Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why does it feel so good taking advantage of bargain prices on Black Friday?“

It is the human ego. We do not want to be suckers, and when we take advantage of bargain prices, we feel as if we get the upper hand. However, what we fail to realize is that we are being toyed with.

The sales toward the end of the year that excite people to buy double is done on purpose in order to make people feel good about taking advantage of all the shopping, but really who fools whom?

It is the human ego that makes us restless.

We would be better of sitting down and doing nothing, without looking at all the products in the shops.

Instead, we need to feel whether we truly need something, without any external stimulation, and then consider whether it is correct to buy it. If we discern that we need it, then we can go ahead and buy it. Anything that we buy beyond that, buys us instead.

Based on the video “A Kabbalistic Take on Black Friday” 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: “How do I cope with suffering?“

The suffering that we experience expands to our consciousness through the brain, and our attitude to the suffering, how we relate to it, equates to the intensity of the suffering.

Therefore, in order to cope with suffering, we have to realize, in our minds, that nature makes us suffer according to its plan, which is ultimately in order to lead us to a bright and positive future. For the first time in humanity’s history, nature takes us by the ear, so to speak, as if we are schoolchildren, and guides us to realize positive relations, where we will discover a world of light and warmth.

When we reach the final destination that nature is leading us to, we will no longer experience suffering, because suffering hinges on the fact that we see no goal ahead of us. If there is a goal, then the goal absorbs the suffering.

When we apply certain efforts, we can experience those efforts as enjoyable or as painful. There is no difference between pleasure and suffering in the sensation itself, but the difference between the two lies in the idea that we adhere to. If we feel a lack of purpose in a certain effort—that we are headed toward an abyss—then we experience suffering. On the contrary, if we imagine that a certain effort leads us to a goal where we benefit and enjoy, then we become ready not only to endure the effort, but to prolong and even enjoy it.

If we, as a society, calibrate our attitudes to think that nature leads us to a harmonious future, to stability, and to a problem-free life, and we create inputs in our social environment, such as media and art, which projects such an idea to us more and more, then we will be able to further progress in our lives with relative ease. We will then experience an end to suffering.

Whether sooner or later, we will develop to a point where we actively progress in such a direction. We have already engaged in several wars and conflicts, where we fought to the death for the sake of the future, under the guise of certain imaginary values that people invented. Today, however, we have exhausted our man-made ideologies, and all that is left for us to do is work out how we can adapt ourselves to nature’s own form of development.

By fighting for the prominence of various man-made ideologies in the past, we ended up with a lot of suffering and disappointment. Today, however, if we progress toward matching nature’s interconnectedness and interdependence, we will finally end up with a positive result, free from suffering and disappointment.

We will then find ourselves in the most comfortable and blissful state, similar to being in our mother’s womb, but which is in fact billions of times greater. It is a state where we feel completely taken care of. If we attain it in our lives, then it is much greater than the sensation in the mother’s womb because in the womb, we are unaware of the care that surrounds us. By developing such a state in society, then we will experience the sensation of total care with the additions of understanding, awareness and a feeling of achievement.

We will then experience how nature, humanity, and everything in the universe and in all the worlds, envelops us in an all-encompassing kindness. We are approaching such perfection, and if we had no experience of suffering, then we would never gain awareness of it.

Based on the video, “Why Do We Experience Pain?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: Many people write to us that they live with resentment: “I cannot forgive my parents for destroying our marriage.” “I was in trouble, and my closest friend did not help. I will never forgive him.” Teachers are resentful toward ungrateful students, parents are resentful toward children who abandoned them; there are a lot of grievances and offenses.

How should we deal with resentment?

Answer: Frankly speaking, I will say that I cannot be offended by anyone because I know human nature. As much as I know the nature of man, I understand that I have no one to be offended by. If you really want to be offended, then, as it is written: “Go to the craftsman who made me.”

This is the truth. How can a person have any thoughts, feelings, qualities, and actions? Nothing about him is his own. He is completely wrapped up in what nature does to him, meaning, the Creator.

Question: This is an elevated state. Let’s go back to men on this earth. Children do not help their parents; they have practically abandoned them. There are some who have truly betrayed, cheated a friend, and so on. There are a lot of reasons. How should we deal with resentment?

Answer: I think you need to reach such a degree of your development when you realize that all other people around you are puppets controlled by the Creator in order for you to correct yourself properly in relation to these people, to justify them, and to wish them well.

Question: Is it possible?

Answer: In general, yes. Not always and not immediately, but…

Question: It is a lengthy work, but should it be in this direction?

Answer: Yes! Otherwise, you are slandering the Creator. And this is a completely different matter. The calculation is completely different. How do you embrace the universe as if it exists by itself or do you control it? If everything comes from above, we have no other choice but to be absolutely submissive, agree with, and change to be in likeness to this upper force.

Comment: It is beautiful. I will carefully assume that our whole world is a world of sinners. We are all in a state of hatred and constant resentment.

