Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Do we have to be afraid of terrorist attacks?“

We should completely erase any fear of terrorist attacks. It does not mean that we should not pay attention to the phenomenon and do nothing about it. We need to respond to terrorism by making decisions and implementing plans that would completely uproot the phenomenon. After we do so, we need to be certain that we did all that we could to stop terrorism, and from that point on, we need to attribute everything that unfolds in relation to the upper force and “whatever will be, will be.” If a certain act is supposed to happen, then even if we place several thousands of soldiers to guard ourselves, the act will happen. Therefore, after we do all that we could, we need to let go of our fears and anxieties and move on with our lives.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, if we wish to rid ourselves of such fears, then we need to connect to a certain source that neutralizes any fear and doubt that comes from another place.

This source is the source of our lives, called “the Creator,” “nature,” “the upper force,” and several other names in the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is the quality of love, bestowal and connection behind our existence and everything happening to us in our lives.

If we wish to attain contact with this quality, then we will focus ourselves in that direction, and eventually we will start feeling this force enter our lives. Then, the entrance of the upper force into our lives will eliminate any fear or anxiety we have. It will give us a sense of total safety and confidence, and elevate us to a new sensation and perception of the world.

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

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

Question: Igor writes: “Why do I live in doubt all the time? Why do I have to choose something all the time and at the same time suffer every time I have to decide something, even the simplest thing, like which sneakers to buy, not to mention a car or an apartment? But the worst thing is that today I do not know who is right, who to listen to, who to follow. My question is: How can we make decisions?”

Answer: Do not listen to anyone. Follow absolutely no one! In no way and to no place! You have to feel that you are in a vacuum each time and there is nothing around you, nothing to lean on, no markers, no signs where to turn, what to turn to, or how to step. Nothing.

You have such doubts that there is nowhere to put your foot in this life and you do not know where to step. That’s it.

This is a wonderful state! When you have only one thing left—the opportunity to turn to the Creator and feel that you depend only on Him! That’s all. This is the most reliable state. And the most correct one.

Question: So, are you saying we can only rely on Him and not at all on anyone else?

Answer: Of course. If He gives us such states that we feel that there is no one else besides Him to rely on, this is a great salvation. It is in order to always have such questions whatever they are, so that I find answers only if I aim for the Creator. Then everything gets solved on the way.

Otherwise, we cannot do anything. These constant doubts are all we need in this life. Everything comes from the Creator and turns into doubts, indecision, and questions in my egoism.

And I refer it all to Him, together with my egoism. I adhere to Him. And in this form, I am waiting for a decision. Not even just a decision, I am waiting for action so that the Creator Himself will do it, perform it. It is the same as when you take a baby, put it in front of you, move its legs, and teach it how to walk. Just like that.

Question: What you are saying, can it be applied to any issue at the lowest, every day level, at any level?

Answer: At any level.

Question: Up to the highest?

Answer: Of course.

Question: Will I hear the answer then? If I tune in, will I hear the answer?

Answer: Since the Creator is perfection that includes everything, there is no small, big, or insignificant event for Him in creation. Absolutely all of them are equal.

Question: So, are you saying that the little steps of this little man, of the baby, lead to dad, to the father, over there? Is this what He wants, that we slowly, in small steps, get there?

Answer: Naturally. You just need to feel that He places your feet. He directs you to Him precisely with the help of these questions, failures, states of uncertainty, and so on.
[297986]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/28/22

Related Material:
Aim Directly At The Creator
We Do Not Need To Hide
We Do Not See That There Is Much Good in the World

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

Question: Is everything around a person, including the massive flow of information, not unnecessary, but is created in order for a person to filter it?

Answer: Yes, today it is impossible otherwise. With the current flow of information, we need to initially, clearly, adjust ourselves to the fact that I am interested in this as the main thing in my life, and a little more of this as an accompanying one.

Of course, there is the life of the world, the planet, the universe, and humanity; I need to learn something from this, too, and every day I do it according to some schedule. But mainly, I am interested in what I do, where I can perceive, absorb, and give something.

Question: From the point of view of Kabbalah, there are no unnecessary things in the world. Could it be that what a person filters out now, he will be able to use in the future?

Answer: No, he will sort it all out, and only the most necessary things will remain. Man is not created to absorb all the garbage that we create.
[297847]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 4/29/22

Related Material:
Breaking The Information Impasse
Social Networks As A Place To Express Emotions
The Way To Ultimate Communication

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

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the significance of the recently-found oldest inscription in Hebrew, which is full of curses?“

Researchers recently discovered what several experts claim to be the oldest-ever found Hebrew inscription from at least 3,200 years ago. Interestingly, it is full of curses, which shows that the nation back then was developed and powerful, capable of evil, and which also had faith in an upper force.

Even if the faith is expressed in a way where we can turn to the upper force and ask it to help us do something bad to our neighbor, there is significance in the consideration of the upper force. Today, we also curse each other. Back then, we turned to an upper force, and today we turn to lawyers and courts. So which era is the most developed?

