Question: According to the method of integral upbringing, a person is not supposed to be shown bad examples. But in psychology things are a little different: A person talks about his misfortunes and begins to evaluate what he is doing wrong. Essentially, a person is getting in touch with his evil, bad side, which he then tries to correct.

Answer: Our approach is absolutely different: Evil does not exist! There is no evil in the world! Even though all of nature appears evil to us, it is only because we use it incorrectly. If we use it in a different way, it will be absolute goodness. And we can also use egoism for good, and not bad.

When I play against my own egoism, meaning begin to evaluate and work with it as with an instrument of my ascent over it, it becomes my starting point, the guideline according to which I measure myself: how much I ascend and change.

I regard my egoism as a negative essence given to me, which I must properly robe into a completely opposite intention: to use it all for bestowal, love, and connection. Then egoism will constantly be of help to me; it will constantly push and goad me, pull me somewhere aside, and I will constantly work on counterbalancing it by finding ways to rise above it. This way it will be my help “against me.”

We know that any tracking or any developing system must consist of two opposite forces. And these mutually opposite forces achieve the best possible result, the common denominator by balancing each other out.

This is why the egoism in me must be balanced out by the desire to rise above it, lean on the environment, the help of the neighbors, friends, and the entire community in order to rise above it. These two systems—society, the environment on one side and my egoism on the other—are helping me. And it is as if I am standing between them and am raising myself this way.

Ultimately, I examine my egoism, reveal the qualities in it that can help me grow above it, use it for bestowal, advancement, joy, and helping others, and then it becomes the force, the mass, the matter, I am working with. I am in no way destroying it! It keeps developing in me, and I welcome with joy all the nuances of its development.

A modern person greets it with sorrow and grief: “Me again! What did I do?!” But it is not me. It is nature revealing itself in me this way—an enormous egoistic nature that reveals itself in us specifically this way so we would keep uniting over it.

This is why egoism is an engine that moves us forward. We need all its forms, all its manifestations, even the most horrible ones, so we could robe them in pretty clothes.

This horror remains on the inside, and let it stay there. But when we put a completely different and opposite shell on it, we create a discord, a dipole in every one of our qualities, which helps us increase the strength of egoism and use it for the sake of others in a way which creates a completely different structure called “Man.”

Now is the first time in history that we are coming to a state when we will be able to rise above the level of our corporeal existence (for the sake of the physical body) to the level where we create a completely different, spiritual structure: a common virtual humanity, where everyone is interconnected and mutually complete one another. And this single integrated mechanism, the so-called Adam, which is the prototype of the collective human being in the world, provides us with the opportunity to attain all the forces of nature, all its depths, and use them the right way.

So, by no means do we destroy or neutralize the egoism; on the contrary, we rejoice in all of its negative manifestations, like a sculptor who finds a good material to make a sculpture. Of course he is looking at a lot of work to shape it into a specific form. But he is glad that this material has landed in his hands.

It’s the same with us. The revelation of egoism is the new material with which I can work. And we only need to change the way we use the material and not the actual material—instead of doing something at the expense of others, we need to do it for their sake.
[67692]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #7, 12/14/11

Related Material:
Evil Is Our Inability To Feel Love
A Heated Chess Game Against The Snake
When Childhood Ends

Filed under: Education, Integral Upbringing, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: In Russia the gap between an idealized picture of a beautiful life and the actual life is very big. Entire masses of people have learned to believe that there is something beautiful yet unreal and unreachable, and then there is the everyday life where “there is no fence against ill fortune.” How can we overcome the fact that a Russian person does not believe that he can live better than now?

Answer: In the course of many centuries Russian people were so pressured, restricted, and enslaved that this faith was simply “etched out” of them. Many leaders and regimes were preoccupied only with that: How they could convert a normal citizen into an abnormal slave. That is why today we see a mutilated society, unfortunate people with tremendous potential, the kind that doesn’t exist, perhaps, in any other nation in the world. It is a nation of overwhelming possibility: intelligent, sensitive, and at the same time so tortured, cornered, embittered, and full of mistrust towards everyone.

