The World Is A Person’s Inner State

Question: There are several theories about the perception of reality: what reality is, what its connection with people is, and whether it exists outside of a person.

Newton, for example, believed that the world exists without any connection with humanity. Whether humanity exists or not, the world has always existed and will exist without it.

The theory of relativity says that perception is relative and depends on the location of the observer and on the speed with which he is moving.

Quantum physics came to the conclusion that this world is an illusion and depends on the observer, that is, we create this world.

What does Kabbalah say about the reality we feel?

Answer: Kabbalah says that there is only a person who perceives just what he has within himself. That is, the entire world is within me. There is no world outside of me. I feel myself, and all the changes within me seem to me as changes in the world around me.

I as if project all my internal feelings, experiences, and opinions outward, and this is depicted to me in the form of pictures of the world. The world is my inner state.

Baal HaSulam writes in the “Preface to The Book of Zohar”: “We see a wide world before us, wondrously filled. But in fact, we see all that only in our own interior. In other words, there is a sort of a photographic machine in our hindbrain, which portrays everything that appears to us and nothing outside of us.”

That is, everything that appears to me as external, I actually see in my brain. There are various pictures of reality whirling inside it that allegedly exist around me, but they are nothing more than a projection of my changing desires, thoughts, feelings, and experiences. I feel them in the form of a picture of the world.

If I did not see this picture in a form of an immense world with many planets, people, flowers, animals, and so on, I would feel it inside of me in such a small micro dose that I could not develop at all. And this way, everything within me is enlarged by billions of times and unfolds around me. Therefore, the world is a projection of myself.
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From KabTV’s “Basics of Kabbalah” 11/26/18

New Life #1112 – Avoiding Suffering And Pain

New Life #1112 – Avoiding Suffering and Pain
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

All of life is an avoidance of suffering, but without it we cannot feel pleasure. We have become more sensitive to the quality of suffering as human egoism has developed, yet the source of our pain remains concealed. Kabbalah teaches us that it comes from a lack of self-realization and that, in order to prevent it, we have to change the inner determinants within human nature. When we ask the question “Why am I living?” and discover the purpose of pain, then it no longer hurts and it becomes an investment for achieving a goal. Suffering can show a person where one is wrong and help one explore and discover one’s purpose by correcting his attitude.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #1112 – Avoiding Suffering and Pain,” 5/14/19

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The Spiritual Inanimate Level

Question: We know that the inanimate level wants to preserve itself. How can one move from this state to the vegetative level? How do we combine the two desires?

Answer: The inanimate level refers to all of nature. A spiritually inanimate level in me is a feeling of no inner spiritual movement, no possibility to bestow, to fulfill someone, to be somewhat similar to the Creator. On the contrary, there is an understanding that I exist under the control of my egoistic desires, which are given to me by the Creator and the Creator controls them.

The spiritually inanimate level is the realization that all my desires come from the Creator, are dictated by Him, and I am under His full authority. I am an egoist because He created me like this, and then I say that I am under Pharaoh’s control. This, however, is also the Creator, only in reverse.

I feel that I am ruled by the egoism given to me by the Creator. All my desires, all movements, everything I do—how I sit, walk, act, and think—the Creator generates in me.

I can then say that I am at the spiritually inanimate level. This is a spiritual level because it is connected with the Creator, and an inanimate level because not one of my movements are mine, everything is only His.

It is a very interesting state. It applies to no other people in our world because they are generally non-spiritual.

“Spiritual” means connection with the Creator. Moreover, a clear connection: I feel how the Creator moves my arms, legs, thoughts, feelings; everything I feel around me is also Him. Through all the “puppets” in my whole life, He has such an effect on me. All this is a spiritually inanimate level.

It is not an easy step in the attainment of the universe and the Creator.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/9/19

New Life #263 – Sexual Development In Humanity, Part 1

New Life #263 – Sexual Development in Humanity, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Humankind evolved gradually through the still, vegetative, living, and speaking levels. The sexual drive also developed through these four levels throughout history. In the 20th century, the speaking level requires an understanding of where we’re heading, just like a young man reaches the age of 20 and asks himself where he is going. At this level, the head should be above the body, especially in regard to sexuality. Our impulses to choose a spouse according to beauty, money, and status have begun to mutate and rot. When the head leads, contact with another person is only made if I can make him feel good. According to the new paradigm, an equal, inner, spiritual coupling occurs between mates and the sexual drive only wakes up as a result of this heart connection.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #263 – Sexual Development in Humanity,” Part 1, 11/28/13

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What Is More Important: The Internal Or The External?

