Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is there any proof of the need for human connection?“

Nature itself provides no proof of the need for human connection. We can identify various examples of such a need for survival purposes, but there is no proof of such a need in nature itself.

In our lives, we reach various forms of connection other than a human-to-human connection that is felt at the level of our emotions. In such a place, we need to bring ourselves to connect against our egoistic desire that constantly pulls in the opposite direction, i.e., which aims at self-benefit over benefiting others, and using any kind of connection not for the benefit of everyone, but for the benefit of an individual or a group that benefits that individual.

Only by connecting above the ego can we reach a harmonious connection, as it is written, “as one man with one heart.”

However, human-to-human connection does not happen naturally and instinctively, as it does in nature’s other degrees: the still, vegetative and animate.

Specifically, connection is unique to the human level in that we resist and oppose each other according to our nature, as we can see throughout history, and that in order to truly connect, we need to rise above our egoistic nature.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on September 26, 2023. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the Sefirot?“

The word “Sefirot” comes from the word “Sapir,” which means “glow” or “illumination.”

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that there is a spiritual force of love and bestowal, which it calls “light,” and when we adapt ourselves to this force, we let it enter our desires and it shines in them. We then call the desires in which the spiritual light illuminates, “Sefirot.”

The process of spiritual attainment is one of rising above our inborn corporeal desires with a spiritual intention to love and to bestow. The more we do so, the more we reveal the Sefirot.

We discover these Sefirot in the place of what are called the spiritual worlds (Olamot), from the word for concealment (He’elem). That is, the more we rise in spiritual degrees, the more we reveal the illuminations of the Sefirot and the concealments upon our perception and senses disappear.

Based on KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on August 27, 2023. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What should I look for when I look at nature?“

You should look for how smart, perfect and eternal it is.

Nature is good. Where there are no people, there is goodness.

The human is the only creature that harms others and himself. Nature without the person does not do so.

Why does man possess this evil quality? It is in order to acknowledge that we are evil, that we must change in a direction toward goodness, and to bring ourselves to goodness through self-recognition.

If we will know how to correctly participate in nature, then indeed, by the laws of nature, and not by artificial laws of our own, we will be able to live harmonious and peaceful lives.

We need to learn from nature how to behave, how to cause no harm to anyone, how to support and help everyone, and to see everyone as beautiful, good and drawn to a perfectly-connected state of love.

Based on the video “This Is What to Look for in Nature” with Kabbalst Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/eited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why is nature so beautiful and people are the opposite?“

A recent study published in the journal, Science Advances, discussed findings that living near plants for long enough can extend people’s life spans by 2.5 years.

Indeed, we are parts of nature that consist of the still, vegetative, animate and human levels, and their interconnection leads us to bear witness to such phenomena.

The question is whether people can soothe and calm other people’s lives similarly to how plants can do so?

We can, and even more so. Whether we feel people around us as aggravating or as calming depends on the extent to which we view them as important and close. We thus need to urge ourselves to change such that other people feel closer and closer to us.

And on this point, we indeed encounter the question: Why does nature seem so beautiful while people seem the opposite? It is because our ego, the desire to enjoy at the expense of others, rejects the egoistic nature of other people. We like plants, for instance, because they generally bring us no harm. People around us, on the other hand, can drive us crazy.

We should thus switch our attitude to other people in a way where we check ourselves in relation to them: “How will I appear in their eyes?” Why? It is in order to become a positive example to them. Then, perhaps as a result, they will also change by the example that we show them.

If we come to see nature as a force that constantly directs everything and everyone toward goodness, harmony and peace, then we can perceive beauty in nature on all of its levels—still, vegetative, animate, and especially the human level. It is because we then see the need to align ourselves with nature’s positive force, and our own aim in that direction, particularly at the level of human connections, leads us to seeing the beauty in people as well as in nature.

Based on the video “Why Nature Seems So Beautiful and People Don’t” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi.Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Robert Lukeman on Unsplash.

