All our actions in this world are carried out by command from above, except for those in which we are free. My freedom of will lies only in rising upward, that is, in correcting the soul to resemble the Creator.

Everything else in me and around me is dictated from Above by the laws of the higher world. If I have no freewill in anything earthly, if everything is dictated from above, then there is neither punishment nor reward for any earthly deeds! After all, I didn’t do any of it, it was done through me from above.

Therefore, it is said that we are all like animals, until we become similar to the Creator. To the extent that we resemble Him, we are called “Adam” — “similar” (Domeh in Hebrew).

Similarity to the Creator begins with a tiny desire, a yearning toward Him, called “the point in the heart.” If it exists, if it has revealed itself, a person will inevitably come to Kabbalah; it will lead him there.

The point in the heart is like a drop of semen from which you develop. But the spiritual body, the soul, can be developed only through one’s own efforts. In this lies our only freedom of will (see Baal HaSulam’s article “Freedom of Will”).

Push the whole world into the background and begin to develop it, raise yourself into the higher system. Be ready to give up everything just to remain there.

This is the only choice, the only action that can be recorded to your credit. The reward is life within the soul!
[5628]
From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/13/09, Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book From the Mouth of a Sage“

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By way of suffering, by moving only by means of blows, we cannot get anywhere. We will still have to develop ourselves on the path of light, while the blows only prolong the time. We only prolong our suffering and slow down our awareness of its source. Ultimately, one way or another, we will have to discover it and begin to work with it.

Whereas, if we heed the advice of Kabbalists, we can immediately use the upper system and demand from the source of the light that it influence us.

If we begin to organize ourselves into circles in the likeness of the corrected soul, if we build correct connections and strive to rise above our egoism, the upper light will respond to our efforts, realize our connection, and shine within it. This is called the revelation of the Creator to the created beings in this world.

This is exactly what the science of Kabbalah deals with; it is a method of revealing the Creator to creatures in this world. By doing so, we greatly reduce our time and suffering because we immediately go to the source of the light that created our egoism and demand that the light remedy everything. Therefore, we need to awaken ourselves rather than suffer.

On the path of suffering, we are gradually moving toward the path of light, but extremely slowly. The prophets describe the path of suffering because it is clearly defined; it is an existing program. The prophets, who were Kabbalists, saw the upper system and the opposition of right and left forces in it, and therefore they understood what suffering our desires must go through in order to achieve the final correction.

They write that merciful mothers would cook and eat their own children. These would be horrific times. We are shown what will happen if we do not go by the path of light, by the acceleration of time, what terrible physical suffering would be required to move us toward building a vessel at the level of the natural course of evolution.

The prophets can describe this scenario because it follows from a general formula: the amount of suffering multiplied by its quality. This is the natural way because it is entirely in the hands of heaven. But the prophets do not know how much of our own efforts we will add to this process. No one can know this in advance because we are given freewill in this.
[190154]
From Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 7/15/16, Rabash, Article 16, “But the More They Afflicted Them”

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Question: What if you make a wrong choice? I checked everything, did everything, and made a wrong decision.

Answer: How do you know it is wrong?

Comment: As a result, I did not reach my goal.

My Response: But that will be evident after you make the decision.

Comment: After that, when I had already jumped.

My Response: After implementation?

Question: Yes, that is right. I realized I had made the wrong decision. What should I do about it?

Answer: Do nothing.

Question: I eat myself up on the inside after that! I double-checked everything, jumped, and everything is wrong!

Answer: You cannot do anything. There is nothing more to do, nothing to blame.

Question: Not to blame yourself?

Answer: No, absolutely not!

Question: How do I stop myself?

Answer: Relate it to the Creator.

Question: So before I was the one who measured everything? But after it happened…

Answer: The Creator did it. For sure it was the Creator.

Comment: That is, we have now come to the golden rule. I check everything.…

My Response: I decide, I act, and the Creator does the rest.

Question: No regrets, nothing?

Answer: Nothing. That is how it was intended from the beginning.

Comment: If it were possible to live like this, you would have no regrets at all.

My Response: So live like that.

Comment: “Live like that!” I wish I could learn to live like that.

My Response: You should have no regrets about anything! Everything is orchestrated from above.
[350789]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 12/11/25

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Comment: A person stands not knowing where to go. He hears this deliberation of paths: at the end of one is hell, at the end of another is heaven. Still, he does not move anywhere. It is as if he is torn apart; he does not know which way to go!

My Response: This is our feeling every second.

Comment: So, these roads, it is not just that I stand and make a decision right now. I am always in this state.

My Response: You are always in it.

Question: Am I always at a crossroads?

Answer: Yes, every moment.

Question: So, how do I eventually decide which path to take?

Answer: You decide nothing. You decide nothing; everything is decided from above. You are led as you must be led. And this is already known and predetermined in advance. So the main thing is to agree with it, not worry, and connect with the Creator, who is arranging everything. He will take you by the hand to where you must go. You just obediently correct yourself, that is, be in agreement with Him at every moment.

