Audio Version Of The Blog – 9/22/22
Posted on September 22nd, 2022
Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3 Audio
Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3 Audio
Medium published my new article “Nature vs. Human Nature”
One of the latest forms of weapon that superpowers are racing to develop is hypersonic missiles. China, Russia, and the US are all developing missiles that can fly at more than five times the speed of sound (more than 1 mile per second), making them very difficult to intercept. Another trend is laser guns, which can shoot down planes or blow up vehicles at almost no cost or effort, since it is basically a concentrated beam of light. The amazing thing about these developments is how science takes the natural principles that enable life and evolution and turns them into instruments of death and destruction in order to dominate and abuse other people. Human nature, it seems, is the exact opposite of nature, and in the conflict between them, everyone suffers.
In nature, everything operates in perfect harmony. Evolution is based on the process of homeostasis, which means “dynamic balance.” No being purposely destroys other beings, but only strives to sustain itself. In the struggle between nature’s elements, a dynamic balance is formed, which ensures the existence and prosperity of our universe and all that is in it.
Man, on the other hand, takes the laws of nature he discovers and seeks to use them against others. Man’s goal is not to sustain himself, but to dominate others, and for as long as possible. There is neither balance in man’s mind, nor dynamism. There is permanent self-absorption.
But since life consists of perpetual and dynamic changes, the absence of them means death. Therefore, human nature causes death, while nature generates life.
We may sign peace treaties and agree never to fight, but we will never be able to keep our word. Human nature itself will impel us to break every contract we sign as soon as we see an opportunity to gain more than our agreed share without risking prior gains.
The only solution, therefore, to establishing a world where man does not destroy his world through his ruthless, inherently evil nature, is to change human nature. We may recoil at the thought, but since nothing else works, as we can already see, we will ultimately have no choice but to agree to change the very kernel of our being.
Although everything operates harmoniously in nature, we cannot see it because we are the exact opposite of harmony. Human society is a cacophony of individuals struggling against each other for superiority. Nature, on the other hand, is a perfectly orchestrated order. If there was even an iota of harmony within us, we would see that everything around is harmonious, but us.
Our only choice, therefore, is to begin to form this harmony. We can wait until we have no other choice because we have tried every oppressive option we could think of and they all failed, or we can try now.
Harmony may sound unappealing because it does not give me superiority over everyone else, but its benefits are far beyond anything any person can achieve alone. Harmony means that everyone sustains everyone else. As a result, instead of working only for me, I work for others, and all the others work for me.
Basically, it is not very different from the way the world already operates. Inadvertently, each of us creates far more than we consume. The excess production serves everyone else. Since all of humanity operates this way, the result is that there is abundance to everyone. The reason that there are places where there is scarcity is not because there is a lack of anything in the world, but because people deny others what they need in order to use, humiliate, and dominate them. Therefore, in order to see the benefits of everyone working for everyone else, we do not need to change our perception, but our intention — to include other people, too, in my intentions, rather than only myself.
If we make a conscious, orchestrated effort to change ourselves, we will be able to do it. The results will be beyond our wildest dreams, but only if we all commit to it. As the world declines into intensifying chaos, it is becoming harder to ignore the necessity to harmonize our relationships. The only question is how long we want to fight against nature until we confess defeat and agree to change human nature.
[303168]
Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Peace Is More than Nonviolence”
Today, September 21, is the International Day of Peace. The UN General Assembly has declared that this day is dedicated to “strengthening the ideals of peace, through observing 24 hours of non-violence and cease-fire.” Considering the global ambiance of violence currently prevailing around the world, nonviolence seems like a desirable goal. However, if we settle for not fighting, we will not prevent the next war, since peace means much more than a ceasefire.
Peace treaties last only as long as none of the parties are interested in violating them. Once a party sees an opportunity to gain through war, the treaty flies out the window.
When peace is broken, the animosity that caused the previous outbreak deepens, and the new round of violence becomes even more intense than its predecessor. In the end, the sides find themselves embroiled in an all-out struggle, a fight to the death. They will make peace only if neither side can destroy the other, and exhaustion and depletion of soldiers and arms force them to make “peace.”
