Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Can nature really heal us?“

There is a therapeutic approach in Japan called “forest bathing,” which sends people with various medical conditions for a long stay in nature. Research shows that a long stay in nature can decrease blood pressure, stress hormones, treat anxiety, depression, and in general, help you heal from different medical conditions.

Indeed, nature has healing powers. Anybody can feel how a walk in nature, being in nature, and going out to stay in the country for a few days, has a healing effect.

Nature consists of the still, vegetative and animate that we need to connect with as opposed to the jungle of stone and bricks that we live in with their stress and tall buildings.

However, the human ego, which wishes to exploit others and nature for self-benefit, increasingly detaches us from nature, making us destroy and distance ourselves from it, and such a process will eventually lead us to at least see how wrong we are in doing so.

In the future, however, I think that everything will work out. We will reach an understanding that our ego is killing us from one moment to the next, and that we need to revise how we conduct our lives, together with understanding what will happen if we continue along the same trajectory. We will then stop letting the ego drive us to harm ourselves.

However, we do not need to go and live in the woods. The solution is among each other, that we start living in unity, with love and mutual support. Such an approach would heal us of all the different illnesses that we have. We could make a thousand-page list of illnesses, and if we develop connections of unity and love, then we would heal ourselves of them all. Reaching relations of love and mutual support among people would balance us with nature at the human level, the highest level of nature.

Based on the video “Can Nature Really Heal Us?” 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 about quiet quitting?“

I think that employees are correct in demanding that they do exactly as their contract states, i.e. that our workplace buys a certain amount of time from us and we devote ourselves to our employers during this time, and also that our employers have no hold on us outside of that time.

In some places, people give their all at their workplace, and in other places, they say, “No, we’re not slaves. We’re willing to work for a certain amount of hours and get a certain amount of payment for it, and that’s it.” They want to feel that they live their own life, and it is a legitimate demand.

In general, I see quiet quitting as a positive development. We each need to think about the meaning and purpose of our lives, and who we live with. These are important concerns for people.

Based on the video “Quiet Quitting – A Kabbalist’s Response” 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: “Should one try to strengthen or eliminate one’s ego?”

We first need to understand what our ego is, that it is our innate desire to enjoy at the expense of others and nature. Since it is given to us by nature, we should not eliminate it, but we should rather invert it so that instead of destroying our relations by each of us trying to step on each other, we instead learn how to enjoy by serving each other.

Our ego naturally makes us wish to suppress others, to position them in ways that we derive self-benefit from them and that we control them. We can thus also do the opposite—to use this lever in order to serve and fulfill them.

Nature gives us a key example on how we can enjoy by serving others: a mother toward her children. A mother is willing to work around the clock to serve her children in order to see them grow up happily. However, if we share no familial relations, then we have no such relationships with each other. We are not connected to others in such ways, so other people detach from our cost-benefit calculation.

We thus need to bring ourselves to a state where we feel that humanity is our family. We then have to relate to everyone similarly to how we relate to our families. In such a way, we will gradually be able to come closer to understanding why nature created an ego in us and how we should work on ourselves in order to invert it from a negative into a positive form.

It might seem far fetched because most people cannot even deal with the weight of their own problems in their personal and family lives, so how are we expected to deal with the problems of the whole world? Yet the moment we start relating to humanity as to one family, we will suddenly feel ourselves gain a new strength, which will fill us with understanding and the sensation of how to conduct ourselves in ways where we will get along with each other optimally. It is as if our intellect and emotion will then suddenly work in ways that are mistake free.

Such an inversion in consciousness takes place because we invert the force that divides “mine” from “others,” and then everyone and everything appears as belonging to oneself, as a single system. Moreover, we gain a clear perception and sensation of the higher force of nature that drives the system, a form of love, bestowal and connection, and balance ourselves with the trajectory of that very force.

Based on the video “Should One Try to Strengthen or Eliminate One’s Ego?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How does ego ruin my life?“

The ego positions us in situations where we regularly want to exploit others. We look at others through our egoistic lenses of how we can use them to benefit ourselves: “How can they do something for me?” “How can I trample on them in various ways?” Eventually, the ego kills us. It corrupts students in classrooms, people at workplaces and in all kinds of relationships—it ruins our lives.

Since the ego ruins our relationships and our lives in general, the immediate follow-up question is: What should we do with the ego? We need to take the ego’s reins and control it. We should not suppress or kill it, but use it correctly, because we have to use everything created by nature in ways that benefit us all.

Our bodies function automatically on nature’s still, vegetative and animate levels, knowing what is beneficial and detrimental for their functioning. However, on the human level, which is above the still, vegetative and animate, we do not know how to correctly function.

