Entries in the 'Q&A' Category

Start-Stop Movement

41.01Question: How do we quickly skip over unclear states of fogginess on the spiritual path?

Answer: If you know that everything you go through is intended only to compel you toward greater integration, then you can quickly overcome any state. You can go through a hundred states per minute and fly over all the bumps as if gliding.

My Comment: But you’ve said that a person transitions from state to state so quickly and does not even realize which one he’s in.

Answer: No this is incorrect. If I don’t understand, then what is the point of going through them? I need to understand, grasp, and feel each of the states, but all this happens in a fraction of a second, you could say, or even beyond time.

You feel yourself existing in this moment and in a certain state. That is, in relation to the purpose of creation and the correct integration into the spiritual system with your freewill, you feel where you are approaching this system or moving away from it.

It is such a start-stop movement. There is no calculation going on here; I will do it one way or another. No! It is simple, forward-backward, backward-forward. You move forward, then you are pulled back, and then you move forward and you are pulled back. All the time you move like that, like along a triangular saw; you’re lowered down, you are moving further forward, then you’re lowered down, you are moving further forward, and again you’re lowered down.

Question: But how can you determine whether you come out of this state or not? Where is the beginning and the end, and aren’t you stuck for a long time?

Answer: The fact is that when there are sensations, the brain should not work because we are desire, not reason. If I feel and that feeling is sufficient for me, my brain practically does not get engaged.

Why does a person rest when he is at home in his armchair, in familiar surroundings? He does not need to activate the brain. His feelings are activated, although, on a very small level, and that’s it. As soon as there is a sensory disturbance, the brain immediately switches to high gear.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Acceleration of States” 12/26/11

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Why Don’t We Hear the Creator?

294.4Shakura writes:

I live in Kazakhstan. I am a person of a completely different upbringing and religion. But I can no longer live without your programs because they put me in an extraordinary peaceful set of mind.

When I hear you say “the Creator,” I immediately agree that the Creator exists, and there is none else besides Him, and He is goodness and love. And I feel so good about it.

Recently, I came across a quote from Rav Kook. I read about him, and it turns out that he was a Kabbalist. 

Rav Kook wrote: “The voice of the Creator calls to a man from the depths of his soul, but the turmoil of life suppresses it so much that it is not heard.”

Does it mean that this voice exists within us?

This quote haunts me, and it stays with me all the time. I beg you, please, explain it to me. Piece by piece, if possible, and not all of it at once. I am really looking forward to this. I wish you good health and lots and lots of strength.

Answer: Of course. The Creator exists in each of us but, unfortunately, we do not hear Him.

Question: Based on this quote, Shakura writes: “Do we have to push through  the turmoil of life to hear it?”

Answer: Yes, we should relate everything to the Creator—that everything that happens is all from Him. And then, if we persistently strive for the Creator and fight our way to Him, we will ultimately find Him within ourselves.

Question: So we should go through turmoil to hear His voice?

Answer: Yes a person cannot live without turmoil.

Question: Continuation of Rav Kook’s quote: “But in no case does this voice itself disappear because it is this voice that comprises the basis and cause of everything that exists.”

Shakura asks: “It turns out that the voice of the Creator is the cause of everything that exists?”

Answer: Yes.

Question: What is the “voice of the Creator”?

Answer: The voice of the Creator is an appeal to the creation, to man. It is not only within man but it exists in each creation, in each atom that spins, in a molecule, and so on. The voice of the Creator is the energy that animates all of the creation. This is called the “voice of the Creator.”

Question: We understand what a voice is, and we can hear a voice. And when you say “voice,” what do you mean by that?

Answer: The appeal that twists everything.

Question: But what do I hear, “I am talking to you”? What is this? Or is it too corporeal?

Answer: No any of our appeals to creation, to others, and to the Creator is in order to communicate our desire, our heart, and our wishes to the one who we are addressing.

Question: And where is the voice of the Creator here?

Answer: The voice of the Creator is in what He arouses initially, before that.

Question: That is, He arouses us to turn to somebody?

Answer: Yes, otherwise we would not have risen from the inanimate state to at least vegetative, animate, and human.

