Sergey writes:

Is communism bad or is it good? I see how my parents yearn for the old times. And I, looking at today, am not very joyful either. Why couldn’t we build communism? We really wanted it!

Answer: Communism cannot exist without the prior education of society as a whole. Therefore, it is just an illusion, a dream, but quite achievable if people want it.

Question: What was the mistake?

Answer: The mistake was that people were forced to live as if under communism.

Question: How should it have been? What is preliminary education?

Answer: People need to be educated first. And when people want it, then it can be gradually introduced.

Question: How many people need to want it so that it would not be a bloody revolution?

Answer: It does not have to be a revolution at all. It could be a small group of people, like a Kibbutz, that shows it is possible to live this way.

Question: And if they start living this way and suddenly it works, what happens next? Does it start spreading across the world?

Answer: It depends on those in the group.

Question: But do they want it to spread across the world?

Answer: Yes and no. They might want it, but they understand that on a large scale it is still impossible.

Question: So it is not time yet?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What determines if the time has come for equality to spread across the world?

Answer: It is the moral level of society. How society itself desires to bring all its members to unity, to a common level, and so on.

Question: So, here you say, not by force? Everything should be by consensus?

Answer: Of course.

Question: Someone who lives well, earns well, and lives well under capitalism, for example, will he really want to come to this society of equals and so on? What do you think?

Answer: It depends on education.

Question: So he might have such consciousness?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So in conclusion: first education, then non-revolutionary transition?

Answer: Of course. Absolutely!

Question: You have already answered a bit, but still Sergey asks this question: “Still, will communism happen, or is it utopia?”

Answer: I think it will happen, let’s call it communism, but it will not be what we think. It will be a special, wise society where everyone will understand that in such a state it is better for them.

Question: And still, will it be a society of equals, or is it not correct to call it that?

Answer: Equals, yes. But in what?

Question: Yes, that is the question. And what is true equality?

Answer: True equality is that each person is given the opportunity to achieve their dream.

Question: So, you move toward your dream.

Answer: Yes. And what dream he wants to fulfill depends on the education.

Question: That is beautiful! So, you move toward your dream, everyone does that, and then you are kind of equal with them?

Answer: You hold onto it and move forward.

Question: Sergey also asks you: “Dear Michael, what would you say to elderly people who really believed in the ideals of equality, fraternity? Was that correct?”

Answer: It was correct. It was such a time. So there is no need to worry that you were forced or taught some nonsense and you believed in it, and life went on. No. We will still come to this gradually. I think people will come to it.

But communism must be based on education, mutual respect, love, and connection with each other. That is what is said in the Torah: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And all problems are solved by this.

Comment: Just come to this point, and then everything will roll on.

Answer: Yes.
[331524]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/13/24

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Question: An elder was asked: “What is sadness?” “Being sad means always thinking about yourself,” the elder replied.

How simple it really is, and how complicated it is at the same time. Can a person not be sad?

Answer: I do not know; I keep myself occupied.

Question: You keep yourself occupied, but not to avoid sadness, right? Not for that?

Answer: No. Even if I did nothing, I would not be sad.

Question: Do you ever feel sadness at all?

Answer: No.

Question: Why? Everyone feels it, but you do not.

Answer: I do not let this feeling develop within me. That is the first thing.

Second, I find more information about development than I can absorb or encompass. Because of that, I do not feel sad.

Comment: So you always have horizons—more and more.

My Response: Yes, you could say that.

Question: The opposite of sadness is joy. Can one be joyful all the time?

Answer: No.

Question: So one way or another, should such a movement be there?

Answer: Yes, it is natural for a person.

Question: To reach joy, do you need to feel sad?

Answer: To reach joy, you need to realize that what you have is just ordinary life. Therefore, you cannot be in constant joy or some kind of euphoria. But, in principle, you cannot be sad either. You can be in a neutral state and thus feel that you are floating.

