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Profile of Michael Laitman
First of all, we must realize that the [...]
Michael Laitman: First of all, we must realize that the general system of nature is built as a pyramid. At its base there lies the still level: the whole universe, all of the petrifactions, the stars and planets that are in it. This is the lowest part of the pyramid. After that there comes the vegetative part on earth, even higher—the animate part on Earth, and the top of the pyramid is the speaking level, man—not the animate part, not our body, but the speaking or human level in us. Therefore, of course man's life is more important than all other forms and levels of nature—not because we egoistically want this to be so, but because we include all the other forms of the pyramid in us. If we will have the correct attitude towards nature, then we will correct ourselves as well as all of nature as a whole. All of the global natural disasters and problems—the tsunamis, draughts, the harm we inflict on nature, the ecological catastrophes that come down upon us—in the end this is no more than a phenomenon that man projects upon nature. This is why obviously, man's life and his role in nature is the most important one. We will discover that we, with our egoistic attitude towards ourselves and nature, evoke all the disasters and misfortunes, just as in human society, so in all other levels of nature: the animate, vegetative and even the still level. If we will change ourselves, then by this we will also undoubtedly change all of nature as a whole. This is why we need to understand that the ecological disasters that are breaking out in the world today and the new ones that we will still see, depend exclusively on man's attitude toward the world. They do not happen because nature has suddenly come out of balance. Rather, we evoke the disbalance in nature with our thoughts.
Humanity develops by means of the egoism [...]
Michael Laitman: Humanity develops by means of the egoism that grows in it. Egoism develops us in such a way that we always think that something good lies in front of us. At least in the past, we always thought that something good lay before us, and we ran to meet the future. Time after time, step after step, like a baby who grows and matures—so we develop. We thought that we will come to a better culture, to a better economy, and that everything will be good, and if we did not feel very good at the time, then of course our children would feel very good. This is how we enacted everything present in our ego, until we came to the current times, when we no longer think that the situation can become any better. We have already become disillusioned in our development. Now humanity faces a dilemma. On one hand, if we continue developing by means of our ego, then we will come to Nazism in all the nations. In essence, it will be a governmental regime in the whole world, in all of the nations. In this case things are going towards a Third World War. Or we will come to altruism in all of the nations. We will achieve this if humanity will realize that altruism—is the law of nature. In essence, this is nature itself. Man will merit life and the forces of life and will be salvaged from annihilation only on the condition that he will observe this law. Just as observing all of the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology brings us good results, so it is here: if we will observe the law of nature, the law of altruism in human society, like in a living body, then we will merit the altruistic national structure and achieve equivalence of form with nature, equality between us, and a life in esteem and security. And if not, then God-forbid Nazism and universal annihilation will come into the world—together with all of the global ecological disasters.
Globalization is only showing us the degree [...]
Michael Laitman: Globalization is only showing us the degree to which we are interconnected now, when all of humanity is becoming one whole. It does not lead to dictatorship or to democracy. Globalization only demonstrates that we belong to on “organism,” to one “body.” It does not lead to greater development or to anything at all besides one thing: in the end we come to an unstable, unbalanced state. On one hand, globalization, our interconnection, our belonging to one body and dependency on each other are becoming revealed to us, and on the other hand, we see just how much we hate each other and how distant we are from one other. In other words, globalization is revealing an unbalanced, unreliable world that needs to completely change its perception and self-organization. It needs to change and reject the mutual egoism. The interdependency that is becoming revealed today is showing us that we must do just the opposite: like cells of a single body, we must depend on one another and unite with one another into a single system. This way globalization, which develops and today is becoming revealed before everyone, can bring humanity to the realization of evil, which lies in egoism, and to the realization of good, which we will find in altruism.
I think that today's problem of black [...]
Michael Laitman: I think that today's problem of black America lies in that they do not want to prove to the world and to everyone their ability to be effective and good elements of society. Just the opposite, they find themselves in conditions of a very strange expression of their part of society. They are not trying to reach the top of society, even though they have all of the conditions for this. According to IQ and the special qualities inherent to a black person, he has no less opportunities, chances and natural premises than a white person. But here a general culture of its kind or a certain general spirit is becoming manifested, which throws them in the precisely opposite direction, in the search for something easier, more vivid and extravagant. This is why I think that the problem of the young black generation of America becomes manifested in this. They must try to bring themselves to the fact that society will correct its conception of them as a problematic part of society, to bring themselves to such a state where society will be proud of them. This depends only on the value they attribute to society, on the contribution they will add to society. Everything is in their hands.
We must respect only the aspirations and [...]
Michael Laitman: We must respect only the aspirations and efforts of a person that are directed towards the good of humanity; not towards his own good, the good of his nation or his family—but only towards the good of humanity. If we will respect this, then we will see to what degree a person overcomes his egoistic nature for the sake of belonging and contributing to the whole world. I think that all people must overcome themselves, their egoistic desire. If each of them will contribute in this way, then in response they must merit gratitude and respect from society. Everyone—the children at home, the wife or husband, the relatives, the parents, the environment, the friends, and the whole world—must be grateful to the person and value him only to the degree of his contribution to society. A person is created in such a way that he needs society's recognition. This way, in essence he expresses his "I." If we will arrange things in such a way that society will protect a person and respond to his contribution to humanity, by this we will obligate every person to be an active part of humanity. We will see only good things from every person relative to the whole human society; we will see what contribution every person adds. This is why we must establish such laws in our society, where every person will be evaluated only according to his contribution to humanity, so that this will catch people's eye. If we will measure a person only by these criteria, if every person will know that others evaluate him and treat him precisely in this way—then he will not have a choice and he will have to become a healthy cell in the general body, that is, a person who is maximally useful to humanity.
We really produce an enormous amount of [...]
Michael Laitman: We really produce an enormous amount of food, but the problem is that we cannot divide it correctly, genuinely and fairly. Our ego does not allow us to distribute products well and correctly, equally for everyone. Food is thrown out in some places of the world, while in other places, people starve to death. Such is our nature, and it will not change until we come to the final decision: that it is necessary to change our nature. And we will be able to do this; there is a method that helps us do this. I will try to reveal it further on, throughout the course of the questions. Until we change our nature from egoistic to altruistic, the situation in the world will not change either, and this polarization will become more and more diametric. We will see that the world really divides into places where people starve to death, and others where people burn and throw out food. We cannot do this because we cannot overcome our ego while remaining within the ordinary boundaries. We must reveal the universal law—the love and altruism that are inherent to nature. By seeing that all of nature acts this way, we will also be able to change ourselves, in order to prevent self-annihilation. Then everyone will become as one man with one heart, and we will be able to divide all products equally, so they will be balanced among everyone.
We must reveal the egoism present in each of [...]
Michael Laitman: We must reveal the egoism present in each of us as the source of all evil, we must come to desire to use everything that we have from nature only in order to come to good, and we must understand that the good depends on our society. Through globalization, we see how much we depend on each other. This will still become more revealed in the close future: how much every one of us depends on everyone else, down to the fact that if other people, who are not under my control, will not want to be benevolent towards me, then I will not have the right to exist. If I and each one of us will understand this to such a degree, then of course we will want to correct ourselves. If each person will know that he depends on everyone else, then he will want everyone else to be kind to him. In addition, he will know that others will express kindness towards him only on the condition that he expresses kindness towards them. If we succeed in understanding this mutuality—called the law of the mutual guarantee—then we will be able to arrange our life in such a way that our economic system will also change and begin providing everything for us in the best and most effective way. Then all of our interactions, including economic ones, will change in such a way that they will transform to benefit humanity. This depends only on one condition: for us to open our eyes and see that in nature, there exists a law of equality between everyone. Just like the physical and chemical laws of the still level of nature, or the biological and genetic laws of the animate level of nature, so in the nature of humanity there exists the law of life—the law of altruism. The cells of our body merit life only on the condition that every cell rejects itself and lives together with the whole body, providing it with everything necessary—in the same way, a person in society must, like a cell, provide everything for society.
The economic system must correspond to the [...]
Michael Laitman: The economic system must correspond to the law of altruism, when each person uses only as much as he needs in order to exist, and gives everything else to the fond to be equally distributed among everyone. This is just how the cells of our body merit life because each of them receives only what is necessary for it to exist, and gives everything else to the body as a whole. Each cell lives only by means of the barest necessities, while its entire nature, its entire activity is to provide the body with the forces of life. Every person must function and exist in human society according to one principle: he lives using only the small part that he needs to exist, and gives everything else to the needs of the society. In this case we will distribute products among everyone according to how much each person uses, how much each person needs. This is what everyone will be equal in, while everything else will go to humanity as a whole. This way, everyone will be balanced. This is the only way that we can balance ourselves according to the general altruistic law of nature, which envelops us and acts in all of human society, even though we do not see it. This is the only way that we can merit receiving a good response from nature. Then there will not be any catastrophes, tsunamis, illnesses, epidemics or wars—everyone will live a peaceful, secure and healthy life. Nature itself will provide a wonderful, equal, and comfortable existence. Whereas if we will not observe the general altruistic law of nature, like the cells of a living body, where each person uses just what is necessary while contributing everything else to society—then we will lead ourselves to annihilation. This law needs to be realized in full force in our time. This is why globalization is becoming revealed and showing us that we are all interconnected into one body.
Only if humanity will see that its state is [...]
Michael Laitman: Only if humanity will see that its state is fatal, that by our nature we are connected into one social formation, unification; only if we will see that we are obligated to consolidate among us into one collective with one responsibility—then the world will really be firm and good, and every person will also merit a secure life for the future. From our research it becomes clear that altruists, those who love to give and donate, comprise 10% of humanity. If we will rely on them and develop the altruistic gene, which is inherently placed into the nature of 10% of people, then we will see that nature has prepared a wonderful level for us, a wonderful trampoline to development. Our entire development, the entire education of the young generation, is nevertheless based on how we teach the generation to be altruists. We say to a child, "Don't be bad, give, yield to others." Why? Because we know that then it will be safer for the child and people will not use him. If he will yield to others, then his life will be good. This is why in essence our entire culture, our entire education, all of our religions, all science and all economics must be based on this condition. After all, even within, in the subconscious, we discover that this is the only thing that gives us security about the following day. This is why from the inside, altruism is, in a certain sense, natural for people, and we must only reveal it. There emerges only a psychological problem: to go from the egoistic realization to the altruistic one. In the end, we want to live—to live well and with confidence about the future. And so, we need to understand that confidence about the future means to contribute to society as a whole—in essence, this guarantees the following day. Besides this, in our life we are discovering that our social mechanisms are also ready for us to begin building the altruistic society. No one speaks against altruism publicly.
The correlation between men and women in [...]
Michael Laitman: The correlation between men and women in governing human society does not have to be equal. We think this way, because from our point of view this appears to be truth and justice. But in reality, this is completely not so. We are tearing women out of their natural sphere: out of the family, bringing up children, the household, building a home, and building a family. Precisely this is bringing us to the disintegration of families, to divorces and to all the negative phenomena that are so widespread today in modern society. As the result of all these phenomena, precisely women turn out to be miserable and feel unhappy. This fictitiousness, this lie that a man and a woman can be equal according to our arbitrary measures, without any consideration of their gender and the natural position of each one in their niche—precisely this makes the world so unbalanced, in spite of the laws of nature. The boundary between the sexes must be preserved, and we must always take the nature of each sex into consideration. We have to understand that we must take into consideration the characteristics of the female psychology, the role of a woman in giving birth to and developing the generations. What we are seeing today is precisely the result of our desire to pull or tear a woman out of her natural setting, out of the family and the home, and to bring her to govern human society, to participate against her natural desire in the functioning of various social systems. This is completely not her place. The equality lies in that we must attribute equal significance and give equal opportunities to each sex, but not level them out completely, as if they do not differ in any way.
It is possible that life was conceived in [...]
Michael Laitman: It is possible that life was conceived in Africa, but our civilization began developing only with the emergence of egoism, the force of our progress, in man. This happened in Mesopotamia, Ancient Babylon, approximately 4500 years ago. Historical sources narrate about the outburst of egoism in humanity—this is the meaning of the Tower of Babel about which the Torah narrates. In their pride, people wanted “to achieve the heavens”—expressed allegorically, to build "a tower up to the sky." As the result of the ego that developed in them, they began hating each other and therefore stopped understanding each other. This is called "the intermixing of the languages." Then they wandered away from each other, because they did not want and could no longer be together as one person, in the civilization of those times. They stopped understanding each other, and then all of humanity began developing by means of its ego. This is how we develop throughout all of history by means of the ego that is inherent to us, from one generation to the next. It is only in man, in this special creature of nature, that the ego develops even over the course of his life. A one-day old calf is like a grown bull, it is already an animal that is prepared for everything and understands what it needs to do. Whereas in a person, the ego grows over the course of his entire life, and therefore he does not know what to do and needs education, support from society. Therefore, we are very far away from Africa and even from Babylon. Today we are immersed in the developing egoism, which demands to be quickly tamed. If we will do this, then we will come to the corrected society, and if not, then we are really approaching the end of our civilization.
We exist in our nature, which is egoism that [...]
