Entries in the 'Education' Category

A New Perspective On Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is important to remember that the current state is the last stage in the development of humanity, and a sour, unripe fruit has to become sweet, tasty, and fragrant. All these additions spring from the fruit according to nature’s love to it. Nature develops us like a mother taking care of her baby. We have to reach the power of love, bestowal, mutuality, and global unity between us as well as with nature as a whole.

This opportunity can be fulfilled only when we understand and feel how this development takes place within us. We cannot promise a person a good life unless he rises above himself, above the way he was born, by climbing the levels of understanding and feeling. He must come to awareness. He must know what kind of world he is living in. He must discover all of nature.

Unless each and everyone stops being a smart aleck, unless he knows what he was born for and towards what goal nature advances him, humanity will not advance and will suffer from disasters instead.

Question: But you’ve just described a very exalted goal…

Answer: You studied history and geography, botany and physics,  the history of humanity, as well as other general, global subjects in school. Now, too, you will continue to study. After all, you won’t be able to change yourself without knowing the process, without knowing that you depend on others. You don’t have to be an expert, but you must know the general guidelines. It is just like when you finish school and you begin to forget things you’ve learned, but there is still a general impression left in you of historical processes, geography, biology, and botany that you’ve learned. One way or another, what you’ve heard stays in you.

It is the same here, except that now you are studying the subsequent levels of development. Actually, you are taught what is most essential nowadays—how to lead a good life. There is no need to learn anything by heart because later the practical studies of the environment will start: You will bestow upon it, and it will bestow upon you, and you will learn to get along.

But you still need several general lessons about a new world, a new society, and a new perspective of the world.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 2, 12/28/11

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Dynamics Of The Development Of Mankind

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe see laws by studying human psychology and a person’s place in the common picture of the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature; we see the laws and we must advance according to them. We are a part of nature, the result of its development. We are not outside of it.

Psychology is the science of human behavior and it’s also a part of the laws of nature. It’s a very important part of nature, even though it has only existed just over one hundred years. But it’s true that only one hundred years ago we started to feel that we have an ability to evolve in a special, individual, conscious form with the understanding of where I come from, who I am, and how I treat others and why.

Until then only novels spoke of a person’s behavior. But one hundred years ago, essentially not all that long ago, we started studying why a person behaves a certain way and from where this behavior comes. This refers to studying laws that pertain to people. This is why psychology is very important. It helps me understand: who I am, who others are, and how I can build a happy life between us.

If we are a family living in one room called planet Earth, and we depend upon each other, then we don’t have any another choice; we must reach an agreement. And psychology helps us reach peace in the family. This is referred to as observing the laws of nature.

Moreover, there are laws on the still level of nature studied by physics, laws of the vegetative nature studied by biology and botany, and animal nature is studied in zoology. All these are laws of nature’s behavior on the still, vegetative, and animate levels, the behavior of elementary particles, molecules, cells, and bodies, their interaction, etc.

A person’s behavior is studied in psychology, the science of human nature. And nature demands of us according to our development. When we look at the growth of children, we know how they are supposed to develop every year. What is developing in them? It’s their nature. We know what a child is supposed to be able to do at the age of one, two, three, etc. Each year, a person goes through development in his understanding, comprehension, behavior, and develops physically, physiologically, psychologically, and mentally. This is referred to as the law of the development of nature.

It’s a law because we can say that a two-year-old child is supposed to have a certain weight, height, and skills. The numbers are different for a three-year-old. How do we know what he will be like at three? We are familiar with the law of development, the dynamics, meaning the process. This is called the law of nature. There is nothing we can do different here because this development is instilled inside a person.

We study the laws of nature; we are part of nature. There is a certain motor inside us that develops us; it develops every person throughout the seventy years of his life and all of us over the entire course of history. Now as we look back, we can analyze why we developed the way we did from year to year, from one epoch to another, and we can identify the driving force behind our development and what was happening.

