Question: Igor asks: “Dear Michael Laitman, I have a direct question to you: is it possible to lie, and if so, in what case?”
Answer: You can lie in the case when you save a person’s life.
Question: Is it definitely so?
Answer: Definitely.
[315624]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/17/23
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Question: There is a parable about a fisherman transporting a person by boat. The passenger urged the fisherman: “Hurry up, I’m late for work!” Then the man spotted that on one oar was written “pray” and on the other “work.” “What is this for?” he asked.
“To remember,” replied the fisherman, ” so as not to forget that you must pray and work.”
“It is clear to everyone that everyone needs to work. But praying is not necessary. Why waste time on prayer?”
“It’s not necessary, it’s not necessary,” the fisherman replied, pulled the oar out of the water with the inscription “pray” and began to row with one oar. The boat spun on the spot.
What do you think about the combination of working and praying?
Answer: This is correct because not everything is in your hands, so there is a place for prayer.
Question: Work is seemingly in my hands, but everything that is not, I pray for. What if the work oar was pulled out of the water, would the boat spin on the spot or still somehow move?
Answer: It wouldn’t move at all. Without difficulty, where would you aim? With what?
Comment: But there is “pray.”
Answer: Well, then pray.
Question: And still there is no movement?
Answer: It wouldn’t move.
Question: Then tell me, what is the most important thing in life?
Answer: The most important thing in life is when a person works, realizes himself, but at the same time realizes himself in the right direction! Not that the work will give him everything, but that he directs it in accordance with the development of nature and humanity. Then one is born, gets married, works, and all of it together.
Question: So when you say one moves in accordance with nature, is there a prayer here?
Answer: There is a prayer here, of course. It is in the general laws of nature.
Question: So if I advance according to the laws of nature, there is a prayer in it?
Answer: Sure.
Question: What do I pray for in this case?
Answer: Our life has such opportunities and probabilities that we cannot calculate. Not because we are unable to, but because there is an upper providence, a force (the Creator). That is why we still need to do everything in our power that the Creator has left for us. But once we have done everything, the rest is left for Him.
In Hebrew it says: “HaShem Igmor BeAdi,” “The Creator will finish for me.” That is, I do all I can, and the Creator will finish the rest for me.
Comment: We usually pray when we hit a dead end or some deadlock situation, or terrible suffering.
Answer: This is incorrect.
Question: Not the right prayer?
Answer: No. This means we do not take the Creator as a force of nature that determines everything and go in accordance with it.
Question: So I have to know, while working, that the Creator will finish for me? Is this the constant movement that has to happen? Is this the right advancement?
Answer: Yes.
Question: If we bring it down to the oars, is this how to move with both oars?
Answer: We move with both oars and pray they complement each other.
[315275]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/29/23
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Question: There is a saying: Human disputes are endless, not because it is impossible to find the truth but because those who argue are looking not for truth but for self-affirmation.
Is this visible to the naked eye today?
Answer: Of course.
Question: Is it ever possible to find the truth in our world?
Answer: It is impossible in our world because we do not see the whole world. How can we find the truth? The world’s truth cannot be attained if there is a concealed world before you. How can this be?
Question: Do I have to reveal the whole world, and then will I find the truth?
Answer: Yes. Only a small part of it is revealed to you if you can say that it is revealed. From it, you have to guess and unravel the whole world.
Question: In this case, do we even need to search for the truth?
Answer: You will not find it otherwise. And you have to find it.
It is the search for truth, that is, the search for the Creator, the force that holds it all, that alone can lead a person to understand the meaning of life, the truth of life.
Question: Then, going back to the beginning, directly to this aphorism, let us say people are sitting at a table and want to come to some kind of solution to find the truth. What should they do to find it?
Answer: I do not think when they are just sitting around a table they can find something. I believe that this goal can be achieved by each person in his inner exploration of himself and the world, and not when he sits with others and they only confuse each other.
Question: In this case, we cannot come to any common agreement at all. How can we come to some kind of peace as a result? I call this the truth. To reach a common consent, at least. How?
Answer: Only if we seriously start to come closer to each other and want absolute good for each other. Only in this case.
Question: When they sit down, do they want good for themselves? But after they sit together for some time, should they come to the conclusion of “I want the good for the other”?
Answer: I have to accept the desires of others as my own, and so does everyone sitting at the table.
Question: Is this called that we are getting closer to the truth?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Then, is it possible to come closer to it?
