Audio Version Of The Blog – 06.24.12

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Connection Above All The Differences

Connection Above All The DifferencesQuestion: When we participate in the roundtable discussions, how can we explain that it’s worthwhile to attain connection above all the differences?

Answer: People usually like to argue, but instead of arguments I want to explain to them that connection is above everything. Let’s leave our dispute and not sink into it, but rise above it. Clearly, if we connect, we draw the upper Light upon us, which fixes everything. But how can I explain this to a person who doesn’t even know that all this exists?

The explanation is very simple. There is absolute abundance in the world! There are no problems except for one single problem, which is the fact that people are not connected and cannot get along. They cannot divide this wealth and abundance among them as they should, and so there is such great friction among everyone and the whole world suffers.

We all suffer only because of the human ego. But the moment we connect, we’ll immediately discover the way to fix everything so that everyone will receive what he deserves and equally with everyone else. Therefore, the connection is the solution to all our problems.

If, on the one hand, we receive all the abundance from nature and on the other hand the world is such a bad and painful place, it’s only because people can’t fix it. If they connect they will reach true prosperity.
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From the Workshop in Toronto 6/20/12

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When There Is No Vitality

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can a person overcome growing indifference? Today even people who have creative jobs lose interest in everything, not to mention other people. Take a tile-setter, for example, he can hardly lay one tile; he sits next to it all day and cannot continue. How can we create the necessary motivation if it doesn’t exist?

Answer: There is nothing we can do. You cannot show a person that something is vital for him. He cannot force himself.

Our desire has stopped its linear development, and is now becoming “round” together with the desires of others growing into one integral system. If you don’t practically take a person “by the hand” and lead him into this integral system, he will not be able to do anything because he will not fill the new filling, the integral system that is individually developing inside him.

These are two totally different systems: an individual, linear one and a discreet, analog one. We are entering an integral analog level now and this is a problem; general lethargy and detachment are growing. We are facing today what started in the 50’s as a youth revolution but is now in the form of a much more serious crisis.

The lack of desire is a lack of energy since the desire is the basis for our whole existence. If in the past we could overcome the indifference by the fear of hunger or punishment, today even this doesn’t work anymore. A person cannot do anything by himself, even if you threaten to kill him!

This is the limit when humanity needs a new group psychology.
[81039]
From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/23/12

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“Hormone Hangovers Spell Financial Doom”

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from NewScientist): “The financial crisis of 2007-2008 was a perfect storm of greed and stupidity – and raging hormones may have been at its root. As neuroscientist John Coates argues in The Hour Between Dog and Wolf, hormones such as testosterone affect bankers’ behaviour in ways that mean that financial boom and bust is almost unavoidable.

“Turning to neuroscience after years as a trader with Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, Coates has run experiments on the trading floor, documenting how traders’ testosterone levels soar in winning times. Testosterone boosts aggression and self-confidence, aiding males in violent competition. But it also tempts traders and banking executives ‘puffed up with self-importance’ to take ridiculous risks. Boom turns to bust.

Then it is time for hormonal hangover, as testosterone’s cousin, cortisol, fills bankers with anxiety and a sense of imminent danger. After a crisis, Coates suggests, the financial industry becomes a ‘clinical population’ of the psychologically battered, who shun even safe trades.

“If Coates is right – and the evidence he presents is compelling – then the financial crises that so frequently plague capitalism find their roots in human biology, which amplifies both the euphoria of bubbles and the depression of their aftermath. What follows is a simple conclusion – less testosterone would make for stabler markets.

“Time to castrate the bankers? The idea would probably receive widespread support, but Coates suggests another way – encourage more women and older men, and fewer young males, into the financial industry.”

My Comment: The basis for the development of all parts of nature is its purpose: to bring all its components into balance. This striving for balance causes our evolution, and that is why our development is inevitable.

It is possible to change its nature only through realizing the character of our development and its purpose; in this case, we find the force that develops us and understand how we can influence it and not try to interfere in the direction of development (for example, to reverse rivers), but only to join the movement consciously, to experience it as the path of the Light, pleasant and necessary, but not as the path of suffering, bitter and meaningless.
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The Crisis Turns Greeks Mad

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Rueters): “Behind every suicide in crisis-stricken countries such as Greece there are up to 20 more people desperate enough to have tried to end their own lives.

