Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is “Kabbalah Mysticism” just a method which states that the human mind uses a constant and repetitious pattern, when it thinks about any subject?http://kofh2u.tripod.com/kofh/“

Kabbalah is not mysticism. It is a science that involves the attainment of the perception and sensation of the causal forces in our lives, while we’re alive in this world.

Regarding what Kabbalah states about the human mind, it relates to the human mind as a program existing below desire, and that the mind belongs to the subconscious.

Kabbalah has no engagement in the modus operandi of the brain as a calculator, nor in muscle memory, nor in any memory mechanisms. Its sole engagement is with the soul.

The desire, which precedes the mind, is the soul. It has no place in our corporeal body nor in our mind.

The desire was created by the Creator, which is a force of nature governing our reality. The desire is egoistic by nature, i.e., aimed solely at self-benefit, and with the help of the method of Kabbalah, we can invert the desire into its altruistic opposite, where it matches the same form as the Creator, a quality of love and giving.

By changing the intention upon the desire from self-benefit to benefiting others and everything and everyone outside of oneself, we then start feeling the causal forces in our lives, which Kabbalah calls “the upper world” or “spiritual world,” and we then start understanding why and how everything functions the way that it does.

Everything else related to matter, including the mind, is absent from Kabbalah study, and it is of no interest to Kabbalists. We are only interested in the pure desire, which is independent of any form of matter, and we explore and master it as such.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is Kabbalah from a perspective of a person practicing it?“

The wisdom of Kabbalah was made in order to guide us from our lives in this world to the attainment of the upper, spiritual world, and explains the absolute and fixed laws acting in both realities.

Using the wisdom of Kabbalah according to its intended purpose—bringing us attainment of the spiritual world—we gradually rise in our consciousness, perception and sensation of reality, eventually reaching, as Baal HaSulam described, the “exalted goal” of nothing less than the revelation of the Creator during our lifetime.

Who or what is the Creator?

The Creator is nature’s loftiest integral force, which includes the entirety of creation, everything that exists on its still, animate, vegetative and human levels.

When we understand how the Creator acts toward us, we can then understand the genuine causes of everything unfolding in our lives, and how to optimally respond to every situation in life.

The more we put the wisdom of Kabbalah to practice in our lives, the more we see exactly why and how we participate in creation, in nature.

In our era, more and more people feel the need for what the wisdom of Kabbalah provides, because as Kabbalists throughout history explained, specifically our era is the one when humanity would awaken en masse with questions about life’s meaning and purpose.

Our evolution is driving us all toward the revelation of the Creator. It is a process of accumulating suffering and deficiency. The wisdom of Kabbalah enters this process as a means to sweeten it, so that we don’t have to develop painfully, but increase our awareness of what is happening, and by doing so, experience the process much more enjoyably.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What are some photos which deserve millions of likes?“

We would be wise to promote photos and other media that show examples of love, unity, mutual consideration, support and encouragement above all differences, in order to positively influence humanity with such ideals.

The more we become influenced to want to love and positively connect to each other, coming closer to a sensation that we are all a single family, the more we would experienced improved social health, more happiness and confidence, less crime, anxiety, stress, depression, and many other negative phenomena in our lives.

This photo was taken at the 2008 World Kabbalah Convention in Tel Aviv, Israel. Each year, thousands of people gather at this convention from dozens of countries in order to unite above all differences, and by doing so, aim to become as a positive mini-model of humanity.

The method of connection (Kabbalah) starts from recognizing that we are egoistic by nature—we each by default consider self-benefit over benefiting others—and that this egoistic quality is the cause of all our problems.

Therefore, approaching love and unity is done not naively, but as a game: that we set a goal to positively connect above the innate division and differences we feel toward each other—not erasing those divisive sensations, but being aware of them and their source—and then acting out a social atmosphere where we each aim to mutually support, encourage and inspire each other to connect, and feel each other—ultimately, all of humanity—no less than we feel our own families and ourselves.

Playing such a game brings us closer to the fundamental laws of nature: laws of love, giving and connection. We thus awaken a positive influence from nature that helps us feel each other more closely, accelerating the pace of our development to feeling people who were as strangers, to feeling everyone as a single family.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Did God give the Torah to Moses in public? If so, is there solid proof?“

It is only an allegorical statement. Do we really think that God or the Creator descended from heaven holding the Torah in His hands?

The Creator is a force of nature that connects harmoniously between all elements of reality.

Some people have more of an inclination to reveal this force, feeling questions about life’s meaning and purpose more succinctly than others, and also feeling attracted to a deeper connection with reality.

Those who feel such an attraction, and who find a method to develop it into a new revelation of reality become Kabbalists. They engage in its attainment and revelation, and it gradually becomes a science of how to discover the Creator.

The Creator is immaterial, and thus unattainable using physical and corporeal devices.

