A Gradual Realization Of A Dead End

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Nouriel Roubini, cofounder and chairman of Roubini Global Economics): “Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Davide Serra, founder of leading hedge fund Algebris, and Nouriel Roubini, the head of Roubini Economics known as Dr Doom for predicting the financial crisis, set out the case against those who think quantitative easing (QE) and low rates are benign policy tools.

“’When governments borrow, they are taking money from our children. QE is the same – we are lowering returns for future generations. QE creates an inter-generational dilemma,’ Mr Serra said.

“Mr Roubini warned that central bankers need to think about turning off the cheap money tap or risk creating another, possibly even worse, bubble.”

Opinion (Steen Jakobsen, Chief Economist & CIO, Saxo Bank): “In Europe, two core countries, the Netherlands and Germany, are now recession bound. The crisis has finally arrived at their doorstep. Meanwhile, European Central Bank monetary transmission remains obstructed by hodgepodge policies. … You can run from your debt burden but you can’t hide, and that will be the reality that Europe and France face in 2013. …

“So how can it be that stockmarkets are hitting multi-year highs while employment is hitting historic lows? In a real bull market, everyone partakes in the upside—but this market and the economy are driven by those who have access to central bank funding. In short, they are detached from reality. Like a David Copperfield stage act, it is a grand illusion. We have capitalism without capital or free markets.”

My Comment: At least many begin to understand that something (although not what) needs to be changed, but politicians do not hear. The realization that some understand the need for change, but others not, is already movement. But the real awareness must be in recognizing the need for full integration of all of humanity as a condition (the ultimate goal) of our development given by nature (evolution).

This can be achieved only by using the property of unity, the unifying force, which is revealed in the desire to unite according to the method of Kabbalah. Nature is integral on its three levels: still, vegetative, and animate. The human being, evolving from the animate level, must himself recognize the need to “fit” in the general picture of nature as its highest integral part.
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The Era Of Antibiotics Is Ending…

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from BBC News): “The rise in drug resistant infections is comparable to the threat of global warming, according to the chief medical officer for England.

“Prof Dame Sally Davies said bacteria were becoming resistant to current drugs and there were few antibiotics to replace them.

“Antibiotics have been one of the greatest success stories in medicine. However, bacteria are a rapidly adapting foe which find new ways to evade drugs.

“MRSA rapidly became one of the most feared words in hospitals wards and there are growing reports of resistance in strains of E. coli, tuberculosis and gonorrhoea.

“Prof Davies said: ‘It is clear that we might not ever see global warming, the apocalyptic scenario is that when I need a new hip in 20 years I’ll die from a routine infection because we’ve run out of antibiotics.’

“She said there was only one useful antibiotic left to treat gonorrhoea.

“’It is very serious, and it’s very serious because we are not using our antibiotics effectively in countries.’…

“The World Health Organization has warned the world is heading for a ‘post-antibiotic era’ unless action is taken. …

“Prof Pennington said the drugs companies had run out of options too as all the easy drugs had been made. ‘We have to be aware that we aren’t going to have new wonder drugs coming along because there just aren’t any.’”

My Comment: Nature puts “pressure” on us from all sides and will not leave us until we come in balance with it. The goal of evolution is to create all the conditions for the still, vegetative, and animal world for the realization of integral correction of the human being so that he complements nature by his conscious correction like the final, highest figure in the general “Lego” of nature. Until we begin to advance towards this goal, suffering will worsen.
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A Covenant For Eternity

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, “You Stand Today, All of You”:He says, “I do my part, and I agree that the Creator will give me what He wants, and I have no criticism.” Then he is rewarded with making a covenant, as mentioned above. In other words, the connection remains permanently because the Creator made a covenant with him for all eternity.

Making a covenant with the Creator and friends is a very important condition in our work primarily because this accelerates time. The surrounding environment commits to me and I commit to the environment. And then even when the desire disappears, I will have to continue in the work. This is precisely for what the covenant is intended.

The covenant is made for those times when we don’t want to connect. At such times, when we don’t have an inclination, attraction, or the drive to perform actions that advance us on the path, then the covenant agreement has to work, precisely during the descents.

So it turns out that a person must act despite everything. He gets support from the environment, as if he invested money in some fund beforehand, and now he gets it back. A covenant is an agreement about mutual responsibility.

When he is capable, meaning in states of ascent, then he invests himself, bringing everyone inspiration and the importance of the goal. And when he is incapable of this, when he’s in a descent, he gets back what he invested. It works like a battery that stores energy and afterwards releases it so that we get filled by one or the other. It helps a person, like a rectifier of an alternating current, even switching states in minus to plus, to positive work, to “direct current.”

