The experience of shopping brings us pleasure, excitement, success, and status. In addition, Internet purchases create the anticipation of delivery, and the excitement of opening the box. The nature of the will to receive is to always desire to acquire something new. The more we receive, the more we enjoy. It’s not that we swallow the object itself, but rather we swallow the pleasure we receive from acquiring it. We need to ask ourselves what is needed for life, and plan ahead to buy only that, not what the advertisers persuade us will bring pleasure. Otherwise we find ourselves surrounded by objects that just gather dust, while the emptiness of our will to receive remains. We should educate children by example and teach them to seek inner fulfillments that don’t cost money—books, music, games, sports, relationships, and conversation. Healthy consumerism is buying only what we truly need and raising our importance for attaining inner assets.

The newest theory in quantum physics indicates that the Big Bang is not the starting point of the universe. Furthermore, there is an understanding that there might be no starting point at all. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah everything started with the desire to bestow, to give, to love. The desire to bestow is the basis of creation. In that desire, an opposite desire began to appear, the desire to receive, and this is the beginning of creation. The desire to receive exists in order to emphasize the desire to bestow. Where is this desire to give, to love? Why does it not reach us? A person cannot discover the desire to bestow alone. Someone who develops a desire to love, to give, to bestow is taken to the recognition of the desire to bestow. This is called “the Creator,” the “upper force,” because this force is the first, and the desire to receive is secondary. In a dispute whether there is or is not a starting point of our universe, the wisdom of Kabbalah states that there is no beginning, and no end. Our desire determines a place. Does it mean that right now, we can take ourselves to the starting point of everything, or go forward? We can travel back and forth on the axis of time. Since the only thing that exists is the desire to bestow, and in it, your egoistic desire begins to form, a person can start thinking about that and enliven that point. With that a person goes forward, too, until the end of the development of our ego. In the end, the ego becomes entirely adjusted to the general desire to bestow, called “the Creator.” We can travel in time by changing our desire. You change it to receive a bit more, receive a bit less, bestow a bit more, bestow a bit less. If you want to advance on the axis of time, then you'll have to diminish your desire to receive and prefer the desire to bestow. But it is not at all like being a monk who wants nothing. No, you want to be in bestowal toward others. A monk is not in bestowal. He simply doesn't receive. To be in bestowal means to do good to everyone. Bestowal can take you wherever you want because by that, you enter the upper force. These are forces that act in our world, even before the desire to receive was formed in it, before the creation of time. In the end, there will only be the desire to bestow that fulfills the entire reality. There is a difference between how the desire to receive carries out all of reality in the beginning and in the end. The difference is that by the end, the desire to receive was formed and developed, and the desire to bestow is now appreciated. ​​The desire to receive helps us to increase and amplify the desire to bestow. We shall cease feeling this world and everything is going to be just great. We do have to work at it. What is “a first step”? It is a technique based on us becoming a part. We need to enter a group of people who want the same thing. In that group, we implement our connection up to the point where we form the force of bestowal that fulfills us. The force of bestowal fills the space between us and embraces us. There is nothing stronger than this force. There is nothing besides it.

Kids are currently on their summer break. After the craziest year ever, these kids are back and forth, learning online and offline, attending school and not attending school, it drove them crazy. We all remember as children that the summer break was the greatest thing that could ever happen, freedom to do as you please. Interviewer: How do you see this absolute freedom of doing nothing and can it help our development? Dr Laitman: Freedom should be an inner state. Such that I want to do whatever it is that I'm doing right now, exactly as it is. That I want it. I like it and that I do so gladly. Interviewer: Do you know anyone who does things gladly? The alarm clock wakes you up in the morning. You turn it off 10 times until you finally have to go to work. And the same with kids. Mom tells them “Go to school.” So in actuality, who is happy about what they're doing? But if the alarm clock is waking him up to a soccer game, that's something else, it's fun. So, the problem comes when there's no action or activity that fulfills you. Dr Laitman: True. Something that you look forward to you will always want, such that in the evening, you can't wait for the morning to come. Interviewer: What's the best advice you can give, so that the summer break can really relieve children from this traumatic year and better prepare them for next year. Dr Laitman: Firstly, for them to enter a system where they will work on group activities together. Where they will understand that it is possible to interact nicely together, boys as well as girls, and between themselves, such that everything will be in the direction of their development. The aim is for them to want to connect with one another and learn how to achieve this gladly. For them to truly reach a state where even though they are all different, they can connect above their differences. How good it is for all of us to be equal and to mutually help one another. Interviewer: What allows a child to feel that he is free? Dr Laitman: No one can be free. Because there's no such thing as freedom in the world. There just isn't. If I release you in the woods, will you be free? You will constantly be afraid of what might happen, what might jump out at you from the bushes. The truth is that's how it is in society too, not only in the woods. Interviewer: So, what do we have to do? Where's the freedom? Dr Laitman: Freedom isn't in running away from everyone to the desert. Freedom is in knowing how to get along with everyone. And then to reach such relationships with everyone, that I find myself always in a good and safe state, where I am able to help everyone and thus be accepted by everyone too. And I can also use everyone to my benefit.

How can we see the glass half full? Positive psychology is a rapidly-growing field in recent years, and it teaches us that if we think a bit more positively, our life will get much better. There is even a study showing that pessimistic people are at a higher risk of heart disease and thus also early death. Of course, there are also opposite studies showing that pessimists are more careful, which protects them. The following is a transcript from the video: Question: My question is personal. By nature, I'm a very pessimistic person. Not that I'm down all day long but because by character, even in my profession, I'm a system analyst. If you show me something, I'll show you where the problem is. That's how my brain works. I look for problems, even if they don't exist. Now, a pessimistic person like me, can he change and become optimistic? Answer from Dr Laitman: People say that these things aren't far from each other, precisely because you can see the harm in everything.Then precisely, at the same speed and efficiency you can justify each and every system and actually see the good things in it? Question: There is a colleague of mine who is always optimistic, always smiling, working on a project, the project is dead but he's smiling - everything's gonna be fine! He sees everything white; I see everything black. Why was I given the opposite nature? I want some of that white. How do I activate that or is it impossible? I'm asking, seriously. Answer: You can't unless you rise above your current degree, in order to bestow. Question: By nature, are you a pessimist or an optimist? Answer: I'm a pessimist. I see that it's going around. Question: That's how you're born. The truth is that when I listen to your words, you see beautiful visions. Not only do you want to see them this way, but seemingly always do. When you look in the long run, you say that people will be corrected, that they will “love one another as yourself”, and will be in this action of giving and bestowal, that all is one, and united. You're the most optimistic person I know. Undoubtedly, so how do you combine the two? Answer: That's how I'm built. By nature, I'm very pessimistic. I have a very big will to receive. On the other hand, I have to correct myself and to constantly elevate myself to an optimistic degree and to the desire to bestow, and to depict the world as entirely good and under the complete control of the Creator. Question: Is the Creator a pessimist or an optimist? Answer: The Creator doesn't have something like that. He's the good and benevolent force. Question: How can I bring this force into my life? Answer: Try to focus your heart on it and you will see how you enter a world that is entirely good. Question: So, would I have to practice on being good and benevolent, regardless of the bad pictures that I see? And to whom? Answer: Yes, practice it and towards everyone. It's only what you see, all the flaws that you see are your own. Question: When will I see feedback? Answer: Immediately. Try. It's not some kind of game. It's really a comprehensive rule. Question: When you say comprehensive rule, is that like your life's mission? Answer: Correct, if this is how you'll relate to life, you'll see that that's how it really is.