Good Environment – 03.13.11

My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Daily Advice

A Tsunami In The Deepest Reaches Of Your Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What should our attitude be to the natural disasters we are witnessing as well as to other problems?

Answer: We are living in a special time when our egoistic desire is starting to show us our imbalance with nature on all its levels.

The lowest level of nature is the still level, where we are now revealing our imbalance and disharmony with general nature. And the same is true for the following levels: the vegetative and animate levels of nature. We just don’t notice it for now.

We are in a terrible crisis, a “relationship crisis” with an angel called “Domem” (still), as well as an angel called “Tzomeah” (vegetative), and the angel called “Hai” (animate). All of these forms of nature are at an enormous lack of correspondence and opposition to us. Our obligation is to correct them because only man can correct all the rest of nature by correcting himself.

Therefore, the catastrophes we see around us are our own reflection. All of the responsibility is ours. There is nothing to ask from the still, vegetative, and animate levels of the world. They ascend and descend together with man.

By the problems in the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature that surround us, we can see how much we are uncorrected. All of these catastrophes are a reflection or demonstration of our own flaws, not to mention the “speaking” level of nature—human society. Look at what is happening in the world.

We have the opportunity to organize a life of true paradise for ourselves on this earth, but look at what we are doing instead. If a visitor from outer space would look at what we are doing on the planet Earth, he would think that we are simply crazy. Where is our human mind and feelings? Is this really how a thinking, intelligent human arranges his life? Only a total fool or self-hater would do such a thing.

That is to say, right now we are gradually revealing our true inner state. And only through the inner correction will we attain harmony with the external world.
[37909]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/11

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The Power Of Beginners

Dr. Michael LaitmandQuestion: Do Kabbalists reduce the world’s disasters by virtue of their spiritual progress?

Answer: Of course. Moreover, no one is bigger or smaller in this regard. People think that a great Kabbalist can just pray and make a plague go away. But in reality, it’s the other way around: Precisely the newcomers who have a point in the heart that has just awakened, who are confused and don’t understand anything yet, can do more than the old-timers with their distant, small desire.

Much like a little child who becomes the head of the family, people who have just set out on the spiritual path and who still seem far away from the “real business,” can do more than the “veterans” with their simple desire and their pleas.
[37931]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/11

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Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Humanity cannot connect the ecological catastrophes to the correction of egoism. How can we explain this connection to people?

Answer: We have to look for ways to do it and try to write articles and formulate explanations precisely during times of disaster in order to convey the essence: All of this is happening because we are not corrected.

The external world is a mold of our inner state. Therefore, in reality we are talking about inner catastrophes that we only perceive as external. All the nations are parts of one soul, but in our sensations they are divided parts that seem foreign.

It’s as if I have been given an injection of  local anesthesia and now I don’t feel how my leg is burning or how my arm is being cut off. Right now it sounds funny, but that is what is happening.

Therefore, I want the sensation of belonging to gradually come back to me. I want to feel the “external” parts as my own. I hope to receive the opportunity to correct my state, my attitude to others.

If the external reality really will become a part of me, then I will feel a horrible sensation. Therefore, together with the discovery of the illness I have to receive the medicine, the opportunity to improve my state. This is what I am asking for: the medicine together with the illness that becomes revealed. Then I will be able to correct the flaws in myself, and as a result, the “external” cataclysms will settle down.

This is what we have to do: Ask for inner correction which will evoke the correction that seems external. Then we will see all the problems in ourselves and will correct them in us. These desires (Kelim) will unite with us, will become inner, and all the natural disasters evoked by our inner lack of correction will cease.
[37934]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbaalh Lesson 3/13/11

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The Solution Is Between Us

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion from Japan: What should our inner work be in emergency situations? While I watch the lessons, the quakes are going on non-stop.

Answer: During these days we have to focus on unity even more and be confident that precisely by virtue of our inner efforts will we be able to prevent similar catastrophes in the world, both in Japan and in all the regions where people are now suffering.

Why do they suffer? Why don’t they advance toward correction by the right path? Why don’t they awaken and come out into the streets shouting, “The Messiah now!”? Stated differently, why don’t they demand correction, change, a new state?

