Audio Version Of The Blog – 12.14.11

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Do I Feel Good With Friends, Or With Friends Among Whom The Creator Resides?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: At the convention we felt life, but now descents are depicting a completely different picture for me. I want to return to the basis, the middle line, to that which I have to rely on. Or should we tread forward blindly until we come out to the Light? Do we have any source of support?

Answer: Besides the group, all other details of perception, qualities, and foundations disappear and do not provide support for a person.

Moreover, by delving into the group, a person also sees that he cannot really rely on the friends’ mutual guarantee either because they are also part of the conditions that bring him to a greater need for support. Gradually he loses firm ground in the group as well, until a person’s searches bring him to the need to reveal the Creator. Only in Him will a person find the true support, the root, and the answer to all his problems, failures, questions, and troubles.

We have to go through many steps on this path, and we begin with what is realistic for us. A person always stops in the place that seems safe to him. And therefore, the best thing is when all the hopes come from him through the group to the Creator, when he understands that the solution, fulfillment, and correct analysis will come only from there. And everything else are intermediate phases.

For example, today our hopes end with the group, “We are together! That’s great! How wonderful my friends are!” We still don’t discover the need for something higher, we still don’t demand a higher force to be revealed in the group more than simply a circle of friends. But this will gradually come.

Question: Baal HaSulam writes about how easy it is to control our desire with two reins: pleasure and pain. Then why is it so difficult for us to direct our desire in the spiritual direction in the group? What are we missing?

Answer: You cannot connect to the friends. Your pleasure lies in suppressing others and holding your ground. But others are also holding their ground, so how can you unite? Envy, passion, and pride—all of these initial qualities separate us from one another.

You suppose that you can unite, but I don’t think so. This is possible only with the help of the Light that reforms, by means of very difficult work. This requires the force of the Torah, the Kabbalistic method.

By uniting, we will reach Malchut of Infinity. Besides unity, there is nothing. Unite the friends in the group and you will get the world of Infinity. Everything begins and ends there.

You think this is simple. You are asking why we aren’t succeeding, what is wrong? But it can’t be any other way because you don’t demand for the Creator to dwell among you. You don’t even see that you are incapable of unity by yourself, and you even suppose that you are capable of it. You still haven’t revealed the truth.

Question: So how can we help each other do this?

Answer: There can be many external actions. The question is: How much do they incite a person to inner effort? This is our problem. So keep trying.

We still don’t have the need to connect ourselves, the group, the world and the Creator into one whole. We have to reveal this need faster since otherwise it will expire and the world will be in trouble.

The Reshimo of Malchut of Infinity, which becomes revealed in the group, is the result of many efforts that we make. And this work has to be done precisely in the group. It is the field where all fruits grow. It contains everything necessary, and our efforts determine how quickly we will be able to connect everything into one. The faster we do this, the easier and more pleasant our path will be.
[63122]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/11, “The Freedom”

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The Architect Of The Single Currency: Euro Doomed From Start

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Jacques Delors, the former president of the European Commission, a key architect of the euro): “The euro project was flawed from the start and the current generation of European leaders has failed to address its fundamental problems…

“In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Jacques Delors claims that errors made when the euro was created had effectively doomed the single currency to the current debt crisis. He also accuses today’s leaders of doing ‘too little, too late,’ to support the single currency..

“Mr Delors, who led the commission from 1985 to 1995, played a central role in the process that led to the creation of the euro in 1999. In his first British newspaper interview for almost a decade, he says that the debt crisis reflects a threat to Europe’s global role and even basic Western democratic values.”

My Comment: How was it possible to create a single market without integrating everybody into a unified Europe? It is a mockery of the “progressive” part of humanity, when the authors of the European unification project think that it is sufficient to slightly adjust the standards and the markets. Where is unity? It’s not to be found even in a common pocket, not to mention cultural integration, integral upbringing, becoming closer above national and cultural differences, and overcoming contempt and hatred.

