Confucianism, Religion and Society

Question: Today, Singapore, Macao, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, countries where the majority of the population are Chinese, is a rapidly developing area. Is it related to special psychological attributes or philosophies of the Chinese people? After all, Confucianism is the basis of their philosophy, which includes loyalty to the nation, moderation, and keeping the law.

Answer: Yes, it is relevant and significant to some extent since Confucianism replaces the religions that are the basis of religious ritual in the other countries in Asia and Europe. Confucianism is the religion of the society. The state and the society become a person’s god, and the person becomes their servant. Confucius laid the foundation of a serious system that matches the nature of the nation that is expressed in unlimited loyalty to society and one’s readiness to give up everything he has for its sake.

The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Confucianism

Question: Can we see any connection between Confucianism and the wisdom of Kabbalah in any way, in that one of the important components of this psychology or philosophy is the ability to postpone consumption to the next day? Even today, there are rigid laws in Singapore that regulate consumption. If you make more than a certain sum of money, you cannot spend it on yourself, but must give it to some special fund that saves it for your education, health care, and future pension. This means that everything comes down to norms of wise consumption.

Answer: That’s true. You have brought up a very important point: the connection between the wisdom of Kabbalah and Confucianism. The wisdom of Kabbalah calls for love thy friend as thyself. If we dig more deeply into Confucianism, we will see that it also aspires to the unity of the people and to providing its basic, normal needs, while everything that exceeds a person’s normal needs must be directed to the benefit of society.

Question: It is actually thanks to such funds that the economy in Singapore is flourishing so rapidly. You invest your money for your future, and it is invested in developing the economy, which, in its turn, leads to raising the standard of living of every member in society.

Answer: Unfortunately, the attempts made in China, Singapore, and other countries will collapse eventually because they are disconnected from nature. Their current situation is temporary, and it will hold on until the egoism in society grows to such an extent that they will not be able to remain in the old frameworks and existing laws. This will lead to large-scale bribery and thefts that we haven’t seen even in Russia and in the US.

Question: However, there are still people among the leaders of these countries who understand the impending danger. The current Chinese president, for example, is fighting corruption like no one before him ever did.

Answer: They will not be able to do anything unless they renew the educational values of the nation. It isn’t about a new Chinese education, but Kabbalistic education. A person should feel that he can reach a new level of development through education and at the same time he earns his eternal state. If he doesn’t, he will rot like an animal. It is one of the two. People gladly will agree to limit themselves on the corporeal level for such a reward because it promises only positive outcomes, being the sensible form of consumption, and will be more considerate of others since they will feel that it is in the connection with others that they can acquire the agreement, the framework, in which they will feel the next dimension.

The Constitution of Israel: Love Thy Friend As Thyself

Question: I didn’t bring up these countries as a random example. It is because it is easier to illustrate certain benefits in a small geographical area. Can your idea be demonstrated in Israel first?

Answer: I would be glad to implement this idea among the Chinese and in other remote places, but it can only work in Israel with its egoistic, stubborn people. Because it is from this nation that such ideas will pass on to the entire world. I believe that it is only by working with our people that we will feel the urgent need for a change in paradigm, of the actual basis of our world view and our attitude to ourselves, to the state, to the nation, and to the world. At the moment, we don’t have all that; at the moment there is no nation and no state.

Question: There is still no constitution in Israel.

Answer: There is actually an old constitution. It is concealed in the basics of the wisdom of Kabbalah: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” I believe that we will be able to fulfill it in our lives when we approach all the sectors of the nation, to meet with them, talk to them, not through approaching the government.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 4/1/15

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Torah, “Leviticus” 26:9 – 26:12: I will turn towards you, and I will make you fruitful and increase you, and I will set up My covenant with you. You will eat very old [produce], and you will clear out the old from before the new. And I will place My dwelling in your midst, and My Spirit will not reject you; I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people.

Question: What does this mean: “And I will walk among you….”?

Answer: This means that all of the distance and space between us will be filled with the characteristics of the Creator, the properties of bestowal and love. So we will become His people, that system that consciously, willingly, and with love, accepts and perceives all of His laws and feels the Creator, and He us, for according to the law of “equivalence of form,” He is found among His people.

