Michael Laitman, On Quora: “If spirituality is a lifelong journey, how does one know whether or not they have made progress?“

Spirituality is a quality of love, bestowal and positive connection that becomes revealed in our connection as a single soul. By contrast, corporeality is a quality of reception and characterizes the perception we have in this world.

Therefore, spiritual progress requires a method of connecting to each other where we discover our eternal and perfect interconnection as a single soul above our corporeal state of transience and detachment in this world.

Spiritual progress thus becomes revealed after we try to resemble its purely altruistic connections in connection among each other, and we discover our opposition to spirituality: that we are egoistic, and constantly want to receive self-aimed fulfillment. We feel such oppositeness as a “crime” that we need to detach from and rise above. Moreover, our corporeal quality remains with us as a foundation upon which we elevate ourselves into spirituality. As such, time and again, we increasingly feel this clash of qualities the more that we try to spiritually progress.

Therefore, by engaging ourselves in a supportive environment of fellow spiritual seekers who wish to attain spirituality, and applying the method of connection—the wisdom of Kabbalah—which lets us attract the forces of love and bestowal from our spiritual root as one soul, then we eventually discover how indifferent we are to each other, and afterward we feel rejection to each other and see all kinds of negative qualities in others.

Such revelations are in fact positive signs of spiritual progress, where the spiritual forces of love and bestowal (called “lights”) that we attract reveal the distance between us—the extent to which we are opposite and different from our spiritual state as a single soul—and from that revelation of oppositeness, we can start establishing a spiritual form of connection with each other and spiritually progress.

Spiritual progress is thus felt as an increasing need and yearning to positively connect with others. And when do we know that we need positive spiritual connection with others? It is when we know the extent to which we reject each other, do not want each other, and have all kinds of complaints about each other. At this juncture, we can say that the breaking of the soul starts revealing, i.e., the point where we originally detached from our perception and sensation as a single soul, where we all functioned as parts of a greater whole, and thus felt the eternal life of that whole.

The coarse desire that detached us then becomes revealed, and we have work to not cancel or revoke that desire, but above it, start building connection, so that the spiritual connection that we build will not neutralize the rejection between us, but that they will exist together.

Spiritual progress is thus a process of increasing wisdom and inner growth where we mature in our understanding and ability to hold onto two opposite states together, that reception and bestowal, egoism and altruism, hatred and love, will live among us, and we relate to every negative quality that surfaces in us as a foundation upon which to apply increasing yearning for love, bestowal and positive connection upon it.

This is the meaning of “one recites a blessing for the bad that befalls him just as he does for the good” (Masechet Berachot 9:3), because all bad and good surface only for us to reveal more and more positive connection between us, and ultimately, to discover our connection as a single soul in contact with the force of love, bestowal and connection (called “the Creator”) that vitalizes us. The outcome of this spiritual progress is the sensation of eternity, perfection and truth, which in the wisdom of Kabbalah is called “the revelation of the Creator to His created beings in this world” (Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”).

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on January 28, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is spiritual love different from the love we know? If yes, can we do something to nurture it?“

The love we know, or corporeal love, involves loving whoever or whatever gives us pleasure. Spiritual love, by contrast, is built on feeling an inner distance, rejection, and opposition to others, and building love upon that distance.

In other words, the love we know is that which appears in our inborn ego, where we feel a natural attraction and closeness to one another. Each person who feels such love does so based on the calculation that they will ultimately benefit from that love. Such is the calculation of our egoistic nature, which is a desire to enjoy from other people and things. Therefore, according to the love we know—corporeal love—we feel love, attraction, and closeness to each other sometimes, and at other times, hatred, rejection and distance.

Spiritual love, however, requires feeling distance, rejection, and opposition to each other together with an attitude of love, connection and attraction that we build above those sensations. In our current reality, we cannot simultaneously feel love and hatred toward others, but we feel those sensations at different times. Spiritual love, therefore, requires great artistry in the spiritual process of rising above the ego to positively connect with others, and we need to become worthy of attaining that lofty level of love.

