Opinion (Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of America’s leading strategists, former National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter): “Nathan Gardels: While China focuses on the long term and plots out its future, the US in particular is beset with a short-term mentality. In effect, we are no longer an ‘industrial democracy’ in the strict sense, but a ‘consumer democracy’ where all the feedback signals – the market, the media, and politics – are short-term and geared to immediate gratification.

“Gardels: How can America’s short-term mentality be changed? Are the West’s political institutions up to the challenge?

“Brzezinski: Yes, if we develop a more effective and longer-range response to the current crisis. …We are so preoccupied with the current crisis and so lacking in a longer-term perspective that we have no strategic vision which would give us some sense of historical momentum.

“Democracy is capable of responding provided we focus on the right aims. The question today is whether democracies can thrive with financial systems that are out of control, that are capable of generating selfishly beneficial consequences only for the few, without any effective framework that gives us a larger, more ambitious sense of purpose. That is the real problem.

“The essential political leadership in Europe – the Germans and the French mainly, along with some others – are demonstrating a sense of responsibility for the future of Europe. They are increasingly determined to shape a political framework which will supplant what Europe has been lately, namely a financial union for some and a politically loose community for all. Inevitably, a genuine political union will take shape in stages and steps, probably beginning through a de facto treaty reached by inter-governmental agreement in the near future.

“We are now entering a phase in which no power is likely to be truly supreme.

“This is why, in my view, the idea of an expanded West – which eventually should include both Russia and Turkey – would be a very important element contributing to greater global stability. An enlarged West – in which the United States plays the role of conciliator and at the same time of balancer in Asia – would be better able to forge constructive policies to cope with global issues than a world in which there is increasing turmoil and conflict with many small players vying for their own self-interest.”

My Comment: We need to pull the financial system from the egoistic hands and use it only for the benefit of society. Otherwise, those in power will kill us.
[67875]

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Report (from the International Labour Organization): “The world faces the ‘urgent challenge’ of creating 600 million productive jobs over the next decade in order to generate sustainable growth and maintain social cohesion, according to the annual report on global employment by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

“The Global Employment Trends Report also said the world faces the additional challenge of creating decent jobs for the estimated 900 million workers living with their families below the US$ 2 a day poverty line, mostly in developing countries.

“‘Despite strenuous government efforts, the jobs crisis continues unabated, with one in three workers worldwide – or an estimated 1.1 billion people – either unemployed or living in poverty,’ said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia. ‘What is needed is that job creation in the real economy must become our number one priority.’

“Global Employment Trends 2012 says 74.8 million youth aged 15-24 were unemployed in 2011, an increase of more than 4 million since 2007. It adds that globally, young people are nearly three times as likely as adults to be unemployed. The global youth unemployment rate, at 12.7 per cent, remains a full percentage point above the pre-crisis level.”

My Comment: There is no solution in the creation of new jobs; on the contrary, production is expected to fall. The solution is to revise the entire economic policy, to train people to exist in the new world with limited employment, and to provide training and education for the entire population to live in the new social conditions, in which people’s participation in training and education is considered their work and is paid at the level, necessary for their existence.

Accordingly, a society that will gradually change under the impact of new integral education will be ready for a more equitable distribution of income.
[67871]

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Opinion (from The Independent): “The British people are becoming less honest and their trust in government and business leaders has fallen to a new low amid fears that the nation is heading for an ‘integrity crisis.’

“Lying, having an affair, driving while drunk, having underage sex and buying stolen goods are all more acceptable than they were a decade ago. But people are less tolerant of benefits fraud…

“The ‘integrity problem’ is likely to get worse because young people are more tolerant of dishonest behaviour than the older generation. The new centre will look at issues arising from recent scandals such as phone hacking, MPs’ expenses and the banking crisis.

“Trust levels in MPs from all parties slumped by 36 points to 4 per cent after last summer’s riots. People also lost confidence in the young and the police. Only 29 per cent of people believe the Government is doing the right thing, while 38 per cent trust businesses and a surprisingly low 42 per cent trust non-governmental organisations.”

