New Life 755 – The Evolution Of Effort
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Today, compared to previous generations, we don’t make any effort; technology makes our lives easier. In ten or twenty years we won’t need to do anything; everything that we need for life will be provided. We have become lazier because our ego has grown and this prevents us from doing anything trivial.

Our ego doesn’t want to move if it doesn’t have to. Our lives have become easier so that we can turn to the important question: “Why are we alive?” Humanity will not find a reason to make an effort so that a cry will be born as a wolf howling in the forest.

The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches that it is necessary to come to the question, “Why am I living?” In the upper world our efforts will be devoted more and more to the connection between us and this will give us immense pleasure.

The development of the soul requires effort to ascend above the rejection from others that our ego awakens in us. So the effort that we can expect in the future for each one of us and for all of us together will be efforts toward connection with each other.
[191682]
From KabTV’s “New Life 755 – The Evolution Of Effort,” 8/4/16

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New Life 754 – Laziness And Effort
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Our nature is a desire for pleasure. We are attracted to pleasure and run away from suffering.

In disseminating the wisdom of Kabbalah, I don’t feel effort or fatigue because the energy and power to act in a particular direction are the result of the importance that it has in my eyes. The importance of an idea like this or another depends on the value that the environment provides for it. The force of laziness stops a person from doing something unnecessary and causes him to clarify whether it is worthwhile to do it or not according to the equation: energy – laziness = feasibility.

In general, there is no success in anything without effort. Effort is a prerequisite for success because through it an individual builds tools. If a person were given something without his having exerted effort, he would not know how to enjoy it because we have pleasure only according to the amount that we invest in it.

“A year of work is sweet” means that someone who makes an effort to earn his bread finds more pleasure in it than someone who doesn’t make an effort.
[191493]
From KabTV’s “New Life 754 – Laziness And Effort,” 8/4/16

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New Life 753 – Expectations And Disappointments
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

According to our nature we anticipate pleasure all the time. If a child doesn’t see something pleasurable ahead of him, he will not grow. The expectation mechanism exists in us to bring us to resolve the big question, why are we alive?

Since we don’t want to be disappointed, we develop defense mechanisms and learn not to expect anything so that we won’t be disappointed. Disappointment is the place that is not filled with what we expected to be filled and its purpose is to direct us toward a goal correctly.

In contrast to people, animals have no expectations for the future; they adhere to the moment. But the more a person develops, the more distant is his vision of the future. If a person has a higher purpose, he relates to all expectations and disappointments as corrections of direction on his way there.

In systems of relationships in which we truly love others, this in itself is fulfilling for us. The realization of love is giving, and to the degree that a person gives, he is fulfilled. So it doesn’t depend on the other side, but upon his relationship to the other side.

Our world is entirely egoistic; we draw pleasure to ourselves and therefore encounter limitations and become tired. The whole idea is to develop love from us to others. So if someone gets tired of love, this indicates it is not complete love. Love beyond the ego, which is not for those who are close to us but for those who are strangers, is not tiring. Instead it opens a person to the upper world. Then one is nourished by the general force of nature, which is entirely love and has limitless energy.
[191440]
From KabTV’s “New Life 753 – Expectations And Disappointments,” 7/26/16

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New Life 752 – Master Of My Own Fate
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Everything comes to an end. The question is, can we reach a life that is full of only good and sweet events? They say that the wise can foresee the future, but others say that it is better not to see it, but simply to live the moment. There are different approaches: one is to ignore the situation, which means to lie to ourselves; the second is to mitigate the situation; the third is blind faith.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah none of this is true. We can learn to change our fate! Scientists have discovered that there is constancy in everything in the world, and our lives are also managed by the upper constancy. We can penetrate the upper operating system of reality and thus control our lives. There are two systems of scrutinizing reality that constantly operate on us: bitter and sweet; truth and lie.

These systems have to bring us to a general scrutiny, to the question of what is the point in our life, what are we living for? The upper operating system operates according to a precise program that aims at the truth, which is the wellbeing of the whole. The more I begin to think about the wellbeing of others, the more I feel the system and understand what is going on.
[191327]
From KabTV’s “New Life 752 – Master Of My Own Fate,” 7/26/16

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New Life 751 – Connecting Opposites
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

All conflicts stem from our nature. Our nature is the evil inclination and it is constantly brewing something for us. The wisdom of Kabbalah is the only method that allows us to use conflicts in order to develop and to reach a state of wholeness. We have reached a point today in which it is impossible to cover up conflicts on any level or in any field anymore. Today the ego is so big that a person cannot stand anyone by his side in a relationship, in the family, or at work.

Here the wisdom of Kabbalah offers a very practical solution whereby we must find a way to connect above our differences, to discover love above the hatred. In order to do so, we have to discover the positive force in nature that will balance the negative force in us, the evil inclination. A middle line will be built between the negative force and the positive force that we have to discover, and in order to do so, we have to learn a new technique of connecting.

