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Comment: There is a genre of computer games called God simulators. In them, the player controls a community of game objects and characters in the role of some higher being with supernatural powers.

Many God simulators do not set any specific tasks for the player, giving him the opportunity to freely and unlimitedly develop the society under his wardship.

Currently, 2.3 billion people play them, a third of the world’s population. About 30 million people have been playing them for over 30 years.

What should be the behavior model of a person who enters the game of a supernatural being, entity, subject?

Answer: We must understand that the essence of a higher power lies in absolute goodness, in absolute love. God is the begetter of everything. That is, as parents treat a child, so God should treat his creatures. It does not matter what they do. He created them like this and loves them as they are.

First of all, a person who is implanted in the image of God must love all people no matter what they are, because in the end, they are like that because He created them that way.

Second, it is possible that He created them defective but wants to correct them in order to teach them who they are. Now they are defective, they were created by a supposedly bad God in order to bring them to a corrected state, and then they would determine that God is good after all.

He made them like this so that they would see, in comparison with their past state, how special and perfect the current state to which He is leading them is.

God, the highest power, who led them through all these states from the worst to the best, taught them to appreciate the good because good can only be appreciated from bad.

And when a person thus goes through all these states, he becomes a scientist, wise, absorbing, and comprised of all negative and positive states. That is, then he truly becomes a man, filled with all the states that can only exist in nature. And then he can really relate to everything correctly.

Question: As a result of this game where the main character is God and man plays Him, he understands what a real man is, what God is?

Answer: Man has one goal: to discover for himself what truth is, veracity, and not to make himself feel good like little children who want to turn the game around. He is interested in the truth.

Truth is where good and evil, betrayal and kindness, and loyalty are combined together—absolutely everything together—and complement each other! They complement each other instead of being mutually exclusive.

And there is not a single force, not a single phenomenon in nature that would be superfluous, that would have to be destroyed, erased. On the contrary, there is no good without evil and evil without good.

A person who wants to comprehend perfection comprehends it in the combination of all the forces of nature, all the properties of nature, and then he really consists of all these properties. If he strives for this, then his game is correct.

Question: Can one person play this role?

Answer: Everyone must reach a state when he is completely identical to God. This is the goal of his development, the goal of his existence. Therefore, he is called Adam, from the word “Edomeh,” similar to the Creator.

Question: If you were given a model of a game where one entity is the higher power, what would you add to it?

Answer: If I have to accept it as perfect, how can I add anything to it? I would contribute absolutely nothing to the world—not to myself, nor to it, nor to anyone. I can only use what has been given to me. Because everything has been given precisely so that I could reach the level of the Creator, each of us. Therefore, nothing can be changed in the world. It is only necessary to use it in order to constantly approach the ideal of the Creator.

Question: So the meaning of the game is to correctly combine the incompatible?

Answer: Correctly combine all the elements of nature, society, and your own, in order to achieve this ideal.
[235611]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/22/18

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Last year [2017] was the world’s most miserable for more than a decade, according to a survey of people’s emotions in more than 145 countries.

People experienced sadness, stress, worry, anger, and physical pain more frequently in 2017 than in previous years. 

The results mean the world is more “negative” than at any point since the polling company [Gallup] started the study in 2005 (CNN).

Question: How would you comment on basic human emotions from the perspective of Kabbalah, and how can one overcome them?

Answer: You cannot. The answer is simple and immediate—you cannot!

The fact is that our egoism is constantly growing. What satisfied us in, say, in 2017 might no longer satisfy us in 2019. I might feel bored with something that used to interest me. I might have been content with my previous salary, but today I cannot be satisfied with it, nor with spending time with my wife, children, family, even my apartment, and so on.

In other words, my ego demands much more than before. Typically, it does not receive anything more and even maybe even less. So, I have every reason to consider my life as declining.

Comment: Sociologists say the purpose of sadness is to motivate a person to improve their situation, achieve goals, and eliminate dissatisfaction because it is a negative, distressing factor.

My Response: That is a nice sentiment if it stems from tangible issues like a lack of money, a small apartment, or something similar.

But if I am simply sad, melancholic, blue, these are very subtle things within us that we may not even understand where they come from. Life lacks light.

