Entries in the 'Education' Category

Fear Of Growing Up

Laitman_088In the News (Pacific Standard): “The Peter Pan Syndrome was one of the best-selling books of the early 1980s. In it, psychologist Dan Kiley argued that teenage boys were increasingly reluctant to grow up and accept adult responsibilities.

“Any hope that this might be a short-lived phenomenon is refuted by new research. It finds that, compared to previous generations, today’s university students — both male and female — consider maturity a minefield they are in no hurry to start navigating.

“‘Today’s emerging adults seem reluctant to take on life’s next chapter,’ concludes a research team led by Miami University psychologist April Smith. ‘Undergraduates today experience more fear related to facing the demands of adult life than undergraduates in the past.'”

Answer: When I was young, it was the opposite. We wanted to be grownups so much, to start working, to do something, to aspire for something, to discover something. Schools seemed like a prison to us, while today it is the other way around; the young want to remain the way they are because they have everything.

They are locked inside their cell phone screens or computers and are in fact trapped in a cage that provides a filling they cannot give up. Of course they don’t want to break away from the screen because if they can spend all their free time in front of the small screen like small kids, they have no need for anything else.

The average amount of time in which a person can work, discover, and “conquer” the world is between 20 to 60 years, but there is nothing that attracts the youth these days.

In the past when we were that age, we dreamed about being pilots or astronauts. And then all of a sudden everyone began to regard pilots as taxi drivers who merely transport passengers back and forth.  And astronauts? They merely fly, orbit in space, land, and that’s it. People lost the yearning for romanticism, for a special filling, and nothing in this world attracts them anymore.

We are developing very quickly and we understand that there is nothing in our world that can fill us. Although we don’t fully understand it yet, we do feel it.

Humanity is moving in two directions: one is determined by the elite who see what is going on and try to organize and manage everything, but don’t know how to cope with the economic crisis and aspire to reduce the number of people on this planet in non-military ways. This is what humanity can do, and there are no other solutions since people don’t understand what is going on.

The other direction is determined by the wisdom of Kabbalah, according to which humanity is in the midst of a very meaningful evolutionary phase, in the transition and an ascent to the next level. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, our consciousness has to change; we can and we should change our attitude to the world and to each other.

When my generation looks at young people today, it is hard to understand what they engage in, and  they don’t understand us. We seem to be living on two differ planes. They have their own interests and we have ours.

We can see this as an ordinary generation gap between fathers and sons, but according to the wisdom of Kabbalah this is not really a gap, but the ascent of the new generation to the next dimension. The young people of the new generation will attain it; their consciousness will change completely; they will not regard corporeal problems and there will actually be none.

Modern robotics and scientific discoveries will ensure that we will not have to think about anything but how to build the correct society, since otherwise we will be destroyed.

We have to find out precisely what options we have: either to build one unique network between us, or this is where we will all be buried.

Question: Do people understand that they are in prison?

Answer: It isn’t a prison but a very simple action of the universe, which we have to respond to in order to survive. If a global flood threatened our lives, we would have to take some measures otherwise we would drown.

Similarly, a new system is approaching us, a totally new paradigm, a new level of existence, and we have to adapt to it. Those who will not adapt to it will not survive. It may well be that only a couple of thousand people from all of humanity will survive, and they will attain the new level of existence. Just like after the global flood, they will reach a new land and humanity will be regenerated.

This phase is starting now and I hope it will end in a couple of decades. Then humanity will understand what it is facing, the wisdom of Kabbalah offers a method by which we can quickly undergo this phase, with little suffering, easily, by understanding what is going on and, at the same time, in a qualitative way.

It doesn’t provide us with a tranquilizer in order to mitigate the unavoidable transition to the next phase of united humanity, but it offers us a way to understand the process and to do it by ourselves. This is how we will attain the new quality independently, and it will not only be a totally different feeling, but will lead to a totally different outcome.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 7/15/16

Related Material:
The Problem Of Fathers And Sons
How Can We Bridge The Generation Gap?
Education Of Parents – Guaranteed Benefit For Children

Russia, Children, And Alcohol

laitman_435Question: How should one build children’s correct attitude toward alcohol? I don’t see much sense in prohibiting it because the environment in Russia (advertisements, peers, and adults) aid in the children tasting alcohol anyway. What can be done about it?

