Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is a crime?“

Defining crime is very problematic. In Russian, there is a saying: “Show me a person and I’ll pin a crime on them,” i.e. it is easy to prove, in a serious manner, that anyone is a criminal.

We are all criminals because we make the laws of our society and culture. We set the boundaries. That is, certain people decide on a law, and they think one way or another. At the same time, several people might disagree with that particular law, which goes to show that the laws that we make are not accepted by everyone. This makes defining crime very questionable and problematic.

Are the crimes we define really crimes then? We legislate certain laws and whoever disobeys those laws is defined as a criminal. The problem here is the basis of the very laws we set. Do they come from nature—that we have to obey them because we exist within nature’s boundaries, and we thus have to obey them in order to protect nature, human society, families, and so on, and for this entire system of nature and humanity that we live in to protect us? Or do the laws come from self-interested people who place their own well-being over the well-being of society and nature?

Based on the video “What Is a Crime?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Nitzah Mazoz. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why are gang members so attached with other gang members?“

Gang members are often very tightly connected and have a feeling of devotion to each other, up to a point where they are willing to die for each other. They share a common pride, that what they are doing is just.

What is special about such a connection is their devotion to each other, i.e. a feeling that no one will sell the other out. Gang members could even go as far as getting killed in order to not sell out other gang members.

They share a feeling of a mutual guarantee, that their gang members stand behind each other, that they are parts of a big family willing to go to any lengths in order to get them out of any situation, from collecting money through to breaking them out of jail. Such a connection gives gang members a feeling of warmth, closeness, pride and meaning.

On the other hand, gangs fall short on the point that they are based on group egoism, an “us vs. them” approach that favors its own members and pits themselves up against others. Couple that with criminal activity that aims to benefit the gang through harming others, and it becomes a formula that frequently leads to tragedy.

We should, however, aspire to reach a connection of mutual guarantee in human society where we each look out for one another, not at the expense of others, and with no intent to harm others, but on the contrary—to benefit others over benefiting ourselves. In other words, we should aspire to all belong to one single gang—the humanity gang. If connection-enriching education, upbringing and social and media influences filled our society, then we would be on course to realizing these kinds of upgraded connections.

Based on the video “Why Gang Members Are So Attached to Each Other” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “When do we consider that a person is criminal?“

Until we completely correct our ego, where we can position ourselves to the benefit of society—which is already a degree like we never saw before anywhere in this world—then we are always criminals of sorts.

We are criminals from birth. It is because we are each born with our ego, and so we each wish to benefit ourselves, and besides benefiting ourselves, we might also feel good by harming others, because we measure ourselves in relation to others.

Criminals, in essence, are those who breach “Love your neighbor as yourself,” which is the general law of reality, and a crime is wishing to harm others for the sake of self-benefit. In short, we benefit by feeling better off than others, either by acquiring money or other possessions, or by obtaining some form of honor or control from the crime.

Based on the video “When Do We Consider That a Person Is Criminal?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why do we distract ourselves?“

The question about the meaning of our lives constantly lurks underneath everything we do in life, and we distract ourselves in myriad ways in order to avoid this very question.

Around a century ago and earlier, we had much clearer lives. We knew that we had our homes, our parents, our villages and our towns. Our spouse was most often someone nearby, and we knew that our children would grow up where we lived. In general, our lives were clear, well defined and simple, almost animal-like. We did not encounter much uncertainty or insecurity.

Today, on a psychological level, we are torn apart with questions about the universe, life, our own psychology and behavior. Our lives have become turbulent, filled with uncertainty and insecurity, and inner turmoil is running rampant.

Our era is forcing us to understand what we never encountered in the past: the overall picture of the world. And we will find no rest until we realize, understand, connect with, and perhaps even control the whole picture of the world at least to some extent.

Since we avoid facing the question about the meaning of our lives head on—”Why are we alive?” “What are we doing here?”—due to the uncertainty and insecurity it makes us feel, then we do anything possible to distract ourselves from it and its connected negative sensations.

Distractions take on a number of forms: drugs, work, shopping, food, art, music, entertainment, browsing the Internet, going on vacations, traveling the world, sports, engaging in hobbies of all kinds, building and making things—whatever we can possibly do in order to escape from the prison of our world.

Everything we do acts as an antidepressant of sorts. It is all an escape from life’s most fundamental question: “What is the meaning of life?” If we have no answer to it, then we engage in anything we deem as important. Distractions save us from this question and its connected uncertainty and insecurity.

Nevertheless, however, the question about the meaning of life haunts us. It smacks us from behind in all kinds of situations until we will wake up and start actively inquiring about it. Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) writes about this process in the beginning of his article “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot.”

