News Report (from Commodity Online): “Food crisis leaves over 1 billion hungry!” The FAO’s hunger report, the State of Food Insecurity in the World 2008, found that the overwhelming majority of the hungry live in the developing world, 65% of them in just seven countries: India, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia.

My Comment: With our globally egoistic attitude (mutual hatred) toward one another and the surrounding nature, we will not be able to sustain more than one fifth of humanity. Everyone else will have to die. However, if we correct our egoistic relationships to those of “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” the planet will be able to feed scores more people than are now living.

“Unite or perish” – is the condition of “Mutual Guarantee,” proclaimed by Moses at (against) Mount Sinai (in Hebrew “Sinai” comes from the word “hatred”) to his people: “Either you will unite and be guarantors for one another, as a single whole, or this place, beneath the mountain of your egoism, will be the place of your burial.” Kabbalah explains that everything written in the Torah is meant for us, for our generation. We will have to actualize the whole Biblical tale ourselves!

Question: Several years ago the European countries united into one economic zone. The Latin American countries now want to form a similar union. Under the current conditions, do these unions strengthen these countries or weaken them?

My Comment: If the union is not done at others’ expense, and moreover, if it is done in order to pave the way for future universal unification, then it strengthens them. However, if the unification is private, done in order to set them against others – then it will destroy the people who do it!

In the future, the world will not have to become one country; there may be many countries and nations, each with its respective culture. However, the relationships between them will have to be harmonious and amicable. It’s just as in a body, where all the parts are different, but each one is exactly what the others need.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Specific, Practical Measures to Combat the Crisis
Laitman.com Post: Will Countries Be Able to Work Together to Save the World from the Crisis?
Kabbalah Today Article: Mankind’s Growing Hunger
Lesson on the Article: “One Law”
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Last Generation”

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News Report (from International Herald Tribune): “On both sides of Atlantic, ’08 was a year to forget, poll finds” As 2008 draws to a close, Americans are more inclined than Western Europeans to say Happy New Year, though both groups are rather pessimistic over all, according to a new poll. The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, shows overwhelming gloom in Europe about the state of the economy, with the French adhering to their reputation: 5 in 6 people surveyed in France expressed pessimism. The average was 7 in 10 for the other European nations surveyed: Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Stereotypes prevailed on the other side of the Atlantic, too, but even the famous American optimism failed to overcome the harsh reality of unrelentingly negative news, as the survey shows the United States divided almost exactly evenly between optimists and pessimists.

My Comment: Let’s see how our opinion changes throughout 2009. For the first time in history, the coming year depends on us. That’s because this is the first time in history that we’re reached the level of being able to correct our nature. All of our history until now was only an evolution or development of egoism, which unceasingly pushed us ahead. But now we have suddenly come to a halt: egoism has reached its full development, and we have revealed our absolute interconnection through its mutilated form of mutual hatred. The only thing that remains is to correct the egoism through force (the path of suffering) or through the Light (the path of Kabbalah). The choice is ours.

A question I received: What will be different about the epoch after the year 2008?

My Answer: We have revealed the breaking of the common soul into many souls, or in other words, we have revealed our egoistic connection with each other. We will feel greater and greater problems, but we will see that they are purposeful – intended to make us realize that egoism is evil, and to finally correct the connection between us.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Forecast for 2009: Let’s Hope for a Moral Revolution
Laitman.com Post: Let’s Pin Down the Outcome of the Crisis
“Babel – a Tale of Two Trails”
Kabbalah for Beginners: “The Common Soul”

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Questions I received on questions and answers:

Question: I am confused about how you can give one answer to many questions asked by different people. You treat them as if they are robots, and you give everyone the same answer: that they have got it all wrong and that their path will clear up with time. I agree that there is a lot of confusion along the way, but how can you assume this kind of authority? After all, every soul is different from the others, and their paths are also different. Just as there cannot be two identical people, there can’t be one answer for everyone. I think that you have to open up to people a bit more.

My Answer: Man is the desire to enjoy. Everything is determined only by the size and quality (type) of the desire. Generally speaking, everyone develops in the same way – just like it happens with children’s physical development. There is only one Law. And just like with children, the differences are insignificant. The method is the same for everyone, and I was not the one who created it. The Teacher (me) explains the method and the rules of spiritual development; he gives answers and advice, and the student applies them to himself. Through the searching and the confusion, called “the Creator’s concealment,” one seeks the opportunity to reveal the Creator by changing himself.

