Comment: One of your videos was about children turning into stars and becoming leaders. How they’re raised on stage and become the best at singing or dancing. In this clip you spoke about love, about coming closer together, and what competition should really be.

Then we received this letter to you: “Healthy competition leads to success, leadership, and good outcomes. Being a laggard is never a good thing. Love, closeness, and empathy are false ideals. I want to be better, so I shall be; I want to be more successful, so I will. Winning gives confidence in oneself, in life, and leads to further success.

I doubt that Mr. Laitman would have turned out the way he did if he had no leadership skills or inclination to be a winner. Stop pretending! Only a weed grows by itself. We have to grow a harvest and overpower the weed. Only through leadership, only by winning do we succeed: it’s survival of the fittest.”

My Response: What he says is true! But this is all good among the weeds. While a man in the end has to come out a winner over himself, not over others. He has to see his inner self, and the way he should act in contrast to it on the outside. This is what I mean when I say this, I’m not referring to people as weeds.

Question: What about the competitiveness between children about who has the best voice or who is the best dancer?

Answer: In the end, there’s nothing good about it. Nothing! You’re training a child to be better, higher, and stronger, to win and rejoice in the victory. However, in the end you realize that this is not what makes one a winner in life.

Question: So they don’t grow up to be leaders?

Answer: No. Only an individual victory over oneself, this is where one should be a winner.

Question: In other words, the modern world is built on these concepts, do you reject it?

Answer: That’s for sure. I think that everyone who hears me, who reads what I write, understands that I accept the modern world the way it is in order to change it.
[278999]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/21/21

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Question: There is something that unites all nations—fairy tales. It is part of everyone’s life. We enter life listening to fairy tales. Some kind of morality is meant to pass on to us through them, so that it is understandable to children. Then we grow up and continue to tell fairy tales, but we call them stories, fables, and so on. Sages also write allegorically and convey a lot through a fairy tale.

What is in the fairy tale?

Answer: Everything! Absolutely everything. There is a woodcutter, a princess, a king, a puss in boots, a pumpkin on wheels, whatever you want. Horses moving their hooves nervously, and all that sort of thing. An unhappy prince who is looking for his princess. Either he is like a frog or she is trapped somewhere in a high tower. Whatever you want, everything is possible. A fairy tale can do anything! And moreover, it manifests itself in a very open, as if naked form.

That is, they love, they want to be together. Someone does not help, someone is against it. Everything is open. That’s what is good about the fairy tale. In our world, a lot of adults enjoy watching real fairy tales. Although they know that these are fairy tales.

Question: Why? Is it an escape from reality?

Answer: This is more real than our life actually.

Question: What is the reality of the fairy tale?

Answer: Justice is rewarded, loyalty is rewarded. But all this has to go through a lot of twists and turns, all sorts of nooks and crannies, mazes of our egoism.

Question: So the fairy tale actually tells about what will really happen? That good will triumph over evil?

Answer: Absolutely. Otherwise, nothing would have started. All fairy tales must have a good ending, because it is already set initially.

Question: And fairy tales with a bad ending, what about them?

Answer: There is no such thing. It means they are not finished.

A fairy tale is written from the end. But the good ending should be in that there is a beginning, a denouement, a climax. In general, absolutely everything and always a good ending. It was designed from the very beginning.

My conclusion is this: a fairy tale should start from the beginning. Then there should be some kind of demonstration process; educational, accusatory, and so on. The heroes have to diverge and be unhappy with what is happening, this one wants to kill and it does not work, this one wants to escape but can’t, they want to get married, it’s not working, and so on.

That is, in all this they cannot find ties between them, and who writes that fairy tale? The Creator! That’s when they gradually despair of solutions, each in their own way: ”What to do?” Then they begin to understand that they are under an upper will, and then everything begins to work out for them, to come together. And it turns out that this upper will, the upper force, leads them to the right decision, to a good end. And good triumphs.

Question: Were you really talking about our time just now?

Answer: It is precisely in our time that this upper force begins to manifest itself in various states, when humanity has no other answer to the questions than to say that it is the upper force

Comment: And this unkind fairy tale, as it seems to humanity, begins to move.

My Response: And then it will be kind! Because it points you to the ultimate solution—the one who conceived it, started developing it and doing it, and now has to finish it.

Question: And we are led to love, to happiness?

