Question: If you disseminate certain visual things to the whole world, such as dancing, they can reject a person a little. There are some dances that are incomprehensible to people.

Answer: There is no dancing at all in Kabbalah. The fact that people hold hands and dance in a circle is the most popular among all nations because this is how connection naturally manifests itself. It has nothing to do with any national or Kabbalistic peculiarities.

I personally do not see myself in it. Singing—yes. It depends on the songs: with deep content, when everyone sings together, it helps to connect thoughts, hearts, and desires. But dancing? It depends on how it is done. If dancing is some kind of general movement, if it goes in rhythm with the flow of inner thoughts, then yes.

When people hold hands, it is also natural because shaking hands is an expression of inner motives. If the movement comes from within people, it will not seem strange or artificial to anyone, and everyone will accept it as a manifestation of their inner feelings.

This often happens at our congresses, when thousands of people from dozens of countries gather, and it all seems natural to them.

If a person sees African or Indian dances for the first time, they may seem strange and unusual to him. I would say it is not the case here. These are universal movements. When people from many countries hold hands, dance in a circle (a circle is the epitome of equality), follow a common movement, sing a familiar song, and utter words expressing their aspirations I do not think it looks strange. It might be in the middle of Broadway or Tverskaya. But if it comes from within people, and such actions are accepted in our global culture, they cannot be misunderstood.

In all kindergartens worldwide, the teacher tells the children: “Hold hands, stand in a circle, start walking and singing.” Such human expression, when they play and express something together, is the most natural thing. These actions are not planned. They appear spontaneously.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Let’s Dance…” 5/22/1

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Question: Many people want to conquer Everest, one of the highest peaks on Earth. The height of Mount Everest reaches 8,848 meters above sea level. Climbers and scientists have given this high area of the mountain the name “death zone.”

Why does a person strive to conquer these unreachable peaks?

Answer: It is a sport, a game, to prove to yourself that you can do it, like others. There is a desire in man to establish himself above nature.

Question: A person strives to conquer a mountain, reach higher, be better, and prove to himself and others that he can overcome the limit of human strength. What should he do higher, better, overcoming, and not yielding in his inner spiritual ascent?

Answer: In general, a person wants to conquer peaks, to be above nature, to rise above himself, and to realize himself at the most critical point. This is a human trait.

Of course, an animal will not go there. It understands perfectly what is better or worse and always strives for maximum comfort.

For man, on the contrary, the zone of maximum comfort means nothing if there is still an opportunity to assert himself as a person. Because inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature exist in him, but even higher than that is a level of human in him.

Question: What is the human level that haunts him and pushes him into all these dangers?

Answer: He wants to be above nature. There is an additional point in him called human. But it resides inside the animal in him. Therefore, when we develop the human in us, the animal begins to suffer: “Why on earth are you thinking not of me, not of the animal, but of something above me?” Then, we enter a conflict: the human strives upward and the animal dies.

If a person truly aimed to rise above the animal level in him, he would not cross oceans, storm mountain peaks, or descend to the depths of the sea. The meaning of life is not found in these places; it lies in the conquest of one’s inner nature and environment.

Question: What does it mean to rise above the level of nature from the point of view of Kabbalah?

Answer: To rise above the level of nature is to rise above one’s egoism. Because our egoism is in us on three levels: inanimate, vegetative, and animate to rise above it means to rise above our egoism, that is, from a state of hatred of one’s neighbor to love of one’s neighbor.

Question: Why is it easier to conquer the outer peaks or outer depths?

Answer: This is even greater elevation of egoism, the desire to raise it higher! I want to be proud of it: “Look at me! My animal climbed where no animal has ever climbed, but I have!”

What is human about this? Nothing! If a car can do it, what is the point of my going there?

Question: You met with the head of a large Aikido organization. During the conversation, he said Kabbalah speaks about the amazing vertical connection between man and God.

What is this connection that helps a person anticipate what will happen in the future: the outcome of a duel, the outcome of events?

Answer: This is when a person rises above his nature. When I am clearly aware that from all sides, where my “I” exists, I try to go above it. But I do not have to climb up or dive down to do that. To do so, I just need inner tension, my desire to come out of myself.

I ask nature for help to let me do this. In this way, I transcend rather than try to do it physically.

Question: What does it mean to go above the “I”?

Answer: Beyond egoism, from hating others to loving others.

Question: Many welcome this. Why do they not want to implement it?

Answer: It is very, very difficult. It takes not just a method but all the external conditions to implement it correctly. It is not easy.

Just like Mount Everest, many people want to climb, but very few succeed, and they even die within a few meters left to go.

