Comment: Larry King, the legendary presenter and television icon, has died at the age of 87. He conducted over 40,000 interviews and was included in The Guinness Book of World Records. In an era when emotional leaders were quick to ask questions, interrupt others, he mostly listened. He asked the question, “Why? What do you think,” and he listened.

This made him stand out from all. Among his interlocutors were all the U.S. Presidents, starting with Nixon, and also Margaret Thatcher, Vladimir Putin, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Mike Tyson, Paul McCartney, and you, Michael Laitman.

At the end of the conversation with you, he suddenly said to the production team: “I want to talk to him more, continue the time.”

My Response: Yes, he knew how to show the interlocutor that he was interviewing him. And he listened and heard. And although at first I did not feel any special interest in me on his part, in just a few minutes he began to change. He began to get used to the situation, he himself began to live in it, to empathize.

Listening is a gift from God. Who knows how to listen nowadays? No one. Even psychologists. The main thing for them is to foist on you what they think, and that’s it. They do not work for internal contact with the patient, with the sick person, with the interlocutor, or with the interviewee. This is not the case today.

Question: So, in principle, the art of listening is the main art?

Answer: Yes. This is what Larry King was famous for. We had nothing pre-assigned—an unexpected meeting. I practically answered the questions that interested him. And in no case as an interviewer, but as a person who wants to understand a little bit about life, what is going on in his family, what is happening in his life, with work, with a view of the world.

He understood me. That is, he did not have such an automatic switch on what only he needed and the rest does not matter, as television and radio hosts usually have. No, he absorbed it all for himself.

Question: What are the main qualities of a leader? To reveal a person, what do you need to be able to do?

Answer: To reveal a person, you must enter into him without need to spin it.

It is not necessary, because you unwind him, and he, therefore, like a child in your arms, is very light, external. This is not his inner essence. It is necessary to do so that a person opens up himself, and in such a way that he begins to open up in everything that he did not even think about, did not imagine, that he would ever be able to speak.

Question: And this happens when the one who asks presents the question and kind of cancels and listens?

Answer: Not only is it canceled, but when he wants to enter into the interlocutor, sympathize, be with him, not just empathize. And even more so not to show that you catch him on something or you spin it on something. With Larry King, I felt that this is a person who is really interested in understanding me.

At that time he had problems with his loved one, who was very sick. He disconnected from it and went into what I was telling him. This captured him more than his personal problems, and that is why he was so interested in me, and he was late for this interview. And he did not want to leave, he held my hand.

I just understood what he needed, that he was going to the hospital right after talking with me, and so on. It was impressive. That is, in the end I interviewed the person. Although this is not my specialty, not my task, I was impressed by him. It is precisely this turn, what he can do. He remained human.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/25/21

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Dear Friends!
I am very pleased to open the first virtual World Kabbalah Convention, which was previously held annually in Tel Aviv in February. This convention is a gathering of everyone in whom the desire to learn about the meaning of their life, to reveal the upper force, and to move toward the goal of creation has awakened in their hearts.

More than 7,000 people have already registered for the convention and applications continue to come from those wishing to participate with us in lessons and workshops.

We all exist in a huge ocean of egoistic desire created by the Creator, and the goal of this convention is to establish a special island in it where a new force will rule: the desire to bestow. We ask the Creator to lay this new form within the old form—the embryo of the desire to bestow within the desire to receive pleasure.

The Creator can do this; everything depends only on how much we participate in this action, prepare ourselves for it, ask for it, and pray for it to happen. I hope that during the convention we will be able to practically feel how within our connection with each other while still controlled by egoism, above which we really want to rise, an area is cleared for revelation of the Creator, the desire to bestow. And in this way, we will move toward our unique, eternal, worldwide goal.

