Entries in the 'World' Category

Correction Of The World, Part 1

Dr. Michael LaitmanDefining the problem: The free fall of the world into a global crisis and a threatening lack of natural resources (oil, water, and so on) make it necessary to transform the global economy into an economy of reasonable consumption.

Many people, including businessmen, economists, politicians, and others agree with this conclusion. However, no one can imagine the possibility of human existence without competition, according to the principle of “to each according to his needs.” It’s even more difficult to envision a peaceful, coordinated transition to reasonable, limited production and consumption.

The future appears to be a society of reasonable consumption created by a few survivors of the world war. Is a peaceful transition to the practice of reasonable consumption an option?

The solution to a peaceful transition to a reasonable consumption: We need to create a critical mass of intelligent people who realize that the current system no longer works. The role (cause) of the crisis is to radically increase the number of people prepared to assess the real problems wisely and sensibly.

The main task during this period is to maximize the number of people who are conscious of the problem, explaining the actual mechanisms that operate in the world so that their attitude to the world will be objective, constructive, and based on the correct value system. This period ends when the number of people comprehending humanity’s problem correctly becomes large enough to produce a significant impact on society.

Development of a model society of reasonable consumption, ensuring its normal development: The model consists of economic and spiritual parts. Spiritual development and fulfillment have to compensate for the human need for economic growth beyond what is necessary.

Implementation of the model:

  1. Creating and improving an education network. Teaching about life according to the developed model of a society of reasonable consumption.
  2. Actual implementation.

Urgent tasks:
Today, we are in the middle of the first of the four phases:

  • The development of a network structure that would explain the critical state of humanity and the only sustainable model of the future society to the adult population. Defining the principles of integral education of children, which are necessary for providing them with survival skills in the new (integral) conditions of nature.
  • The development of an economic model.
  • The development of a spiritual model.
  • The promotion of the economic and spiritual models to the world through the network structure.
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Learning Isn’t For Us, Is It?

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn truth, humankind has not made a single real step in pursuit of happiness. Since I aspire to happiness, I have to first of all understand what it is. What is that happiness in nature that I must reach? I should understand that everything is programmed in such a way that all the resources and laws of nature are at my disposal. All I need is to use them correctly and I will achieve happiness.

Instead, however, humankind sets artificial targets and attempts to act at its sole discretion, like a child who just “wants” something no matter what. We don’t study the laws of nature or wish to abide by them, and we are not willing to accept the existence of a single global system. We recognize physical laws and other facts of the natural sciences, but the laws of human interrelationships are nonsense for us. We deny them indiscriminately.

Family breakdown continues and depression advances. However, we are sure that the matter has nothing to do with the laws of nature: “I didn’t drop it; it fell down.” People can barely reconcile themselves with the fact that they are in a system that works on them and binds them with thousands of shackles. And we have no other choice but to study the laws of nature. The better we can follow them, the more we can achieve. When people comply with all of them fully, they reach the point of harmony and perfection. However, a person doesn’t want to listen: “I will do it my own way; learning isn’t for me.”

Troubles will teach us anyway. In this sense, humankind is not smarter than a stubborn, unruly child. Thirty years ago, international forums warned about the need for urgent changes in society and our attitude towards the environment. However, nothing has been done since then. The child is stubborn by nature; he still lacks understanding. But the “mighty of the world” who seem to have grown up, on the contrary, demonstrate their narrow-mindedness….
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/11/2011, “Peace in the World”

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A “Round” World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Everything depends on our desire. So how can we come out of our “standard set” of desires which are stuck in this world?

Answer: We don’t perceive the world as “round.” We are still under the illusion that it is linear and that we can be successful in it with the help of our ego. But the world now operates under a different program, and the only way to achieve success is through unity. This is a completely different algorithm of the world, but we still “don’t get it.”

