Question: What do you have in mind when you talk about life outside the body?

Answer: Even now we are living a life outside our bodies. I live in my feelings, desires, and thoughts received from the environment. They are not mine but obtained by me from the surrounding environment. Of course, they exist within me, but I call them “out of body” because I live by interests received from others who impress upon me and advise what’s worth living for, what to think about, and what to feel.

I don’t even realize that if I lived in a forest, my understanding of the world would be completely different from the one I have right now. It’s as though the environment gives me a different view of the world and forces me to perceive it one way and not another. And indeed, this is a big problem.

Suppose my environment makes me think that being a cannibal, or killing people, or taking advantage of them is normal, while you see life completely differently. You have a completely different attitude to animals, yourself, the world, and family. We live within the model of perception that society instilled in us throughout our development, and accordingly, this is the way we see the world.

When I travel to a different country, sometimes it really strikes me that people think completely differently there and gravitate towards different values. Thus they have another way of looking at things, and they don’t see what I see. They judge people differently than we do. And if we get acquainted with history books or law codes of different countries, we will see just how different we are.

I’m not even talking about cultural differences or specific cuisines. I am interested in a person’s worldview and not in what he likes to fill his stomach with. What’s important is a person’s understanding of historical events, of human life, of good and evil, his or her attitude to reward and punishment, to what one should achieve, and what kind of life one wishes to build for oneself.

Some people are prepared to spend day and night playing cards and enjoy having others serve them, while for others it’s important to make their contributions wherever possible, to take interest in achievements of science, and to reveal something new for themselves. The outlook on such things can fluctuate from one extreme to another.

We see that the problem of society is that we don’t understand each other. What do wives usually complain about to their husbands? “You don’t understand me!” And this is actually the case because we really didn’t receive an upbringing about how to live in a family.

When I was an adolescent, I wasn’t educated about what a woman is. Is it some living creature that exists by my side? Does she have certain demands, a unique personality? What vision of life does a woman have as opposed to a man? A woman is a completely opposite world, not dependent on anyone. Do I understand her? Do I wish to understand her? Do I take her into consideration? Am I capable of doing this?

Since we haven’t received any internal models of what a woman is, what type of mentality she has, and how she sees the world, we don’t have an ability to take her into consideration. A man truly doesn’t understand her, and this is why each of their meetings abound with mutual attacks. They try to get along somehow, yet they aren’t capable to actually understand each other, that is, to become included in one another. And this is a big flaw in our upbringing.

Statistics on divorce rates and on those unwilling to even start a family attest to this. We see a similar situation in child education: We don’t know how to approach a child correctly. We all know that there is an increase in child abuse cases, and it is all because parents don’t understand them.

In regards to my own children, I have sensed just to what extent I don’t understand them, how unprepared I am for being a father. After all, a father is an educator, a creator, someone who shapes the child for their life to come. But I wasn’t able to do that due to the fact that neither the feeling nor understanding of everything that pertains to children was developed in me at all, while it’s absolutely necessary to teach that.
[66726]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 3, 12/29/11

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In the near future, humanity will eliminate all types of unnecessary jobs except for the ones needed for providing all that is required for normal and rational life. A person will have to work two or three hours a day and the rest of the time will be free.

In these hours people won’t simply be freed from work but will have to create an environment that will influence everyone else. And each of them will have an effect on others so that any person will be under a correct influence of several types of environments that facilitate his or her further growth.

This process is similar to the way that fruits and vegetables are grown in a greenhouse. Different conditions are provided in succession and in specific combinations, and because of that, they grow bountifully and we receive excellent sweet fruit to suit any taste. We need to do the same with ourselves and with our children. This work will become the main occupation of a person living in a new era.

There is a reason why we consider the current crisis not as a tragedy but as a positive phenomenon, the birth of a new society, a new humanity in which we begin to prepare ourselves for the next stage of unification and realization of all possibilities that each of us has.

In this manner, we are progressing towards mutual connection and understanding and as though creating from the entire humanity an image of one man, all parts of whom harmoniously complement each other and create a single entity.

In this single humanity that we create we reveal one force that gives us the feeling that each of us no longer lives in an individual inner sensation but in a common perception of this unified whole. A person lives his own life but at the same time, he or she senses the lives of everyone else who now have become so close to him that he understands them, feels them, and is included in them.

It turns out that I no longer live the life of a simple little person, but my life is intertwined with the breathing and living of the entire humanity. From the state of a small, weak individual I begin to ascend towards the most exalted status in nature. This is how we perceive life from this new “speaking” level that belongs to the degree of Man.

