Entries in the 'Education' Category

Strengthening The Nuclear Family

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Often a state is created in a family where one of the spouses, for example, the wife says: “I cannot stand my husband anymore, I am literally sick of him.” In a case like this, do we need to recommend the couple enter integral education, as this would be better than if they got divorced?

Answer: A stage of disappointment is a natural stage through which all of humanity passes. Therefore it is not necessary to pay attention to it. If we now direct the disappointed couple to a new goal, then they will quietly continue their existence with more correct and close cooperation.

They don’t need to separate at all. The moment one of the spouses sees in the other what he saw before that is beneficial, but spiritually beneficial, then certainly this union will be renewed with new intensity.

Question: How can we explain to people that they should not separate?

Answer: In general, I would not tell them that we insist upon the continued existence of their union at all; rather, I would suggest that they clarify once and for all if they are compatible with each other, whether it is worthwhile for them to divorce or do something else you can check so that both of them realize what is happening and will stop tormenting each other and that the decision is always in their hands. We only conduct a workshop where all of this becomes clear.

That is, instead of their contending for many months, within an hour everything will become clear to them and after the workshop they will go out together in peace, already with completely different thoughts, with another intention; they will no longer intend to divorce.
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From Kab TV’s “Through Time” 9/21/13

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A Place For The Clarification Of Mutual Relationships In A Family

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In what way does a family workshop in which five married couples participate differ from a regular workshop composed of ten different individuals ?

Answer: If married couples are in a workshop and not just ten people, then, in general, there is an internal understanding between them, a common theme, for the problem is one that existed in them from the start.

Therefore, when we sit them in circle and begin to clarify the problem that each one of them already has felt since birth or is experiencing, then a completely different workshop is created. On the one hand, we need to be more subtle, but on the other hand, there are opportunities for refinement, to deepen this clarification.

This is completely different work than in a workshop composed of ten people. It is intimate because it is not transmitted to the public as in the regular workshops. I don’t think it’s possible to gather one hundred fifty married couples, for this is against the atmosphere that needs to dwell among them. It is enough to take five couples, to sit them down on couches around a coffee table, as if it were in a living room, and serve coffee, create a relaxed, warm atmosphere, something that takes them to another, more intimate level. This is an excellent place for them to work on cooperation.

It is desirable that the organizers of the workshop also be a married couple.

Question: What questions do you recommend be explored among married couples? What would interest them?

Answer: First, we clarify which requirements they consider essential for a good existence in a family, and after that we move to clarify if they are truly compulsory. Are our demands regarding a partner correct or is this just a whim, some kind of secondary demand? What is truly the most important thing without which a family cannot exist? What should be the foundation of the family unit? What would this be for?

Together with this, we ask them the kind of questions that are intended to bring them to the conclusion that a family is a means for attaining the next higher level, the higher goal of existence. This is why God divided us into two precisely for this, so that, through serious work between us, we would find that singular image in which we will be like Him. As it is written, “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him” (Genesis 1:27). Therefore, we need to find the similarity between us, in other words, that characteristic of bestowal, love, and mutuality in order to become similar to the Creator in this aspect.
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From Kab TV’s “Through Time” 9/21/13

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Clarification In A Circle

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the best exercise to conduct for building  integral education for married couples? How much can a person invest himself in this training and talk about his condition, or is it better that he should act in the framework of a rigid program? Let’s say that, for fifteen minutes, we enter into the desired state, after that, we do exercises for twenty minutes, or is it possible to vary this according to the desires of the person?

Answer: No, I would not make it possible for people to disperse. However, if you want them to speak a little about something personal, then it is possible to do this, but only in particular frameworks. In principle, we are interested in their experiencing all this within.

The long expressions of a person’s feelings don’t interest us, especially the full, long stories. One can speak beautifully and another cannot say more than two sentences, even though he has experienced no less than the others. Therefore, I would not do this. We need the people to reach a state of shared clarification on the question in that they complete each other with their answers and even without understanding the question.

First, the people in a circle must clarify the topic. Suppose that we ask them some question, and they begin to repeat it, each in his own style, and you see how this question transforms into something completely new and different.

People will understand this. They will feel and receive the same question in ten different forms. After that, we repeat the same question, and they begin to discuss it.

I always insist that the discussions to be very relevant. Even though they will begin two or three minutes later, the first respondent can digest the question and think about the answer. Give him two minutes before responding since the others will have time to think, and he doesn’t. However, this should be a short summary of the feelings, not of the thoughts, but of the feelings.

