We Need To Become More Economical!

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Michael Dittmar, physicist): “…there are currently 440 operating nuclear reactors with a further 65 under construction. Operating nuclear reactors require the equivalent of about 68 000 tons of natural uranium ore every year.

“Given that one-third of the ‘known’ deposits are only an estimate, a more accurate interpretation would be that perhaps enough uranium exists to operate the existing nuclear power plants for about 70 years.

“Many countries import close to 100% of their uranium needs today; this is especially true for the USA, France and the rest of the European Union. Thirty years ago, the USA produced about 16 000 tons of uranium ore annually; today, that has declined to less than 2000 tons, whereas its power plants require about 20 000 tons. Thus, less than 10% of their needs are satisfied by mines on their huge territory.

“Every year, the USA has to import about 10 000 tons of natural uranium equivalent nuclear fuel from Russian military reserves.

“Unfortunately, biogas and wind and solar energy still play only minor roles worldwide. Even if the strong growth in renewables over the past couple of years continues, their share of the total electrical energy mix will remain small. Neither nuclear energy nor new renewable forms of energy will be able to forestall the inevitable decline in energy production in the coming decades. This decline will result from the combination of a slow nuclear phase-out and a decline in fossil-fuel use as a corollary of both the drop in oil extraction after stocks peak and concern about climate change.

“Once we have exhausted fossil fuels and uranium, the alternative energy options will all be renewable. But renewable sources of energy will never be able to compete with current energy production levels, so we shall have no choice but to become more economical with energy.”

My Comment: Indeed, there is no alternative—we need to become more economical, and this is only possible by reducing unnecessary production and transportation, that is, by bringing all our activities to a reasonable (required) level of consumption.
[71486]

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China Is No Longer A Locomotive

Dr. Michael LaitnanOpinion (Michael Khazin, an economist, from vz.ru): “In November 2011, the industrial production in China declined for the first time in three years. This is explained by the debt crisis in Europe, which has reduced demand for Chinese goods, as well as by reduction in domestic consumption.

“China now cannot quickly replace the falling external demand for the simple reason that it no longer produces any truly cheap goods. Energy costs have increased, labor costs and production costs have increased… In general, only wealthy Chinese can afford Chinese products.

“Excess production and infrastructure built for growth will put much pressure on the economy, requiring permanent and ineffective expenditures for their maintenance. Serious social problems will also burden the economy and the state. Like everyone else, China too faces very serious problems.”

My Comment: The crisis will spare nobody, and all countries and nations of the world will be plunged into it in order to feel the need to change the whole trend of human development from the material goals to the spiritual ones.
[71213]

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The Purpose Of Education Is To Find A Calling In Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Budget.ru): “We do not allow children at school to be free, happy people. And without this, education is meaningless.

“We still think that the main task of the school is to fill a person with knowledge as much as possible, rather than developing natural abilities. But schools must look at the natural qualities and develop them, and most importantly, teach a person how to study. Today, schools mostly force students to memorize.

“The purpose of education is to help find a vocation, one’s own path in life. Otherwise, instead of developing what a child is interested in and what he needs, he has to learn a lot of useless information by heart, which he may never use. If we do not change schools, we will not be able to build a happy world.”

My Comment: The problem is deeper: It is not about a vocation, about becoming an expert in something, but about understanding the purpose of life, what needs to be achieved as a result—the revelation of the next dimension, the upper world, from which we come and where we go after this life. Strange as it may seem, this is the reality Kabbalah offers us to reveal.
[71216]

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Spain’s Lost Generation? No, A Newfound One!

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (From ABC News): “Roughly half of all Spaniards between 16 and 24 are jobless, the highest level among the 17 nations that use the euro. It’s a devastating picture of blighted youth that threatens to distort Spain’s social fabric for years to come, dooming dreams, straining family structures and eroding the well-being of a rapidly aging population.

“‘This puts the whole welfare state at risk,’ said Gayle Allard, a labor market specialist at Madrid’s IE Business School. ‘The young people who are coming on the market now are the lost generation. They are losing the advantage of their youth and energy and that does not come back.’

“The staggering jobless figures — 48.6 percent for Spaniards between 16 and 24; 39 percent for those ages 20-29 — hold dire consequences for a country that grew accustomed to prosperity on the back of a property boom that collapsed in 2008.

“The 1.6 million unemployed teens and young adults in the nation of 47 million risk never having a decent start to a career. They probably won’t accumulate assets like their own homes or savings until they are in their 40s. And they then will likely face much higher taxes to maintain Spain’s costly social welfare system.

“What’s more, they’re expected to put off having children or have fewer than their parents, slashing a birth rate that’s already declining just as Spain’s large baby boom generation begins to retire. That means fewer people to absorb the costs of caring for the swelling ranks of pensioners.

