Medium published my new article “From Starvation to a Revolution”

Even before the outburst of Covid-19, millions of people were already on the brink of starvation. Food stamps are no solution, and neither is subsidized housing. The coronavirus has made things far worse, and from day to day, the situation is growing more and more precarious. Society is on the edge, and no administration will be able to restore order to the streets if all hell breaks loose.

We can have peace, abundance, health, and security. But we must remember that if not all of us have it, none of us will have it. This is the law of every ecosystem, and it applies just as rigidly to each of us.

There is also no point looking for a scapegoat; if we really want to blame anyone, we should look in the mirror. We, and our parents, have ruined the world for ourselves and for our children. Look at us: Half the world is overweight, the other half is starving. It is an accurate reflection of our egoism, alienation, and reckless sense of entitlement.

This egoism, this baseless sense of entitlement, is the root of all our troubles. Worse yet, egoism hides from us the fact that it is our biggest, and in fact our only problem. It tricks us into thinking that other people are the cause of our misfortunes, and selfishly, we fall for the convenient lie. But if we recklessly try to gain more and accumulate more, and judge what we have not by how much we need, but by how much we have more than others, then we will deplete and ruin our planet completely. We are already very close to it, and the outburst of the virus is just a symptom of a collapsing world that’s slipped off balance and can no longer sustain its inhabitants: humankind.

According to Sally Davis, former chief medical officer for England, “there will be a next [pandemic]. Covid-19 is neither the first nor the last health emergency we will face. My fellow scientists estimate that we will face a pandemic or health emergency at least once every five years from here on. There is a chance that this is the optimistic scenario. The reality could be far worse.” This is why we have to change course now before it’s too late.

Since egoism is the root of our problems, we must tackle it and rein it in if we are to leave anything for the next generation. We have to understand that we are dependent on each other. If one person is sick, everyone is sick. If one person behaves irresponsibly, everyone suffers. The only “right” we really have is to behave responsibly, to be considerate toward each other so we can continue to live on a bearable level, first, and from there begin to improve it.

But since we’re egoists, and egoists are considerate only toward people they care about, we have no choice but to learn how to care for each other. At the very least, we have to start looking for ways to change how we feel about each other — from the current negative to a more neutral feeling, and eventually to a positive feeling toward each other. Again, this is not a utopian fantasy; it is an existential stipulation!

We have to revolutionize our entire perception of humanity. We cannot afford to keep thinking of ourselves as a collection of separate individuals; we have to start perceiving ourselves as a single entity that’s caring for all its organs. If we don’t, the individuals we see around us will soon start occupying themselves with killing all the other individuals around them.

We shouldn’t think that we are too weak or small to make a difference. Each of us can make a difference in our closest circles, and the accumulated impact will be strong enough to pull the wagon out of the mud and start moving in the right direction.

We are at a tipping point. If we start using firearms against each other, we will collapse into a civil war. But if we get a grip on our raging egos and understand that we are dependent on each other (as much as we dislike the thought), then perhaps, if we cherish life, we will want to learn how to care for one another. From that point on, the road will open for us to reverse the trend and start lifting humanity, and our personal lives, to the levels they can achieve.

We can have peace, abundance, health, and security. But we must remember that if not all of us have it, none of us will have it. This is the law of every ecosystem, and it applies just as rigidly to each of us.
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A person is essentially just a desire to receive that is very sensitive to pleasure or pain. Therefore, the Creator in an instant could oblige all of humanity to become absolute righteous.

However, He wanted us to come to this through understanding and awareness so that we ourselves would ask Him to bring us to bestowal and connection, we ourselves would want mutual guarantee, and we ourselves would seek to become similar to the Creator.

That is why it took so much time and many different conditions. It was necessary to divide the whole of humanity into seventy parts, seventy nations of the world, into different times and all sorts of states. Everything is in order to build a feeling over each desire that is above it, that is for the sake of bestowal, as well as a mind that can calculate when and to what extent the desire to receive and the desire to bestow can be used.

