Laitman.com » Health

Fog Over London

admin.bb — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:39:17 +0000

In the News (from EurekAlert): “Researchers at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Oxford University estimated that soaring stress brought on by job losses could prompt a 2.4% rise in suicide rates in people under-64 years of age, a 2.7% rise in heart attack deaths in men between 30 and 44 years, and a 2.4% rise in homicides rates, corresponding to thousands of deaths in European Union countries, such as the UK…..

“The report also suggests that in poor countries, where investments in active labour market programmes are much lower or virtually non-existent, the death toll brought on by the financial meltdown would be much worse….

“The study, entitled The public health effect of economic crisis and alternative government policy responses in Europe: an empirical analysis was written in the wake of concerns that health might suffer as a result of the financial crisis….

“’Financial crisis causes hardship for many ordinary people, but it does not have to cost them their lives,’ social epidemiologist David Stuckler, who led the research said.”

Comment: Educating people toward a new lifestyle, rational consumption, and necessary production will lead to a healthier population. Otherwise, while we reach the same results against our will, forced by nature, through recessions and bankruptcies, the number of deaths will increase.
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Education Can Fix The Addicted Brain

admin_bb — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:59:15 +0000

Report (from the Science Magazine, University of Cambridge): “Addiction to drugs is a major contemporary public health issue, characterized by maladaptive behavior to obtain and consume an increasing amount of drugs at the expense of the individual’s health and social and personal life. We discovered abnormalities in fronto-striatal brain systems implicated in self-control in both stimulant-dependent individuals and their biological siblings who have no history of chronic drug abuse; these findings support the idea of an underlying neurocognitive endophenotype for stimulant drug addiction.”

My Comment: Everything depends on upbringing, even the development of Man, meaning Adam (from the word “similar” to the Creator) from Homo Sapiens, or rather Homo Erectus. It’s because upbringing summons an external influence. But education through Kabbalistic sources attracts the influence of the upper Light that changes the program of thinking and connection.
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A 3D Edible Printer

admin_bb — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:23:48 +0000

In the News (From CNN Money): “A 3D food printer sounds like something out of Star Trek, but it’s not out of this world. It’s up and running at the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan — and in five years, it could be in your home.

“It doesn’t look like a traditional printer; it’s more like an industrial fabrication machine. Users load up the printer’s syringes with raw food — anything with a liquid consistency, like soft chocolate, will work. The ingredient-filled syringes will then ‘print’ icing on a cupcake. Or it’ll print something more novel (i.e., terrifying) — like domes of turkey on a cutting board.

“[Jeff] Lipton [a Cornell grad student working on the project] thinks food printing will be ‘the killer app’ of 3D printing. Just like video games fueled demand for personal computers 30 years ago, he thinks the lure of feeding Grandma’s cookie recipe into a printer will help personal fabricators expand beyond the geek crowd.

“‘It’s really going to be the next phase of the digital revolution,’ he says.

‘”One of the main things I hope this machine will let us do is create new textures that we couldn’t get otherwise,’ … says [David Arnold, director of culinary technology at the French Culinary Institute]. ‘This is the first time I’ve really seen this happen.’

‘”This would be a slam dunk for cookies at holiday time,’ he says. ‘Anything that requires a high level of precision that people don’t usually have with their hands, in terms of making icing or decorations, this thing can perform amazingly well.’”

Objection (Irina Yermakova, an international expert on ecological and food safety): “Absolute pluses include: It’s economically sound, convenient, fast, and humane in regards to animals; the entire mankind can be fed.

But could such mass lead to serious diseases, human deaths, and infertility? We are observing the food involution: from natural products to chemistry. The first step is already done—the use of GMO (genetically modified organism). Second step is completely synthetic food out of a printer since the food mass used in a food composer is completely chemical.

The gastrointestinal tract converts food into chemical elements that the body needs. Here we are observing a reverse process: The food printer uses chemical elements to create a final product, while the stomach separates the product into its composites.

How will the human body react to this unusual way of eating? What might be the consequences? It is clear that a mass introduction of such technology must be preceded by lengthy, precise experiments.

Today bioengineers assert that no genetically modified products will not leave the laboratory until they are one hundred percent certain of its safety and have no valid scientific data regarding these products being harmful.

The results of multiple studies performed by scientists from different countries around the world, where they tested on animals the effect of the most widely spread genetically modifies cultures, such as corn, soy, potatoes, tomatoes, and peas, show that the tested animals had the pathology of inner organs, tumors, infertility, and allergies. Many countries report the death of livestock that was fed modified fodder.

