Sobre a GENTILEZA

Hello! Once again we meet to talk about a virtue, which is kindness. I just commented that I like it a lot when there is a return of people, of you who are watching, and say, in my life this was useful.

My teaching, which I try to pass on, not mine, from New Acropolis, the institution to which I belong, the philosophy, the way we teach, our intention is to use a little of that Socratic principle. It is only useful the knowledge that makes us better. So, several elements that we have achieved in terms of having some knowledge.

Nobody owns any truth. But this little we have can be a drop of water that serves to quench some thirst. So when some people tell me, I am a housewife, I am a taxi driver, I am a person of any profession, and this is being useful to me, you have no idea how gratifying it is.

So the virtue we are going to talk about, kindness, even, it was very fashionable to have car stickers, with that phrase of the prophet, kindness. Kindness generates kindness. But like everything in life, we think everything is very cute, an interesting style, sometimes we even put the sticker on our cars to be in fashion, but we don't stop to think what kindness is, if it can be something intrinsic in us, or if it is merely a formatting to be well accepted socially, and how we can do to live it with more consciousness.

If we consider simply, sometimes people worry about artificial intelligence, a little bit of science fiction that will dominate the world, it has already dominated, because when we do things without a natural, human intelligence, we are the robots. We are the artificial intelligence. It is not necessary for robots to dominate the world, they have already dominated, we have become robots, when we do things without reflecting on them, and without incorporating them, bringing them inside us, so that they come out spontaneous, come out pure, a legitimate manifestation of the human comes out.

So, from this idea of how important it is to understand kindness a little bit, I bring you to our chat today. Welcome! Let's talk a little bit, then, for you who know me, you know that I like etymology.

So I've been researching a lot, even the Indo-European Proto, and I saw that kindness has two roots. First, the question of the gene, of the people, of the people, that within the classic Rome was the idea of ​​family, those cults to ancestors, to family geniuses, like Lares, Penates, that is, all that family structure, then transferred to a larger group, which was all Roman citizen, and that was later even poorly seen, when some civilizations spoke of foreigners as gentiles, they meant someone who, in a way, worships the gene, his people, his family. This was a structure of strengthening of ties.

Now, curiously, if we go back to the Indo-European Proto, and see where the word kindness comes from, we see that it comes from a prefix called gen, which means to give light, to give something to the light, to bring light. So I believe that this, in fact, I highly recommend the study of the origin of words, exactly because it reveals certain facets that we would not imagine. Imagine that kindness is bringing to light something of goodness, something of fraternity, which is natural in man.

Kindness is not a standard, a social protocol, memorized to avoid conflicts. It is not a social pact so that we do not bother each other. Kindness is bringing to light something that is very typical of human nature, a latent power that every human being has within himself, of goodness, of generosity, of fraternity.

So it's like we, in a way, were born again, but humans, when we become kind, without second intentions, without any other interest than that of sharing what we have best, with the satisfaction of seeing that our life has been useful to others. Kindness is like a manifestation, the public face of fraternity and goodness. That is, the way fraternity and goodness are seen by the world, when it is a legitimate kindness.

We will also see a relationship between kindness, this origin in gen, and genere, which is the origin of the word generosity, generating, what gives life. So we consider that the life we have, the one we receive in birth, is a life where our body comes to light. Sometimes it is our consciousness and not yet.

So giving life, kindness, is a way of bringing human life to life. This is the potential that nature expects from us. Nature brought us into the world to be human.

And generate, which is also the root of generosity, is to bring life to what you have best. To give the first breath, to give the first light to the human being who sleeps inside us. That is often muffled by survival, by the mere instinct of survival, by competitiveness, by a kind of law of the jungle, institutionalized within certain protocols, muffled this human who sleeps inside us.

It happens that as we are born to be human, if we are not, we are not happy either. Our nature keeps the secret of our happiness. Our fulfillment is to coincide with ourselves.

So kindness is a way of expressing your human nature. The one who finds the human nature deep inside himself, expresses it with kindness. Continuing with our story, we will see that the word kindness has a very close relationship with courtesy.

Today we even prefer to use kindness. We often do not know the prejudices that are hidden behind the words that we have assimilated throughout history. The word courtesy is closely associated with prejudice, which was the way of behaving in the court.

