Audio Version Of The Blog – 2/21/22
Posted on February 21st, 2022
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Connection between Society, Politics, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions”
An essay published by the University of California, Davis, describes the connection between greenhouse gas emissions, social relations, and politics. The essay argues that it is not levels of air pollution that dictate gas emissions policies, but rather politics and social relations are the key factors. Since current models take the scientific data into account and ignore the human element that impacts gas emissions, they always get it wrong. In my opinion, the human element is not only crucial, it is the only element that causes environmental damages, since humans are the only element in creation that discharges hate into our world.
Our world is built layer upon layer. At the basis of the pyramid there is the mineral, or inanimate layer. The flora, or vegetative layer, lies on top of it, and the fauna, or animate layer, lies on top of the flora. The human level sits at the top of the pyramid, like the head in a body. For this reason, humanity determines the health and strength of all the layers underneath it.
Among all the layers, there is a carefully kept balance that maintains the thriving of all of nature’s levels. The only exception is the human layer. Humans are filled with hate for one another and seek not only to dominate one another, but to humiliate one another. To achieve their goal, they are willing to use and abuse anyone and anything. In doing so, they throw the entire planetary system off balance.
Humans are worse than anything. They are worse than methane gas, than burning fossil fuels, soiling the sea, polluting the soil, and contaminating the air. Even if we did not limit the use of all the chemicals and CO2 emissions that we pour into the planetary ecosystem, we would still not cause as much damage as we cause by simply spewing hate into the system.
Here is a study that demonstrates it: In 2015, Science magazine published a report about life in the exclusion zone around the defunct nuclear reactor near Chernobyl, which exploded in 1986. After the explosion, the human residents were hurriedly evacuated and an area of 4,200 square kilometers became humans-free. Wild animals became the landlords of the area, and scientists expected that they would either not last, or that they would suffer severe deformation due to the high level of radioactive radiation that remained throughout the area, and still does to this day. Nevertheless, the scientists, who conducted the study from 2008-2010, reported “no evidence of a negative influence of radiation on mammal abundance.”
Moreover, Jim Smith, co-author of the study, said that “When humans are removed, nature flourishes, even in the aftermath of the world’s worst nuclear accident.” Smith also added, “We’re not saying radiation is good for animals, but we’re saying human habitation is worse.”
Therefore, if we want to restore Earth’s balance, clear the air, clean the soil, and detoxicate the water, we needn’t worry about the gases we emit, but about the feelings we emit. These are the real pollutants, and these are the ones we need to clean.
Cleaning up our hearts so they do not emit hate is not easy. It is a serious educational process that we must undertake collectively, understanding that it is our only option if we wish to avoid a global cataclysm.
It is not as if there is no time. The deteriorating climate and the growing pollution are gradual processes. Yet, education, including self-education, is also a gradual process. Therefore, we must be both patient and determined to begin as soon as possible, and not stop until we fundamentally transform how we relate to one another, because only if we uproot the hatred that produces every plight and crisis in our world will we have a future on this planet.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “In 1-2 sentences, what is Kabbalah?“
Kabbalah is a methodology for the expansion of human awareness through the connection of desires. In such expanded awareness, we start perceiving the force that created and sustains our reality, which lets us know more about the world we live in, its cause and effect relationships, and which makes us kinder, more approachable and more contributive members of society.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Question: When a situation occurs, I know that the Creator sends it for my good. I consciously react for the benefit of my friends, but there is a part of me that is hurt by this. Am I doing the right thing?
Answer: You must understand that it will always give you pain in order to make it clear where you still are. The spiritual Partzuf constantly is in contradictory properties.
There is an egoistic desire in Malchut. Due to the impact on Malchut of the upper light from the first nine Sefirot, it can divide itself into the part with which it relates to the first nine Sefirot (the properties of bestowal) and into the part that it cannot attribute to these properties. Thus, it is divided into two parts.
The part that relates itself to the properties of bestowal is the corrected part in Malchut. And the part that is under the restriction (Tzimtzum), we have no right to use. Although we would like to do this, we refuse because the use would be for its own sake. This is how we operate.
This contradiction always exists in man. It is this that gives him the opportunity to measure and understand where he is, at what stage, in what state. We cannot have the experience of only light or only darkness. This is the way out of all sensations. Either full light or full darkness is the same thing. A vessel (Kli) is a desire that can graduate, measure, and weigh itself.
So don’t worry, go ahead. We do not need to think at all about the states we are in. The main thing for us is to quickly realize all these states, process them in ourselves, and move on from one to another. That’s all. The main thing is acceleration.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/6/22, “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us” Lesson 1
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Question: People of the world of the twentieth century, the world of the past, lived based on the idea that every person can find some rational occupation and that every country needs to be developed and to produce something useful.
