Audio Version Of The Blog – 04.21.13

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Fundamentals of Kabbalah – 04.21.13

A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah

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“Redefining Sustainable Development”

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (David Griggs, Director of the Monash Sustainability Institute [MSI], Australia): “Albert Einstein once said that if he had just one hour to find a solution on which his life depended, he would spend the first 55 minutes defining the problem. Once he knew the right question to ask, he could solve the problem in less than five minutes.

“Today, humanity faces such a life-threatening problem: How are we to provide adequate nutrition and a decent quality of life to a global population that is set to surpass nine billion by 2050, without irreparably damaging our planetary life-support system? To find a solution, we must start by clarifying the problem.

“The process of identifying the Sustainable Development Goals, which are intended to enter into force in 2015, has begun in earnest. Last week, representatives from 69 countries met at the UN in New York, and an expert group meets this week. …

“This week, my colleagues and I published a report called Sustainable Development Goals for People and Planet, which outlines what is required. We identified six universal goals for sustainable development: lives and livelihoods, food security, water sustainability, clean energy, healthy ecosystems, and good governance. … Genuine progress in any of the six target areas will require a comprehensive approach, with policies that span the economic, social, and environmental domains.”

My Comment: It seems to me that these people didn’t act like Einstein; otherwise, they would have discovered the cause of the crisis, which has not been uncovered yet. It is in the egoistic nature of man. And it needs to be corrected. Without this, no aspect of the crisis will disappear. The objectives are correct, but there are no solution to them. And a reminder to identify the cause indicates that now, by referring  to Einstein, they can ponder about the cause of the problem as long as they want, without rushing to solve it….
[105537]

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Scientists Suggest Making Food Out Of Cellulose

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from ScienceNow): “The main ingredient of wood, cellulose, is one of the most abundant organic compounds on Earth and a dream source of renewable fuel. Now, bioengineers suggest that it could feed the hungry as well. In a new study, researchers have found a way to turn cellulose into starch, the most common carbohydrate in the human diet.

“Now, for the first time, it appears there may be a practical way that cellulose could also feed people, says bioprocess engineer Y.-H. Percival Zhang of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg. …

“Zhang and his colleagues focused on starch, which makes up as much as 40% of people’s diets. The idea of turning cellulose into starch is one rooted in the similarities between the compounds: Cellulose is composed of hundreds to thousands of molecules of the sugar glucose, and starch compounds are made of glucose as well, although the sugar is bonded together in different ways.

“Though the process works, it’s expensive. Zhang estimates that, given the current price tag of the enzymes that his team used, it would cost about $1 million to turn 200 kilograms of crude cellulose into 20 kilograms of starch, about enough to feed one person’s carbohydrate needs for 80 days. Still, after 5 to 10 years of further research, Zhang says companies could do the same thing for just $0.50 per person per day. ‘We do not see big obstacles to the commercialization of this process.’

“Optimistically assuming 100 billion tons of cellulose is available per year, ‘we will have a potential of approximately 4.5 billion tons of starch, which is nearly twofold the annual production of cereal—that is, 2.3 billion tons per year now,’ Zhang says. That would provide up to 30% of the food that prior studies estimate is needed to feed the world in 2050.”

My Comment: If it weren’t for a predatory attitude to nature, humanity would have easily fed itself and been able to devote itself to a spiritual ascent that provides us with the perfect eternal existence.
[105450]

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The Key To 99% Of The Global Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the role today of the global Bnei Baruch groups  in different countries?

Answer: The world  groups play a special important role because Israel cannot correct themselves if they are not focused on the world. The GE have no way of correcting themselves if they are isolated from others.

The Creator wanted to give the Torah first to the nations of the world . All the Light is opposite this desire, opposite the AHP and not opposite GE. In fact the AHP makes up the whole vessel, 99% of the whole desire. Therefore the nation of Israel, GE, is the smallest of all the nations. It has no right to exist except for serving all this great AHP.

