The following was sent to me by Maxim Matushevsky, a Bnei Baruch member from Moscow:
Do you remember your first steps as you began to study music? You sit on an uncomfortable stool with your feet barely touching the floor. Before you there is a disobedient and stiff keyboard, above it is a music book full of scribble, unintelligible signs, and notes in Italian. Next to you there is a teacher.

You try hard to understand what is encoded on this printed sheet, while almost breaking the joints of your fingers as you attempt to place them on the right keys in the right order and with the right pressure. The cacophony of your efforts fill the room. Your teacher is displeased. You consider yourself a dunce and a loser.

You hate the composer. He must be a pervert: how can one compose this let alone play it? He must have had five hands. You are angry with your teacher, your parents, yourself and this stupid instrument. Meanwhile the sun shines outside, boys play soccer and laugh. No! I will never play this! Let me go!

Days have passed. Your fingers get used to striking the right keys. You can even discern some fragments of a melody (wow!) that sounds not too bad.

Weeks have passed. You no longer look at the music sheet, your fingers carry you along the keyboard. Suddenly you catch yourself enjoying this beautiful multilayered polyphonic melody! You are proud of yourself; you experience an ocean of emotions. So that’s what the composer experienced when he created this beautiful music! What if I put an accent on this place? And in doing so you hear a new sound and new emotions arise!

This music is beautiful and infinite! You feel an affinity with the composer. You are thankful to him for helping you to experience this excitement. You are thankful to your teacher, who did not spare you and made you learn to read music. You are free and happy!

But where is the freedom? You strictly play the music following what someone composed in accordance with the strict laws of harmony. However, now you can contribute your tiny part through the performance and interpretation of the composition, without breaking its plan and integrity. You become a co-composer! It’s your instrument, it’s YOUR music, and it is composed for YOU to play it!

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While in New York, I had a talk with Neale Donald Walsch – an American writer and the author of the bestselling series entitled Conversations With God.

Each of the five books from the Conversations with God series has become a New York Times bestseller, with Book 1 remaining on the bestseller list for 2.5 years and holding its position as one of the most popular books on Amazon.com in the spirituality category.  In 2006, a movie was released based on the book.

As of today he has authored 15 books dealing with man’s spiritual evolution, with translations into 37 languages. Together with his wife, Walsch has founded Re-Creation (Conversation with God Foundation) – a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people return to themselves by following the path of inner development.

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A question I received: I understand that a spiritually developed person can feel and understand that it is necessary to preserve the balance with the universal nature, the Upper force. But at the very first stage, when one first hears this explanation, what does this balance mean for him? How does he have to alter his approach to life at the very beginning of his path?

My Answer: One cannot act before he reaches the realization of his true state! You cannot rush to act before you make a calculation based on this realization- this is actually destructive! We have had our fair share of such foolishness!

One first needs to study our world. It is a global world, where all parts are interdependent. You have to feel it! Only then can you proceed to action. Until you have reached an understanding – you should do nothing. This is similar to how one must study for a dozen years at school as a child.  Now, you must study before you are ready and able to correctly make any action.

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In the News: (from The Times Online): “Shadowy Bilderberg group meet in Greece — and here’s their address” Bilderberg illuminati hold their private conclave in the five-star Greek hotel…This year the club is going to talk about depression… Bilderberg is looking at two options,” says the Bilderberg-watcher Daniel Estulin — “either a prolonged, agonizing depression that dooms the world to decades of stagnation, decline and poverty — or an intense but shorter depression that paves the way for a new sustainable economic world order, with less sovereignty but more efficiency.”

My Comment: The anxiety and disarray of the world elite ought to bring it to the only realistic solution – the acceptance of the science of Kabbalah as the method for correcting the world. No matter how absurd it may sound, the moment we delve into this method we will discover that it was prescribed precisely for our time!

The science of Kabbalah was to be revealed to humanity only twice: in ancient Babylon and in our time, when the global interconnectedness of humankind is becoming apparent. Its revelation now is in order to give us the means of bringing ourselves into harmony with Nature.  If we don’t use it, humanity is doomed!

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During my trip to the North America, I gave an interview to a large Internet company, Big Think:

Big Think is a global online forum connecting people and ideas. It serves as a hub for the exchange of information, knowledge content, interviews with the world’s leading experts and a forum for discussion.

Shown below are links to my interview and other video clips we have published on the Big Think website:

Big Think Interview With Michael Laitman [20:11]
Michael Laitman Uses Kabbalah To Resolve Conflicts [3:05]
Michael Laitman Explains Internal Observation [1:51]
Michael Laitman Considers Kabbalistic Celebrities [1:30]

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A question I received: One who does not feel emptiness will not be able to reveal anything. The approaching blows will give people this emptiness. Is there another way?

My Answer: Of course, there is. We know that the appetite is stimulated during a meal or by watching others eat.

