In the News (from RightWorld.net): “Young Europeans with higher education are going overseas to seek employment, most likely in Argentina. The economic crisis, whose end is nowhere in sight, forces them to leave. Only a few years ago, Spain attracted thousands of Latin Americans who were moving to the Iberian Peninsula in search of a better life.

“Today, many young Spaniards move overseas. However Argentina, where European professionals can still find a suitable job relatively easily, also attracts Italians, Frenchmen, Brits and even Germans. They arrive on student or tourist visas. The only drawback is the fact that once in three months they have to visit neighboring Uruguay to get their passports stamped and thus extend their visas. The majority of new immigrants admit that they dream of returning to their homeland; they just do not know when it will happen.”

Comment: The world increasingly looks like the labor market, where millions of people are rushing in search of work. But this happens just to mix people further, blend their mentalities, and bring them closer to each other. Then, when all the “bubbles” burst and only necessary production remains with a billion unemployed individuals, people will understand that their correction, learning a new integral life, is their new job, their work on themselves, on the mistakes of nature. And meanwhile, nature leads us to greater communication and mutual understanding by the path of suffering.
[71976]

Related Material:
Spain’s Lost Generation? No, A Newfound One!
UN Experts Predict A Rise In Youth Unemployment
Tackling Youth Unemployment?

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, News, Society, World - No Comments →

Question: How important is the convention in Europe and how is it connected to the global state on the continent?

Answer: Throughout hundreds of years, Europe had considered itself the “beacon” of humanity. It conquered the world, defeated it, colonized it, and subjugated it, wanting to show the whole world that this is the way to behave. In this, Europe saw the future of humanity.

The result was quite the opposite; a good and bright future awaits neither Western nor Eastern Europe. And now the rest of the world, Asia, Africa, and so on will gradually be presenting their claims to Europe because the rest of the world was working for Europe.

If Europe wants to position itself correctly relative to itself as well as to the rest of the world in the way that the next few years will not boomerang back at it, it must turn to the new integral society as soon as possible, to introduce it there and to attract the rest of humanity to it. This is how it will show that its future lies precisely in this.

If Europe would do this, then naturally it would have a future and the rest of humanity will aspire towards it because it will correspond to the laws of nature.

However, if it does not start to do that, then this will be its general ruin. Very quickly, we will see how there will practically be nothing left of the Eurasian continent, possibly including even Russia. Meaning, that Europe, relative to the rest of the world will become the same as Africa is to Europe today.

This can happen very soon since the economy and society are very fragile and so integrally connected to each other that if there is a breakdown in one place, like there is now in the European Union, then it simultaneously affects all of the countries on different levels. Everything can collapse like a house of cards.

Europe must understand and realize that its future is in homeostasis with nature, in balance with nature, in the study of the nature’s trend. This is precisely what it should correspond to.

This is what the science of Kabbalah teaches: our integral society and mutual guarantee, the essence of which we are trying to explain to everyone. That is why our convention must be dedicated to this question, and also to working out how to address Europe.

We must be ready for the protest movements and demonstrations, which will be happening in all countries.

Now, the groups of North America are systematically passing out flyers with our comprehensive explanations and we see how the society is starting to apprehend it, feel it, and is demanding further explanation and bringing us towards various kinds of joint actions and so on.

We have to do the same in Europe. We need to prepare a package of explanatory material in advance, which must be properly prepared, well written and stated beautifully considering the different European languages and mentalities of each country. We need to seriously work on this in advance.

Introducing the masses to the system of integral education is the most important thing we can do in Europe.
[71624]
From KabTV’s “Foundations of the Integral Society” 2/12/12

Related Material:
There Are No Second-Rate Conventions
Europe: A Common Home, A Common Problem
The Winning Lottery With A Jack-Pot For Every Person!

Filed under: Crisis, Integral Upbringing, Q&A, Society, World - No Comments →

Preparation to the Lesson
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Writings of Rabash “What Does It Mean that We Read the Portion Scroll Purim Before the Work” 
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Idolatry, Bloodshed, and Incest,” Lesson 77
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part15
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Writings of Rabash “Dargot HaSulam, “Revealing the Concealment”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/audio/eng_o_rav_2012-03-08_declamation_blog-rav_full_mus.mp3 title=’8.3.12′]

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog - No Comments →

Kabbalists give me “advice in the dark,” and in the end I’m like a child before a yet unexamined reality.

We give advice to little children in the same way, and they obediently follow the instructions because for now they do not know anything about the given subject and they trust the adults completely. Instinctively, a child believes us, as his nature instructs him to do, he or she follows us, with what we call the “eyes closed.”

We must follow Kabbalists the same way. Of course this causes discomfort; we are grown people, we want to feel and understand. “Wait, what exactly am I doing? Why do I do this and with what purpose? Where is this coming from?” Everyone has many questions and excuses.

It does not matter. If we were children, the upper world would open up before us in no time. But then we would be like “angels” there, not higher than “animals.” But if we wish to attain the degree of the Creator, then we cannot make all our actions and take all our steps through our natural aspirations, we must do it through faith above reason—in other words, against our egoism.

This constitutes all the complications. I am given a certain advice, but I fail to see logic in it because my mind and feelings pertain to this world. I do not see or feel that this is the exact way I need to act.

I am told: “Even if you do not understand it, you need to know that this is the way things are there in the upper world, since there, everything is directed towards bestowal, when here, everything is directed towards reception. There everything is in unity, and here everything is in separation. There everything is eternal, perfect, and aspires towards balance, while here it is the other way around.” But words do not help me. I am still standing on the foundation of this world, and I need to acquire the upper world from here.

Yes it is difficult on one hand, but necessary on the other. I do not need to transition from one world to another; instead, I must live in both worlds in order to be independent in relation to the Creator. It is similar to what the guest says to the host: “I want to be like you. You are a giver and I want to give. You give to me and I want to give to you. I depend on you and I want you to depend on me.” So I also need to be independent standing before the Creator.

We cannot even imagine it: On one had there is none else beside Him, and on the other hand there is something independent. And this state exists only because we assert ourselves in both worlds: I constantly build the upper world above this world. This is why the journey is so difficult. After all, my every action, my every step, must oppose my desire and understanding, everything I know and everything I have gathered and collected over the course of my entire life.

Everything is the other way around. Even when we speak about love and unity, in reality it is not the kind of love and unity we are accustomed to. They lie above our nature. In other words, I must reach a state where I do not seem to exist. It slightly resembles a mother who selflessly gives herself to her child.

But here I need to go to the end in full, limitless unity in relation to the entire world. And this, despite all the obstacles, is when I discover that all the desires to which I must fully give myself, are opposite to me, hate and reject me. As the Aviut (the thickness of desire) grows, I am shown the distance between reception and bestowal, and then I reveal the entire burden concealed in unity.

And all this is to acquire independence at the height of the Creator.

This is why we need to agree with everything we experience. And even though our nature, the nature of this world, rejects all the forms of the spiritual world, we must agree with this. The spiritual form is opposite to me, I hate it and do not accept it, but this is the way things need to be. I must understand and love it; I must prepare myself for it with the help of the group, the environment. This is exactly where we are going: towards this contradiction, to make it desirable so it would serve as proof of the fact that we are advancing towards the truth.
[72045]
From the Arava Convention 2/25/12, Lesson 7

Related Material:
Continuing The Path of Baal HaSulam
Ascent From the Point Of Zero
Is Our World Finite?

Filed under: Conventions, My Similarity to the Creator, Perception, Spiritual Teacher - No Comments →

Question: Our state is like that of a birth. A birth is a concrete action that either happened or not. However, if I ask this question now of my friends I’ll get all kinds of answers in the full spectrum, as if there are numerous tints of the grey color here. Is this the way it is supposed to be, or is it only one of the two, either black or white?

Answer: There is a very good example for this, the exodus from Egypt. It can be related to a single person who includes all of these qualities within him, since the whole world is inside of him. However it can also be seen as the exodus of many people of all types, amongst which there are men and women, the elderly and the children, infants, people related to the nation of Israel, and the Egyptians, the so-called “mixed multitude.” Everyone is coming out; everyone is running.

In this crowd, there are those who dreamed of this flight for many years and some who are following along with their relatives. There are children and infants who are led out by their parents. There are the elderly who would have no one to take care of them if they stayed. There are those who saw the crowd fleeing and just then decided to join.

But there are those who are going at the head of the throng who are determined to escape, and in front of them all, Moses is leading the way. Meaning that we see that among those who arrive at Mount Sinai are all types of people. And inside of a single person, reaching this state of the first unity above the mountain of hatred between him and his friends, there are also a multitude of desires and thoughts, from the high point in the heart which leads him like the forefather, Moses, and up to the most rough, vain desires.

In the end it’s required of them all, all so different and each one with everything confined inside of his spectrum of desires, thoughts and intentions, it’s necessary for all of them to be ready for the mutual connection as much as we, being below the Machsom, are capable of it. Of course, all of this is happening in a world of deception for the sake of egoism, Lo Lishma, but no more is required of us yet.

It needs to be understood that the spiritual approach is not difficult at all, but very simple. The problem is that we are not directed at the spiritual! I am not directed at unity! If I were able to remain in the aspiration towards unity for a few hours, I would have reached it. However, I don’t want it, and I am spending hours on all other possible things except spirituality, so in the end, life alone is not enough to reach it.

The problem is that we keep forgetting where we need to apply efforts. If you apply effort in the correct place, then it doesn’t matter if you have very little water, but you are using it to water a seed planted into the earth, this seed will shoot sprouts. While if you have a lot of water, but you are pouring all of it out into the desert sand, then nothing comes of it.

That is why the whole problem lies in the quality of intention. While in quantity, we are over-fulfilling it, skirting around, doing something, and we remain satisfied because we have used all of our strength. However, if you were to see how it really is, you would understand that you have not done anything in the right place at all. This is the whole issue. This is what we are working on and everything depends upon this.

Each one is already overfilled with theoretical knowledge, the science, and the articles. What remains is to apply the effort in the right place, only between the hearts, and then we’ll succeed. In our state today we can reach this within a few hours in order to at least touch the spiritual vessel, and then everything will be much easier.
[71836]
From the Arava Convention 2/24/12, Lesson 4

Related Material:
The Convention Is For Everyone Who Is Willing To Be Included
The Necessary And The Sufficient
Mount Sinai In The Midst Of The Arava Desert

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, Spirituality, Unity - No Comments →

Opinion (Kyle Bass, Hedge-fund manager, Hayman Capital Management): “In his latest investor letter Kyle Bass lays out his case that a wave of hard defaults is coming.

“His basic argument: The world is just saddled with too much debt.

“Throughout history, he says, total debt-to-GDP only ever breached 200% when nations were spending on war. Today we’re at 310%.

“Says Bass: ‘There is no savior large enough with a magical pool of capital to stave off this unfortunate conclusion to the global debt super cycle. We think hard defaults are imminent.’”

Comment: If we look at the crisis of humanity in this way, then, of course, there is no salvation. If we look from the perspective that the world finally will climb out of its dead-end “development,” and head not toward financial development, but toward a civilized, unified integral society, then it turns out that we are not in a crisis, but at a turning point between the fall and a great ascent to a brighter future. It would not be in competition, mutual destruction, and victories at any cost and to our own detriment, but in an integral, confident, peaceful flow of life.
[62596]

Related Material:
The World Community Must Act Together
The Other Side Of The Crisis
Global Economic Crisis Deepens

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, News, World - No Comments →

In the News (from BBC News): “Hundreds of metres under one of Iceland’s largest glaciers there are signs of a looming volcanic eruption that could be one of the most powerful the country has seen in almost a century.

“Mighty Katla, with its 10km (6.2 mile) crater, has the potential to cause catastrophic flooding as it melts the frozen surface of its caldera and sends billions of gallons of water surging through Iceland’s east coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. …

“There were more than 500 tremors in and around the caldera of Katla just in October, which suggests the motion of magma. …

“The last major eruption occurred in 1918 and caused such a large glacier meltdown that icebergs were swept into the ocean by the resulting floods.

“The volume of water produced in a 1755 eruption equalled that of the world’s largest rivers combined. …

“In 1783 volcanoes in the area erupted continuously for eight months, generating so much ash, hydrogen fluoride and sulphur dioxide that it killed one in five Icelanders and half of the country’s livestock.

“‘And it actually changed the Earth’s climate,’ says Mr Cochran.

“’Folks talk about a nuclear winter – this eruption generated enough sulphuric acid droplets that it made the atmosphere reflective, cooled the planet for an entire year or more and caused widespread famine in many places around the globe.’”
[62543]

Related Material:
Flood Strikes South Europe
In Nature’s Clutches
How To Forestall The Blows Of Nature

Filed under: Crisis, News, World - No Comments →

In the News (from The Economist): “Unless Germany and the ECB move quickly, the single currency’s collapse is looming …

“A Euro break-up would cause a global bust worse even than the one in 2008-09. The world’s most financially integrated region would be ripped apart by defaults, bank failures and the imposition of capital controls…The euro zone could shatter into different pieces, or a large block in the north and a fragmented south. Amid the recriminations and broken treaties after the failure of the European Union’s biggest economic project, wild currency swings between those in the core and those in the periphery would almost certainly bring the single market to a shuddering halt. The survival of the EU itself would be in doubt.”

My Comment: There is anxiety and joy. The anxiety is due to the dramatic turn of events, and the joy is due to the fact that they take place. There is a hope that the “patient” will finally listen to the “doctor” and will not accept the “band-aid,” but only the real medication.
[62685]

Related Material:
The Collapse Of Europe Has Begun
The End Of A Bad Start Or The Beginning Of A Successful End
The Crisis Of The European Civilization

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, News - No Comments →

Question: There are several languages in modern psychology; for example, direct conversation or psychotherapeutic metaphor, the purpose of which is to create a fairytale for a specific person where he can defeat his problem. Through this language, the fairytale penetrates the person’s consciousness.

I know that you use different languages when teaching people. What is the best way to use them and where?

Answer: We have many specific articles about integral upbringing, about moving towards integration, unity, about coming out of one’s “I” towards “we,” from “we” towards “one” where even “we” becomes lost, and unity appears instead of it—just unity. There are many examples and images regarding it.

But we do not classify language because we do not use a psychological approach, the one used by the modern psychology, even though we approve of it and are happy that it has evolved so much that it helps us advance.

We do not have a system like this. I hope that once psychologists come to us, “break away” from their boundaries, and learn ours, they will create specific tables, workbooks.

We do not have this. We believe that our work is so multi-faceted and it is done in an ever-changing society with changing circumstances to which we always apply very different materials. We are very flexible. It is possible that during one lesson in a single group conversation, in a single discussion, you might experience several such states which might not fit into any clear framework of conduct consistent with the group.

I observe this during my lessons, when I have a face-to-face conversations with students and their  questions, which include materials from completely different levels and different forms.

Comment: One of these languages is the language of joking, humor, etc.

Answer: It is used constantly, wherever possible, but only to the extent that it is able to clear the air and to help with uniting because this is the only goal; in other words, you use whatever helps.

Humor is very good because it relaxes the situation. It frees the subcortex and helps the person to come “out of himself”—and the person enters a new level.

Humor reveals completely different communication and thinking possibilities. It is a method of rising to a new level. It is so unconcrete that a new degree of our development forms in it, and this is why we encourage it a lot.
[71842]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #11, 12/16/11

Related Material:
Lost In Translation
Psychology Of The Soul
Kabbalah Uses The Most Precise Language

Filed under: Education, Integral Upbringing, Q&A - No Comments →