This learning process is done in a group, through exercises. In these exercises everyone relates to himself in several ways: once as the smallest in the group, then as bigger than the other members in the group, and finally as an equal to them. Thus, the three lines of our attitude to others are built in each one and eventually the central point of connection is felt. We expect the special force, the upper Light, called the Creator to be revealed in the center of our connection. Then we will understand that the purpose of all the conflicts between us was to bring us to the attainment of the upper dimension.
[191307]
From KabTV’s “New Life 751 – Connecting Opposites,” 7/21/16

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Question: Can one get along without other people? Why is it necessary to be in contact with others if such relations are full of disappointments and pain?

Answer: It is impossible to live without mutual relations with others. We have to acknowledge the fact that we depend on other people, that we love to communicate, that we care about our opinion of others and about their opinion about us.

We cannot be satisfied with the media channels and communicate only through them. We are interested in what happens to other people.

We are a social creation of nature and so we have no choice but to be social creatures just as nature has created us and not escape to remote secluded places and live there.

We have to correct ourselves. Escaping from society will lead to nothing and will make us feel low, miserable, and totally uncomfortable. There are people who buy a house on some island and spend their life there not wanting to know anything. Sometimes they visit their neighbors or contact another family or two and settle for that.

Of course it all depends on a person’s character, but even if there are still such people in this generation, there will not be any in the next generation, because despite the difficulty we have communicating, we get closer to each other from one generation to the next and so we have to find the way to establish the right contact with one another. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah says.
[192744]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 5/1/16

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Question: Can friendship exist without self-benefit, and if so, how are the equality and the mutual interdependence in the relationship expressed?

Answer: A person never does anything without self-benefit because he is an egoist. Every action he performs is always an action that he benefits from.

This means that the closer a person is to you and the more you perceive him as part of you, the more you can act in his favor since it is as if you are doing it for your own sake. It is only in such circumstances that a connection between people is possible and not in any other way.
[192672]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 5/1/16

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New Life 750 – Conflicts In Relationships
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Conflict is a natural phenomenon; it is necessary when there is contact between two individuals in creation. The ego, the desire to receive, to enjoy, and to control is constantly growing. All clashes are stem from this. Life is built on connection above the natural oppositions between us; it is written, “Let them go out and make a living one from the other” (Berachot 3b). Conflict is what teaches us what we must do to rise above it. Conflicts are instinctive in still, vegetative, and animate nature.

In the human species, the goal is to develop to “make a living one from the other,” meaning to complement each other, beyond belligerence to a more human level.

Conflict is the foundation of life; it is the foundation of our orientation in nature, like plus and minus. The true solution to conflict can only be through connection, through building a connection above opposition.

It is impossible to eliminate conflicts, it is impossible to “whitewash” them. Instead, one must learn how to build a network of connection above them. In this manner, the conflict remains in full force and we build a connection above it. This situation gives a unique additional pleasure that we are not familiar with in this world. This state is called love, and it is built in the face of hatred.
[191183]
From KabTV”s “New Life 750 – Conflicts In Relationships,” 7/21/16

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New Life 760 – Longing For Love
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

In general everyone loves the sources that fill his needs and his desires.The desire to be loved is imprinted in us and is meant to eventually bring us to a loving connection with everyone.

The love between parents and children is also natural. When a child grows he begins to love different things.

When we connect with someone we acquire his desires and his thoughts; we acquire a new life and expand. We begin to feel the world through others. When someone loves me I feel that I belong equally and am special. When someone stops loving me I am furious.

A good attitude toward my self is perceived as “I am loved!” If nobody loves me, I need a substitute.

When I feel that someone cares about me my life lightens up and I feel vital. When a person receives no attention he dies.
[192447]
From KabTV’s “New Life 760 – Longing For Love,” 8/16/16

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New Life 758 – Loving Children Properly
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

There are two opposing forces at the foundation of nature, the force of attraction and the force of repulsion, love and hatred. So hatred and love are the two main forces upon which all of our lives are built. Only in humans, has nature not left clear boundaries when it comes to attraction and repulsion, love and hate.

For these two forces to be in balance and for our children, we need to to us to relate to the “middle line.” Absolute love awakens repulsion and hatred in a child because he doesn’t know how to respond to it. So incessant pressure is useless and places children in an unclear situation. As people, we are not prepared to feel something that is unlimited; if love is unlimited, it is impossible to feel it.

To know how to behave correctly, one must study human nature. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches this. The right connection includes 3 kinds of attitudes: I am greater than the other, smaller than the other, and equal to the other. Parents and children need to sit in a circle together and speak as equals.

Through such conversations, children will acquire importance and responsibility. If parents radiate a spirit of reciprocity, equality, and respect, this spirit will pass to the children and they will understand that even when parents restrict them, it comes from love. In addition to feelings and intellect, we must develop the middle line in children.
[191682]
From KabTV’s “New Life 758 – Loving Children Properly,” 8/11/16

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