In the News (from novznania.ru): “New scientific research involved with technologies created by people shows that these technologies influence our way of thinking and behavior.

“Radio – Information is perceived as truth, a person’s critical perception of the information is dulled because we hear the voice but don’t see the person to whom the voice belongs. Subconsciously the disembodied voice arouses more confidence than a real person.

“Mobile Telephone – Arouses a state of concern and sleep disorders, because people are constantly waiting for a call.

“Internet – has changed the manner of reading. Instead of reading a full article n in order, now people focus on key words, skimming a page.

“Social Networking Profile – Raises self-esteem because the social networks create an image of the ideal “self”.

“Television – Distorts the perception of real life. In a world created by television, good and evil strive to be absolute. As a result of this, people stop distinguishing between fiction and real life.

“Digital Cameras – With their appearance, people stopped counting the number of pictures. But the photographic process itself distracts the attention from the events that are happening on the other side of the lens.

“Headsets – As a shield against the outside world, headsets in the ears create a sensation of protection from the outside world.

“Computer Games – During the games the player is forced to carry out violent acts. The players are aware that the acts of cruelty are being carried out in a virtual world and not in the real world, but the brain interprets the acts as realistic. Following this, a subconscious feeling of guilt appears with the players, something that inspires them to carry out good deeds in ordinary life.”

My Comment: In my humble opinion, without a doubt we are living in an era of the rapidly changing human. But the main change in us is yet to come; this is a change in our consciousness from “me” to “we.” In the new consciousness we will feel a new world, a higher spiritual eternal world, meaning, free of all the vices of egoism, from time, movement, and location.
[159153]

Related Material:
“Eight New Mental Illnesses Brought To You By The Internet”
A Nation Of Vidiots
There Is No Happiness In Facebook-Life

Filed under: Crisis - No Comments →

Question: You talk so beautifully about unity, but what is one to do if unity doesn’t exist in their own home? I side with leftist political views whereas my husband favors extreme right-wing views. Our conversations about politics lead us to fights all the time. What can be done?

Answer: I think that you, and all the people of Israel, have received the opportunity to correct this situation. As it is said, “…love covereth all transgressions” (Proverbs 10:12). How is it possible to attain peace between us? Peace doesn’t mean that one defeats the other and suppresses him, or convinces him that he was wrong, as we want to do in general.

Peace means that in relationships with another person who is against me heart and soul, in all characteristics and opinions, we reach complete mutuality. This is attained by building a bridge of love between us. And then on the physical plane we are left with contradictions and oppositions, in struggle, resistance and collision with each other, whereas above this, specifically as a counterweight, we build love.

It is necessary to learn how to do this. The main thing is not to be afraid that we have two planes: a lower one in which we contradict and oppose each other absolutely, and a higher one in which we are connected with each other. This is called, “…love covereth all transgressions.” Specifically above all the transgressions and mistakes, no matter how many great contrasts there are between us, we can build a stronger connection of love. One cannot be without the other. Therefore, if we are talking about wholeness, about unity and even about love, this is talking about two planes. It is impossible otherwise. It is possible to build a connection only above all the disturbances, frictions, and differences between us.

So nobody is allowed to demand that the other change. There can be no coercion, neither religious nor secular, from either side and in anything. Each one must remain as he is. If he wants to change, he wants this by himself. And we only need to learn by ourselves and to teach ourselves how to build love as an umbrella that covers us all, even though we oppose each other. And precisely then our love can be permanent, without being transitory, great and flourishing due to the fact that inside rage flames of our opposition to each other.
[159131]
From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 5/3/15

Related Material:
The Far-Reaching Implications Of Domestic Quarreling
So That It Will Be Warm At Home
Playing In Love

Filed under: Education, Israel, Man and Woman, Nations of the World - No Comments →

Question: I have read that according to research data certain regions of the brain reach their maximum functioning only at around the age of 50 and the ability to assess the emotional state of other people, which is a measure of wit and wisdom, reaches its peak at about the age of 40-50.

At the same time, there is no specific age in which a person’s reaches the ultimate peak of his cognitive abilities. The structure of the brain constantly changes and certain abilities can grow and become more dominant while another can deteriorate.

