Audio Version Of The Blog – 08.10.16

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio

Bygone Love

Laitman_183_04Question: The main reason for divorce in Israel is love that has died out (36%), the second reason is financial problems (32.5%), and the third reason is unfaithfulness (11.2%). How do you relate to love that has died out?

Answer: I don’t understand what this means!

When I first saw my future wife, even when I was not religious or a Kabbalist, I asked myself: Is she the person I will be able to stand by my side for a very long time, and I realized that she was and that I would also be able to do so. She is indulging, hard working, loves to study, and was ready to follow me in the years when I was refused Aliyah. In those days it was dangerous even to speak about going to Israel!

But on our very first meeting I already told her: “I am going to Israel, do you agree to come with me…?” Since otherwise there was no point seeing each other anymore, and she agreed.

Question: But you haven’t said anything about love…

Answer: Love is an emotion that appears as a result of a long connection between people, when they support one another and are concerned about and care about each other.

At first it is only hormones that bring people together, just like in the animal world. You can see the same thing in nature films, but when it comes to animals, the connection is only at specific times, at a certain age. When it comes to humans, it is permanent.

I believe that poets and writers invented the term “love” in order to confuse people. I am sure that a couple of centuries ago there was no love and people simply connected because they thought “she is right for me,” or “he is right for me.” They matched each other, felt close, understood and supported one another, and that’s all.

Question: What do people mean when they say that love is gone?

Answer: What love?! Hormones cannot act for forty, fifty or sixty years, especially when it comes to men!

Question: Why do they act? Why do people live together for 50-60 years?

Answer: People live together because they have children; they have shared property, etc. There is nothing we can do about it, the habit was given to us from Above, but this is not love in any way!

Question: So what is love?

Answer: Love is a feeling of mutual understanding, of mutual connection and loyalty, of mutual commitment. It is a feeling of partnership, of an inner connection, of a “debt” to another person. You are not forced into it, but simply feel you are committed. What is more, a person feels that his partner treats him the same way. This is called love. We take this definition from the wisdom of Kabbalah where love is called a desire to bestow unto another and not the other way around, while in our world it is a desire to receive something corporeal from another person, to receive as much as possible and as soon as possible.

This is a totally egoistic interpretation of the term “love,” which is opposite from its true meaning,

Question: It turns out that you actually need to develop love.

Answer: Yes, but only on the basis of mutual understanding, by hard work between us.
[191352]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 7/28/16

Related Material:
On The Way To Attaining Love
Love Without Conditions
Happy Holiday Of Love!

Both Reward And Punishment Are In My Favor

laitman_571_01Torah, “Deuteronomy,” 7:14 – 7:15: You shall be blessed above all peoples: There will be no sterile male or barren female among you or among your livestock. And the Lord will remove from you all illness, and all of the evil diseases of Egypt which you knew, He will not set upon you, but He will lay them upon all your enemies.

Everything that seems bad to you in your life are beatings for egoism, and not for you. Let’s assume that now I connect with my egoism and work for it. Then I begin to break away from it gradually, and then all the beatings that come pass through the egoism, and not through me. I am glad that my egoism gets blows because it helps me to break away from it even more. Therefore, the beatings and punishments that the Torah talks about help me to advance farther.

They are felt by me not like punishments, but like egoistic qualities that appear in me that show how much egoism harms me, how much I feel pain, sufferings, and problems in it, and how much I hate it. Through these punishments I can move away from egoism more and more until I reach the state called the land of Israel. Therefore it is written, “and all of the evil diseases of Egypt which you knew, He will not set upon you, but He will lay them upon all your enemies,” meaning upon my egoism, and I will move farther and farther away from Egypt to the land of Israel.

It turns out that both rewards and punishments are to my advantage. If I observe everything correctly, both plus and minus are included in the result.

The most important is with what I emphasize, with my egoism, my “I,” or with that point in the heart that leads me to spirituality. We only need to hold on to the point in the heart that wishes to be above egoism and to assess our states correctly. And then we don’t need anything else.

Even if a person breaks down and suddenly allows himself some things, let him do it but under control, “And now I allow myself to loosen up for half an hour.” Doesn’t matter what he does, but he knows that he deliberately crosses out this half an hour from his life, meaning that it doesn’t disappear by itself.

