Entries in the 'Integral Upbringing' Category

The Integral Upbringing: Virtual Or Physical?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the best way to teach people: virtually or in actual physical courses?

Answer: I think that education can be virtual, but it must include exams. This will oblige every member of society to learn.

Just like people used to go to work in order to earn a salary, now a person will have to spend a certain amount of time in our educational system. And he cannot think lightly of it. He must actually go over each lesson, answer questions, and send his comments, taking an active part in this process. At the end of the course, he will have to take a face-to-face exam so that he can show what he has learned.

Every student should be supervised because the success of the integral society depends on each of us. Here we see another interesting trait of this system: Because it is integral, each member has the exact same weight as the others.

After virtual studying and actual exams, people should form groups in which they will have to do some practical work. It should be done in neighborhoods, schools, in the daytime or in the evening, in different community centers, on TV shows, virtually, and so on.

Musical compositions, plays, and literature should be dedicated to this idea and present it from different perspectives.

Question: Who this program is intended for?

Answer: It is meant for the most ordinary people. It’s not for the intellectuals who find it hard to part with their beliefs, even thought they don’t understand this social order at all.

As far as I know, it is the most ordinary audience, people with a college education at most, but not more than that. It’s for ordinary people, the middle class. We are not that interested in others because the middle class is the basis of any society. Currently, specifically these people fall victim to all that’s taking place.
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Talk on Integral Education 12/11/11

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A Course On Harmonious Education

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Today we already have a request from state and public organizations for a course of integral upbringing for adults. How do you envision the structure of this course? What should we educate people about so that they would learn how to live harmoniously, in concord with each other?

Answer: I think that it shouldn’t be just one course, but a collection of various disciplines. People should acquire primary knowledge, discuss it in a group, whether in a classroom or virtually, but with an instructor, that is, a specialist who can explain the material in an understandable way.

First and foremost, one should study human psychology on a basic, fundamental level, where each of us could understand: Who am I; what am I; how do I think, act, and interact with others. It is necessary to explain the psychology of interactions between spouses, between parents and children, the correct way to relate to children, children’s upbringing, and home economics on the basis of the requirements put forth by nature: How much we consume, how much we give back. In other words, we must put ourselves in a framework that will allow us to exist in a state of balance.

Naturally, each of us needs a place to live, a family, security, healthcare, food, and so on. All these are basic needs of every human being, and one should feel sure that they will be met, provided that he satisfies all the requirements of society.

All the other requirements depend on the person’s position: He either works in production or is engaged in social work, studies or, perhaps teaches others. People will practically work about two or three hours a day. Some may work more, some less, but that won’t determine how much they earn.

The remaining mass of people will be engaged only in creating a homeostasis, an equilibrium for the entire system of human activity on our planet. This is when we will see a different society.

All of this needs to be explained, broken down by discipline. We need to explain the full history of humanity as a consequence of development of our egoism, which brought us today to a state of such complete satiation that we don’t wish to develop any further.

We no longer desire anything in life. We come to depression, drugs, and terrorism, in other words, to the final stage: the rebirth of our egoism. Today we no longer wish to strive towards anything, but on the contrary, we plunge downwards, into alcoholism, and degradation because we don’t see any prospects in future growth. Our egoism, having arrived today at its maximum level of development, is starting to finalize itself and acquire an integral form, but we are not ready for that.

This is why we don’t understand what to do from now on, why we cannot organize the earth’s resources, communication networks, and, in general, the entire development. A new common paradigm, a new attitude towards life, should give a person an opportunity to correct the crisis in all realms of life: family, society, ecology, economics, and so on.

After a general education course, we need to introduce a course on integral upbringing. A course on upbringing entails group lessons, where people literally work through all possible elements of communication through discussions and all kinds of role-playing games.

They work through them like any actor who has a few hundred techniques in stock from which he then compiles a role, an image of a certain person. This is how we must educate a person about the laws of behavior in an integral world. And it won’t seem artificial to him because we will teach him about the correct interaction with others from which he would suddenly feel some higher sensation of tranquility, peace, and fulfillment.

His inner void, which he previously fulfilled at the expense of economic achievements in capitalist competitions, will start to become filled from a completely different direction, according to a different scheme. It will be filled in such a way that he will feel himself safe and secure. Nobody will enter in any confrontations with him.

We must include a large number of groups in this part of the course. I think that it will be a very serious, exciting action in which parents with children, spouses, and entire neighborhoods can participate.

