“Trouble In Paradise, The World In Peril” (Medium)

 Medium published my new article “Trouble in Paradise, the World in Peril”

Natural disasters have doubled globally in the last two decades. The world is in danger of becoming “an uninhabitable hell for millions of people,” warns the UN, unless actions are taken on climate change — floods, hurricanes, heat waves, earthquakes, fires, and now a pandemic. Calamities are more intense and more frequent than ever before. What does this acceleration mean? Humans look at nature as a force that is out of balance, which is out of control, but feel it has always been like that since catastrophes have been constantly omnipresent, as if this attitude would make our life easier. It will not work. Nature is precisely pushing humankind to take responsibility and fix the mess it has created once and for all.

More than 7,000 major natural catastrophes were reported between 2000 and 2019, affecting 4 billion people around the globe, according to a recent UN study on the human cost of disasters. That is almost twice the number of calamities registered from 1980–1999, an extraordinary rise mostly due to the climate crisis which threatens our very existence.

We need to understand that all the plagues and increasing suffering appear for one reason: to guide people to find the actual cause of what is happening and tackle the problem at its source, since it’s obvious that the efforts of scientists and politicians are ineffective and have failed to stop the avalanche. Why now the rise of unfortunate natural events? Kabbalists who study the details of the structure of reality provide the answer. Foremost Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag succinctly explains it:

“Nature, like a skillful judge, punishes us according to our development. For we can see that to the extent that humankind develops, the pains and torments surrounding our sustenance and existence also multiply… the right conclusion must be drawn — that nature will ultimately defeat us and we will all be compelled to join hands in following its laws with all the measure required of us.” (The Peace).

Simply put, as the world has evolved to this point, it has now entered a new stage of development, a completely different level in which humanity must fully recognize the unity of nature as a holistic system, one whole.

However, there is a bug in the system, an exception that is the source of the problems. Inside this system stands the human species, the center of the world, who is given the freedom to choose to do as it pleases in spite of the consequences, and who is currently acting as a negative influence in opposition to the trajectory of the rest of nature which is global, integral, and united. Therefore, it is the human who is throwing the system out of balance, transforming its well-oiled operation into a disjointed machine whose pieces are constantly colliding and grinding against each other, a network that needs urgent repair to continue functioning before it falls into total collapse.

If we want to save the planet, and ourselves as a consequence, our task is to rebuild human society to bring human activity in balance with the laws of nature. If we were to see in depth the intricate interconnections of the network of nature, we would realize how we, as the rational element in creation, can and does drastically affect the rest of the parts.

Thus, now comes the time when each of us must look in the mirror and say, “Enough blaming others for my problems; I have to take responsibility.” How can this be done? It can only be done by all of humanity deliberately uniting to achieve equality, interconnection, and mutual understanding. All of our development, where human innovations ripple through and transform the lifestyle of each and every one, demonstrates the extent to which we are interconnected. When we understand this, we will understand the true meaning of balancing ourselves with nature and thus, we will balance nature. We cannot escape from this requirement that we must synchronize with nature.

Thus, now comes the time when each of us must look in the mirror and say, “Enough blaming others for my problems; I have to take responsibility.” How can this be done? It can only be done by all of humanity deliberately uniting to achieve equality, interconnection, and mutual understanding.

However, we should not have high hopes for any leader. Each leader ultimately only cares about honor and is inherently selfish, even more so than the rest of us. That is how and why each one of them managed to climb to the top of the political ladder. But once they reach its peak, the nice words promoting the common interest become hollow promises. So we, as the general people, must work together to repair the planet, through our unity, from the wounds we have inflicted and demand from international organizations to advance a global plan for the creation of positive qualitative connections between human beings of all countries, all societies. Only such a protective and luminous ring of light as this surrounding the planet can save it from the impending hailstorm and transform our lives to paradise on Earth, just as was conceived for us in the thought of creation.

“What Does ‘I Think; Therefore I Am’ Mean?” (Quora)

 

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does ‘I think; therefore I am’ mean?“

Our universe is a thought. Our world is a thought. We live in thought.

