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Due to the blog editor traveling on family holiday the daily updates of the blog will pause for three weeks.
The original blog of Dr. Michael Laitman still available at its default location.

Accelerating The Beginning Of The Spiritual Path

Time is what confuses us. If there were no past, present, and future, but only one point in time, one moment, we would be living in a different reality. Since we do not know what will happen in the next moment that exists toward us because it is concealed, we have a problem.

On the other hand, it is great that we do not know our future and cannot predict anything. After all, this gives us the chance to need the Creator! This is the most important point that we must reach: the need for the Creator’s help, for His revelation.

He must reveal Himself, otherwise I cannot exist even in a simple egoistic way, I cannot organize my life. I need the Creator to appear because only He knows how to stabilize and arrange everything so that I can live confidently. This is necessary for me even egotistically; it is not about bestowal yet.

There are special exercises that start from egoism, from this world, from the desire to enjoy, and they continue till the greatest heights in the desire to bestow. The single goal of all these exercises is to feel the need for the Creator.

Therefore, we want to accelerate time and bring ourselves to the state of utter uncertainty before the next moment, to feel ourselves dependent on the unknown, on fate, and on unpredictability of the next moment. The fear before uncertainty does not pass until the end of all the corrections, till the very last degree of the spiritual ladder.

If we want to accelerate time, we must ourselves find tricks to let us relate everything to the upper force. Then “the children of Israel will sigh because of the labor, and they will cry, and their cry will come up unto God because of the labor. And God will hear their groaning,” and He will answer them and bring them closer. Then at the next degree, we again will find ourselves helpless, suspended between heaven and earth to such an extent that it will cause panic, deadly fear. Yet, under lesser conditions, a person will not need the help of the Creator.

Therefore, we must be happy that we have reached the state when we already can practice this at least a little. These exercises will help us understand what it means to rise by faith above reason and to be suspended in the air, what it means not to feel the ground under our feet and to have nothing to lean on when everything is shaking. This is a special state from which spirituality begins.

If a person makes himself completely dependent on the Creator and not on himself, if he does not feel any support in his egoistic perception, in time, movement, and space, then this is a big success. In this way, he starts his journey on the spiritual path.¹
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/22/18, Lesson on the Topic: “Unite into One Ten”
1 Minute 11:17

Newsmax: “How Misguided We Are in Thinking That God Is Anything Like Us”

The largest portal Newsmax posted my new article: “How Misguided We Are in Thinking That God Is Anything”.

Even as a child, long before I knew the wisdom of Kabbalah, I never thought about the upper force as anything similar to a flesh and blood human who consumes food and secretes waste, sweats, gets sick from time to time, and is not always “aesthetically pleasing,” to say the least.

It didn’t make sense to me that this limited, transient body somehow reflects a force that is supposedly universal, eternal and lofty.

So I was surprised to hear that a new research asked participants to describe what they thought the face of God looked like. Merging results from hundreds of American believers, the researchers assembled the “face of God.”

Now, if the image of the Creator was indeed like that of a human being, then something went wrong with that Creator…

According to Kabbalah, “God,” or “the Creator,” is the quality of complete, unconditional love and bestowal. It’s a spiritual force devoid of any corporeal depiction, a force that guides and sustains the whole of reality, and its purpose is one: to do good. To that end, the Creator created a creature who is destined to reach the ultimate goodness — acquiring the godly, eternal quality of absolute love and bestowal.

However, the path to perfection begins with imperfection. The Creator “shattered” the created being, which put him in the exact opposite state — a quality of self-reception. As a result, all of us are shattered pieces of the created being, and the corporeal reality we are familiar with is the farthest state from the Creator.

In fact, we have no connection with the quality of absolute love and bestowal. And even when we think we are giving to others, it’s an illusion; our acts of giving are mixed with self-interest.

Therefore, it’s not surprising that participants in the study chose the most beautiful and lofty image they could think of. It’s the top of what the human imagination can conjure up. It also explains why some participants chose images that reflect their position on the political spectrum.

