Entries in the 'nature' Category

How To Overcome The Global Crisis


Globalization is the revelation of a new level of connection between us. It should be beneficial, but we see that it only brings us more and more problems. Why does this happen? It’s because we are using the global integral system backwards: in order to build ourselves up by bringing others down, instead of learning to work together. We are always trying to defeat, degrade, and be better than others.

This is happening because we have evolved to a point of total interconnection with each other, yet out interconnection is opposite to Nature, which is united. That’s because the interaction between us is absolutely egoistic: every person is ready to devour everyone else. However, the law of the system states that all of its parts must work together, in a coordinated fashion, according to the principle of “consider others as you consider yourself.”

When we attempt to build our interactions according to the most honest principle: “what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours,” humanity as a system will deteriorate and we will elicit an even greater crisis. That’s because today, in our global interconnection, an egoistically honest person, business, bank, government, or regulator just “don’t work.”

So what should we do? We should consider the laws of the integral, locked system, which is like one body, and gradually correct ourselves according to it. In practical terms, this means:

  • Arranging distribution so every person will receive only as much as he needs,
  • Instituting a universal education system that teaches people about the law of humanity’s existence in a closed system.

Even the first movements we make in this direction will put an end to our opposition to Nature and bring us to harmony with it. Then the crises and suffering will vanish. Actually, the present crisis frees up enough people and forces in order to realize this project. Knowledge about the world we have suddenly found ourselves in will be met by everyone with understanding. The crisis taking place now has prepared us for this. Today we have to be reeducated about how to live in a closed, interconnected system, where “everyone is in one boat,” where the salvation of every person depends on everyone. We have to learn – and teach our children – about the new world.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Baal HaSulam on Human Nature
Laitman.com Post: Only the Creator’s Revelation Can Correct the World
Kabbalah Today Article: Globalization 101

We Can Fly Over The Plagues Of Egypt


Questions I received on spirituality during the crisis:

Question: I’ve been studying Kabbalah for several years. It was very easy for me to say that everything that happens, no matter how bad, is only meant to shows us where we strayed off the path – until something bad happened to me. With the possibility of being fired looming over me, my thoughts immediately strayed from the study and I’m having difficulty perceiving the lessons correctly. How do I keep moving in the right direction when all my thoughts are about how to pay rent and feed my children? And on a larger scale, can’t the crisis push many people away from Kabbalah? I mean, who cares about spirituality when your belly is empty?

My Answer: Evidently we have to continue building our path toward the Creator precisely out of these states and doubts. You will feel the rest for yourself from your states, and you’ll feel it even stronger than before.

Question: The Torah states that the Egyptian plagues passed over the houses of the Jews. Does this mean that now, in the time of imminent blows, people who study Kabbalah will feel these blows (plagues) in their corporeal life to a lesser degree?

My Answer: There’s no doubt that every person in the world who studies Kabbalah and aspires to draw nearer to the Creator, evokes the positive influences of Nature (the Creator). He is then drawn closer by these positive influences, instead of the negative corrective forces that push others from behind.

Question: You speak of the ten Egyptian plagues. What are the rest of the plagues that Kabbalah predicts will happen next?

My Answer: I hope to see a world that will “fly over” these plagues with the help of Kabbalah, by aspiring to acquire the quality of love and bestowal to others.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Passing Through the Crisis to the Promised Land
Laitman.com Post: The Current Crisis Is “The First Plague of Egypt”

The Only Point Of Freedom Is Your Reaction To The Creator


All thoughts and desires, whether private or social, are sent to us from above, from the Creator. They all stem from the one single force of Nature (see the article “There Is None Else Beside Him”). In this case, it is necessary to be in constant inner dialogue with the Creator, to constantly examine what you discover in your mind and heart, trying to understand what the Creator is telling you, how He organizes you, and what your reaction ought to be.

First, one must realize that everything is sent from above in order to develop us. Hence one must receive it with gratitude, because it was especially chosen to suit his state and to ensure his optimal development for attaining the Creator.

After that one must make a request. After all, if a person doesn’t feel a desire to advance, if he feels like he has more important matters to attend to and other problems to solve first, that he will take care of them quickly and then return to the Creator – this too is sent to him from above, in order for him to discern, “What for?”

By engaging in calculations as to what is more important, a person forgets that he is being played with from above, that this is the Creator showing him how easily he is disconnected from Him. After all, the Creator becomes revealed only by virtue of one’s efforts to maintain a connection with Him. Everything that exists within and around me comes from Him. He exists within me, organizing everything that transpires within me and to me.

He leaves only one point independent from Him: my reaction. This is where my “I” can be expressed. This point is within me, and it awakens, becomes revealed to me, if I forcefully hang on to the realization that the Creator governs me, my thoughts and desires, from above.

