Good Environment – 07.10.11

My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice for the Week

All The Strings Of Desire

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How will the Light solve the problems of seven billion people on earth if every person has his own problems and level of development? We live in a huge system. Is it really possible that every detail in it will be accounted for?

Answer: Imagine a depression in the earth that you fill with water. In the same way, every detail, element, protrusion, and dent in the world is filled with Light according to its qualities.

The Light does not have any calculations with the desire. It simply fills it and shines for it, awakening inside of it. And according to that, the desire feels how close it is to the Light or how far it is from the Light in certain details of perception.

For example, the Light that I receive increased by 10 watts. Accordingly, in every one of my qualities and in every desire, a new thought arises, a new analysis of the situation, and I make a new calculation.

Question: It turns out that the Light is not a function, but everything is determined only by the desire?

Answer: The Light is invariable. Everything depends on my desire and its forms. When it is filled with Light, I don’t feel the Light itself, but the reaction of the desire, all of its strings. This is Light for me.

Question: So which part of this depends on me?

Answer: Work with the intention. We don’t change the desires, but the intention. And only it. I don’t care which protrusions and indentations are present in the hole that I fill with water. They will remain the way they are, while my task is to fill it.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/10/11, Matan Torah

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Fundamentals of Kabbalah – 07.10.11

A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Investing In Egoism Is Like Giving An Injection Into A Prosthesis

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Michael Lewis, the author of the bestseller about Wall Street Liar’s Poker, in the article on Greece and a culture of corruption): “What great people!” They do not share the sentiment about one another: the hardest thing to do in Greece is to get one Greek to compliment another behind his back.

No success of any kind is regarded without suspicion. Everyone is pretty sure everyone is cheating on his taxes, or bribing politicians, or taking bribes, or lying about the value of his real estate.

And this total absence of faith in one another is self-reinforcing. The epidemic of lying and cheating and stealing makes any sort of civic life impossible; the collapse of civic life only encourages more lying, cheating, and stealing. Lacking faith in one another, they fall back on themselves and their families.

The structure of the Greek economy is collectivist, but the country, in spirit, is the opposite of a collective. Its real structure is every man for himself. Into this system investors had poured hundreds of billions of dollars. And the credit boom had pushed the country over the edge, into total moral collapse.”

My comment: Only one thing can help: educating people in new social relations, in similarity to Nature (the Creator), meaning in a complete global integral connection. This is a long process, but once we start it, we will feel the support of all forces of nature in all areas of our life.
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Evolution Leads To Cooperation

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The idea of the interaction of two opposites rarely went beyond the limits of purely philosophical exploration and cultural discourse. You revive it again, although humanity is tired of the attempts to implement it.

Answer: The person asking this question is probably a philosopher, so here is an excerpt from my new book: “The very idea that the course of evolution is defined by the interaction of two opposites emerged a long time ago. Suffice it to recall a dual opposition of yin and yang in Chinese mythology and philosophy, the Love and Strife philosophy of Empedocles, a conflict between Good and Evil in the Abrahamic religions, and the Hegelian Dialectic.

In scientific evolutionism of the second half of the 19th century, Herbert Spencer based his theory on the opposition of differentiation and integration. Throughout each era, this universal idea received new additions, a new meaning, depending on the level of human spiritual development.

Therefore, it is important that in modern evolutionism, a new theory of coevolution emerged. According to this theory, the development of the inanimate and animate natures is determined by the interaction of two principles: “cooperation” (coevolution) and “competition,” and what is more, the focus is placed on the first, but not the second principle.

It should be noted that coevolutionary processes—the reciprocal development of systems (or elements inside a system) with mutual selective demands—had long been detected in biology. However, they were considered “peripheral,” minor, and were limited only to various types of symbiotic relationships (parasitism, protocooperation, commensalism, mutualism, and so on).

In recent decades, the term “coevolution” went far beyond biology, acquired a much wider, essentially, philosophical meaning, and provided a basis for the formation of a new scientific cognitive model that has a significant impact not only on natural sciences, but also on humanitarian thought and is included in the study of processes occurring at all the levels of the animate and inanimate natures, from the sub-atomic and molecular-genetic to social life and the coevolution of ideas.

This idea has considerably undermined the established stereotypes of competition as the main driving force of evolution: The coevolutionary approach destroys the old image of Nature as “the war of all against all” and a ruthless struggle for existence.

In fairness, it should be noted: Charles Darwin warned that he used the concept of “the struggle for existence” “in a large and metaphorical sense, including dependence of one being on another.”