In this way, a person can regulate how much it is possible to receive from the Creator so that it is enough only to correct the desire to a bestowing one, and not a drop more.

It turns out that we need to program the desire to receive so that it absorbs all this wisdom, knowledge, and abilities that allow it to work against its nature and teach it to appreciate the nature of the Creator as the upper quality, to put it on itself, to be impressed, and act like Him.

Only through a very complex process can the creation be brought to equivalence with the Creator. After all, initially it is infinitely far from this, completely opposite to it. The Creator created the desire to receive to be opposite to the desire to bestow, then broke it and interspersed tiny sparks of bestowal inside this desire.

These sparks are also under the control of egoism. Therefore, a person uses all his egoistic desire and all the sparks of bestowal, and through that he connects with others, builds different societies, businesses, and wishes to profit from each other. All that is thanks to those sparks that fell inside the desire to receive; otherwise, the desires would have remained isolated and unable to connect with each other.

When we begin connecting and earning from each other, we understand how profitable it is, and we add more and more connections. Then suddenly everything breaks down because it is impossible to continue like this, and a catastrophic fall ensues. This crisis has been growing throughout the twentieth century, and today it has reached such a point that has turned from an economic decline into a universal one.

Today we are beginning to understand that the connection can be bad despite the fact that it comes from sparks of light. Now our job is to turn this connection into a good one. This is a special process because it requires us to connect only for the benefit of our neighbor. To do this, we need to raise the sparks of the upper light above our desire to receive.

After the shattering of the common soul until today, these sparks helped us build the desire to receive in an even more egoistic way. Now, however, we must take this desire to receive and put it at the service of the sparks in order to attract the light and grow the desire to bestow instead of desire to receive. The bestowing intention must rise above the receiving one, which means working by faith above reason. The force of bestowal, Bina, will be valued by us above the force of reception.

This is the great revolution we need to perform so that the intention to bestow will be greater than the force of egoism, and the sparks that fell into desire during shattering will begin to determine our development instead of egoism controlling development where sparks are used to connect with others in order to profit from them.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/25/20, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Medium published my new article “A Reality of Uncertainty”

All over the world, countries are feeling the toll of the second wave of Covid-19. Infections are rising and cities and countries are reinstating lockdown orders. The most pervasive feelings at this point seem to be uncertainty and despair. In the first wave, we thought we’d stay at home for a few weeks and wake up from the coronavirus nightmare. Now, in the second wave, we are beginning to realize it is not going away.

While all of nature functions as an integral system whose elements are connected and dependent on each other, we act as if we are separate beings, apart from the rest of humanity and the rest of nature, when the truth is the exact opposite. And because we feel this way, we are wrecking our home.

The only way to (hopefully) avoid it is to avoid contact with people, but how long can we do that? After all, we are social beings and other people’s company is an existential need for us. It seems as though we’re being forced to choose between suffocation from being locked up in our homes and suffocation from the virus. On top of that, the tension between those who choose to get out and enjoy other people’s company, and those who want to stay indoors and protect themselves and their loved ones is adding to the already mounting tensions in society. The prognosis for society in such a state is not good, to say the least.

There is, however, a way out of the catch. We haven’t been willing to try it, but a way out does exist. Since our conflict with nature has brought upon us this virus, ending the conflict is the way to eliminate it.

I like to watch TV shows about nature. When you look at how animals behave, you see that although their whole lives revolve around eating other animals or escaping other animals that want to eat them, there is perfect balance. There is no hatred among them; there is simply a natural mechanism that makes nature work in perfect harmony and life thrives.

Humans, however, are devoid of balance. We eat too much, accumulate stuff we don’t need, throw out perfectly good stuff, and litter the planet. While half the world is overweight, the other half is starving.

