Question: “I, the group, the world.” As long as this picture exists in our imagination, the world endures much, exactly as you said many years ago. But of course, this shouldn’t make us happy. It’s necessary to help people, to support them, especially in our European Convention…

Answer: I agree absolutely. First of all, we are commanded, “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If I must relate to people with love, how can I be happy about their suffering? Certainly, something like this simply cannot be.

And on the other hand, when we look at what’s happening, we need to hurry and dedicate as much power and time as possible to dissemination. I hope that we will speak about this at the convention. For it’s very important for us to bring the understanding to humanity that a very clear, very concrete, simple, and practical method exists. Already today it’s possible to implement it and to see wondrous results in a number of days.

We know how rapidly people are changed within the framework of integral education beginning from the first lecture, from the first workshop. If we can only give them the method, they will open their eyes and see how simple everything is. We are preparing ourselves for this, and we already have a few hundred people in various countries that are ready to be teachers and educators.

One way or another, the world will not work it out without suffering, but these will already be sufferings of love, when together with the force that pushes people from behind, a force also draws them forward. This is our obligation, our mission, to show them the way.

In truth, I already spoke about this state many years ago, and frankly, every day I expect that they will begin to hear us. Otherwise, undoubtedly the suffering will grow more and more. And in spite of all this, I have great hopes. Due to the communications media, due to the reactions of scientists and politicians, I see that the world has changed. They are already beginning to grasp the idea and understand that today we require a breakthrough, a new way.

Question: The better that the understanding of the world is connected to the manner in which the group learns, it unites internally. And in spite of all this our ego demands a payoff in the form of conventions, and in general, endless meetings. Has the time not come for a new level? For in a form like this we cannot continue to gather the entire world. Someone will always remain on the sidelines and will feel himself deprived. Has the time not arrived when every one of us, within himself, and simultaneously in another, will come to the thought that we are one whole, not only through mutual physical activity, but also with inner activity? We need to be together internally.

Answer: The world develops from simple “mechanics,” to electronics, to radio and to television, to computers, to a virtual network, and after this, to a spiritual network. Our mutual connection is coming closer and closer to its spiritual form.

Today the world is making a transition to virtual connection, to conference calls, to telephones and chats. And now we need to go out to such a level of connection so that the whole world will know our coordinates in all segments of the network and will have the possibility of connecting with us, easily and correctly.

We need to be accessible to everyone in this virtual form so that the person can find a group, a society, a new image of humanity, a correct connection between everyone. It’s necessary for everyone to understand how to go inward, how to be included in this collective, how to live in it, how to feel included in a mutual connection. The moment that a person will take a cell phone into his hands or turn on a computer, this virtual atmosphere will then embrace him, will draw him inward and begin to work on him, will attract him more and more towards new stages of development.

And in the end, artificial channels and lines of communication will no longer be required, for we will stretch wires from heart to heart. This will be the coming level, yet we cannot rise to it without preliminary communications through these networks.
[103236]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
Uniting Europe
Responsible For Humanity
It Is Time To Change

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Integral Upbringing, Kabbalah Dissemination, Suffering, Unity, World - 1 Comment →

Question: 10 -12 years ago, when we started dealing with the wisdom of Kabbalah, there were very few groups, and there were very few problems in the world. Now there are many groups and many more problems. Are they interconnected? Or is it because we are uniting that we destroy the global economy?

Answer: No, we are not destroying the global economy. The point is that the economy is being destroyed specifically because the world doesn’t know how to act, and we see it now.

We see how people who have studied so much, who know so much about our world, about the economy, about finances, who control everything, have simply raised their hands and do nothing. They cannot do anything because the system has changed! The world is moving on to another network of connections and the previous network in which they knew which strings to pull and what to do doesn’t work anymore.

They don’t know what to do next so everything remains the way it is. No one is fighting the crisis! Everything goes on the way it has been. If we need to print money, we print it. We have a debt of 15 billion euro, let it be 30 or 100 billion. So what? There is nowhere to run to. Now the rate of unemployment is 10%, it will be 50%. How will we feed the unemployed? Never mind, we will feed them because it is easy to feed the whole world today. This is how everything is solved.

