Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why do we find nature beautiful?“

Nature has no need to change. The still, vegetative and animate levels of nature that we see surrounding us are in no need of correction. Only we at the human degree need to change ourselves from living according to our inborn desire to enjoy at the expense of others and nature, to a desire to enjoy with an intention to benefit others and nature.

We find nature beautiful because its mutually opposite positive and negative forces are in balance, breaching the limits of balance only where necessary for further development. We humans are the sole creatures that exceed the limits of balance, and by doing so, we bring harm to nature.

We are the sole creatures that have an ugly quality, which is the excessive ego that makes us want to enjoy at the expense of others and nature. Even if an animal devours another animal, it takes place according to nature’s laws that act within animals, i.e. according to natural instinctive desires, and not according to an intention to harm others and to enjoy from harming others. Humans are the only part of nature that relate to their surroundings with an intention to harm, use, exploit and enjoy when feeling that they are in a higher position.

Animals harm other animals not with a calculation that they enjoy harming the other animals, but solely with a calculation that they need food for their survival and the survival of their offspring. In fact, nature has prepared exactly what and how much each creature needs in order to survive, which pertains also to humans. That is, if we would sustain our balance with nature, then nature’s other levels would exist in harmony. It might seem to us as if other creatures viciously devour one another, but we need to understand that no predator consumes more than the necessary amount. Animals, plants and even still matter all receive according to their needs, and only we people wish to enjoy from receiving surplus for ourselves.

Surplus reception for ourselves is the definition of egoism. It is an additional force of desire present in us humans beyond our physical and bodily needs, and it is the only harmful desire and force that exists in our world. Also, the cause of our suffering lies in us not knowing how to correctly and beneficially use this excessive desire that we have been given. Using our surplus desire correctly means inverting its direction to one of bestowal upon others. In other words, by prioritizing the benefit of others and nature over self-benefit, we can obtain balance with nature and experience a harmonious and peaceful life.

While nature on its still, vegetative and animate levels is free from the egoistic corruption that we experience on our human level—which is what makes us see nature as beautiful, peaceful, calm and harmonious—we need to also understand that no other part of nature has such an amazing opportunity for independent behavior than the human.

We humans are free to choose the intentions of our actions—either receiving for self-benefit alone, or bestowing upon others. No other creature in nature can egoistically receive more than what it needs for its sustenance, nor can it altruistically bestow goodness upon others and nature.

If we use the surplus desire that we have been given correctly, then we can achieve balance with nature, become its autonomous part, and feel a new sublime harmony enter our lives as a result. Moreover, our failure to do so is the cause of all of our shortcomings and suffering.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on June 18, 2022. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Dawid Zawiła on Unsplash.

Filed under: Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How objective can perception be?“

Objective means having no self, national or even global interest, but that we direct ourselves solely at the purpose of the higher nature.

We should constantly calibrate ourselves to be objective, i.e. to be free of whatever we feel at a given moment, as if we are machines receiving certain impressions in the most objective ways possible. Otherwise, we receive in the direction of whether something is good or bad for us, i.e with the question “What will I get out of it?” After calibrating ourselves to be free of what we feel at any given moment, whether or not it makes us feel good or bad, we will then have correct interactions with people and other aspects of nature on the still, vegetative and animate.

We have to bring ourselves to states where we identify that in relation to ourselves, we have a self-aimed intention to receive, and that we should give it no consideration. We do not want to become judges lured by bribery because of a certain kind of pressure.

It is written that “the judge has only what his eyes can see.” The eyes are key here—not memories, impressions, prejudice or anything else. It is as if we take a picture of a certain person without any connection to emotion, to ourselves, our nation, or even our world. This is how we can be judges.

When we calibrate ourselves to be objective in such a way, then it is considered that we truly wish to be as judges. It is a very exalted place, because we have nothing of our own. In such a state, we can reach a state where we start perceiving an independent reality and how it behaves for a higher purpose.

Based on the video “How to Calibrate Yourself Toward Objective Perception” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Yael Leshed-Harel. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Filed under: Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Should I size up people when I meet them?“

When we meet someone, we hold two images within: One is our impression of the person we meet, and the other is our own image. We then start comparing how much our thoughts, desires and expectations meet what we want in relation to this stranger. In other words, we meet an image of a person, and picture them within ourselves in a certain way for the time being. Later, we might change how we view them.