Our perception constantly develops, and the more it transforms, the more changes we observe in the world.

It is very significant to note that we can control our thinking. Why is that so significant? It is because by controlling our thoughts, we can create a certain kind of world to live in.

On the surface, our thoughts seem involuntary. However, if we pay closer attention, we will see how they appear as a result of our environmental influences.

We imagine to ourselves all kinds of visions, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings; thinking thoughts and ideas inputted from our environment.

What the environment projects, we think about in one way or another.

Therefore, we would be wise to take caution with what and whom we surround ourselves, since our positive or negative thoughts—and thus, world—will be influenced by the kinds of inputs we receive from our environment.

Positive influences would portray examples of unifying communication and values of mutual responsibility and consideration:

People discussing problems and reaching resolutions that unity is more important than their conflicting opinions, even though they each feel adhered to their differing opinions.

Art, entertainment, media and events that promote values of mutual responsibility and consideration.
Today’s divisive messaging filling mass media spreads swathes of divisive thoughts in society, and these negative influences and thoughts give us a picture of our world where we see hatred abounding more in more in society. Also, those delivering divisive messages throughout the media believe that it serves them to do so, but on the contrary, it acts to both theirs and society’s detriment.

We have reached a major transitional point in history where we experience crisis on one hand—polarizing attitudes tearing society apart—while on the other hand, we increasingly feel the negative effects of living divided.

In addition, today we have the means to unite above division: to implement a method of connection that has the capability to secure our livelihood for generations, as well as raise us to a completely new kind of perception and sensation of our world. In other words, in order to feel that we live in a perfect world, we need only figure out how to unite above our divisive drives, and there is a method available that can unlock this revolution in human attitude and perception.

A central aspect of this method is environmental influence. By taking charge of our environment—choosing the kinds of social, media and educational influences that we absorb—we can guide our thoughts to think about creating a perfectly unified society, which “clicks” into balance with nature’s interconnectedness, and by doing so, experience total harmony.

Photo by Andy Li on Unsplash

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“From Ingathering Exiles To Escaping Clans” (Times Of Israel)

 

The Times of Israel published my new article “From Ingathering Exiles to Escaping Clans”

Israel, the land that was meant to host the ingathering of the exiles and reunite the Jewish people, is tearing at the seams. There has never been real unity in Israeli society, but we always knew how to rise above our partisan interests in the moment of truth. We cannot do this anymore; hatred and division have taken over. It seems as though we are going to split into myriad groups and clans, and many will seek asylum elsewhere, and I am not sure they will be welcome anywhere.

The truth of our makeup is surfacing; we are not a nation, but a horde of ruthless, selfish individuals, descendants of the most anti-social individuals who lived in ancient Babylon, whose self-absorption was so intense that they escaped, or were chased away, from their birthplace. Those ancient outcasts met Abraham, who taught them about love and caring, and forged them into a new nation whose kernel was unity above hatred. After all, they had nothing else in common.

Since then, the Jewish people have been in one of two states: unity and love, or division and hatred. For the past two millennia, the latter has been our mindset, and the recent turmoil in Israeli society exposes it more vividly than ever. If we do not muster the strength to rise from our low, society will disintegrate and the State of Israel will dissolve.

Abraham’s entourage followed him because they knew what kind of people they were. They were highly developed, intelligent and sensitive, but their development manifested in negative expressions. They wanted to transform themselves, and Abraham offered them an outlet from their meanness.

Today, we are once again together, but there is no Abraham among us. Instead, we must be our own unifiers. We have to help each other rise above our egos and establish mutual responsibility, our people’s motto throughout the ages. We must teach ourselves how to care for one another despite our differences, how to see that our nation is in fact a fabric made of contradictions, and whose strength lies in its diversity. We have to help each other see that our unity makes us “a light unto nations,” and our division makes the world despise us. We have to help each other because no one else will, because our lives depend on it, and because choosing whether to unite or separate means choosing between existence and extinction.

