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Climate Crisis: Who Can Save the Planet?

The failure of the Copenhagen Climate Conference leaves the world wondering how to resolve the environmental crisis—Nature has the remedy

The Copenhagen Climate Conference failed at its mission to save the planet from global warming. The sole result of this two week global summit was a weak accord that has no teeth to stave off greenhouse gases; voting members merely conceded “to take note” of the recommendations. Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen, designated to lead the summit after the conference president resigned on the opening day, implored the delegation to action by pointing out, “People around the world [are] actually expecting something to be done from us.”

Rasmussen’s plea, far from eliciting the desired outcome, smacks of an all-too-tragic comedy that the proceedings proved to be. The conference which was billed as the “last, best chance to save the environment” was criticized, among other things, for the 1200, high-carbon footprint limousines brought in from as far as Germany and Sweden to transport the climate-conscious delegates to and from the conference.

Comparisons to efforts made to save the global financial system were noted in the French newspaper Libération, “We must make the bitter observation: when it comes to rescuing the banking system, the dialog has been far more effective and determined.” Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s president, succinctly summed it up, “If the climate was a bank they would have saved it.”

The world’s oldest scientific institution, the Royal Society professes that the summit’s failure has brought the world “one step closer to a humanitarian crisis.” If those designated to save the planet have failed, and the ecological crisis, as it is widely observed, is only getting worse, it begs the question: Who can save the planet?

The Nature of the Problem

To find the answer, we can look to nature and at the true nature of the problem. Taking a broad view, we must first recognize that nature is not the sum of all the minerals, plants, and animals on the planet. Nature, rather, is a principle of mutual balance that defines the detailed relationships of everything in existence.

An illustration of the natural relationship of mutual balance is the complex of biological systems within us. 10 trillion cells work together for the purpose of sustaining the aggregate of the cells, our bodies.

Nature cannot help but act in a mutual and harmonized balance. Creatures in nature take from the environment only what they need for survival, and they work together for the benefit of the herd, flock, pride, or school. Why are humans the only species on the planet who disrupt this balance? The human being is the only creature who enjoys accumulating more than others and more than he needs, who uses the environment for excessive gain, and desires to dominate nature. This follows from man’s desires for not only food, shelter, and family, but also for wealth, power, fame, and honor.

These attributes, which are exclusively in the domain of man, are what produce the imbalance with and in nature. When we look behind all the systems created by man, we see one force: the ego. Humans are driven by their personal self-interest rather than the consideration of what is best for all. This is the breakdown in the relationship with nature and what causes problems for us and the environment.

The Way Back to Balance

Humans seem to view nature as if we are above it, and not a part of it. But we are an integral part of the global system of nature, which is a single, interconnected system. When man causes a disruption in the natural harmony in the planet, it ripples throughout and throws the entire system off-balance. This is why even if the Copenhagen conference had been successful, it still would fall short of really saving the planet. It still misses the point; instead of dealing with the results of the problem, like attempting to curtail greenhouse gas emissions, we must address the root of the problem.

The way to save the environment is to rebalance nature at the level where the imbalance occurs, at the level of the relationships between people. Nature most broadly is the principle of mutual balance that guides the detailed relationships of everything in existence. Humans self-interestedly dominate the environment and other humans. If instead, we adopt an attitude of consideration of the whole of humanity and the planet, we will save both.

Everything else in nature operates by this natural law. When we begin, one by one, to start internalizing the perspective of our truly being interconnected and the need to tend to that relationship with all, we create a relationship of mutual interest between us; and we will balance ourselves with nature, creating harmony and peace for our planet.

The answer for saving the planet is truly in our hands, hearts, and minds.

Major Tom, Do You Hear Me?

A Kabbalistic Journey Into the Galaxy’s Mysteries

The final frontier is not somewhere in outer space, but hidden deep inside each one of us

“Space, the last frontier….” There were times when millions would hold their breath as these opening words of the TV series “Star Trek” were heard. In the background, the spaceship Enterprise breaks forth on its winding journey to discover strange new worlds.

Until the last few years, space research was the greatest hope for the human desire for discovery; an awesome adventure that drew us all. After everything on our planet was conquered, and there was nothing left to discover, new horizons suddenly opened when the space age began in the second half of the 20th century. The first few trips into outer space far overshadowed the legendary voyages of the great discoverers: Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, and others. The moon, which had always seemed an untouchable heavenly crescent, suddenly became a tangible, reachable object, a place one can walk and even plant a flag. The following waves of astronauts, shuttles, and satellites that would fill the sky inspired great artists of the time, Asimov, Kubrick, David Bowie, and others to create hair-raising fictional fantasies.

And while space research remains exciting to this day, it is hard to ignore the fact that the space industry is still far from satisfying the hopes we have harbored. The pool of water recently discovered on the moon is clearly an important discovery. But what about the great dreams we envisioned? Still clinging to those hopes, the latest issue of National Geographic’s cover proclaims we are still searching for another “Earth” in the heavens. So what about all those worlds and creatures that we hoped to find? Why can’t we find forms of life beyond our world? Is it possible that all the exploration has been in vain and there is nothing “out there”? Or maybe we are just not looking in the right place….

A Contraction of the History of Time

For millennia, the wisdom of Kabbalah has said that the universe does not contain any intelligent creatures other than man. As disappointing as it may sound, there is no possibility of encountering green creatures from Mars anytime soon. But there is something even better for those of us who long to be adventurous explorers: There is an enormous, invisible force that surrounds and fills the universe which we can reach. What is that force?

In the middle of the 16th century, with the appearance of a man named Isaac Luria, known as “the Ari,” in Tsfat, Israel, a window to the understanding of that force was opened. A minute before the astronomer Galileo started astonishing and confounding the world with his amazing discoveries of outer space, the Ari developed a different kind of telescope, one directed inside man, into the mysteries of the human heart. Through the lens of that telescope, the Ari unveiled the spiritual cosmology of the universe. In the poetic language of his time, he begins the revelation this way:

Behold that before the emanations were emanated and the creatures were created,

The Upper Simple Light had filled the whole existence.

And there was no vacancy, such as an empty atmosphere, a hollow, or a pit,

But all was filled with Simple, Boundless Light.

With these opening words to his book The Tree of Life, the Ari describes the initial point of creation. At that point a force called “the Creator” brought forth a force called “the creation,” which constitutes a vessel for receiving unlimited pleasure and love. This vessel was in “wonderful and mysterious” unity with its Creator, with no empty space, gap, or border between them.

However, in order to allow the creation to develop an independent identity, the Creator performed a special act called “restriction.” The purposeful act created a divide between the creature and the abundant pleasure. Using the restriction, the creature separated from the Creator until there was a complete disengagement between them and concealment of one from the other. The restriction determines that from now on, the creation can connect to the Creator only by acquiring the Creator’s quality of bestowal. This is the way that the Creator will be “unveiled” to the creation.

In the Ari’s method, this entire process is described through a structure of ten concentric spheres, with a central point representing the creation, and the spheres around it representing the space between the creation and the Creator. Traversing all the spheres is a “thin line” of Light that originates from the initial created state, Infinity, and penetrates all the way down to the central point. This spark of Light is what ignited the creation of the physical universe known to us. But this universe is but a small droplet of the complete reality, where we are only at the initial stage of the exploration process….

Spiritual Space Odyssey

In order for the creature to regain the knowledge of the Creator that it lost after the restriction, it must embark on a long, adventurous journey designed to expand the small central point back to its original, complete, and unlimited form. Baal HaSulam, the Kabbalist who interpreted the Tree of Life for our times, explained that first and foremost we must understand that we are not exploring physical space. The spiritual space which we reveal is a “space” inside us that separates us from the Creator.

Spiritual movement is a change in qualities. Therefore, the more we change the way we use our created nature—the will to receive, and make it similar to that of the Creator—the will to bestow, the more we reduce that empty space between us and the Creator. Like a space rocket launched from Earth passes through the various layers of the atmosphere, so we cross the layers of concealment separating us from the Creator.

At the last stage called “End of Correction,” we return to the same state of eternal unity and harmony with the Light as we were in before the restriction, but this time we do so with our full awareness and free will. It is precisely the disengagement and emptiness we had experienced that enable us to build this new, mature relationship with the creative force of the entire universe. We then become a vessel in which the initial pleasure is multiplied a thousand-fold.

So, how is all of this related to the space research of our era? What is the connection between rockets, shuttles, satellites, and extraterrestrial life, and the End of Correction?

A Guide for the Hitchhiker in Space

The intense drive to explore space and to search for new worlds originates from an internal, deep, and justified feeling that we are not alone. However, instead of searching for partners who are aliens in space, we need to embark on the true search: the search for the Creator. Kabbalists are those who have experienced this entire journey and arrived at the final result. Based on their research, they created a map that we can use in order to follow in their footsteps. The books they wrote are structured as a special guide for a person who wants to break forth into the higher dimension of existence.

This is not science fiction. Using a special language, the Kabbalists tell us about future states that each one of us will feel in the most real and clear way. By reading Kabbalah books with a strong desire to feel what they are describing, we draw a force from our future, more advanced state, which pulls us “upward” toward that state. That force acts on our created nature, the will to receive, and gradually expands it from a small, empty point to a complete vessel for receiving the infinite Upper Light.

Men and Shoes Won’t Make You Happy

What do women really want? The key to real happiness is at our fingertips

Are you happy? Yes, I am talking to you. Today, I want to speak to you woman to woman, openly and candidly. I want you to really think about it. Are you truly happy? If you are honest with yourself, your response will likely be “no.” Maybe you’ve achieved many of your life goals: a husband, children, an exciting career, financial independence, and a healthy lifestyle; or maybe not, but irrespective of this, many women the world over are asking themselves, “What happened to me?” One recent study of American women, called “Women less happy after 40 years of feminism,” found that we are in fact less happy today than we were thirty years ago despite all sorts of modern advancements (Times Online).

Over the last few decades, we seem to have achieved everything we thought we wanted. We wanted to be more independent, so in came women’s rights and all sorts of opportunities for education and employment. Yet, we are becoming more and more disillusioned in this area of life. Another example is our unrealistic expectations of men. We often look at men as a source of our happiness, but most of the time we don’t find that men fit our criteria, and even if we do, we become disappointed over time.

Ok, maybe men and exciting careers don’t make us happy, but shopping most certainly will! But as most of us know by now, consumerism is a never-ending loop, and we have it turned on “high,” bringing ourselves and those around us to complete exhaustion. So, why is it that we still are not feeling happy? Could it be that we were looking for satisfaction in all the wrong places?

At some point, we started to understand that perhaps we couldn’t find happiness externally in our husbands, careers, or “things.” Our internal instinct instigated a search for “something more,” some greater purpose to life. So we turned our attention to all sorts of spiritual courses, psychologists, psychics, self-help books, and yoga memberships. After many failed attempts, however, we found that we still had a gaping hole in our hearts screaming out for true fulfillment. Is this you?

What are we Searching For?

What if I were to tell you that everything that’s happened so far was predetermined in order to lead you right here: this place where you’ve exhausted yourself trying to find fulfillment only to realize that you are still not happy. What if I were to also tell you that a woman’s fulfillment does not lie in shoes, clothes, cosmetics, holidays, men, or meditation; and that all these things will never bring the spiritual fulfillment that a woman needs most of all?

In our times, we are beginning to see that a woman can only truly be happy when she is in direct contact with a higher force, call it Nature or the Creator, but it’s something we’ve distanced ourselves from and are desperately seeking. Even with all our modern advancements and the achievement of all our goals, we still have an ever present internal feeling of being unfulfilled. This feeling of lack is inherent in every woman because a woman’s spiritual root is “an absolute desire to receive,” or as Kabbalah explains, the vessel which the Creator created in order to fulfill it with delight. It is our very nature to feel lack, because without a lack, there is nothing to fulfill. Everything that was ever created was for the sole purpose of bringing us women (the universal will to receive) pleasure.

Our desire for fulfillment is what has compelled all human development from the earliest societies until today. However, because our modern, collective ego, our desire for pleasure, has grown so large, the fulfillments of the past no longer do anything for us. Today, we need spiritual fulfillment or nothing else.

Finding Real Fulfillment

Every time we try to find fulfillment in any pleasure in this world, it is contact with the Upper Force, the Creator that we truly want. The whole purpose of all our development and all of our searching is to bring us to this point of exhaustion, when we simply can no longer try to fill ourselves with things from the outside world. It is at that exact moment that we have the opportunity to look inside ourselves, to begin a journey toward true, perfect, and eternal fulfillment.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is a practical method that can show a woman how to reconnect with her spiritual root in a conscious and proactive way. It can show us how to find eternal fulfillment by doing the one thing we have never tried, receiving pleasure in order to give pleasure to the One who created us. When we switch the intention of our desire from “for ourselves” to “for the other,” and when we find pleasure in the pleasure of someone else, the pleasure we feel increases exponentially and is everlasting. So, why not skip the mall, leave your husband or boyfriend in peace, put down the latest “10 Steps to Happiness,” and take some time to explore your spiritual root, the female desire, through the wisdom of Kabbalah?

The Best Gift for Your Little Ones

Is giving our children the “best of everything” really the best way to prepare them for the rapidly changing, interconnected world? The changing world demands a fundamental change in attitude. And that is something we can give our children on any budget

We love our little ones with a passion that is unparalleled. There are few pleasures as satisfying as caressing those chubby, miniature hands, kissing their fluffy, rosy cheeks while they blissfully snore away, and gently running our fingers through that soft, angel baby hair. We cherish every little Kodak moment, like the time they get their grubby little hands on a piece of cake at their first birthday and joyfully smear it all over their entire face, their first clumsy encounter with Sam, their grandma’s dog, and of course, that first, heroic, wobbly step.

We love them so much, we want them to have the very best of everything, and we would go to any length to get it for them. We want them to have the softest, coziest socks, the healthiest, most delicious food, and the best toys that will give them endless joy and develop them into little geniuses. We would give away everything we have a million times over just to be sure that they will be safe, happy, and well cared-for.

Preparing Our Children for the Future

But beyond the basic physical needs, do we know what these innocent creatures really need to be happy and to succeed in this complicated world of today? Do we know what to give them beyond good clothes, food, games, and entertainment? The world today is clearly not what it used to be, and the conditions for being safe, happy, and successful have changed considerably from the time we were kids. Opening the front page of any newspaper, it is easy to see that we, the adults, are not managing our world very well. We have let things develop to a point where we cannot control the consequences of our actions, and worse yet, we have created a haven for people’s worst egoistic tendencies to roam freely and take advantage of everything and everyone around.

Yet while we ourselves are caught in the midst of this unstable situation, we are still able to create a warm, safe, and loving environment for the little darlings dearest to us—until it is time for them to come out of the nest, that is. But after that, is our only available option to “let be what will be,” as we’ve done with our own lives? Or is there something we can give our kids, some kind of knowledge, attitude, or awareness that will enable them to shape a world that will have very different headlines gracing the newspaper?

Because our love and passion for them is so absolute, there is only one answer: There has to be something we can give them for a better life, and we have to find what it is and deliver it to them. So let’s be the adults that we are for a moment, and think soberly: It is definitely no longer an option to “solve” things by isolating them from the whole world, such as by keeping them at home for as long as we can and barring them from the outside world. It is also not an option to let them grow up “like grass” without rules or limits, or to let them think that everything they see in the movies, advertisements, and the internet is the truth and the standard to emulate. True, we cannot control the gigantic, out-of-control advertising industry or mass media, but we can instill in our kids the subconscious understanding of the fact that the selfish, egoistic goals and values so often promoted there are destructive and undesirable.

A Paradigm for their New World

In our unprecedented, radically new, global world, where all people are starting to find themselves as members of a tightly-knit, interconnected family spanning to every corner of the world, it is no longer, “He who has the most toys wins,” but, “He who is able to share his toys and enjoy watching others playing with them, wins.”

This is the vitally needed new attitude, knowledge, and awareness that we, as parents, can give to our kids. This will be a present infinitely more valuable than any designer pair of boots, the healthiest baby formula, or the most expensive, battery-operated truck. And this invaluable education can begin at any age, even at birth, because as any mother knows, our kids absorb everything from us starting the moment they’re born. They soak in all the energies, thoughts, and attitudes around them from the very first moment because “the soul has no age.”