Why is this? First of all, you are influenced by society’s opinion. Second of all, Kabbalah explains that desire appears from within (from the Reshimot and Aviut from the Kli) or that desire (appetite) is roused in a person from outside (from the environment, the Aviut from the Light).

If we receive the desire from the Light (“the Light that reforms”), we will come to the goal by the most correct path.

Therefore, if we reveal the cause of even the smallest of blows to the world, it is by understanding their cause that we reveal the Light that comes to us from the corrected state. We then see this corrected state and how wonderful and immense it is compared to our current state. This entices us to move ahead toward the goal, and we will no longer need to be pushed ahead through suffering!

There are two paths: the path of Light and the path of suffering. This is why it is necessary to give the world the explanation of the suffering!

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The world has to reach equilibrium, and only then will it come to rest. Throughout our long history we have been forced to develop because of our growing egoism, its growth causing our dissatisfaction to the extent of suffering.

But by entering the last stage of this development, we have come to realize that we are interconnected and interdependent. Our further existence depends on our mutually beneficial coexistence, otherwise, our lives will be similar to existing within a hateful family.  And in spite of that, in the end we will still have to attain the state of good relations with each other.

Kabbalah is intended specifically to show to us how to change our mutual relations from egoistic to altruistic, not by force through blows and suffering, but voluntarily, willingly, quickly, and easily.

Thus, there is the path of suffering (egoistic) and the good path (altruistic). However, it is most likely that in our lives, we will advance along both paths, which is the middle path called the “path of the earth.”

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The following is a model of society as visualized by Oleg Yaalom, a Bnei Baruch student: After I heard the lesson where you spoke about closed and open systems, the following model came to mind:

1. Disconnected System – The “disconnected system” stage of human development is the simple life of an ancient human being who was a part of the natural world that surrounded him. For all practical purposes, egoism did not exceed the demands of the animal level of existence.

2. Transitional Stage – The disconnected system gradually transitions into the closed state. Over the course of the last 5,000 years, egoism grew, and people were less satisfied with the fulfillment they could find in nature. Instead, they began to find personal fulfillment through their use and exploitation of their neighbors.

3. Closed System – During our generation, the system has completely closed in on itself, and we are no longer able to fulfill our egoistic desires through the use of nature. Our egoism, which has reached its maximum corporeal level of development, is only satisfied through the use of each other.

4. Such a closed society is unstable and defective, as is any closed system (according to Gödel’s Theorem). In other words, such a society requires that we immediately adopt the principle of “love your neighbor as yourself.” Otherwise, like a burnt-out star, it will sink within itself and disintegrate as if into a black hole. The closed system will collapse.

However, the principle of “love your neighbor” will transform into the principle of “love the Creator,” as a result of which healthy spiritual competition will resume between people.

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In the news (from BBC): “Music ‘nurtures’ premature babies” Mounting evidence suggests that playing music to premature babies while hospitalized helps them grow and thrive.

The benefits are calmer infants and parents, as well as faster weight gain for the babies and shorter hospital stays.

A Canadian team reviewed nine studies and found music reduced pain and encouraged better oral feeding.

My comment: Music helps because it contains harmony born out of the unity between opposites. It is precisely when these opposites unite that they create harmony which corrects destructive thoughts, desires and qualities. Outwardly, this manifests as relaxation, distraction, etc. However, this quality is only contained within music with huge internal harmony such as classical music (Mozart) and not music that is built on destruction (Rock, Pop, etc).

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A question I received: Today’s school children are also taught to share and to contribute, but once they go out into the world, they come under the influence of a different set of values. What should we add to the existing educational system, in order to form a person, and not a professional?

My Answer: An ordinary modern school cannot raise a person, nor instill in him or her the correct attitude towards others. The only way to do this is with the help of the right environment (society), which we first need to create around students.

None of the schools that currently exist in the world set such a goal for themselves. Children all around the world are taught to succeed in passing formal tests, winning in competitive struggles, and stepping over others. Their compass is set to make them succeed, to acquire a profession for the greatest profit.

This used to work in the times of a competitive society. However, we now find ourselves in an integral society that functions according to the law: “the strongest does not prevail (above others); rather, the one who is united with the rest wins (together with all).” Therefore, there is a need to form a different kind of man: not everyone’s adversary, but everyone’s friend.

Forming such a person is against our egoistic nature. Therefore, what is needed is a special method (the Science of Kabbalah) and the means (the Correcting Force). Otherwise, people will once again pervert the idea of unity and start calling for the “Proletarians of all countries, unite!”; they will once again start building socialism or kibbutzim. Our egoism cannot come up with anything better than that.

Therefore, the proper upbringing is society’s number one problem. If it is not resolved,  society will not be able to reform itself as Nature demands. Such reform can only be achieved by applying Kabbalistic principles.

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