My Response: Like little kids in a sandbox.

Question: Why are we played with like that?

Answer: So that we really get disappointed. It is not about why the Creator created us like this but how stupid we are not to guess why He made us like this. There is an answer in front of a man and he does not want to see it. But this is all in order to accumulate, break through, and explode.

Question: If there is such a direction and we slowly walk in this direction, what will our world turn into?

Answer: Our world will turn from today’s mental hospital into a world where people are engaged in self-examination, self-healing, and self-building. To the extent of this, the Creator will be revealed in them.

Question: And what is the “revelation of the Creator in man”?

Answer: The quality of bestowal and love that elevates us to a completely different level of feeling the world.

Question: Are you sure that there is only one path, there is no other?

Answer: No there cannot be any other path.

Question: There are no haters, only the Creator is in front of me?

Answer: Of course!
[291527]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/29/21

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “The COP26, a UN summit about climate change, kicked off on Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland. Do you think the summit is a critical moment?“

No. It is naïve to think that any significant change will come from an event where world leaders convene from all parts of the world. The summit was a gathering of Prime Ministers and politicians, the same people driving the world toward an abyss. It is like wolves from different parts of a forest gathered to decide what to do in order to make life better for the sheep.

Put simply, to fix our ecological problems, we need to reach balance with nature, which can come about on condition that we reach balance among each other. Such balance will then also permeate the levels under the human: the still, vegetative and animate. Everything that has been destroyed will be restored, and everything will become corrected in general, when we correct our relationships up to a point of “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Based on the video, “How to Fight the Climate Crisis,” 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: “Do demons exist?“

Demons are inner forces in us that act to our detriment. We cannot see demons, but we can feel them as inner forces that neither enter nor exit us, but awaken within.

We play host to various positive and negative forces, which we give different names, such as “demons,” “spirits” and “angels.” Accordingly, we might suddenly experience peculiar kinds of negative sensations, like panic attacks, or on the contrary, positive sensations like outbursts of joy.

Most importantly, however, among such forces, we need to hold ourselves in balance: to direct ourselves toward the meaning of life by developing relations of love among each other in order to match the absolute love that exists in nature. If we place ourselves in environments that support our calibration to achieve such balance, then we will avoid being thrown from side to side. Instead, we will become stronger in our ability to rise above their influence.

Based on the video “What Are Demons?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Latiman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Will there be peace between the Jews and Arabs?“

One of my students recently updated me on an amazing partnership in sports. Adam Badir is a senior physiotherapist from the Arab village of Kfar Kasem. He worked with an Israeli athlete, Artem Dolgopyat, from the Israeli city of Rishon LeZion, who recently won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

Adam not only took care of Artem at the Olympics, but he also supported him like a big brother, and when Artem received the gold medal, Adam was so moved that he broke out in tears.

My student raised the question as to whether such a special relationship between an Arab and a Jew who are very close could act as an example to resolve the conflict between the two nations.

While, on one hand, partnering in our achievements brings us very close together, and on a personal level, such closeness allows two individuals such as Adam and Artem to perhaps not feel the conflict due to their friendship.

On the other hand, the particular dispute between Arabs and Jews demands a specific kind of treatment. A life of peace is possible on condition that we Jews will positively connect with each other. Our positive connection to each other will accordingly also positively influence our cousins. They will then feel a special compelling force that attracts them to love and connect with each other.

If we develop strong, internal and deep connections among each other, then we will enable such connections to expand worldwide, and our Arab cousins will also connect with us in the process. It is a law of nature, and the wisdom of Kabbalah describes how this law works in detail.

Based on the video “How Can Jews and Arabs Find Peace?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: Lyudmila writes: “How can you to learn to forgive a person who offends you and does nothing to be forgiven?”

Answer: I think that, of course, this is too high of a bar, but it begins and ends, in principle, with the fact that we do not see a person in front of us, but the action of the Creator. And therefore, theoretically, we do not need to be offended by anyone. If we correct ourselves, in this way we will correct everyone else and we will see the whole world as kind and good.

It all depends only on ourselves, on our perception of the world. We live in ideal conditions, in an ideal world, among ideal people, and everything that I see around me as vicious, it all just indicates that I need to correct myself.

Question: Can we assume that this is practical advice?

Answer: This is practical advice. True, it is very high, deep, and so on. But, in general, there is no other way out. That’s the only way.

Question: And if you want to be closer to an ordinary person?

Answer: There is no other advice, regarding someone closer or further. There is one truth, and it must be gradually put into practice from the conditions in which we are, even before the higher ones that will be revealed to us. They will be revealed and we will see truly terrible worlds, terrible relationships, terrible states, and we will also have to correct them, up to final correction.

Today the time has come to tell people about this because we have no other way out. We can’t do anything, we can’t fix it, we can’t sweeten it, nothing. We’re just dragging and dragging the time of correction. And now we need to start explaining to people that we can’t do anything, we can’t fix either others or ourselves.

