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“The Day After The US Elections” (Medium)

Medium published my new article “The Day After the US Elections

We have almost arrived at what Americans call “money time.” A nail-biting election campaign to many is coming to a zenith with the US election day, when the course that the country will follow will be determined. Public health and safety, great economic challenges, the coronavirus, social fractures, and natural calamities are only some of the concerns afflicting the Americans. My piece of advice to whoever wins the election is, first and foremost, to gather America’s leaders together from every state and territory in order to reach a unified decision on how to eradicate the coronavirus from society and the virus of hatred from people’s hearts.

As soon as the lights of the campaign are turned off and the day after begins, America should make haste to rid itself of the mutual animosity that has taken over the nation and to build together an umbrella of unity and love that covers the whole society with a warm spirit of consideration and concern.

With more than 90 million ballots already cast nationwide, the massive early in-person and mail-in voting has already surpassed two-thirds of the ballots cast in the 2016 presidential election. This remarkable level of engagement is paralleled globally as countries around the world follow the American elections as if they were their own, since so much is at stake internationally — in trade, cooperation, development, security, and the advancement of peace, among other things.

Domestically, it is clear that eradicating the Covid-19 pandemic should be the number one priority. A nation free from the grip of the coronavirus will have not only positive repercussions for people’s physical well-being, but it would also provide the foundation for building a mindful and productive society where all basic needs are covered. In the meantime, American society seems to be nearing a boiling point. The nerves of the people are so frayed and circumstances so volatile that any issue could ignite the powder keg of people’s increasingly extreme attitudes from one side or the other right after the election. Therefore, unifying the fragmented pieces of the society is of paramount importance to attain social stability.

Once a special multidisciplinary board of experts is formed by whoever is elected, including leaders of religions and beliefs, economists and scientists, politicians and journalists, all without exception, I would advise them to select a few cities in different parts of the country to pilot test implementation of programs aimed at unifying people above disparities. As test cases, their progress would need regular monitoring and evaluation in order to see what adjustments are needed amidst all the various kinds of situations that might surface, in order to create, sustain, and grow a positive cohesive atmosphere. There is no downside to implementing such an experiment. Rather, it holds the potential to create a new model for far-reaching improvements in social health and collective happiness.

As deepening polarization has given rise to more and more outbursts and anxiety in America, it is precisely this bleak landscape that can act as the necessary backdrop against which to display a new positive shift. I do not think a simple gentleman’s handshake will ease the tensions between factions of the political spectrum. The deep chasm between sides will require a deeper insightful and more fundamental solution. It is not realistic to expect this kind of ideological change overnight or to try to impose one view over others; everyone must be welcome to remain with their own positions. What will make a difference in unifying American society (or any society) is learning how to gain the ability to rise above the differences for the common welfare.

I indeed see a lot of potential in American society — its pioneering and innovative spirit, its values of equality and freedom of expression, and its vast influence throughout the world — to face the challenge of the social division it is experiencing and to realize that in unity everything will become much better for all. In short, as soon as the lights of the campaign are turned off and the day after begins, America should make haste to rid itself of the mutual animosity that has taken over the nation and to build together an umbrella of unity and love that covers the whole society with a warm spirit of consideration and concern.

“Charlie Hebdo – Freedom Of Expression Or Freedom To Spread Hate?” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “Charlie Hebdo – Freedom of Expression or Freedom to Spread Hate?

Democratic countries often put the right for freedom of expression on a pedestal. But what if that right is used to spread hate; is it still permitted then? Many countries in Europe guard free speech with champions of liberal ideals, and Charlie Hebdo magazine is one of them. Yet, since human nature is filled with hate, when you let people express themselves without constraints, they express hate. When freedom of speech means freedom for hate speech, then freedom of speech must be restrained. Charlie Hebdo’s caricatures of Mohammed constitute hate speech, and must therefore be banned. Nothing justifies murder, but at the same time, an institution that systematically spreads hate should be shut down; it has no right to exist.

If we want to live in a sustainable democratic society, we must make it a law that hate speech against anyone, a nation or a person, is strictly forbidden.

Whether we realize it or not, humanity is one entity. The various religions, belief systems, races, and cultures are all organs of a single being, and each organ expresses a different facet of that entity. Although the organs of this entity detest one another, they are still connected. In fact, the whole purpose of the hatred is to impel us to consciously build care and love for one another, and come to want to be one entity. Therefore, spreading hatred amidst the organs of humanity is tantamount to poisoning the body. If one organ spreads hatred, it does not justify other organs doing likewise.

