Question: How can one imagine the group in its ideal state?

Answer: A group is one whole. This is its model, its image. Suppose we have some common desire, a common intention, common thoughts, and ideas. Where are they? They are between us. This desire, intention, thought, begins to guide everyone. We begin to support it, and we see that our existence is in that.

With the help of creating this image, we then will transform the whole of our life in order to support this image. We will relate to each other differently, build family and social connections, transform industry, and relate to nature, based precisely from the fact that we have created this united whole, the image of Adam, the image of one person.

Humanity will become free of excess work, will cease polluting the Earth, will stop messing with being a society of consumption of completely unnecessary things. It will be forced to free many people from unnecessary work since nature is purposely leading us toward our dedicating five to eight hours of our time per day to the studies of integral connection, the creation of an integral society.

We will be obliged to do that, and, on the scale of the whole of humanity from young to old. Absolutely everyone, from pensioners to small children, must go through this level of re-education.

Question: In order to build this image, some kind of energy is needed. Where can we get it from?

Answer: Nature gives us energy! It pushes us with a stick toward happiness. Of course, we need introductory explanations, courses, understanding the necessity of these transformations, realization of the fact that, otherwise, each one of us will enter his or her own personal crisis and the crisis of society.

See how the ecological crisis is approaching. The Earth is being depleted. How will we warm ourselves? What will we eat if within the coming couple of decades, we will completely deplete Earth, including uranium, fuel, gas and other natural resources? We must stop at the right time, and nature is slowing us down in advance.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 2/29/12

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Question: Could you give an example to show what the economics of the future society should be like, what we need to come to?

Answer: This is very simple, and there is really a lot to think about here. To begin, we need to take such tangible things that gradually will help us come to more abstract communication and definitions.

We see that our economics is going through a serious crisis. It must “deflate,” become the economics of reasonable consumption. This will happen whether we want it or not. If we really wanted it, we would begin to restrict it gradually and to free ourselves of excessiveness and things we do not need.

At first, we would eliminate all advertising. There should be no advertisements, but announcements about reasonable, useful things that people need so that people would know that here are the normal things that make life easier.

Even now, every country and every society has a necessary basket of consumption that every person must have to support themselves, such as food, medicine, necessary accessories, and so forth. We also must keep a basket like this, but not a minimal one, a basket of extended consumption for a normal and reasonable existence. All other production needs to be restricted.

By gradually restricting unnecessary production, first of all, we will receive an abundance of energy, which is a very good thing. Why waste it? We will have an abundance of natural resources. Let us leave them for our children and grandchildren. In other words, we will come practically to a point where we will be able to dress, feed, and equip all of mankind on a reasonable level.

This is the economics of the future that we gradually must come to, in other words, on one hand, the deflation of excessive consumption and, on the other hand, the raising of all of mankind to the level of normal existence. Achieving this level is our initial objective. This way, we take care of our animal existence, making sure that it is equal for everyone.

Imagine the psychological revolution we must create in people, but this cannot be done without the integral upbringing of people. Before taking care of economics, it is necessary to show people the need to rise to the next level. This next level where we form a society—which we call the human level, Man, Adam—determines our voluntary descent to the level of reasonable consumption.

It is necessary to create a program of gradual transition toward this because the main thing is not the final result, but a smooth, multi-level transition. Here, we simultaneously must have integral upbringing, integral education, and gradual reduction in unnecessary production, as well as a gradual increase in serving the population with integral education and upbringing; in other words, the restructuring of all mass media to do educational work. When mankind is occupied with transforming themselves, it is like an enormous world machine.

Finally, mankind will be occupied with itself, but not to show off before their neighbor for having a billion more or humiliating someone by showing that they are stronger, but with the purpose of achieving integration.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 2/29/12

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Question: Most people don’t understand how they can go from the state they’re in right now to a perfect integral picture. Can we discuss this and bring up a few examples?

Answer: We can discuss it. Moreover, we must develop a plan of transition, a program, a movement, toward the global government that would consist of people with an understanding of the problems we’re facing and that would be spiritually elevated above other people.

