Good Environment – 09.27.11

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

You Have All The Keys

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I’ve been trying to place materials from your blog into the Facebook network, but I see that they don’t get through to people….

Answer: Look at how Baal HaSulam wrote the newspaper, “The Nation.” Is it something you can place in social networks? But a newspaper has to be close to people. In reality, he writes deeply and clearly. If you read it closely, you will simply be struck by his analysis and will truly enjoy it. However, he intends it for a specific level, for people who think and understand.

That is how I am built as well: I cannot lower my explanations completely. Others will do that. I am simply incapable of less. My blog is based on lesson and lecture materials, so don’t wait for anything extraordinary to appear here. This is your work. I have done my job by conveying to you the science of Kabbalah and all the principles of activity in the conditions of the modern world. You have all the keys. With time, as changes take place, I will add more, but in principle, you have already received everything.

And now you are coming to me with demands? I write my blog for those who are able to understand it, and for those who may possibly use it in a few years. You won’t receive anything more from me, not in the spiritual sense nor the corporeal. You have already received everything and the rest depends on how you use what you have received.

I convey to people what I can and how I can. This is what I received from my teacher Rabash and what I revealed with him and after his passing from the primary sources, which were mainly written by him and Baal HaSulam. Whoever wants to hear it hears it, and whoever doesn’t want to, doesn’t hear it. Anyone can come and listen, and anyone can leave without saying a word and never come back again.

This is how I act and this is my attitude. A person will perceive as much as he will. Let him come or leave. Let him carry out some of what he has heard, or let him not carry it out. I cannot control this and this is not my work. I let people have total freedom. And if anyone wants to work, whether for salary or for free, our dissemination system presents them with specific demands according to the work plan.

I am not planning to build anything besides this. If someone doesn’t understand what he has to do, it is his problem. I don’t have anything besides what I give at the morning lesson. Everything else is not my work.

You are sitting here and looking at me expectantly, and you can just keep looking. But I would not look in your place. A person has to come, receive the teaching, accept it as a mission or instruction, and carry it out. And this happens over and over again. Without the realization phase, one simply doesn’t advance but “bottles himself up.”

This is described by the verse, “More wisdom than deeds.” This kind of person has no future and his study only worsens the situation. It’s better for him to leave, and I am saying this with all seriousness. I prefer for that person not to be here. If a person does not realize himself as much as possible in dissemination and the world’s correction, then his leaving will benefit both him and me.

Therefore, I am not sorry when people leave and I don’t run after anyone. This is not done in spirituality. Everything depends on the environment that you build or fail to build. Everything depends on whether you are helping the world or not. My only task is to tell you about what you should be doing. But I am not meant to enact the realization.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/27/11, “The Nation”

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Man’s Birthday

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe beginning of the year, “Rosh Hashanah,” is a special day when we are born as “humans.” A human is called “Ben Adam,” meaning the “son” of the level called Adam (similar to the Creator). This level begins with restriction, with the “loyalty of the soul” (Mesirut Nefesh).

Nefesh (soul) is the first and weakest Light that we attain. To do this, we have to place it above our material lives, meaning give up all the possible types of fulfillment for the sake of spiritual adhesion, connection with one another, mutual awakening and guarantee. “I am willing to give up all the material things to attain bestowal”; this is where man begins.

From this point on, he starts rising up the levels, working on perfecting the quality of bestowal inside of him and constantly trying to remain merged with it. To do this, a person builds the appropriate environment for himself, which influences him. This work is called the Creator’s work. It is work on one’s similarity to the Creator and adhesion with him.

This environment includes: the Kabbalistic group, the teacher or instructor, the books, and the study, meaning all of the boundaries that a person is in. Accordingly, one must always check himself: Are you acting correctly and doing enough to arrange your life the right way, and how should you divide your time, the forces of thought and intention in order to effectively discern your desires? This is how we judge ourselves before the beginning of the new year during the period called “repentance.”

One must cleave to the group in order to receive from it the force of real loyalty and, as it is written, “give one’s entire soul” (Mesirat Nefesh), like when blowing into the horn or during Isaac’s sacrifice. It is necessary to achieve this state at every level.

For now we aren’t required to make such a great sacrifice as Abraham, who sacrificed his beloved child. It’s enough for us to blow into the horn (Shofar). This is how our levels are differentiated: the forefathers belong to the level of HBD, and we to NHY. But in essence, this is the same sacrificial offering that every person must make on every new level of the will to enjoy that becomes revealed inside of him.

After that we continuously increase the importance (the beauty, Shufra) of the quality of bestowal by virtue of our willingness to attain total devotion of the soul. Everything begins with the first restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) and after that, the ascent of our will to enjoy. This is where man begins, and this is the meaning of the New Year, the day when we begin to grow.

Even though it seems like there are many fictional stories devoted to the beginning of the year, we must try to penetrate inside them and there, see the plan of creation to delight the creatures, the desire to be fulfilled, and its work—to once again start with the initial point and, holding on to this fundamental thread, to understand the inner meaning of the text.