Answer: Yes, this is the only way.
Question: Will we ever come closer to it?
Answer: I think so. We just need to go through a few more unpleasant moments that will show us that there is no other way to solve our problems. Then we will rise to a state where we will solve not our own problems, but the problems of the whole world. Then we will succeed.
[315698]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/17/23
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Question: I saw a story on social media about an interview with an Indian billionaire.
Once someone asked Ratan Tata Sir in a telephonic interview. “When did you feel the happiest in your life?”
Ratan Tata Sir gave a thoughtful reply to the question., “I have encountered happiness in four situations in my life. First, during the stage of my life when I acquired wealth and resources. But that didn’t feel happy enough.
“Second, when I could buy things and valuables with my wealth. That was also temporary.
“Third, when I was honoured to become the owner of the largest steel factory in India and Asia. But even that achievement didn’t bring me the happiness I imagined.
“Then one day one of my friends requested me for sponsoring 200 wheelchairs for an institution and I agreed to that. But he insisted I personally accompany him to the place and gift the children myself. As I reached the place and started to give away their wheelchair gifts, I saw the faces of the kids beam with happiness to receive the greatest gift of their life.
“And one child touched my leg in respect and even though I tried to release my leg, the child did not let go, he looked at my face and held my legs tighter.
“I asked the child if they need anything else and the child replied, ‘I want to remember your face so that when I meet you in heaven, I can recognize you and thank you once again.’
“That was the fourth time I felt happiness. And unlike other times, I felt truly and completely happy that time.
“True happiness is in giving for other people’s happiness and being valued for the legacy we leave when we die.”
if a person feels this, why does he not hit this point all the time after that?
Answer: He is not given such an opportunity.
Question: Why?
Answer: Enough is enough.
Comment: He has all the means.
My Response: No.
Comment: The owner of the largest steel factory in Africa and India.
My Response: It does not matter. It is impossible to give a person such force, feelings, and power so that he can help others so much. He is not allowed to feel that. To do this, you need to prepare yourself.
Buying 200 wheelchairs is not everything. No matter how much it costs. Let us say it is a couple of million dollars, so what? He must work for it so that he is given the opportunity to live in such actions.
Comment: This is very interesting. You said it is impossible.
My Response: Of course. There are many billionaires, and we wonder how they do not work for bestowal even more and more. They have all sorts of such actions.
Comment: Note that for almost all of them, this is a moment of some kind of happiness. Bill Gates also writes that when he helps, that is what happiness is. Bezos and all these billionaires, while helping, suddenly say: “That is when I was the happiest.” This is how one should live, and you say it is impossible.
My Response: No, you cannot.
Question: Why not? I have banks full of money, I do not need it all. By the way, this billionaire is not married, and he has no children. Nevertheless, they will be filled with money, I will leave, and all this money will remain. Why cannot one, not just give away, but just like that, repeat these moments of happiness again and again?
Can you explain what should be done, for example, by such a person if he felt this happiness and wants to repeat it again and again? How should he change? What should happen within him so that there is no indulging?
Answer: He should be interested in what he is doing, like in those wheelchairs or something. What he invests in life, into helping others. This is his participation. Moreover, the participation is physical. Maybe he should be given the opportunity to assemble these wheelchairs, just do something.
Question: Do you think it is an important moment that his friend begged him to come and hand over the wheelchairs himself? Is this important?
Answer: Yes.
Question: In other words, is this important in order for a person to transform from a billionaire who accumulates and takes money to one who can give it for life just like this? After all, what should he do? He had experienced happiness.
Answer: He must have a reassessment of values: what is more important in life?
Question: What kind of power suddenly appears in a person, who lives by accumulating funds, and makes him happy? What kind of force is entering him?
Answer: He has never done this, he has never invested, he thought about how to haul in one direction, and here, he has the opportunity to engage in a different action, in a different job. And he suddenly sees that there is a much greater fulfillment of himself in this. Not the pockets, but himself. Therefore it is a discovery for him.
Comment: And yet you say that he is doomed, he will not be able to make these discoveries all the time.
My Response: He will not be given this. The Creator will not give it.
Question: In what case will he be able to?
Answer: If he does something that will become his goal in life. Then he will be able to work for this purpose to profit, accumulate, and spend.
Question: So the shift should happen within him? To the fact that he is accumulating in order to give?
Answer: For sure, yes.
