Audio Version Of The Blog – 7/28/22
Posted on July 28th, 2022
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Right, Left, and Tired”
It is election time in Israel, again, the fifth campaign in less than four years. It is said that Israel is divided between three main factions: Left, Right, and Tired, too tired to care. Yet, the political situation points to a deeper problem: division. There is division in the nation, division in the government, division everywhere and in every direction. Because there is division in the nation, there is division in the government. This division is really our only problem.
Politicians capitalize on division. Because the nation is divided, it allows them to echo it, which then increases the division even more. On the one hand, politicians laud unity. On the other hand, that unity invariably means “Let everyone unite around me, with me at the center, and obeying my words.”
Not only is this unity a lie, but everyone knows it is a lie. Yet, we Jews have a soft spot for unity. Because of our heritage, unity plays a sensitive chord in our hearts, and politicians sense this and profess to advance it in order to exploit our sensitivity to it. But no one means it, no one cares, and specifically in Israel, this lie is the most obvious and the most putrid.
Indeed, why should anyone agree with anyone else? What would agreeing with someone else give them? If people want to win and rule, why should they agree with anyone? Because they want to win, they not only fight against each other, but even if they lose, they do not let the winner rule and do everything they can to overthrow the government so that they might emerge victorious after yet another round of elections.
And the people? Who cares about the people?
The only solution to the incessant fighting is to spread the view among the public that regardless of the election results, the parties must respect the election and respect each other. Only if the people, the electorate, insist that this is the code of conduct in Israeli politics will it happen. At the moment, we do not have such a culture, but rather a culture of continuous belligerence. Perhaps we simply did not suffer enough to realize that we have to change our approach to politics and to each other.
If we were wiser, we would understand that there is no point trying to convince anyone or trying to crush anyone. We would understand that our differences are like two legs to stand on. If we had only one leg, we would fall. But with two legs, one on the right and one on the left, we are steady and can stand tall.
Until we learn that we need all views and all perspectives, we will never have a stable political system that actually serves the people rather than the politicians. And until we learn the value of connection among people, we will never learn that lesson.
Therefore, in order to heal our ailing political system, we need to start brandishing our unity. This will signal to our politicians that they, too, must nurture it among them, and in the entire system of the government.
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Question: Let’s say it is written in our Reshimot that there should be a war or some other terrible state, how will I feel they depends on me? Is it possible to change it that there would be no war?
Answer: You can change it. This is not recorded in the Reshimot, it depends on the connection between people.
Question: How should we understand what is recorded and what is not?
Answer: The basic laws of nature are recorded and you can only change your attitude toward them, like in the example of school where for one child the years of study last endlessly, and for another they fly by very quickly.
But if you can change a person, it is a completely different state. Then you change his attitude to the perception of the world, and he already feels these ten school years as ten days.
Question: But still, if the war is recorded in the Reshimot, is this the state of humanity?
Answer: No. It is recorded once, and you can change everything. For example, I know that when I went to school for me this half a day was wasted. And when I ran outside after school and played with the guys, it was like five minutes for me. Why can it not be the other way around?
It all depends on the person. There is no time, it depends only on our perception.
Question: That is, in principle, the war is recorded, but how we will perceive it and how it will take place depends on us. Could it be some kind of internal human war?
Answer: It can be a flick and that’s it.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 7/12/22
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Medium published my new article “Constructive Competition”
In nature, competition develops and improves. Evolution is based on competition; without it, nothing would change. But in human society, competition takes a very negative turn; it becomes destructive and causes devolution rather than evolution. Why is this so? Because human nature itself needs to change in order to evolve positively.
In nature, instincts regulate competition between species; there is no free choice or independent decision. This is how evolution creates better and better forms of life.
But in humans, there is the ego. The ego is not static, but constantly intensifies and causes us to feel increasingly alienated and hateful toward others. The concept of individualism pertains specifically to humans, and the more it grows, the less we feel as part of the whole. Today, it is at an all-time high, and it is still growing. In consequence, our approach in our relation to others is exploitative: We want to use everyone for our own pleasure, each person according to one’s own likes and preferences.
This attitude makes the competition between us destructive and ruinous. It does not develop us but throws us into ever worse crises that are now becoming existential threats on a global level.
On the face of it, things did not have to be this way. We have advanced science, we can produce far more food than the world needs, we can see that every child on the planet gets good education, healthcare, nutrition, and housing.
In reality, more and more children are hungry, sick, and destitute. It is not for our inability, but for our inhumanity. We pollute the air and the water even though we can have all the energy we need from clean sources. We pollute the ground although we can avoid it, and we do all these not because of negligence, but because of carelessness.
The free market, as the progenitors of capitalism referred to it, was supposed to benefit from competition and create a better life for all of us. It did for a while, but now it only causes more and more harm as capitalism has been poisoned by excessive selfishness.