Then in various countries—in Syria, Libya, Iraq, and Venezuela—young majors and colonels, presidents, and fathers of the nation came to power. They built factories and roads, trained people to become engineers and doctors, created tank brigades, and tried to reach the American and German standard, and even the Soviet standard.
What happened? How did it suddenly turn out that entertaining is more profitable than producing something, that speculating in numbers is more profitable than trading goods, and that managing chaos is more profitable than managing teams? The old world went into a decline, and the leaders stopped being fathers.
How did this happen to us?
Answer: People have discovered that they do not need it all, not progress or anything else. All people need are bread and circuses.
Question: Are we so primitive?
Answer: This is our nature! This is not what is called primitivism. Primitivism is a high art.
Comment: But we are the supreme creation of nature, as they said in our youth.
My Response: In your youth you were taught that you are the supreme creation of nature. But in fact they just did not want to tell you. If you, as a prudent and wise person, want to live your life rationally, then choose a quiet job, a quiet environment, and a favorite hobby.
Comment: So at first humanity wanted something and the leaders wanted to be the fathers of the nation, to be the fathers of their people.
My Response: They just wanted to be in charge. There was nothing else in them. They were driven by nothing else except the desire to egoistically show themselves, whether for the better or for the worse, to be talked about, to have power and fame.
Question: Why did this disappear?
Answer: First, our egoism is changing. And second, they found out that nothing good comes from this, and that all of humanity is ungrateful. No matter how much you try to get it to do something, it does not want anything!
Question: Where is everything going now?
Answer: Today none of the leaders care that his country, his people, would be higher, better, cleaner, or special.
Comment: That they would live well, would live better.
My Response: His children, yes. But just his children.
Question: Have we become petty, smaller?
My Response: Egoism has become greater. Therefore it demands more from us and we, of course, cannot object to it in any way.
Question: Are you saying that there will never come a time when there will be care for people? Even an ostentatious concern, no matter what, even talked about?
Answer: No, you no longer can buy people with that. You can climb on any podium and scream. They will move past you and go on. This is it; the world has already been through all this.
Question: Then the main question is: where are we going? To which leaders? Can a sage become a leader today?
Answer: No, no one. Which sage? Who would listen to him? A sage is made by the audience, who points at him and says: “This is a sage! Look!”
Question: Do you think that it is people who choose the leader?
Answer: Of course!
Question: Can they choose a leader today like in the past?
Answer: No. It is all gone.
Question: We do not even want to choose a leader who would take care of us, right?
Answer: No. First of all, I do not believe anyone, I do not trust anyone. If I choose someone today, then tomorrow I will reject him. It turns out that there are no leaders and there are no sages; we are left lost, confused, small, and selfish. And we do not need any of this.
But we also do not know what we need.
Question: What will happen?
Answer: I think that, as usual, a war will choose great people. I cannot imagine how it is possible to influence people. After all, no one listens. No one hears.
Question: What is the purpose of nature? What is the purpose of the Creator who put us in this position?
Answer: To develop the correct egoism in us, which would understand that it is actually purposeless. It is very necessary, but it is not aimed at the right goal. And to make it wonder how to redirect itself.
Question: Does our egoism need to feel this? Do we need to feel this?
Answer: Yes, but we do not have enough inner acuity of perception for this. Therefore we do not know. We go there, we go here…”Look, Black Friday! Let’s run to the store!”
Question: Are you saying that there should be some kind of pain?
Answer: Yes. A storm! A very serious storm.
Question: So, are you expecting a storm and there cannot be any other way?
Answer: No. This storm does not have to be physical. It can be internal, inside people, but it should happen. It has to swoop in just like that. It should take us by surprise.
Question: Could it be a stark void or something else?
Answer: A person falls under its influence and begins to change.
He will finally want purpose—the real one. Not in shopping, not in recreation, not in anything. He will want purpose because he will understand that this is what can fill him, stop him, direct him, and give him meaning.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/20/21
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Rabash, Article 6 (1984), “Love of Friends – 2”:By each joining the society and annulling oneself before it, they become one body.
For example, if there are ten people in that body, it has ten times more power (when united) than a single person does. However, there is a condition: When they gather, each of them should think that he has now come for the purpose of annulling self-love. It means that he will not consider how to satisfy his will to receive now, but will think as much as possible only of the love of others (about uniting with and filling the friend). This is the only way to acquire the desire and the need to acquire a new quality, called “the will to bestow.”
