From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 8/12/20

America awaits good news. People expect to receive federal unemployment benefits in the coming days as a result of an executive order for relief from Covid-19’s economic impacts. In addition, new experimental treatments to get a grip on the pandemic promise to bear fruit soon, and billions are invested in the ongoing race to find a vaccine against the coronavirus. Despite these efforts, the only solution capable of brightening up and sharpening the blurry image of the future is fixing our human relations. Why? It is so because only there at the root can the problem be tackled for good.

The path to healing begins with an accurate diagnosis. It is no coincidence that as soon as humanity barely recovers from a particular catastrophe, a new blow arises. This indicates that the previous treatment failed to address the underlying cause of the troubles, thus they continue to reappear in new forms.

Therefore, focusing on finding band aid solutions to the pandemic and its consequences will never be lastingly effective. A complete cure for this global problem requires a fundamental change in our social relations since that is the triggering force for all that unfolds in reality. We live within the system of nature, which is a great force field where everything is connected: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human levels. The more developed a creature is, the more powerful its impact on the entire system.

Our attitudes, thoughts, and desires towards others are at the highest and most potent level in nature. So if these elements are directed correctly, they will radiate favorably on all the levels of nature below the human level. In other words, the things we want and think of—especially in relation to our surrounding environment—create the most powerful impact within the network of the forces of nature.

The Accurate Image Revealed 

Whether consciously or not, we constantly measure ourselves against those around us. The more we consider ourselves to be on a higher status, smarter, and more successful compared to others, the more comfortable we feel. At the same time, a greater separation is perceived between ourselves and others that results in making little effort to be considerate of others. This is what we refer to as the egoistic, selfish relations that create imbalance in nature, which returns in a boomerang effect upon us, making us weak, vulnerable, and unhealthy.

The coronavirus continues to advance us to a new level of connection in which we function “as one man with one heart,” forming a complete image of reality as if billions of pixels have connected with no division between them. Such an image will be crystal clear to each and every one if we only hold on to each other tightly, if we support each other to the point that we would never cause harm or take advantage of others in any way but only do good to everyone.

Of course, such aspirations toward perfect harmony with others do not come naturally. It is not in anyone’s power to change the egocentric operating mechanism inherent from birth. All that is required from each of us is just a readiness for that change to take place. And when there is a deep understanding that good human relations are indispensable for survival in the 21st Century, we will discover an upwelling of sublime qualities of loving and giving, and the world will change from end to end. Instead of scrambling to survive after each and every beating, we will experience lasting positive outcomes.

Change must begin within each of us, in our thoughts, because they are the most powerful force in creation. If we make efforts to do this together, we will feel how deeply we are connected in one system—spiritually, mentally, internally—and instead of viruses and hardships, we will be filled with the perception of life on a higher level, the perfect picture of reality.

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We are living in a new era, and the old one will not return. Therefore, there is no point in sitting and grieving for the old life, like an old man who remembers his younger years with tears. This time is gone, over! We were thrown out of our previous state, the door closed behind us, and there is no way back.

It is impossible to manage anything in the world today with the help of the old systems. What’s left is just to ensure they don’t work. In the next year or six months, we will see the collapse of many of the systems we have built: financial, industrial, and educational, which will crumble before our eyes like a house of cards.

And then, how to exist? We will have to abandon all the systems built over the past hundred years—companies, banks, industry, commerce, health care, and education—and move to a new system.

Calmly, friends, without panic and without nerves! We have grown up in order to now consciously move into a new state, holding the management in our hands.

Everything that was controlled by our egoism according to a single program, to win more, which meant success, and it does not work today. Nature is introducing a new program to us. And I can no longer make a profit by what worked before: expensive things. The coronavirus is deliberately preventing us from retaining the old systems.

We are already in a new system, but we don’t know how to use it. The new system is the ten, the world Kabbalistic group. It is necessary to start building a new humanity, new relationships from heart to heart. You don’t need anything else. According to the new internal non-egoistic relationships, it will become clear how to build relationships in business. They must correspond to a heart-to-heart relationship.

A new desire will bring a new method of communication in business. Everything will change. The old will be destroyed, but the new production will grow even more than before, but for the sake of bestowal, mutual involvement. The principle should be different: for the benefit of all and not to harm anyone! No one should win more than others at someone else’s expense; everything is only for a better connection.

