Today we are entering a system that shows that we must act on bestowal, on the connection between us, on the connection with the group, and on some new transformations. We are in crisis: Not us personally, those who study Kabbalah, but the world feels this way. Where does it come from? What is a crisis in general? It is the feeling of world egoism relative to the system that begins to be manifested in us, like a picture on photographic paper in the developing tray. Gradually, like from the fog, a new picture appears, and this picture does not match us.

Suddenly, the properties of the Light, bestowal, and the connection between us, emerge in us, while the egoistic, individual properties (rejection, the use of each other) exist in humanity. The juxtaposition of these two systems and their impact on each other form an immense, multifaceted, new construction: on one side, the egoistic system, and on the other side, the altruistic one.

We never had this before. We have always had only an egoistic system, and we worked within it. Desires emerged in us, and we realized them. We thought that it was all us: We want to evolve, we want to act, we want to work, and we want to do everything.

Why? It’s because we identified the egoism that arose in us, our desires, with ourselves. We had no questions about their origin because we felt them as ours: I want this now, and then that and that. I didn’t have a question as to why I suddenly want. I want. I don’t feel as if someone gives me these questions, “inserts” them into me, and I start to work. No! I totally merge with these desires; I feel as one integral whole with them. These are my desires that arise in me: I want.

How does this suddenly happen? I am an average animal with natural, instinctive, petty desires, necessary for my existence. And all of a sudden, we have new egoistic desires that are related to the development of technology, society, family, education, upbringing, culture, science, banking, financial and economic connections between us, trade and exchange, discoveries of new lands, development, and communication. From where did this develop in humans as compared with the animal world that does not evolve in this way?

The fact is that our egoism develops all the time and urges us to realize our new desires more and more. I don’t feel that the desires that emerge in me from somewhere come from outside. I feel that they arise from within me, and that is why I rush to realize these so-called “my” desires.

In reality, they are not my desires. I just don’t feel that they are not mine. And thus, I run forward and act. I don’t feel that I am like a small, wind-up toy bunny, which is wound with a key and it jumps. I don’t feel this until the right time, until our time now.
[56098]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 9/25/2011

Related Material:
A World Appearing From The Fog
Passing The Awakening Baton
The Bridge Over The Abyss Of Ego

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Free Will, Inner Work - No Comments →

All the laws discovered by humankind until now in chemistry, biology, mathematics, physics, and even quantum physics come down to a single law: the law of interconnections. All of these laws have duality, such as the law of gravity and the law of repulsion, the law of development and the law of degradation. All the laws of nature have one common denominator: purposefulness.

I am eager to inform you that the new law is a law that will enable us to predict the future course of events. It is based on the choice of direction, meaning whether to pull everything toward us at the expense of others, or give to others while receiving life’s essentials and caring for the entire system.

A simple and obvious example of this law is bacteria. There are bacteria in our body that we simply cannot live without. For example, some bacteria produce vitamins, such as vitamin K that we cannot get externally; there are bacteria that aid in digestion, and there are bacteria that serve like the army or the police in that they guard against harmful bacteria.

All these bacteria work to create and maintain interconnection, caring for the entire organism. On the other hand, there are bacteria directed toward destruction, causing illness and death.

Another example of the law of interconnections is symbiosis and parasitism. In symbiosis, one helps another and in this way, it develops. For example, during the day, plants produce oxygen as an essential by-product of their life sustaining processes and consume carbon dioxide, while people and animals do the opposite. In parasitism, an organism lives at the expense of another. Parasites will die by sucking everything out of the organism they occupy since there will be nothing left to live on.

[Read more →]

Filed under: Crisis, Egoism - No Comments →

Question: What economic concept does the idea of mutual guarantee offer?

Answer: It’s difficult to say something about the current transitional period. We have to work together with specialists. There is the economy that worked until now, and there is the economy of the next phase, built upon fair distribution and the provision of basic needs. A person will work to provide himself with the vital necessities in the commonly accepted sense, while investing all the rest of his efforts into inner growth because there he experiences fulfillment, which will eventually become infinite.