Question: Do we begin with the inanimate state?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So, in the beginning, we do not hear any voice?

Answer: No.

Question: And then it begins to arouse us?

Answer: Inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human state.

Question: So what you say all the time about good connections, about relationships among people, is this where the Creator is pushing us, leading us?

Answer: The Creator, of course! Only the Creator arouses us and pushes us toward each other.

Comment: The last phrase from this quote: “And those who forcefully try to suppress this voice within themselves only strengthen the connection between the soul and the voice to the point that it constantly sounds in them, and they can no longer escape from it or suffocate it.”

My Response: Yes the Creator achieves His goal anyway, and man begins to reveal Him within himself, and everyone comes to the Creator.

Question: Shakura asks: “So, it turns out that the more we try to suffocate the voice of the Creator within ourselves the louder it sounds?”

Answer: Yes.

Question: She asks: “Isn’t it a paradox?” After all, we are trying to suffocate it.

Answer: No, the Creator’s task is to shake man up, to pull him out of non-existence, of the inanimate state.

Question: She asks: “So, in order for the voice to sound louder, it turns out that we have to suffocate it?” The more you suffocate it the louder it sounds?

Answer: The louder it sounds, just like when you speak to a person and he does not hear you, you move to a higher pitch and increase your voice.

Question: Can we say that He calls us to suppress this voice, and it sounds?

Answer: It is all together.

Question: Is it all Him, the Creator?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Then the eternal question is where are we here?

Answer: We are not here at all. We start in the following stages. When we begin to realize that this comes from the Creator and act in accordance with this, then it turns out that the Creator is already turning to us with an intention.

Question: That is, there is already a grain of “we” there?

Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/22/24

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Why Fight Our Way through Thorns to the Stars?

507.05Question: Why did nature create us to fight our way through thorns to the stars?

Answer: For us to truly master these spaces and to absorb them within us. That is why we must combine the light and shadow within ourselves and the contrasts between them. We must attain everything ourselves, then it will be ours. If it is given to us, we will not feel anything.

What is the difference between an infant and an adult? They exist in the same world, but the infant does not understand it. Whereas an adult who has studied this world feels and interacts with it.

We need to learn to interact with the world that surrounds us. We do not even feel it yet; we have not been born into it with our sensations.

We must act and then everything will be revealed. Believe me! How many times I have I talked about this but never has someone revealed something just from my words. It only happens when they make the effort.

Question: Does it matter what kind of effort?

Answer: Yes it matters! A person needs to learn this, explore this, and try to act as correctly as possible to shorten their path in time and meaningless expenditures.

Only the efforts of a person will reveal sensations to him.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Overcoming Difficulties” 1/5/12

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How Can You Burn Anxious Thoughts?

627.2Shura writes:

Dear Michael Laitman,

I do not know how to lose my anxious thoughts. They come to me right from the moment I wake up and do not leave me until I fall asleep. My dreams are also with anxiety. All of this causes inner pain. Sometimes, the pain disappears, but then returns with even greater force.

I heard you say that such thoughts need to be burned. I try, but it only makes me feel worse. Please explain how to erase and burn these anxious thoughts that do not give me rest.

My Response: You need to do something necessary, necessary not for yourself, but for others. Then, the anxious thoughts will burn away.

Question: You actually said: “Burn these thoughts.” So, when I am not thinking about myself, does this burn these thoughts? Is it more natural for women? Can it be done gradually for the family, for children?

Answer: In principle, this is also for men. Today, it is for everyone.

Question: Is this within a person’s power, or should it sound like a prayer?

Answer: No, this is not a prayer. That is an action.

Question: What is effective when we talk about a person? For example, whom should I care for?

Answer: About people. About strangers.

Question: This is not about the close ones?

Answer: Of course not! Close ones do not count.

Question: This is an important addition. Do you mean about neighbors I never thought about, about the world, about people in general?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is this achievable for an ordinary person?

Answer: Absolutely! It is not a matter of whether this is achievable or not. There is no doubt about it; everyone has the possibility and everyone is obliged!

Question: What will happen to these anxious thoughts? I have anxious thoughts about all of humanity; I think about it. What happens then?

