New Life #358 – The Good Life Channel: Humor And Mood
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What makes us laugh, what will we find if we learn to laugh at ourselves and how will the ability to laugh at human nature help us create a connection between us?

Summary

Humor leads us to dress up as all kinds of characters, freeing us from our seriousness. Through humor and jokes it is possible to educate and learn in a way that will be remembered by the learner.

Laughter is contagious; it lowers tension and relieves stress. We laugh because of unexpected phenomena. Humor and laughter must always come from love; otherwise, it hurts someone. An example is the use of gentle humor in relationships between couples.

It is worthwhile for a person to laugh about his weaknesses sometimes. Don’t “play” at being perfect.

As a society, we can laugh at our egoistic nature that prevents us from connecting with each other.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #358 – The Good Life Channel: Humor And Mood,” 4/24/14

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New Life #592 – The Vegan Revolution
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

When we see something is growing stronger, it is worthwhile checking who is interested in its success, who is promoting it. And now food is being made into an interesting ritual. Once a kitchen was two meters, today it is the size of a living room.

There is a drastic difference between the meat that is sold to us and the meat of an animal that grows naturally. Today food is altogether processed, and in the future they will print food with three-dimensional printers. Today vegetables may not be healthier than meat due to all the material added to the soil.

Every species exists for the species above it. The still is for the vegetative, the vegetative for the animate, and the animate for the human. How does one use the animate, vegetative, and still correctly? Laws were given to us. That is how a person sanctifies them.

It is not good to fight and prove to others the justification for veganism. Let everyone eat the food that is good for him. We are found within nature; it is a closed system. Any change in our habits has an influence on the rest of creation.

In nature, every species uses the species that is below it. If we stop doing this, we will insert a distortion into all of nature. This will cause a distortion of the laws of physics and chemistry, climate change, and various natural outbreaks.

The highest level in nature is the Divine. A person who ascends to it, elevates everything that he ate with him. Therefore one must not pressure others to become vegans or vegetarians. Whoever this is good for, to your good health!
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From KabTV’s “New Life #592 – The Vegan Revolution,” 7/2/15

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Comment: Few in the world succeed in living according to the ancient altruistic principle, “Do not do to your friend what is hateful to you” (Shabbat 31a). Leonardo Christov-Moore and Marco Lacoboni, scientists at the University of California, reached the conclusion that a method exists to get people to behave less egoistically and to experience greater altruism.

This conclusion was reached after many studies were carried out whose findings showed that it was possible to inject a vaccine into a person and obligate him to behave more pro-socially.

Answer: I would say this differently. A person is essentially a highly developed animal and it is possible to teach him to carry out particular actions so that he will not “dirty up” his house. It is just necessary to educate him correctly for this purpose, meaning that the concept must be conveyed to him correctly. Through it he will understand that he will be punished for some actions and rewarded for others.

We experience pain as a punishment and pleasure as reward. These create electrical impulses that flow through us and create various amino acids.

So it would be possible to invent a device that would transmit a signal with a particular frequency to a person that would penetrate a sensor sewn inside the person and this person would feel pleasure or pain according to his good or bad actions. In this way, it would be possible to turn a person into a “Pavlovian dog.”

If we begin to be involved with education according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, it would seem that it suggests something else. It suggests that a person can be elevated to the level of the “device” that sends him the reward and punishment.

At the same time, a person must understand how he is built and develop to the highest state in which no punishment exists but only an immense reward. The person will understand that this exalted state is possible only when he is absolutely connected with others and builds an organic whole with everyone. In other words, we must bring ourselves to a state in which the positive impulse found in nature fills us all the time while the negative impulse gradually begins to function only to remove from us what is called the “dregs,” the residual garbage from our “good” efforts, and leave a place that can be filled with everything wonderful and eternal.

I believe that it is up to us to be in connection with the higher nature, not with the help of sensors but with whoever manages the sensors.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/28/16

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Freedom And Instincts

Question: The war of the sexes is the most fascinating battle that a person starts from early childhood.

At the age of 5-7 years, we already see a big difference between boys and girls; confrontations and conflicts start between these two groups, and on the other hand, they feel attraction.

