Question: From what age is it possible to begin spiritual education?

Answer: It is really from infancy.

Spiritual education is the right attitude of a person toward others and it should be taught from birth or even as education for future parents. When a child grows, it is necessary to put him into an environment that engages with integral education, first in kindergarten, then at school, and so on. As soon as he learns to sit, put him in a circle with other children.

Even if they still don’t understand each other, don’t relate to each other, and each one is involved with their own toys, it doesn’t matter. Subconsciously the child feels that he is in a society.

Integral education is widely practiced in our community. Even before they can walk, our children already attend special children’s groups where parents learn with them. And that is how it is until school age when they can participate in lessons and shared meals.

Then at the age of 14 to 15, they go to university (we prepare them for this), and by the age of 18-19 they already have college degrees. Each and every year dozens of children and youth pass through our method of education.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/3/16

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New Life #335 – Conflict Resolution In The Workplace, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

What causes anger and conflicts in the workplace, what is the right way to resolve these situations, and what techniques help us build relationships of connection and cooperation between us?

Case: Employees are required to perform a task beneath their level due to the absence of another employee.

• Everyone could sit together with the boss in a circle and talk about the situation and find the solution together.
• The wisdom of connection can develop the feeling of acting together, in support and mutual responsibility.
• The connection between people means that they feel a mutual responsibility for everything that happens at the workplace.
• We live to feel good, joy, and happiness. Arguments and stress damage our health.
• We should try to build a society where the feeling of thoughtfulness, concern, and connection exist between everyone.
• Don’t relate to conflicts that exist in the organization, but raise people to a higher level.
• All problems, ultimately come from the ego, arrogance and control. Thus connection solves everything.
• Do not talk about problems, but about relationships that aren’t connected to work, like partners and family.
• The aim is to soften the tension, to get everyone to agree to a shared feeling of warmth.
  [138168]
  From KabTV’s “New Life #335 – Conflict Resolution In The Workplace, Part 1,” 4/1/14

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New Life #331 – Ideological Revolutions
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

How are the revolutions of today different from the ones in the past, how do they influence us, and which revolution will bring us all a better life?

All revolutions arise from the development of human egoism on four levels: slavery, feudalism, capitalism, and the fourth stage—all humanity connected as one family.

There were changes stemming from a desire for economic gain or others wanting to impose their religion, then came the Industrial Revolution and we began to make a healthy calculations according to income. Karl Marx predicted the material stage of development would be followed by the stage of social development. That is, after the Industrial Revolution and the era of material abundance, there would be a social revolution. You now see that Marx was right. We are all slaves, in a constant race and under constant stress.

The social revolution is that everyone will live better, equally, will be connected and will learn to live in brotherly love. After Marx presented his vision, others came and spoiled it, when they tried to implement it before its time. Marx knew a social revolution would come only after capitalism had been completely exhausted.

The essence of the social revolution is upgrading human nature from egoism to altruism. Lenin and his party tried to start it in Russia but in an aggressive and distorted way. The social revolution cannot come through oppression and aggression. Understanding and acceptance are necessary, and education.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #331 – Ideological Revolutions,” 3/30/14

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New Life #330 – Revolution As A Social Phenomenon
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

Revolution occurs when people can no longer tolerate the current method of conduct. An internal engine develops the human race through four social stages called: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. When writing was developed it raised man above the limits of time. It was a real revolution.

The desire to control nature and to break boundaries grew in humans through four developmental stages. Today we have arrived at a situation where one press of a button can delete all of mankind. We can travel into space, but it turns out that we are very limited. We can do anything, just not control life.

The next revolution is a paradigm shift, an understanding that we are part of nature, and nature has its laws. We must learn to connect with each other as all other parts of nature do in a harmonious and integral way. We are unable to control our destiny. We must study the natural system that operates us.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #330 – Revolution As A Social Phenomenon.” 3/30/14

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Question: Operating in mutual cooperation on the level of the forces of nature is not everyone’s fate but only of a few. But according to what you say, everyone will have to undergo spiritual education. How do you explain this contradiction?

Answer: There is no contradiction. Since we are all egoists and were created by the egoistic force, we all have to reach a state of balance by revealing the positive force between us. This refers to grownups, children, men, women—everyone.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/3/16

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Question: In Kabbalah, does a person have to educate himself?

Answer: No, he cannot educate himself independently. A person cannot do anything by himself. He must be connected to others. This is very explicitly explained on our sites.
[199604]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/3/16

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Question: Is there anything useful in this treasure of the wisdom of Kabbalah for young couples who, because of the growth of the ego, encounter problems sustaining their relationship?

