7 Ways to Approach Globalization Correctly

7 Ways to Approach Globalization Correctly1. Globalization has become a key factor in the world’s economic, political and cultural development. It incorporates the international market, all the social processes, and the lives of each and every one of us. However, it doesn’t solve any political, economical, social, cultural or religious problems.

2. A new kind of education is needed to reconcile us with this new reality. In the past, education was structured within the boundaries of an egoistic and disconnected world. New education should take place naturally, rather than through Nature’s painful influence. One way or another, Nature will force us to change – to change our way of thinking and to make our relationships truly global. But unlike previous transformations, we don’t have to undergo the current transformation by force. For the very first time, we can do it ourselves, consciously.

3. The common culture should not be replaced with a global culture forcefully, like how we usually do things. For instance, today we are forcing our children to study by old methods, even though they are ready for “the new humanity.” We instinctively strive to suppress everything new, while they naturally strive toward it.

4. For the first time in history, mass media must assume an educational role. Instead of being a dubious source of information, mass media needs to earn our trust by contributing to the education of the new generation. Mass media should initiate the change, and later, educational institutions will follow. This is because all social changes need to begin from “below,” in other words, they should touch people’s lives, morals and cultural-religious traditions. The new should not replace the old by force, but naturally, by revealing the globality of nature and society. Then the new will replace the old painlessly.

5. Kabbalistic education is not coercive, because it does not strive to bring everyone to the same educational and cultural level. On the contrary, people can keep all possible levels and cultures, because Kabbalistic education raises people above their various cultures. Instead of making them collide, it unites them even more strongly due to such differences.

Therefore, Kabbalistic education prevents the clash of cultures, ideologies, and nations. As Baal HaSulam writes, everyone can remain in their religions.

6. Even though Kabbalah brings everyone to a single consciousness, bringing people together as cogwheels in a single mechanism, it doesn’t lessen anyone’s individual role. This is because it helps a person find his or her place in the mechanism, in the mutual connection of all people. Each one of us discovers the best possible state that Nature has prepared for us.

Kabbalistic education enables people to accept the same principles of existence in the world, so that one’s individual consciousness turns into collective consciousness, and later into the consciousness of one civilization. After that, as Baal HaSulam writes, the boundaries start disappearing and a single civilization emerges, in which the citizens are single-minded in their aspiration to unite with the Creator.

Parting with independence, the disappearance of boundaries and cultures, and the creation of a single spiritual authority should not happen coercively, but by realizing the need to unite with the Creator.

Mass education can happen through TV shows and internet games, and by prohibiting the glorification of egoistic fulfillment and forceful influence over the world.

7. Globalization evokes the sensation that the world is small. Yet the growing awareness of the single system of souls makes it a warm world, where we can all rely on one another.

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You Can’t Step Into the Same River Twice

You Can\'t Step Into the Same River TwiceA question I received: Lately people in Israel are talking about combining traditions with children’s education. They want to bring the traditions and elements of Judaism into the general curriculum, but as the national culture, rather than religion.

Even secular parents, who weren’t taught to honor traditions as children, want their children to adopt these traditions, hoping that this will give them a different perspective on life and the world and prevent problems like drugs, alcoholism, depression and other diseases of our time. They hope that this will keep their children away from harm and make their lives safer.

My Answer: Kabbalah says that traditions can have a positive influence on people, as long as they are perceived as the nation’s cultural heritage and as long as they are kept for strengthening the family unit. However, in every other respect, people should live according to what Nature demands of them, according to its program of evolution.

According to Nature (or the plan of creation), man must understand Nature, discover how it is connected into a single, integral and perfect system, and consciously integrate himself into it as an integral, intelligent element.

In order to make us want to understand Nature and consciously integrate with it, Nature shows us our lack of harmony with it. We perceive such imbalance as all kinds of suffering, like wars, problems and distress. Gradually, we start realizing that all these problems are global and interconnected, and that they are all symptoms of one problem.

We then start understanding that maybe we’re the ones with the problem. This is what Nature is pushing us to understand, and not to uphold traditions. However, if traditions and other boundaries help us become corrected and fulfill Nature’s global plan, then of course, we should have them as well.

Concerning the plan you describe, of what the teachers and parents are hoping to do, I’m certain that it won’t work, because children have no such desire. Subconsciously, their desire is already directed at discovering the purpose of creation – the existence of the Creator. Our children are a completely different generation: They aren’t simply enormous egoists. Their desire for spirituality, called “the point in the heart,” is already being revealed. This desire is the embryo of the soul, and it is demanding its development. Previous generations did not have such giant egoism within their points in the heart.

Egoism has been evolving over thousands of years, demanding fulfillment from this world the whole time. However, today it isn’t the egoism that demands fulfillment, but the point in the heart, and this is why children no longer desire our world, but something else… something that’s still unclear. By acting the way we do, we imprison them; but to us, it seems like this is what’s best for them. Our generation does not have the time nor the place for these experiments. We need to immediately figure out what is going on, and then we will understand how we should raise our children!

Related Material:
* ARTICLE: Raising the Next Generation of Children
* ARTICLE: Education

A Call for Ideas – New Children’s Games

Dr. Michael LaitmanI would like to invite you all to share your ideas on creating new games for children!

The games should be aimed at showing children how we triumph when we connect with others, and as such, they should act as live examples of the greatness that lies in achieving the goal that Nature is urging us toward.

As well as showing children how we triumph when we connect with others, the games should also show how without such a connection, we fail. In short, the main principle that should be put across is that

  • if you connect with others, you succeed, and
  • if you don’t connect with others, you fail.

Moreover, in order to create such a connection, you need to slightly let go of yourself.

The critical point in the games should be when the child realizes that “I really don’t want to let go of myself, but if I can do it, then I win with everyone else.” Winning can only be together with everyone, and not alone. This is where the main artistry in creating these games lies.

I recommend that you watch the video clip below (from yesterday’s lesson) before sending your ideas, where I provide a broader explanation of this proposal.

(Note: Send your ideas in the comment form below.)