For thousands of years man achieved success based on the size of his ego, but in the past 50 years this trend has run its course. We are moving ever further into an integral world, and in an integral world he who is more connected to others makes the most profit. We see that the more connections one establishes, the more countries one gets involved, the more successful one is. People feel this instinctively and gravitate toward integral solutions.

However, we still don’t realize that the solution from our sorrows necessitates our connection on the human level, above the banking system, global industry, and other global mechanisms. This situation began to materialize following the Second World War, when the United Nations, UNESCO, and other international organizations were founded. However, even they are still operating with egoistic methods, instead of adopting an integral, all-embracing approach.

In essence, all countries need equality. Why should some countries have the veto power over any decision, while others don’t? So what if someone is bigger and someone else is smaller? On the contrary, in a “round” system, the bigger ones ought to be more compromising since otherwise, they only care about themselves.

Our approach is completely twisted, and yet we are beginning to feel that the world is becoming truly “round,” integral, and interconnected.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/11/2011, “Peace in the World”

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The Urge To Unite

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday humanity is trying to unite. People instinctively understand that together is better than alone. Different countries are trying to make agreements over and over again, to enter a union that will make them stronger and more successful. But do they succeed in doing this? In the end we see that this leads to conflicts and even wars. The problem remains: We do not know how to unite.

However, the urge to consolidate has naturally permeated humanity for many years already. This is the partnership that is inherent to nations and people: I guard myself and yet I still see that it’s worth it for me to unite with others. Together we will create a monopoly and become stronger than everyone else.

This drive that has not grown any weaker will eventually bring us to such enormous troubles that nature itself will show us the need to unite. It is revealing to us that we have to merge into a single, global, integral whole, to totally complete one another, to become perfect, whole, and accept the “round world” where all the parts are interconnected.

If nature puts the challenge this way, then how should we now build human society? After all, the problem of egoism is concentrated only in human society. This is the only place where egoism works against unity. As a result, we discover that we are incapable of uniting.

Why did the Creator put a stumbling block in front of us, making us different and unlike one another? If we were the same, everything would be clear: Every person gives a certain amount and receives a certain amount, and the matter is settled.

Yet we are different, and therefore we have to ascend above egoism and activate the intention for the sake of bestowal, without any connection to personal benefit. Only on this condition will man be completely able to unite with others. Then he will reach bestowal for the sake of bestowal, and then—reception for the sake of bestowal. Only if every person takes this path will perfect unity emerge among us.

This is why we were not created the same: because otherwise we would solve the problem on the material, animate level and would become tantamount to ants in an anthill.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/12/11, “The Peace”

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Unity For All

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion from Moscow: What does it mean to desire to unite? And what does unity feel like?

Answer: Apparently these questions are coming from our Moscow group in anticipation of the upcoming convention in Moscow. What does it mean to unite? Why? Why are we holding this convention? The question is correct.

Why should we unite? To be frank, this is impossible to explain. If a person has a Reshimo (informational gene) that remained in him from the unity he once experienced while being in the common desire, where he once revealed the Creator and then lost this sensation, and now this Reshimo is awakening again, then he desires to return to this state. “I want it!”

For example, some people like eating frogs. Well, what can you do…. I don’t have this desire, but to them it is a heavenly delight. That is exactly how the desire for spirituality emerges. It awakens—and that’s all. What can you do?… One person starts feeling a desire for frogs, and another—for spirituality. This desire awakens from the inside and it does not depend on us.

Why would someone start feeling a desire to eat frogs? It’s because he once tasted it and felt a pleasant taste, got used it, received the corresponding upbringing—and now he desires this.

But another person was in spirituality at some point and a Reshimo has remained in him, and now it awakens. That is why it is impossible to explain what unity feels like to people who don’t have a Reshimo from the spiritual state. But it is possible to show them that it’s worth it to unite with one another because that way we will come out of the general crisis, and therefore, it’s worth it for them to join those who are setting out to correct the world’s current state. After all, they will also benefit from this.

