Entries in the 'Mutual Guarantee' Category

Tied Into The Entire World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We are now in something like an interim period, idle time, between conventions. How can we strengthen the mutual guarantee to move forward?

Answer: You need constant work. What is the difference whether we hold a convention now or not? A person does not know when he gains the required measure of effort. He has to yearn every new day in his life in anticipation of the moment when he will able to perform bestowal to friends, and through them, to the entire world, and through it, to the Creator.

I have to analyze my inner states, what my thoughts and intentions are, to what extent during the day I try to reveal the goal, whether my heart is imbued with this aspiration, whether it wakes up, whether I can commit myself to this, and whether I can hold this thought against the background of all other actions, whatever I do. From this, I can see how much I have moved forward.

We have only one possibility to reach the spiritual world: by constantly working on our desires and increasingly bringing them closer to the feeling and our understanding of bestowal. Changes should happen within us, in our desires. Therefore, every moment that is dedicated to this advances us along the path.

Then, everything depends on the person. In his opinion, what kind of movement forward should it be: individual or worldwide? If he wants to reach the goal of creation, this movement is possible only on a global scale. Everything below this benchmark does not work nowadays.

In the past, the group or the teacher was enough, but today, we are tied into the whole world. The one whose actions, day after day, move our world group and the entire world toward correction at least in some way can see that this stimulates him and his own progress. In essence, individual progress is an investment into others.

Besides, you should try every day to add some quality to what you give to others in your correspondence, blogs, and internet projects. We can bestow to friends only when we merge with them, when we understand them, rather than try to foist onto them something that we like. In addressing people, we should hand out, disseminate, that which is as close to them as possible. We should “clothe” in them.

Love is when I take the other person’s desire and fill it according to what he or she wants. Otherwise, we will not be able to approach anybody.
[48817]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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How To Measure Spiritual Acceleration

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In the material world we know how to measure acceleration. But how can we do it in our spiritual progress, with the help of what?

Answer: You measure the acceleration by evaluating your connection with the group. You don’t have anything else. This is why one common soul was broken into many souls – so you would have a means to change, a place to work and make efforts, so you could assess how far or close you are to them – and not simply to people, but to their desires to reveal spirituality, the Creator. You check whether you are among these desires, together with them, so that in the right connection, in the mutual guarantee between you, you will reveal the Creator.

Therefore you can assess your spiritual state only in relation to these desires of your friends – how close are you together with them to the upper world.

Question: But where is the acceleration here? How can it be measured?

Answer: From one day to the next, from one minute to the next, you evaluate this connection. There is a distance between you and others, and you assess whether it is becoming reduced or not, how, with constant speed or with acceleration. Acceleration is speed that increases at every moment.
[48922]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbaalh Lesson 7/22/11, The Zohar

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Who Am I Working For?

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: The degree which an individual caused by his actions, whether large or small, ultimately joins the future in shifting the world to a scale of merit, since his share has been added and joins the shift.

Every person has to carry out his own work, and by doing that every person works not for himself, but for others. That is our interconnection. A person does not have his own desire. His desire is in all other people. He does not have his personal work, which he can complete alone. He works until he corrects his inclusion into everyone else.

As a result we reveal a certain “holographic picture”: I am included in everything and everyone is included in me. Right now it is concealed from us because otherwise we would not be able to move from where we stand. Really, what do I have to give to others? I do not want to be occupied by their problems and do not want to do anything for them. I am unable to carry out work unless all of its fruits are consumed by others.

Therefore, it’s as if we have a veil over our eyes and we are living a lie: as if every person acts for the sake of his own interests and takes care of himself. Thanks to this, at this stage we can at least move in the egoistic intention of Lo Lishma. But later, in the altruistic intention of Lishma, we will discover that there is nothing private here and everything belongs to the common whole. Every person is included in everyone and every person’s work shifts to everyone, to their common account.

Therefore, no matter what the calculation may be, positive or negative, we make it only in relation to the common whole and evaluate a person’s actions only in relation to others. It’s impossible to say that his action was  good or bad unless we evaluate the results by the influence on others: whether he brought them closer to the goal of creation or on the contrary, separated them from it.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/11, “The Arvut”

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The Wind Of Change

Dr. Michael LaitmanI have a positive view of the globalization and integration that are being revealed in our times. Previously the world was driven by an egoistical impetus, which grew inside of us from one generation to the next, from one year to the next. Man developed egoistically, changing society, technologies, his life, and nature. But today this “trend” is coming to an end and now, with the emergence of the new tendency, everything will be different.

