Audio Version Of The Blog – 09.12.17

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Newsmax: “Restoring Nature’s ‘Sanity’ Begins With Restoring Our Own Connections“

The largest portal Newsmax published my new article “Restoring Nature’s ‘Sanity’ Begins With Restoring Our Own Connections

While I am writing this, reports of hurricane Irma’s devastation are still pouring in. Clearly, nature has flipped. Scientists have been warning for years that global warming means stronger storms and increasingly frequent freak weather. But knowing this will happen and seeing it unfolding are two different things.

But this column is not about disasters. It is about hope and about taking action.

In my previous column, I wrote that our main problem is not natural disasters, but our alienation from each other. I suggested a practical way to create positive conversation and shared a link to a free download of my book Completing the Circle, which, among other things, offers connection games and ideas for conversations that help people connect.

A few days later, I learned that two young men, who happen to also be studying with me, initiated such a discussion with survivors of hurricane Harvey, and even filmed the conversation. If you want to have hope in the future of America, you owe it to yourself to watch the abbreviated documentation. These beautiful, intelligent young people did not know each other prior to that meeting, and judging by their appearances, chances are their paths would never have converged were it not for Harvey’s devastation. Yet, these millennials prove by their very conduct that solidarity throughout America is possible.

This horrific hurricane season will be over in a couple of months, and the fires in Western United States will be extinguished. If we put this menacing summer behind us and go on as before, we’ll have wasted a chance to make a real change.

One of the participants in the filmed discussion said, “The mindset that we have, everybody here sitting at this table, hopefully they pass it forward.” Another one added that when “there is only one goal, to help people, it restores my faith in humanity seeing everyone working together hand to hand … making connection that I believe wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for such a devastating situation, and it’s sad to say that. Hopefully, the media portrays that and shows that people can come together even without a time of need and that we’re not separated by belief, religion, or any of the other factors.”

Naturally, such isolated initiatives cannot change the face of the country. But this is nonetheless a proof of concept, which is why I’m sharing it here. The authorities can and should utilize people’s currently enhanced sensitivity and direct them toward seeing the power of connection.

After less than 45 minutes of discussion, the participants, who as I said, did not know each other prior to meeting, felt so close that they exchanged emails and phone numbers. If it’s that easy, given the right mode of discussion, why shouldn’t every American benefit from this?

In fact, human connection is more impactful than we think. In the early 1970s, renowned physicist Dennis Gabor said, “Till now man has been up against Nature; from now on he will be up against his own nature.” But instead of focusing on human nature, we are looking for ways to fix nature itself, and in doing so, we’re missing the whole point. Our own ill-will causes every problem in the world. Global warming, financial meltdowns that impoverish millions of people, war, famine, depression, substance abuse, inequality, and racism are all man-made disasters. If we fixed our ill-will, which causes all these crises, we wouldn’t have a worry in the world.

And the way to fix ill-will is by establishing positive human connections. This is why I am so adamant about discussions like the one I mention here.

There comes a time when you must look in the mirror and say, “I’m done blaming others for my problems; I have to take responsibility.” As a society, we are at that point. Now is our time to start “practicing” positivity toward each other. It is a conscious effort that may feel a little unnatural at first, but as we all know, practice makes perfect. And in this case, it takes very little practice to make huge progress, just look at that video.

If every person in your community attended just one or two such meetings a week, within a month the whole neighborhood would change. Going to the supermarket would mean going to see friends because you would know other shoppers, or you would know their friends, who would introduce you to their friends, and you would come home smiling. In such an atmosphere, it will be natural to care for one another and society will easily find its balance.

In such a caring space, the rest of our problems will sort themselves out, which will affect our entire environment, from human society all of nature. As it turns out, restoring nature’s sanity begins with our positive connections.
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A Difficult Path To Awareness

Laitman_001.01Torah, Deuteronomy 28:51: They will devour the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your soil, to destroy you. They will not leave over anything for you of the grain, wine, oil, offspring of your cattle or flocks of your sheep, until they annihilate you.

Gradually a person becomes exhausted and sees how egoism slowly kills him during his lifetime leaving nothing sacred: not family, children, or grandchildren. He loses connection with them and begins to feel that this is not his.

