“Which Education Promotes Peace”

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 7/29/22

It is said that educated people do not fight. Because of it, Israel invests a great deal in the education of Palestinians in East Jerusalem. In recent years, the number of Palestinians studying under the Israeli curriculum has increased significantly. According to a story published in Haaretz, “In the past five years the number of such students in the … Israeli program has climbed 160 percent.” There is no question that Israeli schools and universities offer better education and more opportunities to develop academic and professional careers. However, this will not make Palestinians more moderate toward Israelis. If anything, they will use their knowledge to kill us more efficiently.

First of all, not only Palestinians, but all of us are motivated by ill-will, as it is written, “The inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). Therefore, the more knowledge we have, the more power we have, and the more power we have, the more ruin we can bring upon others. In the case of the Palestinians, their knowledge will go toward building firearms and devising tactics to use against Israel and Israelis. If we expect gratitude, we should forget about it.

Second, the hatred that Palestinians feel toward Israel and Israelis cannot be mitigated through knowledge. Mitigating hatred requires a completely different kind of learning. To mitigate hatred, we need to learn specifically how to do that. We need to learn that we are all irreversibly connected, that everything we do affects everyone else and returns to us in an unbreakable cycle. In other words, we need to learn that the only way to improve our situation in the world is to improve the situation of everyone else.

Third, we need to learn that the irreversible connection among people also applies to nations and to all of reality. Therefore, we must recognize that whatever harm we inflict on the world will invariably return to us.

Finally, we must learn that all our conflicts, on every level—from the most personal to the international—happen for one and only purpose: to strengthen our connections. Every time we rise above a disagreement with someone, on any level, we strengthen our connection with that someone. Just as every couple that has been together for many years knows that the secret to a lasting relationship lies in the crises they have overcome together, relationships between countries and nations also strengthen through the trials and tribulations they endure.

Crises force us to increase the importance of our connection, which helps us overcome the dispute. When the dispute is over, we have a stronger connection than before because we have increased its importance in our eyes.

That said, no Palestinian will be willing to learn any of that unless we, Israelis, implement it among ourselves and set an example of the very thing we strive to teach. Unless we bridge the divisions in the Israeli society by increasing the importance of unity among ourselves, no one will believe in our sincerity, hatred toward us will grow, and all our efforts at making peace will fail.

Peace begins at home. Once we make peace among ourselves, others will want to learn from us and will therefore make peace with us. They will learn from us even if we do not teach, since our example will show the way. However, the opposite is also true: If we fight against each other, everyone will fight against us, as is the case today.

“What a Summer of Exclusion Feels Like” (Times of Israel)

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “What a Summer of Exclusion Feels Like

A common form of bullying among children in Israel is exclusion. A few days ago, yet another sad story surfaced on Israeli media, describing the social exclusion of children who are going through the summer vacation without any friends because they were excluded. The story featured regular children, well dressed, articulate, perfectly normal children whose paths crossed with someone who did not like them and managed to turn the whole class against them. Exclusion has become the dread of many schoolchildren and parents, and the phenomenon seems to have no solution at the moment.

I think it is not the children’s fault. It is not the fault of the excluded, and not the fault of the children who exclude. It is the fault of the adults. Because adult society is deeply hostile, and alienation and ill-will prevail, it seeps into all parts of society, including the children’s society. As a result, children are excluded, abused, and bullied by their peers. The problem will not be solved until adults solve it among themselves, and that will mend the situation everywhere else.

With such a fractured society, it cannot be any other way. Everyone feels superior to others, and our egos make us inconsiderate and abusive toward others just to assert our superiority. From here to exclusion of others, there is a very short distance.

When this is the atmosphere in the adult society, it has to trickle down the system and reach the children’s society. But when children who had experienced exclusion grow up, the bitter memory of their ordeal will stay with them and impact their attitude toward society.

This is fertile ground for rearing misfits and psychopaths who seek to avenge society for the pain it had caused them. Because their world was ruined by the society, they will strive to ruin the society in return.

