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“How To Correct Democracy?”

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 11/10/20

One of the key concepts in Kabbalah is called “recognition of evil.” It means you realize something is so corrupt that you just have to change it. It usually refers to qualities you find within you when you’re honest with yourself. But sometimes, the recognition of evil pertains to the whole system, when you realize it’s long overdue for a transformation. This, today, is the state of democracy, not just in the US, but around the world. The question is what will replace it?

Democracy was a decent idea while it worked. It is preferable to various forms of autarchy because people can express themselves relatively freely, the justice system is more or less reliable, people feel they have a say in the country’s life, they do not feel oppressed, and their standard of living is usually better than in undemocratic countries.

Democracy did not spring out of nowhere. Humanity evolved into it after going through phases where slavery was the norm, monarchy was a given, and people couldn’t imagine anything else.

But human nature isn’t static; it is constantly developing and demands more and more. In the past, slaves were content as long as they had a decent master. Today, we can’t accept being somebody else’s property. As we began to evolve and demand more, we started looking for other ways to live. We went to the extreme Right and the extreme Left, but both were despotic and oppressive, and (thankfully) neither lasted.

In the end, we decided that the majority of people in the country should decide what happens in the country, while taking into consideration the needs of the minority. This idea manifested in different ways in different countries, but by and large, these countries were regarded as democratic countries and their people were regarded as free people, who have a real say in the government’s policies.

However, in recent years, we have witnessed a process where the difference between the majority and the minority has thinned to a point where very few people can tilt the balance one way or the other. We could already see this in the 2016 US presidential election, and it is even more conspicuous in this election. Whether Biden becomes president or Trump remains in office, neither will have the support of a substantial majority of the country. This gridlock is unsolvable and will result in an explosion, or rather implosion of the country and an outbreak of a civil war. There is only one peaceful solution: introduce an idea that everyone can sympathize with and translate the idea into practical steps in local and national policies.

In my view, that idea is “unity above all.” In other words, if you are an American (for example, but it could pertain to any country), then you are entitled to everything that a country should give to its residents. At the same time, you are obligated to do your civil duties. Beyond that, everyone, all of society, works on building warm connections among them, increasing solidarity and mutual responsibility regardless of race, color, faith, or gender. No one is privileged, and no one is deprived; no one is entitled, and no one is disenfranchised. Everyone gets their share of benefits and commitments, but focuses mainly on bringing their hearts together and forming warm communities that accept all factions of society.

We might think this is a far-fetched idea, that it’s unrealistic, but have we ever tried it? We are told day in and day out that the other side is evil, wrong, ill-meaning, and seeks to harm us. In the vast majority of cases, this is not at all the case. The vast majority of people simply want a peaceful and secure life. They don’t enjoy hurting other people and would rather spend their days in peace with family and friends.

It is time we tell ourselves the real story, the story of life, not the drama that media moguls insist on selling us because they profit from our agony and anger. Wouldn’t it be good if we could all unite? Of course it would, so why don’t we? At the end of the day, our neighbors impact our everyday lives far more than this or that president, so where is the logic in hating them for their political views?

In the coming years, we will see that the democratic system makes no sense unless the idea of unity above politics becomes the guiding principle and dictates every policy. It will become some sort of a pro-society regime, but it cannot be oppressive, or it will not produce unity. It will probably grow from a grassroots movement of people who have had enough of hatred and suspicion, and want to form real bonding in society. It will come from people who realize that it’s either unity or war. And if these people don’t succeed, then bloodshed is the only other option.

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Higher And Higher

1.02The Creator had a difficult task before Him of creating a man who would be similar to Him but still remain a person, that is, be independent from the Creator. He would not be inside the Creator, like a fetus in the mother’s womb, which is not considered to be existing on its own since all his life is via his mother.

I once wrote Together Forever: The Story About the Magician who Didn’t Want to Be Alone, which talks exactly about this. The magician was lonely and decided to make a friend. He tried to make a friend out of stone, out of a flower, a dog, out of something that is on an inanimate, vegetative, or animate level, but he realized that it was impossible. After all, there is no independent being who would stand against the Creator.

And then He decided to create a man with a great desire to enjoy, who will be opposite to the Creator, disagree with Him, resist, and even get angry and hate Him.

All this egoism must exist in our foundation so that we can feel, understand, and connect with the Creator through it. A person must necessarily combine two opposites: darkness and light, good and evil.

But the evil must appear before man wants to separate from it, to rise above his nature. This is why preparing for the creation of a human being is such a complex and lengthy process. It was necessary to create something opposite to the Creator, the desire to enjoy that gradually develops with the help of light, connecting and separating from it, that is, it works with two desires: reception and bestowal.