Why? Because no one has any solution to the problems. The family is falling apart, let it be destroyed, what can we do? The number of senior citizens is growing more rapidly than the number of people who work, so what, never mind. This means that everything is neglected, and no one is fighting anything. The fact that different leaders appear before us is simply a game, a theater. In any case, everyone knows that we don’t know what to do, and so we sit idly, not even intending to do anything! This is the best possible solution.

So we are not destroying the economy. On the contrary, we have to show the world that we have to connect, but not economically. Economically we are also connected in a terrible way. See what is happening is Cyprus now! This is only a small example of how mutually connected we are.

We have to show the world how to start our mutual cooperation correctly. It is not on the economic level, but only on the level of the integral education and nothing more than that! So let’s get started.
[103394]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 1

Related Material:
The Consequences Of Insight
Servants Of The World
The World Is On The Verge Of Great Upheaval And Change

Filed under: Conventions, Crisis, Economy, Integral Upbringing, Q&A - No Comments →

In the News (from Lettera): “Expenses are being cut back on everything (health, school education, social assistance), but not on the military needs. The crisis prompts reducing military spending; moreover, it is possible to join forces to cut costs.

“But no country is going to reduce military spending, even when there are no drugs in hospitals or a supply of blood for transfusions. The EU pays the salary of members of the armed forces, the number of whom is three times greater than in the USA – $ 360 billion a year. The US military spending is $ 711 billion.

“The creation of a unified European army would save more than 100 billion euros, but the military industry is one of the most corrupt; each year, $ 20 billion is spent on bribes. If EU leaders showed rigidity in relation to the military industry, the voters would not have voted against a unified Europe.”

My Comment: Everything is tied to one problem—our egoism. It must be corrected at its root instead of wasting time on investigations because the Hydra’s heads always grow in new places! There is only one remedy against egoism: the force of bestowal, which can be attracted through integral workshops. You can try it and make sure!
[103023]

Related Material:
The Army May Be Used To Suppress People’s Resistance
“Top Economic Advisers Forecast World War”
US-European Banks Bring World To Brink Of War

Filed under: Crisis, Integral Upbringing, News, Politics, Workshops - No Comments →

Opinion (Dani Rodrik, Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a leading scholar of globalization and economic development): “Nothing endangers globalization more than the yawning governance gap – the dangerous disparity between the national scope of political accountability and the global nature of markets for goods, capital, and many services – that has opened up in recent decades. When markets transcend national regulation, as with today’s globalization of finance, market failure, instability, and crisis is the result. But pushing rule-making onto supranational bureaucracies, such as the World Trade Organization or the European Commission, can result in a democratic deficit and a loss of legitimacy.

“How can this governance gap be closed? One option is to re-establish national democratic control over global markets. This is difficult and smacks of protectionism, but it is neither impossible nor necessarily inimical to healthy globalization. As I argue in my book The Globalization Paradox, expanding the scope for national governments to maintain regulatory diversity and rebuild frayed social bargains would enhance the functioning of the global economy. …

“But the trouble is not just that these global institutions remain weak. It is also that they are inter-governmental bodies – a collection of member states rather than agents of global citizens. Because their accountability to national electorates is indirect and uncertain, they do not generate the political allegiance – and hence legitimacy – that truly representative institutions require. Indeed, the travails of the European Union have revealed the limits of transnational political community-building, even among a comparatively limited and similar set of countries.

“Ultimately, the buck stops with national parliaments and executives. During the financial crisis, it was national governments that bailed out banks and firms, recapitalized the financial system, guaranteed debts, eased liquidity, primed the fiscal pump, and paid the unemployment and welfare checks – and took the blame for everything that went wrong. In the memorable words of outgoing Bank of England Governor Mervyn King, global banks are ‘international in life, but national in death.’

