Question: The term “integrity” is more or less clear from the global perspective, but what does it mean “to be integral” for an individual person or a family?

Answer: A classic example of integrity is a connection in the form of cogwheels. We are interconnected like a mechanism that consists of cogwheels that are interlocked with each other. Any movement from one of them forces an analogous movement in all the rest to the same direction.

In addition, this connection is not yet complete today: For the time being, it is like we are in a bonding box, at some distance from each other, and gradually we come into contact with each other. That is, there is some osculatory movement in regard to one another, which is already starting to form serious linkage.

Over the next few years, we will reach such linkage where the cogwheels will spin with each other in an absolutely coordinated fashion. Imagine that you are under a hard pressing on all levels of your life, and your thoughts, desires, actions, and decisions depend completely on the society and the circumstances around you. You will feel like you are in jail, in complete slavery!

This state is unbearable. A person will wish to break free, to simply dash out from there in any direction, and even die rather than feel the constant, horrible pressing on all the levels: mental, spiritual, and emotional.

We need to prepare people to perceive their contact with everyone else as something wonderful and pleasant. In general, this state is completely opposite to our nature, but it is approaching relentlessly, and it scares me to think about how humanity will begin to enter it.

We are slowly coming closer to this state. I see how it provokes various revolutions, governmental changes, collapse of families in one place, collapse of monetary or economic systems in another, and so on. This will increase with every month and every year. If a person does not feel comfortable in this state, he simply will “explode” before the world war. Nothing will matter to him; he will be forced to free himself from these chains! Therefore, we need inner psychological compensation for this unbearable state.

A modern person does not wish to interact with anyone: It is like we locked ourselves in our apartments, with our computers, and that’s it. At work we also are one on one with the computer. After work, we run to the supermarket, buy something pre-made, throw it in the microwave, eat it, then again rush to our computers, and then to sleep. At times we may see our lovers or a few friends, but that’s all.

Human beings have created this life in accordance with our inner demand. However, if one sees that whether he wants it or not, others are bursting into his inner world, into this comfortable dungeon of his from which he cannot run; he will feel that he is being more and more obliged to do something. At that point, we certainly will see big explosions.

I imagine that state and psychologists can understand it also. It is the same as jumping off the hundredth floor of a building that is on fire.  You tell this person, “but you will certainly die!” and he replies  “Yes, but right now the fire seems scarier than a second in thin air, without the flames.” A person doesn’t think about what will happen later. I’m afraid that these states are approaching whether we like it or not.
[63704]
From a talk on Integral Upbringing, 11.12.2011

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Question: The modern man truly finds shelter within the walls of his apartment. He also tends to search for information that is faceless and unobtrusive and watches some kind of funny sitcoms on TV. And it’s unclear how this global interconnection will affect a person. If I’ve locked myself up inside my apartment, how will all these concerns you are talking about reach me?

Answer: They will reach you through unpleasant states. If everything continued as before, nothing bad would happen because of it. You lock yourself up in some kind of cocoon and you exist inside it—this is a comfortable state for you. You don’t want to change it, you don’t want to marry, have children; you don’t want to have close relationships with your friends because this is usually considered an obligation. Your parents have become a complete nuisance: You have to call them and, what’s even worse, visit them and so on.

If everything continued like this, this would be the best thing in the world—I was born, detached from my parents, made myself a cell inside this hive and that’s it, I exist in it. But the thing is that the goal of nature is to bring us to a balance with itself, that is, to make us integral, absolutely interconnected, like elements of one analog system.

All parts of this system depend on each other, and if there is a surge, a disturbance in a certain part of the system, it is passed on to the whole system, the whole system also comes to a disturbed state, and then gradually balances itself according to its laws and comes back to a standstill. We proceed….

And in any of these states of balance or imbalance, all the elements affect each other. It is an absolute interconnection! And this is the interconnection that the person feels, especially in a non-static state.

In a static state everything calms down. And when all the bonds are equal, I find myself in the center of them, like a spider in the middle of the web, and I feel balanced. I have to coexist within these boundaries, but because they are balanced around me and I am in the middle, I don’t feel their pressure. This is how everyone feels.

But the system is alive and natural. Nature always directs us to a certain state, set out as the goal of its existence. That’s why we will feel constant disturbances, slants, lack of balance, disruptions in homeostasis. And that’s why we will feel unwell.
[63699]
From a talk on Integral Upbringing, 12/11/11

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The world situation is changing rapidly, and there is a need to create an integral method of educating adults. I receive lots of various messages from developed countries: Unemployment is on the rise.

People are at a loss despite the fact that they are receiving unemployment benefits. Currently, they are still available, but what will happen next is unknown. After all, we are talking about hundreds of millions of people who will lose work because the crisis will destroy all the industries that are not vitally important. What will the people who produce what no one needs do?

We see how protest movements are growing due to the Internet, mutual communication, and our mutual influence on each other. All humanity, from ordinary citizens to governments, is interested in taking this process under control and preventing its spontaneous development because modern weapons plus an unpredictable course of events can lead to disastrous results.

In order to prevent all kinds of disasters, civil or even world wars, we need to think in advance about global, integral upbringing of the majority of the population.
[63710]
From a talk on Integral Upbringing 12/11/2011

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Question: How can we link what happens in the classroom and what is happening with the world? How can we reach out to the world?

Answer: We must make efforts and take care of it as a mother does her child. Is there any other solution? You hope that some additional means will be discovered, but there are none. The equation with two desires encompasses all the laws of Nature. The communication channel between two objects, two vessels, equalizes them with each other, and in the same way they both enjoy.

The mother is a huge vessel and the baby is a tiny vessel, but the mother creates a connecting channel with the required parameters. We must act in the same manner. However, we cannot do so. An enormous inner wisdom is required to descend from one’s degree down. This is the most difficult.

I can put this or that topic in a nutshell to a person who has been studying here for five to ten years. It is another thing to “go out” and start getting closer to people. It is not easy. And that is what we should do today.

The year of mass dissemination is ahead of us, and that is why we need to pave the way, to develop a course of integral education. That does not mean just to release a few more books. We need to create an “outlet,” from which everyone can get our message, fulfill, change, and enjoy life.

We should not be limited to a formal approach: “We have done our job, the material is ready, let them take it, learn, and change.” No, we are obliged to care about humanity and provide it with all that is necessary, as baby food for the infant, as correct intravenous fluid for the patient.  It is entrusted to us.
[63598]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

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