Entries in the 'Children' Category

Perception Reboot

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In spirituality why do we have to form a desire for every new pleasure?

Answer: It’s because in spirituality there is no pleasure without desire. Without desiring, you won’t attain anything. And the desire has to be new every time. These are not the desires you were born with in our world.

When we are born here, our senses do not work yet. A baby practically does not perceive anything. He does not hear or see. He only has some reactions on the animate level. And then we immediately begin pumping and filling him with our programs of perception.

If we endowed this creature that just came out of its mother’s womb with other programs, then we would form him into something completely different. We would be able to build him spiritually. This depends on education, upbringing, and the method of development.

With our attitude from the very first day, we raise a child to be an egoist. Notwithstanding, a baby is open to everything: He can hear and see differently, he can perceive the world in the opposite way. In the end everything depends on the environment.

Now, with the help of the environment, by the same principle we must transform our vision of the world, our attitude to life.
[34178]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/10, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
The Basis Of Correct Development
Brushing Off The Dust From Bestowal
Growing From Opposites

The Crisis Changes Education – Laitman Unplugged

Education Of Modern Man – Laitman Unplugged

Mythology And Children – Laitman Unplugged

Jewish Upbringing In The Past – Laitman Unplugged

Children Are Anti-Matter In Our World

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe only thing we lack are anti-egoistic screens (Masach). The desire itself does not change. It only becomes revealed for being used to the degree of the screen that it has.

The screen determines what desire you can use, how much, and in what way. Therefore, we already have everything besides the screen—it is the only thing we need!

The screen is the force to overcome my egoism in spite of my egoistic desire, despite the things that seem attractive, sweet, completely obvious and rational, and are confirmed by my entire mind! Yet I go and do the opposite!

And I don’t just do the opposite, turning a minus to a plus. That would be very simple. Rather, I am in no way guided by my desire, logic, or any of my calculations. There is only one calculation for me: “This is the desire of the Upper One!”

I don’t receive anything at all from this, and don’t desire to receive anything. I want to know just one thing: that this is the desire of the upper one. This is called a “screen”—the force enabling me to act this way, above my desire, above nature, above egoism and all of its calculations.

And there is great pleasure contained in this. This is not masochism from enjoying trampling my desire, but pleasure from the fact that this makes me similar to the Upper One in some way.

It’s like a child who desires to be similar to an adult. This is a natural instinct children have. They have to make great efforts to achieve this, even though nature helps them.

The upper nature has endowed children with this enormous gift, enabling them to grow. It gave the will to enjoy such a powerful thrust that it forces it to work very hard, never stopping to rest. Look at how little children act, running about non-stop and doing something all the time.

This is the pure upper force, the force of bestowal, the force of the Creator, which is present in small children and in any creature that desires to grow. They do this against their nature because our nature aspires to rest! We can see this from all the laws of physics: Everything aspires to a restful, motionless, and balanced state. The laws of entropy, conservation of energy are aimed at this.

Yet in the case of children we see how the body does not let them take a break. A child is always running about, eager to do something, and it is impossible to stop him. In our days this phenomena is called “hyperactivity,” but in fact it isn’t “hyper” activity, but normal behavior for the increased will to enjoy that is being revealed in the last generation. For such a developed desire, this is not an exaggeration, but the norm.

It’s a wonder looking at what children do; they are anti-nature. We have simply gotten used to the picture where children know no rest and that’s why we aren’t surprised by it. But where does this body or desire take this moving force, causing him to run around this way?

This is the regular picture, inherent in any creature. An adult mother, such as a dog or a lioness, is lazy, sleepy, lying down, sleeping, sitting calmly, and wishing to rest. And all around her there are cubs whirling about and never tiring. This is the opposite nature. And man behaves the same way.

