Question: What exactly gets connected during the workshop?

Answer: The desires that are ready to bestow unto one another.

Question: But do strangers who are not friends connect?

Answer: We sit and talk without arguments and each one annuls himself a little in order to connect to others in mutual bestowal. To the extent that we annul our ego and connect, we invoke a certain force that is concealed inside, the force of connection.

This force exists in nature. It stems from the same source that the first spark once broke out from and from which the universe developed. This is the force of unity because all of creation stems from one spark.

As a result of this spark infinite universes and galaxies were created, but that doesn’t matter. If we connect as one man like the source the universe was created from, then it invokes this unique force in us. It is in nature and sustains nature.

Let’s try it and you will see what confidence it gives each one, what a feeling of a new life, of peace. It can even heal us and correct our connections. Let’s use this force of connection which exists only in the unity among us.

The more we manage to connect and the more deeply we annul our ego, the more we will discover the force of connection and with it we will be able to perform miracles. It will affect all our problems and heal all the illnesses. Let’s pull it out of nature and learn how to use it practically, creatively, just like we use nuclear energy, which we didn’t know about before.

This force is in nature; it can be called the Creator because the universe begins from it, but it doesn’t matter what we call it. It is in nature and we can use it like all the other forces. We call all of humanity to do so, because this force is the solution to all our problems.

This force is the source from which two forces later emerge: plus and minus. But the source itself is one, and if all the opposite forces are balanced inside it, it can solve any problem since it integrates these two opposites inside.

By using it we can fix everything. One may want money, another health, another respect, and another peace at home and with the children. So let’s be cured of all the illnesses and all the evil. “He who makes peace in Heaven will make peace upon us with his mercy and upon all of Israel,” he who makes peace under Heaven, which means balances the negative and the positive forces, will also make peace among us.

If you wish, let’s start, if not, then you don’t have to, but you should know that we have a universal means. We only need to invoke this force and receive from it like from a power plant, but in order to do so, we have to connect since it is revealed only when we connect.

If you are connected and this force is revealed among you, start working together and you will succeed in everything that you want! After all, you will have the source of the force, like a container of fuel that can be used as you wish: you can use it to make plastic and you can burn it for fuel.

You can use this potential force anyway you want, as long as it is not to hurt anyone! This is the force of connection and if you want to abuse it, it will disappear immediately. We must use it only for connection, only for the good.

It is very simple and we have to explain this to everyone. It has nothing to do with any religions and there are no mystic forces here.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/8/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Without a doubt many couples think that they are conceding to each other, without understanding that they are not doing this for another person but for themselves so that they will be left alone in peace. So what concessions should be made?

Answer: True concession is when I rein myself in, even though at that time I am ready to explode because I think I am right, but I begin to react to my partner according to how he or she would want me to respond. This means I am “clothed” in the other person.

This system should be developed and necessarily requires the support of the environment. Married couples must talk about these situations all the time and practice them in order to reach a state where habit becomes second nature.

Suppose the house is a mess. Why should you scold each other and say something superfluous? Go immediately to common ground, which is reciprocal and good. Begin to hug and kiss in the middle of this mess.

The main thing is that you should feel well. For with a feeling of happiness and love, you won’t even want to change anything and you will live in serenity all your life in the middle of this mess.

Sometimes you go into some apartment and everything is clean and spotless, but there is no warmth. Whereas at home, with you, there is warmth from an atmosphere of love, reciprocity, and  inner contact.

In a Japanese couplet it is written: “The child dies; how cold it will be at home; there is no longer someone who will pierce a hole in the window paper.” This means that as long as the child played pranks, warmth prevailed at home. Now the child is no more, and it will be cold.

That is how it is here also. Everything depends upon the feeling. This is the main thing to be done.
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From the program “A New Life” 5/28/2014

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Opinion (Olga Lukina, psychotherapist and psychoanalyst, Director of the Institute for Integrative Psychotherapy and Coaching, Moscow): “In today’s society, the key life values are devalued: the value of work, the value of deep professional knowledge, honesty with oneself, self-esteem, willingness to do good, and responsibility.

“Instead, there are important values of a neurotic society: status, money, superiority in competition, aggressive force.