Question: And then there will be joy, and then all these states? Joy will come, and then you float again, and so on?

Answer: Yes, in small doses.

Question: Why does the Creator give us these states, including joy and sadness? Why does He give us all this?

Answer: Without this, we would not be able to notice time at all. Only through these opposing feelings: from joy to sadness, from fear to happiness…

Question: Is that why we feel that time is passing?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So what is time?

Answer: It is the alternation of such feelings.

Question: So is time the alternation of these states?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is that all?

Answer: What else could there be for a person?
[331414]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/17/24

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Question: You are asked about shame: “You always say that shame is the most powerful means.” Is that true?

Answer: Yes.

Question: The writer asks: “In what way? To convince a person that they are wrong? To shame them?”

Answer: Shame is an assessment of a person much lower than he considers himself to be, and this is an assessment with which he cannot agree.

Question: Someone else evaluates them that way, right?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: It is such a blow to a person’s “self.”

My Response: Of course!

Question: What are they ashamed of?

Answer: The fact that they receive this message from their surroundings.

Question: What if they come to this conclusion themselves? Does it change anything?

Answer: Then they usually forget about it. If it is not under the power of others, then it is forgotten.

Question: So when I am shamed, that is a very heavy state. Does it bring something? Do I change because of it?

Answer: A person must change. Either he’s hiding or hiding himself, or he has to do something about it.

Question: And why does he get this? It is all one way or another from above, through someone obviously, but why are they shamed?

Answer: It is to change them.

Question: And when a person understands this, then?

Answer: Then it is a correction.

Question: Why do we blush when we are shamed?

Answer: It is the sort of animals we are; we blush when we are ashamed.

Comment: Animals do not blush especially. True, they have all sorts of movements showing shame.

My Response: We do.

Question: Why do I later hate the person who shamed me?

Answer: Not only do I hate them later, there were times when such people were killed, and so on. That is, the one who brings me some negative feelings, I am ready to annihilate.

Question: Shame and humiliation are they similar forms?

Answer: Yes.

Question: If a person has no shame, what does that say? There is probably not such a person. But suppose.

Answer: Usually it means they do not understand what it is about.

Question: This person?

Answer: Yes, they are undeveloped.

Question: So developed people live with shame?

Answer: Of course. There is a certain threshold. If you push them beyond this threshold with your statements, they cannot agree with it.

Question: So every person has this threshold. What does it mean that a person covers their shame?

Answer: Every person. Their main concern is to cover themselves from shame.

Question: In principle, that is how a person lives. Then there is another question. In the Bible it said that “they covered their shame with clothes.” What does that mean? They ask: was it normal for them to walk naked and exposed?

It was all normal until a certain point. And suddenly, as you say, some threshold happened. What was this threshold for them, for these first people? According to the Bible, and if possible, even the Kabbalistic meaning?

Answer: When the feeling of shame appeared. The feeling of shame is when a person feels naked before others, uncovered. And that is very difficult.

Question: And if we touch on your constant theme of egoism, we are one way or another covering it?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What happened with Adam and Eve that they suddenly became ashamed?

Answer: I do not think it is a problem of Adam and Eve; it was the first social problem manifesting that they had such inclinations they could not be proud of, but rather they were ashamed of. And they covered themselves. And when you cover yourself, that is it, no one knows or understands what you represent, what you are hiding from, and whatnot.

Question: Suppose they covered themselves even materially, with clothes. Over time, these clothes from covering shifted to an element of pride. They adorned them with gold, couturiers appeared. Clothes became not just a cover of shame but on the contrary, a demonstration of wealth. What is that? Can you explain?

Answer: It is a natural inversion, because what needs to be covered, if you cover it with something that hits the other’s eyes, it is clear that it is not covering you, but on the contrary—revealing.

Question: So, in principle, what does it say about a person when they look at clothes like that? Not seeing clothes as simple covering, but when they view them as “I am beautiful, I am this…”—what is it? Why do they do that?

