Question: What is the benefit to a person from seeing the evidence of a global crisis? If he feels harm in this, he closes his eyes. How should he treat this correctly in order to feel that the awareness of this fact at every moment of time benefits him?
Answer:The fact is that people run away from this question; every second they are stuck in something, they are looking for something to do, like children in games, and that is how, in general, it all ends.
We must try to explain to them that all the tricks (and our life today is one continuous trick, so that we get distracted and do not think about tomorrow) will lead us to breaking all the foundations. And here we will have to radically solve the problem.
Kabbalists talk about an atomic war, about the terrible problems of humanity where a small fraction of people will be able to survive and begin to create a new humanity.
Question: Is there something bright for a person in realizing the current crisis? Something that would give him energy?
Answer: I think that only the spreading of the truth, where we are going, and where we can go. Ultimately, from hopelessness, humanity has already given up and does not even raise its head. It goes the way it goes. It does not understand that it is rushing to a huge “waterfall” and everything that it does will disappear without a trace. There are huge losses ahead.
Kabbalists write that only an insignificant part of humanity will remain that will again sprout on earth and build a new society. This handful of people will realize the evil of egoism and will use completely different tools to create a new society, a new life, a new paradigm.
Question: What is the correct diagnosis of the current condition?
Answer:I would describe it as a disease that has not yet entered its critical state where a person already begins to feel that he is sick, but does not know his diagnosis, cannot determine it and find an effective medicine for it. [289581] From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 10/19/21
According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, there is an upper force called “the Creator” that created creation, which is a desire to enjoy.
The pleasure that the Creator fills the desire to enjoy with is called “light.”
The state where the Creator fills the desire completely is called the “world of Infinity.”
As the desire develops, it reaches a stage where it shatters into a multitude of individual desires, which in the wisdom of Kabbalah is called a shattering into “600,000 souls.” Since all of these desires shattered, they each hold only a minuscule portion of the light, and each one of these desires is called an “individual soul.”
However, such souls are incomplete. They are each only a tiny point within the complete soul. Moreover, they feel nothing of the complete soul but only a tiny point that leads it to yearn to return to its root, completely connected to all the other points as a large and complete single soul—a harmonious state of perfection where all parts are completely connected together as a single soul.
Our current times are ripe to start connecting these points together. In other words, today we are able to organize a closed system among each other where we can connect these points together as a segment of the complete soul, and discover the Creator’s light in such connection.
How does an individual point differ from a segment of the soul?
The point of the soul is also called the “point in the heart” in the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is a part that yearns to return to the complete soul. On the contrary, a segment of a soul is a gathering of these points as a group, what is called “a ten,” which is the minimal part of the collective soul that can function as a complete soul.
The soul is composed of ten parts, called “ten Sefirot.” We can differentiate parts of the soul that will operate exactly like the whole, but on a reduced scale. If we start connecting these parts, then the scale will increase.
However, in principle, the laws discovered in a group of ten will be identical to the laws in the complete collective soul, albeit to a smaller degree, because they will be less apparent, not rounded in the same manner.
Connecting the parts of the soul together is thus possible by organizing ourselves into small groups, where we each come together by having points of the soul, i.e. points in the heart, and realizing the method of Kabbalah that connects these points together. We then discover segments of the soul through these points’ connection, and the connection of the totality of these segments becomes the complete soul, where we discover complete harmony, eternity and perfection.
Based on a Kabbalah lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on November 6, 2016. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
The myriad phenomena that people believe takes place after death are merely theories about death, and even the phenomena that people have experienced in near-death experiences are psychological reactions within the temporary state of clinical death that they enter.
If we do not attain a clear perception and sensation of our soul during our current lives, then our body dies and rots away, and the level of desire we reach in our current lives assumes a new body. Such a process continues until we eventually attain our soul while we are alive in our world, in our bodies.
Therefore, while we are alive in our current bodies, if we hear about an opportunity to attain our soul, to access the spiritual world, then we we would be wise to take hold of that opportunity with both hands and start our spiritual ascent.
We need to stop believing in all kinds of angels and other phenomena that we think happens to us when we die. If we achieve no revelation of the spiritual world in our current lives, then we have no soul, and we simply keep incarnating in new bodies, accumulating experience and suffering, until our desire eventually ripens to embark on the process of spiritual ascent. It is as is written in the kabbalistic texts, “You shall see your world in your life.”
Based on “Ask the Kabbalist, episode 4” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Joseph (Asaf) Ohayon. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. For more information on what happens when we die, visit this page.
Dear Michael Laitman, I am asking you for advice. My boss is a dictator. For five years now, I am trying really hard not to tell him to go to hell.
I love my job, but I hate him. He watches my every move. All his requests are not requests but orders, all conversations are only his preaching. There is nothing human or warm about him. I tolerate it only because I know I will not find such a job anywhere else. I do not know how to endure it. Dear Michael, what would you do if you were me?
My Response: I would try to change myself so as to love this person. Then everything will work out for him a thousand times better.
Question: Is it possible in such a state? As you see, the letter is really “burning” with “I just hate him.”
