The global crisis leaves more and more people unemployed. This is not just for economic reasons. The consequences of over consumerism are becoming evident: How many more new products can appear on the market? How much more do we need to buy? There is an end to everything, including consumerism. The desires are changing and people don’t want all that any more.

In the next phase of our evolution, humanity will move on to spiritual work. Everything that we need corporeally will be easily provided by modern technology, scientists, engineers, and a small amount of service people who, by their nature, will be happy to deal with such things. But most people will have to make inner efforts and this will become their “occupation” on the next level of humanity. On the next spiritual level people will connect, be incorporated in one another, and our fictitious world will gradually “evaporate” and disappear, like a cloud on a clear day, until we will be left in a reality of true feelings. This is our evolution and there is nothing we can do about it.

So the world will have to be reorganized. We mustn’t ignore the unemployed. There are already quite a few studies that show how dangerous it is when a person has nothing to do. It leads to conflicts in the family and to divorce; we lose our humanity, and we lose the incentives and the commitments for things that need to be done. When a person doesn’t have to make any efforts, he becomes less than an animal.

Animals are busy doing something from morning to night: looking for food, for a mate, for a place to dwell, and taking care of their offspring. They use the “recreation time” for useful games by which they establish the right connections in the flock, the herd, etc. Have you ever seen an ant doing nothing like a football fan lying on the couch with a bottle of beer and a cigarette?

Today a person has to move to massive spiritual work, to establish the general mutual connection, and to reorganize society, and yet, in the meantime, we do nothing, preferring idle contemplations.

This terrible fall will cost us dearly. It will bring a heavy feeling of bitterness and a person will lose his mind and go wild. The lack of obligations prevents him from acting and leaves him empty, poisoning his consciousness. Besides, he loses his professional skills and the skills to communicate with other people. It’s as if everything in him sinks, disappears, and he turns into a “ghost,” a “zombie,” and not a human being.

This is what will happen to people who would remain idle if we don’t start dealing with them in an organized manner. The modern world believes in democracy and free elections, but what can we expect of the voters? Can they be rational and see things correctly in this situation? Eventually it will force the governments to make changes…
[102783]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/14/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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In the News (from Los Angeles Times): “With decades ahead of them in the job market, more than half of millennials stay awake at night chewing over all manner of worries, according to a study.

“Those 18- to 33-year-olds actually stress out more than older generations, the American Psychological Assn. concluded in its new study. Slightly more than 50% said that overwhelming worries disrupted their sleep in the past month.

“A dour economy is top of mind for young people, with work and job stability sending their stress levels soaring. And no wonder — their unemployment rate is 13.1%, well above the overall nation’s 7.8%. …

“Nearly 40% of millennials said their stress shot up in the last year, compared with 33% of baby boomers and 29% of those 67 and older.

“Perhaps reflecting their relative inexperience with the working world, the study found young people were more likely to react to stress with anger or annoyance.”

My Comment: This is only the beginning of another great American problem: a big disappointment in capitalism and in the society of great and equal opportunities, and the collapse of the American dream. There is an urgent need to include the entire population in the “process” of correcting themselves by fostering a correct perception of the new world and society. Otherwise, all the energy of the masses will be aimed at destruction.

Society cannot be left unattended; it needs to be taken care of as if caring for a child; the country must bring everybody to study the behavior in the conditions of the new world: the environment (climate), our nature (the laws of society), and the required change in man’s attitude towards the environment (personal correction).
[102445]

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Question: Today, many people are misled by “green” dreams, such as “We are ravaging our planet’s resources. Let’s stop and preserve the environment for our children.”

Answer: On one hand, I share this opinion. On the other hand, we see that it is not quite so. Many people’s interests are involved in this issue, and they stay on both sides of the “green” front. Now and then, the fight for a green planet triggers more harm than ecological damages per se.

First of all, we must figure out exactly how we are destroying nature. Does it happen because of our relationships or due to technogenic consequences?

At a certain point in time, Malthusians and demographers screamed that the Earth won’t be able to feed us, and, yet, we have an abundance of food now to such an extent that some governments subsidize farmers who agree voluntarily to produce less food products. In fact, if we were not throwing away lots of food supplies, it would be sufficient to provide for the entire world.

Threats of oil and gas shortages are not quite justified, either, but they help many people earn money on their price fluctuations. Besides that, at this time, we already have developed very effective technologies that provide alternative energy.

As to vast amounts of waste, a new processing industry was created that is quite profitable.

In other words, the current problems are fairly resolvable if we approach them correctly. Baal HaSulam wrote that the Earth has the potential to feed many more people than today.

The problem is that we should organize our society in a proper way. Unless we organize, people will continue starving. Every few seconds, someone dies of hunger. It happens because the world is unable to unite. We simply have no ability to take care of each other.

It means that the root of the problem is not about nature, but, rather, about humans. We must think thoroughly about what exactly must be changed. Let’s stop building external structures and fighting with outside symptoms. Unless we change ourselves internally and educate a new generation of people, nothing will work. We have technologies and agriculture, but the trouble is that each of us takes care of his or herself and safeguards his or her property. One person has water, another has meat, another has salt, the fourth one has matches, and the next one has firewood, but they don’t get together to cook a tasty soup. That’s why people die of hunger.