So let us transmit the values of giving and sharing to our children from their very first moments in this world, and let our infinite love for them be a constant reminder never to stop. If we only persevere in this one, all-important task as parents, we will very soon see our beloved darlings living in a truly safe and happy world.

The Zohar: Mother Nature’s Guide to Spirituality

Mother Nature has prepared a unique path for our development. Just like parents help a baby develop in this world, The Book of Zohar teaches us how to develop in the spiritual world

A baby is born into this world tabula rasa (Latin for blank slate), without any knowledge aside from its ingrained genetic predisposition. Then he begins to instinctively acquire impressions from his surroundings and to distinguish between warm and cold, dark and light, and to recognize different sounds: mom and dad’s voices, footsteps approaching, silence, and so on. Gradually, he begins reacting to stimuli such as ambiance, sounds, colors, and light; and eventually he starts reacting to its mother’s actions with laughs or cries.

Soon, a baby begins to actively explore the world, and then he is unstoppable. He grabs everything and tastes it in his little mouth, crawls everywhere, demands to touch and feel everything, and opens his small, curious eyes trying to grasp whatever his mother tells him. A baby doesn’t understand these things, but he gazes at his mother and radiates happiness.

As the growth continues, the baby begins to differentiate various feelings in each of his senses. Although he does not have full awareness of what is happening, his naturally embedded instincts make him continually more familiar with the world. Through all these experiences a baby begins to think and to build connections between bits and pieces. He begins to understand and have greater demands.

In our world, children develop through the impressions they receive from outside influences, initially from their parents and older siblings, and then from the models of behavior that adults demonstrate and explain. Adults have always created various means of development for their children, such as games, toys, playgrounds, music, and books. Children naturally explore their small worlds by taking apart and reassembling their toys in an attempt to understand them. By engaging in these activities, the world begins to take form and make sense.

Mother Nature created an innate program for parents and society to ensure that each new generation will grow up prepared for the demands of the world we live in. We are instinctively driven to teach our children everything that we have learned.

However, unlike animals, we cannot give our children, right after birth, all the necessary information, education, and knowledge for living in our world. We cannot help them develop the entire spectrum of feelings and reactions all at once. It can only occur gradually, through a step-by-step process. Our children accumulate greater feelings, impressions, and knowledge as they slowly go through their maturation. Through the course of 20 years or longer, children develop into adults.

Spiritual Birth

A similar process happens when we are born tabula rasa into a different dimension of our reality—the spiritual world. We cannot comprehend anything beyond our routine physical reality, and thus, we need the spiritual father and mother, surroundings, games, toys, teachers, education, and explanations to help us become acquainted with and develop in the spiritual world.

The great 20th century Kabbalist Baal HaSulam writes in the article “Body and Soul,” that as no person can exist without information about the world he lives in, so a soul cannot exist in the spiritual world without receiving information about it. Our spiritual advancement cannot occur without receiving various new impressions. Initially, we may not understand them; thus, we may feel as an infant, yet these sensations will “fill us up” and cause us to grow.

The Book of Zohar affects us exactly like a baby is affected by external influences; that is why this book is very special. When a person reads The Zohar, it fills him with different impressions from the unknown spiritual world regardless of his understanding it. As we study The Zohar, we gradually receive impressions from it, which permeate us and ensure our advancement. This influence happens so naturally that while reading The Zohar, all we have to do is follow the text and imagine ourselves traveling inside our inner world that the book is describing.

We can even read The Zohar without explanations, but just with a desire to attain new feelings and knowledge contained therein, like babies trying to explore the world with their wide open eyes. If we open up our feelings, hearts, and minds with the intention to absorb what the book tells us, then we will advance regardless of any mental, intellectual, or physical abilities.

Zohar is translated as “Brilliance” or “Radiance.” We only need to let its radiant Light influence us. We thus become witnesses to the exciting process of our own inner transformation.

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The Book of Zohar Can be Opened by All

Question: Who can read The Zohar?

Dr. Laitman’s Answer: The Book of Zohar was concealed from people for a long time. Since its composition in the 2nd century CE, only a few chosen souls (Kabbalists) used it and passed it from one to another, forming a lineage.

The book was revealed to outsiders when the widow of the Kabbalist Moshe De Leon sold it along with other books belonging to her husband. That is when Kabbalists began to forbid its study and created rigid restrictions to repel people from it. In the meantime, they continued studying this book in order to correct their souls, and they also taught other disciples who had a point in their hearts. The majority of people at that time did not have a point in the heart, meaning they weren’t striving for spirituality, and therefore they were banned from opening the book.

Today humanity as a whole has reached a stage of development where The Book of Zohar can be opened by anyone. There is no danger in doing so. First of all, this is due to Baal HaSulam’s work: “The Sulam Commentary on The Zohar,” and secondly, because of the current level of the souls’ development.

Without a doubt, this book is the only resource capable of correcting the soul. We still don’t fully understand what a wonderful tool it is.

When we understand what kind of system it is, connect to it, and start using it, then we will enter the spiritual world, and we will continue to grow by ascending from one spiritual degree to another until reaching the ultimate purpose of creation, perfect peace and delight. The Book of Zohar is a gradual revelation that works in this manner—it is truly a device for revealing the Upper Light!

What is Revealed in The Book of Zohar?

Question: What is revealed to me when I am reading The Zohar?

Dr. Laitman’s Answer: You reveal what is happening on the higher level, in spirituality. Our reading The Zohar is very much like a little child growing up—every day he understands life a little bit more, gains a greater understanding of what is happening, and reacts to things more consciously.

Similarly, when we read The Zohar, we gradually reveal a new, spiritual world and gain a greater understanding of it with each passing day. We reveal spiritual qualities inside ourselves on a sensory level and we therefore begin to feel, and then understand what is being said, similar to how we revealed this world when we were growing up.

Spiritual revelation is not rational but sensory, and it happens through a new sense called “the soul,” brought about by the Light that The Zohar radiates to those who approach it with the right desire. This may not sound serious and you may wonder, “How is this a science? After all, we are just reading a book.” But when we desire very much to be in that picture or that reality about which it is telling us; just like a baby simply feels: “I want it and that’s it!” Then we suddenly reveal it. Nothing else is required of us except this desire.

Baal HaSulam, the greatest Kabbalist of the 20th century, writes, “Although they do not understand what they are learning, through the yearning and the great desire to understand what they are learning, they awaken upon themselves the Lights that surround their souls.”

It works the same way as how a baby wants to know the world he is in. When we desire to reveal the spiritual world, it suddenly becomes revealed to us.

The Kabbalistic New Year

Tired of always breaking those New Year’s resolutions? Kabbalah explains how to create true and lasting change

At the beginning of every year most of us are making resolutions to improve ourselves and our world. But somehow, in spite of our good intentions, most of our resolutions either are quickly forgotten or yield only short term change.

In Kabbalah, the New Year can occur at any time of the year. The New Year is a sign of lasting change within us that brings us a sense of joy, peace, and enduring fulfillment.

We can find through the wisdom of Kabbalah a guide, an instruction manual, intended expressly to show us this path to reaching complete joy and fulfillment. This path begins with a desire to search for meaning in our lives; it is the beginning of the spiritual journey.

Preparations

The journey along the path to spirituality develops our perception of reality. It is when we learn something new about our very essence. So, let us start with a few fundamentals that every traveler should know:

1. The Wisdom of Kabbalah speaks to every person who feels a need to find new meaning in his or her life, no matter their religion, race, gender, or age. It's about discovering a new world that operates according to clear rules that are beyond time and space.

2. Our five senses are not enough to navigate the spiritual world. Therefore, Kabbalah enables us to develop a sixth sense through which we can feel the whole of reality. Kabbalists are those who have already developed this "sixth sense," and from their experience of the spiritual reality, they chose to call it "the world of roots" or “the world of causes.”

3. Kabbalists wrote about the results of their research in a picturesque, symbolic language, "the language of branches." Similar to scientists who summarize their conclusions in formulas, the Kabbalists described and documented their discoveries in special words and names. These words and names were taken from the same terminology that we are familiar with. As it happens, they are usually connected to the yearly cycle, the months, seasons, and nature.

4. In the spiritual world, time has a different meaning than the one we know in our world. "Spiritual time” means a series of changing conditions or states. In other words, when a person changes, we can say that a certain amount of time has passed. Therefore, people who research the spiritual world go through different stages in their spiritual evolvement, meaning the holidays, with no connection to the calendar that we are familiar with. When we discuss the spiritual yearly calendar, the New Year can take place at any given corporeal moment. The spiritual reality has definite, strict rules, and it is free of any imagination or personal theories. Every Kabbalist discovers through his personal research the same discoveries made by the Kabbalists before him.

Now that we have some of the basics, we can embark on the journey.

The Spiritual New Year

The Kabbalists who ascend to the top of the spiritual pyramid describe a reality in which we are all united and act harmoniously like the cells in a body. This state is referred to as the “common soul," and it signifies the feeling that the collection of all our souls is united into one soul.

At some stage that common soul broke and split into many individual souls, which lost the sense of connection with each other. Over many generations, the Kabbalists spoke of the moment when a faint memory would awaken within each of the souls, a memory of that true state where they were connected to all the other souls. This is the moment when that inner drive awakens within us to set out and search for meaning in our lives.

This drive is also called "the point in the heart." The awakening of the point in the heart is usually characterized by a feeling of restlessness and dissatisfaction, which pushes a person to search until he or she finds the answer. This feeling can be compared to the feeling of someone who lost his memory but still has a faint recollection of the past, which doesn't let him rest until he discovers what it is.

This time of searching and inner spiritual transformation is referred to as a new beginning, or the "Kabbalistic New Year."

For those whose point in the heart has already awakened, the Kabbalists recommend developing and nurturing it. That way, with every step you take, another piece of the great puzzle that is our life will be revealed. When all the pieces of the puzzle are put together, a new “picture” of reality is revealed where you see how all the souls are united in a mutual connection by bonds of eternal, unconditional love. The beginning of this change is the beginning of the “New Spiritual Year."

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‘Tis the Season of Light

Lights. Lights. Lights. It seems that this time of year there are lights everywhere. And it is no coincidence that virtually every society and every religion has some form of light festival going on right about now. There is Christmas for most of the Western world. There is Chanukah for Israel and Jews everywhere. There is Diwali for Hindus, Chaharshanbe Suri in Iran, and countless more religious and secular festivals of light everywhere.

Twinkling lights adorn trees both indoors and out, and buildings everywhere are spotted with clear and colored lights during the holiday season. There are lights decorating Christmas trees, candle lights of the Menorah lighting up house windows for Chanukah, Diwali lamps glowing and fireworks erupting in the streets, bonfires of Chaharshanbe Suri blazing, and many more.

The typical wisdom behind this is either a) a coincidence or b) because the nights get longer and darker and the ancients wanted to bring back the sun. But if we look a bit deeper, we will find that the need for lights and light is actually rooted into the psyche and DNA of mankind. Kabbalah explains that we love having lights all around us because we long for the Light—a metaphor for a sensation of Nature’s benevolence. For us, the experience of Nature on its highest level can only be described as spiritual Light. And the holiday season brings out the need in all of us to feel closer to that Light.

In the end, it doesn’t matter if you light a Menorah, put up a tree, or have a bonfire. At the heart of the matter is the fact that deep inside, you are celebrating the goodness of Nature and your inner yearning to bring that extra bit of Light and happiness into this world. And that is a very good thing indeed.

‘Tis the Season to be jolly by the light of the Yule log, or as we spin our dreidel, or light the fireworks of Diwali, or as we eat sweets for our Iranian New Year. It’s one world we live in after all, and a very small one at that. We all have different holidays and traditions, but to Nature, we are all the same, like one small family.

So look up at the Northern Lights or the lights on Broadway and give a good cheer to your fellow men and women, starting this holiday season and ending never. If we only stop to feel Nature’s kind attitude toward all of us, we will notice how it is urging us to treat each other with the same good spirit of kindness, consideration, and Love.

Music and Kabbalah

A Tale of Two Journeys

Much like a music teacher opens the world of music, the study of Kabbalah opens a new world—the infinite spiritual world

In recent years, millions of people have become interested in Kabbalah. I began my journey almost four years ago after being inspired by Kabbalistic music. This medium of expression has played an important role in my life since childhood, and unexpectedly, it now helped me understand this wisdom known as “Kabbalah.”

Music has been called the “international language,” but is it really that simple? I was a child of the 60’s, comfortable with the simple melodies and harmonies of the Beatles, Gordon Lightfoot, and Peter, Paul and Mary. I had no interest in any other genre, and dreaded the annual school field trip to the symphony hall. But as an adult, I decided to study classical music, found a piano teacher, and spent hours every day practicing.

Today, it’s hard for me to believe that there was a time when I did not love Bach or appreciate the dissonance of Stravinsky or that I existed 40 years without feeling an urge for opera. Even later, I found I could listen to and enjoy the rap music my son brought home! So what was it that changed?

Everything is in the Ear of the Beholder

Tracing back the steps, my course must have been determined when I began studying piano. My teacher’s unabashed excitement and love for classical music simply rubbed off on me. Soon enough, under her tutelage I began to hear patterns and forms that were the very foundations of music. What was hidden before gradually became clear to me, as if materializing out of a fog.

How did she coax my initial interest in music into a passion equal to hers? She started me with Mozart and Beethoven—music whose tunes and harmonies could be appreciated on the surface, even by my uneducated ear. Working from there, she led me deeper and showed me the subtleties that I missed, opening my ears and mind to new possibilities in the music. We played music, broke it apart and analyzed it, and I listened to her exquisite explanations with awe. As I became more sensitive to the subtleties, we began to go further afield—entering into the world of fugues, atonal harmonies, and strange intervals.

Opening a New World

Years later, when I first heard the music of Kabbalah, my experienced ear immediately sensed that it had come across something entirely new and different—again! I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I somehow sensed that there was an infinite depth of meaning and emotion to be revealed if only I would explore this music more deeply. And it was only later, after I did delve into it, that I realized that there was even more: Kabbalah is a methodology of opening us to a totally new world that we do not sense today, just as my piano teacher opened a new world of music for me.

The difference is that when learning about classical music for the first time, I already possessed the sensory apparatus (ears) I needed for studying music. In Kabbalah, however, we not only need to develop an appreciation of the forms and objects of what is termed the “spiritual world,” we must also develop a new “sense” to be able to perceive them.

The path of Kabbalah begins with a new desire. Usually, it is expressed though questions such as, “What is the meaning of life?” and “Why am I here?” Once this desire awakens, we have the motivation to do something about it—to find something to fulfill this desire. That is how we find our way to the books of Kabbalah—an extensive library of materials left to us by Kabbalists throughout the centuries, explaining the spiritual worlds.

These great men have gone before us and entered the spiritual worlds. Their writings tell us exactly how they got there and what they found in this new state. The books form a bridge for us to do the same.

If you try to read Kabbalistic texts such as The Zohar, however, you will discover a world of strangeness and mystery. The gulf between our world today and the world that the Kabbalists are telling us about is too vast for us to navigate without assistance. Just as my piano teacher led me through the maze of music appreciation, a teacher of authentic Kabbalah can show us how to interpret these texts. By starting with concepts we can relate to in some small manner, we can gradually build an awareness and appreciation of the spiritual concepts. In so doing, we actually develop a new sense that will eventually be capable of perceiving this new world.

Experiential Study

Just as in music, we must eventually dive into this new world ourselves. I could have been satisfied with becoming an expert in music theory, but I wanted to feel the music, not just understand it. The same is true with Kabbalah.

There are many “experts” who can tell you the structure of the spiritual world in infinite detail, but that is not what Kabbalah is about. Even more than music, it is an experiential study. As we read text or listen to the beautiful music of Kabbalah, what we are really studying is ourselves and our inner world. Unless we feel these concepts within, we have accomplished nothing.

The Kabbalists left us the map and instructions, but it is up to us to make the journey.

Women, If You Only Knew …

The power of women’s desire can fuel the change needed to bring the entire world to perfection, joy, and peace

The more humanity develops, the more complicated and unpredictable our lives become. And as usual, the most difficult part falls on the shoulders of the most beautiful part of humanity.

