Opinion: (Dmitry Leikin): “Individualism prospers in the modern world. The idea of living for yourself is so strong that you have to explain the fact that you do something for others.

“The point is that every person has a certain amount of power (energy), which he can spend on different activities.

“At the same time he has certain personal needs that he can fulfill through different activities. The need for altruism stems from the fact that a person has more energy than he needs in order to care for his own personal needs.

“This means that if we look at a person’s personal needs we will discover that they aren’t so many: he actually needs food, clothing, a home and a little bit of entertainment. All the other needs are actually collective needs, which means that you do something egoistically not for yourself but for others.

“But a modern man is left with far more altruistic powers than his ancestors. This means that modern man needs altruism more than the generations that preceded him.

“This is expressed in the form of laziness, depression and loss of motivation. This means that modern man realizes that he doesn’t know what he should do after the quick satisfaction of his personal needs. Because he has been brought up to live only for himself, he doesn’t know how to keep himself busy and eventually doesn’t do anything and complains about his loss of motivation.

“If he begins to do something for others his motivation will reappear and will turn out to be infinite since he can do something for others infinitely. This means that he can totally invest his efforts in such actions, which is actually what a person needs in order to be happy -to invest all his energy in something.

“If we look at people who do great things, we will see that all these things are always aimed at great masses of people. These people never complain about lack of motivation, but they may complain that they life isn’t long enough to fulfill everything they plan to do.

“The only way to be happy and to have the motivation to do anything is to do something not only for yourself but also for others. The reason is that you can have great motivation and self-fulfillment only in doing things for others.”

My Comment: Then egoistic psychology (motivation) gradually switches into the wisdom of Kabbalah because the egoistic motivation of working for the sake of others also becomes empty and there is a growing need for new motivation, for the Creator, because the Creator is infinite. A person who performs such actions feels that these actions are eternal and that the filling is infinite.
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In the News: (karpochoff.com): “When a baby is born there are 100 billion neurons in his brain. Neurons are the cells responsible for the ability to think, to see, to feel and they are hardly regenerated during our life.

“Neurons can connect with one another through small regions in the brain called synapses. The neurons that are connected in the synapses build systems that are responsible for all of the brain activities. During the first eight months of our life the neurons create up to 1,000 trillion synapses. But the synapses operate according to the principle of ‘you either use it or lose it.’

“The connections between the neurons have to be maintained by daily exercises and stimuli so that they will be active for a long time. This is the reason that communication between parents and a baby is so important. Usually only half of the synapses remain. The simplest form of communication with a baby can actually determine the creation of connections in the brain.

“Human babies are born imperfect compared to other mammals and they need about a year in order to start walking, whereas animals begin to walk several hours after they are born. If man babies were born with a similarly developed brain, their head would be too big and it would not be able to go through the birth canal.

“This means that the development of a baby’s brain depends directly on the environment he is born in and especially within his social environment. A human baby isn’t fully formed: he comes into the world ready for the grownups to program it. The synapses that are often used become strong while synapses that are rarely used die.

“If parents look at the baby with love and affection the baby’s brain associates the loving and affectionate look with the parents’ attention and the synapses related to this lesson become stronger. The brain is built on this basis. The frontal cortex is one of the regions responsible for feelings and this region develops the fastest from a child’s birth to the age of three.

“A less developed frontal cortex means that a person finds it hard to identify other people’s feelings. This leads to lack of empathy, which is one of the reasons for violence and that under stress a person behaves aggressively or capriciously.”

My Comment: Everything is determined by education, but who educates the parents? Who teaches them how to establish the right connections between them, with the children… see “The Wisdom of Connection (Integral Education).”
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Quote: “The greatest mistake of individual psychology is the premise that a person thinks…

“It isn’t the person who actually thinks but his social group. The origin of his thoughts isn’t in him but actually in the social environment he lives in, in the social atmosphere he breathes. This is the only way he can think according to the influences of the social environment he lives in which are concentrated in his mind.”
—Professor Ludwig Gumplowicz (1838-1909), Principles of Sociology (1885),   economist, lawyer, one of the founders of European Sociology
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Question: You talk so beautifully about unity, but what is one to do if unity doesn’t exist in their own home? I side with leftist political views whereas my husband favors extreme right-wing views. Our conversations about politics lead us to fights all the time. What can be done?

