Question: What kind of exertion is the means for spiritual advancement, and can I help a friend exert himself or do I steal his work from him by that?

Answer: Exertion is whatever is above my human abilities. I cannot help another and complete his work, but I can set an example for him so that it will be easier for him to exert himself.

So I don’t steal his work, but rather help him. The more we help one another by setting an example so that it will be easier for a friend to exert himself even more, the more efficiently we will advance.

With this, we exchange the corporeal exertion with a spiritual exertion! Then the corporeal work seems very difficult and the spiritual work seems very easy because you add the force of the group to it. The result is that you have to move a load of a hundred tons and you move it, but you have the aid of a million people pushing the load with you.

You don’t have to feel the weight of the load that is 100 tons. These 100 tons are necessary only so that through them you will attain connection with a million people.

Therefore, there is no need for senseless sufferings; all we have to do is to understand why we suffer.

If you feel difficulty, pain, rejection, and sorrow in a certain place, it means that it isn’t the right exertion. As it says: “Thou hast not called upon Me, O Jacob.” If with great effort and sweat you carry the load that was given to you by the Creator, it means that you are not exerting yourself correctly, and this burden belongs to someone else and not the Creator.

The pleasure from work is knowing for Whom we are exerting ourselves.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/15/12, Shamati #117

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The training course for integral education teachers and educators should include, among others: the formation of the integral force as a new and unprecedented component.

If a football team, for example, gets together, it is simply the sum of all their efforts.

But here, since every individual annuls himself before the others, thereby raising all the others and wanting to be equal to them, to attain the common field, the agreement among everyone, we begin to feel that a new force is born among us: a new collective desire and a new mind. It is as if a new collective person is born (let’s call him Adam) who is created between us. And we live our collective life, in collective desires, in collective attributes, and in collective thoughts.

This must be included in the training for teachers and educators, they must know about this. All the others will feel it instinctively; they will have the feeling that they somehow know it.

Question: Should professionals teach these courses?

Answer: I think that we should invite scientists that will add to the material that we teach or we should use films that present their ideas. This illustrative material will give the students the opportunity to, first, be sure that they are not being taught fragmented and partial material and, in addition, to understand the issues more deeply, to learn to answer questions, and to be more knowledgeable. On the whole, these are the same topics of the integral method but a bit deeper.

Actually the method is very simple. The only thing we need to attain here is integrality, to feel the new integral force.

By the way, this force appears in every integral system, both in a mechanical system and in our bodies. This is because the body constantly monitors the balance of the bodily systems.

The same thing happens in a group when people attain integrality; they begin to reach such a self-sustaining internal balance, which leads to absolute wellbeing and comfort. They don’t want to leave this since it is a good feeling. Through these comfortable states, through the new collective desire and new mind, suddenly most of the problems are solved and most of them simply disappear since the system changes from digital (operating on pulses) to integral, to a round, harmonious, analog system.

The main thing is to explain to people, after several “round” workshops, that they should perceive what is created among them and relate with greater sensitivity to the this new force by which they will solve all their problems and will begin to rise above themselves, above the ego. This force will create a society that is on a higher level than the old one.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/22/12

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Question: There are professional organizations that employ people with a very unique way of thinking. These people deal with computer technologies, or they may be artists, etc. Should we have special courses of integral education especially for such people?

Answer: I believe that this is necessary, since artists are very creative. Musicians, orchestra conductors, directors, painters, dancers, and so on, all have a unique perception of the world, of themselves, and of their place in the world. It is of course much harder to work with them than with other people, just as it is hard to work with businessmen and managers who also have a very unique perception of the world, seeing it through a very narrow and special prism.

I believe that we have to form groups according to the people’s inclination and their unique perception of the world.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/22/12

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Question: What is love of the Creator?

Answer: Love is an opportunity to fill someone else’s deficiency (vessel) using my own vessels. In our world we love because it gives us pleasure: delicious and familiar food, people that please us, my children to whom I am naturally attached. We call this love.

But spiritual love is not when I fill my vessels by someone or something, but when I fill the vessels of others. This is the exact opposite of what we are used to thinking about the concept of love. The spiritual world is opposite from the corporeal world. If I worry about someone else’s vessels and want to fill them the way he wants them filled, it means that I love that person.

As long as we love each other and everything is fine, we make a covenant with the Creator in order to sustain this relationship, even if everything changes because of different external reasons. No matter what happens—I want to keep the same force of love and connection between us.

The question is how can this be done if I suddenly discover that the Creator is responsible for all my troubles? My faithful and beloved partner suddenly stops looking at me and causes me all kinds of troubles and problems. He betrays me in every way and does everything against me and becomes my chief enemy. So how can I maintain the good attitude towards Him under such conditions?

