Alone In A Crowd Of A Billion, Part 3

The problem of loneliness enveloping the modern world is related to the inner emptiness of man. And even when a person wants to rid himself of this state, he has no idea how to do it.

This is neither taught to us by our teachers in school nor by our psychologists and psychiatrists. The fact is that they too are lonely, and that’s why they cannot help us by giving advice on how to be free of loneliness and how to bring people closer.

No one knows how to even begin to bring such extreme individualists as our contemporaries closer to each other. Here only the science of Kabbalah can help because it explains how to establish contact above our egoism so that love can cover all transgressions.

The individuality of each remains, we are not trying to break anyone; rather, we are building one more level atop our nature: a level of unity, a common roof. We, individuals, exist under this roof and we build it together for the sake of harmonious existence and a happy life.

This roof is raised on the second floor. It does not cancel our individual qualities, but only helps us build a correct connection above them. Our relationships come to exist on two different levels, that is, on the inner level, I remain isolated and infinitely distant from others, while on the “second floor,” in the common connection built between us, we lock ourselves into a circle.

Inside of me is a “straight line” and my inner personal state doesn’t concern anyone. But with respect to others, I am completely open and ready to be with everyone as one man with one heart.

This is integration above isolation; in other words, both exist at the same time. This is a new method of connection derived from the wisdom of Kabbalah, and it must be taught to humanity. External interactions are built by the method of the circle, the method of integral connection, while the inner approach refers to the person himself.

In essence, these are not two distinct methods. They turn into one because the stronger we connect between us, the more it helps us develop internally, in our individual forms. It turns out that a person’s egoism continues to develop and grow. And this is exactly what enables us to build relationships between us as we connect in a circle; we are able to do this due to the fact that we are becoming continuously more egoistic.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 4/4/17

Origins Of Culture

Question: Where is the border between spirituality and culture?

Answer: Culture is not a separate concept.

The difference between culture, ethics, and spiritual situations, does not exist. Religion is the source of culture. Without religion, painting, literature, and music would not have developed. All of them began with religion, and developed externally later. But the foundations for all of them were laid in spirituality.

Question: There are tribes that do not maintain any of the world religions. They have their own culture, communications, behavior, and foundations.

Answer: Those tribes have their own customs. There are 2,800 kinds of religions and faiths that exist in the world.

Everything that there is in humanity has appeared thanks to religion. All the arts were created out of the religious need of humanity to express itself to the higher power.

Question: In the Torah, it is said: “Regarding his son, a father is obligated to circumcise him, redeem him, teach him Torah, marry him to a woman and teach him an art.” (Kiddushin 29a).

Answer: The intent of the word “art” is the characteristic of bestowal.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/8/17

Proper Upbringing

Question: In your opinion, what kind of upbringing is correct?

Answer: The proper education is when a person knows how to integrate in human society correctly. He understands people, appreciates them, treats them in a good and courteous manner, understands their weaknesses, and can gradually integrate into their society and even help them to ascend.

When education is incorrect, then a person separates and divides himself from society, and harms himself and others that way.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/8/17

New Life #858 – Our Attitude to Life: Fears And Anxieties

New Life #858 – Our Attitude to Life: Fears And Anxieties
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

Fear is a feeling of lack of filling in the desire to live, to exist, to receive, yet the feeling of deficiency helps us advance.

A person can feel safe even in the worst situations in his life, if he controls his connection with the upper Light.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #858 – Our Attitude to Life: Fears And Anxieties ,” 5/23/17

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Punishment For Bad Deeds

Question from Facebook: Does the Creator punish people for bad deeds?

Answer: The Creator doesn’t punish anyone. He only corrects.

There are no punishments in nature. According to the laws of the wisdom of Kabbalah, even in our world, punishments must be very limited. There is no prison, the death penalty can be decreed once every few decades, and even this is considered to be an exceptional event.

There are no punishments from above. There is intention and support when a person is being pushed from behind toward correct deeds. The mistake is his punishment.

In other words, punishment is a type of lesson: why you did that and what was bad about it so that you will learn for the future. But, just punishment as punishment for something that you did doesn’t exist.

There is no connection between what you did and what you got. Instead of what you did, you simply need to learn how to work correctly. Relearning is considered a punishment in our world.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/21/16

The Power Of Unity

Question: What is the power of the miraculous attribute of unity?

