Entries in the 'Free Will' Category

What Can We Influence?

294.1Question: If all states Malchut must go through are predetermined and we are parts of this Malchut, meaning, this desire, what can we influence? Do we only feel it and that is it?

Answer: No. We are part of Malchut that can change everything. We cannot only change these states but also their purpose. In other words, we are not able to change the laws of creation, but we can change their result.

Question: But if there is something that is planned out up to the end of correction and these states already exist in potential, can I change them? I can only feel them. These states should pass through me and that is it.

Answer: Yes, that is correct. We cannot really change either our path or our goal. They are predetermined. But each moment we can check ourselves whether we are on this path, if we can accelerate it, whether we agree with the path of our development, and so on.

We can change ourselves, our attitude to what is happening, but not what is really happening.

Question: So, if the program has, for example, World War III in it, then it will happen and I can only change my attitude to it?

Answer: No, we can change the course of history itself.

Comment: This is confusing if all states are predetermined.

My Response: All states are predetermined, but we can change them because we can come to them in many possible manners and ways.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 1/1/23

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The World Where You Are the King

712.03Question: The Merriam Webster dictionary has named “gaslighting” as the word of the year. It means the psychological manipulation of a person that makes him doubt the accuracy of his own thoughts or perception of reality and leads to a loss of confidence and to dependence on the manipulator.

They say that in our age of fake news, conspiracy theories, and propaganda, gaslighting has become the main thing. Can we dodge gaslighting, or will it reach us everywhere?

Answer: It depends on the kind of person one is. It depends on the individual. One should have his own serious defense against this, his personal basic worldview.

Question: So one cannot be pushed from this worldview?

Answer: There are, of course, different stages in this matter. But the one who has serious preparation in this can’t be pushed.

Question: What could it be? After all, propaganda and all this gaslighting penetrate into all holes.

Answer: This gaslighting wants to explain to a person that he is controlled. And a person should feel that he controls himself. And here arises the single combat of a person with those who encroach on his independence.

Question: Is this really an encroachment?

Answer: Yes! Big time! This is enslavement. But what will you do? That is the world.

Comment: In principle, we see that almost 90 percent are subject to enslavement.

My Response: And they want it, too!

Question: So a person should resist this, to the point where it is either death or resistance?

Answer: Not to that extent! A person just needs to understand that he can be subjected to such a mental, psychic attack, and that after that he will no longer have freewill. And to avoid this he must build himself.

Question: What kind of core in a person is it that he has to build in himself?

Answer: To do with oneself what others want to do with him. That is, others want to impose on him some kind of their point of view, worldview, or attitude to the world, and he builds it all himself!

Question: So he is ahead of them and builds himself?

Answer: Yes. Moreover, he is so ahead of them that he can fight them. He can put a wall between himself and them. That is what we need to understand.

Question: What does this wall consist of?

Answer: This wall consists of confidence in my own method of building the world in myself the way I want it to be. And that is it.

Question: What kind of wall will hold? What kind of world should I build that can withstand?

Answer: As materialistic as possible, which will resist any attempts to hack this inner world of a person.

Question: Is it possible only for strong people, or is almost everyone capable of this?

Answer: No, I don’t think everyone is capable of this. But in principle, this can be taught and people can be pulled out of dependence, from such a sub-level, slavish state.

Today, absolutely everyone is in a state where they are controlled; thoughts, pictures, points of view, and so on are imposed on them. Humanity is crawling back into the caves.

Comment: There is a very interesting observation. There are millions of views on the Internet about those who have gone somewhere, to some kind of isolated community. Someone has gone to the taiga and has been living there alone for 20 or 30 years. A person leaves on his own, and that’s it, he leaves other people behind. And people watch and write comments like “I wish I could do that.”

My Response: Yes, but it’s not easy.

Comment: This is the wall that one has built. And you propose to do it in the active world.

My Response: Absolutely active, without changing anything—only inside yourself.

Question: How do you do it? Give us some practical advice.

Answer: I built such a wall in myself, as if I shut myself off from the world, from everyone. I live inside myself quietly and alone. No one suspects that I live like this.

Comment: It’s interesting! You have tens and hundreds of thousands of students, and you say, “This is how I live.”

My Response: It doesn’t matter.

Comment: Share a secret…

My Response: The secret is very simple. I am building this world within myself, and therefore even if I am in contradiction with the world that is being imposed on me, I do not feel any particular opposition. This contradiction does not crush me and does not fight with me. I just dismiss it and continue.

Question: Can you at least tell us a little bit about what you have there in that world?

Answer: In that world I am the king. And I serve the great Creator. That is all. It is very simple.

Comment: It’s not simple. But I really want to go to such a world. Is there any advice on how to get into it, into this world?

My Response: Crawl.

