Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Will AI gain independence?“

AI has no point of independence. It is not a created being. In every created being, there is a divine part from above that lets it rise above its current abilities to higher degrees. AI has nothing of the sort.

If we truly wish to advance beyond our current level of perception and sensation, then we need to develop our emotional part, and doing so requires working not with computer systems, but with human systems. We cannot pass what people have in the spiritual system to a machine and a corporeal system no matter how intelligent it is.

The emotional part of human systems is love and hatred, and bestowal and reception. We should thus ask about how to achieve true love, an absolutely harmonious and peaceful connection among all people. It is because our connection lets us rise in degrees of knowledge, understanding, consciousness and emotion.

Based on the video “Will AI Gain Independence?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: What does your statement mean that a person who has a “point in the heart” will never understand The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)?

Answer: A person who has a point in the heart and develops it will understand TES only to the extent of his spiritual development. And while he is not yet spiritually developed, he will perceive it purely mechanically and this will not give him anything. He will strive to be connected with TES in some way, but in general, this is not the approach.

I used to be like that myself. I was striving for spiritual attainment, but when I found myself in front of The Study of the Ten Sefirot, I began to study it like physics. I just didn’t know how to approach it or grab it. This went on for a while.

And when spiritual sensations gradually began to manifest, I also woke up in accordance with them.

Question: So you came to this through a mechanical approach?

Answer: At first, yes, my approach was purely mechanical. I thought that TES was like any science, you need to study and eventually you will begin to understand. But as a result, I came to a feeling and through this to an understanding of what I feel.

And before that, for the first years, I spent a lot of time without trying to enter the material with feelings, but to speculate. I generally neglected feelings. I believed that only a pure mind makes a man out of a monkey and therefore any of our feelings were just the animal in us. I thought, satisfy feelings if you want, but don’t confuse it with something sublime; this is your animal, why develop it further?

And the fact that a man develops over an animal was incomprehensible to me. Moving toward others, entering into others, altruism, socialism, and communism, etc. were all so disgusting, completely unreal, unnecessary, and ugly to me. Therefore, when I was told “love for friends,” “be in friendship,” what kind of kindergarten is this?!

So several good years passed before I began to feel that there were some feelings of the screen. In principle, a person can take 20 to 30 years to do this.

Spiritual birth is the most difficult because in these states you go through all the previous astronomical and geological processes. In a spiritual sense, it is like you are starting to grow yourself from the point of the big bang. You go through the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature until a person begins to arise in you. And a person is a measure of your connection with others.

Question: At what point did you move to the sensory entrance to The Study of the Ten Sefirot? After all, in the past you were closely connected with science.

Answer: I was a very big egoist, a mechanic who believed only in pure science, experience, and facts, but not in feelings. Psychology for me was something completely disrespected.

Question: And how did you come to the sensory feelings?

Answer: This is the influence of a developing force and it is not directed at all. Nothing else! In this way, this force developed me and suddenly I began to understand that desires come first and only after them come the thoughts, some calculations, and research, which in the end are intended for the study of desires.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Feel TES?” 3/25/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Would it be better if we could live forever?“

If we could live forever in our world, which is impossible, then we would detach ourselves from the purpose of life.

The purpose of life is, as it is written, “You shall see your world in your lifetime” (Berachot 17a). In other words, in our lifetime, together with everything we have—families, friends, problems, hardships and the surrounding nature—we will come to know the purpose, essence and source of life.

When we do so, then our many problems and hardships will disappear. We will see how much everything in nature is mutually complementary precisely when we position ourselves at the center of this nature.

Therefore, instead of discussing whether it would be better if we could live forever, we would be wiser to seek how to change our understanding and knowledge of why the world exists, who controls it and how we can connect with the one controlling it.

Based on the video “Would it Be Better if We Could Live Forever?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Comment: A gift is a manifestation of love. In any case, whatever the gift is, it is the love and not the object itself that we give.

My Response: Yes, of course.

Question: How can you give love without an object?

Answer: By a thought, by an intention. How else? To do this, you have to be in contact with a person. There is no difference whether it is corporeal or mental; the main thing is that there is contact. Then the person feels your attitude toward him.

Question: You even gave an example of how a child brings his mother his doll and gives it to her. Is this also a manifestation of love?