The Creator wants to fill the AHP with the Light and He tests GE as the part that serves the Creator and these desires to receive. Israel are the slaves of their mission, and the nations of the world are not. We have to carry out our mission towards the Creator and all of humanity. Therefore, the two sides come complaining to us, and their complaints are just since we have to be the link, the adapter,  between the Creator and the world and between the world and the Creator. We, however, don’t fulfill our role.

In order to function correctly, we need a connection with the upper force, with the Creator, which is realized through the center of the group. On other hand, we need to be connected to all our groups and to all the friends who belong to the nations of the world since this is how the connection from them to us and from them to the nations of the world among which they live is fulfilled. Thus we all connect paving the path from Malchut of Malchut, the greatest desire of the created being, to the desire of Keter of Keter and all the way to the Creator.

The central group must treat all the groups around the world lovingly, with great concern and attention, to connect to them as closely as possible despite the language barriers and the geographic distance, and to accept them as closely as possible. It is through them that we can reach the other people, the other nations, and to pass on to them the method of integral education.

Our friends all over the world who live there as “converts,” which means that they also have a point in the heart, are part of Israel and fulfill the connection between AHP and us, GE. We cannot establish such a connection by ourselves, and it is our friends in other countries who do that.

The Key To 99% Of The Global Soul
It turns out that they belong to the main layer of the desire that is on the border between GE and AHP. Without this connection the GE and AHP are meaningless. For this reason, we have to pay great attention to our friends and to support them in every way we can, to hold conventions, to provide translation in every language, that is, help them as much as we can. It is because they belong to the layer of desire that allows us to answer the question: What do we exist for?

We exist thanks to the fact that we have such connection to the AHP, thanks to our friends all over the world.
[105255]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam 

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Altruistic Communism: An Equation With One Variable

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Writings of the Last Generation,” Part One: It is the responsibility of Israel to accept the international altruistic communism first for all the nations of the world, and to be a model of the goodness and beauty of this regime.

Question: What is the international altruistic communism?

Answer: Baal HaSulam explains this in the “Writings of the Last Generation.” The altruistic communism is based on laws that we study, not from the legacy of Karl Marx, but from The Study of the Ten Sefirot that describes the interaction between the Lights and the vessels. After all, the vessel and the Light have to be in adhesion. What are the necessary conditions for that?

In general, the law of similarity or equivalence of form (=) operates here between the two desires: the desire to receive and the desire to bestow. To resemble the desire to bestow, the desire to receive has to perform the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph –TA), after which it doesn’t want to receive anything for itself. Then it reaches the level of Hafetz Hesed, and afterwards the level of to receive in order to bestow.

Today, after the shattering, the group is built of individual parts. Which laws should operate in it so that we will be able to reach an equivalence of form? How can we make a contract with the Creator so that He will lead us to adhesion? If we think about it, we will see that it’s about the same conditions described in Kabbalah books. There are three factors involved here: the desire to bestow, the desire to be adhered, and the equivalence between them. There is nothing but that.

Altruistic Communism: An Equation With One Variable
The desire to bestow (1) is constant (const) as is the desire to receive (2). The third factor is a variable called Masach (screen).

It’s so simple! If only we weren’t blinded by our ego, because of which we don’t want to see the truth.
[105151]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/13, “Israeli Nation” 

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Why Do I Need A Doctor?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Despite the fact that today a doctor earns a lot of money, he is not happy. He attends to many patients and all this is done mechanically. At the end of the day, he is comes home worn out, drinks, smokes, and does everything to calm down.

A patient also is not happy because he cannot get the proper attention and health treatment. No one is satisfied like it was, for instance, in ancient China, where a doctor was pleased by seeing a healthy person in front of him.

But if we can show the doctor that integral education is aimed at changing the health care system, that this may help make his work more pleasant, and he will be able to enjoy it, then perhaps, he might be interested.

