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Sobering Up from Consumerism

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/24/20

Although most countries are beginning to ease up on their #StayHome and Shelter-In-Place orders, I do not think this pandemic will go away just like that. To overcome the virus, we need the rational and conscious participation of people, countries, nations, and the world. Nevertheless, I am sure that we are now on the right track. Finally, humanity is starting to seriously sober up from our selfish attitude toward each other, the world, and nature. We have a good future ahead of us. It will no longer be possible to return to the life we used to have.

No way! After the coronavirus, people will be different. The blow will change them. They will no longer jump impulsively on planes and fly half way around the world to buy accessories. They will be interested in a more in-depth attitude toward nature, toward each other, and toward themselves. Soon, I believe, we will open our eyes and see the whole picture of nature. We have a fascinating journey ahead of us. Every day, nature fine-tunes us more and more for a new attitude toward ourselves, the world, life, death, toward everything. I am confident that humanity will grow up in many aspects from this supposed blow.

Turning the Coronavirus Into Good

laitman_547.05Question: How should we cope with the growing anxiety from the expected consequences of the coronavirus of remaining without work or livelihood? How does this relate to spiritual connection?

Answer: I think you will have no issues since this is not only your problem, but the problem of many millions or even billions of people in the world. Therefore, it makes no sense to worry.

Various measures will be taken so that many people will not be harmed. There cannot be the suffering of billions of people as it happened during war, the plague, or global hunger. In general, this is not such a big problem for mankind. How many casualties does the coronavirus have? A small amount. So, we can handle it.

However, we need to consider such states as pointing to our separation from each other. If we get closer to each other, then we will turn this virus into good. It will do its good deed. Instead of destroying the connections between us, it will make them more productive, tender, correct, and humane.

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What Is So Unique About The Current Situation?

laitman_764.3Question: Mankind has been in emergency situations before. What is so unique about the current situation?

Answer: It is unique because humanity has reached a state where we are completely dependent on each other around the globe. The virus has developed all over the world and is talked about in every country.

Each person feels that this can certainly affect him or her because we all live in a single integrated system and are completely dependent on its well-being. Therefore, no matter whether you live in the jungle or in the sands, in New York or in Moscow, you will still feel it.

The virus will make its way to all corners of the world. You can say, “How can it get to me? I live on a desert island. There is nobody here besides me.”

The fact is that these viruses, these malicious waves, appear from nothing, literally from nothing. They appear from the particles, atoms, and molecules of normal organisms that exist in nature in the wrong system of bonds. Nature generates them in the form of viruses.

These are biological organisms that must be in balance and behave correctly in relation to each other. But since around the globe we are creating a terrible relationship between good and evil, receiving and bestowing, it turns out that nature itself invents them in such a terrible form. These viruses will appear where they simply can’t be.

And vice versa, if we begin to improve nature, then suddenly, as if from nothing, such species of plants and animals will appear that haven’t been on Earth for 100 to 200 years.
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/15/20

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Nature Is Dying From The Virus Called Humanity

laitman_738Many countries started talking about gradually lifting the quarantine and adults returning to work and children to school. Will this result in a new wave of infection?

Everything will be all right if we take precautions not to infect each other and keep our distance. Of course, we must return to work to provide each other with the necessary services and products; otherwise, we will not be able to live.

If we think about how to return people to the necessary jobs, without which there would be no food or essential services, and we take care only about ensuring a normal existence for everyone, the epidemic will not increase.

However, if this is an attempt to return to the old race for profit in order to top up someone’s bank accounts, the situation will deteriorate dramatically. After all, this will go against the general force of nature, and then there will be a sharp outbreak and the virus will spread even more.

If we return to our jobs and schools, it should be done gradually and in conjunction with educating people, that is, with explaining the state we are in, what form we should come to, and why we should support and protect each other.

It is important that a person is not only concerned about not getting infected himself, but is also afraid of infecting others. It is this mutual concern that will protect us from the virus.

The coronavirus is a special program that is loaded into a general computer called “humanity” and begins working in it. This program demands us to have greater mutual connection, and if we achieve it, we will get over the virus.

However, if we do not begin to connect, no matter how much we increase the number of tests and devices for artificial lung ventilation, nothing will help us. So far, we are only learning from blows.

