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The content is based on talks given by Dr. Michael Laitman and is written and edited by his students.

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The Ten Sefirot that Form the Four Worlds

548.03Question: In the “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” it is said that the four-letter name of the Creator, in the general aspect, is manifested in the ten Sefirot. How should we understand this?

Answer: In principle, these are not four degrees of the descent of the light, that is, the impact from the Creator to the creation, but ten degrees, because one of the degrees consists of six sub-degrees. The result is ten.

These ten Sefirot, ten degrees, form the four worlds: Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya, and their root, called Adam Kadmon (AK).

At the same time, our world is included in the last degree of Assiya.

Question: How can a person imagine these worlds?

Answer: There is no way. It is a gradual descent, a weakening of the upper light relative to the creations existing on these four degrees.

All this is felt inside a person, in his attainment.
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From KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 5/14/23

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The Difference Between Spiritual and Corporeal Desire

506.2Thus, the only difference between the upper worlds and this world is that as long as the will to receive incorporated in His abundance has not fully materialized, it is regarded as still being in the spiritual worlds, above this world (Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” #2).

Question: Once the desire has materialized, it already exists in this world. What is the difference between a desire in the spiritual world and the same desire that has materialized in our world?

Answer: The difference is in the desire itself, in its quality and level, that is, in what it seeks to fill everything with, either corporeal, egoistic desires, pleasures, intentions, and fulfillments or spiritual ones. This is the big difference between desires, their gradation, and their gradual separation.

Question: In our world, psychologists divide desires into five types from basic desires to desires to understand the meaning of life, “Who I am, what I am.” Are all these corporeal desires?

Answer: Yes, they all relate to corporeal desires. That is, these are the desires that a person who was born in our world, lives in our world, and feels it as a place in which he exists, can feel.

Question: But the root of these desires is in the spiritual world where they have not yet materialized. How does a person feel them? Does the same desire, let’s say for food, exist in spirituality?

Answer: If you, for example, draw some chemical formula or physical equation, this will be the expression of your desire in matter or even above matter.

Question: I am just trying to figure out what the addition is when this desire becomes spiritual. The corporeal one is clear to me, everything is clear here: you take a piece of meat, swallow it, and get some kind of pleasure through the receptors. How does this happen in spirituality?

Answer: In spirituality it also happens the same way. You take the fulfillment, immerse the desire in it, and get the feeling of fulfilling the desire.

Question: Where is the Creator in this formula? Where is He manifested in it?

Answer: He is not manifested anywhere. Only in your feelings.

Question: So is He this pleasure and abundance?

Answer: The feeling of the source of pleasure is defined as the Creator.

While enjoying a piece of meat, I do not know where this pleasure comes from. I just know that if food comes into contact with my receptors, then I feel pleasure. This is how I am arranged. Is there another source behind this in spirituality, that is, do I feel someone who gives me this additional pleasure.
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From KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 5/14/23

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The Power of the Desire

961.2Question: If a person feels a certain influence from you, feels your energy, does it affect the hastening of his understanding of spirituality?

Answer: It depends only on his work.

Question: How was it for you with your teacher?

Answer: We were attuned to each other: I to him, and he to me! We worked in unison! I wanted to receive from him, and he wanted to pass on to me! He worked in order to form within me everything that is possible: fill, fulfill, and so on. And I was in some part a passive recipient, and in some part an active one.

Question: How did you agree to come to this?

Answer: We did not. This is a desire. There is no way to agree in words here. This is simply a desire to annul oneself before the teacher, and then the student becomes able to receive from him. It is also necessary for the teacher to have the desire and vision of what he really needs to give to this student because he sees a possibility to continue the spiritual transmission to the world in the future.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Spiritual Energy” 4/21/11

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Everything Depends on the Internal Data

533.02Question: Why did it happen that, besides you, all other students of Rabash practically study by themselves?

Answer: It depends on the structure of the soul, and there is nothing you can do.

Comment: But, after all, they are at a certain degree of attainment.

