Entries in the 'Globalization' Category

The Universal Formula Of Happiness

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from DailyMail): “Research into what makes people feel happy has led renowned professor, Dr Todd Kashdan, to produce an equation called the Feel Good Formula.

“In it, he identifies six factors which, when put together in the right combination, make a happy soul.

“The factors are: Live in the moment (M), be curious (C), do something you love (L), think of others (T), nurture relationships (N), and take care of your body (B).

“The winning formula is Feeling Good = (Mx16 + Cx1 + Lx2) + (Tx5 + Nx2 + Bx33). …

“Whilst it may not appear obvious how a combination of letters and numbers will make you feel good, Dr Kashdan believes this formula is the perfect prescription for a happy soul.

“He said: ‘There is no single secret to feeling good, but when these six ingredients are carefully attended to, in the right doses, you will be on target for a happy life.’”

My Comment: Artificially, it is impossible to reach such a state on one’s own. For this, a person has to re-educate himself, to correct. Psychologists themselves say it is impossible. But the method of integral education makes this possible for everyone because this method uses the force that created us as a means of our correction.
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The Lessons Of The Revolution

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the article “The Peace,” Baal HaSulam analyzes the Russian “experiment” of building a socialist society in the last century. This period brought about a huge number of victims, and we have yet to understand the causes of what happened. Of course, the events were run from above and had to happen as a kind of discernment, “reconnaissance.”

Why did the attempt fail? It could not work out because its initiators had everything but the main thing, the connection with the Creator. They despised this relationship, could not understand it, keep it, or feel the need for it, so their expectations were not fulfilled.

Today, we know that it’s impossible to do without the Light that Reforms, and a person must correctly aim himself at its influence. But since Russia had nothing like that, the huge investment in education turned out to be in vain. The authorities tried a variety of things. The people were “brainwashed” in many different ways: through the press, radio, and television. The borders were locked to protect the country from external influences. Brainwashing started in kindergarten and continued in schools, but nothing worked.

After all, people’s egoism remained at the same level, even though they were a little accustomed to the external, superficial attributes, since a habit, as it is known, becomes second nature. Yes, there were songs and nice words about unity and other values, but it was not enough to be a real support.

In the end, the country has not achieved a decisive victory in the economic, social, or political sphere. Many in the world believed that Russia would become an example and influence the rest, but most of the world treated them with hatred and fear, or at least with dislike.

On the other hand, before the revolution of 1917, Russia blossomed against its industrial-technological development and sold its products in Europe. As long as there was temptation for and satisfaction of the egoistic desire, progress was remarkable. If that had continued, Russia might have surpassed the United States in spite of the reactionary government that prevented many progressive reforms.

However, the revolution switched development to the non-egoistic track and demanded a person work for the good of society because society is greater and more important. As a result, “fuel” disappeared and the breakdown started.

What could support these altruistic social transformations? They could only be supported by the connection with the Creator. After all, the human being needs a reward for his labors. And this reward is adhesion to the Creator. It’s worth working for, and although the Light that Reforms in the process turns the egoistic consideration into something else; nonetheless, it’s like a reward. We still don’t understand to what change this approach leads: A person seemingly works for one thing, but gets another.

But Russian revolutionaries cut themselves off from the source of Light, the force that animates changes, corrects a person and leads him to the goal. In other words, they fenced themselves off from the only force acting in creation, and in a short period, their endeavors were not successful. As a consequence, instead of a positive force from above that recharges and unites people, the authorities had to resort to the negative methods of influence that drove people from below by intimidation and suffering…

Today, in our society we should consider this lesson, and with respect for each of the friends, we should only use the upper force and not any coercive method. You cannot replace what the Upper Light gives with social pressure. Social pressure must be used to bring a person under the influence of this Light.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/10/13, “The Peace”

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Global Work On Our Mistakes

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Peace”: Anyone can see how a large society such as the state of Russia, with hundreds of millions in population, more land than the whole of Europe, second to none in wealth in raw materials, and which has already agreed to lead a communal life and practically abolished private property altogether, where each worries only about the wellbeing of society, has seemingly acquired the full measure of the virtue of bestowal upon others in its full meaning, as far as the human mind can grasp.