“But perhaps there is another path, one that accepts the authority of national governments, but aims to reorient national interests in a more global direction. Progress along such a path requires ‘national’ citizens to begin viewing themselves increasingly as ‘global citizens,’ with interests that extend beyond their state’s borders.”

My Comment: Since national governments depend on their citizens, integral education will lead to an understanding of global connection and responsibility, causing pressure on national governments.
[102967]

Related Material:
Economics Of The Future Society
Humanity’s Global Problems
Mutual Responsibility Course: A Post-Crisis Crash Course

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, Education, Integral Upbringing, News, Politics, World - No Comments →

In the News (from MIT Technology Review): “The global pattern of e-mail communication reflects the cultural fault lines thought to determine future conflict, say computational social scientists.

“In 1992, the Harvard-based political scientist Samuel Hartington suggested that future conflicts would be driven largely by cultural differences. He went on to map out a new world order in which the people of the world are divided into nine culturally distinct civilizations. …

“Bogdan State at Stanford University in California and a few pals … have analyzed a global database of e-mail messages, and their locations, sent by more than 10 million people over the space of a year. State and co say that the pattern of connections between these people clearly reflects the civilizations mapped out by Huntington. In other words, the way we send e-mails is a reflection of the mesh of civilizations that is an important driver of future conflict. …
“This result provides evidence towards a division of the world into civilizational blocks following Huntington’s theory,” say State and pals.

“But there are other patterns too.  ‘The findings (unsurprisingly) support the idea that geography, transportation and administrative decisions are all important determinant of between-country communication: distance decreases density, as do visas, while direct flights increase it,’ say the researchers.

“And there are surprising results as well. For example, a common border between two countries actually reduces the communication density between them, perhaps because of increased tensions.  ‘These curious findings do raise the issue of potential problems with European integration, as well as of the higher potential for conflict between countries sharing borders, which may lead to less communication,’ say State and pals.”

My Comment: Global and personal egoism is constantly growing and becoming interdependent, which heightens contradictions further. It is impossible to isolate oneself. We can only follow the trend, indicated by nature, that is, to unite. This is possible only through the change of the human being, by our re-education. A method of correcting our egoistic nature is offered: integral education and upbringing.
[102862]

Related Material:
Europe’s Social Model Contradicts Integration
David Cameron: “Don’t Force Political Union”
Will Europe Reunite?

Filed under: Education, Egoism, Integral Upbringing, Internet, News - No Comments →

In the News (from CNN): “Global warming has propelled Earth’s climate from one of its coldest decades since the last ice age to one of its hottest – in just one century.

“A heat spike like this has never happened before, at least not in the last 11,300 years, said climatologist Shaun Marcott, who worked on a new study on global temperatures going back that far.

“If any period in time had a sustained temperature change similar to what we have today, we would have certainly seen that in our record,” he said. It is a good indicator of just how fast man-made climate change has progressed.

“A century is a very short period of time for such a spike. …

“If not for man-made influences, the Earth would be in a very cold phase right now and getting even colder, according the joint study by Oregon State University and Harvard University. Marcott was the lead author of the report on its results.

“To boot, the range of temperatures from cold to hot produced since the industrial revolution began are about the same as the 11,000 years before it, said Candace Major from the National Science Foundation, ‘but this change has happened a lot more quickly.’

My Comment: The cause for all the changes is to encourage people to correct themselves. But a person arrives at this decision only when, after many misfortunes and sufferings, he finally becomes convinced that there is no other way—he has to change himself. How much and what kind of suffering we have to go through to accept this decision is unknown.

Everyone who understands the necessity of following the laws of nature, to become similar to it, and to become connected by the good ties of mutual guarantee should make every effort to disseminate the knowledge about it. By these actions we will definitely bring the correct decision closer and reduce suffering.
[102689]

Related Material:
Are We Moving Towards Climate Catastrophe?
Nature In Crisis
Natural And Man-Induced Critical Emergencies Are Increasing

Filed under: Crisis, Education, Integral Upbringing, Mutual Guarantee, News - No Comments →

In the News (from Euronews): “It has been a day of industrial action all over Europe.

