Question: In Kabbalah, working against one’s desire is considered the most effective method. But if a person constantly goes against his desires, he may not endure the process. Either you ride the wave and flow with it, or you go against your desire. Which is more effective?

Answer: If I want to be overweight, but the environment around me obligates me to be slim, meaning they bully me and laugh at me from all sides, eventually, I will be forced to lose weight. Slimming down will become desirable for me.

The environment can change me so profoundly that I will act against my desires according to the will of the environment, and I will even take pleasure in it. The opinion of the surrounding environment will outweigh my original personal opinion. That is how we are built.

This is why a person is initially placed in an environment of their peers. If they properly organize this environment in relation to themselves so that it educates them and provides clear guidance toward the goal, then there will be no difficulty in progressing toward that goal even by limiting, compelling, or forcing themselves to do anything. They will feel perfection, power, and enjoyment in fulfilling the will of the environment.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. How to lose weight?” 4/19/10

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Comment: Scientists say that digitalization is accelerating, but the problem is that we do not know exactly where this express train is headed. We understand many processes will go faster and this will change our lives. We know nothing except the speed at which we are moving.

My Response: We have always developed this way. Has humanity ever ordered a program for its development? The Bolsheviks wanted to build communism. What came of it? Socialists with socialism, and Capitalists with capitalism. What came of it?

Humanity has never made any plans of its own and then implemented them when they voted and went to implement them and then had everything work out. It has never happened in my life or throughout history. And now we are doing the same thing. Only time is accelerating, nothing else.

Comment: If a person had the whole arsenal of tools and knew the way, would there always be some kind of error at the end?

My Response: What error? On the contrary, everything works out! The error is exactly the opposite.

Question: Why doesn’t this lead to even more destruction?

Answer: There are protective forces of nature that trip us, the foolish, and redirect the express train of history just in time. They put us on a different track so we do not plunge into the abyss altogether.

Question: So are we initially going down the wrong path?

Answer: We are still following the path nature leads us on. The fact that we agree with it or not speaks only about the comfort of this journey. You are riding in a cushioned carriage or riding on buffers between cars or riding on the roof.

Comment: At some point will fate turn you in a certain direction?

My Response: It will not turn you anywhere. It leads you where you need to go.

Comment: Researchers say many fear losing their jobs in this chaotic world when, with the development of technology, their professions will no longer be in demand.

My Response: This will happen anyway.

Comment: This fear generates dangerous trends in society, and they cannot be suppressed by force. Some experts say that people should not just be retrained and given another profession to replace the outdated one; they should be integrated into a system of continuous education throughout their lives.

My Response: That is right. This is what the science of Kabbalah has been saying for many years. We need to educate people and create huge enterprises to re-educate the masses. There will be classes in applied arts, music, dance, all kinds of games, psychology, everything.

Most importantly, they will all follow one principle: connection among people, a positive connection. That is all and nothing more is needed.

Comment: Scientists say that everyone’s inner willingness to change depends on whether we can offer people some kind of perspective.

My Response: This is the perspective. When we are connected among ourselves, in this connection, we will begin to feel new phenomena of our life, new stages of our life, a whole new life, a life that will lift us above time, above our physiological states. We will enter a completely different arena.

Comment: They also say that we need to show some perspective, but we do not know what it is.

My Response: Eternity, perfection, goodness, great achievements, attainments, and entry to a new space—all this must be given to people. They need to be shown this: what man was created for, what he should achieve, what he should begin to feel, why this is before him, and how he can achieve it—precisely through the correct connection between people.

In the connection of people, in “Love your neighbor as yourself,” when you begin to exist in good, correct contact with others, within this contact, you find the entrance to the next world.

Comment: So the world is simply collapsing from all sides.

My Response: Nothing is collapsing! On the contrary, we are entering the next degree. We are not destroying anything.

Question: Alexander Asmolov, Director of Humanitarian Policy at a major Russian university, says: “Our problem is that we teach people to adapt. Not to change with the world, but only to adapt to the current conditions. This hinders our readiness to face challenges that have not yet occurred.”

How can we help a person to change rather than adapt?

