Laziness is definitely not a negative word. I myself am the laziest person in the world, constantly struggling to be a little more active. I thus need to raise the importance of what I need to perform.
Nature gave us lazy qualities in order to prevent us from doing several negative actions, i.e., to stop us from ruining the world so that we have the ability to correct the world.
Laziness is thus a very positive phenomenon. If it were up to me, I would add a little bit more laziness to all of us, so that we would barely be able to get out of our beds, shower, dress, eat, and go to work. The reason is that people would do far less negative acts in the world.
It is basically positive to be lazy anytime other than when we invest our energy to positively connect in society, to provide each other with support, encouragement and care, adding to a positive social atmosphere.
I thus wish for us all to be a little lazier, as it is written in the Torah, “Sit and do nothing, better.” It means that if we are lazy, then it is better than if we let ourselves run rampant, because the latter would bring more ruin to the world. Our actions would then be more purpose-driven and done out of necessity.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Photo by Adrian Swancar on Unsplash
There will be no borders, nations or countries in the future.
We will all become members of one nation that spans the entire globe, with a language that is clear to everyone.
Also, religions, beliefs and customs will lose their importance and fade away in the process.
In other words, we will eventually realize our complete interconnectedness and interdependence as a single whole, in balance with nature’s integral laws.
Replacing all kinds of geographic and ideological boundaries will be a good and positive attitude among all human beings.
The transition to that final state will take place through understanding that we cannot achieve a good life unless we each concede our egos to some extent.
While in our present reality, such a picture seems utopian and unrealistic, and that each individual, group and nation is responsible only for itself and its own citizens, the laws of nature stipulate that we need to advance toward an absolute state of connection, with attitudes of mutual consideration dwelling in such connection.
This kind of connection exists above every limit we have in our world, whether it be borders, gender, race or language, among others, which we have developed over the generations.
In short, nothing will stop us from integrating with each other, as nature necessitates this process.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Antisemitism stems from Jews having a special role in the world, which they are neither aware of nor do they carry it out.
That role is to positively connect “as one man with one heart,” i.e., to develop harmonious unified relations.
If the Jews developed their connections to unite above their differences, then antisemitism would subside and humanity’s attitude toward the Jews would shift to a positive one.
Until the Jews positively connect, people will feel increasing rejection and repulsion toward them. Developing positive connection among Jews depends on developing the “inner Jew” within, which means elevating the desire to connect in a good and kind way toward one another over egoistic desires to use and exploit each other for personal benefit.
This special quality and role that the Jews inherited stems from their foundation as a nation some 4,000 years ago, when Abraham gathered people from ancient Babylon who were willing to unite, since they felt the rampant social division of the time as a major problem that needed solving. Thus, they applied Abraham’s method, which led them to attain the lofty principle of “Love your neighbor as yourself.” By doing so, they became known as the “people of Israel” (“Israel” coming from the words “Yashar Kel” [“straight to God”], i.e., people with an intention to be as loving and giving as the force of love and bestowal itself). They later became known as “the Jews,” from the word for “unity” (“Yichud”). The uniqueness of this quality is that unlike other nations, the Jews had no natural biological root. Instead, they were a group of people from different nations who gathered based on a unifying ideology, and who worked on themselves in order to attain the quality of love for one’s fellow man.
People are thus either attracted to or repelled by Jews due to this unifying quality that dwells in them. If the Jews develop positive relations and friendships with one another above their differences, they will awaken that tendency to unite in the tectonic plates of human consciousness, and humanity will also find that it gains the strength to unite above its growing divisiveness. If not, then humanity will increasingly feel that the Jews are behind their problems, and antisemitism will continue rising as a force of nature that surfaces in order to awaken the Jews to re-discover their unifying role in the world.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
It is a problem that we fail to understand the need to learn what nature requires of us, which is the same law positioned at the foundation of all the world’s major religions: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).
We are all equal in the need to reach love above all of our differences, divisions, rejection and hatred of each other, as it is written that “love will cover all crimes” (Proverbs 10:12). However, our egoistic human nature, which rejects nature’s requirement for us to positively connect by wanting to enjoy at the expense of others, positions us against each other and is the base cause of all radicalization.
The human ego operates in every person and group. It makes us each see ourselves and the groups we belong to as better than others, thus giving rise to radicals willing to take their beliefs to extremes. Ultimately, the ego serves to destroy our world, and radicalization is one of its natural outcomes.
When we understand that the human ego is the root cause behind all of our division, hatred and radicalization, then we would be wise to focus on how to rise above the ego. We would then feel no need to tie ourselves to any specific orientation, but only on one tendency that is fundamental to nature: the need to rise above the human ego, unite with others above all differences, and also to teach and share the method to do so.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Nature is a perfect integral system that functions according to laws of interconnection and interdependence, and there is no shred of cruelty in nature.