These would be progressive and developed people, not today’s egoists that are only developed in their narrow knowledge of a particular field, but people that are developed in their integral understanding of nature and society. They must lead this entire movement.

There are people that possess good organizational skills naturally: the same government officials, the wealthy, and the merchants. They just need to be given a different direction, and their organizational skills can be implemented.

Question: What about their greed?

Answer: Let them remain greedy. All they need is to redirect it and ensure that all of humanity learns a sensible way of consumption in the shortest amount of time so that everyone would have everything. Let them provide this, and, in return, we will give them our full gratitude and love. Do you think this won’t fulfill people?
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 2/29/12

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In the News (from Simon Fraser University, Canada): “Using scientific theories, toy ecosystem modeling and paleontological evidence as a crystal ball, 21 scientists, including one from Simon Fraser University, predict we’re on a much worse collision course with Mother Nature than currently thought.

“In ‘Approaching a state-shift in Earth’s biosphere,’ a paper just published in Nature, the authors, whose expertise spans a multitude of disciplines, suggest our planet’s ecosystems are careering towards an imminent, irreversible collapse.

“Earth’s accelerating loss of biodiversity, its climate’s increasingly extreme fluctuations, its ecosystems’ growing connectedness and its radically changing total energy budget are precursors to reaching a planetary state threshold or tipping point.

“Once that happens, which the authors predict could be reached this century, the planet’s ecosystems, as we know them, could irreversibly collapse in the proverbial blink of an eye. …

“Once a threshold-induced planetary state shift occurs, there’s no going back. So, if a system switches to a new state because you’ve added lots of energy, even if you take out the new energy, it won’t revert back to the old system. The planet doesn’t have any memory of the old state.

“These projections contradict the popularly held belief that the extent to which human-induced pressures, such as climate change, are destroying our planet is still debatable, and any collapse would be both gradual and centuries away.

“This study concludes we better not exceed the 50 per cent mark of wholesale transformation of Earth’s surface or we won’t be able to delay, never mind avert, a planetary collapse.

“We’ve already reached the 43 per cent mark through our conversion of landscapes into agricultural and urban areas, making Earth increasingly susceptible to an environmental epidemic.

“’In a nutshell, humans have not done anything really important to stave off the worst because the social structures for doing something just aren’t there,’ says Mooers. ‘My colleagues who study climate-induced changes through the earth’s history are more than pretty worried. In fact, some are terrified.’”
My Comment: How can it be done without connection? How can we unite without integral education?—Only it is intended to evoke a desire of community in man.
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Humankind develops from small to large egoism. Sometime ago, a person naturally discovered that he needs a family; moreover, the bigger the family, the more secure he is. This way, he instinctively started to unite with others, as he came out of a barbarian state.

Families would grow and become tribes, and they expanded so much that people who used to be distant, became close. Villages and cities appeared, family ties gave way to more extended formations, a nation, living in their own country and connected by their belonging to their common destiny, a common mentality.

However, family ties also kept their power, remaining necessary for existence until recently. Only during the last decades, we have destroyed these boundaries, providing people with services, which allow him to no longer feel the need for a family. This led to the crisis in the family institution because marriage no longer promises the same benefits. At the same time, the feeling of belonging to a nation is very important for a person.

However, we continue to develop, and today, like it or not, a new feeling is growing inside us, which now encompasses the entire globe. This is because modern technologies and communications have made the world small and accessible. Today, it is charged with great interdependence, distances become smaller, systems become unified, and we are approaching the state of a single whole.

This way, if before the notion of a “family,” though weakened, still extended all the way to the borders of the country and was as wide as the nation itself, now it encompasses all of mankind. Migration is increasing, nations are mixing, borders are being erased; today, everything is moving in this direction.

What can we say about the people of Israel in this connection? Its foundation was laid by a group of Kabbalists, created by Abraham. These people were not connected in any way, except for a single thing: At a certain stage of their inner development, they felt that unity was the way to attain the Creator.

