It Is Time for People to Open Their Eyes

254.02Question: What kind of results would you like to see from your work?

Answer: As a result of my work, I would like to see the world beginning to understand the true state of things, understanding what I am writing about in the blog where the same thing is constantly repeated.

I already do not know what to do!? Maybe abandon this blog?! But I cannot! Who will read posts written a year, two, or five years ago, even though they are still relevant? That is why I write every day. I have nothing to say anymore. It is necessary to wait until the world will realize the dead end of its development.

Now humanity is already beginning to talk about the need for unification. Here and there articles appear that we need a completely different attitude to life. First of all, about reasonable, normal, even minimal consumption; otherwise, 90% of the world, if not more, will starve and be in need of basic necessities!

It is necessary to be seriously engaged in education so that everyone will begin to understand what kind of world we are entering. As of today, we exist at the animate level of development, not at the human level.

Human is something above egoism, above our nature! We are not at that level and for the time being we live as animals. Why as? Because animals are triggered by nature instinctively. They instinctively do everything they need, and therefore do not make mistakes. We, humans, are gradually losing this instinct.

For many years, nature pushed and developed us, and now it is slowly starting to let go. Now we are lost. From the beginning of the 20th century, we began to feel: What should we do? Where should we go? Previously, nature guided us, like all animals, and we had no questions, but now we do not know what to do.

We are entering a new, integral phase, but we ourselves do not correspond to it and do not know how to act. We are within the forces that pass between us because they are integral. They are interconnected in a system, but we are completely different.

Moreover, we do not see or feel it. We just feel that we would like to do something, but cannot. What to press, what to push, what to pull? Something is affecting us, but what we do not feel. We end up in some kind of n-dimensional space, as if, we are passing through it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. To See the Future” 2/5/13

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How to Enjoy Life?

627.2Comment: In ordinary life we often do something not for pleasure but out of necessity. And we sometimes even force ourselves, let’s say you need to feed your body or do basic home maintenance.

My Response: No, it is necessary to receive pleasure, and not deny it. Let’s say I’m thinking about the spiritual, about the exalted, about bestowal. But if I can enjoy it to that extent, I must do so.

After all, the purpose of creation is enjoyment and fulfillment because the Creator is good and doing good. It’s not clear, I understand. I feel how these contradictions collide in a person. They are not easy to reconcile, but in the end they will be reconciled.

A person should not give up normal pleasures for a single moment in his life. On the contrary, he should only aspire to the Creator above all pleasures, and then he will make the correct restriction on himself. And if he begins to shut himself up and deny himself, it will not be a restriction, but a torture against the Creator’s will.

The Creator wants a person to feel fulfilled at every moment of time. When your fulfillment is in what you give instead of what you receive, then replace one with the other. You will still enjoy. By making a restriction on yourself, you will not cry, suffer, and torture yourself, but you will enjoy the fact that you have achieved the ability to bestow. There is such joy in this!

In no case, if it is not to the detriment of others, should a person deny fulfillment. Only to prefer more exalted pleasure to the lowly ones, until they replace each other, alternately, gradually, and reach the highest level.

And then one constantly thanks the Creator. Otherwise, he curses Him in his heart. If a person does not get pleasure, he curses the One who gave him this life, who governs it.

In everyday life, eating normally, sleeping, doing everything you need to do for yourself becomes part of our spiritual work. My teacher Rabash, the great Kabbalist, the last Mohican, loved to eat delicious food, ate with pleasure and praised the taste and smell of food.

That is, in no case you should do it! This is the embodiment of small pleasures that the Creator gives us so that we can begin to combine them across the entire spectrum: from the smallest to the greatest. And all this together comes from one light.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Enjoy Life?” 2/16/13

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“Do you think Israel is broken? If yes, how can we fix it?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: “Do you think Israel is broken? If yes, how can we fix it?“

We have long been broken. We face alienation and generally negative relations toward each other, and it is indeed a problem. We need to reach a state where we take care of each other, to explain to ourselves that there is no other place for us.

The positive aspect of our broken state is that we have the power to change it. If we come closer together and decide that we are one nation, then we can mend our currently-broken connections. We certainly need to work on that more and more.

On the other hand, many would argue that we are familiar with slogans about our unity from a young age. We hear about it regularly throughout our upbringing. However, we see that it fails to bring us any closer together. It is because the explanations we currently receive about our unity lack the understanding of our foundation as a nation. Moreover, neither side of the political spectrum in Israel discuss it.

Our foundation as a nation resides in the tenet, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If we fail to sustain such relations among each other, then we are not Israel. There is a superior law to our existence as a nation that requires us to unite above our differences. If we adhere to this law, that “all of Israel are brothers,” then we can truly fix our broken connections, and build the State of Israel in a new and positive way.

