“Death comes to the Blacksmith with a scythe and asks him to sharpen it. He sharpens the scythe in horror, thinking that Death has come for him.

He sharpens it and says, “I can’t believe I’m holding a weapon in my hands that has mowed down so many people.”

And suddenly Death jumps up to him and says, “I didn’t kill anyone, not a single person! It’s not me! It’s you killing each other and blaming me.

I used to be a beautiful girl. I met the souls of people and escorted them to their resting place. And today I wore black clothes so that you couldn’t see the blood on me. I put on a hood to hide the tears that I cried, because I can’t stop this horror of your hatred—these wars, and blood, and so on. And today I’m an old woman. You made me like this.”

So says Death as she takes the scythe, turns around, and leaves.

And then he quietly asks her: “Why do you need a scythe then?” She replies: “The road to paradise—it has long been overgrown with grass” (Translation of”Domovoy’s Diary” by Evgeniy Cheshirko).

My Response: 🙂 Good!

Comment: Which means, as always, we blame someone. We do it in a terrible way: death with a hood, black clothes, and a scythe. And we don’t see that…

My Response: …that this is actually the road to heaven. In fact, it is so.

According to Kabbalah, our world is the worst of the worlds, the lowest of the worlds. And therefore there is nothing to regret that your being in it ends.

Question: I wanted to ask another question that Death asked. She said: “It’s you! Look at yourself! That’s how you are, not me. You created my scary image, and you are so scary yourself.”

Here there is a reversal. In principle, is this the main thing that a person should do?

Answer: Of course. He is killing himself from day to day, instead of making himself a free, bright, and eternal being.

Question: And then what will this Death with a scythe turn into?

Answer: It is necessary to kill egoism in a person.

Question: Does the person do it within himself?

Answer: Within himself, yes.

Question: What do I reveal then?

Answer: That your egoism is killing you, and you have to kill it.

Question: What attitude will I have toward death then, since it will come to me one way or another?

Answer: Calm!

Question: I won’t depict it like this?

Answer: No! It’s just a transition from one state to another.

Question: In principle, I could depict Death with a scythe as something very light. Can I eventually advance to this?

Answer: Yes. Death is a light state.

Question: Do I draw it in a black state when this black exists in me, when there is egoism in me? And when I start working with it, does everything turn over for me?

Answer: Yes. Renounce egoism and you enter the bright world.

Question: And then death will seem to be a completely bright state?

Answer: Of course. After all, only the quality of egoism is being killed in you and there remains a small quality of altruism that was in you, but you did not bother to develop it. And when you develop it, then everything changes for you.

Question: When they tell you that the road to paradise is too overgrown and it needs to be cleaned, what do you imagine?

Answer: We must go to that entrance to paradise—the quality of bestowal and love—and try to tread, to trample this path for everyone.

Question: When they say “overgrown,” what is it overgrown with?

Answer: Egoism. We feed this road with our egoism. It is overgrown, of course. We do not allow the quality of bestowal and love to manifest, which would clean this road.

Question: So it’s not that easy to pass through this road? Does it really need to be mowed? And the scythe needs to be sharpened?

Answer: It is necessary to sharpen it.

Question: Is this done by the person himself?

Answer: Of course.

Question: What does it mean that I have sharpened my scythe and mow?

Answer: I go out against my egoism and I just want to cut it off, to cut it off until it practically disappears.
[304743]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/18/22

Related Material:
Can Death Be Delayed?
Death Is A Transition To Another State
Can The Attitude Toward Death Be Changed?

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

Comment: A girl sued her parents because she was born without her consent. As if she could somehow agree. And at first she even won the court.

Below I quote this young girl from her Instagram post:

“A few months ago I sued my folks for having me without my permission. And I won. So the court ordered them to pay me $5,000 a month to cover my basic expenses. Well, they went and had that appealed. So now they don’t have to give me any money. And now I have to go get a job. And I’m realizing, like I don’t have any work experience, or any higher education. Nowhere is paying me $5,000 a month. So how the hell am I supposed to afford to pay my bills? … Don’t have children if you don’t want to support them.”

