Audio Version Of The Blog – 11.29.11

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About the Value of Love for Friends

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur attitude to the neighbor, to the environment in the world where we were born, which we feel inside of our egoism, is called the preparation period. When we go from love for the environment or love for friends to love for the Creator, this is already the time of the real work, when we acquire the qualities of bestowal.

As a result of acquiring these altruistic qualities and going through the degree of bestowal for the sake of bestowal, we finally attain love. But since this path leads to the attainment of love for the Creator, that is how the entire path is called.

And even though today we are working in our realm, in our world, with egoistic qualities, this is still considered work on love for friends, for the neighbor, even though all of it is very far from real love.

Love for the Creator, love for the creatures, and love for friends are the same thing because it is directly opposite to love for oneself. That is why it requires so many qualitative changes inside of a person. But the value of love for friends is very high because it allows us to acquire additional desires and sensations, to reveal the true reality we are in, meaning the Creator.

To the extent that a person values the Creator and the final goal, that is how important he considers the means leading to it, such as the exercises in the group, with the friends, and the studies because without these means he could never attain the goal.

On one hand, this entire world is imaginary and there is no one around me: not the still or the vegetative levels, nor animals or people. All of these are my own desires, which divided into these parts and therefore present the Upper Light to me in this way.

This is also how I must treat the group – as if nothing exists besides me. And everyone I feel around me: the environment, the group, the teacher, and even the Creator, are inside of me, in my sensation. I received this illusion that everything is outside so I could learn what the sensation of the neighbor means: so I could feel him, have relationships with him, and attain bestowal and love.

If a person perceives all of reality this way, then he does not err. Clearly, he still has to discern new details all the time and supplement the common picture with them, but he is already on the right path.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/11, Writings of Rabash

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Breaking The Protective Wall Of Indifference

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur spiritual vessel lacks capacity because we are afraid of the two opposite states: hatred and love. We avoid hatred and don’t want to feel it. The defense mechanism of the body doesn’t even allow us to truly hate.

And in general, we are afraid of hatred. Indeed, it is written that we need to love the friends, and yet we suddenly discover that we hate them. We don’t even want to think about it! Therefore, we block these questions that arise within us.

And love, for what do we need it? I don’t feel the need to love them. I can get along without it. I don’t let myself reach these two extreme emotions. And it’s possible to reach them only after investing much effort.

If I don’t invest in a child, he is growing up by himself somewhere in the yard, and I think to myself: “Well, what will be will be.” And then afterwards, when they put him in jail, I mutter to myself: “Well, what can be done?”

But if I invest efforts with him, from day to day, placing demands in front of him and worrying from the bottom of my heart about everything that happens to him, then I am filled with both love and hate. They both create the capacity in me for great worries. Everything depends upon my investment.

So what should be done if we want to arrive at the approaching convention with a big and expanding vessel? We once went on an excursion to the mountains in the north of the country, and it was almost impossible to climb the mountain without each other’s help. This is a very good exercise. Even games like these that seem “childish” help us to feel the togetherness between us. But now, before the convention, each one must search for how to invest his strengths as much as possible in what the group is doing.
[61510]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/2011TES

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The Artificial Model Of Man

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I know that the effectiveness of the studies depends entirely upon the connection between the friends during the lesson. So why do I discover within me only the resistance?

Answer: Would you like for there to be no resistance? We need to understand that all of our development occurs thanks to the forces that stop us. All of our forward movement is carried out with the help of those same disturbances that constantly appear to us. These are the forces that confuse us, make us criticize others and curse the Creator, the group, and the teacher, everything!

And I need, on the contrary, to appreciate and raise it all upward, to the height of all those who belong to my spiritual advancement. I need to artificially do it since after all, my natural way is my ego. If I want to act naturally, I will remain an animal since that is my nature.

The Creator created us like that, and He doesn’t hide it. It’s exactly what He says, directly: “I created the evil inclination.” He’s not embarrassed to say that He created us like animals. But He gave us the opportunity to make ourselves into human beings instead, and we must do this.