As we all know, the speed of data (incoming information perceived) reaches its peak when a person is in his 20’s. Short-term memory is at its peak at about the age of 25 and at about the age of 35 it begins to deteriorate. Isn’t the answer as to why it is forbidden to study the wisdom of Kabbalah before the age of 40 hidden here?

Answer: Correcting our egoistic nature to an altruistic one isn’t a result of understanding the material we study, but only the result of using it correctly in order to correct one’s self as a result of the study with the intention of summoning the special force of correction the Surrounding Light, the Light that Reforms (Ohr Makif).

Summoning the correction of our nature by resembling the Creator is called spiritual work (God’s work, “Avodat Hashem“) or a prayer, a request for correction, raising MAN (Aliyat MAN). Brains and wisdom are a result of our correction by the Light. This is the reason that a person can engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah at any age, as our sages said that during the time of the Temple, that even small will be brought up of the spirit of bestowal and will attain the Creator in infancy.
[156920]

Related Material:
What Is The Upper Mind?
Don’t Rely On The Mind
Attaining The Mind Of The Universe

Filed under: Health, Q&A, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 2”

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 9, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 8

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee,” Item 23

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/download/audio/eng_o_rav_2015-05-19_declamation_blog-rav_full.mp3 title=’19.5.15′]

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog - No Comments →

Question: You are inclined to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah by uniting the people through circles and roundtables, but what about the media, radio, newspapers, the Internet, flyers, etc.?

Answer: “Israel are not redeemed by sorrow and not by enslavement, not by being shaken, not by madness, not by being pressured and not because they have no food, but when ten people sit together and each one reads and studies with his friend and their voices are heard” (Tana Rabbi Eliyahu Zuta, Item 84).

We use all the other means of disseminating the method of correction as much as we can.
[157842]

Related Material:
A Circle Is The Form Of Existence Of the Corrected Society
The Round Method
Everyone’s Task Is To Be Integrated In A Circle

Filed under: Israel, Kabbalistic Sources, Nations of the World - No Comments →

Opinion (Thorbjørn Jagland, Norwegian politician and Secretary General, Council of Europe): “We have observed a collapse of interest rates on the interbank lending market that has practically reached 0%. This indicates that the world is about to undergo a serious crisis in 2015, the kind we have never seen in the past.

“Today’s modern banking system is based on positive values of interest rates in the real credit market. What will happen if the banking services for storing money will no longer be profitable? What will happen to the pension funds and to our savings?

“We also see a crisis of trust in the political arena. The global balance of power is changing and no one makes any decisions by himself. We are witnessing the changing of the world from a unipolar one to a multipolar one. The leading political figures have undermined the mutual trust between them by their actions. Will the current political elite be able to overcome the crisis of 2015?”

My Comment: We will be able to overcome the lack of trust and the resultant crisis only by a method that raises us above the general human ego. We must first implement this method in Israel and thus set an example for the rest of the world (see “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”, item 71).
[156891]

Related Material:
Europe Is Shaken
Waiting For The Crisis
The Banking System In Short

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, Egoism, Globalization, Zohar - No Comments →

In the News (from versia.ru): A new term, the New Normal is catching on in the US—’Now it’s okays’—same-sex marriages, surrogate children, female priests, househusbands, and so much more. But how can it be that pills with a narcotic effect have become ‘legal drugs’? 70% of Americans regularly use legal drugs.

“The use of sedatives causes the same changes in the brain as changes that are caused by chronic alcoholism. The popular consumption of sedatives in the benzodiazepine class is as addictive as heroin after four weeks. The side-effects are accordingly—hallucinations, headaches, convulsions and death. It is just about impossible to ‘get off’ these drugs.

“With the sharp cessation of using one of these medicines, the risk of epileptic seizures, stroke, heart attacks and hallucinations is great. The irony of tranquilizers is that are prescribed for nervousness and insomnia, but the more that you take them, anxiousness and insomnia increases. What this means is that you constantly need to increase the dose. The final stage in benzodiazepine dependence is ‘loss of personalization’—loss of interest in life, often leading to suicide.

