Question: How does a Kabbalist attract spiritual reality to himself?

Answer: He does not attract it. He needs to build it in himself. Spiritual reality does not exist! There is no spiritual world, there is no heaven, hell, there is nothing! You have to create all this yourself. Then it will exist. The one who does not create it for himself does not have it.

Question: But there is some form or formula. How is it created?

Answer: There is a formula by which it is created, but not a form.

Question: Do all Kabbalists, using this formula, perceive reality differently?

Answer: No. This reality is felt as one single whole, and they feel themselves existing in it because they have an equivalence of qualities with it. But everyone feels it in his own way, as each of us feels this world in his own way.

Comment: The point is that it does not exist, but still its perception is automatically given to us in our heads.

My Response: It is because instead of you, nature itself forms an egoistic image within you, an egoistic desire in which you feel it. However, a spiritual, altruistic desire, you have to form by yourself.

Question: How do we all form some kind of reality together when, let’s say, there is a congress?

Answer: We must gather together, help each other with our thoughts and aspirations, and make an effort so that we would want to reach the quality of bestowal and love. Then, in this common quality, we will begin to feel the upper world. Each one to the extent that he has invested in it.

Question: This is a cumulative process. Nevertheless, some amount of effort should be accumulated inside a person. What should be the limit so that a person is ready to just burst?

Answer: He receives what he wants just before he bursts. But only if he is bursting from the desire for connection and love, from the desire to bestow and fill others.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Reality on the Other Side of Perception” 7/18/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Will Russia’s attempt to invade Ukraine and the subsequent consequences show that war is a 20th century idea that is no longer feasible in a financially interdependent and globalised world?“

Today, we have more interdependence between people, societies, cultures, economies and countries than ever before. And the ongoing Russia and Ukraine conflict presents a very sharp and painful example of our tightening global interdependence. The fact that mass starvation and other massive supply deficits could quickly impact entire populations as a direct outcome of the war already shows how we have no lack of food or supplies; we only lack positive human connection.

Through such suffering, nature wishes to teach us about our globally-interdependent state: that we can cultivate anything we want, but if we lack positive connection, then whatever we do acts negatively upon us and will lead to suffering.

Nature thus gradually teaches us, by coupling our tightening global interdependence with increasing suffering, that we need to perform a 180-degree flip of our attitudes to each other: from our inborn egoistic attitudes where we prioritize self-benefit over benefiting others, to its opposite—a genuine desire to benefit others over self-benefit.

Impacting a shift from a path of suffering to a path of increasing understanding, fulfillment and happiness in today’s globally-interdependent world requires positively connecting with each other above our differences, and feeling ourselves as a single global body.

Based on the video “The Infeasibility of War in a Globally-Interdependent World” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: When a person studies Kabbalah, he is sometimes squeezed through all sorts of states, as if through a grater. How can we relate to this with humor?

Answer: Nothing can be done. You can’t really relate to this with humor when you are greatly torn. If you associate yourself with this state, that this is indeed “me,” then you are in this wash.

And if you get used to looking at it from the outside, since it happens to your body, to your donkey,  egoism, then you will take it more calmly. But at every phase of our development, there are moments when you nonetheless fall into this feeling and in it so deeply that you can’t look from the outside.

Comment: There is a desire to look at it from the outside, but it is really absolutely impossible.

My Response: Move forward because nothing can be done. If you have a strong environment, then you will be able to overcome these states and stay, for the most part, above them. The environment will hold you, will not let you fall, and will pull you, as if through the air, above these states. Instead of crawling over rugged terrain, you will have a balloon or a magnet that carries you over this space.

Question: When a person experiences all this, there is some kind of cumulative process. Why is it important to endure these states?

Answer: There is no need to endure! On the contrary, it is necessary to sweeten them as much as possible. It is not good if you are in one of those states where you have to endure. Always be cheerful and justify the Creator for all the actions that He does, because He leads you forward all the time.

Going through the four stages of your development, you really feel like you are in a washing machine: the water starts, with the detergent powder, the drum turns, the water is drained, the rinsing starts, and then the spinning. These are the stages that you feel on yourself. But when you feel that you are being thoroughly washed, cleansed, scrubbed, and rinsed, and this is necessary for the goal, you rejoice. Everything depends on the goal.

If you understand that correction is taking place in you every minute, then you are inspired. After all, watch how mountain-climbers climb a mountain, how much work, how much courage. And what?… A person rejoices, although he is high in the mountains in very difficult conditions.