Answer: I think that on the contrary, it is in such a state that it is possible. After all, he may suddenly see that there is nothing terrible here, he just convinced himself about this, he sees this in such a way. He prepares himself in advance to hate his boss.
Question: Are you saying that if Igor makes an effort, a terrible, difficult, real effort to love his boss, then it will turn out that he is not a dictator at all?
Answer: Not a dictator at all. It all depends on Igor.
Question: How will the boss see this love? Will it look like adulation or like a game?
Answer: No. Igor does not have to show it at all. He should work within himself.
Question: Internally? Does it mean that he can repeat to himself: “I want to change, I want to love him, no matter what”?
Answer: Yes. I want to actually love him. Then everything will change. How else can we reach love for our neighbor? Do not think that later someday it may happen. Try to do it now, in this particular case. If there is a person I hate, this is the biggest opportunity to change myself.
Question: Is this your main advice?
Answer: Of course. There is nothing else. The Creator gives this to him specifically so that he can change himself and thus reach some spiritual degree.
Question: Can he also reach a comfortable state?
Answer: Of course!
Question: At work and everywhere else?
Answer:Undoubtedly! This will have the best consequences. [289921] From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/4/21
The door is always open for anyone to change, to improve themselves, and to become a beneficial part of society. Even people who have committed the worst crimes toward human society, and I am not just talking about murder or theft toward one or a few people, which we hear about on a daily basis, but even those who are considered the wicked of the world will have an awakening moment where they will understand what they have done, and will also desire to change.
Take, for example, the example of Adolf Hitler, who implemented mass murder and genocide within his own country, as well as devastation throughout Europe. Such people have no free choice. The upper providence guides them to perform such atrocities, and they themselves have no idea what they are doing.
In later incarnations, they will have to acknowledge the harm that they brought to humanity. It is said about such people that “the hearts of ministers and kings are in the hands of the Creator.” That is, there is an upper providence guiding human development, and certain times come along whereby humanity needs to experience certain blows, and then the upper providence—which can be called “the Creator,” “nature,” or several other names—acts through a certain person such as Hitler in order to implement a certain amount of suffering that humanity needs to experience in its development.
There are also other people through which good comes to the world, but unfortunately, barely any good comes to our world, so these examples are much rarer.
However, if we discuss ordinary people committing felonies here and there toward society, such people always have the ability to rise above their divisive inclinations and become beneficial contributors to society.
If we take serial killers as an extreme example, these are still very complicated matters to understand because in order to understand them completely, we need to understand how incarnations work. For instance, a person that someone harms in this incarnation could become their child in a future incarnation whom they will need to take care of.
We simply lack the tools of perception in order to understand the complete system we are parts of. In our world, we have no choice but to judge people according to specific actions that they perform at specific times, because we have no other ways of evaluating them. Moreover, we have to sustain a certain amount of balance in human society, and to not let all kinds of forms of evil break out into the open too much.
Yet, in order to perceive the truth in nature, we have to see nature’s beginning and end. And in such matters, there is none as wise as the experienced. There are people who have attained access to such perception of the order of reality and how our future states need to unfold until their very final state. Such people can also see what took place throughout every nook and cranny of human development, understanding the reason and purpose behind every form of suffering that took place, and accordingly, they can justify every event that has taken place throughout history.
Without such perception, then we operate in our narrow perceptions here in this world. It is very difficult to understand and agree with what I am saying here, but to put it as simply as possible, if we gain the full perception and sensation of reality, seeing nature from its beginning until its end, then we will be able to justify literally everything that has taken place.
This is why I teach and spread the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is a wisdom that guides us on how to achieve the complete perception of reality. By doing so, we will know how to operate our lives mistake-free, and free from all kinds of terrible outbursts. We will gain the tools to build a harmonious and peaceful society, where a heightened sense of unification and love will dwell among all people. Also, we will see exactly why certain people are born with certain inclinations.
Nobody is to blame for having certain inclinations. Just as some people aspire to become scientists, and other people aspire to become musicians, and so on and so forth, likewise some people have inclinations that society considers evil, like killing and stealing. If we developed a sensitivity to the precise inclinations different people have, then we would be able to guide them to channel their energy in ways that benefit society. For instance, we could channel such people to catch fish instead of catching people, to work as butchers, to cut people open as surgeons in order to heal them, instead of stabbing people to death, or to steal from our own egos in order to give to others, instead of stealing from others in order to gain selfishly for ourselves. All in all, we are made of desires to enjoy, and the type of enjoyment depends on the values and examples in society that we are raised with.
We have to understand that nature implants our inclinations into us, and we should not be punished or blamed for having certain inclinations. Instead, society has to discern each of us according to our inclinations, and to the extent by which we direct them at society’s benefit, we then undergo certain corrections. We would then gradually come to see how each and every inclination exists in order for us to decipher how to direct it for a positive purpose.
Directing our inclinations for positive purposes depends on the enveloping values and examples that society instills in us. For instance, if a person has an inclination to kill, and that person grows up with examples in society, such as the media and entertainment he consumes, coupled together with cutthroat competitive “every man for himself” values and divisive drives that promote hatred to blossom among people, then such a person is more likely to use his inclination in a negative and destructive way.