There can be an entire evaluation about the history of mankind. Not just regarding what happened and when, but why it happened, what made it happen. Humanity is like a child who develops according to certain laws. When an animal has a pup, I know how the puppy is supposed to develop. And if I don’t know, then I take it to a specialist who does, a veterinarian. All of this is referred to as knowledge of the laws of nature. And human society has the same laws; they are called sociology. Everything submits to the laws. We simply don’t know or understand them very well as these are very young sciences. But to the extent of our knowledge, we see that everything submits to strict laws that exist everywhere.

There is an inner, social development instilled in humankind. Its inner data determines how it will develop, how it will build its society, build itself. And time, which affects this inner data, develops us in a certain way. When a child is given food and care, he will develop yearly. Is food developing him? No, food is just nutrition which helps develop the inner genes, which develop a child into a person.

Nothing accidental happens during a child’s development from the initial drop of semen. We know ahead of time that this drop of semen will develop into a body that will be born and become a person. All this comes out of the informational genes, the certain data instilled within it, which then develop through external nutrition. And all this happens in accordance with the laws. And we see the same in the development of human society.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 1, 12/27/11

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Conclusion To The First Lesson

Dr. Michael LaitmanSo far this is only the beginning. To conclude our first lesson, we all need to agree that we exist in nature. We can imagine it as a closed sphere, a circle, inside which we live. Absolute laws operate inside this sphere, and they govern us.

We discover a part of these laws as we evaluate nature, and we call it science. But undoubtedly 99.9% of these laws remain unknown; we are not yet able to reveal them.

Usually, knowing the laws of nature helps us make a better life. Look at all the useful things around your house: television, the Internet, a washer and a dryer; you have it all. Compare how comfortable your life is in relation to a person who lives in a tiny forgotten village, who gets his water from a well, cooks over fire, and washes his clothes in a washtub.

We do all these things in a matter of seconds without any effort. Instead of a well, I have a faucet in the wall, all the comforts of home, which help me exist without much effort. This way I can live without doing much additional work, as was required to manage in the former, rural life.

In other words, our development frees a person to do other things, things that are far from providing life’s necessities. But the question is, why after having achieved such a developed life has it become so cruel and empty, leading us to despair, instilling uncertainty, fear, and anxiety in us?

What have we done with the time freed through technological and social development that could have created such a wonderful addition to our lives? Instead of a calm and peaceful, although physically difficult, rural life, we have landed in a modern jungle.

Why do we waste the energy and time freed up by the development of technology on making such a hard and complicated life for ourselves? Maybe it is time to stop? Maybe now it is time to move on to a completely different life: like leaving our village again for a new, more appealing life.

We need a just a few hours to provide what we need for our existence, the things we needed to provide back in the village; let’s dedicate the rest of our time to the soul, let’s give it other things to do! Maybe we will manage to correct our lives this way?

I complete our first conversation with this question…
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 1, 12/27/11

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My Country Is My Family

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we achieve unity in such a diverse world?

Answer: There must be a new principle here: unity above all the differences. We are not trying to correct the differences among us or to delve into details of different streams, different parties, or any differences. There can be many peoples and cultures in one state, and that shouldn’t disturb us. European history, for example, is full of wars, hate, and mutual claims that go centuries back. But above all the differences and the conflicts, we open an umbrella of unity. We know that we are all different, and we work on a very high level.

It should be a systematic approach, on the level of a national plan: We cut down the edges from above and from below and gradually reach a fair and equal distribution of resources. Even if it happens two hundred years from now—it doesn’t matter. The main thing is that the process has begun. First we must raise all the poor above the poverty line. Let’s take care of this.

Education is necessary here. If we begin to save nationwide just as we save at home, we won’t need more than that. It will be enough to raise everyone above poverty. As for the economic resources there are very interesting data: For example 17% of the food produced is discarded while still in the original packages.

So it is all about attitude: If we provide a general “umbrella, then there will be some order. We must only change our attitude: The nation is the family. In the family I save, I worry, I keep, support, concede…this is how we should live on a national level, but without isolation and parasites, without waste and protectionism. Everyone is equal, and everyone connects to the common line.