And then businesses will start to grow before your eyes, as it is said: “The sprouts have come out of the ground,” and there will be a new crop, a new harvest, all over again. This is called “the field blessed by the Creator.” And the principles of connection can only be borrowed from the ten, from the connection between us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/5/20, “Preparation for the Virtual Convention  ‘A New World’ 2002, ‘The Last Generation from the Old World to the New World’” 

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Medium published my new article “Aliens on Our Own Planet”

With every passing day, it’s becoming clearer that we’re moving into a new era. The protests against wearing masks are the rebellion of our egos against a compulsory change. Big tech companies such as Google, Apple, and Facebook have already told their employees to keep working from home for at least another year. Everything will change: jobs, banks, industry, education, commerce, human relations, international relations, our whole civilization will turn on its head, and so will we. Only then, the virus will leave.

The exploitative, excessively competitive system where one had to destroy the other in order to survive has exhausted itself.

Both WHO Secretary General António Guterres and White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci have stated that an effective vaccine is unlikely in the foreseeable future, if ever. In simple words, our lives have changed forever.

Moreover, the more we try to return to the previous “normal,” the more we will inflame recurring waves of Covid. If every time the contagion rate declines we will insist on reopening businesses, we will experience a third, fourth, and who knows how many waves of the pandemic until we realize we cannot beat it. Nature has landed us a knockout, and every time we try to get up and fight, it lands another blow.

But nature isn’t out to kill us; it is out to teach us how to be a part of it, rather than hostile aliens on our own planet. And being part of nature means first and foremost to unite among us, to feel close to our fellow human beings, and in this way learn how to be close to nature. The world we live in is one complete and integral system. To feel its integrality, we need to make ourselves similar to it: integral and complete. And the journey toward it begins at home: with us people.

The exploitative, excessively competitive system where one had to destroy the other in order to survive has exhausted itself. The mindset of survival of the fittest runs contrary to the whole of nature, which operates on the completely opposite principle: survival of the friendliest (Google it). Now it is upon us to build this type of society, and in the process, begin to understand the true nature of the world around us.

No one will help us. As a society, we are egoists and don’t know how to truly care for one another. But we can fake it till we make it, and if we keep in mind that our goal is to build a united, integral system where everyone shares the benefits, we will succeed.

Although deep down we all wish we could go back to our old way of life, even if there were no coronavirus, it would be very unwise to do so. There is already so much hatred in the country that a social collapse, if not an all-out civil war, is imminent. In many ways, it has already begun but it is not yet bloody, and it seems like someone has forgotten to make an official declaration.

But it is not too late to reroute. We can look around us and see that everything consists of opposites that complement each other. Only people think that opposites should annihilate one another, oblivious to the fact that just as in nature, opposites allow each other to exist, so it is with us.

We see the world as flat, a two-dimensional image, not realizing that the same human nature operates all parties, all factions of human society. When we insist on seeing the world only through one perspective, we miss the chance to use the other perspective as a “second eye” and get a three-dimensional view. This is the only way that we can see the full depth and scope of reality, and find what operates the whole picture that we see before us. Only when you can look at the world through both prisms can you see it, so instead of trying to abolish the other viewpoint, we should cherish it, thank it for existing, while keeping our separate perspective.

Unity is not created when two opposites become the same. It is created when two opposites complete each other’s different viewpoints to create the full picture, which neither can see alone.
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Medium published my new article “Mask Wearing, Freedom vs. Love of Others?”

Life saver to some and symbol of tyranny to others — the requirement to wear a mask in public to prevent further contagion of COVID-19 has split societies around the globe. In America, the rebellious and visceral reactions of significant numbers of customers in shops and offices, where wearing a mask is mandatory, have even surprised mental health experts. People’s outrage has been expressed in the streets of the US and also in big cities such as Berlin and London where thousands protested the measure. But are we clear on what true freedom means? Clarity can only be grasped when we are considerate of one another.

Nature is like a loving parent giving his tender child a bitter medicine, while we behave like the child who is kicking and crying and refusing to swallow. Nature has a clear purpose: to bring all of humanity to unity. Thus, we will not be able to escape the plague until we realize that we are in one boat, all of humanity.

Despite vast scientific support for the efficacy of mask-wearing to prevent a wider spread of the coronavirus pandemic, the debate about their effectiveness refuses to die among those who defy face coverings and social distancing as preventative measures. But there is a deeper reason for their refusal: human nature. People are willing to risk the lives of others and their own to preserve what they consider their personal liberties. They ask themselves, “Why should an order from the government be imposed to restrict me? What is it that puts a bridle on my mouth like a horse? I am a free person!

Why the Anti-Mask Sentiment?

