In the News (CityinFocus): “In December of 2012, Spanish athlete Iván Fernández Anaya was competing in a cross-country race in Spain. He was running second, some distance behind race leader Abel Mutai (bronze medalist in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the London Olympics). Close to the finish line, Iván saw Abel–certain to be the winner of the race–pull up about 10 meters before the finish line. He had become confused by the signage and stopped, thinking he had already completed the race.

“Iván was right behind him and, realizing what was happening, started shouting at the Kenyan to continue running, but Abel didn’t understand Spanish. Realizing what was taking place, Iván approached Abel and gently pushed him forward to victory.

“When a journalist asked Iván, ‘Why did you do that?’ he replied, ‘My dream is that someday we can have a kind of community life where we push and help each other to win.’ The journalist insisted, ‘But why did you let the Kenyan win?’ Iván responded, ‘I didn’t let him win; he was going to win. The race was his.’ The journalist again said, ‘But you could have won!’ Iván looked at him and replied, ‘But what would be the merit of my victory? What would be the honour in that medal? What would my mother think of that?’ The world has made Iván a hero, pointing to him as an icon of sportsmanship.

Answer: This is some answer! That is, his mother apparently is a mother who would shame him for not doing this. This is upbringing.

Question: The shame that someone feels, is it good?

Answer: It means a lot, of course. Moreover, it involves his mom.

Comment: This was almost the main factor for him, apparently.

My Response: Yes. If the Olympic athlete says so it is great!

Question: Why don’t we live like this? So, I read this, and I immediately have such a warm feeling.

Answer: Of course! This man showed the real Man within.

Comment: This is sport!

My Response: Yes, undoubtedly! Not what we have today: dope, cheating, anything to win.

Question: So, do you think that a huge degradation has happened since 2012?

Answer: It happened of course. But still, you see, there are people who cannot go for it.

Question: Why does a person not adjust himself to live like this? Why doesn’t humanity come to this?

Answer: A person should still receive satisfaction even from this. We are not talking about him going by faith above reason, about bestowing against his nature, and so on. But within his nature, through education, he can make it so that he cannot steal, he cannot betray, he cannot do something that is against people, against others. Education means a lot.

Question: Do you think that education can achieve this?

Answer: Not in the form that we talk about in Kabbalah, but it is possible. At least universal human values can be achieved by education.

Question: From the point of view of Kabbalah, does this spark of goodness and bestowal exist in a person? Is it there or not?

Answer: Every person has it. Everyone! Absolutely! It all depends only on the style of upbringing and the intensity of upbringing, the ability to educate, etc. so that it would be possible to instill bestowal above reception in a person, so that he could even give his life for the life of another.

These are not spiritual qualities yet, but this is something that would, of course, be incomparably better, some indicators in human society in comparison with what we have today.

Today everything is directed only at me, someone beloved, dear, and unique—by all means

Question: And what does education lead to in Kabbalah? For this spark to turn to fire?

Answer: In Kabbalah, this is very specific. That is, it is necessary to convince a person that it is impossible to live differently because everything is programmed by nature. And after that, to explain to him where to get this supernatural force of nature, which must replace his egoism.

Comment: That is, instead of living for yourself, live for others. You can find it only outside yourself. You will not find it in yourself.

My Response: You cannot find it. And education will not help here. Education works at human level, but this is above human.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/5/21

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Question: Does asking of the Creator mean asking of the friends?

Answer: No. Asking the Creator and asking the friends is not the same thing. The Creator is not a friend. We say: “Me, the group, the Creator,” which means that I must connect these three parameters and try to see that they are interdependent.

Imagine that just how you establish relationships with the friends, you also establish a relationship with the Creator. You need the force of bestowal in order to establish the right relations with the friends, and I ask the Creator for this force.

First, I must connect to the Creator, but I do not have the power to do it, and so I turn to the Creator (1) in order to receive the power to connect (2) from Him.

It makes no difference how I turn to the Creator, but I need this force in order to connect to the friends, because without it, I will not be able to establish any connection with them. I am a individualist and I do not want any connection with anyone. People who reach the wisdom of Kabbalah are absolute individualists.

My request from the Creator is to receive the power to unite with the group (3) from Him. With this power I turn to the group, receive its influence, and thus find the Creator. This is how it works (green line in the drawing).

First I use the Creator in order to have the power to connect, and then I already discover it as the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 2/13/19

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #25 “Things that Come from the Heart”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #23 “One’s Future Depends and Is Tied to Gratitude for the Past”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 70

Selected Highlights

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In order for a prayer to awaken the upper force to answer, it must resemble the upper force to some extent. That is, it should be on the same wave-length, the same frequency as the upper force.

The upper force works for bestowal, which means that our prayer must be close to bestowal to some extent. At least a little bit! And then, to this extent, we obligate the Creator, the upper force, to hear this request and to respond.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/21, Shamati #20 “Lishma (For Her Sake)”

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We are trying to get closer and closer to our friends because we understand that if we do not achieve connection, we will not feel anything but this world. We will not escape from the individual perception of reality in which we feel nothing but ourselves.