Experiments have proved that foreign genetic additions easily penetrate the cells of various human and animal organs. It became clear that foreign genes not only penetrate cells and organs, but also get passed on to the newer generations.

Genes can change during the process of implantation, and they can also have a negative influence on the genome of the person’s organism. Activity of the implanted genes can lead to the development of unknown toxic proteins, which cause toxicosis or allergies in people and animals.

Thirty percent of scientists have reported that they were forced to change the results of their studies at the request of their sponsors. Seventeen percent have agreed to misrepresent their data to show results preferred by their their clients. Ten percent have reported that they were requested to do this under the threat of termination of further contracts. Three percent have reported that they were forced to make changes, which made it impossible to openly publish the findings.

It is impossible to stop progress, the development of biotechnology, but it is necessary to have to evaluate of the impact of transgenic organisms on people and animals objectively. This is not happening. I am afraid that the same might happen with the food printer. Those directly interested in quickly implementing the printer in food manufacturing will be the ones to evaluate it. This is a huge commercial project. We can doom ourselves to extinction by striving to simplify and improve our lives.
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Don’t Wallow In Time

admin.bb — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 08:25:19 +0000

Hastening time, meaning hastening our actions regarding the “past,” “present” and “future,” gives us the feeling of life, the force of vitality. The more we stop and do not exert ourselves in the work on the part of the created being, there is more pressure put on us by the Creator’s work. This is similar to the way a hybrid car is built: if the battery is empty, the engine runs on fuel.

So we have to organize an environment for ourselves that will spur us to advance by our powers and not to wallow in time, which passes leaving no traces, as we lie to ourselves that everything is fine. If a person is not under pressure put on him by the environment and teacher, if he doesn’t feel that he lacks spiritual life, he cannot advance.

This pressure can be felt as good or bad. But we must clarify it for ourselves; we need to gladly accept any pressure that leads to clarification, connection, and more efficient work, and not be managed by pleasant or unpleasant feelings in our egoism.

If we want to advance, be a little more mature, and not remain tiny babies, we need to wake up. The awakening toward the goal isn’t perceived as pleasant, and we should accept this in faith above reason.

Unfortunately we are not kids who have a natural desire to grow, who passionately work building things with blocks, and who do not give up when everything falls down and is destroyed. We have to receive the same force that pushes a child to develop: We obtain it from the environment and studying.

If I feel that I lack this power, I have to come to the lesson with the desire, with the negative charge, with the feeling of everything I didn’t manage to do, and to ask for strength. If you don’t feel enough pressure on you to connect and to advance or to make the demand for this to the teacher and the group, you have a reason to come to the lesson. You have to come with the right demand, with a full list of everything you didn’t manage to do yesterday, and now you come with a broken heart demanding the powers for correction.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/12, Shamati #35

An Engineered Doomsday

admin_bb — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:59:06 +0000

In the News (from The New York Times): “Scientists have long worried that an influenza virus that has ravaged poultry and wild birds in Asia might evolve to pose a threat to humans. Now scientists financed by the National Institutes of Health have shown in a laboratory how that could happen. In the process they created a virus that could kill tens or hundreds of millions of people if it escaped confinement or was stolen by terrorists.

“We nearly always champion unfettered scientific research and open publication of the results. In this case it looks like the research should never have been undertaken because the potential harm is so catastrophic and the potential benefits from studying the virus so speculative.

“Unless the scientific community and health officials can provide more persuasive justifications than they have so far, the new virus, which is in the Netherlands, ought to be destroyed. Barring that, it should be put in a few government-controlled laboratories with the highest containment rating, known as biosafety level 4.

“In the future, it is imperative that any such experiments be rigorously analyzed for potential dangers — preferably through an international review mechanism, but also by governmental funding agencies — before they are undertaken, not after the fact as is happening in this case.

“The most frightening research was done by scientists at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, who sought to discover how likely it is that the ‘bird flu’ virus, designated A(H5N1), might mutate from a form that seldom infects or spreads among humans into a form highly transmissible by coughing or sneezing.

“Working with ferrets, the animal that is most like humans in responding to influenza, the researchers found that a mere five genetic mutations allowed the virus to spread through the air from one ferret to another while maintaining its lethality.

“The Erasmus team believes that more than 100 laboratories and perhaps 1,000 scientists around the world need to know the precise mutations to look for. That would spread the information far too widely. It should suffice to have a few of the most sophisticated laboratories do the analyses.”

