Are We On The Verge Of Collapse Or At The Threshold Of A New Stage?

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Billionaire investor George Soros): “There’s no arrangement for any countries leaving the euro, which in current circumstances is probably inevitable.” The eurozone should develop an escape mechanism for the debts of its most indebted members. “We are on the verge of an economic collapse which starts, let’s say, in Greece, but it could easily spread…The financial system remains extremely vulnerable.”

“I think most of us actually agree that Europe’s crisis is actually centered around the euro… It’s a kind of financial crisis that is really developing. It’s foreseen.”

“We are on the edge of collapse and that is the time to recognize the need for change.” Soros called the survival of the European Union a “vital interest to all” and said the EU needed structural changes to ward off disintegration. The euro had a basic flaw from the start in that the currency was not backed by political union or a joint treasury. “The euro had no provision for correction.”

Comment: That was precisely the miscalculation. No one thought about it in the beginning, and no one is thinking about it now. Egoism has to develop to its full exhaustion as the driving force of human society, civilization, and life in general—until the realization of evil.

Then due to the realization of evil and to the extent of our sensing it, we will be able to turn to its correction because we will feel that the only vital goal is precisely the transformation of egoism into altruism. In other words, we have to experience the rule of “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice” to its full measure.

However, the realization of evil can be accelerated and softened by wisdom because knowledge helps us to predict far-off consequences, to avoid the unnecessary and harmful, and to choose the correct path.

That is why we have been given Kabbalah: It enables us to alleviate and accelerate the achievement of the goal: the transition from egoism to altruism. Then, fundamentally correct alliances will be formed, which will consider common political and economic objectives, meaning that they will be based on the full cooperation of the entire humanity.
[47497]

Related Material:
To Save Euro, The Crisis Has To Get Worse
Clashes In Athens
The Economy Is A Copy Of Social Relations

Life Under Hypnosis

Dr. Michael LaitmanSuffering brings us to the question: What are we living for? I do not want to live in order to suffer while serving my egoism. It is better to die than live like this. Many people in the world are ready to die, and many actually commit suicide.

So how can I change the situation so that instead of me serving my desire, my desire would serve me? This is only possible if the Light that Reforms acts upon me. I need this hidden force, even though I do not know where it comes from. Only it will change the order of priorities in me, raising the importance of spiritual life, bestowal, exiting myself, and rising above egoistic concerns about my existence here and now.

At a certain stage, man realizes his enslavement and understands the meaning of the words: “I have created the evil inclination.” The ego takes you towards death—this is why you refer to it as “evil.” Life seems to be death to you because you work for a cruel master who does not pay you anything and leaves you without pleasure, until eventually you die. There is no harder slavery.

But for the time being, I do not yet see my evil inclination; it blinds me, appears to be me. But in reality it is as if someone has hypnotized me, programmed me, and I do what he wants. His power is so strong that he controls me in an unnoticeable and tyrannical manner.

We are born hypnotized, and we do not even understand that we are under someone else’s influence. It happens in life that we fall under someone’s influence, and only afterward are surprised to discover this. It is the same story regarding the evil inclination. The problem here is with the means: What will help us break free from its oppression?

The answer is suffering. Suffering is like Pharaoh who has brought the sons of Israel closer to the Creator. This angel of death constantly forces you to strain yourself for him, and finally you discover that you are suffering through his commands and your servitude. Then you begin to search for the cause of your suffering, and you discover that they actually help you reject evil. This way Pharaoh, who strained the sons of Israel with heavy work, brought them closer to their redemption.

So are we, together with the entire world, standing in the beginning of the same process. Purer souls awaken first, asking themselves about the meaning of what is happening: “Where is the villain who orders me around? I do not want to suffer.”

At first one tries to figure out his suffering egoistically. Then he raises his eyes and begins to examine the situation as a whole: “What is actually happening here?” This way we direct ourselves towards a different goal—essentially, a different authority. We go from one angel to another: from Pharaoh to the Creator. There are only two options, and no one else between them. Ultimately, you choose who will rule over you.

Purer souls are going through this now, and others will come after them.
[47551]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/8/2011, “The Freedom”

Related Material:
All The Pleasures Of The World
A Person Riding A Donkey
True And False Freedom

To Not Regret The Lost Time…

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I keep the constant intention that The Zohar talks only about the connection between us?

Answer: The main thing is intention. If you can listen to the text of The Zohar and keep the right intention, then listen. If you cannot listen since listening diverts you from the intention, then stay in the intention.

The same condition of keeping the constant intention to be corrected by the Light applies to the study of all other Kabbalistic materials, and in general, to each moment of life. If a person cannot stay in intention, it is a pity to waste effort and lose time.
[47597]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/2011, The Zohar

Related Material:
The Right Intention For Reading The Zohar
Through The Zohar To The Creator
Expect To Be Healed By The Zohar

Who Colored The White Light?