My Comment: Obviously, only education can change society! A person is a product of the society in which he lives and develops. The only way to effect change in the world is to create a correct environment.
[67828]

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When we read The Book of Zohar, we must open our hearts. What does a person use to open his heart? What code does he use to crack open the “safe” that locks up his heart, so that it can open up before reading The Zohar?

Kabbalists are called “the sages of the heart” because they treat the heart, the desires, so that the Light of Hochma will enter them.

Therefore, we should think about how we can open our hearts; otherwise, we won’t attain the Light of Hochma. How can we open our desires, so that they will be open for the Light?

The Zohar is like a magic book, which we actually enter. It isn’t a novel that you read in which you picture yourself the hero. When you read The Zohar, you don’t need to imagine, you simply enter it, live there, not as if, but actually so. You enter it and you find yourself there, and the state you were in before reading The Zohar doesn’t exist anymore. You’ve entered by reading and you stay there and have only to advance.
[67724]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/12, The Zohar

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Question: In Russia the gap between an idealized picture of a beautiful life and the actual life is very big. Entire masses of people have learned to believe that there is something beautiful yet unreal and unreachable, and then there is the everyday life where “there is no fence against ill fortune.” How can we overcome the fact that a Russian person does not believe that he can live better than now?

Answer: In the course of many centuries Russian people were so pressured, restricted, and enslaved that this faith was simply “etched out” of them. Many leaders and regimes were preoccupied only with that: How they could convert a normal citizen into an abnormal slave. That is why today we see a mutilated society, unfortunate people with tremendous potential, the kind that doesn’t exist, perhaps, in any other nation in the world. It is a nation of overwhelming possibility: intelligent, sensitive, and at the same time so tortured, cornered, embittered, and full of mistrust towards everyone.

Whenever I visit Moscow and look at people, I notice that all of them walk around either hunched over or conversely, show themselves off. There is no normal and free person who would walk along and be carefree about what goes on around him. That is, a person is truly placed under very difficult conditions that weigh heavily upon him.

But on the other hand, Russian people have an exceptionally high perceptiveness towards science, closeness, and understanding of the new. Unlike the Germans or the English, they are not so intransigent. The ability to adapt and change is present in Russians more than in any other people.

Therefore I think that on the contrary, in Russia, as a result of widespread dissemination of the idea of integral education and upbringing, the integral future of the world could be quickly accepted and people could begin to adapt to it quickly. It is because they are constantly searching for the Russian idea, identity, and individuality. This “fermentation” continuously goes on in a person, it’s just that now people have thrown up their hands. Now there is a stretch of nihilism, but it’s only external; internally this demand exists anyway.
[66478]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #5, 12/13/11

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Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Rabash “Letter 40”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Let Us Make Man,” Item 172, Lesson 48
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, Item 19, Lesson 11
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“Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 61, Lesson 31
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Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
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Opinion (George Soros, billionaire investor): “‘The measures introduced by the European Central Bank … have relieved the liquidity problems of European banks but they did not cure the financing disadvantage from which the highly indebted member states suffer.

“‘Half a solution is not enough. It leaves the weaker members of the eurozone relegated to the status of third world countries that become highly indebted in a foreign currency,’ he added.

“Germany he said was now acting as the ‘taskmaster,’ instead of the IMF imposing tough fiscal discipline.

“‘This will generate both economic and political tensions that could destroy the political union,’ claimed Mr Soros who was speaking at the annual press lunch at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“‘There is a real danger that the euro will undermine the political cohesion of the European Union.’

“Mr Soros said he was not sure whether European authorities had ‘deliberately prolonged the crisis atmosphere in order to maintain the pressure on these countries or if they had been driven to their course of action by divergent views which they could not reconcile in any other way.’

“‘Either way it is Germany that dictates European policy because at times of crisis the creditors are in the driver’s seat,’ he added. ‘The trouble is that the austerity that Germany wants to impose will push Europe into a deflationary debt spiral.’”

