Entries in the 'Society' Category

Do The Stars Affect Our Fate?

Dr. Michael laitmanQuestion: The Zodiac signs and fate, the topic is exciting and intriguing and not much understood. Do the stars affect our destiny; is it possible to predict it and what you can do with this knowledge?

After all, the most difficult thing in life is its unpredictability. We live not knowing what will happen to us in the future, what surprises are in store for us.

A person cannot control his life. And that is why people are so interested in astrology, which supposedly can predict a person’s character and his entire fortune by the stars.

Astrology was known in ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, in the East, India, China, and among the American Indians. And today, many people believe that there is a connection between the stars in the sky and the human state. Does this connection really exist?

Answer: The entire universe develops gradually, step by step, and the human being is the last stage of its development, the most developed of them. But just because people are developed more than animals and have such a mind and feelings with which they can reveal nature to a greater degree, they feel very vulnerable.

It is said that a two-day calf can already be called a small bull. Having barely been born, he already has the same mind and feelings as an adult bull. He knows what plants can and cannot be eaten, and will not fall from a height, as opposed to a small child who should be taken care of and educated until he becomes wiser.

If a child is not educated, he will grow as an animal. But if we give him the entire human experience, accumulated over many years, he will become a human being at the level to which he was given an opportunity to develop. A human being develops himself, and as he develops, he reveals the world.

Therefore, a human being is a very sensitive creature because he has to feel nature in a subtle way. He is strong because he is able to build for himself the systems that protect him against the adversities of nature. The human being has discovered fire and invented electricity in order to heat his home and light the darkness of the night. He has learned to communicate over long distances and invented the Internet.

Human beings perfected nature, adding to it all the amenities that he lacked. And at the same time, he himself has not changed much, and it is obvious that there are very clear limits of human capabilities.

We can improve our lifestyle in every way, but we cannot answer the most important questions, “What is my destiny? What awaits me in the future? When will I die? What happened to me before I was born and what will happen after my death? What happens beyond the boundaries of this life?”

“Why in my life, did I meet the people who surround me? Why was I born with this character, of this gender, in a particular country, and in a certain period of time?”

All this remains a mystery to us. There is some power that controls us and we cannot influence it. We are able only to make ourselves more comfortable in the place where we were brought by fate. We build houses for ourselves rather than living in caves, and we prepare and store food for future use.

We are developing that which relates to the material life of the body. That is, we use the human mind and senses, which raise us above animals, for the benefit of this animal level, our bodies. For the purpose of satisfying our bodies, we have developed all the sciences of physics, chemistry, biology, and zoology.

We cannot get outside of our body with our human mind and feelings. It turns out that we are using all that was given to us above the animal level, such as  great intellect and the ability to study nature and reveal its laws, just for the sake of our animal welfare.

We wanted to move quickly and created a car, we wanted to talk over distances and invented the radio and the Internet. But all these inventions are made for the convenience of the body and its health, either for oneself or for one’s family and children.

There is no invention made by our highly developed mind which was intended for the benefit of  rising above the degree of the animal level.  Universities, stock exchanges, and museums were all designed to provide maximum comfort for our bodies. It is sad to see in what primitive way we use subtle senses like a sharp mind and the ability to evolve and  develop from generation to generation.

We fly into space and make huge advances in medicine. A hundred years ago the average life expectancy was no more than 40-50 years, and today we are getting close to 100 years. In another 50 years, we may live for 200 years. We have the opportunity to make our life in this world much more intense, long lasting, healthier, prolonging the existence of the body. But what we can do with it for such a long a time?

We can improve the conditions for the existence of the body and for our families and children. We can answer any question, except for the main one concerning our fate. The concept of destiny includes the form in which we existed before birth, what this form will be after our death, as well as what happens to us in the middle interval from birth to death, and what tests we will have to go through in this life.

On the one hand, we recognize that all this is planned. But with respect to us, it appears as a complete accident. We think that now it is a coincidence, but maybe we can rise up a little bit, then look down and see the program, which is extremely curious.
[151260]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/1/15

Related Material:
The Right To Change One’s Destiny
Perception Of Reality: From Antiquity To The Present Day
How to Change One’s Destiny?

