Question: In Japan, they have rock gardens. Although this is an inanimate level of nature, the Japanese say that there is life in them. Where does this feeling, this perception come from?

Answer: It suggests closeness to nature, when people really feel some kind of life in the inanimate things. This, indeed, is the case.

Comment: However, on the other hand, the Japanese are characterized by the development of technology, that is, a certain level of egoism.

My Response: All this is external and artificial.

I was in Japan. They really have great capabilities, modern equipment and everything else. But at the same time, it is clear that all this is absolutely external, and not theirs. Inside they are completely different.

Internally, they preserve themselves, their attitude to life, regulations, family, to everything that exists, and in no case do they connect themselves with everything external that has come to them.

They took from the outside world everything they needed to surround themselves with this outer shell and with its help to protect themselves from the outside world. For them, all innovations are not a means of communication, but in some way a means of isolation, because behind the beautiful and perfect outer technological shell they remain the same.

There is nothing special here. Historically, the isolation of the country for many centuries, plus religion and forced proximity to nature, in connection with earthquakes, tsunamis, and all sorts of similar problems has left its mark on them.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Branch of Sakura” 5/15/11

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Question: A person is a vessel that is brought to life by a source of some kind of energy. Why are young people in need of a boost with energy drinks today? They seem to feel a complete lack of vitality. Why do people not have the spirit of life at a young age?

Answer: It’s due to the fact that they have nothing for which to aspire. It is not about the energy of life. We get energy from purpose.

When I see a big, great, worthwhile goal before me, I get energy, I start to fire up like a bull whose eyes are are filling with blood. I am rushing toward this goal, but only if it is before me, like a red cloth before a bull. However, if it is not there, then the person just fades away.

Our generation has very big egoism, to which everything is available in this world. People can fly, drive, and communicate via the Internet with any corner of the globe. They look at all this and feel that they will not be satisfied. There is no reason to make any movements, it is better to go and take drugs, disconnect from hopelessness and emptiness. Therefore, drugs and antidepressants are the only thing left for a person.

Kabbalah, however, says that beyond the level that seems meaningless, empty, and worthless to you and that you see our small round Earth and everything on it is limited, and that any day all this may end; however, there is a completely different world, a new, upper dimension. This is where we have to get to. We can do it now, today.

Moreover, the development of the Internet helps us to feel that we are in communication with each other, and this communication can take us to the next level. And here we come to amazing possibilities.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Does the Creator Exist?” 5/9/11

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Do Jewish people have a common genetic background?“

No. However, they have a predisposition to universal unification in order to attain connection with the upper force. That is the reason for their leaving ancient Babylon.

Their common genetic background exists in their descendants, which are souls, and the same soul goes through several bodies. This is called “the incarnation of the souls” in the wisdom of Kabbalah. For instance, Jews existed in all states from ancient Babylon to their current incarnations, they went through all of these lives. They even know their incarnations, or they can find out how they passed through various cultures, such as Spanish, German and Eastern European, all the way until today. Moreover, after they spread from Babylon throughout the world, the underlying desire that developed humanity was growing both in them and in the nations of the world.

Today, the desire’s development has reached a certain level where more and more people feel a predisposition to universal unification. They are identical in every way to those of us who came from ancient Babylon, even though they have been distant from us throughout the 3,700 or so years since we left Babylon. This predisposition to universal unification that more and more people are feeling is a desire that increasingly surfaces today—one to discover the upper force and to undergo a process of correction in order to do so, i.e. to change the desire from personally benefiting oneself to benefiting others.

Based on KabTV’s “Close-Up. Around the World” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on February 20, 2011. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Preparation to the Lesson

Shamati #206 “Faith and Pleasure”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 2,” “Inner Observation,” Chapter 9, Item 113

Selected Highlights

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