Opinion (Steen Jakobsen): “Steen Jakobsen, Chief Economist of Saxo Bank the online trading and investment specialist, stated that the human mind does not accept changes easily.

“We are programmed to seek safety, stay inside the box and avoiding confrontations – basically to avoid any changes of habit in our thinking and actions. This is particularly the case on a political and societal level, not just for the individual. It’s this mentality that keeps us from engaging in a bold new course of action, even when things have clearly gone wrong. …

“Any government will always start by denying there is a crisis – the denial – they will claim it’s temporary, it’s due to external factors. … A year to two later there is some stabilization, but it’s still a crisis because the underlying dynamics have not been altered by any real structural changes. … But eventually, the pain of not changing our ways becomes so great that we have no choice but to strike out in a new direction. . …

“At least half of the effort in getting out of a crisis is a change of mind – what a behavioural economist might call overcoming the sunken cost of past ways of thinking. Once a majority of us get over the mental hurdle of admitting that real change is necessary, then the exercise of ending the crisis becomes relatively easy – and even invigorating.”

My Comment: A crisis takes place in the mind. If humanity does not have enough willpower to accept the inadequacy of its nature for survival and to change itself, to make the agenda to implement integral education and training everywhere in order to achieve positive change—Nature, as usual, will make these changes on—and the extinction of suffering. Most important in resolving the crisis is the desire for change!
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If there is one desire to receive in us and nothing but that, then we operate like robots. The moment some pleasure illuminates for us, we immediately begin to chase it and the moment we feel sufferings, we try to escape them. It is the natural behavior of every created being: the inanimate, vegetative, or animate.

An ordinary person in our world is no different from animals when it comes to this, because the desire to receive also operates in him, but his desire to receive is simply more sophisticated and confused since a person doesn’t understand where it comes from all of the sudden.

Animals operate according to their natural instincts and there is nothing external that influences them. A person, however, is motivated by attributes such as envy, lust, and honor. He is impressed by the environment that can influence him to value things that are against his nature and which destroy him.

Society doesn’t operate in favor of the individual, but in favor of the general egoistic, broken society. If one person is an egoist, then he simply operates like an animal with his small ego. He tries to get along in this world as well as he can: to build himself a better home, with healthier, more comfortable conditions. He tries to do what is beneficial for his body.

This is how people developed in ancient times. But when their ego grew and forced them to connect, in order to make a greater profit one at the expense of another, this egoistic connection generated a phenomenon called “public opinion.” This environmental effect became harmful for the individual, since not only did the ego grow because of such a connection, but it also took on distorted forms that are far from the natural forms.

It wasn’t a natural connection, but a distorted connection of desires, since when many egoists connect, their desires are opposite to the other desires and it is impossible to understand how they can even connect. So the influence of the environment on each individual brings about such distortions and corruptions of the natural desire, such as: envy, lust, honor, and power.

This is how humanity developed: The individual ego grew, and as a result of the distorted connections of egoists under the negative influence of the social system on every individual, society developed in a direction that is opposite from Holiness, from the corrected state which we eventually have to reach in the future.

Our social values have drawn light years away from the natural human needs… and as a result we all operate according to artificial, egoistic values that only harm us. But we are compelled to operate this way since we are subordinate to the law according to which the environment affects a person.

The whole problem is in the fact that this environment is bad and our big, complex, and distorted ego has mutated in different ways from one generation to another so we don’t even understand that it affects us and leads us in ways that are opposite from the natural correct way.
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From the 1^st part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” 

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Opinion (Steen Jakobsen, Chief Economist & CIO, Saxo Bank): “Policy makers are finally realising that social tension can overtake much needed reforms and financing needs by virtue of rallying the voters. Note that the groups of people demonstrating across Europe are no longer just unions or public employees. This is now a national issue for many countries. One generation of youth has already been lost, with all the negative consequences expected for productivity, innovation and pure outlook on life. …

“IF – the policy makers ignore this call for ‘change’, then the voters will be radicalised, moving to the extreme left and right politically. We are considering having an Outrageous Prediction for 2013 that include a serious move back to Communism in Eastern Europe and towards more autocratic states in Southern Europe. …

“In times of crisis people go to extremes – and this is now a full blown crisis, as we have a banking, economic, political and social crisis in place. It can’t get much worse actually, which is probably a good thing. … Is it time for change now? I doubt it, but this is a step in the right direction, and it proves, once again, that to create a mandate for change you need to see a serious crisis.”