In other words, if he has a nagging desire, it is better to surrender to if for half an hour a day so that it won’t spoil the remaining 23.5 hours. By the way, psychologists advise the same, get rid of the obsessive desire. This is the same as a person is obliged to eat, the body demands it!
[191022]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/13/16

Related Material:
If You Want To Be A Man
Reward Instead Of Punishment
Victory Over The Creator

New Times, New Schools

Laitman_912Question: Every student dreams about the canceling of school. The education they get seems useless to them. Are they right?

Answer: Schools are necessary but they should be totally different. Modern educational is based on a 200-year-old principle, which is totally wrong. In any case, there should be new schools at least until a certain age, which engage mainly in educating a person. Kids have a natural need to communicate, for a connection between them, and they should be taught how to do it.

We have to bring people to a unified form of a full mutual connection, which means that we have to start teaching that from the very beginning. Therefore it is natural that in daycare, kindergarten, school, and the university the focus will be on establishing the right connections between people, on mutual guarantee, and on friendship. We have to rise above our egoism and unite above it, so we would begin to perceive the complete volume of our world at a very young age.
[190583]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/10/16

Related Material:
The Future Of Education
The Solution To The Problems Is Transforming The Schools
The Proper Education For A Person

The Wisdom Of Kabbalah And Scientific Work

laitman_614Question: If satisfaction of my material needs depends on my scientific work, why should I give it up? How is it possible to provide everything that is imperative for life in order to be free to engage in spirituality?

Answer: If that is your job and it doesn’t harm anyone, you can continue to be involved with it as much as is necessary. At the same time you should be involved with the wisdom of Kabbalah and later you will understand how much everything is harmoniously integrated together. You can go on like that for the rest of your life. Do not think that it is impossible to be involved with anything besides the wisdom of Kabbalah. You will find out for yourself and see that your scientific field and the wisdom of Kabbalah can be compatible. And it could be that you will suddenly discover that you can add one to the other, explaining the wisdom of Kabbalah through science and science through the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Question: Why was a person given talents by the Creator if after reaching the wisdom of Kabbalah, he doesn’t need to use them?

Answer: Every talent is not worth anything in comparison to what the wisdom of Kabbalah reveals. I understand the trepidation. I went through the same misgivings myself, when it seems that something unknown, not apparent and secret is revealed in front of you and you yearn for it, try to find it. But gradually this will disappear. Engage with your science and it could be that with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah you can add new facets to it and you will truly make new scientific discoveries based upon what you get from it. This is absolutely possible.

I have a few students who are engaged with scientific work in various fields and all of them try to use the wisdom of Kabbalah in their professional activities. Incidentally, I welcome science and am always happy to talk with scientists. A few times per month in the studio we have arranged meetings with scientists. We talk with them about how the wisdom of Kabbalah can connect and mutually complement the same science that they represent.
[190575]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/10/16

Related Material:
Corporeal Activities and Spiritual Advancement
Introduction To Kabbalah
Don’t Avoid Your True Self-Fulfillment

New Life #342 – Leadership And Government: The Future Leadership, Part 1

New Life #342 –  Future Leadership, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Who is a leader in human society, what is the crisis in leadership today and how will Integral Education lead society to a better future?

Summary

A true leader is someone who sees the future, understands where society is evolving, and can lead it there.

– Today we have reached a unique time in which humanity must transform into a single family. This is the future goal.
– It is necessary to develop a sense of other people and the world.

Everyone must lead himself.

– The development of an integral mind and integral feelings is what is required.
– The next leaders must be educators who know how to develop a feeling of mutual connection in the public.
– An integral leader will lead a process of social education that will bring a sense of integral connection between everyone.
[141519]
From KabTV’s “New Life #342 – Future Leadership, Part 1,” 4/8/16

icon for podpress Video: Play Now | Download
icon for podpress Audio: Play Now | Download

 

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 08.10.16

Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Writings of Rabash, “Dargot HaSulam,” Article 566

[media 3] [media 4]

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 2, Part 7, “Answers on the Order of Cause and Result,” Item 2

[media 5] [media 6]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 21

[media 7] [media 8]