Question: What makes you so sure that integral upbringing will help people unite correctly? It seems quite unreal.

Answer: I act on the premise of only one thing: Nature will force us towards it. And by our efforts, we want to realize this before great losses occur. We wish people good and want them to reach the goal that nature presents us in a gentle way. We have to come to this goal not under the great pressure of nature, not under the influence of huge ecological problems, world war, and so on, but with few losses or even without suffering. This depends on how much we understand that we have no other choice.

I believe in the victory of this idea (if I may use such big words) because it comes from nature, not from people. But in any case, nature will force us to do it. Thus, we should use our mind to soften the evolutionary forces that push us forward, and then we will reach the goal of nature more smoothly. After all, it is better to make a soft landing on a new integral platform of harmony. I hope it will be so.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #4, 12/13/11

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We are part of an integral global nature. It has always been this way, but we have never thought about it and didn’t notice it as long as life didn’t oblige us to. Lately life obliges us to do that more and more: We have begun to receive blows in every direction.

In other words, we cannot manage this egoistic life of ours and we don’t succeed in anything: not in the family, not with the children, not with ourselves, not with the world, and not with security. We are not sure whether we have enough stored up for a rainy day and the pension and retirement funds are collapsing.

All the systems that have provided man with comfort, confidence, and security for the future, that helped him and his loved ones with the assurance of support in times of weakness, illness, or old age, are losing their value and disintegrating. Who knows, tomorrow we may find ourselves on the street, penniless with nothing in our bank account.

These problems make people think. Otherwise we would not be thinking about them because we are all an egoistic desire to receive. Here, however, we begin to ask ourselves: “What is actually going on here?”

If we examine things correctly, we will see that we ourselves have built the wrong systems. After all, being part of nature, I can’t do whatever I feel like; I can’t act randomly not taking into account the forces that operate in reality.

According to my level of development, I discover wider and finer things in nature. They were hidden and now they are gradually being revealed, and I discover the strong mutual connection between all parts of nature, and also the mutual connection among people, the mutual bestowal on many levels, and also nature’s bestowal, which in turn influences us.

So it may be that I am not taking into account the data, the laws and relationships that exist in nature, in me, and in human society that are hidden from me? I never took any interest in them because I used anything that came my way indifferently and carelessly, seeking only to profit from them.

There is a problem of how to study these laws? After all, no matter what we study in nature, in physics, chemistry, biology, zoology, botany, or astronomy, on the micro and macro and all levels of nature, we always see one law that encompasses all the levels and that reigns between them: the law of equilibrium.

All of nature tends toward equilibrium, toward balance. This includes our little system the planet Earth.

This means that if we want to live in peace, tranquilly, and good connection with other people, with the family, etc., we must maintain a balance. Our formula should be that all the positive and negative actions in receiving and bestowal be balanced so that one will not exceed the other and so that each one will receive filling.

Then each one will have the right to exist and no one will take precedence over another as we all understand that we all must maintain overall balance. This applies to all parties to the forces of nature—to man’s forces, his desires and thoughts, to the well being of the whole system both the small private system and the integral global system—all depends on the internal balance among all its components.

We see this when studying global nature and the functioning of all its systems, including computer systems, cybernetics, sociology, psychology, physiology; even while a system develops, it constantly balances itself dynamically and is sensitive to imbalances that need to be corrected. Therefore its development and actions will always be successful because it is always operating with the law of equivalence between all its forces, the negative and the positive ones. Whether it is an atom in which the protons and electrons have to be balanced, or living cells, or the solar system: Everything abides by this principle.

So, of course, we must check our adaptation to this law in the family, in human society, in education, and in general in all that belongs to the human level.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/12, “The Peace”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: And it is hopeless to hope for peace…. And it is a must that there will always be a large minority in society who are unsatisfied by the conditions offered to them…. This minority will therefore always remain a ready and willing fuel for the new quarrelsome people and the new peacemakers that will always follow.“

We see that on the human level, even an approach based on the best intentions will not allow us to reach truth and peace. There will always be quarrelsome people who will disturb the process.

What can be done? Nothing. Human society and human nature were intentionally made this way so as not to allow us to get along in life. We can acknowledge the fact that it isn’t in our power, but not more than that.

How much bloodshed and suffering is needed until we realize that we cannot have the minimal correct social relations among us? Nature is being revealed to us as more and more global and integral, connected and mutually dependent, and it gradually shrinks that “small place” in which we can continue to exist in the old egotistic form. The new laws are getting closer by leaps and bounds.