Why do they instead shout for a change in government? How will this help them? No one will be any better off if this happens, not even if the Libyan dictator steps down. The resulting gap will be filled by Islamic radicalism or some other party, but this will be just blind psychological compensation. In practice people won’t feel better. This is still the path of suffering.

In recent times the world is swiftly acquiring more weapons. We are renewing the arms race that was halted before, as if we want to compete at how strong we are. But how silly it is to quarrel like little children! Yet, look at how much energy and resources this is taking away.

As a result, everything depends on us, on all of our friends across the whole world who have received a drive to be corrected. We have to unite from within and feel that we are one whole. Then, by wishing to unite the whole world into one, we will help others come closer as well. After all, they are a passive part of ourselves. They are unable to come closer on their own, until we present them with the opportunity to connect to us.

Once a person receives an awakening, a point in the heart, he will come to us and will join all those who activate and accelerate development, adapting the speed of their work to the speed at which new Reshimot emerge. Then no forces, tsunamis, revolutions, wars, and others such things will force us to advance in a negative manner.

Everything depends on our efforts, on the degree to which we work on unification. There is no other solution for the world.
[37940]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/11

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Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why does such a massive catastrophe as the one now happening in Japan still seem like something removed to me? What do I have to do to feel it as my own?

Answer: My egoism separates me from “others’” problems. The greater the egoism is, the more distant the catastrophe in the Japanese islands seems to me. And on the contrary, to the degree I am corrected, I would feel it as being closer.

Once in a similar situation Rabash was asked: Why is he always running to hear the news on the radio even during the lesson? “Are your children there?” He was asked. “Yes,” he answered, “They are my children.”

We have to view the problems of our neighbors as the problems of our children.
[37943]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/11

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While Losing Yourself In Others, Don’t Lose Yourself!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How does The Zohar explain the breaking in order to achieve unity? Should we expect the breaking to be revealed between us during the upcoming convention in New Jersey, or have we sufficiently realized it and now it’s time to achieve oneness?

Answer: At the last international convention in Israel, we got a “taste” of the breaking between us, our mutual distance. It produced a fairly powerful impact, and people felt that they were unable to unite: “Please, anything but this!”

This experience should bring us to the prayer, an action where we would ask to rise above this separation. We are unable to reform it, so let the Light come and correct it so that we could rise above rejection, as it is said: “Love will cover all sins.”

Therefore, while striving to unite with the others at such conventions, each of us immediately feels rejection of others and is swallowed by egoistic calculations: “Why do I need it anyway?” Or it is the other way around: A person feels how he is engaging in the others as if losing himself in them, at which point he cannot discern his own mind and thought, his own “self,” and where his criticism of the others has gone.

Thus, in seemingly successful and unsuccessful attempts to engage in the others by nullifying oneself, dissolving in them, and losing oneself, or vice versa, by becoming aware of one’s inability to unite with them, a person discerns how he can bond without losing himself, his “I.” He unifies with all, while including in this unification all the inherent evil, with all his resistance, and at the same time, with all his good, all that he has, without annulling any good or bad.

This correct discernment is, indeed, the middle line. When a person cancels his self before the group or a big gathering of people at the convention, the key for him is not to lose his capacity to think critically and continue working with the left line, knowing why and how he works. Thus, a person deposits the Aviut (coarseness) of his desire to all others, thereby creating a powerful Kli (vessel), the desire which requires a prayer. After all, we want to be loved just as we are.

[37701]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/2011, The Book of Zohar

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This Has Never Happened Before

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: A couple of years ago the world found itself in an economic crisis. Today the world is in a political crisis. It seems we share a common agenda, tendencies, and even thoughts. Where does this global synchronization come from?

Answer: We are all interconnected in a common system. And I am not referring to our “inventions,” like the Internet or cellular phones. We exist in a net of forces and are scattered around it like little balls. This net internally connects us to one another.

Whether we like it or not, all of our thoughts, desires, and actions interact, mutually influencing each other. Consequently, certain events take place in certain places, according to the program within the net.