My Response: She’s partly right. It only depends on how much and up to what age to help. Because if you give birth, you take responsibility.

Comment: But she is a grown-up girl. Someone who can study and work a bit. But this is the relation to the world in which a person simply does not want to be.

My Response: I understand her. If she really does not want to relate to the world and regrets that she exists, then her claims against her parents, in general, can be understood.

Question: What are these claims against parents?! They supported her as best they could. And at some point they stopped supporting her. She has to support them at some point. What kind of claims are these?!

Answer: But it depends on society, on education.

Comment: Many people have such a question: “Why was I born?” Some make claims to parents: “Why did you give birth to me?” and others ask the question: “Why was I born?” You are always advocating for this question to arise in a person.

My Response: Of course. So that a person finds out what he is born for explicitly.

Question: And to whom should one send this question?

Answer: To oneself. Whom else? What did the parents know about it? Also nothing. And I don’t know anything. They don’t have any questions, but I do. So go and find out.

Question: If I ask myself this question, can I find the answer in myself?

Answer: Yes. You can find this answer only in yourself.

Question: And what will it be like?

Answer: Whatever you will find. Look for the meaning of life.

Question: When a person asks himself this question, and, for example, an answer comes to him, at what point is he sure that this answer is correct? Does a person have such confidence?

Answer: Let him search. And he will select all possible questions and answers that he will have at the same time, and he will get to something interesting.

Comment: If a person, for example, is not looking for an answer to this question, but simply lives in this life and that’s it. He has no such ups and downs.

My Response: If not, very good, let him live quietly. A person who is looking for an answer in himself, on the other hand, really has a desire, an urgent need, to find out about himself, about his history, his fate: where I am from, where am I, what am I for, and so on.

Question: Do you welcome this?

Answer: Of course. He can become a human, that is, can understand: what he is here for, and what kind of secret is in him.

Question: A happy person for you is one who feels ups and downs, descents and ascents, in search of the meaning of life. Big ascents and big descents?

Answer: Yes. But he’s a Human.

Question: And is this a happy man?

Answer: I do not know if he is happy.

Question: And when will he be happy?

Answer: When he gets to his core: to what he exists for.

Question: Can happiness be permanent if he gets to this core?

Answer: Yes, then he will be in constant happiness. Because he will merge precisely with the question and answer that he asked himself.
[304609]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/18/22

Related Material:
If You Don’t Want Children, Return the Money
Motherhood In Crisis
Egoism Breaks The Boundaries

Filed under: Children, Education, News - No Comments →

Comment: I heard of a 100-year-old woman in Australia who said that a long life stems from a calm attitude to any tumultuous life events. She recommends not holding on to grudges and to live in the here and now. She said her motto was: “Don’t worry about things that may never even happen.”

I envy these people who can treat everything like this…

Answer: But they are not alive. Not worrying about yesterday or tomorrow, but living only in the here and now, is how a cow lives. Any animal lives in the here and now. If they have premonitions, that’s another matter. But if this sensation is not given to them, then they live with what they have. Look at how they sit, stand, lie down, and sleep. Everything is very simple—whatever the body dictates.

But not a human being. He burdens himself with all sorts of cosmic problems. Stars are exploding somewhere, and this worries him. Being concerned with where you are. This is life.

But your calm bodily existence, this is the life of an animal. If you live only by what you have, the way the body lives, then that is all.

Question: Is it basically impossible to keep a calm attitude to tumultuous life events?

Answer: That depends on the level of your attitude. “I have a calm attitude to everything that does not concern me physically. I am blind to everything else, it does not exist.” It is not about me.

A Kabbalist is open to the whole world. He is open. It is not that he is running around to gain impressions and information, but he has to come out of himself and participate in the world, absorb things inside of him, take in all the problems of this world, and process them correctly. That is how he activates his correction. By correcting the impressions of this world and putting them back out.

