Opinion: (Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent, The Guardian): “The world tiptoed closer to the apocalypse on Tuesday as scientists moved the Doomsday Clock one minute closer to the zero hour.

“The symbolic clock now stands at five minutes to midnight, the scientists said, because of a collective failure to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, act on climate change, or find safe and sustainable sources of energy – as exemplified by the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

“The clock, maintained by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, has been gauging our proximity to global disaster since 1947, using the potent image of a clock counting down the minutes to destruction. Until Tuesday afternoon, the clock had been set at six minutes to midnight.

“The Bulletin was founded by the scientists who helped build America’s atomic bomb, and the primary focus of their concerns remains the danger of a nuclear conflagration.

“But a number of the scientists who took part in the deliberations said they were also dismayed by a growing trend to disregard science.”

My Comment: Politicians do not listen to scientists, and billionaires do even less so. Science itself is to blame because they started to sell scientific discoveries to the rich, thus giving science, its fruit, which is a public good, to those eager to seize power and wealth. Even Plato and Aristotle warned that scientific achievements should be concealed from egoists hungry for power and wealth.
[66428]

Related Material:
An Engineered Doomsday
To The Fateful Date Of The Mayan Calendar
The Will Of The Integral System

Filed under: Crisis, Science - 1 Comment →

Question: What gives the Creator more pleasure: if we experience His love and return it to Him or if we pass it on?

Answer: In reality, spiritual love is felt not like the material one. Of course, to put it in the earthly language, we give the Creator pleasure by bringing other people closer to Him. However, the words are misleading.

Only after obtaining the properties of Bina will we understand what it all is about. Without the Light of Hassadim, a person cannot talk about love at all because he thinks based on his own desires, but not the desires of the other. Where could love come from?

Love is when the desire of the other opens up like my own, when I want what the other desires; moreover, I desire it even more than I would want for myself. The distance between us only multiplies my suffering, caused by the other person’s lack of satisfaction, and I want to fulfill his desire even more. The distance becomes an amplifier of my empathy.

This attitude appears by itself, automatically: This is how I think, how I perceive desires. And this is the salvation, the miracle. And until then, what love could it be? If I love, I care about the desires of the other above my own rejection and oppositeness. Egoism is revealed to me, and I work in the middle line—that is what love is.

After all, my soul is outside me.
[66504]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/2011, “Introduction to TES”

Related Material:
Fulfillment From The Feeling Of Love
Sweet Suffering Of Love
Kindling The Spark Of Light

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Love, Q&A - 2 Comments →

Question: What does it mean for you to be a disciple of Baal HaSulam?

Answer: I try to be his disciple by constantly scrutinizing his works in order to find something new and aim at the goal more precisely every time. Yesterday’s truth may prove to be completely incorrect in my eyes, up to the point of becoming opposite.

In addition, we realize the words of Baal HaSulam at the corporeal level too, to the extent that we understand his works such as “The Nation,” “The Last Generation,” and others. We also build the work in the group in accordance with Baal HaSulam and Rabash.

Thus we constantly rely on their books and try to ensure that their advice give direction to our lives. This is what’s meant by continuing the path. And it pertains to not me alone, but to each person present here: We all need to be disciples of Baal HaSulam, allowing him to direct us toward adhesion with the Creator.

Consequently, we need to perform a check on our readiness to adjust the direction and realize the path with the help of books, the group, the teacher, and the Light that Reforms, until we reach adhesion. And the most important thing on this path is critical analysis.
[66501]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/2011, “Introduction to TES”

Related Material:
Come To the Lesson To attain The Force Of Correction
Swept Away By the Flow Of Light
A Unified Agreement

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Kabbalah Dissemination, Q&A, Spiritual Teacher - No Comments →

Question: What makes you so sure that integral upbringing will help people unite correctly? It seems quite unreal.

Answer: I act on the premise of only one thing: Nature will force us towards it. And by our efforts, we want to realize this before great losses occur. We wish people good and want them to reach the goal that nature presents us in a gentle way. We have to come to this goal not under the great pressure of nature, not under the influence of huge ecological problems, world war, and so on, but with few losses or even without suffering. This depends on how much we understand that we have no other choice.