Nature has suddenly become closed and has expressed itself as “round,” integral. We won’t change nature any longer, but on the contrary, it is telling us: “Now you have to start changing.” Nature will not change anymore. It has reached the global, integral state. This has become a given, a new, indestructible format, and from now on we have to make ourselves match it.

This process is happening under pressure. Nature is constantly expressing itself as more and more integral, and we must also become more integral in the relationships between us. Otherwise we will have to suffer due to our lack of similarity to it.

For example, nature is showing us warming, and in response, we have to express more warmth. The winds on earth are blowing stronger, and we have to become imbued by “new currents.” It is necessary to have an equivalence of form, an equality of characteristics.

Therefore, shocks will pass over all of human society because whether we want it or not, a global format is “dressing” upon us. And what’s the first thing we are discovering? That our egoism is no longer working. Dictators and stand-alones are losing their power, isolated governments are ineffective, and separated organizations do not achieve results. The only ones making real actions are the people capable of unification.

As a result, power is shifting from separated, single governments to the people, who know how to unite. After all, they are “round” and integral, while the government is not.

A movement is starting all over the world now: the people will pressure the government more and more. Their actions might be disorganized and spontaneous, but they are interconnected. And the government will suddenly discover that it is standing before these people in fear and does now know what to do.

It would seem: Why not drive the people away? However, the balance of inner forces has changed and you cannot do anything about it anymore. In the past everything was simple: Let them shout on the streets to their heart’s content, let them tear apart a few shops, and a week later, when the food runs out, they will be on their way. But today this approach is not working. In some places the rulers and governments are already being forced to resign and even to escape.

This is the global, integral format that is more suitable for the people who unite than for egoistic governments, which are disunited and conflicting between each other and inside of themselves. The previous system is so opposite to the new model that not a single government will stay in power while playing by the old rules. It will be finished off by that same, highly praised “democracy.” A dictator would last longer by correctly choosing whom to attract to his side, whereas a clutter of parliamentary democracy is the opposite – it will rebuke its demise everywhere.

That is how every completed level nullifies itself: It expresses the inability to hold us back and becomes replaced by the next. All the best things we achieved at the previous phase not only become useless, but harmful, and thus, the old order gets buried beneath. This is what we will see.

Thus, bringing the people to unity and mutual guarantee means bringing them to similarity with the new natural format which is being revealed in our days. By attaining this similarity, we will succeed, flourish, and rise – even in the material sense, and especially in the spiritual development.

As for Israel, here too the commotion won’t settle and the protests will only keep mounting. The people will unite on every issue and will come forth against the government. This comes from the inside. People feel that those who are in power are worthless. The time of acclaimed leaders is gone. The politicians have become so mired by the “market relations” that you can’t reverse this anymore. The people are feeling a surge of energy because all of the global nature is standing behind them.

What will this global process finally lead to? To a world government. The regional differences will remain, being defined by the population’s personality and religion, but the boundaries will be erased completely. They are already blurred. The common government will be a government of sages, and it will be united, without any division into small or big. Everyone will enter the common union and will only care about unity.

After all, nothing more is necessary: If we are united, then we correspond to the upper Force. Unity is equality and mutuality, mutual guarantee. This way, the recent developments in the world are the beginning of a new phase of development, a new reality, a new social formation.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/11, “Arvut”

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What Would I Say To The Tel Aviv Tent Protestors?

What Would I Say To The Tel Aviv Tent Protestors?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I visited a tent city that young families started up in the center of Tel Aviv as a sign of protest against the high prices of housing. In the evening people there get in a big circle and take turns speaking everything that’s on their mind into a microphone. Any person is allowed to speak. If I sign up for the list of speakers, what would you advise me to say?

Answer: “The end of the action is contained in the initial plan.” First of all, what do we want to achieve? We want to achieve a solution to the housing problem for students and young couples – people who aren’t well-off yet and who are just starting out in life. We can do this only if we become a factor of influence and pressure on the government.

We think that the government has enough money for different needs. So let them express a sensitivity to our demands. A member of parliament receives tens of thousands of shekels a month, but a student does not receive anything and in addition, pays for his studies. It’s impossible to live that way. The government has to decrease its expenditures on its own self. I am not talking about the realms of safety, education, or healthcare. We do not intervene in these matters. Let’s suppose that everything is fine there.