Question: One way or another, do I stop at this fork for a moment, for some time, and then I need to agree with Him and go where He directs me?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is this what it means “to go where the heart leads”?

Answer: That is how it is said. According to the definition of a straight line. A straight line is actually a curve in every point of which there is a turn.

Comment: I did not know that. For me, even from the first grades in school, it is two points and a straight line between them.

My Response: No. You cannot draw a straight line; you do not know the final point. But at each point, you make a turn, and that is why it becomes a straight line.

Comment: A person does not choose his path is what you say. The Creator chooses it for him. And you always emphasize that the line is to agree with the Creator.

My Response: Yes.

Question: Why do I agree? Is it out of exhaustion, out of wisdom? What is stronger here?

Answer: Because this is the only correct option. I am not tuning myself to something supernatural. I am not making any special decisions. I simply want to flow with the current of life in agreement with the Creator because it is above me from the beginning.

Question: How do we come to this wisdom? We keep choosing something all the time.

Answer: Then be a revolutionary. Go ahead!

Question: It is already clear that this is a lost cause. Is it a true revolution when I agree?

Answer: It is when you agree with the Creator because that is against your nature.

Question: Is that what it means to rise above my nature?

Answer: Yes, our life is a struggle with our own egoism, with what we would like for ourselves. Therefore, only such an approach is truly rational.

Question: So does “I decide” live inside us live? Is the real reversal: “You decide, not I”?

Answer: Yes, that is why we must jump up, hold on to the Creator, and in this way fly forward.

Question: I must hold on to the Creator, what is that?

Answer: It is the nature of the whole universe. A great force, the wisest force that revolves everything. And we are tiny particles within it.

Indeed, we are given the ability to realize that above us there is something that controls us. To agree that He governs, this is our wisdom if we can reveal it.

Comment: And this additional element, which you always say, that all is good, that is the hardest to accept.

My Response: If He governs and there is none else besides Him, then what remains for us? The most rational thing we must do is to submit to Him. To submit, not out of weakness, but out of understanding.

Question: Then do I automatically understand that I am moving toward good?

Answer: Yes, and then we will move toward good.
[350251]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 11/23/25

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Question: Can a Kabbalist predict what will happen in ten years?

Answer: A Kabbalist will never engage in prophecy. He can explain the trends of the development of society and humanity in order to demonstrate the course of the egoistic nature without the intervention of our correction.

And with the intervention of correction, no one will be able to clearly predict this, since everything depends only on the freedom of will of the people who study Kabbalah.

Therefore, Baal HaSulam, who printed his books, reproduced and distributed them with the purpose of disseminating Kabbalah, came to the conclusion that the generation was not yet ready for this.

He even wrote about the possibility of a third and fourth world war. But still, a Kabbalist does not know exactly when anything will happen because he does not have the right to use the freedom of will as a given reality. He leaves it for a person to realize.

Thus, a Kabbalist can predict the tendency of the natural development of humanity. However, considering a person’s freedom of will, he does not know how quickly humanity will enter this process. Therefore, he will not engage in speculation.

Question: Maybe Kabbalists can predict something good?

Answer: Kabbalists will predict something good only to the extent that you want it to be good.

Comment: By the way, I have never read good predictions. That is strange.

My Response: Because everything depends on the person! If you are corrected, you will see the future as good. If you are not corrected, you will see it as bad. And there is no future by itself. How well your senses are corrected or not, that is how you will feel it. You are the one who creates your own future! So, keep trying!
[231450]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 3/18/18

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Question: If a person is above their environment, can they influence and correct it?

Answer: A person cannot rise above one’s environment! They are completely dependent on it. Even if they are ordinary people, and he is a great Kabbalist, they will still influence him.

Imagine that you take a beautiful tree full of fruit, pull it out of the ground and plant it in the middle of the desert. What will happen to it? Will it turn the desert into a blooming garden?

Our soul depends on the environment in the same way.

The purpose of creation is both the group and my personal work, and the Creator within at this one point. Imagine that your whole life depends on this one point that you need to figure out. Right now whether you will live or not depends on it! And so it is every moment.

For example, you can’t breathe if you don’t press this point, and then oxygen comes to you from there. And if I didn’t press it, I didn’t join it, there is no oxygen.
[13206]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

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In corporeal life, we have no freedom whatsoever. But in the spiritual development, we can choose our environment, the desire that this environment will pass on to us, and our attitude toward society.

Although I still act within the boundaries established by this system, I can nevertheless choose the form in which I will advance between the two points of the spiritual path—the starting and ending points.

I cannot change these points themselves because the final goal lies in the root of my soul, the place from which I once descended and to which I must now return. It is clear that I cannot take a different path.

However, I can choose the nature of my advancement, seek means and opportunities for development, and in doing so, I attain the mind of the Creator and become similar to Him. In this, I gain a certain measure of freewill regarding my present and future states.

Within me today exists a part of my future state called the AHP of the upper one; it is my next level, “I+1.” It already exists in the spiritual realm, and its lower part (AHP) is in me now.

