Question: The elderly have an especially emphatic fear that arises in any group: What if I won’t have enough time to reach the sensation of eternity and perfection? How to handle that fear?

Answer: We need to set very concrete tasks before them, not prospective ones, like for the youth, and to set defined goals that are attainable and realized very quickly. At the same time, we need to tell them about the entire global picture of nature’s system, its eternity, its life cycles, as well as our life cycles within it. That is, here we need to provide serious psychological support from the very beginning.

Question: During one of the programs you explained that a fear of death paralyzes a person’s life, impedes him. It manifests less in young people and more at a certain age.  How does the methodology of integral upbringing regard attitude to fear? How to work with it?

Answer: I think that a correct clarification of our place in nature is the key to understanding a person’s place within it, the place of death and our biological life. We need to bring a person to the next level of understanding, not even feeling yet, but simply understanding of this.

A person will reach the sensation of eternity and perfection when he or she will be integrally connected with a certain critical mass of other people who are also attaining this integration. Then it is as if we rise above ourselves, creating above us some image of one person with one heart and mind. And our physical body exists nearby as an animal that accompanies this one image, the way our dog or cat lives alongside of us.

We need to focus people’s attention on that and to try bring them to this kind of sensation. In principle, psychologically it’s not that difficult considering that there is no resistance on their end, but on the contrary, support and anticipation of results. They represent that part of humanity that joyfully strives towards integration and closeness, understanding that all else passes and vanishes.

Elderly people easily part with everything for the sake of achieving the feeling of ascent above death, rising above the very factor of the seemingly inevitably impending end. We need to give them a feeling as if they are in a plunging airplane set to crash into a mountaintop, but suddenly some great force force lifts it up, and it speeds upwards with boosted power. I think that such sensation can be created in them quickly.

Besides, the courses for the elderly naturally need to be easier. They don’t require great theoretical and practical studies; they will gladly just participate. And I think that precisely the egoism and fear that appear in all older people, the desire to achieve a result that uplifts them, all that will provide a very serious basis for movement to other groups in society.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #4, 12/13/11

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Question: We spoke about the fact that in the integral upbringing courses people meet for seven to eight hours a day, and together they first go through the preparatory informational stage, that is, receive an education, and then proceed to the practical part, the upbringing, where now in their psychological interaction they go through various states. Aside from study and upbringing, is there room in this program for joint celebration of holidays?

Answer: Constantly. After all, in spending seven to eight hours together, they need to participate in some sort of a meal at least once, perhaps even twice. There should be a lunch and also a small break, like an afternoon snack. There need to be breaks for rest and a constant change in activities; otherwise a person will simply be unable to handle it, especially the elderly—they’d all be falling asleep.

Since they have free time, we need to break their day into morning and evening lessons, and in the middle to give them some time for rest, for housework, for their natural needs. After all, this is a special age group whose physiology may not be fully healthy anymore.

Our task is to have a person connect to a group and thereby acquire for themselves a new society in which they live and not merely pass their time, but find there their bright future. We need to create for them an atmosphere of joyful anticipation that would psychologically support and indeed heal them. Starting with the very first hours of them being with us, we need to work specifically on that.

We should organize dances for them, some kind of special evening functions. In other words, there needs to be a special approach here.

I would like to emphasize once more that their disposition towards our methodology, their desire for it to come true, and their goodwill will play a positive role within other age groups. Elderly people can and know how to influence everyone. We are well familiar with this age: In reality it is quite active. We only think, based on their physical guise, that they are passive, but in fact their influence is very strong.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #4, 12/13/11

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Question: What is unique about teaching integral approach to the elderly?

Answer: I think that they will receive it with greater understanding because a person who has already lived a lifetime understands to what extent one is not the master of one’s own life. It’s as if it passed by above him, commanding him, and not him being in command of it.

People of that age agree more with the fact that nature works on us, and now, when they don’t have that much time left to understand, realize, and possibly correct that in some way, they are more diligent, sensitive, and compassionate.

Besides, the enormous hard-won life experience gives a person a completely different approach to what is being offered. From the very beginning, a person is open to learning, so naturally, his participation in the studies is most amicable. We are offering a person to achieve harmony in that short segment of time that he or she has.

These are people who live and measure themselves not relative to some achievements, but relative to the end of life. Generally speaking, this constant subconscious sensation in a person determines his or her entire behavior.

And here is where we need to imbue the endpoint of their life with joy, attainment, and ascent towards a new state that exists beyond the end of corporeal life. We should give them a sensation that it’s as if they’re flying and about to crash into something, and suddenly a motor appears that carries them up above the obstacle. It is precisely a sensation of this possibility that will give them strength, and then, of course, it will be very easy for them to work in a group.

