Question: There is an Arabic proverb: “Before telling someone the bitter truth, anoint the tip of your tongue with honey.”

Should you tell a person the bitter truth or not? It is said: “Before telling a person the bitter truth.” Should we or not?

Answer: We must calculate whether this truth, although bitter, is necessary for him. If it is truly necessary.

Question: This is quite a task you are asking of us: to think of another at this moment?

Answer: Of course. The one who tells the bitter truth to another must experience this bitter truth on himself although it does not apply to him.

Question: So he should walk in his shoes, as they say, then he can tell the bitter truth?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And if not, if he did not test it on himself?

Answer: If he has not tested what he wants to tell the other, where he wants to lead the other with his statement, then it is better not to say it.

Question: So, who is this bitter truth for?

Answer: This is a bitter truth for another.

Question: But tested on the one who says it?

Answer: If it is tested on him, then he can speak.

Question: What does it mean if we go according to this Arabic proverb, “You must first anoint the tip of your tongue with honey?”

Answer: So that it is clothed in something sweet and comforts a person, in hope, in faith, and perhaps in some benefit.

Comment: That is, you cannot throw it at him…

My Response: No! You should not say anything bad at all.

Comment: You are in favor of a medicine that…

My Response: That heals.

Question: And that may be covered in some sweet syrup or some sweet wrapper?

Answer: Yes, maybe.

Question: Have you told the bitter truth to any person or to people in general? You do know it. Do you tell the truth?

Answer: No.

Question: Why not?

Answer: What for? This can be said to a person only when he has the strength, the ability to understand, realize, accept, and solve this problem in himself. And if he does not have such training, why tell him?

Question: So, you think that man or humanity is not yet ready for the bitter truth?

Answer: It is not ready! Whatever wrapper you use, it is not ready.

Question: When will we be ready to hear the bitter truth?

Answer: I do not know.

Question: But should we? One way or another, will we have to go through this stage?

Answer: I do not think we need to say anything. We need to act in such a way that the Creator tells people all this.

Question: So our task is to bring the Creator to people?

Answer: Yes.

Question: To do so, do we have to attain the bitter truth ourselves or not?

Answer: Of course! Or you will not pray for the Creator to do it.

Question: For Him to come to the people?

Answer: Right.
[327209]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/4/24

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Alyona writes:

Dear Michael Laitman,

Parenting is one of my greatest concerns today.
I found this quote from Korney Chukovsky: “Hearing a fairy tale, a child usually sides with the kind, courageous, or unfairly treated. Our whole task is to awaken, foster, and strengthen, in the pliable mind of a child, this precious ability to empathize, sympathize, and share other’s joy, without which a human is not really a human.

In your opinion, which books should be available to a child? A battle of good and evil so the child can choose a good force or books that describe this world as completely good without any evil?

Answer: At first, completely kind books for elementary school children if I may say so. And then in a more natural way books where evil is present on a par with good: Good wins, evil retreats, and so on until a child matures and begins to read books and novels where evil prevails.

Comment: Such is a person’s preparation.

My Response: To bring him out of fairy tales and introduce him to real life.

Question: And in real life where evil wins?

Answer: Of course. So a child must learn not to oppose evil because he will only bring problems on himself. He must learn that evil wins, but he should remain on the sidelines; at no point does he engage in a fight against evil.

Comment: I understand this progression. At first, he is just a small, gentle child; we don’t want to scare him. The first stage is clear. Second, gradually evil appears, yet good still wins. This too is clear, so he would be on the side of good. Then you made a drastic turnaround, you said our world is all evil.

My Response: Meaning, we explain to a child that although there is good and evil in our world, we need to dodge evil.

Question: Is this what we explain to the child?

Answer: Yes, to a child, but only at the third stage.

Question: So you don’t accept evil after all? One should avoid it, as you said. This is the third stage.

When does he understand that our world is built on evil?

Answer: He will understand this when he is in the third stage. He will turn away, step back, and distance himself from it. Then comes quite an interesting stage when he gets involved with evil and uses it for his own selfish needs, career advancement and so on.

Question: So our little protagonist, who started out so pure, suddenly climbs the career ladder, stepping on others and so on?

Answer: Yes

Question: And then the fifth stage, should he understand he is like that?

Answer: We have not yet reached this in our world, so we have no clear examples. That is why I don’t want to talk about it.

Question: But should he at least come to the conclusion that this is bad?

