Turkey: Who Loses And Who Wins?

Question: During recent weeks a whole chain of events occurred in the world and it is still unclear where they will lead us. It began with the exit of Britain from the European Union. Then major terrorist acts broke out one after another in European countries.

And yesterday a military coup attempt was made in Turkey that caused a terrible rift in the country. What can you say about the situation in Turkey?

Answer: Turkey is at the crossroad of Europe and Asia, both geographically and internally. On the one hand, it belongs to the Muslim world and, on the other hand, it is a member of NATO and seemingly belongs to Europe.

The border between Europe and Asia runs through Turkey’s capital Istanbul, or as it was formerly called Constantinople. And those there feel this split, an internal partition. There are many people in Turkey who want to be Europeans, but recently the part that belongs to radical-Islam intensified.

The gap between these two groups is steadily increasing, and therefore in the future we have yet to see a lot of turmoil in the country. The situation won’t calm down by itself, although the coup failed and President Erdogan now has an opportunity to bring his order to the country. But people don’t really welcome it.

Erdogan’s opponents have failed so far, but it doesn’t mean they have no power. We need to understand that the entire world is now at the similar crossroads of two different ways. Soon we will see the same opposition in European countries, when the European power will subside and the opposing Muslim power of radical Islam will intensify.

Question: So who will win? Will it be Islam?

Answer: No. None of them can win. Scales will swing from one direction to the other, but neither side will win.

The method of connection that the wisdom of Kabbalah offers should win, and then the entire world will unite and there will be no winners and losers. It doesn’t matter to what side each one belongs, left or right, all will feel that salvation is only in unity. The overall success is only in this; there can’t be anything else.

Question: And how will Turkey look then, like a Muslim country or Western European?

Answer: The country will be neither Muslim nor European but simply one in which there is a complete unity. And it will be the same way in the entire world. If the Light that returns to the source flows through the Kabbalists to the world, to all the nations, then everyone will understand and feel that unity is the only correct and possible state.
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From the Lesson Based on Rabash’s article 7/15/16

American Police Biased Toward African-Americans

In the News (The Uptake): In American President Barak Obama’s statement following the police shooting of black men in Minnesota and Louisiana, President Obama said “These are not isolated incidents. They’re symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system. And I just want to give people a few statistics to try to put in context why emotions are so raw around these issues. …

“Last year African Americans were shot by police at more than twice the rate of whites. …

“African Americans are arrested at twice the rate of whites; African Americans defendants are 75 percent more likely to be charged with offenses carrying mandatory minimums. They receive sentences that are almost ten percent longer than comparable whites arrested for the same crime.

“So that if you add it all up, the African American and Hispanic population, who make up only 30 percent of the general population, make up more than half of the incarcerated population.

“These are facts. And when incidents like this occur, there’s a big chunk of our fellow citizenry that feels as if because of the color of their skin they are not being treated the same.

“… there are problems across our criminal justice system. There are biases, some conscious and unconscious that have to be rooted out. That’s not an attack on law enforcement. That is reflective of the values that the vast majority of law enforcement bring to the job.

Answer: There were no cardinal changes as a result of the fact that an African-American is the president of the US. His gentle attitude toward Islam will have a much greater impact. The issue is not a person’s skin color or his origin but the person himself.

America is abandoning the Anglo-Saxon basis it was founded upon and has no other foundation yet. It is essential since life demands changes, but this requires the education of the people. Obama, instead of education the people, has brought them to poverty and has recreated all the former (racial differences) and new (anti-Islamic) contradictions during the two terms of his presidency.
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The Climate—Are They Hiding The Truth From Us?

The climate is the biggest mystery in the modern world. It is hidden from all and classified in secrecy in government offices and among scientists involved in this research and statistics collection.