Manipulation Of The Masses Through The Media

Dr. Michael laitmanOpinion (Noam Chomsky, American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, logician, political commentator and anarcho-syndicalist activist):

“Based on the work of American linguist Noam Chomsky, here is a list of “10 strategies of manipulation” by the media:

1. A STRATEGY OF DISTRACTION.

The key element of social control is the strategy of distraction that is to divert public attention from important issues and changes decided by political and economic elites, through the technique of flood or flooding continuous distractions and insignificant information. ‘Keep the public’s attention distracted away from the real social problems and captivated by issues of no importance. Keep the public busy, busy, busy, no time to think, back to the farm with the other animals (citing text “silent weapons for quiet wars”).’

2 – CREATE PROBLEMS AFTER OFFERING SOLUTIONS.

This method is also called ‘problem-reaction-solution.’ This creates a problem, a ‘situation’ due to cause some reaction in the public, so that it is the principal measure that they will want to accept. For example: let develop or intensify urban violence, or arrange bloody attacks, so that the public is focused on the principles of safety, laws and policies to the detriment of freedom. Or also create an economic crisis to accept the necessary evil of recession, loss of social rights and the dismantling of public services.

3 – STRATEGY GRADATION.

To make it accept an unacceptable extent, simply apply it gradually, a dropper at a time, in consecutive years. This is how radically new socioeconomic conditions (neoliberalism) were imposed during the 1980s and 1990s: the minimal state, privatization, precariousness, flexibility, mass unemployment, inability to pay decent wages, and many changes that cause a revolution would not have to be implemented all at once.

4 – THE STRATEGY OF DEFER.

Another way to make an unpopular decision acceptable is to present it as ‘painful and necessary’ in obtaining immediate public acceptance for a future application. It is easier to accept a future sacrifice than an immediate sacrifice.

5 – ADDRESSING THE PUBLIC AS YOUNGER CHILDREN.

Most of the advertising directed at the general public uses discourse, arguments, characters, and particularly children’s intonation, often close to their weaknesses, as if the viewer were a very young child or mentally impaired. The more you mislead the viewer, the more advertising tends to adopt an infantile tone.

6 – USING THE EMOTIONAL ASPECT MUCH MORE THAN A REFLECTION.

Making use of the emotional aspect is a classic technique to cause a short circuit on rational analysis, and finally to the critical sense of individuals. Moreover, the use of emotional register allows you to open the door to the unconscious to deploy graft or ideas, desires, fears and fears, compulsions, or induce behaviors…

7 – KEEP THE PUBLIC IN IGNORANCE AND MEDIOCRITY.

Make the public incapable of understanding technologies and methods in order to keep them controlled and in bondage. ‘The quality of education given the lower social classes should be as poor and mediocre as possible so that the gap of ignorance that lies between the lower classes and the upper social classes is and remains out of reach of the lower classes.’

8 – STIMULATES THE PUBLIC TO BE IN COMPLACENT MEDIOCRITY.

Promoting the public to think that fashion is the act of being stupid, vulgar and uneducated.

9 – STRENGTHENING REVOLT BY SELF-BLAME.

Make the individual believe that he alone is to blame for their own misfortune because of the failure of their intelligence, their abilities, or their efforts. Thus, instead of rebelling against the economic system, the individuals themselves are helpless and blame themselves, which leads to a depressive state with its effects being to inhibit its action.

My Comment: One can see how great the role of the Internet is in manipulating people. But this only accelerates the exit from the power of Pharaoh or egoism, because our desires and thoughts develop not by the media, but by the law of development, which leads necessarily to the purpose of creation.
[151215]

Related Material:
News By Our Own Hands
Media Destroys People’s Community
Social Media And Social Networks

A Direct Mutual Connection

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If we speak about the connection of the levels of the upper, the middle, and the lower, then the upper is the teacher, the middle is us, and the lower is the 99% of humanity. Sometimes we manage to feel the unity between us and sometimes we don’t. How can we constantly hold on to the point of unity in order to convey the importance of unity to the people?

