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The Coronavirus Is A Wake-Up Call For China To Upgrade Its Attitude To The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 2/9/20

In addition to the illness, death and fear that the coronavirus has effectuated, the global economy has suffered a major $160 billion blow. In China, Apple, McDonald’s, Starbucks and dozens of other chains have closed their stores. Entire cities have been shut down and most of the “Made in China” industry has been frozen.

Humanity has yet to digest the magnitude of disruption that China, the country with the world’s largest population, can inflict. China has become a cold mega-factory operating to serve its own money and power interests on the backs of an impoverished sweated labor workforce. It has developed into a powerful and assertive country with its tentacles spread throughout the world.

The vast amount of harm that the coronavirus has triggered makes a clear point: Nature disagrees with such a quickly expansive self-benefit-focused approach. The integral and altruistic quality of nature requires each of its parts to complement one another, thereby harmonizing themselves with the whole. For this reason, it is imperative that we stop for a moment and critique the situation that the crisis in China presents, since humanity is not above nature’s laws.

History is replete with examples of the rise and fall of powerful empires that sought to aggrandize themselves at the expense of others: Ancient Egypt; the Babylonian, Roman, and Mongolian Empires; colonial Britain and France; the Nazi regime; the Soviet Union, and the list goes on. The reason behind every collapse is that, ultimately, nature forbids overblown egoism to trample the world unabated, with one country or empire having pirate access to much of the world’s resources.

More blows such as the coronavirus can be expected if China continues to fiercely expand its power around the world at the expense of other countries and populations. These crises could take many grave forms—lethal diseases, financial ruin, wars and more. The press of human development has brought us to an era characterized by inescapable global interdependence. There are no more empty spaces and we have nowhere to hide. The crises will only intensify.

The magnifying glass is now over China to undergo this attitude shift: to become positively connected with, and concerned about, humanity’s growth and success. We are all in the same boat. Therefore, if someone adds too much weight on their side, we will all topple over. China’s current egoistic expansion is doing just that. It is a recipe for disaster. China thus needs to shift its robust influence in the direction of benefiting the whole world instead of benefiting only itself.

Therefore, I hope that China and the world will rush to treat the underlying disease of the egoistic nature residing within us and not settle for merely calming the coronavirus crisis. When we learn to think globally instead of nationally, the world finally will experience peace, stability and harmony.

(Image of Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang who died of Coronavirus)

My Thoughts On Twitter 2/9/20

Dr Michael Laitman Twitter

Antisemites have discovered that the #coronavirus is a Jewish invention.
Just like the accusations in the Middle Ages that the Jews spread infectious diseases, and accusations of doctors in the USSR. Our progressive era is throwing us back to the Middle Ages.
#Antisemitism is immortal!

Democracy has outgrown itself, as the case has been in the past with Soviet Russia or Fascist Germany. The same has happened in the USA. Its development has been halted. According to the law of natural development, it leads to Nazism.
But the other side, capital, has expired as well. Nature is compelling a change of its very self…

Egoism grows and kills itself, showing its incapacity to manage a society that becomes increasingly more integral. Nature “outside of us” is leading to integration, while nature “inside of us” is leading to fragmentation. All of this is intended to compel us, people, to change ourselves from egoism to altruism. …Otherwise we will go extinct!
From Twitter, 2/9/20

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Break The Wall Between Our Hearts

laitman_962.4Let’s hope that during the convention we will generate such enormous power that we can break the wall separating us from the Creator, from the spiritual world, the wall between our hearts.

Once a year, at the World Kabbalah Convention in Tel Aviv, I sit before a massive audience of several thousand people. How do I feel this sea of people? I cover it with my screen and turn it into a spiritual vessel that I appeal to. I do not see people in front of me, but I see a desire that is in internal changes, in search, in hope. I do not distinguish between faces. I feel what correction this Kli is created for, how it approaches the correction, how the Creator acts in it and rejoices. It is like a baby who is about to be born and we are impatiently waiting for him. That is how I feel this state.