Egoism dominates him so much that he cannot accept anyone from his environment as more or less necessary or important. For the sake of his petty egoism, he is ready to sacrifice everything. And then egoism also puts him to death.

It is written about this: “They will not leave over anything for you of the grain, wine, oil, offspring of your cattle or flocks of your sheep, until they annihilate you.”

This is spiritual death. You eat yourself and do not know what to do. This is not a physical hunger, but you just feel to what extent you are becoming insensitive and distanced in relation to others, perceiving nothing and no one. And they look at you as if you are a monster.

We will endure many more such states, but eventually all of this will be accumulated in the egoism and will lead to its correction.
The most important thing is to realize all of this, otherwise there is no point. The Torah is given only for this. On the spiritual path, you clearly see that you are doing base, stupid things, and you even enjoy it, but you cannot help it.

This is the way to realize our nature in order to attain the nature of the Creator through it, which is the goal of our development.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/19/16

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How Real Is Our Reality?

laitman_766.8Question: You often talk about correcting the perception of reality. How should my perception of reality change and how will this affect my life?

Answer: When we study nature, we learn that different animals perceive reality in different ways. For example, a bee perceives reality in the form of a panorama with multiple fragments as if they were not connected with each other. Fish and birds have a completely unique perception of reality.

Right now, we are talking about sight, but there are animals that perceive the world through heat waves, like snakes. And dogs perceive the world mainly through smells, not through sight, like people. Therefore, it is obvious that everything is determined by the perception of reality.

It seems to us that we see reality as it is, but how do we know that this is true? In fact, we are just catching a few waves from an infinite number of other waves. If we could see in a different spectrum, we would see a completely different picture.

In essence, Kabbalah explains that the reality we see does not exist. If we would not hold onto today’s picture of reality and consider it unchangeable and objective but would rise above the limitations of the bodily organs of human perception, we would perceive reality outside our bodies. And then we could learn about a lot of phenomena around us that we do not see and do not notice yet.

But after all, these phenomena influence us even when we do not notice them. That is why we do not see what is going to happen tomorrow and do not understand why some things happen. Life gives us questions all the time and we do not have answers for them because we do not have enough information. Therefore, the perception of reality is the main question in the wisdom of Kabbalah.
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From “Answers to Beginners’ Questions” 7/24/17

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Why Does The Creator Need My Love?

laitman_629.3Question: Why does the Creator need my love and bestowal? Why did He create a created being that should love Him?

Answer: Kabbalists who comprehend the physics of the immense open creation outside of our small closed world tell us what happens there.

Do you want proof? Do the same thing that they did and then you will be able to judge whether it was done properly or not, and you will see how you will change your mind.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/23/17

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How To Reincarnate More Successfully In The Next Life

laitman_622.02Question: Suppose that during the course of one lifetime I will not be able to ascend the ladder of spiritual levels. Will I fall into a body distant from Kabbalah in the next lifetime? Or is it possible here and now for me to hold onto the right intention so that I will be able to be more successful in the next reincarnation?

Answer: What you are saying is that you do not trust the Creator and do not trust yourself and therefore you want to create some kind of insurance so that in the next life you will not find yourself far from the wisdom of Kabbalah.

You cannot do anything for yourself except to integrate with and join a group that studies the method for attaining the Creator and to hold onto it with all your might through the group. That is, you need to hold onto the center of the group and advance with it.

When you have gone through at least a few steps with the group, even before you have revealed spirituality and the Creator within yourself, you are still determining your next state and your state after your rebirth in another body.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/19/17

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New Life 878 – Integration In A Group Of Students Of The Wisdom Of Kabbalah, Part 1

New Life 878 – Integration In A Group Of Students Of The Wisdom Of Kabbalah, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

What is “integration” in a group that is studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, and what is its purpose? Why is it vital to be “integrated” in the desire of the friends when studying the wisdom, and what are the practical recommendations for doing this?
From KabTV’s “New Life 878 – Integration In A Group Of Students Of The Wisdom Of Kabbalah, Part 1,” 7/11/17

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 9/12/17

Preparation for the Lesson

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Preparation for the Convention “All As One,” in Georgia, “The Last Generation”

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World,” “Using the Nature of Singularity as a Subject of Evolution in the Collective and in the Individual”

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