We, the chosen species, with reason and knowledge, have become a toy in the hands of the blind nature, which leads us astray, and who knows where? (Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”)

Question: Igor writes: “I have a hundred questions about this one passage. Why does such a great Kabbalist, Baal HaSulam, call nature blind?”

Answer: Because it acts according to its own law and does not turn anywhere. And that is why such a movement is called blind.

Question: So it is still directed by someone or something, and it moves without changing. Is this called a “blind state”?

Answer: Yes.

Question: He asks: “Is it blind nature that has led us to war now?”

Answer: This is the so-called blind nature, yes. It controls our egoism, and it leads us constantly, constantly into contradictions among ourselves until we realize the harm of such relationships and want to correct them.

Question: It deliberately brings us into collisions, and the stronger the collision, the faster we realize something?

Answer: Of course.

Question: “How can those who have knowledge and intelligence, as it is written here, be called a toy in someone’s hands? After all, do they have intelligence and knowledge”? That is, us.

Answer: It does not matter. In fact, nature still controls them. It increases or decreases the egoism in each of us and in all of us together, and we are thus controlled.

Question: But do you agree that we are intelligent and knowledgeable?

Answer: Relatively. But not higher than our egoism.

Question: So it is higher than us? Does it decide everything?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Igor asks about the same sentence: “It says that we are being fooled. Somehow I really do not like this.”

Answer: We are shown how limited we are, how stubborn and unidirectional we are, and how we lead ourselves to bad results.

Question: That is, on one hand, they say that we are reasonable, but on the other hand, we can be fooled. Doesn’t this indicate some kind of contradiction, that we are not intelligent?

Answer: No. Our mind works only within very limited boundaries and in no way prevents us from being stupid egoists at the same time.

Question: Igor asks, “They say that it is unknown where it (nature) is leading us. You say all the time that it is known where it is leading us—to unity, love. Yes or no?”

Answer: Toward unity and love, but in a very tough way.

Question: We do not know where it leads?

Answer: Yes, because we are in continuous struggle with each other throughout life, throughout history.

Question: So our task is to succumb to blind nature?

Answer: No! What are we going to do with this? On the contrary, we need to find out that we are in the hands of blind nature and that the only thing we can do is to correct ourselves.

Question: Is this what it wants from us, blind nature?

Answer: Yes. Awareness of evil.

Question: Can we say that we are the ones who are blind?

Answer: Of course.

Question: And that is why we perceive nature blindly?

Answer: Yes. But we cannot do it any other way; it is very difficult.

Question: So, you have no complaints against humanity?

Answer: I have no complaints against anyone.
[321315]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/6/23

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Comment: Igor asks questions about Baal HaSulam’s article “The Freedom.”

Somehow this quote does not quite match with what you are saying. It is written in the article: “It turns out that there is no such thing as selfishness in the world, since no one here is free or stands in his own right.” How is there no egoism? You are saying we are all egoists.

My Response: No, this egoism is not ours, it is not our choice. It is our nature that is imposed on us. And of course, we have to seek ways to get rid of it and correct it.

For this, the science of Kabbalah exists. And if we gradually correct our nature, we will see that there is a way to rise above egoism and live according to different laws.

Question: So, when it is said that there is no egoism in the world because there is not a single free person here, does it mean that we should want to approach freedom? Otherwise, if you stop a person on the street, as you’ve been saying all along, and say, “You are an egoist,” he will say, “What do you mean, I am an egoist?” He has no awareness of evil.

When does this awareness come?

Answer: To achieve this, you have to start studying Kabbalah. And gradually, over the course of just a few months, a person begins to understand that selfishness guides him and he cannot escape from it anywhere, he is enslaved by it, and therefore the only one to blame is the Creator.

Question: Not myself, but the Creator?

Answer: Yes! Who created the ego?! So, it is said:”I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.” So, the only thing we have to do is to reveal our nature as selfish and to reveal the method of correcting our nature as Torah.