However, it appears to many that nature is cruel. Why?
It is because, as is written in the wisdom of Kabbalah, “the judge judges according to his own flaws.” In other words, since we humans have an aspect of cruelty in our egoistic nature, where we can enjoy at the expense of others and nature, then we attribute this cruelty to nature, and then perceive its actions as cruel.
If we studied nature in depth, learning how and why it functions the way it does, then we would find no shred of cruelty in nature. Instead, we would discover how nature is ultimately a single thought that wishes only to bestow contentment, pleasure and fulfillment upon its creation. In other words, at its source, nature is a pure intention to love and bestow, which has no wicked intentions whatsoever.
Nature created a single system that functions according to laws of interdependence and interconnectedness. We see how the still, vegetative and animate levels of nature behave in a way where each element takes only what it needs for its sustenance, and fulfills its role for the sake of the ecosystem’s sustenance. Although we see several animals killing and eating each other, they do so not out of cruelty, but simply because it is the way they were created. By doing so, they fulfill their role in nature, and the whole that they are parts of continues its sustenance through their instinctive behavior.
If we humans would receive only according to our needs, and gave everything else for the benefit of humanity and nature, then we would be on the same level as animals. However, we clearly see that we operate differently, and that there is a program embedded in us that makes us want to personally benefit at the expense of other people and nature.
This egoistic element—the desire for self-benefit at the expense of others and nature—is what differentiates humans from animals and the rest of nature, and it is solely this quality is cruel. In other words, human egoism is the sole aspect within nature that opposes nature, and likewise, it is the one quality that needs to become corrected.
By correcting human egoism, so that instead of wishing to personally benefit at the expense of others and nature, we would instead acquire a new nature where we wish to benefit others and nature, we would likewise enter into balance with nature, thus experiencing nature harmoniously and cruelty-free.
The increasingly cruel world we perceive is in order to bring us to a point where we will truly want to invert our egoistic nature into its opposite altruistic form. For a change of such magnitude to happen, we need to learn how and why nature acts as an integral system, to learn its laws of interconnection and interdependence, and apply them to ourselves in order to reach balance with nature. By doing so, we will discover a new harmonious and complete life, completely outside the scope of how we currently perceive and sense our world.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Photo by Benoit Gauzere on Unsplash.
Pain protects us by making us feel a boundary, where if we cross it, then we enter a danger zone.
We typically want to simply not feel pain, and if we feel it, we want it to disappear right away. Together with this tendency, it is worthwhile to add a scrutiny of why we feel pain, and how we can get rid of it. Or on the contrary, it could be that we feel pain due to a disease that surfaces, which is a sign that we need to get ourselves treated.
However, more importantly, we should understand that our nature is a desire to enjoy, which wishes to move away from pain and move toward pleasure, enjoyment and happiness. What, then, stands between our experience of total enjoyment and happiness in life compared to a life full of various pains? It is simply a different screen by which we can perceive and sense reality.
In order to achieve this change where we perceive and sense a world full of goodness and happiness, we need only connect with our desires and apply efforts to change them so that we will start perceiving everything in our world as good, enjoyable and pleasant.
This is an inner change that requires us wanting to give others everything that is good for them, and then in return, we will receive all the goodness that we want for ourselves.
If we make such a transformation, then we will experience utter perfection and happiness, or as it is expressed in the Torah, “a land of milk and honey.”
It all depends on our desire to give to others. The moment we get rid of our egoistic intention to receive at the expense of others, and replace it with an altruistic intention solely to benefit others, then when we attain such a giving desire, we will see that there is an abundance of everything good in life in front of us, and we will want only to give that abundance to others. It can be likened to all the gold, silver and diamonds in the world suddenly appearing right in front of our very eyes the moment we have no intention to receive any of it for ourselves, but only wish for others to benefit from it. When we reach such a degree in our intention, then we will experience total perfection and happiness.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
We are in the midst of a major transitional era where we are starting to understand the tremendous extent of our interconnectedness and interdependence.
Likewise, we also find ourselves destroying our world. This is because a key aspect of interconnected and interdependent systems is that if all of their parts act for the system’s benefit, then the system functions harmoniously and its parts experience the health and vitality of the entire system. On the contrary, if its parts prioritize self-benefit over benefiting the whole, then they bring about the system’s demise.
Since the latter egoistic tendency defines the general attitude and behavior of human society in 2021, then we can expect the world as we know it to crumble. On one hand, we will see the increasing frailty of our financial and industrial mechanisms, and on the other hand, we can expect natural disasters to shake us more and more, because nature principally reacts to us according to how we relate to each other.
