Audio Version Of The Blog – 06.28.16

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio

Man, The World, And The Creator

laitman_928Question: How can I picture myself, the world, and the Creator?

Answer: You should imagine that everything around you is only the Creator and that with regard to a person there is concealment. There is absolute concealment in which a person feels only what is inside him, which is the world that is reflected in his brain on a screen in the back of his head, as Baal HaSulam says, until gradually he discovers that the Creator surrounds him and that he is inside the Creator, inside the upper nature. This is how the truth is revealed to one.
[188073]

Related Material:
An Unchangeable Law Of Nature
When The Sun Does Not Leave The Zenith
One Step On The Way To Wholeness

“You Heard The Sound Of The Words, But Saw No Image”

laitman_740_02Torah, “Deuteronomy,” 4:11 – 4:12: And you approached and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire up to the midst of the heavens, with darkness, a cloud, and opaque darkness. The Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of the words, but saw no image, just a voice.

It is impossible to see the image of the Creator simply because it doesn’t exist.

The Creator is a quality. I don’t like the word “God” because it is threadbare, overused by everyone, and nobody knows what a person means by it. Therefore, in order not to confuse people, I say “the Creator,” i.e., the force that created everything.

“God” sounds like something abstract, and the Creator is something more definite.

It is written, “You heard the sound of the words, but saw no image, just a voice.” A voice is the quality, or the Light that extends from the head to the body of the soul (Partzuf).

In other words there is a special device in the spiritual body that extends the Upper Light to the bottom of the Partzuf through five special parts (throat, palate, gums, teeth, tongue, throat, and lips) that are five special characteristics of the spiritual system. Receiving the upper energy there feels like voice.

The descent of the Light is driven by the qualities of Bina, for Bina symbolizes hearing and a person receives the Light according to his ability to hear.

Question: And then what do the words, sentences, and sounds mean?

Answer: When a person, according to his equivalence to the spiritual guidance, absorbs it in his qualities, it settles in him and is transformed from egoistic qualities to altruistic ones.

It is very difficult to explain spiritual processes and even more difficult to understand them. Therefore, we need to begin studying the Torah seriously and then gradually, to the extent to which a person begins to change, he will understand what “The Great Commentary” and all other authentic sources talk about.
[187694]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/10/16

Related Material:
Hearing The Creator’s Voice
The Ark Of The Covenant
The Moses Within A Person: The Closest Point To The Creator

What Is Infidelity In The Spiritual World?

laitman_276_02Question: For a woman in the spiritual world, what is “infidelity” in relationships between a man and woman?

Answer: In the spiritual world, the concept of infidelity doesn’t exist because it operates on the basis of equivalence of characteristics. When two systems enter into an attachment, each one gives and receives, one from the other and they create a “contact,” which is called Zivug (coupling). The systems are divided and move apart from one another to the degree of the difference between these characteristics. The more equivalence between them, the fuller the connection they enter and vice versa.

In the spiritual world there are no souls that are mutually connected permanently.

Contacts between them are very rapid; the souls enter into contact and immediately break up. Again they establish a contact and again they break up. So the contacts are constantly renewed. We change all the time. If in this world I am in front of you in a physical form, it doesn’t change very much and so there is no problem in identifying me; in the spiritual world, I acquire new forms on every level and am completely different all the time and am even called by different names. It is not even possible to identify between who I was yesterday, who I am today, or who I will be tomorrow; these are completely different expressions of my soul.

Every day a person is new. If previously he was on the level of “Moses,” today he is on the level of “Abraham,” and tomorrow on the level of “Noah,” and so on. The desires are constantly changing. The degree of correction of the desires changes and constantly reaches changes in direction. Each time a new switch occurs. We are so included in each other that nothing will remain of us until we become one uniform mass.

The person begins to feel that he is seemingly swimming in ceaseless movement within eternity and wholeness! His “self” dissolves except for one point, so that he can feel something outside of himself. I don’t know what the fate of that point is after the completion of correction, but all of these sensations and emotions are sensations and emotions that are external to our “self.” It is so wonderful to dissolve into something eternal and perfect, what could be better? All of the limitations in our world disappear: time, motion, and space, and we are in perpetual motion and spiritual ascent!
[187476]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/6/16

Related Material:
How Should We Relate To Unfaithfulness?
Spiritual Betrayal
Love And Loyalty

Union Concluded At Mount Sinai, Part 4

laitman_232_06In ancient Babylon Abraham discovered that the egoistic force that erupted could be balanced by the good force. He realized that it was not a local conflict that only related to Babylon, but it applied to the entire universe, to the entire upper system that includes in itself not only this world, but also the five upper worlds.

