Question: If I myself, with my willpower, overcome some egoistic desire, is this not a screen yet?

Answer: This is not a screen, it is not overcoming egoism, but just calculating when with the help of a big desire you conquer a lesser one.

Question: Kabbalists write that the way out of the egoistic nature is possible only under the influence of the surrounding light (Ohr Makif). When reading Kabbalistic books, a person draws this force and it changes one’s nature.

How can I be sure that this is not my subjective, psychological attitude?

Answer: The fact is that you begin to understand what is written in the books, you reveal their internal content for yourself.

Question: So, there is some indicator that can show me that now I have risen above my egoism?

Answer: No. There are no indicators here, the person himself understands everything. This is explained to him from above.

Question: But is this still subjective?

Answer: Everything is subjective, since a person perceives this in one’s desires, egoistic, anti-egoistic, no matter what. Nevertheless, it is perceived by one.

Question: And there is no objective verification?

Answer: When he begins to compare his feelings with what is said in the books, he realizes that he is in the correct perception of the world.

Question: That is, if a person says that he has a screen (Masach), then no one can check it. Or are there any signs?

Answer: Yes. People who have similar qualities can feel and check it.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 8/20/21

Comment: Generation Z are those born after 1997.

Some say that they are brave and independent. Their heroes are not astronauts, scientists, but stars and bloggers. They were born with a phone in their hands, they learn about the world in a split second. 

Their clip-thinking allows them to “read” a person from photos and videos in a couple of seconds and determine whether it is worth communicating with him further.

My Response: That is correct. What else is there to poke around in a person? It is only possible at this point in time to find out whether he is useful for me or not.

Comment: That is, they are total egoists.

My Response: Pragmatic, simple, and straightforward.

Question: Secondly there is an absence of barriers in communication. They easily get to know the stars, they can write to Elon Musk, whomever they want. The Internet gave them the opportunity not to be afraid of anyone at all, not to be ashamed. So, is such behavior good?

Answer: Of course it is good. Why should I grovel in front of anyone? How is he better than me? What is he? Are they some majestic people, some special stars, scientists?

Comment: But we have always had some element of respect for certain people. Some famous professor, Nobel laureate, or Olympic champion. And these individuals can easily communicate with anyone.

My Response: Everyone is equal. We have already gone through this. There is nothing special about any person.

Question: What do I value a person for, so that I still freeze a little with respect to them?

Answer: Only according to his benefit for society, his practical benefit for society. Nothing else.

Where will you find such people? That is a question. This is where such a clip-consciousness is needed, good perception and assessment, sorting and result.

Question: And then I will respect this person?

Answer: It will be absolutely clear to you why you respect him. And others will agree with you.

Comment: Another characteristic is the absence of complexes. They accept themselves as they are, erase blockages, settings, frameworks within themselves.

My Response: Of course. And what is in a person, what is there that did not come from nature? And what is there in others? Where are their personal traits? Therefore, there is no basis for justification, accusation, or shame.

Comment: That is, you support the notion that a person should have no complexes: “This is who I am! This is the way I am!”

My Response: Of course. If we do not have these complexes, we will be able to figure out what is in us and what we really need to fix.

Comment: You said: “Because it comes from nature,” so it is not mine, like anything else.

My Response: Of course! And they understand all that. This is the basis of the framework that is not me. “Go to the craftsman who made me” if you have any claims on me.

Comment: That is, if I have complaints against myself, I say: “The Creator did it to me,” and that’s it. And I am talking to Him.

My Response: Yes. But you see, this is calculated based on the fact that people think that way, that they will embrace each other and thus relate to each other. That is, then I will see in the other the result of the Creator’s work on him.

Question: Will I will always have the view through the Creator at another individual? And for myself too: through the Creator at me?

Answer: Yes, it is the Creator who does everything. This is the next stage of Generation Z.

Comment: But should I know something about the Creator?

My Response: No. I see the results of His actions.

Comment: One last thing: self-importance; there are no more self-confident young people than zoomers. It is difficult to influence them with ideologies, they are independent, and they feel their value.

My Response: In general, this is true. Why should I respect or despise someone for anything? I just have to appreciate people for their potential, for the fact that they can grow. Even if today I do not see it.

Question: And the fact that there is my self-importance, what good is there?

Answer: That I have the opportunity to grow, one that will be respected by society.

Question: But you are talking specifically about spiritual growth?

Answer: No, actually, not about the spiritual.

