Audio Version Of The Blog – 11.06.11

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Before The Most Important Event Of Our Lives

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You said that at the convention a person should not delve into himself, but should imagine that we are all connected already. But what should I do if I am overcome by critical thoughts? How can I get rid of them?

Answer: The convention is one big friends’ assembly, meaning an unceasing influence of the environment, the most powerful of all the possible ones that have ever taken place.

And if we see from Kabbalists’s articles that the most important thing is the influence of the environment, then we can assess the importance of such a great assembly that we are getting together at physically, while the whole world is joining us virtually, meaning people who are together with us.

We must only prepare for this gathering the right way. We have 30 days left, and that is a lot of time. If each of us prepares correctly during this time, as well as all of us together, then we will attain a very serious influence of the environment on every person. This happens to such an extent that the feeling of realization of evil can develop in a person to such great proportions that he will hate his receiving nature and will desire to come out of it, which is called the exodus from Egypt.

He will desire to attain bestowal, meaning he will raise his Malchut into Bina, will desire to join bestowal to the neighbor. Who are these neighbors? This is the most general level of Bina where we all dwell in bestowal. If a person aspires to this, then he can temporarily or even permanently enter the spiritual reality, bestowal in an initial measure. This will already be his first spiritual experience.

Everything depends on the might of the Light that reforms, which depends entirely on how a person adjusts himself in relation to the environment: How much he values this environment and its ability to influence him. Let him not come with scorn and criticism to all the others, but only with great hope that the Creator will now give him the opportunity to use the environment in order to rise above his nature. Then he will immediately feel spirituality!

Our task is to prepare for this event well as it might be the most important one in our lives, a turning point from our dark state to a state full of Light.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/6/11, Writings of Rabash

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Breaking Away

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What should we demand from the convention so afterwards we won’t hear you say, “Why didn’t you ask?”

Answer: We must constantly think about how we are already imagining this special state and how we are aspiring to realize it at the convention, completely forgetting about the world for three days.

We have to leave everything behind and close the door behind us in order to find ourselves truly on the next level. This requires the most serious preparation: I study articles, go to lessons, work in dissemination, and no matter what I do, all of it is preparation. I am constantly driven by the anticipation, the expectation that something is about to happen.

We have to arrive to the convention as though we’re arriving to our redemption. I can’t wait for it and I think I will simply explode if it doesn’t happen.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/6/11, ““Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Pay Attention To People!

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (John Kirton, Co-Head of the G20 Research Group at the University of Toronto, Canada): “‘The Cannes summit has got to, for one, contain the euro crisis. Number two, find a way to generate strong, sustained, balanced growth in the global economy. Third, put in place stronger financial regulations and supervision… and then it has to move on to look at development’…

“Thousands of international activists, with a range of causes, are staging protests in the nearby city of Nice to make sure world leaders focus on people and not just on financial markets.”

My Comment: These protests begin to show that more people are starting to believe not in an economic but in a social solution to the crisis, not in further industrial growth needed only for the rich to become richer but in fair distribution of the existing resources, which will be enough for everyone with equal distribution of surplus.
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Fundamentals Of Kabbalah – 11.06.11

A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah
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Sony Slashes Annual Operating Profit Forecast By 90%

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Reuters): “Sony Corp on Wednesday [November 2, 2011] slashed its full-year operating profit outlook by 90 percent to its lowest level in three years as Thai floods disrupt camera production at the Japanese company, which is already struggling with a soaring yen and sluggish television sales in the U.S. and Europe.”
My Comment: This should happen in the production and marketing of all but necessary goods. Rampant production and unlimited consumption will no longer exist!
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Pentagon Prepares For Economic Warfare

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from poorrichards-blog): “The guests were assembled in the Warfare Analysis Laboratory, surrounded by uniformed officers from the highest levels of the Pentagon and a dizzying array of screens normally used to simulate nuclear world war.

“Behind the scenes, the military are worried about the market. For who owns much of this debt? China, the US’s most powerful rival and threat. And that makes America vulnerable to a new kind of bloodless but ruthless war.

“The group was split into five teams: America, Russia, China, Pacific Rim, and a ‘grey team,’ representing shady outfits such as terrorist organizations. They were sent into ‘bunker rooms’ and told to use financial or economic tools – currency, debt, stocks, gold – to bring their enemies to their knees. Everything was conducted via computer, and they could be as devious and ruthless as they liked.

“When the game was halted, the result left the military men quiet and sobered. Why did the bankers scare the soldiers? The answer lies in the way the world is now interconnected as never before.

“Over the past few years, China has been buying up US government debt and is now its biggest holder. If China were to dump this debt, it would totally screw with the economy.

“The markets are now global, the holdings in each other’s finances deep, and the technical ability to manipulate them instantaneous. In the 1970s the West feared that its enemies had their fingers on a nuclear button. The modern equivalent may be China’s ability to press the button on US Treasury bills.

“‘China is, Professor Bracken says, ‘the huge threat,’ but Russia, with its oil and gas, has shown no compunction in waging economic war on its neighbours, and could do so on a larger scale.

“Another possibility is that major oil-producing countries could destabilize America by switching to euros instead of dollars as the currency in which oil is priced – so-called ‘petro-dollar warfare.’ Or a terrorist organization might trigger a financial crash via some kind of shady hedge fund or computer attack.

“At the end of that Pentagon session, the 80-odd players returned from their bunkers and assessed the damage.

“China won, without so much as reaching for a gun. And the soldiers looked at each other and wondered if it was still only a game.”

My Comment: There is nothing surprising in the results of the economic war played out by their rules. But the experts were wrong: Namely due to total interconnection, there are no winners or losers in this war. Everyone will lose, and the only way out is to sequentially bring everyone to a single global community with reasonable consumption.
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A Nation Of Vidiots

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Jeffrey D. Sachs, Professor of Economics and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Special Adviser to United Nations Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals): “The past half-century has been the age of electronic mass media. Television has reshaped society in every corner of the world. Now an explosion of new media devices is joining the TV set: DVDs, computers, game boxes, smart phones, and more. A growing body of evidence suggests that this media proliferation has countless ill effects.

“The best evidence suggests that Americans watch more than five hours per day of television on average – a staggering amount, given that several hours more are spent in front of other video-streaming devices.

“Time that used to be spent together in the community is now spent alone in front of the screen. Robert Putnam, the leading scholar of America’s declining sense of community, has found that TV viewing is the central explanation of the decline of ‘social capital,’ the trust that binds communities together.

“Certainly, heavy TV viewing is bad for one’s physical and mental health. Americans lead the world in obesity, with roughly two-thirds of the US population now overweight. Again, many factors underlie this, including a diet of cheap, unhealthy fried foods, but the sedentary time spent in front of the TV is an important influence as well.

“America’s TV ownership is almost entirely in private hands, and owners make much of their money through relentless advertising. Effective advertising campaigns, appealing to unconscious urges – typically related to food, sex, and status – create cravings for products and purchases that have little real value for consumers or society.

“American politicians are now brand names, packaged like breakfast cereal. Anybody – and any idea – can be sold with a bright ribbon and a catchy jingle.

“All roads to power in America lead through TV, and all access to TV depends on big money. This simple logic has put American politics in the hands of the rich as never before.

“The American Academy of Pediatrics recently warned that TV viewing by young children is dangerous for their brain development, and called on parents to keep children under two away from the TV and similar media.”

My Comment: We will be able to change TV from being commercial and egoistic to socially useful only by realizing the need for positive social influence on everyone, which will inspire us to unite and to become similar to the global interconnection developing between us.

TV will become the source of integral education and training and will help us create a new society that will be similar to unified nature. As a result, the crisis will turn into well-being.
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The Difference Between The Animate And The Human Desire

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe only desires that can be corrected are desires that have an addition, a special form of an attitude towards desire called an intention. There are instinctive desires for fulfillment on the still, vegetative, and animate levels, which are simply enrooted in us by nature. And there are desires that operate through an intention, which assume a special attitude towards the source of pleasure, and not the pleasure itself.

The reason I want to be rich is not because I receive pleasure from buying things with money, but because I am envious of my rich neighbor. I want to be big, beautiful, and slender, always comparing myself to the others. A certain attitude towards others is part of this, and it gives me an additional pleasure. If the attitude towards my neighbor disappears, I will have no reason for this pleasure.

Egoistic desire appears from the fact that we were once connected and then became distanced from one another. And this distance, breaking, affects our desire, increases it, and gives it the form of an attitude towards other, foreign, desires, and ultimately the Creator. In other words, it defines my attitude toward something that exists outside of me.

When it comes to a simple instinctive desire, I only want to fulfill it. And the others do not concern me at all—it is only my desire. But the desires of the “human” level are not my inherent desires, but acquired ones. I have acquired them by being connected with others some time ago or by being in an environment that rouses this kind of desires in me.

The desires that get corrected have an intention that appeared from the past connection into a single desire. This is why this intention is present in us and constantly awakens, demanding correction.

We attain the understanding of the creature, the Creator, and a 620 times greater fulfillment and connection specifically through the correction of this intention.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/3/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Love Will Cover All Deficits

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is said in the Talmud that all in Israel guarantee for one another. But why is it only in Israel? Indeed, according to the purpose of creation, the entire world must come to mutual guarantee.

The fact is that Israel should do this first, as Baal HaSulam writes at the end of the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar.” The sons of Israel receive a special state in their development: They stand at Mount Sinai, meaning they discover evil between themselves, the abyss, rejection, true hatred, caused by the shattering that occurred at the root of our soul.

And then, rising above all this, they can achieve unity, mutual guarantee. It is said: “Love will cover all sins.” This force of love will be revealed in them above hatred.

And then, it will be poured to all others, who cannot reveal hatred and love so much. These souls belong to the category of the “nations of the world”: Their desires are less strong, and the force of breaking is weaker in them. The chasm that has opened within them is not as deep, and the passions raging in them are not as cruel, although they are the carriers of the receiving desire.

Of course, at the end of correction, everyone is united in one vessel, without any distinctions. However, on the way, there is a category of souls that carry out correction first. This category is called “Israel” (ישראל), which also means “my head” (Li rosh – לי ראש). And the others get everything ready and are called the “nations of the world.”

Today, we are standing at the threshold of the final ascent. So everyone who feels the pull towards correction and the need to unite for the sake of this are called “Israel.” They stand at the head according to the mission that they must carry out in the process of correction. “Israel” also means “straight to the Creator” (Bo-rehישר-א – ל) since the purpose of correction is to come to the upper force, to attain complete bestowal.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/3/2011, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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