Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What do we do if all the Chinese want to own a car?“

Nothing would change in the world and in ecology, even if everyone would get a car, and even if more than one. Let there be seven or fourteen billion private automobiles in the world. That is not how we evoke ecological disasters. They are sparked by flawed human relations.

We need to understand that ecological disasters take place not due to our technologies, and not at the still, vegetative or animate levels of nature. They are caused at the human level. We, at the level of our interrelations, carry disaster to the other levels of nature. Such disasters in the spheres of ecology, health, depression, drug abuse, divorce, and literally all other problems—come from nature only afterward, in order to prod us toward understanding the cause of these problems. The cause is on a higher level. In nature, the problem always descends from the higher level to the lower levels, and from there, the whole system is brought into action.

I hope that in the search for salvation from these disasters, which appear to us as disasters on our egoistic level, we will have to reject our egoism and understand that we can be in balance with nature on the still, vegetative and animate levels only thanks to the human level—by treating each other with love and understanding. We will then bring unity to nature as a whole and achieve balance with the general nature.

Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 9, 2006. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: What material is the screen made of?

Answer: The screen is made only from the connection between the quality of bestowal and the quality of reception; when I rise above them, I start taking from above what I need from them and putting them together in the right combination with each other.

Question: At the same time, is there also a third force, the Creator?

Answer: The third force is called the screen.

Question: As far as I understood, if we, people, were engaged in the correlation of the right and left side and found such a screen, would we get away from wars, from any problems?

Answer: Naturally! Each of us and all of us together would be engaged in the correct combination of our negative and positive qualities so that they complement each other. And so we would achieve harmony every time. This is what we must do.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #17

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Question: How can a person prepare himself for the study of Kabbalah? What would you suggest?

Answer: I think a person should just come to our course. I cannot offer anything else. There are many suitable materials from simple to more complicated.

The best thing is to come to the course. Today it is very easy to do it through the Internet.

Question: What is the correct approach to studying and to the information about Kabbalah that a person receives through our channels, through your videos, and through the materials he sees on our sites?

Answer: He needs to understand that there is no more elevated and special occupation in the world than the study of the science of the universe, the science of attaining the upper governing force. If one has such an attraction, then the person is really lucky, and this must be realized. Let him not waste time.

Question: When a person begins to get interested in Kabbalah, how can he establish himself in the correct form in relation to the surrounding world, from to the infinite sea of ​​information and everything that happens around him, and to people close to him: family, children, work, etc.? What should be the correct form that would help him rather than interfere with him?

Answer: I think that when a person begins to deal with the issues of the universe, his own self, and his goal, then everything else shifts and becomes several steps lower in importance for him.

It is precisely the desire to attain his destiny, his world, and the upper force that governs him and prevails in him. This is what he must go for.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 7/19/21

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Comment: Due to the fact that I have internal and external Kelim (vessels), I feel the world divided into an external part (people, society) and desires within me. Naturally, I am always ready to fill my desires, and I use those that seem external to me, for my own sake.

My Response: Such a picture of the world is manifested due to the shattering. When the common desire was shattered, it revealed all sorts of divisions in us into yours and mine.

At first a person felt everything only within himself. Such was Adam HaRishon who felt that it was all his. Then there was a shattering, and proceeding from the fact that everything was divided into mine and not mine, the external, egoism, and the desire to receive, appeared.

Thus, what is outside me, I see as something alien. Therefore I cannot understand why I should do something for the sake of others. And if I can somehow contact them, it is only in order to use them.

But by changing my attitude to external desires (Kelim), I, as it were, acquire the opportunity to return again to the state of Adam. Then I can feel the whole world as somewhat mine, and myself as the whole world. I will no longer feel the division into mine and yours, myself and strangers. I will feel an absolute connection with the entire universe.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 7/23/21

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Annulling Before the Upper One” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 4

Selected Highlights

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My new article on Linkedin “Two Ways to Deal with Covid”

The State of Israel and the coronavirus have had a tumultuous relationship so far (not that it was very quiet in the rest of the world). We began on top of the world when we succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations with the first lockdown. After a few weeks, we thought we’d beat the virus so we all went out to celebrate, and the virus came roaring back. In a matter of weeks, we went from the zenith to the nadir as more people per million caught the virus in our little country than anywhere else, even more than in the United States at its worst moments.

Humiliated and reluctant, we went into another lockdown and the tsunami of contagion began to recede. As we came out, the virus struck again. Luckily, this time the vaccines came around and Israel rushed to get millions of them. It worked for a while and the number of new cases went down to nearly zero.

Then came the Delta strain and everything we thought we had achieved collapsed. Now we’re in the midst of administering the booster (third) shot hoping to curb the spread once more, but we are no longer confident and we are no longer hopeful that we will truly get rid of the virus. More than anything, Covid seems to have defeated our defiance. Many of us no longer believe that we will return to the pre-Covid days, and they are right.