Our psychology, attitude towards life, and worldview will change from a petty, egoistic, and narrow personal outlook to a broad and global perception. And through the prism of the entire humanity, as if through new glasses, I will begin to see a new world.

I begin to view it differently and reveal within it a life that depends not only on the desires of my body, but on all people in the world. And then I rise to a sensation of life beyond my body. In this manner, through psychological ascent we reach a special state.

The entire process that we have to undergo can be divided into two parts. The first part is the path we traveled thus far. Throughout its entire duration, we developed without utilizing our environment that much. And even if we had to resort to its aid, it was only in rare cases.

Right now we are in a crisis that is justifiably called global and integral. Now we feel that we don’t have a choice, and that through the use of the environment we need to develop in a direction whereby all of humanity becomes integral and global, bound together as one man with one heart. This can be achieved with the help of a corresponding environment.

This is the life on a “human” degree that begins after exiting the animate level at which we were living by will of chance. And now we begin to guide our development in a specified direction in order to receive from the greenhouse a wonderful fruit in all of its perfection.

Because of this study we will know how to organize our environment and through it to shape ourselves and all of humanity. This is why the topic of “Environment as a determining factor of a good future of humanity” is the most important in the study and practical activities of this course. I hope that this educational program will be accepted in the entire world. It will guide us to a good life and yield wonderful fruit.
[66730]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 3, 12/29/11

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If we talk about the new generation, a new era in which we exist, we come to even more important conclusions. All of us living on this planet are tightly interconnected and dependent on each other, that the surrounding environment is becoming one for all of us, and that we exert an influence on climate and ecology. What happens in one place causes an earthquake or a tsunami in another; a war in one country immediately affects others.

We see that we don’t simply need to affiliate ourselves with a certain society or a group, but have to organize a common, global, and integral upbringing.

Since we are tied together, our upbringing and environment that we create (the determining factor of our development) need to transmit the same values to us so we will understand each other while still maintaining our individuality and freedom. After all, if we are so dependent on one another, we need to understand and feel each other, to become closer.

The whole problem is that we don’t understand one another, the way it happens in a family where each person complains that they are misunderstood. People are incompatible with each other because they have different values, tastes, and attitudes to life….

On one hand, in order to understand a loved one or even a stranger, an upbringing is required. But on the other, this stranger should become less of a stranger if today’s culture, upbringing, economy, and all existing structures are so close and interdependent.

It’s necessary to develop a system of global, international, and multicultural upbringing, and this great worldwide organization should ensure that each person in the world has something in common with others in their upbringing, culture, and attitude to life. Then a person will know how to accept another, and in the end, people will grow closer in their views and tastes; they will be able to make their life more secure and reach agreement among themselves.

Moreover, this won’t be just a mutual understanding between two strangers, but will have an impact on international agreements, crucial political decisions, economics, defense—on everything. We need to come closer to each other, and this depends on whether or not we can create a single system of upbringing for everyone.

Putting it differently, we need to understand that environment as a factor needs to become the solution to all of our problems. This is instilled in nature! Thus, instead of putting people in jail and isolating those who commit malicious acts, we need to forcibly, by court order, place them in a special environment that will educate them and turn them into productive members of society. Accordingly, we will verify the influence of the environment on such a person and, on the condition that he or she has been reformed, will release and transfer them to normal society.

This same principle works in relation to children and schools too. We need to check and identify different types of people and decide what is most suitable for every layer, for each age group. Based on this, as well as by considering the personality and peculiarities of a person and by utilizing the surrounding society’s comprehensive influence upon a person, we can give him or her the possibility to express themselves in the best possible manner.

That is, we have a comprehensive and diverse tool that includes a multitude of circles and different groups, and we need to try to guide a person towards the influence of a given society until he or she acquires a correct and harmonious form.

This is similar to a ripening fruit that requires both warmth and cold, night and day, moisture and dryness, light, and a certain combination of minerals. Here, too, in order for a person to mature and turn into a ripe “fruit” that tastes sweet to everyone, society shouldn’t pressure him or her from one direction only but exert all possible diverse forms of influence.

This is why an environment is a single factor through the use of which we can correct all the evil that exists in a person and in humanity, caused by our egoism. We only need to take this tool into our own hands, to organize various types of environments that will correspond to the culture, education, and habits of a given nation, to peculiarities of different civilizations, and in this manner to find an approach to every part of human society, in any country, down to each individual person.
[66733]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 3, 12/29/11

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TV Program “Foundations of the Integral Society”
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Each of us has a predisposition for performing actions that are unpleasant to those around us. We can divide right or wrong acts into one’s actions in relation to oneself and actions in relation to society. Naturally, we have to teach a person not to cause self-harm, not to hurt himself physically, because while self-preservation mechanisms exist within us, destructive impulses are present as well.