After everyone has completed each other, we can ask them to reach some kind of common opinion because in the first round, each one expresses his understanding of the question and, after that, the entire understanding of the answer, and now it is necessary to formulate one unique question and give one unique answer to it. Can we do this or not?

Question: Do you recommend doing this with every question?

Answer: No, we give this to them as an example. However, in principle, we simply ask a question, and it doesn’t even matter what people answer. The main thing is that it will be worked out.

However, we construct our next question on every previous question, and if people find the right answer for it, then they are already proceeding correctly.
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From Kab TV’s “Through Time” 9/21/13

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Connection As A Means Of Salvation

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn light of the growing global crisis, our main goal is to provide the world with the method of integral education. The Light that Reforms will take care of everything else and will direct the development so that people will not need anything else from us:”Just teach us on this path so  we will be able to fulfill the connection between ourselves.” Our momentum will continue to live in them, to”talk” to them, and they will find the means to fulfill  themselves, by feeling the general connection.

The whole world is approaching a new phase where nations are no longer able to provide for their citizens. Even if they wanted to, the governments will not be able to. Bankruptcies will be widespread, and budgets will have no money left for “social excesses.”

If we don’t change the economic trend and move from the current economy to a new economy, there will only be a gradual decline and a chain of collapses.

On the whole, everyone already agrees with this and sees that there is no turning back. Not one sector in society, in the nation, will be able to receive more from the state. On the contrary, the “pie” will only get smaller and smaller. Today even developed countries are coming to the conclusion that they need to raise taxes.

Ultimately in the face of impending recession there is only one solution:an integral system formed by the people, by the people. There is no other way.

Things will work out so that people will be ready internally for integral education, and they will create the derivatives themselves. The Light will provide them with a different mind and feeling from a different level where one system operates. Then they will lack nothing; on the contrary,  and they will feel prosperity and comfort; they will be satisfied with an ordinary standard of living and will enjoy it so much their happiness will soar to new heights.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/13, Writings of Rabash

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The Family Of The New Era

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is a family in terms of the method of integral education and upbringing?

Answer: A family is a union of two people who have a common goal that is outside of each of them. The couple builds this state between them by desiring to rise to it, and then they really unite in it, in one integral whole.

A family is a common unit built on a mutual inclusion in each other. A typical union, the union of two people at the household level cannot be called a family if they are not connected, do not dissolve into each other, do not become one integral whole, creating an average, a third component, the family. For example, on a physiological level, the family is a father, a mother, and a child. The child is the creation from both of them. So a family is both spouses and the third part that they build together.

Question: If this family does not have a child, the third component yet, then are they still a family?

Answer: We are not talking about a physical child. If the spouses have not built their collective unity, then there is no family.

The third component is their union, their spiritual child for whom they live. They support it, it warms them up to rise to the next level. They begin to feel that because of this third component, they obtain a completely different existence.

Therefore, the family of the new society will not exist by serving themselves and their children on a physical level by meeting physiological needs, but only by giving spiritual fulfillment to each other.

We cannot reach the next level of humanity without the correct relationship in the family.

Question: Who does one cancel himself before in the family?

Answer: This is not a cancellation, but an understanding that the connection must be above our individual, egoistic, natural properties and tendencies that are created so that we rise above them. Therefore, spouses are partners who help each other in this process.
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From Kab TV’s “Through Time” 10/21/13

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Harmony – The Golden Middle

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is it possible, through using an interest in having a healthier body, to transform people to a higher level of understanding of a higher order?

Answer: An integral view of the world makes a person self-sufficient in everything. He will no longer want marinated crab and other delicacies. On the contrary, an aversion will appear in him for everything that is imposed, pretentious, and unnatural.

People will be satisfied with normal, basic, healthy food. Gradually, they will begin to be attracted to something simple, wholesome, and good, in their personal lives and in their diet, in everything. In a natural way from their inner guidance they will seek this resonance, this harmony in the golden middle.

It is possible to bring them to a healthy internal state, to psychological and physiological balance, only through knowing what this balance is.

Question: It follows that, first, we attract the new ones simply to whatever they are interested in learning.

Answer: Yes, this is part of the introduction, and after that we take responsibility for them. We give them an understanding of other levels and lead each one to that state that he wants to reach.