Question: How?

Answer: It needs to be built. A person must build it within himself. And when he builds it, he discovers that yes, it can be done, it must be done and it will be forever.

Question: Is it both security and peace?

Answer: It covers absolutely everything! This is the kingdom of the great King.

Question: But is He the King?

Answer: Yes, and you are building for Him.

Question: And then you find yourself in it? So that He rules there?

Answer: In order for me to rule everything for Him.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/1/22

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How to Stop Hating the Enemy

963.1In the News (CBS News): “A man who spent more than 38 years behind bars for a 1983 murder and two attempted murders has been released from a California prison after long-untested DNA evidence pointed to a different person… .

“The conviction of Maurice Hastings, 69, and a life sentence were vacated… .

“‘I prayed for many years that this day would come,’ Hastings said at a news conference Friday, adding: ‘I am not pointing fingers; I am not standing up here a bitter man, but I just want to enjoy my life now while I have it.'”

Question: First, respect and praise to him that he comes out of prison like this. Secondly, it is unclear how this is possible; a person’s life was practically destroyed, he was erased. He is 69 years old, and yet he has neither evil nor revenge. How can it be?

Answer: He has already been through it all. He has been in prison since he was 30. He is burned out. He understands that it is impossible to claim any compensation here for these years. Now he is 69 years old. That is, he still has, probably, 10 – 15 years to have the life he wants and to enjoy.

Question: Does a person need to spend 38 years somewhere in such a way and suffer in order to overcome himself like this and not hate another, his enemy, and not want death or some bad fate for him?

Answer: Yes, probably, in order to stop judging everyone.

Question: Can this be done in a shorter period? Today we see that this is happening all the time.

Answer: Possibly.

Question: How can you rise above the hatred that overwhelms a person and just eats you up?

Answer: Understand that this is a fate that comes from above, and in fact, maybe you did not lose anything in this, but rather won. And maybe those who jailed you, lost.

Question: In ordinary life, we experience all these feelings of hatred, we have enemies, we have wars. How can we cope with them, how can we rise above it all?

Answer: I think that it is precisely because he was in such a state that he can justify this by saying “I do not see much use from either that life or this life. I did not lose anything either way. The main thing is that I have a mind and feelings, and I can use what is in my heart to say that I do not need anything from anyone, and life has passed the way it has passed.”

Question: How can you rise above hatred for the enemy or for another without sitting in jail for 38 years?

Answer: By accepting that he is controlled, just like you. He was controlled by the upper force, just like you. In this way, each of you has fulfilled his part according to some program.

Question: Then will I be able to hug a person I could not stand?

Answer: I think that you will be able to meet him absolutely without any anger like with a complete stranger.

Question: In what case? In the case that I accept what you say?

Answer: Yes. As with a complete stranger who was carrying out a mission. That is all.

Question: What do I need to understand?

Answer: That he did not control you, but he was controlled. One should spend less time inside oneself.

Question: Do you think there is nothing we can find inside ourselves?

Answer: Nothing! Everything comes only from above into a person, and a person “plays the tune.”
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/3/22

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Like a Baby in Its Mother’s Arms

583.02Question: Where is the line where you as a teacher cannot interfere and take away the student’s freedom of choice?

Answer: In our spiritual work there are always these problems where literally every minute we decide how to act correctly and what our thoughts and intentions are. I cannot interfere with this.

I see the state my students are in and sometimes I sympathize with them very much. I worry and it hurts me, just like a mother does for her son when he is seriously ill and she can do nothing to help him except to give him medicine. But in principle he must take even the most bitter pills and survive this disease.

When I brought my problems in spiritual work to Rabash and asked, “What should I do? What can I do?”, he laughed in my face because I had to solve them myself.

Question: A person tries to calm himself by coming to the teacher. Yet the teacher says, “I am sorry, I cannot say anything.” Does the teacher know how to do the right thing for the student, but does not tell him?

Answer: Of course he does. The upper degree is perfectly clothed in the lower one. Everything that exists in the lower degree is felt in the upper one without any problems. It is the upper degree that feels what is happening in the student. The teacher feels the spiritual content of the student, while the student himself does not know and does not understand what is happening to him.

Question: So are we in front of you like naked babies?

Answer: Yes, like a baby in its mother’s arms. In a spiritual sense, yes, of course.

But what can I do? This baby must develop according to its own laws. I can only minimally help him, because all the spiritual development of a person is carried out by his efforts.

I have to make sure that there are suitable conditions for this development like a mother who gives the child food and warmth, washes him, puts him to bed, etc. Everything else is up to him.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Manipulating People” 12/30/13

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A Special Opinion of Kabbalah

587.01Question: Is there such a thing as a special opinion in Kabbalah and how can a person use it based on the essence of the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: There is a special opinion in Kabbalah. This is the opinion of the Creator, the opinion of nature, which is characterized by its unshakable, unchangeable, absolute, and eternal laws. No one can change them, there is nothing we can do about them.