Answer: We have nothing to adapt to. Our world is becoming such that by constantly adapting to it, we are coming to a dead end. Then we fall with the world. But we need to separate, we need to start rising. It depends only on our good connection with each other. That is all.

Therefore, the correct result of our engagement with society, with this generation, should be that they will be able to unite among themselves and begin to feel the next level of the universe in this connection.

Comment: Scientists also say that our psyche is capable of working in constantly changing conditions, that each person has unique opportunities for reflection, critical understanding of the world, and changing stereotypes. They say the most important is that we have a tolerance for uncertainty. So It seems that people are internally ready for this new state. What will trigger it?

My Response: The way out is to reveal the science of Kabbalah to the world. Nothing else, because there is no other method that is even close to it. That is first. Second, people must reach a point where they are willing to listen.

Comment: What can we wish for a person who has his entire inner structure ready, has potential, and only needs to take a step forward?

Answer: He should clearly pursue the question: “What is the meaning of my life?”

The meaning of life is in understanding its purpose. And the goal is not within life itself. The meaning of life is above this body. This is what we need to attain.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/2/19

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Comment: Well-known coach and business consultant Erik Bertrand Larssen developed a methodology based on his military experience and wrote about it in his book called Hell Week: Seven Days to Be Your Best Self.

Larssen believes there are three models of highly effective cultures: the military, business, and sports. The military teaches us to push beyond our limits to discover we are capable of more. Athletes demonstrate how to set and pursue goals systematically. Sports also teaches us that victory is not achieved under the spotlight on the final stretch but through daily, painstaking training.

However, in your view, the mind merely serves the desires.

My Response: We should not go against desires. A person cannot truly change them. What I can do is split my desire into smaller parts: one becomes two, two become four, and so on. There will be a chain reaction. The only real option is to prioritize one desire over another, higher one. And that depends on the society around me.

Therefore, if I am in a group that values higher desires over my personal ones, I can easily let go of my bad desires and adopt their good ones.

Military, sports, and business, all involve self-coercion. But I do not want to coerce myself. I am weak. Why should I subject myself to such extreme states? The body does not like that.

Question: There are different approaches. What is the key to the Kabbalistic method in order to say: “Guys, you are looking in the wrong place”?

Answer: The key or secret lies entirely in the environment around you. Nothing else! If I join the right environment, and this environment knows how to motivate and influence me, tempting me with hints and exercises like with a child, it can shape me however it wants.

Kabbalah, first of all, calls for building a correct society where everyone can progress further.

Question: Can you name a few principles that such a society follows that others could take as a model?

Answer: A Kabbalistic society is very simple. It is built on the principle of gradually bringing people closer together by rising above their small, narrow, personal egos.

Members engage in specific exercises called workshops where they discuss these ideas and attempt to connect and open up to each other. This path involves rising above the natural egoism of a person despite his inherent tendencies.

A person begins to feel like they are entering a kind of elevator, lifting him beyond our nature. It is as if they detach from the Earth and enter a “cosmic elevator” that rises higher and higher, beyond our universe into an entirely different, anti-egoistic universe. In this realm, everything is based on the qualities of bestowal and love, as opposed to the qualities of reception and hatred inherent to our nature.

This gradual transformation occurs under the constant and increasingly changing influence of society.

This model is lifelong and spans all lifetimes because it elevates a person beyond life and death.

A person begins to perceive, see, and feel this! He rises above our egoistic nature and therefore transcends the level of biological life and death. He no longer identifies with his physical body, but starts perceiving himself as an energetic entity called the soul.

I am speaking about a methodology that allows a person to rise above himself and transform into something eternally existing and non-egoistic. It enables him to become acquainted with the Creator, reveal the upper world, and break free from the confines of the small, narrow space in which we exist.

If someone has not just idle curiosity, but a deep, inner yearning, it is possible to work with him.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/10/18

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Comment: In the 1960s, an American psychologist Martin Seligman conducted experiments with dogs based on Pavlov’s design. I am talking only about a part of the experiment, because it is very complicated.

The purpose of the experiment was to form a fear reflex to the sound of a signal. While Pavlov’s animals received meat after a signal, Seligman’s animals received an electric shock. To prevent the dogs from escaping prematurely, fences were built.

