Big Think

Question: Does Kabbalah involve meditation?

Michael Laitman: No, it’s not quite that.

With meditation, a person doesn’t really know what he’s looking for. He tries to kind of defocuses [sic] concentration and, basically, will kind of float in whatever state he’s in.

Here, it is the opposite. Kabbalah has very specific, accurate definitions of how you should focus your mind so you penetrate matter. So you begin to feel the forces that stand behind our matter. Those are forces of love and bonding and unity.

So before a person bonds with these forces, he should work on himself, elevate himself above his ego. And our special exercises to do; those relates to the environment; that you have to build or an environment that increases your importance of rising above one’s ego, that you have to start considering and appreciating being considerate to others. So you reach or achieve this rule that is in every faith, which is love thy friend; thy neighbor as thyself.

Recorded on: May 7, 2009.