In the News (from Healthline): “As if depression weren’t bad enough, statistics show that diagnoses are growing at an alarming rate. In addition, states with higher rates of depression also show high rates of other negative health outcomes, such as obesity, heart disease, and stroke. … Despite all of these statistics on depression, this infographic shows that many people suffer symptoms of depression without seeking care, and that undiagnosed depression costs the U.S. millions of dollars each year.”

My Comment: Since the entire nature is the desire to enjoy, from the desire to maintain its structure in inanimate matter to the desire to develop maximally in the animate nature, then the feeling of emptiness is the most obvious sensation in the desire, its “exposed” suffering. That is why precisely in our time is when egoism must begin its correction, it discovers emptiness, a lack of fulfillment.

This is intended to assist us in correcting egoism, rejecting it. And instead, we invent methods of satisfying it, and thus just increase and extend our suffering. If like a smart child, we had understood at once that we should do otherwise, we would have quickly come out of suffering and found a comfortable existence. But we are like the stubborn fool who wants to act in his own way, and as a result, we increase our suffering and stretch it for many years.
[82110]

Related Material:
“Culture Of We” Buffers Genetic Tendency To Depression
The Depression Cure
The Cure For Depression Is A Connection With Other People

Filed under: Crisis, Depression, Egoism, Health, News - No Comments →

Question: Is my stubbornness worth anything? If everything depends on the Creator and tomorrow He can throw me off-track, where is my work here?

Answer: It doesn’t matter whether the Creator throws me off or not; I have to be stubborn. I have to make sure that even when I feel as if the Creator is throwing me, I don’t leave. I receive such support from the environment that it enables me to stay and not run away.

The more we advance, the more the Creator will reject us. I will feel greater disrespect for Him, and the relationship between us will become worse. I will not understand why the Creator repays me with such ingratitude. This is the work, and this is its reward? Is this fair?

New, corrupt, egoistic desires constantly will be revealed, and as a result, our relationships with the Creator will become worse; they will be unpleasant and illogical. The friends also will seem worse and lower, and the way will seem meaningless. I will not find the powers inside me nor the logical explanation to respect the Creator, the group, and the way.

In the meantime, we are in a state where everything seems sublime and important in our corporeal beastly mind, in our ego. We see that the corporeal world isn’t worth much compared to this great goal and that we have a foundation that is above everything else.

However, this is how we see it today, and tomorrow, if we are stronger, we will be shown a totally different picture that there is nothing to hold onto along the way. The Creator will seem as a foolish illusion that doesn’t really exist; the group will seem like a gathering of empty, useless people, and the study as a meaningless occupation that hasn’t led anyone to success so far.

There is a kind of “eye opening,” and it is a miracle that a person can hold onto the way and continue. It is only in the meantime that, considering our weakness, we are given such a feeling that the group is important, and the friends, the teacher, and the books are important.

However, imagine that the teacher has left you, the group has become unimportant, and the books just stand on the shelf covered with dust, and that’s it. That’s the end. So, we should prepare ourselves for the advanced states that may be very difficult.

I see that people escape minor unpleasant situations and cannot justify their exertion. Even before they are confused from above and rejected from spirituality, they already escape.

We must understand that the Creator is behind the whole picture that we perceive, and behind the way we feel ourselves and the world. The picture of this world not only is what I see before me, but everything that I feel. After having accepted this picture and trying to feel it to its full depth and in every direction in the mind and in the heart, I have to say that there is none else besides Him and that it is He who depicts this picture for me on purpose so that I will respond to it correctly.

As it is written, “From Your actions, I will know You.” His actions are me and this world. I know Him since through all this, I want to reach Him and to know Him as the force of bestowal, as the good and the benevolent.
[82207]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
A Tuning Fork For David’s Violin
Persistence In Valuable Trifles
A Step Forward

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Mutual Guarantee, My Similarity to the Creator - 1 Comment →

Right now, we exist in a state where egoism is no longer pushing us from behind; there is no purpose pulling us forward, and in the sphere of our existence, nature itself is warning us from all sides that we’ve exceeded all limits in exploiting it and it cannot continue like this anymore. With every day, we’re destroying ourselves more and more, and like little foolish egoists, we don’t sense that tomorrow we’ll have nothing to eat and drink, nothing to breathe; we won’t be able to provide ourselves even with the basic necessities.

