Question: Mark Twain said: “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.”

Don’t we ever see that this is all as though within us? That is, I always see that this is him who has become wiser? And I was smart all the time.

Answer: Yes. We are amazed at the changes in other people without realizing that it is due to our changes.

Question: But sometimes it is still said that “I have matured, I have become wiser.” A person sometimes says that. Is that the right thought?

Answer: Yes.

Question: At what point does this revolution take place that I have suddenly changed?

Answer: This is the work of the Creator on man.

Question: So I am changing and the world is changing? Is this the formula?

Answer: This is the formula. But who is changing me?

Question: Does the Creator change me? In response to what? Or is it just His will?

Answer: This is in order for me to gradually determine that I am in His power, and He commands the world that only He created. And I am grateful to Him for doing all these metamorphoses with me.

Question: Am I grateful afterward? And before that, is there still hard work going on?

Answer: Of course.

Comment: In order to tell me how I grew up, how I misunderstood my father, what he was like…

My Response: No, it wasn’t you who misunderstood. It was the Creator who guided you through all these states. That is why you have become smarter.

Question: So as a result, as Mark Twain wrote about his father, I am saying the same thing about the Creator?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: So, when I got smarter, I realized that You are good and doing good. But until it happens…

My Response: It doesn’t matter. After all, a person reaches such a state when he dies. And then he understands, realizes.

Question: Who is he? You said, “A person dies and then you say, “He understands and realizes.”

Answer: A man, in his soul.

Comment: But he’s dead.

My Response: And what does it mean that he died?

Question: What do you mean he died? You said, “A person dies and then understands.”

Answer: And then he understands and realizes what it means that the Creator has guided him through all the states of this life.

Question: And who is he who understands?

Answer: A man.

Comment: But he’s already gone. He’s dead.

My Response: That he was buried or burned? So what?

Question: And where is he, the man?

Answer: Spirit. This is the man.

Question: So, it is immortal, this spirit?

Answer: Of course.

Question: You are saying that there is an eternal part in a person that feels everything, goes through everything, and it only?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And this shell, this body?

Answer: You can bury it.
[314362]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/1/23

Related Material:
The Wise Father
What Do We Need To Add To Creation?
The Nature Of The Good Is To Do Good

Filed under: Body and Soul, News, Perception - No Comments →

In our time, the countries are all linked in the satisfaction of their needs of life, as individuals were in their families in earlier times. Therefore, we can no longer speak or deal with just conducts that guarantee the well-being of one country or one nation, but only with the well-being of the whole world, for the benefit or harm of each and every person in the world depends and is measured by the benefit of all the individuals the world over (Baal HaSulam “Peace in the World“).

Question: Today everyone understands universal interdependence and tries to move away from it with all their might. For example, America wants to get free from China, but China produces 80% of solar panels and batteries for electric vehicles. Everyone wants to get free from Taiwan, but 80% of computer chips are made in Taiwan. And yet everyone wants to “get free, get free…”.

What is the future of this global world? Baal HaSulam saw that it was already tied up.

Answer: Nobody will be able to get away from it. They just talk, but they really can’t.

Question: Will they not break free? So are these chains, or is it everyone’s wish after all?

Answer: Of course. The desire to be independent is great in each of us and in every nation and in every part of the world. But there is no getting away from it.

Question: And if a person thinks that “I have my vegetable garden; there is my production; I make both tires and cars”?

Answer: No, we went through this 500 years ago. And now it’s impossible.

Question: So do you think that the globalization of the world and this global tie is inevitable?

Answer: It is inevitable, and even more so every year.

Question: What should it be? Forcing humanity into understanding?

Answer: Yes. But how? When you see that you are completely dependent on your neighbor, then you stop fighting with him.

Question: So do we have to come to the consciousness that, after all our breakups and divorces, I am completely dependent on my neighbor?

Answer: Of course. That’s how it goes!

Comment: But I don’t see this, and neither do you.

My Response: All this should be determined by the measure of suffering. Suffering is the foundation.

Comment: Meaning it turns out that I have to suffer almost to the limit. I have to ruin everything around.

My Response: This will be closer to final correction.

Question: Couldn’t I fix all the threads with my neighbors in advance, which I would not be able to break later? Before we suffered, by some wisdom?

Answer: What wisdom? This is stupidity. I’m sorry.

Question: The fact that I can fix all the threads with my neighbors in advance, which I would not be able to break later? Or that will I tear them up later anyway?

Answer: We can’t escape.

Question: Then what needs to happen for me to understand that I am really in a complete bundle and do not want to leave it? I want to live like this.

