Description

Michael Laitman connects major problems in humanity's scientific and social progress in the last 100 years to a single cause - the human ego. Laitman explains why attempts to create equality and brotherhood among people have failed, the relationship between today's world and Babylon five thousand years ago, why humanity needs to go through a crisis of unprecedented proportions, and why humanity has found it so difficult to understand and to love. Laitman concludes by offering the solution for positive future progress by addressing what humanity needs to understand and do.

Transcript

The Way to Yourself

ARI Films (in affiliation with Kabbalah TV)

The Twentieth Century-how turbulent, how revolutionary it was-filled with wars, dictators of a kind that had never been seen before. It was the century of suffering, catastrophes, natural disasters and terror.

But it was also the century of happiness. Yes, it certainly was. And it went by so fast, compressing time, that we didn't have a chance to stop and reflect, and we should. We should look back and examine its results, to understand what is in store for us at the end of this swift, yet arduous journey.

The Way to Yourself

Professor Michael Laitman predicted the current state of the world almost fifteen years ago, but we didn't want to listen-it sounded too far-fetched. Now the day that he foresaw has arrived; the global economic system is in ruin and the world is on the brink of an unprecedented crisis that could even lead to a world war. In this film, Professor Laitman will comment on everything that has happened. Then he will draw his conclusions and propose a solution-the only solution he considers possible.

Dr. Laitman is the author of thirty books; he is a professor of anthology and the theory of knowledge, and has a PhD in philosophy and Kabbalah. He is the founder and head of the International Kabbalah Academy, a member of the World Wisdom Council, and is the last in the line of Kabbalist spanning more than five thousand years.

Chapter One:
The big questions and the reasons
that made us ask them

Question: What do you think about the past century, Professor Laitman?

Prof. Michael Laitman: It was an amazing century that by its end finally made humanity asks the essential questions about the meaning of life. In the Twentieth Century people began to feel increasingly uncomfortable. They were beginning to ask questions that had never even pondered, such as: "What am I doing in this world? Why was I born? What will happen tomorrow? What will happen in an instant? Where is my life headed? Is it destiny? God?"

When do we ask ourselves such questions? Only when we suffer. People have experienced a lot of suffering in the Twentieth Century. It was a period that battered humanity and drove it to an impasse.

Question: Why all the suffering? Why was it so brutal in the Twentieth Century? And why aren't you answering?

Prof. Michael Laitman: Because we have very little time left and we're being warned about it.

Question: What do you mean?

Prof. Michael Laitman: A great disaster is approaching. It's been predicted. Only a handful of people may survive. And they will eventually achieve all that humanity is still refusing to achieve. It could happen in an instant. We have already seen how such things can happen.

Question: So, is there nothing that can be done?

Prof. Michael Laitman: Yes, there is. We still have a chance to stop it.

Question: How?

Prof. Michael Laitman: By our finally realizing what we are living for and acting on that realization.

Chapter Two:
The beginning of the 20th century,
or the great idea that was revealed to the world

Prof. Michael Laitman: With the beginning of the Twentieth Century came the first appearance of the cinema. It seemed like an innocent invention, an oddity. But actually a great idea was revealed to the world, which let to unfathomable consequences.

Think of it. A person sits in front of a movie screen and is suddenly able to connect to the entire world. We don't need to live many lifetimes; instead we can live them here and now. Imagine a simple person in a small town. His life is nothing more than boring work, family duties and constant worries. Suddenly, he is standing in an audience alongside the royal family; he is driving the first automobile; he is there in meetings and demonstrations; making his mark in wars and conflicts. In a way he is being reborn again and again.

Cinema allows us to identify completely with the characters on the screen. With the arrival of cinema, and then latter on television and after that the Internet, the whole world and all of its agonies and pleasures seem to be within us. With all of its revolutions and wars we've become infused with the desire, the suffering, and the joy of the entire world.

All this happened within a span of a single human lifetime. And all these inventions are intended to help us feel one another, no matter how distant and alien to feel, to understand, and to love.

