Question: You are saying that it takes 15 to 20 years to attain spirituality. Is it possible to hasten it?

Answer: If you have a very serious environment around you, then it is possible.

I hope that we are creating a completely new environment for ourselves, which will work very intensively for us. For the first time in history, we are forming an environment not only from those who understand and know toward what they are going, but from ones who are completely ignorant and do not understand, that is, from a part of the 99% of the seven billion.

They follow us, they join us like little children. But there are many of them, billions of them, and therefore, they bring us their vast desires, although at a very low level.

But the fact is that they are carriers of enormous desires and aspirations, only this is not manifested in them. They have very small, so–called earthly egoism, the upper cut. They have an enormous egoistic potential, but they just sort of take off a very thin upper slice of their egoism, they exist in it and do not want more.

Each person puts himself in a certain “window” and he lives in it from plus to minus, which he determines by himself.

If he agrees to a bigger plus and minus, then this already is a bigger search, and he has a different, more interesting life. Like, for example, poets, composers, and scientists who are concerned not with purely animalistic, egoistic needs, but with somewhat larger, more abstract ones.

Therefore, we divide all the needs of a person into food, sex, family, money, honor, and knowledge. The higher the need, the higher the person.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Making Good Use of Others” 9/3/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What are the causes of monkeypox?“

Not just monkeypox, but all kinds of diseases emerge internally from within humanity as a result of our overblown egocentric desire.

The more we evolve, the more the human ego grows, and the coarser the ego we live in, the greater problems we bring upon ourselves. They emerge from the depths of nature; our very own nature. In other words, if we fail to work out how to regulate our overblown egos, then we continually use them and bear witness to new diseases and misfortunes that surface.

Likewise, if the ego continues growing unabated, we will unleash more and more negative phenomena that we will be unable to handle. It is like we hold Pandora’s box within us, and we either let all kinds of problems run rampant from it, or we learn how to retrain it, correct it, and stop it from breaking out of its depths.

As the cause of all kinds of diseases and misfortunes is within us, so too the solution depends on us. We need to learn how to conduct human relations in ways that will not let the ego surface. By definition, the human ego is a force that prioritizes self-benefit over benefiting others, and which enjoys from being more well-off than others. It is the essence of nature, and all problems we encounter in our lives—from diseases through to problems in our relationships, finances and the ecology—swirl around it. The more we use the ego in an unrestricted manner, the greater the problems we bring upon ourselves on all scales: biological, physical and social. It thus makes sense that such nascent ailments as monkeypox materialize, and we can expect worse ones to come about.

Therefore, if we wish to discuss the root cause of monkeypox, then it is none other than the human ego. With our regular means in our world, we never reach such a realization because it runs against the same nature. Instead, we spend truckloads of money on research, technologies and medicines, and all we ever reach are Band-Aid solutions, at best. Eventually, we will have no choice but to work against our own egoistic nature. That is the antidote to all diseases and other problems on every level.

We should thus continually raise awareness of the cause of our every disease and problem as rooted in the overblown human ego, and their comprehensive solution in the ego’s correction, via educational means. The more such awareness spreads throughout humanity, the more we will find our lives change trajectory to a positive course, becoming filled with harmony, peace, balance and good health.

Based on the video “What Is the Cause of Monkeypox?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Should great teachers be rewarded?“

I think it is incorrect to involve other calculations in teaching.

It is one thing for students to grade their teachers as a means of developing the students, but not that the teachers receive any public excellence rewards for their teaching. Doing so has nothing to do with being a good teacher.

A good teacher is one who can positively connect the students in their class, guiding their students correctly so that they can grow together.

Based on the video “Should Good Teachers Get Monetary Excellence Rewards?” 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: “Do Israeli Jews rely on American Jews to advocate for them?“

Most American Jews feel no connection to Israel. Even if they talk about it, it does not come from the heart. They do not feel it. We do not feel ourselves as belonging to one another.

To begin with, we come from the 70 nations of the world. We were the most egoistic people from the nations of the world, the ones who connected back in the times of ancient Babylon. We were immersed in a common hatred, and we then listened to Abraham’s guidance who guided us to unite above our divisions. By doing so, we became known as “the people of Israel,” and later as “the Jewish people” (the Hebrew word for “Jew” [Yehudi] comes from the word for “united” [yihudi] [Yaarot Devash, Part 2, Drush no. 2]). Today, too, if we unite above our divisions, we will save ourselves from a terrible life worse than death.

