Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why is spiritual truth so elusive?“

What is spirituality? Spirituality is the quality of love, bestowal and connection. This is why spirituality is so elusive. It is concealed from us, since it is complete altruism while our quality is the opposite, total egoism.

Then, the question becomes, is spirituality hidden from us or do we hide spirituality by having no interest in recognizing its existence? According to our receptive nature, we solely desire corporeal fulfillment. The idea of enjoying purely by giving, without receiving anything at all in return, is alien to us.

That is the whole problem. Nobody and nothing hides spirituality from us. We exist within a spiritual reality, and if we could expand our vessels of perception and sensation, we would see that only a single force of love, bestowal and connection exists. However, when we look at the world around us, it looks like a completely opposite picture to one of pure love, bestowal and connection.

This opposition is in order for us to develop a sincere desire to enter into balance with the spiritual reality surrounding us, that our relations and attitudes to each other will become as loving, altruistic and positively connected as the quality of nature in and of itself. During the process of adapting ourselves to the spiritual reality of love, bestowal and connection, we do not cancel the inborn human ego and our corporeal desires. The only transformation we need make to reveal the spiritual truth is in our intention: that we restrict our egoistic intention to enjoy at the expense of others and nature, and increase our intention to love, bestow and connect purely “for the sake of bestowal,” i.e., without wanting anything in return. In other words, in order to discover the spiritual reality that is filled with the quality of love, bestowal and connection, we need only transform our intention from egoistic to altruistic, and then we will enter a whole new perception and sensation of reality: one that is boundless, tranquil and completely balanced.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2010/11/17, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose.” Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What are major spiritual awakening symptoms?“

We have been evolving over thousands of years, and at a certain point, we start awakening to questions about the meaning and purpose of our lives. They are the first awakening that we receive toward spirituality, and they become our principle concern the moment that we start rising above our animate existence.

Unlike animals, our desires evolve from one generation to the next. We feel the desires of the next level of evolution, and our sensation of emptiness constantly grows, forcing us to seek new and different kinds of fulfillment to what we previously had. We thus gradually develop a more and more pronounced question about the meaning of life, which increasingly preoccupies us.

Newer and newer ideas surface in us, and we develop increasingly complex systems as a result of our growing unfulfilled desires. Science also develops in relation to the questions we have in each generation, and we can see the vast difference between today’s science and science a few centuries ago.

Moreover, the question about the meaning and purpose of our lives manifests itself first and foremost in certain individuals. Over the course of history, we have been driven to make breakthroughs in several areas, whether it be art, music, literature, poetry, science and technology. Our desires constantly grew according to a scale starting from mere survival necessities—food, sex and family—through to social desires—money, honor, control and knowledge. From one generation to the next, our desires become increasingly refined.

According to the great Kabbalist, the Ari (Rav Isaac Luria), the question about the meaning and purpose of life started emerging in humanity as a whole toward the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance. The technological, scientific and cultural revolutions in Europe thus became the trigger for the emergence of a totally new attitude to life and religion. Many people started no longer fearing being non-religious and getting punished for dissent, which signaled that desires in humanity grew to a new level where belief started falling short in the new demand for proof that had started evolving.

At the start of the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) wrote:

Indeed, if we set our hearts to answer but one very famous question, I am certain that all these questions and doubts as to whether we should study the wisdom of Kabbalah will vanish from the horizon, and you will look unto their place to find them gone. This indignant question is a question that the whole world asks, namely, ‘What is the meaning of my life?’

We could say that everything unfolding in the world today is due to us not finding an answer to the question about the meaning of life. We can see what humanity engages in and what it leads the world to, and it is all because people fail to understand what they exist for.

We mostly wish to file away the question about the meaning and purpose of life, and instead engage in much more immediate and concrete pleasures, keeping ourselves busy in order to avoid asking the question. It is because the question, if we engage in it without finding an answer, brings us existential suffering in addition to the suffering we experience in relation to our daily survival.

However, the reason that Baal HaSulam discusses the meaning of life in his “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” is because he wants to show how we need not have any lofty goals or special thoughts in order to embark on the spiritual path. Very simply, if we feel bad and we do not know why we are alive, and such questions keep surfacing in us making us feel uneasy, and that we need to get these questions answered in order to justify our existence, then we can start taking steps on the spiritual path.

The wisdom of Kabbalah was made specifically for answering the question about the meaning and purpose of life, and it is open to all, regardless of age, gender, background or any other seeming differences.

Based on a Virtual Lesson on January 31, 2016. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: What is the difference between white and black envy?

Answer: White envy is when I envy others, but do not affect them, but only learn from them.

