Question: Evolutionary scientists see the structure and order of evolution but not its goal, and that is why they stumble. For example, an artificially planted pine tree forest destroys the natural vegetation, and, as a result, itself wilts away from diseases.

It becomes clear that we should allow nature to establish its own order. How can we explain this not only in terms of biology, but in terms of global education as well?

Answer: In other words, the question is about how to correct ourselves in a natural, correct way so that a person, as opposed to those pine trees, does not destroy his or her environment. In order for this to happen, he must grow like a “tree in the field,” meaning to feed only off its environment. The environment takes the first place; the environment is the main turning point; the environment is everything. And a person must connect into it, flow into it. This is the real law of development.

After all, the goal is for the whole of humanity to become a unified mechanism. In the right arrangement, one does not perceive himself or herself as a separate element growing outside of this mechanism, but is constantly searching for possibilities to be absorbed, to integrate more and more into it. This form of development is truly flawless.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/2011, The Principles of Global Education

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Question: I told my three year old son that everything that surrounds us exists within man. He asked me: “Does it exist inside my body?” And I didn’t know what to answer him. How can we explain it to a child?

Answer: It is forbidden to talk about these things with small children. We can discuss the correct perception of reality with nine year old children, by giving them the information in small portions since their internal and external perception of reality contradict each other.

This may induce a conflict in the child since his brain is not sufficiently developed yet and can’t perceive two parts as being both opposite to and connected with each other. All other things can be discussed at younger age.

It’s advisable to consult with us on such matters. We have collected a great deal of children education material; a big department is working on it; twice a week I hold talks on education, which provide answers to such questions.
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From Lesson 2, WE! Convention 4/2/2011

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On the spiritual path, we undergo phases of development and at the same time, creative development. It is the same in our world: Man does not live by bread alone.

We do not only feed children to strengthen them, nor do we solely appraise them by the weight they gain. Rather, the most crucial factor is the extent to which a child becomes a human being: one who is understanding, perceptive, responsive, longing, and directed towards qualitative rather than quantitative achievements. This means that a child grows. It is a pity if he is deprived of this.

It is the same in spirituality. Is it really possible to evaluate yourself according to the number of hours spent studying? No, we require qualitative growth so that our desires and thoughts focus more and more on the principle of “Israel, Torah, and the Creator are one,” on the goal of our growth.

Nature imparts on us purposeful development and obliges us to learn to relate to everything we do in life purposefully. And this means that we have to define for ourselves what a person should be like. After all, a wise man looks into the distance. If we develop purposefully, we need to understand what nature wants.

Nature demonstrates to us the wholeness, interconnection, the integrity of all of the parts, a constant development. And so we, too, must distinguish the corresponding stages in our development, accepting them as desirable.

Today, correct education is required for both parents and children. We must deliver the basic principles to everyone: constant self-perfection, aiming towards unity, the goodness of qualitative and quantitative connections between us, naturally arising as a result of association, unity, harmony, and homeostasis with nature.

If we ourselves behave this way, and if we begin to teach this to the young generation, if continuous steps towards unity, becoming closer, and mutual understanding, up to loving our neighbor as ourselves becomes a norm, we will be moving ever closer to the goal. Our education will be purposeful.

As we develop and undergo states that contradict our egoism, we should understand that the end of the action lies in its initial thought. Nature has set the end goal: We must unite with each other. And because there is no other way out, we need to educate ourselves and the growing generation with the method of uniting.

Otherwise, instead of longing towards a sweet fruit, we’ll only be more immersed in the bitterness of the previous stages of ripening.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/11, The Principles of Global Education

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Question: What values should the society instill in a person?

Answer: The society has to lead by example instead of talk because all education is built on leading by example. In the former USSR there was no shortage for nice words; however, the examples were the absolute worst. As a result people laughed at the contrast between the slogans and the reality.

People need examples which can only be provided by mass media such as radio, television, the Internet, and press. People have to hear from all sources that there’s nothing better or more important than unity, collaboration, and common interest; that this is of vital importance and is everyone’s main concern.

And although this process hasn’t yet begun and we are only making the first steps, nevertheless, we are saying it in concord, all together; we are sending out a warning much like against smoking: Hatred and conflict mean death and they must be eradicated. Then within a few years hatred, similar to smoking, will become completely unacceptable and frowned upon in society.

The key is to start the process of global education. People must realize that nature wants us to unite. You don’t demand the impossible from people, you don’t insist on anything: You simply organize for them the proper environment that talks only about this.

In this case no one will be able to openly object to unity, just like today we can’t dispute the ban on smoking in public transport. This is how laws are introduced to society.

It’s important to emphasize the fact that nature demands this from us and this is the course of our development. We aren’t simply saying: “Friends, let’s live in peace!” We are saving peoples lives here on Earth.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/11. The Principles of Global Education

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Material development of man comes to a halt and frees space for a new stage of evolution.

