Entries in the 'Suffering' Category

In The News, “US A Likely Candidate For Civil Violence”


In the News (from The Truthout Organisation):After the Financial Crisis, Civil War? Get Ready to ‘Leave Your Region’” Will the economic and financial crisis degenerate into violent social explosions? That’s the rather alarming conclusion that the experts of European think tank LEAP/Europe 2020 lay out. The experts foresee a state of “generalized every man for himself” in the countries stricken by the crisis. That panic would then conclude in logical confrontations, in other words, with partial civil wars. According to that association, the most dangerous regions are those where the system of social protection is the weakest. Latin America, as well as the United States, are the areas most at risk. “There are 200 million guns in circulation in the United States,” LEAP head, Franck Biancheri, reminds us.

Stock Up on Supplies: LEAP alerts us to the risks of possible energy, food and water shortages in regions dependent on the outside for supplies, and it advises that people stock up on provisions.

Must we conclude from this that the global crisis could transform itself into a world war? “LEAP’s forecasts are extreme, but social violence is arising,” concedes Barclays’s economist Laurence Boone.

One hope remains, a “last chance” according to LEAP, that would lie in the ability of the G-20 – which meets April 2 in London to promulgate a “convincing and audacious” action plan. In that case, the world would still not be out of the woods, because – as the experts do not fail to also remind us – a severe climate crisis is also materializing.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Social Revolts Are Another Symptom of the Global Crisis
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Laitman.com Post: Thinking Ahead About the Next G20 Meeting

Our Desires Are Cleansed By Suffering


In the News (translated from CloudWatcher): Over the last few decades, not many were interested in seeing themes of solidarity and mutual help on TV. The media wanted glamour, blood and violence. But today, because of the crisis and its influence, the most in-demand, urgent topics are none other than mutual help and self-sacrifice.

My Comment: The crisis cleanses people. One Kabbalistic text says, “Meat is cleansed by salt, and people’s desires are cleansed by suffering.” But there are two types of suffering:

  • Involuntary suffering, which lasts for a long time, making people wise up against their will in order to avoid the suffering. But gradually, people start to recognize the reason and purpose of the suffering,
  • Conscious suffering is when a person learns about the qualities of the Upper World by studying Kabbalah and compares himself with these qualities. He then suffers because he is not similar to these qualities. And as soon as he feels this kind of suffering, he is immediately corrected and filled with goodness.

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The World Is Becoming Different Forever

Kabbalah and the Earthly Sciences

In the News (from The Wall Street Journal):Russian Gloom Overtakes Rhetoric” “The situation in 2009 will be rather harsh,” said Igor Shuvalov, first deputy prime minister… “You can’t turn this situation around by force,” Mr. Shuvalov told legislators Friday. “No one can.”

My Comment: People are no longer making predictions that the crisis will be over in “a few months” or “a few years,” but are starting to understand that the world is becoming different forever! They are gaining a qualitatively new understanding of what’s happening!

Now we have to wait for more people to start thinking this way. They will then look for a way to exist and interact in the new world. And if they’ll be able to hear Kabbalah’s solution, they will reduce the period of searching and suffering.

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The Purpose Of Kabbalah Dissemination During The Global Crisis


A question I received: The overwhelming majority of people do not recognize “the quality” of the current crisis and the reason for it – that our egoism breaks and distorts all our connections, and that the only way to survive is by attaining the quality of “love for your neighbor.” Moreover, people don’t realize that they need help from the Creator, Ohr Makif, to do this. They do not realize this because they were created on the still level, Domem, and maybe they will never be able to realize this, and they don’t need to.

So what is the purpose of Kabbalah dissemination? If the elite are deaf because they are caught in the vicious cycle of their profiteering interests, and the masses are deaf because of their low level of development, then who are we disseminating to, and what are we disseminating?

My Answer: We are disseminating the science of how every person can correct himself. And every person will apply this science to the extent of his free will, which emerges due to the development of his desire (heart) and mind, through suffering and recognition.

By applying this science, every person will make his path of correction easier, shifting it from the natural one (under Nature’s blows, the way all evolution takes place), to evolution that happens by means of one’s aspiration for the goal, for the quality of bestowal and love for everyone. The global crisis is an indication that this is necessary.

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Laitman.com Post: The Solution to the Global Crisis Cannot Be Found Without Kabbalah
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The Global Crisis Is Leading To Massive Disorder


In the News (from The New York Times):Iceland’s Government Collapses” Iceland’s coalition government collapsed Monday… There are also massive demonstrations in Latvia, Lithuania, Spain, and Greece. Disorder is beginning in France, Germany, and Great Britain.

My Comment: Our opposition to the global village is beginning to manifest as massive disorder. Mutual hatred is spilling over into international, class, and intergovernmental sectors, and the only way to repress this hatred is through global education, which must now begin throughout the whole world. Any country’s government that implements this global upbringing is sure to establish peace in all of that country’s activities.


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Laitman.com Post: Violence and Social Strife Can Only Be Averted Through a New Global Education
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The Development Of Reshimot Through History

The Goal of Creation Is Perfect FulfillmentA question I received: Please show me practically, using examples from history, how do Reshimot change?

My Answer: The periodical change of our attitude to life is dictated by the changing “genes” in us (Reshimot, which comes from the word Roshem – “recording” in Hebrew). The stages of egoism’s changes are recorded inside each of us from the beginning, when the common soul divided into many souls.

Reshimot are revealed in us in an increasing, consecutive order: 0-1-2-3-4. Therefore, at the beginning stages of their realization in us, the Reshimot brought forth a small egoism in us; and in those lives we were “naïve” – slaves and masters. Then, as more advanced Reshimot surfaced in us, when we were born in the next epochs, we desired to be freer, to be workers, such as vassals or serfs. Women were married off without their permission, and this was considered “correct.” They loved their husbands because their small egoism did not get in the way. This was the accepted norm.