When we mock someone else’s belief, we do not contribute anything to humanity; we only increase disunity, hatred, and violence. And more than anything, we expose our own makeup. While it is no surprise to find that we are hateful of each other, boasting about it doesn’t help mend it. Since the purpose of the hatred is to impel us to build the opposite, intensifying the hatred between us is counterproductive to our whole development as human beings.

If we want to live in a sustainable democratic society, we must make it a law that hate speech against anyone, a nation or a person, is strictly forbidden. Currently, even where there are such laws, they are not enforced assertively, and they must be; they are imperative to the stability of society. If you want to express love, express as much as you want. But if you want to express hate, keep it to yourself, society has plenty of it already. And worse yet, you are only fueling the hatred of your enemies for you. Nothing good will come out of it; only pain, death, more pain, and more death.

In today’s world, only those who rise above their hatred and strive to love will win. We are in an era where everyone is connected, and only positive connections last. Negative connections disintegrate and fall apart. If you wish to win, win people’s hearts. This is all we need today.

“France, The War Was Fought While You Were Sleeping” (Medium)

Medium published my new article “France, the War Was Fought While You Were Sleeping

While everyone in the Western world is expressing shock at the recent murders in France by extreme Islamists, I wonder where all those pundits who are so quick to offer condemnation and advice were all those years while they were building the problem that has now exploded. For the past four decades, France has admitted millions of Muslims without assimilating them into society. They have given them every privilege without any obligation, and now they are surprised that the refugees have become owners of the country. What were they thinking? It is time for France to wake up and realize that there is no clash of civilizations anymore. There was, but the French slept through it and it’s been decided against them in their absence. France will become a caliphate, and the rest of Western Europe will follow.

In their ignorance, Europeans let more and more Muslims into their countries, as did America, and now they have to deal with a population that, by definition, does not seek to integrate with them or become like them, but to dominate them and convert them.

Not all Muslims are violent, of course, but Islam mandates its expansion throughout the world. In the end, the whole world must be painted green, the predominant color in Islam. In their ignorance, Europeans let more and more Muslims into their countries, as did America, and now they have to deal with a population that, by definition, does not seek to integrate with them or become like them, but to dominate them and convert them.

Western leaders cannot claim they didn’t know that this was the plan since no one ever tried to hide it. It is written in every book on Islam, proclaimed by every Muslim leader, and expresses itself in their policies. Pluralism is great and freedom of religion is admirable, but blindness to overt, announced hostile intentions? This catastrophic folly will lead to the demise of Western culture.

Today’s Muslims feel so confident, and are so motivated, that Macron’s resistance only emboldens them. His struggle will only lead to more violence, to giving Muslims more privileges, and will show who is the real boss in France.

All this, of course, is bad news for French Jewry, the largest Jewish community in Europe. Jews should not stay in Europe. I am not sure where they might go, but they should not stay there. America is not an option for them; the situation there is already very bad for Jews and quickly worsening, regardless of the outcome of the elections. Some of them may go to Canada, some to Israel, but whatever the case may be, European Jewry is a thing of the past; the little that’s left of them will dissolve and dissipate.

Despite the great dismay, there is a reason for the turmoil. It is how things become scrutinized. Granted, it’s a very painful way, and there are other options, but humanity’s obstinacy leaves no options but to go through it the hard way.

The end result of the increasing tumult is the unification of humanity. The connection between Islam and Christianity, for example, could have happened in much calmer ways, but when all you want is to exploit and dominate, you end up losing. It’s happened to every country that’s ever ruled. When your power weakens through complacency and hubris, the governed overtake the governor, as is happening now in France.

I am not at all concerned about the positive outcome of the process. In the end, humanity will connect and become one entity whose parts work in harmony and reciprocity. However, it pains me that we have to get there so slowly and so painfully.

We are entering a new era, which Covid has “launched.” Despite the dismal outlook, there is much we can do to go through transition (relatively) peacefully. If we focus on connection, and relinquish some of our obstinacy, perhaps my morose prediction will not materialize. If we realize where we are, and accept that our only escape is unity, we will (for once) align ourselves with the trajectory of evolution and the power we will muster through our unity will change things for the better. We will not need to fight against Islam or against anyone else, but only against our own unwillingness to connect.

Nature will connect us nonetheless, through war and bloodshed or by our own volition. How it does so is our choice to make.

“Is Today’s Society Being Consumed By Hatred More Than Love?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: Is today’s society being consumed by hatred more than love?

The fact that there are masses of needy, sick and poor people is a sign that love is indeed lacking in today’s society.

It is normal to think that governments and various organizations should take care of people in need. The problem is that we might be ready to contribute some money and time to help out, but we fall short of giving all of our heart in such contributions.

