Opinion: (Professor of Behavioral Economics Dan Ariely, Duke University): “Gut feelings are often wrong…. Because if you think about it, the conditions under which you could develop good gut intuitions are conditions in which you do the same things over and over with very small changes, and you see an immediate effect. …Much of what’s happening in the market has no connection to what you have done, and there’s so much noise into it that it’s really hard for the human being to observe the market and understand the relationship between what you have done, what companies are doing, and what happens.

“You know all these programs when people come the day after something happened and… say: ‘Oh, I knew this all along; here is the story and here is why.’ You have all these pundits who give you an explanation of what has happened yesterday. Of course, the question is if they can predict what will happen tomorrow, and they don’t go there because they know that they can’t.

“We did an experiment in which we took some events in a stock market: IBM stock went up, IBM stock went down, etc. and we created these computerized pundits… which [sometimes] gave the standard explanation, but sometimes they would give the opposite explanation. Then we asked people how much they trusted these pundits… and would they invest in the next period according to their advice.

“It turns out that no matter what explanation they gave, as long as they gave an explanation, people followed them. I think this comes from our great desire as individuals to tell ourselves a story that explains what is happening.”

My Comment: In other words, we don’t care what the causes of the events are; we just need a story, whether it is valid or not. It gives us solace, like to a child in his mother’s arms who wants a fairy tale just because he hears it from the mother. We are looking for solace, not an explanation! But it doesn’t fix the economy!
[51533]

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Question: What does the science of Kabbalah say about the current moment? How can it help us in this important transition period?

Answer: We live in a special time. Our world stands at the threshold of the ascent to a new, inner, spiritual, stage of development of the human within us.

Until now, as the science of Kabbalah explains, we were developing naturally, obeying the impulses of our egoism. It forced us to transform society, change family life, develop technologies, reshape countries and formations, and introduce changes in education and culture. We were always headed in the direction that the natural inner urge pulled us towards.

But today we have reached a certain satiation. The world as though ceases to provide us with pleasures. It no longer satisfies us economically: We feel certain barriers preventing us from moving on. The American theory of the consumer society with infinite growth of exports and imports, with unlimited technological and productive capacity has exhausted itself. Moreover, we have transitioned to the downward trend, to decline, which, according to economists, will be long, and no one knows when it will end.

According to the science of Kabbalah, the way we understand it today, the crisis will never end. At this stage of development, we have realized our egoism, as well as the potential of the surrounding nature, causing terrible distress to it. As a result, we are on the verge of collapse in the areas of human and social development, education, and ecology.

In this situation, we need to consider what has happened to us. Are we going to continue in this manner? We have literally ruined ourselves, having evidently made a mistake in our objectives and goals. Do we want to increase consumption, thereby destroying the environment? Do we want to get stuck in our “mechanical” race?

Having hardly used manufactured goods, we throw them away to buy new ones. And this is our life. Would we want to fill our being with similar games in wealth, honor, and power? Is the meaning of human life in monthly changes of mobile devices and other symbols of consumption?

Today, the process that we are going through forces us to slow down and invites us to reflect on it. Evidently, there is a different program built in Nature, and we have to look into it.

Universal wisdom, general balance, homeostasis, which we discover in Nature, remains outside of man. For Nature, a human being is a foreign element, a cancerous tumor, devouring its environment and itself.

We are destroying human society, spoiling ourselves and our children, distorting everything, and leaving ourselves no opportunity for correct existence. If we look at the world “from aside,” people seem to be blind, moving along a suicidal path. They continue to play power games, to destroy themselves, children, society, and the future, and are not aware of this.

That is why we are in the crisis. In fact, this is not a crisis. This is salvation. Today, when all the systems created by us are collapsing, we get a clear sign which leads us to the point of truth. Finally, we can see that we have no choice but a radical change of attitude towards life.

Instead of continuing to roll down towards self-destruction, what is still wanted by politicians, economists, and, indeed, by the greater part of humanity, all the people, communities, and organizations who already see what is happening must together work out a new approach towards the world and nature, in order to move on in a different way.
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Today, we are in a special state, when for the first time humanity no longer understands its desire. A very important change is taking place: All of humanity is shifting from the first, “still,” degree to the second, “vegetative,” degree. For now, this is not clear to us, but it’s only the beginning.