Nature is preparing us for a future surprise that people are better off not knowing about it. We can’t be saved from the influence of the climate on us, not as in the case of a nuclear bomb in which it’s possible to wait until the danger has passed. And it is not like a brief turbulence in the weather: a storm, hurricane, tempests, or earthquakes. Instead, the climate will be going to a completely different level for which we are not suitable. For example, the temperatures will reach 70 degrees centigrade (158 degrees Fahrenheit) accompanied by a huge lack of oxygen in the atmosphere. As a result, there will suddenly be a huge, rapid multiplication of hordes of insects, rats, cockroaches, and internal bacteria and we will have no ability to deal with them.

Question: So what can be done?

Answer: There is nothing for us to do except for one thing: to rise above the forces of nature. This is possible if we take it upon ourselves to awaken the forces that are found above nature. If nature is going out of balance on this level, it is only possible to restore it from the next level!

Einstein said that it is necessary to rise to the next level. From there it will be possible to bring the previous levels to a state of stability and balance and then manage it.

Question: Does this mean that nature is pushing us to the next level?

Answer: Certainly! Our refuge is only through rising to the next level. The imbalance in nature is due to a laxity in the connection between us. This has resulted in our neglect to the opportunity to control it, the possibility of bringing ourselves and all of nature into balance. In fact, we are contributing to this imbalance. But we can also correct it on our own only if we exit to the next level.

And if we don’t choose to do this, we will continue on the path of suffering where natural disasters and war will erupt. Only a minimal number of people in the world are capable of understanding the situation and will begin to change themselves. But this number is sufficient to overcome the situation. Even this small amount of people must awaken, ascend, and get closer to each other, making them into a serious system.

We in the Bnei Baruch organization through our Kabbalah Education Centers are trying to gather all the true Kabbalists of the world. But we are still not able to bring all of these people to a level in which they feel a tremendous responsibility toward themselves and all people, and mainly towards the highest power of nature. This is very important.

There are no other ways of reaching this other than compelling people who can unite and create the correct system of mutual connection between them to carry out such an operation! If we don’t do this internally, then through the peoples of the world, through all of humanity, nature will begin to push us and it will be terrible! So we are working in this direction and I hope we will succeed.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 7/3/16

Contagious Stress

In the News (Time): “When teachers are stressed, so are their students, according to a new study.

“In the report, published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, researchers assessed the burnout levels of 17 teachers of fourth through seventh grade. They also assessed levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their students—more than 400 of them—by taking saliva samples at three different times during the school day.

“The researchers found that students had higher levels of cortisol if their teachers reported higher burnout levels. …

“The study is the first to link teacher burnout to physical stress changes in their students.”

(Psychological Science): “‘Stress Contagion,’ Emotions are not simply concepts that live privately in the mind, but rather affective states that emanate from the individual and may influence others. … infants’ physiological reactivity mirrored mothers’ reactivity engendered by the stress manipulation … These findings suggest that mothers’ stressful experiences are contagious to their infants and that members of close pairs, like mothers and infants, can reciprocally influence each other’s dynamic physiological reactivity.”

Answer: Look at what scientists are discovering . All people are connected to one another; there are “threads” that connect our thoughts, desires, intentions, and impulses. Could it be that the wisdom of Kabbalah is right in saying that we are in a global network that totally connects us in every respect? It turns out that it is indeed so.

Scientists have discovered that a student’s bad mood affects the teacher and vice versa, so what’s new? See what scientists research compared to what the wisdom of Kabbalah explores, to what it teaches us, and what it tells us when it explains the laws of the network in which we are all connected.

If we change the mutual relations between people somewhere in the world, we will affect people who are at the other end of the world by that action.

Of course there is a tight connection between everyone. We simply need to know this system.

If I turn on my computer but don’t know how to use it, what can I do with it? But if I’m familiar with the program and how to use it and what the effect of my fingers on the keyboard and through the keyboard on the program is, I can affect it.

At the same time, if I know what my computer can do and how it can affect the whole world, assuming that my computer is connected to the global computer network, it is a totally different matter.

