Question: I have a friend who grew up in Caucasus where there is a tradition of family connections that are very warm. She went to Moscow and built a career for herself there, but she completely lost the connection with her family and is not able to re-establish the previous relationships. Is it worthwhile for a person who bases himself on the principles of integral education to build integral environments around him: to attract the family, relatives, and friends? Or is it possible to be satisfied with friends outside of the family circle, those who are correctly structured?

Answer: I think that a person needs to introduce integral education at home, in the family. Does one need to act similarly in a mutual way with the rest of the relatives? It is hard to say, since relationships with relatives vary, and it is impossible to give definite advice here.

There are people who connect with relatives once a year and that might even be virtually, by phone. And there are those who meet only at weddings or funerals. Everyone is completely different.

There are relatives with close kinship, like your friend, and of course in Moscow she wouldn’t find anything like that. You cannot exchange that for anything else.

You need to help her get rid of the emptiness, from the feeling of lack of attention, worry, understanding, and everything else. But the big problem is being in Russia with Caucasian roots. That is not simple at all. It is a completely different mentality.

But if she finds a group that really has the tendency for mutual help, mutual connection, then that will help her in many ways. I think, that at least she won’t suffer. She will be an object of attention toward her and a topic of her attention.
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From KabTV’s “Building a Social Environment” 9/ 24/12

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