Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can architecture better serve the social, economic, political and environmental concerns of our present and future?“

The effectiveness of architecture, as with any other art, science and technology that we have developed, depends exclusively on the intention that we apply to its use.

It is not arts, sciences or technologies themselves that are good or bad. Rather, it depends on whether their producers use them for benefit or harm.

Therefore, when we will understand that it is most beneficial to take care of our necessities, and to give everything else to society’s benefit, then we will stop excessively using architecture. Just the opposite, we will do everything incredibly effectively, realistically, and will invert other excesses to favor human society.

This is a tendency that we will witness in architecture, and generally in all spheres of human activity. If we will change the person, then architecture and other arts, sciences and technologies will also assume a different form and appearance.

Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 9, 2006. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Filed under: Q&A, Quora | Add Comment / Ask Question →

In the News (New York Times): “What will our future look like — not in a century but in a mere two decades?

“Terrifying, if you’re to believe Yuval Noah Harari, the Israeli historian and author of ‘Sapiens’ and ‘Homo Deus,’ a pair of audacious books that offer a sweeping history of humankind and a forecast of what lies ahead: an age of algorithms and technology… .

“Just as the Industrial Revolution created the working class, automation could create a ‘global useless class,’ Mr. Harari said, and the political and social history of the coming decades will revolve around the hopes and fears of this new class. Disruptive technologies, which have helped bring enormous progress, could be disastrous if they get out of hand. …”

My Response: People will be replaced by machines everywhere. Today even the question is raised whether it is necessary to launch people into space. After all, 90% of the equipment in a spacecraft is necessary to support human life. What for?!

A machine will handle everything by itself. You can launch it anywhere. It will withstand any overloads, will be able to work in any circumstances, and will collect everything you need. It does not need to sleep, take tons of food with it, and take care of oxygen or anything else.

Today it is all beginning to be perceived in a completely different way. No need for these lyrics, flying somewhere, to some distant stars. A device will fly, film everything, and transmit everything.

(The Guardian): “Yuval Noah Harari examines ‘the useless class’ and a new quest for purpose

“The crucial problem isn’t creating new jobs. The crucial problem is creating new jobs that humans perform better than algorithms. Consequently, by 2050 a new class of people might emerge – the useless class. People who are not just unemployed, but unemployable.”

My Response: The whole problem is in the elites that make money on these people. If the elites did not think that they constantly need more and more “pieces of paper” or gold to put somewhere, then there would be no problem getting rid of a huge number of people.

And so these people are necessary for the elite in order to earn even more. This is the whole problem: how to “make sure the wolves are fed and the sheep are safe.”

This, of course, cannot be done. So the elite’s goal is to reduce the population so that they themselves suffer no damage. I think you can already see how they are beginning to find an approach to this.
[279597]
From KabTV’s “Challenges of the 21st century” 4/24/19

Related Material:
Basic Income For Everyone
An Unconditional Basic Income
No To Unemployment, Yes To The Real Work

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, Globalization | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Prophets, Joshua 13:6: All the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth-maim, and all the Sidonians, I will drive them out from before the children of Israel; only divide it by lot to the Israelites for an inheritance, as I have commanded you.

Question: What does it mean to not destroy, but rather to banish a desire?

Answer: It’s about working with intentions. Desires remain, they cannot be destroyed in any way. Above every desire, the intention must be changed.

If I stop working with some egoistic intention, then this desire dies off, it means “drive him out of this place.” It no longer feels what it can rule over. And then I start to revive it, revive it to work for the sake of bestowal.

To expel is to remove the desire itself so that there is no connection between it and the egoistic intention. And then the desire remains in a completely amorphous, suspended form, and its egoistic intention disappears.

But when the intention is corrected, then it is already possible to work with the desire again. This is called the complete conquest of the land.
[286604]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/2/21

Related Material:
Transformation Of Intentions
In Contradiction With The Laws Of The Land Of Israel
“And Moses, The Servant Of The Lord, Died There”

Filed under: Spiritual Work, Torah | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Prophets, Joshua, 13:1: Now Joshua was old, advanced in years; and the Lord said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to be possessed.”

