In the News (CNBC): “‘James Bond’ actor Daniel Craig says his children won’t be receiving his multimillion-dollar fortune.

“Daniel Craig may command eight-figure Hollywood paychecks…but the 53-year-old actor isn’t planning on sharing much of it with his children.

“In the most recent issue of Candis Magazine, Craig detailed his philosophy on inheritance, saying he doesn’t plan to have much money left to give to his children by the time he dies.

“Craig says that he finds it ‘distasteful’ to leave heirs massive amounts of money. …

“’My philosophy is get rid of it or give it away before you go,’ Craig said.”

Question: What do you think. about his solution? How does it feel for children to hear this? Here they are, sitting and listening and dad says: “You will not get anything from me.”

Answer: No, “nothing” does not mean “nothing.” This means that everyone will have a house, some kind of bank account, a couple of million.

Comment: There will be a launch pad.

My Response: Yes, this is the correct approach. That is, paying for university, a good wedding gift, and so on, that’s okay. But nothing more.

Question: That is, everything is not transferred to the family, everything to the estate? Just what is needed? What does this do to a young man?

Answer: It prepares him for life. He understands that he must prepare himself for the basis of life. He must work, study, and acquire a specialty, perhaps create some kind of enterprise with the money that his father will give him that will help create this. But not that he will be a rich dummy all his life.

Question: That is, if he gets all the money at once, as you say, and becomes a rich dummy, what does that do to him?

Answer: It kills a person. There is nothing worse.

Question: He will not be able to start at some pace, continue, and so on?

Answer: Only if he is squeezed.

Question: Do you think that proper parenting includes pinching too?

Answer: Absolutely! Without this, absolutely nothing sensible will come of a person. It is written in the Torah that in no case show your children that you are rich, and much less that you are preparing to leave something for them.

You promise to help them prepare themselves for a good, normal, intelligent, productive life. And that’s all.

Question: You mean you should not spoil your children?

Answer: No way!

Question: Help them a little and let them go?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So you are in favor of what Daniel Craig says?

Answer: Yes, I agree with him!
[289124]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/19/21

Related Material:
What To Do If Children Want Money
Generation Gap, Part 2
The Problem Of Fathers And Sons

Filed under: Children, Economy, Education, News - No Comments →

Correcting the Egoistic Nature

Question: What is the current tendency? What is the world coming to?

Answer: The tendency of humanity is very simple: this year and especially next year we will feel that we can no longer exist like this. Humanity will hit a wall.

Question: Is the current crisis calling for recognition of evil? Is nature pushing us to understand that excessive consumption leads to relationships that separate us from the Creator?

Answer: No. Our egoistic nature separates us from the Creator! Excessive consumption is the consequence of egoism.

However, I do not have to consume a lot. I can just lie on the couch and twiddle my thumbs, watch football from morning to evening, and drink beer. Is this excessive consumption or not? I do not bother anyone, I do not exploit anyone, I drink a case of beer a day and watch 20 matches. Am I doing any harm to someone by this?

Question: Is this not egoism?

Answer: This is egoism but clearly revealed.

Question: Do we need to correct such egoism?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What for? After all, I am not doing this at the expense or detriment of anyone.

Answer: This is where the problem arises. We will need to understand why any egoism needs to be corrected.

Question: Even if it is not at the expense of others?

Answer: Even if you do only good to people from morning to evening and they see only a kind attitude and receive pleasure from you. Up to that point.

The fact is that all types of communication are egoistic. We must correct our nature at its very core. Even if I live without doing anything wrong to anyone, I am still an egoist, and I still have to correct myself.
[254557]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 1/3/19

Related Material:
Kabbalah And The Consumer Economy, Part 6
Kabbalah And The Consumer Economy, Part 5
Kabbalah And The Consumer Economy, Part 4

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, Globalization - No Comments →

Spiritual Earnings

Question: Was money created as a tool of separation between people?

Answer: No. It depends on how we use it. There is nothing in the world that was created in vain. Everything depends only on how we use it.

Question: The Torah says: “Go and earn from each other.” What does that mean?

Answer: It means that you must go and make money precisely in connection with other people. This does not mean earning money but spiritual earnings where people in connection with each other create a spiritual society that can be filled with the properties of the upper world. And then they feel that they exist in the next, higher level.

Question: That is, this does not mean that we should, like we do today, make money off each other?

Answer: In no way. I can earn money alone without exploiting others. This is what the Torah says, and the Torah does not speak of anything other than spiritual ascent.
[254445]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 1/3/19

Related Material:
Kabbalah And The Consumer Economy, Part 5
Kabbalah And The Consumer Economy, Part 4
Kabbalah And The Consumer Economy, Part 3

Filed under: Economy - No Comments →

The Age of Unreasonable Consumption

Question: The entire economy, in principle, is built on consumption. If people stop consuming, how will the economy survive?