Answer: Yes!
[278873]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/21/21

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Question: There is this concept called a “Challenge”—a special type of video, where its creator demonstrates something and gives the task to others to repeat. For example, he douses himself with ice-cold water and says, “Repeat after me.” It can be smart, stupid, complex, and simple things.

This happens every day, and hundreds of millions of people around the world repeat it. Why do people like to follow after others?

Answer: I do not know if they like to follow after others, but it is our nature. We learn from others. This is our monkey nature—the primates we evolved from. In general, it is natural for a person to repeat after others since he is a social animal. There is nothing new in this.

In the end, this integrates us, brings us closer. In some ways, we begin to understand each other better. That is not bad. It depends on what we imitate.

Comment: There is a trend: do a good deed and put it on the Internet, show how you did it. Help someone.

My Response: That is a different story. Then I am all for it.
[278989]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 2/16/21

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Question: Young people often ask:”Why doesn’t anybody need me?” At the same time, they have parents, a school, and money; they are well brought up and study well, but they experience an absolute feeling of emptiness as if no one cares about them.

Answer: It is not a false perception. Indeed, we are in a vacuum. And although there are billions of people around us, we cannot say that we feel their positive influence on us.

All the vibes that we receive from the world around us are either negative or emanate outright soullessness and indifference.

Question: And what to do? People feel absolutely unwanted despite the fact that they seem to be surrounded by quite a lot of attention and care. What can they do to feel they are needed?

Answer: But they do have some goal in life if they are talking about the meaning of life. They should feel that they are going straight toward it: one more small step, one more step, and they are moving.

Otherwise, these questions will arise and people will start hating themselves. But if man has a clear goal, he wants to reach it and every day approaches it, then he is inspired by his life, by his advancement, and he is happy that he exists.
[278756]
From KabTV’s “Integral World “7/13/18

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Comment: On the second Israeli TV channel there was a story about a charity canteen that opened in Tel Aviv.

The number of their clients increased by almost 70%. These are new people who come there for a free lunch. And these people feel very uncomfortable. They are the former waiters, former El Al flight attendants, a real mix of different kinds of people. There are a lot of young people, boys and girls. They do not look up so as not to see each other. They come up, get lunch, and carefully ask: “How much does it cost?” They learn that it costs nothing and step aside.

The feeling of shame was conveyed very strongly.

My Response: Shame is the most burning feeling. Stronger than any pain. Even sometimes stronger than death.

Question: Do you need to rise above this feeling when you go to such a place?

Answer: The point is that either you want to justify this feeling of shame: “I don’t care, everything is so, and I am like that,” and so on. That is, you can somehow chat about it at the everyday level, at the level of our world.

But, in principle, this is the most terrible feeling. Because the feeling of shame is actually a feeling of annulling a person in you. That is, you are really nothing and nobody.

We do not even understand to what extent we must remove what is called “I” from ourselves and leave only the animal shell from this. And the animal is not ashamed.

It is, of course, very difficult. And I do not think that humanity will correct itself based on this, although this is the most serious level of correction. I think that after all, we will reveal the path of light to people and not the path of suffering.

Question: Is this the path of real suffering?

Answer: This is the path of real suffering, because in fact, if a person is brought to a very serious feeling of shame, he will only pray to die. “Why did I live to see this ?!” I would like to just cease to exist.

Question: What do we do with this state?

Answer: We only need to reveal our purpose, that this is the highest governance, the system is so arranged and it causes such feelings of shame in us so that we rise above our “I,” so they would not annul it, but rise above it.

Question: Can you say how to rise above my “I,” which cries out, is ashamed, as it is said: “Death is better than this kind of life”? How do we rise above this “I,” above this shame?

Answer: With a good attitude toward people. This shame is designed to make us lose our temper.

Question: Then tell me, how can I not be ashamed? In difficult situations, what should I do?

Answer: You cannot be ashamed only in two cases: either you lose your human appearance and become an animal, that is: “Oh, I don’t care! I don’t care about anything!” In general, when you sort of annihilate everything that is outside of you. When you annul society, the whole environment, then you have no shame. You cancel it, so what are you ashamed of?

Or, when you annul yourself in relation to society and say: “I am worth nothing. I am ready to do everything for the sake of society, to belong to the society in everything! My “I” is nothing, only “we” exist!” And then shame also disappears.
This second option is preferable. But there are also higher ones.
[278192]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/2/20

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Question: In childhood, playing is the most normal state of growth. And we help children with this: we give them construction kits, puzzles, and suggest all kinds of games. The children play and develop.