And worst of all, we are killing one another, abusing one another, tormenting one another, and taking pleasure in humiliating other people. We are hateful beings, the only hateful beings in all of nature. And in this, we are in conflict with nature, completely opposite from it.

While all of nature functions as an integral system whose elements are connected and dependent on each other, we act as if we are separate beings, apart from the rest of humanity and the rest of nature, when the truth is the exact opposite. And because we feel this way, we are wrecking our home.

The coronavirus is forcing us to behave more responsibly. It is forcing us to stay apart, restrict our consumption, limit our exploitation, and diminish the damages we’re inflicting on the planet. If we stopped doing these damages voluntarily, we wouldn’t need the virus to limit us. We would limit ourselves, which would preclude the appearance of the virus from the get go.

Think about it, the measures we are required to take in order to defeat the virus are the same measures we are required to take in order to save the planet and stop exploitation of others. It turns out that if we changed the way we treat each other and the planet, we would eliminate the virus without even trying.

In all likelihood, there will be no vaccine to Covid-19. Even if one is found, epidemiologists already warn that we are bound to see more and more of these bugs infecting humanity in the coming years, so fighting it is a lost cause. Our only way out of the maze is through changing our attitude from exploitative to cooperative, from alienation to connection. Today, it is clearer than ever.

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Only after all people achieve complete correction and rise to the last step, this world, which we perceive within our egoism, will begin to disappear from our sensations. As long as there are people and groups, parts of the common soul of Adam HaRishon, who are still in egoistic desire, we will all feel we are within the framework of this world.

We will continue to be born and die in physical bodies and will not be able to leave this circle until we enter the last stage of correcting the desire to receive pleasure into bestowal. And then this world will begin to disappear from our sensations because egoistic desire will disappear and transform into intention for the sake of bestowal. And this world will begin to melt.

I can be corrected one hundred percent, like Rabbi Shimon, but since the rest of the world, the common integral Kli of Adam HaRishon has not yet been corrected, I will inevitably be with them in the common feeling of this material world.

All the great Kabbalists of the past, the great righteous, did everything only for the sake of bestowal, but they were connected with the broken Kli, and that is why they felt this world. For example, Baal HaSulam achieved complete personal correction, but this did not protect him from serious illness and death, which were the result of his connection with other people.

This will continue until we achieve the general correction of our entire Kli. This process begins now, when the entire common Kli is revealed and all of humanity will come to correction. This completely changes the attitude toward us and our approach to reality. We are joining a new program and will not be able to exist in the old way.

See how quickly the coronavirus shifted all of humanity to a new state from the previous state when everyone took care of themselves individually, separately from the rest. The virus hits everyone so that we feel connected. Even though this connection is bad, we will try later to make it good. And above all, we feel that we all have a common problem.

This problem grips us so much that it makes us feel that we are all suffering. We will stop making the distinction between us in the face of common misfortune because everyone suffers, everyone gets sick, everyone dies, everyone is helpless and does not know how to get out of these problems.

The virus binds us together on an equal footing, not placing someone above and someone below. Its goal is to even us out to the same degree. Therefore, only our union is the correct and only medicine.

The Creator treats us with absolute goodness, but we feel the evil because we do not align our state in accordance with Him. It is as if I am a student who is required to study hard, but I do not try to study. Therefore, I receive blows and punishments.

We are under a single governance, and we must begin to approach Him and fulfill His requirements. If we are ahead of him at every stage and fulfill the requirements, then we feel good advancing from high to higher.

But if we do not want to fulfill the requirements and the main thing for us is to make some noise at demonstrations and fly to have fun abroad without changing anything, then we will feel worse and worse. Nature, like our father and mother, tries to teach us, but we, like a stubborn child who only wants to have fun, do not hear anything.

And this is a problem because we need to listen to and respond to the demands of nature. If not, then nature will transfer us to the next class and the blows will become even more serious, and we will suffer more and more. The main blows that await us are climatic disasters that will simply destroy us. We will have to suffer from all diseases and hunger.

