Audio Version Of The Blog – 06.10.13

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/audio/eng_o_rav_2013-06-10_declamation_blog-rav_full.mp3 title=’10.6.13′]

Connection That Changes The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In what intention do we need to be to correct the world during the upcoming convention?

Answer: If we are connected with each other well and strongly, with the intention for our goal, in common mutual bestowal, this will definitely reach the world, and it will start to change.

The fact is that we are connected together through the same inner system. What we study in Kabbalah: Sefirot, Partzufim, the worlds—all these are connections between us. They are not somewhere in outer space: This is our real connection.

Revealing it in the groups of ten, we suddenly see that there are the circles of the worlds between us that connect us, how we influence these connections, and they affect us, and the Light is manifested between them—this is the manifestation of the Creator, His revelation.
[109312]
From the Virtual Lesson 6/2/13

Related Material:
Am I Correcting The World?
An Opportunity To Bring Goodness Into Our World
To Correct The World Means To Correct Ourselves

From “We” To “One”

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It seems to me that we have been working like in a group of ten in our small group for a long time because we have to nullify ourselves before each other. What is the best way to do this?

Answer: I believe that we have to nullify ourselves always—a group has to feel like one whole. Without achieving “one” instead of “ten,” without uniting in one whole, we will not feel even the smallest spiritual Light because it is manifested in unity. The group of ten must unite into “one”—from “we” to “one.”
[109374]
From the Virtual Lesson 6/2/13

Related Material:
One Unit Of Bestowal
A Whole Group Of Ten
The Whole Convention Is One Group Of Ten

A Successful Woman’s Career Jeopardizes Marriage

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from ChicagoBooth): “For all the progress women have made in the past few decades—in education, work force participation, and earnings—a gender gap remains. Research by Marianne Bertrand, Chris P. Dialynas Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, suggests that this may be due to the societal expectation that a woman make less money than her husband. …

“The notion that a man should earn more than his wife not only impacts marriage rates, the researchers show, but also influences how much a married woman works outside the home and how household chores are divided. Moreover, women who deviate from that norm pay a social price. …

“A woman outearning her husband could even doom the marriage, as the researchers report this ‘increases the likelihood of divorce by 50 percent.’

“When a married woman has a career outside of the home, she may opt for less demanding and lower paying jobs in order to appear less ‘threatening’ to her husband. Or, she may choose to focus entirely on child rearing, and work part-time outside the home or not at all. Such women ‘distort labor market outcomes,’ the economists conclude. …

“Moreover, wives who earn more often end up doing more of the household chores, not less. … “One explanation for this, the researchers suggest, is that a wife making more money is doing more chores to assuage her husband’s unease. But serving as both the primary breadwinner and the primary homemaker may be draining. That, the researchers point out, ‘may be one of the mechanisms behind our results on divorce.’—Emily Lambert.”

My Comment: Once we establish balance with nature, meaning that we will work only to the extent of maintaining a rational lifestyle, the concept of earning will disappear; a career will be the notion that brings benefit to society; everyone will be able to give and receive without causing jealousy; the basis of inequality will disappear.
[108141]

Related Material:
A Harmonious Family In An Egoistic Society
America Retreats From Marriage
The Extraordinary Lightness Of Being

Is Europe Ready For Integration?

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Yevgeny M. Primakov, Russian politician and diplomat, academician, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, served as the Russian Foreign Minister, Prime Minister of Russia): “Europe shows that no integration can exist without supranational structures. Now in the EU as a whole, things are bad, but I do not think it will lead to the end of the EU. There is a greater need for supranational structures, in which countries pass some sovereignty.

“These national structures manage the banking environment, the budget process of all the members of this union. If this does not exist, the integration will not deepen. It is important that all the EU countries understand that we need supranational structures. But the EU has expanded too fast – you cannot accept many countries in the integration process at once; they sink the union.”