Today, on the International Day of Peace, I would like to introduce the ancient meaning of the word peace, as it contains a more comprehensive solution, one that can outlast belligerent tendencies that are bound to resurface after the parties sign the treaty.
The Hebrew word for “peace” is shalom, from the word shlemut (“wholeness” or “complementarity”). By definition, “wholeness” or “complementarity” requires the presence of contradictions, since something can be whole only if all its elements and aspects are present. Likewise, complementarity requires the presence of contradictory elements that complement each other. After all, if one does not exist, what does the other complement?
We tend to think that only our view has merit and only our perspective should exist. However, reality is not built this way; it consists of opposites that complement each other, according to the definition of the word shalom. Could we imagine day without night, spring without fall, love without hate, or life without death?
Every coin has two sides: heads and tails. Eliminate the heads, and you have eliminated the tails, as well; eliminate the tails, and you have also eliminated the heads. Simply put, only when both sides of the coin exist can there be a coin at all. So is reality, eliminate one element in reality, and you have also eliminated its contradictory element.
Peace, therefore, can exist only when two parties maintain their opposing views and form a union without suppressing each other’s views. For example, every athlete knows that building strength requires the right balance between training and rest. Training and rest are contradictory, but only if both are present can the athlete become stronger.
Likewise, only people with conflicting views who strive to unite above their differences, without eliminating them, can form true and lasting peace, meaning wholeness. Their peace will last only as long as they maintain their attitude of complementarity and wholeness. If they revert to settling for nonviolence, they will soon be embroiled in war.
Today, when ceasefires are threatened or have already fallen apart, and the entire world is tilting toward war, learning how to build a strong and lasting peace is humanity’s single most important mission. I hope that countries will begin to think of peace as I have outlined it here, rather than settle for a pause in active fighting.
[303176]
Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is it wrong for a mother to steal baby food when not having enough money for it?“
A broke mother stealing baby food is a clear example of a situation where a person has no choice. Such a state is terrible, and it is a shame that it could play out in a society that simultaneously wastes millions of dollars daily on unnecessary nonsense.
It shows us that our hearts lack connection. We could open a million charities with an abundance of funds, and gather large amounts of people to take care of the needy, and we would still find more and more babies in need nonetheless.
Why? It is because we lack a heart-to-heart connection. We as a society fail to develop such a connection, and we suffer in various ways as a result.
We lack a collective understanding of the primary need to repair human relations, and to build a society based on such relations. Instead of raising human consciousness, we dry up, becoming worse and more distant from each other, and so we bear witness to such phenomena in our times as mothers stealing baby food when not having enough money to pay for it.
Based on the video “Broke Mother Steals Baby Food – A Kabbalist’s Response” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Should Jews be considered a nation?“
“Love your friend as yourself” makes Jews a nation. In other words, what makes Jews a nation is loving every Jew.
Among Jews is where the unifying process in humanity begins, and then the whole of humanity will also unite.
We need to discover that every person is like our own sibling, a part of our soul. It is because we—all people—are parts of one soul.
And Jews need to start the correction process of shifting from humanity’s current egoistic level—where we desire to enjoy at the expense of each other and nature—to a level of connection fueled by nature’s forces of love and bestowal. When we realize the unity based on the core connecting force in nature, the nations of the world will also feel it and will happily also unite.
Therefore, as we progress from our current state, we need to encourage each other to be “as one man with one heart,” to teach our unifying principle in schools, and present it in a wide variety of formats throughout our communication systems. We need to fill the air with the spirit of unity because our life depends on it.
Based on the video “What Makes Jews a Nation?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Ein Sof then restricted Himself in His middle point, in the very middle, restricted that light, and drifted to the sides around that middle point (Baal HaSulam, Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol 1, Part 1, Chapter 1).
In order to give the creation an opportunity to exist in its original state, the Creator had to create a place. And He created it.
