Question: You say that over time we will not need an Internet connection, but only an internal, sensory one. What is it? Let’s say I’m several continents away from you, how will we connect through our senses instead of through Facebook or Skype for example?

Answer: You will not feel the need for an Internet connection. You will feel the need to rise from it to a more internal connection with each other. What is the use of me texting you? Because there is an inner desire to be in a closer connection (not virtual, but spiritual) when we feel each other telepathically. We are simply connected by this network.

Question: How can we uncover this telepathic network?

Answer: It is through desire, through mutual desire.

Usually such a desire exists in a mother with a child. She feels what is happening to him because she loves him, strives for him, and wants to feel him all the time. They have an open animal root between them (not spiritual, but animal) because she gave birth to him. At one point he was in her; a little creature was born out of her, and she feels it.

Question: How will such a desire be revealed to everyone?

Answer: On the account of it rising from within us. It also develops within us. After all, in comparison with inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, we are developing, and will inevitably have to reveal this connection that initially exists between us in ourselves. Now it is still manifested on a low level as a connection of hatred, a desire to use each other, but in the end it will manifest itself in a different way.

Question: So this is a natural evolutionary process. Will it not depend on the person himself?

Answer: No, it will depend very much on the person. Otherwise, if this process goes by the way of evolution, it will be forced and painful, when nature will push us forward with a roller of development as it has been forcing us for millions of years.

If we want to go faster, not by the stick toward happiness, but with awareness, then we must understand nature, anticipate its next pressures on us, and help ourselves in this development. It is like an intelligent child who understands what is required of him and performs everything in advance, without expecting punishment. And punishment is not punishment, but simply coercion to correct development.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. What Is Technology?” 2/27/11

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Question: In the future will there be such a thing as the need to work for existence?

Answer: As long as we feel this world, it will remain.

But when we rise to the level where we completely fulfill each other spiritually, we will cease to feel the corporeal level. It will gradually move into the next one, the spiritual one. What seems corporeal to us today is felt as such only in our physical representations.

If our feelings rise to spiritual ones, then we will begin to feel our world as spiritual. We will see that there was no corporeal world. Therefore, it is called Olam HaMedume, that is, an illusionary, imaginary world.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. What is Work?” 3/29/11

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What do you know about the system in which we live?“

We live in a single global-integral system, and it has a specific demand from us.

What is its demand?

It is that we adapt to its global-integral laws.

The system we live in urges us to connect to it in a harmoniously-interdependent manner, like parts of an analog system.

We, on the contrary, act negatively to each other. We prioritize self-benefit over the benefit of others and the whole system.

Such an attitude is destructive.

It leads to a proliferation of exploitation, manipulation and abuse in our connections, and the depletion our planet’s resources. In other words, we currently want, think and act oppositely to the laws of the global-integral system we exist in.

Accordingly, we receive myriad negative responses from the system, all kinds of problems and crises on personal, social, economic and ecological scales: from increasing depression, stress, anxiety and loneliness through to various wars and other conflicts, and all the way through to ecological disasters and pandemics.

The global-integral system we live in responds to our attitudes to it, i.e., to our attitudes to each other and to nature in general.

We can make of it whatever we like, but we will eventually have to learn how this system functions with total interconnection and interdependence among its parts, its integral laws, and reach the understanding of how to lead harmonious and peaceful lives while living in it.

If we do not learn the system’s laws, we will then feel increasing negative feedback from it, because the force of protection in the system will always prevail.

Based on the video “We Live in an Integral System” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”

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Question: Do you think a killing gene is present in every person?

Answer: Every person has this inclination because every one of us is comprised of the full set of desires, from the best to the worst.

Question: So do we have absolutely all desires?

Answer: All of them.

Question: I heard that a serial killer said that every time he killed, he killed a part of himself? Do you think a person is constantly engaging in some sort of suicide if he kills others.

Answer: That is correct. It is natural because we are all in one common desire, in one common system.

Everything that exists is inside of me: still, vegetative, animate, and human. By killing someone or something, I kill a part of that inside of me. This is so true that a person must repent, so to speak, when he uses anything from this world for himself. He must justify this consumption, starting with a gulp of air and ending with lives, and so on.

It is the same as when we consume food or anything else. All of it requires some kind of correction.

Question: Are you saying that a person kills a part of himself if he kills someone in war or somewhere else?

Answer: Yes, that is correct.

Question: But even when killing an animal for food, am I also killing something inside of me?

