Question: Many people suffer from their shortcomings. How should we work with them?

Answer: It is very simple: you should love the other person so that through the external flaws (physical, physiological) you would see his or her inner value. Then all these external flaws, on the contrary, will emphasize their inner worth.

Question: How can one see one’s shortcomings positively?

Answer: I do see everything in myself as positive. We are arranged this way. Even if sometimes, at some very bad moments of life, I curse and criticize myself, I need to think about who I am criticizing.

Nature, or you can call it “the Creator,” which is one and the same, created you this way. Why then are you cursing it? How do you know? Perhaps you need all these flaws precisely in order to reach the level of the Creator by rising above them? After all, this is our destiny.

Question: How can we use the flaws correctly in order to rise to the next level of development?

Answer: Love. Love them, that is, love them for the fact that precisely by rising above them, by turning them into merits, we reach the highest level of development. It would be impossible to rise without this.

Question: What is the background against which a person will see that everything he has a complex about can be used effectively?

Answer: He should study the wisdom of Kabbalah. He must receive correct examples and strength from this wisdom with which he can try to change himself, to demand, plead, and eventually change.

Question: Which of your qualities or properties that seemed to you not so good did you use for development, for the ascent to the next level?

Answer: I am very jealous. I am very envious, and I would like to be even more greedy. The only thing that I have a great passion for is discovering the meaning of life. This great passion is based on great egoism: “Why do I just exist? I cannot allow this, I do not want this. I must understand why I exist and how can I correctly realize every moment of my life.” This is because of great greed and a big ego!

Although this quality of mine is a very bad one, in general, it is good. Thanks to it, I develop. To this day I am very greedy—greedy to know, to understand, and attain. If I see it in someone, why can’t I do it? Not for some materialistic purposes, but for a spiritual, scientific, etc. purpose.

I am very envious. I watch someone playing a violin or a piano, conducting an orchestra, or singing, and I have none of this.

Question: So, how do you express it?

Answer: I want everything!

Question: What do you do?

Answer: Nothing. I cannot burst out; I work in my field. I decided that this is the only and the greatest treasure and that I must achieve it.

If I had copper, zinc, tin, iron, and diamond mines, which ones would I develop? The diamonds. You cannot help it; they are the most precious.

It is the same here. I have chosen for myself that the most important thing in life is to reach the root of my development, the next level of existence, and this is my only aim.

Question: Does it mean that to have a goal is the most important thing in life?

Answer: Yes. The most important thing is to “Live with the lightning.” “Shine, shine my star!”
[246150]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/27/19

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Question: What is Kabbalah’s attitude to the adoption of children?

Answer: If it is done for the benefit of the child, then it is positive. A person should not think that he would like to have children and so he adopts them; rather, he should consider what he wants to give to a child. Then he can adopt a child.

Usually, we love adopted children more than our biological children because we invest more effort into them, constantly proving our correct attitude toward them to ourselves.
[233732]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/29/18

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In the News (CNBC.com): “Why companies are offering ‘furternity’ leave to new pet owners”

“…one marketing firm in Minnesota has started offering ‘furternity’ leave for all new pet moms and dads.

“The policy is part of a growing trend in pet-friendly workplace policies and a way to offer workers flexibility they might not have otherwise. …

“A number of companies already offer pet-friendly offices. At Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, the company says more than 6,000 dogs share the workspace with employees. Dogs enjoy a floor designed for pet play in one of the company’s buildings and the company even opened a special dog park that’s also open to the community. …

Comment: They have pet strollers, pet coloring, dog therapy, dog aromatherapy, dog church, and dog pools. It looks like we are moving to a culture where dogs replace children.

My Comment Yes. However, on the other hand, humanity has not stopped feeling the need to take care of somebody. Do you remember the Tamagotchi toy? It had to be constantly fed and taken care of.

We need to understand that human nature demands attachment. One is still bound, unwittingly, to his or her apartment, to smells, to everything! I see this as a huge internal, but not yet conscious, longing for communication between people, which, unfortunately, does not receive its normal expression, its release.

We therefore replace people with animals. Actually, it’s not that far off.  People feel that their dog is their friend, and the dog feels a friend and a master in their owners, and we are mutually devoted to each other.

Practically, we know people who have pets that eat from the same plate with them. They feel no difference between them because such contact occurs at the animal level. It does not need any major expressions, achievements, tensions and participation. I lower myself to the level of an animal; I reach out to him and he responds back to me, and we are both content.

Let us hope that this period will pass, and it certainly will pass because humanity is evolving and we will have to achieve contact with each other. Then all that contact with the animals will disappear. Like any other part of evolution and movement toward the lower levels, it will eventually die out. We will not have much interest in cats, dogs, parrots, hamsters, etc.

Question: Will we get such a yearning for each other? Will we uncover and reveal it?

Answer: We will understand that we still lack communication. Phones, virtual communications, dogs, lonely apartments, empty benches in public parks, and so on—it will all go away because we are changing, whether we like it or not. Let time do its work.
[234036]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/27/18

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Question: What basic feelings and virtues of each person deserve respect and why are so many people deprived of it?