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Comment: Anya writes: “We live with our parents. My husband insisted on it because we wanted to save money. And now I cannot bear it anymore, I am bursting with hatred for his mother! She criticizes everything: how I cook, how I iron, how I raise children. We cannot move away yet, and my husband says we need to wait at least another year. I do not know what to do! I cannot live like this! Right now, I have closed myself in my room and I am writing to you. I understand that this is my ego, that I need to somehow adapt myself to her, but I cannot control myself. Does she not have an ego? A big one!”

My Response: Of course. But you should think about yourself. If you constantly put yourself down, you will eventually come to a state in which your ego will decrease, and this is good.

Question: So, peace will gradually come?

Answer: There may not even be peace, but as for you, you should see that such a state can be very useful.

Question: And when you say “put yourself down,” does that mean to agree?

Answer: To agree, to somehow distance yourself as far as possible and not to enter into conflicts.

Question: That is, his mother tells her: “You iron, cook, and raise children so badly.” Do you think this woman, Anya, should at least keep silent? And this will be advancement for her?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So, you see that this is a never ending war?

Answer: It cannot end in any way.

Question: Do you think that Anya should be smarter here?

Answer: She should be wiser.

Question: Should she close herself in her room? It is easier to leave and not listen. Just like that she closes herself in her room and stays there.

Answer: But that is not correction. Correction takes place only through contact.

She must tell herself that it is by this decision, when she does not enter into conflict and stays away from it in every possible way without arousing it, that she gradually corrects her egoism. In this way, she saves her family.

Question: Can you please tell her if she can move to such a state that at some point she will be able to say some kind words to her husband’s mother? Can this happen?

Answer: Only when she becomes convinced that she has corrected herself due to her husband’s mother. And then she can hug her and say “thank you.”

Question: Now you have introduced one more detail: that due to her husband’s mother she can correct herself. That is, she already has gratitude even for the mother whom she now hates?

Answer: Yes.

Question: But these first steps are not easy to take?

Answer: This can be corrected only if she sees in her husband’s mother the Creator who raises her this way.

Question: Could you please decipher the Creator for us? She sees that behind the mother there is something that is working with her. Should “and wishes me well” be added here? Should we make such a cluster or should we not?

Answer: The mother is ruled by the Creator. Anya should figure this out.

Question: Will it be good if Anya takes small steps in this?

Answer: If she does, then yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/31/23

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Can you love an evil person?“

Yes, you can love people who perform even the most despicable of acts because within them is a point of a soul.

We have to understand that there is a difference between bodies and souls. People who do good or bad in the world have no souls.

A soul is called “a part of Divinity from above.” We are made of desires to enjoy, which are called “body,” and their base enjoyment is at a corporeal level where we aim to enjoy through pleasures for food, sex, family, money, honor, control and knowledge. Eventually within our desire to enjoy emerges a tiny point of a desire that stems from a higher spiritual degree, above corporeality.

Instead of wishing to enjoy for personal benefit alone, this tiny point of a desire is rooted in a world filled with the quality of nature itself: love and bestowal, beyond the limits of our corporeal desires. If we have such a desire, then we have a part of the soul, and if we feel no such desire to rise above our corporeal desires in a manner of love and bestowal upon others and nature, then we have no soul, not even its starting point.

We can liken this point of a desire to a seed that needs to be placed in the right conditions, such as fertile soil, with moisture, air and a certain amount of sunlight, for its development into a blossoming plant. In other words, we have to place this point of the soul into a protected place that is capable of developing it into a fully-grown soul, which can love, bestow and connect similarly to nature’s boundless quality of love and bestowal.

Kabbalists define this point of the soul as it emerges among our corporeal desires as “the point in the heart.” That is, the heart is our corporeal desires, where we feel transient pleasures and a temporary existence, and the point in the heart is the desire that is rooted in the soul, where we can feel complete harmony, peace and an eternal existence.