[314135]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/15/23
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Question: A master was teaching his student archery. The student took a bow, two arrows and prepared to shoot. Suddenly the master approached, took the second arrow from him, and threw it aside. “Why did you take the second arrow from me?”, the student asked.
“I didn’t take the second arrow from you, but the first one, because the first one would have missed the target anyway.”
“But why?”, the student asked in surprise.
“Because while shooting, you would have known that you have another attempt in reserve,” the master replied.
Is it right to know that you don’t have any more attempts?
Answer: Yes. Very true!
Question: 🙂 That means that you have one chance?
Answer: This is your life and there are no more chances.
Question: Why do we live always thinking that we have tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and so on?
Answer: It is to postpone everything, not daring to do it all now.
Question: And if I strained myself, would I be able to say that I only have today? So I want to live it as the last one. Is that a right thought?
Answer: Yes, definitely.
Question: How can something so impossible be done?
Answer: Convince yourself that by thinking positively about the world, you are improving the world and thereby bringing it into a good state. And this is your responsibility to the world.
Question: How did the world come into this now? We were talking about my life.
Answer: You were born for this, to think that you can improve the world. You and only you. By desiring to improve the world, you are asking for it to change.
Question: Are you saying this to ordinary people now?
Answer: To ordinary people, if we want to change our world, we should only think that we want it to change.
Question: And is this a true-life experience?
Answer: Certainly. Everything must be done now, do not wait.
Question: And where is my “I” here? Is this my decision?
Answer: In the present moment.
Question: Right now?
Answer: Now. This is your “I.” It doesn’t exist anywhere else. If you don’t stop at it and decide that “now, only now!”, then you cease to exist.
Question: What are the capabilities of a person? Can one come to this? Does one have such an opportunity? To live life like this, for the world? Is it possible?
Answer: I think, yes. It just needs to be said to people.
Question: And do you think that what you say enters?
Answer: It will help, yes.
Question: And how does it happen? Where does it enter a person so that one changes suddenly?
Answer: Into the air.
Question: What does it take to live life “with one arrow,” with one chance?
Answer: You have to think that you want to improve the world incessantly. Nothing else is needed. Only thoughts, only our wishes.
Question: Improving the world, what do you mean by that?
Answer: Good relationships between people.
[314874]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/12/23
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Question: One of your videos talked about the road to heaven lies through hell. Michael asks: “Does one not become cruel after going through hell?”
Answer: If a person goes through very serious trials, I would even say oppression, of course, it could make him cruel sometimes. But I have met people who, after suffering a lot in the dungeons of the NKVD [the Soviet People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs] and others, on the contrary, had their hearts aching for others, they empathized with them very much, and made them softer.
Question: Were there any that broke down?
Answer: Not that they broke down but assumed the same behavior and became like their guards.
Question: You say from time to time that suffering makes one softer. Those who have become better and begun to empathize, has suffering softened them? And those who have not, did they, in a way, say: “Then we will do the same too?”
Answer: Yes.
Question: Does it depend on anything or anyone?
Answer: It is virtually inexplicable.
Question: So it could be that a kind man entered the dungeons and came out as a beast, while a cruel man entered the dungeons and came out as a good man?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Can this be explained?
Answer: I could not see cause and effect. I have talked to people for whom hitting their heads against a wall and losing consciousness was a break, a respite. Such were the sufferings.
And they came out as normal people, very compassionate.
Question: Is it very hard to explain?
Answer: Do not try to explain it now. This is a long story.
Question: Then let us “rise above the ground.” Is this path ordained for every person, one way or another?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Where does it come from? Where?
Answer: It is hard to say. I would simply say: we do not know.
[314778]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/12/23
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And once the storm is over you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about. (Haruki Murakami)
Question: Is the storm and in general everything that is happening around us in humanity and now in the world happening only so that we become a different person?
Answer: Yes, everything that happens in nature! Even explosions somewhere in distant stars are happening only in order to somehow act through some chains of events on a person.
Question: If I am an ordinary person, and it happens somewhere out there in Africa, is it still happening for me?
Answer: Yes. Do not look for any laws of justice in this. We do not understand all this.
Question: But there is a big difficulty in this for me. Somewhere out there, in Alaska, something is happening, is it happening for me?
Answer: Yes.
Question: What will happen if I can really train myself so that it will be my thought? Let’s dream that every person has managed…
Answer: Then you will begin to correct the world with this thought.
Question: What is the conclusion from this? That the world is tied to me and my actions determine what will happen in Alaska?
Answer: Yes.
