Good Environment – 08.22.11

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

All We Lack Is Love

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur world has become global. In other words, the principal law unfolding in the universe is the law of a circle. Global means round, as is the globe of Earth.

We have become interconnected and interdependent. And if so, you cannot get into confrontations; instead, you must reach such an order where people will have warm, cordial relationships and become considerate of one another. In fact, what is mutual guarantee exactly? It is when I sign for you, you’re for me, and everyone is for everybody else. And so it will be all around the Earth.

We are moving toward it very rapidly. The speed with which the world is changing confirms it, and the pace of the changes will keep increasing. Very soon we will reveal that ours is not the only country that can solve the problems by way of mutual guarantee. Moreover, if you resolve them while sitting at the “round table” together with all the others, you feel internal, emotional satisfaction thereby.

They look at you with respect because you have compromised in some small degree because you start to consider the interests of others. A wave of warmth washes over you from within, and you feel safe; you are together with others. This way you begin to reveal the inner power present in this oneness, similar to the upper force.

Very soon, the whole world will see it since in truth, all people involved in protests need only one thing: love. It’s just that they cannot express it.
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From the Lesson on Weekly Torah Portion 8/19/2011

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You Won’t Succeed Alone

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday we are living in special times: The world has reached the state when all of mankind feels as if we’re all in one boat. It provides excellent opportunities for everyone to finally start living the common law of nature—the law of mutual guarantee.

A global, integral crisis has overtaken the world. This means that we  are all in the same “boat,” one “ship,” at the bottom of which everyone is “drilling a hole” and doesn’t care about anyone else. And indeed, nobody will get ahold of themselves unless we all get together now and start supporting each other.

This is what we call mutual guarantee. I become everybody’s guarantor, meaning that they will not break this law. And every one of them, in turn, signs for everybody else, including me. And then, I find within myself the courage not to hurt another, not to “drill a hole in the boat.”

If in this way, we come to this common law of nature, we’ll definitely feel that we lack nothing. After all, you are equivalent to nature, so what can be better than that? You will feel happy and healthy and completely secure. No one will dare to approach your country’s borders and claim the right to it.

And all of this is thanks to the fact that you are equivalent to the laws that are dictated to us from Above. And all these laws come down to one, “love your neighbor as you love yourself,” the law of mutual guarantee that helps us reach such a relationship.
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From the Lesson on Weekly Torah Portion 8/19/2011

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From Vertical Power To Round Table

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I think power should come not from the government but from the people who lead the government to correct decisions.

Answer: It is more natural for the wisdom of Kabbalah and for the new world. In fact, we are transitioning from egoistic relationships to the “round,” global system. The world has become interconnected in all its parts and is taking an altruistic form thereby. This leads to the abolishment of political power, and that is why they no longer know how to run the country or lead the people. This is because their government is a line that extends from the top down, vertical power, backed by military force and money.

But the old order is disappearing, and people are starting to suddenly going out into the streets with various demands. They are pushed by nature: People’s desires are unified in “circles,” and today they are getting stronger, more tangible, and more pronounced. We will see these signs all over the world.

This is the natural course of things, and nothing can be done about it. The people will demand a new order without even knowing what it is. Riots will ignite. Governments ruling by force and by money will fall, while the people will rise to meet the changes. We are headed for this time.

There is only one solution: mutual guarantee. People still have to “take power.” But how will they do it? How will they avoid the mistakes of the previous government and find a new way? We need to unite to meet the “round,” global, and integral world. The method of unification is in the hands of the Kabbalists, and we must hurry to avoid the problems and sufferings that are possible in this way.

For example, if Europe already knew and understood how to unite, and took an appropriate action, it would retain itself. But instead, the European Union is moving toward collapse.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/19/2011, “One Law”
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A Beautiful Woman, A Beautiful House, And Beautiful Vessels

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe sages said: “Three reasons enhance man’s wisdom: a beautiful woman, a beautiful house, and beautiful vessels.” The “beautiful woman” is Malchut, who becomes so beautiful because I want to enter Shechina, the gathering of all souls, and connect with all others who seek to bestow.