My Response: This is their internal data. But that is not the point.

The fact is that there is no further dissemination from them. If they do some internal actions, then although it is somehow manifested in the spiritual world, it is not reflected in our world yet.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Spiritual Energy” 4/21/11

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Dissemination Chain

528.04Question: You have repeatedly explained that dissemination needs to be passed on to the next level. Who decides what step to take? You cannot just spread information into the air. How does the process of further connection happen?

You had everything clearly set: your teacher, you, and your students. And your students have such layers, some more, some less.

Answer: So what? Everything will be determined for them as well. They are already connected with thousands of people in the world, and they will be with millions and billions. Everyone will gradually become connected.

Question: But everyone has a definite goal in their inner development: this one connects with such and such people, that one with others. Or is it chaotic?

Answer: No one chooses anyone. Whoever comes comes. Did I choose you? Or anyone else?

They come and that is it. They knock on the door and enter. Admission is free. And then everything depends on the student, on his inner structure, on the structure of his soul, and on how much he can place himself as a student.

In general, everything should be done as freely as possible to give a person only information, to push him. And then everything will flow by itself.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Spiritual Energy” 4/21/11

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From the Level of Angel to the Level of Human

712.03Question: Why did the general system not reward us from birth with an altruistic perception of pleasure?

Answer: If we were not in our egoistic perception of pleasure, but in an altruistic perception, then we would have no resistance to it; we would simply exist in it.

We would be at the level of angels, that is, forces that exist like that, and we would have no comprehension, no sense of our own “I.” We would not be opposite to the Creator, we would not be personalities, we would not be creations relative to Him.

Precisely because there is opposition to our egoism in revealing the higher world, in revealing the state of bestowal, love, and connection with what is outside of me, with my friends, with their inner aspirations to the Creator, and there is the possibility of freedom, I therefore exist separately from the upper force and I do not obey it, I choose what to do.

If this were not the case, then we would simply automatically exist in bestowal, as we now automatically exist in receiving.

Now, we are also angels, only angels of death, who, with each of their temporary fulfillment, kill themselves, thereby bringing death closer. Otherwise, we would be angels of life, in other words, forces that simply exist in that volume of life and know nothing about themselves.

Comment: But if you say that the situation is much better than the current one…

Answer: No, not better. The angel of life is no better than the angel of death. Both are neither better nor worse; these are the forces of nature. There is no good and bad outside of a person when he decides whether to move forward or not. Outside of man, these forces are equivalent.

From these two forces, from their correct combination, each moment we build states that add up together and give us the image of “man” or “Adam,” which means “similar to the Creator.”

Question: When a great Kabbalist comes to a certain point of comprehension, does he wait for everyone else to comprehend?

Answer: He does not wait, he works on his own correction by helping others. As long as the others are not corrected, he feels like that too. No one can achieve complete correction until the whole world is corrected, so every Kabbalist has more to do.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. What is mind?” 2/21/11

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“What is hidden in The Zohar?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: What is hidden in The Zohar?
The Zohar hides nature’s secrets from us in a way where we start understanding that such secrets are unattainable, that nature’s “control room” is hidden from us.

Nature controls our every movement, thought and desire. We exist in an incredibly limited range of perception, one that constantly presses on us, and we fail to understand why everything unfolds specifically the way that it does. This is the concealment we live in.

There is, however, a way to open our doors of perception and disclose nature’s complete picture beyond our limited vantage points.

If we draw closer to nature by emulating its qualities of love, bestowal and connection, then we eventually start disclosing nature’s forces, plans and also various miraculous phenomena. As such, we come to feel and understand nature by becoming like it.

That is what The Zohar teaches us.

Based on KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on May 21, 2023. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

The Lesson Is a Correction

261Question: What is the process of the lesson that you are giving?

Answer: It is a correction. I receive desires from others, and these desires give me the opportunity to attract light.

It turns out that I work all of the time with new desires, fulfillments, and saturations. This is how the correction of all new desires of people who are both close and far from us happens because they are all connected to us.

