Good Environment – 10.06.11

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

Let’s Not Lag Behind The Calendar Of Corrections

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere are three degrees of attaining man’s total adhesion with the Creator: embrace, kiss, and adhesion (union), which he achieves with the help of the system of connections he reveals. These levels are symbolized by the holidays at the beginning of the New Year: the New Year itself (Rosh HaShana) – an embrace from the left, and then an embrace from the right – the Light of Sukkot, which grows bigger every day until reaching the 8th day, immediately after the end of Sukkot (Shmeni Atzeret), when total adhesion is attained.

It is written, “His left hand is under my head and his right hand embraces me.” Then comes a connection called “kiss”—above Tabur, and then on the level of Yesodot—below Tabur, in the receiving desires when the Light of Hassadim is already present in order to draw the Light of Hochma into it for the sake of bestowal.

The whole world is now revealing the same degrees. And even though the world does not know what phases it is going through, it is still going through the same process. First the transgressions gradually become revealed—a bad sensation, a reason forcing us to reveal the evil because we feel bad. But we still don’t know why we feel bad and nothing goes right anywhere.

Then the next phase arrives where we begin to reveal that the reason for these failures is that we are not connected with one another and do not correspond to nature.

When the Creator turns to the world as a whole, to all the people, He remains in a certain concealment, and instead of Him, who is bestowing, He offers people a representative of Him—the surrounding nature with which we have to reach balance.
Instead of attaining love for friends and building a common spiritual vessel for the revelation of the Light of adhesion, people are simply revealing the need to unite in order to correspond to the global, integral mechanism that operates in nature and is now starting to envelop the human level as well.

Previously we thought it acted only on the still, vegetative, and animate levels, being the law of the universe’s existence. But we considered ourselves above it. However, now we are revealing that we are also inside of that same global mechanism, which is becoming expressed in us and is obligating us to also unite with one another and with all other parts of nature into one, single system.

It turns out that the “transgressions” are starting to become revealed not only for those who consciously aspire to attain the Creator’s revelation, but also for all of humanity, except they become revealed to it in a more concealed form. All people will have to attain correction, meaning unification among one another on all its degrees: “embrace, kiss, and union,” but they will have to do it in a slightly different form.

First come the phenomena that are given to us as preparation. And then, as the Rambam said, the secrets of bestowal begin slightly being revealed to the “women, slaves, children, and elderly,” meaning to all those who are not “men,” capable of independently overcoming (a man, Gever comes from the word overcoming, Itgabrut).

This is talking about all of humanity, which is gradually revealing the laws of the upper system. By virtue of this, every person also gains the ability to join those who belong to the “men,” those who will provide them with the Light of adhesion with the Creator.

Therefore, these holidays symbolize a quite lengthy process, rather than the several days they last on the calendar. Every new day is a new revelation—first of the left line, and the next five days are the revelation of the right line, and the dissemination of Light in the seven Sefirot of Zeir Anpin until the eighth day, immediately after the end of Sukkot, Shmeni Atzeret, which already corresponds to Malchut, the eigth Sefira, which follows it.

All of this symbolizes lengthy, scrupulous work and gradual progression through the degrees of the states.
[56701]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/6/11, Shamati

Related Material:
The Dating Of States
The Day Of Atonement Is A Day Of Joy
Let Us Connect To The World

The Economics Of The Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe economic system is a sort of egoistic imprint of the calculation we make in the “body” of the soul when we prepare it for spiritual action. In economics we aim for maximum profit with minimum investment and risk. These are practical, egoistic calculations where everything is clear.

Even if egoism is repressed formally, it is only because we cannot characterize it qualitatively since it belongs to feelings, to familial connections, to the interests of a country, a nation, and so on. In reality everything can be enumerated and if we were able to do that, we would find ourselves in a precise system, analogous to the one operating in the spiritual world.

Except there, the calculations are made in the “body” of a Partzuf, in the aspiration for bestowal. When you are on the path leading to bestowal, you make a precise calculation, like in an ideal economy: How much do I have to extract from every desire, from every situation, from every factor in this action or maneuver in order to receive the maximum benefit? But obviously, that benefit is selfless.