Therefore, while we are broken, we have the power to fix our shattered state, and become a united nation based on mutual relations of love. We would then also see that the negative sentiment toward us would fade away, as we would positively affect everyone in the world with the positive unifying force that we would realize among each other.

Based on the video “Is Israel Disintegrating?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 8/18/22

Preparation to the Lesson

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Lesson on the Topic, “The Ways of the Lord Are Straight” 

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of Kabbalah and Its Essence”

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 4, Chapter 3, Item 11

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Selected Highlights 

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 8/17/22

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3 Audio

“Devoid of Jewish Identity” (Times of Israel)

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Devoid of Jewish Identity”

The national Jewish identity and the fear of losing it has become a question that troubles many people in Israel. On the one hand, there is no fear that we will lose our identity even if we want to since the hatred of the world toward us reminds us that we are Jewish. Our Palestinian neighbors also assist in that through their pressure. Were it not for their hatred, we would be long gone.

The Jewish national identity is derived from realizing a certain demand from the Jews as a group, as the Israeli nation. We have a common language, we have our politics and politicians, and even a distinct Israeli mentality. Yet, as long as we do not know why we are here, we are not really a nation.

If our spiritual calling is to be “a light to the nations,” but we are not sure what it means, the world will remain lost in the dark, not knowing why it exists. The more humanity advances, the more the questions about the purpose of life become poignant and painful. In consequence, the nations are growing angrier and crueler toward us, Jews.

Now we have come to a state where everything material is in abundance. The only thing we do not know is the purpose of it all. That aimlessness leads the nations to remember the calling of the Jews, so when we do not provide the answer they want, they hate us.

Since we are unaware of our calling, we do not understand why the world hates us. We think that leading the world in advanced technologies, contributing to the world in culture, medicine, agriculture, science, and entertainment should win us the world’s gratitude. However, it does not win us gratitude, much less favor. We do not understand why, but if we realized what it is that we must give the world, we would see what we are not giving it, and we would understand why the world hates us.

We may think that we do not have what the world wants, but we do. The world wants to know how people can live together in peace, since hatred is the only plague that ruins everything we do. The Jews have had the method for achieving unity since we formed our nation by rising above the vehement hatred that our ancestors felt toward each other and uniting “as one man with one heart.” Immediately after we became a nation, we were tasked with passing our method to the rest of humanity. The Bible defined it as an obligation to be a light to the nations, namely to pass on the light of unity.

Over the centuries, we had achieved high levels of unity. We lived out the motto “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and for a time, we really shone the light of unity to humanity. However, our unity was short-lived and with its decline, the world has plunged into eons of war, bloodshed, and hatred.

Now it is time to return to our Jewish identity—to shine the light of unity to the entire world by uniting among ourselves and setting an example to the world. The growing hatred toward us, which seems so unjust, is the world’s demand that we unite and show humanity the way. When we achieve unity among ourselves, the world will unite with us, and we will not need to search for our identity or justify our existence as a nation.
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“The Ultimate Pleasure” (Medium)


Medium published my new article “The Ultimate Pleasure”

Scientists discovered that an ant exposed to heat during an activity with other ants behaves as if it does not feel it. It continues with all the other ants as if it feels nothing, and changes course only when all the ants do so. The same is true of many flocks of birds, such as starlings, and of many schools of fish. They do not follow each other, but move as if they were all one organism consisting of innumerable specimens. I do not know if they do this by releasing hormones or by something else, but the result is that they are completely in sync with one another.‎

Humans cannot feel this way. We are denied the ability to merge completely into society; we always feel our individuality. Moreover, we give priority to our individuality over society, so we cannot connect with the collective mind that starlings and schools of fish work with.

Since we are unable to sense the collective mind, we are denied the understanding and perception of the collective reality. It is as if we live in a world where we cannot see beyond our own noses. At the same time, precisely because we are not born with a collective perception, we will gain infinitely more by developing it than by being born with it. We will gain not only the collective mind, but also the thought behind its development, the difference between having ‎it and not having it, and the way to help others gain that consciousness, as well.

When we see that such a state of collective consciousness exists, we want to attain it. It motivates us to value it more than our innate self-centeredness. As our motivation grows, we understand that we can reach that state only if we prefer it to our selfishness.

Once we are in that state, we discover a completely new kind of pleasure, the ultimate pleasure. In this kind of pleasure, we strive to feel not ourselves, but our collective existence, our oneness. It is not suspension of the self, but an addition of a new self that consists of and belongs to every being in reality. Our original self continues to exist, and a new one is added.

Once we acquire that collective consciousness, we understand the true meaning of love and why everyone longs for it. In this love, we feel our separate selves, and at the same time feel everyone’s efforts to rise above their selves and unite with others in love.

In fact, in that state, the purpose of the ego changes and its new role is to distinguish between a state of hatred and separation and a state of love and connection. The greater one’s ego, the greater the joy of love because a greater ego requires a greater love to overcome it.