According to the World Health Organization, about twice as many women (20-26%) as men (8-12%) are affected by a depressive disorder each year. Despite the fact that women have achieved freedom, high social status, and equality, they, in growing numbers, still feel psychologically empty and insecure in life. At the same time, women comprise the greater and, arguably, stronger part of humanity. In fact, they are the driving force that inspires and pushes men to commit heroic and noble deeds. It’s no wonder that there is a saying, “God wants whatever woman wants.”

So what happened to that beautiful inspirer about whom numerous poems and songs were written, and who was a devotee of incredible victories and conquests? What happened to that tender, warm, and reliable keeper of the “family hearth”?

However, it isn’t just women who have changed. “Men are not the same as they once were,” say women, mothers, and wives. In fact, the whole world is not the same. In the modern reality, women have to worry about taking care of things they never had to before: how to earn income together with bringing up children, how to avoid wars and economic troubles, and so on. Struggling to find a balance between all these social and personal challenges while not sensing a strong, supportive man’s shoulder, women are becoming more independent and adopting more roles traditionally ascribed to men. Sometimes they even forget that they are women …

Woman, The Invisible Driving Force

Yet, the entire world is and has always been driven by women’s desires, because women are destined by nature to inspire and to bring meaning into the lives of their special ones. They set goals, they define directions, they direct all thoughts, and by doing this, they draw our common future. Yet, they have somehow lost awareness of their role and destiny and try to do everything themselves.

However, our world is governed by the laws of nature as always, and if we observe closely, we see that on all levels of existence, no living species can exist, live, or survive by itself. Existence is only possible by complementing the “other half.” In other words, each element in nature is always a complementary part to its opposite, and only together can they be complete and perfect. Even on the vegetative level, the division into male and female parts is clearly evident. This “specialization” is enrooted into all things by nature, and it dictates that equilibrium can be reached only if both parts, male and female, correctly interact with each other.

This primal law has been operating in all of reality from the beginning of time, building our world in a strictly defined order, ensuring that the “female” part of reality defines the direction of where everything is going. The same applies in our lives; although in recent times, it seems male and female duties and roles have been mixed up. Yet, by virtue of the very foundation of their female nature, women (unknowingly) are still steering the world through their desires.

Intuition and instincts worked fairly well until the 20th century. But as humanity reached the peak of its egoistic development, instincts were subdued by the ego and started working against us. In the 21st century, our collective ego has culminated to a height of individualism and separatism. The collective positive connection, now lost, in former eras sustained families, villages, states, and nations. Now, we see the very nucleus of human existence, the family, in disarray, as evidenced by the high incidence of divorce, drug use, and depression, all of which exacerbate women’s feelings of emptiness.

This heightened and growing emptiness, we are also finding, can no longer be fulfilled by the regular material “stuff” we used to buy or do. Humanity is beginning to realize that the only thing that will fill the emptiness is eternal spiritual fulfillment. Women’s emptiness is also the tool we can use to emerge from this current empty state. Women with their desires inherently guiding the world are the critical invisible driving force to steer us all to attaining complete and perfect spiritual fulfillment. Women’s desire for spiritual fulfillment will fuel the desperately needed changes for men to naturally enact their part to bring our troubled world to the correct form.

Then our “female” and “male” parts, together in perfect complement, will work in one complete unity that will transcend all of us to the new beautiful reality!

Baby Einstein, It’s Time for an Education Upgrade!

Today, being a baby Einstein is no longer knowing how to use a TV remote control, but knowing how to push the buttons controlling all of reality…

Threatened with a class action law suit for deceptive practices in claiming that their videos are educational and beneficial for early childhood development, Disney Company is offering refunds to millions of parents who purchased Baby Einstein videos, or alternatively, they are offering “satisfaction upgrades” to a book or music CD. The offer currently only covers households in the U.S., but British campaigners are pushing for refunds in the UK reporting that they, too, have collectively purchased millions of Baby Einstein products.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time for children under two. Yet, the electronic media market for babies and toddlers is booming, making screen time more prevalent than ever. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation study found that 68% of children under two years watch screen media on any given day—that is nearly seven in ten children! How did we get here?

Like Parents, Like Children

It isn’t difficult to notice that starting from earliest childhood, every child naturally strives to imitate his or her parents. Children closely observe their parents’ actions and demeanor, and then strive to use this knowledge to achieve their own goals. Through interaction with our children, we help them acquire new capabilities and data, as well as techniques for coping with the world around them.

Survey results confirm that the examples set by adults are the main source of early education. Out of the 68% of children under two years old that watched screen media, only 27% imitated some type of behavior from TV. But 38% can turn on the TV by themselves, and 40% can change channels with the remote. So, our children are not imitating the screen media; they are imitating us!

But that’s not all; there is another steady, natural trend that has existed between parents and children for generations. Every new generation is more evolved than the previous. Children always have greater desires, higher aspirations, and bigger dreams than their parents. And so, isn’t it our duty and responsibility to provide them with the knowledge and practical tools for realizing their dreams and desires?

In our day and age, when concepts like distance and time have become virtual, this means nothing less than teaching them the rules that govern all of reality, as well as the ultimate purpose for which we were created.

Education For The 21st Century

While our children easily manipulate electronic gadgets that didn’t exist a few decades ago during our childhoods, and while we mull over the cons and pros of showing them the hottest new “educational video” on the kids’ market, we can be certain that there is one wisdom that is sure to guarantee their best future, right at the beginning of their lives.

This wisdom, called Kabbalah, will teach them (and us) about the fundamental laws of all reality, the relationships that are required in today’s age, the nature of their desires, and most importantly, the formula for lasting fulfillment. These concepts and principles can be learned through games, music, books, and interactive group activities which are fun and entertaining.

And of course, the best way to teach your child all of these principles is to learn and implement them yourself. It will then come easily and naturally to your children. Let your little ones begin their exploration of the world by setting positive examples and upgrading their education to one befitting of our day and age. What could be better than to show our children right at the beginning of their lives how to guarantee their best future?

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Classical Science Will Never Discover the Spiritual World

Question: Physics says the same thing as Kabbalah: that we perceive only a small portion of everything that exists in the physical universe. How are the parts of the physical reality that we don’t perceive different from the spiritual world, which we also don’t perceive?

Dr. Laitman’s Answer: Scientists are able to create instruments to recognize what we don’t perceive with our bodily senses. These instruments enable us to expand our senses, although all the data that we discover using these tools still has to go through our senses and be transformed into a form that we can perceive. Currently we perceive everything inside the desire to receive, in an egoistic manner, because we are egoists within. Therefore, no matter how many new phenomena we reveal in nature, we will not reveal the spiritual realm because it is based on an altruistic nature. Without changing our egoistic nature, we can only reveal more of our material world.

The spiritual world can only be revealed by changing the method of how we perceive our surroundings. We have to change our perception from reception to bestowal; then our perception will become altruistic. However, in order to develop this kind of perception, we need a new method of relating to the world. This is why a completely new science about the world—Kabbalah—is emerging to replace the sciences that examine nature through our egoism. Classical science is now in crisis because it cannot give us anything qualitatively new. People feel oversaturated by the material things because these things no longer fulfill them. That is why people are starting to ask the question: Where do we go from here? The only answer is to shift to a different way of using our desire.

The Book Of Zohar is a Ticket to the Spiritual World

Question: Why is The Book of Zohar so famous?

Dr. Laitman’s Answer: It is common knowledge that The Book of Zohar is unique; it is the only book with the power to bring human beings into the spiritual world. This unparalleled mission is what brought this book to fame and has made humankind have a special relationship to it. The discovery of the spiritual world using The Book of Zohar begins by opening ourselves to the text so it can flow through us easily, completely unobstructed. We can then begin to feel new, spiritual sensations. As we are reading or listening to this book, we have to expect to feel a new realm that is made up of feelings, but without any fantasies or visual images. We should try to feel the words of this book immediately and directly, as when reading something that is close to us, something we understand and experience as we are immersed in reading the text.

The Most Important Thing In Life

Question: Why is Kabbalah important?

Dr. Laitman’s Answer: Out of all the things filling up our lives, some are more important and others are less. Every moment, we change our opinion of what is more important; sometimes we value sleep, other times play or food, and so on. But how do we find the most important thing in life?

It has to be unconditional, infinite, and higher than anything. It has to transcend the boundaries between life and death and fulfill all of our desires, even those we don’t even know we have yet. It has to be the highest, most exalted thing in the world, the very peak toward which all things lead. So how do we find this thing and attain it? How do we reach absolute joy and success here and now? We can do it through a method called “the wisdom of Kabbalah.” That is why this wisdom is so important. We value anything according to how much it benefits us, and if Kabbalah can help us attain everything, this makes it more important than anything else.

The Book of Zohar – a Real Wonder of the World

The seven wonders of the ancient world, the medieval world, and the modern world… the lists keep piling up. People have always been fascinated by manmade structures that please their eyes, give them some enigmatic flavor and make them proud of belonging to the human race.

If someone told you that there is one wonder that everyone had overlooked and it is a book, incredulously you would say, “C’mon, a book? It can’t be a wonder of the world.”

The Book of Zohar—for millennia this book has mesmerized the minds of old and young, religious and atheists, philosophers and academics, and interest in it just keeps growing. In fact, the keyword “Zohar” is one of the most popular searches on the Internet. So, what is inside this book? What is so special about these ancient Aramaic and Hebrew texts that makes people hold their breath and then say, “Wow!”?

A River of Light

“Zohar” in Hebrew means Splendor, Radiance, or Light. For the poet in us, the text of The Book of Zohar can be likened to a river flowing out of the Garden of Eden and through a person’s heart. Anyone who opens his heart will be washed by its waters, will be cleansed and will begin to see.

We often hear that Kabbalah is The Zohar. Why? The matter is that this book was written in a very special style, which places us into a multi-dimensional space and walks us through it. While it tells us fables and stories on the outside, at the same time it gradually immerses us in a hidden reality, called the Upper World. It attracts us with its intricate, unusual tales and draws us inside. As we become inspired by it, we gradually enter the Upper World.

Certainly, to grasp the spirit of this book that was written two thousand years ago, we have to aspire and be intrigued. We have to develop a certain sensitivity and comprehension to be able to tune into the people who wrote The Zohar.

The men who wrote The Zohar were a group of ten great Kabbalists led by the famous Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (RASHBI). These ten men, who gathered in a special place, in a special time, represented through their inner, spiritual qualities the “ten Sefirot”— the ten founding blocks of creation. They were able to come down from the enormous height of their spiritual attainment to our simple human level in order to explain such concepts that theoretically we are unable to grasp. They lure us with their fables, and like kids who mature from listening to tales, so do we develop from reading this text. With time, we gradually begin feeling the Upper World because a wondrous quality called ”the Upper Light” shines upon us as we read.

This wonderful quality of the Light is simply miraculous. People who begin reading this book immediately feel its magnetic radiance, which draws them back to it time and time again. They can read and re-read it multiple times throughout their entire lives. It always renews their impressions and never becomes boring. The Zohar becomes like a breath of air, which they just need to get. They continuously yearn for those inner changes which they experience while engaged in reading The Zohar.

Parallel Worlds

The uniqueness of The Zohar is that it creates for us a projection of the Upper World to our world. It was written in two spoken languages of Ancient Babylon: Hebrew and Aramaic. These two languages represent two levels of perception. One language narrates stories in images of our familiar world, while the other takes us into the spiritual dimension, revealing to us two worlds one parallel to the other. It tells us stories about this world and in parallel it tells us about its source in the Upper World, thus drawing an image of one world overlaying the other.

We then find ourselves between two worlds—the one we are very familiar with and another one that we cannot perceive, but somehow feel that it’s there. However, this image of two worlds exists only in our imagination. In actuality, it is one complete picture, which we still perceive as two. In our world, images are visual and we see, feel, and understand them. But images in the Upper World reflect attributes like qualities, forces, desires and intentions. To start experiencing them together we need to imagine ourselves on that spiritual level, place ourselves there, and live through the state where we exist simultaneously in these two dimensions.

To experience this fascinating spiritual journey we need to imagine that The Zohar is telling us about ourselves and the spiritual states we are going through. We have to be so “thirsty” for this experience that we feel like an empty well. Then, by simply following the text, letting the text flow through us, and trying to feel the picture that The Zohar is drawing for us, we will begin touching and feeling the Upper World, thus getting closer to our birth in the Spiritual World.

Now, isn’t that a real wonder of the world?

What Do You Want this Holiday Season?

The smell of pine and cinnamon and the taste of peppermint evoke memories of waiting anxiously for Santa Claus. Those warm memories of childhood linger into adulthood, but the holiday season is no longer just a time of giving and getting presents, eating delicious meals, and enjoying pleasant sights and smells.

Holiday Stress

The American Psychological Association found in a 2006 survey that nearly half of all American women experience heightened stress during the holiday season. From November to January, the already overburdened modern women strive to uphold the holiday traditions by buying presents, sending cards, and cooking miraculous holiday meals, all while holding a job, taking care of a family, and maintaining a home.

Men share in the anxiety at least as much, since they are often put into the hot seat to finance the added expenses of the holiday season and to deal with the resulting debt come January. The heightened pressure brings out our worst habits as we try to cope with the stress by overeating, drinking alcohol, and other unhealthy behaviors which could have long term effects on our mental and physical health.

Oversized Expectations

Experts agree that the undeniable cause of holiday stress is the oversized expectations and disproportioned focus on material consumption. According to Beth Willinger, research professor at Newcomb College Center for Research on Women at Tulane University, “We have become much more complex and complicated as a society, and expectations have increased. Our expectations as a country have also raised our expectations for overabundance and conspicuous consumption.” It is our expectations that fuel a rash of overspending, dept, and more stress.

So why do we continue in this cycle? According to Kabbalah—a science that studies our innermost motivations, our expectations have gone out of control because our desires have increased. But when a desire increases, so does the emptiness that is felt when the desire is not fulfilled. And everyone knows that a feeling of emptiness is intolerable.

Adding to our stress level is the fact that the desire for overabundance has not lessened even with the current economic climate, yet our ability to fulfill that desire has. Unemployment has reached its highest level in 15 years, holiday bonuses are down two-thirds, and even those of us lucky to keep our jobs are often working longer hours and are usually making less money. We just can’t afford to fulfill our oversized desires and expectations.

What Do We Really Want?

Clearly, something has to change. When people’s expectations and desires can no longer be fulfilled, it’s a sure indication that people must reach for a new kind of fulfillment. After all, what do we really want for the holidays? Our holiday traditions come from our human need for connection; what we really want during this special season is to feel high-spirited, festive, joyful, and connected to those around us. So it’s logical that money and the material things it can buy should not be the centerpiece of the celebration, as much as we might have lost sight of that fact.

The Real Gift

The real gift of the holiday season lies in our interpersonal connections. But more than that, these relationships can actually help us overcome our emotional and financial crises in the longer term.

No one can lift themselves out of emptiness, stress, and bankruptcy alone; we can only lift each other. This holiday season, instead of giving ourselves more anxiety and debt, we can give each other the camaraderie and consideration that we all really need. We can raise each other’s spirits and give each other good impressions that will last much longer than a fruitcake or a Big Lot’s gift card. And it is a gift that only gets better with re-gifting.

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Have We Reached the End of Classical Science?

Question Received: What are the boundaries of science? Is science infinite or is it mortal as we are? If the latter is correct, do we see the end?

John Horgan in his book The End Of Science: Facing The Limits Of Knowledge In The Twilight Of The Scientific Age says that we are witnessing the end of classical science as we know it. cience has made some great discoveries and underwent swift development due to the Cold War. But now society no longer wants to invest in the abstract, scientific exploration of nature.

Humanity faces problems that are more real than theories of super strings or the wormhole of the universe. How can we survive? The author is concerned that young people are leaving science.

Dr. Laitman’s Comment: Science is based on humanity’s attainment through the five bodily (animate) senses. Therefore, it is limited by them from the beginning.

Our desires (our heart) and mind limit the field and depth of our comprehension, and these are the limitations of science. If, however, we break away from the limitations of our five bodily senses, as well as the desires and the mind that are connected to them, then we may feel the space that is independent from them – the Upper World. We will then be able to explore it with a new means: the sixth sense or the soul.

That is what the science of Kabbalah teaches us to do. Therefore, it is the science of the future.

