Audio Version Of The Blog – 01.20.12

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Meeting The Master Of The Serpent

Dr. Michael LaitmanFor thousands years we have continued to build various systems of connection between us that are supposed to let us survive without killing each other and bring us to compromise: I give to you, you give to me, this is mine, and this is yours. This is how we try to help each other.

According to various forms of connection and detachment among us, we consider some nations and civilizations to be closer or farther from each other. There are numerous conditions that either connect us or keep us isolated. This is how the force of shattering divided us. It worked like a centrifuge that separated and kicked us far away from one another.

But it is written: “Go and earn from each other.” So, we feel that we will gain more if we unite. We gather in cities and build various systems in order to provide everybody with water, electricity, and to create a suitable infrastructure; we also built factories and industries. All of this is for our common benefit.

The evil egoistic force that prevails among us does more than just separate us from one another; it works cunningly and pretends to be beneficial and useful.

We continued developing in this mode until eventually we reached a point at which we have to come to a decision to not use this power any longer for the sake of our fulfillment since it inevitably lead us to collapse and will trigger crisis in all spheres of our existence: education, family, finances, etc.

The question is: How can we can we correct the evil power that emerged from within us when we were still connected as one soul and that shattered our connection? How can I fix it?

Sages, the Kabbalists, explain that we cannot conquer this force directly by grabbing the serpent’s tail. It crawled between us and spread its poison within our united soul and penetrated into our desires in every possible way. There is not even the tiniest desire or a set of desires within our egoistic entity that were not poisoned by the evil. [Read more →]

Absolute Rest At The Speed Of Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is the Creator waiting for the right kind of prayer from us?

Answer: You can’t call this waiting. The upper Light exists in a state of absolute rest. This is an unalterable law, like the laws of physics. Movement at a steady pace is the same as being in a state of rest.

The Light doesn’t stop, it’s either revealed or concealed, but its nature remains unchanged. Take for example the nature of physical light, which in a vacuum moves at the constant speed of 300 thousand kilometers per second. Everything depends upon the surroundings where the light is dispersed because we reveal it as a result of matter with which it comes into contact. The degree of similarity between the matter and the light determines the light’s speed because we don’t see the dispersion of light; we only see the way matter reacts to it.

If some action is constant, then in relation to us it’s considered still. That is, the upper Light’s influence is constant and no changes occur in its influence. Everything depends on the desires and how they reveal this influence. If changes occur within the desires, then that determines the speed of the Light’s influence; however, the Light itself remains totally unchanged and its influence is constant!

We say that we have to try to attract the Light. But in reality it’s the opposite of what we imagine. The Light’s influence is constant and we are the result of that influence.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/17/12, Writings of Rabash

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Unbearable Equality

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The people who demand social justice want to get an immediate answer. What can we tell them?

Answer: You can’t achieve social justice and fair distribution of resources that will satisfy everyone without first building society as a family.

We are all different, each one has his own needs, and each one deserves to receive his share that is different than the others. So, how is it possible to satisfy everyone?

It can only be done if we are connected by ties of love that provide fulfillment when I have a lack due to someone else having more. A person tears something from himself and gives to another.

For example, a father giving his favorite dish to his son is totally different from ordering another portion for his son. Sacrificing something is better than simply giving something. After all, this “piece of the pie” fills you with love, enjoyment on a completely different level, higher and more abstract.

So, equality and fair distribution can only be relative and consistent with real differences between people. In order to learn to live as in a family and negotiate as a family, we need to build the right mutual relationships among us, and that requires the integral education of society.

We need to explain integral education to people in every possible way, with the help of videos, songs, and dramas. We can show how a person understands his own bitter experience. For example, suppose he wants all the good, and in response he receives contempt. He gives everyone cottage cheese because people were protesting its cost, and the next day he sees lots of unused cottage cheese containers thrown in the dump.

Then, he gives everyone a thousand dollars. There are some who use the money to buy alcohol and drugs. For others, the one thousand dollars isn’t enough to make ends meet, and they come complaining to him. [Read more →]

The Screen Is Maximum Equivalence To The Giver

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean that the Reshimot (informational genes) are incorporated in the Masach (screen)?

Answer: After the first restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph), the Masach becomes the main part of the work. The Masach is my only concern. It is the place where I always feel myself. Everything other than the Masach are extra conditions meant to support the Masach and to determine its form, its character, and its accurate direction.

My concern is to focus only on the Masach. It doesn’t matter what desires I feel, what light there is, or what is going on in my life because the decision has been made that from now on, I constantly try to resemble the upper. The equivalence to the upper provides the Masach.

All other conditions, both external and internal, whatever they are, accumulate and concentrate into this one concept called Masach. I think only about how I can perform the optimal and maximal action of all possible actions in order to resemble the Creator at any state.

The state itself doesn’t concern me and doesn’t depend on me. Neither does what I feel inside. Nothing! It is only important to understand that I received this from Him. In this state that I was brought to, it is important to perform an action that will make me resemble the Creator; that’s all.

Whether it is in a state of smallness, a state of greatness, or in an intermediate state between the two, it makes no difference since it all comes from Him. I focus all my attention on the Masach.

