Audio Version Of The Blog – 11.05.12

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Hurricane Sandy Is Blamed On People

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from The New York Times): “Hesitantly, climate scientists offered an answer this week that is likely to satisfy no one, themselves included. They simply do not know for sure if the storm was caused or made worse by human-induced global warming.

“They do know, however, that the resulting storm surge along the Atlantic coast was almost certainly intensified by decades of sea-level rise linked to human emissions of greenhouse gases. And they emphasized that Hurricane Sandy, whatever its causes, should be seen as a foretaste of trouble to come as the seas rise faster, the risks of climate change accumulate and the political system fails to respond. …

“Recent decades seem to show an increase in hurricane strength, but hurricanes tend to rise and fall in a recurring cycle over time, so it is possible that natural variability accounts for the recent trends.”

In the News (from Time): “Superstorm Sandy will end up causing about $20 billion in property damages and $10 billion to $30 billion more in lost business, according to IHS Global Insight, a forecasting firm. …

“The short-term blow to the economy, though, could subtract about 0.6 percentage point from U.S. economic growth in the October-December quarter, IHS says. Retailers, airlines and home construction firms will likely lose some business. …

“Most homeowners who suffered losses from flooding won’t be able to benefit from their insurance policies. Standard homeowner policies don’t cover flood damage, and few homeowners have flood insurance. …

“Across U.S. industries, disruptions will slow the economy temporarily. Some restaurants and stores will draw fewer customers. Factories may shut down or shorten shifts because of a drop in customer demand.

“Some of those losses won’t be easily made up. Restaurants that lose two or three days of business, for example, won’t necessarily experience a rebound later. And money spent to repair a home may lead to less spending elsewhere.”

In the News (from Interfax): “Hurricanes appear for reasons independent of climate change, but their incredible destructive power came as a direct result of temperature rise on the surface of the planet. It is proven that climate change is happening much faster than it should be according to the best calculations of climatologists. … What will happen if the devastating hurricanes will be repeated every fall and will be followed by abnormally cold winters and hot, dry summers?

“Indeed, the temperature rise in the world is to blame for violent storms, too hot winters in the USA and too cold summers in Europe. …

“The USA, Canada and Europe will suffer either an extremely cold or extremely hot weather. Devastating hurricanes are possible in the fall. This year, satellites recorded the highest rate of ice melting in the Arctic.

“The temperature of the ocean has become higher; the atmosphere has become more humid due to warming. This means that stronger hurricanes draw more moisture, which is then dumped on the coast.”

My Comment: But most of all, we affect nature not physically but spiritually by our egoistic opposition to each other, although nature requires us to be actively included in its system of harmonious integral interaction. The entire still, vegetative, and animate nature instinctively observe this condition. But a human being must learn the system of nature and make a conscious decision to be in balance with it. To follow it, we must to come to the biblical condition: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
[92103]

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Freedom From All The Conditions Of The Ego

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe speak quite a lot about the importance of the goal and the Creator’s greatness without which we cannot work, since we need power. But the question is what do I need the Creator’s greatness for? Is it a condition under which I will agree to bestow, or do I want to attain bestowal and in order to do that I need the Creator’s greatness? This is the whole difference: Am I working within reason and below it, or am I working in faith above reason?

I have a condition that I want to feel the Creator’s greatness since otherwise I won’t be able to work, so it is an action within reason. But if I say that I must reach bestowal since it is the most important thing for me, and I ask for the power that I don’t have at the moment so that it will enable me to bestow, and for me it is just a means, it means that I want this greatness only in order to work in faith above reason.

This is a very subtle difference, which I have to clarify internally. It is impossible to express it in words since they only confuse us.

Rabash says: “So when a person doesn’t feel the Creator’s greatness, the body cannot nullify itself before Him in all of one’s heart and soul.” It is a law: The desire to receive surrenders only before the Creator’s greatness.