We stand in front of a picture that we depict within. First of all, it is not the person as they are, but the way we depict them within ourselves, i.e. it could be very far from how things really are, and perhaps we are prejudiced on the matter, and so on.

We then start working with the image that forms within us. We do not relate to the person who is in front of us, because we do not actually see them. We see them to the extent in which we depict them within.

We then start interacting with this image. That is, we influence the person and feel how they influence us. Accordingly, we examine whether we formulated this image correctly to begin with or not.

Throughout the interactions we have toward each other, we constantly adjust our opinion about the other person, whether or not they are better or worse than the image we had of them, and where they fit in terms of several areas that interest us, for example, in terms of politics, education, culture, their outlook on life, and so on.

There are many parameters by which we examine people, and the impression we receive in relation to these parameters gives us an image of a person whom we meet and interact with. That image constantly changes, acquiring a new shape and form.

Based on the video “What Happens When You Meet Somebody?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Yael Leshed-Harel. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by kabita Darlami on Unsplash.

Filed under: Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Comment: They say that supposedly there is energy around us that feeds us, and due to this, we can even get by without food.

My Response: A person can, of course, receive nourishment also in this way. What is the difference? But what does it give him and what does it lead to?

Anyway, I have been given a certain number of years to realize my appearance on Earth, to effectively identify it. Later I will have other functions, in other states. But the state in which I manifest myself here, in this segment of my existence, is like this. Therefore I have to think about a way to realize it effectively.

How can I do it? Only when I understand the entire chain of my existence in which my corporeal life is a small fragment, some single link. I need to realize this link effectively, and then I will already go in accordance with what I finish my realization with.

Today, people really lack this goal. They do not know what to do. You seem to be living, but what are you living for? There used to be a struggle for a bowl of soup, for a position in society, and so on. There were all sorts of goals, either real or imaginary ones.

Today there is none of this. It does not matter what rags I wear today. It says nothing about a person, apart from politicians in ties. Today I do not have to worry about food, somehow I will find it somewhere.

There is no need to learn. What will it give me? There are a lot of unemployed people anyway. Music, literature, ballet, opera, painting—all this has also decreased and disappeared somewhere. Who needs it? Who is interested in it?

Most people have traveled half the world. What interesting things can they expect in the rest of their lives? Therefore, a person is bored. A person has no purpose in life. It seems that he has developed so much that he can cover the entire world; he surfs the Internet and can do anything.

Yet in the end he has nothing. He sees that there is nothing to live for. Drugs, some kind of oblivion… What to do? Therefore, the question “What do you live for?” is a very big, painful question.
[298807]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Energy around us” 5/28/14

Related Material:
When There Is No Goal in Life
Nothing To Look Forward To In This World
Zero Result

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, Meaning Of Life, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Igor writes: “Could you explain to me in simple language what unity is?—the one that you call for all the time, the type that you talk about in every clip, article, broadcast everywhere. Just do not use phrases like “good connections” because we already see that this is from the realm of fiction. Unity as a goal—what is it?”

Answer: In order to reveal the Creator, to feel the Creator, to grasp Him, we need to grasp each other. To the extent that we will see the Creator in everyone. No matter how impossible it may seem to us, how fantastic, and generally repulsive, we need to make sure that every person in the world begins to appear to me as a manifestation of the Creator.

I have to reach a state where I love everyone, I want to be in connection, merge, and unite with everyone. Then I will feel the Creator in this attitude toward them, not in them, but in myself.

Question: That is why you keep saying: “Good connections, search for love.” Is it really searching for the Creator all the time?

Answer: The Creator lives in man. Do you want to reveal the Creator? You have to love someone else, and then you will feel how the Creator awakens in you.

Question: The formula sounds very simple, but it is so complex. It is amazing, of course. But there is no getting away from it?

Answer: There is no need to get away from anything. It is absolute, it is true, it is short, simple in implementation, only difficult.

Question: Are you aware that it is difficult?

Answer: It is impossible.

Question: Then when does it become possible?