“What Is The Definition Of Altruism?” (Quora)

 

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the definition of altruism?“

Altruism is egoism’s opposite, and egoism is self-centeredness, or a desire to enjoy at the expense of others.

Altruism is thus giving from oneself to others, to what is outside of us—humanity and nature.

Egoism is an inward direction—a desire to receive—and altruism is an outward direction—a desire to give.

After the definition of altruism arises the question: How can human beings become genuinely altruistic?

Becoming altruistic requires participating in a supportive social and learning environment where we can learn how nature operates altruistically, and practice how to think and act similarly to nature, together with others.

Genuine implementation of altruistic attitudes in a certain environment awakens forces dwelling in nature that can instill in us an altruistic perception and sensation of reality. That is, by regularly influencing one another in a certain social setup with the greatness and importance of altruism—how it is a nature-based quality, and how our becoming altruistic can solve all of our problems and lead us to much happier and more secure lives—we can then invert ourselves from being naturally egoistic, to acquiring a second altruistic nature.

We would then become beings with outwardly-aimed thoughts, desires, actions, intentions and goals—opposite to our current inwardly-aimed egoistic operating system.

Preceding participation in an egoistic-to-altruistic transformation process is a conclusion that more and more of humanity is reaching: the understanding of our egoistic nature leading to no positive outcomes, and the realization of the need for a shift to altruism, that altruistic forces that could grant us secure our survival, and even more so, invigorate, energize and enhance our lives.

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The Peoples Of The World And The Holy Land

 

Remark: If we turn to history, the people of Israel were created on an ideological basis from dozens of tribes of Ancient Babylon. Therefore, Israel is those who have a desire for spiritual attainment.

My Comment: This is true, but not only them. There are even people who have absolutely nothing to do with Israel, with the Jews, with our ancient stones, and still they experience a special feeling when they come to this land.

The fact is that we are all fragments of a broken soul called Adam, which was once one. It is a spiritual structure that contains absolutely all the peoples of the world, all people without exception, wherever they are, wherever they live.

Since all of humanity is constantly evolving, people, even those who are still at a rather primitive level of development in their small, closed societies, still begin to feel that some special phenomena are happening in this place in the world, and they are drawn here.

These may be people from the depths of Africa, Australia, or Oceania who have never encountered Jews or heard anything about Israel. But suddenly, something pulls them here, and they come.
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From KabTV’s “System Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 11/25/19

There Should Be No Schools

 

“In one window looked two. One saw the rain and mud.
Other—green foliage ligature, spring and the sky is blue.
In one window looked two.” (Omar Khayyám)

Question: Why today do we only see one thing by and large?

Answer: We were educated in this way; this is not our fault. We were educated in this way by kindergartens, schools, universities, and by our attitude to people. The mass media makes such a leveling of everyone that there are absolutely no personalities left in humanity.

We need to look for our personal point of view of the world. This is not easy. We need to find our own thing and not to go with the flow and not be interested in what others are interested in. We see such children here and there who somehow reveal themselves in this way. We need to support them a little, to raise special individuals who have their own view of the world. They are usually different from others, maybe they seem a little strange.

Question: Do you mean such children who have some kind of talent?

Answer: No, they may not even have any talents. They just have their own view of the world. They may sometimes even seem less developed than others. It does not matter.

Question: Do we need to single them out?

Answer: Yes. Each person should be given an opportunity to develop according to his or her features.

Remark: We need to recognize this, it is not a simple task.

My Comment: No, there is no need to recognize this. It is just that in our society everything should be prepared as follows. Let everyone develop as they want. The main thing is not to push. And not that they come, stand in one line, sit down, get up, leave—assessments, slogans.

Remark: Then school is a big problem.

My Comment: School is not a big problem. There should be no schools, that’s all! Schools destroy personality.

A real school is when a person is given an opportunity to develop himself the way he by himself sees fit. This is a very serious, long-term, and gentle approach to everyone. It is not necessary to learn by heart all the writings of the classics and read dozens of all kinds of books. We have to do everything in a very, very unique way.