This is the only and the most important work entrusted to man in this world: to reveal the upper force and the creature created by it. The goal of creation can only be achieved through our unity. All of us, created as egoists, unite in the desire to create a place between us for revelation of the Creator, the quality of bestowal and love, for each other and from us to the Creator, as the Kabbalists teach: “From love of man one comes to love of the Creator”

And since this is the most sublime, special, holy goal that exists in reality, we feel great joy by the honor granted to us to work on it, to reveal the Creator to the creatures in this world.

We hope that we will be able to reveal the upper force for all creatures and thus fulfill the task of the last generation in which we live. The Creator will be revealed to all the inhabitants of this world and the words of the prophets will come into being: “He Is One and His Name One” for all nations.

Therefore, there is a special joy caused by our unity and the desire to make it fit for the revelation of the Creator in our assembly. All of us, men and women, are participants in this action, and the upper force is included from above.
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From the World Kabbalah Convention, “Discovering Life In The Ten” 2/25/21 ,“The Joy in the Gathering,” Lesson 1

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Question: We have a big convention ahead of us and we are currently conducting very intensive mutual activities in the tens. What depends on each and everyone of us? What can each of us do?

Answer: First, we need to prepare for it and at the convention itself we need to feel that I am dissolving in others. Together with them I want to become the vessel that the Creator fills and receives pleasure from us. That is all.

Question: What does the preparation depend on?

Answer: It depends on how much we all together want this to happen. I must be connected to my friends in such a way that my “I” does not exist but only “we.” And then “we” disappears, and we feel only the Creator.

Question: Is this possible?

Answer: We must yearn for it. It is said: “The end of an act is in the preliminary thought.”
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From KabTV’s “Teacher – Student” 2/7/19

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Question: In the classroom, your students study books of different forms. Some of them are more scientific, for example, The Study of the Ten Sefirot. Others, like The Book of Zohar, are written in more allegorical language. How do they affect a person?

Answer: Differently. It depends on the person. But if he has been studying Kabbalah for a long time, then he starts to see both in a sensory presentation, for example, through The Book of Zohar and in scientific-technical presentation through the The Study of the Ten Sefirot that they are one and the same.

In principle, they simply describe the world. But since a person consists of the heart and the mind, that is, of sensations and analysis, these books are either closer to his sensory state or to the conceptual one. People are divided into these two categories, i.e., they are somewhere in between.

But when a person is engaged in Kabbalah, for him it already merges. Of course, there are states of so-called ascents or descents. Then either physical descriptions or sensory descriptions are more suitable for him.
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From KabTV’s “Questions about Kabbalistic Books” 10/22/19

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does the second commandment mean?“

The second commandment, namely, “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, nor any manner of likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth,” means that everything we can imagine is a derivative of the single upper force. Therefore, we are mistaken if we think that there are forces besides this force, which create, implement or make decisions in our world. In other words, if we perceive forces other than a single force operating in reality, then we should recognize that we are not at the highest degree of attainment.

In order to observe the second commandment, we need to perceive and sense the single force behind everything in our world, all objects, plant life, animate life, and people. If we connect everything we see and feel to a single force positioned behind it all, then we fulfill this commandment.

The prohibition to make an image is due to our inability to portray the single upper force in reality. Similar to how we picture physical forces as vectors in our world, other than drawing an arrow to indicate a direction in which this force acts—i.e., as it is a force of giving, connection, integration and emanation which has no self-interest whatsoever—we cannot depict this force in a picture or an image the way we do with corporeal objects.

Based on the talk “Spiritual States: The Ten Commandments” on December 26, 2019. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Comment: I am a teacher at higher educational institutions. My methodology is completely based on the ideology of integral education. Very often, after classes, a male or a female student comes to me and starts to pour out their hearts and to talk about all their problems. The most pressing question for them is: “Why do I hate myself?”

My Response: This question arises when our desires do not coincide with our capabilities: I want something huge, much more than I can achieve, and I hate myself because of it. As a rule, this applies primarily to young people.