Answer: I think that you, and all the people of Israel, have received the opportunity to correct this situation. As it is said, “…love covereth all transgressions” (Proverbs 10:12). How is it possible to attain peace between us? Peace doesn’t mean that one defeats the other and suppresses him, or convinces him that he was wrong, as we want to do in general.

Peace means that in relationships with another person who is against me heart and soul, in all characteristics and opinions, we reach complete mutuality. This is attained by building a bridge of love between us. And then on the physical plane we are left with contradictions and oppositions, in struggle, resistance and collision with each other, whereas above this, specifically as a counterweight, we build love.

It is necessary to learn how to do this. The main thing is not to be afraid that we have two planes: a lower one in which we contradict and oppose each other absolutely, and a higher one in which we are connected with each other. This is called, “…love covereth all transgressions.” Specifically above all the transgressions and mistakes, no matter how many great contrasts there are between us, we can build a stronger connection of love. One cannot be without the other. Therefore, if we are talking about wholeness, about unity and even about love, this is talking about two planes. It is impossible otherwise. It is possible to build a connection only above all the disturbances, frictions, and differences between us.

So nobody is allowed to demand that the other change. There can be no coercion, neither religious nor secular, from either side and in anything. Each one must remain as he is. If he wants to change, he wants this by himself. And we only need to learn by ourselves and to teach ourselves how to build love as an umbrella that covers us all, even though we oppose each other. And precisely then our love can be permanent, without being transitory, great and flourishing due to the fact that inside rage flames of our opposition to each other.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 5/3/15

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In the News (from versia.ru): A new term, the New Normal is catching on in the US—’Now it’s okays’—same-sex marriages, surrogate children, female priests, househusbands, and so much more. But how can it be that pills with a narcotic effect have become ‘legal drugs’? 70% of Americans regularly use legal drugs.

“The use of sedatives causes the same changes in the brain as changes that are caused by chronic alcoholism. The popular consumption of sedatives in the benzodiazepine class is as addictive as heroin after four weeks. The side-effects are accordingly—hallucinations, headaches, convulsions and death. It is just about impossible to ‘get off’ these drugs.

“With the sharp cessation of using one of these medicines, the risk of epileptic seizures, stroke, heart attacks and hallucinations is great. The irony of tranquilizers is that are prescribed for nervousness and insomnia, but the more that you take them, anxiousness and insomnia increases. What this means is that you constantly need to increase the dose. The final stage in benzodiazepine dependence is ‘loss of personalization’—loss of interest in life, often leading to suicide.

“Manufacturers were aware from the start that patients become addicted to these drugs. Indeed, the vast majority of painkillers prescribed in the United States are similar to narcotics. It is no wonder that 15 thousand more Americans per year die from an overdose of painkillers than from heroin and cocaine combined.

“The drug mafia includes pharmacies in their fields of operation. As a result, nearly 12 million residents of the United States use painkillers not for medical purposes.

“The thoughtless use of psychoactive drugs by American adults inevitably leads to children copying of this behavior. As a result, American youth have their own fashion of ‘wheels.’ Schoolchildren take medication to treat ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), ostensibly to improve educational outcomes.

“But what is even worse is that one third of American parents believe that their children will learn better through taking medications for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, even if the child is okay in terms of intelligence. The parents try to protect their children from street drugs, but they don’t understand that the use of many medicines is no less liable to damage the health of their children. One of the researchers in this study found that taking antidepressants causes bouts of aggression in 14% of the youth.

Even though American doctors are aware of these results, they continue to prescribe more and more pills because the whole business model of the medical industry is based not upon health but upon illness. Giants of the pharmaceutical industry invest 60 billion dollars per year in sales promotion—more than twice as much as in research.

And so that research like this will not undermine the boundless faith of the population in the wondrous power of the pills, pharmaceutical companies donate an additional billion dollars to American doctors. This is called, ‘consultation and participation in research.’ Pharmaceutical manufacturers pay doctors so that they will specifically prescribe their medicines to patients.

“But even this is ‘small change’ compared to the 34 billion dollars that pharmaceutical industry giants spend on ‘free samples.’ That is fully in line with the main rule of drug dealers on the streets: the first dose is free—Doctors are bribing their patients into getting habituated to their new medicines. And this is perfectly legal—the lobby of the pharmaceutical industry took care of this.