The other residents of Ancient Babylon also strived towards the Creator, but in another way, they were building the Tower of Babel egoistically, wishing to become like Him. These ambitions kept growing over the course of all of history: “We will control our own lives, we will play with trade and production, we will conquer the cosmos, we, we, we…”

However, even back then, certain Babylonians already wanted to attain the essence of life, and not just to keep pleasing themselves in every possible way. After all, the purpose of life is the attaining of its essence. And this is why, when the crisis arose and the Tower of Babel was destroyed, these people heard Abraham and understood that there is a method that allows penetrating the essence and revealing the upper force.

And today we are in a similar situation. Individuals, among the modern “Babylonians” of the world, gather into the group of Bnei Baruch in order to reveal the Creator. They are called the “people of Israel.”

In addition, there are the “corporeal” people of Israel, the descendants of those who once came out of Babylon with Abraham in the first global crisis. The Reshimot, the “footprints” of the path they have traveled, remained in them, and we must take care of them. This is because every one of them has “marks” from the previous ascent and the breaking that followed.

This is the reason people hate them: On one hand, by breaking, they have passed sparks of bestowal to the entire world, and on the other hand, everyone feels that they are unique and that a certain darkness comes from them—unique as a consequence of the sparks, and darkness as a consequence of the current situation.

We will still reveal a lot along the way, but one way or another, today the time has come to turn to the nation, the descendants of the students of Abraham, the descendants of the Ancient Babylon. As Baal HaSulam writes in his newspaper The Nation, they themselves must awaken a national connection in their environment. And this connection can only be based on a single thing: the principle of loving one’s neighbor as themselves. The Jewish people were initially founded this way, and could they structure themselves any other way today? All the attempts only demonstrate that without their foundation, this nation is like a sack of nuts, ready to fall apart and spread around the world at the first opportunity.

And this is why Baal haSulam writes: “This is why I stated that we need to arrange for ourselves a special education through widespread circulation, instill in each of us a sense of national love, both from one person to another, and from the individuals to the whole, and rediscover the national love that was instilled within us since the time we were on our land, a nation among the nations.”

If the nation fails to acquire their foundation, it will not manage to stay within the borders of the country and lay its roots there. This is why the entire world does not agree with the return of the Jews to their land; it does not yet feel like they have the consciousness of a nation, which must live in the land of Israel. Jews are able to live anywhere, and many do not yet feel like they pertain to and are interconnected with their nation. This vice is felt in them and the entire world, which reacts accordingly.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: During the breaks at the convention, there will be a presentation of books, the Internet, and so forth. Won’t this distract from the internal flow of the convention?

Answer: The fact is that we still must think about what we are coming out with to the world. A person leaves the convention, goes home, and what is next?

As our ascent depends on the dissemination breadth-wise, we must give everyone some knowledge about what it is in general that we do: the Internet, books, lectures, workshops, roundtables, and so forth. We must show all this to everyone. That is why there should be short fifteen-minute presentations during the breaks.

With what do we leave the convention? We leave with that which we need to take further into the world. Each of us should try to be a lecturer, an organizer of workshops, a distributor, and so on. I am addressing you, personally, everyone! The world will need the integral method; even now, it needs it, but it is not yet aware of this. And you will see in a couple of months that they will run after you; you will be in demand because no one except you will feel what should be done in any case to get the correct result, because you will think integrally.

You will be the teachers of the world, advisers to prime ministers and bankers and to ordinary workers because you will be able to see why this should happen, and not otherwise. This is what is called, “Come for a blessing.” You will be required and in demand. Thus, you still should be included in dissemination.
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From a Virtual Lesson 7/29/12

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Question: Do we have to be humiliated before we reach connection?

Answer: We are low with regards to our ego, but not with regards to the goal and the Creator.

Question: But still, why do we develop by suffering?

Answer: How else? If we feel good, we won’t move forward. On the contrary, such feelings block our way. This is because “goodness” is pleasure and fulfillment, and if I am content, I don’t move. This is the natural reaction of my egoistic desire. On the other hand, when I feel bad and it hurts, I immediately look for a way out.