Every degree consists of internal and external components, and the external part of the upper degree is connected to the inner part of the lower one. Thus, there is a connection between all the degrees, that is, one can ascend or descend from any level. Therefore, by preferring the internal to the external, that is, the maximum bestowal and the minimum reception, in both spirituality as well as in corporeality, a person expresses his desire to elevate the upper degree so it can rule over the lower. Every person in this top-down chain: Israel (those who serve the Creator and those who do not, the nations of the world within Israel) and the nations of the world can ascend the degrees because of their preference of the internal (upper) over the external (lower).

The inner part is the closest to spirituality because it refers to the upper degree, and if a person prefers it to the lower part, one ensures one’s ascent. Therefore, every person has the opportunity to choose the upper and by so doing, ascend above the current degree received from birth, from one’s natural properties. And there, once again, one chooses the internal and thus keeps ascending from the foot of the ladder where all the created beings exist to its very top.

No one is limited in anything: one begins according to the root of one’s soul and keeps working with it. Every person has an inner and outer part and is given free choice and equal opportunities to climb to the very top, to perform the greatest bestowal to the Creator.¹

To the measure of our rising above problems and concentrating on the Creator instead of focusing on them, we advance. Specifically, we have to decide what is more important: the upper part within us or the lower, the desire to enjoy or the intention to bestow. The importance of spiritual advancement, solidarity with the Creator and the purpose of creation, and involvement in the process of correction have to be so important to us that we simply stop feeling corporeal problems, we attribute no importance to them.

It all depends on what we prefer at every moment: our inner or our outer part, where do we want to be, what is more important for us? Our correct attitude toward the falling rockets [in Israel] will determine whether they will stop or not because they were designed to push us toward correct actions. We face the upper force, there is nothing else beside it, the good that does good. Right now, this force is sending us rockets, awakening us to change ourselves.

If we attain the right reaction with regard to the rockets, we will no longer think about the rockets but about our correction, and that is why the rockets will stop. But our goal was not to stop the rockets, but to reach adhesion with the upper force.²

Deciding that the external part is more important than the inner, we give power to the outer part to rise across the entire world. It turns out that the upper part considers the lower to be more important and neglects the upper. This is how the outer part of the world gains importance; that is, all the sinners of the world gain strength and opportunity to inflict damage on everyone else. Instead of calming them down and establishing order in the world, it pushes toward loving the other as yourself.

But if we chose the inner part within us over the outer, then by doing so, we establish that the inner part of the world, which concerns spirituality, influences the lower degrees and they begin to understand that spirituality is more important than corporeality. Everything is determined in the thought.

One must scrutinize on one’s own level so that one can choose the spiritual over the material. There is no other way to influence the world except by changing oneself on the inside, utterly raising the inner over the outer.³From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/6/19 Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“

What Is Stronger: Time Or Patience?

Question: You wrote on Instagram: “If you change, the world will change. And do not demand changes from the world if you do not change yourself. Improve yourself and everything will change.

“The world depends only on a person’s change, not on the change of others. You will find that they should not change. The whole world is in complete correction.”

While these processes are taking place, what is stronger: time or patience?

Answer: Time is like something that does not depend on us. Patience is something that depends on us. But we can, with the help of our patience, change time, speed it up or slow it down. Therefore, I believe that the most important thing is our attitude toward the world, that we change as quickly as possible, and then we will see the world rapidly changing in a good direction.

Question: In the end, it turns out that time will be subject to us?

Answer: Time will be subject to us and changing the world will be subject to us, depending on our own changes.

Question: What does it have to do with patience?

Answer: Patience means that we do not have to endure anything, we do not have to wait for something to change. We must change ourselves.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/3/19

New Life #262 – Sex Education: The Crisis Between Male And Female, Part 2

New Life #262 – Sex Education: The Crisis Between Male and Female, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

The family unit is breaking down due to men and women’s inability to communicate with each other. Our confusion and unhappiness is not coincidental as we are approaching a new degree of human development called “Adam,” which is based on mutual connection. We correct ourselves and our relationships by putting the connection in the center rather than the “I.” The choice of a partner takes place according to the soul, according to an internal fit for a common spiritual purpose. Sex will then come as an addition to the spiritual bond and then there will be greater pleasures in it. Breaking the boundaries of time, place, and movement can only occur in a spiritual connection between people.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #262 – Sex Education: The Crisis Between Male and Female,” Part 2, 11/27/13

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The Property Of Kabbalistic Books

Question: How can we scientifically explain, without mysticism or religious miracles, that reading the books written by Kabbalists helps correct our intention and change one’s inner state?

Answer: What does mysticism or religion have to do with it? Neither are part of Kabbalah.

