November 22, 2024
Archive for May, 2014
May 14, 2014 at 9:05 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
“Despite massive wealth creation, happiness has not risen since the 1950s in the US or Britain… No researcher questions these facts. So accelerated economic growth is not a goal for which we should make large sacrifices. In particular, we should not sacrifice the most important source of happiness, which is the quality of human relationships—at home, at work, and in the community.”
–Richard Layard, The Financial Times, March 11, 2009
Why Human Nature, and Not the Economy, Should be Regulated
No aspect of our lives better expresses our interconnectedness than the economy. When we are united, the economy is the first to thrive and boosts every aspect of our lives along with it. But when we are separated from each other, it is the first to collapse. Then, everything grinds to a halt along with it.
Centuries ago, when we first began to trade with each other, we began to interconnect, and globalization was born. If we knew then about the desire to receive and the desire to give, the history of humanity would be very different from the bloody march of folly it has turned out to be.
Today, it is impossible to “de-globalize” the world. We must begin to act as one united humanity, in line with nature’s principle of collaboration and self-fulfillment, or life as we know it will end. And the way to unite is to become aware of the two desires and employ both in our negotiations, especially around finances, given today’s monetary crisis.
It is not tougher regulation or buying of “toxic assets” that will help us through the present crisis. The way out is to understand that what needs to be regulated is human nature, not the economy. Our economy is only a projection of our one-track minds: receiving, receiving, and more receiving.
Today, humanity must come to realize that it is in our best interest to consider others in our plans, or else those plans will fail. Therefore, the first step in the financial bailout plan should be to share information and provide facts about the kind of world we live in, which is global and interdependent.
People should know that there are two forces running the world. The first is the desire to receive, which economists call “the profit-oriented economy,” meaning capitalism. The second force is the desire to give, which aims to increase general prosperity and well-being.
The Lazy Man’s Guide to the Dark Side of the Free Market
Simply put, in today’s financial dealings, everyone must profit or no one will profit. To be exact, the term, “everyone,” does not refer to the parties involved in a contract, but to the entire world.
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May 13, 2014 at 8:47 pm · Filed under Psalms
Psalm 139
To the choirmaster, a Psalm of David.
O Creator, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
Behold, O Creator, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
13 For you formed my inward parts.
You knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O Creator!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
19 Oh that you would slay the wicked, O Creator!
O men of blood, depart from me!
20 They speak against you with malicious intent;
your enemies take your name in vain.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Creator?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O Creator, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
This Psalm is the request, where one agrees at every second, in every state, to chase “There is none else besides Him,” to recognize that the Creator (i.e. the quality of bestowal and love) surrounds everything, and that other than the detachment inherent to the person’s perception and sensation, everything is the Creator.
However, the person perceives from within that detachment, from a broken piece of the soul, seeing through the filter of that breakage to the world.
And as the person tries to see “There is none else besides Him” at every moment, in spite of every other appearance, then it is considered that the person tries to reconnect Malchut to Zeir Anpin, awakening the cause of all causes, and as such, the person undergoes many corrections, eventually reaching a state where the person disappears, entering complete adhesion with the Creator.
This Psalm depicts the path in spiritual work: to try, at every moment, through the dressings, to reach their true cause, which is to discover everything taking place to us, in us, and around us, as being the Creator.
What is the meaning of “There is none else besides Him”? What is the soul? What does it mean that we perceive and feel through a broken piece of the soul? What does it mean to reconnect Malchut to Zeir Anpin? All these questions and more are dealt with in the Free Kabbalah Course, which provides the fundamental principles and tools by which to correctly approach the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is recommended to take the Free Kabbalah Course before approaching the Daily Kabbalah Lessons with Dr. Michael Laitman. Click the banner below to sign up…
May 13, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books, Music
Calling All Trend Setters: You Can Making Giving Fab
In order to achieve the necessary shift in our perception and lifestyle, that can help us solving the global crisis, and build a sustainable future, we have to introduce a new global education system, and change the values prevalent in society. In this change, the media has a primary role.
But as important as media is to our culture, it cannot make the required shift in spirit all by itself. To complete the shift in our thinking, we must engage actors, singers, and other public idols and celebrities in the process. Their productions are displayed not only on television, but also on the Internet, in movie theatres, and on the radio, and are vital to getting the new message across.
It is hard to predict exactly how the arts will develop once we become familiar with the giving half of reality. Because we have never tried it on a large scale, we cannot tell how things will unfold once unity and giving are in vogue. The ideas below will describe possible shifts in cinema and theatre, but the rules that apply to this art form also apply to the more traditional arts such as painting and sculpturing.
Who Else Wants Movies that Celebrate Humanity’s Full Potential?
The visual arts are the most powerful means of influence. Up to 90 percent of the information we receive on our surroundings is visual information. For this reason, a shift in our thinking must begin with what we see, even before we change what we hear.
On the surface, the plots of most movies and plays can remain pretty much the same: a fight for a just cause, a love story, or even a tragedy. But behind each plot should be a subtext that conveys a message of unity.
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May 12, 2014 at 7:42 pm · Filed under Psalms
Psalm 84
To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith.
A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.
How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
2 My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the Creator;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living Creator.
3 Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O Lord of hosts,
my King and my Creator.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house,
ever singing your praise! Selah
5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
6 As they go through the Valley of Baca
they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
7 They go from strength to strength;
each one appears before the Creator in Zion.
8 O Creator, God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah
9 Behold our shield, O Creator;
look on the face of your anointed!
10 For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my Creator
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
11 For the Creator is a sun and shield;
the Creator bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does he withhold
from those who walk uprightly.
12 O Lord of hosts,
blessed is the one who trusts in you!
There are all kinds of Psalms. This Psalm is King David’s gratitude toward everything he went through in order to reach the source of the whole path he underwent. It marks the closure of all questions, disconnections and misunderstandings, whereby then comes the outburst of praise.
Psalms are impossible to comment on. They are a vessel similar to the Light, where discernments disappear and everything is swallowed in wholeness.
Why do we say that Psalms are written in wholeness when sometimes they sound like they are written out of pain, sorrow, lacks and requests?
Sometimes they do sound very much like outbursts of sorrow, or outbursts of lacks of understanding, pain, and lacks of wholeness, for example, as David escaped Avshalom, and how he had problems with Uriah. He had a very difficult life arranged for him, because it is Malchut (Kingdom), i.e. the King of Israel, who is in constant battles.
However, everything he wrote, despite sometimes revealing very deep sorrow, so deep that we do not understand its meaning, in any case, it is written out of adhesion. Every single word in Psalms is written out of adhesion. Everything King David wrote about as prior to adhesion, i.e. what he underwent in order to discover adhesion, is him awakening the vessel, because one cannot exist without the other. Right without left is not right, and likewise, left without right is not left, and therefore, they can only complement each other in the middle line.
If you divide Psalms into all kinds of styles, you cast a flaw on them. This is because, despite them appearing different, with some appearing greater or smaller, or some relating to gratitude or to request, that is simply an incorrect view.
Each and every Psalm contains wholeness, as it is written out of perfection. In order to reach such attainment, King David needed to go through a lot of incompleteness, the same as it is for all of us.
What is adhesion? What is wholeness? Where are you in this whole picture of attaining wholeness and perfection out of a lack of that state? All these questions and more are dealt with in the Free Kabbalah Course, which provides the fundamental principles and tools by which to correctly approach the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is recommended to take the Free Kabbalah Course before approaching the Daily Kabbalah Lessons with Dr. Michael Laitman. Click the banner below to sign up…
May 12, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
Why Today Nature Is the Only Role Model for Humanity
Today humanity is gradually sinking deeper and deeper into a multi-faceted global crisis. It doesn’t seem there is antibody who has true solutions, or ideas how correct the multitude of mistakes.
The surest way to correct mistakes is to learn from those who have done things right. In this case, nature is our role model and a proven success, so she should be our teacher.
To see how we can let the desire to give into our lives, let’s look at how nature does it. We perceive the outside world by using our senses, and we believe that the picture of reality our senses provide is accurate and reliable. But is it?
How often do we walk with a friend, and the friend hears something that we miss? Well, just because we didn’t hear that sound doesn’t mean there was none. All it means is that our senses didn’t pick it up, or that we didn’t pay attention. Or maybe our friend was hallucinating!
In all three possibilities, the objective reality is the same, but our perception of it is not. In other words, we do not know what the actual reality is like, or if it even exists. All we know is what we perceive of it.
So how do we perceive? We use a process best described as “equivalence of form.” Each of our senses responds to a different type of stimulus, but all our senses work in a similar manner. When a ray of light, for instance, penetrates my pupil, the neurons in my retina create a model of the outside image. This model is then encoded and transferred to my brain, which decodes the pulses and reconstructs the image. A similar process occurs when a sound hits our eardrums or when something touches our skin.
In other words, my brain uses my senses to create a model or form equal to the outside object. But if my model is inaccurate, I will never know it and will believe that the actual object or sound is the same as the model I created in my mind.
Discover the Best Step to Take to Better Perceive Reality
The “equivalence of form” principle applies not only to our senses, but to our behavior, as well. Children, for example, learn by repeating behavior they see in their surroundings. We call this “imitation.” Eager to learn about the world they were born into, and having no language skills, children use imitation as a means to acquire skills such as sitting and standing, speech, and use of cutlery. When we speak, they watch how we move our lips. This is why parents are advised to speak clearly to children (but not loudly; they can hear better than we). By imitating us, children create the same forms (movements or sounds) as we do, and thus learn about the world they live in.
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