Good Environment – 09.21.11

My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice and Principles for the Week

The Critical Point

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Nation”: …the proximate step after the ruin of the present government is that of Nazism or Fascism. Evidently, we are still enduring a medial phase in human development. Humanity has not yet reached the highest level of the ladder of evolution. Who knows or can assume how many rivers of blood are yet to be spilt before humankind reaches the desired level?

The problem we are facing is: how to go from the current phase of development to the altruistic phase? Equality and fair distribution are not just words. They must be backed by great preparation work on educating the masses and creating a new social network—one that’s real, not virtual. These things are far from obvious, and evolution is not leading us to them by the natural path. This requires conscious participation from us and the realization of our own evil.

Revolutions “off the mark” where people come out to public plazas and “take them over” won’t help us because we are no longer dealing with the gradual development of egoism, which breaks through the blockades of government or regimes and reaches new frontiers. We are moving further and further from slavery to freedom, but this freedom is deceptive. In reality, we are putting ourselves into a more sophisticated system of slavery.

On the other hand, it is impossible to go from the egoistic regime to the altruistic one by the same, routine scheme. This requires a sensation and realization of evil, a need for a change of state in spite of our nature. That means we have to prepare for an inner revolution: to build an environment as a factor of influence, to use the science of Kabbalah as a means, as an instruction manual for working, and form a pyramid so the leading, understanding, and feeling part will head the process. We have to go through levels of despair and helplessness in the current state. It’s not enough to simply admit that all means have been exhausted, as economists, pedagogues, and other specialists are now saying. We must also agree with the fact that any further deterioration will bring us to total collapse.

Then people will be able to hear the message about nature’s plan, which has prepared this entire path for us so that today we would feel the need to change ourselves and would find the means to transform ourselves and become opposite to what we currently are. If people will hear this, we will be able to go through the phases of development relatively smoothly. But we won’t avoid the pain until people are able to hear, until they desire to receive the message, and until they realize it.

Nevertheless, it will be possible to go through the forthcoming phases without real bloodshed. Otherwise there is great suffering ahead for us.

We are facing a turning point, a bifurcation point. It is possible to go from the egoistic regime to the altruistic one, to bestowal, fair distribution, social justice, and mutual guarantee, only in two ways:

– By means of horrible disasters. But the disasters won’t help by themselves and we won’t learn anything from them. They will simply entail analysis and conclusions.
– By means of dissemination, which will allow people to understand that there is no other way out and we have to change the tendency.

You and I are at this very point, and these states will now have to be realized.
[55189]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/20/11, “The Nation”

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The Soul’s Realization: To Learn And To Teach

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur body consists of different parts, which are made and operate differently. When we look at them individually, it is difficult to understand how kidneys, lungs, the heart, liver, brain, the five senses, memory, and the digestive tract are connected with one another.

They are completely different, and the main thing here is the common program, which connects them into one and sets the speed and the function for every part, establishes the right connections between them and allows them to work together in a single harmony.

The program that combines all the parts of the body is called “life.” It creates the higher level—our human consciousness.

We need to interact with one another according to the same principle. There are different groups and different people, and while every person keeps his characteristics, the interconnection must take place above our individuality. We want to reveal the universal program, which will unite us into one. This way we will reveal the Light of Infinity, which begets, supports, and connects us. The perception of this program is the revelation of the Creator.

Besides our animate body, we feel that there is a person living in us—a higher degree. The same way, when we unite with one another, we reveal the program of our interconnection on a higher level, which is the revelation of the Creator to the creature.

And even though we receive a strong impulse toward this during conventions, we can do enormous unity work in groups and between groups during the breaks between conventions in order to bring this message, this example to the world. After all, the world is already beginning to experience this need to understand the current situation.

The Creator becomes revealed between us in the dark. He uses it to show us that we lack Him so we would direct ourselves towards Him. We cannot correct our lives otherwise. He evokes this in us through the crisis and the feeling of helplessness, through different unpleasant sensations. Otherwise, how can we, egoists, aspire towards Him? We will not be able to reveal Him artificially, without really needing Him.

Day by day, the world is becoming submerged in darkness and confusion, losing hope and strength, and losing orientation even in the mundane activities. This becomes reflected upon the lives of regular people, causing the feeling of lack to gradually mature in them. At first they do not know what exactly it is that they lack, but then they realize that they need confidence in tomorrow, hope for the future, a guarantee about things they need in regular life today.

These are not philosophical revelations or intellectual theoretical developments. These are not things that become revealed to us, people with a point in the heart, above our regular lives. We have a special search, one inherent to Galgalta ve-Eynaim, the vessels of bestowal, those who want to penetrate the essence of the program that connects us, to feel the net of our interconnection, and to attain the laws that operate between us. But not everyone aspires towards this.