Indeed, if we set our hearts to answer but one very famous question, I am certain that all these questions and doubts will vanish from the horizon, and you will look unto their place to find them gone. This indignant question is a question that the whole world asks, namely, “What is the meaning of life?” In other words, these numbered years of our life that cost us so heavily, and the numerous pains and torments that we suffer for them, to complete them to the fullest, who is it who enjoys them? Or even more precisely, whom do I delight?

It is indeed true that historians have grown weary contemplating it, and particularly in our generation. No one even wishes to consider it. Yet the question stands as bitterly and as vehemently as ever. Sometimes it meets us uninvited, pecks at our minds and humiliates us to the ground before we find the famous ploy of flowing mindlessly in the currents of life as always.

While we might be able to temporarily distract ourselves from asking about the meaning of our lives, that very question will continually chase us until we start facing it. We will have to figure it out. It is not in vain that it surfaces in every person. When it arises, we either successfully forget about it through the many distractions that we have created for ourselves, or we face it and seek its resolution.

If we start facing the question about the meaning of life, questioning why we do, think and feel everything that we do, think and feel, then every moment of our lives will become filled with a higher meaning.

Based on the video “Why We Distract Ourselves from Life’s Most Important Question” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Comment: When we have problems, you recommend contacting a specialist, such as a lawyer and so on.

My Response: Yes, on the corporeal level we must use the tools of our world and at the same time make spiritual corrections.

Therefore, if someone attacks me, and I have some legal opportunity to oppose him, then I definitely do it through a lawyer. This is how it will be in the future as well. This is work at the level of our world.

Comment: But there are countries where problems are solved in a completely different way, not by legal methods, but by force.

My Response: If these are legal forceful methods, then yes, and if they are not the legal ones, then no. If we scare people, then this is no longer a correction.

Question: Why is this correction if we act through lawyers?

Answer: Because through lawyers, you teach a person to bite his tongue, treat others differently, and force him to understand his mistakes.

At least, this is how we should act and not have a physical clash. We cannot afford it, this is not the spirit of our organization.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Solve Problems?” 9/18/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Should I try to boost my ego or keep it in check?“

We should know the final goal that we are destined to reach, and that the ego develops within us in order to reach that goal. However, it develops within us in order for us to make correct use of it, and then we can consciously progress toward the final goal that is in front of us. In other words, we need to understand and inquire about the purpose of creation.

What is the purpose of creation? It is for us to resemble nature on the level in which the ego is in control, because the ego actually brings us out of nature’s still, vegetative and animate levels. It makes something very strange out of us where, on one hand, we control nature, and on the other hand, we depend on nature.

Here we have a problem. What were we given such a big ego for? On one hand, the ego is supposed to elevate us above everyone. On the other hand, we see that the ego’s development leads us to the lowest and most ignoble states.

At such a juncture comes the wisdom of Kabbalah that explains how we should use the will to receive, the ego, in a very special way. On one hand, we feel a desire to suppress and control everyone, but on the other hand, we have to work on it the other way around where we suppress and control ourselves.

We then see this ego as a help toward the higher state to which we aspire. It is as if it wants to put us to death, to push us into struggles and to control everyone. We see that it is bad for us and so we take it and control ourselves. This control over our ego elevates us above our ego and ties us to nature. We then reach a state where we truly become superior masters, like nature itself, by wanting to control the ego. We even become greater than how nature created us, because nature created us in an ego, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination,” and we rise above the ego to a higher degree, that of nature itself—the force that created the ego.

Here, we are discussing the ego as the force of reception and separation, a force that makes us wish to enjoy ourselves at the expense of others; and we describe nature as the limitless force of love, bestowal and connection. So when we discuss rising above the ego to a higher degree, we are talking about how we become similar to the altruistic force of nature. Doing so leads us to host a combination of these two forces within us, the natural egoistic force and the higher force of nature, which we develop above it. We then reach a vision of the world from one end to the other—seeing and feeling everything, and that we control everything in the direction of benefiting all people and nature.

Based on the video “How to Navigate a Big Ego” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Comment: When a man and a woman start a family, it’s like a fire is burning inside them. But over time every couple begins to cool down.

My Response: Then the same fire burns them. This is a normal feeling of nature because plus and minus together gradually destroy each other. The light bulb burns out; the resistance of the tungsten filament, like any conductor connecting opposite qualities, gradually breaks down.

A man and a woman are two opposite objects of creation. Naturally over time they get tired of correctly complementing each other. The resistance, which is their desire to please each other, disappears. I do not want to please her and she does not want to please me; we become habituated, tired, and ordinary. And then everything disappears.