Reading Kabbalistic books helps orient you internally toward a goal because they speak of how your soul should be aimed toward it. The same way we tune a musical instrument, we tune ourselves by reading Kabbalistic books.

This tuning fork comes through the books. Try reading them and you will feel it. In no way should you deafen it with any religious precepts, obligations, or various mystical bemusements.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/20/19

New Life #261 – Sex Education: The Crisis Between Male And Female, Part 1

New Life #261 – Sex Education: The Crisis Between Male and Female, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

The crisis between male and female is actually a crisis between two forces or the two elements of nature, plus and minus. In the 20th century humanity began to break all the good, natural barriers between man and woman and destroyed the foundation of life. Sex, the natural element, became artificial and took over everything, leaving a technical act in place of emotional contact. The result was emptiness. It turns out that we lack an understanding of what sex, love, masculinity, and femininity are. We need to investigate and create new male – female relationships with a higher attachment, above sex, in the middle line, through a joint heart.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #261 – “Sex Education: The Crisis Between Male and Female,” Part 1, 11/26/13

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Israel Needs Rebranding

Growing Spiritually

Question: How do we grow spiritually?

Answer: Growing spiritually means being in a group and engaging in it according to the method of Rabash, which we constantly study. This is an old method; it is simply called by the name of my teacher who was the last of a thousand-year-old Pleiad of Kabbalists that worked on this method.

Only if you exercise the method of connecting with others in a group, will all your problems gradually turn into sweetness.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/20/19

New Life #1111 – The Development Of Judaism: Settlement In The Land Of Israel, Part 2

New Life #1111 – The Development of Judaism: Settlement in the Land of Israel, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

The people of Israel had a tendency toward connection and love. However, the egowas awakened and had to be conquered after they entered the land of Israel. The construction of the Temple symbolizes the construction of bonds of connection and love in which a higher power is discovered. Cohens, Levites, Israel, sacrificial worship, and so on, mean that they were taking an egoistic desire and transforming it into a desire to bestow. In fact, there is no reality other than our desires with which we work. They portray imaginary places. A person who wants to approach the Creator, the power of bestowal and love, sacrifices the ego. A nation that passes through inner corrections becomes “as one man with one heart” and the power of bestowal becomes revealed.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #1111 – The Development of Judaism: Settlement in the Land of Israel,” Part 2, 4/9/19

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Michael Laitman and Matt Beat Talk About Anti-Semitism

Posted on June 10th, 2019 at 10:38 am

Weaving A Blanket Of Love

It is said that man’s work is to raise the Shechina from the dust, to restore the common soul of Adam HaRishon, and to rebuild the fallen tent of King David. It is about restoring the connection between us, becoming as one man with one heart, as it was before Adam’s sin, before the shattering.

And although egoism prevents us from doing this, we do not destroy it, but we rise above it and build the connection between us. This is called “weaving a blanket of love,” which should cover all creatures as one body. Thus, we reach the end of correction, returning to the one soul in which one light is clothed, the Creator, enjoying the creations He created.¹

The Creator intentionally created the evil inclination so that we could overcome it and turn it to good. He purposely puts obstacles to our unification, and we have to look for a way to change them for the good. You should not berate your egoism, because it is an angel, the power of the Creator, sent to us as a hindrance.

The Creator seems to set a barrier in front of me that needs to be jumped over. This barrier is quite low, almost on the ground, but an impenetrable wall stands behind it. It is the same with the evil inclination: we do not need to destroy it but to rise above it. I cannot rise above it! Only if the Creator removes the wall, or rather, if He moves away, then to this extent I will be able to rise above my egoism.

It turns out that progress in spirituality depends on a person’s connection with the Creator. The evil inclination is help against me that helps in this. Therefore, we need to treat egoism with understanding and respect and realize that this barrier is help against us.

Our evil inclination depicts this whole world for us. We see ourselves, people, inanimate nature, plants, and animals. This whole egoistic world was created in order to rise above it and merge with the Creator.

We understand our evil inclination so much that we begin to love it. After all, both forces, the good and the evil, act to help us. Otherwise, it turns out that I try to hide from my egoism as an enemy, but I am also not capable of loving my neighbor. That is, either way, I am not successful and I don’t understand what to do with this life. But it has to lead me to the absolute good, when even darkness will shine as the Light and the angel of death will turn into a holy angel.

Therefore, weaving a blanket of love, you should treat all negative incidents as being sent by the upper force. The Creator purposely created the evil inclination, and therefore, there is no evil in the world; everything is intended to direct us toward the upper force and eternal life. If we attribute all these forces to the same source, then we weave the right basis for the blanket of love that will cover us.