We thus have to learn the ways of positive connection to others, because our ego makes us relate to people and nature solely out of a desire to benefit ourselves alone. In addition to simply benefiting ourselves, the ego also sometimes makes us want to enjoy by suppressing others, i.e. exploiting, manipulating and abusing others. In other words, it makes us enjoy ourselves by making us feel superior to others. That is the truly negative form of the ego that ruins our lives, and learning how to control this ego and make it acquire a positive form requires regularly learning and promoting to each other how we can positively connect.

Based on the video “How the Ego Ruins Our Lives” 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 advice do you have for women to stay calm after giving birth?“

After giving birth, I think that the best would be for a woman to be among other women, like it was in the days of our grandmothers—that a woman lives among women, in an extended family.

Then, she goes through her states more naturally. She receives explanations, has a laugh here and there, and goes through the flows of life.

That is much better than staying at home alone. Loneliness is the source for all the different kinds of stress that women go through in such states.

Today, also, due to the Internet, women can find communities that suit her, to get answers, ask questions, have talks, and watch movies.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why does it seem like most of the world hates Israel?“

Whether we know it or not, we in Israel are in a game—that we need to receive blows, and to be treated badly until we straighten out properly toward the upper force. Then, the evil against us will invert into good.

The upper force—a force of bestowal, love and connection that we call “the Creator” (Heb. “Boreh”), “nature” (“HaTeva”), “upper light” (“Ohr Elyon”), and several other names—currently does not like us, because we are not living up to our role in the world.

On one hand, those who are pro-Israel like to tell themselves that Israel is among the top countries in several areas such as humanitarian support, technology, medicine and science, but on the other hand, we see that despite Israel’s achievements in these areas, the general attitude from the world toward Israel continues worsening and thus it is not worthwhile convincing ourselves of our seeming righteousness.

Our many corporeal achievements fail to nail what the upper force ultimately wants from us, which is to positively connect with other Jews in the world. Positively connecting means reaching a state where the love of Israel dwells among us upon all of our differences and divisions.

While we differ on many issues, we need to override them with the upper sentence, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” regardless of who is right or wrong. Such love is due to us all belonging to a single nation that was founded on the idea of the love of Israel. Moreover, the more poignant our differences, the more we should be elevating love over them, as it is written, “Love will cover all crimes.” In other words, even though hatred dwells between us, we should nonetheless each try to develop a sense of love toward each other. We would then start understanding how the world consists of two opposite forces—positive and negative—and how to work with them.

To be good in the eyes of the upper force means showing our love to each other, helping each other develop ties of love, and by doing so, become a conduit for the upper force of love, giving and connection to spread throughout the world. If we conducted ourselves accordingly, then the hatred toward us would subside, and in its place would emerge a great love and reverence for a nation that brings an immense positive unifying force into the world. It would also help the world feel that the Jewish nation is a very special and unique part in the functioning of the general nature of the world.

Based on the video “Why Does it Seem Like Most of the World Hates Israel?” 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: “How can I stay calm in difficult situations?“

Talk to your friends who have also gone through difficult situations. You will see how it will calm you down and balance you out. It will give you their thoughts and then you will think not only about yourself, but you will start comparing their situations to yours, which will dilute your sorrow.

It works according to the principle, “a sorrow shared is a sorrow halved,” which means that everyone goes through difficult situations and life goes on. If you are going through a difficult situation and you hear stories about certain difficulties that your friends went through, and they describe what they did in those situations, then even though it might have been tough, they lived through it, came out of it, and perhaps also have several tips that could help you. Moreover, once you have such a conversation with a friend, you gain strength to show them that you are balanced and know how to hold yourself together.

Also, more generally, it is worthwhile understanding that calmness comes from engaging in what you understand is important. If you are engaged in what you understand is important, then you progress toward inner balance.

Based on the video “How to Stay Calm in Difficult Situations” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.in difficult situations?”

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Comment: Alex writes: “I listened to you in the morning and went to work. But as soon as I drove away from home, I immediately encountered rudeness on the road. At work, they squeeze everything out of you just to make more profit. We never have enough; we are never satisfied. Everyone thinks they are right. Please tell me how to love this world?”

My Response: One can love this world only as rungs to the next world, and not in anyway or for anything is it possible to love it by itself.

Question: Do you mean it is like a step?

Answer: Of course. If you give yourself only to this world it is better not to be born.

Yet if you perceive it as an intermediate stage, then you appreciate it. It is because if you know exactly how to use it (as much as you can because it is not easy), then you can really achieve something.

Comment: But one needs to get to the point that there is another goal, and not just settle in this world.

My Response: If I say that this is an intermediate step and only the first stage, then yes. The main thing is to break away.

Question: Then what is the goal an ordinary person should aim for?

Answer: There is no ordinary person. There are those who are more lucky or less lucky in understanding this world and in making a rung out of it that raises them to the upper world. But in principle, everyone has this opportunity and everyone receives it at some time.