I believe in the victory of this idea (if I may use such big words) because it comes from nature, not from people. But in any case, nature will force us to do it. Thus, we should use our mind to soften the evolutionary forces that push us forward, and then we will reach the goal of nature more smoothly. After all, it is better to make a soft landing on a new integral platform of harmony. I hope it will be so.
[66476]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #4, 12/13/11

Related Material:
School: The Mirror Of The Vices Of Society
The “Golden Age” Groups
A Common Feeling, Mind And Heart

Filed under: Education, Integral Upbringing, Q&A - 1 Comment →

Writings of Rabash “Letter 34”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Illuminations of Light and Illuminations of Fire,”  Lesson 37
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, ”The Eser Sefirot of ha Olam Nekudim,” Item 2, Lesson 2
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

“Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 40, Lesson 22
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/audio/eng_o_rav_2012-01-15_declamation_blog-rav_full.mp3 title=’15.1.2012′]

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog - No Comments →

Question: We spoke about the fact that we have to return to the level of unity that we attained in the December convention. It has been more than a month, the days go by and personally I feel that I am moving backward, sinking into the daily routine. How can we build an environment that will constantly evoke in me desires that are aimed at unity and the Light as it was in the convention?

Answer: First, do you really want to return to that level? Do you yearn for it? Do you see it all the time as a model before you in order to keep the point of unity? Do you watch the recordings from the convention again and again? Are you sorry that you’ve lost that burning fire?

If we had kept the connection, we would have already attained a much higher level, and would have risen above all the interruptions and the distances that separate us.

I must constantly renew the forgotten feeling, at least for a couple of minutes a day, for example, to see a short clip from the convention. I think it is very important.

Besides, are we working on disseminating our message? Do you take this into consideration in your work? We must join it and distances are no obstacle here. You must connect to the point, to make a plan for mass dissemination in every language.

Besides, in a month we are planning to go to the Arava again and to stay there for about three days. This requires great preparation. Otherwise the results will be the opposite of what we expect. It has to be something that is truly new, like it was the last time. We must make sure that we arrive there worried and anxious to enter a new state not knowing what it is and what fruit it will bear.

I am very concerned about this breakthrough into the unknown. We already know the place, and because of the habit we may repeat the same actions and feelings that we’ve already experienced. The atmosphere itself will remind us of them.

In short, a month isn’t a long time. We must make an effort to prepare ourselves as best as we can. Otherwise, instead of gaining we will lose. I am warning you about that. Start thinking what to do.
[66288]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/12, “The Peace”

Related Material:
The Group Makes You A Hero
Seven Billion Included Universes
The People Want ,The Decision Makers Will Do

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Unity - No Comments →

We are part of an integral global nature. It has always been this way, but we have never thought about it and didn’t notice it as long as life didn’t oblige us to. Lately life obliges us to do that more and more: We have begun to receive blows in every direction.

In other words, we cannot manage this egoistic life of ours and we don’t succeed in anything: not in the family, not with the children, not with ourselves, not with the world, and not with security. We are not sure whether we have enough stored up for a rainy day and the pension and retirement funds are collapsing.

All the systems that have provided man with comfort, confidence, and security for the future, that helped him and his loved ones with the assurance of support in times of weakness, illness, or old age, are losing their value and disintegrating. Who knows, tomorrow we may find ourselves on the street, penniless with nothing in our bank account.

These problems make people think. Otherwise we would not be thinking about them because we are all an egoistic desire to receive. Here, however, we begin to ask ourselves: “What is actually going on here?”

If we examine things correctly, we will see that we ourselves have built the wrong systems. After all, being part of nature, I can’t do whatever I feel like; I can’t act randomly not taking into account the forces that operate in reality.

According to my level of development, I discover wider and finer things in nature. They were hidden and now they are gradually being revealed, and I discover the strong mutual connection between all parts of nature, and also the mutual connection among people, the mutual bestowal on many levels, and also nature’s bestowal, which in turn influences us.

So it may be that I am not taking into account the data, the laws and relationships that exist in nature, in me, and in human society that are hidden from me? I never took any interest in them because I used anything that came my way indifferently and carelessly, seeking only to profit from them.

There is a problem of how to study these laws? After all, no matter what we study in nature, in physics, chemistry, biology, zoology, botany, or astronomy, on the micro and macro and all levels of nature, we always see one law that encompasses all the levels and that reigns between them: the law of equilibrium.

All of nature tends toward equilibrium, toward balance. This includes our little system the planet Earth.

This means that if we want to live in peace, tranquilly, and good connection with other people, with the family, etc., we must maintain a balance. Our formula should be that all the positive and negative actions in receiving and bestowal be balanced so that one will not exceed the other and so that each one will receive filling.

Then each one will have the right to exist and no one will take precedence over another as we all understand that we all must maintain overall balance. This applies to all parties to the forces of nature—to man’s forces, his desires and thoughts, to the well being of the whole system both the small private system and the integral global system—all depends on the internal balance among all its components.