Answer: Yes. Anything at all, when I consume it, including as I said before, a gulp of air, a gulp of water, it does not matter what, by that I consume, nevertheless. I kill that particle of the cosmos and I must somehow take responsibility for it. That is why there are blessings that we have to say and more things.

A person feels this even subconsciously. There are people who before drinking something, pour a little out of the cup, cut off a piece of bread, and put it aside, or do other things.

This all indicates that a person understands that he is taking from nature and taking practically without ever returning it. By that, he kills the Universe. And he wants to give, share, and so on. This exists in many nations, and it is subconsciously instilled in man.

Comment: So to exist I must kill around me.

My Response: If you do it as a necessity for your existence, to support life, then it is another matter. But you must understand it, nevertheless. That is why you have to say a blessing, so to speak, set apart a piece for someone, a tithe, and so on.

Question: And a blessing, is it when I say that I require this for my existence?

Answer: Yes. Even though it is not my fault, I was not the one who created myself this way, but I recognize this and share it in this way.

Question: Can you say why this was done? Globally speaking, for what?

Answer: A person must understand that he is in a world where he has no right to anything at all. And if he takes something and consumes it for himself, for his own sake, then he must pay for it, give it back, repay it, and so on.

Question: And the fact that we ruin everything, kill everything, and that we have brought the environment to the brink, will we be punished for that or not?

Answer: Yes, it is a great shame.

Question: Does all of it boomerang back to the person, in your opinion?

Answer: We will have to pay for all of it globally.

Comment: Rabbi Akiva said that the book is open and the hand writes, and you borrow, but later you will have to return all of it.

My Response: Indeed.

Question: Is this what we are talking about the same thing?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is taking normally only when it is for one’s existence?

Answer: It is only for existence, and if you take it only for existence, then you will be able to bestow it.

Comment: And that is blessed.

My Response: Relatively speaking. This is very complex because nature is closed, whole, and perfect. That is why our existence in it, in nature, requires us to be very careful and to be in complete bestowal.

Question: How do we nevertheless reach harmony with nature?

Answer: Only by attaining the feeling of unity with nature and the opportunity to bestow as much as we take. Then we will regulate how much to take and how much to give.

Question: But in principle, are we constantly moving toward this, one way or another?

Answer: I hope that one day we will get there.

Question: But why were we not given an understanding and feeling of this? We take without a second thought.

Answer: But we are moving toward this. This is development, the gradual development of nature from the still level onward.

Question: So do we have to come to a state where I cannot simply take and that is all? And even more so, to kill, steal, and so on?

Answer: Of course.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/23/23

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The thought of creation was to delight the created beings in accord with His abundant generosity. For this reason, a great desire and craving to receive His abundance was imprinted in the souls.

This is so because the will to receive is the vessel for the measure of pleasure in the abundance (Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”).

Question: It turns out that initially the Creator created us in such a way that we want to receive pleasure from the connection with Him, and this depends on the measure of our desire. What does it mean to receive pleasure from the connection with the Creator?

Answer: This phenomenon also exists in our lives. We do not need to go into some cosmic space or dive into spiritual levels. In accordance with his desire, a person can feel something that he wants, and he can even measure, weigh, and tell himself and others about it. Therefore, desire is a necessary condition for a person to feel something.

Since the Creator wants to delight the created beings, He created a desire to receive pleasure from Him in them. Thus, there is the Creator who radiates pleasure, and there are created beings who receive this pleasure, and they should feel that they receive it from the Creator. It all depends on us.

Nevertheless, there are conditions under which we can feel the pleasure emanating from the Creator, be filled with it, weigh it, define it, and even talk about it.
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From KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 5/14/23

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Question: In the “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” Baal HaSulam writes that both pleasure and desire come from the Creator. However, they must be separated since pleasures come from Atzmuto, and desires are “existence from absence.” The Creator seemingly created the creation from nothing. What does “created from nothing” mean?

Answer: In order to feel something, we need a desire. Initially there was no created being, when it appeared, there was a desire in it to feel the Creator, to come closer to Him, and to be filled with Him. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us.

Question: Can we say that all the desires of our world are pleasure from the Creator?

Answer: Yes, absolutely everything, because our world is included in Him.

The general pleasure that comes from the Creator and that all His created beings feel can be felt only to the extent of the desire that exists in the created being. To the extent that I want to feel pleasure, I can feel this fulfillment.
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From KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 5/14/23

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Question: How do you distinguish whether you are in corporeal or in spiritual reason?

Answer: It depends on whether I am included in an upper degree, whether I annul myself before it. Or maybe I am no longer annulling myself but have climbed to this degree, I am in it, meaning I begin to absorb its reason into myself and replace my past reason with a new one.