Who are we? We are derivatives, created beings. And this is why we should not judge the world according to its external appearance, as if we actually do something ourselves. The telecommunications network is not the reason for our connection, but it is a sign of it. It attests: Now we are ready for the net of forces to engage us even more. The World Wide Web also stands for a new stage of our egoistic desire, evoking even stronger responses from this common net.

In any case, we are activated by this net, we do not build it. We should not be misguided by the thought of creating the Internet and now being united by it. We can create anything, but this will not add a drop of unity. I am referring to a projection, a sign of an inner total interconnection, a part of which has clearly manifested, let us say, to the extent of five percent.

These connections around the world will undoubtedly only keep strengthening. The world will become inseparable and viscous, and we will see things that have never existed before.
[37589]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/11 on Time

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The World’s Problem Is My Problem

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe picture of the “external world,” as Baal HaSulam writes, is created by the “camera” in the reverse side of our brain, which projects my qualities onto what seems like the external screen, with those qualities being flawed or corrected to various degrees. Inside of me they exist in the form of different forces. By combining or dividing in different ways, they form the vessel of my soul.

However, I am unable to distinguish these forces because they are projected onto the screen of my consciousness in a way that enables me to see them. Therefore, I see various forms of the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels. All of these forms are in motion, undergoing changes, and this is what enables be to maintain a connection with my inner forces.

How, then, can I attain the right state? It can be done by the principle of loving your neighbor as yourself. You have to make all of the “external” reality become yours. After all, it really is you, but in your deceptive perception it appears as something external. So come back to yourself, return this external picture inside, turn your view from the projection to the “camera.” How can you do that? By bringing your parts closer to you and feeling them as yours.

For now we perceive the world’s problems as disasters happening to other people. In contrast to this, Rabash was very worried in these cases because he felt that the disaster was happening to him. A person who moves towards equivalence with the Creator inclines the whole world toward the cup of judgment or the cup of justification. Therein lies the solution to the problem.

Thus, due to the spiritual breaking my perception divides into internality and externality, myself and the world. By correcting myself, I bring all of the reality which seems external to me closer to myself in order to feel it inside of me. Then I shift to a spiritual perception of the world: There is nothing on the outside. Everything is inside of me and takes place inside of me. There is nothing outside of me. I live in my Kli and only a “camera” creates the external picture for me.

Based on this we must decide once and for all that precisely the people who have received an awakening from above, a drive to become corrected, are the ones able to change the world by changing its perception in their sensations. Everything depends on how much they try to bring the whole world closer to them in order to feel it as an inseparable part of them. This is the realization of the principle of loving the neighbor as yourself. We have to bring all the levels that appear external to us, including the still, vegetative, animate and human levels, closer to ourselves and see them as an inseparable part of us.

Therefore, our attitude to all of reality must be at least the same as to ourselves, although Baal HaSulam explains that I must elevate the desires of others above my own desires. Being an egoist, I think about myself instead of my neighbors. But when I am an altruist, I have to think about others inside of myself.

That is why the world’s correction depends precisely on the people who have received from above a call to correct themselves, to the truth. No one else felt this awakening and therefore they have nothing to demand.

That means we must feel responsible for all the disasters of humanity. And it is in our power to correct them—and not just after the fact, but even before all the bad occurrences take place. We have to make sure that this won’t happen on the still level as well as all the other levels, until the human degree.

For now the catastrophes are manifesting in the form of natural disasters on the still and vegetative levels (such as tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, and fires), as well as in human society in the form of the economic crisis and so on. However, other forms are also not exempt, similar to the Egyptian plagues which were very unpleasant, much more dangerous, and horrible to the sensations than those occurring now.

It is incumbent on us to perform corrections and prevent the world’s problems. Baal HaSulam writes about this for us in the end of the "Introduction to the Book of Zohar." All of the world’s suffering is caused by the fact that Israel does not correct itself in time, with “Israel” (which means straight to the Creator) being every person, regardless of origin, who has the opportunity to correct himself because he has been awakened from above. And it doesn’t matter what level he is on.

This way, every one of us and all of us together are responsible for what is happening.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/11

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