We came to a new, very interesting point where we need to understand how we can rebuild ourselves and our relationship to the world and nature in order to provide mankind with a normal life for centuries to come, where on the one hand, we’ll use natural resources with great care within the boundaries of economics and reasonable consumption, and on the other hand, we’ll give people a goal and motivation to act this way.

This goal should explain to a person that life with reasonable limitations and balance is attractive, benevolent, fills him, and gives him such special feelings that all of his prior opportunities could not give him.

Where can one find such an attractive goal, such a luminous dream, that a person will wake up happy and work with joy? Moreover, in the new, rebuilt society, people will work only two to three hours a day in order to provide themselves with all necessities, and they will have a lot of free time.

And what will a modern person do the rest of the time? Will he lie on a couch, watch television, drink beer, and watch soccer?! How can he occupy himself so that all of his egoistic needs, or despair, alienation, and helplessness would suddenly become positive emotions, transformed into something bright, joyful, and fulfilling? How can this be done?

So the next state of humanity poses several challenges for us: to give a person excitement and fulfillment in his rather simple and limited conscious life.

For that we need to raise, educate, and offer them the possibility for fulfillment. With what? Here we discover a truly new opportunity where a person starts to become fulfilled with something higher than our ordinary life because he or she can no longer fulfill himself with food, sex, and family. He can no longer fill himself with money, power, honor, and knowledge since even that comes to a certain rational end. And the only thing that remains is the next, the seventh degree, his or her spiritual development that stands above the previous basic desires. This spiritual development occurs when a person begins to reveal his or her next degree of existence in unity with others.
[82120]
From a “Talk On Integral Education” 5/25/12

Related Material:
Facing A Choice
Nature’s Commandments = the Creator’s Laws
The Next Phase Of Human Development

Filed under: Education, Egoism, Integral Upbringing, Society, Unity, World - 1 Comment →

In the News (from Dawn): “Indian pharmaceutical tycoon Yusuf Hamied revolutionised AIDS treatment more than a decade ago by supplying cut-price drugs to the world’s poor – and now he wants to do the same for cancer.

“Hamied, 76, was pilloried by Western drug giants 11 years ago when he broke their monopoly by offering to supply life-saving triple therapy AIDS drug cocktails for under $1 a day – one-thirtieth the price of the multinationals.

The firms branded him an intellectual property thief while he accused them of being ‘global serial killers’ whose high prices were costing the lives of AIDS patients.

“In 1972, India made only the process for making drugs patentable, not the drugs themselves. This meant firms could ‘reverse-engineer’ or change methods used to make medicines and sell them at up to one-fiftieth of US prices. …

“But in 2005, India brought its law in line with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules recognising 20-year patents, pushing up the prices of newly launched drugs.”

My Comment: It is not surprising that a healthcare system in any country is only a hidden means of collecting taxes and feeding trough for its supportors. This happens to any egoistic system and to any altruistic initiative that quickly turns egoistic if it doesn’t include integral education and upbringing.
[82033]

Related Material:
Pharmaceutical Industry In Crisis
Head Of WHO: “The End Of Modern Medicine As We Know It”
Medicine: A Profitable Business

Filed under: Education, Egoism, Integral Upbringing, News - No Comments →

Question: When I feel hungry, for example, I have to fill myself. What can I do if I fear that I will not be able to do that, if I feel the lack of filling?

Answer: The fear of being hungry, ill, or old and the fear of death are the fear of the defeat of the ego. The fear of lack of filling, of lack of fulfillment, is already on a higher level, but it is still an egoistic fear, but can we fight it; why was it given to us?