Answer: We do not need such an economy. We drain the Earth, we pollute it, we drain all our resources, we engage people with completely useless businesses. We need to free people from everything except the essentials.

Comment: But we live much better than before.

My Response: If I have 20 suits hanging in my closet, how is it better for me? Offer me what is really necessary today: to be healthy, to feel that my children are being brought up correctly, that my wife and I have no problems, that I do not work for nothing, just to do something and then quickly throw it away. The fact is that we are able to arrange a reasonable life from the tools we have, but we cannot do it because of our egoistic nature. Therefore, we need to balance it, put it in order. And then, with our current capabilities, we will be able to make it really comfortable.

Question: So you are in favor of reasonable consumption? Does Kabbalah speak about this?

Answer: How will it be reasonable? How much does a person need so that he feels that he does not need anything? It depends on the upbringing. But in any case, a person should not suffer. He does not have to eat grass.

Comment: Today we have been brought up to consume in such a way that if I don’t change my mobile phone every year, I feel bad. I have to change it.

My Response: You were brought up to consume in this way because capitalists need it. Why do you need to change your cell phone? To chat with the same shallow people? For example, I have been using my mobile phone for 6 to 7 years. I need to call, I call 2 to 3 times a day and that is enough. I don’t need anything else. What for? Everything I need in the world is in the computer.

It seems to me that this is just a tribute to fashion and nothing more.
[254402]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 1/3/19

Related Material:
Kabbalah And The Consumer Economy, Part 4
Kabbalah And The Consumer Economy, Part 3
Kabbalah And The Consumer Economy, Part 2

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, Globalization - No Comments →

Money Is a Cover for Egoistic Desires

Question: Money in Hebrew is called “Kesef.” What does this mean from the point of view of Kabbalah?

Answer: Money (Kesef) is from the word “covering” (Kisufa). We can say that with its help a person can cover all his expenses, everything he wants. In other words, it is a cover for one’s egoistic desires.

However, if he actually acquires what the concept of Kesef means, i.e., the screen (covering, Masach), then he will begin to rise above himself and instead of material fulfillments, he will feel the upper fulfillment of the next degree.

Our egoism needs covering. Either you cover it by giving it everything it wants or you cover it by stopping it at a certain normal level and begin to work above it.

Question: In our world, money is a measure of value: how much your time is worth, how much this or that thing is worth. In spirituality it is a measure of the strength of my screen, an anti-egoistic quality. Is the extent to which I can cover pleasure, i.e., enjoy not for my own sake, but for the sake of the other or the Creator, called “money”?

Answer: However, you do it in order to reach the goal. You do not just bestow to someone else by making some kind of charitable donations, but you have a certain goal, and you are bestowing for the sake of it, in order to rise to the next degree. And although this action is anti-egoistic, it pursues this goal.

One may ask: “Why is it anti-egoistic? After all, I replace one with the other.” Let’s say I give $100 million and want some spiritual fulfillment for it. Here we also need to understand how we bestow in order to receive spiritual fulfillment and how I replace one with the other.
[254356]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 1/3/19

Related Material:
Kabbalah And The Consumer Economy, Part 3
Kabbalah And The Consumer Economy, Part 2
Kabbalah And The Consumer Economy, Part 1

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, Globalization - No Comments →

What do the Rich Get Pleasure from?

Question: There are several causes that will drive this consumer society that we have created over the past 100 years to a crisis.

The first is the lack of trust caused by constant stress at work, competition, lack of free time, and so on. This is what causes depression.

The second reason is limited resources. If the entire world starts consuming as much as America consumes, these resources would very quickly run out.

The third reason is the growing inequality between rich and poor. We see that the gap is constantly increasing, and due to our increased egoism, we can no longer tolerate it.

The fourth reason, from the point of view of Kabbalah, is that the egoistic development of a person grows and the understanding that no amount of money can buy happiness grows with it. It is clear that a person needs some minimum amount of money, but as we can see even from all kinds of studies, more money no longer gives a person pleasure and one must seek it elsewhere.

What does Kabbalah offer? What will a person get pleasure from if not from the amount of money he gets?

Answer: Ask the super-rich and they will tell you that it is not money itself that gives them pleasure but the fact that they play with it.

Question: The very process of earning money?

Answer: It is not about earning money. A person experiences excitement, an inner drive that stimulates him, and he engages in it. He enters into competition, into a game with other people like him. He is in the grip of excitement like people playing cards. No more than that.

We see that a person earns and earns and then gives half of it away.
[254298]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 1/3/19

Related Material:
Kabbalah And The Consumer Economy, Part 2
Kabbalah And The Consumer Economy, Part 1
There Is Money But There Is No Happiness

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, Globalization - No Comments →

The Only Form of Egoism

Question: Is it possible to describe the egoism that we must correct? After all, it has many forms.