Michael Laitman: We exist in our nature, which is egoism that constantly develops. It is the source of all our misfortunes and problems. We can fight with everything that appears here before our eyes: with poverty, illness, lack of equality, oppression, drug-addiction, depression and so on. However, in the end, all of these are the results of our egoism. Human egoism has been developing since ancient times, when man had merely wanted to provide food for the body—to the aspiration for money, honor and knowledge. In addition, knowledge—is information about how to manipulate others and the whole world. And so, money is equal to all the other pleasures, because everyone aspires for wealth or money. This is why in our world, only money gives a person the feeling of confidence in the present and the future. If society did not value money, a person would not accumulate it. If we knew that our life depends on attaining nature's eternity and perfection by unifying into one man with one heart, that precisely by means of altruism between us we come to achieve another level of life, another guaranteeing of life—then we would be able to change our approach to money and stop looking at it as a value that surpasses everything else. This is why we must realize what the general law of nature, the law of altruism, is. Only by becoming equal to the law of altruism can we merit perfection and eternity. This is the only way that we will merit the fact that money will disappear from the world.
There is nothing more important than a [...]
Michael Laitman: There is nothing more important than a person's life. After all, through this nature has given him the opportunity to be an active and useful part of society, to achieve self-correction and self-realization. This is why a person can break the law only on the condition that the law obligates him to kill another person. This is really a basis to openly and immediately break the law. On the other hand, in all other cases a person must fight against the law by lawful means. In other words, he must abide by the law, while at the same time fighting to change it. The law can be broken just on one condition: if by observing it he causes the death of a person. This is because there is no higher value in nature than human life. If we will break the law, then anarchy will ensue in the world. This is why we are obligated to come to such a state where we will observe the laws—besides the cases that are irreversible, such as a person's death.
All people are different by nature. We [...]
Michael Laitman: All people are different by nature. We cannot demand the same efforts from a person who is lazy by nature and from one who is hard-working by nature. We cannot demand the same thing from a person who is intelligent by nature and from one who is not so smart, from a person who is drawn to technology and from a person who is drawn to education, to culture, to a different development. People are completely not like one another, and therefore it is impossible to demand equality from everyone. We are also unable to recognize and measure the natural qualities of every person, their direction and size. By demanding the same results from everyone, we are trying to squeeze everyone into the Procrustean Bed. In other words, we want to "shorten" or "stretch" every person, so that everyone will fit exactly one size. This situation is completely incorrect. Besides this, there exist differences in culture, education, religion and the development of the nations. Not all nations relate to the same level and the same place in the human society. Each one has its own place, and each one must be respected on it place. After all, each person is unique in his own way. This is why the international law must take into consideration all of the limitations and all of the distinctive characteristics of each person. If we will preserve this equality, the equality of each person's opportunity to correctly express himself in the most effective way relative to humanity, by this we will abolish the egoistic interrelationships and bring everyone to altruistic, equal, relationships, where each person will give his part—that which no one can give instead of him. Every person will be unique in this regard. Then we will really come to the fact that every individual will preserve himself and will develop in the most favorable way.
Of course business is more powerful than [...]
Michael Laitman: Of course business is more powerful than governments. After all, business creates money, and money can buy anything. As we know, humanity develops from the physical pleasures to money, honor, power and knowledge. And thus, money can buy all the others pleasures of humanity. For this reason, obviously in the end business encompasses all power, and precisely it determines what governments do. Besides this, governments need business and they address it. They need to establish good connections with business, because it helps them achieve power and honor. Nothing is greater for the government than power, and in our time power (which relies on means of mass media and social opinion) can be bought only by someone who has money. In the end, business encompasses everything. It is only in our days, at the end of humanity’s development, that business is also beginning to come down and to demonstrate that it is finite and does not give man satisfaction in the end. This is why universal despair is increasing in humanity. Nevertheless, precisely business now determines, and until the end of days will determine politics and the entire activity of governments.
I am sure that we need to act only by means [...]
Michael Laitman: I am sure that we need to act only by means of the correct and most widespread education in the whole world, in each country in conformity with its culture. We must tell people about the structure of the world, about the general law of nature that envelops the world, and about our interrelationships that must correspond to this law in order for us to be balanced with nature. There acts a law in human society that comes from nature, from outside: according to it, human society must be integral, it must be like one body. Unless we bring human society to such a form, we will be opposite to the force of nature and all of our misfortunes will come from this. In essence, these misfortunes reflect our disbalance with nature. Unless we bring this knowledge to people, unless we develop this science, and most importantly, develop the example through which this can be brought to the realization and understanding of all the layers of the population—we will inflict great harm and place humanity on the brink of annihilation. And vice versa, if we succeed, then we will be able to change the world and will come to a perfect world. I act in a special organization, which broadcasts to all of humanity in 22 languages through a national internet site. We bring this knowledge to everyone for free. Millions are already tuned into our educational web, and I very much hope that we will achieve success in this. I would be happy if all of the national altruistic organizations will likewise participate this way in the worldwide enlightenment. Then, of course we will achieve good results. In essence, we can resist the force of the fist and hate only by means of correctly educating the whole world.
We must work on disseminating the science [...]
Michael Laitman: We must work on disseminating the science about the goal of human life, about the goal of life on earth. We, people, are found in a certain system, which advances and leads us to a special life, a high life above our ordinary life, to eternal life, to the sensation of the general nature and to union with nature, which lies above our bodily life. In the end, in our bodily existence we lead our animalistic life, inherent to the animalistic body. If instead of being concerned with the animalistic body, we will worry about our soul ("the soul" refers to what is outside of us), if we will take care of beginning to bestow and exiting out of our body, out of our ego into the opposite side, to altruism, to bestowal—then we will feel a different life. We will feel nature and life completely differently—as nature itself, as eternal life, an eternal and perfect flow. This is what we must tell all humanity about, and especially the young generation. Only this way, thanks to education and disseminating this science, if we succeed, we will be able to stop all of the evil that exists and overcome all of the negative phenomena in big cities, overcome that entire force of the fist that is accepted today among the youth in the ghettos of big cities.
The best thing would be if we used all of [...]
Michael Laitman: The best thing would be if we used all of the capital that is now used towards military development and the development of arms in all countries, to disseminate the knowledge about humanity's structure throughout the world. We should use it on people's education, on the development of the science about the general reality, on researching why we are in such a horrible state, in such a menacing war, what process humanity is going through and what it will still go through, what is the reason and goal of human development, and how among all this man inflicts harm upon himself. We should reveal all of these things, research nature, and from this discover what harm we inflict on ourselves and on all of nature. After all, we do not uphold balance with the general law of nature. Nature treats us with love and altruism, in order to give birth to and support life. And in response we express a misbalanced and opposite attitude towards this law from the egoistic side. If we will reveal this knowledge to everyone, then each person will understand what he must do and what the whole world must do in order to be saved from extermination. By this we will achieve a good life and never again need to use these colossal forces—the money and great capital—to develop arms. Just the opposite, everyone would truly share this money for the sake of a good, happy and equal life in the whole world. The time will come when humanity will achieve this. After all, the force of development has also been placed into the general law of nature, and this development is destined to bring us to the state where we will see that we must be as one man with one heart, as one body, in universal love according to the principle "love your neighbor as yourself," so this will become the law that acts between us. Then all of the forces that humanity is able to enact will be truly used for its benefit. Therefore, the best thing now—is to use these monetary means to explain what nature demands of us.
The problem does not lie in Israel and the [...]
Michael Laitman: The problem does not lie in Israel and the nations of the world. The situation is that the method of the world's correction, which must now become realized in the whole world, is in the hands of Israel. In its profound wisdom, called "the science of Kabbalah," Israel knows the method of the correction of egoism in the world: how to shift from the egoistic perception of nature and life, where each person wants to take something for himself, to the altruistic one, so that each person will be able to contribute and give of himself, and to be fulfilled and happy precisely thanks to this, to feel his life in this. Since Israel has this wisdom, a sensation becomes created in the whole world that Israel is guilty for all of the events in the world. This pressure and anti-Semitism will not stop until Israel will contribute its share to the world—by the fact that it will reveal the science of Kabbalah to the world, the method of correcting the world, which explains how the world can now be salvaged from its development, which has reached its end, as the result of which there hangs a threat over the world. The world will achieve peace, tranquility and conciliation only by means of realizing this method of its correction, which Israel has had even since the times of Babylon. Having come out of there, out of the cradle of our whole civilization, over the course of all of these 6000 years this method was in the environment of Israel, and it is becoming revealed only now. This is why people all over the world are now taking an interest in the science of Kabbalah. And the science of Kabbalah itself, now, from the beginning of the 21st century, has for the first time received the permission to become revealed. After all, it is the method of how to make our world altruistic, wonderful and perfect. Then peace will ensue in the Middle East and in the whole world. And if not, then it will not ensue there or in the whole world, and because of this the world will slide down more and more to the threat of annihilation. In essence, what is now happening in the Middle East is the concentration, the focus, the hotbed of the whole worldwide problem. If we resolve this problem, if Israel will reveal the method of the correction of the world, by this we will solve the problem of the whole world, and peace will also ensue in the Middle East.
We can fight against war only within the [...]
Michael Laitman: We can fight against war only within the boundaries of the law, rather than by means of terrorism or any unlawful actions. We must understand that only by means of convincing the people, only by explaining all the problems and their causes that are in the nation, will we be able to achieve the fact that large associations, the population, the people, will stop their government from war. We should never oppose the government by using force, where each person acts with the force of a fist, as if we can reach any kind of justice this way. We will never win through force, but only by conviction, upbringing and explanation. This is why the problem of altruistic associations is that they communicate among themselves, and afterwards, when it is necessary to undertake an action, they cannot do this. All of their actions end half-way through. I hope that the time will come when many congresses and events, held by different altruistic organizations, will give birth to a wide explanation for the whole world, for humanity. Then they will obligate governments not to wage wars. No matter where in the world a war will begin, the censure from everyone will be so strong that it will stop the process in its conception. This depends only on the altruistic organizations, on the organizations that are in favor of protecting the world—but different kinds, rather than just those present today.
We are in a world that is revealing how [...]
Michael Laitman: We are in a world that is revealing how interconnected we are, that is revealing globalization and the interconnection between all societies, all countries, and all people. When something happens in any point of the world, we hear about it and feel it in other places. Obviously, this state will continue and will increase, and we will discover a global crisis. The crisis does not lie in the fact that we are interconnected, but in that we are not ready to be interconnected. Then we will have to come to the acceptance of international collegial decisions instead of decisions of separate countries that are in disagreement and conflict with one another. In the end this will bring us to a unified international government. Only such a government will make decisions for the good of the whole world, and without exceptions the well-being of the whole world will be the main general goal of this government. Never in the past did we feel that we must unite, that we must be unified into one organization, into humanity as one body. The fact of the matter is that in the past our egoistic desire was not so clear yet, it did not yet discover the degree to which we desire to rule over everything. But now, wishing to rule over the world, we are discovering that we are unable to rule over it egoistically. The world is resisting, it is saying, "No, you cannot rule from one part over another." After all, two parts, three, a thousand, or billions of these parts and interconnected and interdependent. One determines the state of all, and all determine the state of one. This is why it is necessary for everyone to come to this understanding. This is how we must educate and bring up the world. The revelation of the total universal interconnection between us must pass through the channels of mass media to reach the very last person. Then this realization of what is happening and what we are obligated to do will pressure each person and all of us together, in order for us to come to the decision about the need for a single government over a single integral world.
The question is built incorrectly from the [...]
Michael Laitman: The question is built incorrectly from the beginning. Terrorism—is the use of violence towards the peaceful population, which is in essence not guilty of anything. Terrorism is used precisely to kill innocent people. On the other hand, the force that a government uses is used against the army of the opponent. An army against an army—in our egoistic world this is even considered as "ethical" and correct. This differs from the cases when any force, army or military terrorist organizations act against citizens who are not guilty of anything besides the fact that they are ordinary people. This is why, unquestionably, terrorism has no place and no justification in human society. The issue here is not power or weakness, but against whom the force is directed. If it is directed against citizens, this is called "terrorism," whereas if it is directed against an army, this is called "war." War has its own forces and laws. Obviously, it is not desirable, but one way or another, we consider these things to be lawful and fitting into specific boundaries. The tragedy is that terrorist groups make it their goal to hurt the civilian population. And in this regard they should receive a warning from all of humanity. This must disappear from the map of the world.
Lately wars take place not between armies [...]
Michael Laitman: Lately wars take place not between armies and countries on the field of war, but between nations and in cities. This is because each one wants to destroy the technological and industrial infrastructure of the opponent. If in the past it was very important to annihilate and destroy the army or the soldiers, today victory in war is in essence signified by the destruction of the technological and industrial infrastructure. This is why the blow today is not directed against the army, but against big cities. And nothing can be done about this. The technical development has led to such a situation where great powers fight not so much by means of the military force, as by the industrial force. Man's ego is not directed against machines, but against his kinsmen, against people. This is why it turns out that each one wants to destroy the industry of the opponent and to kill his civilian members. It is as if the sign of victory lies in this. We see that lately, in the final period of humanity's egoistic development, when we have reached the end—what is being planned is no longer the extermination of armies, but the extermination of nations and countries, i.e., the population of the world. Today calculations are being made on how many millions and even billions of people can be exterminated on earth. Precisely this is the criterion of the effectiveness of atom bombs, which are not intended to annihilate armies at all. In essence, this is the last form of egoism. Why must it be precisely such? Because it forces the whole world and every person to fear: now he must already think about how to change human society as a whole.
