Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can everyone acquire access to clean water without conflict?“

It is impossible to achieve positive results by means of conflict and war. Instead, we need an approach of raising global human consciousness so that we will understand the extent of our interconnectedness and interdependence.

If anyone has negative feelings, it means that I have negative feelings; if someone else feels bad, the bad feeling boomerangs over to me and I will feel bad.

We are like one person with one body, connected in one system. If the life and health of another person will be as important as our own life and health, then we will obviously not have to engage in conflict for clean water, as the general attitude that spreads throughout human society will obligate us to make sure that everyone’s needs are sufficiently met.

The global solution to this problem is in education. Just as we teach our children to be altruistic, since we understand that altruism gives us confidence, invites a positive response from others, and makes our lives easier, then likewise we need to expand such altruistic education to human society at large.

If we fulfill ourselves altruistically, then we will experience greater health, happiness and well-being. We should consider our future generations, our children and grandchildren, that they will receive a positive example from us of the fact that only thanks to an altruistic upbringing can they achieve a good life. When we express such care for each other, then we will be able to provide the world with a healthy and pure life, including clean water and food.

Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 9, 2006. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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New Life 1314 – Emotional Balance In The Family
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

In an emotionally balanced family, the members of the family know how to get along with each other and how to help each other. The emotional balance of each individual in a family depends on the family as a whole.

Children who grow up in a connected environment know how to relate to others correctly, are comfortable to live with, and don’t invade anyone’s space. A child can cause a family to lose its balance and upset the general atmosphere. Parents should show that they are not impressed by a child’s extreme behavior. They should set an example by the kind of attitude that they show to others and by keeping their own emotional balance.

The parents’ goal is to show that there is a limit to any emotion or relationship.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1314 – Emotional Balance In The Family, ” 8/1/21

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Comment: You always stress that it is good when there is a king ruling the state.

My Response: It is better than the so-called democratic governments we see in different countries today. People think that democracy is when they can get together, shout, criticize, and create an external appearance of ideological struggle, some kind of opposing trends. By doing so, they allegedly find out the truth.

Question: It is said: “Truth is born in a dispute.” Don’t you agree with that?

Answer: Truth cannot be born when everybody is shouting at each other.

Truth is born where there is a family that has been in power for centuries and gradually raised itself, its children, grandchildren, nobility, and everyone else. Then they develop completely different criteria. They do not fight over to whom it is more profitable to sell a certain position. It is all in their hands. And this is why the reigning family is everything.

Of course, they can be killed, dethroned, which has happened many times in history. But in general, there is no other method of governing in our world other than the dynastic form: kingdom, realm.

First of all, people calmly accept such a ruler; he is the king. That is all! I look at him and I do not need anyone or anything else. And when someone starts to break in and say: “Me, me, me,” then there is no nation, no ruler, everything rests only on bayonets.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/26/21

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Comment: They say that now people can develop a condition called skin hunger or touch starvation. Especially in these times many people suffer from this, even unconsciously.

According to experts, we feel touch starvation when there is an imbalance between the number of desired touches and the amount that we actually receive. This is very similar to the usual feeling of hunger. In this sense, even touching a dog, a cat, or another animal already satisfies the hunger.

Therefore, most of the animals in shelters have been adopted in America. Large numbers of people come to pick up abandoned cats and dogs. There is such a trend in the world today: I want to have something warm next to me, and I will give my warmth to it. What do you think about this trend?

My response: Of course, when I cannot touch a person in a human way, at least I want to touch an animal in an animalistic way.

Question: But this is good, right? At least you give warmth to someone.

Answer: I cannot imagine these external, tactile contacts that replace the internal inclination and contact of hearts. There is no substitute for that. If there is an internal contact, then distances do not interfere with it and the body does not matter at all here.

Let’s say you have a dog and you play with it. I have nothing against that, but this is not what we should really experience.

Question: Only people can connect their hearts?

Answer: Yes. And not physically, and not tactilely.

Question: How can we connect hearts?

Answer: In aspiration. When you feel that you are aspiring for others and get the same response from them. Then you feel that one heart and the second heart have really opened and a common space appears between them. In this common space you can already feel love, understanding, mutuality, and feeling.

Question: Does this also happen because of hunger?

Answer: Of course, certainly, everything happens because of hunger.

Question: What is this appetite that attracts one heart to the other?