In order to compensate for what we cannot achieve without unity, society is using different charitable organizations, but we will soon see how this “charity” is actually leading us to destruction. Baal HaSulam says that the destruction will actually come from those who try to make peace.

There is only one solution to the problem: educating people to live in mutual guarantee. Thanks to this, humanity will be able to feel that there is something solid we can rely on. We can achieve this by creating the right environment. In addition to teaching and acquiring knowledge, education should include special activities by which the environment influences people. If we begin to organize such an environment, the internal forces to create it will be revealed through us. Without this there is no hope for peace.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/11, “The Peace”

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Question: When we talk about education for adults, there is a fear that people will accuse us of offering something impractical, too detached from reality.

Answer: I totally disagree with you!

Today’s world and the one we propose are absolutely opposed. We must face the truth! It is actually true. There should not be partial solutions! I cannot create a school half-humanistic and half-egoistic, the way it is today.

When a young child comes to school, he could be beaten and robbed; he could be made into anything, compelled to do anything by force, pressure, influence, and some values. He is forced to be the same as everybody else with the worst examples. He can become attached to smoking and drinking alcohol, not to mention the threat of drugs! School is a school of depravity, a school of vanity! One is driving a car, the other gets there on foot.

All the evils of modern society are manifested in children at school in the cruelest way. We need to fight against this! We should start doing something about this. They are our children!

Since we have become insensitive egoists, we treat children likewise, pushing them away as if saying: “Go to your school. They should deal with you there.”

Instead of raising a child as a normal person and creating a future for him, the next society, we neither create society nor make a person a human being.

It does not matter what will be. That is why we do not want to bear children. We simply exist and go with the flow, which carries us to a huge waterfall, to fall into the abyss.
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From a “Talk About Integral Education” #5, 12/13/11

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Question: In the integral upbringing courses, should we gather the elderly into separate groups or can they be in groups with people of different ages?

Answer: I think that we should match people by age. We know just how much age, differences in people’s mentalities, and their manner of behavior influence their perception.

However, ultimately, everyone should ascend, in mutual support and inclusion, above all emotional, intellectual, or age-related attributes that distinguish them from others. But initially we should arrange groups to be as homogeneous as possible.

Question: Should the instructors also be of similar age and qualities?

Answer: Nature is based on the law of similarity, equivalence, and compatibility of qualities. That’s why in this case we must follow precisely the same principles. That is, we should provide elderly instructors for elderly groups and younger ones for youth groups. As a matter of fact, youth groups can be taught by middle-aged people, but not by old folks, that’s clear.

Everything should be structured so as to exclude from the group anything that hinders a correct, kind, and open perception of the course, and to achieve contact and correct understanding between a group and its instructor as quickly as possible.

Question: For the elderly people, should we also form separate groups for men and women?

Answer: No. I don’t think that people of advanced age have a need for that because they are already used to every kind of communication and it is natural for them. I don’t think we should break their views and build some sort of a team out of them, like in the army or sports.

Interaction among them is built not on competition or some other internal impulses, but on mutual assistance and such. They already have a completely different attitude to one another, life, and the world. Therefore, we understand that this is an entirely different psychology.

The so-called “golden age” doesn’t require the same approach as children and especially adolescents. Among the latter thrives a battle for leadership, understanding, and self-expression, while here we are dealing with a relatively peaceful person. Although naturally, we need to come up with another manner of teaching and presenting our materials for them.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education,” 12/13/11

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Question: Today, several modes of human interaction exist. Generally speaking, you can divide them into two types. One type is when in the process of interaction people develop a need to create some kind of a new project. After they get acquainted with each other, complete a first phase of theoretical education, and unify among themselves, a natural desire arises in them to create some good, kind project that will be useful to other people.

The other type is when people are in the process of solving certain issues in their regular life and then come to the group, receive particular experience, realizations, and support, after which they enter the world again and try to transmit to it the newly received integration experience.

Is it possible to join these two types of people in the courses of integral upbringing for the sake of collaborative actions in the world?

Answer: For the time being we only put such people into groups, which organize joint trips, conventions, and various games. In combining their efforts and material resources, they create a certain prototype of a future society.

It is like a game where in the duration of a few days people unite in challenging conditions set up for them in advance. These conditions encourage them to unite, to mutually participate, to ascend above and exit from oneself, as well as help a person to feel just how much he or she is dependent on others. But all of that is still within the framework of so-called “laboratory” exercises, nothing more than that.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education,” 12/13/11

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The worsening economic crisis will leave a great number of people unemployed and virtually no one untouched by it; the need has arrived for both learning and education that will assist people in becoming adjusted to the new integral world. Learning is to obtain knowledge about the integral system and education is implementing this knowledge in practice.