We must decree that security must be [...]
Michael Laitman: We must decree that security must be universal—in the whole world. If lack of security, war, violence, or forceful methods are observed anywhere in the world instead of cooperation—in the end the safety of the whole world will suffer and will not prosper. Safety is respected and valued only if it does not come from any egoistic consideration, such as the considerations of power, force, and pride. If this condition is observed, then the whole world and each society must accept it as security that is truly just. What amount of freedom can we forgo? We must reject our freedom for the needs of security on the condition that in the future we will correct society, having achieved freedom and safety. Otherwise all rejection of freedom for the sake of security is flawed.
Those who were not brought up in the Western [...]
Michael Laitman: Those who were not brought up in the Western culture feel it as something alien, because the Western culture has accumulated many illusions, it is artificial. All behavior among the people in it is far away from nature; the culture of the West recognizes not man's nature, but the way a person should supposedly appear, playing the hypocrite and appearing nice, while inside of him everything is the complete opposite. In other words, foreign people, those who were brought up in a different culture, see how much pride there is and how much feeling of superiority above everyone there is. This is why Western democracy appears to other people as a total failure in building a just society. Besides this, Western democracy is based on Christian values, which are obviously not accepted by those whose perception of life and reality accords by the philosophy of Islam, for example, or Judaism, Confucianism, Buddhism and so on. As a result, they do not accept this culture and feel the degree that it places a person into narrow confines. Therefore, even when people emigrate to the West in order to lead an easier and more developed life, they hate the West and form such boundaries for themselves in which they live by their own culture.
The decent people of the world still need to [...]
Michael Laitman: The decent people of the world still need to understand what true decency is and what the true benefit of the world is—exclusively altruistic actions, directed towards the unification of the whole world, towards a single organization, a single system. This is how we exist here under the power of the external nature. We do not abide by these laws of nature and this is why we suffer. If we will understand that the general law of nature is altruistic, and that we are being moved by our inner ego and must therefore ascend above it and unite with the general nature—by this we will organize our unification across the whole earth into one organization, into a single humanity, into a new civilization. By this we will create a force that counteracts all of the egoists who rule over the world today and there will not remain any way out for them, they will not have anyone or anything left over which to rule. They will also have to change and gradually accept people into the government who take care of the good of humanity. This way we will come to the correct government, and after that—to a single government that governs the world for the world's good.
A person's main task in his life—is to [...]
Michael Laitman: A person's main task in his life—is to realize himself in such a way as to do the maximum for human society, and with maximal effectiveness. Therefore, if having studied and checked himself, a person feels that he can realize himself usefully for humanity in a specific place, then of course he needs freedom of choice and the opportunity to move from his place to the place where he can bring more benefit to all of humanity. However, this is so only after he has really seen and checked that he is necessary for humanity precisely in that place. This is not merely his desire and not something that "seems" so to him. Rather, he knows the general law and as Baal HaSulam writes, possibly he receives special permission from the people who understand where he can best realize himself. In this case, obviously, that is where he must be and where he must act. However, out of boredom, in just the material egoistic form, to pull oneself from one place to another, to tear oneself away from one place for the sake of greater egoistic fulfillment in another place, where he can use what others have prepared for him—of course by doing this a person does not become useful to society, and I do not think that this is justified. This is why emigration—as for example, today from Asia to Europe—does not benefit Europe or Asia.
The world today would be almost the same, [...]
Michael Laitman: The world today would be almost the same, besides America itself, which of course would feel and appear completely differently. It would resemble a Western European nation, such as France, Germany and England. It would be much more closed and much more democratic than it is today. This is on one hand. On the other hand, we must understand that the world advances towards its goal by means of the laws of nature. We cannot speak of history in a subjunctive mood, because the laws of history are absolute. Concerning that which happened yesterday, we must say that it was bound to happen. We should never regret the past, but just the opposite—everyone should always act with a view for right now and onwards. If a person has regrets about the fact that possibly, with a different course of events in the past, we could now be different—this is a completely unhealthy and incorrect approach, because the laws of history are absolute and they advance us towards their goal. From this moment on we can say only, "If I am not for myself, then who is for me?" And about the past one should always say: "There is no one besides Him"—we could have developed only in this way, and in no other. This is why there is nothing to regret about the past; we cannot look at the past like the wife of Lot, who turned into a pillar of salt, not having gained anything by it. We must think only with a view for the future: what will our good future be like—on the conditions that we will say that it depends on us only to the degree of how much we will know the laws of nature and observe them.
We do not have any idea about what democracy [...]
Michael Laitman: We do not have any idea about what democracy is. To us "democracy" means that we can get along with one another more or less—without the force of the fist and coercion in the most brutal form, but according to certain laws. By observing them, we are more or less able to avoid hurting one another directly—and this is what we call "democracy." None of us know what "freedom" is. We are not free. Each of us is born with qualities that he did not choose. Each of us received an education that he did not choose. We grow up and by 20 years of age we become adults, where we received everything in us from society, from factors that are not connected to us and do not depend on us at all. In essence, I am a person who has already come out of the oven ready. However, "I"—is not I. "I"—is what was given to me. This is why I progress through life according to this. So do I know what "freedom" is? I am not free; I merely carry out what I had received in the past. Therefore this is not democracy, freedom, nor free choice. After everything that I received from everyone since childhood, from teachers—if I will find out how to work with all of this, how to use it in order to achieve freedom, then I will possibly be able to realize myself. This is why we need to know the law of nature, the laws of society and what they must really be, in the objective form that is independent of us. We reveal the laws of nature, the social laws, from ants and animal packs—and these same laws act in the human pack. If we reveal them and establish them in our society, if we realize these laws in our society, then thanks to effectively using the laws of nature, we will come to true democracy. In other words, each person will have his own balanced place in the world, each nation, community, and country and all of humanity as a whole will have a wonderful and balanced place that corresponds to the general nature. Whereas now each of us still thinks of democracy and of laws in his own way. This is why naturally, we are becoming immersed in a global crisis of human society and for now we do not see how we should exist. Democracy in our days is coming to an end, and the following regime that humanity will adopt is Nazism. Nazism will come to replace the current regime of all the progressed democratic countries, and then we will see that we really do not understand the true laws of nature. Let us hope that we will understand them before we bring ourselves to Nazism, and that we will come to the wonderful and correct form of humanity's existence—to altruism.
I would make the following distinction. [...]
Michael Laitman: I would make the following distinction. Justified war—is the war of a nation that is fighting for its existence and for its territory, its land. If someone comes to it and wants to kill it, as it is said, "Be the first to kill him." On the other hand, a country should not do anything that does not take place on its territory, even in different "humanitarian" forms. It can only use the help of international forces in the attempt to achieve peace or some kind of a dialogue, but it cannot wage war and employ military actions. This is why only one thing is justified: if someone from the outside rises up against one person, a group of people, or a whole country—then in response it is possible to fight him and kill him, and even to begin the war first. Whereas if someone from the outside has not risen up against you, you cannot attack him and go to war with him under any excuses whatsoever, even the most wonderful ones.
Changes in human society, politics, economy, [...]
Michael Laitman: Changes in human society, politics, economy, and all others—without blood, without injuring people—are possible exclusively by means of one principle or factor: we should gradually change people's outlook, the social opinion, to counterbalance the modern egoistic politics. Thanks to this, thanks to the worldwide opinion, we will change the government, the force of power. That is when power will transform from egoistic to altruistic. Only as the result of disseminating knowledge in the world, which is obligated to take on an altruistic form, only as the result of this knowledge that will be present in the world will the governments have to change, they will have to change their opinion and their direction. This will be difficult, but social opinion is capable of this. After all, in the end everything depends on the knowledge of the masses. This is why before the change of the government, there must first be dissemination, preparation and education of the world in this manner. There is no point in waiting for the governments to change. There is no point in turning to the governments for them to change something. After all, they are concerned only with their own power. We will change them only by means of the social opinion.
I think that in the end, terrorism does not [...]
Michael Laitman: I think that in the end, terrorism does not benefit the organizations that realize it. After all, it elicits a negative reaction from all of humanity. And even though in the nearest perspective it seems as if terrorist organizations can succeed, nevertheless the fear of their influence acts against them in the end. It turns out that precisely they will suffer from this. Besides this, if we speak about the general form of nature, the general form of all humanity—we are all in a global village, and each one does his job relative to all humanity. Therefore, he who breaks out of the worldwide boundaries and begins terrorist acts, that is, wants to exterminate others, and in part the innocent people—first of all inflicts an injury to his own role in the world. This is why in the end nature will punish him first. Never in history have we seen terrorist organizations achieve success. In a more distant perspective, this inflicts harm upon them, and harm that is fatal. This is why I pity them. Right now this is not visible. They think that this way they can save themselves and attract positive attention to themselves, but this does not work long-term. Humanity will discover that first of all it must tame these organizations. When the general picture of the world will become revealed to us, these organizations will understand what harm they had inflicted on themselves.
Courage—means to stand in spite of the whole [...]
Michael Laitman: Courage—means to stand in spite of the whole world—even if the whole world is laughing, even if the whole world does not believe, and even if the whole world will not want it—and as much as possible to explain to the whole world with love, patience, and encouragement: what benefits it, what benefits peaceful life, and what benefits humanity's salvation today. Even though we cannot achieve this quickly and will not be able to explain this easily, even though the response we receive will be a lack of acceptance, censure, lack of understanding and rejection—nevertheless we are obligated to bring the knowledge about the general law of nature to the world. This is not faith, and it does not relate to any of the faiths: not to Judaism, nor to Islam, Christianity, Confucianism, or Buddhism. This relates to the general law of the universe—this is what the world is based on, and the world must accept it. This general law of nature says that we are obligated to treat every person according to the principle "love your neighbor as yourself." This is what nature is pushing us to do. We need to explain this to the world again and again by using all possible means and forms. In essence, this is the greatest courage that humanity has. After all, during this a person does not put on airs, does not turn his mind and his pride against others, but just the opposite, he feels that this way he serves humanity, that he is beneath everyone, that he needs everyone and wishes the best for everyone. In essence, this is true courage. After all, this way a person first of all defies his ego and makes himself a servant of the world. Only a person who has overcome his ego can be a real hero.
Obviously, all governments are egoistic and [...]
Michael Laitman: Obviously, all governments are egoistic and pursue their own profit. However, the difference is that unlike Iran, there is no other country that people are taught to kill others, while making a political, governmental issue out of it. If we look at what is happening in this country…What are the people there being taught? They are being taught to kill others and to rule over others. This is why all of the weaponry they produce really threatens the whole word. We must reason according to how the young generation is being brought up, what it hears, what it must make itself similar to, and how it should appear. Then we will see than in America they nevertheless talk about peace, in Israel they talk about peace and in the whole world they speak of universal peace more or less, whereas with such a fundamentalist regime as the Iranian one, they speak of how to conquer the whole world and how to gain possession of the whole word. This is why weapons in their hands are very dangerous for the well-being of the world. I hope that the Iranian people will understand that peace in the world and development, including its own, depends on others. I hope that they will change their path, and the whole world will understand that it must nevertheless come to the altruistic order, to altruistic interrelationships. I wish that everyone will live in one brotherhood, in one love, in one embrace, because in any case whether we want it or not, nature is revealing to us that we are one family. Let us hope that someday we will come to love one another, will take each other by the hands and begin living together for the good of our children. It pains me to see what is happening in Israel. If you wish, take a look at the situation on the television, in school education and in other areas—how they educate children, what they say in Israeli schools and what they say in Palestinian schools, to what degree they teach people there to kill each other and to what degree they teach people in Israeli schools to love each other. In essence, this shows what we must fear.
Today all international law is in the hands [...]
Michael Laitman: Today all international law is in the hands of the speculating politicians, who use it only for their egoistic goals. The solution is possible only on the condition that we will change the worldwide values—in such a way that only altruistic actions and goals will be lawful. On this condition we will be able to change the interrelationships between people and between countries. By this we will change this entire malevolent attitude towards each person and towards the whole world—to a good one. It is necessary for altruistic values to be the basis for all international agreements. Of course, there is no just international law today, and therefore there are also no effective mechanisms to apply it. Only on the condition that it will be altruistic and directed at the good of the whole world, only on the condition that the whole world will want it and will understand the need for it—only on this condition will a worldwide government really be formed. And today we are also discovering that the UN is not fulfilling its task. It cannot do so, as it is merely a "toy," a means in the hands of the politicians, and it does not carry out what we had counted on and hoped for in the past. We can form a thousand more international organizations, including the altruistic ones that exist today as well as the egoistic ones, and governments—but the same situation will continue until we change their basis, transforming it to the good of humanity, fortified by the understanding of the general law of nature.
The problem lies in the fact that all human [...]