Whenever I visit Moscow and look at people, I notice that all of them walk around either hunched over or conversely, show themselves off. There is no normal and free person who would walk along and be carefree about what goes on around him. That is, a person is truly placed under very difficult conditions that weigh heavily upon him.

But on the other hand, Russian people have an exceptionally high perceptiveness towards science, closeness, and understanding of the new. Unlike the Germans or the English, they are not so intransigent. The ability to adapt and change is present in Russians more than in any other people.

Therefore I think that on the contrary, in Russia, as a result of widespread dissemination of the idea of integral education and upbringing, the integral future of the world could be quickly accepted and people could begin to adapt to it quickly. It is because they are constantly searching for the Russian idea, identity, and individuality. This “fermentation” continuously goes on in a person, it’s just that now people have thrown up their hands. Now there is a stretch of nihilism, but it’s only external; internally this demand exists anyway.
[66478]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #5, 12/13/11

Related Material:
Playing Democracy
Russia And Europe: On The Path To Spirituality
On Russia’s Spiritual Rebirth

Filed under: Education, Integral Upbringing, Q&A - No Comments →

The world treats us more harshly, persistently, seriously, and tenaciously with each passing day. Willingly or unwillingly, people feel that something has to happen or is already happening. The religious attribute this to a higher force; the secular blame it on nature. One way or another, we are under strong pressure that forces us to focus our attention and start acting.

Kabbalah teaches us that there is a way to optimize and accelerate our development. For that, we have to recognize what’s going on and observe the process as a whole. At each given moment we have to choose how to continue growing.  It is not about being right or wrong, but rather whether our progress complies with the program of nature. The closer we are to the program, the faster we progress. Everything depends on our understanding, grasp, and attainment of, and agreement with the algorithm that nature demands of us.

How do we know about this? Today, we can arrive at this conclusion from our own experience.

Scientists, psychologist, and philosophers repeat in unison that we are developing by two forces: good and evil. Good brings us goodness and evil, evil. We have no doubt about this, since each of us can interpret good and evil.

The impact of a good force is especially felt in childhood when we are cared for, loved, and protected while we are growing. Nature (or the Creator) elicits a good attitude and love in parents, immediate family, and even in the distant environment towards children. It doesn’t matter if the child misbehaves or breaks things. He is excused for doing things that an adult would never be forgiven for. Everyone pampers a child and he uses their good attitude.

As soon as a child grows up, that kind and indulgent attitude stops abruptly. From now on he becomes the one who has to take care of himself and others; he begins to “owe” others and is held responsible for his actions. To make it short, demands replaces love.

Why does this happen? We are not questioning childhood, but why is nature so demanding of adulthood, why does it stop being as kind as it previously was? Why does it start to apply a negative attitude towards us?

It is essential to understand that it has nothing to do with negativity, but rather about giving us incentive to grow. If we develop correctly, then instead of feeling bad influences, we sense benevolence. Thus, we have to realize that the whole of nature, life, and the world treats us according to our compliance with the world. If the world treats us problematically, it means that the problem is rooted in our own incorrect and imbalanced attitudes towards the world. When we adapt to the world, we begin to re-evaluate the forces that we previously considered bad to good.

What is the reason we don’t feel that negative force instigating our self-correction? If we re-connect with that force, life will again seem just like it was in childhood when everyday promised to bring something good.

Everything depends on our preparedness and upbringing. If from our early years we were brought up correctly and trained to ensure that as adults we matured with the understanding of how to correctly interact with the environment to elicit positive responses and how to correctly interact with nature, society, family, and ourselves, then our lives would have continued perfectly, without any problems.

But we do not get correct directives in childhood regarding our adulthood. It is easy to talk about these issues by using the Kabbalists’ words, but what can we do if we are not familiar with the wisdom of Kabbalah? Can we find precise directions by listening to nature’s hints? Can we form the proper attitude to everything that surrounds us? Humanity faces the problem of finding a way to avoid suffering and is trying to discover how to relate to life in order to experience the least amount of distress. Even now we continue to suffer and we will suffer more because we haven’t yet found the answer to this question.