Answer: Let’s adapt the wisdom of Kabbalah to our world and use it! After all, egoistic competition happens in the world from childhood to adulthood. For our entire lives, it is hell, a continuous struggle from which we have no benefit, only the gloating of our ego when we revel in our superiority over another.

We must use our earthly life that has been given to us to try to balance it, change it. We give birth, raise, and educate a child not to gratify his own ego, but to transform children into people who can enjoy life in peace and not constantly be defensive.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains how to do this.

To do this, we must use a system of connections between people, and above all of our egoistic rejections and contradictions, we can build bridges of mutual connection toward love.

We can do this while being egoists as nature created us; above this nature, we can build mutual altruistic connections. It depends only on education! If we educate a generation like this, it will be happy and strong indeed.

It seems to us that altruism could weaken us and that, ultimately, we could be eaten, annihilated, or devoured, but it is precisely the opposite. Love is the most powerful feeling in the world, and it provides the people who realize it with immense inner strength.

The United States can serve as an example of how the growth of the ego and pitting oneself against others weakens and leads to crisis.

If our method of unification were in Europe, today it would be stronger and more advanced than everyone else.

An aspiration toward unity, toward mutual attraction, lies in nature and we should take advantage of this power. It creates more and more new forms of matter and of everything that exists, while separation only destroys and kills.

Therefore, the wisdom of Kabbalah is imperative for us.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/2/16

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Question: What can we learn from nature about education?

Answer: We cannot learn anything from nature because we are not part of the animate level. We can envy animals’ ability to interact with each other correctly.

We have to choose the method that will put us right with regard to all the levels of nature, ourselves and society. This method is the wisdom of Kabbalah.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/3/16

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Question: People don’t like it when you educate them. What does the idea of education mean according to the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: If we look at animals, for example, we will see that they develop instinctively and thus learn certain skills from their parents. The mother takes the cubs hunting and helps them in every way. Nature teaches them how to adapt to the environment correctly. We can see how developed this instinct is, especially among mammals.

However, this instinct does not exist in man. If we remained on the animal level, we would be the same, of course, but since we quickly develop and in totally different directions, we often lack the understanding of how we should interact with each other.

In animals, the interaction is very simple: friend or foe, your pack or stranger. There are many possible relationships between humans. Between animals the connections are also either positive or negative. They are instinctive, whereas a man has to develop them according to a system that is unfamiliar, especially in our days when the world is becoming increasingly more mutually and integrally connected.

The human essence is absolutely the opposite of the correct relations between us, in which people refer to each other kindly, think of each other as a good family – just like their relatives who are closely connected and invoke the same response from others. Unfortunately, such a corrected attitude is not part of our nature and we are in fact the most corrupt animals. You will not find such an attitude among animals. Animals don’t harm each other; they feel no envy or jealousy. Their relations are only on the instinctive level and nothing more.

Animals examine who is strong and who is weak, and accordingly the power is distributed.Totally different impulses emerge in the human pack: cruel, conscious impulses that stem from our unrestrained egoism, which feels good when another feels bad. These impulses do not exist among animals. They act according to very simple instincts. An animal that wants to eat kills another animal but not because it wants to harm its prey. An animal doesn’t hunt more than what it needs to eat to survive, whereas man acts in an unrestrained manner ready to kill the whole world although he has no need for it.

Therefore, what we need is to educate people. We have to insert the positive force from the world around us into our cruel, negative egoistic nature.

This force is found in nature, but we have to pull it out of nature. We have to know how to extract the positive force, how to place it against the negative force, and how to raise ourselves in the connection between the two forces.
[198581]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/3/16

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New Life 472 – The Contrast Between The Greek Approach And The Jewish Approach
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What can we learn about man by the contrast between the Greek approach and the Jewish approach? Where is the system of nature leading us, and according to which approach should we act in order to bestow goodness unto the world?

Hellenization is a perception of reality according to which man is whole and does not need to correct his nature. There is an opposite approach that says from the outset our nature is evil and we need to correct it. The difference stems from the question of who is more important: me or others?

The Jews were different from everyone else since the days of Abraham, as they considered the other more important than oneself. Thanks to this approach, they perceived reality in a totally different manner. They saw the upper world and discovered the upper force. Their unique approach to life is not abstract but is very practical and can be applied in our daily life.

Today we have to return to the perception of the world that stems from connection and love and lead everyone to this. Humanity needs to develop the ability to feel the upper force. The word “Creator – Bore” stems from the Hebrew words “Bo  reh – come and see” the upper reality.

The process of exiting our self interest takes place according to a special method, in a group of people. Every person is born with the Greek perception and has to develop the human spirit in him, the Jewish approach. Developing the attribute of bestowal and love of others develops the sense with which he can feel the upper world, the world of giving.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 472 – The Contrast Between The Greek Approach And The Jewish Approach,” 12/14/14

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