Sorry to kill the romance, but whatever human image we come up with, as beautiful as it may be, will never have any connection with the true image of the Creator. That is, with the quality of unconditional love and bestowal.

Then how do we “draw” the correct image of the Creator?

First, erase any corporeal depiction. Second, internalize that the Creator cannot be perceived through our five senses. And third, learn how to develop inner qualities that are similar to the Creator’s qualities.

A person who learns how to develop a universal attitude of love and bestowal to all created beings and to reality as a whole, becomes internally similar to the Creator. Thus, through his new thoughts and desires, he builds the image of the Creator within himself.

The authentic wisdom of Kabbalah is a method that was weaved for generations based on the practical experience of thousands of people who detached from the corporeal depiction and acquired the inner qualities of the Creator.

Some of them recorded their findings in writing and passed them down to the next generations. Today, any person can use their method to develop a new, inner set of “brushes and color palettes,” with which one can draw the image of the Creator.

Wouldn’t It Be Simpler To Move To The Country?

Question from Facebook: Wouldn’t it be simpler to move to a small village and live as before, simply and peacefully?

Answer: If you can live on the level of cows or radishes, then all would be well.

Everything depends on the individual’s level. But, on the other hand, he can also exist in this state and, at the same time, be in spirituality.

Question: If an individual leaves for the country, for a simpler life, does that mean that he is ignoring his growing egoism?

Answer: No, he can be a great Kabbalist at the same time, even with a huge ego. If the Creator needs him, then He will give him challenges, even there among the cows, so that he will find exactly what to occupy himself with in order to attain the Creator.

Question: Does that mean that a person can move to a village and live there peacefully?

Answer: That’s not the point. The point is motivation! It doesn’t matter where a person lives. Everything depends on how he establishes his inner world.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman,” 5/8/18

Self-Sacrifice

Question from Facebook: Must a Kabbalist sacrifice himself in the literal sense, not just in the sense of sacrificing his ego?

Answer: It is not completely clear what “sacrifice himself” means. Nobody sacrifices anything to anyone; a person decides for himself what is the best thing for him to do in each moment of his life. And that is why, if it is beneficial to him, he does one thing, and if not beneficial, he does something else. He always acts out of his desire and can never act higher than it. There is no such thing.

Remark: We always say that we need to rise above our egoism, crush it…

My Comment: This is also done out of a conscious awareness of the intention of the desire. That is why there is nothing that is outside of the framework of our desires.

The point is that we can prepare ourselves for much higher aspirations. There is an absolutely clear calculation within the animal or the spiritual body and everything comes out of this calculation.

In Kabbalah, “sacrifice” (“Kurban”) is from the word “Karov,” “Itkarvut,” which means to bring closer, in other words, to bring yourself to a state that is closer to that of the Creator. What do I sacrifice then if I draw nearer to Him?

The wisdom of Kabbalah is the science of how to receive the very best, the most beneficial, the highest.

Question: In other words, there is always a calculation: if it benefits me, then I do it?

Answer: Absolutely. Moreover, it is a precise calculation, clear, carefully weighed.

Question: And where is the bestowal?

Answer: It is built on this precise calculation. That is why it is true, real, because I have come to the thought and the decision that I need to bestow. Everything is built on a precise desire, goal, a person’s calculation, otherwise it is not serious.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 5/8/18

New Life #48 – A Social Network Of Mutual Help

New Life #48 – A Social Network Of Mutual Help
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

The gloomy economic and security forecasts require us to prepare for a challenging period. A system of complementary community services for the public system would improve our capacity to cope with any crises that may arise in the future. We will need to be prepared to take care of one another by organizing public equipment warehouses, free workshop and repair services, and voluntary children’s circles. This type of approach would be in accordance with nature’s balanced, integral system. It will be based on freely contributing to society rather than money. People will be motivated by widespread publicity regarding the value of giving and personal satisfaction.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #48 – A Social Network of Mutual Help,” 8/5/12

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Medium: “The Ideal Framework For A Happy Existence”

Medium published my new article “The Ideal Framework For A Happy Existence” 

How to be happy has become an algorithm hard to decipher. Is it because we are using the wrong formula? Fulfillment does not depend on money, power, or luck, but on positive human relations. This is the principle of the happiness course at Yale and Stanford, with the course already the most popular in the history of both universities.