What does a place mean? This is the quality in which the creation exists that was created by Him in the will to receive, opposite to the Creator, in the desire to think only about itself and to enjoy only what it feels. That is, a place is a will to receive, a desire to feel oneself in the best possible way.
Question: It is written that before that the Creator filled the entire space. When He restricted Himself, a place called the will to receive remained, which does not feel the Creator… correct?
Answer: Yes, the Creator restricted Himself to a certain area where He does not reveal His qualities. There, a space was created empty from His influence in which a quality opposite to the Creator appeared—the will to receive, to enjoy, to think only about oneself. This is creation.
Question: In this place, can we say there is no equivalence of qualities of the Creator and the creation, and as a result of this, the light disappears; in other words, is there no pleasure from bestowal in this place? Is this why we receive pleasure only from reception there?
Answer: Yes. This is a special place called our world.
[302769]
From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 9/4/22
Related Material:
Two Substances that Make Up Creation
Before the Beginning Of Creation
Tree of Life —The Book About the Creation of the Worlds
Question: If the entire nation of Israel adopts the structure of Bnei Baruch and establishes completely different relationships and interrelations between people, what do you think would happen? Would this in some way bring us closer to correction?
Answer: Israel cannot accept such a system because it is for those who consciously go against their egoism to similarity with the Creator, who want to be Israel (Yashar El), and actively work on themselves.
Not everyone has this opportunity. It is given by nature in the same way as the ability for music, mathematics, painting, or dance. It is a kind of art. There are people who have it and people who do not, and not necessarily Jews. For example, Rabbi Akiva, who is the source of the entire Torah for us, both oral and written, was not a Jew by birth. There were many such people, especially in ancient times.
The fact is that only a person who has a pronounced point in the heart and works with it, can work on himself according to Kabbalistic methods, that is, in the middle line along three lines.
The rest of the people should follow those with a point in heart as a guide who leads them due to the fact that they have an internal structure of three lines. Thus, they come to exactly the same result.
This method is easier and is based on connections and workshops. People are working on themselves but for connection. They do not have to do all kinds of problematic actions the way we do, they do not have to study the sources.
For them, there is another technique—to be good children. This is also not easy, but it is not like it is for the ones who are leading. After all, they are following the leader. Therefore, Israel is called Li Rosh, i.e., leading forward, the one that has a head, calculations, and a connection with the Creator, and all the others receive this through them.
[302668]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Israel and Bnei Baruch.“ 4/25/13
Related Material:
Bnei Baruch: Spiritual Channel To The World
What Is Bnei Baruch?
Bnei Baruch As A State Of Transition
You should know that separation in spirituality occurs only by means of disparity of form. …
Just as corporeal entities connect and separate through proximity and remoteness, so spiritual entities connect and separate according to their difference and equivalence of form. The disparity of form separates them from one another, and the equivalence of form brings them together. Remember that for it is the key element to this wisdom (Baal HaSulam, Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 1, Chapter 1).
Question: What forms are we talking about?
Answer: We are talking about the qualities of the Creator. They are absolute bestowal, love, and closeness to His creations.
The qualities of creation are opposite to them. The creations are created as if in the imprint of the Creator within the quality of absolute egoism: self-love, caring only about oneself and about no one and nothing else, in no way and in nothing.
This oppositeness of the Creator and the creation, on the one hand, allows the creation to exist. Although this looks opposite, negative, and different from the Creator, it is precisely how creation exists.
In other words, if we can say so, the Creator had no other possibility to create the creation other than to make it the opposite of Himself.
The creation has no other opportunity to manifest itself in relation to the Creator, except in similarity to Him. It is because, based on the absolute oppositeness to the Creator, the only thing that remains for the creation and what it really needs is to come to similarity with the Creator. These are the true states of the Creator and creation.
The Creator is unchangeable, absolute in all His actions. His quality is only absolute bestowal and love. He has no egoistic desires, and therefore, it is impossible to influence Him in any way in order to change Him.
