Many a zero thinks it is the ellipse around on which the Earth travels (Stanisław Jerzy Lec).

Question: Today is a time when it seems that many zeros are sure that they are the orbit in which the world revolves. Why is a person given this feeling of “I am the orbit in which the world revolves. Am I building the world”?

Answer: Yes, I build the world. Why is it given? So that a person realizes what a low creature they are.

Question: That this is not exactly so?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What, in your opinion, should be the feeling of a true leader?

Answer: He should feel that he does everything to set a correct example for his people.

Question: What is the correct example?

Answer: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Question: Should he live like this in relation to his people?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Have you seen such leaders? Were there ever such leaders?

Answer: I hope so. It is not noticeable from the outside. I think there were such leaders.

Comment: Our kings, who were in their time…

My Response: Maybe.

Question: Maybe Solomon and David?

Answer: I do not know.

Question: I see. But is this a true leader?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Will the future leader also be like this?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Will then the world change immediately?

Answer: Of course.

Question: Will the world also become loving?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Does the Creator instill such leadership in a person?

Answer: Of course. Who else?
[332633]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/1/24

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I asked God to give me happiness, and God said no.
He said He gives a blessing, and whether I will be happy or not depends on me.
(“I Asked God,” a Russian parable)

My Response: Indeed.

Comment: The Creator blesses us with happiness, but for some reason we are unhappy.

My Response: We do not accept the blessing.

Question: Why?

Answer: We do not want to be happy.

Question: So all this comes from us?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Do we understand that He blesses us with happiness? Or do we curse everything He gives by saying: “You gave the wrong thing…”?

Answer: No, we do not understand. All of nature, all life, all of this is given to us for happiness.

Question: What kind of creatures are we? We are given happiness, but we run from it. We say: “It is not there.” We are looking for it all the time. We say: “We are looking for happiness,” but happiness is what it is. Is this how it works?

Answer: Yes. That is us.

Question: What can you do to make a person happy?

Answer: Nothing. A person must learn to be happy.

Question: In principle, I must agree that only happiness comes from the Creator, that happiness is all around and I just have to feel it?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And what should I do?

Answer: Remember my book about the wizard?

Comment: Yes, it says that He is always waiting for someone to become his friend.

My Response: Basically this is a story about whether happiness can be achieved.

Comment: This book is even available as an audiobook. It is called Together Forever: The story about the magician who didn’t want to be alone. It is an amazing book!
[332430]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/1/24

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We call a situation hopeless when we don’t like the way out (Jerzy Stanisław Lec).

Question: So Jerzy Stanisław Lec is saying there is always a solution. We just do not go there because we do not like it. Are there really no hopeless situations?

Answer: I think not. There is always a solution. In principle, a person always has a solution. The fact that the situation seems hopeless is because his egoism traps him within itself.

Question: So it blocks the way out, and a person must somehow trick their egoism, do something. Tell me, please, is there a universal solution?

Answer: Only love.
[332530]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/1/24

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Question: UNESCO plans to send information about the cultural heritage of humanity to the Moon. They are translating it into 275 languages and significantly investing in this. The capsule will be sent aboard a Japanese automated module. This decision was explained as a necessity to preserve some information about the human race in case of a global catastrophe on Earth.

Do you think anyone will need the experience of humanity that managed to destroy itself?

Answer: No, but that is just what we are accustomed to do.

Question: Do you think no one will need it after all?

Answer: I think humanity is still in such an embryonic state that any possible other civilizations are several levels higher.

Question: So are we some kind of children?

Answer: Yes, therefore it is very easy to scan us.

Question: Are we, as you said, petty egoists on the surface of this Earth and that is it?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: And all the experience, all culture, all the science, all the millennia of development—all of that…

My Response: What about science? Science exists in nature and is open to all. Art is also very relative as it depends on the organs of perception.

I believe that no one needs this. But humanity wants to cheer itself up a bit, to uplift itself, as if to say: “Look at what we are doing, we are declaring to everyone who we are and what we are.”

Question: What do you think if we received a message now that once there were people who created a civilization here, some living beings, and then they killed each other and disappeared, would that study teach us anything?

Answer: No, that is how it was, but it did not teach us anything.

Question: Do we even know why they destroyed each other?

Answer: It is the usual human egoistic nature.

Question: Did this knowledge not lead us anywhere?

Answer: Nowhere, of course.

Question: Why does experience not teach us?

Answer: It is not even in our genes to be afraid of this. There is nothing at all.

Question: Why did the Creator exclude this possibility in us?

Answer: So that we would be independent from our nature.

Question: So if we are dependent on our nature, we learn nothing?

Answer: No.

Question: And if we become independent of it, then who do we learn from?

Answer: That is impossible!

Question: Is it a catch-22?

Answer: Yes.

Question: How can we navigate through this?

Answer: We need to reach the level of anti-egoistic interaction with each other.

Question: What is that?

Answer: As it is said in Kabbalah—faith above reason.