Such envy can be relatively egoistic if, looking at how others are excited about science, art, and so on, I envy them and this advances me. That is, I do not want to harm them, on the contrary, perhaps, I am even so sensible that I want them to succeed even more, and I will also catch up with them.

Black envy is when I want to succeed in something, but I see that I cannot, and therefore, in order not to be lagging behind, I do everything so that others stumble and do not succeed. Then I do not move them forward and I do not advance with them. Even if I do advance, I still do not want them to have anything.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/3/19

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can I become more spiritual?“

Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) writes in his article “The Freedom” that our single means by which we can change our state is by choosing a suitable environment.

“There is freedom for the will to initially choose such an environment, such books, and such guides that impart to him good concepts. If one does not do that, but is willing to enter any environment that appears to him and read any book that falls into his hands, he is bound to fall into a bad environment or waste his time on worthless books, which are abundant and easier to come by. In consequence, he will be forced into foul concepts that make him sin and condemn. He will certainly be punished, not because of his evil thoughts or deeds, in which he has no choice, but because he did not choose to be in a good environment, for in that there is definitely a choice.

Therefore, he who strives to continually choose a better environment is worthy of praise and reward. But here, too, it is not because of his good thoughts and deeds, which come to him without his choice, but because of his effort to acquire a good environment, which brings him these good thoughts and deeds.”

If we continually choose a more powerful environmental influence that guides us to spirituality, then we become worthy of spiritual progress.

Choosing and strengthening a suitable environment for spiritual progress is primary to becoming more spiritual, and not performing what we usually consider as “good deeds.” This is because we are ultimately not in control of our behaviors. Rather, our environment determines how we think and behave, and so if we place ourselves into an environment that guides us spiritually, and increasingly strengthen our connection to that environment, then it moves us in such a direction and we become more spiritual.

Photo: World Kabbalah Convention at Ganei HaTa’arucha, Tel Aviv, Kabbalah.info.

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Remark: There are several Jewish wisdoms that are said to change the future of our children.
The first one: “’Experience’ is the word a person uses to call their own mistakes.”

My Comment: Yes. Experience has to come, be born, from one’s own mistakes. If there are no mistakes, there is no experience. It cannot be that a person reaches any correct conclusions if he did not make mistakes.

Question: Is it possible that a person does not make mistakes?

Answer: No. A person cannot do the correct thing if he has not made a mistake in it before.

Question: Does he have regrets that he made mistake?

Answer: It is this regret that produces a correct action.

Question: Do we pass this experience to our children?

Answer: You want to pass it to your children, but they must make mistakes.

Question: Will they have their own experience?

Answer: Of course.

Question: Does it mean that our experience will not help them?

Answer: There is no need. Each generation must make mistakes and come to the correct conclusion and thus move forward.

Remark: That is, everyone has absolutely their own experience. It is the experience of mistakes.

My Comment: Without this, you do not receive clear information, data, sensations, anything, if you did not experience it in all these situations.

Remark: Quote: “If you accidentally got angry, give the anger a chance to stay overnight—just keep quiet until morning.”

My Comment: From our life, we see that this is good. This is called “the one who shuts his mouth during the conflict with the other.”

Question: How can a person do that?

Answer: Through exercises.

Question: What happens in the morning? Will I not be as angry as I was before with this person?

Answer: No, on the contrary, maybe you will be grateful to him.

Remark: Quote: “There are two methods to rise above your neighbor: the first is to rise above yourself, and the second is to put down your neighbor. It is not advisable to use the second method. Rather than digging a pit for someone else, throw these forces at creating a hill for yourself.”

My Comment: It is always worthwhile to rise above yourself. You are growing in this way. Thus, there is no need to pay attention to the other, even from the egotistic point of view. Instead, rise above yourself to some new, more perfect state.

Question: Is it possible to rise above myself at all?

Answer: Of course, every minute.

Remark: Usually, we do something very different, we put down the other.

My Comment: You use the other in order to rise above yourself by accepting his point of view.

Question: Is this called that I annul myself?

Answer: I annul my previous self in order to make an upper one out of myself.

Question: This quote has an interesting ending. It says that if you use the second method, that is, put down the other, you are building a hill for yourself. Does it mean a grave mound?

Answer: Of course.

Question: In other words, if you put down the other, is this in fact your death?

Answer: Yes. On the contrary, rise above others, use this opportunity. Use the other, his criticism, his attitude toward you, let go of yourself, bend down, and then you will rise above yourself.

Remark: Quote: “Do not be too sweet or they will eat you up. Do not be too bitter or they will spit you out.”

My Comment: I say what I think is right. This is what I have “on a platter,” as they say, this is what I give you. You choose: is this sweet or bitter for you, or you can throw it away altogether. Let people see that this is who I am.

Question: What about the fact that people want to see you sweet and you are bitter? A person needs to follow somebody. They are looking for someone to follow.