Answer: Russia is in a unique situation because it is a special part of the general soul of Adam. If Russia were to begin to use the method of unification, which it is closer to than all other peoples, it would wake up and dry out and fulfill itself with the discovery of the higher existence. Otherwise how would it feel that there is any reason to leave the intoxicated state?
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Related Material:
What Can Russia Give To The World?
Russia: The Path To Prosperity Or Nazism?
On Russia’s Spiritual Rebirth

New Life #350 – Unity Of The People: Publicity

New Life #350 – Unity Of The People: Publicity
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What are the conditions that must exist so that we can reach unity of the people; what do we achieve through our private lives and how can we achieve it through Integral Education?

Summary

Unity of the people will provide every person and every family, responding to the root of everything that they are missing in life. When we will all be like one big family, personal security will increase, children will run free.

It is possible to make a campaign of patience on the highways, “Because all of us are one family.” This would be the new norm. There will be widespread publicity, a general educational process for unity of the people, in all areas of life. Unity of the people will lower the cost of living. After all, you would not sell to your relatives at inflated prices.

It is necessary to “plow” the nation with publicity about the unity of the people. Today the divisions are terrible and deep.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #350 –  Unity Of The People: Publicity,” 4/13/14

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New Life #349 – Uniting The Israeli Nation: An Ideology

New Life #349 – Uniting The Israeli Nation: An Ideology
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What distinguishes Israel from the other nations? How is this expressed in our genealogy from Abraham until our days and how can we unite the whole world?

Summary

We have to unite the nation since our nation has no right to exist if we are not united. All of Israel are friends. We are a small but greatly divided nation since we have absorbed many views from all over the world during the 2,000 years in exile.

We can unite only on the basis the Abraham established of Hesed (mercy), love and connection. We have not worked on building the mutual love between us, on building the original Israel since we have returned to the land of our fathers.

We lack the education for love of others. We need a national socio-educational plan of uniting the nation. Unity is essential for everyone in a global integrated world. Only we can start this process.

If people felt mutual care and tried to understand others, if they felt connection and unity, we would live in the “Garden of Eden” – paradise.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #349 – Uniting The Israeli Nation: An Ideology,” 4/13/14

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New Life #347 – The Vision Of World Peace

New Life #347 – The Vision Of World Peace
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

There is a vision for peace throughout all of our lives. What is true peace; why is it difficult to reach it, and how do we clothe ourselves in it as a natural law through Integral Education?

Summary

We are social creatures: we require others for enjoyment. Human nature is egoistic. “Peace” means the creation of a special bond with someone else until he and I become one. To feel what the other is missing, we must develop a new “sense”—a desire to please others.
-A mother feels her child naturally. We need to develop this capability ourselves in relation to others.

We take in the surrounding reality through five senses. We take in others through the sense of giving.

Humanity is divided into those who seek peace and those who are more aggressive, but all are egoistic. This requires correction. The dream of peace is worldwide; now, all illusions are shattered. Capitalism is bankrupt. The world is in a multidisciplinary crisis that arises from the full exhaustion of human egoism.

Nature shows that everything is connected; all of us depend upon each other. We must learn to love and be conciliatory.

Through Integral Education all inhabitants of the world will reach peace and love; they will feel like one person with one heart.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #347 – The Vision Of World Peace,” 4/10/14

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New Life #346 – Peace In Man

New Life #346 –  Peace In Man
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What is the meaning of peace in man? How do we know if we are working toward peace, and what is the connection between man, the world, and peace in man?

Summary

“Peace” means being whole (from the same root in Hebrew) and balancing your forces. Peace is mutual complementation. Peace is self-correction. I gladly concede and not sorrowfully, because I want to acquire the force of giving.

First, “don’t do unto others what is hateful to you.” Don’t enjoy the loss of others. Then, “love thy friend as thyself.” Try to fill everything others lack as an expression of your love to them.

The full correction of our attitude to others is called making peace with the upper force.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #346 – Peace In Man,” 4/10/14

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New Life #345 – Peace With Nature

New Life #345 – Peace With Nature
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What is this concept called peace, between which forces are balanced, what is supposed to be found in peace and through what actions can it be reached?

