Is It Possible To Accurately Predict The Future?

Question: To what extent does perception and comprehension of spiritual timeless roots allow us to see the future within the framework of the material world?

Answer: I cannot say that there is an exact correspondence between the spiritual and the material and that one could foresee the future. The future depends on many parameters that are beyond your desire; in particular, from many specific people and factors.

Therefore, it is impossible to accurately predict the future. You can tell which way it flows, but what state it will take at each moment in time, you do not know.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/20/19

What Does It Mean To Carry Out Commandments?

Question: What does it mean to carry out commandments?

Answer: Carrying out commandments means carrying out the conditions of our interconnectedness, the connection between us.

Being connected to each other in the single system of Adam is a commandment.

Although this system consists of egoistic desires, by building altruistic connections between its parts, it becomes similar to the Creator, the quality of bestowal, which is revealed precisely in it to the extent that it becomes giving—first on the zero egoistic level, then on the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth levels. Then the Creator appears in the form of the light of Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian of 11/25/18

New Life #235 – Happiness And Limits

New Life #235 – Happiness and Limits
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary:

Our entire perception is a way of reaching boundaries. Without borders we cannot feel who we are. At any given moment, restrictions are pressing on me. If I learn how to improve myself, I will not feel pressure. Happiness will be achieved when I learn how to be in balance and reciprocity with those around me. Human nature is the desire to enjoy and everything that happens to me is nature’s way of developing me. I may suffer if my neighbor makes a noise but I would probably have a different attitude if I had the same love for my neighbor as I have for my own children. Ideally, we become like one big family and no longer need boundaries between us. When we learn how to be bound up with others, we feel as though we are wrapped in grace and love like a fetus in his mother’s womb and gain infinite happiness.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #235 – Happiness and Limits,” 10/6/13

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New Life #234 – Happiness And Meaning

New Life #234 – Happiness and Meaning
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary:

Meaning in life is felt when a person becomes part of an integral society and contributes his unique part to the whole. He engages in positive competition by bestowing to others as much as he can in his own special way. Today, as unemployment is on the rise and robots continue to replace people in the workplace, we are confronted with the problem of self-realization and lack of meaning in life more and more all the time. When we reach the peak of self-realization, we will feel completely free and whole and we will touch eternity.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #234 – Happiness and Meaning,” 10/3/13

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To Enjoy Ourselves Or To Give Joy?

The force of faith comes from a special illumination that opens from above. The light of faith gives a person faith, meaning the force of bestowal. Just as now, naturally, according to the formula implanted in me, without hesitating, I constantly think about myself, so will I begin to think according to the inverted formula, about the benefits of others, that is, ultimately about the benefit of the Creator.

I understand that the Creator depicts all the details of reality that I see in front of me so that through them I could come to true bestowal to the Creator. My friends, allies, and enemies, different characters that poison my life and conversely, support me, all the inanimate nature, plants, animals, and humans, are just actors in the great theater called life. They are all controlled by the upper force of the Creator with the sole purpose that through them I will connect to the upper force.

Faith is the Creator Himself; He is called the “God of faith.” When this light is revealed, then under the influence of its illumination, I begin to act according to the instructions of this force. And when the light is concealed, I act contrary to it, like Pharaoh, the evil inclination. In fact, there are only two forces, both the front and back sides of the Creator, that are playing with me.

The entire world are the details of the Creator’s game with me; as much as I can connect them, I come closer to the Creator. All the calculations are directed only to the Creator, my intention is directed only to Him; all the rest are just the means. However, without these means it is impossible to reach the Creator, so I must treat them exactly the same way as I treat the Creator. Then these means, along with me, will turn into the matter, the desire, by which I adhere to the Creator.

The light of faith is the surrounding light that returns to the source and brings the force of bestowal to the heart of a person. It is the only thing that we need; there is nothing else to wait and hope for. If we attain the light of faith, then with its help we will be able to ascend to the level of bestowal, exit the desire to receive, and start working with it altruistically. The whole Torah is to correct the intention from “in order to receive” to “in order to bestow.”