A person is a feeling element. Pleasure prevents him from any action; it prevents movement for an unlimited time. If a person feels good, he won’t move, if you “prick” him by sufferings or even by lack of fulfillment, he will immediately begin to look around searching for a new source of pleasure. If the dissatisfaction exceeds the threshold, a person begins to move.

On the development level of the still nature, by being motionless, he doesn’t fill himself and only develops new desires, until the sufferings grow and oblige him to move to the level of the animate. The plant knows how to open up to the sun and to absorb nutrients, to breathe, and it seems to be calm, but once again there is something missing and even more than before. This obliges him to move and to exhibit greater activity in order to enjoy.

This is how our desire to receive is created: It is enough to feel pleasure or pain and by balancing them it undoubtedly reaches the goal. Nothing else is required from it. This process depends on the size of the desire and on its uniqueness and its diversity. Suppose, I am a great egoist; the egoistic fulfillment overcomes me and conceals me under a load that weighs thousands of tons. I can’t do anything other than to enjoy. In order to come out of this situation, I need to receive thousands of tons of sufferings and one kilo more, which means to totally empty my vessel and add some more negativity to it. Only then will I move from my place.

Thus two opposites meet: The more advanced I am the greater my desire. It hangs over me thus demanding greater work and curbing the process, so we have no choice. The desire responds only to pleasure or to pain and so we have to go through them.

But what is the use of these falls? Give me pleasure, and I will immediately freeze in my place, give me some deficiency, and I begin to move. It can be compared to an engine that runs on AC power: if you connect a constant current to it, it will stop. This is because the consistency doesn’t fill the deficiencies and the fulfillment in an alternating order of being emptied of your fillings. So what is required of me if the response of my desire was given to me from the start? How can I break out of this closed circuit?

This is why the mind develops by the desire as a separate parallel system. It accumulates information in its archive, identifies the causes and the goals, and evaluates the phases that it has been through and weighs the future states. Today, in the last the spiritual phase of our development, the cognitive element is the important one. Until now we have been pushed forward by our feelings and now the time has come to develop in our awareness.So our connection brings everyone wisdom by enabling us to exchange data and by providing great experience and a deep understanding. Thus we can avoid many troubles since the current state demands that we develop very quickly, and in several decades, if not before attaining the end of correction. So just imagine what afflictions we will have to go through.

So, the key to our development is education, understanding and recognition, and in activities that make a person feel and understand that feeling. A qualitative development is required here. On the whole, it’s very important for us to disseminate this wisdom; this is the uniqueness of our generation.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: How should we imagine this single field that exists outside of us? What do people need to do when training in groups of integral learning?

Answer: Let us imagine that we are connecting to the desire of another person. In other words, we do a regular psychological practicum. I try to determine the desires, intentions, and thoughts of a person.

What are the stages that people and groups experience while they gradually enter these states? Primarily, people need to feel each other, like during regular psychological training. How do I feel the person with whom I am speaking? How do I connect to him? How do I determine what his desire is, to become involved with him, and reach a good attitude toward him, to learn to love him and communicate with him?

In other words, his desires, which are referred to as his heart, and his mind that leads these desires, must become critical to me, the way a mother feels regarding her infant when she desires to fully serve him with both her desires and her mind. The heart and the mind is what a person has. This way, it is as if I were taking a step toward all the participants of the group, radiating kindness at each one of them, and everyone does this in relation to everyone else.

This common attitude in the group, which we are constantly developing, must create such a level of reciprocity in it that begins to create a certain field between us. This field of mutually good attitude must acquire a certain foundation.

Why do we do this? We are not just doing this to have a good relationship between us. We now want to lift them to the next level so that we could exist in this mutual field of kindness, a field of mutual attitude toward one another and so that we would maintain it.