Michael Laitman: The problem lies in the fact that all human development is egoistic. Egoism—is the material of all reality. This is why a person cannot perform any actions unless they come from the side of egoism. For this reason, the connection between politics and violence is that in politics we use the same laws and the same goals, except we place them within the confines of a certain legitimacy, which we can continue to maintain in the future. In other words, politics—is the continuation of the power of the fist, and nothing more. Until humanity's approach to the life and organization of international relations changes from egoistic to altruistic, we will not be able to perform any political action that does not come from force. Only an altered approached to all of humanity as to one global integrated organism will change reality in such a way that politics will become global. After all, we are in a small global village. In this case all decisions will be made by a government that envelops the whole world, under the influence of intentions that are directed towards the good of progress, toward the good of the existence of the general world, just like a general body. And then every person will receive a position from this "head" of the whole world. By this we will divide the burden among everyone—so every person will know that his part is determined by the fact that he must contribute his share to the world precisely in this way, in order for the whole world to live in peace. We will all live and prosper, and achieve not even just our material life—we will merit another level of living, the infinite spiritual flow of nature. We will take care not only of the material life, our bodies, but also of our souls. We will be able to ascend to this level only on the condition that we will come to the altruistic life.
I think that the problem does not lie in [...]
Michael Laitman: I think that the problem does not lie in China. By their nature, the Chinese are a very conscientious and traditional people; they really love to work and to see the fruits or results of their work. Any of the nations that especially lack behind would like to find itself in China's place, and today even some of the progressed and developed nations. The problem lies in the following. Our attitude towards China, which is experiencing a high-level and swift industrialization, comes simply from envy: the Chinese are capable of this, and other nations are not. In essence, the answer is the following: we must understand reality and the human society, which is completely closed and comprises a single system. As soon as we understand that each one has its own place in the general human civilization, we will see that China also has its part: for example, it will be the leader of the technical development, America—of the technological one, Russia—in cultivating the natural resources, and likewise for each country in its field of human development. Each one must only supplement the others, rather than extract personal benefit from this. After all, each nation wants to use the other nations for its benefit. As soon as we will merit revealing that we all belong to one body, as soon as we will want to unite between ourselves into a single system—each one will begin adding his contribution to human society. And then we will really merit a good life. Our problem is not that each one is doing something of his, but in how to unite the distinctive abilities of each one.
Obviously, there is. The developed [...]
Michael Laitman: Obviously, there is. The developed governments have brought their civilization into other countries by force, by violence. They have "raped" all culture, all the original bases of the life of these countries and nations, uprooting them out of their own culture and evoking all the disasters that we are seeing today in the third world. Now the developed governments should try to return these nations to the previous state as much as this is still possible, and allow them to develop independently. After all, each one can develop correctly only in the form that is natural for him. Unless we do this, we will never see a good life in the countries of South America, Africa and Asia. All of this happens because international contacts are built on each one's desire to impose its own culture, upbringing, power, and philosophy of understanding the world on others—and this is forbidden. This is why we must only help each other develop naturally. I must help another person obtain what is good for him, and by this not to express my own opinion and my own power, obligating the other person to develop in a different form. This disaster was brought upon the whole world by the European culture, and this is why the whole European civilization—North America and Europe—must as much as possible, with all its power, lead to a recoiling back to the previous state and give all countries the opportunity to develop naturally.
Freedom does not at all depend on the epoch [...]
Michael Laitman: Freedom does not at all depend on the epoch or the place of the world in which a person lives. The environment in which a person lives is given to him from above, from outside. He does not choose the environment, just as he does not choose in what society to be born, what upbringing to receive and what values to assimilate in order to afterwards live according to them. Freedom can be interpreted only according to one condition: freedom from my egoistic nature. I cannot be free from anything else. It is freedom from my egoistic nature, where I do not live by the laws of my egoism (which is what my nature pushes me to do from inside), but only according to human society, only relative to humanity and for the good of humanity. Stated differently, freedom lies in ascending above one's egoistic nature to the human good. And there I really receive my free life. I ascend from the egoistic level of life to the altruistic one, and I live and feel the flow of eternal nature. I feel myself as perfect, eternal and free. Obviously, the realization of these laws completely does not depend on the place of a person's residence, his nationality or gender. It depends on the person himself and on the opposition to his original nature.
Only society, rather than the person [...]
Michael Laitman: Only society, rather than the person himself, must feel, understand and decide where is the boundary between a person's freedom and his responsibility to society. After all, a person mainly lives inside of society, and his life must be led in conformity to society, relative to society and for the sake of society. This is why a big problem and the goal of humanity—is to give a person such an education that will allow him to feel that the good of society—is his good, and the goal of society—his goal. A person will live only by means of his loyalty to society. And from the side of society, the goal must be to form such a way of thought, such a fact, and such knowledge in the worldwide human society and in small societies, that if a person acts for the sake of humanity, if he is useful to humanity, then he merits recognition and respect in the eyes of society. After all, society inevitably influences a person. Whatever society wants, that is what a person does, since he needs support from the side of society. His "I" or his ego is enacted by the society by means of the values he receives from it. If society will censure an egoistic person and respect an altruistic person—then of course, every person will have to perform altruistic actions in order to be respected and to feel that he is an important and useful part. A person will want others to support him, for them to speak well of him—and thanks to this we will be able to control a person, making him into a useful part of society. This is why society must establish where the boundary between a person's freedom and society lies.
Education is what a person receives from his [...]
Michael Laitman: Education is what a person receives from his environment. Children receive the correct education and culture only by the example of society and parents. School does not provide education, but only a trade. Education, a person's inner culture, is determined not by knowledge, but by his correct inner development, when he becomes perfect in his correct attitude to life and to the world. This is why true education, good education—is to give our children knowledge about what the general, true law of nature demands of them and of all people, so they will be harmoniously and wholesomely connected, and so they will take care of each other like the cells or organs of one body. After all, in the general complex, we comprise one global system, just as this is now becoming revealed. Society must provide an example of this to the young generation by showing that bestowal, care for humanity as a whole, for the whole human society—is the highest value that can be. By this we will reliably educate the generation for future life, and it will really have a future life. If we will bring knowledge into the world about the fact that only mutuality, understanding, and love will save the world—then every person will want to sacrifice himself for others. By this he will reveal himself not as a cancerous cell in an organism, but as a healthy cell in the general body, that is, in the whole human society, in the whole world.
No. Our good life does not at all depend on [...]
Michael Laitman: No. Our good life does not at all depend on the fact that a part of the nations of the world lives in poverty. What happens to them is caused by the fact that the European civilization brought its mentality into them to replace the local mentality, the local culture, the local traditions and everything they had before. They were corrupted by the foreign culture and foreign values that were brought into them. By this they disrupted the natural development of all of these nations and committed a great sin against them. Therefore, obviously they led to poverty and the disastrous state of development in Africa in our days. However, today the wealth of the West does not depend on the poverty of the third world nations. On the other hand, only if we will feel that we depend on each other, on the general law of nature, love, altruism, interconnection, globalization; if we will see that in essence each one of us is a cell of a living body that depends on the functioning of the rest of the cells; if we will see that every person in the world is important because he is a cell of a living body, and without his life activity the world is incomplete; if we will see the degree to which we depend on each other—then of course we will know to treat all nations and all countries, including the third world, with love and understanding. Then peace in the world will set in and there will be equality—but for each person according to his mentality, culture and all of the accompanying circumstances.
This happens because we do not see the [...]
Michael Laitman: This happens because we do not see the general circle, the general mechanism, the general system of our globalization. We belong to one system; in essence all of us are one body. Each of us is like a cell in one body, a cell that is obligated to take care of the well-being of the whole body. If we will see that in the end, all of humanity is one Man with different organs and parts, then obviously we will understand that each person has a value. After all, even if one cell in the body becomes cancerous… And in essence, this is the specifics of egoism: it begins to consume others. For now, today, we are all like cancerous cells. This is becoming revealed to us now: all of us are in the general human society, which is sick with general cancer. If we will reveal this, then of course from this we will discover that each person must be healthy, that is, he must reject his egoism, consumption, and the use of others, and shift to bestowing to others. By revealing this, we will see that life lies only in opening each person in his development, in his contribution to society. If we will encourage society to do this, to communicate values to every person that are directed only towards this—by this we will of course obligate people through the opportunity to be useful for human society. Then everyone will be equal. And then the life of one person will not be able to be more important than the life of someone else.
We will develop each nation beneficially [...]
Michael Laitman: We will develop each nation beneficially only by developing the traditional education, inherent to all the people in the world—in such a way that this development and this culture will correspond to the nature of the nation. We must understand that in general there exist 70 nations of the world, and they are all different. Analogously to the organs of the body, they are obligated to supplement one another. For this reason, if we will express an equal and benevolent attitude towards everyone, and one that conforms to the nature of each one, then we will see that they are really able to create and add a wonderful contribution to humanity. Then we will succeed in extracting the maximal use from each nation. All of this depends on having a kind and sincere attitude towards each one, so it would be able serve humanity precisely to the degree that corresponds to it. We must understand that all of nature is divided among the nations and countries in such a way that leads man to the state where each person supplements the others. As a result, we can really find ourselves in an equal and perfect world, where each person supplements the others and achieves a world that is all—good. Then we will merit seeing that each nation has a wonderful part in humanity. It is only thanks to supplementing each other that we can merit perfect life in all of human society—in love, perfection, respect and esteem for every person. First of all, we must reveal that every nation has its own place, similar to how the organs of the body have their places. Each nation is necessary to us, and until we see this, we will not be able to value and elevate it to our own distinctive realization.
I do not think that it is possible to change [...]
Michael Laitman: I do not think that it is possible to change a woman's position or status even in the modern world, unless we know exactly what this status must be, precisely what the difference between men and women is. We are two parts of nature. From the still level to the vegetative, animate and speaking levels, we divide everyone into two sexes: the male and the female. And therefore if only we will know what this special state is, what is the main difference between men and women, between the male and female sexes—then we will be able to establish their relationships well. It will not help to even things out artificially, in such a way that makes men and women the same. What is needed is a situation when women feel comfortable being women, and men feel comfortable being men, even though each of them is unique in their own way. The way to achieve balance, similarity, and equivalence between them is to give each sex an equal opportunity to express itself and to be exactly that for which nature has laid all of the premises in us. And this is why the most important thing is to know precisely what a woman's and a man's place is according to nature. Our problem is that it seems to us as if nature does not have a law on the speaking level—and this is why here we establish laws according to our own judgment. But in reality, in nature and on the speaking level there is a law that dictates to human society and to each of us to take our place—analogously to the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology. By knowing this, we will also know how to provide equality for women and men according to the equality of their realization—in such a way as to give each sex equal opportunities for self-expression according to its nature. I repeat: our problem lies in knowing the law that acts in nature.
Neither of these can help. We cannot win by [...]
Michael Laitman: Neither of these can help. We cannot win by the force of the fist or by other forms of resistance. We already see this as the result of everything happening to us in the world. We cannot achieve peace, balance, understanding, unity, and harmony in the world by means of resistance—whether it is resistance by force or resistance by means of any other actions and methods. We must act only by means of a widespread dissemination of the science about the structure of the world, which explains how it must appear according to its nature and how to bring the world from the egoistic to the altruistic format. Only thanks to this will we be able to transform the savage, egoistic, hating and arrogant man, who has the ability to use the neighbor, to a person who thinks and understands, and in general—to a person. Since "man" (Adam)—means "similar" (Dommeh) to the Upper Force, similar to the Creator, similar to the One Who is Good and Who Does Good. None of the forms of egoism will ever bring us to victory. Egoism will always bring us to defeat. This is why it does not matter by what means we will wage war or resistance. Victory is achieved in a long-term perspective, for eternity—and we can win only by explaining and educating the world and the young generation about what the altruistic law that exists in nature is, how it obligates us, and how it will obligate us to arrange our lives. In reality, all of humanity's mechanisms are already ready for the altruistic education. No one wants to admit that he is an egoist and hates others; rather, everyone asserts that he is an altruist. We can use precisely this inner inclination that man has. We must only expand this respect to altruistic actions everywhere with the help of different organizations and international forces—in such a way that we will value each other, as well as countries, governments and organizations, only according to their contribution to altruism and to the general peace. If we speak only about this, then we will achieve success.
The development of egoism in man, which [...]
Michael Laitman: The development of egoism in man, which already continues for nearly 6000 years, constantly pushes man to greater and greater fulfillments. People want more and more, and this pushes them to develop human society; this way they evoke progress or development in all areas, on all levels of human activity in their society. But as the result of our 6000-year-long development, we are despairing in the chance of ever fulfilling ourselves. Even the children who are growing up today look at the world and, in contrast to us, they no longer feel the desire to live in this world. They become immediately immersed in despair, drugs, depression and suicide, because they have past reincarnations behind them, our past life, and they see that there is nothing with which to fill themselves, that this world will not give them any fulfillment. And this is why they turn to drugs—simply in order to forget about life, to separate themselves from this miserable life and not to feel its emptiness. This happens in the world out of hopelessness. This is why our world is being scourged by drugs, divorce and suicide. Man's ego is bringing him to the end of development, and now he must pass to the altruistic world, where he will no longer fulfill himself with constant attempts to attract something. Just the opposite, fulfillment will come from contributing. There is no limitation in contributing, and therefore by this we will pave a beginning to a new life, a new society. I hope that this will come true. Then we will abolish these disasters: the suicides, depression, the ecological catastrophes and everything else, including drugs.
Of course, the spreading of AIDS in Africa [...]
