Entries in the 'Crisis' Category

Pondering At The Tree Of Good And Evil

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf we don’t cultivate in ourselves a sensitivity to good and evil, we won’t know how to employ them in the right way. Everything depends on the subtlety of perception.

Moreover, it is important how we determine what is good and what is bad since, usually, whatever is good for a person’s egoism he considers as good, while whatever harms it as evil. So, what is the reference point by which to define good and evil? Is it in relation to me, the society, or the Creator? What are “good” and “evil” anyway?

Today, we find ourselves facing a big problem. For our entire history, we have been doing what is best for ourselves, taking the liberty of distributing crude oil and gas, polluting our habitat, and not worrying about anything up until we got a chance to watch in horror at what we have done. However, there is no going back. Scientists say that the fate of the globe is decided: We have passed the point of no return and can’t restore its ruined well-being.

So, what we used to see as good has turned into bad. Had we been more sensible in the past and able to see things in the right way, we wouldn’t have done what we did. At this point, our ability to make decisions greatly depends on our feelings. After all, desire is the primary force, and the mind develops next to it in order to actualize what the desire wants. Intelligence grows solely in order to help achieve what is desired.

I think about what I wish to achieve, and the more I wish, the more I think about it. In accordance with that, my mind develops in my attempts to obtain what I desire. Therefore, next to a big desire, there is always a big mind, while next to a small desire, there is a small mind. This is the way we are made. This development also takes place in the living cells as well as inside the entire person.

Hence, as we develop a greater inner sensitivity to good and evil, our mind will grow along with it to the same degree, and we will get wiser. The only question is what criteria do we use in order to determine when we are dealing with good and when with evil?
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/2011, “The Freedom”

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Nature Froze And Awaits Your Decision

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What force lifts the worlds on Saturday after Adam HaRishon is born and before he falls into sin?

Answer: There is a force regarded as an “awakening from Above” (Itaruta de-Leila). It could simply be seen as the upper Light expanding from the world of Infinity while we don’t know how and why. But in truth, there is no “awakening from Above” without an “awakening from below” (Itaruta de-Letata), from the creature itself.

There is a chain of informational genes (Reshimot) that must unfold and become clarified one by one, which descend from the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking degrees. Reshimot of the still, vegetative, and animate degrees unfold naturally, subconsciously, on their own, because there is no free will at these degrees.

They unfold one by one and gradually arrive at the state when there is a leap to a new degree. Where it comes from, we don’t know. But it occurs due to the fact that the preparation at the still, vegetative, and animate degrees has been completed, and you suddenly start to feel how your state has changed. You start thinking, seeing things, and feeling everything differently.

The reason is that the Reshimot which are below your awareness, understanding, preparation, free will and which get naturally discerned have been actualized. The Creator prepares all the conditions for you to use your free will, and you must perform on your own now.

It is similar to how you don’t control the processes in your corporeal body. You don’t need to think about how all the atoms and molecules are moving in it, how metabolism and various internal systems work. Imagine how complex these processes with an infinite number of conditions are, and all of it works automatically.

Spiritual development is the same: The upper force brings us to the point where our free will begins. And this expands to the entire system, the entire desire created by the Creator, the entire still, vegetative, and animate nature, its enormous systems. But it isn’t our job and is automatic, thanks to the interaction of the Light and desires.

The Light affects desires; desires respond to the Light; and this is how the whole world, the entire universe, everything strives to achieve equilibrium. The only exception is man!

So it is today in our world: All of nature exists in balance, but the problem is in man who has to exercise free will and establish this balance. As it is in the spiritual world, all events that were taking place before Adam’s fall into sin, including the fall itself, were occurring under control of the force from Above (Itaruta de-Leila), through the chain of Reshimot, until we reach the place of free will. And there, everything freezes and waits until man will make a decision.

That is what is actually happening in our world today: Nature is waiting for us to make our choice. It will pressure us since while it is waiting, the Reshimot of the still, vegetative, and animate degrees get accumulated and bring us numerous problems on all planes of the external world, until we finally decide, at our speaking degree, that we must go forth for the correction.