Answer: He must come to the conclusion that he cannot live in such a world, that indeed in our world of egoism everything is distorted. So he has no choice but to simply distance himself from this world as much as possible, because he still has to exist, provide for his children, and so on. But in general it is a problem.

Comment: It’s a problem to isolate yourself from this world. Especially now when social media is everywhere.

My Response: Yes, but if he knows this basic principle, he distances himself from the world.

Question: The principle that it’s all a lie, that everything he’s being fed is paid for and that he needs to distance himself?

Answer: Right.

Question: Then just tell us the right way to distance oneself. What should one surround oneself with? No wonder, Alyona asks: “What to make available to a child?” And now I’m asking you about adults: what should one surround oneself with, how can one distance oneself from the world?

Answer: Surround yourself with self-care. Find something you love besides work or home. I remember I had a neighbor who was into woodwork. That’s all. That was his activity. He searched for all sorts of wood, logs, and everything else and then worked on them. Made birdhouses, all that kind of stuff. He liked it.

Question: So you are gradually, gently bringing us to such a way of distancing yourself from the world by taking up a hobby? Collecting soldiers, I don’t know how to process woodworking?

Answer: It doesn’t matter, yes.

Question: And then? Still, how do we take care of the soul?

Answer: Well, I’m talking about ordinary people.

Comment: But let’s take it a step further.

My Response: This will bring him closer to his soul.

Question: So we have now gone from a small child to an adult. Where should a person come to as a result, having gone all this way, in the end?

Answer: To the fact the simplest handiwork softens the soul. In general, he will be satisfied with his existence.

Question: But will this question vex him, after all, such a small question about his soul?

Answer: Maybe, yes, and maybe that will be enough for the level of development of his soul.
[325128]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/21/23

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Question: How does the Kabbalistic explanation of our world and the Passover holiday differ from the usual comments?

Answer: There are several levels of explanation of existence, its creation, development, goals, and tasks of a person in it. For example, you can talk about the Passover holiday about:

1. The historical period of slavery of the nation in Egypt,

2. The “slavery” of man in his egoism—Egypt—Pharaoh,

3. The development of creation—desire under the influence of the Creator’s light and its absence under the influence of darkness—Egypt—Pharaoh.

You can also speak at different levels about:

1. The mechanical performance of rituals, which are commonly called commandments,

2. The psychological fulfillment of the instruction “love thy neighbor as thyself,” as a general (Klal) instruction of the Creator, which includes all other instructions, as it is said in the Torah: “Love thy neighbor is the general law of the Torah,”

3. The Kabbalistic influence of the upper light on the worlds and through them about souls that go through the stages of their spiritual development—correction.
[156182]

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Question: According to Kabbalah, all structures are built according to the four stages of the development of desire. Does this apply even to works of fiction and movie scripts?

Answer: If we want to fill a desire, we must treat it the way the light that created it treats it, according to the same four stages of development.

Any literary work develops in four stages. I am sure that all playwrights, writers, and even journalists who seek to attract the reader’s attention, understand that their work must be built on four stages, including the climax and the ending.

Otherwise, if it does not correspond to the structure of our desire, then a person simply will not understand what they want to sell to him, what they want to fill him with. Therefore, all writers should create in the same way as the Creator, according to the four stages of direct light.

There is such a formula when pleasure, in order to create a desire for itself that would feel it precisely as pleasure, must contact this desire for four consecutive and opposite stages, when intention and desire, pleasure and hunger, play with each other until they become completely opposite and at the same time can be together.

People instinctively understood that it should be built in this way, because they themselves consist of four stages of the development of desire. Psychologists subconsciously felt this when they saw such states in human relationships.

Let’s say I’m with a child when I am teaching him something, and see how I play with him and beat him so that he has a desire to be for or against so he will understand his mistake. He must identify all the erroneous states and only then agree with me. In principle, this is a natural thing that does not relate to Kabbalah at all.

Question: How can a Kabbalistic touch be added inside any work of art?

Answer: This is a completely different action when Malchut becomes Keter, and the Keter of direct light becomes Malchut. That is how the reverse light works! That is, the giver and the recipient switch roles when the recipient initially turns around in such a way that proves to the giver how by receiving from him, he actually gives to him. This is the whole trick between us and the Creator. In other words, the recipient, the object, the goal wants to compensate themselves in some way in relation to their Creator.

This exists even in human relationships. Only everything depends on what kind of relationship there is between them, and then receiving and giving are purely conditional. For example, between a mother and a child, between friends, between spouses, between any events in the world, the main thing is that behind them there are feeling, understanding people who are in some kind of state of connection with each other.

