New Life 692 – What Is Love?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Our nature is a desire to enjoy and we love whatever gives us pleasure. We love many things depending on the hierarchy of our desires for: food, sex, family, money, respect, and knowledge. If there weren’t hate, there wouldn’t be love, and the intensity of love depends on the intensity of hate. Hate can be toward someone or something or toward a situation in which we lack something that we love. Human development means the correction of our definitions as to what is good or bad, what we enjoy and what we don’t. Man is a social creature so he can determine values not according to his own feeling but according to the well being of society.

So why is it important to me that I am loved? Because deep inside we are all connected to one another like one body, and because of this internal connection I greatly care about what others think of me or say about me, and just as I have a desire to be loved I also have a desire to love.

Children who grow up without loving parents are really miserable, because when we don’t feel a connection between us we feel lost. Love gives a person a feeling of internal abundance that revives him, and it is a much deeper emotion that we actually know at the moment. We have yet to discover what it is.

Today people draw away from family connections; love disappears and in its place, a new connection will be built. The secret of life is connected to love, to the connection between opposites, between love and hate. Without this there is no life.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 692 – What Is Love?” 2/16/16

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Question: Scientists who studied 42 babies came to the conclusion that babies see things that adults cannot see.

Answer: This is typical not only of babies. I remember that we were having lunch once, and my wife was serving the meal to everyone around the table when our little daughter who was about two years-old pointed at an empty chair and asked her mother why she didn’t serve him anything, as if someone was sitting in the empty chair.

Question: In the above study, scientists refer to the same things. Babies from the age of six months to three years notice different small and “unimportant” things that a grownup wouldn’t notice. Babies also can see mysterious figures.

Answer: This assertion has a strong basis. Babies have the feeling of the upper world. A small child suddenly can begin to pray, although he doesn’t understand anything, is not connected to the Creator, is not raised in a religious family, and has not read or heard anything about it yet. However, he already feels that since his internal nature pushes him toward the upper level, so young children have this inclination until it gradually disappears because of the external influences of our world.

Question: Does this phenomenon have a Kabbalistic basis?

Answer: Of course, the Reshimot (reminiscences) are the basis of a person’s nature, and it develops for a while. If a person continues to develop it, he continues to grow naturally into the spiritual world, but since we don’t develop it, it remains in us in its embryonic phase, and only our ego and our body develop while the spiritual part remains inside us.

Question: Do people who begin to engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah seemingly return to the phase of infancy?

Answer: Not only that, they return to their embryonic phase, and when a person goes through spiritual levels, he feels to some extent as if he were in his mother’s womb and then as if he is born and develops.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/12/16

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New Life 619 – A Good Teacher Is A Teacher Of Life
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Rav describes how he feels about being a guide for a multitude of students all over the world.

The role of the teacher in a school is to build a person. A professional teacher must also be this way somewhat. The teacher’s role is to prepare children for life, to teach them about the systems of relationships in the family, work, and society. The teacher should teach a child the reason he was born. Children ask about it and get no answer. It simply isn’t talked about it.

If a child knew how to answer this by himself, what he is living for, he could make the right decisions during his life. Since it seems that there is a unique role for an entire generation, the teacher must teach the children what their role is in the world of today. To do this, a teacher must know what nature requires from us because we are living within the system of nature.

The parents at home and the teacher in school must play the same “tune” for the child and should complement each other.

The teachers must learn how to help children achieve balance and harmony with the world that surrounds them. It is up to the teacher to develop the ability in a student to feel the entire system of nature in which we are living and learn to be in balance. Ultimately, the teacher must teach his students to connect with each other correctly, as a single system.

The essential motivation that must move a teacher is first of all to build the child into a person. The children will relate with respect and awe to a true teacher.

Parents entrust to the hands of the teacher the most precious thing that they have; they must be connected with him. If they truly want to build a generation that knows what it is living for, the entire society must change.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 619 – A Good Teacher Is A Teacher Of Life,” 8/30/15

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New Life #638 – The Good Ones
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

The wisdom of Kabbalah obliges us to reach love thy friend as thyself. Mutual guarantee will fill our country with a good spirit. When the connection between us is good, we are compatible with the general good force of nature and can bring it closer.

Once we were as one man in one heart, and when unfounded hate broke out we were destroyed. Now we need to rebuild ourselves. Our good future depends only on the connection between us through which our sense of security will improve and our enemies will be neutralized. Our spiritual leaders explained that if we are connected, no one will want to harm us.

