Audio Version Of The Blog – 11/8/18

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My Thoughts On Twitter 11/8/18

Dr Michael Laitman Twitter

Humanity develops toward integral connection through cycles of convergence-separation. After WWII, people are once again drawn to isolation, nationalism. Only by forging a connection between people above their egoism can we implement integration without war, on a higher degree.

Capitalist countries have changed their taxation systems so that wealth is now distributed from the poor to the richest. The paradox of democratic societies is: people are given rights yet unprecedented wage inequality is created. Free movement of capital has enslaved the economy.

The world is in despair…
It can acquire reason and forces
Only through unity…
#California

For centuries religion lay claim to spirituality. But ego outgrew religion, now replaced by worship of a healthy lifestyle, with no room for life’s purpose past bodily existence. Healthy lifestyle is now religion and man is evaluated by health parameters. It’s the end of progress!

Stress is contagious. Do we all affect one another and infect each other with stress?
Kabbalah explains the laws of the network, our total interconnection.
When we understand this system, we can manage and influence it in order to promote it toward a good state.
#StressAwarenessDay
From Twitter, 11/8/18

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Medium: “How To Tackle Stress In A World With The Highest Stress Ever”

 My newest article “How To Tackle Stress In A World With The Highest Stress Ever” was just published on Medium.

We can extract key insights about the internal mechanism driving the upswing in human stress from the wisdom of Kabbalah. By understanding the process at work, we can become empowered to effectively intervene.

Crossing streets jammed with heavy traffic, approaching the workplace every morning to face an avalanche of duties, returning home after a 9-hour work day plus a long commute to tackle parenting, financial, health and relationship problems have become the dead weight of our modern world and the never-ending sources of intensified stress. Polls show that stress levels in the US are at all-time record highs. According to this year’s report of the American Psychological Association, approximately 90% of young Americans of Generation Z, age 15–21, are among the most severely affected.

The rest of the world is in no better shape. A study conducted by Gallup in more than 145 countries revealed that people’s reported daily worries, stress, physical pain, sadness and anger have hit the highest levels since the researchers began collecting data. In order to capture trends in despair or hope, the Gallup study calculates a Negative Experience Index, and recent findings reveal that it has risen from 23 to 30, representing a major 30% increase over the past decade.

Stress levels, in particular, among Americans are higher than the overall world average, according to the Gallup study of 154,000 people. Surpassed only by Greece, the US population is now more stressed out than any other people in the world. Findings from the 2017 American Psychological Association’s “Stress in America” annual survey indicate that as many as 63% of Americans are stressed about the future of the nation, money, work, the political climate, violence and crime.

This frightening phenomenon of escalating stress that we are experiencing today also affects people’s health and well-being. Chronic stress is found to be related to multiple health-related problems: heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and depression, to name only a few.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

There is, and how brightly the light shines depends on us. From the wisdom of Kabbalah, we can extract key insights about the internal mechanism driving the upswing in human stress, and by understanding the process at work, we can become empowered to effectively intervene.

The Origin of Stress: The Human Ego

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the origin of stress, as well as all the ills and misfortunes that rule our lives, can be traced back to the ego, the part of human nature that constantly pushes us to achieve the unattainable.

A person is a desire to receive pleasure, and there is a sensation of calmness and satisfaction if pleasure is received. However, from generation to generation, our desire for pleasure constantly grows, and along with it, the demand for fulfillment which then also multiplies the efforts we need to exert to achieve our goals. This is the process driving the trend for life to become increasingly stressful over the years.

Today, we are bombarded by external pressures from the media, from the Internet, from all aspects of the environment that dictate the standards we are expected to meet: travel to fancy or exotic places, achievement of the highest professional success, respect and admiration from our peers. In short, we are spurred at every turn to stand out from the crowd at any cost. With everyone beating their way up the same mountain, we are forced to build our success atop the failures of others. As a result of the constant pressure of this ruthless competition, we live under permanent stress.

Living as we do in a society that is completely controlled by egoism, we are unable to escape from this pressure even by closing our eyes or traveling somewhere else. Stress haunts us no matter what we do to escape. Neither antidepressants nor narcotics, so prevalent in today’s society, can erase the emotional pains.

Why Is Our World Built Upon an Egoistic Nature that Forces Us to Compete With Each Other?

The science of Kabbalah explains that stress serves the purpose of bringing us to awareness of our egoistic nature and its negative consequences that affect us on many levels.Ultimately, we are destined to reach disillusionment and to recognize our situation as hopeless, to understand that we must reassess our values and leave the rat race we are running . Then we will urgently search for a different route and taste a new type of pleasure in a completely different place.