Similarly, I can play my internal keyboard, which is Tzimtzum (restriction), a Masach(screen), and the Returning Light, and thus affect the network between us that is called the one general unique soul. If I can consciously affect this network by being inside it, through my thoughts, feelings, and desires, by wanting to bring it to the good future state it will reach anyway, by wanting to push it there because otherwise I will not be able to affect it, of course I affect it! I begin to see and to realize how it undergoes all the changes and how it develops.

So why is it surprising that everything affects everything? Are we talking about the fact that children drive a poor teacher crazy with their childish nonsense? Everything and everyone is mutually connected and are in one system. No one can escape, there is no escape. So let’s learn about the essence of the connection between us, its nature and how we can affect one another and bring everyone to the one unique whole.

Thus we will gradually discover a totally different level of mutual cooperation between us, a different level of our existence! Today scientists are publishing studies about things the wisdom of Kabbalah has been talking for 6,000 years.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 6/30/16

The Elite And The Masses

Comment: James Traub, member of the American Council of Foreign Relations (CFR), Harvard graduate, and member of one of the richest families in America, wrote an article entitled “It’s Time for the Elites to Rise Up Against the Ignorant Masses” (Financial Policy). In it, he claims, “The Brexit has laid bare the political schism of our time. It’s not about the left vs. the right; it’s about the sane vs. the mindlessly angry.” In support of this view, he cited “the Brexit vote was the utter repudiation of the bankers and economists and Western heads of state who warned voters against the dangers of a split with the European Union.” He contends that “Extremism has gone mainstream.” And that “Today’s citizen revolt — in the United States, Britain, and Europe — may upend politics as nothing else has in my lifetime.”

Answer: Many today are uneducated, poor, and unemployed, but who is responsible for that? It is the elite, isn’t it? Who controls the right buttons, the cables, and the connections? Is it the masses? Who twists and manipulates them? Of course it is the elite along with the police, the military, the media, journalists, television, and the radio. Therefore the coming war is the war of the elite against their own people.

Lately, we have been witnessing a growing gap between the elite and the masses because the middle class has been totally erased and there is nothing left of it. The masses are becoming increasingly impoverished while the elite are getting richer with totally unnecessary wealth. But egoism tells them to grab, take, and deplete the masses. The result is that 90% of the people fall and 10% rise sharply. How will it all end? It is hard to say and even frightening to think about, because egoism encourages  them to destroy the masses, leaving 15-20% of the population in order to provide services to the elite. And all the rest, in line with fascist theory, will be destroyed because today the world is truly gravitating to fascism.

Question: Do they have the means to exterminate people?

Answer: They have everything. They are developing a unisex approach, thus decreasing the birth rate. They are diminishing people’s desire for a family through advertising and the media. We will soon see the great damage that modern medications are causing and what happens with the health care services, with drugs, and with every aspect of our life.

The most important thing for the elite is to disconnect the masses from active life and bring about their gradual disappearance in order to rid the world of all the “extra” mouths that have to be fed. There are very serious efforts made in this direction. I believe that they will add biological factors that have been especially developed in the form of different bacteria. We are yet to see a certain illness that has no vaccination. It is all done gradually, but it is starting to work and we will see that during one generation humanity will be reduced by two or three billion people.

Question: What is your opinion on what is happening?

Answer: There are many different options, one of which is the path of suffering and the other the path of general unity: both of the elite and the masses.

The path of unity is possible only if we manage through the help of the upper force to convince most of the people in the world, that we need to realize the dead end all the other methods bring us to. The path of suffering can take on different forms, like Fascism or a world war, and at the same time, civil wars and general hatred. Moreover, the elite will spur the immigrants in Europe through the media channels or in other ways—they know how to do it—and thus incite them against the local populations. Thus, a couple of million immigrants will erase Europe. Then it will not be a problem to get rid of the immigrants. We are about to witness very interesting events.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 6/30/16

New Life #520 – Me, God, And The Love Of Others

New Life #520 – Me, God, And The Love Of Others
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Your attitude to the world is egoistic and exploitative. If you change your attitude tolove of others, you will resemble God.

Summary

The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us that everything we see around us is the reflection of our internal attributes.

