Entries in the 'Education' Category

Reaching A New Level Without Any Revolutions

Dr. Michael LaitmanAll topics in the integral upbringing course address the problems existing in society. This is why the course needs to explore the problems of violence, drug addiction, and sexual perversion, that is, all that’s negative in today’s society.

It’s impossible to ignore the economic and political problems, or the problems of governance because an integral society has to rebuild itself, to organize itself in a completely different way, and hence, naturally, all of this will change. As people transform themselves, they will invisibly change social relationships themselves, which will affect all the power institutions as well.

But in the meantime, the government remains the same, and we don’t want it to pose any problems or obstacles in introducing the integral method. We have to say that we make society more even, complaisant, and that it will give the government an opportunity to manage its nation easily and think about its own well-being. And then all of it will suddenly come to a completely new level, and it will happen automatically, smoothly, without any revolutions or problems.
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From a Talk on Integral Upbringing 5/22/2012 

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The Crisis Of Incompatibility

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What should be the optimal result of our mass dissemination?

Answer: We are speaking about a process: The general population has to realize that they are in crisis, and that the essence of this crisis does not lie in the economy, the financial industry, the family, education, religion, science, or other problems. The crisis is developing within a person and is intended to bring him into balance with a new system that is now revealed in the world. The gap is between me, the egoist who looks at everything from a personal, individual position, and the world, the parts enclosed in greater interconnections. I don’t match the world, nature, and that is why today I am a foreign force inside it. The crisis is the revelation of this incompatibility.

Accordingly, the correction is to become compatible, in other words, to become equivalent to the properties of nature. How can I do this? Nature will not change, the bad phenomena manifested in all the spheres of life will not disappear; on the contrary, they will become stronger, more destructive, and painful.

That is the problem that people must recognize. And then, they will ask themselves: “How can I change myself? What kind of people should we become? Who can give us a method of correction?”

In the end, we bring them to the fact that no changes are possible in the world without an integral upbringing. Only when a person gradually starts to correct himself, will he then change the existing systems. He will transform the financial, economic, cultural, educational, and commercial systems, all this according to the changes within himself.

After all, a person has formed these systems himself on the basis of his egoistic attitude towards the world, and now slowly rising to globalism and interaction by becoming one integrated whole, he will change all that he has built accordingly.

At this point, he doesn’t understand how to realize these changes yet because he has not changed himself; he is not different from the old systems. However, they are already failing and no longer yield the same results as before. Here, we need to explain and prove to people that they cannot climb out of the crisis without internal changes. And then, they will take a course in integral upbringing.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Overview Of The Integral Education Course: The History Of The Evolution Of The Ego

Dr. Michael LaitmanSince our nature is the desire to receive and to be filled (to fill our corporeal desires for food, sex, and family; and our human desires for money, respect, control, and knowledge), our ego revealed in these desires was constantly developing and determining the advancement of humanity since ancient times until the middle of the 20th century. So, we have been constantly changing, and at the same time changing our society, developing technology, industry, and family and social arrangements, and so on.

Starting from the middle of the 20th century, the ego stopped its linear growth and started to grow round, which means to become egoistically global. And so, we discover that nature around us is opposite from us, that is, it is altruistically global (in bestowal). These two systems are now in a conflict.

Our role is to make sure that they will not be in a conflict and will not negate one another; otherwise, humanity will begin to destroy itself by summoning an undesirable negative influence from nature. It is important that humanity becomes more like nature and in harmony with it.

This means that the development of the ego has reached its end. For a long time, it has pushed us forward; we believed that it was the way to change the world and to do whatever we want with it, and now this has come to an end.

Now the world, nature, is turning against us, demanding that we change. So we have to switch from changing our environment to changing ourselves.

This is very difficult and it is impossible to agree to it, but we see that many people in the world have already reached this conclusion.

The integral education method is built to tell, explain, reassure, and convince people that it isn’t difficult to change one’s self under the influence of the environment and the society. If we operate this way, we will create a harmonious society and a life that will open new heights to us.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/22/12

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An Essential Method

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is it a good idea to speak about the crisis right at the beginning of an introductory lecture about integral education, or is it better to focus on the positive?

Answer: In an introductory lecture we must talk about movement, about the evolution of humanity, about what nature has brought us to, and what challenges it presents to us. At the same time, we should bring facts as evidence by citing research and opinions of scientists, psychologists, political scientists, economists, and all those who deal with global mechanisms of humanity or nature.

Now, all of them have almost come to a consensus that we have entered a very interesting system that shows its global, full interaction, and absolute integrality in which every piece depends on the others and determines what will happen with others.

In this system everything operates in harmony, except for man: He violates the balance because he is opposite from nature. Man’s ego has developed to such a degree that suddenly a mismatch, contrast, and oppositeness is revealed between human society, including all the systems and the institutions we’ve created, and the general system of nature.

So there is no other choice. Because we feel this oppositeness as a crisis, we should look for the method of balancing ourselves with nature. Then we will feel comfortable.