Answer: We need to respect only the aspirations and efforts of a person that are aimed at humanity’s benefit. Not for the good of oneself, one’s nation, or one’s family, but only for the benefit of humanity. If we respect this, we will see the extent to which a person overcomes his egoistic nature for the sake of belonging to, and sacrificing for, the entire world.

I think all people should overcome themselves, their egoistic desire. If each of us sacrifices ourselves in this way, then in response we should receive gratitude and respect from society. Everyone—the children at home, the wife, the relatives, the parents, the environment, the friends, and the whole world—should be grateful to a person and appreciate him only to the extent of his contribution to society.

A person is created in such a way that he needs the recognition of society. By this, in essence, he expresses himself, his “I.” If we make society protect a person and respond to his contribution to humanity, this will obligate everyone to be an active part of humanity. We will see from everyone only good things in relation to the entirety of human society and we will see what contribution each one makes.

Therefore, we need to establish such laws in our society so that everyone can be assessed only by their contribution to humanity and so that it is easily visible.

If we measure a person only according to these criteria, if everyone knows that this is how he is assessed, this is how he is treated, then he will have no way out. He will have to become a healthy cell in the general body, that is, a person that is as useful as possible for humanity.
[234180]
The Round Table of Independent Opinions, Berlin 9/9/06

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New Life 1051 – Inner Consciousness, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

The expansion of human consciousness happens through desire, a deficiency or hunger for an awareness of the entire reality. We become more conscious when we ask existential questions like, “Why am I alive?” and engage with a Kabbalistic group in order to discover the answers together. To the degree that I connect to others with attitudes of love and bestowal, I acquire the higher power that is between us. Development of consciousness means attaining a connection with the upper force; I recognize and activate it and this is how I advance and discover the truth. The higher power is bestowal and love and it is what manages our lives. To develop consciousness, we need to create a connection with this higher power.
[232199]
From KabTV’s “New Life 1051 – Inner Consciousness, Part 2,” 8/21/18

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New Life 1050 – Inner Consciousness, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to attain a true and complete consciousness and experience a higher reality. A person normally lives within himself, within a field of pleasure and suffering, and what he imagines about himself and about the world is completely incorrect. When the desire for pleasure becomes aware of the higher power that produced and developed it, a spiritual consciousness begins to develop. The developing consciousness is built from emotion and intellect or heart and mind since these complement and influence each other. The more desire I have, the more intelligence I will have. A child who doesn’t want anything will not develop intellectually. Research on consciousness can only be accomplished by changing desire in a positive or negative direction.
[232196]
From KabTV’s “New Life 1050 – Inner Consciousness, Part 1,” 8/21/18

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Question: How can one learn to listen to oneself and others and not just hear? After all, this quality will only improve relationships between people.

Answer: This requires an inner contact—a contact of the hearts. Once you desire to fulfill each other, you will be able to listen to each other.

And so people do not listen to nor see each other. They create a certain reality within themselves and treat it as a person who is actually outside of them. We do not see those who are outside of us; we see everything that is built by our egoism within us.
[233122]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/29/18

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Question: Many times I’ve heard you speak about the necessity of proper upbringing. What is upbringing according to Kabbalah? Can egoism be educated or do we need a properly educated egoist?

Answer: A Kabbalistic upbringing means an upbringing by means of the upper Light. It is when I, along with my friends, with the help of various actions described in the Kabbalistic methodology, attract the upper Light. The upper Light influences us and brings us to a state of unity where the Creator is revealed and where we all become one whole. This is the state we have to reach.

A Kabbalistic upbringing is supposed to unite us under the influence of the upper Light, revealing the Light under the condition that our connection, our mutual bestowal, will resemble its qualities. Then in the union between the upper Light and us, we will reveal its source—the Creator.
[232276]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/29/18

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Question: What advice can a Kabbalist give to build a successful connection between parents and children?

Answer: It depends on the situation in which the child is being raised. He should not be in antagonism with his environment. A child should know that the family supports him as much as possible, gives him confidence, protection, and will always be behind him.

Then he will become a strong person. Surprisingly, exactly when he feels that a good family and love are behind him, he grows up to be brave.

This is a paradox that is especially noticeable in Israel: Here children are brought up very gently and later they are not afraid of anything, not in the army or during the war, which cannot be said about Arab children, who are brought up extremely harshly. This is how the psychology of the various layers of society manifests.

Give children maximum love and sensitivity and you will see that they become strong and independent.

Question: Wouldn’t this turn them into little egoistic bandits?

Answer: No, love and softness are not permissiveness. This does not mean that children do not have any framework. After all, you educate them, give them everything necessary for education, but at the same time you support them and they clearly know they have support behind them.
[231711]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/29/2018

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Remark: Our generation is called the “Selfie Generation.” People fall from bridges, rocks, get into accidents and want to capture these moments.

My Comment: In principle, a lot of people work for death. Death is a dear point in our existence when I leave after me something I wish will remain related to my name to feel some kind of eternal existence.

Question: What does this narcissism lead to?

Answer: This leads to understanding that all this has no importance, no value.

Question: What will happen when we come to this?

Answer: We will begin to understand that there is emptiness in the world! It will be very bad! Then we will begin to seek life’s real fulfillment: eternal, perfect, enduring, existing outside the framework we exist in today before death or after death.
[231634]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman,” 7/3/18

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