Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why does it feel so good to buy things?“

It feels good to buy things because it fills our ego.

We are made of egoistic desires to enjoy through acquiring, buying and receiving, and when we bring desirable things closer to ourselves in such ways, our egos enjoy for short periods of time.

The fulfillment is short lived because our ego is interchangeable. It behaves like a taxi meter. The wheel keeps turning, and our satisfaction diminishes with every passing second.

And what happens after the enjoyment fades away? We then need to work again in order to buy again. Our entire lives then look like an endless cycle of working and buying, working and buying, ad nausaem, and we never remain satisfied.

We cannot stop this process because our ego constantly grows. We always move away from a prior state where we had felt some fulfillment, enter into a feeling of emptiness and lack, and this lack forces us to seek fulfillment once again.

Moreover, since our ego constantly grows, then the pace of this process constantly accelerates. The time shortens between one purchase, i.e., a moment of pleasure, and the next such moment. Every successive pleasurable moment is half of the previous moment.

For instance, if we needed to travel on vacation for a week once a year, we now need to travel for a month in the summer, and then a month in the winter, and we continually need to find new and different ways to satisfy ourselves due to our constantly growing ego never letting us be completely satisfied.

Why do our lives operate in such a way? Why does our ego constantly grow, making us feel empty after every fulfillment?

It is because our ego grows in order to make us want the greatest fulfillment and force that we could possibly ever feel.

If we do not reach the final complete form of fulfillment, we leave our ego empty, and its vision remains fixed on the complete and continuous form of fulfillment beyond the smaller pleasures that enter it time and again. Therefore, it is as Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) writes:

Since all their possessions are for themselves alone, and ‘he who has a single portion wants a double portion,’ one finally dies with only ‘half one’s desire in one’s hand.’ In the end they suffer from both sides; from the increase of pain due to the multiplicity of movement, and from the regret at not having the possessions they need to fill their empty half. – Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, “Inner Reflection.”

Therefore, our life story is that we chase pleasures more and more, buying more and more, and the enjoyment we receive from this chase becomes lesser and lesser. Moreover, the intervals between each pleasure become shorter.

We can see an example of this loop in the rise of drug legitimization: that the usual pleasures people could once fulfill themselves with no longer satisfy them, and the ego demands ever more pleasure in shorter intervals.

We thus see that we are in a process of constantly-diminishing pleasures and a constantly-increasing feeling of emptiness, and it is in order for us to eventually reach a final state of despair—a state where we will want to bury our ego and shift to an entirely new and different form of fulfillment: not of receiving—but giving—pleasure.

This transformation from enjoying through receiving to enjoying through giving can be thought of similarly to how we become parents. As parents, we shift to a mode of enjoying from giving to our children.

It is a purely psychological inversion, a new mode of sensing pleasure. Instead of receiving pleasure into ourselves and experiencing that pleasure disappear, leaving us empty, we rather feel pleasure in a new attitude, where the more we give to the world, the more pleasure we feel. Moreover, we can feel the latter form of pleasure continuously, without it fading away.

Based on the video “Why Does it Feel So Good to Buy Things?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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Comment: When you describe incorporation into other people’s desires, everyone always imagines that you gave something to someone: either you brought a cup of coffee to a friend or something like that.

My Response: No, a Kabbalist does not work at this level. Illusionists can work at this level—to guess a person’s desires and thus perform tricks. A Kabbalist does not perceive desires of this type at all.

For him, mutual desires are desires for connection: whether they exist or not and as far as we can combine them. Our task is the restoration of one single organism, the parts of which we must connect after shattering. We have no other concern. That is, I perceive you as a part that needs to be attached to a common organism. That is how a Kabbalist sees it.

Therefore, bringing someone a cup of coffee or something else is not what is required. The Kabbalist’s desire to feel the other is not at that level, although in general he should take care that this other, who seems to exist outside of him, has what is necessary for existence.

Comment: After all, the material is also included here.

My Response: Yes, in this way the existence of an extraneous desire or an organ of this desire is evaluated within us. Each of us is a separate organ that exists at the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels.

On the still, vegetative, and animate level, I have to take care that the other has everything necessary, that is, what any animal needs.

On the human level, I have to take care to create all the necessary conditions for him to properly connect to spiritual nutrition.

