Entries in the 'Q&A' Category

How Can We Get A Desire For An Unknown Taste?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the purpose of the circulation of the knowledge of Kabbalah and in what forms should it be carried out?

Answer: There is a reality that we perceive in our desire to receive pleasure, and we cannot disclose it more than we feel it now. There is also a reality that we can apprehend in our desire to bestow. To the extent we desire to bestow we can reveal the upper force, the nature of which is complete bestowal. We can attain only these two qualities.

We perceive our world in our desire to receive pleasure and can develop in it. But essentially, our world is limited by our egoistic desire that absorbs everything “into itself.” Consequently, we discover ourselves existing in a body made of flesh and in the surrounding environment.

Whereas the desire to bestow reveals for us the five worlds and the upper force, where we feel ourselves eternal and perfect like the upper force. But the problem is that in our desire to enjoy we sense a need for this world. Whereas we don’t have any need for the desire to bestow, for the spiritual world, and we have to develop it. Otherwise, we will not be able to attain the spiritual world.

The question is how I can develop a need for something I don’t want, feel, or understand and have no taste for? I don’t have any prerequisites for it; I have never tasted spirituality. What should I strive for?

I can advance towards it by means of problems and blows. But then I will only want to get rid of the blows, to run away from them, pushing or pricking me from behind. And how can I discover good awaiting for me ahead? I cannot see, feel, or taste it.

Thus, we do not have any choice. Blows, suffering, problems, crises, and bankruptcies alone cannot help us: All these impacts will not assist us in reaching spirituality. Therefore, Baal HaSulam states that there should be a preliminary condition for revelation of spirituality—the dissemination of the science of Kabbalah, which is referred to as “the call of the Messiah’s horn.”

I need to disclose to the world that there is something good, pleasant, and worthy that opens everything before you. It should be so attractive that even if I do not feel any lack now, I will suddenly realize that I am missing a different world—the upper one.

How can I get a desire for it? It is possible if I get impressed by the environment that tells me about it. Meaning, I need a good, big environment that “will brainwash me” to such a degree that I will really want something I do not want now. And we can see that the society is able to do it.

Therefore, everything depends on the environment. Otherwise, sufferings will come and will bombard me with blows—until I develop a desire to disseminate and try to disseminate in any case in order to receive an aspiration to move forward. By virtue of this desire I will be able to progress towards the quality of bestowal, towards the spiritual world, and then and only then I will attain it.

Thus, dissemination is an indispensable and mandatory condition for attaining spirituality. In what forms should we disseminate? In any! How can we influence a person? Through all his senses: Let him be impressed, desire, beg, or fear—it could be anything that will make him desire spirituality, as it is said: “I want!” Otherwise, if I don’t wish to advance on my own, only sufferings will come from behind, which is not enough.

We should desire spirituality ourselves and only then we will reveal it. That desire must be complete and reach a full measure called “Seah.” And I can receive it only from the environment. Therefore, you should realize how important circulation is!
[54431]
From the New York lecture #2, 9/12/11

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Love And Hate

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Where is the line between realizing your advice and blindly worshiping you?

Answer: The line is critical analysis. A person who works correctly does not agree with the teacher and feels hatred, antagonism, and total scorn for him, but at the same time he overcomes it, rises above himself, and accepts the teacher’s instructions from the bottom of his heart, completely annulling himself before the teacher.

A worshiper has just one side of the coin: He bends down without any criticism. He runs away from any negative thought like from fire. However, that is not the case with us. Yet, it also doesn’t mean that one must artificially try to evoke protest and repulsion within.

Simply start getting closer to your neighbor, and you will see how hateful he is to you. Hate has to become expressed in concordance with the need for love. Otherwise it won’t be creative. We do not fan it; it comes by itself.

Therein lies the verification: love and hatred act together, parallel to one another, while a person works in the middle line, above both of them.
[54691]
From the lesson on 9/9/11, Writings of Rabash

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Don’t Wait For Trouble

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In America there is no protest movement like in Spain or Israel. So how can we transmit the message of mutual guarantee to people here?