Question: If we do not change, if I do not change—again and again troubles come into the world, next to me, and so on, and I do not change—do the troubles then increase? Will this pressure on me increase?
Answer: Of course. On you personally and on each of us, and on all of us together.
Question: Does this happen until I understand what depends on me?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Isn’t this difficult for a person?
Answer: We live in this.
Comment: But we do not feel this.
My Response: But do we feel that it is getting worse?
Comment: Yes, we feel it.
My Response: Is the pressure growing?
Comment: It is growing.
My Response: So, we need to do something about it.
Question: Is the conclusion from this that the entire world is tied to me and this is so for everyone? And I am tied to the entire world?
Answer: Yes.
Question: How can we live with this?
Answer: But we live.
Comment: We do not feel this; this is why we live.
My Response: That’s right. But what should I do? To feel. Once you start feeling it, you start thinking about it, you start trying to change it mentally, and you change it.
Question: Can you imagine if a person comes to this thought and there is such a responsibility on him, then how will he live?! How?
Answer: He will live. At the moment, he, the miserable one, exists.
Question: Is this what you call life: to learn to tie myself to the entire world, to feel that it depends on me?
Answer: Yes. And to care for the entire world.
Question: Is it in a person’s power or not?
Answer: That is exactly what is in a person’s power. For this, people just need a certain education so that they understand that everything that happens is necessary only for them to realize where they exist, in what system of nature they exist, and why the environment is not so kind to them.
Question: If I understand this, will I be able to take a step, or will I do it all the time with the fear that I am responsible and I am worried?
Answer: No. On the contrary, I will take good and correct steps gradually, here and there, remembering, forgetting, and somehow else. But in general we will improve ourselves and thereby improve the world.
[314954]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/12/23
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All bodies, the firmament, the stars, the earth and its kingdoms, are not equal to the lowest mind; for it knows all these and itself; and these bodies do not know anything. All bodies together, and all minds together, and all their products, are not equal to the least feeling of love. This is of an order infinitely more exalted (Blaise Pascal).
Question: What kind of property is mercy? Can a person manifest this property at all, or is it not given to us?”
Answer: Mercy is a property of the Creator. And this is a property that can be generated by a man. In part, it exists both in animals, in plants, in fish, and in all living beings. But in a man it must awaken in a measure similar to the Creator.
Man is born to achieve compassion. It is necessary to learn to be compassionate.
Question: Pascal was a great scientist. Did he achieve some point of the basis of man?
Answer: Scientists of those times felt it, and that is why they entered the field. That is why they called it all philosophy.
Comment: But the former philosophy is not the philosophy of our time.
My Response: It is natural.
Question: How does a scientist who works in exact sciences come to such feelings?
Answer: He feels the world; he feels how the whole world is interconnected, and therefore he strives to study its even greater interactions.
Question: Does he reach the foundation of the world?
Answer: Yes, of course. Scientists do want to dig into that. But if they reach this point of mercy, it means that they got to the bottom of something.
Question: You once said that the world was created just from this point, the point of mercy. Did a spark of mercy appear?
Answer: Yes.
Question: If a scientist comes to this, then does the road to the Creator in principle become closer?
Answer: This is practically a contact with the Creator.
Question: Is it like the fate of scientists, or is it the fate of every person, to reach such an understanding of the spark of mercy?
Answer: This is the fate of every person. And we will all reach the state in which we will reveal—each for himself—that interaction, interconnection, and mutual sensory penetration into each other that is the goal of our development.
[314830]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/12/23
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Comment: This is story from the Internet.
One evening, Winston Churchill and his wife decided to take a walk around London. When they were passing through one of the cozy courtyards, a janitor approached them. To the surprise of the Prime Minister, the janitor spoke not to him but to the First Lady.
After this conversation, Churchill asked his wife: “Why did he talk to you with such interest?” She replied that in her teenage years, he was madly in love with her. Prime Minister Churchill said, “See, if you had married him, you would now be the wife of a janitor.” Churchill’s wife replied: “No, if I had married him, he would have become Prime minister.”
Here we have this eternal question: who makes whom? As they say, there is a woman behind every successful man. Is there a spiritual root in this or not?
My Response: In most cases.
Question: Does it mean that in most cases I cannot develop by myself and my wife has to push me all the time?
Answer: It means a lot. A man without female support is like a bush or a tree in the wind.
Question: Why is this so?
Answer: Although she cannot do anything, when she puts pressure on him, she supports him.