The Physics of the Sixth Sense

Question Received: In order to feel the spiritual world, we need to develop a sixth sense, which does not pertain to the physical body. How does it work?

Dr. Laitman’s Answer: Everything that we feel is perceived by our senses, then transformed into electrical and chemical processes in the brain, compared to what exists in our memory, identified based on this, and finally, presented to the consciousness in the form of a ready-made image or concept.

Thus, a person’s entire conception of the world is built out of two components: “me” and “what I perceive.” In addition, everything occurs inside one’s desire. After all, desire is the matter comprising the whole world. But what exactly is desire? It is not a physical essence, and it does not exist in the cells or anywhere else in the body.

In fact, everything we feel in the body is but reactions to our desires and intentions. We can measure electrical and chemical changes taking place in our bodies, but these are only measures of the body’s reaction to what is happening in the desire. It still won’t tell us about what is happening with the desire itself.

There is nothing in the physical world that can enable us to feel or measure the desire itself. Let’s say I try a drink. I feel the taste and the smell, and I experience pleasure. Yet, all of these physical sensations that we can measure are only the body’s reactions to this drink. No matter what, any measurement we take will only tell us about the reaction, but not the actual desire.

And that is because the desire itself is virtual; it does not exist inside matter.

Egoism has Reached the End of the Line

All the desires that people have in our world have completed their development. Thus, our world has come to a full stop. All our corporeal desires (such as for food, sex, family) as well as our social desires (for wealth, fame, power and knowledge) are in crisis because they have gone past the last stage of their development. That is why they are now mutating into perverted forms.

Egoism has no more room to develop in our world. So instead, it is starting to connect us, making us feel completely interdependent. From now on, we will begin to sense this connection more and more, even if nations and people try to isolate themselves from one another. We will eventually reach the feeling of a complete, total connection, which will obligate us to love others as ourselves.

We will discover that this is the solution to all our problems.

One For All

A Cabdriver’s Solution to the Recession

The economic crisis spurs a Vermont cabdriver to trust his customers to determine their fares. His leap of faith nears the altruistic Law of Nature and the real solution to the world crises.

Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a community, a town, a state, a country, or a world where everyone took care of each other’s needs? Think about it, all your needs for food, housing, income, education and transportation being given to you by members of the community in which you live! Sounds like a pipe dream, but this is exactly what Eric Hagen thought to do, by allowing patrons to decide the cost of his taxi service.

The sign on his taxi reading, “Pay What You Want!” surprised and delighted members of the Essex Vermont community where Hagen lives. In an article appearing in the Associated Press on August 3rd of this year, Hagen explains that he came up with the idea of a “Recession Ride Taxi” using the philosophy that his patrons would decide the price of their fares. He told the Associated Press that most of his clients paid in cash, but one woman paid with a gift card to a supermarket, and a musician once paid with a CD.

Eric Hagen took a leap of faith, trusting that if he took care of the needs of his community, his patrons would take care of him, and it paid off. When asked how this approach was working for him, Hagen said he has yet to be short changed.

One For All – The Operating System of Nature

When we look around us we see how beautifully this concept works to sustain every living organism in the world, from the tiniest particle, to the vast universe, a natural and automatic give and take. We can look at our own bodies as an example of how all the complex functions of every cell, organ and system work together to mutually benefit the health of the whole body. Each part of the body does its job to give what is needed to all the other parts and, in return, each organ or cell of the body is supplied with what it needs. Every independent element works for the benefit of the whole, and the entire body is sustained and thrives with this natural principle of giving and taking. In fact, every living organism comprises a combination of cells and organs that work together and complement each other in perfect harmony. This law of cell and organ integration works according to the altruistic principle of “one for all” and operates in every living structure.

Conversely, if one part of the body stops functioning properly, the affect is felt within the entire body, not just in the part that is “sick.” Every cell and organ is connected within the general system of the whole human body.

Nature’s law is true for humanity’s body as well. It is certain that in today’s global village, all of humanity is intertwined and connected on every level: economically, socially, environmentally and electronically, to name a few obvious connections. When one part of humanity’s body begins thinking of only itself, instead of for the whole, the negative affect ripples through every connection, and is felt as a sickness – a crisis. We see the manifestations of this illness in humanity as crises in the environment, the global economy, education, failing governmental systems, and terrorism; these are the “pains” felt by our collective whole.

Balancing Giving and Receiving

To cure the crises we can look to nature and its laws for the answer. The science of Kabbalah explains that there are two forces governing all of nature: giving and receiving. These forces comprise all the interconnected relationships found in the tiniest particle, in every cell, within a human body, and within humanity’s body. In nature, the giving and receiving are balanced. If the force of receiving becomes greater than the force of giving within any system, that system breaks down, becomes sick, and a crisis develops.

Kabbalah is the practical method of attaining balance and harmony with nature’s forces – the forces that influence and create our communities, our towns, our states, our countries, and our world. Like Eric Hagen and his “Recession Ride Taxi,” if each person feels himself as a part of the greater whole, takes part in the health and well being of each other, and consciously chooses to act as, “One for All,” there will be no more crises, and humanity will be healed.

Sense Beyond the World You Perceive

Through the Study of Kabbalah

It is a well known fact that we perceive the world using our five senses. In this way, we are like a black box that only perceives the things entering it from outside. It is affected or pressured by external forces and then reacts to these influences.

Whatever enters this self-contained system (us) through the five senses goes on to be recorded, processed, and analyzed by a complicated system we call “the brain.” The resulting picture constitutes our entire perceivable reality.

The Internal Picture of Our World

So, what we perceive is our reactions to external influences. It is the culmination of our senses processing all the external information that comes our way. The entire collection of our sensations gives us an internal picture called “our world.” Thus, even though the world appears to be outside us, it is actually an entirely subjective, internal picture. Using just our five senses, we are unable to compare the objective reality existing outside us with the subjective reality existing inside us.

Is it possible for us to get around the limitations of our perception? Scientists have invented a wide array of instruments to expand the range of our sensations, including microscopes and telescopes. However, none of these tools are able to provide us with a truly new sense. No matter how much we expand the range of our five senses, we still remain trapped within the framework of our regular sensations.

Collectively we all share common sensations that enable us to communicate with each other, exchange signs and impressions, and understand each other. All our senses, which are organs of receiving information, are built in order to receive, record, process, and evaluate the incoming information exclusively according to its benefit to us.

Expanding Our Perception

But could it be that there is something else outside of us that we don’t quite feel or identify? Kabbalah – a wisdom of expanding human perception, reveals that indeed, there is a whole additional world outside of us, whose existence we don’t even suspect. Our five senses simply don’t “pick it up,” and therefore we do not feel it.

The word “Kabbalah” means reception. It is a method enabling us to develop an additional sense for “receiving” information about that which exists in the external universe. By mastering this method, one starts feeling the surrounding world in a completely different way.

Sensing the Spiritual World

Kabbalists are ordinary people just like you and me; the only difference is that they have developed a new sense that enables them to feel an additional realm of reality, the spiritual world. The method of doing this is ancient and scientific, with its own mathematical, methodological, and psychological systems. It investigates the mechanics of man’s inner world and demonstrates how one can go beyond his internal sensations in order to attain the external ones, even before they start affecting his five senses.

Attaining the Spiritual World – Total Perfection and Eternity

Equipped with the Kabbalistic method, a person living in our world, in a physical body, can sense beyond the limitations of the body. He is then able to sense the world outside himself, revealing universal laws of nature. By attaining the spiritual world through the additional sense organ, one is also able to see the origin and consequence of all the sciences in our world. A person turns into a researcher who is able to draw the line between that which is already revealed and that which is inaccessible to scientific research. He can see where the perception produced by our five senses and its logic ends and where the external world begins. All of this is possible by coming out of the limitations of our world through developing a new sense.

But the purpose of the new perception is not purely scientific; it is quite personal. The ultimate goal of the spiritual energetic system that we discover through developing the new sense is for man to receive the ultimate pleasure, to reach total perfection and eternal existence.

The School of Life

Education is the process of interaction and feedback we receive from our environment. Kabbalah teaches us how to harness the power of our environment to educate us in this changing world.

How far back into your childhood can you remember? If you’re like me, maybe those first memories surface around age 4 or 5. Those who have a clearer vision, or who have had the chance to watch a child of their own, are privy to a wondrous transformation that is played out each and every day. We all start life with just a few instinctive skills – how to suckle, grasp a finger, or wail in discomfort. All of our needs are instantly provided for by our doting parents.

Soon, however, we start learning how to manipulate our environment. Maybe that cute grimace on our face always elicits a laugh from Mother, so we naturally try to repeat it. We discover that chewing the rattle feels good on our gums, so we start working on how to get the rattle in our mouth instead of poking ourselves in the eyes with it. Virtually every waking moment, an infant’s mind is forging new connections about how its body and the surrounding world function and interact.

As we grow into childhood, we keep expanding our horizons, assessing each new situation to determine how to get the most pleasure possible while expending the least amount of effort to get it. This is as natural for us as breathing, and the world gives us instant feedback to help us make adjustments. What little girl has not learned by age 6 that looking at dear old Dad with big eyes and saying “Pleeeeease!” will most likely get her what she wants? How many little boys find out the hard way that picking on the biggest, toughest kid in the class is bound to have bad results?

Enter the Classroom

The particular circumstances that work or don’t work for us in our environment shape our behavior and our future with a force that is almost impossible to break later in life. Yet this powerful and inevitable force is not what we mean when we talk about “education.” Instead, we use the term to refer to a collection of facts, skills and ideas that are imposed on us by some outside authority. Realistically, virtually all of this “formal education” is lost almost as soon as the child leaves the classroom. How many of you can rattle off the names of the Presidents or the capitols of all 50 states? Can you solve a polynomial equation, or remember the difference between ionic and covalent bonds?

Our focus on an education based on facts and figures has several unfortunate consequences. For many people, the process is so painful that it creates a lifelong aversion to learning. Many people can’t wait to graduate and learn their basic job skills so that they can be finished with “education.” Life changes that require the acquisition of new skills are then extremely traumatic, rather than being simply a new stage in life.

Where “Education” Fails Us

Probably more critical, though, is that our focus on classroom learning numbs us to the true education that is available to us through our own personal exploration of the world. Unconsciously, we are all influenced by our environment. We react and make adjustments based on whether our actions bring us pleasure or pain. Each time our environment changes, whether it is as simple as meeting a new friend or as life changing as marriage, a new job, or a move, we must learn new “rules” of behavior and adjust to the changing circumstances. But imagine the power that would be at our fingertips if we were taught the skills necessary to actively use this mechanism to shape our lives and the world around us? Our sensitivity to the cause and effect relationships in the world would increase exponentially if we were watching for and in tune with this feedback.

Answers for a New World

This is, in fact, the solution to many of the crises we are experiencing in the world today. The world around us has fundamentally changed: we now live in a global, interconnected world. The problem is that we grew up in a world where competition, independence, and isolation were the norm. The skills and behaviors that worked in that old world are no longer successful approaches in the new world, and the events in the world around us are broadcasting that message to us loud and clear. However, we have lost the ability to hear it.

The answer? We need to adopt a broader concept of education and learn to use it to our advantage. We need to tune into what world events are clearly telling us: that the problem lies in the connections between us. We need to adjust ourselves to be in alignment with this message rather than continuing to try to force fit old solutions into new circumstances. The tools for attuning ourselves to these new circumstances of global interconnection can be found in the methods of Kabbalah, which teach us how to transform mankind’s relationships in a mutual and globally beneficial fashion. Kabbalah can show us how to return to the “school of life,” where we enter every experience with eyes wide open, looking for connections and consequences just as we did as children.

The answers are there for us if we will only look. And in this way, we can identify the skills that are truly important for us (and our children) to know in life.

United We Stand

Journey of the Soliton

Dear Readers, of your own free choice, please hold hands in unity and join in a very important ride - the journey of the soliton.

The Soliton – Maintaining Unity

The soliton, today known to manifest in light as well as water, was discovered by John Scott Russell in 1834 in Scotland’s Union Canal. He observed a violent churning of water after a horse drawn channel boat suddenly came to a halt. A heap of water burst forward into a smoothly rounded formation, traveling steadily at 8 or 9 mph while maintaining shape. Russell followed by horse for one or two miles until the formation diminished in size and was lost in the channel windings.

The phenomenon shocked scientists, apparently violating Isaac Newton’s wave mechanics. A wave is generally slower, and also rapidly flattens or spills over. How could a large heap maintain size and shape instead of immediately collapsing?! Further, two solitons pass through each other intact. Why didn’t two equals smash each other, or a large one swallow up a small one?! The fascinating answer is that the two effects that individually would pull the heap apart, balance out in a soliton.

No Part Coerces any Other, Yet the Whole Advances with Complete Stability

Twelve years before Russell’s discovery, Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier discovered that even if a wave is not a pure sine wave, it can nonetheless be produced mathematically by adding sine waves of different frequencies (how fast they go up and down) and heights. Physically, the speeds at which these sine waves travel in water shows “dispersion,” that is, depend upon frequency. But the speeds also show “nonlinearity,” that is, depend upon the height. If the sine waves provide just the right heights for each other’s frequencies, they unify into a soliton. No part coerces any other, yet the whole advances at high speed with complete stability, even in a growing complex of additional solitons.

Contradictory Perceptions of Reality

The early 20th century brought greater Newtonian heresies, General Relativity (that the universe just curls around instead of going on forever), and Quantum Mechanics (that there’s a limit to how small things can get). These ideas are even heresies of each other! Einstein was the first to realize that these two deeply contradictory perceptions of reality can’t live in the same world. David Hilbert, as respected in mathematics as Einstein was in physics, realized that neither is in our world, but rather determine it!

Paradoxes of Infinity

Hilbert’s 1925 paper, “On the Infinite,” grapples with a more fundamental failure of Newton: his math. Calculus is very useful, but not for solving the paradoxes of infinity. For example, take a little circle and a big one, with the same center. By drawing rays out from the center, one sees that every point on the big circle has a corresponding point on the little circle. But if there are no spaces between the points on the big circle, how can that circle be bigger!? Think about it.

Karl Weierstrass proved this in 1872, beginning “the Great Crises” that threatened to undermine all mathematics. Hilbert posed the question of how nature eliminates these paradoxes. His profound suggestion – relativity and quantum – set finite limits of large and small as if total size and pixel size of a universal computer screen.

Over the next quarter century, the Big Bang understanding of the birth of the universe, and Claude Shannon’s Information Theory, enter the picture. The first shows that the universe is not merely determined by relativity and quantum, but the very stuff of physical reality is created from their complete overlap at the beginning of time. That is, they actually crash into each other as space curls up smaller than the size of a quantum.

The second implies that quantum “entanglement” (an intimate connection by similarity of potential form despite physical separation) and “reduction” (the light of a single actual reality revealed out of all the potential ones of the entangled-quantum vessel), act as the source of information. This, while on the other hand, relativity acts as a sink, swallowing this information into actualized form called “the curvature of space-time.”

Answers from High Antiquity – Nature’s Giving and Receiving

In his book, Bail Yourself Out, Michael Laitman notes that Nature was already recognized in high antiquity to reduce to source and sink actions. Translating to the conscious level, they are the production of the substance of pleasure and its absorption into form – giving and receiving, plain and simple. This underlying principle takes us from the subatomic into molecular below, to the planetary into cosmic above. Richest is here in the middle – life up to our human community, and its ecological interactions. But does it end here?

In general terms, natural history is information feeding complexity to alternatively grow it into greater systems – intricate, interrelated forms “unified in diversity,” and to sustain each level. In his book, The Physics of Immortality, Frank Tippler observes that this process appears to lead to an “Omega Point” – call it ultimate evolution, unified infinite consciousness, or communion with the Creator. The downside is that a dead-end system blocking the path signs its own death warrant, at least down to the level of components that could reconstruct, however painfully, to try again.

Component viability was a mindless matter until humans discovered that they could manipulate their environment. They could redirect information into forms that optimize their personal benefit at the cost of the general good – the harmonious growth of the whole.

The Present – The Potential for Unity

This brings us to the present, a moment of great danger and potential. The danger is that with the rise of globalization, humanity’s interdependency means it can no longer tolerate a strictly individual pleasure principle any more than a physical body can tolerate cancer. The system will not just “crash.” We “components” will be painfully reworked if not broken down entirely, to open up the way for a different path to viable complexity. If nature has to take this course, it won’t be a very pretty picture for us.