Answer: First of all, don’t be sorry that your situation differs from Spain or Israel. In these countries the problems are much greater than the ones you are experiencing. Don’t be sorry about this. You should learn from small troubles. Our approach is not to be happy about people’s suffering.

One way or another, people feel that the world has changed and has placed such problems before them that their solution cannot be found by politicians, sociologists, political scientists, psychologists, economists, or pedagogues. This allows us to come forth with the explanations.

First of all, we explain why no one is able to find the solution: because there are new forces now operating in the world, which are in harmony and global interconnection, while the leaders do not understand that and are using outdated methods. We have to try to bring this message to people so it will seep into them drop by drop.

Obviously, it’s easier to give explanations to those who suffer. However, we have to treat everyone with love. We wish to save our own children from troubles so they won’t have to learn on bitter experience. We want them to go from good to better. And that is the same approach we should have towards everyone.

If we don’t attain success after all our efforts, the troubles will nevertheless arrive, and under their blows people will become more and more perceptive to our explanations. But it’s best to explain everything to them before that. It’s like you are throwing a seed into the ground and with time, it grows through.
[54685]
From the Miami lecture 9/14/11

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The Best Example Of All

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the right approach to teaching children?

Answer: This is a special task because we are teaching those who are not familiar with the world at all yet. And the most important thing here is to organize an environment for them. Without an environment, it is very difficult to teach a child our method. A child needs a connection with other children and together they have to be organized into a group.

In the process of studying they have to sit in a common circle and feel that they are strong only when they are united together. A teacher is not really a teacher, but an educator, a mentor. He is like an older friend of the children. Sitting in a circle with them, he conceals his grown-up understanding of the world and skillfully guides them toward unity of equals. The most important thing is to keep this unity.

Every person attains success only on the condition that he is united with others and attains group results with them. The success of each person is determined by how much he helps others. We evaluate each person not by himself, but only by the achievements attained in the group and through the group.

We don’t need “outstanding” or smart students, and we don’t ask, “Who knows?” looking for a “hero” who will prove himself more clever or knowledgeable than others. We do not want this. What we want is for the children to feel that the question and the answer are aimed at the group, that the most important thing is to be together, and even if the answer is incorrect, it is still correct because it brings about a common solution in which everyone takes part.

If there is a chance to do so, a younger group should work with educators who are two or three years older. Children learn from these kinds of instructors better than anyone, looking up at them like at “angels.” And this obligates the older kids, in turn, to study so they won’t slip up in front of the younger ones. As a result, we win twofold: 10-year-olds happily learn from 13-year-olds, rejoicing that the older kids give them time and attention. And the 13-year-olds study the material, spurred by the feeling of their importance, in order to educate the younger ones.

Children have to be taught how to judge one another, separately and together. If someone acted wrongly, a “court discussion” has to be arranged where we study the incident and its causes, examining questions such as, “Was this action correct or not? Would I have acted the same way in that person’s place?” Every person has to hold himself accountable for conducting intensive, inner psychological work.

It’s good to take children on trips where they get to know the world they live in. Let them visit all sorts of factories, an airport, bank, post office, planetarium, and so on. At every place they visit, they should hear explanations about how each establishment is constructed and how it works. This can even be a storeroom of a supermarket where goods are received, sorted, and stockpiled so they can later be arranged on the display shelves for the consumers.

In short, the children have to know how our life is built and what it is comprised of. At every place they visit, the person responsible or the supervisor should give them the appropriate clarifications, and when they return to school, together they should discuss what they saw and heard. Every one of them has to write a report about the place he visited, describing what it is, what it is intended for, how it serves people and humanity as a whole, what kind of people work there, what kind of preparation they must go through, and so on.

These trips enable children to learn about the big world, how it is built, and the interconnections permeating it. They see how complicated it is to organize various areas of life and this motivates them to prepare for becoming full-fledged citizens of the world.

The process of studying in class is filmed on camera. Obviously, children quickly forget the events of the day that has passed, but later they can come back to them and look at themselves from aside, in particular, noting: Were they able to unite this time? This is part of self-study.

