Entries in the 'Television' Category

New Life 687 – Real Self-Criticism

New Life 687 – Real Self-Criticism
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

“The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh” (Ecclesiastes 4:5); everything that happens is handed from above, so we must look forward. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches how it is possible to intervene with the future and change things from a bad path to a good path. Nobody learns anything from the past, so there is no reason to dig into it. All of humanity is deteriorating, but since it is impossible to change the previous moment, there is no reason to consider it.

A person cannot change anything for the better himself, but can only attract the positive force of nature to counterbalance the negativity that is in him. If he attracts the positive force, he has nothing to fear from the future or to “eat himself up” about the past. The evil force in us is the ego that wants everything for itself, and the good force is the power of giving. From our time forward begins a new era in the development of the ego, and we require the good power in nature to survive.

This is not a fanatical religious approach, rather it is the most realistic one there is. There is a higher force that manages us, and a person is responsible for how much he attracts the force of goodness into his life. He should criticize himself only in regard to this. Our system of management is called the “soul,” through which I can measure and feel how much good and how much evil there is in me. It is up to me only to attract the good force into my life, and I don’t have to do anything about everything else.

I am responsible for the next moment, and not the previous moment. Advanced physics is discovering that there is no time, rather everything is relative in regard to us, and what was in the past is not our responsibility, and so we have no criticism about the past. But tomorrow is again in our hands, and the good force is the power of giving and love; it is essential for survival in the connected world of today. The power of giving and love connects us to everyone and suddenly we see that the whole world is me; it is my soul.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 687 – Real Self-Criticism,” 2/4/16

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New Life #635 – The Good, The Bad And The Person

New Life #635 – The Good, The Bad, And The Person
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

Even though studies show that good deeds cause a good feeling, people are not attracted to this. In the street we don’t encounter people who will come and be good to us; on the contrary, we are constantly on guard.

Good deeds don’t spread virally, they don’t infect other people; there is an internal brake in us. The evil inclination is human nature, and it is worthwhile to realize this. It doesn’t let us relate to others with goodness.

We are developing in a worse and worse direction; relationships are deteriorating; even the family unit is breaking down. There was a time when a person was connected to a village, a homeland, a people. Today this contact is being lost all over the world.

Doing good for others requires many forces that a person doesn’t have; he must always benefit somehow. In Russia they tried to obligate people to be good by force; we have seen the grave results of this. In the Scandinavian nations, there is social security, but this is only because everyone knows that nobody will care about them.

It is up to us to reach an awareness of this, that from year to year we are becoming distant from each other. A person loses connection with his relatives. In charitable organizations, people are working who have a natural inclination for it. They comprise about 10 percent of the population.

The nature of a person doesn’t allow him to benefit others, so we are deteriorating into a situation where we are devouring each other. There is a force in nature that can stop the deterioration. If we locate it, we can counterbalance the evil in us. If we don’t locate this good force, the evil in us will increase and distance us from each other completely. The positive force is latent in the interior of nature and will counterbalance the evil in us. It is necessary to learn how to locate it.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #635 – The Good, The Bad And The Person,” 10/21/16

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New Life 686 – The Freedom Of Self-Criticism

New Life 686 – The Freedom Of Self-Criticism
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Until today criticism has helped us develop, but nowadays there is no proper criticism. Everyone just “dumps out” bad things about others. Self-criticism, the ability to judge, requires looking at things from the side without prejudice.

Today nobody can get along with anyone; there is nobody who is able to provide useful criticism. Humanity doesn’t understand what is happening; it is advancing towards self-destruction and even the family unit is collapsing.

The self-critical system of a person who is a Kabbalist is constructed according to the higher value, “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). With the help of the method of the wisdom of Kabbalah, a person attracts the Light that Reforms, the positive force, against the evil inclination, and this is through self-criticism if he attracts enough of this positive force upon himself to provide him with the right perspective.

The only concern of a person must be how to attract the positive power that is concealed in nature unto himself to counterbalance the evil that is in him. Until then, a person’s self-criticism will not be beneficial in any way.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 686 – The Freedom Of Self-Criticism,” 2/4/16

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A Head Transplant

Laitman_127Question: Sergio Canavero, an Italian surgeon, plans to perform a complicated human head transplant, following experiments that have been carried out on apes in the US. According to the Italian doctor, the first operation on a human being will be performed within two years’ time. Do you believe that this is possible?

Answer: Why not? A head transplant is merely a technical issue, that’s all. If they don’t solve this issue now, it will happen in another 10 to 20 years.

I remember the first human heart transplant that was performed in South Africa in 1967. Everyone held their breath and waited to see whether the person in whose body that heart was planted would begin to think differently. We have very primitive ideas regarding the human body, and we think that there is some spirit living in it and that it is transferred to another along with a heart or liver.

Question: Still, the idea of a head transplant is a bit scary.

Answer: Yes, the head is the major part of the body. The thoughts that come from the head control the body.

Question: How do the thoughts come to the head?

Answer: This is a different matter altogether. There must be a different kind of transplant here. We need to connect to the upper modem in order to do so and learn to receive signals from the upper mind. This is a flight in a totally different class.

There is actually nothing in the head except for grey matter. The head is like a computer that is fed by the outside world, and there is nothing else inside of it. If you study the head, you will find nothing there since our knowledge is not inside our head, but is external to us, just as all of reality is external to us. We are merely vessels that perceive what is in space and nothing more.

We need to get into this space to the level where all of the information is: energy, knowledge, and most importantly properties. The attributes are the most important part because the information, energy, and knowledge are technical entities, while the attributes belong to the upper level of nature called the Creator. The uppermost attribute is the attribute of love. However, in order to penetrate the attributes, a person needs to undergo the special training that is studied by Kabbalists, the essence of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

The work of attaining the Creator’s attributes is replacing the head, which a person performs during his lifetime in this world without any transplants. It isn’t a transplant but a gradual ascent to the level of the upper information, the upper properties. I invite anyone who is interested in that to come and study.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/5/16

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New Life 631 – Israel Is The Strongest Country In The World

New Life 631 – Israel Is The Strongest Country In The World
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

How do you define a strong country? What determines its stability, and under what conditions can Israel become the strongest country in the world?

Time, just like an internal engine, develops the human race. In the 21st century, we have become dependent on one another. It is impossible to know what will happen the next moment. Whoever is strong today may be weak tomorrow. Uncertainty rules every aspect of life.

Russia has grown weaker. Europe thought about unity and today everything is falling apart there. The world is constantly changing. Any connection between countries doesn’t hold for long. And this is also true on the individual level where families break up, etc.

A person doesn’t care about anything. He is full of doubts and absorbed in his cell phone. If a person were given a couple of thousands of dollars in order to manage abroad, many would leave this place.

In this chaos it is very difficult to say which country is strong, not to speak of stability. Israel today is very weak since there are many factors that can instantly undermine our stability. But we can make this country the strongest in the world if we learn to use our special force. Our world is operated by a network of forces and only we Jews have the power to affect this network.

It depends on whether we connect and become as one man in one heart. This is how strength can be measured. No other country but Israel can be strong. All the countries in the world depend on us. If we connect, we will ensure our safety, since we will thus oblige everyone to connect to us willingly. Only Israel has freewill. The rest of the world depends on the quality of the connection between us Israelis.

Being connected means being responsible for one another, like brothers in a good family. The good relations between us will lead to the equivalence of form with the system of leadership and providence in nature. Nature is made of the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature and man, all connected into one system, like parts of one body. Today we discover that the world is globally connected, that everyone affects everyone else, and that everyone depends on everyone else. Building the good mutual connection between us makes us compatible with the network of the leadership of reality, and then we gain the protective force.

The nations of the world feel that the key to the future of the world is in our hands and so they blame us for everything. In the past, a nation that had nuclear weapons was considered to be strong, but today it is less meaningful since many countries have nuclear weapons. Israel will become the strongest country in the world when we become compatible with the upper force that sustains all of nature.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explores the system of Providence and the exact laws it operates by. From where does someone get the thought of getting up and attacking? It comes from the upper system. Only we have the possibility to control the thoughts and desires that will awaken in all of humanity through this network.

What will a strong Israel be like? It will be a country that knows only one thing: that we must be connected in a good way. Then no terrorists will rise against us and all the countries in the world will like and support us in every way.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 631 – Israel Is The Strongest Country In The World,” 10/8/15

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New Life 685 – Dealing With Criticism In The Family

New Life 685 – Dealing With Criticism In The Family
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Our growing ego even causes us to criticize our children and demand that our children realize what we didn’t attain. But criticism should be minimal, maintaining boundaries that we define for our familial standards, and the child must learn how to activate his critical sense by himself correctly, keeping within the framework of the family. If he doesn’t criticize himself when he goes against the accepted rules of the family, then we parents criticize him gently to provide him with the tools to be self-critical.

A child needs to know that he has a family for his whole life, and that if he goes against the generally accepted rules in the family, he will lose the right relationship with it. The most important general rule is to be connected to the family; this is the highest value, and if he behaves in a way that is not acceptable in the family, he will lose the connection and security, and this will bring him back on the right track.

The family is the basic unit in nature and we must not destroy it. Parents give birth to new life, and if they divorce, they destroy the good familial relationship for the children.

We require preparation to know how to criticize each other with love and to receive it with good spirit. For example, how do we behave with a child who isn’t studying for a test? We express our familial expectation that he will succeed; we help him study, and it is also possible to promise him a reward.

To do this we must gradually build familial standards: everyone must say how he will contribute to the family, and the family will express its appreciation and thanks for all of his daily contributions at fixed times, even if this is artificial and contrived. It is important to open a new page every day without mentioning the events of the previous day. We could give each other a kiss when we meet, and so forth. That is how we set principles, agreements, and habits and provide examples, since personal example is the best influence, more than words.

If I have a criticism, I must restrain myself and only approach it gently and ask: “Did you do that on purpose?” With this I am not expressing my attitude about what he did. Instead I am clarifying with the child his attitude about what he did and his intention. I help him clarify what he did and what he meant by it, with love. In this way I am teaching him how to criticize himself.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 685 – Dealing With Criticism In The Family,” 2/2/16

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New Life #508 – The Whole Truth About The Upper Force

New Life #508 – The Whole Truth About the Upper Force
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe.

Summary

There is an operating system surrounding the universe and the different forces of this system operate our world. Above these forces there is one force. The goal of our spiritual development is to get to know the upper force, to understand that it operates from inside us and speaks inside us.

All the Holy sources teach us how to discover the upper force. The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us that we shouldn’t blindly believe that this force exists, but should explore, study, and discover it by ourselves.

The great Kabbalists, who were very wise people that lived thousands of years ago; they developed many levels, and wrote books in which they encoded the inner secrets of the upper system. All these books actually teach us how to attain the upper force.

Today the wisdom of Kabbalah is being revealed, inviting everyone to learn how to develop his soul and get to know the upper force; it is the attribute of love and bestowal, the good and benevolent force. This is how the ancient Kabbalists actually broke through the borders of time and space and conveyed the message about the force of love and bestowal to us in the books written through “love thy friend as thyself.”
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From KabTV’s “New Life #508 – The Whole Truth About The Upper Force,” 1/22/15

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New Life 684 – The Need To Criticize Others

New Life 684 – The Need To Criticize Others
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

It is natural to criticize others since we are all egoists. Each of us wants to be the king and to rule, and even in school we can already see who the critical and cunning kids are, qualities that accompany them in political positions and on an international level. The more a person’s ego grows, the more he feels distinct from others and the greater his criticism of others.

Today, social networks and the Internet enable a person to criticize everything and to say whatever is on his mind to let out steam. In the future, the ego will be even more complex, pride will grow, and very few in the world will behave differently. In ancient times, in the early days of humanity, the ego was collective, but as the ego developed more and more, each member of the tribe felt that he was separate. The sense of criticism developed in order to separate man from others to our current state when everyone hates everyone else.

A person attacks the one who criticizes him while allowing himself to criticize everyone else since he feels that he is the clever one who understands everything. On the next level of the development of the ego, a person will feel so distant from others that he will have nothing to do with them, not in commerce or in any other area. Each of us will sit alone in his home and only machines will do the work for us. People will not even engage in sports; everything will freeze.

There can be constructive criticism only toward someone we love, but today everyone hates everyone else, and when everyone feels isolated and lonely and the question of “what am I living for?” awakens in a person, the correction of the ego will follow.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 684 – The Need To Criticize Others,” 2/2/16

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Expelling Greece From Schengen

Laitman_728_01Question: Austria is proposing to expel Greece from the Schengen area (the community southeast of Luxembourg located next to the triangular borders of Luxembourg, France and Germany).

The Austrian Interior Minister demanded that Greece, already burdened with debt and problems, close its sea and land borders with Turkey and prevent the flow of refugees who are penetrating Greece from Turkey and going on to Europe.

How realistic is the Austrian demand, and what can Greece, Turkey, and Europe do about this situation?

Answer: Turkey is not interested in stopping the flow of refugees or limiting it in any way. On the contrary, it is interested in allowing the maximal flow of Muslims into Europe because it is a Muslim nation.

Greece is not able to close its borders, not merely because it has a weak army, but because it is has hundreds of islands.If a boat with immigrants come to the shore to some of the island, would each island be equipped with a military force? Each of the islands has a pair of police officers, but they can not and will not. What will they do against the usual 30-40 healthy youths who get off a boat?

Question: So the European Union wants to sever Greece from Europe so that the refugees will remain in Greece?