“Anger and frustration among young adults have already taken root. Thousands erected protest camps last spring and summer in Madrid and Barcelona in illegal tent cities set up in central plazas.”

My Comment: There is only one solution: to change the attitude towards production, work, and society, that is, towards life in general. It is given to us to live in balance with nature and society, receiving what is necessary, being content with reasonable things that everybody else receives, working as needed for that, and using natural resources to meet these needs. Advertising is banned; everything is cut back to the necessary level, including the production of harmful pharmaceutical drugs.

To begin with, we need to describe the structure of such a society and then create a preliminary plan of the most painless transition to it. And all the freed time (80-90%  of the former work time), all the free time of housewives, the elderly, and children should be dedicated to upbringing, organized in community centers, vacant huge supermarkets and malls, hotels and former dens of vice.

Spain is an example of everyone’s future; moreover, this is only the beginning of, possibly, a bloody future if we do not organize the upbringing of the masses!
[71387]

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Women’s Criticism

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If a woman possesses a strong and sharp, critical mind and she sees that there is a certain imbalance in the men’s group, can she tell them about it?

Answer: Never. But she can describe and evaluate it. By the way, her evaluations can be very serious, much more serious than men’s.

Women see these things from aside—they see them correctly. There is nothing they can do with themselves, but they have a great ability to see everything that happens to men. And this ability can be used, not by the men’s group, but by educators.

Men should never know about or feel it. They should only feel a positive influence, a state of anticipation of their heroic act, the ascent above themselves.

Question: Then who should women share their criticism with, their girlfriends?

Answer: Women should have an inner desire for things to change between men. They can also do it by discussing it among themselves, but these should be positive discussions, like between “many nannies who have one baby.”
[71465]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #10, 12/16/11

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A Loving Upbringing

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The creation of the theoretical foundation of our course includes many different aspects: creating programs and writing. Can women participate in this work?

Answer: Women cannot participate in integration either practically or theoretically, but can only assist with it. Some women have a special inner feeling, but I have met only a few of them. Among the huge amount of women that I feel and observe, these women might be one per thousand, no more than that.

Comment: All right, but at home…

Answer: At home a woman has no right to point her husband anywhere. She does not! This represses him. She has to act softly, like a mother with her child. When she plays this role, like a mother with her child, she achieves everything. But pressuring will only lead to fighting and divorce. This is not nurturing.

A husband needs to be nurtured. She wants it. And nurturing can only be done with love.

Comment: Today, around 80% of women constantly reproach their husbands, pointing out that they do things incorrectly, spend their energy on the wrong things, and so on.

Answer: This is why today 60-70% of young people do not wish to marry. That is right! Why would I need a family like this? And this either leads to divorce or people completely stop thinking about getting married and even co-habitating without obligations.

We bring them up incorrectly.

Question: What is upbringing in relation to communication between a man and a woman?

Answer: They should not speak to each other about how bad either one of them is. Anything but this. I never speak with my wife about this. We stopped doing this even before we got married, during the first months of dating.

Sometimes it happens that you point something out to your partner because you see that he hurts himself by doing it. Then you gently allude that he is hurting his health. But never do it head-on. What will this give you? Things happen, but this should be an exception, not the rule.

So what should people talk about? Only about pleasant things. The man needs to come home like to his mother who will take care of him and keep him warm. He must feel that his house is his fortress, not his prison. How would he ever go back home? Today we live as we think.

Question: So what is upbringing about?

Answer: If you show your partner that you love him or her, they will indirectly see that their certain actions are undesirable and hurtful, and they will not do these things. If you indirectly show them that you expect something from them, they will feel what they can do for you. But this can only be done with kindness.

Upbringing is only done with kindness. A small child only grows when you give him, fulfill him,and take care of him. The same rule applies if you wish to change or form a person.

Question: Then where is the place for the “lash,” the second line, which must be present?

Answer: This must not exist between a man and a woman. Never.

We have to interact with one another only causing positive feelings in our partner and showing very little upset, only to the extent of a person’s ability to constantly change. If your partner sees that from their perspective the action is correct, but from yours it is not, and you show or display it by suddenly taking a big offense, even if it is not relative to them, it will not help them correct their actions. One should be smart in this regard.

But we see that we absolutely do not educate people in our world. When a person graduates from school, he knows a bit of physics, a bit of math, and that is it. He enters life with no knowledge about human interaction or child upbringing—no knowledge at all. The only subject that was introduced in schools is sex education, which is only necessary to properly complement everything else. This is why our upbringing, if we can even call it that, is very ugly.

Integral upbringing assumes that in a family people give to one another since a family can only be built on mutual concessions. My teacher used to say that love is something that grows out of mutual concessions, when you “move yourself aside” and let the other person enter you, and he does the same to let you enter him. And then it turns out that each partner enters the other, and this mutual segment is called a family, and the sensation of your partner inside you is called love.
[71462]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #10, 12/16/11

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The Return To Nature

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Who should teach a group of women: a man or a woman?