The Reshimot that are incorporated in the Masach are the data I work with. This is the information about me, about the giver, about my previous state, and about the lower state, about everything.

The Reshimot are the records of all my impressions in the past and in the future. All the data is accumulated in the Masach. My work is to clarify them, to sort them out according to priority, and act according to them in order to resemble the giver.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/18/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Let The Zohar Enter The Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanThis world enables us to be impressed by the group, the friends; they can be just like me, even worse than I am, or even if only like kids who are drawn to something sublime, not understanding anything yet. From Above they are given the urge and they come to the group with the enthusiasm and the excitement of beginners. It is clear that they don’t have powers of their own to advance towards correction yet.

On my part, however, I have to add my intention to their external actions: I want to be like them, I want to be incorporated in this excitement, instead of rationally predicting their imminent cooling. I should be impressed by their actions, from their high level of energy, to be incorporated in them, and to add that to my intention. I want to burn as they are with the importance of bestowal, even without any feedback, without any confirmation of any possibility of self-benefit.

Thus, by adding my intentions to the external actions of the friends, I can rise, learn, and be impressed by the group. No matter what level it is, I can always connect it to my state, to my intention, and thus advance.

The best and safest way to measure this is to ask myself, during The Zohar lesson, am I preoccupied and worried that it will help me? Do I really want nothing else but this? Is my concern really so great? We have been together for many years, and we are growing old together. So, are we advancing toward this?

A very important point in the development of the human part within us is when I sit in front of The Book and see in it, in its influence, my only rescue. I left all other sources that influenced me, having checked them, found them empty and dry.

It is only when I open The Book of Zohar that I feel the breath of a great force. However, it is as if I am separated from that force by a partition and have to perform different actions inside me to take the crust off my heart so that The Book will influence me.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/18/12, The Zohar

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Weekly Torah Portion – 01.20.12

The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “VaYiera,” Selected Excerpts
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Apocalypse Tomorrow

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Andrew Burns, World Bank Manager of Global Macroeconomics from BBC News) “The World Bank has warned developing countries they need to be prepared for shocks as global economic growth slows.

“The organisation has slashed its growth forecasts, and is now predicting a 0.3% contraction for the eurozone in 2012.

“’Escalation of the crisis would spare no-one,” the report’s author warned.

Referring to the eurozone crisis and its potential to impact growth in rich and poor countries, Andrew Burns said:

“’Developed and developing-country growth rates could fall by as much or more than in 2008/09.’

“’The importance of contingency planning cannot be stressed enough…’

“The World Bank’s Global Economics Prospects report says that slower growth is already visible in global trade and commodity prices.

“It said that declining commodity prices were better news for the developing world, although food security for the poorest countries was still a major concern…

“’Developing countries need to evaluate their vulnerabilities and prepare for further shocks, while there is still time,’ said World Bank chief economist Justin Yifu Lin.”

My Comment: Wouldn’t it be better if they would bend their heads and look for new recipes for salvation. Kabbalah is offering.
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When We Remember All

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: A person forgets a lot, banishing much to oblivion, leaving behind unfulfilled beginnings and uncorrected defects. How can we avoid oblivion on the spiritual path?

Answer: Now it is impossible. Only in the end will all of the separate events be collected and lead to the collective correction, called “Rav Paalim u-Mekabtziel”. After accumulating all of our vessels, they will simultaneously unite in a unified state, and then this action will be accomplished. It will sum up all of the generations of the many billions of people and will collect all of their affairs into one. This is when the time of the full correction will arrive, which will unite all of us into one desire, perfect, and filled with the Light of Infinity.

Until then, we are forbidden to perceive the past because we would not be able to endure all of the things we had experienced. We do have the fortitude needed for that, in other words the screen (Masach). Today we would not be able to justify the states we have  experienced.

That is why we tend to oblivion. We switch off from time to time. This periodic “blackout” is actually no more than switching between two moments, between the day yesterday and the day today, between the past and present lives, until finally they will be all gathered into one.
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From the Introductory Lecture Series 1/17/12, “Course to Be A Man, Human Development”

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Vladimir Putin’s Opinion

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Vladimir Putin, Russian Prime Minister) “But speaking in a deeper, longer-term sense, we must admit that the current problems have nothing to do with market volatility. By and large, what the world is facing today is a systemic crisis, a tectonic process of global transformation….

“It should be said that the current global imbalances are on such a large scale that they cannot be dealt with within the framework of the existing system. It is true that market fluctuations can be overcome. Most countries have set out a range of tactical measures to respond to the acute manifestations of the crisis, with varying degrees of success. It is a visible manifestation of our transition to a new cultural, economic, technological and geopolitical era. The world is entering a period of turbulence, which will be prolonged and painful. We should not be under any illusions.”

My Comment: After diagnoses that we hear from everyone, there are no suggestions about the remedy, and the disease is advancing. We need to reach out to the leaders with our proposals. Although they sound a bit distant from reality, the same reality will finally force the leaders to review their opinions, and the sooner this takes places, the better it is for the world.
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