Question: So something that will be respected by society? If I grow up doing something for society, is that my growth?

Answer: That is enough!

Question: More and more?

Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/31/21

Comment: The number of starving people in the world is increasing. You even said that there would be a famine. You even added: “A big one!”
At the same time, people throw away 15% or even more of the food they buy. Restaurants and retail chains throw away hundreds of tons of food.

The UN Secretary-General declared that “Food loss and waste is an ethical outrage” (UN News). There are many such statements.

When will we be able to do more than just make statements? What if we do this, for example, if you throw something away, you will pay 20 times more for it?

My Response: What good would this do?

Question: Can we educate people this way?

Answer: It does not matter. We all pay a lot of money for this anyway.

Question: Then what will help? Making statements will not help for sure.

Answer: The heart. If a person does not have it, nothing will help. And we do not have it. I do not think about others. I do not care about them. I open the refrigerator and take what I need. What I no longer need, do not want, is superfluous or spoiled, I throw away.

I cannot buy just enough so that I finish it all. Of course, food is thrown away. We can see by the amount of garbage. It is a terrible thing! The fact that somewhere people do not have enough food means that there is no communication between people. Therefore, there is surplus here and shortage there.

Question: Is it possible to think about others when I am buying something?

Answer: If you think about others, then you will buy only what you need and no one in the world will starve at all, even simply from your approach to the world in this way.

Question: What does it mean to think about others? What should I be thinking at this moment?

Answer: About making everyone feel good. Just as you are now buying food for yourself in a grocery store and filling your refrigerator, you also want to desire that all people in the world have such conditions.

Comment: You are talking about special people.

My Response: This is not about being special. We will be forced. I am not worried about this at all. We have already entered such a stage that if not now, then in two or three years you will see what will happen.

Comment: Let it force us already! At least it is humane.

My Response: No. Nature must seriously educate us. It takes time.

Question: Do you mean that I will not be able to train myself for this? Must I be forced?

Answer: You are not forcing yourself now, you are not searching. You will get up after this program and go to fill your stomach without thinking about Bangladesh.

Comment: Frankly speaking, yes.

My Response: It means that we need such a connection where I will feel internally that I need this,  that we will all save some 10% of everything we have for other countries. We will reach a state when there will be no rich people. How many billionaires are there in the world? How many new billionaires do we have because of this pandemic?

Comment: Yes. Some became much richer. And others became much poorer. The gap between the poor and the rich has increased.

My Response: Yes. I hope that we will sort this out, but not by revolutions or coups but by elevating our consciousness and awareness.

Question: Does this information that there is hunger, that there are many hungry people somewhere come to me on purpose? Am I slowly being prepared for this evolution, for this transition you are talking about?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So I will not be able to live normally if people are starving somewhere?

Answer: Eventually, of course! You will be feeling their hunger, their condition, more strongly than your own.

Question: And then I will not be able to sleep peacefully?

Answer: By no means.

Question: Then will I put this 10% exactly there and I will not be able to eat without doing it?

Answer: No. You will see to it that it reaches them. Like, for example, your son is somewhere and you want to send him something.

Comment: May it happen soon! I do wish so!

My Response: No! You must not just wish for it. You must create such a system, how our world was created, now billions of people who need to work will have to process this into a completely different system of mutual assistance and connection. We will have to do this. This must be embodied all the way down to the lowest level of nature.

But this will only happen when you do not want to live in such a world as we have today at all!
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/12/21

And these are the cities which the children of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed for inheritance to them.

By lot was their inheritance, as the Lord commanded through Moses, for the nine tribes and for the half tribe. …

Then the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal; and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know the thing that the Lord spoke to Moses the man of God concerning me and concerning you in Kadesh- barnea.

I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land; and I brought him back word as it was in my heart.

And my brothers that went up with me, made the heart of the people melt; but I fulfilled the will of the Lord my God.
And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land upon which your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance, and your children’s forever, because you have fulfilled the will of the Lord my God.’

And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as He spoke, these forty-five years, from the time the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness; and now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old.

I am still as strong this day as I was on the day that Moses sent me; as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in.

And now, give me this mountain, of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the ‘Anakim were there, and that the cities were big and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out, as the Lord spoke.”

And Joshua blessed him, and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance.
Hebron, therefore, became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he fulfilled the will of the Lord God of Israel.

And the name of Hebron before was Kirjath-arba (the city of Arba); Arba was the greatest man among the ‘Anakim. And the land had rest from war. (Prophets, Joshua, 14)

Caleb asks to give him land for a plot, which is not so easy to win. Moreover he does not ask for fertile land, but for work for himself: “I am 85 years old, but I am still strong and I can still be useful.”

He can do this precisely at the age that speaks of the height of spiritual attainment. And it is against anakim—great, big, strong desires that frighten everyone with their very appearance.

Caleb is not afraid of anything and he knows that he can overcome these desires because he has a connection with the Creator and with the people and with a goal that he must reveal to everyone.

He says: “I want to fight,” because the confrontation between positive and negative forces reveals and the Creator who created these opposing forces is attained through this.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/9/21

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Who are your heroes? Who inspires you?“

Great people, those whom I accept as being great—are the great kabbalists who developed the wisdom of Kabbalah. They received it from ancient Babylon, i.e. the times of the first revelation of evil in people, and they have carried it from one generation to the next over 5,000 years.

These include the author of The Book of Zohar, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, who lived in the 2nd century; the founder of the modern science of Kabbalah—Rabbi Isaac Luria (the Ari), who lived in the 15th century; and the last kabbalist who developed the wisdom of Kabbalah with consideration of our time—Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), who lived in the 20th century. In essence, precisely he revealed the wisdom of Kabbalah to our generation, and with his help we now advance to the understanding of reality, nature and the core problem that humanity faces.

Also, I revere my teacher, Baal HaSulam’s older son, Rav Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag (Rabash), who passed this wisdom to me. He handed it over to me and obligated me to spread it to humanity—which is what I try to do with all my strength.

This is why the great kabbalists—Rashbi, the Ari, Baal HaSulam and Rabash—are the people whom I see as my examples. To me, they are the heroes of the world.

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

Comment: It seems that nature has clearly started to choke us from all sides.

It scorches us on the ground with forest fires in Turkey, France, Italy, Spain, Siberia, America, Australia, and in Canada where cities are practically burned down.

At the same time, scientists warn that from 2021 to 2050, heat peaks will occur up to seven times a year, which means fires are possible almost seven times a year. And from 2050 to 2080, the heat peaks are projected to happen 21 times a year.

We are also flooded from above. Look at what happened in Germany, Belgium, India, China, and London! Hail the size of tennis balls pummeled Italy.

And from the inside, viruses get to us and mutate.

Humanity everywhere looks for conspiracies. It seems that there is a conspiracy of nature against us.

My Response: Nature is an overall picture, it is one global system. We think the hail has passed and that’s it. No! If we throw nature out of balance, then we must take everything into account.

Question: Will it come from all angles?

Answer: Yes. But there are no biological pests yet like those written about in the ten plagues: frogs, lice, and so on. I am saying that we should expect this.

Question: But humanity sees the reason for all this in global warming, in the fact that we are destroying the environment, and so on. What is your opinion?

Answer: I have even stopped speaking about it. Not because I am tired—I cannot get tired—but because it is a problem, it is a disease that does not go away.

On other hand, the more you talk, the less people listen to you. I would like some kind of a result. I do not know how to open the hearts of modern people. They do not want to listen and that’s it!

That is, we have reached such a level of egoism. I do not blame anyone! I understand where this comes from. All this comes from our egoism, which was created by the Creator. Therefore, I do not know what else we can do. I mean the Kabbalists who still want to convey their opinion to the people.

In the chain of nature, people are at the highest level: still, vegetative, animate, and man. At the degree of man, we simply destroy nature. Why?

Because at the degree of man we are not in good relations with each other, this projects the same attitude to all the other lower degrees: animate, vegetative, and still. This means we do not want to be in a good relationship with each other and nature does not want to be in a good relationship within itself and with us.

This causes the imbalance of the entire system of nature. This imbalance is felt not by all sorts of primitive elements or creatures, but mainly by highly organized ones, such as people. As we are at the highest degree, we are affected the most. We are the most vulnerable and sensitive.

An essential law of nature, which has not yet been discovered by people, is that we create this imbalance, and it returns to us. In principle it seems to be so easy to grasp.

Comment: So many laws have been discovered, so many scientists, Nobel prizes…

My Response: You will not do anything with Nobel Prizes. We just need to consider carefully that we are in integral nature, in an integral system. And we must take this into account.

And relationships between us are the strongest, the most defining, the highest, and the most acute in this system.

Question: Can we reach a good connection?

Answer: We can if we want to, if we are convinced that it is necessary. Then we can. There is a way, there is a method, there is everything. But there is not even awareness of this. First there must be awareness: “Yes, it is necessary, it is necessary. There is nothing to do. Well, okay, we have to, we must. Show us how. We agree to listen.” And so on. There is no such thing! It is dismissed long before that.

Question: Will humanity come to this? Do you see this? You often have this answer, it will come via suffering.

Answer: So it is written: either by the way of light or by the way of suffering. We understand that these two paths exist. But the path of light means enlightenment. This is a fast, easy, and kind way. And it leads to the need to still make a decision and act, meaning, to get closer to each other, to remove egoism, to act like a human being to each other.

And the path of suffering is a long but reliable path. As it comes from nature, we will not run away anywhere. And now nature introduces it. The good path must come from us, and the path of suffering comes from nature. But we must try to overtake nature. I have nothing more to say.

Let’s hope that people will get wiser after all.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/29/21

Question: I have a close friend, and your student, Yura. His brother, Misha, was a healthy, joyful, wonderful guy. And suddenly, at some point, he contracted a disease called Charcot’s disease, a muscle-atrophy. It leads to paralysis, subsequent muscle atrophy, and is considered an incurable disease.

Naturally, this was not easy for Misha. At some point, a man came who had recovered from the last stage of multiple sclerosis. He was given a year to live. The man said to Misha: “Look at me. I will come over for free, and will do everything for free. I will be with you almost all the time, but you must agree to five conditions. And then I will tell you five actions.” Misha readily agreed.

I would love it if you could tell me why these conditions work.

His first condition to Misha was this: “From now on, Misha, you are not sick with this disease but recovering from it.” Is there a prayer when a person enters such a state?

Answer: Of course. The inner confidence that he is moving forward. He is not giving in to this disease.

Question: Does this prayer reach all the way up?

Answer: The inner confidence of a person. Sure. What a person thinks is where he is.

Comment: The second condition. He said: “You, Misha, should stop reading about the disease. Do not watch the news, look at Facebook, or patient forums. Enter another environment.”

My Response: That’s right. It’s the same thing, a continuation of the same idea. It is said very simply: “You are where your thoughts are.”

Comment: Third: “Live for today only. There is no yesterday, no tomorrow, but only today, as if this is your only day.”

My Response: Yes. This happens when one is happy. When we are happy, we do not think about the past or the future. We live in the present, and that’s it. It consumes me. It fills me up. Nirvana.

Comment: The fourth. “If something that you must do is hard for you, do it twice.”

My Response: This is good exercise.

Comment: Then he said: “You must have consistency, determination and perseverance. That’s what you have to develop in yourself.” These are the five conditions.

Misha, of course, said: “Yes.” They shook hands. And he said: “Then you must do five actions.”

I would love for you to comment on them. “Every morning, upon getting up, regardless of the state of your mood or health, smile and thank the Creator, the universe, out loud. Mechanically at first. Then, once you get used to it, it will pass through your heart.”

My Response: This is definitely healing.

Question: But if a person does this mechanically. How so?!

Answer: It doesn’t matter! He forces himself.

Question: And if he does not believe in anyone or anything?

Answer: It doesn’t matter. He tries to tune into the utmost positivity.

Question: So he should say: “I thank you, Universe, Nature, the Creator”?

Answer: Yes. It doesn’t matter what you call it. It is all the Creator in whom we exist.

Question: And how to thank?

Answer: “I’m joyful at being able to think about You.” And that’s all, nothing more.

Question: And if the thought creeps in that I am so unhappy, so broken?

Answer: Then come back to the same thought of gratitude again.

Question: And do so all the time? As if I’m training my muscles?

Answer: Yes. Sure. This can be trained.

Question: What is this muscle called? What is this? A spiritual muscle?

Answer: This is the intention.

Comment: Then he said: “Up to half an hour do breathing exercises, exercises of diaphragm breathing.” Why are so many people talking about it? Do these breathing exercises work?

My Response: They affect the whole body. Breathing is a muscular or bodily exercise, the closest to the spiritual. At the same time, a person with the help of breathing totally changes the entire physiology, everything that happens in his body. Proper breathing affects everything.

Comment: Third: “Do at least one conscious, kind action toward someone.”

My Response: Yes. This helps and gives you direction for the whole day. It’s good to start the day.

Comment: Fourth: “Do at least 20 minutes of walking outside the house.” And the fifth: “Do at least half an hour of study. Study, learn something new, preferably get into some science.” Constantly engage in something new.

My Response: Yes.

Comment: Can you imagine, some man comes over who had barely any time left to live, sits there in front of Misha, absolutely healthy, and introduces this program to him.

The most interesting thing is that he says: “If you stop doing this—he feels so himself—you will become sick again.” This is his feeling.

He also said for the future: “The most difficult moment in healing will be when you already feel good and will have to find the strength to continue doing it anyway.”

My Response: True.

Question: What would you advise people who want to come out of such states when they are told that it is almost impossible to come out of it, that it is incurable?

Answer: Kabbalah replaces all this with a single intention of generating good thoughts toward everyone. That’s all. To constantly have good thoughts toward all people! This is how you heal yourself.

Question: Can someone who’s suffering or sick do this?

Answer: I think these are the people who need it the most. But if everyone could, we would have a healthy world.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/12/20

Question: The writer Ivan Yefremov in his 1963 book Razor’s Edge says: “Man is like the universe, deep, mysterious, boundless. The most important thing is to find in a person everything that he needs right now, without postponing it for hundreds of years into the future and without appealing to upper beings from outer space.”

What do you think about this?

Answer: I think that if a person wants to reveal the essence of one’s existence, what one lives for, then one can do it at any time, in any place. Everything depends only on the person. However, this definitely should not be postponed.
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From KabTV’s “Meetings with Kabbalah” 7/29/21

She sits there for as long as she sits there and dresses there in a form of this world. In the beginning of the month and on the Sabbath, when she wishes to rise to the upper Garden of Eden, the righteous in the Garden of Eden give her a letter as a sign. (The Book of Zohar)

“They give her a letter”—meaning either to a person or to a soul. There are certain nuances regarding who is given the letter: the male or female part of the soul. Therefore, sometimes it is said “he,” sometimes it is said “she.” But the neuter gender does not exist in Hebrew, since the neuter gender is the correct combination of the masculine and feminine. It arises only within a person and means equivalence of form to the Creator.

It is said in The Book of Zohar: “She sits there for as long as she sits there.”

Each degree has its own specific rhythm of development, certain technical parameters, given information, when one degree should end and a new one should arise in our development.

For example, whether you want to or not, a year passes and you become a year older. It is the same in the spiritual world: you must work out the previous degree, its ten Sefirot, and rise to the next degree.

Therefore, each step that fulfills itself is like a new month, a new moon, a change. In Hebrew, the month is called “Hodesh,” from the word “Hadash” – “new.”
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #19

Prophets, Joshua, 8:29: And the king of Ai he hanged on a gallows until evening, and as the sun set, Joshua commanded, and they took his carcass down from the gallows, and they threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised upon it a great heap of stones to this day.

Hanging, strangling, this is not the biggest correction of egoism. The complete destruction of egoistic desires in a person is through burning. Hanging is only depriving egoism of its animalistic existence, i.e., one of the execution methods when a person is deprived of any opportunity for spiritual rebirth.

Question: It is written: “They threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised upon it a great heap of stones.” What are these monuments?

Answer: Indeed, why erect monuments to egoism? The fact is that this is not done for the sake of egoism, but for a person in whom a beaten, mortified, hanged egoism exists, and he must remember it so that this will never happen again.

All this is done for future generations and not for the person himself, because the desire called “the owner of the city” has already been killed in him.

Question: It is very popular in the world today to erect monuments to the departed and living people, monuments to victory, and so on. Is it possible that this tradition comes from here?

Answer: No, this was customary in humanity even before the Torah was written. People like to eternalize themselves because egoism wants this even t hough in the end there will be nothing left of it. That is why it has a desire to somehow glorify itself.

Question: Why is Judaism against monuments?

Answer: We must remember not the person but his actions. And not his actions in the past but those that he conveys to us in the present.

It is customary in our generation that we keep photos, paintings, and portraits. Yet in general, there is absolutely no need for all that. I did not see any images in my teacher’s house: neither of his father, nor of other people, none. These are all just modern habits.

Question: Can we say that this is serving idols?

Answer: Of course. In some ways, it is. What does it give you if you look at a face? By doing this, you replace the correct state of coming closer internally with something external. The connection of the hearts is an absolutely internal action.

Question: What is the difference between a heap of stones and an image?

Answer: A heap of stones reminds us that here we have done away with egoism. The image, on the contrary, says that egoism is still among us, and by this we seemingly exalt it.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/19/21