Today all spheres of our lives are permeated with despair. It has come to a point where we don’t know what to do with our children. After all, we brought them into this world for a good life, but this is not what we see approaching in the future.

Why should a person harness himself to a family life if it doesn’t bring him any positive changes? There should be a reason for taking on such a heavy burden.

Being tied to a particular place or a country is becoming a thing of the past. People simply want a better life, and they are ready to go wherever they can find it. This is how we break down all the borders, limitations, and the old “wrappings,” in which we developed for thousands of years.

In the past it was clear to a person that he belonged to a certain nation, place, and culture, that he was attached to his family and to everything that represented life’s foundation at that time. From generation to generation fathers taught their children a profession: A son of a blacksmith eventually became a blacksmith, and a son of a shepherd became a shepherd. A young man knew that he would marry a girl from a nearby village, and life proceeded according to these rules.

Today everything has changed. People worldwide are abandoning old rules. Our egoism, our inner desires, and our consciousness are quickly transforming, only we ourselves don’t know what they’re transforming into.

We are led by our desire for fulfillment, and this desire is destroying all barriers that used to keep us within the generally accepted boundaries. In our time nothing is generally accepted or obvious. Everything is unsteady and impermanent. Whatever is convenient at the moment is considered right.

People have risen above the limitations in which they existed throughout history. In the heights of this process we don’t realize the scale of changes that are taking place. The borders have been erased and people are ready to feel at home in any given country. Whether we want it or not, the earth is becoming a common territory. And even though we are at the beginning of this new trend, it is nonetheless irreversible.

Along with this process we are revealing a new kind of emptiness which can’t be filled regardless of where we live or what we do. Our elevation above old limitations and our readiness for new forms of development don’t allow us to fulfill our growing desire. It’s this desire that elevated us above the old world and threw us right into the storm of changes. It demands the kind of fulfillment that can’t be found anywhere.

Humanity is in crisis: It will either find a new form of fulfillment or it will have to calm itself down with alcohol, drugs, and antidepressants. Actually, this is already happening on an ever-increasing scale. But this isn’t a solution, and sooner or later (better sooner) we’ll realize that it’s time to replace material fulfillment with the spiritual one.
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From the 4thpart of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/22/11 on The Principles of Global Education

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While researching nature, we study many phenomena that take place in front of us and inside of us. To bring them to a common denominator, we can say that any species and any part in nature takes care of its own existence. And the more it takes care of itself, the higher is the level of its development. That is how the vegetative level of nature originated from the still level of nature, and the animate level came from the vegetative, and man came from the animate level of nature.

We understand from the science of Kabbalah that this did not happen by itself, but by means of Reshimot, the “developmental genes” that are successively realized one after another within the framework of the initially fixed model.

All of this exists inside the aspiration for self-benefit. The program instilled in all of nature’s elements places one task before us: What should I do to feel good? Be it realization of evil, conscious progress toward goodness, force, speed, connection, feeling, or mind: According to its potential, every species aspires to goodness and detaches from evil. That is our nature.

On the still, vegetative, and animate levels this nature is a "one way street”—urging us to act directly for our own benefit. But on the human level there is one more special action. Man is able to feel the neighbor, and therefore, he is willing to give something to his neighbor with the expectation of later receiving reward and pleasure. We have learned different ways to use the neighbor which don’t exist on lower levels.

On the still, vegetative, and animate levels there is only reception. But man also knows how to bestow to the neighbor in order to receive benefit for himself. Moreover, interaction with the neighbor is meant to eventually bring him much more benefit than regular reception. Otherwise he is simply unable to receive anything directly. But one way or another, in both cases, he acts for his own sake.

In principle, direct reception is a primate method for man. As a child grows up, he receives upbringing whereby we teach him to interact with the world, and usually that means learning how to use the neighbor in a way that avoids being harmed and that enables him to receive self-benefit at the end. This is human upbringing. If things are the way they are, then it’s best to take the neighbor into account. After all, often we wish to simply take, conquer, and steal without leaving a trace behind.

That is how our world is and that is why we only perceive what we receive inside of us. Our desire is limited and eventually it brings us to feelings of emptiness and despair.

But there is also another, opposite possibility—bestowal, where the tendency is away from myself, upwards, towards the neighbor, as well as away from myself, downwards toward myself, and then upwards toward the neighbor. In the first case I bestow for the sake of bestowal (Bina, Hafetz Hesed), and in the second case I receive for the sake of bestowal (the degree of love). This is called an exactly opposite calculation and it only exists in a human being.

Thus, we have two possibilities: reception with auxiliary bestowal or bestowal with auxiliary reception.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/23/11 on Global Education

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Kabbalah for the Nation Introductory Lecture Series, “To Be A Human Being”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

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Question: What exactly does the wisdom of Kabbalah give to children that a good private school is unable to provide?