That is, the court was a reserved space where the nobles lived, and there they behaved in a delicate, kind and very attentive way. Among them, it was a delimited space, in which one was enlightened with a superior behavior to the outside, which was of the nobles, of the rude. There it was considered that they were kind, courteous, it was the behavior of the court.

Over time, history itself showed that these nobles of the courts were not so virtuous, and that it was a mere convention, which hid behind a very great hypocrisy. This was associated, even if you do not know the French courts, and everything that happened there, was associated with the idea of ​​courtesy to hypocrisy. That is, if I am courteous to someone, I want something from him.

Or is it a person who physically attracts me, or is it a person who has a position, or is it a person who has money, or something that is worth it. I have interests, courtesy cannot be legitimate. And this idea spread to all his fellow men, as gentleness itself.

So it seems that every person who is kind has some intention. And he is not kind to everyone, he is kind to those who can give him some kind of counterpart. Notice that, in fact, this concept of delimiting a space, and illuminating, is a concept often used within ancient religions, some that persist to this day, that when they are going to do a ceremony, they make a circle of candles.

And this space is consecrated, and inside the ceremonial takes place. Illuminating a part of our life, and from there extending, has nothing wrong. If you intend that this is a first border, but that you will extend these borders until it covers the whole world around you.

It is a first step, like that space that a lighthouse illuminates in the middle of the sea. A lighthouse could not illuminate the whole ocean, so it starts with that amount of light. If one day it can have its focus extended, it goes further.

But it is a point, a point where light is kept as a reference. If the light is extinguished, our eyes get used to darkness and we have no hope. What do I mean by that, in a very practical way?

It is worth starting being courteous, with a small group of people, with people from my family, people around me, in my community. It is worth it! That's how it starts.

Then you practice the satisfaction that brings you to put yourself at the disposal of the other, the satisfaction that is much greater to give than to receive, the satisfaction of having a human relationship with people, which brings so much gratification, helps others to grow, and consequently we grow too. Then we train, we do our basic module of humanity. And from there we expand our horizons.

Soon we will love a larger, larger group. One day we will have to love all humanity. This is our mission as human beings, to love all nature around us.

But the universe does not take a leap, nature does not take a leap, the universe expands until it encompasses all the things that our consciousness reaches. I say this because it is also very common in our historical moment. I have a lot of pity for such a people who live on the other side of the planet and suffer.

I find this attitude very commendable. But I have no pity for my neighbor at the door. I have no pity for the person who works with me at my job.

Well, you probably have pity for that person on the other side of the world, because there is no such thing. Because if she lived on your side, in two times you would no longer have it. Your pity does not support the friction of coexistence, does not support the friction of reality.

Many times, you who are watching me in all these lectures we do on YouTube, many of you write to me and say, I love your lectures, teacher. Why don't you come here? I say, look for New Acropolis in your city.

No, it is not for New Acropolis in my city, you have to come here. Very particularly, I say to you, my great virtue for many is the fact that we are far away. Two thousand kilometers away is my virtue.

Because if I were on your side, maybe you wouldn't be interested in me either. Very quickly, notice that these are subterfuges of our mind. I like someone who is two thousand kilometers away, but someone who is on my side, no.

Because, in fact, I did not achieve this level of kindness, of fraternity, of courtesy. I just like what doesn't affect me much. I select the time I will have contact, turning on YouTube on the computer.

So it's easy. Being fraternal with someone who lives on the other side of the planet is very easy. Because when you are awake, he is sleeping.

So there is not much possibility of friction. Being fraternal, being kind, being courteous, is a valid experience, to start in this small module, this little court that we set up around us. But always with the vocation of expansion.

With the vocation of one day to encompass all humanity. It is the idea of ​​delimiting and illuminating, which was present in so many ceremonies of the past. So, continuing, another element that is interesting, was what I told you at the beginning, the Prophet Gentileza.

A Paulist, who lived most of his life in Rio de Janeiro, and became a celebrity walking the streets, delivering sentences, speaking sentences, sometimes delivering little flowers, and always passing this message. He writes many things on walls, but he had a basic sentence, which later became the fashion sticker in cars for Brazil abroad, which is kindness generates kindness. Stop to think a little about it.