The still, vegetative, and animate nature pressures us so we may continue on the path of correction at our human degree.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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On Global Education

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is global education? Who will supervise it, a single board of education for the entire world?

Answer: This is the mission of UNESCO, a specialized agency of the United Nations devoted to the issue of education in the entire world.

Global education means the explanation of the laws of nature. We need to explain that we are all inter-connected, governed by a single upper force, and have to act accordingly.

To be a single whole means to consider each others’ interests. Otherwise we will incur nature’s blows until we realize that we have no choice but to unite. The blows will force man to renounce his egoism; he will be willing to do anything to avoid suffering. But all of it could be accomplished in a good way, by the force of the Light that Reforms.

Of course, I didn’t explain it during the meeting with head of UNESCO, but eventually I will have to. This is what Marx wanted to do. He thought that when people begin to unite, to build socialism, they will see in practice that they can’t. They will start searching and realize that there is only one means of correction: the upper force. This is why Marx was an atheist and did not believe in any gods but the upper force of bestowal.

A simple observation of nature teaches us that we, too, have to be connected. And later, by trying to unite, we reveal that we can’t. Then the solution will become revealed. And for this we have to actively circulate Kabbalah. The world will need it more and more.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/11/2011, “The Freedom”

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Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If the governments are no longer capable of making correct decisions, who will rule the country to prevent anarchy? Who will govern the world?

Answer: Baal HaSulam writes that we will reach a state when the world will be ruled by Sanhedrin (the supreme assembly of sages, Kabbalists). Say, there will be 120 people (like in the ancient Sanhedrin) who will define the entire process of correction that the world has to undergo.

The only decision that needs to be made is how to advance toward the adhesion with the Creator, what’s the best way to do it for each layer of the society, each age group, and nationality. Then we will be successful.

We have to aim at the spiritual goal and correct the entire world, from top to bottom. For this, we don’t need any revolutions, but one: the revolution in education which needs to become global.

Today the rulers only act in their self-interest. They cannot form a true government since government implies connection. And how can they connect if each of them thinks how to come to power and get around everyone else? That is, everyone thinks about how to take advantage of others in order to get ahead.

This is our egoistic nature, and therefore, we shouldn’t expect anything else: We will only see failure after failure. The people will change the governments, but it will only become worse until we finally realize that we only need to change education.

The world needs to understand that it exists in dis-harmony with nature. If a general, integral network is descending upon us from above, and it considers only everyone taken together, while each of us thinks only about himself, then we are in opposition to the force that rules us. Nothing will help us but new education.

The relationships we build below have to resemble the global network which rules the world from above. We must be similar to it, and the greater this similarity will be, the more peaceful and good the world will become.

The upper network is invariable, it remains the same; it only descends and approaches us increasingly more. If we do not change in accordance to it, we will start feeling increasingly worse year to year and even day by day!

Our only task is to change ourselves. Humanity here, below, has to also become global and integral. It is possible only by education of a new human.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/11/2011, “The Freedom”

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The End of The Slave Generation

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday we have come up against the new generation, which can do anything only if it understands, feels, decides, and agrees with what has to be done. Otherwise it won’t do anything. We also see this by the events that are now happening all over the world. A new wave is rising, or in other words, a new level of the common soul is awakening in all of humanity.

The modern generation is contraindicative of a morally-righteous upbringing which threatens a person and forces moral teachings on him, telling him, “Look at us as an example and act the same way.” This is not enough for the young generation. They will not take this path. On the contrary, they will copy the worst examples and won’t be able to have a grip on themselves so as to abide by your wonderful models.

The new generation won’t accept anything just because that’s how it has to be. Even though a child absorbs many things automatically, still, if we raise the modern kids by reward and punishment, it won’t work. That’s because egoism grows from one day to the next and you won’t be able to withstand it. Therefore, habit will become second nature to them.

Right before our very eyes a new nature is maturing inside children, and it demands that you hand them a method. You want to give a child ready-made results that he will implement like a small machine that you operate where he looks at you and repeats everything. But that won’t work. Children see right through you. They are constantly studying and analyzing you. You are completely transparent to them.