Question: Meaning that when I feel bad and I understand that this is because of my egoism, I blame the Creator for this and not myself?

Answer: You can blame the Creator. But, in principle, the Creator does not run anywhere from this responsibility. He says: “The light in the Torah reforms him; the Torah is the light of Torah, which reforms a person,” and why I have made you egoists; and for you to correct yourself, you must study yourself and agree that it is precisely this attitude toward the world as evil and the opportunity to correct the world that are in your hands.

Question: Why does it take millennia for humanity to get to this form?

Answer: It does not want it. It does not want to look in this direction.

Question: It does not want to look within itself? And millennia of wars, suffering, blood, everything, everything are needed?

Answer: All of this is part of the correction process. It is us who count everything by days, hours, weeks and so on, but the Creator has no time.

Question: So, you are saying that there is no history as such? History does not exist?

Answer: There is, but all of it eventually is connected to the general correction nonetheless.

Question: Meaning, it is a force that accumulates? And only for this one solution: The evil is in me and I should correct it?

Answer: Of course, and nothing else is needed besides that.

Question: It is amazing of course! All historians and archaeologists are engaged in history, archaeology, and sciences digging out how we came to be: the Big Bang.And, in essence, it turns out that everything converges to one point.

Are all these sciences necessary, in your opinion?

Answer: No. If we had right away engaged in what is necessary, correcting ourselves and uniting, then we would not have needed all of this.

Question: In other words, we don’t really need all the knowledge?

Answer: No. We would have learned everything from nature itself.
[321183]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/6/23

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Igor writes:

Now I am reading the Baal HaSulam’s article “The Freedom.” Cool article! It is as if he wrote it today. And a lot of questions arise.

Here, for example, it is written: “…we must be watchful not to bring the views of people so close that disagreement and criticism among the wise and scholarly might be terminated, for the love of the body naturally brings with it proximity of views. And should criticism and disagreement vanish, all progress in concepts and ideas will cease, as well, and the source of knowledge in the world will dry out.”

Question: But isn’t it because of disagreements that all these wars are happening today? Wouldn’t it be better if there were no disagreements?”

Answer: No. Then everything would be very unilateral, one-sided. Without contradictions, humanity would not be able to move forward and develop.

Comment: So, in principle, all these wars are necessary?

My Response: I am not talking about wars. Everything can be settled by other methods. You do not have to fight right away!

Question: Why do we always want to resolve disagreements with wars and drastic decisions?

Answer: Like little children, this is what humanity looks like today.

Question: Baal HaSulam is talking about completely different solutions?

Answer: Absolutely about all disagreements! We need to decide everything when we sit together and discuss.

Question: Igor writes further: “But there are no people who would like criticism. People lie when they say the opposite. Is it possible to educate a person so that he will want criticism?”

Answer: Of course. Contradictions are where truth is revealed.

Question: So you can accept criticism?

Answer: Without criticism, how can a person develop?

Question: You even want it, it turns out?

Answer: I do want it, of course.

Question: And you do not resist it?

Answer: I do not resist at all. On the contrary. The more criticism, the more opinions and disagreements, the more can be revealed: who, where, how, and why in this way did the Creator create society, man, and us in such a contradictory form. And only in this way is the truth comprehended.

Question: So you are saying that what a person should desire is a result of criticism?

Answer: Truth is learned through argument.

Question: Next. “Why, having declared at the beginning that criticism is creative, we later come to the point of destroying it?”

Answer: Because everyone likes to put pressure on the other until he agrees. And if he does not agree, I will kill him.

You see how everything is done in the world. Our egoism prevails over all other opportunities to discuss and grow.

Comment: But on the other hand, we say that egoism is our nature. It must stick out.

My Response: After all, we have to correct it somehow.

Question: So our task all the time is to saddle it?

Answer: Yes.

Question: When is criticism constructive and when is it destructive?

