Audio Version Of The Blog – 8/24/22
Posted on August 24th, 2022
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Medium published my new article “No Confidence? No Happiness”
We feel confident when we are hopeful about the future. When we have something to look forward to, we have a reason to live. If we lose it, we lose hope, happiness, and might even become suicidal. The future is more important to us than the present because the present will pass, but if the future is bleak, it makes everything black.
Look at how much we invest to secure our future: health insurance, home insurance, social security, life insurance, car insurance, and if we can, we save money in various forms of investments and savings accounts. We do all these precisely because we are so uncertain about the future.
Previously, our family was our anchor, our safe haven. That is no longer the case. We often feel alone and isolated, and cannot be certain that anyone will come to our aid when we need it. We are living in the age of loneliness.
As our world changes, it is becoming increasingly interconnected, and everyone influences everyone else. We are all dependent on each other, and the network of ties exposes our need for mutual responsibility, which we do not have.
At the same time, revealing our lack of solidarity is the first step toward building it, since if we do not know that we need something and do not have it, we will not try to gain it. Therefore, now that we have realized that we are interdependent, we should begin to learn how to conduct ourselves in such a society.
Our task today is to restore confidence in the future, and thereby happiness. We will achieve this only by adapting our society to the integrated reality of our lives. In other words, we need to learn to care for one another to the extent that we are dependent on each other.
A newborn baby is completely dependent on its mother. However, the mother’s love for her baby makes both the baby and the mother happy. The correspondence between the level of dependence and the affection they feel for one another makes the dependence pleasant rather than a burden, which is how we feel it in our relations with people for whom we do not care.
Dependence without mutual care, therefore, leads to lack of confidence and happiness. Dependence joined by mutual concern leads to feeling confident and happy. Since dependence is an irrevocable fact, if we want to feel secure and happy, we must learn to care for one another.
Achieving this requires everyone’s participation. There need to be appropriate educational programs, participation of the members of the community or town, and eventually all of society, as well as a proper emphasis on developing such programs on the part of the authorities. Currently, we are still looking for other solutions and try to deal with each problem separately. When we find that our efforts lead to no solution unless we deal with the root of the problem, we will be willing to make a coordinated, collaborative effort to change our society for the better by learning to become more caring individuals.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Hidden Cause Behind England’s Water Shortage”
Despite the recent torrents in London, this summer, England has been experiencing a serious drought. But not only England, most, if not all of Europe has been experiencing a sweltering summer with gigantic forest fires that have consumed countless homes in addition to trees and wildlife.
But there is another problem that is exacerbating the crisis: leaking pipes. Water companies in England and Wales lost more than one trillion liters via leaky pipes last year. In the US, the situation is not much better. According to a report on Technology Networks Applied Sciences, “An estimated 20 to 50 percent of water is lost to leaks in North America’s supply system.”
If the climate is changing and droughts have become more frequent and more severe, why are we not doing something about it? Why are we letting so much water go to waste? There is a simple answer to it, and this is the hidden cause that makes the climate crisis so severe in the UK and around the world: We do not care about each other. If we did, we would not let this happen.
If I were to build a home somewhere for my family, would I not see to a proper water system? Would I not see that it is properly maintained? Of course I would. Because I love my family, I would see that our water supply system is intact.
In other words, the leaking pipes are merely an indication of a much bigger problem: alienation and carelessness among us. Why do we have homeless people? Why are there drug addicts lying in street corners until their lives run out of them? Why are there so many people abused and bullied and enslaved? There is only one cause behind all these wrongs, one problem that we need to fix. From the slightest injustice to the most horrible crime, they all stem from our lack of care, from our indifference, coldness, and the pleasure we derive from other people’s pain. If we cared, or at least did not hate so much, our world would be infinitely better.
Every problem has its scientists and experts who make plans for tackling it. (Notice they do not talk about improving, much less solving it.) They never succeed. For all the budgets that they get, things are not getting any better. There is a good reason for this: There is no care in all their plans, no heart in all their actions.
How come mothers can usually raise their children successfully unless external circumstances beyond their control prevent it from them? In fact, sometimes they succeed despite impossible circumstances, but these are exceptions, not the rule. Mothers succeed because they care, and for no other reason. They have no plans, no foreknowledge about being a mother, and often get conflicting advice from friends and “consultants.” Yet, for the most part, they raise their children fine. Why? because their love guides their actions. If love guided our relations with our fellow persons, we would be living in a very different world, a far better one than we have today.