A person who begins to feel as if everything that is external to him is himself, actually unites with God. God wants to teach you to love, through every incident, through every person who treats you badly. A wise student is a person who learns from the Creator how to treat everyone with love, just like He treats us.

To pray in the spiritual sense is to ask for the force of the Light to come and change me and improve me.

Anyone who treats you badly merely displays your negative attributes to you. The Creator treats you with the utmost love even now, but your attributes turn the picture into a bad one. The goal is to enable you to develop above the level of an angel or beast, to be a man, Adam, who is similar to God.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #520 – Me, God, And The Love Of Others,” 2/12/15

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“Globalization: The Beginning Of The End”

In the News (Forex): “After the Second World War, Western leaders have tried to create rules that would help avoid a repeat of the horrors of the past decades. They sought to encourage prosperity and independence, so that ‘war was not only unthinkable but materially impossible.’ And their efforts were not in vain, they have begun to bear fruit. Since then, in Western Europe there has been no armed conflict. Development of world trade contributed to the growth of incomes around the world. Yet Brexit – is a clear sign that the process ofglobalization is unfolding in the opposite direction. Many economists were shocked by this unexpected setback.”

My Comment: The problem is not with globalization, it is imposed on us by the forces of nature. We have evolved to the point where we should begin to converge until the feeling of complete unity as one family, with one heart. The process must be gradual and deliberate, as it is necessary to follow the laws of nature.

But there is no need to invent our future. We could plan it as long as we develop within our nature, through the usual egoism.

But now, before us the next stage of our development is being revealed: a single integral humanity. To work together with the forces of nature toward this state, we must learn the integral laws of our development. And for this, we must become like them ourselves. And this is made possible for us through the wisdom of Kabbalah.
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Upper Forces Or How We Can Change Our Fate

Question: Can you define the term “upper forces?”

Answer: The forces that operate in the upper world are altruistic forces, and the lower forces that operate in our world are egoistic forces and therefore we are all egoistic. The Creator says from the beginning, “I have created the evil inclination…,” which means that if you have any problems or complaints, turn to Me personally, and then He immediately adds, “I have created the Torah as a spice.”

Our world is the embodiment of all the evil that was created in us. The evil force, egoism, is the force that generates thoughts and actions only for its own sake, for its own pleasure, momentarily, which is revealed at the moment on all levels of nature: on the still, vegetative, animate, and the human. Living within ourselves is called evil because such a life is short, flawed; we are always locked on ourselves, on satisfying our immediate needs in order to maintain ourselves in a more or less comfortable state.

Let’s imagine that we have created a machine that operates for some time only in order to maintain its functioning and then to happily die. What is this inefficient, unproductive product of the Creator—a person who thinks only of itself, and, consequently, has negative efficiency?

Initially, there was no intention to create a biological machine, as a man and in general all of nature, to live only in order to multiply in great pain and great trouble. In our current state, all of a human life is a desire to survive somehow, to suffer as little as possible and eventually leave this hard, temporary life, to disintegrate into elementary particles, and to put it simply, to rot. Of course, you can not see any perfection or anything in this the action of the Creator that would speak of it as of something higher, wise, purposeful.

Therefore, we don’t see anything wise about our life, but quite the opposite: from the first moment a person comes into this world he begins to get closer to his death. And if life is so short, there is nothing inherently good. This creation can not be created by an absolutely perfect Creator, and that we live, does not fit into His plan of creation to delight.

We don’t understand how the Creator, who is absolute and perfect, created such a world; what we undergo in life does not fit into His plan of creation to delight His creatures.

The thought of the creation is to bring the created beings contentment so that they should praise the Creator, resemble Him, so that we would attain the same level of perfection and eternity on which He exists. In order to raise us to His level that is totally opposite from the level we are born and live on in this world, we were given the Upper Light, the upper force, and also a manual telling us how to spur, summon, and fulfill that force so that it will gradually change us and raise us to His level of eternity and wholeness.