My Comment: The problem is not in the speed of entering the supranational union but in the readiness of its potential members for integration, and this is possible only after implementing the course of integral education for the masses in these countries. Any union will break without changing relationships between nations.
[107351]

Related Material:
EU Members Will Lose Sovereignty
Where Are You, Common Europe?
Will Europe Reunite?

Increasing The Sensitivity Of Our Spiritual Perception

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we acquire the integral approach with regard to the whole world to all of reality?

Answer: Imagine that you tell someone about your work place, about the place where you live, and about the world in general. You are not required to make any special efforts since it’s your life, and you feel that the world is yours. You “breathe” it and so you can wander around in this inner picture mentally and describe it in words.

We should also see the inner picture of the integral world in which we discern all the details and the connection between them. The same rules operate here too. There are states in which I can follow the general connection between certain phenomena, but the details of the mutual cooperation are still unclear since I have not yet entered this area. I see certain parts in general lines and they are relatively understood, but when it comes to individual parts, there are problems and I am not sure about what is going on.

This is the process in which I gradually penetrate more deeply and discover more subtleties. It’s as if I fly in a spaceship towards earth or check the scale of a map on the Internet until I “land” in a certain part.

But there are also exceptions: In our world we see bigger areas but fewer details, and when we get closer, we see more details but a smaller area. In spirituality, however, it’s not so, there both the characteristics of quantity and of quality of the picture of the world gradually increase. I encompass the whole system at the same time including its separate attributes; it’s because in this system every detail includes all the other details.

By this wonderful spiritual “patent” I see the general picture and each of its details as one, exactly the same.

Question: How can I become more integral? How can I increase the sensitivity of this perception in me?

Answer: Ask for it. There is no other means. No matter what you do, add a request to it that is as clear as possible and you will see how it works.
[109190]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/05/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Horizons Of Perception
Several Details About The Picture Of The Spiritual World
Tune Into The Wave Of Infinity

Union That Attaches Us Together Forever

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom Rabash’s Article “You Stand Today, All of You”: …This is the meaning of what is written, “You stand today, all of you,” meaning everything you went through, all the states you have experienced—states of Gadlut or states of less than Gadlut, which were considered intermediate or so. You take all those details and you do not compare one degree to another because you do not care for any reward, but only for doing the Creator’s will.

…This means that then the Creator makes a covenant with him. In other words, precisely when one accepts His work without any conditions and agrees to do the holy work without any reward, which is called “unconditional surrender,” this is the time when the Creator makes a covenant with him.

…When two people see that they love each other, they make a covenant between them that their love will always stay.

At each level, a person experiences a state of confusion and powerlessness. One goes through these states when one doesn’t realize where exactly one should go and how to advance.

All of a sudden, we feel that we are not capable of making the slightest movement, nor do we understand why our vitality and spirit are gone. We read, but see nothing compared to what we saw yesterday or the day before. Sometimes, we don’t even remember what happened yesterday or the day before. We become disconnected.

In other words, we go through multiple states of closeness and distancing from spirituality. It seems to us that our union with the Creator works better at a distance so we remember good states when bad times come, thus continuing to hope that soon everything will improve and return to normal.

However, it is not so. The union is of a qualitative nature, not quantitative. Actually, it is not about our states at all. At some point, we manage to unite with the Creator not because of a good state we are in or because we want to retain our unity in our memory when we go through lowly states, but rather because our connection made Him happy and made us similar to Him. So, for us it makes no difference what states we go through: good or bad. Good states can be even more confusing for us than bad ones.

At least while we are in bad states our egoism pushes us forward and forces us to look for alternatives, thus compelling us to act. When a good state happens, it calms us down and fulfills us so that we don’t seek any other options. We are unable to change unless some unsatisfied desire wakes us up. At this point, we have to remember the union that we have created and pull this desire from the past into the present in order to carry on our advancement.

So, this “agreement” protects us not only from deficiencies in our liaison, but helps to make the Creator happy above all kinds of bitter and/or sweet sensations. Our union has multiple conditions that apply to each particular state.
[107685]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/13, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Applying To Work For The Creator
A Sign Of A Solid Covenant
A Covenant For Eternity

The End Of The Era Of Unrestrained Consumption

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We see tremendous efforts that America has taken in order to settle the situation in the Middle East and financial efforts (printing money) that are meant to stabilize the present system. But as it looks, it isn’t connected at all to change in man himself.