This means that it is necessary to make sure that there is a need for a constant correct connection between each other in their relationship—addition and annulment of oneself relative to the other.

But when can it happen? It happens if our connection leads us to something higher. And what could be higher in our world? I’d rather get divorced; it’ll be easier for me. Why would I bother with that at all? I will have other women, a different environment; I will live and everything will be fine. And her, too. People get divorced very simply.

If thanks to our common connection we reach highest level, eternal life, such a pleasure that we will not find together on earth, then it is worth for us to tolerate each other, not even tolerate, but already appreciate.

Therefore the institution of marriage, which is now being deliberately destroyed, can be restored only with the manifestation of the upper goal.

People will have to be given an explanation that we are returning to it for a reason. This is like any bad trait in a person, one must completely eradicate it and then in some way bring back a little in the correct realization.

It’s the same here. The institution of marriage will be eradicated and humanity is already heading for extinction. And then it is realized “Why do we need this?!” To achieve the upper goal, to create couples again, to live and breed!
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Revive a Marriage?” 9/7/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why is the world deteriorating?“

The world is starting to understand where it is. We are starting to agree with the fact that the future will be no better than it is today, and the next generation will be far worse off than we are.

We have passed our peak period of corporeal progress, and we are currently in a withdrawal period with nothing good waiting for us in the future.

We will thus bear witness to more and more negative phenomena across the board, such as rising depression, loneliness, anxiety, stress, drug abuse, suicide rates and a general atmosphere of despair.

Today, it has become more and more commonplace to look at our children and think, “What a shame that they were born! Look at the kind of world they are growing up into! What kind of world are we leaving for them!?” We thus need to learn what lies ahead for us, and to do so very quickly.

Kabbalists wrote about the major transition period our world has entered a long time ago, and described the comprehensive solution for how we can improve our lives: a method for positively connecting with each other above our growing egoistic and divisive drives.

Therefore, the world is deteriorating in order to show us that the current way we live our lives—in increasing inner detachment from one another—leads us to nothing good, and that changing direction to a positive course depends solely on breaking down the walls between us. By connecting to each other, we will discover a better future.

Based on the video “Why the World Is Deteriorating” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: When you look at a student, do you know his or her entire path from beginning to end?

Answer: What does it matter? It is still very hard to describe, including his freewill and so on. There is nothing obvious. There is a program, but the method of its implementation is concealed.

But if we were at the end of final correction, which no one has yet reached because this can only be done together, we would see all the paths we have traveled. This can only be seen by going through them and being in the final state.

No person can fully see what is happening, what will happen, and in what form. In principle the stages of the path are known, but the time when they will come true and how they are realized is unknown since this is determined by our freewill.

Question: But you once said that Rabash knew your path from beginning to end?

Answer: Probably, but I do not think he knew exactly how it would be implemented. As far as I understand, not a single created being, until its final correction, can see an absolutely complete implementation, which is above freewill because it is on the next level of the entire picture of the universe.

That is, you must rise to the full correction of this picture, behind which there are so-called 7^th, 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th millennia.

Question: But can a Kabbalist see the dry program, I mean the program itself?

Answer: Of course. But not the dates. It is impossible to say how this will be done, by war or by peace, this year or in 20 to 30 years. Otherwise, we would not have freedom.

This would automatically cancel any of our actions. Not that you know and do nothing, but in a completely different way. If this picture were clear, visible, and realized, then you no longer need to do anything.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. To See the Future of an Individual” 9/8/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why do we compare ourselves with anyone?“

We are made of a desire to enjoy, which enjoys at the expense of others. This is our human ego, and it gives us a sense of self by comparing ourselves with others. When we compare ourselves to others, we separate ourselves from them, and wish to be superior—to control and suppress them in various ways.

Such an inclination does not exist on the still, vegetative and animate degrees of nature, but only at the human level. Physically, we exist on the animate level, but our inner desire and inclination belongs to a higher degree called the “human” or “speaking.” At such a level, we wish to swallow the whole world.

Rocks, plants and animals, i.e. the still, vegetative and animate levels of nature, have no such desire to make others bow down to their commands as we humans do. We are the only ones who have such a problem. We waste our lives on it, wanting to fulfill this inclination and desire, and nature compels us to do so.

If we would not compare ourselves, then we would not feel as if we exist. We would feel like any animal, which lives in the moment and has no additional desires. We, however, contain a higher degree called “the evil inclination,” the human ego that compares itself to others and that desires its superiority. On one hand, it is called “evil,” but on the other hand, it pushes humanity to progress and try out different things—to realize that desire. We feel that we have to realize it otherwise we feel nonexistent.

Based on the video “Why Do We Compare Ourselves?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Nitzah Mazoz. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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