Opinion (from Comstock Partners): “The U.S economy has been slowing in the last two or three months. Either downside surprises or actual declines have been reported in key economic indicators relating to consumer spending, new orders, production and employment. …

“The Chinese economy is slowing, perhaps by more than the official numbers show. … China’s economic model is heavily dependent on capital investments and exports, while internal consumer spending remains a relatively small part of GDP. … All in all, it seems that it will be difficult to avoid a hard landing.

“The slowdown in Europe, the U.S. and China is also impacting the economies of the emerging nations, which are heavily dependent on exports. Declining growth is also driving down commodity prices. Despite all of the talk of decoupling, it seems apparent that the economies of all nations are linked and that there is little prospect of an oasis of prosperity in an increasingly dependent world. …

“Unfortunately, the monetary and fiscal authorities are out of ammunition. … We believe that the April 2nd peak in the S&P 500 marked the top of the uptrend from the March 2009 lows, and that a major market decline is ahead.”

My Comment: Not a single expert has a plan of getting out of the general crisis because it is total, multi-faceted, and interrelated. The world has become interconnected and requires a similar interconnected approach. It can be provided only by an integrally organized community that has a feeling and understanding of the interconnected world.

Of course, it is possible to continue the attempts to lead this world in an egoistic, protectionist manner, but this promises huge suffering that will bring us to the need to change ourselves to survive in the new interrelated world. We will not manage without implementing mandatory integral education and upbringing for the population, and the sooner we realize this, the less damage the exit of the crisis will cause us.
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Question: What is happening to the climate and weather lately?

Answer: Studies of sediments in New York and drought in Australia and the western United States using computer models lead to the conclusion that the weather in many areas that produce food will become hotter, drier, and more unpredictable. They can be fixed only by correcting human relationships.
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Question: We talked about the fact that humanity ran out of steam. I played sports and remember a wonderful state, the so-called second breath, when you run and suddenly some kind of lightness appears. Can we talk about the second breath in relation to the method of integral upbringing, or just about the fact that a person who stops running literally starts to fly?

Answer: Of course the feeling of detachment, fatigue, lack of motivation in the egoism, and feeling, or at least understanding, that continuing to work is impossible, hopeless is necessary on one hand. But on the other hand, when a person starts working, based on this new integral methodology he encounters various inverse transitions; he rises and falls because he must constantly feel himself in and out of the circle and in and out of the circle again. These are start-stop, back-and-forth motions, like that of a piston when it is pushed out, it gets out, or pushed in is included. It is this way these two lines work. One line works by pushing the man egoistically, by adding even more egoism to him, and then he inevitably falls out of unity. However, he gradually comes back into it, so he goes forward and rises again.

As a result, he climbs the ladder of spiritual values that are in even stronger and stronger connection. He climbs 125 degrees and reaches his perfection when all of nature: the still, vegetative, animate, and human degrees, which doesn’t exist in our world as we mistakenly call ourselves human (separating ourselves from the animal world), exist for him in one perpetual volume. An eternal one! Because by ascending these degrees, he perceives nature in a form in which it actually exists. That is, we go beyond what is called the universe, beyond the space created by the Big Bang, and this space is no longer physical.

This is already a subject of disclosure and study for those people who will start rising. But this of course is practical attainment.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/25/12

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Question: During the second half of the twentieth century, the so-called “body-oriented psychotherapy” became popular. This refers to people who mainly perceive the world through tactile sensations. According to the integral method, once we rise to the new level, we separate from our bodies. Then, what about the people who have become accustomed to touching one another throughout their lives? What about them?

Answer: Tactile sensations naturally serve as an auxiliary element of initial contact because every person perceives certain influences through them. It is necessary to sit people in a circle where they touch each other’s knees or elbows and sometimes even hold hands and hug.

We try to sit men and women separately in different circles to annul various disturbances and give them the ability to touch freely, and so on. In other words, physical contact is very significant in the initial stage of the integral method.

For beginners, it is still very important to directly feel the people they are with. I do not think that, in the beginning, people can go online and via virtual channels begin to contact each for a virtual roundtable. It is difficult, although possible.

Question: The so-called “caressing” of a child is considered to be the model state of upbringing. As a psychotherapist, I know that there are many people who have not received enough caressing and touching in their childhood. Will the integral connection allow people to receive this sensation?

Answer: I do not know. I have not felt my students express any other need than the need to feel the next inner influence, the inner unity though tactile sensations such as holding hands and hugging each other in a circle. Nothing is leading toward caressing because all aspirations are initially directed toward inner unity.

Question: Should children be caressed?

Answer: Yes. Regrettably, we do not educate people. We do not prepare them for being parents. They do not understand this.

Question: Once a person rises above the level of the body, unites and acquires integral perception, will he be able to compensate for a lack of upbringing?

Answer: He absolutely will be able to compensate for the lack of anything! In general, once we create an integral atmosphere in the society, all the people instinctively and internally will understand the correct kind of attitude toward children, adults, and the elderly. All this already will have come into balance.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 05/25/12

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Question: Group psychotherapy has a notion of a group as a model of the world, an integral circle. When a person provides the circle with a certain model of behavior or an opinion and receives a reaction to it, he sort of completes the integrality of the picture, which he does not see without these people. Overall, this is the main work in group psychotherapy. Do we use this in the method of integral upbringing?

Answer: We also use this.

Today it is a custom to work collectively, because one person cannot do this. Only special people, geniuses, can work alone, but in general, we already see that the group initiates brainstorming.

But something different is happening here.

When we operate on the level of a soccer team, a research team, or a team of doctors, etc., we collect their common opinion at meetings where they gather and reach a certain common denominator. In a team of doctors, this averaged option is considered to be the most reliable for diagnosing a patient, and in a team of physicists it is used for research for scientific advancement. And these meetings, conferences, and consultations are repeated on the next stage.

In the method of integral upbringing, when we absorb information from one another in opposition to each other in conjunction with matching their opinions, we each develop one another and reach a certain common and already higher denominator. In other words, we do not simply add everything everyone has in the middle of a round table, but every one of us becomes enriched from everyone else by connecting randomly with one another.

At the end, let us say that I become like my nine partners, I become composed of all ten of us. The same happens with everyone else, but everyone keeps his foundation; in other words, I remain myself, but I acquire the knowledge, the sensations, and the attainment of another nine people. I already begin to look through them.

And here we really develop a very serious interaction between us. Every one of us increases his individual power, opinion, knowledge, sensations, etc. ten times.

All of this is regular group work in which there are several reciprocal methods of interaction when we share with a group, and then, when we divide into groups, strict interactions happen between us when we seem to strike sparks between us and force ourselves to reach certain acute states. We use all this.

But the integral method uses other methods, because we are not interested in attaining the maximum realization of desires and the mind on our animate, corporate, egoistic level. We are interested in ascending to the next state.

We gather, sit together, interact, and discuss problems with unity, connection, and different attitudes.

But the main thing is that there is an inner movement towards connection and unity in our discussions instead of mutual enrichment according to the principle of “I will take from everyone else.” Even though this also exists: I want to take from everyone else the strength to advance forward, the goal of unity, because each one of them has an individual movement towards this goal and I need all the strength.

And thus, everyone benefits from everyone else; in other words, instead of ten, we get 100 people since every person consists of ten. We increase our common aspiration towards unity by ten.

And besides, with all sorts of cross-conversations, phrases, and talks, inside them there is the most important thing: I open my mouth and listen, I open my ears and I hear, only with a single purpose of uniting with them on the inside into a single whole. Most important is when there is an enormous pressure to create something common outside of each one of us, inside our common information, for this unity to be above us, to create a community, which would keep us inside it like drops of water, which merge into a single common drop that can no longer be divided. This is the kind of state we want to reach.

When we try to do this and we conduct our desires through our conversations, we rouse the inner force of nature, which integrally holds together the entire universe. If we do this, it turns out that we form ourselves under the influence of this force of nature.

We begin to rouse the power that always developed us evolutionarily and pushed us forward. Now it no longer pushes us from behind with suffering, as it did before, but we direct ourselves towards it, and obligate it to pull us forward.

There are people, who do not wish to study, and they always get pushed “with a stick from behind.” There are people who follow the program. And there are people who go ahead of the program, they want more and more.

We want to advance fast, strive ahead on our own, and obligate nature to do this. This is practically the essence of the entire method.

In other words, we consciously use the same force of nature, and in this way we run ahead of the train. But this helps us rid ourselves of suffering that pushes us from behind and this accelerates our development. When we rouse this force of nature, and it influences us, we see how we pass these stages, we begin to learn this program, see the influence of this force, and become acquainted with it.

We suddenly enter the part of nature, where this entire enormous mechanism exists: forces, fields, systems of governance of our world, etc. We see what makes the atoms and the molecules spin, what makes everything connect, and how we operate throughout our entire journey, how I am now able to move my arms, since all this comes from there! Natural forces rouse us, and this is the way we operate.

In other words, we rise to the level of decision-making, the level, where the system of governance operates, and we begin to rouse it, begin acquainting ourselves with it, and become its active participants. Practically, we no longer pay attention to what happens with us on our level in this world. This world seems to fade in our sensations because we already exist on the level of forces, and not their consequences. And this is why this becomes most important to us; we already exist in it. It is like adapting to the next level, the next dimension.

This is where mankind needs to rise. This state is called “Adam,” “Man,” which practically does not exist in our world. In our world, we are merely rational animals because we service our corporeal, animal part.

In reality, the integral method is very simple and very practical. Today we really need to realize it.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” #33, 5/25/12

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash, “Concerning Bestowal,” (Starting with: “One must see” To: “To understand the above”)

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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts “Beresheet Bet (Genesis 2),” Lesson 138

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 2, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 111, Lesson 28

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“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 39, Lesson 14

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Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 28: …And then we embark on a new kind of labor—to insert all that exaggerated will to receive in the form of bestowal. Then it is healed, because now it obtained equivalence of form. … It is only that in the meantime it has been given to the Klipot for purification. But in the end, it must not be a different body.

There is a desire to receive that was created by the Creator. It isn’t the desire that we all have to sustain our animal body, but a desire that is outside this world that was given to us in order to correct it, to correct our attitude to others.

Everything that is outside the attitude to others doesn’t count at all. Our “animal” part is characterized by desires for food, sex, family, money, respect, and knowledge. It doesn’t matter what form they take; they don’t count at all.

Education, culture, ethics and other values are part of our world only because we think about correcting a person’s attitude to such things by attributing some significance to them. But we were initially given a clear instruction: “Love thy friend as thyself.” It is a comprehensive, universal principle. This is the only thing we have to correct and the only direction we should aim at, regardless of all the other desires. It is in the attitude towards others that the “shattering of the vessels” occurred, and it is there that we discover the upper Light, the adhesion, by the correction.

Kabbalists say that we have to discover the egoistic desire in the mutual relations with others and to acknowledge the fact that it is all for my own benefit instead of the benefit of others. Everything is measured in relation to others, and it is according to this criterion that we call the desire to receive an “evil inclination,” as Kabbalists define it.

If my power is aimed at my self-benefit and not at the good of others, it is called the “evil inclination.” Now I need to turn it into a good inclination so that the same power, the same desire, will not be for my own benefit but for the benefit of others. Why is that? Because by that, we bring contentment to the Creator.

If I work this way, I summon the Light that Reforms, the force that corrects me by ascents and descents. Now I consider my good attitude towards others as an “ascent,” while in a “descent” I see that I am still against bestowal upon others.

I continue these clarifications, until all my desire to receive is actually “dead” and is incapable of anything. Then from the state of death, I revive it and reach the “resurrection of the dead,” and thus reach Gmar Tikkun (the final correction).

So everything takes place within my desire to receive that is aimed at others—individually and towards the environment, and generally towards the Creator. We should be aware of this in a strong and clear manner.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: Why is quality much more important that quantity in spirituality?

Answer: Because the attainment of Godliness is qualitative and not quantitative. In fact there is no quantity; it is all one. There is one desire and one Light and the connection between makes it one. All our work is qualitative.

Thanks to his correction, the created being learns the Creator’s essence and the attitude towards Him within the upper Light. Everything that was initially created within the desire to receive, according the Creator’s desire, was meant to reveal Him to a certain extent. He himself, Atzmuto, is still unattainable, but the Creator has dedicated a part of Himself to the creation. Thus the desire to receive that must be fulfilled to the fullest was created in order to discover the one who created it. We can’t do more than that. Kabbalists imply that there are additional ascents, but we don’t know about that.

So all our attainment is qualitative, and there are no calculations in it. Although we use numbers, we actually count qualitative revelations. Even in our world, if we checked things carefully, we would see that there are only qualitative parameters and not quantitative ones. If we understand that things are not exactly the same, then the quantitative calculations become impossible.

But our discernment and our attainment are weak: In the meantime, we don’t discern qualitative parameters and don’t know how to approach them. Only later, from the whole vessel, will I be able to discover the quality of things and define them accurately since they will all be part of me. In the meantime, we work according to quantity.

Question: So how can we measure quality?

Answer: It’s revealed only in the depth of the desire. But since we have no other choice, we describe it in quantitative terms: “125 degrees,” “6,000 years,” “600,000 souls,” etc. Our egoistic language is all based on quantitative concepts, and the quality doesn’t matter. In the past it was important, but since the Middle Ages and even some time before that, we began to develop only quantitatively while quality has become less important.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: So far I receive pleasure from receiving, since I cannot be in contact with a higher level of receiving pleasure from bestowal, what can I do to change things?

Answer: You think that you should change the receiving with bestowal and to go on enjoying as if nothing has happened? It is impossible to simply switch from one to the other, after all, then you would bestow egoistically, in order to receive, in order to enjoy like before.

Comment: But I won’t be able to enjoy the receiving if I understand that the pleasure from bestowal itself is much more sublime and not because I gain something from it.

Answer: No, it is impossible to make a corporeal calculation and a spiritual calculation in the same vessels of receiving; when you compare between receiving and bestowal, you clarify what is more worthwhile.

In spirituality the account is totally different, I make it not based on what is in the desire, but in what is in the Creator—in order to bestow upon Him.

Comment: There have been many idealists throughout history, and we don’t see that they received any reward for their actions. Some even gave their lives for a sublime goal.

Answer: That’s the way it seems. However, our nature is totally egoistic, and it is all a desire to enjoy. We can see it in little children and even more in adults. If there is “matter” it cannot be anything but a desire to receive.

So the “idealists” as you see it do not exist. They are simply people whose desire is aimed differently; they enjoy giving to others and they feel good about it. Their intention is the same intention to enjoy, but externally it is expressed differently, it is expressed in giving.

How is an idealist different from a mother who takes care of her child? She also gives him everything. So why don’t we call her an “idealist”? It is because it is her child and we understand that nature obliges her to take care of him, just like animals do.

On the other hand, an idealist operates for the benefit of strangers, and we don’t see what motivates him. But the same concern is part of his nature too; he enjoys giving to others and so he acts accordingly. Eventually, there is no ideal here; it is nature that motivates such people. He doesn’t work against his ego, but rather in a way that is natural for him. If you forbid him to take care of others, he will be ready to kill you, since by that you will be depriving him of the possibility of enjoyment. So it is the same desire to receive that manages the idealist.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/8/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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