Comment: Irina is asking: “During this war and these events that are happening, I suddenly have a feeling that I cannot plan anything, that I do not decide anything, that everything is decided for me. They took away the meaning of living the way I want! I have to live as someone else wants! I feel like an animal being led wherever they want: into slavery—so, into slavery; to slaughter—so, to slaughter. And this is called life! How can I break free out of this circle? This is not life!”

My Response: It has always been that way. You just did not realize that you were being controlled. Now you have grown up internally and feel that you are being controlled. This is a completely different state.

What is this for? In order for you to maybe be able to change yourself. To find out why you are being controlled, who is controlling you, what for, why, and how to change yourself so that you can enter this governance yourself. This is already recognizing that you are in a state of spiritual growth.

All these people and governments are in fact puppets. Who is behind them? The upper force that controls all of us through all sorts of figureheads.

It means that we must understand from where, what for, and why, and try to see this upper force that leads us to a certain state and controls us. To come in contact with it in such a way that we would receive all kinds of control signals directly from it.

Question: So that I receive directly from this force? Roughly speaking, why do I need intermediaries? By this I remove these intermediaries and work directly with it, right?

Answer: Of course. This is the level of Moshe (Moses)—the one who talks directly to the Creator. Everyone can come to this. If we get out of slavery, we reach the level of Moses.

This is why we are driven into such states, so that we come out of them and directly connect ourselves to the upper force that wants to lead us somewhere. We are given all the problems just to turn our attention to the upper force. Therefore, it is said about the Creator that He is very jealous.

Question: Is He jealous because we do not pay attention to Him but to everything that happens around us? And we should pay attention to Him?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So, are you saying that this direct dialogue is not just possible but necessary? Is that where we are being led?

Answer: He will force us to do this. But it is better to do this sooner.

Question: Will every inhabitant of the Earth be directly speaking with the upper force? What will happen then if this fantasy takes place?

Answer: We will discover the upper force within which we exist, which controls us and leads us to the next degree of development.

We will discover that He surrounds us, includes us, and controls us in everything and by everything and wants us to enter into such a connection with Him that we understand His every action, His every signal to us.

Question: Why does He need it?

Answer: So that we rise to His level. Through this we reach our highest state of development—to be like Him, to see everything, to understand everything, to execute everything, to do everything, to be at the highest level of nature. To see everything from one end to the other. That is, we become eternal and perfect.

Comment: As they used to say at school: “Man is the crown of nature.” The man who mutilated everything around him.

My Response: This is the recognition of our current state. It is terrible, of course! Worse than animals! It is out of this recognition that we come to connection.

Question: What about what you say all the time: love, connection, and good relations?

Answer: We must cultivate this within ourselves by force. From this forced cultivation we will come to this feeling. We will come to this.
[298327]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/25/22

Related Material:
There Are No Wars in the Creator’s Plans
Why Is The Creator Jealous Of Us
War Between The Creator And The Creatures

Filed under: Free Will, Meaning Of Life, News, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: “Does God exist?”

Answer: No, there is no God. There is nature with its eternal laws, and the main basic force of nature we call  “the Creator” because nature creates. Among other things, it also created us.

We are inside nature, we are part of it. But not in the way it seems to us that supposedly we can observe it from the outside and thus make some decisions outside of nature. We ourselves are a product of its work, and I would say, not the best one.

Yet, we are special, because we can see, observe, make decisions, somehow change something, we have a certain freedom of will.

In general, we are inside nature, and all of it is a creation, inside of which there is a force holding this entire system. This force is called the Creator.
[298311]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Does God Exist?” 5/9/11

Related Material:
There Is No God
What Is God?
Does God Exist?

Filed under: Free Will, The Creator - No Comments →

The problem with humanity is that we should have invented some developmental goals for ourselves earlier, but now we can’t because the next degree is not in the same direction and perspective as previous levels of development. Previously, we developed instinctively, under the pressure of nature, and everything was fine. In a way, we sort of thought, sort of did, sort of even made revolutions. In fact, it is not “us” at all.

There is no freewill here, but it seemed so to us because the development took place according to growing egoism, which was constantly increasing in us. We were just looking for the best way to realize it. And so we realized it, some this way, others that way, in accordance with their internal natural data, which we call mentality, a particularity.

But now we must ascend to another degree and, contrary to our egoism, build a connected society, something that was not done in Ancient Babylon. Then we were given the opportunity to settle apart from each other, and therefore, we did not need to dock together.