I would allocate more time, as it is written in the Torah, to the arts: dancing, painting, and music. It is due to the fact that they develop the inner world of a person more, and he feels where he is drawn, how he can express himself.

In addition to this, of course, a little bit of mathematics, a little bit of physics, astronomy is a must. Most of the time, however, should be dedicated to arts, but not formal ones, rather drawing, sketching, anything the child wants. To begin with this and advance more and more. Let the child develop himself in this way.

Question: What will grow out of the child if we live in this way?

Answer: The child will grow.

Question: So, I should not think what’s going to grow out of him? Is this approach wrong?

Answer: No, we do not have the right to churn out people.

Question: Then why did we churn out all of them like that? All this system is about churning out. You and I have been through all this! Does it mean that in fact, we killed something in a person?

Answer: We simply destroyed one’s “I” in the bud, that’s all.

This was what they wanted to do anyway. What should we be for those who rule this world? Just the performers, that is all. It means that we need to perform what they want. As a result, now what they want is all going nowhere, and so are we.

Now begins the formation of real humanity!

Question: “I” will break out from the concrete. Will it work out?

Answer: There is no escape; this is the law of nature.

Question: Then will it really be my “I”?

Answer: Yes. For each and every one.

Question: What is this “I”?

Answer: This will be my personal participation in the common humanity. Everyone will have to take their place. It will be individual, personal, only mine, the only pure one. I will think about how to complete this entire picture, the entire humanity, with myself.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/17/20

Is The Meaning Of Life The Same For All Mankind?

 

Question: Throughout history, people have asked questions about the meaning of life. In the Abrahamic religions, the goal of life is the knowledge of God, obedience, and service to Him; in Buddhism, the end of suffering; in Hinduism, the achievement of supreme bliss, and according to Confucius, building a perfect society in the likeness of heaven.

It is interesting that science does not study the question of the meaning of life at all. It examines only the conditions for the emergence of life on Earth.

Should the meaning of life  be the same for all mankind or does everyone have their own?

Answer: The fact is that we are like children who are constantly developing, and gradually as they grow, their views on the world and life change. This is natural. Therefore, this is how we treat a child. What he understands at the age of five is different from what he understands at 10, 15, and 20. They are in a way completely different people. We see that as a child grows up, awareness of his existence grows in him. It’s the same in humanity.

Thus, we cannot talk about something common to all of humanity. We must tie it to the level it is at. If, for example, we take two people arbitrarily, and start comparing them, then first you need to understand why each of them thinks and believes like that and not otherwise, and only after that can you form a correct attitude toward them.

Question: So the highest goal of human life is to comprehend oneself, to cognize nature is also not finite? Surely, there are some other goals further?

Answer: In principle, if we comprehend what we exist for, this is already a transcendent threshold where we begin to study the force that created us. This is initially higher than us. We will rise to the next level of consciousness and reach a new level.

And what will happen next to those who ascend to this level, I cannot say. This is the same as, for example, a five-year-old child who does not understand the reasoning of a ten-year-old, and a ten-year-old who does not understand a twenty-year-old.
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From KabTV’s “Management Skills” 2/7/20

Not Through The Mind But Through Feelings

 

Question: Some studies say that our brain perceives any new information as stress. It must adapt to this information. Is there a technique for effortless adjustment? How can we help a person assimilate new knowledge as their own?

Answer: Only with the help of the environment! If the environment pushes a person to do this, motivates him in some way, then it will be easier and more interesting for him.

Question: The environment gives importance, this is clear. Yet, in addition to that, are there any techniques for more successful perception of information?

Answer: Only if a person absorbs information not only through the brain but through the heart, through all their channels of perception. This is revealed in the group, in the course of studying in the correct environment.

Question: Scientists say that an unfamiliar word can block the perception of information for several seconds. Thus, the next words that a person hears, are simply not perceived.

What can you recommend? Most of the time we do not feel the laws of the integral world.  This is like new information.

Answer: There is quite a broad number of techniques built on combining the development of the individual and the development of a group up to all of humanity. However, this is an independent science.