Gradually, we will understand that nature, our desires, the upper governance, and our usual, familiar life, everything is relative, dependent on some factor that is unknown to us, that we cannot feel or take into account. We call this factor society, the environment, the global and integral humanity, a new connection between us that is being revealed today. But in reality, a person is shown that he is completely dependent on all of humanity; we are entirely in its hands.

We are currently exiting the unconscious subordination to the upper governance, under which we meekly existed at the “still level,” believing that this was the only way of life and that we must get used to it because there’s nothing else. But now, we are being shown in this life another component, another factor: the environment. In fact, it’s not an external environment, but the upper force that is being revealed to us. A person begins to feel that he depends on the environment, the environment depends on him, and they mutually influence each other.

In essence, this is the revelation of the Creator’s governance with respect to a human being. And according to this, a person will change to escape impending problems and troubles since he remains in the desire to enjoy. Various phenomena are starting to unfold before him, and he feels that he is a receiver. He sees that there is someone, a big giver, the environment, the world, that he depends on. Thus, the revelation of the Light, the upper governance relative to man, occurs.

And when a person understands that everything depends completely on the environment, he enters the second stage of development: “vegetative.” He has to give to a community which he receives from, realizing that the law of reciprocity exists, and that it won’t be good for him or the society if he only receives.

He no longer rigidly divides the world into two parts: himself and “them,” meaning everyone else. Being at the “still level,” he sought only to receive, but because he was unaware and did so instinctively, it did not count as reception; he was only obeying his nature.

And now, when he rises to the “vegetative degree,” he must perform conscious actions and give in return. That is, he has to change his behavior, which at the still degree was considered 100 percent correct, even though he stole and took for himself since his nature obliged him to do so.

Now, he is given a little bit of freedom from his own nature, and accordingly, he must give to the environment. The whole world must come to this; we must learn to not only receive, but to give as well.

Thus, we fulfill the still degree of our development. All of the other degrees: vegetative, animate, and human will add to the first, still, degree. To the extent that I reveal my egoism above the still degree, to that extent, I will correct my egoistic inclination and return to the still degree to carrying out the laws of nature like a slave, but voluntarily.

Therefore, everything is based on the still level. Inside this HaVaYaH is the entire creation and the attitude of the upper force towards it.
[52675]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/26/2011, Shamati #115

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Question: Both teachers and students are in trouble today. Teachers are helpless: They don’t have the tools to answer the challenges of the modern world. Meanwhile, students are feeling a new, qualitatively higher level of hostility towards the process of education. They have absolutely no desire to go to school….

Answer: I think that both sides are close to discussing these issues together. After all, the dead end, which everyone clearly sees, is beneficial neither to students, teachers, nor to the education system.

I think that in such circumstances we should become a connecting link: We should present our view on the problem to society and make our suggestions on massive changes in the educational system. There should be a book describing our method in detail so that it can be applied in practice.

Indeed, under these new conditions, the Department of Education is losing control over schools. Resentment and ineffectiveness will reach such a level that students will stop coming to classes. Teachers, on the other hand, will be unwilling to follow unrealistic and unfeasible orders coming from above.

That’s why we should offer a book that would present our recommendations on how to change this situation under the present conditions and onward. It shouldn’t be just a list of measures, but an upbringing manual. Teachers need to be taught how to bring up children, how to build reciprocity in a classroom, and so on. That has to be a full-blown methodology, not just isolated pieces of information.

Moreover, this book will be meant for both a teacher and a student. There is no need to hide anything. We are talking about a manual which would prepare them for interaction and mutual understanding.

We have to realize that before, connections in our egoistic world were built from top to bottom. Rulers of the world were forcing their power onto people, and this was the way all the other systems, including the education system, worked. However, the situation is changing: Rulers and parliaments can no longer govern the country, people can no longer receive support from them, and a connection is disappearing.

This is what is happening in the classrooms as well. Before, everyone sat in front of a teacher and received a weekly portion of knowledge and instructions. Everyone had to study to pass exams. The situation is changing now: Both sides are no longer capable of sustaining such a relationship because an integral connection is being revealed, according to which everyone should be equal, just like Bina and Malchut become equal to each other. Only this way a new system will be revealed: Methodology will be passed from generation to generation through equal relationships.