Answer: A man. A woman cannot be a teacher. She can be his assistant, and also not always. In any case, the image of the teacher, the image of the instructor, the image of the leader—it is a man.

Question: What should practical lessons for women include? Should women discuss men?

Answer: They spend very little time discussing both men and themselves. They study this objectively.

We only try to organize lessons for them and limit the games and joint events, to avoid interfering with their inner part or making them feel forced or obligated. After all, our entire system is integral, it is only built on awareness. Without awareness, a person does not advance. His or her advancement only depends on the degree of their realization of their own desire for inner movement and personal change.

This is why women begin to work inside gradually, only to the extent of their comprehension of the material, and not based on the contact between them. And if they are in group, it is only to discuss the studied material, but never from a personal perspective, like in the men’s group.

Comment: Today we observe a mixing of roles. And what we are talking about now is a well forgotten past.

Answer: No, the modern mixing of roles is artificial. It is not natural, but imposed. And people can be easily stripped of the things done to them today. We see that everything that manifests today is superficial and external. The fact that a woman is becoming manlike in her internal and external states is just a manifestation of the mutating egoism.

I do not think that we should continue playing with it; rather, we should instead return to nature. If we wish to advance towards harmony with nature, under no circumstances should we go in the direction of what our society has done with us.
[71468]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #10, 12/16/11

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Particular Characteristics Of A Woman’s Nature

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Since there are men’s and women’s groups in integral upbringing courses, I would like to clarify the nature of women’s groups.

Answer: A woman is a very reserved creature who perceives herself and the world inside her. While between men there is interaction, support, a friendly environment, and readiness to sacrifice for others, this does not exist between women initially, by nature. Every female, every woman, anything female is designed to exist on her own, protect her boundaries, children, household, den, and so on.

This is instilled in them by nature, and this is why we must not deform it. We have no right to break the woman’s nature; on the contrary, we have to develop it harmoniously, and at the same time integrate women with each other. How can you accomplish this?

This can be done by creating a strong men’s group that serves as an example to women and urges them to support the men’s group. The men’s group realizes the importance of the influence of the women’s group and that without the unification of women, they won’t be able to support the men’s group. And the only time the women can identify and connect with the men’s group is when they are to a certain degree connected between them.

When the women have a common external goal, they can organize themselves and exist this way like different women’s organizations. Instead of integrating, every woman should understand and affiliate herself with the external goal: “You have to ‘cling’ to men, exist in them, support them, instead of us, women, doing it between ourselves.” The women’s group can unite in this way.

Then the women exist around the men’s group in the form of very strong support, as an essential part of the existence of the men’s group. This kind of unified women’s environment, which as if represents an external circle in relation to the internal men’s group, is a very powerful union of the male and female origin in nature.

This way these two integral communities interact with each other: Men influence women with their unity, and the women suddenly begin to feel it; this begins to attract them, and they gradually begin to interact and unite for this sake. They lose their natural individuality between them.

Women can unite between them for the sake of helping men to unite (in return they receive the power of unity, this is their only way to “power up” from it). In other words, they lose their purely natural individuality and are able to rise above themselves.

Question: How do you practically realize this?

Answer: Practical realization happens in separate groups, which we prepare and lead towards the goal, studying corresponding materials and the method of integral upbringing. Naturally, when studying in a women’s group, women do not pay attention to each other: Everyone comes and leaves individually. There might be friends among them, but this also ends eventually, things change. This is a women’s nature.

This is actually a very interesting and complicated individuality, a real individual natural egoism in its pure form, and it’s good to observe it. In other words, my “I’ is always inside me and never next to anyone else. And when it happens to be next to somebody else, it is only when we are able to help each other with something in the given situation or somewhat ease our state, and no more than that. We understand this as psychologists who deal with people.

But here the influence of the men’s group plays a great role. By uniting and setting an example, the men’s group evokes in the women the need to influence it together, and then women unite to this extent. Besides, this happens against their will. We see that this is a law of nature. In other words, a strong men’s group shows the women that unity is power and it causes them to rise above their individual “I.”

Question: How does this manifest in practice?

Answer: They can feel as one unified female whole. They can begin to hug like men, which is completely unnatural to them. Women might feel that they need to be together to evoke unity in men, through which they will also attain the inner state of unity for themselves, which they are not able to receive by themselves. They can neither conquer, nor get, nor buy it—there is no other way to acquire it.

Question: Do women and men have slightly different roles in integral unity?

Answer: That is right! These are absolutely different roles!

We do not put pressure either on the men’s or the women’s nature. It is their interaction with each other that gradually brings them to different forms of integration.
[71369]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #10, 12/16/11

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 03.05.12

Preparation to the Lesson
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Shamati #54 The Purpose of the Work
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” Item 256, Lesson 74
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 17, Lesson 31
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