Don't just glue the sticker on the car, think about it. What does this sentence mean? It means that the teaching is given through the example.

If you are kind, you make people experience something they have not known until then. This cleanses your palate. Whoever tasted something that has a very good taste, will hardly want to go back to things that have a coarse palate.

It cleanses the taste, raises the standard of demand. If you live with someone who is spontaneously kind, this generates in you, in your consciousness, a different standard of demand, as to your behavior. Every time you stand in front of the mirror in the morning, he will say, today you will be more human than yesterday, your consciousness acquires another level, another horizon of possibilities, and will want to push you in that direction.

And this is very good. The teaching is given through the example. If someone achieves to be legitimately kind, and not just protocol, not educated and formatted by a society X, but a spontaneous kindness that springs from your own human nature, that was brought to the fore, this person is exemplary.

It is a reference. And just because you go through this person, you will have tomorrow a requirement for a different behavior. Imagine that you, at some point in your school life, studied a little German, and a tourist passes by you who only speaks German.

To be able to speak to him, you will have to bring this teaching that you received, even if it is just a little, to be able to help him. He will force you to dive inside you and find that little German that is there, if you want to communicate with him. Now let's transplant this example to another field.

Someone who is kind inside, and transports this through his behavior, if someone passes by her, will have to dive inside himself and find the little kindness that is there, and bring it to the fore, because otherwise it does not establish a communication. In the same way that it may have been your only opportunity to practice German in life, it can also be the only opportunity that the person has had so far, to practice kindness. For the simple fact of having passed by you.

That is, the fact that you are, propagates. A hose propagates sleeves, a pot propagates apples, if you are kind, you propagate kindness. People will start to have a reference point, one day I was kind, because I talked to a kind person.

So the consciousness identifies a different possibility, one day it will come back there, one day it will insist on that point, because it has already tried. No wonder the Pythagoreans say that wherever they went, people needed to be fairer, more sober, more integral, to communicate with the Pythagorean. Therefore, he was leaving a trace of light where he went.

Because they had given people an opportunity to be more human, to establish a contact with them. So kindness generates kindness, it could have countless parallels. Kindness generates kindness.

Altruism generates altruism. The teaching is given through the example. This message is very interesting, because, in general, we hope that someone is kind, so that we are later.

Or we hope that there is an educational reform that trains everyone to be kind, because then we become kind too. Start with your example. I will say something that may be a little controversial, but look at history, and realize that the great historical transformations were not a huge mass of people who did it.

It usually starts with a man, or with a few men, who dared to live a dream. This propagates, it has an impact on human imagination, and propagates through this impact of the new, of what adds value to life. So have the courage to do it.

I particularly sometimes meet people who tell me, Brazil is very decadent, we have many problems. I do not deny that we live a delicate moment in our history, but do not think that problems exist only in Brazil. This idea of kindness as something spontaneous, that springs from the heart of man, is original anywhere in the world.

We often take an appearance, such a place, people are very polite. Yes, it is a social protocol. Get up so that someone feels in the collective.

But get up because there is a social protocol, which is to judge if they do not, because they want to look polite and polite, or get up because they open their heart to that person who is needing to sit, and develop a bond of love. Do you realize that this opening of the heart is very rare? This protocol then becomes a formatting of little coverage.

If there is an exception situation, a war, any accident of significant gravity, all this courtesy of appearance goes to the ground. All this kindness, trained, trained, goes to the ground. True kindness is an opening of the heart.

That is, I look at that human being and think, he is so tired, he needs so much of a seat, how will he feel good if he is here in my place? I do not need so much, he needs more than me. It is an opening of love.

In fact, behind everything that man has of good, in general, there is love. And this bond is true kindness. Be careful not to be deceived by simple social formations, which do not reach the heart of men deeply.

Who in the world, in our days, as humanity, who has achieved so much love and interest for others collectively? Human beings. But collectively, humanity has not achieved this.

Everyone in a country. Where? There is no such thing.

It is a necessary need that we develop this in ourselves, so that we can be an example. Kindness generates kindness. Human being generates human being.

It is important to understand this. I know there are some aspects a little delicate and controversial, but think about it, before thinking that all the problems in the world are only ours. The problems in the world are of humanity.

