Audio Version Of The Blog – 01.23.14

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The Meal That Gives Livelihood To The Body And Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe meal is a very important act. In the Talmud there is a story that tells how a group of students who lost their teacher held a dinner in his memory. And suddenly they discovered that they couldn’t arrange the meal, they weren’t able to say the blessing because they didn’t have enough strength for that; the strength comes from Above.

During the meal there is a power that is present because it is compatible to receive the Light that Reforms, the Light that gives life to the body and the soul. Thus the meals with Rabash took place in complete silence. It was forbidden to speak with each other. Each one had to focus within himself and talk within himself.

There was a very strict order that was entirely directed toward inner work. There was such tension in the air, that each person was forced to accompany each crumb that went into his mouth with an intention. If after the meal, he wanted to remember what he had eaten, he had great difficulty remembering. The food, as if, had no taste, because the taste was received from the state itself and not the food.

We are not able to carry out these conditions since both women and children are present at the meal, but still we need to try as much as is possible. Our society is special; it longs for a spiritual goal, so let’s begin to rise up a little.

I want to thank all the friends that are involved with the convention preparations and wish for us to resolve all the problems that appear on the way. You need to feel that you are great. In the meantime, it is not understood or felt who we really are. But when it is discovered, you will realize that you are in the center of the whole creation, and all of the previous generations of Kabbalists and  all of  humanity is looking at you in anticipation of what you are now doing: as you tilt the world to the side of the righteousness.
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From a Talk during the Meal 1/17/14

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Divide The Collective Burden Between Everyone

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the whole vessel everything is connected together: the deficiencies, the flaws, the refinements, and the attainments. Everything is linked together and interwoven into one whole: reception and bestowal, a sense of the depth of the vessel and the height of the Light. But when the vessel is shattered and separated into many small parts, then each and every part receives some unique characteristic that is typical only of it. And therefore everyone feels their own difficulties and suffers from the shattering, but each one in his very unique way.

We must try to see in each and every friend that the sufferings with which he lives are the sufferings that he endures for everyone. Each one receives some part of the vessel, of the collective burden: one receives one thing, and a second receives something else, and so forth. And each one carries what he receives for all, a carrier of some type of deficiency. That is how the shattering divides us from one another.

Therefore, we need to see the problems of each and every one not as his personal problems and difficulties, but our shared problems and difficulties. He just loaded them on his back, that i, he received instructions from Above to carry this burden. And the second one was chosen to bear another burden, and the third bears another and so forth. And from this we must change our attitude to the friends and appreciate their work in clarification and correction of our collective problems. In the end, we must reach a state where we see every person, man or woman, as a bearer of some specific flaw of the entire world.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/14, Workshop

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Losing Myself, I Acquire The Whole World

Dr. Michael LaitmanYou should try to imagine and feel that you disappear into the general integration inside the others. That is, we are all united in this notion of one; one means that there is not one of us us personally. One is not our sum total; this is not “we,” but a single whole that cannot be divided into separate parts. It follows that on one hand, I seemingly disappear there. My “I” disappears, but instead of this, I feel all. So I discover two opposite extremes.

Once I felt myself existing separately, a limited personality, but with its sphere of ownership. But now, having nullified my egoistic authority, on the one hand, I have cancelled my individuality and lost my “I.” But on the other hand, with this I acquired everything!
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/14, Workshop

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One-On-One Conversation

Dr. Michael LaitmanEvery problem can be healed through the connection between us. This will be understood from the clarification of the shattering. After all, before the shattering, there was one desire under one screen. But since it wanted to receive more than was possible for the purpose of bestowal, the collective soul could not hold the immense Light and was shattered.

It was separated into small fragments of individual desires: into money, power, knowledge, and all kinds of things that are in each and every person. All of these desires lost the anti-egoistic screen, because of which, the specific fulfillment in each particular desire was not important to us, but for whom we work is.

This intention was a common screen that comprised all of the desires, characteristics, and inclinations, uniting them into a single whole. But after the screen disappeared, every desire, every inclination, every characteristic took on a life of its own even within the person, but mainly between people. Therefore we feel the separation between us.

