Comment: Kabbalists write that the Creator has no thought of Himself. That is, the Creator is a force that does not even think whether He exists or not. This is somehow strange.

Answer: It is strange for us. The Creator is simply another force of nature opposite to us. Just like every moment we think only of ourselves, there is a force opposite to us, the Creator, who never thinks of Himself in any way. He thinks about things other than Himself.

Question: Is there something else beside us?

Answer: In general, yes.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 11/16/21

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic: “Love for the Creator”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”

Selected Highlights

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Question: Why do we have difficulties studying the material when the second restriction (Tzimtzum Bet)  is explained?

Answer: Because the first restriction is made upon the egoistic desire to receive that is naturally in us.

And with the second restriction, it is not entirely clear what it operates on. It operates on the fact that there is no opportunity to receive but only to become like the property of bestowal with no reception.

That is, there is this first opportunity when I receive and my intention is to receive for the sake of the Giver in order to give Him pleasure. And the second one is when I do not receive because I cannot receive in order to please Him.

Question: Can you give an example? Let’s say, I have several million dollars, and I do not use it at all because I understand that I will use them for myself and will not be connected with the upper force and it is important for me to be in touch with it. This is the first state.

The second state is when I determine that I can use some part, for example, a $100,000 not for myself, but for others. And then to the extent that I use this opportunity for the sake of others, I am connected to the Creator. Is this correct?

Answer: Yes. But this is not the second restriction. It is just using whatever resources you have.

If you do not have a Masach and you can only close yourself from receiving, then this is called the first restriction. If in addition to this you have the opportunity to fulfill yourself for the sake of others, for example, to receive something for the $100,000 in order to pass it on to others but nothing for yourself, then this is already using forces over the first restriction.

And if you cannot realize the second option, then maybe you have the opportunity to make yourself just like others without receiving. But these are purely spiritual concepts, and then you will become like others, not receiving.

Question: So can you give some examples of the second restriction in our world?

Answer: Yes. When you receive something from someone and pass it on to someone else; for example, if you received a million from someone and you have the strength not to take it for yourself but to pass it on, just as Bina receives from Keter and passes it down.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 11/16/21

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Question: Today, many agree that human problems are related to the fact that one is not in balance with nature. But everyone has different ideas regarding the actual term “equilibrium.”

In one of your conversations, you said that living in ecologically clean places, eating right, and being closer to nature does not mean being in equilibrium with it. What does a Kabbalist mean when he talks about balance with nature at the human level?

Answer: Equilibrium with nature is similarity to the Creator.

The Creator represents all of nature around us, its general law divided into a multitude of all kinds of particular laws. This is a causal relationship between all natural phenomena, the implementation of this law in life at the inanimate, plant, animal, and the human levels. All this is called nature.

If we knew this and were harmoniously connected with it, then we would really be in a state of the highest harmony, perfection, peace, and good.

The problem is that man, as the highest stage of development, is flawed in his private nature. He drives himself into a dead end because he is opposite to the general nature, which is built on bestowal, connection, interconnection, and love. Everything for him is built only on receiving, hatred, and power, he crushes everything under himself. By this, he introduces into nature tremendous disturbances not only at his own level, but also at the lower animate, vegetative, and inanimate levels. Moreover, this is the influence at a cosmic scale.

We cannot imagine how much we affect the cosmos, for billions of light years, the waves of which diverge at infinite speed, not at the speed of light. We influence the entire universe and in a very negative way. Therefore, we perceive the world in a dark form. For example, a person gets up in the morning in a bad mood and everything around him is bad, like as they say, a “rainy day.” And another time, on the contrary, the same day, but something shines on him.

Thus, in contradiction with nature, with its property of bestowal and love, we simply destroy the whole world. We need balance with it.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Two-headed eagle” 1/1/10

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Question: Why is it specifically through the body that the development of the soul to the human level takes place?

Answer: The development of the soul does not happen through the body. We exist in the body in order to develop the soul and to be independent of its development. So that I, while constantly on the animate level and starting from it, could develop the soul.

It is not dwelling constantly in the soul, but being able to change it, to make circuits, to ascend constantly, to be independent of your spiritual state, to descend into the body again and ascend to the new degree of the soul again; to descend again and ascend again, and so on.

The soul is the organ in me that I correct and fill. While working on my soul, I exist separately, just like, for example, I would create some kind of mechanism and work on it. I abstract from the soul and look at it objectively. That is why there is a necessity for such a state as our physical existence.

After all, by looking at yourself from the outside, you become more objective. One can ascend the levels of his soul because he also has a body in which he exists.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Individualist” 1/15/10

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Question: What does the sound of the horn mean?

Answer: It means softening of the properties of Malchut by Bina where egoism is corrected to bestowal.

Comment: It is written in the Torah that when the people of Israel heard the sound of the horn, they started to shout and the walls of Jericho fell down.

My Response: When Malchut is gradually corrected under the influence of Bina, the walls of egoism are being destroyed.

Bina can influence Malchut in such a way that its qualities begin to connect with the qualities of Malchut. But this is a long process.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/27/21

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Question: You say that there is a moment in every person’s life when he is given the opportunity from above to realize his individuality, his soul, meaning to come to a higher, eternal level of existence. What is this moment?

Answer: There is a moment in every person’s life when he feels that he must find the meaning of existence, find out why he lives. Moreover, not necessarily from a bad state. He just feels that he has to find himself, that this is not real life, there is something besides it. It can’t be that it is like that.

It’s some kind of game, some kind of dream, something that doesn’t really exist. And everyone plays it, everyone seems to pretend: Now I was born, I live, now I have a family, children, now I work, now I’m running after some special purchases. A game. This is the same kind of a game that children play. Only for ourselves we have elevated it to the rank of special seriousness. And what is the seriousness here? There’s nothing here.

And it turns out that when I start to feel it, the question arises: “What to do next?” Where is there something in me that I would not pretend, not play? Something actually so internal, deep, and gentle, that it’s even scary to touch—it will be very painful.

When a person reaches such a state, he gets the opportunity to start exploring the meaning of life.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Individualist” 1/15/10

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How did the universe begin?“

Everything started with the desire to bestow.

The desire to bestow is the basis of creation. In that desire, an opposite desire began to appear, the desire to receive, which is the beginning of creation.

The desire to receive exists in order to emphasize the desire to bestow.

Where is the desire to bestow? Why don’t we feel it?

We cannot discover the desire to bestow alone. If we develop a desire to bestow, then we can discover this desire, and its revelation is called “the revelation of the Creator” or “revelation of the upper force.” That is, the desire to bestow is the initial force that existed in the universe, and the desire to receive, which is our (the creation’s) substance, is secondary.

In terms of whether or not our universe has a starting point, the wisdom of Kabbalah states that there is no beginning and no end. Our desire determines the place.

We can literally travel back and forth on the axis of time. Since all that exists is the desire to bestow, and our egoistic desire forms within the desire to bestow, then we have the ability to think about and grow the point of the desire to bestow out of our egoistic desire. We can progress toward adapting ourselves to the general desire to bestow, called “the Creator,” and at the end of our egoistic development, that is what we will discover.

Time travel is thus possible by changing our desire. We can change our desire to receive so that it lessens in importance, and we can increase the importance of bestowal upon reception. Diminishing the importance of receiving and increasing the importance of bestowal lets us progress on the axis of time.

What does “bestowal” mean? In simple terms, it means doing good to others. Through intending for others’ benefit, we can enter the upper force, i.e. the force that acts in our world, and which has acted even before the desire to receive came about, i.e. before the axis of time as we know it began.

In the end, only the desire to bestow will remain and fill reality. However, there is a difference between how the desire to receive functions in reality in its beginning and at its end. The difference is that in the end, the desire to receive fully develops and becomes able to appreciate the desire to bestow.

​​The desire to receive helps us increase the importance of the desire to bestow. When the desire to bestow becomes immensely important to us, then we draw it to ourselves, and feel a new whole reality that is beyond everything we experience in this world.

Raising the importance of the desire to bestow above the desire to receive is possible by enacting such appreciation in a group of people who agree to connect above their differences, and attract the desire to bestow in their relations. In such a group, we implement our connection up to the point where we attract the force of bestowal that fills the space between us and embraces us. There is no more powerful force, and when we discover it, we will realize how there is no other force in existence.

Based on the video “How Love Powers Time Travel” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: Have miracles ever happened to you that you were not able to explain logically?

Answer: No, in the end I always was able to understand and explain them. A miracle is something that goes beyond our classic everyday concepts.

However, when you rise to a higher level of attainment, you understand that these are ordinary, normal, natural phenomena. Only at our level they are not visible, and if they manifest a little in something, we call them miracles.

Question: But at that moment, when you have not yet risen, did you consider it a miracle?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Has something ever happened that was against the laws of nature?

Answer: There was nothing like that. After all if it does not fit within the laws of nature that I have studied, then it must be added to these laws.

Question: For example, if you saw a person who flies, would it be a miracle for you?

Answer: If this cannot be explained by ordinary levitation, then, of course, this is a miracle.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 11/30/21

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