Behind everything is selfishness and a great insensitivity to the other. Although the act is politically correct, educated and framed in social processes. If there is no heart, it is just a formation, a training.

Wanting to see the other, the question of real interest. We live so focused on our needs, so focused on our desires, our fantasies, that the other ends up becoming a mere base on which we reflect our interests. There is a quote from Tolstoy, which I like to quote, who says, There are those who pass through a forest and only see firewood for their fire.

So, from the universe of life that vibrates in a forest, I see only one thing, firewood. My house needs firewood. So I look at things, projecting my fantasies, my needs and my expectations into them.

Things become a mirror of mine. And if things do not meet any of my interests, I do not see them. They become invisible.

They disappear in my world. As Plato said in his Myth of the Cave, Man only becomes wise looking at things lit by sunlight, which is the idea of good. Do you know what it is to look at things lit by the idea of good?

To look at something and think, how can I interfere in the destiny of it, so that it leads to your good, without wanting anything for me? How can I interfere in the destiny of that person, to push it towards her good, without wanting anything for me? Logically, nature has an intrinsic intelligence that opens up to those who manipulate it without interest, simply out of kindness and generosity.

And the one who, in front of whom nature opens up, knows the heart of nature. This is a wise man. It is as if we were looking at a world lit by a very low-power flashlight, which does not illuminate what things are, but illuminates a small gap in them, which is what they have that can interest me.

And if there is something that does not meet my interest in anything, I do not see it, I exclude my world. I see reflections, slices of things that can bring some benefit to me. And outside of that, everything is a blind spot.

So this selective, limited view of reality is a projection of our selfishness. What matters is my personal life, my needs. These other things exist simply to provide raw material for my interests.

In this way, no one is truly kind, even if they are educated in the most refined schools in the world. With this selfish mentality, there is no severe selfish person who is really kind. Because kindness is born from perceiving the other's need, from feeling it as ours, and then invest the best of our energies to meet it.

From the kindness practiced continuously, we can evoke love. If every day you meet a person and try to be sensitive to their needs, develop empathy where you feel it, and do your best to make her feel good, after a while you will look and there is love. Kindness creates heart bonds.

Get on the bus a thousand times for the same person to sit. And you will not be kind after that. It does not create bonds if you do it for a social formality.

Get on the bus once or twice thinking about the good of that person, and you will have love, bond, and become a legitimate act. So there are many traditions that speak about it. The true, spontaneous kindness that springs from our heart requires selflessness, it requires a real interest in the other.

We live like in a bubble, the others do not exist, but to meet our needs. I always like to reiterate, behind all the problems in the world there is selfishness. It is the last mask.

We are removing the masks of our defects, of our imperfections, the last mask is that of selfishness. It is behind all the things that prevent us from growing. So kindness requires a dose of altruism, of perceiving the other in itself, and not what he serves for me.

Another interesting element, let's talk a little about a fable. Those who attend my lectures know that I hardly give a lecture that does not tell a story. I am very satisfied with this kind of oratory.

I find it very interesting because sometimes our memory takes almost everything, and the story remains. This story, for me, is very significant. It is said that there was a king, who had a certain dream, and called his elders to tell him what it meant.

First came one, he told the dream, and his advisor would have said the following, Our Majesty, what a terrible thing! What a horrible dream! This dream is saying that you will see all your relatives and loved ones die.

And the king was outraged, how absurd, how can you tell me such a horrible thing? Guards, take this man and beat him ten times. He calls another of his advisors.

He tells the same dream to the second. And the second turns to him and says, Wonderful, Majesty! What a wonderful dream!

What a good omen! What is the dream trying to say? This dream is saying that you will live more than all your relatives.

Wow, what a good omen! Guards, give this man ten gold coins. And this man leaves the door, and the previous one, who had taken ten beatings, was listening.

And he says, come here, you are fooling the king. What a ridiculous story! You said the same thing as me.

I got ten beatings and you got ten gold coins. You are a vicarious, a fraud. Then the second turns to him and says, No, you are the one who is being ignorant.

You do not understand a fundamental thing of the mechanism of life. The truth is a precious stone. And it has to be given.

