The Creator wishes for the creation to become similar to Him, to be just as eternal and perfect. Therefore, through an explosion He implanted His quality to bestow into the creation’s quality to receive. Due to this breaking in the Upper World, we are born as little egoists in our world. But in the process of our development, the quality of bestowal begins to be revealed within us.

Particularly in our generation, when we as humanity have reached the greatest possible egoism, we are discovering its emptiness. This is why so many people are depressed. But suddenly, precisely in this situation, as if by a ray of Light in a dark kingdom, we can find the entrance into the Upper World!

A new desire pulls us somewhere and instills hope in us. In our generation, many people already feel this addition to their regular egoism, which has developed in us throughout many millennia.

In the previous generations, this small spark called the “point in the heart,” the sprout of an altruistic intention, was awakened only in special, chosen people, who became Kabbalists. However, today millions of people are feeling this new quality that is awakened in them. It pushes them ahead and demands to be realized. Previously, we were pushed ahead by egoism, but now egoism no longer sees anything worthwhile to chase in this world.

This new desire begins with the question, “What is the meaning of my life?” We feel emptiness and see that it is impossible to receive any more egoistic fulfillment. However, there is another side to the question, “What can I receive pleasure from?” Its opposite realization is: “Who can I give pleasure to?” That is when a person begins to feel a need to bestow. He feels that he can find true fulfillment in that!

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A question I received: Can we change the destiny that has been prepared for us from Above if we attain the roots?

My Answer: Definitely! You will then change everything from suffering to goodness because you will start to see goodness instead of evil in everything taking place. Everything will change (in your perception). You will accept everything and see that it is good and beneficial for you. See Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Creator’s Concealment and Revelation.”

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Each of us is a little egoist. Individually we are not opposite to the single Nature.  By developing egoistic desires, Nature forces us to develop in order to fulfill those desires.

However, now we have now reached our maximum individual, egoistic development. This is evident through the feeling of life’s emptiness and the crises in all the spheres of our activity, in and around every person.

Besides the maximal (and empty) egoism, we have proven to be connected as one single egoistic mechanism, and it is this mechanism that is contradictory to the single Nature. Two opposite systems have formed, the system of Control (the Creator) and the system that is controlled (a globally connected human society). Therefore, we will inescapably need to feel this contradiction, the level of opposition to the altruistic Nature by egoistic humanity as problems of every person and of  society (epidemics,  societal crises and other catastrophes of nature, etc.).

We are only now entering the period where global egoism is being revealed “from zero.” In general, its growth will manifest as suffering, the goal of which is to lead all of us to the realization of global egoism as the reason for all our evils and suffering. The suffering will continue until we reach the desire to correct our egoism to a level of global bestowal and love, bringing the system of our relationships into equivalence with Nature (the Creator).

The science of Kabbalah explains how to carry out this change in each person and in society, and without this knowledge we will be unable to correct ourselves. The only question is the amount of suffering that we will need to endure in order to implement the science of Kabbalah for our correction.

The prophets describe this possible suffering as images of “the end of the world.” The dissemination of Kabbalah explains the cause of suffering and shows us how the  correction of society will change everyone to goodness!

Therefore, dissemination of Kabbalah in the world primarily means dissemination of the knowledge of  its intended purpose, rather than dissemination of the wisdom itself. To the extent that we realize the need, only then should we disseminate the method of correction itself. This is how we construct our studies.

(From Lesson #2 of the Eurasian Congress 10.23.09)

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A question I received: If we want to restrict our egoism, does that mean we need to abstain from pleasures?

My Answer: That is not the way of Kabbalah. The Creator wants us to receive pleasure and as we advance He teaches us how to take pleasure from increasingly refined and exalted sources.

That is why He wants us to grow, and to that end he gives us what we deem suffering, but in reality is not suffering, but pleasure!

He is giving us the opportunity to experience a more exalted pleasure, which for the moment doesn’t attract us, but rather torments us.

Think of a little girl who likes playing with her doll. Her mother asks her to play with her little brother, but she doesn’t want to play with him! She doesn’t think of a real baby as pleasure. For her the real pleasure is her doll!

Therefore, the suffering that I feel as coming to me from the Creator actually shows me my next state, to which I will ascend if I assume the suffering correctly.

It is only when we are ready to progress toward more exalted pleasures that they are shown to us in their corrected form.

All we need to do is change our attitude toward them from reception to bestowal, whereupon we will feel the next spiritual degree.