Beyond mutual help, the project of “The Good Ones” also includes a PR campaign, discussion circles, in home meetings, and more. If we stop wanting to kill one another in potential, our neighbors will no longer want to kill us in practice. We will be good to one another and the whole world will be good to us. It is an equation that everything works by.

We have to radiate a spirit of connection and set a good example with our neighbors, at work, on the road, and in the media. There is the potential of goodness in every Israeli; it is in our DNA, and this is how we gathered around Abraham. The “Good Ones” is a positive wave meant to awaken the dormant love that is concealed in us. Mutual help in addition to a PR campaign about why it is important to connect will build a zone of security around us. If we connect, we spur the good force in nature and it balances the evil in us.

We tell our children that they should behave nicely to others, but we actually forget that. Let’s create good waves of connection between us, and they will spread like ripples from Israel to the world.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #638 – The Good Ones,” 10/25/15

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New Life 618 – The Status Of Teachers In Israel
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

In the past a teacher was never called by his first name but as “teacher” and was spoken to in third person only. In order to improve the teacher’s status in Israel we need private schools; the state cannot address this issue.

There should be a correlation between the teacher’s salary and his students’ achievements. We [Israel] have lost the title the “nation of the book” long ago, and all we care about now is money. A teacher’s wages should be the same as a doctor’s and even more. The future of the whole society is thrust on the teacher’s’ shoulders.

Why do people leave their job in high-tech in favor of education? Because they feel that they are building something real in education. A child today isn’t not only influenced by his home environment like in the past, but also by the screen that is in the palm of his hand.

If a teacher taught the art of the relations between people in different aspects of our life, he would be greatly appreciated. Parents should be allowed to register their kids in the class of a teacher of their choice. Parents should know everything that happens in school; they should know the teachers and choose the best, etc.

Teachers build the person; they build the next generation. They should be appreciated by all of society.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 618 – The Status Of Teachers In Israel,” 8/30/15

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New Life #636 – How To Be A Good Person
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

When people will see that it is impossible to continue living as we do today, the situation will change for the better. Recognition of the evil in our situation can come from life itself, and this will be painful, or from a development of awareness. A good example of the development of awareness sparing one from suffering can be seen in the global campaign against smoking.

Latent in nature is a hidden, positive power that can balance the evil inclination in us, and the wisdom of Kabbalah is a means for discovering it. The good power is called Light, and it makes it possible for a person to control his evil nature, to reach balance. If we want to bring the hidden positive force into our lives, it is worthwhile to approach the wisdom of Kabbalah.

In the discussion circles that are made according to the method of Kabbalah, 10 people together become a detector of the good force. The conversation circles of Kabbalah are a means for awakening the positive force latent in nature and achieving balance.

If we build connection and love in Israel, nobody will be able to harm us; this will acquire true security for us. Why? This is like a body in homeostasis that illnesses cannot approach, for it has a natural immune system. If we balance ourselves internally, the haters of today will become friends; they will feel that it is good to be with us.

A person experiencing a conversation circle through the television or the Internet or who listens to our conversations, approaches balance. The good force balances the evil in us and brings health, tranquility, protection, a good attitude, and wisdom on all levels.

In conclusion, we are facing difficult situations; it is obligatory to learn to balance the evil in us. Kabbalah is the method for doing this.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #636 – How To Be A Good Person,” 10/21/15

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New Life #635 – The Good, The Bad, And The Person
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

Even though studies show that good deeds cause a good feeling, people are not attracted to this. In the street we don’t encounter people who will come and be good to us; on the contrary, we are constantly on guard.

Good deeds don’t spread virally, they don’t infect other people; there is an internal brake in us. The evil inclination is human nature, and it is worthwhile to realize this. It doesn’t let us relate to others with goodness.

We are developing in a worse and worse direction; relationships are deteriorating; even the family unit is breaking down. There was a time when a person was connected to a village, a homeland, a people. Today this contact is being lost all over the world.

Doing good for others requires many forces that a person doesn’t have; he must always benefit somehow. In Russia they tried to obligate people to be good by force; we have seen the grave results of this. In the Scandinavian nations, there is social security, but this is only because everyone knows that nobody will care about them.