I hope that these groups will be a serious help to us because in principle, the more groups of this kind we can create, the easier it will be for us to include ourselves into all of humanity.

By the way, longevity inherent in our time (life expectancy is more than doubled compared to the previous centuries) means an accumulation of life experience by an individual. At some point, people lived 30 or 40 years and died young, without gaining any experience in life. From the ancient times and all the way until the 18th century, a person lived no longer than 35-40 years. It’s hard to believe now that there was once such a short life cycle. A person practically had no time to attain anything in life, grew old very quickly, and died. Everything somehow broke off very abruptly.

We need to take advantage of the fact that in our time, the developing ego offers us an opportunity, in accordance with its development, to simultaneously live through and internalize the experience and the point of view that develops in a person by the age of sixty and beyond. Today elderly people comprise the vast majority of humanity. We need to take advantage of this group, which is sympathetic to our methodology and its outcome, and through them create in all of humanity a certain correct background for integration.

Therefore, under no circumstances should we pass these groups by, although our usual automatic attitude towards this segment of the population is: “We’ll create all the necessary conditions so they wouldn’t bother us. Let them sit somewhere on a bench and calmly live out their life.” No, we need to build very powerful groups out of them, and they will disseminate this method, its usefulness, and a life-saving solution that it offers to mankind among their children and grandchildren.

Question: We know from experience that the majority of the elderly really love to tell the story of their life. Should we give them an opportunity to share their stories?

Answer: Only if it helps us in the capacity of a psychological example: What you related, what you saw, what you lived through. Naturally, the elderly love this, but their stories need to be accompanied by investigation and analysis: Why this happened, what it provided, what this should teach us today, and so on.

Elderly people passing time in various gatherings is their own business, but we need to take it into consideration and teach them how to relate to the lived experiment of life.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #4, 12/13/11

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Our whole process of evolution is through the environment. If there were no environment, I wouldn’t develop, despite the Reshimot (reminiscences) in me. We see that if children are left in the forest and are found only some time later, they develop like the animals that took care of them in the forest. They develop according to the traits of those animals, they suffer from the same illnesses they do, they think and want the same things the animals do, and even live the same lifespan of those animals.

This means that their body got used to living with animals to such an extent that they were impressed by these animals, so that if a child is found at the age of 6 or 9 (and there have been several such cases), then despite the treatment and good conditions they lived in afterwards, they lived the same number of years as the animals they had lived with. They lived 12 to 20 years at the most.

In other words, our body greatly depends on the society in which we develop, and in that sense a person is very flexible. If we take a dog or cat for example, who lived with man for ages, they only get used to people a little. Of course, they can’t live in the forest like wild dogs and cats, since they have a different character. They also pass on to their offspring a different attitude to man and the environment. Yet they are not that flexible. Man on the other hand, when incorporated in a certain environment, is impressed by it very strongly, even fatally. Compared to an animal that gets used to living with people, man is much more powerfully impressed and becomes accustomed to the lives of animals.

This means that we all depend on our environment. Therefore, in education, we should also first pay attention to the environment as a factor that determines a person’s development. A person’s whole future depends on this. If we change the environment, we change our personality, our desire, our perspective, and our paradigm of life. Therefore it is very important to be careful, to think, to check, and to consider the place we enter, the friends and the circles where we spend our time, and whom we give ourselves to.

We must teach a person to know and to learn what surrounds him, and explain to him how dependent he is on the environment and how he can manage his life by it.
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From “Lessons About a New World” #3, 12/29/11

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Kabbalah for the Nation Introductory Lecture Series, “Course to Be A Man, Human Development”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

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Question: There are those who see a threat in Baal HaSulam’s approach, who prefers internality over externality. How is it possible to reach people who “lean towards externality?”

Answer: The nation is not able to understand what relates to the inner essence. The external forms fascinate it, and it needs to hold onto something. You say: “Concentrate on internality, and there you will discover everything.” But for them, this is nonsense. No one works with his heart. It’s difficult and requires a certain level of development.

Only now we are entering a period when the new generation will need to develop the heart. Until now it was the “stony heart,” and now there will be a need to soften it, beginning from afar. We are speaking about a big job, large-scale processes that we need to go through.

We hope that our approach, imbued with love and unity, will help us in softening the hearts. Then, as people advance forward, we will be able to talk about deeper issues. After all, the message of unity gets a response only in the heart of man. Even if in the meantime, it is externally, the heart begins to work nevertheless.

This is the way. Also, if you open a place for the Light in many hearts, it operates very quickly. It is a matter of a few months. Just begin, and you will see.

Thus, I am very optimistic. If we create an education kit and begin to distribute it among the nation, we will be able to see a completely different picture already this year. The most important thing is to find correct and understandable ways to transfer the message, to upgrade them from month to month so that they are more internal. And then we will succeed.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/2012, “Introduction to TES”

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Question: What should be the structure of the integral upbringing? How should we start the education of an adult person?