Answer: It isn’t connected because they don’t understand what they need to do. They don’t know nature’s plan. They have no concept of the system of integrality, and thus all their attempts bring and will bring only bigger and bigger developments of crisis. The attempts are produced because we will be breaking nature instead of correcting ourselves to match it. This is their mistake.

Question: But according to modern man’s perception, man himself is a closed system and it’s impossible to do anything with it. What is possible is to use this in some way as a buyer and make him work well.

Answer: It’s already impossible to do all of this. You can’t make buyers out of them. First of all, these relations are completely different than before. Secondly, in a person, the desires change not only in quantity, but also in quality. Today, it’s difficult to make people be crazy consumers, even if you require it from them through all the communication media and public relations. Gradually it’s ending since people change, since we develop, evolve.

During many thousands of years, we were realizing our infinite desires. And then afterwards, in the last 50 to 60 years, they taught us to build a society of unrestrained consumption: I work, I buy, I throw away, and again I work, buy, and throw away. What for? So that dollars will collect in someone’s bank account.

It’s now ending. You can’t require a man to work, to buy, and throw away and again work, buy and throw away. He has begun to be tired of this. His ego has begun to be processed, like everything is processed in nature, and to change qualitatively. Our next needs are found in another area.

A person is already tired of serving his body and running from store to store searching for what he saw yesterday on TV. Today, more meaningful desires awaken in him. We are slowly moving towards the next level. The question is asked, “Why do we exist?” And this is the next level of development.

And here you can’t bring satisfaction to people with new rags or the latest phones. You can’t because there is a time production through all means.
[108371]
From KabTV’s “Through Time” 3/17/13

Related Material:
A New Stage Of Mankind’s Development
Start Corresponding To Nature Instead Of Trying To Make Nature Correspond To You
Against The Egoistic Urge

Advertising, Consumption, And Unemployment…

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: On one hand, the modern person’s requirements for new desires have been awakened, and on the other hand, people still want to buy an iPhone 5, rest as much as possible and work less; why is it that something new comes along and a person still runs after materialistic pleasures?

Answer: These are not a person’s own immediate desires. Instead they are the influence of advertising and no more than that. It’s a kind of collective pursuit; selling and selling to us all the time characterizes our times. Today advertising is an entire industry that amounts to 60%-70% of the cost of every product, which is to say, vast amounts of money. The problem is not in the manufacturing of something, but rather in its sale. This succeeds in becoming more and more despicable with each passing day and will ultimately explode.

But the matter is not even about the advertising or the disappearance and appearance of these desires. The main thing is the appearance of an immense crisis of the unemployed; people who have lost their jobs cannot find another job. So they must have some kind of pension. If you don’t give them a pension, the millions of unemployed will simply “devour” you.

They say that 1-2% of the workers from the entire world population would be sufficient to supply us with everything we need for existence: clothing, food, housing and the like. Many new technologies exist that we can’t even begin to imagine. They are concealing them from us intentionally because someone is benefiting from it. But if it were discovered that we are already technologically prepared today for some need, humanity would be completely freed from work.

It follows that the crisis is discovered on two sides. On the one hand, all motivation for working has disappeared because more internal questions have appeared for a person: “What for?  What is my entire life for?” He asks more and more questions relevant to the next level of existence, which explain the meaning of life. This always happens during a transition from one creation to the next.

On the other hand, a problem of unemployment has been created which is gradually encompassing everyone, including everyone in China and Russia. And so already there will be a need to do something, to decide something, because millions freed from work will sit at home and begin to descend to the level of the “beast.” If we don’t begin to be involved with educating and re-educating them, they won’t transform into the next level for humans, they will simply transform into “wild men.” A person who is not busy with anything even stops thinking and withdraws.

