Question: What works while reading The Zohar: my intention, the text or the combination of the text and the intention?

Answer: The text doesn’t operate here. Were you impressed by the text now? Who can tell me without looking at the book, what we read about? The text doesn’t stay in us unless we have to use it in a certain way, to write something based on it or to teach someone else. But for ourselves, it doesn’t. As for now The Book of Zohar is like the surrounding Light for us, which comes and influences us from the outside. So while reading, we can aim our desires and thoughts towards correction, hoping that it will work.

What the authors of The Zohar write is so high that I cannot be connected to the text itself, but only with the “medicine.” I don’t know how the medicine works. It contains different materials that enter my body and join its chemical processes and lead to imbalance in it. But the imbalance is aimed at the disease and so it leads to balance.

It is called “the poison that serves as a cure.” What I swallow causes shifts in my body, but they are opposite to the direction the disease moved in that put the body in imbalance. Then one imbalance and the other imbalance lead to balance. It is written: “Each medicine is poison, but not every poison is a medicine.”

This is the work in the right and left lines, between which we create the middle line. Here the imbalance from the right line and the imbalance from the left line balance the middle line. If we are afraid to be in a state of imbalance, it isn’t the Creator’s work anymore. In short, you have to be a hero. The imbalance is a good state; it is a sign of advancement. After all, even when you walk, you move from one imbalanced state to another imbalanced state: You stand on one foot while the other foot is in the air.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/12, The Zohar

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Question: What quantity of information is actually useful to a person, and what information could cause him or her harm?

Answer: If we teach a person a correct perspective of the world and nature, he will easily absorb any information because he will always attribute it to the general, global picture of the world. Consequently, he will have no problems with the stream of information.

Let’s say that today from morning to night I am reading and consuming a truly enormous amount of information on different topics related to the problems of modern society, science, finances, and the like. As I do it, my main task is to integrate that information into one integrated picture of the world.

How can I discern in all of that a manifestation of one single law—the aspiration of all possible egoistic forces towards unification into a single altruistic force in similarity to nature? How are today’s society and individuals being transformed as they involuntarily move towards integration under the influence of negative forces, referred to in our world as the crisis? In reality, the crisis is kindness unto us.

This worldview gives a person an opportunity to pass enormous flows of information through himself or herself, which supplement within him this overall picture and enter into the general harmony.

This is similar to listening to some symphony and sensing that some musical instruments are missing from the orchestra. Being an expert, you perceive that something is lacking; you don’t feel quite right, and then suddenly the missing element, harmony, appears.

Therefore there are no problems here. A person can truly be a walking encyclopedia, he is capable of absorbing all information that exists in nature. The most important thing is that all of it gets woven in him into a single picture. And then the more information he will receive, the more desirable it will be for him, and the more easily he will be able to absorb it. He will complete those blank spaces that he sensed inside him as a lack, as an absence of perfection.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #5, 12/13/11

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In the News (From Reuters): “Standard & Poor’s downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro zone countries, stripping France and Austria of their coveted triple-A status but not EU paymaster Germany, in a Black Friday the 13th for the troubled single currency area.

“S&P cut the ratings of Italy, Spain, Portugal and Cyprus by two notches and the standings of France, Austria, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia by one notch each.

“It put 14 euro-zone states on negative outlook for a possible further downgrade, including France, Austria, and still triple-A-rated Finland, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

“Germany was the only country to emerge totally unscathed with its triple-A rating and a stable outlook.

“French Finance Minister Francois Baroin, speaking after an emergency meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy, played down the impact of Europe’s second-biggest economy being downgraded to AA+ for the first time since 1975.”

My Comment: It is time for the governments to revise their outlook on the interconnection of the world and draw conclusions: We must bring ourselves to full integration, to a society of reasonable consumption, and to raise everyone to the level of decent existence. This can be achieved gradually through total mandatory integral education and upbringing.

We need to gradually build this system of virtual learning and make everyone’s participation in listening to the lectures on integral education a condition for receiving salaries or benefits, and so on. In this case, we will appease the frustrated population and with its help, create the network of mutual assistance.
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Opinion: (Alexei Kudrin, Russia’s former finance minister): “Russia’s ‘congenital problems’ amplify the effects of the crisis on the country.

