Good Environment – 08.08.11

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

Unity Of The World: Virtual Or Real?

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe very concepts of globalization, integration, unity of the word, and the globalization era are metaphysical, spiritual, and virtual, something you can’t see or “touch.” These qualities are beyond what we commonly regard as the material world.

Where and who can show me the action of these qualities, forces, and processes in our world? Even though we are talking about the global world, its reality, and the global processes in it, it is still felt more as a virtual world. After all, it is not clearly incarnated in any actual reality. In our imagination, we build its virtual image, possibly idealizing it, connecting utopia with reality and supposition. But how justified is this approach?

The fact of the matter is that we never build anything without having an image of the future. We have to imagine the future, but at the same time be guided by real premises related to the imagined picture. We have to take examples from nature, its globality and integrality, and build our future society according to them.

The entire complex of problems that has risen before humanity indicates the need to solve these problems conjointly. Today there is not a single problem that is local. Nature is pushing us to become aware of our total interdependence. The globalization that is being revealed is forcing us to suppress our national and regional interests, and to prefer the solution of the global, common problems first.

The need for integration for the sake of all humanity requires a constant dialogue among representatives of every country on an equal basis. In a single organism, all of the parts are equal. Every side presents the problems it deems necessary to solve and the importance of every problem is weighed conjointly, like in a family that discusses which problem should be solved first and in what order the others should be solved. Only by accepting the fact of the global interconnection as a primary condition will we develop the right approach to solving problems.

Otherwise, we will involuntarily slide down to war, which is a refusal to have a dialogue. These aren’t necessarily “hot” or even “cold” wars, but an unnoticeable, centralized, informational influence on people’s consciousness in a specific country with the aim of distorting their picture of the world, their traditional concepts and values. The sensation of this informational weapon’s effect can range from emotional discomfort and insecurity, to a disturbance of the basic infrastructure.

Of course, in any case, whether we develop along a good scenario or a bad one, we will still reach an integrally interconnected society because it is the goal of nature’s development. Humanity’s aspiration to unity is a natural expression of a living system. But this natural process cannot be accelerated artificially. It has to happen consciously and voluntarily because otherwise it will turn into a project that is forcefully executed by the authorities.

Therefore, the priority is people’s upbringing, enabling them to understand the new world in which we are finding ourselves today. Real power has to be built as a universal, planetary, informational, educational system, a kind of mass media. Precisely because the entire formation of the new society, indeed—of humanity, will take place through virtual channels, it is necessary to first solve the question of their proper use.
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What Proportions Does Pharaoh Have To Reach?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I stop myself and avoid making mistakes when I know I am being guided by my feelings and am not acting well? And on the other hand, we have to fall in order to grow….

Answer: Indeed, “A righteous man falls and rises a thousand times.” Only by going through the experience of many descents and disappointments, great pain and errors that we have to pay for, do we finally reach the final conclusion and understanding that we have to rise above our egoistic nature. At the end, we understand that we will never be able to unite the mind and feelings together as long as we are inside of egoism.

This is the picture we are seeing in the world today in every country. Mentally everyone understands that we are entering a horrible crisis, but we cannot stop ourselves. Egoism pushes a person forward, ending up stronger than the mind, and therefore, man continues to act according to it.

He cannot do anything with himself. No matter how much we address the world and warn it, no one will hear us. But we are doing that only in order to show everyone that there is a method of correction, Kabbalah. Later, when facing the facts, man will become convinced in practice that he is stumbling upon problems at every corner, be it in economics, upbringing, or anything else. And from that he will understand that Kabbalah talks about correction. Otherwise, you can repeat the same thing a thousand times and no one will listen to you.

The world will not accept this solution until it reaches total despair and the understanding that its mind and feelings are like two poles that will never unite. People will keep making new mistakes. And as long as this happens, nothing will be able to help them. The only solution is to rise above our material mind and feelings for the sake of the spiritual goal. There you will be able to unite your mind and heart in the middle line, and then you will succeed. That’s because they will start working together in one bundle. The heart will understand!

But in our world this never happens and we are always forced to choose: either the heart or the mind. One or the other!