The desire to enjoy remains as it was created by the Creator. The only question is what gives us pleasure: to enjoy ourselves or to give joy to others. This is the whole difference between the nature of receiving and giving. It is not the desire that changes, not the matter itself, but rather the intention that is inverted by the reforming light.¹

My ability to bestow is determined by the light of faith that I receive. Therefore, the use of my desire expands and I see what can be done with it. If I work with it in order to bestow, the world suddenly becomes transparent to some extent. The more of my desire I use to bestow, the more transparent the world becomes.

After all, I see the world through the desire to receive. If the desire is egoistic, the world is very limited, closed. The intention in order to bestow opens an opportunity for me to see what is beyond my narrow animalistic interests. Now I think only about things that are good for my animal. The reality I feel in this perspective is called this world: food, sex, family, money, honor, and knowledge. However, if I expand my perception, I see a different life.²
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/20/19, Shamati “What Is Greatness and Smallness in Faith?”

Through 22 Stencils

Question: The world that I see in front of me, is it a letter or a collection of letters? Do we write this world or read it?

Answer: We see this world as if through a stencil through which light passes to us. Of course, this is not the upper light that affects us today, but still some aspect of it. It passes through 22 stencils and is thus reflected in us.

I do not see these stencils, I do not see the light passing through them. Everything happens inside of me, and I see the result of what is happening in me as my egoism, my senses, my desire that is influenced by light through these 22 stencils.

Question: Does this mean that a particularly sensitive person might suddenly speak Hebrew or start writing in Hebrew?

Answer: Yes, of course.

Question: Is there some kind of spiritual action in studying Hebrew like working in a group? After all, knowing that it is right, I still can’t force myself to study it.

Answer: Our conversation is not a lesson in the study of Hebrew. It is intended to tell you what code Kabbalah uses to describe the actions of the upper world. If we had not studied their impact on us and the consequences of them, then we absolutely would not know or be interested in this language. It would be really dead.

But it is becoming more and more alive because more and more people in our world want to know how the upper light controls them. Talking to the upper force on the principle of “He is for me, I am for Him” is possible only through letter stencils, through 22 established images.

As we used to beat letters on paper on typewriters, this system works the same way.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 1/ 6/19

How Should We Imagine Spirituality?

Question: Can you describe the state we are advancing to? What should be the level of connection between us: at the level of feelings and at the level of thoughts?

Answer: There is a place for this question, but there is no answer to it. How can you imagine the mutual relationship the upper light will reveal between us? It is indescribable. Therefore, it is called “faith above reason,” a “spiritual quality,” the “spiritual world” where opposites are no longer opposites but mutual complementation.

I feel that this is perceived at the linear level in each of you, nothing can be done here. You just need to demand for it to happen.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 2/6/19

New Life #233 – Happiness And Self-Realization

New Life #233 – Happiness and Self-Realization
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary:

After the collapse of the consumer society, self-realization will be achieved through giving to society rather than through extortion. Today, a person acts according to what society values and not according to his own uniqueness. True self-realization can only happen within an integral society through maximum giving to the environment. Each one achieves the summit of his life and, together, we attain complete harmony.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #233 – Happiness and Self-Realization,” 10/3/13

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Ready For The Revelation Of The Next Degree

Darkness is a sign of the abundance of the light of Hochma and all that is missing is the light of Hassadim in order for the darkness to shine as the light. Darkness is the manifestation of the Creator, but I need to add the light of Hassadim to this darkness; to that extent, I will reveal the Creator in order to bring Him contentment. The more light of Hassadim, the greater the revelations. The Creator fills the whole world, but no one can feel Him except those who can add the light of mercy, as is written: “in Your light we will see light.”

In a state of hardship, one must believe that there is none else besides the Creator and rejoice at the Creator’s revelation of any evil, because that is a sign that something good will be revealed soon. If I receive a blow, it means that I am ready for the revelation of the next degree.

The Creator reveals his attitude toward me with more clarity, but I perceive it as evil and I suffer, although in reality it is all good. In the most acute, critical states, we have the most opportunity to say that it all comes from the Creator for our own good.²

Why do we come to this world if our purpose is to leave it? We fall into the kingdom of the egoistic desire to enjoy, to the lowest level of reality, as primitive animals in order to rise from it. We are even worse than animals because we agree with our instinctive, automatic responses. We are slaves to egoism, while an animal does not feel enslaved. Even house pets do not feel themselves enslaved when they lose their freedom, but love their master who feeds them and are ready to work for him.