Our heart, which is made up of self-serving desires, prioritizes our own needs over the needs of others, and no matter how much we invest into providing for others, by nature we lack a sincere and complete concern for them.

Our world is thus full of poverty and disease. As long as our heart prefers self-benefit over benefiting others, then no matter how much we contribute to the well-being of others, there will always be masses of people with unmet needs.

Therefore, instead of acting out of genuine love and care for others, any contribution we make seemingly toward society’s betterment is in order to free ourselves from the burden of loving and caring about them. We might be willing to donate a sum of money each month to a certain seemingly philanthropic organization or cause, but the intention behind this contribution focuses on freeing us from the weight of feeling responsible and truly caring about all people.

Yet, nature is developing us toward genuine relations of love and care, a state where we shift our focus on self-concern to concern for others, thereby giving all of our heart to benefiting others.

In the meantime, we see no shortage of poverty, crime and a range of other problems in the world’s wealthiest countries. On one hand, the egoistic engine running in us, which powered humanity’s progress, has given rise to intricate scientific and technological sophistication; yet on the other hand, we bear witness to a world of perpetual crisis.

The missing element is the sincere motion to love others as we love ourselves. Most of us grew up hearing about and agreeing with “Love your neighbor as yourself,” but we did not learn how to implement those words. Instead, we became increasingly refined egoists who favored self-benefit, and at most, routinely donated some of our money and/or time seemingly for prosocial causes, instead of integrating with each other’s desires, needs and feelings, and developing genuine love and care throughout society.

If we achieved the full meaning of “Love your neighbor as yourself,” then we would literally experience heaven on earth.

Nature, which fundamentally functions according to laws of love and connection, is evolving us all toward a state of total interconnection and interdependence. Today’s world has already become more connected and interdependent superficially, such as through globally-intertwined economies and technologies, yet we experience this connection negatively, as evident in growing cases of depression, loneliness, anxiety, stress, mental health problems, and in all the hatred, division and polarization abounding in society.

Nevertheless, we will need to realize our increasing connection positively at one time or another, as it is an inescapable law of nature. Until we do, we will continue entangling ourselves in an increasingly complex web of troubles.

The more we let our inborn egoistic nature navigate our thoughts and actions in life, then the more we let hatred and division proliferate throughout society. And the more we let hatred and division proliferate throughout society, then the more remote we become from the fundamental unifying law of nature, which leads to everyone suffering more.

On the contrary, the moment we make moves to positively connect, developing a loving and caring atmosphere throughout society, we will then feel each other more and more. Also, our renewed focus on positively connecting to each other will awaken the force of love dwelling in nature. We will then experience a new atmosphere of calm, support, encouragement, positivity, happiness and confidence sweep throughout society, as if inverting the current negative waves of hatred and polarization to their positive form.

In a nutshell, we live in a single system of nature, and our experience of this system as harmonious or painful depends on whether or not we positively connect.

“When Old Values Die, New Ones Are Born” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “When Old Values Die, New Ones Are Born

Nothing was more important to us than stuff. By “stuff,” I don’t necessarily mean objects or accessories, but everything that distinguishes us from others, that makes us special, unique. When Covid came, it locked us up in our homes, made us virtually invisible, or rather, visible only virtually, and rendered almost all our “stuff” meaningless. But since we can’t live without values, because then we’re no different from animals, we’ve started to develop new ones. Now, gradually, as we are compelled to give up on the pleasure of getting respect and admiration as we learn to enjoy positive, reciprocal connections with others.

The atmosphere in the streets and in the media may be the complete opposite, but there are undercurrents paving the way to a new reality. The war on the outside marks the final breaths of the old world, where each one was for oneself.
The atmosphere in the streets and in the media may be the complete opposite, but there are undercurrents paving the way to a new reality. The war on the outside marks the final breaths of the old world, where each one was for oneself.

No beginning is easy, and certainly not the beginning of a new reality. But the sooner we realize that we cannot go back, not now and not ever, the quicker and easier will be the transition. The old values have brought us competition, corruption, exploitation, and pollution. They caused depression, obsession, alienation, and isolation. They also brought us the coronavirus, which is finally killing them one by one.

Suddenly, we must think of other people, and they of us. In the process, we are discovering how good it is to communicate rather than to compete, to give and receive rather than to take and give up, and to connect rather than to alienate.

Those who are currently fighting for their own rights will lose. Those who are fighting to unite everyone above all the differences and all the hardships will triumph. Perhaps not in person, but the way of connection will defeat the way of separation; it is simply that the time for it has come.

See The Inner World Of The Other

198Question: It is said that the average person is able to grasp about 500 words per minute, and the average speed of oral speech is about 150 words per minute. It turns out that our brain fills everything else with all kinds of thoughts.

