Entries in the 'Free Will' Category

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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Seeing a Person’s Future

961.2Question: When you look at a student, do you know his or her entire path from beginning to end?

Answer: What does it matter? It is still very hard to describe, including his freewill and so on. There is nothing obvious. There is a program, but the method of its implementation is concealed.

But if we were at the end of final correction, which no one has yet reached because this can only be done together, we would see all the paths we have traveled. This can only be seen by going through them and being in the final state.

No person can fully see what is happening, what will happen, and in what form. In principle the stages of the path are known, but the time when they will come true and how they are realized is unknown since this is determined by our freewill.

Question: But you once said that Rabash knew your path from beginning to end?

Answer: Probably, but I do not think he knew exactly how it would be implemented. As far as I understand, not a single created being, until its final correction, can see an absolutely complete implementation, which is above freewill because it is on the next level of the entire picture of the universe.

That is, you must rise to the full correction of this picture, behind which there are so-called 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th millennia.

Question: But can a Kabbalist see the dry program, I mean the program itself?

Answer: Of course. But not the dates. It is impossible to say how this will be done, by war or by peace, this year or in 20 to 30 years. Otherwise, we would not have freedom.

This would automatically cancel any of our actions. Not that you know and do nothing, but in a completely different way. If this picture were clear, visible, and realized, then you no longer need to do anything.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. To See the Future of an Individual” 9/8/13

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We Still Want To Get To the Next Cell

424.01Suppose you succeed in breaking the wall with your head. And what, then, will you do in the next cell? (Stanislaw Jerzy Lec)

Question: The author completely believes that we are in prison one way or another. We are constantly hitting and hitting a wall.

Answer: That’s right. The entire history of humanity is like this. But we still want to get to the next cell.

Question: I would like to believe that I am hammering away and somewhere I will break through a tunnel and come out into the light, but in fact, am I just trying to get into the next cell?

Answer: Yes. No tunnel leads anywhere because we are digging in the wrong direction. It is necessary to dig not into the next cell, but into yourself. We can dig into ourselves only if we agree on very serious mutual support, and we will really dig.

Then we will dig up a huge mountain of egoism. We can help each other climb it. Once we climb it, we will sit down and barbecue some kebabs. 😊

Question: What is on our skewers? What are we barbecuing? Is it our own egoism?

Answer: Yes. There are so many problems and scrutinies before we come to the correct state. It is because religions, philosophies, psychology, and everything around makes it all so foggy, even dark, that a person does not know which way to move. Any step can lead you around 360 degrees, in circles, but a thin line to the true state is anti–egoistic.

We must join hands and walk, and constantly annul ourselves, close our eyes, and obey the others. This is what we need to do together.

If we all do that, if we join our hands and hold on to each other, and although no one knows the way, but we hold on to each other and keep going, and every step we take forward is just to be closer to each other, in this case, we will get to the right place

Question: Then will then the tunnel be not from cell to cell, but toward the way out of prison?

Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/27/21

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Reincarnations—Not By Choice

198Question: The topic of reincarnation interests many people, but why is there so little written about it?

Answer: It is in order not to pass incorrect information and it is not to try to hide the correct one, but to give a person only what is needed. Therefore, Kabbalists prefer to remain silent.

Question: But does the concept of life cycles still exist?

Answer: Yes, it exists. In principle, nature is full of cycles: gasses, water, minerals, air, planets; everything is subject to some kind of cycle.

Question: So, life does not end after death? If there are cycles, then nothing ends?

Answer: Is this the most important thing that interests a person? He is not happy with his life, sometimes curses it, and still fears that it ends and there will be no continuation.

Let’s say a person was born, grew up, was taught, punished, and encouraged. In the end, he grew up, created a family, and gave birth to his children. And what is next? He reached the state of death and died like everything in nature. So is there anything to worry about? As it is said: “Against your will you are born; against your will you live; and against your will you die.”
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual states” 10/9/22

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“A Nation’s Prayer”

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 10/4/22

The Day of Atonement is a time for reflection. On this day, it is customary for Jews to reflect not only on their personal sins, primarily against each other, but for the entire Jewish nation to reflect on what it did not do, or should have done better as a nation toward the rest of the world. Most people who write posts about this day focus on the personal; I would like to focus on the forgiveness we should ask as a nation.

The Day of Atonement is a great opportunity to remind ourselves that we are unlike any other nation. We are the only nation that has the mission to be an example of unity, to cultivate love of others, solidarity, and mutual responsibility, and in this way become an example for the world.

To see that we do not forget our obligation to the world, the closing prayer on the Day of Atonement includes the entire Book of Jonah, who was a Jewish prophet who tried to avoid his obligation to save the gentile city of Nineveh. The story reminds us that we cannot escape our calling, that we will be found even deep inside a merchant ship whose sailors do not know our identity.

The very reason we should foster unity is to be an example, and not for our own sake. Accordingly, the prayers on the Day of Atonement are structured so that after we have asked forgiveness for our mistreatment of each other and reinforced our unity, the final part of the closing prayer reminds us of the purpose of all our efforts: to be a light to the nations, a nation that displays exemplary unity.

The Creator that our sages talk about is not a celestial entity of some sort; it is a force of bestowal, a desire to give. The Israeli people are those who strive to acquire this quality, the desire to give. This is why the people of Israel cherish charity, caring for others, solidarity, and all those other customs and traits that bind people’s hearts together.

Therefore, being “a light to the nations” means showing the nations of the world how they, too, can unite among themselves and with each other. However, the only way for Israel to help the world unite is by example. Israel cannot teach the nations; they do not need our instruction. All they need is to see our unity, and they will know what to do.