This is what we have to tell people. They don’t understand what spirituality means, or the Creator, adhesion, unity, the feeling of perfection, eternity, harmony with nature, the upper spheres…. This is meaningless to them so they will tell you, “Leave me alone! Just give me something in this life—peace, safety, good health. I don’t need anything else!” Every person speaks based on his desire.

When you are speaking to that kind of person, you have to show him that he also won’t be able to fulfill his desire unless he goes together with everyone toward unification because this is what the global, integral nature demands. We have evidence to rely on and ways to explain this to him. Therefore, you tell him that the world requires unity because this is what nature demands. You have to speak to a person on his level instead of telling him about the Creator and spirituality. Due to having no other way, he will also join in. But every person has to be addressed according to his or her desire.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/11/11, The Zohar

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Spiritual Compensation As A Guarantee To Success

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can it be so that the social structure itself may become one of the obstacles on the path of advancement on the spiritual ladder?

Answer: In other words, how can we move from the egoistic world to the spiritual one with balanced consumption? This is a multi-layered process. Right now, we face the first one of them, when humanity begins to understand that it has to restrict itself because the riches of natural resources and nature in general don’t belong to individuals or states.

But for seven billion people to exist on Earth and not to “eat each other up,” we have to reach equilibrium not only among ourselves, but also between us and nature. This is already clear to all people of good sense. The problem is in how to transition to it.

Transition as such is essentially egoistic. We might be able to help them with it, but I think that this transition will occur as it did in many countries already. Have you seen how a million people came out to the streets and changed the environment, society, and the government?

We are yet to witness how immigrants will flood Europe and swallow it completely. Do you think the United States is that far from Africa or South America? Not at all. And since nature forces us into balance with each other and with itself, we don’t have a choice. Nature works toward homeostasis, and it’s not up to us.

So far, it doesn’t pertain to spiritual correction, and this very process is necessary for us to exist. If I don’t want to fear that my neighbor might come to kill me, it’s beneficial for me to share my wealth out of necessity.

The hope that the arms and force the developed countries possess will help them is illusory. Rome, which was even more powerful, still fell. The question is: How can we transition to the next stage when we discover that we are unable to distribute wealth fairly as nature dictates? How will we compensate man and his egoistic desires to get bigger, more powerful, and wealthier?  What will we sustain it with?  What will we sustain him with? After all, people can’t stay at the animate level of evolution since our ego keeps growing and demanding even more.

Humanity has no solution to the issue: What compensation can we offer to those who will realize the need for a fair distribution? What will satisfy their ego? If we want everyone to remain as animals, to be the same, we thereby destroy man because the “human” level is above that of the “beast” in each of us. There has to be spiritual compensation, and only the wisdom of Kabbalah can provide it.

But we all know that 90 years ago, in Russia, they wanted to achieve the same by making a revolution. But as a result, a regular person didn’t get compensated for it. Why should he be satisfied with a typical apartment, an average salary that provides for his retirement plan, and a normal vacation time? Why should he be equal with others and be happy with just what he has?

For the time being, we advance according to the program of nature, in order to gradually present it to humanity in the degree that it will realize that it has no other option: It has to come to a relatively equal distribution. Therefore, if we don’t offer man spiritual compensation, we won’t be able to implement the law of balance with nature. And to do so, we will need the knowledge of the wisdom of Kabbalah.
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From Lesson 5, WE! Convention 4/2/2011

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Egyptian Bondage As Big As The Universe

Dr. Michael LaitmanPharaoh and all of his ministers are the Creator’s loyal slaves, meaning “angels” or the forces that realize the program of creation. They carry out the orders of the upper force, the Creator, since besides Him, nothing else exists. But for now, the Creator is placing Pharaoh with all his loyalty as a ruler to work for the Creator and rule over man in this world instead of Him, in order to give us the sensation of darkness and bring us to the need to reveal the opposite force, that of love and bestowal.

