Audio Version Of The Blog – 12.19.11

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/audio/eng_o_rav_2011-12-19_declamation_blog-rav_full.mp3]

Let The Inner Convention Begin!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What can you say about our state now that nearly two weeks have gone by after the end of the convention where we revealed true life?

Answer: Our entire group, the “world Kli,” has to awaken and understand that this entire fog in which we have found ourselves after the convention is given to us on purpose and we could do nothing to resist it. Every person felt it in his own form and at different times.

Some people are still in an elevated state, even though it might not be precisely connected to the goal, in unity with others. But the sensation itself has remained. After all, there was a reason that caused the sensation, and there is the actual feeling that I feel good. And I already forgot why I feel good, but the pleasant sensation still remains.

It gradually cools down more and more, like along 4 levels, returning back to the previous state. First I was very inspired by the goal, then simply from being connected to the group, then from attaining some kind of success at the convention, and at the end I am simply left with the sensation that I still feel good, until this feeling disappears as well.

First of all, we have to value all of these phases, which are necessary for building a new desire. And the new desire has to be such that we will begin to live in the same intention, in the same sensation all the time, and this will become our constant state!

If at the convention we achieved this through an attack, a break-through: dancing, different events, and never-ending songs, then now we have to reach the same state internally, quietly. I have to feel this state introvertedly, inside of me, and that will be my convention.

Maybe we will soon get there and will hold conventions precisely in this way: without saying anything for three days, without doing anything besides inner intentions, and by getting impressed and inspired just by seeing one another. And afterwards, we won’t even have to see each other, and thus will gradually reach the true realization where we won’t need words, vision, hearing, or jumping and embraces. Let’s advance towards that.

But now we have to hold a convention inside of us, so this will become our permanent state—calmly, quietly, with a more serious, more internal attitude.
[63579]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

Related Material:
Regarding Virtual Conventions And A True Connection
A Place You Won’t Find On The Map
The Birth Of The Point Of Unity

The Return To The Past Is Canceled

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Once you said that it is forbidden to recall the previous states, whatever they were, and look back….

Answer: And we do not look back. We want to return to the point of unity in our new egoistic state. This is no longer the return to the past. We do not want to be in the past!

Today we wish to return to that state, which we left, in our grown egoism. And when we return to it with our real egoism, it is a new, stronger, clearer state.

Otherwise, there is nothing. The whole difference between spiritual steps is only in the added egoism.
[63443]
From the Fundamentals of Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/11

Related Material:
Back To Unity
The Ego Is Always With You
Live In The Past In Order To Attain The Future

To Make An Abode For The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Creator’s “problem” with the creature lies in the creature needing to attain Him. It is impossible to bring man to goodness if he remains in his original state. It is necessary to endow him with power, understanding, and sensitivity, and to make him equivalent to the Creator.

Similarly, the host must elevate the guest to a level equal to his own, so that he wouldn’t feel shame toward the king’s feast. To this end, the guest must obtain all the wealth of the host. And here the will of the host alone (“directive from Above”) is not enough.

So how can the guest be brought to this equivalence? Is it enough to simply shower him with presents? No. Perhaps it’s OK to help him? That’s also a problem since the host was never helped. Transitioning from “existence out of absence” to “existence out of existence” is a real problem.

This includes a great many things that we will only understand further along the path. They cannot be explained in simple terms. Ultimately we need to reveal the means that allow us to actualize our only free choice and to reach the goal.

And we know ahead of time that we’re talking about the group, about participating in its life. With the help of the group we reveal the force of bestowal, with its help we reveal the Creator’s quality. In the group we create His image and likeness, His support. This is called Shechinah—the place where He dwells (Shochen).

We must make a precise template for His reign. This will be the Temple (literally “House of Sanctity”), that is, Malchut who receives the quality of Bina. Thanks to this the Light of Hochma can clothe in her with all its forms and fulfill her.
[63480]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/11, Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

Related Material:
The Foundation Of The Third Temple
Activate The Group
Building The Third Temple

The Vision Of The Man Who Has Seen The Future Of Humanity

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe began to study Baal HaSulam’s article “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” which appears to me as his most important introduction among all the others. Partly, it includes the excerpts from The Book of Oracles by the ARI, written by his disciple Chaim Vital. In fact, this introduction contains the entire path that we need to go through in order to reach the goal.