If previously, we could get away with our negative attitude toward each other, today’s world is so interconnected that everything we do affects everyone else far more quickly and intensely. If kindness, or even mutual consideration were optional until only recently, today they are mandatory.
We can argue that caring for each other is unrealistic and idealistic, that it is an unachievable and naive goal. It may seem that way, but if you consider that the option of letting things continue as they have been leads to certain decimation of much of humanity, I hope you will agree that idealistic or not, it is worth giving it a serious effort. If we acknowledge the fact that we are all dependent on each other, we will realize that no matter what, we must find a way to stop hating, and start caring for each other, even if just a little bit.
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In the News (The Express Tribune): “Morimoto first offered his services in June 2018 after posting a tweet that read: ‘I offer myself for rent, as a person who does nothing. Is it difficult for you to enter a shop on your own? Are you missing a player on your team? Do you need someone to keep a place for you? I can’t do anything except easy things.’ …
“People rent him for various reasons, he says, but most are bored or lonely and simply want to be listened to. …
“Morimoto – who is married and holds a postgraduate degree in physics from Osaka University – told: ‘I’m not a friend or an acquaintance. I’m free of the annoying things that go with relationships but I can ease people’s feelings of loneliness.’ ‘I personally don’t like being cheered on by other people. It bothers me when people simply tell me to keep persevering. When someone is trying to do something I think the best thing to do is to make it easier for them by staying at their side,’ he added. In less than three years Morimoto – who used to work in publishing but quit to ‘do nothing’ – has published books about his career choice, inspired a television drama and acquired 270,000 Twitter followers.”
Question: What does the demand for this guy tell you?
Answer: This first of all says, unfortunately, that people are lonely, that they need someone to be there, but there is no one.
Question: To talk it out, to be with someone?
Answer: For everything. And probably, he justifies this hope. He knows how. He’s probably not a physicist, but a good psychologist. It’s good to be around him. He can do everything! Listen, talk, whatever you want. He can be anywhere and do precisely what is expected of him. It’s very difficult. This is not an obsession, but an addition to the person who hired you.
Comment: It would seem that this is such an easy job, but you say that it is not easy at all.
My Response: It’s not a very easy job. This is a psychological job and is very difficult . But apparently, people say it’s worth it.
Comment: This means that a person needs someone who will not put pressure on him, who will listen to him, and connect with him.
My Response: It’s not just submission, and as a role, I would say it’s a very lively one. Can you imagine, your name is called and you come on a date. From afar you wonder, let’s say, if this will be a woman or perhaps a man? And if an old man or an old woman? And if it’s a girl? And to just fit in like a clip, you have to fit into each case 100%,.
We have a huge request for this. Enormous!
Question: Is it because humanity is becoming more and more lonely?
Answer: Yes, especially in Japan. People don’t get married there, people don’t meet, and they don’t give birth much today.
Comment: The world is moving toward the fact that these services will be more and more in demand.
Answer: These services will actually reveal what we lack. And people will start gradually incrementally learning to become like that. I want such a person next to me, my addition in him and his addition in myself. And it will be happiness. It is the addition of people to each other.
Question: As a Kabbalist, what does this tell you? What is it?
Answer: This is called “love for one’s neighbor.” It is very simple. It is something you have to show to the other and the other will be happy to show it to you.
Question: What do you think would happen if you set up an experiment in which he is not paid for these services, would he continue?
Answer: I am sure that if he does his job well, it is not for the sake of money. Otherwise it wouldn’t have worked. And he wouldn’t have been hired.
Comment: And so the rumor went about him that there is such a person.
Answer: This is Japan. It’s not just a rumor, as it’s instantly recorded.
Question: Do you think that there is some element of love for one’s neighbor on his part?
Answer: Yes. This is when you adapt to your neighbor in a good sense of the word. And he is glad to see you and responds to you in the same way.
Question: And are you glad that he is happy?
Answer: Yes. This is effectively a kind of love for another.
[301371]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/11/22
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Question: The European Association conducted a study of the parameters of Jewish communities’ life in 12 European countries. Security, the fight against anti-Semitism, religious freedom, government support for Jewish communities, and provision of cultural development were studied. Based on these and many other data, they have built a rating system and determined that Belgium and Poland were the most unfavorable countries in Europe for Jews to live in, and Italy and Hungary were the most favorable.
What do you think about the research on where it is good for Jews to live?
Answer: I think the researchers are right to study this. We need to study this. There are so many different objects and subjects of study, so this one will be there too. In general, I have nothing to say. I do not encounter such phenomena at all. Therefore, I do not know.