So Abraham began to ask how it was possible to reach this balance? After all, our egoism is very shallow in comparison to the upper worlds and the great forces of good and evil that act in them. What a tremendous evil force we need to reveal in order to attain the entire positive force of nature? How would we be able to withstand such egoism?

And the Creator consoled Abraham that he has nothing to worry about, because his descendants would go into exile. Meaning that the group called Israel would receive such a big negative force that would oblige them to reveal a positive force to balance it.

The balance of these two forces starts from the state at Mt. Sinai and the receiving of the Torah. We by ourselves cannot extract the positive force from nature that would balance the tremendous force of our egoism.

We need an entire system for achieving this positive force and the balance between the two forces. This system is called the Temple, a huge vessel, a special state, where negative and positive forces are in harmony with each other.

When Abraham heard this from the Creator he realized that success was guaranteed. The most important thing was to reveal a powerful negative force called Egypt. This entire negative force is revealed as the Pharaoh that rules over the children of Israel and makes them feel that they must rise above him.

A miracle happens at Mt. Sinai where they receive this positive force. This is a big holiday, a great joy from rising above our nature, and new horizons open in front of a person.

It is impossible to reveal the positive force without revealing the big negative force within us, because the egoism acts as “help against it” and pushes us forward, forcing us to look for the positive force. We feel that we can’t exist in slavery to our egoism any longer. All the Egyptian plagues and blows to our ego push us to reveal the good force.

Question: What conclusions can we draw from the events at Mt. Sinai for our lives today?

Answer: The giving of the Torah happens every day and a person needs to imagine himself standing at Mt. Sinai again. Every moment we need to renew this root again and again, because the egoistic force within us is renewed all the time and we need to draw the positive force against it in order to balance them.

We will continue to advance this way until we reveal the entire negative force and the entire positive force against it, each time reaching the balance between them. It means rising through 125 degrees. At the end, the positive force called the Creator will balance the entire egoistic force allotted to the creature. And then we will feel ourselves in harmony between these two forces and will reach the revelation of the good upper force.

And the negative force wasn’t bad, it actually helped us reveal the Creator and unite with Him.
[187936]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 6/2/16

Related Material:
Union Concluded At Mount Sinai, Part 3
Union Concluded At Mount Sinai, Part 2
Union Concluded At Mount Sinai, Part 1

The Era Of “Helicopter Money”

laitman_547_06In the News (Market Watch, “Don’t look now! Helicopter money is already being deployed”): “…Torsten Slok, Deutsche Bank’s chief international economist, argues that the Fed has been employing measures similar to helicopter money via its remittances to the Treasury.

“‘The Fed in 2015 paid the U.S. Treasury $117 billion and dividing that by the total number of households (125 million) shows that the Fed is already giving money to U.S. consumers,’ he said in a note on Tuesday.

“That comes out to each U.S. household receiving about $1,000 from the government and equivalent to a 2% tax relief for households falling in the $50,000 median-income bracket, according to Slok.

“Helicopter money in its simplest form calls for a central bank to print money and give it to people, most likely in coordination with fiscal policy like a tax cut or to fund spending. It’s an idea that was first articulated by Milton Friedman in his 1969 paper, ‘The Optimum Quantity of Money.

’“Slok’s main point is that helicopter money isn’t always accompanied by fanfare.“[It] is normally thought of as a big event where fiscal and monetary policy work together to kick-start the economy. Today’s version of helicopter money is more quiet. What the Fed is doing today corresponds to a situation where the Fed sent a check every year of $1,000 to every single household,” he told MarketWatch.

“In other words, sometimes it’s ‘the communication of helicopter money that determines how effective it is in supporting GDP growth,’ Slok said. Traditionally, the concept of helicopter money has been viewed as a policy tool of last resort and sometimes policy makers are reluctant to publicly embrace such drastic measures.

“‘What is at stake here is the risk that people lose faith in money and in the government having things under control. So there are good reasons why policy makers in the U.S., Europe, and Japan are hesitant to do full-blown helicopter money,’ Slok said.

“With the global economy shackled by anemic growth, more economists and Wall Street big shots have called on the Fed to explore creative means to resuscitate the economy. DoubleLine Capital’s Jeffrey Gundlach recently predicted the Fed will have to resort to the helicopters.

“Economist Nouriel Roubini also has urged central banks to deploy more ‘unconventional’ monetary policies as ‘desperate times call for desperate measures.’”

My Comment: All points to the fact the money will no longer play a role. Ensuring each person receives all necessities will be possible and required. But his participation in society will also become necessary, his participation in the public educational process, which will transform everyone into a participant in one single society.
[177916]

Related Material:
The Current Situation Of The World Economy
Experiments With Basic Income
Compulsory Studies For All

“The US Will Repeat The Fate Of The Roman Empire?”