We become more drawn into the crisis with each passing day. Today a new turn of the crisis is starting, and soon it will become apparent. One blow, another, and another—and eventually man will understand. That is how Pharaoh, our will to enjoy, our ego, brings us closer to the Creator, forcing us to understand that we have to hide from him.

It’s as if Pharaoh knows that the sons of Israel will eventually run away from him. So why should he place himself under the blows? But that is how he is built—he brings himself to the blows. A person suffers, and he does not have any choice left but to run away from this force of evil.

Pharaoh is the opposite reflection of the Creator inside of us. The only question is: What proportions will he have to reach so we will decide to run away from him? This depends on the dissemination of Kabbalah, on people’s understanding, and our unification in the group.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/8/11, Shamati
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Keeping Ahead Of Nature

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur task is twofold: On one hand, we need to work on ourselves, but on the other, we need to help the rest of humanity. It is already feeling the crisis, and at the next phase we’ll need to unite with them so as to continue on the path together. In so doing, we will obviously lead the general movement because people simply don’t know how to reach the goal. We have to become like a “pulling force”: the part of humanity that carries it forward.

In order to lead others, we must first take care of ourselves. However, it’s important to remember that we would not have received the spiritual awakening if we didn’t need to correct the world and lead it. For this reason, we will not achieve success today if we only concern ourselves with our own advancement. We must worry about the whole of humanity, the whole world, so as to bring all people to unifying together into a single soul that we once were. This is the reason we were awakened, and this must be our governing intention.

So how do we develop ourselves while setting the right path for the world at the same time? The general law of our work is that there is a single force called the “Light” or the “Creator,” which governs the world and influences it. This force determines and controls everything. In order to consciously blend in and integrate into its operation, we must wish for it to accelerate our development. Without this desire, it will develop us in accordance with the original program via powerful negative stimuli that drive the masses.

That is why our entire work amounts to demanding accelerated development and keeping ahead of the negative phenomena of nature’s original program. To this end, we must always understand that we stand before a single force that influences us. And we must compel it to exert a stronger, faster, and more effective influence, to literally “pull” it in the right direction.

It is like a son pulling a mother’s hand. But if he’s pulling in the wrong direction, nothing will come of it—they won’t go to the movies if he needs to go to kindergarten, just because he wants to. Similarly, we must always aspire in the right direction, wishing to locate this single force, the only force in existence. We want to study it, to learn how it operates and where it is aimed.

And that is why we demand for it to reveal itself since its actions will then become clear to us. Knowing all this, we demand for it to accelerate the pace of our development. Every time we “pull” it in the right direction, it’s like pulling our mother in the direction of the kindergarten with an even stronger desire and aspiration than her own.
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From Lesson 1, the Germany Convention 8/5/2011

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Run From Misfortune

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we maintain the right intention and thoughts during and after the convention?

Answer: During the course of these hours, we will realize the necessary preparation, and then at various times you will go back to it. I highly recommend this. What happened here will remain with you and you will feel the importance of it.

Whether you want to or not, life in the near future will awaken you to such a degree that you won’t be able to forget what we discussed here. If you work toward correction, the message of the convention will come forth as a positive sensation. And if you neglect this goal, you’ll experience a negative sensation.

So don’t worry, you won’t forget. I no longer worry about my students running off. The kind of life that awaits us will quickly force us to get back to business. After all, we’ve entered a stage of correction of the entire world. You can delay it on your part, but if you don’t wish to take independent action, the Light will put the kind of pressure on you that will arouse your desire.

I hope that you will become afraid of the big blows and that it will oblige you to move forward without awaiting painful pricks from behind. I say this in all seriousness. I want you to run from the blows and that’s why I put things so harshly.
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From Lesson 1, the Germany Convention 8/5/2011

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Charges Against Laitman!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I never could have thought that Kabbalists would go out to protest demonstrations. And I didn’t think they were so right-wing. You stand on a high pedestal talking about the need to educate people. Who gave you the right to do that?

