In the News: (from psyfactor.org): “A modern man lives in the era when, having everything, he feels miserable.

“According to scientists, the paradox of misery lies in the fact that people now do not lack goods.

“Humankind has long sought to get rid of any deprivation and then found that without restrictions, there will be no desire. As a consequence, man will feel unhappy.

“’Young people who suffer from psychological disorders come to see psychoanalysts. They are embarrassed that they have everything they want. What they lack is shortage,’ said Claude Schauder, psychologist and psychoanalyst, The University of Strasbourg.

“According to Serge Lesourd, head of Psychology Department at The University of Strasbourg, in our modern society, where people can have everything they want, they miss namely the things that have no value, for instance love.

“’Sigmund Freud said that nothing can be so harsh as a series of cloudless days. Happiness is the difference between the state when we were unhappy and the state when we are happy. And achieving personal happiness is the goal of every human life,’ emphasized Lesourd.”

My Comment: Since happiness can be felt only in the process of fulfilling the desire, one should feel a desire (lack) and its fulfilment constantly, which is impossible in our world. To reach this state, it is necessary to always combine within oneself two qualities: the desire and fulfillment. This is what Kabbalah, the science of fulfillment, teaches.
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Opinion (Dmitry Voblikov, financial analyst, Forex Club, from finmarket.ru): “Unexpectedly for many, the debt crisis has gone beyond the eurozone and begun to infect neighboring countries. New regions are already in danger. This is not surprising because the decision to localize the infection in Greece was not taken on time.

“Now Hungary, which is not even a member of the eurozone, officially seeks credit from the European Commission and the IMF. Investors are concerned about the increased risks associated with the European debt crisis and slow economic growth in Hungary. Thus, the spreading of financial contagion continues, and given the risk of recession in the EU, the extent of infection can be significant.”

My Comment: Still, there is no understanding of the scope of global changes in all spheres of human life and activity. After becoming aware of the global financial crisis, we will begin to recognize it in all areas of life, and the cure for it is only in our unity, universal mutual guarantee, in similarity to the nature of the crisis.
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Writings of Rabash “Love of Friends”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “The Brightness of the Firmament,” Item 9, Lesson 5
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 8, Item 1 + Item 8, Lesson 1
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,”  “Two Paths: A Path of Pain and A Path of Torah,” Lesson 3
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In order to prepare for the convention in the best possible way, it is necessary to go over the talks we had at the convention in the Arava desert. Clearly, we will still have interesting talks and events, where we will continue to develop our common aspiration towards one single desire to bestow, which consists of a multitude of little individual aspirations and mutual help. A person really needs to watch everything attentively and feel it well.

It is recommended to become acquainted with the songs, the program of the convention, and the materials we will study ahead of time. Simply read the specified materials, watch clips, and join the common preparation. If you are coming with an entire group, you can work on these elements of unity together.
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From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/20/2011

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Question: What actions at the convention will help focus on the goal in the best possible way?

Answer: When people are internally aspiring to unity, they almost don’t express it on the outside. They can stand, hug, sing, do something together, but they don’t express on the outside what they feel inside. The inner work is the most intense one.

Therefore, you have to decide for yourself where it is better for you to be, with whom, and how. Certainly, you should try to be together with the mass, both with your body and soul. However, if this is an obstacle for you, if it’s hard because of your age or health, you can stand aside and not participate physically in the activities. This is not so important. What is important is that all the time you are trying to feel the highest point of unity with others and within it, the upper force that exists and becomes manifested in this point.
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From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/20/2011

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Question: While reading The Zohar, is there a time when we must apply our own effort and a time when The Zohar gives us a push by itself?

Answer: First and foremost you must understand what you are facing. If you watch a film that’s 30 or 40 years old, you’ll notice how naive people were, how they acted and put the film together. But it was their reality, and they thought they were portraying their lives in all seriousness. The actors were great. It’s just that the people were different. If you looked at people 200 to 300 years ago, you would think of them as even more simple and primitive.

What would you discover looking at all the nations, at the world 2000 years ago? People practically lived in the “trees,” like true barbarians, even in Europe in the Middle Ages.

But what if you took a look at the people who wrote books like The Zohar 2000 years ago? This is a science, a philosophy about the perception of reality. If such a person sat among us today, you would feel insignificant next to him. The concept of time doesn’t apply here. You are being given the opportunity to come into contact with something that exists beyond our world, with a system that governs all of reality.