We are talking about the government: The students should receive whatever amount they require. Young couples want to create a family and to live, so let them have a home. Let them be able to rent a simple family home at the initial phase of their life together, until they can buy an apartment of their own. Or give them an offer to buy a home right away at a normal price.

The government has land. A square meter of living space costs 500 dollars at most, even it’s not a mass construction area. Imagine: for $50,000 you could buy an apartment that’s sized 100 square meters. But today you have to invest say, $300,000 in it, which is sixth times more than it can really cost, all-inclusive.

Why does it have to be that way? How much can you make off of people who have no money?

Therefore, they are right. The only question is: How will they be able to organize together? They have to become a powerful lobby, a group that successively exerts powerful pressure until the goal is attained. Besides, they have to keep going beyond this as well. In this country, there are many other things other than housing that could be improved. But the government won’t improve them unless you obligate it to do it.

The government is constantly under pressure from coalitions and lobbyists. Therefore, unless you implant yourself in this system as a group of pressure, from the inside or outside, you will get no result.

That means the question now is: How can we organize ourselves so our protest won’t turn into a festival? I wouldn’t even be surprised if there are people there who are trying to do that on the sly. After all, the issue at stake is important and not simple because any government in the world takes great care of itself and takes the most diverse measures in this respect. This is natural because every authority has to stand its own ground. How else can it stay in power?

Therefore, the protestors need real, powerful, reliable, and serious organization, rather than just slogans said into a microphone. Of course, this is good and necessary as well, but if that’s where everything will end, then they will be even more looked down upon, and next time they or their followers will have a very difficult time. They have to understand what kind of responsibility they have. If people rise up for new protests in the future, their success will depend on today’s struggle and its outcome.

It’s necessary to use the services of good, real consultants in order to achieve unity and mutual guarantee among one another, in order to get organized correctly, in order to understand how to exert pressure, how to work with the public, how to attract new people to their side, and how to communicate with the mass media representatives and with the government. They need a very powerful internal organization and experienced advisers. Otherwise they won’t succeed.

I saw the same thing happen in Spain: Everything began very seriously. The protest action was joined by couples aged 30 – 40 who were left without work. These were well-bred people with higher education, who completed European universities. They included engineers, sociologists, programmists, and many others who were left jobless. It might be possible to find some kind of common labor job, but these kinds of people had no chances – they are simply helpless.

And so, at first they occupied the city square in Madrid. However, they were unable to get organized properly and gradually they dispersed. As a result, the protest disintegrated and their places in the tents were occupied by other people, who got used to living on the street anyway. The mass media stopped broadcasting the event, the government happily waved its hand, organizing free food, showers, and toilets. As a result, the government is demonstrating the presence of a “democracy,” while the homeless have a place to live until the winter comes. When it does, the tents will be abandoned and will unnoticeably disappear.

This is a very vivid example of a lack of organization. Here in Israel the protestors who have gathered are also well-bred, and that is their weakness. After all, in this kind of situation it is necessary to get organized and start exerting pressure. This is not the Egyptian revolution, it’s not a spontaneous uprising, and therefore it is necessary to have clear order. In this case it is more difficult to aim the protestors in a common direction, to organize them because they are more reasonable and individualistic. The shouldn’t take an example from Egypt and other countries because the people going out on the streets there are a different type. In this case we are talking about Israelis who are difficult to budge, separated, and egoistic. Here every person makes his own calculation. Taking all of this into consideration, it is difficult for me to say whether or not they will achieve success.

Perhaps they will nevertheless understand that they need a strong organization and a clear action plan: pressure on the government, publication of declarations, addresses to certain people or organizations. They have to stay on top of the headlines, and not just while the news is fresh. Otherwise they will be forgotten in a few days. At some point the tents on the public square will stop being news. A person will read the newspaper headline, “The 40th day of the tent protest” and will go on to the next article.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/11, “Arvut”

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One Principle From Abraham Until Today

Dr. Michael LaitmanPeople come to Kabbalah with many illusions and incorrect ideas about this science, imagining it in whatever way their egoistic desire depicts it to them based on all kinds of rumors. People present it as mysticism and think that it is related to astrology, healing, blessings, miracles, holy water and red strings, and that it can be used to reveal the past and the future. After all, our ego is looking for some special kind of fulfillment for itself.