Question: How do you teach? Let us say that there are simple tips: speak slowly, with pauses, give some examples, draw analogies, and give definitions. Encourage questions because other students can connect to them. Memorize terms so that there will be the correct association with them. What else could it be?

Answer: That is true, but this is not enough because these methods do not say anything about collective perception. We, however, strive to increase perception, to take it to the next level so that it becomes a collective one.

Here we need a completely different method when a person does not try to grasp and absorb the material in his mind, but wants to connect with others through feelings and perceive the material in these common feelings. It has almost nothing to do with the mind. However material that is perceived is cognitive material.
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From KabTV’s “Management Skills” 7/24/20

Who Chooses The Leaders?

 

Question: Before God chose leaders. How should we choose today?

Answer: Today God also chooses leaders. A leader is a person who rises in such a way that everyone listens to him not because the police or someone else orders them to, but because he draws the attention of huge masses of different nations.

Remark: If you look at history, there used to be more leaders. Now there is a crisis in leadership.

My Comment: Now there is a tendency that there should be one leader in each generation. He will be the leader of the ideological direction of the world’s development. Then, groups of people will be formed under him who will develop his idea, his direction, and simplify this idea to the level of implementation—to projects and so on.

Question: Is God a leader?

Answer: God is completely hidden. This is the highest integral force of nature, but it works through leaders and managers. In principle, it works in every person.

Question: Whom would you choose as a leader today, from what sphere of activity?

Answer: A person who clearly knows what the world should develop toward, who understands that he is under the influence of the upper force, and that he is only a mediator—he can be a leader. But this requires persistence.
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From KabTV’s “Management Skills” 6/11/20

Leaders And Charisma

 

Question: Should a leader be a charismatic person?

Answer: No. By charisma, we mean qualities, desires, and actions of a person by which he elevates himself, gives himself more strength, more weight. And this is completely unnecessary for a leader.

A leader is important by himself. Big, revered. Everyone understands that what he says is true, sincere, true for years, centuries, and maybe eternity ahead.

Question: Should the connection between the leader and the people be unilateral?

Answer: Yes. The leader speaks.

Question: Should the leader keep a distance between himself and his subordinates?

Answer: I think this happens unconsciously because he is a leader by nature and cannot mix with others. He will not be able to do it anyway; that is the nature of things.

Question: Can dictators be considered leaders? Or is a leader one who is followed by followers by their own freewill?

Answer: A dictator cannot be a leader. He uses his power to repress others. A real leader uses his idea to attract people to join it. He lifts people up to his idea.
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From KabTV’s “Management Skills” 6/11/20

Striving For The Land Of Israel

 

Question: The entire modern history of the revival of Israel and settlement of the country looks irrational. There is an ambiguous attitude of religious movements to this issue: some are ready to give their lives for every piece of land and some do not even want to enter the Land of Israel until the Messiah comes. Why does one religion have such big differences?

Answer: People understand and interpret the Torah differently.

On one hand, it is said that there is no greater commandment than settling in this land in both the spiritual and physical sense. On the other hand, there are many different movements in Judaism, some of which believe that you can not arrive in the land of Israel until the Messiah comes.

We, as Kabbalists, interpret the Torah in the spiritual sense of the word. And in the physical sense, there is no difference if you live in this place on Earth or in another. The only difference is how you feel your closeness to the quality of bestowal, the quality of love. The land of Israel is called Eretz Yisrael. “Eretz,” “Ratzon,” means desire. Yisrael (Yashar Kel) is a desire pointed directly to the Creator.

If you have a desire pointed directly to the Creator, then the upper light manifests itself in this desire as a special filling, which is called the Creator. It is said that the Creator is in the land of Israel around the clock.

This is all to be understood in the spiritual sense of the word. This is how Kabbalah interprets the Torah. That is why Kabbalists have always been striving to come here.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 11/25/19

How Can We Turn Suffering Into Pleasure?