Answer: In the articles of Rabash it states that the friends should gather and speak about the greatness of the Creator and the greatness of the teacher. Of course, neither the Creator nor the teacher needs that, but it is necessary in order to raise the students.

If we raise those through whom we receive the Light, we thus connect to the upper source and begin to receive bestowal from Him. Then the understanding of unity and the connection with the upper source are revealed among us.

When we go out to the external circles, the feelings and understandings of this unity and the connection with the upper are conveyed to them.

Just like children who learn many things from their parents, whether they want to or not, and imitate them in different ways like their characteristic behaviors and habits, and their positive and negative responses, so will the external circles receive our feeling of unity and connection to the upper source. This happens in a natural manner.

The wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t speak about anything that is supernatural, but only about how to learn to be one whole in order to be in harmony with the still, vegetative, and animate levels, to learn from nature, which is what everyone is calling for today.

People used to believe that we had to conquer nature, that we are above nature and smarter than nature. Now everyone is beginning to understand how stupid and much more limited we are than nature. Nature is perfect!

The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us how to learn from nature and how to reach a state in which we will discover its total integrality, the deep and total mutual connection. If we attain that, the masses will also accept it and perceive it since our thoughts and feelings will flow unto them. They will begin to think like us and also perceive everything as we do.

Why is it that what people think that whatever happens on one side of the world is suddenly understood on the other side? It is because we are all mutually connected.

Therefore, when we go out to people and connect to them, the direct mutual connection works. We will perceive their different yearnings and they will perceive ours. Their shattered yearnings and their egoistic desires will force us to yearn for unity in order to correct them. Our unity and connection to the upper will help them perceive it and focus themselves in that direction for correction.
[139875]
From the International Summer Camp In Bulgaria “Day One” 7/11/14, Lesson #2

Related Material:
Everything Is Based On Sensing
I Brought You Part Of The Miracle
What Determines The Effectiveness Of Dissemination?

A Burning Question And The Solution

Dr. Michael LaitmanComment: The method of correcting the relationships between people, which is the remedy for every illness, nullifies all of modern medicine.

My Comment: But we don’t need it either. The current health care system doesn’t care about a person, but only about itself. The media conveys information that arouses fear, and no one cares about people.

What is the actual problem? Humanity has long reached such a level in its development that it can fully provide for all its needs. This was true in the 70s of the last century, but everything has come to a halt since the questions of “What’s next?” and “Why should we go on living?” have come up.

But man didn’t think about that and new problems have to be created in order to make it will be clear that we live in order to solve them. Otherwise such questions will come up and will make both the elite and our leaders feel bad.

Thus everything began to revolve around creating different imaginary needs, and health issues are not imaginary at all. Consequently, medicine has gradually reestablished itself by creating new symptoms, so that by using medicines that help heal certain symptoms, people will stay busy spending money on medicines and traveling from place to place in order to seek treatment, etc.

Question: Was this scenario laid in advance? Did people consciously examine this option in advance?

Answer: Of course. We can see advertising on TV for products that are 99% absolutely unnecessary. We have no need even for the one percent that is left, but we only think that we need them. After all, we have become used to advertising, are nourished by it, and the ideas it sells us have already become an inherent need. Therefore, we look for what else we can buy. We cannot manage without these things anymore, just like a drug addict who cannot manage without drugs. We are used to being obliged to watch commercials and implement what they advertise.

A few years ago I was in the hospital after a car accident and I saw how patients behave. One of them constantly spoke to the doctors like they were old friends. When I asked him why he spoke to them that way he answered proudly that he had had 12 operations. It is as if he wanted to say, “Look I am your loyal patient, I am yours!” and subconsciously, they treated him as if he was one of theirs—”He is one of ours!”

This means that it reached the state that they were making a living off one another. It is just like cops and robbers who cannot manage without each other. The police have to solve crimes or conspiracies and therefore cooperate with the mafia so that it will give them some clues or sacrifice one of its accomplices. The police arrest the victim and present it as their achievement, but usually it is the mafia that gives them the lead.