This space of lasting pleasure that is truly attainable and sustainable is hidden in the environment. This is the fertile field where we can build relationships that will nurture us while we also nourish others, creating a magnetic positive ambience that illuminates our surroundings. As Kabbalist Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) wrote in his article “The Freedom,” “Thus, all its praise and spirit depends on the choice of the environment in which to sow the wheat.”

In such an environment that values relations of solidarity and mutual understanding over divisions, we will still compete to receive fulfillment, but in a whole new way. The one who brings the biggest benefit to others will be considered most successful. Pleasure from bestowal to others is much more intense than any egoistic fulfillment and it does not lead to stress. In fact, the more we give, the more we all enjoy.

Such a state will prolong our lives and make them better, more comfortable, safer, and more pleasant. An environment of altruism will complement and balance our lives. When this happens, we will also begin to thrive inside the integral connection between us and nature, that which has created all four forms of existence — still, vegetative, animate and human — and sustains them in perfect balance. We will step into a whole new world and feel the next level of our qualitative evolution where we will be able to control our lives.
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When Will All People Feel A Spiritual Awakening?

laitman_963.8Question: We know that it takes many years before a person engaged in spiritual work begins to feel an internal response to the rule “love your neighbor as yourself.” Will those people outside the group also require the same amount of time to come to this feeling?

Answer: If these people do not have an inner urge and the upper providence does not bring them to the group in order to realize it, they will not be able to do anything.

There are two necessary conditions: the point in the heart, and the condition of the Creator placing a person’s hand on the good fortune and beginning to help him in this. Otherwise, nothing will work out.

Many people in the world have a point in the heart, but for some reason they are not brought into our ranks. Perhaps it is still early or there are some other circumstances we do not know about.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 4/18/18

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Don’t Cut Yourself Off From The Creator

laitman_571.06Question: What does it mean to relate a thought or situation to the Creator? Is it possible to give an example of how to make this internal action?

Answer: To begin with, at least think that everything that happens to you at each moment in the head and in the heart, in the mind and desire, comes from the Creator. You just feel His thoughts, His desires.

Do not attribute all your thoughts and desires, whatever they may be, to yourself,  but only to Him. You will then see how much your attitude to these desires and thoughts changes, how they change by themselves and how the world changes through them. This is very interesting.

Naturally, you will constantly forget about Him, you will cut yourself off from the Creator. You cannot feel completely controlled by Him. Only when you connect everything to the Creator and acknowledge that all your thoughts and desires come from Him are you considered as a created being. Otherwise you do not exist!

Question: Does it mean that when I reach the state that I am completely not free I am considered as a created being?

Answer: Yes. There is no other state. This complete flow in the thoughts and desires from the Creator erases a person from the system.
[235294]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 6/17/18

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Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 5/13/18, Part 1

laitman_963.4Question: Is the appearance of a desire for spirituality in a person a matter of luck? Does the Creator decide when the person will awaken?

Answer: Yes, it depends on the Creator. Certainly, for a person, it is a matter of luck, a lottery. The upper Light that influences a person is what determines within him the appearance of this desire.

Question: If my desires are on a higher level, on the level of the speaking, will I begin to see spiritual phenomena in the world?

Answer: You will not only see spiritual phenomena, you will also feel the system, the network of forces that influence you and our world. You will begin to see the results of the influence of the network; and when you are in mutual contact with this network of forces, you will be able to determine the future.

Question: Do you suppose that every person who begins to learn the wisdom of Kabbalah must prepare himself to become a teacher?

Answer: If the Creator begins to develop the person, this is inevitable. As said in the article “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”: “The Creator puts one’s hand on the good fate,” meaning that he brings him to a society where that person can develop, and says to him: “This take for you.”

Question: Is approaching the Creator pleasant, or dangerous, or both?

Answer: Approaching the Creator cannot be dangerous because there are very precise laws. You approach the Creator only according to the degree of your correction. Your personal correction determines the approach to Him.

Question: What is reality called in the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: In the wisdom of Kabbalah, reality is called the desire that is presently working within me, and the Light which determines it. There are only these two elements in a creature and we can adjust the quality and intensity of the connection between them.

Question: How can the desire to bestow exist within the desire to receive?

Answer: There is no such thing. The desire to receive appears as something from nothing. This is the only thing that was created. Everything else is derived from it.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 5/13/18

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 11/8/18

Lesson Preparation

[media 1] [media 2]

Writings of Rabash, Vol. 1, Article 3 “Love of Friends – 1” (1984)

[media 3] [media 4]