Audio Version Of The Blog – 03.13.14

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In Europe, 13% Of All Young People Are Neither Employed Nor Study

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from World Socialist Web Site): “In the European countries, 12.7 percent of all young people are neither employed nor in education or training, a rate 2 percentage points higher than before the crisis. The ILO report notes: ‘The crisis has dramatically diminished the labor market prospects for young people, as many experience long-term unemployment right from the start of their labor market entry, a situation that was never observed during earlier cyclical downturns.’

“’Social protection is both a human right and sound economic policy. Social security enables access to health care, education and nutrition. Well-designed social protection systems support incomes and domestic consumption, build human capital, and increase productivity. Yet over 76 per cent of the world’s population continues to live without adequate health and social protection coverage.’ …

“’As a result, we are faced with a deep social crisis, a crisis too of social justice. Disturbing – and rising levels of inequality – in advanced and developing economies are widely acknowledged as cause for great concern. Today the wealth of the top one per cent of the global population equals that of the poorest 3.5 billion people.’“ Source: International Labour Organization

My Comment: Governments will have no choice but to provide the entire population, employed and unemployed, with essential goods and services. But it will not eliminate the degradation of the population, and maybe then the need for integral education and upbringing will be realized. Otherwise, there will be confrontations, pushing towards civil or international war.
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The Point Of Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, Letter #8, “Fruit of Wisdom”: “They say that there is a sublime purpose for all that happens in this world, and it is called “the drop of unification.” When those dwellers of clay houses go through all those terrors, through all that totality, in His pride, which is removed from them, a vent opens in the walls of their hearts, which are tightly sealed by the nature of Creation itself, and they become fit for instilling that drop of unification in their hearts.”

Question: The Light is whole when it is revealed, so is it called only a “drop of unification?”

Answer: You need no more than a point of connection in order to attain unification. It is like the birth of a new life, in which the father gives the whiteness, which is merely a drop. In fact life is created from one sperm cell, from one point of life, and there is no need for anything more than that. The drop of unification comes from the Creator, it is the photon, that particle of the Light, and there is no need for anything but that. Everything else comes from the created being, from his readiness, and then he reaches complete adhesion.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/14

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Truth And Benefit

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In the beginning our work is tiring, and after that it keeps us busy and overtakes us….

Answer: This depends upon your skill. If you become an expert in your occupation, then work is a pleasure for you. When you enjoy what you are doing and your work is not felt as a burden but as pleasure, as self-expression,and then you don’t feel tired, like true artists who fall asleep at the easel from physical exhaustion and not because they detached themselves from the work.

Question: Sometimes I am so tired that without connection to the spiritual uplift and the group activity I feel that I am like a servant who doesn’t need anything. How is it possible to pass to a state of mutual cooperation?

Answer: We need to work together with everyone, and this is all. I know that there is no other way, and it seems to me that I cannot agree with this, it’s difficult for me, I would do everything differently, but there is no choice, it’s necessary; a higher goal exists.

It cannot be that I will advance towards truth because I gain some benefit from it. Truth and benefit don’t exist together. Benefit is only for my ego.

The higher goal forces us to advance. We give contentment to the Creator with this; we raise ourselves to His level.

Look for obligations with regard to the group, with regard to the friends, responsibility for everyone; rise to this level, don’t lower yourself. The Creator will give you all kinds of side-effects. Suppose that you are doing something good together now, He will push you towards a better job, better pay, better conditions, and so forth.

It’s impossible to accept this as charity or pay. There is only one payoff: I want to discover the characteristic of bestowal and love as a result of my work. Therefore, try to pull yourself closer and closer to the property of bestowal all the time.
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An Abandoned Child

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: While reading The Zohar, why do I suddenly have feelings which are opposite my efforts to hold on to the right intention and think about the friends, a feeling of actual hatred?

Answer: It turns out that I think and worry about the friends and suddenly I feel how the hatred towards them is evoked in me. This indicates that I don’t find the work desirable yet and that I simply force myself to think about them, and so this type of work is eventually nullified.

But it is a good thing since it is already a clarification that I lack the foundation. Indeed, why should I worry about them all of the sudden? It is as if I were given some strange baby and am forced to take care of him, but I feel indifferent towards him, and actually have no feelings towards him at all. I worry about him as much as I can simply out of compassion and pity, and then I lose patience and demand that he would be taken from me. He made me feel so tired that I simply began to hate him.

