The Time Has Come To Perform An “Upgrade” On Ourselves
Sometimes my computer breaks down and I call in specialists to fix it. They come over and begin explaining that I need to replace my hard drive, add some program, that the computer has been infected by a virus, and so on. I don’t understand any of this. I just see the external picture, while they are talking about the inner picture.
Yesterday there was a notice in the news about how many people have been laid off from their jobs here in Israel and in the rest of the world, what the world is facing, what problems lie ahead, and that no one sees the end to these problems. This process isn’t clear to anyone, and it is impossible to calculate because there’s no “formula” for it.
This is the external side of things. Meanwhile, on the inside, if you were to see them on a computer, you would call a technician and tell him, “Make everything okay.” And so it is here: you are looking at the crisis from the point of view of a regular person, who looks at the computer screen and says, “Here we are downsizing, there we have other problems, and we have to do something about it.” However, when the specialists come in, they explain that we have to perform an upgrade by renewing the parts and the software. Then the picture will improve. You are saying, “I don’t know about this. I just want this problem to go away from the screen.”
Well, this is impossible. We have to learn the changes that must take place inside the system, and then the outside will be corrected as well. Our world is changing. Until now we lived, earned money, and gathered crops in particular conditions in our society. Now however, in order to earn a living, we have to modernize, improve, and take the current natural conditions into account, which are more complex.
You are being promised a better salary, and you are not permitted to keep the old, lower salary. What’s happening is modernization, and nature is forcing it on us.
In order to grow plants, we consider all the parameters that exist in Nature, but in order to grow a human being, there is just one condition: to be connected with others. We have to learn how to do this, and then we will be corrected. We will become better and the world will also change. The conditions are simple: Nature is revealing the lack of the proper connection between people. Everyone affects each other, but we affect each other negatively. And this has to be corrected. There is nothing difficult about this.
(From the lesson on Baal HaSulam’s article, “One Precept,” on 03.05.2009)
I just received a letter from one of my students in America, who writes that when he and his wife went to a store, they saw a lot of people in line to buy weapons. There were different kinds of weapons on sale, even a machine gun. The store clerk said that some of the weapons were out of stock and they were waiting for an additional order to come in. He explained that it’s because people have been buying weapons like crazy! In the past, people used to stock up on food before a famine, and in a similar way, they’re now stocking up on guns. But who will these guns be used on?
The virtual lesson held on 03.29.09 from 4:00pm to 5:00pm Israel time, was the fifth lesson on Baal HaSulam’s article, “Inner Reflection,” from Part 1 of 
The 
A question I received:
A true guide knows everything that might happen along the path and does not lead people astray. This is how each and every teacher in the world should be teaching. Teachers of mathematics, physics and other pragmatic subjects are able to educate students successfully because they are teaching children about real laws that exist in Nature. They are transferring their own knowledge and experience. So, the teachers of the exact and natural sciences are ok – they don’t lie to their students.
A question I received:
Americans should understand that their capitalism has ended. The authorities are still functioning by the outdated principles, which were relevant in times of individual egoism, by the rule, “one’s income depends on one’s personal egoism and efforts.” Today, however,every person depends on a system or grid of forces that govern the world. Today’s problems aren’t caused by individuals, but by every person’s interaction with the global governing system – with society or humanity. To find solutions, we must look to people’s connection with their environment, rather than to the individuals.
