Entries in the 'Q&A' Category

Natural Instinct

543.02Question: People who practice Kabbalah develop certain callousness after a while as a natural effect. How can this callousness be used correctly?

Answer: They are like that because they are given freewill. This is how I behave with my students as well. Otherwise, will I be force them to be the way I want them to be? No. They must take each step by themselves or they will not start walking and learn how to navigate in this world!

A little man changes under the influence of the environment. He looks at others and this is it, he does not need anything else. He sees a child a year older than himself, and it is an angel for him, it is an example for him. He looks at him and does the same.

He automatically enters the kindergarten and nothing else exists for him: other kids sit down, he sits down; they get up, he gets up; they go somewhere, he follows them like a monkey! Look how this instinct introduces us to life and helps us. Look what nature does!

It means you need to use this instinct. This is the most natural action. We just need to get into the right environment, the right “kindergarten,” and learn from good, right people, and then everything will be fine.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Ruthless people” 9/17/11

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Drug for a Kabbalist

703.04Question: From where do you absorb additional information? Is it from nature? From some place?

Answer: I really love nature, especially the inanimate and vegetative. I like to walk in the mountains, fields, and forests. When I just walk there, I feel good and pleasant; I feel complete relaxation.

I perceive nature as divine harmony. Although in our world, we are crippling the animate as well as vegetative nature, but in principle, one can still see harmony, agreement, mutual complement, and mutual support in it. This causes a corresponding feeling in a Kabbalist.

Kabbalah highlights harmony to a person and the fact that he should aim for the same state.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Drug of a Kabbalist” 9/3/11

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“What is a spiritual experience?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: What is a spiritual experience?

Say you woke up in the dark. You understand, know and feel nothing at all.

You then slowly go about your morning routine, leave your home, and head out onto the street and into the world.

You flip through the news, listen to the radio and talk to people.

By doing so, you gradually enter the world you live in, moving away from sleep.

It is similar to when we enter the spiritual world: we receive information, sensations, interactions and everything that exists in that world.

We feel an immense amount of energy and information, the present, past and future, and how all parts of the vast spiritual system act in a harmonious unison.

We incorporate into such a system as much as we can, with our mind and soul, and the system tunes us into it.

We, as small elements of a humongous system, wish to incorporate into it, and it affects us, turning us into its integral parts.

Based on KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Self-Examination“ with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 13, 2011. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Our World Is a Persistent Hallucination

928Question: What is a hallucination in your understanding?

Answer: People have a lot of various brain disorders, including this one.

Kabbalah is pure materialism. From the point of view of Kabbalah, only what we perceive in our desire in an absolutely clear, sober form exists. Everything else are stray currents that can cause all sorts of states in our brain, in our desire, including hallucinations, but they do not have any reality.

Today, we do not know what “reality” means because we live in an unreal world. According to Kabbalah, our entire world is an illusion.

No wonder it is said that our world is made up by us, that it appears in our imagination. In fact, everything that exists in nature exists only in the property of bestowal, reciprocity, full regulation, and balance. And we, human beings, are in a state of imbalance.

That is, inanimate, vegetative, animate, and spiritual nature is in balance. Only we people, out of all this huge state, are in disequilibrium, and therefore, we feel ourselves and the surrounding world in the wrong state—distorted and ugly. In fact, we do not understand where we are and what is happening to us.

And when we truly attain the world in similarity to the property of bestowal, then we begin to understand that we have seen the world that has been imagined by us and has arisen in our incorrect, distorted imagination. But with regard to our state, when we perceive our world in a purely egoistic way, this distortion is permanent.

It looks like we have, for example, some kind of a problem in our computer, and it is permanent. You know that it exists, and you can somehow put up with it, keep working, and even take it into account. The same is true about us regarding all sorts of hallucinations, visions, and so on.

Therefore, our egoistic state is stable, because we perceive ourselves and the world in the desire to be filled and think only about ourselves. This state is concrete, dependent on matter, and real in relation to us.

And hallucinations are completely arbitrary currents wandering in the brain, and we cannot take them into account.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. A Hallucination” 8/20/11

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“Does an atom contain every information in the universe?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: Does an atom contain every information in the universe?

There is a principle in the wisdom of Kabbalah that the individual and general are equal. It means that the tiniest individual particle contains the information of the whole system of which it is a part.

This principle of similarity of individual and general extends from us all emerging from a single small point.

In the creation of our universe, we underwent a process of cascading through upper worlds into our world, and our world or universe was also formed out of a tiny point.