How can we explain this game that continues throughout life?

Answer: Man is the most flawed and miserable part of nature. After all, all of inanimate nature, plants, and animals behave according to the instincts acting within them. Lion and lioness or elephant and elephant cow don’t question how to behave with each other.

Everything is clear to them and everything happens according to the laws of nature that control them. Each one knows what it needs to do and acts in this framework. Their life is much simpler than a human’s.

But man is left the freedom of action, since it is at a higher level of development than animals. Man can decide by himself what the correct relationship between a man and woman should be, as well as many other forms of behavior and attitudes toward society, nature, the upper force, and our whole life in general. All this doesn’t bother animals and not even humans when they are not very developed.

But developed people think about it and, when establishing relationships, must act artificially instead of following instincts. It is essential to study the nature of man and woman and to be aware of our current state as well as the final state that we have to reach.

Based on this we by ourselves need to build such a system of relations between men and women for mutual replenishment that nature itself would have created if it were dealing with it.

For this we have a lot to learn. It is impossible to resolve it ourselves without knowing the deepest laws of nature, human nature, and the ultimate goal of his evolution. It is necessary to comprehend the nature of men and women, to find out why we are the way we are and not different, and what forms of mutual relations we need to reach. It is obvious that we need to make up for each other.

But it doesn’t look like people understand this. Psychology of men and women is a young field of research in its infancy. And besides, we do not know anything at all about the general nature and an inner psychology of person: my view of the world, myself, my life and perspective.

We do not see and cannot imagine a future image of men or women, what will they be in a hundred or thousand years. It is necessary for us to know what the ideal relationship between men and women should be in every moment on the time axis. But we do not have any idea about it.

And so we can’t give our children a proper education on this subject without knowing what to tell them. In school curriculums this most important subject is also absent. All this brings disorder in our lives and many disappointments, problems, even tragedies. It is obvious that such education is necessary, and the wisdom of Kabbalah could provide invaluable help here.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 3/31/16

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Research (The Washington Post): “Hell might actually be other people — at least if you’re really smart.

“That’s the implication of fascinating new research published last month in the British Journal of Psychology. Evolutionary psychologists Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics and Norman Li of Singapore Management University dig in to the question of what makes a life well-lived. While traditionally the domain of priests, philosophers and novelists, in recent years survey researchers, economists, biologists and scientists have been tackling that question. …

“They use what they call ‘the savanna theory of happiness’ to explain two main findings from an analysis of a large national survey (15,000 respondents) of adults aged 18 to 28.

“First, they find that people who live in more densely populated areas tend to report less satisfaction with their life overall. ‘The higher the population density of the immediate environment, the less happy’ the survey respondents said they were. Second, they find that the more social interactions with close friends a person has, the greater their self-reported happiness.

“But there was one big exception. For more intelligent people, these correlations were diminished or even reversed.

“’The effect of population density on life satisfaction was therefore more than twice as large for low-IQ individuals than for high-IQ individuals,’ they found. And ‘more intelligent individuals were actually less satisfied with life if they socialized with their friends more frequently.’

“Let me repeat that last one: When smart people spend more time with their friends, it makes them less happy.”

Question: How is it possible to unite people who have a high IQ?

Answer: People with a high IQ cannot be combined because they are united only in their respective fields and only in their narrow interests.

But a common platform can appear among different people with different levels of IQ, through the knowledge of the possibility of establishing a new level of perception, with the union of a higher purpose—and the rise to the next level of perception of nature and life.
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New Life 713 – The Seder And The Birth Of The People Of Israel
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

How is our situation today as a people analogous to the situation of the children of Israel in the story of the Exodus from Egypt? From what must we be freed to become free people and why does the Passover holiday symbolize the birth of the people of Israel?

The night of the Seder symbolizes the birth of the people of Israel, the exit from the womb that became tight and oppressive. Even today we are living in a world full of pressures that they say will advance us toward our birth into a new world. The night of the Seder is like a family game, like a theater, and it connects us as a people. On the night of the Seder we go through everything that had been said to Abraham in the “Brit Bein HaBatrim” (Covenant Between the Pieces) (Genesis 15:7-21). Abraham wanted to know what would bring humanity to connection and love, and the Creator answered him with the exile in Egypt.

