Question: Why is it said that light is at absolute rest if our entire path is accompanied by the light entering desire and exiting it?

Answer: The absolute rest of the upper light is its constant change with infinite frequency! The “unchangeability” of light means its rest, constancy in achieving a single goal, for it always performs only actions that lead to it. Its absolute rest lies in the fact that it does not change this goal, but acts toward it with infinite speed.

For us, rest means not getting entangled along the path, but striving in one direction and seeking for thousands of ways to advance there, keeping intensity and applying efforts. And all this is called absolute rest because I see a single goal before me.

Light enters into desire and exits it, and every moment its infinite number of actions take place. But if a person is in the quality of bestowal, then he feels all these various actions as eternal rest!
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Sulam [Ladder] Commentary”

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A secret lies in a special combination of sounds that influences the heart. One must think about that in such a way that first the heart responds, and only afterward the ear hears. This is the most important thing, and no one really knows it.

Question: So it goes from the heart to the ear and then to everything else from the heart?

Answer: Yes, with any instrument, not only a musical instrument, sound must pass not into the ear, but into the heart, and only afterward, through the ear, it comes out.

Question: It come out of the ear?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Today you are turning everything upside down! So I do not hear with my ears?

Answer: No, with the heart.

Question: Does a word possess this quality, as you are now saying, like a sound?

Answer: Of course. A word is expressed precisely in this way.

Question: So one must find such a word that penetrates the heart, and only afterward it is heard?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Are there such words at all?

Answer: There are.

Question: How in our science can one find such words? After all, we study such a science that is not curiosity, not knowledge. So how can we find such words that penetrate the heart and then…?

Answer: It is very simple. I asked my teacher, RABASH, about this. He said: “Well, haven’t you heard what is said in the prayer Shema? Shema, Michael.” I was surprised, but why “Michael”?

Comment: This is the prayer Shema Israel.

My Response: Yes. Because “Israel” is a general name.

Question: But in truth: “Shema, Michael”?

Answer: Yes, you can substitute any name there.

Question: Is this the address to the heart: “Shema, Michael”?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Then it already begins to take shape. Is the Shema prayer considered one of the highest prayers?

Answer: Of course. Yes.

Question: Have we now reached the point that prayer is first heard precisely by the heart?

Answer: Yes, and only afterward by the ear—or heard at all.

Comment: You always insist that the prayer of a person, a simple person, is higher than the prayers composed by the sages, the Kabbalists. You always say this, and it surprises me somewhat, and people write that the prayer a person says, just the way he says it when he prays, is higher than those prayers.

My Response: Yes, because this is what he feels. An inner resonance of his heart with the upper word takes place. Therefore, this is the highest address to the Creator.

Question: So do you mean that when a person pronounces like that, with feeling, he hears it first from above?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is it not born within him?

Answer: No, of course not.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 9/18/25

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Comment: The well-known physicist Michio Kaku writes: “Today each of us leaves behind a gigantic digital footprint. By looking at your credit card, one can tell which countries you visit, what food you prefer, what clothes you wear, where you study. There are your blog posts, diaries, emails, videos, photos. With all this information, one can construct a holographic image that would speak and act exactly like you, with the same habits and memories. And what will happen when we can reproduce your brain neuron by neuron?”

In other words, he says that a person may seemingly depart, but he still remains, all his desires remain. He calls this immortality.

My Response: Immortality already exists because our thoughts and desires float in the air. That is really so. The spiritual heart and mind, their content (desires and thoughts), all remain. They do not die with the body. They are not in the heart, but in another carrier. You can put  a pump in place of the heart, a computer in place of the brain—nothing will change.

Comment: Michio Kaku says that the human biological body departs, but all the information remains.

My Response: And how will you connect to it? Through his credit cards?!

Comment: As if through a data library, a “library of the soul.”

My Response: How? Where is it located? After all, what you did is not written somewhere in libraries, theaters, workplaces, etc. It is recorded in spiritual form—in space, but not in the material world. We seem to exist in a material space, but in reality this space is spiritual. One might say it is digital, matrix-like, a space measured in tens, hundreds, and thousands of its own units.

Comment: So I cannot create another biological body and stuff it with all the information from the deceased person—what he thought, dreamed, what he wrote in his blog.

My Response: No, there will be no correspondence to the inner content. That physical body completely matched its inner content. You cannot create the same one. You have no way to create it because, in principle, it has already completed its purpose, and there is no further need for it.