“‘One of them is the problem of dependency on energy. Forty percent of state revenues and 40% to 45% of Russia’s GDP come from profits from oil and gas sales. This means that Russia may get a double blow during the second wave of the economic crisis,’ he said.

“Focusing on the national currency alone would be the wrong path to take, he argued.

“Strengthening the ruble would result in cheaper imports and hence damage domestic production, while taking no measures to strengthen the currency might set off uncontrolled inflation, he said.

“He called for a diversified range of measures, including inflation control.”

My Comment: The solution is to correct the use of money as a means of exchange and connection in society, to make it the equivalent of bestowal and connection, rather than domination and power. Without solving this problem, we won’t be able to come out of the crisis. In any case, the crisis will destroy the use of money as a means of accumulation, power, security, and achieving other egoistic goals.
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Midwest Book Review, one of the top five book reviewers in the English speaking world, published very positive comments about my book Self Interest vs. Altruism in the Global Era: How Society Can Turn Self Interests Into Mutual Benefit.

The book explores humanity’s existence on this planet and reveals how our collective egoism has influenced the development of our society. By understanding the ego and its origins the reader discovers a new comprehension of the global integral existence as the remedy for society’s ills. It addresses our current social and political challenges and explains how we can use our egos to resolve them, rather than continuing the downward cycle that humanity finds itself in.

Midwest Book Review is a major Internet resource for publishers, writers, librarians, booksellers, and readers. The following is an excerpt from the review:

“Stating that society’s future relies on cooperation of people to work together for society, stating that much of society’s degradation in recent decades has been the result of narcissism and greed, “Self Interest vs. Altruism” is a curious and recommended read for those who believe that optimism in human nature is not entirely lost.”
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In the News (from Itogi.ru): “While the leaders of the major world powers are trying to find a way out of the economic crisis, and financial managers seek to comprehend its nature, the scientists from Baikal State University decided to look into… the physical nature of money. They hypothesized that the finances are nothing more but a particular kind of matter, and thus they obey the classical laws of physics.

“The researchers concluded that if the term ‘crisis’ is understood as dramatic changes in the properties of an open system, this process will inevitably lead to the emergence of a new, possibly better and more ordered structure of the system. In other words, the greater the economic crisis will be, the stronger and more reliable the global economy will become.

“Money is matter. Consequently, according to physical laws, money exists in some time coordinate and has some energy. As a result, the following formula is proposed: ‘Money is time divided by energy.’ Everything is simple: For a certain period of time, money sets in motion social and political mechanisms and essentially, itself is the carrier of power.

“On the basis of this thesis, the researchers argue, for example, that the concentration of money in one place minimizes its energy. Money should not lie dormant, but work regardless of whether it is a family or national budget.

“The interdependence of energy and money can be easily explained. If the energy of money is materialized solely in the product of production, its rapid growth may lead to the depreciation, nulling of money (the crisis of overproduction, onset of inflation, and devaluation). In addition, the ‘magic’ formula implies the dependence of money on time: The more money a person or state has, the longer it takes to spend, ‘dissipate’ it.

“The scientists are confident that by treating money as a special form of matter that exists in a physical and virtual forms and employing the general laws of motion, interaction, and transformation of matter, it is possible to calculate and predict the movement and energy of finances in a given country or particular regions. In other words, economists who drive cash flows should study physics.”

My Comment: Money is an accurate reflection of our desire: egoistic, if it is aimed at personal gain, or altruistic, if it is aimed at the benefit of society. The use of money depends on us. Money will remain an indicator of the exchange of desires even if money disappears in its material form and remains only in the form of cashless exchange. This is the measurement of our connections. That is why the correction of the crisis depends on the education of people.
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Shamati #175 “And If the Way Be Too Long for Thee”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Let Us Make Man,” (Start with: “Explanation”), Item 162, Lesson 45
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, Item 13, Lesson 9
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“Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 58, Lesson 29
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