Answer: Kabbalah develops a human being. It gives him tools which then make one’s life easy. It gives a possibility to perceive and learn everything in an easy way because it reveals abilities in a person which allow him to understand everything.

He will not encounter any difficulties that would make him feel incapable of overcoming them. He will be looking at everything from above as something that he can learn. He will not experience any difficulties in acquiring any knowledge.

Kabbalah studies expand a child’s tools of perception to a higher level. As a result, he will not have any problems with ordinary sciences such as physics, chemistry, or biology. He will look at them as a science of the lower levels of nature: inanimate, vegetative, and animate.

Kabbalah immediately begins to develop the human level within a child. The rest of the levels come amazingly easy for him. He can graduate from a college within two to three years at the age of 12 to 15.

We just did not set such a goal until now. However, we can organize such a group and request the department of education to give them qualifying exams. Let them see how developed are these children and how maturely they think. They really deserve a diploma according to their human level.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/2010, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Recently, we established an active relationship with the United Nations, particularly, UNESCO, through activities in Paris, Moscow, and New York.

A few days ago, I had a face-to-face meeting in France with the Director General of UNESCO, Mrs. Irina Bokova. In my capacity as president and founder of the Ashlag Research Institute (ARI), together with our delegation, I presented her with a proposal of a new global and integral education method that implements the rules of an interdependent and integrated electronic world. Joining me were Rachel Laitman, Norma Livne, Leonid Makaron and Seth Bogner, as ARI’s board members.

Mrs. Bokova was very receptive to our principles of a new global education system to prepare today’s children and youth for a fulfilling life in a highly dynamic global world.

[Show slideshow]

After the encounter, we received a special invitation to participate at the presentation of the UNESCO’s annual evaluation “Education for All Global Monitoring Report.” The event took place in March, 2011 at Columbia University in NY.

Our delegates, Seth Bogner, Rachel Laitman, and Norma Livne had the opportunity to express our views for a better education together with the Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Mr. Meron Reuben and also strengthen the contacts with UNESCO’s Director General, Mrs. Irina Bokova.

The event was also led by Under Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, Mrs. Michelle Bachelete.

[Show slideshow]

In Moscow, Eli Vinokur, Leonid Makaron, Anatoly Ulianov, and Leonid Elizarov, as representatives of the ARI, had an active role at the UNESCO’s conference “Youth Participation in Social Transformations: Initiatives and Participation.” Our materials will be published in the summary of the event and future activities have been discussed.

[Show slideshow]

On March 11, our ARI delegates, Leonid Makaron and Seth Bogner participated at the conference “Building Peace: Reconciliation through Education, the Sciences, Culture and Communication,” held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

The Forum was opened by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon and UNESCO’s Director General. The High Panel on Peace and Dialogue among Cultures also includes: Prince Turki Al Faisal of Saudi Arabia, Nobel Laureate in Physiology, Günter Blobel, and other international personalities.

[Show slideshow]

The successful results of all these activities mark the start of a continuing process of mutual collaborations in the field of education for the sake of a better humanity.
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The first principle of upbringing: “Nature is unified, and we are opposite to it.”

Part two: “Reciprocity as the ground for balance”: Each component of nature strives for balance and harmony (in the language of science, to homeostasis). So do we, being part of the nature’s system, must reach equilibrium and harmony.

Unlike the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature that aspire to balance instinctively, we have to come to oneness and mutual consideration of interests based on conscious development. This constitutes the unique difference between man and all other elements of nature.

A person must disclose the imbalance—mindfully, consciously, experientially, and logically. He must see all the positive and the negative aspects: how opposite to and how balanced with nature he is. He must feel and cultivate his receptivity to it, developing it to such a degree when his sensitivity to being in equilibrium with nature in particular would lead him to the very top of the spiritual ladder.

As Baal HaSulam states, we received the method of Kabbalah in order to become aware of our evil. We approach a new way of upbringing so we may become conscious of our evil since there is nothing else we need to do. Having experienced evil, we naturally flee from it and withdraw just enough so we don’t feel it any longer. Hence, cultivating within ourselves sensitivity toward evil, we will walk further and further away from it, always to such a distance where we can feel it no more.

Evil unfolds in our mutual hatred which makes us opposite to the nature of creation. This is the problem we are facing today: to connect all pain and misfortunes of the modern world with the lack of our interconnection, our discord with the global nature.

Our major issue is the absence of connection between us. The problem is not in shortage of natural resources and pollution. In truth, it doesn’t matter. Nature is able to clean itself up and return to the corrected state, but even this depends solely on our good interconnection.

We must look not at nature but at what is going on between us. Thereby, we will reach similarity to it.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/2011 on The Principles of Global Education

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