The world is moving toward feeling more connected, more united. A common problem affects everyone, from North to South and from West to East, and brings people together. They no longer think about wars, conflicts between countries, corporations, and individuals; the main thing is to live peacefully. Everyone is locked up at home, and they agree to sit there because now the main problem for them is not to get infected with the virus.

In this sense, the coronavirus has greatly helped humanity. All we need to do now is restore production and distribution in such a way that it will provide humanity with the necessary products, but without the excessive consumption that has almost completely ruined the Earth.

We cannot go back to our old life because we have become a harmful virus on the surface of the earth, a virus that kills nature. We destroy all the ecological environment, and therefore, we receive a corresponding response from nature.

We need to think carefully about how to return to our activities on earth so that it will provide everyone with a more or less normal life but not at the expense of draining all the resources from the Earth.

If we do not do this now, then there will be other, even more terrible and harmful viruses, through which nature will teach us and force us to change. Nature is the Creator and has a lot of tools in store to make us bend.

Nature is the upper force, the Creator, HaVaYaH. No matter what you call it, the main thing is that there is one force that controls all the inanimate, vegetative, and animate world, and people. Practically, everyone accepts this as an obvious fact.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/20, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Love of God and the Love of Man”

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There Is No Going Back

laitman_961.2Opinion: If we wait until the virus goes away and return to our previous lives, can we cause an additional, stronger blow with this action? Many people believe the epidemic is about to pass.

Answer: I do not think this pandemic will go away just like that. It is possible that it will not correct humanity at once. We need the individual, rational, and conscious participation of people, countries, nations, and the world.

But I am sure that we are now on the right track. Finally the century called the last generation has begun  when humanity is starting to seriously sober up from the wrong, selfish, childish relationships toward each other, the world, and nature. We have a good future ahead of us. It will no longer be possible to return to the life we used to have. No way!

Question: Why do you think so?

Answer: Because people will already be different. Nature will change them. These blows will make them slightly different. They will no longer impulsively jump on a plane and fly around the world to buy some foolish things in exotic countries or something like that. They will be interested in a more in-depth attitude toward nature and toward themselves.

Question: You say that this virus saved nature from our consumer attitude to it. And indeed, there are clear facts confirming that nature is beginning to purify itself. But all these natural resources were used by a small group of people for their own prosperity, and ordinary people had nothing to do with it. Nevertheless, these blows are delivered to everyone. So why do we have to pay for the deeds of others?

Answer: We are all in one system. And nature punishes us according to our involvement. So you cannot say that the one who lost billions is less affected than the one who lost his monthly salary. The one who lost billions, of course, does not starve, but his suffering is incomparable with the one who lost only a monthly salary.

Someday, when we open our eyes and see the whole picture of nature, we will understand how fair this is and that it leads us only to a proper awareness of our states and correct behavior. In short, we have a very interesting journey ahead of us. And every day, nature fine-tunes us more and more for a new attitude toward ourselves, toward the world, life, death, toward everything. I hope that humanity will grow up in many aspects from this supposed blow. We will see that this is not a blow but a cure. In fact, what we consider a disease, a virus, is actually a cure.
From KabTV’s “Coronavirus changes reality,” 3/19/20

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“Reopening The Economy? First, We Have To Change” (Newsmax)

My article in Newsmax: “Reopening the Economy? First, We Have to Change

There are debates all over the world about how and to what extent countries should reopen their economies in order to prevent a complete collapse. But opening it without first dealing with the cause of the coronavirus outbreak is likely to have horrific consequences that will dwarf the ordeal of the current pandemic.

We think we are at war with nature, that we must fight against it and subdue it. We forget that we ourselves are nature’s creation. Each of our thoughts, plans, words and actions is engendered in nature before it manifests in us. This is true even of the aspiration to subdue nature. But trying to conquer the very thing that planted the thought of conquering in our minds makes even less sense than chasing our own tails.

Just as we don’t understand why nature sends us the thoughts it does, we don’t understand why it has sent us the coronavirus. Yet it, too, had a process that led to its emergence. If we want to overcome the virus, we must know where it came from and why. When we identify the process that engendered the virus, we will see what we must do in order to curb it, and why there are many more in store where that little bug came from, and far more sinister.

