It has already been explained that a corporeal essence is separated and divided by the force of motion and remoteness of location, and a spiritual essence is separated and divided by disparity of form.

According to the measure of disparity of form from one another, so is the measure of the distance between them. If the disparity of form comes to complete oppositeness, from one extreme to the other, they become completely severed and distinct (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, “Inner Observation,” Chapter 3, Item 15).

Question: In our world, we are completely opposite to the qualities of the Creator, and therefore we do not feel Him at all. Is there any other reality in which we are even more opposite to the Creator? Or is this the most extreme point?

Answer: Man by his nature is absolutely opposite to the Creator. Out of all types of desires—inanimate, vegetative, and animate, there is nothing more distant from the Creator than man. Therefore, in the future, as a result of his correction, there will be no object closer to the Creator.

Question: Man is the most distant in qualities from the Creator. Is this called “our world”? Is this the most remote condition or are there even worse ones?

Answer: No, there are no worse ones.

Question: In the process of our development, are we distancing from the Creator or getting closer to Him?

Answer: We are getting closer by distancing. The fact is that we see ourselves constantly distancing from the Creator, that is, not similar to Him. At the same time, we have the opportunity to become like Him. This is the paradox of our development.

In principle when we develop naturally, we feel ourselves further and further away from the Creator as the will to receive in us becomes greater and greater. But, on the other hand, there is an opportunity to come closer to Him. As it is said: “Anyone who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him.”
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 11/20/22

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Question: You write in your blog that in Kabbalah the path to the Creator lies through a broken heart when we discover how opposite we are to Him. It is from this abyss of falling, when we call on the Creator, that we discover that we have points of contact with Him.

But the Creator is the quality of bestowal and love. How exactly from the point of falling, from a broken heart, do I suddenly have contact with Him?

Answer: A person begins to understand that in his state he cannot do anything, but only to bring himself to complete subjugation to the Creator. After all, he has no other possibilities to act. Then he turns with a request, with a prayer to the Creator, so that He would bring him closer to Him.

Comment: Yes, if I consider the Creator as some kind of upper force that helps me, then this is understandable. But if we consider Him as the quality of bestowal, which is manifested in me…

My Response: This is one of the qualities of the Creator, which is partially manifested in a person.

Comment: It is interesting that at the same time both joy and despair are manifested in me.

My Response: Of course, it can be both joy and despair: despair from your own strength, but joy from the fact that at the same time you are getting closer to the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 11/27/22

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Question: When you watch the morning lessons and see people on the screen representing different parts of the globe, different systems, and sometimes representing countries that are currently at war in armed conflict with each other, and you see how these people rise above some internal, national, religious, and social features of places where they live, and unite with each other. What are they united in?

Answer: In the goal. The goal for them is the same: they want to come to a state when the world reaches its equilibrium, when all the forces of the world will be directed only to good in their union.

This good will be understood by everyone equally. And there will be no division here, for example, into prophets or some other signs, but simply everyone will understand that the right state of the world should be love.

Question: Both happiness and love are such abstract notions, people can understand the description and content in different ways. How would you define the concept of “love” that people who study Kabbalah aspire to?

Answer: Love is a state in a person when he cares about the good of his neighbor and only this controls him.

Comment: But it is so contrary to human nature.

My Response: And that is what we are working on.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations, Israel and Its Impact on the World” 11/18/21

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Question: Is there pressure on a person in Israel because there is a stronger spiritual energy here?

Answer: Yes. I think this is not only because Israel is here, but because this is the way the land itself is. Even if there were no State of Israel here and there were no people at all, this energy would still be felt.

Even more so when there is such a hodgepodge in this territory because representatives of all nations of the world live here and each leads his own life, so naturally this complicates the situation even further.

It is hard for me to talk about this topic. I state this purely theoretically because I live in my own world, lead my own life, and I do not exist in the general atmosphere, although I connect to it when necessary.

Question: But still, by its roots, is this place closest to spirituality?

Answer: Yes, undoubtedly! Either in a negative or in a positive sense.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Land of Israel” 12/16/13

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Question: Why should a person advance to the goal through pressure according to the Kabbalistic method?

Answer: The fact is that you have to replace your nature, either voluntarily and consciously or under harsh pressure.

Either you produce this pressure yourself and convince yourself to change your attitude toward people or nature convinces you—one of the two. This is the manifestation of all the corrections, which should be implemented right here in this world in our mutual relations.

Question: Let’s say that in principle I know and understand this method. But suddenly before some action, there is such a state that I just enter into a dissonance that presses on me?

Answer: But this is just simple egoism! It means that you lack the influence of the group and that you are not integrated with it enough. The most important thing is the environment, the group.