After all, there are different languages of narration, and even Kabbalists write in such a way that every person understands what is written to the extent of his own degree. But even when a person perceives these stories as a children’s fairytale, he nevertheless advances and grows, and that means he has to go through these levels.

Although they might seem like fairy-tales, they conceal infinite depth inside, as high as all the spiritual levels, and we must try to attain the deeper, innermost level and from there take examples for our own correction in order to become human and start the New Year this way.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/27/11, Writings of Rabash

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Unity As The Method Of Solving The Crisis, Part 5

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Former U.K. Prime Minister James Gordon Brown): “‘There will be no climate-change agreement either, even though nuclear worries are escalating and the case for low-carbon investment becomes more obvious by the day. Nor will there be sufficient global support for the unemployed of the Middle East, North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa (who together constitute 30 percent of the world’s young), with all the problems of immigration and insecurity that such neglect will unleash. Global growth will be far lower than it otherwise needs to be, unless the world begins to understand that there is no solution to financial instability, diminished trade, and mass unemployment without a global deal for jobs and justice.

“This is a challenge that the G20 summit can and should take upon itself to carry out.”

My Comment: It is possible only through the mass media’s wide, massive influence on the masses and the process of consecutive education in the spirit of “mutual guarantee.” Meanwhile, the G20 is deaf to actions of this kind, and we can’t blame them for that; this is who they are.
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IMF: Global Economy Needs Collective Action Now

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (From BBC News): “IMF chief Christine Lagarde has called for countries to ‘act now and act together’ to keep on the path to economic recovery.

“‘We are by no means strangers, and we are linked by a common destiny,’ she said at the annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank in Washington. ‘And these turbulent times must bind us ever closer together.’

“Ms Lagarde said: ‘There is a path to recovery. It’s narrower than it was three years ago but there is a path and we have options.’

“‘…Let’s remove the clouds and remove the uncertainty. Easier said than done, and it requires clearly a collective action.

“‘We are all in it together and nobody should be under any illusion that there could be a de-coupling.’

“Thursday’s market falls had sparked the G20 to announce a commitment ‘to take all necessary actions to preserve the stability of banking systems and financial markets as required.’

“Analysts said investors were unimpressed by the announcement. ‘The statement from the G20 last night may have taken the edge off the current bitter market sentiment, but the reassurances from the finance ministers lack substance,’ said Jane Foley at Rabobank.

“‘Markets work on a second-by-second basis, while politicians seem to be working to a monthly calendar,’ Jeremy Stretch from CIBC told the BBC.”

My Comment: But they still need to understand that the crisis is in our heads, in our approach to the world and society, and not in society or the world themselves—the crisis is in us. They have to reach a point when they will take note of our suggestions, and not only that, but will realize that what we propose is the only way to salvation, which is namely in self-correction, and not the correction of nature or someone else.

Humanity has to understand that the time of changing nature to fit our needs has ended (when we followed the principal of “Let’s not wait for mercy from nature, let’s take from it what we need.”). Now it is our turn to adapt ourselves to it!

People who ask themselves about the meaning of life and want to know the answer completely and precisely find Kabbalah. Similarly, economists and others will find us, although having gone through suffering and wasted time.
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There Is Only One Way: Towards A Society Of Spiritual Growth

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You are for equal income, for everyone receiving a relatively equal portion as everyone else. This takes away people’s stimulus to work and develop because individual egoism is still the basis of our nature. And only once we are (if we will be) corrected, we will probably be able to only strive for equality naturally.

So is it not better to let people be unequal in their aspirations towards wealth and inequality so they would pride themselves in their advantage over others, but once they receive fairly earned wealth according to the invested labor and abilities, have them give everything beyond necessary to the others and receive spiritual reward from Above and gratitude from the society?

Answer: This is basically what we are proposing. The transition from egoistic individualism towards collectivism, where we operate like cells in the body, must be gradual, but at the end, society must work and receive what they need for their existence, while everything on top of this is “earned” on the spiritual level.

In other words, you are saying that it is still necessary to keep developing industries and all the “unnecessary” capitalistic structures. And we say that from the beginning, there is no place for them in our world, that in this way we are destroying our planet, exhausting its resources, and contaminating it with “unnecessary” production in order to turn “unnecessary” goods and products into money and then start giving it out to the poor.

This does not destroy poverty and social pressure, does not obligate teaching everyone toward a global connection as nature (crisis) demands today.

The solution from the developing crisis is simple: Nature only leaves us with one option: to give up the society of excessive consumption and gradually and consciously form a society of reasonable consumption and spiritual growth.