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Book of Zohar, Chapter “Truma (Donation),” Item 431: Black is very dark. Its color is not seen out of the darkness. Where was this color black and darkness dyed? When this red melted into the azure and the colors red and azure mingled, the fusion of filth from Midat ha Din melted into the deeps, Malchut de Malchut, and mire and sludge were made from there, as it is written, “And its waters toss up mire and sludge.”

The Zohar explains which quality, which Sefira each color corresponds to. Naturally, everything originates from Malchut and is perceived in it: We observe all the qualities from within Malchut. There are 9 Sefirot before Malchut, which are the Creator’s qualities, the qualities of bestowal. But when Malchut receives them and begins to work with them, they take on various shades in her to the extent of her ability to be on the degree of bestowal, from Keter to Yesod.
[47600]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/2011, The Zohar

Related Material:
Through The Seven Colors Of The Rainbow To The Simple, White Light
How To Color The Color Black
Between Malchut and Bina
The Black Illumination Of Malchut

The Fire Of Hell

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Book of Zohar, Chapter “Truma (Donation),” Item 443: The judgment of the punishments of Hell is to sentence the wicked there. Why are they sentenced in the judgment of Hell? Hell is a fire that burns days and nights, like the wicked, who warm themselves in the fire of the evil inclination to violate the words of Torah. With each warming that they warm themselves in the evil inclination, the fire of Hell burns in them.

Hell is the stages of the revelation of egoism as evil, when a person feels himself as a receiver, and the fire of shame burns him. This fire urges us to correct ourselves.

Moreover, in this state of Hell, a person has everything except the property of bestowal, and that is why he suffers. I have all the abundance, fulfillment for my egoism, but I do not wish them. I want to be in bestowal because this makes me close to the Creator. I do not want to be a receiver! This is what Hell is.
[47526]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/2011, The Zohar

Related Material:
Shame As Means Of Correction
Egoism’s Traps
Fixing The “Flesh” Of Your Soul

A New Book: The Development Of Man From 0 To 20

The Development Of Man From 0 To 20 My new book The Development of Man From 0 to 20 has been published in Russian. The book is a part of “The Method of Integral Education” series and is based on my conversations with child psychologists.

From the annotation to the book: “Children are our future. They will be the masters in the world of tomorrow, and we will not be able to change anything, but today their development largely depends on us.

The book The Development of Man from 0 to 20 traces the growth of a human being, beginning with prenatal development and concluding with the age of 20, the moment of entry into adulthood. The book demonstrates an unusual and very interesting approach to questions of education and the perception of the surrounding world.

It is about the laws of nature, which we must respect, whether we like it or not, in order not to harm ourselves. It all depends on how well we know these laws and their consequences.”

The book is currently being translated into English.
[47186]

Related Material:
Schools Should Teach Children How To Become Human Beings
Teach Your Children Well
The Need to Nurture the Proper Perception In Children

Leave The Bones To The Dogs

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Zohar, Chapter “Truma (Donation),” Item 487: There is an allegory about a king who made a meal for his household. As long as they do his will, they eat at the meal with the king and give the part of the bones for the dogs to chew on. When his household do not do the king’s will, he gives the entire meal to the dogs and the bones to his household.

Question: What is this food that everyone eats at the king’s table?

Answer: “Food” means that you receive pleasure from bestowing. And you have to receive these pleasures also for the sake of bestowal.

This is talking about an attitude, a sensation, actions in desires. The “dogs” inside of me are sitting beneath the “table” inside of me where I feel the “tastes of the king.”

What are the “tastes of the king”? What is “the king’s table”? These are all the pleasures that become revealed from bestowal, which the king desires to bestow. He enjoys by giving. And he wishes for you to also enjoy giving to others.

Then, if you bestow and enjoy it, the whole question is: What is giving you pleasure? Are you enjoying the fact that you are similar to the king? Are you enjoying this because He receives pleasure from your equivalence to Him? Or are you enjoying it because you have gotten your hands on some pleasure? If so, then you immediately transform from a person who sits at the table across from a king into a dog who chews bones under the table.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/11/11, The Zohar

Related Material:
I Give By Receiving Everything
How Can We Please The Creator?
Like Clay In The Hands Of The Master

Our Oversight

Dr. Michael LaitmanBy restricting myself in order to take care of the neighbor, I won’t be secretly worrying about my own well-being in the slightest. I simply won’t think about myself. This is the correction that the Light performs in me. This is the meaning of rising above the desire, performing the First Restriction, and acquiring the quality of bestowal. All of this is the results of the Light’s influence.

My care for the neighbor is in no way connected to any material details. I continue eating, drinking, and providing all of my necessities. It’s all about my desire, my inner attitude to the action.

For example, say I really want to help a sick person, I want to feed him and give him drink, but the doctors don’t permit him anything besides a little piece of bread and a cup of tea. Thus, even though I would like to give him a rich, exquisite dish and I have the opportunity to do that, I am limited.