Many scientists have already pointed to human behavior as the cause of the appearance of the virus. They explained that the destruction of natural habitats of many wild animals has forced them to migrate closer to humans. This makes what virologists call a “spillover” of viruses from animals to humans easier and more frequent. All the coronaviruses that caused respiratory syndromes in this century have resulted from such “spillovers.” SARS, MERS and COVID-19 were all caused by viruses that migrated from the animal kingdom and caused life-threatening illnesses in humans. So, too, by the way, is the case with the Ebola virus.

But human behavior did not only cause spillovers of viruses. Human behavior has polluted the oceans, lakes and rivers, polluted the air and polluted the earth. It depleted the oceans of fish, the sky of birds and the earth of animals. Human behavior starves and sickens millions of men, women and children the world over, enslaves them, rapes them and exploits them in countless ways. Human behavior inflicts death and torment on millions through war, deportation and destruction of communities and entire countries. Even the affluent and fortunate are so afflicted by human behavior that they find refuge in drugs, suicide, excessive eating and depression. In short, human behavior is the cause of all that is bad and wrong in the world.

Yet, what causes us to be so injurious to everything and everyone around us? And if our behavior is so fundamentally flawed, can we even mend it? And if so, where do we start?

We Start at Home

All animals behave according to their nature. Man is a part of nature; therefore, man behaves according to human nature. If human behavior is flawed, it is because so is human nature.

Hugging trees won’t change human nature, but hugging people will. The change should start at home, with the people meant to be closest to us. We must use the COVID-19 hiatus from baleful capitalism to reconnect with our families, reestablish the bond that made us a family in the first place, but which so many of us have lost along the way.

Afterwards, we should look at our communities and begin to reconstruct them. To paraphrase the words of JFK, ask not what your community can do for you; ask what you can do for your community. It will take mutual commitment to succeed, but if people understand the importance and urgency of rebuilding our communities, they will respond.

Before we take action, we must be aware. We must let the idea of human nature being the root of all problems sink into our minds and the minds of the people in our family and community, and then pull together and change it. We can do it. All we have to do is set a good example and let others inspire us through their example. We can use the added free time we have been given to learn about human nature and then go out and do something about it with our friends and neighbors.

From the community level, we must spread the spirit of friendship everywhere else. Just as singing from porches spread from Italy to porches all over the world, so can good deeds. Don’t be afraid to shoot a video of yourself helping others and post it on social media. Tell the viewers that you’re doing it because you want to be a better person, and the idea will catch on. It’s as easy as that: I help others because it makes me a better person. That’s all that people need to know. You will win people’s hearts and they will want to follow in your footsteps.

If we realize who we are and want to change, we only need to change our actions. This will change our mindsets, which will change our hearts.

What Efforts Do Those Studying Kabbalah Make?

laitman_530Question: What are the elements of our efforts during a workshop? How can we identify them so that a person can strive for them more precisely?

Answer: We always start with the fact that we had one soul, an interconnected system of desires in which each exists only in addition to the others. This system can be depicted in the form of a sphere, which is a geometric shape of the mutual connection of many different qualities and desires.

Later, this design broke into 600.000 pieces and then into a huge number of individual pieces. Our task is to bring them together.

Since we bring them together against our egoism, the power of this construction is many times greater and more intense than before. If earlier, in its initial state, the light was small, the light of Nefesh, now, by connecting through our own efforts, we receive the light of NRNHY de NRNHY, the highest level of the degree of Yechida, unity, connection.

Thus we will experience creation from minus to plus infinity, in all its depth and forms, in complete attainment of each and every one. This, in principle, is our work.

In order to fulfill it, we cannot just study individually, each with his own book. We must maintain constant contact with each other. All the Kabbalists write about this, starting with Abraham, who, in addition to the revelations of the previous Kabbalists, revealed the source of connection.

And 1,500 years later, during the time of Rabbi Akiva, there was deeper scrutiny of the method of connection. The Ari continued its development in the 16th century and Baal HaSulam 500 years after that. Today, it is in our hands.

Each time this method is updated. It is always different, and we must apply it on ourselves, try it on ourselves. This is what we do in every workshop.

