Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the solution to gun violence without harming the liberty and freedom of gun-owners?“

First, I think that it is unrealistic to disarm hundreds of millions of people. The solution to gun violence is in education. Even if somebody had the power to forcibly confiscate everybody’s guns, gun violence would remain a problem. People who would want guns would find ways to get them.

There is no solution to gun violence other than through society’s gradual and systematic education in relation to what leads us to violence in the first place. We as a society need to reach the realization that killing others is bad. Although this message is already widely understood, for instance it is generally at the heart of major religions and spiritual practices, and it is voiced over and over again in a variety of ways, we nonetheless see that gun violence becomes a greater problem from one day to the next. The reason gun violence worsens is due to the continuous growth of human egoism, where the desire to serve oneself at the expense of others proliferates in many ways throughout society, and some people then grab their guns in order to fire back at this seemingly despicable society of egoists.

Therefore, I see no solution other than serious universal education, which begins from a young age and continues throughout our entire lives. Such education should lead us to a state where there is no room for violence. Anyone who raises their hand against another needs to be punished, and understand that they have no right to exert power over the life of others. We should rather relate to others solely in considerate and responsible ways, and lead by example. Nobody has any right to resort to violence. It is simply not within our rights. That is, we have no right to act against the will of other people. It is true that many have taught such principles throughout history, but we see that there is talk and there is action, and we then see several examples of people doing quite the opposite.

What is lacking in educational efforts to make such principles settle into society’s consciousness is the positive force of nature, i.e. the force of love, giving and connection that precedes and begets our existence. We can truly internalize the principle of doing no harm to others by attracting that force into our lives. Therefore, we need to teach the principles of mutual consideration, care, support and encouragement, or in other words, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” to every person without exception from a young age. Moreover, such education should be regular, on a daily basis, and take place on countrywide scales, with all educational systems and influential media involved in educating and promoting such principles. We would then bear witness to a dramatic decrease in gun violence, as such education would have a lasting positive impact.

If such an educational process entered society, then we would attract the positive force that dwells in nature into our lives, and we would also gain a clearer perception and sensation of who we really are, what goes on around us, what causes our suffering and problems, and where we are headed.

Again, such an education is beyond how we normally think about education. That is, it includes teaching of such principles in our commonly-known educational institutions like schools, colleges and universities, but in addition, it requires influential media creators, filmmakers, radio show hosts, creators of TV series’, journalists and writers of all kinds getting on board. All of our social and environmental influences should be primarily focused on communicating messages that lead us to happiness, peace and harmony. Otherwise, our egoism—the desire to enjoy at the expense of others and nature—will keep conjuring up forms that suit it, and we see the tragedies and the dead end that such an approach leads to.

Therefore, if we organize our education—our complex web of social and media influences—to create a society of mutually considerate, responsible, supportive and encouraging members, then the way we speak, communicate and think would take a positive shift. At the very least, the extreme tragedies of gun violence would cease, because there would be no room for such actions in a society that has increased in its awareness of why it is so important to rise above basic human egoistic drives in order to positively connect. That is, the desire to enact gun violence in such a society would simply not surface in people. The education itself would grow a common understanding and feeling in people that they would willingly restrict themselves from enacting gun violence, because it would go against everything they value and know.

Based on the video “What Is the Solution to Gun Violence?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Jane Palash on Unsplash.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can we deal with negative emotions?“

Negative emotions awaken in us first in order to signal that we have to advance from where we are to a better place. That better place is an essential change in human connections, which ultimately comes down to mutual relations of love.

We currently do not know what that kind of love is. Love means that we feel what is good for others and try to do that for them, and that others try to do the same for us.

Usually when negative emotions arise, we try to find an escape from such feelings. However, such an approach fails to let us realize the positive change that the negative emotions invite us to make.

In order to not escape from the negative emotions, and realize them positively, we need to learn the kinds of relations that we should have in our world, because our world has to reach balance with the greater system of nature that controls us. Precisely that system awakens negative emotions in us so that we adapt ourselves to it, open it up and reveal it.