In the same manner, we need to treat the environment with care and concern. The environment is primarily the still, vegetative, and animate nature in which we live and which we need to preserve. It’s necessary to teach a person the correct attitude towards ecology since our food, climate, and our entire existence depend on it. We live inside nature, and its vegetative, animate, and even the still parts are of great importance to us as we receive everything from them. This is why we need to teach a person how to treat their ecological environment with great care.

And second, we need to teach a person to relate correctly to human society, to exert a positive influence on it because in the end, it comes back to him and creates a good atmosphere around him.

Thus, man’s relationship to society and society’s relation to man are the most important aspects of upbringing. Everything else is just professional skills that we need to give a person so he or she will be useful to others and make an honest living for himself or herself.

What we lack in our development is mainly the ability to give a young person and even ourselves, adults, such an upbringing, such an outlook on life, whereby wanting to change our situation, we would take care of society that can change us for the better.

As we said before, a person isn’t capable of improving his life by himself. This can only be done by the environment, which obligates me, supports, and changes my system of values and priorities. Because of that, new desires appear in me and I set new goals for myself.

This is why a person’s future depends only on the choice and creation of his or her environment, especially in our global and integral generation that is entirely interconnected. Any person in the world determines what will happen with everybody else. If some country starts treating another badly, this changes the entire life of the latter, and it needs to defend itself and care for its safety.

This mutual interdependence will force us to build and shape a system of global upbringing. Above all, in the process of this upbringing we need to teach ourselves and others to understand that our future depends entirely on our environment.

A question arises whether a person has any free will and possibility of choice at all? Can he actually do, accomplish, and realize anything the way he wants? And we see that he doesn’t exactly succeed in that.

If so far I developed thanks to my intrinsic properties, the genes with which I was born and the surrounding environment that formed me (parents, kindergarten, and school), then going forward I, a grown up, can choose how I can change as well. But the realization of my transformation always occurs through the help of society due to the fact that I choose and structure my order of preferences and decide whether it’s worth to be under the influence of a given society. This is why I have freedom of choice, but this choice is only exercised in choosing the environment.
[66736]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 3, 12/29/11

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Question: Development takes us from the world of consumption to the world of bestowal. Thousands of generations have lived in a world driven by the power of egoism. If the next step of humanity must bring it to the world of bestowal, then what is this world?

Answer: It is only called the world of bestowal, but both forces exist in it. The force of bestowal exists in the world of consumption, but it is only used for reception. The world cannot exist with only one force in it: There must always be two forces.

The main question is which one is the determining force: Who is in charge? If the force of reception decides everything, then the force of bestowal serves it.

I am willing to give a little to receive more. I am willing to invest in a business to earn more. I develop everything only for more profit and benefit.

The entire still, vegetative, and animate world, and man as part of the animate nature, developed through the dominance of the force to receive over the force to bestow. This is obvious when it comes to man who, as a big egoist, uses this force in a way that hurts his neighbor. In man, the dominance of the force of reception over the force of bestowal is clear, but this dominance is more primitive in the entire still, vegetative, and animate levels.

When we look at man, we simply are able to see more clearly that everything we do is intended for personal pleasure, for benefit. I cannot do anything when I do not see a way to benefit. Nature has made me so that I have no chance to make a single move if I don’t get pleasure from it, a benefit: The fulfillment must be greater than my investment. My investment is bestowal, and reception must be greater than bestowal. This means that the power of reception rules over the power of bestowal.

In the end, we completely blow out of proportion the way we use the force of reception that rules over the force of bestowal; we want to make a profit on everyone without feeling any shame. A person is ready to kill, sell, and destroy everyone only to receive one gram of fulfillment and pleasure; at the same time, he does not take anyone into consideration in any way.

This is how much the force of receiving has grown in relation to the force of bestowal. The difference between them has simply become enormous. When we suddenly come to these enormous disproportions between the force of bestowal and the force of receiving and the connection between them has become completely disrupted, then we experience a crisis and the inability to continue to exist.

This is because the force of bestowal no longer comes near the force to receive and does not help it continue to evolve. Egoism has grown so much that it does not allow me to give even a little to others in order to benefit. I want to receive everything for myself.

Egoism no longer allows me to even tolerate another person near me so that I could make a family. It does not allow me to have children because of the price I would have to pay for it: to yield, consider others, and help one another. I am not ready for this. This is how much the power of reception has outweighed the power of bestowal!