We will continue heading down a negative spiral until we will wake up to our helplessness to live positive, healthy and balanced lives. At that point, we will develop a major need to revise the way we live. We will then feel an increasing need for updated explanations about how the interconnected and interdependent system we are all parts of functions, what its purpose is, what our role is within the system, what is the system’s nature and what is human nature, how we can balance between them, why and how we are dispersed in this system, and what we can do in order to become closer in our attitudes to each other. In other words, we will need to undergo an upgrade in our connections to each other, and that upgrade will not be able to happen on its own. It will require a new method capable of guiding us to positive connection, harmony and happiness in an interconnected and interdependent reality.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman
What is the meaning of life? It is to rise to a level where we become as one with our life’s source—while we are alive.
In the wisdom of Kabbalah, that source has various names including “the Creator,” “nature,” “upper light,” “upper force,” and others. It is essentially a force of love and bestowal that emanated everything, and in Kabbalah, we study how it created everything through a process called “the four phases of direct light,” a series of causes and effects until our creation and development here in our world.
While we are in the reality we know as “our world,” i.e., a perception and sensation of reality through senses of sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste, our purpose is to return to where we came from, until we reach adhesion with our life’s source. Kabbalah calls the process of rising back to where we came from “climbing the ladder from below upward.”
When we reach our life’s final destination—adhesion with our life’s source, the Creator—we will experience newfound eternal harmony and perfection. Moreover, everything we currently experience, increasing amounts of problems, crises, suffering and lacks of fulfillment, are all necessary elements of a maturation process that is gradually preparing us to become willing and ready to climb the ladder back to our source.
Based on the lesson “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on December 16, 2018. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
The pandemic has shown the ugly face of our education systems.
These systems should have educated our children to become independent and responsible in their learning and knowing of how to positively connect among themselves and with their teachers, as well as willful and responsible participation in their studies through various media.
Unfortunately, we instead see quite the contrary: that these systems fail to prepare children to be independent and responsible. That is why, over the course of the pandemic, we have seen multitudes of children disregard the connection among each other and with their teachers, and many relate to what they study as meaningless and useless. Such an approach has contributed to a general crumbling of the systems.
We should treat this educational crisis that the pandemic revealed in order to revise our education systems. Today, we do not need to raise children to simply fill job positions, several of which we will no longer need. Instead, our education systems should adjust their aims to raise children into happy, successful and confident human beings, in the fullest sense of those terms.
To become truly happy, successful and confident, we need to live in a society where we actively participate in constructing positive connections among each other, above our myriad divisive drives. Accordingly, we should encourage children to participate more and more in society, since social participation and contribution are quickly becoming the most important components in building a society of happy, successful and confident individuals.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
1) The attainment of spiritual love and spiritual connection can only take place above sensations of hatred and rejection. If we love others without having built love above hatred and rejection, then it is not spiritual love.
2) It is written about the attainment of spiritual love in the Torah, that “Love will cover all crimes” (Proverbs 10:12).
3) Spiritual attainment requires holding onto the rule of “Love will cover all crimes,” and that we cannot hold love without feeling the “crimes,” i.e., hatred and rejection of others. The attitude to love and hatred thus needs to be equal in importance. We attain spirituality between them both, and thus those who wish to attain spirituality need to equally position love and hatred, or connection and rejection, before themselves.
4) The human ego, which is a desire to enjoy at the expense of others, is the cause of feeling hatred and rejection toward others; it is an “anti-spiritual” quality. Developing spiritual love thus requires feeling hatred and rejection illuminating in our ego’s rejection of spirituality, then reaching a decision to restrict the ego, and then above the ego, developing an attitude of love and connection to others. Moreover, such an attitude needs to be constant, where we feel love and hatred simultaneously, and choose love above the hatred. It is unlike our corporeal world, where we love and hate at different times. Holding these qualities together gains us access to the sensation of eternity.
5) The development and discovery of spiritual love above its opposite hatred and rejection is the “artistry” of spirituality. In the language of Kabbalah, it is expressed as follows: that the spiritual Partzuf (a spiritual entity or identity) takes its Aviut (coarse egoistic desire), which is a sensation of hatred and a complete lack of connection to others, and through a Tzimtzum (restriction) of the egoistic desire, the Partzuf rises above the Aviut to connect—elevating values of connection much higher in importance than the natural egoistic inclination—and to the extent of the oppositeness between qualities of love/connection and hatred/rejection, the new, higher, more spiritual and giving Partzuf is discovered: both through the Aviut (coarse egoistic desire) below, and the Zakut (purity) above.
Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on January 27, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is ‘lazy’ a negative word?“
