Question: You say that all of humanity is one closed system that cannot be awakened. In his time a man from the Vernadsky Academy and his followers wrote about this. Today this has become clear to all, but you still get the sense that it’s possible to handle the system as it is, to correct its orientation.

Answer: They are trying to do this with the European Union, but are they succeeding? And the Americans are also trying to act, from a supposition that the world is mutually linked. But both in America and in Europe they don’t understand this system of mutual linkage. The Americans have wasted billions of dollars on Iraq, and what has this brought? Nothing, they have only destroyed the nation, destroyed connections, and no more than this. And now America needs to leave quietly.

What happened in Europe? Haven’t they transformed the Common Market into a “collective market?” They decided one-sidedly to “link” everyone with everyone. Certainly this only led to a crisis discovered in an even greater form. It’s not known if they can simply disconnect previous affiliations.

Question: Is it possible to manage this system somehow?

Answer: It’s impossible if people don’t change. The person needs to change. He needs to think differently, to feel the world as integral and himself as a part of the integral world. This doesn’t exist in people. We are still egoists and nobody thinks that the whole world depends on him or that he depends on the whole world. This doesn’t appear in us.

The idea is that general rules operate here, absolutely different laws and trends. We have risen to such a level of human development where integral laws operate. These are laws of an analog system where everyone depends on everyone. The beginning, end, middle, everything is mutually linked and at every moment everything is found in balance, like a self-regulating system that supports and stabilizes itself.

All of nature is like this and we need to become like it to be within it: To begin to feel all of nature, the communication, the harmony, the integrality, and ourselves as an inseparable part of it. But for the sake of this, we need to change ourselves completely and not enter it with our egoistic “boots.” We need to bring ourselves constantly to the level of a life of social participation, equality, to a level of mutuality. This is not found in us at all; and this is work that we need to do against our egoistic inclinations.
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From KabTV’s “Through Time” 3/17/13

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Question: I cannot manage to locate the starting point that doesn’t serve my ego that will enable me to rise above it. Everything that is in me, even this question, is a result of my pride, so what can I do?

Answer: Cry.

Question: But I can’t cry.

Answer: So, you should cry out. Of course, you have no powers and you even feel that you are a bit corrupt, so, you are not really alarmed by it since it doesn’t look so bad. It means that you still are lacking many discernments by which you can be drawn to the goal, by which you are repulsed by the current state and exit it.

So, cry and cry out and ask to do everything that is in your power. If you cannot even do that, then you still have the environment to which you can turn to. Turn to the friends.

If you have no power to do even that, then at least be somewhat incorporated in them. A person must take certain actions and he is given a chance to do so.

Question: The envy I feel toward the friends really works but it doesn’t bring me to the desired point yet. Therefore, no matter how hard I cry out, my cries will only be egoistic.

Answer: It doesn’t matter; they still help. The Surrounding Light responds to egoistic cries. Therefore, it is the Surrounding Light and not the Direct Light and not the Inner Light, and so you operate it even by egoistic cries. So, cry out. Call out and it will awaken in response to that.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/02/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Today, we see the trend in industry where the large enterprises become increasingly larger and the small businesses are almost disappearing.

Answer: Small businesses gradually will disappear altogether as will medium-sized businesses. In their place will appear immense world factories that will be occupied with the manufacture and distribution of all that humanity requires, and humans will not require much. We know that 90% of the products are created only to create monetary accumulation in some particular bank accounts and not for anything else.

Therefore, humanity, according to an evolutionary order even without understanding how it is taking place, will reach this very quickly. A few tens or hundreds of very large corporations essentially will create all that is required for humanity and they will distribute the merchandise among them all. If, in the past, individual kiosks and small stores flourished, so, today, they all are included within large chains. Two or three large chains are swallowing all the rest.