Therefore, at first everyone has a difficult time grasping the Kabbalistic principle, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Even if they agree with it, they approach it egoistically. This is the basis of all kinds of “spiritual” methods.

However, it takes special people to come closer to the true realization of the method of Kabbalah. This requires great endurance, many efforts, and mutual support from a group of people who are ready for this and who understand that otherwise they don’t have any chance of realizing themselves. Only through this mutual desire, the “common vessel,” can they receive the opportunity to become people and do something with themselves in order to rise above the material, animate existence to the “human” level.

The spiritual action that we have to do is expressed in the execution of the “613 commandments,” meaning actions of unity among people who have decided that they have to unite.

This is what happened during the times of Abraham and during the times of Moses as well. And it’s the same in our day. The principle is still the same. If fragments of the broken soul that was created by the Creator are ready to unite together in order to restore the common vessel, then it becomes a great summary of the Torah – the vessel for the Light. The Light becomes revealed inside of that common desire, the common efforts, the mutual support and guarantee.

Therefore, it’s pointless for a person to think about spiritual attainment and his self-realization unless he perceives all of this through unification with others, with “neighbors,” meaning with the same kind of people as himself, who also desire to unite and who understand that only by uniting will they acquire a second nature.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/11, Writings of Rabash

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The Medicine For Eternal Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is said that the general and the particular are equal, and that is why each group and each individual should ask themselves: Whether they have the highest goal in life, which is to rise from the level of an animal to the level of a human, Adam, “similar” to the Creator, that is, to acquire the property of bestowal in which they will feel life in bestowal, a higher life?

In the beginning, a person aspires to it because he does not want to die. He imagines a spiritual life as a material one, just a bit better and, most importantly, without death. This is the maximum at which we can imagine a spiritual life.

In other words, I study and think that I am receiving some medicine that will bring me an eternal life, fulfilled and perfect, without any of the problems that I experience now. This is why a person continues. Indeed, this is the only way that we can now imagine a life that is higher than our world.

But even if a person begins to advance in this form, he decides that he has to use the means at his disposal. That is, he turns to the teacher who explains how to implement his recommendations in the group and with the help of books.

The teacher just shows him what to do, and a person should carry it out because he has nothing else to rely on. The entire realization takes place through the group and studying. Thus, a person gradually discovers the aspiration for the property of bestowal, which becomes his goal expressed as unity, connection, and mutual guarantee, as being one man with one heart.

This means to reach faith, as it is written: “The righteous live by faith,” meaning the revelation of the property of bestowal in the human heart, in all his desires.
[48448]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/18/2011, Shamati #122

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The Inner Revolution

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe revelation of the Kabbalistic method to the world presupposes that four conditions are met:

Condition #1: That the method of correction is not handed to one person, but to a whole nation.

Today, more and more people are realizing that it’s necessary to change oneself and to enter balance with nature. In the past we thought that we are above nature and our egoism is intended to control it, but now we understand how destructive this is for us.

This sensation is surfacing in the masses by virtue of the fact that we satisfy the first condition of Kabbalah’s revelation, where 600,000 people, “600,000 souls” are studying the method of spiritual correction. This is a conditional concept symbolizing a gathering of people who are able to reach a special connection between them, called “mutual guarantee.”

Condition #2: The nation has to come out of the Egyptian slavery, meaning to realize the evil of its own egoism.

Condition #3:
Every one of the 600,000 has to agree to work for the sake of bestowal.

Condition #4: Every one has to be willing to carry out any action that will bring him to a connection with others.

Mutual guarantee is care about filling each other’s desires. All human plans have to aspire to this. We have to carry out a revolution inside of us. The world has everything to ensure a favorable existence for the inhabitants of the planet, but there is one thing missing – a common thought that’s aimed at this. If we aspire to this internally, then the abundance will become accessible to all.

Everything depends on our interconnection. The tighter the interconnection is between us, the more intense is the action of the upper Light, which will order the state of the lower levels of the universe. As soon as a group of 600,000 people agrees to the condition of mutual guarantee, interconnection, and love, it will immediately receive enormous support from above.

The only thing required of us is to desire to restore the interconnection and the intention to work for bestowal. Precisely the intention, and not technological progress, will cause a revolution in the world. We will gradually reach a state where the newest technologies will be created and controlled by thought, meaning with intention and a desire that is corrected by the intention.

