The Economy Of Global Mutual Guarantee

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe economic system of today’s world is the most obvious demonstration of our connection with one another. That’s because we are primarily connected through the economy, production, and trade. And we see that there are several thousand large corporations in the world that are interconnected, that envelop the whole world, not giving us a chance to move.

But they also can’t move! And now, to their shock, they are discovering this and don’t know what to do. They don’t have any freedom of movement in relation to one another.

This is how the common, global system of mutual guarantee is being revealed to us. But we don’t desire it, we don’t aspire to it from our end. Yet nature, the Creator, is showing us the mutual guarantee, our connection with one another. Under these conditions, how can my mind possibly help me?

The mind can only help me in one regard: to leave my animate mind and start learning, becoming familiar with this system.

However, this system is not built according to my earthly mind because my mind is personal, individual. It helps me exist in this egoistic world, showing me how to win more and do more for my own benefit, thinking that others were created to serve me.

But now, when I am revealing a system with which I am firmly connected and on which I am fully dependent, my previous mind stops working. I have to adapt to this new system! It’s as if I come to some unknown place and first of all I try to take a close look at what’s around me, to learn the customs of this place in order to adapt to them. And once I get to know it well, I can start acting in it and improving my state.

But how can we get to know this global system in which we have found ourselves if we cannot figure it out with our earthly mind? Even all of these huge corporations which seem to control the world, are in reality not in control of anything. And this is now being revealed to them. The mind of every particular person individually does not work just as the corporate mind does not.

It turns out that I now have to discard my animate mind and acquire a new mind—an integral way of thinking. This will be the creative mind, the mind of the common system, meaning the mind of the Creator.

It won’t be easy for us to acquire it. We will have to develop ourselves, turn ourselves into one, connected whole, try to feel ourselves as one person, one system. Then we will attain this single, connected system and will thereby “wrap up” our own egoistic desire and connect with one another. That is how we will gradually build our common vessel, reuniting the parts of the broken Lego.

Within the connection between us, we will reveal the upper mind, the program, its essence, and then we will understand what is happening! Only in this case will our state be corrected.
[58353]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/11, “The Acting Mind”

Related Material:
Earning Only By Bestowal
Wishing Everyone An Easy Correction
The Will Of The Integral System

Humanity’s Voluntary Prison

Dr. Michael LaitmanHumanity will not be able to survive as a species and continue its existence without destroying the egoism that exists between us. Only in this way will we treat Earth as our common home.

We have created an egoistic system of interconnections between us called “economics and finances.” It is a very precise, proper system: you for me and I for you. Everyone deserves what he earns: I am smarter than you and I earn more, so I deserve more; you are weaker, lazier, so you deserve less. “From each according to their abilities, to each according to their labor”—this is democracy. Period.

Why would we provide people according to their needs? I am against it. Everyone will declare their needs, which need to be provided for? No way. Everyone should receive according to their labor, according to their investment. Everything is great and fine….

But we discover that this is not enough. It turns out that by doing this, we disturb a certain balance between us. Today we are not even getting by. A new connection is appearing between us, which is breaking all economic calculations, all financial networks. And we do not know what to do about it.

We see that evolution continues in some new and strange way. What way is that? “The butterfly effect,” meaning everyone affects everyone else.

How do you survive in a world where you depend on everyone else and everyone depends on you? Get a machine gun, climb a tower, and spend your entire life sitting there without ever closing your eyes—and then, hopefully, you will not get shot there? But this is impossible! Hence, we must achieve some new connections between us.

We are coming to a state when our egoism is not only destroying the environment, but is also beginning to consume itself: It destroys the family unit, peace, and one’s entire life.

Man is building a prison for himself with his egoistic attitude towards the world. Work-home, home-work, and that is it; I do not exist anywhere else. In addition, I get television and hamburgers, and this is my entire existence. After work I sit in front of the TV screen, at work I sit in front of a computer screen. There are two screens in front of me and nothing else.

We will not be able to fix our lives today without reaching universal human relations. This is the problem.
[58079]
From the Talk on Mutual Guarantee 9/25/2011

Related Material:
Lost Hopes
Economics Done By The Balance Formula
Crisis And Resolution

Earning Only By Bestowal

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur state won’t be corrected by us building something new on our own. All we have to do is to bring ourselves into greater similarity with the system of mutual guarantee that already exists and is now being revealed to us.

