Comment: The world is gripped by an epidemic of fear. People are losing trust, and they no longer listen to each other. As a result, they are driven not by greed, as before when we wanted to achieve something, but by fear, which has real causes. How can we get rid of it? After all, we are actively moving toward a dead end.

My Response: I think this is very good. This is not a dead end. When you approach a dead end, you suddenly see that there is a door in it, and it leads to the next world.

Once this was covered by faith. A person believed in various gods, it doesn’t matter what, and it was easier for him. Today, this faith is disappearing, it is not kept up, and therefore, a person cannot compensate for his fears, anxiety, and various problematic feelings. He cannot correlate them with the desire and the government of the upper one, with the upper force, and everything falls on him. It is hard for him!

Fear blocks a person. He wants to close his eyes and crawl under a blanket like a little child, as if nothing is happening.

Question: How can he get out of there?

Answer: He needs to be educated. But not through mechanical toys, as scientists are trying to do.

Comment: Scientists are still asking questions.

My Response: Asking questions is good. But this is connected with the meaning of life. Such questions are already beyond our understanding. How do we exist? For what purpose? What is life? How does it begin, and how does it end? What is the meaning of the existence of nature itself?

But to simply relate everything to God does not calm a modern person. This was good enough before the age of Enlightenment, but from the 17^th to 18^th centuries and onward, this approach no longer works.

A person will still be forced to see that he faces the question of the meaning of existence: what is it for, why, what is its meaning?

Fear exists at the basis of our life because if it were not for fear, why live at all. Why do I need all this?
Scroll through a person’s entire future life—it already exists, there is nothing else—and he would not want to live.

If he sees what he is going through, and all this in order to enjoy something and immediately fall into depression or suffering, and also work hard. He has two weeks of vacation a year, if he spends it well at all, children who take advantage of him, a wife who does not let him have fun, a favorite football team that loses, fishing which no longer exists because these places do not exist anymore, and so on…

Even in ancient sources it is written that if a man could see his life in advance, then he would naturally not want to be born and live.

We forget ourselves, therefore, our whole life is built on this oblivion. Look what we are doing with our lives today! We are trying to dumb ourselves, all the time more and more, more and more. Advertising, competition … For what?

After all, if you leave a person alone with his thoughts, he will either become a terrorist, a murderer, or kill himself, or start using drugs, which is the same thing.

Question: But they say that a person must have a goal and by striving for it, he can overcome any difficulties. What is the right goal for a person?

Answer: This question should not be aroused in people. You must first prepare yourself well for this. It is written that if you put an obstacle in front of a blind person, by doing so you commit a terrible crime. If you put a stone or a tree in front a blind person, he will stumble and fall. How is this possible? And people are all blind. How can you talk to them about the meaning of life?

They do not have an answer to this, and they will only become depressed. Therefore, gradually revealing the question about the meaning of life, you must know in advance how to simultaneously provide them with the correct answer which will be acceptable and desirable for them. Then they will see joyful horizons expanding for them, and not dark ones.

Comment: It turns out that from birth, education should be gradually integrated into communication.

My Response: This is what education is about. And everything else fills a person with completely unnecessary information.

Question: How can an adult person who has lived his life get to the question of the meaning of life?

Answer: If he has lived his life, there is no point in it. If, during this life, he receives information about its meaning, and begins to change his life in accordance with the meaning he has acquired, then he rises to the next level of existence. He becomes a human to the extent that he can answer the question about the meaning of his life.
[221922]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/6/18

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Question: What is money? What is striving toward a goal? How can one change habits? What does Kabbalah say about this?

Answer: It is very simple. Money (Kesef) is a covering. “Kesef” comes from the word “Kisuf,” which means covering, that is, a covering over my desires.

Money is not just paper or something stored in a bank. If I can cover my desires and aspirations for what I want with a screen, it is considered that I pay for my desires. Through this covering, I can rise above them from the desire to receive to the desire to bestow, and thereby achieve any fulfillment according to the strength of my desire.