Nature will not let up. From the very beginning, back in the days of the successful first lockdown, I said that this is not another virus but a new stage in our relationship with nature. You could say that we have exhausted our credit with nature, and now it demands that we will pay for what we take. If we don’t want to pay, fine, but nature will not give.

There are two ways we can learn to deal with nature: a long and painful one, or a short and pleasant one. Currently, we are treading down the long and painful one. On this route, we do not take into consideration where we are, the people who surround us, and the entire planet that sustains us. We are using and abusing all of them on our path and focus only on ourselves.

This road, the narcissistic one, sees only the needs of the self. This is why we cannot see the consequences of our actions so calamities surprise us when they happen. If we step into a busy street blindfolded, we are certain to run into other people, stumble on obstacles along our path, and even be hit by the traffic that we cannot see.

When we are looking only at our own needs, due to our egoism, we are blindfolding ourselves, denying ourselves awareness of all other things in existence. We should not be surprised that we bump into things.

When bad things happen to us, personally, socially, nationally, or globally, it is not because they are misfortunes or that bad people do them to us. They were there all along and we could have seen them, be more considerate, and avoid any friction or discomfort. Yet, we ignored them and kept walking straight. The pain we feel now is not because they hit us, but because we bumped into them. It is we who should say “sorry” and mind where we’re going, not the other way around.

This brings us to the short way. If we open our eyes to look around us, we’ll see that everything is connected and moves in synchrony with everything else. In nature, mutual consideration is a given. In us, it is nonexistent. But if we open our eyes to it, we will be able to begin to work on it, to build it among us.

By building mutual consideration, in accord with nature, we will synchronize ourselves with it. Then we will know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it so our lives will run smoothly on their paths.

Vaccines and lockdowns are necessary just as long as we cannot synchronize ourselves with nature. If we can become as considerate and harmonious as nature, we will not need any lockdowns, just as nature never goes on lockdown and never stops evolving.

The brakes nature presses on us are nature’s way to force us to stop and reroute into a more considerate path, where we see others, too, and not only ourselves. If we begin to change our mindsets toward mutual consideration rather than alienation and self-entitlement, we will be free to roam the planet, safe, healthy, and happy.

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My new article on Linkedin “The Permafrost Is Defrosting (and it is bad news)”

The permafrost, the frozen layer of soil that has underlain the arctic tundra for millennia, is accelerating its thaw. Several years ago, scientists noticed that ice they thought would never melt was thinning fast. In 2017, the BBC published an article by Jasmin Fox-Skelly. “We have had antibiotics for almost a century,” she wrote. “However, what would happen if we were suddenly exposed to deadly bacteria and viruses that have been absent for thousands of years, or that we have never met before? We may be about to find out,” she concluded. “Climate change is melting permafrost soils that have been frozen for thousands of years, and as the soils melt they are releasing ancient viruses and bacteria that, having lain dormant, are springing back to life.”

We may be unaware of it, but the destructive potential of these germs can dwarf the harm that the current bug is causing. They can truly jeopardize humanity since we have zero immunity against these microorganisms as there is nothing like them currently in existence that could prepare us for their arrival.

Moreover, while scientists are fearful of viruses and bacteria reawakening, I think that there can even be more complex life-forms that might spring back from extinction to existence. Fish, frogs, and even birds might suddenly appear. We have no idea what lies dormant underneath the ice, and which global warming is gradually reviving.

We must realize that nature is a single, closed system. Nothing ends in it, and nothing begins. When the time is ripe, things manifest; when the time is ripe, they vanish. But nothing stops existing; it only waits until it is time for it to reappear.

The changes we inflict on nature make things happen faster and in ways we cannot understand. Therefore, the only certainty is that the unexpected will transpire, though we cannot anticipate how it will unfold, what form it will take, how fast it will appear, and what consequences it will have. All we can say for certain is that we will not be prepared for it since one cannot prepare for the unknown and unforeseeable.

While we may not be able to prepare for the unpredictable, we can prevent its arrival. Since climate change is melting the arctic permafrost, and we, according to most scientists, are causing it, we can undo the damage we are doing to the climate by eliminating its cause.

Scientists attribute climate change to gas emissions and other manmade factors. However, this view ignores one key fact: Nature is a complete, closed, and interdependent system, not a heap of separate elements. Since everything affects everything else, one malfunctioning element in the system disrupts all of nature and throws the entire system off balance. Mend that element, and you have restored Earth’s balance.