It follows that none of us is evil by himself! All the evil is between us, although it is manifested in ways as if it is me or others that are evil. But essentially, that is how the rejection between us is discovered. And within the person himself there is no evil. Rather the evil is the force of mutual rejection that is active between us.

We must try to see that the evil is not concealed in the friends and not in me, but only between us. If we rise above it and connect, then we correct this entire condition. That is my task:  to translate that evil that I see in me or in everyone as a problem of our uncorrected connection.

Therefore we must comprehend our personal problems and our recognition of evil as a discovery of our collective evil. Precisely from this we are able to build and stabilize the collective prayer, the “prayer of many,” and receive an answer from Above, that is, correct our collective vessel and restore its wholeness.

The Creator reveals the evil to us in such a way that it illuminates us a bit more from above in comparison to others. But each one of us feels this illumination in his own personal way and therefore below, we must connect between us in order to respond to Him as one, as if it were a one-on-one conversation. Therefore all personal shortcomings and problems should be accepted as our one common evil. This is the first step towards correcting our vessel.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/19/14, Workshop

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What Comes After Capitalism?

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Konstantin Frumkin, Ph.D., journalist, philosopher, coordinator of the Association of Futurologists): “Capitalism can be defined as an economic system based on private ownership of the means of production, wage labor and the labor market. Thus, the disappearance of capitalism is connected to the replacement of private ownership of the means of production, wage labor and commodity and currency markets.

“The state economy will replace capitalism. The society that is in transition from capitalism will not have a single dominant type of ownership, but will have a ‘mixed economy’ and equality of all forms of ownership. This idea is already a reality of the modern world.

“Any manufacturer has to receive compensation for his costs so that the economy does not stop. The market plays a fundamental role in the organization of economy. Exchange is at the heart of the market.

“In order to abandon market exchange, it is necessary to solve a) the problem of supply and demand, how to orient producers towards the targets that are necessary to consumers b) the problem of the motivation of producers.

The overcoming of capitalism will happen by overcoming the economy, when economic motives will not affect people’s behavior: the economy will be overcome by an excess of wealth, when general abundance simply will allow people not to think about earning and exchange, or the same effect is achieved through automation and total replacement of the human in the manufacturing process.”

My Comment: Usual mass production will become the thing of the past; robots and programs will replace people. Home 3-D printers will displace factories. Through the gradual integral education of society and the fall of egoistic interest for unnecessary material needs, we will come, in addition to robotics, to the emergence of interest in joint work as the reward.
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Appraisers Of Desires

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 28: …that in the beginning the same body is revived, which is the excessive will to receive, without any restraints, just as it grew under the nourishment of the impure worlds…

And then we embark on a new kind of labor—to bring all that exaggerated will to receive to the form of bestowal. Then it is healed because now it obtained equivalence of form.

An unique illumination vitalizes the desire to receive for the sake of reception as well as the “stony heart,” and all of the desire to receive exists as matter only because the Light holds it. Yesh mi Yesh (existence from existence) holds and vitalizes the Yesh mi Ayin (existence from absence). We cannot manage without this “intravenous device.” After all, if I had closed it, I would have lost the desire and would not have been able to correct it. And this in turn would have prevented me from adhering to the Creator fully.

Question: So, how do we correct the desire?

Answer: For this, we don’t need any actions with the material itself, and there can’t be any. We are unable to kill or to revive it, even though we use these terms to describe what is taking place. The desire, as it was and remains, is found in the hands of the Creator who gives life to everything: the evil and the good.

Throughout the entire process, we don’t take any real actions in creation. Rather, only in regard to myself, I sort the parts that are revealed before me. We don’t enter into the creation itself. It is impossible to stop the influence of the Light on the desire, just as it is impossible to stop the Earth. These data “descend” to me from a higher level, and on my level I need to accept them, to learn from them, to sort them and to examine my relationship in regard to them. Specifically by means of this, I build myself. We don’t need more than this.

There is a choice and a wide variety of possibilities before me, all kinds of different desires in order to receive and in order to bestow, which are not new. However, they are discovered and developed more and more, and all this is so that I will determine my relationship in regard to all that is developed in the right way. With this, I understand and feel more, and that is how I build the Adam from myself.