I think that in every circumstance it is precisely the integral sensation that will attract them, and they will want to continue to develop. When the person really feels his balance and inner comfort, and adheres to this state—in diet, sports and relationships with others—this will be a sign that he has brought himself to the level of normal behavior.
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From Kab TV’s “Through Time” 9/20/13

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Without Saying A Word, You Said Everything

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can we tell people we want to attract to study the integral method that with its help they will balance stress?

Answer: You can call it whatever you want, but when people come, we must sit them down in groups of ten immediately and within five to ten minutes start asking them small questions so that a flow will begins between them. The questions will go around like a ball in a roulette wheel, and people will begin to feel that there is already something “moving” between them, some kind of a connection is created. I have faith only in this.

Let nature work! Emotions don’t perceive words. The ears grasp them with difficulty, the head processes almost nothing, and the heart doesn’t respond at all! The lecturer says something from the podium and let him say it.

Let the people not just be empathetic, but rather, let them give birth to all that you want to convey to them. You need to build the training, training in a form that they will reach the right conclusions by themselves, without even hearing a word from you.

Divide your lecture into parts. Give each part a title and move in such a form that they themselves will say what you wanted to say to them. Instead of using the phrase, “There is an opinion,” ask them a question so they will search for the answer together according to certain rules, and from what comes out, continue to work. Can you imagine what experience they will get?

Without saying a word, you bring them to a discovery of their own shortcomings. Moreover, when they discover these within themselves, it is with a good relationship, from a high state of perfection, that they attained between them.

You are not the ones who showed them the negative. Rather, they see their state as negative themselves from the height of the positive they have risen to. That is, two characteristics already exist within them, positive and negative, which they discover within themselves.
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From Kab TV’s “Through Time” 10/20/13

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A Cradle Of Unity With Nature

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What changes will occur in the life of the Integral society and what will make them possible? What is the process people will be involved in?

Answer: By elevating above our individual principles and attitudes and by lowering their own opinions a little in front of the others in our small community (10 to 20 people), we begin sensing inside our unity some average collective feeling, thought, intellect, and desire. We seem to form something in common; between us is a general silhouette” that we relate to as our child.

The “child” that emerges among us warms us up and makes us share collective emotions that we usually do not experience in regular life. People start to really cherish this feeling. They gather in integral clubs and communities to renew these interesting and pleasant sensations.

If they combine all of the above with common family meals or just meeting over a cup of coffee, new associations or clubs will be created where people come there not for the sake of boasting or showcasing vanity, but to feel special. It will elevate, lift, and cleanse them, make them feel kinder, friendlier and warmer. Suddenly, they will feel that it becomes much easier for them to combat problems such as rudeness, taunts, blows, rigidity and constraints. They feel that it heals them, gives them a softer outlook on the world, and dampens all sorts of problems. This type of psychological training leads to a very bright positivism. The most important thing is that from that moment on it becomes possible for them to develop more,depending on what kind of community they are in.

There are certain communities that already exist where people have started thinking about ways to unite and simplify their existence by collective shopping, sharing warehouses, and providing mutual free help to each other because some of their members are locksmiths, some are plumbers or electricians, etc. After they began sharing communal services, all of a sudden they discovered that there are accountants, lawyers, and people with other professions among them.

In general, creating communities that are based on the principles of minimal mutual support (we are not talking about global, huge problems here) can facilitate many people’s lives. Moreover, they can invite professionals in education, and upbringing, and can organize clubs for their children, etc. This opens a vast field of activity. The main thing is that people who belong to these communities should feel that their environment nurtures each of them and becomes a source of a positive energy.

So by resolving life’s problems, they develop internally and then gradually move to the next step: obtaining a new vision and receiving new energy.

I don’t impose my point of view on anyone. I just want people to discover the opportunity to develop as one big whole, to create one unified organism out of ourselves, and on that basis to begin regarding nature differently. People begin to understand that nature is integral and interconnected as one organism. If they agree with this fact and resonate in unison with nature, if they vibrate in one frequency, they suddenly begin sensing that they exist in a unified and friendly field and that the world is really laced with benevolence with only one exception: the egoistic human nature. Many religions and faiths, as well as many physicists, psychologists, etc., state this fact.

The important thing is that this understanding elevates a person. One’s life becomes easier since one acquires a correct vision of the world, develops the right attitude to ecology, nature, and society. I hope that in the end it will become a major tool for the betterment of society overall. Everybody needs it.
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From KabTV’s “Through Time” 9/15/13

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The Result Of An Integral Enterprise: A Reasonable Person

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: A regular company is valued by its stockholders on the basis of profit. What does the profit for an integral dissemination enterprise consist of?

