My new article on Linkedin “Two Nations in One Country – Virtually Impossible”

It is very painful to see what is happening in Lebanon these days: different religions, and effectively different nations claiming sovereignty over the same small piece of land, and hating one another to death. Lebanon is proof that two nations cannot share a country. History has proven it, and now, regrettably, Lebanon is proving it again. It’s not as though living together is impossible; it’s just that no one wants to do it because it requires rising above the ego, and people would rather die than grow out of selfishness.

Because of it, a country can maintain relative stability only if there is just one nation there, and they can live together like a big family or a clan. If there is a sense of kinship, people will agree to make concessions. Otherwise, they will concede nothing.

There are problems even in homogeneous countries. Communists, socialists, capitalists, and all kinds of “ists” and “isms” have their disagreements, but if they have a single origin, they will find a way to get along, or at least make peace after a clash. In the absence of a common ancestry, there is no basis for reconciliation, and disintegration is a certainty.

Despite its obvious hopelessness, nations are migrating by the millions. From Africa, Asia, and from Latin America, millions of people are crossing borders and continents by foot in search of a better future. The merger of nations is happening regardless of the odds. Therefore, if we want to avert a major clash in Europe and in the US, we must learn how to rise above our egos and engender kinship where it does not exist today.

Clearly, it is a long and delicate process, but it is imperative for the survival of humanity. Since we are already living together, without learning how to do it successfully, we will destroy ourselves and destroy our countries.

We will avoid catastrophe only if there is wide-ranging consent to rise above our differences and form a new, common identity that we can all adopt. The roots of the cataclysm have been sown, the shoots have budded, but the storm has not yet started. It is up to everyone to make a joint decision to disperse the clouds of hatred and save ourselves from the deluge. There is still time, but merely a few years, at most.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can we solve natural disasters?“

We need to start understanding and digesting the changes taking place in nature. We should start by responding to them from our human level, which is the highest of nature’s levels: inanimate, vegetative, animate and human. In other words, we should improve human connections by correcting ourselves.

Our correction is in shifting our focus from self-benefit to benefiting others and nature. Even though there is a tremendous gap between our egos, which operate by self-absorption, and positive human connection, which requires opposite altruistic attitudes—through our correction, we can correct all harmful impacts from nature.

At the moment, humanity is far from such understanding. We engage ourselves with band-aid solutions that fail to reach the core of the disasters, and we thus solve nothing. We should rather deal with everything from the highest level, from where these harmful events emerge—the point of our detachment from the upper force. If we correct our connection at that point, then the rest of nature will calm down, and there will be no more natural calamities.

Fighting phenomena such as fires and floods at the level of the fires and the floods simply shows our weakness. It shows a lack of understanding of the level in which we are supposed to act on. If we fought natural disasters on the level of our disconnection from each other and from nature, then we would enter into balance with nature at a higher level, and we would then experience that balance throughout the lower levels.

Based on the video “The Root Cause of ALL Natural Disasters” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: Why, with the changing socio-economic formations, does a person increasingly discover that he is already interconnected with everyone else—first within the family, then within the city, then the country, and finally between countries?

Answer: Selfishness is growing. My village is not enough for me, I need a large city, I do not need a large city, I need a state, I do not need a state, I need the whole world.

And all this because I feel that I can be connected with the whole world, feel, understand, receive from it, and give something in return, but only when necessary. From this, in principle, all our current means of communication arose, the need for them and the connection between all.

The fact is that egoism is built on continuous expansion, absorption, acquisition, and inclusion in oneself. It is a natural physical force of nature.

The development of capitalist and socialist countries was built on selfishness: to swallow everything around you, to not give up the once-conquered territories. Look how England and France did not want to part with their colonies, or Russia did not want to let go of other republics. This is a natural absorption process.

And today when these countries discovered that the process was going against them and they still had to provide for their colonies, they decided: “Why do we need to provide for them? We will take cheap labor from there, manufacture products and sell them, and profit from them.”

In fact, this is a different type of exploitation, only more modern and more hidden. Therefore, they liberated the colonies: “Live as you want. All the same, you will need our goods. And for this we will exploit you, pump out everything that is possible.” The same is happening today with the whole world.

But the world is becoming more and more interconnected, and therefore, a problem arises. There is nowhere to go further, as we have absorbed everything, divided the whole world. Now, if there is a new division of the world, it will be not for territories, but for sources of information, meaning an information war. All this is an expansion that naturally breaks out of our egoism. And there is no getting away from this until we discover that this is a dead-end path. Now it is gradually starting to open up.
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From Kab TV’s “Close-Up. Reference Point” 9/9/09

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Question: Is the rejection that is being revealed in families now in order to make us understand that marriage and relationships are possible only on a spiritual component?