Answer: Well, it is not necessary to follow me. In any case, I am like this, I will not change! I believe that what I say anyone can understand.

Whether he agrees or not is up to him but at least he will understand. I speak my opinion, I do not alter myself to his opinion so that he will listen to me or respect me and make sure that he is right. I do not do that.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/22/20

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do I clean myself spiritually, and how do I start?“

Spiritual work starts from accepting the laws of your own correction.

To do so requires:

• reaching an understanding that rising above the ego is of utmost importance, and that
• connection to others as a single whole according to the rule “love your neighbor as
  yourself” is the loftiest spiritual goal, and also that
• achieving this goal requires a supportive environment—support and encouragement of each
  other’s aspirations to achieve the spiritual goal.

After setting yourself up in such a way, you can then make spiritual progress.

The spiritual path is full of contradictory states—elation one moment, lowliness the next, ascents and descents—sometimes we feel as if there are no spiritual states, desires or intentions before us, but if we create an environment that supports us on our way to the spiritual goal, we eventually undergo a correction of all these egoistic qualities, inverting them all into altruistic ones, as is written that “love will cover all transgressions.”

Undergoing spiritual correction means inverting our egoistic qualities to altruistic qualities.

Reaching such a state means discovering the common soul where everyone resides, with love connecting between us all.

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Question: If I loaned a friend $1,000 but he returned only $1, should I consider it to be $1,000?

Answer: You clearly see that it is $1, but you want to take it as the full amount because you want to justify your friend and rise in faith above knowledge since you are in a spiritual relationship with him.

If you act in this way, if you bestow to your friend, then you build the quality of bestowal within yourself, faith above knowledge. You obtain a spiritual quality.

Question: So, I should not ask him about the rest of the money? Meaning that I value the connection with the Creator so much and with my friend as a means to the connection, that I am willing to sacrifice the money?

Answer: You are not sacrificing, but you are gaining. You are receiving an opportunity from him to ascend to the spiritual degree through faith above knowledge.

The fact is that you are not asking for your money back because you feel that by giving to a friend you are already gaining. But this is only in a case where there is a special relationship between the two of you.

Question: Where do I gain the strength to treat him in this way? How do I come to this?

Answer: You come to this when you feel that by being with him in the same spiritual body, you are neither giving nor receiving; it is all one. By giving to a friend, on the contrary, you have brought deep meaning, great help, and a huge investment into your common spiritual body. And you are thrilled about being able to do so.

Question: And, in all of this, am I not afraid of being tricked? These thoughts do come up.

Answer: If you really are in a ten, in a group, and trying to attain the Creator together, to reach His level, then the opportunity to give to a friend inspires you. What could be better?
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 4/1/19

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The Times of Israel published my new article “The Spiritual Root and Corporeal Branches of the Jews”

The wisdom of Kabbalah is a method that was established by Abraham around 3,800 years ago, which guides a process of positive connection among people toward their resemblance with the higher force of nature, one of love and bestowal.

Kabbalah teaches that by trying to resemble the force of love and bestowal through our efforts to connect, we attract it into our lives and it corrects us.

“Correction,” in the wisdom of Kabbalah, means reaching the perception of the uniqueness of the force of love and bestowal, and when we reach such perception, we see how no other force operates in the world.

Opposite the force of love and bestowal is the force of reception—the force acting in the created beings.

The force of reception, which is the nature of the created beings, provides us with the ability to differentiate between reception and its opposite force of love and bestowal, as through the opposite of a certain phenomenon, the existence of its opposite can be perceived.

By existing in an opposite receptive nature to the giving nature, we can connect by awakening the force of giving and love above the force of reception, and by doing so, reach balance with nature, a sensation of harmony, perfection and eternity.

According to the two opposite natures of giving and receiving, humanity divides into two general groups: one is a small group originating in those who studied with Abraham, which directed itself to connect and attain the force of love and bestowal. The other is much larger, holding beliefs in myriad corporeal forms, objects and images.

Abraham’s group received the name, “Israel” (“Yashar El” [“straight to God”]), from their orientation to attain the force of love and bestowal, and in later generations they received the name, “Jews,” from the word for “united” (“yihudi”). People with no such inclination received the name, “the nations of the world.”

According to the Jewish nation’s origin—a unification in a common tendency toward the force of love and bestowal—that same tendency should remain as their primary engagement. In other words, the nation of Israel has no need to conduct numerous physical actions, but need only focus on connecting “as one man with one heart.” That is Abraham’s method in a nutshell.

During its years of exile, the nation of Israel mingled with the nations of the world. Many descendants of Abraham’s group ended up functioning solely with the force of reception, detached from the force of love and bestowal. In the meantime, some of the nations of the world who felt attracted to unity joined the group of Israel.