Question: Can this connection start in Israel?

Answer: Not only can it start here, it must.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Perfection Is The Opposite Of The Crisis

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe have a great opportunity. Looking at millennia of human development, we can understand what our current problem is and how to solve it without waiting for any additional hints or blows. We can listen to clever people who point out the need for a good environment that will develop us ideally and will lead us gently from one stage to another in a nice and easy way.

So what do we get from a good environment? With the help of a good environment I begin to recognize the evil in me. I learn that I am an egoist and don’t want to unite, that I am lazy and actually indifferent to my own development. There are many attributes in me that I am not eager to develop. Based on this, I understand that I have to create a better environment.

It is the same with an idler who joins a football team and needs much more intensive pressure to be constantly pulled in, egged on, and pushed into the thick of the game, into the center of the field, and so on.

So we need not only an environment but a “diligent mother” who takes care of everyone and ensures that no one is lazy and stays in this “game.” Small children grow and become wiser and stronger thanks to games. Likewise we will reach perfection thanks to our games in the group that advances us forward. By moving above all the crises, we will acquire a good life.

So we need a society, an environment that will play with us like with small children. Who can provide us with such an environment? Wise people who understand the way, like a baby’s parents. Let them build an environment that will influence us. My future form is in this environment, and when I incorporate in it, I will begin to change accordingly. Thereby I hasten my development. After all, I will have an example, which will be an attractive one, and I will certainly try to enter this environment by transforming myself.

The perfect form of human development is opposite to all the crises: There is no divorce, everyone lives happily, children don’t leave their parents, everyone is at peace. There are good stable relations among nations and peoples and in all of humanity. There are no fears or wars, no weapons and terror, no drug addiction, and so on.

So let us create a model environment that will influence us. I need its values. I want it to convince me, to “re-format” myself so that I resemble it.

How can we achieve that? Perhaps it should be a virtual environment. After all, we are all connected to the Internet. Perhaps the media will provide this environment because we all absorb our values from them. Perhaps this environment should be created not for adults but only for children—in kindergartens and schools so that we will educate the next generation. Or maybe it should include adults too as the number of unemployed people is growing worldwide. Maybe parents don’t know how to educate their children and their hearts ache when they see what is happening to their children. In this case they will be glad to learn, for example, through TV series and programs that we will film. This will serve as a model for them, and they will be able to influence their children.

After all, the higher the level of development, the more extreme and opposite to perfection are the states we encounter on the way to the finish line. In the last phase we should develop ourselves, and here very dramatic states await us.

Up until now nature pushed us from behind and we couldn’t develop independently, consciously taking part in our development, influencing its pace and form in any way. But now, both the pace and the form depend on how much we acknowledge the next stages of our development and advance toward them.

This is the reason that the global crisis that stopped our development began. We will stand in the same place until we internalize that our desire and the recognition of the importance of our future development must precede every future phase. From now on we can’t develop instinctively, like before; an additional acknowledgment is required on every level from now on. This is called the human level of development.

At first all this seems like some vague philosophy to the general public, but we need to explain it gradually, to chew over these things in long talks.

Gradually people will understand what this is about. It doesn’t matter if they forget—it will still remain in them, as the degree that they have attained and understood once. It hasn’t become their “substance” yet and it is therefore forgotten, but they’ve already understood, learned, and agreed with something. It is already in them.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 2, 12/28/11

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The Need To Follow The Laws Of Nature

Dr. Michael LaitmanSo far we have been discussing the process we are undergoing, where we actually are, and the opportunities that lie before us. We can see a lot of proof in literature about this, and there is plenty of opportunity for discussion, so we will gradually get back to this.

But the first introductory part of the course is intended to give us a general view of the development of our desires throughout our entire journey through history so that we can understand where we came from and when these desires become global. They have us closed in through common interdependence, and we have become one family on the verge of breaking.

Essentially, the crisis is happening in the family called humanity. And by fixing the relationship between us, we would fix all of life. There are some amazing studies, which assert that if people were to start treating each other like family then even nature, the climate, and other natural phenomena would also normalize.

