How Do You Feel The Creator As Your Partner?

Question: How can I feel that the Creator is my partner in spiritual work?

Answer: I have to accept it a priori, and thus, appeal to Him. And then I will see that He responds immediately to my requests. The Creator is not a living person, but a system that responds to my correct requests.

And my requests are correct only if I take from Him what the world needs and selflessly pass it onto the whole Kli (soul/vessel) through myself. And each of us should do the same.

In essence, I want to become a conductor from Him to the world and from the world to Him. For this, I have to suffer all the sufferings of the world and form them in myself correctly so that all of them will be aimed at uniting with Him.

I re-register in myself all the egoistic desires of the world, envelop them with the intention for the sake of the Creator, and appeal to Him. And then I receive certain properties and knowledge from Him, and I can, by reforming them, give them to the world in such a way that the world will advance a little more through its egoism to the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/6/18

Where Do Our Thoughts Come From?

Question: Why does the Creator give me the sensation that my thoughts are my thoughts and my desires are my desires?

Answer: He does it in order for you to reveal that He is the source of all your thoughts and desires, both bad and good, all your actions, all that happens to you, around you, and outside of you.

While experiencing different thoughts, you consider them your own, but they are not yours.

Often a person catches himself realizing that these are not his thoughts. But where did they come from? Did they soar somewhere in the clouds and now landed in his head? Or he says: “No, I did not think so. Oh, I did not mean to say that.”

He in a way controls himself and sees that something wrong is happening with him. These are problems of our individuality and how we position ourselves.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 9/2/18

New Life #129 – Language And Spirituality

New Life #129 – Language and Spirituality
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

Today’s economic crisis is a crisis in communication. In the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, everything develops through complementary communication. Only humans advance against nature by harming and exploiting without taking others into account. We study communication in science, wisdom, philosophy, and religion, trying to understand reality. We attempt to understand the language of nature through music, poetry, dance, and masks as well as through ecology, storms, international trade, economics, law, and war. Nevertheless, human language evolves according to the needs of people and has become narrow and egoistic since man has lost communication with nature and understands what is happening to him less and less. Egoism disrupts everything by cutting connections with family, work, and country. The languages were created in order to bridge the distance between people and complete the internal connection that was severed. We must learn to communicate properly if we are to get out of modern Babylon. In repairing the communication between us, we will enter into a dialogue with the generality of nature and ascend to the peak of human development.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #129 – Language And Spirituality,” 1/24/13

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Magical Secret Of Baal Shem Tov

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 1/15/19

Who was Baal Shem Tov and what was his main message?

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“Education Coupled With Blockchain Will Be The Basis For Future Nations” (Blockanics)

Blockanics published my new article “Education Coupled with Blockchain Will Be the Basis for Future Nations”

Imagine a world where a decentralized virtual network manages every aspect of our lives for us, where all we need to focus on is helping one another be better humans.

Blockchain technology will play a key role in weaving the future society we will all shape together. Yet in order for this new technological stage to work in our favor, we will need to adapt our way of thinking, wrap our head around new concepts, and embrace new values.

The need to reorganize humanity

The various intricate and threatening scenarios taking place around the world today in the form of social polarization, political instability, climate destabilization, mass immigration, technological unemployment and more, are actually the first signs of a new humanity. This is because the birth of something new is always painful and this is what we are experiencing now.

We will need to reorganize human society in a truly comprehensive manner to ensure our interdependence and interconnection are beneficial to our prosperity and are in sync with the natural system. To do this, one thing will have to change along with our technologies – ourselves.

“Cloud nations” will play key role

According to futurist Dr. Roey Tzezana, in the coming decades we will no longer need the territorial institutions we have in our world. Most of the government and civil services will be provided automatically and can be managed remotely via emerging yet highly reliable technologies such as blockchain. Essentially, “cloud nations” will be a virtual way for any group of individuals to unite under a common identity, and set up their own “smart contracts” for managing their relationships.

Unlike the physical countries of today, these new virtual entities will not be limited by territorial restrictions, and members will be able to come and go as they please. Ultimately, cloud nations have the potential to distribute decision-making processes to their citizens, which would gradually render many government institutions obsolete.

With all human behavior being automatically monitored and fed into this vast network, cloud nations will also include decentralized systems of justice. Prompt justice will be available to any citizen at any point in the network, making most of the current functions of courts redundant.

