Opinion (Andrew Sheng, President of the Fung Global Institute, adjunct professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, Xiao Geng, Director of Research at the Fung Global Institute): “Given the crisis weighing down the world economy and financial markets, it is not surprising that a substantive reconsideration of the principles of modern economics is underway. …

“The British economist Fritz Schumacher understood that human institutions, as complex structures with dynamic governance, require systemic analysis. He defined meta-economics as the humanizing of economics by accounting for the imperative of a sustainable environment; thus, he included elements of moral philosophy, psychology, anthropology, and sociology that transcend the boundaries of profit maximization and individual rationality.

“Similarly, Eric Beinhocker, at the newly established Institute for New Economic Thinking, argues for ‘a new way of seeing and understanding the economic world.’ Such an approach requires incorporating psychology, anthropology, sociology, history, physics, biology, mathematics, computer science, and other disciplines that study complex adaptive systems.

“We believe that the framework of ‘micro-macro-meso-meta-economics’ – what we call ‘systemnomics’ – is a more complete way to analyze human economies, understood as complex living systems evolving within dynamically changing complex natural systems.”

My Comment: This is a move in the right direction. Really, it is not simple for economists to change their approach of “maximum profit at any cost” to some unaccountable values, such as connection, care, and love. They will have to develop a system of complete interconnectedness of humanity engaged in meeting its reasonable needs, from the point of view of the rational economy, the maximum output with the minimum cost and destruction of society and the environment.
[91291]

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Question: What does the revelation of the left line in the group indicate?

Answer: If the true left line is revealed in the group, it isn’t so bad, since it can be revealed only after there is already a right line, only if we have prepared ourselves to receive the hardening of the heart, troubles, problems, conflicts, and disagreements.

Everything may happen in a group, but a left line always comes in contrast to the right line and it indicates that we can perceive and imagine it correctly. We have to understand that the Creator is turning to us and hardens Pharaoh’s heart. He does that in order to seem greater to us and to help us know Him.

The Creator is the middle line, pure bestowal, love. So we understand that the problems that are revealed among us are sent in order to advance us towards the goal. It turns out the left line opens the straight road to ascent! It is the most important component for ascending, since we grow to the same extent that we feel the hardening of the heart.

It is like Pharaoh who grew ten times larger before every plague of Egypt, before we leave for the next level. This is already called “redemption” and the exodus from exile. That’s the way it works.
[91206]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: There is a new global phenomenon, a sort of “time banking.” They receive investments not in money but in work hours. For example, someone invests in hours of gardening and another donates an hour of teaching math and so on. Could it be that humanity has identified the problem of inequality, when a person’s abilities determine his wellbeing?

Answer: I don’t think that this is the right way to go. As usual lack of understanding leads to distortion.

A professor can do things that are a thousand times greater than a plumber, for example, and a million times greater than a simple worker. He can build an instrument, for example, or invent something that millions can use.

In spiritual terms on every level there is a state of Hafetz Hesed, but these states are different and each is on a different level. You build bestowal above your desire to receive and someone else above his desire to receive. So you are not equal.

People who exchange services according to this formula, annul competition and ignore the desire to receive, and yet, without it, it is impossible to exist. It seems that everyone is generous and all is divided equally. But history proves that all the attempts to create artificial equality lead to collapse and even greater competition. So such ideas will not succeed in the long run.

The true advancement is in three lines, not in one. It is a great wisdom, which can only be received from Above with the help of the Light that Reforms. It isn’t simple. The middle line cannot be conveyed from one to another. It needs someone who understands how to manage it from Above. You connect to him and learn from him and attain his approach—only then will you be able to act on your own.

Eventually, no one will understand why the “time bank” will suddenly go bankrupt. People will check themselves and look for reasons and will then come to us and beg for help. They will understand that there is a special “patent” here, although they don’t quite know what it is yet. “You have something that really works,” they will say. “So lead us to it!”

There are quite a few such initiatives that people have to go through. Otherwise humanity will not feel helpless and will not cry out from the level it is on—like the outcry of the children of Israel in Egypt.

Then humanity will realize that the solution that we offer stems from the Creator. They will come to us because we have a connection to the spiritual root that is drawn through the wisdom of Kabbalah. This is what will attract them. Today they are repelled by it and tomorrow they will be attracted out of despair, out of an internal breaking point, when they try to reach bestowal their own way and fail.
[91183]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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In the News (from the Pew Research Center): “…A national survey by the Pew Research Center finds increasing public pessimism about developments in the Middle East. …

“Doubts have spread about the political direction of countries swept up in the Arab Spring protests that began almost two years ago. Nearly six-in-ten Americans (57%) do not believe the changes in the Middle East will lead to lasting improvements for people living in the affected countries, up sharply from 43% in April 2011.

“And a majority of Americans (54%) continue to say it is more important to have stable governments in the Middle East, even if there is less democracy in the region.”

My Comment: Perhaps, it is not too late to stop, and even in the summer of 2011 they tried to provoke unrest and revolution in Israel. Americans are not doing well in planning the future. The USSR collapsed and ruined all the socialist countries. Today, we are witnessing the sunset of the US. Russia is gradually undergoing restructuring, but will the US be able to change to a new format? Nature has presented a challenging task of transition to an integral world. Difficult times are ahead. For the time being, flexibility of thinking is not seen in any country.
[91035]

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Question: A question arises constantly as to whether or not I’m putting in enough effort because I constantly feel that I’m not working enough.

Answer: Naturally so, and this is very good. You have a constant opportunity to advance, which doesn’t depend upon me. Moreover, your work is measured as the sum total of your actions and the actions of the group as a whole in order to discover among you the point of higher power, the center of the group, its spiritual and moral center, its future, and the source of its strength, with the help of which the group and each individual member changes themselves toward greater integration with others.

In an integral group, people do their own work and pull themselves up on their own. The teacher observes from the sidelines. He organizes the seminars and sets the topics. He leads the students and guides them in a way that, from seminar to seminar, from one lesson to another, they really begin to see their advancement. This advancement can either be in the form of a revelation of greater evil or in attaining some degree of good.

Question: Is this working ability and effectiveness also determined by the group’s integral interaction?

Answer: Yes, by this alone. Nothing depends on the teacher. He acts like a supervisor. If anything can be added, he adds it. If not, then he waits patiently.
[91197]
From KabTV’s “Building the Social Environment” 9/25/12

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Question: Is there a place in the integral system for a person’s individual work?

Answer: A person’s individual work is how he makes himself an integral part of the entire system. His individual work is enormous.

Being a small wheel of the general system, he should see the entire mechanism in front of himself, how he starts it and how everything depends on him. He must perceive this whole mechanism as perfect, depending only on him.

That is, his personality is not lost, but, rather, it becomes unique.

He is the only one that runs the entire world.
[91194]
From KabTV’s “Building the Social Environment” 9/25/12

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Conversation About the Group

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Kdoshim,” Item 49, Lesson 4

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 3, Part 8 “Ohr Pnimi,” (Starting with: “We shall understand the matters”), Item 42, Lesson 24

“Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Item 8, Lesson 4

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Question: What Does It Mean To Try To Bestow?
Answer: Trying to bestow means trying not to work for one’s own benefit as much as I can understand this. I wish to rise above any reception that can bring me any contentment and comfort, as if I cut myself off from it. And besides that, I turn to the group and try to follow the example of the friends of how to work not for reward.

It does not matter how high the group is. If I am looking for this quality in it, I will find it. And then I will be able to absorb this energy and to perform at least some action or even just want to perform an action without any self-interest, not based on the worldly energy. I will want to act detached from my material, my nature.

And naturally, what I will feel is how it is not natural and is impossible, how it is against my whole nature. But such attempts draw the Light towards me, and they are called a prayer.
[91211]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How can I bestow unto the Creator if I have nothing to give Him?

Answer: What does a baby have to give to the mother? But look how much joy it brings her, what contentment he gives her. If we imagine that the Creator treats us with infinite, absolute and perfect love, what can we give Him? At least some response, a small smile. If He loves us, no matter what steps we make towards Him, it will be a pleasure for Him. The only question is what does it mean “towards Him.”

There is only one goal: to please the Creator. This is only possible by bestowal, by becoming like Him.

What does the mother want from the baby? She wants to feel the reaction from him as from a little person: a smile, a move towards her. This is a pleasure for her. The mother wants to see the manifestation of human qualities in the baby, signs of progress. And we need to learn from this example. This is what the Creator wants us to do, and thus we can bring Him pleasure.
[91209]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/12, Writings of Rabash

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