Entries in the 'Q&A' Category

“What Does Nature Do For Human Beings?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: What does nature do for human beings?

Nature is global and integral. It demands of us humans to consciously, scientifically and rationally abide by its law of integral connection, that we would create systems in humanity that let us align with its principle law.

When we correct our connections to each other in such a way, we then reach a state where nature’s other levels, i.e., its still, vegetative and animate levels, would also “click” into balance and the world would become calmer and more peaceful.

“Correcting our connections to each other” means organizing our lives such that we would enjoy positive connections to each other all around the world. When it comes to developing a common concern for each other and our planet, our very survival is at stake.

The more we head into the future without correcting human connections, then the more we will experience negative feedback from nature as various disasters, pandemics, shortages and other crises. Moreover, the severity of such blows would increase until a very small number of people would remain on the planet, who would understand that they have no choice but to build positive and caring connections.

Based on the video “What Does Nature Want?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

“Can Israel Mediate Between Ukraine And Russia?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: Can Israel mediate between Ukraine and Russia?

When I heard about Bennett, the Israeli PM, being the first Western leader to meet with Putin in an effort to reach a ceasefire, I saw it as a good sign from above. It is possible for Israel to mediate between the two sides. However, it can only be on condition that each side is willing to rise above their respective ego. Peace cannot ensue otherwise.

In Hebrew, the word for “peace” (“Shalom”) comes from the word for “completion” (“Shlemut”). It means that we need to complete and complement each other. We need to reach an understanding that we cannot exist without each other, and life would be no better if the other side would die and disappear from the world.

We need the other side to be next to us, to help our existence, and we need each other to have that same thought toward each other. In other words, we need to bring about a revolution in the mind and heart of both sides until they reach a point where, as it is written, “love will cover all crimes.” Without unity above division, there can be no peace.

Israel are meant to be the mediators between humanity and the upper force of love, bestowal and connection. That is the kind of mediator that Israel needs to become. It is our higher vocation, and we will get there.

Based on the video “Can Israel Mediate between Ukraine and Russia?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

What Prayer Does The Creator Answer?

236.01Question: Today people have begun to pray. Those who were pragmatists are praying. The question you are asked is: “What kind of prayer is a quality prayer?” Which prayer does the Creator hear?

Answer: The Creator hears all requests, all prayers, in general! Which of them does He answer—that is the question?

Everything that every person demands, shouts, asks, and begs for, all this is heard. Now the question is what does the Creator react to? Only to the extent that the request of the people from below coincides with His plan, with His aspiration from above. If our desires coincide with the desire of the Creator, then it happens.

Question: What kind of desire should there be in this case?

Answer: Rapprochement, connection, a fusion of people with each other in full equivalence to each other, in a state of love. This is what the Creator wants. Because His highest property for people is love.

Comment: Which means, no matter what kind of conflicts we are in, no matter how much we hate each other…

My Response: We will have to come to this.

Question: Do I pray that love for this hater of mine will come to me?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What is love?

Answer: Love is when all of you, with all your physical, moral, psychological, and whatever properties, qualities, and forces, completely switch to helping and filling everyone who is outside of you.

Love is when you switch from thinking only about yourself to filling everyone outside of you.

Question: Will this prayer be answered?

Answer: It will definitely be heard if that is what you want. It is not that you just say it, but that you really want it.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/3/22

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“How Will We Ever Understand The True Nature Of Reality?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: How will we ever understand the true nature of reality?

Our five senses disclose to us only a very limited part of the reality surrounding us. We call this part “our world” or “this world.” There are several other objects and actions in our surrounding reality that we do not feel, understand or recognize.

We exist in an immense reality that includes much more than what we currently sense, one where we connect with objects, actions, causes and consequences of literally everything in existence.

In order to understand where we fit in this picture, the purpose of our existence in this reality, and its true nature, we first need to discover it. After doing so, we can then see where we truly are in reality and how it functions. We could then draw conclusions about its true nature, including what is our nature, what is the nature of reality, what is our purpose and role, and how we can penetrate deeper and deeper into reality. The wisdom of Kabbalah is a method that was made for precisely this purpose.