But the adhesion to the Creator means that I have gone through different states and have reached a state in which I receive nothing from Him, nothing but the feeling of darkness. But above all that I build a relationship of love, bestowal, and connection despite the problems and the sufferings that He causes my ego. In such a case it can be called adhesion.

The vessels in which I attain adhesion have to be restricted and concealed. Above them there is my Masach (screen) and Returning Light, and there is adhesion in the vessels of bestowal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/17/12, Shamati #76

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Question: How can we make a covenant among friends?

Answer: A covenant among friends is possible only if there is an upper party ensuring its preservation. A covenant can be kept only when we all connect with the upper force, which provides the union.

There is no chance that we will be able to keep this covenant by ourselves, but if we connect, we can demand this from the Creator—if we do it for Him.

The result is that “Israel,” the people who yearn for the Creator, the Light that Reforms, the Torah, and the Creator are joined together, and then the Creator keeps the covenant according to our request.

When darkness, separation, and conflicts come, this covenant is revealed and exists among us. But as long as everything is fine, it is impossible to test it. The test is only when we feel bad.

When we feel good, we don’t need any covenant; as long as there is the Light, it connects all the parts. The difficult part is to do so when the Light disappears, to keep these parts together then. This is called a covenant.

But how can you draw the Light in a time of darkness? It is impossible. But we want to reach a state in which even when we don’t feel the Light in our receiving vessels, we will feel the Light in our Masach (screen) and the Returning Light—a fulfillment in the vessels of bestowal instead of an egoistic fulfillment.

Today, I am a loyal slave of my desire to receive, and I want to serve in order to fill someone else in the same way. This will be a pleasure for me. This means that I want to make a covenant.

The covenant is tested only in the dark, when I get no fulfillment but I still want to keep the same good relations that I had before. Instead of my egoistic pleasure, I want to restrict my ego: a Masach and the Returning Light.

This is called a covenant; it is a state in which I don’t work for myself anymore but rather in order to bestow. This means that I keep the same attitude not only when I feel good, but when I feel bad too. When the good state returns, I don’t want to be confused and be enslaved by the desire to receive over and over again, and so I make a covenant for that purpose.

I want to feel pleasure in the vessels of bestowal; I want to restrict my desire to receive and work with the pleasure by building a Masach (screen) and the Returning Light above this restriction. I turn to the friend with this Returning Light and connect with him. This is called a covenant.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/17/12, Shamati #76

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Question: Should we include the issue of the perception of reality in the basic course of integral education?

Answer: I wouldn’t teach this topic in the first course because it is a very complex issue. It should be taught very carefully, so that it wouldn’t seem like mysticism, new age or like all the other philosophies, or like some sublime ideas.

The material in teaching the perception of reality should be based on serious scientific research, that show that first and foremost, it is science, it is physics, and that it stems from studying this world and not from some ancient sources and made-up conclusions. This means that we are not talking about something that simply seems that way to us, but that is based on scientific data. Then we can already put together a certain picture of our world perception, of our feelings, our impressions, the processing of this internal information, how we communicate with the world, what the mechanism called “I am—a man” means, and what I do see.

I repeat, not every person can perceive this correctly. I fear that this issue may turn into an obstacle and that it may evoke rejection or may lead to numbness, as a result of which a person will detach himself and afterward will not perceive or understand you any more because you would not be speaking on the same level from which you spoke about the explanations of the problems in life that were presented coherently. In this case, it is impossible to bring the explanation down to the level of a person’s ordinary perception.

This issue should be part of the teachers’ training and then again not in the sense that they should teach this material, but only for their general development.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/22/12

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Question: Should we teach the issue of “a healthy lifestyle” in the basic course of integral education?

Answer: Actually many articles have been published lately on this topic that present statistics showing how diseases and health problems will diminish if we keep the correct relations among us.

Of course there will also be fewer murders, rapes, acts of violence, and other types of social tensions, and accordingly, it will be reflected in the overall health of people and of society.

But there is another reason for this: A person simply becomes more balanced.

All of our problems stem from internal imbalance; if we balance the relations among us and all the systems begin to function harmoniously, all the diseases will disappear.

Theoretically, it is clear even from the data presented by integral systems theories, a person shouldn’t hurt at all.

He simply needs to be healthy and relaxed, as if about to fall asleep, and die, even without feeling this transition, meaning all should go be very easy and simple so that the analog, integral goes through this change where the human level gradually descends to the animate level, and from the animate level to the vegetative level, and then gradually wanes. If you descend these levels gradually, you don’t feel that you are dead, but it is as if you gradually fall asleep, and then you are gone, and that’s it.