Michael Laitman: Of course, the spreading of AIDS in Africa is the culpability of the developed countries, which have brought their culture there and this way corrupted the natural culture, the natural development, by which the countries of Africa and the rest of the world should have developed. All of the European nations committed a great injustice when they attempted to forcefully bring their values into all the other countries of the world and therefore separated them from their own traditions, from the evolution and development through which they should have gone. This is why they elicited all of these conditions in which there develops AIDS, hunger, inequality and dictatorship, characteristic of the third world countries. Of course, the third world countries were created by the developed European countries, which forcefully brought their culture and their values there. This is why I think that only by helping every country return to its nature, to its natural development, will we come to a favorable, harmonious development among all of the nations, all the countries and humanity as a whole, in a good way and equally. They should not be equal, but everyone should have an equal opportunity to develop favorably, each nation in conformity with its nature. This is the only way that we will come to harmony and to the cessation of such illnesses and epidemics as AIDS.
Great people, those whom I accept as being [...]
Michael Laitman: Great people, those whom I accept as being great—are those great Kabbalists who developed the science of Kabbalah, having received it from Ancient Babylon, from the times of the first revelation of evil in man, and have carried it across all of these five millennia, from one generation to the next. This is the author of The Book of Zohar, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, who lived in the 2nd century; the founder of the modern science of Kabbalah—the ARI, who lived in the 15th century; and the last Kabbalist, who developed the science of Kabbalah (in essence, the science of salvation) with consideration of our time—Rav Yehuda Ashlag (author of The Sulam commentary on The Zohar, Master of the Ladder - Baal HaSulam), who lived already in the 20th century. In essence, precisely he revealed the science of Kabbalah to our generation, and with his help we are now advancing to the understanding of reality, to understanding nature, to understanding the problem that humanity faces. And also my teacher, Baal HaSulam's older son, Rav Baruch Shalom Ashlag, who passed this science to me. Precisely he handed it over to me and obligated me to pass it on further to all of humanity—which is what I am trying to do with my strength. This is why the great Kabbalists—RASHBI, the ARI, Baal HaSulam and Baruch Shalom, RABASH—are the people whom I see as the example. To me they are the heroes of the world.
If people come to understand that everything [...]
Michael Laitman: If people come to understand that everything they accomplish, everything they reveal in nature can benefit humanity and will be recorded about the person on the eternal account of his soul to the degree of the benefit he had contributed—then this entire approach would disappear, when a person guards that which he has revealed and does not want to free it… There are things in the world that people have discovered, but they do not want to offer it to be widely used. If a person would be able to understand that his reward lies precisely in the fact that he performs bestowal to humanity, and precisely this becomes recorded in his name forever—then of course he would act this way and feel not the monetary reward as the payment, but the reward by recognition. Nature itself would treat him in a useful and favorable form, and thanks to this a person would merit feeling eternity and perfection above this life. However, for now we remain egoists and are unable to understand nature in such a fashion—it turns out that we are using all of the riches of nature and everything that we can reveal in nature in the most egoistic form. As the result, in any case, each person guards his patent, and the world advances by a completely indirect path.
This question is inapplicable, since even [...]
Michael Laitman: This question is inapplicable, since even before we achieve a certain techno-ecological limit of development, humanity will destroy itself in the Third World War. It is impossible to reach the limit of technical development, because we evoke much greater problems with our thoughts and our incorrect attitude towards each other. This is why there is no ecological limit to economic development. In general, the ecological problem is not caused by the technical development, but only by the development of the ego and the evil that lies in it. This is why the only possible salvation here is for the whole world to understand that we belong to one body, to one global system, that we are interconnected and are obligated to take care of one another. As soon as we understand that we belong to one system, one organism—at that very second we will immediately be finished with all of our problems and nature will begin treating us good and wonderful, just like we will treat each other. The worse we will treat each other, the worse nature will treat us. The better we will treat each other, the better nature will treat us.
For now we do not feel that we are under the [...]
Michael Laitman: For now we do not feel that we are under the general control of the Internet. After all, this means checks what sites we visit, what we want, and what the sphere of our interests is. Of course, later on we will see how we can be manipulated and used. This happens with all of our workings, which someone later uses egoistically in order to advertise something to us and lead us to the place where we will buy the products they offer us. However, I hope that even before this, we will discover that we need to change our entire world as a whole, rather than the less significant things that most of these questions touch on. People are asking about how we can change the result. However, we must understand that we have to change the cause of all evil and problems. In the 100 questions cited here, people ask about the results, but if we change the ego—then all of these results will fall away, and all of these problems will disappear as if they never existed. We must focus only on one thing—changing our nature. Let this even seem unrealistic. "To change nature!?" However, in reality this is possible because we have power, wisdom and the method of changing our nature. This method is called "the science of Kabbalah," which is only now becoming revealed to the world, and by means of it we can really perform the necessary changes. Sooner or later humanity will reveal it and use it. But we are trying to bring it to humanity's realization throughout the world as quickly as possible, in order for the world to suffer less.
We are in the process of development, under [...]
Michael Laitman: We are in the process of development, under the "developmental press," under our egoism, which constantly develops in us. This ego that develops in us will not allow us to be pacified, it will not allow us to relax. It will bring us to such disasters and suffering, that after the development of the ego we will have to stop and think: for what sake do we live? By asking this question about the meaning of his life, man will discover that the entire role of his life lies precisely in changing the egoism that develops him and achieving such an application of it that will be directed towards balance, unification, embrace, and becoming similar in qualities with nature. By this man will achieve the sensation of eternity and perfection. In contrast to animals, in these circumstances we will not sit without moving and merely consume. Since our ego is bound to bring us to the goal—in the end, having developed us and achieved its peak, it is beginning to reveal such emptiness in us, that from this state we will have to change egoism and our approach to life. By this we differ from animals—since their ego is unchanging. It is simply that man provides them with food, and therefore they do not move. Whereas for us it is not enough to receive food in order to stop moving, remain pacified and satisfied. Just the opposite, we will nevertheless have to fill this emptiness, which will become revealed in us. This emptiness will bring us to the necessity of changing our attitude, our approach to life. The egoism that develops in us brings man to the fact that he himself abolishes this egoism. And we will see this directly in the closest years to come.
Only if by means of education and [...]
Michael Laitman: Only if by means of education and dissemination will we achieve such a situation in the planetary consciousness where everyone will know, understand and accept the fact that the quality of our life does not depend on how much we fill ourselves by all kinds of technical, technological and technocratic fulfillments. Just the opposite, our fulfillment depends on psychological comfort; it depends on the satisfaction a person feels as the result of being fulfilled and living in a harmonious world. The degree that we will advance in the correct direction depends only on this. This can be achieved only on the condition that we will organize our life, the life of our world, on the scale of the whole planet, the whole world, in the form of altruistic life, an altruistic society. This is when each person "absorbs" or takes for himself only as much as he needs to exist, and each one bestows the remaining part of his earnings or production to benefit the life of the worldwide global society. The cells of the living body exist this way, only according to this law. This is how nature has organized life on the animate level: every cell exists only for the goal of the existence of the organism as a whole, otherwise it becomes cancerous. This is the same way that we too must behave: each one like a human cell relative to the whole common-to-all-mankind organism. If we will do this, then unquestionably each person will feel confident and live a good life in society.
It is impossible to achieve good results by [...]
Michael Laitman: It is impossible to achieve good results by means of conflict and war and it is impossible to achieve good results without conflict and without war. In general, this approach is incorrect. The approach must be directed only at raising the planetary consciousness of the whole world, so we will understand that our lives are interconnected. If anyone else has bad feelings, this means that I have bad feelings; if someone else feels bad, this comes back to me and I will feel bad. After all, we are like one man with one body, we are in one system. If the life and health of another person will be just as important to me as my life and health—obviously I will not have to fight for good and pure drinking water, as the worldwide approach will obligate everyone to this. It is necessary to understand that the education we want to give our children—is altruistic. We want our children to be altruists, since we understand that altruism gives a person confidence. Life is easier for a person if he concedes, if he bestows. If he can fulfill himself in this form—the better it is, he has opportunities, and he will be joyful and happy. This is why we must expand this education, in order for our children to really receive an example from us of the fact that only thanks to the altruistic upbringing can they achieve a good life. When we will express such care for each other, then unquestionably we will be able to provide the whole world with a healthy and pure life, water and food.
We can evaluate the essence of science [...]
Michael Laitman: We can evaluate the essence of science exclusively by its goal. If, as it is being discovered today, the goal is harmful to man, then we cannot use and develop it. In any field we cannot excuse ourselves by saying that possibly, in the future we will use this for the good. If we already use this for harm now, this means that we cannot use this. Such is the law: an object should be judged according to the form in which it becomes revealed, and not by the distant future. Therefore, if any technology inflicts harm or can be used for harm today—then we cannot develop it. There will not be anything righteous about this. Only if we will change ourselves in the corresponding way and will be assured of its beneficial use—only then will we begin developing it. There is nothing special about developing science simply because it is science. Rather, everything must develop only according to man's moral level, only according to man's benefit. All of the laws, factors and premises are inherently placed in nature. But since we take everything from nature in the ready form, therefore we should take the ready stock only to the degree that we will be able to use it for our good. On the other hand, if it is not for our good, then there is no need for it.
We must immediately take the following [...]
Michael Laitman: We must immediately take the following measures. We must explain to all humanity that all of our problems are, in the end, the result of our disbalance with nature, since nature is altruistic and we are egoistic. Until we change and bring ourselves to balance with nature, we will not become similar to it on the speaking level. After all, in all other levels—the still, vegetative and animate levels—we become similar to nature instinctively, while on the human level we have freedom of choice. It is by our own free choice, our personal efforts, that we will achieve balance with all of nature and will become like all of nature. Then we will feel the eternity, perfection, and harmony that are present in all nature except our own. Otherwise we do not feel nature, but our oppositeness to it. We feel this oppositeness in all of nature's negative reactions to us, on the ecological, physical, and physiological level (disease), on the speaking level (depression, drug-addiction, divorce), and in the social sphere (terrorism, wars and violence). The first step we must immediately take in order to avoid all of us together colliding with some global problem, an upshot of catastrophes—is to explain the reason for our misfortunes and problems to all humanity. And it lies only in our attitude towards one another.
Television—is a source of information for [...]
Michael Laitman: Television—is a source of information for the masses, and the level of the masses cannot be high, but just the opposite, it is very "folk-like." This is why the level of the television—is the level of the masses. The problem lies in something else. If television would think about how to raise the level of the masses, instead of being led by the basest and lowest thing, then of course it would become the greatest and most respected means of upbringing. However, they only want to sell what the masses like—and obviously, the level of the masses is low. This way, television follows the wishes of the people and sells them what they want. The most important thing for these means of mass media—is to sell as much as possible. This is why television does not think about the upbringing of the people, the upbringing of the masses. And this is how it appears, which is why we really have many complaints against it. But if it were able to think about the future of the world, to think together with psychologists and experts in education about how to raise the level of the masses to the speaking level, to a high level, to the level of realization, then of course it would be able to bring them up in the most correct way. Precisely by correctly using the means of communication—and precisely with consideration of the masses—is how we must condition the hopes for the change of the world. This is why governments and the UN must put an end to such a low use of the means of mass information as there exists today. The whole future of the world depends on this.
We do not have a choice: we are compelled to [...]
Michael Laitman: We do not have a choice: we are compelled to use all of these technologies, all replications and genetic technologies, because otherwise we will not feed everyone. We do not have a choice; we are nevertheless obligated to now think about how to provide food for everyone. If we are all on the egoistic level and are unable to control the specifics of food, then we will be able to do this later by means of the altruistic method. Then we will do everything for the good of man, and it will not be that one person will think about how to develop something—it does not matter whether it is useful or harmful for humanity's future—only on the condition of receiving as much profit as possible. People will change internally and will relate to others as to their loved ones, as to themselves, and this will already compel us to think about the optimal technology and the use of the developments of biology and genetic engineering, thanks to which we will really be able to provide ourselves and all of humanity with the best food.
Science is not objective. It is objective [...]
Michael Laitman: Science is not objective. It is objective only to the degree that our five senses, in which we perceive the world, are objective and independent. We do not know what the world outside of us is. We feel only what enters inside of us through the five "apertures," the five senses. If our five senses were different, we would perceive the world differently. Science explains to us that all animals and species perceive the world in a different way: either in the form of spots of smell, or in the form of spots of heat and cold, and so on. Modern scientific theories say that the world—is not the world as it is, but the reaction of our senses to something happening outside. This is why we perceive the world to the degree that our five senses are connected with the surrounding world. This is why all science is not objective, but is absolutely subjective relative to man. Our science stems from the reaction of our senses to something unknown, which happens outside. This is why in the end, science merely registers our reaction to what we perceive and reveal. If we would perceive and reveal something from the outside by means of a sense that is not inside of us, but on the outside, then we would reveal a completely different world.
First of all, we must understand that we [...]