Answer: Awareness of the complete dependence of everyone on everything.

Question: How does it come?

Answer: Through problems, through pain, through suffering, through illnesses, in which I reveal how tied we are.

Comment: Scientists say that we are really tied up. Biologists say that.

My Response: But you have to experience it on your own skin! That’s the problem. This is how it turns out in the family, or with relatives, and so on. That’s when you feel it, and it goes all over you, like a rake on a naked body. Then I am ready to renounce it. These “rakes” will help me realize my evil.

And there really are a lot of questions. Big deal, these rakes! Why should I reveal all in this way? Am I really such an idiot? Am I really that limited? Am I really that stupid? Am I being punished as a child, like at school or at home? Can’t you be a little smarter? No, you can’t.

Question: So this experience must pass through me?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: Someone drove this rake over me, didn’t they? I will never forget the pain that he caused me.

My Response: You will be eternally grateful to him!

Question: Do you understand what humanity is like today? As I am today, it’s not that I can’t watch, but I just hate it. How can I turn this hatred into gratitude?

Answer: Revelation of the great degree to which you are rising thanks to these “rakes.” And there is huge love for the Creator, who has provided for all this in advance and prepared it for us.

Question: The further we go, the scarier it turns out. I am grateful to him, whom I hate; I am grateful to the Creator who spun it all.

And to what degree must I climb to really be grateful?

Answer: This is the revelation of evil. The recognition of evil is that it is not evil, but absolute good.

Question: Which led me to what as a result?

Answer: To love! You kiss the rake.
[314322]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/1/23

Related Material:
Has the Creator Declared War Against Us?
Why Is the Creator So Unkind to Us?
How Can We Feel the Benevolence of the Creator?

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, News - No Comments →

Question: A samurai came to a sage and asked him if there really is hell and heaven.

“Who are you?,”  the sage asked.

“A samurai,” the warrior answered.

“You’re lying,” said the sage, “You have the face of a beggar.”

The samurai drew his sword. The sage said, “That is how the doors of hell open.”

The samurai understood and, bowing, hid the sword.

“And that is how the doors of heaven open,” said the sage.

Is it possible not to pull out the sword for any insult? Meaning, not to go through hell before heaven?

Answer: It is very difficult. I think it is almost impossible.

Comment: So, the road to heaven is paved through the hell that you are passing through. This is serious.

My Response: What can you do? This is how we were created. This is our incomparable egoism.

Question: In principle, it does not forgive anyone, it must immediately answer?

Answer: Yes. The first thought is to draw a sword because that is who we are; there is no getting away from it.

There is no way we can turn ourselves around so that we are guided by the good since, “I created evil.” It is like the words of the Creator. “And He created the Torah to correct it.” But it is evil to start with.

Question: Why was evil created in the beginning?

Answer: In order for a person to realize his nature from edge to edge. From evil to good, both manifestations fully, and then lean toward the good. Then indeed they will be guided by good over evil. But one cannot exist without the other.

Question: So, one way or another we go through hell to heaven, right?

Answer: Certainly.

Question: Then what is the wisdom of man? We say, “Man is wise.”

Answer: It is to see in advance, without going through hell at every step, that you need to act differently. But this comes from very big trials and experience.

Question: So, does the experience of constant hell lead to the fact that a person becomes wiser?

Answer: Of course, like that Japanese sage.

Comment: You often say that a person can concede. You even used the words “submission,” “annulment,” and “annulment of oneself.”

My Response: These are all very difficult states that you still must go through hell. I do not believe that a person can overcome himself in advance without having a lot of experience. It is impossible.

Question: You are now talking about rising above your egoism. What is it to rise above egoism?

Answer: That means to feel egoism in all its possible manifestations in life, even in nature, and to rise above it all the time. To bow your head, that is, to reduce your egoism, reduce, minimize, suppress.

Question: If you constantly do the exercise of suppressing your egoism, annulling yourself, will it help?

Answer: I do not think this exercise is even possible. This is philosophy. It is possible only if it is gradually, gradually exercised in a suitable society. There should be an environment where everyone wants it. They cannot do it, but they want to.

Question: Do they have a feeling that they cannot accomplish it?

There must be an awareness of evil. And then they all together, in front of each other, together can, helping each other, get out of this fetid pit.

Answer: Certainly. There must be a revelation of evil. And then they all together, before each other, they can help each other, and get out of this fetid pit.

Question: Who is responsible for the way out of there? Us?

Answer: Yes, us! We have to ask, beg, think, speak, and show examples to each other, and thus act. Everyone who has more egoism, of course, becomes higher. In general, this is the work.