We see this when studying global nature and the functioning of all its systems, including computer systems, cybernetics, sociology, psychology, physiology; even while a system develops, it constantly balances itself dynamically and is sensitive to imbalances that need to be corrected. Therefore its development and actions will always be successful because it is always operating with the law of equivalence between all its forces, the negative and the positive ones. Whether it is an atom in which the protons and electrons have to be balanced, or living cells, or the solar system: Everything abides by this principle.

So, of course, we must check our adaptation to this law in the family, in human society, in education, and in general in all that belongs to the human level.
[66297]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/12, “The Peace”

Related Material:
The Paradigm Of Balance
Balance That Causes Development
Nature Does Not Tolerate Imbalance

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Education, Science, Society, World - 1 Comment →

In the News (from the Centre for Research on Globalization): “The expansion of world capitalism (globalization) depended on a global cheap labor economy.

“The development of industrial colonies in the Third World resulted in the relocation of industries to these countries, leading to job lay-offs and the outright closure of a wide range of productive industries in the developed countries.

“In the absence of meaningful state regulation, this relentless process of minimizing labor costs led to a dramatic compression of society’s capacity to consume.

“The exploitation of the huge labor forces in China, India and elsewhere — and the pillage and transfer of billions from ex-communist Russia and ‘neo-liberalized’ South America — filled the coffers of old financial institutions.

“Huge surplus profits spilled over into finance, real estate, and insurance, giving capital greater social and political power. This dwarfed the organization of labor, limiting its bargaining power and multiplying profits.

“The state and state policy became their instrument as public enterprises, land, resources, and banks were privatized.

“This speculative onslaught, a worldwide scramble to appropriate wealth through financial manipulation, has been the driving force behind the crisis.

“The incapacity of the capitalist system to reinvest capital in productive ways led to large scale growth of speculator capital in many forms.

“Profits were bolstered via inflated real estate based on expanded credit, highly leveraged debt and outright fraudulent ‘financial instruments.’

“Real estate speculation was extended into the working class as wage and salary earners took advantage of easy loans to join the speculation frenzy based on an ideology of irreversible rising home values.

“Having caused the financial meltdown, they have cashed in with windfall gains through the bailout money provided under the Bush and Obama administration bank bailouts. This has furthered their control over the real economy, by buying up and acquiring real economic assets; as once highly profitable companies collapse, the money managers pick up the pieces.

“The Bush/Obama bailout measures will contribute to a further destabilization by transferring large amounts of money at taxpayers’ expense into the hands of private financiers, resulting in a spiraling public debt and an unprecedented centralization of banking power.

“State-owned assets and everything under state jurisdiction is up for private acquisition as the financial establishment calls for the restructuring and privatization of state assets.

“What we are dealing with is a large-scale process of appropriation, unprecedented in history.”

My Comment: All this should explode, and the outcome depends on the awareness of what is happening. Undoubtedly, the entire system of social and economic relationships has to be re-built. But this is impossible to accomplish without a completely new approach to the meaning of the existence of society—for the sake of accumulation and consumption (an imaginary fulfillment through wealth) or for the sake of moral ascent (a feeling of reciprocity and love).

Nature (the evolutionary development of people and society) pushes us to unite. The awareness of the need allows a smooth transition to a new level of existence. Will humanity understand this?
[66431]

Related Material:
A Recipe For Saving Capitalism
About Capitalism Today
Success Is Not In The Growth Of Wealth But In Its Distribution

Filed under: Crisis, Economy - 1 Comment →

In the News (from The Guardian): “A thinktank, the New Economics Foundation (NEF), which has organized the event with the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics, argues that if everyone worked fewer hours – say, 20 or so a week – there would be more jobs to go round, employees could spend more time with their families and energy-hungry excess consumption would be curbed. Anna Coote, of NEF, said: ‘There’s a great disequilibrium between people who have got too much paid work, and those who have got too little or none.’

“She argued that we need to think again about what constitutes economic success, and whether aiming to boost Britain’s GDP growth rate should be the government’s first priority: ‘Are we just living to work, and working to earn, and earning to consume? There’s no evidence that if you have shorter working hours as the norm, you have a less successful economy: quite the reverse.’”

My Comment: These are attempts to solve the problem of unemployment. But what will people do in their spare time if they are not busy with integral education? This will lead to their degradation! Besides, a shorter work week will reduce their income, and how will they make up for it? There must be fulfillment—either by alcohol or a new integral consciousness. Otherwise, this initiative will bring even greater social problems.
[66325]

Related Material:
Integral Upbringing With No Sudden Movements
What To Do With The Unemployed?
It Is Freedom From Slavery, Not Unemployment

Filed under: Crisis, Economy - 1 Comment →