“Young people are particularly vulnerable. They swallow these ‘values’ without censorship; they have no immunity to them. Striving to meet the expectations of this society, they lose touch with their authentic selves. Only those who have healthy orientations and strong support of the family can withstand.”

My Comment: No doubt, without integral education, the young generation will lose itself completely.
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Question: We see the changing seasons, day and night, and the changes in life in nature. Is this an objective understanding of time or a totally subjective feeling?

Answer: There is no objective understanding of any kind. If I perceive something as a spectator, it cannot be objective in any way. Even if someone tells me what he sees, but I am the one who hears what he says, I perceive and feel it in my own way.

There cannot be any form of objectivity. If a person perceives only his own feelings and knows nothing of what is going on other than that, there cannot be any form of objectivity.

This is especially true when it comes to the perception of time, place, and motion, which exist inside a person. A spectator with different senses would feel a totally different world. We know that our senses perceive only a small part of reality.

However, we perceive something that cannot be perceived despite our subjective, individual reality. There is actually a certain range that we don’t perceive even in our subjective perception, but we understand that we cannot perceive it.

We have no idea what else can exist except for that. It is because we cannot rise above our mind and know something that we have never felt. We can feel it only if we change our senses.

But even if we have new senses, who can guarantee that we will perceive an objective picture? After all, it is also depicted only in our feelings.

An objective perception of reality can only be attained when we exit our senses. We don’t need to change them, but simply to rise above them to something that is absolute. In order to do that, we need a special science and this opportunity comes only from the wisdom of Kabbalah.
[134786]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 4/17/14

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Opinion (Olga Makhovskaya, PhD, Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, fellow of the international scientific programs in Russia, USA and France, bestselling author for parents): “Despite the fact that formally the standard of living grows, its quality is not increased. Such ‘orphan’ regulation, which provides that that the child is nourished and has clothes, remains the main reference. From the point of view of psychology, it is the minimum task. A child becomes primarily an expense.

“Therefore, many children grow up with an orphan complex, emotionally hungry. Childhood itself became longer. Giving birth to children, we think that the main thing is to bring them to 18 years. But now adolescence is delayed until 25-27 years. The emancipation of children now is provoked mainly by parents – we start to ‘push them out’ of the nest …

My Comment: Previously, the family was a “natural” environment, with grandparents, games in the yard, hiking, and closeness to nature. In the 20^th century, we broke away from nature and family. In the 21^st century, we are confused and have lost our landmarks.

After all, the family is something very natural, as if formed by itself. It is necessary to build a new format of the family and society on a new level where everything is built from the union with and similarity to nature.
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Opinion (Nina Erofeeva, Ph.D. Education, Professor of Udmurt State University, Russia): “The learning strategy at all levels of education is designed more for girls. One of the main reasons for this is a higher percentage of women teachers, and women’s type of thinking is different. Pedagogical collectives are feminine in organizational culture.

“The following qualities are dominant: the desire to be ordinary (the desire to be the first dominates in masculine culture); interest in problems directed at using new (and not at creating new); more attention is paid to the opinions of others (rather than facts); care about people (not success) is valued more; intuition and consensus (rather than decisive actions) are taken into account in decision making; relationships are more important than results (and not vice versa).

“School lessons are mostly verbal, oriented to the left hemisphere. Girls do well with typical tasks, requiring the algorithm to solve them, and boys do well with creative tasks. Most often, there is only enough time during the lesson to solve problems with the algorithm, but not enough time for creative problems.

“A lack of teaching methods to children of both genders facilitates girls’ education. Boys begin to feel unlucky, do not acquire key skills, and lose interest in learning. The educational system makes it impossible to realize the research potential of the stronger sex.

“Men teachers, teaching mathematics and natural sciences, teach their subjects in full accordance with the structure of their male brain, so the girls who study math and science in high school are behind their male classmates. The structure of men’s speech is a logical chain of three parts: introduction, content and conclusions.

“The woman’s speech is multifaceted; it can lead multiple storylines and even intervene simultaneously in other people’s conversations; men cannot keep track of its structure and lose interest. When a woman teacher teaches a lesson, she simultaneously hears students talking. Commenting on them, she departs from the topic of the lesson; boys immediately lose the storyline and find it difficult to return to the topic.