This is how the Creator prepares the creation: by building and breaking it, building and breaking again. And because He built and broke all the degrees, all the worlds up to the world of infinity, He prepared all the states one against the other so that man could live among them and rise above both good and evil, as it is said: “And you will be like angels, knowing good and evil.” And this is the point from which the creation begins, the commonly shared quality of love and unity.

We can say that the long preparation for the creation to begin to correct itself and reveal its true state has ended in our days, during our lifetimes. We are the first group that is trying to stay on the right path to the goal. All the necessary preparations have already been made to begin the ascent to the spiritual degree called faith above reason.

We want to rise from our own understanding to the understanding of the Creator, which is called faith. Our own opinion is called knowledge, reason. Each step begins with darkness, with what my nature requires, but I strive for the understanding of the Creator, and therefore I must rise every time. I do not act or think the way I want to think or behave, but I do what the Creator wants me to do.

The Creator is a property of love and bestowal, and if I fulfill His desire, I build a spiritual structure, a Partzuf, a system of connection between myself and the Creator through the group, the ten, and all of humanity.

I do not think about or ask for myself, only for others, so that they do not forget about the goal, do not stray away from it. I invest in them with all of my mind and heart to bring them closer to the Creator, and in doing so, I become His partner. I feel care and concern for all of humanity, bringing it closer to the Creator.

Gradually, every person in the world will discover that they must work this way. After all, if everyone takes care of others instead of themselves, then we will move from the path of suffering to the path of Torah, the path of light, and get rid of the coronavirus and all other problems. If we start thinking about unification, the world will get better by itself. We only need to correct our thoughts, and “everything will be resolved in thought.”

This will bring all the forces of nature that are now deliberately confusing our lives into balance, as if shuffling cards. Everything depends on our desire on the human level, the highest level of this world.

We will feel our true human powers as well as everything that is still concealed from us in the universe: black holes, dark matter, and all the forces that were active prior to the creation of the world and brought it into existence. That is, we will begin to enter creation and feel where we are. This is not a fantasy but real science, the science of Kabbalah.

And it all starts with the fact that everyone thinks not about themselves but about their friends, about everyone, and thus advances to the highest degree. Coming out of oneself is already entering the Creator because He is beyond our egoistic thoughts and desires. Faith above reason is the way to reach the next spiritual degree, advancing higher and higher.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/3/20, “Work with Faith Above Reason”

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World Flood: Covid-19

944Everywhere, as soon as there is a problem, we can enter the ark, the degree of Bina, and hide there. And then nothing can harm us because the degree of Bina is like a baby in its mother’s womb, protected from all sides. This is the safest place.

And after acquiring the qualities of Bina, we can add our desire to receive and start growing there. And then the ark gradually turns into a house in which there is also the light of Hochma.

But the safest thing to do when you are in a difficult situation is to enter the ark. In any flood that happens in our life, big or small, we need to join such a group that gives us the feeling of an ark, that is, the light of Hassadim, where everything is for the sake of bestowal. And then it is impossible to harm us in any way. The flood may be raging outside, but we are in a safe place, in the mother’s womb, inside the ark, inside the upper.

If we take refuge in the waters of Bina, we are protected by the upper degree. And there we begin to grow, getting bigger, and the ark grows with the embryo. And then it is time to be born, that is, to get out of the ark and continue to grow outside of it. It is written about Noah that when the time of the flood ended, he was able to get out of the ark and start building life anew.

But all this will happen later, now we are flooded by the flood waters, and all of humanity must enter the ark built from the good connection between us and the forces of mutual bestowal. Such an ark will protect us from all misfortunes.

Unfortunately, humanity will not enter the ark and will not feel the need for it without the flood, but only due to blows, problems, the fear of drowning in the waters of the flood. The flood is Gevura that opens in Bina leaving us no choice but to hide from the stormy waters. And this is possible only by connecting because this creates the true quality of the Bina.

The flood is not the real Bina, but Gevura revealed within Bina. And we create the reverse form, that is, Bina built upon the power of unity.

So, in the ten, we want to take shelter from the raging flood around us. And if we build the ten correctly, we will feel that no enemy will be able to near us. And if an unpleasant event does occur in the group, it means that we neglected to build the ark, which we had to strengthen more and more all the time. After all, we will have to spend many days in the waters of the flood until we can get out of the ark.

In the ark, we can hide together with all our egoistic desires: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human, and close ourselves inside the ark to be in common unity. Even though each would like to swallow the other, the ark acts on us with its power of bestowal.