At the end of the process, a person feels the absolute selfishness of the ego, and at the same time feels the absolute love that exists in the collective consciousness. What fish and birds feel instinctively, we can feel only once we develop love for every iota of Creation. This ultimate love brings with it the ultimate pleasure. The ultimate love that we all long to feel is not to be loved absolutely, but to feel absolute love for others. When we experience it, we find that everything is absolute love.
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“Truth, Love, and the Connection between Them” (Times of Israel)

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Truth, Love, and the Connection between Them”

“The truth is in the eyes of the beholder,” says the famous maxim. In the age of fake news, it is more difficult than ever to tell true from false. So how can we decide whom to believe? How can we know which way is right when everyone seems to be dishonest? Philosophy, mathematics, law, and science all use different techniques to determine the truth and to define it. The wisdom of Kabbalah also has its definition: Truth is care for others. The Creator of the world created it with the quality of love for all of creations, or He would not have created them, and in Hebrew, Emet [truth] is the name of the Creator. Therefore, truth is the Creator, and it is a kind relation toward others. Every other relation toward others, therefore, is falsehood, or close to it.

Kindness, or care for others, means I relate to others with kindness and care, that I am thinking of their benefit. I do not have to know what is good for them and what is not; it is not about what I know or do not know, but about how I feel toward them. Through caring for others, I will also know how to treat them in a way that is good for them.

It follows that to become truthful, we must learn how to care about others, since our innate nature is selfishness. To do that, we must place ourselves in a society where we can cultivate such feelings toward each other, where I can show others that I am acting toward them in truth, meaning kindness, and they reciprocate that conduct.

Truth, therefore, is not something absolute. The measure of my truthfulness depends on the level of my kindness toward others. Absolute truth is the ultimate goal of our efforts, the final correction. It is the culmination of a process of correction of our relationships.

Note that we do not have to correct ourselves or change ourselves in any way. All we need is to change how we relate to one another, our attitude toward others. If we mean well for others, we are acting toward others in truthfulness. If we mean to harm others, we are acting toward them in falsehood. It is actually quite straightforward.

There is another saying, that only children and drunks tell the truth. There is truth to that because as we grow up and become more sophisticated, we cover up our bad intentions toward others. We exploit others and relate to them well only when it serves our selfish interest. As a result, we have to hide our bad intentions from them, as well as from ourselves, since it is very unpleasant to think of ourselves as egoistic people. In a sense, the only truth in our world is hypocrisy.

We can change our inherent egoism and become truthful, kind people. However, we cannot do it alone. To change ourselves, we must place ourselves in a social setting that constantly demonstrates to me that others are kind, or at least kinder than I am. Using envy in this way can elevate me from my current, self-centered disposition, to a state of concern for others, and changing my qualities from caring for me to caring for others is regarded as changing from falsehood to truth.

We cannot help but begin from falsehood; it is our inherent nature. However, we should use it just as long as we need to in order to resolve that we want to change ourselves. Once we determine that we want to change, we must rise above our nature, with the help of the environment as I have just mentioned, and acquire more and more kindness.

We see that we are dependent on others when it comes to changing ourselves. Therefore, if we want to succeed, we must see to it that many other people want to change themselves for the better, too. It follows, as the wisdom of Kabbalah always says, the individual and the society are dependent on each other, implying that if the society does not succeed, neither will the individual.
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All that Is Left Is to Feel

962.3Question: Letters are forms of interaction of two opposite forces of reception and bestowal.

Will the extent to which I can balance my egoism within myself with the light, with the quality of bestowal, that influences me and pass it on to the other already be a letter, a word, or a sentence?

Answer: Yes. This will already be an expression of the relationship between the two participants in spiritual communication. It remains only to feel all this. This is ahead of you.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 7/26/22

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Synapses for Transmitting Spiritual Information

214Kabbalah is the science of how to reach the revelation of the Creator in our world, to feel and grasp Him to such an extent that you can pass it on to other people and to the next generations. Kabbalah teaches how to perceive reality that we cannot feel with the five ordinary senses.

But if it cannot be sensed by our organs of perception, then how can it be perceived by our mind? It cannot! After all, our mind is the result of impressions from our world. As we develop in this world, we build different forms, discernments, and images, all kinds of connections and synapses in our brain.

This is why we are not able to perceive the spiritual world. To do this, we need to develop new organs of perception: to open up new connections between us in our mind and in our heart, which are not present in an ordinary person. But we can do it.

If we gradually build such connections, then they work like synapses in the brain and connect all kinds of concepts and opposites for us. In essence, these are formulas for connecting everything that exists in matter and space.

In this way, we build vessels for perceiving reality within ourselves that is above the corporeal senses and mind, and we begin to feel the spiritual world.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/22, Baal HaSulam “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”

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