In short, this world is good only because it can be a prelude and a step, a springboard to the next state. We should not wait for the next state after death. The next state is the next degree when we reveal the next world while in this world.

Question: What is the next world like? What should I aim for?

Answer: The next world is such that you reveal that every minute every manifestation of all sorts of phenomena, actions, and forces is all just to bring you closer to the revelation of the truth.

The truth is to reveal the Creator.

Question: What is the “Creator” for me?

Answer: The Creator is the sum of all forces that manifest perfection.

Question: What do they mean by the phrase “perfect love“?

Answer: Perfect love is when you begin to attain a state where you see all mutually opposite forces as mutually complementing ones.

Question: Is it that forces are desires? Do all my desires, hatred, love, or anything else, as if complement each other? Is this called absolute love? Is this what can be called perfection?

Answer: Yes, but there are not just forces here, but an ascent above yourself, a mutual complementing of yourself and the other where you break away from yourself and integrate into the other. That is, this is not just force; these are sensations built on contradictions, and that is why they reveal so much.

But all the same, all this is relative to a person. If this is not relative to a person, then we do not understand and we do not know.

Comment: You keep saying “specifically opposite desires, specifically opposite forces.”

My Response: Otherwise we have nothing to talk about and we would not feel anything. If there are no opposites that are in some kind of state with each other, then we have nothing to say.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 12/27/21

Related Material:
Why Does This World Exist?
The Goal of Human Development
From Perfection To Perfection

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What advice would you give a woman whose husband of twenty years left her without saying anything?”

I received the following letter from a lady who experienced such a situation: “I’m going through some very difficult times, and I need your help. I’ve been married for 20 years, and I have three beautiful children. My husband and I had a good marriage all these years, but lately his attitude toward me really changed, and a month ago, he just got up and left home without saying why. I feel that my life is in shambles. And my question is, how can a person do something like that, to leave me and our children? We have three kids. What can I do for him to come back home?”

Indeed, men go through an age where they get driven to run away from the family, to run away from home, and to do something with themselves. This is somewhere around the ages of 40 and 50.

All I can recommend is to stay in touch with him, through the kids and his relatives, so that he feels that he has a family and a home—a place to which he can return. If you do so patiently, he will come back.
Based on the video “Advice for a Woman Whose Husband Left Her” 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: “Should I stockpile food in the case of shortages?“

I think that doing so is useless. Food shortages and famines do not happen in order for us to fill our storage, barns, kitchen drawers and whatnot. We rather need to understand how we can realistically make sure that the world will be abundant with everything that everyone needs. The reality that food shortages and famines could quickly spread throughout our modern world is in order for us to reach such a conclusion.

The world is indeed at risk of a prolonged period of famine. It is written in the Torah that we will reach states where mothers will eat their babies, their own children. It could indeed become that severe, where we would be reduced to the level of animals.

We should thus use such knowledge in order to help us avoid looming food shortages and famines. We would then see that the sole cause of such terrible phenomena is our imbalance at the human level, that we are not doing what we should.

What, then, should we be doing?

We need to reach a mutual understanding among each other—to establish such connections among us that would help us reach balance. But we fail to do so. On the contrary, we regress, as if we want the boat we are on to head straight into a rock. And as a result, the world is indeed headed toward periods of shortages, famine and destruction.

The reason that today we hear about such impending doom scenarios is in order to frighten us so that we would change ourselves in order to change the world. The only reason we can reach such states and know about them in advance is to change ourselves. And the essence of the transformation we need to undergo is in our values: that we shift to prioritizing the benefit of others over self-benefit.

In terms of how this change will play out, together with the suffering, there will also be people who discuss connection and how to overcome the suffering. The change depends on listening to such people, and suffering will help people become readier to listen.

After certain periods of suffering, people will change. They will have a different attitude to life and to its values. They will understand that survival and the reason for survival is of utmost importance.

Moreover, even though humanity has undergone great suffering and famines in the past, today is different because we are ready to realize the true evil behind such suffering: the human ego that wishes to benefit itself at the expense of anything and anyone. It takes enormous suffering to sense, define, attain and draw conclusions from such evil.

However, we are coming closer to a state of recognizing that evil. Some signs that we are moving toward it is that we no longer hide behind all sorts of slogans, and we no longer believe in abstract values. Instead, we are becoming interested in what is most important: whether or not there is a meaning of life. And even if we assume that there is no meaning of life, we can still see how to live optimal lives on the animal level—by realizing the evil in our desire to benefit ourselves at the expense of others, the tremendous suffering it brings, and moving to re-prioritize the benefit of others over self-benefit.

Based on the video “Should We Stockpile Food in Case of Shortages and Famine?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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