However, we are reaching a level in our development where we become increasingly prepared to experience spiritual love. On one hand, we see that the love we know is leading us into more and more problems. The bigger our ego becomes, the more we demand in order to fulfill ourselves, and the harder we find it to become fulfilled. On the other hand, we are getting prepared to become more mature.

Sweet food can help us see an example of this maturation process. Children usually like sweet food that is only sweet, but when we grow up, we often like to have sweet food together with or after something spicy, bitter or sour. The more we mature, the more we feel incapable of enjoying from one thing alone, but require the thing and its opposite.

We also see how if we had experienced only positive states in life, without the need to strive and overcome, and without feeling boundaries and criticism, then we would feel as if our life lacks something. We are built in a way where we desire to have graspable points for other calculations, and thus we develop a need to add bitterness, sourness and spice in order to taste and enjoy the sweetness. This tendency stems from the basis of our existence, where we—created beings—were originally created opposite from nature: Nature is a quality of love that solely wishes to bestow pleasure and fulfillment, and we are made of an opposite quality that solely wishes to receive pleasure and fulfillment.

Therefore, in order that we “taste the sweetness” of spiritual love, we need to attain the quality of love and bestowal that does not exist in our inborn receptive nature, and thus need to build that quality in us upon our natural rejection and distance from those qualities. This is possible with the guidance of a method—the wisdom of Kabbalah—which teaches the ways of rising above the transience and incomplete nature of the ego in order to discover the quality of spiritual love, which is eternal and whole.

Kabbalists have written about spiritual love—“Love will cover all crimes” (Proverbs 10:12)—where the “crimes” are the distance, rejection and opposition we feel in our ego. The more we implement such a form of love in our spiritual development, the more we will attain everything that nature laid out for us in order to attain our ultimate purpose of existence: the sensation of love in its perfection, wholeness and eternity.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on January 29, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Photo by Tamanna Rumee on Unsplash.

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Question: If a person becomes an altruist, there will certainly be those who would like to profit from it. How can I avoid being used by someone?

Answer: You are right. Unfortunately, today’s world is like that.

Therefore, we can develop our altruistic properties and identify, explore, and implement them only in a small closed society, where we can trust each other.
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From KabTV’s “Ask a Kabbalist” 12/31/18

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does it feel like to be spiritually enlightened?“

The feeling of spiritual enlightenment is a feeling of unification with nature.

It is that we exist in a field of a single common connection, with a force of love and bestowal connecting between us.

Moreover, total unification as integral parts of nature is our life’s ultimate destination; it is what we discover when we reach the purpose of our lives.

Through positive connection among us all and with nature, the force of love and bestowal dwelling in nature awakens and illuminates. It gives us a new heightened sensation of harmony and eternity—a feeling of enjoyment through giving contentment to each other and to nature.

Based on the “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” lesson by Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on December 9, 2018. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why aren’t we born knowing everything?“

If we were born with complete knowledge about ourselves, the world and reality in general, then we would be no more than machines or robots.

The desire of the force that created us, called “the Creator” in the wisdom of Kabbalah, is to create us in a way where we reach total resemblance to it. Therefore, we are given room for freewill, choice, decision and action.

It is impossible to reach sameness with the Creator if we experience zero problems, descents and ascents, and develop in our understanding of reality.

We are thus on quite a tough path toward a complete attainment of reality. This path, however, constantly shapes our inner consciousness.

Eventually, we will reach the understanding of our life’s source, the thought of creation, i.e., the Creator’s thought and intended purpose for us, and implement it. When we do, we will realize why everything has taken place in our lives the way that it has, and how it was exactly what was needed in order for us to rise to a new level of likeness with the Creator.

Based on the TV program, “Ask the Kabbalist” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on March 20, 2019. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Are we heading towards World War III?“

We live in unprecedented times. In our era, humanity is becoming increasingly interconnected, and together with this growing connection, we discover more and more inner resistance, rejection and opposition. Moreover, today we also see that we have no idea about what to do about our growing division.