I can reveal it and desire this next state; meaning, I am free to realize it or not. I already have a choice between “today” and “tomorrow.”

But if I live only in this world, I know nothing about tomorrow, that is, about the next moment. So what can I truly choose if the choice exists only with regard to the future?
[8194]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam “A Thought Is a Result of the Desire”

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Comment: A person wants to dress nicely. It is in his nature.

My Response: If he is not forced to do so by external circumstances, then in his inner circumstances he can continue to live as he lived before.

Question: In an old robe?

Answer: Of course.

Comment: Then there is no progress.

My Response: Well then there will not be progress of that kind.

Comment: Now you are going somewhat against nature. Look around, everything is built on buying a house, dressing beautifully, fashion. Everything today is like that.

My Response: Everything is needed only to live comfortably for the sake of your goal so that you will not be a slave to things, a slave to time, and a slave to the environment. That is all. And all the rest of your free time, dedicate to your beloved self.

Question: So is that how one should live?

Answer: Yes, why should I work, as you say, for a robe, for a table, or for something else?

Question: What do you mean when you say “take care of yourself”?

Answer: Do what you truly want, what you consider important. What you consider important, not what the environment dictates.

Question: So your advice is to stop?

Answer: Not even to stop, but not to enter into it in the first place. Do not get involved; do not dive into it.

Question: Even if I am internally spinning and restless?

Answer: That should be the aim of such a low level of human development, the animal level of man, so that he does not get carried away into other goals or niches. Live for yourself! Even if it seems egoistic.

Comment: You just gave a very egoistic formula: live for yourself, not for others.

My Response: Choose a goal and live for it. A person must examine his path and direct and arrange it in such a way that he harms no one, including his own life. That is all.
[349200]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 10/16/25

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The environment and the teacher are the only factors that determine a person’s future. At every moment, he must see his state as one in which he has received everything necessary from above, and all that remains for him is to connect himself with the right environment.

And such an environment is always near us; we only need to be able to choose it. This is our only free choice because everything else already follows from it.

That is why I don’t have to worry about anything except where I get my nourishment from, with whom I am connected, who influences me! That is, to always think not about myself, but about what external environment I am connected to. If a person wants to manage his development, his life and destiny, then he should think only about whom he is in contact with.

But it is completely unnatural for a person to think about this! After all, we constantly think about ourselves: who am I, why, what will happen to me? What is the meaning of my life?

All these questions of yours are directed inward, and they are correct! But how are you going to resolve them? With what do you connect their resolution?

Kabbalists explain that the solution depends only on the environment. And that is why I need to immediately turn my attention to the external forces that act upon me because their influence on me determines all my future.

And in essence, this is not external, but a single system of souls, an integral part of my spiritual body, there, where the shattering occurred and what needs to be corrected. And only there can I change something, because with all the other desires I can’t do anything.

It is as if to bury oneself into an archive and read the protocol of long predetermined events. I can only influence the environment somehow. And it is a pity to waste my attention on something other than that.
[13212]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Freedom”

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Even the helpless victim of a hopeless situation, facing a fate he cannot change, may rise above himself, may grow beyond himself, and by so doing change himself (Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning).

When a person stands before the absolute, before the realization that he cannot change anything, he understands the necessity of changing himself, that the only possible way to do something, to continue a correct existence in the world is to change himself, from this very moment, to the next, and the next, and the next. And so, step by step, live your life in such a way that in every moment you change yourself.

Question: So do you actually welcome dead ends?

Answer: Of course! How could it be otherwise? If a person does not feel a dead end…

Question: So is a hopeless situation the way out for you?

Answer: Yes, it is like a little toy car. It bumps into something and starts to turn. It bumps again, and turns again. And so it keeps trying until, out of all possibilities, it discovers that there is a way out.

Question: So will a person who moves from one dead end to another eventually find a way out?

Answer: Of course, everything is programmed.

Question: So in principle, as a person, should I sing a kind of hymn to the dead end?

Answer: Certainly! That is the very force of our formation.

Comment: But I always want to avoid dead ends. A person wants to avoid them.

My Response: Can you truly make the right decision without reaching a dead end?

Comment: It isn’t likely.

My Response: Not at all.

Question: What correct decision should humanity make today? It is an essential global question.

Answer: The answer is the same in all cases: to annul oneself.

Question: Is this “annul oneself” understandable to your students?

My Response: It must become understandable to everyone else as well.

Question: So what do you mean by “annul oneself”?

Answer: It means that I do not decide what to do, I do not determine the goal, and I do not imagine it for myself and then try to achieve it. I can do only one thing: annul myself before others in such a way that they can achieve their goal.

If I set any other goal for myself besides helping others, it means that I am standing in their way. If I annul myself, then I help them move toward their goal. And as a result, everyone should be busy in precisely this way—helping others achieve their goal.

Question: What then happens to my “I”?

Answer: That is when this “I” is revealed as a collective common self within which the upper force of nature, the only one existing and guiding force, is revealed.
[349173]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 10/15/25

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