This governing system, these forces, and the souls that wrote these books should be the ones you direct your plea to and scream out like a small child, wishing to grow with their help, in their arms! It doesn’t matter how much you understand and what state you’re in because you’re not the one in control of it. However, from your given state try to understand where you are, whose arms you are in and ask for help.

Question: What should be the plea?

Answer: I don’t know. You have to sense the need. “I don’t lack anything. Please take me into your arms, I’m sleepy.” This is also a plea: to be held in their arms like a child who feels warm and secure in his mother’s arms. He senses her, smells her breast milk, and sleeps peacefully. Wouldn’t you want to feel like that? So go ahead and reveal at least this.

Or perhaps based on that sensation of being held in their arms, you already desire something more scrutinized and are capable of utilizing their help. After all, an adult retains all of his previous connection with his mother. The infant-mother connection doesn’t vanish, but only grows, becoming more conscious.

The greatness of the upper one determines my ability to utilize His help and to exalt Him in my eyes, thereby obligating Him to ascend higher. Thus I make the path of the upper one equal to Infinity and am able to receive from Him as if from Infinity. However, if I disregard the upper one, what can I possibly receive from Him?

Hence everything lies within my attitude towards my current degree. If I elevate the upper one above myself, I’m able to receive and attain from Him. The higher I elevate the upper one, to the highest possible degree I can only imagine, the more I can attain Him. If I put myself above the upper one, then what can I possibly receive from someone who’s lower than me?
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/2011, The Zohar

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A person is an empty “cup,” which constantly wants to be filled. If desire in a person disappears, it’s like he is dying, dimming down. And it’s on the contrary, when his desires are burning, and the greater and higher the desires are, the higher and greater the person is.

That is, we evaluate a person according to his desires: their quantity, strength, and quality. It’s good when a person has a lot of good and strong desires.

Then what is the problem? As a matter of fact, we are nothing but one desire: the desire to receive fulfilment and sense pleasure. From what? It depends on our upbringing. Some people enjoy when they eat snails and worms; others when they eat cakes and ice cream; still others enjoy playing badminton or pool, while some like flying or jumping off a cliff, and so on. Everyone enjoys in a different way.

We have to direct a person to fulfillments that are beneficial for the society. If at the same time it makes him healthier, this fulfillment also brings social benefit, both for him and the society. We need to encourage and trigger these kind of desires in a person.

In the integral society a person will receive pleasure from participating in social work, in public life, in the education of the young generation, and in good leisure. Everything depends on how we educate a person.
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From a TV Program “The Integral World” 10/30/2011

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A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah
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It is impossible to achieve social justice without mutual guarantee. What should social justice be like? There are dozens of various methods and plans, which are totally incomparable to each other. None of them have the answer to this question because it is impossible to achieve justice without seeing everyone as one family.

You have to reach an inner state when everyone is equal in your eyes, when you sit at a round table with everyone, like in a family, discuss common problems, and feel that everyone is equally close to you. Only then can you distribute the common “pie” and solve problems in regards to each and everyone and to all the people, only together with them, consulting with the others and taking all their opinions into consideration because they are dear to you. Only then can you achieve social justice. It is impossible any other way! This is why all nice slogans, just like in the Soviet Union, are doomed to fail.

Today we need to address everyone, gradually prepare the population, and explain that a strike is not the right method today as the old ways no longer work.

You want social justice? No problem, you will have justice if you become equal. How can equality be achieved? You, the poor, do you want that there would be no rich people? Let us do this through mutual guarantee. You, the rich, do you see that you can no longer control anything? But you can manage and enjoy managing, but this will not come from money in the form of zeroes in your bank account, which you do not need. Rather, the pleasure will come from the feeling of gratitude for your management.

Big industrialists and financiers, they are great people. They have achieved everything through hard work, and they know how to control huge systems. Let them do what they know to do, only give them a different pleasure. Today they are only experiencing suffering because their millions are “escaping” them and they are losing power. Give them something else: honor, respect, approval, and admiration for doing things for the sake of society, and they will cooperate.

In other words, we must have an approach for all layers of society.
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From a TV Program “The Integral World” 10/30/2011

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