Opinion (Lester R. Brown, president, Earth Policy Institute, Washington, World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse): “In the summer of 2010, record high temperatures scorched Moscow from late June through mid-August. … The record heat shrank Russia’s grain harvest from roughly 100 million tons to 60 million tons. This 40-percent drop and the associated grain export ban helped drive world wheat prices up 60 percent in two months, raising bread prices worldwide. …

“If the July temperature in Chicago were to average 14 degrees above the norm, as it did in Moscow, there would be chaos in world grain markets. Grain prices would quickly climb off the chart. Food prices would soar worldwide. Many grain-exporting countries, trying to hold down domestic food prices, would restrict or even ban exports, as they did in 2007–08.

“Oil-exporting countries would try to barter oil for grain. Low-income grain importers would lose out. Instead of being dominated by scenes of smoke and fire in Moscow, the TV evening news would run live footage of food riots in low-income grain-importing countries and carry reports of spreading hunger, falling governments, and failing states. With governments collapsing and with confidence in the world grain market shattered, the global economy could start to unravel.”

My Comment: Nature forces us into the corner, and it will be doing this until we realize that we have to change ourselves instead of the world.
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Question: Should we only be telling about the integral methodology to those people who have problems?

Answer: I think that we simply need to disseminate the knowledge about the presence of an integral methodology. Gradually, in a short time, people will start to “lighten up,” to understand, and to feel that the only possibility to survive is exactly in this.

We stand in front of such serious problems that humanity has never faced. Man has entered into an opposition with nature. He has never reached this border before. And now he has arrived at it and is facing a wall that is not letting us go any further. This is, on the one hand.

While on the other hand, the developing force is pushing against us, pressing us against the wall in front of us. And we will have to do something about it.

That is why it is necessary to give people the knowledge, data, and information, at least about the fact that the integral methodology exists, that now we are undergoing this kind of a development, and that there is no other way out. At the same time, we need to teach, having the latest scientific data as our base.
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From the Virtual Lesson7/15/12

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Today, many are already saying that we have come to a state, when we need to be changing not the world around us, but man himself. Man has always stood in the middle and changed the society, industry, and technology—everything around. It is not so now. Now all of that is falling out of our hands.

We must first change man, and then we will be able to create a new environment around him, new social, political, economic, and other relations. Only after that will we understand how to change the world.

That is why, today, nobody has any methodologies, no “tools” to change anything. Many recognize this today. What people only started to sense earlier, 20-30 years ago, to slightly realize it ten years ago, today is being talked about it. It is not in the mass media yet, but they are already talking and understanding that the world, having gone through the post-industrial state, the postmodern state, must now enter a new state.

And the next state of the world is the change of the human. We must step up to the new level on which we will become fundamentally different, and on it, we will build a completely new world. This is not fiction; we will see this. It is advisable to talk about it, desirable to keep trying it, because this way we decrease the suffering and blows on the way.

I think that within the coming half-year this will be felt on a very large scale.
[84149]
From the Virtual Lesson 7/15/12

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The difficulty in our work is a result of the oppositeness of the states between which we have to balance ourselves, on what is called the “middle line.” On the one hand, you should be proud that you are following this road. Otherwise you’ll fall under the influence of the world around you and will become infected by its “viruses”: you’ll start dealing with money, respect, control, knowledge and many other empty goals the world is full of.

On the other hand, the internal work requires modesty and humility towards the group and Creator so that they’ll pass on to you the right values. If a person constantly carries on such a correct clarification—as to what he should be impressed by and what he should ignore, who he should be in contact with and from whom to keep away, he thus chooses the right environment. He builds this environment since it’s not just a group he has come to and in which he exists.

He determines what is important and what is not important in every society he finds himself, and so he builds his environment, as it says, “one chooses a good environment.” The environment doesn’t exist in its ready form, each of us has to clarify this concept and build an environment for himself.

This work is perpetual, not a onetime event in which it is enough to make a decision once and leave it at that. I have to make new decisions at every moment, and I realize that this is the only opportunity I have of free will. It is the only way that I can hasten my advancement while everything else are already the outcomes, which I don’t even touch.