“And behind those attempted suicides, experts say there are thousands of hidden cases of mental illness, like depression, alcohol abuse and anxiety disorder, that never make the news, but have large and potentially long-lasting human costs. …

“In Greece, suicide rates are already rising rapidly, albeit from a low starting point. Suicides rose by 17 percent between 2007 and 2009, and by 40 percent in the first half of 2011 compared with the same period in 2010, according to a report in the Lancet medical journal last year. …

“The risk, according to some public health experts, is that if and when Greece’s economic woes are over, a legacy of mental illness could remain in a generation of young people damaged by too many years of life without hope.

“’Austerity can turn a crisis into an epidemic,’ said David Stuckler, a sociologist at Britain’s Cambridge University who has been studying the health impacts of biting budget cuts in Europe as the euro crisis lurches on. …

“Youth unemployment in Greece is more than 50 percent and evidence of peoples’ disaffection is becoming more visible. …

“According to a paper prepared for the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2011, the economic consequences of mental health problems – mainly in the form of lost productivity – are estimated to average between 3 and 4 percent of gross national product in European Union countries.

And because mental disorders often start in young adulthood, the loss of productivity can be long-lasting, experts say.”

My Comment: There are no suicides in Africa although people die from hunger there; however, Scandinavia has the highest suicide rate. This suggests that employment or income cannot explain depression: It comes from inner emptiness, from the new level of revealed desires that cannot be satisfied in our world. They can be satisfied only by corresponding fulfillment—the feeling of the next level of existence. Humanity is in search of Kabbalistic knowledge, knowledge about the true picture of the world in which we live that gives us an answer about the meaning of life, and no income can shut up that void. And poverty is just a catalyst.
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The Supply Shouldn’t Exceed The Demand

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Messiah’s Shofar: And the dissemination of the wisdom in the masses is called “a Shofar.” Like the Shofar (horn) whose voice travels a great distance, the echo of the wisdom will spread all over the world, so even the nations will hear and acknowledge that there is Godly wisdom in Israel.

The whole world should understand that the People of Israel know how to contact the upper force inherent in nature that can unite us, help get us out of the current situation, and help us rise above the crisis. This is called “the dissemination of the wisdom throughout the world.”

In the meantime we don’t speak about this because the masses aren’t interested in it. When we work with the general population we try to explain and tell them how to connect without mentioning the wisdom of Kabbalah, but through other means. We present the method to children and to grownups by showing them different ways to connect based on actual problems and facts, and try to convince people that connection and unity are really the solution to the problems.

But this is only the first part of the way since we don’t present them with the whole truth. The process should be gradual so that the truth won’t turn into unripe fruit, so that the wisdom of Kabbalah will not be revealed before they feel a need for it.

Thanks to our dissemination efforts, people will begin to understand that we have a special method that they don’t have—a method that provides the power to unite and to solve their problems. They will understand beyond any doubt that we can organize work so that it will lead to the desired results and that they won’t fall into a “bottomless pit,” as with all other attempts in our world.

People will understand that there is something new and special here, and they will want to find out what it is. Then they will be ready for the wisdom of Kabbalah. We are not concealing our study, but only when they want to join the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to attain the upper force, will we be able to reveal it to the whole world.

Today we are already bringing the masses closer to us, so that in the future when they want to advance, they will discover and learn more and more. The Creator’s desire is to be revealed in every person according to his being part of the general system.
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From the 1st part  Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/20/12 in Toronto, “Messiah’s Shofar”

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A Storm Warning

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe situation in Europe continues to deteriorate. The same is happening in America and all over the world, but in some countries the crisis has really been revealed and in other countries they are still hoping that it will pass over them.

This stems from the lack of understanding that the world has “become round” and no one can escape the results. The situation is much worse that it is described in the media, and indeed, why should the masses be told about the problems if there is no solution? It is better that they don’t know the truth. Similarly we spare a terminally ill patient so as not to add to the suffering. What is more, it is simply too dangerous to tell people about what is really happening. The truth holds unbearable stress, riots and other problems that are prevented by keeping quiet.

But the problem will not go away, and it will be revealed sharply in Europe with which America is interconnected. In the meantime, unpleasantness in one place becomes an advantage in other place—for example, the capital is drained from the old world to the US, but we don’t understand that eventually it will backlash and hit the Americans, so the situation will certainly not be pleasant.