This aspiration is given to children from above, against nature, in order for them to develop. Likewise, we have to ask for this force in order for us to spiritually develop!
[33586]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

Related Material:
Growing From Opposites
Pull Yourself Higher!
The Masach Gets You Through The Machsom

Questions To A Kabbalist

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is it true that in each generation, there is only one authentic Kabbalist?

Answer: Everyone is necessary since each person works in their own area. Humanity is diverse, and each of its parts requires a special language and approach until people have advanced and become able to hear the truth. Therefore, it’s not worth thinking about who is a Kabbalist. We should strive to learn the truth and come closer to it, but if today or tomorrow a truly great one shows up, we will follow him.

As to a specific generation, it is hardly possible for more than one real Kabbalist to emerge. After all, there is only one head. And all others, who are either near or below him, may be in the tens, hundreds, or thousands according to the structure of the pyramid. If not in this generation, then in the next one, I hope that we will see something resembling the Sanhedrin (Assembly of Sages): a great number of Kabbalists who are at a high level of attainment and together guide humanity on the path to the Creator.

Question: Is there a connection between the “36 righteous ones” and Kabbalists?

Answer: There is not. The “36 righteous ones” is a concept. It means that in this world, there are special souls through which abundance comes into this world so as to sustain the existence of this corporeal reality. It is a unique system, not individual people.

Question: Can a woman be a Kabbalist?

Answer: Definitely so. There were women who attained spirituality: our foremothers, followed by prophetesses, and then the people who before the fall of the Second Temple perceived the upper world.

Men and women are not different in this. Today, I know many of our female students who have been working selflessly for many years and advancing thereby. Their perception and desire are greater than those of most of our men. I have no doubts that they can reach a level not lower than that of the men.

Besides, since all of us are moving toward the revelation of the Creator, most likely it will result in both men’s and women’s revelation of Him. Is a woman not part of the creation? It’s just that she has a somewhat different spiritual job than a man does, but “different” doesn’t mean “not spiritual.”

Question: How do I explain to a child what a Kabbalist is?

Answer: A Kabbalist is a person who reveals the Creator according to the law of equivalence of form. He transformed himself in such way that he became somewhat similar to the Creator. Hence, he has a particle from Above which is called a soul, the Creator’s part. In this part, he experiences the spiritual world, upper dimension, eternal life, and identifies himself with it.

So, when the life of his corporeal body expires, he doesn’t feel a loss. He continues to live and feel spiritual existence as he does right now. Such a person is regarded as a Kabbalist because he received a spiritual life.
[32859]
From Kabbalah for Beginners “Who is a Kabbalist?” 12/13/2010

Related Material:

Women, Men, And The Mutual Guarantee
Children’s Fantasy, Faith, And Reality
How To Recognize A True Kabbalist

Pull Yourself Higher!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why is it that even when a person knows what is good for him, he still goes and does things that harm him?

Answer: We even see this happening with small children. How many times do you have to punish a child until he starts to understand something? And even then, is this a result of the punishment, or did he simply grow up and become smarter? Maybe the punishments were not beneficial at all? This is indeed a question: What causes us to change our actions?

In reality, we do not change by being punished. Overall, there is no such thing as reward and punishment as we understand it. We never learn under the influence of fate’s misfortunes. We simply grow until we outgrow our Reshimo. Then new ones emerge in us and the surrounding environment changes, and we change under its influence as well. We only change from the confrontation of two parameters: our inner informational data (Reshimot) and the surrounding society. As they interact with one another, they determine our state.

We have to bring our Reshimot to balance with the environment. This is all we aspire to. It is the basic law of the universe: similarity, balance, equilibrium. Everything in nature automatically aspires to this. That is why as soon as an imbalance emerges inside us with the surroundings, then consciously or not (depending on a person’s development) we immediately put all our energy toward trying to bring ourselves to balance.