Question: If this work is done in the society of those who want to get out of egoism, does it help others?

Answer: It helps others, not even only by example. It does not even matter if they see it or not because it is a force of nature, and it is thus added to the general equation of nature and outweighs egoism first, and then altruism.

Question: Are you saying that if this group manages to rise, it will begin to lift everyone after it?

Answer: Yes. We must act.
[313929]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/29/23

Related Material:
The Fire We Come to Hell With
To Hell or to Heaven?
Does Death Pave the Way to Heaven?

Filed under: News, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Comment: God made a man out of clay. He made the earth, a home, animals, and birds for man. And he had an unused piece of clay. “What else is there to make?” God asked. “Sculpt me happiness,” the man asked. God did not answer anything, thought about it and put the remaining piece of clay in the palm of the man’s hand.

My Response: That is a good parable.

Question: Yes. Can we really sculpt happiness for ourselves? Is this piece really in our hands?

Answer: If you feel that this piece of clay is given to you by the upper force and He instructs you to do it yourself, then you obviously have to take this piece of clay and start thinking about how to make your happiness from it.

Question: There is still a precondition that I should know that I have a piece of clay from Him?

Answer: You said that the Creator gave it to him, didn’t you?

Comment: Yes, according to the parable He did. In general, humanity is constantly shaping happiness for itself. He sculpts and sculpts, but can’t really make a good one.

My Response: No, it is not in our life that we do it. There is nothing you can do in this life.

Question: Do we not have this piece of clay in this life, on this earth?

Answer: There is no happiness in life.

Question: Yes, there is no happiness in life. Only under the condition that I go with the Creator? And without Him I can’t make anything?

Answer: No.

Comment: We have repeatedly spoken with you that all technologies and progress in fact is that a person says that “I am above nature,” “I can,” I tried to stop rivers, something else, and so on, meaning one way or another, this is a path into the void that leads to nothing.

My Response: Of course.

Question: You talk all the time about good connections, that people should get closer to each other. And if everyone says: “Here I have a piece of clay.” And the others will say: “And I have one” and “Me too.” And then “Well, let’s make a common house for us together.” Will it work or will that not work either?

Answer: No.

Question: Does the condition you’re talking about still have to exist? It must be known that the Creator gave this piece of clay to everyone.

Answer: You have to understand what is missing in this piece of clay. There is not enough internal connection of all the pieces between them all. And then we return in our connection of hearts to the state called Adam, similar to the Creator.

Question: In what way was he similar?

Answer: Before it was shattered and divided into billions of parts, it was an angel. That is, an absolutely good, absolutely righteous, correct intention that fulfilled together with the Creator everything that is necessary for a perfect universe.

Question: Was it such a common intention for everyone? A single soul as such? Can I say that? Were all the souls merged into a single soul?

Answer: Yes.

Question: You describe what was in the beginning, and then how everything broke into fragments, and the fragments of the soul fell, so to say, into our world, into this world. And do we have to return to this state?

Answer: Yes. We must realize that we are in a broken state and that we must return to a unified state. This is called putting together the pieces of clay that everyone has.

Question: When you say “compose pieces of clay together,” what do you mean?

Answer: To merge, to join, to unite hearts. And then it will be what the Creator intended.

Question: Did he plan for us to be happy?

Answer: Of course.

Question: What is happiness in the Creator’s understanding?

Answer: Happiness in the understanding that the Creator is the connection of all, together in one single desire, in one single action, when we are all united and do not feel any gap between us. Then what we experience is called happiness.
[314016]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/1/23

Related Material:
Who Will Mold Happiness For Us?
Looking For Happiness Or Simply Living?
What Is Happiness?

Filed under: News - No Comments →

Question: I heard about an experiment that was conducted where people wrote various words on bottles containing water. They froze the bottles of water and examined the structure of the ice crystals that developed under a microscope. These formations were very different from each other.

Some were beautiful, and some, on which such words as, for example, “war” or “death” were written, were not. How do words affect matter?

Answer: It does not matter how, but all words and thoughts affect matter. We live in one common world where inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, and a person’s thoughts and feelings are all combined into one single system in which everything is interconnected. I hope people will gradually understand that we have to think about what we are saying.

Question: Is there a connection between oncological diseases and a person’s thoughts?

Answer: They say that the negative thoughts and words of a person have a bad effect on him and other people.
[313873]
From KabTV’s “Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips” 5/18/23

Related Material:
The Result Of Our Thoughts
We Found A Cure For Cancer
Where Do Our Thoughts Come From?