If we talk about older people, then such a question may appear to them when they start digging into their past: how I offended someone, how I treated my parents, how unfairly I said something to someone, I swore, I shouted. This also gives rise to a certain hatred of oneself, of one’s weaknesses, which a person is not able to overcome. This all creates such sediment that always pours out in self-criticism.

I do not know how justified it is. According to Kabbalah, it is not. Because everything that descends from above comes from the Creator. What has happened until now came down from above, and I could not have acted differently. But what happens from this moment onward depends on me. Therefore, there is no room for hatred.
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From KabTV’s “Integral World” 13/7/18

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Question: You have hundreds of thousands of students all over the world, maybe even more. At some time everyone asks themselves the question: “Am I connected enough with the teacher? Am I missing something?” How can a person find out?

Answer: Only by oneself. The teacher will not help him with this.

Question: And what is primary: the need of the student or some kind of call that awakens in him by itself?

Answer: They are the same thing.

Question: Is it predetermined in advance who will study according to a general program and who according to a more precise one?

Answer: It depends on the soul of a person, but he can still lift himself. To do this, he needs the right society in accordance with which he could move forward.
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From KabTV’s “Teacher – Student” 2/7/19

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Question: In the Jewish tradition, it was believed that it is forbidden for an unprepared person to read The Book of the Zohar. Is there any danger in this?

Answer: It is forbidden not because The Book of Zohar is dangerous and can harm a person, but because people were still undeveloped. After all, a person and all of humanity evolve over time.

There was a period when humanity had not yet come to the state when it developed a need to enter the sensation of the upper world.

Today this is the case. We exist in a world that we do not know and do not understand. It is this lack of understanding of the world that oppresses us today and leads us to who knows where. We have to reveal the upper world. Therefore, Kabbalah is revealed.

Question: Does a person find a book or does a book find a person?

Answer: Basically, man is an absolutely controlled being. We just cannot know what will happen in the next moment of our existence, but in fact, it is determined. In order to see this in advance, Kabbalah exists.
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From KabTV’s “Questions about Kabbalistic Books” 10/22/19

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Comment: You were talking about sacrifice and love because one cannot exist without the other. But love is like a gift. You either have it or you do not. It either comes or it does not.

My Response: What does it mean “it comes”? From whom, from what?

Comment: Perhaps from the effort or from something else. But it comes as a result.

My Response: As a result! It means that love can also be developed.

Question: What we are looking for is in our hands? If you work hard and you will get it?

Answer: Of course! However, one should come to the understanding that this is the result of work and not some feelings. And nothing more.

Question: Is love always a sacrifice?

Answer: You should not talk about love. It is a really high feeling that fills our desires when they are fully directed to bestowal. This is already topflight. Therefore, it is better not to talk about love, but simply about the quality of bestowal.

Bestowal is a quality that precedes love.

Question: Does it not imply sacrifice?

Answer: The quality of bestowal implies that I can receive nothing for my own sake except the minimum necessity for existence. This is already called bestowal, although there is practically none of it here. That is, I restrict myself in receiving, but for the sake of the goal.
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From KabTV’s “Teacher – Student” 2/7/19

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Question: What does serpent mean in our spiritual development?

Answer: The serpent is the personification of all our power, which can be either the elixir of life or the poison of death. As it is written: “I have created evil against you.”

That is, the evil of a person is not in him, but against him. We only think that it is in us. As soon as you begin to see that it is outside of you, and you can look at it from the outside to this extent, you can begin to correct it. It is not difficult for you.

Question: Why is snake venom used for treatment?

Answer: Because it represents the complete concentration of opposites to the Creator. That is, you use this power either for good or for harm. By itself, it is neutral.

It is just a force, just like a sword that cuts off heads because they are egoistic heads, they must be cut off! Thus, in many of our actions, the most important thing is the action of the knife. We see how necessary it is in all our creations. The cutter in the machine is the same knife.

In other words, the property of clipping, when you analyze and separate, is paramount. Everything starts with it. Therefore, first, the sword chops off the heads, and then with its help, the reverse side restores a completely different attitude toward life.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #5

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