For example, when you enter a certain society or a certain group of people, you always adjust yourself because you desire to be similar. That is how things are built; it is the law of equivalence, the initial law that the Creator put at the head of everything. Having created a nature opposite to Him, the will to enjoy, He desires for it to gradually reach equivalence with Him, the will to bestow. That’s because growth creates a mind inside the desire, and then the creation gains awareness, sensations, and reveals the Creator, becoming equal and identical to Him.

A person differs from any inanimate creation by the emergence of a mind that consciously directs creation toward similarity to the Creator. Therefore, our entire freedom of will lies in constantly creating a surrounding environment for ourselves that will “pull us up” to the Creator. That means we have to take care of the environment so it would be a level higher than we are. In that case we will want to become similar to it, and thus we will keep advancing toward the Creator. By envisioning the group as higher, greater, and more ideal than ourselves, we advance forward.

Therefore, everything depends on creating the right environment because it will enable us to automatically pull ourselves forward. Therein lies the entire law of growth.
From the lesson in Moscow on 1/17/11, Shamati

Related Material:
Electric Vibrations Of Bestowal
If You Leave Me For A Day…
The Inner Work Of A Kabbalist: "Love Of Friends" – 5.24.10

A Look Back From The Seventh Millennium

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Suppose that we have already reached the state where all seven billion people in the world study and actualize Kabbalah. Now a child is born into this world. What happens to him? Will he have to understand the meaning of evil in order to reach good? But by that time the world will already be corrected, so how will he feel evil?

Answer: In this world there is only a renewal of physical bodies, but not souls. Therefore, the children being born today are old souls that acquire new bodies. That’s why we don’t pay attention to a person’s age. Regardless of whether a physical body has died or has been born to live in this world, the soul continues its reincarnations.

You’re asking: If all the people correct their egos, will it be necessary for more people to be born? No, the souls will no longer need to be born. However, we won’t live forever biologically. We will begin to feel how our world changes, gradually acquiring the qualities of the upper world.

To the degree each of us and all of us together are corrected in the single system, our perception of the world changes as well. When we ascend from the first level of the spiritual world to the second and then the third, we go from one world to the next. And when we attain the state of full correction in the common interconnection, our world will be destroyed.

It is written, “Six thousand years of concealment and one year of destruction.” It will be the seventh millennium. “The world will be destroyed” means that this world will disappear from our sensation because we perceive it in our common egoism. As soon as our egoism turns to bestowal and love, then instead of it we will feel the upper world.
From the lecture in “Kabbalah L’Am” Hall on 1/11/11

Related Material:
A Play Of My Imagination
The Groundbreakers
“6,000 Years” Or How To Hasten Time

First Educate Yourself, Then Others

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do you work with a child correctly when he has an outburst of petulance and anger?

Answer: The best method is to film the situation and bring it up for a discussion. It is useful for a person, both for an adult and a child, to see himself from aside. When he looks at his behavior as a spectator from the outside, he quickly learns and draws conclusions. He has to understand that the world is relative, and that from the outside it looks different than from the inside.

Taking part in discussions carried out in a calm environment, the child gradually learns to control himself by balancing out extreme states. The impression he received stays in him, and the next time he will get angry at it instead. Gradually, the impressions from such examples will be accumulated and will make him hate the outbursts of anger in himself.

Question: Which field of professional activity should we direct our children toward?

Answer: Since we are an educational organization, education is our main goal. That is why both in the army, in college, and at the university, it is preferable for our children to choose professions related to education. Going through various states, our children learn themselves and become better at mutual education. The fundamentals are instilled in them and they can become highly successful in various fields of education. They can be teachers, instructors, and lecturers. Humanity needs them, and in huge amounts.

These professions are also preferable because all other fields of activities are artificial and require constant study; the person needs to work on improving his external skills. However, in education, his Kli (vessel) is always with him since he advances in his inner work all the time. That is why education is the closest profession to us.
[32876]
From the Talk on Education 1/7/2011

Related Material:
Children Discuss The Way To Peace
Children’s Faith, Fantasy and Reality
The Basis Of Correct Development