Good Environment – 10.17.11

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

Crisis And Resolution

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere are disorders taking place everywhere, including menacing cases that become expressed spontaneously and uncontrollably, and no one can predict the outcome of what is happening. Just like the crisis itself, its waves are rolling over everyone and no one is left in peace. The rich are forced to help the poor, while the poor manipulate the rich’s dependence on them….

Every economist in the world has his own opinion about the reasons for the economic crisis that is taking place. But we are forgetting that the crisis is not economic, but pertains to all of civilization: There is not one area of human activity that is not undergoing a crisis.

The crisis is happening in all of the social systems we have created: healthcare, public assistance, marriage and family, education and upbringing…. Undoubtedly, everyone started paying attention to the crisis when it became being expressed in the economic and financial realm because our survival depends on this directly. But to reveal its causes, we have to examine it as a whole, as a crisis of civilization.

The reason for the crisis is just one thing: every day, the world is becoming more interconnected and interdependent from within, by nature, and therefore, every day it is becoming more and more opposite to the external connections and culture that we have imposed on it in the form of separate countries, societies, opposing systems, and so forth. Precisely the difference between the world’s unity, which grows bigger every day, and the culture of separation we have created, is the crisis that is growing worse.

We are incapable of stopping the expression of the world’s inner globality and integrality. This is coming from its original nature, which we are unable to influence.

We also cannot observe the constantly growing opposition between the world’s inner structure, where its unity is being revealed, and the external one, humanity, where its divisions and contradictions are being expressed. This is evoking a multifaceted crisis inside of us.

The only solution to the problem of the developing crisis, our growing opposition to nature, lies in all of humanity’s gradual attainment of unity, mutual guarantee, and balance between humanity and nature, reasonable consumption. However, this contradicts our egoistic nature and therefore it is possible only when the environment exerts a wholesome, positive influence on every person.

For that, it is necessary to form a new social, personal consciousness that can be attained through universal global education and upbringing about the global, integral connection among all people that is being expressed in the world. To achieve this, every country has to decide to form an environment around its society, a setting for educational influence.

Creating a mass media system that involves scientists and experts who explain the new, global world, its new social laws, the need to follow them for the sake of survival, is the educational part. Creating large virtual and non-virtual connections that will pull people in, give them an example of unification and joy in it, is the part of upbringing.

Undoubtedly, by taking the first steps in this direction, we will immediately and clearly feel the crisis receding.
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The Will Of The Integral System

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: Do not be surprised if I mix together the well-being of a particular collective with the well-being of the whole world, because indeed, we have already come to such a degree that the whole world is considered one collective and one society. Meaning, because each person in the world draws his life’s marrow and his livelihood from all the people in the world, he is coerced to serve and care for the well-being of the whole world.

We have proven above that the total subordination of the individual to the collective is like a small wheel in a machine. He draws his life and his happiness from that collective, and therefore the well-being of the collective and his own well-being are one and the same, and vice-versa. Therefore, to the extent that a person is enslaved to himself, he necessarily becomes enslaved to the collective.

Does this mean we have been enslaved? Will it be necessary to subjugate every person and country to the demands of a specific regulation? Then where is freedom of the individual? Where are equality and justice, if they will coerce others to do something?

The issue here is that a new, all-enveloping system is gradually “dressing” upon our world and we are compelled to submit to it. There is no other way to go. We have to accept this global, integral system that is being revealed everywhere today. We have to help each other do this and even obligate one another because we depend on each other. No one can fence himself off from others and communicate with them “at a distance.” The world has become very small. We are drawing our resources from the same sources, we are all “knitted together.”

The system of global interconnection is imposing mandatory circumstances on us. However, it is not imposing arbitrary rule, but the principle of mutual guarantee. We have to take care of one another and at the same time we have the right to obligate one another to observe this principle. No one can use the advantage of force to impose his own will and laws on another. This is not talking about someone’s personal whims, but the will of the general, integral system that is expressing itself and imputing common obligations to all of us.

Because we are all totally interconnected, we have to get organized according to the universal system that nature is demonstrating to us. If someone does not accept it and does not leave us with any other alternative, we have to take care to ensure that he will nevertheless desire to adapt to the new conditions, if not by his own desire, then against his will.

How? Very simply. We will sever all connections with him, will isolate him, leaving him one-on-one with the global system. Today we don’t need wars or atom bombs. It’s enough to deprive a country of the vital arteries, to close off the channels through which it exports and imports goods and raw materials. We won’t buy its production and won’t trade with it, and the country will fall apart, including its industry, energy, and other systems.

Today not one nation can manage without others or shift to autonomous mode. That is how interconnected everything is. Therefore, we have to explain to societies, countries, and governments what they don’t understand yet: The only way we will survive is by observing the law of mutual guarantee, and in no other way.

Thus, the well-being of the whole world depends on the well-being of every society and every country, and vice versa. All of this leads to far-reaching consequences, which we cannot even imagine. Every person will feel that he depends on everyone in every way. Even when I prepare a cup of hot tea, the whole world participates in it together with me.

This situation is dictating a completely new worldview, a new sensation of the world to us. From here on I am entirely and fully under the power of others, directly dependent on them. And if I am aware of this, like an animal that cannot put food and drink into its own feeder, then the understanding of the system of mutual guarantee allows me to take my place in it like an obedient boy.

That is why it is so important to start educating people today. We all have to open our eyes to where we are.

The path there is not easy. We see this by Europe’s example, which is fighting the financial crisis. It’s leaders are having a very hard time understanding the meaning of what is happening. They blame one another, but in reality no one is guilty. It’s just that until now everyone behaved egoistically, but now we are being deprived of that possibility.

The same thing goes for our group. For the world the issue at stake is material life, whereas for us – it is spiritual life. We have to understand that spiritual life depends on the revelation of the system of mutual guarantee. We will begin to live spiritually only in it and thanks to it when we establish interconnection, harmony, fair distribution, and single-hearted relationships among all of us.

Then, from our degree of spiritual interaction, we will be able to pour this knowledge, this educational method into the world, onto the degree of material interaction, giving the world all of the abundance that will pass through us. With the help of upbringing, we will give people the vessels, while the Lights coming from us will fill them with the sensation of life.

In principle, the world already understands that it really has become “round,” but on the other hand, it still does not feel the entire extent of its interconnections. In the near future we will see with our own eyes that every person opposing mutual guarantee will be subject to very powerful blows. All of the “smart-alecs” who don’t want to create good relationships with others, who don’t aspire in the direction of order, interconnection, and mutuality – be it separate people or entire nations – will experience the negative consequences of their own gambles boomeranging back at them.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/11, “Peace in the World”

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It’s Unacceptable, But It Is So

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can you explain to people the integral system we have entered?

Answer: Everyone should feel in his mind and heart that the whole world is his family. Of course, at first it seems inconceivable or worn-out, but let’s look at the facts: Do we have a choice? The state the world is in today simply demands a “family approach” from us.

So how can we advance in this direction? After all, without it we won’t be able to make any right decision. Let’s take Europe, for example, which is desperately and unsuccessfully trying to come out of the financial crisis. And it isn’t that they lack money. They are ready to invest as much as needed, but they don’t believe it will have any effect. The same is happening in the United States. In the next few months things will become clearer: Our calculations have to correspond to the integral, analogous system that doesn’t operate according to our present mind and emotions at all.

Can I act in favor of the whole world and balance the coming storm with a gradual, general ascent? I am unable to feel this approach and estimate it because I myself am not like that. As a result, having discovered themselves in a global interrelated system, the world leaders still make the same narrow egoistic decisions. They simply can’t take into account that fact that “my own benefit” does not exist any more, but only “our benefit.” This is contradictory to human nature.

We also feel this. Do I think about the group? No. I first of all think about myself. Do I worry about my friends and their unity? No. I think about how I myself will reach spirituality. If I reach it, I will change and will begin to worry about them, but in the meantime I don’t. We talk profusely about unity and raise toasts to mutual guarantee, but inside everyone thinks: “What about me?” and not “What about us?”

Yet, we follow the path of free will, and so the crisis is revealed to us “softly,” but the masses are discovering it in a very hard form. If we don’t provide them with the right explanation, they will come to us, and we won’t just feel that there is some abstract global crisis—we will actually experience it personally.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/11, “Peace in the World”

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The Other Side Of The Crisis

Dr. Michael LaitmanI regard the crisis as a wonderful ascent of humanity to a new degree, a completely new area of existence—a good and beautiful one. Of course, any ascent always involves birth, suffering, and problems. And here we must approach it in a very rational manner: use our past egoistic properties and instruments to reveal all possible laws of nature and teach them to all of humanity.

We must learn nature’s laws in order to know how to observe them and in this way live together with our children in a normal, nice, proper, safe, and reliable way. The main problem lies in explaining the need for man to adapt to the new global, integrated external conditions. And the crisis in us is our lack of correspondence to them.
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From the Talk on Global Education 9/4/2011

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Lost Hopes

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe have been constantly evolving, adding to our social, family, and internal development from year to year. We thought that our children would live better than us and that actually life was getting better and better.

Today we’ve lost that hope. We no longer make plans for the future. We’ve entered such a phase when humanity doesn’t feel its future because nature seemingly pushes us from behind and no longer develops our egoistic desires. On the contrary, those egoistic desires through which we developed start closing now: The desires of each and every one of us become dependent upon all the others. This is a big problem, and it is being confirmed by a large number of scientists.

We never felt that we are in mutual guarantee, in “a butterfly effect.” We didn’t feel that the world is global and integral. We never thought about that. We thought: “Interconnection is good! I will sell to him, he will sell to me, and we will do this and that together with these and those.” Meaning, I felt that I could use globalization egoistically, that I could gain something from it. It’s good that the world became so small; it’s good that I can fly everywhere and do everything….”

Then suddenly, the world became different! All of a sudden, it is becoming clear that globalization does not get along with my egoism, that it starts pressuring and constraining me if I don’t interact with it properly. This is called a crisis.

What’s the matter?! What is going on? People remained people. Money, industry, goods, food, everything is the same. What’s the crisis about? It’s about our disparity with this new law that is now being revealed.
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From the Talk on Global Education 9/4/2011

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A Science About The Future

Dr. Michael LaitmanSo far we do not know a science about the future. And in the future we must be in agreement with nature and somehow change ourselves, becoming similar to it. We have to become global, integrated, interconnected, and mutually well-wishing, understand that this is the only way things can become easier and better for us, and together come to a certain common decision to share produce, natural resources, and goods, that is, whatever is happening in every individual state.

If we were able to imagine a human society like this, and this society would really be human, and not animal like today, then of course, we would really be able to achieve absolute comfort and proper unity with nature. Then we would receive everything from nature properly. We would live in harmony and stop wasting so much energy and resources on defense and attack. Enormous resources would free up.

The problem lies in our nature. Today, for the first time in the history of humanity, the surrounding environment is showing us that we must be interconnected by kind forces and ties between us; otherwise we will be in a constantly escalating crisis.

Moreover, this is a threatening crisis because we are in constant wars and conflicts, not between us, but with nature. For this reason, today we will perceive nature to be increasingly hostile in its ecological manifestations, climatic changes, different health problems, epidemics, and so on. This will also manifest in our inner problems: the break up of the family unit, problems with children, problems with science, art, upbringing, and education, not to mention international and intergovernmental problems, which eventually will lead to enormous suffering.
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From the Talk on Global Education 9/4/2011

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Agree With It And It Will Be Revealed!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I personally affect the process of the emergence of worlds?

Answer: You already exist in the world of Infinity; you only need to discover yourself in it. We all exist inside the circle of the world of Infinity—all of us! We automatically exist in this system in an ideal state. Right now we also are in the world of Infinity in a completely corrected state, but not in relation to us. This state of absolute bestowal, love, and the full interaction of every person with everyone else is completely opposite to us.

It is gradually revealed to us to the extent that we are able to tolerate it. It is the most repulsive, hateful, and odious state I could imagine. And this is why it is revealed to me to the extent that I am able to potentially agree with it ahead of time.

In Baal HaSulam’s “Peace in the World,” “The Freedom,” as well as other articles, we study that we are all interconnected like wheels in one mechanism where they are all locked in together, linked in an ideal manner. They are so tightly connected that the tiniest movement of one of the wheels causes the entire system to move. Everyone depends on everyone else, and everyone must move harmoniously. We are in this system initially.

Agree With It And It Will Be Revealed1
We are all so different, and we exist in this picture (see the box in the diagram below). This image can be two or three dimensional, it can be anything. In it, we are tightly linked like in a Rubik’s Cube: Every one of us consists of 613 desires, together with everyone else, where every individual also consists of 613 desires. In other words, we are completely “knit together.”

Agree With It And It Will Be Revealed2

But thankfully, this image is not revealed to us because we are unable to tolerate it. However, we exist in it, and we automatically perform all our actions, including the current ones as well. And all these actions are righteous. In reality, all we do is bestow to one another. But we do not see it. Instead, we see an opposite picture, the one we want to see.

Kabbalah attunes us to gradually reveal our ideal state so this image will begin to live in me, so that I want it to live in me. And then it becomes revealed.

There is nothing new in the world. Simply a state initially created by the Creator and where you exist from the beginning becomes revealed. This is why our entire wisdom is wisdom about the revelation of the Creator, this entire system, and no more than that. All that is required of us is to want for that what exists to become revealed. But we must change ourselves and agree with this image in order to want it and to reveal it. This is our work.
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From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 10/2/2011

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From Captivity To Freedom

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Does the upcoming return of the imprisoned Israeli soldier Gilat Shalit signify a new level of unity in our nation?

Answer: Certainly we have to be joyful that this finally happened. Our nation cannot tolerate such a situation when one of its people is tormented in captivity. We can see that it is not easy. On the other hand, this is not the end of our problems.

Let’s be glad about the happy end for Gilad. It is not a matter of how many terrorists are freed in exchange. He is coming back and this is good.

I don’t think that this will make a big difference in the unity of the nation. The saga has ended and we will forget about it in a month. We only have to understand that we have to care about each and everyone at least as much. After all, we are imprisoned by our egoistic desire, and it is time to come out of this captivity.
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From 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/14/2011, “One Commandment”

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Newspaper “Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” In Hebrew

The first issue of the “Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” newspaper was published in Hebrew.