And from love of friends one can reach love of the Creator, meaning wanting to give contentment to the Creator.
Look how many colors there are in this passage.
By annulling oneself in front of the group, each one forms a group, a single whole.
In this unified whole, each one has ten times more strength than he has alone.
Imagine if you had ten times more spiritual powers, the qualities of bestowal, than you do now, you would have had already jumped into the upper world.
Just imagine, if I get incorporated in others and take from each of them literally a grain of what is in them of the desire for spirituality that the Creator planted in them, and I annul before them, I already have ten such parts—I immediately find myself in the spiritual world, rise above myself, above egoism. I have the strength for this; I got it from my friends.
Therefore, if this whole (group) consists of ten people, then each of us has ten times more strength than each one individually.
However, there is a condition: When they gather, each of them should think that he has now come for the purpose of annulling self-love. It means that he will not consider how to satisfy his will to receive now, but will think as much as possible only of the love of others. This is the only way to acquire the desire and the need to acquire a new quality, called “the will to bestow.”
However, there is a condition: When they gather, each of them should think that he has now come for the purpose of annulling self-love (the abolition of selfishness). It means that he will not consider (think about) how to satisfy his will to receive now (their own egoistic desires), but will think as much as possible only of the love of others (only about the possibility of bestowing to one’s neighbor).
This is practically the realization of love—to give to another. This is the only way to acquire the desire and the need to acquire a new quality, called “the will to bestow.”
By including oneself in others and trying to somehow connect with them enough to wish to give to them, I acquire a new quality, the desire to bestow. So from the love of friends, we come to the love of the Creator.
The Creator is the final common goal, the sum of all our relationships to each other. And if I want to give to the whole group, then I begin to feel that my attitude toward them is love for the Creator.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/6/22, “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us” Lesson 1
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Question: Should the ten renew and reaffirm the mutual guarantee for each other?
Answer: Friends must constantly take care that all good deeds are open in the ten because this encourages everyone else to act in the same way.
You should care about contributing to the group and not demand something from your friends, but try to make them understand how they should relate to the group. This mainly concerns mutual guarantee (Arvut).
Question: How can I show a friend mutual guarantee?
Answer: The Creator needs only one thing: that you love your friends, and through this love you can spend your love for Him. There are friends between you and the Creator. They will be able to convey your attitude to the Creator only to the extent that you love them and are connected with them. So go ahead.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Working in Mutual Responsibility” Lesson 6
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In order to be considered a group, you must study together, form together, and help each other. There are certain conditions for the connection of individual egoists into a group where they commit to begin to annul their egoism and slowly unite. Not just to give in to each other, but to help each other.
This is a whole communication system of ten individuals who must sacrifice themselves relative to others. Then they could form an organization of such a team in which they will annul their egoism. And in this corrected egoism, the Creator will reveal Himself in the equivalence of His qualities relative to the qualities of the group.
Question: How do we not see things critically, but give our heart and mind completely to the ten?
Answer: This is only with the help of friends. If you are united with them, then you will achieve the quality of bestowal, because to the extent that you annul yourself before a friend, you call the upper light upon yourself, and it forms you.
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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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Question: You have repeatedly said that we are at a transitional stage from the last generation of egoistic development and that the entire educational system is built in this way. How do you see the Kabbalistic system of education?
Answer: It should be carried out via the Internet, when from serious world centers where Kabbalistic educators are located, everything that Kabbalah does is taught: the methodology of changing a person, the perception of reality, freedom of will, the system of the universe, the interaction and connection of people with each other, the internal system of our communication, and so on. Kabbalah deals with the structural mechanics of the entire universe.
In addition, specialists should correctly teach children everything related to the natural sciences, which are taught based on the revelation of the global system of the universe.
A person is constantly given a general vision of the whole picture of the worlds as one world: where his place is, what his purpose is. And when this is revealed to the child, he begins to feel it and to work with the forces of nature and with society.
A little man (the soul has no age) begins to see what an important element he is in the global system, he has someone to take an example from, and he sees the realization of himself.
At a young age, five, six, or ten years old, when everything is explained to him, it really fascinates him. There is no system of punishments or rewards. The very revelation of the true world in which we find ourselves captivates everyone. That’s how we’re built. And therefore, the system becomes general, global, and kind.
I hope that soon we will come to such a need and do it.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Generation Lady Gaga” 3/10/10
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Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 67
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 162
| [media 5] | [media 6] |
Lesson on the Topic: “Everything Is Obtained by the Power of Prayer”
| [media 7] | [media 8] |
Selected Highlights
| [media 9] | [media 10] |
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