Filed under: Health, News, Perception - No Comments →

Comment: If you ask any person to name some recent movie, a blockbuster that offers people a good option for the future, one that is not frightening, but kind, any person will have to think. I think there has not been any movie like that for 30 – 35 years. The entire film industry and all human thinking cannot seem to create films with some kind of good future.

Answer: No, everything is aimed at scaring.

Comment: We are constantly being shown some kind of apocalypse and all sorts of dystopias. But this is people’s request. After all, Hollywood clearly feels the demands of the people. If money were paid for a good ending, the endings would have been good.

My Response: I think that today it is really difficult for a person to imagine a good end to the world or even some kind of cloudless, shining future. This is something impossible. Therefore, the best thing that is closer to us, is to create something terrible.

Question: Does a person really not want to watch some kind of fairy tale about a good ending so that he is assured that it can happen? Is it right or not to create such a thing and introduce this into the subconscious?

Answer: But you say that there are people in Hollywood who understand human needs. That is probably why they do it.

Question: This is a paradox for me. A paradox! Doesn’t a person want to go to the cinema?

Answer: People will not go for these sweet things. They do not see it around them, and they will not believe it in the movies either.

You can show movies about love or something else, but not about a good, warm, and kind future.

Question: When there was a great depression in America, in the 20 to 30s, the first musical film The Jazz Singer was released. And the father of a family took the last dollar and gave it to sit with the family and watch this movie. That is, out there is horror and darkness, people jumping out of windows, and here I have this movie playing, and I am sitting and watching.

Do you think it will not be profitable to create such a kind, warm future?

Answer: No one will do it today. Firstly, people no longer believe. Once upon a time they were more naive and believed such things could exist. They sat, cried, and dreamt. And now, after we have gone through such a bumpy path and were all thoroughly shaken up by endless wars that take place every minute in different parts of the world, I think that no movie will calm us down.

Question: Then tell me, what are you personally for? Who are you for?

Answer: I am not for Hollywood because releasing some kind of naive, sweet beauty with a good future is disgusting, cloying, and deceitful. And to release movies about serious suffering, of course it is possible, but how many films like that are possible?

Films, in principle, with a more or less good ending, are still filled with all kinds of suffering. They are successful because they drag the audience into suffering, and then they still show some of his good features. Goodness wins.

Question: What kind of movie would you create? Would you not create a movie with some kind of ending that a person would believe in? You say that we should come to good connections.

Answer: But I am not an artist. I cannot imagine how you can draw such a picture for, say, one and a half to two hours that would still leave a warm impression.

Question: It is possible such movies are created that you can leave the cinema with a warm feeling? How can you make a person believe in a good, kind ending, as you say all the time, in connection, which one way or another will happen, and in love, to which one way or another we will come?

Answer: No. I do not think a person can believe it. The only thing he can do is agree with a movie like, say, Forrest Gump. It is a big movie.

Comment: That is a great movie. In my opinion, it is a wonderful movie.

My Response: But this is about a person who is not quite normal.

Comment: Yes, he is abnormal for everyone, but he turned out to be the most normal of all, loving and able to love.

My Response: But it is still unrealistic. And if such a reality is possible, then only in such an instance. I cannot imagine how you can do something like that to attract people. Even if you attract them, they will leave the cinema and forget.

Comment: Because reality is different.

My Response: How can you make a person different with the help of cinema? I do not think there will be such masters.

Question: Still, what kind of movie would you make? One that would really work. What should it lead to?

Answer: I have not seen such a movie that would change people and lead them to some serious internal changes.

Question: But would you like them to exist?

Answer: Of course! Who would not want that?! Almost everyone wants a good future. But I do not know.

Question: Are you saying that if a movie would change a person, then you are for such a movie?

Answer: Yes.

Question: If the first condition is that the movie changes the person, the second question is: from whom to whom or from what to what?

Answer: From who he is now. Now he is just a beast that thinks only about himself and cannot think about others. Or if he can think about others, then only in what form what he does to them will bring gain to him.

If a person is actually given absolute freedom, then he will be absolutely indifferent to what is around him except to the extent of the space around him that he can look at and see that it is pleasant to his eye.

Comment: This is a man of today.

My Response: This is a man.

Question: We are talking about correction. What should this beast come to?

Answer: He should begin to understand that the most important thing is when you rejoice in others. And for this it is necessary to change the nature of man.

Question: “Rejoice in others,” what do you mean by this?

Answer: It is when it is good for others, it is good for you. But how can this be! On the contrary, you rejoice that you are better than others, that is, when they are worse than you.

Question: So, one way or another, do you always lower others so that they are lower than you?

Answer: Naturally, but you should raise them.