Nature acts according to the program, and we are obliged to establish a connection between the Creator and creatures so that they correctly understand each other and connect through us. Are we aware of this problem and are we trying to fix it? This is the most important thing.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/25/20, Shamati #42 “What Is the Acronym Elul in the Work?”

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My new article on Linkedin “Pandemic Fatigue – A Symptom of the Virus or a Proof of Senselessness?”

The more time passes without a vaccine or a sure cure in sight, the more impatient people are growing. They are refusing lockdown and curfew orders, congregating recklessly as if there is no virus, protesting without maintaining social distance or wearing masks, and filling up restaurants, bars, and other places of recreation.

Changing the center of our attention from the “me” to the “we” changes everything: our behavior, our caution with ourselves and with others, our attitude toward others, and even our feelings toward others. There is nothing we can’t do today that we did before; the only thing preventing us from doing it is our attitude toward others. If we change it from negative to positive, we will guarantee the health of everyone around us, and they will guarantee our own health, and then there will be nothing that we won’t be able to do. So the bottom line is this: Let’s think about each other; it’s healthy!

But the virus has not changed. If people behave recklessly, contagion increases. And indeed, all over the world, where countries and cities relax closures, infections rise again. As the tension rises between understanding that there is no end to the virus in sight, and the inability to remain in permanent lockdown, people are driven toward the breakdown point of hopelessness and helplessness. At that point, social order will collapse and mayhem will take over the streets.

Without a medical cure in sight, the only cure we have is each other. This is also the one cure we haven’t tried. It’s not that we should disobey orders to keep 6 feet apart. On the contrary, we should be very strict with our observance of health regulations, but we should also remember that this will not kill the virus. If we stay apart, infections will decrease; if we resume our connections, infections will increase. This is what’s happening now and people won’t be able to sustain this in-and-out mode much longer. In fact, they already can’t.

But what this pattern does show us is that the problem lies—in our connections. Staying apart for good is no solution, so we have to find a way to connect in a way that does not resume infections. To do that, we must reverse our thinking. Instead of thinking, “How can I protect myself from catching the virus,” we should start thinking, “How can I prevent from passing the virus to someone else.”

Changing the center of our attention from the “me” to the “we” changes everything: our behavior, our caution with ourselves and with others, our attitude toward others, and even our feelings toward others. There is nothing we can’t do today that we did before; the only thing preventing us from doing it is our attitude toward others. If we change it from negative to positive, we will guarantee the health of everyone around us, and they will guarantee our own health, and then there will be nothing that we won’t be able to do. So the bottom line is this: Let’s think about each other; it’s healthy!
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Question: The world is entering a period of uncertainty now when it is difficult to predict the consequences and take into account all the factors that may affect decision-making. What should we focus on?

Answer: That the world should achieve full integration on all levels and turn itself from a torn, multi-sided, contradictory world into a global world, in the form of a large sphere in which everything is balanced.

Question: Are there any factors hidden from our five sense organs that could help in making decisions?

Answer: Only love. That is, complete unification between all factors for the sake of balance between all creations.

Question: Does that mean that the closer a person is to the quality of nature, the quality of bestowal and love, the more chances the right decision will be made?

Answer: Undoubtedly.
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From KabTV’s “Management Skills” 6/11/20

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Medium published my new article “Should Earth Get Rid of People?”

If animals and plants could speak, they would probably say that life was so much better before we humans came along. They’re absolutely right. A UN report found that no less than one million animal and plant species are at risk of extinction because of human activity. We are depleting the soil, chopping down forests, hunting down entire species, polluting the air, contaminating the ground, littering the seas, and we are doing this at an accelerating rate. If I were nature, I’d declare war on humanity a long time ago.

Nature will not wait for us to grow wise and start developing our positivity. It will expose more and more of our unscrupulous nature, as it is doing now, until we realize we have no choice but to change.
We regard ourselves as separate from nature, when in fact we are a link in the chain. Moreover, we are the apex of the pyramid. Currently, we are streaming negativity down through the entire system and all of nature is going berserk.