The Creator turns to all who want to be like Him by carrying out these conditions. Every person can become Israel, except for a few people who are like Amalek. They are not ready to change themselves. Yet, in each one of us, there is a characteristic of Amalek because, falling from a spiritual height, they have become mixed among us at the end of the last exile so that we became a mixture of all kinds of qualities. So, we need to wipe out the property of Amalek in us completely and replace it with a new quality. This is talking about those qualities and quantities that we must correct.

We need to understand that each one of us includes within himself all of the human qualities. So, when we correct ourselves, we can correct all of humanity and, in this way, pave the way for the rest of the people, fragments of whom already are found within us.

Question: However, it is difficult for a person to understand that each one of us is composed of all the rest, and yet you introduce this as an axiom.

Answer: I would not say that it is difficult to understand and internalize this. This is basically a scientific picture characteristic of a global world in which everyone is mutually linked, including the opposing properties within them.

The fact is that if we don’t discern reality this way, we cannot be corrected. We need to attain this thought and understand that as long as the last person of the seven billion has not corrected himself, humanity will not be corrected because his fragment exists in each one of us, he or she must be corrected and integrated with the others. This is an integral system in which each part is composed of all the rest, as well as his own.

Question: You once said that movies were for a person to identify with someone and even feel him, for example, The Prince and the Pauper.

Answer: In the world everything is created only so that our characteristics will become mingled. Movies are one of the means through which we can become integrated with others. After all, in any case it is information, no matter what.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/12/14

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Question: Do animals feel nature as one system in which everything is connected?

Answer: Yes, they feel it at their level.

Question: And can they feel the future, for exactly that reason?

Answer: Animals can only feel some kind of threat to their life, but they are not able rise above the worry of their regular, beastly existence. This is called instinct.

Animals feel the connection to the general system, but for them it provides only the information at the level of animate. Animals know what will happen, thus they are more careful than men and their behavior is more logical.

Animals don’t make mistakes! They have all the required information in order to exist, which is called natural instinct. Man is lacking this.

Question: If I had such instinct, would it be possible that my life would be better? Maybe I wouldn’t be overdrawn at the bank, wouldn’t have an ulcer, and wouldn’t be living in constant tension.

Answer: That’s a good question. What is preferable? Since if you had such instinct, then you would be an animal and not a man. Animals have all the information for a good life, i.e., the feeling of connection with the goal of creation. And man doesn’t have this at all. Why? Because at the speaking level one doesn’t automatically receive connection to the goal of creation, but must acquire it through self development.

Every person has this potential, but one needs to advance gradually. You cannot catch the occasional passerby and begin to convince him that he needs to do this. A person needs to be ready for this. If he feels that he must know the future, then I am able to teach him how to do this.

Comment: I am ready for learning! I really must know the future because that will solve all the problems for me, and explain to me how to behave towards my children and my wife and what profession to choose.

Answer: You will know everything! If you have such a burning question that brings you to despair and demands a reply, then this is a sign that you can do this.

At the end of the course for integral education (the wisdom of connection), you will come to the sensation that all people are inseparable parts of the same system, without any difference between them, including yourself. And in the beginning, it is enough to reach this feeling towards a stranger, not towards a family member.

Question: Meaning, if I feel towards a stranger as I do myself, then based on that I will create within me the ability to see the future?

Answer: Yes. You will feel the integral sensation, exit from within your ego, and sense me, for example. You must feel me as you do yourself. If you are able to feel something outside yourself as yourself, then the whole of reality opens up before you. You open your senses and you can see all your surroundings in a real way.

Question: Why can’t I learn integral thought by myself with the help of my intellect, without needing someone else?

Answer: For whom do you exit yourself if not for someone else? This is not abstract philosophy, but it requires a lot of practice and many actions with whose help we examine all the “pros “ and “cons.” It isn’t simple. After all we need to exist beyond the feeling of our “I.” That is the first condition of integral thought.

When I exit my “I,” I begin to feel who is outside of me, and to the same extent, I feel everything else. I open the extent of my feelings, from the level of my five senses to a complete reality.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/23/14

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Question: Is the European group of Bnei Baruch also to blame if the world experiences a disaster because of a lack of connection within Israel?

