A real place in spirituality is called “the place of reality” since anyone who comes there to that place sees the same shape as the other (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 98 “Spirituality Is Called That Which Will Never Be Lost”).

Comment: The article says that everyone who comes to this place sees the same form as the other. But we recently talked about the fact that everyone feels everything individually, in their own way.

My Response: It doesn’t matter. Just like in our world what you feel, you perceive individually. But, in principle, it is open to everyone.

Question: Let’s say we all see the table, does everyone experience it differently?

Answer: Of course in one’s own way, but we still perceive the same object. That is why it is said that there are 70 expressions. For each level, there are 70 faces of the Torah.
[323571]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Spirituality Is Called That Which Will Never Be Lost”

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Question: Often, elephants are simply tied to a post with a thin rope. They are not in cages or shackles, yet they do not run away. Elephant owners say, “When the elephants are tiny, we tie them with the same rope. At this age, it is enough to prevent elephants from running away. And when they grow up, they believe they can’t just run away and never try to get free.”

We are probably tied to this world with a thin “string” since childhood and do not try to escape. What kind of string is this?

Answer: Habit.

Question: Or do I know that I can’t escape?

Answer: And that, too.

Question: Which is the greater factor?

Answer: I think that I won’t be able to escape.

Question: So, this world suppresses us?

Answer: Yes, initially.

Question: Please tell me why we are afraid to take a step. We know there is freedom somewhere, but we are still afraid to take this step.

Answer: To do this, we need to overcome ourselves, that is, all our habits, our attitude toward the world, all of this must somehow be annulled.

Question: Are we afraid?

Answer: Yes, it is animal instinct, just like the elephants.

Comment: Here we have a house. We have sustenance, but who knows what will happen there? You are calling us to break out, to take this step.

My Response: It is not me who is calling, but the great sages of Kabbalah say that we need to break out of this magnetism and rise above it. And then we will see another world and ourselves differently, and in general, all of life, the entire universe.

Question: Have they taken this step?

Answer: Yes.

Question: How did they have the courage to take this step?

Answer: It is not their courage. It was given to them by nature.

It is given to certain people from above, from their inner state, their inner content. Everyone else can follow their advice and accumulate a certain amount of energy that allows them to break out of this attraction.

Comment: You try to break out of this magnetism, you follow the Kabbalists, you follow what they say, and it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work—for years!

My Response: It is accumulative. This is a process of accumulating the necessary energy and efforts that will ultimately allow us to go beyond the limits of gravity.

Question: How can you not despair because so much time has passed?

Answer: We have no other way to leave this post to which we are tied with a “string.”

Question: That is, despite the time, although despair has already set in, you continue to try to take this step?

Answer: Certainly.

Question: And still, the question is: How not to despair?

Answer: There is no other way out.

Question: Should you come to this thought that there is no other way out?

Answer: Yes, there is no other way. You will be lucky, so to speak; you will accumulate strength and break free, break the “rope,” and run like a little elephant across the field of life. And if you are unlucky, you will remain on a string until next time.

Question: Isn’t the word “lucky” offensive?

Answer: We don’t know all the world’s laws, and that’s why we say it.

Question: What will help you double or triple your strength?

Answer: That is what we are studying. This is our unification, the study of the laws of the upper world. As a result, we accumulate a certain amount of energy to break out into a free orbit.

Question: Is a group escape more remarkable than a solo escape?

Answer: Yes, most likely.

Question: But is the escape of one person also possible?

Answer: We see this in the ancient Kabbalists and even in recent times, like Baal HaSulam and others. They were able to escape from selfish, earthly gravity.

Question: Please tell me why we believe this is so. After all, we haven’t escaped yet.

Answer: Because otherwise the essence of earthly life loses all foundation.

Question: Does earthly life make sense only if we take this step?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And that is what it exists for?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So, you say the meaning of life is to take this step and break away from this “string”?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What is this space that we enter when we break away?

Answer: This is a free space in which we can act according to its laws, the laws of this free space.

Question: What are they?

Answer: This is freedom from gravity, from egoism.

Question: Is gravity egoistic?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And when I’m freed, what’s there?

Answer: Free actions, free life, free-floating. Indeed, like an elephant in the air.

Question: So now all my actions are egoistic, I am being led, and am not free here? And there?

Answer: And there you are free.

Question: I secretly want this, don’t I?

Answer: I don’t think that’s what we want.

Comment: Everyone talks about freedom and somehow imagines it.

My Response: I don’t know why he needs freedom. He doesn’t know. He just wants to get away from his “rope.” Why? Quite possibly from childish stupidity. We don’t know what’s next either.

Question: But freedom is freedom from egoism?

Answer: Yes.
[323338]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/30/23

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Question: Do we only need to be concerned with correcting desires, and the agreement of the heart will be the test?