Today many scientists are already discovering a connection between human society and other levels of nature: the still, vegetative, and animate. Animal and plant life will feel a big positive effect.

We need to explain to ourselves that we have no choice; we must come to negotiations and mutual understanding on a global scale. This is the first thing we must do.

Question: You have said that there are laws of nature, which pertain to human and social psychology, and we would achieve a good life if we were to follow them. What does this mean? I understand the laws of gravity.

Answer: We are also talking about the laws of inner, human nature: a person’s psychology, the psychology of the society and the family, relationships between parents and children, and relationships between children. It is necessary to know the psychology of all human relations, human animal nature: the small and the big, parents and children, the old and the young, all the human layers, in all directions. If I know human nature and the way to fix the relationships between us, I will be able to build a human society where everyone will be comfortable and happy.

Everyone will have to compromise. After all,everyone wants to be the king and to be worshipped by others. On the other hand, if we were to educate a person that he benefits and gains respect, support, and assistance when he is on equal terms with others, then he would gladly accept this. He will see that in a system where everyone depends on each other things cannot be any other way. We will have to achieve this by convincing people.

It is clear that the human ego will constantly try to fight it and will wish to rule over others. But on the other hand, there will be public opinion. After all, the environment has a strong influence on him and educates him. If society wanted to, it could keep a person inside a framework and protect him in order to prevent his ego from coming through. And when a person uses his ego for the good, he would be treated well by the environment and everyone in it.

Public opinion and the influence of society should immediately become the dominant and binding determinant.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 1, 12/27/11

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Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What laws of nature are we referring to?

Answer: The first requirement for observing the laws of nature is studying the human being, his environment, and their influence on each other.

This also pertains to the laws of nature because we are a part of nature. So first, man needs to be studied. Every person must be a psychologist, both for himself and for human society, to know how to coexist with others and avoid throwing themselves at people without thinking about the consequences.

We first learn who man is, a human being, why we develop the way we do, and whether we have the ability to resist the development of the crisis. Will it benefit us to stop it? Maybe nature is advancing us towards something new, something even better? We simply need to understand what it is pushing us towards and willingly move towards this goal.

We also need to understand why we cannot see this future picture now. We used to always see a future, and developed according to our aspiration to reveal something new and rise higher. But today it is the other way around, we are becoming disappointed and constricted; we no longer want anything.

This form must be useful and desirable for future development, where we need to abandon our current state and rise to a completely different one. This is why we feel so much disappointment, tiredness, and weakness in relation to our current state, we do not wish to continue and remain in it.

The next state must be very different. It is like leaving the past, diving into a ritual purifying pool, getting washed, putting on new clothes, and coming out into the new world! We no longer wish to be connected to this world, we have soiled it enough; we have been divorced and harmed ourselves and others, those near and far from us.

If we were to take a critical look at this world, we would see that there is nothing in it we could take with us to the new good world. What would I want to take with me from this life when a beautiful perfect world awaits me? Do I have a family I could take? No. Children, friends, and work: no, no, and no. So what can I take then when I am switching to a perfect life?

This is why we critically reevaluate our entire life and overall do not find anything in it but disappointment. But maybe it is some kind of a transition toward a completely different state? But we don’t yet see it, and on the other hand we are already disappointed with what we currently have and no longer want it.

We do not see a solution for the current situation. This situation is happening around the world; more and more people are living in the moment without even planning for the future, following the principle of: We live because we live.

This is a special state; this is why we need to learn from our small experiment, where it is as if we were abandoning our entire past life and moving into a new dimension, a new level of existence. We are jumping to a new degree, being born in a new world.

There are other integral laws operating in this world; nature is already beginning to show us the interdependence of everyone and everything in a closed round world, a world of equality and connection, with laws that exist in a good, close-knit family. This is what we seem to be coming to now.

We will check: Is this just a dream or is humanity really moving forward; we must come to this either consciously or through forces that will obligate us.

Naturally, it will benefit us to study all these laws, since we will know how to transition from one state to another in the most favorable way. Until now we were developing by nature pushing us from behind, by adding new desires to the ones we already had.

