Good Environment – 09.07.11

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

The War Of Gog And Magog: In Or Outside The Soul?

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn today’s complex situation in Israel and in the world, it becomes clear why Baal HaSulam insists that first of all, we have to sit down on the school bench and study. This is what we need; otherwise, we will not be able to relate correctly to what is happening.

This does not mean that I ought to love my enemies as “each will have to pay for his deeds,” but I have nothing to hate them for. I should know only one thing: How I can prepare myself for unity and in what forms. Only this can break hatred—only through this connection, inside of which the upper force is revealed.

If it is revealed, we will cure all these evil forces. We simply have no choice. The Creator pressures us so much because otherwise, we will never come to the point when the spiritual force, holiness reigns in us. Without this, we have no chance for salvation. I hope that we will manage to convey this to the nation, simultaneously with the pressure that is exerted on us as if from outside, that is, from Above, and we will be able to achieve unity.

In fact, this is called the war of Gog and Magog. Through all the nations and by using any instance and possibility, the Creator puts the pressure on us, and we must unite. It is like the exodus from Egypt: The pressure is growing and growing, until we have no alternative, and we flee. Otherwise, we do not want to leave the slavery of our egoism and are willing to stay and live in it forever.

Therefore, there is no way out; we will have to go through all the “Egyptian plagues” and pressure. The better we understand them, the less these blows will materialize. They will be more internal—with understanding, awareness, search, and scrutiny. They will be faster, at the other degree. If the blow is felt in matter, it is billion times harsher and longer.

The difference between the degrees is such that the entire still level is equivalent to one plant! Try to estimate this proportion: One side of the scales holds the entire still matter of the universe, and the other holds a blade of grass. Can you imagine what a huge difference it is, if we rise only one degree in our scrutiny and corrections, not to speak about ascending from the animate to the speaking degree! And we can do this instead of the blows that await us at the still level.

Imagine, how many blows and sufferings we will have to go through on the still level….Therefore, all our work now is only to rise and rise faster. To do this, we need to sit down on the school bench and to learn to understand a little what happens to us and to the world, and why. We have to explain this to ourselves and to the entire world. We have no other weapon, but explanations. And the situation simply obliges us.
[53725]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/2011, “The Nation”

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Becoming The Center Of Good

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe must reveal a place in the heart and mind for genuine concern. All other concerns must become compulsory for me. I live in this world and tend to its matters out of necessity, but my true and sacred concern is about what’s truly important. After all, I am human and wish to achieve something. Something is precious to me in life, besides money and daily problems. This is something we must assign far greater importance than all the other twists and turns of life.

I can work, shop, and attend pleasant or unpleasant events. It doesn’t matter what I do, as long as in my heart and mind there is a place where I want to ascend. And if there is such a place, I must connect my friends to this inescapable concern. When we think about and support one another, that is what a group is. Everyone is concerned so that the others have the same thoughts, the same cares. I want them to care for the most important thing, and then I will care about it as well.

Our mutual care is to build a spiritual vessel, the right desire, to raise a prayer for correction. When it amasses a sufficient quantitative and qualitative intensity, then in this network that has stretched between us, we will reveal that which we wish to attain—the upper reality—and acquire strength, health, security, and prosperity….

Indeed, today the Jewish nation relies more on a miracle than a firm foundation. And all the while we have a special vessel, thanks to which we can drive away all hardships and troubles, and all the haters. We and only we have the keys to the success and good life for all. This is precisely why the whole world and our neighbors won’t leave us alone.

We were given an opportunity, and only if we achieve mutual guarantee will our unity become a global center of good. So let’s make it happen together, by caring for each other with joy.
[53410]
From Lesson 1, the Achziv Convention 9/1/2011

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“Visionen” Magazine On Kabbalah

The German magazine “Visionen” published a big article about me and Kabbalah.

[53831]

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Libya: This Was A War For Oil

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (From guardian.co.uk): “The Libyan conflict has been a war about oil if not for’ oil. The country’s economy is almost totally dependent on hydrocarbons and a key objective for the transitional government will be to get the wells up and running again as soon as possible.

“The British and French, meanwhile, are worried about future energy supplies. They are already pushing and shoving over who should get what of the energy proceeds before the political dust has even settled in Tripoli (just as BP and Shell are once again sitting pretty in Iraq following western military intervention there).

“The UK government has been working hand in glove with parts of the oil industry to bring about regime change in Libya.

“Foreign minister Alain Juppé was trying to bury a story run in Liberation that suggested that Paris had tied up an agreement to be given 35% of all the country’s oil in future in return for military help.

