Good Environment – 08.18.11

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

“Life Cannot Go On In Charity Mode”

Dr. Michael LaitmanEditorial in the News (by Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Bangladeshi economist ): “It is necessary to change the way they administer foreign aid. Instead of giving handouts of food and other aid, donor nations like the United States should help fund groups based on a model of social business….

“When the bulk of the things are free, you are not building the economy…. Life cannot go on in a charity mode all the time. We have to shift from the charity mode to the business mode. Social business has tremendous promise, but must develop with deeper roots….

“If societies change their mindset to teach students that the goal of education is not to get rich but to enrich one’s life by helping others, the business model could drastically reduce poverty in this century.”

My Comment: Every region should create the industry necessary to satisfy the reasonable requirements of the community. And the production should not grow beyond that because it will then become socially and environmentally harmful.

In their spare time, the citizens should be engaged in the system of mandatory, global, integral education where they will study and realize the method of correction of people and society in accordance with nature.
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The New World Needs A New Human

Dr. Michael LaitmanFor the time being, people still believe that they can restore order in society, in the country, and in the world using the old methods. They think that we still posses the necessary knowledge, power, and program of the world order. But they naively do not understand what is happening with the world.

Scientists and economists get together for conferences, hoping to find some particular solution. But while they are holding discussions, the crisis is growing worse. And when it materializes to a greater degree yet, they will understand where their negotiations were taking them, for the sake of what they held them, and thus, they will see their own powerlessness. It is easy to demand things, but the problem is how to implement the demand. This can make people very confused. In fact, everything depends on our work, on our intentions and desires, because we will be able to explain the principle of mutual guarantee to people.

The problem is that the world does not understand what is happening, although many important people are already saying that there is no solution to the crisis and that the methods we attempt to apply to the world do not match its actual current conditions. It’s like trying to use a huge wrench to adjust a modern electronic device. They do not match each other at all!

Many economists, sociologists, and politicians are already writing about this because they have a good sense of the situation in human society. However, science in the academia is lagging behind. Those who work directly at the center of events, such as at the stock exchange, in banks, and in business, are more sensitive to the dynamics of the events and changes that are happening in the world.

Our primary task is to help the world swiftly discover that it has no means to change anything. All changes are possible only by way of changing the environment, which includes society, media, and man. The changes won’t happen by changing the existing systems, which have become obsolete and cannot be corrected by the old approach. First of all, we must change ourselves. Only then will we be able to change all the systems according to our inner changes.

When we become global and integral, we will feel what mutual guarantee means. We will come closer to the proper form of society, and then we will be able to build such a society.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/11, “The Nation”

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Can Development Happen Without Destruction?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The new trends make it seem like the nations of the world will have to disintegrate from the inside in order to be built anew….

Answer: The whole world has to be destroyed, but the destruction can either happen on the physical level or on the level of understanding and realization. Either we will have to completely destroy ourselves in the physical sense in order to understand that we must also destroy our egoistic spirit, or we can circumvent the physical component of collapse and immediately start working on its spiritual realization in order to then correct the situation.

One way or another, you have to reach the breaking, inner destruction. And it’s possible that to reach it, you will also need the external collapse.

For example, today in Israel we are trying to add our message to the wave of the social protest about the need for unity and for constructing an integral society. The question is: How effective are our efforts? Maybe some amount of suffering will also be required here for people to understand that this is the only thing missing in reality, and the only way to achieve fair distribution of resources.

The people really want social justice, but how can it be achieved? It can’t be done by imposing whatever you like, but others don’t like. Social justice must envelop everyone, all of society. But is it really possible to actualize this without first attaining mutual guarantee?

It would be good if people realized this. Otherwise troubles will be necessary. There are no other alternatives: either the good path, or the path of suffering. If we are unsuccessful on the good path, then the second path will have to join. That is what will happen in all areas of our lives.

However, the more we can influence the environment, the more chances there are that we won’t have to go through real wars, which the world can slide down to in case of a bad turn of events, as Baal HaSulam writes.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/11, “The Nation”

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Nobel Prize Winner In Economy To Netanyahu: “Way To Go!”

Editorial in the News (interview with Nobel Prize Winner in Economics, Prof. Robert Aumann): “’Netanyahu must continue with his economic policy!’ In his interview, he explains why he supports the economic policy of the head of Israel’s government, why Israel’s major problem lies in the concentration of the production, and why higher education should cost 120,000 shekels a year!”
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What Is Equality?

Dr. Michael LaitmanEquality is when every one of us has equal opportunities, meaning the conventional, individual opportunity to express ourselves properly in the collective, integrated system, the opportunity to receive and bestow, and to be balanced with the others.

It’s the same as how the heart is equal to the liver, the kidneys, the legs, the arms, and all the other organs. But in what way are they equal? They are equal in that they interact with each other properly. Each one of them does its individual work for the common good, which enables the body to live.

As an analogy, it is not my fault that I was born to have the role of the kidneys, for example, and you were born to be the heart, while someone else – the lungs. In this regard, each one of us is unchangeable. But if we work together harmoniously, then each of us is equal to everyone else and no one is greater than any other. We live our innate potential, which we did not choose.