This principle extended to social life. “A tribe including many members who, from possessing in a high degree the spirit of patriotism, fidelity, obedience, courage, and sympathy, were always ready to give aid to each other and to sacrifice themselves for the common good, would be victorious over other tribes; and this would be natural selection.”

Nonetheless, for a long time, the words “the struggle for existence” were taken literally and found its extreme expression in Social Darwinism, insisting that the strongest wins. And the fact that the role of coevolutionary processes and cooperation is realized nowadays is significant.

This is an indicator of important transformations in the consciousness of a modern person, in his system of values. Even if competition is not giving way to the ideals of cooperation, mutual help, and solidarity, it is visibly losing ground and is no longer perceived as the fundamental law of Nature, justifying ego-centrism in all its manifestations.

It is no accident that proponents of the coevolution theory believe that its dissemination will help to rebuild the relationships between humans and nature and even create a new type of civilization based on cooperation, nonviolence, and dialogue.”
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There Is Work For Everyone!

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (The International Labour Organization (ILO), a specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with labor issues): The International Labour Organization is concerned that despite the recovery from the economic crisis and the improving situation in global financial markets, unemployment continues to rise.

“ILO statistics paint a grim picture of the current global employment situation with 210 million people out of work–the highest number in history; and over half of the global workforce in vulnerable employment. According to the ILO, in the next 10 years, more than 440 million new jobs will be needed to absorb new entrants into the labor force, and still more to reverse the unemployment caused by the recent crisis. While the world is seeing significant levels of economic growth in some countries, unemployment, particularly for young people, remains at record levels in many countries, posing enormous long term social and economic challenges including threats to social cohesion.”

“The lack of decent work exposes young people to high levels of economic uncertainty. … A generation without hope for decent employment can be a problem for families, the economy and society at large. The inability to find stable employment creates a sense of frustration and idleness among young people.”

My comment: There is no way to employ everybody in the world. New technologies are changing the nature of work: Many professions disappear, and there is no need for laborers and clerks in the information age. It is easier and cheaper to keep a person unemployed than to invent an occupation for him. However, the problem with occupying people emerges; idle time leads to degradation, emptiness, and tension in society.

Kabbalah explains that our development happens according to the general internal plan of nature: We have reached a new threshold in our technological and social development. Therefore, Kabbalah suggests that we should learn how to live in the new, integral, common world which must uncover a new stage in its existence: the spiritual one.

This state can be achieved only by mass education, training and teaching the new laws of the surrounding nature and social and personal behavior. Only in this way will we rise to the level where we begin to control nature, and a sensation of comfort will replace a sensation of crisis.

Full employment in our time is possible only in spiritual work, learning it and carrying it out within oneself and with others. Thus, we build a new society where everyone has work!
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I Give By Receiving Everything

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If I am the desire to enjoy and remain it forever, how can I give?

Answer: I give by receiving everything from the Master! By doing so, I bring Him contentment. In order to bring Him endless pleasure, the same as He gives me, I cannot remain a petty, egoistic receiver; I need to receive “for the sake of bestowal.”

The desire to receive is limited as it is impossible to receive more than this corporeal world. Even now, we are in the world of Infinity, surrounded by the Creator’s love. However, we are only able to feel it to the smallest degree in which we sense this world; it’s the maximum that is possible.

If all the generations of humanity throughout time were given all the pleasures of this world, it would be called a “thin candle” (Ner Dakik), a tiny spark of Light. More Light cannot be revealed inside the receiving desires. All the remaining Light can only be revealed in the desires to bestow.

Why is there such a strict condition? The fact is that the spark is the only thing that stands opposite to the desire to enjoy created by this spark. This world is a manifestation of the spark that created the desire to enjoy.

The subsequent development of the desire occurs thanks to its sensing the Giver. That is, everything beyond our world, all the infinite, big, spiritual Light which we later feel becomes revealed by virtue of feeling the Giver.

But I cannot feel the Giver if I do not have the same quality: bestowal. It turns out that I must acquire altruistic desires, and to the extent of my bestowal, I will feel the bestowal of the Creator. And this will be called the upper Light.

The Creator’s bestowal, His love for me, I can only feel to the degree of how much I give Him—if our desires are similar. Otherwise, I will not be able to feel it. The Creator is revealed to me fully even now, but can I feel it? No, I can’t. I lack the tools, the desires.

To the extent that I develop my desires, I will feel Him. This will be my Light NRNHY, the revelation of the Creator’s attitude towards me, His love. Bestowal is revealed first and then love.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/2011, Shamati #38

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How Can We Please The Creator?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we please the Creator? How do we find out what pleases Him?