Question: Not even ourselves?

Answer: But this is good. You have only one address to which you must turn, demand, and shout, and thus you will see that only this opportunity that exists in front of us is the only one and successful, and it will lead us to the goal.

Question: Then please tell me what is “to forgive a person”?

Answer: This is to forgive yourself for treating him unfairly, for believing that he is a source of evil. We have only one source of evil. This is not even my egoism, but the one who created it, and the one who supports it in this way specifically so that I would turn to Him, ask Him, realize, and thus we would get closer to the truth.

Question: Based on your words, will the ignition and increase of egoism continue, increase more and more?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is there no chance that it will stop?

Answer: On its own? No way. The Creator’s task is to make man a Man, Adam. “Adam” is from the word “Adomeh,” similar to Him. So we must become similar to the Creator. Therefore, He does whatever He wants, only so that we will need Him.

Question: In what ways should we become similar to the Creator?

Answer: In the quality of absolute goodness, which we would want to take upon ourselves against the evil that the Creator awakens and manifests in us.

Question: What is good according to the “opinion of the Creator”?

Answer: Treat another with love.

Question: A lot of people think that they do treat someone else with love.

Answer: There are degrees here. With love, this means that I absolutely do not take my state into account, but put the best state of another at the forefront. He’s the only one I care about.

Question: Am I not important to myself at all?

Answer: No. And, in principle, it all comes down to the fact that, again, looking at all the evil in the world, I turn to the Creator so that He corrects me. And I would see good instead of evil.

The Creator seems to us to be the source of absolute evil, but in fact, this is not so. This is only for us to ask Him to change us, our nature, which He specially created in this way so that we would strive for the quality of goodness.
[291335]
From KabTV’s”News with Michael Laitman” 10/25/21

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is good? What is bad?“

Good is when we make voluntary progress toward balance with nature, i.e. balance with the universal force of love, bestowal and connection. On the contrary, we feel bad when we move involuntarily toward the same balanced state.

If we feel bad, like we are at a dead end and have lost our bearings, then that is actually good. It is because, from such a state, we will find a good solution.

We need to think about where we exist and what kind of nature we are in. Nature is integral and global, containing everyone and everything—on inanimate, vegetative, animate, and most importantly, human levels—in a single harmony.

We human beings need to reach a positive form of mutual connection among each other. By doing so, we will experience a wonderful and good life. It might sound like a children’s fairy tale, but it is not. Everything is interconnected and interdependent, and if we upgrade our attitudes to each other in order to adapt to nature’s interconnectedness and interdependence, then we will experience a harmonious existence. It is simply a law of nature.

When we start positively connecting with each other as a single global whole, with mutual dependence, then despite our petty and narrow egoism, we will start feeling that an immensely powerful force of love dwells in nature. We will discover this great force of love in the close knit and warm connections that we build between us, and we will then start feeling that we exist in a completely different and perfect world.

Based on the video, “What Is Good? What Is Bad? – Good and Bad Defined” 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 thought?“

Thought is the greatest force in nature. It operates above time and space.

Thought is the highest force of human nature. In kabbalistic texts, it is written that “all is clarified in thought.”

Thoughts come from the thought of creation, where we are all omnipresent, and thought is all there is in nature.

We also exist in thought. We feel that we have senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, and that we live in a universe with galaxies, stars, planets, and so on.

However, it is all thought.

There is nothing other than thought. There is no matter, only thought. Likewise, all we can control is our thoughts, and nothing else. For instance, the still, vegetative and animate levels of nature are beyond our control.

What does it mean that we can change our thoughts? It means that we can change our attitudes toward nature through other people, through everything that stimulates us. By doing so, we reach what in the wisdom of Kabbalah is called “correction,” i.e. a state of balance with nature that comes from changing the direction of our thoughts—from self-benefit to benefiting others and nature.

Based on the video, “Understanding Human Thought from a Higher Degree,” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How would you describe a divine experience?“

First of all, a divine experience is not a mystical or religious experience.

A divine experience takes place when we connect with each other and sense the general system of nature. It is an experience in which we feel the so-called “souls,” i.e. the parts that piece together the “puzzle” of this system, and which make it as one. We feel the wholeness and perfection of our connection when we connect into a single body.

By connecting with each other, we rise above our nature, above this world where we sense reality in a detached and contradicting way, and enter a different reality, the so-called “upper world” where we are all interconnected.

The divine experience of the upper world is one of eternal life because we are then no longer detached from each other, but we complement each other. The entire system then lives and breathes as a life of eternity and perfection, which is how we experience it. Accordingly, our entire life is given to us so that we transcend our limited corporeal experience, and enter the divine spiritual experience, where we sense complete fulfillment, eternity and perfection.

Based on the video, “How to Transcend the Corporeal Experience of Life,” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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