The course is based on positive psychology. It states that our level of joy in life is determined by the quality of our interaction with others. In fact, people are more satisfied in an environment where solidarity, support and a sense of belonging prevail. In contrast, competition to dominate and be above others put a person under constant stress, pressure and isolation.

It explains why people that seem to have it all may suffer severe depression to the point that some are taking their own lives. The recent suicides of the American designer Kate Spade and the TV personality Anthony Bourdain exemplify this situation. As a contagious effect, days after their deaths, the number of calls to the crisis hotlines in the US rose by 65% and the volume of text emergency lines spiked to 116%.

Globally, around 800,000 die due to suicide every year, about one person every 40 seconds, according to the World Health Organization. The statistics show that the lack of fulfillment is reaching epidemic proportions. Attributing it to external conditions would be a simplistic explanation. A person can live in the middle of a forest in a log cabin and feel happy, or have a luxurious apartment in a skyscraper yet feel miserable and lonely. What is the key factor that makes the difference between those states? It is the influence of the environment.

What distinguishes us from other species is the social aspect. We are shaped and influenced by our surroundings at every moment of our lives, through our family, work and the media. One can be oppressed or elevated by the environment depending on how the person absorbs such influence.

An egalitarian society based on solidarity, where everyone cares for each other — gets as much as one needs and works for the good of all — is the ideal framework for people’s happy existence and a solid ground for their children’s thriving future.

On the contrary, our egoistic and aggressive pursuit of wealth, honor, knowledge and power cannot be a source of happiness. This is because the moment we fulfill those desires, a new void appears leaving us dissatisfied again. Therefore, the ultimate joy can only be at a level above individual pursuits of happiness, by building together a cohesive social fabric that will positively influence every member of society.

As written by Kabbalist Rav Yehuda Ashlag in the newspaper The Nation:

“It is a must for every nation to be strongly united within, so all the individuals within it are attached to one another by instinctive love. Moreover, each individual should feel that the happiness of the nation is one’s own happiness, and the nation’s decadence is one’s own decadence… It means that the people of that nation, who sense that harmony, are the ones who make the nation, and the measure of happiness of the nation and sustainability are measured by their quality.”

However, our current education system and environment revere competition and achievement for personal gain, even if it is at the expense of others. This might be the most important discovery for the students at Yale and Stanford: that it is naïve to think that something will change if we continue being controlled by our selfish nature.

Michael Laitman at the World Kabbalah Convention, New Jersey, May 2018.

Therefore, even the most prestigious institution cannot teach us how to be happy. The solution would be to enroll the entire society in happiness studies, but it is somehow comfortable with the status quo, which is the core message that the person, a product of the environment, is exposed to.

However, from one heartbreak to another, from crisis to crisis, from despair to pain, gradually the whole society will be aware of its current bad state. Then it will discover the path of Kabbalah, chosen by unique individuals “disengaged” from the devious values of society to implement a transformational process to encourage close bonds of unity and love, wherein, as mentioned above, lies happiness.

Kabbalah is a method of building a unified and happy human society. It is a method that teaches values necessary for existence in a healthy social framework, how to relate to others in a balanced manner. Moreover, it teaches a step-by-step process on how to positively connect in order to draw a force dwelling in nature that can change human nature. Thus, a person will learn not to aspire only to fulfill his or her own happiness, but that of others as well. A harmonious human society will then be built to ensure each other’s happiness.

