Audio Version Of The Blog – 8/17/20

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“The Vaccine For Covid-19 Must Touch The Heart” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “The Vaccine for Covid-19 Must Touch the Heart

One by one, countries are scrambling to sign billion dollar contracts to buy nonexistent vaccines to Covid-19. At the moment, the development of an effective vaccine is highly questionable, at least according to WHO Secretary General António Guterres and White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, who both stated that an effective vaccine is unlikely in the foreseeable future, if ever.

We need to understand that the coronavirus is not a standalone event; it is the first in a series of crises that will eventually drive us out of our self-centered mindset and compel us to become considerate, and eventually caring toward each other and toward nature.

But even if a vaccine is developed, it will not end our troubles. In fact, it will only exacerbate them, and for a good reason.

We need to understand that the coronavirus is not a standalone event; it is the first in a series of crises that will eventually drive us out of our self-centered mindset and compel us to become considerate, and eventually caring toward each other and toward nature. The more we use every crisis to advance toward that state, the easier that crisis will be, and the easier will be the crises that will follow. Put differently, the more efforts we make to change voluntarily, the less efforts nature will make to force us to change.

At the moment, humanity and the rest of reality are on opposite trajectories. While everything around us is connected, we people think more and more only of ourselves. We are oblivious or indifferent to the harms we’re causing one another and to all of nature, and we want only to satisfy our most immediate whims.

But eight billion people cannot live like that; it’s unsustainable. And because nature does not work like that, and we are subject to nature’s dictates, as much as we may not like the idea, nature will force us to change course and align ourselves with it. Therefore, the sooner we reroute, the less pain nature will have to apply to us in order to impel us to do what it wants.

It turns out that there is an effective cure to Covid-19, but it has nothing to do with medicine and everything to do with our hearts. When we change our attitudes, change our hearts from alienation to integration, care, compassion, and mutual responsibility, we will discover that we have defeated the virus without even fighting it.

In fact, by doing so, we will not only protect ourselves against the coronavirus, but against all the future blows that nature plans to land on us to the extent that we refuse to align ourselves with its dictate: to become considerate, connected, and caring for our fellow people and all of creation.

“Is God The Laws Of Nature?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: Is God the laws of nature?

To start with, I would like you to read an excerpt by Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) from his article “The Peace”:

It is best for us to meet halfway and accept the words of the Kabbalists, that nature (הטבע – HaTeva) has the same numerical value (in Hebrew) as the word God (אלה-ים – Elohim) – eighty six. Then I’ll be able to call the laws of God the commandments of nature and vice-versa, for they are one and the same, and we need discuss it no further.

The problem with society today is that we follow laws opposite to the laws of nature. Human nature, which is egoistic, i.e., concerned solely with personal benefit, is a destructive force that opposes nature.

In other words, while the laws of nature are laws of love and bestowal, which harmoniously connect between all of nature’s parts and consider the benefit of the whole, the human ego divisively exploits other people and nature for its personal gain.

Therefore, instead of following the laws of nature, we have invented our own laws—ethics, civil and religious—and we have discovered over 200 physical laws.

It is as if we try to find our way in the dark, and slip over, hurt ourselves on sharp objects, bump into each other and knock down furniture by accident. That is, we enter into bigger and bigger crises the more we develop, with no awareness of nature’s laws.

What, then, does it mean to gain awareness of the laws of nature?

It means that we learn and exercise how to positively connect in society so that there will be an envelope of love and care in our relations. In other words, by connecting as a single whole in human society, we match nature’s wholeness, and we then experience newfound harmony, happiness, confidence and peace filling our lives.

Especially in our present times, as we experience tightening interdependence all around the world, we need the laws of nature, or God’s commandments—laws of love—to become revealed between everyone and everything. We need to see such an attitude as something outside our current reach, and which we need to learn and implement on ourselves if we want to experience better lives. Otherwise, we can expect more and more unfortunate pains and suffering in order to bring us to the inevitable same conclusion: that we need to learn and exercise love for one another.

That is why I and my organization, the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute, invest so much in spreading the message of connection to the world. We provide courses and an entire study and community framework for anyone who wants to study these laws of nature on a deeper level. However, even just encountering such messages as short articles, videos and other media online holds value in adding to humanity’s much-needed awareness about the laws of nature in our times.

It is my hope that such growing awareness will spare humanity from much future suffering, and that in its place, we will discover a world of love and positive connection, balanced with nature.

Fans

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In the News (Teen Vogue): In a now viral post, a BTS [K-Pop boyband] fan on Twitter used the seven member group to explain the components of an animal cell. …’I’m a biology major and I love the sciences so I thought it would be cool to incorporate my studies into it. … I thought about their respective personalities and roles in the group and tried my best to connect that to the roles of various organelles within the cell.'”

Question: Can we compare the way the cell functions as a model for building a group or a society?

Answer: Basically, yes. We know that every organism is made of contrasting parts, but they have to connect in a certain way for the sake of sustaining and creating a new complex integral organism.

The basis of this connection is that each of them bends itself in the direction of the common view, common role, and common goal. This means that to a certain extent each one subdues and lowers itself,  even destroys something about itself, and definitely limits itself in order to create one vital, multi-purpose, coordinated organism. It should be such an organism that can play with its different parts in any situation, and thus add totally different features from its internal attributes. What is more, these features should already be complex and of high standard.

For example, when different musical instruments connect into one gigantic musical instrument, an orchestra, their emotions, expressions, and sensations all connect, and thus produce a unique combination of sounds.

Question: When a nuclear cell is first created from non-nuclear cells, it is created as a result of an aggressive environment. How can a human organism be created without the impact of an aggressive environment but as a result of a positive impact?