But not today, today we have come to a dead end and we must evaluate our next step on our own: its purpose, the reason for it, and how to take it. Once we reveal it and see this new life, we will also need to look for ways to attain it.

In contrast to the past generations where the times of transition from one state to another and from one social formation to another occurred by instinctive development, today we must develop consciously. Our job is to understand nature and its laws, and we will transition to a new state once we carry out these laws with understanding and the knowledge of ourselves and of human society. It is as if we were giving birth to ourselves.

This time we must be on top, so we could look at ourselves and our state from above. This has never existed before. We have always flowed with the current of life, on and on: another revolution, another new car, and another new opportunity. But today we must rise above this life in our awareness to see the entire planet and all of human society with a global view, from above, and then we will evolve further.

This is the first time that nature demands us, all of us together and every one of us individually without exception, to attain the precise understanding of who we are, the world in which we exist, and the state towards which we are developing. This is the first time that I am required to be human, one who understands and knows the essence of life.

This is why our course is not only intended to simply occupy your time, but it must help us completely change our lives and raise it to a new level, towards perfection.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 1, 12/27/11

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A Play That Transforms Into Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanNature develops us incrementally, in stages. Each time, at every stage, through each generation we acquire more and more reason and feeling, we come to know nature and creation, rise above everything, and learn to perceive, to dominate…. And evidently, in the end of his development, man will indeed attain the highest level of reality.

In this case, let’s take a look at what helps us develop, what forces operate us.

Let’s examine the picture as a whole through a particular example of a child. In the absence of external human factors, he or she will develop like an animal under the influence of his natural impulses and urges. In this case, a child won’t mature to the level of the things humanity has created for him. If he isn’t placed into a society of peers, he will not know how to behave with other people, how to connect, play, and communicate with them, how to use them, help them, and seek their help.

On the other hand, if we organize an environment for him: a kindergarten, a school, educators, and games, if parents constantly try to develop him by means of external stimuli that will draw him forward instead of natural impulses that push him from behind, his growth will accelerate greatly. He can be taught music, drawing, sculpture, dancing, computer skills, and many other things—on the condition that we provide him with these means from the outside.

Accordingly, there are two forces of development: One pushes from the back naturally, and the other pulls from the front through the means of a correct environment.

Perhaps that very same principle pertains to us too? After thousands of years we finally understand that we need to develop like a fruit on a tree, from bad states to good. So let us organize an environment for ourselves that will draw us forward. Then we would go through the remaining phases quickly and comfortably, without receiving painful blows from behind. Let us take advantage of development games, intelligent explanations, and other wonderful means, whose influence will be gentle and pleasant.

Today, having already figured out the two modes of our development, we ended up in a truly tragic state and confronted by the global crisis. Humanity doesn’t know how to care for itself. It resembles a lost child who helplessly stands in the middle of a room, feeling that he’s been abandoned by everyone. The crisis engulfs all realms: family, education, culture, relationships between parents and children, drugs, divorces, science, and most importantly, economic and financial systems. Moreover, we are are experiencing an ecological crisis, having absolutely no idea what great catastrophes will befall us in the near future.

Are we capable of bringing everything into order? Are we capable of developing as comfortably and quickly as possible? We see that this depends on the environment. We also see that we can actually organize an environment for ourselves that will speed up our development.

Thousands of years passed before we invented many different tools for a child: games, computers, music, dances, activities of various kinds, and swimming pools…. After all, we had to first understand that it’s all actually worth it. Perhaps we need to implement the same scheme for the human society too?

We already know that to accelerate development, we need special means. For example, to hatch chicken eggs, we don’t wait for a hen to sit on them, but rather incubate the eggs and thereby supply the needed amount of chickens and eggs without waiting for favors from nature.

It turns out that our whole problem is only in acquiring an understanding about the means through which a modern person can be developed. We can also see the solution thanks to the modern global, integral crisis.