Consequently, it will be easier for us to work with people; we will be able to open more courses, and our groups all over the world will feel how firmly they represent the principle of the correction of the world and of man, and how deeply they understand what is happening. This is what people are lacking since the biggest problem is that they don’t know what they are up against and what is happening to them. It is as if someone is sabotaging me and I find out whom.

In the meantime, we are moving to the preparation stage and we should hasten it. In a couple of months the courses will be ready and we will be able to start working.
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From the 1st part Daily Kabbalah Lesson  6/20/12 in Toronto, “Messiah’s Shofar”

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Theory Backed Up By Practice

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe theoretical course of integral education has to be simultaneously accompanied by discussions. Because the course talks about the integral society, these discussions have to be carried out in an integral way. People need to be seated in a circle and explained what integral discussion is. It is when we enter the state of unification between us, when everybody exalts everybody else and wants to be well-disposed towards all others; it’s when we want to connect together, to create around and within us an integral interaction field where we have to solve all the problems.

In the process of discussion each person expresses their opinion, adds to the others, and thereby becomes imbued with these ideas, starts to feel that they can truly live among us. It’s as if we begin to create within and between ourselves the integral society and, by discussing these questions and their solutions, begin to feel that we really have an opportunity to create such society between ourselves.

That is, we begin to build the system of future society during practical workshops. And it follows that at the end of the course, a class with a few dozen people turns into a cell of the next society.
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From a Talk on Integral Society 5/22/2012 

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Overview Of The Integral Education Course: The Influence Of The Environment

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf one wants to change, he has to be placed into a society that has the power to change him. A person has to “surrender” to this environment. To the extent that he submits himself to the new environment, there will be changes.

This society must always magnify and amplify its effect, and after a short time, we will see changes in a person.

There is nothing that a person has to do except “submitting” himself to the influence of his surroundings. All we have to do is stimulate our surroundings to influence us even more—that’s all.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/22/12

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The Nation Of Israel: Restoring The Interconnection

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe are living in a special, very sensitive time when the course of events is quickly accelerating and several directions of development open up before us. It is obvious that the nation of Israel is a factor that may guide humanity in one direction or another; moreover, these vectors have a life-changing significance for both the nation itself and the world as a whole.

Everything the sages have written has come true over the course of history until the present day—it happens in its own time and in a specific order. And today, the nation of Israel must fulfill its purpose according to the principle of the three lines. On one hand, it advances by using the egoistic desire that every person has, but on the other hand, it realizes the altruistic desire. This way it combines the egoism, which all of us have plenty of, with the call for mutual help, which has always been inherent to it. When these two aspirations are applied correctly, the nation will unite into a “middle line,” in the middle. Then it will establish the right kind of mutual relations in its own environment, and is able to refer properly to the world.

Today, regrettably, the nation of Israel is not very close to the realization of this special path. However, making changes rests specifically on it. If it will really act this way and hand this method of mutual interaction to the entire world, it will become the so-called “light for the nations,” and then everyone will necessarily feel that there is a wonderful way to come out of the crisis and ascend. A prophet has written: “Everyone will know Me, from the small to the big.” In other words, the upper Force, the one that is good and does good, will be revealed in our world.

Naturally, “Torah will come out of Zion, and the Creator’s word from Jerusalem.” However, it is also necessary to consider the role of large foreign communities that influence the state of Israel and its government. Frankly, I think that the nation of Israel would be interested in a strong increase in this influence and of it becoming closer and more mutual.

Today we cannot feel it much. Naturally, Jews from France or the US are concerned for Israel and help it a lot, however, they are not represented enough in the country, they do not have a strong enough connection with the nation for it to really feel their presence. Their articles and appeals are not published in the newspapers, and even though people know that they exist and that they come for urgent actions and gatherings, they act against assimilation and anti-Semitism for the benefit of the people, in social, women’s, and youth organizations, and the people still do not feel that they are among them. And the problem is not their physical presence, but the perception, which is transmitted through mass media, the current events.

This is very important. I assume that this connection needs to be strengthened and maintained. Separation really weakens the Jewish people; after all, it was created out of love. Its foundation was laid by Abraham, literally “the father of the people” (Ab ha-am), who has laid the foundation of love, mercy, and mutual unity for it. When the people fail to maintain this connection, they lose their strength, they become so weak that anything can be done to them. And on the contrary, examples from history, such as the war of the Maccabees, show that by uniting, the nation attains true success, no matter what problems it is facing.
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From the Introductory Lecture 6/5/12, “The Influence of the Media”

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