The contradiction between what we want and what we actually possess in reality pushes adults to search further. As a result, throughout history we have developed several approaches to this problem. Baal HaSulam writes about them in his article “The Peace”; pointing out that if we honestly and realistically view nature, humanity, and life,  we will arrive at the same results that the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us.

The main thing is to not be bribed by our egoism, but rather to rise above it to an objective level at which we do not depend on our existing sensations, inclinations, and notions. If we could rise above ourselves as independent researchers, we would detect some data that is contained in Kabbalah.

This is what the wisdom does: It raises a person up to a level where he can take a look at reality without the prism of his ego. If we could remove these “lenses” of egoism, we would easily attain the wisdom of Kabbalah. According to Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Peace,” this is scientific research with an experimental, experiential, and practical basis that works for everybody without exception and that allows each and everyone to discover the need to bestow to our neighbor.
[60423]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/11/11, “The Peace”

Related Material:
How Do We Protect Ourselves From Nature?
Saying Goodbye To Childhood
Evolution Of Consciousness

Filed under: Children, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Education, Integral Upbringing - No Comments →

Question: Can questions related to the integral nature of society or news on current events serve as a topic for discussion in the courses on integral education for adults?

Answer: It all depends on the group of people and the degree of their preparation: to what extent their understanding has ripened, how well they have mastered the tools for analysis and synthesis of their knowledge and attitudes, and how objectively they can rise above themselves and distance themselves from their personal interests.

But generally, we should certainly explore such questions. We should “dissect” democracy openly before everyone and demonstrate what an absolutely egoistic structure it is, that it is nothing to be proud of. At one time, one king reigned, and everyone submitted to the will of a single person, regardless how foolish or smart and sensible, still just one. And now it is clawed apart by different parties that want to “gnaw” everyone else to death. This is not the kind of parliament that should exist. In other words, there are obviously many problems here.

At one time scientists and philosophers ruled people, or at the very least they were valued and served as advisors to the kings. A king had an army and money, all in one set of hands. But in order to control the treasury and the army, he had a few smart people. And it was much simpler and easier, there was no embezzlement, and mistakes were kept at a minimum. Everything was in a single set of hands, a king had nobody to rob—everything belonged to him. And for making certain decisions, he had a couple of smart advisors. That’s all. Small struggles behind the scenes still existed, of course, but only in minimal doses. That’s why everything was much more stable and survived for centuries, in contrast to today’s parliament.

All of our freedom today is just maximum freedom from responsibility. Overall, understanding freedom is a big problem.
[66480]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #5, 12/13/11

Related Material:
Playing Democracy
Democracy Or A Trick Of Egoism
Education For The New World

Filed under: Crisis, Education, Integral Upbringing, Q&A, Society - No Comments →

Question: Let’s say there are elections in Russia, I am watching the news and receiving information about who won, who lost, and so on. How can I make this information integral so that it completes the overall picture?

Answer: The integral picture can help you draw a conclusion that society is separated, that it doesn’t see a corrupt system in democracy or its absence (which, essentially, is the same thing), and not only in Russia but in America and all the other countries as well.

If we can’t arrive at a common understanding of where we are and what we should be moving towards, then this speaks of a lack of connection between people in society. Imagine that a large number of societies is forced to exist on one territory and live under one “roof,” which they currently divide into an enormous number of parties or mafia structures. Each of them, naturally, desires to increase its influence at the expense of others, to snatch a piece of the common pie (it doesn’t matter for whom and for what, whether it brings benefit or harm), that is, each of them only takes his own interests into consideration.

And this is called a “democracy,” when I’m only thinking about how to be victorious and crush everyone else? Yet this is what everyone else is thinking about. They are not united by one common idea, everyone simply has their own opinion about how to lead towards it. Yet they can all be working in harmony. What kind of a government will it be if it is once again built on fighting? Is this what we call democracy? Where is this democracy?

Democracy can only exist when the public is educated, when it has an understanding of the next degree. And this next degree isn’t the kind that can be seen one way by one party and differently by another; it is the kind that is leading us towards unification with nature, towards an integral society.