Answer: Today, everyone is responsible for this, meaning each one who studies the wisdom of Kabbalah and feels a connection inside Israel. When I refer to Israel, I am referring to all of our friends and groups all over the world.

All of us have received an awakening from the Creator, just as the group of Abraham received it in ancient Babylon. And so we are found today in the same situation of Israel (Yashar-El – straight to the Creator).

It is not important that one received an awakening 3,500 years ago in Babylon, came with it to this day, and another received this awakening in South America only a few months or years ago. According to the spiritual world, there is no meaning to these physical years.

All of us are already related to Yashar-El , directly connected to the Creator, and so must convey the Light through us to the world. If we do this, it will be good; and if not, it will be very bad. I hope that we will succeed.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/14, Chosen Topics on: Holocaust Memorial Day

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Question: The Holocaust, which befell the Jewish nation, was the most tragic event in all of our history. But when we see how anti-Semitism is gaining momentum all over the world, it seems that instead of becoming a thing of the past, the Holocaust is possible even today. Can the Holocaust happen again?

Answer: The point of the process that is happening to us is for us to repent our egoistic nature and demand to replace it, to replace hatred with brotherly love. And in order to reach that kind of realization, we need to learn about the entire program of creation.

The science of Kabbalah explains that all of creation is one closed, analog system, all of whose parts are interconnected on all levels into one sphere. Thus, every element affects all other elements and they all harmoniously take part in the system, except for man.

Imagine a sphere that contains still nature, plants, and animals that all exist in total symbiosis with each other. Even though we see how one of them eats another, it’s only because man, the most developed creature, is evil and egoistic by nature.

Egoism separates us and forces us to profit at others’ expense, to compete and wage war. Each person feels better if he manages to get ahead of others, instead of letting them get ahead of him.

Human nature is opposite to the perfect, global, integral nature, which is a round, closed system. But eventually, humanity has to reach equivalence with nature and attain a wonderful, perfect state where all the nations of the world are united.

There is one special nation called the nation of Israel, which has the method to attain unity. This nation lived in such unity for 1,600 years, from the time of Ancient Babylon on.

After coming out of Ancient Babylon, the Jewish nation went through the land of Canaan, Egypt, and the Sinai desert, and then reached the land of Israel, where it lived until the destruction of the Temple and its expulsion into the last exile. For about 1,500 years, this nation lived by the principle of love for the neighbor as for yourself.

The Jewish nation lived in the attainment of the general nature of unity, and by virtue of that it attained the laws of the general nature, it attained the “Creator,” or perfection, mutual love and bestowal.

After that we fell from the height of love into hatred and thus became equal to all the nations of the world, among which we live to this day. But about a hundred years ago, the Jewish nation got an opportunity to return to the land of Israel in order to create the state of Israel here again.

The state of Israel needs to be created according to our program, the laws by which we used to live, meaning the laws of unity of the nation and state. Without such unity, which suits the Jewish nation, that is, love for the neighbor as for yourself, we cannot become a nation. That is why we are still called a gathering of exiles.

Only by realizing the method of unity that we were given will we build the nation of Israel. Otherwise we cannot be considered a nation. It looks like we live together, in one country, but in reality, each person is by himself. That’s how we live today. Many people would even like to leave, and they would happily leave the country if they had the chance to live well abroad.

There is no spirit of one nation here, living in one country, on its land. It is more like a refuge where we have gathered because we had no other choice. However, while in previous generations, immediately after the Holocaust, when the Jews escaped here from other countries, Israel did resemble a refuge, today it is no longer one because today every person has the chance to travel the world and live wherever he wants to. You can meet Israelis in any part of the world. That is, we are once again dispersing all over the world, as if the threat has passed and we can come out of the refuge.

But according to the program of creation, we have to become one nation, and it’s not in order for us to live well, but to show the right example to everyone else. This is the meaning of becoming “a Light onto the nations of the world.”

We will have to realize that unity whether we want to or not. Therefore, we will experience all sorts of problems inside the nation of Israel, along with horrible hatred and anti-Semitism from outside, from other nations, until all of this obligates us to unite. But we can become aware of the need to unite on our own and begin working on it according to the method of Kabbalah, which explains how to love your neighbor as yourself. Then we won’t need to be nudged toward that by internal strife or external hatred.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 04/12/2015

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Question: It is said that during the festive dinner in honor of the commencement of Passover we have to tell our children about the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. What exactly should we tell them? What’s the most important thing they should know?

