Question: For an ordinary person success means family, an orderly life, financial security, safety, or in short, everything that is attained through competition. But he has already grown tired of this chase. How can he reach a simple normal life that he can consider successful?

Answer: It is becoming very simple in our world. If we are speaking about a corporeal body, we have to provide it with healthcare, a pension, and a good environment. But one person cannot achieve success that way. It is attained by society, by all its members together. This is the reason that a person has to create an environment that will provide him with healthcare and a stable life, with everything that he needs.

Question: But in our society success is attained through competition. Can it be attained differently?

Answer: In our society success is attained through competition because our egoism has two directions. One is to dominate others and to be above them, which puts a person under great stress and leads to great waste of energy and constant pressures. The other direction is the attraction of the corporeal body (the same egoism) to complete rest. These two opposites exist in us and make competition a necessity. It awakens us and forces us to work hard.

What is more, the conditions of competition can be very different: the competitor can be my rival or my colleague. I am basically for competition when it comes to good deeds, when a person struggles to do something for the sake of society.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 6/17/15

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Question: Is an ascent above egoism logical for the ordinary person?

Answer: What is meant by an ordinary person or an unusual person? Today, an ordinary person is a thousand times more developed than a sage of two thousand years ago. So, the term “ordinary” is relative. In any case, all of us must reach a state where we need to be elevated above the egoism that holds us in its tiny world, requiring us to think only about ourselves thereby limiting our possibilities.

Through its constant development, egoism is leading us into a crisis. Today, millions of people—especially in developed nations—feel it, and it is felt at the societal level and the level of production.

If this still is not felt in the less developed nations, then it is only a matter of time as the interpenetration in humanity happens very rapidly. Ultimately, everyone will feel it, including the most ordinary people.

They will understand that to exist in the framework of the present egoistic nature means being a slave to settings that are imposed upon you, all kinds of trends, fashions, etc. They will begin to feel that sense of lack of freedom depends upon the growth of their egoism. After all, with development it reveals how it is limited and is only human slavery.

Baal HaSulam compared the exit from egoism to a worm living within a radish. It feels how bitter and dark its world is, and, when it crawls outside it suddenly sees a completely different, sparkling world. But what motivates it to crawl out of the radish? It is the developing ego that functions as its own undertaker. The bitter radish represents the suffering that pushes us out of our closed world.

We can remain here no longer and somehow must get out of it because there is a program of nature; our final state exists initially, only we need to discover ourselves within it. This depends on the inner drives toward the development of our desire, the connections between us.
To be continued.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/11/15

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Comment: A person always wants to be free: people want to be liberated from slavery to acquire it; the word “freedom” is heard in all the national anthems, it is inscribed on all the flags. And suddenly you are saying that a person is not free, he lives in the prison of this world.

Answer: Once in the Middle Ages, people willingly agreed to be slaves because they knew they would be cared for; they would be given him a roof over his head, food, and if he married, he could feed his family. The landlord would take care of this, and in exchange for this he would give his labor. But as our egoism developed, we suddenly began to feel ourselves shackled in chains; suddenly we felt a vital need to remove them. And when we tore off these chains, we seemingly became free people.

But this freedom is imaginary, because in any case you must plow, gather the harvest, sell it, think about the house, the family and a thousand different things. And if you get sick, there is no landlord to take care of you any more, he will not call a doctor because you are not his property (and after all, there was a time when you were valuable property for him), now you must think about everything by yourself. However, this was progressive development because under capitalism there was the growth of labor, its productivity increased, this was beneficial for society and it went for it.

So we have come to our present day; we feel at each and every step a need for a new level of freedom. But in fact, this is not freedom.

To be continued….
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/11/15

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Question: For a long time, humanity dreamt about democracy and freedom of speech. A lot of blood was shed fighting for this right. Freedom of speech is one of the most significant achievements of modern man.

When dictators come to power, the first thing they do is limit the freedom of speech. Why is it so important to us to freely express our thoughts and opinions?

Answer: The desire for the freedom of speech stems from human egoism and our desire to be “important.” Freedom of speech adds social “weight” when we proudly stand up and express our opinion. This is how we state our presence in this life and world.

The desire to express oneself derives from our egoism; everybody has it. When our egoism grows, it becomes more and more complicated and demanding. So, it requires a broader range of self-expression.

Thousands of years ago people didn’t have a need to speak openly. Living in a small village, they didn’t lack freedom of speech: What were they supposed to talk about anyway?