The agenda of all parties should be the study of integral society. We need to lead people towards this. Then we will feel comfortable and achieve the most optimal state in our health, studies, family life—in everything because it will correspond to nature.

Hence, let us agree that this is our goal. But our current state is bad, and everyone understands that more or less equally. How can we bring ourselves towards this goal, to draw to it as close as possible? What opportunities, theories, and foundations do we have for that? And here we will work constructively with one another, complete each other. We will argue, but our goal will be becoming an integral society, and we will be working only for the sake of achieving this goal.

If we are not going to act accordingly, we will see how all that destroys the state. The government shows us an example of protectionism within each part of society and between governments in relation to each other.
[66483]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #5, 12/13/11

Related Material:
Monarchy Or Democracy?
Democracy Or A Trick Of Egoism
On Russia’s Spiritual Rebirth

Filed under: Crisis, Education, Integral Upbringing, Society - No Comments →

If the term “force of nature” is not completely clear, we can explain the stages of development to a regular person looking for a real good, with empirical evidence. It’s clear to all of us that a positive attitude to one another is good, absence of crime is good, and serenity and safety are also good. If we help each other and everyone will have what the others have, this will be better than our present miserable life! Everyone would agree with this.

Great! Now let’s acknowledge the affect of the environment on us since it can be seen at every given step in life. Any group can manipulate its members through persuasion. A person can be forced to think in a completely opposite way if there are 20-30 people around him who say that black is white. This is a proven fact that can’t be denied.

Therefore, if the environment does in fact influence an individual, we can create an artificial environment where everyone will treat each other well. We will oblige everyone to behave in this manner, and every transgression will be answered with polite criticism at first, and then with stiff denial.

There is no other choice. After all, we wish to live having everything that a human being requires: a home, food, family, health, pension, vacation, and so on. All this in normal proportions and not in the form of many zeros in our bank accounts, meaning in accordance with one’s natural needs.

If you desire this, you have an opportunity to create this environment, where everyone will care for everyone else. And this will happen only by changing our attitude to one another. In addition, even if we treat each other well out of desperation, artificially by accepting the mode of behavior and acting as in good environment, thereby we acquire a habit, which becomes our second nature. We actually become like that!

Until now we were savages, ready to swallow up everything around us. By joining this game, we literally turn ourselves inside out like a glove. And then over the course of some time, everyone will change and from being a savage, everyone will turn into a human being.

As a result, we become a completely new humanity: We reveal additional opportunities. By acquiring balance with nature, I begin to feel it, and then I reveal new abilities in me with the help of which I create progressive mechanisms and turn worlds upside down, literally. I know all the laws of nature because I am similar to nature.

What’s unreal about this? Let’s play and build such relationships. We have no other choice! Everything depends on education, meaning the influence of the environment. We are sufficiently mature, experienced, and intelligent people. We see a threatening future and we provide a piece of advice that lacks any mysticism.

Humanity has no chance of escaping this development, and we are offering a remedy that prevents illness. All the negative impacts of nature are brought about by our incongruence with it. Therefore, any blow that I experience indicates imbalance with nature. For example, if it’s cold, I need to turn on the heat or put on warm clothes; if it’s noisy, I need either to install a noise reduction system or close my ears. In other words, I must carry out some action in response to every phenomenon.
[67618]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode #4, 1/1/12

Related Material:
Our Urgent Intervention Is Required
Two Forces – One Law
To See The World Through The Eyes Of Women

Filed under: Crisis, Education, Integral Upbringing, Society, World - No Comments →

Question: The question about the existence of a single upper force, which controls the entire creation, causes an essential argument between people: Some believe that it exists, and others that it does not. Do you belong to the first, the approach that is inherent to religions?

Answer: No, it does not pertain to religions. I build entirely on the practical evaluation of
 nature without any prior assumptions. This approach neither pertains to religion nor faith, nor any other direction, which has historic roots and no other basis.

Question: If we rely on the study of nature, how do we understand “the law that includes all the laws”?