That is, everything depends on attitude. This is a difference between, let’s say, a casual walk and a forced march. The forced march has a goal ahead, whereas, during a walk we enjoy the process itself.

Question: But in such situations, students often ask you for advice on what to do, how to be. What do you tell them?

Answer: What can I tell them? Accelerate! And you can accelerate only on account of the environment. Let it put pressure on you and you act. That is all.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Look at Yourself From the Outside?” 5/23/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Will AI-powered translation bring people closer together beyond languages?“

I think that it would go the other way and bring about more harm, because we need to listen to each other’s hearts, to communicate from heart to heart rather than from mouth to ear.

Unless we correct ourselves, developing positive ties to one another, then the less we talk to each other, the better. Moreover, if we would correct our nature and relate to each other favorably, then we would not need such devices, because we would then feel other people’s hearts.

In other words, we would understand each other’s hearts without needing to understand each other’s languages. We would have no need to elevate what we feel in our hearts to our minds, converting our feelings into words and sounds in order to explain what we feel. We would rather immediately feel our common heart, existing together, as it is written, “as one man with one heart.”

Based on the video “Will AI-Powered Translation Bring People Closer Together Beyond Languages?” 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: “Will AI replace teachers in the future?“

In Tel Aviv schools, a pilot was launched in order to overcome a severe shortage of teachers with the help of virtual glasses and AI. In practice, it means that computers will replace some of the teachers.

A computer can replace certain aspects of a teacher, but it is unable to replace the heart-to-heart relationship between teacher and student.

Living breathing human beings can give examples to each other that computers cannot. We can teach various professions through the computer, and students can absorb a lot of information, solve problems and learn technical and creative skills, but they will be unable to learn how to correctly relate to other people without being in a society, in a classroom, without being connected to their teacher, friends and peers—and especially with their friends and peers.

In our era more than ever before, we need to learn that positive human connection and mutual support can save us from every problem, and we should seek to develop our heart-to-heart relationships at least for the sake of our survival, and moreover, for our overall satisfaction and happiness.

Based on the video “Will AI Replace Teachers?” 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: “Is happiness internal or external?“

Everything we sense is internal. No one else senses what an individual senses, and if someone senses something and tells another about it, which the other person cannot adequately relate to as part of their feelings, they then do not know what they are talking about.

Whatever is not inside the person is thus nonexistent. Therefore, happiness is internal, and it appears when something we truly aspire for becomes fulfilled.

Such a feeling can be called “happiness.” However, there are a range of levels between what we suffer from and what makes us happy. It turns out that the greatest happiness appears when we feel ourselves coming closer to balance with nature, similar to how a child yearns for his or her mother. That is when we feel happiness.

Happiness is a strong desire for a fulfillment that we always wanted to materialize, but we had already lost hope. Then, the positive force of nature—the force of bestowal, love and connection called “the Creator”—appears. It utters “Where have you been? I have been looking for you!” And the person wants to say: “I am the one who has been looking for You! Not me—but You, where have You been?” That is how they come together, in a simple fashion, without any hesitation or words.

That is happiness. However, it is not the kind of fusion that occurs in our world, when two bodies cling to each other while retaining their own space and individual sensations. Here we have no bodies, but a reciprocal sensation of mutual diffusion. As a result, a certain state of being emerges.

In terms of our sense of self, we then want it to melt away. We feel absolutely no need for it. However, if the feeling of oneself disappears, then the feeling of the other will also disappear. That is why it is designed such that the self needs to exist.

In the language of Kabbalah, it is described as follows: the Aviut, i.e. the “thickness” of the ego, does not disappear. Moreover, as the ego keeps increasing, we can acquire the ability to harmonize it with the quality of bestowal. As a result, the ego, the hatred, becomes greater, and love also increases. In our linear world, we do not understand how it works. That is how it plays out in the spiritual realm. And such hatred and love increase to a state of infinity, where we feel infinity. There is then no limit to such happiness, but it has to be felt, otherwise it is meaningless. However, there is a very long path ahead of us before we reach such a sensation.

Based on the video “Is Happiness Internal or External?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: What is the difference between cynicism and humor where someone mocks others and goads them?

Answer: Humor, satire, cynicism, and sarcasm are various manifestations of a person’s attitude to his own or to the common existence.

Humor, as a rule, does not indicate personality. Humor is good. It speaks about the general structure of the world, humanity, and people, which must be perceived as given to us from above. That is, such is nature and that is it. Humor does not aim to eradicate some phenomenon in character or in anything. It simply states: this is what we live with.