Answer: You can see it from here. When it leads to mutual discussion and ultimately agreement, it is positive. And when it leads to contradictions, even to the point of war and destruction, then of course, it is harmful.

Comment: But humanity always comes after all the wars…

My Response: And that is egoism, which we do not work with. There is nothing you can do about it.

Comment: But after the wars, it comes to the conclusion that it is advisable to sit, talk, discuss.

My Response: This is because war still gives some kind of awareness of evil. But then again.

Question: “If you come to internal criticism, does the external one disappear?” asks Igor. “So we can say that external criticism is an indicator that internal criticism is absent? Is this true or not?”

Answer: Yes, yes.

Question: And the question: “What happens in a corrected world full of goodness, love, as you say? Is there criticism there?”

Answer: It all depends on a person’s upbringing and how he educates himself.

Question: Here we have come to a world that is full of love and kindness. We are heading there. Are there any criticisms there?

Answer: There is criticism, of course. Necessarily. There are a huge number of opinions and contradictions, but all this is discussed and constantly brought to some common denominator along which all of humanity advances.

This is what is called that everything is decided at the level of love.

Question: “Love will cover everything”—is this what they say? Is this how things work in a corrected world?

Answer: Of course. And only over disagreements, disagreements remain.
[321376]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/6/23

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Question: Why is it possible to come to absolute love and bestowal only after the shattering?

Answer: We would otherwise not feel how truly egoistic and broken the state we are in is. It is from our distancing from each other that we begin to realize how much we need to be connected.

This is all necessary for a conscious process, for freedom of choice. If we existed only in the light itself, we simply would not feel that light.

Question: How long should this take? Does nature have a deadline?

Answer: Nature has no time and no deadlines. But in principle, we are already quite close to realization.

As our great teacher Baal HaSulam writes, we are in a process called “the last generation.” It is quite possible that we will yet see the world shifting from receiving to giving, from hatred to love.
[320485]
From KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 10/10/23

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A student asked the master, “You said that if I understand who I am, I will become wise. But how do I do that?” The teacher replied, “To begin with, take away from people the right to decide who you are. One will say you are bad, and you will believe him and get upset. Another will say you are good, and you will rejoice. Whether they praise or criticize you, believe in you, or betray you, as long as they have the right to decide who you are, you won’t find yourself. Take away this right from them, and from me, too.” (Parable)

Question: Is it possible to be free from the opinions of others?

Answer: When I see how others judge the world, me, my teacher, and my science, it does, of course, sadden me to a great extent. But in principle, it does not last long or affect me significantly. I find a perfectly sensible answer to it.

Question: Doesn’t it motivate you to make changes?

Answer: No, not at all! That is long gone!

Comment: This means they can no longer change you.

My Response: No one can.

Question: Explain to someone who worries that any opinions can change him. How can he manage to stand firm, avoid all traps, criticism, and so on, and keep moving forward?

Answer: It may take years to achieve this. But I took this upon myself many years ago, and it no longer bothers me.

Question: So you latched onto a goal, a teacher, and that’s it? You couldn’t be swayed by any means?

Answer: By no means.

Question: So in reality, does a person need to hold onto something firmly?

Answer: Yes, to hold on tightly.

Question: Even when doubts arise?

Answer: Doubts come intentionally to make a person hold on.

Question: Is it possible to find oneself without the influence of others? After all, you had a teacher; there was an influence.

Answer: Without the influence of the teacher on me, I am nobody!

Question: But you were looking for someone who would influence you. How can you determine if it’s the right kind of influence you seek?

Answer: During the first few years with him, I still traveled, visited other places, and tried to find out what suited me.

Comment: You are talking about yourself right now.

My Response: Yes, about me and my teacher! And I asked him, “How do I know that you are real? In the thousands of years that Kabbalah has existed, how many like you have there been? Where are they, where are their students, and what happened to them?” He said, “I don’t know.”

Question: Is this called “teacher’s help” to answer like this: “I don’t know”?

Answer: Yes. You have to check for yourself.