Our correction – and the only action we can make – is to unite. When we do so, we will reveal that we are part of a single upper system and everything will end up working out.

Until today economists had to construct highly sophisticated systems of connections and contracts, but from now on, none of this will be necessary anymore. Everything is already present within this new system. We must only adjust our human relationships to it – and that’s all. We don’t need anything else. All of the stock brokers can go fish.

We will suddenly discover that there is no more need for any professions besides those that provide us with the bare necessities of life. In this new system of connections between us, other professions won’t exist because the system will already be revealed as connected, perfect, coordinated, and ready-made.

These are not the same systems that we had to constantly build using our egoism, such as staging revolutionary transformations and new connections that we had to establish in the past. None of this will be necessary. By correcting the connection between us, our qualities, we include ourselves into the ideal system that already exists.

It exists today as well; we simply don’t know how to include ourselves in it and that is why we are ending up with such a crisis.

That is how humanity will reveal that there is nothing it can do! This entire animate mind of the past has to be discarded. We won’t be able to do anything with it any longer. All we need is to correct ourselves to reach mutual guarantee in order to enter the upper system that will become revealed more and more clearly – a system that is already made and perfect. We will become part of it and will continue existing this way.

Eventually, we will reveal that this system is the inner mind of creation, nature, or the Creator, which is the same thing. We will reveal the eternal and perfect life inside of this system, entering it ever more deeply. Our animate bodies will die and disappear, but we won’t feel that at all and will exist in this system merged with the Creator’s mind.

This system of connections, which we discover among us today, is the revelation of the upper, spiritual system. That is why the economic crisis is happening, which is a crisis in the system of connections between us. After all, precisely the economy connects us with one another, as it says in the Torah, “Go and earn from one another.”

This is what we have to reveal: How we can earn. And the answer is: by bestowing to one another! A completely unique period is upon us, which we are entering in our days.
[58348]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/11, “The Acting Mind”

Related Material:
Humanity’s Voluntary Prison
A Ray Of The Future In The Darkness Of The Present
The Economics Of The Soul

Hard-Up Spanish Town Asks Residents to Sweep Streets

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Naharnet): “A cash-strapped Spanish town has surprised its residents by asking them to pick up a broom and sweep their own streets and pavements.

“The official request by the mayor of Esparreguera, a town of 22,000 people in northeastern Spain’s Catalonia region, did not go down well with all inhabitants.

“‘The town hall does not have the financial means at the moment to improve municipal cleaning and gardening services,’ said the request by Mayor Joan-Paul Udina of the moderate Convergence and Union party.

“‘To return to the habits our grandparents had, we ask you to regularly sweep the portion of the pavement and road in front of your house,’ he said.

“’I am unemployed. I don’t earn anything. And in addition they want to put me to work for free to clean the rubbish,” fumed 53-year-old Jose when asked for his reaction.

“But Dolores Serrano, 56, said it was an ‘excellent idea.’

“‘I have already watered the tree in front of my door because I don’t want it to die,’ she said, adding the mayor had issued a simple request, not a directive.”

My Comment: This is where the lack of education in mutual guarantee is felt instantly. A person does not realize that in this way everyone saves collective resources, and common work brings citizens closer to each other, creates a greater similarity to integral nature, and changes the atmosphere in a small town. Now, it would be good to hold a small awareness campaign about the cause of the crisis and its solution!

The cause of the crisis is only to change society: It becomes interconnected. Previously, the desires in each of us were developing, growing, “linearly.” We tried hard to realize them and thus changed our society. But lately, our desires do not grow but are becoming more interconnected, turning our society into a “small village,” and we do not know how to act in such a case because this relationship between us, egoists, runs counter to each of us.

From here we see the solution: to change our relationships with each other and to all the people, to be as one system, a single whole. This will not appear automatically, instinctively, from within us like egoistic desires and thoughts. It can happen only under the influence of the environment that we must build ourselves.

