Entries in the 'News' Category

How To Talk To Children About War

627.2Comment: Many viewers, quite a number, are asking this question: “How do you talk to children about the war? How do we explain to them what’s going on?” How does one explain why they are bombing and why childhood has ended to those children who are hiding with their parents in bomb shelters and in the subway?” And other children whose childhood continues, those who do not hear sirens and explosions but see what is happening to their peers, ask why this is so.

And the main question is: How do you raise children at a time like this when wars, suffering, and tears are non-stop?

My Response: Children can understand because they also fight with each other. After all, egoism works from a very young age.

So there is nothing here that needs to be hidden from them. Indeed, if we don’t bring up children correctly, then, just like they play in childhood and want to take away from each other and become such bullies, so they continue in adulthood, and that is why we end up with war as a result. Grown men no longer have just shovels or sticks in their hands, now it is something serious. And that is when war begins.

So what should we do? While children are little like yourselves, remember, we tell children, we need to teach you, to bring you up to be able to talk to each other, to come to agree with each other, and to learn to compromise. Then you will not get to such terrible, big problems like these men who start these wars. That is what comes from the fact that in childhood they did not obey their mother.

Question: Do you think that a child will listen to that?

Answer: When he sees this very thing? He is extremely impressed.

Question: When he is under fire? Can he be told just like this?

Answer: Tell him exactly like this. Of course. This is true education. This is the basis of wartime education.

Question: So it’s not to dwell on “enemy,” “hatred,” or “against us”?

Answer: No, they will not understand it; they have no concept of it, no foundation. But when you explain in terms of childhood play and give and take, “when you wanted to take something, but he didn’t give it to you,” you can talk about everything.

Isn’t it how it really works? These games of oil and gas and all sorts of international relations, are they not the same children’s games?

Comment: It has turned into something dangerous.

My Response: Yes, because they didn’t stop it in time or couldn’t explain it in time. So this is how it turned out. Because in childhood they could not explain to understand that it is never necessary to resolve disputes by force. Can you convince the others? If yes, great. If not, compromise.

Question: Should the child understand that disputes are not resolved by force?

Answer: They can’t be resolved by force; otherwise, we will destroy each other. Can you imagine it in the modern world?

Question: How are disputes resolved? What should the child we are raising understand? How do you explain to a child how to resolve disputes?

Answer: Only by persuasion, when you do not force another person to peace, but when you explain to each other how you can come to peace together, with mutual concessions, and not with the approach of “I am right and you are wrong, and now you will understand it.”

Comment: Now you have said a very serious thing, that a child should be able to compromise.

My Response: Of course! This is the most important thing in education. Otherwise what is all the education for? To teach how to hit first? To hit stronger? Or better? It is for the sake of being able to stop and compromise.

Comment: This is the most difficult thing, for children especially.

My Response: Of course. Because they have exposed egoism, small, but revealed.

Question: So you propose to teach concessions, to teach a child so he can yield to others?

Answer: Everything needs to be explained. And then sit in a circle and conduct practical exercises.

Comment: If there is an argument, let’s sort it out? How can we not fight but make peace. This is such a long system…

My Response: Otherwise it will take even longer.

Question: Can this be explained to children who are under fire?

Answer: To everyone! It all depends on the words, vocabulary, and expressions you use. You are explaining this to the ego, which is the same in a small child as it is in a grown-up man, it is the same egoism.

Comment: The main problem here is to train teachers, prepare those who can teach what it means to come to peace, and what annulment means.

My Response: Yes, this is the most important.
[295328]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/3/22

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We Should Become Transparent

707Poor Earth, all our shadows fall on it ( Stanisław Jerzy Lec).

Question: Why is it poor that our shadows fall on it?

Answer: Well said! This is exactly why it is poor. Our entire egoism and everything we obscure with ourselves, with our disgusting “I,” all of this falls on Earth.

We want to cover the Earth with all our egoism, literally cover it with all our egoistic intentions, desires, and thoughts, in everything.

Question: How should it be? After all, we are egoists.