Egypt symbolizes capitalistic development, prosperity, and their problems. Like today, there is material abundance in our world, but without spiritual satisfaction. Therefore the disorder of depression has developed followed by the manufacture of sedatives.

The Torah tells about what seem to be an external situations to explain internal situations. So that we will decide that we want to escape from Egypt, ten plagues for our ego are required because the ego is what prevents us from being connected and feeling that we are one people rather than there being unfounded hatred and division. The destruction of the Beit HaMikdash (Temple) was the result of unfounded hatred, before we arose as a nation. In the meantime, we are an ingathering of exiles. Only connection and love between us can transform us into a people because the Light specifically comes out of the darkness.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 713 – The Seder And The Birth Of The People Of Israel,” 4/12/16

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New Life 155 – The Passover Seder, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

How can we live a better life as individuals and as one Israeli family? What do we organize on the Seder Eve? And what can we learn by that in order to improve our life?

What is the Seder: We celebrate the discovery that there is order in creation, a plan, a program of development, a sublime goal.

In the beginning our forefathers were idol worshippers. Terach, Abraham, Egypt, and the connection to the upper force. This isn’t history. We celebrate the possibility of revealing the order to exit slavery and be liberated.

Humanity is led like a herd and does not perceive the order (“Seder” also means order in Hebrew). Very few understand and actually manage the order. Connecting to the inner software that operates nature makes everything go and leads to a good life.

Israel demands a new social order but doesn’t really understand what it is. This is exactly the feeling of darkness. The new order has to be compatible with the level of development defined by nature.

Moses understands the Seder since he knows how to connect to the upper force, and therefore he is the only one who can draw the people forward. He leads them to come out of the ego, ascending to a brotherly connection and discovering the upper force of love and bestowal among us.

We discover a common mind and heart through integral education, by learning the system of connections and through connection workshops. We are the slaves of the current social order: working, purchasing, spending, being in a constant chase! We are not able to escape this enslavement yet, but there is already a feeling of inner bitterness,

There are two trends today: growing external problems, multi-faceted crisis, and inner distress.

We will not be able to lead a good, healthy, joyful life without changing society. We need to connect and feel mutual guarantee among us. We are slaves to the social system we have built, to Pharaoh that forces us to live the way that we do.

Questions to think about: What manages me? What affects me?

We are the slaves of society, and therefore only the upgrading of our social values will help each of us. There is only one change we have to make: adding  the love of Israel to society, so that we will feel as one nation. We need a social-educational process: sitting together several times a week. We can also do it through the media.

Lesson # 1: The world is connected and integral today; all of nature is in a state of mutual complementation. Only man disrupts the balance in the world since he consumes much more than he needs.

What causes natural disasters, revolutions, and wars? It is actually we who are the lords of creation that are the most miserable. Why? It is because we cannot manage our ego. There are two conditions for managing our ego: rational consumption and good communication with others.

How do you communicate correctly with others? You rise above all the criticism that you feel toward others. In this way we reach peace, mutual complementation, and a truly good life. There is abundance in the world and the only thing we lack is connection. We can attain it by educating ourselves to live a new life, together, not under pressure or coercion.

A workshop for the Seder: Imagine that you have ascended all your egoistic feelings and that you are relating to others differently. Describe the new attitude out loud. We feel a new atmosphere among us.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 155 – The Passover Seder, Part 2,” 3/12/13

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New Life 154 – The Passover Seder, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What are the hidden meanings of Passover and the figures in the Haggadah and why do we keep the tradition for generations and celebrate the Seder?

Nimrod symbolizes the ego that erupted and separated people. Terach was a supporter of Nimrod. Abraham, his son, was against him. He realized that advancing according to the ego is a mistake. According to the ego a person who is more successful succeeds more. The opposite form is connection and mutual relations.

Abraham’s method was to use the ego in the opposite way, which allows a person to get to know his nature. A person begins to feel the force that builds the egoistic desires in him and to discover the Creator.