On one hand, it encompasses the whole world, but on the other, this threatening state essentially demonstrates a lack of our development. Today we are discovering that we are completely and totally dependent on each other. All kinds of research illustrate that. And essentially, our inability to unite is the source of all problems. We make our own life more difficult and insecure; we ourselves introduce fear and limitations into it. Something is interfering with our correct unification. Yet, by unifying among ourselves we would eliminate the majority of disasters.

Besides, we can confirm this by taking a look at the path of development we’ve already undergone. With every change of the generations, the population of the earth grew, education improved, and we witnessed the development of culture, industry, cooperation, collaboration, mutual dependence, and so on. But right now we depend on each other not in things that pertain to our salary, income, banking, and business. We depend on each other in the human factor: We are not able to establish a connection, and its lack is preventing us from bringing security into our lives. We are similar to spouses that cannot get along inside their four walls. Except we cannot divorce because, as it were, we don’t have an extra planet.

Thus, experience and research indicate that the most desirable form of our development is unification, just like for a pair of lovebirds. If humanity finds a way to unite, it will achieve happiness.

Thus it’s clear what we need to do: We need to create an environment for ourselves that will educate us about how to unite correctly. Thereby we will be like a wise little boy who, knowing that he needs to grow up correctly, builds a corresponding environment for himself. For example, he comes to his neighbors and says: “I will give you money so that you start to unite demonstratively with each other and display your unity for me. Pull me into your unity, embody it like actors who are performing a play about a happy life. I know that these examples will help me to grow up in a good and correct way. In this manner, with your help, I want to liberate myself from the current situation.”

Another example: I wouldn’t mind studying music, but on the other hand, I don’t have a burning desire for it. I need a “locomotive,” an environment that will draw me forward, egging me on with brilliant prospects of the chosen path. Then I will reach out to musicians and pay them so they would come to my get-togethers, play their music, talk about music, or compose something while I’m around. All that impresses me, I understand that music is a sublime art, very deep and significant. Even though I paid them, the “harmony of the spheres” nevertheless enchants me.

In this manner the environment helps me develop through a kind path. Even if the means seem fake, the result is very real.

The most important thing here is the society. I can create this society myself, but undoubtedly it can also be formed for me by wise people who know how to use this resource. The world has many scientists and specialists who are very knowledgeable about human development, we only need to help them and to hear what they are saying. And they all say the same thing: We should surround ourselves with a society that will exert a correct influence on all of us.

Then we will set a correct course and will go along a kind path of incremental development. We will “ripen” ourselves before misfortunes and misery force us to do it through pressure from behind. Or, putting it differently, we will quickly hatch inside our “incubator” into a life in a new wonderful world.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 2, 12/28/11

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Not All That Tastes Bitter Is Unfit For Use

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf we cast a glance at our own history, we can see that we are continuously developing. While the vegetative and animate levels of nature hardly change in the course of centuries, we develop with each succession of the generations and even during the span of a single generation.

I, for example, started life in the first half of the last century, and with the transition into the  21st century I see how the world has changed. Back then people were tied to villages, rural communities, and small towns with their set ways of life, while today everything is dynamic, everything is different: ways of thinking, approaches to life, and so on.

A question therefore arises: Is it not enough that we are born and live our life from year to year? Why do we need to change? It’s obvious that a newborn baby needs to grow in order to start living a meaningful adult life, start a family, have children, and pass his acquisitions to them so that they would continue his path. But why do people need some additional development, aside from the chain of generations inherent to the animal world? Where does this opposition come from? What is the goal of human development? This is something we don’t see.

Still, we can draw an analogy with a baby who is not yet ready for life. A lengthy development is required for a child in order to acquire reason, strength, and feeling until he or she actually learns to understand life, to arrange and alter it. Perhaps it’s the same story with us? Maybe the thousands of years of our development are comparable to the life of one person? Maybe every century of human history is like one year for a child?

However, we don’t yet see where we’re going. A child’s development proceeds on a well-trodden path, and we know how to secure for him all the necessary means, including exercises, games, and a specialized environment. And yet the goal of the universal human development is unknown to us, and that’s why we don’t notice the progress of the generations. It appears to us that this progress is random.