Every person’s obligation is to care for all of humanity. The whole world is included in the system of mutual guarantee, but first of all, this has to be done by those who have the understanding and desire to rise to the higher level and to reveal the Creator among them. The group desire will smoothly flow over into the world’s desire.

A person will gradually change his attitude to himself, to society, and to nature, and will receive satisfaction from being in the system of the common interconnection. He will be “nourished” by the upper Light, which fills him and delights him.

That is how we will shift to the economics of intelligent consumption because we will be satisfied only by the vital necessities. By beginning to work by the principle “everything is for everyone,” we will reach the state of mutual guarantee. And the inner changes in man will entail the reconstruction of the whole world.
[48694]
From the virtual lesson on 7/17/11

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The Light At The Other Side Of The Picture

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When will the Light unite us? How can we advance together while we exist in evil?

Answer: We work to overcome. We understand our state and examine it, and we must support one another in mutual guarantee. Then the Light will settle between us.

It also helps us now. If the Light did not fulfill us to the smallest degree, we would not feel the desires that are nevertheless being revealed in us.

After all, we, all the people, and the entire reality exist in a perfect system. Now, a little Light is appearing in some people, and they are beginning to feel where they are, why, and for what purpose. They are beginning to receive the Light in the form of a connection with the environment, in the form of a mentor. They are beginning to feel the Light in their vessels as if they were studying books in the group. All this is happening “as if” because the corporeality does not exist.

In reality, all of this is the revelation of the Light. There are no people, no group, no mentor, and no books. These are the forms in which you reveal the Light that presents itself to you as the means of spiritual advancement.
[48380]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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The Breakdown Of Egoism

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: If a part of the nation does not want to keep the Arvut, but rather chooses to wallow in self-love, they cause the rest of the nation to remain immersed in their filth and lowliness without ever finding a way out of their filth.

Question: How can I correct my craving for filth and lowliness?

Answer: I act in relation to the friends, and the friends act in relation to me. Does this mean that they correct me? Yes, they do. And do I correct them? Yes, I do. How do I correct myself? I correct myself by means of correcting them.

This is what the mutual guarantee is. No one does this without others, and he depends on others in all his actions in the positive and negative sense, in joy and sorrow. He depends on their good and bad actions, and they depend on his good and bad actions.

Today, this is becoming a reality that will manifest itself in our world in a very unpleasant way. If something bad happens in one country, other countries will feel this right away. On the other hand, if something good takes place somewhere, others will change for the better as well.

This is a real breakdown for my egoism. I want others to feel bad and myself to feel good, to be a winner compared to them. I want what is worse for them rather than for me, and this warms my heart. But now, we see how the integrity of nature compels us to think differently. It teaches us that no one can benefit alone. If it is good for some, it will be also good for others. There is no such situation that it is good for some and bad for others.

Gradually, we are approaching this picture of the world. Look at what is happening in the developed countries. If there is a landslide in one, the rest do not know what to do, and they fall after it. We have reached such an economic order, meaning such egoism, that everyone depends on everyone else. This is mutual guarantee, and this is how it manifests.

I did not think that I would depend, let’s say, on France. What do I have to do with France? However, now I must take care that no default occurs there. If France goes bankrupt, then undoubtedly, it will affect my pocket two days later. Besides, it will affect it negatively. If I reaped benefits from it, I would let them go bankrupt. But it doesn’t work this way: It harms me as well.

Moreover, previously, the troubles of others brought benefits. Before the world connected into an integral system, everybody had acted in his own interests, not considering others. Each country cared only about its own gain. Every time, we made healthy, egoistic calculations to win at the expense of others. Even if this required starting a war against them and destroying the other side down to the ground, it was better for me.

Today, we would like to continue along the same lines, but we cannot. Soon, we will discover that a war cannot be started. We depend on each other to such an extent that I cannot provide anything for myself alone. I will lack everything that I destroy for others.

That is what we have come to. Wishing good for ourselves, our nation, our country with its structure and institutions, I must take care of everybody. Only then will it be good for me.

This mechanism works in bestowal between Partzufim, between people, and between a person and the Creator. I have to take the desire of my fellow human being with the goal of filling it and putting my desire to his service. Only under the condition that I fill and take care of it, will all the abundance flow through me and be revealed in me 620 times greater.

The world doesn’t yet understand what system we are entering. To make it do so, we need to tell people about this as soon as possible. Otherwise, their despair will bring them to war. They simply will have no choice.
[48384]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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