But the Creator does not allow us to live in such a way with our egoism. Each consecutive generation feels more and more unhappy. Thus, the Creator is pulling us out of the animate degree and raising us to the human level. We have to train ourselves to resemble the Master.

This is a special work on the part of creation. Therefore, the Creator constantly awakens in us a feeling that we are in exile, in slavery, in insignificance, without knowledge and sensation of our master, like an animal that will not allow itself to be tamed. It will be this way until we reveal the Master and realize that He is the most sublime; then we will cleave to Him consciously, not out of animalistic habit, but by attaining His greatness and role in creation and His effort to raise us to His level so that we do not only fulfill his desire like an animal tied to the owner, but receive the same qualities.³

Life is a feeling of adherence to the Creator, harmony with the upper force, movement in unison, the absence of the perception of leader and follower but only together. There, at the highest point, where the end of action is united with the initial thought, the Creator and the creation achieve such an adhesion that there is no first or last, only all together.⁴

We have to come back to adherence with the Creator like an embryo in the mother’s womb, connected to her in all its essence. But now I am no longer an infant but a grown man, burdened with the experience of various states and knowledge. Along with all this burden, I annul myself before the upper one like an embryo. I do not annul my thoughts or desires, but I try to be devoted like an embryo to its mother. Everything always comes back to the first point of conception—the point of complete adhesion between the creation and the Creator. No matter how huge, strong, or smart I have become, I reduce myself to a single point within the Creator.⁵
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/19, Writings of Rabash, Vol. 1, Article 20, “He who Hardens His Heart”

Stars Have No Power Over Israel

Question: The sages say that stars have no power over Israel. Does it mean that a person engaged in spirituality gets out of the material system?

Answer: Stars are just signs of governance from above. When we connect with each other, we rise above the stars. Stars are an inanimate degree, which is controlled by us, the same as the vegetative and animate degrees.

By becoming similar to the Creator, we even go beyond the boundaries of the Creator. As it is written, “My sons have defeated me.” That is, in our governance, we rise even higher than His control of us. This is the highest level.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/30/18

Catch The Wave With The Creator

Question: You said that one can turn to the Creator only in similarity to Him—through the ten. What does it mean?

Answer: You must reach the same frequency. When you adjust the frequency of your spiritual receiver-transmitter, you must catch the same wave with the Creator.

The quality of bestowal and love comes from Him to you; therefore, a similar quality must go from you to Him. Otherwise, He will not hear you because the Creator is a system that resonates, only perceives signals in equivalence with its nature.

Question: Can you turn to the Creator in joy too?

Answer: Not from joy, but only from equivalence. Joy is not an indicator of equivalence. It flows out of it as a result. In principle, anyone can experience joy.

Therefore, first we have to contact the Creator via a modem, through some kind of connecting device that would adapt our qualities to the qualities of the Creator. The group of ten performs the role of this modem.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 2/6/19

New Life #1095 – Secrets Between People

New Life #1095 – Secrets Between People
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary:

In relationships, there can be no secrets. People keep secrets to control others. Until a person corrects himself so that all his intentions are for the benefit of others, he will always have something to hide. In corrected people, what is in the heart is also in the mouth. In other words, these people criticize themselves and not others.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #1095 – Secrets Between People,” 3/19/19

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What You Can Find In The Dark

The work against Pharaoh, against men’s egoism, is truly enormous because egoism in its corrected form is the spiritual vessel that contains all the upper light, the entire Creator, all His revelation. The Creator wants to bestow pleasure to the created beings, that is, to reveal Himself in them entirely, so the desire must be enormous. The Pharaoh is equal in size to the Creator, only his intention is opposite.

The holy and the impure forces, the Creator and the Pharaoh, are fighting for the same desire. Man is in the middle between them and decides who will rule him. It is clear that he is not the master of himself; he only decides which king to choose.