Right now, Pharaoh himself is being revealed in our world. Before, only his helpers, his ministers, were being revealed to us. We did not hear about Pharaoh himself until the actual end of the “Egyptian exile,” when it suddenly became announced that “a new king has risen over Egypt.” Until then, certain directors and ministers were in control.

The same also happened in the history of mankind. We were influenced by different smaller forces which pushed the development of human society: new inventions, the discovery of new continents, new technologies, until we reached a global world. And here Pharaoh is beginning to reveal himself: He is the force that prevents and does not let us unite.

Many people around the world already feel that salvation lies only in connection. We see that, given such a degree of interdependence, we are not left with any other choice since the world has become so global. The only way to improve life is to come together. We don’t have any other choice when we depend on each other so much. We won’t be able to divorce one another like in a failed marriage and go our own way. We are living on a single, tiny globe, and we have nowhere to go: We are locked up, like in a cage.

But we are unable to agree with one another in this world, create a common world government, or achieve somewhat of a single opinion, and we constantly argue. And these disagreements will not end; they will only keep growing.

It will be very strange seeing it because everyone really depends on one another: Europe, America, the Arab countries, Asia, Russia, Japan, China. Is it really that difficult to gather in one place, have another “G-50,” and come to some kind of a common agreement? Otherwise, the world will simply go back to the initial “chaos and darkness.”

But people will not manage to come to an agreement. The force of evil will keep getting in the way and stand between them, and they will not be able to understand how they can connect. They will only reveal their inability to connect and will not learn how to attain it. This is because revealing the “means” of connection is the same as revealing the upper force, the only thing that can connect us. This is the state we are heading towards.

This will not be a simple time. So far, people are somehow managing to continue living as before, as if the world has not become global and they can continue to exist without taking the interests of everyone else into consideration. But our development must absolutely lead us to unification. Yet there will be no strength to unite. This is where Pharaoh, who is separating us, will be revealed.

And then, as it is written in the story of Egyptian bondage, “they will cry out (this time it will be the sons of the entire world),” not knowing what to do. And here they will reveal that there is a method, the wisdom of Kabbalah, which reveals the Creator to the creatures in this world.

After all, we won’t be able to have even a very ordinary life in this world without revealing this force. We simply will not be able to exist: We will consume one another. It is in this way that the need for Kabbalah, as the means of revealing the Creator, will be revealed. And we will learn that the world was created this way and has undergone this development only to become like the Creator and unite with Him while striving to reveal Him. The entire program of creation will be realized thereby.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/2011, Writings of Rabash

 

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Globalistics

Dr. Michael LaitmanGlobalistics is a study of common problems of humanity. It appeared out of an analysis of problems that have appeared after World War II. The analysis showed the beginning of global processes in the world. Their solution required the participation of all humanity, where its further existence depends on solving the problems.

These problems have always existed but in a local form, and now they have acquired a global nature as a consequence of human integration. Global problems are not caused by what seems to be natural human development, but are programmed into the development of society by nature.

The globalization of problems comes from the emergence of integrated world dependencies and cannot be solved by a single country or a group of countries that are isolated from the rest. Globalization also manifests in their integration since it is impossible to solve one problem without solving all the others.

Globalization of problems forces us to use a global method to examine and solve them. Decisions must be based on the fact that the interests of humanity as a whole always and in every way prevail over the interests of any of its parts. Protectionism and competition should be rejected. Instead, we must create complete interconnections at a global scale and get rid of all the barriers between nations and people.

But it is the global problems in particular that help us see humanity as a global integrated system and reveal the opposition between “humanity and nature” to us.

Until now, all the strategies of human survival called for a cutback in the economic and demographic growth. Others proposed to realize this by region in order to level out all the world regions with time. Gradually, the inability of all the approaches to solve the global problems becomes apparent. This is because they can only be solved with an integral force, and only after rising above all the barriers of humanity.