Answer: Certainly, I understand that Europe very simply solves its problems at the expense of the weak. It has a very direct, practical, and strict approach. It immediately does what is beneficial to it, without delay.

However, the issue is not about Greece. The EU well aware that if the migrants don’t pass through Greece, they will look for other nations to cross through. We see how these people are going by a circuitous route to Murmansk and continuing on from there. Arabs are coming from warm Middle Eastern countries by way of cold Russia. It is difficult for me to imagine how they won’t freeze on the way and die.

It is not possible to stop this flow. It will not make any difference how many parliamentary meetings will be held. This will not bring any results because millions of people are already on the way, and they will clear their way by all means and methods. Along with millions of migrants, the fighters of Daesh also will pass through.

In fact, Europe has brought itself to a situation in which it is already occupied. In comparison to its power and solidarity (more precisely, its lack of solidarity), the mass that has already filled Europe is sufficient to do what it wants there.

The migrants will pass through the process of absorption and adaptation. They will settle and rapidly put down roots because they are not pretentious. Then, they will begin to bow Europe under them.

Europe itself will let them do this. In the wisdom of Kabbalah and in the books of the prophets, it is said that Ishmael, which represents Islam, will conquer Europe and dominate it.

Question: Not long ago, I returned from Bulgaria, and I was convinced that the social opinion is very clear there. The Bulgarians are not prepared to allow the migrants into their country, and indeed they are not found there.

The same thing is happening in Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia; while in Norway, Sweden, and Germany, they are opening up their countries to the migrants, without taking any effective means against it. How is it possible to explain that the various peoples of Europe are not behaving in a similar and unequivocal manner?

Answer: It is difficult for us to understand this because we have not gone through the entire process of social development of the Western European nations, especially that of Scandinavia, which has become so socialist that it can no longer change back.

Question: For the Scandinavians, there is no longer anything to want. I asked the Norwegians what their children want, and they could not answer the question. In these nations, there is only foreign labor at work. The local residents don’t even understand what to do in life. Their future seems entirely arranged to them.

Answer: This is happening at the present time until the foreign workers become the masters. That is usually how it happens in history. Europe was once conquered by the Romans. After that, the Romans became weaker and Europe conquered them. The present historical period is typified by the spread of Islam over Europe, exactly as Europe once wanted to extend itself over the Islamic nations.

From a historical point of view, there is nothing new in this, but the period ahead is shocking to us because Europe is the center of culture and developed civilization that is going through a wild fall.

There is no remedy that will help anymore, except for one: It is only if all of the civilizations and religions will understand that the future must be in resembling nature, and that nature, the Creator or whatever you want to call it, is demanding that we become integrally linked with each other. If we don’t achieve this, we will constantly receive all kinds of blows.

We already see that we cannot control and manage the connections, resources, and systems that we ourselves have created in human society. We cannot continue to exist normally. A decline in morality and all human values is happening.

We are not giving anything to our children and have ourselves reached a common understanding that there is no need to raise a family, to reproduce, and no need to educate children. We have reached a situation where the system is beginning to bury itself.

The result is that we understand that resemblance and equivalence to nature, about which the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks, is the correct and singular solution to the problem. So, we must take an example from nature. This could happen after many blows and wars, and it could happen much sooner if people would begin to listen to the Kabbalists and we were to create the correct society. In any case, humanity must break this deadlock. We hope that humanity will achieve this with only a minimum of suffering.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/28/16

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Why Do People Make Mistakes?

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Numbers,” 22:28: The Lord opened the mouth of the she-donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you that you have struck me these three times?”

The word “she-donkey,” like the word “donkey” (Hamor), stems from the Hebrew word “Homer” – matter, and refers to to a person’s egoistic nature. The Creator operates as the vital direct force on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, so they don’t object to it. But the moment the she-donkey begins to talk, it is raised to the human level, the level of Balaam himself.

Compared to the other levels, it is possible to make mistakes on the human level because the Creator is concealed. The Creator is not concealed from nature itself, and in fact the laws that are revealed in matter are the direct revelation of the Creator.

The questions, doubts, and speculations come up on the human level, and so a person makes mistakes and corrects himself and then makes mistakes once more and corrects himself again.

The she-ass represents matter on all of the levels of life; it represents nature that is controlled by positive and negative forces that are balanced instinctively, aimed at clarifying actions according to the law of nature.

On the human level there are doubts and problems that must be solved. This is the reason that the she-as is much smarter than Balaam because the Creator is revealed in the animate level it is on, while He is concealed on the level of the speaking and is not revealed.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/12/15

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