Question: You have repeatedly said that it is possible to conduct a statistical experiment: to take 1,000 people who live in this world egotistically—I care for myself and you care for yourself, they suppress or dominate others—and take 1,000 other people who are beginning to move toward each other, to connection with each other, and are beginning to clarify what it means to love your neighbor as yourself, and how not to do to others what you do not want done to you.

And if you thoroughly check the statistics regarding the 1,000 people in both groups, you will find that those who start a positive process of love for their neighbors will be much healthier and not prone to depression.

Is there any direct correlation here?

Answer: It is not as simple and primitive as it seems. Otherwise, nature would create us like that and that is it! We would be just clockwork toys that would nod to each other like bobbleheads?

Comment: I would be glad to see such a logical connection: I behave well, and am healthier.

My Response: No. Then everyone would be egoistic like that.

The fact is that in order to create a person similar to the Creator, he must be put against the Creator. It means creating the exact opposite. And then, a person should make himself similar to the Creator. By himself! By his own efforts. The problem is how to do it.

It will not work otherwise, because if you make a man just like the Creator, it would be a toy. It would be just a copy and that is it. He would be made and thrown away. There would be nothing in him from himself.

And if a man is opposite to the Creator and at the same time begins to create his similarity to the Creator by himself, then this will be Man. That is, having been created opposite, he will independently begin to fight within himself to become similar to the Creator. And this contrast will remain in him as his clear egoistic foundation.

Question: What is the Creator?

Answer: He is the anti-egoistic property of bestowal, the property of love. And a man will ask the Creator for it.

Question: That is, he will want to become loving and bestowing, like the Creator?

Answer: Yes.

Question: How can this desire emerge in him, in such a receiver?

Answer: The Creator arouses this desire in him. That is, He makes a man from egoism, a property opposite to Himself, and apart from that, he puts a small drop of His property in a person. Thus, a person consists of two parts, two sources. And here such opposite states are fighting in him, and he is simply torn apart from within—what, where, and how. And everyone is like that in his own way.

And if he reaches such a state when he really wants to make himself similar to the Creator, then he must ask the Creator for this. Can you imagine such work?!

To find within yourself the strength and desire to become similar to the Creator, that is, the opposite of yourself, and ask the Creator to make you the opposite of yourself. Then the Creator gradually, sequentially, step-by-step carries out such corrections on you. And a person gradually becomes more and more similar to the Creator.

This process is not easy, it breaks a person and twists him around with a grinding sound: kh, kh, kh! And then a man becomes a Man, Adam, similar to the Creator.

Question: You say that the time has come when a person begins to move toward this breakage by himself. He begins to feel the point of the Creator in himself more and more. What, besides suffering, makes him pay attention to it now?

Answer: When this point begins to speak up in a person, then there are no questions. It is just right, this is the truth, it is my innermost point, and it is the foundation of the world. This is the point of the Creator. This property is from a completely different level.

Comment: The Creator Himself creates a person to receive and for this world. He Himself inserts a point into a person that is similar to the Creator. He Himself turns it on and leads a person to Him. All this is done by the Creator.

My Response: Of course.

Question: The same question constantly arises here: “Don’t I have any freewill?”

Answer: You do. You are present for all this and still want this. You are a witness, an accomplice, a partner in this process.

Question: What is my main task here?

Answer: To want the Creator to do this to you: “Break! Break me.”

Question: Will a simple person understand you?

Answer: He will. He will understand that it is impossible to live in this state anymore. He will understand that he cannot bear himself.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 5/11/20

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Question: How do I reach the realization that I depend on my desires, and how do I later understand that these are not my desires?

Answer: First you discover that they are your desires, and that you are in them and they manage you. When you try to exit them and ascend above them, you begin to understand that they actually control you and that they are not your desires, but that it is your evil landlord, your ego, and thus you gradually exit them.

Question: Can a Kabbalist, unlike ordinary people, impact and choose which desire, which thoughts, will be revealed in him the next moment?

Answer: No, but he can choose which thought or which desire he will obey, and not just obey, but use and fulfill according to his discretion.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 11/17/19

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Nature Is a Strict Teacher

Question: Baal HaSulam writes that the blows of nature occur precisely and in accordance with the level of development of society. That is, as society develops, nature corrects us.

How does the current correction differ from those viruses and cataclysms of 100 years ago?

Answer: In accordance with our development, we get more and more blows from nature. It seems to us that nature is punishing us. But this is not true. It teaches us, shows us at what level and to what extent we are mistaken. We deviate from the striving to integrate between each other and uniting with the global picture of nature.

It turns out that we are, in general, unteachable, clueless participants of nature. We don’t understand what we should do. Or we understand, but we don’t want to hear it.

As a result, nature always points a finger at us, pokes our nose at our mistakes, and we don’t seem to see them. It turns out that the most successful among us seem to be those who notice these mistakes less, who do not care about the inconsistencies of a person with the world around them. They do everything in their own way, and at the same time, in the understanding of others, they are considered the most successful.