All the desires of people who are in our network and are aiming for some spiritual goal (which may even perhaps still be unclear to them) are connected together. I feel them and perform a spiritual action on them. That is why I do not get tired at all during the lesson.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Magic of the Kabbalah Lesson” 4/25/11

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Spiritual Energy

630.2Question: According to Kabbalah, spirituality is the opposite of materiality. We are carriers of spiritual energy. How is it that this energy, being the opposite, doesn’t harm a person?

Answer: Because our whole world exists only on positive spiritual energy. Only! And it cannot possibly cause someone to feel bad, not even the most ardent opponent.

Comment: But a person has very uncomfortable reactions to those opposite sensations within him; he does not understand what is happening to him; he cannot perceive it.

Answer: Yes, but it won’t make him feel bad. He can get annoyed by himself. Outwardly his reaction, to an observer, may manifest itself as irritation, but it doesn’t hurt him.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Spiritual Energy” 4/21/11

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There Is Nothing But a Thought

231.01Question: Where did the concept of “thought” come from?

Answer: This is a consequence of the fact that we are people who have a spark of light in them. An animal does not think about whether it exists or not. It just exists and that is it.

There are people who also exist because they exist, and that is it. They are still at this level. In principle, a person becomes a person when he begins to understand that he must attain the meaning of life. It means to attain the only thought that exists in nature.

And there is nothing else. This is just a representation, a presentation of this thought regarding us as well as its parts, when we cannot grasp, realize, and feel this thought and somehow work with it.

Therefore, we can only capture it in the form of our world, volumes, and objects until we begin to rise from the material world by constant Kabbalistic attainment into such spheres where we can already feel the thought itself and work with it. There is nothing but a thought.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. What is a person’s “I”?” 4/16/11

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How We Perceive the Single Force of Nature

709Question: Which principles of the universe should we try to fulfill first?

Answer: The principles of the universe are not meant to be fulfilled. Principles are laws of the universe: the law of the equivalence of qualities, the law of the general unity of all parts of the world, and so on. They are not intended for us to fulfill in any sequence. These are the foundations, the bricks of the universe.

Let’s say we have nature in front of us, which consists, say, of 500 elementary particles. Each particle cannot be better or worse than the others. This is all nature.

With regard to us, the only principle of nature is that it is one single force. To the extent that we understand, feel, attain, and reveal it, it is as if we decompose it into many forces, many different manifestations and principles.

Although this is one single force, we interpret it as separate principles since we cannot perceive it globally. Suppose we live in a sort of cosmos, and inside it is the construction of the world, the universe. It is one, but we cannot explore it as a single entity.

We can explore separately the attributes that we call physics, the ones called chemistry, the ones called biology, zoology, botany, geology, and so on, because today we do not have enough experience, knowledge, or development to see it all as one whole. Therefore, we divide general nature into such parts so that we can somehow talk about and explore it. We cannot take everything together.

It is the same with principles. There is only one force inside which we exist. But in order to understand it, to realize its influence on us and how it created us, and how leads us along the path of evolution, we divide its impact into personal, general, historical, and different levels, manifestations, and so on. But this is in relation to us because in this way it is easier for us to absorb it, to approach it, and to feel it.

We cannot perceive it globally. We do not have enough sensations to do this, nor the ability to process everything and evaluate this force. We cannot! This is due to our limitations in terms of processing information, in comprehending it in the general form and simultaneously in all its depths and interconnections. This is our weakness.

Therefore the only principle, which is called: “One, unique, and unified” is divided into dozens relative to us. We arbitrarily divide it for ourselves into many different principles.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Laws of the Universe” 3/27/11

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The Choice Is Ours

537In our movement toward the goal of creation, we can choose the best or the worst version of this movement. Either we will drag ourselves in shackles, driven by a whip, or we will go in a compartment carriage, on a good road, looking out the window at a beautiful panorama. That is a big difference.