Answer: To eliminate any possibilities for the other to somehow belittle them and so on.
[331839]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/17/24

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Question: Some of your students transmit spiritual information, while disseminating, without realizing it themselves. How can you recognize within yourself whether you are doing it correctly or not?

Answer: It does not matter. Let everyone try to disseminate, it does not matter with what motives. Even the most negative, the most foolish, and the most conceited, those who seek power, fame, money—let them try! This leads to a quick analysis.

When everything is revealed, it immediately becomes clear where evil stands in comparison to good. Conversely, it is worse when it is hidden. If the time for disclosure has come, let everything be disclosed.

For example, if you are a doctor and you advertise yourself, it is quickly possible to determine whether you are a good doctor or a bad one. If you do not advertise yourself, you can work with patients all your life quietly at some level, and that is it. But as soon as you reveal yourself more, there is a danger that you will be figured out and no one will come to you at all.

That is why I am in favor of everything being revealed as much as possible. All opinions, knowledge, and judgments about Kabbalah, all its followers, and conversely, all sorts of “anti”—let everything be revealed. And then, there will be a very quick analysis and correct conclusions.

People do not know what it is. They do not understand that now the real nature of the world is opening up to them, which helps them change, become normal, happy, and to navigate our world correctly and build the correct society.
[330135]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Dissemination Wizard” 3/13/10

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Question: When I think about my friends or we think about something together, how do we build our artificial actions correctly?

Answer: Our artificial, even semi-false actions eventually add up to one serious request, a demand that the light really change us.

But this happens only if we insert ourselves into its device, into its matrix, even if we do not want to but still trying to make it work, together, although in fact we are not together with our hearts yet, studying Kabbalah, although we do not know what we are studying and what we need from it. We sort of hide these unspoken conditions from ourselves and lie to ourselves.

But it does not matter. As a result, everything develops into conditions that are required for the system to start acting on us like on small children. This is the same system, the same technique by which babies develop.

As a child, they explained to us: “Look, this is this and this is that. This is added. This is subtracted.” That is, we are already beginning to perceive reality with our minds and feelings.

When I show my mind and feelings for our world, it is considered that I am already a small person. And then I can start accumulating information, adding it up, synthesizing it, analyzing it, but only from the moment when I am already a human being, let’s say from the age of five to six.

And before that, I am developing completely unconsciously. I look at adults and do the same thing, repeat what they say, do what they advise. We are also acting in relation to the spiritual world in the same way.
[329940]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. We are Thinking about our Friend!“ 3/11/10

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Question: You say that when reading The Book of Zohar, we do not feel how spiritual forces influence us or how many corrections occur during its study. If a person does not feel anything, does it mean that nothing is happening?

Answer: Certainly! Do we feel what is happening in our bodies? We feel only a millionth part of what is happening, and everything else passes by our senses and thoughts. We do not catch anything, and we do not have time to process anything.

Question: I can usually judge something when I feel something. You say if I do not feel, then is nothing happening. So does studying The Book of Zohar influence people?

Answer: The fact is that, on one hand, the integral world in which I actually find myself is vital to me and not the one that seems to me. I want to know the complete picture of the world and how it affects me. And what I do not feel today, I can feel tomorrow. Therefore, first of all, I need to experience this world. Second, I work in the part of the world that I feel.

There are two worlds: revealed and hidden. I must uncover everything around me and connect with the universe entirely.

This is what Kabbalah is for. That is why it is called the science of receiving. Receiving, that is, the disclosure of the universal complete universe, so I feel myself not within the framework of our world, not within the framework of my body, but in perfection, in eternity, in complete harmony with all of nature, I feel as an integral part of it, as eternal as it is.

Question: Let’s say an ordinary person begins to study The Book of Zohar. Does even just reading a passage affect him?