Comment: But nature still pushes us toward partnership, cooperation, solidarity. We see that when some cataclysms occur, people begin to treat one another more sensitively and gently.

My Response: Not because they realize something, but out of necessity. And as soon as the threatening state passes, they immediately return to the stand against each other.

Question: How can nature lead us to solidarity, to sensitive relationships, if blows don’t help? What’s the point of them?

Answer: Nature leads us nevertheless to see how integral it is and to feel, by analogy with itself, how integral we should be.

Question: So, nature still requires us as human beings, as the crown of creation, to recognize this on our own and to want to connect with each other sensitively?

Answer: Yes. In order to unite at the highest level, we create a system in which we feel all the internal, driving force of nature and become the same as it: eternal, perfect, and attain everything.

Question: So there should be some kind of reset of values in society?

Answer: Of course. In each and every one.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era,” 4/16/20

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The Element of Freedom in the Rigid Program of Nature

Question: According to Baal HaSulam, the law of mutual guarantee is the basis for the interaction of all living organisms and is built on the balance between reception and bestowal.

Moreover, the law of reception is that each member of society tries to get everything he needs to live in the way his individual, egoistic system requires. And the law of bestowal is that each person cares about the welfare of the entire society.

If a person does not observe the law of bestowal, then he is hit by disasters and problems sent to him by nature. How can a person observe this law?

Answer: How to observe is one problem. And the fact that a person is obliged to observe this law follows from the image of nature that is revealed to us.

We see in front of us an absolutely integral picture: one single nature in which man is included with all his egoisms, scientific and anti-scientific “isms.” It turns out that we can not dodge and escape from the integral picture of nature. Whether we want it or not, we are inside this system and cannot exist outside of it.

This system is constantly evolving: from the inanimate level for hundreds of thousands of years, to the vegetative level for tens of thousands of years, to the animate level for thousands of years, and at the human level for literally decades. In other words, the higher nature is organized, the faster the stages of development occur in it.

The only question is when do we begin to discover ourselves in this system? We see that we are opposed to it for a very simple reason. We are not instinctively involved in nature because it affects us with the element of freedom.

We can agree or disagree with the way nature works on us, and to this extent, we determine our fate. It turns out that we are unhappy people. Nature is given to us, we can live in it, work, reproduce, create anything imaginable—unlike animals—on the next, conscious level. And we do not know what to do with it.

We create everything based on our natural egoistic nature, acting to the detriment of others and ostensibly for the benefit of ourselves. We do not understand that integral nature forces us to become different. For the benefit of oneself means for the benefit of others.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era,” 4/16/20

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Remark: Today, man has more freedom than slaves in America in the nineteenth century or serfs under serfdom.

My Reply: This is not freedom! By the way, a slave was not enslaved more than we are today. He felt that he belonged to his master, which meant that he had no worries.

He knew that his master would feed him, make sure he had a place to sleep, make sure that he was healthy, that he had a family, and so on. That is, the master was taking care of the slave, and there was a certain agreement between them.

The fact is that there were special agreements on the status of slaves determining how the owner should look after them, provide medical treatment, and so on. Slaves were not people without any rights. In addition, a slave was quite expensive, so, the owner took care of his assets.

Today, in contrast, everything is quite different. You get fired, you are lost. There are 100 more people at the gate to replace you. No one owes you anything because the owner only thinks about how to get rid of you and not pay anything.

Question: Do you think that in terms of valuing freedom, there has not been a breakthrough in human relationships for the past century and a half?

Answer: The breakthrough is in the fact that today a person is enslaved and used in such a way that he does not even know that he is a slave.

Question: Slavery means a prohibition on moving from place to place, not being able to take care of your family, it is violence and absence of justice. How can the condition of slaves in the nineteenth century be compared to that of the modern working man?

Answer: I do not see much difference. Anyway, you do not move according to your own will but according to the commands of television advertising. You do not choose your profession by yourself but under the influence of what was instilled in you in your childhood. There is no freedom in this. Talk to good psychologists and you will see that that is the case.

Of course, there are relative freedoms, but they are as if you took a pill and do not feel your lack of freedom. And you are even proud of it: “Look, we visited this place. Look, we saw that. Look, we were there.” Why were you there? Yes, it is because others go there. In everything without exception, we follow our flock mentality, and therefore, we have no freedom.
[265509]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 4/12/20

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An individual’s desires are not under one’s control. They are determined by society. If we compare the historic Papuans with modern people, we can clearly see that the development of a person determines one’s desires and pleasures.

Question: Why is a person under the illusion that these are precisely one’s own desires?

Answer: A person does not know anything else. One was created in this, developed in it, and therefore feels that it is one’s own. What does one’s own mean? In fact, he is like puppet, filled with certain desires and small programs, and it exists like that.

Question: Do you think it is important to come to the realization that society dictates all of my desires for me?

Answer: A person doesn’t have their own desires, everyone should know this. Desires are determined by society, the environment. By changing the environment, I can change these desires.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era,” 4/23/20

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Question: Although the coronavirus has helped us feel that we are connected, we do not understand how much we depend on each other. This is the whole paradox. How can we get out of this?

