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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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is money evil, or is it just a myth?“

Money is the universal equivalent for effort. It is an indicator for our personal exertion that shows the extent to which we succeed by using the special talents we receive. For instance, money can somewhat measure whether one person is smarter, more successful, stronger or luckier than another person. It is essential to have a universal equivalent for such measurements.

Having such a universal equivalent is not evil. We cannot measure each and every person, yet we still need to be able to somewhat evaluate people and their efforts.

In Hebrew, the word for money is “Kesef,” which derives from the word for covering, “Kisuf.” It means that we cover our efforts correctly, with an intention to bestow goodness upon others, and the measure of covering our efforts is called “money” (“Kesef”). However, in its original Hebrew use, such a meaning of money/covering implies spiritual efforts and results.

Yet it also applies to our corporeal world. As mentioned, money is a certain universal equivalent we use to measure human efforts. It can, however, be replaced with another universal equivalent: relationships. That is, when we understand human relations and exercise positive connections among each other and with nature, when the laws of nature becomes our common universal equivalent, then the other dimensions will disappear, except for our inner attitudes to each other, our relationships. In the language of Kabbalah, such a measurement is called a “Masach” (“screen”) and “Ohr Hozer” (“reflected light”). The screen and reflected light become spiritual tools akin to the way in which we use coins and banknotes today. The strength of the screen and reflected light that we receive is equivalent to the strength we have to resist our own egoistic desires, which prioritize self-benefit over benefiting others, and raise the importance of benefiting others over benefiting each person’s own self. We can then measure the extent to which we positively connect in ties of bestowal above our egoistic resistance.

The more we can bestow above our egoistic resistance, the more we discover true spiritual wealth, which is eternal and completely fulfilling, unlike corporeal wealth that never truly satisfies. Wealth is about how much of ourselves we can give to others. That is the high spiritual root of money, and it has since descended to simple cash and coins that we relate to in our corporeal reality. However, we need to descend to the very bottom, and see the true egoistic extent of our relationships, in order to realize the lowliness of such relations and reach a critical juncture where we develop a genuine desire for change. At that point, nature’s positive forces will lift us. We just need to realize the lowliness of our current state and the desire to change, and accordingly ask for the kind of change that nature responds to: to improve our attitudes to each other and wish for nature’s quality of bestowal to enter into our connections.

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

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Question: What is deja vu? Is it a burst of memories or some kind of recorded program that a person sees?

Answer: There is nothing supernatural about deja vu. It is just how our brain digests everything. We do not enter either the past or the future, we are in the present all the time. Only this present can be accelerated with the help of a stronger influence of the upper light.

The light constantly acts on the desire it has created. Under its influence, the desire gradually develops in leaps, since it consists of four stages of development: still, vegetative, animate, and the human level. All four stages exist in still objects, plants, animals, and humans.

The desire develops to the fourth stage and then there is a qualitative leap. Then comes the next development in four stages, and again a qualitative leap, and so on. The light influences this desire evenly all the time, which develops qualitatively and quantitatively.

At first, the development of stages one, two, three, and four occurs mainly quantitatively. And when it goes to the next four stages, there is a qualitative leap, although quality and quantity are always interdependent on each other.

There is no sorcery or magic in Kabbalah but only one thing. When you understand how the world works, what you are going for,  and you connect physically in advance, do this training, expose yourself to the influence of the light, and realize that you are working with it, you attract it, you want it, and you know that the light is working to put you together with others.

By making such attempts, you accelerate the influence of the light on yourself because you, yourself take an active part, although a very small one, but still such that the light has a more effective impact on you. This is all that Kabbalah can do, nothing else.

Just like in our world, when raising a child, we give him some exercises, i.e., we accelerate his development along a kinder path. Of course, he will live out his years anyway, he still has his own program, and his fate depends on others anyway because we are all interconnected, but we are trying to provide him with the best tools for the path of life.

The same is true on the spiritual path. There is nothing special here. That is how we work. This technique is called Kabbalah—accelerating our development in a good way.

I hope that the uniqueness of this system will finally be revealed and will allow us, like a small child, to quickly walk on a good path at a good pace, to gain intelligence, strength, and in good health, in good connection with others to come to a good result and not look for it in the dark, like little lost children.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. What is Deja Vu?” 5/19/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is Kabbalah in one sentence?“

Kabbalah is a wisdom that explains the single force of nature, which determines everything, and which exists and acts in every person and in the whole of humanity.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on the article “The History of the Wisdom of Kabbalah” by Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What are the qualities of a righteous person?“

At the outset, it is worthwhile clarifying that what people commonly think of as righteous—as people who give of themselves for the betterment of others, e.g. people who give money, clothes, and food to the needy—such people are not actually righteous.

Why? It is because such people have a natural desire to do good deeds, and instinctively following one’s desires is not a quality of a righteous person.

A righteous person is one who hosts two counter-forces, positive and negative, and who exercises their free choice to raise the positive force and action against their own natural desire.

The negative force is our egoistic desire, which makes us want to benefit ourselves without any concern for anyone else.

The positive force lets us receive what we need for our sustenance, and give the surplus we receive to benefit others, despite the negative force that tells us to take everything for ourselves. A righteous person is one who hosts these two forces, and who elevates the positive force over the negative one.

When we give of ourselves to others against our innate desire to receive for ourselves, we bring correction to our desire: from receiving for ourselves to giving unto others. Our soul, our collective desires, then become filled with a divine light.

If we receive what we need for our sustenance, and give the rest for the benefit of others, then we become great righteous people. Even more so, we become balanced with nature. Holding the right balance in life and with nature means that we leave for ourselves what we need in order to live normal lives, and contribute our surplus to society. It does not mean living merely on bare bodily necessities. We can be healthy and wealthy, and give a lot to others.

We are talking about an inclination in our hearts, and the more this inclination sorts itself out—from evil to good—in our hearts, the more we will see its positive materialization throughout the world.

Based on the video “What Are the Qualities of a Righteous Person?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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