Thoughts And Mind

Question: What are thoughts and mind?

Answer: Thoughts don’t exist by themselves. Thoughts are what happens in the mind. The mind is a derivative of desires. Our desires are a derivative of the desire of the Creator. The desire of the Creator is a derivative of His intention.

This precise chain is manifested in us in order to create desires. In this case, desires reveal thoughts, and thoughts weave the mind. Once a certain network of thoughts are formed within us and we can own and operate it, then we are able to evaluate our desires, the influences of the Creator, and try to connect our mind with His mind, and our desires with His desires.

Desires are primary, and the mind serves the desires. It turns out that the more desires a person has, the bigger his mind is that serves and satisfies them.

Question: Does it mean that highly egoistic people are smarter?

Answer: Elevated egoism means not large, but a versatile egoism. In this case, the human mind of a person is growing. Yet, if his egoism is large, but one-sided, his mind is very small and narrow.

Let’s say, I want to earn a billion dollars. Such egoism is one-sided. However, if I want to earn money, be a scientist, and know what the universe is, then my mind unfolds on all the desires. Therefore, it must be very versatile in order to be able to serve them.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/15/17

Are We Guarded From Above? Part 10

Throughout his entire life, a person cannot make a single action aimlessly, without any connection with the upper force. However, it is preferable that he or she acts only in order to resemble the upper force and to connect with it since thereby he approaches revelation.

Question: Why do I need the upper force? Why do I need to resemble it? In what way is it connected to my everyday life? I get up in the morning; I go to work; my concern is for my children to get to school safely and return home safely. I would like for everything to go well at work, for my boss to be in a good mood, and for my projects to go smoothly.

In the evening I return home and want to be greeted by a satisfied wife and happy children so that there is no stress or aggravation.

This daily routine repeats year after year, only with new problems, discernments, inventions, and losses. How does trying to resemble the upper force, which theoretically protects my life, fit into all this? What kind of connection, if any, does it have to a person’s life?

Answer: All your life you were following commands of the upper force without even being aware of who was controlling you. You just ran along the tracks of life like a toy train that is set in motion by a remote control. And it seemed to you that you did everything yourself.

The problem lies in the fact that the upper force is hidden from us. But if you begin to sense who is controlling you and for what purpose, and how you can participate in all the things that He is doing with you, then you will understand that you are not being aimlessly led around in circles like a toy train. Precisely by participating in these actions you will be able to attain the One who is controlling you and to see your entire life from His perspective.

And then in all that you do, you will attempt to establish contact with the Controller. A person must conduct this type of inner work each moment. That is, all that you do in life is only in order to reveal the upper force that directs you. You begin to sense how it behaves at each moment.

Question: A person senses his complete vulnerability in life, in not knowing what tomorrow will bring. Does a connection with the upper force give us a greater sense of security in tomorrow?

Answer: If a person is connected with the upper force, then he is not concerned at all about tomorrow, the main thing is to remain in contact with the Controller. What difference does it make where He is leading me? I am not concerned about the next moment, my only concern is to not lose contact with Him.

This provides such a protective shield in life that nothing else is required because you are connected to the upper mind. Connection with the upper force is like an insurance coverage for all situations in life from the biggest and most successful insurance company that includes all of existence. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah offers a person.

Question: But what if the person is not religious?

Answer: This has nothing to do with religion, only with a desire to attain the force that governs us.

Question: Where do we look for this upper force?

Answer: We need to look for it inside our own hearts with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah. It’s not an easy task and it requires time. But ultimately, each will be able to “know your G-d and serve Him.”
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From KabTV’s “A New Life,” #818, 01/26/17

New Life #657 – The Split Between Right And Left

New Life #657 – The Split Between Right And Left
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

There are two forces in nature: reception and giving. The wisdom of Kabbalah is the method for balance between these two forces. Essentially, there are two general rules: “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) and “What is hateful to you, do not do to your friend” (Shabbat 31a).
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From KabTV’s “New Life #657 – The Split Between Right And Left,” 12/8/15

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How Do You Become Devoted To The Wisdom Of Kabbalah?

Question from Facebook: You said in one of your lessons that you all your time with your teacher Rabash. I was very impressed by this, but, at the same time, I also felt afraid. I feel that I will not be able to devote myself to the wisdom of Kabbalah like that.

Answer: Everyone acts according to his inclination. I knew that if I found information about the meaning of life, I would totally devote myself to studying it. It was when I heard Rabash’s first words that I felt that this was what I had wanted to hear for 30 years until I found him.