In addition, cloud nations will allow for a cooperative economy that doesn’t concentrate power in the hands of the few, and systems would be in place to calculate the basic needs of every human and print 3D versions of whatever we need.

The unique role of a Jewish Cloud Nation

To take all of this a step further, Tzezana is partnering with Jewish thinkers and researchers, who are developing the “Jewish Cloud Nation” project — a virtual state that will unite Jews from all over the world. They will receive services “in a fully decentralized way with no geographical limitations.”

The core values of the Jewish Cloud Nation are to be determined by a special committee of Jewish sages. This distinguished group of great thinkers and social scientists will meet in person to formulate universal values for Jews everywhere.

The goal is to organize a framework for implementing the Jewish ideal of “Tikkun Olam” — an old-new principle according to which Jews are to facilitate the correction of the world. The project’s website states that “The code of the Jewish Cloud Nation will be open and transparent, and will be shared with everyone to allow for further creation of other cloud nations, to serve the needs of citizens of the entire world without the involvement of dysfunctional governments or corrupted regimes.”

Forging a new concept for society

It’s hopeful to see that how experts who recognize the imminent technological future also envision the emergence of a cooperative society, and are also taking steps to help form such a society. Such a vision corresponds directly with the social teachings that appear in the authentic writings of Kabbalah.

About a century ago, Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag wrote: “Do not be surprised if I mix together the well-being of a particular collective with the well-being of the whole world, because indeed, we have already come to such a degree that the whole world is considered one collective and one society.”

Indeed, in our time, we are coming closer to the need to forge a new concept for human society. The escalating crises in countless realms of human engagement are pushing us to rethink the foundations of our culture. This is nature’s way of getting us to evolve towards the next degree of human connection, which means a change of thinking and a change of values.

Thus, it should come as no surprise that forward-thinking technological entrepreneurs are among the first to identify this trend. They are also quick to identify the practical tools we can use to create an infrastructure that will enable a new social order at every level: economic, social, political, educational etc.

However, smart contracts are not enough to bring people together. Technology does indeed upgrade our abilities, but it doesn’t upgrade our inner qualities and the way we relate to each other.

Education must come first

In order for a cloud nation to be a model society promoting genuine mutual concern between citizens, it must begin an educational process that would be embraced by its citizens. They would need to learn about the benefits of mutual consideration and build new norms and values for positive social engagement. Ultimately, they need to develop a new way to sense each other, as pieces of a single whole. This is a conscious development that requires people’s willingness to change their perception of life.

For instance, a central aspect of such a change is the issue of privacy. To futurists such as Tzezana, it’s clear that no matter how much we discuss the right for privacy nowadays, in the technological future, the struggle for privacy is a lost battle. In fact, the more individuals are willing to relinquish their privacy, the more beneficial and effective will be the systems they can establish for themselves.

Privacy in cloud nations will have to be reduced to a minimum, but the willingness to give up one’s privacy will not come naturally. This is a sensitive matter that requires great preparation and adoption of new values. Part of the educational process would be to help us willingly exchange our need for privacy for real benefit. This is just one example of the need to enhance human consciousness and nurture human connection.

As we head towards the future society that today’s technologies are weaving before our eyes, we will have to adapt to new values and concepts that may seem utopian. However, this is because most individuals today lack the sensation of being a single part of a whole.

Therefore, our number one concern in crafting our interconnected future should be how to educate ourselves. Rather than letting technology lead the way, we can already take steps towards the change we have to go through — becoming interconnected human beings in a society that promotes unity and rewards mutual concern and consideration.

In the future society, people will sense that if they are not actively contributing to the welfare of the whole, they are indirectly harming others as well as themselves. Then, our advanced technologies will work to everyone’s benefit.

Everything Is Contained Within A Person

The Book of Zohar, “Tazrya”: All worlds, the Upper and the lower, are inside man. All that is created in the world is for man’s sake and everything lives and develops because of man.

It seems to the person that he exists among other people, animals, plants, and inanimate nature, including the entire universe. In fact, all these levels of desire are just one desire. It is called “human.”

Everything is within each of us: the egoistic and altruistic worlds, the Creator, and the whole of creation.

The human is the desire created by the Creator, which includes everything.