It is the same here. It has become a custom, and it is very interesting to observe the beautiful work of the ego from the outside.

Society imposes its values on us and feeds us these values as if they are a business dinner. They teach us to love, have children, raise them, build, play societal games, consume certain medicines and to be connected in a certain manner. It is all based on the notion of how to fill our day with worries, work, tasks, and not allow us time to think about the meaning of life.

But humanity has already developed to the point where this issue becomes vital. In order to make sure that we don’t engage in it, the authorities have denied us of all our free time, down to the very last moment.

The point is that the question about the meaning of life is much greater. If a person doesn’t find this answer, he becomes so depressed that he cannot overcome it. He doesn’t feel pleasure in anything: not in food, sex, family, his children, in nothing. Therefore the elite suppresses this question.

But the time has come to reveal the meaning of life to the masses. On one hand, it is as if we are playing on the edge. But on the other hand, we say nice things such as, “Let’s live in unity, let’s begin to love one another so that everything will be good.”

The wisdom of Kabbalah is not intended to arouse revolutionary passions in any one, neither in the elite nor in ordinary people. It doesn’t call people to fight but offers to make a soft revolution in a peaceful manner. This is the true spring, when after the long frost, after the inner emptiness, the gradual return to life begins.

Question: Will the elite agree to that?

Answer: The leaders will also change along with the masses, since we all change together. They will begin to realize that, first of all, the environmental situation doesn’t allow us to remain on the same level. We can see what is happening to us.

Disrupting the ecological balance involves a much greater imbalance of the whole earth. No one knows how many billions of dollars have been invested this year and are still being invested in order to overcome the environmental disasters all over the world.

Along with ecological and climate problems, we will also encounter nutritional problems since we have polluted the soil even at the level of thoughts and feelings. But when the authorities begin to change, they will see that everthing has a limit and it is nature that limits us.

They will realize that we have to acquire a totally new perception, and instead of money that has lost its value, a new coin will appear that is related to the communication between people.

Money is a method of connection that emphasizes how much greater you are and how small I am compared to you, and how we can satisfy each other’s needs. In Hebrew the word “money” (Kesef) stems from the word “cover” (Masach), which means that I cover the difference between us.

New methods of communication between people will emerge instead of relationships that are based on money. They will become popular, because society itself will begin to change. If it were only the environment that changed, we would still remain the same puppets and the authorities would continue to endlessly play with us. But because everyone will change, the perception will also change, and the authorities will operate in a totally different manner.

I believe that this will happen in the near future and I hope to see at least the beginning of this change. This is what I am living for.

We assist in the hastening of time. Our ideas automatically flow into society since we are an integral part of it. Accordingly we hasten the development of the elite as well.
[140244]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/18/14

Related Material:
Forbidden Question
Why Do I Need A Doctor?
What Are We Being “Fed”?

Young People No Longer Buy Cars Or Houses

Dr, Michael LaitmanIn the News (Lifter): “The generation that is younger than 35 rarely buy houses, and even more seldom cars. They are called the “generation of tenants,” people who are afraid to borrow money.

“If in the past, successful people were those who owned a house and a car, now in high esteem are those who invest in experiences and impressions such as traveling and start-ups.

“People do not want prosperity and stability but a flexible schedule, and financial and geographical independence. Material things no longer hold people’s interest. Why would you own a car in the USA if you have Uber or Lyft? In essence, it’s a private car with a driver. And it costs no more to use the services of Uber than it does to own a car.

“Why would you buy a house in a beautiful place and go there on vacation if you can find accommodations anywhere in the world through Airbnb? Today’s young Americans change jobs, on average, once every three years, and you can move closer to the office if you are renting, not owning. The very concept of ownership of things is no longer relevant.”