Because it is an act of kindness to give what we have most precious. It is an act of humanity to give what is most sacred to exist in us. However, you cannot forget that, no matter how precious it is, it is a stone.

One thing is to take an emerald, a diamond and throw it on someone's face. It's a stone, even though it's a diamond. Another thing is to put it in a box, wrapped in a silk paper, tied a bow, put a rose in a beautiful card.

Then you will be received and your gift will be valued. It will be well received. In other words, kindness consists of social formalities.

In knowing how to treat an elderly person well, or anyone who passes by you. But it consists of content and also in form. The form is part of it.

So I'm not saying that someone who suffers an education to behave formally, in a correct way, is wrong. Don't get me wrong. I'm saying that this is a necessary condition, but not enough.

There must be content and form. Like in a poem, you have to have something to say and know how to say it beautifully. That marks the imagination of the people, that they keep with them as a useful tool of life.

So, this is kindness. Kindness is something that establishes a deep bond of heart. But it also has a proper form.

So that this precious stone you are offering can be well received, and not be a stone. Then, yes, the protocols come in. Getting up so that a person who needs more of the seat than you, is a protocol, it's a form.

But the content is, I'm interested in people. I'm not alone in the world. People exist and are as important as I am.

I can't stop seeing the world only through my perspective, my personality and what concerns it. I have to see the other and feel the other. If I see the other, I feel the other, from there come the forms, which are not essential, but not enough.

This story I find very significant. And maybe, in a few months, you won't remember anything from this lecture, but remember this story. It will have been useful in some way.

Well, continuing. One thing I like to mention, maybe some of you have watched the movie, which is a beautiful musical, that was released a few years ago, which was The Wretched, based on the book by Vitor Hugo. I even gave a lecture on this topic.

One thing I think is essential to understand, as a starting point for those who have read the book or seen the movie, is who are the Wretched, to whom Vitor Hugo refers. Look at the structure of the story. It is not Jean Valjean who is the Wretched.

It is not the good sir who is the Wretched. The Wretched are all those who are insensitive to justice, to kindness, to the pain of the other. These were the Wretched.

The Wretched were those who manipulated, played, rudely, to exploit each other. These were the Wretched, regardless of material possessions. The protagonist, who was distributed of any kind of wealth, was an extremely poor person, who was seen trapped in a super unfair condition.

Jean Valjean is far from being the Wretched. He was a nobleman. A welcome good sir, who was a monk from a small town, who did not have great material possessions, was not the Wretched.

Quite the opposite, they were nobles. They had this nobility within them, of wanting to offer their best. They had this kindness of seeing the other as a human being worthy of respect.

The Wretched were often those who had more possessions, or had less, of all social classes. Regardless of what you have, but for what you are, you can be a Wretched. Wretched is indifference to human nature, to the human being that passes through you.

Once, in one of these moments, in the morning I was walking down the street, and we have the habit of greeting people who pass by us, some answer, others do not answer, and it gave me a perception that I found interesting. At some point in the future, it will be considered extremely rude, a human being passing by you, and you do not denote that you noticed his presence. A human being is too much for someone not to notice.

It has divine attributes within itself. How can a human being pass by you, and you are looking at the floor, thinking about the supermarket list, completely ignoring the passage of a human being? In fact, we should not ignore the passage of anything, but at least let's start there.

One day we will be considered extremely rude, for ignoring each other. What is really rude? A being who is looking for God, looking for himself, looking to find the meaning of life, trying to understand the meaning of the universe, how can you ignore such a being?

How can you not be indignant, look into his eyes and say good morning, good afternoon, good evening, which implicitly has, I'm fighting for the same thing as you, count on me. In the lines of this good morning, good afternoon, good evening, it has, count on me. We are in the same fight.

We are fighting against time, against dissolution, against the corruption of ourselves, against the destruction of human values, count on me. Eye to eye. This is fundamental.

One day we will still be considered extremely rude, for ignoring the human beings who pass by us. I found this perception very interesting, because, in a way, it comes imbued with a sense of certainty. I'm sure that one day it will be like that.

This is sensible, it is logical. As Plato said, if something has logic in the plan of ideas, one day it will exist here. One day it will be reality, one day it will be fact.

So notice this. As we start to sharpen our sensitivity, we begin to realize that kindness is our natural, it is where we feel most ourselves, it is where we feel most human. Continuing.

