Entries in the 'Q&A' Category

If a Person Has no Shame

564Question: 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.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/17/24

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Let Everything Be Revealed

549.01Question: 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.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Dissemination Wizard” 3/13/10

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Develop Like a Child

528.01Question: 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.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. We are Thinking about our Friend!“ 3/11/10

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The Book of Zohar’s Influence

527.07Question: 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.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Hidden Influence of The Book of Zohar” 3/7/10

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Heightened Senses

231.01Question: 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.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kabbalist’s Super Senses” 3/11/10

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Information Transmitter

548.02Question: 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.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Representative of God!“ 3/13/10

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Crossing the Machsom “In The Blink Of An Eye”

962.3Question: 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.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Cross the Machsom” 11/14/10

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The Spiritual versus Material World

49.01Question: 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.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Difference between Kabbalah, Science and New Age” 1/28/12

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Where Do I Objectively Exist?

539Question: Essentially, do I have to absorb absolutely the entire world?

Answer: It is already in you. Let us say you are sitting in front of your computer right now. In it you can see the whole world. If you see it on the screen, it means it is in your computer system; otherwise, you would not see it.

But the problem is whether anything is outside of you at all. Maybe not. I see what arises in my feelings. But what is behind these feelings? I do not know. Maybe I am in some kind of matrix that projects some images and sensations to me, and makes some suggestions to me. I have nothing but my feelings.

Where do they come from? Maybe now I am in an unconscious state, and this whole world manifests itself in my sick imagination: I am talking to you, I exist, and so on.

But in fact, you are missing one more state in relation to which you could measure this.

Comment: You once gave an example that there is a computer system that includes the processor itself and a screen on which all the processes occurring in the computer are projected. It seems to us we see something. In fact, we do not feel the processes themselves.

My Response: This is why we need to get to this processor, to all its internal parts. They are our system, only they are hidden from us.

When I get to them, I will find out why it all exists, and at the same time I will discover that it was created for my sake. There I will find my eternal, perfect state, I will be able to control myself and not be controlled.

Today I automatically react when someone evokes certain feelings and thoughts in me. I myself am this screen, this guidance, and I have no opportunity to enter an objective state. After all, the fact that I am now talking and in contact with you is all some kind of reaction to what is in front of me.

Where do I really separately and objectively exist?

We do not have this. This is what we need to achieve.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Swallow the Whole World” 4/10/10

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The Creator in Man

963.5Question: According to Kabbalah, the Creator clothes Himself in every person, in each of us. For example, when you talk to someone, do you perceive that person as the Creator speaking through them?

Answer: It depends on my focus and what I need from the interaction.
If I need to respond to someone on their level so that they understand me, I engage with them on that level rather than connecting with the Creator within them.

In this case, I view the person not as an individual, but as nature. They appear to me not as a personality but as a part of nature through which the Creator manifests in relation to me. So, I do not see the person before me. I see a mass of nature, of humanity, through which I observe the Creator, His actions, and His attitude toward me.

However, when I wish to see the person and his individuality, I need to perceive the Creator as He descends to the level of that person, wants to elevate and shape him, and He addresses me.

Then I address that person directly, while considering the Creator’s influence on him and my own influence on that person so that our influences—mine and the Creator’s—align within him and enable him to rise.

Question: Is this such a complex scheme? Do you separate people into two streams?

Answer: Of course! If it is a person with a point in the heart who needs to move forward, if it is my student with whom I must interact this way, I relate to them as the Creator does—as a unique, distinct spiritual individual and not just a mass.

This approach applies only to people with a point in the heart who work on themselves and reach a level where they represent a spiritual individuality. There are not many such people. But there are not supposed to be many of them.
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From KabTV’s “I got a call. The Creator in Man…“ 3/20/10

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