The bottom line is that egoistic competition has brought us to a precipice. If we do not change direction quickly, we will fall off.
It is time we realize that just as nature is a connected system where the evolution of one part improves and affects all other parts, we, too, are all connected. But in the case of humans, it is our task to make these connections positive and constructive.
To foster constructive competition in humanity, we should not race to reach the top while stepping on everyone else’s heads, but compete at who contributes more to humankind. People should be respected not for achieving selfish goals, often at the expense of the common good, but for contributing to the common good, for improving people’s lives, and mainly, for bringing people closer together, increasing the sense of solidarity and mutual responsibility in society.
In this way, our unique contribution to society becomes a positive contribution rather than a harmful element in it. Using our uniqueness to contribute to the common good will enable us to remain individualistic, and become even more so, yet use it constructively and not in a way that harms others. As a result, people will support each other’s individualism, as it will advance all of society and still express each person’s uniqueness.
The sense of mutual contribution will foster closeness rather than alienation, and the loneliness and hostility among people will fade. Instead of toxic envy, people will encourage one another to grow and realize their potential. People will feel at home in such a society, as part of the collective. They will enjoy its benefits, yet also remain, and even develop their uniqueness.
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Question: For the first time in a long while, women take part in the morning lessons and ask questions almost on an equal footing. This did not happen before. And now they are creating their own women’s Arava convention. How did it happen in our lifetime that women are pulling ahead?
Answer: The fact is that we are moving toward final correction. We are in the last phase of a general correction, and therefore, we need more active participation of the women with us, and they need our participation.
Together we return to the beginning of creation, but already corrected, to the place where both woman and man began creation, together participated in its fall, and together they must participate in its correction.
At the last stage of correction, when men have prepared everything necessary, women approach the men, and together they carry out these last stages. Therefore, it is natural that both women and men participate in all our conventions, classes, and everywhere. This will be revealed even more clearly.
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From the “Arava” Convention in Europe – Lithuania 2022, Lesson 1, 7/22/22
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Question: Now, at the very beginning of the congress, we feel great trembling of what awaits us. We do not know what it will be yet, but we expect it to be something beautiful, strong, and powerful that we will enter into. We feel that the Creator has been helping us all this time. He is with us now, and this is also felt; otherwise, where would this trembling come from?
What should we do with this desire and how do we properly direct it in order to find the closest path to the Creator?
Answer: First of all, I would like to congratulate all of us on this global gathering, on the connection, on the congress, on the direct line between all our hearts! I hope that we are all in inner prayer so that our efforts will really lead to the melting of all hearts into one single heart and that we will feel in it the Creator who has actually prepared and created all this. I hope that we will feel our gathering through this.
There is nothing more important than connection because it is in it that the correction of a broken Kli arises. And when—out of the shattering and huge, huge separation, the separation of desires, that is, hearts—we can once again come to unity over all contradictions, over all conflicts and distances, then we will feel the power of the upper world, the Creator, and that He has prepared for us to realize and attain both in feelings and in reason.
I hope that at our gathering we will make a big step forward. I am very glad that you are meeting together and that there is a huge number of our friends in the Baltic States, in Moscow, in Germany, Bulgaria and so on. In general, it is so that we will all have a lot of help from above. We want to unite! We desire this gathering and its great success.
The most important thing in our gathering is a prayer, an appeal to the Creator to help us feel the love of our friends so that all friends become close to my heart despite the egoistic shell that surrounds it and does not allow love to enter into it, which is the feeling of closeness of my friends. That is where we need to make an effort.
We need only a prayer to the Creator, a request to the Creator, so that He will allow the love of friends for me and mine for them to break this shell and connect with all our friends around the world who are close to us in spirit. This is, of course, the most important thing that we would like to achieve as a consequence of our Baltic Congress.
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From the “Arava” Convention in Europe – Lithuania 2022, Lesson 1, 7/22/22
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Question: We call the total of all states, for example, of one person or the whole of humanity, a “gene.” And what is it called in Kabbalah?
Answer: The total of all the states of humanity in its entire history, if we can call it history, is what is called Shechina. Meaning the place where absolutely all the information about everything and everyone is located.
And all the states of a person throughout his life are called “his life” and are a set of Reshimot, spiritual information records.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 7/12/22
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Question: I’ve heard that we have to pay twice for the things we buy. The first price is paid when we purchase whatever we want, be it a book, a bicycle, cabbage, and the second payment is an effort to get the benefit from this item. And the second payment can be much higher than the first. For example, if I buy a book for $20, it takes 10 – 12 hours to read it, to get some pleasure, etc. Only then do we see the return on the first payment.
Today, in the pursuit of pleasure, we often pay only the first price and do not have time to pay the second. We immediately run for a new pleasure, buy again, and so on. Cars, bicycles, sneakers…
How do you feel about this?