We have to understand that this generation requires a very rational and logical method that it could understand and then use according to that understanding.

The slave generation has ended, or the generation of machines that were personified even by Charlie Chaplin. Today we have to think about how to give the youth an explanation of the process of development, reality and their place in it, the goal, the path of governance, and the opportunities standing before every person.

In short, it is necessary to show a person the limits within which he really is a free creature. The new generation is very different from us and therefore we shouldn’t develop methods to train them so they would obediently stay close by, but a method of passing on wisdom according to a person’s age. Then children will use and realize this wisdom through their behavior, and then all that will remain for us to do is to check whether we have given it to them correctly. We will see this by the results.

In the past education and upbringing were based on reward and punishment. Children were stuffed into different boundaries and held on a short leash. They were told, “This is how you have to act.” But today this won’t work because the Creator requires us to reach the realization of evil, the understanding of what happens in life. We have to learn to control ourselves according to the importance of the goal. This is a person’s independent work.

The soul has no age. It doesn’t matter in whom it awakens, an adult or a child. We have to understand that we are obligated to provide a method of correction for the young and the old so they would grow only by it.
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From the talk on education on 2/19/11

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What People Demand When They Come Out Into The Streets

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In the past several weeks, we have seen how in several countries people came out to demonstrate against their governments as if they were protesting their inability to take part in the governing of their country. How can we hand Kabbalistic ideas about integral unity to them so that they feel that it can offer a solution?

Answer: It is a very important question that is gradually becoming more and more vital these days. It is a question of unity that people essentially demand. In other words, a person asks: “How can I, a regular man who lives on two dollars a day (as, for example, the masses in Egypt do), decide something in this life?

They can’t leave the streets and go home because otherwise, they will have to return to this life of extreme poverty, which is “valued at 2 dollars a day.” But for now, as they are protesting, they have a feeling of being able to control, to do something. They feel that power is in their hands, and not in the hands of the government.

This demand cannot be met by adding one extra dollar a day for their needs. It is necessary to think about what to give these millions of people so they may feel that they have received the power to govern and make changes. And today, it is a truly universal, global problem, which is beginning to involve greater and greater masses of people in the world.

The governments start to ponder: What should they do? Political leaders are willing to resign from their positions and yield to various changes, but it will never satisfy their people. We are yet to see numerous demonstrations and revolts, until the decision will finally come to the surface: We must ensure that the very last, simplest person gets to feel that he, too, is in charge, and that he has honor, power, and self-respect.

Humans grew up! They are coming out into the streets and feel they own the situation. When they feel this way, it is impossible to bribe them even with money because such status won’t be enough for them. And they will keep waking up, creating a very threatening predicament. I don’t see how the governments will be able to control them.

Even if one government replaces the other and accepts people’s representatives, then as soon as they have power, they will alienate themselves from the people. As soon as they get their hands on and start enjoying it there, at the top, a person who lives in his urban slum or remote village won’t find them as his or her representative any longer.

We are yet to see this tendency in political development in the nearest future. In the end, no other option will be available. Mankind will come to a state when it will be faced with a question: What can we do to be equal? In truth, only when everyone feels equal, a person can feel that he or she is the head of the government, makes decisions, and is important.

It doesn’t mean that one must have direct power over others, but one needs to feel like that inside. And it is possible to achieve but only through people’s unification that we are moving toward.

Sociologists are not familiar with such phenomenon yet, and they produce very careful, superficial forecasts. But I think that in those countries where this process has already started, it cannot be stopped. A government should fear a people that have already tasted their ability to change something and take charge. Until everyone feels equal with everybody else, they won’t find peace. And this is where the world is headed to.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/2011, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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New Rules Of A Global World

Dr. Michael LaitmanHistory shows that ultimately not a single dictator brought his nation anything good, but only suffering. Thereby they pushed the world toward development. Today, however, our state is completely different: We live in a global world.