In essence, the Creator is revealed this way: between the good and evil forces we reveal the thought of creation and the attitude of the Creator toward us.²
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/19, Weaving A Blanket of Love (Preparation for the Convention in North America Convention 2019)

Connection With The Creator Is The Basis Of Ancient Languages

Question: Is the Hebrew language a kind of middle line between letters and hieroglyphs?

Answer: I did not study the spiritual origin of hieroglyphs. I can only say one thing: the basis of all ancient languages is the connection of the person with the Creator. Although Hebrew conveys the most complete connection, and therefore the Torah and all other spiritual sources are given on it, we cannot say that through Chinese, Indian, Ethiopian, Egyptian characters, etc., there is no connection of the person with the Creator.

In any case, there is a connection because before any human began to feel how to express his opinion, his feeling, he received this knowledge from the Creator. It did not arise out of nowhere just like that.

In this sense, all languages have spiritual roots, only they have all deteriorated or disappeared. Hebrew is the only language that has remained the same, and therefore the Torah and all other books are given in Hebrew, of which all of humanity has gradually realized its spiritual sources.

We simply do not know the roots; we do not know the correct connection with the Creator in any ancient language But it undoubtedly exists, otherwise nothing could have happened.

In addition, scientists have intervened on the basis of their conclusions, dissertations, etc., and started to “break” them according to their understanding. From that, of course, nothing from the original sources of all languages remains.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian,1/6/19

New Life #1110 – The Development Of Judaism: Egypt And The Wilderness, Part 1

New Life #1110 – The Development of Judaism: Egypt and the Wilderness, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Judaism is founded upon the correction of 613 desires to receive by combining them with an intention to bestow. In Egypt, the people of Israel acquire the power of reception, discover that this ego is enslaving them, and learn how to correct it with the help of Moses. In the wilderness, the people ate both physical and spiritual Manna. They were nourished by the spiritual Manna, which is the rise of a request for the ego’s correction and the reception of the unique power of love in nature that enveloped them. They discover the higher power whose goal is to bring them to connection, wholeness, and eternity.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #1110 – The Development Of Judaism: Egypt And The Wilderness,” Part 1, 4/9/19

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Appreciate States Of Descent

Question: We are trying to work with friends, we want to bestow, to enter the ten. There is a feeling that we have a great desire for spirituality and that all thoughts are directed toward it.

Then suddenly this sensation is lost; we forget about everything and have nothing left of this state. Why does that happen?

Answer: It is because only one small portion of your egoism is revealed to you, which you rose above and began to, at least, listen to what is happening in spirituality. In order to reveal greater egoism, you have to add it. Therefore, egoism is added to you, and this is accompanied by a feeling of descent.

Suppose we go through a certain state, talk about the group, feel something. In order to rise to the next level, we need an additional bit of egoism. If at our initial egoistic level we had 10 kg of egoism, then another 10 kilograms are added. Since this egoism is not yet corrected, we feel a descent of minus 10.

But actually it is a plus. Is it possible to grow without egoism? Now, working in the group, I turn this egoism into an ascent, and so I grow to the next step.

Therefore, we go through states of descent and we should appreciate them! The most important thing is to appreciate our egoism. If it were not there, we would not be able to rise, we could not feel the Creator. We need to reach a state of minus infinity..

We must feel the entire Malchut of the world of Infinity, the whole huge Kli (vessel of the soul), everything the Creator created. Can you imagine the great egoism we must reach? Otherwise we will not feel ourselves against the Creator. After all, the connection with Him goes only through our ego.

It is said that Pharaoh brings Israel closer, that is, people directed to the Creator, to Him that gives them their egoism. Therefore, we must be able to overcome all the states of the descent in order to most effectively implement the revealed egoism.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/4/19

One Force Responsible For Everything

Question: If the Creator includes all reality, then is He fully responsible for all the troubles at the lower level in our world?

Answer: No one bears any responsibility except the Creator. The Creator starts and performs everything, makes all decisions, and gets results. It is the same force.

It leads us through all the trivialities and problems of life, pushes us in all directions, and leads us into all sorts of conflicts.

We are lost inside this life, and it is precisely because of these circumstances, this “roller coaster,” along which we constantly turn up and down, to come to a state where we need to relax, surrender to the stream carrying us, and wish to be merged with this force that governs everything.

Can I achieve this or not? If I can, I do not need anything else because everything suddenly becomes static, calm, and serene. There is only one thought—the purpose of creation, and this purpose is embodied in us.

This thought draws all sorts of changes in my perception in me, and this inner movie that is spinning in me, I perceive as a world outside of me. But in fact, it does not exist, everything happens inside me.