Together we decide how to provide for our vital necessities, and then, as we advance, we will see how they get reduced to the basic ones.

But for the time being, the world has to live normally. A person needs a home, a washing machine, a refrigerator, a vacuum cleaner, a bed, furniture, a school for his children, a pension, a vacation, health insurance, and so on. However, all of this is required to the degree necessary for existence, considering that all of our intentions aspire to mutual guarantee. This is the surest guarantee in and of itself: When I am sure that everyone takes care of me, I get rid of my egoistic worries. We have to help every person so he would be able to not think about himself.

For that we need an economy, banks, trade, and mutual calculations—everything that’s necessary for providing for seven billion people and for solving problems and compensating for unforeseen accidents and failures. In short, we need large scale systems, but ones that work on the principle of complementarity rather than competition.

Accordingly, we will give up excesses. Say, we won’t exchange our cars for new ones as often if the old ones are still fit for use. Or we will cancel expensive scientific projects that are pointless.

The problem is the transition, which is possible only on the condition that we work together, showing economists, sociologists, and political scientists the next state of the world. Then they’ll understand that there is no other choice but to shift from opposition to unification, and to discuss the ways to come out of the crisis in order to be saved from the threat of annihilation. They have to become aware of this problem, and then they will be able to compile a mutual, therapeutic program.

On our part, we have to influence the world as much as possible so the transitional phase won’t be so painful. This depends mainly on us. After all, everyone else is acting automatically, by the orders of egoism, which can only be budged by troubles and to some extent, our influence. And we are not addressing people’s minds, but are bringing our unity into human society, which will become a favorable ground.

Then they will suddenly feel, “There is something worth listening to here.” Even if they did not know anything before, on the inside they will admit that we are right.
[55651]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/25/11, “The Nation”

Related Material:
Economics Done By The Balance Formula
The New World Needs A New Economy
How To Equalize A Boxer And A Nerd

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Economy, Egoism, Mutual Guarantee, Mutual Guarantee Movement, Q&A, Unity, World - 2 Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “The Nation”: …the proximate step after the ruin of the present government is that of Nazism or Fascism. Evidently, we are still enduring a medial phase in human development. Humanity has not yet reached the highest level of the ladder of evolution. Who knows or can assume how many rivers of blood are yet to be spilt before humankind reaches the desired level?

The problem we are facing is: how to go from the current phase of development to the altruistic phase? Equality and fair distribution are not just words. They must be backed by great preparation work on educating the masses and creating a new social network—one that’s real, not virtual. These things are far from obvious, and evolution is not leading us to them by the natural path. This requires conscious participation from us and the realization of our own evil.

Revolutions “off the mark” where people come out to public plazas and “take them over” won’t help us because we are no longer dealing with the gradual development of egoism, which breaks through the blockades of government or regimes and reaches new frontiers. We are moving further and further from slavery to freedom, but this freedom is deceptive. In reality, we are putting ourselves into a more sophisticated system of slavery.

On the other hand, it is impossible to go from the egoistic regime to the altruistic one by the same, routine scheme. This requires a sensation and realization of evil, a need for a change of state in spite of our nature. That means we have to prepare for an inner revolution: to build an environment as a factor of influence, to use the science of Kabbalah as a means, as an instruction manual for working, and form a pyramid so the leading, understanding, and feeling part will head the process. We have to go through levels of despair and helplessness in the current state. It’s not enough to simply admit that all means have been exhausted, as economists, pedagogues, and other specialists are now saying. We must also agree with the fact that any further deterioration will bring us to total collapse.

Then people will be able to hear the message about nature’s plan, which has prepared this entire path for us so that today we would feel the need to change ourselves and would find the means to transform ourselves and become opposite to what we currently are. If people will hear this, we will be able to go through the phases of development relatively smoothly. But we won’t avoid the pain until people are able to hear, until they desire to receive the message, and until they realize it.

Nevertheless, it will be possible to go through the forthcoming phases without real bloodshed. Otherwise there is great suffering ahead for us.