Like some clueless parents, we are looking at the baby and don’t understand where it came from and what for. We don’t have any idea about how to raise it, what exercises to give him, or what environment to place him in. As a result, our little one will tread through a thorny trail, lacking the necessary natural desires that would nudge him towards a true path.

With our own children, we give them knowledge, instill feelings, we teach them reading and writing, music, and drawing. They live in an artificial world in comparison to which the external world of adults seems like a feral prairie.

But where are the caring parents and educators of all of humanity? They are absent, and that’s why every generation, despite all the progress, is more miserable than the previous—it lacks more. On one hand, we achieve ever more, while on the other, we become more and more empty.

So what exactly have we come to today? What have we achieved? What did all our development give us? We went into space, walked on the Moon, but this topic isn’t especially popular these days, it’s hackneyed and superficial. We’ve achieved impressive results here on Earth, but we still haven’t found happiness, still haven’t discovered how to arrange our life.

The global crisis is escalating, families are collapsing, both parents and children are suffering, society is suffering, drug addictions are thriving, terrorism thunders, and depression is becoming the most widespread illness. Where is the joy? Where is the good mood?

It turns out that humanity doesn’t have kind parents to surround us with concern and raise us correctly.

In the meantime, we see that nature zealously cares for the correct development of each of its parts. When we become parents, we experience immeasurable love for our children, we want to give them only the absolute best, we dedicate our entire life to them. The best experts, enormous resources, and top technologies are placed at the service of children and their development.

And despite all that, we are not achieving success even though nature supplied us with all the necessary means. It gave us love without which we would remain indifferent to our children. In the same way the animals also love their offspring.

Ultimately, it becomes apparent that nature, while caring for the development of all creatures, demonstrates towards them a rather peculiar attitude. On one hand, it creates secure conditions for correct growth by inducing in parents this instinctual love towards children. As a result, we don’t have any other choice, we are simply obliged to care for them. But on the other hand, we see that the human species fails to attain any success.

A fruit on a tree is born bitter and unattractive, but in the end it ripens and appears in all its glory, juicy and fragrant. What if we are similar to this fruit? What if right now we’re undergoing transitional stages of development and simply haven’t ripened yet? It’s possible that our current state is akin to a sour, hard, unripe apple that hasn’t yet acquired its full colors? Without knowing it in advance, how can one foresee the happy finale of its development?

Similarly, looking at a little senseless child who still has a lot of growing up to do, it’s difficult to imagine that someday he would merge with the grownup life, act independently, and learn new things, changing the world. In contrast, an animal hardly develops at all beyond the few weeks past his birth. Acting on instinct, it doesn’t change itself or the world.

Hence the following conclusions can be drawn. First of all, our development occurs in phases. Moreover, the more “sour” the creation is at the beginning, the “sweeter” it will be in the end. And the further it develops, the more states it undergoes, the more magnificent is the finale of its development, and the more exalted are its achievements.

By collecting all those examples that Nature is showing us into a single picture, we can conclude that we are going along a path of particular development. From generation to generation we are developing as one being that hasn’t yet completed the transitional phases. This is why we’re so “bitter,” so unsuccessful. However, at the end of our development, a wonderful, perfect state undoubtedly awaits us.

We see that the human species dominates over the vegetative and animate world. A human being is the crown of creation. This is why the development of man takes the longest time. This is why he undergoes the most extreme states on the way, which seemingly do not relate to the same species.

And as far as nature that develops us is concerned, we can draw conclusions about ourselves and nature’s relation to us only when we will see the end of development. Otherwise we would err just like with the apple, whose early ripening stages don’t seem to promise anything useful. Only in the end we see with what wisdom nature nurtured it, forming a wonderful and delicious fruit.

According to this law we need to acknowledge that we, too, are undergoing a similar development, and its goal is to undoubtedly bring us at the end of the generations to a kind, wonderful, healthy, absolute, “sweet,” and beautiful state.
[66160] 
From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 2, 12/28/11 

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A Goldmine Of Good Relationships

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You gave an example that in an integral society while I pour a cup of tea for myself, I first have to make sure that everyone else has tea. How should I understand this?