How does developing positive human connections adapt us to the greater system of nature? It is because nature is interconnected and interdependent as a single system, and its subsystems are in sync with each other, supporting one another. Therefore, developing relations of mutual love “clicks” us into balance at the human level with nature’s own interconnectedness and interdependence, thereby realizing our part in nature.

Based on the video “How to Deal With Negative Feelings” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Comment: There is so much depth in the articles we read! It seems like I have already heard it, read it ten times, and ten times there is something new.

My Response: It is because you need not to read, but to attain. You need to change yourself, to rise above yourself. Then the content will be within you.

Question: Let’s say you look at the text and enter into it, how do you make all these transformations?

Answer: I do not enter into anything. It surfaces inside me. Or you can say that I am speculatively entering the spiritual world inside me.

Question: While studying, for example, The Book of Zohar, you give us certain recommendations: read in this way, think in that way, together, and everyone adapts to it. But you are still talking, and what we hear is limited, we do not really hear what you are asking us to do.

Perhaps this is our fantasy working. How well do your students work with the material that you give?

Answer: I cannot say. They work as much as they can. I am both satisfied and dissatisfied, but this is what it is.

Question: While studying, should a person just endure it or look for something within himself? For example, you give definitions, but they are so abstract that there is nothing to cling to in order to find these images within me.

Answer: Search—everything is within you! I understand that you cannot grasp where it is in you. It is spinning somewhere out there, but it is not clear exactly where. This is the work.

Question: What about fantasy, when a person begins to invent something for himself?

Answer: This is wrong. We need not fantasy, but attainment and work in a group.

Question: What is the difference between attainment and understanding?

Answer: You understand with a brain that is silly and disconnected from reality. You do not know if this is correct or not. Today you understand it this way and tomorrow in a different way. It is logical in accordance with some facts and with some theory that is inside you. This is an understanding or even, maybe, an awareness.

Attainment, however, is something that leaves no doubt and cannot be changed since it is the revelation of the Creator’s system within you to the extent that you have become similar to it. Meaning, this is absolute!
[301114]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Study Kabbalistic Texts?” 2/16/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “nnnnNAMEeeeee“

What is the meaning of life? At a certain point, we realize that there is no sense in living, that we live in vain. Life passes us by every day, and maybe it would be best if we did not exist to begin with?

Indeed, we have sought the meaning of life for thousands of years, and we as a humanity have yet to find an ultimate meaning to life. It is as if we live in order to ask this most fundamental question in every generation and to not find an answer to it.

The question about the meaning of life arises within us involuntarily. Although it might seem better and easier not to ask about the meaning of life, if it would be so, then we would remain at the animal level. Humans, rather, keep evolving, and our constant development is expressed in us increasingly asking about the meaning of life from one generation to the next.

We cannot help but ask about the meaning of life and why we are here. The mere fact that we keep questioning ourselves will bring us to the point when someday we will start discovering the real answer to life’s biggest question. I hope that such a day will come very soon.

What, then, is the meaning of life?

The meaning of life is to discover the meaning of life.

What is it though? We will need to discover it. We live in this world in order to seek the answer to specifically that question, and we all subconsciously seek its answer regardless of age, nationality, gender and profession. We are locked in a constant search for the meaning of life, and we have no idea about the base motivation behind such a search.

It might seem as if some people manage to find themselves in life, saying that they live life well and achieve a lot, regardless of a specific search for the meaning of life, but such people simply convince themselves of such statements. However, the desire to find the meaning of life lives within them as it does with everybody, otherwise they would not be alive to begin with.

Every moment of our life starts with the question about why we are living. We do not realize it, and we thus live through the given moment, and then in the next moment we ask ourselves that same question—”What am I living for?”—and we do so time and again. We continue living in such a way during the course of our entire lives, but we still lack a clear answer. Nonetheless, we re-enter that quest, living through every moment with that question at its basis, and move throughout our lives in such a way. Our life’s flow is a continuous question about the meaning of life and a constant search for an answer that we never discover.

Moreover, the question—“What is the meaning of life?”—precedes our physiological perception. It is our most important and fundamental question. Moreover, it is a question that relates to our spiritual quest. After we ask about the meaning of our lives, our body and our organs start revitalizing and blossoming, and we develop as such.

Eventually, after living millions of diverse lives, we eventually will indeed find the meaning of life, which is to reach a clear perception and sensation of the source of all life. We will all reach that discovery. At a certain point of our development, we will shift from unconsciously asking about the meaning of our lives at every moment, to a state where we will start seeking the meaning of life consciously. That is, we will improve in our ability to imagine what the source of our lives is, and how, on what basis, with what qualities and intentions, we can approach it, grabbing hold of it like a baby to its mother. When we do so, we will then have a certain tool by which we can start connecting with the meaning of our lives, and when we reach that stage, then we will start actively seeking our lives’ source, working out what it wants from us, what we expect from it, and why the entire meaning of life is only to eventually draw and adhere to the source of our lives. At such a point, will we truly start absorbing and understanding the meaning of life.

The search for the meaning of life is a pathway to eternity, and eternity is a state of constantly coming closer to the source of our lives, increasingly holding onto, clinging to, and adhering to it.

Based on the video “What Is the Meaning of Life? Why Do We Ask about the Meaning of Life?” 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 children be allowed to choose their gender?“

I understand that there is an inclination in some people to fervently yearn to feel themselves in a foreign body of the opposite gender, as I have known such people. However, they were individual cases that happened without any propaganda or coercion. But in terms of what is happening today, where such an ideology is fed to society regularly with a “So, who else is with us?” attitude, I think it is completely wrong.

On one hand, it goes against nature-given circumstances. However, on the other hand, every quality of nature has exceptions to the rules. We thus naturally have men, women, and a number of individuals with feminine traits among men, and those with masculine traits among women, i.e. people on such a borderline. There are indeed psychological nuances, and a lot goes on in nature, and each instance needs its own evaluation.

Nonetheless, what is promoted throughout society greatly affects our development, especially children’s. Influences in children’s social, educational and media settings shape the children. That is, children can go to school and get convinced of just about anything, including changing their gender.

For instance, children who have no proclivities whatsoever for changing their gender could reach the conclusion that they have to do it. Why? It is because of social influence and pressure: that such a topic circulates the children’s social influences, and children constantly consider where they fit in with others, in terms of their inferiority or superiority to them. They require the approval of their peers and their social environment, so they could go to great lengths for that approval.

However, despite today’s increase in the promotion of such influences, nature will sort everything out. The promotion of gender change to children is one of several scrutinies that humanity is undergoing in order to lead us to a point of helplessness, a dead end. We can already see how nature continuously guides us through many different paths, and each one results in a dead end, i.e. that we find no ultimate happiness or satisfaction through the various directions that we take.

In short, my advice on this topic is to simply advocate that whoever has no such inclination naturally should be kept in their own natural state of being.

Based on the video “Should Children be Allowed to Choose Their Gender?” 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 you explain war to a child?“

Children can understand war because they also fight with each other. The human ego, which makes us want to primarily enjoy ourselves without considering anyone else, operates from a very young age. So we need not hide anything about war from children.

Indeed, if we fail to raise children correctly, teaching them how to rise above the human ego and positively connect with others, then just as children play—wanting to take things away from each other in order to please themselves, and sometimes resorting to bullying each other—then this is how they continue into their adult years, which is why we end up with wars. Grownups no longer have sand shovels, sticks and toy guns in their hands, but weapons capable of doing serious harm.

Therefore, we should explain to children that they need to become accustomed to communicating, making peace and learning how to compromise. By doing so, they will not end up with terrible problems like those big people who go to war.

They should not be told about the enemy and the hatred in the conflict, and who is right or wrong, as they have no concept or basis for it. Rather, they understand words like giving and taking, wanting and taking, not wanting to give what they have to others, etc. and it is possible to explain war to children in such terms. Nevertheless, give-and-take relations are at the basis of war and all kinds of international relations. War is a dangerous and terrible outcome when these grownups could not reach any peaceful compromise in time.

Therefore, we should teach children from as early as possible that disputes should not be resolved by force, otherwise we will destroy each other. Disputes can be resolved by discussing how to reach peace together, with mutual concessions, rather than with an approach of “I am right and you are wrong, and now you will understand it.”

The most important aspect in education is learning how to compromise. Otherwise, what is all this education for? To teach how to hit first, harder and to inflict as much damage as possible? No, we need to learn how to stop and compromise. It is extremely difficult to do, especially for children, because they have a very direct and straightforward egoistic approach to life, shamelessly wanting things for themselves without any concern for others. Therefore, education should consist of explaining such concepts, learning them together with the children, and seating children in circles to engage in practical engagement on such topics. That is, if a dispute arises among children, then it is time to sit down and sort it out. They should develop such templates from their youth on how to not resort to fighting, but to resolve disputes through conversation and compromise. It is a very long process, but if it is not implemented at these early stages, then it will only get worse later.

Such education is not only necessary for children, but for teachers too, the adults. It is the same human ego in both children and adults, and it requires the same kinds of explanations and training in order to rise above it and realize that conceding for the sake of peace is much more worthwhile than going to war.

Based on the video “How to Explain War to a Child” 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: “Why is the world facing so many crises and problems?“

We are undergoing a cleansing process. It is as if we are inside the drum of a washing machine, and our attitudes to each other, to life, and our worldviews, are tumbling and turning.

It is indeed a sign of our times, and as a result of this cleansing process, we are supposed to revise the way we relate to each other, to the world and to nature—to reach a clearly defined inner frame of reference through which we view everyone and everything.

We need to go through a process of revealing just how uncertain and incomplete we are within ourselves, how far we are from any kind of objective view of reality, that everything in our worldviews has been imposed on us and is subject to change according to the various influences we encounter throughout our lives.

In order to overcome our constant drifting in our worldviews and attitudes, we have to zero in on life’s ultimate goal. When we grab hold of our life’s purpose in such a way, as if harpooning it, and then it will start pulling us closer, and we will constantly progress toward it.

Our life’s purpose is to reach a clear perception and sensation of the laws of nature, laws of love and bestowal, by equalizing our qualities (egoistic) with nature’s (altruistic). We will then experience an eternal and perfect state of existence, and likewise exist in harmony and peace, free from the accumulating crises and problems we currently experience.

We will then see that nothing else actually exists. That we currently find ourselves in a state of exponentially-increasing crises and problems is already the beginning of such a state of being.

Moreover, we approach the revelation of the final state of existence scientifically, by means of experience: research, reviewing and reproducing the results, like scientists. We go through this process quite naturally, through trial and error, with various experiments, seeing what works and what does not.

In aviation, there is a mechanism called a gyroscope that maintains the aircraft’s orientation in space. It is a motor with a clear aim, for instance, at the North Star, and therefore, regardless of how it rotates, from any direction, the motor aims precisely at a certain set of coordinates with its inner axis.

The result of the accumulating crises and problems we are experiencing are thus in order to develop within us a similar inner device, an inner attitude that relates to everyone and everything with our final purpose in mind—a state of absolute love, bestowal and connection that we are bound to reach.

When we develop such an inner device, we will then see how everything will calm down, and achieve a newfound sense of balance, harmony, peace, happiness, safety and confidence.

Based on the video “Why Is the World Facing So Many Crises and Problems?” 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: “Why do so so many people try to live longer?“

People generally do not know why they want to live longer. Therefore, I encourage first stopping to ask “Why do we need to live longer?”

Let’s say that I have an elixir of life. You can take one drop and will live for another hundred years. Then what? How will that help you?

We have a very strong instinct for life. If we could choose to live another round of life, then most would go for it, solely out of the fear of dying. In other words, our impetus to keep living does not stem from a positive motivation, but from a negative one—our fear of death.

We fear death and try to escape it when we lack a clear purpose in life. Alternatively, there are also a lot of elderly people who agree with death, who have a willingness to lie down and to never get up. They have simply grown tired of life and see it pointless to endure the same motions day after day.