Comment: But surely all research must have some specific purpose.
My Response: Of course, there is a purpose. They want to paint the map of Europe in different colors, where it is easier for Jews, where it is harder, and so on because there are always such contrasting conditions regarding Jews.
Question: Do Jews generally have a place in Europe or not?
Answer: I think there is no place for Jews anywhere. This is why they live like this.
Comment: What about America or exotic countries? Nowadays Jews live even in those countries with which they historically had no contact at all.
My Response: I have been to Latin America many times and met Jews there. There are huge communities there. I personally think there are problems everywhere, but it depends on how much the Jews living there can put up with them.
Question: What is the spiritual root of the dispersion of Jews around the world? There is a time when they disperse and there is a time when they should gather. What is happening now?
Answer: I think that soon we will come to a state where Jews will be gathering. This period has not yet come. It is in dynamic equilibrium. Thus, everything is still ahead.
[301669]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 8/5/22
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Comment: In the Ari’s methodology there is not a single word about love, about unification. It is a purely dry language of Sefirot.
My Response: Yes, the Ari says almost nothing about feelings, only about actions. But this is conveyed in the language of Kabbalah, the so-called language of the Sefirot.
Besides this, there is also a second language of Kabbalah, a sensory one, where a person begins to attain the upper world through sensations. There are no barriers, no boundaries, to feelings. He understands that he enters the state of the Creator’s boundless love and dissolves in it.
This was described by Rabash in his articles about the group. When you study them, you should not just come to the class, put a book in front of you and read the names of lights and worlds, but there should be a certain mood in a person.
To do this, he needs to work in a group, to try to unite with his friends, to receive certain desires from them, to reveal these desires, to come to lessons with this, and to study directly the system of lights and screens. Otherwise it will be just a theory, and Kabbalah does not welcome theory.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 8/2/22
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The Creator is the Nature surrounding us and nothing more. Write “Nature” instead of the Creator, but still with a capital letter, so as not to attribute it to something purely mechanistic.
The Creator is the upper degree, the upper light, and the quality of bestowal in relation to us, who represents the quality of reception. That is, everything is based on very simple concepts that are close to each of us.
The only thing is that we are all very confused. After all, the attitude to Kabbalah throughout the centuries has been deliberately confusing and impeding. We are also confused by all kinds of external customs, items, and objects, as well as the appearance of religious Jews, as if it has anything to do with Kabbalah. In general, all this is so heaped up that it is, of course, very difficult for a person to understand.
I can see how hard it is for my students in different countries of the world who belong to different religions and races. I see what a huge amount of work they are doing internally and will have to do for a long time.
A person brought up in a different religion who belongs to a different race and thinks in a completely different way, with an opposite mentality and a different language, and one must overcome all this. This quality of the soul is necessary for its correction and not that it is in a more favorable or less favorable state relative to others.
This is how we are separated and distant from each other. I see that many of my students from all over the world would really like to be here next to us. Just tell them it is possible and that a thousand people will come here at once. But they have to overcome huge problems within themselves, big internal disagreements.
When a person suppresses something in himself, since the truth has not yet been fully revealed in him, he is in a kind of semi-compromising state: “Well, what can I do? I will not pay attention to this, as if I don’t see it, do not understand it, and do not observe it, as if this is not in me. I will leave this aside.” It is very hard. But that is the way to live.
This is very similar to how Jews live among other nations. Exactly the same feeling: “We are opposite to them, but we want to be like that. Can we or can’t we? How do they treat us and how should we treat them?” All this omission, this kind of special attitude, is exactly what a person who comes to study Kabbalah goes through.
I understand this. There are many problems. The world is still in such a transitional state.
[301592]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Criticism of Kabbalah” 2/20/13
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Question: What does it mean: “One should see the manifestation of the Creator in everything, except: “Leave”? But is “leave” also a manifestation of the Creator?
Answer: Yes, the Creator specifically says to obey Him in everything, except for one thing: when He allegedly offers you to leave.
A person often has the feeling that, obviously, the Creator does not want to deal with him, move him forward, help and prompt him, but gives him continuous disappointments. “Nothing can be done, probably not for me this time,” and so on.
There are many such moments when one is disappointed and wants to leave. This should not be done in any case. They are specially brought to a person. It is okay that they exist, but it is desirable that they last no more than a moment. As it came, so it went.
Question: Isn’t it beyond the control of a person?
Answer: When it comes, it is out of control! But in the next moment it should already be evaluated, and in the next there should already be a reaction.