Although we have plenty of other materials, nothing explains the path along which we should advance and change as consistently, step by step, methodically, and deliberately. Other articles and introductions give us a general view of the wisdom of Kabbalah or view it from some particular angles.

But this introduction selects a very narrow, aimed line to show the person, either religious or secular, who starts with the question about the meaning of his life, how to achieve his ultimate realization with all the difficulties and scrutinies on this path.

This is why this introduction is unusually deep and not easy for beginners. It takes years to begin to assimilate, understand, and find oneself in it. It needs to be studied in small portions, carefully, until a person grows and might be able to reveal more. We must understand that this introduction was written by the man who stood at the head of a new era, the last stage of human development, which was to go from unconscious to conscious development.

Now we need to rise to a new level from the stage at which we could not even be called human beings but only highly developed animals acting in accordance with instincts and fully managed by the forces of nature. Something designed to be similar to the Creator begins to develop inside this creature.

We need to understand the man who was at the beginning of this process, his approach and view, and try to emulate him.
[63493]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/11, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot

Related Material:
Example Of The Creator On Our Lives
Understanding The Great Kabbalists
The Folded Soul Of The Universe

Patience – And Everything Will Come

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Where can I take the force to cancel myself before the group so that everyone feels himself smaller than the others?

Answer: If the group develops correctly and passes from state to state, then everyone in the group is in his state, completing the others. As a result, the whole group advances.

Although some of the friends can feel in descent and some in ascent, and a part perceives with the mind and a part feels, but altogether they are moving forward. It requires patience. Spiritual awe involves the willingness to endure and persevere. We need to understand that I do not perform the actions myself, but I call them.
[63463]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/11, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
The Conspiracy Of The Prisoners of This World
Your Desires Within Me Are Like Pomegranate Seeds
The Hands That Hold You Up The Abyss

An Intermediate Form Between A Person And The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Creator created us as material opposite to Him—the desire to enjoy, which does not feel or understand that there can be something except itself. We feel only ourselves and wish to receive and derive pleasure from everything else. Every person feels only his own desire and the fulfillment in it. These are the only two states perceived by the desire to receive: yes/no, 0/1. This is how egoism works, and this is the order of work that we observe in nature in many instances and in different cells.

However, in order for the desire to enjoy to exit itself, to rise above its quality of perceiving good and evil only within its ego, and to feel good and evil outside of itself, we need some special tool that does not exist within the egoistic desire. The egoistic desire lacks any foundation for rising above and creating something opposite of itself.

We don’t even know what this opposite means; we cannot imagine what the spiritual world is. In order to reach it, we need to perform the kind of changes in ourselves that the desire to enjoy is incapable of performing! Nonetheless, this is our duty: to reach, understand, and execute them ourselves. Otherwise we will not receive independence and become equal to the Creator as is instilled in the goal of creation.

Thus we are given a means called a group—something foreign to the egoistic desire. In regard to this strange object, the egoistic desire feels the same as in regard to the Creator, considering it nonexistent so to speak. It does not give it any independent value and simply wishes to use it. However, it understands and feels it is in connection with it.

On one hand, the egoism wishes to use the group like any outside object. On the other hand, it can use it in the opposite form: in order to achieve bestowal, a quality that is opposite to it.

Therefore, we have an intermediary form between degrees, a means of transition—like corals are between the inanimate and vegetative levels; a mythical half-plant, the “field dog” between the vegetative and animate levels; and the monkey between the animate and the human levels. And the intermediate form between man and the Creator is the group.

If a person joins a group and is able to work with it for bestowal, he will be able to rise to the degree of the Creator. One needs to try to reach this by his own effort, since becoming like the Creator means, first and foremost being independent, understanding, feeling, and demanding your changes on your own.

All of this is supplied to us by the environment. Therefore, it is written, “One who aspires to the Creator (Isra-El), the Light of correction and the Creator are one whole,” and “love for the creatures leads to love for the Creator.” We need to view our environment as a means to achieve the goal of creation. To the extent that the goal of creation is important to you, you should value the group to the same height.

This pertains not only to those in whom the point in the heart has awakened that pulls them toward the goal of creation; it pertains to all of humanity. Everyone will need to build such examples: societies or small states that will serve as examples, which everyone else will emulate while trying to draw closer.