Answer: Lack of vital forces, not animalistic, but spiritual ones. I can feel them only if I connect with another person in this way.

Question: That is, the person says: “I have no strength.” Despite the fact that he has food and money, he says that he does not have the strength to live. Does this mean that he is looking for another heart?

Answer: Yes! He unconsciously feels that he has no one to live for! Life is still built on the fact that you give birth, reproduce, educate, give, and feel the same from others. This mutual fulfillment of each other is life. It is impossible to give to someone without receiving.

Question: Are these times coming?

Answer: I hope so.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/20/21

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Comment: Igor writes to us: “I have discovered the ability to heal with my hands. At first, I healed my relatives as I continued my regular job. I am a master cabinet maker, I make fine furniture. Somehow it just so happened that people started coming to me and I began healing them. They suggest that I leave my job and earn money as a healer, but I am not sure about it. It doesn’t feel right to charge money for this kind of work. I want to ask you what I should do? Why did the Creator give me this ability? And can I make a living from it?”

My Response: I don’t know. I can’t advise you here. If you can help people, then this is a good thing. So by all means, try it and do it. And if you can also free up from your job and earn money by healing people, there is no prohibition against it. I don’t know.

Or you can keep it as a hobby. Although, the work of a wood carver is also a very interesting job.

Comment: It’s rare today. And it is clear that he loves this work. That’s why he is having these doubts.

My Response: This is a very special kind of work. Such people are worthy of envy. He creates with his hands, giving pleasure to himself and others.

Comment: And if he’s given the ability to heal, what is it given for? This, too, follows along the same lines?

My Response: But this already gets tricky. Now he can heal without any self-benefit, without taking any reward for it. Therefore, his healing is more effective. But when he starts charging money for it, this already poses a problem, what will he do? That is, will he be healing for the sake of money or in order to heal?

Once my teacher Rabash and I came to Haifa to see my friend, a good doctor, and he cured Rabash. And then I paid, although he was willing to do it without taking money. I was surprised. He named the exact amount, for example, 363 dollars, and began to write out a receipt.

I said: “Are you writing me a receipt?!” He replied: “If I don’t write out a receipt, I won’t be able to think right. I will have the wrong attitude and thoughts. I will be looking at things differently. I will think about crooked paths.”

And when Rabash heard this, he was so pleased! He said: “Wow, this is a real doctor, he does not allow himself to think crookedly.”

Comment: That is, crooked means thinking about money, and straight means thinking about a patient’s recovery.

My Response: Yes. I treated you, you have to pay. And the amount was, I remember, some very odd number. “I have to write out a receipt for you, and everything must be absolutely proper!”

If you go into healing with your special abilities, you should think about making sure these abilities do not disappear. And this can only happen if you have the right attitude to the world, to life, to what you do with people.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/1/21

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Question: In his book Give and Take, psychologist and professor Adam Grant divides people into three groups: takers, givers, and matchers. “Givers like to give more than they get, paying attention to what others need. Takers like to get more than they give, seeing the world as a competitive place and primarily looking out for themselves. And matchers balance and give on a quid pro quo basis, willing to exchange favors but careful about not being exploited.”

What do you think about these three groups?

Answer: Most of all I like the matchers because they lead to contact, to mutual, good, kind contact. This is the most important thing. It is not about the fact that you can give away as much as you want. It will not do anything. It is the same with receiving if someone gives something to you.

Exchanging, however, causes mutuality, and by this you can correct a person, you can change both yourself and the other, and create communication between you; this is the most important thing. The goal is to create communication.

A giver will not do anything. On the contrary, he can cause hatred if he gives all the time. It does not mean anything.

Comment: So you are a realist. You give me something, I give you something? Exchange pleasantries.

My Response: Yes, but by this we teach each other that he can do the same thing that I do; by giving to him, I open myself in order to receive something from him. And so on. The most important thing is mutual exchange.

Question: Isn’t our world today built on this, “You scratch my back and I will scratch yours”?

Answer: The world is built on mutual exchange.

Question: Does it mean that you are satisfied with what is happening in the world today?

Answer: No. This does not satisfy me because the current exchange that exists in the world is only to take and not to give.

Question: What is the next stage after matching?

Answer: This is written in Kabbalah: mine is mine, yours is mine, and then yours is yours, and mine is yours.

Question: That is, you come to an almost impossible state. To something that is impossible to imagine: mine is yours and yours is yours, right?

