Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do you cope with anxiety?“

One of my students told me that when he discussed his anxieties with someone close to him, like his wife or a close friend, then he found that the moment he started opening up to them, the anxiety decreased—even before he received any advice or support.

Togetherness definitely decreases anxiety. There is a saying in the wisdom of Kabbalah that “a sorrow shared is a sorrow halved,” i.e. when we share a sensation, we divide it up, and it in turn becomes more manageable.

Since it is quite easy to see how sharing our experiences lessens our negative feelings, the question is why do we not use this ability more? Why is it so hard for us to share our anxieties with others?

We are indeed afraid of opening our hearts, letting everyone see that we have certain fears and anxieties. In addition to whatever anxieties we hold within, we usually have additional anxieties about sharing them with others, that it might cause others to perceive us as weak. Since society in general values stronger, smarter, wealthier and fitter individuals, opening up our anxieties to such a society makes us vulnerable to exploitation. We thus need to seek a social environment that would not exploit us for opening up, but would rather give us a sense of faith and confidence that it can help us cope with any negative feelings.

A social setting that can guarantee faith and confidence in its members is one that actively draws itself to the upper good and benevolent force—the force of love, bestowal and connection. It is this very same force that awakens negative feelings in us, whether they be fears, anxieties or several other painful sensations, in order for us to draw closer to that force, and we do so by drawing closer to each other.

If we wish to connect with the upper force and let its perfect quality of love, bestowal and connection fill our lives with a sensation of faith and confidence, then we need to emulate such a quality toward each other—giving others a sense of faith and confidence, and for them to do the same toward us. By wanting to positively connect with each other, we then start awakening the positive force dwelling in nature into the connections we create, and we then feel a new sense of faith and confidence wash away any anxieties that we might be holding within.
[306891]

Based on the video “How to Cope With Fear and Anxiety” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash.

Filed under: Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why should adults also play every day?“

Playing is a very important means for development. When we play, we develop new relationships and connections.

While it is common knowledge that children need to play in order to develop, which is why we buy them games and put a lot of effort into working out the most suitable games for each stage of their development, it is not so clear with us adults. We do not really like to play. Our relations end up quickly deteriorating into each one of us degrading the other, which ends our playing.

As a result, we miss out on a lot of what we can get out of life. We fail to examine all of our options for development as adults, and we thus put a halt to our further development.

We have turned our daily lives into a prison of sorts. That is, we need to look, behave and talk in certain kinds of ways—and only in those certain kinds of ways—otherwise, we will not fit in with others and gain their respect. Without their respect, we get treated in ways that harm us. We suffer from living in such a prison, but it has become such an integrated part of our lives that we cannot escape from it.

The essence of our playing as adults should be that we treat each other positively even if we do not feel like it, and to teach others to do the same. Playing in such a way would emulate the higher state of positive connection that nature is developing us toward, and we would thus draw positive forces of connection that dwell in nature into our relations, and start feeling happier, more confident, and that our lives are purpose-driven.

Based on the video “Why Adults Should Play” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.
[306953]

Filed under: Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is more important, compassion or empathy?“

Through empathy we come to feel the pain of others, and through compassion we feel the pain of others but are able to handle it. It is because compassion comes with love, which is the key difference between the two.

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, empathy is “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner,” and compassion means the “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.”

With compassion, it is as if we step into the other person’s world and feel their experience. If we foster and nurture such a feeling within ourselves, we can then enter a whole other world. However, we are not involved in such a process. Generally, at the ages of thirteen and fourteen, we can fully resonate with other people’s suffering. If we would then receive further education on how to relate to such feelings, then we could bring about immense positive change in the world.

We can teach compassion in ways where people learn how to understand and nurture it more and more. By increasing compassion in society, we can share in other people’s suffering by accepting it partially upon ourselves, and then reach a state where we neutralize suffering.

Moreover, we would not burn out by seemingly taking too much suffering upon ourselves. Instead, our increased compassion and sympathizing would neutralize suffering, allocating it into smaller portions, and bringing relief to others by doing so.

Shared compassion among all people on earth would lead to a globally-blissful state, which is exactly what we need to achieve. If we fail to increase compassion in human society, then we will encounter greater and greater problems heading into the future. It is because the human ego continually grows while nature forces us to become more and more tightly interdependent. In other words, without uniting and sharing our suffering, we will be unable to tolerate our increasing connection: we will feel greater and greater pressure upon our ego until it will become unbearable.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, compassion holds a broader definition than what is in Merriam-Webster. It divides the vast suffering that exists in reality. Reality consists of one enormous desire to receive that was created, of which we are its parts, and a great light—a force of love, bestowal and connection—needs to fill the desire completely. The more we prepare a compassionate approach upon this desire, i.e. an intention that is not self-aimed, but aimed at loving, giving to and positively connecting to others, then the more we let the light—the positive force of love, bestowal and connection—enter the desire, alleviating our suffering and bringing us to peace and harmony. In other words, the great desire to receive that bases our reality can only be completely fulfilled if our intention is aimed in the direction of benefiting others.

