Are Our Children Less Humane?

Question: Last week, several articles and TV shows about teenagers were released that caused a storm of reactions. One show described teenagers throwing orgies in villas with special rooms for sex.

Another article said that teenagers are into pornography starting at age nine. And then there was an article by a renowned anthropologist who claimed that our children are less human than us, but we do not notice. Is there really something special about the modern generation?

Answer: The same thing was written two thousand years ago: that youth is no longer the same, and that children used to obey their parents but today they do not.

Question: It is a well-known fact that old people always scold the youth. But we live in an era of technological revolution, and we are developing at an unprecedented rate. Really, does the last generation differ from all others?

Answer: I believe there is no such thing as a “bad generation” or a “good generation.” Everything depends on upbringing. If today we suddenly discover that something is wrong with our children, then we must ask ourselves: “Where were we before? How did we allow them to reach this state?”

Why did we not pay attention while the children were growing up? Because we ourselves were busy with all sorts of trivial pursuits and desires, and we were trying to make our own lives as pleasant as possible. We handed the children over to the school, and we let the school raise them.

But the school never thought about upbringing either. The school curriculum is designed to stuff a child with knowledge. A school is not a place where character is shaped; it simply provides certain information about the world in order to prepare students for university.

There was no true education, only the transfer of information. So we should not be surprised that the children turned out this way. And even now, when we see the results, we do not want to change anything. We are hardly parents at all. Even animals raise their young better than we do.

Comment: One article says that parents communicate with their children by text message. The parent is never at home, and only sends the child messages like: “Did you eat? Did you do your homework?” But in reality, the parent does not see the child, does not talk to them, and does not take part in raising them.

My Response: That is true. The problem is that in the past people lived in private houses with yards, and children played near the home. They were not exposed to the entire world. They played with cats and dogs, kicked a ball around, and rode their bicycles. Boys played soccer, girls played with dolls. Everything happened out in the open, and parents could see what their children were doing. It was a kind of pastoral scene.

Today all of that is gone. Children do not go outside; each one is glued to a computer screen.

Question: A child spends more than nine hours a day looking at a computer or phone screen. That is a fact. What solution can there be?

Answer: This is the result of our negligence and our disregard for proper upbringing. Nothing appears by itself; every phenomenon has a cause. And the cause here is very clear: human behavior. It is the human being who spoils nature and the environment, and it is the human being who creates a damaged human society.

No one else is to blame. We are the only creatures in nature who have been given the freedom to shape the world however we choose. And if we decide that we do not care about our children, or about the kind of people they will grow up to be, then the result is inevitable.

Human nature is selfish and harmful from birth, and if a person is not guided and educated, it is obvious where they will end up. The same would have happened to our generation if we had grown up under the conditions that children face today.
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From KabTV’s on radio station 103FM, 1/8/16

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Question: If we do not sense the Creator, how can we receive His qualities and become similar to Him?

Answer: A person senses nothing outside of himself, outside of his body, whether it is the Creator, a friend, or the group. Therefore, we must first work on our bestowal to the other, to love the other as ourselves. And if I can attain bestowal to the other, then I will be able to bestow to the Creator as well.

If I agree to work only for the Creator but not for the other, this is a sign that I am not ready to work for the Creator either. After all, I am still not making an independent calculation “outside my own interest.” I remain within myself and receive results of the work, the reward.

That is, all the work is only in relation to the group, within which we create the place for the revelation of the Creator.

We do not receive any light; we are filled with our own bestowal! I “generate” this quality from within myself with the help of the force that comes to me and gives me the ability to be in bestowal, and in this I feel the force of the Creator clothing in me. This serves as my fulfillment.

I will never reveal anything “outside of myself,” even though it is said that we “go out of ourselves” and connect with others. This is all my imagination, my perception, as if I am going out of myself.

It is said that Malchut of the world of Atzilut is called “the image of the Creator.”

And it is also said that I must bring joy to the Creator through all the states that I receive from Him. But what does it mean to receive states from Him; after all, they depend on the desire awakened in me: more or less, depending on my overcoming my egoistic desire and correcting it. How is this related to the Creator, who does not change?

And what can I even give Him? There is no one to bestow to, no one to receive my work.