Answer: Certainly we should be engaged in the education of adults, but we still have to put the maximum attention on the education of children because changing the adults is very hard. On one hand, they feel the entire corruption of the society where they live, and they would like to change it. However, changing the society means changing a person. It’s very difficult to change a person. By taking care of our children (something which is important to us), we will be changing ourselves as well.

Most of us are someone’s parents. When we are involved in building a completely different society for our children, as it is said, “If not for us, then for our children,” when we take care of the next generation and educate it, we will simultaneously start re-educating ourselves.

Question: Does it mean that the course for adults should include a course for the preparation of educators for the kids as well?

Answer: This is a must! The course should include the topics on interaction between the spouses, interaction of a person with the society, with the boss, with employees, and with the children, as well as child education. A person should be connected with everyone in the integral way.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #5, 12/13/11

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Question: Suppose I witness someone being bullied on the street or at the metro. What should I do? How should I relate to what’s going on before my eyes?

Answer: We are only talking about behavior in an integral society, in groups where we study and practice the introduction of integral relationships. On the street, however, we do not display it in any way. People will not understand us yet.

Everything depends on the society. Suppose that you want to help an old lady who slipped and fell on the ice. There are societies where people may accuse you of something inappropriate. Even the old lady may think that you have decided to use her somehow, to rob her or something like that.

There are also societies where a number of people will rush to help her at once. Meaning, that it depends on where the person is.

So your reaction on the street should in no way be different from the reaction of other people. It would look very strange and incomprehensible to others.
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From a “Talk About Integral Education” #5, 12/13/11

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Question: We are talking about the need for balance. How exactly should we reach balance?

Answer: What in me are not just thoughts, desires, and deviations? Can I cut off all this from myself? No. Can I suppress them all? It isn’t a good idea; it would take great efforts and a lot of time, and eventually I would see that my innate attributes wouldn’t disappear even after fifty years.

So what kind of education are we talking about? What does it mean to “be human?” how can I transcend myself?

We have to take all our attributes and just balance them. I don’t need to regret something bad in me; I just need to balance it with something good.

I don’t need to erase anything; this already calms me: After all, I don’t have to feel guilty because I am that way. If I erase anything in me, what will I be left with? All that will be left is to put an end to my life. This is what pushes people to commit suicide: They discover that there is nothing good in them. There can be various external reasons, but the conclusion is the same.

But we approach the issue in a totally different manner. A person should preserve everything that is in him, and advance by his properties adding positive discernments, good attributes, to the negative attributes. Balance, don’t destroy. By destroying, you become a “reformer of the world,” in fact it is doubly bad because one becomes a damager of the world.

We have to balance every phenomenon about ourselves, but not erase it. Otherwise we disturb the general balance. Similarly, we try to balance blood pressure and other physiological problems, as well as problems in society and the family.

We mustn’t oppress anything. After all, it isn’t by chance that the desire to receive was created in this form. It stems from inside and is revealed in our Reshimot (informational genes), which we cannot erase. Their chain continues to evolve, and the only thing we can do is to balance them, to correct the phenomenon by using them correctly and revealing their positive side.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/12, “The Peace”

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Question: It is common to take a loan from a bank and then to sit back and think, “How will I pay it back?” But in fact, there is nothing to pay it back with. How do we explain to people before they end up bankrupt or in jail that it’s not worth doing?

Answer: This requires changing not only the individual, but also the entire society, the industry, and our worldview. A lot depends upon the mass media and on the surrounding environment, that is, everything from the closest circle to the general surroundings.

The owners of television programs advertise products that people think they need to buy, people do buy a lot of them, and do so on credit. Today credit is given out left and right because the same bankers that make the loans have an interest in the company, and they end up reclaiming all of people’s possessions in order to repay their debt. This is all it is: a huge machine that is set up to drain a person of his last resources.

If we could break this cycle and through legislation against advertising, clear our mass media of all advertisements, banning all forms of advertising, where would we be? It should be understood that what is being advertised is detrimental. A person himself knows what he wants is not needed; what he doesn’t need, he doesn’t need to know about. After all, it’s better to have a few useful things than a lot of harmful ones.

This is a big problem. I hope that the current crisis will do the job. On the other hand it will simply rid people of the chance to think about that each year they must acquire more to increase the gross domestic product and chase after profits.

Profit should be internal, measured in inner comfort. I won’t feel more comfortable if instead of producing ten kinds of yogurt today, tomorrow I create twenty. This will only exacerbate the problem and no one feels a sense of responsibility.
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From a “Talk About Integral Education” #5, 12/13/11

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