Here we count on receiving, whereas there—on bestowing, yet the calculation remains. The only question is how to shift from one mode to another. Explaining the final state is also not simple, yet it is characterized by mathematical precision. The current economic disasters are essentially revealing the traits of our egoism which we lacked to conduct the most precise of calculations.

“I love this person. I hate that one. This one is repulsive to me. This one is far from me. This one is close to me. This one is more important in the general system. This one is less important….” How can we take all of these parameters into consideration? And how will every person act individually according to them, renewing his calculations at every second? This will be the real economy which we will have to uphold. In other words, we will have to get to know the correct, healthy system in which egoism works correctly, using two forces.

Today our economic complex is based on just one egoistic component and therefore, without knowing the second half, we cannot manage it. However, when the forces of bestowal join the forces of reception, we will start to interact with the people around us differently, balancing out bestowal and reception in conformity with our own level and the level of society. This will be the real calculation.

We will have to measure and consider our interconnections, which we are unable to do today. We will have to consider all the possible threads extending between us in thoughts and feelings, levels of our closeness and the “bestowal coefficient,” bringing all of this into the economic calculation that will have a purely mathematical character.

If we add the qualitative variables to its parameters, which reflect feelings and the states of humanity as a whole, we will receive a reliable and indisputable result. The same calculation is made in the head of the Partzuf: I consider the inner and surrounding Light, the Reshimot, TANTOT, my inner and outer desires, and methods of working with them…. Precisely this is economics.

Only spiritual calculations are made in the desire and therefore all numbers are precise and authentic. In the desire I can classify factors and give them values, extracting TANTOT from them. In essence, books of Kabbalists are the economics of the universe. Lights are “money,” meaning life, while vessels, desires, and screens allow us to acquire fulfillment, profit. Inner profit is inner Light, and future profit is the surrounding Light. We make mutual loans: For example, the upper one loans to the lower one in the first type of Gadlut. And in the second type of Gadlut the lower one receives Light from the upper one in order to pass it on….

It’s not accidental that the main blow of the crisis affected none other than the economy because it is the most important thing to us. It wasn’t the destruction of the family unit, a collapse of upbringing, or the ecology, but precisely economic problems that have forced us to seriously talk about the crisis. And this corresponds to the spiritual processes.

With time we will begin running a healthy economy, will begin deducing it according to the spiritual system and feeling out the transition to it. This transition will become possible only on the condition that we bring the mutual guarantee component into the calculation, if we measure it, weigh it, and designate it numerically. We will consider it when making calculations on the stock market because otherwise it is impossible. Tomorrow’s success depends on how much the mutual guarantee component grows in our economic formula.
[56665]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/6/11, Shamati

Related Material:
A Loaded Message
Altruism Is Precise Calculation
Economics Done By The Balance Formula

Questions On Kabbalah Language And Study

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: As someone who practices and also teaches what you teach, I view the disconnection between the adaptability of the terms and language you use and the message you are trying to get across as prohibitive to someone that does not understand the terminology of Kabbalah. Is this by design? Are you only looking to address and/or attract Kabbalistic students and the like? I would like to clarify this as I can not see the benefit in it if the world is to transform. How can they do so if they are unable to understand the text that you have written on a subject? The language is antiquated and relative to the time when the understanding was first made. Can we not adapt to terms that are relative to the 21st century so that more who are seeking can understand?

Answer: I am doing the best I can, but I am willing to learn and will appreciate assistance. I look forward to hearing from you!

Question: Suppose tomorrow we start to educate the broad public on our interconnection and mutual guarantee. I see the Learning Center has a very structured course with specific topics for each lesson based on authentic Kabbalah. In our education to the world, what will we teach if not directly Kabbalah? How will we provide hours of lessons and educational material with firm topics if not mentioning the reforming Light, Kabbalistic texts, the thought of creation, Partzufim, and so on?

Answer: We will talk about what they want to hear without mentioning a single word about the upper world, but only about our world. We will talk about the development of egoism, the goal of unity, human nature—egoism—and its correction, psychology, and upbringing. We have plenty of material of this kind: about everything in plain language.
[56453]

Related Material:
Upbringing Works On Every Age
Experts, Speak Out!
To Give Does Not Mean to Impose

The U.S. Treasury: Boost Economic Growth

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Timothy Geithner, the U.S. Treasury Secretary): “Geithner said the United States must strengthen employment, Europe must act more forcefully to quell its debt crisis and China and other emerging markets should strengthen domestic demand and allow their currencies to rise more rapidly.