Answer: Heart and desire are the same thing. If you check your desires, it means you check your heart.

Question: When I try to stay on the subject, I notice that I am failing hopelessly. Why?

Answer: To show you where you are. Therefore, this is good.

Question: We do not want to pray with our hearts because we fear losing. How can we stop being afraid of losing the feeling of this illusion, i.e., our egoistic life? Where is my ten in all this?

Answer: You need to find the ten. You need to feel the ten. You just need to adhere to the heart of your friends.

Question: It is said: “Do not judge a friend until you are in his place.” Does this mean that we should completely abandon the assessment of the actions of our friends? Or is it not worth dwelling on it? What should be our attitude to this?

Answer: The main thing for us is to take care of coming closer to a friend so we can understand him correctly. After that, we can do other actions.

Question: A prayer from the heart should be such that we are not afraid to lose all our egoistic desires. Why?

Answer: A person must be willing to lose all his egoistic desires to be able to connect with the ten. That should be his prayer.
[323465]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Understanding What Is Written in Shulchan Aruch”

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In our world, we are all connected through animalistic senses: vision, hearing, smell, touch, and tactile sensations. A person must go beyond their boundaries in order to begin to feel the upper, that is, what is above the corporeal senses. This is not something mystical, but something that a person does not perceive in his physical body now, but it exists around us!

The technical devices we use now give us a very small additional range of sensations. They only expand them, because behind the devices there are people who still translate these huge expanding ranges into information accessible to them, otherwise they will not understand what is happening with the device. It turns out that we do not go beyond ourselves.

Therefore, we do not need to invent all kinds of devices, but to correct and expand ourselves: “Do we have this in us?”

Kabbalah says that when a question arises in a person about the meaning of life, it means that he has a need to expand the perception of his five senses. Not in expanding the spectrum of frequencies in each sense organ, but in expanding oneself into some new area.

If you want to truly deepen your perception, you must radically change it from reception to bestowal, i.e., begin to contact the environment not in your senses, but outside of them, because they limit you. They refer to your animalistic body.

How can you leave the body as if it were not there? How can you make yourself feel life outside of yourself, not disturbed by your body? Then you can talk about something that really exists objectively. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah deals with, as it does not study at all what we perceive in the body.

Therefore, when people say: “What about vision, and hearing” I have nothing to say. Kabbalah immediately rejects all this, leaving it to psychology and other methodologies, this is their business. It has no connection with those desires, qualities, and thoughts that an ordinary person has because all this relates to the same quality of reception.

We need to move from the quality of reception to the quality of bestowal, i.e. neutralize ourselves by absorbing all perceptions, learn to exit ourselves and feel the space undisturbed by our body the way it really is. This is called “exiting the body,” “exiting into the spiritual world.”

Then it does not matter whether your body is alive or dead. After all, you begin to feel everything with completely different qualities that have nothing to do with your physical body. Therefore, this wisdom reveals to us the eternal perfect world. And you, to the extent of adaptation to it, to the extent of your coexistence with it, to the extent of your consolidation in it, become eternal and perfect.
[323173]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Eternal and Perfect” 12/1/11

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Spiritual reality does not depend on time and space; it does not change; everything depends on the person attaining it. This is how it differs from material reality.

Every spiritual picture or form that we attain lives and exists forever. After all, concepts such as time, place, movement, and change do not apply to it.

We cannot even imagine how this can happen without changes. After all, we are talking about different spiritual states that we experience, and we do not understand how it is possible that nothing changes in spiritual reality.

In fact, the spiritual remains the same, but our attainment of the spiritual is constantly improving.
[323491]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Spirituality Is Called That Which Will Never Be Lost”

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Question: There is a tale of an old  blind man who was sitting in the shadow of the temple when a passerby asked him: “Forgive me for my question, but how did you become blind?” “I have been blind since birth,” answered the old man. “What do you do?” asked the passerby. “I am an astronomer,” he answered. “I watch the sun and stars.” “But you can’t see them!”, the passerby exclaimed in surprise. “I see,” answered the old man. “They are here.” And he put his hand to his chest.

Can one live like this: blind, but not blind, and as a result you are sighted; deaf and at the same time hear music, and can be a musician? Can a person not feel his inferiority?

Answer: Of course. Because all our senses, in principle, come from our egoism. If we did not have these senses, we could be completely different.

Question: If this sense organ is cut off from me, let’s say I’m blind like this old man who says, “I’m an astronomer,” then how can I not feel that I’m blind?

Answer: Look within yourself.

Question: What will I see there?

Answer: You will see everything: the sky, the stars, everything! Within yourself.

Question: And if, say, I am deaf, can I be a musician? Will I hear music?