But to do this, we need to participate in the movement ourselves, i.e., get into the carriage instead of trudging along the road in shackles. This means that I agree with the purpose of creation and that I want to achieve it.

I have to wish for it myself, and this is against my egoism. But I strive for it more than anything else in the world even if I had the opportunity to avoid it, so I have to come to a state of correct assessment of the goal, its understanding.

This work consists of making a person realize what the single force of nature is doing to him, how kind it is, how much by trying to change him from an egoist to an altruist, to an absolute unmercenary person, it wants to raise him to a perfect level. He begins to evaluate this perfection as the greatest gift.

Question: But whether he is walking in shackles or riding in a carriage car, does he still feel some pressure on his current condition?

Answer: No. He himself is remaking that terrible, dirty road along which he had to trudge driven by a whip. He lays the track to the train himself, he creates this train and all the amenities.

Question: Why is it impossible to walk in shackles if a person knows the principles of the universe?

Answer: No. “In shackles” means that he does not know the principles or does not agree with them and he does not want to change himself.

After all, the task is not to walk. “To reach” means to completely change yourself. There is no need to go anywhere. You will suddenly find that you have to be in the same place, that the road is in fact not a road but your internal changes that you have to go through.

Therefore, we must quickly create a methodology for correcting the whole of humanity, describe it as simply as possible, and distribute it by all means. The main thing is for a person to understand what is happening to him and the world right now, what kind of world he finds himself in.

If we want to see the world as kind and not as it begins to seem to us as very threatening and unpredictable, then we urgently need to understand what nature forces us to do.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Principles of the universe” 4/9/11

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Incessancy of Wars

293Comment: People are constantly stating that they oppose wars, but somehow wars continue to exist.

My Response: How can people fight against wars if they don’t also think that everything caused by egoism, in any case, leads to war?

The question arises: is it possible to do this in any other way? It is only if you adopt the method of Kabbalah. Otherwise there will still be wars.

They happen incessantly. The moment one war ends, they immediately begin to prepare for the next because otherwise egoism cannot exist.

Therefore egoistic individuals cannot live in peace; they have to devour each other.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. What Is a War?” 4/16/11

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“How do I know if I’m on the right path?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: How do I know if I’m on the right path?
You know that you are on the right path in life when you are satisfied with knowing how to act, what to do, that you can see the path ahead, follow it and progress toward the right goal for yourself.

Your sole guiding light here is your own sensation.

You might get convinced otherwise by all kinds of people, but it means nothing. It is only your own inner conviction that will tell you that you are on the right path in life.

For this reason, Kabbalists say that the first rule in embarking on a spiritual path is that there is no coercion in spirituality. You cannot be forced to take a spiritual direction in your life. Your innermost desire will let you know whether or not you are headed to a goal that will give it the fulfillment it seeks.

Based on KabTV’s “Talks” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on May 18, 2023. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

A Life that Suits Humanity

204Question: Nowadays people’s consciousness is beginning to gradually change. How realistic is it that people will soon believe in what Kabbalah says and start to change their actions?

Answer: It depends on the need. We see that today people continue to develop all sorts of technical toys, wage wars, and pull each other off our ball, so to speak. They are still satisfied with that type of life.

They are engaged in something temporary, insignificant, and worthless that harms them and thus further distances them from their true Kabbalistic sources. And it will be harder and harder to come back to them.

One who makes the most of his selfishness toward others can seem to succeed in our world. But in fact it threatens him with a very difficult way back to his true source and very bitter sensations along the path of spiritual correction.

That is the way our world works and there is nothing you can do about it. We are trying to accomplish something by disseminating Kabbalah, but in principle, this is all in the program of the world.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Change of consciousness” 4/16/11

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Kindergarten of a Kabbalist

938.05Question: Your students are adult men, but do you still treat them like children?

Answer: Of course! How else?! Regarding me, they are students. In their spiritual development, they are children. It is natural that I feel that way about them. This one is pompous, this one is sullen, this one bullies, and this one is too diligent. This one has dull feelings, this one has a sharp mind, and so on. Everyone has different combinations with internal properties and qualities, but all of them are children.