Answer: It does even if he just hears and does not understand. All the same, he is in contact because everything that happens in our world is some kind of contact through the matter of our world, which is desire.
[330030]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Hidden Influence of The Book of Zohar” 3/7/10

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Question: I often notice that you close your eyes when you want to convey a specific spiritual picture. Why do you do this?

Answer: To focus. In principle, whether my eyes are closed or open has nothing to do with the sensation of the higher world.

Concentrating on the students and conveying information to them is necessary because it is challenging to bring it out from the inside and clothe it in some earthly form. You need to concentrate so you are not disturbed by images, sounds, or smells. Everything gets in the way!

I remember when an ambulance passed near the place where we were studying with Rabash, he got switched off. If a tractor was working quietly somewhere, emitting a distant, monotonous sound, it was difficult for him to concentrate.

And I have an even bigger problem. First of all, I am not him. He was huge on the one hand. On the other hand, 300 students are in front of me. I must feel them, but feelings still include earthly sensations too.

It turns out that the slightest sound, some kind of knock, someone said something, someone misunderstood something, and I already start to lose my intention, my concentration. Therefore, I need it to be quiet. Even the smell of something is distracting.

It seems to us that the Kabbalist withdraws into himself and plunges inside like a yogi. No. His immersion coincides with the intensification of all earthly senses, I can’t even tell you how much!

For example, while we are walking and talking with Rabash, a small pebble the size of a pea suddenly got into his shoe and prevented him from concentrating. This doesn’t fit at all with how we are used to thinking about the upper world.

To the Kabbalist, all this appears as one whole, and he becomes sensitive to everything. He does not leave, does not float away somewhere; on the contrary, every particle, every connection in the world becomes very important to him. He sees this unity and mutual influence. This whole world is what he needs.
[330054]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kabbalist’s Super Senses” 3/11/10

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Question: When you hear yourself on a recording, for example, speaking during a lesson, do you clearly see how the upper force transmits information through you?

Answer: Of course, I feel it. Is there anything of my own in me? Possibly, but only when I am alone. When I am with others, I am not myself; I am merely a conduit through which something is transmitted from above. In this state, I try to adapt the information, convey it, and make myself the most suitable instrument for perception by external vessels, souls, that is, people. I try to find examples and diagrams, while simultaneously integrating with what descends to me, with what I contact from above.

I am entirely focused on being this buffer, this adapter, between the degree I can currently reveal for myself and my recipients, lowering it to the level they are at, and conveying it in the most accessible form for them.

Comment: For example, when someone is engaged in creative work, they often do not understand how it happens. They feel that it is not their achievement, but rather that information comes to them somehow. I see that you often say, “Ask a question, and you will receive an answer.”

My Response: It is not mysticism. It is actually internal work. Creative people also partially feel this way. Why do you need to ask a question? Because when I hear a question, I feel the student asking it, and I understand at what level I need to give the answer. I need to receive the question first; it is not possible otherwise.

These were the dynamics between me and Rabash, where I compelled him to descend in his answer to my level and much lower as much as possible. This prepared him for conducting lessons with other students.
[330073]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Representative of God!“ 3/13/10

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Question: You often say that now we will cross through the Machsom. And many, especially beginners who really want it, get disappointed.

I remember how in my first congress I thought: now, now, now. And the older ones said: “Yes, he says that every congress.” And so every time a person loses the importance of the goal.

How can we rise above it? After all, the longer a person studies, the more each congress becomes routine for him.

Answer: No, this is the wrong attitude because everything adds up to one strong attack. Therefore, the accumulation of disappointments, efforts, hopes, dreams, and their non–fulfillment, unreality, their distance or apparent proximity, elusive hope—all this accumulates in us and eventually leads to a state where we still become worthy for the spiritual world to open up to us.

There is nothing in our world that can replace this work in terms of its importance, necessity, eternity and perfection, and aspiration for something higher. Everything else is an animal existence.