Our task is to become like the Creator, changing the application of our egoistic properties from receiving to giving.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/26/18

New Life #128 – Communication And The Sensory System

New Life #128 – Communication and the Sensory System
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

Today there is a transition from linear communication to whole, round, integral, and global communication. We are in a new evolutionary phase: the transition from subjective, animate, or individual desire and perception, based on our five senses, to mutual and integral desire and perception. The economic mode of communication that has driven the process of human development so far is collapsing. A person dies without a connection to the natural environment. People feel empty and lonely and turn to drug abuse as a result of the despair they experience within this system. We are in the process of developing a new perceptual sense and a common system. The communication between us is being upgraded, expanded, and perfected, not by force and control, but by developing a satisfying, emotional feeling that the whole world is connected and is mine. Communication is the basis for the feeling of our existence. A new culture will develop out of the feeling that we are one.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #128 – Communication And The Sensory System,” 1/22/13

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The Fear Of Death

Question: I justify the Creator, but the only thing that I cannot justify is physical death. What should I do?

Answer: If it were not for the fear of death, we would have made a big mess in this world. Imagine if we were immortal. How much harm would a person cause himself and others? Then every day, like a Phoenix, he would rise again and it would be the same all over again. That is horrible!

Death is salvation. If not for the fear of death, a person would not do anything. He would very quickly bring himself to death.

The fear of death helps a person by forcing him to think about the meaning of life: “What for? What? Why? With what account do I end my life? Is there anything else but this?”

The most important question: “What are we living for?”

Remark: But no one asks about it anyway.

My Comment: Subconsciously, everyone does! Even children have this question.

Question: Would it be possible to educate people by explaining to them that death is a transition to another state?

Answer: Of course. Psychologically, you can do anything to a person and he will not be afraid of death.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 9/2/18

Can A Kabbalist Decide Something At The Level Of This World?

Question: How do you, a Kabbalist, feel the hand of the Creator through what is happening to you? Can you decide anything at the level of this world?

Answer: No, I cannot. I can only agree with what the Creator decides. All my work is on myself, not on changing the world or forcing the Creator to do something.

Question: So a Kabbalist does not decide anything? Does he have the ability to agree with what is happening to him? And is this the main decision?

Answer: Yes. Try it. Let’s see what kind of hero you will be. It only seems to you that changing the world is easier than changing yourself.

Remark: I understand that to agree is much harder.

My Comment: This is already good. This is a step toward heroism.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 9/2/18

The Proper Study

It is very important to prepare yourself for the lesson. From the moment a person wakes up, washes himself, has a cup of coffee, gets dressed and comes to the place of study, he must constantly think about why he does all this. He will then come to the lesson with the right attitude and will begin to study.

To study means to sit with friends and check to what extent I am connected with them. If I am already at the stage of Rabbi Shimon, then I will feel hatred and rejection toward my friends. This is how the possibility of correction is revealed to me from above. I come not indifferent, but with a warm heart, either for or against connection.

Accordingly, it is determined whether I need the Torah or not, in the Light that returns to the source, which connects me with others. In our unity, we reveal all the letters of the Torah, all the properties of bestowal, so that later, according to these properties, we will reveal the Creator. Studying is an aid, but the main thing is the connection between us.¹

The articles help us organize ourselves correctly, and The Study of the Ten Sefirot draws the reforming Light to us. However, in its study lurks another danger: beginning to study for the sake of gaining knowledge, not for the sake of the Torah, that is, the Light of correction. Maybe you want to know how many angels there are in heaven and what their names are? It is very important that “wisdom does not exceed your deeds,” that is, actions of bestowal. It is necessary to study for the sake of bestowal, otherwise you will distance yourself from the Creator and cultivate your pride.

While studying the articles that talk about the person’s path to the Creator, it is not so difficult to keep in the same direction with the text. But in this way we attract less reforming Light because we do not study the actions of the Creator. Whereas The Study of the Ten Sefirot, The Tree of Life, and The Book of Zohar contain very great Light. Not all parts of the Torah contain the same amount of reforming Light.