Seligman was confident that when the animals were moved to an enclosure with a low partition, they would run away as soon as they heard the signal. However, in the new cage the dogs sat on the floor and whined. Not a single dog jumped over the easiest obstacle—nor did they even try. When a dog that was not involved in the experiment was put under the same conditions, it easily escaped.

It turns out that the same thing happens to people. A person who is driven into helplessness cannot even jump over a low fence. He does not believe that there is a way out, he just lies on the floor and whines.

Question: What is it about us when a person himself renounces his freedom? You are no longer tied. Quit your job! Leave the country! Get away from this constant failure! You are talented and smart! But no way, he stays in the same place.

Answer: External pressure fetters a person and deprives him of all opportunities for development, awareness, and victory.

Comment: That is, pressure and fear are serious…

My Response: They are a serious weapon in the hands of society or a person.

Question: And if you master this fear and pressure, can you put people down?

Answer: Yes, that is what they tried to do.

Question: But if we talk about our life, does a person still agree with his life even though this is a cage and he suffers in it?

Answer: He has nothing in return. A person does not see that there is something other than this, and therefore, he agrees and tries to find at least some small pleasures, fulfillment, and satisfaction within this framework. This is our life.

Question: How can we see at least a small break and somehow slip through this hole and jump out of it?

Answer: We need to get education that if we want to become the best, then for this we must gain an understanding of freedom from ourselves, from our egoism. And then we can achieve equality among everyone.

Question: What role does egoism play here? For this person who falls down from the blow and does not move, what role does his egoism play? Basically, everything is suppressed in him.

Answer: It is in this very state when he lies under blows that he is beginning to develop the ability to rise above himself. And he begins to fantasize, one might say, how this can be done.

Question: This is how he can break free?

Answer: Yes, in this way he gradually grows.

Question: So this power of suppression and the power of fear is even positive in some sense?

Answer: Yes, it is positive for a person. It develops him.

And what does the Creator use when he wants to lead us to the better, to goodness, to rise above ourselves? It is only by the opposite force, the force of fear, the force of fear of suffering, and so on.

Question: So, now you seem to reassign this to the Creator, that all these are His actions? There are no leaders, there is nobody—just the actions of the Creator?

Answer: Of course, and they are directional.

Question: What kind of creatures are we?

Answer: We are small, weak egoists.

Question: And what are we supposed to grow into?

Answer: We are supposed to understand our little egoism, which represents our entire nature, and wish to rise above it, above this egoism. And for this we need mutual assistance and understanding that there is a different opportunity to exist, and we only need to rise out of ourselves.

Question: Meaning that then we jump over this “fence” and leave?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is this “fence” really low?

Answer: Yes, it is, just slightly above the ground.

Question: Does this low “fence” seem like an impenetrable wall to us?

Answer: This is a psychological obstacle.

Question: Precisely psychological?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Then there is a question about freewill. In what case can we take this step toward freedom? What should happen to us?

Answer: We can direct ourselves to the freedom of will if we decide that we have no other choice and do not try to run away somewhere, hide, embellish, or sweeten our existence in egoism, in exile from the good, from kindness, from everything.

If we pull ourselves up by the bootstraps in this way and act, we will see that it is possible.

Question: What is a free person, what does it mean to be free?

Answer: A free person is one who has no restrictions. And this is, first of all, internal freedom.

Comment: “No restrictions” can be understood in different ways.

My Response: “There are no restrictions” means that a person can live with everyone—everyone will feel good with him, and he will feel good with everyone. That is, this person is not guided by his egoism.
[330612]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/13/24

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Comment: Genetic engineering has challenged the Bible and says that Adam and Eve were not created by God.

Science has come to the conclusion that even in the formation of an embryo, as well as everywhere else, we observe a certain managing component. By studying the genome and knowing that there are managing and executing cells, it is possible to not only understand, but also to manage this process.

My Response: There are no problems in managing biological processes. But that does not mean that we create them. We interfere with their work, and that is what we call management.

Question: And who creates them?

Answer: This happens on a level above the human being. For this, a person must rise above himself.