Answer: I do not think it’s a strong argument to change the entire health care system, especially since there are influential people who have created this system on purpose, and they are satisfied with it.

This is why the crisis must be manifested here. It will break them and force them to change the system, to change their ways of thinking, their view of reality; otherwise, nothing will work. It is possible to try to change the system from below, but to do this, you need to change a human being.

You refer to Chinese medicine, but they are different people on a different level of egoistic development.

To make a person interconnect with society and help the medical staff connect between themselves in order to get rid of unnecessary harmful drugs and totally useless checkups and research, in order to let a doctor be involved with a patient, think about him instead of how to attend to forty patients per shift like a multi-machine operator, to do that we need completely different relations between people. For this you need to change a person!

You cannot put a modern egoistic person in these conditions; he just doesn’t see other people. After all, when you see a doctor, he does not even look at you. He looks in the computer, checks blood pressure, and that is all.

Chinese medicine is a relationship with a person. And here, it is a “relationship” with blood pressure, pulse, and a couple of tests that can be entered into a computer, which then will give the doctor a solution of what to do with the patient. It turns out that the doctor is practically not needed here.
[105579]
From KabTV’s “The Medicine of the Future” 4/7/13

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Ascending Thanks To Our Humility

Dr. Michael LaitmanWith the help of the environment one should try not to forget that we are specifically making inner corrections. Throughout the entire way, a person perceives his own wretchedness more and more. As it is said, “Where you perceive His greatness, there you perceive His humility.” These two polar opposites are connected and depend upon each other: The higher Keter, the lower Malchut is.

Thus with our point we descend to minus Infinity and with the characteristic of bestowal, with the Reflected Light, we reach plus Infinity. All of our work is in this.

Therefore, we require very strong support from the environment; otherwise, the person is not prepared to descend at all, to shame or to lower himself, to trample on his pride. Even if he wanted, he cannot do this since his entire nature opposes this. This is because he doesn’t have both types of nature in him, only one.

Therefore, there is a great need of an environment that will support you in the goal, of learning in your group that will attract the Light to give you the power to endure blows to your ego, pride, and the desire to control and be the master of every state. In this way you will finally reach adherence with the upper one.

There is no going back, only going towards humility and correction of the ego, bringing us to bestowal and holiness. This correction always happens from within, not through external actions or words.

In order to hasten our development, it is important to pay attention to what you associate your ascents and descents. A descent is suffering from your wounded pride, while an ascent is the feeling of adherence with the Creator. These are determined not by your mood or by something else, but exist only in relation to your pride, narcissism, control, the feeling that you act, decide, and understand on your own. It is specifically here that you feel the blows and descents. You feel that you cannot handle your state or control your life.

And you determine your ascent according to how much you are ready to annul yourself and to find new opportunities for self-abnegation. And a real miracle happens here: From Above you are shown how to annul yourself and how by this all problems and difficulties disappear immediately. This is the next stage of the work, which we must learn from experiencing descents and ascents.
[105524]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/13

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The Meaning Of Merging With The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanHow do we examine our relationship at the beginning and at the end of the work? Where do we begin and what must we reach in the end? A person has to remember always that “There is none else besides Him” and strive not to leave the authority of the one, higher power.

You have to check as to what exactly influences you, in which states there are foreign thoughts and emotions that awaken in you, weakening your feeling of the uniqueness of the upper governance, and you have to work with these states. This is to say that it is forbidden for you to “accidentally” depart from the state of “There is none else besides Him.”

Even if you go to a marketplace or a doctor, it is up to you to know in which part of your grasp of reality you now intend to correct your lack of adherence with the Creator Who “Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before,” Who  controls  you directly and indirectly. The Creator prepared this entire state from the start, but you need to complete it with your attitude.

