Good Environment – 09.01.11

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

Concealment Makes Us Human

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe entire work occurs above concealment. If everything is revealed, what else is to be done? Concealment allows me to be independent and to establish my work and position myself.

For the time being, a child is not as knowledgeable as we are and does not understand what we do. But it is this lack of knowledge in particular that enables him to eventually rise higher and become smarter than us. It helps him to receive from us our knowledge and besides, to add something from himself.

If a child knew everything we do at once, he would not grow up. Hence, an animal born with all natural instincts fully masters its natural program in a few days and does not develop any further.

We evolve due to concealment, due to us not having anything. Gradually, by way of numerous clarifications, I build my personality: new, different from all others, and beyond predecessors. And if nothing was concealed, there would be nothing to add. Concealment allows us to rise to the full height and comprehend.

If I received everything ready made, I would not know what’s happening. But by building each detail and connecting all of them together by myself, I assemble Malchut of the world of Infinity, based on my individuality, on my point of the soul—I get to know creation from end to end.
[53320]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/1/2011, Shamati #101

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Is It So Easy To Exit The Crisis?

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (George Soros, financier): “A comprehensive solution to the euro crisis must have three major components: reform and recapitalisation of the banking system; a eurobond regime; and an exit mechanism.”

My Comment: I wish the plan was accepted! Then, they would discover that it does not work. Under other circumstances, Soros, perhaps, would be right, but not in our time, when the old economic laws are no longer active. In the integral and global world, nothing works but actions directed to the benefit of society.
[53240]

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An Attempt Is Like Torture

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Paul Krugman, professor of Economics, the Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics): “Has market turmoil left you feeling afraid? Well, it should. Clearly, the economic crisis that began in 2008 is by no means over.

“But there’s another emotion you should feel: anger. For what we’re seeing now is what happens when influential people exploit a crisis rather than try to solve it.

“For the fact is that right now the economy desperately needs a short-run fix. …When millions of willing and able workers are unemployed, and economic potential is going to waste to the tune of almost $1 trillion a year, you want policy makers who work on a fast recovery, not people who lecture you on the need for long-run fiscal sustainability.

“Unfortunately, giving lectures on long-run fiscal sustainability is a fashionable Washington pastime.…

“What would a real response to our problems involve? First of all, it would involve more, not less, government spending for the time being — with mass unemployment and incredibly low borrowing costs, we should be rebuilding our schools, our roads, our water systems and more. It would involve aggressive moves to reduce household debt via mortgage forgiveness and refinancing. And it would involve an all-out effort by the Federal Reserve to get the economy moving, with the deliberate goal of generating higher inflation to help alleviate debt problems.”

My Comment: Of course, something must be done, but no action will succeed unless it is aimed at uniting us into an integral society. On the contrary, this will expose our desperate situation even more in order to show us more clearly and painfully where society should be heading, until we understand that this direction should be only towards the similarity with global, unified nature.
[53244]

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Lessons From Achziv Convention – 09.01.11

Achziv Convention, Lesson 1
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Final Sensation

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is the wave of protests in Israel due to the role of the nation of Israel, or will all nations come to this eventually?

Answer: The same problems will have to be solved in the entire world. On the corporeal level people will be obliged to provide mutual guarantee that will ensure social justice. Then the nations will be able to introduce a just distribution as they see it.

And it doesn’t matter how much you give to everyone. What is important is the final sensation: We are all together and we are fine. I am satisfied with what others have received and I am among them.

Regardless of which societies and countries we are talking about, the key is that everyone feels satisfied. And this is not a matter of money, but precisely of the final sensation.

In the interim phase, we have to provide to those who lack food and basic necessities. We need to raise the needy above the poverty line—there is no need to even discuss it. They receive the necessary supplement and together we move on to discussing our current problems. When a person has nothing to eat, there is nothing to talk with him about, while the rest depends on the sensation.
[52453]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/24/2011, Talk on Arvut and Social Justice

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Two Poles Joined By One Aim

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is “Truth and Faith”?

Answer: Truth is a fair reward and punishment, when I work and receive what I’m entitled to for my work.

However, we see that life is not always arranged according to this principle. And a person who works more than everybody else does not necessarily receive more than everybody else. If that was the case, the world would be relatively straightforward.

But in order to pull us out of this egoistic straightforwardness, the Creator makes His additions and greatly confuses us. Thus, we see that a fair, true calculation does not always transpire, and there is a place for faith, meaning hope for good luck or some upper help beyond one’s understanding.

Faith destroys the principle of fair truth. This is why people get so confused in this world and hope for a miracle, a blessing, or a miraculous cure. The same confusion exists on the spiritual path as well: On one hand, everything is given to the measure of one’s effort, but on the other, everything depends on luck.

A person should work in order to join these two principles into one. It is written: “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named, but sacrifice him.” Meaning on one hand, you will see him giving birth to your “grandchildren,” all the new successors up to the end of correction, but on the other, he needs to be annihilated. How is that possible?

It is not clear to us now, but it constitutes the very first principle of entering the spiritual world, which Abraham had to adopt according to this story. A person corrects his vision in such a way that for the first time he is able to join two opposites into one.

It means that he ascended to the first degree and mastered a spiritual principle according to which two opposites merge into one whole. And now, he understands how to work with reason and faith above reason simultaneously—with hatred, the sins of which are covered by love.

If a person begins to grasp this principle and takes it into account in his or her work, even without having realized it yet, he will no longer experience difficult obstacles that push him backwards. He feels that these obstacles in particular are meant to advance him and sees that all these contradictions are an opportunity for him to ascend. And then he rises.