Question: So you understood in advance and understand now you are taking on a life that is not trouble-free? And this makes a Kabbalist happy, to live this way?

Answer: It makes him happy because it is a necessity. Otherwise it is not life, a Kabbalist cannot live another way. “One who adds knowledge, adds suffering.”
[304252]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/17/22

Related Material:
“Friendship Is The Key To Long-Lasting Love”
There’s Nothing Worse Than Indifference
Indifference Is Worse Than Hate

Filed under: Health, Meaning Of Life, News - No Comments →

Question: We know that birth is a very emotional, powerful event for a child. After a while, he can already see, hear, smell, and feel. But no one remembers this event.

Not only do we have no memories of birth itself but also not of the first two years of our life, the time when we learned to walk, get to know mom, dad, family, and the environment, and uttered our first words.

We more or less remember all our emotional surges in life, we feel them, but we do not remember this. It is as if this period is completely cut off from us. Why?

Answer: A person begins to feel himself at the age when he really becomes human. This is at the age of 12 to 13, maybe even a little later.

Question: What feelings are you talking about? For example, I remember myself at the age of four.

Answer: Yes, that is true, but it is not a sense of your “I.” It is a sensation that I exist, and you remember some pictures, some scenes from those times.

Question: Are you saying that the “I” grows in a person and at some point it says: “From now on, you will remember everything”? And the “I” that was there when I was little was not the “I” yet?

Answer: Yes.

Question: When my “I” is revealed, what does it mean? What does it require? Why are such bright colors suddenly starting to appear?

Answer: This is when there is a connection with other people and especially hormonal attraction (at the age of 13 to 14). Then a person begins to form completely. All his, so to say, levels are already included in the awareness of the world and of oneself.

Question: Why does this “I” manifest in a person and begin to lead further?

Answer: In order for him to correct himself and to raise himself. In order for him to understand what he exists for. From this time on, you can already start working with a person.

Question: For an ordinary person, is the “I” something completely different?

Answer: It is because we are not being taught!

I was not taught either. But I remember wondering, “What is next?” And there is nothing. That is all. Next, you will go to school, to college, and so on.

Since I did not have an answer to this question, I did not want to study, and I did not want anything at all. I was quite often in a state of apathy.

Question: Was it because there was no answer? Did the answer arise from this “I” that required growth?

Answer: Of course. What do I live for and why? It was a terrible feeling that it is pointless, useless, and you are being forced.

Question: Is, in fact, our life the formation of this “I”? What does this “I” transform into,? What does it turn into?

Answer: It turns into indifference, into apathy. It exists because you exist. There are people who do not notice it. It is good for them, they are happy to live, acquire, build, give birth, and so on. This is how life goes on for them.

Question: Is there a connection between this “I” and that upper force that you are always talking about?

Answer: Yes. In the question: “What for?” This question is transmitted from above to everyone, but in little doses. The one in whom this question arises seriously, apparently can develop it and receive answers.

Question: Can we think and fantasize about this that these “threads” exist above and come from above to the “I” of a person?

Answer: Yes.

Question: How can one determine when and which “I” will play, when and which “I” will jump out?

Answer: To do this, you need to reveal your soul, that is, your entire connection with the upper degree. Then you will know why you are being pulled this way and not in another way.

Question: Exactly at this time?

Answer: In everything.

Question: Is it programmed which “I” will jump out and which will be dulled a little bit?

Answer: Absolutely everything.

Question: Does it mean every “I” of the entire eight billion?

Answer: Of course! The beginning of creation, the end of creation, and its intermediate states—practically all of them are known in advance. Only one thing is unknown: how a person in his manifestation of freewill implements his personal participation in all this.

Here, the implementation is not prescribed in advance, but is given to a person

Question: Does it mean that, in fact, something still depends on the person?

Answer: Yes.
[304710]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/18/22

Related Material:
My “I”
The “Self” From A Kabbalistic Point Of View
My Self Is Actually Not Mine

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

I think it’s important to have a future that is inspiring and appealing. I mean, I just think that there have to be reasons that you get up in the morning and you want to live. Like why do you want to live? What’s the point? What inspires you? What do you love about the future? (Elon Musk)

My Response: Elon Musk is practically a fan of designing.