Answer: If you read what Kabbalists say about the correction of the world through the dissemination of Kabbalah, then you would not be surprised (see the book Gems of Wisdom: Words of the Great Kabbalists from all Generations and Kabbalists Write about the Wisdom of Kabbalah. If you knew more about Kabbalists, about Baal HaSulam and his meetings with Ben Gurion, about the need for integral, national education (see the newspaper “The Nation”), then you would understand that Kabbalah is the method of man’s correction, the method of educating man until he reaches the level of today’s global, integral world. In fact, without knowing it, we won’t survive.

That is exactly why we are going out to the streets—not in order to explain our opinion to people, but to explain the laws of nature of the new world in which we have found ourselves. Kabbalah has already talked about this many years ago. And it tells us what will happen to the world.

I am not right-wing or left-wing. I am in the middle, a Kabbalist, is not “for” anyone, but only for unity. Therefore, it turns out that I am against the left-wing, who aren’t left-wing at all today, but are “for” terminating the existence of the nation of Israel. And I am fully aware what this entails not only for my nation, but for all humanity, which is why I am against it. I am left-wing and not they, because I am for solidarity and unity. I am for an all-national discussion, whereas they are against any discussion because their objective is to destroy the “Zionist education.”

Upbringing is man’s preparation for a new world, which he has to enter and where he has to exist successfully. Today, as we see, none of the world’s rulers know what to do. The G8 and G20 get together and then go their separate ways without reaching any agreement because they don’t know what to do and neither do their advisers. Look at what I said in my lecture at the “World Wisdom Forum” in Arosa, Switzerland six years ago: That the most important thing is upbringing, meaning to teach people the laws of nature that are being expressed in the world today (and see what scientists are saying about this today!)

Kabbalah is a practical science about the new world. It waited precisely for our time to become revealed and to help people understand how to keep on living. I believe that people do need this. And I believe that they will understand this is the good way, before suffering forces them to it.
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Common Problems Are Solved At A Common Forum

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In connection to the protest movement in Israel, it’s scary to see that people do not understand the essence of what is happening….

Answer: What we have here is a “festival” and nothing more. There are people who really do want to change the situation in the direction of social justice. But what is “social justice”? Let’s discuss this with politicians and economists. If you want to exert a real influence, then you have to go into politics—there’s no other way to go about it. We are all smart and even housewives think that everything has to be done differently, but that is no way to get things done.

Start looking deeper into the situation and you will see that everything is permeated by countless threads of interconnections. Every person has his own opinion and his own calculation. Every person is flaunting his own muscles; finding a solution is not simple at all.

There’s one thing that can’t be denied: We have to reach a consensus and create a somewhat different balance—take away a little over here and add a little over there. However, nothing will appear out of thin air. Any addition can be found only by cutting something off somewhere else. That’s why the head of Israel’s central bank is proposing that the demonstrators sit down at a negotiations table, since the issue at stake is a complex conglomerate of problems.

Besides, the situation is not nearly as horrible as some people are trying to make it appear. The economy is on the rise and foreign investors are investing a lot of money in the country, which is not typical for the modern world by any means.
Obviously, there are things that have to be fixed. So let’s act step by step. Let’s create an open forum where we will present a list of demands, and all together we will place things in the right order of priorities.

That is how questions are solved in a family: We sit down and start discussing the situation. Everything has to be considered: the number of children, the health and well-being of the parents, the monthly income, savings for an emergency situation, the necessary expenditures, and a priorities list….

And we have to act on the national and worldwide levels according to the same principle. That is why we need an open forum and a “familial” interconnection, built upon mutual guarantee. That is the only way we will make the right calculation, by understanding that everyone depends on everyone and by supporting bonds of love and unity among us. No one wants to profiteer off another person. On the contrary, we review all of the possibilities and look for a way that will satisfy everyone as much as possible.

Like in an amicable family, we have to insert optimality into the formula of the solution. And here we won’t manage without an open forum where the government and the nation will reach a mutual agreement. However, the instigators who are manipulating the protest pose an obstacle to this, and the government still isn’t “concerned” enough by what is happening.