Answer: Indeed, a big problem is raised here. We understand that we are inevitably connected with each other, we are together in one system, and the virus acts on everyone, through one to another.

Moreover, this is visible not only in every separate region, but in all countries. There are no problems with communication today so we can learn about everything that is happening in the world.

Are we connected? Yes, but to feel dependence is a problem because it can be at different levels. It is very difficult for us to determine this.

In addition, connectedness is a scientific concept. We can study different connections: bad, good, whatever, because they are objective.

And in order to feel dependence, our subjective sensation already interferes. Maybe I would not want to feel dependent on someone or do not want others to feel dependent on me and make complaints. Therefore, dependence is a very delicate thing.

We must figure out how we are dependent on each other, how this dependence manifests itself, and what if we purposely influence each other in this way? Here, there are many opportunities for all kinds of conjectures and speculations.

Speaking of dependence, I understand that there can be no clear opinion and solid basis here, but there are always some additions from different people directed against each other.

Question: Does dependence always involve a lack of freedom? Is it possible to break out of this?

Answer: Dependence does not necessarily result in a lack of freedom. What matters is what one depends on. If I depend on the whole universe, know that I am a part of it, and voluntarily comply with the laws that exist in it, then I experience a feeling of eternity and perfection. Therefore, it does not suppress me and I do not pressure me that I am a part of it.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 5/25/20

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Question: The spreading coronavirus shows how much we are all interconnected. A Chinese man ate a bat (at least they say so) and now every day thousands of people are dying, a third of the population are quarantined in their homes.

If before we theoretically knew about the butterfly effect, today we see it explicitly. Why don’t we feel dependent on other people?

Answer: Because we are not at the level of the interaction that exists in inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, but at a higher level of interaction. We are not given the natural way from nature to feel how much we are interdependent in our desires and properties. We need to investigate this and reveal it ourselves. This is the subject of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Question: For people, at the highest stage of development, does nature give us freedom of choice to independently realize all these processes, and not remain under the control of instincts?

Answer: I would not say that this is freedom. We have been given a very relative, very narrow freedom in order to make sure that we ourselves need to reveal the correct interaction between ourselves and the inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature.

This is not absolute freedom to do what you want. No. This freedom is only in understanding, realizing, revealing, exploring, and adapting ourselves to our complete dependence on all levels of nature and to organically fit into them.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era,” 4/2/20

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Question: We see in nature how atoms combine into molecules and molecules into more complex substances. This process of unification we understand. Unified plants can cause rain. Ants organize themselves in colonies, etc.

And what about humanity? We look at the inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, but we cannot see an example of how our society should be built. We cannot do it.

Answer: Why not? How is man different from inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature? By the fact is that he has freewill. It can act as an integral part of nature or it can act contrary to it.

Comment: But ants interact with each other instinctively.

My Response: And we must act not instinctively but consciously. I must consciously restrict my selfish impulses so as not to harm nature, not to go beyond the framework of its integral picture.

Question: Does humanity have any special role?

Answer: Yes. When we build ourselves in the likeness of nature, we begin to understand and feel it. We become intrinsically closed within it and gradually begin to see its inner meaning, the program of development.

We are included in this program, but do not want to match it. We want to do everything according to our egoistic program. And here, we are in conflict with nature.

Question: If we, people, begin to draw closer to each other, what will humanity turn into? What transformation will happen?

Answer: In order to get closer, we first need to rise above everyone’s petty, personal egoism. We must belittle it, control it. Thus, we will rise to the level of controlling our human nature, we will rise above it.

Through connecting together, we will create a system similar to nature on the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels. And then, we will build a nature called Adam, Man. This is a single system, like the inanimate, vegetative, and animate have a single mind, single feeling, and common properties that combine together mutually complementing each other.

Building this system, we will understand that there is a single mind in it, which we will perceive as being born precisely at the connection between us, the egoists. And so, we will begin to feel the higher management of nature, the upper world.
[265206]
From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era,” 4/2/20

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Question: If we speak about freewill, it is clear we make decisions in our world, but it doesn’t seem so in spirituality. The Creator leads us, and we must agree with Him. How do we distinguish between freewill relative to spirituality and corporeality?

Answer: I cannot even explain this, because our freedom is in rising above our egoism. Freewill is about the freedom from our egoism that forces us to act the way it wants us to, so freewill is in ascending above it.

In our world, there is no freewill of course, because we fully subordinate to our ego. Even if it seems to us that we have ascended above it and that we are already free, there is no such thing.

There is only freedom in the gradual attainment of the attribute that is opposite from the ego, the attribute of altruism, when we ascend and become both greater egoists and greater altruists at the same time.

A state of freedom appears in the intersection between them, in the middle line, in which we do not belong to either state. We are free of both the Creator, who is the attribute of love and bestowal, and from our attribute, which is hatred and receiving. By being between them on the middle line, we attain true freedom. It is a state that cannot be expressed because it is above the revelations of the forces and attributes on each level of the worlds.
[260224]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/5/20

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