However, if he were my baby, I would endure anything and take care of him infinitely. This means that love gives us power. If I don’t have the power to worry about the friends in the group, it means that I lack love. It is a nice revelation!

If I worry that all the friends advance and that we will all be rewarded with a revelation while reading, if I worry about them gently and lovingly like I worry about my baby, I can actually measure to what extent I advance towards the goal. It is a very accurate measurement. This attitude towards the friends comes from the Light that Reforms, of course, and not just like that. So I should thank the Light that illuminates and gives me such support.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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An Individual Is Worthless Without The Others!

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen I think about the group I don’t see specific people and I don’t remember faces or names. This is especially true since people change a lot, not externally but internally. So I don’t see individual people but rather the general desire of the group that has to be given a form that is as real as possible.

So we shouldn’t think about specific friends but about the whole group, which I have already added into one integral sum. Individuals remain on the left side of the formula, under the integral, while I already think about the right side of the formula, about its result, and this is where I start working.

Question: But this generalization seems like some abstract concept.

Answer: It isn’t an abstract concept but a live one! This general concept of the group is actually full of life, while every individual is dead. It is like the elementary particles, atoms, that begin to connect by some upper force that is not among them. Suddenly these atoms turn into something that is alive, and then a process of metabolism suddenly begins between them, which means life is formed!

One cell receives from another, absorbs things that it needs and extracts materials that are bad for the connection between them. They begin to look on the outside for whatever is good for the connection and helps them connect. All this stems from the connection, without which they would be dead, still, merely particles: electrons, protons, neutrons, ions, etc! These are only elementary particles in which there is no life, and suddenly by the connection between them they reach such a developed form.

Then an inner and external feeling begins to develop by connections that are increasingly more complex. The connection between the organs leads to such an unusual complex combination because each one is ready to take on a special role with regard to the others and worry about nothing else. The liver, for example, cleans the blood that the heart pumps and conveys to the other organs, but what can the liver do without the heart or the heart without the liver? All these organs reach such a loyal connection between them that each one is ready to sacrifice its life for the sake of the others.

The body wouldn’t be able to function without one of the major organs, without the lungs, the liver, the heart, the kidneys, or the brain. One is worthless without the others. Notice how close and connected they have become, ready to sacrifice their life for one another and not worry about it. Each one worries only about the mission it was given and feels 100% responsible for everyone else. This is called mutual guarantee.

Before that there is no body. So the general concept of a group is not an abstract concept but actually the only thing that lives and exists!
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Unconditional Love

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I have heard that the love and the hatred that we feel should develop qualitatively and that in an ideal state we should reach unfounded hatred and from it advance to unconditional love.

Answer: The terms unconditional love and unfounded hatred need to be better and more accurately clarified.

Unconditional love is love that is above all reasons. I want you to listen to this carefully! This means that I have been over all the reasons against this love and I feel love that is above all these reasons.

It is the same when it comes to unfounded hatred. I have many reasons to love, and still despite all these reasons, I hate everyone for no reason. This is the state we should reach.

In fact, the reason that I hate a friend is meaningless since it is given to me on purpose from Above each time. I have to build up love above this hatred, despite the hate! Even if I don’t like the friend, I try to serve him in some way, to give him something, to support him somehow. If I invest in him, I will discover a positive attitude towards him since I invest myself in him.

Besides, we also have to clarify the friend’s actions: Perhaps he performs great actions, perhaps he does great things, and I hate him because he picks his nose. We have to penetrate into one another and then the hatred we feel towards a friend will transform into liking and even love.

Then you will suddenly see yourself in him, and him in you, and that you are actually one whole general vessel.

Question: In the last couple of days I have felt shame, love, mutual guarantee, the Divinity, and, at the same time, that I hate the friends. I can’t understand, is it momentary hatred or real hatred?

Answer: Hatred is certainly revealed on every level. It becomes more real on the upper levels, like we are told about Rabbi Shimon and his students. In the states that we now feel it is very small. It isn’t the hatred we read about in The Book of Zohar, but rather disrespect, some kind of indifference. In short, it isn’t serious yet. So don’t worry, everything is still ahead of you.
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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 03.13.14

Preparation for the Lesson

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Workshop 

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The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts 

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”   

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”   

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