Question: So he gets up in the morning and starts designing. Once you said that it is important for a person to have a hobby, to do something. It will be his meaning of life. Would it be enough for you to say that this person is happy? Or should we still look for the meaning of life?

Answer: We should look for the meaning of life in the fact that we create it; we create the very meaning of life and life itself, not this animalistic substrate of life at which we are now. It is necessary in order to exist, but we must create a superstructure above it, a real superstructure that we can call life. Otherwise this is not life.

Comment: You say the paradoxical phrase all the time: “The meaning of life is in the search for the meaning of life.”

My Response: Yes.

Comment: And you fall silent.

My Response: What can I add? And then—everything, then comes the search.

Question: But still, what is the meaning of life?

Answer: The meaning of life is, in fact, to reveal its meaning.
[304319]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/17/22

Related Material:
Where Should One Seek The Meaning Of Life?
Understand The Meaning Of Life
Find The Meaning Of Life

Filed under: Meaning Of Life, News - No Comments →

Question: There is a well known parable regarding judgment taking place above—to hell or to heaven. The famous preacher’s turn comes; he is calm, and suddenly he is sent to hell. He asks, “Why to hell?! Right before me, a reckless driver was sent to heaven.” He is told: “What were you thinking? Everyone was asleep at your sermons. Meanwhile, when he was driving people, everyone was praying.”

How should we relate to this? Should we be led to prayer while we are alive; how should this happen?

Answer: We are being led. If we strive to reach a connection with the Creator, then all sorts of obstacles and conditions are put to us, and we involuntarily see that we cannot fulfill these conditions in any way, only if we get serious help from above.

Question: Does this mean that if we strive to connect with the Creator, then we can be grateful for all these things and obstacles?

Answer: For the stick.

Question: You keep saying, “Kiss the stick that beats you.” Then we kiss it? Otherwise what happens?

Answer: Otherwise we move along with our egoism, the way a fish swims, in such twisty ways.

Question: How should we treat everything that leads us, but is not yet directed, to the goal of creation, to prayer?

Answer: We have to push each other. We have to give an example. We need to shake things up a bit.

Question: How can I, an ordinary person who does not strive for the goal of connection with the Creator, someone who strives to live calmly and simply on our earth, also relate those misfortunes and troubles as things that should lead me to prayer?

Answer: Naturally a person does not want suffering, prayer, or anything.

Question: And how should I relate to this? Should I run away from them?

Answer: Of course. It’s best to run away from them and that’s what everyone does.

Question: This means I can run away if I’m not striving for anything, but I just want to live this life well on this earth?

Answer: In this case, “There is no need for suffering, and there is no need for rewards.”

Question: And what is the advice to such people?

Answer: The advice to such people is to try to live in peace, or even lower, quieter, and calmer. Try to go through life like this.

Question: Is this in order for the waves to pass over us?

Answer: Yes. But this is fate. There are some people who want it; there are those who disagree with this and those who disagree and yet with a couple of blows, they then agree.

Question: So one way or another, these blows bring a person down if he is here and wants to live his life here?

Answer: It depends on the root of the soul.

Question: And what is your advice to those who strive for the Creator and for connection?

Answer: For them, the most important thing is to get closer to the Creator, and it doesn’t matter in what way: either through getting a couple of blows on the way or any other way.

Question: So, one way or another they will and should treat these blows as help?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is it correct to say that this parable is intended more for those who are directed to the Creator?

Answer: There is always suffering, but if they are not critical and are instead ordinary everyday sufferings, etc., then they are always good.

Question: Is this the way to relate to them?!

Answer: Yes.

Question: What happens if I start to treat them this way?

Answer: I mean the suffering that does not distract from building a right life or a right connection with others and with the Creator. If there are too many of them, then this is a different sort of suffering.
[304507]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/4/22

Related Material:
We Can’t Do Without Pain
Healing Through Pain
Why Do We Feel Suffering?