We are facing a turning point, a bifurcation point. It is possible to go from the egoistic regime to the altruistic one, to bestowal, fair distribution, social justice, and mutual guarantee, only in two ways:

– By means of horrible disasters. But the disasters won’t help by themselves and we won’t learn anything from them. They will simply entail analysis and conclusions.
– By means of dissemination, which will allow people to understand that there is no other way out and we have to change the tendency.

You and I are at this very point, and these states will now have to be realized.
[55189]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/20/11, “The Nation”

Related Material:
A Heated Chess Game Against The Snake
Friends, Don’t Hold The Line!
The Crisis Is Here For Our Own Good

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Education, Egoism, Evolution, Suffering - 2 Comments →

To enable us to become the same as the Creator and rise to His level, an enormous barrier was created between us and Him, called our will to enjoy, the ego. It has many different faces: pride, lust, envy, ambition, and many others, whereas our work is to understand how to see help for advancement in all of these obstacles.

After all, when our evil becomes revealed, we immediately repel it. However, we must only feel hatred for its use, to hate it without erasing it.

This bribe is also in front of our eyes and through it we see the world in whatever way is profitable for us, where “for us” means our egoistic desire that rules over us for now, meaning our temporary ruler. Yet it turns out that this bribe is for our own good and was created specifically so we would outsmart it. Like a cunning snake, it is trying to bribe us and aim us toward its benefit, showing us various ways by which it can use us for its own benefit.

And we have to attract the Light that reforms with the help of the group and the study so inside of its cunning we would see a hint showing us how to learn this wisdom from it. It wants to bribe us and use us, but at the same time it shows us that it is doing this deliberately because at the end of its bribe and wile, there is a point we can grab on to, that we can catch—the tail. And in this way, we can win, turning everything around to benefit us.

Then we will no longer be acting for this snake’s benefit, but will reveal that the bribe was necessary only to teach us greater wisdom. This is our work.

Therefore, on one hand, “a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise,” but on the other hand, without this blindness, which we reveal and through which we attain the wisdom of the Creator, who hides inside of this snake, we won’t be able to advance. Precisely upon the contrast of two opposites, we learn this cunning—the reverse lie, the reverse wisdom. In this way we correct the breaking and acquire the corrected spiritual vessel, desire.

This corrected vessel contains the entire broken desire and all of the obstacles, together with all of the bribe that was received by our egoism, which played with us. However, we outplayed it from our end and attained correction.

We enjoy revealing its entire many-faced wile. It’s as if we decipher secret moves inside an intricate chess game, and we like playing this way. The more sophisticated are the opponent’s ploys in trying to trick, use, bribe, and confuse us, the deeper is the mind, the plan of creation that we reveal inside of this game. Therefore, we like this bribe because it helps us acquire great wisdom.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/20/11, Shamati
[55151]
Related Material:
Just Like In A Light Bulb Filament
When The Serpent Unfolds
Stop Accepting Bribes From Egoism

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Inner Work - 1 Comment →

Rav Kook: “Great spiritual questions that are resolved only for great and outstanding people now have to be resolved on different levels of the entire nation. In order to lower great, lofty things from the height of their grandeur to the depth of the level of the masses, a tremendous wealth of spirit is needed, as well as constant social activity that becomes a habit. Only then will knowledge expand and the language appear enabling deeper things to be expressed in an easy, popular style, thereby returning the afflicted souls.”

The science of Kabbalah really is very concealed and distant from people, even though everything is in one “place”: the worlds and souls, Sefirot, Partzufim, circles, and lines. Everything we study in the science of Kabbalah is in one place, in one state. However, in the perception of the receivers, it becomes revealed according to the law of equivalence of form. Our current qualities determine which part of the perfect reality we are able to perceive.

Today our qualities are egoistic, extremely limited, and restricted. Therefore, we perceive only a tiny portion of the enormous world we are in. And we perceive it through the bodily perception, which is confined by the boundaries of time, motion, and space. All of this limits us tremendously.