I hope that we will enter the process of birth at the convention. The preparation is already done, we only need to induce the labor pains—we need internal pressure from us and external pressure from the Creator. And then it will happen.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/20, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the Study Of The Ten Sefirot
Minute 50:00
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“Why Is Anti-Semitism More Conspicuous Today?” (Times Of Israel)

The Times of Israel published my new article “Why Is Anti-Semitism More Conspicuous Today?

“Jews are more loyal to Israel than to America,” and “Jews have too much power in the business world,” are some of the anti-Semitic tropes backed by 61 percent of Americans, according to a recent poll conducted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The study also shows that although anti-Semites have not multiplied in number, they are more likely to commit overtly anti-Semitic actions, thus the rise in attacks against Jews we see today.

What is causing this new pattern? What does it mean for the future of the Jewish people?

Of the respondents who harbor anti-Jewish views, if we zoom-in on those with extreme anti-Semitic attitudes, we reveal that the portion of Americans with such radical anti-Semitic mindsets has fluctuated between 11 and 14 percent over the past 25 years. That is the equivalent of 28 million people, a number that has remained more or less unchanged over the last few decades. Therefore, the survey concludes, the recent rise in anti-Semitic attacks is not fueled by an increase in the number of anti-Semites. Instead, this anti-Semitic group feels emboldened to express its hatred more openly and violently.

The World Evolves and So Does Anti-Semitism

In order to understand what is behind anti-Semitism’s recent intensification, we need to look at the process and purpose of human development. Humanity’s history is one long continuum in the development of human desires to receive pleasure. Every succeeding generation that enters this world does so with a greater desire to receive, i.e., a bigger ego, a desire to exploit all levels of nature—inanimate, vegetative, animate and human—for self-benefit.

In our times, the world has reached heights of development in science, technology, culture and other areas, all of which were supposed to bring about plentitude. However, instead of everyone living the good life, we find ourselves increasingly disappointed and struggling. We have reached a state where it seems as if there is nothing in this world capable of fulfilling humanity’s insatiable desires. We are unable to envision an optimal path that would lead to a better and happier life for everybody.

Why? It is because a new demand from nature has started pressuring us according to our current level of development: a demand to rise above our exploitative relations and positively connect. If we meet this demand, then we will experience a major transformation, nothing short of a harmonious existence for all people.

This is where we Jews enter the picture.

Humanity instinctively feels that the Jewish people hold the key to a better world. As the world endures escalating divisions and conflicts, there is a subconscious expectation upon the Jews to unify and be a conduit for unity to spread among humanity.

Such an expectation on the Jews emerges from the origins of the Jewish people around 3,800 years ago. It was a time when Abraham guided the unification of a certain group people in ancient Babylon, people who gathered around Abraham due to feeling the problem of rampant social division of the time, and who agreed to follow Abraham’s path toward loving one’s neighbor as oneself. Their attainment of the sublime unified state granted them the name, “Israel,” from “Yashar El” (“straight to the upper force”), i.e., a people unified by a common intention to love, give and connect above the innate egoistic divisive drives.

We have since completely lost awareness of our Jewish unity, and in its place, frictions and separation prevail. Increasing division among the Jewish people is felt as increasing social division around the world, and the more people feel problems and crises stemming from the divisiveness in human society, the more they instinctively feel that Jews are to blame.

Anti-Semitism thus surfaces as a natural phenomenon among the nations of the world in order to pressure the Jewish people to revitalize the unifying process for positive global change.

Humanity’s Dependence on the Jews

In his essay, “The Arvut “(Mutual Guarantee), foremost Kabbalist Rav Yehuda Ashlag wrote about the important role of the Jewish people: “The Israeli nation was established as a conduit to the extent that they purify themselves [from egoism], they pass on their power to the rest of the nations.”