Answer: Egoism has one very simple form: I want only good things and only for myself.

Question: And why is this bad?

Answer: It is bad because it means I am in conflict with wanting good for others. If before we used to build our lives in some way together with others, today we begin to build it only in contradiction with others.

We have entered into such conflicts, such contradictions, that we cannot create anything between us that would unite us. Starting from contradictions of a person with himself, with his family, with his children, relatives, parents, colleagues at work, and ending in relations between nations and the entire world.

A person begins to feel that he is against everyone, alone, and does not need anyone. If it were possible to replace everyone else or even just a couple dozen of people with robots so that they would serve him and he would feel good, he would immediately agree to this. This is our inherent nature.
[254262]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 1/3/19

Related Material:
Kabbalah And The Consumer Economy, Part 1
There Is A Way Out Of The Egoistic Impasse
We Are Witnessing The Birth Of A New Era

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, Egoism, Globalization - No Comments →

The Basis of the Consumer Economy

Question: The economy is a reflection of social relations between people, and therefore the crisis that we are witnessing today is a crisis of relations. I will give a few examples from our life that are directly tied to relationships between people. First, the sale of products with a limited shelf-life. We all suffer from this, but someone earns.

Second, the waste of food in order to keep prices in the market. It turns out that half of the population throws away food, and the other half does not know where to find food.

Further, banks pay scanty interest to depositors. There is the black market: some people pay taxes, others don’t, etc. I am not even talking about armed conflicts, which take a huge amount of money from us.

It turns out that in reality a crisis is a crisis of relations. In addition, it is very difficult to set up businesses because there is a crisis of trust between people. How is all this related to Kabbalah? And what does Kabbalah have to offer?

Answer: For thousands of years we have been developing in our selfishness. This is our nature, which all the time led us to more and more consumption. Minimum effort and maximum return, this is the nature of selfishness. Striving for peace, fulfillment, pleasure, and knowledge, but all this with minimal energy consumption.

This is how we developed until we reached a state, where in the 20th century, as it was predicted many centuries ago by the Kabbalists, we began to feel that such a movement was leading, in general, to nowhere. The time has come for crises, world wars.

Humanity has begun to produce so much that it is no longer able to consume. It has outgrown the border of reasonable consumption. Despite this, half of humanity is malnourished or even starving, and the other half does not know what to do with food and throws away what they have. The same goes for clothing and all other commodities.

In general, if earlier it seemed to us that we were in a world that was growing, improving, and ultimately leading us to the fact that everyone will have at least some minimum, people will enjoy life at least a little, will not die from hunger, from disease, and we will come to a more or less average level of existence, but now, starting from the 21st century, we find that our egoism does not allow us to do anything.

So from a friend who pulled us forward for millennia, selfishness turned into an enemy. Of course, it pitted us against each other in wars, in various problems, but nevertheless it led us forward, and humanity as a result was enriched and settled down. But in the 20^th century, and especially since the 21^st century, it became clear to us that the ego will not allow us to develop well anymore, it will lead us to destruction because it will not allow us to unite, to plan our lives so that everyone has something.

Despite the huge resources, immense scientific, technical, production, and economic opportunities, we absolutely do not set ourselves up to satisfy even our own population within the country and think about making the people more or less comfortable in life.

On the contrary, the further we go, the clearer we see that selfishness disfigures us, arranges everything so that we suffer from it. After all, we do not want to connect with each other, do not want to see each other in good relations and comfortable states.

That is, we have achieved what in the science of Kabbalah is called the realization of the evil of our nature. And now we need to come to a conclusion, which is also not very easy to grasp, say, and realize: We must definitely correct ourselves—ourselves, not some parties or trends, not something private in our society or in our relationships, for example, children, family, elite, etc.

We need to correct our nature, that is, what we received! Not what we created in the process of evolution, but what we received from nature.
[254227]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 1/3/19

Related Material:
The Economics Of The Soul
The Forthcoming Stages Until The End Of The Crisis, Explained By Economists And By Kabbalah
Who Will Be Most Affected by the Economic Crisis?

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, Egoism, Globalization, News - No Comments →

In the News (The Guardian “Tax on billionaires’ Covid windfall could vaccinate every adult on Earth”): “Analysis finds 99% levy on pandemic wealth rise could also pay all unemployed $20,000 – and still leave super-rich $55bn richer

“Every adult in the world could get a Covid-19 vaccine if the wealth billionaires collected during the pandemic was taxed 99% once, according to an analysis published on Thursday by several groups that advocate for economic equity.