We see this in the world today, in any place and on all levels of a person’s life. I always think about ways to gain the most to the point of not even paying at all. It is better to steal.

This is why we create different systems that legally allow us to steal. We distort laws, form corrupt relationships in the government and society, and do all this just to receive as much as possible. In the end, we come to a state where a person is not able to take anyone into consideration, whether it is his family, society, the government, children, or all of humanity.

This is why the common crisis is appearing in education and culture. We have stopped taking nature into consideration completely and we are prepared to do anything we wish with it, discarding poisonous gas and waste into the oceans and contaminating everyone and everything. Nothing concerns me outside of my four walls. The ozone layer is not my business; let others worry about it.

My ego does not allow me to make calculations even one day ahead because it always checks on what I have in my hands right now. If I fail to see an immediate benefit, I don’t care what happens later. Don’t tell me about the future. I do not see or hear anything.

Some 50 years ago, economists and bankers prepared programs for the development of the government for 5, 10, 20, or even 25 or 50 years ahead of time. There is nothing like it today. No one even knows what will happen tomorrow.

The lack of desire to consider one another leads us to the loss of a point of reference. This destroys all the systems that now exist. It destroys the very last remaining minimal balance between the force to receive and the force to bestow, not just balance but also any kind of connection, and even this is lost.

This is why we do not know how to continue living. The solution is to create a system within our community that will help push us and teach us to increase the force of bestowal without which life cannot exist.
[72062]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 12, 1/10/12

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We hope that the knowledge you’ll obtain from the integral education course will help you understand all aspects of life, more so than you think. Let’s talk about the force of bestowal that we want to obtain and what it gives us. Bestowal constitutes help, attention, inclusion to the point of love, which is the greatest force of all. A person can develop all of these qualities by building a correct environment, which will constantly show him an example and thereby change him.

Throughout the course of evolution we’ve developed through the force of egoism that pushes us forward. This force develops the desire to receive pleasure in us, due to which we strive toward knowledge, power, and domination. We feel jealous of others and want to obtain everything they have. And this is how we develop. On account of this force, we acquire knowledge about this world; we get comfortable in it and even begin to control it. The problem is that without balancing our egoistic force with the force of bestowal that exists in nature, we constantly exist under the influence of a destructive force of egoism. After all, if we only strive toward receiving, then we bring our environment, our society, and all people to an imbalance.

If we look at our development, we see that during the first part of our lives starting from birth, we receive all knowledge about the world from our parents or from people that are closely connected to our upbringing. In our teens, we continue to receive examples of how to behave and settle into life from our educators. When we enter into an adult life, we continue learning the art of living in this world from our environment and from our own experiences. And then we can stand firmly on our feet, armed with the strength and knowledge that we’ve received in our childhood and teenage years, and we begin teaching others. When we have our own children, we teach them and prepare them for life.

This is the way that people have always developed. It’s clear to us that without knowledge of this world we won’t be able to survive in it. The more we know about this world and the more we apply this knowledge, the greater will be our success. Ultimately, our success depends on our knowledge of this world. So, we try to pass this knowledge on to our children so that it provides them with the strength to live. After all, the quality of life depends on the amount of knowledge.

But after developing for several thousand of years, in the last 50-60 years we suddenly began to notice that our egoistic growth under the desire to receive and take everything with no regard for others or nature is coming to an end. We can’t continue advancing this way, especially since we’re trying to understand, feel and delve deeper into this world. We see that our strength isn’t sufficient enough. We only are destroying ourselves, our surroundings, and ultimately all of nature. This is why we ask ourselves more and more about the force of love and bestowal, which we are seemingly missing.

In reality, this tremendous force of Mother Nature rules the entire world and it actualizes our development. Our development occurs due to the force of bestowal. Just as we act in relation to our children, so does Mother Nature act in relation to all of us. We are lacking this force of bestowal. We only use it and receive everything from it, but we don’t resemble it at all. And when we think about ourselves, about the essence of our existence, about our development and the process we undergo, then we realize that we have to reach some goal because all of nature’s development has some sort of a purpose.

If we wish to know this goal then we must understand nature better, examine it, and understand the forces that operate within it. Then we might actually understand what’s happening to us and how to develop further in order to obtain a truly good life.
[71960]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 12, 1/10/12

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Question: You constantly speak about integral education. But not everyone will spend all their time on spiritual work because people have other corporeal desires: dancing, music, creative work, etc.

Answer: I don’t think that people will have many different secondary desires. The development of the integral community will be so wholesome that it will consume all the other habits, interests, hobbies, and people will find everything that can possibly fulfill them, including new culture, music, and literature, everything, in their integral connection, activities, and communication.