I cannot change anything and if I make efforts I will only spoil my advancement. Not only will I not advance, as I don’t correct the only thing that needs to be corrected, but I also will spoil my attitude toward other things that were supposed to be the result of my good free will, as I treated them as the first main tool.

Besides, I have to clarify my attitude towards pleasure and suffering, since if the Creator is good and benevolent, why does He send me sufferings? Do I feel these sufferings because of my corruption or is it the Creator who treats me so cruelly? What can I attribute to Him, if anything?

A person clarifies these things until he comes to the conclusion that his goal is to attain the force of bestowal, the force of faith, which eventually turns into the force of love. Love is the force of connection by which a person receives the image of the Creator and becomes like Him, which is called to become Adam (human in Hebrew).

The Creator dresses in a person and gives one’s desire to receive the form of bestowal. If this is what a person demands, one reaches such a simple prayer and asks for simple mercy.

But all these actions are revealed together with great confusion and changes of different opposing states until eventually a person ends one’s clarification and it becomes clear that there is nothing but the simple upper Light.

The attribute of bestowal begins to dominate him and it determines the only reality he knows now. All the opposing, conflicting states were given to him only so that he would feel and understand in his mind and heart, having tasted pleasure and sufferings, and attaining the truth and the lie that there is nothing in this world and nothing controls it but the attribute of bestowal.

All the attributes that a person has felt along the way, which are opposite from the attribute of bestowal, were only the shadow of the attribute of bestowal that helped him learn, understand, and acquire it. So eventually he reaches simple mercy, which is the pure attribute of bestowal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/12, Shamati #113

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First and foremost, an integral family is a family where the two understand that they have to be one unified whole. They have to rise above their natural differences.

All of us are absolutely different from each other, and we don’t even realize to what degree. When our egoism bursts into flame and we exist in the state of shock, fear, or irritation or in the state of happiness and euphoria, we experience the rise of such inclinations within us that we, possibly, did not even suspect existed.

It follows that we all have to come to some integral interaction despite of all our differences. What is it? In no way do we break a person or change him. We only help him interact with others like in a puzzle where the protuberance and concavity of different parts of the picture allow one to create a connection, a single picture between them. Certainly, here a person needs to have some basics in psychology, in the work with oneself and others, and to understand them and oneself. If we give all of that to the people, they will undoubtedly become different.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 7/8/12

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Rabash “Concerning the Importance of Friends”

Part 2: Workshop

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 1, Part 3, Chapter 4, Item 7, “Ohr Pnimi,” Item 11, Lesson 80

Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “Article 22”

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Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
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We should yearn for unity and constantly “hit” on this unity point until we reveal and attain what we want; until for the first time we’ll feel the spiritual world that is revealed in unity, according to the law of equivalence of form. Time after time we clarify things and discover new details and new manners on the way. Many phenomena are discovered as a result of the pressure and so we need to press to a certain extent. Then the Light that is inside will be revealed to us.

Question: What is this pressure?

Answer: Pressure is searching. As it says, “On my bed at nights I searched for my beloved.” I lie in the dark, which means that all the parts of my spiritual Partzuf are on one level, and I am without the Light, without an understanding, but I am searching for: Who is sending me these states? What for? What does he want from me? How can I contact Him? And then He is revealed.

Question: But where is the pressure here? The search seems like a pleasant adventure….

Answer: It isn’t good if we don’t feel pressure. Our mutual guarantee should provide us all with it. We need an internal pressure, an inevitable question that doesn’t let go: “Will we succeed in attaining the goal or not?”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/31/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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We hear more and more new details on the news about the general global crisis, although many things still remain unsaid. The real situation is much worse than we know. The world leaders themselves are not aware of the actual extent of the problem.

So we have to disseminate the method of correction as fast as we can. It’s our duty. We haven’t developed it enough. We have to accelerate things and “hit the gas pedal.” Then we’ll be able to prepare it and to present it to the world.

In Israel things are also going from bad to worse, and this is only “mild decrease” from Above. They are meant to make us feel pressure and to want to “sweeten” them. We have to explain to people exactly how we can sweeten the bitterness.

We hear about it, we understand what’s going on to a certain level; we have received an awakening from Above. If we don’t try as hard as we can to develop the method in order to present it to the people, we are putting ourselves in grave danger.