Answer: If we were to supplement this lecture with scientific data from research and experiments, it would be the actual proof, which precedes the questions. There really are many opinions, but we rely on the data from the evaluations of nature and the human 
society.

There used to be a notion that nature is one, and we only scrape some tiny grains of knowledge from it, which do not seem to be related to one another. But now physics, chemistry, biology, zoology, and other sciences are already interconnected. We study the foundations of each one of them, atoms and their different kinds of connections. These foundations are broad, common forces, but at every level of nature: still, vegetative, animate, and human, they operate according to the level.

For example, if the force in the atom attracts and rejects the particles, in an animal body it compresses and expands the lungs, and on the level of the brain it manifests in the form of a contradiction between agreement and doubt. Two opposite tendencies operate, but they are controlled by one force, which balances them, because all of nature strives towards 
balance.

The presence of two forces in nature does not contradict the existence of one law, which controls both forces. Modern science states that we depend on each other, and the manifestation of the crisis on the human level obligates us to realize that we all exist in one system. And this also pertains to nature, but to the “human” nature.

As we study the climate and other processes in the world, we learn that every phenomenon concerns everyone. However, at the given stage we see a purely broken picture because we only perceive a small part of our reality. But because we suffer and experience unpleasant states, we should study them as quickly as possible and thus turn negative forces into positive ones.
[67623]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode #4, 1/1/12

Related Material:
Not An Experiment On Lab Mice
Check For Balance
Synergetics: The Science Of The Laws Of Chaos

Filed under: Education, Integral Upbringing, Q&A, Science - No Comments →

There is a general law in nature, which actually gives us hope for our coming closer to each other and in our ability to overcome our egos. This law states that one’s habit becomes his second nature.

We see this ourselves. Let’s suppose from my childhood and over the course of my life, I become used to carrying out certain actions in order to reach a positive result or avoid undesirable consequences. Due to these actions that are repeated often, I develop a habit. It becomes the same kind of demand for me as the desire to receive pleasure, since I do not receive pleasure in any other form but this.

A person learns this and these actions become a habit for him. Everything depends only on how the environment obliges him to do something, how many people act in that manner, and to what extent it has support from everything that surrounds him in life.

Therefore, if we create an education system and organize an environment that will offer support to every person, one will be influenced by the mere fact that other people care so much about everyone else. He will find out about it from the media from the positive public opinion it forms.

In addition, everyone will know that we do this on purpose: We play with each other and pretend to be kind, as though we think that we all are one family, like we care about each other as we do about ourselves. We will need to play this game constantly. We will act like we already are corrected. And what will this do for us?

Gradually, due to this habit, public opinion, and the influence of the environment, I will begin to think in this direction and receive an impression from this behavior. I will begin to form a habit, and I will not be able to act in any other way anymore. It will become my nature, as though I was born this way in spite of the fact that I acquired this quality, that I was forced to develop it, and that I agreed due to a lack of any other choice.

Therefore, we need to realize the law “a habit will become second nature.” Everything depends on how much a person is situated under his own pressure and the pressure of his environment in order not to forget about this game and to advance in this manner. And we will play this way like little children.

After all, when children play, they imagine that they are doing something important and building something new. But we know that it’s a game, and it isn’t serious, and that there is nothing real in their actions. They make mistakes, build anew, destroy once again, and again rebuild. However, due to such different games they advance in their development, grow up, and become smarter.

Without games a child would grow up like a savage, a small animal that is just growing bigger. Great institutions using the best minds including psychologists create special developmental systems for children to play with using various materials (such as blocks and clay) and taking into consideration their interests (cars, dolls, and so on). They use various equipment and computer programs for this. And due to this, the children advance in their development.

Physical development is also impossible without games. We call it sports, but sports are also games where we use physical activities to accustom ourselves to achieve results that are beyond the power of the common man who doesn’t exercise, train, and play the sport. We see that athletes achieve great results due to their habit of working on themselves.

We also notice that people who live together for many years develop similar perceptions; they understand each other without words. And all this occurs as a consequence of the habit of living under one roof, seeing and feeling each other involuntarily, and reaching mutual inclusion in each other this way.