Here we will start to form a new type of social interactions, a new view of life and the world, within which a person will begin to sense the globality of nature, its integrality and inner harmony. This inner harmony is essentially where our inner demand lies. This is what we want to experience in our life and what we are attempting to achieve in our useless competition with each other.
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Talk on Integral Education 12/11/11

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The Key To Healthy People, Family, And Society

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Suppose we organize a course on integral education for adults. What results can they get upon completing the course?

Answer: We should understand that from now on, nature offers us only two paths of development leading to one goal. The ultimate goal of nature is complete unity of all its parts, including humanity as a part of general nature.

We can reach this state of harmony, equilibrium, and homeostasis in two ways. One of them is the path of suffering, the realization of this necessity in spite of our desires and inner impulses. This path is very difficult, complex, and forced.

In principle, nature developed us in this way all the time. This is the process of evolution, when we are pushed from behind and thus look for comfort. It turns out that we seek a better life by being pushed from behind, make plenty of mistakes, but eventually develop. This is how man, small societies, as well as humanity as a whole developed in the past.

But there is a possibility of development with dignity, when a person is aware beforehand that all nature is moving towards integrality. Now, the first signs of this future integrality become apparent, obliging us to exist in it as part of society, nature, and the universe.

Nature strives for balance because it is the key to its health, safety, and sustainability both in every part of it (for example, in our body) and the whole system.

Let us take this future state as a common goal of all humanity and begin to approach it, at least in different regions of the world, through various international organizations, beliefs, and, most importantly, through education. Education shouldn’t be obtrusive; we should simply tell people about the laws of nature, the laws of the development of human society: behavior, education, family relationships, and child upbringing. We teach people how to live on a fairly modest salary, allowance, or scholarship.

But all this must be taught to people. They do not know how to raise children and how to get along with each other. We see that humanity teaches something completely different: It does not teach or educate its offspring, the future generation, so that it lives well.

We do not think about how to make people happy. We push them into the abyss of capitalist competition, in which they are willing “to eat each other” gladly. But there are no winners in this contest, and in the end, we condemn them to constant stress and problems. As a result, no one sees happiness.

It is essential that psychologists, sociologists, parents, teachers, and people who already understand the problem or can understand it come to a more or less correct conclusion, and with the help of scientists, the public, and the Internet (today it is a considerable force) will be able to show all humanity that this integral education is the key to the healthy society, man, and family. We simply will not survive without it; we will advance with huge losses. Of course, we will achieve the same goal, but it will be a terrible path.
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Talk on Integral Education 12/11/11

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The People Is The New Government

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Suppose that we have written a course on integral education; we have it. Where do we go with it? To the government?

Answer: We will take it to the government, public, and scientists through whom we are starting to advertise it. We will also promote it via the Internet and other media channels.

Today, the government is involved with a limited sector of society and state. It seems to stand on the side, and its functions gradually become narrower. Various economic, social, educational, and community programs and associations are at work.

What functions does the government still carry on? Even health care is not under its control anymore, even the army is hired. This is like the lone king or the parliament that slowly dissolves produces spin-offs: new independent social, political, and economic systems that have nothing to do with the government.

It is not necessary to conduct our course through the government, but it should certainly go through the education system. However, this education is not for children; it is not professional, technical, or university education. It is intended to educate the public. It forms a new humanity, which would not survive otherwise.

To date, we already have a very serious relationship with UNESCO, the UN. We have representatives who act as advisors there.

Also, I do not think it is necessary to address anyone but the people, especially since the time of the Internet. I think that we still underestimate this new “government.” It is the voice of God, the voice of the people. We just need to use it properly.
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Talk on Integral Education 12/11/11

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Commonality And Self-Expression

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Could you give an example of a relationship between people that would be considered integral?

Answer: An integral relationship is when a person receives and bestows in a balanced manner. If the relationship between people works in this way, that means they are integrally connected.

I don’t want to keep repeating myself or sound like a socialist or a communist because that’s the last thing I am, but an integral society is one where everyone receives according to his necessities and bestows to society according to its needs. That constitutes an integral, global interconnection.

Under these circumstances a person enjoys and is fulfilled by his sensations, by what he discovers in this integral connection. It turns out that the more he bestows to others and the more he connects to an integral society, the more he is fulfilled by it. He begins to discover this system, enters it, and belongs to it.