There is a lot of good statistical material on the issue of health, and so it is a good idea to include it in our lectures.

On the whole, all the problems that exist in society today, we should show statistically and graphically, using videos so people will actually discover: “Wow, this is where we live! Wow, what a problem!” Not everyone else understands and has faced it; yet at the same time, together with the problem, we must immediately provide the solution for it.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/22/12

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Question: Should we examine the issue of life and death and the solution to this question in the basic course of integral education?

Answer: I think it is possible because we are speaking about a person’s desire.

We should rate these desires from the level of the inanimate, the vegetative, and the animate up to the level of “Human.” We should explain that every desire takes over the others and thus suppresses them: The higher a desire is, the more real, intense, and dominating it is over the lower desires.

It is very hard to explain what the “human in me” means right from the start. It is above my animal level, above my corporeal life. If I feel that I am human, when I don’t think about the body but rather am filled by some idea, I actually don’t feel my body—it is as if I am floating above myself.

If I descend to the animal level, like an ordinary person in this world, I feel the body. But in any case, while being in my animal body, I don’t feel pain when I cut my hair or my nails because it is at the vegetative level.

If I descend to the vegetative level, I don’t feel the inanimate level, where there are no nerves and so on.

Thus, we can speak about the development from the bottom up and about a person’s descent from the top down by explaining how he gradually leaves this life.

We can explain and show a person that if he is in this social, integral body that constantly supports him, he will not feel even a minute of suffering, not in this life and not when this life is over.

A person who is connected with others constantly becomes healthier by being connected to the system that is full of mutual connection with others, and so even if something happens to him, there is an energetic compensation on the account of others. Thus, society operates as a healthy body. If a thorn enters a person’s body, for example, the whole body begins to work against it, by pushing it out, by treating the infected area, etc. The same thing happens with a person in society—the society immediately feels all the person’s internal problems and provides him with the necessary energy, and he is healed.
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From a Talk on Integral Upbringing 5/22/2012 

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Question: Should the basic course of integral upbringing include the subject of the crisis and methods of overcoming it?

Answer: I think that this topic should also be included in the basic course because man exists in a field of information, under the influence of the media that brainwashes him and fills him with all kinds of nonsense, and they say it is possible to get rid of the crisis, to somehow to overcome it and the like.

We must give a person a strong, scientific, social, and mainly psychological foundation, so that he will certainly know and understand that is it possible to overcome the crisis only through our similarity with nature, only if we create an integral, “round” society—a society of reasonable consumption, mutual understanding, balancing people with each other, etc. This is possible only under the influence of the environment.

We need to tell a person all the theories for the solution of the crisis and show a way, through scientific opinions, that none of them can work since they are invented by our egoistic mind that wants to divert us from the truth.

I would say that the majority of these theories are designed to ensure profiting from the continuation of their development, to allow them to sit back and dig in to their own concerns. After all, we see that from the beginning they are not leading anywhere.

Therefore, the topic “Methods of Overcoming the Crisis” must necessarily be included in the basic course of integral upbringing.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/22/12

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Question: What should be the optimal result of our mass dissemination?

Answer: We are speaking about a process: The general population has to realize that they are in crisis, and that the essence of this crisis does not lie in the economy, the financial industry, the family, education, religion, science, or other problems. The crisis is developing within a person and is intended to bring him into balance with a new system that is now revealed in the world. The gap is between me, the egoist who looks at everything from a personal, individual position, and the world, the parts enclosed in greater interconnections. I don’t match the world, nature, and that is why today I am a foreign force inside it. The crisis is the revelation of this incompatibility.

Accordingly, the correction is to become compatible, in other words, to become equivalent to the properties of nature. How can I do this? Nature will not change, the bad phenomena manifested in all the spheres of life will not disappear; on the contrary, they will become stronger, more destructive, and painful.

That is the problem that people must recognize. And then, they will ask themselves: “How can I change myself? What kind of people should we become? Who can give us a method of correction?”

In the end, we bring them to the fact that no changes are possible in the world without an integral upbringing. Only when a person gradually starts to correct himself, will he then change the existing systems. He will transform the financial, economic, cultural, educational, and commercial systems, all this according to the changes within himself.

After all, a person has formed these systems himself on the basis of his egoistic attitude towards the world, and now slowly rising to globalism and interaction by becoming one integrated whole, he will change all that he has built accordingly.

At this point, he doesn’t understand how to realize these changes yet because he has not changed himself; he is not different from the old systems. However, they are already failing and no longer yield the same results as before. Here, we need to explain and prove to people that they cannot climb out of the crisis without internal changes. And then, they will take a course in integral upbringing.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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