Based on KabTV’s “Close up. Theater of the Absurd” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on July 18, 2010. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Stick To The Creator

594Question: Question about the truth. Where is it?

Answer: Truth is the best state of creation because, with regards to creation, we can speak. The perfect state of creation can only be in full equivalence with the Creator.

If we take, for example, a foil and begin to apply it to some statue, then the full equivalence, the full form, the absolute form that the foil will take when it is completely dressed on the statue will be the truth, the verity. Such is its state.

Question: Does it mean that we, dressed on the Creator are the truth? Then, do I need to know what the Creator is?

Answer: Of course! What the Creator is. You do need to attain some element of the truth to measure everything relative to it.

Question: But what is it? What does it mean that I dress on Him?

Answer: To be dressed on the Creator means complete equivalence to the Creator. Relative to us, we cannot give this any other practical definition.

Question: What is the Creator?

Answer: The quality of bestowal and love emanating from my absolute egoism. It is when our complete egoism, precisely created by the Creator, is totally, to the full extent like the Creator.

Question: Does our egoism become material?

Answer: Yes, it becomes a foil dressed on the image of the Creator.

Question: Do I take my egoism and start sticking it on the Creator to become like Him?

Answer: Yes, part by part. In this way, you conclude that, in principle, this is the only thing you need.

Question: What does my egoism turn into? What does the foil turn into if it is stuck in such a way?

Answer: Into the form of the Creator. That is why you are called Adam—like the Creator. That is, this material from which you are created, you must put it on the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/7/22

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Punishment Is Not What We Think

627.2Question: Today everyone is demanding punishment; this cry rises from all sides. What really is punishment?

Answer: I don’t think there is an understanding of punishment in our world at all, as people think. There is no such thing.

I believe that a person should reach such a state of empathy, critical empathy, so that all his aspirations and prayers are only about becoming similar to the Creator. And with respect to this similarity, he would measure himself. And the revelation of the difference from the Creator would cause a state of repentance in him, and only this he would like to destroy.

Question: So the punishment is that I do not come closer to equivalence of form with the Creator? That I’m not moving in that direction? Is this the punishment?

Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/7/22

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“Do We Live In Order To Die?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: Do we live in order to die?

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we live in order to develop our soul. We understand that we have an animal body that lives and dies here on this planet. However, our purpose is not to die in the animal body, but to develop the soul while we live here.

What is the soul?

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, it is written that the soul is “a part of the Creator from above.” What this means is that we have a part of a certain “absolute” within us, and that absolute—called “the Creator,” and which is given other names as well in Kabbalah, such as “nature,” “upper force” and “upper light,” among others—is essentially a quality of love and bestowal.

This part of the Creator from above within us emerges as a small point, called a “point in the heart” or a “desire for spirituality,” among our corporeal desires for food, sex, family, money, honor, control and knowledge. Developing this point into a soul means wishing for it to become formed such that the quality of love and bestowal becomes born in us.

When it writes in the wisdom of Kabbalah that a person is a part of the Creator, it is speaking on the Creator’s behalf. However, the person requires a great effort in order to develop and attain such a reality.

Therefore, we live not in order to die, but to discover true life, i.e., to attain a life of eternity and perfection through the development of the soul—the quality of love and bestowal—while alive in our animal bodies.

Based on KabTV’s “Close- Up, Beyond the Last Line” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on May 3, 2010. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Love Will Cover All Our Crimes

624.04Question: Victor asks: “Dear Michael Laitman! You say: “Love will cover all our crimes.” Don’t  you see that it’s impossible?”

Answer: I see that, generally, in the end, it is possible. It is possible! That is how it will all happen, although it will go through us with a rake. This egoism will be torn off from us with a rake, leaving torn flesh, wounds! But a little altruism will appear through them. That is how we will gradually get rid of it.

It is not good. But we have no other way. Otherwise, we will not appreciate the power of egoism, the power of altruism, and the relationship between them. It is precisely on the contradiction and on the connection between them that love arises, which is the final stage of the revelation of the Creator’s plan.

Question: You say that there is hatred and that we must cover it with love, and they must exist together, hatred and love. Isn’t that the most incomprehensible thing?