Answer: In order for the Creator to help. That is all it takes.
[298860]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/12/22

Related Material:
The Ten—A Device For Revealing The Creator
Revealing The Creator’s Goodness
Revealing The Creator In The Connection Between Us

Filed under: News, Q&A, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: Before you moved on to the feeling of real connection, you probably had your own idea about it. What was it?

Answer: It was difficult for me to combine people’s striving for maximum accumulation with the need to strive for rational consumption. How can these two aspirations, egoistic and altruistic, somehow be mutually replaced?

Today I see that it will be this way nevertheless. Since all the current actions of humanity lead to the fact that, as a result of unemployment, buffoonery, and internecine strife, people, with all their technological capabilities will not find anything, they will hardly be able to feed themselves because they cannot arrange anything properly.

Let us say you and I have two neighboring farms. But we are only busy trying to do dirty tricks to each other, to annoy one another. Can you imagine where my resources and your resources are going? I am setting something up for you instead of working. And you want to dig under me. To annoy you, I am building a waste pit next to your house and you are building some kind of wall next to my house to block the sun from my garden. And so on, and so forth.

Instead of doing good for ourselves, we are doing harm to others. We see our main goal in this.

And what is the nation’s money, which should work for people, go to in most countries? What are the resources and natural minerals used for? To do evil to another. What for? What will it give? Just think about yourself for you to feel good!

This situation is becoming more and more irrational. We see what a frenzy so-called patriotism is in.  This is nationalism, not patriotism.

Patriotism is when we do not compare ourselves with others, when we love our country, cherish it, and just feel good in it. We are happy with ourselves, we are happy with the country and the land; we are ready to welcome others to visit. A patriot takes care of what he has. And who is taking care of anything now? Look at the relationship between people! This is not patriotism.

I am just amazed at how much everything is spinning again but on the next level.
[298203]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. True Patriotism” 12/8/09

Related Material:
We Need Global Warming In The Heart
Every Day Brings The World Closer To Correction
The End Of The Era Of Consumption

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, Q&A - No Comments →

Comment: Some of your students are eager to move to Israel.

My Response: You don’t have to move here at all. You can sit on an ice floe in Greenland and spread knowledge about the essence of our methodology via the Internet. We all need to get into the widest possible dissemination.

A special blow, of course, falls on those living here in Israel who speak Hebrew and are clearly aimed at pushing this idea primarily among Jews. After all, it is to them that all fallen humanity will turn with the accusation that this people is to blame for the fact that everything is bad for everyone.

In principle, this is true. And since such a feeling of humanity comes from a simple egoistic animal feeling, then its natural reaction, the natural solution to the problem, is to destroy the Jews.

This is what Hitler wanted to do based on some ancient runes, beliefs, Tibetan mystics, and all the rest. Although there is nothing of this in principle, everything was neatly tailored to it, instead of realizing that there is a completely opposite idea here, take the idea of connection and make the Jews fulfill it, make them work!

Therefore the whole world will demand the implementation of this idea from the people of Israel and from those representatives of the nations of the world who have such a pressure to move forward in whom spiritual genes have manifested as a result of the shattering and connection in the descent that happened after the ruining of the Second Temple and has continued for the last two thousand years.

It is necessary to force these people to work spiritually.
[298748]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Pressure on Israel” 11/3/09

Related Material:
What The World Should Demand From The Jews
“Can We Overcome Jewish Resistance To Uniting?”
Through Connection To Unity

Filed under: Israel, Nations of the World, Q&A - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the perfect life?“

Life is perfect.

The myriad dreams we each have of a perfect life are detached from what a perfect life actually is, and our problem is that we fail to understand what a perfect life is.

To start with, we cannot experience perfect lives if we try to receive everything for ourselves. Why? It is because we constantly compare ourselves to others, and thus from the outset, no matter how much we gain, we will always feel our shortcomings. Therefore, a perfect life can only be in the very opposite, not in the direction where we receive and have more and more, but that we will receive nothing at all, and that our fulfillment will come from the desire for abundance to pass through us to fulfill everyone—that others will experience perfection in everything that they desire.

Likewise, in order for others to experience the perfection that they truly desire, they would need the same inclination: to need nothing but for the abundance to pass through them to everyone, and for everyone to be fulfilled.