Answer: It is impossible without an aggressive impact. There must be a common enemy of all the parts so they will begin to connect thanks to it. There cannot be a positive impact that will lead to connection because we are made solely of egoistic matter.

So there needs to be great external scares and threats in order to overcome our egoism. Perhaps then I will be able to subordinate myself to the rest, let’s say before a certain group, and enter it so they will feel that they benefit from me because I am ready to annul myself before them and enter them as an absolute integral part.

Question: Does this mean that now unity in society is simply impossible?

Answer: It is not possible in any way. Society needs to feel the threat of annihilation, and only then will it be able to think about uniting integrally, because the whole unity is based on my obedience to others.

Remark: In human society, in a collective, in a regiment, it is possible for a person who fulfills a certain function to say at a certain point: “That’s it, enough, I am tired, I cannot carry on any longer.”

My Comment: No. When people begin to connect to each other, they work in such a way that their unity positively affects them. They see progress and a positive outcome.

If at first we have to escape death, when we begin to connect, a new life spreads before us, a new level. This is a different matter. Here different positive components begin to emerge that draw us forward. Of course the initial state is merely the fear of death, which means escape from death.

Question: According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, what is the name of the state that we acquire as we cooperate in the group?

Answer: Unity—when each one begins to see a part of himself in others and understands that without connecting to others he will not be able to feel the new life. The new life is felt on a new level. You cannot convey this to people who do not feel it because you have to actually annul yourself and enter others, connect to them, and in the mutual connection between you, you feel the totally new state, a new life.

Life is where you feel others instead of yourself. This is an incredible feeling, and it is beyond the framework of our life. Your personal, individual life, is the feeling of yourself, while here, we begin to feel others and actually accept them as our life. This means that everything that exists outside of me is called spiritual life, and everything that exists inside of me is called corporeal life.

Yet I cannot enter this state and annul myself, even if I can expect good things and unearthly feelings. I cannot overcome my ego, which is an obstacle on my way to connecting with others. There must be a real breakthrough here, and only a terribly great fear can provide that.

There is a way to overcome fear easily: if a person enters such a group in advance, wants to connect to others, joins them, cooperates with them, and so on. In any case, a real entrance to a group is accompanied by fear of being thrown out, which means actual spiritual death for a person. The motivation is great, because by doing so I begin to feel life outside myself.

When I feel myself, I feel my corporeal life has come to an end, if not today, then tomorrow, but when I exit myself, I begin to feel life outside myself, which is eternal and whole.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/2/18

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Gather The Parts Of The Collective Soul
The 600,000 Faces Of The Common Soul

Managing Stress, Part 3

laitman_559Stress: Disease or Habit

Question: There are three main stages of stress. The first is the stage of anxiety. It is said that it is a positive one because it mobilizes the  body’s defense forces to fight the stress.

The second stage is adaptation. If the person’s body at the psychological or physiological level does not adapt to this pressure, then the stress passes into the third stage, the stage of depletion of the body’s resources, and the person begins to get sick.

Do you agree with this?

Answer: In general, yes. However, the fact is that a person gets so used to this state that he no longer imagines himself operating outside of the feeling of stress. He needs something to cheer him up, put him in his place, and shake him up. Therefore, stress becomes as if necessary, meaning a part of life, a habit.

Comment: It turns out that stress in the first stages causes a person to aim to achieve some goal. When he does not achieve it, it makes him depressed. They say that all diseases are caused by nerves.

My Response: This is absolutely correct. Nerves regulate the entire organism. The state of various systems of the body, their mutual, well-coordinated work, depends on them. Therefore, they cause all diseases.

Question: Can a person experiencing stress be considered sick?

Answer: Stress is not a long-term disease. It can be short and impulsive. However, it is, of course, a disease.

Question: Is stress related to the development of psychosomatic diseases, or is the cause of disease in another area?

Answer: In principle, stress depends only on a lack of confidence. If confidence disappears, then there is stress.
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From KabTV’s “Management Skills” 6/25/20

Related Material:
Managing Stress, Part 2
Managing Stress, Part 1
The Era Of Stress, Part 1

Why Do We Try To Change Everything Around Us But Not Ourselves?

laitman_961.1Question: We are always trying to change everything around us, for example, the leader of the governing party, our spouse, place of residence, everything except for one thing—ourselves. Why doesn’t a person realize that the only thing they can change is their attitude to the world?

Answer: Our egoism does not allow us to realize it.

To change myself means that I am not good, I must improve myself. Why should I do this? This is the hardest work that requires a lot of effort, energy, investment, and annulling myself before others. It is against our nature to yield to others. It is not easy.

Only if a person has a very big goal in front of them can they force themselves to do it. For example, if we want to achieve some goal while studying at the university, then it is more important for us than just lying on the couch.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 5/7/20

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What Does It Mean To Change The World?
Why Did The Virus Distance Us From Each Other?
If We Want To Be Healthy

New Life 1262 – One Global Culture

New Life 1262 – One Global Culture
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

History is moving us toward one common global culture in which we will be as one man in one heart. We will support one another mutually and value connection above all. It is only the human ego that separates us. We will learn to restrict the evil inclination in the human ego that wants to rule and build oneself on the ruin of others. Any institution that restricts people by force, like the police, army, courts and prisons, will become redundant. We will rise above the ego and connect with others above our animalistic wars for survival. The gains in doing so will outweigh the losses. We have no choice since nature is forcing us to move in this direction. We will realize that it is impossible to be nice to one another through our own power and will cry out together to nature to open our hearts.

Our collective desire and efforts to connect will raise a request for the positive force to nature. The whole world will be like one big house and a single family. We will live in harmony with nature without fear in a heavenly paradise.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1262 – One Global Culture,” 7/8/20

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 8/17/20

Lesson Preparation

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Lesson on the Topic “Love Covers All Transgressions” 

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

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

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