Audio Version Of The Blog – 1/31/22

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“Family Day—A Chance To Rethink The Meaning Of Family”

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 1/31/22

While other countries celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day separately, Israel celebrates its annual Family Day, to honor the family unit and its centrality to Israeli life. Each year, Family Day in Israel falls on a different date, as it follows the Hebrew calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar, and this year it takes place tomorrow, February 1.

If you look at the statistics, it seems that the family has lost much of its centrality. This is as true for Israel as it is true for most of the world, especially the western world. As of 2021, “There were 37 million one-person households in 2021, or 28% of all U.S. households. In 1960, single-person households represented only 13% of all households.” Moreover, “34% of adults age 15 and over had never been married.” Clearly, the family institution has lost its shine.

There are several reasons for this. First, people live much longer today than they did a hundred or a hundred and fifty years ago. At the same time, they are not taught about the importance of maintaining the family unit. When upbringing does not instill in us the importance of maintaining the family unit through trials and tribulations, people give it up quite easily.

In order to do something that is not immediately rewarding, people today need meaning. We live in a time when people cannot do what does not make sense to them, what seems to have no meaning. In order for people to maintain the family unit, they must feel that it is important. Otherwise, they will just get up and leave.

The world today does not support staying in the traditional family structure. People can take care of themselves financially and do not need the support of a spouse or a partner. As a result, as soon as there is a disagreement, and there are always disagreements because no two people are the same, they move out and move on.

Therefore, in order for people to choose to stay in a family unit, there must be a reason that is greater than the family itself. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, if we seek spiritual correction, then within the process of correction we will also develop a connection with a partner. In the end, nature will require this correction from us, and in the process of correction, we will feel the mutual commitment of a man to a woman and a woman to a man.

A corrected family relationship is part of our correction. Until we achieve correction, the state of humanity will continue to deteriorate. But perhaps if we can convey the benefits that a correct, spiritual relationship brings with it, people will not want to part ways. It all depends on the meaning that people find in their relationships because as I said above, without a spiritual connection, people will have no reason or ability to maintain family relationships.

Imagine You Want To Live In A Fairy Tale

600.01Question: In what situation can we ask for the power of faith?

Answer: We can ask for the force of faith in any situation and generate it between us at every moment.

To do this, we must imagine that the Creator fills the entire universe and we will act in the same way between us in the group. But only in the group, others will not understand you. If we work in this way in our relations between us, we can start feeling how the Creator really fills all the space, the whole world.

But then we will have to work in faith above reason; i.e., restrict our egoism and turn to the Creator only with the property of bestowal. This is the only thing we have to do—switch ourselves, or our attitude toward the Creator, into faith above reason.

And we will begin to feel what these words mean. They sound like a mantra: “Faith above reason.” What is it? It is not clear now. But we will gradually start feeling the inner meaning of these words.

Question: How can we receive faith above reason?

Answer: Imagine that you want to live in this fairy tale. That in fact there is no faith above reason, but you want to imagine it. Try. Make an effort as if you feel that the Creator fills the whole world and governs it as good that does good. And act that way in the group.

The group is the platform where you can work it all out and implement it.

Question: Does every friend have to imagine it or do we share it with each other?

Answer: You can talk among yourselves on this subject. But the most important thing is that everyone should care that such an attitude toward other friends appears in him. As the Creator is the good that does good, so each of the friends should treat others as good that does good.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Going with Faith above Reason” Lesson 5

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Mutual Guarantee Is Worth More Than Money

935How can we change our egoistic intention, which was given to us by nature and always exists within us, without any doubts or clarifications? It is called the evil inclination, which was born first. And now we need to give birth to a good inclination.

And that is why we are working together on our evil inclination in order to build a good inclination within each of us through mutual guarantee. We turn to the Creator. as if to a bank, and say that we want to build a building of bestowal.

Each of us has not a penny to his name, but we sign the mutual guarantee. There are nine friends backing me up, ready to sign a guarantee that I will be in bestowal because they will support me. Since I am in their complete power, whether I want it or not, I will certainly be in bestowal.

This is how we come to the Creator, and everyone signs a guarantee for their friends. No one can be a guarantor for himself because he does not have such powers; where will they come from? But he can be a guarantor for a friend, and in this way we come to mutual guarantee. Then the Creator begins to invest His upper force in this mutual guarantee that we have signed.

What have we invested in this mutual guarantee? After all, no one has anything, so no one can pay anything for the other. But since we want to help each other, this very guarantee helps us start building a common building.

None of us can be the foundation of this common building, nor is anyone its owner. Only due to the fact that each supports the other, due to our mutual support, does this entire building stay upright.

This is how we build the spiritual building. There is nothing in it; it is maintained only by our mutual guarantee and by our appeal to the upper force. That is why this building is spiritual.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/22, “Faith Above Reason”

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“Robin Hood Of The Trees” (KabNet)

KabNet published my new article: “Robin Hood of the Trees

Carbon is the tradable currency of the forest. Trees absorb carbon from the atmosphere as part of the process of photosynthesis and share some of it with fungi that grow on their roots. In return, the fungi give them nutrients and minerals such as nitrogen and phosphor, which trees cannot absorb from the soil, but fungi can. Now, a new study by the Israel Society of Ecology and Environmental Sciences has found that fungi do not use all the carbon for themselves. Instead, they “pilfer” carbon from stronger trees and pass it on to weaker ones. In a sense, they are a kind of Robin Hood of the trees, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.

Once again, we find that where we see “survival of the fittest,” there is in fact “survival of the friendliest.” The ego hides the truth from us and prevents us from building peaceful and abundant lives for ourselves.