Those from Israel who failed to unite above the increased egoistic desire that acted in them became idolaters, infusing corporeal forms, objects and actions with spiritual importance.

The two groups exist in a certain blend until today.

The change from being a unified nation that senses the higher force, to becoming detached from the sensation of unity and focusing solely on receiving, took place mainly during the ruin of the First and Second Temples, and intensified in the exile that followed them.

Many people from the Jewish nation started performing a number of actions, seeming signs of spiritual motions that exist separate from the human body and the material world. They thought that in such a way they would be able to somehow protect themselves in a common framework and not disperse.

My teacher, Rabash, called such actions “customs.” Customs have their place, until we will become ready enough to understand what is most important: the work of the heart, i.e., the inner work of unity with others in a common tendency toward the force of love and bestowal.

What we do with our hands, legs and mouths is in order to ultimately advance us to conduct internal actions upon our attitude to others: an inner shift from being concerned only about ourselves to being concerned about others, to a point where we love them.

Until today, humanity finds it difficult to absorb the idea that the Creator is a force. It is understandable, since our entire perception is based on corporeal senses.

Yet, according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, there is nothing holy in a tree or in a stone, nor in blood or flesh. Holiness can only be in the connection between us, differentiated from and above the egoistic force that separates us. Holiness exists in the balance between two fundamental forces at the foundation of nature: reception and bestowal, without canceling either quality or inclination.

That is why the principles of the wisdom of Kabbalah sound complicated and difficult to absorb, even though the main principle is easy to understand: that we need to reach positive connection among all people, a connection that includes each and every person equally. Moreover, in the heart of our connection, love becomes revealed, which is a positive force that covers all division, hatred and conflict, and by reaching such a state, we discover nothing less than perfection and eternity.
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Starting from the ruin of the Second Temple, the wisdom of Kabbalah was hidden until Isaac Luria Ashkenazi (The Ari) opened it to all humanity in the 16th century and let the world move toward correction.

The Ari belongs to the chain of the greatest Kabbalists throughout the generations. He is considered to be the father of the contemporary wisdom of Kabbalah. In his book The Tree of Life, the Ari, unlike the Kabbalists before him, reveals the structure and development of the universe and gives clear instructions on how we can ascend from our world, the lowest point in reality, to the highest, complete and eternal attainment of reality.

Behold that before the emanations were emanated and the creatures were created,

The Upper Simple Light had filled the whole existence.

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A ten is all that exists in all of reality, in all the worlds. All of creation, which has evolved from the four stages of direct Light, is called one “ten.” Malchut of the world of Infinity, in which there are ten round Sefirot full of infinite Light, is a ten. There is nothing besides it. And the Creator is the Light of infinity filling this ten, Malchut.

Then this system of ten circles, the Sefirot, undergoes all sorts of changes. The program of creation transfers this ten from a round complete state into a fragmented one.

As if to calculate the integral when the continuous surface is divided into an infinite number of squares, the system of ten “circles” is broken to divide the work between multitudes of people, between all parts of the system, so that everyone will complete his or her private work and become similar to the Creator. After all, one cannot do all the work right away in one go.

The system is transformed from an “integral” to a “differential,” in which the work is performed in parts. Ten stages of work are distributed among the five worlds and are additionally divided more and more. Each of us performs some kind of work in his cell. As a result, all parts of this work are integrated again, combined into one integral work, like an integral from zero to infinity.

All these breakages, contractions, and descents are made in order to give each fragment its infinity in its completeness from its individual properties.

In the first state, it was impossible to do it because we were all interconnected in an integral, infinite form. It is impossible to shatter the created being that is opposite to the Creator so that it can attain the Creator from its opposite, antagonistic state and leave it “round.” After all, the circle is already perfection, a smaller or a bigger Creator.

Therefore, it is necessary to break this circle to give each fragment different properties, sides, angles, that is, restrictions. Now, from these restrictions, one must begin to attain eternity, perfection, integration, connection of all with all. This gives a feeling of the Creator and true perfection. It is impossible to get into the third state bypassing the second, the shattered one. This is all our work.

It is necessary to strive to get from state 1, through state 2, to state 3. Correction begins when a ten is organized and appears in front of us. That is, the correction began from Abraham, and now each of us at some point falls into a place where he has a ten. This is how the advancement toward the integral, true system of the upper force begins.

It is necessary to get used to this perception of reality. It helps one’s mind get over the feelings, like a patient gets an X-ray image that he cannot argue with—it is a fact, and he has to take medicine and get treated. This is an objective reality that is above our emotions and we must work with it.¹
1Minute 0:10-7:33
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/18, Lesson on the Topic “Dissemination of Kabbalah”

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