Entries in the 'Education' Category

Spanish Banks Provoke Suicides

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from The Wall Street Journal): “Spanish government and opposition leaders are moving toward an agreement to loosen century-old housing-foreclosure laws amid an uproar over the suicides of two homeowners who were facing eviction. …

“Housing foreclosures are one of the most visible human dramas of Spain’s economic crisis, with the number of court-sanctioned evictions climbing steadily since the collapse of a decade long housing bubble in 2008. Rising unemployment, which now exceeds 25%, is aggravating homeowners’ difficulties in meeting mortgage payments.

“Spanish courts authorized nearly 19,000 evictions during the second quarter of 2012, compared with 5,614 in the first quarter of 2008, according to Spain’s General Council of the Judiciary.”

My Comment: From here, it is close to a rebellion and civil war. Only the introduction of mass integral education is able to calm and organize life because it explains to people the cause and meaning of what is going on and how to act in this case: In the created integral community everyone needs to change their attitude from mutual hatred to mutual guarantee and love.
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Everything Strives To Unity, What About A Person?

Dr. Michael LaitmanNature is a circle; it’s perfect. At this time, nature impacts us integrally. This conclusion derives from laws of nature and is supported by sociology, physics, and other sciences. Therefore, our society must reach the same condition and become global, closed, rounded, and integral. Everybody must depend on each other.

Look at what is happening in the world now. Today, it is enough to isolate any particular country, and it will perish. It will not endure on its own. Look at Iran or some other countries. They completely depend on everyone and everything. We are unable to break these liaisons.

Afflictions push our society from behind toward integrity. It should become as rounded as nature itself. Integrality means that we must reach balance and equality with each other.

Practically, everyone must live at the same financial level and work hard on making equality and mutual interdependence stable. Nature will push us toward it quite strongly. So far, we haven’t realized it. Therefore, we will be getting more impediments until we come to understand this fact.

How do we achieve this? If we continue using only the remedies that currently are available to us, this process will be very complicated. However, if we approach the problem from the point of view of Kabbalah, then it will be relatively smooth since the Kabbalah methodology allows us to achieve it without too much trouble and makes it almost effortless. Kabbalah explains and vividly demonstrates that the current state of affairs in the world obligates us to live according to standards of reasonable consumption.

By all means, a person must have a house, a family, a job, a car—everything that a normal human being needs at this time—but anything that is beyond this level is extra. We should not allow lavishness any more.

Nature will force us toughly by setting up catastrophes. It is obvious, and we have almost exhausted nature. Soon, all natural resources will be drained away, and we won’t be able to satisfy our needs any longer, not to mention those of our children and grandchildren. For them, there will be nothing left at all. The integral laws of nature tell us about it.

Nowadays, integral upbringing should replace our current paradigm, our current perception, of the world through integral education. We must begin to educate people to understand in order to see the world differently. Since we all are at the mercy of one another, we should naturally change our nature to the fullest interaction with each other.

Here, the Biblical appeal, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” comes to mind. It is obvious that we simply cannot abide without this verse. It is inevitable that we eventually will achieve this state, but it is important whether we will get there forcefully or voluntarily, consciously and smoothly.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is meant to help us realize these things and, thus, avoid severe blows of destiny. It helps us move ahead in a kind and mild way, which eventually will allow us to win.

What, in fact, shall we win? We will transition to a new level of existence, to another dimension. At this time, we all are at the animate level. Animals take care of each other and of their bodies. We also take care of our relatives, friends, and of our bodies as well.

In other words, we do not rise above the animate level, whereas the “speaking” (human) level—called Adam, from the word “Domeh” (similar to the Creator)—is analogous to the force of bestowal and love. This level is quite different from the one where we are currently, and we still must ascend to it.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/5/12, Lesson 1

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Fundamentals of Kabbalah – 11.18.12

A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah “Introduction to the TES”

[media 1]   [media 2]

There Is No Future Without Unity

Dr. Michael LaitmanSpecial Edition: Events in Southern Israel

Our world is very small. Today, we already see how Nature puts pressure on us from all sides. You cannot escape from this “globe.” We can no longer do what we want, burn oil, release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The laws of nature are immutable. However, we lack knowledge of the laws that are related to the human level of development. We somehow understand child development, but in general, the progress of humanity presents us with surprises all the time. Today, all of a sudden it turns out that we have all become one family.

This is supported by studies in various fields, although common people are not aware of what is happening. The world is totally interconnected and interdependent. Problems of one country spread to others. On the other hand, any country can be paralyzed by sanctions, even if it has everything it needs to survive.

Thus, there is the law of the common body, the common family, and there is no escape. And that is why it is necessary to satisfy the condition of mutual guarantee at the global level. This is the only way we can reach harmony with Nature—by building good relationships between ourselves. In this Nature gives us freedom to grow independently. But if we do not do this, then we get blows: the crisis, war, natural disasters.

It is no coincidence that our relationship with the US is cooling down. It is also very significant. And the decision is inherent in the people of Israel. We have the key. Namely, we are able to reach unity, mutual guarantee, it would seem, from which it follows. We are separated, deceive each other, we show solidarity only in times of war, and even with difficulties…

Well, it is time to say: “Enough!” No one will make peace with us until we make peace between ourselves. How? Through education. This simple message should be conveyed to every person: There is no future without unity. We need to fill the air with this message before we slide down to continuous military conflicts because the situation is getting worse all the time.