Then games slowly disappear from life. I wanted to ask you: what about adults? Should we have games in our lives?

Answer: We must continue to play throughout our lives. If a person does not play, he does not grow, even at 30, at 40, at 50.

Comment: But I have grown up, I am already an adult. I acquired knowledge, a profession.

My Response: So, this is also a game because you are playing someone else, who you want to be. And when a person stops playing, he simply serves his body. He starts to turn back from the level of man to the level of an animal. And this is where a person’s life ends. For some years he will still live in the form of an animal serving his body. And that is all.

Question: Why do people think that playing is a child’s thing? When a person says that he is playing, he is talking about something invented.

Answer: Of course, an invention. I make it up. What does it mean to dare? It is playing something bigger, greater; all of this is aspiration, impulses. Like children, at whatever they play, they want to get better. Our game should be natural as well, but we have lost it.

In adolescence, a person is already given everything, does not require anything, and he stops playing.

Question: So this is the basis of all depressions, drugs, and so on? People stop playing?

Answer: Life does not force one to play.

Question: Should life force you to play?

Answer: “What is our life? A game!” Just a different one!

I really check myself and evaluate: Is there any desire in me to stand still? I would like at the last minute to aspire—pump! And that is all. It is all good.

Question: In this year of the pandemic, is the game a way out of the state humanity is in now? It is at a dead end, in reflection.

Answer: Of course. We must play the state that we wish to achieve. As Kozma Prutkov said: “If you want to be happy, be so.” This is very true.

Question: What game should we play now? Now, in this foggy time?

Answer: We must play at friendship and love. What else is there in a person? When this disappears, life no longer has taste.

Question: So this is the main game? All the time?

Answer: Of course. Flirting with life.

Question: And when you say “friendship and love,” is it to one another, to someone close, distant, to the world? You put everything there?

Answer:  Of course, that is all. There should be movement.

Question: But if this is a game and I internally understand that I do not treat another that way?

Answer: It doesn’t matter. Even if I do it on purpose, I may not initially treat him that way, and then I create.

Question: I create this game world: I do not treat him that way, but I want to love him all the time, I want to be friends with him. And then this world appears at this level. Am I entering it? Does it happen?

Answer: What you want to happen will happen.

Question: Is our main game the game of friendship and love?

Answer: Yes. Let’s not call it friendship and love. It is too childish. Only good connections between us, mutual assistance, feeling the need for good relations can lead us to a new world. Otherwise, there is nothing.

The new world is a new society where I will increasingly feel that my physical and mental health depends on everyone around me and theirs on mine. And we are constantly so much included in each other that it is impossible to tear one apart from the other.

I must realize that there is such a law of nature, a very strict law, that my attitude toward others determines their attitude toward me. This is so strange for us. But if we really try, then of course, we will gradually see that the world depends only on our attitude toward it and it will change for the better. That is, you design your world.
[278259]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/4/21

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In the News (The Guardian): “A German university is offering ‘idleness grants’ to applicants who are seriously committed to doing sweet nothing.

“The University of Fine Arts in Hamburg advertised three €1,600 scholarship places… . The applicants … will have to convince a jury that their chosen area of ‘active inactivity’ is particularly impressive or relevant.

“The application form consists of only four questions: What do you not want to do? For how long do you not want to do it? Why is it important not to do this thing in particular? Why are you the right person not to do it? …

“The idea behind the project arose from a discussion about the seeming contradiction of a society that promotes sustainability while simultaneously valuing success, Von Borries said. ‘This scholarship programme is not a joke but an experiment with serious intentions – how can you turn a society that is structured around achievements and accomplishments on its head?’ …

“All applications will form part of an exhibition named The School of Inconsequentiality: Towards A Better Life… . It will be structured around the question: ‘What can I refrain from so that my life has fewer negative consequences on the lives of others?'”

My Comment: Being lazy is not easy. In fact, it’s not a simple task. A person who can feel free, unencumbered by any obligations is first of all a creative person.

Usually, such people tend to be creative. Where did science, art, music, and visual arts come from? From the type of people who never had to do anything in their lives, the aristocrats.

Question: They didn’t have to go to work?

