Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why should you care?“

If we fail to reach mutual care in our times, then we can expect ourselves as a humanity to regress, rather than progress, as we head into the future.

Any current progress we make is for profit purposes. If there were no thirst for money, would medicine and surgery continue developing? Nothing would develop. We would live as if in a primitive society.

However, in our times we will feel a growing awareness of the need for mutual care. For the time being, however, the modern world does everything possible in order to obscure it, even though it is crucial to its survival.

Today, human egoism—the desire to enjoy at the expense of others—undergoes immense exponential growth, and we cannot object to its demands. Our overblown egoism could lead us to such disastrous states as nuclear wars, or nature itself will trap us with its own disasters, and it would all be in order for us to reach an agreement: that we invert our attitudes to each other, to solely consider the other’s benefit without taking ourselves into account.

By making such a fateful shift in our attitudes to each other—to become more caring for each other—we would see the dark picture of the world fade away, and a new harmonious and peaceful world open up to us.

Based on the video “Here’s the CONSCIOUSNESS SHIFT We’re on the Threshold of Making” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Jack Finnigan on Unsplash.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the root of depression?“

Depression is rooted in our nature, which is a desire to enjoy.

If we fulfill the desire to enjoy with a suitable fulfillment, then we feel good. But if we do not give the desire to enjoy what it wants, then it starts eating us alive, and we call that feeling “depression.”

Ultimately, the solution to depression is in finding a way to bring our desire to enjoy fulfillment that is constant and increasing.

This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches: how we can receive that which will make us feel good and better all the time. It is a sensation like nothing we have experienced in our world. Think about being hungry, and then you get to eat as much of your favorite food as you want, and in addition, the pleasure from the food together with your hunger just keeps increasing the more that you eat.

In order to fulfill ourselves completely, we need a new fulfillment that extends from the same root as our depression, our empty desire, and which can thus become fully compatible with that desire.

Based on the video “Depression’s Causes and Solution [in 2 Minutes]” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Damir Samatkulov on Unsplash.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is there anything which is more important than love?“

Love is simultaneously life’s most elusive and most important quality.

It is the source of life.

Without love, there is no life. Without connection, there is no creation.

But we should be careful to understand what love truly means: Love means love of the other, without involving oneself in the relationship.

But how can we love anyone or anything regardless of ourselves? What does it give us? What does love project onto us? Why would we love?

We accumulate countless positive and negative experiences in our lives with their numerous insights, so it sounds strange that love is all that remains.

But it is truly so because there is nothing stronger than love.

Based on the video “Why Is Love Most Important in Life?” 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 will this path of consumerism lead us as a futuristic, global society?“

As a consumerist society, we are headed to a state where we will see that humanity becomes increasingly devoid of meaning.

We do not need over 90 percent of what we keep ourselves busy with. All the while, nature also lets us know that its resources are limited.

We will come to realize that we are done with consumerism, and that we need to rise to new and completely different values.

We need to reach a state where our entire range of desires to receive—food, sex, family, money, honor, control and knowledge—will invert their direction from reception to bestowal, to giving. We will then feel how our fulfillment changes at its essence.

Based on the video “Where Are We Headed?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Tomasz Frankowski on Unsplash.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can I connect myself with the spiritual world?“

We connect with the spiritual world by rising above our ego.

What is the ego? It is our inborn nature that desires to enjoy at the expense of others and nature.

Rising above this nature means bestowing good onto others, even though it is not to our own benefit. In other words, we place a restriction over our own benefit: we stop thinking about ourselves, and solely consider the benefit of others. Doing so makes us similar to the qualities of the spiritual world, those of love, bestowal and connection.

The key here is that we work on our connections with people. Our ego operates in relation to others, and by rising above our egoistic forces of wishing to receive from others for ourselves, and wishing to benefit them instead, then to the extent in which we do so, we enter into a perception and sensation of the spiritual world.

We thus connect with the spiritual world by correcting our connections to each other. We then start understanding, discovering and perceiving the spiritual world not as outside of us, but that it truly envelops us.

Based on the video “Is Your Spiritual Connection Real or Fantasy?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman, Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Who is a spiritual person?“

A person with spiritual attainment is one who starts feeling the upper reality of love, bestowal and connection, and who lives in that reality. It is a person who rises to a level of connection with the reality beyond everything we know and feel in our current reality. There are no words to explain the sensation, and about it is written, “Taste and see that the Creator is good.”

Based on a video “Who Is a Person With Spiritual Attainment?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman, Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can one be close to God?“

The wisdom of Kabbalah states that we exist within God, which is a higher force of love, bestowal and connection. We are inside this force, but do not feel it. Instead, we feel only ourselves. What we perceive as the world is solely what we depict out of our own forces.

We can, however, reach a state where we let go of our false perception and reach a true one: the sensation of the upper force acting outside of us, detached from any imagination, desire or thought of ours. In other words, we can reach a desire to feel the Creator as He is, and not the way we imagine Him.