Question: With money, I can satisfy my desires. But what does it mean to cover desires with a screen?

Answer: To cover means that a desire is truly fulfilled only by its covering, which is the transformation of the intention behind the desire from oneself to others.

If we want to earn correctly, to truly earn life, then we need to understand what money is, what covering means, and what the transformation of intention is. It is about a screen that covers egoistic desires and transforms them into altruistic ones, and in this altruistic light, we begin to receive upper fulfillments. This is true wealth.

Question: Do a person’s thoughts shape their life?

Answer: In general, yes.

Question: What are thoughts, and how can one change the course of thoughts to shape and improve life?

Answer: A person’s thoughts shape their life, meaning their attitude toward who they are, what they are, what surrounds them, and their purpose. All of these are called their thoughts.

One must answer questions such as: “Why do I exist? What is happening to me? How will my life end?” Initially, these questions may arise purely in an egoistic form, but one must start answering them. They must understand that if they focus only on satisfying their egoism, they will end up in portions and eventually finish the same way. And then what? Until they die. Because our physiological, animalistic body defines our life.

If I want to rise to the next level, to exist not in the animalistic body, but in the spiritual one, I need to rise and begin to exist according to entirely different values, not to fill my physical body and see that as the purpose of life, but to fill myself with qualities of bestowal and love, qualities that resemble the Creator. This is a completely different value system.

Here, a person faces a significant challenge. It feels as if they are in a vast field meant for them to explore asking why, for what purpose, and how to break away from past values, from wealth, money, notions of happiness, and egoistic success. They must begin to reposition themselves entirely differently regarding their existence.

Question: “We are slaves to our habits. Change your habits, and your life will change.” But what should we change them to?

Answer: They need to be replaced with some kind of spiritual actions and relationships. First, I must study them, understand where they come from, how they form, and how I can make these changes.

Question: What are truly good habits for a person?

Answer: There are no good habits. A habit, by its nature, cannot be good. Habits are always bad.

What can be good is when we rise from one positive action to an even greater positive action. But that is not a habit; it goes against our habits. This requires great effort and work on oneself.

Question: But for this, we need to have a distant goal to consistently overcome our habits, right?

Answer: Yes. In addition to having a distant goal, you also need a small group in which you can implement this.

Comment: “The main obstacles in life are self-doubt and fear. Our doubts paralyze us.”

My Response: Our doubts and fears drive us forward, and these are very good qualities of our nature.

Without doubts and fears, we would not move anywhere. We would dig into our current situation trying to minimize the feeling of evil and barely experience any good just to avoid triggering doubts and fears.
Let doubts and fears arise! Let them push and pressure us forward!

If I am in the right environment, all my doubts and fears will be directed correctly in my interactions with that environment, and together we will move forward. Nothing in nature is created in vain! Under no circumstances should we diminish, suppress, or erase anything!

Comment: “Goals should be clear, simple, and written down.”

My Response: A person who is truly developing has no clarity. They are constantly in turmoil and engaged in clarifications. As soon as they resolve something, new turmoil immediately arises.

A true human being is constantly in a state of turmoil and clarification, turmoil and clarification. Greater and greater desires, doubts, and thoughts arise in them. They continually ask themselves: “How can I truly find the purpose of life? What is worth living for?”

Comment: In one of your talks, you drew a coordinate system where a person moves along a sinusoid line, progressing toward the goal through increasing ruptures. I shared this example with a friend, and she said: “So do we have to hit rock bottom to rise again?”

My Response: Yes, of course! Even the greatest Kabbalists, before reaching complete correction, find themselves at the lowest point! Absolutely!

Question: What lifts a person from this rock bottom?

Answer: The environment and the upper light that one receives through it.

Comment: And here is one of the latest quotes: “Find the courage to go against the flow and get rich.”

My Response: This means going against egoism. It is possible. But keep in mind that you are weak, that you cannot do it alone! There is no need to fight stubbornly and go against everything if you are on your own.

