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New Life 1286 – Family Care For An Elderly Parent

New Life 1286 – Family Care For An Elderly Parent
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Adult children of aging parents need to come together to share the care with time, energy, and money. It is impossible to determine how to equally share care for aging parents since we don’t have any way of measuring diverse contributions. Each child has their own unique situation that cannot be accurately compared with the siblings’ contexts.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah and an integral perspective, children must put their differences aside and meet once a month or twice a year to divide up the duties associated with caring for their aging parents in a purposeful, businesslike manner, without emotion. The wellbeing of the parents should be the focus. Each child gives what they can, whether it’s time to take the parents to medical appointments, money to pay for services in the home, or emotional warmth and care. Each one pays back the parents as though paying back the Creator since the Creator arranges our parents for us.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1286 – Family Care For An Elderly Parent,”10/30/20

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Everything Is Measured Relative To The Highest Goal

268.02Question: Baal HaSulam writes in his article “The Peace“: We need not excessively examine the Mitzva (singular for Mitzvot) of reception, since the punishment is carried out immediately, which prevents any neglect.”

What is this about? Indeed, in reality, we do not observe those who receive being punished by nature.

Answer: The fact that we do not see punishments and rewards does not mean anything. In nature, everything is created in such a way that both punishment and reward follow immediately, they simply are not revealed to us.

Question: You mean to say that people who receive more than they give and use others are getting punished by nature, but we do not see this. What is their punishment then?

Answer: In our world we see everything the other way around. “The righteous suffer, the wicked prosper” (Masechet Berakhot, 7a, 25) People who rudely use this world and exploit others are envied by everyone because we do not see the big picture. You can’t do anything here.

Everything is measured relative to the highest goal, which we do not yet understand, do not see, and do not approve of, i.e., regarding the unification of absolutely everyone into one single system. This is exactly the state that is lost by people who are using everything for themselves.
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 8/21/20

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Basic Income—To Each According To His Needs

592.04Question: Today, basic income has for the first time managed to penetrate the mainstream and it has even been tested in some places. It was a utopian idea until recently, but suddenly, times have changed. You are a supporter of this model. But don’t you consider it as equalization? After all, when we talk about basic income, we mean the same amount for everyone.

Answer: No, basic income should be given to everyone according to their needs. And the fact that today it is the same for everyone is only to help get rid of the problem.

Question: Who can determine a person’s needs? Our nature is that we will always cheat.

Answer: No, we are not talking about our nature when everyone receives like it is today, and everyone suffers from it. The true basic income is that everyone gets as much as they need and no more, according to their own choice.

Question: Can you imagine what kind of self-awareness a person must have for him to say: “I need just this much and no more”?

Answer: Self-awareness is very simple: man must believe in the highest reward, meaning, what he will be getting for trying to take only what he needs. He receives the highest reward for fulfilling this condition.

Comment: Here you introduce a new element; this is impossible without understanding the higher force.

My Response: Without the Creator, without God, without the higher force, without higher reward and punishment, without the higher state—call it a paradise or whatever—it is impossible.

Question: And how is this different from religion? Most people today are religious, but we see that they are not influenced in any way. What kind of faith are you talking about?

Answer: I am talking about the kind of faith when we sense the upper force, come into contact with it, exchange mutual reception and bestowal with it, and this is what we exist for.

Question: This is a very important point. It turns out that until a person feels the higher force, he will not be able to say: “I need exactly this much and I give the rest to you”?

Answer: No, he cannot. Otherwise, we will have socialism.

Faith means feeling the Creator, a sensation of the common force that holds the entire universe in itself.
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 9/11/20

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Unearthly Motivation

630.2Question: How appropriate is the carrot and stick principle in an integral approach to motivation?

Answer: We see that nature constantly uses this principle. It doesn’t ask us, it just pushes us and that’s it.

Question: Do you think the carrot and stick method is acceptable at work, in society?

Answer: Yes. In any case, we only understand either the carrot or the stick. Nature and society cannot affect us in any other way because we clearly perceive only reward and punishment. The difference is in their shape.

Question: What are the features of Kabbalistic motivation?

Answer: This is a completely different level, when we rise above reward and punishment, i.e., above knowledge, and go only by the power of bestowal, love, and without any egoistic motives. It opens up completely different spaces, different circumstances. This is called faith above reason.

Question: Where does a person draw energy from if there are no egoistic motives?

Answer: From above. Our nature has a very interesting, I would say unique source of energy that can provide a person with unearthly, unselfish motivation, and the person will do the job.

The science of Kabbalah has a method for getting the energy and motivation that we cannot feel with our senses.

Question: Do you think it’s easier to motivate children than adults?

Answer: Of course, because children are attracted to certain, specific items, objects, and rewards. So they are easy to manipulate. Adults are much more difficult. And the most difficult thing is to train an adult to manipulate himself.
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From KabTV’s “Management Skills” 8/28/20

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