Question: Is this the main change? If there were such a movie and it will attune a person like this, are you in favor of such a movie?

Answer: I am for such a movie, but it would not be successful.

Question: Financially?

Answer: Not in any way. No one will admire it.

Comment: You do not want to imagine, you are returning to reality.

My Response: I cannot dream for a long time, I am not young anymore, to put it mildly.

Question: How will we come to such a movie then? We are in some movie right now. It is clear that this cinema is our world. This movie is mostly a horror movie. How will we come to another movie after all? You say that it is embedded in us to come to it and we will one way or another.

Answer: I do not know. Perhaps this is possible through the younger generation whose love will make us, the elderly, become different. One way can be for the sake of our children and grandchildren.
It can also be a general revelation of evil where we all realize how ugly we are egoistically.

Comment: But this can only be after great suffering.

My Response: I do not know. Suddenly such a revelation will come even without suffering. And we will be ashamed to look at each other.

Question: Does it somehow depend on us?

Answer: Not particularly. Imagine that wherever you are, on the subway, on the bus, somewhere on the road, among people, that everyone is looking at you and everyone understands who you are. And you look at others and also understand who they are. And you cannot run away from it.

Question: Do I have to go further on the bus with them?

Answer: Yes. In general, this is a good setup. And after that you have to work on yourself.

Question: So this movie is not bad when I see who they are; do they see who I am?

Answer: Yes. One day all people will begin to see each other correctly, transparently, through and through.

Question: I see. I am like naked to them, and they are like naked to me. I can see everything. And how will I see myself in such a situation?

Answer: The same. That is how you see yourself. You look where to hide, and there is nowhere to go.

Question: We will make such a movie, we will approach it. And if this happens, like in a glass house, in this bus in which everyone sees everything, there is nowhere to hide, and what should we do in such a situation?

Answer: There is no need to hide anywhere. It should be the opposite. Here it is necessary to work on everyone’s realization that we are all like that and that we must immediately begin to change ourselves every minute on the spot! And without being shy. Literally every minute, what is revealed in us is so that we correct it.

Question: So you are saying that the horror of this realization will unite us?

Answer: Yes. It will unite us and help us become different.
[314050]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/18/23

Related Material:
Why Do We Like Movies?
International Cinema Day
TV Day Has Failed

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, News, Perception - No Comments →

Question: In 1862, during the US Civil War, Richard Gatling invented the Gatling gun, a rapid-fire, multi-barreled weapon. He hoped that the gun would demonstrate the folly of war and discourage large-scale war. He is quoted as saying, “It occurred to me that if I could invent a machine – a gun – which could by its rapidity of fire, enable one man to do as much battle duty as a hundred, that it would, to a large extent supersede the necessity of large armies, and consequently, exposure to battle and disease [would] be greatly diminished.”

Was he just calming himself that he was creating weapons of destruction with the certainty that if everyone had such weapons, we would be wary of entering into some kind of war? Or is there some grain in this?

Answer: There is a grain. All the developers of weapons still believe that they are doing some kind of good deed.

They just do not understand that egoism is at the base of nature. And until humanity gets to the point where it sees what remains behind it (mountains of corpses), it will make a lot of people unhappy.

Question: If everyone had nuclear weapons now, would it add to the danger? Or would it add to the danger of entering into conflicts? What more?

Answer: Yes, people would be afraid.

Question: Is it because of the global nature of nuclear war?

Answer: Because the end is clearly visible in front of them. Today, after all, nuclear weapons are not used. And why? Because it already exists on both sides. Therefore, there would be an instant response.

Question: Do you think it adds security when everyone has nuclear weapons?

Answer: I believe that the proliferation of nuclear weapons in normal countries, where it can be controlled, is the way to peace.

What else can you do? Today there are probably thirty countries with nuclear weapons. And now it is still relatively calm globally. They calm each other down, put pressure on each other, do something, hold some secret negotiations. Yet, we are still alive.

Question: Why is it safe? Is this the nature of fear?

Answer: Of course. Restriction is a very serious motivation. If I can get the same thing in return, and I know what it is, because I also have it, then it is already as if it does not exist. Imagine, about thirty countries have nuclear weapons, including Pakistan, Iran, and North Korea. And thanks to this, everything is calm.

Comment: Meaning, the completely headless ones also have it.

My Response: It seems to us that they are headless. No, no. When you have such a thing in your pocket, your head starts working out of fear.

Question: But they say, “fearless people,” “fearless man.” What is it? Is it not good when there is no fear in me at all?

Answer: It can be either a completely mentally ill person or one who thus wants to destroy the world: “After us, even the flood.”