Comment: But this happens just before the action. Then when I already get into the action, go like a millstone and exit this state, I realize how important it is and how cool it is. But still, with the next step I feel pressure again.

My Response: True. This is how it happens: slowly and gradually until the altruistic force that is hidden inside the egoistic force is revealed to you. We need to break through to it.

Comment: Only then does the understanding come, but it is in sensations and not in the mind, and only later is it analyzed by the mind. I am going through overcoming and only in the sensations do I feel a greater breadth.

Answer: Certainly. Everything happens in sensations. Objective reality is given to us in sensations, as the Marxists used to say.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Progress Through Pressure” 12/2/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What can we learn from the universe?“

The universe once had compressed into a single point, exploded into what we know as “the Big Bang,” and its parts dispersed omnidirectionally until they settled in a place of balance among the forces acting on them.

Nature in general draws to such a balance. We are currently within this process of expansion, away from a center of connection. Some scientists say that this process needs to end and another process will unfold, either of connection or at least a return to some new form of balance. Indeed, we can influence the celestial bodies to make a return to their center, and we will see the extent to which we influence the myriad galaxies, stars and planets so that they become as one entity.

How can we influence the universe? First, we need to understand that the universe is a single desire. The process of dispersion and connection parallels the spiritual process of how we once experienced our complete connection as a single desire, a state which in the wisdom of Kabbalah is called “the soul of Adam HaRishon.” This desire shattered into an enormous amount of parts. In every one of us there is a small part of that general desire or soul. In Hebrew, the word for “human beings” is “Bnei Adam” (“the sons of Adam”) since we emerged from that initial soul, and according to Kabbalah, the purpose of our lives is to reconnect our distant, broken and dispersed desires back to that single desire or soul. By relating our many desires to a single final goal where a higher force binds them all together as one, we then start seeing how all parts of the universe draw closer together in a single complementarity and wholeness. And when we reach that final whole state, we attain a sensation of perfection and eternity.

About the eternal sensation that we attain at the end of our development, we can also learn from the universe about how we live in an infinite space. We see such phenomena in astronomy where we thought of a certain space in the universe as empty, and then we developed more advanced tools and discovered that what we previously saw as an empty space actually consists of more distant galaxies. In other words, the universe shows us a physical example of infinity, which parallels the spiritual state of eternity that exists when we connect our myriad desires back to a single desire.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on Wednesday, December 14, 2022. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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Preparation to the Lesson

Zohar for All “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” “The Flower Buds” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Freedom”

Selected Highlights

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Know that the whole matter of innovation that the Creator had innovated with this creation…applies only to the form of the desire to enjoy imprinted in every created being. Nothing more was innovated in creation… (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, “Inner Observation,” Chapter 4, Item 18).

Question: What does this innovation that applies to the form of the desire to enjoy mean?

Answer: The innovation is the desire to enjoy, which appears, develops, and determines all created beings in all their forms.

Question: What does from absence mean? Does this mean that the Creator does not have this desire?

Answer: From absence means that there was no such desire before. The act of the appearance of desire from absence is the act of the Creator. Apart from this, there is nothing new in the entire universe.

Question: Does it mean that He created a desire to enjoy that did not exist before?

Answer: Yes, this is the action of the Creator. Everything else goes on according to the same principle.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 12/4/22

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Question: Let’s say a person is constantly in doubt and is trying to use intuition without fully understanding what it is. How would you advise him to make decisions from a harmonious state,  not out of imbalance when he is unsure of what is right or wrong, but from a place of balance?

How can we make decisions from a simple state to make additional steps?

Answer: If a person strives for harmony from a simple state, he usually achieves this by lowering his actions: moving less, thinking less, worrying less, hearing less, seeing less, and so on. The best thing is to take a sleeping pill and fall asleep.

That is, we have no harmony, but we try to achieve it by correctly balancing the forces acting on us. We call this harmony although it is not harmony at all but mutual neutralization of stimuli.

Question: So are balance and harmony not the same thing?

Answer: No. The fact is that we must understand how to restrict ourselves to not lose the harmony that has been achieved and not fall into imbalance.

Comment: When I think about it, I always remember the example of a tightrope walker. It seems that he is walking along the line and every step must be balanced or he will fall. At the same time, it is not a harmonious state but a constant effort, and constant control at every moment.

My Response: Well, we can say that this is the right balance, the right harmony. But still, one must constantly consider possible future outcomes in his sub-conscience and prove to himself that they can always be balanced.

Question: What does balance lack to become harmony? Does something need to be added?

Answer: Knowledge of the future, of the forces that affect you, of your capabilities, and of the world around you. All this can lead very far.

Comment: Turns out, there are many more elements to be added.

Answer: Of course.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 11/18/22

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