And satire is aimed at eradicating shortcomings. In addition to it, there are also exaggerations: sarcasm, criticism, and all kinds of ambiguity.

Question: But sometimes you tease some students, even bring them to tears. Do you somehow measure when it needs to be done?

Answer: I feel that this is necessary, and often I do this in order, on the contrary, to remove something negative, to soften it, to turn it around a little.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Humor Will Save the World” 5/20/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is there a creator?“

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains our complete interconnection in the general system of reality. We are completely connected whether we like it or not throughout the still, vegetative, animate and speaking degrees of nature.

Even though we do not see the full extent of our interconnectedness, we are nonetheless connected in a way where we each determine each other’s states.

The system of our connection is hidden, and we can thus harm each other because we perceive other people as disconnected from us.

The wisdom of Kabbalah, however, states that we share a deep essential connection, and the closer we come to discovering our deep and true connection, we likewise discover the force that dwells inside that connection, called “the Creator” or “the upper force.”

In other words, the more we discover the true connection we all share, then the more we discover the Creator that acts in this system, flowing through it like how blood flows through our bodies.

Based on the video “Where Is the Creator?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: When we are all singing together, a person seems to enter into a common wave. Is he actually included in some level of connection with others or is it just our imagination?

Answer: The fact is that our common desire draws the surrounding light, which gives a certain illumination, and people feel that they are in some kind of cloud.

In addition, serious mutual efforts can even cause the manifestation of the upper world and then people really get a clear feeling of what is happening, but only for a certain time. And then, if they do not have the opportunity to constantly remain in this state, it goes away.

It is not like in our world when I have caught something and keep holding it by force. I can retain the feeling of spirituality only through my own properties. If I have the properties of the upper world, then this feeling exists in me. Yet it seems to people that they can hold it by force: “Now I will strain myself, crouch, jump up, and fly.”

There are no such “flights” with us. One has to work very seriously to raise and hold on despite the fact that all sorts of opposite desires are constantly arising in you.

Based on this, one needs to reckon. There are people who just sit with their eyes closed and try to catch some special mood.

There are those who feel it more. There are those who already enter this state, but temporarily. And there are those who stay in it constantly.

But when a group gets together and aspires together to a certain spiritual manifestation inside itself through connection, then it results in a corresponding ascent. And then, when this ascent passes, some of them descend from that state to a lower but still spiritual level and some descend and pass through the Machsom back to the earthly level. Each one on his own at different sub-levels.

Question: But is it singing long drawn-out songs that we sing at our meals or meetings of friends, that lead a person into different states? Does it actually work in a person?

Answer: Only in the case that people unite, it works, and if they do not unite, it does not work. And you can sing whatever you want. The main thing is that it supports you and helps you unite. There is nothing supernatural or mystical in this singing.

Comment: It is not even mystical here, but precisely the feeling where private states are canceled, as it were.

My Response: It is because people believe so, because they try to connect their feelings with the music from which they came.

In the past Kabbalists used it, and so naturally as these sounds exist in the spiritual world. Like with Munchausen, they froze and then they played. In the spiritual world, all this happens all the time. If great Kabbalists used this, then we connect to them with the help of these sounds.

But this is not mysticism. We simply excite the field that they once excited. Basically, there is no “once.” Nothing disappears in spirituality.

Question: Can a person enter spirituality through Kabbalistic singing?

Answer: No. Kabbalistic singing can affect a person a little, move him, or raise him up. He will feel that there is, perhaps, something attractive in this. But nothing more.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Magic of Singing Together” 5/11/13

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Question: Let’s say some scoundrel teases me, laughs, and mocks me. Should I say that the Creator sends me this and I justify Him and do not take revenge?

Answer: When others mock you, when you are in such a hostile environment, but you perceive it as coming from the Creator, then this state is called exile from spirituality.

It encourages you to break out of there, to look for methods of how to do it. You begin to understand that such a state is specially created and acts in such a way as to bring you closer to the Creator.

After all, if there were no negative impact from the environment, for example, of other nations upon the Jews, then in the end, they would have dissolved, disappeared, and would not have come to today’s fulfillment of their mission.

Therefore, it is said that Pharaoh brings the Jewish people closer to the exodus from Egypt and closer to the Creator, and forces them to this by his negative attitude toward them.

Question: Does this justification of revenge come at any stage?

Answer: Of course, because everything comes from the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Take Revenge on the Enemy” 5/24/13

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