As someone who has studied human nature for more than forty years, I can understand them. They feel masks and the limitations that they symbolize are oppressive and demeaning. Some virus comes and suddenly they are obliged to wear masks, while governments look helpless to handle the situation. Of course they will shout in the streets. Countries that thought they had handled the Covid-19 crisis successfully find themselves falling again. The virus never ends; it simply does not go away and nothing seems to help.

People’s defiance against the mask requirement is evidence of our inability, failure, and even indifference to educating our societies correctly. People have not been educated about how to take care of themselves and be considerate of one another. There isn’t a government in the world that can set an example to anyone in this, and also not among those in charge of the health system — all follow their own specific and particular interests. We are witnessing a total collapse of the human system. There is basically nothing from among the existing societal structures that we can present to people as an example to be respected and listened to — everything is corrupt.

It is the virus itself which has taken our education into hand. Nature is law-bound to behave in every way to bring man into alignment with its system, to the knowledge of his “evil inclination.” Until man attains a higher consciousness, nature must show him that the destruction in his life stems from the destruction in his relationship with others.

Nature is like a loving parent giving his tender child a bitter medicine, while we behave like the child who is kicking and crying and refusing to swallow. Nature has a clear purpose: to bring all of humanity to unity. Thus, we will not be able to escape the plague until we realize that we are in one boat, all of humanity.

We influence and depend on one another. Therefore, each must act accordingly by developing the conviction and intention to avoid transmitting the virus and harming others. When we view our situation from this perspective, we will not view the mandatory measures like mask wearing as coercion but as a gesture of love and care for others, implemented with a blessing.

The world is circular and functions in that same fashion, as a unit. In the current state, that circle is being hit by crises from every direction. So, what to do? We must first realize that we are immersed in an interrelated system of connections. This means that every single action will affect the whole. Therefore, the only way to overcome the state of crisis is to think and behave as one, in mutual responsibility. That is our true freedom of choice.
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Question: Public opinion has taught people to live according to the principles of endless consumption, saying that this is the pinnacle of civilization. How can we not make a mistake now while building new relationships in society?

Answer: The pandemic is just the beginning, the first small blow. Not even a blow, but a slight push to move us a little. But all the same, the coronavirus will reshape us in the most terrible way.

We will see a collapsed, destroyed world, which we can no longer control with our past levers. Neither factories nor airlines, nothing will work the way it should. Everything must go through a completely new stage of reconstruction, correct change, to new unfolding conditions.

The coronavirus has somewhat made the world integral. However, already proceeding from this, we understand that we are not adapted to this world. We do not even understand how we can return to the past. And you can’t go back to the past.

But in this case, two billion people will be left without work. How will they feed themselves? Or how are we going to supply them with what they need?

Today, countries are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to somehow calm things down. These dollars disappear, we will not be able to demand them back into the state treasury. Therefore, we see that the powerful of this world have only strength, but no heads. We are facing a very big problem.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 4/30/20

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We live in a world that is changing right before our eyes. Our whole life can be divided into two stages: before the coronavirus and after it.

Life flowed according to a certain routine, and the virus suddenly made a drastic change in it, bringing all of humanity to a new state, which is still perceived as a global crisis.

The crisis is growing and deepening and it is not clear where it will lead, but it is clear that it is leading us to a new world that we are not yet familiar with. This crisis is like a new birth. The very word “crisis” (Mashber) comes from the name of the stone on which women in ancient times gave birth to children. In other words, crisis is the place of new birth, and the current state, which we call a crisis, is the birth of a new world.

There have been many different crises in the history of mankind, but so far, none of them has changed the world so dramatically. There were only some changes in human society, in its form. But today’s crisis is the first real one, although it does not seem very serious yet because it is not a war, a meteorite falling, or mass destruction.

And yet, we can call it a crisis precisely because a new world is being born before our eyes. Soon we will see how human society, us, our families, and our attitude to the world have changed. The inner world of a person, his perception of reality will change, and we will see a new world.

We do not see it yet, just like a baby that is inside its mother and does not see the world. But even when it is born, it does not see anything at first either. Then it will develop hearing and vision, and it will begin to respond as it grows and becomes familiar with the world.

It is exactly how we adults need to be born and change our perception and vision to see a new world. It will happen soon.

Childbirth is a huge, incomparable pain, a feeling that the whole body is ready to explode. On one hand, this is a very serious, critical, life-threatening condition. But on the other hand, we see that there is no choice: nature obliges us to go through it.

However, the birth of a child is based on the natural desire of a woman to have children. In addition, there is the public opinion that motivates a woman to give birth to a child, and not only one. Nature gave the woman a lot of strength to endure labor pains; this is a difficult and dangerous state.

