Question: We say that traveling, fashion, and current pleasures are not needed anymore. What will we give people instead? What are we going to tell them? What will they get pleasure from?

Answer: I offer you traveling in an absolutely different volume—in the spiritual one. You will be able to travel yourself, fly anywhere and however you wish through all levels, move from world to world, instead of just seeing this small, messy, smoky planet. You can feel what life outside the body means. It is all up to you.

The coronavirus is a medicine that helps us rise to the next level of existence, to feel nature. So do not be afraid, there is something to compensate for your so-called loss.

I have visited all the continents and dozens of countries myself, and I can say that nothing remains in the end. All this is needed only to fill yourself and forget. You will see, in a couple of months you won’t even remember about it. You will be captured by the other unknown far-away places.

Question: And will the people from outside hear this?

Answer: They will! The virus will do this, not us. It does not depend on what I am telling you. I am just informing you in advance. You will see in people how they will be drawn toward completely different far places.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 4/5/20

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Comment: In the corporeal world, there are many desires and needs and one must seek constant enjoyment for them. In the spiritual world, on the contrary, there is constant abundance, and you need to look for things you are lacking.

Answer: Yes. In order to bestow contentment to the Creator, I always have to be willing to receive from Him.

Question: It turns out that in this world we are always running around in search of pleasure. And in the spiritual world there are a huge number of them, but there is no desire. Where can I get it?

Answer: There is a solution to this. In our world, the solution is to go to the level of spiritual reception, that is, for the sake of bestowal. In the spiritual world, you have an absolutely unlimited opportunity to receive for the sake of bestowal. Naturally, you have to build this over your egoism, but this justifies itself.

Comment: In the corporeal world, we only experience pleasure for a few seconds. With each passing moment it gradually disappears and then you have to wait for some kind of desire to arise again.
And in the spiritual world, as the Kabbalists say, pleasure is infinite. It is hard for me even to imagine this.

My Response: No. In the spiritual world there is a constant yearning to form a desire to bestow, and in accordance with this, there is an opportunity to realize it.

Comment: The famous English writer Oscar Wilde said, “In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. The last is much the worst; the last is a real tragedy!”

Answer: When you receive, you are disappointed because the feeling of pleasure disappears. Pleasure is felt only on the contact between desire and fulfillment. And if this contact is no longer there, then the fulfillment becomes disgusting because instead of pleasure it brings suffering.

Therefore, the wisdom of Kabbalah is based on how to receive correctly. A person receives only with the intention to bestow. There are two opposite elements together here: the desire to receive with the intention to bestow.

If a person builds the correct correlation between them, which is called the Partzuf, then he has the opportunity for infinite pleasure, unlimited in either time, quantity, and quality.
[264785]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 6/10/19

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Baal HaSulam, “Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before”: This means that the whole path of creation that the Creator created is regarded as two opposites in one subject, and all the combinations in the world were made in this way, and this is the whole of the act of creation.

Therefore, nothing disappears in the spiritual world; everything remains. It is an eternal, perfect, ever-growing world.

Question: In the material world, pleasure is gained only as a result of an action, and therefore, if we could, we would gladly give up the action itself. But in the spiritual world, is the action itself the pleasure and is it without any connection with the result?

Answer: Of course.

Remark: But in our world, there are also such pleasures when a person is ready to do something for the sake of another.

My Comment: If there is love. My teacher gave such an example. Does the Queen of England have a desire to feed her little child? She does. Does she carry it out? She does.

But she has a thousand helpers, let them do it. No, she wants to feed the child herself because there is love. Any action, if accompanied by love, gives pleasure. And vice versa.

Question: Can this indication serve as a check for a person?

Answer: Of course. Therefore, even in our world, we do a huge number of actions out of a desire to please another, and then the actions themselves bring us pleasure.

Question: That is, if I want to check whether I am in equivalence of form with the Creator, then I should not expect a result since the action itself should bring me pleasure?

Answer: Absolutely.
[264900]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 6/10/19

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Question: If the Creator created us as egoists, then this is our nature. What should we do and how?