He becomes an inseparable part of this system, like an electronic element, a resistor or a condenser, installed in the circuit, whereby the system begins to work with him in general harmony, and he feels it pass through him. The person begins to understand that he profits from being fully plugged into this system. And he doesn’t lose his individuality for he contributes himself, his qualities. If you’re a condenser, that’s what your role is, the same with a resistor, and so on. Essentially, you remain who you are.

Nature deliberately created us a certain way, precisely to allow everyone to be integrally connected to the general system via their maximum actualization in it. Your personal, individual, and unique participation does not contradict the integrality of the whole system; on the contrary, it allows you absolute self-expression.
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Talk on Integral Education 12/11/11

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An Acquaintance With The New World

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen we are born in the world of bestowal, we first make an acquaintance with it, just like a person who starts a new job and is given some time to adjust and to get to know the new place of work. During this time he is only taught what should be done and he only learns and doesn’t produce anything.

It is also like a small child who is only required to listen and to learn, to watch and to experience things. It doesn’t matter if he makes mistakes or acts foolishly. He will be corrected. This means that in the spiritual world we are first treated like small children are treated.

But all this comes after great efforts that we make in order to transcend the Machsom (the barrier), to be born in the new world and to start living in the world of bestowal. With regards to all our previous work, the time after our birth is called “parking,” and Chanukah symbolizes this (“Chanu –kah”—parked so). A person reaches a comfortable situation. He still makes efforts, but they are of another kind—in order to know the good world.

He stubbornly works against his ego. It is similar to the wandering in the desert, about which the Torah tells us, a time that is meant for preparation and which ends upon entering the Land of Israel.

Chanukah is working with the Light of Chasadim, in the state of smallness. We have to learn to connect the desire to receive that is being revealed now to forces of bestowal.

In bestowal in order to bestow, we don’t use the full depth of this desire, but still it exists in us. It is like a baby: He already has legs, although he can’t walk yet; he has a brain although he hasn’t learned to think like a grown up. A newborn infant cannot see or hear anything, but he still has eyes and ears.

A baby has all the organs a grown up has. The only thing missing is the teeth. The teeth symbolize the power to clarify, which he hasn’t acquired yet. The “milk teeth” grow only after some time, and they are used only to clarify the Light of Chasadim (the milk symbolizes the Light of Chasadim) in the state of smallness.

When he grows up, he will have permanent teeth with which he will be able to chew and to clarify the filling for his vessel of reception, the Light of Hochma, and to feel the “flavors” of the Light.

Chanukah is the first part of our absorption into the spiritual world, the upper world, called the “world of bestowal.” This is bestowal in order to bestow in which we transfer all our desires to the level of mutual bestowal and learn how this system operates. We are incorporated in it like small children living in the big world who learn and do something together with the grown ups, playing with them.

This is called “parking,” because until now, during the time of preparation, a person worked hard against his egotistic desires. Afterwards, when he moves on from the level of “to bestow in order to bestow,” (Hafetz Chesed), to the next stage, to the level of love—the Land of Israel, he will start working with his vessels of reception again.

So Chanukah is a “spiritual” holiday and its symbols are the oil and the light.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/11, Writings of Rabash

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The Formula For The Distribution Of Means

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: 15 years ago I took part in a personal growth training, which was divided into several stages. The last stage was realized in real life. We gathered and discussed things that were actually interesting. What was fundamentally different about that place was that it was supported with money, earned somewhere else. How can this be realized according to your program? A question arises: Where will I get the same apartment, the same bread, clothes, etc.?

Answer: Become part of this society of the future. Take 100% of the people with 100% of all the resources and distribute them based on the calculation that the society is working on providing everyone with a normal minimum necessary for existence. And the rest of the time people only spend creating an integrated connection between them.

You will see where you need to take and where you need to add something, and how many resource you will need to create this integrated connection. Naturally, the society will need to earn these resources.
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Talk on Integral Education 12/11/11

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Moving Ahead Of The Blows

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is an integrated connection when I consider the interests of all the other people in every one of my actions?

Answer: Yes. But this needs to be studied, it needs to be taught, it needs to be practiced. The entire society needs to participate in this. Absolutely everyone must become students of the new world, they must study it.

Our lack of knowledge about it is the source of all our current problems. We have entered a new system of interaction between nature and us, interactions in the human society, in the universal unity of the world, and we do not know how to act. I was pushed into some new world and I absolutely do not know any of its laws. I am like an elephant in a china shop.

