Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Does anyone desire what is bad?“

We should first understand what is desire and what is bad about our desires. What is bad about our desires is that they control us and our intellect.

Desire—or to be more precise, the desire to receive—is our entire essence, and it wants to be filled with pleasure all the time.

What pleasure does it want to be filled with? It does not care, as long as it gets satiated, and so killing and stealing, and the exploitation, manipulation and abuse of others, could easily be what gives it its fulfillment. Positive altruistic actions could also fill our desires, but that is usually not the case.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, this desire that enjoys at the expense of others and nature is called the “evil inclination.” It is evil in that it cannot take others into consideration.

This desire constantly bosses us around, making us cater to its demands, unaware that it is not actually us. It is a desire that exists in us like a virus or a germ, and it controls us.

We relate to it as if it were us, but it is not us. It controls us from within to our detriment because it makes us follow its demands when we ourselves would wish to develop differently. Instead, it leads us into all kinds of negative situations. For instance, even at the level of our basic health, our bodies wish to simply be healthy yet due to our desire for pleasure, many of us fill our bodies with all kinds of drugs, chemicals, alcohol and smoke in the name of pleasure that our desire constantly directs us to. It does not ask our permission, but it dictates to us what we seemingly want.

Eventually, via the accumulation of life experiences as well as various indirect supporting systems in the environments we encounter, a siren goes off in our intellect: “Wait a minute! What your desire is leading you to is not at all to your benefit!” It discerns that simply following the dictates of our desires has led us to all kinds of suffering and blows. In other words, the intellect emerges in order to balance out the desire to receive’s demands.

The desire belongs more to the animate level within us, whereas the intellect belongs more to our human level. The intellect is cold. It tells us what is right and wrong, but then it becomes difficult to activate in order to control our desires.

We can understand the difficulty of controlling our desire with our intellect from our childhood where our parents told us to be good kids and to study, but we only wanted to play and mess around. Later in life, we can say that our parents were right, but it does not help us at the time when we could have benefited from following their advice.

How can we, throughout our lives, the moment we have detrimental desires, control them with the intellect and balance them out?

Instead of having to live our lives in ways where we run after desires that constantly surface—which we end up paying for and regretting—the wisdom of Kabbalah offers an alternative: a method of reaching an experience of life where we realize our desires beneficially: balancing them out with our intellect in ways that lead to our optimal state.

Based on the video “What Is Bad about Our Desires?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: How can one overcome fear?

Answer: We can overcome fear only through friendship, by coming closer to others. Otherwise, it will overcome us more and more.

Question: What should one do about panic attacks?

Answer: It is possible to deal with them only if we create small societies in which people will support each other. This is the only way we can get rid of fears, illnesses, insomnia, and absolutely everything that imposes the anxiety of life on us.

Question: A person experiences mood swings and is afraid of everything that happens in his life: “What will happen to me tomorrow?” What kind of society does he need that will help him cope with this?

Answer: He must create a society where everyone would understand the need for friendship, cooperation, mutual support, and security. Otherwise, he will have to learn this for a very long time.
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From KabTV’s “Blitz Questions and Answers” 1/6/23

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Question: It is interesting that nothing happens in the present. At least for us. Everything we see, hear, feel, and think is a product of the past.

Since it takes time for the light to reach us, everything we see is in the past. Let us say it takes light eight minutes to get from the Sun to the Earth, so it turns out that we live in a picture where nothing is happening in the present, but everything has happened already. Do you agree with this statement?

Answer: Of course, it is a physical law of many minutes a ray of light travels from the Sun to the Earth.

Question: It is said that the light from the nearest star travels for four years to reach us. So what we see has actually already happened. If we talk about spiritual states, then all states are also predetermined and are revealed only in relation to us?

Answer: There is no speed in the spiritual world. Therefore, all situations and events that were, are, and will be, occur within us. All of them already exist, they are only revealed in relation to a person.

Question: For example, some kind of war, which should take place in a year, already exists in the making?

Answer: It exists and can happen. But whether it will happen depends also on our actions.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 12/25/22

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Question: Why does time run faster with age? How does one explain this?

Answer: This is how it works. After all, it is all subjective and happens only relative to our feelings.

If we compare the life of a modern person, which lasts 70 to 80 years and a person who lived in the Middle Ages for only 30 to 35 years, then those 30 years would seem longer than 80 years for us because we have more opportunities to fill this time.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 12/25/22

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The construction of the Temple means that the people of Israel created a state between them in which the Creator, the force of bestowal and love, was revealed to them. People existed in the form of this force, and their states were not of this world, but were spiritual ones.

At the same time, a new, more internal, egoistic degree developed unrelated to them, so-called Lev HaEven (the stony heart), which could not be corrected at the moment; it applies to the whole world. Therefore, they began to fall apart; i.e., they could not stay at the level of relationships of mutual bestowal and love.

Thus, they fell from this level of communication and connection, from the level of similarity to the Creator, and from such a height and ideal to a state of relative disunity with each other, which is called the second exile, i.e., Babylonian exile. It is described in the Prophets, in the Scroll of Esther (Megillat Esther), and in other books.