But I feel we are moving toward a state of humanity and nature where we can literally overcome this barrier, the potential transition between egoism and love.

Question: What will bring the needed luck?

Answer: What will help us overcome this spiritual ascent? Revealing the greatness of the goal. It will be revealed to us as grand and special, and then we can rise to it.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/22/19

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By reading Kabbalistic texts, we draw the upper force upon ourselves according to strict laws derived by Kabbalists from nature. They explain that this force originates from a system called the Rosh of the world of Atzilut, the head part of the system.

How can we attract this force? Through our unified desire, referred to as MAN. In the Torah, this is described as “manna from heaven.”

In Kabbalah, we engage in real spiritual actions, the results of which we must begin to sense within ourselves. This helps us understand our unity, to desire it and simultaneously not desire it.

In other words, our egoistic force must grow, and at the same time, the altruistic force above it must grow as well. Both develop within us—downward and upward—and form a spiritual vessel in which we begin to feel unity above our common egoism, known as Mount Sinai. The word “Sinai” comes from the Hebrew word “Sina,” “hatred,” symbolizing mutual rejection.

Like Moses, we must ascend Mount Sinai, this mountain of hatred, unite with one another, and reveal the Creator, becoming acquainted with Him. For this to happen, a massive mountain of mutual hatred and rejection must form beneath us. Despite this, we must rise above it in an effort to achieve unity and love.

When you reach this state, you undergo a phase of adaptation and self-correction, referred to as the “forty days on Mount Sinai.” This corresponds to the level of Bina, the quality of bestowal. At this stage, you achieve adhesion among all members of the community and begin to sense within it the manifestation of the upper force.

With the help of this force, you continue to correct yourself within the community, thereby progressing further. A real system arises between you, in which you interact and advance together like climbers. You know your goal, understand the path, support one another, and become spiritually “sighted.” This is what we must achieve.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kabbalistic Meditation” 5/23/10

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Question: What is the meaning of reading Kabbalistic sources? A person simply opens a book, reads it, and by doing so he already influences nature, suppose, a volcano?

Answer: Yes, of course, by doing so he already influences the volcano.

Question: There are eight billion people in the world, and how can you prove to them that some book can influence all of humanity?

Answer: First, there is no way out anyway, and a person will accept the method of Kabbalah whether he wants to or not. Suffering will make you believe in anything.

Secondly, why not try? After all, there is logic in the science of Kabbalah; it contains such a harsh, ironclad, and all-crushing truth that a person sees this is really so.

It works very directly and is based on specific data, parameters, combinations of two forces that a person sees around him, and they suddenly explain to him everything that is happening to him so simply and so specifically. As a result, a person becomes convinced of its truth even from his earthly logic, not to mention that this is a science that the whole world respects and appreciates although it is afraid of it. As a saying goes, if one is afraid, then he respects.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Come to Harmony” 4/19/10

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 67

Why Do We Agree with the Disregard in Corporeality?

In spirituality there is no concept of agreement or disagreement with what happens. On the spiritual path, we acknowledge and accept the state we are in, which depends on the intensity of the light shining upon us. When a certain light shines and sustains us in a specific state, we can be called a “thief.” If less light shines, we are considered a “robber.” If more light shines, we are a “righteous person.” Therefore, there is no point in lamenting, “Oh no, I’m a robber!” The state arises naturally, and only then do we define and name it. We can deceive ourselves with the label, “I am righteous,” but this will not change our state or make us righteous. It will only alter how we feel.

We should thus focus on accepting our state as it is, instead of reacting to it. Whether we like it or not, agree or disagree, such is the reality. When we begin to engage with internality, we neglect corporeality almost entirely. This phenomenon is not subject to judgment as good or bad. Like in nature, we do not judge a lion for hunting a gazelle; its nature compels it to do so. Similarly, for those on the spiritual path, the nature of spiritual work requires constant renunciation of corporeality.
From a Talk 5/29/2002, “What Does It Mean that the Torah Was Given Out of the Darkness in the Work?”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Lesson on the Topic “Lishma Is Called ‘Truth,’ Lo Lishma Is Called ‘A Lie'”

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Question: Have your students had spiritual attainments in previous incarnations?

Answer: No, but now there is, so to speak, a pilgrimage to the upper world.

Thousands and even hundreds of thousands of people are beginning to approach this. They rush, and gather on this crusade, just as pilgrims from all over the world flock to, say, Mecca.

So here too our movement begins to gradually transform from tiny drops of water into streams, from streams into rivers, and in the end, it will all come to a large flow.

