. They help us transform from individuals who feel separate from others into people who feel deep sympathy with, and empathy for every created being. People who have been transformed in this way will not hurt a soul.

This is why maintaining our unique characteristics is imperative. And the most unique characteristic we must preserve, cherish, and nurture is the rule, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This should be the supreme law to which everything and everyone aspires. It should be the lighthouse that shows all of humanity the road to safety.

The law of loving others as ourselves is the only treaty that humanity will ever need. It pertains to all religions, all belief systems, all faiths, doctrines, and ideologies. It is the basis of any relationship and the bedrock of every sustainable and thriving society.

This should be the law that the State of Israel embraces, and in this we should be an example to the world. If we accomplish this, the whole world will be convinced that no other treaties are necessary but to love our neighbors as ourselves, and that accomplishing it is not only the ideal, but that it is an achievable aspiration.
[297844]

Filed under: Israel Today, New Publications - No Comments →

Question: How do we achieve immortality by uniting and placing ourselves in similarity with the field of common thought?

Answer: We achieve immortality because thought itself is immortal!

We go through the physical states of our matter, energy, and everything that was created from the point of the Big Bang and exit that state. We rise above matter, energy, and information to the field of thought.

Question: Is thought itself energy?

Answer: Yes, you can call it that because we need to somehow establish our feelings. But that is not material energy. We are talking about pure thought, which is aimed at bestowal, not at reception. It is opposite to all our thoughts, directions, and intentions.

When we try to unite with each other and attain this single thought, we are faced with a very interesting revelation that is opposite to us because it operates for absolute bestowal.

By its nature, this is a thought upon which energy, matter, information, and all of nature are based, the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human, our world in general, and everything that we can imagine. This thought has a nature opposite to ours—the nature of bestowal and not reception.
[297376]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Secrets of immortality” 1/7/11

Related Material:
How Are Thoughts Transmitted?
Imbued With One Single Field
Learn To Live Only In Thoughts

Filed under: Body and Soul, Perception, Spiritual Work - No Comments →