However, it is necessary to understand that a person cannot only study or read articles all the time. It is necessary to combine both. However, drawing the Light is of primary importance. If it were possible to draw the Light by jumping up ten times, we would jump. We need a means to draw the Light. Therefore, we see that the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed precisely in the form that allows it to become such a means for the current generation.²

The Light that returns to the source transfers the power of bestowal to us. We do not feel the Light itself, but only the result of its action. It is impossible to feel the Light itself, just like we do not feel electricity, but only the consequences of its work. The result of the action of the reforming Light is my desire to bestow. I do not want to be inside myself; I want to exist in others, in the Creator.³

People can do anything when they’re in a religious ecstasy: jump over fires and even burn themselves, and all this is for what purpose? Kabbalah says that there is the upper system that we can awaken by studying. We study the actions of the system, its work. And while reading, I want the system to work on my correction. I am not asking to make it worse for someone or better for myself. I ask that I become good inside, not that I feel good.

I can then bestow to others. That is, I will be able to pass the force that has now come to me and corrects me through myself to others and become a transmitter.⁴
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/19, Lesson on the Topic “The Right Way To Study The Wisdom Of Kabbalah”1 Minute 22:15

Don’t Work In Vain

Rabash, The Social Writings, the article “The Agenda of the Assembly 2”: When one exerts, he should make certain that it is not without reward. It is as we say in the prayer, “And came unto Zion,” “Lest we touch in vain.”Rather, when one goes to an assembly, he should acquire nourishments there so that when he goes home he will be able to see if he has something to put in the Kelim. Then he will have the nourishments to feed himself until the next meeting.

The fact is that the forces that a person can allegedly pull out of himself and from the surrounding nature by his own efforts, are not a spiritual result. A spiritual result can be obtained only when a person in a group, in connection with his friends, achieves a common desire with them, and from there draws strength that enables him to advance.

It turns out that all his spiritual work takes place at the expense of the power that he absorbs at the assemblies of friends—from assembly to assembly.

Question: It is written: “when one exerts, he should make certain that it is not without reward.” Should a person take care that he is paid for the effort that he makes?

Answer: Can it be that he works for free, that is, without visible, tangible results? Then he will be unable to understand whether he works or not.

There are people who are ready to do everything and somehow do not think about a reward. They believe that this speaks of their spirituality, although in fact it speaks of their levity. You need be very clear about what efforts you make, what you strive for, and what result you expect.

Question: That is, when we say, “like an ox under the yoke and a donkey carrying the load,” this does not mean that a person simply decided, “I invest and don’t think about a reward; I just follow this track”?

Answer: There is nothing praiseworthy in this approach. A person by nature cannot help but think about a reward. In this case, he should think about how to achieve the revelation of the Creator, that is, the revelation of the properties of bestowal and love in himself.

Question: Is this the intention that a person must go with to the assembly of friends?

Answer: Indeed. Otherwise, what is the meaning of his existence? Each of us must reach the highest state.

Question: And what do I give from myself to my friends?

Answer: You give them your participation, your strength, your spirit, and they give you theirs. In this way, when everyone is recharging from everyone, it turns out to be a very serious feeding of the whole ten, and everyone can do the work for the ten. This is how the goal is reached.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/27/18

Finding My Spiritual Self

Question: What does it mean to exit myself? Does this mean that I should observe my own behavior and thoughts as if from the outside?

Answer: Getting out of myself means exiting your egoism, finding my spiritual self by disengaging from my physical self. We feel the entire physical world within our egoism. The spiritual world is felt through the property of bestowal. Exiting the property of reception and entering the property of bestowal is called “sensing a new world,” a state that exists, but we could not see it before. It reveals itself because you change your point of view.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/5/18

“Addictions: Discover the Drug of Life” (Medium)

Medium published my new article “Addictions: Discover the Drug of Life”

We are all addicted. Society is organized in such a way that at any given moment in our lives, we become addicted to something: things we are used to do or consume from childhood, certain food, a way of thinking or behaving and different forms of entertainment, to name a few. In short, we become addicted to any pattern learned at home during our upbringing or developed throughout our lives from the environment. All these conditions construct what we are and what we are prone to, defining our tendency to potential addictions, including deadly ones. If that is the case, how can a person be liberated from a harmful dependency?

Harvard Medical School defines addiction as a “loss of control over indulging in a substance or performing an action or behavior, and continued craving for it despite negative consequences.” In fact, those adverse results are affecting a whole generation. The opioid epidemic, for instance, causes 155 deaths every day in the United States. Although dramatic and worrisome, it is only the peak of the iceberg. An estimated 40 million Americans ages 12 and older abuse or are addicted to nicotine, alcohol or other kind of drugs, surpassing the number of people with heart problems, diabetes or cancer.