If I constantly forget, don’t understand, don’t feel, am confused, and don’t grasp what I am learning, then I finally need to understand that this is sent to me as help. Everything that happens to me at each moment: with health, family, at work, on the street, in the group, during studies, with my inner clarifications, and with my thoughts, all the burdens and confusion, everything is given to me only so that I will arrange all this data correctly on a value scale. I need to clarify what is higher and lower, what can or cannot help me, to cut it from me, and to not pay attention to it now.

This means that from all of these disturbances, I build a spiritual structure, a spiritual Partzuf. From all of my desires, thoughts, and relations, from all the influences on me, I must create a model of myself that shows me who I want to be now, how to relate to everything, what is important for me and what is less, and what can help me or is completely useless.
[61516]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/2011, TES

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ARI Institute Participates In An International Seminar On Women

Remarkable participation of the ARI Institute in an international seminar on women

Members of our ARI Institute, Rachel Laitman and Norma Livne, were selected by the Millenia 2015 international project among hundreds of candidates from all over the world to participate in the seminar “Women Actors of Development for the Global Challenges” that took place in Paris, France on November 21, 2011.

The conference was organized by The Detree Institute, a European non-governmental research centre for regional development. 50 women representatives of universities, scientific institutions, international organizations, and economic and social bodies from 17 countries gathered for the event at the Centre de Sociologie de l’Innovation, Ecole des Mines, Paris, considered the equivalent of Harvard University for research on economics, science, and sociology.

[Read more →]

Why Iceland Should Be In The News, But Is Not

Opinion (Deena Stryker, The South African Civil Society Information Service): “An Italian radio program’s story about Iceland’s on-going revolution is a stunning example of how little our media tells us about the rest of the world. Americans may remember that at the start of the 2008 financial crisis, Iceland literally went bankrupt. The reasons were mentioned only in passing, and since then, this little-known member of the European Union fell back into oblivion.

“As one European country after another fails or risks failing, imperiling the Euro, with repercussions for the entire world, the last thing the powers that be want is for Iceland to become an example. Here’s why:

“Five years of a pure neo-liberal regime had made Iceland, (population 320 thousand, no army), one of the richest countries in the world. In 2003 all the country’s banks were privatized, and in an effort to attract foreign investors, they offered on-line banking whose minimal costs allowed them to offer relatively high rates of return. The accounts, called IceSave, attracted many English and Dutch small investors. But as investments grew, so did the banks’ foreign debt. In 2003 Iceland’s debt was equal to 200 times its GNP, but in 2007, it was 900 percent. The 2008 world financial crisis was the coup de grace. The three main Icelandic banks, Landbanki, Kapthing and Glitnir, went belly up and were nationalized, while the Kroner lost 85% of its value with respect to the Euro. At the end of the year Iceland declared bankruptcy.

“But the foreign financial community pressured Iceland to impose drastic measures. The FMI and the European Union wanted to take over its debt, claiming this was the only way for the country to pay back Holland and Great Britain, who had promised to reimburse their citizens.

“The Head of State, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, refused to ratify the law that would have made Iceland’s citizens responsible for its bankers’ debts, and accepted calls for a referendum.

“In the March 2010 referendum, 93% voted against repayment of the debt. The IMF immediately froze its loan.

“But Icelanders didn’t stop there: they decided to draft a new constitution that would free the country from the exaggerated power of international finance and virtual money.

“To write the new constitution, the people of Iceland elected twenty-five citizens from among 522 adults not belonging to any political party but recommended by at least thirty citizens. This document was not the work of a handful of politicians, but was written on the Internet. The constituent’s meetings are streamed on-line, and citizens can send their comments and suggestions, witnessing the document as it takes shape.

“The people of Greece have been told that the privatization of their public sector is the only solution. And those of Italy, Spain and Portugal are facing the same threat. They should look to Iceland. Refusing to bow to foreign interests, that small country stated loud and clear that the people are sovereign.”
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Wall Street Arvut Boston Style

A letter from my student: At seven in the morning on Saturday, several people from our “Arvut special forces,” Wall Street, New York, traveled to Boston, one of the oldest, most beautiful, and enlightened cities in the USA. We were invited by our friends at the Boston group who had spent several weeks establishing a relationship with the organizers of the “occupation” camp there.