And after that, as more advanced Reshimot were expressed in us, we desired to be “free” workers for hire, employers but not masters. We desired freedom and equality (including for women), and so on.

Reshimot elicit desires in us, and the desires provoke the mind to achieve what we desire. Today we can see nations in whom different Reshimot were expressed in the same epoch, and therefore we don’t live in one cultural zone, but in different cultures and formations. However, globalization is bringing about a quick realization of Reshimot in every person and in everyone together.

In regard to choice:

  • marriage (voluntary – through love, or forced – stealing the bride, paying a ransom, marrying by the father’s order, and so on),
  • power (coercive – although later accepted and loved, like in Russia until today; by election; or inherited),
  • place of residence (being attached to the place, having a residence permit, a passport system, free movement),
  • and according to other signs, one can tell which Reshimot were realized in a nation or a civilization.

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Laitman.com Post: The Path of Light Versus the Path of Suffering
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Violence And Social Strife Can Only Be Averted Through A New Global Education


In the News (from The Guardian): Eastern Europe is heading for a violent “spring of discontent.” Hit increasingly hard by the financial crisis, countries such as Bulgaria, Romania and the Baltic states face deep political destabilization and social strife. “We are fed up with living in the poorest and most corrupt country,” the Sofia protest organizers said.

My Comment: The only way to calm down the masses is by immediately implementing a new global education. And more than calming this down, this will give them an explanation of how to succeed in the new world; not just of how to survive, but how to turn around all of nature so it will influence us positively. We must set a condition that people will receive benefits only if they study. Like children, we all have to learn about how to live in the new world!

People shouldn’t think that the path to the new life is long, because as soon as we begin acting in agreement with the program of our development, according to Nature, we will feel the positive results in everything, including all our actions, the climate and so on.

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Laitman.com Post: A Worldwide Hotline for Coping With and Overcoming the Crisis
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Kabbalah Today Article: The Divine Conspiracy

Russia Should Be Offered NATO Membership, Joschka Fischer Says

When It Comes to the Global Crisis, We Cannot Afford to ProcrastinateIn the News (from Bloomberg): NATO members should consider inviting Russia to join the military alliance as a way to blunt the Kremlin’s challenge to the West, according to former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.

My Comment: Drawing closer to one another is always good, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone, because it’s a step toward the world’s unity and convergence into one whole. This cancels out our opposition to Nature, which will disappear one way or another according to Nature’s plan. However, if we don’t do this on our own, it will happen as a result of lengthy international conflicts and suffering.

If it weren’t for the European Union’s weakness and stupidity, and Russia’s complex of always feeling degraded, which makes it proud and quarrelsome, then there would be hope for a union, which would evoke Nature’s kindness over these countries (according to the law of equivalence to Nature). But unfortunately, they’re like little boys who need a good beating to straighten them out! Otherwise they’ll start spending their last money on “guns before butter,” instead of investing it in social programs. And then we’ll get the beating right along with them, but our beating will be much greater than theirs.

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Laitman.com Post: The Crisis Will Make Everyone Kind
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There’s Never Been A Crisis Of This Dimension

A Question Is the Sensation of an Empty DesireIn the News (from The Wall Street Journal): His Empire in Tatters, German Billionaire Takes Life” Adolf Merckle, one of Germany’s wealthiest men, committed suicide. Mr. Merckle’s body was discovered Monday night near train tracks… In a rare interview last month, Mr. Merckle told the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung he had survived “many so-called stock-market crashes” but that he “couldn’t calculate a banking and financial crisis of this dimension.”

My Comment: He’s right: there’s never been a crisis like this in all of human history, because the current crisis is “qualitative.” It was caused by the human society’s opposition to Nature. Society has become global and interconnected like a “small village” where everyone is completely interdependent (“the Butterfly Effect”). However, our mutual egoistic hatred destroys all the connections. The effect of broken connections in a single system manifests as a crisis in the system – a crisis in all areas of our activity.

The crisis will not end until we find a solution – a way to be together, united by bonds of bestowal and love. This is what is required of us by the system that we have found ourselves in. We cannot escape these closed connections. We will have to observe the rule, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” We can do this through suffering (as we always have) or by realizing that it’s necessary (the method of Kabbalah). The choice is ours.

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Baal HaSulam Article: “Introduction to the Book, The Tree of Life”, Item 4

A Worldwide Hotline For Coping With And Overcoming The Crisis

History Is the Unraveling of Reshimot Inside UsIn the News (translated from Lenta.ru): A hotline offering emergency psychological help for people affected by the global financial crisis is now operating in Moscow. People can receive free consultation from a certified psychiatrist over the phone. The phone calls will be answered by specialists from the national center of social and forensic psychiatry.

My Comment: In addition, there should be a “hotline” that will disseminate the global (anti-crisis) education for the whole world. Instead of just offering people consolation, it will explain that this problem is shared by all humanity, and that the transition from disconnection to unity is embedded in the foundation of Nature. We must go through it, either under Nature’s pressure (via the path of suffering) or consciously (by using Kabbalah). Moreover, we have to come out of the problem together. Then it will be easy, because it will happen in harmony with Nature’s movement, rather than by isolating ourselves and being opposed to each other.

You can start doing this on your own, without waiting for it to happen: just by thinking about everyone and about our common connection, while studying our materials (available free of charge online), you will not only feel more relaxed, but also cause an improvement in the world, as this will bring us closer to balance with Nature. As a result, it will improve people’s health and well-being.

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