In such a society, the way to measure an individual’s happiness will be simple: A person whose happiness and positive emotions burst outside all the time — from the individual to others and from others to the individual — is a happy and satisfied person. We will then all graduate with honors from the university of life.

How To Sort Out Your Desires And Thoughts

Question: Is it true that the method of Kabbalah helps a person reveal his destiny by sorting out his desires? How do we sort out the desires and thoughts that come to us?

Answer: You cannot do this—do not even think about it. Don’t think you are so smart, developed, and capable of sorting out desires and thoughts.

The only thing you can do is give the upper Light the opportunity to do this work. For that to happen, you must internally, mentally, and physically relax and agree with the fact that the upper Light controls you and let it work by itself. Start feeling its impact on you.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/11/18

Playing Hide-And-Seek With The Creator

Connection has to be reached by an attack! To the extent of our efforts to achieve it in the corporeal world, breaking forth toward connection each according to his understanding and the root of his soul, we force the Creator to actualize it. The Creator is training us, like a teacher, an instructor, and therefore does not always help strengthen unity, but sometimes does the opposite to show us where we need to exert more.

He gives us all kinds of exercises, forcing us to try different ways. And if we interpret His message to us correctly, perceiving everything that is happening in reality, from the breaking of the collective soul in the sin of the Tree of Knowledge up to the present day, as the Creator’s appeal to us to help realize the connection, to that extent we begin to understand our work. We begin to feel our continuous dialog with the Creator, His reaction to us.

We then have a common language with the Creator. The main thing is to start understanding Him, perceiving everything that is happening in the world, supposedly good or bad events, as the Creator’s communication with me, a call to address Him. The Creator hides behind all actions, behind all of reality, and I try to discern His work behind everything happening and to concentrate not on the actions themselves, but on the Creator.

This requires constant perseverance in order to not let the Creator deceive us. No matter how He hides behind everything happening, we turn directly to Him. It makes Him very happy! And it also gives joy to a person if he, with the help of the environment, is ready to accept this game and reveal the Creator above His concealment.

But this is provided that we do not just imagine His presence in everything happening. This is enough only at the very beginning. We then need to move on to more focused work: striving to unite with each other and discovering how much the Creator hinders us in this. This hindrance is where we learn about Him.

It is like climbing a mountain with a royal palace at the summit. The more we try to unite, the more the Creator impedes this: inflicting us with forgetfulness and sending all kinds of disturbances. And we, despite everything, with the help of Arvut (mutual guarantee) and the unity formed, try to help each other; we remind ourselves that the main thing is to remain in the mutual connection to reveal the Creator who realizes this connection and reveals Himself inside it.

In this case, we are called Israel (Yashar-Kel), that is, aimed “straight to the Creator,” because we want to reveal the only true reason for all that is happening in our reality. We want to restore the system of the common soul, Adam HaRishon, which the Creator prevents us from uniting so that through the disturbances we would find out its structure.

This is how the continuous attack on connection continues until the Creator surrenders and says, “I want!” and allows us to unite and reveal Him. We will become a vessel for His revelation, and He, the filling of this vessel, and so we will reach our first adhesion with the Creator.
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/15/18 “Attacking the Connection”

New Life #47 – Connection As An Existential Need

New Life #47 – Connection As An Existential Need
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

Global connection will fulfill our existential needs and without it we will not survive. Nature obligates us to create balance through human connection. Correction of the human ego will bring about general societal correction. People could organize public services for the benefit of all through volunteering rather than money. People could donate their time, their money, and anything they no longer need. The message of connection and the value of mutual support will be supported through various publications.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #47 – Connection As An Existential Need,” 8/12/17

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Newsmax: “Winds of Change: US Withdraws From UN Human Rights Council“

The largest portal Newsmax published my new article “Winds of Change: US Withdraws From UN Human Rights Council“

When you have an international watchdog that seems to look obsessively in one direction, isn’t it a sign that there is an elephant in the room? The unprecedented move by the U.S. to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council marks a turning point in a new global approach aimed at reaching balance and efficiency of the world’s monitoring bodies.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, champion of this new transformational approach in the diplomatic arena and representative of the vision of the current administration, was adamant in exposing why the decision was adopted: “For too long, the Human Rights Council has been a protector of human rights abusers, and a cesspool of political bias. Regrettably, it is now clear that our call for reform was not heeded.”