My Comment: Times change and the desire with it, or rather, on the contrary, the change of desire causes a change in the attitude towards the world and life. The revision of the entire scale of values is ahead. The re-evaluation can be bloody or it can be enjoyable much like a game. It depends on how we perceive the necessary changes.
[151086]

Related Material:
What Kind Of People Did They Grow Up To Be?
The Share Economy: The Economy Of The Future
The Crisis Has Changed The Attitudes Of The Youth

The Relevance Of The Torah In The Modern World

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe section Kedoshim is the main section of the Torah and is translated as “Holiness.” Holiness is the level of Bina, the level of absolute, complete ascent above all egoistic desires. Therefore the right fulfillment of all the laws described within it should bring us to a state of bestowal.

Comment: But the system of prohibitions is examined in this section and tells us what will happen if we sin.

Answer: The prohibitions are not in order to scare us. Fear doesn’t help a person. We are made so that nothing can stop us. Moreover, it isn’t about fear of rulers in this world or fear of being punished by the Creator as considered by religions.

This specifies the option of sin and the punishment. We should understand the whole chain of spiritual actions so as to prevent any movement toward sin and to avoid committing acts that are prohibited. It is by such acts that you detach yourself from the ascent and by which you harm no one but yourself.

The correct understanding of the whole system, meaning the entrance, the exit, the inner part of the system, the way it works, etc., isn’t just a condition but the concealed laws of nature, which we don’t feel. Therefore it says, “Don’t behave that way, don’t do that.”

These are basically internal laws, which means they relate to the the desire, the intention, and the mind and heart. They are explicit and relate to the general system of nature, but they are concealed from us and we cannot see them unless we begin to implement them.

We begin to feel part of the laws of nature from birth by trial and error, just like a baby who finds that some things work while others don’t. He looks at others and repeats their actions, gets stuck on something and cries, which means that he gets used to what is allowed and what is forbidden.

There are laws of mutual relations between people that say, “This is allowed and this is forbidden,” but a person still doesn’t see the hidden meaning within them. Gradually, he begins to understand that he can be punished for some things and in regard to others, he is allowed to continue. He begins to realize that some things are not nice, and here the shame, envy, and the desire for control stop him, which means that different desires guide and direct him.

There are also laws that he doesn’t feel at all, when he doesn’t feel giving or bestowal from the environment and society, and these are also laws of nature! These are the laws that the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us and this is the reason it is called the concealed part of the Torah.

On the whole, these are the same laws and the same morality, but they are felt on a level that humanity has to reach in order to fulfill. Today we have reached a level that we have to fulfill the laws of general life on this planet, which has become a small, all inclusive area.

We see how borders are nullified and no matter where we go, it is the same mass culture everywhere. People are beginning to realize that everything is collective. If there are any unique local characteristics, they do not stem from the depths of history, but are artificially created in order to attract tourists.

We have changed internally and have become cosmopolitan, living in one common space. We preserve what existed before only in order to profit from it. The unique attribute of our times is a pragmatic approach to everything that once seemed holy and that we considered our legacy.

Now we have to keep the laws of unity, but unfortunately, we don’t feel the actual unity, nor living on one planet like one family totally dependent on one another.

The Torah tells us how all of humanity should attain the correct, cooperative life. Previously very few knew the essence of the Torah, but today its revelation to the world in its true light is required.

Thus, the nation that was given the laws that tell us how to live in unity penetrates the nations of the world like a river and begins to raise them to that level. At the same time, we need to constantly remind people that we did not invent these laws, these conventions and customs, and neither did anyone else. They are simply the laws of nature. Now we have simply arrived at a new level of our development from the still, vegetative, and animate levels to the human level.

Before that we lived and grew like animals, instinctively fulfilling what developed within us. Now, however, and despite our animal level, we should consciously begin to somehow get closer to other people even though we are repulsed by it. This is the human level that is opposite in every way from the animal level. This is the level we are now reaching.

Therefore, the Torah is becoming increasingly more relevant today.
[150998]
From KabTV’s “The Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/23/14

Related Material:
Levels Of Perceiving The Torah
The Torah Is The Basis For All The Laws
The Commandments And The Laws

Where Is Happiness Hiding?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Does the wisdom of Kabbalah enable a person to be happy? How does it happen?