Answer: First of all, I don’t think that there is a difference between the adults and children. It is said, “Tell your son,” meaning each one who doesn’t know these things and wants to learn them is like a son to us.

Everybody should figure out what “exodus” means and how it is different from liberation. We should know whether we are still in the state of an exile and continue to seek redemption.

Exile is a state that is opposite to redemption. They stand for two opposite internal sensations; so far, we are unable to define either of those states in us.

Speaking of Egypt… Was it so bad for the Jews? At first, they enjoyed an abundance of food and led a “kings’ life.” The Pharaoh treated them very well, it was a real paradise. Why all of a sudden were seven years of satiation replaced by seven years of famine and the Jews acknowledged that they are in the exile?

People lost the purpose of life. One stopped understanding why one lives. Today, very many people can make the same confession: “I don’t know why I live. It poisons my life to the extent that I don’t want to stay alive.”

People choose to become terrorists out of despair, in search of the Light in their lives. They seek an ideal that is worth living for. Fighting with things that don’t match their ideals makes them feel that they are heroes conquering enemies. This sensation makes their lives purposeful; otherwise they feel dead.

Nowadays, many people are concerned with finding the purpose in life. With no vital goal, our existence loses taste and even death looks better to us than this kind of life. Abundance of Egyptian meat and garlic do not satisfy any more.

Egypt met every kind of human desires: food, sex, family, money, power, and knowledge. It was a paradise for everybody, and the Jews were the most respectable and rich out of all the Egyptian population. So, what did they lack? Only the purpose of life. When this kind of question wakes up in a person it poisons the very sensation of living. We feel that we live in a golden cage and are unable to get out of it.

This is what is called “slavery.” Our prosperous life suffocates and kills us. If our existence were not as “satiated” it would justify our desire to run away from it. However, our egoism doesn’t allow us to reject comfortable existence.

Our ego receives pleasure from Egyptian life. At the same time, we are driven by a question: “Why do we live? Are we people or just animals?” This is what is going on in the world nowadays.

We can provide everything we need to live a good life, but everything we have is soaked with bitterness. The question about the essence of life is far more important than regular material benefits. It throws us from the top of the mountain into the abyss, thus making us acknowledge our total obscurity.

It’s very common in the modern world and particularly among younger generations. We start sensing that we are in the exile, in our egoism that keeps us under its rule and doesn’t let us go. This state is called “Egyptian slavery.” We must free ourselves from it.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 3/31/15

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Question: What is Egypt?

Answer: Egypt (Mitzyarim – Mitz – ra) is the concentration of the evil we are in and the hatred we feel toward each other.

Question: What is the meaning of the nation of Israel going down to Egypt?

Answer: The Jews who went down to Egypt are not a nation yet. They become a nation only when they gather at the foot of Mt. Sinai and accept the condition of ascending above the ego.

Question: What is Moses?

Answer: Moses is the force that pulls a person out of his ego and directs him toward the goal of creation, toward the Creator, toward the right action. According the wisdom of Kabbalah, it is called the “point in the heart.”

Question: What is the meaning of the phrase, “The Creator brings Moses to Pharaoh?”

Answer: There is an inner conflict in a person and the rejection of the ego, Moses versus Pharaoh.

Question: What are the ten plagues of Egypt?

Answer: The ten plagues are an essential precondition when I understand that my ego can no longer be my refuge, I have to detach myself from it, to ascend above it. It gives me so much pain and suffering that I cannot bear it any longer and must break away from my ego.

Question: Why does the breaking away from the ego occur at night, in total darkness?

Answer: The fact is that the separation from that the ego must be absolute; even if I don’t see anything before me, I still run away from it. Although I could stay in it and enjoy my corporeal life in an egoistic manner, I prefer to exit it into the darkness.

Question: What is the meaning of crossing the “Red Sea”?

Answer: A person understands that he must give up his previous egoistic perception totally, and he wants to get to know the world anew.

Question: What does it mean that the water of “the Red Sea withdrew and split in two”?

Answer: This isn’t a natural phenomenon, of course. It doesn’t exist in nature no matter how hard we try to explain natural phenomena that we don’t understand.