Answer: Only! In the same state as before our division, before the division into male and female parts.

At the beginning of creation, there was one construction of a common soul, consisting of a male and a female part in absolute unity with each other, in mutual concessions, mutual fusion, mutual love, and mutual giving to each other.

And then this property of reciprocity disappeared and completely equal constructions appeared, opposite to each other according to their desire, according to mutual animal cravings and other discrepancies. And now we are tuned in to each other only to be satisfied at the expense of others.

This happened because the quality of bestowal and love disappeared from us. Now no one perceives love as a great feeling. Today’s love means that I am pleased at the expense of some other object, I fill myself with pleasure at the expense of it, so I say that I love him as I love a fish.

Question: Then why did the breaking take place and the property of love disappear?

Answer: So that we realize that we need this property and it would appear in us again. Then we will rise to its level, we will begin to create it in ourselves, move on our own to catch up to it, and explore how we can become equal and worthy of it. That is, we will raise ourselves to the level of the Creator.

We will do this from our own desire, out of our own comprehension, we will become equal to Him in understanding, in knowledge, in management, in all parameters. We will acquire the status of the Creator. We must come to this.

It is the right combination between a man and a woman that can give us this opportunity. Both husband and wife should be with points in their hearts that strive to merge with each other in order to attain the Creator.

And Kabbalah will help them in this ascent because it tells about all the steps that must be realized on the spiritual path. Kabbalah is an instruction on how to act, an instruction for a happy spiritual family life.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Emancipation” 9/16/09

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In the article “The Last Generation,” Baal HaSulam writes about a future world in which there will be no states, only one social system, you can call it communist from the word “commune,” social equality.

There will be no equalization, pressure, or artificially imposed relationships with each other. People will simply understand and feel everything because the upper world will be revealed to them. With the help of Kabbalah, they will discover it for themselves and see that if they live in good relations, it will be good for them too.

For example, I cannot hurt myself by jumping from a height of five-meters or sticking my hand into a fire because I can see clearly the damage I would be doing to myself. Similarly, if the global system of our interconnection is revealed to us, then of course I will not harm other people because I will see how it comes right back to me.

I just need to see the system of our complete internal communication, and then in no case will I wish harm to someone or strive to gain a better fortune at the expense of others, because by doing this I will hurt myself much more than I think I will gain. This is how the system of our relationship works, only it is not visible to us. We need to reveal it.

The science of Kabbalah allows us to do this. Then we will not need any teachings, philosophies, political sciences, formations, no abstruse stuff. We just need to reveal the system of connection between us that exists in nature. That is when we will act correctly among ourselves, like good kids.
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From Kab TV’s “Close-Up. Reference Point” 9/9/09

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My new article on Linkedin “The Forecast for the Young – Severe Weather and Anxiety”

An extensive study among young people ages 16-25 has revealed that they are anxious about the future, and with good reason. The research, whose authors claim to be “the largest and most international survey of climate anxiety in young people to date … shows that the psychological (emotional, cognitive, social, and functional) burdens of climate change are profoundly affecting huge numbers of young people around the world. Furthermore, it is the first study to offer insight into how young people’s perception of governments’ responses to climate change is associated with their own emotional and psychological reactions.”

Under the section “Implications of all the available evidence,” the authors write: “Distress about climate change is associated with young people perceiving that they have no future, that humanity is doomed, that governments are failing to respond adequately, and with feelings of betrayal and abandonment by governments and adults. These are chronic stressors which will have significant, long-lasting and incremental negative implications on the mental health of children and young people. The failure of governments to adequately address climate change and the impact on younger generations potentially constitutes moral injury. Nations must respond to protect the mental health of children and young people by engaging in ethical, collective, policy-based action against climate change.”

I admire the proactive approach, but if it stays on the level of suppressing operations that are perceived as harmful to the climate, nothing will change. The climate will not improve and young people’s anxiety will find no relief. Dealing with each problem separately is like trying to stop an overflowing sewer system by sealing each manhole cover separately instead of shutting the valve that’s causing the flood. Likewise, to solve the climate crisis, we must get to its origin and fix what is broken there.

The climate is not a separate system; it is part of the global ecosystem where we live. The system is built as a pyramid of levels that function harmoniously and in an interdependent manner. If the harmony is obstructed on one level, all the levels below it will be adversely affected. At the top of the pyramid is man, of course. Therefore, every obstruction in human society affects the entire pyramid, the entire ecosystem, or simply put: the whole world.

While the human level has never been harmonious, for the past several decades, it has been utterly dysfunctional. Worse yet, it is growing more so by the hour. It is no wonder that young people have no faith in older generations; they see the kind of world we have left for them, and they are not happy about it. If we want to help them, the least we can do is point to the real problem: human society.