Answer: A person asks questions about the meaning of life from childhood until he begins to develop hormonally. Then he forgets about these questions. But if they arise again later in life, he looks for answers to these questions.

Today there are quite a few such people. We can see this according to the number of people who are depressed or who suppress these troubling, tormenting questions by using drugs. Today these people make up half the world’s population and at least a high percentage take anti-depressant medication.

Therefore, the time has come for people to know that the wisdom of Kabbalah provides the answers to all their questions. Moreover, these are the exact answers they discover on their own and perceive as their attainment of the world, as the attainment of nature. At the same time, the answers they find don’t simply and abstractly connect to their questions, but they see how it works in their feelings, in the revelation of the world.

Thus, we should allow people not only to attain the world but also to change it, to change themselves and bring themselves and the world to the right connection that results in happiness, comfort, and harmony and balance between man and the world around him.

Here the wisdom comes to our aid, telling us how nature is arranged and what can be changed in man in order to reach harmony with nature and to exist in our world in a state of perfect balance. Balance is happiness.
[150795]
From KabTV’s “The New Year” 12/25/14

Related Material:
When And Where Does One Take Time For Happiness?
Patent For A Happy Life
What Is Happiness?

Changing Our Vision To Manifest The True Reality

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf we ignore the bodies that divide us, then all of humanity is one common desire to be fulfilled. Everything material in this reality in the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels all desire pleasure.

They manifest themselves differently at each stage. Pleasure for a stone is when it has the inner strength to sustain itself in its current solid state. It exists and does not allow outside forces to split it.

The plant does not just preserve itself, but also develops, expands the scope of its life, and takes up more space than what it originally started with. It enjoys the sun, water, and air, and its capacity to absorb these things give it a strong sense of life and vitality.

Further, animals have an even greater desire for enjoyment and they move from place to place in order to fulfill this desire.

A human being’s case is a special one. There are people, who like animals, look for greater connections with pleasure and guarantees for their preservation throughout their entire lives.

Everyone in one way or another is familiar with the desires related to food, sex, family, money, honor, and knowledge. However, some people have a special impetus, for they want to connect with the higher force and experience pleasure from it.

A person with such an impulse wants to know why, for what reason, and in what reality one lives, where one came from, who rules a person, and what happens to one after the death of the body. A person feels that these questions have an answer. In the desire to be fulfilled and in this primordial requirement, a person starts experiencing a qualitatively new enrichment while wondering what lies beyond life in our world.

There are a lot of people like that on Earth. In particular, such questions arise in those who fall into depression and seek refuge in drugs, etc. Most of them think about the fact of their existence and the meaning of life. For them, a life without any meaning is not sweet and they do not feel that satisfying normal desires is enough.

Such existence seems animalistic to them, and providing for oneself, having one’s own well-built “crib,” and taking care of offspring does not, in principle, separate humans from the animal world. Here we are still at the same level, and on the same line on the graph of the animals.

On the other hand, a true person is the one who wants to rise above one’s bodily life and understand why one lives. This question came to the fore on a massive scale during the days of the Tower of Babel, when people opened egoism to the maximum level at that time. Many people wondered why this happened and what the purpose of the ego was. They asked themselves, “What would we get from building a tower to heaven and why do we need an architectural masterpiece like the pyramids of Egypt?”

There was no answer. This is when Abraham appeared. He had studied the problem of sudden flashes of egoism in the relations between people and came to the conclusion that all of this was intended to help people unite above egoism. He saw that if they could do that, then the negative force of the same egoism would raise them above it to a new, spiritual height, a qualitatively new level called “the world to come.”

The world to come is a reality entirely aimed towards bestowal. We leave our lives in this world as it appears to us now, emerge from this endless egoistic battle in which one devours the others, and rise to another level of being. There we will treat each other with love, as it is written, “Love will cover all crimes,” and this relationship will be passed down to the levels of the still, vegetative, and animal natures.