Throughout all of history, human creatures were in this state, and only individuals were able to perceive the true reality where “to perceive” means to live it, to exist in the same quality. This is because I live in concordance with the qualities that I am able to develop within. If they are above time, then I am eternal, and if they are immersed inside of time, then my existence is temporary. If my qualities are above space, I feel all of reality from end to end, but if they are closed in on some tiny fragment, then I am inside of it and perceive myself as limited in volume inside of this 3D coordinate system. I am also limited in motion, shifting along the physical axis rather than the time axis.

In short, there are many limitations, and in this regard everything depends on my qualities. We don’t really understand this because we are used to certain qualities that we were born in, grew up in, and now live in. However, if we really change them, then we will transform our reality completely. By perceiving a higher layer of it, we will experience it as infinite, located above time, space, and motion. There, we can live in completely different conditions.

This is why Kabbalah is called the science about reception because with its help, we can receive or perceive a completely different reality. We acquire a certain “regulator” by means of which we can change the axis of time, space, and motion, shifting to other dimensions and times with a slight shift of inner qualities.

All of this is realistic. This capability is present inside of us. We can influence the Light that forms us, and accordingly, it will endow us with various qualities. This mechanism was used by Kabbalists of all generations until our time.

However, today we have found ourselves in a special state where all of humanity is acquiring this capability. An impulse is being born in us to change the current form of existence. We are starting to feel worse and worse in this world and are finding less and less benefits from life in it. We are still holding on to it due to not having any other choice, due to the unwillingness to suffer, but are starting to be more persistent in asking ourselves the question, “What for? Why? What’s the point of this existence?”

Questions and suffering of different levels are pushing us to search. And at the same time, we are revealing an inner capability to control the force that created us to such an extent that we really will change with its help. Then, in this period of time, in this life, in our reality, we will be able to turn the little wheels inside of us and find ourselves in completely different dimensions.

This is what Rav Kook writes about: “Great spiritual questions that are resolved only for great and outstanding people now have to be resolved on different levels of the entire nation.” Anyone is capable of it.
[54417]
From the New York lecture #2, 9/12/11

Related Material:
Not Bolts, But Creators Of A New World
How To Bleach The Different Colors Of Desire
An Application For An Internal Use

Filed under: Crisis, Egoism, Kabbalah Dissemination, Perception - 1 Comment →

Question: Without mentioning the science of Kabbalah in our dissemination, we are simply telling people that mutual guarantee will provide them with a good life. In that case, how are we different from other organizations that hand out similar promises?

Answer: It’s bad if you don’t feel the difference.

The modern person is experiencing a global, integral crisis. In this way, the Creator is showing him that he is connected with others the wrong way and that he has to reach mutual guarantee. There is a method that will help him unite with others correctly and to start living a good life. This method operates by creating the appropriate atmosphere, a “shell” out of the environment, which gives a person the explanation of how to live together and lead a good, healthy, safe life.

A person hears this and understands that there is no other solution. And others hear the same thing, so it’s easier to make this happen conjointly, together with them. A person learns to unite with others the right way, and in the process he attracts the Light that reforms to himself. This is the same thing that children do while playing, becoming older and smarter in the process.

Thus, when a person finds himself in a bad situation, he uses others to attract the Light, and gradually he starts valuing the force of bestowal. He holds it in high regard and it becomes the highest value for him. And suddenly he begins respecting it so much that even when everything in his life is going ok, he does not abandon bestowal, wishing to enact it regardless of his sensations. That’s because he attributes the primary importance to it.

That is how a person becomes spiritual, going from the egoistic intention, Lo Lishma to the altruistic one, Lishma. And there is no chance that 99% of the population will reach correction in any other way. Can you recommend anything else besides the Torah?