Another example is that they bring me a lot of gifts and sometimes fill me up with all sorts of nonsense. And I have to accept all this and thank them because the giver feels that he is giving. He is pleased with this, because in fact he receives.

Therefore, I act out how much I need it, how pleasant it is, and so on; that is, I increase the action itself many, many times. A gift can cost a few shekels, but I make it feel like it is worth millions and that it is exactly what I wanted.

We see that neither the amount nor anything else matters here, but only the relationship between people, when the giver feels fulfilled, receives, and enjoys it. This exists around us at every moment, only it is a very small fraction of receiving and giving.
[326522]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Mystery of Art” 1/16/12

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Question: What initially guided you in life?

Answer: Like everyone else, I was driven by the desire to understand the meaning of life, its mysteries, because I saw that everything must have some form of control. Not a single cell, organism, or the entire universe, if it is an interconnected system, can exist without being controlled, according to what our sciences say.

But they only reveal a small part of the nature surrounding us. We scrape off some specks of dust and call it “chewing on the granite of science.” Indeed, before us stands an enormous granite wall, and where we can chip off a piece, that is our science, and everything else is the unknown.

That is how I clearly felt standing before this “granite wall,” which I could scrape slightly to collect a bit just like everyone else.

Newton had a different analogy. He is quoted as likening himself to a “schoolboy collecting pebbles on the shore of the sea called knowledge.” And he is only collecting pebbles, not even in the sea yet, but on the shore.

When I felt this, science stopped attracting me. It seemed so petty and insignificant to me that it was not worth dedicating my entire life, being devoted to it, for the sake of some small, isolated pieces of knowledge. However, that does not mean I disregarded it. Not at all! I still love it, read about it, and stay interested, all these years.

Nevertheless, I was strongly repelled by it. What is the point of scratching the “granite” like everyone else to pick up a couple of crumbs, understand a bit more, and know a bit more? If I were to engage only in my biocybernetics, I would not even understand or recognize it.

And what about biology, zoology, botany, geology, mineralogy, earth science, and cosmology? A vast array of other sciences in principle speak about all of nature, about all this “granite.” But each one scrapes and collects different “specks” from different places, and from this arises geology, zoology, mineralogy, and so on. What would I gain from engaging in them?

When I looked at this, I felt immense emptiness within me: There is nothing worth living for. I was left with only one question: How can I find the meaning of life? What interested me was not the trivial knowledge of partial, scattered, disconnected sciences, each of which scraped together something for itself, but the overall understanding—the design of the Universe.

This is what is called the “meaning of life” because human life, as we observe, is the highest form of existence. What is the purpose for nature, the upper force, (call it the Creator, emanator, or maker, it does not matter) to create all this?

This greatly puzzled me. My whole life until I found Kabbalah turned into some sort of emptiness. I worked, served, opened my own fairly successful business, but all of that was somehow in the background. Inside I felt absolute emptiness and the insignificance of existence. That’s how it was.

I think today millions, maybe even billions, of people in the world feel the same way. This feeling precedes a person’s search and helps them feel the system in which we exist. Basically I used to ask myself: “What is this? Why is all this around me, including myself?”

When you look at the starry sky and see this infinity, you think and wonder how to understand and comprehend all this?

For what? Why? What? There is such a question that comes from the Universe itself when you look at it on a dark night. If this question truly torments a person, they come to study Kabbalah.

For those people who simply feel a crisis, somehow, they need to understand the system they are in. After all, if they do not balance themselves with this system of nature, do not bring themselves to homeostasis, to harmony, then nature will crush them with its catastrophes: tsunamis, earthquakes, shifts in tectonic plates, and even nuclear war.

Then there are only two options: either they start seeking the meaning of life out of animal fear, or they die out like dinosaurs who disappeared because they did not fit the changing system of nature.

But dinosaurs did not have another solution. We have a very simple solution: either we change, or we perish. A small part will remain that will still come to balance with nature. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, it may happen like this.

Moreover, only those who can participate in integration will remain. They will create balance. All the others will be in this system but not in the earthly form because their current animalistic egoism will not allow them to participate in integration.

However, there is an easy way when people, through education and explanatory work, each one and all together helping each other, come to integration between themselves, become similar to nature, enter into balance and harmony with it, and feel all its perfection.