And yet, go and see what has become of them?… Indeed, that fact puzzles us, because judging by the wealth of that country and its plentiful population, it seems unreasonable that it would come to that. But this nation has sinned one sin which the Creator will not forgive: that all this precious and exalted work, namely bestowal upon others, which they have begun to perform, needs to be for the Creator and not for humanity.

Question: What does it mean, “The Creator will not forgive”?

Answer: This is the law, the effects of which may only be revealed in the form of prolonged shattering and destruction. It will take a long time for Russia to understand the flaw in its attempt. It has already been twenty years since this country has been going through a sort of transition period, as a result of which it has started a pseudo-return to the previous era, to the days of Stalin with the intention of finding out what exactly and to what extent the corruptions were. See what a huge turn they will have to make in order to realize and to recognize how to move on.

The Americans and the Europeans will also have to work seriously on their mistakes, until eventually everyone will reach a common decision. In the meantime, they each follow different directions and the world is returning to the days of the cold war with all its particulars.

On the other hand, however, this century is different from the last one: Today there is no fear of big wars between the superpowers. This is improbable since it would definitely lead to disaster and total annihilation. So there will be conflicts and regional wars; there will be unrest and troubles, until all sides realize that they have no other choice but to cooperate integrally.

What is more, the future blow will come from a different direction: social, economic, etc.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/08/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”

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How Should We Arrange The Planet?

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft): “To the global elite the math is simple: human overpopulation is causing climate change so the solution to climate change is population control. …

“What would it take to accelerate fertility decline in the least developed countries?”

“The world today has 6.8 billion people. That’s heading up to about nine billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent.”

Opinion (John P. Holdren, Barack Obama’s top science advisor): “‘A program of sterilizing women after their second or third child, despite the relatively greater difficulty of the operation than vasectomy, might be easier to implement than trying to sterilize men.’

“‘The development of a long-term sterilizing capsule that could be implanted under the skin and removed when pregnancy is desired opens additional possibilities for coercive fertility control. The capsule could be implanted at puberty and might be removable, with official permission, for a limited number of births.’”

My Comment: Our planet can feed many times more than its current population. If people feel like relatives, they will not feel that there so many of them, if they are loved, there aren’t unnecessary members in the family, and nature, the Creator, will provide us with everything we need subject to the law of equivalence of form.

The problem is not in reducing the population by force, but in educating and upbringing the population. By becoming similar to the system of higher management, we will consume and reproduce correctly naturally, due to our adhesion to nature, the Creator.
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The Truth On Crutches

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: …by nature, the power to work is not equal with each and every person. One person in the society labors in one hour of work, due to his weakness, much more than his friend who works two hours or more.

And there is also a psychological matter here, because he who is very lazy by nature exhausts himself in one hour more than his friend in two hours or more. And according to the perspective of the evident truth, we should not compel one part of society to labor more than the other part for the fulfillment of the needs of their lives. In fact, the naturally strong and nimble in society benefit from the labor of others and exploit them maliciously against the attribute of truth, because they labor very little compared to the weak and the lazy in society.

Can we evaluate people from the angle of truth or in accordance with the category of veracity? By itself, it is a wonderful and true category. It attests to a very simple thing: One deserves as much as one gives, meaning that everyone must be valued correctly and justly based on one’s contribution to the general structure. It is a law of nature. We can design numerous other regulations, but in reality it is exactly so.

Our rewards equal our efforts, although exertions should not be assessed through absolute numbers. Rather, they must be calculated by using relative specific measures. For example, it is extremely hard for me to lift a ten-kilogram weight and carry it for ten kilometers. However, for another person, it would be just an easy stroll. He won’t even notice this weight. I would need to rest for a couple of hours to replenish the energy I lost and eat something nourishing, whereas the other person wouldn’t be tired at all. On the contrary, he would feel much better than before.

Hence, it means that we simply cannot use the category of truth and do not have any criteria to make accurate calculations here. So, is it possible to lead a truthful life in our society?

You won’t find this problem in inanimate, vegetative or animate nature. There, everything exists in accordance with the attribute of truth, although we don’t notice it since we do not comprehend the entire picture. Each species occupies a niche of its own. All are connected; all are driven by natural instincts. Therefore, everything is correct.

We don’t know what it means to be governed by veracity since, at the speaking level, nature lets us go, releases the reins, abandons us, and allows us to establish relationships with it on our own—not as individuals, but rather as a society. Integration and social relationships are, in fact, the major problems we are facing at this time.