My Comment: If we do not immediately start correcting our nature, it will certainly destroy us. For the time being, people react on this kind of news with irony….
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The Key To Healthy People, Family, And Society

admin_bb — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:29:50 +0000

Question: Suppose we organize a course on integral education for adults. What results can they get upon completing the course?

Answer: We should understand that from now on, nature offers us only two paths of development leading to one goal. The ultimate goal of nature is complete unity of all its parts, including humanity as a part of general nature.

We can reach this state of harmony, equilibrium, and homeostasis in two ways. One of them is the path of suffering, the realization of this necessity in spite of our desires and inner impulses. This path is very difficult, complex, and forced.

In principle, nature developed us in this way all the time. This is the process of evolution, when we are pushed from behind and thus look for comfort. It turns out that we seek a better life by being pushed from behind, make plenty of mistakes, but eventually develop. This is how man, small societies, as well as humanity as a whole developed in the past.

But there is a possibility of development with dignity, when a person is aware beforehand that all nature is moving towards integrality. Now, the first signs of this future integrality become apparent, obliging us to exist in it as part of society, nature, and the universe.

Nature strives for balance because it is the key to its health, safety, and sustainability both in every part of it (for example, in our body) and the whole system.

Let us take this future state as a common goal of all humanity and begin to approach it, at least in different regions of the world, through various international organizations, beliefs, and, most importantly, through education. Education shouldn’t be obtrusive; we should simply tell people about the laws of nature, the laws of the development of human society: behavior, education, family relationships, and child upbringing. We teach people how to live on a fairly modest salary, allowance, or scholarship.

But all this must be taught to people. They do not know how to raise children and how to get along with each other. We see that humanity teaches something completely different: It does not teach or educate its offspring, the future generation, so that it lives well.

We do not think about how to make people happy. We push them into the abyss of capitalist competition, in which they are willing “to eat each other” gladly. But there are no winners in this contest, and in the end, we condemn them to constant stress and problems. As a result, no one sees happiness.

It is essential that psychologists, sociologists, parents, teachers, and people who already understand the problem or can understand it come to a more or less correct conclusion, and with the help of scientists, the public, and the Internet (today it is a considerable force) will be able to show all humanity that this integral education is the key to the healthy society, man, and family. We simply will not survive without it; we will advance with huge losses. Of course, we will achieve the same goal, but it will be a terrible path.
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Talk on Integral Education 12/11/11

Questions About Pornography And Health Concerns

admin_bb — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:16:06 +0000

Question: Can a Kabbalist like to watch pornography (gay and straight) if he finds it beautiful to watch people having pleasure, or is it something I should stop doing in order to live a spiritual life and be connected to the Light?

Answer: This will pass by itself, to the degree of feeling the importance of the goal.

Question: I have had health challenges for the last four years, and I’m only 28 years old. Physically I do everything as best as possible in terms of diet and exercise, and I still find myself worse off than people who mistreat their bodies with bad diet and drugs.

Why does this happen to a person who physically looks after themselves when other people who mistreat their bodies don’t go through the same health challenges? What should a person, who does everything to stay healthy and still suffers, do?

Answer: Possibly, you have to change your place of residence, job, and environment.
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Psychologists: Why People Are Unhappy

admin_bb — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:27:12 +0000

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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Gentlemen, Let’s Be Well!

admin_bb — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 09:27:25 +0000

The new society that exists in balance with the laws of nature will not face any everyday problems. We will reach a state where people will be physically healthy because physical problems are the consequence of our opposition to nature.

We do not understand what it is to live a proper and good life. Phobias and fears are feelings that keep us from doing certain harmful deeds and stimulate a corresponding social behavior. However, in an integrated system, all social phobias disappear.

The system of mutual, integrated inner dependence operates the same way as the system of our organism, when all its parts work in unison. Each part does what it needs to do and supports the common organism. This way, it remains healthy. The same applies to society. A healthy society where everyone has his place seems to shine its inner strength on everyone and maintains us in a healthy state.

Health is the balance of all inner parameters of a human organism, such as blood pressure, sugar level, and so forth. When we come into balance with all of nature, we restore the balance in us.

All of nature is based only on balance. Any law is a law of balance. Any formulas that we find basically become one formula: our inner balance with nature, when we really enter it like an integral part.

Animals existing in normal conditions do not get sick. They only suffer and fall ill because we introduce abnormalities into nature and deviate from it.