Instead of the true reality, a person feels, sees, and understands only what is inside him, inside his desire to receive. And this is a picture of this world that is deceptive and opposite of the true reality.

Therefore, we need to understand three things. The first is that without connection between us, we will not be able to feel the upper world. The second is that we will never be able to achieve this connection. And the third is that it is possible only with the help of the upper force, the force of bestowal and unity. To the extent that the upper one gives us His power, we will advance to a connection within which we can feel the spiritual world and the Creator.

And the fact that we do not want to get closer is given to us to help us begin to understand what we lack and what hinders us. And then, in order to reverse this resistance into connection and turn it into its opposite—approaching spirituality—we need prayer.

We need a request to the Creator to turn the force of our egoism, rejection, hatred, passion, pride, ambition, all our aspirations to distance ourselves from others, into its opposite, into connection. The Creator is able to do it! We only need to ask.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/21, Shamati #20 “Lishma (For Her Sake)”

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A plane has this device called a gyrocompass. It is built upon a constantly rotating gyroscope, it points to the North Pole, and helps aircraft navigate.

For us, the group serves as such a gyrocompass. Other than that, we have no way to navigate. It is like being in a tiny boat in the middle of the ocean and not knowing where to go. The only compass for us is our egoism.

But if we want to aim in the right direction, then we have no compass or gyroscope for that. We have a common boat in which the group is. And because of the fact that we unite with each other despite the resistance of our egoism, we thereby direct ourselves to the Creator whom we do not see and do not feel.

We can keep the direction toward Him only by trying to connect above our egoism. This is the point where we join together, it is that very North Pole, the guiding star. And so we move forward.

Without the group, you will not be able to find your direction among all the forces of nature surrounding you. Therefore, it is said: “Either the group or death.”

If I want to be in the center of the group all the time, where all its desires, intentions, and spiritual goals are focused, then I am correctly directed at the Creator. I have to stick to this center until I discover the upper force in it.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/21, Shamati #20 “Lishma (For Her Sake)”

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My new article on Linkedin “The Forecast for the Young – Severe Weather and Anxiety”

An extensive study among young people ages 16-25 has revealed that they are anxious about the future, and with good reason. The research, whose authors claim to be “the largest and most international survey of climate anxiety in young people to date … shows that the psychological (emotional, cognitive, social, and functional) burdens of climate change are profoundly affecting huge numbers of young people around the world. Furthermore, it is the first study to offer insight into how young people’s perception of governments’ responses to climate change is associated with their own emotional and psychological reactions.”

Under the section “Implications of all the available evidence,” the authors write: “Distress about climate change is associated with young people perceiving that they have no future, that humanity is doomed, that governments are failing to respond adequately, and with feelings of betrayal and abandonment by governments and adults. These are chronic stressors which will have significant, long-lasting and incremental negative implications on the mental health of children and young people. The failure of governments to adequately address climate change and the impact on younger generations potentially constitutes moral injury. Nations must respond to protect the mental health of children and young people by engaging in ethical, collective, policy-based action against climate change.”

I admire the proactive approach, but if it stays on the level of suppressing operations that are perceived as harmful to the climate, nothing will change. The climate will not improve and young people’s anxiety will find no relief. Dealing with each problem separately is like trying to stop an overflowing sewer system by sealing each manhole cover separately instead of shutting the valve that’s causing the flood. Likewise, to solve the climate crisis, we must get to its origin and fix what is broken there.

The climate is not a separate system; it is part of the global ecosystem where we live. The system is built as a pyramid of levels that function harmoniously and in an interdependent manner. If the harmony is obstructed on one level, all the levels below it will be adversely affected. At the top of the pyramid is man, of course. Therefore, every obstruction in human society affects the entire pyramid, the entire ecosystem, or simply put: the whole world.

While the human level has never been harmonious, for the past several decades, it has been utterly dysfunctional. Worse yet, it is growing more so by the hour. It is no wonder that young people have no faith in older generations; they see the kind of world we have left for them, and they are not happy about it. If we want to help them, the least we can do is point to the real problem: human society.

All the negative phenomena, on every level, are offshoots of our dysfunctional relations in society. Storms, fires, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, rogue viruses, dying bees, and of course hunger and war, are all projections of our disharmonious relations that trickle down the pyramid and poison every level.

Therefore, if we want to change the world, we must change our society. Moreover, we must encourage the younger generation to lead the process, since in the end, they are the ones who will be here tomorrow.

If we build a society that favors unity and solidarity over individuality and competition, we will radiate that positive mindset throughout the system, just as we are currently projecting the opposite. Instead of ruining nature, we must learn from its example, see how it functions through connection and collaboration, and build our society likewise.

We needn’t fix anything other than our own broken, hate-filled relations, since nothing else is broken. When we become harmonious with one another, we will start projecting harmony down the entire system, and everything will calm.
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My new article on Linkedin “What Can We Learn on World Teachers’ Day?”