The Creator doesn’t change the original action, and we also don’t act on anything. Everything is revealed only in regard to the person who perceives. The creation is unchanged. There is Infinity, and all the time a little of the curtain is opened and closed for us on the way toward it. However, through this we reach the level of the Creator. This “game” is enough for us in order to grow to the height of the Upper, to be aware and to understand Him, and really to be like Him.

The question arises: Is there something else besides what I am viewing and the inner changes? This is unknown to us.

Without changing anything in creation, we grow, improving our tools of perception, exercising, and correcting ourselves and only ourselves. Until now, we were allowed to think that we were changing the world. However, this approach doesn’t work anymore. From this stage onward, only one thing works: our similarity to what is discovered. And this is a new method.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Rebuilding The Media

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Every entrepreneur aspires to find new customers. Typically this is done through advertising. But a recent poll shows that 80% of businesses have reduced their advertising budgets to zero because advertising doesn’t work. What is the role of the media in this context?

Answer: The main role of all of communications media is to connect people. Where are the media? What work do they do?—the completely wild media works against the general population.

So first of all it is necessary to rebuild the media. Imagine how the general picture of the world would change if the cities would engage the media in the education and upbringing of the population.

And financing this will be businesses because the media will be involved with socially useful work, in the normal work of the population rather than trying to sell everyone things they don’t need and that don’t bring any benefit. The population will straighten out with the help of the media; the atmosphere in the city will begin to be changed; it will be worthwhile to pay for this.

In fact, everything depends on those businessmen who manage the communications media because they provide the work for the media, they pay!

If  businessmen unite, they can dictate their price and “call the tune.” Therefore the media will not be able to operate like before, because they will need to charge a reasonable price for processing the right information, according to its availability and delivery. This is their role. If they don’t succeed in doing this, they will fold.

In a general way, I think this restructuring is already in its infancy.
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From Kab TV’s “Through the Time”9/16/13

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Changes In The Consciousness Of Society

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is it possible to develop an integral model of the economy?

Answer: In order to develop a model of an integral economy, people need “corrected intelligence,”  thoughts that will have an altruistic direction. He must stand on another level of his inner development. To the degree that people will be re-educated in a conscious manner, to that degree ideas of the right changes for all social relationships will appear in them: economic, political, and others. Therefore, whatever models that will be created now will absolutely not be useful for the integral society.

It is not necessary to establish anything in advance. This was the mistake of the Soviet government that decided to compel everyone to be altruistic through starvation, oppression, and the KGB, and not education.

Question: But wasn’t this the mistake of Marx and Engels?

Answer: No! Marx wrote correctly! After him opportunists appeared who reinterpreted his writings. Whereas Marx wrote that first it was obligatory to re-educate people and only to the degree of their education could they create a correct communistic society.

Historically, how did all models evolve? First someone planned them and after that they were created? No! Humanity developed naturally and permanently transformed its social, political, economic, commercial, and other connections.

It’s the same here, it is impossible to plan and establish something in advance. A person can never describe the next step ahead, because he is not yet in it. And even if he is in it, so what can he explain to those people who are on the previous level? They cannot build what is characteristic of the next level.

First they themselves must rise to it in their understanding, awareness, and feeling and decide which changes are imperative for that given moment in time. They will gather together and say: “Now we need to change this and now that.” And gradually they will be changed.

This is evolution and it must be revealed from within. We only hasten the process so that evolution will not advance rigidly as it did for thousands of years, when the powers of nature pushed us from behind with a stick towards happiness. We want to yearn and advance forward ourselves.

But all in all, the angles of transformation will be derived only from a conscious need; otherwise, this will be the same KGB, oppression, and dictatorship.

Suppose that we were to create a method for changing society now. And then what? We would obligate everyone to put it into practice? But this would be the same oppression, dictatorship, and violence. This is no longer education or upbringing. Therefore, we call our method Integral Education and Information for the public. It cannot come from above!

There is no reason to turn to historians, philosophers, and the like. In what way can they help us? Would this be through today’s usual exercises that don’t work anymore? From them only examples from the past can be taken, but they don’t know anything about the future.
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From Kab TV’s “An Integral World” 11/27/13

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 01.23.14

Preparation to the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Workshop 

[media 3] [media 4]

Introduction to The Book of Zohar

[media 5] [media 6]

Talmud Eser Sefirot

[media 7] [media 8]