That is why we must always increase the quality of the pleasure we seek. For the moment we perceive that as suffering, but when we finally open our eyes we will see that there was never any suffering to begin with.

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More stories in the news which give evidence to the continuing and worsening world crisis:

Drought Is Spreading in the World
In the News (from Jo Abbess): “Big Dry: Global Drought Update”

August 13, 2009: This spring, northern China experienced its worst drought in 50 years, The drought also left 3.5 million people and 1.66 million livestock with no access to drinking water.

August 6, 2009: Mexican authorities facing a drought-weakened sugar crop.

August 11, 2009: “Serious Drought in Africa Drives Cattle into Wildlife Parks.”

August 06, 2009: Drought expected to cut Ugandan tea output.

August 13, 2009 [India]: Drought fears rise, soybean crop on brink.

August 11, 2009: Russia may have to face a food crisis next winter. Whole fields of fodder and cereal crops have been withered by scorching sun.

Japan’s unemployment rate hits record high
In the News: (from The Telegraph): “Japan’s unemployment rate hits record high” – The jobless rate rose to a worse than expected 5.7pc in July, up from 5.4pc in June, the government said. Deflation also deepened last month with core consumer prices dropping 2.2pc a year earlier – the fastest pace on record.

Alan Greenspan: ‘This will happen again’
In the News (from BBC): “Market crisis ‘will happen again’” – The world will suffer another financial crisis, former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan has told the BBC. “It’s human nature, unless somebody can find a way to change human nature, we will have more crises and none of them will look like this because no two crises have anything in common, except human nature.”

Related Material:
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Bail Yourself Out: “Achieving Equilibrium”
Baal HaSulam Article: “Peace in the World”

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A question I received: Why doesn’t everyone see the crisis as an opportunity for change?

My Answer: Give it some time. The crisis is coming in waves, like the pangs of birth: it hits you and then it lets go, then it hits you again and then it gives you break again. Everything depends on whether you understand that these are the pangs of birth and whether you participate in your own birth. In order to be born, you have to flip over “head down,” which means that you have to lower the importance of everything that you deem important now.

Question cont’d: But isn’t this the path of suffering?

My Answer: Certainly not. If you know that you will be born and come into the world, that there are so many good things waiting for you, then how can you suffer? You can already anticipate how good everything will be. You are happy about the attack or breakthrough you’re making. You will make an effort together with the Upper Level, which is ready to give birth to you, and enter the spiritual world.

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To all  questions about the crisis, I answer that I have not changed my opinion: I still believe that the crisis continues, and that it will end only when people correct their nature. The crisis is happening due to the disparity between humanity’s global, integral egoism and Nature (the Creator).  The following news stories demonstrate the ongoing crisis worldwide:

The Skies Are Not Clear In Spain
In the News (from The Financial Times): “Spanish unemployment rises as tourism suffers” The labour and immigration ministry said the number of jobless claimants rose by nearly 85,000 to 3.63m, 1.1m more than in August last year, with services and construction recording the heaviest job losses.

Unemployed Chinese Have Nowhere to Go
In the News (from SecretChina): “Over 24 million people unemployed in China!” The Chinese government indicated on August 23 that total unemployment in the country will exceed 24 million people in 2009. In 2008, many manufacturing plants were shut down, leaving about 30 million migrant workers jobless.

Americans Committing Suicide In The Workplace
In the News (from BusinessInsurance): “Employers grapple with rise in workplace suicides” There was a 28% increase in the number of suicides committed in the workplace last year—251—compared with the prior year, according to a census by the U.S. Department of Labor. Those who commit suicide at work may have felt significant stress from their increased work load as well as worries about job security…

Is It The End Of The Crisis Or Just The End?
In the News (from TruthOut.org): “Unemployment Jumps to 9.7 Percent, as Economy Loses Another 216,000 Jobs” The 10.1 percent unemployment rate for adult men equals the prior post-war high. The number of discouraged workers is almost exactly double the August 2008 number. And the U-6 measure of labor market slack rose to 16.8%. Hours for production workers have been reduced by 8.5% over the course of this recession. This is the largest percent reduction of hours during a recession since the Great Depression.

Asian Countries To Work For Themselves
In the News (from VOA): – “Nobel Economist Says Asia’s Economies in ‘Remarkable’ Recovery” Joseph Stiglitz says Asia’s economies are in a good position to reduce their dependence on exporting goods to the United States and Europe. He said, “You have a robust large economy here in Asia and so you have the basis of developing a regional economy.”