Michael Laitman: First of all, we must understand that we ourselves, precisely we disrupt the ecological and other balances that we have with nature. We evoke this disbalance not by using harmful technologies or coarse intervention in nature by means of our technology. Rather, the problem lies precisely in our ethical behavior, which is incorrect and egoistic. This is precisely why we disrupt nature, why we are not in balance with the general nature, which is entirely altruistic; it is all—love. None of our actions and the efforts we make in the attempt to minimize different technological waste, pollution, dirt, and different factors of our influence on nature—will help. Even if we cease the use of all our technology and will no longer evoke problems in nature directly—nevertheless we will not achieve balance with nature. After all, we disrupt the balance on the speaking level, with our thoughts and our corrupt attitude towards everyone. By this we also project disbalance and evil onto the lower levels of nature. This is why nature treats us badly. Our egoistic consideration, our attitude, and our unfounded hate for each other—this is what causes the problems of disease, hopelessness, and depression, immerses us in drugs and leads to ecological catastrophes. It is only our behavior. No measures to restrict the technical development will help us. We will nevertheless come to a global crisis in all its might. From here, let us hope that we will understand that harmony between us must be maintained on the speaking level, and not on the technical level. By understanding this principle more and more, we will lead to the fact that humanity will come to a good life by means of less suffering.
It is impossible to stop the struggle for [...]
Michael Laitman: It is impossible to stop the struggle for the natural resources that are used to produce raw materials. This struggle will continue to increase, achieve a great scale and lead to disbalance between countries and to great wars. It is only now becoming clear to what degree our world lacks balance and equality. The balance between what we need and how much we are able to receive from the whole world, is possible only if the whole world will take the altruistic law upon itself, which is present in nature as the law according to which all of society is obligated to develop and which it must observe. Then all the countries will begin sharing everything they have, all of the production, raw materials, energy, information, and everything there is—equally for everyone, according to the number of people, their culture, education and consumption, taking into consideration the conditions of the climate and so on. In other words, only the global planetary realization of the fact that we are in one system and are obligated to treat everyone in conformity with this—will bring us to balance in using all of the world's natural and technological resources.
The effectiveness of architecture, just as [...]
Michael Laitman: The effectiveness of architecture, just as the other sciences that have been developed by man, depends exclusively on how man uses them. It is not the science itself that is good or bad—the entire matter lies in the person who uses it for benefit or harm. Therefore, when people will understand that the best thing for them—is to realize their bare necessities, and to give everything else to society, then they will stop excessively using the science of architecture. Just the opposite, they will do everything extremely effectively, realistically, and will turn all the others excesses around to benefit all humanity. We will see this in architecture, and generally in all spheres of our activity in the world, in all of our sciences. If we will change man, then of course architecture and all the other sciences and technologies will also acquire a different form and appearance.
In any living organism, all of its cells, [...]
Michael Laitman: In any living organism, all of its cells, despite being egoistic, nevertheless in working with each other they unify into one mechanism, into one altruistic system, where each cell attaches itself to the body and becomes entirely immersed in caring only about how to become integrated into the body, how to provide the life of the body and its general functioning, as otherwise it will itself lose life. So it must be in the whole human society: if we want to survive, then we must accept this law of every living organism, according to which everyone takes care of everyone else. The future can be only this and nothing else. Over the course of our life on Earth, we develop by means of egoism. This was egoistic development, which gradually unraveled in us. However, now we have arrived at the finale of egoistic development and today we are in a completely different dimension. We must understand that a new reality is now becoming revealed, a new system is becoming revealed to us, in which we are interconnected. Coming from our interconnectedness, we must accept this integral system as the law of life between us. Therefore, if we accept this as a fact, then we will see our future life be good. I hope that this is precisely what we will see.
There is nothing in the world that is evil [...]
Michael Laitman: There is nothing in the world that is evil or good. Everything depends on how it is used. This is why we can say the following: all means of information, all channels of communication were developed by egoism in order for us to now understand that we must develop them in being used for the good of humanity. This is why the problem is not whether the means of mass media are ubiquitous and whether their influence is good or bad. The good or bad influence depends on the way they are used: for the good of what do they act? Either for the good of all humanity according to the general law of nature, rather than what seems to them; or for their own good, in order to raise their rating and earn more and more. This is the problem of the means of mass media: in essence they have the ability to establish a good connection between people, but instead they disunite them. Consequently, today they are being used in the worst way. This is why on one hand, we cannot tolerate them, and on the other hand, we feel that it is impossible without them. Sometimes good things become revealed with their help, such as when they criticize everything that is happening in the world—when they criticize it well. As a rule however, they lead to bad things, because they are enacted by the egoism of the people who are in charge of them. If they will begin developing and keeping us updated for the sake of the common good of humanity, understanding how important they are in building a new altruistic world, then of course they will begin playing a positive role, and we will need them and value them for this.
Unquestionably, in the nearest future—let's [...]
Michael Laitman: Unquestionably, in the nearest future—let's say, in the year 2020—it will be possible to connect a human brain to machines, like computers, in order for them to work conjointly. And approximately by the middle of the 21st century it will also be possible to replace all parts of our body with different artificial forms. We must understand: we are not speaking of the inner part here, of a person's own "I," his soul. In the end, we are speaking about parts of our body, about that which is animalistic. Even today, by means of genetic and biological engineering, we can perform any changes in the human body, replace and remove organs. This is not a problem. In all of its wisdom, there is nothing in this science that lies above human abilities. After all, during this we act on the animate level, while we ourselves are on the speaking level. Our problem, our correct, high and highly unique activity lies in ascending from the cares of the biological level, the level of the animalistic body, to the speaking level. Then we will work in our soul, in the human "I," which lies above the body. Precisely there we will perform such manipulations, which will allow us to perform corrections in the soul, actions in the soul. As for the body, obviously, in the closest years we will do more and more and more. In the end, all this depends only on technological development.
Only the realization of the fact that we are [...]
Michael Laitman: Only the realization of the fact that we are in one human system as parts of one body, will compel us to organize such an education, from which each person will be able to draw the forces to provide everyone with all the things that only he is able to provide them with. After all, each cell must provide the body with something special, otherwise the body is completely not integral. We must take care of the fact that everyone will know about his originality, know about his task, know about his abilities and about his specificity. Only he is able to give this to humanity. And for this reason, if his contribution will be lacking from the organism as a whole, from all humanity, then there will be a flaw in all humanity. If we will achieve such a state, then we will give the correct and good education and by this we will achieve a good world. The realization of our integrality and our interdependence on each person—in essence this must make our education independent of any sort of restrictions, in order for it to be based only on each person's role in the integral system of all humanity.
Egoism lies at the basis of our nature. Over [...]
Michael Laitman: Egoism lies at the basis of our nature. Over the course of his life, a person develops, constantly expands and grows. As the result, we find ourselves more and more separated from each other, and in our time we have reached the fact that we cannot stand each other any longer. We are getting divorced, we hate each other, we hate ourselves, and we are becoming immersed in drugs and despair. This separates us, and we feel that we are truly cut off from everyone and even from our very selves. We feel ourselves to be isolated, not connected with each other. And on the other hand, we are beginning to feel the opposite: that we depend on each other and cannot live without each other. So how can we remove this problem: I depend on the whole world and I hate the whole world, pushing it away from myself? How can we tie this problem into one? We are incapable of this in our life. The questions that are asked here are very correct and good, but their solution lies in just one thing: we must ascend from our level of existence, where all of us live by receiving and each person cares for himself, to a different level, where we perform bestowal and each one person for others. If we will understand that there is no more life in this form of our existence and that we need to go on to a different state, opposite to the current one—then we will merit eternity and perfection, and no one will feel alone.
We live in a very peculiar world, and we [...]
Michael Laitman: We live in a very peculiar world, and we have a very peculiar means called "the Internet." Really, with the help of the Internet each person in the world is able to have access to unlimited sources of information almost at no cost. This means is equal for everyone; it equalizes everyone and connects everyone across the whole world. Even though it is being deliberately developed by our egoism, nevertheless in the end its development is bound to reveal to us that we already can understand the general system of all humanity, which is interconnected as one body. The Internet allows us to understand the true state of the world and ourselves, and I hope that in the end it will lead to the change of the world, as quickly as possible, even in our days. In the end, information, communications, and technology will lead to the following. Possibly, we will not achieve socio-economic development of the poorer layers of the world's population, but we will understand that we must change the approach to the world and the interconnection between us from egoism to altruism—in such a way, that we will all become equal as the result. We cannot remain in the illusion that if we will now divide everything equally, then the world will change. Such a division will not lead to favorable changes in the world. We have already seen how this happens. By this we only interfere with people working and developing. We must bring a new realization to people, according to which everyone should be treated as one family, altruistically. Thanks to this we will make the world equal, happy and perfect.
I understand that humanity is undergoing a [...]
Michael Laitman: I understand that humanity is undergoing a crisis. This crisis envelops all humanity: depression, drug-addiction, the disintegration of the family unit, terrorism, and the global ecological threat. Constantly, from one day to the next, this disaster in humanity continues to increase, and the conflict between civilizations is deepening. According to the opinion of scientists, humanity does not have very much time left to somehow stop the development of the crisis in the direction of the Third world war. As doctors say, the correct diagnosis—is already half of the treatment's success. This is why we must reveal this crisis to the whole world and stop silencing it. After all, by this we only bring ourselves closer to an irreversible state. Only if we will reveal this crisis to all humanity and simultaneously try to all together understand what is the reason for the crisis (which is our ego) and what is its cure (only curing our ego)—by this we will reveal a good life, a different level, which humanity must achieve. Therefore this vision pushes me even to things that are beyond by abilities, in order to use all of the opportunities, explaining this to the whole world.
Without any connection to how the general [...]
Michael Laitman: Without any connection to how the general culture influences a person, the result of this is that it gives a person a heightened feeling of emptiness and brings him to depression, drugs, terrorism, crises in the family, upbringing and the sciences. In the end, it leads to a general global crisis, and the world even comes to the threat of annihilation resulting from an ecological or nuclear catastrophe. Our development and path is for us to achieve the desired result by means of realizing egoism as evil—but not to do this as the result of great suffering, of realizing evil by the path of suffering. Just the opposite, we must reveal this by means of realization. However, due to a lack of a way out, for now we are advancing from a smaller ego to a greater one, from small injuries to greater and greater injuries. Nature is purposefully formulating a menacing feeling and environment around us, in order for man, whether he wants it or not, to feel that his egoism is the source of the evil that evokes all the problems in the word. By this we will discover that egoism itself works in such a way by nature as to compel us to see the evil in it and to annul it. But at the same time, there is also a possibility of a short, good and easy path—to advance towards the good not by means of injuries, but by means of the realization of evil. We can do this only with the help of disseminating the science about nature, the science of Kabbalah. It is possible to advance towards the change of human nature by means of realization, rather than injuries.
A person is incapable of himself [...]
Michael Laitman: A person is incapable of himself understanding that he is a part of humanity, a part of the nature of the whole world and the whole universe. All of the egoism that has been inherently placed in him stops him and makes him very limited in perceiving the world. In order to feel the general all-enveloping nature that surrounds us, we must shift from an introverted perception of reality, where we accept everything into us with the help of the five senses that merely absorb information from the outside inside—to such a state, when we give of ourselves, come out of ourselves to the outside. And this is possible only with an altruistic perception of the world. This is why for now we are unable to see that the world is global and that we are an integral part of the whole world. However, our egoism is pushing us forward and by means of suffering we are beginning to feel that we do not have a way out, we must understand the world in which we live. Otherwise we will continue to suffer more and more, until we destroy ourselves. This is why suffering makes a person more perceptive, since suffering develops our mind. In the beginning it develops our mind in order for us to avoid it, and after that it nevertheless brings us to the realization of the general reality, which is integral. A person gradually discovers that in the end our entire universe and we inside of it are a part of one integral system, which has a law, a general law of nature—the law of love. Therefore we too must achieve equivalence to this law. All of nature works as one organism and only man is given freedom of will in order to freely come to this understanding and to make himself an integral part in his personal status. When man achieves this, when he will achieve this in the nearest future as I hope—then he will see that he ascends above the animate level in him to the speaking level in him. Then he will feel himself as the global nature, all-embracing, eternal and perfect.
Coca-Cola is closer, more obtainable and [...]
Michael Laitman: Coca-Cola is closer, more obtainable and accessible to us that a glass of good pure water, because someone profits from this. Once again, the egoism of man, of a company pushes it to make its product more accessible for everyone. It cannot receive the same sum for a glass of water as for a can of Coca-Cola, and this is why "Coca-Cola" pushes its way through in order to profit from us. However, if by means of the planetary consciousness we will understand what is beneficial to us, will use only the things that are positive for us, and will scorn all the rest, if we will abolish all of this, then of course over the course of the life of one generation we will be able to bring up a generation that will be repulsed by Coca-Cola and different unhealthy products, such as endless sweets and so on. Then we will form a new and healthy generation without genetic food and without such toxins as Coca-Cola and others. It is because if egoism disappears from the world, then it will not profit anyone to prepare toxic products. A person will not feel any profit from this. Just the opposite, society must censure the companies that act this way. Society must take care to protect all of its members from the dispersion of toxic food. However, since we do not love each other, we do not take care of each other's health. As the result, of course there are those who cell toxins, there are others who advertise toxins, and there are others still who begin buying and using them under the influence of these advertisements—they take this poison. Our ego pushes us to all the bad things. Until we tame it, we will drink toxins and not achieve a healthy life.
From this we can learn that if we give [...]