Consider this data from Times Union, for example: The August Complex fire currently burning in California has broken the record for a single fire as it surpassed 1 million acres. Moreover, the total area of land burned by California wildfires this year passed 4 million acres, more than double the previous record. And if that’s not enough, then here’s the knockout piece of info: The August Complex is larger than all of the recorded fires in California between 1932 and 1999, combined! Indeed, a noxious species.

But there is a reason for our being here, and there’s a reason why we were created so lame that we haven’t even the commonsense not to destroy our own home. While two forces — positive and negative — govern all of nature, only one force governs humanity. Instead of the balance between giving and receiving, hot and cold, birth and death, and day and night that streams life seamlessly for all of nature, the negative force is the sole ruler of our hearts. This is probably why it is written, “The wickedness of man is great on the earth, and all the intent of the thoughts of his heart is only evil the whole day.”

But as just, there is a reason we are born so evil: We have a mission to accomplish. Our vocation as human beings is to grasp the full depth of creation, and to do that, we must understand the thinking behind it. We were made negative so we could develop the positive side of our own volition, and learn how to integrate it with our innate negativity. If we accomplish this, we will restore balance in our own lives, in all of human society, and in all of nature.

But nature will not wait for us to grow wise and start developing our positivity. It will expose more and more of our unscrupulous nature, as it is doing now, until we realize we have no choice but to change. There is no question that we will have to develop the positive side about us; the only question is how much we’ll have to suffer until we understand nature’s “hint” and get to work on ourselves.

In fact, it isn’t hard. We have each other. The level of hatred that has surfaced in American society, but elsewhere in the world, as well, indicates where we have to start — with accepting one another. Human society is as diverse as all of nature. But while we cherish diversity in nature, we hate it in society. When we learn to accept one another and embrace the diversity of our cultures and ethnicities, we’ll have a chance at changing our environment, as well.

We are already at a point where huge swaths of land are becoming uninhabitable. Even within the continental United States, people are fleeing their homes from fires and from hurricanes, and parts of Europe are drowning in floods. In all likelihood, many of them will not be able to return. And that trend will only escalate in the coming years.

It is going to be a terrible decade for humanity unless we turn it into a decade of awakening. If we awaken to our task and start developing the positive force within us, start learning how to care for one another and for nature, we will reverse the trend. If not, our lives on Earth will be unbearable.
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Question: It turns out that the world was filled with hatred, not love. So much hatred burst into the world!

What did the coronavirus show? People who have lived together for decades, raised children and grandchildren, suddenly hate each other so much!

And such demonstrations are going on in so many countries! Look at what is happening in America: everything is being broken and crushed. Look at the Internet: such hatred, how they shower abuse on each other on social networks wherever possible!

What can we do about this hatred?

Answer: What do you expect from the world that created by hatred alone? It is written: “I have created the evil inclination.”

Question: How did the world develop with such hatred?

Answer: This is how it developed. Even the good was goodness emanating from hatred. That is, I love what I love, I get closer to what I want. Everything was ruled by my hatred.

Egoism is hatred. Hatred of what is not me, what I do not like, what is not for me, not for my sake, what does not relate to me, no matter what or what for, from zero to minus of infinity.

There is only one force in the world, which is hatred, and there is no other. And what we call love is self-love! What does it mean “I love someone”? This is the flip side of hatred, not love. Love is a completely different property; it is the nature of the Creator.

Question: Does such a world as you have described have the right to exist?

Answer: It does, because it is from this world that we can evaluate, justify, and admire this upper force of kindness and love.

Remark: It turns out that we have been put, as it were, in front of a mirror and told: “Look what you are!”

My Comment: In our world we will come to a very serious awareness of evil, a state from which we simply cannot escape to anywhere, as if trapped by wolves, surrounded from all sides.

