Audio Version Of The Blog – 9/4/22
Posted on September 4th, 2022
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Medium published my new article “Quiet Quitting — a Step toward a Better Balance”
The signs have been there for a long time, but the lockdowns have given them a major boost. Now, “quiet quitting” is a major problem for employers, especially since many people still work from home, blurring the boundary between work time and free time. Although there is no clear definition of the term “quiet quitting,” it basically means that people strive to do less, work fewer hours, and forget about work once they are out of the office. Succinctly, it means working as little as possible without getting fired.
Some pundits blame this phenomenon on the employees, arguing that people are getting lazy. Others pin it on the bosses and argue that executives need to learn how to work with millennials if they want to get more out of them.
I think it is simply that people want to find a balance. A healthy balance between work and leisure is key to leading a good life. It is not a rigid line, but something that each person must determine for oneself based on one principle: work only as much as is necessary. Anything beyond what is necessary is redundant, and therefore draining, unpleasant, and detrimental.
This approach pertains to much more than work. It is the only way we can reach sustainable levels of consumption, the only way we can save the earth, the air, and the water from depletion and pollution.
If we balance our time and effort between work and leisure, it will give us time and energy for more emotionally rewarding activities. In short, we will all benefit from finding the right balance between work time and free time.
As for concerns about production demands and economic growth, I think we are already producing far too much. Most of the products we make and purchase do not add value to our lives. They do not make us happier and do not make our lives easier. The only ones who benefit from them are the makers’ shareholders, while the rest of us suffer from the consequential pollution, traffic congestion, and countless hours spent building redundant stuff.
Economists, and those whose livelihood depends on keeping the economic machine running, may sound the alarm at the sight of quiet quitting, but for the rest of us, I think it is good news. It is time to start living sanely. It will be better for us, better for our children, and better for Planet Earth.
[302419]
How can we develop such sensitivity within us that we will understand that if we hope to build our soul without the help of the Creator, then we are taking a long, circuitous path?
We will feel that we are taking a long path each time, and this will push us to look constantly for ways to shorten it and direct it straight to the Creator. It is this long path that directs us to the Creator because we are always trying to straighten it.
Everything depends on the directness of the heart, whether it is directed straight through the friends to the Creator or not. This determines whether the path will be long or short. Imagine how we twist and turn in our hearts and minds in order to avoid connection with the friends and not to come closer to them as well as to the Creator openly and directly. This means that we are not taking the straight path.
[302226]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/22, “Unless the Lord builds a house, its builders labor in it in vain”
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The stony heart does not let us connect with friends. But there is a hole inside the stone through which I can connect with everyone.
It is the stony heart that opens the path to the Creator for us. After all, if it were not for it, I would not even know that there is an obstacle in front of me.
Now I see that there is a barrier and that it is inside my heart. My heart is closed tightly, and I cannot move this stone from the mouth of the well. This means that I cannot do without the help of the Creator.
[302229]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/22, “Unless the Lord builds a house, its builders labor in it in vain”
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“Who gave you the right?” (Times of Israel)
Question: How can one understand what infinity is?
Answer: Infinity is in time or in place depending on what basic definitions we use for it. In principle, infinity is something that has no end. If I want to talk about some process that does not have an end, then I call it “infinity.”
Comment: In our world, it is difficult to understand this category because everything is finite.
My Response: Yes because everything happens here relative to us. But in fact, in Kabbalah, infinity is revealed as a quality of the Creator since He is infinite. In our world, of course, there is no such thing.
A person studying Kabbalah, even while living in this world, begins to feel the upper world, goes out into it, and feels its limits.
Therefore, our world seems to him completely limited, small, and insignificant. The upper world becomes for him really the world of infinity. But not the world by itself, because there are worlds, degrees, Sefirot, and so on in it, but because it leads to the state of infinity.
[302217]
From KabTV’s The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES) 8/14/22
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The evil we see in the world is a projection of our own qualities. Therefore, if I am strongly impressed by this evil, it is also beneficial, because to the same extent I will have more willingness to get rid of it.
The only thing that is required of me is to recognize that all evil stems from my will to receive, my egoism. If we uproot this egoism with the help of the upper light, then, of course, all of life will get better.
We see that the world is torn apart by external problems: war, pandemics, inflation… We can correct this if we make internal changes within ourselves, not in each of us, but rather in the relationship between us. No one needs to correct anything inside themselves, we just need to correct our connection.
A righteous is the one who loves others, connects with them, and not the one who sits and torments himself, this is stupidity. As soon as we correct the connection between us, the entire reality will change: the world, the war, us, everything will become different.
The connection between us can be corrected only with the help of the reforming light, and not by our own efforts. On our part, to correct ourselves means to recognize that my attitude toward others needs correction and that I am not able to correct it myself because the Creator corrupted it initially, as it is said: “I have created the evil inclination.”