Answer: Yes. Such relationships are the most correct ones that are justified by the upper nature, which is opposite to our nature. This is what we must come to. Together with this, a completely different space is revealed to us, an eternal world.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/24/21

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Prophets, Joshua, 6:26-6:27: And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the Lord, that rises up and builds this city, Jericho; with (the loss of) his first-born shall he lay its foundation, and with (the loss of) his youngest son shall he set up its gates.

So the Lord was with Joshua; and his fame was throughout the entire land.

To this day, the city of Jericho is located below Jerusalem, on the bank of the Jordan, but Jews do not live there.

After Jericho fell, the people followed the Creator in everything, and the Creator gave the city to the Israelites. But the laws were not fulfilled in full.

The people of Israel were told: take everything from the conquered city of Jericho, only do not take the forbidden. And yet some of them secretly took the forbidden. Therefore, when Joshua sent his men to capture the city of Ayya believing that it would be easy and fast since the Creator was with them, suddenly, an unexpected thing happened.

Prophets, Joshua, 7:5: And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty-six men; and they chased them from before the gate to Shebarim, and smote them in the descent; and the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.

The heart is a combination of properties of strength (Gevura, courage) and mercy (Bina). Therefore, the heart contracts and works like this: from one property to another. This is how we exist.

And the sons of Israel took properties that cannot be corrected, that are forbidden.

Question: And that is why they were punished?

Answer: Not that it is a punishment, but it is a natural consequence of the fact that they used properties that cannot be corrected.

Therefore it is written: “And the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.” This means that they still have the pure property of I, but without strength, without any force inside of it.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/27/19

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Everything Is Evaluated Not by Its Appearance at a Given Moment, but According to Its Measure of Development.

Everything in reality, good and bad, and even the most harmful in the world, has a right to exist and must not be destroyed and eradicated from the world. We must only mend and reform it…” (Baal HaSulam, The Writings of Baal HaSulam Volume One, “Peace in the World”).

We must treat everything that exists as something necessary for our lives. Nothing exists in vain, although sometimes it seems to us that nature is full of all kinds of pests in the sea, underground, everywhere and that it wouldn’t be harmful to get rid of them.

But with each passing day as we explore nature more and more, we begin to understand that everything that exists is created by necessity. And the wisdom of Kabbalah gives us an absolute understanding of this.

Every species of plant sprouts and every species of animal exists only due to necessity. The natural levels of the still, vegetative, animate, and human must live in mutual harmony and share in everything.

So there is nothing harmful on the face of the Earth. And if we see something harmful or bad in its relationship with us, then we need to us to understand that it exists so that through our correct attitude to nature we will bring ourselves to a state that makes it possible for us to see that everything that is found in this world is correct, true, and should exist.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 7/7/19

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Comment: A young girl writes: “I can draw well and play a musical instrument. I would really like to change the world, give it something. But what is the point if I study to be a musician or an artist if the world no longer needs it. Where can I put my skills, my desire to do something for others?”

My Response: First, there is a difference between a profession and a vocation. A profession is imposed on us by society based on what it needs. Therefore, if once artists, musicians, and poets were held in high esteem, today this is not the time. Maybe soon it will be like that again, but any period can drag on for two hundred years.

Question: So she needs to look for a calling?

Answer: Yes. If, for example, she draws, let her be a teacher of drawing. But the main thing is how she realizes herself internally in addition to earning. She also wants to make a hobby out of her profession. Not many people accomplish that. So maybe she needs to come to terms with it.

In addition, she is a woman, she will have a family and children. All this will overshadow her noble impulses a bit.

Comment: You have just touched on the matter of profession and vocation. Society pushes us to make a lot of money. Therefore, people with a vocation that does not bring large incomes have an inner break. A person does not know how to deal with the desire to make money, to become great, to change something on a global level.

My Response: First of all, making money is one thing. Changing something at the global level is different. Make it your profession? Make it your hobby? The person hasn’t decided yet. Therefore, it is difficult to give specific advice here.

I would advise him, first of all, to decide. He needs good, smart, grown-up people, maybe even a psychologist who would gradually explain to him what is best for him. Together they would “speak through” his inner world.
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From KabTV’s “Integral World” 7/13/18

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Annulment as a Preparation for Ibur (Impregnation)” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Selected Highlights

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