When you look at the world, there is evidently only one dysfunctional element in all of it: humankind. We are so corrupt that we cannot even admit that we are the reason for the disasters befalling us. My teacher’s father, the great kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (aka Baal HaSulam), compared human nature to the angel of death: It impels us to drink a deadly nectar. Even though that drop is placed on the tip of a sword, we are too weak to resist it. We open our mouths, bring the tip of the sword to our mouths, and let that deadly drop into our throats.

We are not there yet, but we are approaching it fast. Our only weapon is awareness of our nature and mutual support in facilitating change. If we help each other rise above our self-destructive nature, which kills us precisely by focusing only on ourselves instead of on the system where we live, then we can save ourselves. If we insist on thinking only of ourselves at such a time, we will perish.

We are the only being that has a deliberate will, an intention to do harm, possess, dominate, humiliate, and immortalize ourselves. This intention is the root of all the cataclysms affecting our planet and humanity. If we help each other build a balanced and harmonious society, we will balance all of nature, as it will mend the only broken element in reality. If we shun the task and stick to our egos, no remedy will save us from disaster.
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My article in Newsmax: “The Chosen One: Israel Can Rely Only on Itself”

The Taliban’s control over Afghanistan and the diplomatic crisis between Poland and Israel after a new Polish law will limit claims of Holocaust survivors on properties confiscated during World War II are two major international events that have raised concerns of repercussions for Israel. One conclusion is clear: we have no one to turn to, so we will only be able to navigate these tumultuous waters if we unite among ourselves and remain internally strong.

Israel should not consider the Taliban taking power in Afghanistan as a threat particularly targeting us. They are Sunnis and they want to erase the Shiites as much as they do us, so the level of hatred toward us is the same as toward other groups in the region.

We do need to worry about the message America is sending with its departure from Afghanistan, though. It demonstrates just how volatile their handling of foreign affairs could turn.

As I have said many times, under Biden’s administration we have no one to rely on. It has no desire to deal with Israel and is not in our court, so it will be ready to sell us out in a moment.

We need to realize that the state of Israel is slowly entering a situation where it has no one to turn to. We are losing those we called friends — Russia, America, everyone. We are becoming increasingly isolated in the international arena, vulnerable against our enemies without any true ally to watch our back.

Who knows this fact the best? The Poles.

They already understand that we are helpless to back up demands for compensation from them for families whose properties were stolen during the Nazi occupation and under communism, as was confirmed by the recent Polish approval of a law limiting those restitutions.

The world has long been waiting for the moment in which Israel would be cornered and alone, a desire rooted in antisemitism. Although we have repeatedly witnessed how quickly everyone turns their backs on us if an opportunity presents itself, we prefer to either ignore it or look in another direction thinking that our fate will depend on other nations.

Israel only needs to do one thing: to be cohesive inside. By achieving that, we would strengthen ourselves and ensure success.

If we unite, we will win. Otherwise, we will experience further problems reminiscent of those we experienced in the past and throughout our painful history.

As long as we are perceived as weak and divided, we will be easily defeated in a sea of enemies. But if we strive for increasing unity within, then Israel will sail smoothly forward and reach safe harbor, a good and calm destination.

In our attempt to forge unity among ourselves, we evoke a strong connecting power, a supreme force of love and bestowal that will cover all the differences between us, regardless of how deep they are. Such a force is the only partner which will protect us from all the threats we face.

In other words, we cannot rely on anyone to solve our problems or defend us because help will not be forthcoming. If we want to see positive change for Israel, we should start working toward a substantial transformation within ourselves, toward warmer mutual relationships. That is our only guarantee of a good future.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can we protect the cities from sameness? How can we retain the identity of different cities?“

It is impossible to keep watch over every city’s uniqueness. It is because, in the end, the connection between them is becoming so tight that obviously culture, education, specifics and language are becoming more and more common around the world. This is why it will not help us to treat certain distinctive characteristics of each city carefully. Of course, this will be preserved, but many people today want to develop in a deeper sense, and do not care that today they are in one city and tomorrow, in another one. They are not looking for the city itself, but for its inner content. Such people seek deeper and deeper for what is inside of nature. This is why we cannot preserve the individuality of each city, the “face” with which it will stand out. Instead, we will be able to safeguard the special inner content of each person. In essence, this will be our individuality.

It is time to stop looking at the still level, at the buildings that we erect and the characteristics of the animate level in nature. We must pay more attention to the human level, to the uniqueness of the person, to what is unique within. With such a focus, we will see how unique we are, and the extent to which each person is a unique creature in whom lies a unique character and unique wealth. As such, we will discover the world in all its fullness at the human level.

We should not divert our attention to levels lower than the human. We created and built all the other levels—beautiful buildings and so on—by means of our ego. When this becomes removed and does not bring us fulfillment, then the things we built will also be removed and will no longer be felt.

Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 9, 2006. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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