However, if we develop a force opposite to our egoistic nature, an altruistic force, then we will start feeling the Creator completely surrounding us.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How is the new COVID-19 disease going to affect the world?“

Before we discuss how the COVID-19 disease is going to affect the world, it helps to be aware of the deeper causes behind its appearance, and then to understand how we can best use this period of social distancing we have been placed in to impact a positive shift in society.

While there are many theories as to what caused the coronavirus, the deeper cause was our imbalance with nature. We were in an egoistic-competitive rat race, where we each sought self-benefit at the expense of others, and it was getting out of hand.

If the coronavirus would not have arisen, then we would have led ourselves to a man-made crisis. I think another world war would not have been out of the question.

Therefore, the coronavirus crisis emerged to save us from a much more severe crisis. As strange as it might sound, it came mercifully from nature in order to isolate us from the exploitative and manipulative world we created, as it washes away the waste from that world. Similar to how we had been dumping plastic and radioactive waste into our oceans, we had also been polluting human society.

Photo by Tj Holowaychuk on Unsplash

Now, while we are in this unique era brought about by the pandemic, we have an opportunity to create a new and upgraded world, one where positive human connections become the leading value.

While under stay-at-home orders, we have time and space to review the way we live our lives. Reviewing the way we used to live our lives, if the coronavirus would not have struck us, we would have been driving ourselves faster and faster toward an oncoming wall.

Therefore, what should we be looking forward to when we exit this era?

Should we be waiting to head back to our 10-to-12 hour work days, traffic jams, pollution, debt, and myriad other personal, social and ecological problems?

Or would we be wiser to use this transitional era in order to help each other make a big step into a new world: to think about how we can improve human connections, replacing our past egoistic and exploitative relationships with altruistic and mutually considerate ones?

Without philosophizing too much about how the coronavirus will affect the world, we would use our current physical detachment from each other more beneficially if we would first internalize how to stop relating negatively to each other. We have been given time and space to achieve this.

Afterward, gradually, new situations will emerge where we will be able to connect more intensively in positive, supportive, encouraging and considerate ways.

If we succeed in upgrading our connections during this period, then when the stay-at-home orders will be lifted and the coronavirus is under control, we would also continue what we now begin: to appreciate positive human connections benefiting everyone over self-benefit.

We would then enter into balance with nature—the discovery of a harmonious world filled with delight, peace and happiness, and we would be guarded from any kinds of future pandemics and other crises.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How did the COVID-19 virus appear?“

There is a deeper reason for the appearance of the COVID-19 virus than the theories currently on offer. Whether it emerged from bats, pangolins, or whether it was lab-produced, essentially any of these or other stated reasons for the revelations of the virus would still merely be consequences of a deeper causal factor: human imbalance with nature.

Nature functions as an interconnected and interdependent system that constantly guides its parts to reach the same level of interconnectedness and interdependence. It operates as a whole integrated system, considering each and every one of its details with utmost precision and care.

The still, vegetative and animate levels of nature are sustained in an instinctive and involuntary balance with nature.

The human level of nature is fundamentally opposed to nature in that it is egoistic, operating out of self-interest at the expense of other people and parts of nature.

Moreover, the more we humans have developed, the more this egoistic quality has grown, and in recent times it has reached unprecedented excesses. We developed a consumeristic, individualistic and materialistic rat-race society where we each tried to build our successes on the ruin of others.

Before the coronavirus, our overblown egoism was leading human society to states that could have been far worse than the pandemic if it had continued to be left to its own devices. The increasing tension in international relations, for instance, could have well led to a world war.

Therefore, in terms of how COVID-19 appeared, it would be wise to view it from its deeper cause: our imbalance with nature.

Also, in the social distancing conditions we find ourselves in, we would do wisely if we started learning more about how nature’s wholeness, and how we could use this unique period we are in for an upgrade of human consciousness: to become more considerate in our relationships and connections, and thus, to bring ourselves closer to nature.

Doing so would have far-reaching implications in terms of our general happiness and well-being, as we would then no longer awaken all kinds of blows that affect us on personal, social, ecological and global scales, but the contrary, we would draw nature’s positive unifying force in the new positive relationships we build with each other.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does the average person not understand about the coronavirus pandemic?“

Whether or not the average person understands write I will write below, here’s what I think every person needs to take away from this coronavirus pandemic:

The pandemic won’t be over with anytime soon, despite the easing of stay-at-home orders starting to take effect.
Curing the coronavirus requires a step toward more mutual consideration and responsibility among us all, from the average person to world leaders.
The coronavirus struck a blow to the egoistic-competitive rat race we were running, and over time we have calmed down our consumerist lifestyles, where it was a norm to exploit others for personal profit purposes.
I think that we can look forward to a positive future, which will be calmer than how we used to live, with more balance among each other and with nature.