“In Belgium, hundreds of steel workers blocked border crossings to and from neighbouring countries, furious at plans by the steel giant Arcelor Mittal to slash production threatening more than a thousand jobs.

“In France, PSA Peugeot-Citroen workers occupied the offices of a steel industry managers’ organization as part of an ongoing protest against the planned closure of a car factory in Aulnay near Paris. The plant has been paralysed for eight weeks by a strike.

“Travelers using the airport serving Bonn and Cologne in Germany had delays and cancellations as security staff walked out. It’s part of a long running dispute over contract terms and pay. Dozens of flights were cancelled. Passengers using Berlin’s Tegel airport were also affected.

“There was disruption too at Madrid’s main international airport. About 2,000 workers protested against pay cuts and massive lay-offs at Spain’s national carrier Iberia.

“And tourists hoping for some ancient Greek culture found all public archaeological sites strike bound – including the Parthenon temple at the Acropolis. Workers are angry about a planned restructuring of the Culture Ministry.”

My Comment: The crisis is not in overproduction of goods and services, but in the over-production of people. We are moving into the world where everything will be done by machines, printers, and almost all the people will be unemployed. It will happen gradually, but steadily. There is a crisis of an abundance of goods and people.

Kabbalah described this state of the world a long time ago and offers the following: reduce all the production and services except those necessary for living, free all people who are not needed for the necessary production and services from working, provide mandatory education at open universities of integral education, pay stipends at the places of studies (like a salary adjusting for absenteeism), teach integral interaction, the structure of the world and its development, writing, drawing, singing, etc., and have workshops.
[102319]

Related Material:
Social Tension
Europe Goes On Strike
What’s Next?

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, Education, Integral Upbringing, News - No Comments →

Question: Lately the price of shares on the stock market are sky high again, the Dow Jones has set a new record high. This of course has an impact on Europe and Japan. How can it be that a certain part in the general system is still getting richer while the others suffer from the crisis?

Answer: The stock market has been on the rise for a long time. The brokers have decided that the crisis that started in 2008 has come to an end. “Indeed, how much longer can we wait if it’s already 2013? Enough, it’s time to raise the new digits on the counter…”

Generally speaking, all the “bubbles” are false and unnatural. The whole modern economy is basically false. It has many indices and indicators, but it’s basically the same: First, the brokers lay the false foundation, and then they build their houses on it until the earth swallows them. After all, today’s economy is not a science; it’s not part of nature.

The real economy is the relationships between people based on the principle of “give and take.” As it says, “Go and make a living from one another.” If we were to establish the correct, true economy, then, in the connection with others, in bestowing upon them and receiving from them, I would discover the Creator, the upper world.

In that sense, the wisdom of Kabbalah can also be called “the economy,” since it explains how to receive correctly, how to make a great profit and fill the vessels, the desires to receive, and to bestow in the best way possible, to safely avoid all the damages, the loss of connection and filling, and in general of everything. To sum up, the optimal economics is the wisdom of Kabbalah.

At the same time, the brokers have no idea about nature and its plans, about how the human desires develop and about the relations between people. They have simply decided to create a certain mechanism and to force it upon others so that they will work and the brokers will get rich. Suppose I manufacture pens, and I don’t care if anyone needs them; by using different tricks, I convince people to buy them and by that bring myself pleasure in terms of money.

The traders don’t take into account the major factors; after all, people’s desires change, the conditions change, and the consumers are fed up. In addition to that, no matter how hard you try to curb the natural development of technology, you will not be able to stop it. Today those at the top want it both ways: They want to automate production, but this leaves people jobless and moneyless, so they cannot buy these products. They have to make a decision: If they want people to go on buying, they should give them money. But you cannot give them money since you are laying them off when you replace them with machines.

As a result of lacking the understanding of these processes and lacking a global vision, we come to the recognition of evil. So today, we have to understand the system that connects us all. Only if we are able to provide for one another correctly and safely, will everyone feel good. After all, what a person needs is pleasure.

