Audio Version Of The Blog – 12/10/19

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My Thoughts On Twitter 12/10/19

Dr Michael Laitman Twitter

The future exists only in order for us to annul it and draw it into the present. For that I have to imagine that the Creator controls me at every moment and for me there is no next moment, since I am completely in His authority.

“The long path is short, and the short path is long.” The Creator wants us to see ourselves not as the righteous who have nothing to correct but as sinners, and to rise above our defects, above our separation and inability to bestow.
#Kabbalah

The horse’s freedom of will lies in working against his desire—that is where he reveals freedom of choice: always being in the Creator’s authority, in adhesion with Him. The state cannot be frozen—it is always changing. I must change myself, remaining in constant adhesion with the Creator.

A person for whom the present and future are the same thing feels that he already exists in the revelation of the Creator now, meaning everything that happens is a manifestation of the upper force’s actions.

“Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before”—in the Creator’s revelation and concealment. “His Kingdom rules over all”—everything will return to its root, “There is no place that is free from Him”—the difference is, whether it’s in the “present” or in the “future.” One who merits uniting both worlds reveals them in the “present.”

It is an error to think that I decided or did anything wrong in the past, which led to a bad state today. By that I deny the Creator’s singularity, asserting that His governance did not exist in the past and I was in control. It’s forbidden to regret about the past. I must adhere to the present.

I reveal that I am a sinner and strive to become righteous. The righteous is the one who justifies the Creator. Nothing is required of us except this justification—everything else is done from above.
#Kabbalah

I decide whether the path is long or short based on the ability to justify the Creator. I may be at the very beginning of the path, but I attach myself to the Creator completely. It is not the state itself that matters to Him but our efforts, for we cherish a baby’s efforts in trifling matters and are touched by them more than by teenager’s achievements.

The Creator always controls us, like a rider controls a horse, leading it toward goodness. If I reveal the good upper governance, then the difference between the present and future disappears for me—everything ends at the present moment. As soon as I attain adhesion with the Creator, time disappears.

One can be detached from the Creator, but this is an opportunity to show one’s devotion and closeness to Him. Thus, the long path becomes short. While the short path becomes long if one thinks that he’s already close to the Creator. Judging based on the ability to justify the Creator—we’ll reach correction.
From Twitter, 12/10/19

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My Thoughts On Twitter 12/5/19
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“Media Thriving On Increasingly Egoistic Society” (Medium)

Medium published my new article “Media Thriving on Increasingly Egoistic Society.”

Take a step back to view human society worldwide as a human body for a moment, and what would you see? You would see its immune system hardly functioning, and the organs that should be forming a unified and healthy body disintegrating.

Problems on personal, social and global scales are on the rise, from depression, stress, loneliness, emptiness, anxiety, xenophobia, drug abuse and suicide, through to income equality, poverty, climate change and natural disasters, and despite countless efforts to deal with these problems, there is an enveloping deeper layer to them all that demands attention.

What is that deeper layer? It is none other than the human ego, i.e., self-love and self-concern overblown in every organ, bringing about the degeneration of the entire organism.

The human ego has undergone a recent growth spurt, reaching record levels: it has detached itself from all previously accepted norms, broken free from law and order, and it cruelly runs over established frameworks.

Who can resist the ego when it proudly inflates its chest? What law will block it? What factor can deter it?

The Media in an Egoistic Society

The ego has a strong backing: the media.

Today, the media, and social media in particular, enjoys widespread influence and power that it never had before. At any given moment, public opinion can be swerved one way or another. With a bag full of cash, you can buy advertising spaces, sponsored posts, and other media slots, slapping whatever you like in front of people’s faces.

Money can buy fame, and fame can overwhelm everything. Day after day, one washes the other, until all are gradually weakened and surrender, and the awareness of all the organs — the police and the lawyers, the educators and the judges, the leaders and the citizens — all fall before the media. Day in and day out, the illness of the body increases; the care for other people lessens, hatred for other people becomes greater, and the cancer eating away at the body of human society proliferates toward the body’s death.

A Positive Direction for the Media Heading into the Future

The media around the world needs to be informative and objective, not captive in the hands of people and groups with wealth and power interests. It should know its limits. The media has a role to bring us together and serve as an instrument designed to connect all organs in a single healthy body.

How good would it be if all different parts of society would sit together — the left and the right, the religious and the secular, representative of all different interest groups and those at the margins of society — and all work together for one boss: the benefit of the public. All their decisions would answer to it and it alone. Every opinion would have its own space, no opinion would be subjugated, and no voice would be silenced. They would sit and discuss in a wide forum, discuss positions with experts, delve into the data, quarrel and make up until they would reach a common decision and a common message to be disseminated.

A new rule would guide their work: publishing news and content that contributes to the public’s well-being, which strives to unite human society. No one would have the right to debilitate another opinion, but only to balance it with other positions and guide the varying points toward mutual complementarity. If the media would reach no agreement, then no public announcement would be made. On the other hand, only when the information benefits all would it come out. Such media pluralism would begin the process of healing the illness of a fractured society.

A Positive Direction for Leadership Heading into the Future

However, not only should the media act in unison, but also leadership. If all views seek to complement each other, they would pave a golden path. Representatives of all different sectors of the public would sit around a round table, and aim to become a unifying model for today’s society. Such a leadership would be considered a true democracy: the rule of the people, the rule of the majority, the rule of the elected representation.