Therefore, the only thing we must do is to turn to the Creator: He corrupted it, and He will correct it, this is called the work of the Creator. We just learn from this the way it should be and discover the gap between the desired state and the present state. This is our gain.
[302073]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/24/22, “Reinforcing Ourselves with There Is None Else Besides Him”
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What should be one’s dream?“
Our dream should be to achieve a positive social connection where mutual care, support and encouragement abound in society.
Question: How is a question formed? Where does it come from? Is the person who asks you a question just an irritant that allows you to give out information?
Answer: Yes.
Question: How should one prepare for this? How can you ask a question correctly?
Answer: The question, in fact, is to cling to me and make me want to lift the person who asks the question up like a child who runs up to an adult and asks to be held in his arms. This is the real question, and all the rest is nonsense.
Comment: I noticed that there are two types of people. The first type is when a person wants to hear from you something specific: “No, I am asking him this!” And there are people who understand and as if follow your flow. You start answering, and the person possibly had another question in addition. But he sees that you are now revealing this topic better, and he supports it rather than standing his ground.
My Response: These are big problems because we have a large number of people who want to hear, who are perhaps tuned in to a completely different wave. Then someone breaks into a general conversation and begins with his personal questions or with something he imagined to lead everyone somewhere to the side.
In this case, I try to react either harshly or not at all because it is important for me to maintain a common spirit so that people continue to ride together and rise. Therefore, if someone asks some questions from the outside, I can cut him off and that is it.
For me, the main thing is that the general flow is observed.
[301946]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Ask a Kabbalist a Question?” 3/6/13
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Question: There are different calendars for measuring time: the Gregorian, Chinese, Jewish, etc. Why does everyone use exactly the same calendar all over the world?
Answer: It was simply accepted by the international committee. But did the Chinese live by this calendar, or India, or South America? No! If you take any of the Arab newspapers, a year written there is calculated from their prophet, not from the Christian one.
Jews also do not measure time by these dates. What is measured by them? This is only the external side. I lived for thirty years among Orthodox Jews. They measure nothing according to the usual calendar. Absolutely everything is measured only by the solar-lunar calendar: months relative to the Moon, years relative to the Sun, time relative to sunrise and sunset. That’s it! And there are no problems with this.
Holidays do not move anywhere. Everything is absolutely clear because in the Jewish calendar the Sun and the Moon completely coincide with each other. Therefore, it is clearly known on which days there may be which holidays. Let’s say Purim was on the fifteenth of the month of Adar. Then on the fifteenth of next month is Passover. Everything is absolutely clear, no problems.
The calendar has been around for thousands of years and it has not moved anywhere. There is no need to change to new time or old time; there is nothing to do because it is composed in accordance with nature. not just with the Sun or just with the Moon, but with both heavenly bodies that control us. Between them is the Earth.
The Sun shines through the Earth at the Moon, and thus we have phases of the Moon. That’s it; everything can be measured. You have no idea how accurately the calendar is compiled, astronomical hours, minutes, seconds, angles, etc. I can show you a book of ancient astronomical tables and with what accuracy they are compiled!
Question: But people could not take it from the outside. Can it be that there was some kind of internal record?
Answer: On the one hand, they took it from the inside, from their understanding of nature. But on the other hand they mastered all the dimensions because people needed a clock, for example to arrange a meeting. “You and I will meet at three o’clock in the afternoon.” Therefore the clock has always existed.
[301905]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. When Did Time Appear?” 3/6/13
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is it true that stubbornness is a characteristic quality of Jewish people?“
Max Nordau, one of the Zionist movement’s founders, was quoted as telling Ze’ev Jabotinsky that “logic is a Greek art and Jews can’t tolerate it. The Jew learns not by way of reason, but from catastrophes. He won’t buy an umbrella merely because he sees clouds in the sky. He waits until he is drenched and catches pneumonia.”
It is true. Jews generally do not believe in signs of upcoming occurrences, but we change after we receive strong blows. The Torah also writes about Jewish stubbornness that we are a “stiff-necked people” (Exodus 33:3; Deuteronomy 9:13; Nehemiah 9:16; Acts 7:51). It is due to the big ego residing in us. We can do nothing about it, as it is one of our inherent traits.
While it has its cons, it also has its pros. The pros of our stubbornness and our big ego in general is that if we apply the method we once received to rise above our ego, then we will be able to balance and manage two great positive and negative forces together, as it is written, “Love will cover all crimes.” We will have our “crimes,” our egoism, below—the minus—and above it, we can discover the quality of love, bestowal and connection—the plus. We will then become worthy of showing a positive example to humanity of how to overcome the divisive ego that tears human society apart, and how to cover that ego with an umbrella of love, giving and positive connection, effectively elevating human consciousness to new heights of harmony and peace.
Based on the video “Is Stubbornness a Characteristic Quality of Jews?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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