Question: So, he doesn’t try to prove anything; he says, “Check it yourself”?

Answer: Exactly.

Question: So was his influence on you like this: “See if it suits you or not”?

Answer: We sit down, we read, we talk, but we don’t delve into anything personal.

Question: Does personal mean whether it’s your place or not?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So do these clarifications take quite a while for a person?

Answer: Gradually, you grab hold more and more, then let go, fall, and then rise and grab hold again. And like this you move forward.”
[317947]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/31/23

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Each and every individual in society is like a wheel that is linked to several other wheels placed in a machine. This single wheel has no freedom of movement in and of itself but continues with the motion of the rest of the wheels in a certain direction to qualify the machine to perform its general function (Baal HaSulam, “Peace in The World”).

Question: What drives the mechanism of these wheels? What initiates the movement?

Answer: The Creator of course. Is there anyone else besides Him?

Remark: Typically in such mechanisms, there is some kind of main wheel that rotates all the others.

Answer: This is the Creator. We must achieve the state of spinning freely, understand what the Creator wishes to do with us, and be in complete agreement with Him.

At every moment in time, a person should be aware that he is under the authority of the Creator and wishes to act as the Creator acts with him. He must become absolutely free regarding the instructions of the Creator. In other words, what the Creator instructs him, a person performs with full willingness of mind and heart.

Question: How can I feel what the Creator wishes to do with me and not interfere with Him?

Answer: Relax, to relax means to be in absolute agreement with higher governance.

Remark: But sometimes I want to take some initiative.

Answer: Your job is to be in full alignment with the Creator.
[319540]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Peace in the World”

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Comment: Rabash realized very early that there was no point in correcting others, criticizing them, or pointing out their mistakes.

My Response: Yes, because a Kabbalist does not do this. First of all, what are people’s mistakes? There are none. What arises in them is under the influence of the Creator, nature, that is what is manifested.

How can a person be accused of anything at all, starting with Hitler and Stalin, no matter who? This is nature, it created them like this. Of course, if it were possible to destroy them before they committed their crimes, it would have been done. But what appeared in them arose under the influence of the same Creator. That is what it says: “The hearts of the ministers and kings are in the hands of the Creator.”

And what about the little man? It is the same with him. Therefore, who is to blame, and what is to blame? No one and nothing.

Kabbalah refers to any person only to the extent that he potentially gets the opportunity to promote connection into an integral system, the construction of the walls of our “pot,” in which we will feel eternity, perfection, and access to another degree, the degree of Man with a capital letter.

Now we are still at the animal level. Although it is more developed than others, it is still an animal degree. We live for the body.

Question: But by trying to change the pleasure of power over others into full power over one’s self…, love is a long process that also requires psychological preparation, right?

Answer: Kabbalah is the highest psychology. It reveals to you what you are made of and how to work with it.
[317855]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Revelations of the Kabbalist” 10/2/11

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It seems to us that we, today’s humanity, are in some way the heirs of two civilizations: Rome and Ancient Greece. The government structure and the structure of the judicial and banking systems come from Rome. Philosophy comes from Greece and in a later period partly from Byzantium. But in principle, all this concerns the corporeal development of humanity.

However, the internal altruistic spiritual development of the world came from the Israelites, a group of people who fell from the spiritual level to the corporeal one. All world religions originate from them, and today they have given the nations of the world a certain preparation for the perception of spiritual ideas.

Thus, humanity was prepared for the fact that the story of mutual infiltration and communication would move to a new level. According to Kabbalah, this is bound to happen either by awareness or by being pushed to happiness by a stick.

Question: Do corporeal and spiritual development, in fact, occur simultaneously?

Answer: In spirituality, the beginning, the end, and all the stages of development exist from the very beginning. On the corporeal level, however, there is none of this; it all unfolds only in us. We can go through these stages either with a good feeling or with an evil feeling. We choose between good and evil.