If we feel such a desire within us, a point that raises questions about the meaning of life, why we are here, who we are, what is reality, why there is so much suffering in the world, and other fundamental existential questions, then we can place such a desire under conditions that can develop it into its state as a soul. That is what the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches—how to develop the point in the heart, inflating it with various means up to a certain volume, and within such a volume, to grow a feeling of love, bestowal and positive connection to everyone and to nature itself. In such a state, we attain our soul.

Therefore, in relation to the soul’s development, we can add love, care and aim to give it whatever necessary in order for it to blossom into its eternal and whole state. However, in relation to the egoistic desires, there is no need to love any of them. Kabbalists call the ego, i.e., the desire to enjoy at the expense of others and nature, the “evil inclination,” and it is ultimately in a state of death. It is bound to be destroyed from its outset because it can feel no lasting pleasure and fulfillment according to its very nature.

Therefore, we can develop love not toward the egoistic part of us where all destruction and suffering are sourced, but in the part within every person called “human,” the point in the heart that can develop into a completely loving and bestowing intention that can bring life and light into the world.

The egoistic desires within us are opposite to nature’s altruistic and eternal form. They are thus not considered “human,” which is a word in Hebrew, “Adam,” that stems from the word for “similar” (“Domeh”), from the phrase, “Adameh le Elyon” (“similar to the most high”). In other words, a human being is one who develops their point in the heart in a manner that is similar to nature’s force of love and bestowal, and by doing so, we rise to the human level in similarity with nature where we discover the eternity and perfection of nature’s altruistic quality. In such a state, we can “love thy neighbor as thyself,” i.e., we discover the common force of love, bestowal and positive connection that is in our soul, and which connects our points in the hearts together into one soul.

No matter how evil any person is in their egoistic desires, it is possible to constantly aim at awakening the point in the heart—the part of Divinity from above—within every person, and try to direct its development above the egoistic desires in order to discover nature’s quality of love, bestowal and connection—the soul where we all connect equally in our common desire that is similar to nature’s.
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Based on “Ask the Kabbalist” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on July 12, 2023. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: In the material world, we see an external picture of the history of the development of egoism. What is happening behind this external layer?

Answer: Behind the external layer of the history of the development of egoism there is a manifestation of light in a not-yet-formed pot (a common spiritual Kli , vessel), and this causes us suffering. In other words, the light that should already fill the pot, let us say, by one millimeter or two centimeters, is revealed, but the pot is not ready. Then the light is perceived as darkness.

The deficiency of this pot is revealed to us, the deficiency of our connection with each other. Therefore, it is felt as a global, integral crisis.

As soon as we begin to unite, instead of a negative crisis, we will feel positive fulfillment. Everything you desire, every one of your wishes, all of them together, will be completely satisfied, and not only on the earthly level.

You will begin to feel these desires in connection with others as desires on an entirely different level, as the unity of one global, integral system in which you will feel your eternal perfect state. It cannot be conveyed in words. It is a different dimension.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The History of Kabbalah” 9/29/11

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do you think life on Earth would be different in the next 500 million years?“

In 500 million years, there will be nothing on Earth because our planet and our universe will be nonexistent.

This is because we perceive the world through uncorrected senses, i.e., through senses that perceive in a manner of wanting solely to enjoy egoistically, at the expense of others and nature. The moment we correct our senses so that we perceive in an opposite way—by wanting to bestow delight upon others and nature—we then rise above our world and feel a different spiritual reality.

Today, discussing such a spiritual reality above our current egoistic senses seems fantasy-like. However, when we attain such a reality, we will feel how our egoistic perception is in fact the unrealistic fantasy, and that true reality is through a mode of bestowal upon others and nature.

The correction of our senses takes place during a period that Kabbalists call “6,000 years,” starting from Adam HaRishon (Heb. The First Man), and it translates to us having just over 220 years to go in this current level of reality.