Today’s world is like a broken-down machine in which all of its pieces are out of sync. Until we connect them properly, nothing will work right. Every person on earth—rich and poor, intellectual and uneducated, anti-Semites and philo-Semites—depends on the Jews to fix the wreckage, due to the Jews having what it takes to do the job: the method of connection that they originally received from Abraham.

The sense of dependence and demand for unity from the nations of the world will not calm down until we Jews begin to unite and pass on the positive force in nature that is vital to the restoration of the correct functioning of the global system. The world will then stop blaming us for its misfortunes because it will then receive what it ultimately needs: happiness, peace and harmony through positive human connections.
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What Protects A Person On The Spiritual Path?

laitman_963.8Question: Isn’t it dangerous for a person who is in a state of unconditional love to be in society? If a person does not have a sense of anger, he cannot protect himself. After all, our society involves using each other for one’s own purposes.

Answer: This is somewhat true. All over the world, there is a terrible development of hatred, absolute rejection of people from each other. A person must always defend himself or be ready to attack.

However, the fact is that when we talk about love, there are two remarkable qualities in it.

Firstly, we are developing the quality of love only for our friends in the group with whom we are going to create a common system called “soul.” In this system, ten people participate by working only on developing connection among each other. The rest of the people do not concern them, and they do not touch others.

Do not think that this is an egoistic action. You just cannot succeed otherwise. Our soul consists of such tens, which are then connected to each other into the larger states.

Secondly, when you connect through your work in the ten, a certain protective field appears around you, which does not let any vermin come near you, they are all repelled from you. You are not afraid of anything. You know that you are in a spiritual state that rejects all evil, and therefore, there is nothing to fear.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,”12/29/19

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Building The Future Society, Part 13

laitman_246Why should I believe Kabbalists?

Comment: Many people can say: “Why should I believe the Kabbalists that the Creator is the quality of bestowal and love?”

My Response: You do not need to believe, you just need to advance society toward this, bring it closer, carefully, and gradually. Why talk about it? Although this won’t do harm, people will not escape. Today they are in such circumstances that there is not much time left for discussion.

Comment: Now, many scientists also say that everything is so subjective that you can neither prove nor deny the existence of the Creator, but you can just come up with many different theories. It’s hard to prove something, as our brain works so that we can accept any theory.

My Response: The Creator is the law of nature. And we must simply realize this law, as the entirety of nature in its integral complexity is called the Creator.

Question: And you are not trying to prove it?

Answer: No. You can’t prove anything to anyone. How can I prove to a young child the existence of something that goes beyond his perception? There is no way. The only thing I can do is to patiently raise him, elevating him to the level where he will see everything and tell himself. Otherwise, no.

Question: So, it is impossible to explain to a person that there are two laws—the law of receiving and the law of bestowal—and when we give to society, we become like the Creator?

Answer: Why not? This can be explained, and very easily. We can see on an inanimate, vegetative, and animal level how these laws are observed, how everything is built on a balance between receiving and bestowing.

However, at the level of society, we do not see this because in it, on the contrary, everything is built only on reception, and bestowal is possible only if I can get even more instead. That is, in society there is no bestowal at all. There is reception camouflaged as bestowal.

This means that the laws of inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature need to be elevated to the level of the state of society, to the human level, and there they must be realized and put into practice.

Therefore, we need to see how this is done, how it can be so that in society reception and bestowal, plus and minus, exist in us in the same way as at the previous three levels. Is it possible or not? This, in principle, is the whole problem and all our misfortunes. If we can do this, then we will have a perfect world.

Here I am not talking about religion, nor about the Creator, nor about anyone. It’s just what the world needs, and today we see it. Let’s try to implement it.
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From the KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 2/7/19

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 2/9/20

Lesson Preparation

[media 1] [media 2]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,”  Item 142

[media 3] [media 4]

Lesson on the Topic “Despair from his own Forces” 

[media 5] [media 6]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Gatehouse of Intentions,”  Item 30

[media 7] [media 8]

Selected Highlights

[media 9] [media 10]