This is the topic of the introductory lecture: why should we study the integral method, for what purpose.

Thus the integral course should be perceived as most important and urgent for humanity, since without reaching a state of balance with nature, the global situation will threaten our existence.

A person should be shown that he is dealing with something that is very important and essential. By studying the integral method, he acquires the necessary vessels to change himself and his society, which will help him with his family and children, at work, and in every interaction with others, in business, in his personal dealings, in everything. He will understand today’s world, which in the meantime we don’t understand at all and are terribly confused about. A person should feel all this so that he will feel how important an integral course is.

The course is rather easy, and it is given in the form of a discussion among the participants sitting in a circle. They exchange opinions and thus advance faster. This format of studying enables the participants to remember the material better than in a lecture format.

Because the integral education is becoming more and more popular in different parts and circles of society, it is clear that the more we attain it the easier it will for us to adapt ourselves to others, thus feeling more secure in every sense.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/22/12

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Education Will Save The Economy

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Now under the conditions of the economic crisis, people’s level of wellbeing is decreasing. Will the result be that the rich will rise even higher and become “kings” and people will envy them even more?

Answer: No, there is a splitting point here. The point is that wealth has reached its extreme expression. Therefore, the national and private debts, the economic pyramids, have all become so unmanageable that they are actually facing the danger of disappearing. You might need to get rid of these debts, and these people may lose everything instantly. No matter how many pieces of papers they have, they will be worth nothing.

So the question is what should we do with what we’ve reached in the last 50-60 years, when we have switched the real value of gold with “green papers,” and have created a pyramid, network marketing, which in the absence of economic growth the whole pyramid collapses and there is no way to stop it. In addition, further growth of the pyramid is also impossible since it has reached a critical point. So the powers that be in the world are trying to get together, but they cannot reach any conclusions since there is no other way but to destroy this pyramid.

We must show them that there is no need to destroy it. We should only start dealing with education. If we begin to educate the public, we will find a new way to reach harmony, which can gradually be introduced into the current system. Then we will be able to come out of this crisis in an easy, gentle way. The rule of money will continue only in certain frameworks, let’s say the highest salaries might be ten times higher than the lowest, but no more than that. After all, this is better than the collapse the banks and all these people may suffer, if they fall from a great height.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/21/12

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A Harmonious Family In An Egoistic Society

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is it possible in an egoistic society to change the system of domestic economic relations of a family to an integral system of relations? In what way is it possible to look at this situation?

Answer: If the society remains individualistic, then individuals under the influence of the integral education and training system will change; they will perceive the world in a new way. So how does this person change his small world?

I think that people in a family will begin to relate to everything they do, interacting between them and consuming information for their small mutual home from the viewpoint of correct economic consumption. This means that they will have everything they need for life. And all the rest, the feeling of fulfillment, harmony, happiness, wealth, all that a person wants, will come to them specifically from the feeling of their harmonious relation to the world.

Of course, along with that, the influence of the egoistic and unharmonious world won’t overlook them, but they will actually, in any case, be internally filled with happiness and harmony that they constantly achieve for themselves.

Domestic economics will change. Out of necessity, people will be satisfied with simple food, simple clothing, plain furniture, and so on. The search for pleasure has exceeded the boundaries of corporeal interests, thus these needs will not be found at the level of self-restraint, but at the natural, necessary and correct level for existence.

The same thing also pertains to the level of income. When a person understands that he has no special demands, when he looks at the world in this way, then of course, it will be simply, easy, and free.

Moreover, the needs of people to communicate will naturally be at the level of the environment that resembles them according to their structure, according to the integrality. In this way, these societies and groups will develop.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/21/12

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On The Crest Of The Protest Movements

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What should we do so that our quiet voice, the drop in the ocean, will be heard as loudly as possible so that the drops will become streams and people will finally hear us?

Answer: I think that we have to be on the crest of the protest movements, because the government studies them and is afraid of them. If we take our place in this protest movement and rise above everyone by showing them and convincing them that the solution is not to destroy, rob, break shop windows and set fire to shops, then first, the government will see us as a positive factor and second psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, and others will study this phenomenon. We have to enter these protest movements and act in parallel by showing everyone our ideology, our method.

I hope that with the power of the great protest movements and their millions we will become known.

Of course, the protest movements themselves don’t want to use the gentle methods that we offer, but on the other hand, they have no method of their own—robbing banks like the Bolsheviks or the French during the revolutions?

So how can we act? If these are free democratic counties, we should use the parliamentary systems and ask them to vote for one member or another, since the protests on the street have never really led to anything.

The point is that there is a totally different picture here. If at any time the protest movements were a kind of a catalyst of social, economic and socio-political processes, today they cannot do anything because we’ve reached a state that has no place to be catalyzed.

The government cannot do anything. You can’t push it to make any decisions. It can cut the political pie a little differently to throw you some small handout, to buy the leaders of the protest movements, or some other such action; there are many methods they can use here.