In the same way, during elections we think that we are making a choice and making a decision. But even before the elections someone governed us and after the elections somebody will govern, we only choose our ruler. It works in the same way both in spirituality and corporeality because the latter follows the former. It is good if we make the right choice so that the good force governs us. But if not, we will be governed by an evil ruler until we want to replace him with a good one. Only at this point of choice do we have freewill; therefore, all our work is only there.

Since the desire to enjoy is huge, equivalent to the Creator, it cannot be corrected at once; many separate actions are required until the correction is fully completed. That is why the Egyptian exile must last four hundred years, that is, four degrees, to its full state.

Therefore, we should not think that we can jump into the spiritual world at once and quickly go through the exile. We should not despair that the states repeat themselves all the time, but perceive all of them as new and make new clarifications. In this way, “Many pennies join into a great amount.”

We wish for patience and perseverance. A person advances not qualitatively, but quantitatively, by multiple repetitions of the same work until a tangible result is accumulated. By repeating, a state is added to all previous ones and it brings about a qualitative change. But quality is a consequence of quantity.

It is like a computer with nothing but zero and one. But from numerous zeros and ones, we get a huge number of operations and possibilities. The most complex formula can be resolved through a sequence of zeros and ones: entrances and exits, light and darkness.

We must strengthen ourselves in such a way that we can perceive our ascents and descents as advancement, as a new state each time. It is precisely in the darkness, not in the light, that we are tested, that is, how much I do not care that I entered the darkness. After all, I do not check the state on myself, I am above it. Let there be darkness because it is in the darkness that I build up the properties of bestowal and faith. A person is tested when he has nothing, when nothing shines in the present and in the future and he does not require the Light, but only one thing: to relate this state of darkness to the Creator and live in the darkness as if in the light. This is how his faith is tested.

The whole work is precisely in the darkness, and therefore, Kabbalists have decided that it is necessary to study at night. Baal HaSulam always woke up at midnight and started his day. Therefore, we need to get used to studying in the dark, until darkness shines as light. Darkness will remain darkness, but it will shine to me because it is there where I will find the light of faith and then in it, the light of Hochma.

The light of Hochma, without faith, leads to darkness. If I try to add the light of faith, then I turn on the light and illuminate the darkness.¹
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/19, Writings of Rabash, Vol. 1, Article 20, “He who Hardens His Heart” (1985)

The Only Factor That Determines Our Future

Question: Which three factors out of thousands of factors in the single system determine our future?

Answer: Only one factor determines our future: the connection of people between themselves. Nature requires nothing else from us.

The fact is that we are locked in a certain system and we must bring it to balance. The closer we get to it, the more comfortable and balanced we will feel. Each of us should be interested in bringing this system to reciprocity.

We need to understand that we have no right to destroy each other because this we can disrupt the system so much that we will have to go back to the last degree and repeat the same thing again. There is nothing more problematic for us than mutual destructions, wars, and so on.

Therefore, the only factor that determines our future is reaching the correct connection between us.

Of course, many auxiliary factors are added to it such as education, upbringing, creation of what we call tens—small groups in which we can relatively quickly realize the connection between people into a correct system.

There is only one goal: to unite into one system, to mutually complement each other, where the network of connections between us becomes more important to us than ourselves.

It is in this system that the Creator is revealed—only in the connection and nowhere else.

When this system is arranged so that inside it we could feel its complete interconnection, then this mutual connection created by us will be called the Creator.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/13/19

Bad Deeds And Spiritual Development

Question: How do my bad deeds in corporeal life affect my spiritual life?

Answer: No deeds in corporeal life influence spirituality because they are all dictated by egoism, which is controlled from above.

The only thing that affects spirituality is how much you invest your efforts in order to connect with your friends and attain the quality of bestowal. Just this! Everything else are our toys in this world.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/23/18

New Life #1093 – Society As A Single Family

New Life #1093 – Society as a Single Family
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary:

Strangers can establish a society that feels like family on the condition that they will connect to a single spiritual root. The common goal is to change human nature by bringing a good force into our lives that will balance the evil of the ego. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, if we connect, we will discover a unique power that can lead us to spiritual attainments and a higher world. A spiritual person sees everyone as integral parts of himself and relates to them with love.
From KabTV’s “New Life #1093 – Society as a Single Family,” 3/12/19

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