However, in the meantime, this is happening to accumulate capital and conquer the world, whereas in the future, the goal will change.
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From KabTV’s “Through Time” 3/17/13

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Question: The years 2008 through 2009 showed the world stumbling into a crisis, the like of which had not been seen until now, and it was clear that those practices and methods that had worked in the past don’t work now. Independent observers, economists, speak about this more and more. We are entering a new kind of era. Where are we going and why doesn’t what worked before, work now?

Answer: Ten years ago, there already were some people in the world who understood that a crisis had begun.

If we look at the past from a greater distance, from the second half of the last century, representatives of the Club of Rome began to speak about an end to the egoistic development of humanity. Their view was based on this: The earth had completed its task, all of its resources were no longer being renewed, and this could not continue. We need to think about our children and in addition, about their descendants.

After this, ecologists took the stage to protect the ecological condition of the earth and claiming that it is impossible to continue this kind of contamination. The oceans and the air are polluted, trees are cut down, etc. It follows that we are not just depleting the contents of the earth, but are polluting it with industrial wastes so that for hundreds and even thousands of years this will remain the primary condition. The earth cannot process it, and it will not go away.

For example, the problem of plastic is an immense problem that doesn’t seem to have any solution. It cannot be so easy to live like this in the present, for although we think that humanity is wise, it is necessary in spite of it all to consider the future!

Why do we behave like this? After all, ultimately nobody will profit from this. We see that this only adds “green paper” to particular bank accounts, but  generally, nobody gets anything.

Gradually, the crisis has passed into a parallel form. It began with the development of a crisis in the family. The number of divorces reached 50%, then there was a crisis in science. People stopped continuing with it, and most space programs have closed. The crisis between fathers and sons began to gain momentum. Humanity is on drugs, depressed, suicidal, and in complete chaos.

Ultimately, we came to a financial and economic crisis. We confuse these two crises, linking them together, but basically, this is not so important. What is important is that all of the crises are crises of mutual relationships between us. The most recent financial crisis particularly revealed the deterioration of the irrational and egoistic relationships between humans, for finance is that system through which we are linked.

If not for the present system of buying and selling, if we didn’t need to profit from each other, people would not be interconnected. Therefore, the financial crisis is the last in a long chain of crises about which we can do nothing except uncover all the defects and flaws of modern society.

Moreover, society had to reach them. Throughout all of the history of humanity, we acted according to our nature. An ego that constantly grew evolved from generation to generation, so humanity developed evolutionarily. This doesn’t exist in the plant world or in the animal world, only in humans.

Therefore, we are found in what is called progress all the time; it is only conditionally called progress. Now, we have finally reached awareness that we are found in a deep crisis, but what else can be done and what is its nature? Humanity has not yet decided definitively. We are standing at that point.
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From KabTV’s “Through Time” 3/17/13

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Baal HaSulam, “The love of the Creator and the Love of the Created Beings“: The immediate phase after “love your friend as yourself” is adhesion. 

The commandment of the love of others brings us to the level of the love of the Creator. It is a safe path with all the opportunities, states, and means that we need. It is impossible to escape it by different excuses like saying that we didn’t know or that we couldn’t act since everyone has received what he needs.

The correction of “love thy friend as thyself” includes all the other corrections and is the most hateful one because it is opposite from our nature, yet we have no choice but to understand that it is our only basis. As long as we don’t discover the need for this correction, we cannot get on the path that leads to the goal.

Question: How can we bring contentment to the upper one by treating others well?

Answer: Essentially, it is the same thing. Imagine that all the created beings, all the people are the “Creator’s sons.” This is what it says in the sources. So if you do good to the son, you certainly bring the father contentment.

Once the Creator said to Jonah the prophet that He cannot just abandon the great city of Nineveh with 250,000  inhabitants despite their sins. The message is clear: “If you treat them with love and save them, you will bring Me contentment.”

The Creator has no vessel (Kli) to receive contentment from us, so the means for that is the entire reality that spreads between us, between each of us and the Creator. And in this reality other people come first.