Question: Can there be a conflict of reason?

Answer: Of course! This is a constant conflict because the next degree seems like it is opposite to the present one to you, and its logic seems absolutely illogical because you have to annul yourself, connect with others, be a giver, get out of yourself, and do some seemingly illogical things.

Naturally, your reason is against it. What is considered positive at the upper degree is negative in your reason today; it is stupid. Why on earth would you give to others? Why on earth would you love your enemies? Why on earth would you only think about others? And where are you? These are all illogical actions, thoughts, and decisions.

All this is aimed at making you gain a different attitude to reality and become limitless, infinite. And when you receive for yourself, you are constantly limited in your egoism. You are filled with something and that is it, no more, so you have to run for some other pleasure. You have tasted it a little bit, and again, like a little mouse: here a little bit, there a little bit—that is your life.

You never get satisfied and just get exhausted, dried up. It bores you, it becomes hopeless, dull, and depressive because you feel that all this is useless, and eventually you die.

And another perception of reality is based on bestowal, that is, on getting out of yourself, when you constantly get new desires that exist in other people. You attract these desires to yourself, begin to consider them your own, and fill them.

If this desire was inside you, you would feel a very small pleasure. Look at how a mother feeds her baby. If she would eat the 100 grams of porridge that she gives the baby, what would she feel? And when her baby eats those 100 grams of porridge and lies satisfied, how happy she is! How many times is her pleasure greater than the pleasure of this “piece of flesh” which is now filled!

This is a very small similarity of the pleasure, multiplied many times, which we receive when filling others if only we first achieve love for them.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. What is the Reason?” 2/21/11

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Question: There is a famous bridge in San Francisco where people often committed suicide. Every week a man came there and looked down. One day a driver came up to him and said: “I see you here often. Come to your senses. Life is beautiful.” The man smiled and answered him: “I am the most life-loving person in the world. I just develop this feeling even more when I look down from the bridge and realize that life can end.”

If we have this understanding that life can end in an instant, in a fraction of a second, does it increase our optimism? What do you think?

Answer: I do not know. It depends if this affects a person. I have been to this place and have passed over this bridge more than once. It is a crazy height. The water below has a temperature of seven to nine degrees. This is the Golden Gate Bridge.

Also, there are sharks down there. So, if you are not lucky enough to freeze in a few seconds or minutes, then they will eat you.

Comment: With suicides, everything is clear. But I would like to know about optimism. The fact that in a moment he may die increases the optimism of this man. He says: “But I am alive, and life is beautiful.”

My Response: But you can think the same thing when crossing the street. You do not have to go to San Francisco to do this!

Question: But still many people jump from the bridge and commit suicide, and he just looks. How can we increase optimism? Do you have any advice for people? Especially today it would be good.

Answer: Optimism will be increased only in a good environment where there are friends and comrades. When we can support each other and understand how to practically approach the revelation of real optimism, then, of course, it is possible.

Comment: You are saying that our life should consist of creating such a circle, and then nothing is scary.

My Response: Then nothing is scary. We will exist in it.

Question: What are my obligations in this circle?

Answer: Mutual support, care, and love. That is it.

Question: Does it mean that I grow this circle? I do not just enter it to receive.

Answer: Of course.

Question: Should everyone have this attitude?

Answer: It is contagious, we can infect each other with it. If you enter such a circle, then you gradually become infected with their attitude. I think it is possible.

Question: What about the usual thoughts of a person that I give them everything, I transmit love, but there is nothing in it for me. What should we do with such thoughts? They occur very often.

Answer: Also to get to a circle that would destroy them in you. Thoughts about yourself should eventually disappear.

Question: Is this the main result?

Answer: Yes, so that you think about others, not about yourself.

Question: Is it possible to dissolve like this and think only about others?

Answer: Of course, it depends on the environment.

Comment: Usually, you give an example of a mother who lives like this, if we are talking about our corporeal world.

My Response: Well, this is a mother, and we are talking about an ordinary person.

Question: Is it possible to think about them all the time, to exist for them?

Answer: Yes. We should receive such an example and such an attitude from the environment.

Question: Then can we work with optimism?

Answer: Then you can enjoy life.

Question: I see. You said that this is how you come closer to upper optimism. What is the upper optimism?

Answer: The upper optimism is when you feel that this is the absolute law of the world and that this is the meaning of existence: to rise to its level and exist in it.

Question: When you say optimism, what is it?

Answer: Optimism is when everything is great, has its own meaning, and revolves exactly according to this law—love your neighbor as yourself.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/30/23

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