Answer: As soon as your thoughts encircle the Earth, they will dissipate.

Question: Will my anxious thoughts about myself dissipate? Are you for people starting to think about strangers, about the world?

Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/19/24

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What the Media Should Teach

271Question: How can all the media that surround us transform into Kabbalistic media, meaning that it would carry useful and not just stupid information?

Answer: The media should educate people in such a way as to direct them toward global, integral unification. There is nothing more they can do.

Naturally this would not be Kabbalistic education, but a correct social and moral unity. Kabbalistic unity will come to people gradually.

When they begin to correctly connect with each other under the guidance of Kabbalists, then they will begin to feel that in this unity there is some kind of internal force, an internal property, that lifts and inspires them. Then they will begin to behave differently.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kabbalistic Media” 1/18/12

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The Richness of the Spiritual World

962.3Comment: You are a purely technical person, but when one talks to you, you explain everything in some other scale with images through the language of feelings. You paint such a rich inner Kabbalistic world that our world seems childish in comparison.

My Response: This is because our world is a very simplified, one-sided model of the outside world.

Imagine that instead of the global use of electricity that exists in the world (electronics, electrical circuits, power plants, etc.), you were shown one light bulb. And it represents all the electricity in the world for you, everything that works based on the movement of electrons. That is what our world looks like compared to the spiritual world.

Question: How does egoism build such rich and reliable images, and do you say that the inner world is much richer and more important?

Answer: What images does egoism create? Very small ones, which you can just enjoy a little or from which, if you are frightened, you push away. Nothing else.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Wealth of the Inner World of a Kabbalist “ 1/10/12

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How Can I Convince Myself Not to Overeat?

546.04Rani writes:

Dear Michael Laitman,

You always talk in your programs about harmony and balance. But my whole family is completely out of balance. And it is not just my family. Today children suffer from overeating and obesity from childhood. They grow up, and the race for weight loss begins, like with my wife. All sorts of starvation programs to lose weight, pills, counting calories. I want to ask you: maybe in order for a person to have a balanced diet, they must first achieve internal balance?

My Response: Of course, we see that when a person starts to get nervous, they start eating more, and so on.

Question: Do we just need inner balance and not any weight loss programs or calorie counts?

Answer: None of that.

Question: Then the main question is how to achieve this. You could win the Nobel Prize right now if you could advise humanity on how to lose weight. How can one come into balance with oneself, into equilibrium?

Answer: Everything must be related to the Creator, only to Him. We need to understand that everything comes from Him, and everything is for us to realize that we are constantly correcting our nature that is initially completely opposite to the Creator, and that we are moving toward Him, getting closer to Him.

If we do not come closer to Him, we will still be approaching Him, and things will get worse for us. But if we know that we must come closer to the Creator, then we will act wisely, and our approach to Him will be benevolent.

Comment: I personally feel that here lies the entire truth. That is, while I am fixated on the body, I will not advance anywhere; I will be fixated on it. But I need to focus on the Creator.

My Response: On the Creator.

Question: At what point does balance happen? How many attempts do I need until suddenly at some point there is peace?

Answer: You need to set yourself in advance that search for balance is my life.

Question: Usually we fail all starvation programs and start gaining weight again. Are you saying that even if we fail, but keep advancing toward the Creator, this search for balance will give us…?

Answer: It will give us a happy life.

Question: And we will not need any programs, none of that?

Answer: Nothing. I should reach a state where I eat to exist and maintain balance.

Question: Not more?

Answer: No more. What for?

Question: When will I start living like that?

Answer: When you understand that it is precisely in balance, in equilibrium that you find the connection with the Creator. He is gradually revealed in you, and you feel it.

Question: Does one way or another everything come down to this?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Can we completely reduce all our questions to this?

Answer: Absolutely everything!
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/22/24

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How Can We Teach Children Kindness?

627.2Shula writes:

Hello, Michael Laitman! My son is 15. It seems everything is fine. He and his friends are growing up in the society where we as parents are trying to teach them the values of love to others, mutual connection, and friendship. Despite our efforts, I suddenly see that they are full of disregard for one another, they humiliate and mock the weak ones.