This level is totally different from the corporeal level that is characterized by the temporary egoistic desire to fill ourselves right now, no matter what will happen later. A true altruistic level is not what we call altruism in our world, but an intention to ascend above our egoism and to acquire a form that is opposite from it.

Therefore it is written: “I have seen an opposite world.” This is what we must attain in our world. In other words, while living in our egoism, we have to begin to change it, to rise above it, and to turn it inside out. But we don’t have the forces, the capabilities, and understanding to do so. We only suffer from our existence inside it.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, if a person suffers, it means that you can already speak to him, because as an egoist he wants to get rid of the suffering, of the ego. If we offer him to help him get rid of what constantly oppresses, beats and humiliates him, he will probably agree. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah offers us.

Kabbalah was hidden as long as we were not disappointed with egoism and believed that it was somehow possible to live with it and to establish some kind of relations between us. And when we realized that we are advancing to the worst possible state, the wisdom of Kabbalah was revealed. When a person begins to feel that the end of civilization is near, when he no longer believes in a bright future and asks himself about the meaning of life, this is the state for which the wisdom of Kabbalah offers a solution. The solution is to change man’s nature into an opposite nature and thus acquire an absolute eternal happy state instead of the current state, which is finite, miserable, and vicious. This is how we can change our fate.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/20/16

New Life #518 – Kabbalah Conventions, Part 2

New Life #518 – Kabbalah Conventions, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

For someone who comes to a Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Convention, what does he gain, how does it give someone peace and satisfaction, and why specifically are these conventions, of the many things that one can participate in, the right place for so much internal experience?
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From KabTV’s “New Life #518 – Kabbalah Conventions, Part 2,” 2/8/15

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Why The Jews Are Not Left Alone

Question: When we didn’t have a nation and we were weak, they tried to annihilate us. Now, we have a strong nation, and they never leave us alone. Why?

Answer: We won’t be left alone as long as we haven’t we carried out our mission in relation to the world. This was said at the time of our formation.

Many years ago in ancient Babylon, Abraham gathered a group of people who wanted to rise above their egoistic nature, which led to disintegration of Babylon, resistance, and the confusion of languages.

Abraham united them around a simple idea. All of us are egoists and reject each other. But contrary to the ego, inherent in nature lies the force that can be extracted from it that can counterbalance our egoism. Then balance will appear between egoism and altruism, between hatred and love, as it is written, “Love covers all transgressions” (Proverbs 10:12). This is what we must achieve.

With our foundation from Abraham, we lived in this state for 1,500 years until the destruction of the Second Temple, which happened 2,000 years ago. From then on, we were in exile from the state of unity, friendship, love, and mutual assistance.

After the destruction of the Second Temple, we fell from the level of love to the level of unfounded hatred toward each other, and we have been on that level to this very day.

While in this state, we cannot give the method of unification to humanity, which is so needed in our integral world that has become like a “small village.” So, we—the bearers of this method—are hated by the world. The peoples of the world instinctively feel that we are to blame for all of their suffering. They turn toward us with this hatred.

We must understand our mission: to return from spiritual exile, begin to unite, and transform into being one man with one heart, being responsible for each other. Then, we will show the world the example that they are waiting for! Only then will they be able to begin to unite behind us, and the world will come to calm.

This is the meaning of our existence. And the meaning of anti-Semitism is that it obligates us to carry out our work! Until we do that, anti-Semitism in the world will only increase.
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From the Webinar 5/8/16

Spiritual Money Is Equivalent To Truth

Question: Is the spiritual source of money connected to the concept of truth?

Answer: Yes. Spiritual money, the Masach (screen) is equivalent to truth because it is the characteristic of bestowal and love, the characteristic of connection with others. The more spiritual wealth a person has, the more just he is because he is in a greater connection with the Creator, which means that he is closer to the truth.

Money is a Masach and the compensation is not the Masach but the bestowal that we realize with its help for the sake of the Creator and for one another.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/27/16

The Correction Of The World—Only From The Land Of Israel

Question: You have been speaking in a rigid far-right tone lately, supporting treating the Arabs in Israel with a firm hand. Isn’t this the opposite of what the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us about how to attain a general connection of love of others? Isn’t everyone supposed to part of the “others”?