The only solution to the menace we are preparing for ourselves is to work on our cohesion and solidarity. Unless we strive to increase our unity in the adult society, above all the differences between us, we should not expect children to do the same. If we fight against each other, gossip, slander, and vilify others simply because they are different from us, we should not expect children, who learn by example, to be kind and caring toward their peers.

Children reflect their role models, and their role models are us. Since we exclude, so do they.

Once we change ourselves, we should also change our education system. Our games should change from fierce competition to collaboration and inclusion. Through games, we can teach children to find the benefit in togetherness, friendship, and solidarity.

There can still be challenges in games, but the challenges should be such that only when children collaborate, they can succeed. Gradually, they will learn that they are stronger together, and how the unique qualities of every child make the whole a stronger unit. We must do this, and do it quickly because our society is raising angry, vengeful children.
[300954]

“Hunger Is a Rolling Snowball” (Medium)

Medium published my new article “Hunger Is a Rolling Snowball

The rising inflation around the world and the foreboding food shortage has created a snowball that is rolling down the mountain straight toward us. No one is safe. Some countries are more vulnerable than others, but everyone is in harm’s way. We have the power and the ability to mitigate the situation, perhaps even solve the crisis altogether, but it depends on how we relate to one another, to Earth, and to wars, namely to all the problems that really do disrupt our lives — not hunger, but our hatred for each other, which causes the hunger.

The crisis will affect everyone everywhere. The western world will cope with it better than disadvantaged third world countries, but everyone will feel the heat. In poorer countries, however, it will be a very serious crisis, and the only way to prepare for it is through international cooperative efforts to prepare and mitigate the event.

There are also technological solutions. Israel, for example, has numerous technologies to increase plants’ yields, decrease their dependence on water and soil, boost their immune systems, and make them less sensitive to extreme weather events.

In short, the ways and means to overcome the food crisis are there, the resources are there, and the means of production are there. We could overcome the crisis easily were it not for one glitch: Every country thinks only of itself, and if it does think of another country, it is always around the lines of “How can I use it to benefit myself?” without any accountability or regard for the exploited country.

This is why I am not optimistic. While the problems may not be unsolvable, we cannot solve even the smallest among them, as we see today, because we are failing one another.

Alone, even the strongest country cannot ride the storm unharmed. But together, nothing can harm us. When we let the ego set the tone, we end up with a world of scarcity, hostility, and destruction. But when we rise above it, we ride the whitecaps of the waves like surfboards.

We have turned human society into a snake-pit. The only time we avoid biting one another is when we are afraid that the bitten will bite back harder. But when we see that we will not be hit back, we strike like vipers without any hesitation or remorse.

To make any progress toward a solution, we first need to realize who we are. We need to not only acknowledge our egoism, but also to recognize its deadliness. Unless it hurts us that we are selfish, we will have no motivation to act against it. The only war we really need to fight, if we want to make life better for ourselves, is the war against our own ego. This, in fact, is the kernel of the rolling snowball that is barreling toward us.

It will take a while before we are ready, but in the end, we will have to realize that the only solution to the food crisis is to distribute it evenly. We are not there, granted, but eventually, we will have no choice and it will happen one way or the other.

At the moment, we are so far from such ideas as sharing or caring that countries even burn each other’s crops, which is insanity in terms of the global needs. But when we do not have the world’s needs in mind, and only our own, anything that hurts others seems to make perfect sense.

Therefore, first we must learn how connected we are. We must understand that by hurting others, we invariably hurt ourselves, even when we do not feel it right away. Next, we must learn how to conduct ourselves in line with the understanding that we are all connected and dependent on each other.

Once we understand that we have no choice but to take care of each other as we take care of ourselves, since by doing so, we are actually helping ourselves, we will understand what to do, what not to do, and how to do what we need to do so that everyone gets what they need. Then, everyone will be satiated, safe, and happy. We can stop the ball from rolling; the choice is in our hands.
[300919]

“ How hard is it for a person who isn’t a Jew to understand the Torah?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: How hard is it for a person who isn’t a Jew to understand the Torah?

Understanding the Torah requires study of the wisdom of Kabbalah, which is open to everybody regardless of religion, nationality, gender or age.