But it doesn’t have to if we would but convince ourselves without coercion to make the journey of the soliton – not just to survival, but to infinite good. Readers, we can do it!

Beyond the Pleasure Principle-Discovering the Reality of Pleasure

Discovering the Reality of Pleasure

How do we receive pleasure without it fading? Learn how...

The Wisdom of How to Receive

There are those rare moments in life when we feel that everything around us is permeated by a special force, enveloping us with kindness and suffusing the whole world with love. This sensation gives us the most intense feeling of pleasure we have ever experienced. When you feel it, you know that everyone in the world would give anything to experience it.

But as it turns out, our ability to feel pleasure is much greater even than this. The wisdom of Kabbalah, which is the wisdom of how to receive the ultimate pleasure, says that even though that sensation seems like the peak of enjoyment, it is but a microscopic dose of what one feels upon discovering the spiritual realm of reality.

Indeed, the spiritual sensation is so intensely delightful that none of us would be able to bear it within our current abilities to feel. It would be like winning a jackpot of a trillion dollars: your heart would just burst from the intensity of the experience.

However, this is only so as long as our abilities to feel are limited. Kabbalah teaches us how to develop and expand them, reaching a level of perception where we experience eternity, perfection, boundlessness, and infinity.

In order to expand our sensitivity, our ability to feel and experience pleasure, we have to learn how to receive pleasure in a novel way, where the pleasure we feel will always expand instead of diminish.

Why Can’t We Feel Lasting Pleasure Right Here and Now?

Without even noticing it, we all receive pleasure egoistically, which is why the pleasure we feel is so short-lived. Any time we enjoy something, the pleasure only lasts for a moment and then disappears. Sometimes it lasts for several minutes, hours, or even weeks, if the thing we receive is really big, such as a new home or an exciting trip. But eventually, all the enjoyment we felt ends and disappears.

Our problem is that we try to fulfill ourselves directly, and the fulfillment immediately neutralizes our desire for it. No matter how passionately we wish to attain something, whether it be food, drink, sex, fame or anything else, as soon as we achieve it, the pleasure immediately fades. We wish for something so much and we spend years chasing it, but as soon as we receive it, the pleasure is gone.

Why is that!? You save money for a new home for several years, then you finally buy it, and just a few weeks or months later, you no longer have that feeling of novelty and pleasure. That is because by buying the home, your desire for it becomes fulfilled and it ends.

Kabbalah teaches us how to get around this predicament by building a desire that is eternal. We are then able to feel pleasure from everything, and moreover, our pleasure continuously grows and expands.

In the meantime, we are like children dreaming of a carton of ice cream, but in reality we wouldn’t be able to eat more than three servings…

The Secret to Lasting Pleasure is Knowing How to “Flirt” with it

Kabbalah reveals a very unexpected method of receiving lasting pleasure: all we have to do is “conceal” our desire in a process that is very much like flirting. For example, think of how a woman covers herself up and then gradually reveals herself. It’s a game where beauty and enjoyment are revealed from concealment. The concealment attracts, causing the pleasure to be revealed.

Similarly, while the lasting pleasure we long for is concealed from us, we have to acquire a desire for its revelation. Once we reveal the pleasure, the trick to keeping it going is to conceal that revelation from our own egoistic desire. If we veil or conceal pleasure from our egoism, we rise above our egoistic desire and reveal a vast spiritual pleasure. And that is the way to achieving lasting fulfillment.

Kabbalah is the method of how to guard the pleasure we attain, ensuring that it will fulfill us without ever fading away. As a result, we achieve a feeling of eternal and perfect life.

The only reason we ever feel worthless, defective, and mortal is because we reject the partition that should exist between the pleasure and the desire. Incidentally, people who work in technology know how to implement this principle. They don’t just connect two wires directly, because that would cause a short circuit. Instead, they place a resistor between them, which produces a beneficial result. However, when it comes to our lives, we disregard this principle, and that is why our devices work, while we remain unfulfilled.

The greatest wisdom in the world lies in knowing how to keep the covering that guards or conceals the greatest pleasure in the world, spirituality. Then, the concealment will always attract us. That is how we will reveal the eternal, perfect spiritual world and all of its pleasures.

The Point in the Heart is a desire for spirituality that awakens from egoistic desires, which an individual cannot fulfill. When the last degree in the evolution of human desire, the desire for spirituality, is evoked, it is called a point in the heart. Beyond worldly pleasures – food, sex, family, wealth, power, and knowledge – a desire for something higher develops, it is the point in the heart.

The point in one’s heart is like a drop of desire, a yearning for supreme attainment. This point is sensed as Light, or the sensation of our Source. From that point, a person’s spiritual evolution begins.

Awakening to Spirituality

Every person experiences an awakening of “the point in the heart” at least once in his lifetime. But people usually think that the emptiness and bad feelings they have are caused by earthly reasons. A person doesn’t understand that it’s his soul awakening in him and demanding to be developed.

Most people don’t pay attention to these moments, which come to them in various life cycles. They don’t understand that these moments are urging them to begin to develop the soul. Instead, they think that they are caused by the usual down-to-earth causes, and not the exalted higher goal.

However, after being awakened many times like this, a person begins to understand why he feels bad. This realization is called the recognition of evil. A person realizes that he feels bad not because he is empty, but because his life is based on lies and lack of truth. He feels this so strongly that he is ready to hear the truth, no matter how bitter it may be.

A person has to understand that when the difficult questions are hounding him, when his mind is heavy and he feels powerless, this is the beginning of the soul’s revelation. At that point, he has no choice but to develop it, since otherwise he will only prolong his suffering.

The Point in the Heart

The Point in the Heart is a desire for spirituality that awakens from egoistic desires, which an individual cannot fulfill. When the last degree in the evolution of human desire, the desire for spirituality, is evoked, it is called a point in the heart. Beyond worldly pleasures – food, sex, family, wealth, power, and knowledge – a desire for something higher develops, it is the point in the heart.

The point in one’s heart is like a drop of desire, a yearning for supreme attainment. This point is sensed as Light, or the sensation of our Source. From that point, a person’s spiritual evolution begins.

Waiting on the World to Change

What holds us back from making a better world? – Our own self-interested human
nature. But there is still hope – a perfect state of existence awaits us.

Many of us strive to create harmony and balance; it bothers us to see unfairness in the world. We see that some people have more money and things than a person really needs for one’s livelihood, while others have so little that they struggle just to survive. It is very difficult to rationalize all the excess that exists in the world when there are so many people who have limited ability to even sustain life. So if there are some that have too much and others that have too little, why don’t those who have more than they need share with those who have nothing? Wouldn’t that logically fix the problem?

Egoism Experimenting with Equality

I recently read an article about a college economics professor who taught his students an interesting lesson. The class insisted that it was a good idea for the government to control and divide wealth so that no one would be poor and no one would be rich; they thought it would be a great equalizer. The teacher suggested that they try an experiment in class. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade. The class agreed.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone received a B. Obviously the students who studied hard were upset, while the ones who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little decided to study even less, and the ones who had studied hard before decided that they now wanted a free ride; so, no one studied very hard. The average on the second test was a D; no one was happy. By the time of the third test, the average was an F. The scores never increased, but bickering and blame did. The experiment resulted in hard feelings and made clear that no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

What happened is not surprising. We aren’t willing to do anything unless it benefits us personally. This is human nature; we are egoists. The classroom experiment beautifully illustrates this egoism, that we are simply unable to do something to benefit others unless it directly benefits us. Experiments in government based on the same equalizing principle, as the classroom experiment, have likewise failed. Fairness and equality are a wonderful goal, but human egoism would never allow it.

The Altruistic Law of Nature

Human behavior is in sharp contrast with the rest of Nature. In Nature, every component of a living organism works together for the benefit of the whole; plants and animals instinctively follow this natural altruistic law. In the human body, all cells, as parts of the whole, work together for the benefit of the whole body. Any cells that work exclusively for their own benefit, are called “cancer;” these self-interested cancer cells destroy the entire body. This is analogous to what we are seeing in the larger body of humanity.

The Purpose of our Egoistic Interconnection

Thus, it would be to our benefit, to recognize, that we are one interconnected body of humanity. We are connected globally, not just through the internet, but as world leaders proclaim, we are connected as nations and citizens of nations; and we are all dependent upon each other. The global financial crisis made this point clear, as well as the fact that our connection is egoistically controlled, which poses a problem of global magnitude.

Our egoism, our desire to benefit ourselves, has grown so large, that like cancerous cells in a human body, we are destroying others in humanity in order to ensure that our own individual needs are met. Yet, the science of Kabbalah explains that this is all happening purposefully. Our egoism was intended to develop to this point, so that we could see its detrimental effect, so that we could recognize that there is a problem, and want to fix it.

Repairing the Connection

Now that the problem is diagnosed, we can seek the remedy and repair the connection between us. Kabbalah is a science that studies the laws of Nature, granting us the tools to mend this connection. We can study and implement Nature’s laws within ourselves. When our individual connections are repaired in accordance with Nature, we not only correct the problems between people, but also provide the real and lasting repair for all the problems in the world because they exist only as a result of the broken connection in humanity.

Through learning and harmonizing with Nature’s laws, we attain a perfect world that we cannot presently see. Kabbalists already see this perfected state, and as we repair our connection, we too, can see it and exist in it.

Awakening to Spirituality

Every person experiences an awakening of “the point in the heart” at least once in his lifetime. But people usually think that the emptiness and bad feelings they have are caused by
earthly reasons. A person doesn’t understand that it’s his soul awakening in him and demanding to be developed.

Most people don’t pay attention to these moments, which come to them in various life cycles. They don’t understand that these moments are urging them to begin to develop the soul. Instead, they think that they are caused by the usual down-to-earth causes, and not the exalted higher goal.

However, after being awakened many times like this, a person begins to understand why he feels bad. This realization is called the recognition of evil. A person realizes that he feels bad not because he is empty, but because his life is based on lies and lack of truth. He feels this so strongly that he is ready to hear the truth, no matter how bitter it may be.

A person has to understand that when the difficult questions are hounding him, when his mind is heavy and he feels powerless, this is the beginning of the soul’s revelation. At that point, he has no choice but to develop it, since otherwise he will only prolong his suffering.

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The Key to Change (of Heart)

The world demands change, politicians promise it. But, what is the change we really need? It is a change of heart to operate in accordance with Nature in a state of wholeness. Kabbalah holds the key to connecting to abundance and prosperity

The popularity of slogan, dictum, motto, and maxim as a form of persuasive argument has long been a part of political campaigns in order to gain favorable reaction from the public. It is not surprising that today, as the global crisis escalates, public enthusiasm is immense for politicians around the globe chanting the dictum of change. Everyone agrees that we need change; so, what is the problem?

What is the Change We Need?

At first glance, it appears to be a problem of nuance. However, when we analyze the political argument for the change we need, we discover that the argument itself is defective. According to Aristotle, a potentially persuasive argument, where the premise gives no rational grounds for accepting the conclusion, is defective. These defective forms of argument are called fallacies, in this case, the fallacy of circular argument, as the premise for change presumes too much. It simply begs the question: What is the change we need?
Crisis: The Revelation of the Connection Between Us
All of the methods that we are applying to the current crisis view change as something we can do on our own. However, today, for the first time in history, the current state of the world is not simply a crisis; it is a revelation of the connection between us. This connection is being revealed in the economy, trade, and in all social and political relationships. And grim news from the World Bank: A stimulus won’t save us—we are fresh out of money to jump start the global economy.

Correcting the Connection: The Way to Abundance and Prosperity

The Kabbalists see this as the starting point for humanity’s correction and the end of all of our misfortunes. The current crisis shows us how connected we are. Therefore, the means of solving the problem is correcting our connection, meaning that we should not just build the proper economic model; in this global world, we should make heart to heart connections. The science of Kabbalah, which is becoming more widely recognized in recent years, is the key to the solution.
All of the great Kabbalists throughout history, from Abraham to Yehuda Ashlag, dreamed of our time, when all humanity could discover the wonders that they had. They searched and found the answers to the very questions humanity is now asking. What is the structure of reality? What forces govern the world? How can a person affect his or her own fate and that of humanity? They wrote about what they discovered in their books, describing a single system that incorporates all people and paves the way to a future of abundance and prosperity.
The Book of Zohar, written approximately 2,000 years ago, says that toward the end of the 20th century humanity will reach its maximum imbalance with Nature. The book says that at that time, humanity will need the method of survival and of fulfillment. Then, says The Book of Zohar, the time will come to disclose Kabbalah to all humankind, as a method for reaching similarity to Nature.

Our generation stands at the threshold of a dramatic change of heart. Just as all other parts of nature exist harmoniously, we can consciously and willingly rise to a new level of harmonious connection. The science of Kabbalah, the same knowledge that was passed on from Abraham through all the generations, is precisely a method for correcting our connection. It explains the system of laws that enable us to operate in accordance with Nature in a state of wholeness. The Kabbalists have given us the key, which, if used correctly, will allow us to change our heart and reality instantaneously.

Nature’s Students

The result of our collective discontent is an increasing tendency to ask: What is the purpose of my life? Kabbalah is a spiritual science that reaches out from its ancient roots to answer this very current and pressing demand. Students explore this science online, at the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Learning Center

Why Study Kabbalah?

In the decades leading up to the first part of the 21st century, society became increasingly dissatisfied with what life has to offer. The wars, revolutions, and social movements of the 20th century have left us wondering: What is next? Is this all there is?

Particularly in developed countries, people are overwhelmed by unshakable feelings of emptiness and despair. This sense of deep unrest has grown to a peak in our generation. Like never before this generation suffers. It suffers from depression and anxiety, an unstable economy, an unprecedented breakdown in the family structure, impending environmental catastrophe, and a general lack of motivation and sense of apathy for the future.

The result of our collective discontent is an increasing tendency to ask: What is the purpose of my life? Kabbalah is a spiritual science that reaches out from its ancient roots to answer this very current and pressing demand.

What Does Kabbalah Answer?

Kabbalah answers that basic demand for the answer to the purpose of life. It shows us the limits of our perception and introduces us to true reality. In the past only a handful of philosophers, holy men, and scientists asked about the laws of Nature, the meaning of life, and the perception of reality. Now this demand is commonplace.

Throughout human history we have functioned on autopilot, moving from desire to desire like puppets on a string. We have developed our cultures, civilizations, and technologies through the all encompassing desire for pleasure that is called the human ego.

In our times we can no longer be satisfied with our basic animal and human desires. The compelling drive of our egoistic development seems to have worn itself out. There seems to be nowhere else to go. We want more; we need more. In our times we have awakened the desire for spirituality.

Kabbalah fulfills the desire for spirituality and illustrates the true laws of Nature, beyond our limited perception, and shows how to live according to those laws. We can see through our own experience how different human nature is from the rest of Nature. Every other species on the planet only takes as much from nature as it absolutely needs: nothing more and nothing less. Human egoism knows no bounds to how much it will take from others and from nature. This egoism is the sole reason for all of the destruction we see in the world.

Once humanity lived in balance with Nature, but through the increasing development of our egoistic desire we evolved to a point of total imbalance with the natural system. The understanding of our connection to this system has been lost in the mists of history. While we cannot devolve into prehistoric desires, we can look to the future and find the way into balance from our fully evolved perspective. None of us wants to go back to the Stone Age, but we do want to live in harmony with each other and with Nature. Kabbalah teaches us how we can use our development to equalize with the natural system within our modern society. Nature operates on the principle of love and giving. In order for humanity to come to balance with the system, we need not give up our technologies; we need to learn to give.

Humanity is beginning to wake up to its own nature. We know we can no longer function according to our egoism. We know that there must be a change or our entire race will face dire consequences. Collectively we have no idea where to turn with our demand for change and for answers to our questions. More people than ever are asking why they live, and it is precisely this time and this demand that Kabbalah was meant to answer.

How to Find Answers Through Kabbalah

The Bnei Baruch Learning Center is a platform that answers the question of the meaning of life, the nature of reality, and the method to transform human egoism, thereby assuring humanity a bountiful future. The Learning Center’s interactive classes start with very basic principles of Kabbalah and progress to the technical aspects of the structure of reality. These classes show how to connect with the laws of Nature and how to implement these laws in our daily lives for the benefit of all of humanity.