You must build a system that will help you reach the goal. It should be a system within a group of like-minded people who have a clear goal. Only together, by constantly strengthening their connection, can they achieve the goal.

Comment: To conclude: “Poor, unlucky, unhappy, and unhealthy is the person who often uses the word ‘tomorrow’.”

My Response: Yes, of course. We have no right to postpone anything until tomorrow.

But that is not the only issue. Weakness is not just about procrastination. Weakness is in closing your eyes and refusing to connect with others.

To delay until tomorrow or not? The problem lies in this: all human actions depend on their interaction with others. If a person is in the right environment, they will not postpone anything until tomorrow. They will not even delay today, they will act immediately. The environment will compel them to move.

The most important thing is to establish the right connection with the right environment. There must be a group. Only then will they progress. The group determines everything. Find the right group, and you will find happiness.
[247423]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/3/19

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Comment: Scientists have often asked people who know they are about to die: “What would you change in your life?” Reflecting on their lives, people are ready to change everything: relationships, actions, even thoughts.

Is it worth reaching the end to confess one’s own mistakes to oneself?

Answer: On one hand even in the last minutes, reevaluation and reflection on the path taken makes sense. But on the other hand, what prevents us from periodically conducting such self-assessments?

Such exercises would help us and change us for the better. After all, a person would have time to “work on the mistakes.”

We need to draw conclusions in advance, at the beginning of life and not at the end when we can only regret. This is what the science of Kabbalah invites us to do.
[224116]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/27/18

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We live in a transitional period, from a state of hibernation of humanity to the aspiration to the Creator, that is, to the revelation of the meaning of life.

The revelation of the meaning of life is also just a transitional process where we must rise to the next new state. The transition begins when we start questioning what the meaning of life is: “Why do we need all this? For what?”

The nature of our life, no matter how hard we try, and we really do try very hard, shows us that it is useless and meaningless. As a result, people get detached from the surrounding world; people replace their pleasures with drugs, the most universal means of calming oneself and turning oneself into a plant. After all, this is better than suffering: switch off and that is it.

But since the plan of nature surrounds us and embraces us on all sides, we are inside the system, and escaping from life by using drugs will not help us at all. That is why humanity is trying many ways to somehow calm itself down.

Look at what is happening in the world, what transformations are taking place everywhere, entire nations are moving from one place to another, Europe is filled with refugees.

And this is not the same migration that happened a thousand years ago when the peoples of Asia began to move to Europe. Now this is a very serious process, a process of intermixing; people still must answer the question about the sense of life and admit that there is no meaning to existence at our level.

What can we do? We need to reveal Kabbalah and explain to them that there is a meaning to life; it is in the transition of a person to the next level. Man, “Adam” in Hebrew, is from the word “domeh,” which means “like the Creator.”

They must know that there is a method that is specifically created for us; our progress and development should raise us to the next level. After all, the next level must manifest in us, if not in this lifetime, then in the next. Our next life cycles will still force us to reach the level of similarity to the Creator.
[337695]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/19, “Questions and Answers”

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I was no more than 26 years old at the time, but I knew very well that life had no purpose or meaning, that everything was a deception and illusion. The essence and outcome of a hard-labor life on Sakhalin Island is no different from a life in Nice. And the difference between Kant’s brain and a fly’s brain is insignificant. No one in this world is right or wrong, and everything is rubbish and nonsense, and so to hell with it! (Anton Chekhov, Lights)

Question: The 26-year-old Chekhov reached this conclusion after contemplating life. All his stories and writings would be written later. What do you think can make a young man conclude life is pointless and has no meaning?

Answer: This is what he saw around him, in himself, and in books probably. This was his resume at that moment.

Question: When pressed on all sides, a young person may come to have such an idea. Please tell me what the right way to respond to such a thought is.

Answer: The right way is to close your eyes and keep going with what is required of you.

Question: That is, not to send it to hell, but to keep going?