If, however, the enveloping social values and examples were enriched with positive examples of people aiming to benefit others and nature over their own benefit, with media and entertainment striving to promote such values, and also if our education systems shifted from raising us to compete with each other materialistically to instead cooperate with each other in order to positively connect above our divisive drives, then the person with an inclination to kill would also seek how to use that inclination in order to best serve the positive social environment that embraces him.
We are all born with different inclinations, and if we each supported each other to rise above them to relate positively to each other, then we enter a new network of connections with nature’s positive force of connection holding us together. We can then find our optimal places in society, and we can then each realize ourselves in a perfect and whole fashion. Then, even our worst inclinations—killing, raping and stealing—would find a positive expression as we would seek how to use these inclinations in order to positively contribute to society.
Based on the show “Ask the Kabbalist, episode 11: How to Correct Evil Inclinations” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Joseph (Asaf) Ohayon. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
One of my students recently updated me on Dr. David Sinclair’s research at Harvard, which demonstrates how to slow down aging, and which suggests that we could become younger by activating recently discovered vitality genes, and the student asked for my response to this phenomenon.
To start with, aspiring to be “forever young” is a curse. Instead of holding such aspirations, we would be much better off letting nature manage us, allowing everything to happen in its due course.
The loss of physical strength as we age should have no influence over our happiness in life. It all depends on the extent to which we connect harmoniously to nature and let its forces positively affect us. We could then happily let life flow as it should until our current life ends, and we would then have no regrets.
We should only aspire to be “young” in our hearts, which we can achieve by aspiring to increasingly connect positively to each other and to nature. We would then have an energy and a zest for life similar to children, who constantly discover the world anew, and which would give our lives meaning and joy. We would then see that there is no decline as we age, just more and more of an ascent that brings us closer to the purpose of our lives: a state of complete balance and harmony among each other and with nature.
Based on a talk “An Inside Look,” between Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
By implementing connection-enriching education—the wisdom of how to positively connect above divisions and differences—on a mass scale, through educational systems, the media and other social influences, we would draw an immense positive force into the world that would make it a better place.
Based on a talk with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on February 8, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
We each have different roles in the intricate interdependent system that we live in.
Similar to how a human body is a complete system, but which has different parts with different functions, likewise we each occupy different places in the system we share. For instance, some of us are closer to the system’s “brain,” and others, to the system’s “hands,” “legs,” “body” and so on.
The complete perception of the full extent of our interdependence is beyond our current narrow individualistic worldviews. However, if we saw the complete picture of the system we all exist in, then we would see how each person holds a unique and different root in this great big system. We thus each have different destinies, initial conditions and final states.
While it might seem unfair that some people suffer disproportionately in relation to others, if we discover the perception of the complete system in which we exist, then we would see exactly why everything unfolds as it does.
Likewise, the purpose of all suffering is ultimately to awaken in us questions about its cause and purpose, and such questions serve to lead us to a point where we become willing to rise above our narrow and limited worldviews, and enter into the perception of the complete picture of reality. By doing so, we discover the reason for all suffering, and how to conduct ourselves harmoniously and peacefully in the system we all share, alleviating the need for further suffering.
In short, if we positively connect to each other so that we would realize our relationships in this system harmoniously, i.e. where we each complement each other and achieve a state of equilibrium, then we would discover our interdependence in its positive form, and why we have each been given specifically the place and the function that we have been given in this system. In the end, while we each hold different roots and functions in this system, we will find how we are all equal in relation to what is required of us—to positively connect to each other above our initial conditions and states—in order to discover a harmonious and peaceful existence.
I also recommend reading an answer I wrote to a similar question recently for further detail on this topic: “Why do bad things always happen to me?”
Based on a lesson, “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on February 16, 2016. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Is a machine that can accurately calculate different moves intelligent? We have no possibility of creating a machine that will be as intelligent as a human. I say this first on the basis of my background in medical biocybernetics—a teaching about devices and cybernetic apparatuses in living organisms.
We can create machines that can think and calculate much faster than us, but intelligence is a quality that we inherit from above our minds. Since we inherit intelligence from above our current level of understanding, then we cannot create this quality in mechanical or biological material.
Machines will never be wiser than humans. They might be smarter, but not wiser. They can conduct calculations faster, and operate with less or even no errors, but they will never become more intelligent than humans.
Likewise, as the soul comes to us from above, we thus cannot create the soul through any mechanical or biological material.
Based on the lesson, “Fundamentals of Kabbalah: Is the World a Reality or an Illusion?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 15, 2019. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
The goal of humanity is to reach an inclusive mutual connection with one another, where our desires for self-benefit will invert to desires to benefit others and nature, and by doing so, we will resemble the perfection of nature’s quality of love and bestowal. By attaining such a goal, we will achieve prosperity in the fullest sense of the word: a sensation of paradise.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Question: What is the benefit to a person from seeing the evidence of a global crisis? If he feels harm in this, he closes his eyes. How should he treat this correctly in order to feel that the awareness of this fact at every moment of time benefits him?
Michael Laitman, On Quora:
