New Life #300 – Return To Nature

New Life #300 – Return to Nature
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

The strong monkey takes care of all the weak monkeys in the band and does not destroy anything. Humankind needs to learn from the examples nature gives us. The egoism of humankind destroys the world like a cancerous tumor because it is insatiable. We do not need to go back to living in the trees, but we do need to correct our attitude toward one another and all of creation.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #300 – Return to Nature,” 2/13/14

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Hanukkah Is A Stop In The Middle Of The Path

We are entering a special period of the Hanukkah holiday. This holiday has a very interesting story, but we are more concerned with its spiritual meaning. Man, as a common soul, was created completely opposite to the Creator.

After all, qualities of the Creator are bestowal and love, and qualities of the creature are reception and hatred. However, the program of creation is intended to lead a person from oppositeness to similarity to the upper force.

This program is implemented through the Light that reforms, which is awakened with the help of special methods: the work in the groups organized according to the example that Moses showed during the formation of the people of Israel.

When these groups unite in a special form, they attract the Light that reforms to themselves, which affects them gradually. Through this Light called the Torah, the creatures receive correction.

This correction is implemented in two stages. During the first stage, the desire to enjoy for oneself is corrected so that the intention changes to bestowal and the desire itself is not used. In other words, the task of the first stage is to reduce the desires to receive and concentrate only on obtaining the intention for the sake of bestowal.

Once we complete this correction, we again begin to reveal desires to enjoy and actively work with them, receiving now in order to bestow.

The first stage of achieving the qualities of bestowal for the sake of bestowal, the degree of Bina, is the war that is called the War of the Maccabees, and the point of transition from bestowal for the sake of bestowal to reception for the sake of bestowal is called the “stop,” or Hanukkah, which means “Hanu-Ko,” or “stop here.”

During Hanukkah, we celebrate a very important point: the completion of acquiring an altruistic intention, the degree of Bina. Our desire to enjoy is not used yet. We just reduce it and increase the intention for the sake of bestowal. In this way, we come to this stop, to Hanukkah, when we can only see its Lights, but cannot use them.

We can also see vessels, although we cannot use them. After all, it is impossible to see a Light without a vessel, but only for the sake of bestowal, above the desire itself. After Hanukkah, we learn to use even the desires to receive with the intention for the sake of bestowal so that “the darkness will shine like the Light.”

Therefore, Hanukkah is the celebration of Light because we use only the intention to bestow, and the Light cannot be used. We can only look at it. “To look” means to use the Light above the vessels of reception, and the use of the Light inside the vessels of reception is already complete and truly used.

This is how the place of this special holiday is determined that completes the special first stage of correction we celebrate during these days.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/17, Lesson on the Topic: “Hanukkah by the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

There Is No God

Question from Facebook: My reactions to the things around me are my reactions. I understand the external world through my reactions to external things. What does God have to do with anything here?

Answer: There is no God. We don’t make our appeals to Him at all. We make our appeals only to ourselves, to that which is inside us, and it is these internal settings that we need to change, to set them to a correct perception of reality. Then we will be able to reach the correct goal by a much shorter and a much more pleasant route.

God has nothing to do with it. He doesn’t exist. We create God within ourselves.

Our very best, most optimal state, the highest, most positive force that turns all of us into the most wonderful and the most successful, is called God. That’s the kind of God I can agree to.

Question: Are my reactions to the surroundings still my reactions?

Answer: Of course.

Question: Do I understand the external world through my reactions to all that happens to me?

Answer: Naturally. What other way can you know what the outside world is? It is that which you perceive. That’s why everyone has a different impression of the external world.

Question: And all of it, one way or another, steers me to my most optimal state?

Answer: Only if you know how to head in that direction.

Question: Then why do I feel so much discomfort all the time?

Answer: Because you get confused, you don’t understand, you are constantly going around in circles staying in the same place and that’s how you spend your life, achieving nothing and not solving life’s riddles. But in life there are no riddles! Riddles are in how I can achieve my most optimal, most amazing state! But I myself don’t know what that state is!

Ask people what they would have liked to achieve in their lives and they will tell you such nonsense: money, fame, knowledge, honor, power, and health. But all of these end. And what is the deeper meaning of all this? Regrettably, an individual doesn’t know, he doesn’t ask himself this question. That means that we need to explain all of this. This is the reason for the existence of the science of Kabbalah.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman,” 10/19/17

The Creator Hears Everyone’s Prayer

Question: What does it mean: “The Creator hears everyone’s prayer”?

Answer: The Creator is the upper system, the system of Bina, called Elokim.

This system hears all of our pleas because we are its consequence; we live inside Bina—not at its height, but inside of it—since it gives birth to us, takes care of us, and supports our existence so that we would desire to become like it. It is completely bestowing and we are all receivers. That is how we were created.

Bina gave birth to us and takes care of us, and we gradually reach a state where we find that we are opposite to it. We do not care that we are opposite to it; we do not even identify that this is so, but an aspiration to attain this degree of Bina awakens in us.

This aspiration is called the point in the heart. This point awakens us because the degree of Bina is always working on us. This goes on until we start to turn to it, wishing to come closer to it. We suddenly feel that it is important. We aspire to it as if yearning to return home, to attain our source.

What do we aspire to? To the root of our life, the place where it originates. We aspire to our source in order to find answers to the questions—“Where do I come from? Why do I exist? For what purpose?”—because the root contains everything. We do not know about the future, but the root exists, without a doubt.

Therefore, we aspire to Bina since we contain a spark from there. This spark connects us to the degree of Bina. Our will to receive is completely on the degree of Malchut, which Bina gave birth to.

This is how we exist inside an inner sensation between two worlds: between the degree of Bina, the upper world, and the degree of Malchut, the lower world. This is already contained in us. Now our work is to constantly respect, awaken, and grow this spark. That is what we do with the help of the work in the group.
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From the 3d part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/5/17, “Working with Disturbances”

New Life 920 – Achieving Perfection In Our World

New Life 920 – Achieving Perfection In Our World
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

Perfection (Shlemut), from the word “whole” (Shalem), is felt when all parts of creation complement each other in a single system. It is only in this type of system that love can continue to develop without end. We were created to achieve true perfection and humanity is longing to feel this. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us that the tendency toward perfection can be realized only if we change and correct ourselves from within.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 920 – Achieving Perfection In Our World,” 11/21/17

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Who Can Correctly Assess Kabbalah?

Question: Only a person who has crossed the Machsom, the figurative border between the material and spiritual worlds, can understand the essence of Kabbalah. Since today only you managed to do this, then only you understand this essence. What can we do?

Answer: First, not only I have succeeded in crossing the Machsom.

Second, how is it possible to correctly assess Kabbalah, the Creator, the system of the universe, and the forces of governance if you are not in this system?

To cross the Machsom means to enter into the spiritual system and to become at least a minimal component of it so that even through the smallest connection with the system one would understand what it is. Otherwise, a person is in some kind of fantasy.

Therefore, naturally, one who did not cross what is called the Machsom—did not create within himself the system of the upper world according to the method of comparing himself with the rest of the friends—does not understand what Kabbalah is talking about.

We feel this even before crossing the Machsom. You cross, you cross; you do not cross, you don’t. And you are either inside or outside, either one or zero. There is nothing else.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson In Russian 9/10/17

One Must Love One’s Neighbor

Question: The Creator is love. When you first came to your teacher Rabash did you somehow connect Kabbalah with love?

Answer: No. Before I came to Rabash, and even with him at first, Kabbalah, in my view, was identified with a purely dry, rigid science that I needed to master.

Question: What was your reaction when you first heard the fact that one must love one’s neighbor?

Answer: I reacted to it as some kind of addition: “This is probably how it is manifested.” I understood that these words were earthly, very limited, very shallow, and based on non-spiritual, material qualities. I explained spiritual love to myself as an aspiration to something exalted, the opportunity to belong to this ideal.

The principle of “love your neighbor as yourself” should be realized in the ten. We must take it in its real live form and realize it between us. Then we will be able to achieve this. We need to try and do this as quickly as possible, before all sorts of natural suffering make us move to this by a long and painful path.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 6/8/17

New Life #919 – The Wisdom Of Truth

New Life #919 – The Wisdom Of Truth
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

The wisdom of Kabbalah is called the wisdom of truth because it brings a person to discovery of the Creator, who is called the truth. It teaches groups of people how to transcend the imaginary reality and enter the true reality of the Creator, how to change from thinking of one’s own pleasure to thinking of love and giving. This truth can only be discovered through the falsehood just as the Light can only be discovered over the darkness. It is a method for the correction of each person who ends up wanting to help everyone to discover the same wonderful truth.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #919 – The Wisdom Of Truth,” 11/16/17

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The Third Temple

Question: How not to quarrel in the Third Temple?

Answer: The Third Temple operates on completely different grounds, according to different criteria. Quarrels are not possible there. When we ascend to the spiritual world, egoism no longer grows; we are only influenced by the correcting force that we add to our egoism. Therefore, there cannot be further shattering.

All this is stated in theory according to the laws of the correlation between the negative force of reception and the positive force of bestowal. By studying the methodology, we understand that we really are moving toward this state, and there will be no other.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/23/17

When Opportunities Do Not Coincide With Desires

Baal HaSulam, The Writings Of The Last Generation: Ultimately, the diligent class will put to death all the elderly and handicapped who eat and do not work, or even if they eat more than they can work, as it is detrimental to society, as it is known that they have no sentiments.

That is absolutely true! When a person lives to a certain age or can no longer bring real benefit, he is treated as if nobody needs him, let alone the sick.

This would be the natural development of capitalism if it continued. But in principle, it is possible that we can come to this. Then we would have a Spartan society: only young, healthy, and robust people would remain, those who could bring benefit to the elite. And if they were not needed either, then they would be destroyed, leaving, say, one billion out of eight billion.

Remark: According to statistics, the number of elderly people per employed person will increase in Europe by 2030. If today there are 1.5 employed people for every retired person, then in 2030 it will be half. Thus, the standard of living will drop from 30% to 50%.

My Comment: Not necessarily. I think that robotics and automation will help us. But the fact is that there will be no one to feed retired people because the desire to feed them will disappear even though there would be the opportunity to do so.

Our opportunities will not coincide with our desires. Therefore, society will slowly prepare them for disposal through the healthcare system.

Remark: It is hard to believe that we could come to this. On the contrary, today the press cries that old people and disabled people do not receive sufficient benefits.

My Comment: The media does it only under orders—which means that some party does it to get votes and win an election.

Question: Doesn’t public opinion support retired people?

Answer: There is no public opinion. There is an opinion of elites who govern public opinion. All the rest is fake news.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 8/7/17

New Life #312 – Attitudes And Changing Attitudes

New Life #312 – Attitudes And Changing Attitudes
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

Human character is changing from focusing on “what’s in it for me to what’s in it for us.” As we begin to be curious about the purpose of human life, we gradually build new values based on the concept of “love your neighbor as yourself” above the old value of “love only myself.” More and more, we will try to see the good in others and create an environment based on love rather than mutual exploitation.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #312 – Attitudes and Changing Attitudes,” 3/9/14

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Malchut Is Waiting

Torah, Numbers 12:01: Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses regarding the Cushite woman he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman.

Moses’s wife Zipporah is a Cushite, meaning she is dark-skinned. It means that Moses’s Malchut is much darker, harder, and heavier than the desires of Miriam and Aaron. Therefore, when he works with her, he reaches a higher level.

In the same way, we now have to attach ourselves to all of humanity. Can you imagine the Malchut that is waiting to be connected?! At the same time, when this happens all will receive such an elevation!
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book,” 3/25/15

Integrated In Nature

Question: What can you do if you see that people in this world are completely not connected?

Answer: Unfortunately, this is so. But all of nature—inanimate, vegetative, and animate—is already beginning to close. It is revealed to us as more and more integral. Everything without exception enters into one system.

And nature has always been like this, but now it is approaching man, wanting to include him within nature and cannot. We oppose all of it degrees and are unable to be integrated in it because we are not integrated within ourselves and between us.

It is possible to disagree with this and say, “Is it true that the inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature is integrated? We see how the animals prey on each other.” But for them it is a means of existence. They have no intention of causing harm to each other, only to co-exist correctly.

But we do not see it because we look at them through our egoistic point of view. If we could look at nature correctly, we would understand that they do not destroy each other, but only act in symbiosis.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/13/17

Covering Everything With Love

Question: Can a Kabbalist control his own and others’ hatred that results from separation?

Answer: No. Hatred cannot be controlled. It can only be covered with love. It is written: “Love will cover all crimes.”

Question: Can I do this for someone else?

Answer: No. The only thing you can do is include everyone else inside of you and in this way turn all of their negative qualities into positive ones. There are no negative qualities. They are simply not balanced by positive ones.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/6/17

New Life #305 – Humanity’s Place In Nature

New Life #305 – Humanity’s Place In Nature
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

The human ego makes us different from animals and the rest of nature. Our desire to control our environment to suit ourselves can be destructive whereas the rest of nature operates according to instinct and remains balanced. We can become part of the balanced, integral system if we adapt our hearts and minds by making conscious efforts to connect to others. We can become part of the single, great thought that manages everything in life if we relate to everything and everyone with love.
From KabTV’s “New Life #305 – Humanity’s Place In Nature,” 2/23/14

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A True Request To The Creator

It seems to us that a request to the Creator is a means for correcting the Kli, the vessel of the soul, while as a result of our work, we begin to feel that the request to the Creator is the Kliitself and not a means of correcting it.

And if my appeal to the Creator, the desire that I raise toward Him, is true, constant, and growing in its incessant aspiration to Him, then I will feel this request as a complete correction.

What are the corrections? It is the raising of the desire, not the answer to the prayer to fulfill it. Raising the desire to the Creator is already the end of the work. Thus, I express my attitude toward Him. Do I receive something from Him? It may be that I do not get anything. And what should I receive if I turn to Him? Only my appeal to the Creator is already in itself—everything. I do not need anything else.

If I do not stay in the Kli that receives for itself, then I want to have only a request to the Creator. And if in response I do not hear, do not understand, do not feel, and do not see anything, you are welcome; it is even better! And then in my striving, in the power of bestowal, I feel how similar I am to the Creator.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/5/17, “Work with Disturbances,”

Unification Without Boundaries

Question: When we say that unification is above everything, are there any boundaries here?

Answer: There are not and cannot be boundaries in unification because as soon as we allegedly reach them, new disturbances appear and we must again move toward new boundaries. This is the ascent on 125 degrees.

In the unification that we have achieved, we reveal the Creator, that is, the general force that connects two opposite forces in itself—positive and negative, the force of the Light and the force of the desire, plus and minus, darkness and light—together in harmony.

And what will happen between the light and the shadow? What will connect them with each other as plus and minus short-circuited on a motor or for some other user? This user is our efforts we invest in order to connect all pluses and minuses harmoniously, all positive and negative natural phenomena so that they will not seem as opposites to us.

By trying to connect them with each other in such a way, we correct ourselves. We ourselves are placed between positive and negative forces and there we connect with the Creator and reach adhesion with Him.

The Creator is the harmony of all the forces of nature, including us, that is, a person who creates this harmony within himself.
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From the Convention in Vilnius “From Chaos to Harmony,” Day One 11/3/17, Lesson 1

New Life #304 – The New World Of Employment, Part 2

New Life #304 – The New World Of Employment, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

The New World will be based on the concept of “love your neighbor as yourself.”Although robots and computers can replace employees, they cannot create love. Mutually loving contact and heartfelt connection can only be created by people for people. Learning to speak this “language of the heart” will be the purpose of life in the new social system.
From the KabTV’s “New Life #304 – The New World of Employment, Part 2,” 2/18/14

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Each One Has His Place In The System

Baal HaSulam, The Writings of the Last Generation: The majority in every society is always the backward. The diligent are no more than thirty percent of society.

This is determined by the type of society. For example, in the developed European society, the diligent people may be 20%, but in Asian or African society, the percentage would be lower.

This does not depend on the mental development, but the nature of people. You come to Latin America and see how important carnivals and soccer are. That’s all? Of course not, and I don’t want to be a reductionist, but this is a bold Latin American characteristic.

If you go, for example, to Germany, France, or Holland, then you are surprised by how well they have they have established production and with what zeal they perform everything.

However, all these are temporary differences, we just have not found the right complement to each other yet. Eventually, humanity will come to an understanding of how it can complement each other harmoniously and there will not be a person with a bad character, with a bad psychological inner mood. If you take into account everyone’s uniqueness that has a special place in the system, you will get an absolutely harmonious system.
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From Kab TV’s “The Last Generation” 8/7/17

When Do We Reach The Land Of Israel?

Question: Why is it that after the exodus from Egypt the people of Israel were constantly complaining and were not satisfied by this progress?

Answer: This is how the present is assessed in relation to the past and the freedom of will is selected from the two states.

This happens on every degree, at every step, since egoism is always growing and we need to rise above it. Greater egoism and greater ascent. This goes on until we enter the land of Israel. Throughout the 40 years of wandering in the desert, we all climb Mount Sinai.

Previously only Moses ascended it, but now we are pulling everyone along with us. This means he is leading the people across the desert.

The ascent to Mount Sinai, meaning the ascent above mutual hatred, is the purpose of man’s life. This is the start of bestowal, love, mutual connection, and the union of everyone into one single whole, and to this extent—the Creator is revealed.

