Question: There is a parable about an old man who used to sit and fish by the river every day. One day, he caught a goldfish which promised to fulfill one wish. The old man asked: “Let every person in the village be happy.” The fish fulfilled the wish.

The old man returned to the village and saw that everyone was busy with their own happiness and forgot about him. The old man realized that true happiness is not in desires for others, but in the ability to be happy yourself. Do you really agree with this?

Answer: Why not?

Comment: Still, he wished happiness for others. There was a case that I could wish happiness to others, and suddenly I came to the conclusion that I should be happy myself and not wish happiness to others.

My Response: If you do not picture what happiness means, your own happiness, then what can you do for others? It is not easy.

Question: So first I must understand what happiness is?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Then, can I ask you what happiness is?

Answer: Happiness is when you do not feel any limitations. It can be from above when you are a billionaire, young, etc.

Comment: Full of energy.

My Response: Yes. And it can be the other way around, when you understand your limitations, but they do not restrict you.

Question: That is, I come to terms with them. You are as if saying: I enjoy what I have. Is this called “without limitations”?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And can a person wish this for himself?

Answer: Of course.

Question: And then can he wish others the same kind of happiness?

Answer: In general, yes.

Question: And can we say that in this case the old man wished happiness for others and missed his own happiness?

Answer: No, this cannot happen. He automatically builds himself up in relation to others.

Question: That is, he somehow perceives what happiness is?

Answer: Yes.

Question: You know, we get a lot of letters in response to all our videos. Parents write: “We have done so much for our children’s happiness, and as a result, we are left alone, and our children are busy with their own happiness and not with us at all.” What would you answer these parents?

Answer: There is nothing to answer. This is human nature. And it is unreasonable to reproach parents for reproaching their children now.

Question: I see. But can parents reproach their children for leaving their parents? Or is it better not to do that?

Answer: This is also unreasonable.

Question: So in this case, if we are talking about restrictions, is it better to live with it as is?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And is it right to live with it?

Answer: Yes.

Question: You once told me that your teacher used to say about relationships with children: “Shut your mouth and open your pocket.” Give the children what they need, and leave them alone. Is this the right approach?

Answer: Yes.

Question: At what age should you treat children like that?

Answer: At about 14.

Comment: Even at 14, leave a child so that he…

My Response: Yes, don’t leave him completely but gradually distance yourself.

Question: Then another question, based on all this. Should one want to make other people happy? Should one have this thought?

Answer: I think this is a very egoistic question. You start meddling in other people’s lives and there is no way out of it.

Question: So what is the conclusion from this?

Answer: Do not meddle with others.

Comment: Do not meddle with other people’s lives.

My Response: Do not meddle.

Question: And how should one live?

Answer: Just live. Live simply, and that is it. Why do you need to compare your life with other people’s lives and direct yourself toward other people’s achievements? “I will be happy if they are happy.”

Question: Yes, this formula is well-known. Do you think it is egoistic?

Answer: It is the most egoistic one.
[335576]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 9/23/24

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Question: How does a person know they are ready to study Kabbalah?

Answer: If a person asks: “What is the purpose of my life” and cannot find an answer, they begin to search for it and often come to Kabbalah.

If they feel that they cannot live without it, it becomes clear to them that the Creator is inviting them to this. And so, they begin to study the science of Kabbalah.
[335127]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/28/19, “Questions and Answers”

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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 (Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”).

Question: When the Creator brings us into a group, we have a certain role to start functioning like a cogwheel in a machine. But sometimes it takes years before I begin to understand that I depend on my friends.

We are just beginning to study the mechanism, but are not yet working like a machine. Could it be that some cogwheels work faster in their internal development than others?

Answer: That is not our concern, but the Creator’s. He sets the entire machine in motion and ensures the correct combination between all its parts, as there are millions of them, and each one performs its unique role, different from the others. Therefore only a force outside of us can do this.

Question: Until we start functioning as one mechanism, how can we help each friend find his or her place so they becomes part of the mechanism?

Answer: In the machine’s operation, there is a state where all its parts work together and move the mechanism as a whole. And there is a state where these parts start up individually, depending on how much they understand the launching of the machine and its operation.

Therefore we need to study this system, stay connected with each other, and eventually we will begin to understand and sense its proper functioning and our place in it.

A person in their development in this world reaches a point where they must know why they were created. When they start asking, “What was I created for, and what is the purpose of my life?” they gradually come closer to entering the system of our world, reveals it, and thus begin to understand their role.
[334716]
From the World Kabbalah Convention “Strengthening the Ten” 9/13/24, “Discovering the Power of Connection,” Lesson 4

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God created us in His image and likeness. But where does the certainty come from that He worked in a realistic manner? (Stanislaw Jerzy Lec)

Comment: A person’s understanding of the phrase “created in His image and likeness” is exactly that, according to His image and likeness. You know, like how Shishkin painted, Peredvizhniki…

My Response: That is incorrect. What within us resembles the Creator? Besides our desires and intentions, which we can correct and bring to similarity with the Creator, nothing else within us can be similar to the Creator.