Weeks and months of isolation will play their role in transforming us.

Do we really think that the moment all the restrictions are lifted, we’ll be running back to malls, filling our bags with piles of extra clothes and plastic goods, and flying to tourist destinations left, right and center again?

I think not.

One of the major takeaways from this pandemic is that we have cooled off our approaches to each other where we each aimed to self-benefit at the expense of others, and that we see a clear example of nature treating all people equally—which we would be wise to apply to each other.

Nature is working with us, trying to wake us up to the fact that we are all in the same boat, and I expect that we will come out of this pandemic with more awareness of our common status in the wider perspective of nature as a whole.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How will the world be different when covid 19 is cured?“

The coronavirus’ stubborn spread is changing the face of the planet, trampling our routines, and weaving a new picture from depths that we have yet to fully realize.

We still have our pre-coronavirus lifestyle in the back of our minds—that we will wake up in the morning, get dressed, taste our usual morning beverage, and take those same steps through our familiar urban terrain, our recognizable world of malls, stores, cafés, and restaurants.

However, we have begun to realize that perhaps we exaggerated the importance of materialistic consumption in our pre-coronavirus lives.

Now that we’ve been “sentenced” to life’s essentials, we start questioning the necessity of the excesses we were engaged in:

• Will our lives return to the “normal” that we knew before the coronavirus, or will they assume a new form?
• Will the close of the coronavirus era open a Pandora’s Box of long-awaited shopping and travel that we thirsted for during this period, or will we find ourselves freed from old burdens and welcome a new beginning?

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

We now have time to take a deep breath in, and ponder these questions.

One way or another, we will have to get used to sitting in our homes, perhaps even working from home, and settling for little.

Also, maybe we will come out of this period with an upgrade in our attitudes to each other. For instance, maybe we would take away from the coronavirus, that as it doesn’t discriminate between people of different status, so we should also make no such discriminations.

However, coming to terms with the implications for our lives and the many mental and emotional changes will require time.

On one hand, we have a chance to decide whether the way we were living our lives should be revised in order to be better balanced with nature, while on the other hand, even if we reach such a decision, the way to do so is unclear.

At this juncture, we can make optimal use of this unique period by learning the principles of the interconnected and interdependent world we live in.

We would be wise to use this time to sharpen our awareness that we live in a single system, an integral universe, where we humans are intertwined with the inanimate, vegetative and animate life that surrounds us.

While we are interdependent parts of nature, our own nature—human nature—is self-centered, wanting to enjoy individually at the expense of anyone and anything it can get its hands on.

While we each try to serve our self-interests in an interdependent system, we look like we each pull on the same rope that connects between us all in a game of tug-of-war, and by doing so, we all end up eventually tumbling down.

Interdependence closes us in from the outside, and our self-centeredness presses up against the interdependence from the inside, and thus crisis erupts in between them.

The crisis we now experience is not due to the coronavirus but to our imbalance with nature, our lack of positive connection with each other.

In our connections with others, our egoistic nature constantly tries to serve its personal benefit over benefiting others. In order to reach balance with nature, overcome the coronavirus, and protect ourselves from future pandemics and other crises, we need to learn how to develop positive connections above our innate egos that constantly try to receive everything desirable for self-benefit alone.

Today, while we are isolated from each other under the social distancing and stay-at-home constraints, we have an opportunity to learn the principles of what it means to live in an interconnected and interdependent world.

We should thus be concerned about how to use this period in order to realize positive, considerate and healthy relationships, and how to develop an atmosphere that inspires us to give to others, benefit them, and think about them more than we consider ourselves.

Although it might seem frightening to take hold of the other end of the stick and think about others more than about ourselves, if mutual consideration and responsibility was a leading value in our society, then we would all receive a whole new sense of security, confidence and happiness likes of which we have never experienced before.

Nature is encouraging us to rise in our awareness and become integral like it is. We need only change our egoistic relations to altruistic ones, shifting our modus operandi from one of self-concern to one of concern for others.

We would then not only exit the coronavirus, but would enter a new world free from the problems of this life. We would be enveloped by a new supportive and protective force—nature’s own quality of connection, bestowal and love—and would be guided by this quality to build a perfect world.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How will the coronavirus affect the world economy?“

To start with, after this prolonged period of the conditions that the coronavirus has placed us into, our attitude to the world will become different and there will be major changes.

We will change psychologically, and accordingly, our systems, connections and perceptions will change such that there will be no return to the pre-coronavirus world.

The post-coronavirus world will be new. Our behaviors and connections will be different to what they were before the coronavirus.

I think that we will have a better feel of what is and isn’t essential in life, and that we will value a more internal definition of connection and closeness to each other. The extent of our psychological change will determine the extent of change in our systems, the economy included.