“This one-time tax on the world’s 2,690 billionaires could also cover $20,000 in cash paid to all unemployed workers, according to the analysis by Oxfam, the Fight Inequality Alliance, the Institute for Policy Studies and the Patriotic Millionaires.

“That tax would still leave the billionaires with $55bn more than they had before the pandemic, the analysis said.”

Question: Do you think it is okay to tax them 99%?

Answer: I think this is the right thing to do. There must be a border, a ceiling above which no person in the world can receive.

Question: And if he does earn it?

Answer: He would not receive it, it should not be like that.

Question: And who limits everything to him?

Answer: A law. A law that is adopted by the UN, an international court, or someone else in which, it is clear that if someone earned 100 billion in a year, then, suppose, he gets 100 million, and the rest goes to the general treasury.

Question: A person’s income should practically be limited by law?

Answer: Of course.

Question: Then what is the point of a person being a billionaire and striving for some kind of wealth, being the first in these magazines like Forbes, and so on?

Answer: He will still be in these magazines, he will work with his own money, but in the end it will be clear that he is doing this for the good of everyone. And this is a completely different matter. The money does not stay with him for nothing. He twists and twists it all the time, this is understandable. How much does he spend on himself? A couple of million a year. And all the rest goes back to production, and so on.

Question: Is it necessary for him to feel that all this will go to people, that he donates all this to good deeds?

Answer: And he is the manager! He is the manager of these businesses, honored, highly respected, and so on.

Question: Why is it not done now? Why can they not do this, just decide and limit people’s income?

Answer: Society is arranged in such a way that it cannot do it! And those people who have such means and connections are able to make sure that society does not get close to them, with these lawyers, courts, media, anything. Everything is bought. All of this is one.

Question: How can you get to them?

Answer: Make a revolution, my friend! In the heads, in the mind, in the heart. Otherwise, these revolutions really do not give anything. We see it.

Question: Do you think we are approaching this revolution?

Answer: We want it. I do not know to what extent this will be possible,

Question: What does a person need to do to make this revolution happen?

Answer: Dissemination of Kabbalah in the world. When people understand that there is no other way besides the one suggested by Kabbalah for the correction of the world, for changing a person and the world.

Question: There must be a change in man?

Answer: Changing the world means changing a person.
[288955]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/19/21

Related Material:
What Will Change Billionaires?
A Pauper Who Is Rich And A Billionaire Who Is Poor
Diamonds That Can’t Be Stolen

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, Globalization, News - No Comments →

Comment: They say that the world is facing a severe shortage of electricity. What skeptics have warned about is happening: the energy of wind turbines and solar panels cannot replace traditional sources.

In 2035, New York was going to switch to electric cars, but they calculated that if electric cars start charging in the evening, there will not be enough electricity for the entire metropolis.

Alternative energy turned out to be so temperamental that last winter in Texas, blades of wind turbines froze due to the cold. There were no winds blowing over the Netherlands and Denmark this autumn. In Germany, solar panels were blanketed with snow. All this is unpredictable.

There has already been talk that gas itself is not so harmful and that nuclear energy is also green energy. They believe that everything will remain: gas, oil, and coal.

My Response: There will never be enough energy. Maybe we should consider reducing consumption and preventing the manufacture of such a large number of electric vehicles and cars in general. We need to set a task for us to reduce consumption.

First, people should not work so much. Three days a week is enough instead of five.

No one needs all this! This does not add happiness to people and we see this absolutely clearly; there is no need for any proof.

Let’s make sure that people have more time for rest, walking, sports, family, communication, conversations, discussions among themselves, and so on. It is so that people identify this as something necessary. We need to charge ourselves with green energy! This is what we are missing.

Question: Do you think that even nuclear energy can work safely if there is such an attitude in people?

Answer: Of course. It is a blessing that nuclear energy has been discovered. Now we only need to improve it and, on the other hand, reduce consumption so that there will be enough of it for everything.

Comment: You just said that man should spend more time with his family, read more, and communicate more. I remember that a long time ago we kept saying that humanity would come to this. But it has not happened yet.

My Response: No, we cannot run to a quiet, calm, balanced life. We will always be pulled by some illusionary goals and ideals. As a result, hoarding will destroy us.

Question: How can we stop?

Answer: There is no way.

Question: Then what are you demanding if it is impossible?

Answer: Recognition of evil, of the fact that you cannot stop.

Comment: When man realizes that he cannot stop, that he is such a creature, and there is this evil of hoarding in him…

My Response: This is already recognition of evil. Then it will be possible to think about how to come out of this.

This is how man will come to green energy within himself, i.e., to balance. We just need to balance everything that is in man.
[288601]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 9/30/21

Related Material:
Focusing The Energy On Mutuality
An Infinite Source Of Energy
Covering The Gap Between The Opposites

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, Globalization, News - No Comments →