Naturally, the project failed, and it is clear that its ignominious end was laid at the beginning. Integration should start with people, and not with a common market.
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Millions Of Preppers Are Preparing For The End Of The World As We Know It

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from The American Dream): “In America today, there are millions of ‘preppers’ that are working feverishly to get prepared for what they fear is going to happen to America. …You may even have noticed that some of your relatives and friends have been storing up food and have been trying to convince you that we are on the verge of ‘the end of the world as we know it.’ …So exactly what are all these preppers so busy preparing for?

“Well, the truth is that the motivation for prepping is different for each person. Some preppers believe that a complete collapse of the economy is coming. Others saw what happened to so many during Hurricane Katrina are determined not to let that happen to them. Some preppers just want to become more independent and self-sufficient. There are yet others that are deeply concerned about ‘end of the world as we know it’ scenarios such as terrorists using weapons of mass destruction, killer pandemics, alien invasions, World War III, or EMP attacks.

“But whatever the motivation is, the prepper movement is clearly growing. Today, millions of Americans are converting spare rooms into storage pantries, learning how to grow survival gardens, and stocking up on everything from gas masks to auxiliary generators.”

My Comment: The desire to stock up is instinctive, animalistic. But what is truly useful is to find security at a higher level, that of “human.” Security at this level differs from the beastly desire for safety in that it is not limited to saving, that is, neutralizing the effects of disaster, but tries to eliminate its cause at the beginning, in the root. This requires one to realize the cause of what is happening. It lies in our egoism.

And then, one needs to correct it, to change it to the opposite quality: connection, giving, and love. This change cancels all the negative manifestation of nature inside and around us, reveals the system of design (plan), realization (management), and goal (the future), and gives the ability to control this system. As a result, a human being gains complete security.
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ARI Research Institute: A Meeting At The UN

On Tuesday, Seth Bogner, ARI Institute board member and US Executive Director, met with the staff of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. This meeting was a follow up to the meeting in September with the Deputy Secretary General Dr. Asha Rose Migiro. Mr. Bogner presented the Ari Institute’s Integral Education course for the people of the world. He also delivered our message that the crisis, approached constructively, can be an opportunity for a long-sought social and indeed global transformation.

Mr. Seth Bogner and Mr. Leonid Makaron at the UN

On January 1, 2012 the Secretary General will begin his second term in which he is making Education a primary theme of his new administration. In his acceptance speech for his second term he underlined the need to “improve our ability to deliver as one” and “do more to connect the dots among the world’s challenges.”

The UN seems to be ready to listen to our message. They have requested our comments on the Secretary General’s educational plan and they have invited our collaboration going forward to help formulate their educational programs. A follow up meeting is already scheduled. While we cannot be sure of the outcome of our collaboration with the UN, we are very hopeful that the fact the UN is willing to listen to us is a big breakthrough we can use to our benefit to spread our message of unity to the world.
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A Society Built According To The Laws Of The World Of Infinity

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe society I see before me is a place where I can form relationships in which I build the system of Malchut of the world of Infinity. Even though rejection and connection are present simultaneously, I connect these two opposite intentions.

I reject everyone, as it is written about the students of Rabbi Shimon, who felt terrible hatred towards each other and at the same time made efforts to connect. But their connection did not cancel out the flame of envy, hatred, lust, and ambition, which previously raged between them.

A big desire to enjoy and the perception of one’s independence also remain in everyone, and connection is achieved above all this. These two lines work together, one after the other. This is because everyone receives from the Light of Infinity in order to fulfill the others, not themselves. This is why their desire remains. This way we preserve the Malchut of the world of Infinity, its entire volume, which every one of us acquires.

We perceive this Malchut in us. Imagine the enormous inner volume that this collective creature, which we are creating by connecting into one whole, perceives within itself. Every one of its six hundred thousand particles feels like it is separated from all the others, and as it rises above this, it connects with them.

Everyone does this! In the end, there are six hundred thousand particles, inside of which everyone acquires the power of six hundred thousand. This is the kind of connection we achieve.

This is why we need to remember that the actions we do in relation to the society, which we see before us, are always realized in two directions. On one hand, they are meant to increase everyone’s individual egoism, which gives rise to the rejection and hatred in the relationships between us. And on the other hand, we must bring ourselves to the biggest possible connection above this egoism and try to grow this way.