Answer: No. They met, traveled, and talked. They held balls, engaged in all kinds of musical activities, and so on. This gave rise to science, art, and everything out there except physical labor.

Therefore, if we want people to have the right attitude to a person’s spiritual pursuits, the spiritual quest in this world I mean, then we must give them time to do this, provide for them so that they won’t have to work 15 hours a day like those poor programmers and many, many others do.

On the contrary, we need to make sure they have free time. So that they would travel, discuss things, sit and talk, so they can be like the aristocrats were. We don’t need to be aristocrats, with millions behind us, but we do need to feel that we have a secure income and can afford not quite to be lazy, but not to have to work. This is the only way to create special works of art, literature, and music.

This should be a person’s attitude to the world. Otherwise, nothing will come of it. See what is going on in our times!

If people relate to the world this way and organize themselves in this manner, provide for special people who can create a reasonable standard of living, we will see a great benefit from this so-called “doing nothing.”

These creative people should be like the landowners, nobles, who once had a guaranteed income.

Question: Does the world need them? The world says: “They’re idlers.”

Answer: The world can’t do without them. They give the world exactly the right attitude to life, to creation, to the Creator, to everything. They conduct themselves correctly. That is, they have time for everything. A creative person should not feel pressure from the outside, only from the inside, if it arises.

Question: And what is your attitude to laziness?

Answer: Laziness is the most useful quality in a person. It is due to the fact that one does not want to be lazy that he does a thousand different, completely unnecessary things. Therefore, it is written in the Torah, “Sit and do nothing.” It is better than running around and looking for something to do. And this is actually true.

In order to find the right attitude to life, you have to be lazy. To do nothing extraneous, nothing unnecessary. Only when you really feel: “I have to do this,” then do it. And you will feel in it how life forces you, the Creator is there inside and He demands it from you.

Comment: You have raised the word “laziness” almost to the level of the most hard-working person.

My Response: Yes, it would be better if we did it this way. Why do we need all the things that we have created? Just look at this world!

And now the Creator must use the help of all sorts of pandemics to clean up this mess, to clean out these stables.

Question: What meaning did you just put into the word “laziness”?

Answer: Stop recklessly, thoughtlessly “creating” something. Stop all this, sit down. It will pass. This is better. Let nature, let the Creator, let everything around you develop. If it is necessary, you will see that it is necessary and you will get up and do it. But only to the extent that it is really necessary, not for your inner egoism, but for the whole of human society.

It is very important. Because we live in the animal kingdom, and the animal does only what it needs. This is their instinct. And if not, then they lie, sit, walk, communicate. Actually.

And we’re running around like ants all the time. Well, I hope we’ll get better!
[277682]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/26/20

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We are all created differently by nature; there is no need to neutralize, erase, or destroy these differences or consider them bad, unnecessary, or completely useless. On the contrary, we should highlight all the differences between us as much as possible and make them more prominent.

Where should equality be? In making sure that each person does as much as possible at every moment to benefit the whole society.

Comment: But even here we are not equal. You can do more, I can do less.

My Response: But if I do everything within my power and you do everything within yours, then we are equal relative to our unique abilities. You are made this way, I am made that way. So I do as much as I can, and you do as much as you can. One is smart, the other is strong.

Question: And who can determine this?

Answer: No one can. We must be taught to have a correct understanding of nature. Then we will evaluate a person not according to his contribution to society, because some can do more and others can do less in different quantity and quality, but by how much one applies himself given his specific circumstances.

Comment: Nevertheless, a person should have equal opportunities. You talk about upbringing, but not all are the same.

My Response: That is another matter. We should provide everyone not the same but suitable education and upbringing.

From the point of view of nature, a person must be provided with the optimal opportunities he or she needs for correct development in society so that society receives from the person the maximum one can give for its benefit. This is what equal opportunity means.

Question: And who determines what is good for society?

Answer: Society itself and the educational system. It is all depends on education. It should be such that it compels one to feel the need to do everything one can for society. When, ideally, all members of society feel this way, then we can talk about their equality.
[277752]
From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/29/19

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Question: According to the recent research of physiologists, the level of family well-being in the first five years of life can determine the entire future fate of a person. For example, people who grew up in poor families have a high level of cortisol in the body, a stress hormone that makes a person more cautious.