At the outset, the Torah appears to be a historical tale, but Kabbalah reveals it as a method of correction and a textbook on the structure of the upper world.

By advancing in the method of Kabbalah—the method of correcting our egoism, i.e. a gradual transformation of our inborn intention to enjoy for self-benefit to an intention to bestow—we come to understand the Torah through the attainment of the upper world that it describes.

Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Ask, Shout, Demand!

239Question: It is very difficult for us to break through all the actions and external forms to the feeling of one inner heart, one soul. Physically, this is much more difficult to do than virtually. How can we enter into the feeling of one soul, one heart, and raise a prayer from it despite all external actions?

Answer: Only if everyone makes more and more efforts and asks the Creator to remove all the distances and barriers between us. This, in principle, is the prayer – the biggest, most correct, most clear, when we ask the Creator to return us to our original state after we fell into egoism. He purposely created the ego. That’s why He says: “I created egoism and gave you a method of correcting it.”

We need Him to teach us how to use the method of correction correctly so that we remove the egoism that He created on purpose and will be able to fully reveal the Creator between us! We will try.

Question: We should all ask for the same thing. We must have a general picture of this condition. What exactly should we ask for?

Answer: What each one depicts for himself, do not be afraid, ask, shout, demand, and pray. The Creator accepts everything. Because, as you will later feel, it is He who gives you the opportunity to turn this request to Him. The Creator puts the prayer in our mouths.
[300733]
From the “Arava” Convention in Europe – Lithuania 2022, Lesson 1, 7/22/22

Related Material:
How To Address The Creator?
Everything Is Achieved By The Power Of Prayer
Affect The Heart With Prayer

In a Closed Integrated System

264.01Comment: Scientists wonder how the instantaneous transmission of information is carried out. The concept of time in communication between cells disappears; therefore, researchers say that the paradigm of transmission by the nervous system is incorrect since the impulse rate of the nervous system is very small. Here everything happens instantly.

They face a problem that, in principle, they cannot explain, and tend to consider it a wave transmission of information.

My Response: There are many theories on this topic. But none of them will give an explanation anyway, even with the help of waves because waves are time, length, and frequency. We will not be able to get out of this problem.

But, as scientists guess, it looks like a holographic picture of the world when it is all in one volume. The system is absolutely closed, integral, and analog in which absolutely everything is connected to each other out of time, that is, time is zero.

There is practically no space between all the objects. And we feel them as existing at some distance from each other, as interacting in some kind of wave, time process. In fact, there is none of this. Distance, time, movement, interaction, all this is superimposed on one single integral picture of nature by our egoistic perception.

When I look at an object, I begin to divide it into parts with my egoism, to see the distance between these parts, to paint the connection between objects. That’s how I perceive it because that’s how I’m built.

And if I were arranged in the same way as this object, integral, global, and located outside of my egoism that divides everything and treats everything from the position of how much closer or further away from me the object is, and how much more useful or harmful this or that phenomenon is to me, then I would not share anything.

I would perceive these objects as one whole, and I would have no distance between them, no time, no movement, no transmission of information, and everything would be instantaneous, in one place.

That is, it all depends on the person. And until he corrects himself to an integral system, he will not be able to correctly perceive the system of nature, because it is integral.
[299801]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Human Genome” 7/17/11

Related Material:
“Decoding The Human Genome — The More We Know, The Less We Understand” (Medium)
Microorganisms Rule Our World!
How To Overcome Fear?

A Friend Is Most Important!

942Question: There is a very enthusiastic state in our group today. And our prayer is rather a gratitude to the Creator for our greatest teacher who unites us and gives us strength to move forward at every lesson! Our prayer is to adhere to the teacher at all times and to achieve everything to bring him joy, to bring contentment to the Creator!

Answer: Thank you very much! But the most important thing is not a teacher, but a friend. When you adhere to a friend, you definitely discover the Creator who is between you. The teacher is only on the side, he is pointing and correcting, like a coach. Your most important struggle and achievement of the goal is between friends.