The fulfillment a person will receive through integral connection with others is the highest fulfillment, the fulfillment of Light. He or she will have no other demands. Of course this will include music, literature, and art, but they will be completely different. They will reflect the person’s new world, new vision, and new movements.

Comment: People object to the prediction of the disappearance of contemporary cultural values: music, art….

Answer: I don’t neglect cultural values, diminish their value, or encourage their destruction! Music, literature and art all are very important in my view and perception of the world; they are a source of positive emotions for me. But the thing is that as we advance, the culture, built on the egoistic perception of the world, will gradually disappear. The meaning, feelings, fulfillment, qualities, and values instilled in our current works of art will gradually be lost. They will have no meaning for us.

In other words, I will view the greatest music, the greatest literature, and the most beautiful works of art as something very small which doesn’t correspond to my new demands because they are created by a small person who only has the skill to draw pretty images, use words nicely, or express emotions through music. But all of this is on such a small egoistic level that only fulfills my small physiological soul so that when I develop new instruments of reception and attainment, I simply stop feeling any greatness in this.

I say things as they are: I have been to the Louvre, I looked at the paintings, and I was not able to “find myself” in it. But some time ago, they delighted me so much that I wanted to keep returning to these halls. You gradually begin to feel that all these things are on a level which absolutely does not fulfill you, does not delight you, and you see no value in them.

A person begins to demand a greater, higher fulfillment. And this perspective exists and will definitely happen. Basically, this is a vector of growth.
[72033]
From KabTV’s “Foundations of the Integral Society” 2/12/12

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Question: There are several languages in modern psychology; for example, direct conversation or psychotherapeutic metaphor, the purpose of which is to create a fairytale for a specific person where he can defeat his problem. Through this language, the fairytale penetrates the person’s consciousness.

I know that you use different languages when teaching people. What is the best way to use them and where?

Answer: We have many specific articles about integral upbringing, about moving towards integration, unity, about coming out of one’s “I” towards “we,” from “we” towards “one” where even “we” becomes lost, and unity appears instead of it—just unity. There are many examples and images regarding it.

But we do not classify language because we do not use a psychological approach, the one used by the modern psychology, even though we approve of it and are happy that it has evolved so much that it helps us advance.

We do not have a system like this. I hope that once psychologists come to us, “break away” from their boundaries, and learn ours, they will create specific tables, workbooks.

We do not have this. We believe that our work is so multi-faceted and it is done in an ever-changing society with changing circumstances to which we always apply very different materials. We are very flexible. It is possible that during one lesson in a single group conversation, in a single discussion, you might experience several such states which might not fit into any clear framework of conduct consistent with the group.

I observe this during my lessons, when I have a face-to-face conversations with students and their  questions, which include materials from completely different levels and different forms.

Comment: One of these languages is the language of joking, humor, etc.

Answer: It is used constantly, wherever possible, but only to the extent that it is able to clear the air and to help with uniting because this is the only goal; in other words, you use whatever helps.

Humor is very good because it relaxes the situation. It frees the subcortex and helps the person to come “out of himself”—and the person enters a new level.

Humor reveals completely different communication and thinking possibilities. It is a method of rising to a new level. It is so unconcrete that a new degree of our development forms in it, and this is why we encourage it a lot.
[71842]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #11, 12/16/11

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Question: When a man is going through unpleasant states, we recommend that he connect to the group and solve his problem there, through the integral connection with others. What can we recommend to a woman in a case like this?

Answer: Male instructors, who teach groups of women, must notice these things and help women. Several men must work with women’s states, and not just one man. Moreover, constant work with the group leads to women overcoming these states.

Question: What do you mean when you say that male instructors need to work with women?

Answer: Support, explain things, have individual talks with women.

When several male instructors see that a woman really is in a very difficult state, we must work with women as well even though this happens very rarely; women usually overcome these states on their own; it is much harder for men to do.

Usually at least two instructors should be speaking with a woman. And if we have a husband and a wife studying in separate groups, then by temporarily putting them into one group we can influence the wife through her husband, and vice versa.

Question: What do you mean by “influencing?”

Answer: Support, for example, if the man has fallen or become weaker in his integral development.

Question: And the other way around? We can influence a woman through a man?

Answer: It can be done in a family. We can tell the husband to support his spouse, but he must not tell her that he was instructed to do it. Naturally spouses decide everything between them. In every situation, we advise one of the partners how to unassumingly give the other partner the importance of further integral advancement, and show that this makes him or her greater in the eyes of the other partner, and he or she is valued a lot.
[71845]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #11, 2/16/11

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