How does the part of the desires that is called human, feed? Only when it connects to one shared system. I have to bring him to the possibility of connecting to this system.

But he still has freewill. Without the fact that he realizes himself and connects himself to the common system, nothing will happen.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Other People’s Desires” 6/27/11

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Comment: You once said that praising someone for the work he has done in spiritual development is bad for a person because he advances not on his fuel but on the fuel of others.

My Response: It depends on what he is praised for and how. But it really can stop a person. There is the concept of a jinx. In Hebrew, this is called an evil eye.

If a lot of people think badly of you, then, of course, nothing good comes out of it. At some level, this affects a person because we are all connected.

There are a great number of forces in the world with a hierarchy and purposefulness. If I have to go forward, lead others, or do something, then in doing so I call some negative opinions upon myself. It all depends on what I do.

There is no single force at work here, but a whole system. My teacher Rabash emphasized this and said that one should be afraid of the evil eye, i.e., others’ bad opinion when people talk and think badly about you. You have to try to avoid it because it harms you.

The main thing is not to cause feelings of envy. It is not good. Therefore, when they scold me and say: “And who are you after all?” and so on, I am content.

Comment: But in Kabbalah, on the contrary, envy advances a person.

My Response: If you are envious of something good in a person and you want to be like him, then such envy advances you. But when you are envious and want him to fall below you so he does not have what you envy, this is bad envy. That is why it is called the evil eye, not the good one.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Protection from the Evil Eye” 7/21/11

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Where has the world come to?“

There is a higher force in nature that controls the reality we live in, and no matter what efforts we make, we can do nothing outside of this force’s plan and control.

We should thus try to understand the destination to which this force advances us, what it wants from us, and that everything we have done, do and will do is its outcome.

We hope that one day we will attain true knowledge and awareness of where we are, what existence and environment we are in, and the forces that operate on us.

We are tiny particles of creation who think that we understand something about it. Also, when we understand something, we use that understanding solely for self-benefit.

What can we thus say about our participation, efforts and the goal we try to place before ourselves? Until now, it was all for the worse.

The more we have developed science, technology, medicine, art and culture to improve our lives, the more we find ourselves immersed in increasing problems on all scales, with abounding depression, anxiety, stress, drug abuse, suicides, social division, unemployment, poverty, crime, nuclear anxiety and natural disasters, to name a few.

Everything that we have created to benefit ourselves, from our self-centered mind and feelings, has ended up in the creation of a terrible world, which continues sinking into more and more problems from one crisis to the next.

We are fast approaching the realization that our myriad efforts to make a better world are futile, and it is in order to show us that we are operating on faulty self-aimed desires that base our every thought and action.

Until we undergo an upgraded learning process to discover the nature of our desires, our world, the laws of nature, and how we can harmonize ourselves with those laws, we will continue bearing witness to a deteriorating world.

Based on the video “Where Has the World Come To?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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Question: What is hypnosis in spirituality?

Answer: I do not know. In spirituality, there is a state when a person goes by faith above reason. Maybe it can be called some kind of hypnosis? That is, it is a state of complete and explicit wakefulness.

In spirituality, sleep is a certain disconnection from the real state, when a person consciously lowers the level of light within himself from GAR to VAK.

There are such measures of attainment of spiritual space as sitting, standing, wakefulness, sleeping, and so on.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Power of Hypnosis” 7/24/11

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Question: Why is the first reaction of a person under stress to get drunk or take some kind of sedative? Is there any substitute for this?

Answer: The best substitute is not to be alone with the cause of the stress, to break away from it. This happens if I am in a group that immediately starts discussing the cause of stress and working with it, that gives me all sorts of advice, their empathy, and solves this problem for me.

This is the only real solution because it is a solution. It is not escaping it, not postponing for the future, but working together with others on what caused stress in me.

Others understand my stressful state and take it upon themselves. And I, understanding that they take it upon themselves, as if, overcome the stress. Then I feel that, in principle, I received this state precisely in order to pass it on to them and so that by engaging in this and correcting the cause of stress, they would connect even more with each other.

This can be compared to the way some organ in the body begins to send an SOS, and the whole body instantly comes to its aid and takes it upon itself to compensate for the problem in which it found itself.