The sympathizers at the camp were eager to take leaflets, but the movement wasn’t growing and mutual inclusion was not happening. We were told that the Boston movement was a small scale movement. It was unclear what work was needed and how to incorporate the message of mutual guarantee in the masses since there weren’t any “masses.” However, since our friends said, “You have to,” Arvut responded, “You got it!”

After all, four hours spent shaking in a double decker bus was not the end of the world, and it was an opportunity to catch up on the sleep we missed while connected to the convention in the Arava desert. We arrived on location at noon, and our friends greeted us with so much warmth that we had no choice but give back at least double what they had given us!

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What Can Ecosystems Teach The Eurozone?

Opinion (from New Scientist): “The eurozone, like the rest of the world economy, is a complex networked system. That gives it properties economists rarely consider but which could help us understand the current crisis.

What is a complex network?

“Complex networks have many interconnected components which influence each other’s behaviour. These changes then feed back on each other. A famous example is the numbers of predators and prey in a given environment, which vary in a complex interdependent way. The eurozone – the 17 countries that share a common currency, the euro – is similarly interdependent, with similar feedback mechanisms.

“All complex networks are governed by a balance between negative feedback, such as interest rates, which is stabilising, and positive feedback, such as the self-reinforcing erosion of trust in markets, which is destabilizing.

How does that help us understand economic crises?

“In certain circumstances, one type of feedback can end up dominating the system, causing it to change so dramatically that it flips to another state. Examples include the way animal populations can suddenly collapse or the way economies can slip into recession.

“These tipping points tend to be highly unpredictable. Even so, computer models of the system can still show how the system can change. Yet leading economics journals, he Len Fisher at the University of Bristol, author of Crashes, Crises and Calamities: How we can use science to read the early-warning signs] says, do not accept computer-modelling studies.

“Can we understand complex systems well enough to control them?

“Maybe. The diversity of a network’s components and the density and strength of its connections – called its connectivity – affect the system’s resilience, or resistance to change. More connections make a system more resilient: if one component fails others can fill in. But only up to a point. Go past a certain threshold and more connectivity makes the system less resilient because a single failure can cascade to every other component.

“The trick is to get the balance right.

[Read more →]

A Question About Judging The Friends

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Regarding the problem of revealing our connection within group activity and practicing love of friends: What does it mean to “judge our friends with a scale of merit” and everything will fall into place naturally? Does this mean that if a problem is perceived regarding love of friends, judging with a scale of merit will fix things? Can a scale of merit be used as a personal tool for correction? (from the article “One should Always Sell the Beams of His House”)

Answer: The key is to reach unity first and only then judge others, already treating them like your children or relatives. That is why it is said that the basis of correction is the principle of, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and after this property is mastered, the correction is in reaching the property of “love the other as thyself.”
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Setting An Example For The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe world needs to unite and is looking for a way to do so. In the meantime, unity seems unfeasible to it.

We see that Europe cannot unite: Different conflicts and new cold wars are going on there, only to keep the people busy somehow, to distract them. Lots of various egoistic motives arise, and people need to overcome them, yet they don’t understand or feel that.

Undoubtedly, it is important to set some kind of an example for the world and to introduce the altruistic force into it.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we exist in the one and only desire that was created. We are a certain part of that desire, and if we fill this part with the attribute of bestowal, it will begin to spread gradually to all other souls, people, societies, counties, and cultures.

We are all connected to one another, and what happens in one part in the world “infects” its other parts virtually. Our unification includes a great number of students from all the continents, nations, races, religions, and different mentalities. Since we are a great mass of people who are aimed precisely at a certain goal, we certainly make up one big, strong whole.

When, for example, our friends in New York go out to the streets, we see that people meet them with interest and ask questions and that university professors bring their students to talk with them and to learn about what our friends offer. This means that we are a strong influential group that has its own goal, outlook, and idea based on serious scientific data and not on mysticism or different beliefs. This group actually penetrates the different levels of humanity and gradually shapes it according to its own form.

We should definitely reinforce our dissemination because the world is about to collapse. Undoubtedly, we will eventually reach a state when people will begin to listen to us. We can already see that.
[61706]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/20/2011

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