Entries in the 'nature' Category

Ugly Veggies Come From Genetic Engineering, Not Nature


In the News (from The New York Times):Europe Relaxes Rules on Sale of Ugly Fruits and Vegetables” Misshapen fruit and vegetables won a reprieve on Wednesday from the European Union as it scrapped rules banning overly curved, extra knobbly or oddly shaped produce from supermarket shelves… The rising cost of commodities also persuaded the European Commission that there was no point in throwing away food just because it looked strange… European shoppers will then be able to choose their produce whatever its appearance.

My Comment: Everything created by Nature is beautiful. It is the genetic engineering that is supplying us with ugly products, and causing cancer and other diseases. However, right now this is the only way we can provide for ourselves.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Some Even Make A Profit Off Of Expired Food
Laitman.com Post: Don’t Mess With Nature’s Balance
Laitman.com Post: Our Living Depends On Our Attitudes
From Chaos to Harmony: “Breaching the Balance. The Crisis as an Opportunity to Restore Balance”

Prince Charles: Just Eight Years Left To Save The World


In the News (from The Independent):Just 96 months to save world, says Prince Charles” Capitalism and consumerism have brought the world to the brink of economic and environmental collapse, the Prince of Wales has warned in a grandstand speech… Charles’s speech was described as his first attempt to present a coherent philosophy in which he placed the threat to the environment in the context of a failing economic system…

Charles said that without “coherent financial incentives and disincentives” we have just 96 months to avert “irretrievable climate and ecosystem collapse, and all that goes with it … If we don’t face up to this, then Nature, the biggest bank of all, could go bust…”

My Comment: The ecosystem doesn’t depend on us, but the economic system does. However, the way to change it for the better is not by trying to influence it directly, but by correcting our intentions from “reception” to “bestowal.” How can this be done? It is only possible by drawing a spiritual force from above, the force that created our egoism and that can change it, turning it into the opposite quality, that of bestowal and love. The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us how to draw this force of correction.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: True Bestowal Is When We Come Out Of Ourselves
Laitman.com Post: Can The World’s Problems Be Solved Without Kabbalah?
Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life: “The Giving Force and the Receiving Force”

Kabbalah Explains Globalization

laitman_2009-07_0237Nature’s goal is to reach globalization. Along with all humanity, Nature develops toward globalization according to the principle of self-organization, in line with predetermined laws of development. This is also how a fetus develops in a mother’s womb. As the fetus grows and develops, it builds increasingly complex systems, which evolve and reach greater levels of harmony and interconnection with each other.

The law of development necessitates a process where things become increasingly more complex, more integral and more interdependent. Ultimately, the result is that all subsystems are incorporated into one whole. However, these processes are revealed gradually and they become clearer over time.

A person, however, is influenced by his natural egoism, and thus he does not want to take part in this process voluntarily. Yet, under the influence of various factors, such as the global crisis, a person will be forced to participate, until he will reach the realization that instead of being forced, it’s better to do this voluntarily. He will realize this because he will see the inevitability of the law of development.

Thus, the suffering that comes along with the global crisis will cause us to voluntarily realize that our lives are global. At first we will agree to this reluctantly, and later we will understand it and accept that it is the best thing for us.

This is how today, Nature is beginning to show our future state to us. Kabbalah, however, enables us to understand this in advance, and thus to lessen the suffering that’s coming our way. Kabbalah allows us to study and understand the reasons for the blows in a timely manner, before the blows actually reach us.

And that’s all there is to globalization!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: We Are Hardwired Into The Eternal Circuit Of Nature
Laitman.com Post: When It Comes To The Global Crisis, We Cannot Afford To Procrastinate
Laitman.com Post: Passing Through The Crisis To The Promised Land
Kabbalah Today Article: Globalization 101

The Main Lesson To Learn From The Crisis Is That We Are All Part Of Nature

laitman_2009-05-xx_ny_5054A question I received: Today’s economy, and life in general, seem very chaotic. Things are difficult to regulate, control, and predict. What should people do in this situation?

My Answer: Firstly, we should learn from this situation. The crisis and the uncertain state of the world should help us see that we are developing according to certain laws, irrespective of our will. Moreover, we do not know what these laws are.

It would be nice if we could predict things in some way, but all our attempts to predict and change anything do not produce good results. However, if we learned the laws of nature, we would gain strength and wisdom.

Question cont’d: So what are we to do about the situation?

My Answer: All of people’s attempts to fix things have not yielded any positive results. This fact should help people see that all of their mistakes have been programmed by Nature in order to teach them something. This is Nature’s way of helping people to advance.

Question cont’d: Isn’t this fatalism?

My Answer: Nature encompasses everything, even all of people’s instincts, behaviors motives, and actions. The basis of all human problems is that we single ourselves out from nature.

Nature’s goal is to teach man that he should not stand out or try to separate from Nature. People have to realize that we are all part of Nature, that we are “built into it,” so to say.

Man’s task in Nature is to integrate all of Nature using his power, control, and desire. In other words, we need to bring the entire system into harmony and balance. Nature pushes man forward and teaches him lessons in the process. A person may feel bad at times, or he may be scared; and all of this is intended for him to understand that right now, all of Nature is disjointed, contradictory, and prone to crisis for just one reason: because human beings are breaching the natural balance.