Answer: We have to make an absolutely transparent body out of ourselves so that the light fully passes through us to the Earth.

We should not leave any traces of our own on the Earth at all! We must live on Earth as animals live on it. They do not pervert or vandalize the Earth, they do not distort it. We should be the same.

Question: Then our shadows will not fall? Will there be no shadow then?

Answer: Yes, this is our problem. Do you understand what we are doing to Earth?!

Question: So we should cast no shadow on Earth?

Answer: No.
[295510]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/10/22

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What Will Cure Us Of Hatred?

294.2Question: Olesya asks: “Why does the Creator embroil [animosity] between nations? This is His doing, isn’t it?”

Answer: Undoubtedly, His. The Creator puts us at odds in order to teach us so that we understand what a nasty nature He created in us.

You see, what a trick the Creator played that He made us so low and shows it to us all the time in order for us to hate what He created in us and turn to Him. Look how it’s done! It is to Him that we turn and beg to correct us, to make us the opposite of what He made.

Question: “Make us loving” is what we should turn to Him?

Answer: Yes! That’s what I want.

Question: And only He can do this?

Answer: Only He who made us hate each other can do it.

Question: So everything revolves around Him? Absolutely everything! And I can only love someone else through Him?

Answer: Of course! Provided that you love the Creator, to that extent you will love another. And in no other way.

Question: Was there any other way to perform this scenario from His side? Is it possible to make a creation immediately loving? Immediately happy?

Answer: And what would happen in this case? Then the creation would be at the level of an animal (or plant), and it would perform some functions. But it would not feel what it is doing. It would be a machine.

Question: And here it is needed for me to have my desire, my aspiration?

Answer: Of course. Otherwise there will be nothing. Because if there is no change, growth, and evaluation of oneself and others, it will not be creation, it will not be life.

Comment: It turns out this way: The Creator deliberately created egoism in us, develops it, brings it to the point that we hate each other, enter into wars, clashes, and are ready to destroy each other so that we suddenly stop at some point and are horrified at ourselves.

My Response: We would understand that we are going toward complete destruction and that we are starting to just cut each other and consume each other alive. In actual fact! And then a revelation arises in us: Am I really such a bloodthirsty wild animal?

Why do I have such a thought? Because there is a point of new awareness. It is not just born like that. This point is called the “human” level, which is born in me. And I begin to feel: I’m like a dinosaur tearing everything up and devouring everything, and suddenly I stop. And that’s where the human begins to develop in me.

And I throw away this half-eaten corpse, sit down on a stump in the image of such a dinosaur and start thinking: “What’s going on? What am I doing? Who am I? Who is doing this to me?”, etc.

And then the appeal begins in search of the reason: Who did this to me, whom should I address? And then the search for the Creator begins.

Question: So then it’s already moving to this address —Who did all this to me? Is that the most important thing? Is our main task to reach this straight line? From this point there: Who did this to me and why is this so?

Answer: Certainly.

There were thousands of years and millions, and even billions of years when none of this happened. When it developed just the way matter develops. And when self-awareness arises in matter, then there already, in this matter, a point arises, which we then call a point in the heart. And it begins to look for the root cause—the Creator. It has a feeling of longing: I want to know who my father is. Or not the father, but the Creator. This is the beginning of the history of humanity, and not just wildlife.

Question: So our entire thousand-year history of wars, tragedies, and sufferings only leads to this point?

Answer: Sure. Millions and billions of years and all this means nothing. Everything leads only to this point.

Question: But today it wakes up in a person?

Answer: It wakes up in many. This period is special.

Comment: Yes, you and I happened to live at that time.

My Response: Yes. But we’re not done yet. So, we’ll live for a while.

Question: Do you hope that this period has come now?

Answer: I only know one thing: I don’t want to ask about anything. I want to try to do what I can. That’s all.

Question: And what is the main task you have set for yourself?