Previously, when humanity was still at a primitive stage of formation, the world was as one flock, as one family. Thus, it didn’t require any particular clarifications. At that time, everyone’s share was defined by a family, a tribal sense of community, and corresponded to the laws of nature.

However, when liaisons among humans lost its family basis and transitioned into a professional services exchange field—when people stopped being just parts of their families, tribes, clans, and villages, when they began to develop on their own—the problem emerged. After all, now people compare themselves to others and tend to give their neighbors as little as they can and, at the same time, receive as much as possible. We and the people around us are no longer a unified system. This explains why we have no clue as to how to get along with each other. The category of truth among us is vague, and that’s why we don’t sense or understand each other.

“I worked on your boot for a whole week,” the cobbler says.

How do I know if he is lying to me or if it really takes that guy so much time and effort to mend my shoe? Perhaps, is he simply unprofessional? A month ago, in another shop, it took them only one day to repair a mate to the same boot, and they charged me pennies. Now, I am paying four times more and had to wait an entire week!

To make a long story short, when we go beyond the boundaries of natural communities, we deal with unresolved problems. We are unable to stick to the category of truth and need additional criteria to support it. After all, if it falls it would cause chaos in society. That’s why we make “crutches”: various social programs, national insurance, hospital and pension funds, free education, and so forth. We don’t rely on our ability to implement the category of truth into life since we know that people will do nothing about it. Instead, our countries take over to compensate for it, and allow us to stay aloft and float not too far from unattainable shores that we cannot yet reach.

We have no ability to reach the shore since we traded family ties for commercial relationships that are built on the principles of mutual lies. Our society is in a huge conflict with this category: the attribute of truth. By not obeying it, we suffer and don’t know what to do next. By obeying it, we still acknowledge that there is something false in it.

This situation instigates an eternal confrontation between the masses and the elites. According to the category of truth, everyone is equal, and yet, the elites take away a huge portion of the wealth, leaving the masses poor. All rotates around the original problem.

Is there a way out? Can we establish genuine criteria? For that, we must feel others as we feel ourselves. The category of truth simply cannot be grounded on anything less than that. We must sense how intense other people’s exertions are and compare them with our own efforts. This comparison will let us replenish our relationships.

If we could measure how much each of us has received from nature—how healthy one is, how capable of doing various types of work—and what the real outcome of our efforts is exactly, then, possibly, we would distribute resources in a more correct way. However, in reality, our calculations always are wrong, and we never will distribute wealth fairly, honestly, and correctly because of the Creator’s interference. He deliberately spoils everything so that we come to Him since He is the truth!

Subsequently, the problem is not a just or merit-based distribution, but rather our altruistic intention to bestow. Any calculations are right only on the condition that we act solely to establish a connection with the Creator. Only then can we distribute things in accordance with the category of truth.

This explains why the “socialist experiment” failed in Russia. Its organizers did not hold the key: a connection with the Upper Light. Although they were given a chance, in the end, the upper governance turned it into a negative example.

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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Aspiration To Happiness As A Common Denominator

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: This is the key to understand the weakness of world-reformers throughout the generations. They regarded man as a machine that is not operating properly and needs mending, meaning to remove the corrupted parts and replace them with good ones…

But because the Creator meticulously watches over all the elements in His Creation, not letting anyone destroy a single thing in His Domain but only reform it and make it useful and good, all the reformers of the above-mentioned kind will vanish from the face of the earth, and evil inclinations will not vanish. They live on and count the degrees that they must still traverse until they complete their ripening.

Each time, world-reformers repeatedly commit a big mistake by trying to act independently, without seeking the help of the Light. As a result, everyone suffers, including them.

The world crisis started five years ago and these bright people constantly invent recipes for how to fight it. Psychologists, politicians, economists, and financial specialists, everyone participates in this noble task, and all of them are confident that they are doing the right thing. These world-reformers are sitting everywhere. They discuss things in governments, teach children at schools, and try to improve family relations. Where do they get the self-assurance that they are capable of changing things for the better?

We must move with the Light. In the morning, leaving the house, we should say, “If not for me, then who,” as if there were no upper force and that the day ahead of us depends exclusively on us. In the evening, when we come back home, we must say, “Only because of the upper force did I manage to do what I have achieved today.”

In our desire to correct the world, do we really act in a way that the Creator and the creation complement each other? Do we provide their fitting together? Do we orient all our efforts toward opening the pathway for the Light that will correct everything?