Answer: I admit that my remarks sound quite tough. It is because this is how my yearning for the correction of the world guides me. The Jews are those who can correct the world by being a nation in the Land of Israel.

There is no other way of bringing the method of correction into our world in a nice way. The other path is a devastating nuclear war accompanied by environmental disasters. So I am in favor of acting in every possible way in order to have the Jews understand what their mission is and for them to fulfill it for the sake of the whole world. It is clear, of course, that I do not agree with those who want to nullify the existence of the State of Israel.
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Why Do We Suffer? Part 1

Question: Suffering is an integral part of our lives, no matter how much we try to live well. What is suffering, and why do we suffer?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah considers everything, starting from the bases of creation, of which there are two in nature.

First is the Light, the force of love, bestowal, and unity that is called the upper force, the Creator (Boreh), which means “come and see” (Bo-re), because we must reveal it. This force created the creature, the desire to enjoy, the lack of fulfillment.

The Upper Light develops a desire and forms it as a need for all sorts of fulfillments. All creatures, including ourselves, are various desires. Human desires can be divided into six types: food, sex, family, money, honor, and knowledge. Each person feels a natural need for all of these fulfillments, but in different proportions.

If a person lacks these fulfillments, he feels suffering, emptiness, and even pain. Sometimes, this suffering is so strong that it becomes unbearable.

Food, sex, and family are desires of our body, natural instincts that are inherent to all animals. Money, honor, and knowledge—that is, the desire for power, fame, position in society and in science—are purely human desires.

The source of suffering is the lack of fulfillment of these desires. When the Light doesn’t fill the desire, it begins to suffer. Suffering can be big or small, lengthy or instantaneous, general or personal, and so forth.

The wisdom of Kabbalah states that it has a method to get rid of suffering. Not by chance is it called the wisdom of Kabbalah, which means the wisdom of receiving because it teaches how to fulfill all desires.

On the one hand, this is a very popular topic, but on the other hand, this wisdom is hidden. If people knew that there is a method that enables us to fulfill our desires and become completely happy by getting rid of suffering, from the smallest to the largest, global, and universal ones, then, it might seem what could be better than this?

Indeed, there is nothing better. If we used the wisdom of Kabbalah, then we would be able to fulfill all of our desires, all the created material of creation, and feel in it only pleasure and eternal fulfillment that is called eternal life. Suffering would disappear from the world and we would be completely happy.

Conversely, all other ways and attempts to avoid suffering and fulfill ourselves will end in an imminent collapse.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 6/23/16

Who Believes In Freedom Of Choice?

In the News (Society for Personality and Social Psychology):“Diminishing a person’s belief in free will leads to them feeling less like their true selves, according to recent research published in Social Psychological and Personality Science. In a pair of studies, researchers from Texas A&M University manipulated people’s beliefs in free will to see how this would affect the subjects’ sense of authenticity, their sense of self. …

“‘Whether you agree that we have free will or that we are overpowered by social influence or other forms of determinism, the belief in free will has truly important consequences,’ says lead author Elizabeth Seto, a Graduate Student at the Department of Psychology at Texas A&M University. …

“‘Our findings suggest that part of being who you are is experiencing a sense of agency and feeling like you are in control over the actions and outcomes in your life,’ says Seto. ‘If people are able to experience these feelings, they can become closer to their true or core self.’”

Answer: Psychology is not a science. It is based upon experiments in limited conditions.

First, there is no person who can accept and live with the knowledge that are managed. If we could reach a state like this, it would be good.

Question: Does this mean that psychologists cannot convince a person that they are controlled?

Answer: Certainly not. They can’t even start.

You can tell a person that all kinds of external and internal forces govern him and in fact not his. And he is not the one who chooses what to do because a few seconds before making an alleged decision, the information has already been formed and shaped in his brain and he only expresses the prepared result.

