Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Should I size up people when I meet them?“

When we meet someone, we hold two images within: One is our impression of the person we meet, and the other is our own image. We then start comparing how much our thoughts, desires and expectations meet what we want in relation to this stranger. In other words, we meet an image of a person, and picture them within ourselves in a certain way for the time being. Later, we might change how we view them.

We stand in front of a picture that we depict within. First of all, it is not the person as they are, but the way we depict them within ourselves, i.e. it could be very far from how things really are, and perhaps we are prejudiced on the matter, and so on.

We then start working with the image that forms within us. We do not relate to the person who is in front of us, because we do not actually see them. We see them to the extent in which we depict them within.

We then start interacting with this image. That is, we influence the person and feel how they influence us. Accordingly, we examine whether we formulated this image correctly to begin with or not.

Throughout the interactions we have toward each other, we constantly adjust our opinion about the other person, whether or not they are better or worse than the image we had of them, and where they fit in terms of several areas that interest us, for example, in terms of politics, education, culture, their outlook on life, and so on.

There are many parameters by which we examine people, and the impression we receive in relation to these parameters gives us an image of a person whom we meet and interact with. That image constantly changes, acquiring a new shape and form.

Based on the video “What Happens When You Meet Somebody?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Yael Leshed-Harel. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by kabita Darlami on Unsplash.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the perfect life?“

Life is perfect.

The myriad dreams we each have of a perfect life are detached from what a perfect life actually is, and our problem is that we fail to understand what a perfect life is.

To start with, we cannot experience perfect lives if we try to receive everything for ourselves. Why? It is because we constantly compare ourselves to others, and thus from the outset, no matter how much we gain, we will always feel our shortcomings. Therefore, a perfect life can only be in the very opposite, not in the direction where we receive and have more and more, but that we will receive nothing at all, and that our fulfillment will come from the desire for abundance to pass through us to fulfill everyone—that others will experience perfection in everything that they desire.

Likewise, in order for others to experience the perfection that they truly desire, they would need the same inclination: to need nothing but for the abundance to pass through them to everyone, and for everyone to be fulfilled.

Perfection comes about when no one wants anything for themselves, but only to fulfill others. Everyone then exists in a special kind of correction, enjoying the perfect life, experiencing a world full of abundance and joy.

Based on the video “What Is the Perfect Life?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why do people pretend their lives are perfect on social media?“

We want to feel proud and better than other people, that they will envy us.

Our egoistic human nature prioritizes self-benefit over benefiting others, making us want to see ourselves in a better position than others. We thus want to show others that we are special and worthy of respect, and we see what lengths we go to for respect.

When our desires developed beyond mere survival necessities for food, sex and family, we then started comparing ourselves to each other, sizing up what we have compared to what others have. Then, our social desires for money, respect, control and knowledge developed.

The desire for respect becomes a major problem as it is behind much conflict in the world. Whether it is a person’s own pride or the pride of one group or nation pitted against others—where that person, group or nation wants more on their side and less or even nothing for the other side—then it becomes clear how our desire for respect, honor and pride brings about so much conflict.

While we can identify the problems that come with this desire, what we need is not to try and make it smaller or eliminate it in any way, but to redirect it, i.e. to change what we respect. When society values people solely according to their contribution to society, we will then necessarily strive to think and to act in favor of society. If we get rid of the awards that we give for individual excellence, and instead respect each other for our concern that we express toward society, then we will want to win the respect of society by wanting to do good to each other.

We will then gradually come to feel that expressing altruism or unselfishness toward one another is a special and sublime value in and of itself, regardless of the respect that we receive from such an inclination. In doing so, we will find that altruism is a source of perfect and unbounded fulfillment. Moreover, we will find that such an attitude is nature’s comprehensive law, which controls and sustains us.