. . A detail that I also like to talk about is the logic of the three circles.

Look at this image, these three concentric circles. In a way, this is you. Understand this as a representation of the human being.

Inside you there is an essence, your true identity, what you are as a human being, which is there, like a seed. But we came into the world, and many times this seed did not break its shell, did not leave its cocoon, did not mark its presence in the world yet. And society comes and puts on top of this seed, which is our essence, which is what I am, it puts another layer, which is what we are socially shaped, what we are used to doing, which is usually based on collective unconscious, on the things we receive from outside, and we run a life software.

This is what I appear at that moment, what I am. So, within the first circle, what I am. Outside, what I am.

What they shaped me to live in that moment. When you become a philosopher, you put another circle around it. This circle is what I want to be.

This circle is related to the center, the I am. In a way, we try to glimpse, in those great men of the past and the present, the virtues that exist dormant within us. We begin to impose this on a personality that is full of deformations, because we absorb things from the middle that are not ours, which, in fact, many times should not belong to anyone, and I believe they are not.

They are deformations of a certain culture, of a certain historical moment. So, on top of this cover of the I am, you put the cover of the I want to be, which is related to the center. So, for an act of discipline, for a will, I want to be kind, because I know that my essence is.

My personality, at this moment, is not. But I am my essence, not my personality. And this layer of I want to be, sculpts your personality, so that it is more the image and likeness of your being.

Is this a necessary job? Many times people are rude and say, I am very spontaneous, I have no words in my tongue. Spontaneity, if you take our old friend Aurelio, spontaneity is to manifest what you are, without obscurity, without disguise.

To manifest what you are. So, to be spontaneous, you would have to know what you are. Know that first circle, your essence.

Otherwise, you will be spontaneous, with a mask sometimes more animalized than human. You will be rude, not spontaneous. So, spontaneity sometimes requires a work of consciousness to find our true identity.

To find what are the true attributes. So, I no longer do the things that my personality is used to doing. I do what my consciousness identifies as noble, fair and good.

I am sure that when I find my heart, it will identify with that. Because these things are typical of all men who found their hearts. They were kind, they were courteous, they were noble in the best sense of the word.

They brought their best. The day I find my being, he is from that same family. And he will identify with that discipline that imposes on my personality.

About this new format. So, it makes sense, yes, the discipline, the processing of our personality, so that it becomes kinder. But only when we want to bring our essence to the fore.

When it starts more and more of a relationship with our heart. So, what philosophy does is a third circle. I want to be.

I start to discipline myself to behave from today, in the way I understand that every human being should be and that the great men in history were. It is very interesting when you read, for example, a Platonic dialogue. In some of the dialogues, most of them, have Socrates as the main character.

You know that Socrates himself did not write anything. Plato immortalized him, Sinophon immortalized him. So, in one of these dialogues, Gorgias, who I like a lot, Socrates goes to a sophist, Calyx, and says to Calyx, Look, convince me of your arguments, Calyx.

Because if you convince me, you will find me tomorrow on the street, living what you said. Do not run away from the discussion. I want to know if you are right.

Because if you are right, tomorrow I will put it in my life. Imagine, people, we can say something like that. This is one of the moments that fills me with admiration in relation to what a man like Socrates was.

What was a man like Plato, who is the writer of the work. I can say, if I understand that something is good, from tomorrow I will discipline myself to live it. You will find me on the street living it.

As Helena Blavatsky said, honor the truth with practice. This is a philosophical coverage, to try to understand the good, and from tomorrow, to join it. So that, in a certain way, our essence finds the most favorable environment to flourish in existence.

This is philosophy. It is almost a training for a spontaneous and true kindness that springs from the being. An education that shapes the personality, the image and likeness of what of most beautiful human nature has ever built.

The other element that is interesting to talk about, there is a philosopher from the last century, that I like a lot, Sri Ram, who said the following, evolution is nothing more than the depuration of taste. I find this interesting. Imagine that at a certain moment, I am no longer kind to people, to see, as it is popularly said, because they will look at me and find me polite, because they will look at me and find me cult or whatever it seems.

But I like to do this. I enjoy it, I realize it, it saves my day. This is my chocolate.