The move is refreshing. It symbolizes the beginning of the end of the old world, characterized by the prioritization of the interests of a few at the expense of the majority’s interests. Winds of change have been ushered in by a new order of humanity’s increasing interdependence. And when it concerns a money-feeding machine such as the United Nations, which has a highly questionable record in resolving the world’s most pressing issues, such a change is necessary.

The UN busily singles out certain nations and turns a blind eye to others’ violations. According to UN Watch, from 2012 to 2015 a staggering 86 percent of resolutions adopted by the General Assembly were against a single country: Israel. Particularly, the Human Rights Council has been a key participant in this activity. Within a decade since its establishment in 2006, it has passed 135 resolutions criticizing countries, more than half of them against Israel.

As a paradox, many of the member countries evaluating human rights standards and lecturing others are ranked as “not free” by Freedom House: Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, China, Cuba, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iraq, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.

The current state of affairs is leading us to rethink the relevance of international bodies for humanity’s betterment, as well as revise whether we should continue perpetuating the existence of organizations that primarily serve the interests of political and financial elites.

The good news is that there are signs of global transformation. The boundaries of international relations are becoming increasingly blurred, as we recently witnessed with the G7 Summit and in the meeting between the U.S. President and the leader of North Korea. Today, any meeting can be setup at any time according to need. There is no need for fabricated gatherings of representatives in a pluralistic guise.

Today’s interdependent world doesn’t require artificial representative bodies to help us get closer to each other. We ourselves can strengthen our solidarity and cause a fundamental change in our relations. When nations’ leaders and people in general realize the extent of our global interdependence, we will be able to make great strides toward a harmonious global society.

How? By establishing connection-enriching educational programs that would help us positively adapt to the new globally interdependent conditions. People ultimately need to learn how to accept, understand, and get along with everyone, as well as become influenced by an atmosphere of mutual understanding, support, awareness, and sensitivity. Such programs, guided by a “wisdom council” of people who have society’s best interests at heart, would then make it clear that the world’s bright future does not depend on the UN or any other actor on the international scene, but on the quality of human connections.
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Double Citizenship

After establishing himself in the spiritual world, a person transfers small portions of the King’s treasury from the old to a new state until he transfers it all. And although he does not see the fruit of his work, he tries to believe that he is working correctly.

The old home state is within me and within each of us. I took great care of it and accumulated a lot of property there—this is all my property, all of me; it is what gives me a feeling of life, of confidence. It all belongs to me and no one is allowed to touch it!

And suddenly, I decide that the most important thing for me is precisely what is outside my body, that is, other people, and I want to convey it to them. And then I begin to pull desirestogether with the fillings out of myself and pass them on to all the rest. I expect this to be my second state.

In carrying out this work, I begin to understand that in fact only the attitude I created in myself now with the help of the upper power and acting for the sake of what is outside of me is the only correct form of behavior.

It gives me freedom, allows me not to be attached to my desire to enjoy, not to live inside it, but to move into the desire for bestowal, to the stage of Bina. In this way we move from this world to the upper world.¹
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/18, Lesson on the Topic: “Attacking the Connection”
1 Minute 46:30

The New Age Of Adolescence

In the News (BBC): “Adolescence now lasts from the ages of 10 to 24, although it used to be thought to end at 19, scientists say.

“Young people continuing their education for longer, as well as delayed marriage and parenthood, has pushed back popular perceptions of when adulthood begins. …

“There are also biological arguments for why the definition of adolescence should be extended, including that the body continues to develop.”