Michael Laitman: From this we can learn that if we give education, culture and religion under pressure, compulsively in any part of the world, to any nation, by this we cause this nation to become separated from its natural roots. In this case we evoke a very serious flaw in this nation. It is because by separating from its root, it no longer develops in compliance with its nature, and this leads it to disasters. We brought Africa to this and this is why we see how irreversible this is, nearly irreversible. What is necessary is only the original upbringing and the original culture, when we allow and help a person to develop according to the principle, "bring up the lad according to his path." In other words, let each nation, society, civilization, and person develop according to his nature, according to all the conditions that he received from nature, with all of his natural beginnings. By acting this way, you will lead to harmonious development in the world. In addition, in this case each person will be able to contribute the maximum of his ability to the world, and the world will develop harmoniously. And vice versa, by tearing a person away from his roots, we inflict harm upon the whole world, and this harm is irreversible. This is why we will still have to come back to Africa and to the whole world in order to give them all of the natural conditions that they had before, and help them quickly develop—but to develop precisely in these conditions, so they will occupy the fitting place, which is their due.
Only on the condition that we will treat [...]
Michael Laitman: Only on the condition that we will treat each other according to the rule or law "Love your neighbor as yourself," in brotherly love, in love for the neighbor, when I feel the neighbor just like the cells of the body feel their belonging to a single organism. Each cell helps the others; each cell is obligated to comprise the support and integrity of the others in one body. We must treat each other this way—in essence, in compliance with what nature demands of us. After all, we belong to one village, one humanity, one species, in essence we belong to one body. If we will begin relating to each other this way, then each of us will develop optimally both for himself and for society, in the form and speed suitable for him. By this we will achieve balance between different cultures and humanity as a whole. Each one will be able to add something of himself to the community.
We must unite—all of the altruistic [...]
Michael Laitman: We must unite—all of the altruistic organizations, all the people who are worried about the future of the world. Unite. We must form a head organization, something like the future government. And from the side of this government we must obligate all humanity to hear and understand what its problem with realizing our dangerous situation is. Let us hope that we will organize such an international altruistic government, which will explain to the world in what a horrible state it is found, will explain that it is possible to accomplish changes only by changing man's attitude to nature, to others. If we will obligate human society to show people only how good it is to live in bestowal and how bad it is to live in reception—then we will value each person only according to how much he bestows. This is what we will respect and value him for. By acting this way, we will bring up a generation, bring up ourselves, and will merit a world that is all—good. This is what I would like to give to the world.
Humanity began its development in ancient [...]
Michael Laitman: Humanity began its development in ancient Babylon. That is where egoism had flared up in humanity for the first time. Back then, together with the upshot of egoism, the science of Kabbalah began to become revealed, which speaks of how to tame egoism and bring it to balance with nature. However, since humanity did not take this path, but continued to develop egoistically, therefore the science of Kabbalah was concealed until the end of mankind's development. This is what was written about it even five thousand years ago in the ancient sources. However, in our days, when through all kinds of formations and problems humanity has already reached the end of egoism's development—we now see how erroneous and incorrect the development since the times of ancient Babylon has been. Now we once again merit seeing the end of the path that we began back then, at the beginning of our evolution, at the beginning of human development, but we did not want to accept the tool of the method to achieve balance with nature. Now, after five thousand years, we have reached the maximal ego and see how much we erred throughout the course of the whole path. Now we are again in the same state, the science of Kabbalah is again becoming revealed, and with its help we can regain balance with nature—but already on the maximal level of our egoistic development. In the past we were able to balance our development and to begin gradually developing together with the increasing egoism, balancing ourselves with nature in love between people. However, people did not want to take this path, and they built the "Tower of Babel." Sources allegorically narrate about how in our egoism we had wanted to "reach the heavens," and that is when people stopped understanding each other, progressed in hate for each other, and settled in all the countries, all over the whole world. Today they see that this did not help. We nevertheless belong to one humanity, one group that has simply settled all over the globe. However this is still that same small system, that same Babylonian civilization, only it has grown to reach the size of seven billion people. This does not matter, since we are nevertheless obligated to carry out the law of balance with nature of which the science of Kabbalah speaks. This is why the science of Kabbalah is so in demand today and why it is now becoming revealed to everyone—in order to show humanity how it is really possible to achieve balance with nature and come to realization. The whole history of humanity is revealed in the science of Kabbalah. Already thousands of years ago it had said about our time, about the fact that everything will happen this way. And now it is happening.
If the question is being heard by people who [...]
Michael Laitman: If the question is being heard by people who are on different levels of development, the even though each one hears the same question, they may hear it in opposite ways. Each one who hears not the question, but the answer, also hears it in his own way—according to his level of development. What is correct for one person may seem incorrect and even opposite to another one. This is why people cannot understand each other until they come to the correct form of development. We have to suppose that the levels of development determine the fact that a person hears something different each time. Since that which a person heard and understood yesterday, can turn out to be opposite to what he hears and understands today. This is why our approach to each person must be completely relative. Nothing can be taken as an axiom, as something absolute. From here we must understand: on one hand, everything is predetermined in advance, and on the other hand, everything depends on the person—and a person cannot grasp this law with his mind. We say that everything descends and comes from above, it is as if everything is known in advance, and at the same time we assert that a person is able to change something and achieve results that depend only on him. We are unable to combine both of these things: "If not I for myself, then who for me?" and "There is no one besides Him." Precisely thanks to understanding that this relates to two levels of development, to two forms in which a person exists—we can smooth out the seeming contradiction and understand that everything correlates only with man.
We began to develop in our ego already 6000 [...]
Michael Laitman: We began to develop in our ego already 6000 years ago. This egoism constantly pushed us to develop and severed us from the truth. In the past, like beasts and animals, man was connected with nature and instinctively carried out its laws. However our ego separated us from nature, as the result of which we found ourselves to be unbalanced with it and became egoists. After all, all of nature is altruistic, since He Who Gives Life is altruistic, the law of life is altruistic. Thus, we constantly became more and more separated from nature. In our days globalization is revealing to us how interconnected we are and to what degree we hate each other. Today we are beginning to see our shaky egoistic base as the base of all misfortunes. This is why we must understand that there is no way out, other than to turn our ego to bestowal, to altruism. Precisely this knowledge is what I would like to pass on to people. This knowledge exists in the science of Kabbalah and speaks about the fact that only by means of this method, called "the science of Kabbalah," can we change our nature, and only by means of this can we save ourselves from extermination and from the disasters that are increasing in our time. Only this way can we provide a good future for ourselves, for our children and for the whole world, and besides this to elevate our existence from the materialistic level to the spiritual, eternal and perfect level. Unless we do this—and do this quickly—we will come to the same thing by means of suffering. The global crisis will nevertheless obligate us to do this.
Egoism, which develops in us constantly and [...]
Michael Laitman: Egoism, which develops in us constantly and ceaselessly, forms an increasing desire in us to fill it. However, desiring to fill it, in essence we discover that we are unable to do this. Everyone knows that we feel a strong appetite before eating, but our desire decreases as soon as we begin eating and we stop feeling the pleasure. This way, the pleasure itself, the fulfillment itself, neutralizes the feeling of pleasure. Since they are opposite to each other—the desire to fulfill oneself and the pleasure that fulfills it. Therefore, if we want to fulfill ourselves in this way, directly—we will never achieve perfection. I want to achieve many things, but as soon as I achieve something, it disappears, the pleasure disappears. Why does it disappear? Because by receiving pleasure, by becoming fulfilled by pleasure, I neutralize the very desire. This is why we never feel pleasure in our life in such a form. The pleasure can be felt only on the condition that we will separate the place of accepting the pleasure from the pleasure itself. For example, a mother wants to give something to her baby, and the more she gives to him, the more she herself becomes fulfilled. If we would love each other like a mother loves her baby, then to the degree of bestowing to another person, I would feel pleasure. And it is possible to bestow without restrictions, this constantly fulfilling oneself. This way, this principle is the principle of eternal fulfillment, and thanks to it a person can feel eternal life. This means that in altruism there has inherently been placed the basis for eternal life, full life, permeated with love, fulfillment and happiness. But this will never happen in egoism. Only when humanity will understand this and feel how much it loses in its short life, which is full of suffering, while it is possible pass to eternal life, full of pleasure—then it will begin changing itself. I hope that then our life will stop being full of stress.
All of humanity's development happens by [...]
Michael Laitman: All of humanity's development happens by means of and under the pressure of egoism, which increases in us from one generation to the next, and in our life—from one year to the next. This is why this very development is already flawed, and leads us to problems and misfortunes. This is why everything that happens not in correspondence to nature, not according to the altruistic law of nature, but according to our egoism—is obviously flawed and will obviously fail in the future. After all, this does not come from the postulate of care and love for the neighbor, from the understanding and realization of the fact that we are in an integral system, where all life and the whole world are interconnected into a small integral village. Just the opposite, each person worries only about himself, and this is completely opposite to what nature demands of us. All of our technological development—is in the end, attempts and efforts to somehow fulfill our egoism. Instead of cutting it off from ourselves, instead of correcting the way we use it to be for the good of humanity, we use it incorrectly. Instead or bringing ourselves to equivalence with nature, to unification with it, united, optimal, and balanced—we distance ourselves from nature more and more. Instead of achieving delight, goodness and perfection, we come to disasters. Therefore, only if we will use all of our technologies for the benefit of humanity, to correct humanity from egoism to altruism—by this a person will merit perfection and happiness.
In the end, the world today is governed by [...]
Michael Laitman: In the end, the world today is governed by several dozens of international worldwide corporations that are interconnected with each other, which do only what interests them and profits them. In essence, all of humanity is governed by them and does whatever they consider to be beneficial for them. Until we arrange things so in its development humanity will understand that it is obligated to behave differently, according to the altruistic principle, instead of satisfying the desires of these several dozens of economic organizations in the world—until then, no changes will happen. Only by developing the method of correction and the realization of the fact that we belong to one organization, one living system—by this we will elicit international pressure from the population of the whole world, directed towards the change of this governance over the world by several dozens of international corporations, which govern all world economy.
Nature will not allow us to remain [...]
Michael Laitman: Nature will not allow us to remain indigenous in the 21st century, because by means of suffering it develops us more and more. Nature will evoke such great suffering in us in the present and future that we will have to realize our egoism as the source of all evil. If we will want to be saved from this great disaster, which threatens us and our entire existence, then we will have to get rid of our egoism and come to completely different, altruistic interrelationships between us. The whole difference between lack of prosperity and prosperity comes not from technical development, not from the use of all these technological toys such as the means of mass information and so on, but from ascending from the egoistic level of our interrelationships to the altruistic level. Then we will understand that the whole world—is a unified system, and that we all belong to one organism and are obligated to treat each other in the corresponding way. By this we will create man who is really cultured, educated, wonderful and modern. Whereas if we are still egoistic relative to each other and each one still has considerations only about himself, this means that without a doubt we still have not come out of the caves.
We cannot stop development. Everything that [...]
Michael Laitman: We cannot stop development. Everything that can be used for the good of man, in order to feed him and deliver food to the most distant places with the smallest losses—all of this should be developed. All kinds of prohibitions that we can place on the development of genetic engineering, will not stop it, but only complicate its development and make it more expensive. It will nevertheless develop and be applied, but in this case, possibly, it will be accessible only to special people, wealthy people. But if we will not stop it, then in the end its results will reach ordinary people as well, all of the needy layers of the populations. This is why we cannot develop anything that is not for man's benefit. We should again and again take care only about how people use this and what the level of the human perception of the world is—how integral and altruistic man's approach is.
Today we take different values such as [...]
Michael Laitman: Today we take different values such as "falsehood" and "truth" as models and standards. But all of these things are relative. Today's "falsehood" can seem as "the truth" tomorrow, and today's "truth" will seem as "falsehood" tomorrow. All of this depends on our egoistic development. The more we advance, the deeper we peer into the nature around us and into ourselves. This is why there is nothing absolute in nature or in us—rather everything depends on the degree of development. In this case, it is impossible to tell what is good and what is bad, what is truth and what is falsehood. All of this is very relative. However, if we will see the general law of nature, the absolute law that exists outside of man, and if we will see it not relative to him, not stipulated by the egoistic man who undergoes development, but as the law that exists before us in the surrounding nature—then according to this we will also find out what is truth and what is absolute falsehood. Then thanks to this we will not err, but the contrary: relative to these standards we will be able to develop our attitude and the correct approach. As the result, our development will really be good, desirable, and directed at the good of the whole world. This way, in essence the knowledge of the general law of nature and its realization (which comes not from man's ego, but from the desire to become balanced, to achieve harmony with this general law)—is the reason for everything good. Thanks to this we will come to a good life and will really find out what is truth and what is falsehood.
We must give our children the knowledge [...]
Michael Laitman: We must give our children the knowledge about the true structure of the world, about the fact that the whole world—is an integral system, that people are interconnected and interdependent in this form, and from here—knowledge about how a person should behave: he must love the neighbor and take care of the neighbor just like of himself. We need this, in order to be in harmony with nature. Otherwise, if we will not balance ourselves with nature, if we will not unite with each other into one system, then we will evoke suffering upon ourselves. And vice versa, to the degree we achieve harmony with nature, a global and balanced unification with it, we will achieve security, peace and life on a different level, one that is spiritual, eternal and perfect. It is because we elevate ourselves from the animate, physical level of existence, which we now feel, to the level of spiritual existence, which we will feel as soon as we begin ascending from the level of egoistic interrelationships to the level of altruistic interrelationships between us.