Filed under: Free Will, News, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work, Television - No Comments →

Comment: Protests continue in Iran. It seemed like it would end very quickly that they would be crushed because the government has strong control, mainly through fear and intimidation. But suddenly the protests are continuing, which began after the morality police killed a 22-year-old girl. People went to the streets. They show footage of women taking off their hijabs and cutting off their hair.

It seemed that only fear worked, that man was a slave to fear. And suddenly, there’s a state of rising above it.

My Response: I understand. The fact is that Iran is a special country, spiritually developed, not religiously. An ancient, I would even say, respected country, which is one of the cradles of civilization.

Question: The Persians?

Answer: Yes. If they awaken correctly, this country will be very strong and prosperous.

Comment: It is interesting that you say this about our, one might say, bitter enemies.

My Response: It doesn’t matter. The enemy can also be respected.

I once visited a fugitive Sufi in England. There are many such people there. So you can’t discount all this.

Comment: How highly he spoke of love!

My Response: Yes. It lives in Iranians.

Question: Do we need to establish some kind of relationship with them after all?

Answer: It depends on them. I think we would certainly agree to it, but their party is too religious. In general, there are no qualms between us on either side. Absolutely.
[304563]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 9/29/22

Related Material:
Iran, Jews, and the Atomic Bomb
“Will WW3 Start Because The Tensions Of Israel And Iran?” (Quora)
“What It Takes To Make Peace With Iran” (Times Of Israel)

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

Changed apartments—moved from Sodom to Gomorrah (Stanislaw Jerzy Lec).

My Response: Still there is a difference. There is Sodom and there is Gomorrah.

Comment: But still, both cities were destroyed.

My Response: It does not matter. They were destroyed, but in different ways.

Question: Where should I really move to if I want to escape from Sodom, from the desire to live for myself?

Answer: Only inside yourself. Break through your egoism, and there is the Creator inside you.

Question: Then there will be a way out, we escape from Sodom to the Creator? Is that what He wants?

Answer: This is the only way to attain and reveal Him.

Question: When the Creator says: “I will destroy Sodom and Gomorrah,” what does that mean?

Answer: It means those forces that prevent us from revealing Him.

Comment: The Creator seems to say: “You have to reveal Me. But you resist, so I must destroy.”

My Response: Yes. These are two disgusting qualities that specifically prevent and very much hinder the revelation of the Creator. They are not egoistic in general, but they confuse us along the way and there is nothing we can do. These are qualities within a person.

Question: Why are these qualities not egoistic?

Answer: Let’s say a prohibition to steal or prohibition to take from the other.

Question: Are these the laws of Sodom?

Answer: Yes. It turns out that not only can you not give to the other, but you have no right to receive from the other. You cannot help and accept help. You have to live independently, on your own, very precisely and correctly.

Comment: “Mine is mine, yours is yours.”

My Response: If we all lived in the world today according to such laws, the world would be different.

Question: Then why does the Creator want to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah?

Answer: Because it does not lead to correction, to coming closer to each other, to mutual support, mutual adhesion, and to revelation of the Creator.
[304452]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/27/21

Related Material:
Heaven And Hell Are “Frames” We Experience Within
Why Was The City Of Sodom Destroyed?
Is Sodom That Bad For The Will To Receive?

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

Suppose you succeed in breaking the wall with your head. And what, then, will you do in the next cell? (Stanislaw Jerzy Lec)

Question: The author completely believes that we are in prison one way or another. We are constantly hitting and hitting a wall.

Answer: That’s right. The entire history of humanity is like this. But we still want to get to the next cell.

Question: I would like to believe that I am hammering away and somewhere I will break through a tunnel and come out into the light, but in fact, am I just trying to get into the next cell?

Answer: Yes. No tunnel leads anywhere because we are digging in the wrong direction. It is necessary to dig not into the next cell, but into yourself. We can dig into ourselves only if we agree on very serious mutual support, and we will really dig.