The Learning Center offers anextensive program of live Kabbalah instruction on both an American and European schedule with live translation into Spanish. Experienced teachers interact and instruct in real time and are able to answer individual student questions. All of the materials, authentic Kabbalistic texts, and instruction are offered free of charge. Lessons are broadcast live, twice weekly, and are archived to accommodate every student’s schedule. Students are free to be as involved as they have the desire and ability to be.

The Learning Center also provides students an online forum to post questions and share their impressions with instructors and fellow students. These forums are monitored by trained moderators who answer questions and offer personal guidance. Students benefit from reading each other’s questions, interacting with each other, and sharing mutual encouragement.
Kabbalah is a discipline that must be practiced in a specific way to gain its intended benefits. Kabbalah is best studied in a group, with teachers, and authentic texts. The Learning Center is a real environment for the study of Kabbalah, which provides all the necessary tools and allows a student to practice and experiment with what they are learning. The Learning Center gives students the support and environment to experience and practice what Kabbalah teaches.

Through interaction during the live lessons and student forum, students create a sense of community that goes beyond what one might feel in other learning environments. Through the Learning Center environment the force of Nature is evoked on students and they begin to experience the change they desire. Not only does learning Kabbalah fulfill the desire for the answer to the meaning of life, in a correct learning environment students will find themselves becoming more equivalent to the laws of Nature. Every aspect of students’ lives gains greater clarity and they begin to perceive true reality. In the words of a Learning Center alumnus, “It is truly life changing.”

Your Ticket to a New World

A first person account: Finding Bnei Baruch’s Online Kabbalah Learning Center, “I liken the course to the beginning of a journey to a magnificent new world, to a free ticket onboard an express train!”

It was August 2008. I did not know what Kabbalah was nor did I have any idea why the word intrigued me as it did. In regards to Kabbalah, I was pretty much a blank slate. There was something that I did know, however. I sensed that there was a hidden message in the word “Kabbalah.” The feeling came from the very depth of my heart, from a small, tiny point.

“I Wanted to Know How Exactly you Use this Wisdom”

I started to read more. I devoured a few issues of the newspaper Kabbalah Today. Then, I turned my hunger toward the website Kabbalah.info. There, I found an immense amount of information in the form of articles, books, videos and animations.

But as most of my friends will tell you, I am not easily impressed or satisfied. I wanted more. I wanted to know how exactly is it that you use this wisdom, what makes it so special, and why should I be reading about it and not doing something more productive (or fun) with my time. The website said that Kabbalah was a practical wisdom that will help me attain spirituality. “Ok,” I said to myself, “I want to attain spirituality.” Who doesn’t, right? All of us, consciously or not, yearn for connection with the spiritual. I later learned that connecting to the spiritual is actually the purpose of our lives. This is why so many people today are dissatisfied and question the meaning and purpose of their lives.

“I Realized that I Wasn’t Alone. There Were Many People with the Same Questions About Life”

So, back to my question: How? Where do I start? Then, I noticed a link to a free, live and interactive course starting September 2008. I signed up immediately and began reading preparation materials provided in advance of the course start date. At the first lesson, I realized that I wasn’t alone. There were many people with the same questions about life. It was a very international group with people joining the twice-weekly lessons from places as remote as Japan, Australia, Argentina and Iraq. There were business people, students, lawyers, housewives, professors, scientists, retirees, and more, ordinary people from all walks of life.

“They Had Answers”

The lessons were presented by two teachers. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was happy to see that they were regular, normal people, like you and me. What did set them apart was that they were able to provide answers to questions which had been floating in my head unanswered for years. They had answers to questions like: “What is the meaning of my life?” “Who am I?” “What is going on in the world?” You get the picture. Normal people with answers. So far, so good! I continued on and finished the course.

“It’s Hard to Describe What the Course Has Done for Me”

It is now August 2009. It is hard to describe what the course has done for me. What I can say is this: Remember that little point in my heart, which I mentioned at the beginning of this article, the one that led me to Kabbalah? Well, the course helped me understand what the point was. The course described the process by which this point grows and connects to other similar points. Once it reaches full development, it becomes the mechanism by which we can perceive a completely different world. This world is the spiritual world with which we crave to connect. Without connecting to the spiritual, we do not attain the purpose of our lives. Therefore, I liken the course which I signed up for last year to the beginning of a journey to a magnificent new world, to a free ticket onboard an express train!

I have some great news for you, dear reader. There is another train departing September 2009. Consider this your official invitation. See you in the new world.

Global Economic Crisis: Is It Over Yet?

Headlines proclaim optimism for the end of the economic crisis. Is it really over? It won’t be until we realize its cause is deeper than economic factors, and we learn how to operate in a global, integral system

The world watches Wall Street and world financial markets nervously as they pin their hopes, dreams, and sense of security on recovery to 2007 levels. After plummeting 54% to a decade low in March of this year, markets have continued with volatile rises and falls. Each bit of optimistic news, “Corporate earnings higher than anticipated,” “Bullish calls from prominent analysts,” and “the US Federal Reserve pronounces the end of the recession might be on the horizon,” spurs a rise. Optimism and hope lift the markets, much like a hot air balloon when the air is warmed. But are these rises filled with anything more than hot air?

Is It Over Yet?

It would seem that there is denial on Wall Street. The optimistic headlines generated by self-interested parties seem to be ignoring other economic news, like the 9.5% unemployment rate in the US, which doesn’t capture the magnitude of joblessness. The uncounted include many who have stopped looking altogether, and 1 in 6 Americans who want full-time employment, but are settling for part-time work. The US Labor Department’s broader measure pegs unemployment at a much higher rate nearing 24% in Oregon. 7.2 million Americans have lost their jobs since the start of the recession and 15 million Europeans are out of work. So far this year, 1.5 million homes have received foreclosure notices or have been seized by banks. Bank failures in the US have reached 77 in 2009. Not all headlines or economists are pointing to recovery as, “Global Deflation Pandemic is Brewing” reports. (Wall Street Journal 7/24/09) In fact, by many counts the crisis is far from over.

What Caused The Crisis?

The US federal government recently appointed a panel of experts to find out just what caused the economic crisis. It would be easy to point to the likes of Goldman Sachs executives who seemingly grabbed the billions handed to them by the government’s bail out efforts and slipped them into their own pockets. Just how did they manage to make the surprising earnings, which they assert justifies compensation levels rivaling 2007 highs, if not at the expense of taxpayers? Or is the crisis due to the financial products pedaled, whose complexity defied regulation? Or are the regulatory systems, which failed to safeguard us, to blame?

The Real Cause

None of them are the cause. Our economy, our world economy, is a reflection of our natural desire to get more and more. All of us together created the global economy. We collectively created the global economics of hoped-for-perpetual-growth to fuel our ever growing desire for more. As soon as we get what we want, with a brief pause of momentary gratification, we move on to wanting something else.

This is according to Nature, Kabbalah explains. We are merely acting according to Nature’s force of receiving. But now we see there is a problem with this. Oh yes, we are in the midst of a crisis, and in spite of Wall Street’s grasping at straws for recovery, most of us pretty well see we’ve already broken the camel’s back. And there is no way back to the era of super-growth-consumption economics. The crisis is impacting virtually everyone and everything on the planet.

The Message The Crisis Brings

Indeed, there is a big problem. We’ve successfully grown with this force of Nature, the receiving force, and it has caused us to realize we are all interconnected. This is precisely the purpose of the crisis. Really this is it. The global financial crisis is illuminating our interconnected nature. It is shining brightly and powerfully, like a spotlight, to make sure we can’t miss it. The message in bright lights reads: We are globally financially and economically interdependent, linked, and inexorably entwined—the whole world and everyone in it, including you.

And the message doesn’t stop here. This is just the glaringly obvious part. Our interconnection is even deeper, more encompassing than the global economy, finances, or the internet. The writing of the rest of the message is a bit dimmer, we are just beginning to see it.

It reads: We are an interconnected humanity on all levels. We are beginning to see that the world is a single, integral system. We are beginning to realize and feel it as more than mere words. We need to recognize that just like the financial crisis is allowing us to see this global interconnection on the economic level, all other crises besieging the world are aiming to help us appreciate our complete human interconnection and interdependency. For indeed that is their purpose.

We Are All In This Together

This seems very deep. But in reality, it is also very simple. We are all in everything together. All of our actions impact everything else on the planet. And conversely, the entire world influences each of us.

Having recognized that we are a globally integral system, we need to learn the way this system of interconnection works, how it operates, so we can thrive in it. It is a law of Nature, and like Newton studying the apple’s fall, we need to examine and explore the properties of this law.

So, we take another look at its component, the force of receiving. The development of the force of receiving, we noted, is what led to this financial crisis. This immense preoccupation of always wanting more for ourselves allowed us to develop a blind eye toward how this taking for ourselves affects any and everyone else. This actually shines some insight onto another component of the law of Nature, the force of giving. And we see we’ve overgrown one side—receiving, at the expense of the other—giving.

Our Interconnection Is Not In Balance

These forces are not in balance. It is the imbalance that is causing the crisis, not Wall Street. It is the imbalance in each of us, and as we recognize that we are all interconnected, we realize that our individual aspirations for having more impacts everyone else with whom we are interconnected. The crisis is revealing both the interconnection between all of humanity and the imbalance in the interconnection. The crisis is aiming to reveal to us that no individual will prosper unless the whole world prospers.

Real Solution: Learning to Balance Our Interconnected Nature

As we realize our completely interconnected state of humanity, and become educated through the wisdom of Kabbalah about the forces of Nature—receiving and giving—we can naturally understand the optimal role of each member of humanity within these forces, and we will achieve real prosperity and perfection. Both the cause and solution to the crises lies within each of us, separately and collectively. What we all need to end the crises, is to stop pointing fingers at others, and to start looking within and see our crucial role in fixing it, by adjusting our attitude to the world with the giving and receiving forces of Nature. Not only will this end the crises, but it will bring us to abundance, prosperity, and real fulfillment.

What Is Kabbalah

Kabbalah has been clouded in confusion, legend, myth and misrepresentation because authentic Kabbalah has been hidden for thousands of years... until today

There has been a lot of confusion, legend, myth and misinterpretation surrounding the true nature of Kabbalah because it has been shrouded in mystery for thousands of years. And it is called the hidden science for a number of reasons.

Why the Confusion?

1. In the past Kabbalah was taught to only a few worthy, highly developed people from each generation who already possessed certain inner qualities not developed in humanity as a whole until recently. And these inner qualities allowed them to understand and use it correctly. In the first place it was purposely hidden by the Kabbalists themselves.

2. All Kabbalistic books are written in a way that uses words that seem to talk about people and things, but in fact, not a single word in any Kabbalistic book is talking about the physical world. And if you don’t learn how to read these books from a Kabbalist in the authentic teaching lineage, you simply can’t understand them. It doesn’t matter how bright you are. All you are going to end up with is a product of your imagination and nothing else.

3.Kabbalah reveals the purpose and nature of this system we call life and unless a person has a powerfully real reason to ask this question, they can’t hear the answer, even if it is shouted at them. But today, many people all over the world are seeking out Kabbalah.

Kabbalah is Not...

So let’s clear up the misunderstanding. Let’s look at what Kabbalah is not. What Is Kabbalah? It is not and has nothing to do with:

religion, magic, mysticism, witchcraft, divination, cults, healing, meditation, self-help, philosophy, theory, parapsychology, ESP, telepathy, clairvoyance, new age, psycho kinesis, superstition, dream interpretation, phrenology, tarot cards, mantras, yoga, red strings, holy water, blessings, Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism, or any “ism,” past life regressions, holistic medicine, numerology, faith healing, aromatherapy, secret societies, reiki, hypnosis, channeling, transmutation, astrology, astral travel or projection, lucid dreaming, spiritualism, communicating with the dead, out of body experiences, magnetism, voodoo, freemasonry, theosophy, reflexology, UFO’s, creationism, fanaticism, or any other belief.

Many of the above mentioned, however, have borrowed and misinterpreted the principles of Kabbalah over the years.

Kabbalah Is...

So now, what is it really? Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag defines Kabbalah this way:

The wisdom is no more and no less than a sequence of roots, which hang down by way of cause and effect, in fixed, determined rules, weaving into a single, exalted goal described as:

“the revelation of His Godliness to His creatures in this world.”

Which means that there is an Upper Force and then there are governing forces that descend from this Upper Force and bring about our existence, meaning this world.

The Governing Force of Nature

We are familiar with physical forces, such as gravity, electromagnetism, and even the power of thought. But there are forces of a much higher order that act while still remaining hidden to us. Just like we know the effects of electricity, but we can’t see it and we don’t know exactly what it is. The ultimate, comprehensive force, the Creator, is the sum of all the world’s forces and the highest level in the line of higher governing forces.

This Upper Force gave birth to 5 spiritual worlds and a barrier separating them from our world. The science of Kabbalah doesn’t study our world and the people in it, the way traditional science does. It investigates everything that exists beyond that barrier. There is nothing other than the force that descends from above in accordance with these laws. And the laws, as Ashlag writes, are fixed. They are absolute and they are everywhere. And ultimately they are all directed so that we can reveal the governing force of Nature while we still exist in this world.

Michael Laitman’s Personal Blog Laitman.com

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

A 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.

Perceiving The World From Beginning To End

A question I received: When people hear that I study Kabbalah, they ask: “What’s in it for you?” I respond that I attain the meaning of life, feel its taste. “What is the meaning of life?” they ask, wishing to hear a brief answer. How should I respond?

My answer: Because I study Kabbalah, the world becomes transparent for me. Through it, I see the controlling forces, the system that operates our world. Because of this, I perceive our world throughout, from its beginning to its very end.

I attain the meaning of my life and of life in general, and I see myself in it, from the root of my soul in the common bundle of all the souls, to the end goal, which I must attain. All of this occurs in an endless, eternal process, the perception of which is thanks to the science of Kabbalah. It reveals Nature and the Creator to me, and I reveal, attain and control the Nature of all the worlds.

Tell people that they can learn how to use life in the best possible manner and obtain the highest benefit from every passing minute! This is the truth!

But what people need today is to be enlightened, educated about the global world we are now living in, and about the fact that all of our suffering is caused by a faulty global connection among us.

Discover Kabbalah

Free, Live, Interactive Internet Courses Based in Authentic Kabbalah Reveal Kabbalah’s intended purpose and use, who you are and your life’s true purpose.

Kabbalah provides a deep understanding of nature, the world, and ourselves. It’s an experience that will change how you perceive your reality.

Discover

• What Kabbalah really is
• The nature of the force and law that shapes our lives, how to connect with it, and its practical implementation
• How you can correct yourself and help correct the world by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah
• How to study from authentic Kabbalistic texts and sense the unique illumination

Courses

• The Learning Center provides a step by step program for those interested in learning more about this wisdom
• Study live twice a week, or at your convenience by downloading archived lessons
• Interactive live lessons: students’ questions are answered by proficient instructors during the broadcast

Materials

• All course materials are free to download (text, video and audio)

Additional Learning Center Offerings

• Student Forum – an online “study hall” where lesson related questions can be asked and are answered by instructors
• Opportunities to study with Bnei Baruch’s founder, the world’s foremost Kabbalist Rav Michael Laitman, PhD
• Invitations to special events to meet with fellow students, families and instructors, from around the world, to experience the practical application of the study

About the Bnei Baruch Learning Center

In 1991, Rav Michael Laitman, PhD, established Bnei Baruch for studying, teaching, and disseminating authentic Kabbalah. Bnei Baruch (Sons of Baruch) is named
in memory of his mentor, Kabbalist Rav Baruch Ashlag, son and successor of Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag, Baal HaSulam, (Owner of the Ladder) author of The Sulam
Commentary on the Book of the Zohar.

The Way Passed the End

The Doomsday Vault, a seed bank for world use, reflects both our worst case fears of global destruction and the means to prevent it. It exemplifies uniting in order to satisfy the need to care for all

The end. People contemplate “the end” all the time. They wait for their work week to end, they anticipate the end of a cold winter, they dream of the end of twelve years of schooling. Ah, graduation. How nice to reach the end. The end of the perfect book, that satisfied feeling one gets when it feels just right. And there are the scary and sad endings in life: death, divorce, disaster. Ah, disaster, this one, when it’s on a large and national or global scale, is often played to the hilt. Consider for a moment, the amount of time movies and media often give to doomsday scenarios. There seems to be a fascination with “the end.”