With time, by developing finer technologies, the world will realize that these new achievements are connecting us, and by that we are receiving a new “energy”: the Light that Reforms. By virtue of this Light we will suddenly be able to truly act in a human society, among us, in our interconnection—to such an extent that it will become a new step in a creative process.

On the next level of the world’s development, we will have to use the force of our connection to literally create new things. I don’t want to look like a dreamer, but I will nevertheless give an example: Let’s say we will create a printer that will use positive energy flowing among us to produce prints. These are the heights high-tech industry can reach: By feeding its creations with the force of unity among us, we’ll be shaping matter into different new forms. It doesn’t matter what it will be: houses, cars, and the like…. We still don’t understand to what extent our world is changing now.

Getting back to the education system, it has to join the process of changes before all others. This is, indeed, a worldwide problem today.
[51702]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/2011, “The Nation”

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In the News: “Social media have been a potent force in fueling the riots that began Saturday [August 6, 2001] in London’s boroughs and later spread to other cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds and Bristol. Messages have also been sent via regular texts and on Facebook.

“BlackBerry’s messaging system was popular among youths because it’s free, compatible with multimedia and private, compared with Facebook and Twitter. Its encrypted messages give troublemakers an added benefit: Police aren’t able to immediately trace message traffic the way they can with regular cellphones.” (Source: huffingtonpost.com)

“They [Hacktivist collective] would join forces with other hacktivists with the goal of bringing down the social networking giant, and that the action would be staged ‘for the good of privacy’ – and in order to protect freedom of information.” (Source: b92.net)

“The group of hackers known as Anonymous has vowed to ‘destroy’ Facebook on November 5…. The ‘hacktivists,’ infamous for meddling with the American government and for their support for WikiLeaks, have announced that they will focus on bringing down the social networking site because of its privacy policy.

“‘Facebook has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so that they can spy on people from all around the world.’

“‘The riots are under way. It is not a battle over the future of privacy and publicity. It is a battle for choice and informed consent.’” (Source: dailymail.co.uk)

My Comment: All the revolutions, the current ones and from past centuries, will sink into history. All of them happened under the pressure of a rigid, compelling force. However, recently, we have been under the influence of a new force, the integral force of nature, which pushes us towards unity either by suffering or by the realization of the necessity—and this constitutes our only choice.

Thus, no revolution will bring us a positive result. The former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wrote that everything that was happening happened only to compel us to unite, to equalize ourselves with the global world of nature. But he could not undertake anything because unity can be reached only by attracting this force upon oneself. And Kabbalah, the science of the correction of our egoism and unification above it, describes how to do this.
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We are moving toward balance with nature. It aspires to bring all of its parts to balance. The difference between temperatures gets balanced out, the wind balances out the difference in air pressure, an object that is thrown falls down toward the place where it will find balance with the force of gravity. The process is aimed at a balanced state everywhere and in every regard. In any area, be it chemistry, physics, biology, and so on, everything is built upon this principle. Everything aspires to equilibrium, to a relief of pressure. Everything submits to the law of entropy. Nature wishes to become appeased. It does not tolerate differences and fluctuations in any parameters.

Eventually, everything has to reach balance. And now the law of nature is demanding balance in human society. We see outbursts and disorder, and this is nature’s way of demanding balance. The still, vegetative, and animate levels have already had their turn, and now it’s the human level’s turn. The desire for balance is emerging within us, but becoming balanced among us means becoming “as one man with one heart.” We might all be different, but there is one criterion: We are all obligated to mutually support one another.

And there is nothing to be done about that: Whether we want it or not, nature will win because it is a tremendous force.

A question arises: Why won’t we disappear, like the mammoths and dinosaurs? Why don’t we just leave the stage like a part that doesn’t fit? After all, our discord with nature is much greater than that of the extinct dinosaurs. However, unlike them, we have a mission, a predestination, a goal: We have to correct ourselves and transform our initial nature. They were unable to do that and they disappeared with the natural course of evolution, whereas we are obligated to bring ourselves into balance with the current phase of development.

That is why we are brought to states where our lack of harmony with nature will become expressed in the gravest forms, but it won’t get to total extinction. 90% of the world might disappear, but some people will remain nevertheless in order to change human nature and reach the necessary balance.

This is the goal and we have no other way to go.
[52967]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/29/11, “The Nation”

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The entire creation is divided into the four levels of development: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. And human development also follows the same four stages.