Question: Does it mean that we simply hide from resolving this problem?

Answer: Our egoism spoils everything. It is the only source of the troubles we go through. Many smart people have tried fighting egoism using different methods and remedies. However, none of these experiments (including the Soviet Union) were successful. Why? It is because, in order to succeed, we need the help of the Upper Force.

The problem is that we must aspire for Nature to change us. For that, we should consent to internal modifications, and agree with the idea that we are not capable of changing ourselves and that only Nature can do it. Moreover, we must appeal to and rely on Nature alone!

In order for us to come to this state of mind, we must unite and try to build a social model that will allow Nature to influence us. Then, Nature will make us smarter and will give us a clearer understanding of what further steps we should take.

Still, it won’t be enough. There is another complicated condition. All of our efforts should be aimed at replenishing Nature. In other words, in essence, we should act not for our own sake. This is a very hard task. Our actions should be focused on the Creator’s sake, oriented to the power of bestowal, that is, Nature. It is our duty to unite with it. We must enhance the power of bestowal in all of reality. This is the goal to which we should completely devote ourselves.

Question: How can we explain these issues to environmental advocates?

Answer: Threats keep growing before our eyes. Global hunger will be triggered by increased food prices. The situation will become worse if we don’t change people and establish new rules of reasonable consumption. In fact, there is an abundance of everything we really need, and, yet, half of the world is deprived of the basic things that are essential for human existence. The situation can be changed only through shifting relationships among people from indifferent and hostile to kind and benevolent.

Accordingly, we must change our attitude to Nature. For that, we should modify a human being, and, only after we manage to achieve it, can we refer to resolving environmental problems.

Nature is one whole. It’s a single complex that consists of four levels: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking. In this hierarchy, human beings occupy the top critical position. Unless we recognize and acknowledge this fact, we won’t be able to begin treating the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature correctly.

It means that we must convey a simple message to environmentalists and “green” advocates: Before anything else, we must change a human being, and then we will be able to improve the rest.

In fact, we destroy nature merely by our thoughts. Therefore, internal modification of relationships among us will work much more effectively than any “green” projects. Nature will revive! We think that nature already has been irreversibly damaged and that it will take thousands of years to heal the wounds of the various ecological systems. It is not true! If we change our thoughts and rise to a higher level of interaction between us, everything quickly will return to normal.
[101652]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/13, “The Peace”

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The current crisis is meant to bring us to the right recognition of the mutual connection and dependency between us. And it is not this economy in the modern example. After all, a real economy is without “bubbles” and excessive luxuries. It is a small percentage of the world’s population producing the basic necessities that we all need: food, clothing, housing, etc. Everything else is not the economy, but rather, additions to confuse people so that others can profit from them. Only a small part of the market provides the basic necessities for everyone’s existence.

But now the truth is being revealed: People are jobless, especially the young. They don’t know what to do with themselves and they acquire a distorted perception of life; after a short while they lose the ability to work. What’s more, they can’t build a family and lead a normal life. Instead they are creating a new culture with new types of recreation.

In short, there is a worldwide social disaster. Today it is being revealed very acutely in Europe, but there are billions waiting in line in other countries including China and India. The US is not an exception either; for example, we can see Detroit, which has become a kind of “ghost town.”

All this brings us to a new society, and if we don’t correct it, if we don’t explain to people how they should organize and what they should do, then they will live in an urban jungle, like animals in the woods. Then humanity will reach correction not by the path of the integral education but by the path of suffering.
[102188]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/13, ”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: Fewer women than men are involved in the current political-economic mess of the modern world. What can they do for the general health of society?

Answer: Women can obligate the men to connect, to be in mutual reciprocity, and to unite into one whole. Then life in a country and the world will work out. If women can connect, they will be able to bring the men to the same state.

On the one hand, it’s much more difficult for a woman, but on the other hand, what’s important is to start. The moment a woman decides “to go for it,” she will dive into the current and strive persistently in the right direction.

For men it is the opposite: It’s easy for them to jump into the water, but it’s very difficult for them to swim since they encounter endless obstacles on the way that need to be corrected. So let’s ask the women to set an example for us and to give us the power we need in order to connect.

On the whole, only the connection between everyone is the key to our success in every area. It isn’t by chance that we say that behind every successful man there is a woman. The women should push the men to connect and to unite. There are no other means.
[102179]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/13, ”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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In the News (from The Verge): “Facebook admitted in its annual 10-K report that it might be losing ‘younger users’ to ‘other products and services similar to, or as a substitute for, Facebook.’ Teens are often an accurate barometer for what’s cool and what’s next, and recent rumblings seem to indicate teens are moving on. Telling your colleagues that teens are no longer into your product is far from an Irish goodbye.