A regular person only needs to understand how he participates in the process out of his need for food, to educate his children, to have a pension, health and safety, and to pay his bills…. That is how he becomes included in the big program, differently from us. He needs simple, familiar things: making a living, having television at home, visiting familiar websites, having and raising children….

These people will continue to live the exact same way on the spiritual stage of their development, but with the intention to participate in the common business together with everyone else. Otherwise, they will not be able to provide for themselves. The cells in the body operate the same way, receiving a program from the brain.

We must explain what is happening to the people and teach them the specifics of behavior in the new world, while developing and studying it among us. This is why every one of us must understand the responsibility he is carrying. Practically, this is the realization of his soul.
[55070]
From the 7th lesson at the Toronto Convention 9/18/11

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Neither Higher Nor Lower, But Equal With Everyone

Dr. Michael LaitmanMost of all, we are misled and bribed in our work by pride, which makes us think, “I will be in charge, I will control everything.” This appears in the most primitive form, the way it happens in the regular world when a person doesn’t give others opportunities, tries to circumvent them, and is not ready to go along together with them as equals.

Yet we need open relationships where I don’t try to be higher or lower than others. Being lower than others is not good either because it does not let you be friends. And naturally, being higher also doesn’t let you be friends.

It is necessary to be absolutely equal—meaning to stop feeling yourself! I feel myself only when I am higher or lower than others, but when I’m equal to them, I do not feel myself, but only a connection among all of us, floating together with its flow.

This is the feeling we should constantly have. Sometimes it becomes revealed to us during conventions, different gatherings, and special events. However, we have to maintain it all the time because this feeling of the connection between us is what will turn into the Light and the revelation of the Creator.

For now it is just a feeling of us being connected and bonded. It is just the construction of the vessel. But eventually, this vessel will reach the state of bestowal and then we’ll feel the Light inside of it.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/20/11, Shamati

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The Purpose Of Creation, In Brief

Dr. Michael LaitmanAlthough we exist in the space of the world of Infinity, we are unable to perceive anything of it except for a tiny black point that is unaware even of itself. This is how the Creator made us. And then He started to restrict Himself. As He restricts Himself, we manifest more and more.

The Creator conceals Himself from 100 to zero percent, forming the worlds of Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya, the 125 degrees of restriction, the Creator’s concealment. To this extent, the creature reveals itself and its world more and more, from zero to 100 percent, and this constitutes the degrees of the creature by which it manifests more and more, until it finds itself in our world. Meanwhile, the Creator is concealed.

Now, we have to perform the correction. I have to gradually, step by step, reveal the Creator, meaning to discover Him within myself so as to not be opposite to Him, so that there would be no barrier separating us, so that I would encompass all of His qualities until they enter me, degree after degree.

We can depict it differently: I absorb into myself the properties of the Creator, and they enter inside my point, my Reshimo (informational gene), more and more.

Most important is to adhere to precise definitions. We exist in that same space, in that same place, in the same conditions. From the part of the Creator, the upper Light, nothing changes. Everything depends only on how we incorporate into ourselves His qualities—the qualities of love and bestowal, of expansion and unlimited connection, so that all the properties called love and bestowal that constitute the nature of Light enter us. Then we will sense the state that we truly exist in.

We can’t change anything: We exist in that same place, among the same forces. There is a program that advances us towards development under the influence of great pressures we feel from outside and inside. But we can add to it our own development, to decide that we desire it, and then to develop quickly, nicely, and with joy. This is the entire difference.

Nobody had asked us either in the beginning or in the end of the process, nobody is taking us into consideration—except for that mechanical force that develops us. Indeed, the Creator has no feelings like ours, as it is said: “The law is given and cannot be transgressed.” But we, as sensual and fine creatures, can use this law effectively for it help us to develop quickly, nicely, and easily.

Hence, all we do is reveal a perfect reality—the world of Infinity, the Creator, and it is happening namely in our generation.
[54970]
From the 4th Lesson, Kabbalah Convention in Toronto, 9/16/2011

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Above Reason

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I know for sure that I have risen above reason?

Answer: To rise above reason means to enter the reason of the other.

We exist in the world of Infinity. I am one of many. Remaining inside myself, I exist in my reason: concern for myself, thoughts about myself, in a race for my personal well-being. This is our ordinary state. Subconsciously and consciously, we think only about it.

Undoubtedly, my children, wife, relatives, friends, and perhaps even my nation and country where I live are also part of my sphere. This is determined by how much I depend on the people around me and to what extent I’m subject to their influence. Accordingly, I attribute them to my own Self.