Comment: Yes, however you give us a lot of strength to unite between us.

My Response: That’s right, but still follow your friends! Bow down to your friends, annul yourself before the friends, and adhere to them! Do everything for them, and then you will reach the goal.
[300736]
From the “Arava” Convention in Europe – Lithuania 2022, Lesson 1, 7/22/22

Related Material:
Where Does the Creator Appear?
My Future Depends On My Friend
Work In All Stages

What Gives Us the Possibility to Live

549.02Question: Why did the Creator make such a gap between Himself and the creation and cause the creation to feel so distant?

Answer: The Creator did to us what we do with our children. We let them first move forward by helping them from behind and we want them to continue walking. This is all reflected in our nature.

The Creator did this out of absolute love. Despite our inclination to be engaged only in using and eating one another in our egoistic world, the force of mutuality, participation, empathy, and love at the various levels of nature suddenly appears. This is why the possibility of life exists here.

The egoistic force alone would not be able to exist independently. When it has the egoism of two kinds, then the possibility of existence at the minimal level comes. With this approach you can do some kind of approximations, imagining what it would be like if I selflessly loved or wished something for another. In other words, there is a place here for the expression of moral conceptions for imagination. Although it is also egoistic, it still exists.

Some interesting combinations between the egoism and the property of bestowal occurred as a result of the shattering of desires in the upper world and their descent down to our world. Everyone wants only to receive, but still a small property of bestowal appears in them. This property is under a person’s control and one feels a special egoistic pleasure in it.

For example, when people give to each other, they enjoy it. Love between them is an egoistic pleasure, but with it a person gives something to the other one and thus fulfills himself with receiving pleasure. Ultimately, it is the same egoism, but egoism already mediated through movement away from oneself.

This is a very interesting system on its own. Scientists have not researched it in a deep way. They cannot figure it out yet, and I think in general they will not have time and will not be able to get to it. After all, we will begin to reveal the upper world and through it we will begin to know our world rather than from our poking on Earth. This is a very intense and unneeded process. Only through the upper world is it possible to get to know the lower one. This is how it is done— fast, specific, and in a complete way.
[300007]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. What Does the Creator Wants” 11/3/09

Related Material:
Why Are We Far From Perfect?
Feel the Thought of Creation
If There Was No Creation, There Would Be No Creator

Disconnected from Reality

294.2Question: Is our body a shell that allows us to be outside the spiritual state?

Answer: The physiological body, that is, the slice of egoism felt by a person, the lowest, thinnest, most primitive one, allows us to feel ourselves and the environment around us in this egoism and imagine it as our world.

Everything else that actually exists is outside of this slice. But we are still able to live in it as in oblivion, as in a dream. Basically, we are in a non-existent state. As if we got hit on the head and are disconnected from reality.

Question: If you remove this shell of feeling yourself as physically existing, is it already a transition to the next stage?

Answer: Partly. After all, you can’t just remove this barrier. What desire will you exist in? In the quality of bestowal?

Comment: When a person, for example, commits suicide, he seems to hope that he will remove this shell.

My Response: Nonsense, this person does not solve anything. He did not correct himself nor enter a sense of true existence. This has nothing to do with the method of revealing the true reality.

It simply benefits the ego to stop suffering. How many people do this, how many are willing to do it? What about drugs and alcoholism? This too is a kind of death, when one disconnects from reality and temporarily enters a different state.

These, however, are questions that require seeing the whole system and understanding what is happening to us; a person has completed what he had to, now he must somehow transition to another state, be reborn, and discern new Reshimot (spiritual information data).

Question: Why is suicide considered the worst sin in all religions?

Answer: It is as if you are running away from your responsibilities.

In this world, we have a clear task—to reach the image of the upper world, that is, in full unification, to correct the breakage of the common Kli, vessel.

Through all the millennia we have been moving toward this as primitive beings. We were led by inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature. But in our time, we have reached the level of a human solution to this problem; we are in a state when this needs a conscious solution. And we must solve it.