This month, on October 5, to be exact, is World Teachers’ Day. A teacher used to be, and in some countries still is, a venerable occupation. A teacher was not simply someone who taught you math or English, but someone who taught you the wisdom of life and was a role model to follow. Judging by what is happening today, it seems we are in desperate need of good teachers. For all our knowledge, we feel lost. Unless we learn where we really are, what we are doing here, why we are here, and how to direct ourselves toward a better place, we will lapse into another world war.

To emerge from the slump, we must stop focusing solely on knowledge. Acquiring information does not create happy people. Where has the information about nuclear fusion gotten us, for example? We’ve got nuclear weapons that can annihilate humanity in minutes. We’ve got so much knowledge in every realm of life, but where is it all leading? We’re heading toward dire states.

Instead of teaching us what they should, our poor teachers regurgitate what the government instructs them to teach. They are forced to lie to the students, but the students know better. By age 9 or 10, most children know that none of what they are hearing is true. They stop believing their teachers, stop paying attention, while the teachers, who must make a living, keep repeating the same stories. There are no other motivations here but money and power; these are the rulers of the Earth, and no regime or government is free from their grip.

A change will come only when we realize that this is not the way to live, and resolve to change our motivation. But the change will happen either because we reflect on where we are going and stop ourselves before we get there, or because we did not stop ourselves in time and realize our mistake after the bombs have gone off.

To make the necessary changes in time, we cannot leave it only to teachers and excuse ourselves from the task. We have to reconstruct the entire system, the basis of our civilization. The fact that we are self-absorbed and narcissistic is no secret. But this is not the problem. The problem is that we agree to stay this way. We’ve known for decades that humanity is on a path of self-destruction due to its own self-absorption. Yet, we have done nothing to change course.

Now we must become our own teachers, and not just on World Teachers’ Day, but every day and every moment of our lives. Moreover, the world we live in has become so intertwined that it is not enough to implement the changes one country at a time. While some countries engage in reforms, others will maintain their abusive attitude and will ruin the progress for everyone. Therefore, the initiative to create a positive tomorrow must incorporate the entire world. However implausible this may sound, we must remember that the only other option to this route is war, a nuclear war.

Accordingly, the education system must adjust its values, curricula, and goals toward bettering humanity. By bettering, I am not referring to cutting CO2 emissions or limiting the use of fossil fuels and plastics. I am referring to something much deeper than that: Bettering ourselves means making ourselves better people. To do that, we must learn to be positive and caring toward each other.

Only when we learn to care for one another will we begin to care for the environment. When we care about other people, we will want them to live in a friendly environment, one that can support them and where they can be happy. When we stop wanting to exploit other people or overpower them, we will stop exploiting the environment in order to achieve our selfish goals. As a result, we will reduce consumption to a sustainable level that will allow nature to rejuvenate and restore its lost balance.

We have no time to waste. We must be our own teachers now, to teach ourselves to be human, meaning humane. Even if we do not know how to do it or where to begin, we needn’t worry; our intention to do good, to connect with other people, will be our guide. If we let care for others be our teacher, we will need no other teaching.
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My new article on Linkedin “Cyberattacks Require a New Code”

Over the past week, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera, Israel, has suffered a cyberattack. The attackers demanded ransom, but the hospital management refused to cave in and switched to manual mode where possible or to alternative systems. All over Europe and the US, hospitals and other sensitive institutions face online threats since hackers believe that the necessity to restore functionality quickly will cause those facilities to give in quickly and give them what they want. To deal with the problem, facilities and governments must join hands and create short-term and long-term solutions. The short-term one requires disconnection of systems from the internet; the long-term solution requires increased connection and concern among people.

No system is hack-proof. Therefore, some systems simply need to be disconnected from any network. Everything from the generator that provides electricity to the server room must be isolated from the world. It may not be very convenient, but until humanity grows up, we cannot leave the lives of countless people to the mercies of heartless people who will kill for money.

While disconnecting sensitive systems from the internet seems to be the only solution, it is only a temporary one. Since people always devise new tactics and technologies to get their evil way, sooner or later, they will overcome even such drastic measures.

Therefore, the long-term solution must deal with the source of the problem, which is human nature itself. Changing human nature is a prolonged educational process. Disconnection from the internet buys us time, but we must still hurry if we want to avoid far worse catastrophes than breaking into hospital networks.

The purpose of the educational process is to make us aware that we are all interconnected. If we truly realize that all of humanity is connected not only through the internet, but that even our thoughts and feelings are a part of the network, we will see that hurting others hurts us, too, and our motivation to do harm will evaporate.

This process will project positively on all the systems of life, and on all the people; this is why it is such a comprehensive process and requires the support of governments and international organizations. Hacking hospitals, water plants, and other sensitive facilities for ransom is only one symptom of a society that is sickened by alienation. If we cared about each other, we wouldn’t be able to do it.

The human network that we all form, consciously or not, functions properly only if there are care and concern among us. This is why the long-term process will heal everything, and not just eliminate cyberattacks.

To do that, we must “hack” the human code and reprogram ourselves from the self-centered mode we are in right now, to a more inclusive and caring one. Otherwise, as we can already tell, the code within us will cause us to self-destruct.
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