“‘I think it has less to do with kids consciously looking for “the next big thing” than Facebook just no longer being a space that serves them,’ says Laura Portwood-Stacer, author of ‘Media Refusal and Conspicuous Non-Consumption: The Performative and Political Dimensions of Facebook Abstention.’ ‘I think kids are less self-conscious about trying to be cool than marketers would like to think,’ she said. When Facebook launched, it was cool to expose details about yourself, like what movies you like, what you’re doing right now, and who you’re in a relationship with.’…

“Teens have turned to sites like Tumblr and apps like Snapchat and Instagram to communicate. ‘Tumblr is mainly my obsession as of now,’ says 15-year-old Collin Wisniewski. ‘It just seems more intimate and it’s not really a place of bragging, but more of a place of sharing.’… Some data suggests that Tumblr may have already eclipsed Facebook as the most popular social network among 13-25 year-olds.”

My Comment: In our time, people’s desires, especially young people’s desires, change very quickly; so, in the future we will see them attracted to more inner communication, goals, and meaning. It is not the result of our education; it does not exist, but is the consequence of natural instinctive development of the desire in humans. New desires will trigger new needs and will lead to the need to find meaning in communication, instead of gatherings on social networks.
[102110]

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In the News (from The Telegraph): “A study, into 40,000 adults across ten years, has found those with low expectations for a “satisfying future” actually led healthier lives.

“In contrast, people who were “overly optimistic” about the days ahead had a greater risk of disability or death within ten years.

“The extraordinary research, published by the American Psychological Association, will not doubt prove comfort to anyone with a tendency to grumpiness.

“Frieder R. Lang, lead author of the study from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany, said: ‘Our findings revealed that being overly optimistic in predicting a better future was associated with a greater risk of disability and death within the following decade.
“Pessimism about the future may encourage people to live more carefully, taking health and safety precautions. …

“Older people, who tended to have a ‘darker outlook’ on the future, were shown to be the most accurate in their predictions, with optimistic youngsters overestimating their success. …

“Previous studies have suggested that ‘unrealistic optimism’ about the future can help people feel better while facing inevitable negative outcomes, such as terminal disease.”

My Comment: Pessimism about one’s forces but optimism about the forces of society with which one is connected is the optimal approach to reality.
[101882]

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Opinion (Mikhail Reshetnikov, Professor, Rector of the East European Institute of Psychoanalysis, St.-Petersburg): “Scientists talk about social issues – the emergence of a new type of men: a hybrid of the spoiled son and a cowboy, fighting for space under the sun. Concern is caused not by their infantilism, but a tendency to be aggressive in the desire to succeed.

“In the former USSR, the state made decisions and did everything instead of people. Since the time when the state has ceased to be the most powerful ‘parent,’ men themselves have to carry the entire burden of establishing their own life. In Western society before the crisis, everything was clear and divided as well.

“But today, upbringing by the family is lost; 50% of households are single parents; parents and educators are replaced by the TV and Internet, which promote aggressive behavior, the desire to win by force and at any cost. Young people do not have a positive image of the future. In the crisis of modern society we have lost a vision of the social ladder – a degree and knowledge do not help break through. And even a greater crisis is ahead!”

My Comment: Only education will help us support young people, to fill them with a good attitude to life and the world, to show values other than material ones, to instill a desire to receive fulfillment from communication, from the revelation of higher existence, with an equal and fair distribution in which there is no room for struggle and competition. Nature has left us opportunities only for this scenario of life. Our success depends on how much we can fit into this model.
[101344]

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Question: There is the concept “motivation” that means the inner desires of a person. And there is the concept ”influence,” which is when we influence a fellow worker to awaken different kinds of desires in him. In any case, where does the motivation of the workers and managers need to come from: the inside or the outside?

Answer: It should come not from the workers or the managers, but from the experts in the study of integral education who work for this company and understand what more they can do in order to create fulfillment within a team. Man needs to feel a reward not at the end of the month when he receives a paycheck, but directly while he is working.

“I work together with everyone. Interesting events are set up for us, candies are distributed during work, presents are sent to my wife and children,” etc.

All of these are small things. But together with this, a person feels warmth, feels reward. For him, work turns into a continuation of the family. Since the family is mine, I am prepared to give to it! I work for its sake! And the more I work, the more pleasure I receive from my giving to it. And even by chopping away at myself! It has an additional effect, meaning, the effect of self-sacrifice. There is something like this in a person, especially in Russia.

But one needs to use this with extreme caution, delicately, so that it creates these fulfillments and abundance in a person so that he will appreciate the work thanks to its inner feeling that would attract a person and connect him to a place. It would give him motivation to feel that he works in a family and for the sake of the family. Maybe it’s a false feeling, but if it appears, then the person doesn’t obstruct his fellow workers, doesn’t ruin the society’s equipment, saves electricity, etc.

Suddenly we discover these reservoirs and opportunities in it that we don’t even need to force him to save or do something else according to instructions. It won’t work that way!

And as if here, everything is done automatically. The main thing is to awaken this motivation in a person, this feeling that he works in the environment just like he does at home! This feeling invites huge resources.
[101204]
From KabTV’s “Professional Secrets” 2/6/13

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