It is impossible to run away from fears, starting from the most primitive fear of death and all the other fears that turn into awe. They were given to us so that by running away from them, since we will have no choice, and by seeing that there is nowhere to run and that we cannot compensate ourselves, we will suddenly discover: “If I rise above them, if I live in a system of bestowal and love, outside myself, I will not fear anything. It may well be that if I exit myself, which means my desires and my thoughts, I will be able to imagine that I don’t exist, since I have no desires or thought about myself. What do I have? I have thoughts about others, about everything that isn’t me. So this is probably a good thing. By that I don’t suffer from anything. But if I don’t suffer, I don’t feel anything either. So it may well be that by getting rid of myself, of my fears, I will have to be full of the sufferings of others and to live in such fears. Thus I will get the feeling and will be able to fill them.”

This means that all these thoughts are essential in order to push a person forward. He mustn’t get rid of them; he mustn’t avoid them, but on the contrary, only try to aim them correctly.

We are constantly managed by fear until the end of correction, Gmar Tikkun—it is either fear about ourselves or fear about others, which depends on how distant the people I fear for, worry about, and feel concerned about are from me; this is how a person’s height is measured.

In what sense? If we say that everything is connected in one single system, then I think about those who are closest to me since I depend on them, and I think about those who are distant from me not because I depend on them but because I simply think about the system and maybe about the Creator since I can already operate on Him through this system. I can bring the system to a state in which He can be revealed and thus cause Him pleasure, etc. This means that I become an active partner sharing His work in the world.

There are always worries, sufferings and fears, and that’s good. By their intensity, I measure my degree, my spiritual ascent—to what extent I turn the fear into advancement.

At the same time, don’t think that when you are advancing spiritually your fears change drastically. You can be given the simplest mundane fears although you may be on a high spiritual level.

All this will continue until you complete the correction. How else can a person be pushed forward if not by fears? Fear is a feeling of a desire that is not full.
[82038]
From a “Talk During the Meal in Toronto” 6/19/12

Related Material:
As We Ascend, The Fear Will Defuse
Fear That Won’t Let You Stop
Primordial Fear

Filed under: Egoism, Group Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Q&A, Suffering - 2 Comments →

Opinion (John Mauldin, President of Millennium Wave Securities): “The reality is they’ve got a massive trade imbalance in Europe. The Southern countries want the Germans to finance it. The Germans want a fiscal Union with control over the budgets. I don’t know how it’s going to turn out, they don’t either, but it is coming to an end.

“What we’re seeing is the real end game. We’re coming to the end of government’s ability to borrow money to fund current spending that’s beyond the growth of their economy.

“I actually find that massively bullish because that government funding misallocates capital. So governments are going to have to live within their means. Not just in European countries, not just in Britain, not just in Japan which has its own problems that will be coming to us next year, not just in France which will be the headline in 2 years, but also in the US. …

“Debt has been renegotiated, it’s been printed, defaulted upon, restructured. There are all sorts of ‘re’ words we talk about, but it’s default by another name. It’s what happens if you as an individual have more debt and you have more than you can possibly pay, you have to restructure something or file bankruptcy.

“That’s where Western governments are. They’ve run out of the ability to borrow money to finance their current consumption. This is a good thing that it’s coming to an end. I don’t see this as negative in the longer-term. It’s still going to be a bumpy ride for the markets. It’s certainly going to be (an interesting) ride for the business as usual crowd.”