Thus, shifting the problem to the rest of the body, it gets out of it. This is the only way to really correct any cause of any stress.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Drugs, alcohol and sex” 7/29/11

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Question: Is there such a concept as lovers in the spiritual world? For some reason, many married people, especially now, in addition to the family, have a lover or mistress.

Answer: Nowadays, due to the growth of egoism, a person lives quite a long time. Previously, people lived 30 to 40 years. And even earlier, people died at the age of 20 to 25. Then the life span gradually increased to 30 to 40, 40 to 50, and 50 to 60 years. Today people live to be 90 years old.

In this state, the problem of if we can withstand such an age psychologically arises? For example, some studies claim that the increased incidence of cancer is due to the fact that we live longer. If we lived 20 years less, we would not develop these tumors; and another 20 years less, perhaps they would not exist at all. There are diseases that are provoked by a long life.

So today’s divorces come from the fact that people live longer. They cannot live together for so many years.

First, our egoism has become very big. In addition, it is always searching for something because it is not satisfied with many things. What can satisfy it? Sex is the greatest and most accessible satisfaction in life.

It turns out that in the end everyone begins to justify their infidelity. This is probably not even called infidelity because it has become an ordinary thing.

I think that in the next few years there will not be a family that would live its whole life in one marriage.
In principle, in our time, sex, alcohol, drugs, and football are designed to cover general dissatisfaction, some kind of general hopelessness, and a general lack of confidence. At least that is a way to blow off steam. This is the shake-up that modern man needs.

Therefore, in no case can I criticize anyone. I understand how necessary it is in our world.

This can change in accordance with the change in a person’s attitude toward the world and toward life, not even in a person himself, but in his environment. As long as the environment becomes softer, it will provide a person with security, as long as a person will feel morally balanced and satisfied in it, so he will be less drawn to all sorts of problematic games and their relaxation in the form of sex. Then things will be much calmer.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Lovers” 7/9/11

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What’s the best feeling in the world 🌍?“

There is no better feeling than the discovery of all people in the world as parts of our soul, with the positive force of nature dwelling between us.

When we reach such a sensation, we feel in our mutual connection that we include the whole world and all of nature within us, that it is all for us.

Based on the video “What Is the Best Feeling in the World?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: What is faith above reason?

Answer: Faith above reason is faith in spite of reason, in spite of today’s degree. If I move from degree to degree, then at the degree where I am now, I have reason. In order to rise to the next degree, I accept the reason of the next degree as faith, i.e., I go with the head of the upper degree.

This is not at all like in our world in which if you are smarter than me, then I go with your head, and I act with your reason. This is called “faith is above my reason.” That is, I go with my reason anyway but using your reason.

In spirituality, however, if a person goes by faith above reason, he understands and feels that this is against him. But he goes because he wants to go with the head of his teacher.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Зower of Рypnosis” 7/24/11

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Question: You say that it is important for a person to correctly adjust himself before going to bed. Does it mean that sleep can also be used as a part of the methodology?

Answer: Sleep is disconnection of our animalistic body from the inner, spiritual body, which without external corporeal disturbances connects to a huge brain, a vast holographic system of the universe and performs archiving of all the data.

Therefore, a great work takes place during sleep, and it all depends on how we prepare for sleep. It is enough to dedicate fifteen minutes to this.

Question: What other elements should be considered before going to bed?

Answer: None. Just before going to bed, you must mentally tear yourself away from life, from family, children, from all your past affairs, and again come into contact with spiritual matters. Only spirituality stands before you, puzzles, and fills you. With this, you go to sleep.

Question: How do you prepare yourself before going to bed? Or do you already do it automatically?

Answer: Before going to bed, I work on the computer and watch the news purely for information; it is interesting how spirituality manifests itself in our world. Then with a few small concrete thoughts I go to sleep.

This is enough because I am in it all the time. When I watch the news, I practically do not break away from spirituality.

Students whom I advise to prepare for 15 to 20 minutes are a different matter. I take into account that a person before that worked, went about his business, family, and everything else, that is, all his systems were directed to other sensations, and he must again put himself in order, correctly direct himself toward the purpose of creation. Therefore, I say that you need to read the material for 15 minutes and think about it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Sacrament of Sleep” 7/9/11

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