Today hundreds of thousands of people are already part of this movement. It is personal and internal, not something public, state, or interdisciplinary. This is all just one’s personal matter.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Cycles of Life” 5/10/10

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The Creator is the absolute, the quality of bestowal and goodness, the quality of love that desires to lead us to a perfect state. This state is already embedded in the foundation of all creation. If, after preliminary development, we independently strive for this state, we approach it through goodness.

From the Creator’s side, nothing is done; He does not change. But by failing to fulfill the program of creation, by not understanding what is happening to us, by acting completely irrationally, by losing ourselves in our small, earthly joys, which in essence do not turn out to be joys, we condemn ourselves to suffering.

Therefore, as we mature irrationally, as our egoism grows and we fail to correct it in time, our opposition to nature naturally intensifies, and we begin to experience more and more problems. These problems arise from within the individual, from within humanity, and from the external world.

Imagine, for example, the consequences of severing connections between countries and continents. These would bring massive changes to humanity, in trade, industry, and interpersonal relations. Not to mention that travel accounts for 20% of the income of many countries. Airlines, travel agencies, and the production of countless goods rely on it. When this begins to decline, people will naturally buy less and spend less, and this will lead to a decline in other industries as well. In other words, it is a chain reaction.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Panacea”

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Question: Have you had experience with spiritual attainment in previous incarnations before coming into this world in your current form?

Answer: Probably, yes, as far as I understand myself. Essentially, it was the so-called “Spanish variant.” But it does not matter. What is the difference? It does not change anything. After all, we all come from somewhere.

All souls have undergone countless incarnations of all kinds. In truth, we do not know why things turn out as they do. Personally, I can say that I have been “rewarded” with the responsibility to carry out the work I am doing now. Of course, on one hand, it is something honorable, special, and respected. But on the other hand, I feel heavily burdened by it, though I cannot argue against what has been placed upon me from above.

If I had the choice, I would have picked a different role for myself. I would have preferred to be a deeply introspective Kabbalist working in seclusion, without engaging in the minor details of everyday life like this current level of practical dissemination. Even though I understand that dissemination is the most important thing, it somehow does not align with my nature.

Perhaps I do not fully understand myself yet, as I seem to disagree with the Creator in this regard, but I would prefer to be a reclusive scholarly Kabbalist, someone who studies, attains, and develops inner processes. Yet here I am, put in a position like a traffic officer at a crossroads who directs pedestrian flows this way and that way. To be honest, I do not feel equipped for this role.

I do not know Hebrew or Aramaic as well as I should. In general I struggle with languages, aside from Russian, of course, even with English. But what does the Russian language have to do with Kabbalah? Absolutely nothing.

It feels as though I have been “decapitated” and placed, essentially unfit, in this role. And inwardly I do not agree with it. I feel obligated to do this because the importance of the goal compels me. But fundamentally I would never have chosen myself for this job. I would have chosen someone else: someone knowledgeable, understanding, strict, and strong, someone with immense capabilities and potential.

But as the saying goes, “Man proposes, and God dispose”; He disposes with power and might, and does as He sees fit. Of course, we must accept this, even though it is entirely unclear what is happening.

Baal HaSulam, clearly, was a great sage, a great philosopher, a great erudite, a multifaceted individual with a profound understanding of all of creation, from the lowest levels of our world to the heights of the spiritual world. He truly deserved to lead people.

And now, look at this world, this humanity, all these miserable, confused people wandering as if in a fog. And who am I? Essentially someone just like them, merely given the task of stepping ahead by one single step.

When you walk an uncharted path, you must proceed with a staff in hand following the one ahead of you, stepping precisely in the same spots they stepped in; only then can you avoid falling.

This is the rule: when treading untrodden trails, you must follow closely behind the guide, step for step, with a staff in hand. But here you practically have no staff, no guide ahead of you, nor their tracks. And this is natural because we are indeed traveling a new path. Perhaps it has to be this way: to move forward through trial and error, through searching. This is the path by which a new person is created.

We do not understand what the Creator is doing with us. Birth arises from nothingness, from emptiness. Even the books we have offer us nothing. Of course, we can seemingly understand a little with our earthly minds, and fill ourselves with some small amount of understanding, some little contentment. But all of this is absolutely unimportant.

It is all just to calm us a little, to persuade us to continue.

But in reality, the whole path lies only in rising above yourself, like a magnet lifting you with the upper light—above your sensations, your knowledge, and your understanding, above everything you have in all your feelings and intellect. Only in this way do you ascend, like a balloon rising into the air. And somewhere out there, in the unknown, after reaching some peak, another state opens up to you.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Why Am I?” 4/24/10

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