My Comment: Only an understanding of universal dependence will lead to the solution at a round table, as in a family, where we need to take into account the needs and abilities of all members as a whole. But for this, you must destroy all the barriers. The EU should unite fully. The risk of destruction promotes this. It requires the will and desire, explanatory work and education of the Europeans in the spirit of unity. Otherwise, Europe will collapse and become reduced to the state of a third.
[67831]

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Our correction occurs at two stages: fear and love. These two stages become realized within us if the Light corrects our desires. This means that we have to aspire toward corrections but we don’t actualize them on our own. Such an approach differs drastically from what we’re used to in this world. In our world it’s up to me to search out the strength and the knowledge that’s needed to realize my plans. For spirituality, however, I have to search out the strength and the knowledge with which I’ll be ready for what the Light is going to realize within me.

On the spiritual path, all of our preparation is aimed at our creation. At each new level we prepare ourselves for a rebirth, thereby getting to know the Creator’s actions and working with Him as His partner. We prepare ourselves for birth and He begets us over and over again. Through this process and through His actions we get to know Him better.

Clearly, on this path we don’t attain the essence of the action that begets us. Possibly by the end of all corrections and after attaining a perfect degree we’ll understand how the Creator operates.

But for now our work consists of preparation. This preparation allows us to better sense and attain the Creator and His work; however, from this encounter we must draw exactly what is necessary for our preparation for the next birth. This is how we advance from one level to the next and this is the only thing that should concern us.
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: Why was there a need for the great move of all the worlds, when all the worlds rose together with Adam HaRishon (first man) on the evening of the sixth day of creation, if later on he sinned and fell even lower than the place where he was born?

Answer: After the sin of Adam HaRishon, all the worlds descended to the same place they are now, which is the world of Nikudim. Yet, as a result of all the ascents and descents, the environment where the souls are was created. From this point onward, the souls are placed in a world, in an environment, and thanks to that environment they can exist.

The levels of the inanimate, vegetative, and animate of the worlds, the worlds of Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya (BYA), allow the souls to exist in a “beastly form” and provide them with the necessary conditions for living. But after a person receives life, he can reach the existence of the soul on the level of the speaking in addition to the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels. In order to do that, the souls have to connect, and then they build a network between them.

At first the worlds rise without a person’s participation according to the plan of creation. There is a plan called Beito (in its time) that ticks like clockwork and is fulfilled step-by-step like the movement of the hands of a clock. You can hasten the plan if you wish, and make the clock tick faster, but you have to make extra efforts for that. There is a preliminary plan, and everything moves according to the plan of creation and returns to its root.

The world of Atzilut by itself is Galgata ve Eynaim. If I insert Galgalta ve Eynaim into Awzen, the result is the world of Beria; if I insert the world of Atzilut into Hotem, the result is the world of Yetzira; if I insert it into Peh, the result is the world of Assiya. So the worlds of BYA are a copy of the world of Atzilut in Awzen, Hotem, and Peh (AHP), that is the incorporation of the attributes of Bina and Malchut. This is how the worlds of Beria, Yetizra and Assiya, which are the environment of Adam HaRishon, were created.

Now man is in the desire to receive in which there are different attributes of bestowal, different attributes of life. These attributes of life have no free will, and there are only levels of the inanimate, vegetative, and animate. It is exactly like in our world, where there are levels of inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, which exist and are active around a person, creating for him an environment in which he can live.

We live by the world of Atzilut, by the Creator’s attributes that are around us in the natural forms of the inanimate, vegetative, and animate! Thanks to this we exist. But if I don’t want to exist by the level of the inanimate, vegetative, or animate, but rather by the level of the speaking, which is the world of Atzilut itself: I have to rise to it.

Then from the worlds of BYA, I collect the information about the meaning of life, from the attribute of bestowal (Galgalta ve Eynaim) that is incorporated in the attributes of receiving (AHP). I want to join the force of the attributes of bestowal (Galgalta ve Eynaim) and I express my desire for that by my attempts to connect the shattered parts and to raise them to the world of Atzilut.

I don’t raise the shattered parts of the desire to receive to the world of Atzilut, but only the shattered parts of the desire to bestow, the points in the heart that were separated from each other by the desire to receive (AHP) that entered them. I want the Light to come and to connect the points in the heart on top of the desire to receive. Then they will begin to work mutually with AHP. This means that I raise AHP to Galgalta ve Eynaim.
[57758]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/11, “Study of the Ten Sefirot“

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