Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why is modern life more complex and stressful than primitive life? Didn’t we invent technology to make life more simple?“

Egoism, which develops in us constantly and ceaselessly, forms an increasing desire in us to fill it. However, by desiring to fill it, in essence we discover that we are unable to. Everyone knows that we feel a strong appetite before eating, but our desire decreases as soon as we begin eating and we stop feeling the pleasure. This way, the pleasure or fulfillment itself neutralizes the feeling of pleasure or fulfillment. It is because the desire to fulfill oneself and the pleasure that fulfills it are two opposites.

Therefore, we will never achieve perfection if we want to fulfill ourselves directly. We want to achieve several things, but as soon as we achieve something, the pleasure disappears. Why does it disappear? It is because by receiving pleasure, we neutralize the very desire for pleasure. This is why we never feel continuous pleasure in our lives.

The pleasure can be felt only on the condition that we will separate the place of accepting the pleasure from the pleasure itself. For example, a mother wants to give something to her baby, and the more she gives to her baby, the more she herself becomes fulfilled. If we would love each other like a mother loves her baby, then we would feel pleasure to the extent of our bestowal upon others. It is possible to bestow without limitations, and by doing so, constantly fulfill ourselves. This is the principle of eternal fulfillment, and thanks to it a person can feel eternal life. It means that in altruism there is an inherent foundation for an eternal and full life, permeated with love, fulfillment and happiness, which can never happen in egoism.

When humanity will understand this and feel how much it loses in its short life, which is full of suffering, while it is possible pass to eternal life, full of pleasure—then it will begin changing itself. I hope that then our life will stop being so stressful.

Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 9, 2006. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: Olga writes: “I read somewhere or heard from you that the embryo in the womb sees its entire life from the beginning to the end. Is that so? And if so, then why does it lose these abilities later?”

Answer: This refers to a spiritual embryo, not to an ordinary one. Our embryo is no different than the embryo of animals. We are born just like animals. And gradually, if we develop, we develop perhaps into decent people and maybe even into spiritual people who feel the Creator.

Question: Let’s say that we develop as a spiritual embryo. So what does it mean that this spiritual embryo sees everything? What does it mean: “everything, from the beginning till the end”?

Answer: How it sees itself: where it is from, what it is, for what purpose. That is, it begins to see its entire path from beginning till end but on a very narrow scale. And it understands why it was born and exists in a spiritual form.

Question: And what is this, this end? What can I see if I am a spiritual embryo?

Answer: Complete adhesion with all souls and with the Creator. That is all. It is an ascent to the quality of bestowal, the quality of love, the quality of absolute connection with everyone, when the feeling of time, movement, that is, this whole world, ceases to be felt.

Question: At what point does a person become a spiritual embryo?

Answer: When one stops thinking about oneself.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/15/21

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Question: “How should one relate to fortune tellers? I have been told things that it is better not to repeat. Should I believe them or not? And if yes, how can I avoid what they predict for me? I believe you. I do not want to believe them.” Sergei.

Answer: You understand that a lot of people have the ability to sense the future. I have met such people. I talked about this with my teacher. And he had several such students in his lifetime who came, studied a little, and acquired this sensation of the future.

But I personally did not feel an immediate attraction to them.

Question: What about curiosity? To know what will happen to you, how fate will turn out?

Answer: No. I will tell you frankly, what will happen to me in a week, a month, a year, ten, twenty years—well, so what? I think it is much more interesting to live when you do not know anything. You just do not know anything! It is much more interesting, it is exciting.

And when you know everything, it is like you came to a movie, as we used to do to cinemas, sat down in your chair, and suddenly you find out that you remember this movie perfectly, you have already seen it. All the sharpness is gone.

Question: In other words, it is desirable to live as you say: tomorrow is tomorrow, what will be will be. Everything is in the hands of the upper. And you move along with this current?

Answer: Yes. The best thing is to know nothing and be the master of your life.

To what extent you are the master or not, you will start to understand that this is also pointless. I go forward according to the rules that the Creator has set in order to come to Him. I am getting closer to Him precisely according to the conditions that He has set out for me. And I want nothing else. I do not want to see another iota more! I do not want anything else! I want to be only this: a devoted follower of the Creator.

This is the most beautiful thing that can be! This is a great reward for a person when he can behave like this!