My Comment: If Europe does not understand its only remedy—integral education—it will split not only into states, but even into smaller formations to match the ego.
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The science of Kabbalah should be revealed to a person only when he wants to understand the meaning of life. However, if he doesn’t yet possess this desire, if he’s totally immersed in the life of this world and is only concerned with securing his life for the time of his existence, then there’s no point in telling him about the science of Kabbalah. It isn’t for him and it can only confuse him. Let him continue his egoistic development and not touch upon the science of Kabbalah.

It’s for this reason that the Kabbalists throughout the centuries have concealed this science, waiting until humanity reached a state in its development where it began asking about the meaning of life. We see this now in the great problems of the world, in the comprehensive general crisis that permeates absolutely every sphere of human activity.

This is evident by humanity’s current depressed state, reflected in the number of suicides, and by the fact that the world is on a downslide and can’t do anything about it. Everyone is on a downslide, the elite as well as regular people. There’s a gradual disappearance of the middle class, manufacturing industry is fading; we’re losing interest in life. We don’t know what to do. We realize that there’s a possibility of a third world war, but we view this calmly as though it’s our fate pulling us somewhere, because we realize that we have no strength, no knowledge or even desire to put up any resistance. Alienation and powerlessness reign in the world.

It’s precisely in this generation that the science of Kabbalah must be revealed because from it they will not only understand how to exit the current state, which has left them hopeless, but also to discover what awaits them in the future: an eternal, perfect, whole, exalted state, which is billions of time greater than anything we could ever feel in this world.
[94283]
From the Virtual Lesson 11/18/12

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Question: Why is the spiritual path based on troubles? Why does the Creator advance those who yearn for the goal by suffering?

Answer: The Creator doesn’t advance us. There is the law of the Lights and the vessels, and the Creator doesn’t participate in this mechanism, “He has given a law and it shall not be broken.” He is not the one who fixes all the troubles and the problems—we summon them upon us by ourselves by not using this law correctly.

Suppose I take a jar with a sticker on it that says “poisonous acid” and drink from it. Who fixed that? The Creator or me? In fact it is I who caused myself harm, and although the Creator made the acid harmful to the human body, I am to blame: I counted on something exceptional, on a miracle, and there are no miracles.

Even the exodus from the exile in Egypt is called “a miracle” but only with regard to those who are in the 49 gates of impurity, in the last phase of the exile. They really don’t understand how it is possible to move from this state immediately to the revelation of the Creator. When a person discovers that he is evil in every way, redemption seems like a miracle to him.

But in fact, it is only the law that always operates everywhere. We only have to learn the laws of reality, the laws of nature, and to use them correctly. Both our corrections and the whole world are subordinate to these laws. The system of laws surrounds us unexceptionally.

Question: So how do we solve the problems and the suffering that are revealed?

Answer: First we are grateful for them: “Thank you for reminding us what is important, we need to hold on to the right direction and think about something totally different.” When my parents punish me, I shouldn’t think about the punishment or about my parents, but about one thing: What did they mean, what do I have to attain by the punishment? If I don’t think about it, the blows won’t help, and I won’t be able to soften them either.

In the meantime, we are trying to soften the blows in Israel today by building different systems against missiles. This, of course, is also necessary, but in fact, the state, like a small child, wraps itself in something soft just so not to feel the parents’ blows. Taking such measures will only provide us with a temporary solution that will help the people choose the right way and to follow it. But it is the correction and nothing but that, which will eventually remove all of the threats. When we receive blows, we have to think about what caused them.
[94303]
From the 4^th part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/12, “Exile and Redemption”

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In the News (from Israel National News): “A group of Nobel peace-prize winners, prominent artists and activists issued a call for a ‘comprehensive military embargo against Israel’ following the recent hostilities in Gaza. …

“The 52 signatories include the Nobel peace laureates Mairead Maguire and Adolfo Perez Esquivel; film directors Mike Leigh and Ken Loach; author Alice Walker; notorious anti-Israel academic Noam Chomsky; Roger Waters of Pink Floyd; and Stephane Hessel, a former French diplomat and Holocaust survivor who was co-author of the universal declaration of human rights.”