Then we will dig up a huge mountain of egoism. We can help each other climb it. Once we climb it, we will sit down and barbecue some kebabs. 😊

Question: What is on our skewers? What are we barbecuing? Is it our own egoism?

Answer: Yes. There are so many problems and scrutinies before we come to the correct state. It is because religions, philosophies, psychology, and everything around makes it all so foggy, even dark, that a person does not know which way to move. Any step can lead you around 360 degrees, in circles, but a thin line to the true state is anti–egoistic.

We must join hands and walk, and constantly annul ourselves, close our eyes, and obey the others. This is what we need to do together.

If we all do that, if we join our hands and hold on to each other, and although no one knows the way, but we hold on to each other and keep going, and every step we take forward is just to be closer to each other, in this case, we will get to the right place

Question: Then will then the tunnel be not from cell to cell, but toward the way out of prison?

Answer: Yes.
[304396]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/27/21

Related Material:
Are We Going To Start From Cain Again?
We Should Become Transparent
Where Is The Way Out Of Hell?

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

Comment: Five married couples who have lived together for over 50 years shared their secrets for a happy relationship. Here is what each couple considers to be most important. Tell us what you think, please.

One 81-year-old couple, married for 57 years believe that the most important thing in a long and happy marriage is sharing responsibilities.

My Response: Of course.

Question: And what does sharing responsibilities entail? I am the breadwinner and my wife is a housewife taking care of the children?

Answer: That would be best.

Comment: Second is to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

My Response: Yes.

Question: Do you know your wife’s strengths and weaknesses?

Answer: I know them very well and I do not touch them. I am afraid to! In fact.

Question: Is this how it should be?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: Third is the ability to accept both sides.

My Response: Yes. You live with a person who is a whole system. It is a whole world through which you must see everything else.

Question: If this is how we live, tiptoeing around each other, then is it possible to be together for 60 or 70 years?

Answer: As long as you want.

Question: And you call this a happy marriage?

Answer: Only if we were brought up this way! Unfortunately, by the time we realize this, our life has gone by.

Question: Another couple aged 90 and 91-years-old who have been married for 66 years say it is essential to discuss their joint future and to have common interests. What do you think about discussing the future together? Is it important?

Answer: It is important because it is a joint future.

Question: Is that the key that it is not his or her future, but it is always us in it together?

Answer: Yes. We are going to have our children or grandchildren come to visit. Or we would go out, take a walk around the block, and so on.

Comment: As you said recently, when people get married, they say: “We are forever united together.”

My Response: They have to talk about it often.

Question: Is that what talking about a joint future is?

Answer: Yes. Because no matter what people do, they can live in different parts of the world, but they must share an understanding that they are united forever. Forever! Divorce is unacceptable when children are involved.

Question: And yet another couple that has been married for 61 years say that there should be a similar sense of humor. What do you think about that?

Answer: They must understand each other.

Question: Is this called understanding?

Answer: Yes. Because a sense of humor is very deep in a person. It distinguishes a person from an animal. Thus, if they have the same take on humor, it brings them much closer.

Question: A 99-year-old husband and 98-year-old wife married for 74 years say they love each other just like that and consider our union truly harmonious.

How do you feel about such views?

Answer: They have no deeper definition than “just like that.” This is a pretty high level. It is, indeed. When there is a real connection and feelings, you cannot describe it with anything.

Comment: And another couple married for 60 years say tolerance, loyalty to their vows, and being able to accept the other’s point of view are important.

Answer: This indicates they have not yet reached a real family if they believe it is necessary to be tolerant or faithful.

They still have these definitions before them and they must fulfill them. While a true connection requires none of this. You are already so glued to the other half that you cannot even tell where one ends or the other begins.
[304363]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/17/22

Related Material:
Why Living Together Before Marriage Is Bad For Your Relationship
Family And Marriage, Part 3
Married, But Free As A Bird!

Filed under: Man and Woman, Marriage, News - No Comments →