We can thus see the underlying hatred in human beings, in one era pointed at the upper force, and in another era pointed at ourselves. Of utmost significance here is acknowledging that our progress into a bright future depends on turning our hatred into love.

Hatred is an asset. We can invert hatred into love, darkness into light, and turn our negative connections into positive ones. Moreover, we need the revelation of the negative force in order to invert it into its positive.

That is why I point out the Hebrew curse inscription showing that we were a great and powerful nation. By overcoming the evil in us, we had tremendous potential to do good in the world. That is relevant for us today: let us awaken that inclination today, and continue solely in the good direction.

“Love covers all crimes” is the formula for letting the upper force fill our lives with an abundance of fulfillment. We first reveal hatred, as the upper force reveals our true nature to us. We then try to come closer to each other, and convince each other that besides turning to the upper force—for it to correct us from hatred to love—we need nothing else. And the upper force is capable of inverting hatred to love because love is its quality.

Based on the video “Kabbalist Responds to Recently-Discovered 3,200 Year-Old Hebrew Inscription” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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

Question: In the world now people have so much varying information crammed into them every day; this affects people in many ways. Is there anything to help people not get confused, but to stand firm and take the next step in our development? It is very difficult for people now. In the past, this has never happened.

Answer: This has not happened in the past, because people did not have such a massive amount of information. On the other hand, we need not to reduce the amount of information, but to correctly direct a person to the perception of it. Then everything will be fine.

A person will very quickly, correctly, and effectively sort out all the information that will try to move into him. Of course, there are many interesting things, but I cannot hear everything, read everything, and see everything. I am not able to pass all the information that is constantly being updated in the world through my five senses. It is just not possible.

And there is no need to do it. Each of us involuntarily becomes a filter in the way of the information that surrounds us.

Therefore, everyone should choose for themselves something basic, a little bit of the secondary and that’s it. What about everything else? There is nothing I can do about the fact that I will not read all the books, will not watch all the movies, will not see all the ballets, and so on.

Question: According to what should a person place some kind of limits for himself?

Answer: According to what he wants to achieve in life. If I am engaged in some interesting issue and this is my specialty, then I devote all my time to it. I try to fill myself only with it and dedicate an additional five percent of my total time to the events in the world.
[297783]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 4/29/22

Related Material:
The Purpose Of Information Transfer
A Sign Of Perceiving Information
Protective Shell Against False Information

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

Question: At the moment, the world is going through a relatively complex stage of its development. We are attacked by a sea of information every day. A person’s reality is literally comprised of all the population and the entire world with its quick, abrupt changes. In an instant, your life can fall apart or on the contrary, rise from the ashes.

Sometimes one wonders how a person can survive in this kind of world, how he or she can keep the right foundation for his development, and how he can perceive everything that transpires correctly?

What is human perception? Is it a quality, a property, or an ability?

Answer: The world is what is given to us in our sensations. The world in itself is unknown and uninteresting to us, we don’t feel it and don’t even wish to know what it is. What interests us is how to change our sensations so that they are more certain, full, and predictable in relation to a new state.

There is such a concept as a thing-in-itself, the world-in-itself, but I would not say that this is what attracts us.

Question: Meaning, that there is a human being while perception is what is being added to him. Does this state have some kind of spiritual root?

Answer: I would say that a human being is that which perceives the surrounding world. And it is measured by how man perceives it. One’s entire worldview depends only on his or her perception. And all his aspirations in life amount to making his perception dependent only on him as much as possible.
[297453]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 4/29/22

Related Material:
World—Reality Or Illusion? Part 7
Everything Is Predetermined Except For Our Aspirations
Everything Is Attained In Relation To Man

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

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why is gold so valuable besides humans liking it aesthetically?“

Why is gold so valuable? It is because we want to apply our efforts into various immutable material objects, i.e. objects that will not decay or rust.

In relation to spirituality, gold represents the full correction of egoism, i.e. when our inborn desire to enjoy acquires a full intention of bestowal and love for the other. In the language of Kabbalah, gold represents our connection to the Sefira of Keter, and silver represents the ego’s partial correction, our connection to the Sefira of Bina.

As long as egoism rules in the world, we will value gold as the universal and global equivalent of the egoistic forces, i.e. the forces of the desire to enjoy for self-benefit. But when people trade their egos for positive connection, i.e. when our desire to enjoy acquires an intention to bestow upon others that lets us positively connect to each other, then we will value gold as an ordinary metal, and will no longer use it for trade. At that point, we will only use the value of bestowal to one another as a measure for trading.

Based on the video “Why Is Gold So Valuable?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Jingming Pan on Unsplash.

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

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How could anyone abuse a child?“

In recent weeks in Israel, there have been several cases of children and babies being abused by their kindergarten teachers and caretakers. It is a phenomenon that has been shaking up many people.

