Question: Does a Kabbalist teacher choose his students himself or does a student pursue the teacher and ask to be taught?

Answer: It isn’t either of those ways. The teacher and the student are determined from above. They are brought closer to each other so that the relationship is established at a certain distance. As they engage with connection to the Creator, the student gets closer to the teacher.

Question: Did Rabash come and take you from your first teacher Hillel?

Answer: Yes, because I could not leave Hillel by myself. I could not tear myself away from him because my egoism received pleasure, answers, and fulfillments that were indescribable.

And with Rabash, it was the opposite. He sat down and opened Talmud Eser Sefirot. I barely understood a word. Rabash, I, and several other people sat and read throughout the lesson. Here we were dealing with the attraction of the upper Light according to our intention. And with Hillel, I was simply engaged in obtaining knowledge.

Question: What are the connections between a student and a teacher?

Answer: There is a connection between them only through the Creator, nothing else. Everything moves through them for the sake of attaining the higher goal.
[219322]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/1/17

Related Material:
A Real Teacher Is Felt With The Heart
How Can You Find The Right Teacher?
How Do You Become Devoted To The Wisdom Of Kabbalah?

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Spiritual Teacher | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question from Facebook: Is there a positive egoistic force?

Answer: No. Egoism cannot be positive because it detaches a person from any collective, from community, from connection, from nature. At the same time, the direction of human thought is only for oneself, for one’s own sake. Therefore, it cannot be positive because it is in the opposite direction from the general force of nature—from the Creator.

Question: So is it always destructive?

Answer: Always. It is good only when a person is in the initial stages of his development, like a small child. We allow him everything: we let him use his ego because it is necessary for his development. And then, from the age of 13 to 15, he must already control himself as an adult. And we begin to demand more and more from him.

It is similar to our spiritual development. At first, we were egoistic and went through a long egoistic path for thousands of years.

But now the egoistic progress is already coming to its end and we are obliged to start the next, completely different half of our existence—the altruistic one. Just as a person is considered a child, say, up to 15 years of age and then must lead the life of an adult.

We see that egoism has ended its development.

Question: What is progress now?

Answer: It is only a person’s transformation from an egotist to an altruist, when he will render himself and the whole world as a single whole. Only then can we properly and beautifully exist and evolve. Otherwise, we will lead ourselves to destruction.
[219264]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 11/9/17

Related Material:
Two Partners: Egoism and Altruism
Our Leader: It’s The Ego
The Wonderful Metamorphosis Of A Notorious Egoist

Filed under: Egoism, Q&A | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: Society has been trying to create artificial intelligence. The basic laws of the universe clearly regulate this point. The importance of understanding the fundamentals of the programming of reality is simple. Can you explain these simple and important fundamentals?

Answer: This is precisely what the wisdom of Kabbalah is about. But it is difficult for a person to understand this because he is constructed differently. The egoistic mind is incapable of thinking in terms of the spiritual world that is opposite to ours. So only the influence of the upper light will change us, and when it does we will be able to begin to think according to the laws of the upper world.
[216493]

Related Material:
Answers To Your Questions, Part 200
Answers To Your Questions, Part 199
Answers To Your Questions, Part 198

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Q&A, Science | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: Rambam spoke about the dangers of fasting. But we know many modern doctors and other specialists speak of its benefits. Who is right?

Answer: Fasting is an abnormal state for the body. For example, if not eating is necessary to correct their health, animals will stop eating, their bodies dictate them to fast. In all other cases, fasting is not recommended.

Things that are recommended are:

• Do not overeat because that turns food into poison
• Eat only when really hungry
• You should walk at least ten minutes before eating
• Never eat without any liquids
• Do not overuse salt and spicy seasonings

Question: Isn’t fasting for spiritual reasons healthy for the body?

Answer: First of all, a fast is not an individual but a group action. In this case, it turns into a spiritual ascent—refraining from using your egoistic desires, which all together are elevated.

Question: But for the body, is it healthy or harmful?

Answer: If you do it together with others, then it is healthy.
[218856]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 08/20/17

Related Material:
Rambam On Health
About Healthy Tasty Food…
The Recipe For Health From Kabbalists

Filed under: Health | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Preparation for the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic: “Entering the Ibur,” (Prep For World Convention 2018)

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 17 

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson | Add Comment / Ask Question →

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

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog | Add Comment / Ask Question →

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 1/11/18

We essentially allowed Logan’s generation to pick up their examples, role models and values from a media culture that’s extremely saturated with violence, and now we are letting them be the role models for today’s kids.

Read my full article on Newsmax

Filed under: Facebook | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Jesse Bogner: wisdom from Dr. Michael @laitman. words to live by. sadly, most people aren’t smart enough to balance contradictory ideas and forces.

If Kabbalists simply tried to erase those disturbances as ordinary people do, they would remain in “faith below reason.” But they gain knowledge against the faith, and build the faith over the contradictions, over the desires of the body. That is why they can understand things that are beyond our conception.

In other words, the spiritual world opens before them, because they acquire the screen with “faith above reason.”

We essentially allowed Logan’s generation to pick up their examples, role models and values from a media culture that’s extremely saturated with violence, and now we are letting them be the role models for today’s kids. #Logan

From Twitter, 1/11/18

Related Material:
My Thoughts On Twitter, 1/10/18
My Thoughts On Twitter, 1/9/18
My Thoughts On Twitter, 1/4/18

Filed under: Thoughts on Twitter | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: What is the difference between love and respect?

Answer: Respect is an admiration of another person’s level and love is a feeling closeness with a person. These are different things.

Question: What feelings does the awakening of a point in the heart cause in a person?

Answer: A point in the heart awakens in a person after he has passed all the stages of his previous development in many circuits of lives, meaning the inanimate, vegetative, and animal levels.

Question: What can you compare the very first sensation of the Creator to? What is this feeling?

Answer: The feeling of a kind cloud that surrounds you.

Question: Can a beginner feel indifference to what was once interesting and exciting?

Answer: Naturally and quite often. Therefore, I always say that perseverance and patience are the most necessary qualities for spiritual work.

Question: How are intention and love connected?

Answer: Love is achieved only with the right intention.
[217856]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/13/17

Related Material:
Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 8/13/17, Part 1
Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 5/14/17, Part 2
Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 5/14/17, Part 1

Filed under: Q&A, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: If everything is planned in advance by the Creator, then what is considered a mistake on the spiritual path and in the study of Kabbalah?

Answer: A person still has freedom of choice, freedom of will. In any case, we will still come to our final point because this point was initially ordered for us, but not the path to it. By determining one’s path, a person simultaneously defines the paths of the other souls that depend on him since we exist in an integral system.

Therefore, to the extent that he behaves incorrectly, he negatively influences the fate of other people. Naturally, this returns back to him with many times heavier, negative additions.

Although on one hand everything is predetermined, on the other hand, everything depends on a person—every particular moment in time. If he were aware of this, he would not know what to do. Therefore, this is hidden from him.

Remark: Some movies show how a person suddenly begins to understand that his every action affects others and he immediately “freezes.”

My Comment: But even freezing would not help because to the extent that he freezes, he does not act and naturally this also influences everyone.
[218562]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 9/24/17

Related Material:
Stealing the Sesame Seed From The Scale Of Merit
Whom To Ask For Forgiveness And For What? Part 3
In The Analog System, “Almost” Doesn’t Count

Filed under: Free Will | Add Comment / Ask Question →