Michael Laitman, On Quora: “According to the Bible, what is spiritual growth?“

The purpose of our lives is to reach a state of perfection by harmoniously unifying with humanity in a single integral system—our soul. This state is called “the revelation of the Creator to the created beings in this world,”* and it is attainable while we are alive in our world.

The Bible was given to us as a means by which we can correct ourselves in order to unify with others, i.e., to ultimately reach a level of “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). The word for “Torah” in Hebrew connects to two words, “Hora’ah” (“teaching”) and “Ohr” (“light”). That is, the Torah is a means by which we draw light onto ourselves, which corrects our intention from self-benefit at the expense of others to bestowal and love for others.

Spiritual growth takes place by rising above our inborn egoistic nature to increasing positive connection and unification with others. In the Bible, such ascent is described by degrees called holidays, weekdays, the Sabbath, Rosh Chodesh (the beginning of the month), the nations of the world, Levites, Cohens, Israelites, and so on.

It is important to understand that the Bible does not describe corporeal phenomena, but spiritual degrees, structures, and processes, which are ultimately degrees of love, bestowal, and unification. The correct study of the Bible should draw upon us the light that brings us closer to attaining those degrees. When we attain the spiritual degrees described in the Bible, we can perceive what it means to be on the degrees of King David, King Solomon, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, Jacob, and so on.

The more we grow spiritually, the more we feel that we elevate from the lowest degrees to the highest, and encounter several states on the path. In other words, the more we unite among each other, and with humanity as a whole, the more we experience the various depictions contained in the Bible. Such spiritual growth takes place until we integrate the entire world inside ourselves and become “human” in the fullest sense of the term (i.e, “human” [“Adam” in Hebrew] from the phrase “similar to the most high” [“Adameh le Elyon” in Hebrew]), which means that we resemble the Creator.

We should thus perceive what is contained in the Bible as degrees of our spiritual growth that we undergo until we reach the complete harmony, perfection, and eternity of our soul—in equivalence with the Creator.

* See section “What the Wisdom Is About” in “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah” by Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam).

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What exactly is our soul and what does it add to us?“

We exist on the animate level out of four levels of the receptive desire to enjoy: still, vegetative, animate and speaking/human. Within such a desire emerges a desire to give, or in other words, a desire to enjoy from the quality of giving.

That desire is called the “point in the heart.” Indicative of its name, the point in the heart is tiny, and it has no area in which it can enjoy from bestowal. It is surrounded by the “heart,” which does not mean the flesh heart within our physical bodies, but the receptive desires to enjoy in all of its corporeal manifestations: for food, sex, family, money, honor, control and knowledge.

By developing the point in the heart via the influence of the forces dwelling in nature, as described by the wisdom of Kabbalah, we can develop a desire to give above our inherent receptive desire to enjoy, and by doing so, feel pleasure from giving.

The soul is the quality of giving in and of itself.

It is written about this quality that the soul is “a part of the Creator from above.” In other words, the soul is the extent to which we resemble the Creator, which is the pure desire to give. The soul thus adds to us a giving intention above our inborn receptive desires to enjoy, which gives us access to the eternal spiritual world, concealed from our corporeal senses. While we have yet to attain even the tiniest extent of the quality of giving, we remain at the corporeal animate degree, with no knowledge or attainment of the true eternal reality that we exist in.

Based on talks with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman, written/edited by his students.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Does Satan exist?“

The word for “Satan” in Hebrew stems from the word for “deviation” (“soteh”), i.e., that it is a force that diverts us away from the spiritual path.

This force is the human ego, which is a desire to enjoy on account of others and nature. It exists within each and every person, and incites us at every moment with the desire to receive for personal benefit alone.

Essentially, this is a force at the basis of our entire corporeal world. It governs over us until we correct this state. Moreover, we cannot get rid of this force; we can only correct it.

Correcting this force means rising above it by drawing the opposite, creative force of nature: the force of bestowal, love and connection. Performing such a correction requires a method.