Question: This approach seems totally mystical. Can we suggest that people stay at home and do nothing, just asking the Light to descend and correct them? Are you serious?

Answer: You are right. That’s why it is said, “If not me, then who?” Let’s say that my car broke down. Should I invite friends to pray in the garage? Should I resolve any problem this way? Of course not.

On the other hand, how can we achieve a genuine correction instead of faking it? We see that without spiritual actions, our exertions only make this world a worse place instead of making it better. Yes, we still can find solutions for many problems, but we don’t realize that each detail is a part of the entire system. One way or another, everything that is not corrected by the Light will not work. It only exposes and demonstrates the egoism that is hidden in our attitude and obligates us to correct our outlook. Only when we can cope with it will we elicit correction, but in a new and true way.

Question: How can we explain this to others within the framework of integral education?

Answer: Beyond anything else, integral education is a part of the wisdom of Kabbalah. We are talking about various levels of the same teaching that explains the methodology of the world correction with the help of the Light that Reforms. We open the pathway for the Light, and It corrects us and the entire society. The goal always remains the same: to establish a good connection among us, to reach unanimity and harmony that correspond to the Light. Then, the Light will descend and correct us.

You can give the Light various names: the power of the group, collective intelligence, the vigor of integral unity. The essence remains the same. We are equal, we are together as one man in one heart, and the Surrounding Light influences all of us no matter if we teach others the methodology of integral education or just study it.

We totally were dissapointed in this world and found the wisdom of Kabbalah. However, other people also deal with the same problems. They also want to live better lives. The beautiful words that we use only mask a common, general aspiration to happiness.

Question: Does it mean that the definition of happiness varies? For us, happiness means one thing. For others, it signifies something else.

Answer: When you say that, for you, the bliss is in bestowal, it’s just words. Your desires keep you where you are. You simply tolerate a message that is disgusting to your egoism. We must pass the message about bestowal and unity further on, although we should be doing it in a much milder form. We should make it look like we are sharing the methodology of establishing good relationships with others that later will allow everyone to succeed.

In fact, the main obstacle on our way to happiness is happiness itself. There are no external monsters that prevent us from being happy. The monster is inside us. That’s why we keep talking about establishing a good and kind attitude toward each other. This is a universal remedy. It doesn’t depend on the level of our demands. By uniting our interests, goals, and general problems, by sharing a common worldview, each acquires something that one wants irrespective of what names they use to identify their unity.

So, we offer them a unified and effective solution.

Later, when they achieve unity, people will experience new psychological phenomena. They will sense internal energy and the power of their interconnection. They will have a better feeling of each other. Fine threads between them will grow stronger, the air will become thicker, clear responses to various actions and thoughts will appear, and everyone will begin working with the entire system, regardless of whether they realize it or not. Even now, we attempt to use this structure correctly. However, when we unite, this system finally will acquire realistic features and will surface from the fog.

In the end, does it really matter what exactly made people unite? The reasons that will make unity acquire a new enhanced value in everyone’s eyes will vary. What matters is that unity will become much more important than anything else. Behind multiple threads and powers, people will recognize a single force of love and bestowal. Each of us can name it differently: health, family values, wellbeing, and so forth. In fact, all these words are the names of the Creator.

Question: So, does it mean that the Creator is a reaction or an inspiration that we feel when we are connected with others?

Answer: Yes, you could say so. All that we feel within a desire is called the Creator.

Question: Do I retain this inspiration constantly?

Answer: When you advance, you find out that the general network and the force that is hidden in it are not connected with the tool that brought you to it. The instrument that pushed you to pursue the goal is illusory and deceptive.

Question: Can we compare it with electricity that we cannot identify directly, but rather, detect it because we see its effects if we are trained to do so? Otherwise, the electric circuit exists only potentially.

Answer: Yes, it is true. Today, people do not allow an electric current to flow and that’s why they don’t see it.
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From the 4th part of Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Understanding The Integrality Of The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Integral education is learning about the mutual interconnection of everything. Can we teach in our environment by way of example that there is no black and white, rather everything is variegated? Could it be that this method will awaken those around us to think integrally?

Answer: The idea is that we can think integrally, yet we cannot ourselves be integral.