Answer: Yes, of course. He pulls out a doll and offers it to you because he feels how important it is for him, and thus expresses his attitude toward you.

Comment: I know that you do not particularly like some material gifts that clutter up the place, but you accept them in order to please a person.

My Response: How can I refuse it if a person brings it to me? But if you really want to give me a gift, then the biggest gift for me is to succeed in disseminating Kabbalah, to be my assistant in this.

Question: Did you give gifts to your teacher Rabash?

Answer: What could I give him?! Nothing. In what way could I express my affection, my dependence, my goodwill? Only in such an action.

You can make a person happy only when you do what he wants. What does he want? If the entire life of a Kabbalist is to bring correction into the world, then you must help him in this.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Gift for a Kabbalist” 3/18/13

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Question: When you are asked a question, you answer according to the following principle: first you answer once, and, inside the same answer, a second time. Why is the answer arranged like that?

Answer: Because first I have to answer the question itself, and the second time I have to answer in general where this phenomenon comes from, why it exists, in what form it takes place, and so on. That is, I don’t just want to answer the question, I want to give a general form of what kind of natural phenomenon it is.

Question: So you are not doing this because the person did not hear the first time and he needs you to explain the second time?

Answer: No. I don’t refer the question to a person at all. I look at the question as an opportunity to reveal some greater part of the spiritual world or the connections of the worlds.

Comment: It happens that you are asked a question and you answer as if you are on your own wave. The student says, “No, I meant this!” and still you keep going on your wave, and the others think: “Oh! You answered his question!”

My Response: I’m actually answering his question; he just doesn’t hear it. I’m not going somewhere to the side, but I just want him to see it from my side. Otherwise he won’t understand the answer.

Question: So you need to find a workaround, not a direct one?

Answer: This is not a workaround. I believe that my path is the most direct and general. I give both a linear path to the answer and a circular one, which generally includes the whole general problem and its specific solution.

Therefore I have two approaches: I always outline the general state and a specific answer.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Ask a Kabbalist a Question?” 3/6/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do we know what is true and what is false?“

We cannot know what is true and false. The only one who knows what is true and false is the upper force. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, “nature” (“HaTeva”) is the same as “God” (“Elohim”). It is the upper force of nature. If we reveal this upper force, then we will know what is true and false, and right and wrong.

In other words, we need to define true and false according to the Creator’s (or nature’s) view. I understand the difficulty in accepting or understanding this, because today anyone can define God any way that they want, and can set out to even kill people in the name of what they define as God. Moreover, since everyone has their own God, the world is falling apart and this destruction will take place until we understand that we have no choice but to draw a common conclusion that there is just one Creator, one God, which is nature.

According to nature, connection above all differences and resistances is of utmost importance; that we need to come closer together above the various disturbances. Nature gave us this option in order for us to discover its wholeness and perfection. If we set out in such a direction, then we will find ourselves reaching a harmonious and peaceful world, and our definitions of truth and falseness would work themselves out along the way.

Based on the video “How to Know What Is True and False” 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: “Have we crossed the point of no return in terms of damaging the planet?“

There is no such point. We need to trust that our thought, which is our greatest quality, can change nature. We only need to understand the direction to which we should aim our thoughts. What should we think about? What condition or state should we aspire to and ask for?

In order to save our planet, we should think about positive human connections. That is, how can we, in our connections, keep nature safe? How can we all together protect our world? If we truly wish to better our planet, then we should see people holding a concern for how to positively connect everywhere that we look.

It has nothing to do with recycling or other activities that we commonly associate with as being sustainable. If we come closer to and consider each other, that we will reach an entirely organic, perfectly connected and round state, then the negative forces will disappear from the world.

We need to understand that if we start thinking better about each other, then the planet will recover from all harm, because our thoughts are the strongest force in nature. Likewise, our negative thoughts about each other are entirely to blame for damaging the planet. That is why the more we recycle and invest in energies and activities that we commonly think of as being sustainable, the worse our planet becomes. Nothing will work to benefit us until we reach a state where our attitude changes toward each other for the better to protect and improve our planet.

Based on the video “Have We Crossed the Point of No Return in Terms of Damaging the Planet?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: Why is nighttime the most productive time for mental activity? In principle, Kabbalists always studied at night when the concentration of thoughts is much clearer.