The learning component should, first of all, comprise general knowledge which will renew all the foundations in a person: the history of humanity, geography, and such, to bring everyone, more or less, to the same level from which it will be possible to continue. It is possible that there will be a need for preliminary division into groups according to a person’s initial preparation and previous education level.

Those who completed high school, college, or university will have to go through courses at different levels. But first of all, everyone will have to receive some general education in order to refresh their knowledge. Even when one goes to a university, the first year is usually repeating what was already learned in high school.

Let’s say that it is a course in sociology about the new structure of society that helps a person to understand the structure of the new world. The world is divided into three areas: nature, humanity within nature, and man within humanity. We must research man to know a little about his physiology and psychology, to learn about the human society within nature: how the monkey once came down from trees to transform into man and went through several levels of development until its current state today. All of these are the results of the development of the ego. And here we need to provide information that is connected to history, sociology, and the development of society.

And then afterwards, we will approach the study of nature itself, the outcomes of its development from the beginning of the creation of the universe, the condensing of gases, the creation of the stars, the planets, planet Earth, and the development of life on Earth. Even if a person knows all of that, we must arrange this knowledge within one system so that he will understand the world he is living in.

We need to advance everyone so that even the most ignorant or the most educated professors who have become unemployed will have a common denominator, some common scope of information through which they will understand each other. This will include knowledge about man, society, nature, and the world.

We need to give a person broad knowledge of his psychology. This is very important. One must know the psychology of the individual, of the family, of the group as a small society, of the nation, and of the world. In addition to this, more advanced psychology is needed which is above the usual psychology we currently learn. This advanced psychology is called, “faith above reason,” meaning the psychology that is above the physical body. It is studied later on, but will need to follow the same flow.

Along on the way, there is a need for a great number of practical exercises: discussions about the psychology of family relationships, all sorts of situations and family conflicts, and children’s upbringing. We must learn how to understand the child; today we don’t understand the relationship between parents and children. By this we will already calm many problems.

In addition to this, we don’t just teach a person about social psychology, but also about the structure of society. Currently, a person doesn’t know how a government is run and how laws are made. You can’t refuse to study this like a man of the arts who doesn’t need to study mathematics. Here, each one will need to be acquainted, and not just a little bit, with the world in which he lives. We need to teach each child how a bank works and about other such systems in life.

I study human society: how it functions, how it is managed, how it makes decisions, who leads it, and what my place is in this society. All of this belongs to the structure of the system: how it is built today and what are the desired changes for the future.

These are not just courses. We are building the personality of a person. All of these subjects continue from grade to grade like in school. In each class they learn the same thing, only at a higher level. Most importantly is that every time we increasingly connect them together so that all are intertwined so that eventually he views the world as one integral whole.

The main achievement at the end of these courses is to receive a complete view of the world where there is no separate physics, geography, biology, man, government, and society—all are together as one.

Then it is possible to explain how the ego operates here, the desire to receive, and the Light that bestows on me, how I influence it. Man, society, and the world, without special words, turn into being: me, the group, and the Creator. In this manner, we are advancing towards a world view without Kabbalistic concepts and reminders of the wisdom of Kabbalah, but by learning about the real system of life.
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From “Lessons About a New World” 12/1/11

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Opinion: (Mikhail P. Barbolin, PhD, Institute of Adult Education of the Russian Academy of Education): “Ethics and the meaning of life became the most discussed topics today. However as a rule, they are not viewed connected to each other.

“With regard to contemporary social life, the development of human morality plays a significant role. This applies to a moral life, but says nothing about the moral qualities of a person and his inner morality. But it is clear that it is subject to certain rules of life, the violation of which is undesirable because it may cause harm to the other.

“But as we know, the concepts of good and evil are relative. Where is the boundary which should be followed in order to ‘do no harm’ to ourselves or others, and not only people but also nature? Where is the mechanism that would regulate and direct a person’s behavior? What can we do to bring benefit?”

My Comment: Teachers are probably the most conservative people in the world, something between an officer, doctor, guard, and… mother. For a long time, we have been unhappy with the results of our schools; after all, if there is a need for adult education, it means they were not taught “how to learn” during their life.

But this is natural because we all have fallen into the general crisis in all our plans and actions. This is as a consequence of the end of the development of the egoistic desire, when we discover our inability to live in it and build our life.