My heart hurts to see all this, my hands give up. Where have all our efforts gone? It turns out that everything they absorb at school and on the Internet is stronger than the values we want to instill in them. Tell us, what can we do? How can we teach them mutual respect and friendship? How can we teach them to be kind to each other? After all, you are constantly talking about that. How?

Answer: Still tell them that the basic law of nature is connection, kindness, and unity where people are getting closer to one to another. Only in this case can we hope for a happy continuation.

And if not, nature will teach us, as we see it at all its levels, to bring us to this decision.

Question: So one way or another, we will be corrected toward this decision?

Answer: Yes

Question: Parents are teaching their kids these values; they tell them more and more, but the result is still the opposite.

Answer: Yes, obviously. It is this way in order not to take away the freedom of will from a person.

Question: Do you mean his freedom of will now is to humiliate another person, to exercise his egoism?

Answer: Yes

Question: And we have to patiently wait until they suffer enough or what?

Answer: Perhaps when they realize that their path is a dead-end.

Question: Should we still continue telling them about mutual guarantee, about love, about friendship?

Answer: Yes

Question: Even if our hands give up?

Answer: It does not matter. You have to tell them all of this.

Question: I am talking to a wall. They do not hear me. Do I keep talking?

Answer: It does not matter, you have to talk.

Question: How do I poke a hole in this wall?

Answer: Precisely by your consistency.

Question: It means you are for the parents’ persistence?

Answer: There is nothing else.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/11/24

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Are We Going to Prolong Life?

204Question: A person complains about his life to God: this is not good, and that is not good, and I have problems at work, trouble with the family, debts, and  poor health. God manifests Himself and says “This is all understandable. But tell me one thing: Are we going to prolong life?”

Should we prolong this life?

Answer: I think if God is asking a person, then the person should answer “Sure, give me more.”

Question: So, it means that for all our complaints this is bad and that is bad, we still should continue?

Answer: If we live, we have to live.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/18/23

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Where Will the River of Life Take Us?

760.1Roman writes:

I regularly watch your shows. They help me live, especially in these difficult times. But sometimes I am puzzled. I watched your video today about the four candles when all the candles go out, and only one remains: hope. And suddenly I hear in your response that one just needs to live through this day. What does it mean to live through? Right now, you know, it is not easy with work, money, life in general, and the age is not the same anymore, and illnesses. So, what lies behind this phrase that you keep repeating: “You just need to live through it”?

Answer: You need to go with the flow of life as if you are in a boat, in a river, and it is carrying you somewhere, not onto rocks, not onto waterfalls, just the current carries you. That is how we should still look at life. And what else can I advise people who live in our time? You just need to keep going.

Question: And at the same time, I know there is the current and there is the boat?

Answer: There is the current, there is the boat, and there is me in the boat. And I have to agree that I am floating with the current. I cannot swim against the current. I cannot get out of this river anywhere. The only thing I can do is accept where the current takes me.

Question: Who is this answer directed to?

Answer: To myself first and foremost. That is how a person should understand.

Question: Are my friends also in this boat?

Answer: If you put it that way, then yes. We are all floating in the boat with the current of life, in the river of life. And it is best to understand that this is how it is. We survived through the day, we survived. Another day, once again. And so on and so forth.

Question: So you are not in favor of making any plans?

Answer: No! Those plans never come to fruition anyway, and we only worry about them.

Question: So, are you concerned that we are heading toward disappointment?

Answer: It depends on what goals we set for ourselves in life.

Question: And still, what goals should we set? I am floating in this boat; do I want to reach somewhere or not?

Answer: If you have such a goal.

Question: If the goal is to reach somewhere, then…?

Answer: Then yes. You should check it: is it worth it? Can you achieve that goal? If you can, then yes. And if not, then slowly row a little closer to it, but still calmly. Do not rush.

Comment: This complicates things a bit.

My Response: Why does it complicate things? Should we be striving?

Comment: We are used to striving for a goal, we are used to pursuing a goal.

My Response: I do not think it is wise in our time. There are periods that carry you, and that is it.

Question: So, in our words: “There is none else beside Him”?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And is that how I should live?