Apparently it will be necessary to provide a little for the unemployed so that they can live in peace and everything will be okay. Our industries are prepared to fulfill everyone with everything possible. This is no problem. The idea is that with this people will become totally amorphous; the entire human image will disappear from them because without obligations, without work, without interests, a person will simply “fall apart.”
[108449]
From KabTV’s “Through Time” 3/17/13

Related Material:
Where Does The Culture Of Consumerism Come From?
The EU Will Begin To Fight The Youth Unemployment
The Method Of Recovery

You Don’t Buy Spirituality Nor Take It By Force

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash,” According to What is Explained Concerning: “Love Thy Friend as Thyself”: If everyone is nullified before his friend and mingles with him, they become one mass where all the little parts that want the love of others unite in a collective force that consists of many parts. And when one has great strength, he can execute the love of others.

And then he can achieve the love of God. But the condition is that each will annul before the other. However, when he is separated from his friend, he cannot receive the share he should receive from his friend.

Thus, everyone should say that he is nothing compared to his friend. It is like writing numbers: If you first write “1” and then “0,” it is ten times more. And when you write “00” it is a hundred times more. In other words, if his friend is number one, and the zero follows it, it is considered that one receives from his friend ten (10) times more. And if he says that he is double zero compared to his friend, he receives from his friend a hundred (100) times more.

However, if it is to the contrary, and he says that his friend is zero and he is one, then he is ten times less than his friend 0.1. And if he can say that he is one and he has two friends who are both zeros compared to him, then he is considered a hundred times less than them, meaning he is 0.01. Thus, his degree lessens according to the number of zeros he has from his friends.

If I want to receive something from someone in our world, I have to pay for it in return or to take it by force like the big takes from the small. In this case the bigger I am, the more I can extort the other and receive more from him. That’s the way it is in the corporeal world, when we speak about receiving in the desire to receive.

But if it’s about receiving spiritual powers, it works according to an opposite law. The more important I consider my friend and the greater I see the friend, the more I can receive from him.

I cannot receive anything from someone who is equal to me since he is on the same level as I am. But if he is even a little bit higher than me, I can already receive something from him, and the more I raise him the more I can receive.

It has nothing to do with the friend himself but only with how I treat him with regard to me. It’s just like the students of Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma who had no idea how their teacher worked with regard to them. He saw himself as relatively smaller than his students and so he received spiritual powers through them.

You Don’t Buy Spirituality Nor Take It By Force
Everything depends on how great your friend is in your eyes. The greater he is, the more I can receive the force of bestowal from him. But if it’s about receiving egoistic powers, then it’s about a different principle according to which the greater I am the more I can extort the other in order to fill my ego.

So the spiritual power you will receive from the environment is only up to you whether it’s 1000 or 0.001. We have to be in a group of ten that is working on connection and in which each one is somehow connected to the desire to bestow like the students of Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma. But this is enough since everything else depends on you and the extent to which you subdue yourself!

You will never have the power to advance if you don’t receive powers from the environment. So the rule of subduing yourself before the friends, even by physical actions is the most efficient means to advance. We mustn’t think that Kabbalists tell us about this only to establish good relations the way we teach kids in our world to behave morally since this approach is opposite from the wisdom of Kabbalah.

We do this only in order to receive the force of bestowal from the Light, from the Creator, through others. Since I subdue myself, the Light can flow into me through the friend. If I treat others as if they are really greater than I am, I will receive the power of bestowal through them. It’s enough to treat them with the intention of in order to bestow and in the relations between us I will begin to feel the Creator and will be able to bring Him contentment. Through the bestowal upon the friends, I will be able to feel how I can reach bestowal upon the Creator. He will be revealed to me through the image of the group that I will see in the Light of my bestowal. Thus the rule “love thy friend as thyself” is the main goal of our work, which is a constant feeling of humility towards the friends, and accordingly we build up the powers of bestowal.
[108298]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/13, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
It Is A Great Honor To Be In The Company Of Such Great People
Love Your Neighbor As Yourself
Keep Your Nose Down, Raise The Group Up