Answer: It is correct. We do not want to put in the effort after that. We make enough effort in the buying.
Question: And where is it, the pleasure? I bought it, why can’t I master this thing?
Answer: You cannot buy pleasure; you buy it in some kind of wrapper.
Question: Let’s say I bought pleasure in the wrapper of a car. Why don’t I master it, but after some time I run for another pleasure?
Answer: Enough is enough. You bought it, that is it. Nothing more is expected of you. Why did you get the desire to buy it? In order to buy. That is it. And it is getting smaller every day.
Comment: There was no such thing before.
My Response: Egoism becomes more vivid and plays with us this way.
Question: What will this chasing lead to?
Answer: To fatigue. The next stage, which will come after the society of fulfillment that the West lives in today (the rest of the world is still far away), will be a society of disappointment.
Question: Do you see another formation that will suddenly arise? There were changes of some formations all the time, slavery, capitalism, etc.
Answer: No, it is the same egoism growing. And here we reach a state where we fill it and find that there is nothing further to do. Then there will be howling all over the world: “What can we make ourselves busy with? What can we fill up with? Where is the pleasure? What is the point of living?!”
Question: That is, the pleasure will wash out, go away from us?
Answer: Yes, it will disappear.
Comment: And I will not get it from anything?
Answer: No, not from wealth, sex, knowledge, power—nothing!
Question: And what is next in this pyramid?
Answer: Nothing. Above this is the attainment of truth, the Creator.
Question: So Maslow’s pyramid of these desires has stopped somewhere, and it is not known what will happen next? Is that where the attainment of the Creator is?
Answer: Yes, of course. Growth is leading to this.
Question: There was no other way to bring us to this idea that we need a Creator?
Answer: No, we have to go through these states. We have to build this pyramid within ourselves. Each subsequent stage is based on the previous one. That is all.
Question: Will this happen to every person?
Answer: Yes, but with each person it is not that he will really go through everything. He will perceive the experience of others and absorb the qualities and impressions of everyone.
Question: And he will not have to go through the same path?
Answer: No. He will understand that he does not need it.
Question: And then what? They will ask the Creator to reveal Himself?
Answer: The Creator is the most perfect pleasure. Look at how sex is viewed today. Once it was the greatest pleasure. Now they refuse it, they renounce it, and so on. And what remains? What will they be left with? What can one fill oneself with?
Question: You see this process as positive?
Answer: Of course, it is positive. Humanity is developing and going through all these stages.
Question: Is it possible to speed up this process?
Answer: No. It grows together with humanity, together with our egoism, together with the developing society. It all happens at the same time on different levels but together. It is a single whole.
Question: Can I have your cautious forecast? After what time will we come to the state that we will finally ask the Creator?
Answer: At the pace at which it is now going, it should be very fast. Of course, not yet in our time. But fast. I think it is in a couple of decades, 30 to 40 years.
I do not think there will be many. Even if now we return to poverty, to limitations, it will not be the same. We will already have impressions: why do we need this? We will no longer gnaw our teeth for earnings, for some material pleasures, and so on.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/9/22
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Comment: A conspiracy theory has been spreading all over social media that Bill Gates is behind the emergence of Monkeypox
People on Twitter are actively spreading a video clip of an interview Bill Gates gave last year. He warned governments of potential epidemics in the future including Monkeypox, which is not a typical virus for Europe. It has started to spread in the last few days. That much we know. So, we have a big problem here.
In your previous videos (and there’s plenty of them) we will see you talking not only about the Monkeypox but also about the potential for epidemics caused by inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, basically from everything possible. There is a chance of nuclear crises, etc., etc. They might blame you!
My Response: Let them accuse me of anything they can. Just do not forget the first and the last name, and who I am, and what I am about. I am ready!
Question: How did we manage to bring all these problems upon ourselves: the pandemic, the war, Monkeypox, all of it?
Answer: It is very simple. All kinds of diseases emerge from within humanity internally as a result of the egocentric desire that wells up.
Question: Do I want this Monkeypox!? Do I want that virus?
Answer: No, you do not want Monkeypox, but you are causing it this way. It does not mean that you want it or do not want it because it does not depend on your desire. It depends on the severity of the ego you are working with, the kind of ego you live in. The coarser the ego you live in, the greater the problems you bring upon yourself from the depths of nature—your very own nature.
Question: Is this based on a specific law that exists: the greater all of our egos are, the greater the problems that befall us?
Answer: Of course. After all, you make use of that ego. It reveals itself and that is where all these misfortunes originate.
Question: So we open it up and unleash a kind of a genie? So it is possible that if the ego continues to grow, we will unleash something we cannot handle?
Answer: Without a doubt! Humanity will have to face huge problems.