We need to perceive these two states as necessary in our development and be ready to accept, experience, and develop them. We need to make rules based on this, which will become laws of existence of the society or our group charter. But all the laws and forms of behavior, the rules we establish, must correspond to the attainment of the final goal so as to guide and direct us towards it.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Hole-Ridden Love

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere are many paths for one to arrive at the question of love and unity. As a rule, the word “love” means something entirely different to us: fulfilling our egoistic desires with food, sex, family, wealth, fame, knowledge, and so on.

“I love” essentially means “I want.” When I want to receive something, it means that I love it, that I want for it to be mine, to bring it closer to me, and fill myself with it. This is what my “love” is all about. To sum up, the inner definition of the word “love” is “I want to receive it.”

This is because we exist in our world that formed after the breaking, as the wisdom of Kabbalah explains. Our entire world is completely egoistic, which is why we decode the notion of “love” as something aimed exclusively at oneself. If I love something, it means that I wish to bring it closer to myself, to feel it, and to fill myself with it. When I fulfill my desire, when I delight in something pleasant, I call it “love.”

By the same token, we have no regard for the other half, the other force existing in reality: the force of bestowal that also contains the same notion of “love.” However, there to love someone means to fulfill them, to bring to them what they want, rather than what I want. This is completely opposite to our understanding of love.

In the past, humans were close to nature and naturally felt that there exists another force in nature, the force of bestowal in which love meant that I consider others and bestow to them. Kabbalists, as do many other people endowed with high sensitivity to nature, have revealed these forces.

And there were many people besides Kabbalists who have felt and discovered for themselves in all kinds of forms that the force of bestowal is no less than the force of reception. They realized that in this other half of reality (in bestowal) the same actions exist as in the force of reception, only their interpretations are different, opposite to those we use here in our world.

We, however, exist only in one half of reality: in reception, the desire to fulfill oneself, as we are a consequence of the breaking of the desires (Kelim). And man remains largely broken, whereas the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, as Baal HaSulam writes in “Preface to the Science of Kabbalah (Pticha),” rise and fall together with man, without any calculation concerning themselves, but only to the degree in which they have to facilitate the changes that man must undergo.

Religions and beliefs, from the moment of their inception, have also arisen from the fact that they revealed the other force existing in nature: the force of bestowal. At their core they speak of love and unity. So it was while they remained the lot of a few people. But after they’ve spread in the egoistic masses that are not as sensitive, they have become a set of ceremonies, rituals, and various other actions. At that point they started to be used egoistically: to fulfill oneself, rather than to bring people to unity, love, bestowal, and balance between the two systems.

As time went on and humanity developed throughout history, fueled by the constant growth of egoism in every person and in humanity in general, we have distanced greatly even from that natural understanding that humanity once possessed—from the understanding of bestowal and love inherent to the other half of nature.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Questions About The Frequency Of Studying And A Kippah

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How often must one study Kabbalah? Is it enough to intensely study and meditate once or twice a week and use the rest for work, or must one study everyday, for us to be in unity?

Answer: All the time, after completing necessary activities.

Question: I have been studying at Bnei Baruch for several years, and I am very enhanced by my experience there. It is very important for me to know why a Kabbalist needs a kippah (yarmulke).

Answer: This is just a tradition, and I must observe it because no one will accept a Kabbalist without a yarmulke, which is also a tradition.
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Escape Darkness And Ignorance

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe creature was created perfect, but this perfection is from the Creator, and this is why the creature does not even know that it exists. This is because in order to feel that you exist, you need a desire, an aspiration, an empty space.

Since the entire creation comes from the Creator’s perfection, it is completely deprived of feelings, mind, its own perception, and any sensation at all. It does not know, understand, or feel anything.

We cannot even imagine what it is like. It is not even still matter that exists in our world, in which there is the movement of atoms and other particles. After all, these particles have a need to exist and maintain themselves in a certain state or quality.