The entire humanity is in this coronavirus crisis, both men and women. Women always reproached men for not knowing labor pains. Well, now women can be satisfied: men will go through real, severe labor pains. They will feel that the crisis is suffocating them, not giving them the opportunity to resist it: you are all torn from within, but you can do nothing.

We will still be able to be born through prayer and efforts to unite. But it will be a very difficult and special birth because we are giving birth to ourselves in a new world. We cross the border to the spiritual world and are born in a new form.
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From KabTV’s “Women in the New World” 7/9/20

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What do you think about how the world at large can learn as a lesson from the Coronavirus? Can we expect unity?“

Until now, the pains that have befallen the world have led to no effective solutions or discernments.

People simply await its end so that they can get back to doing business as usual, thinking about how to minimize their losses, and even more so, how to profit off of the pandemic.

It comes as no surprise, since it is a mere expected outcome of our innate egoistic attitude to the world, which works on us involuntarily.

Therefore, the coronavirus is here to stay for a lot longer, since it has appeared in order to perform a serious change in the world.

Right now, we are going through a phase of trying to revive many businesses that we have no real need for, and give handouts for work that will be nonexistent in the future.

Authorities fail to understand the newness of the era that we have entered, that it is an era where we need to provide people with life’s essentials, and place all of our surplus focus on an upgraded form of education, which teaches us about this new interdependent world that is revealing itself to us, its laws, and how we can get along with each other in these new conditions. That is, it is a form of education that we need today, which we did not receive as we grew up.

Instead, we try to continue holding onto our past materialistic values, hoping that we will keep our shopping culture of boutiques, jewelry stores, expensive watches and cars.

Therefore, in relation to the change that nature demands from humanity today, the pandemic has not even started yet.

I thus hope that we will open our eyes and see that we are in a new, more interdependent and interconnected world, and living in this world requires making serious adjustments to how we used to live, which comes down to becoming more essentials-focused while engaging in learning of what is this new world, how we have developed to this point, and what we can do in order to survive and prosper in today’s new tighter interdependent conditions.

Above photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash.

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Our connection must become ten complete Sefirot of the soul, or the Third Temple. The temple is a structure, a network of connections between us.

Today’s coronavirus epidemic reveals to us the breaking, the destruction of the Temple, the transgression. It shows how egoistic our relationships are and how unable we are to connect, how indifferent we are to what happens to our neighbor: whether he lives or dies.

This is the disease—I am sick because I cannot even get close to anyone who is around. The coronavirus reveals our hatred and rejection of each other. This is the disease. The crown is placed on our head as super-egoism that dominates us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/29/20, “Tishaa BeAv (Ninth of Av)”

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Medium published my new article “COVID-19 and the Futile Race for a Vaccine”

Throughout the world, companies are racing to find a vaccine for COVID-19. They are hoping to be able to abolish the pandemic, restore the capitalistic, over-consumerist way of life we’d had before the virus took over the world, and make billions of dollars in profit in the process. It is a hopeless pursuit. There will probably be no vaccine and no cure for the virus. Even if one is found, soon after, another, stronger pestilence will ravage humankind.

We are positioning ourselves against the whole of existence, claiming entitlement that we are not entitled to claim, and feel deprived when we don’t get what we weren’t supposed to get in the first place.

If we want to cure the coronavirus, we have to do it where it begins. The appearance of the virus is itself a symptom; it is not the illness. The illness is our bad relations with each other. Our relationships with one another are sick, and that sickness manifests in various ways, such as divorce rates, depression rates, substance abuse, obesity, violence, and recently, a pandemic.

We cannot treat the virus as a stand-alone crisis because everything in reality is tied and connected to everything else. We already know that about the rest of nature, and even about our own bodies, but we conveniently exclude our psyches from the rule. We shouldn’t; it is destroying our lives, our livelihoods, and now our entire civilization.

In fact, it makes no sense to think that our ill spiritual state, namely our ill-will toward each other, has no bearing on our bodies. If we can treat depression with antidepressants, or take pills that make us feel friendly, why do we think that a bad disposition will not have a negative impact on our health?

Moreover, since our bodies, minds, and spirits are one system, and since we are a part of all of nature, our ill-spirit negatively affects all of nature, again, because it is all one system. And when all of humanity suffers from ill spirits, the impact on the rest of the world becomes massive.

Wherever you look at nature, it is a balanced and harmonious system. On the mineral, plant, and animal levels, animals and plants feed on one another and thereby preserve the health and balance of the ecosystem. Within our bodies, too, homeostasis is maintained as the body continually generates new and robust cells and kills old and weak ones. This keeps us healthy and strong.