Answer: Well, this concerns everything in life.

Question: How do you determine what is required? How does he determine what is required of him? What does it mean?

Answer: There is an upper master who requires you to do a particular job. And since He belongs to a higher nature, He is undoubtedly smarter than you.

Question: So you should follow Him?

Answer: You have no choice but to submit.

Question: Chekhov compares life in Sakhalin with life in Nice. This is a new take. How can a person compare hard labor and stale bread in Sakhalin with life in Nice with calm, aromatic coffee in the morning, a croissant, and so on? How does one conclude that Sakhalin is the same as Nice?

Answer: Because, in general, there is no significant difference except for bodily comfort. And, in general, it is the same thing.

Comment: But we still live in this material world.

My Response: We take into account all our corporeal benefits. But if you do not account for it, but judge expressly by life itself, what difference does it make?

Question: Do you also think a hard, backbreaking life somewhere in Sakhalin is the same as in Nice?

Answer: Backbreaking, I do not think so.

Comment: Well, not necessarily backbreaking, but just living somewhere out there in the village versus in Nice is the same thing?

My Response: Yes.

Question: What parameters do you take into account when you say this?

Answer: I think that as long as I am alive, it makes no difference where I live. What do I really need in order to live? I can settle on any island.

Comment: A computer and a room.

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is this what it means that a person does not need much?

Answer: Actually yes.

Question: How can we say there is no significant difference between the brain of Kant and the brain of a fly?

Answer: Both are objects; they act purely on their egoistic motivation. Although Kant seems to be checking himself, studying himself, overall both he and the fly act the same way in choosing the greatest pleasure.

Question: How are we different then?

Answer: We are not.

Question: So why are we given reason?

Answer: To understand how to live, with or without reason.

Question: What does it mean to live with reason?

Answer: Living with reason is very difficult. I must study my actions, the forces that cause them, and think about them from the side: what I am right and wrong about.

Question: Is this the constant life of a person with reason? Is it so? Is this why it is difficult?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Where are we being led like this? What you just said was that we are being led, given pleasure.

Answer: We are being led to realize the meaning of life, which is in reaching the level of the Creator.

Question: Is this our whole journey?

Answer: Yes.

Question: In this case, the fly is not being led like that, right?

Answer: There is nowhere to lead the fly. It has no freewill, none of that.

Question: What does a fly live for?

Answer: The fly exists, like everything around us, except us humans, so that we can see how the world works and could be different from all creatures.

Question: What do you think about Chekhov’s conclusion that “no one in this world is right or at fault?”

Answer: He proceeds from the fact that everyone is born and exists within the laws of nature, in the nature that they have, that is given to them from above. Therefore a person is not responsible for himself and cannot strive for anything on his own.

Question: Meaning all his actions are involuntary?

Answer: Involuntary, yes.

Question: Is he neither right nor wrong?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Can one have such an attitude to life? Is this not a passive option?

Answer: It is passive.

Question: What is the correct attitude?

Answer: The correct attitude is to see that life is fiercely purposeful. It has meaning, and we must reveal this meaning and reveal it in such a way that it absolutely aligns with the law of nature. And the law of nature is “love your neighbor as yourself.” The law of human community.

Question: Is this what we always have to strive for?

Answer: Yes.
[334373]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/12/24

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Question: If you could step into the Creator’s place, how would you answer these children’s questions? Oleg, a 4th grader, asks: “Why did You make humans the main beings on Earth?”

Answer: That is a complicated issue. I made humans intelligent and gave them the ability to correct themselves. If they refuse to do so and remain foolish, I can only agree, stay silent, and wait.

Comment: Humans have been given intelligence, placed on this Earth. The Earth is really beautiful, nature and everything are beautiful. Yet, we ruin it.

My Response: Yes.

Question: Are we a mistake or not?

Answer: Of nature?

Comment: Let’s say, of the Creator.