Our primary concern is not so much to give them specific, professional knowledge, but to give them the right approach to life. A person has to know what kind of world he lives in and how human society has to function in order to maintain a harmonious interconnection among all its parts.

We teach our children the inner psychology of the connection between them. This develops them internally a great deal, enabling them to learn new material. Recently, as was requested by the Ministry of Education, they participated in a symposium that was attended by hundreds of pedagogues and educators from all over the country. Teenagers dispersed among different discussion tables and communicated with the experts on such a high level that the experts were astounded.

Also this year, several of our children have been accepted to university. In short, we see that it’s worthwhile to invest efforts and resources into upbringing. An example of the proper upbringing works better than any other example because it shows all of the advantages of the global, integral mode of study in a group that is permeated by unity, love, and correct relationships. This enables one to see with one’s own eyes how this approach opens up a person’s ability to perceive and forms him differently.

We have already published several books on upbringing. I hope that by the end of the year we will complete working on our curriculum and the set of study materials, which will include CDs and DVDs.

It’s advisable to study the topic of upbringing on our website. Maybe professionals in this field should even come to visit us to exchange experience. We will be happy to show you the method and bring you up to date.
[54626]
From the Miami lecture 9/14/11

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Like Fish In A Net

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How should we go about mass dissemination and what should we do differently from how we have acted until now?

Answer: In some people the urge to reveal a perfect reality awakens by itself. These are the people with “a point in the heart.” They ask questions like, “What is the purpose of my life? What am I living for? What gives me life?” By no means does this have to make them depressed, or perhaps just a little. But most importantly, they have a burning passion within. They feel that there is something concealed from this world, that there is something else operating in reality.

In reality, everyone comes up against this question, but most people muffle it out. Yet not everyone is able to. These people get “swept” onto our shore, similarly to how an electric charge in a magnetic field moves toward its source, carried by the force of attraction. People come to us not knowing how or why. The fact of the matter is that everyone is inside a single field of information, nature, or plan of creation, and precisely we have the primary sources that originate from there, answers to timeless questions.

We roughly designate these people as 1% of humanity. Their number grows from one day to the next and they awaken across the whole world: at the icy north and in a Nigerian village, in Japan, China, Chile, and in the center of Europe…. The point in the heart does not depend on geography. It is a sign of a new phase of development. Gradually it will start awakening in everyone, but for now we are the first generation that aspires to find out what it is living for. Our egoistic desire has reached the stage where it demands to attain the meaning of its existence.

This is already a question asked by a human being rather than an animal whose sole interest is only to arrange its life the best way. Precisely the human being in us asks, “What am I living for?” For people like that, we have a method that’s ready. They start studying and receiving explanations.

But what should be done about the others? We never thought we would have to address those who do not ask the question about the cause and purpose of life. However, the events taking place today are obligating us to act. The crisis has arrived and humanity has found itself at a dead end with the world’s leaders not knowing what to do, as if they are little children. They get together at G8 and G20 conferences, but there is no answer. They make far-reaching decisions, but the decisions don’t work.

The problem is that the world has become closed in a global system, while they are not global. On the contrary, they are individualists and egoists. Therefore, they do not know how to approach modern global problems correctly.

The science of Kabbalah says that during these times, we have to come out into the world and disseminate knowledge about the new situation in it. Obviously, we have to act without pressuring anyone and without looking down on people from above, but on the contrary, we have to be as friendly as possible and approach people in the way that’s most comfortable for them. We have to give them an explanation of the fact that we have entered a new system of interconnection and therefore all of the previous forms of connection do not work any longer.

We have to learn this new system and understand what our universal interconnection means. It’s similar to entering a new workplace that is governed by rules you do not know, and where you must first find your bearings. It takes time for you to get used to the accepted norms of communication, to figure out the system, to find the points of contact in it, to start pressing the right buttons and receiving the right reactions…. And that is just a regular situation in our world.