“The water withdrew and split in two” means that a person is allowed to enter the attribute of Bina (bestowal). He goes through Malchut to Bina and receives a feeling of elation. This means that the evil water now becomes water that helps us advance toward the goal.
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From KabTV’s “A Talk About Passover” 3/18/15

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The Torah, “Leviticus,” 26:6 – 26:8: And I will grant peace in the Land, and you will lie down with no one to frighten [you]; I will remove wild beasts from the Land, and no army will pass through your land; You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you; Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.

The enemies are different uncorrected desires that suddenly emerge in a person and are revealed inside him. There are no other enemies but our internal attributes, but they are revealed externally since our world is a replica of our internal attributes.

It says: “Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you,” because a person will always have the power, the power of the Light in order to overcome the enemies that rise against him; the power to defeat them and to go on.

Comment: I always think of an allegory that is related to a small state called Israel that looks like the eye of a needle on the world map. It is surrounded by many enemies, but will it be able to overcome them if it is compatible with the law of bestowal?

Answer: Even more than that. It will have no enemies. The enemies will be revealed only for a moment and will immediately become our friends, our helpers, because we will be protected by the attribute of love and bestowal.

Question: Don’t you ever give up because this doesn’t happen as quickly as you would like it to and is actually going in the opposite direction at the moment?

Answer: We should feel that way because we come out of Egypt only in a state of total darkness. Therefore, I am waiting impatiently for this state, waiting for the time that we will all be able to undergo it.

The people who are attracted to the revelation of the Creator need to understand that we have to undergo these phases, that we have to support one another, and that we have to advance in any case or crawl if we don’t have the power to do so! There is no other way. “Only he who follows the path will overcome it.” I do hope that I will be able to be with everyone at least in the hardest path of this road, so as not to leave the people in Egypt.

Question: Has the hardest period already started?

Answer: Yes, and I am glad that it has. We shouldn’t speak about it too much since otherwise we will not undergo it. We will begin to calm ourselves: “Everything is fine; that’s the way it should be; everything is still ahead of us.” Then we will really be unable to succeed in anything. We see what the Creator does: “Come to Pharaoh once again! And then once again!” so should I calm everyone here? On the contrary, we have to undergo all that.

The Torah says: “And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” Which means that without night there is no daytime; without night there is no whole day; without night there is no Light. One day! It is only after the evening, night, or darkness that we reach the Light. Every state, whatever it may be, has to start from the negative side.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/12/14

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Question: What does the sale of leavened bread before Passover mean? Today, it is possible to complete a form on the Internet and sell one’s leaven in two seconds.

Answer: The sale of leavened bread means that I sell it only for a time and bring it back. I do it just to exit my ego, my “evil inclination,” which I use for the detriment of others.

Then, I will use it for the good of others. Thus, this is selling it only for some time, for seven days, to break away from the old paradigm, to get rid of my bad attitude to the world, but only my attitude, and when I get rid of it, I use all of my desires for a good attitude to the world. Therefore, I return this leaven after seven days.

First of all, we need to get rid of the old, from previous relationships. Let’s together make a decision to become “good kids.” We are in the world that is threatening our existence, like in the story of the exodus from Egypt, but we can rise above our ego and reach the genuine land of Israel, a completely good state.

Question: Are you an optimist?

Answer: Yes, this undoubtedly is going to happen. The only question is how much we must pay for it. We can achieve this in a fast and beautiful way, or in a long way, full of suffering. However, in any case, we will come to it.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 3/24/15

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Question: Before the holiday of Passover, we clean the house of leaven (Chametz),  and then burn it. What does the ceremony of burning the Chametz symbolize?

Answer: Burning leavened bread, i.e., my bad, egoistic attitude to others, when I use everyone else, suppress everyone, rule over them—means to remove it from the world so that it is no longer in my life.

This decision is a must! If we all support each other, then we really are ready for it, as it is written, “Man shall help his neighbor.” Then, we come to such a state that we burn all our incorrect connections. There is nothing behind us. We are standing in front of the entrance to the new world and cross the Red Sea.

This crossing is called crossing the barrier from hatred to love for others. It’s not love yet, but the beginning of a good attitude toward others.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 3/24/15

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