Previously, the world existed due to the very top of the pyramid, the individual personalities endowed with unlimited sovereign power, and everything run according to their word. A few hundred years ago, such rulers were still able to make beneficial decisions. But today, in a global world, if someone tries to put into practice his personal opinion, he will only acknowledge his own ignorance.

It’s because in a global world, decisions cannot be made by a single ruler or government, or even by governments gathering together. Nothing will come out of it! One has to be familiar with the general system, while a president is not; he is a bigger egoist than anyone else (this is why he became a president in the first place).

Hence, not a single ruler or government will be successful: They will come to power, keep hold of it for a few years, and fall. This will happen throughout the world. We will see that governments will degenerate more and more. One day millions will come out onto the streets, as it is happening in Egypt now, and the government will collapse.

Why can’t the government defend itself, where is the army? Its glory days are over, it doesn’t work this way anymore because the world manifests as an integral, global system, and the people below no longer obediently accept everything that the ruler says from above.

Today the world operates based on different principles, while we do not acknowledge this yet. No rulers will help us, no matter who comes into power. In previous times, the rulers advanced the world through suffering, yet they nevertheless advanced it. For instance, Alexander the Great wanted to introduce Greek culture into the entire world and had scientists and advisers assist him. He had an entire program of what he wanted to do with the world. But today, advancement due to a ruler is no longer possible.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/11/2011, “The Freedom”

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Searching For Wise Allies

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Today, there are numerous organizations in the United States, which are trying to find solutions to the crisis and ecological problems. They claim that in the nearest future, America will face hyperinflation which may lead to social disintegration and civil war. This is why they advise making changes in the social infrastructure. Are there any grounds for cooperation between us, and what can Kabbalah offer them?

Answer: The broadest platform for cooperation is the fact that the world is facing an escalating crisis which isn’t accidental, but rather a natural process governed by Nature.This crisis involves multiple areas. Hence, it is able to serve as reliable grounds for cooperation since it presents tangible proof on the still, vegetative, and animate levels, even including humans on a societal and individual level.

Nowadays, this tendency is evident to all and is normal. A person who views it from more or less higher ground understands that it isn’t really up to a person. If we look from an even higher point of view, the following questions arise: What should we do with this tendency? Is it a program of Nature which has a desire, plan, and final purpose?

At these levels, we can, indeed, seek allies with whom we may be able to discuss such things, but they have to be real partners who are inclined toward a realistic, scientific approach that excludes religion, philosophy, and ungrounded claims. By analyzing these factors evident to all, we need to examine how to reach the point where everyone will admit the need to reform human society and reach an agreement. The majority do acknowledge that the world is in crisis, ecosystems are threatened, and the financial crisis isn’t over yet, but the question is what do we do next?

After all, if we don’t do anything, there is no point in talking about it. Then the officials who cover these issues up are right. It’s true that we will die tomorrow, but today, we can still enjoy life. Some numb themselves with drugs, others manage not to think about it at all, yet others gamble in the stock market as if they were playing “Monopoly.” We are not talking about these, however, but rather about people who are searching for how to resolve the crisis.

On the other hand, we should discuss the fact that the world has turned global and integral. Global means that the crisis is pulling the entire world in, and no part of it can be left out. It is integral because all of us are connected by all types of relationships, internal and external, such as thoughts, technologies, industries, banks, and even to the point where we don’t know or understand anything.

Whether we like it or not, we are all in the same boat. Now, we have to decide what we should do. At this point, Kabbalah can offer its solutions by giving a person clear, simple, and logical explanations about the value of our inner connection, how it is built, etc.

If Kabbalists enter within the entire external movement toward oneness, it is enough for our correct intention, which we are able to build based on our nature, to link with this great human society that, so far, participates just physically, without intention. Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Last Generation” that there will be people who will come and say: “We are willing to join you and do our part. Just tell us what to do.”

If we gradually manage to build a correct attitude in each part of society, at the proper level, it will give us an opportunity to get closer to the solution. I think that this is exactly the form we need to employ for our work while developing educational methods for children. It’s all because humanity is yet to face very serious problems.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/2010, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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