Science has already proven this is so. But a person cannot agree with the fact that he does not make decisions on his own because it is against his egoistic nature.This negates his identity, his “I,” his freedom of choice.

He can agree intellectually, but in another second he will forget it anyway. His nature erases this data from him automatically and he begins to live again as usual,  as if everything were up to him.

Comment: Psychologists say that attempts to reduce a person’s faith in freedom of choice increases aggression and gives rise to deception.

Response: Theoretically yes, but in fact, if speaking about a normal, sane, and balanced person, he cannot act according to this belief and respond negatively.

Question: Does this mean that a person always feels that he is free?

Answer: Yes. When teaching “The Freedom” (written by Baal HaSulam about freedom of will), we see that even when one hears that he is managed, he agrees, “Yes, yes, yes,” and continues on his way; he doesn’t even ask how to become free. It doesn’t concern him because he needs to feel confident in himself.

So I should feel within myself that there is a higher power that controls me through all kinds of systems, circumstances, and events, both external and internal, in everything that I do.

I have to feel it, not just hear it from someone. That is when I will feel I am bound hand and foot; no matter what I did, it all came from somewhere but not from me. I begin to strive to this “somewhere.” Where is the source of my behavior, the source of my future, my fate?—so at least I will know how this is works in nature.

No matter how much we talk about this, we cannot convince a person. It requires much work for him to discover his lack of freedom. But when he does discover this, simultaneously he will begin to feel who it is that manages and controls him. This is a revelation of the Creator.

Psychologists, as usual, are immersed in their speculations. And this, of course, will not lead to anything.

We need to show man that he is not free, but along with this he must be given the opportunity to find free will. When he sees the big picture and begins to realize it correctly within a particular small society, he will begin to understand where to move.

Therefore, the correct message is: freedom of choice exists, but only in choosing the appropriate society.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 6/26/16

New Life #517 – Kabbalah Conventions, Part 1

New Life #517 – Kabbalah Conventions, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

What is the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah La’Am Convention and in what way is it different from other spiritual conventions?

How is it related to the process humanity is undergoing, and what should a person who comes to the convention expect?
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From KabTV’s “New Life #517 –  Kabbalah Conventions, Part 1,” 2/8/15

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The Spiritual Path Of A Man And A Woman

Question: How does a woman attain spirituality? I have already read that a woman should mainly support her husband, care for her family, and participate in dissemination, but I don’t understand how exactly a woman attains spirituality by supporting her husband (the men’s group)?

Answer: A man’s path with regard to the Creator is the same as the woman’s path with regard to her family or with regard to the male part of the group. A woman is the head of the family and the home because she works for it and serves it. The man’s work is identical with regard to the group and the Creator. We can learn how a man should work in spirituality by the example of women’s work in our world.
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The Absolute Postulate

Question: How does a woman attain spirituality? I have already read that a woman should mainly support her husband, care for her family, and participate in dissemination, but I don’t understand how exactly a woman attains spirituality by supporting her husband (the men’s group)?

Answer: A man’s path with regard to the Creator is the same as the woman’s path with regard to her family or with regard to the male part of the group. A woman is the head of the family and the home because she works for it and serves it. The man’s work is identical with regard to the group and the Creator. We can learn how a man should work in spirituality by the example of women’s work in our world.
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Why Did The Jews Come To Israel?

Question: Why did the Jews come to Israel in droves?

Answer: Because certain forces emerged in different countries that forced them to do so.

I know to what extent people in Russia and other former Soviet bloc countries in Eastern Europe countries looked for every opportunity to exit. On the other hand, there were many who did not want to leave.

Even right before WWII there were Jews who did not want to leave Germany although Hitler allowed them to do so. He founded special schools for Jews in which they could learn different professions in the field of agriculture so that they could go to Palestine. These facts are based on historical documents which cannot be denied. At first there was a direct connection between the Zionists and the fascists because they wanted the same thing, the transfer of the Jews to Palestine.