My chocolate on the psychological level. It is to have the opportunity of kindness. When I am kind to someone, it gives me a state of fulfilled duty, of fulfillment, that nothing else gives me.

I like it. Then I don't need any social coercion, no public campaign, I don't need anything. I do it because I enjoy it.

And I savor human nature, which has an inimitable taste. Depurar o gosto means learning to enjoy being human. Learning to realize that this is where the best taste comes from, that we can extract from life.

Life made us to be human. If you give a carrot to a rabbit, it has the best taste. The human being has the best taste if you give him values, virtues and wisdom.

So, finding happiness in being kind, is one of the guarantees that we are doing something simply to look good in the picture. But because we are like that, it fulfills us. This is a kindness that we can guarantee.

In the face of any social circumstance, it will fall. There was a war, we don't let ourselves be kind because of that. Adapted to circumstances, yes, we always have to adapt, to be able to do what we have to do, to be able to realize our dreams.

But not massacred or mutilated by circumstances. That is, a circumstantial adaptation of the same idea. We never betray our human axis.

It simply survives in the circumstances in the way it is possible and it is realized in the best possible way. Adaptation does not mean mutilation. Our heart cannot be mutilated by any environmental need.

And it is not, if we do not allow it. Nothing can steal it from us. And finally, there is a phrase, I always ask people to think about it, it's a platonic phrase.

Have you ever wondered what is the best thing you can do for people you love? Think about it a little bit. What is the best thing I can do for people I love?

Stay with them more? Give more material things? Teach languages?

Mathematics? What do I do? What is the best thing I can do for the people I love?

Plato said, the best thing you can do for the people you love is to grow as a human being. Because only like this, tomorrow, next week, next year, until the end of your life, you guarantee them, I will always be with you. I will always be giving you my best.

Count on me. Whatever I have of good is ours. Whenever you want to go up, I'm with you.

I'm supporting you, I'm pulling you up. Count on me. Do you know why?

Because my love is no longer a passing passion, it has become a mature love of a mature human being. My kindness is not merely a hypocritical adulation, it is a transparency of the mature generosity of a mature man. If I grow, I guarantee the best for myself and for all the people around me.

So if we want to be kind, we have to mature as human beings. If we want to guarantee something to the people we love, and that we must love, that at first we have as a mission to love all humanity, we have to grow as human beings. Mature as human beings.

Many times, in these years of New Acropolis, almost 30 years, we have in our courses, Philosophy classes for life, philosophy as the art of living. And the classes are two hours a week, one day a week. Throughout these years, people have come to me and said, I can't give up one night, because I have to be with my family, I have to be with my children.

I think, ok, I respect this argument. But what are you going to do with your family and your children? Many times, sit next to them, in front of the television?

Many times, sit in front of the computer, next to them, who are on the tablet? If you open your hands two hours a week to reflect, learn to mature, learn to find a more mature sense of life, your presence next to those you love will be highly valued. If you acquire some life wisdom, you will have to share with the people you love, and not become all the spectators of life, seeing life go by.

The best you can do for that, grow as a human being. I'm doing this as a promotion of our course, which I think is very good, because otherwise I wouldn't do it. But for you to understand, this is the idea.

It's not a matter of quantity, it's a matter of quality, what I have to give to those I love. What I am. And if I'm not, I have nothing.

My love is very little. Kindness is one of the attributes of a mature man, who knows how to control his selfishness and see the other. Who knows how to do it, not by earning so much, but by giving.

Who knows how to do it, not having someone to heal all his wounds, but putting himself at the service of the wounds of those around him. Of humanity. This mature man has conditions, has support to be kind.

If not, no. It will be a mere formality or a statement of good intentions. Education, in kindness, is good.

But education is only information, and is not accompanied by a formation, that makes you find yourself. And realize that your heart is that of a human being, who tends to be naturally kind, and feels happy with it, and realizes it. If you don't do it, you won't have a kindness that goes far, nor that has much reach.

I ask you to reflect on all these things. Think about it. Maybe it's easier than we imagine to be kind.

Maybe it's just a matter of doing what competes us in life. We are human beings, and everything else will be given by the Crescim. I thank you for your attention, and I hope you can make this knowledge useful for your lives.

Thank you.