All problems only derive from man because he is the highest degree of development after the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature. The level of “man” affects all the lower levels, and this is why we are the source of problems for the entire world. The extent to which we will aspire toward integration will determine the condition of the rest of the world.
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From a TV Program “The Integral World” 10/30/2011

Stress Is As Contagious As A Cold

admin_bb — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:03:39 +0000

In the News (from The Daily Mail): “Professor Elaine Hatfield, a psychologist from the University of Hawaii, discovered that stress can be as contagious as a cold, and that ‘passive’ or second-hand stress and anxiety can quickly spread around the workplace.

“‘People seem to be capable of mimicking others’ facial, vocal, and postural expressions with stunning rapidity,’ Hatfield said.

“‘As a consequence, they are able to feel themselves into those other emotional lives to a surprising extent.’

“So while men and tougher types might be resistant to workplace stress, more it is notably women who suffer.

“Women are more at risk because they tend to be more in tune to other people’s feelings, Prof. Hatfield adds.

“With stress a bigger issue than ever in the workplace – the UK’s Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development recently dubbed it ‘the Black Death of the 21st Century – there is a very real risk of ‘second-hand’ or ‘passive’ stress becoming a potential danger to Britain’s workers.”

My Comment: As integrality and interdependence of our world becomes more apparent, our mutual influence on each other will manifest more and more, up to the common mood, health, luck, and so on.
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The Information Connection Of All Nature

admin_bb — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:31:36 +0000

In the News (Chen-Yu Zhang’s group at Nanjing university, China, from gazeta.ru): “Scientists have discovered that plants and mammals exchange their genetic codes. With food, we consume not only nutrients but also information…

“The detection of plant miRNAs in human tissues surprised biologists. After all, alien plant genes taken with food must be broken down during digestion, metabolism, and molecular decomposition in our internal tissues and fluids, which are under control of the human DNA.

“As it turned out, ‘plant’ genes can reprogram certain human genes, change their function, and thus regulate the physiology of the person who consumed them.

“The formula ‘you are what you eat’ makes sense not only in metabolism, but also in the exchange of genetic codes. Food, it turns out, is the chain of communication between all parts of nature.”

My Comment: There is nothing astonishing in such discoveries. We initially consider nature as a single whole divided into parts and levels only in our imagination.

Likewise, there are no physics, chemistry, biology, mineralogy, and so on in nature, but only one nature, and only our limited abilities to study it in its entirety, as it is, as a single whole, compels us to divide it into parts we can analyze.

But gradually, we come to realize its full picture, and that is one of the examples: Everything is interconnected at the level of transmitting genetic information between the levels of nature (as we conventionally divide it).
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Nutrition Situation In The US

admin_bb — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:32:07 +0000

Statistics (from The American Dream): “A new Sesame Street character that is poverty-stricken and hungry is not the only unusual sign that things have changed in America.

“-Things are so bad in America that now Hallmark is actually offering a 6 card line of ‘job loss’ greeting cards.

“-Things are so bad in America that now gangster rappers are actually making rap videos about using food stamps.

“-Things are so bad in America that the number of Americans that are submitting applications for temporary work visas in Canada has approximately doubled since 2008.

“-Things are so bad in America that thieves are now stealing air conditioners, drain covers, hair extensions and even embalming fluid.’

“But things are especially bad for children.

“The following are some jaw-dropping statistics about how children are faring in our declining economy….

“The poverty rate for children living in the United States increased to 22% in 2010. That means that tonight more than one out of every five U.S. children is living in poverty.

“Right now, one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

“There are 314 counties in the United States where at least 30% of the children are facing food insecurity.

“In Washington D.C., the ‘child food insecurity rate’ is 32.3%.

“More than 20 million U.S. children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.

“Approximately one-third of the entire population of Alabama is now on food stamps.

“The number of Americans that are going to food pantries and soup kitchens has increased by 46% since 2006.

“It is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps at some point in their lives before they reach the age of 18.

“Last year, the number of Americans living in poverty increased by an all-time record 2.6 million.

“It is estimated that up to half a million children may currently be homeless in the United States.

“More than 45 million Americans are now on food stamps. The number of Americans on food stamps has increased 74% since 2007.

“Sometimes it is hard to believe that this is still the United States of America.

“Aren’t we supposed to be the most prosperous nation on the planet? Sadly, it looks like things are starting to take a turn for the worse once again. U.S. employers announced 212 percent more job cuts this September than they did last September.

“America is changing, and not for the better.

“Unless fundamental changes are made, our economy is going to continue to deteriorate and a lot more people are going to suffer.”
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Mental Health Problems Soar For Unemployed

admin_bb — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 13:00:28 +0000

In the News (from HealthDay News): “Americans who were jobless for longer than 25 weeks in the past year were three times more likely than those who were continuously employed to suffer mental health issues for the first time, a new study finds.