“But if a person puts the condition that he agrees to work for the Creator only if he will see the Creator’s importance and greatness, already it appears that he wants to get something from the Creator.” This means that a person wants the burden he will suffer to be light. If you know that a suitcase belongs to an important person, then it isn’t difficult for you to carry it. “Otherwise one doesn’t want to work with all his heart, since a person is limited and is under the domination of the concealment and is not free to say that he doesn’t want anything but only to bestow.”

If a person places the Creator’s greatness as a precondition for his work, then this state cannot be a state of Bina and cannot serve as an “ark” for him in which he can be saved from all the doubts and the problems sent to him by the left line.

So the attribute of Bina is Hafetz Hesed, which doesn’t need to receive anything; therefore, it is free. Only those who need to receive something are limited and subject to the opinions of others. If someone works with his eyes closed and doesn’t need greatness or anything else, it is called freedom.
[92040]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/12, Writings of Rabash

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A Flood That Helps Me Exit Myself

Dr. Michael LaitmanA lot of work is required in order to attain the attribute of Bina, which means to attain freedom. So a person needs great support from the environment in order to constantly feel the greatness and importance of the goal.

The Creator can harden Pharaoh’s heart on the left line and send him questions like “Who is the Lord that I should listen to Him?” and “What is the work that you are doing?” according to how much he empowers this support. All these questions, doubts, and problems will increasingly take control of a person, until they become the “waters of the flood,” that are about to drown him.

Then he will have to seek refuge, and from fear and with the help of the environment, he will finally reach the conclusion that he can only be saved in the ark. The ark means unconditional bestowal, which is the only place one can hide from the flood.

“A person can feel constant wholeness since he is content with his fate.” But he doesn’t hide in the ark in order to be content, to feel peace, and to settle for less. His accounts are above his ego, above his desire to receive. He doesn’t take into account what will happen with his ego, with his desires, with his life. All the accounts are above that: only in order to connect, to unite, which means for what is outside his skin, besides his egoistic interests.

But all this happens if a person advances persistently and eventually reaches the conclusion that he needs an ark, that he must rise above the selfish calculations. The waters of the flood, the questions of “Who?” and “What?”, all come in order to help him detach himself from the calculations within his ego and to determine a connection with the inner point of the group.

In order to do that he needs the Creator’s help, to whom he turns with a prayer in order to advance and to connect more strongly with the group. “Many pennies add up to a big sum” in all this work, for “seven years of hunger.” But this is only if a person collects them by connecting all the obstacles and all his exertion to one goal, by constantly trying to fulfill the conditions that are revealed to him correctly. Then it is possible to say that he is advancing.

Just like the story about Noah, who doesn’t reach redemption immediately and at one time. It is a long story about how he builds the ark, how he comes to the decision that has to build an ark into which he collects all his attributes, all the levels of his desire, and only when all the desires and the ark are arranged, can a person hide in it.
[92037]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/12, Writings of Rabash

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When Everything Is Fine

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do we turn the vessels of receiving into vessels of bestowal?

Answer: We create a variety of different forms from metals. We make gears, grilles, bars, etc. We also work with the desire to receive according to the same principle, although it will never bestow itself. In Kabbalistic terms “vessels of bestowal” are vessels of receiving that can bestow when they operate in a special way. In other words, they take on a special form. After all, they cannot do anything but receive.

So receiving is improved to such an extent that it will become like bestowal.

Today, whether I like it or not, my intention remains egoistic. In order to correct it I need a special external force. To do this, we study in order to evoke it.

I cannot change anything by myself, and so I don’t worry about my desires; they will develop according to the plan. I don’t have to worry about whether my vessels are full and if they are what there is in them and how much. Here everything is fine, and I am only concerned about the intention, about aiming my thoughts. I differentiate between the action and the intention and only in my intention am I constantly adhered to the goal. As long as I keep the same focus, no matter what I do—I am corrected and everything is fine with me. This is why it says that a person is where his thoughts are.

100% of an intention to bestow ensures me 100% of correction. It is the intention that counts and not the action. So even if I steal and destroy, I steal and destroy parts of my egoistic desire in order to perform acts of bestowal. A person is not responsible for his actions; it is the intention that determines everything.