Answer: Yes, our nature is egoism. We are created absolutely opposite to the integral quality, the Creator. Therefore, we should try to unite despite our evil beginnings and ask for nature (the Creator), inside which this integral force is located, to correct us.

Then, contrary to our original egoistic qualities and relationships, we will begin to feel the development of altruistic qualities in us.
[265826]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 4/12/2020

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Lesson Preparation

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 66

Selected Highlights

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 6/9/20

“E Pluribus Unum,” the US motto displayed on the official seal of the United States, is particularly relevant in today’s America in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. Its meaning, “Out of many, one,” represents the ultimate goal of any society, and the only cure to racial tensions such as those currently suffocating the US and numerous cities around the world. Is it possible to envision a future positive state from where we are, with society’s wounds still bleeding? Indeed, there is no other alternative.

Socialists, communists, capitalists, rich, poor, people of all the races, colors, backgrounds, and walks of life make up America’s melting pot—a modern-day Babylon with the same internal divisions and struggles that characterized that ancient civilization.

Humanity’s history has been wrought with intense wars and social struggles that erupted due to inequity, discrimination, racism, and xenophobia. All these ailments have one common root: human nature with its intrinsic desire to belittle and even annul the other for self-benefit. From generation to generation, as humanity developed, our egoism swelled until the gaps between us became pronounced and complex.

Today, we have reached such high levels of mutual hatred that if we do not pursue unity to compensate for our hostility, we will destroy ourselves. And based on our life experience, we know that transformational change is difficult because it requires that we leave our comfort zone against the protests of our ego which clings to the familiar status quo. Habits of prejudice tie us down and we resist change.

Because we always extrapolate from the past to envision the future, it’s difficult to imagine a bright tomorrow ahead of us. But if we view our current conditions as a fertile ground for a deep transformation, we will find an invitation at this challenging time to abandon our destructive past and move into a whole new level of coexistence.

Humankind is a family living in one household called Planet Earth, where we are entirely dependent on one another. Thus, we have no other choice but to come to an agreement and cultivate good human relations above anything that divides us—gender, race, religion, ideology, background, or interests. The goal should not be to erase our differences, but to use them as the means to reach a higher state where we complement each other to reach peace, understanding, and support.

In our day and age, hate cannot be cured by separation, and vice versa—separation will never lead to love. Hate can only be cured with love. Such terms as “love,” “inclusion,” and “unity” may sound delusional since no one truly wants to connect. It is against our nature—to receive for ourselves. Therefore, nature is pushing us from behind in the direction we need to go, pushing us the hard way to observe its laws of mutual responsibility and learn from them how to solve our predicaments.

When we look at nature, we see that despite the constant struggles for survival, its elements maintain an overarching balance that fosters growth and prosperity. Moreover, the struggles actually contribute to the healthy evolution of species. The interdependence of everyone and everything in a closed, round world, stimulate and advance the principals of equality and connection as in a close-knit family where every member is different and complements each other. That is the only way to maintain and ensure harmony and vitality for all.
The pressure of our globalized world represents the first time that nature demands from all of us, without exception, to understand who we are, the world we live in, and the urgency of harnessing the force of love between us. Even small steps toward unity and rising above our differences will make a huge positive difference toward becoming “Out of many, one”!

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 6/9/20

It’s very impressive to see the public displays of remorse as police officers, celebrities, politicians, and regular white folk kneel before African-Americans and ask for their forgiveness. But looking at the past tumultuous two weeks in the US, has there been any real rapprochement? Are the factions any closer? Are the gaps narrower? No, not really. The gestures, as genuine and impressive as they truly are, will not quell the hatred.

Violence degrades the victim; kneeling degrades the offender. Neither achieves equality. And without equality, the power struggle will continue.

Achieving equality requires something else: a new goal that the vying parties feel is higher and more worthy than their loyalty to their own faction. If the sides could, even slightly, shift their attention from themselves, and see the harm that the struggle itself causes to all of society, they would rise above their distrust and join hands in building a better society for everyone!