My Comment: I think we are faced with the phase of the inhibition of human development. Society has embraced an atmosphere in which people do not want to grow. They are comfortable without growing up; they want to remain as children.

We are on the threshold of a new world. The former incentives no longer work: a professional career no longer entices us and robotics threatens to end many specializations. In the coming decades, educational institutions will head into the virtual space, production will be automated, and the delivery of goods and services will be transferred to a network platform.

As a result, only a small number of people will be able to be engage in creative activities, developing something new. And what will happen with everyone else?

Adolescence can be extended up to the age of 40. What’s the difference? When a person finds something one can be useful at, then a person matures. And if not, then one will remain in their teens at a minimum wage.

Until recently, the age of active life lasted from the age of 15-20 years to 60-70. And now we have a long childhood and a long old age.

This is natural. When egoism grows, it is very difficult to exit it, to start doing something and somehow working with it. It is much easier to be absorbed with yourself through a computer and a smartphone, spending hours in your small room, knowing that your mother will cook something for you.

What is the solution?

The way out of adolescence is a desire for accomplishment. But in the modern world, this desire is weakening. For many, virtual reality toys are enough. People do not have any reason to grow up even in a simple, material sense.

On the other hand, they have time and the opportunity to understand that they are prisoners of their own egoism. It distracts them from what’s most important—the opportunity to rise above the ego’s operating system, to take control into their own hands, and find their purpose.

By discerning this, a person will finally come out of the kid’s room and find one’s purpose.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/23/18

New Life #46 – Making Room For Love

New Life #46 – Making Room For Love
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

We create common territory in our relationships when each one concedes his own egoistic nature and makes room inside himself for the demands of the other. We actually acquire the powers and abilities of other people when we make their desires more important than our own. It is worthwhile to try to elevate the mood of others because happiness opens their hearts. We can express our love by giving gifts without expecting anything in return.

Nevertheless, it is important to build balance between judgment and mercy. We must find the middle line between concessions to others and our own demands. Clearly show that you have a good attitude on condition that you get a reciprocal response. That is how we build unity, connection, relationships, and a family.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #46 – Making Room For Love,” 8/1/12

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Not A Herd, But A Group

Question from Facebook: All your advice is to stand out from everyone. It is very difficult. Staying “in the herd” makes life much easier. Maybe it is a herd, but it takes care of me, otherwise I am alone.

Answer: I believe that one should stand out by the fact that one helps everyone and feels responsible for everyone. You do not hide within them, but lead them, push them forward, hold them in your arms.

When every person “in the herd” feels such responsibility, then the quality of mutual guarantee appears and the higher management is revealed in it.

You feel your friends, you see that they are the same as you. That is, this is also “the herd,” the group, but already at the next level.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 5/1/18

Builders Of The New World

The goal of creation is the connection of all the creatures, the whole broken soul of Adam HaRishon. We need to reveal the scale of this breaking, its appearance, depth, and character. After all, it was not a lifeless stone that was broken, but a system built similar to the Light, HaVaYaH. The system was broken due to the fact that a desire was revealed inside of it that was against HaVaYaH, against the desire of the Creator, which was filling it.

The breaking occurred between two opposing forces—the only ones that exist in nature. Therefore, in order to make an attempt to connect, an attack on connection is required. After all, we are not ready to take even one step in its direction; something in the heart and in the mind prevents us from doing it. And we do not understand what we lack in order to achieve this.

There are such systems, forces, force fields that repel us, not allowing us to get closer to connection. The guards push us down when we try to climb the mountain of the royal palace. And we feel completely powerless. The desire has been awakened, but there is absolutely no power for its realization; there is lack of understanding and lack of perseverance. Each time there is a need to turn to the Creator, as it is written: “And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage.” Until we oblige the Creator to finish this work for us and carry out the action of our connection.