“An executive from the rebel oil company, Agoco, has already said the interests of Britain, France, and Italy will all be treated favorably compared with those who equivocated, such as Russia and China.

“It was a war around oil in Libya – but the new interim government in Tripoli could yet win that, too.”

My Comment: Of course, politicians and the army usually carry out the objectives of economists. But it is interesting how the results will manifest in a new, globally connected world. Everything that happens in the world now is only in order to force all nations to rise above differences and create a new global network of mutual guarantee relationships.

Thus, we will be able to turn the global crisis into a correct global relationship and to create a new humanity. Our disagreement with the plan of nature (human evolution) evokes more severe forces that will “enforce peace” on us.
[53838]

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U.S. Is Set To Sue Banks

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (From BBC News): “The US is planning to sue more than a dozen major banks for misrepresenting the quality of mortgages they sold during the housing bubble…

“Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs are to face action…

“The Federal Housing Finance Agency… blames the banks for failing to perform adequate checks on the quality of mortgage securities they sold on to investors before the financial crisis in 2008.

“Some executives say the losses were made because of the wider economic downturn.

“Others fear further litigation against banks could damage America’s fragile recovery…”

My Comment: Banks are stronger than the state, but the government needs to be re-elected, and the banks, of course, will admit their mistakes and pay fines—for the benefit of the voters!
[53844]

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The Destabilization Of Regimes Or The Revolution Business

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (From 7kanal.com): “The government of Israel and the ruling coalition will greatly regret their refusal to support the initiative to investigate the sources and the purpose of funding the Israeli extra-parliamentary movements and organizations.

“A journalistic investigation has been published on YouTube…, and it is extremely critical for Israel.”

My Comment: We, Kabbalists, should not pay attention to these “revolutionaries.” We can point them out to the people, but through them, we see the Creator Who arranges everything so that, thanks to our “enemies,” we aim ourselves correctly at Him and unite in mutual guarantee instead of bickering with the “students.”

Of course, the “revolutionaries” will not accept the idea of unity because they have been paid for creating separation and anarchy, but this will help us unite, and the forces evoked by our unity will change the world.

We recommend watching: The Revolution Business.
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Break The Idols In Yourself

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur work is to imagine precisely what the upper force is. And we will have to do many discernments on this path. At first, a person imagines the upper force as a multitude of different forces, godly images, and deifies different natural phenomena that he discovers around himself. A person attributes human qualities to them because that’s the only example he has, and endows different images with the divine power, which is called idol worshiping.

That is an important stage of our development because we exist in our egoistic desire with an inverted perception of reality, sensation and analysis. This way, we scrutinize upper qualities to the point of reaching the correct perception.

An example of that is our forefather Abraham who was initially selling idols. In fact, his story tells us about ourselves. All of us begin our path from worshiping different forces of nature and considering them either good or evil, or partially good or evil. We attribute them to certain people, our surroundings, blind fate, or various incidents.

All our life cycles are filled with these discernments until the point in the heart awakens in us. But even already having it, we still have to discern numerous definitions that draw us closer to the first perception of spirituality.

We still don’t know what the spiritual reality or who the Creator are. But on our path to this discernment, we are prone to the influence of the environment that can turn us the other way, mislead, or confuse because we don’t feel the Creator yet and can’t hold onto Him.

In the end, we reach a state, when all our multiple ascents, descents, and confusions somehow get resolved, accumulate, and combine, and we divide reality into two parts: I, one who feels, and that which I feel. There is nothing else besides it!

But I sense myself as being either in egoism, reception, or in bestowal—there is no third option. Existing in egoism, I relate everything only to myself and my world, and this defines my state. But if I exist in the quality of bestowal, it fills me with something called the Creator (Bo-reh)—”come and see.”

I constantly perform clarifications between these two qualities. Finally, I come to a conclusion that everything comes from the Creator who plays with me either by concealing Himself or by giving me exercises so that I build in myself more fine and precise definitions of who He is.

Essentially, this constitutes our entire work.
[52299]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/22/2011, Shamati #62

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Economics Done By The Balance Formula

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We see that humanity is currently trying to fix and improve the world’s economic systems. But is there any point in changing anything just to become convinced that this doesn’t work and that first of all, we need inner changes?

Answer: We are already revealing the fact that our economic system is flawed. But we are still trying to correct it using the old instruments, and by doing that we only ruin it even more. Gradually it will become clear to people that they are powerless here and that the old way of thinking is no longer effective. The only problem is that we still don’t understand where to get a new mind.

And on their part, Kabbalists still do not know how to get through to humanity and how to transmit this new way of thinking to them in order for everyone to work together to create new systems. The economy is the foundation of our material life, of production and trade, and the provision of all goods. In the material realm there is nothing more important than the economy because this is the program of connection between us, which worked entirely egoistically until today, based on reception of the optimal benefit in every regard.