So, the question is whether the mechanisms we have built can provide us with pleasure. After all, everything about these mechanisms is artificial and false. The highly lauded figures of the stock market have no basis. It’s all one big game of market players. They can also intentionally cause economic crises.

But there are phenomena that market players haven’t planned. Because they are so confused and have no coordination between them, different things are happening all at once, revealing the flaws in the system. It’s not even about being divorced from reality; this whole business had no real basis to begin with since it was never in conformity with nature. It’s impossible to call it capitalism anymore.

Question: It’s as if they have created a kind of virtual reality in which can impose artificial optimism interspersed with a bit of pessimism so that it will appear more real. As a result, the indexes are rising without having any real basis; optimism itself is enough…

Answer: That’s right; it’s a game that they are running according to their interests. It’s the same in every area, including politics: Those at the top pull the strings, and they are operated by the Creator.

Question: It seems that today the ego has become so sophisticated that it can take advantage of every situation. It is equally effective in taking advantage of the market rises and falls and the crises. Will it end?

Answer: It will come to an end when we are able to teach people the method of mutual guarantee and when they understand that they have no choice. Then the hopelessness will be revealed.

Even today it’s already clear that the stock market figures don’t mean a thing. What is worse is if we take into account the economic situation and the rise in unemployment, the stock market “bubble” can lead to an explosion that the real economy cannot create. After all, people are jobless and it’s a very dangerous situation…

The current rise of the stock market can be prolonged for a while. What’s more, from a spiritual perspective, I see it as a positive thing: Let them carry on since it helps us advance towards correction at our own pace.

On the whole, everything that happens means only one thing: We must hurry. We were given some more time to prepare the dissemination of the method of the true correction of the world. We have to try and be ready as soon as possible. Things are moving so that we will be able to advance and prepare ourselves, but the window of opportunity can suddenly close.
[102103]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/13, ”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
The Degeneration Of The “Bubble” Economy
The Global Financial Market Is Dead And Is Not Going To Rise
The Economic Crisis As A Gate To The New World

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Economy, Egoism, Integral Upbringing, Mutual Guarantee, Q&A, Unity - No Comments →

Question: Today, many people are misled by “green” dreams, such as “We are ravaging our planet’s resources. Let’s stop and preserve the environment for our children.”

Answer: On one hand, I share this opinion. On the other hand, we see that it is not quite so. Many people’s interests are involved in this issue, and they stay on both sides of the “green” front. Now and then, the fight for a green planet triggers more harm than ecological damages per se.

First of all, we must figure out exactly how we are destroying nature. Does it happen because of our relationships or due to technogenic consequences?

At a certain point in time, Malthusians and demographers screamed that the Earth won’t be able to feed us, and, yet, we have an abundance of food now to such an extent that some governments subsidize farmers who agree voluntarily to produce less food products. In fact, if we were not throwing away lots of food supplies, it would be sufficient to provide for the entire world.

Threats of oil and gas shortages are not quite justified, either, but they help many people earn money on their price fluctuations. Besides that, at this time, we already have developed very effective technologies that provide alternative energy.

As to vast amounts of waste, a new processing industry was created that is quite profitable.

In other words, the current problems are fairly resolvable if we approach them correctly. Baal HaSulam wrote that the Earth has the potential to feed many more people than today.

The problem is that we should organize our society in a proper way. Unless we organize, people will continue starving. Every few seconds, someone dies of hunger. It happens because the world is unable to unite. We simply have no ability to take care of each other.

It means that the root of the problem is not about nature, but, rather, about humans. We must think thoroughly about what exactly must be changed. Let’s stop building external structures and fighting with outside symptoms. Unless we change ourselves internally and educate a new generation of people, nothing will work. We have technologies and agriculture, but the trouble is that each of us takes care of his or herself and safeguards his or her property. One person has water, another has meat, another has salt, the fourth one has matches, and the next one has firewood, but they don’t get together to cook a tasty soup. That’s why people die of hunger.