And at the same time, listening to how your future is being slandered, no way! We must come to bestowal from inside-out.

Question: And if around a corner during this journey of, as you call it, surrendering to the Creator terrible things suddenly happen?

Answer: There is nothing terrible or not terrible. It all depends on how you feel about it. If you give yourself to it openly, just like that, you open your soul: whatever is there is there and it is from the Creator; there is nothing terrible.

It is just that everything instantly becomes simple, clear, and soft. What your attitude to the Creator is, that is how you make Him—the Creator. And that is all. And there is the right connection between you.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/22/21

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is it in your life that calls you to be bigger than what you think is possible?“

I understand that humanity is in the midst of a crisis. This crisis envelops humanity: depression, drug addiction, the disintegration of the family unit, terrorism, and the global ecological threat. Constantly, from one day to the next, this disaster in humanity continues increasing, and the conflict between civilizations also deepens. According to scientists’ opinions, humanity has little time left to somehow stop the crisis’ development in the direction of a third world war.

However, as doctors say, the correct diagnosis of a disease is already half of its cure. This is why we need to reveal this crisis to the world and stop silencing it. By doing so, we only bring ourselves closer to an irreversible state. If we reveal this crisis to humanity and simultaneously, all of us together, try to understand its cause (our ego) and its cure (the ego’s correction)—by doing so, we will discover a peaceful and harmonious life.

Humanity needs to undergo this transformation. Therefore, this vision pushes me even to things that are beyond my abilities, in order to use all opportunities possible so that I can explain this to the world.

Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 9, 2006. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Will reparations for slavery actually help end racism?“

Definitely not. There will be no end to all kinds of people starting to demand what they supposedly deserve. More and more people will start whetting their appetites against one another. It is foolish to rethink history in such a way.

I am in favor of reinterpreting history as the development of our egoistic inclination, i.e. the desire to enjoy at the expense of others and nature, through various stages. Today, when we realize the ego’s insignificance, perniciousness and inferiority, we start shifting to the next degree of our development where we will need to realize a positive connection to each other, supporting, encouraging and caring about each other with no complaints about the past.

If we start engaging in digging into the past to make reparations, then we enter an endless process of looking backward in order to demand what we supposedly deserve.

Such a revision of history is based on egoism. We cannot buy the past with money, just as the future cannot be built with this money. We should only seek to understand how nature and human nature works, and how we can use this knowledge to start a new process of positively connecting to each other.

The more we discover our tightening interdependence in today’s age, the more we will reveal the faulty and detrimental nature of our egoistic nature, and the need to correct it by developing altruistic connections above it. We will not correct our ego by the approach of “Pay me, and I’ll be nice.” It is simply a defective approach.

Based on “News with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman” on July 8, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How would you use the Internet to improve your community?“

The Internet is equal to all, and if it would explain to everyone that we belong to a global system, that in essence we are a small village, a single system, we must relate to each other correspondingly and also raise the next generation. In this network, we must speak about the fact that we belong to a single organism and that we must change ourselves. If we discuss this on the Internet, then this huge mechanism, which envelops all continents and everyone together, will carry out its predestination. It will then serve to unite us. In all languages and on all levels, it will connect us and give us the sensation of the fact that is was intended precisely for this purpose.

The Internet is unique in that simultaneously, in one instant, in real time, it can connect us and make us into one connected bunch of people around the planet. I hope that this will indeed take place in the near future, and we will feel our tight interconnectedness and interdependence—including the means of information that act across the Internet—in such a way that we will discover how integral it is, and begin behaving accordingly. We will then change our culture, education, economics and our approach to life.

Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 9, 2006. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How could the technology boom of the past 70 or so years have been more beneficial to humanity if it were not largely driven by military or market forces?“

Humanity’s development happens by means of and under the pressure of egoism—the desire to self-benefit at the expense of others—which increases in humanity from one generation to the next, and in our individual lives from one year to the next. This is why such development is already flawed, and leads us to problems and misfortunes. It is why everything that happens in a mismatch from nature, unaligned with the altruistic law of nature, but according to our egoism—is flawed and will fail in the future. After all, such developments do not come from the postulate of care and love for the neighbor, from the understanding and realization of the fact that we live in a single integral system, where life and the world are interconnected as a small integral village.