The Doomsday Vault

Discovery Magazine’s top 100 science stories of 2008 include, “Doomsday Vault Opens.” It is a kind of Noah’s Ark for the protection of seed types from around the world. “The End!” we think. The word, “Doomsday,” catches our attention, stops us in our tracks, and makes us think.
The ark—rather, the vault, is built on the largest island in the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. It’s built to protect the seeds in case of natural disasters including pestilence, asteroids and even human induced calamities such as nuclear attack.

The idea of a safety deposit box for seeds is not new. Nations have had their own seed banks in the past and will continue with their reserves, but this structure, which is designed for “world use” in case of catastrophic circumstances, reflects a kind of unification, one that considers the whole world and not just its segmented parts, drawn as political, geographic boundaries. It’s this kind of whole world protectionism that is a clear indicator of our interdependency and it is this state of understanding that paves a way for us in our own personal diffusion, where we extend our miniature focus to include the care of all. This state is a kind of end, a shift in focus. It is a predetermined goal that existed in the original thought of creation, and it is completely good and benevolent despite our current perceptions to the contrary.

The End of the Paradigm of the World Broken into Pieces

Here now, we discuss the end of an old paradigm, where the world is broken into pieces, often working against itself, and instead, we usher in the beginning of cohesion, the same kind seen in nature among bees working together in their hives, or in geese flying together in their “V” formation.

The unified thinking that is exemplified by the construction of The Doomsday Vault is a small glimpse into the unity that the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches. Somehow, many of us know inside that if we are to survive, we must think in terms of “the whole.” And yet, there’s a strange paradox where we feel that we exist in isolation, very much alone, struggling in a system we can’t understand.

A Way of Unity

To study Kabbalah is to study The Way to Yourself, but by paradox, this is a way of unity. Today, we see its beginnings being realized not only in the trade of goods, but in the rapid trade of information through the internet. Beyond information and goods though, we are also sharing emotions, tightening the bonds that exist with one another. Even though we might be at opposite ends of the globe, we feel the virtual connection. Many of us feel the responsibility, the needs that exist around our planet, a suffering planet.

We realize that our safety and security is completely dependent upon the success and balance of the whole of humanity. The butterfly effect ripples around us even if we can’t see it.
Kabbalah teaches that true unity must be built upon the deepest law within all of nature, the most sublime and the most powerful force of all: the law of bestowal. It is a reciprocally beneficent natural law that replaces the egoistic black hole that sucks everything unto itself and is never satisfied. The ego is a tyrant whose calculations are completely for itself without regard to wholeness. It’s the ego gone wild that is hurting us, but it is also the ego’s mistakes that will teach us, if we pay attention and learn.

The proof of the ego’s destructiveness is in the pudding and that pudding today is tasteless. It’s the impasse that society has reached, the dead end that The Book of Zohar spoke of a long time ago. Here it is written, that at the end of the 20th century, humanity will start asking about the meaning of life, and that the answer to this question, hidden in the ancient science of Kabbalah, can only be revealed in our time, precisely because of these challenging circumstances.

Kabbalah Provides Real Answers

Kabbalah addresses these questions in a way that is timeless, expansive and yet personal because the nature of all perception is based inside of an individual. Within the individual can be found the system and unity of all the souls, together as one. Kabbalah is available for anyone who sincerely wishes to explore the answers to their questions. It provides real answers from within you, where you wait for the answers you are seeking. When you find the answers yourself, you know that there truly is a way passed the end.

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Looking Back at the Future

Economic Perspectives from Two 20th Century Visionaries John Maynard Keynes & Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) by Seth Bogner

The current Global Economic Crisis has affected virtually every country. No corner of the world that has been left untouched by the most severe recession in 80 years. Most nations have reacted to the Crisis by following the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes, reputably the foremost economist of the 20thCentury. Keynes believed that government intervention and spending is the best way out of a financial crisis. His theories were the basis of the strategies employed by both the US and UK in response to the Great Depression. Many economists, central bankers and pundits frequently cite Keynesian economics when discussing the various economic stimulus programs enacted globally to attempt to combat the Crisis.

Vision of Global Economic Health

Would Keynes, if he were alive, believe that we would have found ourselves in a quandary similar to the Great Depression all over again? probably not. Keynes envisioned a vastly different picture of global economic health for our generation. In 1930 in his rarely discussed article, “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren” Keynes predicted an end or evolution of capitalism. In fact, he foresaw this as a highly desirable eventuality.

Keynes anticipated that by now all the world’s economic problems would be solved. Goods and services would be produced at a level to sustain all of humanity and the means to distribute them to all would end the struggle for subsistence. He predicted that improvements in productivity due to technological advancements would increase and together with the accumulation of capital, would solve the world’s economic problems. Keynes observed, “We shall be able to rid ourselves of many of the pseudo-moral principles which have hag-ridden us for two-hundred years, by which we have exalted some of the most distasteful of human qualities into the position of the highest virtues. … therefore, to return to some of the most sure and certain principles of religion and traditional virtue –that avarice is vice, that the exaction of usury is a misdemeanour, and the love of money is detestable, that those walk most truly in the paths of virtue and sane wisdom who take least thought for the morrow. We shall once more value ends above means and prefer the good to the useful.”

While the most renowned economist of the 20th Century was promoting his vision of economic and social possibilities for his grandchildren, the most highly recognized Kabbalist of the 20th Century, Yehuda Ashlag (widely known as Baal HaSulam) was sharing his forward looking world view, which was remarkably similar to those of Keynes. Although contemporaries, Keynes (1883 – 1946) and Ashlag (1884 – 1954) probably never met. Ashlag’s theories were rooted in the Wisdom of Kabbalah. If Ashlag were alive today he would probably have told us that the reason for the Crisis was man’s unwillingness to recognize we operate in a global interdependent system, mankind will only renounce its economic system when the system brings more suffering for society than pleasure. His views were based on one of Kabbalah’s central tenants, if humanity does not work together to correct our egotistical nature and start acting in concert with nature we would bring blows upon mankind of biblical proportions. According to him we could avert the impending suffering by educating people about our inherent nature and providing society with an alternative path.

An Evolved Economic Reality

The current Economic Crisis is sending us a message that the capitalism, of our time, must adapt or become extinct, both Keynes and Ashlag foresaw this eventuality 80 years ago. They predicted that the hubris that has been celebrated in our generation will give birth to a new economic reality where capitalism will evolve into a new system. In Keynes’ words, “The critical difference will be realized when this condition [freedom from concern about basic survival needs] has become so general that the nature of one’s duty to one’s neighbour is changed. For it will remain reasonable to be economically purposive for others after it has ceased to be reasonable for oneself.” Keynes trusted in the inherent generosity and morality of mankind. Unfortunately, mankind has not lived up to his expectations.

Given the accuracy of their vision, perhaps it is time for us to listen to their views on the next stage of socioeconomic development. Their views are remarkably similar: both agree that people must reach a state where concern for other members of the society outweighs concern for self-promotion and they also agree that this transition will not be easy. In fact, Keynes saw this as “the greatest change which has ever occurred in the material environment of life for human beings in the aggregate.” For Ashlag, it represents nothing less than the transformation of human nature from egoism to altruism. In “The Last Generation” Ashlag observed that “our planet is rich enough to provide for all of us, so why this tragic war for life which has been clouding our lives for generations? Let us divide the work and its produce equally among ourselves and end all the troubles.”

I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing in Perfect Harmony

Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable – Leonard Bernstein

Music expresses a wide range of emotions, feelings and ideas with varying rhythms, melodies, instruments and vocalizations. Historically, music has highlighted our celebrations with joyful passion; has intimately professed our romantic love in ballads or dejectedly bemoaned its lack; has stalwartly sent troops marching to war and bugled them into battle; music has added pomp to the circumstances requiring such grandeur; and has lamented the loss of loved ones in dirges. Music is capable of conveying deep and complex emotions that are understood and felt by the listeners.

True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time– George Gershwin

Throughout the ages and across cultures, composers have created music as an expression of inner feelings and ideas. Their compositions necessarily are a reflection of all aspects of their culture, including social and economic frameworks, climate, and availability of technology. Not surprisingly with the widely recognized globalization of the world, which is fraught with financial, economic, social, familial, psychological, and ecological problems, today’s music most often expresses disillusionment, pain, suffering, and desires for what seems missing: love, sex, money …. It isn’t just the lyrics that convey the unhappy and dissatisfied messages, the intense beat and discordant, cacophonous instrumentation share the sentiments. Humans are literally singing and shouting their desire to receive, and to receive more and more and more. It is only natural that music resonates these sincere growing and unfilled needs and desires of humanity.

We have been Focusing Entirely on the Desire to Receive

In fact, it is a law of Nature, a force that acts upon us. The desire to receive is what runs the human world. But this is only half of the equation. The world really runs on two desires: to receive and to give. “They determine not only our behavior, but the whole of reality – everything we think, see, feel, taste, or touch. … We receive our life energy from the desire to give, and we are formed by the desire to receive. However, since we learned that we could change our surroundings to suit our desires, we have been focusing entirely on the desire to receive. We have become ignorant of the fact that we receive energy and life not from the desire to receive, but from the desire to give.” (Bail Yourself Out)

Humanity is discovering that our natural growing desire to receive remains unsatisfied, unfilled, unquenched. We are realizing that our exclusive focus on our ever growing desire to receive material things and fulfillment from others leaves us feeling more starkly vacant and empty. As this song asks, “Will I always feel this way, so empty, so estranged?” (Ray LaMontagne)

The Answer Lies in the Desire to Give

The answer lies in the second part of the equation of these forces of Nature, the desire to give. “The interplay between the two desires eludes us because it is the very basis of our makeup, and therefore resides at a level deeper even than our consciousness. But once we understand how these desires interact with each other to create life, we can put this information into practice and discover how to benefit from doing so.” (Bail Yourself Out)

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life– Ludwig van Beethoven

Music also provides a key to understanding the interaction of these forces of Nature. It can help us see our lack of balance with Nature and a clue as to how to attain the balance. Music’s current almost exclusive expression of wanting to receive helps us see our singular focus on one of the forces and shows us how distant we are from the other force, the desire to give. We are out of balance. We are not in harmony. “Classical music with strong internal harmony helps because it contains harmony born out of unity between opposites. It is precisely when these opposites unite that they create harmony which corrects…” (Laitman.com) Classical music with its intricate, extensive and multi-layered internal harmony exhibits the fitting together and joining of contrasted elements in balance. This musical example of balance and harmony can help us to achieve the same qualities for humankind..

Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart– Pablo Casals

Music is a universal language and this far reaching quality makes it well suited to be used as tool to help us emerge from the world crisis resultant from the singular focus on receiving. The desires expressed in lack can be supplanted by music that espouses unity and balance between giving and receiving. Musicians who experience unity and the interaction and connection of these two forces can convey this balance in their compositions both through lyrics and melodies. “Music can help us express a whole new side of reality … the impact of such music on the listener will be unmatched, precisely because it expresses our life force!” (Bail Yourself Out)

A Better World for Our Children

With the world in crisis, parents everywhere fear for their children’s future. Yet, if we rise to the challenge, we can set them on the path to a future far brighter than any we ever dreamed of

As I sit at my computer, the neighborhood rings with the laughter of children playing tag. It brings back memories of my childhood, and I can’t help but wonder what the future has in store for them.

Mankind has always invested superhuman efforts to assure that the next generation will have an easier, more fulfilling life. For many parents today, this dream may forever remain a fantasy. Economic uncertainty, environmental collapse, and violence promise to be the legacy we will leave our children. A Rasmussen Poll in January found that only 47% of American parents believe their children will be better off than they are.

This gloomy outlook should be a clarion call to action for people everywhere. But if we are to have any hope of finding lasting solutions, we must first retrace the developments that led to the problems we face today.

Did Someone Press “Fast Forward?”

Mankind’s needs were simple once: If there was adequate food, shelter and security from predators, life was good. But time marched on, and the necessities were no longer enough. People wanted more from life, and so the relentless quest for new pleasures began. By the time we reached the 20th century, everything had accelerated, as if someone pressed “fast forward.” We went from horses to trains to jets; from telegraphs to phones to the Internet. With each generation, the luxuries of the parents became the necessities of the children.

This continuous escalation of selfindulgence has finally caught up with us, bringing our world to the brink of collapse. Our culture of excess reached its culmination with ego-maniacs like Bernard Madoff, who swindled investors of $50 billion. And while it’s easy to put the blame on the likes of Madoff, the reality is that we all bear a share of the guilt, even if our excesses are on a much smaller scale.

If we are honest, we’ll see that success in our society is defined as more money, fame or power, no matter what the cost to others. So what can we expect for our future if these are the values that we promote?

If egoism is the root of our problems, then the solution is to transform our values to altruism and sharing. But how? After all, mankind has prospered with a “Me first!” mentality for thousands of years. Yet, in today’s globalized society, where everything that happens on one side of the world has an almost immediate impact on the other side, “Me first!” no longer works. In the words of Britain’s PM, Gordon Brown, “In this global age, we need solutions that can no longer be defined in terms of us and them, but can be achieved only together – as us with them.”

New Problems Call for New Solutions

We can’t buy our way out of the current crisis with taxpayer dollars or consume our way out through increased shopping. We have to approach life from a new perspective, taking advantage of three powerful tools.

• Education

People today are lost and confused, wondering: Why is this happening? What should we do? But we are resourceful, and if we understand the problem, we will perform miracles to solve it. This is why a public education campaign about the globalization of our economies, the interdependence of all people, and the benefits of cooperation could guide us to the solutions.

Our best hope for the future lies in educating our children. NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently classified education as “our greatest national shame.” And he’s right: we are not providing our children with the knowledge they need to succeed in the new global era. If we offer them an education about the natural laws that govern interconnected systems, they will be prepared to easily navigate the stormy seas that are so baffling to us.

• Media

Most of our behavioral patterns come directly from TV and the Internet. As long as news, entertainment and sports glorify the pursuit of wealth and a “win at any cost” mentality, we will see greed and exploitation dominate our society. If, however, we insist that these venues reflect the values of compassion, we will turn today’s destructive media force to our advantage.

And in fact, the tide is already starting to shift. A recent series of ads bears titles such as, “In an Absolut World, Currency will be Replaced with Acts of Kindness.” CNN’s series on economic survival features stories about people who find happiness through the renewal of family connections, sharing with others, and a simpler lifestyle. We just need to give things a push!

• The Power of Society

The most powerful instrument for change, however, is us. Throughout history, social change has been driven by the people. The 14th century Renaissance is just one example of a cultural movement that led to exponential advances in all areas. And today, the desire for change among the American people was so strong that it swept an unlikely candidate into the highest office.

This is the force we can harness to make the changes in today’s society. But how can we transform our approach to life from egoism to altruism when all we know is “taking care of #1”? Actually, our children can show us the way! When a child decides to become a doctor, he “plays” doctor, even though he has no idea what he is doing. Only when the child becomes a doctor will he know what it really means, but each of his imagined notions along the way is a necessary preparation.

So to begin with, we can “fake it until we make it.” Our first “altruistic” efforts will be purely egoistic: done to escape the crisis. Over time, however, an amazing transformation will occur: our simulated joy in altruism will give way to the real thing, providing real relief from the crisis.

Arne Duncan, the new Education Secretary, commented, “We have to continue to think differently and do everything we can to put our students ... on the path to pursuing the American dream.” Let’s pressure our government to use part of the $150 billion education stimulus to create a new American dream, one that values activities that benefit all and frowns upon personal success at the expense of others. Let’s use the power of our collective will to show politicians and businesses that we are no longer buying into a consumer oriented society. Let’s encourage media to promote values of generosity and sharing, while shunning egoistic glorification of individuals. In this way, we will leave a lasting legacy to our children, and they will have the wisdom to know how to use it.

The Last Superman

The world is desperately looking for heroes, people who will lead us out of the crises that are pummeling us. Can President Obama rise to the occasion and defeat the villains of greed and egoism?