Eventually the course of events will spur them to this, but even now it’s already clear what the right solution is: an open forum based on just one principle of mutual guarantee. Here we will discuss how to divide the “common pie” between all members of the family. Let’s take all of the circumstances into consideration, put everything in their places, and see who needs help and to what extent. Then, by mutual agreement, we will start solving the problems one by one.

If we want to receive funds at the tycoons’ account, then we have to invite them to the forum as well. Let’s show them respect. After all, people receive salaries by working at their corporations. If we force them to leave the market, then major investments in the economy will run dry. Blaming the rich man for all the troubles is the last thing we should be doing. He will simply close up his factory and go away, and you will be left without work, but with your nose proudly up in the air.

Why should a rich man be ashamed of his wealth? That is how the world is arranged. Do you want to turn it upside down? Then you will be left without food.

At the end of the day, everything depends on upbringing. But in any case, the most important thing is dialogue. There are simply no other alternatives.

Many people today want to “ride” the wave of the protest, and that includes the politicians who have brought the country to the current state of affairs. “We also think that the housing situation is unbearable.” But wait a minute, weren’t you the ones who made the decisions back in your time? Wasn’t it you who sat in the legislature and government for years, facilitating the exacerbation of the problems?

The only thing that will help us is an open forum under the common roof of mutual guarantee.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/8/11, “The Peace”
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Talk For “Tisha B’Av” – 08.08.11

Talk for “Tisha B’Av
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Reason And That Which Is Above It

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Light raises us to faith above reason. But to enter there, a higher, previously unknown dimension should be open within you, and that is why it is called the “salvation of the Creator.” And to the extent of that opening within, you first start to get the “reason,” “knowledge,” and understanding what “above reason” means.

These two concepts are revealed simultaneously. Prior to that, we are at the level of animal consciousness, as it is said: “Everyone is like a mortal animal.” But a “human” begins from this moment. A human being is the one who rises above reason. We get reason from nature, and “above reason” is what is higher.

The Creator is above reason. The one who gets this opportunity is called a “human,” Adam, meaning “similar to the Creator,” and the wider the gap is between reason and faith above reason, the higher is the level of man.

A person does not know in advance what faith above reason is. He has no control over its revelation: It is given from Above, as aid from the Creator. Although of course, this is a result of the person’s entire previous effort and requires completing them fully. But as to when this will happen, a person does not know.

He just feels that he advances: understands more, feels more, becomes smarter, can somehow control what is happening, and analyze it deeper. But he does not have a spiritual sensation, a new desire, in which he could understand and feel the Creator. And thus he advances until he reaches the starting, zero, point, and from it, slightly pushes forward, towards that higher dimension.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/2/2011, Shamati #207

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The Development Of The Global Crisis

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (IGSM (Institute of Globalization and Social Movement) Report): “American agriculture has been impacted by the crisis the most, to be followed by commercial crisis and industrial production decline. Due to the failing demand in the US market, the crisis will spread to the “new industrial countries,” where production will begin to halt.

Decline in sales and production will lead to a collapse in stock markets and a shift from inflation to stagflation, a drop in oil prices, increased unemployment, and general consumption decline. The crisis will affect all countries and cause general economic instability….

“2009-2010 will mark the peak of the crisis (the main decline), followed by depression and the restructuring of the world economy for new development in 2010-2013. There is no reason to expect that the crisis will pass quickly…

“The global economic crisis is characterized by the fact that the world economy cannot continue developing as it always has… there are no further opportunities to keep reducing real wages while stimulating consumption….

“Crisis will lead…to the formation of a single world labor market. It will strengthen global monopoly and will enhance its role in a global market (the role of small and medium businesses will decline). The crisis will booster protectionism….” It will generate social inequality and instability in international and intra-national relations.”

My Comment: All that is bad has been predicted, but there is no way out. The closer the breakdown is, the clearer we see the lack of tactics and strategies for coping with an impending stroke. I wonder how the idea of ​​man’s spiritual transformation, rather than external economic adjustments, will be realized as the only effective solution. After all, the increasing majority agree with the fact that crisis creates a new society and economy.
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