What does it mean to think integrally? How can I make decisions that do not disrupt the equilibrium of the world, that are only for its good? For if they are not intended for the good of some part of the integral system, then they will only bring harm. How can I make decisions today to carry out some activities to create companies, to realize investments, create new kinds of products?

Today I can no longer do this. The world has become so interconnected that if I don’t take its integrality into account but simply implement any economic, financial, technological, manufacturing, cultural, or scientific activity, then I cause harm. Therefore, what has been done from that moment in which close to a century ago the world began to discover its integrality, is that we have been harming ourselves because subconsciously, within the soul, we have no feeling of integrality.

Suppose that I know what my family is: my wife, children, parents, and relatives. I feel all of this; within me, I have a representation of my family. And therefore if they ask me to do something for them, I automatically describe to myself if this will be for their good or will it cause harm, for within me there exists a representation of the family.

The same thing is relevant to the world as well. Suppose that I am the manager of some large corporation or the president of some nation. What kind of decision can I make today, because no matter what I do it affects the entire world and comes back to me, to my nation, to my family? No! It’s best to sit and do nothing.

We see what is happening today in the management of the nations, the businesses, and so forth. Gradually it’s as if everything is failing, disappearing because people feel that their decisions will be incorrect in every circumstance. They are beginning to feel the lack of information more and more: Where am I, what am I doing? This feeling will grow all the time. The person will begin to feel that he is lost.

We must understand the integrality of the world as without this we cannot exist. And the Wisdom of Kabbalah explains it. Therefore we will be needed because only we can reveal to the world its true structure: The mechanism of the structure of all kinds of simple decisions even to maintain and strengthen the family in the right way, to educate the children properly, to regulate the relationships within the family between a husband and wife, relationships between families, in society, and so forth.

For the crisis has already reached the person himself, he no longer lives with his wife and children, not with the parents, and so forth, rather only with himself. Therefore we are found in crisis. And so it is also in Scandinavia. People simply know how to subjugate themselves to be satisfied with what there is. They don’t see anything else; so what can a person do? He can enter more deeply into his shell like a snail and sit quietly.

We must show that we have a solution. First we must highlight the problem, reveal it, explain it correctly, and after this, show that it is possible to solve it, that it is impossible for us to wait, otherwise from the side of nature, terrible blows will land on us. Then people will listen to us.
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From the Stockholm Convention “Joy In Unity” Day One 8/30/13, Lesson 1

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Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Peace”: Because the purpose is undoubtedly built over all the laws of nature, none excluded, just as the clever worker would not add or subtract even a hairsbreadth of the necessary actions to attain the goal, he who alters even a single law harms and damages the purposeful aim that the Creator has set, and will therefore be punished by nature. Hence, we, too, creatures of the Creator must not pity him because he is desecrating the laws of nature and defiles the purpose of the Creator.

We live within a complex of forces of the laws of nature. From the world of infinity each being smaller than the previous one, they close the spiritual space in order to construct this world in its center, the place in which a person has free choice and from which he can begin the way toward his correction.

If we don’t abide by these laws that are active within the “spiritual worlds,” the Sefirot,  Partzufim—then, how can we rise to the level of the Creator? The ascent is possible only through keeping the Mitzvot or, in other words, through keeping the laws of nature. These are the same thing.

This is not talking about the physical laws of nature here: cutting down trees and drying up rivers, pollution, and destruction of the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate. Rather, the main thing is that we need to begin to be in balance with the spiritual nature, with the bestowal and love coming toward us.

In the past, until we reached a stage of correction of the self, we had no ability to destroy nature. Until the nineteenth century and even until the twentieth century, we used it without causing damage, without violating the ecology. However, after that, the Creator approached the world in order to show us that the world is global, that everything among all the levels of nature is linked with the level of Adam (man), and now, first of all, it is up to the person to correct himself.

The solution is not in limiting or reducing the utilization of the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate. Rather, this is speaking about the correction of the person on his level. By means of this, he corrects the relationship with all the rest and even between everything and the Creator. That is how we rise “from love for thy neighbor to love for the Creator.”

Certainly, there exist many laws linked to the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate, yet our service to the Creator is to resemble the Creator, for otherwise, if we don’t correct our speaking level and our relationship toward the Creator, we will not know how we need to relate to nature. Here, we must correct our ego. We cannot dictate for people the laws of conduct for every given state and arrange clear guidelines for all events. It is impossible to dictate to every person how it is up to him to behave from morning to night in order to build the right relationships with the nature of the still, vegetative and animate, with the environment.