Question: So is all our interaction egoistic?

Answer: It is absolutely egoistic. And we have no possibility to exist if we do not rise above this nature.

Question: On the other hand you say that it is also not easy to rise above nature.

Answer: It is not easy, but it is possible.

Question: Do we need to have a proof of this—that there were people who rose above? We come back again to the fact that people who rose above have some experience?

Answer: No. In principle, we did not have such examples in the past.

Question: Where does your confidence come from that this is possible?

Answer: Because the Torah states so, and it was given for this purpose. We need to use the Torah to rise above our nature.

Comment: Please tell me, you just used the phrase “faith above reason.” This is actually the basis of Kabbalah.

My Response: Yes.

Question: Can you explain it simply to ordinary people? What is “faith above reason”? I live according to reason, right?

Answer: Yes, we live entirely according to reason. But we need to rise to the next degree, the degree of faith above reason.

Question: Does this mean that I just believe?

Answer: No, it does not mean just believing. It means governing yourself from the degree above our egoistic nature.

Question: Should I imagine myself being on this degree?

Answer: It is impossible to imagine. So it is a problem, but it is solvable. I think that ultimately humanity will solve it.

Question: Basically, we understand what faith below reason is. It means that we are told: “Believe.” Is that below reason?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Faith at the level of reason is also more or less understandable. This is science, which says: “I have proven it.” This can be so. But faith above reason, you say, is a degree above reason that we need to reach?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Essentially, is the Creator on this degree?

Answer: I think the Creator is beyond this degree. But to rise to this degree, we need the Creator.

Question: Does He want us to do this?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What does He do to help us rise to this degree?

Answer: He responds to our prayers. If we truly want this, desire it, and ask Him, He will do it.

Question: If I truly rise to the level of faith above reason, if we rise to this level, what does my state become?

Answer: You begin to feel the force of the Creator who fills all of nature, and you are in contact with Him.

Question: What is your definition of the Creator whom I begin to feel?

Answer: The upper force in which we exist.

Question: What is it like?

Answer: The force of goodness, the force of care.

Question: Do I begin to flow in this state?

Answer: Yes, it becomes your natural state.
[332354]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/1/24

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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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Sergey writes:

Is communism bad or is it good? I see how my parents yearn for the old times. And I, looking at today, am not very joyful either. Why couldn’t we build communism? We really wanted it!

Answer: Communism cannot exist without the prior education of society as a whole. Therefore, it is just an illusion, a dream, but quite achievable if people want it.

Question: What was the mistake?

Answer: The mistake was that people were forced to live as if under communism.

Question: How should it have been? What is preliminary education?

Answer: People need to be educated first. And when people want it, then it can be gradually introduced.

Question: How many people need to want it so that it would not be a bloody revolution?

Answer: It does not have to be a revolution at all. It could be a small group of people, like a Kibbutz, that shows it is possible to live this way.

Question: And if they start living this way and suddenly it works, what happens next? Does it start spreading across the world?

Answer: It depends on those in the group.

Question: But do they want it to spread across the world?

Answer: Yes and no. They might want it, but they understand that on a large scale it is still impossible.

Question: So it is not time yet?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What determines if the time has come for equality to spread across the world?

Answer: It is the moral level of society. How society itself desires to bring all its members to unity, to a common level, and so on.

Question: So, here you say, not by force? Everything should be by consensus?

Answer: Of course.

Question: Someone who lives well, earns well, and lives well under capitalism, for example, will he really want to come to this society of equals and so on? What do you think?

Answer: It depends on education.

Question: So he might have such consciousness?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So in conclusion: first education, then non-revolutionary transition?

Answer: Of course. Absolutely!

Question: You have already answered a bit, but still Sergey asks this question: “Still, will communism happen, or is it utopia?”

Answer: I think it will happen, let’s call it communism, but it will not be what we think. It will be a special, wise society where everyone will understand that in such a state it is better for them.

Question: And still, will it be a society of equals, or is it not correct to call it that?

Answer: Equals, yes. But in what?

Question: Yes, that is the question. And what is true equality?

Answer: True equality is that each person is given the opportunity to achieve their dream.

Question: So, you move toward your dream.

Answer: Yes. And what dream he wants to fulfill depends on the education.

Question: That is beautiful! So, you move toward your dream, everyone does that, and then you are kind of equal with them?

Answer: You hold onto it and move forward.

Question: Sergey also asks you: “Dear Michael, what would you say to elderly people who really believed in the ideals of equality, fraternity? Was that correct?”

Answer: It was correct. It was such a time. So there is no need to worry that you were forced or taught some nonsense and you believed in it, and life went on. No. We will still come to this gradually. I think people will come to it.

But communism must be based on education, mutual respect, love, and connection with each other. That is what is said in the Torah: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And all problems are solved by this.

Comment: Just come to this point, and then everything will roll on.

Answer: Yes.
[331524]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/13/24

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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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Question: You are asked about shame: “You always say that shame is the most powerful means.” Is that true?