Whereas creation is absolutely egoistic, it exists only in the will to receive, to do everything with benefit only for itself. This is the only way it acts. This is how the Creator created it.
[302630]
From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 9/4/22
Related Material:
The Creator Is Everywhere
The Creator Is Inside The Environment
The Creator Is The Source Of Everything
There are nothing but five worlds (concealments) between us and the world of infinity. I must overcome this concealment.
Who is concealed from me? The force of the giver, bestowal, and love. I have to reveal it according to my equivalence of qualities with the very force of bestowal and love called the Creator.
How can I get at least some measure of equivalence with Him? I hope that The Book of Zohar will reveal some quality to me that is similar to my corrected state, the Creator, Malchut of infinity, Zeir Anpin, or light.
I am waiting for the book to act on me in such a way that I will have the quality of bestowal and love. This is why I read The Book of Zohar. Why else should I open it?
Question: Does it mean that the work with The Zohar continues throughout all 125 degrees?
Answer: Of course! This is how Baal HaSulam writes in his “Preface to The Book of Zohar.” The Zohar was written at the height of the 125 degrees.
Therefore, from the same height, from the world of infinity, it influences us and corrects us at all levels until we reach the end of correction.
And therefore, this book is our guide along the way from this moment until the end of correction.
[7863]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/10, The Book of Zohar “VaYeshev”
Related Material:
The Key To The Book Of Zohar
The Language Of The Book Of Zohar
How to Read The Book of Zohar
Question: Do I understand correctly that integral education is the creation of a network that can later absorb the upper light coming through other people?
Answer: Of course! Certainly. If an equivalence to nature arises in you, then you already have replenishment from above, and the whole huge integral nature acts in unison with you and holds you.
You begin to feel it, breathe together with it, and receive thoughts and feelings from it. When you work in unison with it, you feel that this is the way to do it, while that way isn’t worth doing; here you need to increase, and here you need to reduce something. In general, you begin to feel what nature requires of us.
We explain this to society in the words of our world and they do not need to know that it comes from the hidden laws of the physical world. What difference does it make to an ordinary person who uses electronic devices how they work? Does he understand something about this? He presses certain buttons, and that’s it! Today, a child is happy to work with mobile phones or with any device at all. And what does he know at the same time?!
We don’t know what an electric current is or about the interaction of fields and so on. But we know how to use it. We have learned: “That is this way! And this is that way.” Good. And so it goes. That is, we know what relates to what we use. And we don’t know anything about this nature; it flies somewhere to an otherworldly, foreign region.
To date there are certain studies and effects that are based on knowledge of Einstein’s theory of relativity. And so what if we don’t clearly understand how it works above the speed of light or at the speed of light?! In our world, everything is under the speed of light. Above the speed of light is the next world, the next degree.
Therefore it is enough for a simple person to know that by uniting we arouse in ourselves a common force, the wisdom of the crowd, together with nature. This is provable, and that’s enough for us. It works, and that’s it! This is considered a law of physics.
And we do not understand the inner force of the law at all or its basis. We study only the consequences. A certain mass is attracted by the Earth with a certain force; we calculate the formula and everything is ready! And we use it. This is called our knowledge.
No matter how much we explore our knowledge, it is always limited, always in matter. In other words, we always study only the consequences of some effects that are not felt by themselves. We feel only the effects, but not the force itself, for instance, electric current, magnetic waves, or the gravitational field.
Therefore, people need to know only one rule. When a crowd gathers and becomes organized, certain effects arise in it, the effect of increased wisdom, increased impressionability, increased strength, and increased mental ability to predict, see, and feel. At the same time mutual assistance increases the potential strength of this group, and so on. In this way we raise ourselves to the next degree.
[302788]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call, Conductors of Spiritual Information” 5/18/13
Related Material:
The Next Phase Of Human Development
When Will The Masses Become Wise?
Collective Intelligence
Daily Audio Version-MP3
Get the Weekly eNewsletter
Follow on Twitter