Question: But she does not tell him: “You will be Prime Minister. I want you to become Prime Minister.” Or does she say it internally?
Answer: She can say it. But this is what he needs.
Question: So, do we need nudges all the time?
Answer: Yes. Without a strong woman next to a man, a man is powerless.
Question: Is there some spiritual root in this?
Answer: Of course! Because together they make one common whole.
This female part, the desire to receive is what forces a man to work correctly.
Question: Is the inner female thought so that women do not take offense: “You have to fulfill me”?
Answer: Yes.
Question: You can fulfill me with your power, and so on and so forth? |And she pushes him?
Answer: Of course. You see Churchill agreed.
Question: Not only Churchill, we see in history what happened. Behind each one stood some fragile, even quiet woman. Did Sarah move Abraham in the same way? Or was there some different situation?
Answer: The Creator said to Abraham: “Listen to what Sarah says to you.” So, apparently, it was even tougher there.
Question: How should we men behave in this case? Surrender or resist? Or, on the contrary, am I guided by a woman? What should a family tango be like in this case if we know that this is happening?
Answer: There should be mutual support. A husband should provide for his wife financially, a wife should support her husband spiritually.
[314915]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/12/23
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Question: One student asked his mentor, “Teacher, what would you say if you found out I fell?”
“I would say: “Get up!”
“And next time?”
“Again: “Get up!”
“How long can it go on, this constant falling and rising?”
“Fall and rise as long as you live! After all, those who fell and did not get up are dead!”
Until when are we learning to fall and rise all the time? After all, we are growing and we do understand something.
Answer: But these descents and ascents grow in their quality along with my growth. Therefore, they are not the same, they are not equal.
Comment: According to this sage, this is life. When they stop, this is death.
My Response: Yes.
Question: Should we expect falls all the time?
Answer: I do not think it is necessary to live with this. But, in principle, the fact that they will be is inevitable.
Question: Is it possible to teach a person and humanity in a different way?
Answer: No, a person will not reveal himself in any way if he does not go through descents and ascents.
Question: What is the secret in these descents; what do they teach us? They can lead to extreme conditions.
Answer: So, what? They can bring us to any state.
Question: You are calm about it. This is life, right?
Answer: This is life and this is development.
Question: Can the fall be such that a person will not get up? To whom is this given and for what?
Answer: These are special individuals. I do not think this is given to people often. And some people really need this.
Question: You have said more than once that a person is given only what he can endure. What do you mean by that? We see that there are many things that people cannot endure, but they are given them. Or can they still endure them?
Answer: They can. What can people not endure? It all just seems to us that they cannot endure and cannot survive. No. A person survives everything, endures everything, and can work on himself so much that no other being can survive it.
Question: What does “endure” mean? Does it mean to agree with this blow? What is “to exit out of it”?
Answer: Even to agree and even to understand, realize, and survive. This is called getting out of a descent. The fall itself is when I just give myself to it.
Question: What should be the principle of a person’s life in general?
Answer: The principle of a person’s life should be very simple: I have to feel others instead of myself, I have to live not in myself, but in others. That is all. In principle, this leads to the correct result.
Question: So, are you saying that if I close in on myself, then a descent is inevitable, and if I am always open to others and live for them, then I quickly jump out of it?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Why are we given these falls?
Answer: The descents are given in order to empty a person of the past so that he is ready to be filled with the future. Every fall and every rise is a renewal of a person.
Question: Until when can he be renewed? Which peak should he reach?
Answer: Until it completely renews itself. This is the state when he returns to the state of the first man, Adam, that is, to the root of his soul. After then, he no longer needs to change, so to say, internally.
Question: Does he then return to his permanent place, as it were?
Answer: He returns to his place in his original point in the soul of Adam.
Question: “Soul of Adam,” do you mean that this is a single soul?
Answer: Yes. He returns to his point in this soul. Each person has to go through this path of rises and falls in order to return to this point. We cannot run away from this.
Question: Do we know this point in advance? Do we know where we are going?
Answer: We cannot know it because we cannot feel it.
Question: At what point do I begin to feel it?
Answer: When you actually approach it.
Question: Why is it given to us not to feel it?
Answer: We do not have these properties of bestowal, love, connection with other souls, and so on.
Question: So, am I going to this connection, which will connect us into one? Is that where I am going?
Answer: Yes. Therefore, the commandment, that is, the main condition, is “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
[315010]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/5/23
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