“Increasing profits make it possible for the manufacturers to attract even more politicians to their side. As a result of this vicious cycle, doctors make false diagnoses for millions of Americans and prescribe billions of pills to them.

“After the legalization of marijuana in the state of Colorado, the number of children whose parents prefer to be treated with this drug is increasing.

“The marketing of marijuana sold legally in the United States is one of the most rapidly developing markets. In the year 2014, the expected growth in the market is 64% to the height of 2.34 billion dollars.

“Recently, in the United States drug parties have become fashionable: All of the participants pour the pills that they brought into a large bowl, and then periodically throughout the evening, they take the pills washed down with alcohol. Overdose fatalities in gatherings like these happens with disturbing frequency.”

My Comment: The general crisis of our egoistic nature is being expressed in all of our lives, and we will not be able to deal with this unless we begin to change ourselves!
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Question: Let’s suppose that a 14 year-old girl fell in love and is confused. Her parents feel this. Is it worthwhile to discuss it? How should it be done in order not to frighten the girl? Maybe we should relate the memories of our relationships when we were young?

Answer: That wouldn’t be bad. And even better is to wait until one of the girl’s friends arrives and starts a discussion about first love. To recall the time when we were young is fine, but kids at this age, as a rule, are under such a strong impression that they don’t really hear a thing.

We know that the development of the desires is carried out according to the pyramid: food, sex, family, etc. This pyramid is divided into many more parts. Usually for the younger generation, the most important thing revolves around sex. In adolescence it is revealed as an unconscious impression that pulls the child forward and he does not understand how, where, and why.

Is it possible to balance this impression with intellect? Here we must be very careful so as to build everything on mutual understanding, sympathy, by example, and with these issues one must be a friend to your child and not a parent. Indeed, in this case children simply don’t see their parents because they are so deeply within their experiences. For them, the important thing is what is happening in their realm.

I would try to organize a gathering of girls at home, and try to gain their trust as a child their age. Be with them; tell them what you felt at their age, what kind of problems you had with girls. Maybe your wife will also remember something from childhood.

But you need to play the part as a child. The girls need to really see you as being their age, although a little old-fashioned, from another generation. It is very interesting.

Of course, the kids will laugh a little at you, but that will already be mutual interaction. And the parents shouldn’t mind that the girls giggle at them as if don’t hear them. They actually are listening and completely understand.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 12/11/13

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All the revolutions of humanity demanded equality, not for a minimum standard of living, not equality for “wanderers in the desert,” but for bringing normal conditions to people. So that taxes won’t be at the willful disposal of the few who “seized” power, or in the present era, of the Parliament.

Today all of our lives are essentially distorted: governments collect money from its citizens and then does what it wants without asking anything. “You chose us, now let us do what we think is right.” Nobody cares about the needs of ordinary people. The people work and pay taxes and the government receives them and spends them as it sees fit.

That is what happens all over the world, in all forms of government. In fact, this is not democracy or liberalism, but one big corruption.

The question is: How is it possible to correct the situation? Only through the unification of the people. But many try to use the people, wanting to take control, to sit on the top, seize power, and distribute funds to their “pockets.”

And this will not stop. Ultimately the corruption will reach such proportions that not even crumbs will be left for the people. The whole world is faced with this problem.

Here only a general system of education will help, through which the people will understand what they need to do and what kind of government they need. Then they will not be misdirected and they will not put another corrupted government on their backs.

After all, they will see and know that in their unification lies the divine power of creation that allows not only abandoning things that are unnecessary, but also building what is wanted. Only then, through educating people, can something new be created.

Nothing else will help. Today a few clever people are arguing and discussing politics, credit, taxes, and budgets; but this is all one big lie and behind it is concealed a struggle over the seat, over the cushy job. And there will be no benefit from it for anyone besides that “lucky” one who seizes this chair.

Throughout human history, at the times of formations the main problem was the lack of the education of the people. Teaching people to read and write and some science without real connection and unity is not true education.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/14, Writing of Baal HaSulam

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Without positive pressure from society on each of us, no family can live well and normally. Today we live under tremendous pressure from public opinion, but it was created by our egoism, which often breaks through and puts us in confrontation with each other.

