My new article on Linkedin “On the Verge of Despair”

Little by little, the realization sinks in: Nothing seems to make things better: not the new year, not the new administration, and not the vaccines. Living on the fast-track simply isn’t working anymore. It hasn’t been working for the past year, and it seems like it isn’t going to start working anytime soon. And the more we realize it, the more we become despaired.

There is a good reason why it seems like the world is running out of gas. Since time immemorial, our fuel has been the search for the next pleasure, the next thing to gain, or the next advantage over others. We’ve been running on a fuel that boosts the ego; where the ego saw no benefit, we had no fuel to work.

There is a good reason why it seems like the world is running out of gas. Since time immemorial, our fuel has been the search for the next pleasure, the next thing to gain, or the next advantage over others. We’ve been running on a fuel that boosts the ego; where the ego saw no benefit, we had no fuel to work. Over the past year, our egos have had so many let downs that many are beginning to doubt whether the ego is really the king we should be serving. Perhaps the futile pursuit of pleasures, which we stop wanting soon after we obtain them, has exposed its inevitable pointlessness. After all, if you already know that once you get what you want, you’ll soon get tired of it, what’s the point of getting it in the first place?

Our time is a time of recognition of the truth about our motivations, our civilization, our values, and ultimately about who we are as human beings. The picture that this realization exposes is not pretty, but it is very sincere, and from a point of sincerity, healthy growth begins. This is why I think our time is so amazing, for all its difficulties.

We are in a time of a great shift; we are shifting from perceiving the world as individuals to perceiving it as an integral system of which we are all parts, and in which we are all one. Perceiving the world as individuals compelled us to seek only our own benefit. However, this put us at odds with the direction of nature’s development. Nature is evolving toward increasing complexity, interdependence, and reciprocity. When you’re trying to go in the opposite direction to all of reality, bad things are bound to happen. This conflict between nature’s trajectory and our trajectory has been the root cause of all our misfortunes, especially since we’ve begun to accentuate our individualism, early in the 20th century, but it has picked up pace tremendously since the turn of the century.

As long as we continue to go against nature’s trajectory, everything we build will collapse. This is why these days, nothing seems to work: The vaccines are here but so is the virus; the election is over but no one is calm; and most of all, no one feels confident about the future, and no one knows what to do about it.

Yet, the answer is in plain sight: If we go against nature and keep thinking as individuals, we will have no future and no solution will work. If we think as an integral humanity, which is a part of the integral planet, we will succeed and our plans will work.

In truth, I am very hopeful. I see how nature leaves us no choice but to rethink everything. Unity is the clear direction of our movement, since this is where all of nature is evolving, and we are not excluded. The only question is how much we will agree to suffer before we go along. The end is good for sure; it’s the road getting there that worries me.
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Question: What is the principle of brotherhood?

Answer: Compliance with this principle provides us with the most comfortable state. If we think about each other, support each other, and everyone cares about each other, then none of us can feel bad.

Comment: It is said that excessive unity leads to racism, chauvinism, fundamentalism, and religious fanaticism.

My Response: No. This happens if I take a group of people and start treating them with increased care because we have a certain goal directed against others. Against others!

We begin to feel like special individuals. It’s an egoistic feeling that gives us strength. And here, of course, we go beyond the scope. But this is no longer simple egoism, but chauvinism.

Question: So it is not contrary to our egoistic nature to unite against someone?

Answer: Yes. In that case, I just need partners. I find them, we take care of each other, we are a strong, close-knit team, and we just overpower everyone else.

Question: Maybe we can come up with something so that all earthlings will rally against someone, for example, against aliens? As if we are in some kind of danger. And then all the earthlings would be united.

Answer: Every country comes up with some kind of opponent. And this really unites the people. This is used by politicians. Why are all developed countries often at opposition? This helps them to be united, mobilizes people, resources, and shows additional strength in the masses.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 5/13/19

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Question: Many major risks of 2021 have been named. And it is not the coronavirus. The main risk of 2021 has been declared to be the division of America; half of the US population considers any new leader of the country illegitimate.

What do you think the main risk of 2021 is?

Answer: It is demonstrating for the whole world, for the entire human community, that we do not consider anything that does not agree with our views, thoughts, attitudes, and understanding. We do not discern anything else.

We began to realize that we cannot tolerate anything foreign at all—not at all and not in any way! And that is what America is showing us. The Americans have come through a very serious path. This is a very big progress.