Man must do everything he can in order to collect all of Nature’s parts into one, and thus to bring them to harmony. This is something that depends on every person.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Finding Freedom And Balance Through The Creator
Laitman.com Post: The Crisis Is One Way To Make Us Accept Nature’s Program And The Method Of Correction
Kabbalah Today Article: “In Nature, Everything Moves Toward Unity”
From Chaos to Harmony: “A Reality of Wholeness and Infinity. Nature Plan”

Why Living Together Before Marriage Is Bad For Your Relationship


In the News (from The Daily Mail):Live together before marrying and you’re more likely to divorce” Couples who set up home before getting hitched are more likely to divorce than those who wait until after the big day… A survey of more than 1,000 married men and women in the U.S. found those who moved in with a lover before engagement or marriage reported significantly lower-quality marriages and a greater potential for splitting up… Psychologist Dr. Galena Rhoades said: “There might be a subset of people who live together before they got engaged who might have decided to get married really based on other things in their relationship – because they were already living together and less because they really wanted and had decided they wanted a future together.”

My Comment: If a person wants to have a lasting relationship with someone, he shouldn’t try to go and change the type of relationship they have. If what you want is to create a family with someone, then that’s exactly what you should do. People should regard familial relationships just as nature had determined them to be.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Young Adults Reject Marriage Because Of The Global Egoism That Is Between Them
Laitman.com Post: Family Gives Us Consolation From The Worries Of The Big World
Article: “Today, It’s Spiritual Relationship or No Relationship”
Between Men and Women
From Chaos to Harmony: “Obeying Nature’s Law. Life’s Purpose”

True Bestowal Is When We Come Out Of Ourselves (Advanced)

A Reshimo Is One's Complete Future StateA question I received from my student: The desire “to bestow to others” also implies an egoistic desire to receive something for oneself, because “I want” to bestow. So is this really bestowal?

My Answer: The desire to bestow is not related to one’s regular desires. However, “giving to others” as most people understood it today, is not a desire to bestow at all, because this is the same egoistic desire for pleasure, which simply appears as if it is being used for the sake of another person.

This is why a desire to bestow directly to another person does not exist in Nature. It is impossible, because it is equivalent to coming out of oneself.

So what are we to do? We have to try to “come out of ourselves.” If a person makes this attempt, he will reach the understanding that only the Creator can do this for him. And then he will reveal the Creator!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: New Scientific Study Finds That Paradoxically, Altruists Are The Most Affluent
Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life: “Building the Spiritual Kli (Vessel/Tool)”
Shamati #3: “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment”

What Will It Take For People To Stop Destroying The Environment?

laitman_2009-07_0210A question I received: I am from Uruguay and I am 17 years old. My question is this: people often talk about the environment as if it is something that exists alongside us. How it is possible to make people understand that the environment isn’t something that exists alongside us, but that we are in it and we need it? Uruguay is a very small country, but even here, we encounter a whole gamut of environmental problems because there are so many factories in the country and even more are being built.

My Answer: There are two things that can cause people to adopt a different attitude to themselves, to others and to nature: 1) suffering or 2) the dissemination of Kabbalah. We’ll keep trying to make it happen through the second path.

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Laitman.com Post: The One Science That Can Change The World
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My lecture in Arosa

Restoring Nature’s Pristine State By Changing Our Consciousness

laitman_2009-07_0211A question I received: How soon after (or before) the correction will the environment (the eco and bio-systems) return to its original balanced state?

My Answer: As soon as we begin to theoretically agree with its plan, Nature will immediately begin to change Nature is connected to our consciousness and subconsciousness, and even the slightest change in both will cause an immediate reaction. Nature is a precise mechanism and we, not some hypothetical divine court, are responsible for the changes it undergoes.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: All Harm Is Caused By Our Egoistic Thoughts
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Kabbalah for Beginners: “Crisis and Correction”

Restricting Children To The Physical World Through Atheism


In the News (from The Guardian):Atheist camp to give children ‘godless alternative’” An atheist summer camp for children is to be held in the UK for the first time this year, offering a “godless alternative” to similar religious events under canvas… The purpose of Camp Quest UK, which has been praised by the atheist and skeptic author Richard Dawkins, is to encourage critical thinking and provide children with a summer camp “free of religious dogma”…Camp Quest UK’s website says its counselors and volunteers will lead activities teaching eight to 17-year-olds “about science, free thought and humanist principles. Activities cover critical thinking, science, history, human rights and ethics”.

My Comment: The religious view of God as an angry or an all-forgiving persona originated from ancient human fears of Nature and our desire to safeguard and secure ourselves.

But the complete negation of a higher world (which is impossible to perceive using our egoistic desires but which we are in a position to perceive if we change our desires in the opposite direction) also restricts a person to the physical world without giving him an understanding of “science, free thought and humanist principles.”  In fact, the denial of religion gives birth to yet another religion.

Kabbalah explains that this world consists of two forces. Our world is based on the force of the will to receive. But an opposite world is possible, an anti-world, which is based on the will to bestow. Kabbalah is the method for the revelation of this other world to man.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Today, Religion Is Being Replaced By Kabbalah
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Article: “The Difference between Kabbalah and Religion”
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

Solving World Hunger Requires Nothing But Brainpower


In the News (from VOA):More Than a Billion People Hungry in the World” – A new report found more than one billion people around the world are going hungry. …we can eliminate hunger in the world, we have the resources: the food is there. It’s not a lack of food …it is lack of access to food…

My Comment: Nature has everything in abundance, except human brainpower!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: New Study Shows Brains Develop In The State of Chaos
Laitman.com Post: Don’t Mess With Nature’s Balance!
Laitman.com Post: We Really Can Do Something About The Weather!
Kabbalah Today Article: I Saw a Reversed World