We were all born into different families and with different inclinations. We have different backgrounds and education levels. We perceive the world differently and relate to things differently. Each of us experiences things in his own way. But if each of us realizes himself in harmony with the others, then this will be equality.
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Our Message In “Le Monde”

Eli VinokurIn the News: A popular French newspaper, “Le Monde” published an interview with my student, Eli Vinokur, Ph.D., under the heading, “Mutual Guarantee.”
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The Right Envelope For Nature’s Message

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You are saying that the masses do not have to study the science of Kabbalah as we study it. But can a person change internally if he does not use the primary sources? All the changes originate from them.

Answer: You came to Kabbalah because you have the desire to advance. Thus, the point in a person’s heart pulls him forward. He does not feel right; he wants to see tomorrow, to achieve something, to open up heaven for himself, and that’s why he comes to study.

It doesn’t matter how big his bank account is and whether he is successful at work or in his personal life. He has another problem: He must find the meaning of his life, discover its purpose.

This is not how things stand with those who are pushed forward by corporeal circumstances, such as a lack of money, inequality, envy of others, and so on. These negative conditions push a person from behind by causing him to suffer.

When people are driven by suffering rather than an inner calling or a desire for development, you cannot promise them that learning will solve all their problems because a person does not associate his pain with a good goal ahead, with the revelation of the Good Who Does Good. And he will not feel this connection before he exits evil.

To do this, he must become attracted to the good ahead. The only good for him is called “unity,” “mutual guarantee.”

And thus, you are telling him, “If we unite and agree with this integral, global Nature, then it will be good for us.” But instead of referring to the science of Kabbalah, you send him to scientists, politicians, economists, and other experts. You present him with the facts that are already accepted and articulated by people who are significant in his eyes. He is not about to sit down and study together with you; he has different plans for his life. He believes that you should give him an appropriate answer and the means available for its realization.

It is written, “Raise a lad in his own way.” We have to address people in a manner that they can hear and understand. We talk from the position of nature itself and prove that the crisis is the consequence of the global, integral world. We collect the opinions of professionals and the results of scientific research and combine them into a picture of the crisis and its solution.

The problem is that humanity is not aware of the modern world and therefore cannot get used to it. We can only enter the correct path once we begin to unite. Tens of thousands of bright heads, the best minds of humanity already talk about this. And we should show their words to the world because maybe the world will believe them. They state that change for the better is impossible without the correction of man. And this message will be heard by at least part of the audience.
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The Path To A Perfect Reality

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf we want to advance to the true perception of reality, then it is possible only in our corrected qualities. Indeed, in our current qualities, we feel only this reality in which we are born, live, and die. Again, we are born, live, and die, and this is everything what we have.

If we want to obtain a different, opposite perception of reality, we should acquire the additional properties suitable for this: the quality of giving instead of receiving, and bestowal instead of consumption. Our constant desire is to absorb everything into “ourselves,” but this is only half of nature. The other half is bestowal, the tendency toward the outside.

That is why all of our work is to strive to achieve the second half of nature, to acquire the second force existing in the world. This time is called the period of preparation.

This is where we are now, trying through the group, the study, and various other means to achieve the state where we will obtain the second force of bestowal. Then, using the two forces of reception and bestowal together, we will come to know the entire reality in which we live.

People who have already received this second force of nature and, together with it, have acquired the perception of all of reality, are called Kabbalists. The science itself is called the science of Kabbalah, the science of reception, because a person acquires all of reality, rather than just the tiny part he is able to absorb in his current qualities. Then, as Kabbalists say, a person reaches a state where he rises above the current perception to an eternal, perfect reality.
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From the lesson on 8/12/11, The Zohar

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Rise Above All Differences

Dr. Michael LaitmanRather than existing in this tiny part of reality, when a person wishes to break through to its second part, the eternal and perfect part, then he has several means to do it: teacher, group, and books. The teacher explains that such an opportunity exists. He explains that it can be realized with the help of a group where everyone strives toward the perception of the true, perfect reality, and with the books that speak of the same perfect reality.

When we try to be together, it’s as though every person comes out of himself, out of his ego, because he must feel that he exists in the others. Then, when he tries to be above himself, in the others, connected with them, and he reads about the perception of reality in bestowal, this is the way he makes himself similar to the future state, as if he were already there.

To the extent of his aspiration, he evokes the second force from there that exists in reality, the force of bestowal, besides the small force of reception given to him from nature. Then, the force of bestowal comes and makes the changes in him.

A person can perceive these changes as an additional force of reception that comes to him, instead of the force of bestowal that changes him, and this type of perception is also correct. However, besides that, he attains the same force of bestowal. In this way, man advances, sometimes to the right and sometimes to the left, but driven by the same force of bestowal.

He must attain this force of bestowal together with the force of reception. These two forces begin to be revealed to man as two lines, the right and the left. Then, man advances, sometimes in a state of descent and sometimes in a state of ascent. He does not know yet what descent and ascent are exactly, and so far, he identifies them by his current sensations.

However, as time goes by, he begins to feel that he needs to use these two lines by being between them. In this way, he takes control of them and begins to combine them in the middle line.

Essentially, our entire work consists of studying together, wishing to connect with one another in our hearts, and aspiring toward unity above all the disagreements and differences because all of these things only concern our animate existence, which stays here in this world. We want to connect together in our desires, our points in the heart, above these things.

When we read The Zohar with this intention, the book speaks of our corrected states, about the way we reveal the quality of bestowal in the connection between us which is the same as the Creator, the Light, the spiritual world, the upper world. For this reason, every person must imagine this state when reading The Zohar.
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From the lesson on 8/12/11, The Zohar

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