It is only if the person will correct himself with the characteristic of bestowal, with “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” To this degree, he also will correct his link with the nature around him. Then, all the levels in nature will be included with him and will be corrected through him.

By themselves, they are not prepared to be corrected. There are a multitude of malfunctions, and as of today, we don’t know what the forms of their correct functioning are. However, then we will see that they are functioning differently. Even on the level of the still, we will see natural characteristics that we haven’t seen until now.

So, first of all, the person needs to correct himself and not the stones, the plants, and the animals. The goal of creation is to resemble the Creator, and we have something with which to practice: the relationships between us. Specifically for this, there was the shattering, the Babylonian exile, and population growth to seven billion human beings. Precisely in this way, we will correct the damage.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Rebirth: At The Junction Of Opposites

Dr. Michael LaitmanAs we know, it all depends on the environment and the environment of humanity as a whole is nature: still, vegetative, and animate. It is in its environment that we live and, perhaps without noticing it, are in a very clear and strict dependence on it.

Nature supplies us with all the necessities of life. Due to it, we breathe, drink, eat, and live. We are a part of it, I would say, the most sensible and sensitive part. It is enough for at least one parameter to go beyond its natural range and then we do not know what to do.

In short, we are highly dependent and the problem is that if the laws of nature are followed instinctively on the still, vegetative, and animate levels because of their identity with it, the human being who developed has found himself beyond these levels in transition from the animate stage to truly human.

This situation is very dangerous. On the one hand, the same laws of the still, vegetative, and animate nature act on the human, but on the other hand, the laws of human nature relating to the degrees of similarity to the Creator begin to affect him. As a result, people experience the effect of the Creator getting closer to humankind.

If a person does not balance these influences every time, then they are perceived as very unpleasant, adding up to the path of suffering, paved by the action of the laws of nature, which, leaving no choice, push us to equilibrium whether we want it or not.

Although the still, vegetative, and animate nature is included in the human degree—although it rises and falls with it—the Creator, the Upper Light, the higher, round, integral, global world, the one and unified, constantly is getting closer to the human being, and this presence is felt by us in the form of a complex of modern problems.

After all, we discover our own nature and every time it does not get along with our surroundings. As before, we live in still, vegetative, and animate nature, but we can no longer cope with it because we have not yet understood the aspect of human nature, the degree of the Creator, the property of bestowal, of love. We do not associate ourselves with bestowal and love, with globality, with general interconnection. We do not want this, and as a consequence, we suffer more and more.

Thus, Baal HaSulam writes in the article, “The Peace,” about the necessity of a careful attitude toward the laws of nature. Of course, he primarily means the nature of the fourth stage, the human degree. However, we can study it on the basis of the previous levels: still, vegetative, and animate.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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“Cocaine ‘Rapidly Changes The Brain’”

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from BBC News): “Taking cocaine can change the structure of the brain within hours in what could be the first steps of drug addiction, according to US researchers.

“Animal tests, reported in the journal Nature Neuroscience, showed new structures linked to learning and memory began to grow soon after the drug was taken. …

“The place or environment that drugs are taken plays an important role in addiction.

In the experiments, the mice were allowed to explore freely two very different chambers – each with a different smell and surface texture.

“Once they had picked a favourite they were injected with cocaine in the other chamber. A type of laser microscopy was used to look inside the brains of living mice to hunt for the dendritic spines. More new spines were produced when the mice were injected with cocaine than with water, suggesting new memories being formed around drug use. The difference could be detected two hours after the first dose. …

“’This gives us a possible mechanism for how drug use fuels further drug-seeking behaviour.

“‘These drug-induced changes in the brain may explain how drug-related cues come to dominate decision making in a human drug user.’”

“Commenting on the research, Dr Gerome Breen, from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, told the BBC: ‘Dendritic spine development is particularly important in learning and memory. This study gives us a solid understanding of how addiction occurs – it shows us how addiction is learned by the brain.’”

My Comment: Changes in the structure of the brain lead to a complete change of personality; dependence on fulfillment from narcotics makes a person weak-willed and utterly unfit to work on himself, on spiritual evolution, and removes him from society. He is useful for the old, capitalist system as a vegetable who needs only a new dose, but for a new, altruistic social structure, he is completely unsuitable.
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