The problem is that when we look at one another, we see actions and not intentions. But this problem brings us to correction. I have to rise to the height of mutual connection in order to judge others according to their intentions and not their actions. This obligates us to be Kabbalists. There is no other choice; otherwise we cannot connect correctly. The disasters are increasing, so where is my influence on the upper?

Question: If the intention is the same form that is dressed on the matter of the desire, how do we correct it?

Answer: With the help of the Light that Reforms. We try to act in bestowal, we try to connect and our failures reveal the need for the Light.

After all, there is a part of Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE) in every person. As a result, some people are drawn to the Light, and this attraction is revealed in them when the question “What is the meaning of life?” arises. They want to know, to discover the secret of life. Such people are especially egoistic. They are very far from being nice and they are even quite disgusting and don’t care about this world at all. They disrespect it and are not satisfied with its “nonsense.” In short, people who are not nice at all reach the wisdom of Kabbalah. After all, a great desire suppresses small desires. Eventually, a person burns because of one thing only; he wants to know why he should go on living.

Other than that he can be worried about high philosophical questions like: “What is the universe? Why does all this exist?” in other words, he feels that it is crowded here and he cannot stand it.

All this is caused by the part of GE that has awakened and is in AHP in the meantime, increasing it and pushing a person to search, forcing him to open himself to everything, trying to “swallow” all of reality, including the Creator.

Then, thanks to his actions in the group and the study, a person begins to appreciate and to sort out all these phenomena correctly and then he comes closer to correction.

In addition, it depends on the root of his soul, on the quality of his GE. Someone may yearn for general, global knowledge according to his Reshimot (informational genes). After all, certain Reshimot were very high once, and fell so deep that they require much work. Such people don’t succeed immediately, but after decades, they ascend accordingly while others don’t.

In any case, “He who is greater than his friend, his desire is even greater.” This is what the number of actions of correction he has to perform depends on.

But in any case, parts of GE and AHP are initially in everyone, including the nations of the world. After all, we have all been through the shattering including in ancient Babel. Then too the crisis was revealed as it is today, and as a result, only a small group came out of the crowd—the nation of Israel. Now when all the other “Babylonians” are suffering, having no choice, they will have to correct themselves together with this small group in order to finally leave Babel. Then everyone will be called “Israel,” which means “straight to the Creator” (Yashar—El).

It isn’t about a nation but about resembling the Creator. The difference is the order of things: Someone begins the process and someone continues. Each one does his share, and eventually everyone corrects the shattering of Babel.
[92001]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/02/12, The Zohar

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“How Fear Can Skew Spatial Perception”

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from ScienceDaily): “That snake heading towards you may be further away than it appears. Fear can skew our perception of approaching objects, causing us to underestimate the distance of a threatening one, finds a study published in Current Biology.

“’Our results show that emotion and perception are not fully dissociable in the mind,’ says Emory psychologist Stella Lourenco, co-author of the study. ‘Fear can alter even basic aspects of how we perceive the world around us. This has clear implications for understanding clinical phobias.’ …

“People generally have a well-developed sense for when objects heading towards them will make contact, including a split-second cushion for dodging or blocking the object, if necessary. The researchers set up an experiment to test the effect of fear on the accuracy of that skill. …

“The participants tended to underestimate the collision time for images of threatening objects, such as a snake or spider, as compared to non-threatening images, such as a rabbit or butterfly.

The results challenge the traditional view of looming, as a purely optical cue to object approach. “’We’re showing that what the object is affects how we perceive looming. If we’re afraid of something, we perceive it as making contact sooner,’ Longo says.

“’Even more striking,’ Lourenco adds, ‘it is possible to predict how much a participant will underestimate the collision time of an object by assessing the amount of fear they have for that object. The more fearful someone reported feeling of spiders, for example, the more they underestimated time-to-collision for a looming spider. That makes adaptive sense: If an object is dangerous, it’s better to swerve a half-second too soon than a half-second too late.’”