In much the same way, whole nations and civilizations were formed some time ago by way of people who were different and foreign to each other interacting together until they developed certain characteristics that became specific to that nation.

This goes to say that the law of habit becoming second nature is particularly necessary to us, so that even through actions that we do not desire and forms of interaction that are unnatural to us, we can acquire qualities that we choose against our own nature. These new qualities already exist in us, and it is due to them that we build ourselves.
[67359]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode #4, 1/1/12

Related Material:
To Not Want To Leave!
A New Profession: Human
The New Habit

Filed under: Education, Integral Upbringing, Society, World - 2 Comments →

Question: The idea of the program of development existing in nature is usually associated with a religious worldview.

Answer: That is not true! I do not associate the program of development with the upper force. If you want to move a phenomenon from state 1 to the more advanced state 2, you need to know both states and the method of advancement. So, it happens. Nature does not make mistakes; it knows exactly how to direct every creature in the best way: towards what? to balance with the environment!

At every stage, nature creates from each type of desire its developed form most suitable for the environment. And there is no need for the upper force here. This is the law of development, and it affects us in the same way.

How can we as a human society move from our current state to the next one, to be balanced with the environment so that we feel well? Here the law of development stops because a human must realize his next balanced form and advance towards it on his own.

That means that we are in a particular crisis because it requires human intervention in the development process. A human being should become wiser and understand the law of nature, the trend of development, and then continue his own development due to the environment. That is, I develop myself through the environment, and nature just awakens the need in me: I cannot remain calm; I feel the crisis but do not see how to get out of it.

Why? because I should know the next state, explore it, understand, and feel that it is missing, and with the help of the environment, play creating nature on my own, which forces me to develop correctly.

Is it possible? Yes, it is! Now, we have to act instead of nature, not to wait until it starts to push us according to its program; we need to understand the program, become armed with the mind to build a system of development, and to advance.
[67612]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode #4 , 1/1/12

Related Material:
To Not Want To Leave!
A New Profession: Human
Promoting The Idea Of Integral Education

Filed under: Education, Integral Upbringing - No Comments →

We study that nature is one Law that affects all of us as one whole and wants to bring us in balance with it. Then, uniting into one, we will begin to understand the world we live in.

We can come to this connection through a good attitude towards each other, which we do not want but should achieve through a game, using the rule “habit becomes second nature.” How can we accomplish this? This needs to be implemented in the environment that surrounds us, in human society.

Every person has a certain status with respect to society. And we need to build such systems of relations between a person and society in which everyone will feel obliged to society and that the well-being of society depends on him, and his well-being depends on society.

To accomplish this, we need to reorganize the form of human relations that we have developed guided by our ego, and the essence of which is “to everyone according to his egoistic needs.” And so, today this principle does not work, and the current crisis is general and integral.

Thus, we need to create a new form of people’s relations with their environment based on the fact that we all depend on each other. If the environment requires a person to have a good attitude, it should give him examples of correct behavior, like a mother does raising her child.

Society that surrounds us should completely change its effect on each of us. And above all, this refers to the media and education systems. They need to be re-organized immediately, changed in order to give everyone a sense of the need to change the relations between us, as well as our relationship to the environment. After all, the environment is a kind of incubator, where we will develop properly. The temperature, humidity, and oxygen level, all of these parameters are set in the incubator in the optimal range so that healthy chickens hatch quickly and in comfortable conditions.

We must build around ourselves such a beautiful “greenhouse,” an environment, in which we will feel cozy, warm, and pleasant so that we would not want to leave! Like a baby grows in his mother’s womb in complete safety, where everything is created for his normal development, in this way, we should build our environment in which everyone develops properly and comfortably.

By building such an environment for our own benefit and for the benefit of everyone else (each one should care for all the rest), a person eventually builds his big family; we become brothers.
[67350]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode #4, 1/1/12

Related Material:
Habit Becomes Second Nature
A New Profession: Human
Check For Balance

Filed under: Education, Integral Upbringing - No Comments →