COVID-19 and the protests over the killing of George Floyd indicate that local solutions do not work since the society has become interconnected and interdependent throughout the country and throughout the world. Realizing this fact is the first step toward finding a sustainable solution.

Acknowledging the interconnected nature of the world we live in requires a conscious effort to learn. We must learn that human ethnicities and races are not above or below one another; they are varieties that together form the beautiful fabric of human society. Just as all of nature would be dull and unsustainable were it not for the myriad creatures that make up the global ecosystem, humanity would be deficient and lame if even one of its elements were missing.

We need to change our approach from seeing the other as a hindrance, to seeing the other as an asset. If we consider what is best for humanity, we will realize that what the other can contribute to humanity, I will never be able to contribute. But because that other person, race, or color, gave this to humanity, I, too, can benefit from it. In the end, my happiness and sense of fulfillment depend on the happiness and sense of fulfillment of every person in the world. If only we had realized it sooner…

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My new article on Linkedin “Why Love the Opposite Specifically Now”

(Takeaway from the June 7, 2020 show, “Global Perspectives”)

At a time like this, when hatred raises its ugly head and fills the streets with malice, who wants to talk about love? But if we don’t talk about it now, when will we talk about it, when we feel love? If we don’t talk about it now and work on it, we will never feel it.

But what the other person, the one I hate, can contribute to humanity, I will never be able to contribute, precisely because I am different.
The hatred at the center of events this time is racism. This hatred is so deep that in order to resolve it, we need a whole new outlook on life.

Because we are inherently self-centered, we like only those who are similar to us. Anyone who is different from me, I instinctively want to put down because that makes me superior. With such an overt difference as skin color, the impulse to patronize, put down, and generally belittle the other, immediately comes into play, even before I am aware of it. This self-centered impulse causes us to wish bad things for others, demonize them, and idealize ourselves. As long as we remain in that perspective, we will never truly love anyone who is not our immediate family, and even within our families, love is already declining.

But what the other person, the one I hate, can contribute to humanity, I will never be able to contribute, precisely because I am different. So if I loved humanity instead of myself, I would love that other (currently hated) person, precisely because of the ability to give what I cannot. The very cause of hate would become the very cause of love. And the more different that person was from me, the more love I would feel.

So how do we change our perspective? We think about it. The ability to focus our love on humanity exists within us. Otherwise, we would not even imagine that such a thing exists. If we think about changing our focal point from “me” to “we,” and try to bring it to life, we will feel that it is possible, precisely because we thought about it. And the more we think about it, the stronger our ability to care for others will grow.

If we do that, we won’t need to worry about racism; it is exactly the differences between us that we will celebrate, embrace, and love. And now we need it more than ever.

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My new article on Linkedin “What the Protests Tells Us about Ourselves”

The death of George Floyd and the protests it excited put a mirror before us. They are showing us how we relate to one another. If we don’t acknowledge what we see in the mirror on the wall, we will suffer much worse punishments than shattered shop windows.

Both the violent protests and the more peaceful demonstrations, where there were no agitators to provoke violence, stem from the same root: the need for warm human connection. But there cannot be any warmth between us as long as we think so negatively of each other.

Bad thoughts make bad things happen. And the worst thing there is, which makes the worst things happen, is human nature, or as it is written, “The inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth.” We will not solve the many social problems in America (or anywhere else for that matter) because we don’t really want to solve them. We enjoy looking down on other people so we want there to be people with a lower social status than ourselves. Even if we’re unaware of it, we constantly compare ourselves to others. When our ego detects someone who is in some way better than us, it invariably makes us feel uncomfortable and we cannot rest until we either find a way to feel superior to that person, or drive that person out of sight and out of mind. Malicious envy is the evil inclination, and it will not let anything good happen in our society until we overcome it in our hearts.

If there is one thing we should be thankful for in all this malice that is bubbling up to the surface these sorrowful times, it is precisely that the malice is bubbling up to the surface. Now we can look at ourselves, acknowledge our true nature, and start working together on overcoming it and forming a truly united and caring humanity. It can happen, but only if we work on it together.

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