The people of Israel lived in this state for 70 years. The numbers “4”or “400” and “7” or “70” are conventional units of ascents or descents, like time or distance. Everything clearly operates according to the original formula: the creation of desire (egoism) by the quality of bestowal and love, called light, according to the four phases of direct light. This formula comes from here, and then its work extends to everything.

So, when the Jews fell from the level of the First Temple, they were in danger of completely forgetting where they were and what was happening to them, which meant they could become like other nations.

But at this time, spontaneous combustion again occurred when the stormy egoistic figure of Haman appeared, who, like a pharaoh, aroused in them the awareness of their condition. They did a great job working together in order to rise above the level of Haman, to kill this egoism in themselves, and thus rise to the next level, called the Second Temple.

There was no longer such bestowal and love as at the First Temple. If previously the level of “Love your neighbor as yourself” prevailed, under the Second Temple, the level of connection between the people was at the level of “Do not do to the other what is hateful to you.” It is this connection that is called the Temple; it is not the remains of the ruins in Jerusalem.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. History of the Jewish People” 5/4/14

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Question: Were Jews recognized during the time they were in spiritual attainment? Was there any respect for wisdom?

Answer: There was respect, but only from the side of the greatest of this world: Plato, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, such people who understood what it was about.

The Romans, being barbarians, did not understand the wisdom of Kabbalah, while the ancient Greeks partly learned it. In addition, there were many Eastern sages who came to study with the Jews. From there, all the eastern methods developed.

Basically, Kabbalah gave rise to Greek philosophy, science, and partly to the legislations of Roman law.

Nevertheless, the relations between the nations were normal. Each nation had its own attitude to life and to spirituality. No one bothered anyone. Only after Christianity and Islam emerged did all the problems, contradictions, subjugation, and religious wars begin.

The Greeks began to plant their religion in Israel, and there was a Maccabean revolt. But mostly it happened because of the Jews who themselves wanted to break away from Judaism and become Hellenists.

Meanwhile the Romans were barbarians who didn’t understand at all what they were talking about. They didn’t care who you worshiped or what your philosophy was. The main thing was to impose a certain system and collect taxes.

Question: Why do you call the Romans barbarians? In my opinion, it was only in their bottom layer.

Answer: That is what everyone calls them. But this is not a disparaging word. It just speaks of a certain philosophy of life or worldview.

The Romans mastered the tactics of fighting and constantly conquered new lands until, as usual, these lands conquered them. The same thing is happening in our time; first Europe conquered Africa and now Africa is flooding Europe. This is a common move; there is nothing new in this.

Question: What is this category of desires called Romans?

Answer: “Romans” is a very practical attitude to the world. Before the emergence of Christianity, they treated the world as an absolutely materialistic mechanism that works according to these laws. No problem whatsoever! If you want to make gods for yourself, do it, sculpt whoever you want. If you want a horse, make a horse to a god.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Respect for Jews” 1/21/12

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Question: When one of your students drops out of the group, what does he lose?

Answer: The general system suffers, and he suffers. But what can he do? Nothing. Like a child, you give him all the time, show him everything, teach him, and instruct him, but the time comes when he must take independent steps, and if he does not do them or does them wrong, then he must understand that he has already passed his childhood and youth and has grown up, that he has reached maturity and must now advance by himself.

At this stage he must be left alone; he will either advance on his own or not. In principle there is a group and an environment, and, as we know from articles about freewill and the environment, he must already behave consciously, independently, together with the rest, and try to create completely new states, both his own and others’.

Question: Should we leave a person to the mercy of fate? Where is the guideline here so that there is neither negative nor positive pressure on him?

Answer: If he comes to study in our group, then everything else depends on him.

Somehow he was sent from above, he found himself here; all possibilities are open before him—lessons, meetings, meals, and external events. Everything is there to come, study, and join in any activities of the group.

He must become included. There are people who are more sociable or less sociable; this is understandable. But all the same, he was given the importance of the goal and the opportunity to be a friend to all the other hundreds of people who are engaged in spiritual correction. He was brought here, and then he must act on his own.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. I Am Fed Up with Everything!” 5/31/14

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why do most of the world and the UN dislike Israel?“

Israel exists in a kind of game, where no matter how much seeming good Israel brings to the world, with the many advances in science, technology, medicine and humanitarian aid, the world increasingly relates negatively to Israel.

We indeed need to receive blows and to be treated badly until we straighten ourselves out toward each other and toward our role in the world—to develop relations of unity above our differences and divisions. If we develop such relations, then the world’s attitude toward us would dramatically shift from negative to positive.

The rising antisemitism and negativity toward Israel can be likened to increasing pressure on a blockage in a pipe, in order to unblock it in order to let an abundance of delight and goodness flow into the world. Indeed, if we Jews positively connect with each other all around the world, then we would unblock that blockage and serve as a conduit of abundance to the world, and when everyone experiences unity, happiness and goodness, then the attitude toward us would shift to revering a people who bring unity, happiness and prosperity worldwide.

Based on the video “Why Is Israel Hated So Much Despite All the Seeming Good They Bring to the World?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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