All the working and the unemployed must study the new structure of the world (nature), its single, global, and analog system, similar to the one of a living body, and build their relations according to this model. This is what we all must do besides procuring whatever is needed for existence. Mass media, art, and education must find their place in this so the surrounding environment will be created in this way to influence us and shape us toward similarity to nature.
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Locked Between Two Forces

Dr. Michael LaitmanKabbalists want to tell us about the development of the system in which we exist so that namely today, at this turning point, we will understand what to do. By studying this system, they became familiar with the long-lasting development in the upper worlds, with a long preparatory process with breakages and corrections, and with the establishment of various mechanisms that set the qualities of the future creature within us.

When this incipient creature had a feeling of itself in the central point of creation, our matter began to develop. Baal HaSulam tells us how this matter appeared after the Big Bang and formed the universe. During Earth’s development, alternate heating and cooling of its shell occurred for millions of years until matter found its final place, distributed according to the physical states of gas, liquid, solid, and plasma.

Then, the conditions occurred for the emergence of biological life on the shell surrounding the fiery belly of the Earth. Millions of years of development passed, including tens of thousands of years for the formation of contemporary man. We divide this time into multiple segments, but in principle, we are talking about a developing desire for pleasure. Hence, different stages of development preceded us: astrophysical (formation of the universe), geological (formation of Earth), evolutionary (formation of flora and fauna), and historical (formation of humanity).

In general, the desire to receive evolved in such a way that it grew with successive generations. Until now, we carried out its commands and had no freedom of choice in anything. We felt ourselves free only because we didn’t have the force of resistance toward our desire and acted according to the will of just one egoistic force.

Led just by it, we obeyed its will fully and willingly. It was like a master having absolute power over us, such immutable power that we followed its orders happily. We did not object at all. Whatever the master ordered, we rushed to please him. Moreover, I did’t even differentiate between us at all—I had merged with his power that much.

However, one more force is becoming revealed within us today, and that is the reason we have encountered a big problem. We can’t get along with two forces. They are opposite to each other, and we are standing in front of them, stunned by what’s going on. We seemingly have lost control, stopped understanding anything, and have found ourselves in a desperate situation.

A new system has become revealed to us where the force of bestowal and force of reception operate. The force of bestowal shows more and more power, while we had gotten used to the force of reception, complying with it by our nature. The force of bestowal rules not in us, but between us, in our surroundings, and we have to take its side, join it, merge with it, and learn to work with it. All of this is new to us, and that is why we are in crisis.

Precisely in this period, as Kabbalists have predicted, the science of Kabbalah is becoming revealed to explain to us how to exist from now on. That’s why Baal HaSulam says that first of all, we have to begin studying. Without studying, it is better to do nothing at all.

All our methods are coming from the former, obsolete system, and they only will cause harm because new laws have come into effect. That has happened on both the global and personal levels in the world and in the lives of each and every person.

Thus, let’s begin to study in order to understand the situation in which we find ourselves, inside the web where we have gotten stuck. By learning the state of things, we will understand the nature of the problems, and then we will find the right solution.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/22/2011, “The Nation”

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The World Will Not Bend On Its Own

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: People still are far from being able to understand that the environment plays a key role in influencing a person.

Answer: It’s not that they are far from it. They simply don’t have what it takes. After all, this remedy applies solely to correction, whereas people have nothing related to correction, no notion of the external system of influence thanks to which we change. They are certain that it is they who reform the world, while they should be constructing a world that would change them.

Question: How can we convey a sense of mutual responsibility to them, responsibility for the world?

Answer: This exactly is the aim of our dissemination. We need to build a system of education and create our own media. We have to build everything anew on the Internet, as well as on our television and radio channels.

If we do it all correctly, then after the first few blows, people will realize that we have a solution. It is we who are supposed to bring them a “candy” to sweeten up the first “spankings” so that they may see it right away: This offers a solution, hope, and salvation.

This work is entrusted to us; there is no one else to count on. People are unable to hear the message of spiritual ascent. They are in another realm and simply do not understand what we want. When they do begin to understand, they won’t be able to implement it. Correction will come only from us, and our job is to explain to them the necessity thereof.

Systemic corrections occur in a ready-made form from the part of Galgalta ve Eynaim, and the rest should just agree with them, accept them. In addition, we should be quite crafty at disseminating so that the masses will come to want it, so that they would accept this idea and realize that it benefits them.

People cannot change by themselves; 99% of the people are unable to do it. So, at the end of “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Baal HaSulam writes that the upper wisdom will flow through Israel (from the words “Yashar-El” or “straight to the Creator”) to the nations of the world. It will flow from the inside out. The masses will not rise to seek it. At best, they will open their hearts to its pouring stream. God willing, they will do so, and we will have something to pour for them.

It will happen if we begin working with them together in the most intense manner. In our dissemination, we can demand nothing from them but the awareness of the current situation. Even if they do not understand everything, we’ll create a connection. By way of dissemination, we, on our part, will find common ground with them.

We can’t demand anything from an infant. It is we who must provide it with milk, bottles, pacifiers, and diapers. Moreover, we don’t expect a meaningful response from him. That will come later when he has grown up a bit.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/22/2011, “The Nation”

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