“Mandatory nationwide family education and good relations in society and the state” should become a national law.

Comment: But I want first of all to improve relations in my own family!

Answer: It will not work! Not a single family will succeed in this. There may be some temporary exceptional cases, but in the end the family will fall apart if we do not build the overall atmosphere that will compel every family to become harmonious.

Question: Where should mandatory family education start?

Answer: We should begin with studying human nature in order to understand how egoistic it is and how we can still maintain relationships between us.

Indeed, our egoism has grown to such alarming proportions that we cannot tolerate anyone around us. Every child tries to shut himself in his room. In the end, every family member will need his own separate entrance so as not to run into anyone.

Question: What needs to be done after the first lesson in family education?

Answer: It is necessary to put everyone in a circle and begin to build the correct relationship between us. We can discuss how everyone imagines a good, close-knit family, what mutual participation and mutual concessions are required. Any life situation can become a topic for such a discussion.

There will be no success in any individual family until we raise the entire society. First of all, we need to educate the people, and after that proceed to the education of the individual, family. The entire society should be brought up on the principle: “We are all friends, brothers, as one man with one heart.” And when we reach this state, every family will be strengthened within the nation.

There is no other way. Attempts to make peace separately in one’s own family are doomed to failure. We need to proceed from the general to the particular: “All people are friends, all are brothers.”
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/15/15

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Question: What laws should there be in the correct society and family?

Answer: The laws of equality, total participation, unity, and reciprocity. All that we want to see in our family is necessary to take and teach these laws to the whole nation.

Everyone must accept them and understand that if the entire nation cannot live according to these laws, then no family will be able to live happily, neither the richest nor the poorest.

The general and particular are equal, so if we want our family to live well, it is necessary to establish good relations in the society. And then society will maintain peace in every family. That’s the secret of a happy family.

Question: But I bring to the family in the evening all my complaints that have accumulated over the workday, all my quarrels with co-workers.

Answer: With whom can I quarrel at work if we all are one family and care for each other? I will see around myself only good examples and feel that everyone is a brother.

This will be tomorrow’s world if today we start to learn how to build it. And it is not difficult at all. A person gets up in the morning and watches a 15-minute talk on TV about correct relations. It is interesting, an enjoyable program, which he watches with pleasure because he understands that it benefits himself, the children, and the whole family.

He comes to work, and the first half an hour of the day is a workshop in the circle about correct relations between people. Only then they start to work. In the middle of the day, there is again a workshop. We come to nothing good without education for the entire nation.

At the end of the day he is taught how he should behave on the road, coming back home and how to behave at home. At home, his family members who have also received the same education are waiting for him. Everyone studies how to establish good relations with each other. After all, by this we gain a sense of higher existence, as if we found ourselves on the cloud.

It heals all our sores, strengthens the bond between parents and children, relationships with neighbors, and changes the face of our city and region. No one is afraid to let their children go to the street because every passerby will treat them as his own child. But to achieve this, everyone must be constantly learning.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/15/15

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In the News (from kp.ru): “New research shows that our genes are responsible for our reluctance to work and our inclination to be idle. But why does a person need genes that are responsible for laziness?

“The brain uses 60% of the energy the body produces for thinking. People have directed all their energy in order to find food so that they can preserve their energy and powers. If we weren’t lazy, we wouldn’t be able to survive very long. Lazy and idle people live longer and work whenever they want to and many of them even turn out to be geniuses.

“According to nature’s laws, prominent figures generally take their time in exposing their talent. Darwin, Churchill and Picasso were never the teachers’ pets. Einstein had a reputation of being slow-witted. Practically all the geniuses were assessed by their teachers as incapable and lazy. ‘Talent and mediocre abilities during childhood, little success during teenage and a modest start at work are similar characteristics in the biographies of many prominent people.’

“In addition to the data that we were given by nature we need the right mental environment that can turn a talent into genius. This is the reason that early philosophers believed that what makes a good educator is the ability to teach a child to waste time. Boredom is a great way to develop one’s imagination. Without imagination there is no genius. Einstein said that imagination is more important than information.”

My Comment: According to Kabbalah, we should let the Upper Light, the developing force, operate. This means that we should be tuned to it and not interrupt its work…
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