So the dissemination of the method of correction and worrying about the whole world are the most precious actions that we were allowed to perform and we have to focus on them. Of course we first have to correct ourselves in order to know how to relate to the world.

The calculation is as follows: “I do everything in order to bring the Creator contentment. I express this desire by worrying about the world or more accurately, by worrying about people. The still, vegetative, and the animate levels of nature will also join their correction. In order to take care of people, I have to correct myself and so I have to start by correcting myself.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/02/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: When the integral network is fully connected and all are 100% included in each other, when it has the support of a higher level of nature, then nobody can influence it negatively. But we are talking about a system. How can there be a complex system that nobody can influence externally?

Answer: Everything depends on the quantity and quality of the people who are linked in integral unity. We are not talking about a forceful, destructive influence or about the physical annihilation of the body that happens during a war, for example, that is something else. We are talking about ideology, about an inner connection between us. In this case, all external influences that aren’t integral cannot influence us. They can only help our integration into a stronger, higher society.

For example, if birds or fish are joined together they can defend themselves from predators. Why won’t any predator attack a school of fish that moves as a unit? How can this be? Is the predator afraid of them? Paradoxically they pass him by or he passes them by, and nothing happens. Try to examine the phenomenon and connect it to human society. I think that there are many historical facts about this subject.

Unity causes the appearance of a new, higher power, and I would say that people who are united even have a particular luck that maintains, helps, and heals them. This is how it’s arranged by nature.

But an aspiration towards unity in every circumstance exists only between us humans, the egoists, and therefore it’s carried out in a very painful way. We are constantly colliding, “exploding” like stars, connecting and dispersing again and again. Ultimately, whether we want it or not, we are creating around us or within us a more and more compact system of connection.

We see that the world has become enormous. All of humanity has scattered throughout the world, and on the other hand, it aspires to connection. Therefore it doesn’t matter how much people want to get away from each other, this is the opposite side of unity among them. This will lead us towards unity anyway. And this is a paradox!

Question: But we have often gotten together to do something bad. What leads to that type of unity?

Answer: There exist two levels of unity: virtual, integral, and nationalistic, individual. Therefore if we explore each case on a nationalistic level, we need to describe how this comes to be reflected on an integral level.

If on a nationalistic level there are clashes between us and we are found in difficult situations of conflict, this is not saying that the integral level is damaged. On the contrary, it could be that this proves its necessity. For example, we come to blows. What is the benefit? And if we unite, perhaps we will attain mutual benefit from this.

That is, what we see with our eyes is not the whole picture. You see, there is evolution and the laws of nature according to which we develop; they lead us towards unity, even though this is to happiness “by the rod.”

Question: So then is it better for us to unite for something bad than to be divided, but not by good deeds?

Answer: The person measures his short life according to its happy parts, and if he speaks about the problems, as is understood they are rejected. Come, let’s think about how to reach a good state through a good condition.
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From KabTV’s  “Wisdom of Crowds” 5/14/13

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Question: We already have a large world group; there is a teacher and primary sources. Why is so difficult to realize the law of love for others as for oneself?

Answer: Indeed, it may not be so burdensome to hear about it, but the problem is with its realization. We initially need to understand and to become aware of the fact that the two different parts, the “plus” and the “minus,” must be connected with each other. In the physical level of nature, everything is simpler: There from a higher degree, the Creator obliges various elements to become connected and in general they build the atomic structure.

What is it? Why do the particles not scatter from each other? The fact is that there are some forces that oblige them to interact in spite of the opposition between the two. The negative forces repelling them from each other belong to matter to the “vessel” (Kli), and these are the forces of rejection, hatred, and polarity. The positive forces necessitating them to be together are the forces of love. That is why it is said, “Love will cover all transgressions.” It’s love that covers the gap between the opposites.

We observe these mechanisms in atoms and molecules where things become much more complicated due to calculations of the previous and following stages of development, etc. Either way, calculations are always done according to the same principle, becoming more and more difficult with time.