If we wish to attain the truth of what is outside of us, we then need to exert in exiting our nature—the egoistic desire that draws whatever it perceives as beneficial to itself from the environment, the world.

We have to take a moment to contemplate what we are doing here. We are not the masters of our own desires. We are, however, the masters of whether or not we realize our desires.

How can we realize our desires? It is by seeking an environment, a society, which shares the same direction and goal in life—wanting to feel the truth and not to chase nonsense our entire lives.

There are societies based on common interests that aim at reaching a smorgasbord of goals, for instance, societies sharing a common interest in various sports, arts and teachings. Becoming closer to God, i.e. connecting with the upper force of love, bestowal and connection, involves organizing a society that wishes to rise above our various attractions, and to achieve the world outside and above this corporeal range of our desires.

If we wish to view reality outside the filters of our own desires, then we would need to view a different and higher reality to our current one. We would then require a society that can help us—for us to convince each other that it is beneficial and preferable for us to rise above the desires that surface in us at every moment, and that we want first and foremost to become connected to the upper force.

Based on the video “How to Connect With the Creator” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Tal Mandelbaum. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why can’t I feel God?“

We do not feel God because our quality is different to His. However, we can feel God by equalizing with His quality.

What is God’s quality? It is a quality of love, bestowal and connection. Our qualities are reception, hatred and rejection. That is why we do not feel Him.

We live within bubbles of egoism, which is the desire to enjoy at the expense of others and everything outside of us. We see everything through egoistic lenses. That is, our senses are self-aimed and we perceive reality through these senses.

We cannot see reality beyond these senses, and likewise, we cannot see the reality of love, bestowal and connection. We also have a quality of love and bestowal, but it is egoistic, i.e. aimed at benefiting ourselves alone.

Does God—Who is also called “the Creator” and “the upper force” in the wisdom of Kabbalah—want to be in contact with us?

God only wants to be in contact with us, to reveal Himself to us and His quality of love and bestowal. Gradually, He brings us to a state where we first and foremost see ourselves according to our true self-receptive nature, and that existing in the force of reception is a very low, transient and futile form of existence. We then become ready to see that the way to come out into truth, eternity and perfection is through attaining the quality of love, bestowal and connection. We will then feel God.

Based on the video “Why Don’t We Feel the Creator?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman, Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the real essence of spirituality? How does it change one’s life in the best possible way?“

Our inborn human nature is a desire to receive for personal benefit alone. It is written, “The inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). By nature, we wish to grab, steal and kill for our own benefit, and if we do not reveal such extreme forms of our nature, at the very least, our thoughts are always aimed in the direction of self-benefit.

The question then becomes how much can we change from this nature?

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we learn that only through special exercises can we change ourselves. How does it work? If we are in a society, implement advice and adhere to conditions that kabbalists give us in that society, we then gradually and meticulously change over an extended period of time.

The essence of this transformation is that we start appreciating giving, which is the other side of nature to our inborn receptive one.

Nature consists of two forces: receiving and giving. We are born and raised in a nature of reception. This nature functions like an engine that constantly runs by calculating what is most beneficial for ourselves at every given moment from all possible options. It makes us constantly desire the best for ourselves, to move toward pleasure and move away from pain.

The flip side of our nature is giving. We have no idea what giving is. We know how to give in order to receive, and thus giving within our current nature is always done with the calculation that we will receive more than what we give. That is not the giving that is on nature’s other side.

Giving on the other side of nature means giving without anything in return, just like how we now wish to receive without giving anything in return.

If we add this ability to ourselves, then we would be able to see reality for what it truly is. We would then be able to view reality as forces of giving that exist between us and pass from one person to another, and in multiple directions all at once—filling the space between us like an ocean of light. In other words, we would attain a clear perception and sensation of the eternal and perfect spiritual reality.

Based on the video “What Is the Essence of Spiritual Transformation?” 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 is the meaning of attaining spirituality or spiritual satisfaction?“

Attaining spirituality means attaining a new intention that operates for the benefit of others.

Such attainment gives us the ability to feel the world that is outside of us and independent of us. In other words, it lets us feel the Creator. The Creator is a force of bestowal and love, which fills the air, space and everything around us.

Through spiritual attainment, we start feeling the positive field that begets and controls us. We are born and raised as small egoists, opposite to the force of bestowal and love. By nature, we wish to only benefit ourselves at the expense of others and nature, and when we start moving toward spiritual attainment, we start developing ourselves to become more and more like the force of bestowal and love—wishing for the benefit of others and nature.

Spiritual attainment is also called “attainment of adhesion with the Creator,” and it is how we attain an eternal and perfect life. By attaining spirituality, we equalize ourselves with the force of bestowal and love, live in it, and continue doing so for eternity. Our bodies are made only in order to perceive egoistic forces, and when we attain spirituality, equalizing with the force of bestowal and love, we discover that we actually have no bodies.

Based on the video “What Do You Get from Bestowing to Others?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman, Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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