Question: Please tell me, if He created us in His image and likeness, should we still strive to reach this after all?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: And He laid out a long road for us, for millennia humanity has been traveling it.

My Response: It seems to us that it is a long road. But in reality, it is not long. No. Man was created to understand, accept, and then actualize.

Question: To become like the Creator?

Answer: Yes.

Question: If it were possible to ask from the Creator’s perspective, are we already in that state or not?

Answer: Time does not exist for the Creator. Past, present, and future are one.

Question: If it could be said that He sees, what does He see?

Answer: He sees everything in the state we should be in.

Question: Already in the completed state?

Answer: Yes, of course.

Question: We speak of the “united soul,” is this Him and the united soul of humanity?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: And we, from our side.

My Response: And we, from our side, must move toward this from below upward. And that is why our path is long.

Question: With all these descents, ascents, and so on, but is it necessary for there to be falls and rises? Is all this necessary?

Answer: It is for the realization of the path.

Question: So, the entire purification process is exactly along this path?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And if the path were smooth?

Answer: We would not have formed into what we are supposed to become. We must fully desire to become like the Creator.
[333638]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/15/24

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Question: How can our connection awaken the eternal question about the meaning of life in other people who do not study Kabbalah? Is awakening these questions influenced only by dissemination or also by our internal spiritual work in the tens?

Answer: Our internal work influences it to some extent, but to a very small degree. The main thing, in principle, is teaching.

Gradually, a large group of people will form who can teach, explain, and answer questions. Then this internal society will begin to emit certain qualities, the qualities of the Creator, the qualities of the Universe.

Therefore, keep studying, and the most important thing is to stay connected with each other. Because the simplest, even the highest knowledge will not be of any use if it is not tied to others.
It is the quality of the ten that breaks the boundaries of nature and spreads in all directions.
[332191]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/24, “Connecting into One Soul”

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Question: What is the meaning of true pleasure in life?

Answer: The meaning of life is to attain the Creator because this is the highest pleasure we can achieve.

We are made in such a way that the light we absorb from the Creator, called His revelation, is the greatest fulfillment; there is no other.
[332195]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/20, “Connecting into One Soul”

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Question: How can we live without coming back to the question about the meaning of life?

Answer: This question will be repeated every day and even several times a day. We cannot advance without it. Therefore, the Creator sends it to us.

But when we answer this question, we feel it differently every time: deeper, more exalted, and so on. So, we must ask ourselves what the meaning of life is and make attempts to rise.
[332198]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/20, “Connecting into One Soul”

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Who understands life is no longer in a hurry,
He relishes every moment and watches
As a child sleeps, an old man prays,
How it rains and how snowflakes melt … 
(Omar Khayyam)

Comment: Even at the moment I was reading, a sudden calm came over me.

My Response: Of course.

Question: Is this understanding life? Just observing?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What does it mean to just observe life? After all, I am living it.

Answer: It means seeing how everything in it passes, moves, develops, fades, and dies.

Question: So, I just observe? But I am a participant in all of this. These are my loved ones.

Answer: You can be a participant depending on how you perceive it.

Question: What does observing mean to you? You still perceive things, that there are problems and everything.

Answer: I would say that I perceive life as a slowly flowing river. Only our absurd actions disturb its state of smooth, good balance.

Question: How can a person become the observer of their own life?

Answer: Look from the side, and most importantly, do not accept everything that is about you and for you.

Question: How?

Answer: Understand that it flows next to you, then everything will be simpler and more accurate. I do not think life should be perceived as if it always wants to tell you something personally. This will cause such internal disturbances that a person will not be able to relate to life correctly.

Question: It is said that everything exists for man. What does that mean in this context?

Answer: It is for them to see themselves in this stream of life. Just as we attend the funerals of others so others will attend ours. And so on. There is nothing unnatural about it; everything flows.

Question: So is that how I should live?

Answer: Yes, this is not indifference; it is just a way of perceiving life.

Question: Is this the right way to perceive life?

Answer: Yes.

Question: But we are always looking for the meaning of life. It would be good to find a higher meaning of life to strive toward. Where does this simple observation you talk about fit in? Does it disappear and some kind of drive begins?

Answer: No. What can drive achieve? On the contrary, if we want to see meaning in life, we must immerse ourselves in it and flow along with it.

Question: When it is said that everything is within a person, what does it mean that everything is within me?

Answer: It means that both the correct and the harmful attitude toward the world, people, and oneself are within a person. A person should still attune himself to the fact that everything in the world is indeed flowing. This is a vast river. And if they want to throw themselves into it, I do not think that is right. It is better to observe.

Question: Where does this river flow? It is known that rivers flow somewhere.

Answer: This river, yes. As written in the Torah: Gihon, Pishon, these rivers flow into the system of the upper world, to paradise, to hell, and so on.

Question: But one would still like to flow into paradise. Or does a person have no such thoughts?

Answer: Throw yourself into this river, close your eyes, and let it carry you. And do not think. Because the one who created all this determines everything.