 

Question: Why, with the constant revelation of evil in me, do I feel great suffering? Is it because I am not satisfied with my advancement and with my failure to get closer to the Creator?

Answer: It is because the discrepancy between what is desired and what is in reality invokes suffering. In this case, you want to advance, but you feel inferior compared to the state you would like to be in.

But on the other hand, these are positive sufferings. They teach you to move forward correctly. It is therefore forbidden to immerse into them and to sit and cry, but you must implement them correctly.

Question: So, the revelation of evil involves suffering no matter what?

Answer: No. It depends on how you perceive it. If you do not feel the difference between what you want and what you now have as suffering, you will not advance. But this is not the path of suffering.

The path of suffering is when you are unconsciously in them and do not know how to move and what to do. All of humanity is in this state.

Only people who study the wisdom of Kabbalah are aware of the sufferings that they receive and can use them to aim themselves toward the purpose of creation. They ascend above the sufferings and even feel it as sweetness, as guidance toward the desirable goal.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 11/18/18

“France’s Swan Song”

 

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 10/22/20

The protests following the beheading of Samuel Paty are France’s Swan Song. Paty, a schoolteacher, was murdered for showing cartoons of Prophet Muhammad while teaching about free speech. According to BBC News, “Police raided some 40 homes following the attack, and the government also ordered a mosque to close for six months.” It is far too little, far too late for France. The country is well on its way to becoming a Muslim Caliphate.

The Islamization of France did not begin recently. For decades, Muslims have been coming to France in search of a better life than the ones they had back home. Until approximately 2010, immigrants came mainly from what were once France’s colonies. These countries were referred to as “protectorates,” as in the case of Tunisia and Morocco, or as part of metropolitan France, as with Algeria. Many French citizens settled in those colonies, and while the French enjoyed complete freedom, the locals were oppressed.

After France retreated from the colonies, immigrants continued to stream into France as either cheap labor or as refugees seeking shelter from hunger and war. The French, for their part, implemented a policy of assimilation and encouraged immigrants to adopt the local language, culture, and faith, namely Christianity.

But since roughly the mid-1980s, France changed its policy from assimilation to integration, and the new arrivals were allowed to retain their distinctive cultures and traditions. That decision backfired. Immigrants did not merge into the French society successfully and largely remained strangers, with their own culture and their own religion, and a clash of civilizations began.

In the early years of this century, France acknowledged its mistake and reinstalled a policy of assimilation, but the wheel could not be turned back. In the second decade of the 21st century, immigration to France grew extensively, mainly from war ravaged countries such as Iraq, Syria, Libya, and others, and the French had no power to stop it.

Despite persistent warnings of the ramifications of unchecked immigration of radical Islamists, France remained hospitable to them, and they have rewarded it with death and terror. France has given up “retaking” many of its cities and neighborhoods, which have become “no go zones” for non-Muslims. French author Pascal Bruckner stated after the murder of Samuel Paty: “This is not an act of ‘separatism’; it is a declaration of war that must be dealt with accordingly.” However, the French people have no fighting spirit left in them. Even though they are by far the majority in their country, they feel powerless and helpless before their domineering “guests.”

Italian journalist Giulio Meotti, who often writes on Middle Eastern issues, recently wrote on the Gatestone Institute website, describing the current situation in France: “France’s elites… fail to understand the ideological war that the enemies of open societies have declared on them.” Another French author, Élisabeth Badinter, wrote, “[T]here is the continuity of our submission. I am convinced that if we had known how to say no, we would not be here. They all bowed their heads out of fear of appearing racist or out of patronage.”

Indeed, the French are unable to resist the takeover by Muslim fundamentalism. They have succumbed to their former subjects, but mainly to their skepticism about their way of life and principles. They no longer holler Vive la République! They want peace and quiet, but they will not get it. They will be forced to change their churches into mosques, their democracy into a caliphate, and their lives from freedom to oppression. The wheel of fate has turned on them, and the rulers are about to become subjects.

It will not happen overnight, but the process has already crossed the point of no return. We are witnessing the crumbling of one of the pillars of the Western world. And what is even more daunting is the thought that France today is Germany tomorrow, and so will be the rest of Western Europe.