It’s worthwhile to view the entire universe in this light. No one teaches us to love; we are talking precisely about the law of nature. Once, Abraham discovered it; it’s said that while looking at the sky, he asked questions about who created the world and for what. He was prompted by that era’s escalating conflicts between the Babylonians. Mutual hatred was growing and Abraham tried to understand: Why? From where could the power of unity against the forces of separation be taken?

Internally scrutinizing the still, vegetative, and animate nature, he realized that the entire creation, except for man, is imbued with the law of unity that obliges all the parts of creation to be together. That is why they live and develop. People are another thing: The confrontation between positive and negative is constantly increasing in them. Where then is the opposite force of connection and love at the human level? How could it be brought into action?

Apparently, Abraham understood that the Creator had entrusted this work to man. We ourselves must add this part and complete creation. That is why it’s said that the Creator starts and the righteous finishes.

So, if we don’t start to work on love for the other, the connection between us is severed. For example, in Europe today, the process of unification does not continue in the right way and the continent is torn apart. The absence of “additions of unity” everywhere leads to the growth of opposition and eventually to explosion. This is the perspective of humanity at all levels, be it that of the family, raising children, etc.

That is why we must work on correct unification, meaning above the “plus” and the “minus.” Don’t touch them because everyone will remain with his inherent properties. Work only on “love covers all transgressions.”

We need to understand that the positive and negative cannot live without each other. Conceptually, there is no Creator without the created being and there is no created being without the Creator. They can exist only jointly. In this case, the two opposites always repel each other, and then the third force resolves their contradictions, strengthens their bond. This mechanism gives rise to development, life.

For many years, scientists have been struggling to solve the mystery of the emergence of life. Where did living cells come from? What gave them birth? An excess of love gave them birth. The force supporting the still nature out of an excess of love begins to develop additional desires and then we demand more. I don’t settle for mere existence, I want to understand, to feel, and to comprehend all of reality, and this need gives me life that began with corals and has evolved to the most complex structures.

Ultimately, it’s the Creator who slightly illuminates the still matter, and it becomes vegetative. A little bit more Light, and it turns into animate. Just a little more, and the human degree emerges.

Thus, covering the positive and negative, the “plus” and “minus” with love, I form from them a system, an atom, for instance. If I add a greater power of love to it, then I affect the positive with negative strongly and thus cause imbalance. There is seemingly a surplus of energy and besides saving the relationship, they “think” about something greater. The spark that I have brought prompts them to search; the excess of strength draws them forward. This is their life force.

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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How can we create the right atmosphere in the group of ten so that each of us will feel that everything that happens in life is only for his own good and that this is what the Creator wants?

Answer: We need the society’s support in order to accept everything in “faith above reason.” It doesn’t mean you should just say everything is for the best without thinking, like people who feel they are righteous do. We want to accept everything that happens as beneficial and to see everything in the Light of the Creator as a means for the correction of our vessels. We try to reach correction so that we will really see that everything is for the best, that it comes from “there is none else besides Him,” from the good and the benevolent.

Everything that I have at present is good and I have to rise to the next state by the actions that are taking place in me. The environment has to help me feel the Creator’s actions as good and beneficial.

In order to do that I have to rise to “faith above reason.” This is a very confusing concept, since one can just blindly say that everything is for the best even if he feels like he is torn to pieces. But “a judge only knows what his eyes can see.” So “blind faith” is not “faith above reason” even if a person is confused and has received the power to act for a certain idea from the environment.

We have to organize the whole system correctly so that it will operate on us and help us yearn for bestowal. “Faith above reason,” which means bestowal, should be more important for us than receiving. But a person cannot reach this feeling since he doesn’t have the power to do so and so he shouldn’t just lie to himself.

We have to turn to the group so that it will provide us with an increasingly growing feeling of importance of the advantage of bestowal instead of receiving. I am impressed by the environment as to how important this attribute is just as I copy all its corporeal values. Society is strong in quantity and quality and I submit myself before it and absorb the feeling of the greatness of bestowal from it.