Related Material:
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A question I received: How can a person avoid suffering?

My Answer: Ask yourself: who inflicts all the problems and suffering on you? If you felt that they all come from the Creator, you’d already feel better.

It’s similar to a surgeon who operates on you: even though it’s a painful process, you know that what he is doing is good for you. In fact, if you have enough understanding of the gravity of your illness and the efficacy of the treatment, then you won’t feel pain at all. If you understand that the operation will make you get well, you will even ask the surgeon to perform the operation sooner!

Thus, it’s because we do not have this sensation that we feel suffering. The feeling of suffering is not caused by the pain itself, but by the fact that we don’t feel Who inflicts the suffering upon us.

If you could feel that the pain comes from a surgeon rather than a criminal, then you wouldn’t experience it as pain, and you would even be grateful to the one causing it, instead of trying to fight what the criminal is doing to you.

So, what you lack is not a disconnection from the pain or from the act itself, but the revelation of the Creator, who is the one responsible for the act as well as its aim. Only then will you sense pleasure instead of suffering.

It is a psychological problem, really. Even scientific experiments show that the suffering and pleasure felt inside a body stem from the same processes. Pain and pleasure are just surges of sensations in two different directions. For the body, they are the same thing, and it’s only later that our mind discerns them as different. The body, however, feels them as the same thing.

Related Material:
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Shamati #50: “Two States”

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In truth, all development happens by means of the Light, which is concealed from us. And even though everything is done by the Light alone, when this takes place in our egoistic development, we don’t know anything about the Light and are not connected with It in any way. Therefore, when a person develops, he becomes more distant from the Creator, because he understands that he can do without Him. After all, where is the Creator in our world and how is He present in all that I do?

This is why the era of Enlightenment took place, when people left religion. But now, after all our development, we are revealing that we have reached emptiness. After studying and understanding this world, we now see that it is dirty and horrible. But the most important thing that we have come to understand is that the more we develop and the more efforts we make and despite becoming smarter and more skilled in some ways, things just keep deteriorating and the world becomes worse. So by developing the world, we have only made it worse, not better.

This is why people are reaching a point of despair. But this is not enough, and the Upper Force will not allow humanity to run away from it all through drugs. Together with all that is happening, the point in the heart is surfacing in people, and it is pulling them to further development. This is where we come up against a problem: on one hand, this point is egoistic, because it’s the reverse side of holiness. But even though this egoistic point is a result of the breaking, it can be turned into an altruistic point. We can turn it into a “drop of semen,” which will become a spiritual embryo.

As for the rest of the ego – this entire world – I cannot make it spiritual since all of it is inanimate matter. So, in order to develop spiritually, I then come to the group and the Kabbalah books, but still remain in the same place like a donkey, until I finally “get it”: I need an Upper Force, the Light that returns one to the Source and then I begin to demand It and plead with the Creator to become revealed to me and to correct me.

Therefore, our earthly development is over. All the cultural and scientific development has reached an end. People will now feel that it’s impossible to do anything new in these areas – it has exhausted itself.

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A question I received: You have said that the goal of human development, the reason we are born, is to reveal the Upper World inside us, to acquire His qualities and love for Him, as well as for the entire universe. Practically speaking, this means we must attain the ability to feel unconditional, infinite Love.

How will humanity be able to come to this end state if every person subconsciously operates by a strict calculation: how to fulfill his own instinctive needs to eat, drink, sleep (don’t worry about sex – it’s just extra work) and protect himself from others? Today a person may even let his own children and family starve, because he perceives even them as external and alien. For the same reason, people (especially youth) do not even fear death, because there is nothing to lose; this is no life. This is not anyone’s fault, but it’s a disaster!

Fear is no longer a motivator. So what can force all of this to change? In theory, the sensation of lack is what motivates a person forward. But how can one strive toward something he doesn’t feel, and therefore has no sensation of lack related to it?

My Answer: You will see that all of a sudden, people will start to feel the desire for spirituality, and will start to behave accordingly. After all, they are puppets, and are now experiencing a sensation of emptiness and lack of purpose. It is all happening according to the Creator’s plan. There is a time and a place for everything. And as for you, the next stage is already beginning to happen!

Our entire lives are a process of gathering the sensations necessary to come to feel the Creator. Therefore, resistance is useless. What we have to do is speed up the process. That is how everything will change. You will then acquire the same impressions, but without the suffering.

Related Material:
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