On the one hand, Germany wanted to get rid of the Jews and also to gain control in Palestine to counter the British. On the other hand, this played into the hands of the Zionists and they acted accordingly. This is the reason that the Germans were ready to pay the Jews to leave Germany.

But when Hitler saw that it was useless and that they didn’t want to leave, he began the annihilation process.
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From the Webinar 5/8/16

What The Creator Demands Of Us

Question: According to many sources, we determine our fate through our thoughts. If we have positive thoughts, we will create positive events and vice versa. Is that true?

Answer: To a certain degree, it is true. There is a positive intention with regard to others behind positive thoughts, yet it isn’t simply about joy, laughter, and smiles, but about creating goodness.

However, this isn’t what the Creator demands of us. He demands that we resemble Him, and at the moment, we don’t feel that the Creator is good, although He is called the absolute good. Therefore, we must learn what spiritual good means. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, this definition is a bit different from the common definition.

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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/20/16

Toward The Creator Together With Your Wife

Question: How can my wife and I walk together toward the Creator, and in what way is the spiritual work in a family different from the work in a group? We watch the lessons together and read the writings of Baal HaSulam aloud. Are there concrete recommendations and sources that speak about this?

Answer: Studying with your wife is recommended and it helps. This is described in many of our materials.
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New Life #516 – The Wisdom Of Kabbalah: God And I, Part 2

New Life #516 – God And I, Part B
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Everything we feel is not necessarily true and there is no guarantee that it is the same on the outside. If we had different attributes, we would feel a different reality.

Summary

There may be whole worlds we don’t perceive around us. It is the same with regard to God; if we perceive Him, we perceive Him only in our own attributes.

A dog can feel according to his sense of smell and a snake feels according to heat and cold. If we want to feel the world like they do, we need a similar sense. This means that everything is perceived according to our senses and our attributes.

The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us which attributes we should build inside us in order to feel God. The attributes of the upper force are good and benevolent, bestowal, love, and giving—ready to give everything to everyone. We on the other hand, have an opposite nature, we incessantly want to receive from everyone and we want to receive something new at every given moment.

This is the reason that God and we are not on the same frequency, in the same world. God develops us so that we will discover Him. He is the one force that manages and organizes everything in reality and He develops us until we want to discover Him.

Nothing exists but God and me, but I don’t have the sense to feel that at the moment. When a strong passion to discover God awakens in me, He leads me to the wisdom of Kabbalah.

I have to tell myself in every situation that there is none else besides Him so that I will be able to hold on to something. Only He is before me. And what if I feel angry at Him? He doesn’t mind… as long as I relate to Him.

At any given moment in life, I have to try and discern two things: that there is none else besides Him and that He is good and benevolent. If you feel that He does you harm, it is because your attributes are evil. After all, only good stems from Him. It is like parents who want to develop their child, and buy him educational activities, but he refuses to study.

I have to build the attribute of bestowal that is just like His inside me, and then I will feel that there is none else besides Him and that He is good and benevolent. The whole world is like an envelope that is presented to me as I perceive it only in order to enable me to upgrade my attributes. I recommend that you forget what I have said here so as not to get confused, and listen to the whole program.

To sum up, find a teacher and a group that engages in the wisdom of Kabbalah and learn how to adjust yourself to God.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #516 – God And I, Part B,” 2/5/15

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Instructions For Spiritual Ascent

Comment: You say that the wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t explain much; it says, ascend and attain…

Answer: This is the reason that so many people don’t like thewisdom of Kabbalah, me (Michael Laitman), and Bnei Baruch. “Why don’t they provide any answers? Why don’t they fill me? Why don’t they serve me?”

No! We provide instructions for the spiritual ascent. The instructions aren’t simple, but the students should fulfill them, study, explore, and implement the instructions between themselves. And whoever does it reveals the wisdom of Kabbalah, and those who don’t will not reveal anything. The wisdom of Kabbalah is different from ordinary science where one can listen and understand. The wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed only through a person’s internal attainments.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/20/16