What is America in itself? It was a highly developed egoistic society where one thinks only of himself and absolutely does not care about anything. All others exist only to make money from them.

They were developing until they reached the point when the society got divided into two practically equal parts. America shows us that if the whole world had gone the way they did, it would have come to the same result. And what would have happened next?

That is, it is clear that it is no longer possible to advance egoistically.

And therefore, a very interesting exercise comes from the side of nature. It is like in school when one is asked to do an exercise in class so that later, perhaps one will not make the same mistakes in life.

So, here we need to solve the problem. How can we create an integral society? Like in America, which was built from practically all nations and ethnic groups, how can we build such a society that everyone understands that this is the best state for them? Not only the best possible, but generally the best.

Question: Is the task even more global? How can we make something more or less unified out of this society, such a single nation?

Answer: Yes, naturally. This is what America is showing us. We will learn from it.

Comment: Second on the list of the risks of 2021 is a protracted pandemic. It is believed that on the background of vaccination, there will be an even greater division of society into rich and poor, job cuts, loss of confidence in the authorities, and so on.

My Response: I believe that this heals our society and reveals all its miasmas. This pandemic will eventually purify us.

There is hell, purgatory, and heaven. We need to go through it all.

It is our existence in this world that we will consider like hell, which we do not yet realize, and we want to be in it and warm ourselves from this fire.

Purgatory is when we will try to cleanse ourselves of our egoism, which kindles this terrible fire of hatred, opposition, and so on. And then, when we turn all this for the good for all of us, we will reach paradise.

Question: In principle, is all this a definition of a sore spot? “This is a sore spot. I, the virus, have come to show you this and will not let you go.” Yes?

Answer: Yes. And therefore, we must look positively at all the moments of the development that we are going through, and only learn how we must behave after all, not only in order to smooth them out, that is, to escape from some danger or some blow, but so that we can become aware of their need to such extent that we kiss the stick that beats us. When we begin to approach this, then we will already become truly conscious elements of our development.

Question: That is, if I realize that what has come is good, and the fight against it will not be with the help of a vaccine but in some other way? Which one?

Answer: I will only struggle with myself in order to be a correct member of society. If we remove the human, universal viruses of hatred for each other, then all the rest of them will simply disappear.

Comment: The third risk of 2021 is the fight against climate change, which will lead to international competition.

My Response: Climate change depends on us, on our attitude toward nature, toward ourselves, and toward human society. It is because human society, unfortunately, is at the highest level in the hierarchy: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and then human nature.

Therefore, if we discover the right interactions between ourselves, which, in principle, the entire science of Kabbalah addresses how a man should relate to man, then we will correct all this. There is nothing complicated in this, everything depends on us. Everything depends on the state of the relationship between us.

Everything is decided only at the level of relations between people.

Question: Indeed, what if you found this “golden key”? Would we solve all these risks in one swoop?

Answer: It depends on the people.

Question: Why is a man deaf and cannot hear it? Not scientists, nor politicians, no one.

Answer: Because this is an appeal from egoism against egoism.

Comment: And he closes his ears, closes everything.

My Response: This requires a lot of suffering and problems, when a person thinks that that is it, there is nothing else I can do, then I am ready to listen.

I hope we will stop fighting the virus and will start fighting the harmful relationships between us, which bring about the states in which the virus can multiply and infect us.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/7/21

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Comment: The past year has not been easy. Everyone has different predictions for what lays ahead—from the most difficult to optimistic ones like, for example, Gates.

Great leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Roosevelt, and  Churchill reacted to the threats of their time, of course, but they always looked beyond the horizon, whatever it may be, and turned everyone on with their vision.

Their rules were: “Take time to reflect on the future.” “Develop a strategy for moving from an imagined future back here, to this day.” “And get ready to learn, do not be afraid to change course and so unite the team.”

My Response: Not a single leader of today can implement his egoistic, personal program as those leaders of the past could. Today’s course is aimed at all of humanity at the same time! Those were leaders of nations. It was easier for them.

Question: Should today’s leader look at all of humanity?

Answer: Otherwise, he will not be able to understand where this is all going. Therefore, none of them is able to do anything.

Question: That is, if we say: “Take time to understand the future,” we are talking about the future of the whole world?

Answer: Yes. Because we have already entered the integral system.

Question: So a leader of such worldwide thinking can only be, by and large, a sage who views the world as a single organ, a single organism?

Answer: Yes. It is a person who was pre-created by nature in integral thinking. Otherwise, he will not be able to understand what is happening.