“Manufacturers were aware from the start that patients become addicted to these drugs. Indeed, the vast majority of painkillers prescribed in the United States are similar to narcotics. It is no wonder that 15 thousand more Americans per year die from an overdose of painkillers than from heroin and cocaine combined.

“The drug mafia includes pharmacies in their fields of operation. As a result, nearly 12 million residents of the United States use painkillers not for medical purposes.

“The thoughtless use of psychoactive drugs by American adults inevitably leads to children copying of this behavior. As a result, American youth have their own fashion of ‘wheels.’ Schoolchildren take medication to treat ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), ostensibly to improve educational outcomes.

“But what is even worse is that one third of American parents believe that their children will learn better through taking medications for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, even if the child is okay in terms of intelligence. The parents try to protect their children from street drugs, but they don’t understand that the use of many medicines is no less liable to damage the health of their children. One of the researchers in this study found that taking antidepressants causes bouts of aggression in 14% of the youth.

Even though American doctors are aware of these results, they continue to prescribe more and more pills because the whole business model of the medical industry is based not upon health but upon illness. Giants of the pharmaceutical industry invest 60 billion dollars per year in sales promotion—more than twice as much as in research.

And so that research like this will not undermine the boundless faith of the population in the wondrous power of the pills, pharmaceutical companies donate an additional billion dollars to American doctors. This is called, ‘consultation and participation in research.’ Pharmaceutical manufacturers pay doctors so that they will specifically prescribe their medicines to patients.

“But even this is ‘small change’ compared to the 34 billion dollars that pharmaceutical industry giants spend on ‘free samples.’ That is fully in line with the main rule of drug dealers on the streets: the first dose is free—Doctors are bribing their patients into getting habituated to their new medicines. And this is perfectly legal—the lobby of the pharmaceutical industry took care of this.

“Increasing profits make it possible for the manufacturers to attract even more politicians to their side. As a result of this vicious cycle, doctors make false diagnoses for millions of Americans and prescribe billions of pills to them.

“After the legalization of marijuana in the state of Colorado, the number of children whose parents prefer to be treated with this drug is increasing.

“The marketing of marijuana sold legally in the United States is one of the most rapidly developing markets. In the year 2014, the expected growth in the market is 64% to the height of 2.34 billion dollars.

“Recently, in the United States drug parties have become fashionable: All of the participants pour the pills that they brought into a large bowl, and then periodically throughout the evening, they take the pills washed down with alcohol. Overdose fatalities in gatherings like these happens with disturbing frequency.”

My Comment: The general crisis of our egoistic nature is being expressed in all of our lives, and we will not be able to deal with this unless we begin to change ourselves!
[139903]

Related Material:
The Land Of The Dependent And Weak-Willed
“Forced Mass Drugging of US Troops an Underreported Scandal”
Prescription Overdoses Cause More Death Than Drugs

Filed under: Crisis, Education, Health - No Comments →

Question: Let’s suppose that a 14 year-old girl fell in love and is confused. Her parents feel this. Is it worthwhile to discuss it? How should it be done in order not to frighten the girl? Maybe we should relate the memories of our relationships when we were young?

Answer: That wouldn’t be bad. And even better is to wait until one of the girl’s friends arrives and starts a discussion about first love. To recall the time when we were young is fine, but kids at this age, as a rule, are under such a strong impression that they don’t really hear a thing.

We know that the development of the desires is carried out according to the pyramid: food, sex, family, etc. This pyramid is divided into many more parts. Usually for the younger generation, the most important thing revolves around sex. In adolescence it is revealed as an unconscious impression that pulls the child forward and he does not understand how, where, and why.

Is it possible to balance this impression with intellect? Here we must be very careful so as to build everything on mutual understanding, sympathy, by example, and with these issues one must be a friend to your child and not a parent. Indeed, in this case children simply don’t see their parents because they are so deeply within their experiences. For them, the important thing is what is happening in their realm.

I would try to organize a gathering of girls at home, and try to gain their trust as a child their age. Be with them; tell them what you felt at their age, what kind of problems you had with girls. Maybe your wife will also remember something from childhood.

But you need to play the part as a child. The girls need to really see you as being their age, although a little old-fashioned, from another generation. It is very interesting.