So, when choosing a new attitude to life based on bestowal, we will need to restructure the whole education system. And since it has already been destroyed, we need only to clear the place of habitual but harmful attitudes, and with a clear mindset, create a new education system that will be based on the similarity with nature and therefore, will be true and eternal.
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The current crisis includes all of nature’s levels. Recently there was a TV show about natural phenomena that appear as total surprises to people. Among other things, they spoke about an island in the Pacific Ocean whose inhabitants livelihood is based on fishing.

Now when they go out to sea they are afraid to get further than a few kilometers from shore. The climate has changed so much that violent storms suddenly appear and it is impossible to forecast them. Very experienced fishermen who have lived their whole lives at sea relate these happenings; the ocean, which they knew so well, has suddenly become a stranger.

Such is the scale of the general human crisis. After all, man is the upper part of nature and so he has the most destructive power, much more than all the other creatures.

There are revealed and concealed forces in the world. It is hard not to notice the explosion of a bomb. On the other hand, radioactive radiation can only be felt by its effect. There are even finer radiations whose effects can be a total surprise for us. Their source is concealed from us; this is man’s mind power, the power of human desire.

We have reached the end of our egoistic development: The world population produces such powerful negativity that we are simply suffocating one another, and at the same time destroying the levels that are below us. They are great in quantity but weak in quality, and we by our qualitative potential can simply destroy them, which is actually what is happening. This is where the “ocean surprises” and many other phenomena stem from.

So if it is all about our thoughts, let’s correct them. Kabbalists speak about two ways of development: the good path and by suffering. Apparently at the moment we are advancing by suffering. How can we advance in the same direction in the good way? After all, we have one goal—adhesion with the Creator. This is the fate of all the people, of all the nations. This means that we have to explain to them how to follow the good path, and to adapt to the uniqueness of their development.

Man’s mind power is destroying the world. We are causing ourselves and the other parts of nature harm. Today it is possible to openly show people scientifically based examples of this. Therefore, we must treat each other well or we will all be destroyed. So let’s improve our lives with the help of the one force that can help us.

If people ask, “So what is that force?”, we will answer that it is the force of the good mutual connection among us, which is actually another definition for the term “Creator.” Today we must use this force worldwide. After all, there is no distance for thoughts, and they don’t weaken as they draw away from the source and reach even the most distant stars, which are thousands of light-years away.

How can we do that? The time has come in which we will not get anything without the right request. You won’t succeed in anything if you don’t ask for the Creator’s help. Just turn to Him “in the right way,” like a good boy and then you will get your “box of candy.”

What should you ask for? Bestowal.

–          I want to give out these candies to everyone.

–          Great. Take them!

At first it isn’t so attractive, but then you learn. At first you will also be allowed to taste from the general box, but gradually you will begin to enjoy bestowal by taking only what you need.

The danger of destruction threatens you by sufferings if you don’t reach the request for others: “I want to receive pleasure only by seeing that others feel good. Let me enjoy this; give me the power for that! Make it possible!”

This is how the correction is done.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/4/12, “The Freedom”

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According to the scientific research, the trend of our development is determined by a general law that develops us and brings us to one form. We will have to achieve connection between us that will allow us to feel that all of humanity is interdependent.

Many scientists agree that this is the overall trend of our development. The reason why we aren’t ready to accept this law is because it conflicts with our nature.

Each person is accustomed to thinking only of himself and doesn’t understand that he is dependent upon others. However, if a person realizes, feels, and sees with his own eyes that he is dependent upon others, his first priority would be to ensure the well-being of others so that they would do the same in turn!

Our problem is that we don’t see how round the world is and the extent to which everything is interconnected. Essentially, this is why we’re in the situation we are today. We are in a state of crisis, which is forcefully tearing us away from the life we’ve become accustomed to in the last few decades.

We are accustomed to working a lot, earning a lot, and spending a lot. We produce useful and useless things just for the sake of selling them. We all try to acquire a safety belt: a bank account, retirement fund, medical insurance, good home, and all the things that provide one with a sense of security that he and his children will be taken care of until the end of their lives. This was our goal.

Now it appears as though our set-up was incorrect! Nature is breaking all of our plans. Now even rich people, let alone the rest of the population, the so-called middle class and the poor, are unable to obtain this dream.

Nature is leading us toward the opposite state where instead of chasing the good life for ourselves alone we would acquire confidence, prosperity, development, and well-being from the connection between us.

We are able to see all this thanks to the general crisis, which is breaking all the rules of the past. We are now entering a new era!
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 4, 1/4/12

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