This is the simple economics formula that has to be realized in every place. Clearly, people are still trying to steal here and there if they can, but this approach no longer accords with the formula. In the ideal form, economics tells us about how to organize relationships in society so everyone would receive the optimal, maximum benefit. This is the economists’ dream.

However, now we need a completely different formula. We have to keep redefining the meaning of “the necessary living standard for a worthy life” and taking care to provide it for everyone. We have to educate people so every person will aspire to attain this level, with some people rising to it from below (meaning, those who are beneath this level) and others—descending to it from above.

This necessary level is not the minimal poverty line, but much higher, one that supposes a normal life. Some people rise to it, while others come down to it, but they do it by their own desire, which has to be achieved by upbringing. All of the remaining excesses should be distributed to the general needs of the government, which can include defense or anything else.

However, if we are talking about the world that is entirely moving toward correction and does not need to spend money on defense, then we can enormously reduce production. According to our similarity with nature, we have to reach the state where we exist like organs of a human body in which every person receives only to the degree it is necessary to live for the sake of bestowal to others. Therefore, we will approach life where production and trade will gradually become more and more restricted until reaching a level where everyone ends up on the level we decide on, and won’t grow from there anymore.

Thus, we will help nature restore itself and will not be sucking its last remaining resources. We will leave something to our children and grandchildren. We will use the natural resources in a way that lets us always be in balance, harmony, and circulation with nature.

This is our responsibility, and if we do not achieve this, nature will teach us by very harsh methods. There won’t be water or oil left around us, not any other resources. In a few decades we will be left with nil. Then, everything we have built will become useless and all production will come to a halt because it won’t have anything to work on. There won’t be lighting, heating, or refrigeration—nothing. That’s because we will have wasted all of the resources on ourselves, on unnecessary things that are beyond the necessities. And there will be no one to blame besides yourself for the fact that your children don’t have anything to exist by.

However, for now we are still trying to snatch as much as we can and suck as much as we can out of the earth. We are even starting to mine in the middle of the ocean in order to extract oil. We will exhaust everything, even reaching the North and South poles. But at some point these resources will have an end, and then we will finally understand….

However, I hope that we will nevertheless manage to develop new a formula of economics whose objective is not immediate egoistic gratification, but the attainment of balance. We have to discern what the new economy has to be within a nation that exists among other nations that have not corrected themselves yet. And then this formula will spread to the whole world.

I think it will be much easier to implement this formula than what is happening today because in essence, we have to simplify everything, achieve balance, and restore the normal circulation.
[53818]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/11, “The Nation”

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Not Bolts, But Creators Of A New World

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is extraordinarily difficult for us to change the ideas we have formed over the course of our entire lives until now. In fact, it’s simply impossible. One way or another, we remain with our old perception, even though it seems as if we are already changing. In fact, nothing is moving. However, now we have to change our old perspective to a new one, and this change has to happen in the whole world. So where can we get this new perception, an integral view?

Suppose that tomorrow the whole world wanted to turn into an integrally connected network where every person devotes his full energy to work for the sake of society (even though today no one wants this and no one feels this way, but let’s be dreamers for a moment). How will we find out how to build this system, how we should be connected and interact with one another?

How can we build such a government and society, production and trade, since all of this must exist as long as we live in the material bodies? Therefore, we are obligated to organize the entire system of relationships that ensures our life on earth in order to satisfy the needs of our animate bodies.

To do this we need many systems, but how can be build them by the laws of bestowal where every person is free and freely acts to maximally bestow to others, where every person knows what he should be doing in this ideally organized machine, in which all the cogwheels are spinning in harmony? This seems like a utopia, so how is it possible to actually make this transition?

It’s possible to write a novel about this, but how can we rationally envision an economic system that is necessary in such a society, the government and judicial structure, this entire mechanism, from the large elements to the tiniest bolts, including the supply of goods, care for the elderly, families, children, construction, and culture? The organization of all of this is very complex because everything has to operate in “perpetual motion” without the fuel that we are used to!

Everything has to work upon a different source of energy—love for the neighbor. But where will it come from? If I simply receive it from above, the way I now feel love for my own children, then I will be working automatically again, like a machine. So what’s the difference? Instead of egoistic love, I will be driven by love for the neighbor, so what will change?

Therefore, we have to build one thing upon the other so it would work upon resistance, ascent, the sensation of ourselves between two worlds or two desires where every person constantly rises above his egoism, which pulls him back toward the earth.
[53827]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/11, “The Nation”

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