Question: What is mercy in your understanding?

Answer: Mercy is when a person receives the quality of bestowal from above and can bestow in the same way as the Creator.

Comment: But this is not what people usually understand by mercy in our world.

My Response: Everything is distorted in our world.

Question: But does this concept have at least some common link?

Answer: None. In our world, mercy is when I shut up your egoism.

Question: What is justice?

Answer: Justice is when a person receives exactly as much as he is supposed to in order to move toward correction, to his best, predetermined state, to his root.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Justice” 1/23/11

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What needs to happen or change for humanity to advance?“

Human nature is a desire to enjoy for self-benefit. It is our starting point, and we are placed in a process of development that leads to a state where we will end up inverting our nature in the direction of benefiting others and nature.

Nature in general is the opposite of human nature. It functions according to laws of altruism, interconnection and interdependence. Accordingly, nature develops its still, vegetative and animate parts in a way where they do not use other parts of nature adversely.

In all of nature, only us people have desires to exploit and destroy nature in order to give ourselves feelings of power and respect. We were given this additional egoistic desire in order to upgrade ourselves through our connection to each other, i.e., to learn how to apply favorable and beneficial relations in place of the inclination that wishes to exploit each other and nature for the sake of inflating our egos.

With this inversion of our intention—from self-benefit alone to benefiting others and nature—we discover a whole new world with a new nature, one that is eternal and perfect.

We then live free of pressures and pains. Our feeling of a short, transient and generally miserable life becomes replaced with a feeling of a continuous existence that is free from suffering.

Suffering stems from our egoistic desire to exploit others and nature for self-gain. Therefore, by replacing our egoistic inclination with an altruistic nature of wishing to benefit others and nature, we discover ourselves living in a heavenly plane of existence.

Heaven is a state where a common force of love emerges between people, which forms a connection of “love your neighbor as yourself.” Nature will lead us to this heavenly state sooner or later, and we will have no choice but to invert our attitudes to each other—from egoistic to altruistic—and by doing so, live in a harmonious and balanced connection.

Based on the video “The Big Change Humanity Needs to Undergo” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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Question: What is the real truth?

Answer: If we start from below, from us, then it does not exist because we are constantly changing and we do not have a foundation on which we can build the truth. Truth is verity; truth stems from our root that we all originate from.

Everything that exists in our root, as in a point, is the truth. You can say, “If this is already at the root, why should I focus on it?” But you have nothing else to direct yourself to. You came from there; you do not know anything other than that; you cannot invent or imagine anything other than that.

Therefore, what is at the root is in absolute agreement, symbiosis, harmony, and complementation to each other; it forms the concept of root, basis, which for you is truth, veracity. Just that.

You cannot invent anything else. Nothing can come to your mind because you are only a descendant of this root. Therefore, the attainment of the root is the attainment of the truth.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Truth” 1/9/11

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Question: What is hatred?

Answer: Hatred is when I want to see the other person not die, not disappear, but suffer in full accordance with my ideas about suffering. I do not want him to die. No, absolutely not. I wish him such sensations that I will now come up with especially for him so that he remains in them.

Comment: In fact, it is like sadism.

My Response: This is such a high form of relationship that is opposite to love, one against the other. Two opposite forms of attitude to the other person, to a being, to nature, to the Creator, no matter to whom.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Hatred” 1/27/11

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What are some things we can do to help ease our anxiety about the future?“

To understand that it is just anxiety and not reality.

We should look into what we have the ability to do today, understanding that any anxieties about the future are about what might happen later, and accordingly we should calm down.

Fearing the future gives us absolutely nothing. We nevertheless do not know what will happen tomorrow, so why should we get anxious with various worries and concerns?

Based on the video “Anxiety about the Future – A Kabbalist’s View” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: What is “gematria“?

Answer: Gematria is the numerical value of a spiritual state.

Suppose I am in a certain spiritual state since my desires have acquired a certain similarity to the Creator and are filled with His quality of bestowal. This happens according to the law of similarity of properties. Desire, having become similar to the Creator, is filled with the quality of bestowal and enjoys it. That is, I am similar to the Creator in this state.

My state can be measured according to my desire, how much it has changed in its strength and in its volume. When I weigh my desire, what is it in terms of volume, depth, thickness, how much it has changed and become similar to the Creator, i.e., I weigh the positive changes in it, the various qualities of bestowal and their aspects, then all this together is called gematria.

In other words, the gematria of some object, the soul, is called a power or degree, or a state of correction, similar to the Creator. Therefore, if a person is not similar to the Creator, then he has no name. As soon as he becomes at least a little similar to the Creator, he has gematria, his name.

In principle, all names are gematria because everything in the world is only one desire.

The Creator created only desire, and to the extent that it is similar to the Creator and acquires His qualities, it acquires volume and some form. This form has a name, a measure of similarity to the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Gematria” 1/23/11

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Question: What is harmony?

Answer: Harmony is an absolutely complete interaction between two opposite qualities when they complement each other. It is in this complementation upon their initial difference that unity, I would say, perfection, manifests itself.

But this perfection arises only from corrected mergers of opposite qualities. And then there is a great pleasure, as if hunger meets saturation.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Harmony” 1/23/11

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Where should I start learning Kabbalah?“

Kabbalah is a wisdom that explains the one unique and unified force operating throughout nature.

Today, humanity is reaching the conclusion that it does not know anything about life’s purpose, and that it must know answers to essential questions about the meaning and purpose of our lives: “Who are we?” “What are we?” “Where do we come from?” and “Where are we headed?” We need to know how we should live, and how we can solve our problems and heal ourselves as we head into the future.

Kabbalah helps us reach such an understanding. It helps us feel nature and reality in its full depth and width. We then come to feel that we know the world that we exist in, and that the world cannot be hostile toward us.

Our education center—KabU—is very practical. It is open to everyone, and it can prepare and advance any person toward life’s meaning and purpose on a simple, straightforward and safe path.

I invite you, from the bottom of my heart, to come and study the wisdom of Kabbalah. This wisdom covers all of reality—the still, vegetative, animate and human levels. It covers the entire universe, from its very beginning until its eternal end: what there was, what there is, and what will be.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains what happens to us before we are born, and what happens during our lives, and after we leave this world. You will learn all of that here, and we are waiting to welcome you. Come and feel it for yourself.

Based on the video “What Is the Best Way to Learn Kabbalah?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: What is the correct definition of a soul?

Answer: The soul is the part of you that you attain.

The soul is our root where we are in complete merger with the Creator, as two forces: our receiving and His giving. This upper state is revealed to us gradually, according to 125 degrees of attainment, which Kabbalah speaks about.

The term “Kabbalah” comes from the word “receive,” i.e., to attain this upper state. Therefore the gradual revelation of our root, this ascent along 125 degrees, is what we have to do.

We will attain the truth, the only eternally existing state, our root, in which we will merge completely with the Creator, the force that created us.

By reaching this state, we will come to full similarity, equality, and equivalence to the Creator Himself and become His absolute partners in the universe.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Soul” 1/9/11

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Question: What is death?

Answer: Death is when a person feels completely cut off from the eternal, upper, perfect existence. There are not many such people in the world.

The rest are considered simply non-existent. They feel neither life nor death, that is, neither life in the upper, eternal, and perfect space, nor death in disconnection from it.

In other words, life and death are felt only by those people who are already in contact with the next layer, with the next dimension.

Otherwise, we are at the animalistic level of existence like all animals. Let’s say you raise chickens or piglets, and when you need them, you slaughter them and eat them. That is how we are. Only we “eat” others, we are rarely eaten. Usually we die for other reasons.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Death” 1/26/11

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