Question: And how do you come from this vision of the future to today? What do you say we need to do today?

Answer: I am trying to consider today knowing that the world is moving toward integral relationships, in a good way, bad way, whatever. It does not matter how many stops and what they will be, but the next state of the world is an integral humanity, interconnected and consciously aware that it should be together.

If we perceive the picture of the world in this way, then, we will naturally imagine how good it would be for us to move toward it. And for this we need an educational system, a system of upbringing, and a dissemination system. In general, there are many, many such subsystems.

Question: Is that why you are talking about the most important thing now—education? Is it in upbringing seeing this future?

Answer: Yes, everything depends on it. If we somehow get closer to this, we will be fine. If not, then nature will keep squeezing us until we realize it.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/31/20

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Our intentions actually rule the world, they define the world. But these are intentions that we ourselves are not aware of.

Intentions are my thoughts about what I would like to see, how I would like to see the world, myself in it, others, and so on.

Today, if our intentions were manifested into the word, there would be no world anymore.

Question: So do we have the intention to destroy now?

Answer: Absolutely! The destruction of others, everyone, and everything.

Question: Is that why they do not manifest?

Answer: Yes. We are not given strength precisely because it would go to destruction.

Question: At what point will we be given the strength? What will we see then?

Answer: When we will have the right intentions in accordance with the plan of nature, then we will begin to receive the strength to implement it. The right intentions are for rapprochement, unity, connection, attainment of the highest level of nature, the revelation of mutual connection, and love.

Question: If this intention were revealed, what would we see?

Answer: That we are originally in a single system, and all our attempts to exist until now have been only in the opposite direction—to break this system.

Question: What should we do to reveal our intentions?

Answer: We should try with all our strength to break through the wall of this egoism that does not allow us to realize, to make any movement, to connect somehow, or to ask. The main thing is to ask.

Question: At what point will I ask?

Answer: When you see that you really want to, but you cannot.

Question: What prevents the Creator from simply giving us all this and that is it? Why does He need our work?

Answer: If you do not want it, how can I give it to you? This is coercion. It does not exist in spirituality.

Question: Should He bring us to the state that we will ask: “Give us the opportunity to break out of our egoism”?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Does He have to show us that our egoism is destructive, murderous?

Answer: But if He would show us, then we would simply not be able to exist. We need to strive for this ourselves, and then, to the extent of our striving, we will realize that we are in the opposite state and we will ask.

Question: Is our whole task to strive for connection, for unity, for good thoughts? Then we will see that we cannot do it and we will ask: “Give us the opportunity.” Is that the plan?

Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/31/20

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My new article on Linkedin “Transforming Hatred Into Love”

Love, hate, and everything in between. That is how our world is divided. When we hate or love, similar physiological processes take place in our body—changes in heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, acid and hormone secretion—and only a small point in the brain distinguishes whether what we feel is an attitude of hatred, or an attitude of love. What exactly needs to change within us so that the world will be less terrible and more friendly and loving towards us?

If I could penetrate into myself and change the innermost definitions within me so that my attitude toward everyone around me would become a loving attitude, then my entire worldview and experience of reality would change. The people, the world, and everything would seem to be a real paradise to me.

Healing begins with a diagnosis. Our inner manager is a desire to receive pleasure and satisfaction, a desire to enjoy. When I look at someone with enjoyment, it is because I feel love toward that person, and I also rejoice in that person’s joy. If I hate him or her, I feel upset. This is the truth no matter how unpleasant it may sound, and whether or not we are conscious of our attitude. On the other hand, when I see a loved one suffering, I share that grief, while if I hate the one suffering, I’m happy and consider that suffering well deserved for that person.

From this we can conclude that it is not the situation that takes place in front of us that determines whether we enjoy or suffer, but our attitude to those around us.

If I could penetrate into myself and change the innermost definitions within me so that my attitude toward everyone around me would become a loving attitude, then my entire worldview and experience of reality would change. The people, the world, and everything would seem to be a real paradise to me.

“One judges others according to his own flaws,” the sages say. What I see at any given moment in the world around me is a copy of my inner state, a projection just like in a 3D cinema of what is hidden within me. There is no such thing as a so-called “objectively defined” form of ourselves. The shape of the world is portrayed in front of me according to my inner structure, according to my desires, interests and intentions. Accordingly, if I could somehow correct the flaws within me—that is, my attitude towards everyone and everything around me—the world would also seem more corrected to me.

