Question: In the 60s and 70s of the last centuries, South Africa was considered one of the most heavenly places to live, and then it slipped to the level of general Africa.

My father was a marketing director of an English company and lived in South Africa for 14 years. At the end of the 80s, when he left there, he cried on the plane, because he understood that this heavenly place had come to an end: What had lasted for so long collapsed in a matter of days.

Most of the buildings built in the 70s, which were a symbol of independence, were expensive apartments that have become drug dens.
Is there anything we can learn from this?

Answer: Learn?! Humanity?! Never!

Where have you seen humanity learn anything at all? There is no more stupid creature than a human who does not learn from anything! He constantly needs to be driven forward with a stick, and he only thinks about how to dodge this stick.

If we could draw our caricature, we would depict a mischievous boy who is constantly looking around and searching for a place to run away to, and behind him, like in a Tom Sawyer story, his aunt runs after him with a big stick that she tries to smack him with, and sometimes gets him. This is us! This is us and Mother Nature.

Have we learned anything today?! Today we are more like barbarians than ever before. We take care of the body in a way that we have never taken care of it in history. We have plastic surgeries, transplants, and tattoos, we remove body parts, and whatever else we do!

Our ancestors would envy us. We have built such a cult of a body that has never existed before. Instead of rising above it and developing the spirit, look what we are doing! On television, they only show programs about food, how to cook and fry it, the Internet is filled only with sexual offers, and TV programs are about how to earn money somewhere, and so on.

If once the knowledge of literature, music, and arts was respected, today there is none of this! The degradation is complete! A person clearly shows another person that he is his enemy. This is considered right, good, and supposedly emphasizes your independence and self-sufficiency. What do we teach children at school?—To suppress the other. What are we teaching them in general?—Only to conquer, suppress, and grind down others.

Meanwhile, the means of confrontation are getting stronger. Today, we can easily “smooth out” each other and sweep them away from the surface of the Earth. Astronauts say in one voice that when they look at the Earth from afar, they have the impression of it as a fragile, very delicate balloon.

And we, who live here, are ready to tear and cut everything as if we have descended to some planet to conquer it, as if this is not our only home!
[310635]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Black and White World” 11/13/12

Related Material:
There, Where Egoism Rules
No Need To Kill Egoism
Egoism Is The Driving Force

Filed under: Crisis, Egoism, Globalization - No Comments →

Question: You said that we are not corrected to the extent that we can perceive the writings of Kabbalists. Everything that comes out of their mouths comes from the Creator. Does this mean that a person in spirituality cannot be wrong?

Answer: Kabbalists express what they attain. What they attain is part of the upper universe.

Of course, they may also be wrong. After all, any attainment consists of several parts: a part that I clearly know, a part that I feel only at the moment and am in it now, and a part that shines before me, i.e., my attainment in the future.

Therefore, it is impossible to say 100% that I will not make a mistake. Just as in our world there are people who understand more or understand less and attain more in-depth or less.

Let us say that I am talking through a computer connection right now. What do I understand about it more than a couple of buttons? And there are people who know about all these modems, switching frequencies, providers, and so on. There are those who develop these technologies, and they are already sitting in the future.

It is the same in spirituality. It all depends on the size of a person’s soul. It shows how much he will be striving to go forward.

Comment: But you said that the Creator speaks through the mouth of Kabbalists. They do not have their own calculations when they talk.

My Response: Yes. This means that they have attained the qualities of the upper world and speak based on these qualities.

There is no Creator except what they have attained and exist within it. It is as if the Creator broadcasts to us through them, as if through a mouthpiece.
[310666]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Mouthpiece of the Creator” 11/9/12

Related Material:
Study The Writings Of Rabash
Listen To The Words Of The Kabbalists!
Kabbalists’ Legacy: Not Only Books

Filed under: Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Comment: Often, when you listen to a lesson, your mind seems to be cancelled; there is no perception at the level of logic, and it is very difficult for you to grasp something. And then, when you listen to the same lesson again, everything becomes logical and clearly structured. The picture is beautiful.

My Response: It all depends on you. And for someone else, it may be the other way around. During the lesson everything was logical, harmonious, and clear, and in the afternoon, a person listened again and had confusion in his head, he did not take in anything.

Question: And how should it be?

Answer: Neither way! Everything is relative to a person. If you have the opportunity to arrange yourself for a lesson, that is, to prepare yourself internally for it, then you will perceive it correctly, and if not, then no.

It is just like with the upper world: if you have the opportunity to create it in you, then you create it, and if there is no such opportunity, then it simply does not exist. It is not there!

