Opinion: Nick Bostrom (Professor, Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University), Existential Risks: Because of accelerating technological progress, humankind may be rapidly approaching a critical phase in its career.

Today, we are doing something we have never done on the Earth before. If natural factors haven’t been able to destroy the human race over hundreds of thousands of years, they will extinguish us in the approaching century.

The paradox lies in the fact that without technology our chances to avoid the global risks will equal zero, while having technologies gives us a bit greater chance to escape extinction, although it’s the technologies themselves that generally cause those risks. The major leading factor of why risks increase is the discrepancy between man’s maturity in terms of ethics and morals, and the growth of the power of the technologies created by him.

To minimize the risks of technological disaster, we need to do the following:

• Raise the issues of existential risks,
• Create a structure of cooperative international acts,
• Regulate the pace of technological progress,
• Design programs aimed at minimizing specific existential risks.

My Comment: Technologies that we produce are the direct outcome of our selfish attitude to the surrounding society and nature. Only our balance with nature could bring us to the wise use of technologies. But to achieve it, it is necessary to transform man’s nature first. And that can be done solely by the force that created us: “I created the evil inclination and the method for its correction.”
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My book “Kabbalah Science and the Meaning of Life” is being published in China. In the next few months, we plan to publish two more books in Chinese.
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Question: What is the group? Is it a kind of idea, people, or something else? Why is it so difficult to unite with people who aren’t like me?

Answer: Every person in the world is connected through his soul with the other souls. You need to enter this inner system of interconnected souls as though you’re diving to the ocean floor. And there you will discover the network of connections that binds all people.

Everyone is included in this network: Hitler, Stalin, Ahmadinejad, Moses, Abraham, and you. All the people you know only by their external form, as well as those you know on a deeper level, are all interconnected in the best possible way.

In the external world, every one of them fulfills a precise role in order to awaken the others to draw closer to this network, to dive into it, and find themselves there, bonded with everyone in heart and soul. You need to find the inner contact with them. The group is the inner unification of souls. And you must include yourself together with the rest.

Of course, speaking of the group, I’m primarily referring to those who study with us. But if you enter into this connection, you will see that this network unites everybody, even our greatest enemies.

We must understand that the external shell in which we exist in our world is given to us so that we could compel one another to do inner work. This whole game is necessary for you so that the Creator, the force which connects us internally, would be revealed in its external manifestation as well.

Internally this connection is maintained by Him, but externally it’s up to you do carry it out! And if you manage to erase the chasm between the internality and externality, this will constitute your complete correction.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Rabash writes that a person must have faith. What does he mean by “faith”?

Answer: We automatically perceive the words we read in Kabbalistic texts in the traditional sense that we are accustomed to. On one hand, it confuses us to no end, while on the other, we have to understand that it’s not accidental: We simply need to clarify the spiritual meaning of these words.

The inconsistency and confusion between the traditional interpretation of the word “faith” generally accepted in this world and its spiritual meaning is caused by the fact that we still lack inner perception. As soon as we begin to experience spirituality, this word doesn’t confuse us any longer.

For instance, I may have heard the word “salty” a thousand times, but until I get a taste of it, I won’t know what it means. My knowledge derives from the sensation. The desire to receive pleasure has to feel the taste of fulfillment, and until then it will keep experiencing nothing but confusion.

Question: Why are there people who can immediately believe what they are told?

Answer: This is the level of development of a person at the still, vegetative, or animate degree. When he or she reaches the “speaking” (human) level, from then on they have to evolve independently.

One’s entire previous state gets cancelled. If in the past he trusted all kinds of tales, beliefs, and religions, today he feels empty. And when he finds a teacher for himself, he doesn’t trust even him. Nor does he trust the group or books. He is told the books were written by the sages, so what?

A person doesn’t accept anything blindly anymore. What does he do then? He has to advance  by faith in the sages—above reason. This means that a person doesn’t take anything “on faith,” but is supposed to verify what Kabbalists described.

In order to do so, however, he has to fulfill a few conditions: open the books, join the group, examine its principles, and clarify how realistic and grounded they are on the forces, properties, and laws of Nature. A person needs to perform this analysis so he may acquire a second nature which at the moment is concealed from him.

Question: But in this case, he is advancing by way of knowledge. Where is “faith above reason” in it?

Answer: True. Above reason is when a person accepts these conditions and implements them within. In other words, he views all the doubts, confusion, and obstacles as a vehicle, a platform for his spiritual growth.