From such hopeless states where it does not even matter to me whether I live or die, we will begin to somehow rise, that is, to realize that we must be above life, above death, above egoism, and that we must live by some other ideal, by a different feeling.

Remark: So many works of art have been created throughout the world, anything you can imagine, just to somehow bring man closer, to breathe something good into him. You and I were brought up on such warm, kind movies. It is clear that egoism was not developed then.

My Comment: And where have they led humanity, into such a jungle! It is like Susanin who leads into such darkness and we considered it to be light.

Question: What would be better?

Answer: The truth is better; to reveal human nature. If a person understands that this is his nature literally from childhood, he begins to behave differently. He is at least aware of his nature. He does not act with any deceitful goals! His life is completely different.

Question: Based on what you are saying now, the conclusion is that we should start to deal with this now?

Answer: And we will start to deal with this to the extent it is needed.

Question: To talk about human nature from childhood? To say: “Human nature is evil”?

Answer: Yes, of course. Then you will look at demonstrators, at politicians, at friends, and at relatives, at everything, differently.

Question: That is, I will not hate them, I will understand that this is my nature?

Answer: Yes. And then you will want to find the true nature. When you see one single egoism in everybody you will still want to rise above it.

Question: But is there at least a spark of love in this world? Something that has spun this sinful world, as you say.

Answer: This spark in people is still to be found, felt, and fanned like coals are fanned. Only in this way. But it is not simple at all.

Such a spark is that the Creator suddenly becomes important to you. There is something in my life that I cannot give up. I can part with everything, I can do anything, just do not tear me away from Him, which egoistic for now. So that my egoism does not tear me away from the Creator.

There is a substance that becomes very dear to me. As if it does not belong to my egoism. This is how a new substance appears in a person.

Question: Can this state arise only from the realization of evil?

Answer: Yes. Everything spiritual that arises in us and even everything that we then attribute to the Creator, to connection with Him, to merging with Him, this is all built only on our egoism.

Question: Is it good to strive for the evil in this way, to feel the evil in yourself?

Answer: No, this is done only if you strive for the good. And the good is above the evil, above the nature of our world, above us. It turns out that it is not at all what we thought. Good is when outside of yourself, the egoist, rising above yourself, you accept a completely new property.

Question: I have to reach a level I do not see and do not know?

Answer: You should clothe in it. It should just come to you.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/3/20

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Question: Many say most people are motivated to work by wages, some by career development, and some by a comfortable atmosphere in the company.

There is a proverb that tells of a traveler in the desert who meets a man rolling a heavy stone. The traveler asks him, “What are you doing?” He answers: “I work, I suffer.” Then the traveler meets another person doing the same thing. To his question, he replied: “I earn a living to support my family.” And the third said: “I’m building a temple.”

It is the same action, but the motivation is different for each one. What can be the highest motivation for a person? How would you motivate, let’s say, your employees?

Answer: Only by education. They need to understand that they are doing the most important job in the world. At every moment, they make such efforts that improve the world and raise the entire universe to the next degree of existence.

There is no work above this one because it brings the world to an integral state when each part interacts with all the others as one single whole. And the world more and more constitutes a single organism. Awareness of what we are doing is a necessary incentive for our proper development.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 6/4/20

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Question: What advice can you give to young people, especially in the post-coronavirus era? Which professions will remain and where to concentrate their efforts?

Answer: I think that the most important thing in the future will be what the whole society needs. This will be the focus.

Each person should know what society will need in order to secure for himself the right job, the right skills and education. Therefore, there is nothing more important than getting proper upbringing and becoming a person who can educate others.

In other words, social work aimed at consolidating all members of society, at turning society into an integral, correct system is the most important thing. Such people will always be needed. I would advise young people and people of any age to learn exactly this.

This is a profession that everyone needs personally, not even for work but for their and everyone else’s proper participation and integration into society.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 6/4/20

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