And now we have come to the need for full communication again. Absolutely complete! But we have it one-sided, economic and egoistic. We need to make it different exactly according to the condition of ancient Babylon, as Abraham told all Babylonians, all people on Earth need to get together and be friends, to become “as one man with one heart,” one desire, one family.
[298294]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Organic food” 10/21/09

Related Material:
Crisis And Resolution
The World Of Fake Money
Then We Won’t Want to Destroy Anything

Filed under: Ancient Babylon, Crisis, Egoism, Free Will, Globalization - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is there free will in this world?“

There is no free will in our world. Free will is possible only if we have an opportunity to rise above the egoistic nature of our world, i.e. the nature where we wish to benefit ourselves at the expense of others and nature, which determines our decisions and behavior.

We consider ourselves free for as long as we do not think about it and identify ourselves with our animate body. But if we rose above our body a little, we would see that it strictly obeys the laws and processes it is subject to.

We think that we determine all kinds of choices in our lives. However, we are placed in certain conditions and given certain inner qualities, while our desire to enjoy runs like an engine according to a simple principle: maximum pleasure and gain for minimum effort and investment.

We calculate according to this principle at every moment, direction, place and in relation to everything. That is how nature works. It takes into consideration various conditions, such as how tired and healthy we are, and how much risk is involved versus the quality and quantity of enjoyment—and accordingly passes out decisions. We can thus see how we remain in the ego, and how there is no free will in its range of functioning.

We have to realize that we can realize our free will by controlling and being above our desire. The more we stay in our egoistic desire, the more we remain as obedient puppets, fully controlled by egoism.

If, however, we wish to take control of the situation, then we have to manage our desire, which is done by rising above it. In other words, we can experience free will, but only above desire.

Then the question becomes: How can we rise above our egoistic nature in order to realize our free will?

That is what the wisdom of Kabbalah engages in.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on November 26, 2010. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Filed under: Free Will, Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is any human really free?“

We have no free choice at our current level of existence. Decisions are made, either consciously or subconsciously, somewhere in our subconscious based on certain instincts, habits and social influences. And even if we accidentally choose something, it is also not freedom since we choose by chance instead of deciding by ourselves.

If we are given the opportunity to make a free choice at our current level of existence, we would not know what to base it on, where to lead it, and why we would choose one thing over another.

Our current understanding of freedom is to seek minimal pressure from undesirable extraneous sources. It is thus not freedom as a category.

Freedom is when we are positioned between two natures, two universes, corporeal and spiritual, i.e. when we can act based on the practice of receiving for our own sake (the corporeal nature), or bestowal and love for the sake of others (the spiritual nature).

Between these two natures, we have the opportunity for freedom. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, this is a specific inner place called Klipat Noga (the Noga shell). It is a very special and subtle point-like state that is located between two universes. In between them, we have a choice of where we can go, but the moment we have made the choice, we then have no freedom neither here nor there.

Based on KabTV’s “Close- Up, Dissenting Opinion” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on August 29, 2010. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Filed under: Free Will, Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Find yourself and be yourself: Remember, there is no one else like you on Earth like you (Dale Carnegie).

Comment: But we spend our whole life fulfilling desires imposed on us from the outside. For the most part, we are not ourselves.

My Response: We, like little children, are constantly learning from others. Look at a little child. He constantly learns from adults and imitates them. You can call, let’s say, a cup by some other word, and he will repeat it after you and get used to this name.

If you teach him an action, he will try to repeat it. Then this habit will enter into his nature. He will instinctively prefer this action to others, even ones that are more reasonable and useful, because habit becomes second nature and by fulfilling its desires, he will enjoy it.

Therefore, we are all an imprint of the surrounding society and none of us is ourselves

Question: Isn’t it time for us to be ourselves? When can this happen?

Answer: Today there is already such a desire, but still in a small number of people who are beginning to ask themselves about the purpose of existence, about the seeming purposelessness of this world. Millions of people in the world are asking this question, but millions are not billions.
[295984]
From KabTV’s “Close Up. Theater of the Absurd”

Related Material:
How To Choose A Better Environment At Every Moment
Proper Environment
For Each The Right Environment

Filed under: Children, Education, Free Will, Meaning Of Life - No Comments →

Question: Kevin Strickland was 18 years old when he was convicted for shooting and killing and given a life sentence. He served 42 years and only now was it revealed that the charges were false. A witness who survived the shooting had pointed him out as one of the shooters. She had doubts, but hesitated in telling the truth because she was afraid of accusations in her direction. She later admitted that she was pressured by the police.

How does a person who has wrongly imprisoned another for 42 years feel?

Answer: It’s hard to imagine.

Question: Why is such a thing given to a person?