Answer: The profitability of every factory is appraised according to the quantity and quality its output. Our product is a reasonable person. We evaluate our work according to how we, from other homo sapiens, sculpt the reasonable person.

For example, now we have a problem if within a short period of time, we need to serve, say a few thousand people. We set a specific goal and we need to come in contact with each one of them. This is the first stage of our work.

The next phase would be to invite them to lessons, to lectures, to all kinds of events. We already will begin to carry out some kind of work with them.

After a certain number of lessons, we must check the results we got, that is, what we did with each one of the “reasonable people.” In what way did we raise him? Did we reach the set target? To what extent does the collective actively include mutual integrality? What materials did the participants study? What opinion did they express after each lesson? We need to supervise all of this and gather the statistical data.

For statistical data, we need to conduct quizzes, surveys, and exams in order to determine to what extent the person has begun to more appreciate the collective, connection, mutual interdependence, and good relationships between people. This will tell if he will give someone the right of way when he travels to work or if he won’t give the right of way. However, when not giving the right of way, does he feel good about himself? To what extent does he feel more physically healthy? To what extent does it become more pleasant for him to be in a collective? Does he smile at the other friends, and does he identify with them, and so forth.

Question: Can we consider the time the person spent at the roundtable in discussion with the colleagues about a subject that we determined for him as a universal measurement?

Answer: No, after all, that isn’t the result, but the investment. Where is the output from it? Where is the result, the product? We must connect some small mechanism to the person and measure the level of happiness. Even if it is subjective in relation to him, we see that, in the beginning, he sat with a sour face, and now he has begun to smile a little.

Question: We have a paradoxical case study when people, at the beginning of the training assess the connection and unity of the collective as 95%, and, at the end of the training, as 80%. They begin to understand, “We aren’t united enough. Let’s do something more.”

Answer: We also need to take that into consideration. There is increasing attraction and demand with people to connect and unite. How else it is possible to evaluate the work? It is only in this way: according to the amount of people and according to the quality of the changes in them.
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From Kab TV’s “Through Time” 9/17/13

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It Is All In Our Hands

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It could happen that a person who participates the life of an integral society for some time in suddenly will lose interest in it. The loss of interest is temporary; but the person might not survive this, and we lose him permanently. How is it possible to help him in this state?

Answer: I think that an integral society gradually will transform into an effective one not only on the spiritual level, but also on the physical level. The person must receive from there not only warmth, stimulation, inspiration, and positive emotions, but also physical support. To do this, we must unite in mutual aid and each one must feel that it actually gives him unity with the others in practice.

After all, we still live in this world. We understand that in an integral society, it will be easier for us. We will become healthier, less susceptible to illnesses, and will better tolerate all kinds of problems, the blows of fate. However, is it possible to add a mental attitude like this through material arrangement?

Here, we come to the next stage: Can we create societies like these that truly will help one another? To do this, there are various possibilities depending upon the conditions.

Each one of us works where he is an expert in some particular area—let’s help each other by providing specialized care.

Question: Could there be a state like this where people will become dependent upon each other on the physical level, and then this would hold them in an integral society?

Answer: No, what must hold them is the feeling of creating a completely new society that is founded above our ego, not on a competitive basis, but rather on the basis of connection.

Question: Where is the line between integral mutual help and protectionism like it was in the Soviet Union? If you have connection, you are a man. You have a dentist, people in a store, a non-public mutual community.

Answer: In an integral society, we are not locked onto ourselves. We want everyone to be like that. The larger our numbers, the more we will be able to pay attention to each other, to help one another.

We are an organization without any benefit for itself, completely voluntary, understanding how to educate children today, how to maintain the familial framework, how to be in a good mood, and not deteriorate into alcoholism and drugs, and how to maintain ourselves in the right spirit. Since you are alive, so live more comfortably, in a good environment. This can be done without any material investment, even with what there is today. We can attain states like these when, in our unity, we suddenly see a material benefit in.

If we unite and declare ourselves to be a single organism (we have common purchasing power, common needs, common reserves for purchases), then we can economize in this. For particular circles in the population, this is very important. You can establish a warehouse of unneeded things that can be for mutual use. This is very effective. It is possible to organize groups for our children for nothing. Without special investments, it is possible to do things like these that otherwise would cost much of our means. It is all in our hands.
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From the program “Through Time” 9/15/13

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