Connections among humans are far more complex and intricate than those among trees. If we used them correctly, they could sustain all of us abundantly, even if there were many more people in the world than the current world population. But we do not use them correctly. We use them to abuse and dominate others. In doing so, we condemn ourselves to eternal wars and inevitable destruction.

Our egos are blinding us. They make us feel that if we share our fortune, we will be left deficient. In truth, empirical evidence shows that those who share end up having greater abundance than those who do not, both financially and emotionally, while the tightfisted end up on the losing end of life.

The current crisis in computer chips, for example, could have been prevented if we only coordinated our needs instead of each company stocking up on supplies and “emptying the shelves.” The shipping crisis, where ships wait outside ports for weeks before they can unload their cargo, is also an unnecessary result of our unwillingness to cooperate, to consider others’ needs, as well.

If we want to utilize the interconnections in our society to our benefit, we need to start thinking about how we use them for the common good, not only to benefit those in power. Otherwise, supply shortages will worsen to the point where we will have difficulty providing ourselves with the most basic and necessary staples.

It may not be natural for us to share, as it is for nature, but we have no choice. This is why we were given intelligence, so we can use our intellect to learn why sharing pays.

Nature has its Robin Hoods; we have nothing but a movie. So if we want a peaceful and abundant tomorrow, we must nurture the hidden Robin Hood within us.

The Only Thing We Can Give To The Creator

239Question: The Creator gives us everything, but what can we give to Him?

Answer: The Creator gives us everything in order to correct us in accordance with our desires. If we are able to ask Him, then we are ready to change. In accordance with this, He shines upon us the light of bestowal and love, and changes us.

The only thing we can give to the Creator is the raising of MAN, that is, raising our desire to be more and more similar to Him. The way He bestows, we also bestow.

Question: How can we determine that we are in a request for the sake of the Creator and not for our own sake? Is it according to the amount of light we received?

Answer: There is no way! How can you weigh it, measure it, or even feel it?

We simply need to yearn to be in the same desire, in the same intention toward one upper quality of love, toward the Creator. Only in this way can we gradually increase our request, raise it all the time, study it, and make it so diverse that it turns into a real, serious task.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Asking the Creator to Fill the Place Between Us” Lesson 7

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Cover With Love

938.03Question: If I free my friends from my own shortcomings by exalting them, then what are my next actions?

Answer: If you hide your shortcomings from your friends, you steal from them because they will have nothing to rise above.

Our ascent lies in the fact that after seeing the negative qualities of others, I rise above them. That is, I begin to evaluate my friends not negatively, but positively.

This means rising above your egoism. When you see a friend in a negative way, you must reach a state where these negative qualities will appear positive. As it is written: “Love will cover all crimes.” Crimes remain and I cover them with love.

There is nothing else. No matter how negative we may be, we can be positively connected with each other. This is how we must learn to work.

Question: But if I exalt my friends and see them in full perfection, where does my previous view, when I endowed them with my qualities, go?

Answer: It stays. Nothing disappears. All your negative opinions about your friends and your own desires and thoughts all remain in the common Kli (vessel). And then the negative and positive parts will still work with each other in symbiosis.

Question: And if I do not hide my negativity, they have nothing to justify in me?

Answer: We should think about unity, love, and good relations, and how to instill them in each and everyone. We should not expose our egoism. But if it catches the eye of others, that is a different problem. Perhaps it is their problem that they feel this way, and they should work on themselves. We must be an example. This is already mutual work.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends” Lesson 4

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Everything Is Achieved By The Power Of Prayer

562.02A person cannot strive for the property of bestowal in a natural way because it is contrary to our nature. But if I try to change myself in a group, then I will begin to receive help both from the group and from the Creator. And then I can succeed.

The only thing that is required of me is a request, a prayer. It is the main thing. We must come to it. We should constantly try to develop it so that it is as general as possible and strong, it is the only one that works.

So it is written by Baal HaSulam and other Kabbalists that everything is achieved through the power of prayer, the power of asking the Creator. Since He created egoism, only He can correct it and direct it correctly.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Asking the Creator to Fill the Place Between Us” Lesson 7

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“What Does The Future Hide From Us?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: What does the future hide from us?

We have been created such that we should build our own future from how we adjust ourselves in the present, and not draw it from various sources and wait passively for the future to simply happen.

We have to make sure that even in the present we currently live in, we operate in such a manner where we constantly construct ourselves. Otherwise, if we sit and wait passively for the future to happen to us, we simply let life’s circumstances determine our future.

We are formed by the desires inside us and in our surroundings. Therefore, in order to determine our future, we should consider how we connect optimally among each other and with nature.

We are all parts of a closed system that we need to enter into balance with if we are to experience it harmoniously. We should thus be interested in improving our relations in order to reach balance with nature, because if we make no strides in our attitudes to each other and to nature, then we will experience this closed system we are in negatively, through all kinds of afflictions.

Based on “Spiritual States” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on December 21, 2021 and a Kabbalah lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on January 13, 2019.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

How Is The Environment Selected?

528.01Question: Does a person choose his environment?

Answer: No. As it is said in one of the articles of Baal HaSulam, the Creator brings a person to the desired state: “You place my hand on the good fate, to say, ‘Take this for you.’”

It depends on us only to strengthen ourselves in this way, or at least not to leave. Cling to it with your teeth and keep it that way.

Question: It is said that a person is obliged to nourish from his environment. What kind of nourishment are we talking about?

Answer: It means absorbing properties, values, assessments, and tastes from your environment.

Question: Why is dependence on a spiritual environment considered freedom?

Answer: Because you become free from your egoism.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends” Lesson 4

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