“‘The imperative remains to strengthen economic growth. Fiscal policy everywhere has to be guided by the imperatives of growth.’…

“‘In early 2009, the world showed remarkable unity and deployed remarkable financial force in rescuing the global economy,’ Geithner wrote. ‘The challenges now are different and cannot realistically be confronted by a repeat of that coordinated global response of financial stabilization and fiscal and monetary stimulus.’”

My Comment: Unfortunately, he is dead serious about this! Meanwhile, we feel the crisis namely because we are applying these old methods of our connections to the new mutual ties that manifest now. The old economy did not take into account reciprocity, but only personal gain, and that is why it does not work in the new network of connections.

To put efforts into the application of old methods means to accelerate the crisis. Possibly, this is good since it helps to hit bottom sooner, analyze the reasons, and find the way out, but it is the path of suffering rather than correction.
[56462]

Related Material:
IMF: Global Economy Needs Collective Action Now
The US Continues To Face An Ongoing National Crisis
G7: No Clear Economic Plan

Only Full Integration Can Save Europe

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Nouriel Roubini, Nicolas Berggruen, from The Guardian): “The eurozone’s crisis is dragging down the entire global economy – real economic and political union is now urgent.

“After many months of muddling through – but not getting at the systemic roots of the economic, fiscal and financial crisis – Europe is at the tipping point. If it continues any longer with the status quo of dithering instead of decisiveness, the eurozone will break up and its national economies will weaken. Only by moving forward towards full integration – now – can Europe save itself.

“Along with persistent partisan gridlock and the clear slippage of the recovery in the US, Europe’s crisis of governance is dragging down the entire global economy.

“Action to restore credibility is necessary.

“Additionally, in pursuing the necessary fiscal austerity and structural reforms, we must be careful not to undermine any fragile recovery in the short run.

“To compete in the globalised world, Europe needs to implement an ambitious agenda for growth and employment to boost competitiveness and long-term productivity. …Without growth, the temptation for economic nationalism will arise.

“Further political integration and union can only be built hand in hand, step by step, through a broad and deep engagement of the public.

“That is why more European integration, not less, is the only solution.”

My Comment: We won’t be able to develop further; everything will be reduced until it reaches the condition of reasonable production and consumption, rather than overproduction and overconsumption for the sake of overaccumulation. Nature will force us to become its integral part, meaning to receive and give in a reasonable way.

We will come to this economy, and namely integration, trust, and unity will let us create this harmonious union. There will be neither rich nor poor—nature will not allow it. A person will be rewarded for his or her investment in development in the form of respect, recognition, creativity, and the feeling of the next level of harmony, higher than this life….
[56471]

Related Material:
Kids, Don’t Quarrel, Play Nicely!
A Simple Choice: Solidarity Or The Collapse Of Europe
Unity Of The World: Virtual Or Real?

Goldman Sachs Rules The World

Opinion: (Alessio Rastani, trader): “Goldman Sachs rules the world, and the Euro zone is poised to crash, according to trader Alessio Rastani.

“‘This is not a time right now for wishful thinking that governments are going to sort things out,’ Rastani said on an interview with BBC on Monday morning. ‘The governments don’t rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world.’

“‘The savings of millions of people are going to vanish’ in less than a year, he said.

“‘This economic crisis is like a cancer, if you just wait and wait thinking this will go away, just like a cancer it’s going to grow and it’s going to be too late,’ he continued.

“Fear over the fragility of the European economy has become pronounced in recent weeks.

“But the crash will be good news for traders, Rastani told the stunned BBC anchors.

“‘For most traders we don’t really care about having a fixed economy, having a fixed situation, our job is to make money from it,’ he said. ‘Personally, I’ve been dreaming of this moment for three years. I go to bed every night and I dream of another recession.’

“Rastani said traders aren’t the only ones who can benefit from the crisis.