Answer: Of the Creator, I think we are not a mistake. But we will only realize it when we begin to correct ourselves. For now, we don’t want to.

Question: Is our path programmed and someday a turning point toward correction will inevitably happen?

Answer: Yes, I am certain it must happen, and fairly soon.

Question: Will it be a shock, a sudden thought, or the discovery of a new kind of mind?

Answer: It will emerge from within us. We will begin to feel what the other world, the new world, the higher world, should be.

Question: And we will want to reach it?

Answer: Yes, absolutely!
[337076]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/4/24

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Comment: There are Buddhist sayings about suffering and sufferers. If possible, could you comment on them?

“Never interfere in someone else’s suffering. A person must grow tired of himself and drink the cup of poison allotted to him.”

My Response: This is absolutely correct! Beautifully said! If you try to pull someone out before they have drunk their cup of poison, it will not help them.

Question: They must grow tired of themselves—is that true?

Answer: Yes, even to the point of hatred.

Comment: So I simply live, and then I come to the realization that…

My Response: That all your evil comes from you. For that, you need to change yourself somehow. How is that possible? And here you come to the point of the correct decision.

Question: Does it mean that my life is in order for me to grow tired of myself?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What about the fact that I am allotted this cup of poison, how do you feel about the word “allotted”?

Answer: Yes, it is on one side of the scales, and a drop of wisdom is on the other side of the scales.

Question: Do I have to drink this cup of poison one way or another?

Answer: Without refusing.

Question: Do I open my mouth and take the poison?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Am I allotted a specific dose?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Every person?

Answer: Every person.

Comment: There is no life optimism here.

My Response: Why? Life begins precisely when you understand that before you is a cup of poison and a beautiful, balanced, and good life. Choose.

Comment: I will choose the balanced and good life, I am telling you right now.

My Response: Only through the cup of poison!

Question: Are you saying I must take this cup of poison and then I will reach this balanced life?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So the road to paradise goes through hell. Can we say that?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Can a person live with this thought?

Answer: People live with it.

Question: Are you saying that this is how we should live, on top of everything else?

Answer: Yes.
[330093]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/6/24

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Question: You said you could not rest; you were always looking for something. Did you understand what you were looking for? This is a personal question for you.

Answer: Not quite. The meaning of life. What is going on with me? How should I act to find answers to the questions? This type of questions.

Question: So something did not satisfy you?

Answer: Sure, I was dissatisfied with meaninglessness.

Comment: Scientific work is pointless, as is…

My Response: Of course, all that is…

Question: Was there some kind of premonition that it had to be somewhere, that you must seek it?

Answer: In general, it is somewhere because nature itself does not tolerate this emptiness. It screams outright, screams there is a goal and there is truth, and it is for everyone although each person may have their own, but one can find it.

Question: Did you feel this inner cry?

Answer: Yes, of course.

Question: Did you reach a point where if you could not achieve your goal, there was no point in living?

Answer: Definitely. For many years it was meaningless.

Question: How did you come out of these states?

Answer: It is not easy, but I think a lot of people are still in such a state.

The most important thing is to understand that it does not depend on you, it is given to you from above, it is a gift from nature. And you must keep looking for answers to the question of your fate.

Comment: That is, on a positive note, you keep going, you are not stopping.

My Response: Absolutely, yes.

Question: How long do these states last: “If I do not find it, life is not worth living”? Are these statements internal?

Answer: I have had it for decades.

Question: What is the most important moment in your life?

Answer: The most important moment was when I found my teacher. I realized that a great happiness had befallen me now.

Question: In all the time that you have been studying Kabbalah, have you ever regretted it?

Answer: No. How could it have happened?

Comment: Probably the person asking may have doubts.

My Response: Doubts, meaning to forget and fall asleep?

Comment: I do not know, maybe there is something else.

My Response: I am not hiding from anything, and I am not turning a blind eye to anything; there simply is nothing else.

Question: You have been studying for a long time. More than forty years, nearly fifty. Was there no moment of doubt? Have you ever regretted it? Or were there some doubts like if you were in the right place?