The work is against the negative forces that the Creator wanted to reveal to us. As the advantage of the Light is revealed from the darkness, and in contrast to the negative force, we can uncover positive forces that already directly represent the power of the Creator: the power of unity, bestowal, and love. Then we create our first HaVaYaH from our side. HaVaYaH descends from above downward, and our HaVaYaH, on the contrary, rises from the bottom upward, and in this way, we complete each other. Having built the vessel for the first HaVaYa, we reveal the name of the Creator in all the worlds.

This is not just an attack on connection, but the construction of entire systems, the acquisition of additional desires, training along the way, finding out what hinders and what helps us. We must build a whole state, a new world. In fact, this is the only and the most important work that exists in all reality, and we are now trying to try to fulfill it in the framework of the last generation for the first time in history.¹

There are only two systems, two forms, and neither exists without the other. “The benefit of the Light comes only out of the darkness,” but the benefit of the darkness is revealed by the Light. The good and evil always fight for a man until they complete each other. The duty of man is to reconcile them. Therefore, each of them is constantly growing relative to the other. The good cannot grow without increasing the evil, and the evil cannot grow without increasing the good, similar to electric current that flows only if there is a potential difference in the system: minus and plus. Only by working together on the common resistance between them can these forces manifest themselves.

Therefore, in nature there is no one single force. It is possible that the opposite force is hidden and not visible to us. But it is impossible to act with the single power of the good without the accompaniment of evil. And the power of the evil, too, will not be revealed alone. Wherever evil is revealed, the power of good always lies somewhere inside.

Our work is to bring these forces to revelation one relative to the other, to find out their opposition and the conditions under which they can connect and match each other. And then we can use both of these forces for one purpose.

The Creator does not send us any good force, or evil. But we, the creatures, can reveal Him only by using these two forces. We see the light only against the background of darkness, we feel the power of bestowal and love only in contrast to the power of reception and hatred. Therefore, we need to treat these two basics in the same way. In the end, we need to rise above the power of the evil and the power of the good, the force of receiving and the force of bestowal, the power of darkness and the power of Light, in order reveal the Creator above them and to give Him pleasure.

Therefore, it is impossible to prefer one force to the other in anything. Only when we are above both of them and do not relate ourselves to either of them is the right state.²
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/18, Lesson on the Topic: “Attacking the Connection”

New Life #45 – Sex And Family

New Life #45 – Sex And Family
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

Maintaining sexual connection is of great importance to the partnership and for family life. Passion is aroused through mutual work on connection above the ego. After the natural attraction becomes routine and boring, partners need to work together on their minds in order to renew their desire. Partners can then get closer by conceding to one another lovingly above hatred, by exemplifying self-restraint when friction arises, and by demonstrating appreciation and complimenting each other. By doing so, couples fulfill each other, creating loyalty and connection.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #45 – Sex And Family,” 8/1/12

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Why Is My Neighbor Any Of My Business?

Question: If I am doing spiritual work, why are the desires and concerns of someone else any of my business? Why should I care what my dog or my neighbor is feeling?

Answer: If I give to another, if I fulfill another, then while doing so, I experience myself as being similar to the Creator. I find myself in the upper world and the other in our world. It doesn’t matter to me who the other one is.

If I can leave my own desire and fulfill the desire of another, experiencing his desire as primary and my own desires as supportive, as the workers, those doing the fulfilling, then I feel myself as the Creator.

Question: During all this, what should my intention be?

Answer: It should be to fulfill the desire of the other person in order to attain similarity of form with the Creator because, by doing this, I delight the Creator.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 2/25/18

Will Israel Exist?

Question from Facebook: I read your posts, and I cannot understand. All military and political experts agree on one thing: Israel will exist only if it is beneficial to America. You claim, however, that everything depends on the people itself. You are either a complete utopian, or you have a trump card in your hands that only you know about.

Answer: I do not have a trump card, but a joker. It is very simple. We rule the world!