Joshua was old means that his degree had worked itself out. He could no longer be a leader of those desires that would now be revealed. This means followers were needed.

Joshua does not have the strength to cope with the desires that are revealed now in the land of Israel. Therefore, he was no longer able to be in the place of Moses, as he had been all these years. He conquered as many egoistic desires as he could, corrected them to altruistic ones, and he cannot advance farther.

A person feels that there are such desires in front of him that he cannot lead them. He feels that this is not for him, that he is an old man, and this is not his job!

Nevertheless, the work must continue, there must be the next generation. So it is, generation after generation. What is meant here is not a change of a person, but a change of system of how to move forward.

Let us say that Joshua worked on level one of egoism and now we need to work on level two. He does not understand and does not know how to work with it. This is not his nature.

This is called that he has aged because he is not ready for this. The only solution is to pass it on to others.
[286544]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/2/21

Related Material:
Joshua’s Spirit Of Wisdom
“And The Lord Appeared In A Pillar Of Cloud”
Entering The Land Of Israel

Filed under: Spiritual Work, Torah | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: How does the goal of creation to bring the created beings pleasure, go along with the steamroller of development, pain, and terrible afflictions, which operate in unbelievable cruelty?

Answer: Who has the Creator promised that everything will be fine? Only those who choose the way of getting closer to Him.

Getting closer to the Creator’s attributes guarantees each of us the entrance to completely different natural conditions, to the feeling of life, of our existence, of nature, in a totally different manner. But if a person does not engage in that, he will surely feel like all the beasts and animals living in our world. He will have nothing left.

The Creator does not promise paradise to everyone, and certainly not for free, because a person does not have the attributes by which he can feel spiritual life. He can do so only if he understands how to attain the good states. A person is given the opportunity to do so.

This is the reason there are two authorities. On one hand there is the authority of the rigid control of nature as its developing forces operate on us like a steamroller, and we cannot escape them. On the other hand, we can develop by preceding this development, which means by moving in front of the steamroller, by understanding the forces of our development, and participating in the process constructively.

Question: How can there be two authorities if there is only one authority that manages everything by the upper force?

Answer: Yes, but that authority also enables us to yearn for it more and faster than it manages us.
[251536]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 7/14/19

Related Material:
How To Reduce Suffering
Is It Possible To Advance Without Suffering?
Why Did The Creator Make The Evil Inclination?

Filed under: Free Will, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

In the article “Peace in the World” Baal HaSulam writes: But in truth, the naturally strong and nimble in society benefit from the labor of others and exploit them maliciously against the attribute of truth, for they labor very little compared to the weak and lazy in society.

This is how people serve each other: I serve the one who is above me, the one below serves me, and so on, according to the hierarchy.

The only problem is whether everyone is happy with their place. Does each understand that he has nowhere else to go and that it is better for him to be satisfied with it? After all, our body constantly requires filling. There is egoism inside it that cannot be placated because it is growing all the time and requires change. This constantly confuses us. I cannot stop at any level of development. This is the source of the problem.

Comment: Nature arranged it in such a way that there are strong, domineering personalities and weak ones who are only able to serve them. In principle, by their nature, they are not capable of anything else.

My Response: Each person has his own place in society, and we must agree with this. The fact is that everything is really established in us by nature, but we can use it in different ways. The fact that people are created unequal does not mean that some are better, others are worse, or that a better place is prepared in advance for some and for others it is the opposite.

It is necessary to use everyone correctly so that everyone understands their place and is satisfied with it. As the medieval Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli wrote: “Man, do not complain at fate. Be content and accept it. Let the warrior always be brave, let the worker enjoy his labor.”
Everyone has their own place.
[286526]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Hope for Peace” 9/9/09

Related Material:
How To Build Equal Relations In Society?
Conditional Equality
Equality And Diversity

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: I have been studying for over two years now and only lately did I hear that once I am in a ten, I will have to be in it for the rest of my life.