Question: Do Kabbalists feel sadness?

Answer: Kabbalists feel a special, tender, higher form of sadness.

They are sad because they cannot show others the pleasures that await them. That is why Kabbalists feel sadness.

They themselves are in a state of supreme fulfillment. But because they cannot convey this to others, who lack sufficient hunger, appetite, or desire for it, Kabbalists are sad. Like a mother who grieves when she cannot feed her child.

Comment: The next emotion is fear.

In the animal world, fear is an emotion based on past negative experiences and it plays a crucial role in the survival of an individual. In humans, it signals current dangers, both internal and external, innate and acquired.

It naturally evokes feelings of loneliness, rejection, and threats to self-esteem; it suppresses the personality altogether.

My Response: Yes, the sensation of fear suppresses personality. There are about 800 types of fear. It is a powerful negative force that confines a person and severely limits them to the point of being unable to move or think. It is a significant problem.

It can be resolved not by confronting fear itself, but by focusing on its opposite. In other words, instilling a sense of confidence in a person that they cannot only overcome fear, but also can realize that such fear does not exist in nature. It is something you imagine, nothing more. Be free, rise above life, and do not feel fear.

In Kabbalah, it is said that one must overcome fear with awe of the Creator.

If I replace my petty, selfish fears with awe of the Creator, whether I can make myself useful and needed in His work in this world, then my fear disappears. Instead, I gain immense strength, vigor, and ability to express myself.

Fear vanishes. I suppress it, rise above it. Fear becomes the very ladder I climb; it is pressed down as I ascend.

Comment: This requires an internally strong personality.

Answer: Yes, and it is achieved through strength.

Question: As we know from life, anger is not just a feeling of irritation or a contradiction to one’s beliefs, egoism, or worldview. It also has a physical dimension and manifests as an emotional impact through the brain. That is, anger gives a person strength and a drive to act.

How should one properly use anger?

Answer: That is a completely different question. You are not talking about suppressing anger but about transforming it.

Question: How should one use it and transform it?

Answer: First, anger can only be subdued by realizing you are dealing not with someone or something else, but with the Creator. He is the source of both positive and negative emotions; they all come from Him.

So when feelings like insecurity, fear, or anger arise, you must remember that you are dealing with the Creator and act accordingly.

Anger can only be transformed into joy and collaboration, embracing the person or thing you are angry with and feeling close to them. This happens when you understand that the Creator sends you anger to help you rise to the next level.

Thus, the people, events, or even objects that provoke your anger should be seen as aids in your growth. You should approach them with approval, love, understanding, and gratitude.

Question: What do you usually get angry about?

Answer: Everything! Absolutely everything. I get very angry. It helps me move forward.

Question: Do you flip it around immediately?

Answer: Yes, very quickly!

Question: Over the past decade, people have been united by negative emotions. In the past, people were united by aspirations for the future, achieving and conquering new heights. Today, they are united by negative states.

You have just provided methods for transforming destructive emotions into constructive movement. How can people realize that all the negativity accumulating in them is like a stepping stone, a springboard for transformation toward something better?

Answer: People need to be taught this; it is not easy. It is an entire system where a person possesses two forces: positive and negative. Positioned between them, they begin to view all qualities, sensations, and experiences as tools or opportunities for their next spiritual ascent.

Thus their reactions become less instinctive.

This requires training, understanding the process, and constant interaction with like-minded individuals. He learns from them and they learn from him. It is the education of emotions
[256046]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/14/19

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Comment: Most of us are familiar with situations of inequality when one tramples on the other with his “moral superiority.” Researchers are wondering: what strategies help people avoid, tolerate, fight, and defeat those who treat them like an empty space?

Harvard biologist Edward Wilson shared a charming story…The story tells of two porcupines huddled together to keep warm on a cold night. When they got too close, they pricked each other with their needles, so they decided to warm themselves separately. But then they got too cold. After numerous attempts to get comfortable, they finally found a distance where they were comfortable and warm enough. They have since called this distance decency and good manners (Psychology, Harvard Business Review Russia).

Answer: Indeed, this is how we invent the rules of behavior and good manners that enter our lives. In other words, we kind of “paint over” our egoism, limit ourselves to palliatives, “trim the needles.” But they grow back.