My Comment: The solution seems simple, proven, but it is not so; we are dealing with the restructuring of society; nature will try us until we recognize the bankruptcy of our egoistic attitude towards the world and the need to change it. We will have to pay not by cutting budgets, but by changing ourselves.
[81982]

Related Material:
It’s Time To Live Within Our Means
Forget Super-Profits
The Financial Tower Of Babel: Roots Of Crisis

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, Egoism, News, Society, World - No Comments →

Opinion (Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel prize-winning economist): “U.S. inequality is at its highest point for nearly a century. Those at the top – no matter how you slice it – are enjoying a larger share of the national pie; the number below the poverty level is growing. The gap between those with the median income and those at the top is growing, too. The U.S. used to think of itself as a middle-class country – but this is no longer true. …

“Textbooks teach us that we can have a more egalitarian society only if we give up growth or efficiency. However, closer analysis shows that we are paying a high price for inequality: it contributes to social, economic and political instability, and to lower growth. Western countries with the healthiest economies (for example those in Scandinavia) are also the countries with the highest degree of equality. …

“America used to be thought of as the land of opportunity. Today, a child’s life chances are more dependent on the income of his or her parents than in Europe, or any other of the advanced industrial countries for which there are data. The U.S. worked hard to create the American dream of opportunity. But today, that dream is a myth.”

My Comment: While egoism reigned, America was a country of great (egoistic) opportunities, but since egoism ceased its development and became a crisis, the US has entered the crisis (of egoism), and to get out of it means to correct the egoism of the individual and society to integral relationship (love and bestowal). As soon as we get down to this, we will immediately find out that we have made the only right choice.
[81827]

Related Material:
The Empty American Dream
The American Dream Boomeranging Back
Social Inequality – Chasing Profits To Destruction

Filed under: Economy, Egoism, News, Society - No Comments →

In the News (from the MailOnline): “Racism is hardwired into the brain, and people can be prejudiced without knowing it, say scientists – and it operates unconsciously.

“The same circuits in the brain that allow us to see which ethnic group a person belongs to overlap with others that drive emotional decisions.

“The result is that even right-thinking individuals make unconscious decisions based on a person’s race.

“Brain scans have proved that interactions with people of other ethnic backgrounds set off reactions that may be completely unknown to our conscious selves.

“The finding may force researchers to think about racism in entirely new ways.

“It’s possible, the researchers say, that even right-thinking, ‘egalitarian’ people could harbour racist attitudes without knowing.

“The chemicals involved in perceiving ethnic backgrounds overlap with those for processing emotion and making decisions, according to new research.”

My Comment: It is impossible to rebuild the brain; humanity will suffer from its nature; we can blame it for all our evil inclinations, and thus the solution is possible only in the correction of our egoistic nature. It can be changed only with the force that has created us and that develops us, our egoism.

Today, we have reached the height of egoistic development, and that is why we can reveal the finiteness of our development. We face a dead end that can become the point of our birth in new qualities. This birth if pre-programmed. Only that path towards it is not programmed; it can be through sufferings or conscious, like with a stubborn child. Only the transformation of our very nature will change us and our whole life. First, we need to recognize that human development is negative!
[81686]

Related Material:
The Norwegian Lesson
We Need To Create A Society Built On Internal Harmony
The World Demands Correction From The Jews

Filed under: Egoism, News - No Comments →

The desire to receive cannot be spurred without the “bridle and the reins” of its rider. It must be under someone’s control, like donkey that is given a sack of grain, blindfolded, and directed in one direction. Only then can the desire to receive work.

Our advancement and our correction occur only by the Light. The Light manages us by sometimes increasing its pressure and sometimes letting us feel some freedom. But we have to feel and understand where exactly this freedom is given to us. It’s possible that where we think that we are free, we are not free at all. If we understand where we can react and in what way exactly, then we fulfill our participation in our independent development.

But before we can do that, we have to discover how the Light constantly creates and revives our desire to receive by directly managing it and keeping it on a short leash. All its actions are meant so that the desire will be impressed by the Light’s actions upon it, and instead of just feeling good or bad, it will begin to find out: “Why do I feel good and why do I feel bad, why does one feeling change into the other feeling, what is required of me, and how can I avoid the bad feeling and draw the good feeling?”

This means that I have to know what’s good or bad for me, and what the plan is of the One who changes my feelings from one extreme to the other. How can I find and perceive Him, how can I discover His plan and understand His intention? On the whole, all these egoistic questions stem from the fact that I feel bad in this life since otherwise the desire to receive wouldn’t be evoked. The bad feeling is a feeling of deficiency that requires a filling.