In the past, we would settle our growing divisiveness with war. Nations and states found direction and motivation in their mutual conquest for control and governance over other nations and peoples.

Today, however, we see no media discourse about war as a solution to our problems. It also becomes increasingly clearer to world leaders that war will solve nothing. Governments are finding that they cannot even control their own populations, and so the idea of taking over and controlling other nations becomes all the more elusive.

People are realizing that we have no energy to go to war, yet at the same time, governments continue to strengthen their military forces.

Wars between countries have become replaced by cold wars within nations, where increasing divisiveness and polarization lets no one rest, especially among the countries’ leadership ranks. Country’s leaders today have to deal with ever-strengthening political opposition striving to bring them down. In such a situation, countries engage more in internal struggles, and less on external enemies.

At a bird’s-eye view of such development, we see how nature constantly increases our interconnection and interdependence, and until we adjust our attitudes to match such connection positively, then we experience it negatively. While war is a tragic and unfortunate phenomenon, it was also seen as a solution that provided direction and motivation to mobilize countries in the past. Today, however, through the process of increasing connection on the outside and increasing division in our attitudes to each other on the inside, nature is exhausting us. This growing helplessness of world leaders and their populations are making divisions between countries less important than the divisions within countries, and it is ultimately growing a desire in us for sincere connection. We will eventually come to see that only connection above the divisions can bring us peace, balance and harmony.

The point where both world leaders and their populations will feel helpless, and that control is out of their hands, is called “the recognition of evil.” It is a phase that we need to undergo toward a more positive connection and sensation of livelihood. This phase takes place in order for us to develop a sincere desire to connect above the divisiveness.

Through increasing division, we evolve in our understanding of what unity means. In the past, we related to unity in terms of families, tribes and nations. Today, unity needs to be revealed on a much broader scale, which is defined not as unity of one group against another, but unity above division.

Therefore, if we understand the principle of unity above division, how to approach it, and know how to invite the fundamental force of connection dwelling in nature that has the power to connect us, then we will be able to realize a new harmonious state in humanity: the unity of humanity upon the forces of division within every one of us.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on January 30, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Can you describe your spiritual awakening experience?“

We start our spiritual ascent from having an entirely egoistic desire, which wants solely to receive for personal benefit, and then a tiny spark of a spiritual desire emerges within us.

The spiritual desire is one of love, giving, and positive connection with everyone. However, we initially do not feel this desire as such, but instead feel it as inner emptiness among our egoistic desires. It raises deep questions about our true identity, and our meaning and purpose in life.

Existential questions such as “What is the meaning of life?” “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?” urge us to seek their answers. If these questions bug us enough, we embark on a journey through new and different environments to those we grew up in, reading all kinds of texts, and reaching out to various teachers and groups.

If we sincerely ask about the meaning of our lives, then eventually we arrive at the wisdom of Kabbalah, which was made specifically for answering that question. The wisdom of Kabbalah is also called “the wisdom of connection,” as it methodically guides a process for how to positively connect in order to discover our ultimate unification among each other and with nature as a single soul, with the force of love and bestowal dwelling in nature holding us all together.

We learn about fundamental principles of the reality that we live in: We once existed as a single soul, called “the soul of Adam HaRishon,” which shattered. The shattering of Adam HaRishon gave rise to our state as we know it in this world, where we perceive each other as separate beings, and feel detached from nature as well.

However, while we exist in this perception of separation, we have a small spark, called a “point in the heart” in the wisdom of Kabbalah, which belongs to our connected state as a complete soul before it shattered. This point in the heart awakens existential questions in us, and urges us to search for how we can ultimately discover our perfectly connected, harmonious and eternal soul.

At the start of our Kabbalah studies, we learn the difference between humans and animals, that humans have an additional egoistic inclination for self-love unfound in the animal world. Whoever feels this egoistic self-love, a sense of uniqueness, can also reach the sensation that it is an evil inclination, and that in order to discover spirituality, they need to rise above this evil inclination in order to discover a “good inclination.”