“You Stand Today, All of You” symbolizes that the ascents and descents of every person, and likewise the ascents and descents of the relationships between people, and between man and Creator, all of this has to be “aligned” so that one constant state will be made.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/13, Writings of Rabash

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 01.30.13

Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Letter 2,” Lesson 2 

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The Book of ZoharSelected Excerpt, ParashatShlah Leha,” Item 150, Lesson 15

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 9, Question 138, Lesson 27

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 01.29.13

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
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The Teacher Gives Enough Attention To Everyone

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe usual claim students have regarding the teacher is that he doesn’t give them enough attention, which they feel that they deserve. But the matter is the lack of vessels on the part of the students, as a result of which they cannot absorb more and so they don’t feel that they receive even more than they need, but on the other hand, they cannot manage to wake up by themselves.

The teacher should not come to wake up the students. It won’t help, since they receive the awakening from Above. I go to a place where people are awake and ready, and then I can help them organize and connect more strongly. But first they have to make their own efforts.

A student doesn’t understand that he doesn’t have the vessel to receive what the teacher gives him. You don’t have to wait for me to come and wake you up. It is impossible to wake it up that way if you haven’t prepared a deficiency in advance. The moment you are ready for that, of course I will come.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/27/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Notice The King Behind His Ministers

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe upper force controls and manages everything and below it there are “ministers,” forces that sustain all of reality. Reality is man, one soul, in which the Creator’s action, His thought, the active force exists.

This force is divided into many parts, into individual forces that operate on several levels and which seem to be opposite from one another on different levels, so the created being feels that this action is performed on him as if without any order. This is intentionally done so that we will be confused by the apparent disorder and will have an impression that is opposite from the truth, as if there is no Creator in reality, but only the created being’s force or some additional forces. We may think that the Creator exists, but His leadership is bad and has many flaws. Besides, the existing force seems to be aimed as if against the Creator and that everything doesn’t come from Him, in order to raise us above our corporeal reason.

But if a person really desires to see the King as the upper manager and to discover this above his own nature, then his perception is corrected and he discovers that everything is already ready for this correction. He fights in order to purify his vessels and to bring them to a state of to bestow in order to bestow by guarding the King, and at the same time corrects his vessels so that they will be to receive in order to bestow.

In the first war he acquires the force of faith, and in the second war he acquires the Light of Hochma, the understanding of the system, its plan, the reasons, and the goals by working with his vessels of receiving. Thus he learns how to understand and feel the upper Providence, by crowning the Creator as the one who rules above all the forces. It is because all these forces, both His ministers and those who seem to be His enemies, different criminals, murderers, and robbers, unite as a result of this war and as a person attributes them to one King.

He understands that the war is not against the forces that are hostile to him, but against himself, in order to discover the Creator in all these forces. This is the essence of all the wars.

Although we hear that “there is none else besides Him” and that He is good and benevolent, we have to go through all the levels in order to really feel that. We still have a long way to go in correcting ourselves through all the states that the Creator presents to us, by teaching us the art of understanding and the attainment of the system of His forces through them, so that we will be able to understand and to feel Him. To feel Him according to the rule of “from Your actions we shall know You.” Thus we gradually become more like Him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/27/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Subtleties Of Receiving In Order To Bestow

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can the desire to receive work in order to bestow?

Answer: It can if it has an intention of in order to bestow. In that case it gets a desire from someone else and that enables it to bestow.

Keter created the desire to receive, Hochma. At the end of this phase the desire felt a spark of bestowal, made it is main part, and now wants only to bestow.

Thus Bina was created, and its first three Sefirot (GAR of Bina) are similar to Keter. Just as in Keter, the red point (in the drawing) determines the essence of Keter so does bestowal determine the essence of Bina. As a result, the created being becomes similar to the Creator and follows His examples: Keter created Hochma, so Bina, too, took its lower half, the seven lower Sefirot (ZAT of Bina) from Hochma.

The question is whether it is receiving or bestowing when the lower part of Bina receives the Light of Hochma.

On the whole, it is about the action of the point itself, which feels bestowal by this action.

Subtleties Of Receiving In Order To Bestow
The upper part of Bina is a desire to bestow that is aimed at the Creator: It wants to bestow like Him (↑), and in order to do that it receives (↓). Its bestowal is actually in the filling of the seven lower Sefirot.