Answer: No, such depth and horizons are revealed to you that you have nothing more to look for. Either you give it up, or you stay with it.

Question: So you never had any doubts, and you went along with it. But you did go through different states, right?

Answer: Of course.

Question: Why are these states given on the path?

Answer: To test yourself.

Question: So, you were questioning yourself?

Answer: Yes. “Do I need it?”

Question: “Am I in the right place?” Did you ask yourself this?

Answer: “Am I in the right place?” Not really. Whether I have the right sources, whether the methodology is correct, whether I should behave this way—all such questions were there.

Question: How did you answer these questions?

Answer: My answer was that I did not believe in anything, and therefore—to check.

Question: Is there anything in life you regret most and would like to take back and do differently?

Answer: Yes, I would like to take back and redo absolutely everything except my choice in life. That is, the choice itself is correct, but its implementation could have been more intense.
[334941]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 9/1/24

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Question: Following the war that began on October 7^th, people in Israel began coming to cardiology departments with heart problems, not with heart attacks or blocked arteries, but with what is called “broken heart syndrome.” In Hebrew, it is tismun et lev shavur.

Its symptoms resemble a heart attack, but it is not a heart attack. The shape of the heart changes, its function is impaired, and instead of contracting, it expands. This condition results from adrenaline being released into the blood during prolonged grief or stress.

Doctors recommend maintaining a healthy lifestyle, getting exercise, reducing stress, lightening work demands, pursuing hobbies, takingvacations, etc., but for a modern person who is always on the go, stressed, and trying to find their place in life, these recommendations do not seem realistic.

How can we not “break” our hearts amidst everything going on around us?

Answer: To do that, we need to understand that everything happening is nature’s response to our behavior. We cannot help ourselves unless we act precisely according to nature’s laws.

Question: What if I knew that my behavior and relationships with others affect all these stresses and wars? What would result from this?

Answer: Then I would behave differently. I would avoid stress and conflicts with others. Meaning, I would behave normally so that there would be no clashes.

Question: It is interesting that there is physical pain like torture, suffering, and imprisonment, yet people come out of that alive and sometimes live to be 120 and remain healthy. But here, emotional stress ends life. What is this, why is that?

Answer: Our bodies are adapted to physical suffering but not to emotional or moral suffering. We cannot endure that.

Question: Why not? After all the body is healthy?

Answer: Because such suffering goes beyond our natural life, our body.

Question: So a higher function is disrupted while the earthly one remains intact?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So even with a healthy body, roughly speaking, I can pass away?

Answer: Yes, people lived in conditions beyond our imagination.

Question: And then, bang, it is all over. Does this mean we have some higher component within us?

Answer: Yes, you can survive life if you have a goal. If you can elevate that goal above suffering and limitations, you can endure anything.

Question: So you grasp this spirit and survive, but your body can give up?

Answer: The body will not give up if you hold on to this force above life.

Question: So you connect these ideas?

Answer: Of course. A person must see a purpose ahead of him, a reason for enduring suffering.

Question: Then the body will hold on?

Answer: Yes. The problem is that in today’s life, people do not see that purpose.

Question: Does this apply even to a simple goal? For example, centenarians often seem to have a simple goal, they hold on to it, and their body follows. Does this also apply to simple goals and not just lofty ones?

Answer: Yes, they may have their sheep, goats, or a dog.

Comment: Yes, the fresh air, nature. And they live.

My Response: Exactly.

Comment: There are many movies now about elderly people living to 100 years or more in remote places like forests and mountains. You wonder how they manage—and yet they do. They live without hospitals or doctors.

My Response: Right. If they wake up knowing they need to do certain things, that is enough to keep them going.

Question: Even just feeding themselves?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Should we also learn to feel another’s pain?

Answer: Yes, we must learn to feel others’ pain because that creates a positive field of mutual connection around us, which is essential for survival.