Therefore, by learning how to become compassionate, we can accelerate the time it takes for us to achieve balance among each other and with nature. We would then divide the difference between absolute fulfillment and emptiness among every one of us, and we would then be on course to a blissful state: feeling a contradiction, impossibility and inner cry morphing into a new kind of higher pleasure and joy. In such a state, there is no difference between pain and pleasure because they come together as one. In other words, in a higher level of reality where we are more correctly connected together, pain becomes pleasure because we balance them out.

Pain is given to us in order to invert it to pleasure. The greatest pain, as a result, becomes the greatest pleasure. If we know how to balance these opposites, we end up with a whole new kind of pleasure and sensation of reality.
[306800]

Based on the video “What Is More Important, Compassion or Empathy?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Filed under: Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What can we learn from the universe?“

The universe once had compressed into a single point, exploded into what we know as “the Big Bang,” and its parts dispersed omnidirectionally until they settled in a place of balance among the forces acting on them.

Nature in general draws to such a balance. We are currently within this process of expansion, away from a center of connection. Some scientists say that this process needs to end and another process will unfold, either of connection or at least a return to some new form of balance. Indeed, we can influence the celestial bodies to make a return to their center, and we will see the extent to which we influence the myriad galaxies, stars and planets so that they become as one entity.

How can we influence the universe? First, we need to understand that the universe is a single desire. The process of dispersion and connection parallels the spiritual process of how we once experienced our complete connection as a single desire, a state which in the wisdom of Kabbalah is called “the soul of Adam HaRishon.” This desire shattered into an enormous amount of parts. In every one of us there is a small part of that general desire or soul. In Hebrew, the word for “human beings” is “Bnei Adam” (“the sons of Adam”) since we emerged from that initial soul, and according to Kabbalah, the purpose of our lives is to reconnect our distant, broken and dispersed desires back to that single desire or soul. By relating our many desires to a single final goal where a higher force binds them all together as one, we then start seeing how all parts of the universe draw closer together in a single complementarity and wholeness. And when we reach that final whole state, we attain a sensation of perfection and eternity.

About the eternal sensation that we attain at the end of our development, we can also learn from the universe about how we live in an infinite space. We see such phenomena in astronomy where we thought of a certain space in the universe as empty, and then we developed more advanced tools and discovered that what we previously saw as an empty space actually consists of more distant galaxies. In other words, the universe shows us a physical example of infinity, which parallels the spiritual state of eternity that exists when we connect our myriad desires back to a single desire.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on Wednesday, December 14, 2022. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
[306658]

Filed under: Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What do you think of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, which is conductor-less?“

It is very unique and against nature, because the conductor is the higher force and thought, the orchestra’s head, the one who unites them and manifests his will in them. I have no idea how they manage to function without a conductor.

I cannot imagine any group made up of individual egoists who have no higher guide that leads them, whether we call it the conductor, the manager, the leader, the father figure, or several other names.

How can they feel this force of leadership? They must feel each other more and more, making some internal corrections and movements, which must be very difficult. I would love to talk to them about it.

They must be united by the fact that each of them must be a conductor in some way. Through their inner desires and heartbeats, a connection of hearts, they must be willing to unite and to lead themselves together. I cannot even figure it out. Each one must see the inner feelings of the others.

Based on the video “The Conductor-Less Orpheus Chamber Orchestra – A Kabbalist’s Response” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Filed under: Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why are most of the families falling apart at present?“

More and more families are falling apart today because people cannot tolerate the limitations that families impose.

In order to tolerate the limitations imposed by families, there are a few variables, one of which is necessity: that the family unit is given to us by nature. That is, if we understand that living as part of a family framework, we can achieve the perfect and eternal state of being that nature is guiding us all toward, then we would gain strength to go through any situations that arise in the family.

We can thus relate to the family as a laboratory of sorts, in which we can work on becoming our higher selves. That is, the family unit is the greatest opportunity for us to reach a state where we positively connect to each other in ties of mutual love and bestowal. However, this can work on condition that we approach the family in a very particular way, which is correct for spiritual progress. We are not yet ready for such an approach in our present time, which is why I also do not discuss it in the lessons I give on a daily basis. But the time will come when it will happen.

In addition to acknowledging the nature-given necessity of the family unit, there should be a clear distribution of responsibilities, opportunities and reciprocal fulfillment in which children also play a significant role, as they partake in the relationship between husband and wife according to their age, and also they will most likely develop to having their own children, grandchildren, and so on. Moreover, if we are discussing a family that is in tune with the ideal natural state, then we also need to discuss three generations that share regular contact, i.e. where children regularly see and feel their grandmothers, grandfathers and their parents. I have elaborated on the merits of a three-generational family in other places.