By building the environment that teaches us, we begin to more deeply understand ourselves, our nature, what happens to us, as well as the plan and purpose of creation, right down to the feeling of the acting force of nature—the Creator.
[57763]
Related Material:
The European Crisis: Homelessness Spreads To Middle Class
The World Expects Shortage Of Work Places
Spare Something On Reforesting Europe

Let’s Be Together

Opinion: (Sufi Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani): “We as communities and people who love peace must always come to such meetings in order to find ourselves because when you share with each other then you can understand more about yourself and about the others. You can find your mistakes from the others when they advise you and they can find their mistakes when you advise them; and that’s what keeps everything in harmony. That is what Rumi meant when he said ‘I don’t know myself, I am a Zoroastrian or I am Muslim or I am Christian or I am Jew or I am this or I am that… I am everything.’ It means let us share, let us be together, let us mix together, let us mingle together, let us unite together in order that we can bring a happy musical life to humanity.

“I traveled mostly everywhere around the world. I met presidents, politicians, ministers, prime ministers, ambassadors, kings, princes, princesses, every kind of life, work of life, normal people, common people, and I found what Prophet (peace be upon him) said to be indeed the truth: ‘human beings are equal like the teeth of the comb.’ What would be the difference between a king and a normal, poor person? Nothing. Both of them are going to die one day. Both of them are going to be buried one day. What brings them together is that Love, if they love each other, if that relationship grows with each other. It keeps the memories, it keeps the reputation, and it keeps the good character. That is what’s left behind. There is nothing else left behind. And we all go where God wants us to go. And that is why Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him and peace be upon all other prophets, said: ‘there is no difference between human beings; they are equal as the teeth of the comb are equal.’ There is no difference except in righteousness, there are only different in righteousness, i.e., sincerity, piety or “taqwa” in Arabic.

“That is our message today and I hope that I was able to find myself through you because it awakens me up to look into my mistakes and try to correct myself. When I look at history I find all these interfaith events. Today they say we have to make interfaith, and interfaith is important. Of course it is important and it happened in many religions and in many beliefs before. It happened and integrated with every one… Let him or her be himself or herself but let us be together. Like these flowers, white and red [Shaykh Kabbani points at two flowers in front of him], they are together and thus give a nice flavor.”
[57884]

Related Material:
We Need To Create A Society Built On Internal Harmony
The Solution Is In Unity
Everything Is Achieved In Unity

The Salvation Of Humanity Is Its Unity

Opinion: (Vyacheslav Ivanov, professor University of California, Los Angeles, Moscow State Lomonosov University, Member of Russian Academy of Sciences, from mn.ru): “I am a supporter of the world government. I was invited as one of the experts of the UN.

“We called ourselves the Triglav International Society. …It includes people from many different countries, professors, politicians, and technology experts. We try to convince people that we need to unite. …Of, course, it does not mean to create the world government in the literal sense. But we need some kind of world union to address key issues collectively.

“I believe that humanity develops according to meaningful laws. Therefore, we will be moving towards a real union, which means that all the terrible conflicts that plague the world are negligibly small compared with these major tasks. These objectives are everyone’s concern—all people may all be killed. In order not to perish, we must finally establish a common operating structure.

“This will be the issue of the next decades, I think. There is nowhere to run from this. Other options are terrible.

“The salvation of humanity is the main task. I still believe that if the universe has spent so much effort to create us, it is unlikely that we will be allowed to destroy ourselves.”
[57739]

Related Material:
The Solution Is In Unity
Austerity Sets In Motion A Downward Spiral
Our Connection Speeds Up Our Development By Seven Billion To The Seven Billionth Power

The Crisis In Europe Is Political Rather Than Financial

Opinion: (Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation): “Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has urged Europe’s leading states to help their more profligate eurozone partners, describing the persisting debt crisis as a ‘political problem.’

“‘So far the European debt problem is still a political problem, not purely an economic one,’ Putin was reported as saying during a visit to China on Tuesday.

“Although Greece is the eurozone’s worst-hit member, Putin pointed out, the country’s economic volume accounts for no more than 2 percent of Europe’s GDP.

“‘Some experts believe the scale of assistance in the European debt crisis is likely to reach 1 to 1.5 trillion euros. It’s not a small figure, but I believe the EU can afford it,’ Putin said according to reports in the local media.