Question: How do we go about closing that box?
Answer: By suppressing the ego in which we work. We have to be correcting the ego, putting it back in, and not allowing it to break out of its depths.
Question: Can it somehow be suppressed?
Answer: It depends on us. It is in our hands. Only if we make a collective decision that we will not relate to each other in a way such that the ego is revealed, then none of these external problems will manifest.
Question: There is a direct correlation?
Answer: It is absolutely direct. It is the same thing here, meaning, the ego that is internal is the essence of nature, and all the problems are swirling around it—family-related problems, health-related problems, biological, egotistical, and so on, you name it.
Egoism is the very essence of our lives. The more we use the ego, the greater the problems that we bring upon us on all levels: biological, physical, social, etc. So it makes sense that more and more ailments are materializing, and it is going to get worse and worse for us.
Question: So, you are saying that we tackle only the consequences and we do not get to the root?
Answer: If you want to tackle the root of it, then it is the ego itself. Nothing else.
Question: But why don’t we come to this?
Answer: Because we do not want to! Because it is against our nature.
Comment: We waste billions, produce medicine, but we never come to this.
My Response: You can do whatever you want, it will not matter. You never want to come to this! Even if you are brought face to face with it, you will say: “No, I would rather work on curing cancer, for instance.” Cancer is the direct consequence of the ego. Direct because cells consume each other!
But you will not do anything about these cells not to form in the first place.
Eventually, we will not have a choice but to work against our own nature. And this is the antidote to all problems on every level.
Question: What can we do to achieve this kind of understanding as quickly as possible? Tell us!
Answer: Diseases, problems, even if humanity is annihilated, it will not help! Even annihilating it will not help.
Only the gradual awareness nurtured by means of education, anti-egotistical education, that is it. So, come and educate yourselves.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/26/22
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In the News (“Grandchild or $650,000: Indian parents take son to court“): “An Indian couple is taking their son to court, demanding that he and his wife either produce a grandchild within a year or cough up almost $650,000. …
“they exhausted their savings by raising and educating their pilot son and paying for a lavish wedding.
“Now they want payback.
“‘My son has been married for six years but they are still not planning a baby. At least if we have a grandchild to spend time with, our pain will become bearable,’ the couple said in their petition filed with a court in the north Indian town of Haridwar last week.
Question: Do you think this request of the parents is legitimate?
Answer: This is a problem. On the one hand they are selfish. No one can oblige a couple to have children. I understand them. But in principle, there is no such law that a couple is obliged to give birth to children, and as if, by their parents’ request.
Comment: “Then return the money that was invested in you,” the parents say.
My Response: “Did you want me to get married in order to make you grandchildren?” It turns out that it is so. “I didn’t sign up for this.”
I’m just putting myself in the position of a victim. “I didn’t sign up for this.” But, on the other hand, the parents can also be understood.
I think there is a need for a society that should affect young people—to influence them in a way, so that they eventually have children for themselves. For themselves and for their parents. Especially in India.
Comment: You’ve been to India; you’ve seen it. There are a huge number of children and people, and still they give birth. One and a half billion!
My Response: It depends on the kind of society. If they are rich people with a good marital status, they give birth to two or three children, no more.
Question: So do you think that the parents’ request is egoistic, and their children are egoistic too?
Answer: The parents are not egoists. They really want grandchildren and they can be understood. But the children, of course, are egoists. They don’t want to do anything nice to their parents, they don’t want to burden themselves, and I also understand them in this, to burden themselves with raising children. But it is necessary to somehow come to an agreement after all. The case went to court. So it’s not easy. They need to come up with something.
Question: This is what is happening in the world right now. Many people don’t particularly want to give birth.
Answer: At least one or two children. Without this, a person is not considered a person. If he has no children, and he does not care about procreation, then this is an inferior person. It is considered so.
Question: But this does not apply if health does not allow and so on, right?
Answer: This is understandable.
Question: So a husband and wife who do not have children are not a family?
Answer: Firstly, such a family is not a family. There should definitely be both a boy and a girl in the family. Preferably both. But there are cases when having both doesn’t work out.
It is necessary to help raise the status of having children. We also have a problem with this, both in the state and in people; today people do not want to have children.
The Torah says, “Be fruitful and multiply.” But in fact, why breed, much less multiply?
Question: Why is all this happening right now? Why is there such a sudden desire not to give birth?
Answer: People want to take care of themselves. That’s all. On the other hand, children are also very egoistic. You invest in them for 20 or 30 years, and then they leave. Well, why then did I invest my capital, my labor, my funds, my nerves, and my strength? And where did it all go? It is an unprofitable business.
Question: And what to do in such cases?
Answer: Do nothing. Learn from mistakes. It all depends on the upbringing.
And the upbringing should be like this: “You must!”
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/26/22
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