There is a quality of bestowal and love in nature that fills everything, but we currently have absolutely no perception of it because we are opposite to it, as we exist in an egoistic state constantly pursuing self-benefit. As soon as we resemble nature by developing its attributes of care and reciprocity, we will begin to perceive its true form and reveal the goodness behind every aspect of life.

Changing my experience of reality is not a matter of convincing myself on a psychological level, a sort of telling myself that there is nothing wrong with the world at all, but of changing the perspective from which my experience of reality is built. The essence of the correction entails an upgrade of that inner manager that activates me from birth called the desire to receive. The egoistic, natural desire to receive pleasure and enjoyment from the environment, must be replaced with an altruistic, supernatural desire to positively influence everything around me. The wisdom of Kabbalah is the method that makes this essential transition possible through group study and practice. Gradually, step by step, with experimentation and control, this transformative correction of my attitude from hatred to love paints in my view a world without evil, a world full of loved ones. And when we realize that everything is in our hands, it turns out that it is an unnecessary shame to wait for others to change for the better.

For the sake of illustration: When I have hatred toward someone, I have to tell myself that it’s not the person in front of me that is the problem, but the supreme power of nature sending me an invitation to connect with it, and through that connection, to resemble its qualities by increasing love above all hatred. When I manage to work on myself and correct my attitude toward every picture of reality that is revealed, I will see that those bad characters who caused so much grief suddenly disappear, and only love and wholeness remain.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How will the world change after the COVID 19 pandemic?“

We are in the midst of a major transitional era where we are starting to understand the tremendous extent of our interconnectedness and interdependence.

Likewise, we also find ourselves destroying our world. This is because a key aspect of interconnected and interdependent systems is that if all of their parts act for the system’s benefit, then the system functions harmoniously and its parts experience the health and vitality of the entire system. On the contrary, if its parts prioritize self-benefit over benefiting the whole, then they bring about the system’s demise.

Since the latter egoistic tendency defines the general attitude and behavior of human society in 2021, then we can expect the world as we know it to crumble. On one hand, we will see the increasing frailty of our financial and industrial mechanisms, and on the other hand, we can expect natural disasters to shake us more and more, because nature principally reacts to us according to how we relate to each other.

We will continue heading down a negative spiral until we will wake up to our helplessness to live positive, healthy and balanced lives. At that point, we will develop a major need to revise the way we live. We will then feel an increasing need for updated explanations about how the interconnected and interdependent system we are all parts of functions, what its purpose is, what our role is within the system, what is the system’s nature and what is human nature, how we can balance between them, why and how we are dispersed in this system, and what we can do in order to become closer in our attitudes to each other. In other words, we will need to undergo an upgrade in our connections to each other, and that upgrade will not be able to happen on its own. It will require a new method capable of guiding us to positive connection, harmony and happiness in an interconnected and interdependent reality.

Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman

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My new article on Linkedin “Many Riots, One Culprit”

US President Joe Biden said during the election campaign that when it comes to the coronavirus, “An infection anywhere is an infection everywhere.” This is true not only of the coronavirus. Look at the riots that took place in America until recently; they seem to have migrated to Russia. Other riots, which began in France, have drifted to the Netherlands. In Myanmar there was a coup; governments in other countries in Europe and elsewhere are teetering; and it seems as though global instability has captured the world.

The pace of changes will only grow, and it demands that we adapt to it. If we don’t change our attitude toward society and embrace the closeness and mutuality that is emerging the world over, we will feel that we are swimming upstream in a river that is turning into a rapid. We have a choice—to swim downstream and enjoy the ride, or swim upstream, exhaust ourselves, be carried away by the river and eventually drown.

This is no coincidence. We thought that globalization means primarily economic and financial ties among countries, but we were wrong. The whole world is influenced by the same thoughts, the same trends, and the same mindsets. When there is trouble anywhere, there is trouble everywhere! This is the new normal.

We still think of ourselves as separate individuals, separate societies, and separate countries, but we are none of the above. We are all tied up. What one person thinks in Australia influences all other people in the world, even if they live in Alaska. We think that the internet is the means to spread ideas and incite people to riot, but it’s much deeper than that: Our most basic desires emerge from a common source, our ego, and now these desires are beginning to display their interconnections. From here on, there will be no isolated troubles, no isolated triumphs; everything will be shared by all of humanity whether we like it or not. In the coming months and years, it will become increasingly clear that we will literally all rise together or we will all fall together. All the riots and all the troubles have one culprit—our ego. That connected, common root has been exposed, and we will not be able to hide it or ignore it any longer. Therefore, today, thinking of one’s own interest is not only a luxury we can’t afford, it is disconnection from reality and outright folly.