Of course, the kids will laugh a little at you, but that will already be mutual interaction. And the parents shouldn’t mind that the girls giggle at them as if don’t hear them. They actually are listening and completely understand.
[131303]
From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 12/11/13

Related Material:
Let’s Get Acquainted
Teenage Problems
Teenage Rebellion Is The Leap Into Spirituality

Filed under: Education - No Comments →

Question: How can a person break away from the spiritual path if his point in the heart draws him to it?

Answer: The whole generation that came out of Egypt has to die, and only those who are born in the desert reach the land of Israel. They either all die or they are all born as new people when they reach the point of Bina.

Being born as a new people is exposing the points in the heart to the Light so that from it emerges a whole image of man that resembles the Creator. All the others will die, which means all the other attributes in a person. It is just as we see in our world when a thousand come into a room and only one comes out as a teacher.

Question: Now when we engage in dissemination we don’t wait for this point to be revealed in a person, but actually begin to awaken it in him. Is this somewhat aggressive manner justified in your opinion?

Answer: I don’t think that we are aggressive because our primary motive is not to impose our method on anyone, but to identify with his suffering, his deficiencies, and his unfulfilled dreams. We feel sorry and identify with him and begin to realize that the pain and deficiencies he feels are a result of his helplessness and hopelessness.

He doesn’t admit it, but we begin to confess: “There isn’t enough security in my environment. Look at what happens to me, my children, my grandchildren. What is happening with the weather.” He complains about power failures, water shortages, about the large utility bills he has to pay, etc. He doesn’t forget local politics, global politics, and everything that is on the news, even though it doesn’t concern him.

If we take all that into account, we get the feeling of uselessness, despair, emptiness, and lack of purpose that are subconsciously expressed as complaints about everything. It seems that if he accepts it, then everything will work out, but if he is given a goal and told that nothing comes to an end, that everything has a goal and that everything will be fine, this goal will cover all his complaints.

People don’t die of hunger, of course, but they lack the most basic things. We see that it is impossible to fix anything unless we correct ourselves and begin to connect and think about one another. After all, there is an excess of everything we need in the world, but at the same time, in some countries half of their population is starving and the only reason is that we are not connected.

We mustn’t calm ourselves and say that it will all this will be adjusted in some way. It cannot be! This is the reason that our contact with the world today has become so vital.

The main thing is that the crisis is now evident in every aspect of life. I see how deep it is and it is a very unpleasant feeling because if we look at things objectively, it is like an approaching tsunami that is threatening to wipe us all out. Therefore, it is either facing terrible afflictions that will force us all to correct ourselves or prevent these sufferings with our explanations that will cause people to start correcting themselves before the troubles arrive. Animals can feel an approaching tsunami and escape in advance, but our ego doesn’t let us feel an approaching disaster in advance and deceives us by whispering to us that everything is fine!

Animals cannot survive that way. We are in a worse situation because we are disconnected from nature. In order to merge with nature we have to be in the attribute of bestowal and balance our egoism through this attribute. Only then will we ascend to the level of Moses and will be able to speak with the Creator.

If we connect to nature, we will be able to correctly solve all our problems and advance to goodness. Otherwise our ego will keep on confusing us. We are destroying our life, and the situation is really becoming threatening. I am not trying to scare anyone; everyone already knows all this. People have simply gotten used to the idea that a war may break out and there will be problems, annihilation, and death. We have become apathetic: Let’s live peacefully today, and what comes tomorrow, it doesn’t matter. The world is in a state of absolute helplessness and people cannot do anything with their lives, with mankind, with everything that we have done and caused.

Never in human history were people reluctant to have children or to think and care about them, and never did children leave their parents and travel far away from them. But on the other hand, we also see the other extreme today when infantile grownups (30-40 year-olds) live with their parents and have no intention of having a family of their own.

We have reached the last phase of the development of egoism that is already in need of correction. Therefore, it is time that we tell the whole world that we have the two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments in our hands. Let’s lift the iron mask a bit and expose our bright faces to everyone.
[130585]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/30/13

Related Material:
Life Is A Priceless Gift
Learning To Live In A Global World
Shortening The Long Way

Filed under: Egoism, Group Work, Inner Work, Society, Spiritual Work, The Creator, Torah, World - No Comments →