On the contrary, we each care first and formost about ourselves, which is completely opposite to what nature demands of us. Our technological development thus looks no more like attempts and efforts to somehow fulfill our egoism. Instead of cutting it off from ourselves and correcting the way we use it for humanity’s benefit, we try to fulfill it directly. In other words, instead of bringing ourselves to equivalence, unification and balance with nature, we increasingly distance ourselves from nature. Therefore, instead of achieving delight, goodness and perfection, we experience amassing problems, crises and disasters.

If we thus use our technologies for the benefit of humanity, to correct humanity from egoism to altruism, then we will merit perfection and happiness.

Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 9, 2006. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Can a brain be connected to a computer?“

Unquestionably, it will be possible to connect a human brain to computers in order for them to work conjointly. And approximately by the middle of the 21st century it will also be possible to replace all parts of our body with different artificial forms.

We must understand that we are not discussing the inner part here, i.e. a person’s own “self” or soul. In the end, we are speaking about parts of our body, about that which is animalistic. Even today, by means of genetic and biological engineering, we have no problem performing all kinds of changes in the human body, replacing and removing organs. In all of its wisdom, there is nothing in this science that is above human abilities. Such acts are on the animate level, while we ourselves are on the speaking level.

Our problem, our correct, high and highly unique activity lies in ascending from the cares of the biological level, the level of the animalistic body, to the speaking level. We will then work in our soul, in the human self, which is above the body. Precisely there we will perform such manipulations that will let us perform actions in the soul called “corrections.”

As for the body, obviously, we will keep making such advancements as connecting our brain to computers, among others. In the end, it solely depends on technological development.

Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 9, 2006. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why don’t we get rid of intellectual property laws and stop restraining creativity and innovation?“

If we reach the understanding that everything we achieve and discover can benefit humanity and will be recorded about each one of us in our soul’s eternal account to the degree of benefit that we contributed—then the approach of guarding that which we discover and not wanting to free it would disappear.

There are such discoveries that people have made, which they do not want to open up to free use by everyone. If we were to understand that our reward is precisely in our giving to humanity, and that it becomes registered on our name forever—then we would act out of a reward not of money, but of recognition. Nature would treat us in a useful and favorable way, thanks to which we would merit feeling eternity and perfection above this life.

However, for the time being, we remain as egoists, i.e. people who wish to enjoy at the expense of each other, and fail to understand nature in such a way. It turns out that we use nature in the most egoistic way, for personal benefit alone. As a result, we live in a world where we each guard our intellectual property, and the world progresses via an indirect path toward its eventual balance with nature.

Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 9, 2006. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Comment: Irina writes: “We were born as twins. I always knew when to call Clara, when she was feeling bad, and she would call me. We never fought. Clara died, and it’s as if my strength was drained from me. I visit her at the cemetery, sit there and talk to her—this is my life now. I have a family, children, even grandchildren, but nothing brings me joy. Dear Michael, maybe you can advise me—what should I do?”

My Response: You have to break this connection. This is bad for you and for your sister. You should engage in living completely independently from your sister.

Question: Does such a powerful connection really exist?

Answer: Of course! She got used to it throughout her life!

Question: Since they were constantly connected how can she break free of it?

Answer: By understanding that doing so is harming herself and her sister, and that on the part of her sister, in fact, this connection has been broken. That is, she went somewhere far away.

I felt the same with my mother. Not all my life, but when she died. I felt as if she was carrying me in her arms all my life, and then she let me go. I was already over seventy years old.

Question: So, Irina should let her sister go. Is she holding her now?

Answer: Yes. And this is not good for both the deceased and the living.

Question: What does it mean not good for the deceased? She’s already dead.

Answer: What do you mean, she’s dead?! There is an inner state in a person that does not die. And the fact that the body has stopped functioning, so what?

Question: So she lives on, one way or another?

Answer: Naturally. Exactly right.

Question: And this connection definitely exists?

Answer: Yes. You just have to accept that they exist on completely different levels. They transitioned to a different state of connection.

Question: And have you transitioned to a different state of connection with your mother?

Answer: Sure.

Question: Do you feel her now?

Answer: When I tune in to it, then yes.

Question: So, the connection with the mother never disappears?

Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/15/21

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