All the negative phenomena, on every level, are offshoots of our dysfunctional relations in society. Storms, fires, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, rogue viruses, dying bees, and of course hunger and war, are all projections of our disharmonious relations that trickle down the pyramid and poison every level.

Therefore, if we want to change the world, we must change our society. Moreover, we must encourage the younger generation to lead the process, since in the end, they are the ones who will be here tomorrow.

If we build a society that favors unity and solidarity over individuality and competition, we will radiate that positive mindset throughout the system, just as we are currently projecting the opposite. Instead of ruining nature, we must learn from its example, see how it functions through connection and collaboration, and build our society likewise.

We needn’t fix anything other than our own broken, hate-filled relations, since nothing else is broken. When we become harmonious with one another, we will start projecting harmony down the entire system, and everything will calm.
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My new article on Linkedin “What Can We Learn on World Teachers’ Day?”

This month, on October 5, to be exact, is World Teachers’ Day. A teacher used to be, and in some countries still is, a venerable occupation. A teacher was not simply someone who taught you math or English, but someone who taught you the wisdom of life and was a role model to follow. Judging by what is happening today, it seems we are in desperate need of good teachers. For all our knowledge, we feel lost. Unless we learn where we really are, what we are doing here, why we are here, and how to direct ourselves toward a better place, we will lapse into another world war.

To emerge from the slump, we must stop focusing solely on knowledge. Acquiring information does not create happy people. Where has the information about nuclear fusion gotten us, for example? We’ve got nuclear weapons that can annihilate humanity in minutes. We’ve got so much knowledge in every realm of life, but where is it all leading? We’re heading toward dire states.

Instead of teaching us what they should, our poor teachers regurgitate what the government instructs them to teach. They are forced to lie to the students, but the students know better. By age 9 or 10, most children know that none of what they are hearing is true. They stop believing their teachers, stop paying attention, while the teachers, who must make a living, keep repeating the same stories. There are no other motivations here but money and power; these are the rulers of the Earth, and no regime or government is free from their grip.

A change will come only when we realize that this is not the way to live, and resolve to change our motivation. But the change will happen either because we reflect on where we are going and stop ourselves before we get there, or because we did not stop ourselves in time and realize our mistake after the bombs have gone off.

To make the necessary changes in time, we cannot leave it only to teachers and excuse ourselves from the task. We have to reconstruct the entire system, the basis of our civilization. The fact that we are self-absorbed and narcissistic is no secret. But this is not the problem. The problem is that we agree to stay this way. We’ve known for decades that humanity is on a path of self-destruction due to its own self-absorption. Yet, we have done nothing to change course.

Now we must become our own teachers, and not just on World Teachers’ Day, but every day and every moment of our lives. Moreover, the world we live in has become so intertwined that it is not enough to implement the changes one country at a time. While some countries engage in reforms, others will maintain their abusive attitude and will ruin the progress for everyone. Therefore, the initiative to create a positive tomorrow must incorporate the entire world. However implausible this may sound, we must remember that the only other option to this route is war, a nuclear war.

Accordingly, the education system must adjust its values, curricula, and goals toward bettering humanity. By bettering, I am not referring to cutting CO2 emissions or limiting the use of fossil fuels and plastics. I am referring to something much deeper than that: Bettering ourselves means making ourselves better people. To do that, we must learn to be positive and caring toward each other.

Only when we learn to care for one another will we begin to care for the environment. When we care about other people, we will want them to live in a friendly environment, one that can support them and where they can be happy. When we stop wanting to exploit other people or overpower them, we will stop exploiting the environment in order to achieve our selfish goals. As a result, we will reduce consumption to a sustainable level that will allow nature to rejuvenate and restore its lost balance.

We have no time to waste. We must be our own teachers now, to teach ourselves to be human, meaning humane. Even if we do not know how to do it or where to begin, we needn’t worry; our intention to do good, to connect with other people, will be our guide. If we let care for others be our teacher, we will need no other teaching.
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Question: The number of people suffering from hunger has increased in the world. There are more than eight hundred million of them. The number of people dying of hunger has increased six fold. Researchers claim the reason for it is due to climate change and constant conflicts. The world will starve if this continues. They say that a great famine is possible.

Do you think it is possible that it will come to this in our world of abundance?

Answer: There is no abundance in the world. It just seems to you that there is. Everything can be emptied in one day. All these big supermarkets, malls, whatever you see, everything can disappear in an instant and there will be nothing in the world, not even what to wear, let alone to eat.

Question: That is, one little fright and everything will be sold out and will disappear in a blink of an eye? Do you think this option is possible?