On the other hand, if we find life’s purpose and see that reaching it justifies prolonging our lives, then we can feel free to request a longer life: to go to the cashier, write our statements, and order the elixir. However, if I had such an elixir to give, then I personally would not give it to anyone. Instead, we should fit our movements toward our life’s purpose into the natural time frame that we have been given.

While people chase various goals in life, the ultimate purpose of life that we will all eventually reach is an eternal sensation of the force of nature that created and sustains us, which is a force of love and giving. As I have previously mentioned, the meaning and purpose of life cannot be a true one if it does not involve reaching an eternal sensation, and it involves aiming to benefit others and nature.

I understand that it is quite complicated to reach a decision to aim for such a goal, and it is even more complex to implement it. However, if we aim ourselves in such a direction, and use the method, the tools and the social environments at our disposal in order to strengthen ourselves toward that goal, then we would eventually discover a newfound balance with nature. Likewise, questions about living longer would disappear from our scope.

Based on the video “Why Do So Many People Try to Live Longer?” 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: “What is consciousness?“

Consciousness is the energy, matter, information and qualities that we receive and that forms in us when we connect to the general collective volume of information.

There are forces that we receive from outside of us, and these forces form the picture of our world. If we connect in a balanced manner to the information outside of us, then we experience a state of peace and harmony. On the contrary, if we fail to connect in a balanced manner to the forces outside of us, we experience imbalance and disharmony.

We should thus not consider how we receive information from the outside, but how we connect to the general collective information field. The the extent of our balance or imbalance with the external field is responsible for how we feel the world, whether pleasurable or painful.

The quality of the general informational field outside of our perception is that of love and bestowal. If we wish to create the same quality within ourselves, then we connect to it and start sensing its information without any interference. We then achieve a state of total peace and harmony, a complete understanding and feeling of nature, the creation and the universe. In other words, by balancing ourselves with the quality of love and bestowal that exists outside of us, we become as eternal and perfect as that quality, i.e. as nature itself.

On the contrary, our inborn desire to separate, assort and compartmentalize distances us from the eternity and perfection of nature. It gives us a transient and incomplete perception of the universe. As a result, we experience an accumulation of suffering throughout our development, which is necessary to prod us to a point where we will desire to undergo a fundamental transformation of our paradigm: to wish to exit our detached perception and sensation, and enter into a balanced, harmonious and peaceful connection with the general informational field.

Based on KabTV’s “Close-Up. Hologram” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on July 28, 2011. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: Why does a person who studies Kabbalah have states in which his memory and what he has achieved is erased?

Answer: It is necessary in order for us to begin to feel new states that are better and higher. After all, an integral, analog, continuous system works according to the principle of a clock: input-output, input-output—always in pulses. Therefore erasing the previous one is necessary for renewal at the next level.

Question: It is so strong that a person does not have any sensations, any memories left. How can one avoid the situation so he is not completely thrown out?

Answer: If a person does no harm, even if he is neutral and participates in something, attaches himself from the side, then this is already enough so that he does not go somewhere on his own flight.

Question: Then what does his participation mean? He is on the verge, as if he dangles on a string and can be dropped at any moment.

Answer: Everyone has their own way. Some people immediately accept all the conditions and decide at once without any hesitations: “This is me, this is mine, I do not agree to anything less; I delve into this completely, and I do not want to think about anything else.”

And there are those who doubt all the time and do not know for sure: yes, no, and so on. We do not limit anyone; we do not tell anyone what to do. A person is free in this, and everything depends on him.

Many people go through all sorts of long-term doubts. They sway, they come and go, or they hear something completely different from what they should until suddenly it clicks somewhere inside. A person begins to understand: “It turns out that this is about connection. It is exactly in the connection between people where I will find the hatch to pass from this world into the next world.”

Time passes until this picture is revealed in him, this clear feeling that it is exactly where all our sensations connect together that there is a passage to the next dimension. There is a curvature of space, and the exit to the next level of existence is only in common unity, to which humanity is now being driven by a general crisis.
[300459]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Memory Loss” 2/28/14

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