Recently, it was rumored that Barack Obama was tempted to enter the bidding for a rare edition of the first-ever Superman comic. The rumors began to settle when it was announced that the American President would not be participating in the auction (and besides, he’s a Spiderman, not a Superman, fan). And finally, all the talk came to a halt when the comic was sold to someone else for $325,000 (almost the yearly salary for Mr. Obama).

Still, the fact that the rumors started is much more than a coincidence. Superman is a clear symbol of the American Dream; he is the ultimate cowboy, the redeeming angel of a new era. Despite the decades that have passed since he was last seen flying above Metropolis, and the steady stream of heroes that have flooded the world ever since, there is no doubt that the blue knight in the red cape is still number one.

It’s no wonder that people are associating Obama with Superman, as if asking the two to join forces and defeat the escalating crisis. Obama’s sweeping inaugural speech before Congress was a perfect testimony to this. It was a classic Superman speech.

Superman, as we all know, always “emerges stronger than before” after a crisis. He always comes out on top and gains the upper hand even when all seems lost. He saves the world from complete catastrophe at the very last moment, and gets a big round of applause in the process.

Can Superman Still Prevail?

The only problem is that Obama is trying to be Superman in a post-Superman era, an era where there is no place for mythological superheroes, shrouded in an aura of heroic loneliness. Obama, like the rest of the world leaders, has to understand that none of the old methods will help him solve this crisis because reality has changed. It’s not just that the rules of the game have changed; we are playing a completely new game.

Until recently, we have lived in an individualistic world, where the planet was ruled by omnipotent financial opportunists and brilliant, cunning ego giants. Now, however, the situation has changed completely. It’s as if an invisible giant fisherman has caught humanity inside one global net and left it hanging, lost and perplexed. The fat sharks on Wall Street have suddenly found themselves tossed into the same boat as the smallest of the “small fry” in Istanbul, all gasping for air in unison.

In this new era, the collapse of the financial system is clearly showing us that an attitude of using others, or even just caring for yourself alone, is a vengeful, double-edged sword. Our ambition, also known as the ego, has ceased being a loyal friend that helps us get ahead and has become a dangerous enemy. And now, the big question is: who will save the world from itself?

New Heroes for a New Age

There is no doubt that we are in dire need of new heroes. To find them, we must rearrange our entire value system and change the formula for prosperity from the one that says: “success comes from using others,” to the opposite, “success comes from mutual concern.” Or, in the words of the British prime minister Gordon Brown to labor activists in Bristol, “Our task must be nothing less than to rebuild a financial system where it has failed and then to create an economy where banks are no longer serving themselves but serving the public.”

Our new, interconnected, interrelated world demands new superheroes, who will understand that the true enemy is found within. A true hero will be someone who knows how to conquer his own evil inclination, his own greed and self-centered way of thinking. The leaders of tomorrow will be people or nations who know they have to encourage mutual support and strengthen the connections between people, and who are able to see others as heroes, too.

The new superheroes will communicate the laws of integration and unification, necessary for our existence, to the next generations. They will teach people to see themselves and others as organs in one body, existing inside one nature, as one universal Superman. And just like in a body, mutual care for the benefit of the whole generates harmony and life, whereas caring for the self alone results in cancer. The new Superman will help us all understand that this also applies to our single, unified body of humanity, and once we understand this, we will regain life in the systems that are now gasping for air.

Could Obama be that Superman? Only time will tell. He is off to a promising start. He shows a great desire to change the world for the better, and has a personality that embodies a unique mixture of countries and people. The only question is whether he will be wise enough to set the right example for the other world leaders to follow. Otherwise, he may find himself carved into the pages of history as the last egoistic Superman.

I Thought I Was Retired, But I Am Now Unemployed

Like so many people, my carefully crafted retirement plans are in shatters. Now it is time to move past the “blame game” and find our own solutions

I retired in late 2006 with a conservative financial plan in place that would last through the lives of my wife and myself and still leave a little something for the kids. My financial planner and I choose an appropriate asset allocation model and we needed only 5% returns to be in good shape. My wife and I planned on working or volunteering, because we wanted to and not because we had to. After many years in corporate America, this seemed like a great position to be in as we faced our “golden years.”

I am still in a little bit of shock over everything that has happened in the financial markets over the past year. On the one hand, events unfolded in the blink of an eye, and on the other, it was a death by a thousand cuts. My retirement plans were solid and in place, but now they are gone. Disappeared. Vanished. Dead. They will not be revived and I am left with the shock, disbelief despair and anger of trying to figure out what to do next.

Searching for Answers

What I want to know is: Who is responsible for all this? I played by the rules. I put my money in secure investments. I didn’t gamble on housing or any of the other get rich schemes out there. Perhaps I was too willing to accept the advice of financial planners with all of their asset allocation models and long-term investment theories. History always repeats itself, the market runs in cycles, you cannot time the market, and so, in the end, you buy and hold investments, trusting the theory that what comes down will eventually rise even higher. But I don’t think this will be so this time. The mess we are in right now feels very different. No one is talking about rebounding to past highs. All of the talk is about whether we can avoid the dire straits of a total system collapse.

There is probably much blame to go around. For years, while I was still a part of corporate America, I was incensed at the salaries, bonuses, perks and power being given to our CEO and to all CEOs. CEOs in the USA average 450 times the pay of the average worker, CEOs in the next highest ranking country average 22 times the average worker’s pay. It’s not too hard to see that something was terribly wrong, but times were booming, money was being made, stock prices were climbing, so who cared? Of course now we find out that most of these profits were just shell games and the people who could, manipulated their way to huge paydays. The foxes raided the hen houses, and they have all gotten away.

I need to get back to work. I need to earn money comparable to my former salary, but it won’t be easy. My age and experience work against me, not for me. The job market is terrible, and we just hit 23 straight months of net job losses. There is no end in sight, but still, I conduct my daily job searches, try to stay positive, and pray I do not lose everything I have worked so hard to acquire.

A Way Forward

I am an optimistic person, but it is clear to me that all of the rules have changed. I have no confidence in the economic stimulus plans, although I am a supporter of this President. I do not see how we can buy our way out of this mess. It is like we are trying to pay off the judge in order to avoid going to jail, but the judge is harsh and does not accept bribes. Something tells me that we must accept our sentence and learn from all this. I don’t claim to know what our lesson or lessons might be, but I feel certain that our lives have to change, as do our desires. “He who dies with the most toys wins” was a funny bumper sticker, but it is funny no more. I think it is time to end this era of greed, selfishness and overconsumption. It is time to focus on needs and not wants, and it certainly wouldn’t hurt to think about how our actions affect the other guy, and not just about “what is in it for me.”

There are so many of us in this predicament. It is as if we are stranded on an island and there is no one coming to our rescue – certainly not the government! Perhaps therein lie our opportunities. Those of us with firsthand experience on how the old rules no longer apply can begin to create the new rules. We can find strength by looking to each other. Our unique bond will then expand into a feeling of being truly connected, and this connection will feel so good and right that we’ll begin to desire more of it. As we nurture this connection, we’ll begin to realize what our world could look like if we took care of each other instead of taking care of only ourselves.

Why not put this into action? It has been talked about often, but never implemented. What do we have to lose?

Clouds in my Coffee

Nature is filled with examples of endlessly repeating patterns, where the whole is built on the balanced interaction of the parts. For generations, man has only looked at his “parts” – individuals. Now, maybe it is time to consider the whole – humanity

I feel another downhill day coming, and I dread going into work. Will I get a sudden escort out this morning like poor Erika? Our manager, Phil, wouldn’t want us to steal or damage anything, especially staff morale – as if there were any left! I’ve known Phil for 30 years; what’s happened to him? To the whole world?

At least we still have some creature comforts, most notably – a gourmet cup of java to give me some courage. Watching that drop of cream in the coffee, the pattern of swirls within swirls, I can’t help thinking back to that 1972 Carly Simon song, “I had some dreams; they were clouds in my coffee, clouds in my coffee…”

Clouds in coffee… swirls within swirls… patterns, unfolding within themselves, over and over, like variations on a theme. Isn’t this the way all of Nature is? Fern leaves, coastlines, clouds – each is composed of a geometric shape that’s repeated at a smaller and smaller scale, each shape nested within its larger counterpart. Isn’t there something to be learned at this time from this property that is so pervasive in Nature? Perhaps the world’s problems and solutions are hidden within these unique, yet universal, patterns. And perhaps we could unlock this universal secret if only we had a master key, the “fractal”!

Patterns of Life

This term, referring to all these pervasive self-similarities, was coined by Benoit Mandelbrot, due to the common element in the recurring patterns – their fractional dimension. The math behind a fractal is a simple repeating formula, yet it can produce awesomely beautiful visuals. Looking into them, one senses a deep, almost frightening, power – a two-way ebb and flow, as though looking into the eyes of Infinity itself.

There really is a dynamic transcending the still image. As pointed out by Robert Shaw, a pioneer in the science of “Chaos,” there’s actual communication reflected up and down the orders of magnitude between the inner and outer patterns. But for us, the consequences are a lot more serious than pretty pictures.

A most important example is our complex heartbeat and circulatory flow. The complexity actually keeps us alive. Because all the components work together in perfect harmony, communicating as though in mutual love, coronary interactions operate smoothly on every scale. Natural fluctuations at any level are corrected by the system as a whole. However, if this “love” breaks down and a part of the system selfishly pulls itself too far away for too long, something ominous begins to happen. The beat pattern grows smoother, at first glance seemingly a sign of stability; that is, until it smoothes down to a simple sine wave, and finally - the straight line of cardiac arrest.

The fractal’s universality makes the above a fundamental law of nature, ruling all systems: mineral, vegetable, animal, and human. But only at the human level is there the freedom to follow a dysfunctional policy of “every man for himself.” Sweet as it may first appear to gifted predators, beneath the surface the system begins an accelerating decay, until the nightmare finally comes out of the woodwork as Murphy’s Law: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

It’s a bit like an enormous pocket watch over wound to the point of no return. Though it may still be beautiful, gold and shiny on the surface, a look at the inner mechanism will reveal a flaming explosion of snapping teeth and mainspring, leading to the grand finale – the freezing of gears, grinding to a halt. So it is with our business models: systematic doom seals the fate of even the most “successful” individuals along with the rest of the human mechanism. It’s just a question of “who by fire and who by ice.”

Hope for the Future

Humanity’s evolution into a global economy through ever-growing and entwining infrastructures has given it a worldwide heartbeat and circulation
Murphy’s Law has already started to go berserk before our very eyes, yet we continue to proceed mindlessly against Nature, like lemmings treading toward a cliff’s edge. No force can turn the situation around other than every person’s individual, free choice to see others as the greater part of himself, rather than isolated prey to feed upon. Do we not yet realize that the pattern in each of our personal fractals is actually made of all of us?

The clouds in my coffee dissipate on a hopeful note – a song the Youngbloods provided five years before Carly Simon, “Come on people now, smile on your brother. Everybody get together; try to love one another right now.” And when we look into the eyes of Infinity, maybe we’ll be met by an infinite fractal smile. Wouldn’t that be something!

Despite the odds, my cup of java has once again kept its promise to encourage. What message will your favorite brew be giving you?

How Can We Stop Medicine from Being a Business?

A letter sent to us by physician Dr. Angelov of Boston, Massachusetts USA:

What is Wrong with Modern Medical Insurance?

35% of the stimulus package intended to jumpstart the US economy is going to the medical industry, because it is one of the hardest-hit by the financial crisis. Insurance rates have gone up, but people’s incomes certainly haven’t, so many can no longer afford doctor visits or medication. It’s even worse with the unemployed, who have lost health insurance entirely.

The government is trying to salvage the situation, but unfortunately, it’s using the same measures that caused the medical industry to go into crisis in the first place: allocating funds to people’s egos. But our egos are what caused the crisis! How so?

People’s egos, their desire to make more and more money, have become more important than healthy relationships between doctors and patients. Modern medicine is run by the profit principle: It’s not about how effective it is at helping the sick, but about how much profit it brings to everyone involved.

Doctors make money from their patient’s illnesses and medical procedures, and thus have little motivation to cure them, and patients, in turn, look for opportunities to sue the doctors for malpractice. There is no trust between them since the entire modern medical insurance revolves around money, rather than care for the patients and their health.

The Medical Industry was Not Always this Way

In ancient China, 4000 years ago, every morning a healer would pass by every house in the village. A vase was placed by the entrance to every house, containing a coin for the healer, signifying that everyone in that house was healthy. If the vase was empty, this meant that someone in the house was sick. The healer would enter and treat the sick person to the best of his ability; and the herbs, needles and other medical supplies were paid for by the coin that hadn’t been put inside the vase. In his free time, the healer would also go to people’s houses to make sure their diets and lifestyles were healthy.

Back then, health insurance was completely opposite to what it is today. People paid to help keep others healthy, and the person who was ill did not have to pay.

Could this Ever Work Today?

Clearly, we have to stop medicine from being a business. Today, doctors’ salaries depend on the number of sick patients they have, the number of medical procedures they perform, and whether the hospitals are filled with sick patients. The system is built so doctors profit by keeping the patients sick for as long as possible! However, shouldn’t their first and foremost concern be for the patients to be healthy?

Yet, can we really go back to the “good Samaritan” system of ancient times? No, we can’t, because back then, people’s egos were much smaller than today. In addition, the problem is global, not local. Under these circumstances, the only way to create a healthy medical system is by creating a global solution that will address the egos of today’s people.

If society as a whole will pay for health, rather than illness, doctors will have incentive to prevent ailments from occurring in the first place. Then people’s health will improve and health care expenses will decrease.

Money should be removed from the doctor-patient relationship. A doctor should receive administrative, not monetary, punishment for mistakes he makes, and a patient should not be able to demand monetary compensation through the courts. Instead, the only kind of compensation he should receive is treatment.

In Latin, “doctor” means “teacher.” So, a doctor is someone who should teach people how to live without getting sick! How different is this definition from our present, egoistic medical system!?

Women Where Are You?

Throughout history, women have been the force maintaining harmony in the home and family. Now it is time to use our wisdom to bring that same balance to our world, the global village

The world is be faced with many unprecedented challenges, including financial instability worldwide, a record food shortage, and an escalating trend of violence in many countries. Under these circumstances, the world’s greatest hope at this time is its women: their inherent ability to nurture and heal, to be wise and compassionate, and to take necessary action when the times call for it.

Women’s voices are being heard today more than ever before, with a record number of women in office and leadership positions. We have Hillary Clinton in the USA, Angela Merkel in Germany, Tarja Halonen in Finland, Vaira Vike-Freiberg in Latvia, Cristina Kirshner in Argentina, Pratibha Patil in India, Gloria Macapagal in the Philippines,Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in Liberia, Yulia Tymoshenko in the Ukraine, and many more. But this is not enough. We cannot leave the work to the leading women, because a true change has to begin from the bottom up (as proven by Obama’s presidential campaign).

If Not Me, Then Who?

As 2009 takes us deeper into the global financial crisis, each and every one of us should ask herself: what am I doing about the world’s situation? What contribution am I making to amend the financial crisis or the escalating violence? Why don’t I make myself heard and help lead the world to safer ground?

So, what exactly should we do? The way to a better world starts at the level of recognition, a recognition that the current situation requires us to adopt relationships of compassion and consideration for all people in our small global village. Thus, we must first make the change within, in our hearts.

Once we do this, we can begin to educate the people around us about these new attitudes. Women today have great influence over the media – we are editors, writers, TV show hosts, teachers, and radio talk show hosts, and we can promote the compassionate approach the world now needs through all these channels. And at the very least, every woman can influence her boyfriend, husband, friends and neighbors.

Some of us may feel held back because we are as confused by the present global fiasco as the next person. But ask yourself this: Who else can begin and power this spiritual transformation if not the women of the world? The global nature of our problems demonstrates that we are becoming one global family, and just like in a regular family, women have the greatest power to change things for the better.

A World in Harmony

It is time to bring our innate abilities out into the greater world – to use your strength, wisdom and understanding to help the whole world be properly arranged in the new, globalized reality. Think of it this way: how many men are capable of maintaining a successful career while smoothly running a household, taking care of their children, and naturally setting the tone for the proper functioning of the whole family?

The answer is clear. What our “global home” lacks is a woman’s touch, a woman’s influence from within. Only then will our global family regain safety and stability.

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