Because we are divided, we set the opposite example of what we must give to the world. This is why the nations hate us and blame us for their conflicts. Without our example, they, too, will not be able to unite, and they will blame us for their conflicts. If we unite, we will see how all the nations welcome us and gladly follow our example.

May this Day of Atonement be the last one in which we are divided and set a bad example to the world. May we be able to reflect on our actions on the next Day of Atonement and say, “We have united; we have become a light to the nations.”

Photo Caption:
Jewish worshippers take part in Slichot, a prayer in which Jews offer repentance and ask God to forgive their sins, ahead of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement and the holiest day in the Jewish calendar at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City in Jerusalem’s Old City, October 3, 2022. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Born Free

423.02Comment: Researchers have been studying the effect of joining the majority for a long time, meaning when you choose what the environment chooses, when you choose what your relatives and friends approve of and what is in fashion, it is like you do not have a particular opinion. Researchers note that it is often the fear of missed opportunities that motivate us to follow the majority. This is a condition that occurs when you start thinking that the grass is greener behind someone else’s fence, someone else’s life is more interesting, and so on. They basically direct everything to the fact that there is a fear of missed opportunities.

My Response: Of course.

Question: Is that why we choose what everyone has chosen?

Answer: I do not know who chooses but mostly, yes. Mostly because it seems that others have it greener, better, and so on.

Question: Can a person break out of this lack of freedom? From the fact that I live like everyone lives as they choose, so I choose the same, can I escape this?

Answer: I think that only if a person works on himself, if he has a different defense system at the same time, he will understand why he is doing this.

And why follow the majority just like that? There is nothing in the majority but a brute animal force that directs me to choose what it chooses.

It just pulls and says: “You will be safe with us, everything will be fine, be like everyone else, you do not need anything more or you will feel bad, and so on.” We can already see how it works.

A person can be free only if he stands above the collective, if he can be free from the collective, and when he decides what to join. Then he either creates a team himself or already joins a known team.

Question: But only when he decides by himself?

Answer: Yes, of course.

Question: What does he have to weigh for this, for him to join them?

Answer: The goal! His own and the goal of the collective, and choose from that which group to join.

Question: What goal determines whether a person is free or not? For example, you will be told: “He went for this goal.” You say: “This is a free man.” If he has chosen this goal, he is a free man. Is it possible like this?

Answer: If, first of all, he does not fall under the influence of any collective.

Question: What can you do with human nature, which is all under the collective and under the general opinion?

Answer: That is what we see.

Question: So he needs to break out of his nature, in general?

Answer: Yes. These are special people who are born like this, develop, and therefore they are not able to be in any team at all. And then they find their realization.

Question: Can a person be taught this?

Answer: No.

Question: If born not free, he continues not to be free?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: This is generally a verdict.

My Response: This is not a verdict; it is nature that operates like this.

Question: Have you seen such free people in your life?

Answer: Very few. Usually such people choose real lack of freedom. They are looking for a team they could approach, into which they could join and give themselves till the end. Because they understand that it is impossible to exist separately. And therefore, in order to realize yourself, the main thing is to find the right team.

Born free, man takes his freedom and follows the collective. He sacrifices his freedom in order to realize himself correctly. Because the implementation is still in the collective, in the team.

Question: Is this really his heroism? Is it much cooler than if you stay free because you were born free?

Answer: What is the point? It is a lonely existence.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/23/22

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Calculation Is Not With Bodies, But With Souls

962.2Question: Suppose some acute situation arises somewhere nearby, in a city, in a country and then all over the world. To which of them should I direct my attention first? I can watch the news in a purely detached way: “Oh, well, yes. They are blowing up there, they are shooting there. Well, it’s bad for them.”

Answer: The world appears as one single whole, but at the same time you see the clear hand of the Creator, which leads all souls to correction. If, for the sake of this correction, it is necessary that today, for example, one hundred million people perish in the world in a single day, then they will perish.

In our time, somewhere there is some kind of accident and it is there already. But earlier, let’s say, two or three thousand years ago, the soldiers of King David engaged in hand-to-hand combat. There was nothing else: either I strike you or you strike me. When leaving for the war, men gave a divorce to their wife in advance, so that later she could get married.

How else can it be? I am faced one on one with the enemy or maybe even with not one but with several who attack me. And what did they fight with: shield and sword, spear or mace, stone throwers or slings. So during the war, tens of thousands of people would die a day.

Therefore, when you look at what is happening in the world, you begin to justify everything that is happening because at the same time you see how the calculation is done not with bodies, but with souls. This is first.

Secondly, it is not possible to correct them otherwise. This is the best, optimal method for them to get closer to the spiritual because at the moment they are not able to respond to challenges to correct themselves.

But when people are already close to correcting themselves and not falling under the millstones, under the firm pressing force of development, then it’s really a pity. When they have freewill, then it’s a pity. And what will you do? As it turns out.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call, Spiritual States” 4/17/13

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Living Inside Oneself

427.01Comment: It often happens that the place of residence defines many things in a person. Let’s say, if a Hindu grew up in England, he is no longer a Hindu, but an Englishman.

My Response: This happens on a corporeal level because ordinary people have a clear link to earthly culture, statutes, and conventions. But a Kabbalist does not have this. He departs from his body, from all conventions, and enters a completely different space, into the quality of bestowal.

Therefore, what difference does it make where he lives? What difference does it make who he lives among? He is inside himself, inside the upper world. After all, Kabbalists lived in all kinds of different places and there were never problems with that.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The World through the Eyes of a Baby” 2/10/13

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