In contrast to it, the new interconnection that is being revealed between us today is opposite to our nature. It does not match my inner quality and I cannot study it. First I have to change on the inside, and only then will I be able to figure out this integral connection that is being revealed everywhere today: at workplaces, in industry and production, politics and economy, and in all the relationships between us, even including family life.

Therefore, the first thing required of me is a willingness to understand. If I, an egoist, were entering a regular egoistic company, then with time I would set up the right relationships. However, today I am entering an integral society in which everyone is interconnected as cells of one body, even if they do not feel it yet. That means I have to rebuild myself from the inside, to receive correction.

It turns out that humanity has found itself in a critical state. Today every person has to change and understand what kind of net has come down on us. In this net we are flapping about like fish, unable to escape the universal connection. Without understanding this connection, we will not be able to do anything in our world. After all, we depend on one another, and therefore, without becoming aware of the new laws, we won’t be able to make contracts, maintain the bank system, production and trade, exchange goods and knowledge….

The doors that were open to us before are closing, and the mechanisms that have been working are drawing to a halt. “It’s a crisis,” we say, but it’s not a regular crisis and therefore, we are unable to control it. This unusual, nonstandard, and completely new state is what we have to explain to the world.

Besides, we have to explain how we can change in accordance with the new, global system. After all, in essence, nature is inviting us to become integral parts of it. Previously every one of us was blowing up his own, egoistic “bubble,” swallowing the resources of the environment. But today, despite the enormous egoism, we have to set up an interconnection and unite among one another based on the principles of mutual help and support, similar to parts of one body. And that is extremely opposite to our personal benefit.

Therefore, in order to change, I have to involve an external pressure, or stated differently, build an environment. It’s similar to how parents are watchful of who their child is friends with because his environment today is him tomorrow. That is how I must artificially form an environment for myself that will influence me from all sides. By doing so, it’s as if I pull myself out of the swamp by the hair because I create a wonderful, proper environment for myself so it will cultivate the right approach in me and imbue me with new, global, integral values that I lack.

I build this environment artificially, but when it influences me, I change in actuality. Then I add new “bricks” to it so it will provide me with even greater support, so it would be even more consolidated, interconnected, and global, and then it influences me again.

That is how I form myself and pull myself out of egoism and individualism into the general unity. At the same time, I study nature’s enormous system and in essence, carry out the Creator’s work. There is nowhere for me to take an example from besides the books written by Kabbalists who have already done this. Side by side with modern scientists, they explain to us what the global nature is.

At the end of the day, it’s as if we are playing: We turn ourselves into a game that raises us. It’s the same as how little children grow and get smarter as they “play.” By acting this way, I start to understand this enormous system and from there I see how to build new mechanisms of our relationships.

That is how I come out of the crisis and start to understand that this is not a crisis at all, but a game, a disassembled Lego set that we have to assemble. By putting together pieces of the broken whole, similar to a child, I develop until reaching the level of this whole system.

For the first time in history, we are facing the need to build the new, human society ourselves, to create a system of the proper interconnection out of small egoists. By doing so, we will reveal this system and will start living in it all together with a common mind and feeling, and then we will rise to a mind and feeling that lie above the current, individual life of each of us. This will become the revelation of the concealed world.

We have to perform this work ourselves in our global system. And we must also explain it to others. Humanity will have to make this happen. Otherwise we won’t get through the crisis. It will exert extremely powerful pressure on us until we carry out this task, similar to how parents pressure children to study.
[54618]
From the Miami lecture 9/14/11

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Building A Bridge Above Hatred

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is there a difference between personal internal work and work in the group?

Answer: In spirituality, there is no separate personal and group work—it is all a single work. If I exist only under one authority, under the complete rule of my egoism, nothing can be done. Such a reality is called “this world,” and in such a state, I have no chance in changing my ego.

To change my state means to change “a place.” That is, I have to build a new place, new spiritual feelings and mind. And that is possible only by means of connection.

My personal work is to exert effort to connect with others. And for that reason, I select people who can help me—they are called “the group.” Thus, both my personal and group work take place, but essentially, this is one general work. It’s because I can’t be without them, and they can’t exist without me: This is the way we are arranged from the beginning.