“’On the other hand, we found that people exposed to long-term unemployment were three times as likely as employed people over the past year to be exposed to their first bout of psychological distress in a clinically defined way,’ Goldsmith [an economics professor at Washington and Lee University] said.

“Being jobless also has a greater psychological impact on people with more than a high school education than on those with less education, the researchers found.

“Depression and general anxiety are the two primary causes of poor mental health related to long-term unemployment, the study found.

“The study also found that the psychological impact of unemployment tends to be greater among people in minority groups and those with higher levels of education.

“‘People with a lot of education tend to believe that they have control over events in their lives and are self-blamers. That is really damaging to emotional well-being,’ said Goldsmith.”

My Comment: Unemployment is inevitable as we produce too much unnecessary stuff, deplete natural resources, and pollute the planet. We have to accept the fact that we must feed, clothe, and equip ourselves with the necessary facilities, and not more. The freed time has to be dedicated to the studies of the global world, new integral society, and the way to reaching mutual guarantee. This will enable us to achieve balance with the surrounding nature and survive in a threatening ecological situation.
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The Crisis Affects Health Of The Nation

admin_bb — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:01:26 +0000

In the News (from Latin Daily Financial News): “According to a report published in The Lancet, in Greece there are indicators that suggest that access to health services of the Greeks has worsened, especially in vulnerable groups. But it has also increased the number of people who believe that their health is ‘bad’. The reasons, yet to be analyzed, may be in budget cuts, among others.

“Another alarming statistic is the increase in the number of suicides, 17% in 2009 compared to 2007, and unofficial data raise the increase to 25% from 2009 to 2010. Other data from the Greek Ministry of Health talks about an increase of 40% in the first half of 2011, compared to the same period in 2010.

“There has also been an increase in the number of HIV infections in late 2010. Recent data suggest that new HIV infections will rise by 52% in 2011 (922 new cases compared to 605 in 2010). Half of these cases is attributable to infection among users of intravenous drugs, although there has been an increase in prostitution and the number of women with HIV. According to the Greek Observatory on Drugs, the prevalence of heroin use has increased by 20% in 2009.”
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Love: A Habit And Impulse Disorder?

admin_bb — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:43:37 +0000

Report (World Health Organization, Classification of Mental and Behavioral Disorders): In the report, love seems to fall under the category of “F63 Habit and impulse disorders” defined as follows: “This category includes certain behavioral disorders that are not classifiable under other rubrics. They are characterized by repeated acts that have no clear rational motivation and that generally harm the patient’s own interests and those of other people. The patient reports that the behavior is associated with impulses to action that cannot be controlled.

The causes of these conditions are not understood; the disorders are grouped together because of broad descriptive similarities, not because they are known to share any other important features.”

My Comment: There is no love, but only a desire to enjoy the other, and if it suppresses other desires, it is a real mental disorder. Love is not when you want to enjoy someone, but when you desire to please him or her, without any connection to you.

In this case, you have to first free yourself completely from thoughts about yourself, feel the desires of the other objectively, and fill them absolutely selflessly, that is, without any result for yourself. The test of a genuine feeling of selfless love is that you completely distance yourself from the fulfillment of another person and grant it to a stranger, so much so that nobody even knows about you.
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Nearly Forty Percent Of Europeans Suffer From Mental Illnesses

admin_bb — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 12:00:24 +0000

In the News (from cbc.ca): “About 38 per cent of Europeans, or 165 million people, have some type of mental illness and that most are going untreated, a new study estimates.

“The experts surveyed more than 90 different problems, from attention deficit disorders in children to dementia in Alzheimer’s patients. Rates of mental disorders didn’t appear to be rising, compared to a similar study in 2005.

“The most common problems included anxiety disorders, insomnia, depression, alcohol and drug dependence, and dementia. Experts estimated only one-third of people receive treatment.

“The study was published Tuesday by the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology.”
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Friends Are Healthy

admin_bb — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 18:16:40 +0000

Report (From time.com): “A healthy social life may be as good for your long-term health as avoiding cigarettes, according to a massive research review released Tuesday by the journal PLoS Medicine.

“Researchers at Brigham Young University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill … found that those with poor social connections had on average 50% higher odds of death in the study’s follow-up period (an average of 7.5 years) than people with more robust social ties.

“That boost in longevity is about as large as the mortality difference observed between smokers and nonsmokers, the study’s authors say. And it’s larger than differences in the risk of death associated with many other well-known lifestyle factors, including lack of exercise and obesity.”