You can trace humanity’s entire history and see that we always lead. You will find out that it happened just for humanity to approach the Creator.

This method is in the people of Israel, which is a special group that has been dealing with bringing humanity closer to the Creator for thousands of years. Since bringing humanity closer to the Creator is the program of creation and this method is in the hands of Israel, Israel is the central point of the world, of humanity.

If for the realization of this method—for the realization of revealing of the rapprochement of humanity with the Creator—the existence of the State and the people in such a form is necessary, then it will be so. However, if not, then it will be different. But, all the sorts of metamorphoses that will happen to people, to the State, and the world will be carried out only in accordance with the plan of creation.

I am only interested in the extent to which the people of Israel and, after it, the peoples of the entire world will move to the point of their connection, rapprochement, and meeting with the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman,” 4/ 24/18

Newsmax: “4 Steps to Curing Video Game Addiction, Returning to Reality“

The largest portal Newsmax published my new article “4 Steps to Curing Video Game Addiction, Returning to Reality“

Gaming addiction has been classified as a mental health condition by the World Health Organization (WHO). According to the WHO, gaming disorder is characterized by a lack of control over gaming, and gaming taking higher priority over other interests and daily activities, impairing the gamer’s personal, family, social, educational or occupational functioning.

I saw this problem firsthand about 30 years ago when one of my friends, a man in his 40s, became addicted to computer games. The game he was playing back then took over his life. Each day, from morning to night, he was completely focused on improving his performance, thinking about how to get more soldiers and weapons for the game he had become addicted to.

The climax came when he went bankrupt. Since then, multiple similar examples of gaming addiction have made the problem apparent to many more people.

Video games disconnect people from reality. But what makes them so addictive?

It’s not only the act of playing the games themselves. Behind the scenes is a massive industry inventing, producing, marketing, and investing in the games and their accessories, i.e. many people seeking to maximize their profits.

And when profit motives become entangled in the phenomenon, then a lot of effort goes into, on one hand, contacting governments and finding ways to encourage the enjoyment of video games, and on the other hand, optimizing the games themselves and the world of accessories and imagery surrounding the games to keep people playing.

The major setback is that these people are mostly children and youth. They can easily slip away from reality into video games. This becomes especially disappointing considering that video game addiction can wane certain aspects of their mental and emotional development, as well as cause mental illness and damage to their personality.

The raised awareness of gaming disorder and the potential of video games to deteriorate people’s development is one thing, but what could be done to improve such a state of affairs?

The following are four steps:

1. Restrict access to video games. The authorities who permit addictive video games to flood the market can be requested to restrict access to them, or at least, to sites that make them available. Although this seems unrealistic, especially since these same authorities also make a significant profit from the industry, it’s still doable. The clear example is with countries that restrict free access to the Internet for various reasons.

2. Detach a person from video games. This is the most effective detoxification. We humans are egoistic, pleasure-seeking creatures by nature, and we will always seek new ways to enjoy in different areas of interest.

3. Create parallel educational games or integrate educational aspects into existing games. Instead of leading the protagonist into struggles and victories over other players—fueling players with pride, which attracts them to keep playing — channel the players’ success in the direction of constructive social values. The question is, who will raise such an initiative?

4. Education. Learning tools and programs that focus on strengthening and improving what’s most important in life: meaningful human connections. Such tools should help people navigate through all kinds of interferences to achieve connection, including the wild deluge of virtual products incessantly popping up on our screens. If such education is done successfully, the next generation will know how to manage stable relationships and create positive connections in wider social circles.

The fourth step is definitely the most significant and overriding one. That is, only when our social environment is filled with more meaningful connections, when we will feel that we are genuinely important to each other, like in a family, will we have the means to raise happy and confident human beings. Then, we will no longer seek an escape from reality.

Instead, we will seek a deeper entrance into this reality, and will invest our inventive, productive, playful, and promotional powers into constructing this supportive environment that will prevent any mental illness and impaired development.