Answer: The Creator receives pleasure when we enjoy ourselves. This is why we need to attend to the development of our desires. It is not enough to remain on the degree of “bestowal for the sake of bestowal” (Bina), and especially not on the miserable degree of this world, the still level of spirituality (Domem de Kedusha). One cannot be satisfied with this.

To be on the still degree of spirituality means failing to take one’s own initiative, failing to develop. But the purpose of creation is to receive everything that the Creator wants to give. It is written: “The cow wants to feed the calf more than the calf wants to suckle,” so if He is good and wants to give me goodness, I must develop my desires infinitely.

However, I can attain an unrestricted spiritual vessel only under the condition that I receive for the sake of bestowal. Then I completely open myself to the Light. But when I receive pleasure egoistically, I am unable to receive more than a spark of Light called a “thin candle” (Ner Dakik), which is our life in this world. This is the reality that becomes revealed in my egoistic desire.

Yet a higher, spiritual, reality can exist on the zero, “still,” level, when a person restrains himself, stops receiving, and is content with little things. This is called the “still level of sanctity,” the very beginning of development.

But the attainment of the vegetative, animate, and human levels of spirituality depend on the development of the degree of “fear,” the development of the desire to bestow. And this development is gradual: We develop fear within us, meaning the degree of bestowal, and receive for the sake of bestowal. Then, our desire to receive pleasure starts growing. We see that we lack trepidation and once again begin to cultivate it. Such is the process of development.

The very first “commandment” that pertains to our correction is described in The Zohar: the commandment of “trepidation, fear.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/2011, Shamati #38

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It’s Impossible To Love Two People

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is it possible to mix requests to the Creator, meaning to ask for one thing and another?

Answer: “One thing and another” means there is no desire. The desire has to be perfect.

The upper Light can fill thousands of desires. But how can it place several fillings in one desire? In that case it is not called a desire.

You are a desire. Does this desire want something? Yes. And it receives whatever it wants. It cannot want two fillings because it is one desire, one vessel. If you want several things, that means your desire did not take on the right form yet.

It’s impossible to love two people. After all, you want to unite with the person you love. It doesn’t matter what this desire is for exactly—for food, sex, family, wealth, honor, knowledge, or spirituality. Regardless, it has to be whole, “I want it!”
From the lesson on 7/8/11, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Turning Yourself Into A Point In The Sky

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to become “ready for correction”?

Answer: A person ready for correction is the one who has reached this state and, according to his properties and the law of the equivalence of form, is able to sense some new, special phenomenon. It’s when he sees that it could not come naturally, but only as a result of the relationship between the two, the upper one and the lower one.

We need to understand that there are the Creator and the creature, and an abyss separates them! There is no connection between them. And only to the extent to which the creature shows its readiness to become like the Creator, to that extent will it sense the Creator within itself.

This readiness is given as special good luck, good fortune, to the extent of one’s willingness to cancel oneself and bow, if he is willing to continue on this path no matter what might happen. He can check whether he is still on the correct path, whether he fits this group (although, how much the group fits him depends on him as well), and if he does not abandon his efforts and continues, he will attain spiritual revelation.

But a person does not know from where it will be revealed. Our earthly minds and hearts can never know about the next states. They are always revealed so suddenly and in such an unpredictable form that it is impossible to expect them in advance. After all, we acquire a new nature. That is why if one continues faithfully and with perseverance, if he goes, bowing his head and valuing the greatness of spirituality, he will reach the goal.

Now, you have neither the feeling nor the mind to understand what was said, but you will acquire the feeling and the mind by virtue of going like “an ox under the yoke and a donkey carrying the load.” Nothing more is required from us! We will receive everything else, the whole vessel, from Above.

The whole difficulty of our work is that we have to work as if in one place, and revelation is received in the other. I will not get the next stage in my egoistic desires of today, or my earthly feelings and mind, or even in my spiritual attainment with which I am already at some step of the spiritual ladder.

I reach it only because I cleave to it and nullify myself so that big and strong as I am, I turn into a tiny drop of semen and become included in the upper degree. That is why, if you ask how you can reach spiritual revelation, the answer is: “By turning yourself into a point….”

“Good fortune” does not mean winning it like  with the lottery, but what is called: “I have labored and I found!” It happens in every moment; I put effort and “find” something in a totally different place. It really falls on me from Above like a gift. This is called “good fortune” that you do not expect in advance. You may wait for something, but not in the form that you will receive it.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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