If a person understands this, then the only correct and reasonable thing left for him is to maintain himself and everything around him that has freewill so that it comes to the correct balance and correct combination with nature. That is all.

We need to understand that we are in a network of rigid connections. The moment we move away from it, slightly change the angle, and make a minimal phase rotation or change one relative to the other, the transparency immediately changes and there is a blackout.

We need to strive to ensure that all the upper energy passes upon us. Once we can feed on this endless energy, we will not need oil, gas, coal, or any power sources for ourselves, all of them will completely disappear. There will be a completely different technology of life.

But for this, we need to understand the laws of nature and try to comply with them, because in this case, we will be able to receive from it directly everything we want without obscuring ourselves.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Personal Opinion” 12/28/13

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Toss a Coin or Think?

962.4Question: We have to make many decisions every day. The Romans, for example, tossed a coin. They even had a saying: either a ship or a head. In other words, all or nothing. In 1845, the coin solved the question of the name of the city of Portland, Oregon, which was originally meant to be called Boston, but the coin showed otherwise and it instead became Portland.

Scientists conducted a study. People who needed to make a vital decision were told to “toss a coin.” They tossed a coin and when they checked them after six months, they saw that people felt good about their decision about tossing a coin.

Scientists believe that this is the choice of the golden mean. How do you think we should make decisions: with a coin or in another way?

Answer: I believe that if we are talking about serious things, for example, the choice of the name of the city, then we need to conduct a general survey. If this is some kind of private problem, but you still have a family and so on, then solve it in connection with others.

Question: Does it mean that I do not make the decision myself, but I need to take into account everything and everyone?

Answer: Of course. You cannot decide everything.

Question: What if I have such a character that I make decisions myself?

Answer: It means that you have not received enough blows yet, from family, children, parents, surrounding people, country, from anything at all. You still have to take everyone into account.

Question: What should happen when the head of the country, the leader, makes a decision?

Answer: If he makes a decision alone, then he is not a leader. He must understand how he needs to make decisions so that they are approved by the majority of the people, and that they may speak well of him.

This suggests that he made the right decision, not in order to respect himself, but to confirm that he made the right decision.

Comment: That is, when people say: “What a blessing that we had such a leader. We really felt good under his rule.”

My Response: Yes, that is the way he has to make his decision so that people talk about him like that. Not because he wants people to talk about him like that in order to be proud and so on, but because he is pleased that he has made the decision in agreement with the people. It is very important.

Question: What does it mean to make a decision in accordance with the Creator?

Answer: It means to be among such sages who would help you understand the thought of the Creator and make a decision in accordance with it and with the Creator.

Question: What decision does a sage who is in connection with the Creator make?

Answer: How to move people to the Creator, there is nothing else.

Question: That is, when we say “fateful decisions,” for the sage are they only those which involve bringing people to the Creator?

Answer: Only in this. After all, there is nothing else in the world. Everything else is just covered with all sorts of different words, but practically it is the same desire.

Comment: That is, if for example the leaders of our world are deciding how to carry out economic reform, how to build something…

My Response: It is always the same question: “How to take a step closer to the Creator?” It can be the economy or healthcare, or whatever!

Question: They just do not feel it, right?

Answer: They do not feel it, but the sage does. The solution is always in this: to be closer to the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/4/22

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The Purpose of the Development of Nature

293Question: In the 14th century when the bubonic plague raged around the world, sixty million people died. People died instantly. What is the qualitative difference between those sufferings and the present ones?

Answer: The current suffering is practically regulated by man. We have entered a period of development where we can regulate everything: suffering, joy, progress, and regression. Nature has a goal—to bring us to absolute perfection, that is, to complete bestowal and love among ourselves, whether we want it or not.

Our freewill lies in the choice of the path: which way to go in carrying out this program. Therefore, if we behave accordingly, then the program treats us favorably, we implement it and move toward the goal.

If we do not want to move toward this goal in any format, if there are no any indications on our part that we proceed in the direction of awareness, consent, and implementation of the idea of ​​nature, the plan of nature, the goal of nature, then this plan is still being implemented, but goes against our will and feels like great sufferings.

On the one hand, these are the actions of humanity regarding the natural plan of development, although people do not understand and do not know it. On the other hand, humanity sees its development in a completely different way than is set by nature. This is an egoistic, terrible, incomprehensible development that has no plan.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Destruction of the Earth’s Population” 9/7/13

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Preparation for Freewill

49.01Question: Let’s say artificial intelligence cannot exist independently and invent things. It can think everything through very professionally, but it’s all already embedded in its program. It will never have any independent solution, just a program.