400In the News (Vesti Finance): “Former US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, one of the few who consider the growing social costs of direct threat to the country’s economy. …

“the truth is that social spending now exceeds even military spending: it accounts for more than $1.75 trillion, that is, half of all federal spending, while the needs of Pentagon spending is approximately $700 billion per year. This is an exemplary picture of what happens when the military and social spending beyond the capability of the state, the state collapses. And a perfect example of this -. [In] The Roman Empire … the huge costs of ‘bread and circuses’ practically exhausted the imperial treasury. Initially it was assumed that this would facilitate the suffering of the poor. A free food program was designed for 40,000 residents of Rome in 71 BC. e. and 320,000 (about one-third of the entire population of Rome) under the emperor Augustus… .

“The expensive entertainment, bloody gladiator fights that took place during the holidays, were common in the sunset of the Roman Empire, depleted state treasury. …

“The situation is similar in the United States: social expenditures exceed the resources of the economy, they take half of the federal budget. This is compared to 20% in 1970. Furthermore, expenditures will only grow. … To pay for social benefits, federal tax rates have doubled. It is unlikely that the elite, to get the most benefit from their status quo, will deduct 80% of their income as federal taxes. From a comprehensive analysis it becomes clear that the economic elites and corporate groups representing the interests of business, have quite a strong influence on the US government , while ordinary citizens have little impact on the political process. no one dares to encroach on the ‘third pillar’ of US policy. So, if there is no free lunch, it is better not to talk about them, than to engage in populism.

“The Romans were not interested in solving this problem. As soon as people were used to free bread, riots began to occur in cases of delayed delivery of the grain. The authorities are faced with the unrest, growing demand, depleted coffers, and weakened currency, it was necessary as a politically expedient ‘solution.’ American elites are trying to solve problems with the help of an uncontrolled release of money to subsidize the federal budget deficit, stubbornly unwilling to notice the final fall of the currency, which it inevitably will.”

My Comment: It is impossible to stop the evolutionary process of society; egoism must prove itself as the gravedigger of the reign of the self, like a cancer that devours the body and ultimately dies together with it. Salvation is only with introducing Integral Education among to the public and its implementation in society. This is the path of the Light.

Otherwise it will be the path of suffering, not through curing egoism, but through the death of the entire body, the empire of the ego.
[180325]

Related Material:
This Will Not Happen With Us….
“US National Debt Is Actually $70 Trillion”
Greek Bailout

New Life #590 – Moving On To Meaningful Learning

New Life #590 – Moving On To Meaningful Learning
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

The problem with education today is that we don’t know how to build a human being, how to provide a child with the tools for building himself. Therefore we have made great technological and scientific progress in the 21st century, but humanity itself looks and behaves like savages.

If we look at what is happening in Israel today, it is a real shame. We have lost the basic value our nation is founded on, the foundation of “love thy friend as thyself.” We need to teach psychology, the way a person should behave with himself, with others, at home, in society, and in nature. Learning today lacks the right direction, the goal, which is to communicate nicely with others whoever they may be.

Children need to feel that they are appreciated only according to their connection with others. If we learn how to communicate with each other correctly, we will be able to bring together all the personal knowledge every individual has and to prosper together. This ability is missing in the world; there is no sharing of knowledge but only destructive, egoistic competition.

Schools should make each class in a friendly atmosphere where everyone supports each other. The competitive atmosphere, bullying and violence in schools disrupts children’s ability to learn. Even startup projects are based on cooperation when people who share an idea connect and develop it together. The approach of making each child outstanding is outdated. Today we need to educate about connection between people.

This has strong implications for our lives. Many people, for example, get divorced because they cannot get along with each other. We have to change the atmosphere in the classroom to positive competition like who helps his classmates the most, for example. The class should reach high achievements together, the teacher should give questions and everyone should work on the common solution together.

The teacher should check the cooperation between the students as they work, the level of their connection, and the quality of the connection. With such an educational approach the future society will be united, instead of in the mutual hatred that destroys us today.

What will motivate a lazy child to take part in a group assignment? The general atmosphere will make him want to be part of it. Very few rush forward in an individualistic competitive atmosphere. In a group atmosphere everyone is involved. The most important thing is to teach children how to be together. This is the main thing they will need in the future world.
[161869]
From KabTV’s “New Life #590 – Moving On To Meaningful Learning,” 6/23/15

icon for podpress Video: Play Now | Download
icon for podpress Audio: Play Now | Download

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 06.28.16

Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “Concerning Bestowal”

[media 3] [media 4]

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, Item 83

[media 5] [media 6]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom,” “The Mind’s Control Over the Body”

[media 7] [media 8]