It is up to us to reach an awareness of this, that from year to year we are becoming distant from each other. A person loses connection with his relatives. In charitable organizations, people are working who have a natural inclination for it. They comprise about 10 percent of the population.

The nature of a person doesn’t allow him to benefit others, so we are deteriorating into a situation where we are devouring each other. There is a force in nature that can stop the deterioration. If we locate it, we can counterbalance the evil in us. If we don’t locate this good force, the evil in us will increase and distance us from each other completely. The positive force is latent in the interior of nature and will counterbalance the evil in us. It is necessary to learn how to locate it.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #635 – The Good, The Bad And The Person,” 10/21/16

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New Life 685 – Dealing With Criticism In The Family
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Our growing ego even causes us to criticize our children and demand that our children realize what we didn’t attain. But criticism should be minimal, maintaining boundaries that we define for our familial standards, and the child must learn how to activate his critical sense by himself correctly, keeping within the framework of the family. If he doesn’t criticize himself when he goes against the accepted rules of the family, then we parents criticize him gently to provide him with the tools to be self-critical.

A child needs to know that he has a family for his whole life, and that if he goes against the generally accepted rules in the family, he will lose the right relationship with it. The most important general rule is to be connected to the family; this is the highest value, and if he behaves in a way that is not acceptable in the family, he will lose the connection and security, and this will bring him back on the right track.

The family is the basic unit in nature and we must not destroy it. Parents give birth to new life, and if they divorce, they destroy the good familial relationship for the children.

We require preparation to know how to criticize each other with love and to receive it with good spirit. For example, how do we behave with a child who isn’t studying for a test? We express our familial expectation that he will succeed; we help him study, and it is also possible to promise him a reward.

To do this we must gradually build familial standards: everyone must say how he will contribute to the family, and the family will express its appreciation and thanks for all of his daily contributions at fixed times, even if this is artificial and contrived. It is important to open a new page every day without mentioning the events of the previous day. We could give each other a kiss when we meet, and so forth. That is how we set principles, agreements, and habits and provide examples, since personal example is the best influence, more than words.

If I have a criticism, I must restrain myself and only approach it gently and ask: “Did you do that on purpose?” With this I am not expressing my attitude about what he did. Instead I am clarifying with the child his attitude about what he did and his intention. I help him clarify what he did and what he meant by it, with love. In this way I am teaching him how to criticize himself.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 685 – Dealing With Criticism In The Family,” 2/2/16

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New Life 684 – The Need To Criticize Others
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

It is natural to criticize others since we are all egoists. Each of us wants to be the king and to rule, and even in school we can already see who the critical and cunning kids are, qualities that accompany them in political positions and on an international level. The more a person’s ego grows, the more he feels distinct from others and the greater his criticism of others.

Today, social networks and the Internet enable a person to criticize everything and to say whatever is on his mind to let out steam. In the future, the ego will be even more complex, pride will grow, and very few in the world will behave differently. In ancient times, in the early days of humanity, the ego was collective, but as the ego developed more and more, each member of the tribe felt that he was separate. The sense of criticism developed in order to separate man from others to our current state when everyone hates everyone else.

A person attacks the one who criticizes him while allowing himself to criticize everyone else since he feels that he is the clever one who understands everything. On the next level of the development of the ego, a person will feel so distant from others that he will have nothing to do with them, not in commerce or in any other area. Each of us will sit alone in his home and only machines will do the work for us. People will not even engage in sports; everything will freeze.

There can be constructive criticism only toward someone we love, but today everyone hates everyone else, and when everyone feels isolated and lonely and the question of “what am I living for?” awakens in a person, the correction of the ego will follow.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 684 – The Need To Criticize Others,” 2/2/16

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New Life #512 – Virtual Life on the Way Toward Unity
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

We are living in a transitional period in which all of our lives are entering the computer. The world of the future will be entirely digital; the new generation wants to experience the world only through the screen.

In the future the Internet will link us so we will feel connected and mutually dependent, as if we were sitting together in one living room. The developmental trend is to bring us to an integral link between everyone, as if we were a single family.

The traditional family unit is crumbling, each one is immersed in his screen. We will yet see that the future conceals within it a different form of connection. We are standing before a fundamental change in our lives. The screens will be part of our body and we will see the world through them. People will build new connections between them; they will learn a new language, the language of connection.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #512 -Virtual Life on the Way Toward Unity” 1/27/15

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