On the contrary: “Man’s pride shall bring him low.” If he does not accept this condition and is not willing to join two opposites into one, this becomes an impassable obstacle. That’s why he gets off the track and leaves the path.

Therefore, it is important to direct oneself correctly: straight to the world of Infinity, understanding that the difference between this world and the next one is in our ability to join two poles into one. That sets us a direction, just like taking an aim.

This principle is expressed in various ways: “Israel, Torah, and the Creator are one”; ascents and descents that have to become one whole; the group and I should work together so that I invest into it at the time of ascent and receive from it at the time of descent, meaning so that the group serves as my electrical current “rectifier.”

The main conclusion that follows from it with respect to this world is that we must not destroy a single quality either in ourselves or in the world. We need to bring them all to correction and combine them into one—to rise above them by uniting with the Creator.

We won’t be able to establish a good life and a fair society in our world if we don’t unite among ourselves as equals. Meaning, everyone will work for the benefit of society to the extent of his or her ability and receive according to his or her needs.

But we can fulfill this condition only if we aspire to it for the purpose of uniting with the Creator, meaning for the sake of the quality of love and bestowal that unites our opposite properties into one, infinitely perfect state.
[52315]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/23/2011, Shamati #43

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Feelings By Calculation

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why does the egoism in our world  keep the mind and feelings from connecting?

Answer: It is an obvious fact that when we are very worried about something, the mind vanishes into thin air. And when we try to understand or examine something, then feelings disappear. These two different approaches, sensory and rational, cancel each other out.

This is a consequence of the breaking. Our root is in the breaking, when the screen that used to connect the mind and the heart, calculation and pleasure, disappeared. That is why in our world, we are unable to make a correct calculation based on feelings. And the more we can leave our feelings behind, the faster we can look at them from aside. The more we move away from our feelings, the more we are able to make a sound calculation in the place which has been freed up, on that same interval that is not filled by feelings.

It appears to us that we are able to connect the mind and the heart, but in reality we cannot. If I were 100 percent inside my sensation but started coming out of it by 30 percent, I would be able to work with my mind in the place that is 30 percent free from feelings.

In our world, feelings and the mind cannot work together. If the mind and feelings were connected, it would be the Reflected Light, a spiritual action. Before this occurs the Restriction (Tzimtzum) must happen, the reception of the Light that Reforms, the merger with the upper one by faith above reason so as to acquire the mind and the heart of the upper one, or to work above one’s feelings with the help of  a higher reason.

This already relates to spiritual work. It’s exactly the purpose of the screen: to connect the sensation and the mind, “The Torah and the work.”
[52733]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/8/2011, Shamati #45

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Everybody Needs The Correct Upbringing

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Noel Gallagher, formerly the lead guitarist and principal songwriter of the English rock band Oasis): “Noel Gallagher has said he believes ‘brutal TV and videogames’ are partly to blame for the riots that have taken place this week.

“‘We live in this age of violence – and I don’t care what other people say: Brutal TV and brutal videogames are a reason for this pointless violence as well. The people are immune to violence, they are used to it. …It’s just violence for the sake of violence.’”

My Comment: As a child grows, a global and integral education is meant to create in him or her models of integral behavior in society, specifically by employing the right games and TV shows. Essentially, the same applies to the education of grown-ups. Mass media in particular has to assume a central role in transforming the old, egoistic society into a new, integral one.
[52341]

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Global Economy: Is Anybody In Control?

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (David Dapice, Chief Economist, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Associate Professor of Economics, Tuffs University): “When European leaders interrupt their August vacations, they’ll return to their offices and learn just how bereft they are of ideas in dealing with the economic crisis threatening the world. From Washington to Brussels to Tokyo, leaders have been squabbling and fumbling, seemingly oblivious of the global threat. The farce in the Capitol Hill leading to the downgrading of U.S. debt by Standard & Poor’s, the feckless response of the European Union to the spiraling sovereign debt crisis and the trade surplus prompting Japan’s devaluation of the yen all point to a dangerous bankruptcy in leadership.

“In the U.S., bickering politicians drove the country to the brink of default, and their last-minute compromise failed in stopping the downgrading of U.S. debt.

“A grudging and feckless response of European leaders to the crisis thus far has reduced rather than restored confidence.

“In Japan, the debt to GDP ratio is an astonishing 200 percent, meaning its debt amounts to two years’ worth of wealth created by the country.

“China managed to boost lending for questionable investments…. Indonesia, Russia and Brazil rely on commodity exports to an uncomfortable degree, and many of these prices have begun to slide—oil has dropped 15 percent from recent highs.

“Perhaps the most disconcerting element in this is that few leaders or even intellectuals have ideas for solutions likely to be considered.

“Despite frequent talk of an interconnected world, the myopic leadership in the world’s leading countries seems oblivious to the fact that all are in one boat.”

My Comment: Leaders can only pretend that they are in control because it’s no longer possible to govern using the old methods. The reason is that the upper world is approaching us, as if descending upon us, but its qualities of complete interconnection, bestowal and love are opposite to those of our world. This is why we feel the crisis—we sense our oppositeness to the upper world.

The situation won’t improve until we realize that we have to change in similarity to the upper world, its governance, to become similar to it in full interconnection, bestowal and love. You say it’s unfeasible? By inflicting suffering upon us, Nature will compel us to it. Or, we will want to change ourselves, and then we will need the wisdom of Kabbalah. At some point in the future, we will meet….
[52053]

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