First of all, we need to understand a very simple principle: Nature will get us there anyway. If you wish to attain happiness by force—be my guest. If you wish to get there fast and easily—sure. The fast and easy way is the way of independent realization and a willing consent, when we move ahead of the blows coming from behind.
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Talk on Integral Education 12/11/11

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The Universal Law Of Harmony

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What do you mean when you are talking about harmony?

Answer: Harmony is easy. It comes from the fact that there are two forces in nature: the force of bestowal (the positive force) and the force of receiving (the negative one), which at different levels (biological, physical, moral, and so on) manifest themselves as balanced systems. If these forces are balanced in the human body, the body is absolutely healthy. If they are balanced in nature, this means it’s in a state of absolute rest. A lack of balance leads to all sorts of movements.

Naturally, imbalance is necessary because it produces life. It’s the constant interaction between two forces within certain limits, the variation of their relation to each other that create life. For example, the expansion and contraction of the chest, heart, and other organs are built on mutual movement of the opposing forces that support and complement each other. Life is what occurs between them, owing to their proper and harmonious interaction.

In our development, we will reach a point when the entire human community will achieve precisely this mode of operation whereby all its parts mutually oscillate. But these oscillations, like breathing, will be interdependent with each other, when the force of bestowal is equal to the force of reception. They will alternately interact with each other: However much we give to nature, so should we receive; however much we receive, so we’ll have to give.

Then, we will live in harmony, homeostasis, meaning a state of mutual support. Nature that brings us to a state of equilibrium between its two main forces, the force of giving and the force of receiving, intends that we come to this. It’s nature’s general trend.

We can do nothing with this general universal law. We can only understand where we go and how to fit voluntarily, knowingly into this external, absolutely binding law. Thus, we’ll feel comfortable not only in the final state to which we will come, but at all stages of development.
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From a talk on Integral Upbringing, 11.12.2011

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Integral Upbringing With No Sudden Movements

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can integral upbringing, which explains the general mutual connection, help us come out of the economic crisis smoothly?

Answer: We don’t perform the correction on the economic level, the financial level, or in the mutual commercial connections among us, but in our awareness and our recognition. We have to recognize the mutual connection among us and the need to adapt to nature.

It is as if we all buy a pair of new integral glasses. When a person puts them on, he will see one “round” world. He will see that we are all connected and that we depend on one another. We are so interdependent that only I can feed you and you can feed me. By ourselves, we will all die of hunger.

This seems terrible to our egotistic nature, but from now on there is no other way. And we can see that it is really close.

So we have to raise people’s awareness and then with this new perspective, we will gradually change our life. Our life will change because of the changes in us, whether we like it or not. How will we see it in the banks and the stock markets? This is another question. First let’s start to change, and then everything will begin to take shape.

This process will undoubtedly flow in the right direction because when we understand the total mutual connection, we will not be able to harm one another.

Therefore, integral education is primary and it should be arranged above all else. There is no need to dig too deeply. The shortcomings of the current situation must be disclosed precisely to the extent that it will make us realize the need for education and that only integral education can save us. We should recognize the fallacy of the current system, but not touch the system itself. It is so rotten, that it may collapse as a result of one careless movement and leave us with nothing.

Question: But there are “fires” that must be put out now.

Answer: If you start with integral education, you will see how they immediately begin to subside. And besides, there is no other method. It isn’t the first time that the best experts are dealing with this problem. How many meetings took place and how many promises have been made—but no solution? No one has a fire extinguisher. Everyone says what he thinks: give money, save money, be careful of saving….

So I repeat: The solution is on a totally different level.

In the meantime we should stop making any unnecessary movements, keep things quiet, and publicly declare that we should be very careful. After all, we are up to our necks in the swamp and any wave we might make may drown us.

Instead we should rise to another level and activate the education system. Then, when we look at the world through these new glasses, we will know how to solve our problems. We will know it internally. Thanks to the new education, people will begin to change, and thus change the balance with nature’s forces. We will accumulate the power of mutual help and will improve the mutual relations among people and among nations, and gradually come out of the old, crisis-stricken world.

Above the old system, we build a new system: This is the same mutual guarantee, but it is now adapted to specific fields like education, the family, the state, society, industry and the economy. The principle of mutual guarantee will be determined in every field according to a person’s internal changes.

I don’t know any other solution. The problem is only in realizing this and here we are at a crossroad: Should we go on using the usual methods that will eventually bring us to the rise of Nazi regimes, wars, and mass destruction, or should we follow the path Kabbalists recommend?
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/11, Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

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