In the end we reveal that we correct only our own qualities and never leave them. And the very quality of bestowal is a pure quality; I cannot work for any kind of “benefit” of it. I can only value it as a special, exalted quality according to my attitude of awe toward the light and toward the other, which inspires the sense of the greatness of bestowal and love in me.
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From Kabbalah Lesson 4/27/11, Baal HaSulam, Shamati 1, “There Is None Else Besides Him”

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Question: In psychology, a person’s character is conventionally divided into spheres, one of which is motivational. Let us say I set a goal that seems right and good to me, like learning to drive a car. But I don’t have any motivation, no inner pleasure from it. However, in the process of exerting efforts, this goal flips and becomes an inner motivation. I start feeling pleasure, and it becomes a part of me.

Is the system of integral education based on this, too? At some point, everything turns around, and the goal becomes one’s inner world?

Answer: The fact is that you are giving an example of goals that initially do not seem important or necessary to a person.

We begin by explaining that the goal is obligatory. It may be undesirable, but it is necessary. Nothing can be done about it; it must be implemented in the same way that I get up every day for work, raise children, etc. My whole life consists of things I have to do because I owe someone something all the time.

And here we have the same thing; I have an obligatory goal imposed on me by nature. For the first time in our development, we reach a point where we can see a goal in advance. This has never happened before.

We had revolutions, wars, all kinds of upheavals—technological, scientific, social, undergoing various formations—whatever we have done throughout history, but we have never known what goal nature sets for us. We shouted at the barricades: “Move forward!” “Freedom, equality, brotherhood!” But in general, we did not imagine what would follow. No one could have predicted that it would be one way and not another.

Humanity cannot know anything in advance; it is simply driven forward by the compelling forces of nature, “motivation” (translated from Greek, “motive, stimuli” is a sharp stick used to drive animals).

That is how we developed, without having a specific image of the future before us. The bright future we imagined was once a slave-owning system, a feudal system, a capitalist system, and a socialist system. And all these images of the future turned out to be illusory.

Now, for the first time, we clearly see the picture that nature shows us—in all our crises. We can study, understand, classify, and differentiate these crises. We see how crises manifest themselves in education and upbringing, in the family, in illnesses and depressions, in finance and economics, in science and culture—everywhere. We can clearly outline them.

But we do not want to do this, it is unpleasant for humanity. We turn a blind eye because we do not see a way out. But every day the future nature imposes on us looms clearer and clearer—a global, integral combination of all mankind as one single whole. In this, we achieve similarity to nature’ the general law of nature leads us to it, the law of similarity to nature. You can call it entropy, energy, no matter what.

Therefore, in integral education, from the very first day we begin to gradually clarify this, show it to a person, based on all sorts of scientific findings. We do not need to invite scientists to meetings since we have recordings of their presentations, videos, etc., all of which have already been prepared and are in effect.

People are built in such a way that no one needs or wants to move forward; it is undesirable. We are lazy (this is our nature) and do not want anything except to do only what pleases us. One likes to create and build, the other likes to bask in the sun. But uniting together into a single whole?

This is unpleasant even for the 10% of altruists who are born that way by nature, because here we are talking about a completely different combination of people with each other, together with our egoism, in  interaction with it.

Therefore, we are doing something completely undesirable, but we start doing it based on necessity. We discuss what will happen if we don’t do this, what consequences our clashing with nature will lead to, what cataclysms it will cause in the environment. In the inanimate nature it will cause earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, general climate change, solar flares, etc. In the vegetative world, we see what is happening to the surface of the earth. In the animal kingdom, entire species become extinct. And in man…

We are now in a state where nature threatens us with absolute starvation. Plants, animals, fish, birds—all of this is catastrophically disappearing. Through our imbalance with nature, we ourselves make our Earth, its surface, unsuitable for the existence of all other species, because we are like that, and because only we can bring it all into harmony. It all depends on us.

Gradually, such a revelation of the integral picture leads man to realize the need to change himself and society; afterward, you can already work with such a person.
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From KabTV’s “Integral Education. Conversation No. 13,” 12/18/11

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Question: Lately, I cannot understand what faith above reason is. Could you explain how one reaches this state, and what it actually is? As I understand, it is given by the Creator, and without this faith, one cannot move anywhere.

Answer: Faith above reason is that the intention to bestow and love are higher (in importance) than the intention for one’s own sake.

This happens under the influence of the surrounding light that descends during study, and while participating in the group, and dissemination. Until the light gives you this quality, you cannot understand it.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/28/08