I need to gradually adapt to this picture, to live in it so that it does not interfere with me, and my incorrect perception does not prevent me from living in this world too. It will turn out that I exist in two worlds: the upper world, which the Creator shows me, and the world that represents my distorted consciousness.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/27/19

New Life #1109 – Coping With Anger

New Life #1109 – Coping With Anger
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, anger derives from imbalance. The dominance of the ego in a person distorts his picture of the world. He feels unable to control a situation and requires the influence of a relaxing environment to calm him down. The environment must help him rise above the anger. Everything that happens to us is a game that comes from above and directs us to ascend further and further.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #1109 – Coping With Anger,” 4/11/19

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Kabbalah And Superstition

Question: What does Kabbalah say about superstition?

Answer: Superstition is an invention of our world, psychology, and nothing more.

Kabbalah is completely abstracted from all beliefs, superstitions, and from anything connected to mysticism, that is, from everything that is in this world.

Leave it alone, dedicate yourself to revealing the upper world and the Creator, and you will see that it will replace everything for you. You will receive answers to all questions, moreover, explicit and clear answers, and will begin to work with your soul.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 12/23/18

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The Closer To Joy, The Closer To The Creator

It is written: “Serve the Creator with joy.” If there is no joy, it is a sign that we are not in spirituality. Bestowal is impossible without joy. It is written in The Book of Zohar that “Shechina is only in the perfect place: not in the place of lack, not in the place of deficiency, not in the place of sorrow, but in the right place, in the place of joy.” Indeed, there is illumination from the presence of the Creator in the corrected place, and this brings joy to a person.

By this sign, it can always be determined whether a person is in spirituality or not. When beginning to study, for a long time a person does not feel the corrections taking place in himself or he perceives them in the opposite form; therefore, he may feel discouraged, irritated, or in disagreement with the changes taking place within.

Here joy is a very significant moment. If a person feels joyless, then his desires do not correspond to the Creator’s. They are opposite to Him. As the desire is being corrected, joy is revealed in it. The stronger and deeper the joy, the greater the upper light, the presence of the Creator, Shechina, is revealed.

If the upper force is ready to be revealed in a person, then joy appears in him first and then the Creator. Joy is an illumination from above, a special power of the light, which manifests itself in response to a prayer, a request to the Creator from below.

When we turn to the Creator with questions and requests, when we want to contact Him, then as a response we receive the light from above that corrects our desires and fills them.

This light first of all brings joy and then all other revelations. Therefore, the Shechina (the presence of the Creator) is revealed only in joy, which manifests itself first.

If I want to achieve bestowal, I must always be in joy. If it is not there, then I need to check myself: where else in me is there still uncorrected egoism that disallows me to reveal the Creator? We do not know whether we are approaching the revelation of the Creator, and therefore, the Kabbalists give us the criterion to test ourselves: am I getting closer to joy or, on the contrary, am I moving away from it every day?

From these movements to a greater or lesser degree of joy, one can judge to what extent one is approaching the revelation of the upper force or moving away from it. After all, joy is a consequence of good deeds, that is, corrections.

In every state one needs to stay in joy because “there is none else beside the Creator”—everything comes from Him. No one can secretly do something bad from the Creator to us. This does not happen—everything comes from above. The Creator stands behind every person and affects us through this theater. If I do not have an egoistic intention to receive, then I will always be in joy. I do not care what the Creator gives me: the main thing is that He continuously takes care of me. I do not weigh what is more pleasant and profitable for me in my egoism, and therefore, I accept everything with joy.

By this sign, one can check oneself: whether we are moving in our groups toward correction and revelation of the Creator, whether we set an example to our friends that we always have to be in joy in order to bring the revelation of the upper force closer.¹

Joy is the consequence of what I bestow to my friends, to the Creator, to humanity. Joy is the result of bestowal because by bestowing I become similar to the Creator. Because of my actions, I receive an illumination, which is called joy.

Spiritual joy comes from the fact that through my actions I help the Creator fulfill all of creation. Joy is a consequence of the fact that I, with the help of the Creator, fulfill all of creation and thus bestow pleasure to Him.²
From Lesson 5, Latin America Convention 2019 “Building A Future Society” 5/18/19, Day 2, Serve the Lord with Gladness

New Life #1107 – True Self Realization

New Life #1107 – True Self Realization
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, self-realization means attaining the capacity to manage the upper force that governs all of reality. Unlike other methods based on material achievements, man comes to know the source of all life and experiences perfection and eternity.
From KabTV’s “New Life #1107 – True Self Realization,” 4/9/19

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