Comment: I remember a simple example. When I eat, I eat quickly. And I eat an apple the same way. But you once described how Rabash would sit down, peel an apple, and eat it slowly. I remember this somehow gave the impression of a certain attitude toward life.

My Response: He had a very serious attitude. He took every minute very seriously. Very seriously!

Comment: For some reason, that example stayed with me. I would like to live like that.

My Response: Take an apple, a plate, a knife, sit down, start peeling it, and cut off pieces.

Question: And live like that?

Answer: And live.
[329994]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/8/24

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Question: A knight was walking. Along the way, he lost his horse and armor and only his sword remained. The knight was hungry and thirsty.

Suddenly, in the distance, he saw a lake. But right by the lake sat a three-headed dragon. The knight drew his sword and with his last strength began to fight.

He fought for a day and for a second day. He cut off two of the dragon’s heads. On the third day, the dragon fell, exhausted. Next to him fell the exhausted knight. And then, with his last strength, the dragon asks: “Knight, what did you want?” The knight replied: “To drink some water.” The dragon said, “Well, you could have drunk.”

I want to ask you. We are constantly in a struggle: for honor, for freedom, for our homeland, for whatever we want. I have a feeling that all these enemies we fight to the death are all made up. Is that so or not?

Answer: Yes, all of this is the product of our empty egoism.

Question: So you can simply drink the water? Why are you fighting?

Answer: Of course.

Question: And tell me, what is not made up? What struggle is not made up? They always say: “The struggle for life.” Is a person born for struggle or not?

Answer: A person is born to find work and peace in it, as well as to provide for himself, his loved ones, and family, naturally. And in this he should see his primary purpose.

Question: And after that? Should there be something more?

Answer: After that, he should develop.

Question: What do you mean by develop?

Answer: Develop his egoism, which pulls him forward, and thus gradually delve into nature.

Question: To what end?

Answer: To the meaning of life.

Question: So in any case, a person must move toward the meaning of life?

Answer: It will always be there in a person. It will always stand before him as an unresolved task.

Question: And why will it always be unresolved, unresolved, and unresolved?

Answer: To pull him out of this world.

Question: “Pull him out of this world,” what does that mean to you?

Answer: To pull him out of this petty egoism, to understand where the goal ends that nature or the Creator wishes to lead him to, to let a person master it and find peace.

Question: And we, in principle, exist at the level of petty egoism?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Does the Earth exist at this level?

Answer: Of course, yes.

Question: And great egoism, is it the desire to get out of this state?

Answer: Yes.

Question: But you still say it is egoism?

Answer: Of course.

Question: And there is still this three-headed dragon. If you say that a person must always develop egoism, you do not need to constantly chop off its heads or do you?

Answer: Egoism—the more you chop at it, the faster it grows.

Question: So more and more heads grow in its place?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Should you still chop it off or not?

Answer: You should.

Question: And the heads will keep growing?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: And chop again.

My Response: But each time they will be more complex, higher.

Question: And you will need to develop in order to chop off the heads again?

Answer: Yes.

Question: I see. And at what point will the dragon say, like in the parable: “Well, you could have drunk. Why are you fighting with me?” Will such a moment come?

Answer: No, we will not have that.

Question: We will not? We will have to keep fighting?

Answer: Yes.
[331373]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/17/24

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Question: An elder was asked: “What is sadness?” “Being sad means always thinking about yourself,” the elder replied.

How simple it really is, and how complicated it is at the same time. Can a person not be sad?

Answer: I do not know; I keep myself occupied.

Question: You keep yourself occupied, but not to avoid sadness, right? Not for that?

Answer: No. Even if I did nothing, I would not be sad.

Question: Do you ever feel sadness at all?

Answer: No.

Question: Why? Everyone feels it, but you do not.

Answer: I do not let this feeling develop within me. That is the first thing.

Second, I find more information about development than I can absorb or encompass. Because of that, I do not feel sad.

Comment: So you always have horizons—more and more.

My Response: Yes, you could say that.

Question: The opposite of sadness is joy. Can one be joyful all the time?

Answer: No.

Question: So one way or another, should such a movement be there?

Answer: Yes, it is natural for a person.

Question: To reach joy, do you need to feel sad?

Answer: To reach joy, you need to realize that what you have is just ordinary life. Therefore, you cannot be in constant joy or some kind of euphoria. But, in principle, you cannot be sad either. You can be in a neutral state and thus feel that you are floating.

Question: And then there will be joy, and then all these states? Joy will come, and then you float again, and so on?

Answer: Yes, in small doses.

Question: Why does the Creator give us these states, including joy and sadness? Why does He give us all this?

Answer: Without this, we would not be able to notice time at all. Only through these opposing feelings: from joy to sadness, from fear to happiness…

Question: Is that why we feel that time is passing?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So what is time?

Answer: It is the alternation of such feelings.

Question: So is time the alternation of these states?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is that all?

Answer: What else could there be for a person?
[331414]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/17/24

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