The land of Israel is attained only at the end when you reach love. But the entire ascent lies in rising above egoism. This is called “having the quality of Hassadim.”

Hesed is mercy: when you are concerned about others the same way they are concerned about you.

During this, each time at the level you are on, there is a suppression of your needs by reassessing the needs of others as more valuable, more necessary. It is similar to how a mother takes care of a baby, valuing its needs more than anything. That is how we are in relation to everyone.

It is as if you let another person inside you, completely free up space for him on this degree. When you do this, the egoism of the next degree immediately begins to arise in you. It is so strong that you do not even notice that person, and if you happen to see him, he annoys you and is repulsive to you. Then you start working on this again until he becomes closer to you than you are to yourself.

This means you have entered a new degree. And it continues over and over.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/25/15

Twice About Love

Question: An ordinary person understands the earthly manifestation of love for a mother and children. Can he learn something from this in terms of achieving spiritual love?

Answer: I would not advise engaging in psychology, especially like with a mother and children. I quite often give this example only because it is real, but not more. That love that we achieve among ourselves in the groupis not like that at all. It is special. It is built on the balance of opposites.

Question: Meaning, what a person knows about love and hatred from his life experience has nothing to do with the love that Kabbalah speaks about. Why haven’t the Kabbalists chosen another word to express this concept?

Answer: In order to explain the upper world, Kabbalists use the language of our egoistic world, what is called the “language of branches.” There is no other way. We take the definitions of objects and phenomena of our world and with their help describe the upper world as existing on the mutual balance of two opposite properties. This is not our world at all.

We will need to try very hard to find the right interaction among ourselves to learn what the construction of the right spiritual relationship and love are.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 8/6/17

New Life #303 – The New World of Employment, Part 1

New Life #303 – The New World of Employment, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

Studies show that in the future 10% of the world’s population will satisfy all our material needs. The rest will be able to realize their unique talents and engage in what they love, provided it is for the sake of connecting people. Success will be defined by the level of heart-felt contribution one makes toward the education of society.
From the KabTV’s “New Life #303 – The New World of Employment, Part 1,” 2/18/14

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A Kabbalistic Art

Question: How can you practically touch the heart of your ten during a workshop?

Answer: This is a Kabbalistic art: how to agree with friends in the ten, create such mutual understanding, mutual relations, and inclusiveness so that they see the goal that we want to achieve as the most important thing.

Congresses are good because we are not distracted by anything. I came here and for me there is no one except the friends I am with now. I do not want to think about anything else. At this moment I want to achieve the sense that we are adding to each other in the ten where I will reveal the Creator.

Nothing prevents me from this except myself. And my friends will act just like me. I have to believe that the Creator controls them and makes them the best figures for me. He plays with me through them.

If I constantly try to work on myself, adjust to them, add to them, and collect them together into one single whole, then inside of them I will reveal the Creator between us.
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From the Convention in Vilnius “From Chaos to Harmony,” Day One 11/3/17, Lesson 1

Day Of Kindness

In the News (The Huffington Post): “World Kindness Day is observed around the world on November 13. It was introduced in 1998 by the World Kindness Movement, a coalition of kindness NGOs. … The purpose of World Kindness Day is to highlight good deeds in the community, focusing on the positive power and the common thread of kindness that binds us.”

Remark: Studies show that performing acts of kindness very much helps a person to be positive, to live longer, to be happy, etc.

My Comment: If we tuned ourselves this way every morning before leaving the house and from time to time during the day spent five minutes in this way—let’s say, four times a day for five minutes—then we would certainly change a lot. This is absolutely justified psychologically and clearly would affect the whole atmosphere.

Question: What is kindness from Kabbalah point of view?

Answer: Kindness means that at least I do not harm others, “Do not do to another what you don’t want others to do to you.” We must live with this principle.

Question: So, what is next?

Answer: Above it is not kindness, but love. In our time, just kindness would be enough.

Kindness is when I am ready to respond to the ordinary requests of a person who do not infringe on my existence.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 11/13/17

New Life #389 – An Encounter Between Cultures

New Life #389 – An Encounter Between Cultures
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

An encounter with locals abroad can leave us with strong emotions and a sense of connection. This is because we don’t have any commitments when travelling so heart-to-heart communication is possible. If we were to eliminate the barriers between us in our regular lives, we could achieve these powerful emotions in our daily contacts.
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From KabTV’s ”New Life #389 – An Encounter Between Cultures,” 6/1/14

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