Only calamities remind us that we share a brotherly connection. The hatred of the nations of the world toward the Jews can connect us Jews with each other. If we fail to connect, then we will die. It is a law of nature.

Such a connection needs to begin in Israel. What else are we here for? If we start our process of unification above our differences here in Israel, then our stronger connection here will influence our relationship with Jews in the United States, and also with humanity in general.

Thanks to the rising antisemitic climate around the world, we will increasingly find no rest and scurry to seek a solution to the rising hatred against us. And the solution is in our unity.

Based on the video “Do Israeli Jews Rely on American Jews to Advocate for Them?” 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: “What do you think of the Diderot effect?“

After living a life of poverty and not caring much about material wealth, Denis Diderot received a fancy new red scarlet satin robe as a gift. Afterward, he noticed that his chair was just an old straw chair, and changed it to a beautiful new leather one; and he then also spotted that his desk was shabby, and replaced it with a large gorgeous table. Eventually, Diderot fell into debt over the fulfillment of his newly-discovered material desires, and he wrote that where he was once the absolute master of his old robe, he became the slave of his new one.

Generally speaking, he was right—that we would be better off living in our “old robes.” There is nothing wrong with living our lives without investing energy into materialistic acquisitions.

We need to have everything in order to comfortably pursue our goals, but beyond meeting those basic needs, we should make sure not to become slaves to our possessions or to the changing times we live in. Why should we work for new robes, chairs and desks, i.e. for material possessions? We would be better off to not waste our lives in such a way, and stay in our “old robes,” so to speak, while taking care of ourselves.

In such a context, “taking care of ourselves” means doing what we deem as important, and not what our surrounding society projects to us as important. We should never fall into such traps as valuing surplus materialistic acquisitions.

We should instead focus on our goal at the basic human development stage that is called “the animate level” within us, i.e. to not follow any goals and habits that society projects onto us, but to live for ourselves. Choose a goal and live for it. People need to validate their paths; to direct and shape them in ways that bring no harm to anyone, including themselves.

Based on the video “The Diderot Effect – A Kabbalist’s Response” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: In the material world there are states of birth and death, childhood and old age, and in the spiritual world this is expressed in the expansion of perception. What does the expansion of perception mean?

Answer: Each time you don’t die, but, as they say, you change your “skin.” You change all your instruments, desires, and insights for new ones.

The cycles for you do not go through a complete shutdown, as it is in our world, because you do them yourself. You yourself go from one state to another, and therefore, they are controlled; they are desirable.

A person does this himself, within himself, and attains the upper world. He begins to gradually expand these boundaries, to feel himself in another.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Expanded Consciousness” 8/14/13

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Question: Have you always spoken in an eloquent way?

Answer: I have always been able to speak beautifully. People were even amazed at my Russian, although I did not study anything specific. However, I have read tens of thousands of books. I have always been very inquisitive. We had a subscription for technical magazines such as Knowledge is Power, Science and Life, Radio, magazines about art, and others. At that time I walked around all the museums in St Petersburg (Leningrad at that time) and in Moscow.

In general, I was swallowing tons of information as I had an unsatisfying thirst. But I have understood quickly that it does not give anything. I moved here from Russia for the most part because of the untamable thirst for knowledge. It seemed to me that I would not be able to gain it there. And indeed all interesting jobs were off limits for me.

However, when I moved here exactly the same happened to me. In addition, all my conscious life from 18 to 30-years-old I spent searching and at the same time I suffered greatly from an ulcer in my duodenum that led to terrible bleeding. A doctor friend told me that nothing would help me and said, “You have such a personality, it will get worse.”

As soon as I started to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, within a year or year and a half I realized that this wisdom has all the answers and the ulcer started to go away. After all, I had come to the source that I gradually had to unearth. Of course, I still had a multitude of questions, nothing was clear, and I was in inner conflict, but I was already in the theme.