Summary

Peace (Shalom) is wholeness (Shlemut), that can exist on condition that we know the forces of nature and create an agreement (Hashlemah) among them.

In nature everything is built upon two opposing forces, plus and minus, hot and cold, reception and giving. All our relationships require balance between reception and giving.

Nature is revealed today as an inclusive network of connections; we are out of balance with it, we lack peace. Peace agreements as they always have been as various compromises won’t help. Now we must adapt to the laws of nature. Today we must achieve true peace, the adaptation of the relationships between us to the general system of nature.

True agreement is not compromise; rather, each side accepts the needs of the others as if they were his own. And in the connection between the two sides, a third is revealed—the next level of human development.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #345 – Peace With Nature,” 4/10/14

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New Life #344 – Leadership And Government: The Future Leadership, Part 3

New Life #344 – The Future Leadership, Part 3
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

What values should a leader follow? What system should he build in order to create a new society in which everyone can be a leader, and how should we educate youth to leadership?

Summary

A leader should be on the level of love of others and from there lead everyone to corrected relations. He has to lead an internal revolution in people’s attitudes to others, from hatred to love. A true leader is a person for whom love of others comes before any action he performs. He treats everyone like his own children. Such a leader combines feelings and rational thought in the middle line, since for him everything is connected and integral.

There are special exercises in the wisdom of connection that summon a special force that is concealed in nature which can connect us. Leadership is only by education. Any kind of oppression is wrong. An integral leader creates educational processes that enable every individual to lead himself correctly. A leadership course for the youth is needed. A leader’s greatness is determined by the extent to which he closes the gap between him and others and by his the love he brings about.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #344 – The Future Leadership, Part 3,” 4/8/14

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The Spiritual Gene, Part 2

Laitman_096Question: Where is the spiritual DNA of a person hidden?

Answer: The spiritual gene doesn’t have a place to be found; it is the same as not being able to find where the desire of a person hides. It is impossible to extract desire from the body, only when the body dies do all desires disappear from it. However, the spiritual DNA doesn’t appear and disappear because it exists in a space where there is no concept of time.

Question: How does the spiritual DNA select into which body to dress?

Answer: All individual spiritual DNA (Reshimot) are connected between themselves into one perfect system. And in order for this system to come to an understanding, awareness, and a sense of itself it has to go from the state of its full shattering and disconnection to the state of complete connection. The system should go through this process gradually, implementing itself and achieving unity through its free choice.

Part of the process that leads the system to the correct connection that we undergo is through external links. That is, we don’t feel that we are involved in one common desire and remain indifferent and alien to each other’s desires. This perception is called the sense of this world, meaning that all exists on the basis of the fact that we feel like strangers to each other.

The spiritual DNA determines all material development. However, it is difficult to trace this dependence because the spiritual DNA acts according to completely different laws where the beginning and the end connect together and where there isn’t any freedom of choice, but everything is strictly predetermined.

Yet with respect to the people taking part in this system, there is complete freedom of will, therefore the future is still to be determined. We may be distanced from one another but spiritually connected so much so that we instantly affect the fate of each other.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/12/16

Related Material:
The Spiritual Gene, Part 1
The Genetic Map Of Humanity, Part 4
The Genetic Map Of Humanity, Part 3

New Life #343 – Leadership And Government: The Future Leadership, Part 2

New Life #343 – The Future Leadership, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

In a system where everyone influences others, everyone can be a leader of society as a whole. What should we aspire for and how should we lead our life toward` a bright future?

Summary

Today everyone is connected to everyone else and we cannot keep thinking only egoistically. Because of the network that has been formed, a country that is isolated collapses. This is the strongest weapon.

Marx understood that the next phase of humanity after capitalism is living as one family.

We have no choice, because a new force is operating on us today, the network force. Narrow individualism is collapsing. A leader needs to explain the situation the world is in and the necessity of developing “love thy friend as thyself.”

Nature develops mankind to be mutually connected as one big family. A person can develop the feeling of others by special exercises according to the integral education method. A special force is revealed in the effort to connect, the integral force of nature itself, and it connects us.
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From KabTV’s ”New Life #343 – The Future Leadership, Part 2,” 4/8/14

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