The souls of the great Kabbalists of all times and generations, who have transformed themselves, and all who strive for correction are already there. Those like me are regarded as my friends, and those who are following me on the spiritual ladder and get help from me are called my disciples. Together, we want to belong in one common soul, Shechina, regarded as a “beautiful woman.”

A “beautiful house” and “beautiful vessels” are specific to the person who wants to correct his heart, all his desires; they     are Shechina’s particular organs. Every day, he connects with her to see what else he can deposit there because each particle is added onto the collective account.

So we advance, step by step, and above all, we must remain sensitive. Every day we are given new opportunities to approach bestowal, but not the “fuel,” awakening, which is done so that I would bring it out on my own. Otherwise, I would act like a puppet which turns around pulled by strings, that is, purely by instinct, like an animal.

But I was given free will to choose—the realization that I do not feel inspired and must nevertheless get up, without any desire to do so, and start the day, overcoming the heavy feeling: physical and emotional, confusion of the mind and other disturbances, unpleasant states, thoughts against bestowal and external problems. And I must give thanks for all these obstacles as for new states, over which I now need to choose my attitude towards Shechina, Malchut of the world of Atzilut that unifies all of the souls.

There, inside it, I want to live connected with everyone together and see the corrected humanity. And I want every day to be as new for me; that is, I want to carry over, yet again, every property so that each drop will be deposited in the joint, large account. And thus we ascend.

If a person works in this manner and seeks in all his personal states to come from “beautiful vessels” (desires) to a “beautiful house,”corrected heart, and reunite with the “beautiful woman,” Malchut of the world of Atzilut, then he combines all these three conditions and receives the upper mind. That is, he rises above his corrupt desire to receive pleasure—with the intent to bestow.

The holy Shechina is our intentions that we can transform above our broken desires.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/21/2011, Shamati #9

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Remaining In Spirituality Forever

Dr. Michael LaitmanTo remain in spirituality forever means to agree that your ego will never be fulfilled. Presently we are at the very beginning of the spiritual path, and our desires to enjoy no longer find fulfillment. They will continue to empty more and more, until it becomes perfectly clear to us that we must rise above them.

We have no other choice. The entire preceding approach has exhausted itself; this whole game that was set in motion from Above to grow in us the desires of this world is over. We will now need to work on other types of desires. And we will soon see this phenomenon on the global scale.

We will feel a lack in everything in our egoistic desires: security, confidence, vitality, and hope for the future. At the same time, an opportunity will arise to connect to the Creator and to ask to adhere to Him.

And you turn to Him not in order to hide from the sensation of lack and emptiness since in that case, you would simply substitute a smaller fulfillment for a bigger one. Who wouldn’t want that? This is what usually happens when some blow befalls a person, and he immediately remembers the Creator and begins to pray.

Normally your animal body does not allow you to think about Him, but when it’s scared, it deploys you to the Creator for help. And you (the human in you) aspire to the Creator because your animal pushes you to Him. It is as if it says to you that it has nothing to eat and sends you to the Creator to ask for food. And you, the human, go and ask for your animal. This is how we live….

But if you, the human, aspire to the upper, not because you feel a lack in your regular fulfillment, but because you’ve begun to feel the importance of bestowal that the environment supplies you with, then you develop the spiritual desires over your empty personal desires. If you do it not because you want to fulfill yourself or profit in some way, that means you have achieved an inner revolution whereupon you begin to care for your spiritual vessel.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/2011, Shamati #53

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Mutual Guarantee Is Born Here

Here are some pictures from the pavilion of our “Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” movement in the tent city on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel-Aviv.

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We Are An Ecosystem

Opinion: (Fritjof Capra, PhD physics): The standard definition that is most often used was given by Lester Brown, the founder of the World Watch Institute, in the early 1980s. He wrote that a sustainable society is one that can fulfill its needs without diminishing the chances of future generations.” Sustainable human societies can be built on the example of natural ecosystems, which represent sustainable communities of plants, animals, and microorganisms.