In this manner, the whole world will advance correctly, nearing the form of the new human being, the new humanity. Consequently, we need to achieve love for the Creator—similarity to the quality of bestowal and altruistic perception. Love for the friends is a means for achieving this goal.
[63466]
From the 1st part of the  Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/11, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
A Society Built According To The Laws Of The world Of Infinity
We Don’t Take Love Here
The Light That Will Emerge From The Spark

What Is Good For You Is Bad For The Economy

Opinion: (Eitan Avriel, Managing Editor, themarker.com): “In everyday life, one’s logic usually works perfectly well. If a person or family consumes above their ability and gets into debt, the correct cure for this will be reducing consumption and debt.

“The logic works in the opposite direction as well: If a person wants to succeed but doesn’t have money, he has to get a credit from banks or investors, fight the markets, and try to realize his dream, mercilessly beating his competitors.

“However, when it comes to macroeconomics, this logic ceases to work and often gives opposite results. A bank will usually have not more than 10% of the money it has to return to its customers, and if all the clients ask for their money back, it won’t be able to cope with this situation.

“In macroeconomics, if all citizens who are in debt decide to decrease their living standards, reduce their consumption, and liquidate their liabilities, the whole economy will find itself in a heavy crisis. Demand will decrease, companies will close, employees will be made redundant, the demand will go further down, and this vortex will suck down the whole economy. What works …on a personal level becomes a trap on the level of economy.

“This also works the other way around: If the public decides to take out a loan and spend the money, the economy will develop for a limited period of time. But the debts will rise, prices will go down, bubbles will burst, banks will secure their assets, and we will be back to the 2008 crisis scenario. What makes you happy isn’t always good for your economy, and thus isn’t good for you too. It’s strange and non-intuitive, but true.
[63387]

Related Material:
The Economy For Unified Humanity
Shifting To The Economy Of The Future
Global Economy: Is Anybody In Control?

The Era Of Globalization

Opinion: (Alain de Benoist, a French writer, journalist, essayist, lecturer, and philosopher): “The historical moment in which we live is, of course, the moment of globalization.

“Globalization, by definition, is the entire Earth, and accordingly, there is no such thing as an external world any longer.

“We have entered an era when states are not the central figure. This is the attempt to unite the Earth, the desire for unification. It has been met with resistance and manifests in the form of chauvinism.

“Therefore, globalization is not only unification. It is also fragmentation, breaking, which is a consequence of this unification. And thus, it is formed. This phenomenon defines the era in which we live.”
[62135]

Related Material:
The Open University Of The Integral World
A Small Step For A Person, A Giant Step For Humanity
Give The Power To Science!

The End Of A Bad Start Or The Beginning Of A Successful End

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Gideon Rachman, The Financial Times): “Could things go bad again? I mean really bad – Great Depression bad, world war bad? The kind of cataclysmic event my generation has learned to think belongs only in the history books.

“There is certainly a sense of foreboding in Europe at the moment. Speaking in Berlin on Monday night, Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister, warned: ‘We are standing on the edge of a precipice.’  President Sarkozy of France cautioned recently: ‘If the euro explodes, Europe would explode. It’s the guarantee of peace in a continent where there were terrible wars.’”

My Comment: Kabbalah teaches us to see the next stage of development (evolution) in the realization of a mistake. We shouldn’t go against the movement of nature; rather, we just need to change the worldview and see that the world is integral and fully interconnected.

We used to develop in our individual egoism, and according to the law of evolution, we have to begin to connect into a single mass: the system of mutual guarantee. It is to our detriment to make a step back and try to stay in the previous egoistic individualist paradigm (worldview).

After all, nature has its own plan, and we are in it. If we go against this plan, we will plunge into suffering. We must begin integration immediately: educate society, explain to everyone, not the cause of the crisis and ridiculous attempts to get out of it, but how to use it to rise to a qualitatively new level.

We have two options: to learn from suffering (hunger, cold, and war) or to reveal the next stage through our transformation and correction. This could be easily done by the method of Kabbalah. This method of changing society from egoistic to integral has been waiting for this particular application for thousands of years.
[62184]

Related Material:
The World Community Must Act Together
Building The World On A New Basis
Europe Has No Strategy For Exiting The Crisis