“A woman teacher can start with one subject and jump to another in mid-sentence, then back to the first, mentioning something extraneous. Such diversity tires boys, whose brains can only look at one line at a time and process information only on one subject.

“The information flow between the right and left hemispheres of the female brain is more powerful, so girls can talk and listen simultaneously. Boys can either speak or listen, but cannot do both at the same time, thus it is difficult for them to write dictation. For them, the text needs to be first read and then dictated.

“The basic assumptions for the introduction of separate education:

• Most of the educational methods and techniques are designed for an average person.
• The education of boys and girls of the same age, but of a different psychological age (due to the difference in physical development), brings a negative impact on the culture of their communication;
• Contrary to the popular belief that co-education helps them build optimal interpersonal relationships, it is not so. Interpersonal relationships between boys and girls in traditional education are extremely limited.

“These factors do not allow them to find understanding in family relationships.”

My Comment: According to Kabbalah, men and women are so different that they should be separated at the age of two, and children raised by same sex caretakers. Only then will we all be able to fulfill our mission, which is to achieve likeness with the Creator through our correct connection: “A man and a woman and the revelation of the Creator between them.”
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In the News (from Scientific American Blog): “Childrens’ literature and movies are rife with talking mice and ducks who wear clothes (even if they’re occasionally portrayed without pants) and dogs that range from, well, dogs, to dogs that might as well be people.

“Stories are one of the main ways that our species understands the natural world. Giving human attributes to animals is by no means a recent phenomenon; ancient gods were often hybridized human-like animals (or animal-like humans). In the classic story illustrated above by Arthur Rackham, three bears sit at a table and eat porridge, like humans.

“Given how ubiquitous these anthropomorphic animal-people are in our culture, University of Toronto psychologist Patricia A. Ganea wondered how those sorts of representations influence the way that young children think about real animals.

“Young children already have a hard time distinguishing reality from fantasy, especially before they reach their fifth birthday. And while most children can distinguish reality from fantasy when it comes to visual representations of animals, that distortion can also be reflected in the content of the story itself. ‘Human consciousness, knowledge, abilities, purpose, and intentions are often attributed to animal characters (e.g., seals solve mysteries, cats build houses, and mice drive cars) and even to inanimate objects (e.g., lamps have faces and dance the tango, trains strive against all odds to achieve impossible goals),’ Ganea writes.

“Together, the findings show that language matters more than illustration when it comes to learning about animals’ biology and psychology. Even when the stories were accompanied by realistic images, if the language was anthropomorphic, the kids transferred that false knowledge to real animals.

“More importantly, it isn’t just that the kids failed to learn true facts when exposed to the anthropomorphic stories; those stories actually made it harder for them to learn, teaching them falsehoods rather than facts. They were even more likely to think of animals in human-like terms after reading the books than if they had never seen the books at all!

“Do children transfer the fantastical abilities of non-human animals in their storybooks to their real life models? If so, then those sorts of stories could seriously impede kids’ ability to learn and remember true facts about real animals, or at least to distinguish fact from fiction. That would be especially true for children in urban and suburban areas, who have few opportunities to regularly interact with actual animals, at least compared to their rural counterparts. ‘Presenting animals to children in ways that are similar to how humans act and behave is likely to be counter-productive for learning scientifically accurate information about the biological world and to influence children’s view of the biological world,’ she says.

“The problem is actually more pervasive than it sounds: human adults, at least in the US, are also highly likely to imbue non-human animals with human-like emotions and motivations. It’s a tricky line to navigate. Research is increasingly revealing the fundamental similarities between our species and the rest of the animal kingdom, but there are also aspects of human culture that are, indeed, unique to our species. Is it reasonable to suggest that an animal can feel something complex like pride or embarrassment? We are poised to attribute a similarly complex emotion, guilt, to dogs, but a deeper look reveals that while dogs indeed have a ‘guilty look,’ they probably do not actually realize that they’ve transgressed. If children are routinely exposed to these sorts of anthropomorphic representations of animals, it is no wonder that they grow up to become adults who look at non-human animals as if they are people wearing animal suits.”