Question: Does it mean that we simply hide from resolving this problem?

Answer: Our egoism spoils everything. It is the only source of the troubles we go through. Many smart people have tried fighting egoism using different methods and remedies. However, none of these experiments (including the Soviet Union) were successful. Why? It is because, in order to succeed, we need the help of the Upper Force.

The problem is that we must aspire for Nature to change us. For that, we should consent to internal modifications, and agree with the idea that we are not capable of changing ourselves and that only Nature can do it. Moreover, we must appeal to and rely on Nature alone!

In order for us to come to this state of mind, we must unite and try to build a social model that will allow Nature to influence us. Then, Nature will make us smarter and will give us a clearer understanding of what further steps we should take.

Still, it won’t be enough. There is another complicated condition. All of our efforts should be aimed at replenishing Nature. In other words, in essence, we should act not for our own sake. This is a very hard task. Our actions should be focused on the Creator’s sake, oriented to the power of bestowal, that is, Nature. It is our duty to unite with it. We must enhance the power of bestowal in all of reality. This is the goal to which we should completely devote ourselves.

Question: How can we explain these issues to environmental advocates?

Answer: Threats keep growing before our eyes. Global hunger will be triggered by increased food prices. The situation will become worse if we don’t change people and establish new rules of reasonable consumption. In fact, there is an abundance of everything we really need, and, yet, half of the world is deprived of the basic things that are essential for human existence. The situation can be changed only through shifting relationships among people from indifferent and hostile to kind and benevolent.

Accordingly, we must change our attitude to Nature. For that, we should modify a human being, and, only after we manage to achieve it, can we refer to resolving environmental problems.

Nature is one whole. It’s a single complex that consists of four levels: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking. In this hierarchy, human beings occupy the top critical position. Unless we recognize and acknowledge this fact, we won’t be able to begin treating the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature correctly.

It means that we must convey a simple message to environmentalists and “green” advocates: Before anything else, we must change a human being, and then we will be able to improve the rest.

In fact, we destroy nature merely by our thoughts. Therefore, internal modification of relationships among us will work much more effectively than any “green” projects. Nature will revive! We think that nature already has been irreversibly damaged and that it will take thousands of years to heal the wounds of the various ecological systems. It is not true! If we change our thoughts and rise to a higher level of interaction between us, everything quickly will return to normal.
[101652]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/13, “The Peace”

Related Material:
Soup For All
Global Crisis Solution: Change Yourself To Fit The World
The View Out Of The Window Of A Fast Moving Train

Filed under: Crisis, Egoism, Integral Upbringing, Q&A, Society, Unity - 1 Comment →

The current crisis is meant to bring us to the right recognition of the mutual connection and dependency between us. And it is not this economy in the modern example. After all, a real economy is without “bubbles” and excessive luxuries. It is a small percentage of the world’s population producing the basic necessities that we all need: food, clothing, housing, etc. Everything else is not the economy, but rather, additions to confuse people so that others can profit from them. Only a small part of the market provides the basic necessities for everyone’s existence.

But now the truth is being revealed: People are jobless, especially the young. They don’t know what to do with themselves and they acquire a distorted perception of life; after a short while they lose the ability to work. What’s more, they can’t build a family and lead a normal life. Instead they are creating a new culture with new types of recreation.

In short, there is a worldwide social disaster. Today it is being revealed very acutely in Europe, but there are billions waiting in line in other countries including China and India. The US is not an exception either; for example, we can see Detroit, which has become a kind of “ghost town.”

All this brings us to a new society, and if we don’t correct it, if we don’t explain to people how they should organize and what they should do, then they will live in an urban jungle, like animals in the woods. Then humanity will reach correction not by the path of the integral education but by the path of suffering.
[102188]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/13, ”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
The Economic Crisis As A Gate To The New World
Economics Of The Future Society
The Economics Of Happiness

Filed under: Crisis, Economy, Education, Integral Upbringing, Society - 1 Comment →