Perfection comes about when no one wants anything for themselves, but only to fulfill others. Everyone then exists in a special kind of correction, enjoying the perfect life, experiencing a world full of abundance and joy.

Based on the video “What Is the Perfect Life?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash.

Filed under: Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Comment: Viewers of a clip in which you talk about Armageddon, about the end of the world wrote in response: “It is easy to see that these two people have no idea what Armageddon is. Those who study the Bible know perfectly well that Armageddon will happen in the future because it is a war between God and Satan.”

My Response: They are absolutely right.

Comment: You said that Armageddon exists, the end of the world and this war in general is already happening. It is happening inside of us. This is a fight against egoism, which is rising and trying to defeat us. He says: “This is a fight between God and Satan.” Explain then what he said.

My Response: Satan, in fact, is the greatest human egoism that is within each of us, and it will always reveal itself more and more. God is that positive force concealed from us, which we must also reveal out of nature.

As a result of our actions, we must reveal both God and Satan. Both of them will be revealed within each of us and between us. This state is the war that is called “Armageddon.”

This war is going on inside each of us. Where else can I correct my attitude toward others?

Question: Does it turn out that there is God in me and there is Satan in me?

Answer: Yes, of course.

Satan is from the word “Sote,” that is, the one who strays from the path of bestowal and love. The one who has strayed from the path is called “Satan.”

Question: Then the fight between God and Satan means getting him back on the path. What is the path of God?

Answer: Only toward common adhesion and support, toward such a connection that there is no empty space between us. Then the Creator is revealed within us.

Question: Does it mean that we need to be pressed together?

Answer: Yes, so that we live these feelings.

Comment: You said that Armageddon is happening right now.

My Response: This does not mean that it is happening right now, and later it will not be. It is already beginning to manifest itself.

Question: Do you think that this is just the beginning? That is, is the fight still ahead of us?

Answer: Yes. Baal HaSulam noted that from the beginning of the 20^th century onward we are entering the period of the last generation.

Question: Is it precisely the period of the war of Gog and Magog? Will it get worse if we do not understand it?

Answer: It is going to get worse, but I think we can cope with all that and correct ourselves so that all the worst will turn into the best.

Question: Can we avoid the peaks of this war?

Answer: Undoubtedly.
[298171]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/25/22

Related Material:
Suffering And Hatred Are Included In Love
The War Of Gog And Magog, Part 12
It Is Worse Than Armageddon

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, News, Q&A - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why do people pretend their lives are perfect on social media?“

We want to feel proud and better than other people, that they will envy us.

Our egoistic human nature prioritizes self-benefit over benefiting others, making us want to see ourselves in a better position than others. We thus want to show others that we are special and worthy of respect, and we see what lengths we go to for respect.

When our desires developed beyond mere survival necessities for food, sex and family, we then started comparing ourselves to each other, sizing up what we have compared to what others have. Then, our social desires for money, respect, control and knowledge developed.

The desire for respect becomes a major problem as it is behind much conflict in the world. Whether it is a person’s own pride or the pride of one group or nation pitted against others—where that person, group or nation wants more on their side and less or even nothing for the other side—then it becomes clear how our desire for respect, honor and pride brings about so much conflict.

While we can identify the problems that come with this desire, what we need is not to try and make it smaller or eliminate it in any way, but to redirect it, i.e. to change what we respect. When society values people solely according to their contribution to society, we will then necessarily strive to think and to act in favor of society. If we get rid of the awards that we give for individual excellence, and instead respect each other for our concern that we express toward society, then we will want to win the respect of society by wanting to do good to each other.

We will then gradually come to feel that expressing altruism or unselfishness toward one another is a special and sublime value in and of itself, regardless of the respect that we receive from such an inclination. In doing so, we will find that altruism is a source of perfect and unbounded fulfillment. Moreover, we will find that such an attitude is nature’s comprehensive law, which controls and sustains us.

Based on the videos “Why Do People Pretend Their Lives Are Perfect on Social Media?” and “The Needed Shift in Human Consciousness” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Josh Rose on Unsplash.

Filed under: Q&A, Quora - No Comments →