Between Minus And Plus

Question: How can we say that we enter into negative connections if we are created as negative elements and are connected with each other?

Answer: On one hand, we all are egoists and are egotistically connected with each other, that is true. Yet, on the other hand, we must turn our negative connections into positive ones.

Then precisely from the negative and positive connections, which are opposite to each other, between them, we will feel the upper world and the Creator. That is why we need to keep all the negative and above them, try to create all the positive.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 8/18/19

New Life #290 – Why Don’t People Understand Me?

New Life #290 – Why Don’t People Understand Me?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

We cannot feel someone else because everything we absorb is through ourselves. Everyone has a well-developed ego and doesn’t really care about others or what they feel. Each one of us lives within a balloon and wants what feels good to oneself. If the balloons connect, it is only for selfish interests. We don’t know or understand each other or ourselves. We hide and clash. Nevertheless, it is possible to create mutual understanding and connection between people with the help of the integral education method. A truly free, happy, and unlimited life can be found outside of the balloon, meaning outside of concern for only oneself.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #290 – Why Don’t People Understand Me?” 1/19/14

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Why Do Children Take Drugs?

Question: Eleven-year-old girls in Berlin take ecstasy. An increase in the number of adolescents and children who abuse drugs has been recorded. This is of concern to both politicians and scientists.

When people take these drugs, they become sociable, feel like they are in love, and are more open to others. However, when the effect ends, they feel irritable, depressed, a loss of  strength and concentration. Such a “hangover” after taking the pills can last several days.

At the same time, a drug-related environment is growing in Berlin. You can go to a place where drugs can be tested for purity, and cleaned so as to avoid death.

These are eleven-year-old children! These are fourth graders. Where does such a craving for drugs come from in kids?

Answer: A young person wants to feel good and interesting. The world becomes good around him; something that he really lacks. The world becomes cheerful; something that is not in this world. The world is becoming friendly, which really it never is. He builds his world with this pill.

It is very hard for them. If some time ago people were in the ranks, and it satisfied them, they worked hard, and this put them in their place. However, the younger generation is unlike that, it does not want that. It wants to feel good in this particular way. Generations pass, and the German spirit is changing.

15% of Germany, France, and the UK are immigrants. This means that the social atmosphere is changing at a breakneck pace. The young generation of German children have to somehow adapt to this. They are taught, they are told, and they themselves see that they must somehow perceive the world that adults have made for them. This is not the same Europe anymore.

Question: You said that children are looking for a way out of themselves in order to leave the closed world they are in. How can I do that? What does the wisdom of Kabbalah say about this?

Answer: Kabbalah says that we have to make them a happy childhood. Adults need to try very hard to make this happen. We have to know how to do it, and they don’t.

Question: How can we do it?

Answer: By being connected through good relationships, and then, on this basis, create an atmosphere for children where they feel good, so that at eleven years old they would want to play among themselves, and not plunge into their world of illusion.

People have to build a society, but they do not. They obey multiculturalism and liberalism. The result is that they simply lose themselves and the next generation.

Interactions between people are something that they lack, and so they run away to pills.

We are present now at the rebirth of a generation. There was a generation of computers, then a generation of phones, and now this is already going to the next level.

Question: Scientists say that we live in a time that is lightning fast. Every second people send sixty million messages on social networks. If earlier, we perceived several frames per minute when we watched a movie, now we perceive several dozens. That is, we have become absolutely impatient.

Children apparently also want the result, they are perhaps unconsciously striving for, here and now. How can we overcome this impatience? In general, does impatience somehow help in our fast-paced time?

Answer: I disbelieve all of this because in the end a person needs to experience the fulfillment of his desires and feelings. He thinks he will fill it with a number of frames per second. It will not happen. He thinks that he will fill himself with the fact that he will travel around the world, forget himself, and feast his eyes—this will also end.

All this gradually ends. In addition, the crisis will not allow us to turn around the world this way and do what we want. A huge crisis is approaching, and I hope that it puts us all in our place.

Question: How can I replace an ecstasy pill with a spiritual “pill”—a “pill” of losing my temper?

Answer: Replacing with a spiritual “pill,” of course would be nice, but for this you and I will have to work very hard. We will have to spread this knowledge about the possibility of going out of ourselves into much higher spheres than ecstasy, telephones, computers, and so on.