Nature is gradually leading us to a state where we will have to act in our families in a way that is balanced with nature, and our world will be unable to exist without the family unit that is set up in such a way. So between the ideal family that nature will press us to realize and our current state of more and more families that are breaking apart, we are in for some tough years ahead.

However, it is still very risky to discuss these variables because it seems as if we load the heaviest responsibilities upon ourselves. When we see the inner essence of whom we are with, and that the years we spend together and the external appearance mean nothing, because everything is determined only according to their inner state, then we find that we can build an extraordinary new spiritual world of love and bestowal. We would not see the appearance and the habits of our partners as we see them today, but we would enjoy a continuous renewal within and among all of us. In short, we would change all the time, and would perceive a different world from one moment to the next.

Based on the video “Why Are More and More Families Falling Apart Today?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
[306546]

Filed under: Family, Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the Torah in one sentence?“

The Torah is a methodology of receiving light, i.e. of inviting upon ourselves the influence of the upper light so that it changes our nature from reception to bestowal.

Based on KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on November 20, 2022.

Filed under: Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do you think we could better control the spread of lies and disinformation?“

By understanding that the source of all lies and disinformation is nature itself, that our brains, hearts and hands are all under the control of a higher force, and that the spread of lies and disinformation is not sourced in certain people and groups as we commonly think.

We were created in a state of complete misinformation, a system that is called “our world.” The reason we have been placed into such a system is so that we will eventually grow tired of living the way we currently do, and will strive to exit this system by all possible means.

There is a parable about this by Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), in his article “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” where he likens us to a worm inside a radish:

A worm that is born inside a radish […] lives there and thinks that the world of the Creator is as bitter, as dark, and small as the radish it was born in. But as soon as it breaks the shell of the radish and peeps out, it claims in bewilderment: ‘I thought the whole world was the size of the radish I was born in, and now I see a grand, beautiful, and wondrous world before me!’”

The question is how can we get out of this bitter, dark and small world we are in, and see the real world?

There are special souls that have matured out of billions of souls. They can detect the call, like the worm, and move toward the exit of the radish. Moreover, this process of us exiting our small world is also managed from above, as the worm does not necessarily want to exit the radish, but wishes to be where it is warm and comfortable. Later, when we exit the small and dark world, we understand that we were completely controlled, seeing that we did not do anything at all in our lives. Everything we have done over the course of our development, our sciences, technologies, cultures, wars and whatnot, are in order for us to accumulate a certain rotting layer around us.

At such a point, we realize that while we are inside the so-called “radish,” then we are led by nothing other than our petty egoistic nature, where we seek tiny pleasures and wish to continue living and growing within such a nature, thus creating a rotting layer around us.

If the higher force that is behind the creation of this system so desires, then it will guide us to exit this small dark world we were born into by leading us to a request for its help. And if we develop a genuine request, which emerges from a group of us—like a group of “worms” moving through the radish—we then get an answer to our request.

Along with all the lies and disinformation in the world, there are a lot of lies and disinformation about the Creator Himself for two reasons:

1. Because the Creator controls everything and everyone, and
2. Because we know nothing about who or what He is, or what He does.

That is why we seemingly do whatever we want ad nauseam, and we will always move toward what our egoistic nature depicts to us as most enjoyable in every state. Truth itself is within the layer of rot that accumulates around us, in what we consume and excrete. The more this decaying layer gathers around us, the more it helps us go through the states we need to go through relatively quickly, and begin to distinguish the state in which there is something new, fresh and completely unexpected for us, so that we can select from all other states and thus compose a new level of existence.

Our future is in the real world that comes about when we exit our small and dark world, and we need to develop a desire to exit our small and dark world in order to enter the much broader, bright and real world.

Based on the video “What Is the Source of All Lies and Disinformation?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Filed under: Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is happiness (in a single line)?“

Happiness is the achievement of mutual connection that leads people to love for each other, i.e. to the fulfillment of the commandment “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Based on KabTV’s “Conversations, Israel and Its Impact on the World” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on November 18, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Filed under: Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How would you define harmony in life?“

Harmony in life depends on balance with the environment, i.e. with the still, vegetative, animate and especially the human levels of nature.

Our lives are a constant quest for such balance, which is very hard to achieve.

We can achieve harmony in life when everyone reaches a harmonious state. All it takes is a single person to knock the entire system out of balance, so in order to achieve a harmonious life, we need to consider how every single person can learn what it means to achieve harmony.

Based on KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on November 18, 2022.

Filed under: Q&A, Quora - No Comments →