Answer: I gave the example that half of the world is dying from hunger, while the other half is throwing away two-thirds of what they are consuming. So why should we live in such a world? Isn’t this where the terror comes from, all other problems and wars, the senseless waste of energy, pollution of nature?

Question: But now, if I want to drink a glass of water, how should I act correctly, according to your example?

Answer: Let’s study how to be concerned with each other within our group. Afterward, we will move from the group to the nations, and will begin to build relationship systems between them, which will allow us to progress toward a more balanced life.

Obviously, if you are pouring a glass of water for yourself, then you will ask those around you if they want a drink. You will not go passing out water on the street. The water will get there due to the fact that we will build special systems for this.

But I want them to be there! After some small changes occur within me, some understanding attained through the course, and after practical studies, I agree that the society must become more balanced and reach a more or less similar standard of life.

As a first stage, let’s arrange for everyone to have a necessary set of things: X, Y, Z. We will set an objective so that in five years we provide everyone with a roof over their heads, a full provision of clothes, food, and everything that is necessary for the home.

We provide all of this on the basis of surplus, because if you make the calculation it will turn out that we have 90% above what we need. If I love you, then you can come and take half of the clothes in my wardrobe. Believe me, I won’t be sorry. Or, I could take 10% less salary for the sake of someone else and I also would not feel sorry.

Such systems need to be built on government and world scales, but not by force, not under compulsion, but by preliminary education. The Bolsheviks once tried to impose this by force, and everybody knows what came of that. That is why first people need to be educated in order to gain their support for what we are doing.

Each time we have to demonstrate the positive results we are reaching: where the rich who are sacrificing for others are, where the poor who are receiving are, how balanced everything is, and how happy everyone is. Thanks to mutual care, we will be able to get rid of the surpluses nobody needs. We will stop producing thousands of needless medicines, which are now being produced by someone for the sake of their own profit, and are poisoning humanity.

Why should we throw away such huge sums on arms, the military, and much more? There are numerous things that we will have to correct now that we have reached this new era. We will not be able to continue this way. The crisis will lead us to such a state that we will have to tighten our belts. We will not have the means to support the excess, egoistic systems we have built. That is why they are being hit by the crisis and are beginning to break down.

We have to show this together: what harm is done to us as a result of the lack of care for each other and what treasure is revealed before us thanks to our good relationships, a goldmine of good relationships.

However, first of all, integral education is necessary. The whole point is not to redistribute the surplus and offset the shortages. The point is that there is an internal tendency, which exists and has brought us to the necessity of uniting. The network, which connects us all, is being revealed; it obliges us to be in kind relationships.

For this reason, the common global crisis is occurring on all levels of our activities in everything that connects us with each other. The crisis is the lack of correct connections between people. This is the explanation for all of the separate crises: in the family, education, culture, in everything, and now the economy. Because of the wrong connections between us, we are all suffering.

These crises, that is, the external connections between us, will not improve until we sincerely invest in them and build trust in each other. Only then will we be able to develop the systems which will lead us to balance.

We see that there is a global, integral form being revealed in our external world as well as in our internal states. Meaning, we have nowhere to run. It is not in vain that we have entered into this crisis; we no longer are to develop simply under the pressure of nature.

Now we have entered such a situation that as long as man does not think about and discover his evil, decide that he must change, and see it as a choice between life and death, until that happens, he will not agree to a new education. He has to see that there is no way out and that he needs to educate himself in a new way and to build new systems.

Then he begins to search, what can help him with this? At this point, everyone must have their say: the psychologists who will advise working through a group, sociologists, political scientists, pedagogues, educators, and sports trainers. We need to build such systems so that a person begins to understand the need for change based on knowledge gained and he or she knows how to realize the changes practically. For this purpose it is necessary to provide a place for education.
[68886]
From KabTv’s “A New Life” Episode 6, 1/3/12

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