Modern man appreciates his freedom of speech, but do we know what it is?. If this is the freedom to say whatever we want, then how are we sure of the correctness of our views? Do we really understand that we are responsible for the words, which can hurt someone?

The same can be said for government elections. Do we understand that we are responsible for the future of our countries and even for the entire world when we submit our ballot?

Freedom of speech depends on a person’s developmental level, education, and understanding of what they talk about and what influence they produce by saying what they say. These are not the speeches in Hyde Park, London that entertain tourists.

Before we take advantage of the freedom of speech, we have to be properly educated because it imposes a great responsibility. Not only are uttered words strong weapons, but even our thoughts. Our thoughts soar around the world and collide with each other, creating a field of thoughts that impact us and the whole world.

Therefore, freedom of speech obligates us to be at a certain level and to accept a huge responsibility. When saying something out loud, we have to make sure that our words spreading around the world will enhance correction instead of just proving my truth as it appears to me in my egoism.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 6/21/15

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Question: You say that the world is ruled by Satan, the evil inclination. What does that mean?

Answer: It is our egoism, which has many different names: the evil desire, Satan, devil, Azazel, etc. It turns out that our world is ruled by our uncorrected, egoistic desires. If I say that Satan is inside me, it means the egoistic property exists in me.

Question: If Satan is an attribute, why is it drawn with horns and hooves?

Answer: Horns, hooves, and a tail are all people’s fantasy. By the way, these elements can also be found in Kabbalah, in the corporeal language that expresses certain spiritual attributes. Therefore it is absolutely forbidden to depict such pictures and imagine that there are forces and spiritual attributes that have such forms. There is nothing evil in nature except our egoism.

Question: So why have people described Satan in such a frightening way?

Answer: These pictures appeared during the last 500 years. On the one hand, Satan is drawn in the image of a man, but on the other hand, as a frightening beast. This is how a person subconsciously relates to his evil inclination, egoism, which constantly incites us. The word “Satan” stems from the Hebrew word “Leastin,” which means to snitch, to provoke, to incite.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 6/10/15

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We are all in a system that operates on with different forces, and as a result, different desires, urges, and thoughts emerge in us. Everything depends on the extent to which we mutually participate with these forces correctly in order to reach a state of balance and harmony with them.

A person is under the pressure of segmented forces, and he must arrange his thoughts and desires and understand where we are headed. We see that everything is advancing very fast in a certain direction, but without a plan. Yet, nature has a very clear and accurate plan that man doesn’t understand. He doesn’t know how nature develops and what it demands of us. We are forced to participate in the evolutionary process together with the still, vegetative, and animate nature that surround us, and at the same time, within ourselves, like all of humanity.

However, we cannot even imagine the forces of our development, their goal and nature’s actual plan. We don’t know what tomorrow may bring, and thus we participate in this process passively.

In order to find the answers to the basic questions about the purpose of human existence and of humanity in our complicated times, we must pay attention to nature that surrounds us and try to understand its plan. Indeed, to date we have already passed along a large portion of the time axis of our development, and we see that we are developing very quickly. Of course, there are different periods, but it is an accelerated process. This acceleration is especially evident lately, and it is very frightening.

Our development takes place under the influence of our egoistic desires to understand and discover everything, to control and manage everything. Moreover, everyone’s egoism—of every nation, of every state, and the entire universal egoism—is only the human ego. All of the other parts of nature—the still, vegetative, and animate—have no egoism. They are managed naturally, instinctively, under the influence of nature’s mechanical laws. They do whatever nature spurs in them. This is the reason that they are not the problem, but it is only mankind. We also can divide mankind into four groups: the masses on the level of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, and human beings, according to their ability to understand the purpose of our existence.

Therefore, first and foremost, we must teach and educate those who are close to the perception and understanding of human nature.
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KabTV’s “Talks with Michael Laitman” 6/1/15

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Opinion (Sergey V. Saveliev, PhD, Laboratory of Nervous System Development, Scientific Research Institute of Human Morphology, Department of Medical Biological Sciences, Russian Academy of Medical Science, Moscow, Russia): “Everything that is defined by the term ‘human’ – is what doesn’t directly bring biological benefit. Earning money, building a dwelling, transferring your genome to the next generation, this is all beastly, we don’t become humans; we are basically aggressive mammals.