Answer: It is not clear because when you hate, you shake, you do not know how to burst. When love bursts you, you spread out to the whole world, you do not know where to go.

These two parts should join, complement each other, and then you will feel the perfection of creation. Exactly in this way. Now we do not feel either part. When they begin to unfold in us, then we will feel it.

Comment: This is elevated wisdom.

My Response: It does not matter, we will have the strength, brains, everything.

Question: How can an ordinary person attain this height?

Answer: We should start with a little, like all of us. Starting with little, we should just understand, formally studying, that we have no other way out. We, the creatures, are obliged to grow to the level of the Creator, and this can only happen if we climb the steps of the ladder.

From small hatred to love, from greater hatred to more love, from the most terrible hatred to the greatest love. We connect them together all the time, step by step, and do not destroy them.

You will see that it will be so, and very soon.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/3/22

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“Why Is It Very Difficult To Control Your Mind?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: Why is it very difficult to control your mind?

Indeed, we often try to take hold of our thoughts, to change or replace them with other thoughts, and the more we try, the more we realize our inability to do so.

In order to control our thoughts, we need to understand where they come from. Thoughts are upshots of desire. Initially, a desire surfaces, even if we do not feel it. Afterward, the desire enables the mind to realize it, and it enters our thought. We thus think only in relation to what we desire. The question then becomes, how can we acquire, hold onto, and develop that which we desire; or how can we distance ourselves from what we consider undesirable?

We find it futile to control our thoughts because thoughts, which are secondary to desires, cannot change desires. Our thoughts can only change the size of our desires, by increasing or decreasing them. Likewise, we also cannot replace one thought with another.

Therefore, we can only control our thoughts, our mind, by controlling our desires. The question then becomes, how can we change our desires? And the answer to that is: through the kind of social influence that we receive. The values, examples and behaviors that we absorb from our environment influences what we desire, and according to the social influence we choose for ourselves, we accordingly receive a certain direction to our desires. We would thus be wise to choose an environment that leads us to the loftiest of goals, and which influences us with the highest of values.

Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

No Need To Kill Egoism

962.1Comment: Eldar writes: “Dear Michael Laitman, show us all how to kill egoism.”

My Response: To do this, you need to turn to the Creator and beg Him many times, for a long time, insistently and, most importantly, together with others, with your friends. Moreover, this request should be continuous, constant, and increasing all the time. Then you will achieve it.

Question: When a person has a question about wanting to kill his egoism, is this already an advancement?

Answer: Of course! This is already a great achievement! And this is the great help of the Creator from above, when a person begins to understand what he needs.

Question: Is it possible to kill egoism?

Answer: No, absolutely not. You can only correct it, complete it, and use it correctly. You cannot rid the world of the engine that really moves the world, rotates, turns, and awakens it all the time, and brings everything into motion.

That is, the negative force is the one that drives. The positive force cannot manifest itself as much as the negative one. It manifests itself only when it is required, that is, it is more passive.

Egoism is a feeling of lack. I do not have enough! I am suffocating! I need fulfillment more and more! This is why it is so full of energy.

Therefore, the Creator is proud of Himself: “I created egoism!” Look how this great force works, how every second it is in everything and all the time. There would be no life without egoism. It is because a positive force is just a positive force, and nothing more.

Question: But still, how can I take this negative force, which dictates to me that “I must be filled,” “I am not filled,” “I need to be filled more,” and turn it over and make it a positive one?

Answer: You need to ask a positive force to show you that in fact everything in the world is yours. Everything around me is me. I need to collect all these scattered, torn, broken parts, put them together in a way when they mutually complement each other. This is all mine, my treasure. This is me. I want to bring this all to a perfect state.

Question: What state do you call perfect?

Answer: When all the parts will be mutually connected and will complement each other and be filled with an absolute state of love.

Question: Is this what is called “everything is mine”?

Answer: Yes. It is “mine” because I have to bring them to this state.

Question: So, is this my responsibility?

Answer: Yes. This is my state, I have to bring it. These are my parts, and I have to put them all together. I have to make sure that they all are connected and filled. That is, I am a worker of the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/7/22

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