Answer: We don’t know what kind of punishments these are and what kind of corrections they are. Unfortunately, we don’t know what it is at all.

Question: So it was directed from above?

Answer: Of course, it is all from above. There is a purpose to this.

Question: Can an innocent man who has been in prison for so many years justify society and people?

Answer: I think he no longer has the strength to be against anything. He has already cried everything out, his hands have dropped, and he continues to simply live.

Question: How can we accept that there is such a punishment from the Creator? It’s not your fault, but you’ve been locked up for years. You talk about the Creator all the time. How can this be accepted?

Answer: I think that here we still need to figure out what is really happening above oneself and above this circumstance. After all, in order to understand the decision of fate, you need to be above what it did to you within the place where these questions are being decided.

Therefore, I don’t think that a person who has served so many years will just live with this organic hatred. He will still have to mature over all these years and reach the point that it’s not about people and not who decided, but it’s about some kind of upper management and a plan that needs to be understood.

Question: So it will sweeten his feeling?

Answer: No, not only sweeten, if I want to engage in scrutinizing such questions, I have to put it on the level of fate. It’s not just someone who wanted something or someone who did something.

Question: Is this already a correct step when a person begins to think: “Why is this done to me? What did the Creator do to me?” And so on?

Answer: Yes, he wants to penetrate into the plan of actions and this is already higher than a person and really the level of the Creator.

Question: I wonder if it would be justified for a person to suffer for so many years in order to come to such a thought?

Answer: Of course. Undoubtedly.

What is 40 years and in general what is human life? If he had lived it as some kind of locksmith or technologist, or no matter who and what, he would have had children or would have been imprisoned for petty theft and so on. But he would not have been able to scrutinize such questions that he may be thinking about in prison if he had his freedom.

And in freedom his life would have been like in prison, where he would live only inside himself and his egoistic thoughts. When he is in prison, then he will be free from his egoistic thoughts and maybe he will think within the framework of real freedom.

Question: If he rises to the Creator in his thoughts, will he be in dialog with Him? And do you think that even these sufferings for many years are justified?

Answer: Of course! These are all small things and are considered egoistic whining.

Question: Only to come to these thoughts?

Answer: Of course!

Question: So if he comes to these thoughts, then his whole life is justified?

Answer: Of course. Not only life, but precisely the kind of life that would have otherwise seemed to him that death is better than such imprisonment. He begins to understand that this is not imprisonment, but is in fact freedom. And where he would have felt freedom before he now feels the captivity.
[296131]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/6/22

Related Material:
Can Betrayal Be Justified?
What Is Betrayal?
A Kabbalist’s Attributes

Filed under: Free Will, News - No Comments →

Question: According to Kabbalah, a person is totally programmed. Does he have some kind of free program at the level of our world?

Answer: Not on the corporeal level. Why should he have it? In what way should I be free? Find me some point of application of freedom and tell me what it means to be free. Based on what I should act? What does “I am free to do as I want” mean? What do I want?

Comment: It is one thing today, something else tomorrow.

My response: No, this still is not freedom. Everything is decided somewhere in my subconscious, whether consciously or unconsciously, based on some instincts, habits, and the opinion of society.

Even if I accidentally choose something with my eyes closed, this is also not freedom since I choose by chance instead of deciding by myself.

In our behavior, in our world, there is no such concept as freedom at all. No! It cannot be! Give me the opportunity to apply a free decision, and I will not know what to base it on, for what, and where. No!

By freedom, we mean minimal pressure from unwanted extraneous sources. This is all. This is our entire freedom.

Thus, this is not freedom as a category. Freedom is when we are between two natures, between two universes, spiritual and ours, when I can act based on the practice of receiving for my own sake or bestowal and love for the others sake.

Between them, there is the opportunity for freedom, what is called Klipat Noga. There is such a special, very subtle, point-like state located between two universes. Only between them, is there  a choice of where to go—there or here. However, once you have chosen, there is no freedom either here or there.

Question: But still, is it me who is choosing?

Answer: Yes! Everyone who is at this crossing chooses. Therefore, a person should stand with one foot here, the other foot there, and inside, within himself, feel the conflict between the two universes, the spiritual and ours, and choose.

He should be in this state all his life, at all stages of his development to the very final one. It is in this state that he feels free.
This state is not simple at all. It is not like feeling free in our world! Free from what? Do whatever you want. This is not freedom.

Here, however, is the freedom of choice, which implies that you have two equivalent theories, methods, practices, and you are in between them.

How will you choose if they are equivalent?! If one is more and the other is less, then there is no freedom of choice. If they are equal, then you, like Buridan’s ass, do not know where to turn, you stay in the middle and die of hunger because you are unable to choose between the two.