Every time you have to be in a certain state. If you want to understand and feel what is good for you, you need to transform yourself so that the next state prepared for you is desirable. If you are ready for this, you will perceive your whole path well. If you are not ready, you will perceive it as bad. But that does not change the path.

There is a mechanism inside you that shows you a movie that you have to go through. You just order your attitude to this movie with your constant frame-by-frame development.

In other words, in spirituality, all this already exists in one single picture. And you gradually reveal this picture for yourself as you develop either under the influence of suffering or under the influence of awareness.

It is as if you begin to see clearly and you receive a new vision, a new opportunity to feel, to see, to realize, to understand, and to absorb. In this way, a new world opens up to you.
[317553]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. History According to Kabbalah” 9/29/11

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“What is repentance like? When He who knows the mysteries will testify that he will not return to folly.” …

 In other words, when will one be certain that he has been granted complete repentance? For this, one is given a clear sign: “When He Who knows the mysteries testifies that he will not return to folly.” This means that he will attain the revelation of the face, at which time one’s own salvation will testify that he will not return to folly. (Yehuda Leib Ha-Levi Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 56). 

Question: What is “testimony”? Does a person have a new basis for making decisions in order to evaluate their actions differently?

Answer: The Creator shines a special light upon a person from a certain degree, and this indicates that he will not fall below this degree.

He has a new foundation, which depends on the light of the Creator influencing him.

And above that he has freewill, and he must climb the degrees of the spiritual worlds by himself. He himself is now looking for ways to advance further and continue his journey and his ascent.
[317498]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/20/23, “The Need for the Creator’s Salvation”

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Dear Michael Laitman,

You have been a replacement for me for radio and TV for a long time. I have been with you for three years. I want to ask a question, Where do desires come from?

Moreover, such desires are shameful to admit. And sometimes you cannot get rid of them. They were not in me, generally, I have a completely different character. Please tell me how to deal with such desires that are not good? 

Answer: I do not know what “bad desires” means.

Comment: A person is somehow uncomfortable with the desires that suddenly arise in him.

My Response: Well, desires arise. Man is a complex animal after all. He consists of an animal part, a human part, and possibly a spiritual part.

Question: Meaning, desires from all degrees come to him?

Answer: Yes. So there is nothing to worry about. All desires have the right to be revealed and to exist in a person.

Question: Any desire?

Answer: Absolutely any. And a person can have all kinds of relationships to this.

Question: What does one need to do if bad desires arise, even those that shake a person?

Answer: I see. What to do? Shake yourself, shake them off, and continue to exist. You need to engage in something else, and then the desire will change.

Comment: Please answer the question “where do they come from and why?”

My Response: From above! Why? In order for a person to develop. In order to develop him.

Question: When you say “develop,” what does it mean? So that some specific desires arise in him?

Answer: Desires, emotions, intentions, and so on, such that will match the more developed person that he will become.

Question: You said “from above.” Is there a bank of desires that one needs to go through?

Answer: Yes. There is a bank of desires that we have to go through, each of us and all of us together.

Question: And when this bank is emptied, desires pass, what happens next? When all the desires have already passed through me, what does it mean?

Answer: The end of the world. We have worked out all our desires and are at rest.

Question: The end of the world, what is that in your opinion?

Answer: The end of the world means that there is no one to live onward, there is no need, and there is no goal.

Question: So I will not be coming back here?

Answer: No.

Question: Where will I end up? This world has ended. Where do I end up?

Answer: In the next world.

Question: And what is there in the next world?

Answer: Happiness, peace, and all good things are waiting for you in the next world.

Question: I already like this. That is, in principle, this whole chain of desires should lead me to the world where there is happiness, peace, everything?

Answer: Yes.

Question: How should I work out these desires in order to come to this peace and happiness?

Answer: You will come to it anyway. So, do not worry. The only thing you need is to agree that you will be brought there. And therefore, in accordance with this, live calmly, breathe calmly, and be peaceful toward the upper force that will lead you there.
[316377]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/20/23

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