Question: Can one find meaning in emotional suffering?

Answer: People often find deep meaning in suffering. But suffering should lead to a result whether it is creating literature, music, or other expressions. Much of art is rooted in suffering. A person must change their attitude toward life and develop a new life philosophy.

Question: You attribute all this to suffering?

Answer: Suffering drives humanity forward.

Question: Is it possible to accept suffering?

Answer: Most people accept suffering; they cannot resist it. But some individuals suppress their suffering and reach the next level.

Question: Do we ever reach the root of suffering, why it happens?

Answer: The root of suffering is actually quite foolish: it lies in the rejection of suffering itself. When I believe that what I am experiencing should not be happening to me, I suffer.

Question: So if I accept it, I will not suffer?

Answer: Exactly, then you will adjust to that level of life.

Question: Why am I given all these sufferings?

Answer: They are given to make you reflect on your life. You need to see whether you are the source of your own suffering and how you can rise above it. Once you transcend the cause of your suffering, you can free yourself from it and gain a new perspective.

Question: And what will I see?

Answer: You will see that your suffering is purely philosophical. Where suffering exists, there is a philosophy tied to it, a belief that suffering is undeserved. But if you accept it, you can rise above it.

Question: At the same time, understanding that these experiences are part of a divine plan is essential?

Answer: Yes, that is what the Creator wants you to understand.

Question: Should this understanding be both in the heart and the mind? And is that when you…

Answer: I agree with Him and I follow this path.
[335533]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 9/23/24

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Question: A fish asks God, “Lord, can you make the ocean smaller?” “Why?” God is surprised. “Because I don’t know how to swim.” God replies, “Learn to swim, and the ocean will seem smaller to you.”

We live in this world and often complain about life. Essentially, we do not know how to swim in this ocean of life. How can we learn to swim?

Answer: We do not have any natural abilities for it. We were created in egoism. We can criticize each other, but we rarely think well of one another. Achieving a state where each person is a friend, companion, and brother to others is, in essence, a fantasy.

Question: Then, why did the Creator fill this “aquarium” and place us in it like fish without teaching us how to swim?

Answer: He gave us the opportunity to learn on our own.

Question: What does this give me?

Answer: It gives us the chance to be the creators of our own lives.

Question: So, I am essentially a human with “fins” and “gills,” equipped for this water, but I do not know how to swim?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Do I need to develop these “fins and gills”?

Answer: Yes.

Question: How and when do we come to understand this?

Answer: We understand it when we have no other choice. Either we line up and march toward the cliff or learn to swim.

Question: So do we need to be brought to this dead-end?

Answer: Yes.

Question: How should we correctly perceive this ocean of life?

Answer: It is open before us. It all depends on how we relate to each other. That is still a problem. We always think that if others do well, it will somehow be worse for us.

How can one convince a person that this is not the case? On the contrary, let us work on ourselves so that everyone feels good and you feel good with everyone, and everyone feels good with you. But people resist this idea.

Question: So even here, the fish asks God, “Make the ocean smaller.” It does not say, “Give me the ability; teach me to swim.” So, we are not asking, “Teach us to swim in this ocean.” We are not asking this of the Creator, or are we?

Answer: No.

Question: Are we asking for the ocean to be different?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is this also inherent in us?

Answer: Of course it is inherent in us! We cannot change ourselves. Our egoism is truly the opposite of nature.

Question: What does it mean spiritually to learn to swim?

Answer: Spiritually “learning to swim” means feeling the sea of the Creator’s love around you and knowing how to remain in it.

Question: In this love?

Answer: Yes, and when we finally learn to move our arms and legs a little, we will start to understand that we know how to swim.

But we can truly learn to “swim” only when we turn solely to the Creator. Because the sea, the ocean, the waves, the sky, the earth, everything, is Him. We need to learn to be within Him. And to be within Him means to exist in the qualities of bestowal, love, and connection with everyone. That is what it means to learn to “swim.”
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/14/24

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