Comment: So you cannot step into the same river twice.

My Response: No, there is no need!

Question: Then what is immortality?

Answer: Immortality is existence in the volume of desires and thoughts that properly correlate with one another and are connected with the rest because they are no longer divided by bodies, and together they form a sensory-informational cloud.

It is not the body, but that which exists before the body is born and after it dies: a sensory-informational cloud, our desires and our thoughts.

If during my lifetime I enter this informational-sensory cloud and begin to correlate with it, interact with it, connect with it, exist within it sensibly—and my body does not interfere with this but perhaps even helps in some way, by resisting and thereby directing me—then in this way I enter into immortality.

There I encounter the informational and sensory data of all who exist, all who have ever existed, and even that which does not pass through our world, since there are far greater informational and sensory fields.

Question: Can we humanize this picture a little? Could I meet former leaders or someone else there?

Answer: No, it is not as materialized as it seems to us. We cannot meet our mothers, grandmothers, and grandfathers there. That is how children think. But it is not so.

This is all on the next, higher level. Because all of the small sensory-informational fields called a person’s record (in Hebrew, “Reshimot”) are included in one common system, and they exist in it constantly. And our body, while we live in it, only distracts us from this system. We must make sure that in our lifetime our body does not distract us from this system, so that we unite together into one single sensory-informational system, which is called “soul.”

And our body (we must understand that it is merely a special kind of hindrance) exists only in order to strengthen its connection with all these fragmented beings, these sensory-informational records, by 620 times.

It seems to us that our body exists, but in fact it does not. It is merely resistance to uniting with the other informational particles. And the Reshimo (a sensory-informational record) longs for connection with the other particles, and strives toward it. The body pulls me toward death, but my Reshimo pulls me toward immortality! Let’s listen to it!
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 12/11/18

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Everything that is happening to us now is organized by the upper force. Our job is to begin to feel that the Creator has made room for us to fill this free space with His properties, forces, intentions, and actions. This is called revealing the Creator in the reality that we find ourselves in.

There are no distant otherworldly worlds. We are in one reality called “the world”—our desire. In this desire, we need to reveal the properties of the Creator. All of this reality is our desire that we need to correct, and then the world will be filled with the properties of the Creator. This is how we reveal Him: “by His actions we will know Him” inside our desire, and not somewhere outside.

That is, we need to understand that everything that I feel in my reality happens only in my desire. It seems to me that there is me and this world, but in fact, everything happens inside desire. The whole question is how to change and correct your desire so that it is filled with the presence of the Creator.

Question: What does it mean to fill reality with the presence of the Creator?

Answer: The whole of reality, except for one point where I feel my “I,” is the Creator. There is nothing else. There is none else besides Him, and we are inside the upper force. The question is, how do we reveal this? This is a matter of perception (revelation) of reality.

The revelation of the upper force begins with the fact that we find ourselves in concealment. Our point is located in the AHP of the upper degree (in its lower rear part).

The whole world is the AHP of the upper, its reverse side, which has been emptied of all light, and therefore we do not feel the presence of the Creator in the world. But if we restrict ourselves relative to this world, we become a fetus in the mother’s womb, and the upper will begin to work on us and raise us.

To restrict oneself means, instead of your current perception of the world, to feel the Creator and the reverse side of the upper degree. This will change my whole behavior. After all, how would I behave if I knew I was in the upper? I would probably completely annul myself before Him; the only problem is that I do not feel Him.

But why did the upper restrict Himself and not let me feel Him? He wants to give me freedom of choice, so that without feeling the Creator, I behave as if He fills me! That is, I do not act like a child who is home alone, but behave well and correctly, as if my parents are next to me.

Question: What does it mean to fill reality with the properties of the Creator?

Answer: This means being as close as possible to the quality of bestowal. The very first action required of us egoists is restriction. I restrict my ego, try to be like the upper all the time, and behave as if He fills the whole world.

This is called: “No one will help me but myself.” I do not feel the upper force, but I act as if it is next to me. I do not act like a child left to my own devices, but as if my parents were home. It turns out that I need to build a spiritual program within myself.

But I do not know how to do it, so I ask the upper, and He starts playing with me.
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From a Kabbalah Lesson on the topic “Perception of Reality,” 8/17/2017

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When we read Kabbalistic articles, we must be very careful not to attach them to concepts of time and space and create “idols” for ourselves. Everything written by Kabbalists relates only to our desire, not to any historical events that occurred in the past.