The main thing is that neither the government nor the protest movements can offer anything that is real, even if it isn’t ripe yet so that the movements will lead us faster to a point where something new is born. Here nothing can be born. So they understand that except for shouting, “Give me!” There is nothing they can do and the government has nothing to take and to give.

We’ve reached a state in which all the countries are deep in debt. Where will they take from? There aren’t enough funds to give to everyone. What does it mean to share? It means to cut spending on other needs. Suppose the officials steal, okay, so they give out what they steal. Even if you put them in jail, take what they stole, and suppose that from now on no one will steal; it won’t change anything. I am not talking about corruption in certain countries, but about normal democratic countries. No matter how you calculate the budget, nothing will help, because we are in such a state that people are being fired from their jobs since they are not needed. There is no need for them!

It isn’t just another crisis that can be overcome, like in the past, by introducing new technology or by war. We understand that today this isn’t the solution to the problem. Therefore, we don’t take the role of advocating cutbacks, but the role of the teachers, teaching the source of the solution that no one has.

This means that we should show the general population that they don’t have a solution. We see what is happening with the protest movements: Their attempts to make seemingly positive changes lead to the opposite results after a while. What is more, it happens every time. So it’s better not to do anything. When the state tries to help and begins to look for reserves and give people more, eventually it leads to higher prices and to even greater imbalance.

No one has a solution, and we only need to constantly, persistently, and stubbornly offer our method until it is heard—the method according to which a person will change by himself and become an integral part of the integral society. Then we will be able to balance ourselves, society, and nature and will reach general harmony.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/21/12

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Preventing The Impending Threat

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Suppose we have information about future threats that worry us. We hear it and we agree with it. What can we do in order to prevent it?

Answer: We have many options, and many ways to disseminate. First we have to use all the different protest movements, since they are actually an internal protest against everything that is happening in the world these days: against the rising prices, the uneven share of the wealth, and other such phenomena. This protest is against the current state of society. We can use the protest actions successfully in order to convey the massage to the masses. We can use the concern a person has for children. We see the ugly way children are being educated these days. They don’t receive any form of education but merely information, and they don’t want that either. There is violence in schools, drug problems, sexual abuse, etc., families are falling apart and few want to preserve the family.

We must somehow try to show a person that it is certainly possible to live differently, although he has grown tired of all the attempts to do something. It all so simple: He simply needs to surf the net and to reach the course of integral education.

Working with school children, we use a very interesting method: First, the teachers are trained and then they use the integral method in the classroom. We can see the results within several weeks as the children change. Parents suddenly see totally different children who have become better, more pleasant, obedient, and so on. Then there is the need to change the parents, since the environment influences the children. This means that they, too, have to participate in a course of integral education. There is no need to tell them about the future changes, since the moment they begin the course and participate in the workshops, they suddenly discover a totally different existence, a different way of communicating, another life.

Today we are actively and intensively preparing a whole team of lecturers, teachers, educators, and organizers who will be dealing with this. But in the meantime, it is just a drop in the ocean.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 6/13/12

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Shifting The Bifurcation Point

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If the path to the point of bifurcation is inevitable, then what is our task, what is the purpose?

Answer: Our task is to advance this point before it appears naturally. This can be done if we explain and demonstrate the evil we’re heading toward, the forced state in which we are, and how this forced state can be corrected to conscious good development. This is not only the recognition of evil, but also a correction.

Here, we need to play on a very simple, basic human feeling, our attitude toward children. We still have some predisposition left for that, although it’s far from what it was, let’s say, fifty years ago. Today, there’s a noticeable emptiness and coldness in relationships between parents and children, but a certain basis for that still remains.

In addition, we can work through mass media and celebrities. We need to introduce integral upbringing and self-education to the world as a fashionable trend so that it would be respectable, give a person honor, exaltation, respect, self-esteem, and a sense of belonging to an elite movement.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 6/13/12

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Is Man A Rational Being?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is man a rational being after all?

Answer: This is a big question. In our time, the consciousness of mankind is aimed at self-destruction. Today we are not rational in any regard.

We call it a “crisis,” but I would call it something else. These are sequential steps towards self-destruction, just like a rabbit that moves straight into the jaws of a snake as if it were hypnotized, and there is nothing it can do about it. Hypnosis pulls him forward, and he must come to it. I do not consider this to be a rational approach to life.

Today we are simply slaves to our egoism. It has reached its maximum, and it rules over us without any subtleness or other calculations and leads us towards self-destruction so we would finally reach the realization of evil.

I cannot say if this will be reached through enormous suffering. This depends on the people, on the dissemination of the method of integral upbringing and education.

But our current development is not rational. We neither see anything rational in our consumption, communication, arts, sciences, nor in their use.

We see that money rules everything. Mass media is above politics, government, the judicial system, reward and punishment: All are ruled by money. And this is absolutely not rational! This is a purely egoistic category, which does not exist in nature!

We could understand it if it were done for power, knowledge, and fame. If wealth were synonymous with power, fame, and knowledge, then this would be a different story, but it is simply wealth for the sake of wealth. It is beyond the limits of corporeal values and categories. It is becoming something virtual.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/21/12

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