The good inclination is one of connecting and integrating with others. By investing ourselves in such a connection, we invite spiritual forces that dwell above the point where the soul of Adam HaRishon shattered, and through the influence of these spiritual forces, we eventually reach the discovery of our true connection as a single soul. That revelation opens up to us a complete picture of reality, and a sensation of connection that is absolute, harmonious, perfect and eternal.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on January 26, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: To attain the Creator, one must love and help gratuitously. Does it mean we should also love animals? After all, you do not expect any material return from them. Maybe we should start with them?

Answer: No. Regarding animals, plants, and inanimate nature, there is a clear regulation: you should use them only to the extent that you need to achieve a human goal. Nothing else.

You should not sit all the time and, as Mayakovsky wrote, “Stroke the shriveled black cats.” 🙂 This may be good for generating electricity, but not for achieving the goal of a person. There is no internal advancement in this.
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From KabTV’s “Ask a Kabbalist” 12/31/18

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is your view on euthanasia? Should it be legalised or stay legalised?“

On one hand, it is very important that we die natural deaths.

On the other hand, if we find people living through intolerable and unavoidable suffering, then it is necessary to relieve those people from such pain.

Based on the talk “Communication Skills” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Michael Sanilevich, on October 9, 2020. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the difference between physical love and spiritual love?“

Physical or corporeal love comes from receiving pleasure from someone or something.

Spiritual love, on the contrary, means that we feel repulsion and rejection from others, and above these negative sensations, we build a loving attitude.

It is written about spiritual love that “Love will cover all crimes” (Proverbs 10:12). Spiritual love does not replace hatred, but emerges above it.

To the extent that we suffer from such hatred, i.e., that we want to love others but find ourselves in opposite sensations that contradict the love we want, then our construction of positive connection above such negative sensations awakens spiritual love.

Spiritual love is thus measured according to the distance from whom we want to love. Attaining spiritual love thus also requires a great amount of learning and preparation, with the understanding that it is an attitude that we need to attain toward the whole of creation.

Creation, according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, is the desire to enjoy. A single desire to enjoy is positioned behind everything we perceive in reality.

The desire to enjoy in and of itself poses no problem, as it is simply matter. Problems emerge when the desire to enjoy wants to individually benefit at the expense of others. Among cells in an organism, such a tendency is considered cancerous. Among us humans, the desire to individually benefit at the expense of others is the basis for every problem we experience in life.

The more we develop, the more the desire to enjoy grows, and the more we find ourselves in a swamp of problems and crises. Such a process is leading us to a state that the wisdom of Kabbalah terms “the recognition of evil,” where we gain awareness of our egoistic nature that wants to self-benefit at others’ expense as the root of all problems. At that juncture, we will reveal that we hate the egoistic nature within us, and we will then genuinely yearn to have a loving attitude upon it.

The desire to enjoy is our nature. We cannot get rid of or destroy it, nor do we need to. We need only treat our nature as the ground level in a building that we need to construct, where the second level and upward is built out of a positive and loving attitude upon the desire to enjoy from other people and nature.

How can we reach such spiritual love?

It is done by asking for it from a higher degree. The desire to enjoy is the nature of creation, and opposite it is the nature that created it: the desire to bestow, love and give. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, the desire to bestow and love has several names, including “the Creator,” “the upper force,” “the light,” and also “nature.” It describes the quality of giving and love that exists in reality, concealed from our inborn desires. When we reach a sincere desire to love others spiritually, i.e., without wanting self-benefit laced within that love, then we reach a true request to the Creator—a prayer—to perform that self-transformation.

Why would we even want to reach such a state?

It is because by doing so, we bring ourselves closer to the source of our lives, elevating ourselves from the animal degree of existence to become human in the fullest sense of the term. “Human,” in Hebrew (“Adam”), refers to the phrase “similar to the most high” (“Adameh le Elyon”). Therefore, reaching spiritual love means attaining resemblance to the Creator, which is described by Kabbalah as the purpose of life—the highest, most harmonious and balanced state of perception and sensation that we can achieve, while alive in our world.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson of January 23, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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