Indeed, how is it possible to abuse defenseless children and babies?

The Torah speaks of even worse states that humanity could reach, where merciful mothers would eat their own children.

Our development is marked by our constantly-growing egoism, which has become overblown in our era. The ego, i.e. the desire to enjoy at the expense of others, has reached such major proportions that horrible cases of child abuse increasingly appear the more that we become more egoistic and detached from one another.

There is a method, however, called “the wisdom of Kabbalah,” which can teach us how to build a correctly-functioning society, where we learn how our egoism operates, and how to rise above it in order to develop positive connections to one another.

With the learning and implementation of such a method, we could reach a state where we feel other people’s children not only as our own, but even more closely than we feel our own children.

Why would we feel that way? It is because through a positive attitude to each other—and to each other’s children—we would become close with the positive force of nature that dwells in our connections. Our positive attitudes would let us connect to the positive force that dwells in nature, and such a connection would fulfill us with a much greater sensation of fulfillment than what we currently sense.

We need to start discovering how the positive force of nature dwells in the connections between all people, and we have the ability to reveal and connect to this force. Doing so can let us feel love toward other people’s children and babies, beyond even feeling them as our own children.

This is precisely why the wisdom of Kabbalah has become revealed on a mass scale in our era: Without the wisdom of how to positively connect to each other above our egoistic drives while our egos constantly grow, we would end up eating each other alive.

Based on the video “How Could Anyone Abuse a Child or Baby?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What do you think of Israel announcing that the Iron Beam laser defense system was tested successfully shooting down drones and rockets?“

Against any good thing, there is always a bad thing. So you will not find me jumping with joy that we have rid ourselves of our problems and threats.

I do not think that this laser defense system can give us a real sense of security in Israel. Things will get worse. Our problems will rise to an even higher level.

In order for us to truly have a sense of quiet, there is a simple idea that we must adhere to—that of connection, or to reach “Love your neighbor as yourself” among the Israeli nation.

This is no innovation of the defense industry. It is up to us people to implement. If we fail to upgrade our attitudes to each other, then no sophisticated technological, scientific or military equipment would help us.

Developing ties of love between us would protect us from all harm. If we had a very strong sense of connection, then this force of connection would reject all evil forces.

This is because thought and desire are forces much more powerful than laser beams. They are similar to laser waves, only sharper, operating beyond time, space and motion.

We need to establish a network of love between us, love that comes from the heart, and then we would see those same inclinations starting to surface in our enemies’ thoughts and desires. We can make this much-needed innovation in human connection, and sooner or later, we will have to.

Based on the video “Kabbalist Responds to Israel’s Iron Beam Laser Defense System” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Umberto on Unsplash.

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

Question: Why do the Jews not have such servility and deep reverence for each other like other peoples?

Answer: Yes, we really see it today. And if you looked into the depths of the centuries, you would see that even 100 years ago there was no such thing and could not have been. Absolutely in no way!

In the army, in enterprises, anywhere, fraternity is characteristic of Jews—everyone is the same. This is so deeply embedded within the people that even when we began to take an example from the West in the organization of the country and everything else, even then the relationship remained the same.

From time immemorial, everyone has been absolutely equal. A person has never been respected for wealth, only for knowledge. There has never been any subservience to anyone. This inner brotherhood still does not go away, since then it has been in everyone.

And although there is no strong connection anymore, equality that I am no worse than another, reigns everywhere.

There is no slave in a Jew—something that practically exists in every nation. As all other nations have passed the slave-owning period, when some were masters, others were slaves. There was no such period for the Jewish people. There was a so-called slave to his master. But it has always been said: whoever buys a slave, buys himself a master.

These are the spiritual laws. There are whole volumes in the Talmud telling how to treat a slave. The slave lived as if under communism. You were obliged to take care of him, you could not force him morally or spiritually.

He worked as if for hire, and was only considered a slave, since the owner made a contract with him that he would buy him for a certain time. For six years he worked and in the seventh year he could leave the owner. This law is called “Shemitah” when everyone returns to freedom.

According to this law, in the 50th year of the use of land, it is returned to free use and does not remain assigned to anyone forever.

We do not understand how these laws provide a completely different basis for people to connect with each other. What does it mean that you are given land for only 50 years?! This is practically a small human century.

There is the same thing in slavery: a contract for 6 years. You were obliged to give a slave the opportunity to marry, a bondwomen, to get married. And if you used her as a concubine, you had to take her as a wife, buy her clothes and jewelry, which means, give her a completely different status.

This is completely different from the system that other nations had. Therefore, today it still exists in the blood.

And now we are already at a stage where we have to understand that there is nothing valuable, nothing to save, nothing to store, nothing to buy, nothing to stock up on. The world will turn over anyway, and the earth will swallow everything up.
[296969]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Who Has Longer” 11/3/09

Related Material:
A Different Approach To Life
Give Your Pillow To Your Slave
Modern Slavery

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