This common, good field between us—let us refer to it by its mutual quality of bestowal—needs to be created through our mutual guarantee when I think about you and you think about me. We must develop ourselves constantly this way through a good attitude. We must perceive this mutual warmth from everyone toward everyone in order to create something mutual, even independent from us, like a mutual child of ours.

We can refer to this common image of us, already independent from us, one we already are beginning to work for, a group. Life in this image, this group, must be the main thing for us. This group is what we actually assume a society to be.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 02/29/12

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Baal HaSulam, “The Nation”: The only hope is to establish a thoroughly new national education for ourselves, to discover and ignite once more the natural national love that have been dimmed within us.

Question: What should we do with the part of the nation of Israel that is not ready to listen to us, that don’t want to have anything to do with us?

Answer: We should try to reach them from another angle and then from another one, in different innovative ways. We have no choice since they are like your own child. There is nothing you can do: He has been born and he is tied to you in unbreakable ties. So whether you want to or not, you carry your load and try to do everything in your power, looking for a remedy for every illness that he may have.

Besides, we should understand that it is a replica of us; it is our vessel and not something foreign to us. We cannot discard the world, reality, or any part of it.

People refuse to listen to us and it is perfectly natural. It is worse when they want to, since then they mean something that is totally different from what we mean. We should be more creative with the “fans,” in order to turn them in the right direction. If a person just rejects us then this may be the simplest case.

One way or the other, we shouldn’t give up and leave. The easiest thing to do is to say: “Let them suffer.” But these are your parts, your self that is spread throughout humanity, but you only feel a tiny part of it, 80 kilos of your weight and nothing more than that. Gradually you will discover additional new parts of yourself. So just imagine what pain you would feel if you found out the truth; would it be possible to dump people then?

Question: So what can we do? It is as if we are bumping into a wall unable to penetrate it…

Answer: We are not trying enough. If we tried enough there wouldn’t be such problems. It all depends on us. A person judges himself and the whole world to the scale of merit. Try to exert yourself in the group, in connection. Try to do your best there, and then go out to the external circles.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Development means constantly limiting the desire, which is inevitable. Even the most advanced educational approaches that do not use punishments still limit children but in other ways. An embryo in his mother’s womb also develops by limitations. All of nature is based on this principle, and if we kept it in our development, we would certainly avoid troubles and sorrow.

But we followed the opposite path and removed all the obstacles: Free your ego, abuse others as much as you can, abuse the whole world for your own interests. A person sees himself as great when he manages to steal millions and is respected for it. We have totally distorted our way by giving up any form of restraint. Our desires are not limited by anything and we can also see that on TV, in modern cultural and educational forms. Judging by what is happening with children and the youth, we are cultivating a generation that grows by beastly models and not human models of behavior and thinking. What kind of models does advertising present?

We see the outcomes: Without limiting ourselves, we reach collapse and sufferings, and we begin to understand that we have to change. This is what awaits us since we are not really suffering yet.

If we were as flexible as babies who can be easily directed to develop in the right way, if we responded to what is going on with the same speed, with the same readiness they do, then everything would be just fine. We could see that the Creator is the perfect educator and we wouldn’t come to Him with any complaints.

But in order to do that, we have to respond correctly to His educations and to be sensitive. Kabbalists tell us how we can acquire this attitude; they say we should connect and be “good kids,” we should be sociable, kind, and responsible for one another, to create mutual guarantee, etc.

Clearly, children don’t want to listen to anyone. They only want to go in every direction. But the grownups impose discipline on them and so does the Creator, although He hasn’t started to treat us seriously yet. One way or the other, the same laws penetrate through all the worlds, but the point is that we have to learn from nature and not invent artificial limitations.

This refers to the educators of children too. Nature shows us how, when, and in what way to limit them according to the stages of development. Actually nothing depends on us, we only carry things out. If we studied well the laws of creation and children’s’ nature, we would know exactly how to act in every phase, now and in the future. Ideally, an educator carries out nature’s orders. He never invents anything new but only implements its plan. This is his obligation: to gradually, day by day, bring the little person’s nature to match the upper nature.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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