In our world, Adam HaRishon was the first man who corrected his senses from egoistic to altruistic, or in other words, from complete opposition to nature’s laws to entering into equivalence and balance with them. Before Adam HaRishon, there had been people living for several years. However, just over 5,780 years ago, a man called “Adam” discovered the spiritual reality, the true form of the universe, for the very first time. By doing so, he also discovered the program by which humanity develops and how it will appear at the end of its development. He wrote his findings in a book called “Raziel ha Malach” (“The Angel Raziel”), and he is considered the first Kabbalist.

All people are destined to undergo the transition from egoism to altruism and to discover the spiritual reality similar to what Adam HaRishon went through. When we do so, we will feel a different spiritual reality, and the corporeal reality will then become swallowed within the spiritual one—we will simply cease to feel it. We will then only sense phenomena that unfold at a higher level of existence, above our world.

The lower reality in our egoistic senses then disappears because our five bodily senses will seemingly evaporate and not be felt. We currently accept our world as it appears to us because we are made in a way where we hear, see, taste and breathe, i.e., we use senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. They provide us with a sensation of living in a certain reality. If we had different senses, then we would sense a different reality.

The evaporation and disappearance of this world does not happen in an instant, but gradually. It is because, as we start to positively connect and spiritually rise in our sensation of reality, we lose our egoistic mode of sensing reality. We can somewhat compare it to how we do not feel the inanimate and vegetative levels of nature in our own body. Take, for instance, our hair and nails, which are the vegetative level on our bodies. Do we feel them growing? We do not. They either grow, or they do not grow, and we can cut them and they continue growing. They cause us no disturbance.

It is similar to when we rise to the human level of existence, which is characterized by our developing an intention to bestow above our inborn egoistic desire to receive. We will then not feel the animate level—our desire to receive—in comparison to the new human level that we develop and identify with. When we all develop into the human level of existence, we will then cease to feel the animate level. We will stop perceiving reality as solid the way we currently do. Rather, we will increasingly perceive it as forces and qualities.
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Based on “Ask the Kabbalist” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on June 19, 2008. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: We feel ourselves in some kind of physical attire. But Kabbalists, looking at this world, probably do not see individuals. Do they perceive it differently, perhaps like an aquarium in which small fish are scurrying around?

Answer: No, you do not see people as protein bodies, but as desires. You watch them shimmer, merge, come closer, and move away. And you need to somehow make sure that they eventually come into the right contact.

Question: Are our everyday worries, say that we need to hammer a nail or do something else, perceived by Kabbalists simply as desires?

Answer: These are animalistic mechanical desires. They are awakened in us automatically by that common motor that moves everyone forward. We need to work through them as well, they are our part.

Like in our world there is a vast universe and there is a clear causality that every molecule and every atom at every moment of time is in some state of its own and in a specific interaction with all the others.

Can we imagine this system? After all, this is infinity! What keeps the atoms of countless stars, nebulae, and galaxies in a certain system, in a certain relationship with each other? This is incredible for our conceptual apparatus.

How is it possible to think about all this at the same time, to program, maintain, and lead the entire system to a state of, say, vegetative nature? And it is even more complicated; all the movements in each molecule, in each combination, occur at a qualitatively new level. Then it all moves to the animate level: to amoebas, to all the simplest vertebrates, and so on. It becomes an enormous system!

But when it is triggered by one force—the force of maximum pleasure because the system itself consists of the desire to receive pleasure, it turns out that all this is averaged out, calms down, and adds up together.

It is very simple, nothing else is needed; into each atom, its desire enters, pleasure is given from above, and they all line up in a certain state. Absolutely everything in the world forms such a common “plate.”
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The World Through the Eyes of the Creator” 10/11/11

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “In one sentence, what is the essence of the method of Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam)?“

Through the love of others, to come closer to the system in which the Creator can become revealed and enjoy from His created beings.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 20, 2023, “The Purpose of Society – 1.” Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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