Answer: Whatever you want. You don’t need your five senses. You don’t need your body! If we didn’t have a body, we would be so happy and perfect.

Question: So, in this case I don’t feel any inferiority if I kind of live with myself?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Please teach me. How to live like this? How to achieve this? It sounds so good.

Answer: This cannot be explained.

Question: Then the last question about the sage. He said, “I am an astronomer even though I am blind.” Why do we freeze when looking at the stars?

Answer: Because this is the opposite part of the universe in which we exist. And it immediately tells us about its infinity and our finiteness.

Question: So, I see infinity in this? And can it be found in oneself, like he found?

Answer: It can be found within yourself. You can connect with these stars. You can feel how they exist.

Question: And with this I seem to be moving into this state of infinity?

Answer: Yes.
[322878]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/16/23

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We, the chosen species, with reason and knowledge, have become a toy in the hands of the blind nature, which leads us astray, and who knows where? (Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”)

Question: Igor writes: “I have a hundred questions about this one passage. Why does such a great Kabbalist, Baal HaSulam, call nature blind?”

Answer: Because it acts according to its own law and does not turn anywhere. And that is why such a movement is called blind.

Question: So it is still directed by someone or something, and it moves without changing. Is this called a “blind state”?

Answer: Yes.

Question: He asks: “Is it blind nature that has led us to war now?”

Answer: This is the so-called blind nature, yes. It controls our egoism, and it leads us constantly, constantly into contradictions among ourselves until we realize the harm of such relationships and want to correct them.

Question: It deliberately brings us into collisions, and the stronger the collision, the faster we realize something?

Answer: Of course.

Question: “How can those who have knowledge and intelligence, as it is written here, be called a toy in someone’s hands? After all, do they have intelligence and knowledge”? That is, us.

Answer: It does not matter. In fact, nature still controls them. It increases or decreases the egoism in each of us and in all of us together, and we are thus controlled.

Question: But do you agree that we are intelligent and knowledgeable?

Answer: Relatively. But not higher than our egoism.

Question: So it is higher than us? Does it decide everything?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Igor asks about the same sentence: “It says that we are being fooled. Somehow I really do not like this.”

Answer: We are shown how limited we are, how stubborn and unidirectional we are, and how we lead ourselves to bad results.

Question: That is, on one hand, they say that we are reasonable, but on the other hand, we can be fooled. Doesn’t this indicate some kind of contradiction, that we are not intelligent?

Answer: No. Our mind works only within very limited boundaries and in no way prevents us from being stupid egoists at the same time.

Question: Igor asks, “They say that it is unknown where it (nature) is leading us. You say all the time that it is known where it is leading us—to unity, love. Yes or no?”

Answer: Toward unity and love, but in a very tough way.

Question: We do not know where it leads?

Answer: Yes, because we are in continuous struggle with each other throughout life, throughout history.

Question: So our task is to succumb to blind nature?

Answer: No! What are we going to do with this? On the contrary, we need to find out that we are in the hands of blind nature and that the only thing we can do is to correct ourselves.

Question: Is this what it wants from us, blind nature?

Answer: Yes. Awareness of evil.

Question: Can we say that we are the ones who are blind?

Answer: Of course.

Question: And that is why we perceive nature blindly?

Answer: Yes. But we cannot do it any other way; it is very difficult.

Question: So, you have no complaints against humanity?

Answer: I have no complaints against anyone.
[321315]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/6/23

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If many people examine one spiritual thing, each will attain according to his imagination and senses, thereby seeing a different form (Baal HaSulam. Shamati 3 “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment”).

Everyone attains spirituality in their Kelim (vessels). What one person reveals cannot even be compared to the attainment of another. How can I get into him and try on his Kelim for myself? We attain everything in our desire and not in the desire of a friend.

Question: What is the difference between these desires?

Answer: The difference is purely individual, it is impossible to explain. For example, when you hear a sound, you can say it has a frequency of 400 Hz, a certain velocity and pressure, but you still cannot compare it with how a friend perceives it because you feel it internally, in yourself, and a friend in himself.

Question: If we attain spiritual objects each in our own Kelim, what are our chances of mutual understanding and true spiritual unification above all differences?

Answer: You will not feel the differences. Rather, attaining the spiritual world will bring you closer and will make you understand each other better.
[322950]
From the Daily Kabbalah lesson 12/26/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment”

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Question: Why is money the basis of all problems in the world?

Answer: Because it is the equivalent of our investing in each other. I give something so I am supposed to take something.

Question: If we remove money, would there be no problems?

Answer: If everything that is common were removed, completely does not belong to anyone at all, and when everyone is concerned about each other as one common whole: either I will receive, or I will give, or another will receive, or will give to me, and all this is equivalent in my feelings, only then can we talk about removing money completely.