And how do we differ from artificial intelligence, from this program? What is not embedded in us so that we can implement it ourselves? And how is that even possible?

Answer: Apart from light, we have everything. Light is the power of bestowal and love, which we do not have initially, and which, through acting on us, causes its own properties in us. We become its bearers, possessors of another power. After all, in addition to the egoistic power to receive, which is in us, another power (or property) to bestow arises in us.

Question: It turns out that in any case we are programmed?

Answer: Sure. Absolutely programmed! When my teacher looked at me, he saw my whole future. Where is Wolf Messing before him?!

Question: But where is the feeling as if you have realized it yourself, and not that the Creator introduced you into these states so that you would come to attain the spiritual?

Answer: Aren’t you now in the same mechanism,  the same matrix?! Aren’t they playing with you now?

It seems to you that you are experiencing it, you are free, and you do anything. And they twist you around here in every way, they make you lie here, do something else there, put some kind of trick here, do a good deed there.

This is how they twist you to take you through all kinds of states and thus hatch all kinds of new sensations in you, so that you analyze everything, feel it, gain experience and are able to be aware, understand who and what, and are ready for free will.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. See What Doesn’t Exist” 8/30/13

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To Hell or to Heaven?

626Question: There is a well known parable regarding judgment taking place above—to hell or to heaven. The famous preacher’s turn comes; he is calm, and suddenly he is sent to hell. He asks, “Why to hell?! Right before me, a reckless driver was sent to heaven.” He is told: “What were you thinking? Everyone was asleep at your sermons. Meanwhile, when he was driving people, everyone was praying.”

How should we relate to this? Should we be led to prayer while we are alive; how should this happen?

Answer: We are being led. If we strive to reach a connection with the Creator, then all sorts of obstacles and conditions are put to us, and we involuntarily see that we cannot fulfill these conditions in any way, only if we get serious help from above.

Question: Does this mean that if we strive to connect with the Creator, then we can be grateful for all these things and obstacles?

Answer: For the stick.

Question: You keep saying, “Kiss the stick that beats you.” Then we kiss it? Otherwise what happens?

Answer: Otherwise we move along with our egoism, the way a fish swims, in such twisty ways.

Question: How should we treat everything that leads us, but is not yet directed, to the goal of creation, to prayer?

Answer: We have to push each other. We have to give an example. We need to shake things up a bit.

Question: How can I, an ordinary person who does not strive for the goal of connection with the Creator, someone who strives to live calmly and simply on our earth, also relate those misfortunes and troubles as things that should lead me to prayer?

Answer: Naturally a person does not want suffering, prayer, or anything.

Question: And how should I relate to this? Should I run away from them?

Answer: Of course. It’s best to run away from them and that’s what everyone does.

Question: This means I can run away if I’m not striving for anything, but I just want to live this life well on this earth?

Answer: In this case, “There is no need for suffering, and there is no need for rewards.”

Question: And what is the advice to such people?

Answer: The advice to such people is to try to live in peace, or even lower, quieter, and calmer. Try to go through life like this.

Question: Is this in order for the waves to pass over us?

Answer: Yes. But this is fate. There are some people who want it; there are those who disagree with this and those who disagree and yet with a couple of blows, they then agree.

Question: So one way or another, these blows bring a person down if he is here and wants to live his life here?

Answer: It depends on the root of the soul.

Question: And what is your advice to those who strive for the Creator and for connection?

Answer: For them, the most important thing is to get closer to the Creator, and it doesn’t matter in what way: either through getting a couple of blows on the way or any other way.

Question: So, one way or another they will and should treat these blows as help?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is it correct to say that this parable is intended more for those who are directed to the Creator?

Answer: There is always suffering, but if they are not critical and are instead ordinary everyday sufferings, etc., then they are always good.

Question: Is this the way to relate to them?!

Answer: Yes.

Question: What happens if I start to treat them this way?

Answer: I mean the suffering that does not distract from building a right life or a right connection with others and with the Creator. If there are too many of them, then this is a different sort of suffering.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/4/22

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The Opportunity to Gain Freewill

193Question: In theory, the Creator created creation and gave it a sense of freewill. How is it even possible to give a person a quality that supposedly gives independence, but at the same time the choice of decisions and freedom of will as though they are not programmed?

Answer: This quality is created by a person gradually. It doesn’t really exist in nature. When a person begins to work on himself to get out of himself into others, then he has the opportunity of freewill.

In fact, this is freedom not in the sense of “do whatever you want,” but freedom from your egoism. This is not the freedom of being between egoism and altruism, love and hate—no. It is the freedom to be in love, in giving. In our understanding, freedom means that I will do what I want! There is no freedom in this!
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. See What Doesn’t Exist” 8/30/13

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