Based on the videos “Why Do People Pretend Their Lives Are Perfect on Social Media?” and “The Needed Shift in Human Consciousness” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Josh Rose on Unsplash.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What are your thoughts on those who aspire to be perfect?“

Perfection differs for everybody. For one person, Schwarzenegger represents perfection, while for another, Einstein does it for them, and of course, the list goes on and on for more and more people. It is all subjective. There is no perfection in this world.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, perfection is something else entirely: that we reach a state of completing our place in humanity. In other words, when we become immersed in an inclination to support everyone as much as possible in order to bring humanity to its completion, then we can be considered perfect.

We then experience perfection because our desire to bring humanity to perfection aligns with the perfect quality of the upper force: one of absolute bestowal, with no shred of reception laced within. We then become partners with the upper force in achieving the same aspiration. Also, we attain perfection through our connection and annulment to the upper force, which then starts acting through us.

Behind our every desire for perfection, whether we want to be the next Schwarzenegger, Einstein, or whoever else we might picture to ourselves, or whether we simply want to have what we imagine as a perfect life for ourselves and our families, there is a deeper desire at play: a desire to experience the perfection of adhesion with the upper force.

We ourselves can never be perfect, but we can adhere ourselves to a perfect force, and perform perfect acts through what we request from that force. Through our intentions and requests to adhere ourselves to the perfection of the upper force, we can also merit becoming perfect. The upper force performs the perfect acts, but we invite and request them in order to benefit humanity.

Based on the video “Is it Realistic to Aspire for Perfection?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Where does the need for perfection come from?“

It comes from within us, from our nature, which is a desire to enjoy.

There are six kinds of criteria to what we wish to enjoy. Three concern the body, which are food, sex and family, and three concern our social desires for money, control and knowledge. We can thus view ourselves according to these six criteria. If we desire food, sex and family, then we are like animals, on the animate level. Everybody has these desires and wants them fulfilled as optimally as possible.

There are people who also have bigger desires, for money, control and knowledge, which are influenced by culture, education, technology, and each person’s inner psychological development. These inclinations include everything in our lives.

Our need for perfection is expressed as wanting to have whatever we want at the same very moment. For instance, if we have an inclination for food, sex and family, then that is what we want, and along with food, sex and family, we might also want to control, to become somebody important in society. We want our deficiencies to be whole and complete.

Ultimately, however, the need for perfection comes from the upper force. We ourselves emerge from the uppermost force in nature, which is perfect and whole. Therefore, our every desire for pleasure and fulfillment is in fact a desire for that state of perfection.

Based on the video “Where Does the Desire for Perfection Come From?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Afif Kusuma on Unsplash.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why does God exist or not exist?“

God does not exist. What exists is nature with its eternal laws. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, the primary fundamental force of nature is called “the Creator,” because nature creates all life, including us.

We exist in nature as its parts. While it seems as if we can observe and make decisions about nature from outside of it, we cannot. We are nature’s creations, and our uniqueness is in our ability to bring about certain changes out of our free will.

In general, we are in nature, and nature is a whole system and creation that is sustained by a single force called “the Creator.”

Based on KabTV’s “Close-Up. Does God Exist?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on May 9, 2011.
Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Do Jewish people have a common genetic background?“

No. However, they have a predisposition to universal unification in order to attain connection with the upper force. That is the reason for their leaving ancient Babylon.

Their common genetic background exists in their descendants, which are souls, and the same soul goes through several bodies. This is called “the incarnation of the souls” in the wisdom of Kabbalah. For instance, Jews existed in all states from ancient Babylon to their current incarnations, they went through all of these lives. They even know their incarnations, or they can find out how they passed through various cultures, such as Spanish, German and Eastern European, all the way until today. Moreover, after they spread from Babylon throughout the world, the underlying desire that developed humanity was growing both in them and in the nations of the world.

Today, the desire’s development has reached a certain level where more and more people feel a predisposition to universal unification. They are identical in every way to those of us who came from ancient Babylon, even though they have been distant from us throughout the 3,700 or so years since we left Babylon. This predisposition to universal unification that more and more people are feeling is a desire that increasingly surfaces today—one to discover the upper force and to undergo a process of correction in order to do so, i.e. to change the desire from personally benefiting oneself to benefiting others.