Chapter Three:
Why is it so difficult-to understand and to love?...

Question: It's known that nature is driven by instincts. But what about the human being?

Prof. Michael Laitman: Human beings are slaves to an insatiable little beast-their egos. The frightening part is that this beast is impossible to satisfy. The Twentieth Century is a stark example of that.

Question: Professor Laitman, how can we define this time of rapidly growing ego?

Prof. Michael Laitman: It can be seen as the era of the rebuilding the Tower of Babel. Five thousand years ago in Babel, people wanted to build a tower that would reach the heavens. Meaning, that they wanted supremacy, control over nature, and to build a paradise on earth.

Question: Where did they go wrong?

Prof. Michael Laitman: They relied solely on their own minds and the strength of their own hands. Egoist set out to build the tower to reach the heavens.

Narrator: But they were joined together in their enthusiasm!

Prof. Michael Laitman: For awhile, until this giant ego actually showed its face. And that set off an explosion of selfishness that ended in mayhem, hatred, suffering, and wars that filled the earth. People stopped understanding each other, and they ended in total isolation. The world had embarked on the precipitous path that culminated in the heights of egoism in the Twentieth Century.

The Twentieth Century saw a new attempt to build the Tower of Babel. And the world set out to make the same mistake, yet another time.

Narrator: But we believed that egoism could be satisfied and we could eventually be happy.

Prof. Michael Laitman: We were totally certain of it. We hoped for a bright future. And in this expectation we began exploring space. I remember the joy that we felt, when the first man was sent into space; when Neil Armstrong stepped on the Moon. People seriously discussed whether there was life on Mars, and we wanted to explore the Universe. All possibilities seemed so real!

We were sure that we could conquer disease; that machines would replace human labor. We thought that people would have more time to read, to think, and create; that the work week would be shorter; that we would devote more time to the family. We expected scientific and technical progress to make our lives better and easier. And what have we accomplished?

People are now working more rather that less; workers have become slaves to corporations, to their own business, slaves of money, power, fame, and of recognition for scientific accomplishments. Illnesses are on the increase. The ecology of the planet has changed so radically that it is on the brink of collapse. People no longer have time for their families and families are falling apart.

If you ask me whether in the past people were happier than we are today, I would tell you that they certainly were.

Chapter Four:
Why can't we be happy...

Prof. Michael Laitman: There is a law that surrounds us; the law of balance and harmony; the law of united interconnected nature. How can we continue to exist, when we're opposite to that law?

It's impossible! The sooner we realize it, the less we'll suffer. If we don't, we'll get negative feedback, correcting us more forcefully and harshly all the time, until we agree to be happy and to live by the higher law of equality, brotherhood, unity and love.

Question: Haven't we already seen such attempts in the Twentieth Century to establish equality and brotherhood, which turned out to be merely utopian? Weren't these attempts based on the same idea-freedom, equality, and brotherhood?

Prof. Michael Laitman: Yes, they were. No revolution can be successful without that sublime objective.

Question: So, who were they, these first communists?

Prof. Michael Laitman: They were idealists, romantics, and they made a lot of mistakes. Russia had just stepped out of feudalism, and nobody really took the growing egoism there into account. People wanted to divide resources equally. Simple as that: to take from the rich and to give to the poor. They wanted fairness. But fairness is a concept that's totally alien to egoism. So, they tried to change people by force.

Communist regimes emerged in Russia, China, Korea, and South America. Kibbutzim were formed in Israel. It was a first attempt to create a just society ...

Narrator: ... And it failed ...

Prof. Michael Laitman: Nothing can be built on egoism. It's the same as building on a swamp. It will suck you in and destroy you.

And so, this illusion of building a just society was naturally destroyed by the very same people, who built it.

Question: Why?

Prof. Michael Laitman: Because the purpose was wrong.

Question: Making the rich disappear?

Prof. Michael Laitman: Making the rich disappear in not the goal. Peace to the shacks and war to the palaces is not the goal.

Question: Even equality for all?