I understand your complaints about me and about the path, but you will have to accept the conditions of spiritual development – “from darkness to the Light.” Continue reading and you will see why it cannot be different.

Question: Sometimes people ask you simple questions on the blog, but your answers are so complicated that it seems as if you’re not answering the questions directly. Instead the answers always come with broad, lengthy and complicated explanations. Is there a reason for this? I sincerely hope that you will have the courage to post this question.

My Answer: It’s because I’m either unable to give a simpler answer, though I do try, or you don’t understand the depth of the question and the answer.

Question: When I have questions, should I look for the answers only through my study? Or should I ask them and make them public? Or can I combine these two alternatives?

My Answer: By making efforts, you evoke the influence of the Correcting Light (Ohr Makif) upon you. As a result of Its influence, you will start understanding and seeing through the matter of our world.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: An Invitation to Ascend – the Purpose of This Blog
Laitman.com Post: Try to Answer Your Own Questions
“Attaining the Unity of the Universe” – Lesson of July 7, 2004

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Three questions I received on the future of the world:

Question: You mentioned that the governing of the world must change to that of love your friend as yourself, one man with one heart. Why don’t you and your group start with a working model of such a system to serve as a beacon and inspiration for the rest? It would be easier to start on a smaller scale rather than a big one.

My Answer: Due to the current time and circumstances, we cannot close ourselves off but must devote all our energy to disseminating Kabbalah in the world, as it is the means of preventing the world from falling into the Third World War.

Question: What do you mean when you say that we are now entering Biblical times?

My Answer: I meant that we have to start observing the Biblical principle, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Question: In reference to your post, Unity for the Right Purpose Can Stabilize the Banking System, I hope you are not speaking of a new world order, one government, one bank, one currency, and everyone being monitored with chips implanted in their bodies.

My Answer: All of humanity is an integral (global) organism. Hence, everyone must submit to one law of total interaction on all levels of our activity. This means, as Baal HaSulam writes in the article, “The Last Generation,” that eventually there will be one spiritual government, which will regulate all the activities of the world’s inhabitants.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Baal HaSulam Describes the Conditions of Life in a Globalized World
Laitman.com Post: The Possibilities of Our Development – War or a Peaceful Transition
From Chaos to Harmony: “The Evolution of the Correction Method”
Article: “Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”
Baal HaSulam Article: “Building the Future Society”

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News Report: (translated from pravda.com): Excerpts from the article “The Crisis of Desires,” by the Ukranian Deputy Minister of Finance and presidential legal advisor, N. Poludenny: The desire and its satisfaction (pleasure) are the basis of man’s energetic-informational nature. We are woven of desires. Our crises will multiply, evolve and intensify until we realize that we must change our perception of the world. First and foremost this means altering the vector of our desires and acquiring the perception of unity between all people in the global system of our world.

Today everyone is talking about restoring trust – trust in the financial system, in the government, and in each other. People presume that this is a matter of an individual’s psychology or the psychology of the masses. In reality, however, trust is a spiritual category, whose root lies in a global spiritual state called “faith.” Confidence and loyalty are derivatives of this state.

These states are impossible as long as people realize their desires with a “minus” sign. And on the contrary, when a person changes the vector of his desire from “receiving for his own sake” to “giving for others’ sake,” he automatically enters the state of confidence, restoring others’ trust in him, and acquiring faith (at the very least, faith in his own abilities).

My Comment: Bravo! Let’s hope that everyone else will soon recognize the reason for the crisis as well! And when they do, people will begin searching for the means (the strength and the method) to correct our nature – and they will reveal Kabbalah.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: People Are Beginning to Open Their Eyes
Laitman.com Post: In His Holiday Greeting, President-elect Obama Speaks of Unity
Laitman.com Post: Pope Decries Self-Interest In Economic Crisis
Laitman.com Post: Gordon Brown, “Seize This Moment of Change to Create a Truly Global Society”

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News Report (translated from utro.ru): Sociological polls administered by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center show that due to the significant reduction of living standards in Russia, caused by the global financial crisis, there is a great threat of broad public unrest. According to the poll results, over 20% of the population say they are willing to participate in mass protests.

Comment: Only the unification of the government with the people will help both survive. However, the following situations are also possible:

• If things progress egoistically, they will end up with Nazism, which will then be defeated because it opposes Nature’s law of globality, integration, and interconnection.