On the still level, a person does not hesitate to agree with everything the upper governance does with him. On the vegetative level, he acquires his own desire, agreement and disagreement.

To rise to the animate level means to have one’s own character and destiny, direction and individuality, that is, to perform a special purpose in creation, posses an active force within a general, large machine of nature, and turn its gears correctly, according to the actions of the Creator, but with one’s own hand.

When a person himself becomes like this enormous machine, he is called a human, Adam. That is, he encompasses all this mechanism of nature and manages it instead of the Creator; he becomes included in the general program of creation. This means to rise to the human level.

Nowadays, humanity begins to awaken to rise above the still to the vegetative level. That is why we feel discomfort and the loss of direction; we do not know where to go and why. And in the coming years, many such events will be manifested, which will puzzle people and deprive them of understanding how to go on.

This will involve the simplest, seemingly clear things and not high principles. Suddenly, the basis of life will disappear: The economy will stop functioning; relationships between people will disintegrate; confusion will overwhelm the power structures. It’s as if a fog falls and everything becomes unclear.

Everyone who came to Kabbalah began to study because at some point, he felt that he had entered such a fog. In other worlds, a person no longer feels that he is the master of his life with everything following a clear order. Here, an obscure factor appears that confuses him.

The protective function of the body starts operating, which wants to feel confident and secure, to stand firmly on the ground, to hold control in its hands, and to know that one has a job, money, health, and pension. But suddenly you see that all this as if disappears in a fog.

The entire humanity will feel this condition. And when, instead of being someone’s personal state, it will start to happen on a great scale, it will be frightening. But this will push us to the next level, will force us to seek protection, a new foundation, and will bring us to the vegetative level.

On the vegetative level, people will be compelled to look for how to hold onto each other, that is, how to achieve global and integral connection voluntarily, consciously, and with the understanding that they cannot survive without this.

It’s as if we are all standing on a raft floating on the water. Imagine that everyone makes uncoordinated movements that rock the raft in opposite directions. In order not to topple the raft, we must hold onto each other and maintain balance all the time; otherwise, we will drown! This feeling will reign in the world.
[52683]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/26/2011, Shamati #115

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Question: How far must humanity go to realize that the true problem is the ego?

Answer: We will need to go to the very end. And I already see the economists starting to speak the words of Kabbalah and likening our ego to a cancerous tumor.

What is the limit that the world must reach before it reaches this awareness? Near complete self-destruction since that is how our ego works. It is just like the tale of Pharaoh. Imagine a big, beautiful land, a veritable oasis amidst the wretched world of old, which ruins itself completely following the ten Egyptian plagues, and the only reason is that our pigheaded ego insists on standing its ground.

And it’s incapable of doing anything else because it doesn’t feel or understand that there is a solution. We can use this example to see that we must always go to the ego and demand: “Let my people go!”
[52731]

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Opinion: (Kim Sung-Hwan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea): “The international community has experience in overcoming economic difficulties such as the global financial crisis of 2008. But no country can cope with such global shocks alone. This requires close cooperation among all members of the international community. Today, it is extremely important to combine efforts.”

My Comment: Cooperation should exist not because no one has strength to overcome the crisis alone, but because the crisis was caused in order for us to discover the need to unite into one whole.
[52037]

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In the News (From Theaustralian.com.au): “The world has moved into a ‘new and more dangerous phase’ of economic uncertainty because of the European sovereign debt crisis, according to World Bank president Robert Zoellick.

“Despite decades of fixing problems at the top of US and international institutions, Mr Zoellick could offer no ready solution to Europe’s problems.

“He urged European leaders to approach their continent’s sovereign debt malaise with a greater sense of urgency, and lamented the European Union structures that made effective economic reform difficult.

“‘It’s not the same as 2008 (when the previous global financial crisis hit),’ he said.

“‘On the positive side, people have paid down debt and there is not the same sudden shock as in 2009. But, on the other hand, most developed countries have used up fiscal space and monetary policy is about as loose as it can be.'”

My Comment: Everything is going according to plan: Nature presses us, still leaving time for reflection. Then the pressure will increase, and there will be no more time to think. Assessing the situation correctly and understanding that we must quickly become global and integral: This the solution to all problems. Will we understand this before it’s too late?
[51940]

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