My Comment: This is just one of the egoistic aspects of the benefit of a connection with others, while the real gain is found above the body, on the spiritual plane, in the attainment of the feeling of eternal life, here and now.
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Health, Not Wealth, Makes Us Happy

admin_bb — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 14:24:54 +0000

In the News (from The Independent): The Office of National Statistics (ONS) of Britain attempted to “quantify a phenomenon that has until now been the preserve of poets and songwriters rather than statisticians….a happiness (or more accurately a wellbeing) index….

“All ages …seem to agree that, fleeting pleasures aside, there is a holy trinity when it comes to how positive we feel about ourselves and where we live: good health, functioning relationships and a satisfying job.”

My comment: For all the people in the world happiness comes down to satisfying the following:

Three bodily desires rooted in the “animate” body (food, sex, and family (friends));
Three “social” desires, arising under the influence of society (wealth, power or fame, and knowledge).

Surveys in each country can identify how its citizens view happiness because everybody has the above mentioned six desires. But in each individual, they are expressed in a particular proportion, while in every nation, in a proportion specific for a given nation.

There is another kind of people who, beside these six desires, have a higher desire to reveal the meaning of life—its root, the Creator. Satisfying all other desires interests them only to the extent necessary for their existence.
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A Splinter In The Universe Or A Beloved Child?

bb_admin — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 08:44:53 +0000

Baal HaSulam, “General Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”: …as corporeal things are separated from one another by an axe and a hammer, the spirituals are separated from one another by the disparity of form between them. And when the disparity of form increases to the point of oppositeness, from one extreme to the other, complete separation is created between them.

From the perspective of the Creator, who created the will to enjoy, there is no opposition between this desire and the desire of bestowal. It’s like a baby who receives from a mother—there is no division between them. They are inseparably connected and enjoy one another.

We see how in nature, a foreign organism consisting of someone else’s flesh receives the opportunity to grow inside the mother’s body and is not perceived by her as foreign! How is this phenomenon, a fetus inside a mother’s womb, even possible considering that when we get a tiny splinter, the body immediately begins to reject the alien object? An infection immediately forms around it and the body tries to push it out and separate it.

It’s known how during an organ transplant it is very difficult to overcome this barrier, the body’s incompatibility with and rejection of an alien body. But here the opposite happens: One body grows inside of the other, and the big body is always taking care of the small body, doing everything only for its benefit!

This is an example of the will to enjoy (the fetus) and the will to bestow (the mother) not being in conflict with one another. And the same thing happens in relation to the Creator, who created the will to enjoy. This desire does not contradict or oppose bestowal.

However, if the goal is to bring this will to enjoy to the form of bestowal, then they do become opposite to one another according to their intentions. In the initial state there is a bestowing desire and a receiving one: the Creator and the creation. But there is no discrepancy between them and they are united together. But then, creation develops and acquires an egoistic intention, and now according to their intentions, they become opposite: The intention of bestowal is opposite to the intention for oneself from beginning to the end, from zero until infinity.

What we have to correct is the egoistic intention and not the desire! The desire remains in us. We always keep the will to enjoy. But the intention has to be “for the sake of bestowal.”

However, we usually get confused about this, thinking that we have to fight with our desires. Religions and different spiritual practices try to destroy the desire or decrease it. But Kabbalah says the opposite: “Increase your desire and the intention of bestowal together with it!” Then you will be able to bestow more with your actions.
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/11, “General Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

Pharaoh’s Troubles

bb_admin — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 08:12:43 +0000

Question: When a person tries to come out of Egypt, meaning self-love, he receives blows which he can overcome only by asking the Creator for help. But besides that there is also the material, earthly egoism which receives blows at its level, such as problems with one’s family, health, income, and so on. How should we relate to these problems?

Answer: No matter what kind of problem emerges in my life, first and foremost I must see it as a disturbance that came from the Creator. Even if I am in pain, I must still rise above that disturbance through faith above reason. Despite it all, I know that I have to make calculations above the disturbance and not under its weight. I must stay in touch with its “sender,” the Creator.

As for responsible actions, in the realm of this world I have to resolve all the problems by the commonly accepted methods. When it comes to the bank, work, family, and health, I have to take care of everything just like any person in our world.

Thus, you build up a two-sided attitude to the problems:

- First of all, they come from the Creator and you are dealing only with Him. You want to have these disturbances because they give you the opportunity to rise above knowledge and stay in touch with the Creator. Then you are correctly treating the disturbances and you even begin to love and respect them. After all, no matter how much they bother you, no matter how much salt they put on your wounds, and no matter how nerve-wracking they are, this is exactly what helps you rise above them.