The method for undertaking this correction is called “the wisdom of Kabbalah.” It explains how and why the egoistic force appears in us, where it is leading us, and the purpose for all the suffering and pain that it gets us into. It also provides a method for how we can rise above it in order to enter into a new harmonious reality.

Based on the talk, “News with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman” on November 23, 2020. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do you know when you have awakened spiritually?“

You shift to a more unified reality from the current divisive one.

It feels as if you wake up from a dream, see an evil and unjust world all around you, and then you close your eyes again, and reawaken into a perfectly harmonious world.

The awful world that you first saw was all in a dream, and you did not want to be there anymore.

When you awaken the second time, you see a balanced world and not the one that you saw in your dream. Kabbalists wrote about such a spiritual revelation, “They were as dreamers.”

The question is: How can we wake up from our worsening nightmare into a peaceful, balanced and harmonious world? The answer is by changing our perception of reality.

We currently live in a perfect world, nothing less than Heaven, where there is total goodness and not a shred of evilness. The sole obstacle we have in sensing reality as such is our perception. Therefore, by changing our perception, we change the world we live in.

Our current perception of reality is the lowest of them all, where all goodness inverts to its opposite form. Outside this perception is the tranquil and sublime world of Ein Sof (Infinity), but we perceive this eternal goodness through senses that immensely limit it to a tiny, transient and negative picture.

By learning how to rise above our current perception of reality, we will see ourselves blanketed in a warmth of love that we have no awareness of in our current level.

The process of rising above our current perception of reality to one that is perfectly connected, harmonious and eternal is called a process of “correction” in the wisdom of Kabbalah. The changes we undergo in our perception and sensation of reality are considered corrections, and the more corrected we become, the more positive and harmonious the world will appear.

Essentially, correcting ourselves and transforming our perception is a process of rising above our divisive drives, and by doing so, we see how others’ attitudes also change toward us.

In short, there is no need to change anyone or to correct the world. We need only correct ourselves, and then we will discover that we live in a perfect reality.

Based on “The Meeting of Worlds” on June 16, 2014. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Photo by Frank Oberle on Unsplash

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does it mean to ‘let go’ spiritually?“

“Letting go” and “flowing with the spiritual current” means not objecting to the spiritual process. However, the ego is a great interference to simply “letting go” spiritually, as it constantly awakens its complaints and demands.

Therefore, “letting go” spiritually is more difficult than it may sound. It does not mean simply doing nothing and letting our egoistic instincts control us. On the contrary, it means joyously accepting everything happening to us and the world, seeing that everything emanates from a single force that wishes only to benefit, love and care about everyone and everything, and not having any inkling of criticism toward that force.

It can seem as if there is nothing out of the ordinary in such a process, just to enjoy life as much as possible. However, it is in fact very complex, because “letting go” spiritually means being in complete unification with the spiritual force of love, bestowal and connection.

Complete unification with that force means that we agree to and justify its intention to do only good to us, while we are made to endure countless contradictory states to that goodness. In such states, we naturally disagree with nature, the world, life, and myriad problems and crises that we are put through. In other words, we constantly disagree with “letting go” spiritually, as there is always some situation that surfaces in order to make us feel bad.

We are put through difficult and contradictory states on purpose. Kabbalists discovered how the single force of love, bestowal and connection, which they call several names including “the Creator” and “nature,” engages us through such states precisely in order to guide us to its discovery.

So how can we accept everything calmly and “let go” spiritually? It is only doable by changing ourselves, so that instead of perceiving through our inborn egoistic lenses, we develop new altruistic lenses that let us perceive as the Creator does, i.e., solely with an intention to love, care, give and positively connect. With such a transformation, we can achieve a harmonious existence, a state of absolute rest. This concept of absolute rest and harmony, however, is opposite from how we refer to rest and harmony according to our corporeal definitions. It is a rest and harmony that is built from our progress above the speed of light by participating in countless amounts of changes: At any given moment, by applying an intention to love, bestow and positively connect, we undergo billions of changes through completely accepting the providence of the single force of love and bestowal. We think logically while we engage in restricting and rising above our egoistic complaints and demands, which merges us with a state of absolute rest and perfection.