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New Life 1282 – Management And Professionalism Versus Difficulties In Interpersonal Relations

 

New Life 1282 – Management And Professionalism Versus Difficulties In Interpersonal Relations
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

A successful business must be integral since this is the general inclination of human development today. A self-assured, middle manager who blocks innovative ideas subsequently leads to negative outcomes for staff and the business. and may need to be fired. It could be a good idea to bring someone from the outside in who can build a positive team-spirit. The desirable outcomes would need to be examined and defined for both the manager and the workers According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the implementation of orders received from above depends on the emotional connection between everyone. The staff group would need to similarly connect as one, spiritual, round body in mutual guarantee and love.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1282 – Management And Professionalism Versus Difficulties In Interpersonal Relations,” 9/25/20

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https://laitman.com/2020/10/i-think-therefore-i-am-linkedin/

 My new article on Linkedin “I Think, Therefore I Am”

“I think, therefore I am,” said French philosopher René Descartes, and he was right. We are living in the world of thoughts. In fact, our entire world is a thought, and our perception of it keeps changing and evolving. As our perception changes, so does our world. We may not realize it but we can control our thoughts, and in this way determine the kind of world we want to live in.

Although our thoughts seem to come into our minds of their own accord, so to speak, they are actually a product of our environment. We absorb ideas and thoughts from people around us, social media, and every interaction we have with people, whether real or virtual. If the streams that create our thoughts projected positivity, we would become positive people.

Although our thoughts seem to come into our minds of their own accord, so to speak, they are actually a product of our environment. We absorb ideas and thoughts from people around us, social media, and every interaction we have with people, whether real or virtual. If the streams that create our thoughts projected positivity, we would become positive people. Since they currently project negativity, ill-will toward others, and promote concentration on ourselves, this is what we end up doing, and we end up thinking that the whole world is as selfish and as mean as the sources portray.

These sources tell us that this is the real world, and if we want to present a more optimistic, considerate, or caring perspective, they tell us we are unrealistic and make us feel as though we’re out of touch with reality. The truth, however, is that they simply want to keep pumping negative ideas into our minds since fear and negativity benefit them. But they don’t benefit us, and they are not the truth.

The truth is that life could not exist without balance, without equilibrium between good and bad, negative and positive. Everything in life gives and receives. Every cell in our body loves the body it lives in and gives it all it can. In return, the body sustains and nourishes the cells in our body. We wouldn’t be alive if this weren’t so.

The true reality is reciprocity and balance, but people think that ill-will rules the world, a ruthless desire to receive, to take, to plunder and abuse. In fact, people are the only species in all of reality that’s warped this way, and this makes us more miserable than any other being.

So if we change what impacts us and accept more balanced messages from the environment, we will change our thoughts. If we change our thoughts, we will change reality. This is all it takes to fix the world.

“On The Merits Of Hypocrisy” (Linkedin)

 My new article on Linkedin “On the Merits of Hypocrisy”

If you make a list of the current “weapons” against Covid-19, you will be quite disheartened. All we have are the masks, social distancing, and our “weapon of mass destruction,” better known as closure. But people are sick of wearing masks, longing to close the distance between themselves and the people they love, and cannot stay indoors indefinitely, so none of these weapons really works. As a result, Covid-19 is not only spreading, but it is becoming increasingly aggressive and difficult to cure.

We can change the way we feel by changing the way we behave. All it takes is mutual determination and the understanding that we have no choice, since Covid-19 is smarter and stronger than any of us, if we stand alone, but cannot beat us if we act as one.

There are rumors about vaccines, but nothing has been approved, and no one knows if and when it will happen. So much for conventional medicine fighting a non-conventional bug.

Instead of uselessly struggling with the virus with inefficient instruments, we should remember what Einstein said, “The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.”

He’s right. We created this problem, and in fact all of our problems, with our egoistic, self-centered thinking. This is why only if we adopt an inclusive thinking, one that takes everyone into account rather than only ourselves, we will be rid of the virus and the rest of the problems plaguing the world.