Everything is decided by the third one from above. You must come to contact with the upper force and with its help, without preferring one state to another, connect them together. Then, in the connection between them, you will feel freedom.

This is a very difficult decision. Not many people come to it; they are Kabbalists who are seriously working on themselves. But in the end, all of humanity must go through this and come to the feeling of complete freedom.
[296069]
From KabTV’s “Close- Up, Dissenting Opinion” 8/29/10

Related Material:
Freedom Must Be Paid For
What Is Freedom?
Why Fight A Kind Embrace?

Filed under: Free Will - No Comments →

There are situations in a person’s life when life itself seems to tell him that there is a certain program that determines everything and that he has no control over it.

Each of us can remember such perceived incidents. Sometimes we even know in advance what will happen and suddenly a greater vision opens up to us. It is natural. We are all a little bit like Wolf Messing in some way.

The question is: Where does this lead us? As a rule, this leads nowhere. A person simply continues to live; he was only shown some small fragment of the future and he does not know what to do with it.

In principle, for a person it does not fundamentally solve anything. It is just that a fragment of the future is revealed from the general system of our corporeality, but concealed from us are the spiritual relationships by which we are rigidly connected with each other.

We are in a network of connection that functions in an absolutely rigid and constant manner. Each of us has absolutely no freedom to do anything within it. In this network, everyone goes through all sorts of sensations of himself, which are perceived as in this world, or that world, and so on. But nevertheless, we are always in the same system of interconnection of souls, of our “I”s.

If this system opens up a little, then we can perhaps see the relationship between the two layers, between the layer that should happen and the level at which we each are today. It seems to be an accidental phenomenon, since the person did not see anything in advance.

Of course there is nothing accidental in our life. Everything is absolutely determined.

But what did this lead to? Perhaps one began to behave differently or more correctly, more sensitively, and became warmer toward people. Or in one’s profession he made some changes for good. But in principle, he did not change anything fundamentally.

As a result, we see that throughout the history of humanity all prophetic dreams, insights, slanders, and predictions of clairvoyants do not lead us to anything. There were always a lot of them and they exist now and they will in the future.

Only if we reveal to a person a clear methodology for attaining the entire system of the universe, our connection with each other, the course of life, and the future goal, when this is revealed to us and we are given the opportunity to explore, to confirm, and most importantly, to control our destiny, then we can already say that a person has really been given some kind of tool to control it.

Otherwise, the future should not be revealed. That is why Kabbalists never talk about it. They believe that it is harmful to humanity.

There is a rule: do not place obstacles before a blind man. That is, only to the extent that a person can correctly understand the future, that it can be brought closer to himself to work correctly on its implementation, then it can be revealed to a person, and he will begin to correct it.
[295914]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Dissenting Opinion” 8/29/10

Related Material:
Soul Connection System
Humanity Is A Single System
The Group: A Structure And A Connection

Filed under: Free Will, Meaning Of Life, Perception - No Comments →

Question: Today we are in a state where a person is given to understand that he does not decide anything, he is nobody and nothing, and it is useless to try to change something within the framework of this world.

What is the program for the realization of freedom in equivalence with the Creator?

Answer: The realization of freedom in the likeness with the Creator is when I do not want to, but I must call upon the Creator as an arbiter because I am between two states and do not know what to prefer.

I decide what He decides because this is the only upper force from which two opposite states derive. They converge in me, but I cannot solve my conflict, i.e., combine the plus with the minus so that this system, these two universes, spiritual and corporeal, start working for me.

Therefore, I must call upon a third force that connects them correctly and creates a certain resistance between them. Then it will be like a motor that runs on two wires connected to it.

In this case, I will start working and will find myself in the same state as the Creator. From Him, two forces descend and unite in me.

By invoking Him, I give birth to the same quality as His, the same state as His, and at the same time, I become a man, Adam, from the word “Domeh,” similar to the Creator.

Therefore, I really call upon Him; I do not transfer freedom to Him, but I summon Him, I include His quality in myself. The Creator is a quality of bestowal, love, and the attraction of everything for common bestowal, a common system, and I become just like Him.

This is the freedom to become like the Creator, like this integral nature, to rise above all that He has done, just as He is, above all that has been created. This is prepared for all of us. This is the purpose of man.
[296120]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up, Dissenting Opinion” 8/29/10

Related Material:
By The Will Of The Creator
Only The Creator Manages Everything
How Freedom Of Choice Is Expressed

Filed under: Free Will, Spiritual Work - No Comments →