I really hope for such an outcome.
[326178]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Meaning of Laitman’s Life “1/4/12

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Question: How do we quickly skip over unclear states of fogginess on the spiritual path?

Answer: If you know that everything you go through is intended only to compel you toward greater integration, then you can quickly overcome any state. You can go through a hundred states per minute and fly over all the bumps as if gliding.

My Comment: But you’ve said that a person transitions from state to state so quickly and does not even realize which one he’s in.

Answer: No this is incorrect. If I don’t understand, then what is the point of going through them? I need to understand, grasp, and feel each of the states, but all this happens in a fraction of a second, you could say, or even beyond time.

You feel yourself existing in this moment and in a certain state. That is, in relation to the purpose of creation and the correct integration into the spiritual system with your freewill, you feel where you are approaching this system or moving away from it.

It is such a start-stop movement. There is no calculation going on here; I will do it one way or another. No! It is simple, forward-backward, backward-forward. You move forward, then you are pulled back, and then you move forward and you are pulled back. All the time you move like that, like along a triangular saw; you’re lowered down, you are moving further forward, then you’re lowered down, you are moving further forward, and again you’re lowered down.

Question: But how can you determine whether you come out of this state or not? Where is the beginning and the end, and aren’t you stuck for a long time?

Answer: The fact is that when there are sensations, the brain should not work because we are desire, not reason. If I feel and that feeling is sufficient for me, my brain practically does not get engaged.

Why does a person rest when he is at home in his armchair, in familiar surroundings? He does not need to activate the brain. His feelings are activated, although, on a very small level, and that’s it. As soon as there is a sensory disturbance, the brain immediately switches to high gear.
[326270]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Acceleration of States” 12/26/11

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Shakura writes:

I live in Kazakhstan. I am a person of a completely different upbringing and religion. But I can no longer live without your programs because they put me in an extraordinary peaceful set of mind.

When I hear you say “the Creator,” I immediately agree that the Creator exists, and there is none else besides Him, and He is goodness and love. And I feel so good about it.

Recently, I came across a quote from Rav Kook. I read about him, and it turns out that he was a Kabbalist. 

Rav Kook wrote: “The voice of the Creator calls to a man from the depths of his soul, but the turmoil of life suppresses it so much that it is not heard.”

Does it mean that this voice exists within us?

This quote haunts me, and it stays with me all the time. I beg you, please, explain it to me. Piece by piece, if possible, and not all of it at once. I am really looking forward to this. I wish you good health and lots and lots of strength.

Answer: Of course. The Creator exists in each of us but, unfortunately, we do not hear Him.

Question: Based on this quote, Shakura writes: “Do we have to push through  the turmoil of life to hear it?”

Answer: Yes, we should relate everything to the Creator—that everything that happens is all from Him. And then, if we persistently strive for the Creator and fight our way to Him, we will ultimately find Him within ourselves.

Question: So we should go through turmoil to hear His voice?

Answer: Yes a person cannot live without turmoil.

Question: Continuation of Rav Kook’s quote: “But in no case does this voice itself disappear because it is this voice that comprises the basis and cause of everything that exists.”

Shakura asks: “It turns out that the voice of the Creator is the cause of everything that exists?”

Answer: Yes.

Question: What is the “voice of the Creator”?

Answer: The voice of the Creator is an appeal to the creation, to man. It is not only within man but it exists in each creation, in each atom that spins, in a molecule, and so on. The voice of the Creator is the energy that animates all of the creation. This is called the “voice of the Creator.”

Question: We understand what a voice is, and we can hear a voice. And when you say “voice,” what do you mean by that?

Answer: The appeal that twists everything.

Question: But what do I hear, “I am talking to you”? What is this? Or is it too corporeal?

Answer: No any of our appeals to creation, to others, and to the Creator is in order to communicate our desire, our heart, and our wishes to the one who we are addressing.

Question: And where is the voice of the Creator here?

Answer: The voice of the Creator is in what He arouses initially, before that.

Question: That is, He arouses us to turn to somebody?

Answer: Yes, otherwise we would not have risen from the inanimate state to at least vegetative, animate, and human.

Question: Do we begin with the inanimate state?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So, in the beginning, we do not hear any voice?

Answer: No.

Question: And then it begins to arouse us?

Answer: Inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human state.

Question: So what you say all the time about good connections, about relationships among people, is this where the Creator is pushing us, leading us?

Answer: The Creator, of course! Only the Creator arouses us and pushes us toward each other.