Abraham was the property of mercy (Hesed) and taught people how to live according to the principle of love thy neighbor as thyself. Because of this, his students gained a new perception of reality, seeing the world through the prism of bestowal. I used to seek personal gain everywhere; I wanted to use everything to my advantage, and now, it is the opposite. I switched to helping others, loving others, and feeling the pain of others.

This is when my world changed. I turned the paradigm of greedy reception and absorption into the opposite, and this is the polar transformation of my ancestral properties that allows me to open a new reality.

In other words, it all depends on my perception. There is no objective reality; it is only what I see.  At present, my perception is based on the force of reception, and I have to change a setting inside me to see and understand the reality through the prism of the power of bestowal. If I do this, then everything will appear in front of me in a different form.

Moreover, Abraham discovered that the program of nature managing the development of the human race would lead us to this state. Replacing the concept of total reception with the concept of total bestowal, replacing hatred for your neighbor and using others to benefit yourself with love and using yourself for their benefit, will transform your world.

A person is used to living in this world and everything here seems natural. One does not understand that, in fact, all this is just the fruit of a certain perception of reality, and it all depends on the mechanism of our perception. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to change it.

Thus, Abraham brought people to ask questions about the meaning of life, people who had matured and demanded to see the true reality, to reveal the cause and the program’s goal. And he taught them how to change their vision to manifest the true, complete picture of reality.
[150526]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/25/14

Related Material:
Forbidden Question
The Endless Struggle With The Ego
The Future Society

What Will We See In 2015?

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (Globes): “The planet has entered into the period of ‘discovery of truth and enlightenment of humankind.’ This is the period of Pluto. It began in 2014 and will end in 2016. Pluto symbolizes death and rebirth, the revolution in mass consciousness.

“The discovery of inexhaustible sources of energy, superconductivity, and global communication will be connected with this. All this will radically change human life  and the world order. Humanity is on the verge of the era, which may be called the Apocalypse, when the old world order is collapsing and the new one is being born. The word ‘apocalypse’can be translated as ‘the discovery of the truth.’

“We are facing the period of enlightenment of humanity, when the veil will drop from the eyes of hundreds of millions of people. Of course, such a revolution in consciousness will be accompanied by momentous political and economic decisions, the realization of brilliant and dazzling ideas, and the emergence of charismatic personalities.”

My comment: The wisdom of Kabbalah completely agrees with the statement that “the planet has entered into the period of discovery of truth and enlightenment of humankind.” That is just not by way of great discoveries in science and technology, but through the spiritual change of human beings.
[150952]

Related Material:
Not Prediction, But Research
Year 2015: An Optimistic View Of The Future
The New Class Will Blow Up The World

Progress Is Senseless And Merciless

 Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (Expert): “By the 60th year of the 20th century, Western society had achieved a high level of consumption, and people understood that money was not the main measure of happiness.

“Thus the concept of multidimensional quality of life was born, which in addition to income, is determined by security, access to knowledge, the development of medicine, life expectancy, environmental conditions, etc.

“But how could these different figures be brought together? Scientists have proposed to move from objective to subjective indicators, as measured by public opinion polls. But they depend on the measurement of one’s state regarding the state of his neighbor, and it turns out that those who do not live close to the rich are happier.

“From the subjective point of view, people’s quality of life in the last millennium has not grown, but fell because of the differentiation of the population according to the level of consumption in ancient Egypt or in medieval France, which was lower than it is now.

“That is, from a subjective point of view, there is no progress. Moreover, the spread of innovations causes inequality in terms of consumption, dissatisfaction and conflict.

“Progress, instead of improving the quality of life, reduces it due to the increasing inequality, and stagnation, and on the contrary, stabilizes society. Development is a meaningless process, similar to a dog chasing its own tail, that produces nothing other than envy and suffering.”

My Comment: We cannot stop progress. Its role is to lead us to the reflection on the meaninglessness of our existence so that having asked questions about the meaning of life, we move forward to reveal the Creator.
[150812]

Related Material:
The Order Of Development
The Four Stages Of The Development Of The Desire
Gradual Development