A New World, New Addictions

Tech dependency can also have an impact on how we function, developing symptomssimilar to substance abuse. Gaming addiction, for instance, has been classified as a mental health condition by the World Health Organization. In addition, 50% of youngpeople admit cell phone addiction while Americans in general spend an average of 5 hours a day browsing, according to recent studies.

Regardless the source of dependency, the common denominator is the yearning for detachment, even temporary, from troubles, pressures, competition and other negative influences from the surrounding circles we might be exposed to: family, school, work and society.

Pursuing an alternative reality is a consequence of human nature. We are made from an insatiable desire to enjoy that constantly grows and renews itself, leaving us empty when it is unfulfilled, leading us to various addictions to fill the void. As those cravings transform into a habit, one constantly needs larger doses, entering a vicious circle. This is an unsuccessful way of coping.

Why do people resist calling these examples addictions? It is because they are so immersed in a certain way of living that it seems natural, but when they lose control of their lives they try to get out of the trap and find it extremely difficult, if not impossible. It is at this point when a person descends to a vegetative level, suppressing the internal desire for a higherpurpose in life — unique to the human level, the most developed in nature — instead of filling it.

Looking for the Drug of Joy

People lack the elixir of life, the drug of happiness. Therefore, we face not a drug problem, but an emptiness problem. If our nature is a desire to receive, and this desire is not provided, it transforms into a negative escape mechanism.

A person is a result of the environment. Therefore, it is important to see it as the overriding factor for human change. Such transformation is possible by isolating the individual from the surroundings that triggered the addiction and replacing them with positive support circles that will help the person reshape the previous dangerous habits into positive ones. It is the equivalent of setting up a new program that will need to complement and bring more satisfaction to the person than the artificial sensation obtained through substance abuse or any other kind of unhealthy dependency.

Our Relations Rehab

I am referring to a comprehensive treatment that needs to target an underlying multifaceted problem. That is to say, we have to create new conditions according to every person’s cultural and social background and needs. In some cases, it will possibly require a rehab medical plan but it should always include the remedy to all our troubles, the drug of life, which is based on positive connection among people. A positive social environment can rehabilitate us and help us to evolve to a higher level of existence.

Such a new level of positive social connections is what evolution is pushing us to attain. In order to realize such connections, we first need to educate about and promote the idea that only through warm, safe and supportive connections, human society can achieve the kind of satisfaction it is constantly craving for. Then, we will be aware of the fact that the only dependency we need to be hooked on is realizing our interdependence in a positive way.

That is the way nature has created us, humans, as part of an integral and interrelated system that should work harmoniously and balanced through mutual care and consideration. By realizing and implementing such relations, we can enter into balance with nature and discover a much greater kind of fulfillment as a result.

What Does It Mean To Change The World?

Question: What is wrong with wanting to “bend” the whole world to suit myself if the world is full of malice and vices?

Answer: I understand that you would like to change our world. But if you do this by breaking it, you will only get some of your smaller broken worlds.

You have to change yourself and then, instead of today’s world, which appears to you in your egoistic properties, you will discover another, better, altruistic world. To change the world is to change your properties, and then you will see it differently.

You need to understand that we exist in our desire. Changing your desires from the lowest state to the state of complete bestowal and love, that is, the world of Infinity, we can move back and forth along the ladder of the spiritual worlds. It all depends on our properties.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/26/18

New Life #127 – The Essence Of Communication, Part 2

New Life #127 – The Essence of Communication, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

All of our problems stem from the wrong type of communication between us as couples, in families, at work, and in the world at large. Communicating with others in mutual bestowal reveals enormous energy and a whole new world in the resulting connection between us. Each of us has to implement all of our skills in order to satisfy the deficiencies of others so that we reach absolute and correct communication and fulfillment both individually and collectively. The more distant we are and still manage to fully communicate, the greater the pleasure we feel. In fact, oppositeness is the precondition for communication and there is no opportunity for communication between similar parties. Just as a mother treats her baby, we need to have a new intention to feel the deficiencies of others as they actually are and fill them. We can only achieve this goal in an environment with others who are aiming toward the same thing. By acquiring and satisfying the desires of others in this way, above our differences, we feel great pleasure and become one again.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #127 – The Essence Of Communication, Part 2,” 1/15/13

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