The only part where nature does not run on autopilot is our psyche. Our spirits are free to choose whether to be united as one system or run solo. So far, we have chosen to go solo, but we see the costs. We are positioning ourselves against the whole of existence, claiming entitlement that we are not entitled to claim, and feel deprived when we don’t get what we weren’t supposed to get in the first place.

If we want to be healthy, strong, and happy, we first need to learn how all of nature works. We need to recognize that the whole system is integral and interconnected, that all parts support one another in an interdependent network of pieces that promote each other’s well-being. The apparent competition in nature is only a misinterpretation of our self-centered mindsets. Species support one another and strengthen one another since they are all interdependent.

Once we know that, we will understand how we can become similar to nature, and therefore truly happy. We will realize that people who hold different views are not our foes, since without them we wouldn’t be able to define ourselves, our views, our thoughts. It is exactly the conflicts and contradictions in our lives, the things we disagree with, that make us think, grow, articulate, and become more complete human beings.

In the end, the human ecosystem should resemble the rest of nature, create a network of different and opposing views, colors, races, religions, nations, personalities, and cultures that together make a beautiful whole, as diverse as nature itself. We all love and appreciate nature’s diversity, so why not love and appreciate our own? Just as we love nature because all the pieces in it make a beautiful whole, we should learn to love humanity because all the different pieces of us make a beautiful whole, of which we are all equally important parts.

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Medium published my new article “Covid-19, Light at the End of the Tunnel”

People’s will to weather the coronavirus storm and get back to normal life has vied with the surge of record-breaking infection rates around the globe. People are tired of hearing about the pandemic but it grips and does not let go, spreading and striking. Yet, we can find the stamina to navigate the crisis when we realize that the solution is in our hands.

If we help each other take on the mindset of the good of all, our hearts will be cleansed of egoistic and alienating attitudes and all the parts of nature will recover balance. The common concern for the well-being of others will create solutions for every possible situation, building a shield that will protect us from all predicaments.

“For the first time in history, nearly every scientist in the world is focused on the same problem… this is starting to pay real dividends,” say academics from Harvard who highlight the new era of cooperation we have entered to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on every realm of our lives: the economy, health, education, culture. Millions of people worldwide are stressed out over the variables that predict what awaits us in the future. What will happen in the upcoming winter in terms of COVID cases? How many more people will be unemployed?

The uncertainty shapes our collective consciousness and prepares it for a sharp turn. Precisely this kind of change of perspective — from a narrow-minded, egoistic perspective to a comprehensive, broad approach to solving our common challenges — is what will help us to reach a solution to the crisis at the deepest root of the problem: our dysfunctional human relations, rather than approaching it only from a scientific, economic or political perspective.

The Silver Lining Is Between Us

From a world where a person sees only himself, we need to transition to a world where people consider one another. From a world where we no longer stop to consider whether or not to wear a mask or keep social distance to avoid the transmission of a harmful virus to those near us, we need to attain a reality in which we consciously do whatever it takes to protect others, in the same way as we would like others to take care of the health of our children.

Our current sense of helplessness is making us more sensitive to the relationships between us. Without improving our human relations, we will be unable to secure a good future. Instead, we will only waste precious energy and resources on wars and conflicts of interest. Even if a cure for COVID-19 is found, it will not cure the social phenomenon of excessive egoism, the state that causes people not to feel the needs of others but only their own selfish demands.

The ultimate vaccine against all pathogens targets the healing of the hearts, neutralizes venomous criticism and corrects our exploitative attitude towards others. Nature is not blind and nothing happens by chance. The engine of evolution produces what we perceive as negative events so we will react and make connections that move us in the opposite direction toward alignment with nature. This is the formula for the evolution of life, and the times require everyone to realize this. The world we have built is completely interconnected, but our hearts remain far apart. This incompatibility is exactly what we are required to fix so we will function as an integral system in mutual consideration and harmony.

If we help each other take on the mindset of the good of all, our hearts will be cleansed of egoistic and alienating attitudes and all the parts of nature will recover balance. The common concern for the well-being of others will create solutions for every possible situation, building a shield that will protect us from all predicaments. Then we will discover that there is nothing threatening in nature, and that the coronavirus was just the means for curing the world from hatred and excessive consumerism.

The bottom line of this formula for security and prosperity is simple: without connection of the hearts we will all suffer, but mutual support will build a sensation of paradise. We are like a family stuck together in a tunnel. We will be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel only with the power of love.
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