Answer: The Creator still creates new conditions for us, and whether we wish it or not, we will still implement them—what He desires.

Question: What does it mean to surrender to this? On one hand, it means giving up?

Answer: No, agreeing with where the river of life is carrying us does not mean giving up. It means truly perceiving the flow of the river of life and moving along with it, understanding that you cannot go against it. There are no heroes who could go against the current. And yet, we might still wish to change something, but that something can only be very, very small in our lives.

Question: Where is the joy in this? We still want to be joyful.

Answer: Joy is not in creating something like throwing myself into the water and starting to block the river, and so on. Joy is in finding special points of movement in my ordinary, simple life path and trying to move along them.

Question: What do you mean? Special points, are they joyful points? Is that what you are saying?

Answer: They can be joyful or sorrowful; nevertheless, we must go through them. Therefore, we need to accept life more as a flow.

Question: Still to nullify oneself, surrender to it. Like that?

Answer: If you do not nullify yourself, it still does not mean anything.

Question: But what about the fact that we get used to and found joy in it: to swim against the current, for example, to go against nature?

Answer: That is your inner feeling. In reality, no one can go against it anyway.

Question: We repeat with you more than once that a human nature is egoistic. And a person must somehow rise above his nature. Can you relate to this?

Answer: Yes. Rising above one’s nature is precisely realizing that you are still floating with the current of the river. And still, you perhaps might want to get out of it, but you do not even know where or how, and who is waiting for you on the shore if you suddenly emerge from under the water with your boat, and so on. So, I do not know if that is wise.

Question: Do we need to know or at least have a premonition of what awaits us in the end? After all, rivers flow into the sea.

Answer: You have to choose a goal that seems realistic to you and that aligns with your abilities, and try to achieve it somehow. So, we must somehow understand that we are leaving the river of life, getting out of it, and then somehow continuing to sail on.

Question: So, these milestones of stops should be along the way?

Answer: Yes, but frankly, in the end everyone, even if during their life they aspire to become a revolutionary in something and so on, ultimately agrees that this is life and it ends with death, and then, what will be will be.

Comment: It does not sound very optimistic, of course.

My Response: Why doesn’t it sound very optimistic?

Comment: Still, we want to set goals not that necessarily we defeat death, but at least internally, within ourselves, you know.

My Response: On the contrary! When you agree with this, you acquire a special tranquility and a special perception of life, and you perceive it realistically. I am not talking about death. I am talking about really perceiving this flow.

Question: But I will ask again. If those engaged in our science are in this boat, and let’s say it has been many years, should their behavior be the same; what do you think?

Answer: Their behavior should be as they, like any person, strive toward their goal.

Comment: So if the goal is to rise above one’s nature.

My Response: If the goal is to rise above one’s nature, then it is with you in the boat. You should not jump anywhere and swim to the shore, you should not shout: “Hey, who is there on the shore?”—there might be someone. You do not have to call anything to yourself. It all depends on your mood, your attitude toward what you are sailing through. And in the end, you enter into another dimension.

Question: How does this happen? How am I pulled out of my nature? I am just sailing in the boat, with our idea.

Answer: You are not pulled out, you are not going anywhere. Simply, the illusion in which you existed is gradually replaced by another, a third, and so on.

Comment: And I no longer pay attention, like Roman writes here that life is hard, age, illnesses.

My Response: No, no, no. I am no longer interested in that. I am already thinking about how I will calmly live through this and then enter into a new life.

Question: How can you deal with this? With this life which overwhelms, with illnesses, sufferings?

Answer: The best thing is to surrender to it and not resist. Because resistance will not give anything, and we know that. Everything around us goes through such stages and ends similarly. Treat both life and death kindly.

Question: And is this called “also treating the Creator the same way”?

Answer: Yes, agree with Him, with what He has done, with what He has done to us, placed us within certain boundaries, and given us such a vector of development.

Question: When it is said that everyone has their own path, what does it mean? Their own path to the Creator?

Answer: Yes, nothing else. And there is nothing particularly new here except relative to the individual.

Question: So, each person has their own path to the Creator?

Answer: Yes, if a person understands this, then it is called that they have gained wisdom.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/11/24

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