“‘When the market crashes… if you know what to do, if you have the right plan set up, you can make a lot of money from this.'”
[56457]

Related Material:
Bankers Are Not Alone In Doing Useless Jobs
The World Of Fake Money
Establishing Balance Between Countries

Protests Surge Around Globe

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from The New York Times): “Hundreds of thousands of disillusioned Indians cheer a rural activist on a hunger strike. Israel reels before the largest street demonstrations in its history. Enraged young people in Spain and Greece take over public squares across their countries.

“Their complaints range from corruption to lack of affordable housing and joblessness, common grievances the world over. But from South Asia to the heartland of Europe and now even to Wall Street, these protesters share something else: wariness, even contempt, toward traditional politicians and the democratic political process they preside over.

“They are taking to the streets, in part, because they have little faith in the ballot box.

“‘Our parents are grateful because they’re voting,’ said Marta Solanas, 27, referring to older Spaniards’ decades spent under the Franco dictatorship. ‘We’re the first generation to say that voting is worthless.’

“Alienation runs especially deep in Europe, with boycotts and strikes that, in London and Athens, erupted into violence.

“Increasingly, citizens of all ages, but particularly the young, are rejecting conventional structures like parties and trade unions in favor of a less hierarchical, more participatory system modeled in many ways on the culture of the Web.

“Protesters have created their own political space online that is chilly, sometimes openly hostile, toward traditional institutions of the elite.

“In many European countries the disappointment is twofold: in heavily indebted federal governments pulling back from social spending and in a European Union viewed as distant and undemocratic. Europeans leaders have dictated harsh austerity measures in the name of stability for the euro, the region’s common currency, rubber-stamped by captive and corrupt national politicians, protesters say.”

My Comment: The disappointment with the elite should give way to the disappointment with our nature—egoism, so that we begin to transcend it. Redistribution of wealth without a moral awakening of the masses will yield no positive results. All the solutions are partial, that is, no one has the real solution to the problem, and what Kabbalah proposes is not considered because it is perceived as new communism, which has completely “exhausted” itself.

Economists are reluctant to acknowledge that nature puts before us the condition of complete unification into a single mechanism. It is time to create an economic model of reasonable consumption, mutual altruistic relations, and the benefit of bestowal. Having this vision of the near inevitable future that awaits us as the result of our development (evolution), we must educate everybody about the entrance into a new world.
[56478]

Related Material:
Anti-Wall Street Protest In New York
The Global Youth Revolt
Demonstrations: A Way To Create A New Society
Mass Protests In China

Pictures From My Lecture In Ashdod – 09.08.2011

Here are some pictures from my lecture in Ashdod titled “The Security Guarantee,” September 8, 2011.

An Unknown Star Is Waiting For You

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt’s not important if I understand what I read in the book correctly or how confused I am—what counts is my desire to understand! A person advances thanks to the influence that he receives from the upper system as he studies it, hears about it, wants to be included into it, performs all kinds of activities towards it, and works with his environment and in dissemination.

Gradually he begins to feel this system from afar:  He begins to discern that it is Aba ve Ima, inner and outer parts, and the Light of Hassadim (Mercy) or Gevurot (harsh forces of restriction, limitations), which influence him according to the measure that he is included within this system.

It is a complete world, and it’s impossible to explain it to someone who doesn’t live in it. It just like it’s impossible to briefly explain to a creature from another planet about what happens in this world. He would need to be in it himself, to receive our tools, feelings, intelligence, and tastes. If he embraced our life, then after a while he would absorb all kinds of impressions from the society surrounding him and would understand what happens in this world.

It is impossible to understand anything through words. It all has to go through you and leave internal impressions in you. Then you will understand, as they say, “one thing within another.”

We are also like that. By awakening the Surrounding Light on ourselves with our desire to enter this system, we begin to feel what is before us: that the entire system is based on love and bestowal.

“I am for my Beloved”—after all, I yearn to bestow through this system composed of my friends. “And my Beloved is for me”—because then I will begin to feel how He changes me with the help of the Surrounding Light from the same system that I want to enter into. And thus my correction occurs.
[56433]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/4/2011, Shamati #42

Related Material:
Operating The Generator Of The Energy Of Life
The Privilege To Love
A New Year: A New Step On The Spiritual Ladder