But today, I think it cannot be. Because a whole group of people have to work to push the button in the end.

Comment: Yes, there is some kind of security system.

My Response: Yes. They themselves are interested in this. Nuclear weapons are becoming a threat, nothing more.

Question: What conclusion can be drawn from all this?

Answer: It is thanks to this that we are going the wrong way. But it is thanks to that, that we will come to the need to make the world different.

Question: Will we ever come to the need for disarmament or not?

Answer: I do not know how to say it. I do not think we will come to this by ourselves, but nature will bring us to it.
[313876]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/29/23

Related Material:
Can We Not Avoid a Nuclear War?
Hiroshima-Day—A Warning For The Future
The War For Peace

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, News - No Comments →

Question: There is a story of a watchmaker. His work requires a lot of attention, precise actions. But sometimes, while working, the index finger of his left hand begins to twitch and it is impossible to work in this state. What does he do? He does not massage his finger, does not take pills to relieve cramps. He calls his mother, who lives thousands of kilometers away, and tells her: “Mom, you’re worried about me again. Stop worrying, I can’t work because of you.”

Tell me, how do you feel about this? It does not smack of mysticism that, suddenly, there is such a contact?

Answer: There are such contacts, of course. Especially between a mother and child. The child understands that at this moment his mother is thinking about him.

Question: In general, how is it that by our actions or thoughts we can unconsciously harm a loved one, a close one? Why were we not given this understanding?

Answer: We must develop in order to come to this with our own good will, to want it to be so.

Question: Can I control my thoughts by realizing that they are harmful? Let us say if I understand this, can I control them?

Answer: This requires training. This is big psychological training.

Question: Can I understand that any of my actions affects my neighbor?

Answer: Yes, absolutely.

Question: Then, in principle, can the world change?

Answer: In principle, the world was created in order for us to change it.

Question: If I develop joy, if I constantly develop good relationships, if I only do this, realizing that it helps my loved ones, is this really the way to move, like this?

Answer: About loved ones, close ones, it is another question. Any person, even any villain, can have such thoughts about helping loved ones.

Question: But in general is the development of a thought in the direction of joy, of helping, possible or not? Is this state possible or will egoism not allow us to do it?

Answer: It is only if you exist in a very special environment. Otherwise egoism is still in us. And there is nothing we can do about it.

Question: If I just live in the world and do not live in the special environment, as you say of those who want to develop it, then do you think anything will work?

Answer: No.

Comment: This is not so good.

My Response: Do you want to artificially remake what nature has done?

Question: If a person is introduced to the understanding that he is harming, for example, people close to him, will it not change him?

Answer: If he is harming people close to him, then yes, but in general, no. That is, for some narrow circle of people around a person this may be effective.

Question: And why have we been blocked from understanding that we are harmful with our thoughts? I understand that the Creator, the upper force, blocked this thought from us. Meaning, I can think badly about something else without thinking that I am thereby upsetting the whole balance, for example.

Answer: Of course.

Comment: The balance of the whole world!

My Response: Worldwide.

Comment: A person does not have such a thought.

My Response: Because it is far from him. Where does he see it next to him?

Comment: Yes, he does not make such a bunch, dependence.

My Response: This is impossible for a person. If he could clearly see that by doing this he was harming his little child or some relatives, then of course he would not do it. But then the whole world would have lost 90% of its spiritual resources. What would we do then if we were such servile well-wishers?

Question: So are you not for this?

Answer: No, of course not! That we can just be good kittens?

Question: Then how do we get out of this hatred?

Answer: Only by rising above it, to be opposite to it. Then it makes sense to live, to exist. Otherwise it is just an amoeba.

Question: Rise above hatred, what does it mean?

Answer: To rise above hatred is to reveal in yourself more and more hatred for others and to rise even higher above it. Left-right, left-right, and so on. Where the left is evil and the right is good. To climb this way. This is the Sulam, ladder.

Evil is necessary. That is why the Creator says: “I have created the evil inclination, and you people, with the help of what I have given you, conquer this evil and balance it with good.”

Question: And will I add evil to you again?

Answer: Yes, this is already a process.

Question: This is the ladder: evil – good, evil – good? That is how we move. What is there at the end, after all this climbing?

Answer: At the end, all evil turns into the same good. We receive, so to say, a double good. Meaning the future of evil is one way or another to turn into good. Only thanks to our work.

Question: What if I want to destroy evil? I am a plain, normal person.

Answer: There is no way you can do that. Evil cannot be destroyed. You can only rise above it.
[313751]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/29/23

Related Material:
Can Thought Change Reality?
What Is A Thought?
Is Thought Tangible?