This point, wherein I discern His governance from above, wherein I desire to feel Him and answer Him – is the point of truth, the beginning of one’s “I.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Can We Control Our Thoughts?
Laitman.com Post: How to Change Yourself and What to Change Yourself Into
Kabbalah Today Article: The Spiritual Gardener
Article: “The Structure of the Soul
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

One Day – A Song About The Financial Crisis


The newspaper “Yedioth Ahronoth” (Latest News) published an article about Arcadi Duchin’s new song:

The Buoth Appendix, 12.08.08, by reporter Raz Shechnik: “The Buot Appendix proudly presents: none other than Arcadi Duchin became the first artist to take the wise step of bringing the financial crisis to the recording studio. Recently Duchin wrote a song about the financial crisis. The lyrics were written by Amit Shalev, and the music – by Duchin himself.

It turns out that Duhin was not surprised by the financial crisis. He followed a forecast made by Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman, which came true.

“This song expressed the current state of affairs,” stated Duchin, “But it was written a year ago based on talks with Michael Laitman, with whom I study Kabbalah. He is not a mystic. He does not engage in card readings or Voodoo, but he saw the crisis from the place where this ancient science views humanity. It turns out that he was right, back then he told us about today’s financial situation.”

So what is the song about?

“As I see it, the song explains that the whole problem of money comes from man’s egoistic nature. In other words, most people in the world suffer and only a few enjoy life. This concept is not so much communistic as spiritual. Kabbalah states that no one will be truly happy until everyone is happy.”

Lyrics of the song “One Day”

Sailing On – International Congress 2009

CONNECTING TO GOODNESS
The International Academy of Kabbalah invites you
to the International Kabbalah Congress,
which will take place in Israel
on February 2 – 4, 2009

This year the Congress will be devoted to revealing a new, global world and unity that will raise the small “global village” above the flood of crises. We will then enter the spiritual world, rise toward unity with Nature, with the Upper Force.

All the information and registration for the Congress can be found on the Congress blog.

Passing Through The Crisis To The Promised Land

How Do You Avoid Becoming Relaxed On the Path?A question I received: Earlier today I read your blog to my mother, who lives in the Ukraine. She agreed with everything. Her only question was, “So tell me, what should I do now?” And all I could tell her in response was: “Study.” At a time when every day for her is a  struggle to feed her family, all I can offer her is to start studying?

My Answer: Only the dissemination of Kabbalah among the masses will give them the opportunity to realize the need for change:

  • To receive only what is necessary for one’s survival (like the manna in the desert),
  • Everything one produces in excess of one’s necessities should be given over to the society,
  • It is necessary to institute a global education system that will teach people about the laws of nature in a globally interconnected world. Then everyone will understand how we should live,
  • We must attain the condition of a global mutual guarantee (joint responsibility, like during the reception of the Torah), when every person understands that everyone depends on everyone,
  • We must then gradually go from “love for others” to “love for the Creator.” That’s because when the above conditions are met, we begin to reveal the Creator – the general Upper Force of Nature, according to the law of equivalence of form.

By fulfilling these conditions, or even being willing to learn about them, we will draw the positive forces of Nature upon us. Since the crisis is but a result of our opposition to Nature, we will pass through the crisis and reach a life of prosperity, “the promised land.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Is There Anything We Can Do About the Crisis?
Laitman.com Post: Coping Strategies In Time of Crisis: Therapy, Antidepressants, and Even Fortunetellers

The Black Hole

My Comment: “Don’t take more than you need.” Our absolute egoism begets an extreme phenomenon in nature: egoism’s development leads to its own demise.

In the beginning of creation, a spark of the Upper Light gave birth to an infinitely tiny point of infinitely dense matter. However, this point contained the Upper, spiritual energy, and therefore it began to expand. The energy of this spark animates our entire world.

Today we have developed to reach the global egoism at its highest level, called “speaking” or “human.” We must now bring it to equivalence with the Upper Nature, with the spark of Light and the Upper World.

Why Is The Financial Crisis Causing A Revival Of Anti-Semitism?


News Report (translated from news.ru.co.il): A series of anti-Semitic actions are taking place in Germany. Over 800 anti-Semitic acts have been reported this year alone. Experts link the rise of anti-Semitic acts to the global economic crisis, which has revived myths of the Zionist conspiracy.

The drastic rise in the number of anti-Semitic incidents is also observed in Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Greece, and Great Britain.

My Comment: Everything is happening according to the law of nature! They hate and punish us because we do not carry out our mission of “bringing the Light to the nations.”

The only way we will be able to save ourselves, and even earn the world’s respect and gratitude, is by disseminating Kabbalah. See items 70 and 71 of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Why Does Everyone Hate Israel?
Kabbalah Today Article: Mission Possible (and Mandatory)
Kabbalahblog.info Post: A Trail of Anti-Semitism
Chapter from Book From Chaos to Harmony: “Anti-semitism”
Chapter from Book Interview with the Future: “A Mature Approach to Pain”

Kabbalah’s Solution To The Financial Crisis Differs From The Common Sense Solution

I participated in two conversations for the TV Series “The Butterfly Effect.” One was on the social economy, and the second – on the global solution to the economic crisis.

Speaking with me was Shlomo Maoz, the chief economist at Excellence Nessuah Investment House.

Shlomo Maoz is a famous international economist, who predicted a number of trends in the global economy, and whose forecasts and advice are valued in the financial market. In this case he again expressed the most correct solution from the perspective of common (egoistic) sense! However, Kabbalah’s point of view is different.