Question: Do similar things happen at your degree too?
Answer: At all degrees. At my degree, the feeling of falling is much stronger than at the beginning. The difference between the qualities of bestowal, entering the highest degree and falling to the lowest is much greater than for beginners.
Comment: But sometimes it seems that when a person first encounters a descent, he is more “smudged.” After the first descent, people have such states.
My Response: They do not yet have the freedom and the ability to move themselves, to be above themselves.
When I come to the lesson, you do not feel what state I am in. Ascent, descent, some vague feelings, experiences. You don’t feel it, do you? I’m the same in front of you almost all the time.
I have better states and worse states, but it depends on how I feel, on the condition of my throat because I talk a lot, in general, nothing more. But in fact, inside myself I am in completely different worlds: in the upper or in the lowest. But I am the same toward the students. They can’t see my inner state.
Just like a baby does not understand the mother’s state: maybe she feels bad, is upset about something, is angry with someone, or, conversely, is joyful. She always shows maximum attention, engagement, and responsibility to him.
Question: Does the connection with the group allow you to go through these states faster?
Answer: Yes, it does. But the connection with the group should be a little different, increasingly intense and tighter.
[301699]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Confessions of the Kabbalist” 2/23/13
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Question: Do you think there may come a time when students will be able to see you as a friend?
Answer: I would like that, but it is unlikely. I do not see this yet, and I am afraid of spoiling the energy for the students that gives them a special idea about me.
The fact is that when a teacher becomes the same in the eyes of a student as the student himself, a problem arises. He loses the energy of movement; there are all kinds of doubts about the knowledge that he receives from the teacher; he disregards him. In order to feel close to the teacher, the student must be ready for the state where he deifies his teacher. This is not easy.
I know this from my own experience—when you cook food for the teacher, go to the sea with him, to the sauna, take care of him in the hospital, and he is sick and helpless, and you have to feed, wash, and clean him. Rabash had both hands and face burned, and I was with him for several weeks.
These are all complex processes for the student and teacher that come from above, and they must work with each other in this way and understand why they are given this. The teacher understands. For a student, however, this is a terrible problem! We need to understand what happens at this time, what thoughts, tips, and preventions are given to the student.
Comment: Our entire world is built on hierarchy—the president and his entourage, for example. But their relationship is certainly different than what you describe with the teacher.
My Response: With a teacher, you are given such thoughts, desires and circumstances that you have the full opportunity to disregard him. It is very hard for you to tune in to something good. Very hard. This is work, and this is a struggle.
We say that in the group you need to elevate your friends, the ten, and the Creator in your eyes, that the importance of the goal determines the energy that you can expend on moving toward it. But with a teacher it is even more difficult. The reason is that in the group you have the support of your friends. Regarding the Creator, you also have the support of the group. With regard to the teacher, it is not enough to see from the friends that they exalt the teacher.
Moreover, it depends on how the teacher behaves. Some do everything to attract people who would idolize him, respect him, and be attached to him, which is a purely Eastern technique of cunning in processing a person. This is an anti-Kabbalistic entity.
I do not do that. I studied with Rabash who was an absolutely simple person that walked freely through the streets of the city at a brisk pace; in no case did he break away from the people, as they say.
Next to him, I felt that this is exactly what a person should be. There is no other way if we are all equal under the Creator. And I respected him for that.
However, there were those who said: “Well, what is this? Is this a rabbi? Is this a respected spiritual leader?” Where are these hundred and fifty kilograms of weight, where is this importance and slowness in communication? Where is his splendor in conversation when you ask, and after five minutes he slowly turns to you, answers a couple of words, and you are already satisfied that you heard some kind of response from him? There is nothing of this! Because everything is based on actions.
It was the same with Baal HaSulam, because we are dealing with nature, with science, with the methodology of changing a person. There is no relation to religion, no manipulation; you are given a technique, and you are taught how to use it. That’s all.
Comment: Still, many people treat you with great reverence.
My Response: I am trying to transform all this into clearly businesslike ways of changing a person in his work on himself. Let him respect me only to the extent that he needs to listen to what I have said. That is all. I do not need anything more from him!
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Confessions of the Kabbalist” 2/23/13
Related Material:
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Preparation to the Lesson
| [media 1] | [media 2] |
Lesson on the Topic, “Reinforcing Ourselves with There Is None Else Besides Him”
| [media 3] | [media 4] |
Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Shofar of the Messiah”
| [media 5] | [media 6] |
Selected Highlights
| [media 7] | [media 8] |
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