All culture and all education must speak [...]
Michael Laitman: All culture and all education must speak about the good connection between people, about the correct connection between them; not about the connection that exists today, but about the connection that should exist. If we will speak about the fact that we all belong to one family, that each person must express this attitude towards the others, that we depend on each other and must therefore love each other, this way correcting our interrelationships; if education and culture, with everything they encompass, will enact their power upon us through movies, the theater, fictional literature, and everything that we see, everything that influences us—then, we will accept this altruistic idea no matter how opposite it may be to our nature. The role of culture in influencing us is very important, and I hope that this way we will merit passing from the egoistic way of life to the altruistic one quickly and without a preliminary phase of suffering.
In my life I am moved and advanced only by [...]
Michael Laitman: In my life I am moved and advanced only by the understanding of the general altruistic law of nature, which pushes all humanity to become aware it. Nature wants us to come to know this law and to develop according to it. Thanks to this, man ascends from the "animate" level to the "speaking" level, to the level of "man." Since humanity's salvation depends only on knowing this law and realizing it, therefore I think that the knowledge of this should be brought to the whole world, before the world becomes immersed in increasingly greater suffering, by means of which sooner or later it will nevertheless reveal this law. My task lies in revealing this to humanity, so people would not suffer, would not become immersed in different kinds of suffering, so they will understand what nature demands of us and why. By applying this law, we will come to a happy life quickly, in the shortest duration, without miseries and suffering. This is what leads me and pushes me not to relax, but to really advance this message.
The myth lies in that we can come to a good [...]
Michael Laitman: The myth lies in that we can come to a good life by means of the ego. We must understand that for already 5000 years, since the times of ancient Babylon, we have been advancing only by the path of the development of egoism. We think that we will achieve happiness thanks to the development of technology, economics, culture, and education. But in reality one thing does not have anything to do with the other. This myth, this thought, is a very big mistake, and in our days it is finally tumbling down. Soon we will stop dreaming about technical development making us happy. The problem lies in how to stop ourselves and avoid reaching great disasters. Obviously, all of this depends only on the development of the planetary consciousness. All of the myths must run out, and we must instead learn what the laws of nature are and use them, without philosophizing and without different kinds of mythologies. We must understand that in essence only the knowledge of the general law, its use and realization are humanity's salvation.
We use all the forms of energy that are [...]
Michael Laitman: We use all the forms of energy that are received from nature to the degree of one, two, at most five percent of their possible productivity. This is because we use nature egoistically. However, if we were to treat nature altruistically, if we were able to work with nature according to the same principle as its principle of treating us, that of balance—then we would be able to receive 100% of the desired thing from nature in return for treating nature 100% on the same level. Nature treats us altruistically, and if we will also treat the whole world, all humanity in the mutual way, with love, according to the principle of love for the neighbor just as for ourselves—then we will be able to extract much more energy from nature, will achieve balance and equilibrium with nature and not feel a lack for anything. We would join nature harmoniously, integrally, and receive a positive reaction from it instead of a negative one. It is as if nature is unwillingly sharing with us today, as if it is obligated to free up a small part of its energy resources for us. However, by achieving balance with nature, we will be able to receive the inexhaustible energy that is inherently placed in every atom. This is why in essence the correction of the existing method and the solution for the future lie only in this.
The more developed a person is, the broader [...]
Michael Laitman: The more developed a person is, the broader he perceives his life and human life in general. His interests come to include an increasingly wider world. In the ancient world, a person was closed within his family, after that—in his village, after that—in his city. Today he is closed in his country, but modern development and globalization are showing us that we are interconnected on the scale of the whole world. This is why today our ego envelops the whole world. To the degree that we will understand our dependence on the whole world, we will feel the whole world as our home. There is no way out, and it appears that we are obligated to take care of everyone. When every person will feel this small village of our world, this small globe, as his home, then we will come out of the national boundaries into the human boundaries, into the dimension common to all mankind. But in the meantime we are discovering that we are unable to get on with each other and are closed inside of our ego, each one in his shell. This paradox and collision gives rise to such high pressure and threat to our existence, that we will have to search for a solution to this in order for the world not to be so menacing and unbalanced that it may explode at any moment. So let us have faith that we will soon ascend above the national boundaries into boundlessness.
Our food cannot be of a good and natural [...]
Michael Laitman: Our food cannot be of a good and natural sort because we strive to feed the whole world, billions of people. As the result, we are compelled to develop different genetic forms so our food will not spoil quickly and despite being separated from nature will taste similar to natural food. This is why most of our food contains different genetic additives, and all of its taste and smell are artificial. As the result of this we also observe an accelerated growth of the new generation. Why does it grow so fast, with different deviations, and differ so much from the previous generation? It is because we eat food with many genetic additives and alterations. On the other hand however, unfortunately we do not have any other solution. We are obligated to act this way in order to feed billions, to deliver our food unspoiled to billions of people and for there to be enough of it for everyone. We do not have a way out until humanity will change its approach to life, so that we will take more care of ourselves, of our value, and of the value of our life instead of pursuing just the one goal of how to earn more through everything. Only then will we be able to stop genetics from participating in the preparation of our food. Precisely the transformation of the social consciousness from egoism to the general good of man will also lead to changes in the area of preparing delicious and healthy food. As usual, egoism is the root of the whole problem on this level as well, in the sphere of the food we eat or to what people push us by advertising utterly unhealthy products, which are really harmful and toxic. Someone profits from this.
God—is the general nature of all reality, [...]
Michael Laitman: God—is the general nature of all reality, the general law of all reality. "Elokim" (God) in Gematria is "Teva" (nature), the law of bestowal, the law of love, altruistic love. This is not the egoistic altruism inherent to us, according to which we perform acts of bestowal in order to earn and receive something in return. Rather, this is the altruistic law without any consideration of oneself, without any return for oneself. Man's goal in this life from the side of God, from the side of nature—is to bring man to the full equivalence of form with the Creator, with God. Such is the goal of nature, of the Creator, relative to each person. Only on this condition and only for the sake of this goal was a person created by the Creator, by nature. The Creator or nature leads us to this goal, which lies in becoming similar to Him. This is why man is called "Adam"—from the Hebrew word "Dommeh" (similar), "Lehidamot" (to become similar). He must become similar to the Creator, by transforming his ego to altruism, bestowal. Upon achieving this form, he completes his task on earth and no longer has to return to our life, remaining only in the eternal, spiritual life, without vesting into the materialistic body. We must use our freedom of choice by means of society's influence upon us, in order to become similar to the Creator. And from his side, the Creator pushes us by the forces of evil or by good forces—depending on what we choose—pushing us toward the same goal. It can also be added, that the Creator does not have religion, because religions—are an invention of man, who wishes to give himself a psychologically justified explanation of his existence on earth having a certain goal. God—is our general nature, which advances us to become eternal and perfect, like Him.
It is impossible to keep watch over every [...]
Michael Laitman: It is impossible to keep watch over every city being something unique. It is because in the end, the connection between them is becoming so tight, that obviously culture, education, specifics and language are turning into something common to the whole world (cosmopological). This is why it will not help us to treat certain distinctive characteristics of each city carefully. Of course, this will be preserved, but people now want to develop in a deeper sense, and they do not care that today they are in one city and tomorrow—in another one. They are not looking for the city itself, but for their inner content. People are searching deeper and deeper—for what is found inside of nature. This is why we cannot preserve the individuality of each city, the "face" with which it will stand out. But instead we will be able to safeguard the special inner content of each person—in essence, this will be our individuality. It is time to stop looking at the still level, at the special buildings that we erect and the special characteristics of the animate level in nature. We must pay more attention to the speaking level, to the person who is special, to the special thing that lies in him. By focusing on this, we will see how special we are, how much each person is really a special creature in whom there lies a special character and special wealth. By this we will reveal the world in all its fullness—but already on the speaking or human level. We cannot divert our attention to the other levels, which lie beneath the speaking level. We created and built all the other levels—beautiful buildings and so on—by means of our ego. When this becomes removed and does not bring us fulfillment, these things will also be removed and no longer felt.
On the example of modern development, we see [...]
Michael Laitman: On the example of modern development, we see the degree to which the whole world is becoming intermixed. Soon a person will not feel the place in the world where he lives. We, who constantly fly on airplanes and who shift from one world to another, feel that the whole world is becoming extremely kindred and similar. We can see almost the same thing everywhere: the same television, the same means of mass media, the same press, the same things, and the world lives with common news. We will soon feel that we are really in one village, in one humanity. By means of realization on the one hand, and by means of suffering on the other hand—thanks to both things we will achieve the state of belonging to the global humanity, without distinctions according to countries, borders, races and nationalities. Each person will feel that he simply lives in the world, on his planet. The fact of the matter lies in that we must reveal in what relationships with each other we are living. We may achieve a situation where a person will be able to live in any place in the world, but everywhere he will feel the evil inside of him, everywhere he will feel that he feels bad. Consequently, parallel to this we must correct the interrelationships between people. Our world is global to all, and it does not matter to us where to live—in the same way, we must understand that it does not matter whether we are speaking of me or of someone else. It is necessary for all of us to be as one person. If we achieve this, then we will feel such a positive reaction from nature, that we will feel the eternity and perfection of nature, and not of our biological, material animalistic life, the life of our body. We will join the eternal flow of nature and feel that we are eternal. But now, in contrast to this, we feel ourselves as being inside of our living animalistic body, and this is why we feel our life between birth and death. We will feel that we do not identify ourselves with the material life, but are joined with the spiritual life.
No matter how egoistic man is, he contains [...]
Michael Laitman: No matter how egoistic man is, he contains many altruistic forces. We can develop these altruistic forces by means of a special, directed, influence of culture, education, science and upbringing. In essence, this is what we must do. A person must receive an explanation about the fact that all human society is integral and unified. All of us must exist in unity, in mutual love according to the principle "love your neighbor as yourself." This is to what we should orient all of our literature, cinema and means of mass information. This is the only thing we should speak about in society, raising the level of the importance of this so highly, that each person will be valued only by his contribution to society. Then, hearing and seeing this as a wonderful and correct example from everyone, the young generation will definitely be permeated by this. After all, the influence of society obligates a person, and this is why he will be obligated to take care of society. As the result, our attitude towards each other will become altruistic and we will come to balance with the general law of nature, the law of love, the law of bestowal, and we will ascend above the materialistic life to the spiritual life.
Only on the condition, if we discover, that [...]
Michael Laitman: Only on the condition, if we discover, that this means is so integral, that it reaches everyone. The Internet is equal to all, and if it will explain to everyone that we belong to a global system, that in essence we are a small village, a single system, and we must relate to each other in the corresponding way, and also bring up the next generation… In it, in this network, we must speak only about the fact that we belong to one body, that we must change ourselves. If we will speak about this on the Internet, then such a huge mechanism, which envelops all continents and everyone together, will carry out its predestination. It will unite us among ourselves. In all languages and on all levels, it will connect us and give all of us the sensation of the fact that is was intended precisely for this. This instrument is unique in that simultaneously, in one instant, in real time, in true time, it can connect us and really make us into one connected bunch of people across the whole world, who are simultaneously connected to it. I hope that this will really happen in the closest future, and we will feel ourselves to be interconnected—including the means of information that act across the internet—in such a way that humanity will discover how integral it is, and begin behaving accordingly. Then we will change our culture, education, economics and our approach to life.
In the future, thanks to the development of [...]
Michael Laitman: In the future, thanks to the development of communication between people, thanks to the technological development, humanity will not be concentrated in big cities, but just the opposite, it will expand outwards. Many people will be able to work at home, and they will also have all the consumer products delivered to their homes. The house will be the bedroom as well as the work cabinet, and generally the place where a person spends the greater part of his life. The notions of "the center of the city" and "downtown" will disappear from the world, and our cities will acquire an expansive and balanced form. Besides this, I very much hope that as soon as humanity understands that the general interrelationships between people must be altruistic—correspondingly, the cities will also reform in a new way: everything will be for man's good, in order for man to take care of society, and for society to take care of each person. This will lead to very big changes in the structure of cities.
Nothing will change in the world and in [...]
Michael Laitman: Nothing will change in the world and in ecology, even if everyone will acquire a car or even more than one. Let there be seven or fourteen billion private automobiles in the world. It is not by this that we evoke the ecological disaster, but only by the flawed relationships between us. We must understand that which is visible by nature and by research of it: the ecological disaster is evoked not by the technical level, not by the still, vegetative or animate level, but by the speaking level. Only we, on the level of our interrelationships, carry disaster to all other levels of nature. All of these disasters in the spheres of ecology, health, depression, drug-addiction, divorce, and all other problems—come from nature only afterwards, in order to give us a push towards understanding the cause. And the cause is on a higher level. In nature the problem always descends from the higher level to the lower levels and from there the whole system is brought into action. I hope that in the search for salvation from these disasters, which appear to us as disasters on our egoistic level, we will have to reject our egoism and understand that we can be in balance with nature on the still, vegetative and animate levels only thanks to our speaking level, by treating each other with love and understanding. Then we will bring unity to nature as a whole and achieve balance with the general nature.