History also relates to our inner perception of reality. There is no geographical location in which all this occurs; “place” is our desire. And there is no time; “time” signifies a change of states.

And when we read such a special article as today’s: “And They Built the Cities of Affliction,” about slave labor for Pharaoh, we must relate everything described only to ourselves, to what happens to us on our spiritual path.

It speaks of what I must go through in my desire, in my relationship with myself, with the group, with the Creator; it speaks of all the means given to me to achieve union with the upper power. There is nothing else but me and Him. And everything else is merely a means to achieving fusion between us.

Everything written in the article must occur only within me, within my soul; that is how I must understand it. And then I will truly study the inner meaning of the material.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam “And They Built Arei Miskenot”

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What is a “place”? The will to receive in the emanated being is the “place” for all the abundance and the light in it (Baal HaSulam, Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 1 “Table of Questions for the Meaning of the Words”).

There is nothing but desire, without any boundaries. We depict it in diagrams as a circle, a square, a triangle, spreading from above from the Creator or from below from the creation. But this is only a convention we adopt in order to illustrate that part of the desire that is fit for correction, for receiving the light.

In the original desire created, there are no boundaries. It ends nowhere. All of creation is desire; without desire, there is no concept of “place.” Place is created by desire.

Therefore, the matter concerns only the correction of place, and according to the measure of correction, this place is divided into circles (Igulim), straight lines (Kav Yosher), or other forms. But the desire itself is boundless, like Malchut of the world of infinity.

Thus, in spiritual work it is of extraordinary importance to constantly relate to creation as to the place of desire, that is, to strive to view everything from the proper angle and from the perspective of correction.

If I see that everything is only “place,” that is, desire, then at all levels of reality—still, vegetative, animate, human—I will look only at desire. And these desires are mine, but my ego paints them as external, not belonging to me. Work on the ego consists precisely in gathering, in reuniting these desires with myself.

In this way I collect from these parts the “place” for the revelation of the Creator and of the whole upper reality. It is revealed within me, and apart from me there is nothing. All perception of reality depends entirely on this concept: place.

What is the place of this world? A spark that burst forth from the upper world downward, into properties lower than it, more deficient, and created the place of this world. That is, it generated a desire within which our world exists.

What determines the boundaries of this world? Only desire! It is very difficult to explain in relation to our three-dimensional space and the boundaries of the universe. There is a “place” where the universe is located, and what fills it—the content of that place. But all of this pertains only to desire. One must completely detach from the “geometrical” perception of the world, and then it becomes much easier not to get confused and to perceive in essence what appears before us.

The only thing we need is to correct our desire. All of reality is within us, in our sensation, and apart from us there is no other “place.” Place is our desire!
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/11, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot“

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Question: How is it that there is supposedly an objective reality in our world with external objects that we can measure?

Answer: We are accustomed to living by perceiving the picture of reality in an inanimate desire to enjoy, and we think the same way about spirituality, that it exists by itself and does not depend on changes inside us.

This happens until we begin to feel the relativity of our perception, and understand that it depends on our qualities.

Gradually humanity is advancing toward the realization that the entire vision of the world depends on the qualities of the observer. In quantum physics, scientists say that the results of an experiment also depend on the observer. But we have no means of measuring the effect of thought on matter.

In general, everything gradually becomes elusive until we decide that all of this is relative, relative to the qualities of man. Everything depends not on whether I observe or not, whether I think or not, but on who this person is who thinks and observes, what his qualities are.

Then we move from ordinary science, which does not depend on the qualities of the scientist, to the researcher, who must first of all take care of his own qualities, and only afterward investigate matter. This is already a Kabbalist.
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From the “Questions and Answers”, 9/1/09

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Question: It often happens that a person brings in psychology into and thinks that he is engaged in inner work. How can one distinguish inner work from psychology?

Answer: Psychology is when you work with your egoism, and spiritual work is when you work on your egoism.

In spiritual work, you consider the desires of others and try to transcend yourself and exist within them. You accept the values of the Kabbalistic environment, which defines what is important to you, and you strive to realize the guidelines you receive from it. Spiritual work is above the ego because you work with the desires of the environment.

In psychology, you work within your ego, sorting out within yourself what is important and what is not, how you think, and how you influence.