What does an ascent above reason mean? It means that I move into the reason, the desires of the other person, instead of being inside myself. I’m at his or her service completely. For me, the other person is primary, while I, the one who executes, secondary. The other is like a beloved baby for me, while I’m his or her mother.

 

This is what rising above reason entails. In other words, it is a change of priorities: Now the other is more important to me than I am to myself, like a baby to his mother. This is a true sign that I have succeeded.
[55000]
From the 5th lesson, Kabbalah Convention in Toronto, 9/17/2011

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Light Is The Music Of The Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I understand why fulfillment is concealed from us, but why are our connections with one another concealed from us?

Answer: Connection and fulfillment are inseparable.

What is the Light? How can we explain what sensation is? Suddenly I feel some kind of vibrations in relation to someone: hatred, love, fear, care. These vibrations did not come from outside, but were born inside of me, inside of my attitude to that person.

They emerge because I establish a special connection with him and work on it. Then, when I connect with him, I feel special impressions, like vibrations inside my desires, sensations, and qualities. This is called Light.

The Light does not come from outside in order to dress into me, but becomes revealed inside of me, in my attitude to someone. It cannot be revealed “out of the blue.” That is impossible. It can only be felt in my connection with someone else, such as when I give him a sensation and he receives it, or vice versa.

There has to be a connection uniting two people, inside of which some kind of vibration or impression is felt, called the Light. It’s like a cord or a tube connecting us that extends from one to the other through which an electrical current flows.

It turns out that the Light is the vessel that feels all kinds of changes inside itself. It’s not the actual Light that changes, but the desires and the impressions experienced in the desires. But no Light comes from outside.

It’s like a vibration of a string that produces the voice of a musical instrument. This is called the Light. Therefore, we have to create love and bestowal inside of us ourselves, and then inside of this love and bestowal we will feel its inner root, called the Creator.
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/20/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Will The Elite Help Us?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the use in educating the masses if the elite will continue to take the lion’s share?

Answer: The lion’s share of what? Do you think that the elite will not help us in providing basic needs? I do not think so. The government and the rich will not stand aside; they will lend a helping hand. In fact, neither they nor the masses have a choice. If we are heading towards general recovery, any part of the nation can take part in this.

For example, everyone but the poorest will allocate 10 percent of their income to social needs. What will motivate them? The threat of social riot and the collapse of country. The state will also cut one-tenth of the fat, both from the budget as well as from informal resources.

We need to understand what will follow. Unemployment will increase; the gap between rich and poor will grow, and people, as well as the government, will be confused. This is what will happen if we do not proceed to global education. The same thing is happening in Europe and America. Everyone will have to resort to this method. And we, Israelis, should set an example for the whole world.

And above all, it is desirable to demonstrate to people as soon as possible that “fair distribution” without global education is not fair and provides no solutions. We will not be able to deal with any modern problem without radical changes in society.
[55203]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/20/2011, “The Nation”

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Unity As The Method Of Solving The Crisis, Part 3

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Yuri Yakovets, Professor, Russian Academy of Public Administration; from the report to the UN): “In the first half of the 21st century the world of civilizations faced new challenges of the next whorl of historical progress, was hit with a wave of global crises – financial-economic, energy-ecological, food, technological, socio-cultural – and is now on the crossroads.

“The multi-polar world has become a reality. A strategic choice is made between its two models: multi-polar world based on the confrontation and conflicts of civilizations or on their dialogue and partnership.”

For the time being, the predominant strategy is to adapt to new conditions, thereby prolonging the agony of the old regime and exacerbating global conflict. But having outlined a future society, it is necessary to develop and implement the strategy of becoming an integral civilization, the foundations of which originate before our eyes, thus alleviating the birthing pains of the transition to a new stage of our development.

My Comment: The stages of “fetal development” and its birth have been already described; we only need to circulate and implement them. The events should unfold like in a Hollywood movie that shows how the inhabitants of the Earth prepare for the arrival of aliens from outer space. We too need to rush to get ready for the coming of a new world. We feel its manifestation and our lack of preparedness as a crisis. This crisis is in us, but if we start to change, our bitter sensations will turn into their opposite.
[55102]

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The Economy For Unified Humanity

Karl Marx, “Theses On Feuerbach”: Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.

Comment: With regard to this, it is necessary to set a goal for our economic development. Otherwise, continuing the process of reproduction becomes pointless.

At this stage of its development, despite various contradictions, humanity sees itself more and more as a single whole and wonders about the purpose of its existence. In our opinion, economic theory must include the study of the meaning and purpose of the economic process, taking into account the increasing unity of human society.
[55099]

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