Transitions to new developmental levels have always been induced by small crises: Education, social, financial, and other systems gradually started to go out of order. Marriages started to fall apart, slowly but steadily illicit drug use spread and overpowered alcoholism. All of a sudden terrorism came into view.

Humanity’s nervousness reveals itself. It’s a result of weaknesses in all spheres of life, which were built according to egoistic rules that made everybody concentrate solely on themselves: This is yours, this is mine, don’t cross the line! Everyone defends his or her freedom and personal space. Now, Nature destroys boundaries between us, breaks walls, and drags us into some kind of community life that we try to avoid because we’re not yet ready for it.

When our egos were still too small, we were open to everything. At that time, we didn’t care whether we lived as one family in one village. People didn’t lock their doors and were very friendly with each other. A huge family (parents, children, and grandchildren) shared one room and were not at all embarrassed with each other.

Nowadays, thing are different. We are separated by our huge egoism: Everybody wants a separate room, strives to hide behind the computer or telephone, and tends to contact others as little as possible. People don’t unite into families any longer, but rather get together to have sex and then go away.

But suddenly, Nature starts to destroy partitions and by doing so cancels our severance. The current crisis is the biggest of all we’ve experienced so far. We do everything to delay, to misrepresent it, but it manifests on lower levels at which we all are still interconnected.

Currently, there is no such thing as a family crisis since families are simply broken. More than half of families cannot be considered families per se and have no desire to revive and reconstruct themselves. The number of people who don’t wish to marry has reached 70%! Today, it’s normal, a  good family where its members treat each other with love and respect has become an anachronism.

The second major problem is drugs. We comply with this ugly phenomenon; our fight with it is mild and gentle. We realize that it’s a terrible thing which we can’t avoid because the society we live in and this life itself force us to look for ways to escape.

The next problem is how we raise our youth. Currently, demographics are poor, the population doesn’t grow much, and people don’t know how to take care of their children. Parents agree to leave children both overnight and during the day. Children are not attached to their parents any longer; the gap between generations grows. We are about to lose the next generation, but nobody worries too much about it. We say: “What difference does it make whether our children’s upbringing is good or bad; what does it change?” This is how we think, not even remotely realizing the essence of the problem.

It looks like all prior crises were not too big of a blow for us, nor did they trigger our understanding that we have bankrupted ourselves in all aspects of our lives. The developmental process always flows from the small and weak to impacting the big ones. This is similar to the punishment of children, meaning at first we start convincing them and then progress to threatening with bigger trouble. At this point, we all are going through a very serious process; it’s a matter of life and death.

We are going through two serious cycles of discrepancies between us and Nature. Integrality allows us to realize that we are opposite to Nature and contrary to all its systems, meaning that originally we were supposed to be completely interconnected, but we do everything we can to avoid staying united.

We understand that staying together would be good for us, but we don’t know how to achieve this state. Everybody in the world realizes that if people unite for educational, technical, pedagogical and cultural purposes, it will facilitate the whole situation. But how can we act against our ego? We are not capable of doing so!

Here is the problem: If we are unable to unite, we will stay hungry. Very simple! We won’t be able to provide for basic necessities: food, safety, heat, dwelling, and physical health. These are five basic needs that have to be satisfied in order to survive.

At this time, Nature is pressing upon us so much that if we don’t correspond to its requirements, we won’t be able to provide for our five major necessities. Such a notion as ecology is part of our requirement for safety. We will fail to provide food and keep good ecology; both are intertwined since one influences the other.

Worry, fear, and trouble will eventually force humankind to take drastic measures. If we don’t do anything, our resistance and opposition to Nature will lead us to affliction, wars, devastation, and obliteration. At some point, we will re-evaluate our chances to survive and will arrive at the conclusion that we have to unite and reach the fourth level of development—the Human level.
[72681]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #12, 12/16/11

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Question: We hope that the method of integral upbringing will be disseminated all over the world. How do you see the interaction of the Moscow group with the groups of South America, for example? Does it make sense for them to maintain a relationship with each other?

Answer: If we get rid of the language barrier through simultaneous translation, people will understand each other perfectly. They will understand the feelings, the songs, the dancing, and various expressions. You will see that suddenly they have the same body movements.

When we talk about integration, people begin to express themselves the same way, regardless of who they are. National, ethnic, and racial differences melt away.

For example, natives of South America and Africa, who have completely different dance moves, begin to move synchronously, trying to feel each other. Their dancing no longer resembles modern dancing, where everyone is six feet away from each other and no one sees anyone else while twisting and hopping on their own. On the contrary, they try to stay together, to come into contact, to be closer, maybe even to stop moving, but to feel each other physically, and most importantly, on the inside.

They acquire a completely new body language and, I would say, a new culture, communication, and behavior. But it’s not just a culture; it is a new form of art, the art of dance and expression that comes precisely from the integral sensation.

I hope that this culture emerges and is revealed, and maybe through it humanity will adapt itself to the integral world. This is shocking, and it shows us that we truly are coming closer to a single image of “Adam.”

This is a language that did not exist during the separation of people who lived in ancient Babylon, during their dispersal all over the world (if we accept the legend of the Bible as a fact). It is a language instilled in the foundation of our root even before human beings emerged, and it comes from our spiritual foundation before it materialized.

If we take all the songs, dances, any kind of music, or any other forms of expression of various groups from different continents, we will discover one common denominator in them all. And the differences between them will be very minor.
[72305]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #11, 12/16/11

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Preparation to the Lesson
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Shamati #4 “The Reason for the Heaviness”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “And the Land Was Unformed (Tohu) and Void (Bohu),” Item 319, Lesson 90
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 7, Item 27, Lesson 12
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“Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 125, Lesson 55
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Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
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The ecological catastrophe that we face is the result of an endless pursuit of revenue accumulated through selling products and the competition of billion-dollar bank accounts. We had the illusion that this would never end, but now it is over; there are no more consumers left and we have nowhere to move forward.

The crisis manifests itself in education, culture (interrelations), and ongoing difficulties when it comes to satisfying of our immediate needs. Manufacturers still have the potential to develop, but there is almost nobody who is able to buy their goods. Large pools of the population of Western countries who lost their income cannot purchase goods at the same rate they used to. Previously, goods were produced and consumed within a complete monetary-commodities cycle. Now, the cycle is broken.

At some point capitalists arrived at the wrong decision: They started to play with finances alone, separate from products. A large, inflated “bubble” was created adding its contribution to the overall crisis. Because the bubble is devoid of real content, it is blown up with the help of advertising and a game that takes place between various banks and financial systems.

Thus, in all spheres of human activity, in education, culture, interpersonal relationships, people are not able to live as they used. Humanity is helpless.

Let’s take Spain as an example: Young people who received a university education in Europe cannot find jobs; they cannot marry because they have no ability to provide for their families, nor can they make progress in their professions. Everybody wants to put their knowledge into practice, have a family, buy a house, etc., but nobody needs them. People cannot realize themselves; they cannot find a place for themselves anywhere; they cannot lead a normal life. All they have is unemployment and uncertainty.

This is spreading around the world. A person has no solution in a situation where I care only about myself and do not care about the world; if we don’t care about others, we cannot provide others with a means of subsistence. We do not care about each other; therefore, on one hand, we toss out a huge amount of surplus goods, and on the other hand, the surplus does not get to the correct destinations where they are desperately needed. Our ego doesn’t allow us to take care of others. Only if we feel a threat do we begin satisfying their needs.

As another example, let’s look at Africa, which once produced many products and developed remarkably. But then the Europeans began dumping their imports there with slashed prices. This destroyed the local market; Africans stopped producing staple goods; people abandoned their previous jobs and professions. Later on the same companies that artificially lowered prices while introducing their products started to raise them once the local competition was eliminated. As a result, Africans were left without mean, and their impoverished situation persists to this day.

There are very harsh conditions in the world and they are exacerbated by a deepening global crisis. It impacts both developed countries and Third World nations, some of which are only beginning to develop. All of it is caused by human egoism. But we are also already feeling that we are connected: We are all floating in one boat; if someone damages the boat, it affects everyone. We cannot advance. Our egoism works like a boomerang and hits every single one of us.

In Europe, it appears in a very peculiar way. In order to achieve power and success, European nations initiated mutually beneficial connections, and it is impossible to break them apart. Severing them would cause complete obliteration. Consequently, instead of a common market, joint production, and a united society, we witness a dangerous state, which doesn’t allow anybody to move a finger without the consent of others.

We’ve already approached the necessity of taking each other into consideration. Even though European history is filled with wars and conflicts and numerous counts of tragic events, slaughters, and the subjugation of one nation by another…still, today there is no other way for Europeans but to transition to cooperation even though it will yet be originated by hatred and indifference. It’s not enough just to reckon with others; we see that it doesn’t work. It gradually becomes clear that a common market doesn’t tolerate old economic laws that are built on an egoistic foundation. The old system is not functional any more.

Today, both human nature and the environment bring up a new condition: Egoistic compassion doesn’t work; we have to implement love to our neighbors.

It’s hard to pronounce these words. They seem so unrealistic, so far from us. Our hearts reject them.

However, we will continue to approach this state if we manage to attract the compelling force upon us. Today, Nature forces us to gain love for our neighbors since the only alternative to it is death from hunger, disease, and cataclysms. It’s our duty to form an alternate force that would oblige us to move towards mutual love.

What kind of force is that? It is our surroundings that are organized in a way that pushes us to unite even more so than ecology, economics, education, possible lack of food supply, etc. do. Society must be strong enough to sustain our egoistic nature, impose a new type of relations among us, and thus lead us from one edge to another—from hatred to love.
From KabTV’s: “A New Life” Episode 13, 1/11/12

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Opinion (Natalia Shlemova, Moscow State Pedagogical University): “The main problem of the whole system of Russian education, from preschool to higher education, is that it does not teach people to think, does not teach to understand. Due to the absence of such methodology and dialogic structure, the education system is authoritarian, designed for passive acceptance of information by students. It lacks algorithms, mechanisms, and paradigms of understanding, creative awareness, and development of acquired knowledge.

“The collapse of the system of secondary and higher education reflects the final stage of the global crisis of human nature.

“The breakdown of the education system, the core of a developed society, indicates a serious failure in the mental evolution of the human race, while the development of the mental body of the entire humanity is the main task at this stage of its evolution.”

My Comment: The transition to a new stage of development involves the negation of the old, up to a state of being unable to exist in it, as well as a new vision: clear, obvious, not far-fetched, practically perceived, planned, calculated, not revolutionary and violent, but based on necessity. Almost everyone denies what exists, but does not see its replacement. Our dissemination of integral upbringing should become more specific.
[73593]

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Kabbalah for the Nation Introductory Lecture Series, “Jerusalem at the Heart”
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Our program today amounts to clarifying a primary and fundamental element in our development: the search to sense the upper force. Much in this search pertains to man’s psychology because we begin at the most basic psychological level, just like any regular person in our world. But then from basic psychology we start ascending higher. Why? Because the aspiration that we have within and work with is called the point in the heart.

That is what we must develop; that is what we must expand. This point has to become massive to us, bigger than anything else, filling the entire horizon. Through it I need to start sensing nature, its eternity and perfection, harmony, the upper force, information—everything! This can only happen if I cultivate my point in the heart.

The point in the heart no longer pertains to simple psychology. It appears only in special individuals after a great many lives over the course of their evolution, having arrived at a state when the desire for a new layer, the “Human” degree, arises in them. They’ve developed through the still, vegetative, and animate levels of matter and lived through many different incarnations as humans in our world, but now a new desire emerges in them, which begins to gradually develop them toward sensing the upper force of Nature.

Today this desire is emerging in millions of people around the world. And we have the method to actualize it.
[73744]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/24/12, Lesson 3

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All our work is to find in ourselves the opportunity to sense the force that fills the world, controls the world and our destiny, leads us through life, and determines all the events in it—what will happen to each of us, every minute.

To do this, we need to constantly delve into ourselves, specifically through ourselves. We will not be able to find anything in the mechanical world that surrounds us. Only through refining our senses, increasing our inner sensitivity will we begin to feel the fine layers of nature as well as its information layer. This layer will reveal to us the entire program of creation, everything that should happen to us, and what has already happened, and will raise us above the sensation of time, space, and mechanical movement into an entirely different area.

Thus, we have to constantly go deeper and search in ourselves for the sensation of this information layer, of this force that controls everything. It may be called the basic force of nature, the upper force of nature, or the Creator because it creates everything and contains the whole program of creation. To accomplish this, we get together to increase our impact on each other and thus help each of us to unite together.

We start to create a new sensory organ in a collective feeling, which is able to reveal for us the force that surrounds us and penetrates everything. Being in such constant and correct connection between myself and others, I rise above myself, exit myself, and begin to feel what is between us. This becomes most important.

But everything else is my own, like my beastly body. When I desire to exit myself completely, to feel what is outside of me, there I find this upper force of nature.

Connecting with it is the goal of our existence. And we all want to achieve this.
[73747]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/24/12, Lesson 3

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Question: A new door was opened to us at the convention in Vilnius. How can I put the foot in and not let the door close?

Answer: First of all, we should fear losing it, be in awe of the greatness of the state we have achieved, and strengthen our impression as much as possible.

We will not get through this door at once. It will take months to do so. After all, we are entering a period of labor, and childbirth happens in different ways: Sometimes it takes a couple of days, and sometimes a couple of weeks. Anyway, no matter how much time we may need, we are talking about a process that includes labor pangs, but not about a one-shot event.

We are on the road, and if you want the process to keep on developing, you should accept it correctly. You continue your path not because it is pleasant and exciting. You do not care about the state itself—the main thing is to know that it brings maximum pleasure to the Creator. You have to turn the vector from reception to bestowal.

If you add this intention, you will advance. True, it will immediately leave a bland taste in your mouth, but it will ensure your progress. Later, you will taste the real flavor, but already in contact with the Creator, in bestowal. And now you summon the Light to realize this.

But if you are inspired by pleasant sensations, if you are glad that you have finally tasted the delight of unity with friends, this feeling has a bitter taste of egoism and thus will not stay with you. After all, you need to be advanced, so your state will be taken from you. You will get a fair shake, forget about it, go searching for, and again approach it, but you will be more ready to be imbued with intention, not feeling.
[73724]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/26/2012, Questions about the Convention

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