Spiritual growth is based on constantly doubting yourself, jumping back and forth, and thus studying yourself. Spiritual development is self-knowledge, where you constantly go within and understand yourself more and more. After all, all perception is within you, the worlds are within you, the world of infinity is within you, the entire universe is within you, in you.

Question: But how can I attain a planet within myself?

Answer: Oh! You will see that it simply appears to you,  a certain spot on your screen, it turns out, is the Moon and another spot is the Sun. They are drawn within you by your inner forces, just as you see a picture on your computer screen.

There are 613 forces on your inner screen, the vectorial combination of which paints the overall picture for you. That is all, there is nothing else. Just as we are talking now, you see me on your computer screen, and I see you on mine. It is absolutely the same thing.

I’m sitting in my office right now, and I have a device here with which I can see a dozen other places outside. These are my eyes. I have become so accustomed to this device that I feel it as part of my body, as if I were outside the building, in a hallway, somewhere in another department, in a lecture hall. I live in these places. How is this device different from my eyes? Not at all.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Are You Above or Below Ego?” 10/5/10

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This entire reality, upper ones and lower ones alike, in its final state of the end of correction, was emanated and created with a single thought. That single thought performs all the operations; it is the essence of all the operations, the purpose and the essence of the labor. It is by itself the very perfection and the sought-after reward, as Nachmanides wrote, “one, unique, and unified” (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 1, ” Inner Observation”).

Everything was made for the purpose of creation: “to delight the created beings.” This includes all creatures and all actions, and all their sensations, the awakening of the created beings, and their attainment of complete equivalence to the Creator in the end of correction, as the fulfillment of this entire purpose. All of this is experienced by the created beings as a process they pass through, as though changes are taking place within them.

But in truth, both the created beings and all the actions carried out with them, all their feelings, the states they go through, all the worlds, Sefirot, and Partzufim that arise—this entire grand process of development that appears to us—is already contained within the purpose of creation, in the thought of the Creator, apart from which nothing exists! There is nothing else; we exist in His thought, and within it we go through this entire process of development. We live inside His thought!

Therefore, by this one thought the world was brought into being, created, and arranged, and in it the world will reach its final correction. Everything is contained only in the Creator’s purpose, that is, in the relation of the light to the created being, to whom He wishes to give goodness and bring to the state of absolute good.

And it only seems to us as though we exist independently and perform some actions, make efforts, turn in prayer, receive an answer from above, and conquer entire worlds, Partzufim, Sefirot, vast expanses. But all this we merely imagine in accordance with the purpose of creation.

Naturally this does not in the least diminish our work and efforts, even in our world, which is not considered to exist at all. Baal HaSulam says that when our eyes are opened, we will understand that until then we were as though in a dream.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/15/2025, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot“

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Comment: If a person understood what a vile, disgusting, limited world one lives in, the person would look at many things in a completely different way.

My Response: But we know how people get used to living in concentration camps, labor camps, in penal colonies, everywhere.

I had a friend who left the penal colony and stayed in the village next to it. I was surprised! And he said: “It is nice here. What else do I need?” This was in comparison to Leningrad, which had a good food supply, culture, everything!

A habit! A person does not need anything else. Moreover, there are simple relationships in penal colonies, everything is clear and straightforward: who you are and who I am. The whole setup is much simpler.

Comment: Yes, a person immerses himself in the familiar world he lives in anyway.

My Response: This is a terrible thing! We constantly perceive our surroundings this way, we perceive only pleases us, what we need, what suits our upbringing, and what suits our inner state. That is all we see!

But we are in a world of infinity! An incredible amount of depth, phenomena, forces, and actions revolve between us and around us! We do not notice any of this because we do not want to. We only notice what we are pre-programmed for, what we are used to. Everything else is subconsciously eliminated. This is how we are created. Habit is a terrible thing that affects our consciousness!

Question: You describe the states one experiences after moving to another facet of reality in a very colorful way. However, is aiming to develop a desire for it enough, in addition to studying and everything else? If a person really wants to, will he be able to move to a higher dimension?

Answer: No a desire is not enough because our desire is egoistic; we must transform it into another one that is altruistic.

One cannot feel the upper world in his egoistic desire. “But I want it!” No you do not want it; you want something else you imagine as the upper world. You cannot want it now because it is all about giving, loving others, and coming out of yourself. You do not have such desires! So do not lie about wanting it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Our Whole Life Is a Game?!” 9/29/10

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