There is no other work besides connecting and feeling new spiritual phenomena inside of that connection. To the extent that I want to attach their internal desire to me, I correct my desire. In fact, my spiritual vessel exists beyond my “I,” in all the others.

I have to connect what seems separate and remote from me in my consciousness, obscured by a wall of my egoism, envy, hatred, and ambition, meaning my desire to dominate the others, to disregard everyone, to rule and to use.

Thus my ego purposefully shows me different forms of my remoteness and neglect of a fellow human being so that I build the bridge of love towards him. And the further I advance, the stronger I will feel that I despise others, repel them, and want to use them for my own good.

I do that with pleasure or see that it is simply necessary, and I will suffer if I don’t use the other. We are being put through such states and placed before the need of using the other and neglecting him or her to save us from problems. Meanwhile, I have to realize that all of that is just an exercise or a joke that I have to rise above in order to overcome it and to connect to others, namely above it.

The egoistic force brings me to a state of total despair: “Look, if you don’t cause damage to others, you won’t be able to exist!” All our work is in rising above it. That’s why this principle is expressed in such general words: “Love the other as thyself”—above envy and hatred, above the desire to use others.
[54212]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/29/2011, Shamati #121

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Lecture in Miami – 09.14.11

Miami Lecture
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

What Will The Transition Be Like?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We are at the threshold of a new state. Will the transition to it happen smoothly or will it be accompanied by shocks?

Answer: This is something I cannot foresee because it depends on our free choice. Things can develop in either direction. If we advance correctly, then we will move toward the positive by being attracted to goodness. Otherwise, nature will push us from behind with disasters, which may include a world war.

Let us hope that we will choose the good path. And for that to happen, we have to do “our homework” the best we can. Besides the study, we also have to give what we received by working on dissemination and explaining what is happening to people. We have to create content and place it everywhere, including internet and mass media.

Every person studying the science of Kabbalah has to think about how to pass it on. We have to understand how horrible it would be to have this opportunity but not to realize it.
[54543]
From the New York lecture #1, 9/11/11

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Every Person Will Attain Infinity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Will the 99% of humanity who do not feel a need for spiritual development also have to attain the realization of evil at some stage and ask for correction?

Answer: Yes. This will be required of every person. The correction of the world lies in the fact that every person reaches the realization, understanding, and revelation in the specific measure inherent to him. And then, due to his inclusion in others, he attains all 100%.
[54526]
From the lesson on 9/9/11, Writings of Rabash

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The American Dream Boomeranging Back

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Should the dissemination of the science of Kabbalah in America differ from its dissemination in other countries due to the influence of the “American dream,” which we are supposedly able to achieve here—the dream of lots of money, a good life,…? How can we fight this stereotype?

Answer: I think that other countries still have fantasies that it is possible to attain this “dream” in America. Yet, I think all of this is becoming a thing of the past. People have to wake up from the dream. I don’t think this “dream” will last much longer, both for those living in America and for those living abroad.

Look at how Americans are losing respect in the whole world, how people are no longer showing a good attitude to them and are in fact starting to look down upon them. And soon this will even turn into hatred. This is happening particularly because people do not wish to tolerate America’s attitude to them, the attitude of a country that allows itself the liberty to do anything it wishes.

Therefore, I don’t think this “American dream” has any power. As the crisis gets worse, more and more people in the world will reveal that the “American dream,” which has already melted, was built at their expense because America shrewdly exploited the whole world. And this will come back to it as a very powerful boomerang.

To the extent we disseminate the method of correction, which lies in unity, equality, and mutual guarantee, we will save ourselves from blame and blows, as it is written, “Love will cover all sins.” We won’t try to settle old scores, but will create new, kind relationships. Whatever happened happened. It’s not worth raking up the past.

If we start settling old scores, then the whole world will come to America with complaints because that is how its economic systems are built: at the expense of other nations. Only the method offered to us by the science of Kabbalah will cleanse all the old scores until today, and from here on we will begin building something new, without remembering any of what happened yesterday.
[54425]
From the New York lecture #2, 9/12/11

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