Therefore, everything is aimed at creating qualities in you that would correctly depict the spiritual. And outside of our qualities, there is absolutely nothing.
[310346]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Nothing Exists” 10/3/12

Related Material:
The Lesson Is Light
Preparation Is The Key To Success In The Study
Everyone Has To Cultivate His Soul

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Spiritual Work - 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 The Times of Israel: “On the Eve of Passover – No Sign of Unity”

Passover is the most festive of all the Jewish holidays. It is a celebration of freedom, when the people of Israel became liberated from the yoke of slavery in Egypt. Back then, the Hebrews united around Moses, and despite internal disagreements, maintained their unity. The reward for their insistence on staying together despite their disputes was not only their freedom, but the declaration of their peoplehood by God.

Today, on the eve of Passover, I am sad to say that we have none of the unity our ancestors had fought for; power struggles reign supreme, and everyone wants to be king. This is a recipe for inviting a modern-day Pharaoh to come and rule over us.

Israel has many enemies. Iran has sworn to destroy it, its proxy terror groups incessantly try to maim it, international movements such as BDS try to cripple its economy, and countries that pretend to be friendly finance anti-Israel movements. Yet, none of these entities pose an existential threat. The only existential threat to Israel is its social division.

Two thousand years ago, we lost our sovereignty due to baseless hatred of each other. For the past two millennia, we have not healed that hatred one bit. If anything, it has only intensified.

Therefore, before we begin to work on “improving” the political situation in Israel, we must understand what it is we must improve. Today, almost everyone takes sides in Israel’s political altercation. Everyone thinks that the country’s deterioration is the other side’s fault.

But the country is not deteriorating because of the Left or because of the Right, if we even know what these words mean today. The country is deteriorating because the Left hates the Right, and vice versa, the secular hate the religious, and the other way around, the rich despise the poor and the poor hate the rich, and the only winner in these—and countless other divisions in Israeli society—is hatred.

Back in Egypt, Pharaoh loved Joseph. He entrusted his entire kingdom in Joseph’s hands, and at that time, the people of Israel were happy in Egypt. When Joseph died, the Israelites became divided and wanted to disperse among the Egyptians. This is when “a new” Pharaoh, who did not know Joseph, arose and began to afflict Israel.

Division also caused the coming of Nebuchadnezzar, who sent Israel to the Babylonian exile. Internal hatred intensified even more during the time of the Second Temple, and brought upon us the Roman general Titus, who destroyed Jerusalem and exiled the relics of the people of Israel in Judah. Even before the onset of the Inquisition, Spanish Judaism experienced an extended period of growing disunity, and the same trend was visible before the rise of Hitler to power.

It is convenient to believe that our enemies appear without cause, but if we ever want to break the vicious circle of periodical expulsions and extinctions, we must begin to search our souls and find where and how we contribute to the empowerment of our haters. If we do so, we will find that our sages have been telling us since the inception of our nationhood that we empower our haters with our hatred of each other.

If we realize that Pharaoh is alive today, governing our hearts and pitching us against each other, enslaving us to his whims and making us think that we are working for ourselves, when in fact we are working for him, then we might choose to follow Moses, the voice of unity within us that says, “No matter how we feel about each other, we are one nation.” It is our choice whom to empower. If we keep empowering Pharaoh, our internal slavery to him will become an external destruction. If we empower Moses and choose unity above all else, our good future is guaranteed.
[311160]

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

Comment: Arkady writes: “Michael Laitman, you always talk about the heart—feel with your heart, understand with your heart, and hear with your heart. Everyone nods their heads and writes sublime comments, as if they understand. But it is not clear. Tell us, practically, what is a heart that hears, understands, and feels? Otherwise, it resembles philosophy that is completely devoid of life.”

My Response: A heart that understands is aware of everything, feels, and hears; these are connected hearts, nothing more.

Comment: But the human heart has different associations.

My Response: Remove everything preventing their connection with each other, and you will get this common heart.

Question: When you say “heart,” what do you mean? Do you mean desire?

Answer: Yes, desire. Not a pump.

Question: What should my desire become in order to connect with desires of others?

Answer: It could be a pump, when I pump others. I live in order to pump blood, to drive my blood through others. And so does each one through all others.

Question: When you say “blood,” what do you mean?

Answer: Life-giving fluid. This is life.

Question: And when you say “life,” what do you mean?

Answer: Life is a feeling of connection with everyone and the reason for living.

Question: What do we come to when we start living this way?

Answer: We rise above ourselves, live for others, and are connected all together, and then we understand the hearts of all.

Question: Then it will all be like one heart. Besides “heart” can we replace this word?

Answer: No. This is what we are used to and how it is said and written everywhere.

Question: Kabbalists write “heart.” Why the heart and not the mind?

Answer: It is responsible for life. This is where we feel fulfillment, compression, expansion. We live according to this rhythm.