How can you commit suicide when you have to solve the problem of consciously connecting to all people on Earth, fully helping them, joining them as one whole, forming an integral analog system of complete interconnection with them and revealing the upper force of bestowal, love, and interaction in this system? This is where you begin to live and no longer perceive the previous system of forces called our world, you existed in before.

It is all before you. Today, it is all revealed and ready to be implemented.
[300136]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Impact of Kabbalah on a Person” 6/11/14

Related Material:
How Do You Explain Suicide?
“What Do You Think About Suicide?” (Quora)
A Mass Suicide Attempt Of Native Americans In Canada

The Fish Is Looking for Where It’s Deeper

962.1

Accountability is coming for those who liquidate our future.

Last week, I announced five actions to speed up the shift to renewable energy.

As graduates, you hold the cards.

Your talent is in demand from multinational companies and big financial institutions.

You will have plenty of opportunities to choose from.

My message to you is simple:

Don’t work for climate-wreckers.

Use your talents to drive us towards a renewable future.
..
Throughout history, humanity has shown that we are capable of great things.

But only when we work together.

Only when we overcome differences and work in the same direction, with the same aim — to lift all people up, not only those born to wealth and advantage.

Only when we look to all people as fellow global citizens — with goodwill, tolerance and respect.

So to all graduates, I urge you —

Be useful. Be mindful. Be kind. Be bold (UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Commencement Address Seton Hall 2022).

Question: At the same time, it is clear that he was not just addressing students. Every 30 hours, a billionaire appears in the world. You need to have enough time to go earn your billion.

What should one do to prevent students from joining these companies?

Answer: Nothing will help. Wherever there is money is where everyone goes. There is nothing we can do about it.

Question: What should be introduced in universities then, what kind of teaching?

Answer: Nothing. Everyone tries to get into IT and other such faculties that lead them to good earnings. It doesn’t matter what I make my money from. If I earn a million dollars a month for producing some kind of machine, and I can produce a bomb for 10 million dollars a month, then I will produce a bomb. The calculation is very simple: wherever they pay me more.

Question: And this is a stalemate. But how can a person make a correct calculation?

Answer: You can’t do it in any way; this is the correction of a person! And this should be dealt with by the UN in the first place! But not in such a way that he says: “Guys, don’t go where they give you a lot of money. Go to a place where they will give you a little money, but you will respect yourself.” Who will respect you?!

Question: You say that the UN is not engaged in correction. And what kind of mindset does a corrected person have?

Answer: He’ll be ashamed. He will be reproached for choosing a company that develops, say, poisons. He will be embarrassed to talk about it.

And today there is no such thing in the world. A person works in some secret laboratory, develops poisons or something else, and is proud of it, if it is not secret.

Comment: Because the first question is: “How much do you earn?” He says: “It’s decent.” Everyone says: “Well settled.” And then they don’t ask what you make good money on.

My Response: Yes. And if he says on what, they will respect him even more.

Question: You mean that shame should come first in a corrected person?

Answer: The censure of society, the approval of society, this should be the main thing. And society in our eyes is educated in a way that it respects only money and power.

Question: It turns out that we need to rearrange society?

Answer: Of course.

Question: So are you saying that it is necessary to educate precisely society so that it will look at a person, at his good deeds?

Answer: And a person will be ashamed. A person depends on society. He exists in it; it affects him.

Question: Is it necessary to educate the whole planet so that it wants to be in good business?

Answer: Yes, it is only possible on a global scale. After all, we are talking about people who are engaged in programming and so forth.

Soon there will be programmers who will be able to run a person on absolutely anything. People will not know whether it’s good or bad, where they are going or what they are doing. All this will be programmed.

Question: You say that a corrected person will be ashamed of how society treats him and will not go to such a job. What will change in him, in the corrected person?

Answer: Values, the significance of a particular quality in a person.

Question: Before that it was money?

Answer: That’s if for the word “money” we will start asking: “And for what? What kind of money do you get? From whom do you get it? What are they paying you for?” Then the person will start thinking about what to do. At least this way.
[300191]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/26/22

Related Material:
Death, Glory, and Love
What Will Replace Money?
When Money Becomes A Goal In Itself