My Comment: Feeling stems from the desire to get pleasure; this is our essence, and that is why the space that we feel is a function of our relation to it, to what we find in it. We see only what we want to see either because of joy or because of fear. If the object does not make any impression on us, we do not see it. The other sense organs function likewise. It is only through the additional opportunity of relating to the world through the property of bestowal that we reveal an additional part of the world—the upper world, the opposite of ours.
[92113]

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Europe’s Lost Generation

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from The Guardian): “A lost generation of 14 million out-of-work and disengaged young Europeans is costing member states a total of €153bn (£124bn) a year – 1.2% of the EU’s gross domestic product – the largest study of the young unemployed has concluded.

“The report, by the EU’s own research agency, Eurofound, has discovered that Europeans aged 15 to 29 who are not in employment, education or training (known as Neets) have reached record levels and are costing the EU €3bn a week in state welfare and lost production. …

“Since the global downturn in 2008, there has been a 28% increase in associated Neet costs across the EU, with Italy facing an annual bill of €32.6bn a year, France €22bn, and the UK €18bn. …

“The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said Europe was ‘failing in its social contract’ with the young and rising political disenchantment could reach levels similar to those that sparked North African uprisings during the Arab spring.”

My Comment: Of course, something will force governments to change their attitude to the crisis and instead of trying to go back in time, to understand that the future is in the integration of the world, and first of all this requires re-education, that is why the younger generation is released and this should be taken as advantage. (See “Integral Education“).
[92008]

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Even Children Maintain Their Reputations

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from LiveScience): “Even 5-year-olds know to protect their reps. Children are more generous when they know their actions will be seen, according to a new study.

“The findings, published Oct. 31 in the journal PLoS One, suggest that even kindergarteners have learned to play the social game and strategize ways to burnish their reputation. …

“Leimgruber’s team gave 5-year-olds stickers and told them they could share one to four of them with another child of the same age. Some of the children could see their sharing partner, while others were hidden from view. The team found that the children were stingier when the other youngster was hidden from them. The kids also hoarded more loot when they had to give stickers in an opaque box rather than a transparent one that showed what they were giving.

“Overall, the kindergarteners were pretty selfish: Only those children who saw their partners and gave their stickers in a clear box consistently donated the maximum of four stickers. Interestingly, past studies showed children were more generous than the current study.

“’Previous studies that observe high levels of generosity may have inadvertently included the same audience and transparency cues,’ that motivate kids to share, the researchers wrote in the journal article.”

My Comment: Well, children are like grown-ups; nature does not change but only evolves and adapts. In any case, we have to become aware of this evil with our minds or through suffering and correct it; in any case, we will have to. Kabbalah calls us to do this quickly and easily through by “Achishena” (hastening).

Let’s discuss our nature, reveal its flows, and expose our natural thoughts and desires up to the point of becoming aware of them as the only evil in the world. It is so much so that it is killing us. In the realization of our common evil, we will discover its creator—the Creator; we will find how to turn to Him so that He will correct what He has created. Studying Baal HaSulam’s main articles helps us become familiar with our nature as evil.
[91986]

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How Networks Grow

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (from Nature): “The principle that ‘popularity is attractive’ underlies preferential attachment, which is a common explanation for the emergence of scaling in growing networks. If new connections are made preferentially to more popular nodes, then the resulting distribution of the number of connections possessed by nodes follows power laws, as observed in many real networks. Preferential attachment has been directly validated for some real networks (including the Internet) and can be a consequence of different underlying processes based on node fitness, ranking, optimization, random walks or duplication. Here we show that popularity is just one dimension of attractiveness; another dimension is similarity. We develop a framework in which new connections optimize certain trade-offs between popularity and similarity, instead of simply preferring popular nodes. The framework has a geometric interpretation in which popularity preference emerges from local optimization. As opposed to preferential attachment, our optimization framework accurately describes the large-scale evolution of technological (the Internet), social (trust relationships between people) and biological (Escherichia coli metabolic) networks, predicting the probability of new links with high precision. The framework that we have developed can thus be used for predicting new links in evolving networks, and provides a different perspective on preferential attachment as an emergent phenomenon.”

My Comment: A human being was created on the principle of an integral cell of a single network, and anything he creates, he creates based on the same principle because he cannot imagine a different connection.
[91983]

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