The essential and decisive stage would be to lead participants to feel unified and to create synergy upon the differing opinions. Precisely when opposites reach mutual acceptance, society reaches a new stage of development. Such leadership is what our global and interconnected world needs today.

The introduction of a just and equal rule can make decisions for all based on the knowledge that they would benefit the entire body. In such a society, there would be no need for a star who would rise today and fall tomorrow, but it would suffice to have a circle of as many diverse opinions as possible. It would be the brain of the body of society, and all would follow it willingly.

With such leadership no one would be asked to give up his or her private opinion. It would remain and be enriched by other diverse and even opposing ideas. The new situation, which would include every possible contradiction, would give birth to a new development, giving everyone an equal place in society. Everyone’s unique contribution would be there for all to see. This is the wonder of mutual creation.

Just as every cell, organ or system in the human body wisely acts together to insure the sustenance and health of the entire body, all opinions would weave together to ultimately benefit the whole body of human society.

While it seems like a utopian fantasy to envision the media and society’s leadership working in such unification, it is only due to the fact that we haven’t yet implemented any method to connect in such a way. The method that can make such positive connection possible rests in the method that Abraham brought to the world some 3,800 years ago: the wisdom of Kabbalah. Just a little effort to look into this wisdom with a fresh mind, and it will soon become evident that there is a method capable of positively connecting human society, both diagnosing the root cause of all modern-day problems, and offering a method to solve them, thereby bringing about a harmonious existence for all.
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Spiritual Geography, Part 2

laitman_740.01Spiritual Influences on the Land of Israel

Question: You explained that there are five sources of influence on the Earth, in particular, on the land of Israel. The first source is the root, the thought, the beginning of everything, the quality of the Creator, the force of bestowal.

Next, four types of influence correspond to four phases of the spreading of the light, the creation of the created being. Each of them influences a certain part of the Earth.

The root, which is the beginning of everything, the thought, Keter, influences the part of the Earth that is called Mount Hermon. Hochma influences the Upper Galilee, and so on. What is this Kabbalistic geography?

Answer: Since each upper influence occurs through five phases that are determined in the upper world, our country is also divided into five parts. Then they are divided into twelve parts and so on. It all depends on what aspect of the division we are talking about.

From a geographical point of view, Mount Hermon is Keter, Galilee is Hochma, the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) is Bina, the Jordan river up to Jerusalem is Zeir Anpin, and below it begins the movement toward Malchut, to the Dead Sea and stretches up to Eilat, to the Red Sea.

Remark: The great Kabbalists Ari and Baal HaSulam also mention countries such as Jordan and Syria.

My Comment: This is a different kind of division, not the Land of Israel, but other lands. Yet, again in the center of the influence of the upper force is the Land of Israel and then next to it Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Babylon, also five parts.

All other countries are divided any way you like, it does not matter.

Question: It is interesting that Kabbalists clearly define these borders even hundreds and thousands of years ago. Does it mean that it is not about countries, but rather about spiritual influence?

Answer: In the spiritual worlds, there is a prototype of these influences that later are reflected in the matter of our world.

Question: Does it mean that a person who is in spirituality can somehow feel where within him Lebanon and Syria are?

Answer: Of course, he absolutely clearly feels different qualities and how to vary and manage them.

Question: Is Hermon from the word “harmony”?

Answer: This is the upper harmony because Keter is the basis of everything that descends to our world.

Question: If a person comes down from Mount Hermon to the Upper Galilee, does he feel that this is Hochma?

Answer: An ordinary person feels nothing except the difference in air pressure. A Kabbalist, however, depending on his or her interaction with our world, can turn this on and off within himself.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/28/19

Related Material:
Spiritual Geography, Part 1
The Spiritual Roots Of Nations And Peoples
Egyptian Pyramids and Spiritual Geography

Male And Female, Part 10

Laitman_506.5Is it possible to change your spouse’s character?

Remark: We understand that freedom of will is only in selecting the environment and it is not possible to change the basic qualities of a person.

My Comment: There is no need to change them.

Question: Should we not try to demand that our spouses change their qualities?

Answer: In no way! They are given to us from nature and will remain the same. The only thing we can do is combine their use for the benefit of our connection so that in this connection between us we would reveal the upper force. This is our goal, our reward.

Freedom of choice is only in the fact that both I and the opposite party annul ourselves and form such a place on this mutual annulment in which we will discover the upper force, as it is written, “Husband and wife, the Creator between them.”
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 12/31/18

Related Material:
Male And Female, Part 9
Male And Female, Part 8
Male And Female, Part 7

New Life 14 – The Path To Happiness

New Life 14 – The Path To Happiness
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Moshe Admoni and Limor Sofer-Patman

Humanity is in despair since we can no longer satisfy ourselves through competition with others at work and at home. Happiness is attained through a sense of balance and tranquility or lack of pressure. We are experiencing the emptiness that awaits us when the goal is to attain pleasure and avoid pain. We need to aim for a new level of enjoyment that can only be discovered through mutual love and reciprocity. Nature is inviting us to connect with the whole world and realize that we are interdependent. We need to invert our nature and discover the new paradigm by correcting the connection between us. The crisis we find ourselves in is an opportunity to grow and give birth to a whole new level of connection and happiness for all of humanity.
From Kab TV’s “New Life 14 – The Path To Happiness,” 1/17/12

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 12/10/19

Lesson Preparation

[media 1] [media 2]

Lesson on the Topic “The Conditions for Raising Oneself Above One’s Circle”

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” Item 22

[media 5] [media 6]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 134

[media 7] [media 8]