“Big European nations must make a political decision to provide aid to their fragile peers, and this ‘demands political encouragement,’ Putin was quoted as saying.”
[57747]

Related Material:
Only Full Integration Can Save Europe
European Policymakers, Change Economy!
A Simple Choice: Solidarity Or The Collapse Of Europe

Nature’s Special Element

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn Kabbalah, nature implies forces, thoughts, matter, and everything that exists. It is still, vegetative, animate, and human matter pierced with a thought, a certain plan, according to which we develop.

Looking at history, we see that there is a certain plan that was implemented in life. We might say that it was an accident. However, it would be an “accident,” if for instance, a primate could write War and Peace.

But in nature everything is determined and tied to certain laws. If we were to “blow the thinnest layer of dust” off even the smallest, most superficial part of nature, we would see how wise and interconnected everything is in it. So why do we consider ourselves to be above nature? After all, we are just its creation, its part, and not the most perfect one.

For this reason, based on the things we learn in this enormous world, we see that it was made in a very wise, consecutive manner and develops according to a certain program. This program works for us. We are part of it and participate in the process of evolution.

First, still nature appeared on Earth. Then, the vegetative, animate, and then humans appeared, who also are part of the animate world because man is a biological, protein compound, subject to further development.

However, very strange things are happening to man. Unlike the other biological species, he seems to be developing independently, as if “from within.” His development assumes the development of the mind and feelings, meaning the development of the instruments for attainment of nature.

All this comes from the development of his desires. Desires beget thoughts in him. This means that man really is nature’s special element, even though he also falls under the same program of development.
[58088]
From the Talk on Mutual Guarantee 9/25/2011

Related Material:
The Critical Point
The Decline Of Egoistic Development
Nature Does Not Tolerate Imbalance

What Your Shadow Will Show

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe aspiration to bestow to others forms in a person gradually, over the course of a long time, and it stands for the correction of desires if I am capable of restricting them because I see that life in egoism does not bring any joy. I attract a small illumination from Above through my study and efforts. And even though I don’t know what this Light is, it still corrects and changes me, gradually leading me towards the feeling of the value of bestowal.

I begin to feel that I strive outward, towards a fellow human being, towards a connection with all others, and perceive them as parts of my own soul. This is the result of the influence of the Surrounding Light. This change happens from within on its own due to my efforts, study, participation in dissemination, and connection with friends.

This is how I come to the decision that I refuse to continue being a receiver who takes more than is needed for living. I begin to hate egoistic reception. And my aspiration towards bestowal begins to develop from this point on, which also happens due to the Light.

What I do is to try, ask, pray, and demand, and in this way I force the Light to operate on me. And finally the Light makes a correction in me, after which I begin to feel an aspiration towards a fellow human being and true love—one that is not the object of my pleasure. This is because I have already built a barrier that does not allow me to enjoy egoistically, but only from actual bestowal.

The development of this kind of aspiration in man is called “the seven days of Sukkot,” when he begins to receive the illumination of the Surrounding Light that reforms. This Light forms the quality of Bina, faith above reason in man, a covering, a roof of a special structure built on Sukkot from the “waste of barn and winery,” meaning from the desires he previously neglected in his egoism considering them to be garbage. But on the contrary, in the desire to bestow he lifts them above his own head.

And finally, he comes to a state when he tests himself: whether all of his desires are directed towards bestowal. He checks his “shadow” for this: whether it is holy or impure. He hides himself from the Light, and by doing so he opens himself for the Light to later enter him and fill him with the intention for the sake of bestowal. Testing the shadow after the end of the holiday of Sukkot and the evaluation of whether it pertains to holiness or the impure forces, all these things are the establishment of one’s attitude towards his egoism and the transition into another dimension: that of bestowal.

I seal myself for my desire to receive pleasure, and I am only ready to receive for the sake of bestowal, thereby turning my reception into bestowal. I and He love each other, and this is why I receive from Him to please Him. But all of this happens after the test of my shadow and all the corrections that the holiday of Sukkot symbolizes.
[58130]
From the 1st part of the Night Lesson Of Hoshanah Rabbah 10/19/2o11, Shamati #8

Related Material:
“I Sat Down Under His Shadow With Great Delight…”
The Shadow For Concealing Egoism
On The Holiday Of Sukkot