Based on KabTV’s “Close-Up. Around the World” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on February 20, 2011. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How well is Israel fighting against terrorism?“

After a terrorist attack during Israel’s Independence Day this year, where people were axed down and murdered by two terrorists, there was a general sense of fear throughout the country, and it prompted one of my students to ask me about whether there will ever be a solution to Israel’s problems with the Arabs.

There is a solution, but it is possible on condition that the people of Israel would match the Land of Israel in a spiritual sense. We would then truly feel that we are the owners of this place, and we would feel protection from above, and no one would be able to touch us.

It depends solely on the connection between the people of Israel. As difficult it might be to hear, there is no other way. It is a condition that is set in nature.

The condition is that we need to positively connect, as it is written, “as one man with one heart.” By achieving such a connection, we would not only solve terrorism and physical acts of violence, but people would no longer hold even a single negative thought about Israel. Likewise, if we fail to adhere to this condition, then we have no protection.

While it might appear that we should rise up against the incitement that breeds terrorism, i.e. the glorification of terrorism and terror acts in various societies, what we truly need is to permeate our own minds and hearts. If we come together and unite in mind and heart, then we have no need to fight terrorism. We only need to be united with each other, and our unification would attract the upper spiritual force. Drawing that force into our lives would raise a canopy of peace over everyone, giving everyone a feeling of victory.

For the time being, Israel’s security forces work day and night devotedly over several years just for people in Israel to be able to live in peace. However, strengthening Israel’s security is no long-term solution in developing a true sense of security for the people of Israel. We will live in the atmosphere that we create only when we are united, and that we unite in order to reveal unity as humanity’s salvation—that it is very-much needed today. Without uniting, we will solve nothing, and we can expect terrorism and other negative phenomena toward us to keep intensifying.

Based on the video “The Solution to Terrorism in Israel” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo “Terror Strikes Israeli Civilians in Southern Israel” by the Israel Defense Forces on Flickr.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is a fully realized human being?“

A fully-realized human being is one who develops and attains the degree called “human” through one’s efforts.

There are four degrees in nature: still, vegetative, animate and human.

The lives we are born and raised into are still not the fully-realized human level. In our inborn desires, thoughts and behaviors, we stand between nature on the still, vegetative and animate levels, and nature on the human level.

What is a human, in the fullest sense of the term? In Hebrew, the word for “human” is “Adam,” which comes from the word for “similar” (“Domeh”), from the phrase, “similar to the most high” (“Domeh le Elyon”). That is, being human means attaining similarity to the upper force.

How can we reach similarity with that force? It can be done by positively connecting to each other up to a point where we relate to each other as this force does: out of absolute love and bestowal.

While the still, vegetative and animate levels of nature have several examples of how they function out of a well-oiled altruistic connection, we have no such examples among humanity. Why? It is because we need to develop this new degree of fully realizing ourselves as human beings from our own efforts. Doing so will lead us to the revelation of the upper force that created and sustains us.

Based on the video “What Is a Fully-Realized Human Being?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What’s the point of fighting wars anyway? Why don’t we just negotiate things?“

I very much hope that in the current Russia-Ukraine war, we will learn that there is no point in fighting anymore.

The wars where we detach from the other side, and kill and bomb them with brute physical force, and where the side that physically overpowers the other side comes out seemingly as the winner and smarter due to it winning a physical war, should be replaced with a different kind of war.

The different kind of war is based on our same competitive spirit, which includes an intermingling of hatred, envy and various other characteristics. However, it should be a battle of the mind, an inner scrutiny of intellect and emotion, similar to how scientists argue over their findings and opinions. There should be wars of inner scrutinies in determining who is right and wrong, but not wars that erupt in physical conflict.

In the end, however, we will find that we can only succeed by connecting above our divisions and differences. That is, we will find that it is not a matter of determining which side is right or wrong, but above such a determination, the connection between us lets us transcend to a new harmonious and peaceful level of existence. It is my hope that we will discover the tendency to unite above division in the current war.

Based on the video “What Is the Point of Fighting Wars Today?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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