All of humanity must now enter the ark, that is, cancel their egoism and want to unite. This is the very first correction, which means that we are building an ark where all the qualities that exist in humanity can exist together. And the flood, the stormy waters, is the revelation of the power of evil in the water. From all our desires, qualities, and thoughts, we must build a state where everyone wants to get closer to each other, that is, agree to live on this planet without any hostility.

The coronavirus is the flood that encourages us to build the ark on Earth, that is, a relationship that wraps us and protects us. Everyone treats others kindly without trying to eat them. Everyone enters the same ark and understands that they must not harm each other. And so, we all safely pass this stage, which is called the “flood” or the coronavirus.

If we had listened to the Creator’s warning in advance and started building good relations, we would not have had to reach such critical states as the coronavirus pandemic. And the blows will get stronger and stronger until we start to correct.

If we do not understand that we need to build the right relationships, then the upper governance will continue to destroy all ties between us, all our businesses. Many will have to drown in the waters of the flood, and only those who want to build the ark and take shelter in it will remain, that is, within the group where at least they do not harm each other.

The flood washes away everything we had before leaving us in despair and fear of the forces of nature. It leaves us with the only way out: to build the ark and nothing else. It pulls the ground from under our feet, all our foundation, deprives us of the opportunity to exist without either material or spiritual food. The upper force, which usually brings kindness and goodness, suddenly brings the flood down on us because we are opposite to its goodness. So it wants to drown us.

Therefore, we all enter the ark and must remain there for a while, like a fetus in the mother’s waters, until we grow up there enough so that we can exist outside the ark.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/20, “Noah”

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“What Is Motivation?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: What is motivation?

Motivation is a desire that elicits an act.

It disallows indifference and urges the realization of an outcome that is defined in the motivation.

As human beings, possessing a motivation that defines what we should realize in our lives provides our lives with meaning, and we should thus each have a certain key motivation in our lives.

Motivation is not only the energy to pursue a certain goal. It also requires a direction to an established and well-understood objective. Clearly setting our sights on a goal thus gives our lives meaning, and adds a goal-oriented motivation to our actions and behaviors.

“What Is Nature And Why?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: What is nature and why?

Nature is a single, whole and perfect system. It contains four levels—inanimate, vegetative, animate and human—and it operates everything but the human.

We humans are outside nature’s integral functioning, and this is the reason for all forms of suffering in our world. Our lack of alignment with nature’s singularity, wholeness and perfection causes imbalance in the system, and that imbalance negatively boomerangs back to us.

Nature has a unifying and adhesive tendency. It holds everything together, and it develops everything to greater and greater states of connection. Our detachment, estrangement and even hatred of each other thus harms the system we all share, and hits us as many different kinds of problems and crises. Moreover, the longer it takes us to wake up to the need to positively connect in order to align ourselves with nature, then the more blows we will endure.

Why?

It is because we were supposed to have already reached a certain level of positive connection above the divisions we bear witness to today. However, we continue following our divisive drives instead, and the ever-growing gap between our separation and nature’s wholeness surfaces as more and more troubles. The remoteness between the need for human connection and nature’s wholeness will continue until we realize that everything we have made in this world fails to bring us lasting happiness and satisfaction. At that point, when we reach a state of desperation and a true need for help, we might just then start aligning our connections harmoniously with nature.

However, we need not reach a state of total desperation. By creating an environment of connection-enriching education and influences, will be able to guide our way to greater states of human connection. And when we positively connect, we will reach balance with nature, draw the positive forces dwelling in nature that we currently have no sense of, and when we do, we will experience a whole new level of harmony, peace, unity, love, happiness, confidence, health and safety in our lives.

It is my hope that we reach such sublime states sooner—through education, mutual support and encouragement—rather than later, through suffering.

What Determines The Motivation To Live And Work?

626Remark: There are two factors that cause motivation: a person’s assessment of success and a measure of the importance of achieving this goal. If a person does not see an opportunity to succeed, then he will not find the energy to do the job.

My Comment: Three types of motivation are taken into account here: in intention, in acquisition, and in fulfillment. Therefore, a person should not only see the future, but see it clearly, specifically, be able to analyze it, break it down into parts, and reassemble it. He must understand how he will come to this future.

Motivation itself is just a word. But when you begin to express it in formulas, graphs, tables, in projects to achieve it, then serious work already begins.

Question: That is, if a person looks into the future, he should see the benefit from a certain action?

Answer: Necessarily, because it motivates him. Our nature is arranged so that we cannot work without benefit for ourselves.