So if a person denies it or says: “Come on, whatever,” he should just be thrown overboard the ship. He is ballast and has no right to stay.

Every beginner hopes that now he will slip into the spiritual world. However, we know that it is very difficult, and at the same time we still have to believe that it can happen at any minute. That is what it says: “The salvation of the Creator is instantaneous and unexpected, like the exodus from Egypt.”

So, if you’ve been told: “That’s it, in a moment!”, and immediately it happens. This is really the only way. At the most inopportune moment! At night, when it’s dark, when there is no hope and no prerequisites for this, suddenly “bam,” and that is it. It is given the opportunity to urgently rise up and escape from egoism, get rid of it. In a hurry!

Now they give you such an aspiration, such pressure, such a kick from behind that you fly away from it in the dark, not knowing where. And you don’t need to know! And those who reason with their smart brains, will remain with them in the animal body and in the animal world.

So only the constant accumulation of efforts, the integration of all hopes and plans will lead to getting rid of egoism.

I do not know what those people who are ballast are striving for, what they think, what hope, goal, or deliverance they imagine. In Kabbalah, deliverance means getting rid of egoism—only.

Question: And if a person is completely desperate?

Answer: Let him go. If he stays in the group, but is in despair, does nothing, believes that everything is over, he ruins himself even more. He is a ballast in the hands of his friends, like a seriously ill man, like some kind of appendage. He’d better leave. I advise.

Question: So there is no other way for him except to leave?

Answer: Only if he silences his mind and heart and gives himself completely to the flow of the group, he will see how it takes him out into the wide open.
[329880]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Cross the Machsom” 11/14/10

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Question: Kabbalah studies take many years. Why do people break down and leave?

Answer: Many of my former students who left us still harbor bitterness, even hatred, toward me and a negative attitude toward our organization because they see how difficult it is to practice Kabbalah.

And it is true. A person feels it is challenging for him; therefore, as usual, he looks for an excuse in his instinct of self-preservation.

And to justify oneself means to humiliate and discredit me. Go online and see what they write. Why? It is from the instinct of self-preservation. A person must assert himself, which means destroying the other.

But I don’t care what is written there. Sometimes, I hear from my students that someone wrote such and such. Well, So they wrote… Of course, this interferes with dissemination. However, this doesn’t bother me personally. I still do my job, and whoever comes comes.

A person has a clear instinct—to put down someone else for his self-aggrandizement. If he cannot rise, then by suppressing someone, he supposedly rises relative to others.

I don’t measure myself relative to others. We must measure ourselves against the Creator! Therefore, in Kabbalah, the more exalted there are the better!

In our world, you want only to be the richest and the rest poor so that you are the strongest and the rest are the weakest. In spirituality, this is impossible! Only together with like-minded people can you achieve something! And the more people there are with you, the higher you rise since everything is built on a combination, unity, and mutual guarantee, a common vessel.

But in our world, on the contrary, everything is built on suppression and disregard for others. Therefore, you can immediately see where people are. Sometimes, I hear what this or that person is saying and immediately understand where he is.

I don’t even want to check him through the grid of my properties and powers in a spiritual state. Just hearing it is enough. If a person responds well, he moves upward toward correction, and if he reacts poorly, he descends into egoism.

Question: What do you mean when you say that you test a person through the grid of your spiritual properties?

Answer: It is impossible to explain it to others. What is the point? It still won’t help.

The properties of each person are in a common Kli, in a common vessel, in a common soul. But why should I feel it there if it is at the very bottom? It is as if in our world, you went to the slums where he lives, to the dirt in which he exists, to the environment in which he is located.

Do you need to plunge into all this?! For what? I don’t even want to think about such people, let alone contact them. It is not worth it. Contacting them gets you dirty. That is why Kabbalists don’t do this.
[328850]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Difference between Kabbalah, Science and New Age” 1/28/12

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