When your desires are corrected, then the past, present, and future will be connected for you into a single whole. This means that you make an effort physically and mentally in order to connect the behavior of the Creator with yourself, with your mind and heart, so that at all times, in all places, and in all deeds these will be joined together.

This doesn’t mean that you have to ignore the control  of the Creator as if He were not looking out for you. Rather, you have to clarify within yourself, in your private world, the place where you feel an opportunity to add something of yourself and do it yourself. You feel that not all of your actions are done according to the desire of the guiding hand of the Creator. Instead, you feel that this is not the Creator Who acts in you, but you yourself. This is what you need to correct. It is up to you to address cases like this, a desire like this, an area like this.

The work is to invest maximal effort and ultimately reach the decision that “There is none else besides Him.” If you are doing the right action through your connection with the group and self-annulment, by connecting yourself (Israel), the Light that Reforms (the Torah), and the Creator, then you also are connecting all of these states to the Creator and become convinced that “There is none else besides Him.” This means that you are bringing all these states back to holiness.
[105042]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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In The Sour Juice Of Egoism

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Items 29 – 30: …This is regarded as being under the Sitra Achra and the Klipot, whose role is to expand and enhance his will to receive and make it exaggerated and unrestrained in any way, to provide one with all the material he needs to work with and correct.

In our evolution, we go through four stages of the desires that belong to this world: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. Each next step is “steeper” than the previous one.

In The Sour Juice Of Egoism
Later, a totally new developmental level begins whereby the desire to receive aspires to correction. The more efforts we apply, the more our aspiration to unity and love is, the more wickedness we reveal in ourselves.

In The Sour Juice Of Egoism
It’s more of a qualitative process during which we acquire the entire “thickness” of desires in the four worlds of ABYA, according to the exertions we apply. Thus, we reach the highest point at which the entire evil inclination is already manifested within us.

Although it is dressed in his will to receive at birth, it only begins to awaken after thirteen years, and then one begins to enter the system of the pure worlds…

One already has a huge, exorbitant egoistic desire within which there is a point in the heart. It is connected to the Light and that’s why it starts acting. Thus, after “thirteen years” of acquiring the entire desire to receive for the sake of receiving, the point in the heart (*) and its connection with the Surrounding Light awakens. It’s as if we inflate the balloon of our desire, reaching our point through the impure worlds of ABYA—and then it awakens.

In The Sour Juice Of Egoism
Until then, it doesn’t surface from the depth. Naturally, we only can correct the defects that have already manifested in us. And vice versa, until they are exposed, why would our points in the heart appear?

When one obtains the excessive spiritual will to receive, one wishes to devour, for one’s own delight, all the wealth and delights in the next, eternal world, which is an eternal possession.

Only if we aspire to unity can we reveal how wicked we in fact are. We try to be friendly and nice, but each time we feel that we are truly indifferent, forgetful, careless, and unresponsive. Sometimes we even admit to ourselves that we enjoy other people’s suffering. Isn’t that so?

This is our nature, our regular egoistic desire with which we were born and live. Previously, it was hiding in the “shade.” At this time, when we strive to unite with others and be kind to them, it started manifesting in us. However, it’s not spirituality as of yet, nor is it genuine bestowal; we are still only attempting to reach it.

Then, the next stage takes place. Before we reached “thirteen years of age,” all we did was try to exit our egoism and reveal the evil inclination inside us, meaning our unwillingness to change and the constant downfalls into an even bigger egoism. However at this time, we stop attempting and start to act in order to reach bestowal. These actions demonstrate the greatness of the Creator to us: eternity, perfection of the universe, and the Light itself.

This is the point at which an egoistic desire to “snatch” everything for one’s own sake wakes up: “Can I steal eternity? Can I reign?” Our actions that are oriented to bestowal absorb lots of the Light. This is the moment when we stumble.

It’s a very special, “juicy” condition. The desire that we acquire in it strives for the upper Light, and it’s a billion times bigger than everything that was revealed to us before.
[103432]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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