Filed under: Free Will, News, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: The nature of man is egoism. But when I read the facts of the deaths on the Titanic, it struck me that the orchestra remained playing until the end. The Titanic was sinking, some people and women and children were put into boats, some people stayed onboard, some panicked, and all the while the orchestra played, played, and played to the end, and sank together with the Titanic.

Among other things, there was some billionaire who could have bought 30 of these Titanics, but he stayed on the ship and said, “Until the women and children are all saved, I cannot leave the Titanic.” Couples remained. Women were saved first, but some of them stayed with their husbands to end their lives together as they lived together.

Where does this nobility come from in a person? I am particularly struck by the orchestra that stayed to play. They could have been saved, so they say. Where does this power come from?

Answer: This may be because they all played together and supported each other with this.

As for women and men, it is natural that men in such cases suddenly feel the obligation to save women, children and women. And this can manifest itself everywhere and in everything.

Question: So, the fact that the four musicians stood together supporting each other and playing to the end, was it this force that held them?

Answer: It did. Because they connected in this place, therefore it held them.

Question: You have said more than once that we must look for this force together all the time, constantly, we, each individual, and the world. In this case, can any states be bypassed, so to say?

Answer: Yes, in this case we will not drown.

Question: What is in this force?

Answer: The fact that everyone holds the other. And what appears between them is already a special power of the Creator.

Question: Where does the fear go at this moment?

Answer: They do not feel themselves, they feel others, and therefore there is no fear.

Question: So when my concern is not for myself, but for another, then the fear goes away?

Answer: Yes, the nature of fear is solely self-care. And when a person thinks about others, he is not afraid for himself. He switches to care for life and the fate of another, and this is the most important thing for him. He is, in a way, getting out of himself.

And the nature of the panic that was around, on the contrary, closes in on itself.

Question: Is it possible to give some advice here? At such a moment, in a time of fear and internal panic, of which there are many now, how can you suddenly escape to a different level of life?

Answer: To do this, we need to strive to connect with each other, to be together. And then we will begin to feel like a common part of something common, higher. We will feel good and at ease.

Question: I want to ask you as a Kabbalist, you talk all the time about the connection between people, about a good connection, and at the same time you talk all the time about the connection with the Creator. If I make this connection with the Creator, what happens to me, to fear, to everything in general?

Answer: It just disappears.

Question: What does fear turn into?

Answer: It is not there, it evaporates because the connection with the Creator is above the animal level of our existence. And that is why we should strive for it.

Question: How do I reach this connection? The connection of a person with another can be imagined somehow, but how can a person connect with the Creator?

Answer: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Comment: But it is a neighbor like yourself.

My Response: A neighbor is another like yourself.

Question: Where is the Creator here?

Answer: It is in this union that the Creator will be felt. It is felt precisely between you and the other. If you strive to feel the other as yourself, then instead of yourself and the other, you feel the Creator who actually fills everything, and there is none else besides Him.

Question: What kind of feeling is this?

Answer: This is the feeling of getting outside of oneself into another dimension, into another space. This is what gives a person a sense of a new existence.

We must strive for this.

Question: These four musicians who were together, did they have at least a little sense of the Creator between them at that moment?

Answer: I do not think they really had a sense of the Creator, but quite possibly they experienced the feeling of eternal perfection, elevation above animal life.

Question: So the music they played, was it in them all the time?

Answer: Yes, they were in it.
[313433]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/15/23

Related Material:
Nobility Is Inherent in Us
How Can We Get Rid Of Fear?
A Beautiful Act of Friends

Filed under: News, Q&A, Television - No Comments →

Question: There is a Jewish prayer for travelers that is read when moving from city to city, leaving the settlement.

May it be Your will, G‑d, our G‑d and the G‑d of our fathers, that You should lead us in peace and direct our steps in peace, and guide us in peace, and support us in peace, and cause us to reach our destination in life, joy, and peace. Save us from every enemy and ambush, from robbers and wild beasts on the trip, and from all kinds of punishments that rage and come to the world. May You confer blessing upon the work of our hands and grant me grace, kindness, and mercy in Your eyes and in the eyes of all who see us, and bestow upon us abundant kindness and hearken to the voice of our prayer, for You hear the prayers of all. Blessed are You G‑d, who hearkens to prayer.

What does it mean by “in peace”?

Answer: We leave the place where we think we live, to some other place, to some other way.

It is unknown how long we will be on the road and when will we reach our destination. Maybe we think it will be just a couple of minutes, and suddenly it drags on for years if there is an end to this path at all.

Question: Could it even be the road of life?

Answer: Of course! A road is a road.