It turns out that everything is about the intention. We do not build relationships and mutual guarantee between us on an artificial basis. And that’s why it seems to us that it is impossible to attain bestowal and unity, that it is impossible to give up concern for oneself, not worrying even about one’s vital necessities, and think only about the neighbor. They are supplied for me by others so I would simply provide for myself. By their guarantee, they take care of my material needs, as well as taking total, 100% care of my spiritual success.

All of this has to be built correctly. Who are the friends? They are receiving desires that are corrected by the Light that reforms. Nothing here is done by our own efforts. Efforts have to be made in order to attract the Light, which will come and correct us. It’s funny to think that we would act for the sake of bestowal of our own accord. Can a person really jump above his own head?

Our problem is that we do not aim at the Light in all of our actions. We think that the action itself will bring the result: that we will hug and will start loving the neighbor. But that won’t happen. We have to hug with the intention that by virtue of this, the Light will come and fuse us together in the inner embrace. Everything is carried out by means of the Light that reforms. We forget about the most important component, about the only force that operates in reality.

It seems to us that it is very difficult and unrealistic to connect mutual guarantee, unity, adhesion, the neighbor, bestowal, and vital necessity into one so they would become a single vessel for revealing absolute bestowal, meaning the revelation of the Creator to creation. And the only reason for it is that we do not evoke the Force that will build this state for us. We mistakenly expect to create it ourselves.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/11/11, Matan Torah

Related Material:
When Everyone Is Responsible For Everyone Else
The World Where “There Is None Else Besides Him”
Like Clay In The Hands Of The Master

It’s Not A Game, But Signs Along The Path

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why do I see the Creator as divided into so many different forces? Is it so I could relate Him to my different desires and qualities and perceive Him?

Answer: This is correct. When my ego, the desire to receive pleasure, imagines itself to be above the Creator, it begins to imagine idols instead of Him. Basically, it imagines some other forces, not the Creator exactly.

I see the imprint of my uncorrected egoistic desire as “other gods.” When I am not in the state of bestowal regarding a certain desire, when I fail to act in a corrected form, then the form in which my desire paints the Creator to me is called “idols.”

This is the difference between the ten impure Sefirot (Klipa) and the ten Sefirot of sanctity (bestowal). When I, looking through them from my corrupted Malchut, imagine Keter to be corrupted, this is called “other gods,” idols. And the way I see Keter when I look at it from the corrected Malchut is called the Creator.

The Creator corresponds to the spiritual degree at which I am able to connect with Him and reveal Him. But it is that same upper force, albeit relative to my degree. This is why “idols” are corrupted forms in which I imagine the single upper force, according to the way my ego paints it within my faults.

For this reason, if a person relates to the forms of these “idols” correctly, they will turn into road signs for him. He will understand that nothing is created in vain, and he will be able to advance specifically due to these forms. As it is written, Pharaoh brings us closer to the Creator.

I draw closer to the truth specifically by moving from one fake idol to another! Regardless of how unpleasant and opposite to the true state it is, we can work specifically with this oppositeness. This is because we do not yet have a connection with bestowal, “sanctity.”
[47436]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/2011, Shamati #15

Related Material:
“You Shall Not Make For Yourself An Idol”
What Is A Klipa?
Perception of Reality

The World Where “There Is None Else Besides Him”

Dr. Michael LaitmanA human being is created in such a condition that it seems to him as if other people exist and a huge world surrounds him. But all this is his inner desires which he has not yet been able to join together to see that there is only he alone, standing before the Creator.

One should attribute all the distortions, disturbances, extraneous thoughts and desires, and seemingly “random” incidents happening to him not to their numerous and imaginary sources and reasons, which still appear to him because of the imperfection of his work, but only to the Creator.

This is what the internal work consist of. After all, everything that a person does not attribute to the Creator, but rather ascribes to other forces, such as other people, all sorts of reasons, fate, and even to himself, all of this is called “idols” (foreign gods). Thus, it turns out that he considers himself dependent on something other than the Creator, as if there is some other force that can be a source of influence on him, either good or evil.

We must realize the principle of “there is none else besides Him” above all the obstacles intentionally leading us astray so that we learn to tune ourselves to the single force, one source. This work consists of several seemingly different types and stages:

  • To clarify the uniqueness of the Source, whether other sources exist or it is the only one;
  • To clarify the nature of the Source, whether it is kind or evil;
  • To clarify our relationship with the Source: Is it “for oneself” or “for the sake of bestowal.”

A person performs the work related to the Source with his personal spiritual vessel, desire, by uniting with all the others, and then he feels himself as the only creature. He also unites all the forces acting on him, all the various sources into one Source. In other words, there are several types of work, depending on how those two, a human being and the Creator, connect.
[47443]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/2011, Shamati #15

Related Material:
There Is None Else Beside Him
Learn The Creator’s Language
A One Man Show