Answer: Yes.

Question: The writer asks: “In what way? To convince a person that they are wrong? To shame them?”

Answer: Shame is an assessment of a person much lower than he considers himself to be, and this is an assessment with which he cannot agree.

Question: Someone else evaluates them that way, right?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: It is such a blow to a person’s “self.”

My Response: Of course!

Question: What are they ashamed of?

Answer: The fact that they receive this message from their surroundings.

Question: What if they come to this conclusion themselves? Does it change anything?

Answer: Then they usually forget about it. If it is not under the power of others, then it is forgotten.

Question: So when I am shamed, that is a very heavy state. Does it bring something? Do I change because of it?

Answer: A person must change. Either he’s hiding or hiding himself, or he has to do something about it.

Question: And why does he get this? It is all one way or another from above, through someone obviously, but why are they shamed?

Answer: It is to change them.

Question: And when a person understands this, then?

Answer: Then it is a correction.

Question: Why do we blush when we are shamed?

Answer: It is the sort of animals we are; we blush when we are ashamed.

Comment: Animals do not blush especially. True, they have all sorts of movements showing shame.

My Response: We do.

Question: Why do I later hate the person who shamed me?

Answer: Not only do I hate them later, there were times when such people were killed, and so on. That is, the one who brings me some negative feelings, I am ready to annihilate.

Question: Shame and humiliation are they similar forms?

Answer: Yes.

Question: If a person has no shame, what does that say? There is probably not such a person. But suppose.

Answer: Usually it means they do not understand what it is about.

Question: This person?

Answer: Yes, they are undeveloped.

Question: So developed people live with shame?

Answer: Of course. There is a certain threshold. If you push them beyond this threshold with your statements, they cannot agree with it.

Question: So every person has this threshold. What does it mean that a person covers their shame?

Answer: Every person. Their main concern is to cover themselves from shame.

Question: In principle, that is how a person lives. Then there is another question. In the Bible it said that “they covered their shame with clothes.” What does that mean? They ask: was it normal for them to walk naked and exposed?

It was all normal until a certain point. And suddenly, as you say, some threshold happened. What was this threshold for them, for these first people? According to the Bible, and if possible, even the Kabbalistic meaning?

Answer: When the feeling of shame appeared. The feeling of shame is when a person feels naked before others, uncovered. And that is very difficult.

Question: And if we touch on your constant theme of egoism, we are one way or another covering it?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What happened with Adam and Eve that they suddenly became ashamed?

Answer: I do not think it is a problem of Adam and Eve; it was the first social problem manifesting that they had such inclinations they could not be proud of, but rather they were ashamed of. And they covered themselves. And when you cover yourself, that is it, no one knows or understands what you represent, what you are hiding from, and whatnot.

Question: Suppose they covered themselves even materially, with clothes. Over time, these clothes from covering shifted to an element of pride. They adorned them with gold, couturiers appeared. Clothes became not just a cover of shame but on the contrary, a demonstration of wealth. What is that? Can you explain?

Answer: It is a natural inversion, because what needs to be covered, if you cover it with something that hits the other’s eyes, it is clear that it is not covering you, but on the contrary—revealing.

Question: So, in principle, what does it say about a person when they look at clothes like that? Not seeing clothes as simple covering, but when they view them as “I am beautiful, I am this…”—what is it? Why do they do that?

Answer: To eliminate any possibilities for the other to somehow belittle them and so on.
[331839]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/17/24

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The one who learns to tread the spiritual path must become as an empty cup in order that the wine of music and harmony may be poured down into his heart (Hazrat Inayat Khan).

My Response: Yes, he expresses it well. That is true. If a person’s heart, meaning his main egoistic vessel, is empty and can be filled with the world’s harmony, then it is good.

Question: Does one need to empty one’s heart?

Answer: Yes.

Question: But it is full right now. What is it full of, and how can it be emptied?

Answer: If it is, it is full of selfish desires. We can empty it only if we accept all our desires as empty and unable to fulfill us and lead us on the right path.

Question: Can I do this psychologically, or is it more about education?

Answer: It is much more complex. But people will come to this eventually because there is no other way.

Question: So is this the will from above one way or another?

Answer: Yes, the Creator holds us in a way so we gradually understand who we are, in what world we exist, and how we can bring ourselves to the proper state.

Question: Does the Creator have a concept of time: “I will hold them a little longer”?

Answer: Absolutely not.

Question: But what about the fact that we have been held for so long, gone through so many years, suffered so much?

Answer: If we did not feel we were dying, we would be different. The fact that we die drives us into various thoughts, into a dead end, and so on. But, in principle, we are moving toward understanding that there is no death.

Question: And then what?

Answer: Then we will start relating to ourselves, the world, and the Creator differently. It will all be different.

Question: How?

Answer: I do not know if I can express it. It will be all free and simple.

Comment: Let it be so.
[330659]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/13/24

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