So let’s get started. To begin with, there are those who already understand and feel this. We have a method of teaching, and it should be implemented. Unity must be learned, it does not happen by itself. The law of gravity acts automatically, but unity is created by systematic work. Similarly, external influence convinces a person to quit smoking. When I hear from all sides about the harm I cause to myself and others, it starts affecting me.

At the beginning, unity is not the most comfortable feeling, but gradually it will flow into life and we will not be able to manage without it, we will not understand how we lived before. First, we will play in it like children, and then suddenly we will feel it, as habit becomes second nature, as a game becomes a reality. At some point, I will not be able to do otherwise without good relationships. It all depends on us.
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Appeal From China

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: As a Kabbalist, you understand very well the current situation. We have come to a standstill, including in the fields of education and science, and if based on the egoistic desire, we study and research, we will not be able to continue. We need your advice for our Chinese students (it does not matter whether they study law, investments, or business management), how can they continue to learn their professions? They understand that the goal is to give to the world, and only on this basis can everyone continue to study their discipline and carry out research. I am from Shenzhen University.

Answer: We have come to a dead end and face universal global restructuring. It is not known how it will happen. What is clear is that it should lead the world to complete equality, unity, mutual guarantee, care, and further to mutual love. To come to such transformation, you need to take a course in integral education. It is not difficult; it is available in almost any language. I suggest you open the link: Integral education. If you need help and advice, please feel free to contact us.
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Life Flew By Like A Dream

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Does a person really know what he wants?

Answer: He never knows. Ask older people and they will tell you, “We didn’t even notice how life passed by and what we did with it. And suddenly it slipped by. I remember myself at 20 and a little at 30, and the last three or four decades I don’t even remember.”

Question: But it’s possible to live in awareness. What prevents us? Let’s suppose that when I was a child my parents would have told me, “Pay attention to yourself, you are made of desires”?

Answer: If only they would have prepared us how to grasp the world in the correct way! If only the family and school would have prepared us, then it would have been different! Where are that family and school? They don’t exist.

My parents didn’t know how to educate me, they weren’t taught that at school, and they didn’t teach me either. The results are: I lived my life without knowing how to live it, and I educated my children also without knowing how to educate them, and they are educating my grandchildren also without knowing how.

In this way we go from generation to generation. If you look at humanity from the side, you see that our behavior doesn’t at all match our intelligence, our inner ability! Look at how we waste ourselves!

Thus, the main problem with humanity is education. If we would educate one generation correctly, then we would correct all of humanity, we would change all life upon the face of the earth.
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From KabTV’s “Talks with Michael Laitman,” 11/3/12

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People In Cities Live Alone

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Spiegel Online): “Loneliness is a common feature of Western civilization; the number of people living alone is growing; there is a growing segment of households, designed for single people. Moreover, isolation is characteristic of both the elderly and the youth. Family ties become more fragile. Against a background of declining marriage, the number of families whose members have to live separately is increasing.”

My Comment: It seems like a paradox: The city does not gather, but divides people. Thus direct communication is replace by other means of communication. The growing egoism does not tolerate direct communication. This will lead to all sorts of psychological and social problems. But I think that the crisis is developing faster and will force the acceptance of the need to implement integral education everywhere. And it will change the connection between people. The quality of these connections determines our future.
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Fundamentals of Kabbalah – 11.11.12

A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah

[media 1]   [media 2]

The End Of The Economic Miracle

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Laurence J. Brahm, global activist, author, pioneer social enterprise entrepreneur, political-economist, international mediator, and lawyer based in Beijing): “China loses its competitive advantage. Many foreign manufacturers withdraw their investments from China to neighboring countries – Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, where wages and corruption are not so high. …

“The influx of foreign capital led to the integration of China into the international community. … China’s economy is capitalism on steroids, and there is a danger that it is deflating. … A small group of rich people angers the poor. … Economy becomes more fragile. …

“The new reform in China is impossible without rethinking the existing social values; the cult of money thrives in society. The Chinese model of economic growth cannot reach balance by using only financial and administrative controls. It is necessary to rethink concepts such as social success. And it may just be the biggest challenge for China.”

My Comment: Realizing what social success means is not the biggest but the only problem, and not only for China but for the whole world. This success can be achieved only by educating people. We must “go to the people.” No financial or administrative measures will help. They will only cause resentment and rebellion. But integral education will immediately explain the cause of the crisis and its correction to the general public.
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We Don’t Impose Ourselves On Society

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: During the discussions at the round tables some of the participants in the integral group couldn’t overcome their growing ego and were much more active in the discussions than necessary. It looked artificial and fanatical. How should we work in such cases?

Answer: We must agree in advance what the limits should be, and we cannot cross them, and most important is to subdue ourselves before others. It’s the same thing that we do in the group.

Under no circumstances should you show that you are smart alecks and that you have some method hidden in your pocket! You shouldn’t scare people by showing that you are advanced, since by that you suppress people and don’t allow them to grow. You mustn’t do that!

There mustn’t be any ego here! You have to plan things accurately in advance and to clearly determine how to process this method among you, so that you will sit quietly in the circles like among kids.

A good teacher is someone who pushes a kid invisibly so that the child can advance by himself afterward. He assumes, understands, builds, and does everything by himself, even without realizing that someone is guiding him; this is true learning.

So you have to prepare for the roundtable very seriously and there is no room for ego here. It’s very bad. You will ruin everything by that. You have to extinguish such cases and to set an example for one another. Otherwise your work will be corrupt.
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From a Virtual Lesson 10/28/12

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