If you accurately explain to a person the reason for the creation of the world, what we should do, what we should reach, and you bring examples and present everything in a very logical manner, there is no reason to refute it.

Question: Does every individual look for a teacher according to the nature of his soul? How does that happen?

Answer: I looked for everything in a purely logical manner. I was never interested in assumptions and religious tales, nor in mysticism or different philosophies. I was only interested in pure accurate logic.

There was a shocking contradiction between a person’s externality and his internal world until I finally understood what a wise Kabbalist and a real Jewish sage means compared to the external impression that he made on people who didn’t know about his internal filling; it was amazing.

Every person has a destiny, a measure, a place, a day, and a time in this history. Perhaps I had to do that in our generation and you will do it in the next generation or in another time or another dimension.

In any case, everyone will fulfill his destiny and will totally resemble everyone else. We will all reach the same upper level!
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/1/17

Love Is The Fulfillment Of The Desires Of The Other

Question: Where is the boundary between the spiritual and material worlds? How do we cross it? Does this boundary exist?

Answer: The boundary between the spiritual and material worlds is inside a person. We can consider and measure everything only relative to a person. Therefore, our attitude to the world and to life is very subjective; while I live, the universe shines.

But if I exit my egoism that psychologically is my nature and rise above it, I begin to feel the entire universe in a completely different sense. Because from the inside, I already see everything in the Light of bestowal, love, and altruism. My sensory organs perceive absolutely different characteristics and values, and therefore, the world looks completely different to me.

Question: Why is this called love?

Answer: Because I want to do good to my neighbor. I don’t know what is called love in our world, but in the wisdom of Kabbalah, love refers to such an attitude to the neighbor when you want to fulfill any of his desires. To do what he wants means to love him.

By feeling the neighbor as yourself, you reach your final correction and exit the framework of our world into the framework of the next world, the next degree of attainment and cognition.

Comment: There is an interesting phenomenon in physics that is called synergy, when the system is not equal to the sum of its subsystems. This, to some extent, is reminiscent of what Kabbalah says about the amazing connection, when people, through their unity, begin to feel like one single whole, which no longer divides into separate particles.

My Comment: The collective is much bigger than the sum of its parts.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/25/16

Are We Guarded From Above? Part 9

Question: How does a Mezuzah (doorpost) symbolize the spiritual force that protects the soul?

Answer: A Mezuzah has four components, which together represent the entire HaVaYaH: Yod-Key-Vav-Key, in other words, the upper system. A person, wishing to resemble the Creator, enters this system of complete HaVaYaH. It is then his home, the mother’s womb, in which he develops.

The system HaVaYaH symbolizes the loving attitude toward us from this upper force, the Creator. Attaining love of others, we resemble the Creator who loves His creation and unite with Him in a mutual embrace.

Question: If He loves me, why does the Creator not embrace me now?

Answer: Because you do not correspond to Him, you disregard Him, you are opposite to the upper force of the system, and therefore undesirable.

The Creator relates to everyone with love, but His goal is to bring everyone to attainment of the upper force, in order for all to know the Creator, to reveal Him and become equal to Him. In this way we stop being puppets without free will, not understanding anything in our own lives, and raise ourselves to a higher level, eternal and absolute.

Question: But what is the purpose of the commandment to put a Mezuzah in the doorway?

Answer: It has to remind us that there is the upper force on which we are dependent and we need to resemble it, behave as it does. As it is merciful, so we should to be merciful, as it is compassionate, so we should be compassionate. In the end, all is very simple.

Question: So the Mezuzah symbolizes the force of love and positive connection between us?

Answer: Just as any other commandment in the physical world, it directs us to the need to follow it spiritually, internally.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life,” #819, 01/26/2017

The Creator “Sells” Himself To The Created Beings

Question: Does egoism manage me and I am operated by it, or does the Creator manage me and I (my egoism) am operated by Him?

Answer: It isn’t that simple. It is easy to say that the Creator manages me and that I am operated by Him, but in fact, I have to build a kind of a connection mechanism with the friends through which we can manage the Creator.

It says that the Creator “sells” Himself to the created beings, just as parents are totally dependent on their children.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/18/16

New Life #658 – Beyond Right And Left

New Life #658 – Beyond Right And Left
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

Today both the right and the left are capitalistic approaches. Only after we learn how the system of nature is constructed, how the left and the right are integrated and how the balance between them develops life ahead, can we prosper.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #658 – Beyond Right And Left,” 12/8/15

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