I think the problem is an elementary misunderstanding of how to advance AHP. We have known how to correct Galgalta Eynaim since the times of Babylon, but to correct AHP, this is the only means we have.
[54407]
From the New York lecture #2, 9/12/11

Related Material:
Becoming The Center Of Good
Learning To “Share Everything”
“The Living Water” For All Humanity
A Fire Extinguisher For Humanity

Filed under: Crisis, Education, Egoism, Kabbalah Dissemination, Mutual Guarantee, Mutual Guarantee Movement, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, Spirituality, Torah, Unity, World - No Comments →

Opinion (Albert Einstein, “Why Socialism?” 1949): “’I have now reached the point where I may indicate briefly what to me constitutes the essence of the crisis of our time. It concerns the relationship of the individual to society. The individual has become more conscious than ever of his dependence upon society. But he does not experience this dependence as a positive asset, as an organic tie, as a protective force, but rather as a threat to his natural rights, or even to his economic existence. Moreover, his position in society is such that the egotistical drives of his make-up are constantly being accentuated, while his social drives, which are by nature weaker, progressively deteriorate. All human beings, whatever their position in society, are suffering from this process of deterioration. Unknowingly prisoners of their own egotism, they feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naive, simple, and unsophisticated enjoyment of life. Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society.’”

“This article was originally published in the first issue of Monthly Review (May 1949)…” [at the request of Paul Sweezy (a famous American Marxist political economist, the author of the theory of monopoly capitalism)].
[53905]

Related Material:
Globalization Is The Source Of Conflicts
Humanity’s Global Problems
Global Crisis Solution: Change Yourself To Fit The World

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Crisis, Economy, Egoism - 3 Comments →

Question: We have been discussing the fact that excessive consumption has brought humanity to a troubled state. However, some economists surmise that if we start consuming less, this will also have a negative effect….

Answer: Every phase of development has its own spiritual HaVaYaH sequence. It includes phases of bestowal and reception, idleness and a combination of different factors of interconnection. Therefore, we cannot draw a direct interconnection between the level of consumption and the solution to the problem.

Previously we might have been able to improve the situation by distributing goods among everyone because the egoistic desire was developed to a certain level where the gap between the layers of the population could really have been ameliorated in this way. However, today we have risen a level higher, and the methods that were suitable at the previous phase are no longer working. The accent is shifting from the receiving desire to the bestowing one, and you cannot attain real improvement through mere “hand-outs.” You have to understand that by giving out products, you are trying to block the path of the crisis and are thereby depriving yourself of the opportunity to get down to its causes, the bestowing force, the Creator. But in the meantime, our troubles are already acquiring a goal-oriented nature.

Analogously, at the second phase of the expansion of Direct Light, it is impossible to act the same way as at the first phase. That’s because the second phase derived from the first precisely because it was time to realize the primary cause of the Light. Even though it is entirely filled by the Light, this is no longer sufficient.

Likewise, today simple distribution does not solve the problems. The goal of creation is not to satiate our egoistic desires or for us to “stuff our bellies.” That is why we are discovering the second phase of development: by giving out goods to the poor, we will only accelerate the collapse.

So what should we do? After all, this is contrary to all logic. Previously egoism ruled the party: The more we received, the better we felt. But now consumption and restraint, selfishness and concessions in favor of the weak are equally destructive for the economy. Stated differently, we have no more effective methods left to work with the egoistic desire. It has depleted itself both in reception and bestowal.

This is the beginning of the two-sided realization of egoism’s evil—the total recognition of the fact that it cannot be used.

So how can man survive? Several million people in the world will manage to feed themselves with the fruits of the earth that they farm. And what will the others do? We will not be able to maintain the previous connections, and moreover, we will not be able to exchange goods and production the way we once did. The word is starting to reduce its circulation, to “freeze up.”

Under these conditions, the only thing that can really help humanity is a clear attitude to what is happening, the understanding of the need to change the nature of our connections. This is the only thing that will give us good results.

Therefore, first and foremost people need to study. Leave everything else. Provide everyone with the base minimum just above the poverty line, and use the rest of the efforts to improve our interpersonal relationships.

“Fair distribution” and “social justice” are pretty words, for the sake of which tens of millions of people were killed or killed others. Slogans such as these will only help on the condition that we change people’s consciousness. And for that we need upbringing. A person just needs the vital necessities and the willingness to listen, and that’s all.