Answer: To push as many people as possible as far as possible from the present state to the goal of creation—to the connection of everyone.
[295598]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/28/22

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The End Of The World Is Near

962.6Question: Arkady asks, “It looks like the end of the world is near. And the worst thing is that everyone around is calmly talking about it. Only recently we wanted to live happily, we were making plans for the future, and we suddenly realize that none of this will happen. What do we do now?”

Answer: Who told you that what you wanted was good? Let’s sort it out.

Comment: People just wanted simple human happiness.

My Response: Get a shot and forget everything. Or even better, take a pill, fall asleep, be at peace.

This is not the purpose of our development. So we shouldn’t try to stay in the “sandbox” where we used to live and play that we were building toy houses from sand.

Question: So you think it was all child’s games?

Answer: Yes. A little egoism was developing. Now we must rise above that egoism. We must start looking forward and in a different way.

To play seriously means to play the Creator, to make  sure that the Creator is between us in all our thoughts and actions. This is called to play for real.

Question: Is it possible to say that before I do something I kind of try to turn to the Creator?

Answer: Yes. And do it in a way that you imagine that you are doing it for His sake, instead of Him, for Him.

For Him means for the sake of others. Nothing affects the Creator and He does not need anything. There is only one possibility: to get strength from Him to act for the sake of people.

Question: Does it turn out that the formula “I want to be happy” changes to “I want people to be happy, I want everyone around me to be happy”?

Answer: But really happy, not the way I want them to be happy, but the way the Creator wants. Because this is the law of the universe. It is absolute and objective.

Question: How does He want people to be happy? What is it for the Creator?

Answer: Move into other people, enter them, and start feeling what is most important to them. Then build it together with them.

Question: What do you think will be the most important thing for people?

Answer: To feel close to each other. In this, a person begins to feel perfection.

Question: Is there peace, happiness, and security there, at this point?

Answer: The end of everything. Not the end in the sense of ending, but simply perfection.

Question: Are all people close to each other, like all people are brothers and sisters?

Answer: Yes, they completely disappear in the form they are in now. They enter the realm of perfection.

Question: So now if I want to use the other for myself, there I want to give myself completely to the other, right?

Answer: Yes. This is the mutual bestowal of ourselves to each other. It is called Hashpaa (bestowal) in Kabbalah. This is the state of perfection, the spiritual state.

Comment: This is a great wisdom we are studying.

My Response: It will be revealed even more! It will be developed even more, and it will expand into feelings.
[295018]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/28/22

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“The Hunger Games Of War” (Medium)


Medium published my new article “The Hunger Games of War”

After a month of war in Ukraine, an unprecedented world food crisis is anticipated. The wheat exports of Russia and Ukraine combined account for nearly 30 percent of global production, while Russia is the main fertilizer exporter in the world. Therefore, the conflict threatens to rapidly unleash a “perfect storm” in global agriculture, affecting food availability and prices. At its root, we need to realize that the impending hunger is not the result of a lack of food but a consequence of an excess of human egoism.

If we consider that around 45 million people in the world are already on the brink of famine, and nearly 283 million people in 81 countries are at high risk for food insecurity (according to estimates of the World Food Program), the forecast for the future is not promising. An energy crunch and skyrocketing increases in natural gas prices, have dealt a severe blow to food production and transportation costs.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization predicts a spike of at least 20 percent in food prices in the coming months, on top of the disruptions and cost increases due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is expected that the situation will acutely exacerbate global food security and create social unrest and instability.

If the world had approached the problem of food security correctly, it might not have reached such a crisis as to endanger provisions that could put millions in danger of starvation. We could have approached the situation in a healthy way and assessed what we have, how much is needed, who is lacking, and how to best distribute our resources, as in a family.

The problem is that while the world is increasingly interdependent, at the same time it has become increasingly disconnected. No one really thinks about the welfare of others. In some places, the basic grains for consumption will be even burned in order to keep the prices high, causing people in other places to literally starve to death. So the food crisis we face is not a matter of limited provisions but the lack of mutual concern and responsibility between us.

This is not the first food crisis the world has faced and will not be the last one. The billions of dollars received by international organizations to tackle hunger could have fed the entire world several times over, but the problem is not solved because there is no real interest in finding a solution. Hunger is a profitable business and a way of dominance. Those who make a cash cow out of it will be happy to perpetuate starvation. Others, in a cold-headed analysis, even look at the global population of 8 billion and think that it would be easier and more advantageous overall to deal with half that number of people, as was the case one hundred years ago when fewer natural resources were demanded.

In my view, until we deal with the heart of the problem, which is the egoism in human nature and the war between self-benefit and the common interest, we will find no remedy for our woes. We have run out of options. Only rising above selfish interests for common benefit can spare humanity many more years of needless torment.

The food crisis we face should force us to reassess our priorities about how to deal with global problems. Only when people grasp that everyone in society is dependent on everyone else and that the world is like one body in which a severe illness in any of its organs affects the whole system to the point of collapse, will we begin to change. At that time we will begin to see acts of mutual concern, and support systems that are established by the community, authorities, and everyone responsible for the emergence of a new society of mutual responsibility. Humanity simply has no other choice, no other way to survive.
[295799]

When Will Wars Stop?

294.2Comment: Some scholars profess that we should understand that war is the normal state of humanity at all times. What do you think about this statement?

My Response: We see throughout history that peace cannot exist without war and that there are periods of peace and periods of war.

If this is what happened historically, then we must accept this as given.

Comment: But I do not want to accept this!

My Response: Then you need to find a method in which war does not take place in the form it does now. It will take place within the world. This is what Kabbalah says, that a person should fight with himself a little every day. And then he will have no need or no inclination to fight with others.

Question: With what should I fight in myself?

Answer: Fight with your egoism with which you want to conquer the entire world, tie everyone up, and so on. On the contrary, all this is unnecessary.

Question: Does it mean that it is egoism that bursts out into wars?

Answer: Of course it is our egoism that forces us to fight each other. Here we need to understand that we can slowly balance this egoism, and this should be our daily work.

Question: And then it will not burst out into wars?

Answer: In no way will it burst out because it will not be necessary. I will fight with myself every day, and thus I will not have to fight with someone.

On the contrary, I will need to take everyone as a helper against my egoism.

Comment: This is very practical advice!

My Response: Tell it to those who start wars.

Comment: How can we tell this to all of them? After all, this is really how wars arise, over pride, over egoism, over the statement “I said!”.

My Response: We can clearly see that.
[294595]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/24/22

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293Comment: Irina asks: “Are there really wars in spirituality too? I always thought there was only love there.”

My Response: From the beginning of the world to the end, the entire universe, except for the sole Creator, the only upper force of love, everything else is built on the battle of opposites, which means, on war.

And the Creator is attained by us when we achieve love in the form of the absolute annulment of hatred, war, and confrontation, i.e., in the complete annulment of everyone in front of others. In this way we form the image of the Creator in ourselves, we create Him. As it is said, “You have made Me.”

Question: Are you talking about a war inside every person right now? Is this a spiritual warfare?

Answer: Yes, and the external is only at the animal level.

Question: You once said that external wars occur because we have not conducted our internal wars properly, and therefore external wars appear. Can you explain this a little more? I did not finish my war?

Answer: I had to fight, I had to resist, and I had to stand, act at the head of the forces of light against the dark forces within myself, and thus see how by this I am moving the world toward a state of connection, rapprochement, and love in all its opposite pieces. And in this way I bring the state of war to the state of real peace.

The word is “Shalom,” “Shlemut,” complete connection (“Ashlama“).

Somehow, I still didn’t finish something somewhere, and therefore I gave it the opportunity to manifest itself in the lowest form, in this physical world.

Question: So now, in order to stop this external war, I have to go back to my internal wars again?

Answer: I have to do it, and everyone has to do it. Because the war is external, it exists only to move us toward an internal connection.

Question: So the resolution of the war by external forces where someone won and someone lost is not the solution of the war?

Answer: Of course not.

Question: And then there will be the next war?