Answer: Yes. I believe this will happen. Otherwise, humanity cannot be convinced.

Question: That is, it is not for nothing that it is written in the Torah that only hunger advanced humanity? Does it still work this way?

Answer: So it is said: “Love and hunger rule the world.” And it will be so. We will reach love but only through hunger.

Question: If love had been reached earlier, then there would have been no hunger?

Answer: This is true. But with hunger people will grasp that hunger is a not the problem but the lack of love, and then this will change.

Question: Pease tell me what will this hunger lead us to if there is one?

Answer: We will start to seriously analyze the problems of life, or rather our own problems, and simply ask the question: “What do we need to change in ourselves in order for nature to treat us differently?”

For this to happen, we need to change our attitude toward others. Then nature will treat us differently. That is, if I love others and try to block my ever-growing egoism with some kind of empathy, then nature will treat me differently. I have to show nature that I want it to change its attitude toward me.

Question: Is it enough that I understand why nature puts such pressure on me and that I want to change? Is my request “I want to change” enough?

Answer: Of course.

Comment: We can avoid coming to this and must say: “I want it.”

My Response: You cannot change yourself. Not in any way! But you can realize that you must change. And you can also realize that it depends on your request to nature. We will achieve this.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/5/21

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Question: The process of human development is not a random process?

Answer: Of course not! Have you seen anything random in nature? It only seems to us that way because we do not understand nature. In fact, all of its laws are clearly determined. And it is no coincidence that globalization is happening in the world because now we have, as they say a grip, we have fully used our egoism and discovered how much it leads us to a dead end.

The way out of this can be twofold, either by suffering, by reducing the human population, or by realizing the whole path by correct education of people based on revealing to humanity the real world in which we exist.

We do not see much of what is around us and we do not know the forces that control us. I do not know what I will think the next moment and what I will want. Suddenly, a thought or desire comes to me. From where? From that secret hidden part of the world that I need to reveal. Therefore, Kabbalah is called a secret science because it reveals this part of the world to me.

When I see the whole system, the whole relationship between us, between me and nature, I naturally begin to behave correctly.
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From Kab TV’s “Close-Up. Reference Point” 9/9/09

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The basis of our yearning for the Creator is called the “point in the heart.” I feel that this point is pulling me, but I do not know where and I do not know who is doing it either. Yet, I want to know what is the meaning of life, its purpose, where did I come from and where am I going, and why is this life given to a person?

These questions concern many people in childhood and adolescence, but then they disappear. After all, hormones begin to act, and the world confuses us with its illusory values that distract our attention from the right questions: What am I living for?

However, there are people who cannot extinguish the point in their heart that draws them to the connection with the Creator, and therefore they come to the wisdom of Kabbalah. Then they have a choice whether to act according to their own mind, according to what they see in this world, what is called the “rational” approach.

It is funny that we call this “rational.” Is it possible to call the way a person behaves on this earth, rational, deliberate? How is it possible to make a rational decision if we do not know our future, we cannot connect ourselves to it, in order to take a step forward toward the future that we see, understand, and control based on the analysis of the present and future state? Then we could call our behavior rational. But  if we have no idea about the future, then we cannot talk about any rational action.

We call rational steps when we rely on our egoism, which does not see what will happen in the next moment. Sometimes we even see that we are harming ourselves, but we cannot stop. We discover today in all human activity that we are doing everything wrong, destroying the Earth and our lives, moving toward wars and troubles, and at the same time, we cannot stop ourselves.

We are even worse than animals, because they do not do that. The animal will stop immediately if it senses danger. A person, however, cannot stop. After all, egoism is stronger than us, it is given from above and tells us what to do. And we obediently follow its orders, instead of the instructions of our animalistic instinct of self-preservation.

This is why we are destroying the planet, destroying the world, jeopardizing our future. This is called that we act on the basis of false “rationality” and according to reason. As if there is any reason in this crazy egoistic race.

To act “above reason” means that we accept the will of the Creator and His approach and begin to act according to it. This means that we appreciate the acts of bestowing above the acts of reception, that is, Bina governs Malchut, and not vice versa when Malchut, the will to receive, suppresses the qualities of Bina, the inclination to bestow.

If we organize a group that elevates and appreciates the quality of bestowal more than egoistic qualities, then we want to exist with the force of Bina, bestowal, which is above reason, above the egoistic will to receive.

To the extent that we elevate the level of Bina above the level of Malchut so that the will to bestow is higher and more respected for us than our will to receive, we build the exaltedness of the Creator. The Creator, the degree of Bina, becomes greater in our eyes than the degree of Malchut.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/21, Baal HaSulam, Shamati #14 “What Is the Exaltedness of the Creator?”

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