Question: Regarding your teacher, were you also a child for him?

Answer: Of course! Naturally.

He is above me. He is ahead of me. It all descends down the stream from above from the world of infinity through all Kabbalists to us. Therefore, the world has no choice; today it receives through me. But I, in turn, am a baby in the arms of my teacher.

Comment: All the same, in our world, a small child at some point surpasses his parents and becomes higher in understanding.

My Response: That is right. There is an inverse relationship between light and desire, and therefore we achieve more than they do. But it is because of what we have received from them that we are moving on.

Just like in our world, our children achieve more because we have prepared and given them everything that came before them, and therefore they can take another step.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Laitman’s Kindergarten” 4/24/11

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232.05Question: What is the spiritual meaning of war? Why does war exist?

Answer: It exists because there are two opposing forces in the universe. When these forces cannot be balanced by the screen, they come into a state of a short spiritual circuit and try to destroy each other. This is called war.

In the spiritual world, there is a short electrical circuit, a collision of opposite forces and properties, like in the material world. This gives rise to wars in our world.

Therefore, we need to form a screen between these forces, i.e., some kind of correct connection between people.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. What Is War?” 4/16/11

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The Root of Success

945Question: Why do a lot of people gather when you give lectures?

Answer: We have reached a state in our corporeal development when people are interested in learning about their future and also their present because they are not satisfied with it.

This is not about me. What am I really saying? I am only saying what Kabbalah says, what is written in my books and on the website.

Comment: But people are not captured by your words, but with an internal contact, as if some kind of energy emanates from you that clings to them.

My Response: This is actually true because along with this, they involuntarily receive a certain inner force that is the light that exists in the words and images I live by. They are subconsciously drawn to them despite the fact that they do not have so-called tools of reception. But on the outside, they are still affected by the surrounding light that attracts them.

Question: Can a person change at all due to the light you give?

Answer: No. He has to work on himself. He must gather a certain range of feelings and perceptions within himself that will eventually create a prerequisite for spiritual sensations. Without this, nothing will work.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Root of Success” 3/6/11

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The Difference Between Kabbalah and Sufism

583.04Comment: There is a principle that a student should be a rag at his teacher’s feet.

My Response: Firstly, that was not said by me. Secondly, it is not a rag, but “ashes at the teacher’s feet,” that is, dust.

I remember meeting in England with a great Sufi of the world, an Iranian, a very wise old man. He told me: “If you want to be my disciple, you must come here and serve me completely. So that you love me as you love yourself.”

This is absolutely true! Sufis have the same system as Kabbalah. In principle, it comes from the same source, from Abraham. Therefore Sufis have been engaged in spiritual things for centuries.

Question: Why does Sufism not provide a method of correction?

Answer: Because it does not have three lines of development.

Sufism cannot develop through egoism since only the right line predominates in it. It seems to exist in the same plane. The left line cannot develop at all and attain the spiritual world even a little because it is a single egoism.

Kabbalah is the middle line, which uses both forces, right and left. Therefore a person can grow. We see what state of continuous inner evolution we are in.

Question: Is there any danger that the Kabbalistic method may descend to the lowest trifles?

Answer: No, the Kabbalistic method does not descend. It becomes common, popular, and universal! It comes out of its hiding place and is revealed to everyone!
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. To Receive from the Teacher” 4/13/11
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A Natural Process

543.02Today all sorts of previous passions of humanity seem naive to us. But I don’t see any disregard to history in this since this is a natural development. We will also seem like this to our descendants.

If we talked to ancient Greek scientists now, they would give us some arithmetic laws that children study in the first grades today. And these great scientists would tell us about their discoveries with excitement, with a tremor in their voice.

What can I say here? This is how we develop. Everything is relative. Only the attainment of the upper force is absolute because it is unchangeable, and reaching similarity to it begins to lift a person higher.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Time Travel” 9/29/11

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