Comment: The last phrase from this quote: “And those who forcefully try to suppress this voice within themselves only strengthen the connection between the soul and the voice to the point that it constantly sounds in them, and they can no longer escape from it or suffocate it.”

My Response: Yes the Creator achieves His goal anyway, and man begins to reveal Him within himself, and everyone comes to the Creator.

Question: Shakura asks: “So, it turns out that the more we try to suffocate the voice of the Creator within ourselves the louder it sounds?”

Answer: Yes.

Question: She asks: “Isn’t it a paradox?” After all, we are trying to suffocate it.

Answer: No, the Creator’s task is to shake man up, to pull him out of non-existence, of the inanimate state.

Question: She asks: “So, in order for the voice to sound louder, it turns out that we have to suffocate it?” The more you suffocate it the louder it sounds?

Answer: The louder it sounds, just like when you speak to a person and he does not hear you, you move to a higher pitch and increase your voice.

Question: Can we say that He calls us to suppress this voice, and it sounds?

Answer: It is all together.

Question: Is it all Him, the Creator?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Then the eternal question is where are we here?

Answer: We are not here at all. We start in the following stages. When we begin to realize that this comes from the Creator and act in accordance with this, then it turns out that the Creator is already turning to us with an intention.

Question: That is, there is already a grain of “we” there?

Answer: Yes.
[326235]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/22/24

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Question: Why did nature create us to fight our way through thorns to the stars?

Answer: For us to truly master these spaces and to absorb them within us. That is why we must combine the light and shadow within ourselves and the contrasts between them. We must attain everything ourselves, then it will be ours. If it is given to us, we will not feel anything.

What is the difference between an infant and an adult? They exist in the same world, but the infant does not understand it. Whereas an adult who has studied this world feels and interacts with it.

We need to learn to interact with the world that surrounds us. We do not even feel it yet; we have not been born into it with our sensations.

We must act and then everything will be revealed. Believe me! How many times I have I talked about this but never has someone revealed something just from my words. It only happens when they make the effort.

Question: Does it matter what kind of effort?

Answer: Yes it matters! A person needs to learn this, explore this, and try to act as correctly as possible to shorten their path in time and meaningless expenditures.

Only the efforts of a person will reveal sensations to him.
[326127]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Overcoming Difficulties” 1/5/12

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Shura writes:

Dear Michael Laitman,

I do not know how to lose my anxious thoughts. They come to me right from the moment I wake up and do not leave me until I fall asleep. My dreams are also with anxiety. All of this causes inner pain. Sometimes, the pain disappears, but then returns with even greater force.

I heard you say that such thoughts need to be burned. I try, but it only makes me feel worse. Please explain how to erase and burn these anxious thoughts that do not give me rest.

My Response: You need to do something necessary, necessary not for yourself, but for others. Then, the anxious thoughts will burn away.

Question: You actually said: “Burn these thoughts.” So, when I am not thinking about myself, does this burn these thoughts? Is it more natural for women? Can it be done gradually for the family, for children?

Answer: In principle, this is also for men. Today, it is for everyone.

Question: Is this within a person’s power, or should it sound like a prayer?

Answer: No, this is not a prayer. That is an action.

Question: What is effective when we talk about a person? For example, whom should I care for?

Answer: About people. About strangers.

Question: This is not about the close ones?

Answer: Of course not! Close ones do not count.

Question: This is an important addition. Do you mean about neighbors I never thought about, about the world, about people in general?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is this achievable for an ordinary person?

Answer: Absolutely! It is not a matter of whether this is achievable or not. There is no doubt about it; everyone has the possibility and everyone is obliged!

Question: What will happen to these anxious thoughts? I have anxious thoughts about all of humanity; I think about it. What happens then?

Answer: As soon as your thoughts encircle the Earth, they will dissipate.

Question: Will my anxious thoughts about myself dissipate? Are you for people starting to think about strangers, about the world?

Answer: Yes.
[326763]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/19/24

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Question: How can all the media that surround us transform into Kabbalistic media, meaning that it would carry useful and not just stupid information?

Answer: The media should educate people in such a way as to direct them toward global, integral unification. There is nothing more they can do.

Naturally this would not be Kabbalistic education, but a correct social and moral unity. Kabbalistic unity will come to people gradually.

When they begin to correctly connect with each other under the guidance of Kabbalists, then they will begin to feel that in this unity there is some kind of internal force, an internal property, that lifts and inspires them. Then they will begin to behave differently.
[326275]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kabbalistic Media” 1/18/12

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