- Secondly, you resolve the incoming problems the way it’s customary in the material world.

Both of these dimensions must be present in your attitude. You attribute the problems to the Creator, and at the same time you want to work with them. We do not throw Pharaoh out of our lives, but we enjoy his troubles. After all, only through them can we reject him and separate from him, and thus ascend higher and higher.

Pharaoh is my most precious flesh, my core, my most sensitive point, my child, the most important and finest string inside of me.

Question: But Pharaoh resists the unity of friends. What do the material troubles have to do with it?

Answer: They also distract you from the inner work. It’s not accidental that so many Kabbalists experienced material problems. The Creator deliberately caused them to be sick and despised by the people around them. It was in order to give them a place where they could overcome.

At the end of the day, all of this is a result of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. The desire gradually becomes revealed inside of you and in conformity to it you experience various problems, both in others and in yourself.

Question: Do I have to ask for help in these cases? After all, the Creator helps us in only one respect—unification.

Answer: That’s right, and the problems obstruct you from doing this. When you are sick, it’s difficult for you to focus on love for friends. Most likely, you forget all about it. And that means you have to ask for help. There is none else besides Him. Everything comes from the Creator, but it happens through different channels.

You have to attain the goal, but your body, your “little donkey” is sick and cannot carry you. So what should you do? Leave him to die? But you need him on the path.

Why do you perceive this world separately from the spiritual work? Even small disturbances can be helpful if you work with them correctly. No matter what happens to us, it’s important to remember that this comes from a single Source, until we really come to feel that we are in spiritual exile.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/11, Shamati

The Cure For Depression Is A Connection With Other People

bb_admin — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:32:18 +0000

The “Globes” newspaper has published a comprehensive article about the “happiness industry,” which is making us more and more unhappy. The rate of depression in the West is constantly on the rise, while the average age of its victims is decreasing. According to data from the World Health Organization, by 2020 depression will be the second cause of disability and death in the world, surpassed only by cardiovascular diseases.

The modern person is sinking in loneliness, but society does not throw him a life-buoy. With the exception of Islam, the role of religion as a source of support is dwindling to nothingness. Communities are falling apart and the concept of a big, happy family in the Western countries is becoming nonsensical. As people shift to the space of virtual communications, they mistakenly suppose that from now on they can manage without a real, caring environment. As a result, a person looks for the solution to all the problems one on one with himself, inside his shell, perched by a computer screen.

The life of a society that suffers from attention deficit flies by at lightning speed. People twitter short trills hoping to have the time to express something that won’t be heard by anyone a moment later. Anything requiring inner efforts, persistence, and time is rejected at the root. When a person is empty, having no true goal, then worry and depression settle in. So where can he get that goal? Where can he find meaning?

Today all serious researchers assert that happiness lies inside contact with others, in bestowal, and that real meaning can only be revealed in the interconnection between us. Viktor Frankl, the famous Austrian psychologist, says that a person sitting at home and trying to find meaning on his own is like someone trying to break into an open door, not understanding that it opens inwards instead of out.

“You won’t find happiness in a shell,” says one of the interviewed experts to the “Globes” newspaper. By focusing on himself instead of extending a hand out to others, a person only increases his narcissism and depression.

Confidence Is Revealed In Unity

bb_admin — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 08:20:36 +0000

Question: How can we acquire confidence on the material level, including the economic, medical, and social realms?

Answer: These problems can only be solved by bestowal, with the help of the Light. If you want to be healthy and if you want to acquire immunity from the impending problems, then you have to live in a society that has the power of mutual guarantee.

If would seem: What is so special about these friends? What do they have? Bank accounts in Switzerland? Their own companies? A successful business? Or maybe they are all doctors, lawyers, bankers, and big experts in general? The fact is that they are nothing of the sort. But if they have the right, good connection, then you cannot beat them. They have total confidence. They receive such a “charge” from above that no one can use them selfishly or succeed more than them. That’s because they have fulfillment, unlike everyone else. Confidence is expressed only inside unity.

We even see this in our world: What is one person able to do? Even if you bring Schwarzenegger, and even if you have two people, or three, or a thousand, even if you dress them up in metal arms, will you be confident then? Today we do not have confidence in anything, including power. How many weapons can we keep producing? How much means do we have to protect ourselves? In the end, no matter how much we arm ourselves, this does not give us any confidence. The population only feels calmer.

For example, in Israel the people are periodically given out gas masks, although I heard that this time people do not even want to receive them so much. Everyone is already tired of this. People need confidence of a different sort.