For example: during a lesson when I seem to be listening to something, my head is constantly swarming with thoughts that take me back to my childhood or to the future. What should I do in such situations? I try to hear something, I want to remember the information, but I cannot because of external thoughts.

Answer: The only thing you can do is to rise above your egoism. There is no other way. Applying the method of Kabbalah, you can rise above your ego, and then you will feel others.

Why don’t we see the upper world? Why don’t we see spiritual forces? It is because we are closed inside ourselves, and the spiritual world is everything that is going from us to others. But we do not feel it, we do not notice it.

Question: If I appreciate the person I listen to, will it help?

Answer: Yes. If you love him with corporeal love, you will listen carefully to him, absorb his words. However, this is not enough. There are still other means of communication: higher, spiritual ones, when you exit out of yourself and begin to feel the other regardless of your attitude toward him. By rising above yourself, above your egoism, you perceive him absolutely objectively.

This is a special technique that comes from the rule “love your neighbor as yourself .” If you treat your neighbor as you treat yourself, to this extent you will be able to hear him.

Moreover, you will see and hear what the person you love does not even expect—his inner world.
[272787]
From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 8/14/20

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“What Is The Harsh Truth Of Life?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: What is the harsh truth of life?

Truth constantly slips through our fingers the moment we get a grasp of what we think is true.

We can exert a lot to reach what we consider to be the truth, and as soon as we make a move in its direction, we discover added depth based on discrepancies in the truth we previously sensed. As such, we continue seeking the truth over and over again.

Human development continuously heads toward our ultimate attainment of what we call “truth.”

What is that truth?

Generally speaking, truth is the initial point of creation, a state where we are all adhered completely to nature in its entirety without any partitions between us. Moreover, only by attaining contact with that point do we reach the truth.

There are many stages on the way to attaining that ultimate point of truth, but they are all partial and incomplete. Therefore, even though we can attain the absolute truth, it is still very distant from us.

Nature, in this case, means nature’s altruistic quality of love and bestowal, with no consideration of self-benefit. We are born into an opposite egoistic quality of reception, what we call “human nature,” where we primarily consider self-benefit. Therefore, the stages on the way to attaining the ultimate point of truth are those of rising above our egoistic quality time and again to a more caring, giving and loving one, only to discover that what we attain each time ends up becoming lost in our egoism, as if sucked into a black hole, again and again.

Also, if we continue strengthening our environment, i.e., everything that influences us, to impart us with positive examples of rising above our egoism and becoming better connected, more considerate and altruistic as is nature’s quality, then we continue applying our own yearning to “pull” ourselves to that ultimate harmonious point of truth much faster, more enjoyably, and with a lot less suffering than if we would not implement such a motion. Alternatively, if we fail to strengthen our environment so that it positively influences us, then we let the harsh steamroller of evolution run us over with its myriad crises, which serve only to goad us in order to wake up to the need for changing our lives’ direction, as well as the environment that we create in order to navigate our way there.

Wish Others Well

962.2Question: There is a popular quote ascribed to Buddha found on the internet: “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.”

But a person remains a person, and he thinks about nonsense. How does one cleanse one’s mind from this?

Answer: This is possible only if I wish others well. I do not attempt to make myself and others good or bad. I try to think about goodness. That’s it! This takes constant training.

Question: People now become very sensitive, impatient, and easily take it out on others. Because of this, everyone suffers in families and in society. How do we handle excessive emotions?

Answer: Of course it would be good if more right-minded psychologists spoke on public channels. But a person, nonetheless, has to constantly train himself to think about everyone in a good way. And even if he is scolded, criticized, and angrily opposed, he must forgive people for this, and understand that our unhappy life makes them like that.

Question: What is a correct thinking psychologist? What is he or she supposed to be like?

Answer: This is a person who explains how to come to good. Without any inventions, without any theories, just be as kind to everyone as possible.
[272794]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 9/27/20

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New Life 493 – Online Connection Between The People And The Elected Officials

New Life 493 – Online Connection Between The People And The Elected Officials
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

The modern forms of communication enable people to confuse, cheat, and rob each other. On the whole, the current use of the Internet brings mainly destruction to our lives. This is the recognition of evil. There is no turning back.

We need to learn how to use the Internet wisely. It was revealed to the world in order to help us to connect in a circle, in equality, and in mutuality. An online education system will align everyone, bring us to a common understanding, and generate future leaders who will explain how to connect with each other. It will help us advance toward a more internal network of connection between the hearts until we feel as one man.
[151652]
From KabTV’s “New Life 493 – Online Connection Between The People And The Elected Officials,” 1/6/15

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