Answer: No, we have never said anything like that. There is no problem, you can change tens, but the most important thing here is to try to work with one all the time.

I will say one thing only: when you work in a regular ten, you accumulate material to work on. You are committed to them and they are committed to you. That is, qualitatively speaking, you advance better this way.

It seems to us that this is a problem only in our world. Not really! The Creator places different attributes in you, all kinds of new conditions, shatterings and corrections according to the ten you are in and according to the way you relate to it.

So, on one hand, you must try to adhere to the ten so that you are able to totally melt in them internally, and on the other hand, you will be able to fully gather them like a mother who gathers her youngsters, externally. This is how you express your attitude to the Creator, because as a result, you will discover the Creator in the ten.
[251525]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 2/12/19

Related Material:
The Ten —The Only Love
A Whole Group Of Ten
Everything Is Within The Group Of Ten

Filed under: Group Work, Spiritual Work, The Tens | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Lowliness and Subjugation” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 22

Selected Highlights

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3 Audio

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog | Add Comment / Ask Question →

In the News (Forbes): “BET founder Robert Johnson argued Monday that ‘now is the time’ for white America to acknowledge damages resulting from slavery, and for the U.S. Government to provide reparations in the sum of a $14 trillion wealth transfer to help prevent the country from splitting into separate and unequal societies. …

“Johnson has long been an advocate pf reparations. ‘I’m not new to this challenge.’ He said he’s not advocating ‘more bureaucratic programs that don’t deliver and don’t perform,’ adding ‘I’m talking about cash. We are a society based on wealth. That’s the foundation of capitalism.’ In November of 2019, Leaders of the New Jersey’s Legislative Black Caucus introduced a bill that would establish a Reparations Task Force, which would aim to research the history of slavery within the state, any racial discrimination that stemmed from it, and how the state could help make up for it. According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted last year, 63% of Americans believe the legacy of slavery affects the position of black people in American society today either ‘a great deal or a fair amount.’

Question:  Will this put an end to racism? What can these proposals lead to?

Answer: To the end of the world. When everyone starts demanding what they supposedly deserve, even billionaires, there will be no end to it. Everyone will start whetting their appetites against one another. No, you can’t do that! It is foolish to rethink the whole of history in this way.

Question: Are you in favor of people turning this period in history around without looking back and turning it into a clean slate?

Answer: I am in favor of reinterpreting the whole of history. To reinterpret history in action, that is, in fact, we were like that under the influence of our egoistic inclination. And now, when we realize its insignificance, perniciousness, inferiority, and so forth, we are moving on to the next degree of coexistence where we will simply help each other, get closer to each other, without any complaints about the past.

Comment: Without reparations, without looking back at what happened.

My Response: It’s endless!

Question: So only such a revision of history based on egoism, right?

Answer: Yes. The past cannot be bought with money, just as the future cannot be built with this money.

Question: I see, only to understand human nature and start coming closer to one another?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Who will take the first step? It’s so clear and correct. It feels like this is how it should be!

Answer: I don’t know. Whoever will gain awareness of it.

Question: A leader who will become aware of it, right?

Answer: A leader? I don’t know. By the time he reaches leadership, he can no longer be aware of anything. He’s already bought by that same egoism.

Question: So that is a dead end?

Answer: For now, yes. But there around the bend something should open up. Say, some kind of virus or a force can appear that will lead us to the awareness of the insignificance of our nature and the need to change it. And not to correct anything by the approach, “You will pay me, and I’ll be nice.” This is not the way.
[286201]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/8/21

Related Material:
How To Get Rid Of National Prejudices?
How Can Nationalism And Racism Be Prevented?
Overcome Prejudice

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, News | Add Comment / Ask Question →