During the coronavirus period, while we are in prolonged social distancing and stay-at-home conditions, I think that the economy should operate in an emergency-like manner: that the government provides life’s essentials to every person—food, housing, water, electricity, and various municipal services per capita. I also think that our increased focus on life’s essentials will see the fall of a lot of businesses that we have no real need for.

The more that we endure this period, the more our awareness of what is most important in life will increase. In turn, this will calm us down from our egoistic-competitive rat race that we used to run.

In terms of how the world economy will actually look at the end of the coronavirus period, I don’t think we can depict the changes in the meantime, because time has to play its role. We have been in these conditions for a little over a month. Let’s say we will be in these conditions for another six months. We cannot yet imagine the changes we would have gone through at the end of such a period.

Ideally, we would operate in more balance with nature, i.e., with more mutual consideration and responsibility. It means acting like one big family that looks at the means it has at its disposal, and how it can best allocate what it has to every member in a mutually beneficial way.

Accordingly, situations we currently see, where for instance one family member cannot afford to pay rent and another receives millions to support a personal stash of mansions and yachts would no longer make sense to us, and we would thus find ways to iron out these situations for everyone’s common benefit.

Such logic is neither socialistic, capitalistic or communistic. It is based on an understanding of nature’s laws and what nature requires of us in order for us to balance with it.

However, in order to reach that kind of economy, we would need to undergo a major change in our attitudes to each other—a shift in our priorities from self-benefit to benefiting others.

Likewise, if we make no strides in this attitude shift, we can expect no such motions to make our economy more balanced with nature.

That is why I think it is still too early to say how the economy and world will look at the end of the coronavirus period. It is like we are in a train that left its previous stop, and we’re headed to the next stop, which we’ve never visited before.

Reaching such changes requires connection-enriching learning.

Connection-enriching learning aims to improve our understanding of the interdependent world we find ourselves in today, and how today’s interdependence requires mutual consideration, responsibility, support and encouragement among all of us in order for us to survive and live satisfying lives.

Moreover, the more unemployment increases due to many unessential businesses falling, on one hand, and also due to technological means replacing human resources, on the other hand, the more we will become ready for a different economic solution to the ones we have today.

I have written extensively about my support for universal basic income as such a solution, but only on condition that a basic income is given in exchange for participating in connection-enriching learning, so that social connections become more positive and people learn how to accept, understand, and get along with everyone, as well as engage in the creation of a new atmosphere of mutual consideration, support, awareness and sensitivity. If basic income is not supplied together with such learning, then society would stagnate.

Therefore, I think that the coronavirus’ conditions will bring us closer to such an economy, even if only by better preparing us psychologically for it.

The sooner we will reach mutually considerate attitudes to each other and an economy that reflects that attitude shift, the sooner we will see less violence, crime and abuse of all kinds in society, together with increased personal and social happiness.

Ultimately, it is a question of what we value.

In Hebrew, the word for “money” (“Kesef”) has the same linguistic root as the word for “covering” (“Kisui”). Therefore, if we change the covering over our society from a consumerist value of one’s self-worth that accords to the amount of wealth, status and power one has, to one where we value not individual wealth, status and power, but people’s contribution to a positively-connected society, then we would be on our way to a world that is more balanced with nature, and thus would experience more harmonious lives.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Can something like the Coronavirus be the end of the world?“

No. There is no end of the world. Matter continually changes and upgrades, never dying.

The coronavirus, as well as other epidemics, natural disasters, and literally any form that appears negative toward us from nature, surfaces in order to ultimately bring us closer to nature.

We might think that it is absurd, because how could a problem that kills and makes so many people sick bring us closer to nature?

Photo by 🇨🇭 Claudio Schwarz | @purzlbaum on Unsplash

Nature is an interconnected and interdependent system that relates to all of its parts—the still, vegetative, animate and human—as a single whole. It does not relate to our physical bodies, but to what makes us human: our attitudes to each other.

Letting our attitudes to each other remain egoistic and self-centered, focused only on benefiting ourselves at the expense of other people and nature, awakens a negative response from nature. Blows from nature come ultimately in order to wake us up to the need to change our egoistic attitude to an attitude that is balanced with nature.

If we relate to nature’s feedback—seemingly negative phenomena as the coronavirus and myriad other blows that we endure—as a complete interconnected and interdependent system wanting and trying to bring us into balance with itself, then our correct response would be to merge our attitudes to each other in order to match nature’s integrality.

In other words, our correct response to blows from nature, especially the coronavirus, is to seek how we can better relate to one another, in order to become more unified and reach balance with nature.

Therefore, especially while we are under social distancing conditions brought upon us with the coronavirus, we would use these conditions ideally if we undertook a self-scrutiny, to reach the realization of how the coronavirus crisis came to us as a response to our imbalance with nature, and also to seek how we could use the time when we are isolated from each other in order to become more united and balanced with nature.

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