Based on a talk, “Secrets of the Eternal Book,” on July 29, 2013. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Photo by Максим Степаненко on Unsplash.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why is spiritual awakening so painful?“

The darkest time of night is before dawn. Likewise, the authors of The Zohar stated that humanity’s darkest time will come before its spiritual awakening.

Kabbalists Rav Isaac Luria (the Ari) and Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) both pointed out the time The Zohar was referring to as from the end of the 20th century, and into the 21st century.

Baal HaSulam referred to our era as “the last generation.” The phrase describes a lofty spiritual state, which is the final and highest of all spiritual states, and not as it might sound, i.e., as a time of apocalyptic tragedy.

It is in our era, Kabbalists asserted, that we would enter the beginning of spiritual ascent, and eventually reach the final state of human evolution.

However, in order for a positive spiritual transformation to take place, we need to also apply ourselves voluntarily to a spiritually transforming process.

It is as if we currently experience the labor pains of emergence into a new era and generation, and as with any birth, the process is quite difficult and challenging.

Until our era, we had been developing according to corporeal desires for food, sex, family, money, honor, control and knowledge, and in our era, we start feeling a new desire that we cannot pinpoint like the other desires. Instead of feeling drawn to a new and higher state, we rather feel increasing dissatisfaction in our current state, that the desires we have fail to fulfill us. We become more and more divided and resentful of each other the more we find it difficult to fulfill ourselves.

Such is the awakening of a new spiritual desire among our corporeal desires. Ultimately, such a desire emerges in order for us to seek how to fulfill it, but in order to do so, we require educational and social influences that guide this desire to its fulfillment.

Until we discover and implement a method to fulfill this new desire, then the more we try to fulfill it with our past approaches and teachings, the more we will encounter crisis.

This is why our initial spiritual awakening is so painful—because we feel a growing need for spirituality without guidance for how to relate optimally to this new need.

Without the guidance of a new method for our newly emerging spiritual desire, we find ourselves experiencing more problems and crises across the board, on personal, social, economic, ecological and global scales.

The wisdom of Kabbalah was developed specifically as a method for fulfilling this newly emerging desire. Although it first appeared 5,000 years ago, Kabbalists kept it mostly secret over the generations as they knew that humanity had not yet ripened in its need for the wisdom. However, major Kabbalists such as the authors of The Zohar, the Ari and Baal HaSulam specified our era as the one when humanity en masse would become ready for the wisdom, and would be open to the teaching that it provides.

In other words, our era is characterized as the darkness before the dawn, and we need only learn how to guide our newly-emerging desire in a spiritually-productive direction in order to invert the overriding sensations of our era from those of troubles and crises, to higher states of connection and sublimity that we have never experienced before.

Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Photo by Rick Medlen on Unsplash

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is chaos, spiritually?“

Chaos is a state that emerges on the spiritual path to the extent that we aim to build the necessary conditions for spiritual progress—positive connection among us.

The chaos unfolds inside the person, because the transition from one spiritual level to the next takes place like a computer overloading.

We thus feel inner spiritual transitions as chaotic. It is as if we undergo an erasure of everything we previously absorbed, and find ourselves before a completely new state. However, nothing in actuality becomes erased, but on the contrary, we undergo an inner reorganization. It is as if we shift from one frequency to a higher, more powerful and broader one.

If we aim at positively connecting to each other, and by doing so, resemble nature’s interconnectedness, then several new emotions, sensations and perceptions emerge in us, including the need to achieve more and more connection. The chaos that emerges within this process is not destructive, but on the contrary, we discover forces so powerful that our current vessels of perception and sensation are incapable of holding them. They give us a new challenge that we need to resolve, and by working on this challenge, we grow and eventually reach its resolution.

We thus feel such states of transition as chaotic, but they are in fact not chaotic at all. They emerge in order for us to rise to a new level of understanding, emotion, perception and sensation, and to see that there is a higher order in nature. The more we dedicate ourselves to such a process, the more refined our perception and sensation of reality becomes.