Question: And what does “lead us in peace” mean?

Answer: So that we do not hurt anyone.

Question: That is, the vector from me outward?

Answer: From me, absolutely. It is a prayer after all.

Question: So “leading us in peace” means I do not harm anyone?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Then it goes like this: “direct our steps in peace.” What is meant by the words “direct our steps in peace”?

Answer: So that it will be peaceful for you and for everyone else you meet on the way.

Question: Is it like an addition, a continuation?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: Further: “and cause us to reach our destination in life, joy, and peace.”

My Response: So that in the end, everything I do today on the way would be good for the whole world, for everyone.

Question: When you just said on the way, what did you imply in here? What is the way of man?

Answer: That is what it is called, Tfilat HaDerech. The prayer of the path.

Question: When you say “path,” are you saying a segment of life or what is it?

Answer: Everything! Absolutely everything! Where nothing ends. Moreover, this is called the Prayer of the Way, Tfilat HaDerech. Not on the way or something. This is the prayer of your direction, existence. Meaning, this is how your life should be.

Question: And further: “Save us from every enemy and ambush, from robbers and wild beasts on the trip, and from all kinds of punishments that rage and come to the world.” What does that mean?

Answer: A person looks at his movement from one state to another, not from one village to another,
for him to advance peacefully so that he does not have to get involved in any problems with anyone and so that he reaches his destination safely. The next place is when he would be connected to other people with even greater bonds of kindness.

This is called a path. Otherwise, why does he leave the house?

Question: So he goes out to a bigger and bigger connection all the time, is that how he advances?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And the robbers in this case, who are they? All sorts of punishments, what is on the path?

Answer: It is those who are sent to him; you can say, either the Creator Himself or the evil inclination of man. That is, the obstacles that are being sent.

Question: Are there obstacles in order to come to a good state? Are these all our mistakes, sins, all of this?

Answer: Yes, but do not think about it as if all this comes to me for whatever happened in the past. In Kabbalah it is not accepted “what was.” This is for what the Creator sends me so that I can be even more connected with Him and thus get to the true destination.

Question: You are saying that all the obstacles are being sent to us so that I get stronger on the way?

Answer: So that I would be more connected with the Creator.

Question: And if they weaken me, if I become weaker, what then?

Answer: The Creator does this. It is all done by Him anyway.

Question: Do I need to pray that the path is smoother or not?

Answer: We pray not for a smooth path, but for the path to bring us closer to the Creator.

Question: So, as a result, as you said, becoming closer with others is becoming closer with the Creator?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: Then there is a continuation: “May You confer blessing upon the work of our hands and grant me grace, kindness, and mercy in Your eyes and in the eyes of all who see us,...” 

My Response: This is for us to treat the world and everything that comes our way as best as possible, trying to justify everything and not disconnecting from the fact that everything comes from the Creator, and therefore be benevolent conduits of good. This is “May You confer blessing upon the work of our hands.”

Question: Can there be a blessing only if I strive for greater closeness? And if I do not strive, then is there no blessing for this?

Answer: Then how can you ask?

Question: That is right. And it ends: “and bestow upon us abundant kindness and hearken to the voice of our prayer, for You hear the prayers of all. Blessed are You G‑d, who hearkens to prayer.”

Does the prayer always end with this?

Answer: Yes, we thank Him for hearing the prayer.

Question: Does He hear our prayer?

Answer: He does not just hear. After all, the Creator is the force that is in us. And therefore, everything that we think and say, we say practically with His desire, with His mouth, if I may say so, and in general, He does it all Himself. The Creator puts prayer in my mouth.

Question: Then the last question. You say He is in us, and we are in Him. Is it possible to understand this dualism?

Answer: I cannot explain it. It is the one that exists in everything.

Comment: It seems to be a prayer for traveling, a simple prayer, one can say.

My Response: It is not for the road, it is for the path of life.

Question: It turns out that it is for the path of life. Can we say that almost all prayers are written like this, for the road of life?

Answer: Yes. Everything that is implied in the Torah, in prayers, it all means a person’s exit into life. This is the path.

Question: And the last question. I just said a prayer. And what if I pronounce it inside through the heart?

Answer: That is how it should be.

Question: That is, I can go out on the road just like this, with his prayer from the heart, and is it more important than a written prayer?

Answer: Of course, it is more important. After all, it comes from your heart, and it influences the Creator.
[313976]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/22/23

Related Material:
Which Prayer Is Answered?
A Prayer Book Is The Saga Of Spiritual Life
I Ask To Change Me, Not The Creator

Filed under: News, Prayer and Intention - No Comments →