His advice on how to overcome the financial crisis is the following:
1. We have to return to “life at home,” work less, restrict the high-tech industry and the Internet, spend more time with our families and maintain a small community. The Internet is the source of the crisis because it has connected the whole civilization on earth into a “small village” (see my comment #1 below).

2. More women should be appointed to management positions because women make business less egoistic, more sensible and flexible, and less arrogant.

This advice clearly echoes the history of Ancient Babylon:
4500 years ago, the ancient Babylonian civilization – which included all of humanity within a closed area – began to experience a global crisis of a “small village”:

  • People discovered that everyone depends on everyone.
  • Every person’s egoism was exposed to the maximum (allegorically speaking, they wanted to rise up to the heavens).
  • Everyone’s hatred for everyone was revealed; people stopped understanding each other (allegorically speaking, their languages became confused).

Then two propositions emerged:
Abraham proposed for everyone to unite “as one family,” which is what Nature compelled them to do. This union could be achieved by using the science of Kabbalah that he revealed.

Others, led by Nimrod, were against this, and since the other path was egoistically clear to everyone, the majority of the people accepted it. Hence they scattered all over the earth, destroying the connections of a “small village” among each other and annulling the globalization.

This is what Shlomo Maoz proposes we do today. The proposition is correct and addresses the problem. However, in our time it cannot be the solution. It is similar to other “solutions,” such as how to break our relationships by means of another world war, or to discontinue our communication artificially. However, there is no going back because today our egoism embraces the entire civilization on earth.

The science of Kabbalah says that we cannot go our separate ways peacefully a second time. Instead, mankind will all but destroy itself by engaging in the Third and Fourth nuclear World Wars. Then only a few people will remain on the Earth, and they will nevertheless correct themselves (our souls) and will attain the goal of  creation – similarity to Nature (the Creator).

In the past, only a few people heeded Abraham’s advice. They later became known as Israel, which means “straight to the Creator.” Today, just like Kabbalah had predicted for thousand years, we find ourselves in the same situation. However, the solution isn’t to disconnect, as this will bring about Nazism and cause us to annihilate each other. The solution lies in creating an even greater connection with each other!

Therefore:

  • Mankind must resolutely restrain all extremists and people who aim to disconnect us, even if it will have to resort to physical coercion.
  • For the sake of survival, every person has to be satisfied with the necessities (see my comment #2 below) and contribute all the excess of his labor to the well-being of the entire society.
  • All mass media and educational systems must provide a global education for mankind.

My Comment #1: Today humanity is experiencing a period that’s similar to the mid-life crisis of an individual. The inertia to move forward that started at birth is running out. Now we have to progress consciously, by our own efforts. We have to understand where we are moving and why: what is the goal? When a person doesn’t understand his goal at mid-life, he starts resorting to extremes: earning a bundle of money,  remarrying someone younger, and so on. His greatest fear is to remain alone with his own thoughts and the ultimate question: “What is this all for?”

This is why now, as strange as it may seem, society is somewhat happy to encounter the financial crisis, because it can hold it accountable for all the incomprehensible negative phenomena it has been facing over the recent years, such as the lack of a clear direction for further development, a dead end in international relations, and geopolitical changes. Now there is an understandable common problem that has to be combated. All the rest can be put aside for the time being.

My Comment #2: Let’s recall an example of the right attitude to the world as told by the Biblical story about the heavenly manna. The people were instructed to gather exactly as much as they needed to eat in one day. All the excess would spoil overnight, because it didn’t belong to them! So, the current crisis is teaching us to get rid of the excess. When the crisis deepens and spreads even more, people will start thinking that it’s useless to make such great efforts to gather something that will spoil anyway.

For more on this, see the newspaper “The Nation“, the book From Chaos to Harmony, and my lecture in Arosa.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Talks on Globalization and the Financial Crisis

The Rhythm Of Music Makes The World Go Round


Questions I received on music, false spiritual teachings, and euthanasia:

Question: What’s more important in a musical composition, wisdom or spirituality?

My Answer: Spirituality.

Question: Is listening to music a waste of time?

My Answer: Not if it helps you keep an intention aimed at the goal.

Question: I once heard the following expression: The rhythm of music makes the Earth go round!

My Answer: That’s poetic and romantic…

Question: According to nature, what percentage of humanity will consciously feel the question about the meaning of life so strong that they will be able to study Kabbalah?

My Answer: There’s no specific percentage – it will be anyone with a point in the heart.

Question: What do you think of false teachings that unconsciously use elements of teachings that were effective in the past?

My Answer: Nothing.

Question: I’m asking because it is these kind of teachings that are leading in the “spiritual market.” What’s their purpose?

My Answer: For us to learn from our mistakes.

Question: How do you view euthanasia?

My Answer: Problematically.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Music to Perceive with the Soul
Laitman.com Post: What Is Death? How Can We Not Fear Death?
Kabbalah Today Article: Singing the Worlds Beyond
Talk: About Kabbalistic Music
Talk: The Birth of the Soul
Chapter from Book A Guide To The Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah: “Kabbalistic Music”
Free online Kabbalah course
Kabbalah Music