Prof. Michael Laitman: Even equality for all isn't the goal.

Question: So what is the goal?

Prof. Michael Laitman: The true goal is to correct the egoism and to live according to the law of love and bestowal. That is the real purpose. To keep the law of nature that surrounds us-this is the true goal.

But humanity chose a different path and has come to a complete impasse.

Chapter Five:
The impasse

Prof. Michael Laitman: An impasse is a wonderful thing.

Question: Why?

Prof. Michael Laitman: Finally you can stop and think. And a lot of questions come to mind: How did we arrive at this dead end? Is there a way out? And the most urgent question of all: Can we even survive this?

We need to come to an impasse, because it makes us realize that it's the ego that brought us into it.

There were people, who were trying to tell us just that. They were screaming; they were begging humanity to take a better look at itself, to stop before it's too late. But their words fell on deaf ears.

What is happening now, there is a striking resemblance to the past-an impasse, a crisis of unprecedented proportions. What may follow is the threat of mass destruction of humanity. We didn't listen to their call in the past, but it's crucial that we hear it now.

We are on the brink of an abyss, everyone is saying that. But we still have a chance to prevail over the ego.

Chapter Six:
What is that last chance to conquer the ego?

Prof. Michael Laitman: Egoism can't be subdued, because it's our nature. You can't argue with your ego. It can't be convinced by arguments or sermons. You can't bribe your ego, because it cannot ever be satisfied.

Question: Does that mean there is no way out? What can be done with it?

Prof. Michael Laitman: You can only correct the ego, transform it. You can do it! Nature itself shows us how.

Look at this peaceful and happy picture-a mother and a child. The more pleasure this mother gives to her child, the more pleased she feels. If only the whole world was like this: experiencing happiness through the happiness of another. May love bind us and bond us.

Question: But is it possible?

Prof. Michael Laitman: We won't survive if we don't.

Throughout the Twentieth Century we were told we were in separately connected to one another. Think about it!

If there is suffering whether it's a person or country, you can't stay indifferent much less take pleasure in it. This is because we are one body, one organism living according to a single law-the law of whole living bodies, the law of universal love.

If we breech this law, we will be punished and right now everything we're doing goes against this law. We're choosing to live according to the law of destruction, the law of egoism. But there is no such law in nature. Don't you see there is only one law-the law of love, the law of one organism? And this will repeat as many times as necessary.

More than seven billion cells inside of us live with the sake of each other in mind. Individually each cell is egoistic, but to survive each and every cell knows that it has to unite.

The organs of the body don't serve their own needs, they serve the whole body. That's how every organism works, because that's the principal of life. And it's obeyed by every organism in nature-the law of absolute bestowal and love and inseparable connection-because this law rules everything, the entire Universe: inanimate and living-everything!

Each of us is one out of seven billion particles in a giant and united organism called our world. If we don't want to be forced to realize it, then let's do it today!

Question: What should we do?

Prof. Michael Laitman: We need to charge all media-advertising and education, and education is the most important-with the task of planting a small thought in people's minds that they are a part of a common organism and that a higher law of love surrounds us, because thought is the most potent weapon!

If human thought would only focus on how to learn love; if we would keep returning to that thought trying to live in it, never leaving it, everything would change in an instant.

With passionate desire to love, as our constant thought, we would draw that law upon us and make it affect us. And that higher law of love would help us. It would surround us and hold us, like a mother wrapping her child in her arms. It would start to change us, making us similar to it.

Why? Because we wanted to unify with it. And that's the secret. We accepted it. And for the first time we wished to unify with it, to heed its call. This will be unprecedented in human history, and will bring us its sudden positive impact.

We will see that the world around us is friendly; that an act of love doesn't consume energy-it creates it. We will finally realize what love actually is-the readiness to care for another person's well being and to serve another and not oneself. This is love!

But we have to hurry now and urgently run to become happily and truly loving in love in this lifetime. We must do it!

How wonderful the Twentieth Century was! And what an unimaginably greater century awaits us now!