Such a principle extends to every level of existence: a tiny point descends, and then with the help of the matter that forms in this point, it becomes a large and expansive system. The next successive level then deploys the whole system again from its final lowest point. This process continues through five such descents, called “five worlds” in the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Accordingly, our universe emerged from a small point by the force of the so-called Big Bang. There was no massive explosion at this juncture, but rather a tiny spark of spiritual energy broke through into the material level from the highest spiritual level. Since the spark was spiritual, i.e., hosting an eternal bestowing force, then this spark was sufficient to create all matter, energy and information that fills our universe today.

Based on KabTV’s “Close-Up. Prophet” on November 23, 2011. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

“The Day We Die the Wind Takes Away Our Footprints”

504Question: From a letter. “Here are some lines from a bushmen folk song:

The Way We Die”
song of the Southern Bushmen

The day we die
the wind comes down
to take away
our footprints.

The wind makes dust
to cover up
the marks we left
while walking.

for otherwise
the thing would seem
as if we were
still living.

Therefore the wind
is he who comes
to blow away
our footprints.

“Why does European civilization want so much to leave behind some kind of corporeal trace: things, cities, works of art, and books? Why is it important for us to be remembered? Why are we so afraid to disappear without a trace? But people who live in harmony with nature are not afraid. On the contrary, they say: ‘Our footprints should disappear.’

“Why does it happen like this? We really want to leave our monuments.”

Answer: Egoism! It is our egoism! It forces us to take care of ourselves, the immortal ones.

Question: Don’t we die after death?

Answer: Yes. If I could put up such a monument, a column, that would stand forever, I would not be afraid to die. That is, I continue to live through it. Everyone will see and know it, and they will not be able to destroy it even if they want to. The monument will be such that it will be eternal. And on it, on the pedestal, I will stand proudly!

Question: Don’t we even think that I will not be there, but a monument will be there? I will be there, right?

Answer: Yes, it means that I will be there. For a person, this is everything!

What else, my body? It is clear to me what will happen to it. However, to be depicted in stone like this, eternal, respected, and wise, this is anything but simple.

Question: Does it mean that egoism is indestructible? Both before death and after death. Is it something unimaginable?

Answer: Egoism is higher than death, it is a force of nature. It is against the Creator. There is the force of the Creator and egoism is against Him.

Question: So what chance do we have to become such “Bushmen”?

Answer: We alter our egoism, we change it.

Question: From what to what? From this eternal one?

Answer: Yes, we give it eternity. Do you want eternity? Be my guest. Do you want perfection? Not a problem. Fame? Anything you want. But to do that, you have to change.

Question: What should I turn into?

Answer: From the rejection of the other to the love of others. It is this process that a person must go through. Moreover, he, by himself, needs to understand it, go through it, and finish it.

Comment: But there are sparks of this understanding at the moment a person passes away. He understands that “I will not take this with me.” There are many different stories.

My Response: It is all literature. After all, a person remains with the idea that my actions will remain after me. Instead, he has to come to the idea that nothing is important to me, just to leave everything to others.

Comment: So, am I leaving so that everything remains to others? I do not need anything anymore. No monuments, nothing.

My Response: Nothing.

Comment: There was such a movie, it was called All Remains to People.

My Response: I wanted to say that too.

Comment: It was a socialist, communist movie. I even remember that Cherkasov was playing there.

My Response: Yes, Cherkasov. Such a noble man. In fact, ideally, the person should pass away like that.

Comment: As we know, this did not disappear together with communist ideas.

My Response: It is clear that it will not disappear because egoists were at the head of these ideas.

Question: And if we put a Kabbalistic meaning into it, what would it look like?

Answer: It would look like Kabbalah.

Question: What am I doing with this egoist in me?

Answer: I am converting him into an altruist.

Question: Why did it not work out there, but it will work out here?

Answer: First, we have already become disillusioned with all the previous “isms” and other theories. That is first. Secondly, we understand that otherwise we will not be able to exist.

We must understand that only in the correct connection between us, which will become the basic law of society, is our future.

Question: Where in this is the upper force that you talk about all the time?

Answer: It is in the fact that we create it ourselves by trying to connect. If it is not there, this upper force, then we have not made it.

Question: So we failed, and we have to try again and again?

Answer: Absolutely!

Question: Until when?

Answer: Until you make it!

Question: How will I understand that I made it?

Answer: When you see that this connection works between you and others.

Question: How does it work then?

Answer: You will look at the others and see that everyone wishes happiness to each other. I think we still need a long time to come to this.

Question: But are we going toward this?

Answer: This does not depend on us.

Question: So, will this happen one way or another?