At first I just don’t feel as good as I did before. Then it becomes less and less pleasant, until finally the level of pleasantness comes down to zero. Then it becomes worse and worse, until it becomes unbearable. This means that the states I am in can be very different ranging from very bad to very good.

Thus the Light plays with my desire to receive and brings about changes all the time, so that the desire will learn about itself and about the different fillings. After having perceived enough internal discernments, a person can stabilize his attitude towards the One who summons them and want to discover Him. This is because He is the source of all the good and evil in the life of the desire to receive. Thus we advance.
[81337]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/18/12, Shamati #8

Related Material:
Inseparable Pair: Desire and Intellect
Down The Trajectory Of Light
Crossing Into The Spiritual World

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →

When we begin to feel something regarding the source of the Light and the Light itself it is an advanced level. We want to discover it, to perceive it, to manage it. It’s a high level in the development of the ego called “Pharaoh,” who asks: “Who is the Lord that I should listen to Him? I want to manage my own life by myself!”

I agree that the Creator exists and that He manages the world, but I want to manage it in His place! After many blows, when I see that I can’t do it, I begin to figure out what’s going on, the true goal of that manager, what he wants, and for what purpose.

Then I feel that the concealment of the Manager is because of my desire to reveal Him in order to manage Him. These is why the manager conceals himself until I begin to feel that there’s no choice and give up—I decide to get to know Him. Thus, a special attitude towards the Creator is born in the created being who wants to take his place. Now he changes his attitude to such an extent that he wants to resemble the Creator. He then begins to discover the Creator’s plan. Until then he hoped that he’d have a chance to manage the world, to know its laws, and to turn it as the desire to receive pleases.

But then he begins to understand that it’s impossible and that it’s better to contact the Creator in order to know His plan and to try to follow Him, which is called “to keep the laws of nature.” Now he understands that there are rules to the entire way he has experienced. Everything is subject to a special formula and it’s by the concealment that a person gets a chance to participate in his own growth.

Despite the emptiness that he feels in his vessels of reception, he can rise above them and identify with the upper plan, with the Manager. Then his desire to receive doesn’t stand in his way, but rather the opposite, the bad feeling pushes a person to exit himself, to exit his ego, since he only feels pain in it. In this case it’s easier for a person to rise above this pain, above his desire to receive, and adhere to the upper plan in order to advance consciously, by knowing the Manager.

Then he sees that the shadow that hid the pleasures and the Creator from him actually acted in his favor. It says, “I delight to sit in His shade and His fruit is sweet to my palate,” which means that he already receives pleasure from the concealment since he sees that he is born anew from it. This is because the Creator never wanted to cause him pain; the Creator is good and benevolent. A mother’s womb (Rechem in Hebrew) comes from the Hebrew word Rachman (merciful), and although a person’s birth is under great pressure and with labor pains, it comes from the love and mercy that the Creator shows a person.

A person must constantly check himself and see under what shadow he is, whether he’s under the “shadow of Holiness” or the “Shadow of the Sitra Achra” (the other side). This is determined by the way a person comes out of every situation, and where this shadow takes him, to which actions it leads him, and to how he determines his state. Whether he feels that it helps him comes closer to the Manager, which means that the Manager seems to playing with him, drawing his attention and calling him to get to know Him. Then he sees that the shadow was not on the Manager, not on the Creator, but rather on his own ego.

But a person may not understand all this and demand only one thing: that the shadow will disappear from the world. Here the main question is solved—can a person attribute all the shadows to his desire to receive and understand that this is how the Creator helps him restrict his desire and create a Masach (screen) and the Returning Light and get closer to the Creator?
[81335]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/18/12, Shamati #8

Related Material:
Discover The Creator’s Goodness, Not His Presents
Hiding In My Own Shade
What Is The Creator’s Image Built Of?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →