On June 28, 2012, the Mutual Responsibility Toronto group successfully organized the first round table in Toronto. The topic of the roundtable was “The relationship between people in light of the global crisis.”

[Show slideshow]

The discussion began at the central roundtable that was attended by:

Ryan Dyment (the Zeitgeist Movement, Toronto), Executive Director of the Institute for a Resource-Based Economy, which distributes materials that help one understand the dependent nature of the modern economy, a holistic view of the future of humanity and its relationship with the environment;

Trey Winney, a senior organizer with Occupy Toronto;

Barbara Elizabeth Mercer, author, poet, and visual artist who since 1962 has completed work for TVOntario, CBC, the Canadian Opera Company, and the National Ballet of Canada, among others;

Julian Edwards, active member and spokesperson for Mutual Responsibility;

Eric Hellman, communications coach, writer, and consultant, whose past projects include co-coordinating the Sustainability Roundtable at the UN-Habitat World Urban Forum (Vancouver), co-organizing the first Spirituality at Work conference in Toronto, organizing the UN International Day of Peace event at the World’s Fair, and co-founding the first Blue Box recycling program and the Recycling Council of Ontario;

Tom Cooper, Director of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction.

Patrick Legault, representative of Mutual Responsibility, Toronto.

After the central roundtable answered and discussed questions from the audience, all the participants participated at the roundtables discussions by answering two questions:

1. What are the two core values that you think should be at the head of our society in the 21st century?
2. What am I personally willing to do in order to begin this transition to a new, positive environment?

Impressions from the roundtable participants included:

• There was a feeling that those who were present there were not only ready for this event, but were waiting for it for a very, very long time. The roundtable participants said that it was the only right platform for everyone that allows one to be heard and to listen to others, to gather all that we have at one roundtable. People were very happy at the end of the evening and asked when our next meeting would take place. At the roundtable, there was a very precise feeling of how the world is becoming united, and everything that we have heard and learned thus far, suddenly became very practical.
• How can I explain what stands and hides behind the words? How can I convey the thought and feeling, which is deeper than the deepest social discussions and topics? It is impossible to convey, it is necessary to feel. Our answers are in the roots of our relationship with each other.
• Many thanks to all who put so much effort in organizing the roundtable yesterday! Everything was thought out, starting from paper and pencils on the tables, water and cookies, to the logistics, videos, moderators … As a result, all the participants felt our united intention. It was wonderful to see the faces and hear the voices of speakers who wanted to express the feelings that we wanted to convey to everyone.
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In the News (from the MailOnline): “Racism is hardwired into the brain, and people can be prejudiced without knowing it, say scientists – and it operates unconsciously.

“The same circuits in the brain that allow us to see which ethnic group a person belongs to overlap with others that drive emotional decisions.

“The result is that even right-thinking individuals make unconscious decisions based on a person’s race.

“Brain scans have proved that interactions with people of other ethnic backgrounds set off reactions that may be completely unknown to our conscious selves.

“The finding may force researchers to think about racism in entirely new ways.

“It’s possible, the researchers say, that even right-thinking, ‘egalitarian’ people could harbour racist attitudes without knowing.

“The chemicals involved in perceiving ethnic backgrounds overlap with those for processing emotion and making decisions, according to new research.”

My Comment: It is impossible to rebuild the brain; humanity will suffer from its nature; we can blame it for all our evil inclinations, and thus the solution is possible only in the correction of our egoistic nature. It can be changed only with the force that has created us and that develops us, our egoism.

Today, we have reached the height of egoistic development, and that is why we can reveal the finiteness of our development. We face a dead end that can become the point of our birth in new qualities. This birth if pre-programmed. Only that path towards it is not programmed; it can be through sufferings or conscious, like with a stubborn child. Only the transformation of our very nature will change us and our whole life. First, we need to recognize that human development is negative!
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Question: In ancient Greece, the birthplace of the foundations of psychology, four types of people were distinguished according to their individual characteristics: sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic, and choleric.

In modern psychology, the branch dealing with diagnostics of individual qualities is very broad. A person wants to know about himself and his properties in order to maximize his potential.

Why don’t we use, let’s say, 16 types of individual properties in the integral methodology, instead of only four?

Answer: Because these are egoistic qualities corresponding to four types of egoism. But there is one more, the fifth one, which all of the other ones come from and which doesn’t have its own shape. Indeed, this corresponds to a four-level structure of human perception and his soul. But all of that is related to egoism.

While egoism was still at work, we really could divide people into these types, and make calculations with respect to their zodiac signs. Up to this day, many magazines publish all kinds of divination.

But we see that this is nothing we can really work with. Why do we relate to a fact that has outlived itself? We have become different people, and we no longer have that. Outwardly, each corresponding temperament manifests itself, of course, but there is nothing we can do with it today.

If before you could pick a pair according to the sign of the zodiac, try to select a couple according to astrology today. Would you get happy marriages from that? No. If you give some advice to a sanguine and other advice to a choleric, would they be happy? No. So why do we need this old classification?

It used to be correct about the older active egoism that was linear, individual, and directed towards self-needs.

But now I no longer have my personal needs. I don’t want anything. They went up to the next level where I feel some need, but can’t tell what it is. I don’t see where to find the source of fulfilling my needs. I get into some kind of sexual perversion or spend time somehow, in order to forget myself. In addition to that, I get into drugs, terror, or something else because I don’t see the source of pleasure.

And it can come to me only through the integral society when I place myself into it. Thus, I must enter the integral society and then in there, in its heart, I’ll find the source of my fulfillment. But today, a person is still not at the level where he realizes that.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/24/12

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Question: A member of our organization, a very emotional adult, developed sleep problems. He went to see a specialist and was prescribed a medication called Ritalin. I was simply shocked by this. His problem is that he does not express himself enough, according to his nature, and the doctor limits his self-expression even more.

Should this impulsive, naturally vocal person still be given a place in the organization for him to realize himself?

Answer: If you help him properly set his mind towards group work, he will feel such strength from it, such a warm organization, that he will have no problem restraining himself, so other people will have no problem actively participating in the discussion. This happens automatically; every person becomes its balanced particle under the influence of the common field. Thus no pressure or limitation is needed here.

We understand that specialists have no other tools at their disposal; they automatically prescribe Ritalin, and this basically is the essence of their profession, if it may be called so today.

People need to be put together in a circle, given a proper intention, attitude, and instructions; you need to watch them to make sure that they behave in an undulating manner in relation to the group, going up and down. Everyone moves similar to the way you churn cream to make butter: above the group – beneath the group, above the group – beneath the group.

And suddenly a new body appears between them, which has an absolutely new life of its own. And as they feel themselves in it, they begin to feel that this new thing is the next stage of my development, I am in it. Instead of associating myself with my body, I associate myself with this something common we have all begotten together, and there I am no longer sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, or melancholic, I simply include everything in me. I am all the qualities put together.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/24/12

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The desire to receive cannot be spurred without the “bridle and the reins” of its rider. It must be under someone’s control, like donkey that is given a sack of grain, blindfolded, and directed in one direction. Only then can the desire to receive work.

Our advancement and our correction occur only by the Light. The Light manages us by sometimes increasing its pressure and sometimes letting us feel some freedom. But we have to feel and understand where exactly this freedom is given to us. It’s possible that where we think that we are free, we are not free at all. If we understand where we can react and in what way exactly, then we fulfill our participation in our independent development.

But before we can do that, we have to discover how the Light constantly creates and revives our desire to receive by directly managing it and keeping it on a short leash. All its actions are meant so that the desire will be impressed by the Light’s actions upon it, and instead of just feeling good or bad, it will begin to find out: “Why do I feel good and why do I feel bad, why does one feeling change into the other feeling, what is required of me, and how can I avoid the bad feeling and draw the good feeling?”

This means that I have to know what’s good or bad for me, and what the plan is of the One who changes my feelings from one extreme to the other. How can I find and perceive Him, how can I discover His plan and understand His intention? On the whole, all these egoistic questions stem from the fact that I feel bad in this life since otherwise the desire to receive wouldn’t be evoked. The bad feeling is a feeling of deficiency that requires a filling.

At first I just don’t feel as good as I did before. Then it becomes less and less pleasant, until finally the level of pleasantness comes down to zero. Then it becomes worse and worse, until it becomes unbearable. This means that the states I am in can be very different ranging from very bad to very good.

Thus the Light plays with my desire to receive and brings about changes all the time, so that the desire will learn about itself and about the different fillings. After having perceived enough internal discernments, a person can stabilize his attitude towards the One who summons them and want to discover Him. This is because He is the source of all the good and evil in the life of the desire to receive. Thus we advance.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/18/12, Shamati #8

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When we begin to feel something regarding the source of the Light and the Light itself it is an advanced level. We want to discover it, to perceive it, to manage it. It’s a high level in the development of the ego called “Pharaoh,” who asks: “Who is the Lord that I should listen to Him? I want to manage my own life by myself!”

I agree that the Creator exists and that He manages the world, but I want to manage it in His place! After many blows, when I see that I can’t do it, I begin to figure out what’s going on, the true goal of that manager, what he wants, and for what purpose.

Then I feel that the concealment of the Manager is because of my desire to reveal Him in order to manage Him. These is why the manager conceals himself until I begin to feel that there’s no choice and give up—I decide to get to know Him. Thus, a special attitude towards the Creator is born in the created being who wants to take his place. Now he changes his attitude to such an extent that he wants to resemble the Creator. He then begins to discover the Creator’s plan. Until then he hoped that he’d have a chance to manage the world, to know its laws, and to turn it as the desire to receive pleases.

But then he begins to understand that it’s impossible and that it’s better to contact the Creator in order to know His plan and to try to follow Him, which is called “to keep the laws of nature.” Now he understands that there are rules to the entire way he has experienced. Everything is subject to a special formula and it’s by the concealment that a person gets a chance to participate in his own growth.

Despite the emptiness that he feels in his vessels of reception, he can rise above them and identify with the upper plan, with the Manager. Then his desire to receive doesn’t stand in his way, but rather the opposite, the bad feeling pushes a person to exit himself, to exit his ego, since he only feels pain in it. In this case it’s easier for a person to rise above this pain, above his desire to receive, and adhere to the upper plan in order to advance consciously, by knowing the Manager.

Then he sees that the shadow that hid the pleasures and the Creator from him actually acted in his favor. It says, “I delight to sit in His shade and His fruit is sweet to my palate,” which means that he already receives pleasure from the concealment since he sees that he is born anew from it. This is because the Creator never wanted to cause him pain; the Creator is good and benevolent. A mother’s womb (Rechem in Hebrew) comes from the Hebrew word Rachman (merciful), and although a person’s birth is under great pressure and with labor pains, it comes from the love and mercy that the Creator shows a person.

A person must constantly check himself and see under what shadow he is, whether he’s under the “shadow of Holiness” or the “Shadow of the Sitra Achra” (the other side). This is determined by the way a person comes out of every situation, and where this shadow takes him, to which actions it leads him, and to how he determines his state. Whether he feels that it helps him comes closer to the Manager, which means that the Manager seems to playing with him, drawing his attention and calling him to get to know Him. Then he sees that the shadow was not on the Manager, not on the Creator, but rather on his own ego.

But a person may not understand all this and demand only one thing: that the shadow will disappear from the world. Here the main question is solved—can a person attribute all the shadows to his desire to receive and understand that this is how the Creator helps him restrict his desire and create a Masach (screen) and the Returning Light and get closer to the Creator?
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/18/12, Shamati #8

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam, Igrot, “Letter 13”

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts “Beresheet Bet (Genesis 2),” Lesson 131

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 2, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 64, Lesson 21

“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 17, Lesson 7

Questions About the Congress of Consolidation in North of Israel

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Unity holds the greatest value. If we achieve unity, we will solve all problems. If we don’t reach it, no actions will help us fix the problems.

In essence, this is a very simple principle. But it is not directly perceived and accepted by people; it is absorbed indirectly through exercises and games. The main thing is to let the Light act so that it can tell a person through sensations that awaken within him.

Then people will understand that this is indeed the case. One would wonder why he changed his mind so suddenly? But he began to feel inside that it was exactly in this way that everything could be arranged.

Look, how crazy the world behaves struggling to hold on to the old systems that are already crumbling. Everything is falling apart. The state is a thousand times worse than it is presented to an ordinary person and even worse than it is felt by those who are informed and in power.

It is like we are on raft that is rotten through and through, in the middle of the ocean. And we don’t know about this! We are surrounded by sharks, the ropes holding the raft together are about to break at any moment, and we will find ourselves in the depths of the sea.

Such a feeling arises when you look at the world today. But people cannot do anything. They cannot understand themselves that they can solve the problems only through unity, because this is already a higher, spiritual principle. That is why we are trying to bring it through workshops, discussions, games, and through everything we do.
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From a “Talk About General Questions” 6/29/12

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Question: Can we say that only my attitude separates my current state from the next state?

Answer: Attitude determines everything, or in other words, the intention. When you change your intention, you change the worlds in your perception. The difference between this world and the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) is in the intention. All the states differ only according to your attitude, to your intention. In fact there is nothing but the state of Ein Sof. Everything else is a picture that we depict by our intention.

Question: Today I hate and I don’t like the people I come in contact with during the day. On the other hand, if I respected them, any contact with them could bring me pleasure and I would gladly help them all day long. Is it a good connection that I need or is the force that will be revealed the important factor here?

Answer: It is the main thing. The point is not to be “nice,” or “sweet.” You have to unite with others because in the unity you discover the Creator. In Kabbalah, this is called a Mitzva (commandment): You are fulfilling a commandment.

On the whole, the purpose of all our actions is so that we will become equal to Him, like a guest who becomes equal to the host. In other words, to bring the Creator contentment, just like He brings us. So the right attitude towards others should be aimed at attaining a good attitude towards the Creator. Without it, why do I need to be in good relations with those around me? For my own good? This is absolutely contrary to what is expected of me.

So it says: “The end of the action is in the initial thought,” and “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one”; it is on this principle that we should establish everything.

A Kabbalist uses any contact with others only in order to advance. He performs necessary physical actions in order to make a living, but he always calculates what energy, what attention is required of him in order to perform spiritual actions and thus bring the Creator contentment. Thus a Kabbalist uses the world in order to please the Creator.

Question: Does he enjoy doing this?

Answer: Yes, not in order to enjoy, but in order to perform the necessary actions. The pleasure is not the reason for his actions anymore.

Such an attitude changes everything and thanks to it you see the spiritual world. After all, your relations with others and with the Creator become clearer and you discover the network of forces, the network of relations, the network of thoughts, the network of intentions, and the network of operations. This is what actually exists. Then our world gradually becomes less important for us and so does its form, as it “evaporates” into this network, since it becomes meaningless.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/01/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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