Answer: Firstly, it is physiologically conditioned because a person feels that during that time he has nothing else to do and he can concentrate on some work while everyone else is asleep.

Secondly, at that time, not many stimulating centers are activated in him, and therefore he can more easily concentrate on one thing.

Thirdly, if we are talking about spiritual work, then this is the time when you really need to connect to the spiritual root, root to branch or branch to root. At that time, new desires are created in which a person will continue to acquire an attainment.

Such work begins from midnight onward. Therefore Kabbalah encourages people to get up at twelve o’clock at night and start studying. Twelve at night, midnight, is not half of our night, but a conditional night. If you break the whole night from sunset to the appearance of the first ray of light into twelve parts, then the middle part, the sixth, conditional hour, will be midnight.

The night hour can be forty minutes, fifty minutes, or an hour and twenty minutes. We use mechanical clocks, but in general, in nature, clocks are not mechanical but rather solar and lunar. Therefore the hours are conditional.

Our body works the same way according to its internal conditional clock. The human body works completely differently during sleep in winter and summer. All this is taken into account in Kabbalah. That is, night and midnight are purely astronomical values and not mechanical according to the clock, which ticks no matter where and how.

Comment: But there are different regions.

My Response: Man is connected with nature; he is an integral part of it and cannot be separated from it.

And the regions are indeed different. Therefore there is a problem of how to study. But it is believed that it is still better for us to study together. This is most important.

Baal HaSulam writes that joint study, joint appeal, and joint actions override all other parameters.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Everything Happens at Night” 3/5/13

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Question: If my wife is a part of me, is it possible to judge a friend by his wife?

Answer: It depends on the couple. If you and your wife have lived a long time together, but you are an ordinary earthly couple, then this is immediately felt. If you are a spiritual couple, it is also felt. It is even felt if you are at different degrees.

A spiritual couple is two people who feel a mutual aspiration to one another and to the goal, who feel each other and see themselves united in the goal with each other, with the rest of the world, and with the Creator.

In principle, people who live together for a long time feel each other without words, understand each other without words, and, as they say, live in perfect harmony. It is natural. And on a spiritual level there is an even greater closeness. It is part of telepathy, of the feeling of others.

Comment: You always say that a man should be married because through his other half, so to say, he speaks with the Creator. But there are completely opposite, conflicting couples. You look at them and it seems that this single whole consists of the two of them.

My Response: In our time, a couple is not at all what it used to be when people took care of each other, when they had the same feelings, the same thoughts, and the same goals, when they were engaged in a common household, and so on. They had joint standard sensations.

Today this is practically non-existent. Everyone does their own thing; in the morning they run away, in the evening they run back to the same apartment for a few hours of sleep, and then run away again. It is the kind of slavery where there is no place for anything shared.

This is good because they have become so egoistic that it would be difficult for them to live with each other for a long time, but only for a short time if they go somewhere on vacation where there is nothing in common and they do something external. If they took care of their household and were free a couple of days a week, then it would be a terrible state.

That is why those people who are unemployed today are so unhappy. This is a cause for very big conflicts.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Spiritual Couple” 3/24/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “When should I tell the truth and when should I lie?“

I recently received the following letter: “Hello, Dr. Laitman, my name is Avi, and I’d like to share a problem that I’ve been dealing with from a young age. Since I can remember myself, I hated to lie, even when I knew that I’d have to pay the price for telling the truth. Many times telling the truth to people’s faces cost me dearly, and over the years, I’ve lost many friends. Even when I knew that they wouldn’t like hearing what I had to say, I couldn’t lie. And my question, Dr. Laitman, is why don’t people like hearing the truth? The truth is the highest value.”

So I told him that he was right, but that I recommended he do one more thing: that when he is saying the truest and most correct thing, where he has no doubt that he is a hundred percent accurate, that he should consider how much the other person wants to hear it, and if the other person would not like to hear it, then why is he saying something detrimental to the other person?

We need to be considerate of other people. Even in special cases where it is a matter of life or death, there too, we have the ability to thoroughly examine the situation and only then say what we have to say.

What, then, does it actually mean to speak the truth? Speaking the truth means that we do everything that is completely to the benefit of the other person according to the rule, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Based on the video “When Should You Tell the Truth and When Should You Lie?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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