My Comment: This statement looks like a mockery of all the attempts of the Israeli army not to harm the people of Gaza, even risking the lives of Israeli people. The truth is restated once again—the Jews are expected to correct the world rather than to become similar to other nations. The claims of the nations of the world that the Jews are the cause of all the world’s ills is fair because only they can correct the world.

With the worsening of the global crisis, the nations of the world will increasingly put pressure on us and force us to carry out our business, the duty to the world and the Creator—to give an example for the world to unite in “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” We will have to realize this biblical instruction on ourselves, by consciously becoming aware of it or under strong pressure and suffering. The choice is ours.
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Opinion (George Monbiot): “Never mind the economic crisis. Focus for a moment on a more urgent threat: the great food recession that is sweeping the world faster than the credit crunch. You have probably seen the figures by now: the price of rice has risen by three-quarters over the past year, that of wheat by 130%. There are food crises in 37 countries. One hundred million people, according to the World Bank, could be pushed into deeper poverty by the high prices. …

“There is plenty of food. It is just not reaching human stomachs. Of the 2.13bn tonnes likely to be consumed this year, only 1.01bn, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, will feed people.

“I am sorely tempted to write another column about biofuels. From this morning all sellers of transport fuel in the United Kingdom will be obliged to mix it with ethanol or biodiesel made from crops. The World Bank points out that ‘the grain required to fill the tank of a sports utility vehicle with ethanol … could feed one person for a year.’

“While 100m tonnes of food will be diverted this year to feed cars, 760m tonnes will be snatched from the mouths of humans to feed animals – which could cover the global food deficit 14 times. If you care about hunger, eat less meat.”

My Comment: But if we could establish equal reasonable allocation of the necessary food, no one in the world would have felt hunger or lack; Earth can feed billions more people with coordinated organization of people, but more people will suffer from hunger in the uncorrected state of society in order to come to its correction.
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In the News (from Nielsen): “Global consumer confidence increased one index point to 92 in Q3 2012, and is up four index points from the same period the previous year (Q3 2011), according to global consumer confidence findings from Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy. …

“Seven in 10 global online respondents (69%) changed their spending habits to save on household expenses, an increase of two percentage points from last quarter and three percentage points from a year ago. Half of global respondents (52%) said they spent less on new clothes and cut back on out-of-home entertainment expenses (48%). Other actions taken by global respondents include saving on gas and electricity (47%), switching to cheaper grocery brands (39%) and cutting down on telephone expenses (33%).”

My Comment: Forced savings will not save us, but it will help us in the transition to a new economy of reasonable (necessary) needs, and the rest of our resources and energy should be directed at the development of a homogeneous integral society.
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Question: How do you see the year 2013 for the world group and for all of humanity?

Answer: I see 2013 as an excellent year.

All the media is sharpening our focus now on the fact that this year will not be easy: the lack of harvests, an overall rise in prices, general layoffs, climate problems, with more and more, and so on. That is, nature and society will present us with unpleasant surprises. This is something that concerns all of humanity.

With respect to our advancement, I think it will be a great year. Of course, not because of this suffering, but because we will try to reduce the suffering for humanity and show people how to use it properly, to rise above it.

That is, there is a force that can be negative and can be positive.

If you look at it directly, so to speak, head-on, this force is negative. It pushes you, puts pressure, and causes problems with the weather, harvest, money, work, war, with everything. If you look at it not at the egoistic level, but rise to the level from where it descends, to the level of the Creator, then everything is fine. He meets you there and says, “Finally! I sent you so many various blows that you have ascended to me in the end, but you were not in a hurry. However, finally, you have ascended!” That is why we need to understand why we are given the so-called suffering. They are “so-called” because we look right at them, but they cannot be perceived directly. So, the year 2013 will be the year of spiritual progress for those who will be rising. For those who will not rise, it will be the year of physical, moral, and material regression.
[93950]
From a Virtual Lesson 11/11/12

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