We need to correct the egoistic nature of man so everyone acts for the benefit of others, and everyone feels good. This is a difficult correction, but only in this case will a person live in a kind “world without needles” where everyone is assured of being treated well.
[225589]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/15/18

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Question: Over time trust that the Creator loves us increases. Does this come from the fact that the heart opens or is it because the mind prevails? I would like the heart to constantly soften. Is it possible to pass this on to the ten, if so how?

Answer: You can talk about this in the ten, but only occasionally, in rare cases.

Question: What does this trust depend on? After all, before there were only blows and pain.

Answer: Before you were small, and now you have grown a little.
[340332]
From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/25, “Connecting to Lishma“

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 74

Where Do We Have Free Choice, and Where Do We Lack It?

RABASH writes about where we have free choice in his article, “The Association of the Quality of Judgment with Mercy”: “The main work is the choice, meaning ‘choose life,’ so there will be Dvekut [adhesion], which is Lishma [for Her sake]. By this, one is rewarded with Dvekut with the Life of Lives.” Among all the actions we perform in life, just one action is given for free choice.

If we conduct a scientific examination on ourselves, we find that in all of our body’s biological and physiological processes, including the complexity of our brain (of which only around two percent is utilized), nothing operates voluntarily. Everything functions automatically. Even the brain, thought processes, and apparent decisions operate like a computer preprogrammed with data, operating based on initial parameters and our inherent nature.

We discover that we are no different from any other creature and act solely according to nature’s laws with no ability to choose or introduce new parameters. There is no source from which to draw this input, nothing external to teach it. Everything that enters our “computer” is already predetermined.

Therefore, we have no free choice. Baal HaSulam explains in “The Freedom” that in life, we have only one action of free choice: “And you shall choose life.” There is no need to focus on any other action, he emphasizes, as other actions unfold automatically, whether we want them to or not. If we focus on this single point of choice, we succeed in building our true self.

RABASH continues, “When there is open Providence, there is no room for choice.” There is no person in such a state. What is open Providence? The whole of reality and all created beings operate according to an inner plan and programming, making it as if the person is nonexistent.

“For this reason, the upper one raised the Malchut, which is the quality of judgment, to the Eynaim [eyes].” This is because under open Providence, there is no choice, and the purpose is for us to be independent, to establish something of our own. Why? It is because, through our independence, we will feel who we are and we will know what we are. By acting from our own self, we can rise on our own to the level of the Creator, for “to adhere to Him” means to reach that same level, absolute identification, and to adhere as equals with the Creator.

“This created a concealment, meaning that it seemed to the lower one that there was a drawback in the upper one.” The concealment of the upper one is designed to give us free choice. How is free choice given to us? We are sent a feeling, a thought, that the upper one, the spiritual world, is nonexistent, and that we merely live in this world like animals, with no one watching over us. This concealment is given specifically to those who want to advance, to those whom they want to elevate, to turn into human beings and grant them free choice.

The beginning of this concealment is what we feel in our current state. How? Anyone who wishes to attain something of the unknown already experiences some concealment. The AHP of the upper one (the lower part of the upper degree) begins to act on us, drawing and enticing us to seek it through the concealment.

“There was no Gadlut [greatness/adulthood] in the upper one.” It is what we feel. If we feel this way, we fall into despair. The study ceases to attract us and the path becomes unclear. This means we have already entered the process.

“Subsequently, the qualities of the upper one are placed within the lower one, meaning they are deficient. It follows that these Kelim [vessels] have equivalence with the lower one, namely that as there is no vitality to the lower one, so there is no vitality in the upper qualities.” The lower one perceives that even in the upper one there is no vitality. Why? It is because the upper one deliberately strips itself of light, showing the lower one that it has nothing.

“In other words, he feels no taste in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] for they are lifeless.” This is why it is said that studying Kabbalah is dangerous. Even for people who observe Torah and Mitzvot and do all that is required, when they are in a state of descent, everything appears tasteless and meaningless, to such an extent that they begin to belittle even these practices.

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Lesson on the Topic “All Your Actions Will be for The Sake of the Creator”

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 1, “Inner Observation,” Chapter 6, Item 26

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