How? Here is where the science of Kabbalah appears. Do you want to comprehend the next level? Do you want to reveal it? Please, you can. But to do this, you must seriously work on yourself and the connection with the next level—the managing one.

First of all, imagine that you are under this managing level all the time, under it. It constantly guides you and holds you. You try to get into resonance with it. You are managed by it. You agree and want to be managed by it. You do not want to act on your own—neither with your desires, nor with your thoughts, i.e., neither with your heart nor mind—not in any way!

You only want to feel this level and execute everything with your desire toward it; as it wishes, let it manage you. And you will be happy to add yourself to its governance.

This is how the next step is attained. This is called “annulling oneself,” annulling one’s egoism.

If we act this way, we will begin to feel this next level—its management, its qualities, its nature, and its intention. This is called attaining the Creator, because the next step for me is my Creator.
[229563]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/20/18

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Question: There is a joke about a man asking God: “Lord, what is the best way to make You laugh?” God answers: “Tell me about your plans.”

Why do our plans make the Creator laugh?

Answer: Because when a person makes plans, he considers himself above what is happening, as if he can plan the future. This is not justified at all. Therefore, of course, it makes Him laugh.

Question: Let’s be realistic. A person makes plans for the summer, for a vacation. I write down a plan for the day, what I have to do today, and so on. Is this called making plans?

Answer: Remember what Woland said? That a person cannot program himself for the future. To do this, he must know what will happen at least 1,000 years in advance.

I would not say that we can program anything.

Question: Is it possible to live without plans?

Answer: It is possible to live without plans if you put your plans aside and accept the plans of the next, higher level.

Question: What kind of plans are these? By what plan do I live then?

Answer: You live by the plan of the upper nature, the Creator.

Question: And what kind of plan is this?

Answer: This means that all you can imagine is that you only want one thing: to be in close contact with Him.

Question: And this no longer makes Him laugh?

Answer: This does not make Him laugh. You only want to achieve this, and what will happen is unimportant for you. The main thing is that you want only these plans to be realized in you.

Question: Are you not even interested in knowing what the Creator’s plans are? Do you just completely devote yourself?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Can a person live like that?

Answer: Are you truly going to check His plans?

Question: I really cannot. But still, it may be scary for someone to even pronounce it. What if He has such plans that…

Answer: Whatever they are, these are already the upper plans.

Question: So it is about my complete annulment before the upper one?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Does this make the Creator laugh?

Answer: The Creator rejoices.

Question: Can you tell why He “bends” me like that?

Answer: So that you would want consciously to change your plans.

Question: So, I take my soul and stifle it?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Can I say that this is all my pride, that we are now talking about pride by and large?

Answer: Of course.

Comment: And the Creator wants him to…

My Response: Remove it by himself.

Comment: The operation that He performs on us is practically without anesthesia.

My Response: A person must realize that this is what is bad in him and interferes with him.

Question: And there are no painkillers here? Is it necessary to go through the pain?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What is more important: the result itself or the planning process?

Answer: I would say both, of course. But the main thing is still the result.

Question: And when the plans fall apart, for example. Many people’s plans fall apart, and today many of those have fallen apart. Can a person react to this differently than he reacts? In a calmer way somehow.

Answer: It depends on his preparation. If he is already prepared in advance for the fact that all his plans will not come true and he will have to change them to the plans of the Creator, then he will survive this calmly.

Question: That is, I plan, but what will happen is what the Creator wants?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is this the correct beginning of the phrase: “I plan”?

Answer: It is necessary that a person plans. But he must convince himself that what will come true anyway are the plans of the Creator—not his.

Question: So I do what I want, and it will be as the Creator decides?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is this how we should live? Is this the right message?

Answer: Yes. You always add: “If the Creator wills.”
[334902]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 9/1/24

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Question: There is a commandment that says make a choice. On the other hand the Creator is always the first. So what is our choice?

Answer: Our choice is to place faith above reason, above knowledge, and to continue moving forward in this way.

Question: How can we carve the quality of faith in our hearts?