Money is a cover for my attitude toward others. There is nothing you can do about it.

Question: So in our world, will the problems disappear even if the money disappears?

Answer: No. Only when we rise above ourselves in our feelings will this world itself simply disappear because it exists only in our sensations.
[322267]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. It’s All Because of Money.”

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When Laurens van der Post one night
      In the Kalihari Desert told the Bushmen
He couldn’t hear the stars
Singing, they didn’t believe him. They looked at him,
      Half-smiling. They examined his face
              To see whether he was joking
Or deceiving them. Then two of those small men
      Who plant nothing, who have almost
              Nothing to hunt, who live
On almost nothing, and with no one
      But themselves, led him away
              From the crackling thorn-scrub fire
And stood with him under the night sky
      And listened. One of them whispered,
              Do you not hear them now?
And van der Post listened, not wanting
      To disbelieve, but had to answer,
              No. They walked him slowly
Like a sick man to the small dim
      Circle of firelight and told him
              They were terribly sorry,
And he felt even sorrier
      For himself and blamed his ancestors
              For their strange loss of hearing,
Which was his loss now. On some clear nights
      When nearby houses have turned off their televisions,
When the traffic dwindles, when through streets
Are between sirens and the jets overhead
      Are between crossings, when the wind
              Is hanging fire in the fir trees,
And the long-eared owl in the neighboring grove
      Between calls is regarding his own darkness,
              I look at the stars again as I first did
To school myself in the names of constellations
      And remember my first sense of their terrible distance,
              I can still hear what I thought
At the edge of silence were the inside jokes
      Of my heartbeat, my arterial traffic,
       The C above high C of my inner ear, myself
Tunelessly humming, but now I know what they are:
      My fair share of the music of the spheres
              And clusters of ripening stars,
Of the songs from the throats of the old gods
      Still tending even tone-deaf creatures
              Through their exiles in the desert.
(“The Silence of the Stars” by David Wagoner, from Traveling Light: Collected and New Poems)

Question: Everything is the other way around in this world. Whoever hears the stars is sent to the doctors. Tell me, please, who is sick after all—the one who hears the stars or the one who does not?

Answer: I cannot say about the stars.

Comment: We probably mean nature by this.

My Response: Yes. Anyone who does not hear nature is, of course, ill. He is cut off from nature, and I feel sorry for him.

Question: What does “hearing nature” mean?

Answer: To hear nature is to be close to it. A person close to nature is a person who perceives everything around him as the attitude of the Creator toward him. And that is why he does not see anything wrong with it. Right up to his death, which he also sees nothing wrong with, it comes, it goes, and I go too.

Question: Is it possible to live like it: warm, calm?

Answer: Of course. It is an inner voice in you that just needs to be revealed.

Comment: But we were deprived of this quality of hearing nature.

My Response: It is our egoism that locks us within and does not allow us to turn anywhere.

Question: So, it is better for it that we do not hear nature?

Answer: It is an evil force that acts in parallel with a good force, but we give advantage to this evil force.

Question: And how can we feel that we miss nature, this hearing?

Answer: Trying to get inside nature means connecting with the Creator. We must try to get closer to Him. And then we will succeed.

Question: But this needs clarification. What is the Creator for an ordinary person, what is it?

Answer: Everything around us.

Question: All this is the Creator?

Answer: Yes. And even everything that is inside us is all the Creator.

To come closer to Him means to reveal your feelings so that there would be no boundaries or barriers between you and the Creator. And then you will feel that the whole world is filled with delicate singing. I would say it like this.

Comment: Beautiful! Tell me, is this necessary for our survival?

My Response: It is not about surviving in this world. The point is to be in harmony with it. And that is how it comes.

Question: Now a lot of people leave cities, go to some forgotten villages, abandoned houses, rebuild, and even go into forests and live there. Mainly, what is it? Is this an escape from suffering or is it a search?

Answer: It is a search for harmony when I feel good about what I have. I am content with it, I am satisfied with it. I do not need anything, I do not have any complaints about anyone. That is how I live. This is a good attitude toward the world.

Question: At one time you said that once the real Hasidim, Kabbalists, left everything behind and went away for almost a year. Without anything. Without bread, without money, they went into the world. What kind of move was that? Was it a search for that harmony, as you say?

Answer: Yes. This is called “going into exile.” But in fact, it was an exile from oneself. And a lot of people did that. It was not only in Russia. This was also the case in Central Asia.

Question: So, it is not just Judaism? Other religions also do this?

Answer: Many nations, yes.

Question: They were leaving to hear this gentle sound that you were talking about? Is that what drove them?

Answer: Yes. They were not hermits, they were surrounded by people, but they strove to be as independent as possible. In this way they strove to feel the Creator.
[322143]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/20/23

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