Question: When I say, “My heart is in pain,” what do I mean?

Answer: It is actually shrinking; these are very serious nerve connections. That’s why a person feels more, less; it is the work of the heart. That is why it is so significant.
[310462]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/9/23

Related Material:
The Correction Of “The Stone Heart”
The Heart of the Convention
“What Does My Heart Desire Now?”

Filed under: Body and Soul, Laitman Unplugged, News - No Comments →

Comment: Your most successful students are those who are receptive to reprogramming. They easily part with a certain firmware and change to another.

My Response: Of course; it is very important.

If a person has such natural flexibility, which is not easy to achieve because we go through huge internal transformations; if he is capable of it, is waiting for it, and is in anticipation that it will happen to him often, then he moves forward.

It is like a drug, when you just lose your head and then recover again. The same happens here, only you no longer recover because both in the heart and in the mind there is a serious internal transformation, reconfiguration, and upgrade. But it is wonderful!

At first such a restructuring seems like a strong blow to the head, and then you feel it as something necessary to get closer to the next step. You have to grow up to it.

In this life for several years you go through such transformations that people go through only when they die and are born again. And you can go through it even every day!

Therefore it is said that Kabbalah accelerates and eases development, because it is very difficult to go through such a shake-up, such an internal restructuring, without a group and without studying. After all, normally in order to undergo at least some transformations during life, you need really terrible suffering: illness, death, and to be born again.
[310492]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Laitman’s Confidants“ 10/6/12

Related Material:
Upload of the Spiritual Programs
Accumulation of Emotional and Mental Experience
Internal Restructuring

Filed under: Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: Sometimes you lead the whole group into such states that the students feel it is necessary to make an effort to get out of them. Is this part of your job?

Answer: Of course. This is education! Why else do you need a teacher in Kabbalah? A teacher leads the students through all the most basic steps of entering the upper world, and then they will be able to go further themselves. In our world, we do exactly the same thing with our children; we see them through until they become adults.

Question: During this process, do you experience what you say, or do you just act so that the students feel it?

Answer: No, I experience everything with them. The thing is, I sympathize with them, and I empathize. For me, this empathy is much deeper than theirs. If they do not succeed in something, or something is difficult and incomprehensible for them, I experience it much more than they do. It seems that I am even smiling, but actually I am very worried internally. I am able to survive this because I understand both the entrance and exit from these states and their necessity.

Just like in our world, for example, a child with food poisoning needs to fast. He cries and wants to eat, and his parents suffer from this, but on the other hand, they know they cannot give him food, and they have to wait. Or, for example, they know it is necessary to treat their child’s sore with antiseptic and it will burn, but they do it anyway, and this is not a big deal.
[310543]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Tyrant and Despot” 10/25/12

Related Material:
Problems of Spiritual Growth
Grow Out of “Short Pants”
Teacher And Students

Filed under: Spiritual Teacher, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: What happens to a person a moment before the Machsom when two systems are reversed within them?

Answer: There is complete detachment, the feeling of failure, utter hopelessness, and absolute powerlessness, the disappearance of any features, understanding, knowledge, and accumulated experience—just emptiness.

Comment: On the one hand, this is a state where you can easily move away from the usual things and your understanding of the world, but on the other hand, it is very painful to break away from what supposedly is my “I.”

My Response: No. The thing is, you already want it like a person who has suffered a lot before death and wants it. He understands that there is no life in his past qualities anymore, that everything that happened to him is necessary for him to reach the state where he wants to get rid of all of this himself and move on to the next view of the world through the qualities of bestowal and not through the qualities of reception.
[310628]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Perfect Birth” 11/15/12

Related Material:
Breaking Through The Machsom
What Is the Machsom?
Crossing Machsom

Filed under: Q&A, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: If I received a thought during the lesson that takes me away from spiritual actions, then what do I need to do internally in order to use it correctly?

Answer: Be grateful that you received the disturbance because there is no evil in the world; there is only good. It depends on how you look at this disturbance.

If you look at it correctly, then you will see that it is good. Every obstacle is placed before you. It is like how we set up some obstacles for small children as exercises.

We do not help him all the time; rather, we give him exercises with which, overcoming them physically, he becomes smarter, and more developed in feelings and in mind. We cannot develop his feelings or mind, so we give him all kinds of disturbances, and various sensations, and constantly bother him. That is how we are also being bothered. Therefore, you need to be thankful, because otherwise, you will remain a small animal.
[310616]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Practical Kabbalah” 11/4/12

Related Material:
Working With Disturbances
Disturbances Are The Creator’s Language
How Can We Fight Heaviness?

Filed under: Spiritual Work - No Comments →