My Comment: By the way, in Judaism there are no tales of human-like animals, and if the Torah speaks about a talking donkey, it happens at God’s command. Kabbalah in general looks at the texts of the Torah as secret, the meaning of which is revealed only to one who has attained love of friends.
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Question: In society there are excessively violent, aggressive children, which even hit their parents. Will the integral circle correct them?

Answer: In these cases, it’s necessary to raise the level of education and morality by discussing behavior like this in circles. And a good example is needed.

Let the children talk about love for parents, about softness. Can they compensate their parents for what they gave them in early childhood, remembering how their mother took care of them, how their father was concerned about them? The discussion should also include normal children, and the aggressive ones should listen to them. And then it’s necessary to try very carefully to include them in the conversation so that this will penetrate into them.

But there must be very serious integration, sympathy, and empathy. If aggressive children see that their peers as strong, serious, and healthy as they relate to their parents with love, understanding, sympathy and concern, then they will get a good example from them.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 12/12/13

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Question: Suppose that parents organize a club for their children where they arrange discussions. But in this group two of the youths are troubled children who are deeply depressed that could infect the others. What should be done about that?

Answer: If the communication between the youths takes place naturally, then it’s necessary for them to relax through soulful songs around a campfire so that they will not be closed within themselves and will begin the conversation from a distance. What can be good for a person in life and what can be bad? Our nature seeks only good. But if we are locked in, eating ourselves up, are we having fun? So why don’t we escape from this?

What is this force that exists in me that puts me into a state of despair, darkness, and emptiness all the time? Could it be that this is the thing that I must struggle with somehow? And if I do struggle, I will discover such forces within me that act in opposition and that will raise me to particular heights in art, literature, science, sports and so forth. So it’s necessary to accept, with a blessing, everything that there is in a person, even the most depressed state that basically pushes a person towards the good, but only when this doesn’t lock the person inside himself like a cocoon.

On the contrary, a state of dissatisfaction pushes us forward, so it’s necessary to make it creative. And this is possible only with the help of the environment, where one person pushes forward and the other pulls backward, and between them a mutual movement appears. They check each other, inspecting the general movement between them etc. In other words, it’s necessary to support depressed children so that their condition can be creative.

Lots of famous writers, composers, and scientists experienced depression, and in order to get out of it, they engaged in creating. This was a cure for them, a salvation. They gave humanity creative gifts of classical masterpieces precisely thanks to their success at rising above their depression and using it in the right way.

How can we creatively use despair, difficulties, disappointments, and depression that are so widespread in the world today that result in neglect and disregard for everything? After all, from these states the next human, social, political, and national condition will be born.

Therefore, it’s forbidden to cast these states to the side and to consider them as something that is not good. On the contrary, it’s necessary to yearn to transform their strong, negative energy into something positive.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 12/12/13

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Question: Suppose that I brought my child to a group in which seven out of ten children are depressed. Don’t I need to worry that their state will pass on to others?

Answer: No! It’s necessary to try to separate them from themselves immediately. “Friends, come, let’s talk about what is happening with us, from the side. This is me, a human being. And this is my body. Within the body, there are all kinds of forces, moods, and views.

“And what if I would get out of my body and take a look at it from the side, as though I have assembled myself differently? Let’s imagine ourselves in another form, as we rise above ourselves. Is it possible to achieve this?

“Was I created in such a form that I cannot be disengaged from myself? Or does there exist some kind of gap between the inner self and the external self where I can gradually begin to learn about myself from the side?” Regular psychological training like this makes it possible for a person to see that this is not himself but a particular external intention of the environment that surrounds him.

Could it be that the child simply read a lot of novels or saw television programs that awakened a sense of hopelessness? Even 100 to 150 years ago something called noble detachment was in fashion: “a hero of our times,” and so forth. In world literature, particularly in Russian literature, many books were dedicated to a search derived from inner darkness.

And it could be that he simply brags and boasts about this state, showing: “Look how I am! What attracts you doesn’t interest me!” So it’s necessary to check the origins from where depression in children is derived.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 12/12/13

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