Based on the program, “An Integral World,” on November 26, 2012. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: What are the dangers of group work?

Answer: If it acts correctly, according to the advancement of society, then there is no danger.

Question: Is collective intelligence the future of humanity or the death of an individual?

Answer: I believe that the personality should dissolve in the general intellect.

Question: Is there genetic transmission of group skills into humans?

Answer: Yes. Even scientists say that there is something called internal memory.

Question: Can a group of people when uniting between them increase the wisdom of each participant?

Answer: I think not. The most important thing for us is connection where we begin to feel unity and understand this force. Unity is the result of our correct development.

When you unite with others, your personal intelligence dissolves into everyone. Instead of being individual, you acquire something common.
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 9/ 25/20

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why is spiritual truth so elusive?“

What is spirituality? Spirituality is the quality of love, bestowal and connection. This is why spirituality is so elusive. It is concealed from us, since it is complete altruism while our quality is the opposite, total egoism.

Then, the question becomes, is spirituality hidden from us or do we hide spirituality by having no interest in recognizing its existence? According to our receptive nature, we solely desire corporeal fulfillment. The idea of enjoying purely by giving, without receiving anything at all in return, is alien to us.

That is the whole problem. Nobody and nothing hides spirituality from us. We exist within a spiritual reality, and if we could expand our vessels of perception and sensation, we would see that only a single force of love, bestowal and connection exists. However, when we look at the world around us, it looks like a completely opposite picture to one of pure love, bestowal and connection.

This opposition is in order for us to develop a sincere desire to enter into balance with the spiritual reality surrounding us, that our relations and attitudes to each other will become as loving, altruistic and positively connected as the quality of nature in and of itself. During the process of adapting ourselves to the spiritual reality of love, bestowal and connection, we do not cancel the inborn human ego and our corporeal desires. The only transformation we need make to reveal the spiritual truth is in our intention: that we restrict our egoistic intention to enjoy at the expense of others and nature, and increase our intention to love, bestow and connect purely “for the sake of bestowal,” i.e., without wanting anything in return. In other words, in order to discover the spiritual reality that is filled with the quality of love, bestowal and connection, we need only transform our intention from egoistic to altruistic, and then we will enter a whole new perception and sensation of reality: one that is boundless, tranquil and completely balanced.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2010/11/17, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose.” Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Are there any spiritual games to play in a group and understand spirituality in easy way?“

A spiritual game is one that elevates us from the animal degree, where we consider self-benefit over benefiting others, to the human degree, where we prioritize benefiting others and nature over ourselves.

Such a game involves learning and participating in a group of individuals who share a common goal of attaining spirituality, and specifically by treating spiritual development as a game, we construct ourselves as human beings in the fullest sense of the term (“human” [“Adam” in Hebrew] stems from the phrase, “similar to the upper one” [“Adameh le Elyon”]).

While it is common to think of games as trivial and entertaining in our world, if we pursue spirituality, then the spiritual game is of utmost importance and seriousness. By playing this game, we gradually adapt ourselves to the spiritual world until we completely resemble it.

This game involves assembling ourselves in an environment that guides and supports spiritual progress, which includes a group, books and a spiritual teacher, and this environment acts out the higher spiritual state that we wish to enter.

As the spiritual world is characterized by qualities of bestowal, love and positive connection, which is contrary to our corporeal world—qualities of reception, rejection and division—then in order to become spiritual, we need to include ourselves in an environment where its members learn, act out and exemplify the spiritual qualities to the best of their abilities. By involving ourselves in such an environment, we gradually absorb those qualities, and then from a game where we act out and “play” spiritual qualities among each other, we eventually reach a state where we feel the difference between our corporeal egoistic state and the spiritual state that our group projects onto us—which then activates a sincere desire—prayer—that spiritually transforms us. If our desire is sincere, with no self-benefit laced within, then it gets a response, and we discover our eternal soul.

Based on the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 1/3/21. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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