We’ll be the first to experience all the troubles in order to awaken us to fulfill our vocation. Baal HaSulam writes about it at the end of “The Introduction to The Book of Zohar.” He says that the Jewish people are responsible for the nations of the world and so we are also responsible for the Jewish people. If people have been awakened, if they can hear what needs to be done and they don’t do it, I won’t rejoice at their troubles, but I am telling you in advance that the troubles will undoubtedly arrive. It’s because the Creator has assigned a special role for each one and we mustn’t escape it.

Here is a passage from Baal HaSulam, Letter 18: And so there is no correction for a person, but to straighten all the present moments and all future ones so that they shall be dedicated and presented for His great name. Whoever postpones a moment before Him, since it is difficult, reveals his stupidity to everyone, since all the worlds, and all the times are worthless for him, when the Light of His face is not dressed in the changes of the times, although a person does change by them in his work.

We have no choice; we have to devote all these moments. If you don’t do that you automatically summon upon yourself the right account. Your inaction will not drown in piles of overdue paper work like in the case of public servants, and no one will pity you, since we are in a system that has clear laws.

You were awakened. By fulfilling it you feel a positive response and can go on. What’s more, you are not required to do more then you can, since this is a closed system that takes all the parameters into account. But if you don’t fully respond, you’ll feel the pressures that are put upon you accordingly.

So if you are sitting and waiting for something, it’s a great pity, the results are inevitable. I don’t understand what you are waiting for if you already have the opportunity to connect through the group and to wake up from the dream. Let’s hope we will be wiser.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/31/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: Where is the point from which my freewill begins? What does it include? How do I see the world through it? How do I divide things into important and unimportant, major or trivial, how do I arrange my priorities?

Answer: Freewill begins from a point called the “root of the soul.” This is where the soul begins. So the search for this point is the main thing and we go through it and learn during the preparation period.

The clarification of the point of freewill is possible only when we reach the first level of bestowal, the lowest one. Then we begin to understand what we have to choose and from what. After all, we always choose between two options. If we had to choose between two identical things we wouldn’t be able to choose. It would be hard to make a choice so we won’t decide. We have to find a defect or an advantage in one compared to the other.

So freewill is only possible if I choose the attribute of bestowal instead of the attribute of receiving. If I can tell the difference between these two attributes and decide that I definitely prefer the attribute of bestowal rather than the attribute of receiving, then according to this scale I will already be able to start clarifying what is better and what is worse in every aspect.

This means that first, in order to choose freely, I have to be free of my desire to enjoy and to know what to choose: the attribute of bestowal, and to know that I should choose it at every moment. This determines my level. So every time I choose the attribute of bestowal instead of the attribute of receiving, I advance. This is the only thing I should do.

But the first point of freewill in which we exit exile and become “a free nation in our country,” which means in our desire, free of our ego, appears at the moment a person transcends the Machsom, the barrier to the spiritual world. Until then it’s the time of preparation.

After we transcend the Machsom, we also advance in an “unsown path” that goes through the desert and then we choose the Land of Israel, which means that we want to reach the desire that is aimed straight to the Creator (Yashar El), and is totally in order to bestow. But we still don’t feel benefit and advancement. These are the “forty years of wandering in the desert,” although it seems that it’s possible to cross it on foot in a week, like the Sinai desert. Why should we wander in it for forty years?

This time is essential until a person attains all the discernments inside him and can choose the desire to bestow called “the Land of Israel,” instead of the egoistic desire called “Egypt,” in a state that is called a “desert” for him. In the meantime nothing attracts him to bestowal. After he enters the Land of Israel, he encounters greater problems. After all, the desire to enjoy begins to receive spiritual pleasures there and he has to overcome them so that he can receive in order to bestow.

To sum up, the meaning of freewill is to what extent a person always prefers “faith above reason,” which means the attribute of bestowal over the attribute of receiving.

In corporeality it’s expressed in constantly seeing the revelation of the Creator in every state I go through. After all, He gave me these feelings and He presents to me the world around me. He plays with me from both directions, both from within and from the outside, and leaves me only one point of freewill in order that I correctly stabilize my attitude in the internal world He has imprinted in me towards the external world, so that He can be revealed. Eventually I have to connect myself and the external world in order to reach the one and unique form called “There is none else besides Him.”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/12, Shamati #113 

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