The human being is practically unlimited in his comprehension, in his development, a sense of eternity and the perfection of nature. We have to show him that this is possible. We have to develop in him the opportunity to feel the upper world literally in childhood. I hope that we will live to see it.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 7/14/19

Why Do I Feel Good When Others Feel Bad?

Question: Why do I feel good when others feel bad? Why am I envious of people? How can I change this?

Answer: It is because you do not feel them as parts of your spiritual body.

I am very sorry for you, but I also understand your state. If you could see that you exist with them in one common vessel and that the light, that is, spiritual life in this vessel cannot exist precisely because of your attitude toward them, then of course, you would change.

We will get to this, and you will see that it is possible.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 7/28/19

World—Reality Or Illusion? Part 1

No Limit to Perception

Remark: One can study the article “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah” forever. I have gone back to it for 20 years and still find something new in it every time.

My Comment: The need for a beginning is felt more from the end. Any real science develops a person so that he needs to study it again and again.

Remark: Let’s say The Study of the Ten Sefirot studies the physics of the spiritual worlds, and every time you seem to discover it anew. However, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah” seems like an ordinary article that can be treated lightly, and suddenly you discover such depths within it.

My Comment: This is not because of the article, but because it expands the limits of your perception and your attitude to the world. The first four topics in this article are “A conduct of general and particular,” “The Abundance of Partzufim, Sefirot, and Worlds,” “Two Conducts—from Above Downward and from Below Upward,” and “Abstract Names” in the wisdom of Kabbalah. They talk about many concepts that are very complex and serious.

When you get to the fifth or sixth concept you begin to understand that you, in fact, still do not understand the first ones. You have read, agreed with them, and moved on. And now you see how comprehensive they are internally, and you again turn to them. There is no getting around it, you have to do something about it. So you study them again.

How many times do we go through all the articles of Baal HaSulam? Those who read “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah” for the first time today cannot even imagine what else they will see in it after they go through it the second and third time, or in a year, or in 10 years.

For example, I have been studying the wisdom of Kabbalah for 40 years and I cannot even compare what I had imagined about these concepts previously and now today. The current me and the person who opened this article 40 years ago are completely different people.

Question: Does it mean that in Kabbalah there is no such thing as in our world, “I have already read this”?

Answer: There is no such thing in Kabbalah. In anything! You get into this wisdom and you immerse yourself in it without the ability to somehow finish it.

It talks about such a round, interconnected world that you can pull one string and all of reality will change for you. Every new definition, every new sensation, and new attainment changes everything because there are only ten Sefirot, but each of them consists of another ten and another ten; it turns out that there is no limit to perception.

The world is infinite, although it consists of only ten parts, ten emanations.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 9/15/19

Unite On A More Internal Level

Before we get to ask, the question comes down from above and enters our mind and feelings. Only then do we sense it and proceed to ask. The Creator answers us through books and teachers.

We are completely controlled from above, and all that is left to do is to annul ourselves. Only by annulling can we feel that we’ve done something ourselves and not just received from the Creator. Annulment involves our participation, our freewill. We may not know how or what to do, but through faith above knowledge we chose to be a part of the neutral zone above reason. If not for this tiny, but most important part, we would not exist as creations but would be similar to the still, vegetative, and animal nature.¹

In this world we are given the friends, the ten, the teacher, and the method. All together it is called my teacher, meaning that which ties me to the goal of creation, the purpose of my life.

The concept of the teacher includes the following:

· A person who studied longer than I have,
· A group of friends that I advance with,
· A method passed down to us by the teacher,
· The books that reached our days through many generations,
· The Creator that we aspire toward through our connection with the books and with the teacher.

All this I combine into one, so that through relating to it the right way and accumulating a certain amount of actions, I would reach a palpable result.

I must annul myself before the Creator in order to advance. This is where the teacher helps me by directing me not toward himself but toward the Creator, as well as the group that directs me not toward the group but toward the Creator. Thus, “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator” aim me toward the upper force. I can annul before the Creator by annulling before the teacher and the group that direct me toward Him.²

The teacher is comprised of two parts:

1. A man of this world,
2. The spiritual component.

It doesn’t matter which human image the teacher portrays to us in this world, for it all depends on the society he lives in and his culture. Each one of us is a product of their environment, we cannot make ourselves different. We need to discount our vision and perception of the outer image of a person and only account for the inner one.