“The structure of society reflects evolutionary development, but not the rationality of humanity. The frontal lobes were formed for the distribution of nourishment, to exist side by side. But there is a need for an additional 200,000 years of selection and sorting for this to become the norm. Until then, we are social animals. We understand that stealing is not good, but in spite of it all we steal! In the meantime we need to establish a hierarchical society, paving the way to dominance and money. And a person is like a beast, totalitarist.

“In the public eye everyone aspires to show themselves as democrats and humanists, but when nobody sees them, all of us behave like a bunch of baboons, both groups of youths and groups of nations, this is our biological model of behavior. With the apes this is normally not important, to be lazy, to lie, to cheat, to steal. But there is a prohibition that is applied to this, so people balance between the actions of apes and actions that are considered to be human.”

My Comment: We cannot build a democratic society of equality and peace, we behave like apes; we don’t have another 200,000 years to develop to the level of Adam (man) and it isn’t found in nature either. In nature there is a need for our conscious independent development. We don’t need to develop ourselves; this is impossible. We just need to want to be changed, and the changes themselves will awaken in us the same power of nature that developed us to our level. Our only participation in self-development is summed up by a desire to develop; this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah reveals to us.
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Question: A society must be united like organs in a body. Is this a socialist or a capitalist law?

Answer: This law has nothing to do with socialism or capitalism but simply stems from nature. Nature obliges all of mankind to be connected in order to provide everyone with a normal standard of living, security, and success.

Society must be mutually connected in a good and harmonious way. It is clear to any rational person that everyone would be better off in such a society, both socialists and capitalists would agree to that. Inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature exist in absolute harmony and cooperation, and mankind must achieve the same harmony.

The only problem is the human egoism that stands in our way of living a happy life. Egoism pushes everyone to be proud and try to be above others. Instead of investing in society and receiving from it only what one needs, like the organs of the body that operate harmoniously, everyone tries to dominate others in order to give the least and receive the most. Egoism is a special force that is typical of mankind, and this is what stands in our way of being mutually connected and united, and thus it ruins human society.

All of nature is perfectly balanced, although we don’t see, understand, or feel that. The only force that disrupts the balance is the force of the human ego that wishes to dominate the inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, and even other humans, and actually the entire world! People have built different types of societies throughout history, and our ego disrupted the balance in them over and over again and led to different new forms: slavery, the dark Middle Ages, capitalism and even more modern social forms. However, each time, egoism always disrupted the good relations between people and brought the end of a particular regime.

A divided society is like divided organs in a living body, which bring about its death. Life can only be when unity is maintained.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/9/15, Writing of Baal HaSulam

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Question: I have a question from a child: What caused the natural disasters that led to the mass extinction of animals before human beings showed up on the face of earth? Did they occur because of the selfishness of dinosaurs?

Answer: All processes are pre-determined by a pre-set program, called Beito (in its time), i.e., they are triggered by natural modifications of the matter (desire) at its still, vegetative, and animate levels.

Starting with Adam (5775 years ago) and further on, humans are able to influence matter (desire). They do it either by aspiring to be involved in the growth of the general desire, or, on the contrary, by opposing it.

Kabbalah explains to us what the developmental program of the universal desire is and how we can speed it up. To the extent of the acceleration, we can avoid the pressures of nature and feel similar to the Creator.
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Thousands of years ago the wisdom of Kabbalah predicted that at the end of the 20^th century, beginning from the year 1995 and on, humanity would come to a level of egoistic development in which it would feel that there is no bright, alluring, and attractive future ahead for it, but a “common mass grave.”

Until this time it was useless to turn to people who believed that they possessed a normally developing ego with which they could build a society that seems rational and correct to them. People had everything to satisfy their ego: family, children, a plot of land. However, egoism constantly grew: there were two cows, then will even be another; there were a dozen sheep, and then there will be another dozen, etc.

But when a person reaches the peak of egoistic development, he begins to understand that this development is a blind alley; it doesn’t lead anywhere: “I feel that I am not the one using the ego for self-enjoyment; it manages me.” In other words, a person feels egoism as an extraneous force.

A sensation like this awakened and appeared in the 60’s in the United States, with the “hippie” youth movement. The young were attracted to Eastern doctrines, began to organize communes and use drugs. From this everything began.

This was a new drive that was created in people, a new egoism that indicated that it was not appropriate to invest anything in this world; it is finite. So it is worthwhile to think about something else. But about what? And since there were no answers, the hippies remained empty and gradually disappeared from the world.

To be continued….
[160509]
From KabTV’s “About Our Life” 5/11/15

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