Roland Robertson, the first person to use the term “globalization” in 1983, believed that a global consciousness is being formed in people, and it will change humanity completely. This can be done either through the impact of enormous suffering or through the dissemination of Kabbalah, the method of the correction of egoism as the source of all problems that arise.
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Whose Holiday Is It?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What should I do if I am not Jewish and I don’t celebrate Passover?

Answer: Go ahead, celebrate it—what’s the problem? Why can’t you be related to it? After all, you belong to “Israel,” the desire that aspires straight to the Creator (Yashar-El).

Besides, you can celebrate this holiday in honor of the fact that there used to be a group of Kabbalists that went through the entire path of corrections and then broke up in order to help us re-ascend again today. By celebrating Passover, we associate ourselves with this group: not with a nation, but namely with a group of Kabbalists.

Every person wishing to climb out of the current state into the spiritual world has to respect and value this group, which has gone through the path and written books with instructions for us that we can use to advance forward as well. We celebrate and honor our teachers, without any connection to national belonging. We belong to this group and want to be related to it.

Later, when we enter the spiritual world, we will discover that we are together with them, that our group does not only include the friends from the whole world, but also them. Mostly they are all the Kabbalists of all the generations who once turned away from Babylon in order to take the spiritual path. And we are in their group.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/11, Writings of Rabash

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Available Only Now – A Spiritual Loan At Profitable Conditions!

Dr. Michael LaitmanI can say with hope and confidence that we are standing at the threshold of real spiritual actions. If we convince ourselves that they become revealed inside of the interconnection among us and this is where the Creator is revealed, if we desire this, then all the opportunities are right in front of us.

The entrance has been opened to us from above and now it is our turn to take a few steps to come inside. And these steps are pretty easy to make because they are ensured by unification. It’s not that every person is walking forward by himself, but he is going inwards, toward our common center where we will reveal the Creator through our mutual push toward love, empathy, and mutual bestowal.

The time really has come. I am not comparing myself to Abraham or Moses, but the states that become revealed appear the same as back then. Let us make efforts and you will see this actually happening.

We are starting to make mutual actions which bring us the revelation of the Torah, meaning the revelation of the Light which corrects the evil inclination and reveals the Creator inside of us.

I am talking about this completely seriously. Even 9 to 12 months ago this did not seem so realistic and practical to me, but now I see that we are undoubtedly capable of this. We have received the permission from above and now it all depends on us: Will we take this upon ourselves or not? Neglect would be a very grave mistake that would bring about great trouble.

I very much hope that the holiday of Passover, my visits to the groups outside of Israel, the Moscow Convention, and other events will serve as a big, good preparation. This is possible. Everything is open to us and the whole world is helping us. Everything that is happening in the world is just help to push us forward.

However, we have to be careful. In one of his letters Baal HaSulam writes the following to his student, “A year ago your state was much better, but now you are in a descent. However, don’t lose faith in mercy. Maybe you will succeed again.”

Now the time of awakening from above has come and an opportunity is being given to us. However, we have to attach the awakening from below to this. There can never be any indulgences in this regard.

Awakening from above is a very big help. That’s because you don’t have to convince the Creator that you have a good desire. He gives you the opportunity Himself, “Just ask Me and I will pay for it.” You can take the merchandise, the shopkeeper will record your debt in the book, and you will pay for it later. First enter spirituality and then you will pay it back.

That is how we advance. After all, we can’t manage without the spiritual force, but when we do have it then we can make spiritual actions and will return the debt later. Now we have the chance to receive a loan and to acquire the spiritual world. And later on we will pay for it—there’s no problem.

So let us hope that we will understand what kind of opportunity we have before us. It will be unforgivable to lose it by not uniting as we should.

This very much depends on how we use our time. The present moment is very important. And you shouldn’t look around at the external world, waiting for it to move forward today or tomorrow. That is not up to us.
From the talk at the evening meal on 4/9/11

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