We should treat each other the same way in the group and throughout the world, taking into consideration only their internal qualities, rather than external ones. There are many people from various cultures and nationalities among us. During the lesson on the screen I keep seeing Spain, Peru, the Baltic, Odessa, Plovdiv, Moscow, Kiev, and New York…  A multitude of cities on our screens and of course these are people with different mentalities, various standards of living and outlooks on life. We must erase all of that from our perception.

I don’t look at these differences and only see their connection with the Creator. This is the part I am looking for. I have to collect these connections with the Creator from everyone, as if I am gathering fruit. I want to join in their connection with the Creator, for they already have this connection or they would not be studying with me. I have to increase my connection with the Creator by means of connecting with this quality in every friend.

In order to achieve this, ten people are needed. If there are nine friends with me as the tenth, we can surely affect the Creator. As if we are ringing His doorbell and He opens the door. But on the condition that there are ten of us (Minyan), the minimum quantity that counts. Less than ten is not taken into consideration. In spirituality, ten is as one. This is the difference between this world and the upper world, where only the connection between the ten is felt.

And this is where we do not differ from each other anywhere in the world, and it makes no difference to me whether to unite with Spain or with Almaty, New York, Kiev, St. Petersburg, or Toronto. The main thing is to have ten people, and we will enter into contact with the Creator.

However, if we don’t have ten people, we have to seek them out, we must awaken the friends that stayed home to come to the meeting or to join in virtually. This is the only thing that’s important. We’ve built a virtual network of connections around the world between us, and I hope that we will develop a mechanism that will unite us on a more internal level. With the help of this tool we return to Babylon, but already in a corrected state. From the side of our nature the Babylonian breakage reigns between us, but above it we are united.³
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/19, “Baal HaSulam Memorial Day”

How Not To Be An Idol Worshiper

Question: There is a certain duality: on one hand, uniting with the Creator, on the other hand, connecting with friends.

I can’t manage to put an equal sign between these concepts. I have the feeling I am either with my friends or I am with the Creator. Is this some kind of idolatry and at the same time it carries you there?

Answer: This is true. Indeed, if your egoism draws you to the Creator, it is idol worshiping. It seems to the ego that it can be filled there. It wants you to relate to the Creator in this way: I want the Creator, I love the Creator, I will be filled with Him, unite, I will do everything for Him, we will succeed with Him.

Remark: Yes, but the Creator is in my friends, He is behind them, He is in this connection. But I only understand this, and very rarely feel it.

My Comment: That is your problem.

Question: Can we solve this together?

Answer: No, you will solve this problem with your ten and with the Creator. There is no other way.

Question: What do I personally need to add to my ten so that I can finally stop focusing on this “mythical figure”?

Answer: Explain to them that the Creator is attained only within the ten itself. Otherwise, you will not find Him, otherwise it will be idol worshiping. This is called “creating an idol,” some statue.

Only within the ten, only in their right relations does the general image of bestowal between friends, called the Creator, manifest itself. Therefore, the Creator says: “You have created Me.” Indeed, with the help of the correct mutual relationship with each other, we create an image of the Creator. And before that, He does not exist. Therefore, the Creator is called Boreh: Bo u-Reh (Come and See).
From the Convention In Moldova “Day One” 9/6/19, “How Can I Affect the Society,” Lesson 3
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Creating The Creator

Question: How can we say that we are creating the Creator?

Answer: Of course, we create the Creator. There is an upper force around us called Atzmuto, (in Himself). This is not even the Creator but simply an upper force under whose influence the creation appears in the universe, a Kli (vessel), the desire to receive.

We do not deal with the Atzmuto itself because this is an abstract force called “the root cause,” which created a second force. The second force is the Creator, the light, the desire to bestow.

We, the creation, are currently totally broken into 600,000 main components, which in turn is fragmented even further into billions of particles.

If we unite among ourselves, then gradually, to the measure of our connection, we begin to feel the Creator within us. Meaning, we “create the Creator,” we manifest Him within us. And outside of us, we do not even know whether He exists or not.

Therefore, it is all about creating such a system between us that allows the Creator to manifest Himself.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabalah,” 7/28/19