Answer: Of course! We solve nothing by this. This is resolved on the road, on the way: how to continue the next page of the war.

Question: So the next page of the war, one way or another, will be? And maybe even scarier?

Answer: Of course it will be scarier. The most important thing is to quickly determine at the beginning of the conflict what it is and to extinguish it by connecting and complementing the conflicting parties so that they reveal the Creator.

Question: Let’s say there are two conflicting parties who hate each other. How can they suddenly stop at the beginning of a conflict?

Answer: Rise among themselves, rise above yourself, imagine what the world should be like if they were united together so much that they cannot distinguish between each other, but can only feel the connection between them.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/7/22

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“Illiterates Have To Dictate”

272Question: According to Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, “Illiterates have to dictate.” What does this mean to you?

Answer: They have to dictate because literate people are quietly standing on the sidelines remaining silent.

Question: When you say “illiterates” have to dictate, what do you mean?

Answer: Just these petty egoists who appear everywhere and crawl out through all sorts of holes.

Question: Are these illiterate ones our desires for fame and power?

Answer: Yes.

Question: To whom are they dictating? To the literate ones?

Answer: They want to dictate to the entire world.

Question: Do they manage to do so?

Answer: Of course! They have reshaped the entire world to suit their egoism. Every day and with every generation this world is becoming more egoistic, arrogant, and blunt. No one regrets it and no one is ashamed to use this egoism. It is instead on the contrary. And this all was all done by small, illiterate, stupid, boorish egoists.

Question: When do literate people get involved?

Answer: When people become convinced that it is no longer possible to continue in this way, because by doing these things they bring themselves to extermination and self-destruction. Then perhaps there will be a solution. Perhaps!
[294690]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/23/21

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Only God Is Infallible

220Question: Alexey asks: “The world has gone crazy. How can we prevent a Third World War? It will most likely be nuclear.”

Answer: Yes, of course. I do not think that countries will hold back, because now they are beginning to refer to each other as: “You,” “And who are you?”, “And you,” “Know your place!”, and so on.

That is, they do not turn to people or the leaders of a country, but to the country as if the country itself is a person. And this is why I am afraid that it really could happen. It is not that nerves will snap. I see to what extent one person can still command and indicate his will, his decision, and everyone will bow down before him and fulfill it. This should not be the case in the modern world.

Only God is infallible.

Question: Are you saying that in order to get to the button, a person should go through a great number of internal and external barriers?

Answer: Yes. It cannot be under the control of one person, one finger that presses something and does something. This should be a decision and a simultaneous pressing in different places. Maybe there should be several start buttons. This must be a conscious decision of the majority!

Question: Do you have a feeling that a Third World War is approaching?

Answer: Kabbalah does not deny this. Baal HaSulam writes about this.

Comment: Yes, the great Kabbalist Baal HaSulam wrote that a third and even a fourth nuclear war are possible in order for humanity to come to a correction.

My Response: To final correction. So that it will see that it can be stopped on the way to final correction. Humanity must overcome itself and rise above its egoism so that this egoism will be in front of it as its most important enemy. Not Americans against Russians and so on, but exactly my inner enemy—egoism.

Question: Only with it can there be a war of annihilation?

Answer: This is called annihilation. In fact, what we should destroy is the intention for one’s own sake.
[294971]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/28/22

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Do Not Lower Yourself To The Dwarfs

514.02Dealings with dwarfs deform the spine (Stanislaw Jerzy Lec).

Question: Can you comment on this?

Answer: That is right. Beautiful! Do not bow down, do not give in, and do not lower yourself to the small people. Very often we have to do this here, everywhere in in our lives. Do not do that. Remain in proud isolation.

Question: Who are dwarfs?

Answer: Dwarfs are people who have all sorts of petty, egoistic goals and achievements and try to impose them on everyone. And in the end life is like that.

Question: We should not bend down to them?

Answer: No, absolutely not! We should not agree, bend down, or be with them. Do not lower your spirit to their level.
[294451]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 12/23/21

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