• If people follow the altruistic path, the crisis will be resolved quickly and will have a favorable outcome.

News Report (translated from lenta.ru): The Russian television has aired a promotional campaign encouraging people to set aside their national differences and adopt the necessary policy of tolerance.

Comment: Otherwise, as the the crisis, hunger and frustration reach their peak, there will be problems among people of different nationalities – and then it’s just a short step from nationalism to Nazism.

And here’s another problem: Some people think that they can wait out the crisis without correcting anything, and once it’s over they’ll get back to selling the national resources. This calms people down and convinces them to keep all the existing governmental structures, or in other words, to keep people on a payroll. However, this crisis will change the world and hence people won’t be able to keep “collecting the rent”!

(The above photo shows me next to the Chilean Parliament and Junta soldiers. By the way, “junta” means “group.”)

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Reflections on the Crisis
Laitman.com Post: Nazism – The Future of Humankind?

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Questions I received on the upcoming Congress and inner work:

Question: What is the best way to prepare for the upcoming Congress?

My Answer: You should study the materials from the last Congress (February 2008) and participate in the preparations for the upcoming Congress. Go through the materials about the Congress, and finally, you should be systematically present at our daily lessons (held between 3am and 6am Israel time), or at least at the third part (from 5am until 6am Israel time).

Question: I am trying to find the best way of studying for me. Can a student who’s attracted to his own sex and who studies Kabbalah regularly over the Internet, participate in the Congress that will take place in Israel (to actually come and be there together with everyone)? Can he participate in the Congress preparations? Can he sometimes attend a congress in other countries?

My Answer: Yes.

Question: What is the correct way to unite with the common system?

My Answer: Through the quality of bestowal.

Question continued: Is a person capable of this?

My Answer: Yes, if he does it through a group, by receiving Ohr Makif from above.

Question continued: What kind of force is this, and where can it be found?

My Answer: Only in the study of Kabbalah.

Question: If I understand that everything I do is for the Creator’s sake, and my intention is “for the sake of the Creator,” how can I use Kabbalah to achieve my purpose in life?

My Answer: If you’re already at a point where everything is for the Creator’s sake, then there’s nothing more for you to do…

Question: How is it possible to go from external love to inner love?

My Answer: The same way it is possible to go from egoism to altruism.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Live Your Life as Usual, and Study Kabbalah
Laitman.com Post: Everyone Must Know About Kabbalah
Wondrous Wisdom: “Perceiving the Spiritual”
Spiritual Search: “Intent For the Sake of the Creator”
Attaining the Worlds Beyond: “Transforming Egoism to Altruism”
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Time of Ascent”

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The blog “Kabbalah and the Meaning of Life” has just been released in Dutch:

Kabbalah het Doel van het Leven – Michael Laitman Persoonlijke Blog

The first Dutch Congress was held at the end of December, in Amsterdam. Over 40 of our friends gathered together in order to unite and to coordinate their trip to the International Congress 2009.

Related Material:
Kabbalah website in Dutch

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The International Academy of Kabbalah invites you to the International Kabbalah Congress that will be held in Israel on February 2-4, 2009. Information and registration can be found on the Congress blog.

Here are the songs of the 2009 Congress (in English, Hebrew and Russian):

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Two questions I received on feeling repulsed by unity:

Question: All of this hugging and singing at the Congresses and friends’ assemblies seem ridiculous and artificial. It’s simpler for me to study over the Internet and to work on dissemination than participate in such actions of unification.

My Answer: You are absolutely correct – these actions look childish, awkward, artificial and fake. But this is exactly what we have to do. All the participants understand that they are playing – playing against their own egoism. By performing these actions and making efforts, they draw the Upper Light that corrects them. Our game is like the game of a child, and it’s the most serious thing you can do because this is precisely how a person grows! The difference is that a child is forced to play by Nature, in order to develop, whereas we must be the ones to force ourselves to play. This is our freedom of choice: in choosing the spiritual development.

Question: I’ve been listening to your lessons for a long time, and every time you say that we are one soul and all human beings are involuntarily connected with each other, I get very irritated and disturbed hearing this again and again. Why it is so difficult to accept and understand this?

My Answer: Because it subconsciously humiliates, obligates and limits your egoism.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Game Is a Serious Affair
Laitman.com Post: How Do We Connect Our Points in the Heart?
Laitman.com Post: Invitation to the 2009 International Kabbalah Congress!

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