Capra’s six principles of ecology:

Networks

All living things in an ecosystem are interconnected through networks of relationship. They depend on this web of life to survive. For example: In a garden, a network of pollinators promotes genetic diversity; plants, in turn, provide nectar and pollen to the pollinators.

Nested Systems

Nature is made up of systems that are nested within systems. Each individual system is an integrated whole and — at the same time — part of larger systems. Changes within a system can affect the sustainability of the systems that are nested within it as well as the larger systems in which it exists. For example: Cells are nested within organs within organisms within ecosystems.

Cycles

Members of an ecological community depend on the exchange of resources in continual cycles. Cycles within an ecosystem intersect with larger regional and global cycles. For example: Water cycles through a garden and is also part of the global water cycle.

Flows

Each organism needs a continual flow of energy to stay alive. The constant flow of energy from the sun to Earth sustains life and drives most ecological cycles. For example: Energy flows through a food web when a plant converts the sun’s energy through photosynthesis, a mouse eats the plant, a snake eats the mouse, and a hawk eats the snake. In each transfer, some energy is lost as heat, requiring an ongoing energy flow into the system.

Development

All life — from individual organisms to species to ecosystems — changes over time. Individuals develop and learn, species adapt and evolve, and organisms in ecosystems coevolve. For example: Hummingbirds and honeysuckle flowers have developed in ways that benefit each other; the hummingbird’s color vision and slender bill coincide with the colors and shapes of the flowers.

Dynamic Balance

Ecological communities act as feedback loops, so that the community maintains a relatively steady state that also has continual fluctuations. This dynamic balance provides resiliency in the face of ecosystem change. For example: Ladybugs in a garden eat aphids. When the aphid population falls, some ladybugs die off, which permits the aphid population to rise again, which supports more ladybugs. The populations of the individual species rise and fall, but balance within the system allows them to thrive together.
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The Source Of All Destruction

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Book of  Zohar, Chapter “Shlah Lecha (Send for Yourself)” Item 17: And the scouts sent by Moses caused lamentation in the coming generations because on that day the First and the Second Temples were destroyed, and they brought about the loss of many thousands and tens of thousands among Israel. And they became the reason for the departure of Shechina from the land and from the people of Israel. And it is said about those who were sent by Joshua: “He will return the soul of his Lord.”

The source of destruction in all generations, meaning on all stages of corruption and corrections, is a person’s decision not to follow the spiritual path because of fear, laziness, disregard, or lack of desire. “This is good, but it’s not for me,” as the scouts said when they came back from the land of Israel. This is the source of all woes.

A question arises: But misfortunes happened prior to that as well, in Egypt and before Moses sent “the scouts to the land of Israel?” This is correct, but we are talking about the final battle for the land of Israel when the scouts said: “True, it’s good there, but it’s not for us.”

This point is very important. Essentially, a person exists in it all the time. Every time we correct precisely this root, by making a decision that it’s not only good, but it’s also for me. But what is good? It’s bestowal. This is what the scouts were afraid of: “Can we even reach bestowal? I am opposite to it. Is it what I want?! I can say from a distance that bestowal is good. But can I get closer to it, reach it? I don’t have any energy or need.…” This way we reject it on various levels.

This is the very place of correction. This means that in every moment of our life we exist in this crucial point where we have to correct “the sin of the scouts.”
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/2011, The Zohar

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Kabbalists On Spiritual Work In The Group, Part 14

Dr. Michael LaitmanDear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Principles of Spiritual Work in the Group

He who thinks that he is deceiving his friend, is really deceiving the Creator, since besides man there is only the Creator. This is because it is the essence of creation that man is called “creature” only with respect to himself. The Creator wants man to feel that he is a separated reality from Him; but except for that, it is all “the whole earth is full of His glory.”

Hence, when lying to one’s friend, one is lying to the Creator; and when saddening one’s friend, one is saddening the Creator.
– Baal HaSulam, Shamati (I Heard), Article no. 67, “Depart from Evil”
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