Question: Why is it so arranged by nature that there are people who have no motivation? There is even no motivation to live. What is the reason?

Answer: It depends on the root of the soul. Nothing can be said here. There are people who want to live, and there are people who initially do not want that. It all depends only on how much a person sees his future and himself in it.

Question: Could you take a person who has no motivation to live and somehow give it to him?

Answer: I cannot give anything to anyone. I can only help the person develop motivation.

Question: Is it possible for a person to develop this ability in himself?

Answer: Little by little, bit by bit, yes. It is impossible to tell him, “Here, go for it,” because he does not have the strength for self-development. But gradually he can achieve this. It all depends mainly on the environment in which he exists.

Question: Sometimes motivation suddenly disappears and just as suddenly appears. Can a person manage it?

Answer: You can use the environment. These are people, books, everything from which a person can fuel himself.
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From KabTV’s “Management Skills” 8/28/20

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From Historic Individuality To Collective Intelligence

263Question: Collective intelligence and group effects are forgotten wisdom. Once our ancestors used this knowledge and then they were forgotten for many years. Today science reveals that it turns out that the crowd, oddly enough, has wisdom, and the collective intelligence can be much greater than that of individuals.

Why has this wisdom been forgotten and only today are we beginning to discover and use it?

Answer: Previously, humanity did not need collectivity. It first developed toward individuality, egoistic isolation of the individual, and the opposition of the individual and the collective.

In such cases, the individual personality always wins, because strong people who know how to manage, indicate, win, pull ahead, and lead the society. Therefore, society reaches out for them, is ready to bow before them, since it is easier for the collective to exist this way.

People differ in their level of selfishness. Therefore, the most selfish rush forward. The so-called “role of the individual in history” is very important in the development of human society. Indeed, thousands of years passed before we evolved to the decline of this trend. The role of the individual is beginning to disappear and be replaced by the collective.

We see it everywhere: in businesses, in sports, in groups. We came to the conclusion that a group that carries the power of unification, although it consists of many people, is a person. It is a group that is able to create something new and rush forward.

Remark: Humanity has been developing since the primitive communal system when people sat around a fire and decided everything together. Then 500 to 600 years ago, during the Renaissance, there was a surge in personality development. And today you say that the time of individuality is passing and collective development begins.

My Comment: The team is like an individual.
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 9/25/20

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A Kabbalist On the Art of Listening

961.2Question: What kind of listener do you consider yourself: ideal, above average, in need of additional training, or mediocre?

Answer: I do not even know. I hardly listen to anyone. I tried to listen to my teacher by simply opening all channels.

Question: Do you listen to your students?

Answer: I listen to their questions because I am very interested in answering them correctly.

Question: Are you a good listener?

Answer: No.

Question: Whom are you willing to listen to continuously? Is there such a person on Earth?

Answer: No, there are no such people in the world today.

Question: Were you a good listener when you were studying with your teacher?

Answer: I hope so! Even though I was not very good, I was still better than in all other instances in my life.

Question: What factor do you think influences one’s listening ability the most?

Answer: First, there must be desire. You must understand that what you hear can never be found anywhere else because you are receiving the information you need the most.

Question: Who, in your opinion, is a better listener: a man or a woman?

Answer: I think a man. A woman is more inclined to talk, to exchange information. A man tends to be silent and listen.

Question: If you could either hear or speak for 24 hours, what would you rather sacrifice: hearing or speaking?

Answer: Speaking. Listening is more important and I would talk to myself.

Question: Do you like to listen to other people’s advice?

Answer: In general, yes.

Question: Do you like listening to music?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Do you think you can learn to listen or is it a gift?

Answer: No, it depends on your needs. When you are exactly in tune with what you need, you search for this channel, for this source.

Question: Is there a connection between people’s desire to unite and listening skills?

Answer: Yes. Necessarily. Shared conversations, shared ideas and topics bring people together.
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 8/14/20

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To Keep People From Leaving Lectures

938.05Question: What is your reaction to the fact that ten minutes into a lecture a couple of people may walk out, and twenty minutes later another couple of people leave?

Answer: It does not bother me at all. I know there are not many people who want to listen to Kabbalah. This requires special development, rising above one’s habits.

A person must be free internally. And if he is constrained within his narrow framework, attachments, and education, then of course he leaves. In particular, I know this even from my relatives.

Question: Still, what advice would you give to a teacher if people leave his lecture?

Answer: At the very beginning of the lesson you can say: “If it is not clear to you, if it is unpleasant for you, you can safely leave. I give you permission.” By doing this, on the contrary, you will loosen the situation. And they will feel close, they will understand you.
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 8/14/20

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