After I am impressed by it, I have to connect with the friends and with them to develop a great deficiency for acquiring a new attribute for self-change. This is now a different type of submission before the society.

First I had to receive the importance of the goal, the importance of the Creator, the importance of the teacher, the importance of the study. These are ordinary things, just as if I want to be a tailor and have to be in the society of tailors in order to learn the profession from them and to be inspired by its importance. But if I want to attain the force of bestowal, I have to be incorporated in a group and to submit myself differently. Self-submission is the inner connection between us following all the conditions that Kabbalists have set, submitting to the friends, the teacher, the study and the way for attaining the goal. I don’t have to just be incorporated in this society but must actually submit myself before it and thanks to that to receive the Light that Reforms.

The Light that Reforms influences me, and thus the group, the teacher, the study, the goal of creation, and the concern for all of humanity all become dearer to me. It all becomes more important. This means that I am already in the process of correction.
[108481]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: A charismatic leader always gives direction to and encourages people. As a rule, he is quite authoritarian and in some cases even tyrannical. Will this trend be evident in the leaders of the 21^st century or will their qualities change due to human evolution?

Answer: Leaders will use all the human and superhuman qualities necessary for and according to the new paradigm to which we are heading. But they must change. They will be educators because humanity needs to be re-educated, and this is the main problem of our time. After all, the masses of unemployed will require re-organization, to be placed in open universities, schools, and to be provided with television programs, scholarships, etc.

Human life will be subject to a strict schedule. The perceived need that will arise in people will lead them to the state that all their life they will be engaged in self-improvement:  public, national, and global, and everyone will have to contribute.

Everyone will have his own responsibilities, changing his egoism to collaboration with others in the shared global, integral society. He will have to achieve a sense of a different existence “outside the body” where I don’t live caring about my animal body, but am occupied with “the human being within me.” This requires very serious, great leaders, meaning educators who understand human psychology and aim their leadership precisely at raising people to a new level.
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From KabTV’s “Through Time” 3/18/13

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Question: When does the corporeal reality become a spiritual reality for a person?

Answer: It happens when he can relate to others as to himself, when the boundary between the two is erased.

In fact, we cannot even say that we acquire the attribute of bestowal, although this transition is described that way. We cannot actually acquire new attributes. Our essence, like computer hardware, remains unchanged.

The whole point is to what extent I “take in” the other as if he were myself. I operate above my growing ego since otherwise there would be a natural closeness between me and the other, just like between a couple or between partners who worry about one another because of common interests or interdependence. This is the reason that the resistance of the ego should build up and above which I still bring the other closer to me, until he actually becomes like myself according to the principles of “don’t do to others what is hateful for you,” and “love thy friend as thyself.”

This doesn’t mean that I exit myself. More accurately, I “swallow” the attributes of the other, which seem external to me. Then the whole world is mine.

Question: The problem is that when I look at my group of ten, I don’t want to “swallow” it….

Answer: It will come, and then you will feel that the friends are the closest people to you and that no one is closer than they are. Even your relatives, even your family will seem much more distant than the friends. After all, the friends are close to your soul and the family is closer to your body. The family is like a contract that we have to keep, and the mutual guarantee between the friends is very dynamic, constantly changing, by joining, getting closer to you more and more….

I repeat, eventually, you will not come outside, but will actually let all the friends enter you.

Question: How can I speed up this process? Since it comes back and hits me time and time again.…

Answer: That’s right, the future is knocking at your door, and you don’t let it in and thus you feel pain. You have to open the door in advance before it can be knocked on, since otherwise it’s too late.

It says in the “Song of Songs”: “Open the door for me my beloved.” But his beloved is not ready, she doesn’t want to receive her beloved, and her door is locked. When she does open, the beloved is already gone, and is hiding: “I searched for him but I did not find him; I called him but he did not answer me.”

So you should open your door in advance, open up to the Creator together with the friends.
[109018]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/03/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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