In fact, we can look at the virus as a teacher who forces us to change our thinking, our relation to each other. Against our will, Covid is teaching us how to build a more just and integral society. Look at what it’s done so far: It’s forced us to give out money, to realize that some people will never have jobs but we must still look after them. It’s forced us to start thinking of the elders in our community and make sure they stay healthy and safe. It’s forced us to accept that we are all responsible for one another because anyone can spread the virus that may kill others even if we may not be affected whatsoever. In short, the virus is teaching us to think of one another. So if we think of one another, we won’t need its teaching and we’ll be virus free.

You could argue that you can’t think of others because it’s insincere. That may be true, but how sincere are you when you smile at a salesperson in a store, when you say “Sorry” if you bumped into someone on the street, or when you say “Have a good day”? We see that we agree to insincerity as long as it serves our interests, but when we have to do something that does not seem rewarding, we promptly call “sincerity” to our defense.

This “double standard” is the real insincerity. Since we are already insincere, let’s put it to good use. Let’s make the best of hypocrisy. Let’s be nice even when we don’t see the benefit of it, because if we do it together, we will change the atmosphere in our society and people will become genuinely nice. Let’s pretend that we care, fake being kind, and let’s do it all together. Chances are that in no time, everyone will be kind and caring.

We can change the way we feel by changing the way we behave. All it takes is mutual determination and the understanding that we have no choice, since Covid-19 is smarter and stronger than any of us, if we stand alone, but cannot beat us if we act as one.

“What Are Top Jewish Values?” (Quora)

 

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What are top Jewish values?“

Top Jewish values are those that originally united us as a Jewish people. They are values initially established by Abraham and his group, who became known as “the people of Israel,” around 3,800 years ago.

Abraham set the foundation for Jewish values of unification and mutual responsibility to spread among his group. Guided by such values, Abraham’s group learned how to live harmoniously as a single unified nation.

Today, such values have become less relevant in the eyes of many Jews, to a point where we are more like a cluster of separate groups—left vs. right, religious vs. secular, Ashkenazi vs. Sephardi, to name a few—in a constant struggle against one another.

To return to our united roots and reinstate ourselves as a unified Jewish people, we thus need to elevate our original values of unification and mutual responsibility to the center of our common discourse.

Then the question becomes: What would make us want to reunite as a single nation once again? Why is that even important?

Similar to how anti-Semitism once goaded many of us to establish what we now know as the State of Israel, today, as we bear witness to a sharp rise of anti-Semitic sentiment, both directly against Jews and also indirectly disguised as delegitimization of Israel, in many countries—and notably in the United States—we increasingly find ourselves cornered into a situation where we will have to elevate unification and mutual responsibility to top priority for the sake of our very survival.

Understanding unification and mutual responsibility as our leading values—based on laws of nature that we once discovered under Abraham—prepares us for our current and future challenges. With such an understanding, we can strengthen bonds that span across people, groups, factions, ages and genders, and aim to unite everyone, without exception, above all of our differences. And when we’re united above our differences, we will supply a special unifying strength to all people to unite above their differences. This is the meaning of our being called “a light unto the nations.”

By engaging in this venture to build a new harmonious society based on unification and mutual responsibility, we will be able to take big steps toward realizing our destiny that our forefathers dreamed of: to become Jewish in the fullest sense of the term (the Hebrew word for “Jew” [Yehudi] comes from the word for “united” [yihudi] [Yaarot Devash, Part 2, Drush no. 2]). Moreover, by realizing such a vision, we will serve as a model for a perfect society of happy and successful individuals who share life’s most important values of love and connection. As a result, the world will absorb the unifying atmosphere that we project, and anti-Semitism in all of its forms will subside.

Today, the means are available and becoming all the more needed in order to rise above the intensifying social division and realize a whole new positive and harmonious direction for society. In essence, the positive transformation starts with elevating the values of unification and mutual responsibility to the center of our common discourse.

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