Answer: The power of unity is derived from people rising above their ego. The idea is not unity itself. Rather, it is a person attaining it by rising above his ego, and in contrast to it, he connects his desire with the desires of others. With this single and unified desire that is created from unity above the ego, a person achieves the wonderful attribute of unity.

Nevertheless, a very strong tension is created between the egoistic characteristics that want to sever the connection between us and the altruistic characteristics that connect us above the ego. This potential difference between the plus and the minus creates a state called a spiritual Kli within which the Creator is revealed.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/19/17

A Taste Of Spiritual Unity

Question: What is the connection between unity and pleasure from spiritual attainment? I have many friends, and I understand what the pleasure of friendship is. Is this something similar?

Answer: I never had many friends. In childhood and as a youth, I had a few friends, and later none at all. I had a friend with whom I studied the wisdom of Kabbalah, but I was already thirty years old then.

I do not know what a friend or friendship is in the deepest sense of the word. I can certainly imagine it to myself, but I have never felt or experienced it. I have been quite lonely most of my life. The question about the meaning of existence bothered and tormented me so that I had no aspiration to communicate or be in close contact with people.

The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us to have a different kind of connection: to come closer with a heartfelt connection, internally, not as happens on the physical level.

Kabbalah opens a person’s heart and he begins to understand what it means to be connected with others as a single whole. But this is on a spiritual level. In our world, there are no sensations of this kind. I have not felt or experienced them and I feel that other people don’t either because we do not understand what it means to be together with others with a heartfelt, close, and internal connection.

The taste of spiritual unity is a reciprocal dissolution into each other. These are not poetic expressions, but a real physical state.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/20/16

Alone In A Crowd Of A Billion, Part 2

Modern society consists of individuals who do not want to be tied to others, or more accurately, they are unable to connect with others, while on the other hand, we understand that without connection to others, we will end up empty and unhappy.

We cannot enjoy life in solitude without a family, without children, and without real friends.

Everyone suffers from this problem of loneliness and no one knows how to solve it. A new educational system is needed for this, a powerful and broad system with specialists who understand the root of the problem and the means of resolving it.

Otherwise, the problem will progress further. No one will want to marry or have children, the use of narcotics and antidepressants will grow, and terrorism will rise because people will lose all hope for a better future.

At one time, a person was a social creature. He lived in a society and felt that he was supported by a large social network of many others. But today, we have developed so much that our egoism does not desire social interaction, making us complete individualists, and modern technological development allows us to easily live alone, spending our time in front of a TV screen, computer, or smartphone.

But ultimately, all these toys do not bring a person spiritual fulfillment, and he finds himself lonely and unhappy, feeling that he must fill himself with something. An inner emptiness remains in him. It is always possible to go on another trip to another country, but then you return and again find yourself alone.

In other words, a person understands that he needs some kind of additional fulfillment. It seems that we arrived at a red line in our development when we need to decide what to do next.

Question: If it is natural for a person to continuously become a bigger and bigger individualist, then why are we not happy to remain alone? Why do we suffer from loneliness?

Answer: Egoism develops in a straight line and makes us greater individualists, but at the same time, beginning around the 1950’s, the system began to lock into a circle and bind us into integral interdependence. The system demands kind, internal, deeper connections between us, not just to have acquaintances at work. We are obligated to fulfill our desire to be in this one system with everyone. A person does not yet understand this desire, so he finds himself developing in two different ways at the same time, linearly and circularly, while subconsciously wanting these two forms to support one another and function mutually.

A person does not understand why the world suddenly turned into a small village. He thinks that it is only the scientists, politicians, and corporations that depend on one another and that none of it is relevant for him. But, no, we see that all of nature is locked into a circle. On one side of the world, something explodes, and on the other side, we see the effects because everything depends on everything else. Nature shows us how impersonal and integrated it is.

The same degree of integration is now developing in human society, but as yet, this development does not demand integral connection from the individual. We are not yet aware of this need, but soon we will be required to acknowledge it.

Nature seeks to bring us closer to one another so strongly that soon we will not have a choice. If we want to guarantee ourselves real inner fulfillment in life, we will need to find the correct formula for connection between us.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 4/4/17