People who grew up in wealthy families have a thickened cortex in the parietal and temporal areas, which are responsible for visual perception and long-term memory. It is directly connected to a person’s high level of achievement.

Well provided for children are less likely to be self-sacrificing and altruistic. They share money less eagerly with others. And it is the other way around for children who grew up in poverty who are more inclined toward altruism, eager to share, to sacrifice.

What affects the fact that a person attracts or repels money, his earnings?

Answer: If we are talking about human nature, of course, it is strictly individual. Does someone have compassion for his close ones or not? Did he see it in his parents or was he taught? It all depends on a person plus the environment.

But, on the other hand, if he gets into a certain environment, it can be instilled in him. There they prove to him that the state of empathy corrects him, makes him a completely different being.

Question: Is the key to everything to feel the one who is near you. This feeling must be developed. What suggestion can be given to a person so he always feels provided for?

Answer: A person is a product of society. He must be in a certain society that will educate him in this way.

Question: What advice can be given to the whole of humanity in order to feel that there is no lack of anything?

Answer: Show each other an example of how you wish well for everyone.
[277678]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 1/12/21

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Question: From early childhood, questions like “Who is the best?” start to catch our attention. There are many TV shows where an adult celebrity talks with a young three- year-old child who must show how smart he is, how well he plays, or how nicely he speaks. The children sing and the parents standing behind the scenes welling up in tears.

They subscribe to the philosophy of competing and winning makes life complete, vibrant, and meaningful; it starts at a young age. What are your thoughts about it?

Answer: I’m strongly against it. After all, nothing can ensure our happy future except the right attitude toward connection between us. If  only these contests were conducted in order to show how getting closer to each other elevates people, makes them better and purer, and how much happiness it brings!

Whatever you may say, there were some good character-building examples in the Soviet Union. It is good to cultivate mutual help, connection, and support in people. This is where we need to direct a child constantly, even though it is completely against man’s ego, against our nature.

Although there were still gangs, rapists, murderers, and so on, all the same, in propagating the virtues of kindness, mutual assistance, love, and selflessness, in this regard, Russia was in some ways ahead of the entire planet.

Comment: However, I must say that the lives of these young talents who sing like Robertino Loretti, who were leading the pack at a young age, had very hard fates, not only in the Soviet Union, but across the world.

My Response: Well, they were promised so much! What they imagined their future to be! They are just children, they don’t understand how this all may come to an end and what it will be like afterward. When their voices disappear and they’re no longer popular, the audience no longer worships them as some kind of idol, that’s it!

Comment: Only a few have more or less a good fate. The rest of these young talents end up being consumed in this fire.

My Response: Indeed. And what’s worse, you end up boosting the child’s ego. It is not about whether or not he can be successful later in life with his talent. The problem is that he no longer receives the response from others that he used to receive.

He was developed to the point of believing that he will be receiving millions of times more each and every time. Suddenly it all starts to subside and the poor kid doesn’t know where to turn to or what to do.

Comment: I’d love to convey all of this to those parents who put their kids up on these stages with such joy.

My Response: It’s all great if you don’t know the tragedy awaiting each of these children once their talent is left without due response, without applause, once he or she is no longer popular.

Question: What conclusions can we draw from all of this? That these shows should be replaced by a different kind?

Answer: Of course. Transform them into being about giving to others. Only in bestowal can we find higher and higher states, when one demands more and more of himself without any possible return.

Comment: That would be amazing!

My Response: It is possible to show that. We can develop it further. We can promote it. What one would take out of it is less important. At least these examples will stay. Then one would not be left with nothing.

Question: So you support such a cinematic illusion to go on?

Answer: Yes, of course.

Comment: But now there is “reality television.” About life and truth!

My Response: It is egoistic truth. It is still a lie. It is finite. It leads to tragedies. But not here. You are shown the truth, and with your nature you begin to understand that you can’t quite implement this truth. What you are seeing are ideals. And these ideals are necessary.

Comment: So you’re against showing the ugly side of truth, of letting the garbage out under the banner of “reality TV”?

My Response: No. This would never aim a person in the right direction. After all, a person is an egoist. On the contrary, we must play with him the way we do with our kids.

Question: So that he grows through playing with these idealistic, beautiful examples?

Answer: Yes. This is just like a game with a child, how to make adults out of the whole of humanity! All humanity are children! So why wouldn’t you act with them the way you do with your own kids?
[278004]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/7/21

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