In the same way a mother feeds her baby and is happy for him, which means that it is possible to fill the vessels of receiving and by that to bestow.

Question: So how do the vessels of receiving in our case turn into vessels of bestowal?

Answer: After they are “restricted,” they are filled with the Light of Hassadim, this is already to bestow in order to bestow, Lishma (for Her Name). Then we can use them even to receive in order to bestow. Thus they become vessels of bestowal, since to receive in order to bestow is pure bestowal. This is the only way the created being can bestow.

On the other hand, to bestow in order to bestow doesn’t mean that it is real bestowal. It is only the preparation for actual bestowal, and this is the process of the correction of the vessels.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/13, Writings of Rabash

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Changing All The Minuses To Plus

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do I make a covenant with the Creator if I don’t know Him?

Answer: The question is: Why is it only the groom who signs the wedding agreement (Ketubah) and not the bride? Is there a kind of one-sided commitment here? The same happens when a person signs an agreement with the group or with the Creator.

This means that my signature on this contract is enough since the agreement of the other side is certain. So, only the one who hesitates and is unsure has to sign, and thus, he is obligated to sign the commitment.

There is an upper force, and in order to reveal it, there must be a lower force. The force of the upper is bestowal and the force of the lower is receiving. The force of the lower must attain wholeness in its deficiency in order to connect to the upper force that is eternally whole.

Changing All The Minuses To Plus

Wholeness is attained in the lower force by the connection of 10 people, for example, then of 100, and then of 1000. We always add another zero.

Unless I connect with 10 people, I cannot be called a spiritual “unit,” and, unless I connect with 100 people, I cannot be called a second spiritual “unit,” which means to rise to the second spiritual level. The counter only counts the additional zeros, and this is considered a leap to the next level.

In order to be adapted to the whole upper force, I at least must attain the connection of the first 10. This means that I must connect to 10 people since according to our inner nature, we attain the first, minimal measure of bestowal, #1, by the connection of ten people as one heart and one mind. Now, I have the first force of bestowal.

If I can connect to 100 people in a similar way as one heart and one mind by totally annulling myself, I attain the second force of bestowal, the second spiritual level. Thusly, I must go through 125 levels.

In order to connect with them, I sign a mutual contract. We must be connected so that each one will forget about himself and connect with everyone as one whole. It is impossible to do this alone and we must help one another. We must provide everyone with the greatness of the goal, connection, warmth, and positive examples. In order to do that, we sign a contract, and this is called a covenant.

Each of us goes through states of “+” and “-,” and we need the minus in order to rise to the plus, to “straighten” ourselves. This is possible if, while I am in a state of “minus,” the society intensifies my intention. My minus grows and the plus also grows; they constantly increase. After a small plus, there is a big minus, and after a big plus there is a minus that is twice as large.

This is why I never can overcome the minus that I receive and it always knocks me to the ground. I may be totally thrown off track, and I may continue to work, but without any inspiration and thought. When I fall into such a state, into such a minus, the society has to intensify my intention.

It is a good thing that I have received such a minus since I need a greater minus; I must reach its full measure to fill my measure. The question is how to turn it into a plus. In order to do that, I need an intention! If my deficiency and the society’s intention connect, I can change the minus to the plus each time and, thus, constantly rise. This is called making a covenant.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/13, Writings of Rabash

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Distribution Instead Of Help

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Oxfam): “The world’s richest 100 people earned enough last year to end extreme poverty for the world’s poorest people four times over, Oxfam has said.

“The charity said an ‘explosion in extreme wealth’ was hindering efforts to tackle poverty, in a briefing released ahead of next week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“Releasing The Cost Of Inequality: How Wealth And Income Extremes Hurt Us All, Oxfam said the net income last year of the 100 richest people was 240 billion US dollars.

“In contrast, people in ‘extreme poverty’ live on less than 1.25 US dollars per day, and the charity called on world leaders to commit to reducing inequality to levels last seen in 1990.”

My Comment: No charities can correct the situation, and what arrives to the starving population does not contribute to its development, but rather leads to its degradation because it is not accompanied by integral education. So, even if all the rich had shared with all the poor, the world would not have become better. On the contrary, it would have become worse.

Until we eliminate the root cause of our problems— our egoistic nature—all of our actions, being egoistic, will always bring a negative result. The only problem is that the action is far removed from the result and we do not see their connection. We need to initially combine help with integral upbringing, not just education, and then we would attain the development of humanity, which would be capable of establishing itself in a new world.
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