However, he won’t be learning about “how to consume properly,” but about how to relate properly to others. Everything else will become a natural consequence. When people’s desire changes, they will understand how to manage life of their own accord. By virtue of upbringing, all the practical solutions will become obvious.

First of all, a person has to be educated and changed at least slightly. This is the only way we will avoid Nazi regimes of different kinds, by building an environment that changes people for the better.
[54057]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/8/11, “The Nation”

Related Material:
The Bitterness Of Inequality
Not Bolts, But Creators Of A New World
The Open University Of The Integral World

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Economy, Education, Egoism, Evolution, News, Q&A, Society, World - 4 Comments →

Question: We see that humanity is currently trying to fix and improve the world’s economic systems. But is there any point in changing anything just to become convinced that this doesn’t work and that first of all, we need inner changes?

Answer: We are already revealing the fact that our economic system is flawed. But we are still trying to correct it using the old instruments, and by doing that we only ruin it even more. Gradually it will become clear to people that they are powerless here and that the old way of thinking is no longer effective. The only problem is that we still don’t understand where to get a new mind.

And on their part, Kabbalists still do not know how to get through to humanity and how to transmit this new way of thinking to them in order for everyone to work together to create new systems. The economy is the foundation of our material life, of production and trade, and the provision of all goods. In the material realm there is nothing more important than the economy because this is the program of connection between us, which worked entirely egoistically until today, based on reception of the optimal benefit in every regard.

This is the simple economics formula that has to be realized in every place. Clearly, people are still trying to steal here and there if they can, but this approach no longer accords with the formula. In the ideal form, economics tells us about how to organize relationships in society so everyone would receive the optimal, maximum benefit. This is the economists’ dream.

However, now we need a completely different formula. We have to keep redefining the meaning of “the necessary living standard for a worthy life” and taking care to provide it for everyone. We have to educate people so every person will aspire to attain this level, with some people rising to it from below (meaning, those who are beneath this level) and others—descending to it from above.

This necessary level is not the minimal poverty line, but much higher, one that supposes a normal life. Some people rise to it, while others come down to it, but they do it by their own desire, which has to be achieved by upbringing. All of the remaining excesses should be distributed to the general needs of the government, which can include defense or anything else.

However, if we are talking about the world that is entirely moving toward correction and does not need to spend money on defense, then we can enormously reduce production. According to our similarity with nature, we have to reach the state where we exist like organs of a human body in which every person receives only to the degree it is necessary to live for the sake of bestowal to others. Therefore, we will approach life where production and trade will gradually become more and more restricted until reaching a level where everyone ends up on the level we decide on, and won’t grow from there anymore.

Thus, we will help nature restore itself and will not be sucking its last remaining resources. We will leave something to our children and grandchildren. We will use the natural resources in a way that lets us always be in balance, harmony, and circulation with nature.

This is our responsibility, and if we do not achieve this, nature will teach us by very harsh methods. There won’t be water or oil left around us, not any other resources. In a few decades we will be left with nil. Then, everything we have built will become useless and all production will come to a halt because it won’t have anything to work on. There won’t be lighting, heating, or refrigeration—nothing. That’s because we will have wasted all of the resources on ourselves, on unnecessary things that are beyond the necessities. And there will be no one to blame besides yourself for the fact that your children don’t have anything to exist by.

However, for now we are still trying to snatch as much as we can and suck as much as we can out of the earth. We are even starting to mine in the middle of the ocean in order to extract oil. We will exhaust everything, even reaching the North and South poles. But at some point these resources will have an end, and then we will finally understand….

However, I hope that we will nevertheless manage to develop new a formula of economics whose objective is not immediate egoistic gratification, but the attainment of balance. We have to discern what the new economy has to be within a nation that exists among other nations that have not corrected themselves yet. And then this formula will spread to the whole world.

I think it will be much easier to implement this formula than what is happening today because in essence, we have to simplify everything, achieve balance, and restore the normal circulation.
[53818]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/11, “The Nation”

Related Material:
Not Bolts, But Creators Of A New World
Is It The Economy Or Something More?
The Open University Of The Integral World

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Economy, Education, Egoism, Q&A, World - 3 Comments →