But the state of the creation of the creature is such that the creature as if does not exist at all. It is called “existence from absence” (Yesh Mi Ain). On one hand, it exists (Yesh) because it comes out of the Creator, but is absolutely “from absence” (Mi Ain) because there is absolutely nothing it can say about itself, not even as much as a dead rock.

And then the creature begins to develop under the influence of the Light. The purpose of creation is to bring it to a state when it will feel the need for the Creator in everything so as to reveal that it is opposite to Him and understand who the Creator is from this opposite state.

This way the creature attains the Creator. By attaining the form opposite to the Creator and beginning to perceive the Creator in it, a desire to attain Him and become like Him gradually develops in it. Then the creature will be able to attain the Creator according to the law of similarity of qualities.

It turns out that all the changes happen inside the creature. At first it develops itself in the negative direction and distances itself from the Creator, understanding itself better as it descends the worlds from the world of Infinity to this world and then growing its egoism in our world.

But starting with our days, a completely different process begins. The creature receives an awakening from Above, which helps it to begin to develop in a direction opposite to its nature: the direction of the Creator. In other words, the development from Above downward when the creature kept separating from the Creator, the world of Infinity, increasingly revealing its egoistic desire and discovering that it is isolated and alone is coming to an end.

Besides, the creature experiences the breaking after which every particle begins to understand that it is separated from the rest. Everyone feels like a person who exists among others like it. And it can begin to develop the form of bestowal from this darkness and ignorance in relation to the Creator. He does this against his will because the Light comes to him in a way that makes it impossible for him to receive the fulfillment of life on his own, and he needs the rest.

At first he uses the others for his own fulfillment, but he gradually begins to feel that he needs a more correct, inner, and mutual connection with them. This way we attain the understanding that we have no right to exist without a proper connection between us.

This way nature, the Creator, the upper Light, brings us to the need to connect.
[62925]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/2011, Writings of Rabash

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A Game Based On Nuances

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen a person surrounds himself with a good environment, he can easily get back on track if he discovers that he has deviated slightly off his path. If he gets distracted for a few moments, he notices his mistake and returns to unity: “I, the group, and the Creator.” These three factors always must make up one whole: a person who strives toward bestowal (“Israel”), the Light revealed in the group (Torah), and the upper force.

The slight corrections on our path are like the corrections in the flight of a rocket. It constantly corrects its trajectory in relation to the hypothetical straight line. The smaller the error, the better the rocket keeps its course. However, this requires a lot of investment and calculation, and in our case, it demands a greater effort.

On one hand, it is harder for me this way, but it is also easier on the other hand. It is fairly easy to get back on track with just a slight deviation.

When I “play” with these margins, I begin to experience wonderful sensations: a bit of pepper and a bit of sugar. I constantly go through “tastes” or states that are related to my unity with the group and the Creator. Sometimes, the Creator hides from me in a bit of smoke, sometimes the group hides, and sometimes I take a step to the side. In this way, I learn through the variety of combinations that form on the inside and outside.

As I continue my journey, I stabilize my course from day to day, every hour, until I suddenly feel that this really is my life. Habit becomes a second nature, and the work that I used to see as a game turns into reality. As I balance the nuances making fine adjustments, I suddenly discover different phenomena between the three initial components: between myself, the group, and the Creator.

Due to my constant attempts to return to unity, I build screens against my egoism, over the desires, in my mind and feelings. I act better and with more precision. Sometimes, I even let myself bear a bit to the side and come back on track again without losing control.

In this way, I walk a bit ahead of my donkey, as we call it. Dawn does not wake me; I awaken the dawn. In other words, I do not wait for the Creator to play with me with the different components; I advance on my own raising the value of the variables to make sure that they are different, but at the same time connected into one equation of unity.

When a person finds flavor in these games, he constantly adds new strokes to the common connection and ascends the degrees of the spiritual worlds. Let us try to act the following way to the best of our ability: Concentrate upon this before the lesson and return to it over the course of the day according to your schedule and ability. Let everyone set a time to obligate himself to work on unity several times a day at specific times.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/9/2011, Writings of Rabash

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