What’s the use of having billions in a bank? Today this still means something, but the society of the future will have to take care of itself on different foundations, by the law of bestowal. Total bestowal among all its members will turn material worry about tomorrow into the calling of spiritual laws because people will not have any actual desire for this on the inside. Worry about the vital necessities will become an obligation for a person that is incumbent on him from above, like “observing a commandment.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/11 on Confidence

Don’t Go For Overkill

bb_admin — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 09:33:53 +0000

Question: What role does asceticism play in human development?

Answer: Kabbalah has a very negative opinion of various restrictions. It does not demand anything from a person with regard to his earthly life. In principle, you can do anything you want.

It’s a different matter when you become engrossed in all sorts of fetishes in this earthly life by introducing some kind of special customs, habits, and exercises to it. Live normally. If you like doing yoga, then do it. If you like running in the morning, then run. If there’s a certain diet that is healthier for you and another that’s less healthy, then eat accordingly. None of this matters. The most important thing is not to turn anything into a cult.

Kabbalah treats every person absolutely normally. It doesn’t care about how a person lives, what habits he has, and what his customs, religious convictions, and inclinations are. Who he is in the earthly life doesn’t matter one bit.

We are once again returning to the essence: Egoism rises in us in order for us to compensate for it above ourselves. That is why it doesn’t matter one bit what I am like. Limiting yourself in food or applying any kind of methods—none of this will help. Nothing will help.

On the contrary, a person who does some kind of physical exercises or keeps some kind of strict boundaries thinks that he has already advanced forward, has achieved some kind of level, that he is righteous and so on.

This can only confuse people. Therefore, live normally, calmly, eat well, and think about your health and profession. Take part in all the things that your surrounding society does.

And together with this, study Kabbalah. This balance or normal state is the most preferable one. Fate has placed you in this environment so go with its flow. Then you will see that in reality, everything around you is in the ideal state, besides yourself.

A minus is compensated by the right plus.
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From the 2nd lesson at the Berlin Convention on 1/28/11

Unhealthy Mutations Of Egoism

bb_admin — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 11:22:45 +0000

Question: What is the root of man’s psychological and physical illnesses? And how can a person not studying Kabbalah influence these processes? Can you recommend some actions a person can make to solve these problems?

Answer: The root of all illnesses is egoism’s mutation due to an incorrect or incomplete combination of egoistic qualities inside of us. Each of us contains 613 main egoistic desires. Their incorrect combination with each other evokes flaws that are the sources of all the psychological and other illnesses on the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature in man. That is, our illnesses also divide into these four levels.

Kabbalah is not a means for improving something specific in this world. But if you study it and advance along the path according to the root of your soul, going precisely from the point in our world where you are now until the point in the upper world that you must reach, you will thereby gradually enter states that will change your fate. But only you personally can influence it and no one else.

This is not some kind of magic, hypnosis, or other influence on one another. None of this exists in the slightest! A person changes only when he changes himself. By studying Kabbalah, you change yourself; there is no other way. For example, I have children and grandchildren, but I cannot influence them in any way. Anything I attain is what I have attained. What happens inside of me happens only in me. And it’s the same for every person.
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From the lesson in Moscow on 1/16/11

Light Instead Of Medicine

bb_admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:28:07 +0000

Question: If everything comes to us through the group, then why is it that when we have material problems, we have to work on them and try to solve them? If you’re sick, then you have to go to a doctor. Why isn’t it enough to simply turn to the group and have it help you on the inner level?

Answer: We are not yet at the level of being able to solve all the problems through the connection with the group. However, in reality it really should work that way. You are asking a very fair question: Why is it impossible to solve all the problems with the help of the Light that Reforms? Why can’t we turn to the group, concentrate a powerful desire there, and let it happen by acting directly upon the Light, the Source of life?

Once, when I had an extremely painful ulcer, Rabash made me sit next to him and study. I could not bear the pain so I was unable to sit there and delve into the text and the intention. I could not overcome the pain and attract the force that would soothe my pain, and perhaps it would have cured it altogether.

Without a doubt, it was my own fault for being so weak. That is why I couldn’t do it and attract the Light when I was right next to my teacher, when we sat and studied together. Since he offered for me to do this, it meant that I was able to! But at that moment I could not.

Returning to your question, once we have a large group, then we will not need any external means or medicines to solve any issues! Medicine acts on the bodily level, whereas we will be able to act directly to fulfill the desire that perceives a lack of fulfillment, experienced as illness or pain. We won’t just be curing the body, but using it as a reason to cure the soul.

From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”