Nimrod and Terach realized that Abraham was ruining things for them. Abraham left with thousands of his followers. Abraham’s group moved to the land of Canaan. The ego grows and there are great disputes, but they try to keep connected above them. Ego and anti-ego: there is endless work that leads to the recognition of the source of life, of a new life.

Jacob’s sons represent different methods of working above the ego. Joseph represents the most advanced method. They went down to Egypt where there are the seven years of satiety, then the ego grows and Joseph’s method is exhausted.

These periods are called the levels in a person’s work above his ego, which are his help against him. Then there are the seven years of hunger in which a new king rises who doesn’t know Joseph. The ego has nothing more to gain.

The new ego called Pharaoh is very cruel. He doesn’t let us live and connect. A new force called Moses is revealed and says: “We have to fight Pharaoh!”

Nimrod is a level of the ego and in contrast to it there is Abraham’s method, Pharaoh is a level of the ego and in contrast to it there is Moses’ method. Moses is a special upgrading. We need the force that constantly builds a new ego in us, the Creator.

The children of Israel need to understand that the new ego is ruining them, and the ten plagues develop this recognition. They reach the state of darkness, the necessity and inability to connect. We drown in the swamp…the night of the exodus from Egypt.

We have no power to connect, but we have the power to escape from Egypt by a small force called Moses. This is an internal journey of developing the method of connection, the growing ego, and the gathering at Mt. Sinai.

The children of Israel begin to recognize God, the force of nature that is everywhere and develops everything. Pharaoh is the most cunning ego that requires the revelation of inner software that builds the ego. At the gathering at Mt. Sinai, the mountain of hatred is revealed, the Pharaoh that is among them.

Passover is when we begin to be a nation that is connected to the inner force that builds our nature, the upper force. The connection we feel among us is called the general soul, and so the evening of the exodus from Egypt is considered a birth.

So why do we clean for Passover? We clean ourselves of our ego. Hametz (leavened food) equals ego; Matza is the force of bestowal.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 154 – The Passover Seder, Part 1,” 3/12/13

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New Life #368 – The Heroes Of The Bible: Yael And David
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

The Biblical heroes Yael and David are human figures who, despite their weaknesses, act for the nation and its unity. What makes them special and what is demanded of them in order to win the battles of Israel?

Summary

A woman usually thinks about the wellbeing of her children. Yael acted for the wellbeing of the whole nation.

The feeling that the whole nation are her children is what gave her the power to act wisely and use her female power. Her heroism is in being able to widen her heart, to widen the boundaries of love and include the whole nation.

The idea behind the story of David and Goliath is that every ordinary person who follows his truth and the upper force will win.

A shepherd is one who leads the nation, who wants to protect the nation and to lead them to the upper force.

There is an inner war here: David defeats Goliath, acquires his enormous strength, and uses it positively. If one nation conquers another nation it absorbs its values and its spirit after a while. David is a hero for harnessing the strength of Goliath in order to follow his own way, in the positive direction. Goliath symbolizes the egoistic use of power, in order to harm people. David uses power in order to increase love. David was fueled by Goliath’s strength and then went his own way, toward love of others.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life #368 – Jewish Culture: The Heroes of the Bible – Yael and David,” 5/13/14

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New Life #367 – Self-Sacrifice
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

How is a situation of sacrificing one’s life for the benefit of others, what affects the decision to sacrifice lives and what is the sacrifice for the attainment of inner truth?

Summary

A soldier is ready to sacrifice himself for his friends if he feels them as his own.

A person is able to connect with others, feeling others as himself. Animals don’t have such an ability. A person has a point of connection with everyone because all of us come from one source.

For a person who goes according to his inner truth, it doesn’t matter to him how and when his physical life will stop. For him, attainment of the truth is more important than life itself.

When a person works on connection, he begins to feel the truth that all of us are one, he discovers love for others. The point of truth is found in the center of the group, in the center of the circle. It doesn’t belong to anyone, it belongs to everyone.

Today all of humanity is like a team of soldiers found in a single tank, but without the protection of armor….

The point of truth is when a person is included with others and devotes his energy and abilities to them.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #367 – Self-Sacrifice,” 5/13/14

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