I did not know Kabbalah and did not understand it, but I still was in it. I was getting satisfaction studying it and catching it.

Gradually the ulcer disappeared and there was nothing left. Today all my x-rays are absolutely clear.

Later on when I started to attain the wisdom of Kabbalah, everything started to assemble into one single picture like a song, a pleasure, or a joy. There was nothing else I needed. I was ready to sit in my room practically all my life because I was seeing eternity as I was delving in it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. A Man in Attainment” 7/21/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What are your thoughts on freedom of speech?“

There is no freedom in our world, and while our world exists in its current form—running on a motor of human egoism, where we each aim at benefiting ourselves at the expense of others—then we can expect no freedom.

Freedom of speech, the way we currently understand it, is that we let everyone take to the streets, so to speak, and yell whatever they want. Everyone yells and no one listens to or understands one another. If it is genuine freedom of speech in such a form, then no one listens to anyone else because everyone only focuses on what they yell. In other words, we currently define freedom of speech as everyone’s opportunity to yell whatever anyone wants.

I see freedom of speech differently—as the freedom to remain silent. It is much more beneficial for us to keep our mouths shut. Instead of pressuring, influencing, coercing and deceiving each other, we would do ourselves a much bigger favor by staying silent.

If our current media would freeze and enter into a new mode of stillness, then we would start feeling our own selves. Instead of pressure coming at us from all directions, we would instead start feeling questions such as “Who am I?” “What am I?” “What do I live for?” and “What do I truly want?” We would discover that we each want to say something, but we would think hard about what we want to say, what others expect of us, and what we should ideally convey to other people. In other words, we would discover that we really have no freedom of speech.

True freedom of speech is when we have the most important, sacred and beneficial information to bring people. It is a speech of the heart, where we open up our hearts so that we understand each other without words.

We need to reach a state where we peel off the egoistic crust that has accumulated over our hearts, open our hearts, aim them at positive human connection, and enter into a common heartbeat of the entire planet. We do not need to pay billions of dollars, like Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter, for freedom of speech. Instead, we need to live and breathe the inclination to open our hearts.

Based on the video “What Is Freedom of Speech for a Kabbalist?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do I teach my children to embrace failure?“

Suppose we encounter failure. Michael’s group played against Oren’s group, and we lost. We then sit and talk about it, understanding that we were weak and we lost, without crying about it. We might feel some pain or cry internally, but we try to understand why we lost. It is quite complicated and it takes time.

At first, there might be shouting, yelling and blaming, but later on, we reach a state where we lost, and now what? Do we throw it away or do we continue? In such a juncture, we need to learn and absorb examples from those who have succeeded and dealt with failure, and there are several movies and books on such a topic. Those who reach success have undergone major crises, become disappointed, faced exploitation and whatnot.

We then decide that we now want to learn from our failure, and seek how we can overcome such a state. At this point, we learn what was wrong, what we should correct, how to correct ourselves, and how to study our opponent. And if we discuss such a phenomenon in terms of our inner traits, then we each learn about our egoistic nature that is ultimately behind all failure and loss, and in so doing, we prepare ourselves for our next battle.

Based on the video “How to Teach a Group of Children to Deal With Failure” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: You once said: “If you unite, I will be able to explain more.” Do you own the information and you need a formed desire toward which you give this information?

Answer: We need desires that will be at the level of what I want to explain. If there are no such desires, then the explanation will not work.

Let’s say you are sitting in front of a group of students. They ask you some questions, and at the level of these questions, you have to explain everything to them. You can’t give them an answer a few courses higher—they won’t understand it and it will only confuse them.

Therefore everything goes only according to the plan that my students dictate to me. Sometimes I get a little ahead of events in order to prepare them for the next degrees.

Question: If an external person listens to the information that you give us and which is clear to us, will he somehow understand or will he not hear it at all?

Answer: He will think that I am saying something completely incomprehensible, philosophical, psychological, and generally abstract from our world.

But there are people, many people in the world, who are familiar with this information although they are not in it. Even the same Hasidim, although they do not attain what is written in their books, they know it. And so if they hear me, they will say, “Yes, he says what is written in our books.” After all, the founders of Hasidism were great Kabbalists.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Hidden Information” 8/6/13

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