It is not easy. We do not just mindlessly follow instructions, flip pages, and execute it as is usually the case in many professions. For example, I worked for several years in aviation preparing planes for departure.  Everything went according to instructions: Do this, check that, turn on the toggle switch, look at the arrow, etc. Not here, though. You must experience everything on yourself, and each time there are new forms and qualities.

This is a completely different kind of work that can be implemented only in a group. And each time we prepare ourselves for a new state, a new flight.

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How Can I Not Lose Myself?

laitman_608.02Question: Today, I am aware of what I am. This somehow enables me to find my way in this world. When I study your articles and watch your videos, I often hear you say that attaining the Creator means being in adhesion with Him.

This invokes fear in me that if I get closer to the Creator and merge with Him, I will cease to exist. What is this fear and what is adhesion to the Creator?

Answer: Adhesion to the Creator is achieved when your egoism dissipates and its importance decreases, and instead, the importance of the attribute of bestowal, which we call the Creator, emerges. It begins to rule all your other attributes, forces, and intentions.

This means that the attribute of bestowal, connection, and love for everything that is external to you is the means that brings you closer to the Creator. This is a spiritual attribute. If you begin to feel that it is gradually manifesting in you, it means that you are on the right path.

Question: Don’t I lose my uniqueness, my individuality by that?

Answer: You do not lose anything because the attribute that you acquire also stems from your egoism, but it is opposite to it.

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Soar Above The Pain

laitman_243.04Comment: The great 13th century Sufi poet Rumi compared emotions like joy, depression, and lowliness to uninvited guests and he recommended to laugh in their face. But we usually behave differently and pretend not to notice them.

However, psychological studies show that accepting negative emotions is a better way to restore and maintain spiritual balance.

My Response: A person is built so that he must balance his negative and positive emotions. If he doesn’t, he will not have an incentive to live.

Question: Suppose I encounter a problem; how should I take it?

Answer: All the same, you will look for the positive side in it. They beat me, but I can breathe between the blows.

Question: This is paradoxical of course, but I would like to ask you about even worse events—a catastrophe, for example.

Answer: Yes. You survive that too.

Question: So, this is called acceptance of the affliction we encounter?

Answer: The trouble comes, and you cannot do anything about it. But still, the instinct of self-preservation forces you to look for something positive in any circumstance you may find yourself in. Otherwise, you will have no incentive to live, and the incentive to live is the most important thing.

Question: What about a person who commits suicide?

Answer: People who end their life by suicide, in principle, have everything. There are people who, compared to those who commit suicide, are really miserable, terribly sick, and have nothing, but are still happy. This is a paradox.

Question: This is indeed a paradox. People commit suicide in Europe, while in Africa hardly any do.

What advice would you give? When trouble comes, a negative situation, how should a person behave?

Answer: He should lower his head, lower his demands, and connect to people like him. Then a person will feel that it is actually in the connection between people that he finds fulfillment and peace of mind and even meaning and purpose in life.

He suddenly begins to understand where this affliction comes from (mind you—he thinks it is a misfortune), and he begins to see that in this affliction, in the lowest state, when he is simply on the ground and cannot raise his head, he begins to understand the meaning, that this is how he is being guided.

He understands that he has been given the opportunity to crawl through such a worm hole to a different state, to a higher state, that is more detached from corporeality, from materialism, and is a more sublime spiritual state.

Question: You have said that this is the state when you start looking for connection with other people?

Answer: Yes. Through them. Or maybe it is inside. This already depends on the root of the soul. He needs to either attain such states through connection with others or individually.

Question: What does a person begin to understand? Where the affliction came from and why?

Answer: He begins to understand the upper providence. And this already opens up for him a totally different attitude to life, inner connection, connection with others. He begins to discover states that are outside of his body.

Question: So, are you saying that only through pain can a person hold on to something that is higher than him, to the Creator?

Answer: That is the only way. It just depends on how you perceive and understand this pain. This pain can be both enjoyable and fulfilling because I know that it detaches me, it scrapes me from this world, like you peel off an adhesive tape, for example. That is how it tears me off, and I stick to a completely different world.
From KabTV’s “The News with Michael Laitman,” 12/16/20

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