A person’s entire spiritual work lies above reason, but at each new degree, he clarifies these conditions by way of reason. Otherwise, how would we know we advance?
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Writings of Rabash, Dargot HaSulam, “The Ascent of Malchut to Bina”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter, “Truma (Donation), ‘And They Will Take a Donation For Me,’” Item 265, Lesson 11
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 1 “Table of Questions and Answers for the Meaning of the Words,” Item 27, Lesson 30
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Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 14, Lesson 9
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“Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Item 8, Lesson 5
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My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice and Principles for the Week

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Question: Suppose I want to buy a fancy car that’s twice as expensive as a regular car. How am I doing anything bad to other people by that?

Answer: We are all in a global, integral, limited system of nature which is interconnected into a single “sphere” that you cannot break out of. You are obligated to be in this sphere and to be connected with others very precisely. There’s nothing more or less than this.

Therefore, when you buy a car that’s twice as expensive, you become a cancerous cell because in that case you are not buying it to lead a normal life and to serve others but in order to “snatch another bite.” The more you “consume” beyond the necessity, the more of a malignant tumor you become.

The common organism is built ideally: Every person in it has to receive the vital necessities and in every other regard to think only about others. The Creator made the desire and its fulfillment. So why are you suddenly taking more than your due?

All desires are united into one. The Light fills them and gives them life in the single form. But suddenly you are “pulling the blanket to your side,” wishing for more. As a result, your excess will definitely come at someone else’s expense.

Today we are being shown this clearly: A billion people are at the brink of starvation, and in the meantime the earth’s resources are reaching an end. Soon we will use them up and will be left with nothing.

We are reaching the end with all of our consumerist production. And what will happen next?

Therefore, if you want to reach life within the boundaries of vital necessity against your will, that’s what will happen. Everything is finite, limited, and used up. Everything has an end, and it’s getting closer.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/22/11, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: We say that excessive consumption is consumption at others’ expense. However, in order to see the evil contained in it, do we have to peek at the end of the movie?

Answer: No. The Creator does not have a shortage of minerals, vitamins, oil, gas, water, or anything else. He arranges troubles for you in this world so you would begin becoming aware of your loss. You are losing out.

The Creator does not show you that in reality you are letting the spiritual world pass by because then you would lose the freedom of choice. Instead He puts you under the blows of this world, from which you begin to realize the evil of your nature. You don’t reveal the Creator as being the cause of your troubles, but your own egoism.

Then, unable to correct it, you begin to regret having it. That is how you gradually come to the realization of evil. So what should you do with it? How can you climb out of the trap? Slowly but surely, you come closer to the solution.

Lack of resources, natural disasters, and people stealing from each other are all artificial things at the end of the day. This is “small change” intended to help us eventually reveal the fact that we are stealing the spiritual world from one another.

In reality, why should I share what I have with you and satisfy myself with the bare necessities? It’s only in order to learn from this and acquire the desires that aspire to spirituality. This is the goal, and everything is structured precisely this way from the beginning. Otherwise every person would have gotten his own planet.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/22/11, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: How do we bring ourselves in line with the law that we haven’t followed in a long time, and with which we don’t have equivalence of form?

Answer: It’s not a law, it’s a state. A “law” means that you act and insert yourself in a certain formula which you must adhere to regardless of your desire. In other words, a law is the actualization of a certain formula that lies between cause and effect: Y = function of X.

Today others are starting to discover the law revealed by Kabbalists. Many already understand that we must come to balance with Nature, unite, and practice bestowal. The need for this is already being manifested, but people won’t be able to actualize it without the proper method.

The ancient Babylonians had found themselves in the same state: “If we don’t unite, we will perish right here.” The same was revealed when the Torah was given to Israel: “If you don’t unite, this will be the place of your burial.”

This is already becoming clear, but do we have a method? If we do, we know how to move forward, but if we don’t, this truly will be our grave. We will plunge into a world war simply because we won’t have any other choice.

This is the point we’re approaching: Either humanity accepts the method and embarks on the path of hastening, or it doesn’t accept it and follows the natural path of development. It’s one or the other.

The problem is that we need to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah in the world in advance. After all, people don’t know that there is a goal and a method which allows us to reach it without wars or suffering. Essentially, they will even be able to understand the goal because our eyes are able to recognize the harmony present in the world of which man is the only deviant component. But how do we join in this harmony?

The place between the actual and the desirable must be filled with the method. In other words, here you need the upper Light, the force that acts above our nature. It has created our nature as the desire to receive, and it will also create in us the quality of universal unification. And we will only find this means in the Kabbalistic method for it does not exist in our world.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/21/11, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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