This coalescing of desires is happening for a very serious and profound reason. Having the same desire means having the same thoughts, as we see according to people’s behavior and expressions the world over. In other words, it brings people together. If they embrace that closeness, they will be happy and society will prosper. If they reject it, they will suffer because this connection will happen anyhow and will place us in an undesirable reality.

The world provides us with much more than we need. If we think of ourselves as a single, global family, we will be able to see that there is no shortage of anything, not just on the level of staples, but in every aspect of our lives, from housing to healthcare to education, and even to entertainment and leisure.

The pace of changes will only grow, and it demands that we adapt to it. If we don’t change our attitude toward society and embrace the closeness and mutuality that is emerging the world over, we will feel that we are swimming upstream in a river that is turning into a rapid. We have a choice—to swim downstream and enjoy the ride, or swim upstream, exhaust ourselves, be carried away by the river and eventually drown.

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Question: Would bankers allow the banking system to be shut down even though it brings them profit?

Answer: Soon you will see how it will collapse. It is not about the bankers, it is only about us. If we strive for correction, for the purpose of creation, to rise above this small, greedy world, then the bankers will simply disappear.
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From KabTV’s “Ask the Kabbalist” 12/31/18

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My new article on Linkedin “The Grand Illusion of The Great Reset”

About a week ago, the World Economic Forum gathered in what is known as the Davos convention, although this year it was online. This year’s theme was The Great Reset, a grand plan to save the world, or as the forum describes it, “There is an urgent need for global stakeholders to cooperate … To improve the state of the world, the World Economic Forum is starting The Great Reset initiative.”

The reset will not be a restart, but an installment of a new operating system. Instead of exhausting our energy climbing the social ladder, we will be energized every time we make new connections. Our hearts will open to each other, and as we strengthen our bonds, our efforts will reward us with even more vigor than we had spent building new ties, since the ties themselves will vitalize us, just as you never feel tired among good friends.

Many things are included in this plan, with the formal aim being, of course, to save the world economy. But in light of the growing distrust between the general public and the big tech, entrepreneurs, and money moguls who hold the keys to our economies, people are concerned about their future. They do not trust that these tycoons will have their independence, freedom, or even livelihood in mind.

Personally, I don’t believe that people will go hungry or that their property will be taken away in one form or another. Such a process cannot happen unless people want and embrace it, after a long and thorough educational process, and when they are confident that they will benefit from it. Otherwise, it will not work, just as it didn’t work in Soviet Russia.

It is not that I attribute any moral merit to the money moguls and world leaders at the Davos convention; it’s just that I think that the whole idea is impractical. Even a lower level of sharing, such as the European Market, has failed, so such initiatives don’t deserve a second thought. That is, its advocates will get a few billion dollars to draw their plans and implement them, but nothing will happen other than blowing away the money.

Covid-19, the official reason for initiating The Great Reset project, really has changed us, and will continue to change us. However, it will not change us the way Davos goers envision. I believe we will continue to have the basic needs of life as far as food and shelter go, but everything else will change. Money and power, which are now people’s highest aspirations, will lose their shine. Academic degrees, which people so cherished until very recently, will seem pointless to pursue. Humanity will go through profound reckoning and goals that people held high until the arrival of Covid will dim out and seem dull and pointless.

The reset will happen not in people’s material life, but in their hearts. They will have food, but life will be tasteless. Fashion, accessories, fancy cars and expensive houses, travel, sports events and restaurants, everything that defines what we call “good living” will taste like sand.

This is when the great reset will begin. When material life dims, spiritual life will begin to shine. And by spiritual life, I mean the life that exists between us, in our heart-to-heart connections. Only when the superficial loses its glitz, we will realize that we miss each other, that we want and need other people’s company and support. This is when we will begin to develop true relationships, true friendships, and a beautiful world will open for us.

The reset will not be a restart, but an installment of a new operating system. Instead of exhausting our energy climbing the social ladder, we will be energized every time we make new connections. Our hearts will open to each other, and as we strengthen our bonds, our efforts will reward us with even more vigor than we had spent building new ties, since the ties themselves will vitalize us, just as you never feel tired among good friends.

We shouldn’t fear the loss of old visions. They were illusions. The real life waits after we give up our false hopes. Only then, food will be abundant and life will be tasty.
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