Answer: This will happen, this does not depend on us, but we will have to see this.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/29/23

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“How can I overcome stress quickly?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: How can I overcome stress quickly?
The best way to overcome stress is to deal with it in a group setting.

When we are parts of a supportive and encouraging group that immediately starts discussing the cause of the stress and how to work with it, offering empathy and advice, we can then overcome the stress.

That is the only real solution to stress because it is indeed a solution. It is not merely an escape, nor is it a means of postponing the stress for later, but it is a way of working together with others on building understanding, awareness and an approach directly in relation to the cause of the stress.

The group deliberation of the problem means that others understand the state of the person experiencing the stress, and they accordingly accept it upon themselves. If we raised a stressful circumstance in a supportive group discussion setting, then we come to understand that others accepted the problem upon themselves, which in turn provides us with the needed strength to overcome the stress.

Moreover, we then come to feel that we received the stressful state precisely in order to pass it over to others. By engaging in it together with others and repairing the cause of the stress, we strengthen the overall connection of the group. Likewise, all the group’s members gain from the resulting stronger connection.

We can compare such a group approach to solving stress similarly to how an infected bodily organ starts sending an alert, like an SOS, to its hosting body, which then instantly comes to its aid and takes it upon itself to compensate for the organ’s problem. By shifting the problem to the rest of the body, the individual organ gains the strength to restore its health, and the overall immunity of the body also increases. Such is the principle by which we can truly fix the cause of any stress.

Based on KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Drugs, Alcohol and Sex” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on July 29, 2011. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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Preparation for Perceiving the Truth

549.01Question: Why are there things like cults and other similar elements in the common system? What are they created for?

Answer: These are the delusions of man, which he must go through in the same way as all religions. Misconceptions help him and develop him until he comes to the truth.

A person cannot immediately come to the truth! How many years have you been soiling diapers, making mistakes, and breaking toys? How many years passed until you started to understand something, to do something on your own? This is what we have to go through!

All theories and techniques work themselves out in our mind. We need them or we cannot perceive the truth. We have to prepare for it.

One can prepare for it through such “toys.” The way you played all sorts of games in your childhood, then onto more serious things, and then you started to more or less understand some truth. The same is happening here.

Without these dense beliefs, red strings, religions, all sorts of slander, and everything else, a person cannot develop. Then will have to be abandoned  except for everyday customs and cultural traditions and all these beliefs will be replaced with knowledge and attainment.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Why do sects exist?” 8/27/11

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“Who led the Exodus from Egypt?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: Who led the Exodus from Egypt?
The exodus from Egypt is the exit from our egoistic approach to each other to new relations of love and positive connection.

Being in Egypt and under Pharaoh’s rule means that we are under our ego’s control, which pits us up against each other, making us each wish to enjoy at the expense of one another.

If we reach a desire to leave such a state of unfounded hatred that we find ourselves in by letting our egoistic desires control our lives, and start to feel each other with open hearts—a collective force of love and bestowal appear among everyone—then we become ready for the exodus from Egypt to the Land of Israel.

The word for “Israel” in Hebrew comes from two words, “Yashar El” (“straight to God”), which means a desire to aim ourselves directly at the force of love and bestowal, which is God’s or the Creator’s quality.

Based on the video “What Is the Exodus from Egypt?” by Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

A Feeling that Cannot Be Described

239Question: When you touch objects, do you get additional information directly from the contact? You said that when you enter the sea you receive information.

Answer: This is not information, these are sensations. These are feelings that cannot be described. They are not even related to Kabbalah.

Suppose a person living in the forest feels that something is happening there. I have met such people. They are completely different. They also talk about nature in a completely different way.

Question: Does this mean that the physical perception of some phenomena never helps you?

Answer: No, I try not to be in physical perception at all. What for? I exist in it because I have to live, teach, and explain. I have a mission. Actually every person has it. I seem to have found my mission, and I am trying to realize it.

On the other hand, a Kabbalist is limited by certain borders. He does not hang out with people at various gatherings and participate with them in all kinds of events. He does not care and does not need it. Why should I explore anything in this world when the whole point is to raise it higher?

And there is no one to talk about what I am researching except for the specialists who are next to me who also strive for this, that is, my students. When I give a lesson, explain, and they ask, these are the best hours of my life. We get included in the general system together, we climb some steps together, and I raise them.

By asking a question, they push me to new explanations and new research. And the solution comes at this very moment. All this is a wonderful symphony, the harmony of feelings, desires, thoughts, analysis, and synthesis of the entire universe!

Besides that, what else is there? What exists in our world is just an automatically operated machine. Therefore, it makes no sense to solve anything in it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. A Feeling That Can’t Be Described” 8/20/11

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