Answer: It only depends on how much we will ask for this to actually happen. Gradually human beings will come to the complete knowledge of the Creator.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/2/24 , “Rosh HaShana”

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Question: Andrey asks: “I read it somewhere, but recently I became convinced that the Creator is jealous. You have said it more than once. But I had no idea He was so jealous. He allows you to follow the path you choose, but it is clearly against His will. But He lets you. He even seems to bless it. And then He sends such falls that you do not know how to pull yourself out of them. Why is He doing this? He could have prevented me from going down the wrong path. What does He give it for?”

Answer: What would you learn in that case?

Comment: That He is good that does good.

My Response: Then you would remain in kindergarten.

Question: Am I being educated the whole time?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Educated with the wrong paths?

Answer: With their help. How else?

Question: Andrey says He is the one pushing you there on this wrong path. Is all this to teach you?

Answer: Sure.

Question: What does He want to bring up in me?

Answer: Understanding life, understanding yourself, understanding the world, and understanding your correct attitude to the world.

Question: Andrey felt he was even being blessed on this path: “Go on!” Even when you are going down the wrong path?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So he asks: “Why does the Creator bless man to take this path?”

Answer: Because in this way He teaches a person; otherwise, one cannot be taught.

Question: When does a person realize he is on the wrong path? The Creator Himself begins to create further obstacles for him. Right?

Answer: Yes. After a while a person begins to feel he is on the wrong path. But he cannot turn away and continues on it, receives all sorts of suffering until they accumulate to the point he is forced to run away from them.

Question: Tell me, is there some road sign from which suffering begins? And until then, you walk easily, freely, and happily.

Answer: Yes, it depends on the growth of egoism in a person. Because then he begins to understand this is a wrong path that is to his detriment. And he wonders: what should he do? From this moment on, suffering begins, and his demand to the Creator begins.

Question: So while he was walking along the egoistic path without thinking about it, was everything all right for him?

Answer: Yes.

Question: But at some point, he is pushed to the idea that he is an egoist, which is bad. And the suffering begins. What for? What should he do with this ego?

Answer: He should realize all this comes from his ego and consciously turn to the Creator for correction.

Question: So one way or another, everything is a path of correction. Absolutely everything.

Then the question is: “How can you prepare, is it even possible for such falls and to make the most of them?”

Answer: You can prepare for falls if a person initially understands what he chooses may be wrong and there is no escape from mistakes. He will receive all sorts of negative feedback from time to time, consequences of his actions. But on the other hand, it will teach him the right path in the end.

Question: What is the maximum benefit from this?

Answer: That he will take the right path. Although he will make mistakes every time, correct himself, and take the right step.

Question: Is it possible not to reach suffering but to calculate correctly in advance?

Answer: How can he do it in advance?

Question: Is it not possible?

Answer: No.

Question: So, you have to go through it one way or another?

Answer: Absolutely.

Question: Andrey’s next question: “What do you personally understand by the jealousy of the Creator?”

Answer: By the jealousy of the Creator I understand such states when a person wants to avoid mistakes with the help of some particular method and as if circumvent the Creator.
[333978]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/12/24

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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“).

Our main work is to reveal how interconnected we are and how we must tune ourselves together to be included in the work of this machine, not simply to be driven by it, but to begin to understand how we can activate it. That is our task.

Question: Should we just wait patiently?

Answer: No, absolutely not. Waiting patiently will not help. We must begin to activate ourselves along with the mechanism of the machine, and gradually we will become involved in its collective forward motion. We need to start right now, and the activation comes when we begin to sense its movement and integrate ourselves into it.
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From the World Kabbalah Convention “Strengthening the Ten” 9/13/24, “Discovering the Power of Connection”, Lesson 4

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Question: It is written, “As their faces are not similar to one another, their views are not similar to one another.” How can we come to one desire so that it aligns with the Creator’s desire?

Answer: Under the influence of the actions the Creator sets before us, we try to be in one desire, like one person, and thus we become a single body.

And when this body consists, for example, of ten people, it has ten times more strength than if a person were alone.
[334671]
From the World Kabbalah Convention “Strengthening the Ten” 9/12/24, “Growing Stronger in the Ten”, Lesson 2

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